Owning rental properties and as many forms of residual income as possible, is and always has been interesting to me.  My wife and I currently own two rental properties and are always looking to purchase more properties in the area if the opportunity presents itself.

Although we own these properties we're fairly unlikely characters to have rental properties.  This is true not because we aren't capable of handling the responsibility of a retal property, but because of how we acquired our homes. 

We bought our first property for 0% down in 2002 and lived there for two years.  The home was a nice little home located in the Linden Square subdivision in West Indianapolis.  We loved the location because it had an Indianapolis address, fairly low taxes and the school distict was Avon schools.  Avon is one of the nicest school districts around.  They typically rank within the top 95% of all districts in the state.

After living there for two years I noticed our neighbor wanted to sell their home.  We purchased their house and moved all of our stuff out the front door, down the sidewalk and in the front door of the new house we purchased.

This home was an okay home too.  I felt like the quality wasn't as good as the first home we purchased, but the house was nice none-the-less.  This house was a two story home with a full basement.  The home had 3 bed and 2 1/2 bath.  It would work well for a couple years or more if need be.

Two years later I found another house and purchased it.  This house was in a slightly higher end neighborhood.  The house is about 3500 square foot w/ the basement and has five bedrooms.  We love the place.

I say all of that to get to this.  Each of the homes we moved out of, we turned into rental properties.  The strategy was slight speculative, which makes me uncomfortable.  Under the circumstances it wasn't a bad deal. 

• We didn't live in the houses for long so we couldn't resell and make money. 
• I got good prices on the first two houses. 
• Indiana and he Midwest is known for being an area that has constant steady growth or appreciation, not sharp spikes in our values. 
• Indiana is also known for our great cashflow on rental properties. 
• I put 0% down on each of the homes, resulting in a good ROI. 
• Lastly buying these homes as my primary homes allowed me to purchase them with lower interest rates (typically 1% lower than a usual invester loan, maybe more). 

I wouldn't suggest this strategy to everyone or for every geographic region.  Simply put... every situation has its own specific set of details and information that pertains to it.

For my future purchases I hope to change my formula little bit.  Hopefully

• Purchase at 80% loan to value
• Put no less than 15% down
• Cashflow no less than $200 per home (after expenses and property management)

If there is anyone out there that has rental properties as a side investment or is a birddog, house hunter, flipper, etc.  I wouldn't love to hear as much information as possible about what it is you look for or any other formulas you go by.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Justin Carmack

317-652-5235 (Mobile)

justincarmack@gmail.com

www.TheCarmackTeam.com (Coming in June) 

Good evening myagentsspace.com.  Hopefully all is well for each of you.  Things are going great here in Indiana.  Lately I've spent a fair amount of time on the computer BLOGING and doing any number of things to try to gain exposure.

For eight years I've worked in marketing and public relations, but becoming a Realtor is a new journey for me.  After talking to many agents in the area I've found that becoming an agent can be one of the most rewarding and challenging jobs today. 

Hopefully one day I can say that I have developed a business system that will allow me to sit back and manage the people that work for me, but till then things are much different.  If there's anyone out there that has quality information on gaining exposure through the internet I would love to read some of your material. 

Right now I have a web developer working on my a website.  It should go up sometime within the next couple weeks or so.  Other than that I've spent most of my time on the inernet BLOGGING and posting stuff on the web.  Is there any other way that's legal to hit folks with information?

Schools in Hendricks County

Hendricks County not only has some of the best schools in the state of Indiana, it also has some of the best schools in the Nation.  Brownsburg, Avon, Plainfield, Danville, pretty much all of 'em rank up there.  The same is true for most of the rest of the counties surrounding Indianapolis. 

Affordable homes and good schools... there's no better combination. 

Check out the facts about schools throughout the country at School Matters.  This website tells pretty much everything you need to know about how a school ranks in the state's standardized testing.  It's a great site.  We used it when we moved into the Avon area.

The pool in our neighborhood opened-up this weekend.  It doesn't matter if there's a pool in your backyard, neighborhood or you simply visit a pool occasionally please remember these simple rules.

• Never leave a child unsupervised near the pool
• Remember a child always needs constant supervision around a pool and remind babysitters as well.
• Completely fence the pool area in.  Install self-closing and latching gates.  Make sure latches are out of small children's reach.  Make sure all doors and windows leading to the pool area are secure to prevent small children from being let into the pool area.
• Never consider your child "drown proof" because they have had swimming lessons.  They always need direct supervision while swimming or playing around water.
• Floatation devices are not substitutes for supervision.
• Never use a pool with the cover partially in place or covering the pool.  Children may be trapped by the cover.  Remove it completely.
• Place tables and chairs away from the pool fence to prevent children from climbing into the pool area.
• Keep toys away from the pool area becase a young child playing with the toys could accidentally fall in the water.
• Remove steps to above ground pools when not in use.Always have a telephone by the side of the pool.  Never leave kids un attended to go answer the phone somewhere away from the pool. 
• Always keep emergency numbers at the poolside.
• Learn CPR.
• Keep resuce equipment by the pool.