Starting out: Commercial RE

[Yuuj V.]

Hello BP!

I've spent that last two years preparing, saving, reading and educating myself through BP and several books for that one moment, that moment of pure ecstasy, the  moment I closed on a rental property. My first one! ... And it felt like any other day. (Still haven't written a post about it, will soon).

I guess the rush wasn't there. Didn't feel like I accomplished much. 

Spent the next few months deciding on a move and I came to the idea of REIT's for supplemental income. Did my research, found a few sources and built up a portfolio of publicly traded REIT's with a small modest size of around $20K (and growing of course) producing div's.

Still didn't really solve the equation of wealth building or my 'fix', My motto is "Rentals and REIT's". I even went with 2 private REIT's with small positions just for fun. (More on that in a years time).

Now I'm at the point where I've been reading about CRE (Commercial Real Estate). I'm an overseas investor, I work outside of the U.S. as an expat. I could keep buying houses for the next few years, with 20% DP's. But I want to build a bigger empire, as ambitious as that sounds, as I'm sure everyone here on BP does.

Some of my biggest questions to BP members who have Commercial RE:

How did you start out?

What books do you recommend?

Is Crowdsourcing CRE viable or a waste of time?

Has it been worth it? 

I'm still going to continue on my path of REIT's and Rentals (SFr/MFHr), but CRE investing seems like it has a much bigger bang.

Interested in everyones thoughts!

[Alina Trigub]

@Yuuj V. Your answer is totally fair. I was there once before as well. :) Anyway, I'd start out by educating yourself - read a few books about commercial real estate investing, syndications. I'd start with the two of David Lindahl, and Steve Berges book on multifamily. Also there's a bunch of podcasts by Rod Khleif, Michael Blank, Jake&Gino that you should listen to.

In my case, as a former tax accountant, I always look at the tax side of things. Since syndications allow you to take advantage of tax benefits of being a partial property owner, I doubt REITs can even beat that. You can also diversify your portfolio within syndications by investing in different assets within commercial real estate such as storage, multifamily, mobile home parks and etc. 

Also, continue asking questions. But the main thing is, once you educate yourself on the topic you'll be ready to make the intelligent decisions and invest confidently.

Feel free to PM me with questions.

Best!