All Forum Posts by: Gary Fraser-Lee

@Matthew Healey     I am just curious,   with a "pile of kids" and a full time job,  why do you feel remote buy and hold is your best initial option for investing in rental property?    Why not do a local buy and hold?   Get a good realtor locally to do research footwork for you then once you purchase use a rental property management firm to manage it (you would have to do that in a remote scenario anyway)?   Just my opinion, but it seems that owning a remote property would just add unnecessary stress to your life.

@Dani Beit-Or (and others)

I find it interesting when Grand Rapids Mi is mentioned in these conversations with L.A., Tampa, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, Raleigh, Chicago, etc.   Yes, Grand Rapids is a great city that has done nothing but get better over the last 10 years or more.  It has garnered a lot of attention from magazine ratings and other "top 25" or whatever lists in the last couple years that it is now drawing out of state and international investors.   I am sure just that is a major factor in the rapid increase in housing prices over the last few years.  And there are bad areas of the city From what I see now competition for single family houses is very stiff.  Our daughter was buying her first home this summer in just reasonably desirable areas and was outbid (by multiple bids) in the first day homes were on the market with over listing prices bids on 4 different homes.  I am not trying to discourage you, but it just saying that if you are going to invest here, long distance from California, you better be careful and have some trustworthy boots on the ground here.  Reputable contractors are very booked up as well.  Grand Rapids has as much or more of a chance of being in a "bubble" than some of the other cities that are mentioned here.  So keep that in mind...  you are looking at a tight, hot market.  I did buy one rental property about 18 months ago, but was lucky enough to have a good realtor that did a great job negotiating with Bank on an Bank Owned proerty.  Message me if you have questions.

Yes,  Nice work!    Just curious how many bedrooms and Baths?

My first question would be, how close to Grand Rapids do you want to be   or    Do you already own 80 acres near Grand Rapids?  It sounds like you are looking to buy that 80+ acres right?

Petru,

You need to familiarize yourself with "market" the areas that are within 30 minutes of downtown, where the BOB (Big Old Building) is located.  The Grand Rapids Market is EXTREMELY hot.  Homes consistently sell for  market price up to 10 or 15% above asking price.   My daughet and son in law are looking for the same properties you describe (except in the 130k pricepoint, which in itself is not easy to find in a desirable neighborhood) and have put in two LIST PRICE bids plus one bid that was  + $19,000 that was bigger but needed gutting and total update, and were outbid on every one of them.  And these were in the first day of the listing.  I don't want to be negative, but this is not a typical market at the moment.   Good luck.  And for you and your firends sake I truley do hope you succeed!   A foreclosure auction or something like that may work out for you?

The above two posts are exactly correct.    I attended, even though I knew it was going to be sales pitch...   "Slick" salesmen and associated helpers though!        I walked out before the end where they were going to get into how much the "package" costs, so can't tell you exactly about that.   There is nothing of value you will learn simply by attending, just hype.

I shopped around nationally and locally  in Grand Rapids and found the best option to be at Lake Michigan Insurance Agency for my rental.

Thank you Bill.  What you say is exactly as I was thinking... most likely I would not have issues, but that one party (or whatever) with neighbors complaining to the city, could be all it would take for the city to start to question whether EVERYONE in the house was part of a "single family" or domestic relationship not seasonal in nature, as the ordinance states.     I have decided not to proceed for this and other reasons.

I am looking at purchasing a single family home (4 bedrooms) near a local university.    It is zoned specifically "Single Family Home"   According to the zoning ordinance this means :   

Family means a person living alone in a single dwelling unit or two or more persons whose domestic relationship is of a continuing, nontransient character and who reside together as a single housekeeping unit in one dwelling unit. "Family" does not include a collective number of individuals occupying a motel, fraternity, sorority, society, club, boarding or lodging house, or any other collective number of individuals whose domestic relationship is of a transient or seasonal nature.

Should I be concerned about possibly renting to 4 unrelated students...  It seems to me this is a common occurance...   but legally I could get called out on this???

Thanks everyone!

Randy Lance, hope to see you at a West Michigan RE Investor Club meeting (I just registered). And yes I am a bit familiar with Seth Williams as I heard a podcast from another RE website with him as well.

Paul, Timmins, Thanks for the advice, I just signed up for my local REI club, and have downloaded the book. Yes I have thought of the student housing rooute as well, for my son's housing, but not real sure yet what his housing requirements will be as a freshman. For that matter we are still finalizing where he is going to school. He has been playing Jr hockey for three years after High School, shooting for D1 scholarships, but that may not be working out so looking at other options for college. Stay tuned :)