All Forum Posts by: Christopher Gill

Hey all you new (and perhaps not so new) investors!!

How's 2018 going? For me, it's been pretty darn busy. Just closed our 3rd deal of the year, (got two more in the pipeline) started a commercial project, launching more multifamily stuff, and done some very important restructuring of internal roles.

Get pumped! It's going to be an amazing 2018. However, I have a question for you! We all want to be successful real estate investors right? But what do YOU need to get started? What's holding you back from deal numero uno?

1. How to find money for your first flip?

2. How to manage a rehab?

3. How to analyze a deal?

4. How to Bring on Partners?

5. Education About Finding Deals?

I'm sure the list could go on and on... 

What's holding you back right now from doing your first deal, why haven't you done it yet? 

(no judgement, I'm honestly curious). Because the sooner you do deal one, the sooner you become an actual "real estate investor", and the sooner you can do deal 2 - 1000 and make all the money you've ever wanted.

Sound off in the comments below!

Best,

CG

I would strongly recommend you look at downtown San Antonio, or submarkets around San Antonio/ Austin.

I have found the returns to consistently be far better. Done several dozens flips, and owned a 4-plex that was purchased for $68,000, cashflowed almost $2,400 per month, and sold for a $100,000 profit less than 3 years later.

Hey Everyone!

I've been flipping and doing development almost exclusively in the urban areas of San Antonio. I'm a huge personal fan of urban real estate (I live in King William a historic district in downtown).

I also have found that in quickly gentrifying area the appreciation swings are WAYYY more dramatic. (I rehabbed and sold two houses roughly 2 blocks from each other, the first sold for $219,000 and the second for $310,000 roughly 15 months later!).

However, there's always negative: The condition of these homes is usually way worse, so the construction is way more extensive! (no lipstick flips here).

Also, establishing value can sometime be a huge pain in the *** (appraisers are freaked out by the crack house down the road)

What areas of San Antonio have you had success with? 

The comprehensive rehabs can really be brutal (lots of hidden problems, much longer rehab times, etc.) Would love to start looking for some deals that don't require as much work and time. My problem with newer areas is the deal profit gets SO thin so quickly, and you're competing with people who will pay way more than I'm willing to.

Hey Everyone,

Wanted to put together a quick list of a few things I wish I had known (and worked through more fully) before I started investing in real estate.

Taking action is SO important, but even just a little more planning would have helped my investing business grow more quickly (and profitably)

What is something you wish you had known before you started investing? For me:

1. More Construction Knowledge

I was a licensed real estate agent before I started investing and had essentially ZERO construction background (I helped a family friend build a house one summer in high school but  that was about it). I definitely needed more experience with the overall construction process and help to manage job sites effectively.

2. More Accounting/Tax Knowledge

Another thing I neglected to spend very much time on when I started investing... I was literally making notes on my phone to track expenses on my first flip! Definitely not how things should have been done. Putting together an accounting and bookkeeping plan would have been massively helpful.

3. Understanding City Building Codes

This kind of tags along with construction but I didn't know ANYTHING about the city permits/inspection process. Definitely permits I should have pulled/inspections that should have happened but didn't. Another thing that does is it helps you find out which of your subs are doing things right and who are cutting corners. Don't try and skirt the system, in the end it has ALWAYS cost me more time, money, and frustration than doing it right the first time.

4. Building A More Complete Team

I tried to do literally everything myself on my first few projects. Looking back this was a massive mistake. Finding and empowering people to do their particular jobs well is an absolute must in the real estate game. Hire or partner to bring in the right people; again totally worthwhile and will save you SO much stress and headache.

5. Build Out A Growth Plan (and stick to it)

I get asked all the time by folks what their first real estate investment should be. My response now is always "what do you want real estate to do for you?". If you don't know where you're going any train will get you there. I've definitely waisted time and money by pursuing potentially profitable deals, but they are outside my scope of expertise and ended up only being distractions in the end.

These items may just be applicable to me and the skillset I had going into real estate, but hopefully they'll help out a newbie coming up to avoid a few costly mistakes.

@David: Love the thoughts and ideas! Absolutely another option would be modular construction. You would purchase your home outright and then it would simply travel with you.

My goal with this post wasn't to outline a definitive format for a new housing model; simply something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Innovate or die is a mantra every entrepreneur should think about regularly. There are risks and challenges galore; but also where the greatest benefits can be reaped.

I think something that's been slightly discounted so far is the "demand factor". Even if percentage returns are less, with enough demand and scale the economics will balance out. 

