All Forum Posts by: Curtis Robbins

Thanks everyone. For what its worth, I just locked in a 2.99/3.25 (with/without a point) with Quicken today for about $2500 on a primary (appraisal waived). Will cost an extra $2500 if I buy the point. 

Curious if anyone has tried getting a refinance lately. Interested if anyone is getting any good quotes below 3.5% and who through.

That's very interesting insight Ryan. Appreciate it. 

In hindsight, it seems almost obvious when you think about it. Also has me wondering about the profitability of building duplexes (or more) on spec. I've seen more and more of those over the past year. Even in areas like Hamilton county (saw a set of 8 duplexes go up in home place last year). Was kind of surprised to see those. 

Hi All,

Curious how you feel about Multifamily (less than 8 doors) in the Indy market. Seems that SFH would be the way to go in general, due to the higher rents and the lower vacancy rate. With the low real estate costs here in Indy, it seems that MF would have a hard time standing out from Apartments. Curious if anyone has any strong preferences on this subject, or if this is purely a number/neighborhood choice for you all.

Maybe I'm biased, but I've always favored SFHs in my analysis, but i'm wondering if I should take another look at MF. Also read a recent article in IBJ about how Indy has a deficit of MF properties, and we'll need to increase them in upcoming years. Makes me wonder about the future of these properties. 

Thanks Jaron, I'm noticing the same with Wholesales. Appreciate the feedback. :) 

@Angela Smith - To answer your questions;

Budget: Large (presently plan to cash purchase and fund rehab out of pocket until I refinance the cash back out when a tenant is in place (I could probably run 2-3 D's this way, or 1 or 2 C's)

Type: SFH, but thats most because I'm unclear on how good of an idea MF is in the Indy market. I see the news talking about how we need more MF, but indy is so affordable that SFH just seem like the superior investment right now. I'm open to either, just want to make the smart choice.

Target: Rehab with upside potential

Rehab: Contractor/DIY hybrid. As I scale, I expect to lean more and more on contractors, but early on I'd like to DIY where skill, time, and cost allows in order to improve my early success. I have several contractors in my family, and know quite a bit, and know enough to know when to call in the pros. In the end though, time would force me to step back from this eventually.

Strategy: Buy/Hold is the goal, but I am willing to wholesale, flip, lease-option where it makes sense.

Maintenance: In the short term (1-3 years) I don't mind maintenance trips across town if the cashflow is worth it. Although, I expect as I scale up I'll hire out to a property management company at some point. At that point it may become moot.

@Jaron Walling

Thanks Jaron, appreciate the input. The Agent advice is interesting, as my present approach has me focusing primarily on purchasing through wholesaling, direct marketing, and other private purchase strategies. Do you find yourself purchasing via MLS often?

So I've ready more books than I can count, heard all the podcasts, read the articles, stalked the forums, etc. Classic I should have started investing a long time ago stuff. I know. I'm working on it. However, all this wasted time, along with an aggressive saver personality type has me standing at square one with a great deal of capital to leverage my start into a more accelerated journey if I play my cards right. I'm looking to make 2019 the year I finally get off my ***, and make something happen. 

All that said, when I read all the 'getting started stuff' it seems tailored to a different audience than the one I'm apart of. I'm new to this too, and some of that certainly applies to me, but most of it focuses on no-money deals, high-leverage, wholesaling, and how to get good financing, and learning about real estate while you build up enough capital to graduate to BRRR, Fix/Flip, etc. This is a perfectly logical place to start, as most people have no money, no knowledge, and no resources. Makes perfect sense.

However, I've got a large pool of starting capital, easy access to financing, a good network of cash flush friends/family for private lending and partnerships, and live in a low cost / high cashflow area (Indianapolis). I'm not a expert by any means, but neither am I a beginner with my knowledge set. I've even had a successful investment property (+$600 cashflow monthly) in the past (burned down unfortunately). 

All of this is to say, I've got a rolling start when I get my journey on the road. Yet most advice given to newbies is centered around getting them rolling rather than getting them running. So my aim, is to translate this advice, into something a little more tailored to my situation.

So my question is this...

if you were just starting out, but you had a large amount of capital available to you, how would you change/adjust your day 1 business plan/strategy to maximize your results? And how would you do that, without shooting yourself in the foot with inexperience? How would maximize this advantage to accelerate your journey? 

So I'm planning to buy multiple properties in Indy for 2019 (3 or more). I've lived here all my life, and recognize good numbers when I see them, but I'm really struggling to determine a targeting approach. I'm a complete numbers guy, and don't find myself inclined by appearances or location, which really leaves me blowing in the wind. I've read about this a lot, and have heard all the popular advice;

• Buy Where You would want to live
• Make sure you hit the 1% rule (which is apparently easy in Indy)
• Expect increasing/decreasing costs of maintenance, vacancy, and supervision as you move up/down the tenancy quality scale
• Focus on just a few niche areas of your market, and become the expert
• etc.

However, i'm having a hard time pulling all of this info together and applying it. I look around Indy, and I see obvious places to invest, but they seem over-saturated with investors already and I wonder how much success I could actually achieve there (fountain square, I'm looking at you). Conversely, I see areas with lots of deals, where the numbers look pretty but the neighbors don't. 

There seems to be plenty of opportunity and great places to buy in Indy, but they are all stiff with competition. The deals I see from wholesalers seem to focus on D-Class communities that fail the 'would I live here?' test. Implying to me, that the B/C properties change hands prior to hitting the whole sale lists (other than turnkeys). Meaning, I need to find those on my own.

So with all that said, I have a few questions;

1. How do you choose a target market, in a city full of great choices? And how worried should I be about competition in those markets? Should I be concerned with my competition at all?
2. Are there markets I should never buy in, no matter how good the deal? Or do numbers dictate all (assuming appropriate risk tolerance is present)?
   • Further, would something like this really be worth-while, because of the lower competition in these markets? I mean, I'm sure there are already investors in these high risk areas, but I really question whether a house like that could be mathematically worth it given the risk of poor tenants, crime, vacancy, and listing challenges. Am I wrong?
3. Should I be casting a broad net, say all of indy where math works? Or would I be better, as some would say, to focus on a few sub-markets?

Thanks in advance.

Hey Enrique,

I'm in 46268 with a house valued at 115k-125k. 1200 sqf, corner lot that has been rented consistently for 1250, including pet fees. Its probably slightly over market rate, but still competitive. Market is hot right now, so take it all with a grain of salt.

Personally, I'm favoring B over C right now. But like most things, it always depends on the property and neighborhood. Indy varies greatly block by block.

Thanks everyone. I'll definitely take your advice and bid this out to multiple contractors. I appreciate the referrals Russ, i'll use this when I start making calls. We're still wrapping up the investigation and I hope to start making calls this weekend.

Had the adjuster out today, and it sounds like we're going down to the studs, and losing the truss system on top with new electrical, plumbing, hvac. Still haven't received the quote from the adjuster yet though. Will be interesting to see what that looks like, this could easily push the cusp of total loss or near it.

Right now, its sounding like it may be end up being ruled the fault of the tenants, so i'm going to need to make some decisions soon. They prepaid the months rent a few days before the fire and have a decent security deposit i'm holding. I'll need to decide what to do with that if the investigators rule against them. They have renters insurance, but i'm not sure to the extent of their coverage. 

Still not sure about the mortgage situation, when I talked to the adjuster he seemed as though payoff was still an option, but I really don't know if its worth it.