Hi there!

My husband and I are closing on the sale of a rental property in a VERY overpriced market. It is very difficult to cash flow on buy and hold here. And, as much as we would love to make real estate investing a full time job, we don’t have the capital to start that just yet!

So, we are looking into buying some rentals in markets that cash flow through Rent To Retirement. I spoke with Zack, who was AWESOME. But, now I am looking to hear from people who have invested through them. I just want to triple check that people are having a good experience.

Thanks in advance!

@Carly Christiansen

Looks like we both live in very expensive markets, which doesn't leave us much choice but to invest out of state in better cash flow markets.  I could purchase several investment properties that are all positive cash flow in the midwest for the same price I could purchase one rental property that won't even cash flow in NY!  Hopefully if you are selling that means you have a lot of equity in your property!

I've invested with rent to retirement for a few years now, and own multiple properties in different states.  I can sincerely say that Zack and their team go above and beyond to communicate promptly, advise on different strategies to invest, and offer quality TK properties.  Rental real estate isn't perfect by any means, but when investing out of state you really need a team you can depend on, especially if issues arise!  I've purchased several properties directly from Zack, and some through his partners in various markets, and overall I've been very happy with my experience.  I plan to continue to invest with them to rapidly grow my passive income portfolio.  Feel free to let me know if you have any specific questions.

Here are a couple other forum posts I've seen in the past from other investors that have also worked with them.  Overall seems like a very positive experience for most.  Good luck!

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/92/topics/765347-rent-to-retirement-review

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/92/topics/518583-feedback-on-renttoretirement-and-zach-lemaster

@Carly Christiansen

My husband and I have invested with them since 2017 and we are still investing with them now, so I would say they have held the test of time for us.  We did have to get rid of one tenant that lost his job and was unable to pay rent, but it actually turned out to be a pretty quick & painless process.  It was very slow in the beginning as we needed capital to purchase our first rental.  Zach and the rent to retirement team were able to assist us in completing some wholesaling deals to save up capital for our first rental.  Looking back we actually were able to purchase those first rentals with very little of our savings by wholesaling homes, then turning the profits directly into long term holds.  That was paramount in kickstarting our investing career!  Now we are looking at possibly doing a 1031 on that first property that has enough equity if we sell it to purchase two more rentals to increase our passive income!  It's so exciting when you see things come full circle with your investments to be able to really grow over time!  To answer your question though, yes we are still happy with the R2R team, and we plan to absolutely continue to invest with them!  Huge shout out and thanks to @Zach Lemaster as he has been an essential part of helping my husband and I build a strong rental portfolio from basically nothing.  I would consider him a mentor & a friend, and would recommend anyone to work with him that is interested in building a rental portfolio out of state with a team of people who genuinely care about your success!

@Carly Christiansen are you doing a 1031 exchange on the rental you are currently selling?

@Mila R.

Zach gave us a resource to do a 1032, so that is the plan! We are just hammering out the negotiations with the buyers after the inspections. We are hoping to buy 3-5 properties with the money.

I appreciate you sharing your experience. From what I have seen, a lot of people are doing well with Zach and his team! I am excited about the potential.

@Carly Christiansen

That's great!  I think that is a great approach when you have a bunch of equity tied up in one property that is not being used is to exchange it for a bunch of cash flowing homes that will increase your passive income.  Then in a few years you can likely trade those same 3-5 properties up for even more properties with another exchange.  It's crazy to think about how much that can multiply over time, and you are actually not putting any more cash into those deals as you continue to grow over time.  Your portfolio just expands on itself, and it all started with the one initial exchange!  That is what makes real estate investing so exciting for us!  My husband and I plan to continue to do that same strategy again & again, and ultimately leave a legacy for our children to prosper from.  We will use our rentals for early retirement in the meantime.  I believe the capital gains are forgiven when we pass away, which would mean we would never have to pay taxes on them.  Keep us posted how things are going.

I had an initial phone call with @Zach Lemaster earlier today and he was very helpful in explaining their entire process and what they have to offer. He listened to all of my questions and gave very insightful answers. I could tell he knew what he was talking about and I’m looking forward to building my portfolio with him and his team!!

