All Forum Posts by: Pat G.

Great question. I would Google your area and REIA clubs and then attend as many as you can. At every real estate investment club there are at least 5 wholesalers to chat with.

I would watch getting into the waste business, a lot of ERP, Govt' regulations. I would pass on it unless you have run a sewer treatment plant before. These are two separate businesses. Good Luck! 

@Arica Gonzales Awesome job on saving up capital and then turning to real estate. I would agree with @Dan Wallace and @Bill E.  get some more education or find a mentor who has done this before. There is no such thing as "too big" first deal or not. 

I would do some due diligence with the city planning and zoning departments to see that the other acres can in fact be used. Now you say RV, I don't want to assume but did you me mean mobile home park? I would search Google and find others that teach about RV parks and take their courses of enroll in their coaching programs. 

But first, you have to decide are RV parks going to be your vehicle for investing, meaning is that an area of interest for you and your husband to get into or is it just the first thing that crossed your path that you could invest in. RV/mobile home parks are businesses, you have to think about that. Secondly, are you just wanting to be passive with your investing - give your money to a sponsor and they do all the work. 

A lot to think about, good luck and keep reaching for the stars!!

@Zheath Sanchez sounds like a good thing. All the advise so far is great. One thing stood out to me in your post, "seller would like to close deal asap", I would do some real due diligence on the building, check with the city building and planning departments and make sure that if ownership changes you can still run it as a bar. Usually when sellers are in a hurry there is a good reason. Trust but verify!  Without knowing more about the property hard to give any more advise than get a good real estate lawyer and the city's blessings and go for it. Good Luck!

@Nick Mulligan That is a great question, but I do agree with @Dave Van Horn books can only lead you so far. I would check go to seminars and/or purchase courses on Commercial RE investing. BUT FIRST - you have to get really focuses on what type of commercial real estate you want to invest in, i.e. apartments, self-storage, hotels, cell towers, billboards, retail strip centers, mixed use, office, etc. Then seek out the top teachers in the given type and attend their seminars, podcasts, webinars etc. It is a lot easier to gather information about a particular type than it was years ago, which means learning will be easier. Good Luck! 

@David Thompson &  @Sam Van Horebeek  Both awesome suggestions. Thank You for sharing your knowledge and experience. If there is anything I can do for you let me know.

@Ryan York Your add content is critical just like in direct mail. Are you looking for all sellers, people in some sort of financial trouble, etc. It is like that saying "when the student is ready the teacher will appear". Meaning that you may have to be out there several months in order to get one good lead. It is all about the message of your add and the message on the landing page after they click thru. Do you close quickly, pay cash, work with buildings that need lots of work, etc. I would set up 3 different landing pages one for each type, i.e. tired landlord, in some sort of money trouble, and maybe one for need to close in 30 days. Just ideas, hope that helps. Please let us know how and what you did that worked. Good luck

@Barry Je I have called up the property assessors office in the county or city that I am interested in and asked for a list of apartments and/or self storage in their areas. Usually when you call the assessors office they will transfer you to the IT department to obtain the list. I have gotten over 10 lists from different cities/counties. And for most all commercial property the owner on record will be a LLC, or Inc. So to get the people in that LLC go to the secretory of State website and search for "Business Search" where you then would type in the LLC name and out pops people associated with that LLC. Now, it sounds easy but you may only get one "real person" name, but it is more than you had before. You want to also use the address that the tax bill is sent to, because that address is always correct. Here is GA's SoS URL: https://ecorp.sos.ga.gov/BusinessSearch Hope that helps. Good luck

@Andrew Michaud As long as the 2nd. property pays for itself you should be OK. If it doesn't well then don't do it. If you are worried about having a reserve of cash then borrow the down payment from a private investor. Or what you could do is have what they call a capital reserve account- which is extra cash set aside each month from rents that you use to pay for big expenses that may come up. Again, this is all possible if the 2nd. property pays for itself.  Just some thoughts, if it works, you are young enough, you should over-extend yourself the right way at your age! That is how you get wealthy. Hope this helps. 

@Jack B. For 5 years our projections I use a rent & expense escalator or 3% per year and then "guess" on what the Cap rate will be when we sell. Usually you sell at a lower Cap Rate when you sell. Also in that calculation you factor in vacancy and concessions to come up with your assumptions.

Then when these numbers don't work, it is not an opportunity to go after. Hope that helps.