All Forum Posts by: Andrej Petrovski

Hey Matt 

A good rule of thumb for Burton is to stay east if Center Street .  That being said I know investors that have made great returns in the worst and best places in Michigan.  All about your tolerance level to the drama that comes with certain areas .  Good luck !

@Logan Pettigrew The penalties for cashing out prior to retirement age are all the same.  10% penalty for cashing out.  Then you have to apply federal and state taxes.   So, not the same as taking a loan against it, which is a good option if you don't want to cash it out completely like I did. 

@Robb Werner My analysis and approach were similar each year. Analysis and understanding numbers is the common thread in any real estate deal.  My open mind to calculated risk also has always been consistent.  If you don't get excited about rolling dice on any deal, then you just won't get far.  In my case, this 3rd year getting into commercial was the same.  Just more butterflies in the tummy since the numbers went up substantially.  Congrats on your first deal! 

@Jeremy Lewis Yes. just recycled my profits over and over.  So for example : I started with my $40k, partnered up with a guy who fronted the rest of the acquisition cost and rehab cost.  I did all the work on that one and hired out minimal.  We then took our profit from the first flip ($27k) and I found more.  Repeated it in 2017.  The last two were done in parallel so I sub-contracted the work out (got my builders license).  Hard to do flipping also while having a full time engineering job, so hiring out was essential to doing parallel projects.  2018 was slow with finding SFRs for flipping in my market.  Everyone seemed to have cash on hand and it was almost impossible for a single person operation, such as my self to put in work to find deals.  So, I pivoted and worked on looking for Land to flip, since banks are throwing money at builders in my market.  That worked well.  Just closing on the last batch of lots this month, selling them to a developer.  

Year 3 was a product of persistence.  I've been networking and knocking on the doors of  guys that do commercial projects in my area for 6 years ! That circle is hard to get into sometimes, especially if you don't have capital or other value to bring.  After doing my flips i had more capital on hand.  I have not expanded my team, nor plan on it.  I like small operations that do big things.  In this case, we are 3 partners that purchased a retail shopping center.  The two others are brokers and have experience filling those type of properties.   Small team, big returns. 

Each institution has their own process to follow when liquidating (cashing out).  I had mine at T.Rowe Price and just called them and requested an early Cash out.  My accountant, my friends, my family, most conditioned people thought I was crazy.  

Bottom line is that numbers in real estate don't lie.  And if you know how to analyze deals, you will make your money grow.  

@Khaled Helmi -> I have my own opinion on using a self directed IRA. It's not a terrible idea. I just took the penalty on my initial withdrawal and started growing it. Sure, the intention of using the self directed IRA and other tools like 1031 exchanges is to protect against taxation, so each person can decided if those tools are a good fit for them. I just like to have full control of my money when I need it. don't want to get permission from my custodian or go through a process. Ultimately, my goal is cash flow and gains. Whether I get taxed now, or defer it until later, makes no difference to me personally.

BTW, my IRA was close to $50K. After penalties, fed, state taxes, I was left with just over $40K to start my very first flip. I've turned that $40K to $98K from my flips (all of them were 50/50 partnerships). My commercial deal, if goes as planned will add $250,000 to that. All started from me taking a risk and using money that was just sitting there growing slow.

I would've never imagined that in my third year into real estate investing that I would have been involved in purchasing a $1.4M commercial property. A quick transition from just flipping one SFR in 2016. The bigger pockets podcast has been monumental in learning and motivating to commit to action instead of just "dreaming" about it. Thanks for everything BP ! Go big or go home in 2019 !!!

Year 1 : 1 SFR

Year 2 : 5 SFRs

Year 3 : 26 Residential Lots and a 72,000 soft retail shopping center. 

All started with confidence in myself and liquidating my stagnant IRA.

email me the address so I can confirm comps.  I’m interested . 

[email protected] 

Andrej Petrovski 

Livonia has been my bread and butter . I'm not sure I can cover the full $250k but if you are interested in a JV , I would consider allocating towards your project . If you are looking for typical funding for this one , then I can reach out to some friends .

Hello ! Keep learning, networking, and then don't forget the action!

I'm also at GM at the Tech Center.  I started investing via flipping in 2016.  I just posted a blog entry sharing my story about how I did my first flip in 2016 and how I upped my business to 4 flips this year!  I love it.  There are several local investor groups.  You can search and join them. They have onsite meetings at various locations, podcasts. 

Of course the bigger pockets podcast is great! But for local flavor, check out Jeremy Burgess and the Renegade Detroit Investor group.  There is a podcast and FB group.  

Also, another seasoned investor, which I have not had the pleasure to meet yet, but have listened to and read his blogs on this platform intently, is @Jeff Rabinowitz

There are many!  Good luck exploring and welcome to the game. 

@Jeff Rabinowitz

Confidence and focus is all you need. The majority of the people I've discussed this supplemental business with have had some of the typical negative responses full of fear and doubt. Well wen you have confidence in yourself and focus of vision, that's all you need. I'm proof of it. I started the first year by cashing out my IRA from an old job I had. This was against the societal brainwash of never liquidating your retirement fund. I decided I'm going to make my own retirement fund :)

It wasn't much, but enough to get started.  Networking with friends and family I was fortunate to find some interested financial partners.  I proved to them that I could execute this business.  Spent the first year managing one project and learning the process.  The whole project took about 5 months.  Many lessons learned.  But going into the second year (2017) I'm just about to list my 4th deal this year and project another successful transaction.  I'm proud, grateful, and excited for upping the numbers in 2018.  

Good luck to all the up and coming investors that have the will power to risk.  No Risk , No reward. 

If anyone is interested in being a financial partner in a deal in the suburbs of South East Michigan, please reach out.  I can explain my typical structure for my deals and how we can benefit each other. 

I focus on Oakland County and the Nicer areas of Wayne County.