All Forum Posts by: Allison Lucas

Townhouse is in Avondale - which is an area that is seeing appreciation, but it is definitely a "luxury" townhouse, so I'm not sure it's worth putting tenants in.  That said, it's now on the market, but we might consider renting if it doesn't sell for around the price we want.  Agree about buying a small multi-family in GR!!  We're going to look for both multi-family and a 3/2 single family to buy.  If anyone has any suggestions on neighborhoods to look within Grand Rapids, that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, everyone! Really great advice here and a lot to think about. I was definitely leaning towards selling the townhouse as I didn't want to think about renters ruining it. Also - great points about DTI - it carries no small price tag and would likely hurt my future investing goals if I kept it (and it was losing money). Thanks for the insight there!

@Kevin Harrison Your link isn't working for me. Is it a PRO link?  I'd love to read the post.

So here's what I'm getting from everyone's advice re: GR - I think we will look for rental grade properties to buy/live in/eventually rent at the same time as looking for an actual rental and see if we land on anything that works for both our family and our investment goals. 

Appreciate the responses on my first post - yet another testament to the BP community and offerings!

Hi BP! This is my first post. I've been listening to the podcasts religiously for a few months now and thought I'd reach out to get some keen insight on a few big decisions my family has coming up.  I am eager to get into real estate investing and have a couple of possible ways to start due to our family situation. 
I was laid off from my job in April but have a great severance package. That said, we are planning on moving from Chicago to Grand Rapids, MI. 

We purchased our townhouse in Chicago last July.  It is new construction (we're the first owners) and has high end finishes (marble, marble, everywhere). It's a 3 bed / 3 bath with 2 car garage in an up and coming neighborhood and situated in a townhouse community with its own private park - an amazing place for a young family. We won't make our money back on it if we sell - the market just isn't there yet considering how much we put into it (~15K) because we had planned to live here for a few years. With the loss of my job, we're acting on our plan to move to Grand Rapids earlier than expected.  We plan to raise our young family there.

So - two questions - 

1. Would you rent out the townhouse in Chicago and start your investment portfolio?  We likely won't be able to get any cashflow out of it due to the rent comps in the area.

2. Would you buy or rent in Grand Rapids to start? We were thinking of renting for a year so that I could get to know the area (my husband is from there), and my long term plan was to start investing in that area.  But now I'm thinking that even if we stay in a place for a year there, why not buy something that we could then rent when we look to purchase our family home a year or so down the road? I'm not worried about getting another high paying job in that area, so I'd likely have a W2 to back up our healthy finances.

Thanks in advance for your insight BP tribe!