All Forum Posts by: Chris Jensen

@Mark Johnson, though I'm not a real estate professional I thought I'd share a few thoughts similar to @Account Closed. The $20k in non-school loan debt and subpar credit are like dead weight. I'd hyper-focus on paying off that debt and building your credit, meanwhile saving as much as you can toward a downpayment on a house-hacking plex. Then use the profits from househacking toward your next deal.  At this point, my thought is keep it simple while you get your affairs in order and pick up as much knowledge as you can, then go out and kick some tail. Best of luck, we're rooting for you!

@Daniel McPleasant, congrats on being ready to take your first step toward your dream. Definitely connect with and gleen knowledge from others on BP and real estate groups who are further down the REI path. What I found most helpful starting out was finding someone who had already purchased properties in the market I was interested in. They gave me so much knowledge about the market, their processes (finding, buying, managing, etc) , the numbers, etc. Every market is different, so that first-hand knowledge was invaluable. Best of luck on achieving your dream. I'm rooting for you!

@Jerrud King, wow you sound so much like my wife and I when we were inching our way through our first deal. I really like the comment by @Rich Kniss, "One overcomes fear with knowledge." For us it was knowing the market (prices, rents, trends, etc), knowing (and trusting) the numbers, knowing your target renter (preferences, values, desires), knowing the processes (finding, buying, managing, etc.), knowing someone who's made it work, all these things gave us a lot of confidence. Then we just executed what we knew. Sure we learned along the way, but starting out with that knowledge was VERY empowering.

It's easy to talk about the psychology of fear, but those feelings are very real. If you're concerned that they may prevent you from doing anything at all, you might think about starting small... a condo or a little single family home, or maybe a duplex. Apply your knowledge and show yourself that you can be successful with that first property, and then do something bigger. Past success, in addition to knowledge, also overcomes fear and breeds confidence.

Best of luck, I'm rooting for you!

@Brady Carpenter, another thing to consider is how you're going to manage the property if/when you acquire it. Sounds like you've tried to educate yourself, but prior experience with a smaller property might be prudent and enable you to develop the systems you'll need for a larger property. I don't want to discourage you, just something to think about. There are certainly examples of people who dove in head first to larger properties and just made it work. Good luck, I'm rooting for you!

@Stefanie Jensen, my wife and I were in the same situation for several years. She has always preferred the safe, secure W-2 path, and she felt real estate was way too risky. No amount of convincing or showing numbers from me worked.

One day during a random conversation with a close friend, my wife learned that her friend had a rental home in our city. She was surprised and started asking about it and expressing her concerns. As her friend shared her experience it eased many of my wife's concerns, and she slowly began to open up and see the possibilities. From there it just blossomed. It took me allowing her space to feel, and some unforced conversations with a trusted friend who was already down the REI path. Now, 3 years down our own REI path, she's 100% committed. That's how it played out for us.

Don't know if there's actionable advice in there, but thought I'd share our experience just in case.  Good luck!

@Thomas S. great comments on the older adult / senior citizen segment. And you showed how to extend that to the property search and marketing / screening process. Perfect example, thanks for sharing.

@Corina Eufinger, fully agree with all your comments and thanks for sharing.  Knowing who you're targeting and then how you go about it are very different concepts for sure.  In our situation, rather than specifically say who we're targeting, we focus on the benefits, selling points, and value-drivers that our target renters care about.  That, combined with our approach to pricing, staging, and presentation, all have resulted in very high-quality tenants that exactly fit our target demographic.  It's been a great technique.

@Kristina Heimstaedt, great perspective as well.  Your comments are actually quite ironic.  I'd just recently realized that our city has a very different profile than even the city right next door.  And even neighborhood to neighborhood can be different.  So a winning profile in one area might not work in a different area.  Reinforces the need to get to know the target renter profile in each area of interest and then focus your property search on that profile.  Great stuff, thanks for sharing.

One approach would be to decide what type of renter you want and let that drive your decisions. If your ideal renter is willing to pay more for certain features or upgrades, then those upgrades would be the focus (as much as feasible). Even if it takes a bit of time, having your ideal tenant at your preferred rent should pay off long term. - Chris.

In business strategy, one of the first and most important activities is to define your perfect (target) customer and gather as much understanding as possible about what that customer values.  With a target customer segment in mind, then you set about developing a product or service that your customer is willing to pay for that consistently meets their needs better than the competition.

When we bought our two SF rentals, I used that same approach.  We first identified our target renter profile.  In our case, it was a young professional family with 1-2 children and maybe a dog who care about high quality schooling and a family-friendly home and neighborhood.  Then everything we did was focused on that renter segment, from deal searching to refurbishing to pricing to marketing.  That approach worked out extremely well for us, and we plan to use it heavily in future investments, especially as we move into MF properties.

So my question to the BP community is this: how have you used that approach, and how has it worked out?  I'd love to hear specific stories and examples.  Thanks!

@Joseph Bramante, to answer the title question of your post, for me it's 1) finding enough funds, 2) finding the right deals, and 3) finding time to do everything that's needed while still holding down a full-time job. Any other thoughts on these 3 dilemmas?  And I'd welcome thoughts from other BP members as well.  Thanks, Chris.

@David Thompson, your blog entry on 25 FAQs was awesome, like a mini-textbook on the ins and outs of participating in a syndication. I plan to print this and keep as a ready reference.  Thanks for sharing!