Should I assemble real estate team before purchasing property?

Question

Hi,

I am a first time home buyer and I am looking to get into residential multifamily homes and renting them out. I am currently reading and following the BiggerPocket's ultimate beginner guide. Should I assemble my real estate team before purchasing my property? Or is this something that I can do along the way? What was your experience like assembling your real estate team? Thank you in advance.

Based on the guide, here is the list of employees I need:

Mentor

Mortgage Broker/Loan Officer

Real Estate Attorney

Escrow Officer or Title Rep

Accountant

Insurance Agent

Contractor

Realtor

Property Manager

Handyman

Mike Dymski · Answer

Go get a property.  I didn't have half of those as regular team members until I had multiple units.

Jian G. · Answer

that is a loaded question so the answer is it depends. what area are you investing? are you investing in hot area, are you investing areas near you? residential home and multifamily is two different things. you can control your environment with a lot of discipline. i recommend spending a good amount of hours reading and listing to podcast, then on your days off check out the properties you interested in investing. you can learn really really fast, you can be above average in a few months depending on how much work you willing to put out. also what is your financial situation, and how is that first investment do for you if it goes wrong. it is all relative, if your market is cheaper and you can afford to buy and hold without needing cash flow. there's enough tools out there you can quickly learn to minimize risk. if have a good profession, i would recommend buy at places not where you want to live, but areas that you don't want to live, it usually yield a higher return. i am not talking about the ghettos where they have shooting every night, but hard working class that just trying to put food on the table for their family. if you doing single family and try to minimize risk by doing your homework, you don't need all these people. just start slow, one person will recommend you to another and you will slowly find people that works for you. you can't build a team if you never work with them, you have to go through the pain of getting burn by people and you will find the one that will become your team. good luck!

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

Mike best one of the day..  much of the team just grows organically.   and as you have velocity these team members come into play.

to me penetrating a new market first things first.. IE great Broker..  WE proof up so they know they are not wasting their time.

do some research on markets.. this great broker you will leverage their contacts.. IE many times they have the GC or handyman but for sure they know who is financing their deals and who the closers are be it title escrow or out east closing attornies.

but i am a huge proponent of team.  But this is just part of starting and running a real estate business.  So like someone like my company that is in multiple states we need multiple teams. thats the fun part.. and frustrating part

Josue Vargas · Answer

That is a big list of "employees".  Bette to think of them as "partners", you are not paying them a salary to gain your business.

You don't need everything for starters, unless you are doing a really big deal with multi-family units.

In my opinion, your best partner will be a Broker/realtor.  He can lead you to find good partners of the rest of your list.

Todd Dexheimer · Answer

Some team members are needed before you start, some can be done while you get a deal. I would start having conversations with everyone though prior to buying. Some important ones to nail down before starting:

Real estate broker/agent

Mortgage lenders

Property Manager

Contractors

Mentor (If you want/need one)

You can nail down the others while your prepping to close on a property or shortly after.

Gwyeth Smith · Answer

@Jimmy Lieu, welcome to BP.  I'm a believer in building your teams first, but there is something to be said about jumping in and just doing it.  You can definitely build along the way to a certain extent as the first people on your team can help recommend the others you might need.  If you already have a broker you are dealing with you can ask him/her to recommend a RE Attorney, Mortgage broker, etc.  Best of luck to you.

George Blower · Answer

@Jimmy Lieu

Welcome to BP!

Michael Hamilton · Answer

Hey Jimmy,

I would start with what you want to learn first. What part of the real estate process do you want to learn and adopt as a core skill you can incorporate in your deals to offer you a savings? This is helpful for a number a reasons. It allows you to save money on a skill that you would otherwise pay a fee for. Ours was construction, we assembled a team capable of high construction volumes before we did our first deals. This strategy was somewhat uncommon but it allowed me to get into projects and build at a discount because I could get materials and trades at a discount compared to going out and hiring a contractor that would mark up the build 15-18%.

We are a 8 person team and we outsource the rest.

Should I assemble real estate team before purchasing property?

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