All Forum Posts by: Reed Meyer

I am in the process of taking the Real Estate Pre-Licensing Course in preparation for taking the Licensing Exam. What books/podcasts do you recommend as I try and learn as much as possible about how to be successful in the field once I get my license.

As some background on myself: I live in Chicago and I am currently looking for my first investment property. I have a full-time W-2 job and am pursuing a license as a second stream of income as I try to accelerate my cash generation to build my investment portfolio.

Thanks!

@Robert Ellis I plan on investing in Multi-family (2-4 units to start) as my investment strategy is cash flow focused but I look for properties in areas that I feel have promising appreciation potential.

I graduated from college in May and I moved to Chicago shortly afterwards to start my job. I have constantly been looking for deals in Chicago but it is very difficult to find cash flow in areas that I would want to be investing in. I am 0-3 on my offers so far as I have had to go FHA to satisfy the higher price level of the properties here. The PMI, high taxes, and relatively high price-to-rent ratios (failure to meet 1% rule) have made it VERY difficult to find cash flow in a quality area with my current net worth.

These struggles have sparked my interest in Columbus (as well as Indy), although I have very little knowledge of the investing landscape in the city. I would love to get a quasi "Crash Course" on Columbus investing and start learning about the city/good areas to look for investment properties (preferably 2-4 unit turn-key or light cosmetic rehab properties).

I would also love to make any and all possible connections with fellow investors, brokers, and lenders in the city so I can start building my Columbus deal team. So please reach out if you would like to hop on a phone call to talk Columbus real estate strategy/deals or if you think you know someone that would be a good resource to me. Thank you very much.

@Doug Peters thanks a lot! Ya I don’t necessarily mean an actual course but I more just would love to ask someone a ton of questions about the best areas to invest in are and what a great deal in Indy looks like to them.

I graduated from college in May and I moved to Chicago shortly afterwards to start my job. I have constantly been looking for deals in Chicago but it is very difficult to find cash flow in areas that I would want to be investing in. I am 0-3 on my offers so far as I have had to go FHA to satisfy the higher price level of the properties here. The PMI, high taxes, and relatively high price-to-rent ratios (failure to meet 1% rule) have made it VERY difficult to find cash flow in a quality area with my current net worth.

These struggles have sparked my interest in Indianapolis, although I have very little knowledge of the investing landscape in the city. I would love to get a quasi "Crash Course" on Indy investing and start learning about the city/good areas to look for investment properties (preferably 2-4 unit turn-key or light cosmetic rehab properties). 

I would also love to make any and all possible connections with fellow investors, brokers, and lenders in the city so I can start building my Indy deal team. So please reach out if you would like to hop on a phone call to talk Indianapolis real estate strategy/deals or if you think you know someone that would be a good resource to me. Thank you very much.

As a beginner investor what are some services I can offer experienced investors in order to get involved with their projects and learn from them? I want to be a part of these experienced investor's deals and I know the best way to do this is by offering to assist in their investments.

@Mandela Muhammad thanks a lot Mandela. What kind of things do you try to learn from these conversations? Any specific questions you think are good to ask?

Over the next year I plan on raising money for a syndicate multi-family investment. I will be looking in the 16-32 unit range.

Given my lack of experience I will need to bring a lot to the table in order to raise money from investors. I will need a home run deal that offers downside protection and a significant preferred return (8% or more) in order to convince an investor to provide the down payment. I also understand that I will need to gain the investor's confidence by being an expert in the local multi-family market. 

My plan is that outside of my 60 hour work week I will view properties and analyze deals on the weekends just to increase my knowledge and understand what a good deal really looks like in my area. I want to improve my "deal combing" skills in order to have an elite understanding of where value can be added, what makes a high quality area, where I can generate appreciation due to an area's rent disparity, and what makes a deal just "feel good". Does anyone have any suggestions for the best approaches to do go about this? Should I just be going out to properties on my own and checking them out from the outside and asking pedestrians about the area? Should I be arranging viewings with the properties' broker? I am thinking I want to be viewing 6+ properties every single weekend.

Thanks a lot. Any and all responses are greatly appreciated and no suggestion is too far fetched. I will put it in any amount of effort necessary (even if it seems unreasonable) to ensure that I can be trusted by investors and able to raise money without a track record.

@Adam Blachnio ya so the numbers I gave you are for a specific deal I’m looking at. I’d most likely flip it after stabilizing because there would be $230k in forced appreciation where I’d give the vast majority of that to my partner since they would be putting in all the capital. Not entirely sure what my exit plan would be to be honest. Would need to decide what terms I’d give my partner first.

I don’t necessarily have a budget because I would have to raise the entire down payment from a partner and then give them a preferred return. So I really don’t have a budget other than what I can get from a partner

@Adam Blachnio It is selling as a 6.9% cap and if I was able to increase the rents by just $100 through rehab and assuming 10% vacancy (both are conservative assumptions in my opinion) it would be an 8.9% cap.