All Forum Posts by: Courtney M.

The only way to cash out on your home in California is to move out of state (or move inland), because the entire market tends to rise together. My husband and I have discussed this, we love California but are unsure of our exit strategy. California is both the best and the worst in many ways :) I can tell you traffic has not improved one bit with COVID! Our neighbor is a residential realtor and our area (inland SoCal) is becoming more popular as people WFH, particularly people in OC. However, the summers are absolutely brutal if you're not used to it! I'm curious to see how long this will last.

To my knowledge, Columbus is one of the hottest markets in Ohio right now. Lots of posts on BP about it!

Well, an inspector and appraiser can of course let me know about the condition of the property - but local market knowledge is where I'd assume a good broker would earn their fee.

It's obvious I have a lot to learn so appreciate the insight!

@Mark Delgado - I live in SoCal but travel up to Sacramento frequently for work! 

Thank you all for your responses!

At this point I've only purchased single-family homes. My broker has provided a great deal of value insofar as knowing the market, and as my PM he also knows rents and the "good" areas.

I've done quite a bit of reading about multifamily and am looking at deals all across the board. The value I'd be looking for a broker to add would be information on the market, rents, what is typical in a market for utilities, relationships with property managers and GCs.

I live in SoCal and am investing in the midwest (Michigan and Ohio) so I do really need a trusted partner here.

A lot of good thoughts. It may be worth it to pay a broker myself. Right now I'm looking at properties anywhere from 4 units to 20 units.

Michigan is a very broad market, there are pockets of opportunity everywhere.

On the west side of the state, key cities to look at would be Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Lansing.

On the east side, areas such as Livonia, Westland, Redford, Garden City, and Wayne all offer good opportunity in blue-collar neighborhoods.

Closer to Belleville is Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is pretty expensive; I'm not overly familiar with Ypsi but it's a college town and there's likely to be MF opportunity.

I would pick your criteria and run some searches on Zillow. Once you see if an area is a good fit, I highly recommend finding an investment broker and property manager to help guide your searches.

Thanks for the feedback @Mark Delgado!

I don't feel confident enough in this space to go it alone - it seems a bit bizarre for larger properties this isn't common.

Good luck on your bid! Is the property in the Sacramento area?

I've been reading a lot of books about multifamily and one piece of advice I seem to read over and over is a lot of people buying multifamily don't use a buyer's agent - that seems to be frowned upon in this space.

I'm sure it's impossible to say what is standard in this market across the country, but I'd love to know if you've found this to be true in your experience.

I am starting to look at buying multifamily and it seems, to me, it would be disastrous to go about this. The listing agent is going to do his or her best to sell me on the property - I need someone else on my team that isn't trying to sell me.

What's your experience in this space like?

@Dylan Muckey - I actually grew up in Livonia! It's an excellent area, schools are desirable for families, but IMO it's become overpriced the past few years, at least for my criteria. It will be pretty difficult to find something around 1,000 SF for $100k.

@Ryan Mackereth

A similar situation happened to me on a SFH I purchased in Westland. In my case, the estimated taxes were based on owner-occupancy. The following year, they were adjusted to a tenant-occupied property, so I had a temporary increase in my mortgage payment as well in order to make escrow whole. The payment has since adjusted down, but it was a nasty surprise!

This is a good source for the future when looking at Michigan properties: https://www.michigan.gov/taxes...