All Forum Posts by: Ronan Donnelly

Hi @Wesley Quinn, property managers are worth their weight in gold and ultimately, they are the means by which you can scale in real estate.

Here are some recommendations on how to find a property manager:

1) Google and Yelp to see what the available universe of managers is

2) Call the owners of comparable properties to see how they use and get referrals

3) Qualify your list by whether or not they have experience in managing the kind of asset that you plan to buy and how professional they are e.g. do they have a team, do they employ software like appfolio, building etc

4) Property management works best when you ‘asset manage’ them so don’t plan to be completely hands off. If you are going to be uncontactable then you will need to document procedures so that they know what decision you would make.

Good luck!

Hi @Trina P., it looks like you have already thought this through. I would recommend working for a property management firm that specializes in the area/asset class that you want to invest in. That will allow him to leverage the skills he already has in construction management, learn the business that you want to build and to be exposed to players in the space that you want to be in. Good luck!

@Ron Singh, I’d go for option 1 since it opens up the opportunity for you to partner with professionals in that space via a syndicate. You can spread your risk by investing in multiple syndicates. Best of all, it’s entirely passive and the best way to leverage your capital.

All of the other strategies are time intensive and you are in effect creating another job for yourself so consider time spent when calculating return. Think how much more cash you could generate if your real estate investments didn’t use up your time.

Hi @Tylor Gray, I have a great NY based cleaner that I can recommend if you DM me. Good luck!

Hi @Account Closed, do a self assessment to figure out what your areas of strength are and them match them to a specific real estate strategy and asset class and then go deep on that area. Also map out your other limiting factors like time and money available, location etc. All of this should help you to narrow down your choices and to get the focus required to succeed. There are no right or wrong answers. Good luck!

Hi @Account Closed, I like the data available from the enodoinc.com market analyzer tool (it’s free) as a way to sanity check expenses. Good luck!

Hi @Parney Willson, my short answer is that there is easier and less risky money to be made in real estate than buying a condo with a rent stabilized tenant, in NYC.

1) Condo - lots of additional due diligence needed on the condo association and risk to you if others do not keep up with their dues

2) Rent Stabilized tenant - NYC recently implemented a new set of regulations called the Statewide Security and Tenant Protection Act 2019. This is undoubtedly impacting the value of rental property in NYC and for good reason, your ability, as a landlord, to increase rents and remove non-paying tenants has been dramatically reduced http://www.realestateindepth.c...

3) Cap rates below financing rates, how are you going to get cashflow?

Good luck

Hi @Freda Afrifa, one of the challenges with investing in NYC is that Cap rates are often lower than mortgage rates which means that, in order to get cashflow, you will need to pay a bigger down payment. For many investors NYC is a place to park cash and get a stable, albeit low (3%) return.

I’d start with figuring out the cap rate to see if the deal makes sense in terms of how much of a down payment you would need to make in order to get cashflow

Hi @Richard Michie, I think that mentors are a great idea and I have personally benefitted from using mentors over the years. Here are a few recommendations:

1) Find one that is a a fit for what you wan to learn

2) For real estate specifically, only take advice from active practitioners. Be wary of people who are ‘experts’ at presentation but who haven’t done a deal in years

3) Set some objectives for what you want from the mentor

4) Don’t limit yourself to just one

5) Force yourself to do work before you bring a mentor on board.

Good luck!

@Justin Elliott, I think that the objection, as communicated to you by the potential investor is bogus. They didn't discover an opinion on the stage of the market cycle from their call with you so why are they bothering to go ahead? Here are some points that I would share

1) Nobody is consistently good at predicting the timing of market cycles

2) Doing nothing has an opportunity cost

3) Real estate isn't market-to-market like a stock on a real-time basis. You can hold it, it has positive cashflow

4) Real estate allows you to create equity by rehabbing or improving the asset

5) Real Estate cycles are local and not uniform across asset classes. Take the opportunity to explain why your asset is perfect for any recession

6) The trends underpinning multifamily real estate for example aren't changing any time soon. The population is growing and people have a preference for renting

Good luck!