John,
There are so many challenges for real estate investors in general, and in this article I have tried to illustrate a couple of don'ts. However, due to your comment I think I will go ahead and point out a couple of examples of great deals that are in lower income areas, but not high crime areas, and that didn't need much fix up! The main point is, that as an investor it's so vital to have the right team, and that team needs to know the difference between a cheap property and a property that is a great value. By the way, we work with a lot of Canadian investors, and would love to pay you handsome referral fees if you have investors that might like 12-16% Return on Investment properties that have tenants in place.
Fred, that's the only thing that would work on that one, but I mainly put that up there because it was comical! Wouldn't it have been better to have done the tear down first and then market the lot? Funny what people think!
A great deal in a bad location will never be as great as one thinks. It's better to have a good deal in a great location as far as I am concerned.
Troy, that is exactly right! Each city across the country, even Detroit, which I think is a terrible market as a whole, still has great locations that have very good deals (you sure have to be a lot more selective in a market like that though)!
Jared, you have some serious challenges in some of your territory! Excellent article.