All Forum Posts by: Cory Mccarthy

Purchased in '14 for a hair over $200K, put $20K into finishing basement, appraised for $230K in '15 and should now appraise for $260K+ based upon recent activity in the neighborhood.  Greater Lansing area has been appreciating at 4-5% per year for the last several years and I believe this area has kept up in that regard.

@Darian Lupton - I purchased a house in Lansing in the East Village complex just west of the Grosbeck area about 5 years ago when my daughter was going to school at MSU.  This is a great little neighborhood, all newer houses (most built since about 2010) and extremely well positioned close to MSU, Old Towne, LCC, Cooley Law School and the new Ball Park.  Has been an unbelievably profitable rental for us for many years.  Getting ready to sell 4-bed 4-bath house (3000 sq. ft) in March of 2021 as my daughter is no longer there.  We wish to move our investments a little closer to home since this house is over an hour away from us and is the only reason we are interested in selling.  If you are interested in home, PM me and I will send over more details, but at the very least, I strongly recommend looking at this neighborhood.  Lots of great houses and condos all in a very small, very safe little pocket.  Extremely affordable, especially compared to East Lansing and burbs, and you won't find a better location anywhere in Lansing for someone attending MSU.

@Dominic Franco - if you are looking to change, I can vouch for Linda.  She has been doing my taxes for about 4 years.  Reasonable Rates, outstanding explanations and always looking out for my best interest.  Found her on BP and couldn't be happier that I did so.  She now does my daughters and son-in-laws taxes as well and they enjoy working with her just as well.  She did not and likely would not ask me to recommend, I just happened to stumble upon this post, saw her name and wanted to see what she had to say as I always learn something valuable from her.  Just my two cents, take it or leave it as you see fit.  There are obviously plenty of great CPA's on this site, so not trying to take anything away from any of them, including and perhaps most of all Eamonn McElroy, but Linda has been a pleasure to deal with if you are looking to change.  Good luck to you!

@Nicholas Middleton - Thanks for the mention. Own two houses now, one in Lansing and one in Linden. Have a full time 9 to 5, so have not taken the time to start a marketing campaign to find off market opportunities as such, all of my activity has been focused on MLS. Tough market to find appropriate opportunities on MLS. Have offered on several here and there, but with the numbers, have not landed many. Would love to meet and here what you are thinking for the market and whether or not you are planning to do a marketing campaign for off market stuff or will be focusing on MLS. let me know if you ever want to get together.

@Scott Matthew C.

sorry, didn't tag you properly on my response, so just making sure you see my response above.

Regards,

Hey Scott,

Never invested in Jackson for a couple of reasons. One was I determined it was just too far away while I was just getting out of the gate and two was the contractor that was pointing me in that direction was just not quite professional enough for my liking and my gut told me to shy away. I already had my first property in Lansing at the time and was doing well with it and still do to this day, but reality is it is simply too far away for me to service like I would want. I have great tenants and a good weeding process to avoid problems there, but I just feel more comfortable for the time being having my properties 15-20 minutes away than 1 hour away. I have since purchased and BRRR'd (no fourth R because I haven't repeated yet) my second property not but 5-10 minutes from my house and like that a lot more. Now looking for property #3, but in very narrow range, from 96 north to about 3-5 miles north of Fenton and about 2-3 miles either direction of route 23. That is my comfort zone for future properties for the time being. Have two partners, one is my daughter and future son in law and another that lives in Howell. Just getting to the point that I may venture out on my own or possibly doing something with another partner, although both partners are also looking to do another deal with me. Problem is my daughter and son and law have little money because they are saving for wedding and my other partner has plenty of capital, but I do most of the work.

I saw you have another event coming up soon and I think I will be in town for that one, so hoping to attend, but with my day job, I never know what is going to come up at the last moment that might require me to travel, so I never really know for sure until about a week in advance.  Hopefully we will meet soon.

Regards,

Cory

@lance Leonard - I am in the same market (From Fenton to Brighton, 3-5 miles on each side of 23) and did the same thing (took out a HELOC) to fund the first BRRRR strategy and have been very satisfied with the results to date. Cashflows about $300 per month and refinance got all of my money back. As long as you have run the numbers and know that they are good and have a great tenant (big key here), doing the HELOC is a great way to get started. Would be happy to sit down over a cup of coffee or a drink some day if interested and I can share some of my experience to date. Good luck!

Hillary, 

Far from an expert here and I would always defer to Joe as I own only two properties and he has probably bought and sold two in the last couple of days, but one thing I would ask is what strategy are trying to employ here. Are you trying to add value by doing work on the property first and maybe employing a BRRRR strategy or is this more of a turnkey situation where house doesn't need much work and you are just looking for pure cashflow. Neither is right or wrong, but you do need to be clear about your goals. I did a deal very similar to this, but employed a BRRRR strategy, added a lot of value, refinanced all of my investment back out and now it cashflows about $300 per month and I am perfectly happy with that. I have no more money invested in it at this time, have about $35K in equity and cashflow $300, while my tenant pays down my mortgage, i personally will take that all day long. Many others here won't. But the ones giving you opinions here won't be putting their money down, only you will. If it is more turnkey, then with a nearly $9K down payment and cashflow of $350 per month, it will take approximately 26 months to recover your down payment. Can you live with that? Only you can answer that. How quickly are you looking to scale if at all? Too many variables here to really give you a proper answer as it often comes down to strategy, goals, comfort levels with finances and ultimately tenants (a really good tenant tends to make deals much sweeter in my opinion). If the numbers work for you, then go for it. Analysis paralysis is real and even if it turns out to be not such a good deal in the end, the learning experience will likely be worth it in the end.

@Paul Kessenich,

That makes a little more sense.  I read @Dan Stewart's comment to say that they were trying to eliminate short term rentals and it made no sense to me whatsoever based upon the tourism value there on the west coast.  I probably should not have responded without researching a little first and shame on me for that, but now that you have clarified this seems like a good bill.  I have looked at renting some places about two years from now and am surprised how many are restricted to renting for only one week per month, I assume by local governments.   I imagine costs might come down a little with this restriction removed and would still probably allow the property owner to make more money in the long run.  Seems like a win win to me.  Thanks for clarifying!!!

west coast of michigan would die without vacation rentals.  Can't imagine it would ever pass.  We vacation there every year and always rent.  So many places over there rent regularly, housing market would crash without them.  Wouldn't consider this a realistic threat, Just IMHO.   if you learn otherwise, please post.