All Forum Posts by: Evan Fine

Hi - I wanted to start a discussion on the tools you use today to narrow down your search, what you spend most of your time on, and what tools you wish existed to help you. Please don't forget to mention your goal for which you are using the tools.

E.x: Looking for an investment property anywhere in the nation and trying to narrow down scope by tracking population migrations and housing starts/absorptions. 

Tool Used: Googling population and housing metrics for specific areas. 

Tool Desired: A single source that is quick and easy to navigate that tells me the population trends with housing metrics. i.e. North America heat map based on population migrations, with pop-ups that show housing starts/absorption ratios

@Mike D'Arrigo, interesting input. I'm interested in reading the paper that you wrote. Would you mind sending me a copy please?

Thanks,

@Eric Fernwood, great thread! would you mind sending me the calculator and interview questions, please?

Thanks!

In short, I'm tossing up 2 job options up for debate on which one you think would be a better choice.

1)

Full-Time: Real Estate Technology, competitive salary (let's say $100k up to $175k in +6 years), 9-5 hour days, located in NYC. Part-Time REI after 5pm

2)

Full-Time: Real Estate Asset Management for Large Bank. Learn the actual REI business from the institutional side and have cutting edge research available. 8am - 8pm job. slightly lower starting salary (let's say $85k up to $200k in +6 years, and $300k in +12 years). Located in NYC. Con: Not much time for outside REI hobbies, but you learn the business and have enough savings.

I think it boils down to decent savings and decent amount of free-time vs high industry/market competency, high savings, but very low spare time

Thanks!

If given the chance at the start, or even now, would you pick a mentor who is a specialized expert in Commercial Real Estate Acquisitions or Real Estate Capital Markets and Financing Deals (Investment Banker/MBA)?

Real Estate professionals are entrepreneurs above all. Plenty of professionals start off in Private Equity (PE), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Hedge Funds (HFs), etc.. and many have the end desire of starting their own firm and doing their own deals.

There are plenty of different divisions in PE/REITs/HFs such as principals, investment, legal, lending, management, development.

Which branch do most leaders that break off emerge from your experience?

Going further, most of the connections at established firms provide High Net Worth (HNW) individuals who may be your potential clients. However, when you start your own firm wouldn't you need to source from smaller regional and local players?

How would you best take advantage of the resources provided at an institutional shop?

Thanks

Hi Everyone,

Quick background about me, I'm 25, just starting out in REI and interested in Buy-and-Rent strategies, something long-term to build wealth as I have a full-time job. Currently I rent in NYC. My dad and my brother stay with me Sunday - Thursday and go east to Long Island Fri - Sun to hang out with my mom at my parents house (mortgaged).

We have definitely outgrown our current house but my parents are not savvy in RE so it's up to me to decide where to go from here. After doing some research the local market it looks pretty saturated with not a lot of movement (buying/selling).

I'm thinking of investing ~20k (currently worth $350-450K, prime location) into the house to bring it up to rentable condition (~$3.0-3.5K/m), and buy another house for my family to live in (and rent out in the future?).

Any suggestions what you would do or what questions you would ask yourself in this situation?

Thanks!

Note: Current house details - Private Village (private security / town hall / 2 parks / 2 beaches / boat ramp) - ~$3K taxes annually - 2 story with basement - 4/1 - detached 2 car garage - 9k sq ft lot - Grade A Schools k - 12 - Safe/quiet neighborhood - Close to big university (not interested in student rentals though)

Note: Village is divided into 3 sections based on house/tax size. Biggest section has multimillion dollar mansions and taxes around ~$20k, while the smaller section tends to be houses $200-400k with annual taxes around ~$6k.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for checking out my post.

I'm currently at a Big 4 Bank in NYC and don't like the idea of having a single source of income. I have decided that Real Estate is my path to personal satisfaction and financial stability. 

What I'm here for is to hear your opinions of how I may leverage my current position for the best available options.

You can see additional details about my background in my profile. Below is a quick summary to save you the trouble.

- Currently a technology PM/BA at a bank, which has a RE Business

My Goals: 1) Transition into the RE Business from IT, 2) Invest in a house myself or for income, 2) Transition between the available teams to learn as much as possible for an exit opportunity of starting my own company

- The Bank has almost all of the imaginable RE teams: Acquisitions, Research, Management, Development, etc...

- Each team also has a focus: Retail, Commercial, Residential, Infrastructure, Marine, Office, etc...

- I have been focusing on networking with the Acquisition and Research teams since I believe those will be the most visible roles to the investment process

- I have read a few Broker/Agent/Investing books and reading RE Financing/Investing right now. Considering the online RE MIT courses and a CFA Level 1 if I am to pursue the Research team

- Finances: Annual Cash Flow to Savings from salary: ~$20k/yr. Debt ~6%

- Considering starting in small SFH

How and Where did you start? What would you recommend in my position? RE in Manhattan is ridiculous and I won't be able to afford that for a while. I would consider the surrounding Boroughs and NJ. 

Am I thinking too small? With the experience I would gain in the above positions maybe I would be more suited to start a Commercial company or join the board of an existing RE company.

Which team would you recommend and why?

Thank you for taking your time and reading my post!

Ev

Note: Please don't use the e-mail in my contact info since I do not check it often. Contact me here instead.