Stuck at a plateau, need some advice.

[Bennet Sebastian]

Hi BP I've been investing in medical office in Orlando for a few years now. As a broker that's the area I specialized in for many years and an industry sector I know relatively well. However, I'm only doing 1-2 acquisitions a year due to a relatively low inventory of product. I scratch my head wondering what I'm doing wrong when I hear about SFR investors doing 1-2 houses PER WEEK. Granted I probably make more money per deal but I have the capacity to do a lot more deals - both financially and logistically - and I get stir crazy when I'm not working on new projects. So now I've been sitting here (more like wallowing) trying to figure out where to go from here. As I see it, here are my options: 1. Expand into other product types. Professional office would be the closest product but it's not that appealing to me. Senior housing is all the rage and its within the spectrum of healthcare but it's closer to hospitality or multi-family product than it is to medical office and requires operational capabilities that I don't have. That leaves retail, industrial, multi-fam, SFR - none of which I have much experience or competitive advantage in. But there might be an opportunity to convert some of these other uses into medical depending on market factors. That does seem interesting to me. 2. Expand geographically. Being in Orlando allows me to get to Tampa on the west coast or Daytona/Melbourne on the east coast via Interstate 4 in about 90 minutes or less. But those markets, while close in proximity, might as well be in different states when compared to my knowledge of the Orlando market. Plus those areas are not flourishing nearly as well as Orlando so I'm not sure if that makes sense. 3. Expand into new construction. Seems like a lot of fun to me but it also seems much more intimidating than buying and rehabbing existing product. Don't know the first thing about land acquisition and development but I think I could learn this relatively quickly after doing the first one. Financing structures for land and building are also areas that are new and different from rehabs. Much harder to do new construction speculatively like with rehabs. The end user/tenant seems to really drive everything here. Once you have them then the rest will fall into place. I'm sure this post will probably generate more questions than answers due to missing ingredients but I didn't want to write an essay and its late and my hand is starting to cramp typing so much on my iPhone. PS I promise to upgrade to a Pro Account soon. Just been distracted with other stuff and don't make it to the site as often as I should. Thanks in advance for your time and feedback. Sincerely, Bennet

[Ben Leybovich]

You have qualifying guidelines. Stay true to them. If you can, and want to - refine them. But, don't look at others. Play your game. The jury is very much out on people buying 2 houses per week...:)

[Curtis Yoder]

Interesting question, not sure if I can answer but will share my personal perspective. 

As a commercial contractor myself for the last 20 years I have seen ups and downs in every sector of the construction markets. Over the years it seems that one type of property is hot and another is dead cold. Right now the MF market is at its peak and will soon cool off in my opinion. The healthcare markets in construction continue to be steady and I expect them to stay that way for years to come.

With all that said, I focus my investments on SFH's as the basis is the rental rates and not construction or money based markets. As a matter of fact, when the economy retracts a bit the rental markets go up a bit. When the economy is in a true growth mode everyone can afford a McMansion and rental markets become a bit more competitive. All in all the SFH rental market has been very steady for me over the years.

I have been becoming more and more involved in SFH buy and hold as I have needed more things to focus on. The construction business is steady and busy and does not need me on a daily basis. So looking for alternative time investment opportunities, REI was the obvious choice. Currently I am reading and learning more and more about Multi Family and will dip my toes in that soon. Good luck to you and am interested in where you go with this.

[Bennet Sebastian]

Originally posted by @Ben Leybovich:

You have qualifying guidelines. Stay true to them. If you can, and want to - refine them. But, don't look at others. Play your game. The jury is very much out on people buying 2 houses per week...:)

Thanks Ben. Ultimately that's what I will end up doing. But was just wondering how others have handled similar forks in the road and what you felt you did right/wrong. Obviously the least risky option is to stay in my market and stay in my product category but that offers limited potential. The most risky option is to enter a new market AND product category. I'm sure the right answer lies somewhere in between. I'll just continue doing my homework and take it one step at a time.

[Bennet Sebastian]

Originally posted by @Curtis Yoder:

Interesting question, not sure if I can answer but will share my personal perspective. 

As a commercial contractor myself for the last 20 years I have seen ups and downs in every sector of the construction markets. Over the years it seems that one type of property is hot and another is dead cold. Right now the MF market is at its peak and will soon cool off in my opinion. The healthcare markets in construction continue to be steady and I expect them to stay that way for years to come.

