Severin, the noobie nerd from Norway (Europe)

[Severin Sadjina]

Hi,

I'm Severin. I'm from Austria (the one with Lederhosen, not the one with the kangaroos, sorry), but have lived in Norway for 11 years. I'm a research scientist with a PhD in theoretical physics, i.e., I'm a ginormous nerd. I love numbers, and that's heavily coloring my approach to real estate. I'm using artificial intelligence to help me find deals (more on that later).

For my first deal, I am currently trying to find condos as rentals, to hold for about 3 to 7 years. I'd prefer being able to rent out houses, but no one does that in Norway (everyone buys instead). And leasing is still unheard of. I'd like to build up cash flow and passive income, and hopefully grow to owning four units (the maximum number you can have here without bothering with registering a business).

It all started innocently enough, when I told my Dad that I would now finally get my own car. (At the age of 34, thing's are a little different here and/or I am different). I had just found my new position as a research scientist at Scandinavia's largest independent research organization, SINTEF, and I would soon be in the position to buy a car in cash. And all my Dad simply said was. "Well, that's a terrible investment." And after my initial surprise and confusion had settled, I realized that he was a 100% right.

Well, a few weeks later, I was starting to collect data on real estate in my local market in Western Norway. I started using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to build models that could predict a property's market value, given a few basic metrics. I was basically making my own Zestimate (Zillow's AI-backed value estimation model). And it worked pretty well. I am now down to about 6% median error rate when predicting the market value of properties from only four numbers (for example, square footage). And that's actually almost as good as Zillow's US-wide numbers.

Anyway, fast forward: I have looked at and studied 2400 properties (well, my AI has, really), I have seen about 10 properties (all of which my models said where potential deals), and made offers on 4. So far, I haven't managed to get any of my offers accepted. But I will soon. And I can't wait to get started!

I've also listened to several BiggerPockets podcasts, and I loved every one of them. They also got me to reading Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Cashflow Quadrant, which really helped me get into an investor mindset.

Alright, that's about it for now. I'd love to hear if there's other folks from Europe here, and who has done some more advanced mathematical modeling to help them with their real estate business.