Investing in Indianapolis from out of state

[Aaron Gowin]

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?

[Lee Smith]

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...