Hello!  My name is Ethan Evans and I'm new to Bigger Pockets and investing.  I live with my family in the Lansing, MI area and am looking to buy my first investment property as a buy-and-hold rental.

I have a real estate agent that I've worked with previously and am now getting an LLC setup for this first property. I grew up as a Dave Ramsey so I want to do a 15 year mortgage on my rental properties, but still have more learning to do about other types of financing and what makes sense for my strategy and comfort level.

I am also seeking a quality rental management company as I don't want to manage all of the day to day as I'm getting started.  Any recommendations are most appreciated!

For the property itself, I want to start small and buy under $80,000 either a single family or multi family home, preferably with tenants already, and something that's already in good condition.  I'll try some fixer-uppers later on; my day job keeps me pretty busy right now.

I'm looking forward to meeting many of you in the forums and value any advice and encouragement you can offer this guy!

Hello and welcome to Biggerpockets!! Nice to meet you. Good luck going forward!! Hopefully, the day job will allow you to do thing you want until get going good. If you have not, list to podcast. Wealth of knowledge.

@Ethan Evans

Hey Ethan, I invest in Lansing. I use DS Huber for PM.

Best of luck getting started. You can definitely find a property for less than $80k. That is probably a little steep actually for a SFR in Lansing.

Another tip I have heard (you can take or leave this). Instead of a 15 year mortgage, you can get a 30 yr mortgage and pay it as of it was on a 15 yr schedule. This allows flexibility in case you need extra funds randomly.

@Ethan Evans

Welcome to the BP family! Good to have you here!

Here are some recommendations for you:

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Wishing you the best!

Welcome to BP Evan and good luck investing!

Thanks for the response and welcome, everyone!  I have been devouring the podcasts too, they're great!

@Sean Sloop...

I used to live in the twin cities, so that's cool to see you're from there!

Nice to meet you, thanks for letting me know who you use for PM.  I think I looked at DS Huber a while ago, I'll have to give them a second look!

Thanks for the tip on the 30 year mortgage. I have heard that, and am weighing if I want the flexibility and be able to save towards the next purchase, pay for fix up costs so I can BRRRR it, or what.

Thanks again!

Ethan

Greetings Ethan,

A good first step to learning and investing in Lansing is to come to our REI Meeting tonight! Details in the link below. There will be property managers attending, contractors, other investors, realtors, everything you need to find success in our market. If you can't make it tonight, we have a Real Estate Coffee which is another great opportunity to network, learn more about investing and about the Lansing area.

We'd love to have you, this group helped me grow from no deals, to well on my way to financial independence (4 more years to go!).

REI Meetup Nov 26th, 2019 6PM to 8PM
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/776728-rei-november-meeting-lansing


Real Estate and Coffee Dec 5th, 7AM to 9AM
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/750766-coffee-and-real-estate-lansing