Real Estate Investor · Auckland, Select a State · Member since 2009 · 16 posts · 0 votes
Can anyone give us some insight to the state of affairs in South Bend and Elkhart, INDIANA? We have several rentals that we bought in May and we are still trying to rent them out. So far, we've only been able to rent one of them out. What's happening there as far as rental demand goes? We also have several in Fort Wayne INDIANA and they rent out within a week!!! It's so different.
Is this caused by the property manager or is it the economy in the area?
Thank you for your suggestion, Tim. In fact my property manager has dropped the rent by $100 per month which I thought was too high. I'll see if she drops it by $75 to create some interests.
Ruth,
Elkhart has been hit hard by the RV industry wide downturn.
A friend of mine that owns restaurants there said that they are starting to hire again in the RV industry.
I don't really have details but if that bears out you should eventually see a pick up in demand for your rental properties.
Good luck
Appreciate everyone's feedback as to what's happening in Elkhart and South Bend in general. I have 3 properties yet to rent in that area.
How about selling them off, will there be any demand for them?
What neighborhoods are they in? Have you tried lease/optioning them? Don't try to lock people into a big option fee - you won't get it - and you'll get it "rented". Eviction on a lease option is just as easy as a regular eviction here so long as you don't to a land contract. Lots of people will tell you to do a land contract because you can get the property reassessed as a primary residence but the temporary savings of $1,000.00 will evaporate as soon as you have to do a foreclosure as opposed to an eviction.
I learned from someone that I can also do mortgage notes on any of the properties once they are rented out. I am not familiar with this. Compared with lease option, what are the risks with selling notes?
I still have 2 South Bend and 1 Elkhart properties to rent out. It's starting to annoy me as I don't know what to do with them....I've dropped the rent, offered 2nd month free rent, and they are fully done up inside. Don't know what else I can do except to sell them, but no takers!!! Do I need to pay capital gains tax if I sell them at cost and move on to getting better quality homes?