All Forum Posts by: Rome Wells

These who do not read... do not lead... (my response is long... but pure of passion and desire to get to financial freedom)

Thank you David @David Thompsoni, I have reviewed your link... To be honest i am really impressed by your success factor... I notice you talk about in one of your blogs how you basically was attending the multi family meet ups.. but got a bit... frustrated with the meet ups and somehow ended up creating your own meet ups... 

I am trying to figure out pivotal method for me, to similarly like you David, organize such meet ups, where I simply follow your bullet points and simply share with other folks secret investment strategies and simply helping folks stay educated in the world of commercial real estate multi family housing investment/ownership.

I realize that you have started as a limited/general partner and managed to raise capital. Now.. i am still in my journey, and a bit split brain between simply becoming the landlord, syndicator, or money raiser... or combination of both...   The trouble with me is... i am simply good in everything... but my focus is being diverted by multiple strategies that I am being exposed to...   The result of such diversion, pushes me all over different types of strategies...  

You see David... about 3 months ago... i would have never even thought about asking this question on this forum... The question of... what should I be... the landlord of a multi family building... partnered with another investors... or perhaps be passive investor... or perhaps be active investor... 

I know i do not want to be just passive investor, I know that I can theoretically bring people together (after being exposed to my so fart short journey in real estate world, with emphasis of creating track record across both digital and physical boundaries), but the problem with me is that... i am seeing everyone's angle from different perspectives.. and everyone has their own perspective... and their own reasoning to offer or do something....

I am trying to analyze what on earth am I truly good at (after my initial 2 months and 26 day in real estate learning journey and taking smaller actions)... however, the feasibility factor, and realization of whether or not it is truly possible to get closer to financial freedom by leveraging multi family real estate as the wealth generating vehicle by pulling capital together and extracting inner intricacies of syndication is what is truly holding me back... from massive action...

You see... I realized in the process of my journey towards financial freedom, that there are many multiple ways... of making money in the commercial real estate with the emphasis in multi family apartment building investing/ownership.

I realize there are other folks who will tell you that syndication is the best way to go about and build their workshops around the fact that they train you how to do syndication... and leaving them as your trusted partner in terms of providing capital.... and providing training.... I understand all that... but as i dived into the world of syndication further... i realized the big factor here... that many people apparently can't see through... but i managed to see it through from 10 miles away.........

The factor of marketing... and getting the multi family real estate owners......... (the very same owners who currently enjoy themselves in the seller's market...)   You see as the guy who spent past 10 years focusing on the digital marketing... I realize that the art of marketing is one of the most hardest things.... 

Many of the workshops out there create strategic partnerships to pivot you in the direction of becoming a syndicator... and teaching you their art of deal syndication while simultaneously asking you to bring them deals... while they provide capital and provide education to such types of folks...   I see the benefit of that strategy... The strategy of getting as many people to bring you deals...  

The strategy of such folks seems very beneficial... indeed... after all it's hard to find capital... hence it may only seem natural for folks to partner up with such organizations that provide education and provide capital... Indeed that is true... I have no objections to that... but what I see is a big marketing cost factor....  

What i see ahead of time is the problem... the problem that automatically places the person who does syndicator into non advantage.... The disadvantage of constantly hustling... to find deals......  and spending time and money.......... on marketing... of attempting to find multi family real estate owners.... (who are scarcely found now days...)..

With combination of construction costs going up now days...it's harder to build new houses... therefore theoretical demand value on the multi family houses should go up.. since there are less house that are being built.. due to high construction costs....   (this factor creates demands for multi family housing even in the seller's market as we speak).

