All Forum Posts by: Brian Serina

Low skilled, low knowledge, low fee.  It’s for agents that do not think too highly of themselves.

Congratulations!  Curious, what type of business did you sell?     It’s all about creating wealth.  You can do it all. Back up for a moment and think about how to double that 600.  Investing in r/e is just one aspect of creating wealth (selling one’s business is another, ha ha).   Stock market is another avenue and allows diversification.  Look at what happened Dec 24.  Great entry point for the stock market, or adding to positions.  We like the REITs and these blow-offs present tremendous opportunities, in my opinion.  There will be more like that too.

Hi Bobby, should you decide to venture over in the Sacramento area, let me know.  Would be happy to keep you updated on what’s going on over here should you have an interest.

Join BP...

 Yea, they tend to move around...

 You must have seen some activity recently?  I think they were late in paying/posting Oct and Nov activity.  One deal that was supposed to be paid off awhile ago was along with all the interest that was due.  Just a fyi.

 At this point it is a wait and see.  I mostly did only debt and preferred with RS.  The one time I did an equity deal with them it went sour rather quickly.  The one debt deal that I have remaining was a on a small house in Hawaii paying about 9% is now way past due but still making payments...until December.  I don’t believe all the sponsers have quit paying - I think it is an RS issue (at least I hope so) and it gets resolved (vs them having to chase down sponsers).   I actually had a good track record with them over the last three years until I went into that one equity deal (and I only did that since all the debt and preferred offerings dried up).  So, not sure what is going to happen now but I think it is an RS issue.

Also, just a side note and my two cents worth going forward. Crowd funding is becoming 99% the sponser and 1% the deal. On that one deal that went sideways, it was basically they overpaid in a bad neighborhood - it is as simple as that. The pro forma looked good, pics looked wonderful, all my questions were answered, they were going to turn this thing around, make gobs of money, and yes they were quite confident they could achieve an IRR of 22%+, something like that. BS. In the end they were a C- grade sponser that didn't due their due diligence (that we were relying on) and provided comps that really were not. I am still a big believer in CF but the dark side is there are a lot of so called sponsers that should be avoided and do not have their investors best interest. I hope RS plays out well and winds down in a professional and ethical way that allows their investors to recoup their money and limits their losses. It's still early.

I had a small handful of minimum investments with them and by early December all went quiet and no activity is showing.  They have completely quit communicating with their ‘investors.’  I wonder if it is the same with the sponsers (not communicating) which would not bode well if that is the case.

Hi Mark, it really becomes a matter of how motivated you are to hone the skill set of each category, and they have their similarities and unique characteristics. It's like speaking different languages so just because you do residential you cannot or should not do commercial. Just become good at what you do and be client focused. I learned early on that I was leaving money on the table only focusing on one skill set. It is not uncommon now to run into someone (potential client) that wants to buy a house and a business. I used to refer the residential out but not anymore. Now after many years doing all three (residential, commercial, business brokerage), I can just about fully monetize a client. For instance, I picked up a client recently and listed his Mexican restaurant and once we have that sold we are talking about listing his three SFR rentals (divorce situation). In another situation recently I was introduced to a guy that has a 4k sq ft restaurant with a hard liquor license that wants to retire and move out of the area. Count the income pools (his house, the restaurant, the building, possibly a LT nnn lease). You have to know how to do them, package them for sale, and do it well. I get calls just about every week from someone from Los Angeles or the Bay Area looking to move up here and they want to buy a house and/or buy a business or lease space as a retail tenant (you have to be able to negotiate a commercial lease). Know your skillset, know what is involved, know it well, and know the agents that work those categories. The smaller your market the more it makes sense to have a couple skill sets otherwise you could go through some long dry periods. Your prospecting efforts will bear more fruit too. My two cents on having a r/e license...

I second Eddie’s post and add that there are better opportunities in and around the Sacramento area than the Bay Area, although the word has been out for quite some time now.  West Sac is growing, Yuba City, Woodland, Placer county, etc.   Lots of folks looking to open their business here so small commercial strip centers seem to be doing good along with industrial (warehouses).