Hello everyone, my name is Dave. I’m from the Detroit Mich. area I am new here and wanted to introduce myself. A little history on my investment real estate journey if we can call it that….

Back in 2005 my wife and I bought our very first home when we were 24/25, 3 Bed, 1 ½ bath 1500 sqft single family home for $167,000. We put the 20% down, but then life happened. I didn't control my money, it controlled me. I had to get a home equity line for about $20K, which put my first and second mortgage at $153,600. Fast fwd a few years to 2008 and BOOM! The crash. We were upside down in our mortgage and it sucked. We stuck it out, paid our dues on time. Things were picking up in the market a little bit, but not enough. We were a growing family and needed more space. We were in a financial position where we could keep our existing home, upgrade, and purchase another home. So 2013 that is just what we did. We built a new house 3100sqft, 4 Bed, 2 ½ bath for $310,000. We decided that we would put our current home up for rent when the new house was complete. So as the new build went on, we focused on improvements to our first home and got it ready for tenants. Finally, the new house was complete, and we could move in. We put our first home on the market for rent $1450.00 and right away, not even a week my realtor found some potential tenants. We were ecstatic that it happened so fast, we thought it would take longer. So excited we found tenants, we took our realtors word for it and didn't properly vet our new tenants. We were just happy our first and second mortgage was going to be covered and have a little cash flow at the same time. Needless to say, our first Landlord experience was not pleasant. The tenants began pay rent on time, but then payments began coming in late, then half, then partial, then none. I did not evict them but gave them the opportunity to break the lease and we would just go our separate ways. They didn't even make it a year. I just wanted these people out fast, so I could get some new tenants. Long story short they finally got out and it was time to start over again. They didn't completely destroy the house, I did keep most of their security deposit and used it for the repairs, along with some of our own cash. We spent about a month fixing up the place. I had to replace doors, carpets, repaint. In the meantime, we were looking for potential tenants. Lessons learned we did our due diligence this time and found the right ones. Fast forward to today, and we still have the same tenants for about the past 10yrs now. Couldn't be happier about the outcome, their great tenants, rent is automatically deposited into our account and on time. The only thing is we have kept rent the same amount for the past 10yrs, $1450.00. We never raised it. Again, we were just happy our expenses were covered on the first home. They're such great tenants, they made us happy, and I wanted to keep them happy, so rent just stayed the same. We clear about $400 a month after all expenses. This year for 2025 my wife and I have made it a goal to improve our financial literacy to purchase another investment property. I have most recently read in the last 2 weeks, Poor Dad Rich Dad and Bigger Pockets Invest In Real Estate the Ultimate Beginners Guide to Getting Started. I also am going to read Brandon Turner's Rental Property Investing. These books have been very enlightening and a pleasure to read. My current position with our rental property after paying it down over the years is we owe about $87K on it. I haven't had it appraised so just going off Zillow the property is worth about $250K, so we have about $163K worth of equity in it. Our primary residents also has some equity, I have a HELOC with $166,000 available funds. Our primary residents is worth about $550 to 600K. I know I didn't start this out the right way and getting all my finances figured out, but I think we turned out ok. Now Im looking to maximize my potential, gain some financial independence and start making my money work for me and not work for my money. So, I am here today, hoping to gain some knowledge on how to maximize our potential. We are not looking to conquer real estate but just start generating some passive income I hope this finds you all well. Looking fwd to comments and feedback. Thank you!

Warren, Michigan

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