All Forum Posts by: Samuel Eastling

Hello Mandy,  

I work for a company called Visioneering Studios, we are a design+build firm that focuses on churches! If you want to talk offline, I believe I could help connect you to the right people!

Happy Friday,

Sam Eastling

Hey Jordan, 

just a helpful note! I am using A.CRE retail underwriting tool. He has videos on YouTube. He doesn't necessarily go into the nuance of mill rates on every video but breaks down how to use it. Not perfect but very helpful. Whenever I don't know something on the underwriting spreadsheet, I just go google it. It helps me learn more, see and understand things better.

Hope it helps,

Sam

Hello!

I help a build+design company that works with churches across the U.S.  I have a church near downtown Frisco, TX that has 3-7 acres that they would part with if the terms made sense.  The church is currently working with my company to redesign their campus and they had a developer share an idea of selling some of their land.  This excited the church and we are excited for the church too.  However, we want to give the church as many options as reasonably possible.  I want to see if there are any developers on BP that work in the Frisco area.  Since the land is in a great location the real question is who can maximize the value for themselves and the church.  

I can share more details one on one as I don't want to share too publicly all the details of the church or develop (respecting their privacy). However, given the right opportunity the church would be open-minded to a sale/JV or ground lease. Please reply or send a PM and I will be happy to share the specifics. This is a time bound opportunity (they want to hear some options in the next few weeks, especially since they are excited by the first offer).

Thank you,

Sam Eastling

 David,

We actively have one in the mid-west that we are actively pursuing and several available that we don't have the infrastructure to pursue, one in Minnesota, Illinois and Ohio.  There are other deals we may have in the future we haven't pursued.  you can PM me for any details.  Look forward to talking.

Thank you,

Sam Eastling

@Henry Clark,

I agree with everything you've said.  That is what my intution says. I know these are great issues to have and I want to steward them well and appreciate the wisdom.  

Hi everyone,

I have a strange situation.  I work for an architectural firm in the DFW. We work almost exclusively for churches/non-profits (schools, church related programs i.e. shelters ect.).   Now that you have that as a referrence, here is what last year looked like for us.

We worked with 100 organizations (churches) in 83 cities across 25 states last year.  Here is where it is exciting:

SInce Covid, a lot of churches found themselves in financial distress due to lockdowns ect.  This got a lot of churches interested in doing something with excess land on their church campuses.  There are some churches with 50 acres, some with 4 acres but in the heart of some of the largest cities across America.

I have the great priviledge to lead this company into the development world.  We have access to more deals than is reasonable to do.  To start I want to simply get into some deals with other developers and grow our network of partners across the nation. I dont need the lions share of the equity. I just want to help my company grow its book of business and track record. 

The heart of it all is helping the churches build additonal revenue streams, whether they want to get a large influx of cash or JV on a project to get income on a consistent basis. I have the backing of my company but we are so busy in our normal operations. It is best to treat this almost like a start up. We can get architectural or desing work done on our projects but the normal team has their hands full.

I have had the pleasure of working in real estate for a few years in my past.  I know that at the end of the day. There are a million people that can do a pro-forma or do some underwriting on a deal.  What matters the most is who you know and trusting those you work with.  So, what might be a good place to find and build relationships with people especially as I am sort of bootstrapping this R.E. dev. department. I know that is a silly question but regardless, you got to ask silly questions to learn and grow, eventually getting to the right questions.

You are awesome!

Thank you,

Sam Eastling

Hi Everyone,

I have three development deals that are very good prospects. I want to share them with you all today and see what you think. If I could find a developer/partner on BP that would be a dream come true as I've been on Bigger Pockets since I was in high school and I would love to work with people from the BP community.

Here is some background:

I started with an acritcural firm as a real estate development associate. We help churches across America design and build new spaces (design/acricture/construction). However, we have found ourselves in an amazing opportunity to get into real estate development due to churches having excess land often in great locations that would otherwise be unavailable to the average developer. We care first about how the development impacts the church and we want to serve the church. Thankfully these churches would like to have another revenue source and we often find the developments to be very complimentary for the church.

All these churches would be open to selling the land/groundlease/JV depending on the developers goals and needs along with the specific church.

I have a church in Fort Worth, T.X. that has 3.14 acres that they are looking at putting a 100 unit senior living/multifamily property (3 stories). The whole church campus is getting a huge redevopment with a new coffee shop/pickle ball courts/medical offices and there are new sidewalks that connect the property as one over arching beautiful development. This is a great advantage for the multifamily developer as the entire area around them is getting a huge improvment. The land as an approximate value of $750,000. The development would be worth approximately $15,000,000 to $20,000,000.

Another church in Joliet, I.L. has 10 acres and they have been looking at senior living however if a developer wanted to do market rate multifamily or even single family development the church would be open minded to building something else if the numbers made sense. This church again is getting a beautiful face lift and would help increase the overall value of the area and the property here would be worth approximately $350,000. The development depending on the product would be worth approximately $17,000,000 to $26,000,000

My final project I currently have is in Glendora, C.A. The church is consolidating their campuses and one of their campuses is open to new developments. They have some housing (6 homes) on the property and in C.A. there is a requirment to replace any housing destroyed due to development with new housing so this property could be a mix-use property or perhaps a mutli-family property. I don't currently have figures for the value of the proepty or the value of a potential development. However, if you do work in the C.A. area, I will be getting more information on this property soon and we can talk privately (comment below or PM me).

