All Forum Posts by: Susan Maneck

Terry Road runs north and south, but I think you mean the area just north of McDowell which is the 39204 zip code. Anything south of McDowell is 39212 which is where my houses are located. I actually checked out one of the properties that company had when it went bankrupt on behalf on one of its investors. The house wasn't trashed but I think the guy had invested too much money into it. I suggested he hang on to it because it was rented Section 8 and was at least cash flowing. There are some bad areas of 39212 but the only good area of 39204 I can think of is Alta Woods. Those homes are old but they were extraordinarily well-built. 

I wouldn't put South Jackson in the category as West Jackson. I avoid West Jackson myself. I think your investments that went bad were mostly in the 39204 zip code. 39212 is somewhat better. I am not seeing any good properties out there for 50K anymore, but you can find some decent ones for 70K still if you know where to look. These are not poorly built houses but they are older homes built in the '60's. And you are right you have to be *very* careful about getting a decent PM because a vacant home won't survive long in Jackson. 

 I've done well in South Jackson as you know, but I was local until the pandemic forced me out to California. In fact I lived in the neighborhood where I owned most of my property. My property manager is also my real estate agent who I've been working with for twelve years and her husband handles most of the repairs. As for foundation problems, I know people in Madison County living in 300K plus houses that have foundation issues; big ones! Paying a lot for a property will not guarantee you'll be free of foundation issues. In fact I figure that if a house hasn't moved in the last sixty years it probably won't, but it is something you have to watch out for and I've gotten really good at that. One thing you will find is that tenants in C neighborhoods often pay the rent in cash. They often don't have checking accounts, so it really does need to be a PM you can trust and I don't trust any of the big PM companies in Jackson. I've seen houses with them stand vacant for months and just disintegrate before my eyes. One thing you *cannot* count on in Jackson is appreciation. This post-pandemic period is the only time I've seen property values increase substantially since the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and that was because New Orleans didn't fit into Jackson. One other thing to watch out for, C neighborhoods have bigger lots usually 1/4 of an acre and lots of trees. That is one of the things that attracted me to the neighborhood where I bought my own house and later investment properties. What I eventually found out is that those trees are not your friend. In the middle of June a strong straight windstorm came through and damaged four of my properties. The good news is that labor is so cheap in Mississippi the insurance company paid me more than the repairs cost. 

Mind you, I taught for 20 years at a historically black university in Jackson. My salary never even reached 60K but thanks to my real estate investments I managed to retire a millionaire. It can be done, but you have to be very, very careful and that is harder to do when you are out-of-state. The properties I sold post-pandemic all came with my husband/wife team (who also lives in the neighborhood) so I think they will do fine. 

 Unfortunately the credit unions in the area will only lend to owner occupied and not to investors. I tried to get lending from Hope Credit Union (one of the best ones in the area) to buy my son a townhouse on the NE side while he was in a PhD program at the Medical School. When they found out how much property i owned (and most of them were free and clear) they refused the loan. I eventually got a conventional loan but this was a property that cost 130K, not my rental properties which I bought in your price range. You might try Bank Plus or Trustmark. Unfortunately I can't offer you much hope in this area. Smaller mortgages are usually only available to owner-occupied where not lending brings accusations of red-lining, but it doesn't apply to investors. 

One thing you do not want to see happen in Mississippi is for property managers to let your house go vacant for any amount of time. At best you will lose your air conditioner. I have seen properties under management by some of the biggest management companies in Jackson sit there and literally crumble down. There is no reason for this. People talk about vacancies in Jackson but I've never had a house sit for more than a couple of weeks. 

That's the problem with Mississippi. Properties cost less than the minimums banks want to loan. When it is owner occupied they have to give you a loan or it is considered red-lining but no such protections for investment properties. What I used to do is pay cash for my homes, hold them for a year and then get a first place HELOC on them from Wells Fargo. My only closing cost was the appraisal and it was possible to get around that. Unfortunately Wells Fargo no longer offers them, but it is how I built my little real estate empire in Mississippi, one house at a time.

 However, in Mississippi the price properties were sold for are not a matter of public record. 

How do you determine what the ARV is in Mississippi @Bob Stevens

The reason I ask is I come across a number of properties being sold by wholesalers in Mississippi from out of state and what they think the ARV is and what I think it is (based on my 20 years living there) are two different things.

I'm wondering how much of a market there is for this in Mississippi? Conventional homes are so cheap here, I think that is why we have so few mobile home parks. 

You do need to know your market. I invest in Mississippi although I currently  live in California but I lived in Mississippi for 20 years, so I know the market. For cash flow it can't be beat, but for appreciation it is not so good and it is easy for out-of-state people to overpay and not know it. Always check zillow and realtor.com estimates. And know the neighborhood.