Multifamily and Commercial Real Estate Investing
Largo, FL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 20 votes
Multifamily and Commercial Real Estate Investing
10 Replies
- Largo, FL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 20 votes10y
Do you recommend a software program todo due diligence in financials? If so where may I purchase a software utility since I would still work as a mental health counselor and ween myself gradually to do more deals if number crunching would be accelerated since this sounds like a numbers game -- the more leads/deals the more potential closes
- Specialist · Rockland, MA · Member since 2010 · 7k+ posts · 2k+ votes10y
Welcome. I have a spreadsheet to use when analyzing a property EMAIL me if you want a copy. Fill in the foundation below.
Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere
Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.
Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice. And you get the benefit of having over 100 past ones to catch up on.
Locate and attend 3 different local REIA club meetings great place to meet people gather resources and info. Here you will meet wholesalers who provide deals and rehabbers (cash buyers). You can Google to locate them and go to meetup.com
Two Great reads, I bought both J. Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbook
Consider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack.
Download BP’s newest book here some good due diligence in Chapter 10. Real Estate Rewind Starting over
Good Luck
Paul
- Largo, FL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 20 votes10y
Paul that means a lot to someone starting out; the first day on the job was always anxiety provoking; now as a multifamily / income property investor; I never knew a community web site like Bigger Pockets even existed, I have always been a sole proprietorship and basically "winging" it but now feedback from fellow investors is a real social media / community member's portal. I will download some your recommendations; thank you!
- Largo, FL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 20 votes10y
Thank you, for the first time in my life I get straight answers. I was a seminar junkie and yes purchased products from guru types: their pitch sounded so beautiful "no money down" and "pennies on the dollar". My first attempt was "notes" paid $2,500 for the "package." I was working for a major hospital. The "mentor" said quit your day time job...so I thought by bringing the "package to work"...and study on my break would be one way to become educated, so I purchased a mortgage calculator and was getting excited doing the number crunching..then my supervisor asked me "what I was doing?" I told her. "Notes" Well she must have had this "thing against someone trying to do better than her" and she made my life miserable...making me work odd rotational hoursI As a mental health counselor you can not defocus from your psychiatric patients...and reports always needed to be in on time.
I experienced a "rush" sort off; I do not know if you can identify with this addiction; yes i would then go for free to all these events and there would be featured speakers; What i did observe was people rushing to the back of the room to "buy packages." Something inside me said "hold on to your money" and then at the next event I would observe the same people. I knew from research that "confederates' -- are people probably in collusion with the guru-promoter...it was not just real estate...it was binary options, stocks...options...All I know is that I wanted to be an "investor really bad" yes I told you I was addicted...and do you know what I would see over-and-over again...the same people just about everytime I went to another "free seminar" or went to gomeeting online and yep the same people still there (recognized their names)...was I spinning my wheels? Yes I was...
Fast forward ten years (that is how long I had been "pursuaded" no "manipulated" to go to these events usually the second one was the "hands-on" where the guru would take you by the hand...in my introduction on a post at Bigger Pockets I indicated that in August 2016 that I plan to go to a "paid event." Rather than paying the full price of $1,595 (which the guru-in-training not the real speaker showed as a "value: with the numbers scatched out from $30,000 to $1,595 that speaker indicated as a discount) I managed to convince the business representative that the full price was to much but that I could pay $200 each month for eight months $1,600. Well, the hands-on seminar would be seven months from the date I attended the first free seminar. What surprised me was that I could do that...so I said to myself "If I can partition the cost...maybe I already have a quality of an investor...to negotiate "deals", LOL. Therefore Bigger Pockets and the community and the education portal just confirmed what I believe is NOW a reality...hold on to your money and network for free and gain an education using other peoples' minds (OPM) to generate millions in real estate using other people's money (OPM). NOW that is the ultimate in time-money leveraging. Thank you a gain.
- Largo, FL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 20 votes10y
My mobile office that will allow me to do investing when I visit with a patient in their home because I can also speculate on property in that area (50-mile radius). The visits are short (2-4 hours) perfect for "hunting." The day before I go on the Interent to do research and "look" for multifamily / income properties.
I did work as a bird dog when I was younger and rode a bicycle to visit properties -- got $2,000 for my time and effort. I would go to the court house and look for motivated sellers. But I want to be the hunted and not the hunter. Do you recommend networking with real estate brokers like the gurus say in the seminars to get "leads."
