Is there any strategy in which this would work?
There is a house for sale that is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1300ish sq ft single family, listed for $329,000 that has been renting for the past 4 yrs at $1400/month, but could "probably" be rented for $1600 a month. As well, the house needs some updating.
I don't see how it could be a good investment for anyone (outside of maybe a flip) when the rents are so low compared to the cost of the house, unless there is another strategy that I am missing? It would seem even with buy/hold you would be having too much negative cash flow every month on the house.
It also seemed odd to me that rent would be so low for an area of high priced homes but maybe that is not so uncommon?