@Brooke Andrea Did you choose properties in different areas to capture better returns, or to diversify, just wondering what you spread out your property portfolio?  

@Mila R. How 'passive' was your involvement with wholesaling, for me the top priority is keeping the investment as passive as possible while still capturing ROI, but I'd think wholesaling would be a bit more time intensive, especially if you did a couple in a short amount of time?

Thanks for your feedback, I've been following R2R for almost a year now, and I am ready to take the next step...

@Suzanne Manar

Initially I purchased my first rentals in one market to gain a better understanding of one specific location.  As I grew my portfolio I quickly decided to try out other markets as well not only for diversification, but also to expand my knowledge base of other locations.  Just like investing in anything, I think diversification is important for building a successful rental portfolio.  If you find a market you really like, you can choose to scale up that area.  I've really enjoyed working with rent to retirement over the years, and I definitely plan to continue working with them.  They have inventory in multiple markets that allows an investor to easily diversify in different locations depending on your goals & criteria.  If you've been thinking about it for a year now I would say take the plunge!  I'm sure after your first few rentals you will be hooked & want to rapidly scale up.  Passive income is addicting!!  ; )

I'm happy to answer any other questions you have so feel free to ask away.

@Suzanne Manar

You are absolutely correct in that wholesaling is NOT passive.  It is absolutely active, and requires a ton of work!  My husband and I spent at least 40 hours a week just building our marketing funnel to have consistent deals in the pipeline.  The whole reason we decided to wholesale was to build additional capital to buy more passive rentals.  Zach at rent to retirement coached us through how to build our wholesaling business.  He did this at no charge to us, but we did have to purchase some rentals from them initially to have him spend the time with us on how to set up the wholesaling business.  Which is totally fair!  We've been to some seminars where they wanted $50K to go through their program to learn how to wholesale.  It made more sense to us to simply apply our funds towards purchasing some rental properties with someone that was willing to mentor us.  That way we were building our own rental portfolio while learning new skills.  Our ultimate goal is not to wholesale longterm, however.  We are doing whatever we can to rapidly expand our rental portfolio to provide some level of financial independence, which is definitely more passive!  Wholesaling was just a way to build up more funds to purchase more long term rentals with.  Big thanks to @Zach Lemaster who has helped us tremendously in building a successful rental portfolio & wholesaling business.  We would have been lightyears behind on our own.  If you're considering working with them, we highly recommend it.  Wholesaling may not be for everyone, but again, it was just an avenue to have more cash to buy more rentals.  Like most people I imagine, cash was the most limiting factor for us.  Hope this helps Suzanne.  Best of luck with your investing endeavors, and let me know if I can assist in anyway.

@Carly Christiansen

I just closed on our very first rental property and went through R2R. I was very impressed with Zach Lemaster’s support and ability to cut through some of the white noise and talk me off the ledge when cold feet started setting in. I don’t know which market you’re looking at, but their Indianapolis team seems really strong and have all been very quick to get answers to my questions and are thorough in their responses. Week one into owning a property and I feel confident in my choice and am jazzed with the numbers I will be getting. Side note, I reached out to our property management team to see their plans for handling COVID set backs and am very pleased with some of their planned outreach to tenants. Very solid organization all the way around. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have specific questions and I’ll do my best to answer as quickly as possible.

@Paul Keddell

Thank you for your response!  We are moving ahead and have been pleased with the process.  I think Zach is working long hours reassuring investors right now!  What an odd time!  I am glad to hear your experience went well and your properties are cash flowing.  We are in contract around the Iowa/Indianapolis border and our duplex is already rented out, one property has a rental application being processed, and the other two are finishing being rehabbed.  The communication has been great!  Very reassuring.  

@Mila R.  @Brooke Andrea

Thank you very much for the candid & positive feedback!  We look forward to assisting you with future investments for years to come.  You've both come so far from when we first started working together!

@Carly Christiansen

We are very excited to assist you in successfully completing your 1031 exchange.  I think you have selected an excellent initial portfolio that will allow you to be in a very good position for another 1031 in a few years to keep trading up.  That is how investors build very large portfolios over time without putting in any additional capital.  It's the simple concept of building equity in your investments over time, then trading up via a 1031 to have more passive income & higher net worth.  All while paying no capital gains taxes!  We appreciate you being a serious investor taking necessary steps to reach your goals.  Investors that are able to take action like yourself are the ones we enjoy working with the most.

