All Forum Posts by: Craig Kantner

Never repair a 10 year old water heater.  It's just a metter of time before it fails  So why spend a nickle on a repair?   Replacing a unit is rediculously easy.   Sweat two joints and hook up the wiring, which cannot be done wrong.   If a person cant do this, and you live in a town with two plumbers, Alexandria, then you will pay two grand for a water heater.  

Nathan, call me and lets talk.  

Joe, call me.  I know a lot about Muncie and can connect you with my business partner who lives and works in Muncie.  He owns rentals and knows everything about the city.  

There are a lot of depressed old manufacturing towns like Kokomo in Indiana.  Try Muncie, Anderson, Richmond, Gary, Marion, plus many other smaller communities.   Manufacturing has moved out and so have the people.   Houses can be bought really cheaply.  

I lived in Wabash a few years ago and still have friends there.  I dont do work there, but i know a good contractor.  If we talk i might be able to help or get you to another person. 

I use an S Corp.  Please see an accountant to fully understand the differences.  And, yes this might cost a little money as a good professional consultant should.  Whatever entity you choose, you are only really protected with a proper liability policy.  Don't skimp, cover your ***.  There are a lot of people out there that want a piece of it and will go to extremes to get it.  

Adam,

Since you have invested all this time and money into your professional licensing, you are well aware that the licensing,bonding, and insuring as a GC in Indianapolis is about as useless as the ink it took me to write this.  Especially since you live in Brownsburg.    

However, in my opinion, if you want to maximize your profit, become a valuable partner to a real investor(s) Many wholesalers have the belief that a shotgun approach is the only way to survive.  Buy as many properties as possible and have as many buyers as possible, and someone is certain to buy your crap.  

Remember, if you have a pool of investors, those investors also have a pool of wholesalers.  This whole process really cheapens the value of a wholesaler.   Make yourself a valuable resource and youll make more money.    

Don't beat yourself up.  I have found most people are entering the buy and hold aspect of real estate investing lately.  The good old days of an abundance of great priced repo's have gone away.    This has been making prices higher and deals less attractive for flippers or renovators like my company.    There are deals to be had in certain cases however.  

I have tried to seek relationships with wholesalers and real estate professionals, but to no avail.  The best I can figure is a wholesaler wants quick turns of their money.  Therefore,  they present their property to everyone and the first chump wins.  I have not had any one take an interest in work collaboratively with me.  I still cannot figure how I can get someone to actively search for properties for me so I can spend my money.  Real Estate professionals have been equally as useless to me.  I even had a guy tell me if I found a property, he would be pleased to help me with it.  Talk about lazy.  I simply told him that I wanted him to work for me, then I'd help him by buying the property.  Then he could make commission for his efforts.   Odd how I have not heard anything back after that conversation.  

All I can tell you is to keep trying and be self reliant.   Maybe one day I'll figure how to work with people trying to sell properties too.  

i recently joined BP a few weeks ago.   I own a restoration company in Zionsville. We do all kinds of mitigation work as well as function as a GC. I am speculating that our pricing will probably price us out of this market as a GC.  However, I want to start networking and getting to know people on the north side who are real estate investors etc.   I would like  to participate in any monthly meetings and join as a GC to be a resource for questions concerning properties.  If anyone is meeting, i would love to join you.  

Im not certain what the Clayton Morris Program is but i do know there is nothing that can replace numbers and facts.   

1)  if you are looking at a home in Indiana within this price range, you are looking at "sub prime" tenants.  Please fully understand what this means.  Minimal costs for 10 years?  Never!

2) Absentee ownership is rarely a success.   Especially on a single unit.   If you had multiple units in one location, it is more likely that a costly unanticipated expense (and it WILL happen) could be more easily absorbed. 

3) this is just my opinion, but i would never assume all these risks and only anticipate a 10% return.  My God, buy stocks and sell covered calls.   

4) I love real estate but not thin margin real estate.   Please always over estimate expenses and underestimate revenues.