Where Oh Where in Indy to buy?

You can always tell when a RE Investor has just watched the HGTV show "Good Bones" - the one with the Fountain Square based company Two Chicks & a Hammer renovating properties, and making cute little houses out of eyesores.  They're only interested in the Fountain Square neighborhood.  It comes as a rude shock to them that Fountain Square no longer contains the "deals" investors are looking for - due in part to the success of Good Bones, and the many copy-cat wanna-be home flippers that have followed in their wake.  There are still plenty of houses that could be renovated, and turned into revenue generating rentals - the Garfield Park area, Bates Hendricks, and the area south of downtown, and Southeast of the Eli Lilly facility at Madison just south of I-70 near Hendricks Park.  If you've been on BiggerPockets for long, you know there are MANY  property research tools you can use remotely from anywhere - read my earlier blog posts here, and you'll find some of them.  Google Street View, Zillow/RedFin/Realtor.com, and the Marion county property cards to see what the city/county thinks of properties.

Also, when you've identified properties you want, use the citizen access portal (no account needed to use the Search function) to check the 'Enforcement' tab for outstanding issues the city/county has with code violations for the property, AND to see what issues have come up in the past.

I also look at renter vs owner ratios in neighborhoods with an eye toward investing in neighborhoods with higher OWNER ratios. There's a 2010 "dot map" tool available on-line that shows a DOT for each person in the census mentioned at a given address.  CYAN (blue-green) dot for OWNERS, and PURPLE for RENTERS. 

Owners vs Renters Dot Map - http://ryantm.io/population/

There are no instructions with this website, and it's not the easiest thing to use, but it holds LOTS of data if you can navigate the map.  It always starts over downtown San Francisco.  HOLD the SHIFT-KEY, and DOUBLE-CLICK to ZOOM-OUT.  Do this a NUMBER OF TIMES until you can see most of California.  Then SCROLL the map EASTWARD until you can see Indianapolis (or your target city).  DOUBLE-CLICK without the shift key to ZOOM IN.  

In general, we as investors want to own properties in neighborhoods with an even ratio of OWNERS and RENTERS.  Working class areas with 100% renters tend to be class C and D (i.e. "War Zone") areas.  Class A areas are often 100% owners.  This tool isn't a make or break tool regarding finding a good house / neighborhood... it's just another piece of data to add to the overall mix.

Do you know your TARGET PROPERTY?  Mine is a 3br 1+ba bought for ~$95K  with a ~$5K-to-$10K renovation budget that will rent for $1K/month.  Whether SFH or 2-to-4 multi-unit house does not matter as much as the bottom line.  Since I'm now local, I want my properties to be near my home, and my other rental properties. 

Find a good PM company: even if you plan to PM for yourself, pick a PM company as an "Exit Strategy" in case you grow weary of doing DIY Property Management.  What PM company to use?  Ask 10 people, and you'll get 10 different opinions on Indy PM's to use, streets/neighborhoods to invest in, etc. 

You MUST DECIDE WHAT AND WHO *YOU* ARE COMFORTABLE WORKING WITH before you really dive in.  For myself, the "DEAL THAT GOT AWAY" became the standard against I measure deals.  My realtor sent it to me, and said, "ACT SOON, because this is a smoking good deal".  I was remote and it took me a day to use the property analysis spreadsheet (found here on BiggerPockets) to analyze the ROI (return on investment).  This deal included Dual (2x) Duplex's - that's FOUR UNITS - on one property that would have have cost $80K per door, and generated $1.1K monthly rent.  That set the "bar" for what I look for in a deal. 

But WHERE IN INDIANAPOLIS should I look?  That's hard to answer.  Indianapolis is a street-by-street city.  One block of a street might be an up-and-coming area, while another is run down and infested with squatters.  How is a person to know?  I use driving around (Driving for Dollars), and Google Street view to do this.  But @Sterling White has put together a great map for Indianapolis RE Investors showing ALL the neighborhoods, color coded to show Class A, Class B, Class C, and Class D areas.  

"Guide to Grading Indianapolis Neighborhoods" by Sterling White: 
https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/guide-grading-indianapolis-neighborhoods

This is a GREAT TOOL, and a GREAT RESOURCE to use.  If there are any areas you think are incorrect, contact Sterling White, and he will update the map.