All Forum Posts by: Mihir Bhimaraju

Hello @Brady Carpenter

I live on the south side close to Southport But I recently bought a property in Columbus and Indy as well. 

Be it Seymour or North Vernon, you'll run into a bunch of tenants that might be very difficult to deal- especially in the lower income section. You'll have to be extra careful and invest a lot of the running the background checks. There are good deals in Seymour but the rents aren't as high as you might get in Columbus. 

As far as Columbus goes, you're right. It's pricey to buy retail. But you can definitely expect higher rents. Greenwood has better tenant base than some parts of Indy but it's more expensive in general. 

No matter where you decide to invest- make sure there's population growth, flourishing economy and jobs. 

I can vouch for what the investors stated above. Having lived in the Midwest for a while now, I've realized that unless the property is distressed and is a fixer upper, if a 4plex is priced as low as that, there's definitely a good amount of trouble with the law. I was in the same boat as you- I thought I can get a property manager to take care of a multiplex that was priced lower than your amount, but the PM mentioned how she wouldn't even feel safe to walk in the neighborhood after sunset. So I started looking in 150-200k range. 

You'd get better quality tenants and PMs would be more willing to work with the tenants. 

Don't get me wrong, there are numerous investors on here who are experts in the 30k-50k price range. But it's not for everyone. I can tell you that. 

@William McCulloch do we still need to register even if there's property management involved? 

@Jeffrey Gignac I totally agree. It's surprising to see how many people book it. Taking the first step to convince yourself and your folks is the biggest hurdle. 

@Karthick Bhaskaran

@Casey Mericle thank you for suggesting that. I'll have to look into how options work. I just got started and I'm into 5 units. Bought them for around 85% market value. I have reserves for them but it's nice to know other strategies like the one you suggested. 

@Christopher Brainard I agree. Do you go out with a specific number in mind when buying a property, apart from the usual 20 or 25% in mind? Also, do you have a rule of thumb, say like 3 months operating expenses, in case of cash reserves for each property?

I'm curious to know if there was any special tactic used to survive the '08 downturn. When the market crashed and folks were losing their jobs, I'm guessing some of the renters weren't able to make payments because of the layoffs. 

How did some of the investors survive this crash? I see most of the folks here started investing post '08. 

@Zachary Clevenger Well done on chalking up the plan! You pretty much got it down, Zach!

I completely agree with you and I can tell you I've been there on exhausting myself with the podcasts part. Which is why  I gave it a break to leap into the game- for good or for worse. 

For your phase 1, would you be focusing more on SF or Multis? I think it would help you better if you got down to the specifics. I can tell you that helped my plan immensely. From what I read and spoke to many investors, you needn't get started with SFs in order to scale big. However, do what's comfortable and will get you to your first deal that'll get you started.

I'd also recommend focusing on the location, your acceptance criteria for the property and your monthly target amount.

I'm currently in Phase one myself - so that's pretty much all I have. I'm glad we met up and I'm looking forward to more meetings.

@Pedro Gonzalez that's awesome.I bet Miami will be great place to run a vacation rental. I've never been there, so I'll have to look you up when I come down there :)