Thread: Need your advise regarding a real estate decision?

It would probably help to try and understand your goals. Do you want to collect rental homes and earn money from them or flip and earn money that way? Some investors may do both. Flip some and hold some.

If you are not in need of liquid cash I suggest to invest and rent property. The only reason is to generate permanent income and in near future if you find a good deal then go ahead and sell it.

Determine your goal first, whether you'l occupy the house or repair and sell it or repair and rent it.. However, I think you will make a good profit from the house since it is at a very low price..

It depends on your real estate goals and the market that your in. Are homes renting for the amount you would look to get monthly? If you sold, are homes selling for what you would need in order for you to sell?

It depends on several things and for us it is necessary to get updated with real estate market also so that later, it will become very good for us knowing the effects of decision which is thus taken.

I'm going to type a small book here. My apologies in advance.

My partner and I are considering the purchase of a property Uptown, but it's in an area that some may consider risky.

The process won't be easy, and I fully anticipate lots of "are you frigin' crazy?!?" and perhaps a bit of "EVIL GENTRIFIERS! EEEVIL!" responses from you guys and gals here, and that's okay. I'm already hearing the "are you crazy?" part from my parents, but they're scaredy-cat suburbanites who think that everything associated with living in the city is "dangerous." So now I seek input from those who actually live in or near the area, even if the things you tell me aren't things I'd like to hear. Unhappy or not, I need to hear these things: I'm not going into such an end eavour with a Pollyanna attitude.

The property has been for sale for quite a while now. At least a year. It's on the corner of Washington and Chippewa. {cue the "Are you crazy?!" responses}

It's the property on the southwest corner of that intersection, consisting of four buildings (three houses, one storage shed). The main building is big and pink, and has fundamental foundation problems; it used to be a corner store. There have been several price drops. It started around $250,000 several years ago, and the price has slowly but steadily decreased over time.
The buildings are in various levels of condition, ranging from "knock it down" to "ehh.. it's liveable - for the time being." Our long-term aspiration would be to knock most of them down and build a nice-but-modest house at that location.

Looking at the location, it's on very high ground (relatively speaking for our city), it's on one of the lovelier streets in terms of vegetation and trees, it's on a corner lot, and it's a short walk from Magazine and St Charles. And the lot size is pretty impressive, considering its location.. if the footprint of our house is modest in size, we'd end-up with a really spacious back yard.

After living elsewhere for 15 years, I'm moving back home to New Orleans *for good* - so I'm looking for a place that (a) we can afford and (b) that has decent long-term potential. If anything, we'd be buying the place for its location first and foremost. I've been watching this area for the past few years. It seems like, one by one, old run-down houses are being bought-up and improved by some pretty brave/enterprising people. Census statistics are strongly showing now that more educated or middle-class or upper-class folks are moving back into cities, and that New Orleans has been no exception.. I'm guessing that even more folks will want to live in town as gas prices continue their long-term climb. These are my main reasons for hoping that the area continues to improve.

A small bit about my partner and I.. we're not very stereotypical. We're pretty quiet people, but we make a point of befriending our neighbors, something that I think is a bit too rare in these times. Also: we've done something similar to this here in East Austin several years ago, moving into a rough-around-the-edges neighborhood and improving a property. We'd be very comfortable doing this again.

I look forward to any input that you all have to give. The pluses, the minuses, any hints or tips about the whole process, guesses about how you see this area doing in 10 or 20 years, etc. I know we're crazy, and that doing something like this would be a risk..

This has been a long post. Thanks for sticking around; I look forward to some responses, both good and bad. Cheers!

If it's good for you then buy the house.

As you get ready to conduct what may be the most expensive transaction of your life, it makes sense to get some help. A real estate agent who is really good doesn’t cost any more than an average one, and their good advice and top skills might just save you a bundle.

In having a lot of rental homes will entail in long term maintenance questions, do you like home repairs? If you personally know about repairs and how to go about them it will definitely be a plus factor. Knowing what repairs and how costly it will be is a very big advantage.

best regards