All Forum Posts by: Trevor Fleck

@Steven Taylor yes I've purchased four properties in Cape Coral through Rent to Retirement and have been thrilled with the trifecta of solid cash flow, instant equity upon completion, and strong appreciation. Definitely a turnkey company to consider. I'd be happy to share my experiences in more detail if you're interested. Either way, good luck! 

@Steven Taylor Personally, I have not needed a lawyer to establish an LLC. They are quite easy to establish if you go on the state's respective secretary of state website. I've also used Rocket Lawyer in the past as a cheap way to get one established in North Carolina. I've also had some great success investing in the Cape Coral area of Florida with a turnkey company on new builds. In this case you do need to have a registered agent if you don't physically live in Florida (i.e., a Florida mailing address). Companies like Northwest Registered Agent (not affiliated with them just who I happened to use) helped me both with setting them up as my registered agent and helping me establish an LLC. I want to say the entire fee was around $350.

I'd also encourage you to really assess why you think you need an LLC. Often having umbrella liability coverage over $1m with an insurance company or putting a 2nd lien on a rental property so there is no equity to go after can help you mitigate risk. @Dave Van Horn has some wonderful articles on how to mitigate risk. In short, I think there is a common notion that everyone needs to set up an LLC and a lawyer needs to do that for them and once that's done they have successfully mitigated risk. It's far more nuanced than that and does at the end of the day depend on your finances and risk tolerance. 

@Shoshana Shulman @James Gillice @Cameron Campbell

 I'd be happy to connect and share my experiences. I'm on my fourth build right now with RTR in Cape Coral. 

@Ben Be I'd be more than happy to share my experiences. Just sent you a connection request. 

@Ben Be curious how you chose those markets? Are they areas that are familiar to you? If you're looking for a buy and hold, you may want to consider looking at macro trends like population shifts, landlord friendly states, states with low taxes or good incentives to bring in businesses, etc. You'll see a lot of the "smart" money in hedge funds and the like look at the sunbelt areas where populations projections are strongest over the next 30 years according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, if you're specifically set on one of those markets I'd recommend Kansas City - landlord friendly state, lower property taxes, increasing population and diverse economy, a good supply of potential rentals that product good cash flow with a decent chance of future appreciation. Have you ever looked into Turnkey companies? For example, I'm a huge fan of Rent to Retirement and I know they operate in Kansas City. Might be worth poking around on their website to gather some market intel. I'd be happy to share my experiences if you're interested. 

@Steven Hsu I looked at that as well. I've actually seen a number of companies marketing The Grove. Personally, I think there are other markets in Florida that are a bit safer depending on your needs. Are you looking for short term rentals in specific or just something more hands off in the Orlando or great Florida area? 

Got it. If you look further south to the Cape Coral area let me know. I'm doing a good amount of investing there and would be happy to share my experiences. 

@Jeff Melby where in SW Florida are you looking to invest? 

@Trent Warner thanks for sharing your story. I'll go against the grain here a little bit with my feedback. Suffering today in an effort to earn greater success and income for tomorrow so you can relax and feel secure at some future date is insane. Embrace the adventure that is your work - it's certainly meaningful. Your true north is clearly your family. I don't mean to get too philosophical here, but I see comments on here about just having a strong enough WHY to kill yourself during your prime years and I just think they are misguided. Life is about balance and finding your true joys. Real estate can be a true joy for some, but for many it's just a vehicle to achieve a why. For too many, I think along the way the "means to the end" become the end. I've seen plenty of people who talk about doing all these things for generational wealth or for their family, but they miss watching their kids grow up. 

For nearly a decade I've invested in a number of different real estate strategies across the spectrum: private lending, hard money lending, syndication deals, real estate crowd funding, wholesaling, land investing, note investing, STR domestic and abroad, built to rent, flips, etc. When I was single and had a lot of time, I was willing to trade my time for the higher return of some more time-intensive activities like wholesaling and flips. Now I have a fulfilling job, a wife, and two young children. Priorities change. We all give advice on here based on our circumstances, but only you know yours. Only you know the combination of time, money, and appetite for risk to find that sweet spot for real estate investing.

I might recommend you think about a few things:

1. How much time do you have for real estate without sacrificing things that are of greater value to you like time with family?

2. How big of a return DO YOU NEED? Just because some investments have the potential for higher returns doesn't mean they justify the time it would take. That doesn't make you lazy or stupid for not pursuing those. For me at my stage of life, I'll take 8-10% returns through (conservatively) lending my money out in private money, hard money, and syndication deals with tax sheltered funds and focusing on turnkeys with after tax funds. Both are relatively minimal effort and they still continue to grow my wealth while I enjoy whatever time I have in this life on things that bring me joy. 

Anyways, this was a high level response, but happy to drill down on details of investment options if you'd like. 

@John Laney I use the turnkey provider Rent to Retirement and they work with builders in a couple markets in Florida on the built to rent model. However, I believe they are more focused on SFHs but it may be worth a conversation. Happy to discuss more if you're interested.