All Forum Posts by: Shannon S.

What advice I have and I'm far from an expert is this. There are some truly experienced folks who share great information.  So read, read, read.  Conferences are overpriced and are usually just to be ignored, you'll get 100x more from your local real-estate groups. 

Start using zillow or redfin, MLS or whatever mass information source you have and start studying a few areas. What are the prices for a 3 bedroom? What are they for sale for and what did they sell for last? Learn how to classify what rents and sells in a few areas and for what. Sure it'll seem random at first, but after a few years. You'll be able to pin point it. A business minded real-estate agent can REALLY help jump start this too.

Once you found an area you like, start driving around there. Sounds crazy, but being in the area in person really does give a lot of information that's hard to classify in the MLS. Notice the cars that are parked and if people that are walking around seem friendly or if young families are there or not. Does it have a lot of high class foodie areas or is it close to a college? Is there we buy gold signs, a Walmart or a lot of franchised business? At the same time start looking at homes "differently". This will start to fine tune "value" for you. Value is important because a great deal per door doesn't make it a great rental, but might for a flip.

Know what gets you going. Do you want to buy and flip?  Do you want to buy fix?  Are you going to rent them and be a landlord or have someone else landlord it for you?  So many options! :)

Indy's larger population always makes it less up/down then some of the smaller areas, but it still has it's "edge" areas. With a few artist areas which usually translate to 20s/30s playing more for an area then normal. I like it, but that doesn't mean it's for everyone. If you can handle class D properties - you can make a killing I'm told, but I can't. A few years back, some of the best "artistic" class C/D properties in these areas can been flipped or upgraded so you might have to look outside of Broadripple, Fountain Square for a killer deal,  Irvington is a "maybe" I'd say for up and coming, but we've had so much flooding of flips the last few years I think it's suffering a bit of lag because of it.  Kokomo got hit stupidly hard years back and is on the steady stabilization (though I personally don't feel good at it ever really coming close to recovering anywhere what it was in the 90s).  Good luck in your search. 

Checking back on how the painting contractor process had went.  I have had quiet the time still finding qualified painters that weren't going for $3 to $4/square foot (15k to 17k on 5000 home)  While I keep ending up doing all the work myself (and all the fun permits to go with half of them), it would be nice to find a few painters that ...
1. Show up.
2. Aren't so high/drunk I am nervous about them doing the work or falling off a ladder (it's been a fun one)
3. Is around $2/square foot and will do decent job. Not artist work of art, but professional enough to tell it's not the first home they've painted.

Thoughts?  Recommendations?

@Josh C. Can you post or send me a recommendation for doing the painting on the house you mentioned above?  (or if you weren't happy, send me a recommendation)?  You can PM me if needed.

@Josh C.  what local small bank do you recommend?  I've switched through a few and still running into some investor needed type lending. (Mind you I have credit bouncing around 750-800, great dept to income and employment, so that's not really an issue)

Did you ever find someone? 

Congrats on your first purchase @Jason Schwab. I've lived in Indy quite some time now and not to be the parrot here, but I'll have to agree with everyone else here. Indy can really change within a few blocks like said previously. I'd say Mass Avenue is definitely up and coming, of course I drive the main strip everyday so it's easy to keep my eye on it :)  Along with Fountain Square though it's still a bit patchy for out of state investors I'd say.  

Josh, how did the paint job go?  Cost wise did you feel it ended up the right value? Was there a professional team you'd recommend?  

Welcome Nolan, I grow up there in Kokomo and migrated to Indianapolis for investing after the big job blowout there.  Probably know a lot of the same folks.  (*It's a really small town for those who don't know so nothing special - trust me).  There's a great podcast from this site and they've had some other professionals jump in for some of the same great reasons.  A ton of information here. If you get a chance - they are an amazing starting point.  11 is a good one to start here.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/03/2...

I'm on my 4th door and just finished my first down to the studs remodel. And a ton of it I learned from reading here and some of the books that are popularly listed in the forums.  There's a list of some of the popular ones here. 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/10/1...

And welcome to the community! And if you haven't been back in a while Cone Palace is still open and busy :)

Richard, just going through the rounds of finding contractors again - was curious how your search went for them on this and how the end result of the place ended up looking - always curious on how the out of state investor experience looks (still not brave enough to do it though).