All Forum Posts by: Tom Conant

Jimmy Klein Sounds like you know quite a bit about the hotel business. Tbh your first comment came off really aggressive, but I see why! You really know your stuff. What do you look for in regards to good investments in this unique niche market. Perhaps a better discussion over email or DM? Thanks for this great thread and awesome input everyone. Get better every day 💪🏻 Tom

Thanks to everyone for the responses. All of this info is super valuable for a green horn like myself. I will definitely look into he meet page of this site and see what people have to say. In regards to people telling me how hard it is to network with these guys. Sounds to me like they need strapping young people with construction experience in their labor force. Hmmm maybe I’ll get them to pay me while I network with them in their offices? Thanks again everyone, love this site, Tom

Hey Everyone, Random discussion point here. I am honestly disheartened to hear that our political administration wants to shrink a national monument by 85%. What sort of implications will this have on the actual land marks. I love RE investing but hate when things like this happen to beautiful protected lands. Great now there’s going to be a bunch of skyscrapers near these amazing monuments lol Thanks Tom

Hello everyone, Let me explain my frustration. I have been avoiding a full time W2 9-5 desk job in order to focus on strengthening my RE knowledge. Now that I have my finance degree, and tons of carpentry and labor oriented work under my belt, I started looking for small reliable real estate companies to apply to. Why does it seem like literally EVERY RE job opportunity out there is for hounds people like myself to ‘learn our super easy system’ ‘we have cracked the code to RE and wealth’ ‘we want to help people find their dream home’. Essentially all the advertisements seem like cry’s for help from RE brokerages that want young people to do all their dirty work. I have absolutely no interest in that. Is that just part of the RE ladder or am I doing the right thing in staying away from those types of jobs. I want to be employed where I’m getting paid for the value that I bring to the table. Not for how much value and suck out of consumers pockets and shove into whichever RE Investor was lucky enough to ‘hire’ me. Thanks for your help BP, Tom

Hey Justin, Take this advice with a grain of salt as I have yet to secure my own property! But having asked a lot of the same questions you’re asking I’ll tell you what people on here have told me. Don’t chase the numbers! It’s all a per house basis within your market. So a 20% discount could be great in Sacramento but terrible I’m RI (just an example). See what I mean? A 20% discount on a brand new home would be awesome. A 20% discount on a burnout would be a pretty tough bargain. So I guess to answer your questions fully we would need to know a little bit about your potential deals. To the points about the 100 deals and make offers to 10 to get one. You still need 100 good deals first. Right? Or maybe people have had success by random direct mail and things like that? Idk like I said I’m a noob too. My two cents! Tom

Anthony Malveto wow that’s awesome advice! Where should I start? I’m burning through about 4 podcasts a day learning all that is offered there. How should I build that brand you speak of? Thanks again 🙏🏻 Tom

@Russell Brazil Thanks for being so active on my thread. From a cash flow perspective I wonder if most saw an appreciation in the overall value of their properties. The underlying equity value of your tenant based properties would have gone down while demand for the rental would have gone up. Hmm its actually a very nice juxtaposition. I bet if you broke down the cash flows my doomsday downside risk numbers would be a lot less critical if they included appreciation in rental incomes and the relatively less important depreciation in equity (as it doesn't impact cash flows immediately). Thank you for opening my eyes to this. I would love to hear what you have to say in regard to my other comment. 

Thanks again for all your help,

Tom

Also, to everyone saying that you cannot predict market then why are you in real estate investing? Should I simply pick 100 random properties and pick one from a hat? Probably not. Because you guys say its all about finding the best deals, the notion that you cannot predict the market doesn't make sense to me. How does one find deals while also disregarding future growth or decline of the market?

My proposition is, if one was able to bet against the spread so to speak by choosing the correct properties in the correct geography, you would able to beat the average RE market performance. In finance, your not cash flow positive until you beat the risk free investment (that being the federal funds rate or similar rate I think). As mentioned before, people are getting excited about %5 cap rates when there are almost riskless investments elsewhere in govt bonds and what not. Is there a similar metric in RE that one would try to analyze and choose their markets to surpass? Is that what Cap Rates are for? I don't mean to attack anyone's views and this is purely academic, but why wouldn't someone like myself invest in a Real Estate Investment Trust that already has an extremely diversified portfolio instead of looking into the market and trying to 'beat' the market by choosing the best investment properties? Am I talking in circles like a crazy person yet?

Thanks again for all the help and support people!

Tom

Woahhh @Mike Dymski. That's a curveball. See, I would have thought that with a  market downturn your rental rates would go down but depending on where your properties are you could find investments with lower/inverse betas to the market would be a good way to mitigate portfolio risk. Also, @Jahan Habib that is precisely why I started this thread. I'm new to this so I can't afford the downside risk that most the investors on here can but I am also worried that I am going to miss the train so to speak. 

Hey everyone As a new investor myself this thread is so helpful. How much do these services typically cost? I know RE is all about keeping costs as low as possible, so how much of a net positive is having a great accountant when you’re pinching pennies to begin with? Thanks 🙏🏻 Tom