The 3 action-steps that got me to 220 units in 12 months!
I did it. I believed the hype. I listened to the podcasts and read the books. After getting clarity on my real estate goals, I went after it and I can proudly say that my multifamily investing portfolio sits at 220 units, with 2 other deals that will close escrow within the next 30 days that will more than double the units I'm invested in.
About me:
I'm Nate, 41 years old and married with three kiddos, and live in Omaha, Nebraska. I've been interested in real estate investing for the past 10 years, but didn't take any actionable steps until the past year and a half. My original goal was to own tens (or hundreds!) or single family homes. I purchased 1 single family rental, and looked to find more. I mainly looked on the MLS, but everything was overpriced, and good properties were trading above the asking price. I then did direct mailing campaigns to executors of probate estates. I walked through 9 different properties and offered on a couple but couldn't get a deal put together. It was also somewhat of an awkward situation talking to these people who had just been through an emotional life event of losing someone they loved. Needed to pivot.
Where do I go from here?
I started listening to the BP podcast, and directed my attention to the following three items...
Here are the 3 most important things I focused on, as well as one more tip at the end:
1. Clarify what your goals are and what achieving them means to you.
Whether it’s a dollar amount of passive income, number of units owned, etc. you need to set your goals and reverse engineer how you’ll get there. If it’s a lack of capital that is holding you back, then you’ll need to do anything and everything to source a deal or provide value to other investors. If you are serious about achieving your goals, you can’t have any excuses - make it happen!
2. Educate yourself to a point where when a deal presents itself, you are ready to act.
Depending on your real estate background, you need to consume as much real estate investing content as possible. Underwrite deals daily that you find on Loopnet, Crexi, or syndications being offered on crowdfunding websites. This shouldn’t sound scary to you, knowing that each book you read and podcast you listen to is getting you one step closer to your goal. It should be motivation to keep yourself hungry and marching toward your goal.
Here are my favorite book suggestions:
- Multifamily Millions by David Lindahl
- The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
- How to Create Wealth Investing in Real Estate by Grant Cardone
Honorable mentions:
- Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
- The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone
And podcasts:
- Cashflow Connections with Hunter Thompson
- Bigger Pockets
- Wheelbarrow Profits with Jake and Gino
- Best Real Estate Advice Ever with Joe Fairless
3. Network with other investors. Learn as much as you can from them, it might turn into a mentoring type situation or someone you can partner with in the future.
Listening to the Bigger Pockets podcast LITERALLY changed the direction of my life and my investing career. I had been listening to Bigger Pockets off and on throughout the year in 2017 and 2018. Early in 2019, I heard an interview on Bigger Pockets with an investor from the town where I live. I saw this as a sign, that if I truly was serious about investing, I needed to at the minimum reach out to this person and see if they would be open to meeting for coffee or discussing real estate. I did just that. He suggested attending a local real estate meetup. I did that too. After attending a couple of these meetups, and a few conversations later - this investor was looking for an additional partner on an upcoming deal. I had prepared for this moment with all of the real estate education I had accomplished to date, and after looking at the underwriting - I knew that this opportunity was here for a reason.
This investing deal that was presented to me consisted of a 48 unit and 23 unit property. We’ve held the 23 unit for about 12 months and have successfully repositioned the property, and are currently set to refinance and get close to all of our initial money back out, which will be used on another acquisition that is under contract. The 48 unit is scheduled to be refinanced sometime next year with the same expectation of getting close to all of our money back out for future acquisitions.
This initial deal set off 4 other deals which included some other local investors I’ve started relationships with.
*Bonus Tip* Spring into action if an opportunity comes your way!
If I had not prepared myself by reading the books I mentioned above, plus about a dozen others, and listened to over 200 podcasts on a variety of real estate topics, I would not have had the confidence to move forward. You can only analyze so many deals, and after you have your knowledge base underneath you - the only thing left to do is TAKE ACTION AND DO A DEAL.
I love talking about real estate, meeting new people, and helping people on their path to financial freedom. If you’d like to connect, please reach out through BP or any of my social media channels.