All Forum Posts by: Andrew Fielder

@Matt Motil yes very much agreed. I do have 2 years of agency experience albeit a mix of US and overseas experience. A lot of paperwork and signatures that I'm hoping to avoid by just using my degree to qualify.

Thanks for the reply.

Looking to apply for my California Broker's license. I do already have my salesperson license and all of my required courses have been completed. Under the current rules, having a major or minor in Real Estate from an accredited 4-year university is an acceptable equivalent. My undergraduate university didn't offer a real estate major/minor but I went on to get a Masters of Real Estate from another university. I did call CalBRE and ask them, they said it should be fine but were not positive.

Any thoughts? Seems pretty silly if they wouldn't allow it.

@Todd Fithian my girlfriend found her job through a recruiter actually. She did apply to a few advertised on her own as well but ended up going with the company that the recruiter introduced her to. You can find some recruiters through Linked In and on job sites such as indeed etc. Also I know there's a real estate recruiter in OC retsusa.com

More than anything she should just start applying for jobs. In my experience you may have to apply to 50 jobs, from that you might get 5 interviews and then one job offer.

@Mark Huang Hey Mark, welcome. Which real estate services firm are you working for? I'm working for CBRE, I specialize in buy side services for offshore investors.

Btw a lot of activity in the Hotel market with the institutionals. Would be a few opportunities for some consulting work with developers looking to break into the market.

@Todd Fithian Tell her to check her careers page at Redlands. I found my first job out of college at CSUF that way. I also found an internship with a developer on craigslist.

There's a few paths she can go down. When you're straight out of college most of the time you're not going to be in a position to pick and choose. I will tell you that getting your real estate licenses is the obvious first step to work in the industry. Friends and family is typically the best way to get in the door in these situations. 

My girlfriend @Danielle Kaiden did Psychology at Chapman and she wasn't sure exactly what she wanted to do as a career. I showed her a few things about real estate and she decided she wanted to try it out as well. She got her real estate license and started working for an agency as a property manager. She absolutely loves it and is giving me a run for my money. Hope to end up opening our own property management company when I complete the brokers exam. I think property management is a great fit for women (without trying to sound sexist) as it appeals to their natural way of doing things. And this is true of the industry, you'll find that sales is typically dominated by males and property management by females. 

It depends on the personality but best thing she can do is just get involved in something related to real estate and if she likes it she can continue doing it and if she doesn't then she can try something else out. That's the beauty of the industry, there's so many sub-segments to it. As long as you're learning something from the position you really can't go wrong. Hope that helps. Good luck to you.

@Sarah Larbi yes I've found that treating your tenants with respect goes a long way. I'm sad to have some of my best tenants go after 3 great years. They would often make improvements to the apartment on their own dime (with my permission of course).

Always invest in your education (as long as it adds value). Real Estate is definitely one of those areas that you can be successful without a degree. However I would say there's definitely higher chances of you meeting your financial goals with a degree than without. That's basically due to most well paying companies requiring at least a bachelors degree to be hired. Most people start working for someone else, then once they get experience in their field then they branch out into their own operations. Some people are lucky enough to have family money but that's not the majority.

In my situation I felt that a degree could offer me the pathway to succeed in real estate by providing me the education and the better opportunities in Real Estate. I completed both a bachelor of business administration and a masters of real estate and I can tell you that it has opened many doors/opportunities for me. I also placed importance on working in the industry while I was going to school to get the real world experience as well. The network gained from those universities has also been an extremely valuable resource.

My one caveat with getting a degree is that you need to be doing a degree that adds value to your real estate goals. Eg. a degree in biology is not going to add value in real estate. If the university you want to go to doesn't offer real estate then do business. I highly recommend this for an undergraduate course as it gives you a good understanding in many different areas of business eg. accounting, marketing, management, finance etc. Then you can choose your electives to be real estate courses.

Right now I'm working at CBRE, which again wouldn't be possible to work there as now even most sales positions require a 4 year related degree. You can learn a lot of good things from a company like the major commercial agencies CBRE/JLL/M&M/C&W/Colliers etc. and is extremely valuable to building a solid network.

