Secrets Of Real Estate – From Fix & Flips to Over $200 Million in Multifamily

Investing in real estate is like selecting candies from Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans – you might think you selected a cherry-flavor candy only to discover it was rotten egg candy. As heartbreaking as it will be to choose the wrong candy flavor, choosing a wrong rental property is always feel worse. The real estate journey is a rough patched road with a lot of ups and downs and especially for someone with no one around to guide, the journey can become even more difficult.

After being inspired by an infomercial to attending a seminar about fix-and-flips, Jacob Blackett, the CEO of SyndicationPro and HoldFolio, now owns 1000+ Multifamily units now but reaching this far wasn’t easy for him too.

Check out the journey of Ultimate Real Estate Syndication Software: SyndicationPro

Bonus: Tips to manage Real Estate business amidst COVID-19.

Fix and Flip

From getting inspired by an infomercial about a fix-and-flip seminar to building an investor management portal, journey towards real estate began in the year 2010 as a sophomore in college after being inspired by an infomercial about fix and flip – which mostly involves buying and fixing damaged houses and then selling them off for a better price.

Although we had 5-15 deals a month in our pocket the future investments and projects always remained uncertain, leading us to secure properties in our personal portfolio.

HoldFolio

Jacob Blackett founded Holdfolio, a platform that connects investors with high-yield investments in the real estate industry, set out with the intention of creating partnerships to profit from income-producing real estate – focused on buying holds.

Single-Family

We started off with investments in single-family homes. Complying with our business model, we purchased SF homes and sold around 70% of the ownership to investors and since 30% was with us, I worked for the asset management, as all our property-related issues are handled internally.

Multi-Family

A couple of years into the real estate industry made us realize that multifamily had more potential than single-family. This made us shift our focus from single-family to multifamily which eventually helped us expand our services to 6 states – Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and South Carolina.

Tips for Approaching Leads

As a matter of fact, out of our 7 apartment complexes, 1 came from a broker while the 6 came directly from owners as a victory of our email campaigns and the result of our cold calling. We are very persistent in calling our potential leads, every other month – we were in touch with the owner of our recent purchase for over 2 years.

Criteria for Selecting Properties

A property with at least 80 units.
Age of building.
With value-added components such as central AC.
Mostly C Class Blue Collar assets.

Market Area

The key deciding factors to select a market area are:

Job growth in high-wage sectors.
Unemployment rate.
Population growth.
Diverse Economy.
Local market conditions.

Lease Audit

We conduct a thorough lease audit – which involves checking the following details in all the leases associated with the property we are purchasing:

Start Date
End Date

Deposit Rent, etc.

What are we looking for exactly?

Any discrepancies, like whether or not the lease is matching the rent roll.

Tools We Use

SyndicationPro – Investor Management Portal.
Close.io – Inside sales CRM of choice for startups and Small Businesses.
Zapier – Connects apps and automates workflows.
Propertyware – User-friendly residential rental property management software for single-family properties.

Characteristics of a Successful Real Estate Investor

An amazing and successful real estate investor can come from any age group and can have any profession. So, it’s sensible to ask, what exactly makes a successful real estate investor?

Patience and persistence.
Thorough understanding of real estate market cycles.
Networking buff – someone who can build relationships.
Has the vision to invest in cash flowing buy-and-hold properties.
Has the ability to remain focussed, even during the time of chaos, and knows what he/she wants.
Knows how to leverage money, people (skills), and opportunities.

Managing Real Estate Amidst COVID 19

Managing Real estate amidst COVID-19 is quite challenging as it involves meeting a lot of new people so shifting in-person meetings to virtual ones was the first thing to do, including introducing virtual property tours.

Having limited maintenance personnel around to only complete emergency work orders.
Limiting the office visits, adhering to the “No In-Person” Visits/Tours.
Changing office hours to 12 p.m-5 p.m as a precautionary measure to minimize exposure.
Taking necessary precautions as wearing gloves and masks whenever entering the office.
Rent payments were shifted online via the Tenant Portal, at a First Financial Branch, or via the rental drop box in an unsealed or EasyClose envelope.
Using digital means of communications as text, email, social media, etc. to give necessary updates to residents.
Waived application fees to new housing applicants for all properties across the portfolio.

For more COVID-19 tips, check out the podcast…