All Forum Posts by: Jean Zipagan

I don't live northside, but have heard Carmel and a few other areas have higher concentrations of neighborhoods that have HOAs and could limit rental opportunities. A realtor or PM might have more feedback for ya!

@Curt Mason Welcome - Get at it! New to investing and located here in Indy myself. Feel free to PM me, I've got a handful of referrals I can send your way. My realtor is especially a champ.

@Andrew Griffin Just my 2 cents, but if you are targeting to investors, I'd vote let them run the rehab. Every investor has a different strategy of how they want their final product to look and their tried and true ways of setting up a rental to be more tenant proof in the long run. If you are hoping to run a parallel path as a turnkey and selling to home owners, then sure, I'd rehab it. Is this a property where you have confirmed the HOA will allow it to be operated as a rental off the bat? I know those are a pain and vary wildly across Indy.

@Jason Powell I'm renting out a room here in Indy, but am not in the same boat as you since I don't have an HOA. With that said, I went through the full tenant screening process, lease agreements, security deposit, renter's insurance, sign off on Indy tenant-landlord rights, and the works. I collect all rent through Cozy for ease of documentation and not have to deal with paper checks. I cannot comment yet on what this looks like come tax-season and implications on reporting rental income (plan to speak to an accountant to manage that). From my experience, renting out rooms to non-relatives is a super common thing in Indy, even among rental SFRs.

@John Michael Castillano - PM me as well for any referrals, I have a few in mind :)

Agree with Nick. It becomes difficult playing in those hot flipping markets (would also include Windsor, one of my favs). I'm also looking in that Bosart Brown, Emerson Heights, Community Heights - what I consider overflows of the Irvington wave. I am also a fan of the Friends & Neighbors neighborhood, just stay south of 30th street and west of Andrew Brown Ave. I live a few blocks from there -still 

Agree with Jeff Fox about the historical district. This parcel does show up as Historic Designation, my contractor friends have told me how much more $$$$ the required windows are to replace for these types of homes. 

Yes, I understand this is just for practice, but as someone new to the game as well, understanding estimated rehab costs prior to even making the offer is a BIG part of what I am looking to improve on, both through photos only and doing walk throughs of potential properties. Funny thing about this is I did read up on this property myself and opened up the inspection reports in the addendum.  Based on the long list of items flagged on the inspection, in addition to the fact that the house is sold as-is with all the seller's junk included (basement is filled to the brim with moldy asbestos filled junk), I doubt the $10K rehab budget is realistic. A light cosmetic touch up might be decent for $10k, e.g. replace carpets, paint, etc.

Some of my favorites: 

"The chimney for the garage has been removed. There is now an open hole into the garage."

"Knob and tube wiring is present and in use in the home" / "Dead mice were noted in the house electrical panel."

"Due to the amount of rot noted [on walls], inspection of all wood components by a qualified contractor is needed."

"While no mold assessment or testing was performed, a mold like substance was noted on the structural
components of the basement and crawl space. The basement floor was wet and items on the floor were rotted and rusted."

@Anthony Sgro I haven't driven around that area in a bit, though I absolutely love Garfield park itself. I checked out a house for my primary by Yoke St/Allen Ave and loved it, but the house went under contract before we got there. I also checked out a house right by Troy & Beech St and that was rough, creepy almost at night. Troy isn't my fav street as it is very industrialized, not too much of a business/retail sort of place. ARVs in Garfield (west of Shelby) look closer to the 150-180k SFR range or higher, but in that pocket you are talking about, it might be in the low 100-120sk for a while.

I know Bean Creek is definitely getting some action so that is probably helping with this general area. What rents are you expecting for your duplex? 

Yes, I would if it is on the "already developing" parts of Old Southside. I did quite a bit of scouting there in March. It resembles the market of Garfield Park, rental income wise, definitely would be a tough sell to try to market at Bates Hendricks rents. Two Chicks and a Hammer brought some hype to the area - I know they had at least 2-3 builds there (anything that sold closer to 250-300k was probably their doing haha). Lots of new builds especially the closer you are to Morris St. I like anything on Delaware and Talbott on the stretch north of Adler - the majority of new builds I noted were on that stretch, seemed like that street was already getting developed. Anything west of that is hit or miss. I checked a couple things out on Charles St and it was ROUGH. As far as the cross streets, pretty sure 2Chicks did a luxury duplex on Palmer. Minnesota was decent if I recall correctly. 

Street parking was getting pretty tight as most houses don't have dedicated parking spots - lots of double parking on those narrow streets, so anything with alley access for off street parking or a garage would be appealing.

Another thing to note, the train is quite active right by there but isn't terribly obnoxious noise & vibration wise. There is a tall wall that runs along Talbott street to block most of the tracks visually. Let me know if you have more questions or want a few sample pics, I should be able to dig those up.

@Nick Giulioni any chance you know if Crane does?