As you grow your real estate business, a partner can help you achieve incredible levels. That’s why today on the BiggerPockets Podcast we sit down with James Wise to talk about how he used a partnership to build his own investment portfolio, as well as build a thriving brokerage and property management business. In this interview, you’ll learn how James finds and screens tenants, uses BiggerPockets to raise money, and much more.
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In This Episode We Cover:
- How James got started with real estate
- How he (unknowingly) house hacked his first property
- How he moved on to his next deals
- Tips on finding a business partner
- Learning the hard way through trial and error
- How James screens tenants now (and the mistakes he used to make!)
- Valuable tips on finding partners
- How he’s using BiggerPockets to grow his business
- His take on starting a brokerage or real estate management company
- Tips for real estate agents working with an investor
- Where to get the cash to actually live while investing in real estate
- And SO much more!
Links from the Show
- Shia LaBeouf delivers the most intense motivational speech of all-time
- #AskBP Podcast
- Tenant Screening: The Ultimate Guide
- Evicted Tenant Threatens Landlord With a Machete (Seriously)
- BiggerPockets Forums
- #AskBP 034: Should You Rent to a Tenant With an Eviction in Their Past?
- Joel Owen’s BiggerPockets Profile
- New Member Welcome Forum
- Draft Day
Books Mentioned in this Show
- Multiple Streams of Income: How to Generate a Lifetime of Unlimited Wealth by Robert G. Allen
Tweetable Topics:
- “You’re always going to have vacancies. It’s part of the business.” (Tweet This!)
Connect with James
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35 Comments
Yeah James is definitely part of the welcome committee here on BP! Fun Podcast guys! Great story James. It’s inspiring to hear about the success you’ve had. Just goes to show you that all those hours you’re putting in are producing results. Can’t imagine the cash flow you’ll have 20 years from now!
And Josh’s recommendation about Draft Day is spot on. Great movie!
Thanks Darren. I appreciate the positive feed-back.
Put in your time folks, if you keep at it day in and day out big things can happen for you.
Excellent Podcast guys! James, you called me out on my “feeble” BP Profile… no picture… no posting… lackluster profile… I’ll get that corrected immediately. I’m always in awe of the BP guests and their success. ALL of YOU have certainly achieved a great deal of it thus far and I wish you CONTINUOUS “3-pointers,” in Game 6 vs. Cleveland, when you’re up 3 games to 2, for the championship! …too soon? too soon? Ok, seriously… On tenant screening: I’ve met people that have rented out their property on a handshake and I simply CRINGE at the thought of doing that now… but I have to admit, there was a time back when I too thought, “well, he seems like a real honest and nice dude.” WRONG! SCREEN THEM TENANTS!
Glad you enjoyed it Jaun. Glad to see your going to get that mug of yours on your BP profile!
Back when I started I had no idea how to even go about doing a credit screen on tenants. It’s great that other new investors can come to sites like this and learn from the mistakes of others before making any costly mistakes of their own.
P.S.
I predict that the Cleveland Cavaliers will win it all next year.
James Wise, finally got around to the mug… thanks for the motivation brother!
I have to admit, I have been here for awhile without a profile picture until hearing you talk about that. Mid podcast I posted my mug from my LinkedIn.
On the other hand…..I am a disappointed Lakers fan! <–Almost shameful to admit these days.
Thanks Kevin. Hearing that you put your picture up made my day.
Don’t feel to bad about being a Lakers fan. It can’t be nearly as bad as being a Browns fan.
Awesome Podcast guys. Great inspiration story for me since you’re doing now what I hope to accomplish in the next ten years. Thanks for all the advice, looking forward to seeing you in the forum.
Branden,
thanks for the kind words. Stick with it you will get there.
Getting started is the hardest part. After you pick up some steam things really start moving for you.
Hello James:
Good Podcast! You were one of the first that introduced yourself to me when I got onto the site. I’m glad you got to get on the Podcast! Keep killing it!
Peter
Thanks Peter. Glad you enjoyed it.
Glad you remembered me.
Since joining the site have you made any new moves in real estate?
Hey James,
I have made two deals, working on finding my first flip, and grabbed my real estate license last year. Also, I formed an LLC with two partners for the flips that we will be performing and formed an S-Corp for a property management company that I have started from scratch.
The property management company is for myself to produce cash flow once I step away from my W-2 job, and the flips are for the increased capital for reinvestment to other deals.
It’s been a great experience getting into the mindset of looking for deals and knowing what is good and what is bad. I want to that you again for welcoming me to the site!
Keep up the great work!
Peter
Peter,
Thats great. Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are well on your way to a profitable real estate business.
