All Forum Posts by: AJ Shepard

Andy,

Indeed the market here has been competitive lately, so looking to invest in nearby surrounding areas or out-of-state can be an option. There are still people finding deals in the area, I would suggest picking some of the wholesalers brains around here. Check out the local meet up groups as well, WIN (Westside Investors Network), Investor Lab or the local NWREIA.

@Chris Sawtelle

Sounds like you have learned a lot in the last 2 years.

One piece of advice that I would suggest in your journey. Mock up a deal, not just a pro forma, the entire thing. All the paperwork and pieces to the puzzle that are needed. This will give you ample time to do so and when you do have a good buy come along you can be confident and jump on it. It also gives you material to talk to potential investors. Such as “if I had something like this today, would you be interested”.

If the best and highest use is as a single family home for an owner, you should sell it as such. There is a rule that allows someone purchasing the property to live in can remove the tenants. Might be worth looking into?

@William Collins You should check the book "The Hands-off Investor" by Brian Burke and also listen to podcasts like "The Real Estate Syndication Show" by Whitney Sewell. They can definitely add insight on investing with Syndications. I'd say to get started in Syndication, you should mock up a deal as if you were going to present it to an investor. Having something tangible or developed is the key. The other good option is to invest in someone's syndication to learn the ropes from an investor's perspective. Best of luck on your RE investing journey!

@Justin G.

Having a podcast requires you to have intentional conversations with people that provides not only value to you but value to those listening. Because it’s so purposeful there is a stronger connection with your guests than a general conversation.

Would definitely recommend it. We outsource the editing very quickly and planned to invest a bit of money in the production because it is a lot of time. But once you’ve got the muscle of interviewing down, it’s a lot of fun as well!

The best thing you can do is start underwriting deals, know what is a good deal, what is a bad deal. While you are doing that, start building relationships with other investors. Join groups, learn from mentors and pick on their brains. You can also try to mock up a deal as if you were going to present it to an investor.

A lot of first-time investors would often get stuck with the "analysis paralysis" phase in fear of failure. Of course, you should try to learn all the things that you need by reading books, listening to podcasts, and picking the brains of mentors but I'd say the best learning experience would be to take the plunge and go dive right in. You can try to mock up a deal as if you were going to present it to an investor. You don’t know what you don’t know until you actually do it. Having something tangible or developed is the key. You can also start as an LP investor while learning the ropes. Best of luck on your RE investing journey!

@Cameron Dierking 

You can start with books like "The Hands-off Investor" by Brian Burke and also listen to podcasts like "The Real Estate Syndication Show" by Whitney Sewell. They can definitely add insight on investing with Syndications. The best way to get started in syndication is to mock up a deal as if you were going to present it to an investor. You don’t know what you don’t know, until you actually do it. Having something tangible or developed is the key. You can also start as an LP investor while learning the ropes. Best of luck on your RE investing journey!

@Lee Cool

Set for life

The hands off investor by @Brian Burke

The millionaire real estate investor by Gary keller

Rich dad poor dad

Listen to podcasts

BiggerPockets podcast

The syndication school by Whitney Sewell

Westside investors network

Joe fairless best advice ever

@Dakota Coburn

As you learn more about syndication and are taking the next steps to start applying the concept and turning it into reality, there was one thing that helped us in our journey that I like to talk about.

Model a project, or come up with a sample. This sounds a lot easier than it is. But really invest your time, money and effort into creating a deal that will never get done. Find a property that recently sold and mock it up. Get all the agreements, all the marketing materials, everything you would have to do if you had a deal under contract and we’re going to raise money and talk to investors about and ultimately close on. The reason for this advice, is that when you do get a deal under contract, you want to be focusing on raising money, talking to people about the deal. You’ll need to spend your time on the inspection reports, the lending documents and requests. You don’t want to be focused on how to create the next thing, how to put together an operating agreement, how to do all the things that go into closing a deal.

Yes, it’s going to be an investment, yes, it’s going to cost money and lawyers fees. But once you have all this “mocked” up, you’ll have a clear path to talk to someone else on the vision of what will happen. You’ll have examples and data and ultimately someone else looking at it will be more comfortable investing.