All Forum Posts by: Don Nguyen

@Andrew Syrios and @Mike D'Arrigo, thanks guys, that seems like pretty sound advice. That's closely aligned with my thoughts on what distinguishes houses in these neighborhoods. It's great to hear it from a couple of veterans.

I want to say thanks to all the Indianapolis investors that I've been communicating with. You guys have all been awesome and I've been learning a lot.

A pretty common theme that I've been hearing is that the areas of Indianapolis are "block by block" and that you can't rely on what neighborhood a property is, particularly in the downtown areas. What is it that distinguishes the properties to this granularity? Is it the house construction itself? Crime rates? Accessibility to hotspots and areas of interest?

Thanks @Account Closed!

Thanks everyone. This is great info.

I'm looking at properties in the Fountain Square and Bates-Hendricks neighborhoods of Indianapolis. Do any of you guys out there who invest in these neighborhoods have any advice?

What should I look for or what should I be avoiding? Are there certain streets to avoid? What type of rents and vacancies are typical of these areas?

Thanks @Trevor Ewen. Those are great references.

For those of you that invest out of your local areas, what sort of market research did you perform to determine where you wanted to invest? Are there good sources for demographic data, price to rent ratios, etc...?

Thanks for all the welcoming messages!

@Eric K., I'm definitely interested in turnkey providers. Any tips on providers to seek out or avoid? What types of things I should be looking for?

Hi everyone!

I'm Don Nguyen and I hail from the South Bay area of Los Angeles, CA. I moved here about 8 years ago from Michigan.

I haven't yet invested in any properties, but I'm hoping to dive into it soon. My primary interest would be in buy and hold properties with positive cash flow. The Los Angeles area is probably not the best area for this, so I'm definitely open to investing in other markets across the country. I'm not quite sure which markets I want to get into yet, but I've heard that Detroit could be good for this and the idea of investing in my home state is appealing to me.

Ideally these investments could remain relatively passive, because I have a full time job as a rocket scientist... That is not a joke. My day job involves design and analysis of guidance, navigation, and control systems for rockets. It's a dream job that I'm pretty passionate about, so I won't likely give that up. I'm definitely willing to put in the work to find the properties and perform the neccessary upkeep, but an investment strategy that would require full time attention would not be for me.

As such though, I'm pretty good with numbers and the idea of an investment that involves some analysis sounds super interesting to me. Various company successes has left me with a decent pot of money to invest. Investing in real estate seems like an interesting hobby in addition to being a good way to get some extra cash flow (Who couldn't use that, right?).

I've been roaming around the forums trying to get educated. This seems like a really awesome community of people. I look forward to getting to know the people here and to learn a ton.

Thanks!