All Forum Posts by: Travis Olszewski

Hi Landon, 

What I do/doing is talking to local investors to get an idea of what they are renting property for. The key though is knowing your market. For example the property I purchase, rent for the one side was only $700, the other $950 (updated side). Talking with local investors, completely renoed unit should go for at least $1,100. 

The unit that is not updated, I've already done significant upgrades like flooring, new trim, doors, appliances and current tenant accepted my increase to $850/MO. Luckily they have been accommodating and wanting the updates and willing to pay more for those... so far.

Hi Drew,

Paid market value for condition on property. There were several bids. Forcing appreciation on this one. 

15/30 balloon to capture better interest rate at 30 amortization. Also 50% lower fees. 
 

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $200,000
Cash invested: $70,000

Wife and I finally pulled the trigger on this duplex. Paid market value however the property is under performing. Condition of one side is not up to current standards for market and rents are below market value. Goal is to do full renovation of the one unit and outside as needed. Should be ideal for BRRRR strategy.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Underperforming rental income and needing to be updated. Worst house in neighborhood.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Through Realtor.com. My realtor is a super communicator which won the bid when ours was basically the same as the other party’s.

How did you finance this deal?

15/30 balloon conventional through local credit union.

How did you add value to the deal?

Will be updating one side entirely, doing 90% of the work myself.

What was the outcome?

We shall see

Lessons learned? Challenges?

TBD

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Yes. Kameron & Kristy Morris service SW Michigan. Best in the area!

Hello,

My wife and I are new part time real estate investors in SW MI. We currently have 1 duplex. My family and I will be in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area the week of July 29th. We thought it’d be a good idea to attend a free meetup in the area while we were there. Is there anyone is that general area that may know of any going on that week? 

Thanks,

Travis

Thank you! I will be sure to check them out.

@AJ Shepardundefined

@Colton Hahn thank you. So obvious. Seems no different than when I need to report financials out to my executive leaders. My W2 mentor always told me when presenting to leadership, “don’t BS if you don’t know the question. Simply say I don’t know, but I will find out immediately”. I’ve seen many try to BS their way through and it never ends well.

@Scott E. appreciate the feedback. I will definitely take your advice.

The last two months I’ve been doing the research by reading books, listening to Podcasts, talking to people, etc. I’ve written out my goals for the next 10 years and 20 years for where I want to be. Wrote down my whys and am now formulating my hows. The first couple steps doing the research, buying my first duplex seem rather simple in comparison to steps that will allow me to scale. At some point I’m going to need to partner and raise capital from other investors. The partner aspect I get, but raising capital seems more daunting. I really want to study this aspect in great detail to be good at it. So with that, I have three questions see below.

Question 1: In your experience, what are the top 5 skills one should master in raising capital?

Question 2: What are the top 3-5 books I should read? (Michael Blank’s book “Financial Freedom with Real Estate Investing” seemed to have good tips)

Question 3: I know I will need a mentor as well. So what are the top 5 things I can do to add value to them? I want to add as much value to them as possible. They would be taking valuable time out of their day to mentor me. I want to make it worth their while to invest time in me.

Appreciate all feedback even constructive criticism!

Am I calculating the income correctly for this property? Rent estimator for this area show close to $1800 per month and I know that is close based on people I know who rent in the area. This property is a two unit apartment, so I doubled the income to $3600 ($1800X2). Did I do this correctly? 

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

Hello, anyone from the SW MI area know if there are any regular scheduled meet ups? Also looking for some connections in the area. I searched and found a few members, however I figured I’d cast a larger net here. Appreciate the feedback in advance.