The Good Stewards Real Estate Podcast

How To Succeed With Student Rentals

Background and Power of Buy & Hold with Students:2:20: Bill stumbled into student rentals at the age of 35 and came across a house across the street from the University of Oregon where he could turn a 3-bedroom house into a 5-bedroom house.5:30: That first house Bill bought was $80,000 and over 30 years has put $175,000 into it and it’s now worth $950,000, cash flowing $6000-$7000 a month. That’s the power of real estate investing.8:39: Student rentals require a different mindset than traditional market stuff. There’s way more turnover in a shortened period of time.Managing Student Rentals:10:20: By January, we’re asking students to sign a new lease and make sure they know they’re moving out. We then hit the ground running in February getting those houses rented for the following school year.13:40: The bedrooms are usually kept nice, but the common areas are destroyed.15:30: We rent the entire property, not rent by the room but like to set up a “house manager” in our houses to be our go to point of contact.17:20: We start our rehabs and turns the moment school is out, but over the last 10 years have staggered the move out dates. We know cleaning, painting, carpet, etc. all have to be prescheduled.Strategizing Student Rentals:19:20: Hone your efficiency in general. Every single day lost is the day of a rent lost.21:30: We’re always upgrading a little bit so we can keep up with the changing market.24:40: You don’t have to be across the street to start investing in student rentals. There’s different circles around the campus that still make it accessible by walking, biking and driving.27:16: You can do student rentals in different markets, but we think it’s geared more for a college town.Follow the Path of Progress:30:11: Subscribe to your local business journal to keep a pulse on the early conversations or commercial investments in areas that could gentrify.How To Succeed With Student Rentals:31:50: Be careful if your only option is renting to students. You need multiple exit strategies.33:17: One of the most important things with buying student rentals, you need to be sure the timeline lines up to where you can rent it out for the upcoming school year.35:01: Make sure you’re marketing to students. Dorm mailers, Facebook ads, ads in the student news paper, using an online program endorsed by a university, etc.35:00: Bottom line, if you want to treat this as a business, you have to have access to where all of the business has done.Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast

Mastering The Art Of Negotiation

Position of Leverage in Negotiation:1:54: Life is negotiation, and the better you are at negotiating, the better you will be at life.4:25: It's okay to ask for what you want in a respectful way.6:15: We always need to be willing to walk away. The person most willing to walk away is usually the one who'll get the better end into the deal.Motive for Negotiating:8:15: when you make a seller an offer and they hit you with a “Let me think about it”, in their mind, they have their house in your money.10:48: What is the key to finding out what is motivating a seller in particular?13:40: For sellers, it’s often more about the freedom or the flexibility in quickly getting out of the house or apartment.16:20: In Ryan’s typical negotiation, he’ll come up $1,000 or $2,000 for every $10,000 - $20,000 - $30,000, the seller is coming down.18:35: You don’t want to be negotiating with yourself. If the sellers don’t counter, then we can’t really see where we're at from a negotiating standpoint and that's not going to end well.Anchoring For Leverage:21:13: Anchoring is a psychological concept where you can use a numerical or qualitative “anchor” to position yourself at the start of negotiation.23:26: Every seller underestimates actual rehab costs. Leverage that as another critical anchor point since you know the actual rehab costs.25:13: Use your phone, pull up the retail costs for a new roof. Your guys can likely do it cheaper, but you can leverage that better cost.Weakness In Negotiation:29:55: Confrontation is hard, but you need to push one step further. If they say no, ask “well what could you do?” This keeps dialogue open.31:48: Don’t get wrapped up in the story where you end up overpaying. It’s happened to all of us.33:45: The best skill you can have in this part of business is empathy. Being able to put yourself in someone else’s life situation to be able to identify their point of view.Books Mentioned:16:14: Never Split the Difference by Chris VossConnect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast

