I just returned from my first visit to Lehigh Acres on april 11th, 2009. We were in the "city" for over a week looking at properties. While I didnt look at any of the duplex's seriously while I was in the area, I did notice a number of them as I drove around town.

I recall pointing out that every duplex that didnt appear to be for sale was occupied. Even the older duplex's in less desirable areas of town appeared to have tennents in them. What they are paying, and how often they make payments Im sure could be a better question.

My gut feeling is, if you have a duplex in the area and can calm tennents to fears of forclosure, you could rent the property.

Im from Omaha NE, and this was my first trip to Lehigh as I said. While I was there I ended up buying 2 homes. One was a former grow house, and the other was vandalized (appeared to be a mad forclosure victim in my opinion). Both homes were purchase for 20-30 cents on the dollar to build, and will require less then 10k each to make into very nice homes again.

While in the town, you couldnt help but notice the vandalized properties, for sale signs, and un finished state of affairs. You can find entire ghost town areas of new homes, or half finished homes. You will also find an odd mix of old, new, and half finished homes in some areas.

Oddly we were put off by many of the parts of town that had sidewalks and streetlights. They had a odd vibe to them as everything was so close to each other. You will also find some areas of town feel wide open, with no real landscape or vegitation to break the view of house 3-8 blocks away.

All the bad stuff aside, I have to say it had the vibe of a boom town to me. People were looking at properties everywhere, and everything seemed to have multiple offers, often above list. You get the feeling that many people are feeling a "bottom" of some sort. We had people offer to buy us out cash on one property we had just sealed the deal on ourselves. The couple in question spoke to each other in German as they offered cash to me to buy the house. Odd situation to say the least, but likely not uncommon for what appears to be going on.

Of course the realtors all told us we were buying into a bad area, our investments will be better served in the Cape, in Ft Myers, yadda, yadda, yadda. And maybe they are right. That said, I dont know of anywhere else in the country you can purchase homes of the age, and style of the Lehigh homes at the prices seen in the last couple of months. I paid 30$ per sq ft, and will come in complete around 32-34$ per sq ft on 3/2/2 homes under 4 years old.

Also if you search the Ft Myers craigslist adds, you will find people looking for housing in the area. You will likely have to deal with poor credit history's, but you cfan likely find a tennant for a clean property.