All Forum Posts by: Roy Schauer

Welcome back Wesley!  I'm based in Anchorage if you would like to meet for coffee sometime when your passing through.  This is a tough business and with the prices in Alaska it can make it challenging at times.

Welcome to BP and nice to meet you!

@Heru Amun Welcome! And great idea to network. I have a wholesaler that's moving to Fairbanks this week to move into a lease option he picked up. His name is Payuk Nay. There are a couple of military guys and a lady located in the Fairbanks that I've talked too. If you look at my network of who I'm colleagues and being followed by you'll see their info if you want to contact them.

@Felecia Sewell @Rick H. I work primarily with pre-foreclosures or the distressed properties in Anchorage, Alaska. I did what was taught as the "way to get leads." And didn't close a deal for almost a year when I started.  Then I sat down and addressed it from a problem solving perspective. Who is your ideal client? What are the problems they have that you are able to solve? Where are these clients and what is the best way to put myself in front of them. Once I figured that out, I changed my method of getting their attention.  And it worked, I did about 5 deals that year.  Then I said I need to get more of a presence in the community and have taken steps to put myself in front of groups of like minded people as well as educating groups of realtors how I can help them by helping me. 

Maybe going back to the beginning and asking the basic question of "what's a problem I'm currently seeing a lot of or have heard other people talking about that needs to be addressed" will help realign your efforts to be more active.   Your persistence will be what carries you through when the others give up because it was too hard.

@Tamara George Were you at the Egan Center this past weekend with Marc? Welcome to BiggerPockets and congrats on getting started. 

@Nathan Cox there are going to be a lot of different answers because there is more than one approach and it depends on your personal risk value. My immediate response, because I don't want to be a landlord, would be sell your condo to move into a multifamily. It's a better use of your money and leverage here locally. However, if you could get a HELOC on your condo and use that money to buy a multifamily or even to invest it in order to make it grow and then buy a multifamily after you've reached a certain amount. I'm a big fan of leveraging. If you want to know what your financial potential is, talk to Adam Heafner at First Rate Financial. He owns property and understands the mindset here in Anchorage. Hope that helps.

@Account Closed Well I think they are a great networking tool locally. But I'm not exactly impartial either. Lol! Just remember we are going through some growing pains right now as we just merged two REI groups together, with their various organizers, and are still ironing out the kinks and making changes to make REX more effective for our members in the Alaska, specifically Anchorage, market.

With that said, stop on by. We don't bite and you'll get to meet some pretty interesting people that handle property in a variety of ways!

Good job of reaching out @Matt Slykhuis ! We locals gotta stick together. I don't know of a local REI in the Fairbanks area. But knowing people and money, I'll bet there is a small group of people who meet at least once a month to talk about property and investments. Find them. Talk to real estate people and don't be shy. Specifically ask realtors if they own any income properties. Those are the ones who will likely know where those people get together.

@Michael Owens To answer your question. Do both. Once you start spreading your network and people see you as a problem solver, deals will start coming to you. Until that time, you'll have to put in the time and work to find them.  Looking at hundreds of properties will allow you to get to a point where you can walk through a house in an hour and have numbers within a 5% range of actual and know whether it's something you can do or pass on to someone else.  It takes time and experience to hone that skill. Find someone who is doing it and is further down the road will accelerate your learning curve but make sure it's someone you can work with.  Always be looking and create multiple possible scenarios for the end buyers of how they can make money on a deal.  Some people are very streamlined in their thinking and have a hard time coming up with ideas about property that are not the mainstream way.

Here is an example:  I just recently put under contract a property that no one wanted because of zoning issues.  I found a creative way around it, while I'm attempting to get a variance because it's an existing condition that was in effect for many years. The property is in good shape, just needs some light updating. It's a two bed/1.75 bath with 1300sf upstairs and a 1bed/1bath 1200s.f. mother-in-law.  The upstairs will rent through the winter months for enough to cover the mortgage, condo dues, and utilities while I remodel the downstairs and use it as temporary office space because of its location. All this is happening because someone couldn't get their place sold and they had a job offer in another state and needed to be there ASAP. They had already come down $30k in price.  I was able to get it for $35k below original asking price, with $7k down, I take over paying all bills while we are closing and closing date is set for August 1, 2015. I'm now handling the property, didn't have to get bank financing, the renter will take care of all bills while I'm fixing up the lower unit and I'm already prospecting for a potential investor buyer looking for multiple income property that will Cashflow nicely.

The point is you don't learn how to put something like this together without increasing your knowledge of properties, knowing what can be done in your market, and building relationships. A realtor brought this one to me after it had been on the market for over 120 days.  It's taken me almost 3 years to get to this point and a lot of learning curve.  So start now but always be cautious and know what your getting into before you sign and become the one responsible.  Good luck! And look up Matt in Fairbanks because four eyes, two brains, and four sets of hands can accomplish more together than alone. 

@Jonathan Plant I'm based in Anchorage, Alaska. Where was your property you sold?

If your looking at growing your money, keeping it protected, and mitigating taxes on earnings then two possible methods might be self-directed IRA or whole life insurance investing. Both allow you to fund deals from them and grow your earnings to fund larger deals all while protecting it from creditors etc, as well as making it easier to pass the money on to your loved ones if something should happen to you.

Good luck no matter what direction you choose.  Just be persistent and consistent.  The changes will come.  By the way, if your looking to increase your real estate knowledge and network in Anchorage, try joining www.meetup.com/r_e_x_  It's a local real estate investment group that just merged two smaller groups and is getting ready to do some big future changes.  Actually, the next meeting is tomorrow night at the Petroleum club on C street and covers the topic of credit and financing.  Hope to see you there!