All Forum Posts by: Tanya H.

@Tom Donnelly - I'm really interested in what you are learning in Bay City.  I was born there, have a lot of family there and own a couple of properties.  But I've had real challenges in finding reliable people there to work with.  I think the town has great potential, but I'm hesitant to invest more there.  

What are your thoughts about the area?

Thanks,

Tanya

Hi @Amy Silverman - I'm in Castle Rock, but I was born in Bay City, and still have a large extended family there.  I own two houses there - one is a rental, and one I have my brother living in.  I just finally sold a flip there as well.  

I also have investment properties in Aurora and in Scottsdale.  

I'd love to connect and hear about your land contracting there in MI!  

I will chime in as well.  I am also originally from Bay City.  I have most of my extended family and lots of friends there.  

I own a rental in Bangor township and I just finally sold a foreclosure flip in the city that took forever to sell.  I would caution you to stay out of the city, and instead look into Bangor or Monitor township.  The city tries to crack down on out-of-town investors.  I can understand that they don't want slumlords, but they are rather indiscriminate about harassing all out-of-town investors.  I worked hard to keep my place looking nice, but they nit-picked about my property the whole time that we were working on it, when an owner-occupied across the street was horrible (lawn not mowed, high weeds, not shoveling the sidewalk, etc).   I was actually improving the area (by fixing up a house that sat vacant for quite a while), the house turned out so nice (too nice - I over-improved it - but that's a whole other story).  

There are some very nice condos along the river, but the prices are shockingly high.  

Another issue with Bay City was trying to find honest people to work.  Even with all my connections there, it was near impossible.  

I don't know if the city will experience a turn-around or not.  It seems like it's possible, given the regeneration that is happening along the river. 

The number of vacant/abandoned houses continues to be quite high. But the city is very short-sighted and doesn't understand that it needs outside money to come in and infuse the economy with cash, jobs, housing.    

So just some thoughts around my experiences.  I still want to invest in the area, but it's not as easy as it looks :) .

Yes, my $70k houses in Michigan have a 30% larger tax bill than my $300k house in Denver have.  Really crazy!  I try to warn people who want to invest in MI about that...

Another suggestion might be to do the management yourself to get them off the ground.  Once you have a system, it shouldn't really take a lot of time to manage just those 3 rentals.  Let me know if you need ideas on how to do this.  I have a few rentals that are all either out of state or about an hour from my house, and I manage all of them myself.  It's not a huge lift.

FirstBank did a HELOC for me a few years ago on a rental. Usually the local banks are easier to deal with.

I have had my rental for 3 years now.  I'm actually from BC, with lots of family/friends there.  Yet it's still a challenging place to own rentals.   Actually, it's challenging with the flip I have there too.  LOL.  

I'm interested in what you may find, @Steven Kinney.  I have one rental there, and one flip.  I'd love to do more there, but have found some challenges.  So I'll follow this thread.  

Hi Chris,

Sorry to hear about the troublesome tenant.  

I would think you just need to give a 30 day notice, since she is on month-to-month.  Where did you get the wording you quoted about "A tenancy for one year or longer, ninety-one days;"?   I've never heard or seen that before.  

Even though her lease expired a while ago, that document should still spell out what happens at the end of the lease - such as converting to a month-to-month lease.  It should also contain verbiage about termination/notice. 

Good luck!

Tanya

@Chad Clark - I have some questions :) !  But first, welcome  - I think you will enjoy this site - tons of info and even better are the people here who are so generous with their knowledge.

So how did you find your first house?  I'm assuming it's in Mancelona - how did you decide on Mancelona?  Is the town doing better now?  Is the 2nd one in Mancelona?  What are your plans for the 2nd one - hold and rent or flip?