All Forum Posts by: James Dickens

@Michael Ealy Yep going to sign up for sure. Mike and his team are doing big things so tune in and listen. Well worth the time you invest!

So many good points on this thread! 

Being a noob at this and thinking about this very thing daily at times consumes me but not really scam/not scam level but more in a how can it be done better level. I think there are some established investors who may be thinking the same thing (going to visit one this week). This is great for someone like me who wants to work at this but has little starting capital to do it with. Let's change the paradigm. 

It's to easy to just say they are all scams. There are too many people on here that have spent the money and make it back 10 fold. It's more about what level you are at as an investor and if you are taking a calculated risk in choosing someone who has a well-proven track record or are you going to just be just risky and go with someone with good marketing and hope for the best. If you have the money and the motivation to make it work, then great! Follow that path. 

If you are looking into or are new at Real Estate (much like anything) and short on funds then gain all the free knowledge you can, focus on what you want to do or be a part of, be honest with yourself and gauge your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses and then put yourself out there. 

Network and find people who you can provide value to and not be a drain on their resources. If you have something established investors want (Money to invest, Skills they don't currently have, A network of people they don't know) you can provide them value and in turn, they will be willing (in most cases) to give you 2 of their most precious resources, Time and Knowledge. You need to have focus and clear goals before you do this though so get yourself and your attributes in order first. This will be a slower path to success than going with a paid mentor/guru from the start but it could turn out to be stronger in the end. 

At some point when you have built the funds, you may feel the need to pay to jump to the next level. Now however if you have worked hard and built a network of people in Real Estate by the value you have provided then you will have a lot better understanding of who you want to invest your money with which is better than the dart at the dartboard logic that so many people seem to use when it comes to spending money on Real Estate education. 

I myself am trying to take this path and I can tell you it's not easy and taking action is easier said than done especially when you are talking Multi-family and Syndication. I feel like I am making some progress now but it has taken time and focus.

Just another 2 cents from another wannabe investor 

@Keith Meyer you may want to check out Udemy and look for corses from a guy by the name of Justin Kivel. Look for discounts as I picked up two of his courses for like $12 per and it was well worth the price. 

I had pulled a few different models from people like Michel Blank and reverse engineered them into my own version but I still didn't feel it covered what I was looking for however Justin's courses filled in a lot of gaps (and taught me some cool excel tricks along the way). 

I took The Real Estate Modeling Pro Forma Modeling Master Class and The Real Estate Equity Waterfall Modeling Master Class. I think he also just added one that takes the Waterfall to another level so you may want to check that out. 

I don't know Justin and I don't work with him or for Udemy. I just found good value in the knowledge and experience. 

@Taylor Burns You can look around at posts about Syndication and you will start to see patterns on the advice being given. Here is what I have seen but your mileage may vary. 

It's the same amount of work for the Syndications to do 100 units than it is to do 30 units. Sure there will be more money involved but for Multi-Family however, it's more about having a solid deal/plan than it is about the money especially if you already have a head start with connections. 

The real problem seems to come in when you have to deal with managing the asset after purchase. From my research until you reach about the 60-70 unit mark that you will be underutilizing management and maintenance which either means you will pay more for it or you won't have a good service because they have to work multiple locations to make up the difference. 

Most Value Add syndications seem to be looking at locations that were built in the 80s, Pitched and not Flat Roof, no Boiler Systems, etc in areas that are growing in both population and jobs. Most will also start with 1 or 2 areas they focus on and after a while, they sometimes expand that range out. So good to know what areas of the country you are willing to work in and around. 

If you have some of your own money to start you may want to look at being an LP in syndication just to get a feel for it however I am trying to get in with no money as a GP on just my good looks :D and I will post more on that when I finally make that work. 

Being focused on a class and type and being as specific as you can in what you are looking to do helps as well. At some point, you will want/need a mentor to help speed up the process and if you know in detail what it is you are looking to do it will make it easier to find a syndication and or mentor that fits your focus and outlook. 

All the best with your investing and I hope you find what you are looking for!

@Gaspare U. as @Taylor L. said the Joe Fairless/Theo Hicks book Best Every Apartment Syndication Book is great. Lots of useful information and takes you through the process step by step. 

I would also recommend Ken Mcelroy's books The ABCs of Real Estate Investing and The Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing. 

I know what you are going through though. A lot of fluff out there to get through to find the true nuggets of info. 

Good Luck

@Alexander Hogarth I don't have a lot to add to this conversation but I do have a connection with Stavanger (Actually have a friend there selling their house right now)! Good to see you on BP and I hope your investing journey works out. Looks like you are getting some great advice. 

In looking for data (Which I do more than I should maybe) I ran across this site that is so cool but yet I haven't seen any posts about it. It's not the end all be all for data visualization but it does have a lot of cool data and if you are building out a pitch for a location this may help you save lots of time and effort. To be honest I wanted to keep it to myself but it's just too good!

https://datausa.io

I have no ties with this website and I am not receiving compensation for pointing it out to people. This was truly just a geek nirvana moment for me that I wanted to share. Doing a custom data visualization can be a bit tricky but if you work at it you can get details down to MSA level which is nice. The Vis Builder is where you want to go if you need to customize it for your offering. 

Below is a quick example I did by using the Renters by Income Percentage data set and selecting the Houston MSA looking at the Gross Rent Percent of income less than 20% in 4 different Household Income Ranges. It's a bit messy but in the upper right, you can see my mouse over showing detail on the top line of the chart. 

If you use it and get good results I would be interested to see how you are using and what data is valuable to you.  

@Jesus Lopez I am actually looking to help a group that is already established as I am just starting out. I have since found someone to work with and I hope it becomes a fruitful relationship. 

I also hope that my post above shows people who are newer like you and I the type of Detail that experienced Real Estate investors are looking for from us who are newer to Real Estate. I see a lot of posts asking for Mentors or Help with situations but in a lot of cases, not a lot of detail is given about the poster or the deal or what it is exactly they are wanting to accomplish in life.  

The more detail you can give about your situation and where you are at and what you have done the more success you will have in finding someone to associate with. You see and hear all the time this is a relationship business and to establish that starting point people have to know who you are and what you are about. 

It's not easy to lay it out there and the post above took me several days to write. Someone saw potential in the skills I have and reached out and that is all I really was wanting. It's up to me to prove I can provide that value and now that I have been given a chance. But the value I have to provide is not only skill-based, but it's also relationship-based and in the end, if I can't build relationships in this business the rest of the skill won't matter much. 

I hope that helps!

@Barry Ruby Wow I'm going to have to read that a few times to get the whole jist of what you posted but outstanding post not only for Jay but others who want to learn or are considering a deal like this. Thanks for the time and effort it took to put this together for someone else who is trying to educate themselves in development syndication. 

It looks like you have done a wonderful job with your excel tool but I'm sure that came from many years of experience. 

@Jay Mitiguy Good luck with this regardless if you take it on or walk away and move to another deal. Sounds like you are well on your way to taking the next step. 

Congrats @Brian Orr on the 10 unit. Always happy to network with people who are pulling in the same direction! That's really way more than I could do on my own right now. 

In my post, I really wanted to be as specific as I could and I am looking to the larger Multi-Family but if someone else needs help or is just starting out and I could be of help I would be willing to talk about how we could help each other. 

I do have family in NC so it's on my future area's list for sure. 

Thanks for the post.