commercial real estate investing

[Joseph Sanders]

I want to eventually invest in commercial real estate; 30+ apartments, mixed use, office buildings, but I do not know where to start. Would it be a good idea to start by contacting an agent? If so, how do I identify a good agent that would know how to work with a first time investor? Thanks for the feedback

[Joel Owens]

Hi Joseph,

Here is the process I use with new clients.

You can post questions here OR many times people will e-mail me privately and then a phone call is set up.

Before the phone call I e-mail them a PFS statement. This shows their liquidity and net worth and income from their jobs and or businesses. If the one spouse doesn't work then that isn't included.

From there I review financials and we hop on a call. Long term goals are discussed with annual returns desired and how active or passive they want to be with investing.

I can cover so much more on a phone call time wise. I go over different asset types and the positives and negatives. This is important because simply new investors do not know and have an IDEA in their minds versus a BROKER who does this everyday and knows the realities of the markets.

Some people after speaking with me go a different type of RE investing and others say they want to move forward. This is a discovery process for you so you need to go through these steps first to see what is possible. Looking at properties now and going what is this or that  is putting the cart before the horse and a waste of time.

I do not know what kind of money you are looking to invest but I have clients with very large net worth and liquidity.  

Hope it helps.