It seems that Bigger Pockets is great way to get leads? Can I also promote by side business -- I am also a web designer and mobile app promoter. I would be happy to offer this service as an Internet marketing skill set that uses web 3.0 technology (I attended a 3-day workshop and invested $199.00 to learn about Internet marketing). I told you I was a seminar junkie. This is one way to get passive income and I have 57 splash page templates (cost me $1.00 that other investor can have for free). My way of saying thanks for this community of success-oriented investors.
- Largo, FL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 20 votes10y
Paul, hello thank you for your vote. I appreciate that...BTW, how are votes defined do they allow for more teachability by a mentor; am I more inquisitive in posting? just wondering if this gets buy-in with partners etc. since taking action and being motivated after a rejection is what a team approach is all about to motivate the individual. So I am open to new areas for creative financing as syndicated loans (learned this definition from investopedia).
About the spreadsheet you recommended; i already made arrangements with Michael Blank to purchase his software the Syndicated Deal Analyzer on March 25, 2016 at a discounted price. The discount of $99 is affordable and he seems like a straight shooter. Do you know of him? I googled him and he sent me an email informing me to start doing financial due diligence in 10 minutes and too get better at raising capital to close deals. He then sent eight emails explaining the real estate business and the "art of the deal" Is that not a book by Donald Trump?
No doubt that a strategic alliance or joint venture is important as I am familiar with co-brokering loans when I was a loan originator...back in 2008 when !@#$%^&*( hit the fan and the market imploded: subprime loans and shady "deals" with money-hungry mortgage brokers getting 1-2 points ($1,500 / point) before a loan was ever approved based on a prospect's low FICO score (500-600). Not good at all. Got out of the market before damage control would need to take effect. I always seem to always have a way out...what you term as an "exit strategy."
I did participate in one attempt to purchase a mixed commercial property $750,000 but dropped to $699,000. Why? I will tell you that I had no spread sheet and did every transaction from my cell phone using the calculator app. Tell me about frustration and doing the "walk through" appearing to know what I was doing (winging it) and not getting any cooperation of the real estate broker from loopnet.com till I did come under contract. He wanted first 10% then when I countered using a Master Lease Agreement (where you do not need money, but the seller carry back a second mortgage) the RE Broker upped the down payment to 20%. However, sensing an opportunity to negotiate; I held back and askid several open-ended questions regarding the seller's motivation to sell and why the drop in price withouy even negotiating but increasing the down payment as a reaction to a counter proposal...could there be a hidden agenda? (I thought). I did learn that the seller was not in a real hurry to sell his property: two offices and three duplexes. Oh well, next...Did I do the right thing?
- Largo, FL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 20 votes10y
I was contacted by Tony Martinez and what he is / was promoting is tax lien certificates. Here is the original email I sent Mr. Martinez and his response to my query (email address omitted).
to me 
Good Morning,
Per your request I have placed below lessons 1-7 to view at your leisure. If you should have any other questions after viewing the lessons, please feel free to contact our product services department at (phone number omitted because of Bigger Pocket's policy).
http://ustaxlienassociation.com/module1video/
http://ustaxlienassociation.com/module2video/
http://ustaxlienassociation.com/module3video/
http://ustaxlienassociation.com/module4video/
http://ustaxlienassociation.com/module5video/
http://ustaxlienassociation.com/module6video/
http://ustaxlienassociation.com/module7video/
Sincerely,
Client Services
I have adopted the original communication with the response back from client services regarding seven web / videos for the community to learn alternative way to generate passive income.
- Largo, FL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 20 votes10y
I purchased a software program the Syndicated Deal Analyzer (SDA) that lets me crunch numbers and is customizaeble. Thanks for the feedback Jerry. Also a free eBook (pdf file) was made into a spiral manual as a reference tool.
- Largo, FL · Member since 2016 · 94 posts · 20 votes10y
This area of multifamily and commercial properties is new to me and quite a challenge and one thing that would make it easy for all is to determine what constitutes a motivated seller. I obviously have observed that the bottom line would be the bottom line. I asked the question of the BP community and found an article that had credence and how that could address the owner / seller's motivation (https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/767...
Stess What A Concept
However, the concept of stress was pertinent to my education in health psychology and I received training in doing psychological profiles to determine the scale of measurement for mental health behavior which can easily generalize to real estate investors not to discount our stress levels trying to locate "motivated sellers." So much so that I have started writing a book (everybody seems do that...these days, LOL); but this is from what I have observed in human behavior proper and whether real estate investors can take the information and use it in their marketing (e.g., a survey to pre-qualify the owner/seller).
