All Forum Posts by: Steven Stokes

I have never put together a syndication but I have found investors to put together my deals and the best piece of advice I can share is that it's all about building relationships. It's a slow and steady process of getting to know people and having them get to know you. 

Put some deals together, keep them in the loop on your successes and failures this builds trust and confidence. When they feel comfortable it becomes an easy conversation. I've never borrowed money from a stranger. Keep your investors close. 

But this is an interesting thread, I'd be interested to see where it goes.

@Jo 

@Jo Zhou We both live in California. Technically, it's not legal, I don't think but it's done here, it's lazy. But basically, the agent makes a phone call, says "I think I can get this sucker for higher" and they say OK. You can tell him you want them to sign it but he'll just get it signed. If you think there's fraud involved you can ask to give your counter in person or on a conference call. 

But to be honest, unless you really think it's fraud involved, this is not worth the fight.

I hope this helps.

@Jessie Boyce Hi Jessie congratulations on finding this deal. Please keep us in the loop about how it progresses! 

You're asking what would be the best way to do this deal but I think the question you should be asking is what do you want from this deal?

Do you want a large chunk of cash?

Do you want cash flow?

Do you want investment equity?

Once you answer that question, how you put the deal together will become clear.

One of the mistakes many new investors make is trying to make a strategy to fit the deal when if you talk to any investor who has been doing it for awhile, the deal has to fit into their strategy. 

For example, the past few years for real estate investments I've only been doing buy and hold deals. I've seen some killer wholesale deals come through but I've passed them up because I'm not doing wholesale deals. If you talk to most experienced investors you will get the same kind of reply (most of the time).

I wish I would have gotten this advice when I was new but my advice to you is pick a strategy, buy and hold, lease/option, wholesale, whatever you feel best. Get really good at it because you will make mistakes anyway. And only do deals that fit your strategy and your plan. I'm assuming you have a written plan of your goals and objectives. 

I'm not sure if this helped or not. I hope it did.

Good luck and I hope this deal is the start of something great for you both!

Stephen

@Samuel Lee

Can I keep using my s corp for everything or do I have to use a seperate entity? 

I also own businesses and real estate. How I was instructed by a really good attorney to hold these properties is have the businesses each have their own separate corp.

Never hold more than two real estate properties in a corp.

And put all of my assets into a trust. 

Many people think if their corporation is sued then they are protected because the corporation is being sued but a lot of the time,  YOU personally and the corp will be sued. This is why you need the trust to hold your corps in. 

Am I able to transfer the name to my llc or s corp? 

Yes

What kinds of costs are there? 

Depends on your state, your attorney and how complicated you need or want it to be. 

What about the contracts I have in right now that have not settled. Can I ask them to switch it to the llc or s corp? 

With most contracts, you will also have had to sign a personal guarantee as well. So for regular debts and accounts payable they will be able to work with you without much hassle. 

With your residential properties, you will have to talk to your mortgage person. It might be easier to put them in a trust than in a corp. But that's something you can talk to your bank then your attorney about.

I hope this all made sense. 

Good luck!

@Marty Summers my friend, money is life. It needs to move or it dies. Do what banks do, they borrow money from you at one or two percent and they invest it at four or five percent. It doesn't seem like much but you see how big banks have gotten off of this one technique for years. 

Always be investing, when you stop investing you stop winning. 

Oh PS this is just my personal opinion. Please seek out the advice of really smart people who know your personal situation and your personal goals and objectives. They can give you the best advice for you personally. 

I wish you all the best. 

@Marty Summers @Andrew Johnson and I are pretty much saying the same thing. Use leverage to your advantage. 80k+ can go a long way if you use your cash strategically. I wish I could show you the math on here but spreading your cash over multiple investments is better than putting it into one or two. 

People with cash have a tendency to spend cash even where it's not necessary. When I invest, I always try to make my cash the last to go in and the first to come out. When I said he was stuck it meant his money was tied up in the property he bought. He bought one property. And even though it was a good investment, he could have bought three times as many and used leverage to do even better. 

So my advice, use your money very strategically. 

I hope this helps.

Stephen

@Steve B. @Priyanshu Adathakkar This has been a good discussion. To be honest, I think contracts, purchase agreements, LOIs, etc. are all BS. It really comes down to knowing who you are dealing with. If you're dealing with someone who is above board then all you need is a handshake but with some people all the contracts in the world won't help you. And if a person wants to sue you, they don't need a letter of intent to sue you. They only need an attorney willing to take their money. 

That's real life. 

Thanks for the discussion.

@Marty Summers A few years ago a friend of mine was getting close to retirement and he had about 100k to invest and he wanted to invest in some real estate. 

I suggested he sit down and make a detailed plan of what he wanted to do and how he was going to invest the money. He never did it. 

A year later he invested all the savings he had and now his money is stuck. 

Marty, I would say, figure out what your objectives and goals are, make a plan on how you are going to invest or not invest and work your plan. 

Not having a plan is the surest way to getting house rich and cash poor. 

But this is just my opinion. 

I hope this helps, good luck

Stephen

@Michaela Hayes is there someone higher up that you can talk to? This doesn't seem right.

@Steve B. I really don't mean to get into a pissing match with you or anyone. I'm just offering my friendly opinion. 

As to your point, I really don't see how a court would say, "oh this is real estate so there are no reasonable expectations for anything, and so it doesn't count." lol

But once again, I am not a lawyer. But from everything I've read from legal websites. I think anyone should be cautious when signing anything.