HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
the amenities that these neighborhoods have access to that the suburbs don’t.”
Bartlett emphasized the importance of preserving a home’s authenticity when flipping to this new brand of bright flight buyers. “You have to keep the home authentic,” he said, noting this is a built-in requirement for established neighborhoods like Jefferson Park and West Adams that are in Los Angeles Historic Preservation Overlay Zones . “In this generation you see this want (for) smaller and authentic rather than bigger and plain. The suburbs are bigger and plain.” Rand, the CEO of Charlotte-based OwnAmerica, said the re-emergence of established, urban neighborhoods with younger buyers fits into the sweet spot for more creative, entrepreneurial single family rental investors willing to think outside of the typical neighbor`hood rating paradigm. when it comes to school, crime, but your properties are … good, landlords are going to come in there and get great returns and have low turnover,” said Rand, referring to the strategy of “repositioning,” where single family rentals in poor condition are rehabbed before they are rented. “There are a lot of investors who like a repositioning. You can really get a good return anyway, but once you rehab you have the best house in the neighborhood.” Adjusting the Rating Paradigm “If the neighborhood is not the best
Jefferson Park neighborhood, Los Angeles, CA
In some of the quote-unquote bad neighborhoods, you have access to jobs but lower quality schools.” Bruce Bartlett | Managing partner at Sequoia Real Estate Partners Los Angeles, CA “
“In some of the quote-unquote bad neighborhoods, you have access to jobs but lower quality schools,” he said, providing as examples the Jefferson Park and West Adams neighborhoods along the Interstate 10 corridor, both of which are in zip codes with a high share of flips but where elementary school test scores are below or just slightly above the state average. “You’re having these old Craftsmans being updated there.” Bartlett noted that the recent completion of the Expo light rail line running along the I-10 corridor between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica is
attracting more young buyers to those neighborhoods.
“You’re having these millennials (who buy thinking) ‘I can get on the Expo line and I can go to my creative job in Culver City … I can get on the train to go downtown,’” he said. Bright Flight to Authentic Homes “Now it’s bright flight,” Bartlett continued, referring to the trend of young, college- educated buyers returning to more urban neighborhoods — the reverse of the so- called “white flight” trend. “Regardless of your race, are you educated, do you have a job? … These people want to live close to
HomeUnion, the soup-to-nuts service for single family rental investors, employs
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