All Forum Posts by: Brandon Low

I've been reading the forums and soaking up as much information as possible for the last 6-9 months. I finally decided to jump in and purchase my first turnkey property which closed about 2 weeks ago. Everything was smooth sailing in terms of working with the turnkey operator, getting financing, etc... Unfortunately, my "honey moon" phase did not last very long and I got a call at 5:30am from my property manager telling me that a car had driven into the side of my house. On top of that, there is a huge storm coming in so there's a good chance I will have water damage as well. 

I've always known that there were risks and headaches that I would naturally inherit as an out of state investor. But honestly, I was naive and thought that it wouldn't happen to ME or that I would somehow get lucky and dodge these problems. Well, I sure as heck have learned my lesson! It just sucks that it happened in the first 2 weeks of my REI journey, and by the looks of it, it looks like its going to be pretty expensive. I'm being tested in the early goings of my REI journey, but in the end, the fact that I still want to continue investing out of state gives me reassurance that I'm in the right business. I still love it and want to keep going!

Thank you everyone for such insightful posts - I'm sure this will serve as a good thread for any out of state investors looking to get started in Indianapolis!

@Shawn Holsapple- what price range do you consider mid-level renters? $1000-$1200/month? Also, can you PM me some good property managers you work with?

@Mike D'Arrigo- Living in san francisco where space is a luxury, the concept of square footage not mattering seems strange to me. In any case, I'm glad that is one less factor to think about in the Indianapolis market.

Do suburbs (outside the i-465 loop) take longer to rent out? I'd imagine the tenants would stay longer, but at the same time, would take longer to fill a vacancy simply because the population is not as dense. 

Hey all,

I'm from San Francisco and am new to the Indianapolis investment scene. In my search for rental properties, I found myself wondering what factors are the most important in a rental property. More specifically, what characteristics do tenants find most desirable about a rental property that will yield higher rents and lower vacancies?

Here are some factors that I think are important, but not sure how they would rank in comparison to each other:

-location

-crime rate

-# of bedrooms/# of bathrooms (are more bedrooms always more desirable?)

-square footage

-what else?

I am wondering more about the generic characteristics of rental properties (i.e. location or square footage) as opposed to the individual features of a specific property (i.e. new kitchen, hardwood floors, etc). 

I thought this would be a good topic for discussion and would love to see what all the local experts think. 

@Scott Behrens- can you explain more on how you avoid escrow?

@Mindy Jensen- is it common practice to try and negotiate your interest rate and/or closing costs down? 

I paid 0 points, but my closing costs were around $4,000. Does that seem normal?

I'm currently getting 4.75% interest rate with 20% down on a rental property. For conventional mortgages, is it recommended to shop around with different lenders to try and get a better interest rate or do they all pretty much offer the same rates?

Thanks to all of you sharing your experiences. It seems like everyone has their own varying opinions on this issue. Some of you are saying that older houses may actually have been built better than the newer model homes, and some say that older homes usually are more costly to repair. I guess, it just depends on the house and the area. 

@Wayne Smith

Sounds good, thanks for the info!

As the title says... Does it matter how old a house is if it has been completely rehabbed? 

For example, lets say we have 2 houses:

House #1: Built in 1950 but has all major items rehabbed like roof, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, flooring, kitchen/bathrooms, etc...

House #2: Built in 1990 but has not been updated since.

Would the older house still be more prone to more maintenance and repair even though it has been rehabbed and updated?

@Travis Beehler

What interest rates are you getting with your commercial loans of 20 year fixed?

@Wayne Smith

How does a blanket loan work? Can you take all 10 properties that you have conventional loans for and put them all into 1 "blanket loan"? And now you have 10 conventional loans free'd up again?