All Forum Posts by: Nick Newby

@Chris Tracy These answers were great!  I really appreciate your insight into this!  I am going to pour over more of your answers and I think will have questions, but this helps right off the bat.  I thought it was odd to never have a buyers broker, but it sounds like it is common, but that the agreements make issues.  We are lucky enough to have a very intimate connection with 2 brokers, although they are not intimate with the market we are looking at... I'll have to brainstorm on some of your other points.

Thanks!

Nick

@Chris Tracy we are looking for small multi-family around 8-15 units.

Hey Everyone, so I've been listening to a lot of the podcasts basically on loop and a few thoughts and questions keep coming up that I want to see what people think about them.

I'm new to multi-family and keep hearing that most brokers won't take you seriously without having closed any deals before.  This makes sense, and is unfortunate, but I'm curious.  In these discussions, is it common to be representing yourself and trying to reach out to seller agents to find properties, and attempting to build the relationship with them?  The reason I ask this is that it doesn't seem like most people are searching for and finding properties with a broker of their own, but are hoping to try to talk to brokers that have listings, and convince them to work with them on a deal they are listing, or preferably to have them provide deals that are off market.  It makes sense that they would run into issues simply coming off the street to a broker, saying, hey show me the best opportunities that you have, that you aren't showing to anyone else, trust me I'm worth it.

A follow up to this is, if it is common to not have your own broker help you to find these deals, why do you not want your own broker from the start?  Is it cost? Is it ego?  Is it simply customary?  When I bought my home, I solicited a broker before even looking at a house.

Next question is if you are looking at a market you are not in, and your broker is in your market, is it beneficial to seek out a broker in the other market, or again is it worth using brokers you know, and have them work in a new market just like you are?  I understand that broker may not know the market, but isn't it better to have someone in your corner, even with less knowledge, than flying completely blind in a new market?

Finally, and this may be a very newb question, but is it a joke to think that finding a Deal on Loopnet, or another public site is a possibility?  I know you can get the best deals off market, but is it unreasonable to think that there are still decent deals available on these listings?

Thanks for the insight!

Nick Newby (not an adjective :) but my last name)

@Micki M. Thank you for highlighting the Goals part, that was a long discussion that my Partner and I failed to have for quite a while and luckily we finally were able to lay out a definitive plan that helped reach our investors with more legitimacy and clear cut path.

I'll have to check out the docs section, I haven't done that yet.  I'm a stats nerd so I know my way around a spreadsheet, I'd love getting some ideas on adding and revamping mine based on what BP has!

@Joseph Austin The triple net leases are definitely in our line of sight. I definitely prefer them especially for how passive they can be, since me and my partner will both still be working! In Denver the ones I've found have very low cap rates, leading to a CoC not much better than the S&P historically, with the obvious lower liquidity. I know that there is a give and take, if you don't want to manage it day to day, and don't want to pay a property manager and get true passive income, you have to give up something, and that could be return. How difficult do you find it to purchase these properties from a distance? Or am I missing some advantages that Denver may be offering?

@Mark Nolan Thank you Mark! I have looked through the Guide in the past when I first stumbled upon BP, but have started going back to it now that we are really starting to get rolling!

@Matt M. I hadn't thought about this, but it's interesting, right when we started talking about setting up this investor group, one of the investors came to us with a property that they knew right away for us to check out.  It turned out to not be as great a deal as it originally looked, but that scenario coupled with your comments gave us the idea to really leverage everyone in our group to be out looking for deals!

Hey Everyone,

I'm new to BP as far as posting on the forum, but have been listening to Podcasts and reading the blog for a couple of years, such great stuff!

My business partner and I are just dipping our toes in to real estate. I started an LLC with a really close friend both of us are working other jobs and enjoy them, and don't want to leave, unless we create a strong opportunity for ourselves.

What led to our starting the LLC and beginning the process of investing in real estate stemmed from our disappointment with rates of return in conventional investments. I was a stock broker for a few years and have worked in finance for about 10 years. He's a CPA also working in finance but recently got in to sales. Both of us have invested in 401K, saved on the side with banks, the usual investments. However, even with the relatively strong past few years in the Stock Market we quickly realized the best returns are not there. We talked about buying a business, or investing in a business in order to get some better passive income. While working on finding some opportunities we talked to some friends and family and have found that others are in the same boat. Most of us are in our late twenties or early thirties and realizing that we don't have the savings or risk appetite to do anything on our own, but all of us have a little bit stashed away that we'd like to put to better work. Thus, began NANJS LLC. We started the LLC to bring together 8 investors along with ourselves to get in to a property, now the problem is finding one and pulling the trigger.

We live in Denver and are floored by the exorbitant prices and low cap rates, but are scared to venture outside of our market... so for now we are hesitating trying to find the right property in the right place to take the risk.  Having our friends and family involved is definitely making it more difficult to simply jump in and learn on the fly.  Although, we both can't wait for the opportunity to learn in the real world.

Exited to start learning from the great people on this site.

Nick Newby