All Forum Posts by: Angela Smith

Bate Hendricks neighborhood is often featured on the HGTV show Good Bones, as are the neighboring areas of Fountain Square and Old Southside.

Watch that show and you can get an idea of the type of homes that are there.  Basically if it's not priced abound 200k, it's more than likely got serious issues.  But, if you are willing and able to do some dramatic rehabbing, there can be plenty of opportunity there.

Bates Hendricks is the neighborhood of the year in Indy as far as gentrification is concerned. 

What can you tell me about the area around Cristian Park?  This a little southwest of Irvington.

It looks like a blue collar area when driving around.

Any concerns or cautions here?

I am under the impression that active knob and tube is not covered by insurance.  If a fire should start as a result of knob and tube we would be in trouble.

Dennis M.  What does a $70k single family home rent for where you invest?  that's the market rate here.  I don't think I could rent it for more, I wouldn't get a tennent. 

Pretty sure we are going to do vinyl plank.  I discovered there are multiple layers of paint.  I think vinyl plank is adequate for the neighborhood and our budget.

Our first property:

Purchase price: 62,000

Expected rental income: 800/month

The single family home is 2 bedroom, 1 bath.  It has new furnace and central air, roof is 1 year old.  The structure is sound.  It had termite damage at the last sale that has been fully repaired.  

It has had water damage at some point in the past but is dry now with a solid roof and good guttering.  However, there is mold in the attic.  The other problem is some remnant knob and tube wiring that supplies one outlet in the dining room and the overhead wires to the unattached garage.  In addition, there is a Radon mediation system in place but it was installed improperly.

We need to do some minor cosmetic work, remove a dilapidated fence and replace the stove and refrigerator which we were clearly aware of and considered in our offer.

We have asked the seller to have the mold taken care of and completely remove the knob and tube wiring and replace it.  And also to correct the radon system.

We are concerned that the seller may refuse these requests.  How much off the purchase price should we ask if the seller refuses?

The home is about 900 square feet not including the basement that is dry but not living area.  It was built in 1945.  

We are under contract for our first property.  The intention is for this to be a rental.  It doesn't need a total rehab.  Just some basic stuff.  We plan to paint everything, clean up the yard, remove an old half crumbled fence that looks awful and figure out what to do with the flooring.

It's a 1940s bungalow.  It has hardwood floors that have been painted brown throughout the entire house.  I don't know what to do with this.  I don't like the look of the painted floors.  As far as I can see, the options are: 1. Strip and refinish 2. Put floating laminate down 3. Carpet.

If it's practical, I would like to strip and refinish, but I am unsure of the cost and the difficulty on doing this.  If it's pricey, it may not be practical for this particular home. 

Anybody have insight into stripping paint off of wood floors?  Are there other ideas on what to do with this floor?

My husband and I are going to be landlords!  We've chatted about this over the years, but over the last year we resolved to either make a purchase or give up the dream.

We made an offer on our first property yesterday and today it was accepted.  We are both a bit stunned because we felt like we made a very low offer and did not expect it to go through.  So, now while pleased that we got it, we are wondering what comes next.

We own our home, so we understand the process of financing this.  We are putting 20% down and getting a conventional mortgage.  But, we don't have a lease written up, we don't know how to go about screening potential tenants and what standards we need to consider.  How do you run a credit and background check?

Do we need to put this in a LLC, and how would we do that?

How should we collect rent?  

How do we organize the finances for this property?   we will keep an emergency fund available for things that come up, but is expect we should separate this from our personal accounts.

Oh my, I don't want to be in over our heads.  We need an education and we need it quick!