All Forum Posts by: Trevor Mitchell

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome! I've been studying and trying to network as much as possible. If any of you have any advice that you'd like to chip in on my current deal (which I would greatly appreciate) you can find that here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/88/topics/311...

Thanks in advance and I really hope to connect with some of you in the near future for some mentoring.

My place sits on a triangle between 8th Street and Munson Ave (Front St.) It's an awesome location. The house next door to me just sold for $160K last year. But that place has significantly more square footage and a separate living space in back to rent out (plus it's nicer and newer in general.) I've been looking at the comps pretty closely and based on my profiling of the landlord, I think $105K is reasonable. The plan is to buy and hold for a few years then flip it in a summer. Move on to the next.

Does anyone have any tips on rock solid strategies to boosting your credit over the course of a year?

So as a newbie, I want to get started with a property that I'm familiar with. Here's the basics of the deal. Traverse City, MI. Great location close to downtown and Grand Traverse Bay. 700 sq ft, 2 bed 1 bath. Sitting on a slab. Fenced in backyard. Last sold in 2005 for $102,000. Built in 1955. Freshly remodeled interior in 2012, but will probably need a little TLC on the cedar shake siding soon. Maybe an electrical update. Sits on a 7,000 sq ft lot. Zestimate puts it at $117K but I would probably offer in the $105K area.

I have been renting this house for one year and have been sub-leasing the other room. I just signed the least on May 15th for another year. So I have a year to prepare for this deal. My landlord hinted last year that she wanted to sell in another year or so. I pay $735 a month for rent plus I take care of all the utilities. My roommate pays $525 flat rate. I don't mind having a roommate but as my business is expanding I need a home office. I could easily rent this place out for $950 a month with a little bit of work. Rent is crazy high in price and demand in Traverse City.

My finaces: I work as an outside sales rep for a window and door company. I just started in February with a $30K per year salary plus expense account and commissions. (I'll probably make $40K this year, and add $5K-$10K per year after that.) I don't have very good credit due to poor choices when I was younger. About 600 FICO. I know that I'll have to wait a little while to be able to get traditional financing.

I was thinking I could do an owner occupy deal and live there for another 1-2 years (1 year to finish my lease then present my landlord with my proposal, if she accepts, live there for another year to fulfill owner-occupy terms, and be at my job long enough to get traditional financing.) 

Sorry this is so long, I'm still new so I wasn't sure what information was pertinent or not. If I missed anything let me know, I just need guidance on how to proceed.

@Dan O'Neill

@James Wise

Thanks for the warm welcome guys.

Dan, I will PM you when my schedule gets ironed out for the next couple weeks. Thanks for offering up the time!

My name is Trevor Mitchell. I am 24 years old and currently work in sales for Pella Windows and Doors in Traverse City, Michigan. I have more experience in the new construction side of real estate but I have been interested in REI for about 5 years. I do work full time (about 50 hours a week). That being said, my goal in the next year is to complete my first flip. I do enjoy networking, so if there are any other Real Estate Investors in the Traverse City that would like to meet up for a drink/coffee brain picking session, that would be awesome!