All Forum Posts by: Ken Breeze

Welcome to the Bigger Pockets universe @Isaac Feil !

I congratulate you in realizing earlier than most that your points (1) money, and (2) time and other people, are absolutely true. The brutal reality nobody wants to talk about is that this 'thing' called Real Estate, like anything else worthwhile in life, is hard, requires a painful change in mindset, takes dedication, practice and time.

Money is never the issue in any business. It comes when you can solve many people's problems. Most of us don't grow up learning from our parents or in school how to "make money" nor how to solve our community's challenges. We get only tought what our grandparents were taught:: prepare yourself to get a Job - A remnant of the past industrial age.

Time is of the essence. @Patrick Briton is right, it's a marathon. My grandfather used to say: "Servant years are not master years." Much of what we read, such as "10 Steps How to Make a Million Dollars in Real Estate in Less Than Six Months" or various similar "carrots" that get dangled infront of us, is deceiving in terms of how hard it is, how long it takes, how frustrating and lonely real estate can be. Do not look for the 'get rich quick formular',but look for get rich and stay rich.

People of the right mindset are hard to find. Yes, we can go to meetups, of which most will not serve your needs - start your own with your focus, invite professionals to learn from etc. And yes it's absolutely vital to read a ton of books, blogs and listen to podcasts every day to continue to grow your knowledge foundation. But nobody tells you how much persistance and focus it takes. How many people give up. Where's that team or mentor with decades of life and business smarts when you feel down and doubtful - again?

Learning is vital but can only do so much. Learn as much as you can, but also do your networking to find, join and build your team. Find a mentor or two. Online and offline. You will go through a few in the years to come. Oh, and do yourself and your mentors a favor, otherwise they will not take you onboard, or they drop you quickly: do not waste your mentors time and stay positive. You will need to trust, give up control, have faith and get down to the work your mentor puts on your table. That's where things change and get real uncomfortable and "scary" for most. Everbody wants somethings fast and for free these days. But only outside your comfort zone is where your future and success lies.

That said, I highly recommend using the awesome tools provided here on BP to learn the basics of analysis and underwriting. Grab a few from Zillow to practice. Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area.

Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you.

Read Beginner’s Guide.

Check out BP Podcasts.

Find upcoming real estate events and meetups near you.

Check out the file place from time to time or do a direct search.

If you'd like to tag someone in the conversation, type @ followed by their name and then select the name of that person that appears below the comments box. They will be notified of being tagged so that they can jump back into the conversation.

Send me a PM should you ever get interested in commercial (5+ units) multifamily apartment investing. Syndicators like me are always looking for new partners in various metropolitan areas to grow our portfolio together.

Cheers, Ken ;-)

Hey, @Zachary Sit

On first glance it looks like you're flipping this one with hard money.

How many units? On Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow game we would always ask when it was someone's turn to pick a card: "Small deal or big deal?" We learned quickly that the work on a small deal was the same compared to the big deasl but with much greater returns.

If the market rents and future demographics pan out, why not buy and hold for cashflow, refi for a higher equity position and/or exit for appreciation in a few years? Use the BRRRR calculator to compare strategies. Use more OPM to gain more CoC and ROI.

Your numbers look okay, even though a few assumptions are hard to judge from our side, in terms of your DIY input and time to get it done. I just felt like I should nudge you to consider doing various calculations to compare if a deal might be ripe for your entry to passive oncome.

Hey, @Blake Davis

First off: You’re not crazy. Many markets are currently not red but white hot and will experience a correction some time in the near future. Now’s a good time to practice, network for your A-Team (attorney, PM, GC, CPA) and learn to scale.

Always make a “ridiculous offer” of 75% ($337.500,00) of purchase/asking price ($450,000.00) to test the waters. They might hang up, scream at you, disappear off radar but always keep in mind you need to keep tesing the market.

Here’s my "10 Minute" Analysis:

• First calculate the price per unit: purchase/asking price $450,000.00 divided by number of units to get to your unit price. In your case $112.500,00/unit.
• The min. monthly rent needs to be 10% of the unit price. In your case $ 1.125,00

The great thing about  calculators is that they’re blind to local markets, our attachments, emotions or bias.

Generally you need to experiment on which wheels you need to turn (price, debt service, down payment, terms, etc.) to make the deal work. If that’s not possible, it’s not a deal.

We always look for 6-9% CoC and 15% IRR, a refi in 2-3 years and an exit in 5-7 years.

A few subjective thoughts on the current general multifamily real estate situation: 

I see similar signs on the wall as in 2008. People were paying ridiculous prices for SFR because everyone, their aunt, and their dog received a "stated income" loan. Similarly I see some CRE lenders throwing money around again topped by dried up inventory and too many new, overpriced A-class developments going up just to create the perfect storm all over again - this time in the CRE space. Not to mention the elephant in the room: offices and strip malls, who needs them in this day and age? But that's for another blog.

