Make sure you drive through the immediate area – some of the streets off of Clairemont Dr have lots of duplexes on them and the rental feel of the neighborhood may detract from the value of any single family houses – in particular, there is one street (Apache or Cheyenne Ave?) where most of the duplexes have fenced-in front yards – very tacky IMO and not allowed in some parts of town

You know the drill about ‘if it makes sense to you and you can afford it, buy it’ so I won’t go into that – I want to look at this house’s rental value

Looking in the UT rental section I see that the highest priced 3 bdrm is $2200 (there are several around this price) and one 4 bdrm for $2300

Let’s assume we can rent the place for $2200 or $26,400 in yearly rent – first we cover our costs – $5500 for taxes – $2200 set aside for 1 month vacancy, just in case (we want to be prudent investors) – $1500 for insurance – $3500 in maintenance and misc – leaves us with $13,700 or $1,141 per month to pay the mortgage

$175K at 7% on a 30 yr fixed (remember prudence) will cost us $1164/month

That means we need to put $325K down or this property will be an alligator snapping at our heels every month

I would suggest that there are better ways to invest $325K right now but again, if you are looking for a place to live and it makes sense for you, go for it – I think Clairemont is a great location and I will be buying investment property there when it makes sense