All Forum Posts by: Shawn York

@Harvey Levin Yeah, I've had friends show properties before when I can't and it's never been a problem - but thanks for letting me know on that.
I handle most everything... collecting payments electronically, determining lease amounts, fielding any questions... so I feel pretty confident that a "PM a-la-carte" type of situation is what I'm after and would work best for me. The only thing a "PM" would do for me is show the property and do the walk-through... the things I can't do from 900mi away. There are many landlords that are looking STRICTLY for passive income and a full-fledged PM would make sense.

So are you basically offering a Property Management a-la-carte kind of thing?

I currently have a partnership with someone that does much this same thing. In a nutshell, a handyman and his wife (she was looking to get into the PM space) but when she found out what it actually takes to become an "official" PM (real estate license etc) she decided to do what you're describing... coordinating maintenance calls, delivering notices, filing papers with section 8, lockouts, etc. 

I pay them for check-ins, maintenance, delivering notices, meeting contractors for work out of scope of regular maintenance (like roofers for example) delivering paperwork to the Indianapolis Housing Authority for Section 8 tenants, meeting the Section 8 inspector when they inspect the property etc, ect, ect

For move-in/out, I coordinate the rent collection, signing of the lease etc. They show the property and do the move-in/out walk-through. Because they don't collect any money, they aren't considered official property managers so there's no legality issues.

They're moving out of this space and starting another business, so I'm in the market for someone like this, but paying a full on PM is ridiculous for the prices they charge for doing nothing 90%of the time other than being on-call. Also looking into starting this kind of PM a-la-carte in my home city of Denver.

If this is what you're offering, let me know. I'd be very interested and I think many others would be as well.

It all depends on what the PM is charging up-front and if you really need one or not. Honestly, I like the idea of doing simple quick fixes on the spot. It's a definite value add for the PM and a cost saving for the investor.

I'd check with an attorney, but I'm pretty sure you can shut off the utilities. In a case where you are supposed to be paying them per the lease, that's a BIG no-no. But if your lease says he's supposed to pay the utilities, then all you're doing is getting them out of your name.

Jynell Berkshire is the attorney in Indy that I use and she's active on here.

Good luck. 

I will have to double check, but I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $400-$500 for the initial treatment. Frankly, it could have been triple that and it would be worth it. As you can see, termites can be incredibly destructive. $500 is nothing if you compare that to having the house fall down.

Certainly looks to be termite damage to me. Pretty common in Indiana as well. We use Black Diamond Pest Control some our places have had termites previously. You can find their number online... But if you can't reach out to me and I will get it for you.

Do NOT use Terminix. We had them before and they were absolutely horrible

@Andrew Griffin For me, yes. $1300 rent on a $130k property hits the 1% rule. Frankly, in Indianapolis, you can usually get more than 1%, but many investors have flocked to Indy and it's not as easy to find a deal as it was a few short years ago. Since I don't live in Indy and don't know it as well, I pretty much just try to create cash flow and don't concentrate or look at property appreciation too much. If I get some appreciation, then great, but it doesn't factor in all that much when I'm looking at a property. For me, that crosses over into speculation and that's not my wheelhouse. If you do, then more power to you and the 1% rule may not apply to you or be what you are looking for - especially if you're looking at a Class B. I just re-read your post and missed that it was a Class B so my advice may not be all that great for a nicer property like that. I deal mostly in C.

The only important numbers (to me) would be the rents you listed. If you're getting $1300/mo, I wouldn't pay more than $120k or do. That including any rehab costs.

@Anthony Sgro is correct. Indy varies block to block.

Good luck and I'm also responding so I see the responses. I've also had a hard time finding refinancing for my investment property. I figured, the rates are insanely low so why not. Not so much the amount being an issue on my end (although I do where where you'd have more of an issue finding one in the sub-$100k category) rather, I've just not found any lenders wanting to re-fi investment properties. I was told that since Covid, they've really tightened up on lending to investment properties. 
About the best advice I can offer is also look into a commercial loan - but you may also run into issues because of the sub-$100k thing.

I'd call Marion County. I've actually had better luck that you'd normally thing in getting answers when I've called. Having said that, this is probably a little more involved than the questions I've asked in the past.
Good Luck.