All Forum Posts by: Adam Buchholz

Jason Vansickle with Coldwell banker. He helped me buy 3 properties in the last year just like you described. As well as our home.

He's in investor himself and understands the rental market. I highly recommend him.

I agree with Steve. Jason VanSickle is a great agent. He's busy because he's doing well and makes his clients happy. But he's always been available to show a property to me and he understands what investors are looking for.

Hi Alex,

I'm a new investor in Lansing as well and I'll be closing on my first duplex in a few weeks. I've gotten the impression that it's pretty easy to find tenants in Lansing, but I'll find out soon. My realtor is Jason Vansickle, and I'd highly recommend him to anyone looking to buy a home, including investments. He is a landlord as well and shares a lot of advice.

Here's a link to the meetup Aaron mentioned. I attended last month and had a great time. http://meetu.ps/e/CzP9C/zkJ57/d

Thanks for mentioning the ductless heat pumps, Robert! Depending on how much I think I can afford when I make the conversion, I would like to be able to install those instead. It looks like they're more efficient, and with mini splits, you can also be adding air conditioning at the same time.

I found a local electrician who is going to inspect the radiant heat system for me and he can advise me on how urgent it is that I upgrade.

Thank you everyone for your helpful responses! I'm getting a great first impression on how helpful the BP community is.

It sounds like I'll just need to find a home inspector who understands the ceiling heat systems and check more thoroughly for mold and signs of pipes freezing. And if it does go out, electric wall units would probably be the cheaper option than having ducting done and a furnace installed. (I don't even know if the house has a gas line. So I'll check on that.) I'm OK with the cost, since the tenants pay for it and it's getting excellent rent already. I'm going to contact a couple HVAC contractors today and see what my options are if I have an emergency or choose to change the system.

Thank you again!

I'm shopping in Lansing, MI for my first rental property and have found a duplex that looks like a great deal to me. All the numbers work out well, and I think I can get a good price for it. I walked through with my realtor, and the only issue that I'm wary about is that it has radiant ceiling heat. I've never heard of this heating method before, but a google search tells me that it was popular in the '70s and can make for a high electricity bill. I'm not too worried about the cost to heat, since the each unit has a separate electrical meter and the current tenants pay their own electric bill and seem to be fine with it. But it's such an uncommon heating method, so I'm worried that I may run into expensive problems with it in the future. Have any other investors run across or had problems with radiant ceiling heat before? I'll want to get an inspector who knows about the system, but does it seem worth making an offer on if everything else works out?

Thanks!