All Forum Posts by: Steve Majors

That's a great point - how to determine if they impacted the studs, and could still be active. I do not have a suggestion. Good luck. I'd probably walk, but that's just me.

Looks serious to me, but repairable. If you don't feel up to a fairly significant repair, I'd walk. Otherwise, counter offer accounting for the cost of repairs. Get 2 or more estimates to treat it, and to sister the damaged boards/beams and/or replace them. Ask for an extension on the due dilligence period if necessary. 

True code compliance exists, and can be a hurdle. Inspections are every 2-3 years but the past 2 inspections I had on my property were pretty easy. If you keep up on maintenance and cap ex it's not bad. The old housing stock in Lansing can make predicting cap ex tricky. Watch out for outdated electrical and plumbing. As for higher taxes, that's one reason values are low. You just need to factor it into your OpEx. I can connect you with a great realtor if you're interested. 

I don't know anyone doing student rentals. MSU is in East Lansing, which is a different municipality than the City of Lansing. The City of Lansing is where the majority of the lower entry deals are. I've heard East Lansing is very stringent on rentals and prices are certainly higher. These are definitely two different markets even though they are right next to each other.

I've had a duplex in Lansing for 3.5 years. It was my first property and it has worked out well. I did the rehab myself and also self managed, which made it a success. Had I contracted out the rehab and hired a PM, it still would have been OK, but not great. Two things to really vet if you're going into Lansing are property age/deferred maintenance, and the quality of the neighborhood. The housing stock is old and tired and may need significant cap ex, including plumbing or electrical upgrades. And there are definite pockets that are better neighborhoods than others. I don't have a good feel for evaluating that aspect, other than drive and walk the neighborhood day and night and on weekdays and weekends to see what the activity is like. The neighborhood characteristics will dictate the quality of tenant you can attract and rents you can command. If you do your homework, Lansing can be good for cash flow with fairly low initial investment. That being said, I'm selling my duplex and buying a 4 plex in a different area where I already have a 10 plex, consolidating into one area. There don't seem to be as many larger MF asset opportunities in Lansing.

Did anyone use this EDP successfully? I just tried and the local facilitator said funding is now gone. Starting to get worried about the CDC Moratorium on evictions. 50% of tenants haven't paid December rent and 1/3 are over a month behind. Any suggestions?

@Darian Lupton, consider house hacking a duplex, there are many opportunities for that in the area. @Landon Allen has great advice on neighborhoods IMO.

Welcome Nathan. I have a duplex in Lansing and am considering adding a SFH. I'll check out the fb group.

If it's in great shape and needs nothing, and the furnace and roof are in good shape, you could cut your CapEx by about half saving $100. Especially if you are somewhat handy and can do small things yourself. If you're house hacking, you could also do the lawn and snow yourself saving another $40. Also keep in mind you're building equity as you and your tenant pay down the principal. Compare your out of pocket expenses to what you would spend if you bought a SFH. I Think the duplex house hack will win. Try to save enough over the next 2 years to refi it to a conventional with 20% down to get rid of the PMI and lower the monthly payments. Then rent both sides and go buy your SFH. You should easily hit the $200 a door cash flow by then. Good luck!

I called the SBA disaster assistance customer service center (which can be found on their website) this morning. I chose the COVID-19 option, then chose "Answers to common questions". I expected a recording so I was surprised to get a real person on the line. I asked how to check the status of the EIDL online application, and was told to email disastercustomerservice at sba dot gov and provide the application confirmation number and ask for an update. I asked how long I should expect to have to wait to hear back after the initial application - he said 10 days. It's been 6 days since I applied, so I'll hold off on emailing until later in the week.

My current status: 25% of my tenants are late for April rent. I sent them a message mid March asking them to please inform me if they will be late on rent do to COVID-19 reasons. Crickets. This could get ugly.