All Forum Posts by: Nick Heil

I would say completely misleading the public might be a little harsh. I give Dave a lot of credit for getting me very interested in personal finance at a young age (I happened to go to a Dave Ramsey church class when I was in early high school with a girlfriend at the time and it helped get me hooked). Getting someone interested in personal finance at a young age may be the most important step so if he is accomplishing that one goal at all then I would say he is doing a very good thing. I think anyone that follows all of his principles will do well and be in a much better financial situation, but I agree that Dave Ramsey should be more of a starting point for someone truly passionate about personal finance and investing rather than a guiding compass.

My biggest problem with Dave is his lack or transparency when it comes to his mutual funds. He always claims the 12% but never gives any real detail about which funds and their strategies. Yes 12% is possible over a long period of time, but the absolute vast majority of funds come nowhere near this and he speaks about them as if 12% is the norm, which is incredibly misleading. I also agree that not using debt or credit cards at all is too far. Especially with all of the great perks that credit cards offer today (as long as you diligently pay them off every single month - if you don't then you absolutely should not have them)

However it's not a question of 100% real estate or 100% mutual funds. It should be a balance and low cost mutual funds and ETF's should be apart of everyone's portfolio in addition to real estate. I encourage everyone on this thread to read John Bogle's mutual fund books - absolutely great reads. I personally invest in self storage, rentals, and have a day job and with all of those sources of income I dollar cost average into ETF's and mutual funds (along with reinvesting into those businesses). In fact with my rentals when I look at a property I build the "cost" of dollar cost averaging right into my property analysis as if it were cap ex, repairs, or vacancy expense. Once I own the property I set up automatic deposits into my Vanguard account every month as if it were an actual monthly expense. I only do this with a small portion though as I want to reinvest a lot of the profits right back into more rentals, however like I said it is a balance.

Inside Self Storage is a good resource (insideselfstorage.com) along with all of the suggestions above. Also, www.trachte.com is a great resource. They are a self storage builder, but the put out a lot of free education including free in person seminars all over the country. I have attended one of them at their head quarters and it was really awesome. Definitely looking to go again in the future.

Finding self storage deals to purchase is very difficult. I've been in the self storage business since 2011, but when I say self storage I mean the portable self storage business. I have gone from 4 portable units to now 84 units and I have been looking for facilities to purchase over all of those years but still haven't found the right fit. I will likely develop before I successfully purchase another facility. They are great businesses, so they just don't come up for sale very often and when they do they go for prices that don't make sense to me. 

@Greg Bohn Hi Greg. Definitely a lot of people doing well in real estate within the Erie market. I recommend you join the northwestern Pennsylvania apartment association if you haven’t already. They host monthly dinners in Erie that have been great networking events that has a ton of investors there.

Originally posted by @Nicholas Weckstein:

@Nick Heil thanks for the reply. See that’s my worry. New policy takes place on the 21st but the inspection isn’t done yet. I can’t run that risk.

Ironic you said space heaters because the heating is electric baseboard which I’m not sure is the same but seems like it. I just don’t need an inspector poking around telling me I have to do certain things. Just going to stay with Allstate. Could have saved around $450 a year but not worth the hassle

No problem! I certainly understand  avoiding the hassle. Try getting connected with a local independent agent in your area that can go to multiple companies at once. They could do the majority of the leg work for you and even do the inspection themselves (and send the inspection to multiple companies). Could save you a lot of money and also get you a professional coverage review.

Good luck!

@Nicholas Weckstein It’s not uncommon for an insurance company to do an interior inspection. I’m an independent agent in Pennsylvania and we do them quite often. Some companies want to, some don’t. Them wanting to perform an inspection is not necessarily the end of the world, they might do the inspection and be okay with everything. Sometimes they are willing to work with you on things to give you time to make fixes and updates if they do find something. Really the big thing they are looking for is to make sure the property is in decent shape and Insurance companies do not like alternative heating methods such as space heaters and wood stoves. if your property has any of those heating sources its almost guarenteed your property will be inspected. Again not necessarily a deal breaker, but adda headaches for you. In the future when you are getting quotes make sure you ask your agent or insurance company if an inspection will be required. They should be able to do it before they make the policy effective and therefor before you cancel your current insurance.

Thanks for the discussion guys. 

Hey @Michael Wagner when you use Trachte do you work with their engineers each time to draw up siteplans/stamped engineering plans? I have a site I'm working through storm water management plans on and I was curious if Trachte walks you through those sort of things each time?

Thanks.

Originally posted by @Hai Loc:

Never.. You should get Grasshopper 1-800 number.. Give them an extension that goes straight to a voicemail.. or an extension that directs to your cell and you can choose when and when not to pick up..  Or add a different number to your existing cell phone plan and make sure the plan allows you to know when an incoming call is coming from that new 2nd line..  imagine tenants calling your main cell line at 2am for a leak

 Couldn't agree with this more. I use Grasshopper now and I love it. Plus it's scale-able. You can have as many extensions and phone numbers behind your main number as you want. So if you end up hiring employees you can just add their phones to your current phone number and maintain a professional corporate look.

You could also look into something like google voice. You can get another phone number for free that just forwards to your current cell phone. Just helps you separate your business and personal life. As you scale larger and larger, that will become more and more important.

Hi Krystal,

Congrats on getting to the number of units you have already, that is awesome! 

In my opinion, I don't think you have to be worried about diversification by city at this point. For example, if you read the annual report of American Homes 4 Rent, the largest single family public REIT in the country, you will notice in the management discussion and analysis section that they mention they don't reach scale until they own hundreds or even thousands of units in one given city. Now, they are invested in many cities across the U.S., but my point is they are buying a lot of units in every city they enter.

I'm not saying you should ignore diversification, it should definitely be a point of concern as you scale, but I think you could acquire many more units in each market before you need to be concerned about diversification.

Good Luck!

Hi Tyler,

Yes they will account for climate control. They have done many conversion projects so they will be an excellent resource to help you through. @Michael Wagner's statements above is great advice. I've worked with Trachte in the past and they are a great company to work with. Also, being able to go through them for your site plan/engineering plans is a huge advantage. I'm pretty sure they will also do the site plan/engineering plan for free for your first project, but regardless of whether it's free or not they will be an invaluable resource and much better than going through a local engineering firm as they only do self storage projects and conversions all over the country.

I would also recommend going to one of Trachte's free seminars. They offer them a couple times a month in different cities around the country and you can see their schedule on their website. I went to one a few years ago and it was awesome. I'll be going to more of them in the future.