May 2022
What seduced me into real estate investing was simply the adventurous opportunities but what kept me interested early on and still today is the people I associate with. Nowhere else do you find people with such positive attitudes, ready to help with no expectation of anything in return. Once I became connected with networking groups, the people I met gave their time to share experiences, caution me about risks, answer my latest how-to questions, and suggest new directions for me. I learn more from them than I do from the training I take. Other investors hardly ever see us as
April 2022
Renters like to move in the spring. That’s not big news to anyone with experience over more than a couple of years. When I first started buying apartments 11 years ago I had heard this, and it made sense, but year after year this simple rule of thumb has proven extremely reliable. Even if they’re not thinking about schools for their kids, it is still the time of year when they want to make important changes in their lives. This year those moves have been even more prevalent. In one property we’ve watched our marketing leads jump 2-3X over six
March 2022
The roller coaster continues. Our business is reacting to the economic bad news with cautious optimism. We’ve been told there’s so much money on the sidelines that any dip in the stock market will be filled quickly, but that’s not been the case. We were told that the spike in the money supply would not be inflationary, but now we’re seeing 7.9% year over year inflation, the highest in 40 years. And we had an understanding that lending rates wouldn’t rise because we’re in a pandemic, but some loan products are up over 50 basis points since the beginning of
February 2022
The multifamily real estate market could be about to experience a profound transformational change through adoption of blockchain technology. If you’re not up on it, start reading up. First imagine being able to buy a small share in a multifamily investment, say $1,000 or less. The number of buyers is many times the number who are syndicating and investing today. Demand for those shares will go up and property prices will go up. Blockchain keeps track of it all – owners, title, loans. Every “share” is identified by a unique number, a node on a blockchain, that can’t be changed
January 2022
Have you read books that change the way you think about things that are important to you? I’ve read lots of books that help me form opinions or change my perspective, but not often do I take significant actions because of a book I read. I am now though. Who Not How by Dan Sullivan has changed my thinking. We all read how it’s good to have someone do jobs that we don’t need to be doing. For example, property maintenance and bookkeeping. Maybe you’re good at them, but if you’re building a real estate business you shouldn’t be doing
December 2021
Have you sold any properties in a heated market where buyers are willing to put down hard money on day one? It feels like you have made it, like all of your planning, choice of location, and management of your property has paid off because qualified buyers are jumping over themselves to win your deal. Like who’s the boss now! But don’t take your eye off the goal. A non-refundable earnest money deposit seems like a no brainer but often comes with strings, which are actually the contingencies you thought you were not having to deal with. Once you’re playing