@David EdwardsA good resource if you want to get in touch with other investors in the Grand Rapids area.https://m.facebook.com/groups/182655905635323

Don't buy too OTM, but a little break-even ish in year 1,2 is fine if the area is growing and growing rapidly. 

Maybe instead of scaling rapidly you’d like to buy 1 building a year.

The lack of hyper-local knowledge is probably an issue in every market, but I think it's particularly difficult in Grand Rapids (I live and invest here).

What happens if a tenant forgets to tell you that the foundation is settling rapidly?

The values are rapidly climbing back up especially in the Northwest part of the city.

I expect property values to continue appreciating rapidly for the next 10 years as Detroit is completely rebuilding as a city that is not depending on the auto industry.

Ask your broker if they have ability to run score wizard, you may have improvement points available and broker can run rapid re-score to raise your score,this could be done in 24-48 hours.

The problem with those sites, like others mentioned is they use old comps and if you know your area you can most likely discount some that are too far away just by looking at the street name.In a market that is rapidly changing you simply cannot afford to rely on outdated data, you need to know what the home is worth TODAY, not last year.Jeff

Have you try to raise the score with rapid scoring?