All Forum Posts by: Andre Jernigan

@Roni E. Sounds like a good plan to me. I’ll be finishing the course here shortly. I actually got Joe Fairless’ book not too long ago and am already about a third through it. I’ll also go ahead and check out Michael Blank’s SDA in the meantime. Owning is the goal therefore I’ll go with with your advice of getting in with an owner. I appreciate the advice and conversation Roni. 

@Frank Patalano I did luck out that’s for sure.

Essentially it sounds like it wasn’t necessarily the two jobs but more of a conscious decision to really get the ball rolling and pursue your goals. 

That makes sense. Of the habits you’ve created around those goals, which do you find the most important?

@Taylor L. While sure there are strategies that can be seen as short term and can be executed as such but in my opinion real estate investing truly is a long term play. Especially when you start to look at buy and hold and syndications like you mentioned. 

I love that the statement of not needing to reinvent the wheel in the syndication space. I’m sure as time progresses there are some small tweaks here and their with how the business may change over time but essentially the model would stay close to the same. I see that you do multifamily and self storage; when you first started out did you know the direction that you wanted to go with respect to which strategy you were interested in ultimately or have you adapted your strategy and opinion over time?

@Ola Dantis I appreciate the response nonetheless. That’s quite a move all the way down to Houston! I hope everything has gone smoothly.

From my understanding, different threads, and your response here it does seem as if syndication truly is an unfair strategy due to all the aspects you included. The amount of time that it takes does seem to vary quite a bit however being at a young age I feel as if this does play into my personal advantage due to the fact that I am still looking to work for a while. Perhaps this is also part of the reasoning as to why I’m perfectly fine with being patient and weathering the storms when they come (not if because we all know they will come!). 

🔑🔑🔑 Yes you I absolutely agree with your last point as well!! TEAM IS EVERYTHING! I feel like no matter how experienced or rich you are, you can only go so far by yourself. Even then whats the fun in doing everything for yourself when you could be working with and helping others along the way!

I appreciate your response once again Ola. I’d be interested to hear how you got started. You wouldn’t happen to have written a blog on here by chance would you? 

@Charlotte Dunford I just read through your blow and all I can say is wow and congratulations!! What an incredible journey and show of confidence. You brought up so many good points that I am sure most of us have thought about at some point in our careers up to this point. There were a few things that stuck out and spoke to me in your blog, one of which being how you asked yourself is this why I came to the United States and what the "reward" for all that you had been through up to that point working in the corporate world. I can't speak for everyone obviously but I feel like for those of us on this website at least, I have always had this feeling of not wanting to settle and a fear of looking back on my life 50 years down the road wondering if I lived my life to its fullest potential. I really applaud you for being brave enough to go ahead and take that leap into entrepreneurship without a cushion knowing that you wouldn't crash. If I wasn't getting married here in the next year perhaps I would do the same, or perhaps that's just an excuse? Thank you Jingwen for your input and sharing your blog with me! I can't say enough how awesome and inspiring it is!

@Roni E. I had started taking time looking into the market leaders as far as commercial companies go here locally. As you mentioned my thought was that it would be difficult with the fact that I wouldn't yet have any experience in the industry yet however I'll never know unless I try right? Of the commission splits I had seen and heard of 80% is probably the best that I have come across. I'll have to do some more research and talk to different brokers and agents about exactly how they work with respect to the differing hurdles after the 50/50 split. I am actually glad that you brought up the alternative route of looking into being an assistant manager or something similar for a multifamily owner or developer. I feel like that would be an interesting way to learn about the industry as a whole while also being able to build relationships and help others along the way as well. Aside from getting licensed is there another way that I could start positioning myself to be a better candidate before attempting to work with those multifamily operators?

@Roni E. The consistent paychecks certainly do help and you are correct, saving for either investing and a rainy day. The thing about finding another opportunity that I am "struggling" with is, if I have to work my way up to that point of having a higher salary, is it worth putting in the extra effort there. Or would it be more beneficial to just to stick it out where I am now while working to get my foot in a door in real estate somewhere. 

The plan is to go ahead and get my license in the meantime. I hadn't thought much about being a broker myself although I am sure it would be interesting. When choosing where to hang my license, what do you think is one of the more important things to take into consideration? Some things I have started to think about are splits and the available training programs. As I have researched more, I believe apartments is more toward where I want to focus. There is something about multifamily that makes me feel as if it would be easier to set up systems for a business.

@Matt Higgins Okay that makes a bit more sense when you say conforming 30 year Freddie Mac. I would be interested to hear some of the reasons as to why a commercial loan is a better product. I will say that I am interested to see how long rates will continue to decrease or what will happen with the way the economy is shaping up.

That actually sounds very similar to what I have started. I say that because I remember thinking one day about how there are times when I purposefully split the day up differently just to watch the clock in different increments. I feel like personally it bothers me because I know what I want to do and don't like to feel like I am wasting time or not being as productive as I should/could be. It sounds like your wife's grandpa gave some rather wise information and as I sit here thinking about it he is 100% right. There are plenty of opportunities available that you can earn a sub $100k salary. It almost seems as if everyone is afraid of taking any risks because it may disturb the level of comfort that they are enjoying. This brings us right into the conversation of learning to both get our of your comfort zone and be comfortable/confident doing so.

I've committed to doing real estate at night and on the weekends. While I am still spending time taking the courses to earn my license, I am also still searching for deals for my mentor along with underwriting different deals as well. Honestly I enjoy taking the time after work to work on something that I truly have a passion for. I've done a decent amount of research and I would agree that commercial does seem a bit more difficult than residential. I know it's much easier said that done, but I also feel like if an agent can form a relationship with a few SFH investors in their area they could potentially have a great system set up. I'm glad you brought up Real Estate Rock stars because I have actually taken the time to listen to the podcast and take some notes and start formulating a plan for when I get started. I like how direct the podcast is especially with the amount of information that is given per episode. The structure of commissions has been something that I have seen start to change from what I have found. Like you said, at some point the margins will have to come down, its only a matter of when. A 6% commission on both sides of a million dollar home would be absolutely incredible. Being in the Midwest, those homes are available however as you know it isn't like the west coast where every house seemingly sells for close to or over $1 Million.

@Charlotte Dunford  That’s an incredible story especially to see where you are today. I can agree that a commute like that can really put a dent in the amount of time in your day. What made you want to quit your job in the first place to pursue real estate?

I haven’t taken the time to actually look into mobile home parks but have heard plenty of great things about them. How’d you end up coming across them if you don’t mind me asking that also? 

@Jeff Greenberg That makes sense. I’ve actually listened to a few episodes. Perhaps I’ll have to listen to a few more episodes