I’m always tickled when I see the words great starter home or great investment in the caption describing a home in an ad or the multiple listing service. Why you ask? Because the house is almost always low priced, run down and ugly. Shouldn’t a great investment or starter house be good looking? If you’re buying an investment house do you really want to be in the low priced market? And If you’re buying a house to live in or as a rental do you really want to dump a load of money into it right off the bat? Sometimes it makes sense but when I see “great investment” or “great starter” I run the other direction.
I’m convinced most people, agents included, have no idea what makes a good investment property. Here’s an easy test; would you buy the house to live in? If the answer is yes then it’s probably worth a closer look. If not, keep looking. Your goal is to make money in investment real estate not lose your lunch money on the first house somebody else says is a great investment or a great starter house.
Thanks for reading
Ron
