I am a newer investor from Seattle looking into investing in Indy. Once I sell my current home In June/July I will have a good sum of capital to play with.
Do any out of state investors have some good advice on their experiences in Indy? I am seeing properties with much better returns than out here in Seattle and have a local friend giving me info on areas, but I'm just concerned I'm missing something.
Any tips?
You need to get with a good property manager or two, and maybe a Realtor or two.. You also need to figure out what kind of properties you wan to invest in.. You can go with lower income areas which have higher returns, but higher turnover, vacancy rates, etc.... You can do more bread and butter neighborhoods(80-120k) which will not have as good of returns, but better tenants, and you can benefit from appreciation.. Bread and butter neighborhoods are easier to get loans for. I don't know of a traditional lender that will do less than a 40k loan, and that's generally have you are putting 20-30% down..
Indy is very much street to street. You really need to get multiple opinions on things, especially when you are just starting out...
Call several property managers and then have the top 2-3 evaluate a property you are looking at.. My company does this all the time for new investors we start working with. Also, call a couple of Realtors and ask them for comps... My company charges $5 a comp, and you get quarter mile radius (or neighborhood) of all properties active, pending, or sold within past 1 year.. You also get 24 months of leasing history(as long as it was listed in the MLS). We provide Spreadsheet view, map view, individual listings with full pictures for you to review.. Hotpads.com is good for figuring what other actively listed properties are worth in the area... Plug in the address and look around...
Last piece of advice, don't get stuck in analysis paralysis... Good to be thorough, but don't overthink and talk yourself out of a deal...
You need to get with a good property manager or two, and maybe a Realtor or two.. You also need to figure out what kind of properties you wan to invest in.. You can go with lower income areas which have higher returns, but higher turnover, vacancy rates, etc.... You can do more bread and butter neighborhoods(80-120k) which will not have as good of returns, but better tenants, and you can benefit from appreciation.. Bread and butter neighborhoods are easier to get loans for. I don't know of a traditional lender that will do less than a 40k loan, and that's generally have you are putting 20-30% down..
Indy is very much street to street. You really need to get multiple opinions on things, especially when you are just starting out...
Call several property managers and then have the top 2-3 evaluate a property you are looking at.. My company does this all the time for new investors we start working with. Also, call a couple of Realtors and ask them for comps... My company charges $5 a comp, and you get quarter mile radius (or neighborhood) of all properties active, pending, or sold within past 1 year.. You also get 24 months of leasing history(as long as it was listed in the MLS). We provide Spreadsheet view, map view, individual listings with full pictures for you to review.. Hotpads.com is good for figuring what other actively listed properties are worth in the area... Plug in the address and look around...
Last piece of advice, don't get stuck in analysis paralysis... Good to be thorough, but don't overthink and talk yourself out of a deal...
@Aaron Gowin I am also an investor out of state, and lived in Seattle area for 21 years. Indianapolis is a terrific mid-West city with a healthy economy, and low unemployment that is doing a lot to enrich its downtown core, cultural life, and recover some previously hard hit residential areas. There are very good investment opportunities, and I was just there in March visiting with several turnkey operators. One of them is putting on a webinar this Tuesday night you can check out .
Another company I met with offers passive investors opportunities to buy into and co-own with the Managers portfolios of 10 rental properties for instant diversification and total hands off investment. I wrote a blog article about my experience with this company.
@David Traeger The city puts out a crime statistics website.. If you are unsure of an area, pull up the crime statistics... We generally pull up quarter mile radius, all instances of crime, and 6 months of history...
For a low income area, we try to keep it below 150 instances of crime and not more than 1 murder, rape, or child molestation.. I know that seems pretty liberal, but sometimes bad things happen in otherwise decent areas....
Have a wholesaler friend of mine, cute little thing.. She sent me a property, and I pulled crime stats for her.. I was like "Ummm, Laura, don't go there anymore alone!!" haha There had been 4 instances of rape in the last 6 months...
If anyone is looking at a property and just wants a second set of eyes, give me a call... I would love to have your business, but I will also just give you an opinion...
It's all about the team you work with. Indy isn't my favorite market right now, but it is still good, but it also has my favorite team right now. And I'll take the best team over the best market any day. But it really is a good market....you aren't missing anything!
It's all about the team you work with. Indy isn't my favorite market right now, but it is still good, but it also has my favorite team right now. And I'll take the best team over the best market any day. But it really is a good market....you aren't missing anything!
Is your team made up of friends or past colleagues? If not how did you build your team?
I've always worked with turnkey rental properties, so all the teams I have are turnkeys. The turnkey company I'm working with right now in Indy is the best--in terms of customer service and consistency--of all the turnkey providers I'm working with right now. It's always changing, and a lot of them are good in the various markets, but the Indy one is awesome right now.