My company does desing/arcitectual/construction. If you are an equity/debt partner or know one please feel free to reach out as we'd be happy to be heavily involved in these projects however we don't currently have the capital to complete these projects ourselves otherwise we probably would do most of it in house.

If you are a developer or know developers who might be interested please tag them and invite them to this conversation. We are very happy to partner with developers and grow business as it is a win-win all around.

We are just getting into the development space so we will continue to have a lot more deals in future. As of right now, I am looking at these three deals. There are dozens more churches that want to develop their land and even if these deals dont fit your criteria or standards let me know what you do and I will reach out and put you on my developer list as we get more deals I am happy to let everyone know what comes available as it very well might be something that fits your goals.

Thank you for looking through my current projects and comment with any questions or notes and I will follow this conversation closely and look forward to hopefully finding partners via BP.

Thank you,

Hi Everyone, 

I have three development deals that are very good prospects.  I want to share them with you all today and see what you think.  If I could find a developer/partner on BP that would be a dream come true as I've been on Bigger Pockets since I was in high school and I would love to work with people from the BP community.  

Here is some background:

I started with an acritcural firm as a real estate development associate.  We help churches across America design and build new spaces (design/acricture/construction).  However, we have found ourselves in an amazing opportunity to get into real estate development due to churches having excess land often in great locations that would otherwise be unavailable to the average developer.  We care first about how the development impacts the church and we want to serve the church.  Thankfully these churches would like to have another revenue source and we often find the developments to be very complimentary for the church.

All these churches would be open to selling the land/groundlease/JV depending on the developers goals and needs along with the specific church.

I have a church in Fort Worth, T.X. that has 3.14 acres that they are looking at putting a 100 unit senior living/multifamily property (3 stories).  The whole church campus is getting a huge redevopment with a new coffee shop/pickle ball courts/medical offices and there are new sidewalks that connect the property as one over arching beautiful development.  This is a great advantage for the multifamily developer as the entire area around them is getting a huge improvment.  The land as an approximate value of $750,000.  The development would be worth approximately $15,000,000 to $20,000,000.  

Another church in Joliet, I.L. has 10 acres and they have been looking at senior living however if a developer wanted to do market rate multifamily or even single family development the church would be open minded to building something else if the numbers made sense. This church again is getting a beautiful face lift and would help increase the overall value of the area and the property here would be worth approximately $350,000. The development depending on the product would be worth approximately $17,000,000 to $26,000,000

My final project I currently have is in Glendora, C.A. The church is consolidating their campuses and one of their campuses is open to new developments.  They have some housing (6 homes) on the property and in C.A. there is a requirment to replace any housing destroyed due to development with new housing so this property could be a mix-use property or perhaps a mutli-family property.  I don't currently have figures for the value of the proepty or the value of a potential development. However, if you do work in the C.A. area, I will be getting more information on this property soon and we can talk privately (comment below or PM me).

My company does desing/arcitectual/construction.  If you are an equity/debt partner or know one please feel free to reach out as we'd be happy to be heavily involved in these projects however we don't currently have the capital to complete these projects ourselves otherwise we probably would do most of it in house.

If you are a developer or know developers who might be interested please tag them and invite them to this conversation.  We are very happy to partner with developers and grow business as it is a win-win all around.

We are just getting into the development space so we will continue to have a lot more deals in future.  As of right now, I am looking at these three deals. There are dozens more churches that want to develop their land and even if these deals dont fit your criteria or standards let me know what you do and I will reach out and put you on my developer list as we get more deals I am happy to let everyone know what comes available as it very well might be something that fits your goals.

Thank you for looking through my current projects and comment with any questions or notes and I will follow this conversation closely and look forward to hopefully finding partners via BP.

Thank you,

Sam Eastling

Hi BP'ers 

I live in Fort Worth TX.  I have the priviledge to be able to gather in pulbic and restuarnts are open and so on. I want to help foster a meet up in the Fort Worth area.  I have two ideas.  

1. I would like to run a small book club for the book "Think and Grow Rich"  by Napolean Hill.  
2. I would also like to see a bi-monthly offering to let people play the game "Rat Race".  I own the game and there are places nearby that I could host it at. 

Has Bigger Pockets removed meet ups?  Is there anyone that would be interested in these options?

Hope to foster,

Sam Eastling

Hey @Jordan Lucas

Great questions, your goals are absolutely attainable. I am 22 and while I don't own properties, I have taken an occupation in property management as being an investor is in some degree knowing property management and knowing how to own real estate. Brandon Turner of BP said once that if you don't know how to get in just start in an industry that works around or with real estate. If I could offer an idea. Brandon Turner had a real estate agent who worked side by side with him for sometime. If you wanted to get into REI I would offer the idea to connect with your local REI community through a REIA or a local BP meetup. Join in and sit down and just listen. They will love to share their stories with you.

Best Wishes,

Sam Eastling