All Forum Posts by: Dan Johnson

@Rob Greer welcome to Los Angeles! I have been in the real estate industry in the WLA area for several years now and was born and raised in the area. Happy to answer any questions for you.

Hi Rachel Main my wife and I bought a home in Grand Rapids last year. We also live in CA. A couple of things to consider: 1) Taxes are much higher (percentage) than CA. We are paying around $360/month for a $90k purchase. 2) Snow removal can be a pretty heavy cost if the home sits vacant in the winter. Lots of snow due to lake-effect in Western MI. 3) Lender - we went through a local bank (Formerly Talmer) for our financing. They were purchased by Chemical bank during our transaction so it wasn't too smooth. I would recommend reaching out to local companies though. CA lenders wanted 30% down due to out-of-state. 4) Be sure to see the home in person. Many of which are 100+ years old. Could be lots of unexpected maintenance. We had a few surprises on what appeared to be a remodeled home. Lesson learned. If you have any questions about PMs, feel free to reach out to me. I interviewed a few while I was out there. Overall we are very happy with our investment. We were able to fetch a decent rent during the off-season and it is cash flowing nicely now. Large tenant pool as well due to multiple universities in the area. Good luck!

Hi Denny Moody look into Grand Rapids MI. My wife and I just bought our first rental. Taxes are a bit high but our COC is pretty good after all expenses. You may want to reach out to our agent Jake Thomas he was very knowledgeable and very helpful through our transaction. Good luck!

Hi Kenny Oliver I would definitely suggest flying out to see the property for the inspection. Yes, stay out of the inspector's way but also get a sense of the property and area while you are there. Any descent agent can make something look good on paper. Seeing how functional the units are is very important. Put yourself in the place of a tenant and ask yourself if you would live there. If your valuation includes 10% on management fees and you're okay with that, it is absolutely worth it. I am a property manager professionally and also own rentals out of state. I would not want to do it remotely without a turnover or two under my belt first. A lot of unknowns will arise. Good luck!

Hello Hong Ahn and welcome! Out of curiosity where in MI did you buy? I am also from LA and just bought a SFR as a rental in MI. It would be great to pick your brain about the market out there. I too am looking to buy more and step it up to duplexes, triplexes, etc. out of state. If you have any questions about the multifamily market in LA, feel free to let me know. My brokerage specialty was multifamily sales in WLA.

Hi Luis Frias welcome to BP! If you have any questions regarding multifamily in the Los Angeles area, please feel free to reach out. I have a discernible grasp on the multitude of pockets LA has to offer.

Jake Lampinen what area did you end up buying in? I was originally only interested in buying a duplex, however, it looks like the SFR market offers some pretty good opportunities as well.

Jake Thomas hi Jake. If you have some time tomorrow, can we discuss GR?

Thank you Kiersten Vance for the input. That is not an area I have thought of yet and would be an interesting place to take a look.

Fay Chen thank you very much for the thoughtful reply. These are obstacles that one must seriously consider, but it sounds like you've been pulling it all together. Best of luck in the future! Dan