The interest rates adjusted by the Feds are not effective enough to bring the house pricing down... (one action action cancels the other action  with the result of multi family house pricing still going up).... Perhaps that is just my excuse for not entering the field... of commercial real estate as an investor... until i see the prices adjust....  or perhaps it's just an excuse on my part to not dive in deep due to the factor of fear.... or perhaps i should just stop overthinking about the feds, about the construction costs and decide who i want to be exactly... (the capital raiser, the landlord teamed up with other investors... or someone who syndicates)

Being syndicator screams at me ... high marketing costs.... and time spent... on marketing... but having system where I teach other folks how to syndicate... and provide them capital to overcome marketing costs...  seems like a heck of a better strategy for me to do.. (simply because i would have a system of having someone else to bring me deals and not worry about the marketing factor... which is precisely what other major real estate workshops offer)

It seems that placing the system in place... where I simply network with other investors... and team up with syndicator who spends time and money on marketing... may very well seem like a sweet deal.... for me... 

Note.. i have never raised capital in my life... I never had the desire to raise any capital in my life (until i dived into my journey and still deciding to decipher the possibilities of such decision based on educated feedback i receive from others)... I only joined my journey to financial freedom in Jan 1st 2018 and documented my progress since in my facebook blog.. (in case if interested in link let me know and I will gladly share it with you).

However... to raise capital I would need to i imagine literally organize local meetings... in combination of me attending other local meetings...

I also realize that it's tough to raise capital without actually ever doing the deal . myself... which is why i found your story particularly interesting...  I am keen on finding out how you managed to organize local meetings... and who paid for these meetings... or did you just partner up with some syndicator... who managed to contribute in one way or form in being able to assist with financing for these meetings... ?

Note.. i know I maybe asking a lot here.. but your path seems somewhat congruent with my path... I also realize that there are other amazing people in this forum... such as @Omar Khan ( and i yet to review his advice in regards to identifying syndicators, although i do have couple of syndicators in mind)  

The trouble with my own self so far David is that... i am all over the place... I took the advice and reviewed multiple spectrum of commercial real estate.. multiple methods for making money, but I am trying to do this while i am having a full time job... and i am trying to see how feasible is it really for me to do commercial real estate... while having the full time job and raising the capital..

I am trying to see what is more feasible for me... doing the syndication or raising capital or being the landlord and teaming up with other investors for a smaller deal....  

Note... i see the value also in getting smaller deal and teaming up with other folks, but i simply see bigger value in getting bigger building and leveraging scale factor among many other benefits...   However, what i want to know... is the following David.. in any of the deals that you have raised.. have you had the situation where investors would reach back out to you and tell you where my money is at?   Or it never happened?

The reason why i am asking is because i went to another networking meeting in Manhattan and noticed there was one of the real estate experts who had lots of duplexes... and his advice was not to do any syndication and take other's people money if you never done it before...

However, I am not in the mindset of someone who is buying multiple duplexes, but rather exploring the possibilities and paths that I need to take that brings me closer towards realization of my financial freedom goal... 

Now that doesn't mean i am not interested in smaller deals (note anything i say may sound need, but i assure you it's not, i am more of a giver vs taker type of person)... it just means... that advice from one person from their perspective, may not necessarily be valid for me... simply because perhaps i may want to have different goal.. and not be getting duplexes, but rather pivoting myself in closing on 100 + units deals.. or 50 + units deals....

So i know my writing is all over the place.. and may seem non structural, but i am simply attempting to understand the reality and feasibility of getting closer towards financial freedom by working with other syndicators...  who bring me deals... while I bring capital...    

I want to explore that mindset... I want to explore the reality of such mindset to see how realistic and feasible it truly is... while still having a full time job... and not quitting my job unless i truly get closet to such reality and see the light at the end of the tunnel.. 

I also understand David Swag factor... (heck one of my friends sells swag close to celebrities... and i understand when to tone down and when not to tone down the enthusiasm and how to limit the level of enthusiasm, and hype, while controlling my own level of non comfort and not being needy.  I understand everyone of your key points David...   

