All Forum Posts by: Nick Elg

@Russell Brazil

Great post and thanks for sharing your experience. 

I got some great advice from a big real estate investor in my market who owns 4,000 doors and estimates his income at $40,000+ an hour. 

"live on less and invest the rest"

My wife and I have done this and it is surprising to see how quickly we have gotten to a position where we can take charge of our lives. 

Russell, do you feel you missed out on anything in life by sacrificing as you did? Anything you would change on your journey?

Kind regards,

@J Scott

I appreciate your willingness to reach out like this and offer so much help and advice. Can I ask what you would expect from a partner in starting a real estate business? 

I have heard you guys talk repeatedly about how you want to find people who have mastered the things you don't enjoy because they enjoy doing things that you don't. 

We should focus on the things that we are really good at, correct?

When you set up the business do you offer to split the business and profits evenly among each person (marketing, finance, etc )?

Thanks so much !

@Andrea Cocolin

I would recommend figuring out how to start sooner! "Don't wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait" is a great quote. If you find a solid deal, you can find partners who have the money or get a hard money loan. 

I would recommend reading "How to make big money in small apartments" by Lance A Edwards.

If you have used audible before, I can send you the book for free. Send me a message if you'd like. 

It helped me to raise my vision for my goals in real estate. I think it can help you too even if you are not interested in apartments initially there are really good principles and tips in that book! 

Focusing more on your question:

- Reach out to other investors in your area. You can find them by searching for a meet up in your area on BiggerPockets or searching google for real estate investor meet up in _______. 

- Start telling everyone about what you are learning about real estate investing and what you plan to do. They could send you deals or other referral for people to connect with. 

Let me know if I can be a help to you and good luck!

@Scott Rubzin 

Have you asked for seller financing? 

@Alfred Harris

As I drove around I noticed multi unit buildings and then I would go home and find them on google maps. I created an excel spreadsheet with all the properties I found and I would use county data to figure out the owner and their address so I could send letters and track what dates I sent letters on. 

It took a lot of time!! It didn't cost anything (except the electricity to charge my laptop and our wifi that we already pay for each month) but I would recommend getting a list from list source. Not expensive at all and it saves a lot of work. 

Another tip would be to drive by an area in your town that has a lot of multiplex units and look for people doing work on the properties. You should stop, say hello, ask if they are the owner, see if they are looking to sell it soon, and build relationships that way. If they are not the owner, they sometimes have the number of the owner and might give it to you. I have done this as much I can. I now have solid leads on 8 units (one duplex, two triplex) right next to where I live and another 8 (to fourplexes) nearby.  

Good luck! 

@Tom Nguyen

Good for you moving to a new location. I hope it improves your life! I was attracted to your post because I would love to move to a warmer market that had a beach near by, in my mind that would do as much for me as buying a rental property. It's great to sacrifice so you can have more later but if you can improve your quality of life and situation while making wise real estate investments, you will do great! 

I hear Texas is a very landlord friendly state and has low taxes. Not sure about FLA.

You should check out http://www.usa.com/texas-state.htm for some statistics on the state and cities you are looking at. Also it would be helpful to check out: 

crimereports.com , crimemapping.com , walkscore.com , rentometer.com .

Good luck!

Do you guys have any hard money lenders you have worked with and like? 

What made them so good to work with?

Thanks in advance!

@Christopher Mejia

Christopher, Good luck on finding a partner. Great opportunity to grow without using your own funds. 

First, I would say don't limit yourself or discount what you are bringing to the table. With that being said, you just need to find a killer deal and then the money/people follow. That is the KEY, having an awesome deal allows you to go to family/friends/investors and show them how their investment will get a solid return with relatively low risk. 

If you offer someone 50% of the deal or some extremely high return, that also indicates a high amount of risk. So offer them a good return and help them understand why your deal is a homer and will be a safe investment for them. 

I would recommend listening to "how to make big money in small apartments" by Lance a Edwards. I believe that  is where I heard the advice I mentioned about not offering such a high return because it tells investors there is more risk involved. The book has more tips about raising capital and I think it helped me raise my vision of what is possible in  real estate. I can send you a free book on audible if it is your first book? Send me a message. 

I hope this helped and good luck!

@Keith A.

Hello Keith! What area are you looking at? (just curious)

Statistically the lower income population does have more evictions, however there are still solid renters to be had in that income class, of course. I think if you plan on being more thorough in your screening, you will be fine. My experience trying to buy a 4 plex about 4 hours from where I am at right now, the population there had a much lower income too.

What I loved about it, besides the cash flow, was the tenants. They were very consistent and had been there for more than 2 years. Their work had them driving trucks for fedex or a similar company and so they were only home for 1-2 weeks of the month. Thus, the units were super clean and was easy to manage.  

We offered about 7k over asking price but someone else offered cash and they went with that. 

@Coran Clements

I will give you my opinion, but I hope another investor from Chicago will post their feedback as well. 

I would sell it.. I would sell because as you mentioned the population is decreasing. You can find the population growth pretty easy from doing some google searches. I would recommend www.usa.com, it is free. There are some paid companies that do all the research you could ever want. 

Again, I would sell, It would be a shame to renovate and then not have renters or quality renters.