All Forum Posts by: Jay Berube

Hi, Ben! First of all, I have to stress that this isn’t legal advice. But it’s difficult to say that there is a conflict of interest when you are a real estate agent but also an investor. The key to being on the up and up is disclosure. You have to make sure that, within your state, you are using the proper disclosures for any type of transactions that you are doing. And you always have to be honest and upfront. So I would align with the contacts that you have in the fix and flip arena and definitely do a joint venture if you have any that are available to you. That’s what I would do and I work with a lot of investors and I’m an investor myself, and we love doing joint ventures. Leveraging someone else’s money (OPM- Other People’s Money) is obviously incredible leverage. Even if it’s at a high-interest rate, don’t be afraid. Because if you need cash quickly, just have somebody lined up. They will give you a high-interest rate but you’ll get the cash quickly. And then make sure that the terms are right. This would be my advice for you. I hope it helps.

Hi, Taylor! I can speak to becoming a realtor. I’ve been a realtor for over 15 years and I sold a lot of homes in Florida. I don’t say that to impress you, but to impress upon you that I’ve known a lot of agents and yours is a typical question: Where do I start? And my best advice for you is to find a person that knows what they are talking about and listen to that person. Because you will get all sorts of advice from various people. People think they know a lot and everyone wants to share their opinion. You might hear things like: you have to get a website first, or business cards, or these glamorous headshots, or buy or don’t buy leads, etc. But the best way to start and really identify what you want is to find a person whom you trust. Hopefully, that person will ask you questions like these, that will help you decide what you want to do: What is your personality type? What’s your comfort level with either prospecting or not? (This is how you learn if that’s not in line with what you want to accomplish.) What your network looks like? This person will also provide you with some sort of scripts to make those first calls.

If you want to flip houses: I know that flipping is becoming more and more difficult all across the country. A lot of people who are flipping houses have the inside scoop of what’s going on so it’s hard to get into that. It’s really tough to say.

Hi, Jacob! Deciding on which market you are investing in will definitely depend on what type of return you are looking to get and what strategy you are going to employ. You have to look at the overall economy of the area you are planning to invest in. In my case, we decided to move to Charlotte a year and a half ago, because it is more family-oriented, the average age in Charlotte is 35, and we thought this was a better fit for our children. We were leaving in Southwest Florida, but we have two adopted children who both have special needs that are better met in Charlotte. But when we decided to move, it was also a business decision. I chose Charlotte because there is a lot of industry, which means a lot of jobs, while Florida is a retirement area. I also look at transportation, how well the roads were laid out, and what projects they had for improving public transportation. The other criterion I took into consideration was the affordable housing in and around the area and the number of permits that have been pulled for new constructions and development orders. These are all important criteria to establish a strategy when investing in real estate. Plus, when deciding on a new market, I look at developments over the last three years in that market. I look to see what the current average days on the market are and how many months of inventory, and I segment this by single-family and multi-family and location. Then I also look at pricing fluctuations and the average wage. I would say that you should first of all do your research on your prospective markets and see if that market is a fit for you.

Hi, Dakota!

As mentioned above, raising capital is always a great value that you could bring to the table. I would just suggest maybe connect with the bigger names in the industry, like Whitney Sewell with Life Bridge Capital or Corey Peterson with Kahuna Investments. Maybe they could help you with this.

Hi, Scott! You’ve already received some excellent advice from the BP community. I would just add here two educational resources that can help you to develop your investment strategy. As a newbie, you can learn a lot from the training Stacy Rossetti offers (https://stacyrossetti.com/). If you want to consider other options, such as developing an Airbnb real estate investing strategy, you can get inspired by what people like @Amanda Williams, aka The Traveling Realtor, did to build their passive income.

Good luck and welcome to BP! 

Hi, Thomas! If you need a good coach to help you learn more about investing, I would recommend Stacy Rossetti’s training (https://stacyrossetti.com/). I think she provides a valuable educational resource for people who need coaching to develop an investing strategy.

Good luck!

Hi, Aron!

It seems like many people have covered these topics for you in previous replies, but I wanted to touch on something that is very important for whatever you end up purchasing, namely managing construction projects from out of state, standard management fees, and recommendations. I worked with absentee landlords my entire career in Southwest Florida and it’s challenging to find good, reliable contractors in the area. We’ve solved this problem for our clients in Southwest Florida by having good vendors in our property management company. We can rely on them that they can manage this sort of project. We don’t receive any compensation for this but it’s a resource that we have for our clients. What I would recommend for you is to hire a good property management company. I recommend the one run by one of my friends based in the Tampa Bay area. You can check their services at rentsolutions.com. You can find out about their pricing, guarantees, and other info, and, more importantly, browse through their Investors section, to educate yourself on what you should be looking at. Even if you choose not to work with them, you can still explore their website, and that would be a great resource for you. Plus, they will be able to give you the local market knowledge that you need. Good luck!

The famous books are mostly inspirational like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, The Richest Man in Babylon, and The Millionaire Next Door.

In regards to learning the details of investing, I have been going to seminars and listening to recorded seminars and YouTube videos by Jack Miller, Peter Fortunato, David Tilney, and Jimmy Napier. These guys are all very successful investors and just teach on the side. They are not famous but have super fans that follow them around the country like they were the Grateful Dead.

I am in Fort Myers/Naples market (2 hours south). I will see if I can make it to the Sarasota event on the 29th. Thanks @Bernard Sanga

Thanks, Marlen! I'm very excited about the new journey I embarked on with our new company.