All Forum Posts by: Andrew Schutsky

@Sean Zhang if the other options above are a stretch or too time consuming, considering investing your cash as a passive investor in one or more other deals that are ready to roll.  You still have the potential for strong returns without having to stir up a bunch of other capital.   Just an option....

Perhaps ask him where he has the biggest challenges and headaches today? Also ask what is holding him back from scaling to become larger? Based on those answers, perhaps you can find a way to offer/add value. 

CRE is very much a relationship based business. Most of your deals can and will be found through relationships with brokers, property managers, attorneys, lenders, and your professional network. Loopnet can be very useful for finding brokers and/or firms, but not so great for finding "off the shelf" on-market deals.

My short list out of the last 50+ I've read:

Favorite all around book - "Cant hurt me" by David Goggins - EXCELLENT book all around.  Close runner up is "Extreme Ownership" by Jocko Willinck

Favorite Real estate book - "Best ever apartment syndication" book by Joe Fairless

Favorite Business book - The classic as mentioned many times "Rich Dad Poor Dad" 

You're very welcome.  I've got tons of others to recommend if you're still looking for more. :)

If you're generally looking to network and continue to drive education, here are some suggestions that have worked for me:

-Join a mastermind group - this doesn't need to be a local group (mine isn't), but helps massively with accountability and moving progress forward - Michael Blank has one as to many of the coaching programs out there

-Join at least one local meetup group focus on multi-family (MF masters, etc)

-As others suggested, attend one or more of the larger national meetup events like MFIN, Sumrok, Rod K's bookcamp, etc

A few other factors to consider:

-Construction/absorption ratio for present and future years, indicates demand vs. supply (projected)

-Insurance rates for a given area / proximity to flood zones (this is huge in my markets in FL)

-Job diversity - you typically don't want one, two, or three employers which make up the dominant working force.  A rule of thumb is no industry over 20% of the total working force.  This limits risks if a certain employer were to leave town and take many jobs with them

A great property manager on the team will have you navigate the good and bad areas as well!

Perhaps I'm in the minority here but I've lived in PA for nearly 40 years (on and off) and outside of a few pockets which are growing, just not seeing the opportunities here vs. some of the Southern states like NC, SC, GA, and FL.  Not to mention there are some pretty rough areas in Allentown.  When flights are cheap it's easy to go see some deals that are not so local. :)

That said - the Harrisburg/Carlisle area seems to always bust into the top 5-10 in the country for rent growth and population growth.  My office is in that area, but just not enough of a motivator for me to seriously invest there when there are tons of great locations in the southeast. 

I haven't been at this as long as many others have on here, but I haven't seen anything yet from wholesalers that seems promising with regard to mid to large sized MF.  I've been focused on building and expanding broker relationships as a primary source - soon enough the next deal will come along! Doesn't matter if I need to review 200+ properties before an offer is accepted, persistence and consistency are king :) 

Truthfully, I'd want MUCH more information than just the projected returns and cash flow estimates to say yes or no to a dael.  Importantly, I'd ask for:

-Who is the managing team and what is their track record? 

-Property location and submarket specifics? What are typical vacancies for the area? Is the area growing in terms of population and jobs? Why invest in this area?

-What is the business plan for the asset? What specifically will they do to increase the value of the property? Are they relying only on natural market appreciation? What are the projected rents and are they in line with comps? What are the cap rate projections for exiting the property?

-How long is the projected hold period? 

-What does the team see as the risks?

If there isn't significant thought behind these answers that would be a quick no for me.