Excellent podcast. James was one of the first investors to reach out to me as a newbie. He even sent me a detailed map of the city of Cleveland’s market cap rates. I was reminded from his podcast of this massive tool in my hands called Bigger Pockets. Looking forward to more from James!
Thanks Suzy. I am looking forward to putting out more content.
Great podcast as always guys. One thought about the reasons a real estate agent would want to develop that relationship with investors – the buy and hold guys do buy more often than traditional primary residence buyers, but quite a few investors want to flip it, at which point you get paid the higher, retail-priced commission as well. I love my investor clients, they buy often, flip some, keep some, and there is money to be made several ways with those guys…eventually, they will want you to partner with them too if you are a talented agent that understands the numbers.
Mike, exactly my thoughts on everything as well.
In the podcast I mentioned that we own about 100 rental units. We also manage another 150ish rental units for other investors. Some of those properties that we own are owned in a partnership with people who are also our property management clients.
After you help an investor buy several properties and act as their boots on the ground that trust really builds up and you can start doing joint ventures together.
Great podcast James! Thank you for sharing your wisdom & experiences!!
Glad you enjoyed it Todd. Thanks for the comment.
Great content. I’m just starting out and feel like everything I do, I have done wrong! Just got to keep at it though. A lot of the podcast hit on things that I am or will be going through. Thanks for taking the time to record your podcast!
Thanks Mark.
Keep at it and keep improving your processes and you should do well.
Thanks for sharing your story and experience, James! I like how you jumped in and focused on one aspect and mastered it.
I also have made the same mistakes and lucked out on them. Lessons learned. I let 2 brothers rent from me because ‘I liked them’ but quickly found they hated each other and I was left with the lazy one! Too Much Drama!
SInce I got strict I have had no problems. It’s business. And I am glad I figured it out without a huge expense.
Can’t wait to see more of your posts!
Raven
Thanks Raven.
Renting to people you know is a double edged sword. Sometimes it can work out great other times it’s a disaster.
Excellent podcast! As far as vacancy rates, area vacancy rates are stated on city-data.com and census.gov. Census.gov states housing vacancies for rentals and home ownership. Such information can also be found on some county sites (through digging, depending upon how user friendly the county website is). July 8th, census.gov is hosting a webinar, which will show how to use the under construction and housing data that they provide.
Stephanie,
Thanks for listening and providing all of that information on vacancy rate.
Investors should note that I don’t know how reliable the information they are pulling from those sites is going to be. The reason I have my doubts about those sites being able to accurately provide that date is my company is running a portfolio of 250 or so units. When we have units go empty we are not reporting that date to anyone. So I don’t see how a site would be able to create an accurate number for an entire city.
Mr. Wise,
I understand what you mean. The omission of 250 units can greatly impact the reality of vacancy in an area! All the best to you in your endeavors! I look forward to building my portfolio to house as many units (and more), so thanks for the great information to help me get there.
Just listened BP Podcast 127. Great show. James Wise – I Just wanted to say BRAVO – you presented very well, and provided great insight! Thank you.
Thanks Brad. I am glad you enjoyed it. Don’t be afraid to Tweet it!
I found BP a few weeks ago through the podcasts and recently joined. As I listen to many BP podcasts each week while driving I can honestly say this was a very good one with tons of helpful information. I am now telling lots of people about BP and this is one of the podcast I tell them not to miss Well done!
Thanks for the great feedback Doug. Glad you found BiggerPockets and this podcast imparticular beneficial to you and your investing career.
Just listened to the podcast and was very impressed. James truly had some great advice. Being from Cleveland (Go Browns), I could relate to a lot of what he said. I learned that I househacked my first property back in 94. Also didn’t really think about not renting to people who were evicted some years ago, but will not do that. I’m just getting into investing and was going back and forth about a 4 suite apartment that is being sold by the owner. The owner said that all units are full, which I thought was good until I listened to this podcast. Now I’m thinking what a headache it might be to deal with 4 tenants somebody else put in. Thanks for the great advice. I also will be looking to use your companies services possibly.
Thanks for listening Randy. I am glad you enjoyed the podcast and found the content helpful. Good luck to you and if you ever want to discuss investing feel free to reach out.
When I first listened to this, I did not put two and two together to realize it was James Wise be interviewed. I have a hard time I think connecting the audio aspects of this site with the visual aspects and making that connection.
James, re-listening to the podcast and had a question for you. How did you structure your partnerships with investors providing the capital for the deals you and your main business partner were buying? Did you just pay interest on the loan until you could pay the capital back? Or did you give them profit share?
Great question Braden. We structured every deal a little bit differently. Check out some of my blogs on bigger pockets. I outlined the details on a few deals that we put together.