All Forum Posts by: Pamela Morrison

ELGA was good to us for a while but recently has tightened strings. Genisys might do a heloc but if I remember correctly, rates were crazy high. 

I also suggest Transnation, Mason Burgess division

I have a condo complex that we do work for with our contracting company that has a beautiful clubhouse that is rarely if ever used.  It shares a common wall with a 2 bedroom unit that is currently used as a rental.  The board approached me about converting the clubhouse to a 3 bedroom unit and then selling the 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom units as condo's.  Does anyone have any experience with a project like this?  The building is owned free and clear and is situated on the current condominium land (common space) but does not show as separate units on the township master plans.  The units currently have separate water meters, water heaters and furnaces but share the same gas/electric meters.  The electric and gas meters could easily be separated.  I feel confident in the construction side of things but would love any feedback on the legal side as far as what is needed to sell them as separate units.  Any thoughts?

@Montez B. if you are looking for a Flint meet up, Midmitten Real estate investors meet once per month at the Ferris Wheel building downtown. Ethan Lavigne heads it up. Super cool guy.

@Toni Dixon College Cultural neighborhood is really the best place if you want close to downtown. Flint Township neighborhood is very desirable also. Correct north end is not best. The one neighborhood I mentioned above is east, border of Burton. So there are good pockets almost everywhere. Yes we invest in single family. Most of the multi family units are not in the best neighborhoods. The ones you are mentioning bring 550-700 in rents but have a change of being a more challenging tenant. Burton could be another option for an area to invest in for you. Price point will be sightly higher. 

@Toni Dixon we are local, just south of Flint. We have been investing in Flint since 2019. Both flips and rentals. Cash flow is great. Now it’s a little tougher with the higher property values. You need to be extremely picky on the neighborhoods you buy in. We were paying 40-60k for 3/1 homes bringing $750 rents (C class homes). Now those rents are up to about 900-1100 and those homes doubled in value. But again, neighborhood is important. We flipped 3 that we were going to rent because we moved to different investments. It’s a little harder to find a deal now like it is all over. Keep in mind Michigan in general is sensitive to economy fluctuations. Have a good property manager that screens well would be best advice. 

Investment Info:

Single-family residence fix & flip investment in Gaines.

Purchase price: $160,000
Cash invested: $50,000
Sale price: $375,000

The investment that gave twice! A cash-out refinance and then a huge win with a large sale in the end. An awkward layout and motivated seller was to our advantage. We searched for 9 months to find the right property. This diamond in the rough was exactly what we were looking for. We have incredible vision to see things others cannot. As well as being super innovative and cost savvy, we can make things look like champagne on a beer budget.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We did well with our first live-in fix and flip. It was a sure path for us to create a lovely home to live in as well as make a profit in the end.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This deal was on the MLS. It was stale, sitting for months. Super awkward layout. It was 2200 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home.
The second floor was 1100 square feet entirely of knotty pine and an open bathroom you would find in a 70s disco club (although house was built in 1990). The sellers were going through a bitter divorce and there were no other offers in sight. It had been listed at $220,000. We held firm with our $160,000 offer.

How did you finance this deal?

We used private money for the purchase with interest only payments. The renovations were funded with our profit from our first live-in flip.

How did you add value to the deal?

We added value by creating an open floor plan. Changed the entire layout. Made a master suite and added a powder room. Moved the laundry and doubled the size of the kitchen. The kitchen was created with a used set of cabinets and a few found at Habitat for Humanity that we painted. Custom built the island and used a lovely stone. Added a fireplace with built in shelving and cabinet surrounds. Reworked the entire second floor to be 3 large bedrooms and a giant bathroom.

What was the outcome?

A win twice investment! Our first win was doing an 80/20 cashout refinance February 2019 for an appraised value of $290,000. We had a check for $232,000! Paid our private lender $160,000, and bought a buy and hold rental with an inherited tenant. That would be our first buy and hold investment.
The second win was taking advantage of the low interest rate/Covid market! Sold the home September 2020 for $375,000! We walked away with $114,000 cash in our hand!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

This deal taught us a ton about loan products. Learned about the power of cash out refinances! The biggest challenge was finding the time to work on the home while both living there and having 'real' jobs.

@Angelo Brown Do you have an LLC or business set up with the properties in it? You can do a cash out refi or get a commercial line of credit (we use ELGA credit Union). They will appraise the property and give you 70% of value. Since you have rehabbed the properties, you should be able to pay your promissory note, or just recycle his note to you and get another property. We also have an investor money friend and do the promissory note as well.

@Trevor Aydelott what flint properties do you have available? We have about six. Looking for a few more. Let me know what you have. 

@James Fraundorf we have 6 sfh we rent in Flint. There are very few pockets where flips will work here.  You just need to be able to buy it right and find the good neighborhoods.  Flint Twp is best suited for flips or College Cultural neighborhood. Mott Park is also another area that flips can work. Otherwise, we find it’s great for a cash flow strategy.