All Forum Posts by: Wendell Fong

Save your money for now. Start with education. Ask a question a day/week here on BP. Start with bad questions and improve the quality of questions over time. Take 1/10 of that $3000 and buy $300 worth of REI books. Learn the lingo. It will help point out your weaknesses and where you need to build your team. There is a list of RE and general investing books, recommended by guests on the BP podcast. Once you pick out a strategy or know the stage of investing you are at, then scan the BP podcast list (for that state or strategy; househack; single family;first investment;first multifamily; first commercial +5units, first syndication, raw land; short term rental, BRRR, Fix and Flip, Wholesale, Buy and Hold etc. ) and listen to the interview. See how others did what you did. Especially listen to their mistakes. 6m-12 months from now when you know who you need and what skills you are missing, then you can start building your network. If you don't have any network, then consider joining REIN.

Hi Elise,

Welcome to BP.  I suggest you come to a virtual meetup on the 19th.  Perfect timing and perfect topic for you.

Just google Mogul Mastermind and email Eric in the Vancovuer team for an invitation. The topic this month is 

Flips, BRRR & Maintaining Your Asset, Last month was Air BnB and short term rentals, March was Tax.

The company focuses mostly on Vancouver-Edmonton and sometimes Toronto.

Date Time: May 19, 2021 06:30 PM Edmonton  (5:30 our time PST)

Welcome to BP.  I look forward to hearing about your adventures in RE!

I am not sure how large the buildings our company manages go up to.  I manage several buildings in Greater Vancouver and each has 50+ units; each building owned by a single owner.  (one is a rental pool)  I am guessing that they go much larger in Texas.  Everything is bigger in Texas.   

We have a company HQ here in Vancouver called Western Wealth Capital that does large 200+ unit syndications in Texas.  On their homepage, they have a tab  About/Property Management.  You could probably ask them for a PM proposal.

Stay Safe

Rhome, Rental devision of Associa.  HQ in Dallas; Offices in most States, Canada and Mexico.

The strategy is an excellent one for RE investors early in their careers especially if you have little or no experience with tenants or home repairs.  You are right there and will see things good and bad first hand.  (no comment on your particular investment as you have to be comfortable with the numbers) 

Tenants usually behave better too if the landlord is downstairs!

I work for Associa here in BC, Canada.  The first office and HQ is in Dallas TX.  The company turned 40years old last year. The president of the company was featured on Undercover Boss.  

"If you think you can you can. And If you think you can't, your right."  Henry Ford

When someone starts with "I would never..." 

Take that with a grain of salt.  They have different risk tolerance, cash reserves, access to credit, background, education, likely a lower tolerance for problem properties etc.    

I bought in Detroit in 2010 and toughed it out for 3 years of constant problems.  Those properties have been the best performers in my portfolio for the last 7 years.   If you were a new investor and this was your first investment, you likely could not tough it out for 3 years!

Try contacting Arshi Bassi,  for a Vancouver virtual meetup.  Not sure when the next meeting is, but I would guess late January or early Feb, 2021.

You can also contact  Brian Hosier for the Vancouver Real estate Meetup group on Facebook.

Investment Info:

Industrial buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $2,060,000
Cash invested: $375,000

Industrial Warehouse, with tenant in place. Purchased with three other investors.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

This was part of a property swap that removed the (four Vancouver) investors from their investment in a Kansas City Mo. residential investment. Initially when we planned to purchase the property Covid was just beginning. Going forward, I believe many retail stores are going to leave the retail store front and move to a 1/3 cost warehouse space with the majority of sales being done online.
There should be at least some increased demand for warehouses for a while.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

It was part of a creative solution to minimize a loss in another property. (Kansas City Residential)

How did you finance this deal?

The investors formed a new company and each investor loaned the company $375,000 to purchase the company (total $1.5M). As part of the deal, at note that was held by the investors was used as a credit to purchase the property. Essentially the Seller owed the investors monies but did not have the cash to pay off the note. He did own assets with equity, and this warehouse was one of the assets.

How did you add value to the deal?

The seller had high carrying costs from many loans. The seller took a secondary loan on this warehouse that was a high %, interest only mortgage. (i believe this was to finance another fix and flip) Holding this warehouse was largely negative cash flow for the seller.
Buying this warehouse gave us instant (our note value approx $560,000) equity in the property and removed one heavy negative cash flow source from the seller.

What was the outcome?

The deal from conception to closing was about 12 months and taught me never to give up. This project had many obstacles, but we persevered and used a lot of thought in coming up with solutions that would work for both sides. We even had to deal with a certificate of pending litigation that was placed on the property. Dealing with the CPL took an additional 2 months to resolve.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Have a back up plan and in any investment, if the general partner is getting a divorce, have someone else manage the property!
One of the key reasons I love Real Estate instead of just equities investing is that you can improve the outcome by hard work.
Even if the projected outcome is -$200,000. You can work hard and improve the outcome to -$60,000. Hopefully your property is a +$40,000 investment and you work it into a $100,000! (for the seller Don't over leverage!)