All Forum Posts by: Daniel Mulberry

Hi.

I am thinking to start investing in Buy/Hold rental properties with a mind to generate modest cash flow. In addition to being new to RE, I live and work in Asia so I will have to rely heavily on a property manager. I am happy to pay a little extra to the best PM I can find if it means more security for my investment and more peace of mind for me.

Now that I am looking for a PM, I see that many also offer bird-dogging, maintenance, inspection, accounting, and other services. A few even advertise that they have properties with renters in place so it would be truly turnkey. This is appealing to me. Especially the bird-dogging since I can only do so much property scouting from overseas and I am certain that I am missing deals.

I am a little nervous about turning everything over to one company though. On the one hand, I suppose this is the RE equivalent of vertical integration, so it should be efficient. Plus it creates a certain incentive for the PM - if they do good work, I can continue pumping capital in and helping to grow their operation, but if not then I could walk. On the other hand I worry that this reduces oversight and that the various elements of the company could cover for problems in other areas.

Does anyone have experience with this? Do you find that it is better to have separate partners for each part of your investment? Information about how these different strategies affect month to month expenses and quality of service?

Thanks!

Thanks for the welcome everybody!

I know Detroit fairly well. The house I own as primary residence is nearby and I have several friends near the places I am looking. I don't know the city itself much and I am not interested in taking that risk, so I'll stay away from that.

Finding a local PM is one of the big challenges I see. Is the best way to do that by asking around here? Is there a part of the forum where I can ask about PMs in this area?

Thanks again!

Hello and thanks to everyone who has helped me learn about real estate with the information posted here.

I think I am about to start investing in real estate, but I still have a number of questions to work out.

I am working abroad so I am going to have to rely heavily on a property manager. I already own another home (Primary Residence but currently occupied by a friend who pays cost and does maintenance) and have learned that spending the extra dollar on a professional and getting out of her way is well worth it.

The main market that I am considering is suburban Detroit in solidly middle to lower middle class neighborhoods with home values regularly 80-150k (Dearborn, Livonia, etc). My goal is simply to establish a modest income stream through cash flow. I hope to purchase my first investment property within six months and to continue self-investing for the next three years until I have three to four properties. At that point, I will evaluate how RE fits into my overall financial situation and whether to keep building a portfolio.

I'm sure I'll have lots of specific questions, but I'd be happy to hear any general advice, particularly anybody who has experience in this area.