DEAL SHEET · W30 · JULY 24, 2026 |
If you own real estate in Indianapolis, or you are quietly running the numbers on your first deal, this one is for you.
Last week I got to walk Fountain Square with Bill Taft.
If you do not know the name, you know his work. Bill was one of the original community-development guys down there, back when Fountain Square was more potential than postcard. He walked our group through the whole thing: the theater, the old streetcar bones, the buildings people wrote off that are now the reason the neighborhood has a soul. He can point at a block and tell you the thirty-year story of how it came back.
Here is what stuck with me. The character you feel walking Virginia Ave did not happen by accident. Somebody chose to invest there before it was obvious. That is the whole game. The neighborhoods with a story are the ones that reward the people who show up early and stay.
That is a big part of why Fountain Square is still one of my favorite places in the city to put money to work. And it is a good lead-in to this week, because one of the deals below sits right in it.
Let's go.
FEATURED DEAL · OFF-MARKET 1410 S Alabama St "Hendricks Haven" · Fountain Square Furnished Airbnb · 117 stays · 59% occupancy · ~$235/night |
Furnished. Proven. Ready to relaunch.
This one is different. It is a fully furnished Fountain Square short-term rental with a real two-year track record, and it is quietly for sale.
~$46,900 in bookings the last 12 months (Airbnb + VRBO + Booking)
117 stays, 59% occupancy, ~$235 average nightly rate
~$30,000 net cash to the owner over the trailing year, before property expenses
Straight talk on how it conveys: the existing Airbnb listing, reviews, and bookings do not transfer, so you relaunch it as your own and build your calendar from here. What you are buying is the furnished, staged, proven property itself, in one of the most walkable neighborhoods in Indy, with two years of real numbers showing what it can do. Run it short-term or convert it to a straight long-term rental.
Bookings dipped a little year over year, so the upside is in sharper pricing and tighter operations. Furnished and proven, not a gut project.
From the Hoosier Easy Rentals portfolio
One of our investors is moving to Florida and selling a 17-door Indianapolis portfolio, all separately or as a package. Here are three single-family homes worth a look. See the rest at the bottom.
HOOSIER EASY RENTALS · 1 OF 3 3130 N Olney St $149,999 · 46218 · Rented $1,735/mo · +$274/mo · 8.35% cash-on-cash |
The strongest ratio of the three. About +$274 a month day one, 8.35% cash-on-cash on our model. Tenant in place, near the Fairgrounds and Brookside. Nothing to chase.
HOOSIER EASY RENTALS · 2 OF 3 4731 E 18th St $150,000 · 46218 · Rented $1,695/mo · +$244/mo · 7.4% cash-on-cash |
A simple, cheap door in a near-Eastside rental pocket. About +$244 a month, 7.4% cash-on-cash. Occupied, no drama.
HOOSIER EASY RENTALS · 3 OF 3 2202 N Leland Ave $114,999 · 46218 · Rented $1,150/mo · Breakeven-plus, room to raise rent |
The cheapest way onto this list and the easiest first door. Already leased, roughly breakeven-plus day one with room to push rent on the next turn. Under $115k.
PARTNER · INDY HOMES REBORN Half the best deals in this city never touch the MLS. That is Tony Boutros's whole world. Indy Homes Reborn is a wholesale shop that gives investors first access to off-market Indianapolis properties, the ones that trade before anyone else sees them. If you want to be on the list that gets the call first, talk to Tony.
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Two from our own board
ON OUR BOARD · ROOTSREALTY.CO 831 Dawson St $314,900 · 3 bed / 2 bath · Fountain Square / Fletcher Place |
3 bed / 2 bath in Fountain Square / Fletcher Place, walkable to everything Bill showed us last week. A nicer hold or a live-in-then-rent.
ON OUR BOARD · ROOTSREALTY.CO 202-204 N Hamilton Ave $478,000 · Duplex · Near-Eastside (46201) |
A near-Eastside duplex for the buyer sizing up. Two doors, one roof, in a corridor that keeps climbing.
PARTNER · BEST FLOORING Every one of these deals needs floors at some point. When they do, go see Phil. Phil Nelson runs Best Flooring on Lake Plaza Drive and it is the spot in Indy for any reno or build. Huge selection, straight pricing, and genuinely good people behind it. We send our investors there.
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From the Roots Channel
Still Renting? Here's What It's Costing You…
I ran the actual math on a $300K Indianapolis home: renting versus buying, side by side, over a few years. Down payment, appreciation, principal paydown, and the two objections I hear every week ("I'll wait for rates to drop" and "what if I move"). The number surprised even me.
READER WIN Shout-out to Hannah M., who just closed on her first investment property: a two-unit on Carrollton Ave. First-time investor, and she started with a duplex, live in one side or rent both, either way she owns a piece of a great near-north corridor now. This is exactly the move we love to help people make. (Ken had her back on this one.) |
Upcoming Events
Coffee & Connect · featuring Bill Taft
We are bringing Bill in to tell the Fountain Square story, the real one, the way he told it to us on that walk. Details and how to grab a seat are coming in a future issue. Keep an eye out.
That's the week, Roots Fam. A furnished Airbnb you can take over tomorrow, three cash-flowing doors, two off our own board, and a reminder that the best neighborhoods were built by people who showed up early. Reply to anything in here, we read every one.
Plant roots, build wealth.
Max
P.S. Bill spent thirty years turning "nobody wants that" into "everybody wants that." If you own a rental you have quietly outgrown, reply with the address and we will tell you what it would bring today. Might be worth more than you think, and you would not be the first person Fountain Square made money for.
