All Forum Posts by: Andrew Wydra

I just purchased a multi family in Omaha and the market is pretty hot there. I'd suggest selling while the market is frothy. You can never go broke taking a profit!

Hi Connely,

Are you looking purchase and have the company manage it for you? Or are you looking to self manage? 

BP Nation,

Here's the idea: I've been thinking about this for some time and woke up this morning telling myself to stop putting it on the back burner. Idea: Volunteer my services and use what I'm proficient in to help other like-minded people. This is a “favor experiment” for me, as I may pursue this area of real estate full time – it’s what I enjoy doing! Read more about my experiment under “Why I’m Doing This”.

What I’d Do: If you are looking to invest in a new project, you need to do your due diligence. Find the facts before you commit to any project! I can help develop an in-depth Market Study based on an area/opportunity you are working on. I have completed hundreds of these types of analysis for acquisition and development deals. They are mandatory if you are looking to invest in any asset before you commit your capital/time (it’s also a great way to negotiate a better deal with the seller!). Below are some areas my past surveys have included.

• Competition Analysis
• Occupancy Rates
• Rent Historic Growth Rate
• Rents / Costs by unit type, class, square footage
• Demographics / Employment Forecasts
• Construction Forecast
• Sales Comps
• ETC.

Interested? Reach out to me and let me know what you are looking for for your project. I will let you know if I’m the right person to help. This is a side project for me so I want to make sure I take on projects that will receive the most value from it. 

Why I’m Doing This – The Favor Experiment? What I mean by Favor Experiment: by helping others, you may help me validate a business idea. I have worked in almost every area of real estate over the past 13 years. My niche, and what gets me most excited is deal analysis, acquisitions, due diligence, financial analytics, and deal structure. I have assessed thousands of deals for myself and others. Multi Family and Self Storage have been my main focus but I've also done land development studies. The experiment is to see 1) if I want to shift my focus and do this full time. 2) Does it have value for people, can I create software that myself and others can to help this process 3) should build a company around it 4) I want to work with other big picture, like-minded people!!!! I get energy from others like myself who want to bounce ideas/concepts off others. 

Trent- I just worked on an acquisition in Omaha and the market due diligence took me 2x as long as the financial analysis (I dedicated approx 15-20 hours of data searching/gathering for the market info).  Is this common with what you've seen?

Another Question: after you do the initial market due diligence, do you go back on an annual basis and update if you acquire the property? So you can keep up with market trends?

How are smart and seasoned investors doing their market due diligence? Do you use a software program or are you digging various websites and compiling longhand?

There are a ton of software systems and "how-to" resources for analyzing the financials for a real estate investment. But in working with seasoned investors, I've seen them spend huge amounts of time doing market due diligence. I have followed suit and it has really deepened my understanding of an investment's opportunities and risks. Not to mention that all the data I gather in a market analysis I put into a project's financial analysis i.e. projected rents, vacancies, comps, demographics, crime etc. I do this all by digging various websites. I have not found an easy one stop shop that compiles this data for me. Let me know if you have a software program that can compile all the pertinent market info. 

Thanks,

Andrew

Mahesh,

Welcome! Have you looked in Lemont? Lemont may target your criteria but not many multi family buildings come on the market. I own a turnkey (no reno necessary) 4 flat in Lemont that I'm getting ready to list. Let me know if you want to see the numbers on that building. Feel free to pick my brain on the area in general. 

Hi All,

I've been pretty quite on BiggerPockets up to this point. But I wanted to introduce myself and my group, The iLiA Group, to the BiggerPockets network. Up to this point, my group and I have personally acquired all of our cash flow properties, we now own about $8M in assets. 

We take a very data driven approach to our investment strategy and opt to acquire a couple really good asset vs. a larger amount of assets with average returns. I'm looking to chat real estate with like minded people and begin developing investor relationships, both with my group but I'm also interested in investing with others if there are great opportunities out there. 

Regards ~ Andrew J. Wydra

Non- Real Estate Books I'm Currently Reading & Would Recommend: 

• Zero to One by Peter Thiel
  
• Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

Build it and they will come............ Developers want to see a market, which there isn't one today. The city will need to create an incentive package for developer to come in and take a risk on the area. Ideas for the city:

• Create a marketing campaign to draw visitors. Sell itself. Yes, cities do this just like any business trying to sell itself. 
• Give developers tax incentives if they develop ie tax credits, discounted real estate taxes, low building fees/permit fees. 

A lot of great advice. The common theme is to get the data and confirm all the numbers. Absolutely request 3-5 years of P & L but don't stop there. Call all the utility companies and ask them to give you a 12 or 24 month average. I do this on every property and inevitably you will find mistakes in their numbers. 

Also, complete a market rent survey and a sales comps survey. Being in that market, you should know what the market rental rate is for these units, but again, double check. Check craigslist, call management companies, and do your research. Also, go to the city and ask for a report on what multi family buildings have sold for in the past year and within in that area. This will help prove up value.

Numbers look good. Will you be managing them personally? Either way, I'd put in a management fee whether you self manage or pay for it. This will give you an accurate financial pro forma because any investment property should cover management fees while meeting your financial metrics.