Question on investing in a rental - Landlord Forum thread

Question on investing in a rental by Kimberly on November 2, 2009 @14:01

I live in a community in Florida with 1400 homes. It has a marina and community center. Old and established homes, built in the 1950s. At one time it was deed restricted and very nice. Now the deed restrictions are lifted and some are not caring for the homes. During the real estate boom a few years ago homes it was a hot area and higher priced than the surrounding communities because of the pool, marina, etc.

Now, 460 of the 1400 homes are foreclosures and vancant. Of the remaining 940 homes, 1/2 of them are rentals. There is starting to be some crime in the area, such as car break-ins and house break-ins.

I have a rental house in this neighborhood (rented) and I also live in a house in the neighborhood. All houses in the neighborhood are now short sales. I'm wondering if I should pick some up for rentals? Or is this a bad idea? There are some great deals.

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Re: Question on investing in a rental by Anonymous on November 2, 2009 @14:17	[ Reply ]
To make it short, it is a bad idea and you will not make money. Evidence of this is the number of people who are not buying. Hence the vacancies.

Re: Question on investing in a rental by Kimberly on November 2, 2009 @14:23	[ Reply ]
actually, some of the houses are selling. 2 that I looked at sold within a month. I haven't really tracked that overall, maybe that is the indicator I should be looking at?

Re: Question on investing in a rental by Kathy (Oregon) on November 2, 2009 @14:47

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Hello Kimberly, I'm a realtor in Oregon and the bank owned properties are really the best deals. They usually close in the normal time frame of 45-60 days. The short sales can take much longer and sometimes the seller goes bankrupt before the bank can even accept the offer. The other thing that goes on here, is the listing agent lowers the price just to get offers and the bank has not yet approved the listing price. It is a good time to buy, interest rates are low and I would suggest contacting a realtor with investor experience so they can tell you if it pencils out for you. I can refer you to someone in Florida if you would like???Kathy Hovermale, Prudential NW Properties, Redmond, Oregon

Re: Question on investing in a rental by Susan on November 2, 2009 @17:10	[ Reply ]
seems like you'd be putting all your eggs in one basket....

Re: Question on investing in a rental by 574-Brad (IN) on November 3, 2009 @21:34	[ Reply ]
Sounds like that down is going downhill, 1/3 of the homes in a city are rentals? 1/3 of houses are REO's? If your going to buy anything, it better be dirt dirt cheap.

Re: Question on investing in a rental