All Forum Posts by: James De Silva

Great, thank you both @George P. and @Chad Rider

Hi all, I could use some advice. I have a property which has a shed in average to poor condition. The City of Westland has received complaints of rats near the shed and asked me to build a rat wall around it. Also, it's seems the shed was originally built without a permit. How much would it cost to build the rat wall and to get the necessary permits. (it's an good sized shed). Should I just demo the shed instead and if so, do I have to compensate the existing tenants. I don't think they use the shed at the moment.

Hi Vincent/Kyle, I'm also an Michigan based real estate investor. I've met Annette in person and she's great and very helpful. But that said, if this is your very first real estate deal, I'm going to echo legions of BP people and go, you should think very carefully about doing an out of state deal when you're starting out. You're much better off doing something locally if possible, or at the very least, getting out to the place where you are doing the deal and getting to the know the area and the people reasonably well. NJ to MI is a $300 return flight and a short one at that. Much cheaper than the cost of a deal gone wrong! Come over and do your due diligence.

Also MI is pretty this time of year and worth the visit anyway.

Royal Oak is a bit hard for rentals these days, as it's relatively expensive in the Metro Detroit area. Berkley, Ferndale are coming up to join that party, but is cheaper in comparison. 

Hazel Park and Oak Park are big rental communities. Some parts are definitely nicer than others, but they are generally safe/older neighbourhoods with good people.

Having been reading the forums for a while, I've seen lots of successful real estate investors here who had 'some' stage, gone broke and bankrupt either due to real estate or other circumstances. Either way they lost it all and had to start again. And bravo for each of you for dusting yourself off and getting back up again!

For those who went through that process, I'd love to know what valuable insights you'd like to share with us who are just getting started. What went wrong, and with the benefit of hindsight, what might you have done differently to protect yourself?

@Account Closed thank god someone says it like it is. Give me taxes and social services any day, then no taxes and anarchy. (Would have been nice to help answer this guys question tho).

I don't believe the community is against using your money to purchase the property, but we recommend not leaving your money IN the property.

The simple example is, say you buy a property for $80000 with your own personal money.

Then as you said, in 6 months to a year, you refinance it and because you (hopefully) bought it undervalue, you appraise at $100k. You get 80% of that back, so you're back to having $80k. So you never 'spent' your money really. You just parked it somewhere to come back to it.

Great suggestions! Thanks @GeofGreeneisen, @mhd624 and @hutch24242002 and @SlowDown. I will follow up with each of these guys and give you the referral :)

Hi all, I'm looking to install two new furnaces in my duplex. Does anyone have good recommendations of HVAC installers in the Metro Detroit area? The property in question is in Oak Park, MI. The current pair of furnaces are 15 and 35 yrs respectively. Both going strong(ish), but I feel like it's getting time for some proactive maintenance.

I appreciate everyone else's feedback above, it's always better to try and fail, then not fail at all. But failing here in REI can set you back a long while if you horribly mess up. I'm not even talking about losing your EMD if you have to back out. it can be a even bigger headache than that

My advice would be to lock down the deal, then find someone who is experienced to partner up with. You can learn a tonne, they can bring money, knowledge, and a team to the party. All in exchange for a cut of the deal. Mitigate your risks. Don't forget the first rule of investing. Don't lose money.