That's why you are willing to go from doubling your money yearly doing single family flips to taking much smaller percentage returns on multi million dollar developments. The end dollar amount is still greater with larger projects.

@J Do you see models of housing other than the traditional rent or own becoming widespread, and economically viable? Will this space continue to grow or stay relatively the same as technology, social media, etc. continue to evolve?

As use of something becomes more important than owning an actual product effect housing and the way we currently view it?

@J Let me try and run through this:

1. Land is owned by the development company. The cost of the land (and buying it at a good price) is extremely important to making this comparatively low density housing model work. i.e. close enough to the city to make it urban, but not so close where the price is so high that only building multi-story dwellings make sense. Think small, high density, single family, urban "infill" neighborhood.

2. The monthly cost would need to be in line with market rents/mortgage costs. I see it happening in a tiered fashion where larger spaces and higher end finish out cost more per month. (that goes back to having the ability to customize different aspects of your home)

3. The profit sharing/loss would be tied to the companies overall performance, and how much your individual community is producing/worth. (some ratio of those two amounts)

4. Monthly costs would be a base that you are locked into similar to a mortgage for the length of your stay while taking into account taxes and other fluctuating expenses. So part of it wouldn't change, but a percentage of the monthly costs would vary as market conditions changed.

5. This is something I'm still refining the details on. There would have to be some smaller amount of benefit that stays with the individual (like a traditional mutual fund), but that would need to be coupled with not overpaying people who aren't still living in your system of properties. 

Perhaps they would have the ability to sell their interest when they left the system (like selling your house)? Could that be a combination of an automatic "buy back" price from the company, or if there was lots of demand be almost a bidding system where other people would purchase the ability to live in a community that was at capacity.

What are your thoughts?

@Andrew in theory I would say you are correct. In my opinion though perception is reality. Helping people accomplish investing goals in as simple a way as possible is the name of the game.

It's just more simple to live in a community you love, have access to cool amenities, and build your investment portfolio than try and figure out which are the best REIT's to invest in.

For context of this third post see previous two posts at the links below:

Part 1

Part 2

If you have a model that is effectively combining some of the basic economic and lifestyle benefits of renting and buying what are some ways you can "up the ante" and make the package even more convincing to consumers?

Some of my initial ideas are:

Vacation Days: Every quarter or 6 months you live at a community you are awarded a vacation day at any of the other communities you may want to visit. 

This would require keeping an extra house or two available to people inside your system (similar to VRBO or Air BnB) for use as a vacation property. You would also be able to purchase extra days if you wanted a longer vacation. These could accrue indefinitely for longer trips or excursions across the country.

Self Sustaining Community: Have a place where as many basic needs as possible were met inside the community. Some urban multi family dwelling developments are doing this; but I think it needs to become more common.

- Provide a small grocery area where staples can be purchase easily. (or partner with Amazon On Demand or other delivery services to make this as streamlined and simple for your residents as possible)

- Entertaining areas. Have spaces that can be rented for formal dining and throwing larger parties. This would be especially beneficial when people are living in a smaller dwelling but still want the ability to entertain comfortably. 

- Community working space. Co-working spaces are exploding as a new non-office model for freelancers. Provide this for your residents; create the new hip coffee/wine shop inside your community.

Foster Togetherness: In a world of hyper online connection it has become more and more difficult to create real in person relationships. How can you help people become reconnected with their neighbors? Can you help these people work and play together? We all dream of living down the road from our friends, but perhaps we should also be creating a new ones; and building those relationships as well.

I'm aware these ideas aren't inherently unique or different to this housing model, but they aren't being effectively implemented across the neighborhood or multi-family space. If we take the time to reimagine housing, can we also figure out the best ways to build a sense of community and togetherness at the same time?

I started investing at 21. I just turned 24 in October and have to date turned $15k of starting capitol into almost $430k of assets and properties.

Educate yourself first (which you are obviously already doing), but don't stop! Watch videos, talk to people, go to meet ups. I feel like everything I've done to date is prep work for all that I'll do in the near future! Don't stop learning. I became a REALTOR on my quest to become more knowledgeable about investing. That was very helpful for me, but certainly not necessary.

Fight fear. The biggest difference between me and you and people that will never succeed is the fear of failure. I've had many MANY micro failures (currently no catastrophic failures), but when and if I do it won't change my outlook on real estate investing or life. Many people will dream and talk about doing real estate... Just. Start. Doing it. Seriously, jump in head first. You will learn so much through the hands on process. Being young is such a blessing; we can't squander it!

All the Best.

CG