After giving a brief talk at a Philly-based investment club on how to better attract Millennial buyers and sell your investment property quickly, an older gentleman came up and introduced himself. Franklin, a recent retiree, said he’d joined the club to learn more about flipping houses in PA generally, not just in Philadelphia specifically, and wondered if I had any plans to give a talk on that subject. Being a busy investor, mostly in the Pittsburgh area, I told him I didn’t and that he just happened to catch me doing a favor for one of the better clubs in town. But, since I wasn’t headed home right away, I told him I could hang around for a while to discuss where he might want to think about buying houses to rehab and sell around the state. So, we popped into Oscar’s Tavern to talk a little shop and have a couple of beers.

Where You Should Consider Flipping Flipping Houses in PA

To those of us who live and work here, it’s obvious that investing in Pennsylvania real estate has really taken off in the past several years. We’ve watched the landscape of most of our major cities, and a lot of their individual neighborhoods, evolve into safer, cleaner, and more desirable communities. And, the rest of the U.S. is starting to notice, too. Just this year, in fact, the Keystone State made some top ten lists of best places to buy a house based, in part, on data analyzing factors such as median home listing prices and the market’s share of first-time homeowners. With an average median home list price of that is within reach and a large number of new buyers in the market to boot, it appears that Pennsylvania real estate is indeed in high demand. And, if you’re flipping houses to help meet that demand, like I am, your returns have probably been a pretty big deal, too.

Of course, how much money you can make flipping houses does often depend on which neighborhoods you buy in, even when an entire state, like Pennsylvania, is labeled a hot spot. So, to help get you started on a potentially better-than-average year, here are the three areas I recommended to Franklin for launching his investing career.

Lawrenceville/East Liberty, Pittsburgh

In the last ten years, some of Pittsburgh’s worst neighborhoods have grown into some of the country’s best places to live. The recently revitalized hipster haven of Lawrenceville & East Liberty is certainly no exception. The influx of new bars, restaurants, and hotels helped this former steel town make Money Magazine’s top ten list of cool communities to visit in 2017. And, the area’s tech boom led by Google, Apple, and Uber put it on the map of neighborhoods where jobs and money flow freely. The result has been a flood of homebuyer demand and an upsurge in median home sales prices. But, because average median home values are still lower than much of the U.S. and affordability is relatively high, there’s also still room for you to grow your real estate portfolio and meet Lawrenceville/East Liberty’s swelling demand, too.

Strawberry Mansion, Philadelphia

The once decrepit, neglected, crime, drug, and poverty-ridden neighborhood of Philly’s Strawberry Mansion is on the fast-track to becoming as charming as its name suggests. Thanks, in part, to the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative that began twenty years ago, the city has plans to rebuild where old and dangerous buildings once stood. And, the proposal includes better schools, new retail, and a host of family-friendly amenities designed to improve the lives of existing residents as well as draw in a few more. As such, median home sales prices are expected to rise high as the area’s long-awaited rehabilitation renews its popularity. Close proximity to East Fairmount Park and hip hangouts, like those in nearby Brewerytown, are already boosting Strawberry Mansion’s appeal among young families and upstart Millennials—the country’s fastest growing population of first-time homebuyers. So, if you’re looking for opportunities to buy investment property in Philadelphia to flip, you might want to set your sights here.

North Scranton and Green Ridge, Scranton

While the city of Scranton as a whole is home to historically wild market fluctuations that make most investors quake in their boots, there are pockets of town that you might want to move your money towards. North Scranton and Green Ridge are two such areas. With high marks for liveability and affordable housing, these neighborhoods are favorites with the locals who live there. But, visitors are drawn to these older towns, too. With long-time vacant buildings recently refurbished to house artsy apartments and theatres, it’s not hard to see why. And, as some homebuyers get priced out of other Pennsylvania areas, it’s possible they’ll look to rehabbed homes in these Scranton communities as reasonable options. Though median home sales prices haven’t gotten the same jolt that other communities around the state have, the real estate market throughout Scranton is a stable one with a healthy mix of buyers and sellers. So, though you may not make a killing in these and nearby neighborhoods, you might still make a good business out of flipping houses if you have a healthy source for ongoing leads.

Obviously, this list shows only a fraction of the numerous neighborhoods where opportunities for flipping houses in Pennsylvania and creating a potentially strong business out of it abound. As long as you have a lead-generation strategy that helps you find properties that distressed homeowners need to unload fast, you should be able to buy, renovate and sell houses for profit almost anywhere. And, if that strategy is also one of the most effective on the market for motivating Pennsylvania home sellers to contact you directly, then you should also be better able to convert those leads to sales. If you join the team that brings you those leads, there’s a chance you probably will.

Think Again About Where to Find the Best Leads

After talking with Franklin about which Pennsylvania neighborhoods appear to be ripe for investment, I took a moment to tell him how I find the best leads in almost any neighborhood. And, it was at that point in our discussion that he really lit up. In fact, when most investors learn that, as an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchisee, I have access to the “We Buy Ugly Houses®” national marketing campaign, they always want to hear more. They’ve all seen the ads on TV and billboards or heard them on the radio—and, I’m sure you have too.

The best part is that distressed homeowners throughout Pennsylvania have seen or heard them as well. And, when they do, they pick up the phone and contact local HomeVestors® franchisees, like me, when they need to sell fast. They actually do it so often that franchisees in 47 states and D.C. have bought over 140,000 homes since 1996. It’s the kind of success that makes you think twice about where you want to look for qualified leads and which team you want behind you to help.

Thinking about investing in Pennsylvania? Then, think about contacting HomeVestors® for accessing a better strategy for finding some of the best-qualified leads anywhere in the state.

Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.