All Forum Posts by: Jeff Roth

Hi Avery-

Great question!

I would recommend getting your real estate license and working for a high volume agent after you are licensed on their team.

This will help you learn more about the real estate locally, practice the skills of real estate and hopefully make more than minimum wage.

You can also offer to help real estate investors invest in properties locally as well and take a commission. This will allow you to network with the very people doing what you want to do while earning money.

Then, you can buy a house to live in with very low money down and rent out the other rooms to cover the mortgage expense. After two years of living in the house, you can go buy another house the same way keeping the first house.

This will get you started and you can build from there.

To your success!

Hi Daniel-

Great question!

Here is an article from AirDNA about the best amenity bang for your buck and they try to break it down by region:

https://www.airdna.co/blog/the...

Happy to help a fellow Ann Arborite! :)

Hi Keith-

This is a great question!

I am a big fan of the idea of Occam's razor or finding the simplest solution to a problem with the least amount of steps or variables.

That being said and not knowing your exact specifics I will give you an example.

You could buy 7 houses in Lansing, Michigan for $50,000 each for $350,000. Each house will cashflow about $700 after property management, taxes and maintenance a month. $700 a house X 7 houses = $4,900 a month or $58,800 a year--fastest, easiest solution.

If you don't have $350,000, you leverage what you do have into value add duplexes in the same location buying them so you can pull out as much of your downpayment as possible after adding value for about $120,000 a duplex. It will likely take more houses and this plan has more steps with fixing up the houses, which your property management company will help you do, and refinancing out your downpayment--more steps, more potential for miscalculation.

To your success!

Hi Bethany-

This is a great question!

If I did not live in Michigan, I would be looking to invest in Michigan.

You can easily buy several cash flowing properties in a place like Lansing (the State capital) with that budget or one class A property in a location like Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, or Traverse City.

Also, while many areas are seeing rent increases slow nationally, Michigan is continuing to see solid demand for rental housing.

Michigan has a temperate climate, abundant natural resources (especially water), and a diverse economy.

To your success!

Hi Josh-

Congratulations on saving $45,000 and getting started in real estate investing.

Consider looking outside your local area if price points are too high where you are at.

You can fairly easily buy a cash flowing property in locations around Michigan or many places in the Midwest. 

Start with a solid local property manager and have them evaluate any property you are considering before you buy.

Also, try to buy a property that has equity or that you can force equity with improvements to get as much of your $45,000 back doing a cash out refinance or getting a Home Equity Line of Credit on the equity to use the same $45,000 to buy the next property.

To your success!

Hi Saleh-

Great question!

I think it is worth getting your license and that is exactly what I did.

Not only can you keep the commission from buying and selling but you gain knowledge from the process of getting and maintaining your license.

Additionally, you can run your own comps and have access to the MLS for prospecting new deals.

Finally, you are likely to make helpful contacts in your real estate office that can help you with your business.

To Your Success!

Hi John-

Great question!

I always advise using a property manager that you have vetted in the area and have them involved before completing the sale.

They can help you with the underwriting and planning for adding value and managing the property to your investment goals.

Always worth the money to hire a quality property manager. They save you from having more tenant turnovers than necessary.

To Your Success!

Hi Shane-

This is a great question as I am currently looking to develop similar relationships with local property managers to help manage STRs and MTRs.

I too have found reluctance from traditional property managers to take this on.

I prefer to work with someone locally that knows the area and can handle issues directly themselves rather than an out of state property manager.

Short of incentivizing the property manager with a management fee premium for taking on the extra work, some form of self management is likely until you find the right person or company.

To your success!

Hi My-

Congratulations on moving the ball on your real estate investing goals.

If I were investing out of state, I would start with finding the right property management company first. They are an important part of the team and make real estate investing as "passive" as it gets. Also, a good property manager will keep tenants happy which reduces turnover in tenants and means more return overall for your investment. The property manager will also likely know good real estate agents to work with in the area and if any of the property owners they manage properties for are thinking of selling. They also should have a team of contractors to keep you from getting scammed and should be able to get your property rehabbed if needed after purchasing. 

Even in the areas I invest in Michigan within an hours drive of Ann Arbor, I use property managers and don't buy a new property without the property manager weighing in on market rent and the area the property is located.

Basically, a good property manager is worth their weight in gold and you can find them by asking on Facebook groups for real estate investors in the area or asking local real estate investment groups.

To Your Success! 

Hi Jacqueline-

Great questions and I also help investors as an agent in Michigan.

Typically, I work with investors that like a particular area I have written content about and have shared on Facebook real estate investor groups in those areas or posted on my website.

Then, I work with them to define their investing goals and specific buyer criteria so we are only looking at properties that fit that.

It has not been a problem working with investors after defining their buying criteria because only a few properties will meet that criteria.

To your success!