All Forum Posts by: Dovid Staples

It sounds like you're taking on a lot that you could possibly leverage other people for. I don't know your exact situation, but have you and your husband talked about what things would be better delegated to other people? Perhaps that might not only help with your home life, but even help propel your RE career as you utilize your time with more value.  

@Jay Hinrichs I really appreciate the reality check (just listened to you on the podcast btw. Really great stuff). If I understand you correctly your opinion is there is no real way to provide value to a more competent investor at all? Perhaps if it's more in the $1-2M range? After all, brokers could not be finding every potentially great off market deal. In the case of one of them above I happen to pass by it a few times a week until I noticed it suddenly vacant and started digging into it. I also happen to know someone looking for just that kind of property. I am well and good with a finders fee. My main concern is mostly being able to follow them along throughout the deal to see and learn exactly what they do. In the context of a finders fee my question is still pretty much the same: how far could I reasonably go with a property owner and how could I package a deal before passing it off to another investor without any real clout of my own?

@Joel Owens I haven't taken classes on underwriting. I did not know such classes were available and will definitely make it a priority to find and take them. Since the the original post I have taken Jay's comment into account and can agree that at least one of the properties (the listed one) is way beyond my capabilities and one (owned by three partners) should not be my priority. That leaves me with a $1-2M retail property owned by an individual in California (Which is out of state and who's 70 as I found out and could explain the apparent management issue). 

@Account Closed thanks for that I really appreciate the boost in confidence being reminded of all the resources that are out there. 

All in all what I'm hearing is the most I could reasonably do is reach out to the owner to sell, receive info on their operating expenses and rent roll, informally negotiate good terms and price, maybe even go so far as a non-binding LOI, and then pass it on to another investor till I'm fresh out of clout even for off market.

Hello BP, this is not really a "how do I get started" question so much as a how do I finish getting started question.

I began to pursue commercial real estate about a year ago when I realized the SFR market here was saturated and that the same principles of putting together a good deal and then finding a partner should be able to work just the same with larger properties.

And when I say 'began to pursue" I don't mean "I read a couple books and been thinking about it" I mean I took some people in the industry out to lunch, got in touch with brokers in my area, receive listings in my email, get property financials and rent rolls from CBRE to analyze, and went and got a full time job for a commercial real estate research company.

There are three commercial retail properties in Arizona that I believe have great potential, two off market and one listed. I have no fear of writing a LOI or making an offer, the problem I have is what happens if it's accepted? I don't have the earnest money to put down on a $3-10M property, so how is a broker or an owner ever going to take me seriously enough for me to at least be able to take the deal to a possible JV partner? Even more than that, how is someone like me supposed to secure the deal well enough to have a quality presentation for a JV?

I suppose my quandary can be broken down as:

What are the expectations of the broker/and or owner of an interested buyer?

How can I appear to meet those expectations?

How can I actually meet those expectations?

What's the time frame expected from receipt of the LOI, to the written offer, to the deadline for earnest money?

And most importantly, what should the order of events be from when I first come across a property to when I'm closing on it with a partner?

@Joel Owens I went and did some research about what you're talking about and that is some really awesome advice thank you for that.

I've also begun speaking to the former tenants (a tattoo shop, a local pizza shop, and a Zipps Bar & Grill) to get info on why they left the property. They are surprisingly helpful. 

Also, I'm thinking that tenant mix probably wasn't ideal.

If he's doing that to his realtor imagine what he'd try to pull on you

 Agreed that's good advice. Actually it's the owner who's out of state. The property is just down the road from me with is why I'm so familiar with it. It was a pretty popular spot.

Are you still looking?

well, that escalated quickly

This thread needs to be renamed to "What vehicle is the best for REI?"

@Harrison Liu if he had the lifestyle he wanted I don't think he'd be trying to do real estate.

Have you considered adopting a different strategy? I had this same issue with SFR and residential in general, so I decided to pursue things with less competition i.e. raw land and commercial.

How much networking have you done? I myself started out with (and still have) crummy credit and only a modest fixed income, but you'd be surprised how much money is available when you're proactive. Invest your time taking people to lunch. You'll be amazed at what happens. At least you could use your truck for that.