All Forum Posts by: John Aloisi

We use a round dollar number just under 1.5 rent. 

I've had several friends recommend Victor's Roofing (Canton, MI) to me. I haven't needed to use them yet. But that's who I'll be calling when we need a new roof on one of our houses. Check out the reviews linked at the bottom of their webpage. 

https://www.victorsroofing.com/

I second the recommendation that you use an online rent collection service like cozy.co. If you're actually going to a bad section of town to collect rent, something is wrong. 

I haven't used Castle PM, but I've heard good things about them. And I'm pretty sure they work in Hamtramck. 

Victor's Roofing is a great roofing company. If I had a sagging roof, they'd be the first place I'd call. http://www.victorsroofing.com/ 

Invest in a good camera and take exceptional pictures of the houses you list. I can't believe how many listings I see where the lights are off, the toilet lid is up, and the overall perspective makes the rooms look smaller than necessary. 

Harry Cassidy is one of the best listing agents in SE Michigan. Check out his work here: http://harrycassidy.com/listings.asp This is how it should be done. Starting out you won't have a team like he does, but that doesn't mean you can't create sharp-looking listings. 

@Owen Rosen That's interesting. I've only heard very good things about REIGuard from other landlords. 

Danny, 

We're actually closing on our first investment property this week, so I'm not an expert by any means. But here's my 2 cents. If I'm reading you correctly you're looking at $182/month cash flow. That seems a little low in light of your initial investment ($20k+). 

I wonder if you could do better on your insurance. We shopped around quite a bit and ended up going with Affinity/REIGuard offered by the National Real Estate Insurance Group. http://reiguard.com They specialize in insuring investment properties, and my guess is they could save you at least a few hundred a year. (I have no connection to REIGuard except as one of their new customers.) So far we've been happy with them. They allow up to 60 days without renters before you have to change your insurance status to vacant (higher rate). And they do monthly billing directly to a credit card. So far we've found them to be more flexible than other insurers and they definitely beat the quotes we were getting from more traditional insurance companies. 

We're looking for an insurance agent who works in the downriver area and is happy to write policies on rental properties. Any recommendations? 

Looking at buying our first rental. Here's a duplex we're looking at. What do you think? Is this a good deal or should we keep looking?

Purchase price = $75k

Financing= HELOC for full amount at 3% = about $300/mo

Duplex currently rented at $1,300/mo total. Tenants pay all utilities. Both units currently rented. We plan to self-manage.

Property tax = $2,500/yr

Insurance = $1,000/yr

Maintenance = $100/mo

Cash Flow = about $600/mo