All Forum Posts by: Greg Carrier

I am in northern Indiana and for low end houses we get 2% here if we buy right.  But for houses in the range you are talking about 130K, then yes just 1% or better.

High crime area is a pretty nebulous term. I live outside of South Bend Indiana which has a pretty high crime rate but it is the largest city in the county. So most of our rentals are there. I buy houses in some neighborhoods that my friends won't and only work in working class neighborhoods anyways. For those people who say that it is harder in those neighborhoods I would say, that I doubt it. Do we buy the worse house on the worse block? No because there are so many houses/areas to pick from that you are still going to pick the nicer street and house out of the ones you are looking at. There are good people all over and my tenants are good people. I get sick of my friends joking around that I am a slum lord (I am certainly not) or asking if I am afraid of the neighborhoods I own houses in. The answer is no. We are selective with who we pick to rent to. We don't do month to month, we screen everyone well and generally have long term no hassle rentals. The upside is better ROI's than in pretty neighborhoods and because homes are inexpensive here we can own more which spreads our risk over a larger number of houses. I would rather own three $35K houses than one $105K house. My total rents collected are over twice as much with the three which covers the higher capital costs associated with owning three houses instead of one.

Good luck with whatever you do though - there are a million ways to skin this cat!

@Aaron Arnold I self manage 25 Cash flows are fine as they are with anything as long as you buy right. Hoping to be to 30 by the end of the year and just keep adding with the goal of five more year. I like the way single-family homes spread your risk over a lot of different properties. If one is vacant I am still making money. And the turnover is low I started five years ago and some still have the same tenants.

I get lower rates on my section 8 houses than the others I have, so I avoid them.  The only ones I have are one's that I buy as section 8's and if I ever catch up with work I am going to convert those to regular rentals.  I don't like giving up the extra cash but the couple I have are decent so I never get to turning them over.  If they ever move out though we will convert them

@Shane H. pay her what she wants even pay her more if that will make her get the transition done and get on with your life. She will still be miserable in a year and you’ll be happier to have or that far back in your rearview mirror.

North central Indiana here.  Can you tell us where the house is located?

Everyone who buys properties or liens on tax sales knows among the other due diligence items on their respective lists, we really have to make sure the house actually exists.  That is because sometimes county websites are not up to date and google pictures are dated.  I have found many houses that from Zillow shots look great only to find the house has burned down or has a hole the size of a compact car in the back of the house which is not noticeable from the street view.  We also have to make sure the house has not been demolished buy the city or has a demo order on it.  Two weeks ago I drove St Joseph County Indiana and looked at houses for the commissioner sale going on today in the county.  One house I saw was in very rough shape but I like the neighborhood so thought if it was cheap enough I would buy it.  Normally in South Bend, houses with demo orders have a sign on the front door.  This house did not.  When I looked at the county website yesterday I could not find the house on the map that showed all demo orders.  The map shows both the to be demo'd houses and the completed demos.  I found that strange so took a drive back to see the house to make sure I was not confused about what house was actually on the auction.  Well you can probably guess what I found,  a freshly cleared empty lot.  Glad I made the second trip.

@Account Closed I know, I think only one markets this service though I could be wrong :)

@Account Closed  It stars with an M and ends with an N.  We are filing for quiet title so I am imagining this goes one of a couple of different ways.  1.  The old owner doesn't actually file a lawsuit and the quiet title just goes through, or 2.  The old owner files and we get really delayed but eventually prevail as the rules are pretty cut and dry.  I think the odds of my getting the title company to pay is about zero and that is because they are not actually quieting, they are doing what they think is necessary to provide title insurance and not have a claim.

That's my nonlegal background opinion though :)

@Saravanan Saravanan. We do not quiet titles on any houses that we wholesale or houses that we keep for rentals. We only quiet for houses that are flipped and sold at retail through the MLS. If you are going to flip a house to eventually sell, you should do the quiet title earlier rather than later. I always debate on what to do with houses and almost always end up quieting near the end of the work we do rather than up front. Overall I would just recommend using attorneys to do the work not a title company. Also attorneys should be a little less expensive.

Good Luck!