Indianapolis Advice - Hold or sell?

[Damaris Santiago]

Hello Biggerpockets Community,

I thought this would be a great place to get advice from experienced Indy investors. My partner & I bought a triplex in Indianapolis near the speedway in July 2022 for 125k. It supposedly had 3 separate rent paying tenants. Long story short, we got possession of the property and the tenants decided to never pay rent (yes all 3) so we evicted them. We actually are fairly certain the landlord knowingly doctored leases and they likely had not been paying prior to the sale. We have been carrying the mortgage ever since.

We got possession of the property knowing it needed some work (we just didnt expect to have to kick out tenants and do it so soon). Turns out the Property needs a lot more renovation than what we had originally accounted for, its around 77k in work. We just completed 10k in foundation work- and have about 55k in reno and 12k in Hvac that still needs to be done. We arent able to force equity out of the property to pay for rehab since we took out a DCSR loan, so the plan is to put most of it on credit cards attached to the properties LLC. Once rented the rents should cover the credit card payments but likely put us at an operating loss for the next 4.5 years of around 300ish per month).

We are trying to consider what to do here- does it makes sense to do the renovations and just hold the property to break even and not take a loss?

If we sell now, with the current market we think best case scenario it sells for 110k ( we paid 125). and we lose about 60k (30k each).

Really trying to figure out what makes sense here and would appreciate any local or experienced investor advice!

Thanks in advance!

[Corby Goade]

The fact is, you will pay for these renovations one way or another, there's no way around it. You'll either make them now and pay out of pocket OR you'll pay for them in a discount when you sell. 

If the property is worth $110k retail, any savvy buyer will just use the inspection period to beat you up on price and paint you in to a corner. 

You'll just need to choose the lesser of two evils. If you can fix it up and rent it out and end up with some equity, it might be worth going that route, but it's a personal decision. 

Best of luck!