All Forum Posts by: Justin Owens

Okay Indy Investors! I have my eye on a 3bed /2.5 on the east side of Indy. Property is located in the Warren Woods Subdivision, Just Southeast of German Church Rd & 38th Street. Would love your opinions.

Property looks to be move in ready. Not rehabbed,  but nothing looks terrible just a bit dated.  Located in Warren Township.

Built in 1994, Bi-Level with 1 car garage. 1364sqft and has a deck off the back, and a storage shed.

My Target price: $40,000 - I'll put 20% down so $32K mortgage

Fixes- might need some paint in a few areas. Washer/Dryer, I might add a small Island to the small Kitchen to provide better function. So I would say $1000 

Taxes: $1700 @ 2% assessment.

PITI: $380 @ 6% - estimated, I've not gotten my lending sorted out yet.

Maintenance - $100 

Rent: $900.  Rentometer says $950-1050 but I'd want to be conservative to get it rented ASAP.

Cash Flow: $420

My immediate Concerns is that its in a 90's Subdivision and those typically have lots of rentals, i'm not sure its wise to buy a property with lots of rental competition. 

Does this area have enough rental demand to support $900-1000 rent with short vacancy? Or will I be waiting months to get it rented out?

I've come across alot of affordable duplexes on the East side around the Raytheon Plant and Community East Hospital along 16th & 21st street areas. These would be Cash properties under $30K.  Is this a tough area to rent? This a C or D area?

There are also plenty of SFR in this corridor as well, but his is a MF forum so...

Man I really wish I knew about HomePath properties a year ago. I'm too late to the game to take advantage of their awesome program. 

Couple of questions or figures that raise my ears alittle. 

Your closing costs were $6900?  That sound very high for a $53K property?  Maybe thats normal for South Carolina though. 

Looks like you got a home run on the built in equity though. 

I would just let it go. The Flood insurance will always go up every year. Only matter of time before your in the red or the expenses are not worth the effort to up keep the property.  Also they are incredibly hard to sell later on.  Focus on properties that do not have the anchor that is flood insurance. 

Welcome aboard to the BP ship. You'll learn tons of useful info just browsing these forums. 

@Jason James 

Sounds like a great deal. Are you planning to pay off the $150K over the 10 years and own free and clear or will elect get refi on each of the properties? Or maybe a Portfolio loan?

Are you in full control of the property taxes too? Or are you paying your seller for that?

Does the seller have a mortgage attached to these?

@Ashley Mullin 

Thanks for your response, it seems like many Indianapolis Area investors here on BP on very cautious of Duplexes! Looks like I should heed my peers advice. SFH is the way to go. I've just been drawn to the idea of collecting 2 rents on one property but its seems that many agree that Indy has a huge problem with Vacancy on duplexes due to very affordable SFH rentals.

I was very concerned about the level of saturation in Greenfield for rentals so your info is awesome.

Thanks!

I share your bewilderment on the downpayment amount.

I also have been noticing a catch 22 in my search of Indianapolis MFH's. Many are listed in a sweet spot that if you put 20%-30% down then the loan amount would be less than the $50K minimum that most banks would require for a mortgage.  So many MFH are pretty affordable but don't seem attainable with conventional financing. 

A $40 logo or even a $100 logo. Its laughable.  Those crowd sourced design sites that offer ultra cheap logos are a crap shoot at best. You get what you pay for. Lets say you offered to pay $100 for a logo on one of these sites, as many let you name your own price. Then so called "Designers" submit their ideas to you, and you get to narrow down and decide which one you like and you might even get to ask for a couple of revisions on the idea you like the best. 

Well let me ask you, how much work are you willing to do for the CHANCE to earn $100?

That's the reality, any graphic designer who is a competent professional, doesn't use those sites to find work. You are working with the bottom of the bottom of barrel. On those websites, you have no guarantee that the designer was ethical or legal in the production of you logo. Did they steal the idea from an existing company? You open yourself up to legal liabilities if they did. Is that designer going to be available for future support? What if you lost the files? What if you are getting something printed and your printer says they need the logo in a certain format or something needs to be fixed or altered for it to print correctly?  There all sorts of real world issues that hiring a Pro will help you save costs down the road.

As a professional Graphic Designer, I will lay out it straight for you in terms that real estate investor should immediately understand.  You wouldn't hire an unlicensed HVAC installer, or unlicensed plumber, you certainly couldn't hire a handful of Landscape companies to come out and trim your shrubs and let you decided which company did the best shrub.   If you are an Amateur at design, graphics, and branding...why would you turn around and hire a bunch of low cost amateurs to solve your problem?  That makes no sense. 

Years ago when I first thought about real estate investing, and local guru was also offering a mentor program and he charged a fee, but one thing about his program was that you would own a property at the end of the deal. You had to make sure you had enough money secured to actually buy a property in order to enroll in his program. He would help you buy your first property and flip it, giving you access to his contact list for various contractors and lawyers etc...