Along the Yellow Line: Investing in the Best Neighborhoods

Table of Contents
Along the Yellow Line: Investing in the Best Neighborhoods 1

When you hear about people building wealth, you probably hear a lot about real estate investment. A lot of people who are more well-off invest in real estate, and it’s easy to see why. Real estate can be a great source of passive income if you manage it correctly. 

If you’re looking at getting into real estate investing, you need to look at houses along the Yellow Line D.C. Metro. Read on to discover some of the best neighborhoods along that route to start a real estate investment in.

Why Invest in Yellow Line Real Estate

Before we start diving into neighborhoods along the Yellow Line DC Metro, let’s take a look at why you should invest in real estate in the first place. Being a landlord is a great source of passive income, a type of income that doesn’t rely on direct trade of hours for money. If you want to make it to being well-off in life, it’s important to have some good passive income sources in place.

Once you buy a place and get renters in, your work as a landlord becomes relatively minimal. If you’re managing the property yourself, you’ll need to check in on your tenants, collect rent, and do repairs and maintenance as needed. If you hire a property manager, your work level drops to almost none, and you still have that income every month.

How to Set Up a Real Estate Investment

The key to setting up a successful real estate investment is to stay within your boundaries. Make sure you’re debt-free before you go buying any homes; it won’t do you any good to set up that investment if you can’t pay off your existing debts. Then save up enough money to pay cash for the home you buy.

Try to stay in the middle of the line when you buy your rental home. You want someplace nice that well rent for a good amount, but don’t get sucked into the trap of buying something ritzy and overpriced. You want a property that will hold its value over time and will appeal to a broad spectrum of renters.

Want to find out what your home is worth?
Get an instant market report sent straight to your inbox in seconds.

Fort Totten

Fort Totten is a great place to buy a home if you want to set up a real estate investment. The neighborhood is home to a little less than 7,000 people, most of whom rent their houses. There are a lot of families and young professionals living in the area, most of whom tend to be more liberal in their politics.

Fort Totten offers an active, urban vibe to its residents, something you can use as a selling point in your ads. There are a lot of parks, so whether your residents like to hang out in a coffee shop debating politics or run through a park, they’ll find the perfect spot for them. As of 2018, rents in Fort Totten had a median of $1,155.

Huntington

Huntington is a little bit larger neighborhood out at the end of the Yellow Line. The area is home to about 13,000 people and has been rated as one of the best places to live in Virginia. Most people there rent their homes for a median price of $1,726 each month.

Huntington is a little denser than Fort Totten but offers the same urban feel. The area is very diverse and well-educated, with a majority of the residents having some sort of advanced degree. The neighborhood is also relatively young, populated by mostly people between ages 25 and 44.

King Street

King Street is a relatively small neighborhood on this list, home to less than a thousand people. The area is in Alexandria, Virginia, and shares the same stellar reputation as Huntington. There are tons of coffee shops, restaurants, and parks around the area to keep your residents busy.

All of the residents on King Street rent their homes, so this is an ideal place to set up your rental investment. The neighborhood is made of mostly educated young professionals, so you’ll have a good group of potential renters. And if you can afford to pay cash for one of those homes, you can make a little more off the median $2,179 monthly rent.

Crystal City

Crystal City is both a study in contrasts and a neighborhood with a place for everyone. It has towering skyscrapers, quiet residential neighborhoods, and an amazing food scene. There are concert series and afternoon book discussions and beautiful places for jogging.

There are about 22,000 people living in this neighborhood, most of them young working professionals. Most of these people rent their homes, and the average rent is right around $2,000. Most apartments in this area are one-bedroom units, so if you’re looking to buy something, look for either one small home or a building housing a lot of smaller apartments.

Gallery Place

Gallery Place is a neighborhood in DC’s Chinatown, and it’s something of an urban retail destination. The neighborhood is packed with shops, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues. Both the Washington Wizards and the Washington Capitals play in the Capital One arena in the heart of Chinatown.

Most of the 3,000 residents of the Chinatown and Galley Place neighborhood are working professionals. A little over half of them rent their home for around $2,500 a month. Investing here will require more money upfront, but it can be well worth it if you can afford it.

Find a Place on the Yellow Line DC Metro

Real estate investing is one of the smartest choices you can make if you have the funds to make it work. And investing along the Yellow Line D.C. Metro can be a great way to get properties that renters are going to want. Find a neighborhood that works with your financial need and start making income without lifting a finger today. 

If you’d like to find the perfect property to invest in, come see us at Nomadic Real Estate. We can help you with leasing, management, sales, and peace of mind. Contact us today to find the perfect spot to start your real estate investment.

Share via Email
Share on Facebook
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Twitter
Get help from DC's top real estate team.
Founded in 2005, Nomadic is the go-to full service real estate firm in the DMV. We've helped thousands of landlords, investors, and residents and we would love to connect with you next.
Scroll to Top

Thinking of selling? Get an instant property value report:

Enhanced Reporting

Your portal includes a selection of extremely useful reports. Reports are available in the “Reports” section, and are distinct from the financial statements. Unlike financial statements which are static records, Reports are dynamic real-time records that will update with current data every time you view them. 

Scroll down to learn more about Reports:

Navigate to the "Reports" module in your portal:

Owner Portal Reports
  • Keep in mind, these reports are dynamic records. They will refresh to display current information every time you view them. 

