All Forum Posts by: Todd Pultz

@Ryan Guffey I’m not going to pile on after so many people gave you so many things to do to be successful. They are all good advice, but let me give you a couple simple tips as I believe in common sense investing. I will set this up and be honest as I have on many podcasts that I’ve been a guest on. While I listen to podcast a lot, I’ve never read a single book in my life! No book recommendations from me, but a few simple items.

1. Sit your family down and explain what you are going to do and talk through the sacrifices each person will have to make as you attempt to build wealth and financial freedom. You need their buy in or nothing else matters.

2. Do not get stuck sucking up so much information and reading so many books that you forget to actually to a deal like a lot of people

3. I tell young investors this every day!! Be consistent and intentional every day with your actions. Do not be inefficient with your time. Example....on your way home from work every single day, give me 45 minutes to an hour in a different neighborhood. Drive that neighborhood and write down the address of every property with deferred maintenance, boarded up or any property that has a hand written for rent sign. Now, give me 30 minutes before bed and research the owners and track them down online and write that info down. When you wake up give me 30 minutes to finish up that research and organize it from the best lead to the not best least and prioritize which you will contact first. Now, on your lunch break (depending how long it is) give me 15-20 minutes and call those owners to see if their willing to discuss selling their property. If you can’t get a hold of the owner, leave a card or note or mail it to them during your 1 hour your giving me on your drive home.

4. Pick one meeting a month locally to go to so you can start networking

5. Find one online meetup to join that meets once a month

6. Create a social media account for Facebook and Instagram that is only for your real estate adventures and follow anyone you can find in real estate as many put out free information each day.

7. Surround yourself with people that are more successful than you

8. Find someone that is willing to mentor you in real estate who is successful. There are tons of people out there that will do this for free. Find someone local that way you can bring something to the table, like bird dogging etc.

9. Every day tell yourself and act like your going to be a freaking real estate BEAST and do it! Let’s make it happen.

If you find time to read books in between those things I listed for you, have at it, but don’t get stuck over analyzing. Real estate is pretty simple so don’t let people make it harder than what it is. I’m a poor trailer park kid that was not great in school and I’ve never read a book. But I started with 10k I had saved and grew a portfolio to hundreds of doors, countless flips, land flips, wholesale deals etc. without ever spending another dollar of my own money unless it was earned from a real estate deal. You got this brother, be a warrior!

@Justin Sullivan good points! Be careful with your thinking though as it will limit you’re ability to scale if you want to. It is absolutely not BS to buy properties with 0 cash. Most interpret the words wrong! Telling someone to buy real estate with no money does not literally mean, NO MONEY, it means you don’t have to have your own money although you can absolutely buy real estate with no down payment as well. To scale is to be creative and financing properties to your benefit has to be creative. Cynicism is a key ingredient that people have to get rid of and change as it will hold us down. Instead of saying something can’t be done, why not reach out to someone who said it can and ask them how? We’ve bought millions in real estate this year alone with $0 of our own cash through creative financing techniques and owner financing! Sometimes all you have to do is just Ask. Good luck to you brother, but please don’t let limited thinking hold you back from being a beast and being great!

@Gaby Liu personally I would not if it was a hold property. However, I have helped new investors get started with flips by providing the capital while they manage the flip and get it done, splitting the proceeds 50/50 on JV. That was more to help and not to make a killing obviously. I've also see multiple partnerships where the one person is boots on the ground and the other is capital and Ive seen those work very effectively as well

Everything revolves around finding the right partner that you get along with and trust. Trust being the hardest thing obviously and that takes time to build.

I did everything alone for the 1st six years and that was fine, but when I decided I wanted to scale faster I decided on a partnership with 3 others. 1 I knew for 2 years and we had did a few flips together. He is out of state and we met through him buying a property off of me and then getting hammered by a contractor. It was a slow get to know you period.

@Gaby Liu I understand your frustrated, but a lot of people have partners and have a lot of success. You have to choose the right partner, do your due diligence and ensure partnerships are vetted through an attorney. You also need to choose partners that compliment you and are as invested in the deal as you are. I’ve partnered on many deals that were all successful and easy enough. My current partner however was in your shoes before him and I met. It took awhile to find someone I enjoyed working with that I trusted but you can do it as evidenced by many other investors.

Don’t let one deal jade you! True investors have had conquer some hurdles in their career but it is the bounce back that’s so important!

@Katja Jeschke Buying for 50k and fixing up for 20k and then reappraising for 105-110k is absolutely doable, just a lot harder in the bigger markets like Columbus and Cincinnati. It can be done anywhere but it’s harder to find decent neighborhoods at that price point in high appreciation markets such as Columbus.

