<p>In the wintertime, I can imagine a requirement to keep the sidewalks shoveled after each snowstorm. That would certainly be a challenge this year. Hard to consider all of the physical labor of being a landlord when it’s far easier to make money pushing a few buttons.</p>
<p>You can get a great deal if you’d like to move to a town that everybody else is leaving.</p>
<p>My plumber is $90/hour.</p>
<p>I’m a software engineer and the salary range at my level is (my guess is $80K to $140K). I think that new college hires get about $60K to $90K.</p>
<p>I’m in NH and prices here are generally lower than in MA and certainly lower than what you’d see in Boston. It’s really easy to find towns in MA with median house prices double or triple what they are in my town.</p>
<p>If buying that home and renting was as easy as it has been said, it’d would have sold already…There is a reason it hasn’t sold,it isn’t worth the price,…yet…amazingly even the biggest pile of sticks here in my area would fetch a 250k, and I wouldn’t even walk past it…my pool cost twice the listing price of that home</p>
<p>Oh, but then you are missing the joy of dealing with tenants! 
I don’t shovel sidewalks. Not much physical labor–more like mental anguish at times…I do enjoying working on houses though.</p>
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<p>Stocks are like that too.</p>
<p>I know a great company that you can get for $0.24/share. They are the number 3 bookseller in the country. Well, at least they were when they could pay their bills.</p>
<p>What stinks is when you shovel your sidewalk and then a snowplow comes along and dumps a few feet of snow and ice in the area that you just cleared. Then the city threatens you with fines because you didn’t move a ton (literally) of snow.</p>
<p>"It’s bad enough doing it from one mile away. "</p>
<p>I guess over 2,000 miles away won’t work well then. :)</p>
<p>I imagine that getting capital for doing something like this would be pretty easy. The difficulty is getting someone trustworthy to manage the property locally that cares about it as much as the investor does. I think that this is one of those things that makes sense as your own investment but may not work well when you partition between investor and management company.</p>
<p>I’m sure that there are apartment REITs out there that have looked at this kind of thing to see if it makes sense and that they would go into these markets if they could make money at it.</p>
<p>Or you could just buy Simon Property Group - they’ve tripled since March 2009.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want to be a long-distance landlord and I do think BC is correct that having a good management co. would be key, and also often difficult to obtain.</p>
<p>Wow, Simon has tripled in that time? Glad someone is growing and making money.</p>
<p>Just checked the chart. Low looks to be around $23/share in March 2009. They’re at $106.99 right now. So that should be quadrupled.</p>
<p>I have been a 3000 miles away landlord on two houses for going on 8 years. Can’t say it’s really been a headache at all. I have a great guy who takes care of the outside stuff–but he charges tenants for shoveling. He does all the yardwork and checks on the exterior of the house. While the downturn has taken out some of the profits on appreciation we feel we are still well ahead plus enjoy the tax benefits annually. The psychic income is also pretty good. I visit 2-3 times a year mostly to drive my old cars I keep at one house. We pay an agent to find the tenants but do everything else ourselves–by phone to the right service person. We feel we are building a nice nest egg without much stress, time or other negatives. I’m going to visit next week and actually consider it a vacation.</p>
<p>barrons–glad to hear it is working out well. Finding and keeping the right tenants is so key to it all working well. That’s probably what I hate the worst. If I could sub that out successfully the whole thing would be much less headache. </p>
<p>It’s also a challenge to find long-term tenants. As noted above, in this area of the country, housing is cheap. Over a certain age, there’s a reason why someone here is renting instead of owning, and it’s usually because of crappy credit and/or poor employment.</p>
<p>Luckily Central Virginia attracts lots of retirees and that would be our target market. Right now both tenants are retired couples with some means. Both took baths on prior owned home in Florida and California and just wanted to rent. Providing lawncare and a safe attractive neighborhood really attracts them.</p>
<p>I’ve found that when you start getting to rent multipliers below 50 (price / 1 month’s income) there are always serious issues - either the house is in a terrible location or the deferred maintenance is enormous or both.</p>
<p>My plumber charges only $80/hour but he is semi-retired.</p>
<p>I know someone who is trying to decide how much $ to put into a couple of ‘deferred maintenance’ homes they are now responsible for. The values are really low. But they probably won’t sell if they’re in rotten shape.</p>
<p>A quote from a 2010 article on dropping farm prices -
“Late last year, he (the farmer) bought back his 106-acre family farm from Bank of America Corp. at a quarter of the price a developer paid him just two years earlier.”</p>
<p>It costs about the same to fix up a house in a slum as one in a good area. But the odds of getting good tenants or a good sale are much higher in a good area. Cheap can be very expensive. Plus the tenant quality issues etc etc. Not for me.</p>
<p>DH told me last night that a co-worker had just bought his S a foreclosure house for $30,000! The house had been on the market last year for $134,000.</p>
<p>And where would that be? Inquiring minds/…</p>
<p>This house in the neighborhood where I grew up sold for $1000:</p>
<p>[12768</a> Cloverlawn St, Detroit, MI 48238 - Zillow](<a href=“http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12768-Cloverlawn-St-Detroit-MI-48238/88334105_zpid/]12768”>http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12768-Cloverlawn-St-Detroit-MI-48238/88334105_zpid/)</p>
<p>Zillow values these houses in the $30k range, but those that have sold recently have mostly gone for less than $10k. </p>
<p>Exquisite housing available in Detroit for a song - 4000 sq ft in historic area for less than $100k:</p>
<p>[1520</a> Seminole Street, Detroit MI - Trulia](<a href=“Access to this page has been denied.”>Access to this page has been denied.)</p>
<p>9 bedrooms, 6000 sq ft for less than $400k:</p>
<p>[1470</a> Iroquois Street, Detroit MI - Trulia](<a href=“Access to this page has been denied.”>Access to this page has been denied.)</p>
<p>23 room house on boulevard of majestic homes for $355k:</p>
<p>[Detroit</a>, MI Homes For Sale By Owner 915 W Boston Blvd 48202](<a href=“Homes for Sale and Real Estate Home Listings | EQUATOR”>Homes for Sale and Real Estate Home Listings | EQUATOR)</p>
<p>or Berry Gordy’s mansion for $1.2M:</p>
<p>[918</a> W Boston Blvd, Detroit, MI 48202 MLS# 210080819 - Zillow](<a href=“http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/918-W-Boston-Blvd-Detroit-MI-48202/88116264_zpid/]918”>http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/918-W-Boston-Blvd-Detroit-MI-48202/88116264_zpid/)</p>
<p>Unbelievably exquisite best describes this magnificent Italianate Mansion, formerly owned by Berry Gordy, Jr. 1st offering in its 93-yr history, the property boasts a 9 bedroom, 9 bath main house w/spectacular public rooms & private quarters, including a breathtaking sun room, a ballroom & pub, as well as a separate 4,000+ sq ft pool house w/2 bowling lanes & billiard room, + 3 bed apt. over the 5-car garage & beautiful grounds.</p>