All Forum Posts by: Billy Archer

Longtime property manager of multifamily Coop and Condo buildings here, and a former student at SUNY Oneonta. Over the past year I've gone through a mindset transformation which has given me the hunger to break out of my employee mindset of 13 years. It started with improving my credit score, then getting a loan for an engagement ring for my girlfriend, and now it's progressed to getting out of this work situation that has not gotten any better for me.  I am going to hold onto the W2 job in order to begin the journey, as I know it will be easier to secure a loan this way, plus I need to fund my life.

Rather than continuing to go through analysis paralysis and give myself excuses to start tomorrow instead of today, I've bottled up the frustration to fuel a path to my goals.  

I need to create a team in the City of Oneonta, NY where I can find deals to analyze and acclimate myself with the struggles associated with college rentals in Oneonta specifically.  I'm prepared to create a business model rooted in college rentals for cash flow, and using leverage to scale up quickly thereafter.  I intend to self-manage until I can quit my W2, or until it gets to be too much for me.

I would like to hear from every college rental investor in Oneonta that is willing to help a newbie out with info.  

Also, are there any attorneys, lenders, contractors, agents or real estate agents or wholesalers that you know and trust, or maybe you are one of them?  I'm going to keep telling myself to ask this tomorrow unless I click send and get it out there.

@Todd Dexheimer Unfortunately I live in a unique market which generally insulates me from the type of investors you refer to. I deal with owner occupied Cooperative and Condo buildings that generally don’t allow investors. They are mostly people’s primary residences which as you know is a completely different mindset of owner. Those that do invest in Coops are called a sponsor , and in my experiences they’re usually multi millionaires that literally converted their rental buildings to Coops in the 1980s en masse to find profitability. I’ve spoken with one of them, but he’s just so far from my plan that it was hard to find common ground. The only place we found common ground was to buy a fixer upper in a cheaper market to build equity when I start out. I feel that if I were a property manager of rental buildings I’d have more interactions with the owners you refer to. But I’m primarily dealing with homeowners that have no interest in investing because it’s their home, not their job.

@AJ Shepard I don’t belong to the NARPM or any real estate associations. I do think that if you’re willing to have a coffee when you’re in Connecticut I’d love to sit down with you and learn about your journey. You probably have great advice that can strengthen my business plan since you are well on your journey already and I’m just getting started. I’m sure you have some simple formulas that can bridge the gap between a PM mindset and an owner mindset.

@AJ Shepard Thanks a lot for the advice, especially from someone who understands the pain of our profession!  I've been stuck in the mindset analogy of a driver behind the wheel, but I'm not driving my own car- I'm driving 6 cars that belong to 320 families, and it sucks. I've realized that I need my own car to get ahead, or I'm going to be doing donuts in the lawn with mom's caddy for the next 30 years. 

4-plexes are 100% my step 1.  As many as I can.  When I say small multifamily, that's really what I mean.  

Thanks for validating my vision and giving me something to be excited about. I am 100% invested in this life change, and each day I get closer to it.

@Bryan Hancock Your key recommendations feel right to me, so I'm likely to listen to what you've written.  Thanks for the book recommendations too.  Although I'm currently backed up on good reads moving forward, I probably have enough of a time horizon to get through them and into the commercial books by the time I'm ready. 

Thank you for the responses!  

@Charles Seaman I am most interested in doing it on my own.  That said, I am not opposed to partnering with a mentor and/or someone with experience to show me the ropes from the investor side.  Based on that, what would you suggest?

@Eric Johnson Similarly to what I wrote to Charles, mostly on my own or partnership.  I am not necessarily opposed to using OPM, but I'd rather feel confident in my own business plan/scale before seeking money of others. 

@Ryan Howell I am definitely going to look out for that book.  I'd love to hear from more property managers that took the backward plunge from property manager to investor, rather than the other way around. I'm currently reading Greene's out of state investing book.  My beginning goal for now is to max out my conventional loans on small multi-families to build cashflow and equity-cashflow to eventually replace my income, equity to grow the portfolio. I'm working on a downpayment and I may have a partner in a longtime friend that has flipped successfully. However, I can't help but feel that if I were able to get my way into a midsized apartment building, I'd thrive.  

I am very experienced as an operator of mid sized apartment buildings, but my desire to invest in real estate is a new breakthrough for me. Due to my experiences in building management, multifamily building(s?) ownership is my end goal. For those of you that worked your way upward to owning a residential building, could you please share how you achieved it ? Do you have any advice for a newbie that wants to learn from your mistakes etc ? What was the strategy that grew your portfolio ? Now that you know what you know, how would you do it differently ?

@Blaine Alger Thanks for the advice.  I'm currently acclimating myself and I have been meeting people a step or two ahead of me that can show me the ropes.  I'd be interested in learning about that theory of scaling a business, but you're probably right not to consider jumping from step a to c until I'm comfortable with it (and maybe even see it secondhand first). 

@Jaron Walling BRRRRing is something I truly want to take advantage of, but I fear I would need double the money for a downpayment and reno, at least in the beginning without equity from another house.  Do you have any advice (aside from saving more) to overcome that?  Thanks for your responses!

@Jaron Walling I appreciate your advice especially because you're the first person to offer a different take on it.  Your advice sounds like my intuition. I have heard of many people on bigger pockets use private money or creative financing, and to be honest, if I could I would.  Of course there is risk in using someone else's money, which is why I have always planned to save $10,000-$20,000 for my first investment.  The problem is that you will eventually run out of money if you plan to scale your business. The difference I see between those with a scaled up business and those that have a few units is they are willing and able to channel their risk into reward.  Won't you eventually have to come to peace with the notion of fundraising?

@Steven Foster Wilson I have heard about 2 schools of thought regarding college rentals. Some investors love the rent-a-room model. Others don't like the problems associated with renting to college students in general. I have done some searching in my alma mater's town and I see potential for upside, but I recently drifted from there to out of state multifamily. It's hard to argue the margins you point out if they could apply in my market. Do you still own it? What would you say is now (or was) your biggest stress point over it? Also, do you think the BRRRR you did would be possible as your first deal without having an investor friend that was able to guide you through it?

@Ashlee Jankovich After seeing a Trulia listing with "owner financing available" on it a month or two ago, I started to do research on it. I think that's where I began to flirt with the idea of not necessarily having to come up with 20% down to get myself started.  Do you encounter this often?  What would you say is the best way to shop for deals in this fashion?