All Forum Posts by: Bob Langworthy

The amount of success that you are going to have is mind-blowing. The discipline of the Marines, with a college degree in finance, a real estate license, and a desire to learn might just be the perfect combination. An internship would be good, but those firms might not be interested. I might start by taking a month or two to meet as many people in the industry and those specific companies as possible and asking them things like:

1) What can I do to help you in your career?

2) What can I take off your plate at little or no cost to you?

3) How can I provide value to you?

If you can figure out what they need and provide that, you will gain the experience you need and eventually the job that you want.

As an aside, Jocko Willink describes his time in college post-military as a tactical operation. It's pretty hilarious and I can't help but picture that as I type this.

Hope this helps.

In addition to what has been said above, what are your goals? If you're looking to hold the property indefinitely, then the deal is fine. If you're looking to sell it, then you'll want to price the property accordingly as you may be able to command a higher selling price with the jump it rent in year 8. Other factors:

1) Industry you are targeting

2) Highest and best use of the property

3) Financing terms

Hope this helps.

@Alex Olson is spot on. Buying a quad as your first property in the right location would be tremendous. As an alternative to his strategy, you could do a 1031 exchange into a larger property every 2-5 years to increase your number of units that way.

Hope this helps.

@Brendan Chase, that's a great question. The answer will depend on several factors:

1) What are our long term goals? 10 units? 100 units? 1000 units? 

2) What towns are you looking at? 

3) How well connected are you in the market you are targeting? The more connections, the more likely you are to get off market deals.

For all that's been written about investing in properties that you don't live near, there are definitely advantages to investing close to home.

Hope this helps.

Attorneys, accountants, financial advisers, counselors, insurance agents may all be interested. They may or may not need to see clients/customers there. 

Two separate issues:

1) As a real estate investor, what is the highest and best use for the property? There may be a simpler and more profitable way to get cash flow from the property.

2) If you are talking about running a halfway house or daycare, you'll need to develop a detailed business plan. You can work with a SCORE adviser in your area to create that. You may also talk with other operators in the area and get their thoughts.

And as mentioned above, zoning regulations will dictate what you can and cannot do with the property.

Question?

I leased space for 7 years in a nicely renovated old building that began life as a grand home. There were 15 offices, but a total of 20+ tenants when you included the part-time and virtual tenants. We had a receptionist in common and shared a copy machine, kitchen, bathrooms, and conference room. You knew when moving in to the space that you had neighbors and got to know them pretty quickly. Never had any tenant-to-tenant issues while I was there.

It may have also helped that the landlord was there every day because his business was also a tenant.

Risk tolerance varies widely. I'll make some points in favor of doing it as you already know many reasons not to. Others will also chime in with some of the very valid risks associated with a deal like this.

1) Cash flow is king. If you get it cheap and find tenants you'll be in great shape.

2) Your carrying costs may be less than you think. Do some math to figure out how much it will cost you out of pocket to hold the property while vacant. It might not be bad.

3) Commercial real estate valuation is formula based. Once you have tenants, you'll be able to do some work to calculate the value of the property.

4) You have experience as a real estate investor. While it's not in this asset-type, it is still relevant. 

5) You've already proven to yourself that you can learn about investing in an asset and then actually do it. That puts you ahead of most people.

A couple questions that immediately come to mind for me:

1) What are the zoning regulations for the property?

2) Parking. Not enough: stay away. More than enough: revenue opportunity.

3) What capital expenditures need to happen sooner rather than later?

Hope this helps,

I would do the following:

1) Review 3 years of financial

2) Confirm zoning with the town/city

3) Get estimates for repair after the inspeaction

4) Get estimates for CapEx

5) Get a sense for market rents

I'm frankly surprised that a home inspector would inspect it. Around here (in Maine) there are different levels of inspectors and a regular home inspector won't inspect a commercial building, even if it's just an old home converted to office space. 

Hope this helps,