Looking 4 Mentor/Coach in Houston, TX

[John Sherron]

Hey BP Fam, I am a new investor in Houston, TX, looking to get started on the right foot. 

I have experience in rentals but that was from over 10 years ago in a completely different city, state. I did a wholesale deal (my first one) within the last 5 years but was also in a different city and state.

I have only been in Houston for just over 5 years and I believe I know the market somewhat.

My fiance is a new realtor for kw, which she is helping me obtain financing currently. I am preapproved for up to $130k, with a 640 fico score. My savings is under $5000, and I have a fair amount of money available on my credit cards. I work full time and right now my expenses equal about 85-90% of my income.

My goal is to purchase my first buy and hold property before Feb 2017, and purchase my next one 6-8 months later. Each year after the goal is to double up through refinance and equity. Once I build my capital up I would like to work on my first flip.

Thats where I am in a nutshell. I really hope to find someone that is as serious and passionate about real estate and interested in my success as I am. Someone who really focuses on building systems and structure in a business.

I am very driven and motivated, I  just need the proper guidance to get started in the right direction to help build my portfolio into a 6-figure plus a month well oiled machine. 

Please take this discussion very serious as I will take the coaching, I am not here to waste anyones time nor my own.

Thanks BP Fam for those that understand my vision and are moved in helping a newbie accomplish success and greatness to hopefully one day pay forward!

[Zachary C.]

@John Sherron,

Let me start off and caveat with "I am pretty new to this," however, I am not that new to business. Now, without more specific information on your situation, here are a few things I see. 

• Depending on your experience in rentals combined with 5yrs of getting to know Houston and your current income amount, what options do you have in property management?
  
  • Could you get a job at a PM company to learn the market faster? This would provide paid mentorship.
  • Could you partner into a PM company? Same mentorship benefit, but potentially more rewarding, esp if you help grow the business.
  • Could you start your own PM company? There are issues with brokers and being a licensed agent (where I live at least). Consider the situation at KW where your fiancé works- do they do their own PM, do they have a preferred PM company that all their referrals go to, could you build that relationship through your fiancé? If having a broker is an issue- maybe the KW broker (if legally possible in your state) would be interested in putting his broker status over a separate company that deal only in PM that you manage, this could also be an option on another agency. I know KW is a big nation wide thing and I am not sure on their policies for such things but I would guess there would be an issue here.
  • Could you use a combination of the above approaches? For instance, you work for a PM company to get the experience, when your fiancé gains the experience to get a brokers license could the two of you break free from those companies and go at it alone, with your own business. That model could provide buy, sell, and PM under one roof. Using good systems it is scalable.

Now this is potentially really beneficial esp. if you intend on a buy and hold strategy. I know nothing about wholesale, practically nothing about flipping. But some of the perks to a PM system are possibly:

• Mentorship without paying for it (there is almost always trade off in mentorship, money for mentorship or returned benefit for mentorship) 
• Speed up your learning curve in your market
• Analyzing the properties in the PM portfolio: client has one property (probably moved and/or couldn't sell), client has multiple properties (probably an investor). You can see expense/income ratios for different styles of properties in different areas of you market to help fine tune where you invest.
• You can create a network of people to fix different types of issues from simple maintenance to complex repairs. You can leverage the size of the combined portfolio (yours and other owners) to get competitive rates for these services.

You have a very high goal, which is good, but be prepared to work your face off to achieve that. The stuff I mentioned above I have looked into as I have been growing into REI and I have utilized some variations of it and am still working it and learning. I don't have it all figured out and I don't know if that is possible for anyone but you can always strive for that. I hope that this isn't a waste of time and that you might be able to pull away some ideas from it that might be useful to your individual situation. Feel free to message me anytime and good luck.