Team Journey

[Enrique Reyna]

We (myself and my wife) listened to our first podcast in mid-December and after doing some research, we are digging in and making REI our next focus as I plan my exit strategy out of the US Army. We live in Fort Walton Beach and making the surrounding areas of Eglin AFB our area of operations. We welcome counsel from any members in this area and the greater BP community. Let's do this!

[Steven Stokes]

I was stationed at Tyndall AFB when I exited. Congratulations!

I'm super happy to hear you're putting together a plan. That has been the only way I deal with investors, agents, attorneys, etc. When you have a plan and give everyone on your team the plan, everyone is on the same page, knows what the objectives are and what their role is. I wouldn't invest a dime without a solid plan.

If I could give you some tips here's what I would say,

YOUR TEAM - I would say that even more important than your investment forecast would be the team you have put together. Most investors find a plan more or less credible by who is on your RE team. Your agent, RE attorney, RE accountant, bird-dogs, any advisers and their full bio and links to their social media should be in your plan.

YOUR STORY - Your story should have great impact, if you have any RE success stories that will add to your credibility. Use those stories in your executive summary or somewhere in your plan.

YOUR NUMBERS - Your forecast should be conservative but share with your investors that while your plan is conservative, your estimates are aggressive. That means, in your plan you should say you're estimating a return of x but in person you should say you are personally shooting for investments of xxx return. But you want the plan to be conservative so everyone sleeps well at night and not feeling like everyone on your team has to hit a home run on every pitch.

Depending on the type of deal you're putting together you're probably looking at 7 - 10 pages in your plan.

There is a lot more but those are just some things I would focus on. Good work in putting together a plan. I find it's one of the few things that separates those who do really well in real estate from those who just flop around from one deal to another hoping to get lucky.

I hope this helps.