All Forum Posts by: Theo Hicks

Create the biggest circle of influence as you can. Create thought leadership platforms, like podcasts, blogs, YouTube channels, and meetup groups.

Talk to as many as people as possible about your real estate investing business. Avoid straight up asking people to invest in your deals so that you're adhering to securities law.

As for what to offer, it varies. But generally, it is a preferred return and a profit split.

I did an interview the other day and they provided great insight into mentor red flags (they lost ~$30k from a bad mentor):

• Lying about their track record (i.e., they say X and after doing your due diligence, you find out that they straight up lied or exaggerated)
• They are the loudest person in the room
• Aggressive and overly pressure you to join their program (i.e., "you must join today!"
• No referrals
• Make you feel bad for asking questions

Overall, the biggest red flags are when they obviously have bad character

I like the $1000 or $10,000 per hour exercise. Create a list of everything you do for a month and assign a dollar per hour value for each of those duties. For example, if you are creating mailing lists, you can probably outsource that for $10 an hour. If you are networking with brokers, that could be $1,000 or $10,000 an hour (depending on what sized deals you're looking at). Once your business is generating enough cash flow, you'll want to start by outsourcing/hiring an employee to do the $10 per hour activities. Then $100. Then $1000.

You could totally start an active real estate investing business with $500k, either buying 10 SFRs, 1 large apartment, and anywhere in-between. However, that would be a lot of added work on your end. A LOT. Especially since you've never done rentals before

I think @Holly Williams strategy would be a better fit for you. Great returns, lower risk, and much lower time commitment.

@Strom Lee exactly. Something that you can force appreciation on. So buy for X, invest Y, and the new value is Z. As long as Z is greater than X+Y (i.e., the total project costs), then you've created free equity. You can then refinance or sell, pull out all or the created equity, and buy another deal.

Most likely, the extra costs associated with raising capital from passive investors will be very close, if not higher, than the down payment for the SFH.

Syndication School and Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book are good resources. Even though those resources focus on larger MF, the overall process is essentially the same.

Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book by Joe Fairless

Based on your goal to continue to grow an out-of-state business, you'll be able to do so faster buy acquiring value-add real estate deals. Typically, this is an active strategy, but you can make it more passive by building out the right team. Find a few brokers to send you deals. Find a solid property management company to manage your deals, making sure you do weekly calls to get updates. You might want to consider getting a mentor as well to help you with the gray areas, as well as underwriting and due diligence.

Best Ever Meetup hosted by Joe Fairless.