All Forum Posts by: Cesar Lara

Any good recommendations for a Portfolio Lender in the Memphis TN area? Looking to purchase a rental portfolio of 4 SFR properties.

Any comments will be appreciated.

Thank you.

@Elizabeth Wilson That would be great Elizabeth! We need to meet up again soon!!

@Jonathan McGee Thank you for the helpful insight. As Brandon Turner says, sometimes it's good to tell the whole world what you are looking for and when the opportunity shows up that person will know exactly who to go to!

Hello fellow members, 

The time has come for me to start searching for my first property. I'm looking to move in the next 6 months so I believe this is the right time to start. I have been watching the market and discovered that it's harder than I thought to find a multifamily property with good cash-flow here in Memphis. This has led me to taking the direct mail marketing approach.

I have purchased a list from Listsource with the following criteria: Equity 50-100%, Multifamily, Duplexes, Triplexes, and Quads. There were only a few absentee owners that met this criteria so I included owner occupied as well. On top of this I have a list of addresses that I've gotten from D4D's.

My questions would be:

How would you go on targeting this list and what type of mail piece would be best?

Most direct mail campaigns are for "cash purchases" how could I explain that I'm looking to buy as a first time investment?

Has anyone took this approach to find their first house hack?

@Sean Tagge thanks for the inviting welcome! I have a couple of deals I'm working on right now. I'll make sure to run them through you. Hope to see you soon!

@Jonathan McGee I appreciate the great advice Jonathan. I understand that many investors around the U.S seek properties here in Memphis due to the great Price-to-Rent ratio. 

At the moment I'm following the process of sending direct mail to a list of homes that have high equity. The plan is to blast these addresses with yellow letters consistently for about 6 months and start getting deals from there. I've heard various opinions on what lists work better in the Memphis area and I mostly here that absentee owners lists are the way to go. I wanted to try a different approach as I'm sure absentee owners are getting flooded with postcards and yellow letters from different investors.

What are your thoughts on these lists working in the Memphis market? Do you think it's simply better to drive for dollars? 

Hi @Curt Davis thanks for the warm welcome!

Thanks a lot for reaching out @Stephen Akindona. I can already tell that this community is going to be very helpful. I really appreciate you offering your help I will look forward to getting in touch with you as I see you are also in the Memphis area.

@Elizabeth Wilson - Thank you! I'm looking forward to meeting you as well Elizabeth!

Hi everyone, my name is Cesar Lara and I currently reside in Memphis Tennessee. I was born in North Carolina and moved to Memphis in 2005. Growing up in Memphis I worked with my father in the construction business building new homes for these large home building companies. I soon realized that construction was a difficult job, as being out there for so many hours under the sun was not easy. This pushed me to work hard and get good grades in school and just recently a year ago graduated from the University of Memphis with a business degree. I have also just reached my first year anniversary working in a corporate job. 

Even after gaining my degree in business I still haven't forgot about my years working in construction and now I want to get back in and start building wealth with real estate by implementing the knowledge that I gained from construction as well as using the business skills that I have acquired from my job. 

I started doing some research on real estate and heard many times that the easiest way to get in is by wholesaling since you can get deals and start going from there. I decided to take a wholesaling course offered by a wholesaler here in Memphis. The course cost me a total of $750. I learned many things about real estate that I didn't know about, even simple things such as pulling public records of homes and seeing how much a person paid for a property as well as seeing the current year's value assessment of a home. Up until now I have been sending out direct mail and talking to leads on a daily basis. I still haven't got my first deal but I'm not going to stop until I do so. 

Another great thing that I'm excited about is joining the Memphis local REIA. I have been to one networking event and it's amazing how many people are doing real estate as their full time jobs.

I'm really excited about starting my real estate journey and to continue expanding my knowledge. I hope to meet new colleagues and make long lasting relationships as I know this is key in being successful in real estate.