Isaac Phillips Introduction from Midland, MI

[Isaac Phillips]

Hi everyone,

My name is Isaac Phillips and I'm way late on my introduction post, but better late than never. My family and I live here in the Tri-cities area of Michigan (Saginaw, Bay City, Midland). We love the Midland area, and would like to start our real estate investment portfolio around here if possible. I am in third party rail logistics operations management.

I really do not have much real estate experience. I have been a landlord by default, as I initially purchased my first home (in NC) towards the end of the 2008 market, then moved in 2010 and rented it out for three years to ride out the market and avoid taking a huge hit on the value of the home. During that time I had two property managers, and one tenant. Everything went well overall, and I was able to break even on the property instead of taking a 15k loss.

Fast forward till now – I have purchased another home where we live now and saved a nice nest-egg to start our investment portfolio. Our goals are to have a 50/50 of equities/RE for our retirement – and to possibly build a bridge of RE income that can carry us from 50 to legal retirement age, whatever that has become by then.

Brandon always says you have to have the 3 D's – dollars (down payment), direction, and deals. I've mostly got the first two but am really having a hard time finding the deals. We are in a hot market, where homes sell before officially listing, or after being on the market for a few days. It is not a major metro area, so inventory is limited. There do not seem to be any deals when shopping retail on the MLS, so I am looking at buying a list next. I have bird-dogged a few houses that looked vacant, by using our local GIS and social media to identify the owner – then called about the property. So far, I am still coming up empty handed.

I am open to any input or experiences you can share in that regard. BP has been a great learning tool, and I look forward to building even more on that as I learn from each of you.

Thanks,

[Derek Larson]

@Dustin Griesing @Isaac Phillips. There was one more meetup before the shutdown.  I do agree there is enough interest in the Midland area to host one.   I know of a couple other people interested outside of BP.

Dustin- Contrats on the Tri-plex. I just closed on a SFH by Adams elementary couple weeks ago. almost done with rehab.

Isaac- sending you a colleague request- let me know if I can help you at all as well.