All Forum Posts by: Brandon Penn

Becoming successful in this business is hard work. If it wasn't, then everyone would be doing it. You just need to keep moving forward, grit instead of quit. Some good steps would be to find your local apartment association, or if there are any investor meet ups. If you can't find anything like that call some people who have rental listings up. You will get a lot of people that won't want to talk to you, but if you keep calling you will find a true investor that would be happy to meet for a coffee. Once you find these people figure out how you can add value to them. Offer to do their grunt work in exchange for following them around and seeing what they do, even if it is unpaid. My first year as a real estate agent I worked 60hr weeks and after my expenses made about 10k for the entire year. That seems like a waste of time but it open doors for me and I gained a great education which got me to the 119 units that I own today. You better believe there were a ton of times I thought I was wasting my time, and would never make it. I'm still not where I want to be but I'm finally seeing results of my efforts 5 years later. If you absolutely can't find anyone to help, then I would suggest rethinking your living style. Try to buy a multi-unit property on a residential mortgage. You will only need to come up with 3.5% down as long as you live in the property for longer than 1yr. Feel free to message if you have any questions or want more advice.

So I allow animals in all of my rentals, even newly renovated ones. The only places I wouldn't do pets would be apartment buildings just because it is too many people ontop of each other. If I had to choose between cats or dogs I would actually choose dogs. Cat urine is the 2nd hardest smell to get rid of right behind skunk smell. Big dogs can do damage to flooring, but if well trained there usually isn't a problem. The added benefit is charging a monthly fee for the tenant being able to have an animal. Most pet owners will pay up to an extra 50 per month. Personally I charge 250 at least signing and then 25 per month per animal. If you do this I'm sure down the road you will have an issue with an animal causing damage but just the same as you will have a tenant damage property. I would just make sure that the tenant gets renters insurance that covers the animal, as well as require you be named as an additional insured. If the animal causes damage, then file a claim.

So I feel your pain. I did well in school but always HATED EVERY MINUTE of it. So take it from someone who also thought it was a waste of time. DO NOT DROP OUT! You will put yourself at a great disadvantage if you do so. You will limit your job prospects as well as back up plans if you find out that you do not like/aren't cut out to be a landlord. Many people fall in love with the idea of owning real estate but actually managing rentals is very different than how the shows and many investors make it out to be. Not to mention it will be way easier to buy rental properties if you have a W2 job. Also most people won't do a contract with anyone under the age of 18 as they are not executable. The best thing you could do is finish school, get yourself a w2 job, work on your credit, and buy a 4 unit on a residential mortgage and live in one of the unit. You only need 3.5% down for an FHA loan, and can take it out to 30 years making the property cashflow like crazy. Then after you live in it for a year, purchase a new one and do the same thing. This will also let you get experience as a landlord and you will find out pretty quickly without a ton of risk if this is really the avenue for you. Feel free to shoot me a message if you ever have any questions.

 I would say it is valid advice no matter where you are at in your business. If you don't take the time to rejuvinate then you are just hurting yourself in the long run. If I had started taking care of myself better when I first started, I think I would be further than I am now. Looking back I can see that I was working more hours but less productive. Granted you may not be able to take nice vacations or things like that, but even just taking a day to hang out with your family, or veg out on the couch can recharge the batteries allowing you to come back to work way stronger. 

I am actively rebuilding neighborhoods in my area, and it could definitely be considered gentrification. I don't feel bad about it, as my city really needs to be rebuilt. These neighborhoods used to be great middle class areas with diverse ethnic groups throughout the city. We had a ton of immigrants settle in Erie, PA and set up areas considered "Little Italy", or "Little Poland". 

As good paying jobs started to thin out we saw these neighborhoods turn into low-income areas. Crime had started to rise, and this great quiet city started to crumble. Many investors in the area (real estate and other businesses) have seen this and in the last few years have tried to turn it around. 

As a real estate investor I try to buy up as much of a specific block as I can. I do major renovations and raise the rent significantly. This does price out a lot of lower income folks. I do however still work with the city section 8 to help offset this. 

I don't feel bad one bit about rebuilding these neighborhoods. There are ways for lower income families to get help to be able to afford my properties, and most of the ones who can't, wouldn't pass my rental screening even if they did have the income. 

Hey Gang! So I got a lot of traffic on my post a few months ago about hitting my goal of 100 rental units. A ton of people had commented and private messaged me about aquiring property, and how hard it is for them to get cash flowing properties where they live.

I would like to tell you all about my hometown of Erie, PA. We are currently undergoing a renaissance that is bringing the City back to life. For many years we have been stuck in our old ways of manufacturing and a slowly declining economy. In the past few years (mainly because of the uncertainty of GE Transportation) we have been forced to move from manufacturing into other areas such as hospitality and entrepreneurship. We are starting to see a turn in our economy as well as our thinking.

We have 3 big colleges in our town, and many of these young people are starting to stay in the area now that there are more oppourtinites coming available to what they were going to school for. This makes it a good area for college rentals as well. 

While it may not be the best place for appreciation, Erie is an amazing city to purchase for cashflow. For example most of my portfolio has a cap rate of 17% or higher! If you are looking for a place outside of your hometown to invest Erie, PA might be the place for you.

 Yes! I love Darren Hardy. He puts out some great videos as well as his books.

As obvious as it may seem, REMEMBER TO SLEEP! As real estate investors we tend to go 100%, 100% of the time. You have to remember to take some time for rest. 

One thing that I have tried the last 6 months is writing everything I need to do for the next day out after I get finished with dinner. Then my phone goes off at 8pm. There is nothing that happens after 8pm that can't wait until 6am the next morning. this allows me to spend some uniterupted time with my family, and relieves a lot of stress in of itself. Anything that needs to be imediately attended to at 3am is probably going to require 911, and again there is nothing I can do about a fire at 3am. 

Then once it is time for sleep I fully purge my mind of thoughts (extremely hard I know). This took about a month to perfect but anytime that I started to think about what happened during the day, or what I was going to have to do the next day I snapped back to clearing out my mind. I have found that doing this allows me to sleep much better throughout the night and therefore make me much more productive during the day.

I heard it said that we are the generation of hustlers. We wear the fact that we go full throttle in business and are always working as a badge of honor. The truly succesful people I have met in my life are more concerned with balance than they are with hustling non-stop. Of course there are going to be times we have to work 80hrs per week, but after we get past that deal we are trying to close, or flip we are trying to sell, we need to remember to put just as much focus into our rest and relaxation. Hang out with friends, go on vactation, spend time with family. Even if you have all the money in the world it won't mean anything if you are physically, and mentally ill and unable to enjoy that money.

If you only take away 1 piece of advice from this post it is that nothing needs your attention at 3am. Turn your phone on silent, and handle whatever it is that happened first thing in the morning. If you have a call service for maintenance then that is great, but if not you need to remember to sleep!

I have all my tenants directly deposit into my bank account. I pick a bank that has several locations to make it easy for the tenant to get to one of the branches. They put it in the account, and get a receipt right then and there. Cuts out any excuses too. No "its in the mail" or "I gave it to you, you must have misplaced it." Make sure you go with a bank that has a good online system that shows you pictures of the deposit slip and make the tenants put their name and address on the slip.

You always want to talk to a lawyer who is familiar with your local laws. Aside from that people can and will try to sue you for all kinds of stupid reasons. As long as you operate withing your laws you will be fine. I have been threatened to be sued over 50 times and only actually sued twice. I won both times. It can be nerve wrecking but just run your business within all your state laws and make sure you document everything. If they do file a suit, then talk with a lawyer and countersue