All Forum Posts by: Mark Jones

@Zach Shahan talk to a mortgage broker. They should be able to find some non FHA options with down payments under 20%. They likely won't be as low as 3.5 but 10% should be realistic. You'll need to live in the property for a year.

@Lamont Glover II CIREIA is holding a Buy and Hold 101 class this Saturday here in Indy. Might be worth looking into. 

@John T. some insurance companies won’t even write policies on a rental property. If yours is one of these and you had a claim, I’m sure they’d deny the claim. As someone else mentioned, with a rental policy you are not covering the personal contents in the structure. Another biggie is that a good rental policy will cover your lost rent in case the unit is uninhabitable due to an allowed claim. Get a rental policy. 

@Joseph Torres $600-700 a unit is going to be under a B class unit. You’ll probably want to be no less than $900 to truly be a B. 

But maybe Others have a different opinion. 

@Joseph Torres in the A-B duplex areas in Indy, you’ll probably see residents turnover every 2-3 years on average. Not sure if this is permanent enough for you or not. The upside is that the turnovers are usually pretty smooth. The downside with your criteria is that competition has really driven up the prices. You’ll be lucky to clear the 1% rule. So cash flow might be slim for the first couple years until you get a few rent increases.

If you get on some wholesaler lists you might see some B level properties but they’ll need some updating. Speaking to the duplex’s here. 

@Sean McCluskey getting the 1% property tax in Indy (as an investor) would be the golden goose. But I haven’t found it yet. Just need to run your numbers using 2% and see if it works. 

The good thing is assessments here are usually lag the market and are pretty steady. Challenging the assessment isn’t too terrible of a process either other than how long it takes. 

@Brian Van Pelt deducting all your property taxes doesn’t mean you get it all back at the end of the year. If that were the case there would never be a need for an investor to challenge the assessed value. You only “get back” your tax rate percentage of the taxes paid. So there is a cost. 

Edit: I am not an accountant nor have I ever played one on TV. 

@Brandon Weddle keep looking. There are many duplex’s in Indy that are not in rough areas. The problem you’ve got right now is that they are going for a premium. But I believe they are still a good option to get your foot in the door and start building equity. 

@Jenna Harris A drawback to purchasing the Nashville residence now is that you won’t get as good of loan terms as you would if you were living there from the start. The down payment will likely be much higher. 

Consider keeping the San Diego house as a rental for just a few years, then sell so you can save on any capital gains tax. 

@Jason Malabute generally speaking I like those rules. I’m not sure how practical it is to apply them. How you define your “area” could definitely give you inaccurate numbers. There are larger areas in Indy where the neighborhoods are pretty uniform. But there are many areas where you’ll have half million dollar homes that are a block over from homes that is essentially worthless (except for the lot) and need bulldozed. 

This will really mess with your income and poverty numbers for an area.