Best Side of Indianapolis?

[Nate Hammond]

Hey everyone!

I'm seeking for a bit of help here. I'm looking into buying my first out of state rental property, likely in Indianapolis. My market research seems to show that the west side seems a bit nice than the east side of the city. I'm strictly going off of home prices and crime statistics. Could someone more familiar with the area let me know what areas to focus on and which ones to avoid? 

Thank you in advance!

[Maxwell Lee]

Interesting discussion. I'm a newbie investor when it comes to Indy and have only visited once since beginning to invest there....but I have been going full in on the Near Eastside (Emerson Heights and Fountain Square...very different by the way) It seems there are a lot of good areas to invest in, which is what I would expect in a market that is growing as fast as Indy's is. Just on the Near Eastside I explored about a dozen different neighborhoods...some really rough and some pretty well gentrified. It really is block-to-block as they say (which incidentally seems to be the case in most cities I've invested in) Also on the near eastside I like Irvington, Arsenal Heights, Woodruff Place, Windsor Park, portions of St Clair Place and Little Flower. I also like Englewood long term, although it's super rough right now. 

And that's just the one quadrant, inside the loop. North of downtown offers a ton of cool neighborhoods much further along in gentrification it seems, so from a rental standpoint there are only a few areas that would produce cash-flow without being too sketchy. I think close to Butler was one such area. My favorite neighborhood was Herron-Morton but those prices are well over any good rental yield. 

I did not get to check out too much else on my visit to Indy but you get the idea. And when you go outside the loop there's a whole lot more...some great deals in every direction though I've seen many in particular in Greenwood, Lawrence and Fishers. I'll give one last shout out to Bates-Hendricks. Directly south of downtown and I bet it transforms the most out of any hood over the next 5 years. Unfortunately can't seem to find anything for the right price on a good block down there. 

Ok, those are just my opinions. Next trip I'll try to see more of the Westside and suburbs outside the loop.