All Forum Posts by: Randy Lance

@Jake Lowing First I will say welcome to the site.

It is good to see a local investor using and benefiting from Biggerpockets and house hacking.  

If you haven't already, look for the local meetup.  It is held the second Monday of every month.

See you around.

There is a good group of investors here from grand rapids Jen.  I am a buy and hold investor with properties on the east side of grand rapids.  Make sure you go to the meetup website and find the local meetup happening each month.

@Jake Kozul 

 Hi Jake, call Sun Title on Plainfield and they can help facilitate everything needed for you on a 1031.

Best of luck

@Ravi Chaudhari 

I live just outside of Grand Rapids, MI and own a few place in one of the suburbs.  There is and have been several construction projects to convert old warehouses to apartments which has been a nice addition to the market, but the demand for places to rent downtown and the surrounding one mile radius is strong.  The expectation is that you would have greater cash flow and no appreciation the further you get from the center of downtown.

Some area's to look into if you have some cash to burn is the suburb of Grandville, Jenison, and Wyoming.  A lot of new higher end retail going up meaning more demand for retails.

My two cents but be prepared to be lower than 2% on rents and purchase prices.

Randy

@Austin Harris welcome to the group and taking the step to introduce yourself.  I too am from Grand Rapids with units in Lowell and SE GR.  East town is a great area for investors, but it takes a lot of capital to get your foot in there unless you take the steps that you have.

Do you have a REI goal? What is your next success story?

I work from a VO for a company out in NJ and having the flexibility as you have is outstanding.

See you around and again welcome.

Randy

@Thomas Blaine 

 Looking over the numbers, it doesn't seem like that bad of a deal.  The concern I would have is the fact that they are all one bedrooms and not mixed.  Would 8% or 7% going forward be high enough vacancy rate for this area and unit type?

Related to the gas/electric, do you pay that for each unit or is that when vacant?  Is 6% for PM a know or is that an estimate?  In Grand Rapids, the going rate is 10%.

Randy

Good evening fellow investors.  I have what may be a rather unusual request, as I am looking for recommendations for cities or neighborhoods to move to on the North Side of Chicago.  I am a real estate investors at heart as I have 13 doors currently in Michigan, and will look to follow that same concept in Illinois.

I have looked at Lakeview, Rogers Park, Hoffman Estates, and Itasca, basically anywhere I can get to the city by transit in 30-45 min to downtown, as this is where my new job will be at.  I need ideas and locations to look at and what rents to expect.  I have 2 children, so that will play a huge factor in the location search.  I will eventually look to but maybe a duplex or something but not till after we get acquainted with the city and neighborhoods.

I appreciate the wealth of knowledge and expertise that is on biggerpockets and this seemed like the perfect place to ask my question.

Thank you,

Randy

Gary, welcome to BiggerPockets from another native Grand Rapids, MI investor. As far as flipping land, @Seth Williams is our local expert I would think. If you look over the podcast's, his was number 39, it had great information about land and how that niche is paying off for him.

Look forward to seeing you around.

Randy

Steve - welcome to the party. I am also in Grand Rapids and look forward to meeting up with you at the next meet-up.

Randy

@Pierce Robinson

Welcome to the party. Read through the threads and get your hands on as many books as you can. The podcasts have plenty of resources to lean on.

Look forward to seeing you around.

Randy