1. Don't be fooled by the holy grail 2% RULE. Yes, it worked here, and it's a great way to quickly analyze a property, but just note that every city and property are different, and the "rule" ONLY looks at the 'top line' and ignores expenses. In the case of New Britain, CT, the RE taxes are very high (48 mill rate) which is $20.5K annual taxes (17% of our expected revenue). Our saving grace is that most of the utilities are metered out, and because the units are a big size (duplex 2BR/1.5BA) we can still rent them at a solid price. However, if expenses in your area or on your property are higher than "normal" you even-more-so need to make sure you are looking at the full picture and including your operating expenses of the property.

2. The deal was picked up off-market by a seller that we've done a few deals with in the past. Lessons learned here:

a. Be a good person to everyone! It's not only the right thing to do, it's an excellent way to do a lot of business.

b. Experience is crucial! The seller would not have done the deal with us if we were newbies - he wanted someone that he knew can close on it. So if you're still trying to work on your first deal all by yourself, don't be afraid to give up some of your well deserved profits to bring someone on that can help close the deal and gain that experience. Experience leads to more deals, and more deals leads to access to more money, and access to more money leads to even more deals. [Do you follow the chain of events: Deals --> More Deals --> Access More Money --> Even More Deals --> Even More Access to Money --> Helluva Lot More Deals --> Helluva Lot More Access to Money.] We are at the earlier part of this cycle, but we already see how things snowball.

3. I learned everything in a guru course for $9,997 - and you need to take this class!! (<--- THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE LIE!) I luckily found BiggerPockets which has been an absolute godsend to our business and me. I mentioned this in previous posts, and BP has been the underlying key to our success. BP is where I found my business partner, it's how we learned to flip, analyze deals, find deals, market strategies, phone scripts, grow our business, find relevant books and so much more. BP offers a real estate education that no one guru can come close to teaching, and it's all free!

If you're new to the real estate game I would strongly suggest that you listen to the BP podcasts and take action on what @Joshua Dorkin, @Brandon Turner and their weekly guest is saying - their words are worth their weight in real estate gold. If you're like me then you will start to notice that a lot of successful podcasts guests have similar stories, have read/recommended similar books, have similar investment strategies, and then hopefully you will begin to mimic those things and then of course go out and do it and succeed!

Also, if you need help or a partner what better place is there to find possible business partner(s) then BP?

4. Stick to your numbers and don't be afraid to keep offering your price to the seller. All of our offers that ultimately was accepted has been rejected multiple times first - and sometimes this spanned over the course of many months - before our deal was finally accepted. I believe this 16 unit deal was under contract a few times with other buyers for over $600K before they all flamed out. The seller continued to reject our offer until he realized we were his best offer and most reliable buyer.

Hope this could encourage some of you and I really look forward to hearing all of your success stories!

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