For the record...I'm always working long hours!  ; )

@Suzanne Manar

It was a pleasure speaking with you over the phone this week.  We are excited about the opportunity to work with you in the near future.  Our systems allow you to easily invest in cash flowing real estate regardless of where you are located in the world!  Please reach out with any additional questions.

@Paul Keddell

We appreciate the kind words!  I will be readily available to answer any specific questions you have throughout this journey.  Whenever you are ready, we can have a follow up strategic planning session to make a clear game plan on how to continue to scale up your portfolio with the next round of investments.

For anyone else that is interested in learning more about our investment platform & business please reach out to schedule an initial phone consultation.  We like to have the opportunity to speak with every investor that might benefit from investing in cash flow markets.

We hope everyone is healthy & happy.  Remember to stay focused on the long term plan, and continue to take actionable steps towards accomplishing your investment goals.  Success is not an accident!

---------------

Personal reference page from previous clients:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/ZacharyCole/references

@Dave Foster

I thought it would be a good idea to bring you into this thread since there are a lot of investors asking questions about a 1031 exchange here.  I keep telling them you are the go to guy for 1031s, so maybe you can quickly introduce yourself & what you do.  I know @Carly Christiansen has had a good experience so far working with you.  We very much appreciate all your hard work, and expertise on the complicated subject of a 1031 exchange.  It's a completely essential tool all real estate investors need to know about!

Thanks for the shout out @Zach Lemaster .  I've always seen the 1031 diversification exchange as a very powerful tool to ramp up income.  The key is selling a highly appreciated piece of real estate and using the proceeds to purchase several smaller properties.  Usually smaller properties generate a higher income/asset ratio.  So ratcheting up several times with the 1031 from one to several properties can give you quite a bit of exponential growth.

But what's really interesting to me now is the consolidation and globalization of the national real estate market  in the US.  Information access nationwide has been the game changer in this run up.  Companies like yours that are able to access, evaluate, and use that information have revolutionized the way we invest in real estate.  And it's letting investors not only get the leverage of moving from fewer larger properties to more smaller properties.  It's also letting them move from areas of high appreciation where the market has run its course and into the cash flow markets where appreciation is secondary to cash flow.

There's some other folks out there who will appreciate this memory - One of the original gurus of gurus, Carleton Sheets, used to say "never invest more than a 15 minute drive from your house".  Boy have times changed.

@Dave Foster

We have a house with a lot of equity we are looking to sell to do a 1031.  We haven't listed it yet, but likely will in June/July timeframe.  We would be interested in connecting with you.  What's the best way to get in touch with you?

Can you comment on how the 3 house limit works?  I know we have to close on a certain number of houses we identify, but not really sure how that works.  We would be interested to know what our options are going into it.

Thanks in advance for your help!

@Brooke Andrea , First of all I want to say thank you for your incredible brave service to us during this time!!! As a nurse in NY you are saving lives and being a hero every day.  

I'll reach out via pm to connect.  That will be most appropriate for private conversations.  But for the good of the group here's a couple thoughts on the identification and purchase side of things.

1. It's not the number of houses you actually purchase completely defers all tax. It is the dollar amount of the purchases.  As long as you purchase in total at least as much as your net sale price it doesn't matter if it if one property or 10.

2. And the IRS doesn't restrict how many properties you purchase.  But they do put some limitations on how and how many you identify.  It's a three level hierarchy rule for identification

a.  If you name three or few potential replacements on your 45 day list then it doesn't matter how much each is worth.  You could sell your old property for $100K and name three $1 mil properties on your list.  Thats fine.  But you have to purchase at least one property of course to satisfy the exchange requirements

b. If you want to name more than three properties on your list then the total amount of your list cannot be more than 200% of the value you sold.  So again, if you sold for $100K you could name 4 or more properties on your list as long as their aggregate value didn't exceed $200K - unless....

c. You purchase at least 95% of the value of the list.  So if you sold for $100K and wanted to name 5 $100k potential replacements you can if you actually take title to $475K of the list (of course the only way to do this is to purchase all 5 of those properties.

