Personal experiences in the “bad” neighbourhoods ?

[Gurjot Grewal]

Hello BP,

My property manager told me to avoid these three areas; hilltop, south linden, driving park. What im looking to do is BRRR in columbus to pull some of my money out ( I dont mind leaving money in the deal).

The problem is most of these brrr opportunities im seeing are in the neighbourhoods I was told to avoid. 

-Can anyone share their personal experiences investing in these areas ? 

-do you regret investing in these areas? 

[Allen Tracy]

I have duplexes in Hilltop and South Linden.  The South Linden area is definitely sketchy, I'm having a hard time filling one of my vacant units and I see comments in Tenant Turner about the area being bad.  A fellow investor had squatters and had one of his tenants pull a gun on an inspector.  I had a tenant threaten to bust the jaw of a maintenance person and now that company won't send anyone to my property anymore.  I've also had many chain link gates stolen from the property multiple times.  Cops broke down the doors on one of my duplexes.  The Hilltop one has been doing ok and at least the street I'm on seems like it's not that bad.  I was driving around there one time and got surrounded by a group of teens with stun guns laughing at me.  Luckily I stayed in the car and they let me drive away.

The problem with some of these C class areas are that you're going to get high vacancy, evictions, and high turn costs with tenants damaging the property.  The numbers in these neighborhoods look really good on paper but in reality I'm wanting to get out of them.

[Simon Ashbaugh]

I spent 10 years in remodeling, the latter half of that doing buy-hold rehabs. Many of those were in those areas and I never had issues. One guy left his nail gun in the alley and it walked off, but I've seen that happen in A-B neighborhoods too. I've never feared for my safety though.

[Eliott Elias]

Just because they're scared to invest or go there doesn't mean there's no opportunity there. All the homes I buy are in f'd up areas that I would never live in. If the deal is right take it, block that noise and run the numbers 

[Patrick Drury]

@Gurjot Grewal
My property manager told me to avoid these three areas; hilltop, south linden, driving park. What im looking to do is BRRR in Columbus to pull some of my money out ( I don't mind leaving money in the deal). You have to be in a C location for a BRRRR in Columbus and these are the only areas where you can do that. 

-Can anyone share their personal experiences investing in these areas ? I have a duplex in Central HIlltop and am currently buying 2 more and actively looking for more deals in Hilltop. I have had a good experience. That's why I am buying as much as I can there. 

-Do you regret investing in these areas? No. 

[Bob Stevens]

Quote from @Gurjot Grewal:

Hello BP,

My property manager told me to avoid these three areas; hilltop, south linden, driving park. What im looking to do is BRRR in columbus to pull some of my money out ( I dont mind leaving money in the deal).

The problem is most of these brrr opportunities im seeing are in the neighbourhoods I was told to avoid. 

-Can anyone share their personal experiences investing in these areas ? 

-do you regret investing in these areas? 

 I have been working in and investing in bad areas of Cleveland for 10 years. Its all about screening the tenants. We have seen pricing double triple or more over the last 10 years, still going strong, BTW my regret is not keeping 50 or so of the 500 I flipped, HUGE mistake,,,,, 

Good Luck 

[Ashley Cross]

You really really have to have boots on the ground that are familiar with the area and that tenant pool. There are nice people in those areas that want nice places they just can't afford better neighborhoods. I own in South Linden and I have friends that own in both Hilltop and Driving park and they do well. We all self manage those properties which may be indicative of our results. If the property manager treats the tenants like trash, the property like trash, it will be a terrible experience. You also have to be ready for things to happen. You will have a crappy situation come up and you may have something stolen but if the numbers work despite the issues it makes sense. 

[James Wise]

Quote from @Gurjot Grewal:

Hello BP,

My property manager told me to avoid these three areas; hilltop, south linden, driving park. What im looking to do is BRRR in columbus to pull some of my money out ( I dont mind leaving money in the deal).

The problem is most of these brrr opportunities im seeing are in the neighbourhoods I was told to avoid. 

-Can anyone share their personal experiences investing in these areas ? 

-do you regret investing in these areas? 

 Just google tenants from hell or bad tenants on YouTube....You'll see what it's like out there. There are literally 1,000's of videos from hundreds of landlords going through it in these kinds of neighborhoods. 

[Scott Allen]

@Gurjot Grewal

A landlord/colleague that I know personally in Central Hilltop once told me, Scared Money Don't Make Money. He actually just recently bought another duplex in the area that he said he plans to house hack for about a year too.

[Dominick Johnson]

Cheap House = Expensive Headaches

Why buy 5 units in what sounds like a D class area when you can make the same cashflow with 1.5 units in a safer area with quality tenants.

[Leo R.]

@Gurjot Grewal don't rely solely on peoples' opinions of neighborhoods. Spend some time in those neighborhoods and find out for yourself.  I suggest walking the neighborhoods at several different times--early morning, early evening, and night especially. 

