All Forum Posts by: Matt Engle

@Justin Allen that sounds good. There are also all kinds of real estate podcasts out there that can help you learn as well. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts while I drive to maximize the use of my time.

Hi @Jack Young it all depends on the building’s financials. Once you have the financials and the going cap rate for the area, you can determine an appropriate value for the property and from that you can figure out if you can hit the returns you are looking for.

Welcome @Randy Davenport BP is a great place to share ideas and get feedback. Your construction background will help you as you first start out on this journey and may even open up other opportunities as well. Have you thought specifically about what you want out of real estate investing long term?

Hi @Eric Thornton For a commercial property you’ll want to have the income and expenses for the property as well as the going capitalization (cap) rate for the area. With that you can determine an appropriate value for the property. Income - Expenses = NOI NOI/cap rate = Property Value The key is to get the most accurate financial information you can so your property value is accurate. If you want to do a more detailed analysis, Michael Blank has a good tool that he uses called the Syndicated Deal Analyzer. What kind of commercial properties do you want to invest in?

@Justin Allen Welcome to BP! The forums are great for learning pretty much anything about real estate investing. Do you have specific goals for your real estate business?

@Jeff Lundeen Most of the deals that come across our desk are from brokers who we have relationships with. In this market, however, there’s not a lot out there so some people are using direct to seller marketing and are finding success that way. If you want a property less than 80 units, direct marketing will generally get you more deals than a broker. If you want properties larger than 80 units a broker relationship will be key to getting you those deals.

@Brighton Masuka we still have 3 single family rentals that we’re maintaining but our focus is on acquiring apartments. Our reasons for going after apartments are 1) they are more risk tolerant. If you have a vacancy in a single family rental, you have to pay the mortgage and expenses yourself until you get a new tenant. If you have a vacancy in a 50 unit apartment building, your Cashflow will go down a little bit but it won’t kill you. We usually underwrite our deals assuming 10% vacancy so if it is better than that it works out well for us. 2) you can force appreciation. Unlike single family homes, if you increase the NOI on an apartment building, you have instantly increased the value of the building by a nearly exponential amount (exactly how much depends on the going cap rate for the area). And 3) you can scale your investing business quickly by using private money to fund all your deals. Hope this helps. Good luck!

@Nick Jones the decision to invest in a particular market will be affected by the real estate strategy you want to pursue. Are you looking to invest in single family or multifamily; do you want to wholesale, etc? To choose that, you want to know what you want to get out of real estate investing.

Hi @Brennan Doherty In my opinion, the fastest way to grow your portfolio and reach financial freedom is to start with apartment investing from the beginning. It’s a different animal than single family houses and it’s totally doable even without a lot of money or experience. You just have to be focused and know where you want to go.

@Jared Jones Actually we had to have a signed lease on the rental before we could close on the new house. Our property manager helped us make that happen.