Obviously getting a university education costs money so that's a big consideration. For me I'm fine with having some debt because I know that the increased pay from my education will more than pay for itself. Currently I have about $25k on an interest free loan. Plus there's so many scholarships out there that can help you financially.

Personally I leveraged everything I could out of my universities. I made sure to make a lot of friends because that means a bigger network and plus school isn't all about studying. I took as many real estate classes at university that I could, which helped me qualify for my brokers license and the university sponsored students to get an ARGUS certification which is a major requirement for most commercial real estate companies. I was offered internships with developers due to my connection with the university. I participated in the real estate association... etc. you get the point, I made the most of my time there, I didn't just show up to class and go home. People like Curt (no offense Curt), probably didn't go to university, or if he did, went to a really crappy one, or didn't network properly, or didn't participate like he should of, etc. The good universities usually have excellent faculty that know theory isn't going to help their students succeed in the real world. Especially at the masters level you'll find that every course has a good mix of theory and practical assignments that are useful in the workplace. Plus most of the faculty are active industry professionals so they are the ones that have connections to other investors/companies. One of my professors even hired me on to his real estate development company. So just keep that in mind, there's more to university than just going to class and learning theory and it's a good idea to supplement your studies with real estate internships.

Ultimately if you're committed to making it in the real estate industry, a good education in a related field from a good university will go along way to helping you succeed long term. Can you be successful without a degree? Yes. Are you more likely to succeed with a degree? Yes.

Good luck. Let me know if you have any questions.

@Ryan R. Ryan I purchased a condo in OC in 2013 when the market was starting to recover pretty well. I bought the condo before I had discovered BP and all the good info it provides. Unfortunately I made a big noobie mistake thinking that speculating appreciation into my deal was a good idea. While it has risen significantly in value in just the last 3 years, I would definitely not do the same thing again knowing what I know now. Especially this early on in your investing career, cash is king. You'll find mostly the older and more experienced investors can play the appreciation game because they have multiple cash flow sources. 

I will say this. The entire experience of buying the property, doing the property management etc. was a great learning experience and it has definitely paid for itself. My condo has been slightly cash flow negative each month and has become a burden. Also right now you're not seeing the appreciation we saw from 2012-2014 so that's an indication that the market is reaching a peak. This is all enough to convince me it's a good time to get out of my noobie first "deal" (aka not-a-deal). Luckily I do have my brokers license so I will sell it myself this summer. I stand to make around $30k net profit when it's all said and done but would be about half that if I had a to pay a realtor.

After educating myself more through BP and through reading real estate books I believe that in hot markets like SD/OC/LA/SF you need to be very creative. 

I'll probably look to put my equity and profits into a commercial deal going forward which could mean a partnership with another investor. On BP there is a lot of focus on SFR and multi-family but don't be afraid to look outside that. Investing isn't an emotional decision, if cash flow isn't positive, appreciation not what it was, market possibly reaching a peak... all good signs to that you could be in some real trouble down the road. Ultimately up to you, there's an unlimited amount of deals but only a limited amount of capital, invest your money wisely.

Good luck!

San Diego is a beautiful city. The market is very similar to OC and LA. If you're looking at residential Investments you're going to have to be very creative to get cash flowing properties. That's just the nature of high demand markets any where you go. Most residential investors in markets like ours can make money long term through capital appreciation. You'll find a lot of people including Josh and Brandon aren't big fans of appreciation as a strategy. Everyone is dealt different cards, that's just the reality of our market. If you read books like Millionaire Real Estate Investor you'll see how they emphasise cash flow in your early years and capital appreciation in your latter years. Plenty of pathways to take. Good luck out there.

In developed urban centers, light industrial is often the first thing to be rezoned for residential uses. You will see a lot of developers looking to convert industrial into residential during peak housing cycles such as the present one we are in. Most of the buildings tend to be warehouses, which means more empty space, so they're easy to knock down and it doesn't cost much to do that. Most developers will look at the remediation work that is needed, which happens when the soil has been contaminated. Sometimes it can be sealed and capped on site but other times it has to be transported and disposed of off site and that's when it get's expensive. It's important to get an environmental report done during the due diligence phase.

Also yields tend to be higher to reflect the greater risk but varies depending on location, uses and tenants/leases.