All Forum Posts by: Dave G.

@Jay Hinrichs

Thanks for the heads-up. I will probably not get out to Charleston until late 1Q2019, but will keep your suggestion in mind and send you PM regarding meeting your local team when dates start to firm up. Thx, Dave

@Matt K. You are right on regarding direct flights. Flight delays are a killer. I came back from DTW yesterday through DFW and was delayed 1.5 hours. And that was a short delay compared to some. Not only do you lose schedule, but hanging out in airports is not cheap unless your're going eat junk food/McDonalds while you wait. 

@Ho Eun Park I second the advisement offered by @Andrew Hargreave regarding Chicago/IL investing. 

My 2 cents: I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and go there frequently to visit siblings that still reside there. The state is not in good shape. And Chicago is worse, with a cesspool of reckless liberal leadership. You do not want to own property (or earn income) under the jurisdiction of a desperate & broke government unless there is a risk/return ratio that takes such an environment into consideration. I vote with my dollars, and even with all the familiarity and connections I have in IL, none of my dollars are going there. 

@Matt K. makes a great point about time zones. I live in AZ and do a lot of biz travel to EST cities. The 3 hour delta can be a killer in the summer. Even if you have a PM managing your property, your responsiveness may be critical at various phases of acquisition, rehab & ownership. That means I might have to be up at 3am to for a 6am phone call to EST. The same factor applies to travel to that location. If you're going to lose 2 or 3 hours of timezone when you fly to your EST property, it's an all day affair. It'll cost you two days minimum for any meeting/personal visit to see your property or management team.

All that being said, I am looking at Indianapolis & Charleston/Myrtle Beach. I will not buy anything until I conduct a personal visit there to survey the cities/neighborhoods and interview realtors & PMs. 

I also spend a lot of time in Detroit for biz, but just can't seem to pull the trigger on that area. When you get outside the city into suburbs, prices are not a bargain.

Lastly, my future purchases are taking into consideration that there are 10k baby boomers a day retiring. I think a lot of them that live in the Northern states will want to move somewhere with more temperate winters. If this happens, it will drive property appreciation and rental demand. I will not target anyplace with stairs either. Human knees wear out. I am looking for 1 level, 1st floor units or places with elevators. 

Cheers,
Dave

Maybe I'm off on this, but I believe it is the responsibility of every BP contributor to read all the posts prior to theirs in attempt to not be redundant to previous posts as well as to provide value-added input.

However, I am not about to go read 395 posts. Even if I was a bored, retired person with absolutely no life, I would not read 395 posts before adding my 2 cents.

So here goes, and apologies for my laziness.

I am always baffled why someone new to real estate decides they want to be a wholesaler. Admittedly, I have not done any wholesaling, as I am a long-time buy/hold investor. But to me, being a good, valid wholesaler seems like it would be one of the most challenging jobs in real estate investment. It does not at all seem like a job that a newbie could quickly be successful at. I would think an effective wholesaler needs to have a more comprehensive skillset than almost all other types of real estate investors. They need to have superior communication & negotiation skills. They need to know not just the traditional transaction process, but multiple alternative transaction/deal structures. They must know precise market values and precise rehab costs. There's a lot of stuff going on here, and it seems to me like its the last path someone new to real estate should take.

Lastly, I have looked at wholesaler deals. I am very skeptical until I am provided enough substantiation to gain confidence and engage. On what basis would I have any confidence in the deals someone brand new to real estate brings me? I know the short answer would be the numbers, but experience and reputation apply strongly here.

Not trying to dissuade anyone from doing this. But realize that here's one investor's view of someone new to real estate going into wholesaling as well as considerations on doing business with such a person.

Call the major remodel contractors in your area and ask them that exact question.

I would also set up searches on Craigslist.

I had a teacher in 8th grade tell the class emphatically as he was handing out the mid-term exams to us  "....by the way, you can cheat on this test" and we all perked up and looked at him. He went on to say "...as long as I don't catch you!!"

Enough said.

40% RE, 55% equities, 5% cash.

For about 4 years now I've focused all new investment capital deployment on RE (other than maxed out 401K contributions).

Agree with @Christopher Leon that "Wealth Advisors" probably make no money (except maybe in some unique management arrangements) on a client investing in real estate. So it doesn't surprise me one bit the slimy financial services industry pooh-poohing RE as a lowly "alternative investment." If I ever hire a financial advisor, the only way I'm going to trust one is with hourly compensation which completely insulates the advice from conflict of interest sales commissions.

History repeats itself, over and over. Pay attention. Watch the market like a hawk. Deploy capital carefully, yet have reserves. Cash is always king when the economy is in the toilet. 

And choose wisely with important decisions like how much to stock up on 9mm, .40 cal and 5.56 to protect the homestead when things sour.  

God Bless America!

I have experience with bad PMs and have had to fire several.

Envision when this property manager does get around to putting a tenant in your place, do you think they are working hard to make sure the tenant is meets all requirements? What about maint issues? Do you think your place/tenant is going to get the proper responsiveness to problems? What if the tenant becomes non-performing? Do you think the PM is going to work diligently all the steps toward eviction?

Or will they be "too busy"??

I hope you get the picture.

Get busy finding your new PM. One that cares about your business.