Ryan D.

I am married with 4 kids and a dog. I have a background in architectural engineering with a focus on sustainable building design and energy efficiency. My long term real estate interests are long term development of sustainable buildings. My shorter term interests are investing in smaller (5-50 unit) value-add multifamily properties. I have a Professional Engineers License in WI along with a BS in Architectural Engineering (structural emphasis) from MSOE, and an MS in Architectural Engineering (sustainable building and energy efficiency emphasis) from CU Boulder. Experience: In 2004 my wife and I got married and within a few months bought our first duplex in Milwaukee. We were "house-hacking" before that was a thing. We moved into the upper and rented out the lower. Our upgrades were painting and removing the carpet and refinishing the hardwood floors. We also added a small parking slab with the intent of adding a garage eventually. We only lived there for nine months before buying a single family and renting out both units in the duplex. We were able to raise rents to $750 per unit and things were going well. Then I decided to go to grad school in fall 2007 so we put our house up for sale and found a property manager since we were moving to Colorado. Unfortunately the downturn came on faster than we lowered our price and it took 9 months for us to sell. In the meantime our property manager for the duplex was not doing well. They didn't put any effort into getting good quality tenants and we went several months with a vacancy. We finally switched property managers and found a local guy who did much better. He rented out the vacant unit and was taking care of maintenance that the other manager wasn't doing. Then we got a letter that he had cancer and was turning his business over to someone else. Things really took a turn for the worst. This guy was taking money out for things that shouldn't have been done, and wasn't getting the other unit rented that went vacant. He finally got the unit rented after several months, but the girl didn't even pay her first month's rent. How can that happen??? Then he refused to serve her notice and evict her. We had also put the place up for sale because we were loosing so much money. We were able to sell it, but it was a short sale. The bank refused to forgive the short amount though and required I take out a loan to pay the difference. I ended up having to quit grad school to pay the loan on a house I no longer owned. We lost about $150,000 across the two properties due to the Great Recession. We have since recovered and own a home in southwestern WI. I am looking to get back into real estate ownership and look forward to learning a better way. Real Estate Goals: My real estate goals are to eventually be a developer of sustainable/green buildings. I hope to start with multifamily rehabs or new construction and eventually expand to other commercial buildings. I am an Architectural Engineer with a focus on sustainable building design and energy efficiency. I used to work as a structural engineer in CA and WI before going to grad school to refocus on sustainable buildings and energy efficiency. I consider myself a building scientist and really love buildings. I have been working as an evaluator of utility scale energy efficiency programs for the last 8 years and now hope to leverage that knowledge on the side for now. Currently Seeking: I am looking to learn all I can and am open to partnerships with the right fit. Currently looking for opportunities in multifamily to renovate to get green building certifications. I believe this will enable increased rents and in turn increased value in the building.