
June 29, 2021
Build an Unstoppable Real Estate Portfolio with the “Core 4” (Ep: 481) | BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast with David Greene & Brandon Turner
Check out BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast Episode Page and Show Notes
Key Takeaways
- As an entrepreneurial real estate investor, having chemistry between your agents, contractors, lenders, and property managers can be incredibly valuable for time, and money management
- Progress in real estate is hard to make without an expert team, solve your problems by asking “who” and not “how”
- Find your agent first. They usually have a large network to connect you to lenders, contractors, and property managers
- Be motivated in your real estate investment pursuit, communicating a good plan can be just as valuable as having a large amount of down payment money
- Have a good database of contractors built up to plan for problems before they arise
- Good lenders partner with your real estate agent
- Communicates the context behind the real estate purchase and creates confidence around the ability to pay loans
- Don’t shop lenders, leverage your referrals to get all the pros and cons on the table right away, give them permission to be honest
- Good property managers rely on a system and maintain consistency in their process
Intro
- Co-hosts of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast David Greene (@DavidGreene24) & Brandon Turner (@BrandonAtBP) discuss the “Core 4” of your real estate investment team: deal finder (agents), contractors, lenders, and property managers
- Long-Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties by David Greene
- For more about BiggerPockets Real Estate Investment (@BiggerPockets) community and process, check out their website
Agent/Deal Finder
- Progress in real estate is hard to make without an expert team. Solve your problems by asking “who” can solve my problem and not “how” can I solve the problem
- Why and how do you choose an agent?
- First person you want to assemble, usually has the biggest network and access to the other parts of the real estate investment team
- Agents bring you “on-market” and present you with more opportunities
- Quantity is important, agents who are top-producers are traditionally more worthwhile
- ON FIRE – organized, networked, focused, investment-savvy (understand what you care about), responsive, experienced
- Agents should have a clear definition of their strengths and weaknesses, awareness is important
- Understanding of the current value and growth potential of the house/neighborhood/city
- Look for signs of “hipsters”- find the coffee shops, breweries. Also, look for the job demographics of the area.
- Remember that you need a good agent more than they need you, you are one of many people looking for a good deal in a hot market
- Find an agent or learn more at biggerpockets.com!
Being a Good Client
- Motivation – do you want to buy a house or would you like to buy a house? Establish your goals upfront.
- Communicating a good plan can be just as valuable as having a large amount of down payment money
- Understand that agents get paid on their results, not their time
- Understand that you, as a real estate investor, will make more than the agent on the transaction over a 10-year period
Contractors
- Urgent availability and quick communication can sometimes be a red flag. It might be a reason they are not busy
- “Dig a well before you’re thirsty” – Brandon Turner
- Have a good database of contractors built up to plan for problems before they arise
- “If I had 6 hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend 4 hours sharpening my axe” – Abraham Lincoln
- Putting in the work early with contractors will be worthwhile in the long-run
- The best contractors will give you guidance and cost/benefit analysis rather than just asking what you want
- Some contractors will have biased pricing, if they have bad knees they might not enjoy doing tile flooring and price it out as an option
Lenders
- The lowest interest rate isn’t always the best option
- As rates go up, they can charge a better closing cost
- With low rates, you’ll find a lack of experience or a lender who has cut out the middle man, good underwriters save you money in the long run
- Good lenders partner with your real estate agent
- Communicates the context behind the real estate purchase and creates confidence around the ability to pay the loan
- Ask the agent’s preferred lender
- Unfortunately, most lenders are salespeople
- All lenders say yes, why is it in their best interest to do so?
- They often rope you in and give you the bad news later
- Don’t shop lenders, leverage your referrals to get all the pros and cons on the table right away, give them permission, to be honest
- All lenders say yes, why is it in their best interest to do so?
Property Managers
- Good property managers rely on a system and maintain consistency in their process
- Leave very little room for problems to arise that don’t have a planned or automated response
- All property managers seem good until something goes wrong
- When qualifying a property manager, ask about the bad things: evictions, maintenance, late rent, etc.
- Customer service is very valuable to tenants
- Hire slow and fire fast – value track record of your property manager over them being “nice”