All Forum Posts by: Charles Kao

@Kandice Manciel

Usual the usual online resources and find local real estate investing groups and forums on Facebook.

@Prithvi Sri

That is dependent on you. I’d read a commercial real estate investing book and if you find you know most of material you are ready if not then you don’t know what you don’t know.

@Wade Slaghuis

Another thing but if you are not paying your mentor, people typically don’t jump to be your mentor if that is your first instinct starting out. Put it this way, look at the value of the time of your mentor. We are always looking for mentors and if you are asking a mentor a question that takes them 5 minutes to answer

but only take you an hour to figure out the answer I’d find it out yourself. There is a good chance 5 minutes of their time is alot more valuable than an hour of yours and they will think you are not respectful of their time.

@Wade Slaghuis

Personally I would do 2-4 to stay residential fixed 30 year financing. 4-8 you get no economies of scale and likely stuck with 5 year balloon 20 year amortization. I would rather have two 4plexes than an 8 unit honestly. Only real benefit then would be getting a commercial relationship started with a bank but they would also prefer you have some rentals before jumping right into multi with no experience.

@Patrick Flanagan

Self Storage has very easy entry and very easy to manage. Problem is thats also the problem. Lots of overbuilding as a result and with that I don’t think its as recession proof as it once was. Biggest annoyance is its a service business that people think is impossible to mess up so you get bad reviews for stupid stuff. I had a tenant paying 45 dollars a unit complaining they should have free use of a dumpster and left 1 star reviews everywhere. Like any investment the price you buy really dictates how good of an investment it is along with market demand.

@John Lutkenhoff

Portfolio lenders are only doing it for

relationship borrowers which means generally you don’t need the low money down to get it because you have a high deposit relationship. Taking on a non conforming loan is a much bigger risk so they take it on to keep your banking relationship not earn it in most cases.

@Andrew Marsh

In this situation no. I generally only take them to court as an F U for bad behavior and garnish and its more on principle versus return on time or dollar to make sure they don’t do it again. If they left it in good condition I chalk it up to they simply could not pay but if they trashed place or tried to milk not paying when they could have then I definitely would. Right around this time of year it’s easiest to garnish.

@David I.

Best way to understand how lenders think is to lend. When you have done it its amazing how your mindset changes. I can’t tell you how many stupid mistakes I made trying for private money when now that I lend alot I see all the risks they take. Find the private money and make sure your deal works with the financing but don’t try to make your deal work by going cheap on financing. Lastly don’t leave a lender hanging to save 1 point unless you don’t value the relationship. As a private money lender if someone shows me a deal and I spend my time underwriting and they go with someone else I never even look at their deals again for wasting my time. Also never ever over guarantee what your turnaround is. Biggest annoyance is when borrowers miss their deadline to pay the lender back.

@Will Parker

All you need to know is if you can get insurance on it.

@Jake Ernst

What is your criteria? If you are buying with financing and all contingencies the truth is you aren’t going to get a sweet deal so shoot for a

base hit. I would try to find deals through agents that specialize in offmarket or wholesalers but keep in mind if you want a discount it comes with removal of contingencies.