All Forum Posts by: Josh Oaten

@Navroze Pirza

Some of the websites I use, other than CoStar, Colliers and Yardi reports to source this information include:

- Best Places (Demographics, crime etc)

- Truilia (Crime)

- Bureau of Labour statistics (Unemployment and working population growth)

- Census - American Fact Finder

- Wikipedia is also a great resource

- Rent Cafe and rent-o-meter (landlord friendly states and median rents)

At the end of the day the stats from each site will probably be different, but I just try to cross reference to get a picture of what is going on in the area. 

I would suggest to create yourself a google map and start plotting this information to paint yourself a visual picture. This is what I am doing and it works perfect! @Omar Khan is a big advocate for this and wrote an article about the success of underwriting with google maps on his BiggerPockets blog https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10776/79833-un...

Hope this helps!

@Hannah Smith

I don't believe it is bad practice to reach out to these types of professionals without an introduction at all! In a way you are doing it with this post, asking questions of many professionals that are on BiggerPockets without an introduction to them. Having a mutual introduction is always a plus but I would say go ahead and reach out to professionals you research. If i had a buddy that could introduce me to a broker that I have heard is only okay at their job, and a top broker i dont know but have researched to be awesome... Im going to get in contact with Mr. Awesome first.

I do totally agree with @Matthew Baltzell that if you are reaching out to them, you need to have your specific investment criteria set to and ready to go for them and keep following up no matter what!

Hope this helps.

@Kyle Mitchell

@Omar Khan is an investor in the US who utilizes international investors equity regularly for large apartment deals across the country! He wrote a good article about the topic coming from Canada himself on his BiggerPockets blog that I have linked below.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10776/72487-ho...

Im sure if you were to reach out to Omar he would be able to give you some great insight into how to go about this process successfully.

@Christian Nunez I did this kind of deal sourcing for a group with Mobile Home Parks. It can be pretty tough to get replies but persistance will pay off! I would find properties on the internet, get the address and search it on the county assessor website to find the owner and their contact deals and go from there!

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

How do people invest with each other? Do they use operating agreements, joint ownership, both? What type of professional do you use to officiate this? Just a lawyer? An agent? Both? How are these typically structured? Does anyone have any examples that they could post?

What are the most common forms of creative financing?

Would more people be willing to invest in multifamily properties if they could invest with other trustworthy BP members and pool capital/lower risk? Would people be willing to do this with a custom operating agreement in place? This way, more people could easily and with transparency tap into economies of scale.

You can invest as either an active (JV, Sydnicator, Partner etc) or passive investor (Hard money lending, investor) and each will need a different type of agreement/contract. @Omar Khan's BiggerPockets blog has some good content about Syndication, What to look for as a passive investor and others. Might help to take a look https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10776-a-canadi...

As for creative financing take a look at @Chad Carson's article on the topic from last year https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/creative-...

@Demario Scott Using the MLS, LoopNet etc are easy ways to look for properties. You could also see which brokers (residential and commercial) keep popping up on these listings and reach out to them for deals and insight. As mentioned, networking will help you find deals also. Look to see if there are any local real estate meetups going on near you and start going to them and share what you are looking for/ to do!

@Francis Morris

Best places to find relevant metrics for MF:

Reports (Demand, Supply, Occupancy, Rents etc... -

• Yardi Matrix
• Colliers

Demographics -

• Best Places
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (Unemployment/Employment rates for specific cities)
• Wikipedia
• Local Profiles (Usually the city or submarket will have a local profile with info)

Crime -

• Trulia
• Neighborhood Scout
• Best Places 

Just a few for you, I hope this helps!

@Farhan Khan

I’m originally from Australia and have been serious looking into investing back home in the next year or two. The thing with Australia at the moment is that the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne are being way overbuilt with demand falling away because the prices are absolutely ridiculous (coincidently this is due to international investors buying overvalued properties). These cities mainly, I believe are in for some big time corrections! Here is the real incentive. The $USD is buying around $1.30 AUD. So if and when this baby comes falling down, your $USD will be getting another 30% or more spending power. Thats what Im lookIng at rIght now and just my 2 cents.

Key points:

- Currency conversion

- Finding the right markets and figuring out where they are in the cycle

- I would say too you will need to look into legal representation in that country as well as back home, and make sure both are on the same page and in communication with your goals in mind.

@Jordan Borders

Learn as much as you can through Books, Podcasts, Blogs etc... about the area of real estate investing you wish to pursue. Once you feel you have some knowledge behind you, attend real estate meet up events, network where ever you can and lend your assistance to people already doing what you want to do. Got to start with the education first!!

@Trey Knight I don’t personally have much knowledge of the Vegas market, but I do see it popping up in multifamily reports quit a bit. It seems to have some strong rent growth going on at the moment, you should look into what that is from and if it is sustainable. Look at reports from Yardi Matrix, Colliers or other reports local brokers can send you. These will give you an idea of the place. If your not sure where to find them, PM me and I’ll show you. Also look at like news, Wikipedia, Best Place etc to get an idea of the demographics and what’s going on there.