All Forum Posts by: Justin Polston

@Lakshman K. Make that six lol!

@Lakshman K. The 5 biggest things to me, and in no particular order:

Layout

Area of town (walking distance to anything)

# of beds per unit average

# total units in building

Building type

Simple laundry

And this is based on my experiences in Indianapolis area.

Layout, are these function layouts or do you need to walk through a room to get to another room to get to the kitchen? Lots of shotgun style 1 bedrooms tend to be this way.

Area of town, is it walkable? Is there much parking? Walkable and no parking, you might make it viable.

#of beds, Ones and studios rent really well around here. Twos can also, but don't expect a lot more rent, because you are still marketing to a tenant that is ok living in an apartment house and not an apartment building with more amenities.

Total # of units also is tied to building type. If you have something that isn't a conversion, MFR can be lucrative, like a nice 4 plex brick ranch built in the 60s. They'll be lower maintenance and lower turnover. If you are buying something that has been converted from a big ol' SFR to a 4 5 or 6plex, you will need to be weighing your vacancy on the heavy side when forecasting and lowering rent expectations based on market averages.

Simple Access to laundry in the unit or building will lower or raise your rents and vacancies.

We manage many multi family conversions. If you can manage them well, and aren't shooting for the moon in rent, and stay on top of maintenance, anybody can make money on MFR. Just think logically and have common sense about the deal when buying.

@Al L. If you go into indianapolis, you might stay in the suburbs. Competition is rough within Marion Co.

What kind of jv are you open to? We sometimes do projects with others just depends on deed ownership, financing structure, expectations, overall exit strategy...happy to talk through some viable options and past examples of things we have done.

@James Zobrisky hey congrats on making the leap! My door is always open! Are you shooting for Marion Co or the donut counties?

@Daniel Barbosa hey! The Indianapolis suburbs produce some awesome returns!b don't examples: Shelbyville, Franklin, Greensburg, Greenfield, Southport, Greenwood (anywhere in Johnson county really). I have flipped over 50 homes over the past 14 years in those areas.

@Andrew Moster just check local ads like homes.com, apartments.com, etc. Act like you are a tenant searching for a rental in your target area and I bet you become an expert quicker than you think!

@Wang Judy Sure the 1% rule is a start. And yes there are still areas that BEAT it. Indianapolis Suburbs like Shelbyville, Greenfield, Franklin, Greenwood... Any of the donut counties!

@Michael Gust The Indianapolis suburbs do well for our clients. Taxes are near 2% of assessment and everything meets or beats the 1% rule. Within Indianapolis there are deals but also lots of competition, which is why I push the suburbs.

@David Kuhlke I am thinking a little low. Ironically, we actually wrote up some paperwork this past week right at .14 or so on an also 11 unit brick 2 story ranch in downtown Shelbyville, Indiana, and that's conservatively estimating some monthly carrying costs.

@Arthur McCormack fyi technically if he's behind, you don't need to wait those 10 days just fyi. Behind is behind and you can file at any time.