Noob from Twin Cities/MN, 1st Yr Investor, 4th Yr Agent

[Geoffrey Serdar]

Noob from Twin Cities/MN

1st Year Investor, 4th Year Real Estate Agent

I have been a Realtor® since the beginning of 2012, focusing on the real estate markets of Minneapolis, Edina and the surrounding urban areas. I attended the University of St. Thomas with an emphasis in Entrepreneurial Studies.

Residential Real Estate sales is my career, it took me a solid 4 years for me to call it a career. These last four years have been extremely difficult, yet exciting, and I have kept up my focus throughout every failure, now, I'm very proud of my professional capabilities and can take on all sorts of residential real estate projects. This past fall I brought on my first assistant, and that has allowed me to focus on more listing opportunities, servicing my clients at a far more superior level. I spent a solid 4 weeks breaking down my entire workflow before my first hire, and then spent a solid 4-8 weeks training, and evolving my processes, I continually have Monday meetings where we discuss how we can do better.

2015 I took a managerial/partnership role in two condo flips, my business partner took a giant leap in me:

http://spacecrafting.com/npwc <--- my first flip

http://www.spacecrafting.com/cx1d <--- my second flip

I worked diligently for my partner so we could get these at bottom barrel prices, I hired and bid out all the help, demo, design, electrical, cabinetry & carpentry, etc. I generated $32,900 and $23,000 for my partner & I, this was risky but the comps made sense. I'm very honored and appreciative that he took the chance in me, especially because neither of us ever flipped a property before.

One of my contractors left my 1st flip's patio door open over the winter and the condo's pipe burst, flooded out the 2 units below, I was terrified of how much damage it caused, I brought the neighbor below flowers on three occasions as a way of apologizing, then asked if I could buy her unit, I acquired it, so I was working on two flips at the same time - which was a managing/learning experience, now I know I can do this constantly.

Thus, 2015 is the beginning of my investing experience, at 31 years old, I'm here to learn more from you (members @ bigger pockets), to read and educate myself, to be like you, and to one day, give back and advise others.

I recently paid off my student debt, I have been miserable trying to accelerate that worthless debt's payoff, I have so many friends with 50-150k in student debt, it's NOT an asset, it doesn't create security. I am student debt free, it's powerful.

I'm closing on my first 100 year old duplex in a few weeks, I am using FHA203k, I'm more excited/scared about the duplex than anything else in my life, I will be more proud of that than any other achievement thus far, I'm buying it for 149k and putting 65k into it, updating it and making it more solid, better water management, finishes, I will always try and make my buildings solid.

My duplex is in a high minority area, and everyone is telling me I'm crazy but all people are people and I do not see color, I only see opportunities and I respect everyone as long as they respect themselves.

I hope to earn the respect from the members of this site, learn from your mistakes, and learn how to more intelligently take business risks. I am an amateur investor, I will not always be so. I am an awesome real estate agent.

-Geoffrey Serdar (The phonetic pronunciation of my name is JAh`free SIR-Dar)

I am also a member of the Minneapolis Club, 

Life Member of Minneapolis Lodge #19, 

attended Trinity School @ River Ridge,

I have a funny immigrant family, and I appreciate that I was born in 'Merica 🇺🇸