All Forum Posts by: Jay Neaves

Hi Eric,

No I do know about the kind of scams that Sophie may have been a victim of, but that's not why I'm interested. I spent 5 years living in Michigan and my wife is from Michigan (although we live in the UK now) so I am familiar with the area and the market. We visit regularly to see our family.

Hi!

Will do! It's likely our paths will cross once we touch down in Michigan.

I am already finding BP useful and I've only been here a few hours. I figure the more I pick up while I'm stuck in the UK, the more equipped I'll be when we move.

Look forward to learning more from everyone here at BP in the months to come.

Thanks, Jon, James x 2, Keith, Anthony & Tom.

Tom, I plan on getting involved with the REIA as soon as we move back. We will be in a fairly fortunate situation, having a fairly good amount of capital to get us up and running. I just wish we had been in the right financial position 3 years ago!

I guess this is aimed at investors in Michigan, but I'd be interested to hear from anyone in any state...

If you had $100K that you didn't anticipate having, let's say a win on a scratch off or something, and you wanted to invest it in Michigan real estate for the future, what would you do?

Hi, just wanted to introduce myself as I'm new here. I'm Jay, 39, from just outside London, England. My wife is from Michigan and we're moving back there in the not too distant future to focus on full time property investing.

I've spent a lot of time in the Detroit Metro area in the past 12 years and follow the market from the UK. I don't claim to be an expert but I have a fair knowledge of the area having lived there for 5 years. We visit family there a couple of times a year and have wanted to get into the Real Estate market for a few years but didn't have the capital to get things moving. We're now in a position where we should have a large chunk of capital coming our way in the coming months and we're ready to start a new chapter in our life in Michigan.

I'm interested in learning from others who have been in the business a while, particularly interested in connecting with people I can maybe work with in future. I guess what I'm working on at this point is getting a better understanding of rehab costs, financing, and areas to target and hopefully I can start networking in preparation for kick off!

Our overall plan is to build a property portfolio over the next few years. We'll be looking at each deal individually to assess the best plan for each house. We'll probably be doing a variety of things, flipping some properties, holding on to others as rentals etc. We will be cash buying the first few properties, but in the longer term, the plan is to build a portfolio that we can sell in 5-10 years for a good ROI.

Look forward to hearing about your projects and hopefully helping out others too.

Hi Sophie,

As one UK investor to another, I am sorry that this has happened to you because it is very clear to me that you have been taken advantage of.

Although I'm from the UK (Essex), my wife is from Michigan and I have spent a lot of time there in the last 12 years and also have family in the Metro Detroit area so I have a good handle on what is going on on the ground.

You've paid WAY too much for a house in a not so good area. Can you probably rent it, yes, but I would say that you're probably looking at a high turnover of tenants and a lot of section 8 applicants. I would certainly take up the offers of help from people in Detroit and hopefully you can salvage something from the deal.

I think the lesson here (particularly for UK/international investors) is never buy a house you haven't seen, in an area you don't know. Had you spoken to someone "in the know" beforehand, you would have avoided what is likely to be an expensive lesson. I travel to Michigan about twice a year but I don't claim to be an expert by any means, but if any UK investors are considering the Metro Detroit market, get in touch with me and I might be able to offer you a little insight.