However, if you want to really create a portfolio that cash flows in Ohio, you should look at my quad strategy I talk about on a few forums as that would be wiser to utilize your 70k on tgan a duplex. Just a thought.

I love real estate, so feel free to reach out and I’ll give you everything I know about Ohio and share with you my partners experiences before we were partners and he was investing out of state here.

Good luck to you

@Gaby Liu I’m very sorry to hear you lost money and hopefully the bounce back is quick and not discouraging as real estate is a phenomenal path in life. I just wanted to give a few observations on this, so take them for what they are worth.

Out of state investing is not why you lost money! I lost 20k locally on my second deal years ago. It was not because the deal was not good, it was because I was inexperienced and made mistakes. What happens at times is you have a newer investor, inexperienced agent(lots of them), and inexperienced contractor who all have the bright eyes to make money. This creates the PERFECT STORM! It does not mean any of the 3 are shady, but it creates an environment in which a lot of people are making mistakes and trusting each other to do their own jobs because no one understands the other persons job!

You can be mad at those people and you should be, but you need to hold yourself accountable as well as an investor. I don’t know the story, but it sounds like a typical one where not enough due diligence was done, the team was not vetted good enough etc. etc.

My suggestion is always fly out and spend time with the people you are working with and their families. Don’t rush in!

Lastly, let’s not beat up contractors exclusively! In my own experience, I’ve had out of state investors reach out and want to throw their cash at our market with my help. I don’t do that for a few reasons, but I vet people on here that ask for realtor help or property management assistance from me in this area. I want to ensure our goals are aligned and That I can help them be successful without having any conflicting interests. I’ve met a handful of great out of state investors from here that I’m working with (not partnering, just assisting), but I’ve also turned away a lot of money because I did not feel comfortable with the investor. If I were shady, it would be very easy on here to run away with hundreds of thousands of dollars In Out of state money. My point, you need to protect yourself and do your homework because nobody is going to do it for you.

I watch a certain someone on here, let’s call her, “R” lol that stole money and scammed my now partner and a few of his friends out of hundreds of thousands over the last few years before him and I partnered. She does business in Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland, Indy etc. Even while managing his apartment building here in Dayton, OH, she reported vacancies, but was running two units as an AirBnB. I had to find that out for him. I’m still helping him and a couple others pick up some of the pieces from her. But she posts every week on here as a contractor, flipper, investor. If you didn’t know what I know, she sounds decently educated appears well put together! In person, the train never made it in the tracks. PROTECT YOURSELF and do your due diligence. Spend time where you invest.

@Lemuel Ayudtud this will sound a bit harsh, but your statement should really be re-evaluated, “I won’t work with anyone unless my mentor or Brandon recommends them”. So, you do know that one of the larger turnkey cats that caused a lot of people to lose money in here was a guest on Bigger pockets podcast right?

All I’m saying, is you need to learn to think for yourself. You should take what people teach you and build on that! Don’t be their shadow, be your own light. Even your mentor and Brandon will and do make mistakes still on projects I’m sure.

Good luck to you!

@Ethan Kramer that's high brother. 4K origination is not good at all. Look at other lenders commercially. Lima Capital is a group and has treated me very fairly on HML, rental loans and portfolio loans.

@Javier Kaufmann all of the podcast and sites have made everyone believe you have to Brrrrr deals to be successful! Transparency, I utilize the value add strategy and do not buy turnkey for my portfolio, but I also only invest locally.

However, several of my out of state clients buy turnkey properties and they cash flow just fine. Buying turnkey does not mean your buying at the highest price possible. You will if you buy from a turnkey company as they need to make their money on the rehab. Turn key means you have renters in place or ready for them and you don't have to do any immediate work. Might not be the best looking property on MLS and it might not be retail price. Probably means you can't brrrrr all out.

If the numbers work for you, it’s not a bad option if you have your team place. It is a longer term strategy.

Don’t be fooled though, you can find turn keys under valued or off market turn keys as well, but it takes more grind!

@Aamir Shah congratulations buddy! lots of good advice on here. If I were you, I would just take out a portfolio loan on several if not all of your SFH's and start over if your wanting to go down that route.

I agree, this may not be the best way to scale as you tend to have more bang with your buck on multi-family. But do you!

I do disagree with the few that told you to buy more expensive properties and wait for appreciation and that cash flow does not create wealth!

That’s just far from the truth. You can absolutely create wealth through cash flow much faster than waiting for appreciation. If you use your cash flow correctly to scale faster and reinvest in your business.

Lima capital has a great portfolio loan product I’ve personally used, and it’s around 5%

Good luck