However, what I don't understand yet... is how on earth can i get the meeting organized (in such a way that I don't pay money for the meeting and leverage someone else)... and what should i tell folks in that multi family meeting.. .without sounding like i am providing sales pitch...   and who would pay for such meetings?  Is it possible to team up with someone who can be the host for such meetings in Manhattan area.. where perhaps the host will benefit in some way that is beneficial for their business... 

while simultaneously creating this informal network... with emphasis of honing relationships for each of the investors in the direction of the long term bond...  and presenting them with the type of deals... that syndicators who I am partnered with are presenting to me... 

but by also bringing my analysis for such deals on the table... (because face it when I talk to investors... they would invest with me... and not syndicators... so the reality is... I must be a syndicator myself... but in such a way that for example I leverage people such as let's say @Omar Khan who are good in underwriting etc... )

So in short David... it would be cool to know... how exactly did you pivot yourself in creating such networking meeting yourself... and who paid for them?  Or you just sort of paid for the meeting yourself?  Or did you create bonds with restaurant owners and pretty much just told them, that if they get more people then they can make more money on drinks...?  I am just trying to figure out your mindset David.   I hope it's ok with you...

Note.. and although i am diving into mindset of the capital raiser... i am also diving into other mindsets in my journey towards financial freedom, but to truly understand where my greatest strengths are... i need to understand... which area of commercial real estate multi family housing i should truly focus.... on.....

Note.. i am seeking for some sort of field that doesn't keep me passive and allows me to learn... in the process..and verifying and ensuring to see if the deals truly make sense or they are bogus... and use my mindset from multiple key-players and perspectives to see if it's a good or bad investment...

I am seeking for something that truly makes sense... I realize that many folks out there chasing 100 + multi family deals... and i am trying to understand... the likelihood of someone such as myself being able to pull of such caliber types of deals... with only almost 3 months of track record in real estate... 

I heard one expert, stating just to forget about it... but i can't listen to just one expert and take advice to heart... I am seeking multiple opinions based on multiple perspectives and based on multiple mindsets... so this way I can truly determine what on earth do I want to dive into specifically in the world of commercial real estate multi family housing...

Your advice David is truly phenomenal and makes sense... but I am just trying to figure out if it will make any sense for me... and other folks on Bigger Pockets who perhaps similarly want to extrapolate the very same raising capital skills and follow your path... while leveraging my real time journey as I am navigating the waters and swimming deep within the sea of uncertainty.

Hope to hear back from you and see what your take on this David.  Thank you once again... Having someone like you and Omar with such caliber level of expertise to even respond back to me is truly already feeling as success to me.  (considering the fact that i never done any real estate digging or attempting to understand the field until Jan 1st 2018 and never bothered to talk to anyone or ask anyone questions other than answer questions)

looks like port Chester event was cancelled too... oh well I guess I missed out on both of the events.

meeting was cancelled?

Question to all of the wonderful folks out there in this great Bigger Pocket website...

I am curious to see how many of you folks actually started out as the limited partner... in a particular investment property... diving into the deal as the total newbie.. then managed to extract your self out of being limited partner and leveraging the very same people who you worked with as the limited partner... and pivoted yourself into the world of raising capital and syndicating your own deal by leveraging the very same people who you managed to get exposed to... during your passive investment journey as the limited partner?

I want to see how feasible this approach really is... note syndicators should probably be able to answer this question... if they ever took this path... and how did this journey turn out for you... and other folks.. who are not syndicators perhaps may struggle to answer this question.... 

Hence if you do not understand this question.. feel free to hit me up and I will rephrase it.. but hopefully what i am asking makes sense...  You see i happen to be in the process of my commercial real estate journey and attempting to reverse multiple success paths that folks took in order to to their financial freedom... and i am simply analyzing what's feasible vs not..

My situation is as follows.... 

Theoretically speaking I can pull investors into the deal...  (this is the strategy i am using... rapidly developing track record in both physical world and virtual world..... and rapidly explain how I am developing this track record.. but not really taking massive action.. in developing this track record.. but rather pivoting myself gradually towards major action...)

However... before working with investors and possibly syndicating the deal... myself... i wanted to explore the feasible paths other folks took.. who already succeeded in syndicating their first deal.....

Any help would be greatly appreciated... 

Thank you for the great meetup to organizers and Darren for the great speech.  It was interesting to learn about the Northern New Jersey area... and it's a possibility to jump sky high due to the possible "Gateway" project...

