New member in Ann Arbor area

[Lyn Zo]

Hey New Friends, 

I've been lurking on the forum, reading / learning on the side. Currently renting in downtown AA but looking for either single family home to live and rent later or multifamily this year. 

I'm considering the AA area, or suburbs between AA and Detroit (plymouth, northville etc)

I'm seeing pretty expensive price in this area. Would love to hear thoughts the local market? Can anyone suggest investor-friendly agents in the area? I will also look into local clubs and hope to meet some of you in person soon. 

Thank you. 

[Joshua B.]

Originally posted by @Justin Goode:

Hey @Joshua B. would you mind sharing what kind of deals you target here in terms of some of the metrics (50% rule , 1%, price/rent ratios). Asking because I’ve seen a few multi family properties get sold recently here in Ann Arbor but the numbers didn’t seem that great to me - just wondering what you’ve experienced. 

Gonna have a tough time finding much better than 1% for any MLS deal in AA. It really has to be a good off-market deal if you want much more than that. Three examples come to mind - 8 unit 1bd/1ba on Main just sold for $1.025mm. Another 8 unit on the south side of town sold for like $1.6mm. And a 4 unit on the west side (2 units were 1/1 and 2 units were 2/1) sold for $465k. If those units were in good shape, you may be able to squeak out 1%. Unless you develop those further, not sure how that works.

I think people either really believe in significant further AA appreciation (I do) or they're just looking for a safe place to park cash with the markets seeming to peak. If you can find a 1% deal walk-able to downtown, I'd take it but only because I'm a firm believer that medium-largish downtowns with highly intellectual populations will continue to boom as populations continue to stratify and group together.