All Forum Posts by: Robert Sexton

@skye Penland it didn't end up happening for me.  Hard money would have been my only option.  The sellers up selling it for cash at a much lower price and I ended up in another duplex a few blocks north of there.

Thanks @Joshua B. and @Account Closed.  

The empty unit was vacated within the past few months so I don't foresee losing it's grandfathered in legal status as an issue, although I had no idea that that was a possibility and will definitely keep it in mind on future deals. 

A new mortgage broker that I'm working with is attempting to obtain a letter from the city that will allow the loan to go through without going through the process of a zoning change.  I should know if that works early next week.

Thanks for the quick responses guys. 

Jeff, that does make sense. 

Lance, it is in Wyandotte

I've recently had an offer excepted on a duplex in southeastern Michigan that I intended on starting my first house hack in after obtaining an FHA loan. The appraisal just came back and the underwriters refuse to approve the loan unless the property is converted to a single family home before closing.

Their reasoning is that since the property is located in a neighborhood zoned for single family homes, that if the home were to need to be rebuilt due to fire, flood, ect. that it would have to be rebuilt as a single family home.  The property is currently grandfathered in with legal but nonconforming use as 2 unit property.

Has anyone encountered a similar situation or know of any lenders who won't have an issue with this? 

If you plan on using Google AdWords to advertise your site, their keyword planner is pretty useful. You can even look up search traffic on certain terms by area. Otherwise, I'd go with SEM Rush.

Have you done anything to boost your organic search ratings? Possibly writing blogs containing popular search terms or adding relevant tags to any images? It can be a lot more time consuming but effective for someone on a tight budget looking to increase site traffic

Welcome to Bigger Pockets Kevin!  It's great to see another islander on here.

Thanks for responding so quickly Brent.  I'm currently working full time from, Monday through Friday 8 to 5, and committed until next June.  Do you think that these larger firms will offer me the flexibility to work around that?

Hello Bigger Pockets!

I've recently completed the online class for obtaining my Michigan Real Estate Salesperson License and plan on taking the state exam in the near future. I was wondering if anyone could suggest a brokerage in the Detroit area (preferably downriver), where I could hang my license at a reasonable rate.

Thanks Charles.  Those were some of the same concerns that I had with the area.  It looks like any holding costs I'd incur would be relatively low, and I'd be willing to do a land contract, but I'm still not sure If I'm willing to wait that amount of time to sell.