All Forum Posts by: Austin Faux

I was calling on a property and on the other end of the phone was a real estate agent that deals specifically with marijuana.  She was saying that Denver has a HUGE demand for apartments whose landlords allow growing marijuana within the legal limits.  She turns people down on a daily basis because she can't find any places in the metro area to rent.  Could be a good real estate niche, and honestly it's one I'm thinking about doing....if I can just get my attorney on the phone to talk about the legal aspects....lol

Hi Everyone!

My wife (Amanda) and I are from Denver, Colorado and we started up our business (Miracle Real Estate Group, LLC) a few months ago. It's been a long interesting path to becoming real estate investors, so if you read the rest of this thanks ahead of time! ....hopefully it's entertaining enough ;)

My Wife and I

Ladies first! My wife (Amanda) has been studying real estate off and on for about 5 years.  She's been watching the Denver market intently for that period of time because we were trying to figure out if we wanted to buy our first house, or buy a 4-plex and have someone pay our mortgage.  We never quite got anything going because we were still both in school, and other expenses ate up our downpayment.  She studied Biochemistry and worked in a pharmacy for many years before she realized that she didn't want to become a pharmacist but instead wanted to homeschool our kids.

I've been in the Army National Guard for 16.5 years and wanted to become a military chaplain.  I went to school for mental health and counseling and did group therapy work (as an intern) with people who had drug and alcohol issues.   Little did I know how much help my degree would give me in talking with people in this profession!  Long story short, the Army increased the requirements to become a Chaplain while decreasing the age to fulfill those new requirements, and by the time I could finish the new requirements I would be ONE YEAR too old.  So I just spent all this time in school, and my goal was no longer in reach.  

I wasn't interested in doing counseling on the civilian side, but luckily for me I knew how to help websites rank higher on Google (SEO).  I got hired professionally a number of years ago and have been doing SEO and internet marketing for lots of high profile clients.  One of those clients happened to be HomeVestors/We Buy Ugly Houses, and over the years I saw how much money I was making them, and though I still love SEO I decided that I needed to become an investor too.  

Rich Dad Poor Dad

My wife and I picked up Rich Dad, Poor Dad and we've been very focused in helping each other learn how to become real estate investors.  In fact our first deal was ALMOST a $22,000/m cashflow producing 13 acre horse stable, which we had a lot of confidence buying because horses, ranches and stables runs through Amanda's side of our family.  We ended up buying into the Rich Dad education system and we've been doing the trainings since October.  

Moving Forward to Help Others!

I have to admit that I feel very blessed to be in the position that I currently am in.   Even though military chaplaincy, becoming a police officer, becoming a pharmacist fell short for my wife and I, we've never been closer.  My wife loves following the market, I've been obsessed with population growth patterns since I lived in Boston, L.A. and Washington D.C. as a kid.  Plus my wife and I even before getting into real estate investing would go to open houses and tour apartment complexes (pretending we needed to move) on date nights.  But the best part about real estate investing is no one but me can stand between me and being an investor.  No one can tell me after years and years of schooling you can't do it.  

We're very eager to develop trusting long term relationships/friendships with other investors in the Denver market, and we love to help people in any way that we can!  So if we can help you find a win/win with a property, or you need help understanding internet marketing let us know!

 More money.  If we feel the need to wholesale I've got no problem doing that, but if I can learn something by rehab or rebuild with another good investor in the area then I think it's worth doing that.  Wholesale is definitely an option though. 

I'm working in an area in Denver, Colorado which everyone is tearing down existing homes ($100k - $300K) and putting up $800K - $1.2m homes. I haven't done a deal yet but I've found a few FSBO motivated sellers that haven't listed on the MLS. If I get these deals done I'm trying to figure out if I should just do a more traditional Rehab, or if I should try and go big and do a complete rebuild with an experienced partner. Is doing a complete rebuild out of my league?

Hey Chris,

I am in the National Guard and though I don't rent my Army buddy does rent in Colorado Springs, home of the Ir Force Academy and Fort Carson. What he does with his military tenants is get their unit contact info and CO info. If they aren't paying their rent their CO can get rent deducted from their pay automatically, it just takes talking to their unit to get the ball rolling. Besides if the Soldier is deployed they're getting BHA and the soldier needs to give a copy of the lease to their unit admin I believe, this should help the soldier pay the rent. good luck

@Guy Gimenez that is correct. Our offers (letter of intent) is separate from our purchase contracts. Our goal is to send two offers one of which is cash (60%-70% ARV) and the other offer will be seller financing at (70%-80% ARV).

I found a real estate attorney but things are just moving way slower than I expected.  We found some good properties that we want to make offers on, but we haven't had our attorney look at our offer paperwork yet.  We do have our offers setup to say that if you sign and accept our offer, you'll still have to sign an actual purchase contract.  What do you think? I live in the Denver area if anyone knows a good attorney?

Hey Luke,

I would recommend Lorena in the Denver area.  She is an investor herself, and works with the Rich Dad company when they come out to Denver to help train new investors.  She also runs the "Women's Investment Group" which is open to men too.  She only works with people who she has played "Cashflow 101" with so you'll have to meet her at one of her Cashflow monthly meetings.  She has tons of good resources for people in the Denver area.

Here is her Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenaarnoldtankersley
Here is her investor group website: http://www.womeninvestmentgroup.com/