All Forum Posts by: Monica Johnson

Indianapolis is just a weird place. In general, most every neighborhood in downtown Indy is going to have a high crime rate BUT they are still considered desirable areas. You’ll have some streets within a neighborhood that are impeccable and the next street over is trashed. I wouldn’t let that deter you from purchasing a home in one of these areas but I would look closely at rental comps on the same streets you’re considering. I have a house in Little Flower that rents for $1095 a month as a 2 bed 1 bath Bc it’s close to downtown and gorgeous and i had multiple applicants the first week I posted it.

Trash is included in your taxes, you can pay for recycling for like $20 a quarter or something like that. I recently had a house sitting vacant for a month and the utilities were around $100. I thought that was crazy expensive and called Citizens and they told me the sewer alone is a $45 minimum regardless of usage.  I feel like electric here is pretty cheap but that would really vary with the tenants usage but for a unit that size, I would estimate $50-75.

Thank you for the tip! 

These are great suggestions, thank you! I did see I could post it on BP and will post on the others you mentioned. Thanks!

I currently have an older property that I purchased this past fall. It's a beautiful flip and my mortgage is $627 and I have tenants in there on a year and a half lease at $1095 a month. However, I really want to get rid of this property. I'm sure I'm being a baby but everything that could possibly go wrong has went wrong in the last 2 months including a $5000 plumbing repair. I'd prefer to sell it exclusively to another investor and I'm not in any rush so I'm wondering what are the best ways to list or get the word out to other investors without listing with a realtor on the MLS. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you so much!  Great advice!

 Correct, conventional financing would not work at this price point and condition of the property, I'm interested in unconventional options for funding the flip.  They are asking 50k on a rent to buy which is absurd given the condition of the property and neighborhood.  

I think so.  I wouldn't be making 6 figures or anything on it but I'd really like to buy and hold if I can figure out the financing part.

Hey awesome Indy people!  I recently purchased a rental property on the near East side in Little Flower.  There's a vacant property across the street listed as a rent to buy from Rainbow Realty but they are open to cash offers. Exterior of the house is fine but I saw the interior of the property and it probably needs torn down to the studs. It’s a small 2 bedroom though so that would keep the cost of the flip from becoming too astronomical. 2 questions: how do you mitigate risk when purchasing a property like this? Do any of you bring a contractor to the property to get a better idea of repairs? My 2nd question as far as financing is concerned, would it be better to do hard money or a personal loan to finance the flip? Given the neighborhood, size, and condition of the property,  I wouldn’t offer more than 10k so I’m not sure I’d even be able to find a hard money lender for around 50k.

I’m a member of CIREA and love it. I think you can check out any meeting for free to see if it’s worth the membership. I go to the women’s group and even though it says you’re supposed to be a member to attend, there are frequently non-members at the meetings. But the group provides great information and great networking!