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Updated over 13 years ago, 06/03/2011
New Member from Detroit, MI
Hello all, my name is Kevin Suksi. My wife Cara and I are new real estate investors who focus on Detroit suburbs in Wayne County, MI.
We have 2 rental properties and are in the process of executing our 2nd REO flip, which went on the market last week and is already under contract and pending inspection.
Our company is called Michigan Starter Homes; our business plan focuses on providing move-in ready homes for first time home buyers.
We did our first flip with cash from our savings and did most of the work ourselves. For our second which is in process now, we funded half the deal and brought in a deal partner for the other half. We still did a lot of the work, but less than half of it.
Some of our goals for 2010 include:
1 - Execute 5 flips this year
2 - Network with similar real estate investors
3 - Bring on 1-2 more deal partners
4 - Meet more contractors and develop a complete team of go-to players and reduce / eliminate us doing the rehabs
5 - Learn the short sale game as the good REOs seem to be drying up.
6 - Improve our web presence
Thanks for reading and I look forward to meeting like-minded investors.
Hi Kevin,
Welcome! You'll find a ton of useful information and helpful people here.
Thanks Paul! I can see that there is endless information here and there are many people here who seem to be very interested in helping others with their challenges.
Kevin,
Hello, I work for a wholesale company in the metro Detroit area. We come across properties in the suburbs of Detroit from time to time. We are also working with a lot of investors converting their IRA to a self directed IRA to invest in real estate. Have you heard of doing this. We are going to be headlining for one of the largest self directed IRA custodians in Florida. If you are interested in learning more about this let me know. Thanks.
Welcome to BP,
Sounds like your off to a good start. I'm always glad to see people treat investing as a business. Goals are one of the best ways to insure that you get to where you want to be.
BP will help as well. Lots of opportunities here to learn and network. Look forward to hearing about your experiences and questions.
Thanks Charles, I'll definitely keep you posted. We closed on the sale of our spring flip a couple of weeks ago; closed yesterday on a house that we're going to rehab and get back on the market for the fall rush.
Ethan - yes we are doing some of our work with a self directed IRA - we did the checkbook IRA through safeguard financial. We are doing the current flip out of the IRA and are searching for another one that we'll fund traditionally.
Hey Kevin,
Great to see you on here. I am working on what you, Cara and I discussed!
Thanks,
Kevin
Welcome aboard from a fellow Metro-Detroit investor. I've been on the site for a year now and still learning something new each day.
Kevin - sounds great! keep me posted!
William - thanks! What kind of real estate strategy is your focus? It looks like you're focusing on rentals? Do you focus on a particular area within metro Detroit?
Welcome to Bigger Pockets. You have found a great site for both education and contacts. If you can coordinate back-to-back flips of either short sales or REO's transactional funding can be used for 100% of your purchase price. Good job setting goals and best wishes pursuing them.
Thanks Ted!
I'm glad you reached out. Our focus is rehabbing, but we are also trying to gear up for wholesaling as well, building buyer's list, doing NOD mailers, etc. If our funds are tied up in rehabs we might need a source like yours to fund wholesale flips, if we can get that side going. So thanks!
Hey Kevin,
Welcome to BP. You'll find some great contacts here and lots of useful information.
I'm doing the same as you in the western suburbs of Detroit, although i'm mainly based in the UK most of the year. How are you finding the resell market right now?
Welcome aboard! I find this site to be very useful for great information and also for motivation. It feels really good to see other great investors out there that have the same goals and can share information. I wish you the best of luck!
Thanks Karim and Lakia.
Karim - we've had good luck so far; I think we're picking the right areas within metro Detroit. The last flip we did was only on the market when we resold it.
As an update - we just had an offer accepted yesterday on another REO, so we now have two active flip projects. We also have a pretty good lead from one of our NOD mailings that we're going to go out to look at on Monday.
Hi Kevin,
Hope all is well in sunny Detroit and you`re well on the way to achieving your goals.
To introduce myself :- I am from (near ) Nottingham.England,build houses/apps etc to renovate and sell on or rent out (in England)
We`ve recently bought a house in Detroit that is now being rented out.
The purchase was a sort of package deal with property bought for a set figure with monthly rental,again a set figure,being guaranteed for a number of years.
During our visit to Detroit when we bought the property,we thought next time maybe we could try a more do-it- yourself route.By employing our realtors/agents/legal team/builders etc etc.
However, a better idea maybe to team up with someone on the ground in maybe a joint venture and pay them to project manage.
We have cash ready to buy and can come to Detroit (ready for a break!!) to discuss if you would be interested.
Hi Kevin,
Greetings from sunny Florida!! A quick tip to get cash buyers for your wholesale deals is to obtain an absentee owner's list with the last sale date from 6 months ago to today, make sure the rest of your buying criteria is listed on the excel spread sheet especially the property address. The mailing address should be different from the property address since they don't live there. Send a post card to these rehabbers and land lords pitching your property. Hope this helps... :cool:
Great to see another Michigander on here!
Welcome to BP, you will find as much information and network opportunities as you wish to find here.
Best of luck.
Hi Kevin,
You mentioned getting involved in short sales. We are located in the Kalamazoo / Portage area and do short sales nationwide. We're always interested in short sale referrals. It's a great way to learn the short sale business and earn a percent of the profit.
Hey Kevin!
I'm 99% sure this is the Kevin which I met breifly at the Starbucks in Troy this past summer. How odd that I stumbled upon your thread.
Glad to hear all is well. Let's get together again sometime soon.
Mark - yes that was me you met with in Troy a little while ago. I hope all is well with you!
RIchard - interested in discussing further - I'll PM you for more details
Joe - thanks for the tip
Dan - thank you
Jackie - would be interested in discussing how we could work together
Any luck on getting your first deals? What area of town are you focusing on
Hi Casey, sorry for the delay; I just saw your post. We are currently wrapping up our 9th house. We live in Dearborn and have been focusing on the nearby suburbs. I see that you are a Detroit area investor as well?