With all that said, I focus my investments on SFH's as the basis is the rental rates and not construction or money based markets. As a matter of fact, when the economy retracts a bit the rental markets go up a bit. When the economy is in a true growth mode everyone can afford a McMansion and rental markets become a bit more competitive. All in all the SFH rental market has been very steady for me over the years.

I have been becoming more and more involved in SFH buy and hold as I have needed more things to focus on. The construction business is steady and busy and does not need me on a daily basis. So looking for alternative time investment opportunities, REI was the obvious choice. Currently I am reading and learning more and more about Multi Family and will dip my toes in that soon. Good luck to you and am interested in where you go with this.

Hi Curtis,

Thanks for sharing Curtis, I think we have a few things in common. I'm just down the road from you in the Dr Phillips area or Orlando.  We should try and get together for lunch one of these days and chat.

Bennet.

[Mark Elliott]

let me ask you this, bennet. did you know all that you know now, when you were 5, or 10? no, but you learned and you grew in that field and you seem to be somewhat of an expert. at some point in your life, you were where you are now and you chose to travel down the path that you are on. that path lead you to things and knowledge that you never imagined when you were at the crossroads. you now find yourself at another crossroad. can you imagine the knowledge you may be facing if you follow yet another path??? sure, at this point, you know little of the path you want to follow, but you knew little of the previous path you followed. you have nothing to fear, you have been where you are now, before, and look how far you have come. choose another direction, follow another path, and enjoy the ride. its gonna have its ups and downs like any other ride, but you made it before, you will make it again. doing 2 houses a week is a bit of a stretch and  think thats something that happens a lot less than people want to tell you, but you can make decent money at real estate, in any level you choose. i say go for it, you have the knowledge. i believe you can overcome any hurtle you come across. 

[Ben Leybovich]

Originally posted by @Bennet Sebastian:

Originally posted by @Ben Leybovich:

You have qualifying guidelines. Stay true to them. If you can, and want to - refine them. But, don't look at others. Play your game. The jury is very much out on people buying 2 houses per week...:)

Thanks Ben. Ultimately that's what I will end up doing. But was just wondering how others have handled similar forks in the road and what you felt you did right/wrong. Obviously the least risky option is to stay in my market and stay in my product category but that offers limited potential. The most risky option is to enter a new market AND product category. I'm sure the right answer lies somewhere in between. I'll just continue doing my homework and take it one step at a time.

 Don't play someone else's game. Zig when they zag...

I've been stuck too. The reason we both are stuck is because others step outside of their guidelines. Look and find other opportunities - don't let anything push you off of you qualifying thinking...

[Bennet Sebastian]

Originally posted by @Mark Elliott:

let me ask you this, bennet. did you know all that you know now, when you were 5, or 10? no, but you learned and you grew in that field and you seem to be somewhat of an expert. at some point in your life, you were where you are now and you chose to travel down the path that you are on. that path lead you to things and knowledge that you never imagined when you were at the crossroads. you now find yourself at another crossroad. can you imagine the knowledge you may be facing if you follow yet another path??? sure, at this point, you know little of the path you want to follow, but you knew little of the previous path you followed. you have nothing to fear, you have been where you are now, before, and look how far you have come. choose another direction, follow another path, and enjoy the ride. its gonna have its ups and downs like any other ride, but you made it before, you will make it again. doing 2 houses a week is a bit of a stretch and  think thats something that happens a lot less than people want to tell you, but you can make decent money at real estate, in any level you choose. i say go for it, you have the knowledge. i believe you can overcome any hurtle you come across.

Hi Mark,

What a great perspective to have, thank you for sharing. I guess the only difference between my mid 40's self and my 10-year old self is that the older me is more cautious/conservative while the younger was pretty much fearless. The older me has a lot more to lose while the younger me had nothing to lose. The older me has less time on the clock and is weary of long learning curves while the younger me thought he would love forever and enjoyed learning new things. But as Andy Dufresne said in The Shawshank Redemption (the best movie ever) - "You can get busy living, or you can get busy dying". Sadly, I may have been doing more of the latter.

Thanks again!

Bennet

[Mark Elliott]

yes, i agree, the shawshank redemption is a good movie and his line in there really hits home. but you can't live life thinking how little time you have left. i had a grand father that was taken captive in the battle of the bulge in wwII. he thought he was gonna die like anyone else did there. he lived to be 89 and dropped dead making his breakfast. his wife, my grandmother, lived to be only 56. you have no idea how long you are gonna live, so, just live. take risks, see where they lead you. if you don't like the path it takes you down, switch paths