All Forum Posts by: Chris V.

I don't know how much the price difference is, and also don't know what you plan to use it for. I use mine now to keep track of my units that are managed 3rd party so a lot of my entries just duplicate theirs, and I don't use the online payments etc. anymore. 

However one of those 3rd party companies that I work with has Appfolio and I was surprised it seems to be inferior to Buildium in a few areas. I was blown away that Appfolio can not setup real-time access for owners, there just is a ridiculous "owner portal" where they periodically post reports.

Anyway, I guess the answer is "it depends". On the price difference and on how many features you need. But from my experience, I would recommend Buildium. It is smooth flexible and easy to use and has lots of features.

Hope that helps.

You are welcome. And you are absolutely right: Step one, learn all you can about what you want to invest in. And step (which you can start while you are working on #1) is to find people that are not only trustworthy but also align with you what you want to do yourself. Don't wait until you have a deal to get to know people. The sooner you start building a relationship with a broad group of people the longer you'll know them by the time you will actually be selecting a partner that aligns with what you want to do. In my experience flaky/squirrel-y people or people that are not well grounded in reality are pretty bad at hiding their true colors over a longer period of time.

You are talking about a lot of money going in and, if you do it right, even more money coming out and a long time before you reap the benefits. So it is definitely worth spending some time/energy on the above. Buying a duplex would be way quicker on the front end but IMO it would be a way longer road after.

Best of luck!

Chris

 Good point. Also, to add on to this with regards to the work situation: 

Most people feel they have to work a J-O-B they hate forever. Seeing someone at work at the same level, or even worse, at a lower level who is (trying to) get out of that situation makes them feel bad. Bad because you basically underline their failure. The fact that they *could* do it too but for whatever reason (most likely fear) are not doing it and instead keep doing the same thing and complaining about how they can't get ahead... 

This will in the BEST case trigger all sorts of "ha ha ha slum-lord" "jokes", aimed to pull you down. In the worst case it will get you sidelined or pushed out. 

Because for some reason culturally it is totally acceptable (in a salaried job) to spend hours on the phone to take calls about your kids, their school etc, but calling back a broker or a plumber is  not done...

I'd recommend to keep it on the down low:). That is until you can leave the J-O-B life behind you for good, at your terms:)!

 Hi Kevin - Consider partnering on a larger deal with other equity and experience partners. That way you accelerate both your learning & earning.

For example: I just partnered with two friends on a 38 Unit close to Sacramento that we are closing on on the 15th of this month.  They work fulltime and between the two bring in the majority of the $1.1M we needed to pay down.

While I also bring in a significant part of that equity I benefit from my partners equity contributions. And they in turn benefit from my experience and the fact that I am available full time to get this deal over the finish line and take on most of the asset management afterwards. 

Since it is a partnership (TIC) and not a syndication their experience goes from 0 to 38 units + they are on a Fannie small balance no recourse loan, so they get that on their resume too. Plus, they can be as involved as their full-time job allows them to be, or not, since I am available to do the work the property management company does not do anyway.

Anyway, If I were in your shoes (as I once was) I would look for something like that. If you want to make it big in real estate you need know accept that at the higher level it's a team sport.

If all the above does not mean much to you, I'd recommend studying Multi Family/commercial investing a bit -  As I wish I would have done *before* wasting years doing duplexes and triplexes that while they worked out great for me do not scale and are a slow game:).

Hope this helps!

Best,
Chris

PLEASE READ. Thursdays speaker Amy Wan will not be able to present *in person* next Thursday due to a family issue.

She will however be able to give the presentation as a live webinar. So you have 2 options:

Option 1: Attend the webinar from the comfort of your home:

Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0a0oqEuNSfi5X7OW5f8yDA

Option 2: Come watch the presentation live at our HQ (1540 Market St San Francisco)

Your Choice!

HINT:

One of these options includes free vegan pizza, beer, and networking....

I did not read through the entire thread but could not find a meetup op meetup. com?

I know we spoke at the @J. Martin event, did you get a chance to check out our monthly SF meetup since?

 https://www.meetup.com/SF-real-estate-investors-gr...

We asked Neal to come and do this presentations because I have seen Neal Bawa and Jean-Marc Landau do this great presentation before with their Student Housing business partners. Besides all the great information on the "business" of purpose-built student housing, my main take-away was that *student housing is not like I remember it!* These places are basically all bills paid (by parents mostly:), luxury resorts! The real world must be a real shock after graduation #millenialinternational :).

Yeah that is definitely true @Kyle J.... I did a whole post on it a few months ago when I had to research rents because of a vacancy. It's pretty crazy:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/627/topics/436436-stockton-rental-market---how-much-do-apartments-rent-for-today

You'd have to wonder how much further it can go up though because most people renting in Stockton do not have a lot of income left over as is... I am seeing a lot of applicants wanting to rent, but not as much qualified applicants as I'd like...

 Hi Metra - Glad to hear you got something useful from the post! That reminds me, I spend Sunday afternoon creating my budgets for the rest of 2017 and 2018 and  should probably use those budgets as the basis for another post where I dive a little deeper in the numbers. 

The good thing about having a number of units for a while is that after a while statistics kick in and you get a pretty good picture of how much everything costs. 

The main take away I had from that afternoon playing with numbers was that while my cash-on-cash return is great on stabilized properties, my Return on Equity in those property is really horrible. If I could get my equity out without paying taxes or realtors I could private lend it and get the same returns (I get 12% annualized for a first mortgage) and but not have any work/worries! 

It took me a long time to realize how important a metric ROE is. All the other metrics are nice to make you feel good about your investment savvy, but ROE basically tells you how efficient you are with the assets you really have at your disposal TODAY:).