All Forum Posts by: Erin Donlan

Just chiming in as a local who likes the 46218 zip as well. Yes, there are rougher areas (as there are any zip in Indy), but there are certainly areas that can be great. I don't think area is the issue here.

By thought about the properties in question - there are reasons why investors wants a 3/2 or 2/2. Privacy is a nice commodity if you can get it, and that's something that's appreciated by tenants. More bathrooms are always better, so i would suggest going with at least two baths with SFH. Duplexes are different, obviously.

Marketing is a big question here, as other posters have noted. If you're not seeing postings on Zillow, Craigslist, etc, I would be having a serious conversation with your PM and see what marketing they are doing. Hopefully at least you're not paying them while the properties go unrented. 

Best of luck resolving this!

Hi @Paxton J., as @Matthew Schroeder noted, there has been some change in the areas you're looking at. I would say it's hard (but not impossible) to find a house in Fountain Square for under $60-75k, and that's a house that will need to be rehabbed to keep up with the change in the area. The area just east of State St. has some cheaper homes and may be worth looking into as revitalization works its way over there. It's still very street by street, but it's happening.

There's some push for redevelopment on the Eastside, but as with Fountain Square above, it's still very street by street. There was an announcement of a federally funded "Promise Zone" there about a month ago, so that will hopefully fuel that.

I'm an agent and investor in Indianapolis, and work with out of state investors, so I'm happy to answer any questions you have about investing in the city. 

Hi @Cory Deeter, I think you've got a lot of the basics covered, but I'd definitely want to run the comps on the area to make sure you're not overpaying. I'm a realtor, so I'm happy to do that for you if you want to send me the address. 

You'll also want to know the age of the mechanicals (roof, HVAC, water heater) and if they've done any upgrades to the plumbing or electrical. I'd request a walk through the house as well. Check all the windows and make sure that they're in good order (no broken seals) and have screens. Paying for an inspection is also not a bad idea so you can uncover anything that might be easily visible to the eye. 

Hope that helps!

Completely agree @Matthew Schroeder! It definitely ove- generalizes areas, but with so many people looking for a starting point in Indy, I think it's not a bad tool. You definitely need to still do due diligence on the area you invest in.

There always seems to be a discussion on which neighborhoods are good to invest in Indianapolis, so I wanted to point out a new tool that the city has unveiled to track different metrics for neighborhoods in the city - Indy Vitals. According to the Indianapolis Star, the site will track property values, crime, poverty and vacancy rates and allow you to compare neighborhoods on this data. It will also show how these factors have changed over the past five years and whether they are trending upward or downward.

It's of note that the data is not up to the minute (the article mentions that the most recent data may be up to a couple years old), but thought it was worth a mention as a good starting point for investors who are looking to find out more about a particular areas of the city. 

Hi CJ, I think the better question is who's NOT investing in Indianapolis? Our market is pretty hot right now not only with retail buyers but investors a like. I've noticed that it seems like the members in our local REIA groups have tripled in the past six months alone. There's plenty of great reasons to invest in the city (relatively low entry point on houses in good neighborhoods plus a stable workforce, just to name a couple things).

My advise is to stick to neighborhoods where the average rent is above $750-$800/month. $60-$80K should easily put you into those neighborhoods and that will get you out of the less desirable neighborhoods. At least on the MLS side I'm not seeing a ton of houses needing rehab, which is good and bad: good being you can work to get a tenant in right away (if there isn't one there already) and bad being there's not much forced appreciation to be had.

I'm an investor/agent in the area and will send you my contact info so we can chat further if you want. Happy to help you if I can!

@Josh Bast Refi is an option but most lenders will only do 70-80% cash out. Just make sure you're certain on your ARV and look at comps in the area if you haven't already. Ideally, whoever you're working with has provided that information to you already. :)

Best option is to have someone who knows the area and that you can work with closely to vet your deal and the area it's in. I'm an agent and investor in the Indianapolis area, and happy to help if you're still looking to do deals in town!

FWIW, I don't like deals where you can't cash flow monthly immediately. Even if you're holding for decades, why wait for that return?

In addition to the questions  @Brian Larson posed, I'm not seeing how you're going to be positive cash flowing in anything under 5 years. The monthly payments on the 401k loan (assuming you're going to be paying it back in 60 months, which obviously you'll need to to avoid a penalty) seem to be $540/mo. That's not including payback the 0% loan, monthly management costs, taxes, or maintenance. Unless I'm missing something, this is a big no to me. Like Brian said, area alone would be a deal breaker for me.

The south side definitely has some strong areas. I think for a first timer sticking to the townships is preferable to going downtown where the market is more street to street.

If you're looking at SFH, just be aware that like most of the country, we're in a little bit of inventory crunch locally (at least through the MLS), so you'll be competing for MLS properties with not only other investors but your retail buyers as well. Be sure that you're vetting your deals and you're not just jumping on any property that happens across your path, because people like to take advantage. Be patient as well. If you haven't started attending the local meetups in the area - CIREIA and INREIA, I encourage you to check out those as well. Great opportunity to network with like minded individuals and ask questions and get a few names of local vendors and service providers. Information on those can be found through Meetup.com or on their individual sites.

If you think you'll need financing, I would suggest you get that in order as well. Cash is always preferable, but obviously not something everyone has access too. :) Once you find a deal, that will allow you to move quickly.

Hope this helps! I'm an agent and investor in the area, so if I can be of any assistance with your investment goals, please let me know!

Hi @Mihir Bhimaraju! Welcome to BP. Indy is a great place to invest. What neighborhoods are you looking at?