All Forum Posts by: Troy Whitney

Attention aspiring investors!!!  If you need some extra cash and want to make some money on the side, we need somebody local to Chicago, who would be interested in viewing properties in southeast Chicago for us & taking video and photos and uploading them for $15 an hour? It would be a very part time job as we identify opportunities. We estimate that it would take approximately 2-4 hours per property including travel time, viewing, and uploading. We estimate that we would want viewings of one to four properties a month.

Currently, there are two properties to start that would like somebody to view  them as soon as possible, preferably this week.  There are two buildings, one is a 43 unit, the other a 60 unit, both in South Chicago.  You would meet with the listing agent and walk through both properties and take pictures and video of what you see.   

The only requirements for the job are that you are timely, dependable, can speak English well, can several flights of stairs, have a digital camera or decent picture-taking phone, and can upload the pictures to a Google Drive that we can send you a link to.

You would be self employed as an independent contractor.  

Contact Troy at [email protected].   If you can get there this week, we  may pay a bonus.  We will pay you cash via check or ACH for your time spent.   We are experienced real estate investors with our BP reputations on the line.  We will treat you fairly and pay you as soon as work is completed (have met with agent, walked through properties and taken and loaded up photographs and video).

We look forward to hearing from you.

-The Stewardship Group

Huh...I found it surprising that Appfolio requires that you have 50 units under management before they will take you on as a client. 

Hi Robert - I actually have looked at Ohio. Just last night I requested offering documentation on a property out there. I'm definitely interested in multifamily properties that cash flow - generally, assuming 50% expenses of current actual rent roll, and 15% IRR, and a loan size of $1million +. If you have something that meets this criteria - let me know - thanks.

In my opinion, Grant Cardone is a snake oil salesman.  His "educational" materials that I ordered were completely worthless (for me), and just hype to sell more stuff.  

Joseph  - I agree with much of what you say, not everything, but that's ok.  One person's experience is their experience, not everyone else's.  If someone owns 100 houses free and clear, having paid the mortgages off over a number of years., they might be clearing $40,000/month.  Now where I come from, that's not a bad living.  Also,as you say yourself, there's big competition for the big properties.  For someone working a job, trying to break into real estate, they are most likely going to have to start somewhere as an active investor at some point.   Yes of course, they can become a passive investor in a syndication, but all that means is they write a check and own a piece of someone else's project.  They aren't going to learn much of anything, unless you the syndicator is offering to teach them how to do what they do.   I have a friend who did a few smaller syndications, and just recently he completed fundraising on a 100,000 s.f. storage complex.  He started off doing smaller townhouse projects.

Let me ask you this - in these projects you are syndicating, offering an IRR in the low 20's, what's the cap rate going in, and the pro forma cap rate? How much of your IRR depends on projected property valuations? Forgive my skepticism, but I see a lot of syndications offering these sky-high returns even though cap rates going in are in the 4's, yet they are advertising that all the property needs is a "light-cosmetic" renovation.

Todd, I'll definitely check out the book.  I agree with you about the deal size-range you suggest.

In fact, I'm working on getting into that space now. :)

Joseph, either you are joking, or I am misinterpreting what you are saying, otherwise I can't disagree with you more. If what you are saying is true then nearly everyone on BP is wasting their time, as they aren't buying apartment buildings with at least 150 units in them. I know some very successful investors that completely disagree with you, and I think that Ken McElroy and Grant Cardone would disagree with you as well, as I'm pretty sure that neither of them started off buying 150 unit buildings. Now Ken McElroy only has like a billion dollars in assets, maybe you know more than he does. What's funny is that many people, in my experience, do quite well only buying single family homes. I know a guy who owns over 500 houses, and he's been doing this for like 30 years. I myself have done well investing only in singles and small multis. If you are buying 150 unit buildings, you're competing with larger companies for $60 million+ deals in many markets. I think it's great if you can do business in that space, but that's extremely limiting, and I would guess that the cap rates are probably lower at that level, especially now. I've got a deal right now that I'm looking at that's 1/10th of what you're talking about, that is offering close to a 20% IRR, including high-quality management.

Maksud - you should consult with an attorney that specializes in landlord-tenant relationships, but it seems to me that if your tenant has section 8 approval, then it is likely that they are going to have to find another place to live, since you aren't sec 8 approved.  If you were, then you would be receive payment  In my experience it can take months to get approval.  By the time you are approved, if your tenant isn't keeping up with rents, he/she will owe many months' rent.   Either your tenant pays their rent or not.  If not, then they either voluntarily or involuntarily leave.  If they are refusing to honor the lease and won't leave, then I would start eviction proceedings as soon as they are past due.

Joseph - are you saying that you recommend that if an investor wants to invest in say a 20-30 unit building out of state, that they manage it themselves?  I live in Seattle, and own 11 properties in Philadelphia, and have a project/property manager that I work with.  I give him free rent in one of my multis and he runs around for me.  Not all of my properties are cash cows, but as a whole, my portfolio performs decently.  Most of the properties I have bought have needed extensive work and in a number of cases, full renovations.  I bought them all site unseen.

My business partner are now looking at syndicating one or more deals in a totally different state.  It seems to me that the key is having the right management in place, rather than being able to drive to the property yourself.   A good management company makes all the difference.  I assume you don't disagree.

I am much happier now, apparently I just had to speak with the right person at Sherman Bridge. They apparently have more flexible options than I thought. Although they do charge high fees, they are in line with other hard money lenders. Next time when I encounter a difficult situation with a financial company, I'll try a little harder to speak with the right person before blasting away online.