Green Investors

Well under way is the search for our second real estate purchase. We enjoy working with lenders and real estate agents, touring prospective properties, and brainstorming about investing. We heavily use the the Zillow Real Estate website to find what's for sale, in conjunction with Google Maps to "walk around" via Street View and to plot driving routes to actually walk around the place in person.


The Columbus area has a lot of potential for investment. Unfortunately, with loss of jobs in the region, large portions of the city are in decay. Yesterday evening we found ourselves on a severely degraded street on the east side of the city of Columbus. While the fourplex we had come to see was in great shape, it was truly, as Dusty put it, the diamond in the rough. All of its neighboring buildings had boarded up windows and doors, their walls were painted with graffiti art, and one was a burnt shell, gaped and sagging and exposed to the elements. Despite the obvious hazards in the neighborhood, people were outside of their homes drinking 40s, playing basketball, listening to music, and socializing with one another. Although it looks like it should be a dead neighborhood, lots of people are still living here, and they are doing it with spunk.

We found ourselves eating fried chicken in a nearby restaurant and talking about the risk of buying in this neighborhood. The fourplex we had come to see is fully occupied and freshly painted. All of its windows and doors are intact. The annual income from its tenants is $20,000, and while the current owners have kept it well-maintained, we couldn't justify buying a property that might meet the same fate as nearly all of its neighbors. We thought it might be fun to buy up the whole street and initiate a community rehabilitation project, but ultimately, we are green investors and still getting to know what possibilities there are for us. Buying up a whole street will have to wait a little while, until we have enough capital to play with. Until then, we will continue to look far into the future.