All Forum Posts by: Joseph Back

I would recommend to just start attending some of the large player's conferences and networking your way into a relationship there. Recently attended a large multi-family investment conference and connected with a number of big players in the industry. All were nice and welcoming. I am sure if you went to a few of these with a pitch of your specific skill set and the desire to work for free they would love to have you on their team. Also, when I say skill set, it needs to be something that will directly help their business, examples include developing and implementing a social media marketing program for their company, being a deal finder with a concrete plan of how you can find them off-market opportunities, being skilled in excel-macro VBA programming such that you can automate and improve their underwriting process. If you don't have any of these currently, work on them and persistently communicate with these guys until they let you join their team. Started at the firm I am at now as an un-paid cold caller.

I would say to pick a specific niche and become the expert on that type of property. For example, I got my start as an investor and absolutely love talking and learning about everything investing. So naturally as I am finishing up my real estate license course I plan to start targeting investment property buyers and sellers as my first clients. For you this could be focusing on starter homes, luxury mansions, land or even specific neighborhoods and zip codes. Regardless, the key is to become the expert and stay in touch with that community. Lastly, I would highly recommend investing in some sort of contact management software that assists you in following up with prospective clients and staying in touch in general. Recently spent the money on a software that helps me with this and it has substantially changed the game for me.

@Mike G. Thanks for the praise! It has been really fun so far and I am looking forward to buying more. The $90,000 in capital I am using is from a HELOC on personal residence. First property was SFR I purchased for $69,000 using HELOC. Already had great tenant in it renting for $850 a month. Went to bank to order appraisal for mortgage on day 2 of ownership. Appraisal came in at $100,000 and was able to pull all $69,000 of initial investment out using 25 year amortization 5/5 ARM loan from local bank. Second property was SF flip project I am still working on, found lead on Cragslist, seller was very motivated and gave me a great deal. Property needed full gut job but am getting close to finishing and hopefully will have listed by new year. Last property was 4-plex I found by cold calling property owners on street I liked. Owner was older man and I convinced him to do seller financing on 30-yr note with 5yr balloon with only 5% down at 6% interest rate. 100% occupied but about $100 below market rent on each unit. Plan is to make some small improvements and slowly raise rents and refinance in year 3 or 4 with ability to pull all of my initial capital out plus some.

@Samuel Yee On the Fannie and Freddie SBL and SML loans is there a minimum loan amount? Also, do you have any insight on requirements for these loans outside of the 2 years MF experience?

Currently work for a larger investor who just got started back in 2015 and with the same $200,000 now owns over 80 rental properties using the BRRRR strategy. In my opinion there is no other way to scale with that amount of capital that quickly. I am just getting started myself but now own over 6 units using the same $90,000 recycled using BRRRR over the course of just 5 months. Also a fan because as you grow and pay down the debt on some of your first purchases you are able to take out blanket HELOCS over multiple properties to increase your capital available for investing even more.

If you are a buy and hold investor the ebbs and flows of real estate pricing shouldn't be of much concern but rising interest rates can be very scary if you plan to use adjustable rate loans from local banks. My advice is to continue to look for good deals and if you come across one snatch it up, but use 30 year fannie or freddie fixed rate debt. Many investors who bought during the sweet-spot of 2012-2015 are starting to reach the end of the 5 year fixed rate portion of their loans and will soon be very exposed to interest rate risk as rates continue to rise.

Congratulations! You putting together a property management system between now and close? I know when I bought my first property that was something I wish I had done. Get everything in order from how you want the tenants to pay (online hopefully), to how they will handle maintenance requests to having leases for tenants on month to month contracts ready to sign.

@Nicole Hoss Currently in the middle of big renovation on property number 2. Most likely going to be a flip. Also have contract signed on property number 3, 4-plex I am getting 5% down seller financing on, that should close in the next 2-3 weeks.

@Aaron Hale I would definitely try to reach out to all of the local lenders in the area you are investing. In our market we have many lenders who will do 80% LTV and a few who will even do 85% LTV. Regardless it does seem like it would be a tight deal so make sure you have accounted for every cost involved with that transaction before moving forward. Overall though I would take action and purchase, although it might not be the best deal you ever buy, getting that first deal under your belt is huge.

We use "Beast Mode CRM" from the REI Automation Squad and it has really helped us out. They provide a custom built Podio work space that I think should solve a lot of the problems you are having. It is great for direct mail, cold calling, ringless voicemail and texting. Everything is automated and they tie in your CallRail account and Sly Broadcast into podio so you can track everything and push out texts and voicemails from Podio. Pretty amazing system, I would recommend checking it out.