Enhanced Rent Roll Report:

Enhanced Rent Roll Report
  • The Enhanced Rent Roll Report will show the rent amount, last payment date, move-in date, lease expiration date, and security deposit amount for each of your tenants. 
  • It will also show a portfolio summary with occupancy percentage, vacancy loss, and more!

Unit Comparison Report:

Unit Comparison Report
  • If you own multiple units (or buildings) with Nomadic, you’ll get access to the Unit Comparison Report. 
  • This report enables you to quickly compare financial performance between your units at a glance without toggling between individual reports. 

Income Statement Month-Over-Month:

Income Statement by Month Report
  • The Income Statement Detail – Monthly Report serves as a month-over-month record of portfolio performance. You’ll see itemized income and expense categories and can track monthly. This report will update with fresh data every time you view it. 

Financial Statements

Financial statements will be published to your portal on a monthly basis. The statements are found in your Documents library, and provide a historical record of all financial performance. The statements serve as a snapshot of financial performance over a given period, and are static documents (unlike Reports, the statements do not update/change in real-time). 

Scroll down for more info about the Financial Statements in your Documents library:

The Documents area contains monthly financial statements:

Owner Portal Documents
  • The statements in the Documents are are static documents. They are posted to the portal once a month to serve as a historical record of financial performance. 

Download a statement to see month and YTD financials:

Owner Portal Property Statement

You'll also find a month-over-month operating statement:

Month over Month Statement

Portal Communication Tool

You can use your owner portal to communicate with our team. Any messages you send through the portal will go straight to your Account Manager. When we reply, you’ll get an email notification and you’ll also see the message in your portal next time you log in. 

Here’s an overview of using the communication platform:

Click "Communications" and navigate to "Conversations":

Commincation Dashboard Screenshot
  • The communications module will contain a record of all messages that you create through the portal. 

Click the "New Message" button and send your message:

Owner Portal New Message Screenshot

Responses will show up in the conversation ticket:

Portal Conversation Response Screenshot
  • You’ll get an email notification whenever you get a response, and you’ll also see the message in your portal next time you log in. 

You can reply in-line using the comment box:

Owner Portal Comment

Each conversation will be logged in its entirety:

Portal Conversation Snapshot

Understanding the Ledger

Your portal includes a ledger with all transactions. The ledger is populated with data in real-time as transactions flow through our accounting software. Much of this information is also available in the Reports area, as well as the Statements in your Documents library, but the ledger is the most comprehensive resource for diving into the details. 

Please scroll through the sections below to get a better understanding of how to interpret the ledger. 

By default, transactions are sorted chronologically:

Owner Ledger Dates
  • The date reflected in the lefthand column is the actual transaction date, not the “bill date”. This is the date the transaction was actually processed. 

If you have multiple properties with Nomadic, you'll see the address for each transaction in the "Location" column:

Ledger Property Column
  • You can filter the ledger to look at just one property, all properties, or specific sets of properties. 
  • If you only have one property with us, you’ll just see the ledger for that property. 

The Description column displays the transaction type:

Owner Ledger Description Column
  • BILL: this is an expense transaction, such as for repair costs or management fees.
  • CHARGE: this is a transaction  billed to the tenant, most typically a rent payment. 
  • NACHA EXPORT: this is a credit we processed to your distribution account. This type of transaction is how you get paid! 

The Amount column shows the dollar value of each transaction:

Owner Ledger Amount Column
  • Positive Amounts: if an amount is positive, it reflects a transaction that is payable to you. Typically, this will be a rent payment that we collected from your tenants. On occasion, a positive number could also signify a journal entry or credit adjustment. 
  • Negative Amounts:  if an amount is negative, this is a transaction that is either payable to Nomadic or is an amount that has already been paid to you. Typically this will be for repair costs or management/leasing fees. Owner draws (net distributions into your checking/savings account) also reflect as negative amounts, since they have already been paid to you. 

The Account Balance column shows a sum of positive/negative transactions at a given point in time:

Owner Ledger Account Balance Column
  • Account Balance should always equal zero after a net distribution has been processed. When the balance is zero, this means that all expenses have been paid and you’ve received the remainder as net operating income, leaving a balance of zero (meaning: no one is due any money, as all funds have been distributed appropriately). 

Navigating the Propertyware Owner Portal

Your portal includes some extremely useful features that help you understand your property’s financial performance at a new level, with real-time transparency into every transaction.

Scroll through the snapshots below for an overview of portal navigation! If you need more help or have specific questions about using the portal, you can reach out to your Account Manager any time for a screen share. 

You can filter all info by date range or property:

PW Portal Filters

View a snapshot of income and expenses on your dashboard:

PW Owner Dashboard View

See every transaction in real-time on your ledger:

Owner Portal Ledger View

Statements and forms will be posted to your documents library:

Owner Portal Document Library

View a suite of real-time financial reports:

Portal Reports View

See a running list of all bills, and drill down for more detail:

Owner Portal Bills View

Under Bill Details, you'll find dates/descriptions/amounts and more:

Portal Bill Details

You can also communicate with your Account Manager through the portal:

Owner Portal Communication Tools

How do net distributions work?

Net distributions keep your accounting clean and simple. Each month we’ll collect rent from the tenants, deduct any repair expenses for the previous month and any management/leasing fees for the current month, and credit the remaining net operating income to your account. 

Net Distribution

You’ll receive a statement via email each time a net distribution is processed, and can view all transaction details in your Propertyware owner portal.