Nashville, Indiana

[Dean Kinder]

Hello all- my privilege to grow with all on the site.

I came across this site as I was researching selling a “rental” property on a Land Contract, and based on information from here and other research, it sounds like a bad idea (In Indiana at least). I bought the rental property about 3 years ago, but had a terrible time with renters, and have just let it sit vacant the last year (fortunately I was able to buy it with no loans, so cash flow not a big problem), and have listed it for sale the last few months.

My background is in engineering (electrical controls & power distribution), but I was unemployed for about 2 years (2010-2012), and started flipping homes (3 flipped, all went well). Decided to keep/rent this last home (house converted to 3 one bedroom apartments). I now work full time in engineering (2nd shift), have an Investment Advisory business (love personal finance/investments), and have two small children (4 & 7months- boy does this keep one hopping!), plus rehabbing a property in Nashville, IN… so we are very busy, and the rental had just become a pain (renters never stayed more the 2-3months, and only paid 1-2 months).

Now I am reconsidering, after reading these forums and articles, maybe I just need to become a better landlord, and maybe fix the units up a bit more (property location is good, we remodeled 2 of the 3 units, but it could still use more- but I have little time to put in to it, guess have to pay someone- mainly windows replacements and siding). I found some conversation on Lease/Option interesting, and am thinking it may be the way to go (in the investment business, while I hold a core part of portfolios in long term positions, I do trade about 1/2 of the funds daily/weekly, and make far better returns for my time than fixing up this old house).

After reading the discussions here, it seems I should be able to personally diversify with long term real estate holdings, but I need them to take very little of my time. I have not been able to find a rental management company to work with in Seymour, Indiana (rental location), so maybe the Lease/Option is the best solution. Where can I find more information on obtaining Lease/Option documents, and/or sources to understand how to construct them?

Apologies for rambling some, but I really would like to keep rental/real estate is one of many revenue streams… but so far I am not skilled enough to make the rental/real estate work without too much of my time to be worth while. Hoping to learn good skills and sound advice by sharing with all here!