I am heading out for some more networking meetings... in Westchester County today in Port Chester area... in case if anyone interested to tag alone hit me up... and i will shoot you over the address.. although it's a bit snowy today roads maybe tough to overcome... 

Hence be careful folks...  

You know I just realized it's quite interesting that the place where the meeting is taking place.. "

• Rome's Italian Kitchen & Bar (Next to Wing Stop)

has my name in it  :)  maybe it's the destiny leading me in the direction of this path... 

yesterday I got out of amazing networking meeting in Manhattan... today there is going to be lots of snow on the way... I will try to make it... however... the reality of it all.. it may be tough to make it... but I must say... 

I do have a client in Port Chester around this time frame... who I teach math... hence heck... it sort of does make sense for me to show up... providing that the trains from Manhattan do not get delayed... 

is the address 831 Broadway? I can’t seem to find it.  I am outside 826 Broadway 

welcome to the forum.  Some folks will tell u if you don’t have enough money don’t waist others time...  I will tell you opposite..  

if you do not have enough money find the folks who do who are also open minded about your journey.

The key is to find passionate A team members the ones who will believe in you.

Perhaps I am not the best person to provide this advice because after all ... heck I am just a newbie and only 2 months and 14 days in commercial real estate journey....

Yet somehow I already found one person just from a local meeting who I managed to bond with well.

The idea here is to be likable and yes make contacts across both virtual levels and physical levels.

In case if interested how I get folks to trust me.. even though I am just a newbie feel free to check out my journey, where I document my actions and simply share with folks my passion to gain financial freedom by investing into multi family building.

If interested to see how on earth am I doing this feel free to ask me to share the link to my blog and I will gladly do so.

And once again welcome to this forum and I am excited to have new passionate members in this amazing journey towards financial freedom.

I am with @Jeff Filali on this one... his math formula indeed makes sense  (heck if you want to see real life documentary how I am executing his formula in real life simply visit my blog).. 

However... the trouble is with many folks out there is that it's tough to get a part time job outside of your full time job.. plus it's tough to figure out what you can do... and how to do it...

That is precisely why I decided to execute Jeff's formula in action....  Of course you may be wondering what kind of part time jobs... do I dive into.. how... to do this outside of your full time job.. and what type of jobs makes sense to dive into and which types of jobs do not make sense.... 

Here is my advice... the guy who is in this commercial real estate journey for only 2 months and 14 days.... Understand not just what part time job you can get... but understand... what type of investments exist out there.... that can help you get closer towards financial freedom...

As it turns out... when i first dived into commercial real estate... in Jan 1 2018... I didn't really know about so many different methods of investments that exist out there....  

In the process of my journey I tried to figure out... how on earth can I actually get that deposit money... for the commercial real estate multi family building... it appeared to me as quiet an impossible task, especially with so much hassle factor in place... to even get the multi family building....

I realized that the only way to earn money... is to not just have multiple part time jobs.. but... also know exactly.. the purpose... behind you getting these part time jobs...   The purpose behind doing what you are doing...   The purpose and the reason behind taking action.... 

Now.. .perhaps it may seem like common sense right? 

Yet in reality it wasn't common sense to me until Jan 1st 2018...  in fact the dream was so distant that i didn't even think it was possible to do... before Jan 1 2018...  

Do what?   Be financially free within 3 to 5 years... and have more time on your hand to do things that you enjoy.....

Upon diving into this journey I decided to model my rat's race out number... and I decided to see what it would take me to actually buy the building....    I realized many different hassle factors throughout my path...

In the process of my journey... I realized that simply earning money following Jeff's advice across different part time jobs and investing wisely and networking with other folks is the way to go.

Yes indeed many wonderful folks in this forum are right.. you can network with others to help you get the house.. where for example you can be the guy with boots on the ground, while investors provide passive income or partially also be a bit of both active and passive... type of investors... where for example some of them can help you analyze deal and get it under contract...  (such folks are called syndicators... the highest breed of individuals who are pretty much very smart.. and know if deal makes sense or doesn't... these are the folks that are also connected with other people...... these are the folks who you want to also get in touch with and stay connected.... )  

Note however.. that sometimes... relying on other folks to be the ones to give you money... just for you having your boots on the ground.... indeed can be very difficult journey... but believe me there are passionate folks out there who like to analyze deals, but do not have trustworthy individuals with boots on the ground... and looking for some sort of mutual relationship in their journey towards financial freedom..

