People have a lot of excuses about why they aren’t’ investing in real estate. “I work too much.” “I live in an expensive area.” “I don’t know enough.” But on today’s show, we sit down with a BiggerPockets member who is absolutely crushing it — despite a full-time job, living in Silicon Valley, and being brand-new to real estate. You’ll learn how Kevin Wood has managed to go from zero to twenty-five deals in under a year, largely using networking on BiggerPockets to make it happen. You’ll be inspired, motivated, and educated to get off the bench and jump into the game!
Click here to listen on iTunes.
Listen to the Podcast Here
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS
Watch the Podcast Here
Help Us Out!
Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found here. Thanks! We really appreciate it!
This Show Sponsored By
Lima One Capital is the nation’s premier lender for residential real estate investors. They make it easy to finance all of your rental properties and fix-and-flip projects.
Learn more by visiting LimaOneCapital.com/BP
Fire Round Sponsor
A huge thanks as well to our Fire Round sponsor MileIQ.
MileIQ is an automatic mileage tracker that tracks the miles you drive for business. By using smart drive-detection technology, MileIQ automatically logs your drives and calculates their value – automatically creating a mileage log that’s compliant with IRS guidelines.
Try it for free today by texting POCKETS to 31996.
In This Episode We Cover:
- How Kevin went from 0 to 25 units in less than a year
- How to overcome the fear of buying that first deal
- How BiggerPockets helped Kevin focus on his investing
- The “condo mistake” Kevin almost made for his first deal
- How to have a competitive advantage
- Tips for approaching other investors
- Why (and how) Kevin bought five houses at once for his first deal
- The logistics of buying five properties at once as a newbie
- How to know if you’re buying a good deal or not
- The benefits of analyzing 100 deals
- Investing in stocks vs. real estate
- How to make a good partnership
- Tips on working with partners — the good, bad, and ugly
- How to introduce yourself on BiggerPockets
- How Kevin got a $200,000 discount on his 6-plex
- The 14-unit turnaround — and the drama associated with it
- How to work with a designer to get the best look for a unit
- A discussion on contractors and how to find them
- How to manage a multifamily complex
- The caveats associated with big fixer-upper deals
- Tips on going for package deals
- The genius negotiating strategy Kevin uses to get incredible deals
- And SO much more!
Links from the Show
- BiggerPockets is hiring!
- BiggerPockets’ Twitter
- Mail BiggerPockets Support
- Real Estate Deal Analysis and Advice Forum Category
- BiggerPockets Calculators
- BiggerPockets Forums
- BiggerPockets Radio Podcast 003: Getting Started in Real Estate and Raising Money with Brian Burke
- BP Podcast 076: Growing Your Real Estate Company Into a $30 Million Dollar Business with Brian Burke
- BP Podcast 152: Building Wealth and Passive Income with Rental Properties with Ben Leybovich, Brian Burke, and Serge Shukhat
- BiggerPockets Webinar
- Keyword Alerts
- Rob Regan’s Website
- BP Podcast 077: Negotiating Your Way to 1000 Wholetail Real Estate Deals with Michael Quarles
- Sharon Tzib’s Profile
Before and After Images
Books Mentioned in this Show
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Brandon Turner’s The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down
- Investing in Apartment Buildings by Matthew Martinez
- The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
- The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
Tweetable Topics:
- “Once you have that first deal, you suddenly become more legitimate.” (Tweet This!)
- “Once the number makes sense, then we do everything we can to find the yes.” (Tweet This!)
- “Never compromise in your returns.” (Tweet This!)
Connect with Kevin
Free eBook from BiggerPockets!
Join BiggerPockets and get The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing for FREE - read by more than 100,000 people - AND get exclusive real estate investing tips, tricks, and techniques delivered straight to your inbox twice weekly!
- Actionable Advice for Getting Started,
- Discover the 10 Most Lucrative Real Estate Niches,
- Learn how to get started with or without money,
- Explore Real-Life Strategies for Building Wealth,
- And a LOT more
Sign up below to download the eBook for FREE today!
We hate spam just as much as you
33 Comments
Great podcast today, this is the situation I am in as a brand new investor and this was great motivation! Thanks guys.
Ok guys – Brandon, you were right! My last name is pronounced “zib,” (silent T) lol! I still love ya though Kevin 🙂
Moving right along, wonderful podcast. For any of you watching, Kevin is one of the smartest, dedicated, and most committed investors I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. He made my job very easy because he knew his criteria, stuck to his guns on his numbers, and was organized and able to provide everything quickly that the lender and we realtors needed.
He also doesn’t wait for the deal to be “brought” to him or fall in his lap. He is out there actively, almost daily, looking at the deals that come out on the MLS. Most of them aren’t good, but you must put in the work and analyze a lot of deals to find the right one. I find too many investors want to be handed the deal, and that, in most cases, just won’t happen.
Thanks again for the shout out guys, and a huge congrats to Matt and you on all your successes, Kevin. I’m honored to have been a help to you and to be a member of your team, and I look forward to helping you on future endeavors.
Whoop whoop! Finally now I know! 🙂 Thanks Sharon Tzib! 😉 (Zib!)
This was an awesome and motivating podcast. Thank You!
One of my favorite episodes to-date!! This podcast was awesome and packed with so much great information. I didn’t want it to end! I hope Kevin joins again soon.
Thanks for the kind messages everyone if you have any questions respond to this post and I will do my best to answer.
Great episode! great information and very motivational. Did you have to abate the entire building for that mold? About how much did you have to spend per unit to renovate?
