All Forum Posts by: Daniel Wuerdinger

@Leonard L. Yes, its very messy. Honestly I think it's definitely worth hiring out for a few hundred bucks. I won't try it again... Redoing everything was quite horrible - so many problems!

Thanks!

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $35,000
Cash invested: $40,000

Purchased in Warren, MI for 35k cash plus ~5k repairs (fixed up myself), closing costs, taxes, etc.

Currently rented to a long-term tenant at $750. Identical house next door rents for $850, so higher potential.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Only interested in Buy and Hold at the moment. Trying to replace my engineering salary within 5 years or less!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Through an investor group on facebook - off market.

How did you finance this deal?

My own cash. Will get a cash-out loan after 6 months.

How did you add value to the deal?

House was in pretty good shape and only needed cosmetic rehab. I painted everything, replaced the entire bathroom and changed the countertops in the kitchen.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

It seems like the house was built around the bathtub... after messing up the re-glaze I was planning to do (didn't prepare the surface well enough) I decided to replace the bathtub altogether. Ripping it out and putting the new one in took me about 14h.

Lesson learned: Next time hire out the re-glaze.

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you so much for your feedback - in hindsight I should have turned to Biggerpockets before I printed those cards - lol

All you points make a lot of sense, will definitely implement them on my next run. I added the phrase about bandit signs because I kinda explain in my video what I mean with higher price. Although most of the potential buyers may not even go to the website anyway - also a lesson learned.

Do you think it is worth handwriting the cards and send them to the owners of the houses we find during driving for dollars? It is very time consuming - should I rather send them out in bulk to entire neighborhoods?

-Daniel

Hi everyone!

Pretty new investor here trying to make things happen. I bought a fixer-upper here in Hazel Park, Michigan (Detroit Metro) in February 2020 and did a top to bottom cosmetic rehab myself (first place I own myself after having rented places for 10 years). I bought it for 120k, put about 5k into it (and a lot of my own time), but it should be worth about 140-150k now. Definitely not a home-run but I was under buying pressure since my lease ran out and I was done renting. Should also make a decent rental later on and cash flow at least 100-200$. 

During this time I saved up enough money for a sizable down-payment on my next investment and maybe even a full cash purchase if the next place is <70k - so I'm ready to buy more!

I set up my very first own website and had 1500 postcards printed. Me and my girlfriend are currently driving for dollars in the surrounding areas of Oak Park and Warren, since these seem to be the closest areas where one can actually find deals close to the 2% rule and anything on the MLS is sold to an all cash buyer within 5 minutes it seems... Last Thursday I sent out the first 35 cards. My plan is to BRRRR my way to financial independence in the next 3-5 years, first single family - later multi-family. Currently I am slaving away as an engineer for a supplier in the automotive industry.

Since I do not have much experience with direct mail I wanted to turn to the Forums for any honest feedback and tips. I attached a picture of my first card design. After I find the owner of distressed looking properties I currently hand-write on the back that I am interested in their property on "123 Main in Oak Park" or other properties in their portfolio if they would like to get rid of them. 

What do you guys think? Also feel free to check out my website at www.DW-Investing.com (first video I ever made, also not a native English speaker, moved to the US in 2016, so there is definitely room for improvement). 

Let me know if you have any input for me. 

Thank you, you guys and gals are awesome. Biggerpockets has taught me so much since I stumbled across the Website last year.

All the best, 

Daniel

 Hey Gian, 

Absolutely, good luck with your fix and flips! Hit me up when you're in the area. 

Best regards, 

Daniel

@Jamiel Strickland

@Isaac A.

Hey guys, thanks for the welcome! I'll make sure to connect with both of you. 

Best,

Daniel

 Hi Salliece, 

Thank you very much for the input! I'll definitely check out some of the local REIAs - I'm also in Oakland county so that one  could be a good start. I'll also make sure to attend one of the MREI meetings, it seems like they meet in Troy which is just down the road from my work. Thanks again!

Best regards,
Daniel

Hey BP-community!

My name is Daniel and I am currently working in the Detroit Metro area on a Visa (E1). I am slaving away my life as an Application Engineer for a German automotive supplier. I strongly believe, that I found real estate investing as my way to financial freedom and I'm hoping to quit my day-job within 5 years (or hopefully less) from now. 

I moved to the US in April 2016 and I see huge opportunities on the real estate investment side here in Detroit and the US in general. The market here is much different from my home back in Germany where it is extremely hard to make money from real estate. I found that the overwhelming majority of investments does not even break even, in addition to having a huge tax burden... 

I've been living in rentals for the past 3.5 years here and I am finally sick of paying into someone else's pocket. So I did my research and now I am currently closing on my first single family home - first to live in it with my girlfriend, but possibly use it as a rental later on (should cash flow ~$200).

I make pretty good money during my day-job so I am already planning on buying the next property during the first half of 2020. Ideally a 4-plex, later on scale with the help of larger apartment buildings.

I'd be very happy to meet more seasoned or aspiring investors and I am also very interested in finding local meet-ups so that I can grow my network here in Detroit. Feel free to reach out!

All the best,

Daniel