You see... it's all about the value that you provide... to others.. and reasoning as to why they should be associated with you... If you show that passion in multi family world... and begin connecting with other local folks around your own back yard... and begin creating connections that will allow you to gain positive advantage over other folks who are not networking and not creating their own local and virtual network in the world of real estate... then what will end up happening... is quiet simple... 

People will begin to trust you more and will want to invest with you.  I know it sounds a bit insane coming from a newbie with only 2 months and 14 days of track record...  (in fact heck, you can't even call my journey a track record... since technically I haven't purchased any multi family buildings and simply learning about multi family strategies of investment/landlord ownership)

You see the strange thing about making money... is the simple fact... that it just doesn't come to you if you don't actually place a goal in front of you.... to bring that 100k deposit... for example... to the table..... unfortunately I have realized that this is indeed fundamental secret... in being able to get that 100k.... 

The secret is simple.. make a goal, and begin documenting your journey... develop the track record even if you are new... and show other folks reasons to trust you... and use multiple synergy methods to gain money... (heck if interested watch my video blog journey, how i take action and literally spill all the beans on what is going through my brain in process of still working at the full time job and documenting all sorts of weird and non weird actions... note to some they may seem weird... but to others.. it may act as a powerful motivation, of seeing someone actually documenting everything in the process of his journey towards financial freedom... )

Once again... I didn't believe in any of it myself until Jan 1st 2018 and kept asking myself... where do I get the money... where do i get the  money....   and the realization only came to me... that the money is truly there... after... i placed my mindset in the direction of financial freedom and started documenting my journey...

Note... remember conventional loans, or HELOCs or anything else in that nature that can help you get your multi family house.. .if you have an existing home or no existing home... are nothing but the tools for you to get closer... but diving into these tools, causes hassle factor... and causes your brain to operate across different spectrum... making it frustrating and making it very tough to understand...

However, it becomes a lot less difficult to understand things when you do have money... simply because your brain begins to think differently when you already place your self in the position that you actually already gathered that 100k.....  

You see... getting money is only part of the problem... but the real problem is confidence level... and the fear factor... that makes folks pull out of their goal...  The fear is the root of all evil.. however providing that you learn how to put that fear aside, by doing actionable steps that helps you increase your confidence level... then the fear become less of an issue..

In my journey I actually describe how i was scared... and wasn't sure of myself... in fact you can read my entire journey documented in my blog... (feel free to ask for a link if interested and i will share it with you)

Then after realizing that... there are truly ways to get that money, i became more passionate... but at the end of it all... ability to get money greatly depends on how well you can communicate your vision and greatly return on the hassle factor......  Investors who would invest with you... would want to see good returns... but good returns only come from in majority of the cases where there is economy of scale.... 

If there is no economy of scale... then it's the constant hassle... that's just the reality...   However diving outside of the fear factor into something bigger... is what will help you drive that money.. either by becoming syndicator, a networker or heck a landlord if that is what you desire... 

To be honest... hassle factor is just part of the equation and comes with commercial real estate world... of multi family housing... However providing that you approach it right.. using proper strategies such as described by Jeff... then you will be able to gather that money... 

However, if you want to accelerate your growth... it really comes down to networking... (other folks simply want to see others as leaders... that they can trust... without trust there is no money... with trust comes power...)  

Note... what you also must realize is that... the power of ... education is... the key... because education from the successful folks... can energize your inner drive in the direction of the same caliber type of outcome... 

However, the key here is to understand and realize how far you can jump... 

Remember in this world there are dreamers and there are millionaires... the real question is..... which one are you?

I think reason why this post became popular is because other folks feel the pain and frustration.  

@Elizabeth D.