All Forum Posts by: John Lutkenhoff

@Brian Fiorillo I live and invest in Grand Rapids MI, are any of the properties that you are looking to liquidate in Grand Rapids? And are any of them multi family?

@Charles Kao

Thank you Charles, I really appreciate the insight!

@Adam Daneff

That's great, I've actually looked at Kzoo as an option. How have you liked investing in Kzoo?

I probably forgot to mention the twist, I'm looking only for multi family properties 2-4 units. All the banks I've talked to say that's the difference for the down payment percentage. Do you have multi's or all SFH?

@Adam Daneff

Not so much on the house hack scenario, but I'm still kicking myself for not hacking way earlier in life with my first house. We got our house off market in a choice area of GR and my fiancé loves living here, not to mention it's a pretty large single family 1934 home that I'm slowly remodeling. I say this with love for her, but real estate isn't her passion as much as it's mine, but she's willing to invest money with me so that's great. That being said, I'm trying to satisfy us both by having the house she wants, while I work at building a portfolio, and both of these things take money.

Awesome, thank you! I'll add them to my list to contact. 

Do you invest in GH? I'm originally from Grand Haven. My parents still live there, by the YMCA on Sherman, they have a couple of rental properties there as well.

@Adam Daneff I'm looking all over MI, but I started with GR just because I prefer to keep things local. I'm willing to go outside GR to get what I need though. I do not have any assets to put up unfortunately, my fiancé and I have a mortgage on our primary so we can't use that since we just purchased it about 1.5 years ago and don't have much equity in it. We're a couple months away from having a really solid down payment, but the less we can put in to the first one, the quicker we can get the second. Who was the lender you used, if you don't mind me asking?

@Jackson Andrews You mentioned a lot of your friends and people you know leaving CA, where do you find that most of them are going? Are most moving to the same place, or all different places?

@Sheldon Santos Exactly. Bringing something like the ability to obtain low to no money down financing to an investor that has all of their capital tied up in other deals at the moment, in addition to you maybe doing some of the value add repairs and maintenance as part of your contribution to the partnership is very valuable. I'm not saying the investors are going to come flocking, but it's another tool in the tool belt when looking for ways to get started. Getting creative and exploring all options is what it takes sometimes. Good luck, I hope you accomplish great things sir!

@Sheldon Santos Don't forget about your ability to utilize VA loans and the low down payment that comes along with it, in addition to so many other benefits. That's a huge factor for someone that is having trouble coming up with the large down payment that most banks require to purchase an investment property, or someone that's looking to scale quicker than they can come up with the capital. A low money down VA loan may be exactly what someone is looking for, and could get you in to a partnership with an experienced mentor type investor. You may want to learn how the VA loans front to back, if you don't already know. Being a master at utilizing VA loans could be a niche all in itself. Both my sister and brother-in-law are Air Force and Navy vets and utilize VA loans, from my understanding they can be quite beneficial even on investment properties. Good luck to you!

@Taylor Campbell That's awesome, great job and congrats on a great find, that's a great looking unit! Can I ask what lender you used to only pay 15% down? I'm looking to buy my first property in the next few months in MI and find that not many banks will do 85% loan to value. I'm looking to tie up as little in the down payment as possible so I can scale a little quicker.

@Steve Wilmers Thank you for the great information, I've not heard of that method. I don't have the liquidity now, but that's not to say that won't be a useful tool down the road on my journey. Most of the lenders I've talked to have said the same thing about the percentage that you mentioned, mostly due to the times we're in. Good luck to you as well Steve, thanks!