All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Ervin

@John Zuercher, That's terrific.  I wish I had the thought to house hack when I was first getting started in my career.  Are you stationed onboard NAS Pensacola?  I work on base.  I'd love to see what type of analysis you're doing on the market.  I've lived in the area my entire life, so I have the benefit of understanding the area pretty well.  I am currently looking at properties in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties.  Right now, I am analyzing a property in Pace that goes to auction this weekend.

@Matt Motil, thanks, 3 little kids make it quite easy to find motivation!  I've benefitted from the community for a while now just through reading and educating myself via forums, podcasts, and blog posts but I am hoping that getting more engaged on BP will help even more.   

All great points.  I am sure there are some in-process intervention points that data collection can benefit, but I agree that the analytic piece is to chart the course for future projects by improving business processes. 

I am coordinating a proof of concept with your former company right now on a new tech-based training delivery system and we have built the assessment piece into the beginning of the planning phase for the project for this very reason.  Even before we considered specific curriculum, we determined what we want to learn (established metrics) and how to capture that data (tools, xAPI, etc.).  Our reasoning for doing this speaks to your very point, proactive (not reactive) improvement. 

I haven't done my first deal in real estate yet, so I feel this gives me a competitive advantage going in with regard to scaling.  Thanks for all of your content you've put out over the years - it is a major source of confidence for me.  I have 4 walkthroughs scheduled this week and have a short term goal to get my first deal under contract by the end of this year. I will definitely be employing many of the lessons I've learned in your books.

Yes the further south you go, the nicer the properties are, generally speaking. 

As far as determining whether or not the market will rise in that area, I am not the one to make that call.  My approach to real estate investing is to raise capital through flips to acquire cashflowing rentals.  At this point, all my focus is on flips.  That being said, I would have a tough time banking on the type of growth we've seen in the East Hill area on any investment property.  I would be focused on ensuring the numbers work in the current market with no expectation of tremendous appreciation - but again, that isn't my area of focus and I will be investing more conservatively, in general. 

Maybe someone else from the area can chime in to provide further opinion. 

@J Scott, Interesting.  I sort of view analytics (very different from simply capturing data) as a foundational element of any business in today's marketplace.  I believe this is what you're getting at.  For me, in the education and training domain, metric establishment and data capture are viewed as critical enablers to improve business results.  In this case, we are referring to learning, knowledge transfer on-the-job performance, etc. as business results.  In the case of real estate investing, it means using this approach, like you said, in all aspects of your business from direct mail (marketing/acquisition) to the closing table (end transaction).  You can even go further on to assess customer satisfaction levels to make determinations about the perceived quality of your product.  I think you do this as well as anyone else I've seen in this business.

My point is, while I agree with "expectation" as a critical business function, I think even it can be improved through your automation process described above.  I see it as analytics, the creation and capture of meaningful metrics PLUS the evaluation of that data used to make targeted business decisions.  To me, you can automate this process just like your direct mail example.  There is no reason you can't prioritize, segment, document, delegate and replicate this process, too.  Does that make sense?   

Sorry, don't mean to thread jack - I just find this conversation really interesting.

@Connor Deneen What type of investing are you looking to do in the area?  Rentals? Flips?

Sanders Beach is essentially Southwest-Downtown Pensacola (Basically everything south of Main St., from The Oar House to Joe Patties  -- If you're from Milton you're probably familiar).  As you might know with DT Pensacola, there are many pockets of good and bad areas.  You can find retail homes for well over the median sale price, but also find homes selling for $40k as close as one street over.  If you haven't done so already, I would suggest driving the area to get a better feel.  You can drive the entire neighborhood in a very short period of time.

No problem, that helps.  Really, we are both after the same thing in the end: Cash Flow.  Thanks for explaining your philosophy/approach.

@Joe Colasuonno, it sounds like you are already off to a great start.  You clearly have established some deal flow and (I assume) generated profit from multiple flips. Just of my own curiosity, what has led to the switch in strategy?  I ask because my strategy is swapped - I intend to use capital generated from flips to invest in buy and holds.

Since @J Scott has already jumped in, I will mention that his book on Flipping Houses is a tremendous resource for anyone beginning their first flip to someone who is looking to implement a systematic approach while scaling.  I highly recommend it.

Additionally, J has laid out 5 critical focus areas of "automating" your operation that has benefitted me tremendously (in a short period of time) at my job.  I intend to carry the same philosophies to real estate investing.

1 - Delegation

2 - Replication

3 - Prioritization

4 - Segmentation

5 - Documentation

Don't mean to sound like a paid J Scott promoter or anything, but these resources have helped me, and since he's already jumped in the forum, I thought I would share.  

Thanks for the warm welcome, @Dave Visaya.

@Account Closed, I will be using cash for my first deal. I don’t intend to use this method going forward, but I am currently looking to get just one property under contract to rehab. As I continue to scale, I plan to leverage OPM. 

Thanks, @Jack Bobeck.  I will be attending my first local event in 2 weeks and am looking forward to learning and networking with some successful investors in my area.  The NW Florida area has really seen a lot of growth. 

Jax is a great market, too.  I have a brother who just graduated from UNF and got a job in the mortgage department with Merrill Lynch there.  I've been over several times to visit him and it really seems like a larger Pensacola. 

Hello BiggerPockets, my name is Ben Ervin and I wanted to stop by to introduce myself. I guess hearing instruction from Brandon and Josh time and again on the podcasts to use the New Member Intro forum finally struck a chord with me. I have been leveraging BP as a major resource for a while now and have gained an exceptional amount of knowledge as a result; for that, I would like to thank the community. That said, I felt it was time to join the discussion as I am getting closer to taking the plunge on my first deal.

I am 25 years old, married and a father of three. My family is my number one motivation in life, and my near-obsessive desire to practice entrepreneurship is a close second. I have ambitious long-term goals for real estate involving lifestyle growth as well as financial, but my primary near-term goal is to close on my first investment property by the end of 2017.

Without getting into too much detail, my strategy involves flipping single family homes in the Pensacola area (Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties) to raise capital and generate profits to reinvest, facilitating the development and growth of a long-term rental portfolio.

I look forward to meeting and interacting with you all here on BP going forward.