All Forum Posts by: Michael Beeman

@Nick Thomas  That's what I love to hear!! I want to inspire others to get off the sideline, and see their problem, and fix it!! Heck, I'm nothing special, I talked about Real Estate for a few years while I was on the sideline! But I finally figured it out and ran head first into it!! You can too!!

*Dave Ramsey your budget, and Robert Kiyosaki your investment mind!

@Michelle Tsarfis  Thank You!!  It's been a wild ride. I was just on the phone with a banker yesterday afternoon, and I think I may have struck a deal on an 8 unit building off of an estate they have..  If I can get that approved, that would put us at 31 units, with 15 under contract that should all close within the next 45 days.

@Keoni W Guillermo  That is the basic concept.. If you're completely new.. read Richest Man in Babylon, then read Rich Dad Poor Dad, and immediately follow it up with Brandon Turner's book on Real Estate Investing!!  The three of those in a row, should really get your feet grounded!

@Jeff Kelly I'll say the first book I recommend to all my friends that keep freakin out over how much we have been able to do in such a short time is . . Richest Man in Babylon, then I recommend Rich Dad Poor Dad, that is to change the mindset, Then I'll move onto encouraging them to read @Brandon Turner Book on Real Estate Property Investing. . Now, The reason I choose Brandon's book after I've given them the mindset change with the first two is because I feel like it has a ton of information for the new investor, so you could start with houses, or multi-family and it's all built into that book. Strategies on exactly how to manage properties, on how to purchase properties with as little money as you can.. Just everything.. After that I recommend lots of podcasts of people that have done it. I recommend the Joe Fairless Daily Best Ever Real Estate show. I recommend going back and listening to every BP podcast (I've literally done it). I recommend Joe's Best Ever book.   oh, and btw absolutely shoot me an email a day or two before you come through Casey IL (right off I-70), and I'll be happy to show you around, and show you some great before and after pics, our youtube walk thru vids, and our properties..  

@Wes Woodhouse  Thank You, I really was out there splitting firewood with headphones in learning at the same time as I was working. I kind of made it a Win-Win!  Except when I had to run the chainsaw, then it was too loud to hear anything lol

@William B.Thank You!!  And Congratulations on ur first purchase!  It was a little less than a year ago for us, and I know how incredibly excited I was to be signing those papers, and handed the keys!! 

@John Woodrich  No, the deal is we had a few deals early on where we built a lot of equity.. We maintained regular rent deposits, have never been a day late on a payment, and we shopped banks to find the one that would work with us. We have been turned down at other banks. But, shopping around for a bit like @John Hagen said has paid off!!   

Thank You @Terri Ring  I just received an email from Rod Khalief's multi-family podcast asking me to be on, and I have a scheduled interview on the Joe Fairless podcast from when he asked me a few weeks age. Idk when it will air, but I know my interview is Tuesday at noon. And our very own @Mindy Jensen shot me a message about possibly doing the BP podcast..

@Jonathan Hernandez Thank You.. I've been so busy I don't get on here much, But I wanted to stop in and say YESS it can be done!!

@Andrew Syrios We plan on keeping it up and Rocking it to 100+ units by 2019, and quitting the day jobs for the full time Real Estate world!!

@James W. we use a simple youtube page for posting video walk thrus, this is a new development that I discovered off another podcast and have LOVED.. Simple, Free, and works like a charm. Someone inquires, I send a youtube video walk thru and a link to our website. And tell them we don't do physical walk thrus without applications processed. We LOVE it!!  I have shown 1 vacancy that didn't commit right away. Most are committed before they see the place.  

@Monica Morff   yes you must be careful and research the individual market. I have 20 units with no vacancies in Casey, IL.  Population 3500..  But, I researched the area, talked to people, pretended I was a renter, and noticed how difficult it was to find a nice place at a reasonable price. Plus I started talking to worn out older landlords doing it the "old way".. showing every unit before they get an application, getting stood up by tenants (we use video walk thrus, and upload them to our page, we require an online application filled out and approved before we take the time to meet with them and show a place).  We take all our payments online, we purposely joined every local facebook garage sale site and marketplace so that we could get our vacancies in front of as many eyes as possible everytime they are vacant. Our longest vacancy has been 2 wks, our average is about 5 days.  

I have 8 units in a town about 35 mins south. Robinson IL  population 7000. 100% occupied. I've never had much trouble with tenants, once I have my units rehabbed and my tenants screened.  The town has an oil refinery and lots of local middle class jobs.

Now here's the other side of that. I have a triplex in Paris IL which I knew going in, was a bit of a lower class town, I have one unit that was finished being rehabbed 3 wks ago, and I have still not got a qualified applicant in on it. I've already rejected 3 applicants, it's my only vacancy. And it's still vacant. So, you just have to research your market. I shouldn't have bought that one. Oh it still pays it's bills with 2 units full, but it doesn't pay me anything until that third unit is full.

Our rents and our units are often the most expensive in town, but they're really not that high. Our average rents are around 500/month, but we get better tenants by providing what Rural America would consider a B class unit. Instead of doing what many small town landlords do. provide a D class property at a C class price.  

@Brian Garrett  Thank you!!   It's exciting!  @John Hagen  are in constant communication, and have aggressively pursued the goal of financial freedom!

@Don Spafford  Thank you, I hope you will listen to the podcast. I'll let you know when It airs.  We do hope to be on the BP podcast someday. It is on the "Goals list"

@Bill E. calculating ARV on 1-4 unit properties is tricky. But, I just had to research my market and find out what things were selling for etc. Talk to brokers (now I am a broker, got my license in November '17) about what similar properties were selling/renting for etc. On 5 unit+ properties generally all appraisers use the income approach on appraisals, so it is simply knowing your local cap rates and knowing how to calculate NOI.. Furthermore, you MUST know what the units will rent for, what expenses will be etc. . But yes, I prefer 5 units+ because I can pretty well get within 5% of the appraised ARV, just by knowing my market and my numbers.

@Jay Hinrichs  I will be doing a short interview next week on Joe Fairless' Best Ever podcast.  I'm not sure when it will air, but It'll be my first interview. I will have to check out what Steve has written!  Thank you for the tip!

@Jay Hinrichs  Absolutely!!!   You have to get off your butt and get the money to start it. I researched listened to the stories of people doing it, and all the while I heard how they started.. always with some form of money either in equity (I had very little, I bought my home in 2014), Or through a loan from a family member (I figured no1 was loaning me money until I had some skin in the game too), or like u said inheritance or savings. So, I decided I was going to Dave Ramsey my budget, and start a side hustle splitting and selling firewood, and I was going to put as much money together as I possibly could. It was only about 6 months after I made that decision, that I had 12k of my own money, I started researching deals, and talking about why they would or wouldn't work with some of my friends, and one friend @John Hagen was very interested.  And I showed him my spreadsheets etc. and he bought in, my mom decided she wanted in too after wanting to hear more,

yes, I was very lucky to find them. But if I had jumped on a forum and said  "I don't have any money, how can I start with no money" instead of going out there, seeing a problem, and creating my own remedy, it would have never happened.