All Forum Posts by: Jared Smith

@Hayat- Hyatt Barron You are starting off in the right place! So many tools and resources at your fingertips in these forums, podcasts, and tools.

Jared

@Jeff Skinner welcome to the BP community! What types of property are you looking at for your first investment? Once you have that figured out it gets easier to act intentionally. Good luck on your journey!

Jared

@Helen Okoye Welcome to BP and the forums. So much great information gets posted here daily. Don't ever hesitate to throw out a question or scenario you have in your head. You will certainly gets lots of different perspectives from the forums and most likely multiple people will have experienced a similar situation in their investing journey!

Agree with all posters. I find new investors often struggle with keeping emotions out of the deal. Sometimes it may keep them on the sidelines all together and never get started. Once an investor understands that is a business transaction and is able to keep emotions out of the analysis, it is much easier to find, or more importantly, create deals. Finding some middle ground that is beneficial for both sides is so important and can make or break a deal. 

@Matt Powers there are endless possibilities and combinations of how you could approach this opportunity. I am putting in a link to something that may be help, a cost of living comparison calculator (https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/cost-of-living-calculat...). 

There are also other websites that have a Cost of Living index or other comparison tools. Once you figure out something that looks good to you then you'll be able to find an investing strategy that works for that area. I moved many times during my Navy career to markets all over the US and even Toronto. Tools like this helped us determine that retiring in the Memphis Metro area was good for us and has helped form our investing strategy, mainly SFR and some commercial spaces (flex, studios, small office). Every city will have something that works, you just have to figure out what that combination is that will work best to fit your needs and goals.

Best of luck!

Powerful advice! I think it is human nature to feel like we need to get the best deal with the best/highest "immediate return". Oftentimes the "immediate and highest return" evaporates once you get into it and start dealing with various issues that weren't addressed upfront or due to location (harder to fix). 100% agree with you!

@Anthony DiSanzo We have clients in 11 markets in the South/Midsouth from AL to Memphis to St. Louis/OKC/Little Rock to DFW/HOU. All that to say there is plenty of OOS opportunities out there even in the current market. 

@Hector Espinosa 2024 taught me to be patient. Depending on what type of investor you are or want to be, there are still deals out there. For example, if you are an active investor you can still find deals but they may not have quite as high of returns as we had become accustomed to in the previous years on average. We didn't anticipate the housing market slowing when it did in August and now we are holding a flip that for all accounts should sell. If it was just my house sitting I would say I over estimated the sales price or over rehabbed, something, but it is most homes in the same area that had been moving so quickly are now sitting for months and are all priced according to market value. The number of showings has definitely picked up since the election and we are hopeful we will have something soon. 

The other think I learned in 2024 is that Zillow has made it much harder to market FSBO homes. They used to be marketed with all of the other homes on the main search page, but a user had to go into the filters and specifically select the "FSBO & Other" tab. Just this week (week of Dec 9th) it looks like they have updated the app to go back to the way it was before so now FSBO homes can be viewed alongside Agent Listed homes. Unfortunately for me, this was not the case when we first list in August but I am happy to see that is has been changed back.

Having intentionality in your actions and goals set to enable you to reach that 1 real estate transaction milestone is important and will ultimately help you reach that sooner. 

Good luck in 2025!

Now that that you mention it, I may have seen it, but didn't register. I just had it on my mind based on some recent discussions. 

Goal setting is not something you should wait until the end of each year to do, but if you have been busy and maybe haven't been able to get around to either brushing off your old goals, validating your existing goals, or creating your new goals, now is the time to do it for 2025. 

Some use very specific goal setting metrics, some use more general goals, there is no right answer for every person, but I am willing to bet that those that set some goals will be more successful in the upcoming year than those that do not. 

My wife and I use something we call the "One card" that we learned from another Memphis area investor. It's a simple 3x5" card that is folded in half. On one side of the fold is your short term 6-12 month goal, on the other side you put your mid-term goal 3-4 years and then on the back you write down that Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) 10 year goal. 

Having this will provide focus and intentionality in your actions. If you analyze a deal, does it help you reach your goals? Ask yourself if your actions today are getting you any closer to short/mid/long-term goals. If not, why? 

What do you do help focus your goals? Does anyone use another method of goal setting or periodic review method?

Cheers to closing out 2024 strong and moving into 2025 with intentionality!

Jared Smith