All Forum Posts by: Matt Moreland

Dude!! Looking forward to seeing the final product!!

@Chris Little, it sounds like you have positioned yourself favorably by taking the time to knock all of that out before taking a bite of something new. Good on you!

If you are looking for something to fill your day again, you should get a small notebook (only use it for this) and whenever you have free space in your day pull up a market on Zillow and start analyzing every single family house listed for sale that is in your price range and run napkin investment numbers on it to determine how it would perform as an investment property based solely off of the info that you can find online. Do this for as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable breaking down a property. When I first started, I would do this during my lunch break at work and any time there was a slow day. I ended up filling up a moving box with notepads that I had filled with analyses, and had gone through SEVERAL markets in Texas. By the time you have done this enough, you can (at a glance) determine if a property is worth taking a closer look at.

Once you've got that down, then you will have the knowledge behind the "why" and will have that purpose again. You can start spending that time during the day and after the work day going out and analyzing actual deals for purchase, connecting with contractors, agents, and lenders in your market, building relationships with other local investors, and sharing your experiences (both wins and learning experiences) on here with everyone else for them to learn from.

It is a truly never ending journey, but that is a great way for you to get started with the time that you have now as you grow more comfortable with investing and taking action. It all starts with the little actions and they will continue to snowball. The first deal is always the hardest, but after that you will have caught the bug and will be eager to continue investing.

Best of luck on your investing journey, Chris!

The hardest team member to find for me is a great contractor. Most of the times, the best ones have zero availability and you won't get them referred to you by other investors because they do not want to risk losing them for their own projects.

Somewhat trial and error, but I have found that working with (even newer) contractors you can typically feel out what the relationship will be like early on. When getting bids on a project from multiple GC's, pay close attention to how they navigate your wish list and what suggestions they make. Are they smiling and racking up all of the line items, or are they pointing out areas where they can save you money by slightly modifying your wish list with materially affecting the outcome of the project?

Even with brand new contractors, something that I've found that is shared among the great ones is a desire to save their clients money and do the job in a timely manner so that they can get referrals from you, more jobs from you, and move on to the next job and get paid. When letting them know your timeline, are they giving you a realistic assessment of its feasibility or telling you its possible knowing full well that they won't even be able to source all the materials within your timeline?

I would prefer to have a contractor who is upfront and honest with me about what is and is not possible, as that also helps me decide if I can pull the trigger on a project. I've found that if you are keeping your favorite contractors busy with plenty of work (both yours and referring them to others), they will look out for you in all of the above regards and take good care of you. It can be a time consuming process finding a great contractor, but doing so is one of the most critical things you can do as you scale up and build a sustainable system for your business. Once you get to a certain point and have put in the reps with your contractor, they should be able to go into any property with your Realtor (even if you are unable to attend) and know exactly what you would want to do and put together a bid for the project--OR--tell you that the cost will not make it feasible as an investment.

One of my favorite contractors is actually an investor himself, and he is very transparent with all of his numbers. When a project has promise he will be the first to tell you, and if he thinks you will lose your shirt if there are any surprises during renovations, he'll let you know that as well.

Wow, Michael. Thank you for the very kind words! It was a pleasure working you guys to take down your first two properties, and seeing your investing journey unfold here in Lubbock. 

Thank you for the kind words, @Shaun Morgan!

@Angelica Aurea : Lubbock is still a great market to invest in. It is no longer the "hidden gem" that it was 3-4 years ago, but there are still cash flowing deals coming across the desk every week. Most great deals are of course off market, but having someone with those connections to bring you those deals will be important in any market you decide to invest in.

I primarily invest in Lubbock, but also have properties and developments in progress in several surrounding counties as well. I am much more confident in my money working hard for me in this market than any of the others that I have invested in previously, and will continue investing my own money here. 

The housing market in Lubbock has been fairly stable as long as there has been data to look at. Economists have historically called it an "island market" due to its historic muted response when compared to primary and secondary market reactions to economic conditions. To give you an example, when there is a market crash or recession that hits a primary market hard, the impact on Lubbock is present but much less significant. 

The housing demand is still outpacing supply, and builders are unable to build fast enough to keep up with the population growth and demand of young professionals settling down here. Historically, students from Texas Tech University have relocated to markets like Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, or Houston after graduation, but we are beginning to see far more graduates staying in Lubbock to start their careers and put down roots. I have faith that the Lubbock market will continue to be a great place to park money to work for me, and am happy to hop on a call anytime to talk about it with you or anyone else interested in West Texas markets as well.

Best of luck in your investing journey, regardless of where you decide to invest!!

 Hi, Sharry! Just messaged you.

@Jesse Beach sorry to hear that you have had such a rough go of it on your first property. In my experience these brand new rentals don't get the rents anticipated by out-of-state buyers. Renters see that the whole neighborhood is available for rent and they push to see who will give them the best deal (or which agent will cut them a deal). 

@Jay Hinrichs said it exactly right. Every month of lost rent while holding out for a few extra dollars only puts you behind in the long run. I would recommend dropping the rent to get it occupied, and only raising rents slightly while occupied and making more significant jumps to get closer to market rate when a tenant has to relocate and cannot renew.

Jesse, we've got quite a few new and newer duplexes in Lubbock and have not had any issues getting multiple qualified apps per vacant unit within a few days of listing it. The demand here far exceeds the supply so there is no reason why your property should not have been leased months ago. Feel free to shoot me a message and we can talk through what has and hasn't worked for us in the Lubbock market and come up with a strategy to get it rented so you can stop eating those holding costs every month.

Cheers!
Matt

We are doing an educational webinar on Texas vineyards as an asset class tonight, feel free to sign up to attend or receive a copy of the recording at www.investinvines.com (this is not a solicitation for investment or offer of securities! Strictly an educational one). You can check out Mason's "AMA" thread on vineyards over here as well: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/883579-ama-winery-vineyards-agriculture-environmental-issues?page=1

Hey, Drew! What format are you using for marketing on those platforms?

If the majority of other listings consist of photo and text, I would take the time to mix it up a bit and provide a polished video of the property with clean transitions and a description of the property. More and more people are preferring to consume real estate ads in video format these days, and that would certainly help it stand out from the rest!

Best of luck getting it rented! If you post it on Zillow, use their built-in video tour feature on the listing side. Little-known Zillow hack, but their algorithm automatically pushes listings with videos to the top of the listings/featured listings and recommends it to site visitors.

Have not heard anything about this yet but very curious to hear what our lender friends have to say! Will be following this thread.