All Forum Posts by: Michael Ciesielski

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Flint.

Purchase price: $67,900
Cash invested: $5,000

Initially purchased August 2018 as primary residence, in January we converted it to a full rental property after moving-out.
It was on the market for less than a week before we had tenants placed!

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

This started as a first time home purchase / primary residence so I was looking for a place that I would want to live and was close to work.

How did you finance this deal?

The company I was working for in 2018 gave employees a loan of $15,000 for the down payment and closing costs to purchase a home in one of the surrounding neighborhoods. I used that money as well as a conventional loan (mortgage broker).

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I accepted a new job offer out of state and had to move within a 4 week period so we quickly had to find a property management company to list the property and get tenants. I personally would suggest giving yourself more time to vet companies... we went with the one company that would actually respond to messages out of the five we contacted.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Property Management Inc (https://www.flintpropertymanagementinc.com/) Mike & Jessica are amazing!
Jonathan Schlinker (https://jonathanschlinker.remax-michigan.com/) Realtor

@Craig Smith, thank you for this. I will look into the Facebook groups as well.

@Jim Blackburn, thank you for the information. I will check out that site about hard money lenders. I am currently meeting with local credit unions to see how they handle the smaller loans as well as their thoughts on working with LLC for investment properties.

@Landers Pruitt III thank you, I visited a local credit union here in Flint after work to talk to them about investment property loans and they seemed like they are willing to work with properties in the $30 - 45K range but the woman that does that was out sick. Do you have a specific Credit Union you would recommend looking at?

I am analyzing small multi-family properties (mostly duplexes) in Flint, MI and the surrounding neighborhoods (Flint TWP, Davison...). I do not have cash to purchase a property outright so I am looking into loan options but most of the properties are under $50,000 - do banks / credit unions do loans that size? 

Also - I am thinking of putting the property into an LLC, thoughts on if that is a good option?

@Reese Plante, I currently live and work in Flint. I would be happy to drive through a few streets and let you know if they are nice or not. Are there certain areas you are looking at in Flint?

If you are planning on self-managing the properties, then I suggest starting with the 1-2 properties that are the "middle" level SFH or a small multi-family (duplex / triplex). This way you get to build up your experience as a property manager while having more than one unit (build scale).

I currently live in Flint so if you end up looking in this area, let me know and I will do what I can to help.

@Kevin S., there is a split in my area of if pets are allowed. I believe it mostly varies based on the owner - there's a leaning towards yes.

What are people's thoughts of allowing tenants to have pets in their rentals? Also, I live in a city where it's more common to see someone with a pit bull than not; what are your thoughts of "aggressive" breeds?

@Sean Tabor I am in Flint, Mi. If you're available, I'd love to talk to you more about rental properties in the area.

@Jabari Long, where are you looking that would be considered nearby (to Flint)? Also, what are your thoughts of investing in Saginaw, MI?

It has a large university, several major hospitals, blue collar employment, and easy access to I75 which makes it convenient to live there and work elsewhere.

@Adam Kirk I currently live in Flint and am looking at investing here as well. There are good areas that are close to the 4 colleges / universities and there are also 2 teaching hospitals so there's definitely a tenant pool. If you do end up investing out here let me know, I'd be interested in talking with you more.