Advice with Indianapolis?

[Khoa Ngo]

Hello all! I am from Denver Colorado but I have family that lives in Indianapolis. Since my back yard is not a good place to invest right now I have been heavily looking at Indianapolis/Fort Wayne. I will be able to visit a few times a year and coming in April to look at properties. Currently, I have 50k for downpayment/rehab however can push it higher if the property is a great deal. My cap would be 150,000 for this first investment home. I am not looking to flip and sell, my goal is to have multiple properties that that has a positive cash flow. I will 100% hire property management since I am out of state.  

I have been reading books, listening to podcast and looking at houses obsessively. I decided that I just need to take that dive or else I won't ever do it. I have so much regret not investing in more property in Denver. My current predicament is building a reliable team in Indiana. I have contacted about 5 agents that are all 5 stars reviewed and still haven't had anyone that seems to have my best interest. I tried using Bigger Pockets Agent search but that user interface is horrible (you can't filter anything). I want to buy multiple properties if my first investment home works out, however, I want to build a meaningful relationship with the people I work with. Do you guys have any advice in terms of building a team? Getting in touch with the right people?

[Bill S.]

@Khoa Ngo I apologize that the search feature is so lame. I have mentioned it a number of times to the BP programming folks and their answer is something like that's a real challenge to improve and it's on our list. So maybe someday. There is a way to use google to search the Bigger Pockets site. You might get better results with that. It goes like this in the google search box... "site:biggerpockets.com your search terms". 

You might try finding others on Bigger Pockets investing in that market remotely and see who they use. You might also make a trip or two out there to attend meetups to network with folks and learn first hand who's doing what.

[Khoa Ngo]

@Bill S. Thank you so much for the candid response. I understand that if it's tough for developers to implement however what I find strange is that you cannot seek assistance on the forums. My first post was deleted because I was directly asking for agent recommendations. The mod contacted me and told it was so they can limit other agents from self-advertising. However, if I am openly asking for agents, I don't see why that should be against the rules (especially since biggerpockets agent search is essentially useless).  Luckily I had a user PM me and have found a great Agent! Now onto the mission for a trustworthy contractor. Again, thank you for taking the time to give me an alternative way of searching!

[Bill S.]

@Khoa Ngo I don't make the rules so my answer is mostly supposition. The fact is that referrals here would be no better than google and would tend to gum up the works so to speak so we would not really be adding value by allowing them. 

If you set up some keyword alerts and follow the results of that, over time you will also get an idea of who knows what they are doing. You have to invest a bit in this approach so it's not a microwave answer. 

The other thing to do is look at yourself and make sure you would be a good client. Repeat business is great but if it's a repeat of a nightmare then it's not so great. 

Investing takes time to do right so keep that in mind when moving forward.

[Andrew Flora]

hey Khoa, any luck in April?  I’m an active buy and hold investor in Indiana.