All Forum Posts by: Tom A.

Looks great Keith. I noticed you had the bathroom tile refinished. I've had tubs done before but haven't done a 50's/60's bathroom with the wall tile. How has your experience with it been?

Hi @Jim Bowser. More info on Wendy's REIA is at https://www.michiganrealestateinvestors.com

For info on my monthly meetup you can join the Facebook group (see my signature below). If you send me your email address I'll add you the the distribution list for the monthly announcement as well.

@Kevin McElmurry, welcome to the site and to the investing world. That commute does sound brutal. Ann Arbor is super-pricey but Ypsi is an up and comer if you want to be close to A^2. 

Check out our Metro Detroit meetup if you get a chance. We're meeting next Tuesday evening in Troy and it usually goes pretty late so we'll probably be there for a few hours after the sun sets. More info at https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/341642-metro-detroit-meetup-34---august-16-2016

Keep your 2016 real estate investing momentum going with your fellow local investors. The next Metro Detroit Real Estate Investors Meetup is scheduled for August 16, 2016 at the Steelhouse Tavern at 1129 E Long Lake Rd, Troy, Michigan 48085. We'll start at 6:30 pm but people come and go as their schedule allows.

This is a free meeting aimed at helping local investors meet each other, learn what they're doing, share ideas, potentially do deals and generally, advance their real estate investing business.

We've been averaging 30 - 40 people since starting in late 2013, from total newbies to investors with decades of experience and many deals under their belt. There's no charge except for any food/beverages you order and we're a friendly, helpful bunch so there's no reason for beginners not to come out.

There also are always a good number of experienced, active investors who are doing business in metro Detroit right now, buying and selling properties, doing flips, landlording, funding deals with private money, doing joint ventures, building new houses, wholesaling, lease-optioning and executing other strategies. There are usually a few investing "team" members in attendance as well -- title company reps, mortgage pros and investor insurance experts.

We draw investors from Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Genessee, Lapeer and Livingston counties.

More info on August's meetup at https://www.facebook.com/events/137330716707927/

You can join our "closed" (private) Facebook meetup group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MetroDetroitRealEstateInvestorsGroup/

Hope to see you there! Let me know if you have any questions.

These rules of thumb (2% rule, expenses are 50% of gross rents) are simply shortcuts to doing a full financial analysis. Therefore they're incomplete, and need to be adjusted for your own personal investing criteria and your area. 

But with that adjustment they can be very helpful in sorting potential deals in three categories - probably no, probably yes, and maybe. All would deserve further analysis if being seriously considered for investment, but it helps as a first level of screening.

@Ian Studders, @Hassan Imran, the next meetup is June 14th. Please see https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/317894-metro-detroit-meetup---june-14-2016 for more info.

Keep your 2016 real estate investing momentum going with your fellow local investors. The next Metro Detroit Real Estate Investors Meetup is scheduled for June 14, 2016 at the Steelhouse Tavern at 1129 E Long Lake Rd, Troy, Michigan 48085. We'll start at 6:30 pm but people come and go as their schedule allows.

This is a free meeting aimed at helping local investors meet each other, learn what they're doing, share ideas, potentially do deals and generally, advance their real estate investing business.

Last month was out largest gathering, with around 45 attendees. We've been averaging 30 - 40 people since starting in late 2013, from total newbies to investors with decades of experience and many deals under their belt. There's no charge except for any food/beverages you order and we're a friendly, helpful bunch so there's no reason for beginners not to come out.

There also are always a good number of experienced, active investors who are doing business in metro Detroit right now, buying and selling properties, doing flips, landlording, funding deals with private money, doing joint ventures, building new houses, wholesaling, lease-optioning and executing other strategies. There are usually a few investing "team" members in attendance as well -- title company reps, mortgage pros and investor insurance experts.

We draw investors from Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Genessee, Lapeer and Livingston counties.

More info on May's meetup at https://www.facebook.com/events/1738901309729078/

You can join our "closed" (private) Facebook meetup group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MetroDetroitRealEs....

Hope to see you there! Let me know if you have any questions.

You should definitely check out past BP posts on Detroit if you haven't already. But in a nutshell, Detroit is a large city. By land area, it's larger than San Francisco, Boston and Manhattan put together. It had a population of almost 2 million, now it's probably 650,000 - 700,000. There are many different areas. Some are great, many are bad. Some are in between. Both the "Wow, Detroit is on a fantastic comeback" and "Detroit is a cesspool" views have enough truth to them to not be disregarded.

Anyone investing from afar should visit and spend the better part of a week in Detroit and the suburbs. Be aware that many long-distance investors have been lied to, cheated and stolen from with little recourse when investing in Detroit. Detroit doesn't need foreign investors feeding the criminal real estate cottage industry that has thrived and continues to exist here. It results in a lot of lost money and stress for the investor and more mismanaged or abandoned properties for our city.

There are compelling investments here, both in the city and in the suburbs. We need astute investors who come in with their eyes wide open and understand the risk, not just the returns. For most, investing in the suburbs is a safer bet and will be more financially successful despite the eye-popping ROI numbers put forth by some Detroit real estate promoters.

For a passionate and well-informed few, investing in the city with reputable partners may make sense, but that's maybe 5% of those who find themselves drawn to Detroit from afar. Be careful, be smart, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

We'd love to see you out here. You provide some great input on BP too.

Jeff is a pretty brilliant guy (except when he disagrees with me, then he's just sadly misguided).

@Mindy Jensen, yes, that is the infamous @Jeff Rabinowitz! Not a hard guy to spot!

He comes to most of the meetups. Very good guy, we've done some fun projects together.