All Forum Posts by: Brandon Wolgast

Any recommendations for a good agent who is familiar with purchasing small MFHs in the metro-Detroit area?

Specifically looking to start out with an FHA type loan to house hack my first property. Looking for slightly distressed/dated places where I can force equity by doing repairs while living there. Not a ton of deals on the MLS in this area, so would need an agent who can find off market deals.

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply Nicole!

I use the bigger pockets calculators religiously, and I tent to estimate 5% across the board for CapEx, Vacancy, Repairs and then play with my numbers and go all the way up to 10% to see what sort of impact that would have as well. I am probably overly conservative in my calculations, as that is my default state of mind (prepare for the worst, hope for the best). If anything, I'm at the point of analysis paralysis from running so many numbers haha.

Thank you for the pointers. What you say about smaller SFH in C and B neighborhoods makes a lot of sense.

Looking to start out in rental property investing sometime soon here, and I have a few questions. In my current area, most SFH are out of my price range and those that I can afford are in less desirable areas or need a lot of work. Multifamily homes in this area seem to never even hit the MLS, and if they do they are priced so high that a positive cashflow is next to impossible. I would rather not invest too far away since I want to actually manage my first property myself, so I am left with limited options it would seem.

Given the following, which option would an experienced investor recommend to get started:

1. Invest in a condo with a good HOA that allows rentals and budgets properly (due diligence is obviously required here) and rent that out. I've found many condos in this area can cash flow $200+ a unit based on comparable rents in the area, sometimes nearing 30% cash on cash returns. $50-60k condos in areas with $900+ avg rent is not uncommon.
2. Mobile home investing. John Fedro on the BP podcast was quite inspiring and I do think there is a lot of untapped potential. One idea I had is to perhaps partner with him via his website. This would allow me to learn from an expert in the field while simultaneously building up some extra cash for future investments.
3. Invest in a house that is in a less desirable area and generates less cash flow then the other two options, but may be 'easier' to manage than dealing with HOAs and mobile homes.

I have been educating myself via biggerpockets, books, blogs, and videos for a few months now and I plan to further my education prior to starting anything, but I am struggling with coming up with a direction to focus my efforts on. I do know my primary goal is cash flow, as I would like to have the financial freedom that real estate can provide.

tl;dr -   If your primary goal is to invest for cash flow, does it ever make sense to go into more 'niche' areas like condos or mobile homes if it seems like those may be untapped markets in your local area? Or am I better off strictly focusing on SFHs and small MFHs to start off, even if the ROI may be less and it may take longer to reach my goals?