New RE Investor looking to diversify

[Kaleb Phillips]

Hi everyone!

I'm a former software engineer that built and then sold a company. Before building that last company I took a 5 year break and moved into internet marketing where I started a marketing firm that mostly did social media ad buying (I was the guy that sold out growthcon for Grant Cardone in 2019). 

I'm located in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area and am open to properties basically anywhere in southern Michigan (anything south of Muskegon from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron is fair game imo.)

I now have a fairly large nest egg of cash beyond all of my other investments (stocks, bonds, treasuries, crypto) and I want to turn that cash into a real estate investment or investments and I think my deep background in tech, systems, and marketing should be able to help me substantially.

It seems to me like BRRRR on multifamily units makes the most sense, but I'm open to suggestions.

I'm basically retired at this point as the only work I do each week is 3-4 hours of consulting for larger tech companies and I'm on a couple advisory boards.

What are the best first steps in building a team and creating the systems necessary to start making deals?

I've already done quite a bit of research in my area and can already pretty much tell you what a property is worth or at least generally what it will sell for as I spend about 3 hours a day looking at properties and have been doing that for about a year to make sure I'm prepared on the accuracy side of things.

I do have a family member that is a real estate agent in the area, but I'm not sure if a standard single family residential agent is the correct connection for multifamily. If so I'll make sure to start pressing him for leads.

I do not have a title company, construction, or property management partners yet.

I feel like a mentor would make sense, but I'm not sure if a paid mentorship is the best bet or simply trying to network with RE professionals in the area. I'm not sure where they can normally found to be networked with, so that's another question.