All Forum Posts by: Paul Leason

Kevin, welcome to BP! I am in GR and the good deals are a lot harder to find here. In fact I was looking in Kzoo but don't know the areas down there. What kinda ROI are you making on your flips? How is the market down there?

Good to have you on board. If you need any assistance in GR, be sure to let me know. Investor of 6 years & realtor. 

Paul

Hi Jason!  Welcome to BP. You've joined a great forum!  I'm here in Kentwood aswell but have all of my rentals in GR. Not many 4-units on the market right now are there?!  A few more 2 units and there are a couple in Kentwood. What areas are you looking at in particular?  Let me know if I can be of hep in your search. 

Regards

Paul

Did you buy cash or with financing? If cash, you could look at refinancing and then the 2nd one might be sooner than you think!!  Does the house have a City Cert? If not then you should start to make sure all the little jobs are done before the City inspects and gives you a 2 week notice to fix. 

Then rent, learn, and duplicate!!

@Jonathan Thrasher, like @Tim VandenToorn, I started my investing by taking a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) on my personal home. The advantage of this, like Tim stated is a solid interest rate, but also it acts like a big credit card and you only pay the interest on the money borrowed. It also acts like CASH in a purchase transaction, since they are instantly accessible funds. This worked really well for me, but you need to understand the risk of leveraging your personal home for business. If the business were to fail, your home is at risk. However, once purchased you can then finance that home if you plan on holding it. I'm in the process of a portfolio loan to wrap up 10 properties and pay off the personal HELOC.

I'm here in GR, so if you would like to connect, grab a coffee and talk RE, feel free to reach out to me. 

Regards

Paul

Hey Joe! Welcome to BP!! Cash is king in transactions, especially in a sellers market. But then leveraging you purchase afterwards will allow you to build your portfolio faster. I've had that discussion a few times with my wife and it depends on how much "risk" you are willing to take. If you had $100k to spend would you buy 1 house @ $100k and cash flow better or 5 houses at $20k down and 80% leveraged? Your financial risk is essentially the same but you now how 5 mortgages totally $400k and $500k in properties. Your risk is also diversified over the 5 properties! Just another way of thinking about it! I'm here in GR. Happy to catch up or help out. Good luck out there!!

Michael! Welcome aboard! I am in Grand Rapids and love the RE scene here. I started investing 6 years ago and have seen a lot of changes since then and a lot more on the way.  After 6 years of investing I finally got my Real Estate license this year so that I had more access to data, was able to claim my 3% commission on purchases and sales and have the ability to help other achieve similar goals.  Let me know if I can be of any assistance.  

Paul Leason

Real Estate Investor and Realtor

Hi Thi, I think that if you can get into a nice duplex and have someone pay for most of your mortgage, you are onto a good thing!  My first home was a 5 bed and rented rooms to my friends and paid for my mortgage and pocketed a good amount each month, but I had to live with them!!  It was like a Frat house I guess. But if you can get a nice duplex in an appreciating market/location and only have to pay $200/month say, to top off the mortgage, I think that's apretty good deal. Cheap and then pay down your morgtgage faster or save $ and buy a 2nd property. All depends on how comfortable you are leveraging. 

You could also do a mail campaign, targeting multi units in GR to find a better deal???

Good luck and feel free to get in contact if you want to discus. 

Paul 

Alex!  Welcome to BP!! I too have an engineering background and live in Kentwood and have been investing GR since 2009.  A good strategy if you can handle your neighbors being your tenant is buying a duplex or 4-plex. You live for free whilst paying down your mortgage.  If you then want to buy your own home, you rent out your unit and buy your own place.  

Land contract could be a way to get into investing without a mortgage but opportunities are less and your net will also be lower due to the higher interest rate. Plan on getting your credit score above 620 and start looking for a duplex. 

Call or email me if you would like me to set up a search for you, so you can get all the latest deals direct to your email. 

Paul. 

Michael, welcome to the forum. Yes there are number of us here in GR and what a great City it is for many reasons; real estate being one of them, (BEER another!)

I am working on a Buy and Hold strategy for retirement and am funding new projects with some flips along the way to keep the bank balance ticking over. Been actively buying since 2009 and seen the market rise especially in 2015. 

Would be happy to help you and discuss your RE needs. 

Paul

How soon do the loans need to be paid off and what interest rate are they at?  If the rates are LOW would it pay to get your next income making property first?  Just a thought with a little more calculated risk.  But it then might help pay down the loans faster.