Investing in Northwest Indiana as a RE agent

[Jeremy Singh]

Hello BiggerPockets. I've been a long time lurker (about 2 years) and I've decided it's about time I introduce myself!

My wife and I are fairly new real estate agents in the Crown Point (Winfield) area. We figured acquiring our broker license would also help us with our interest in real estate investing. It's been very exciting and we've already learned so much because of it.

I have a full time job that takes up most of my time. It doesn't bring in much income either so one of my goals is to eventually replace it with passive income from a buy-and-hold that can be rented out.

After looking into it, our financial situation doesn't allow us to qualify for even a small loan anytime soon, despite us both having great credit. This likely means we would have to rely on seller financing for any future investment opportunities.

My question for any experienced investors in my area is, where would be a good place to start? That is if it's even worth investing here in Northwest Indiana. Otherwise I wouldn't mind looking elsewhere, such as the suburbs around Chicago or even Indianapolis.

-Jeremy

[Scott Steffek]

Jeremy,

Seller financing can be tricky, but can be a great way of getting into a property. However, you'll still need to come up with some cash on a seller finance and they're hard to find. Many times, they need rehabbing and you'll have to come up with funds for that.  Northwest Indiana and the south suburbs of Chicago can be good places to start. Just stay away from Gary. Hobart is a good rental area and so is Merrillville. You can get "all in" in Hobart for about $70k and Merrillville is a little bit higher, depending on what you're buying. We offer properties in both areas. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.