First single family house rental in Kalamazoo, MI

[Jae Green]

Hello fellow real estate investors!

My wife and I are proud to be able to finally post on the BP forums after becoming members over a year ago. We live in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I work at one of the hospitals here and my wife teaches English as a second language at home.

2019 was quite a year as my wife and I sold our primary residence home and we were able to purchase our first SFH that we plan to turn into our first investment property. We also had our first baby boy in December 😳, so things have been a blur. However, we are finally getting started on organizing our remodel.

For those interested:

The house is a 2bed 1bath with unfinished basement that is plumbed for additional full bath and room for additional bedroom in the basement. It is 730 sq ft on the main floor 😳 and we will be able to add roughly 700 sq ft in living space to the basement. Has decent sized back yard, garage, and in a decent neighborhood. Listed for $105k and we financed it for $87k with conventional loan and 20% down payment.

I originally estimated about $30k (plan for $40k) in rehab to remove load bearing wall, update main floor, and finish the basement (things never seem to go as planned the first time around). But as we gather bids from contractors I’m thinking this may cost me upwards towards $60k and I might have to approach the rehab in “phases” to get it finished and not drain the savings account. I could also put in some sweat equity as I my wife loves to paint and I know how to install LVP flooring, which could cut some cost.

Conservative ARV is around $130,000 so if we wanted to refi in the future we could get most of our money back (depending on final rehab cost). I think we could rent anywhere from $1000-$1200 which would cash flow us about $400/month if we rented $1200. We are attempting to create a slightly above average rental as compared to the surrounding rentals and apartments.

We finally got to the point where we needed to take action and just work our way through the process. We are open to any suggestions or words of wisdom and we will try to keep you updated as things move along. We hope everyone is staying healthy during these unprecedented times.

Best Regards,

Jae & Megan

[Jack Gallow]

@Jae Green. I have been an investor in Kalamazoo for over 10 years. Those little 720 houses with two bedrooms, and 2 x 3 walls built in the 50s are pretty common. However your numbers make me nervous. If you paid $82,000, I would not invest another 50 or $60,000, you just will not get a return. Also be cautious about thinking you’re going to get a big return on finishing a basement. Unless there is legal egress, or it is a walkout, an appraiser will give you zero credit for it. It will not affect your value at all. For 60 grand, the only way to get a return, would be to add on on the main level and put a third bedroom and a second bathroom on the house