All Forum Posts by: Travis Watts

Always happy to connect and share with anyone. Reach out anytime

@Elijah Vo Thank you for sharing. Part of becoming a professional investor is understanding risk and that not every deal will be a winner. I did house flips back in the day and some were very profitable; others were not so profitable. I have invested passively in multifamily syndications that were amazing 39%+ IRR and others that were not so great. One primary objective is to have the winners outpace the losers. If you seek to have more control, active investing can certainly be a good approach (to your point). I seek to free up my time, so passive investing is the right strategy for me.

Well said @Brian Burke and @Arn Cenedella. I don't have much to add to the thread. As a full-time LP investor with many operators, I am seeing 5-7 year holds and 10-16% IRRs in regard to value-add and new construction offerings. At the end of the day (to Brian's point) you have to look around at your investment alternatives. Where else can you find yield without taking on unnecessary risk? With banks, CDs, annuities, treasuries, and most bonds paying under 2%...I say an IRR of 10%+ is a decent play. But that's just me, I live on 8% annualized cashflow, so I am an investing in 2021 ;)

You're speaking my language @Justin Goodin! After doing active single-family for years, flips, vacation rentals, buy and holds, house hacking...I burned myself out with the time commitment, stress, and the lack of team and scalability. The reason I went full-time LP in multifamily syndications include your 3 points, but more importantly to have the ability to focus my time on things I enjoy most and less on things I don't...AKA managing tenants, bidding for deals and coordinating contractors. Cheers 

Great post @Rick Martin. I've invested in 36 syndications (mostly multifamily) as a limited partner since 2015. Cashflow has ranged from 4%--16% annualized (8% has been a conservative average) IRR's have ranged from 10%-40% (15-18% IRR has been a good average) A 5-yr hold period is pretty standard for value-add plays, construction/development can vary. Funds can be a bit longer compared to individual deals.

I thought this was worth sharing; another telling article. This one written in NASDAQ “The Urban-to-Suburban Exodus May Be The Biggest in 50 Years.” This article provides data on the reasons why New Yorkers are fleeing urban centers. The top 5 reasons were cost of living, crime, looking for a non-urban lifestyle, concern over the spread of the coronavirus and the ability to work from home. Though this article was written in 2020, the exit migration continues in 2021. 

Question: Do you think real estate in suburban areas will thrive in 2021 and 2022?

@Ricky Cassidy Thank you for sharing, I love these types of topics. I too owned (at one time) a 2004 Toyota Tacoma pickup with approx 150k miles on it. I wrote a BiggerPockets blog post last year called The Journey To Financial Independence - A Few Life Hacks. In this post, I cover what helped me rationalize these types of scenarios in addition to consumer hacks, house hacks and other investing strategies to consider. Hope this helps. Best of luck Ricky

@Daniel Goldfinger Thank you for sharing. What an exciting time in life! I wrote a BiggerPockets blog post last year called The Journey To Financial Independence - A Few Life Hacks. In this post, I cover what helped me in terms of hack hacking, single-family investing, multifamily investing + other cash flow strategies. Hope this helps. Best of luck  

@Justin Goodin 

Thank you for the topic, it's a valid conversation topic. I remember in 2009 when I bought my first piece of real estate, I was ready to get started. The media and news were promoting the broken economy, massive job losses, and a collapsed stock market, but I knew that I was ready to start my pursuit into real estate. Most people I asked at that time said something to the tune of “I would wait and see what happens…” - The timing may not have right for them. 

A few years later, I remember making the leap from single-family investing to multifamily investing (2015). Once again… I knew I was ready to get started. But was it the right time? Cap rates were slightly higher and cash on cash was slightly higher than today. Does that mean that today it’s too late? In 2015, the media and news were reporting on North Korea issuing a nuclear warning to the US and it was about to be an election year in 2016 with a lot of uncertainty in the market. Gurus like Robert Kiyosaki and Peter Schiff were calling for a MASSIVE meltdown in the economy and stock market. But I was ready to start a new pursuit as a passive investor.

I tend to agree with your assessment "I think cap rates will continue to compress, I think rent growth will still happen in select markets, and the Fed will keep rates low." Additionally, I continue to invest as an LP with experienced operators who underwrite conservatively and have a solid track record. But just because it's the right time for me in 2021, doesn't make it the right time for anyone else. There is a lot of psychology that plays into investing. Thank you for the topic. 

Is It The Right Time For You?

Hi @Firen Forrest I've been investing in Texas for the past 5 years. Mostly Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio and Lubbock. Though there are many factors to vetting a market, I look at migration trends (see below data) diversification of employment, tax-friendly states, landlord/tenant laws (in favor of landlords) to name a few. I'm a big fan of Texas investing. Hope this helps.