Not every house I buy comes with a hard story behind it. Some are just a good decision somebody made that stopped being convenient. I am Grant Howard with Howard Buys, and this one in New Albany, Indiana is the most ordinary deal I have written about, which is exactly why it is worth writing about.
He bought it to fix up. He never really did.
The owner was an investor. He had picked this house up intending to rehab it and hold it as a rental. Sound plan, nothing wrong with it.
Then he did not do much with it. Not because he could not — because of where it was.
He lived across the river in Louisville, and every other property he owned was close to home. This one sat on the wrong side of the bridge, off his route, away from his crews, away from everything else he was managing. Every trip to it was a special trip.
Any landlord reading this knows exactly what happens next. The property that is out of your way is the one that never gets the Saturday. It slides down the list behind the four things you can knock out in one loop near the house. A year goes by. It is still on the list.
The real cost was not the repairs
It was that it never became anything. It was not producing, it was not finished, it was not sold — it just sat there being an open item, quietly costing taxes and insurance and attention.
A property outside your footprint is a different asset than the same property inside it. Same house, same numbers on paper, completely different amount of your life it consumes. That is not a spreadsheet line, but it is real, and it is a perfectly good reason to sell something.
What we actually did
This one did not come to me — I reached out to him. We set up a walkthrough, I looked at it, and we agreed on a price.
It was, frankly, one of the easier deals I have done, and the reason is that he was an investor. He understood what I do. He knew I was buying it to make money on it, and that was not something either of us had to dance around. There was no suspicion to overcome, no explaining what a walkthrough is, no worrying that a number meant something other than a number.
He wanted a price he felt good about. We got to one. We closed. That was the deal.
If you are a landlord holding one of these
You do not need a crisis to justify selling. These are all fine reasons:
It is outside your footprint. Too far from you, your other properties, or your crews to manage without it being a project every time.
You bought it for a plan you no longer want. The rehab never started, or the strategy changed, and that is allowed.
You are done being a landlord on that one, or on all of them.
It is capital sitting still that would do more somewhere closer to home.
Selling investor to investor
If you do this for a living, you already know how the conversation goes and we can skip most of it. I will walk it, I will tell you what I see, I will make you a number, and you can tell me if it works. No listing, no showings, no repair negotiation, no financing contingency, and no wondering what I am up to — I am buying it to make money on it, same as you would.
A rental you are finished with — occupied or vacant, tenants in place is fine.
A rehab you never started or never finished.
A property sitting empty while you decide what to do with it.
I buy across Southern Indiana and the Louisville area. You can see how I calculate an offer if you want to check my math before you call. If you have one that is out of your way, call or text me at (502) 414-8334 — tell me the address and what you need for it, and we can usually get to yes or no in one conversation.