Who should you put on your team?

[Brian Boyd]

Real estate investing is a team sport. No, not in the way you think. I am not talking about partners in your syndicate, LLC, general partnership, S Corporation or investment club. I am talking about the professionals you need to surround yourself with. Investing in real estate requires many abstract, moving parts to coalesce into a fluid process.

So who should be on your team? I cannot tell you who to put on your team but here is who I have put on mine. This is not always the case but for the last several deals, this has been my go-to starting line-up.

Real Estate Agent: We have a good relationship with one particular agent in one of the markets we invest in and he has been invaluable. We trust him with our money, which is to say, we trust him with our business. He has been "Johnny on the Spot" for us. Let me explain that better. Nick, our agent, is the type of agent who will advise us to kill a deal if there is something that does not fit our model. Moreover, he is an investor himself so he looks at deals from that perspective rather than as a commission to be made. Since we invest out of town, certainly more than 100 miles from our personal residence, he and his guidance on the deal (the area of town, the demographics, the rents, the local regulations and what can and cannot be done with a property) cannot be overstated. He has become the benchmark that we use as we move into other markets.

Banker: We recently went through a game of kissing many frogs to find our prince. We wanted a bank that would work with us and be our "go-to" for the deals we came across. What does it take to be our "go-to"? First, we needed a bank that could be nimble. Deals could pop up at any time and we need to be able to get our banker on the phone or text and get things lined up to make an offer. Second, we needed a bank that understands our business model to achieve our goal. Third, we wanted a bank that could look at our portfolio and see the potential for our best interests. 

Bookkeeper: I cannot stress enough the need to have a good book keeper. Ours has been phenomenal. She tracks our expenses, tracks our depreciation, tracks our contributions to the company, and gives us monthly updates on the business. She seamlessly integrates with our banker and our CPA. She speaks the tax language necessary to help our CPA prepare our returns. Without a good bookkeeper we would have no idea how good or bad a particular deal is or is not. 

CPA: Our CPA came to us through a client. I had a particularly stressful year with our other accountant the year before that put me on the hunt for a new CPA. I took him to lunch and we talked about what I wanted to do. We speak a few times a year throughout the year and work toward a particular goal each year. He has been worth EVERY PENNY we pay him. He handles our Cost Segregation Studies and has bee instrumental in our ability to achieve the portfolio size we currently have. 

Title Company:I know this team member sounds odd but our title company has been really good in helping clear up some title issues, giving us some insight on some deals, and even passing along opportunities. A good title company relationship can be worth its weight in gold. If you think about it, title companies touch more deals per day than most investors see in a year. 

While this list is not exhaustive, this is our list. It has taken some time to get the right players in place, however, once we got the formula right, we are moving forward with our plans. I hope this helps some of you. As always, good luck!

Brian