All Forum Posts by: Kevin Suksi

The Detroit area is experiencing a lot of transition right now.

There are many areas which have always been viewed as "destination" areas, and are now financially within reach for people who wouldn't have been able to reach them in the past.

Other areas which are not viewed as destination areas are the ones who are experiencing some of the deeper price plunges. I think the key is to know which areas are magnetizing people - know where they are running to and where they are running from, and why.

In the Detroit area, this can vary a lot from city to city, and within the city itself, it varies block-to-block. If you buy in an area which isn't a destination area, you may struggle to attract a good tenant.

A lot of landlords find success by purchasing a rental property in a GOOD school district, near perhaps a not-so-good school district. People are often very motivated to get their kids into better schools and keep them there - and stay in your house, limiting your biggest expense, which is of course vacancy. Many such contrasts exist in our area.

Good opportunities exist here but don't fall into the trap of buying the cheapest properties - they are cheap for a reason.

My $.02. . . .

Hi Hal - welcome to BP! We are in the Detroit area but invest in the suburbs. If you are committed to the city, though, and would like someone who is knowledgeable to work with, shoot me a note and I can suggest a few people for you to talk with. Good luck!

Mark - yes that was me you met with in Troy a little while ago. I hope all is well with you!
RIchard - interested in discussing further - I'll PM you for more details
Joe - thanks for the tip
Dan - thank you
Jackie - would be interested in discussing how we could work together

The solution we ended up going with: we unhooked the cabinets and moved them out. Then we put down 1/2 inch boards cut to 1/4 narrower than the cabinets. We put the cabinets back in place on top of the boards. Now we can tile to and slightly under the cabinets, including the dishwasher area. Height issue is resolved.

I think the unfortunate truth about this may be that we're going to need some improvement in credit market conditions.

We were able to get a cash-out refi on a rental property this week, but we had to guarantee it personally and it took 3 months to get through underwriting.

Our plan is to approach the bank for a small unsecured line when our business is two years old - which really isn't that far away.

We currently have a HELOC, our personal account, 2 business checking accounts, and now this investment mortgage all through the same bank. Our thought is to establish strong payment history in all the accounts, show the 2 years of existence of the business, plus all of the trade accounts, and hopefully all of this combined will build a strong enough business case for an unsecured line.

Thanks all for the responses. Will let you guys know how we end up resolving this.

We are rehabbing a home whose primary feature is the kitchen, but are running into an issue that we're pretty sure others must have run into before.

Then kitchen has really good cabinets - they are Amish made custom solid oak cabinets. The floor is linoleum and the counters are laminate.

Our plan is to keep the cabinets and to replace the linoleum with ceramic tile, and to replace the laminate with granite.

Photo of the subject kitchen:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?pid=4678784&fbid=413000793030&id=243015333030

We are planning to tile right up to the existing cabinets (we will temporarily remove the island but not the base cabinets against the wall - it is one custom unit rather than multiple units pieced together and will be very difficult to remove).

The problem:

This will create a height issue with regard to the dishwasher - I am concerned that if we do this - especially if we tile the area the dishwasher will actually sit on. Worried that a dishwasher won't fit.

Any suggestions? We'll certainly measure to be sure, but it looks like the solution might be to not tile where the dishwasher will sit, and to push the dishwasher in.

This could mean that the new owner will have a problem removing the dishwasher in the future if they run into a problem with it. They might have to bust tile out to remove the dishwasher if we follow this course of action.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Katrina, I think that's a great idea to make a thread of the companies who will provide business credit without PG.

Since the post a few months ago, we did get a discover card in the business's name without a PG so we could add them to the list.

Thanks Marc J Scott and financexaminer for the feedback.

I realize that I am replying to a posting from half a decade ago - unemployment was at 6% or so when this was posted :-) but we're benchmarking this right now. We've been taking out annual policies and then canceling when the house sells. Rates have been 1200 to 1400 per year for the houses we flip, which are 3 bedroom houses 1000 to 1300 square feet in lower crime areas in Metro Detroit. Do those rates sound reasonable?