There are a bunch of strategies within each of the that can make them work.  But in general naming more than three potential replacements works best when selling a larger asset and wanting to purchase several much cheaper assets.

Hey everyone, I am planning to reach out to rent to retirement for a consultation. 

Wanted to check if folks have done any deals with them within the last 1 month and what their experience was?

Any effects from the pandemic they experienced while investing through them?

@Ankit Garg This forum is only a couple months old so I think that all of these posts would be considered recent.  I just closed three deals with them last week.  All properties went as expected, and rented out quickly.  The price points for these middle class homes always rent out quickly, and have high demand.  People always need a place to live, and they will always be able to afford rents around that $700 to $1,300 range regardless if they are employed, receiving unemployment benefits or they have government assistance/subsidized rent.  That is why I invest in these types of real estate assets as they are the most predictable & sustainable type of real estate.  Anyways, I highly recommend working with rent to retirement as they offer a great product, and have an excellent team in place to set you up for success.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks @Edward Dawson . Could you share which markets you brought these properties in? Did you also have some equity in the deal at appraisal?

@Ankit Garg

Most of my appraisals come back at or slightly above the purchase price giving me a little bit of equity.  When buying turnkey the objective is not to get a ton of initial equity, but rather a stabilized rental that has been renovated, leased & managed allowing me to build a passive income portfolio in different markets without having to try to do all the work myself.  I've done all that myself before, and my properties never work out how I anticipate, and honestly I got burnt out trying to source contractors & managers for my own rentals.  Contractors especially I've found to be very unresponsive & unreliable so I was looking for more of a consistent process in building a successful portfolio that is not creating another 80 hr work week for myself.  I like the passive nature to my rentals where I still receive the monthly income, but I don't have the stress of trying to coordinate everything myself causing me to sacrifice time in my own career & family life!  Really depends on what you think the right approach is for you. 

@Ankit Garg

Forgot to answer your question about location.  I've purchased in IN, AL & MO.  Likely looking at AR next.

Thank you @Edward Dawson . Super helpful

@Ankit Garg

Thank you for the interest!  I see you booked a time this week on my calendar to connect over an introductory phone call.  I look forward to discussing your investment goals & experiences in detail to see how we can build a good initial strategy to investing in these different cash flow markets.  This will also allow me to explain everything that our team has to offer, and thoroughly answer all your questions.  I always like to have an initial phone call with any investor who is interested in investing out of state, and is looking for an experienced team to work with.

Since you asked for recent references from investors I've include a link to my personal reference page that has over 50 investor references who have purchased recently, and some of them own very large portfolios for many years.  I've also included some links to other recent discussions about working with us that may be useful.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/ZacharyCole/references

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/92/topics/518583-feedback-on-renttoretirement-and-zach-lemaster

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/92/topics/765347-rent-to-retirement-review

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/533693-anyone-worked-with-renttoretirement-turnkey

https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/ZacharyCole/references

Please let me know if you have any follow up questions, and I look forward to speaking with you!

Zach

@Edward Dawson

I agree with all the points you've made, and I'm glad we've been able to assist you in building a successful portfolio!

I have been working with Zach Lemaster over the past couple weeks and his mentorship has been invaluable!  He has helped me to examine my individual goals and has been instrumental in my strategic planning early on.  I am a new investor in the area of rental properties and have interviewed 5-6 turnkey providers and am under contract for 2 properties with other providers.  Having someone with his experience and wealth of knowledge has been exactly what I have needed.  There are not many providers/individuals who will take the time to coach you as much as Zach and his team do.  Zach has been very willing and patient even in my indecisiveness to help me develop a clear plan.  He taught me something very valuable during a recent phone conversation and that the business partnership that you develop long term is way more important in your long term success than any property/properties that you are looking for.  Although I am still early in my process working with them, I would still highly recommend working with Zach and his team.  I am looking forward to purchasing our first property with Rent To Retirement soon!   

Thanks @Zach Lemaster . Looking forward to our chat.

Thanks @Vu Nguyen for the feedback.