Thus it's important to run numbers conservatively with built in saftey for when the people move into the brand new A-class buildings increasing our "old" asetts' vacancy for a while only to pick up all the A-class peeps again, once they realize they can't afford those rents anymore, which will in turn have an effect on all rents. 

It never gets boring with real estate. The game is on ;-)

Hey @Trae Turner

Welcome to the Bigger Pockets universe!

That said, I highly recommend using the awesome tools provided here on BP to learn the basics of analysis and underwriting. Grab a few from Zillow to practice if you're into SFR or Loopnet if you're curious about CREI.

A few tips to get started and your continued learning:

Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area.

Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you.

Read Beginner’s Guide.

Check out BP Podcasts.

Find upcoming real estate events and meetups near you.

Check out the file place from time to time or do a direct search.

If you'd like to tag someone in the conversation, type @ followed by their name and then select the name of that person that appears below the comments box. They will be notified of being tagged so that they can jump back into the conversation.

Send me a PM should you ever get interested in commercial (5+ units) multifamily apartment investing. Syndicators like me are always looking for new partners in various metropolitan areas to grow our portfolio together.

Cheers, Ken ;-)

@Trae Turner

Hey @Kadeem Samuels

I can't make a direct recommendation since I'm not from your area, but I'm sure someone on the forum can.

It also helps to build up a variety of team players for your future endeavors by checking out the company page in the menu above to hook up with a few professionals in the area you need team support in. The advantage on BP is that you can ask around in the forums, using kewords (e.g. title agent, south florida, etc.), what experience they may have had with them. I can't emphasize this tool enough since it save a ton of time finding people or stuff you need.

Since savy BP members use keywords, it's a good idea to be rich in those terms you're looking for when posting anything here on BP. Include @FirstName to include people in the thread or otherwise to nudge them to engage.

Good luck.

Hey @Bradley Coleman first off, where did you get your cool cartoon avatar? I want one ;-)

I can't make a direct recommendation since I'm not from your area, but I'm sure someone on the forum can.

You could check out LegalZoom, DocuSign or even  the file place here on Bigger Pockets.

It also helps to build up a variety of team players for your future endeavors by checking out the company page in the menu above to hook up with a few professionals in the area you need team support in. The advantage on BP is that you can ask around in the forums, using kewords (e.g. lease agreement), what experience they may have had with them. I can't emphasize this tool enough since it save a ton of time finding people or stuff you need.

Since savy BP members use keywords, it's a good idea to be rich in those terms you're looking for when posting anything here on BP. Include @FirstName to include people in the thread or otherwise to nudge them to engage.

Good luck.

Hey @Kadeem Samuels I can't make a direct recommendation since I'm not from your area, but I'm sure someone on the forum can. 

It also helps to build up a variety of team players for your future endeavors by checking out the company page here on Bigger Pockets to hook up with a few professionals in the area you need team support in. The advantage on BP is that you can ask around in the forums, using kewords, what experience they may have had with them. 

Good luck.

Hey @Mark Ebinal I can't make a recommendation but I'm sure someone on the forum. It also helps to build up a variety team players for your future endeavors. Check out ManageMyProperty.com or the company page here on BP and hook up with a few property managers in the area you need team support in.

Good luck.

Hey, @Aaron Gaffney thanks for sharing and reaching out. We need to catch up, it's been a while. Let's do a project together with a minimum of 65 units. That's the tipping point where MF allows for a PM and starts to make sense/cents ;-)

Check out what we're currently working on in my profile under "Deals". I'm looking for accredited investors, key principles as the loan guarantor and co-sponsors with a track record that fit the various deals my team and I are working on. Everybody and everything else is in place.

Hey @Ben Zimbleman

Welcome to the Bigger Pockets universe! Many have posted a few great tips already, that's the cool thing about this forum ;-) That said, I highly recommend using the awesome tools provided here on BP to learn the basics of analysis and underwriting.

A few tips to get started and your continued learning:

• Read Beginner’s Guide.
• Check out BP Podcasts.
• Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area.
• Getting the Most out of BiggerPockets
• How to Effectively Use BiggerPockets to Build Your Business
• The BiggerPockets Keyword Alert System
• Find upcoming real estate events and meetups near you.

If you'd like to tag someone in the conversation, type @ followed by their name and then select the name of that person that appears below the comments box. They will be notified of being tagged so that they can jump back into the conversation.

Send me a PM should you ever get interested in commercial (5+ units) multifamily apartment investing. Syndicators like me are always looking for new partners in various metropolitan areas to grow our portfolio together.

Cheers, Ken ;-)