All Forum Posts by: Liz P.

Our offer on our first rental property was accepted the day before our state shut down and Covid took over. There were many times we thought about backing out, but we went through with the deal. It has been an uphill battle, for sure, but I don't regret moving forward. If we would have backed out, there's a good chance we still wouldn't have that first property and would have missed out on all those learning opportunities and connections along the way. It was, and still is, a risk during these times, but our "why" is big enough that we are going to make this work no matter what. 

Hi there! Those parameters are for sure possible. We just closed on our first student rental in Kalamazoo's Vine neighborhood for 112K, 5 bedrooms, and have 5 tenants signed on starting July 2020. It cash flows $600/mo and has a 28% ROI. Our offer was accepted pre-Corona times (literally the day before everything blew up), and prices do seem to have gone up some since then.

The Vine neighborhood is a great place to start. It's close to Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, and KVCC. There are many student rentals but non-students also live there. You would be fairly safe with a nice 3-4 bedroom home even if the Universities did close because you could probably find non-student renters. One thing to keep in mind, though, is many of the homes are quite old (ours is from 1910) and in need of repair. Most Vine homes need approval through the historic preservation commission for any exterior work. 

Another area with pockets of more updated student rentals is off of Michigan Ave west of Western Michigan University. I believe the area is called Arcadia/Knollwood. I've found this area to be more expensive with lower cash flow/ROI. Likely less maintenance, though. Couldn't hurt to look!

Since Covid, competition appears to have gone up and prices are higher than before. I still think Kalamazoo is a great place to invest in, though. Not only does it have 3 universities, but is home to Stryker's world headquarters, Phizer, and 2 major hospitals. 

Good luck with your search! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the Kalamazoo area! 

Hi all, quick question. We are moving in our first tenants in a couple of weeks and are wondering how to go about doing the move-in checklist? They signed their lease with another owner in February (it's a student rental). I am thinking I will ask them to complete the checklist within 5 days of their move-in date and email it back to us and we will complete our own checklist the day before move-in with pictures. Would it be wise to give them a copy of our checklist with their move-in packet or just keep that for our records? How do you normally do this process? Thank you for your insights! 

Hi all!

We recently closed on our first property, a 3-story, 6 bedroom student rental. The house has a cumbersome 3rd story wood fire escape coming from a window that is in pretty bad shape. It also takes up most of the home's parking spots. Ideally, I'd like to tear down the entire thing, but I'm assuming we need some 2nd form of egress for that floor. I'm looking for an inexpensive solution that would meet code while also not create a liability (college kids...). Thank you for any ideas you may have! 

Welcome! :) My husband and I just closed on our first property in Kalamazoo 2 weeks ago and are also trying to learn as much as we can as we start this new journey. Kalamazoo has a monthly meetup (I think there is a virtual one this upcoming Monday), as well as a "Property Krawl" one Saturday a month led by 2 local investors. I attended once (having a baby makes it hard to get out sometimes) and it was a great group of people. Here's a link to the group: 

https://www.meetup.com/KalamazooREIclub/events/bgrmkrybchbgb/

Thanks, everyone! That's good to know about the insurance policies. I definitely wouldn't want to get burned with needing a new roof unknowingly. Also, Andrew B., that's great advice about putting money in escrow. I didn't even think of that. Also, our lender just reached out and said due to the current market they are limiting how much money sellers can put toward closing costs, so this is a solution we will likely be using. 

Hi all!

My husband and I recently had our first offer accepted on a 6 bedroom student rental house near campus. We're really excited about finally getting started, but unfortunately, our offer was accepted right before Covid-19 which has complicated things. In our original offer, the seller was responsible for recertifying the property prior to close (rental certification expires in May). Due to Covid-19, the city inspection was moved to June with a certification extension until September. This puts us way past our closing date and the seller didn't agree to extend the closing (but did include $3,300 toward the cost). This isn't a deal-breaker for us, but the uncertainty does give us some pause. Our inspection identified around $2500 in repairs (not including a roof that only has about 5 years left in it before it'll need some work). 

I know there are a lot of variables that go into this, but on average, how much have you spent on city recertification/corrections? Have you ever had an older roof that you were told needed to be outright replaced? I'd love to know what your experiences are and whether this is a situation we should run away from or something fairly insignificant. Thanks all! 

That's a really smart idea. I'm brand new to this and am wondering what the math would look like to calculate this? The current numbers check out well, but I agree, it could end up being a problem if the fixed life tenant lives there for 30 years at the same rate. 

Thanks for the responses everyone :) I don't believe the life lease is something specific to my area, but it definitely doesn't seem very common. I'm glad I posted on here because it changed the way I thought of the situation. I was initially thinking the life lease would be a good thing because it would mean less turnover and that the month to month leases would be too risky. I didn't consider the points mentioned for both, so I'm glad I asked! 

Hi all!

I recently inquired about a triplex in my area that has a pretty unique renting situation. Units 2 and 3 are rented out month to month with no formal lease in place. They have lived there 5 and 15 years and state they have "no intention" of moving anytime soon. Unit 1 is a fixed life lease.

I likely won't be pursuing this property, as I'm hoping to house hack my first multi-family, but because of how unique it is, I wanted to hear other's thoughts on it. Would you ever purchase a property where the renters have no formal lease or would securing a lease be part of your negotiations? Have you ever come across a fixed life lease and what are the pros/cons to it? Would you purchase a property with a tenant on a fixed life lease?