By: Deborah Johnson Wood
A handful of Grand Valley State University students have purchased and remodeled residential properties the students estimate to be worth some $3.5 million. Eight students purchased houses last year, bringing the grand total to-date to 32 houses—all in Grand Rapids.
The students belong to the Seidman Real Estate Group, a group dedicated to learning about investment real estate and helping members to learn how to purchase and rehab properties intelligently.
“Two years ago Pete Sauer and I took over leadership of the group and there were no returning members, no returning faculty, so we started over,” says Joe Pohlen, 22. “Now we have 42 members on our email list.”
Sauer adds: “Joe likes to tell members they’ll save thousands of dollars by learning from the mistakes other people have made.”
The group began as a means to supplement the small selection of real estate-related classes geared for underclassmen. Most of the real estate-related classes are for seniors. Members are interested in commercial properties as well, but so far the purchases have been residential.
Local real estate developers and professors often speak at the group’s meetings held at 9 p.m. Thursdays in the DeVos Center at the Pew Campus.
“The students who come to our group are there after sitting in class all day, and they’re still willing to come at nine o’clock at night to hear speakers,” Pohlen says. “That’s really encouraging.”
Pohlen and Sauer say most of the students purchase the homes with FHA loans with their parents as co-signers. They fix up the houses to fit student life—making dining rooms into bedrooms, or adding a bathroom in the basement—and use the equity to purchase new properties.
Source: Joe Pohlen, Pete Sauer, Seidman Real Estate Group, Grand Valley State University
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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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