Areas for house in Mid-del

[Zuplar]

I'm looking at buying a rental and wondering what the best areas to look in and the best areas to avoid. Fwiw looking under $65k.

[mmonroe]

We have enough "rentals", if I can speak honestly. It's one of the problems we have and a bad reputation for. I'd prefer a house get bought to be owned and lived in, not rented out to someone who doesn't care about the upkeep or curb appeal.

[easternobserver]

We have enough "rentals", if I can speak honestly. It's one of the problems we have and a bad reputation for. I'd prefer a house get bought to be owned and lived in, not rented out to someone who doesn't care about the upkeep or curb appeal.

How about Del City's new "Storybook Ranch" Preservation District area, north of 15th, south of I-40 and west of Sunnylane. The city has recently passed a preservation district to regulate exterior changes and encourage preservation of the architectural features of these houses and is pairing that with aggressive capital improvements (beginning with a major drainage project that is underway). At least one burnout has been torn down in the last few months as well.

The area was really nice when it was built in the 1960s, and then went downhill, largely due to the apartments that were built in I-40/Scott Street area. Those apartments are all gone now....

Del City's housing inspection program is strict, and isn't for everyone. Lots of landlords hate it because it means keeping the property up to code. Lots of landlords love it, because rental rates and home values have dramatically increased as police and code enforcement calls have decreased.

Add in the preservation regulations -- definitely not for everyone, because some people would have a real problem at having to ask the Planning Commission for approval to change the exterior of the house. That said, more than one long-vacant house is currently under construction on a full remodel because of the new district, so it is already showing success....

[Zuplar]

We have enough "rentals", if I can speak honestly. It's one of the problems we have and a bad reputation for. I'd prefer a house get bought to be owned and lived in, not rented out to someone who doesn't care about the upkeep or curb appeal.

You are entitled to your opinion, but making an assumption that I'm automatically one of "those people" who don't care is a very piss poor on your part.

Not that I need to justify anything to trolls such as yourself, but I'm actually buying for elderly people who the state puts in private housing because they are usually capable of normal activity, but still need a caretaker for parts of the day. Because the state is the one who funds the bill there are lots of requirements such as it must be in a good neighborhood, with low crime, something anyone would feel safe in. Also as part of that the lawn must be taken care of and be as nice if not better than the neighborhood it is in. So honestly the house I buy probably ends up being one of the nicer ones because professionals will be paid to take care of it.

[easternobserver]

You are entitled to your opinion, but making an assumption that I'm automatically one of "those people" who don't care is a very piss poor on your part.

Not that I need to justify anything to trolls such as yourself, but I'm actually buying for elderly people who the state puts in private housing because they are usually capable of normal activity, but still need a caretaker for parts of the day. Because the state is the one who funds the bill there are lots of requirements such as it must be in a good neighborhood, with low crime, something anyone would feel safe in. Also as part of that the lawn must be taken care of and be as nice if not better than the neighborhood it is in. So honestly the house I buy probably ends up being one of the nicer ones because professionals will be paid to take care of it.

It's so easy to trash rental property as the reason for the decline of inner ring suburbs. Truth is, there is always going to be a mix of rental and owner occupancy, and the key is attracting good landlords, whether single property or large investors. Cities like Midwest City and Del City need to look at themselves-- and change the economic model that makes things profitable for the bad landlords and scares away the good ones and the owner occupants. Other cities need to take note as well, because as long as we incentivize sprawl, the inner suburbs will be behind the eight ball....

[mmonroe]

You are entitled to your opinion, but making an assumption that I'm automatically one of "those people" who don't care is a very piss poor on your part.

Not that I need to justify anything to trolls such as yourself, but I'm actually buying for elderly people who the state puts in private housing because they are usually capable of normal activity, but still need a caretaker for parts of the day. Because the state is the one who funds the bill there are lots of requirements such as it must be in a good neighborhood, with low crime, something anyone would feel safe in. Also as part of that the lawn must be taken care of and be as nice if not better than the neighborhood it is in. So honestly the house I buy probably ends up being one of the nicer ones because professionals will be paid to take care of it.

Feel free to jump to conclusions as well, with the information you provided in the first post, I gave information, be it my honest opinion, that's how I feel. Your assumption that I placed you as one of "those people" is solely on your part. The only thing I referenced was the house being rented out to renters (renters who have no investment in the property and usually do not care what happens to it) would not take the opportunity to redo windows, or fix up the yard properly, repave a damaged driveway, etc... the list goes on, where as a homeowner would take the time to do such a thing and bring up property value that reflects on the properties around it.

As far as being a troll.. no, I am not a troll. Passionate about my city, yes.

[Zuplar]

So back to the question at hand. I was looking at some houses in Epperly Heights in Del City. The neighborhood seemed to be a mix of old homes, even older homes and even some new ones. I've driven over there before and even worked in the area north of there during high school but don't remember much. Any thoughts?

[easternobserver]

So back to the question at hand. I was looking at some houses in Epperly Heights in Del City. The neighborhood seemed to be a mix of old homes, even older homes and even some new ones. I've driven over there before and even worked in the area north of there during high school but don't remember much. Any thoughts?

Its a broad area. The actual Epperly subdivisions were pretty well built and are, for the most part, solid working-class neighborhoods. There used to be some pretty bad flooding issues along Lariet Lane, but the City did a major drainage project a year or so ago and fixed that problem. A number of the problem houses have been torn down in the past few years. Not to say that things are perfect, but the neighborhood certainly stabilized. The school district did a major renovation of the Epperly Heights grade school, which has really helped with the traffic in the area.

The parts of the area that were the old towns of Carter Park and Midway Village have more issues, as they were older houses and were built with little or no building code or subdivision standards. The Carter Park area also has a lot of floodplain along Cherry Creek.

The entire area is covered by an active neighborhood watch.

I know that the city will share inspection and code enforcement records with anyone interested in a house (might have to file an open records request if you aren't the owner), so you might take a look at City Hall if you are interested in a house.

I think the Epperly subdivisions were essentially built starting east and going west and south, so you see smaller siding houses give way to slightly larger brick houses.

[Zuplar]

I noticed there were several different phases when looking. Seems like some of those small siding houses are in the North East part of that neighborhood. I know the one I was looking at was further south and was brick, but still on the small side. Glad to know about the records and the neighborhood watch. I think it's an area to look at seriously.

[ewoodard70]

You could look in the neighborhood behind sooner rose elementary school. it is in the area between 15th and reno, sooner and air depot. There are mostly homes built in the late 60's to mid 70's. Nice quiet neighborhood with fair sized yards that do not require a lot of time to maintain. The western portion of this area closer to sooner rd was hit during the May 3rd 1999 tornado so there are some newer homes there. Most homes in this area are under $70k. I know this because I live there and would welcome a good landlord to come in and keep a home in good shape.

[Zuplar]

I will look into that. Thank you.