anxvariety, I would suggest if you want to buy a property (for occupancy or rental), you should get out there in the trenches and start making offers.
The holidays are an EXCELLENT TIME to make a deal. However, unless you have all cash, you should steer clear of the plain-vanilla flipper-type properties that don’t cost much to rehab and put back on the market or enter into rental service or you will find yourself competing with the investors’ offers.
“Flipper/investor types” tend to gravitate towards SFR listings with all or most of these features:
-incorporated area (w/i city limits – to have steet lights/storm drains etc). This is especially important if the property will be a rental;
-single story;
-$175K to $400K;
-no Mello Roos (if property is to be a rental);
-mostly flat lot of 4500 to 7500 sf;
-no extensive concrete repair or structural repairs needed;
-currently “hot” rental zip code within 3 miles of professional white-collar jobs;
-fairly open floor plan with at least 1-3/4 baths;
-and, attached garage (2-car preferred).
Age is unimportant. Pretty decent flipping jobs are rampant in the mid-century and sixties houses here in Chula Vista. Teams of investors are rehabbing the longtime-rental eyesores street by street and closing their sales within 45-75 days of purchase, lifting ALL surrounding homeowners’ boats.
Maybe Pigg SDR has more insight on what they gravitate to so you can streamline your search and not waste valuable time while prices are inching up with each closed sale.
If you want to buy a personal residence for a song, my advice is to get yourself out into East County and find yourself an unusual property with land and even views, move into part of it and fix it up little by little. Perhaps there are similar deals available in inland North County. I just don’t see how a buyer can go wrong here, unless they (inadvertently) purchase something with very expensive structural problems or terrible neighbors.
