All Forum Posts by: Omar Khan

@Bob Starlin No worries, hope it adds value. 

As a quantitative person, I empathize with your approach about wanting to get everything right. But part of this game is following the Pareto Principle and building in a margin of safety for the big-ticket items. 

If you take too long the deal will never be yours, but if you hurry into it then... you know how that story goes :)

Hard to find a balance. That's why we keep learning.

@Bob Starlin Due diligence is one of the least-talked about topics because it is not as sexy as other areas. You are smart for not getting suckered into courses that offer little or no insight apart from the usual marketing platitudes. 

An excellent book on due diligence: Brian Hennessey - The Due Diligence Handbook For Commercial Real Estate: A Proven System To Save Time, Money, Headaches And Create Value When Buying Commercial Real Estate

It's reasonably in-depth but a lot of this stuff one learns from experience. This is also product and market-driven so there is no "one size fits all" way of doing it. 

@Account Closed) personality alone is worth the price. Do it!

@Tom R. Hang in there and maintain discipline. Why worry about what other people are doing? You know you're on the right path. Just take it one day at a time and slowly inch towards your goal. You're very close!

@Robert Arroyo As others have pointed out that building your team is essential. Also, living in Cali and investing TX will give you the worst of both worlds. 

Nonetheless, if you are still committed I would suggest (apart from the above suggestions) on deciding where in East TX you will be investing. A lot of parts are very oil-driven so the "attractive" assets you see today can suffer from dramatic swings in valuation. Also, in smaller markets it will be hard to develop a reliable team. You don't want to buy a headache especially as you are living on the other end of the country.

@Karen Gordon-Brown If you're interested in REITS (I love them), save yourself the hassle and buy a REIT index fund. Don't buy individual REITS as you are playing with fire.

@Jesse M. If liquidity is key, just put it in a money-market fund because you not looking for high returns but convenience. 

Honestly, what is an extra 1% going to get you over the whole year - $2K at most for $200K. That's a drop in the bucket. Don't over think, do what most portfolio managers do - money-market funds ideally at a brokerage where you don't get charged any trade fees.

@Akston Pots It's a free country so you can do whatever you like but you will be buying yourself a massive headache by going the FSBO route - unless you have no trouble potentially waiting for a long time (IMO biggest issue with FSBO).

You're paying the broker to facilitate the transaction similar to how you pay a mechanic to fix your car. Can you do it yourself? Of course. But most people choose to just pay and let somebody else handle it. 

@Royce Hodnett Lots of great advice here. I will echo @Ben Leybovich comment about not even thinking about syndicating anything below $3M. I have never understood why people who it and more so, why investors put their hard-earned money in those deals. 

Your best bet would be to partner up. I am not talking about partnering on capital only (although that helps). Often times, having a more experienced hand will help you avoid seemingly small mistakes that turn out into big issues later on.

Next time it shouldn't be thinly-veiled. Try a heavier veil - a burka perhaps? ;)