That is the thing that will eventually get you over the hump, not talking to realtors who, for the most part, don't know anything about working with investors and have heard the "once I get this first property, I am going to keep going" dialogue a million times.If you want to market yourself, the best thing to do is to walk a five-block radius that you really want to buy in.

I encountered a lot of bad management companies who just drain investors money.

The ones I’ve come across are in areas with boarded-up houses throughout the blocks, which I’m not quite ready to invest in as a new investor.

You can only play games for so long.Chances are your next door neighbor is an IRS agent and turns you in when your tenants blocks their drive or some other random event disturbing your IRS neighbor.ADU catches fire and your insurance won't cover you, because it was an illegal and unpermitted structure.The city inspector told the last guy not to build or rent it, and is now pissed and wants to make an example of you and just red tags the whole property and no one can occupy for the next 1-2-3 years while you wait for a hearing.Then when you get the hearing, "staff" recommends you tear the whole structure down, and if you still want an ADU, you can apply for a permit and rebuild it.Your tenant quits paying rent and won't move out and you can't evict them, because there is no valid lease and they're just your "roommate".Probably a dozen other bad things can happen to you when you do stuff like this. 

From clogged drains and leaky faucets to ceiling fan installation, fences, painting up to small kitchen and bath remodels there isn't much we can't do.

Block construction cement floors with the floors sloping to a central drain. concrete counter tops stainless kitchen cabinets boob lights and minimum windows by code .

As an update from my end, since my concrete block walls were knocked down in Hurricane Ian, today I finally found out that new block was delivered put back up and the Tie-Beam is being formed to be poured.

Managing properties remotely is definitely possible, but it’s a lot smoother when you have good contacts for maintenance, property management, and leasing.Another challenge I've faced is that Detroit is very block-by-block—you have to really understand the neighborhoods.

Our house is in the R2 zone (4 blocks off main) and the process to transfer the permit back in March was a breeze.

My savings was completely drained from interest payments and surprise costs I had to manage, and lots of little costs that at the outset I believed this guy would cover (100 to mow grass, every two weeks).