All Forum Posts by: Rohan J.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

We got quite a bit of interest for seeing the property,  and now we're going to schedule a viewing for anyone interested to swing by.

Couple questions:

1) I'm not 100% sure what information to gather at the property viewing. I was going to use SmartMove for Background/Credit Checks... so do I only need to gather their email addresses? Or do you guys actually give some form to people who visit and express interest?

2) I feel kind of weird if we charge a bunch of people for the background stuff, but in reality we only accept 1. Do you guys just do a BGC on anyone that sees the property and expresses interest?

Hi there,

I'm a California (newbie) landlord, and I've been fortunate enough that both of the places I bought a while ago already had good tenants living in them. However, last week my tenant in Placentia, CA (SoCal) put in her 30-day notice, so now for the first time ever, I need to find a new tenant.

I'd prefer not to hire a property management firm to find my next tenant, as 1) I want to learn how to find a good tenant, 2) this is a nice town-home in a good community, and 3) I don't have a ton of properties, and this would be a fairly small project.

But there are still a few questions I don't know the answer to:

a) The only way I can think of to find tenants is to post on Craigslist. Where else can I post/search to find new tenants? Basically is there anything else I can do in just a few weeks notice to increase # of applicants?

b) My tenant works pretty hard and is not home that often, but I will need to take photos of the insides and show people the place. How does that process work? Do I inform her when I'll be coming to take photos, or do I have to cooperate with her schedule? I want to be a good landlord and not make her feel like we're invading her privacy, but at the same time, I don't want to wait forever every time just to show an applicant the apartment.

As you all know, California is very pro-tenant ... and as a newbie landlord, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to take pictures/show the apartment while she's living there. Any advice on things I should be thinking of would be greatly appreciated :)

I think it would be very educational for new (and advanced!) members of the community to hear about partnership stories. If you've ever been involved in a partnership for real estate, can you tell us a little bit more about it? 

How did you meet your partner, how did you structure the deal, what was the end result, what did you end up learning from it? Please let us know where you bought properties, what went right, what went wrong, etc.

Doesn't matter if it worked out or not, I think we can all learn something from everyone's unique stories. If you have a partnership experience that you don't mind sharing, I'd love to hear all the details :)

Also, if anyone knows of any Property Management company (in Indianapolis) that is easy-to-work with, communicative, and thorough with out-of-state folks, I'd be truly grateful for a referral!

Feel free to PM or post, whichever you prefer. Thank you

@Jay Hinrichs  Great advice all around. Thank you so much for taking the time to share some of your experience. I was already kind of leaning towards buying a single-family, and you guys have confirmed my choice to stick with a single for now.

I'm having problems finding an investor-friendly real estate agent that's communicative and understands my goals, so if any of you guys know of any in Indianapolis, I'd truly appreciate any advice/contact.

I'll also be visiting family in Cincinnati/Ohio, so if you guys know of any strong agents out there, I'd be open to hearing from them too.

Thank you

Hey @Rodney Kuhl  - thanks for the advice and response! Funny.. I actually sent you a message right before you posted this :)

I will be visiting Indianapolis in 2 weeks to look at properties - I definitely agree with your thoughts on coming out and visiting first. Hopefully I can find a great PM company + agent in the process. 

Glad to hear that you are doing well in the market - it gives me a little less fear as an amateur out-of-state guy. Hopefully I can find a nice cash-flowing property in a good neighborhood soon! I'll send you a PM as I learn more about the market/properties I'm interested in. Thanks for taking the time to help out

Thank you @Jerry , I will send you a PM.

I'm currently looking at a few cities out-of-state to buy a rental, and one of the cities that looks great and affordable is Indianapolis.

Problem is, since I don't live there (i'm from CA), I don't know which areas to avoid, which areas have good job growth, which areas have good schools/families. etc. This will be my first out-of-state rental, so I'm really hoping it goes well and doesn't cause too many headaches.

I'm currently looking at MFRs and SFHs, and I was wondering if anyone who has bought a rental could let me know:

A) How has your experience has been so far? Anything unexpected?

B) What numbers on the map below should I avoid? Do you have any set of zip codes that you focus on?

C) What kind of cap rates are you seeing? I don't see too many multis listed.. are there still good areas for MFRs?

D) If you know of any investor-friendly real estate agents that are thorough, communicative, and helpful with out-of-state folks, please feel free to send me a PM. Would love to hear from you 

Disclosure: If you are an agent/affiliate of the company you send, please let me know before hand. I'd primarily like to speak with investors who have rentals in Indianapolis- even better if you're out-of-state :)

@Brandon Turner  I'd also be interested in hearing what documents have just your partner's name & what documents have both of your names

Wonderful insight @Brandon Turner  , thank you very much! That was exactly the type of response I was looking for.

With so many people interested in real estate, I figured that there had to be people out there finding deals but didn't have enough cash. The idea of paying back the down-payment is what I totally forgot to factor in.

Did you guys agree to sell it after a certain point? 
How was your overall experience with that property/partner? Curious if the experience was good enough for you that you worked with him again on some other project, or if you thought it was not worthwhile in the end and decided to stop getting involved in those deals.

@Brandon Turner