All Forum Posts by: David Zheng

@Matthew Murphy
@Paul F.
Thanks guys! I don't buy properties because I think i'll have tenants to fill them. I buy properties to cover the tenants I know I can get. 

I check Zillow 5 times a day for new properties that pop up. I talk to listing agents all the time if they hear about off market deals. and most of them have connects to Wholesalers as well.

I can upcharge because I work with mostly younger people and they are ok with paying a premium for someone younger like them who spouts the ability to fix things in hours not days, who responds to questions in minutes, and can be flexible with things like payment type, etc. I get comfortable with my tenants also so that they like me and will try to take better care of the places for my sake. They also like that I do nightlife stuff. They usually ask me what nightclubs or events are good for weekends. Small things like that add a lot more value than people give credit for. However, I also stress to them that this is a business and shouldn't try to shortchange me on rent or ask for unreasonable requests which they all understand.
 

financing was essentially a mix of everything. A live in rental, hard money lender, special portfolio loans, some conventional loans.

In terms of money, I actually had a large sum saved since high school since I was a money hoarder. I also had small contributions from my family as loans. another portion of the money came from outside investors.

Im rather vocal on social media and as I posted success stories, people wanted a piece and so I offered them a loan shark position. I'm rather persuasive so even though a 5% return on a couple grand isn't the best, it is still better than a .1% interest wasting in a bank account. The more successes I posted, the more people wanted to invest in me.

@Ujwal Velagapudi nightlift biz first! I started that in college and ramped it up after I graduated.

@Matthew Rollo, first one was a portfolio loan actually because I bought an unwarranted condo. last was just a regular loan.

Thanks!

@Michael Gansberg Thank you for the advice! I totally agree with you that I'm being rather gungho about it all. I do plan on doing a couple things this year if I keep up the pace, downgrade to a 30 hour work week, or hire a PM just do to the day to day management (though I would still do most of the prospect hunting and rent collection). I will eventually figure out how to delegate tasks. Goal is to start my own management company assuming I have enough properties to warrant the cost.

I'm trying to focus on doing as much as possible while im young and "retiring" from the rat race in the early 30's.

It's the start of a new year and the end of my first year of real estate investing. Just wanted to quickly share my story and hopefully inspire some people :)

Literally 13 months ago, I had 0 interest or education about real estate. Read somewhere on the internet at work about rentals and thought I'd give it a try. 30 days later I closed on a complicated unwarranted condo and rented it out in a day. From that moment I was hooked!!!

Since then I picked up 3 more condos, 3 single family homes and a 12 bedroom apartment building. All of them were turnkey properties and rented out within days except the 12 bedroom which was basically a gut rehab. Even though I never did any sort of construction work in my life, I decided to take the project head on as the PM. oh my god...I have never been so stressed out in my life. On top of trying to learn 1000x new things a day about plumbing, electrical, HVAC systems, flooring, painting, etc. I was trying to do 50% of the things myself (things that don't require a license). And I could not believe the amount of overpromises contractors made. But in the end many lessons are were learned and what better way to do it than through experience.

You might be thinking that's rough...I also have a full time job at Wells Fargo as a MBS consultant, self manage all 36 of my tenants, and own a nightlife business. Yup you bet I missed every holiday this year, worked many 100+ hour weeks, and basically lost my social life. Yup You bet I dealt with more paperwork, negotiating, and lender headache than anyone should. (Cause how else are banks going to trust a new 25 year old investor who buys a property every month). Yup you bet I've cried, spent countless hours screaming at a wall, passed out from exhaustion, and lost control of my emotions many times.

A lot of people say why don't you just hire a management company, why didn't you just hire a PM.

1. Based on all the crappy people i've dealt with from contractors, lenders, agents to inspectors, sellers, condo managers etc., I dont trust anyone to do a good job. Plus I doubt people can acquire high paying tenants as well as I can (I charge almost 35-40% above the rental comps in my area). I also trust myself to fix things quicker than anyone else.

2. I want to go through EVERYTHING in RE, the good and the bad. How do you expect to lead a project or purchase if you don't at least have a basic concept of everything involved. Now I know how much work different jobs take and how much things should cost. Youtube and Google are my best friends

3. If I feel bored, I feel really bad about myself. just me.

4. I'm super cheap.

Yes Life was rough, however you have to just constantly remind yourself what your working for. I dream of working from a beach house or traveling the world and giving orders to your employees while trekking through the amazon. I want the freedom to do anything and everything I want. To not have to check my bank account next time I want to take a vacation. To not have to worry about my (future) kid's schooling or my retirement. To just look at something cool on instagram and say I want to do that and just do it. I want to thrive not just live.

So where am I now? In 12 months, I've picked up $1.5 million in property and tripled my banking jobs monthly cashflow by 3x. However I'm basically dirtpoor cause I kept reinvesting.

Anywho, I got all emotional as I typed this because I kept thinking about the past. Thanks for mudding through it all!

And a HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE Thank you to the Bigger Pockets Community. I probably spend a couple hours each and every day reading posts, looking at articles or listening to podcasts. A lot of what I did would have been so difficult without BP.

Good Luck to everyone in 2017! May it be an even more fruitful year for all of us :)

If you have done 80+ deals, you should have more than enough street cred to find a wealthy private investor. Can't you do it like the flip and flop folks who just have one rich friend who basically funds all the deals in cash but gets half the profits? Im sure someone has a couple hundred thousand they can continually fund you with as long as you return it in a couple months with tens of thousands in profits. rinse and repeat?

Here's some more motivation. Im just 25 years old. many of my family and peers thought I was crazy for buying even more property. With each property I bought, they told me more and more I couldn't do it because I didn't qualify, I didn't have the funds, the rehab was too much, etc etc.

Guess what? within my first year of real estate investing I am going to end the year with a total of 10 purchases all rented out with over 40 high paying and good tenants.

They still think Im crazy, but yeah you gotta do crazy things for a crazy (high) paycheck!

So I've been hit with so many inspector, tenant, contractor, loan officer issues and roadblocks in the past couple months Im about to blow up.

Literally at my limit in dealing with incompetence.

How do you guys deal with this stress?? shooting range? quiet walks? punching walls? Kicking babies? (just kidding)

but really what do you guys do when its too much to handle. I'm at a point where everything I think of isn't going to work unless it's literally yelling at these people.

I do not. They basically invested in me because I told them I wanted to help them make money too and make sure to give them the dollar amount we agreed on. These people usually give me money, because it will generate more than their checking, savings, or CD accounts. places they wouldn't normally touch their funds anyways.

however in the case that I had a bunch of cash lying around and they suddently had an emergency where they needed it all back asap, I might negotiate to pay off the rest with no interest, but probably wouldn't happen.

I have a couple investors (I don't call them partners because they are not on the deed)

Basically they give me a lump sum and we agree to a term and interest rate. Most of mine are 36 month loan payoffs at 5-6%/year depending on how much they've invested.

If you do split a downpayment and are on the deed with them, I would do something more like split on profits based on how has the most equity in the place/who does the maintenance etc.