All Forum Posts by: William Nance

Are there any Michigan based MHP owners out there I could take out to coffee or lunch? Short of attending a boot camp, I’ve done about as much reading and research as I can on the subject. An investment partner and I have capital and we’re now starting to build broker contacts. I’d just like the opportunity to get the first hand insights of someone who’s actually purchased and run a park. I’m located in SE Michigan but I’m open to a weekend drive.

While I've posted a handful of times elsewhere, as I am now at the point of looking to make a first investment I wanted to formally introduce myself. Through a personal contact that has become successful with real estate investing, I started to dive into the subject last summer. This was a paradigm shift in my life. It was the start of a realization that the professional path left me deeply frustrated, unfulfilled, and as the dog chasing their proverbial tail. I was always going for the next best object or professional opportunity, thinking that would make me happy. Discovering BiggerPockets and what is possible outside of a "traditional" career was truly eye-opening.

I thought of myself as having a fair degree of financial literacy, but through coming here and then nonstop reading I realized just how much better I could be doing. True, I'd avoided bad consumer debt, worked on my 401K, and did some saving, but I never started building a snowball toward wealth and freedom from a cubicle. I saw income growth as the path to a "better" vehicle or "better" widget I'd barely notice was improved. The only snowball I'd worked on was toward a career where I'd get more and more work, less and less time, and always thinking "I'll be happy after the next promotion/raise/etc." Through coming full circle and understanding what we both really want in life, my wife and I have ramped up our savings rate and made a plan to gain independence in life from what "you're supposed to do."

While we were busy saving, I did all I could to learn as much as possible and determine where to focus. I understand that reading only goes so far, but even if it's just lunch with a seasoned investor I wanted to respect their time by knowing as much as I could about their field without having taken part myself quite yet.

This brings me to today, with capital and the knowledge I've been able to build, I'm looking at my first investment, specifically a mobile home park. While it's true that an SFR may be the more traditional starting point, all I've learned to date has brought me to MHPs. I know that I'm not exactly getting in at the best time historically, but as the best time to buy real estate was yesterday, and the second best time is today, it's better late than never.

With that, I would greatly enjoy the opportunity to take any current MHP owners in Southeast Michigan to coffee or lunch. Thank you again to the community and this site for opening my eyes.

This book truly changed my life, so much so that I bought a copy just to give to my brother in the hopes that he at age 27 could take advantage of what I'd already passed at age 31 (he's single and doesn't own a house yet, whereas I'm married and have a home).

I have to admit, when I started listening to and reading Bigger Pockets I was thinking all about increasing earnings and didn't understand why I would "rob" myself in the mean time and be "needlessly frugal." Fast forward about a year and lets just say life is very different than it was 12 months ago. Thanks again Scott and BiggerPockets.

@Adam Anderson

@Roberto Moore

I apologize for the delay in responding and logging back on. We have begun speaking to a financial advisor for initial discussions but if we decide to go another direction I will more than certainly reach out and keep you in mind in the future. Thank you for your time.

I appreciate the thoughts and that’s certainly why I agree with the sentiment regarding AMU wealth advisors and their conflicts of interest. I should also say that this isn’t being driven by me but as a compromise with my significant other. I’ve gotten her to come around to real estate investing fully, but she wants to speak with a “professional” first which is somewhat impossible to argue with as being a “bad idea” unless she’s going to read all I’ve read which isn’t going to happen any time soon.

Any recommendations for a fee-only CFP in the metro-Detroit (Troy and outward) area?

My wife and I have begun accumulating savings and have eliminated all of our student loan and other bad debts (2017 was a huge year of change thanks to discovering Bigger Pockets). While we're in a starting position ($25K in cash savings), we are now saving $3K per month and looking to build a plan with an advisor who has personal experience in real estate investing. My thoughts were to begin regularly investing in Vanguard's S&P 500 index fund (VOO) and continue to learn as that grew into a decent capital position (~$100K) to begin investing in smaller MFRs (potentially with a partner currently in MFR who is interested in purchasing with me). I'm happy to admit Set For Life has continued my transformation this year and going toward this point. Becoming job optional with "passive" income as soon as possible (~10 years) being the ultimate goal (i.e. property management company employed to run the assets, but as we haven't started yet we're keeping an open mind and this is why having a CFP who has real estate investments themselves is critical). I already track and budget all our finances and have a basic plan to wealth generation put together, but a second set of professional eyes to correct or reinforce is what we're after.

Long story short, a fee-only CFP with real estate investment experience, interest in clients looking to seriously grow wealth from square one, and who would create a plan we may check in on once a year would be perfect.

Originally posted by @Paul B.:

Originally posted by @Sam Shueh:

The congress needs to endorse the bill but it hinted it will be retroactive implying it may hit use by 4/15/18 for 2017 tax. 

 Whoa, this might be in effect for 2017? It seems unfair that we can't make decisions for the year when we don't even know what the tax implications will be. I don't see how it gets passed soon enough either. I assumed that it would go into effect for future years, not retroactively. It's definitely not going to pass in its current form now. As another poster already said, there isn't a single line in the tax code that is going to get deleted easily. Some powerful lobby will defend every letter of the status quo.

Per the WSJ today "The bill also limits the home mortgage-interest deduction. For new home purchases, interest would be deductible only on loans up to $500,000, down from $1 million in the current tax structure. If enacted, that rule would apply retroactively to mortgages on home purchases starting Friday. Existing loans, including refinancings, would be grandfathered under the $1 million limit. The bill would end the mortgage-interest deduction on second homes and prevent the interest deduction on new home-equity loans."

I cannot comment on other items that may be retroactive as this was the only one I noted in reading regarding the plan. I doubt this would remain, but it's the current proposal at least.