All Forum Posts by: Joshua Davies

@Christine Smith you need to contact @Devan Mcclish. I have worked with him a lot and highly recommend, and he also owns the best property management company in Nashville.

@Zara Massoud I would advise you to always hire a PM. Self-managing rentals in your own town can be challenging enough, never mind out of state. Hiring a good PM will save you an incredible amount of headaches and is 100% worth the fee. With that being said, make sure you underwrite your deals to include a PM fee or you could be in for a surprise when you look at your financial statements. 

@Jill F. I think being 'overleveraged' is subjective to the individual or entity that owns the properties. If any one person is acquiring units at 90% LTV and have insufficient cash reserves then they are likely over-leveraged. However, if they have millions of dollars in cash to ride the storm then in their mind they may not be over-leveraged.

I also think you would see this more with SFH investors and small multi-family investors with properties financed on conventional loans, or floating rate commercial loans. Floating rate debt can work well, and I had many properties financed this way when I was in the small multifamily market, however if you have a balloon payment that becomes due during a year like this with an unforeseen pandemic, it can definitely be troublesome.

Either way I think investors need to fully evaluate their portfolio and balance sheets and determine themselves if they are over-leveraged. Nobody on a forum can really tell you if you are over-leveraged without seeing all of your financials, but I suspect there may be a few who will try.

@Joshua Seguine I don't think any first time investor has been "ready". First time doing anything can be daunting, and especially when there is potential to lose a lot of money. The biggest thing is to educate yourself to a level where you feel confident in your market research, and analysis of the property. Offer to analyze deals for other investors, it will be great practice to formulate your own analysis worksheet - you will learn a lot just from this. Ask them for their honest feedback of where you could improve the process next time. 

After a while, you will become a pro at running numbers and that will give you the confidence to analyze your own investment, without involving emotion. I feel like a lot of first time investors want to jump the gun and purchase the first property they see because they "like the look of it". Once emotion is involved, the potential to lose money doubles.

Remember, real estate investing is a marathon, not a sprint. There is no rush to purchase your first property. It is better to wait until you have the required education and understanding to purchase a good deal, rather than jump in and purchase a bad deal.

Hope this helps.

I have also seen instances where syndicators will over-raise capital just to pay their investors 8% from the get go. I had this suspicion for a while, and it was confirmed when looking through income statements and balance sheets of certain syndicators, which did not support anywhere close to 8% returns. 

I guess this, unfortunately, has become common practice. Many syndicators come from professional backgrounds not related to real estate investment/finance, and it can really show.

With that being said, providing actual returns to investors does give us syndicators and fund managers a chance to distance ourselves from the competition.

@Account Closed This can be anywhere in the Yorba Linda area. Could you DM me your email addresses?

I will add you to our current list and we can throw out some ideas for the meet up location over email.

Hi Everyone,

@Simon Chan and myself will be hosting another Yorba Linda meet up in the next few weeks and are looking to see if any local BP investors would be interested in attending? Our meet ups are very casual and we will be discussing many different aspects of real estate and investing. Location is yet to be determined, but this invitation is open to everybody.

Please reply to the thread or send a direct message if you would like to attend so that we can add you to our list!

@Timothy Street Mentorship definitely seems to be the popular opinion on multi-family investing, however I believe it also depends on your level of experience thus far. Have you been around real estate a long time? Have you personally completed any deals? There are a lot of great mentors out there, and there are also many that will gladly take your hard earned money in return for their "network" and "ideas". Researching these individuals is key prior to deciding on a mentor, and if possible ask previous clients for references to ensure credibility.

Personally, I feel self education can take you a long way, and depending on your experience level, can be satisfactory to check the knowledge box. For myself, I had around 10 years experience in the commercial real estate industry so I didn't feel a mentor would be the right fit for me. It is definitely subjective to the individual and whatever you feel is best for you, just make sure you do your own due diligence prior to choosing a mentor.

Feel free to reach out anytime, I would be happy to help!

@Brad Penley Personally, and this is honestly the best advice I could give you, if I had $25K right now I would network as much as I possibly could and partner with a successful multifamily investor. The amount you will learn from being slightly involved in an actual deal will drastically exceed what you will learn from a "guru". 

Knowledge is priceless, and the best way to obtain the knowledge you need is to get our there and complete a deal, whether that be a 10 unit, or 250 unit. You will learn an incredible amount just by going through the process.

Good luck and don't hesitate to reach out!