Why Do You Invest in Philadelphia? (Testimonial Request!)
BiggerPockets! I'm working on building a landing page for the city of Philadelphia. Would anyone be willing to share why you choose to invest in the city? What makes your city so wonderful?
Hi @Lauren Hogan and welcome to the community, Philadelphia is a great area to invest in for a multitude of reason.
1. The range of opportunities varies greatly all over the city. Philly has a diverse spread of areas with different exit strategies for each pocket. The city is very block by block as you've probably heard, the best pockets have bad areas and the bad pockets have great areas.
2. As many people have mentioned the taxes in the city are extremely low, but I have to say that is offset sometimes by the 4% transfer tax which is based off the purchase price.
3. The overall entry price and margins compared to other east coast cities. Over the last couple months I have noticed an influx of out of state investors from New York, Florida, Georgia, and DC flocking to Philly. When asking why, the New Yorkers say the entry price in Philly is far less than NY, and the southern investors say the margins in the city are much better than down south. You can easily find a property in Philly selling at 70-75% of ARV.
Always looking to meet new people, feel free to reach out.
Affordability and cash flow. However Philly is not a landlord friendly city. Many additional fees that are charged to landlords such as additional trash collection fees for multi-units, discount on real estate tax for homeowners but not landlords. Licenses and home certifications are needed to rent out a property. The new bed bug guidelines require landlord to remediate the problem regardless if it was brought in by the tenant. If you are young and hungry there's opportunity here but for old timers like myself I'm done.
@David Smith, happy to send you what i send my investors from all over the world to help navigate through Philadelphia based on objective market research and gentrification trends.
Hey there,
Property value, tax rates and disparity in incomes which makes just about any real estate investment strategy viable.