Orleans place is a planned community of New Orleans style duplexes located in the Ocean Springs/St. Martin Mississippi area. While the community boasts that they will be building an Olympic sized swimming pool, community center, and on-site daycare, this may not be the best investment. Orleans Place is also Go Zone eligible as new construction and appeals to SRAP buyers as well because of the MDA incentives, however, at prices of roughly $135k a door – who is going to buy a duplex when you have single family homes for less money per door in the same community?
The biggest fault of the duplexes are the price points and the location. Orleans Place is located on the northern section of Savanna Trails subdivision. While the amenities to the subdivision look nice, the pricing on the single family homes is low due to the small square footage of the homes and very basic floor plans. Had these duplex units in Orleans Place been built closer to the beach, or near a subdivision with much nicer homes, then it would be a decent proposition.
Another issue with buying these under SRAP (they are being heavily pitched for SRAP/Go Zone buyers) is that if they are all sold this way, it makes for a horrible exit strategy. Heavily concentrated duplex communities go downhill fast – especially when they are subsidized with government money to maintain low rental rates (common sense here folks). Most investors who buy in here are going to want to get out of them as quickly as possible once the deed restrictions from the MDA are lifted in 5 years. This will create a lot of supply, and my guess is, minimal demand. Many of these units will be sold for pennies on the dollar in foreclosure and short sales far before the MDA maturity is reached.
If you are looking for real investment opportunities, and not hyped deals that will likely leave a bad taste in your mouth within months of purchasing – contact me and let me help you see better returns on your money. After all, the whole idea of investing in real estate is to grow wealth, not lose it…right?
