All Forum Posts by: Adrien C.

I'm in Lake county and work with a lot of investors who are doing cash out refinances. 

Indiana is a pretty big state. Where are you wholesaling?

@Mark Plesha the mostly accurate was in regards to the point on appreciation. 

If you’re able to maintain the same management, you can expect similar results (good or bad).  This tenant class tends to be rougher on properties and properties tend to be older too.  They are the first to use covid as an excuse. Someone who has nothing to lose is the mindset of these tenants. I’ve had great D tenants and not so great. 

@Mark Plesha is mostly accurate. People invest in Gary for the cashflow and headaches. It’s a D area. Half the stop lights have burnt out bulbs so they toss up a temp stop sign that stays for a decade. However, I’ve seen plenty of comps that have surprised me this year. 
mad far as the future, I think you’re long term 20-30yr outlook is positive. It can’t get much worse over there. Saying that, how much money do you want to spend maintaining D properties for 3 decades? Another caution I have is the turnkey sellers I know in Gary tend to sell on returns and not value so often one is over paying and upside day 1. 

I’ve had Gary rentals and are great on paper. But the headaches aren’t worth it in my opinion. I prefer B and better areas. 

Congrats- sounds like a great deal!

What part of Indiana? As much as it hurts to say this, a larger national bank like a chase might make sense for you if you have branches in your area too. 

I know someone in NW Indiana that does that.

Happy to help. My flipping company buys 80-100 houses a year in Lake and Porter co. We resell about half to other investors. Both counties have tons of areas that are great for rentals. Super competitive in both so be patient. Figure out what your criteria is for a rental house and if you see something that meets it- jump on it. If the property doesn't meet your criteria, don't get emotional because you've been looking for months. When people get emotional, they start to justify why the numbers work even though logically they know they don't. Home prices and rents are inflated right now. Will it last- maybe? But better to buy on solid numbers so you can weather a decline then to roll the dice hoping things still go up. 

Regarding NW Indiana, the appreciation here, like many parts of the US, has been on fire since 2016. When I started in 2015, a 3/1 slab house was worth about $80K. That same house now is $130K and up. The midwest has been known for being slow and steady for appreciation but these last few years have been fun. Not crypto fun but pretty good. 

As far as population decline, I see it on paper but I don't see it in reality. Every house I flip goes in days to IL buyers. I have a management company and my rentals fly off the shelf too to IL transplants. South of center lake county were there's still land is tons of new construction. Hammond and E Chicago are great about knocking down old vacant houses but I can't imagine the couple dozen they do a year is moving the needle. If anything, the population decline is in Gary which based on the last census in 2010 was 80k or 16% of the total population in Lake county. So if they lose 10% which is only 8k, that reflects on the entire county. Gary has thousands of vacant houses that the city is working towards removing for new development. Their population was over 170K back in the 60s when the steel mills employed 5X what they do now. Overall, there's tons of new business development in the area. We just got a second casino, an amazon warehouse, and there's a huge project to extend the chicago train line south to reach the new developments. We're 35-45mins to downtown chicago and it's not uncommon for people to work across the border but live here where cost of living is significantly less. 

I'd be happy to help anyway I can if you choose to stay somewhat closer to home.