All Forum Posts by: Andrew Freed

@Eduardo Justo - Welcome to the BP community. Sounds like you are off to a reat start. I recommend attending as many local real estate meetups as you possibly can. Make it a goal to attend at least 2 a week. I've developed my best and most long lasting relationships at meetups. I've met partners, lenders, contractors, essentially my team and its been incredibly valuable.

I also recommend finding someone in your market doing what you want to be doing at a larger scale and figuring out a way that you can provide them value. Be in walking properties for them, helping them with self management, joining their brokerage and providing them value in the form of commissions. Find out their pain points, provide immense value to them and expect nothing in return. At a certain point, the concept of reciprocity will kick in and they will feel a need to help you. These are a few initial steps I would take if I were in your shoes. Good luck on expanding your portfolio. 

@Dan Johnson - Totally, this is normally how my team and I show apartments for rent. Have all the applicants or potential applicants check out the property between a hour or two timeframe. It is way more effective, especially if the apartment is a decent distance away.

It also creates a scarcity mindset for the tenants when they see all the other interested parties and creates competition. Similar to properties who have multiple offers tend to be over list price vs. properties who only have 1 offer tend to not be. Great strategy that should be highly considered in my humble opinion. 

@Noah Ogle - You should try to find the big players doing what you want to do in your area and work to provide them value without expecting anything in return. So if you're looking to get into multifamily, I would try to identify the people in your area who owns hundreds of units and provide them value in the form of property management, joining their brokerage and bringing them commissions, walking properties for them, starting a meetup to increase their brand. Anything you can do to provide them value will help tremendously. But to expect someone who is doing big things to figure out how you can fit in their puzzle is a big ask. They are moving a million miles an hour and its hard for them to determine your strengths and weaknesses and how that fits into their needs. This is something you need to figure out and take initiative on. That is how I got started, by doing exactly this with someone who owns hundreds of units and now I'm at the same stage 3 years later. 

@Amirra Elgamiel - Yes, it is very common. Normally it ranges from half a month to a month rent. You can try to negotiate it down, however it takes time to show an apartment and get it rented hence very reasonable. Your other alternative is hiring a listing agent to rent the apartment and they normally charge 1 months rent as well. For all the PM companies I use and when I self manage, I pay a leasing fee. 

@Ryston Watts - From a cash flow perspective, it does not seem too profitable. Based on what you are saying, the revenue on the property would be around $4,400 a month with a purchase price of $600K. It is well below the 1% rule and will most likely break even at best. The good news is, since its new construction, you won't have heavy capex or maintanence expenses, nonetheless, the cash flow on the property would be non-existant. Regarding appreciation, it is always icing on the cake but you should never bet on it. You should bet on all the other levers of real estate including the tax benefits, cash flow, mortgage paydown. If it does not make sense from a cash flow perspective I say pass. The key to financial independence is acquiring properties that give you money each month, not add to your overhead. It will be that much more challenging to escape the rat race with assets that add to your expenses each month. 

@Dan Bowe - I agree, I am a broker and never make any of my clients sign such agreement. The thing about working with investor focused agents is each have their own niche, area of expertise etc. If I'm searching in one market, I might use one broker who specializes in that market and if I search in another market, I might use a different broker. To sign such an agreement requiring you to utilize this person in all scenarios goes against your ability to find the best deal for you. If he is a solid agent, he would not require you to sign such an agreement. He would be confident in his ability to bring you deals you are interested in and if you like them then you can move forward with working with him. 

@Oasis Duenas - Yes, you can always inquire with an experienced real estate agent to run a comparable analysis of the ARV under the assumption that they may list it once you are completed with the flip.

You can also do it yourself. Normally, for comparables, you want to look up recently sold properties within a half mile to a mile (the closer the better), in similar condition, square footage, amendities as the end product, and the same or similar bedroom/bathroom count. You can google how appraisers determine value and use a similar approach. That is more or less what agents do when determining the sales price of a listing. I hope this helps! 

@Alexandra Hughes Pailet - Fantastic, feel free to ping me in this thread when it is ready and I'll book my trip. I loved lasts years event, it was such a good time. So many good connections. 

@Djawene Magniba - I'm a local investor in Worcester, own 30 units around the area and host the largest real estate meetup in Worcester. I'm also an investor focused agent. Always happy to connect with local investors in the area. 

@Dan Bowe - The truth it, you need real life experience prior to taking other people's money. It's a big responsibility and currently with your level of expertise, I would be hesitant to you give money on the LP side. Why can't you start with some smaller residential or small multifamily commercial properties to get your feet wet, show proof of concept and possibly try to take on larger deals.

Or possibly find a local syndication group and become an employee under them learning the trade and finding a mentor in the space. I personally think it is a HUGE responsibility to take other people's money and you really need to estabalish credibility and real life experience before moving into larger deals in my humble opinion. Househack some properties, JV on some commercial and build up that knowledge before exploring OPM.