New member from just outside Indianapolis

[Jeff O.]

Hello everyone,

My name is Jeff and I have always been intrigued by real estate.  I remember hearing my parents talk about this piece of land or that building lot that they could have bought years ago and it is now worth 10x the price.  I told myself that was not going happen to me.  

Shortly after graduating college and getting married, my wife and I bought a small piece of farm ground in Hamilton county while we lived in a mobile home for almost nothing.  Our neighbor had his house repo'ed by the bank so we bought the house and decided that if we were going to live in this house we wanted do a little updating.  We continued to live in the mobile home while we worked on the house.  Two years later we had a brand new, paid for house.  Everything was replaced except the rafters, studs, and joists.  With the help of family and friends, we did all the work ourselves except the roof and new electrical panel.  It was a great learning experience that has carried over to so many things in life.  

We now own the mobile home and have rented it out off and on over the past few years.  Overall it was not a great experience.  The first guy had bags and bags of trash piled up in the garage.  Then he did not tell me the tub drain broke and water was pouring out under the tub.  We had to replace the subfloor.  Then the next girl turned in her 30 day notice after 1 month (I had been taught by one of the other RE sites to do month to month). 

 Anyways,  I have always lived in Indiana.  Grew up in NW IN, went to school in NE IN and finally settled in central IN.  My RE goals are to find 3 or 4 properties per year to keep as rentals and have a property manager take care of them.  I also would like to fix and flip a few here and there.  I have sent out a handful of yellow letters and have been working on finding a deal in my area.  

I signed up on the meetup site and see that there are 2 investor meetings tomorrow night, one at 6 and the other at 6:30.  Which one is better or more appropriate for my investing plan.  I am planning on going to one of them so I hope to start meeting some of you that I see here on BP.  

Sorry for the wall of text.  I guess I ramble some times.  

-Jeff

[Jeff O.]

Thanks @Jerry W.  I will definately try to make both.  Never hurts to meet new people.  

@Brandon Turner The Bigger Pockets Podcast are great.  I think I have listened to all of them.  I have been addicted to podcasts lately and look forward to what you will put out next.  Thanks.

@Rodney Kuhl & @Cary Trusty Thanks for the info.  I will plan on attending the myINREIA meetup for sure then. 

We are very money conscience and try to stay away from the "Joneses", even though it is hard some times.  I would like to find properties close to my commute, which is just west of Anderson to the NE side of Indianapolis.  Anywhere within 15-20 minutes of that route would work as long as it is in a decent area.  I have been looking or sending yellow letter out to owners in Fishers, some parts of Anderson, Noblesville, Pendleton, Fortville, and Indy.  

I have also been looking into Yorktown.  It looks like a higher end area just outside of Muncie that might be just far enough outside Indy that it has not been scoured by investors.  

My first negotiation was on a property in Tipton.  It is still ongoing and he is definitely motivated, but just not quite to the tipping point of making it a great deal.