All Forum Posts by: Dave W.

Hi all - 

I realize this is a thread from 4 years ago, but if anyone is still active in the Tri-Cities/EP area, I'd love to connect! I'm local to Boston, MA where I'm an active developer (subdivisions, multifamily, adaptive reuse) but also invest and partner out of state -- and have been working with a local partner in the tri-cities area for the past 2 years and looking to expand my network there.

I am usually in the area every 6-8 weeks so happy to setup coffee/etc, on my next round.

Best,

Dave

SK - Can you elaborate on what you are asking? 

Have people had good experiences with Syndications, JVs, or other more passive investments - absolutely. Is it a fit for you? Depends on your risk/return/experience and goals.  You could say similar for turnkey residential, triple-net assets, etc. 

In terms of Syndications -- there are a wide range of syndications and sponsors to choose from, with each deal having a different level of risk/return/sponsor experience AND business plan (development, value-add, etc.)  Bottom line is you will still want to vet both the deal and the sponsor and then match that to your goals on risk/expected returns. 

To get a feel for how the nationwide players structure the deals, check our www.cadre.com or similar sites that are crowd sourcing them. For Value-Add, there are a number of players and plenty to find here and elsewhere through reading the boards, reviewing signatures, marketplace, etc. 

If you can add more detail to your question, I'm sure others can chime in more productively so apologies for the generality of my response. 

Best,

Dave

Mike - as I read this thread today from Medellin I am curious where you landed on your activities here.

Tremendous growth of the middle class here and there is development activity everywhere with still plenty to explore. 

Local financing is onerous but for international investors appears opportunity exists, provided the risk/reward is a comfortable ratio for folks.

Look forward to hearing the latest! 

RE: Corporate entities - Each state usually has a division of corporations that you can search the name and identify specific officers of the company to contact if desired. 

Congratulations Logan! You have a great set of options in front of you. If you are heads down in your GC job, then it is certainly easier to give (invest) your money to others to build for you (Passive investing, turnkey properties, etc.) and these are all fine ways to make money with real estate as the underlying asset class. 

You can also buy a 2-4 family and owner occupy (best leverage/down payment and rates; learn to be a landlord, potentially live for free while others pay down your mortgage and you build equity)

However, given your background as a GC, perhaps there is an opportunity to build and hold multi-family assets nearby or partner with someone with experience as a Developer vs. a builder? For example - if you know you can build a 4, 6, 12+ unit building and that cost is considerably lower than the market value (end product you would sell it at) and once rented out at market rents it would cover your debt service plus profit, then you could do that as well and have a leg up on most retail buyers. Even better is if your cost to build vs. retail price is high enough and your rental rates high enough, you could refinance the debt from the construction and get most if not all your cash back to invest again without waiting too long. 

I'm not close (Boston, MA) but happy to chat anytime if i can be helpful -- have a friend or two from Brunswick as well! Feel free to connect privately if interested. Best of luck and congrats on being in such an enviable position starting out!

Best Regards,

Dave

Re: Syndicators - see who is operating locally and maybe you can meet in person. Things to think about is track record, experience, questions on how they evaluate a deal and stress test it. What is worst case and how would they handle it, how did they handle in past,etc. 

What is the team and their role on it? 

Lots of good resources here and googling...

If you can seek out some business owners or high net worth folks near you, they may be good sounding board and mentors. Think small Private Equity fund owners, etc.

For stewardship of something like this, I would vote looking at triple-net (NNN) properties where you will only have the barest of responsibilities and the tenants will pay most of the variable costs should things shift over time. You still benefit from paydown of any leverage you use but they tend to be locked into 10, 20 or longer lease terms with larger stable tenants. The returns will be lower in the spectrum but risk and predictability is pretty good.

The next vote is for either full or partial ownership of a larger asset such as a mid-tier multi-family (5-10M). This will provide good passive income with formal management in place, equity paydown, etc. It also consolidates the CapEx/repair needs while diversifying vacancy issues with a unit of SFR here and there. One roof, one set of walls instead of dozens to manage over the years.

There are probably a dozen more ideas and options folks will toss out, but since this is your father's trust and there are some income needs from it, I would weigh the risk/reward very carefully and for me, given my personality, would likely give up a few pct in return for more stability/predictability/security in the longer term.

Good luck... You can also diversify with a mix of RE and other more traditional items but having something that has some leverage in a strong metro/market will provide long term appreciation/growth with the equity paydown which will help you hedge for inflation and/or changes in needs over time. 

Hi Peter - you can always start with the standard form and go from there. Also, as a first time landlord it may be worth the education to pay a rental agent half a fee or whatnot so they do the credit check and agreement for you and then you can take it from there!

For what it’s worth - my 0.02 is to do a lot of networking - ask people what they do or have done, find mentors and partners, and start that way. In Mass there are a few operators that train/jv with students and might be worth testing out on them as well. 

My personality is such that I’m cynical about any guru or paid boot camp but I’m sure others here have had good experiences.

I’m happy to meet for coffee, etc if helpful and in the greater Boston area.

A few groups I’m aware of are Ocean City out of Wakefield and Brownstone AG and there are always the homeVestors (we buy ugly houses) folks. 

I’m sure there are many others you could meet up with. 

Black Diamond and the REIAs around here are good places to start networking as well.

Good luck!

... and I can always use a good plumber if

you want to share your contact and looking for that kind of work.

Best,

Dave

What are your goals here? Improve the downtown area in general (signage, green space, general design)? Impact policy/zoning (is it walkable, commutable, etc and how do you lobby and create areas that attract developers to do this) or to actually purchase/rehab and attract local or specific types of businesses?

Depending on the goals it may influence your approach. This is definitely not my wheelhouse but fascinating by the attempt and by happy to help if feasible. 

What town is this if you don’t mind sharing?

-Dave