All Forum Posts by: Matt Ridenour

Ok everyone. I've gotten such solid advice from here and I'm coming back to the well.

My elderly neighbor just passed away suddenly.  She lived on a nice piece of land that I would like to purchase.  She has no next of kin and I assume she didn't have a will.  I asked her about selling last year and she was not at all interested.  

Just looking for first steps to get on this!

Thanks all!

@Account Closed what about the tenant that neglects the property?  Our tenant buyer deferred all of the maintenance and I didn't have a say in the matter.  It's 2 years late for a decent paint job (historic district) and the roof is next.  Also nothing good going on inside, nor landscaping outside.  I washed my hands of the mess knowing that he was on the hook for the balloon payment after 5 years, but then he went and defaulted.  Not sure how to protect against that other than screen the tenant buyer better. (school of hard knocks)

@Danny 

@Danny Webber, thanks for this.  It's a good start to helping me define my absolute numbers.  Working on refining my goals today to be more specific.

@Danny Webber my main goal is to replace my w2 income with real estate cash flow over the next 4-5 years.  (retiring from teaching at 30 years.)

@Account Closed my mistake was in not keeping close tabs on the tax payments for the property.  The tenant buyer paid 17.5k down and paid on the land contract but then never paid the taxes.  He walked away from the property leaving that debt for me to cover and kindly told me to use his 17.5k down payment to help cover them.  He trashed the place but I wasn't paying attention because he was purchasing it and I wasn't going to have to worry about it.  Like I said I learned some valuable lessons. 

Would you care to share the agreement you use via PM?  I could have my attorney look it over to adjust for Michigan laws.  

@Mike M. Thanks for the input. I am a little shy about the lease option, as I’m just coming off a failed land contract on the property. I did learn some valuable lessons from that so I suppose it’s not out of the question.

I’m a lot shy on the red 32 option. :-)

@Matt Hurley getting closer to that possibility. Doing some valuations. See you at the meetup next Thursday?

@Zachary Metler

😎

This is why I love real estate!  So many different ways to solve the same problem of building wealth.  

Boiling down the questions and answers provided above:

Property is near Ann Arbor Michigan, Ypsilanti to be exact.  Insert keyword alert here.  Hi Ann Arbor investors!

Taxes in Ypsi are the 2nd highest in the state, 2nd only to Ann Arbor, making it tough to cash flow a rental unless you absolutely buy it right.  (Ann Arbor just passed a billion dollar bond for school improvements.  Great for my kids, terrible for my wallet.)

I am secretly in love with multi family apartment buildings but I have very few connections with multi family investors.  If I cash it out, I'd have about 180-190k left over to reinvest which would make an awesome 1031 I presume. @Adam Leitman Bailey thanks for pointing me down that route.  

Holding the property and letting values increase seems risky both because of the sheer law of averages on our market curve, and also due to the limiting factors of our high taxes.

I have to confess that I spent a long time in the HELOC zone. I love the idea of not making payments on a debt unless I'm using it.

@Greg H. it's been a rental since 2004.  Our basis is high at 180k.  Kind of a long story, but we bought a tiny terrible house and fell in love with making it our dream home.  First house, ya know. :)  Also the house is definitely local to us.  That said, I have been looking around at other markets trying to get a feel for where I could invest. (@Dave Foster) :)

Ok, more to consider.  I'll reread these all and make some connections.  

Thanks again everyone.  What a community!

@Eric Teran, thanks so much for the advice.  I'll start looking for a few local architects to see who we can work with.  

@Greg Dickerson , the city has been contacted.  My wife sat down with the planner and went through the list of options so it sounds like we are off to the right start.  I'll check your channel out, thank you so much for the information!

My wife is a project manager for a design build firm locally.  We will tag team the GC role and use her contacts in the area for our subs. 

Thanks again guys!

@Greg Dickersonundefined