All Forum Posts by: Tom A.

Welcome @Darrol Phillips! We're building a spec house in Royal Oak right now.

This is a great place to learn. It's also good to get to know other local real estate investors.

In addition to several good local REIAs, we have a local Biggerpockets meetup. This month's meetup is at Bahama Breeze in Livonia on the 24th. It's just a casual get-together attended by a couple dozen current and future real estate investors. No charge, except for anything you order to eat/drink. More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/535074366590057/

I think Chris is right, it's a ghost town off-season. I was out there in October a few years ago and 9 out of 10 hotels were closed for the fall/winter/spring. You'd need to make your money in the summer.

There's a couple websites you can look at that list vacation rentals. For Myrtle Beach they break it down by section of MB, then by condo complex. You can find what similar units are renting for and start to do the math.

http://www.vrbo.com/

http://www.homeaway.com/

Hello @Mike F. and @Tiffany V.! Welcome to the Biggerpockets forum. It's a great place for gaining knowledge and getting to know other investors. As Aaron mentioned we have a monthly meetup that's a great way to meet other local investors. I also recommend checking out some local REIAs.

@Account Closed, I'm going to tell an investor I know about this thread. He is an active investor in Pontiac, a licensed agent and builder and knows the city very well. For your title issue, there are two title agencies I've had good experience with from an investor's perspective.

Erica Weichel, with http://www.mycoordinatorllc.com/

Jason Seaver, with http://www.seavertitle.com/

Please bear in mind that we are currently getting slammed with snow and cold to the extent that most schools and many businesses will be closed Monday (over a foot of snow, and Monday's low here is supposed to be -12F).

Hi @Douglass Benson, nice to see you here on Biggerpockets in addition to in the real world!

Hey @Marques Barton , here's the scoop on the next Metro Detroit BP Meetup. It will be 1/24 at Bahama Breeze in Livonia (I-275 and 7 Mile). Hope to see you (and anyone else reading this)!

https://www.facebook.com/events/535074366590057/

I'm OK with Fridays @Aaron Yates . Not my preferred day but we promised folks we'd switch it up a bit so that everyone would have a chance to attend at some point regardless of their pre-existing obligations so doing a Friday makes sense to me. Personally I'll be out of town on the 17th but if that date works for people then I'll just hit the next one.

Welcome Marques! Follow Akiva's recommendations for local REIAs and the local meetup -- they're great ways to meet like-minded investors that you can learn a lot from for free, or in Mike's case, for the price of coffee and a sandwich :-). Mike's a great guy and an astute investor, your Panera investment will be well worth it! Hope to see you around.

@Account Closed, if you want to access the consumer-facing side of the Realcomp MLS go to moveinmichigan.com. It draws from the same database as Realcomp 3.0 does, which is probably what your agent is using.

Sites like realtor.com, Zillow and Truila also receive data from the MLS's but in my experience there can be time lags and occasionally flat out incorrect information. Zillow and Trulia pull from many more data sites than just the MLS (for example, Postlets and Vflyer).

That can be a good thing in that you may see more homes for sale, although IMO 95+% are also on the MLS, but they can also pull in old data. I've had calls on houses that sold over a year ago but still showed up on the Z and T sites.

Rehabbed, ready for tenants. In the low-vacancy, trendy midtown area. ROI off the charts! 21,000 sqft plus 5,700 sqft in carriage house. 49 rooms gives you all kinds of rental options! A steal at $2.79 million! Currently occupied by a law firm but we'll steam clean it to make sure there's no odor.

OK, this is tongue in cheek, I'm not selling this or tied in to it in any way but this is the opposite end of the spectrum from the typical sketchy Detroit turnkeys marketed to out-of-state or foreign buyers. It's a Louis Kamper-designed mansion built in 1892 for a railroad/shipbuilding baron that has been well persevered and used as a commercial building by a local law firm. It's in a prime location and must have cost an 1892 fortune to build originally. Check out the photos. Those of you on the coasts can sell your 2-bedroom Manhattan or SF condo and buy this with the proceeds. :-)

http://www.loopnet.com/xNet/MainSite/Listing/Profile/Profile.aspx?LID=17129352