All Forum Posts by: Sarah Lorenz

You can also try Josh Birk here on BP, University of Michigan law school grad.

Hello @Devin Drowley Welcome to Ann Arbor. BRRR is a good strategy here for both personal residences as well as SMF--probably the only way to get a cash-flowing investment in the immediate area.

Finishing a bachelor's degree later in life is pure hell. Do it now, just in case. Move back in with your family, go to a state school that is much less expensive, and major in something you enjoy. Knock it out in two more years. I'm taking a real estate development class as a guest student at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business right now, and it's phenomenal. Go ahead and get a real estate license and do that on the side. It's not enough to build a career on, in my opinion. You'll always be competing with every retired nurse and stay-at-home mom and every other guy with 40 hours to take the class. Along with the big agents who do 90% of the transactions and have huge operations to keep their momentum going. If you are going to work your tail off to compete with them, have something like a degree to show for it. Think about construction management or finance or some other aspect like that. 

I’m sorry, wholetailing is illegal in Michigan.

 And my favorite source for stylish but inexpensive lighting is Houzz.com. Cheaper than the big box stores, and it always helps to have other sources so it doesn’t look like you walked into Home Depot and bought everything.

 If you are just building a single house, you can watch for items on craigslist. It will take you a lot of time to do this, but you can save a significant amount of money. Well, several thousand dollars. There are also the Habitat for Humanity stores and other places with building salvage materials.  Sometimes they will have new items. Do a lot of comparison shopping online. I found a huge savings on freestanding bathtubs through signature hardware. Although this last time I bought one at Menards for about $700. Buying on Black Friday can also save you 50%. A couple of years ago when we were doing a project, I ordered all my appliances that day. Inevitably, you will Get things ahead of time that you later discover aren’t going to work for some reason. So it is a lot of effort with some waste.

Thanks, @Tim Herman. Great idea--I'll look into that. 

We have a flip we are marketing, and it happens to be very close to the University of Michigan stadium. Many homeowners in the surrounding neighborhoods rent their entire houses for football and graduation weekends, and other big events like exhibition matches with Manchester United, etc. I've done this and know firsthand you can make around $40,000 as a house-hacking strategy with your personal residence. AirDNA shows potential full-time income of $115,000 for this house, with 4 bedrooms. I think the average buyer looking at houses in Ann Arbor doesn't really have this on their radar, though. Any ideas on how to reach a group of buyers interested in house-hacking this way, or the 60,000+ football fans that walk to the games nearby from this end of town? 

If you are already a builder, why wouldn't you list the house on the MLS as to-be-built and let a client get a construction loan? That would be the lowest risk and highest profit for you. If you want to build a spec house to avoid the hassle of a custom build situation, you could also get an REI/hard money loan for the construction. If you own the lot free and clear, they will fund 100% of the construction. You will need to fund each phase of work and then apply for a draw on the loan, however.

You can rent your own place on AirB&B.