Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 264, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1915 — INDIANAPOLIS LOTS AS A SAFE INVESTMENT [ARTICLE]

INDIANAPOLIS LOTS AS A SAFE INVESTMENT

Little Paragraph of Warning Sets One L. Kennedy in Position of Making Explanation. L. Kennedy, of Indianapolis, is here trying to sell and probably occasionally selling a lot in Indianapolis on the installment plan. The Republican issued a little suggestion of warning to those who might be inclined to buy or to bite and The Democrat offers its columns to Mr. Kennedy to defend his proposition and to indulge in a bit of sarcasm about Canada as an investment, because The Republican for Theodore George did considerable advertising last year, the same kind of advertising which hundreds of magazines and newspapers did throughout the United States. To divert just a mohient from “our great capital city” we might say that had there been investors from Indiana in Canada last year who had put cut a crop last spring they would doubtless have made more real money than they will realize in a lifetime out of a nonproducing unimproved lqt in Indianapolis. We have no fight against “our great capital city.” It is some city

and has made a very creditable growth, but we do not believe that investors ih vacant lots will ever make a dollar on their investment. We do not pretend to know how much commission L. Kennedy gets for their sale, but you can rest assured that if he gave up an agency in the John Hancock Insurance Co., after fourteen years, that the proposition had to look good, that is good for Kennedy, and it Will take a long time for the lots to advance sufficiently to pay Kennedy’s commission. Then there will be some other profits to pay for the company that is pushing the sale will not put it on unless there is a big profit in it and the lot buyers pay the profit. There is lots of room for Indianapolis to grow and if it keeps up the pace of 65,000 every ten years until the end of time it will find thousands of acres of land still available to be platted and exploited by shrewd real estate men and experienced salesmen, who will pounce onto the people of the small cities and towns when if there was anything real good and certain as an investment Indianapolis capital would grab it in a moment. It is Indianapolis capital? that comes out into Jasper county and buys 6 per cent road and ditch bonds, but it is Rensselaer capital that is offered the “real snaps” in “our great capital city.” This is a nice subject. We like to discuss it and are de-lighted that L. Kennedy, who desires to state, etc., that he is a man of good repute and well satisfied with himself, gave us the opportunity to do so at some length. The writer was a resident a few years of Washington, D. C., and one day we reecived a letter from W. W. Watson, then a resident of Rensselaer. He asked that we go to Brookland, a suburb of Washington within 15 minutes car ride over two routes from the treasury building and see a lot he owned there and try to find a buyer for it at $750.00. Mr. Watson explained that he had purchased the lot of an agent ten years before for S9OO. When he purchased it the Brookland suburb was just being laid out. It was situated within two blocks of where the street car line was to be. Well, when Mr. Watson wrote his letter, some ten years after buying the lot, Brookland had grown up. The projected car line had been built, another car line approaching the town from another direction had been built, streets had been paved, sidewalks built, hundreds of homes erected, a sewer system installed, city water and electric lights put in and Brookland was one of the nice suburbs with many contented homes. Mr. Watson had a lot splendidly located, a half block from a paved street, good houses on each sied of its and there was every reasoh to believe that the lot should have doubled in value. There were a half dozen “for sale” signs on it by as many different real estate firms. The writer visited them and asked why the lot did not sell and was informed that there was no demand for unimproved property, but every one of the dealers was exploiting some new subdivision that was just being opened and that was sure to “double your money.” At one or two places we represented that we might buy the lot, but Hie agent at once began plans to sidetrack us on to some other location, in a new addition. We advertised the lot for sale, posted notices in the government printing office and made it plain that the price was slso, but there were no buyers* Figuring money as worth 6 per cent it had cost Mr. Watson $54 each year to keep his lot in Brookland. In ten years this was $540, not to compound it, which made the lot stand him at $1,440, but it was for sale at $750 and was a really fine lot in a splendid location. He finally traded it for a fruit farm in Mississippi or it went in on the deal. Well, Washington, D. C., “our great national capital,” is also some grower and real estate men say that no investment there will go wrong in

the long run, but you may have to let it run until your form, like John Brown’s, lies mouldering in the grave. L. Kennedy is probably not offering you a single thing better than Mr. Watson had in Washington. It is a prospect, a gamble in real estate. There is nothing in sight for years to come unless by some chance that has been overlooked by the money that is seeking a good investment in Indianapolis unexpectedly develops. L. Kennedy, former agent for the John Hancock Insurance Co., ■ would probably tell you that he is a highpriced man. In other words that he gets a pretty penny for selling you a lot and indirectly that you pay it. He don’t come right out in print in that way but he leaves that inference. He is to be congratulated for his adroitness and we believe we see why he is chosen to put over this Indianapolis lot proposition in the small towns. He does not become downright angry and in this respect he differs considerably from the men who came here some years ago from Oklahoma to sell lots in Hallett and who threw a fit when The Republican suggested that it might be a good thing to investigate. There had already been several buyers, among them was sufficient sporting blood to make a trip to Hallett and pass judgment on the investment. Several prominent former Rensselaer citizens who were living in Oklahoma said the proposition was bad but one of the men who went to Hallett wired back that it was just as represented. However, Hallett blew up and whatever was invested was lost. The writer is disposed to be real fair with L. Kennedy and as we are intending to spend part of today and all of Sunday in “our great state capital” we shall try to ascertain what sort of an investment is being recommended to our people and we shall not object if those who want to take a chance act upon L. Kennedy’s recommendation and ignore our “breezy” articles. By the way, speaking of breeze and The Republican’s warning. * A few months ago a man came here to sell stock in the “Consolidated Fan Co.” There is the application. Fans and breeze and not a word about Kennedy. The fans were to be installed in hotels and for a nickle in the slot you could get a nickle’s worth of breeze. When you wanted more air you deposited another nickle. On paper it looked like a 50 per cent investment. Every person wants a breeze and the agent figured it out thr.t people would never miss a nickle. The Republican got “breezy” and the solicitor got mad and left town and our people were thus kept out of a 50 per cent investment. Later we were told that the company was watered for 70 per cent of its stock before it wa * put on the market. This “breeze” is a terrible fault, but a sort of habit with The Republican and some of the breezes are as balmy as a rare day in June. If some time in the distant future wh n you are looking over your inver ments that you wish you had the each for you happen to find a deed for an Indianapolis lot worth something like 50 per cent of what it cost you, then you can think of Republican “breeze” and L. Kennedy and take yot i* choice.