Thanks!
No luckily the mold was just in that isolated spot and hadn’t penetrated the drywall. We spend about 2-3k per unit to renovate and had some additional costs related to repairing roofs, uneven joists, etc.
Hi Kevin – Great show. Can you tell us where you get your appliances, that you are able to go stainless steel and keep your total renovation per unit to 2-3k? Again, great job!
Thank you!
David we get our appliances from home depot. We buy the smallest range and the smallest fridge due to the size of the apartment. We save a lot on texturing (do it ourselves or 16 an hour), painting (couple 100), and bathroom tile work. We also are making changes to the property that are not on per unit costs (roofs, windows, paint, cleaning, etc.). We’ve spent I believe 40k on the whole complex as I said in the podcast. So 2-3k per unit is only the estimated per unit cost.
David, I was wrong on my number of 2-3k per unit. Not the 40k number. It is more like 5k per unit. I had written in my pre-show notes 2-3k but did not included appliances. I apologize! Wish I could go back and correct it. We spend about 1-1.5k for an oven/fridge combo though we use smaller than the standard sizes.
hi, yes good show, Wondering about How you obtained financing for the 14 unit or the 6 unit. Did you need to show income or credit or size of down Pymt?
For financing we had to put down 20-25% of the purchase price in cash. The bank would then finance based on the quality of the property. Having good credit is important as it shows you are capable of paying back debt. If you have bad credit I would focus on that right now.
Kevin, you mentioned that the bank accepted your offer over another offer for 30K more because of its presentation. Could you expound on that please?
Sharon Tzib put together a package that included our bank commitment letter as well as a fully filled out and complete offer just waiting for the seller’s signature. We did as much work as possible on the deal. The other seller apparently had incomplete documents with no bank guarantee. It was the seller who selected the lower offer not the bank. Having a good realtor can make a ton of difference.
Key Kevin! Great podcast. I’m the podcast guest you referenced (we are the ones that moved our management office into the distressed apartment building – see episode 126.) So I can definitely relate to the project you shared! Sounds like you’re doing great things- enjoyed listening!
You had a fantastic podcast Brian and reminded me that it could always be worse! Thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks for the shout-out, Kevin. Great job, you really did what many only dream of doing. Can’t wait to hear about your continued success.
Kevin,
Great story and inspiration, Thanks.
Great podcast! Very informative and inspiring. Those before and after pictures on the 14 unit are like night and day! It can be done! Thanks!
Can you share some hard numbers? According to my estimate, you’ve invested $150,000 in the 14-plex so far. Is it cash-flowing? What is your estimated value and equity as if today?
I really like the idea of breaking down package deals and then picking only the best parts. Thanks for sharing!
We’ve invested about 40k for repairs in the 14 plex. It is not cash flowing, which I think I mentioned in the podcast, we are going for appreciation over the quick dollar and are investing in order to get market rents. Depends on what cap rate you want to use in the heights but we add about 34k in property value per unit remodeled assuming we can raise the rent consistently 200 per month.
Great podcast Kevin, lot of good tips for a newbie like me … Btw, I work in Bay Area as well … a newbie in REstate … at this point all I am doing is reading, reading and listening …Have slowly started crunching numbers as suggested in this podcast
Thanks for the tips, hope to get in touch some day when I have some value add 🙂
Hi Kevin! Great podcast, thank you for all the wisdom that you shared. I wanted to know what negotiating book would you recommend? Also you said to get a deal on the land and not the property especially if it needs repairs, how would you go about coming up with an offer that is fair, so to speak?
I like the Secrets of Power Negotiating a lot. I listen to it on audio. Zig Ziglar is another staple. I always calculate what I think the property is worth today and then make an offer to reflect that value. I use a calculator to come up with that number. Your goal is to get as good of a deal as you can. Fair is relative to both parties in the transaction.
Great advice. You are really an inspiration to all who is listening to this podcast.
Hi Kevin! Great podcast. Just listen to you today. Thanks for all the advise. I am in accounting as well but I would like to eventually quit my day job doing RE.
Great interview! Super motivating for a newbie! The best advice he gave was that he gets the local business newsletter and stays abreast on the area. Totally took that action step (I’m new to the area I’m investing in)! Listened to this yesterday, same day signed up for the newsletter, and already getting great info. Also learned that I could pay for lists through that website. Not ready yet, but from the great tip, that led to something even better.
Glad to be help welcome to the real estate investing world!
Way to go Kevin. You are an inspiration. Great Podcast.
I just scrolled through podcasts and picked this one. This is the first podcast I heard on bigger pockets.
Thanks to Brandon and Josh for bringing up this great podcast.
I am an aspiring investor. Robert Kayosaki’s influenced me by his call through “Rich Dad Poor Dad”.
Currently, I am in reading phase with eye to launch in 2017.
Kevin, one question I had while listening to podcast was how did you invest in your first property? Did you save money for this or did you take alternate approaches. Please answer if you get a chance to read this.
Thanks for the kind words. My partner and I invested our own money and used traditional loans to acquire the property.
Kevin, Just listened to podcast167. Very informative and inspirying.. I’m a REI from Melbourne Australia. The market down under is at all time highs and very expensive. Over the years I have been involved in residential (FMR), Development and currently hold 4 commercial/industrial REI all leased. I’m very keen to get involved an invest in the US market and have just become a BP PRO member. What’s your tip about identifying a suitable location/state in the US for a foreign investor such as myself?
Always interested in equity partnership if you have any projects of interest.
Excellent advice Kevin and wish you the best of luck to continue on this way!