All Forum Posts by: Daniel Ryu

Hi all,

I was reading some threads on Grand Haven and I was wondering - any thoughts on South Haven?

What's the local economy there like?

What are the best investment opportunities in that area (SFR, MF, Vacation rental)?

I have a friend who might be moving to that area who's looking to do some REI near where he lives.

Thanks!

Hi all,

I was reading all the threads on Grand Haven and I was wondering - any thoughts on South Haven?

What's the local economy there like?

What are the best investment opportunities in that area (SFR, MF, Vacation rental)?

I have a friend who might be moving to that area who's looking to do some REI near where he lives.

Thanks!

@Tim Porsche

Buy and Hold Real Estate - But it's really about how to 'value' cashflows vs investment vs time.

If you're investing in SFRs, then comps will determine your price. But since comps are based on 'market sentiment', it's not always aligned with financial returns. So 36 Financial calculations tells you how finance guys view investment opportunities so you know overall what type of ROIs you should be aiming for (although expected ROI can of course differ based on current market conditions, what's going on with stocks, etc. And if you're in a non-cashflowing market, you'll have to make assumptions about the appreciation.)

Anyways, I'm a cashflow investor at the moment so I like knowing how to compare my investments with other instruments as well as knowing what type of returns I might want to offer to future investors, if I go that route.

Hope it helps.

(by the way, add a little @ and then start typing a person's name in the thread. Then that person will get an alert that someone has mentioned them in their email. ^^)

@Jennifer Ceren tapp

Sounds like a good plan. Did you find any takers? 

@Carl Ghiselli

Yep.. I think it definitely helps to find partners. 

My first investment in Jacksonville was part of a joint venture.

In fact, I planned two really long post for my meetup members - one on how to do due diligence from abroad. And the second? How to find partners / colleagues / workers

Both are necessary components for investing abroad. 

Knowing enough about the area to ask questions and knowing people you can trust to help you manage your property.

@Rowan Woodburn

Hi Rowan! Welcome to BP.

I think a good question to ask might be - How could you deliver value to a potential mentor?

As a newbie, you might not know much about investing, but as a carpenter, I'm sure you have a lot of value to offer.

Maybe you could look through the BP members who are in Florida and see what people have been posting and start getting active in the forums and giving insights on issues that you know about. 

As I was looking for 'mentors' as well, I took this approach. Only since I'm living in Korea, I had to find ways I could be of service 'virtually.' I leveraged the skills I had - building business systems, organizing, and strategic planning - and when I met with investors virtually, by skype or at the meetup I helped organized, I would try to find out their pain points. 

With one investor, it had to do with internet marketing. Luckily, I happened to work on a internet marketing project in my spare time, so I used this knowledge to prepare a 2 page report on 'messaging' for his website. This lead to more conversation, and soon we had formed a partnership together.  (Better than mentoring since you get the same access and information, but you also get real life experience ^^).

It took some time, but if you're focused on that question of how to deliver value to others, I think it will make the process of finding a mentor, partner or colleague easier. It puts you in an active position and makes you focus on the value you can bring, instead of the value you hope to get from others. This, at least for me, gives me more confidence to approach others because I'm thinking first and foremost about how I can help them before thinking about what they can do for me.

Anyways, best of luck and feel free to reach out anytime. ^^

@Dael Cho

Welcome aboard. It's great that you're getting start so young!

While there a lot of ways to get into real estate investing from a transaction standpoint, and I'm sure you'll get a lot of advise in these forums, there are also ways to get involved with real estate that don't necessarily involve buying something. 

For example, I started a meetup out here in Korea and have helped connect investors and educate others. The experience was great for me because it forced me to learn a lot (so I could guide others) and provided me with a lot of access to investors. I invited some BP Bloggers (including Joshua Dorkin and Brandon Turner) to speak out our meetups virtually and in the process, was able to make some great connections.

I've also helped other investors by providing 'consulting.' Basically, I've talked to investors and in the process, have found out what some of their 'pain points' are and have offered to help them out. In some cases that was organizing business systems, and in other cases, helping to provide them strategic and planning advice. This has led to another partnership with investors. I have 15 years of business experience so I leveraged what I knew, even tho it was related directly to REI.

I've also studied online marketing because I know that is something that most investors don't have as much time to focus on. By being able to help out in this way, I'm able to build relationships that can possible lead to other opportunities.

I'm sure you'll find ways to invest that $10,000. I wish you the best of luck. But I'd like to let all investors or would-be investors out there know - there are more ways to get involved than just transactions! So that $10K can be one of your strategies, but if you get creative, you can find even more ways to get involved.

(here's a post where i wrote about some of my strategies - https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/23... - it's long.. 1,500 words ^^)

Bottom line - find ways to deliver value to others, no matter what the field, and you'll gain access and opportunities.

@Warren Bright

Our members are mostly overseas investors so if you ever want to talk about the process of finding properties while living abroad, feel free to reach out. I bought my first SFR in Jacksonville, FL last year and I did it all while living in Korea.

Hey @Luca Dal Molin & @Morgan Nilsen

I don't actually know much about the European market or Dubai. 

But I'm currently living in Korea (a US Expat). I'm an entrepreneur out here - started an English education business with some partners 15 years ago. 

I bought in the US market since I'm from the US. But I bought in a place I'd never visited - Jacksonville, Florida. For me, the US market has been great because as you say, Luca, there are tons of resources for finding out information about properties and technology makes it much easier to find people to work with, etc.

I help organize a meetup out here in Korea - the Seoul Real Estate Investing Meetup. Although our members are mostly focused on Korea investments and the USA, the basic premise for us is pretty what you stated at in the OP - that technology makes it easier to invest anywhere. We can now do business anywhere or live anywhere, so why not invest anywhere as well? Our members help each other learn about other markets and we also have professionals visit (many from BP) to come and talk about what opportunities that exist.

Anyways, we have one member who's invested in Europe - she bought a property in Ireland. And at one of our recent meetups, I met a student from Ukraine who was telling me about the opportunity in farmlands.

For now, I'll stay focused on the US - I'm looking to get into Mobile Home Parks and I've been able to connect with partners through BP. 

But I wanted to jump into the conversation to say I definitely agree that it's possible to invest anywhere. I'm a huge fan of technology. Best of luck with everything and if you ever turn your sites on the US, let me know. The market is fairly transparent and ton of resources for due diligence, but I do know that foreigners do have tax issues to be wary of - need to structure entities the right way.

I might get 6 hours for a few nights early in the week, then catch up with 8 at some point. It all depends on when I get to sleep since I'm usually up at 6am or earlier everyday.

@Account Closed

Do you feel yourself getting tired and then just resist the urge? 3-4 hours.. Are you napping? 

@Conor Colburn

Hi Conor.. I'm currently living in Korea and investing ing Jacksonville, Florida, as well as now focusing on Mobile Home Park investments.

I wrote a long post this weekend on a meetup group I've started out here. Included in the post are some tips for finding mentors:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/23...

(It's 1,500 words long ^^ so might take a while to get through)

The methods I mention in the post are methods I've used to create partnerships, mastermind groups, and connect with more experienced investors who I can turn to for advice.

If you end up reading it, leave a comment and let me know what you think. 

And feel free to reach out anytime! While my transactional experience in real estate is limited, I've had lots of success with connecting with others who have really helped me move forward.

Best of luck!