All Forum Posts by: Hank Keller

My opinion is that you always visit to meet the team, see their systems and see the quality of their build and the neighborhoods their in at least once. Trust but Verify! If youre truly in this for the long haul, there is nothing worse than getting started and then realize you dont like who youre dealing with.

Meet the property management, customer service, accounting / finance. Physically look at the software they use and ask them how they are screening, verifying when properties are ready for the investor and how they communicate.

Once youre good with that and you’ve got one under your belt, then let todays technology help you make more purchases...

If youre either working full time or have limited RE experience, your in a great city for turnkey and there’s at least a couple companies there. Go talk with them; i can send you a contact for the company i use if you’d like.

Agreed Mike. I’ve also got very good cash flow in Indy as well as my Charlotte property. Most of my Indy properties are appreciating @ ~ 3-5% but one of my very first properties purchased is in an Opportunity zone and i’m Seeing double digit appreciation. Very happy in Indy; in most cases they are outperforming my local buys.

 Sent you a PM so I’m not advertising...

The guy i buy turnkey rentals from has a great model which i’ve Adopted: Look for markets that have:

1. Population over a million and good growth rate. This ensures that there are plenty of available houses (with an approximate 3% foreclosure rate, there are about 3000 houses at auction each month), renters to choose from and that the city is growing rather than stagnate or losing population. Good markets didn't drop during the 2008 crash...

2. Cheap Houses. Make sure you get at least the 1% rule meaning $1000 of rent for each $100k of purchase. This should also ensure youre getting about 8% return on your money.

3. Business Friendly and Credit worthy City/State. Look at how easy it is to set up an LLC, the costs of maintaining the business and the cost and timing of evicting a tenant. Also look for states and cities that have a good credit rating which ensures that they will be pouring money into revitalization which increases jobs, growth, appreciation and rents.

4. Jobs. Look for cities where there is a good mix of manufacturing, warehousing and overall good job market with low unemployment. it also ensures that taxes won't go up in the event that a city starts going bankrupt.

Using these four criteria will help you to narrow your search for what city to invest in... Hope that helps.

I’ve been investing with a TK company in Indy for the past 6 years and now have 10 properties with them. They’re not perfect but they are reliable, honest and returns have averaged 8%. 

TK’s worked for me especially when i had a FT job and little time to give real estate the focus it needed. Now that i’ve Purchased a car wash, they continue to grow my retirement account as the rent coming in is enough to buy another house about every 13-15 months

Hi @Judy Graff - I have 9 properties in Indianapolis (just bought 2 more this year) and 1 in Charlotte with the same TK provider and have worked with them for the past 6 years. Indy is business friendly and has a AAA credit rating, lots of jobs and has had a steady 3% population growth over the past 30 years. The most recent SFH i purchased this year was $75k. On average my 9 in Indy are getting an 8% return. Also purchased an AirBnB this year and while still going through rehab, it's projected to get 12-15% return.

Charlotte is similar to Indy from a metric perspective except there growth rate is much higher right now and i’m Seeing that in estimated appreciation of 15%.

Hope that helps...

Hank

Hi @Account Closed - You should easily be able to get higher returns in the mid west. I live in Ohio and know that Cleveland and Columbus have some great returns but i personally invest in Indianapolis simply because i found a great team over 5 years ago. I got an average monthly net cashflow on eight houses of over $3k last year on turnkeys i’ve Purchased. The challenge will be finding a good team that you can trust and make a long term relationship with.