There's so much important info you can learn about neighborhoods (and individual properties) that simply cannot be conveyed by peoples' opinions, photos, or even video.

As with all parts of due diligence: although you can (and should) seek the input of experienced pros, at the end of the day, the due diligence buck stops with you.

Good luck out there!

[Allen Tracy]

Quote from @Leo R.:

@Gurjot Grewal don't rely solely on peoples' opinions of neighborhoods. Spend some time in those neighborhoods and find out for yourself.  I suggest walking the neighborhoods at several different times--early morning, early evening, and night especially. 

There's so much important info you can learn about neighborhoods (and individual properties) that simply cannot be conveyed by peoples' opinions, photos, or even video.

As with all parts of due diligence: although you can (and should) seek the input of experienced pros, at the end of the day, the due diligence buck stops with you.

Good luck out there!

 I would highly advise against this in C class neighborhoods at least in Columbus.  I would go off of what property managers say.  They're the ones that have dealt with thousands of tenants and problems in the different areas.  Some areas are street by street so one street could be a C, take a wrong turn and you'll end up on a D or F.  As an out of state investor I wasn't able to walk the streets, I had to rely on my agent and property manager.  Two years after owning properties I finally flew out.  I walked the streets during the middle of the day and was harassed and threatened.  Maybe you'd have better luck but I'd be cautious, at least don't go alone.

[Mohammed Rahman]

Hey @Gurjot Grewal - I'm not located anywhere in Canada, but have experience with "bad neighborhoods" as it relates to my first investment. When I first started my search, the numbers made a lot of sense by focusing on "bad neighborhoods."

The reality of the matter is, the location will attract the appropriate tenant profiles. Bad neighborhoods typically don't house the best tenants. Not saying all tenants are bad, as most of us just want to make our rent payment on time and live our lives - but don't be surprised if you run into more headaches vs. spending a bit more money up front for peace of mind later on with placing better tenants. 

I also recommend driving through the "bad neighborhoods" yourself to get a feel for the area. Whenever I do this, I stop my car randomly and ask people what the area is like as they'll be able to tell you more frankly what their living experience is like. 

A "bad" to one person can be an "ok" to another - so it's subjective and if you're basing your whole investment thesis off of one person's opinion you're not going to have a great time. 

[Leo R.]

Quote from @Allen Tracy:

Quote from @Leo R.:

@Gurjot Grewal don't rely solely on peoples' opinions of neighborhoods. Spend some time in those neighborhoods and find out for yourself.  I suggest walking the neighborhoods at several different times--early morning, early evening, and night especially. 

There's so much important info you can learn about neighborhoods (and individual properties) that simply cannot be conveyed by peoples' opinions, photos, or even video.

As with all parts of due diligence: although you can (and should) seek the input of experienced pros, at the end of the day, the due diligence buck stops with you.

Good luck out there!

 I would highly advise against this in C class neighborhoods at least in Columbus.  I would go off of what property managers say.  They're the ones that have dealt with thousands of tenants and problems in the different areas.  Some areas are street by street so one street could be a C, take a wrong turn and you'll end up on a D or F.  As an out of state investor I wasn't able to walk the streets, I had to rely on my agent and property manager.  Two years after owning properties I finally flew out.  I walked the streets during the middle of the day and was harassed and threatened.  Maybe you'd have better luck but I'd be cautious, at least don't go alone.

Obviously, I'm not suggesting people go to neighborhoods that are known warzones. I'm suggesting the opposite: go to neighborhoods the locals tell you are good to verify that they are good.
 

The scenario you describe is EXACTLY why I'd want to see the property and neighborhood myself before buying. I have no interest in owning a property in a neighborhood where I (or anyone) would be harassed and threatened...and sorry, but taking other peoples' word for it just isn't good enough for me when I'm putting hundreds of thousands (or millions) on the line. 

Imagine this scenario: a PM, an agent (or anyone who's incentivized to get you to buy a property) tells you a property is "safe" and a "good investment". You buy the property without visiting it beforehand. Later, you discover that the neighborhood is a nightmare and your property is un-manageable. If you had only taken the time to see the area yourself, you wouldn't have touched it with a ten foot pole!

Not only is this type of scenario conceivable, it happens (often to inexperienced investors who end up bringing their nightmare property stories to this very forum, asking for help!)

If a PM tells me the neighborhood is a war zone, I'm not going. But if a PM (or anyone) tells me it's a viable neighborhood, I'm going to put my own eyes on it and judge for myself before buying.

"Trust but verify" is one of the fundamental rules of successful RE investing.

Caveat: if you have an incredible, proven, trustworthy team of boots on the ground who you've worked with for many years and through many deals, and they've never steered you wrong--in that scenario, I *might* take their word for it...but, most investors (esp. newbies) don't have that type of OOS team in-place.