The index was created by other psychologists so I do not take credit for the psychological instrument. However i have used this scale to determine not only my stress level (e.g., public speaking) but stressors in my studies with mental health impact everyon as a "life change." Since I plan to write the book for this area; I will not give the whole content away but I will identify the internal and external factors that contribute to stress and how that might impact on the owner/seller and/or investor as a two pronged approach to reduce the mitigating factor as before and after conditions.
The Percentage of Those Impacted By Stress
Stress these days are shocking.77% of adults report regularly experiencing physical symptoms caused by stress, and an estimated 75% to 90% of visits to primary care physicians are stress-related. WOW!
What is stress from a psycho-biological perspective ?
The hormones released when you feel stressed, such as cortisol and adrenaline, put your body into fight or flight mode. Activity in the advanced decision-making part of your brain (the prefrontal cortex) is reduced, and your immune system and digestion are inhibited. Basically, if you need to escape a predator, you’re good to go, but any ability to make complex decisions is extremely crippled. And while it’s fine for your immune system to sit on the sideline for a single play, serious trouble can arise when it’s out for the whole game. High and prolonged levels of cortisol cause negative symptoms,
I am a former diabetic but I still have high blood pressure so stress can contribute to these biological conditions: heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, anxiety disorder, and other illnesses
What are stressors in the immediate environment?
Most people identify the stress in their lives as something outside of themselves that they have no control over. The top two reported causes of stress are work and money – not things you can easily avoid. Read that again, though, and note the phrases “causes of stress.” Things that cause stress are “stressors,” and stress is your personal reaction to those stressors. That’s why what stresses some people out is a piece of cake for others!
So how does knowing the difference help?
To paraphrase Einstein, you can’t solve a problem on the level of the problem. It’s impossible to avoid all stressors – sometimes you don’t even know what they are until they hit you in the face – but you CAN affect your reaction to stressors. I’m not talking about “taking a step back” or “pausing to breathe.” Both are good advice, but easier said than done in the heat of the moment!
The Real Estate Investor and the Life Change Index Scale (The Stress Test) to scientifically and systematically determine the motivates seller (future title of the book)
Event Impact Score and the Score of the Owner / Seller
Death of spouse 100
Divorce 73
Marital Separation 65
Jail Term 63
Death of close family member 63
Personal injury or illness 53
Marriage 50
Fired at work 47
Marital reconciliation 45
Retirement 45
Change in health of family member 44
Pregnancy 40
Sex difficulties 39
Gain of a new family member 39
Business readjustment 39
Change in financial state 38
Death of a close friend 37
Change to a different line of work 36
Change in number of arguments with spouse 35
Mortgage over $20,000 31
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
Change in responsibilities at work 29
Son or daughter leaving home 29
Trouble with in laws 29
Outstanding personal achievement 28
Spouse begins or stop work 26
Begin or end school 26
Change in living conditions 25
Revisions of personal habits 24
Trouble with boss 23
Change in work hours or conditions 20
Change in residence 20
Change in schools 20
Change in recreations 19
Change in church activities 19
Change in social activities 19
Mortgage or loan less than $20,000 17
Change in sleeping habits 16
Change in number of family get-togethers 15
Change in eating habits 15
Vacation 13
Christmas approaching 12
Minor violation of the law 11
Total
Directions If an event mentioned above has occurred in the past year, or is expected in the near
future, copy the number in the score column. If the event has occurred or is expected to occur
more than once, multiply this number by the frequency of the event.
Scoring The Life Change Index
The body is a finely timed instrument that does not like surprises. Any sudden change
stimuli which affects the body, or the reordering of important routines that the body
become used to, can cause needless stress, throwing your whole physical being into
turmoil.
The following chart will give you some idea of how to informally score yourself on Social
Readjustment Scale. Since being healthy is the optimum state you want to achieve, being
sick is the state of being you most want to avoid.
Life Change Units Likelihood Of Illness In Near Future
300+ about 80 percent
150-299 about 50 percent
less than 150 about 30 percent
The higher your life change score, the harder you have to work to get yourself back into a
state of good health.
T.H.Holmes and T.H. Rahe. "The Social Readjustment Rating Scale," Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 11:213, 1967.
The Take away: we work with numbers, we earn numbers; we can learn by numbers "show your owner / seller his / her level of stress and why stressors can impact on thie health which is our ticket to wealth and that as the real estate investor who wears the white hat we become the voice of reason no selling, no telling, no yelling the owner/seller has enough stress in their lives. Hope this helps to identify the motivated seller.
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