Niche Housing For the Homeless Community
When flipping houses, selling homes, renting homes or even buying property; it is imperative to familiarize yourself with those who make up the pool of prospective niche housing markets. There is currently a trend in which potential buyers are seeking single-family dwellings in a certain geographical regions that accommodate their budget. Similarly, there is also a huge focus by sellers, real estate investors and agents on attracting investor buyers, cash buyers and foreign buyers. More specifically, it is important to understand the eclectic range of potential buyers and sellers when considering your investment niche. Competition drives down advertising effectiveness, marketing ROI and net profits. Therefore, is it wise to reach out to an extremely large pool of potential home buyers and candidates for rent-to-own programs that are being ignored by virtually everyone else? There is one niche housing group, primed for buying a home, that is being completely overlooked. Who are they? While there are assuredly several untapped niche housing markets, the homeless are perhaps the most viable. Realtors and real estate investors market to renters, out of area property owners, investors, move up buyers and those relocating or downsizing; but who bothers to offer their housing to the homeless? If you are looking for motivation, you might be hard-pressed to ignore those who currently do not have a roof over their head. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of homeless individuals that are part of a family continues to increase. That includes fathers, mothers and children. What parent wouldn’t appreciate a safe home to raise their child in? This group is made up of those living on the streets, in motels, extended stay housing shelters and those residing within their vehicle. You may be surprised by who is currently looking to buy a house. Before you completely dismiss this crazy idea, keep in mind that this group, most of whom would really be interested in buying a home, is a viable market ripe for exploitation. In fact, many have lucrative occupations. Technology and freelancing opportunities have given them the opportunity to make upwards of six figures a year. For reasons we may never know, they were removed from their previous residence and forced to weather the financial difficulties that followed them. Given the chance, many have the potential to make for a great renter. Others could be prime candidates for seller financing. Some might even have surprisingly decent credit and for obvious reasons ridiculously low debt-to-income ratios. If you can assist this particular niche market, you’ll find most are loyal and unlikely to do much complaining. This is certainly an under-marketed niche. Amidst all of the government spending programs, the feds and various agencies are directing hundreds of millions of dollars to combat homelessness and enable rapid re-housing. Investors can leverage some of these programs to create powerful win-win scenarios for all of those involved.
Looking for a new way to make your marketing money go further, or perhaps to make your achievements in real estate investing more meaningful? Have you considered expanding your investment portfolio to include niche housing markets?