Good, Bad And The Ugly With Apartments

Finding Any Dirt:1:36: It's worse to have an apartment full of tenants who aren't paying anything and are causing all sorts of problems and have an apartment full of...no one.2:50: You want to make sure of what they reported to the IRS. If anything seems off there, it probably is.5:10: You should never rely on a proforma, which is just an estimate and they will always be in the seller's favor.6:33: Schedule E’s are part of the 1040 IRS form which is where income or loss from rentals, royalties, S-Corps, partnerships, estates, trusts, etc. is reported. Basically not “earned income” but investment income only.8:32: You want to see their list of capital expenses for at least the last year for two reasons. (1) you need to see how much they're spending and (2) you need to see whether they're correctly capitalizing things.10:43: Pay attention to utility costs. What tenants would pay and what the landlord would pay.Contracts & Analyzing Property Actuals:13:11: Write up 30-30-30 contracts that are in your favor. 30 until the contract is hard, 30 to line up financing and 30 days extra for something that might come up.16:23: You want to look at the rent roll and get copies of all the leases. Look for rent price, deposit amount, late fees, when the late fee is charged, pets, etc.19:28: Talking with the property manager is always a good point of contact.20:50: Ryan has seen a lot of landlords spend their security deposits, so make sure to pull those out from proceeds .Inspections & Holding Your Emotions:24:30: You don’t need an inspector to walk through every unit, but maybe 1 for each building.26:50: Get a 3rd-Party inspection to go over key systems and the units the sellers don’t want you to see.30:21: If there are red flags, regardless of how much work you’ve put into it, let the property go. The “Well I just spent X money” is going to keep going.32:12: Include a letter of intent (LOI) before the contract so you clearly dictate what you’re anticipating.Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast

The Impact Of Property Taxes

Property Tax Discussion:3:07: Property tax is one of the taxes we can help try and control on our own.4:58: Property tax bills are a matter of public record, for most states. Review the records, determine how they’re calculated and evaluate to see if it seems reasonable or if you should challenge it.8:15: In Indiana there are homestead tax breaks. So you would pay 1% of the assessed value, but if you're an investor, you pay 2%. Alot of investors don’t often factor in situations like that--know your laws.10:55: The easiest time to appeal your property taxes is when you purchase it.Surprise Tax Hikes:12:11: In Kansas City the county screwed up one year and our property taxes saw an average increase of 70%. So we got very familiar with the county office and challenged just about every property we had.15:12: In all, property taxes only went up by 20% in Kansas City. This worked out because Stewardship Properties has a system in place ready to monitor it.20:14: Call up your local county or government office and ask questions. You’re going to get some great information.22:23: Make sure you're getting all the exemptions you qualify for.Facing and Understanding The County:25:00: Sometimes you won’t be successful in lowering your property taxes.27:10: Texas doesn’t have any sales tax, but they’re pretty greedy with their property tax. Seemingly every year, the county tries to double property taxes.28:33: If you’re wanting to invest out of state, talk to people who have owned for 5-10 years to get an idea of the property tax environment.Disputing:29:55: The best thing to have when you go to dispute property taxes is your purchase documents. .32:27: After all the appeals Andrew has done, he’s never seen the committee go above the original property taxes.33:45: It’s great to get used to dealing with local government so you learn the ins and outs of how they can best serve you.Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast

How To Utilize The MLS As An Agent Or Not

Agent VS Non-Agent:2:01: Ryan is the only one of the Good Stewards who’s licensed, but Amanda has considered it.4:00: Be careful of the trap of becoming an agent and getting commissions as kind of your source of income--commissions are quick short-term money.6:45: If you are going “direct to seller” as a real estate agent, you have to tell any person you talk to that you are a realtor.9:10: Being an agent is one of the very best ways to get into real estate investment. Property management is another good way.11:01: In Oregon and Kansas City, they’ve built up a lot of great relationships with agents that bring us short sales, distressed property situations or other deals  that aren't going to work well on a market. They interim give us comps.Zillow Is Usually Off:13:05: The MLS has the best data because they fine agents who don’t upload correct information. Zillow on the other hand may utilize some of the MLS data, but they’re largely using information from 3rd parties.14:20: Zillow claims to be within 2% of the actual sales prices. But in our experience it’s usually been 10% in either direction. One went as high as being 32% off.MLS Tools:17:00: Ryan’s favorite tool is utilizing the saved search function. Set a search for specific property types, listing expirations, etc and let the MLS basically prospect for you.19:00: There’s really just two ways to get deals on the MLS. Be the first to make an offer or look at data points, going back in time and making “offensive” offers.22:09: The best strategy for newbie’s on the MLS is setting a particular farm area, property type and then look for what listings have expired over the last 2 years. The best thing is that these properties have since appreciated and you can use that as leverage to get the deal.24:20: The best feature of PropStream is the equity filter--Ryan uses it all the time.Larger Complexes and Commercial:25:50: These types of properties are usually acquired through relationships. You can utilize the MLS to identify who the players of those deals are. See if there’s one agent that usually gets those contracts.27:10: You want to be the guy who’s everyone’s go-to in your market and get in on their pocket listings. If they know you’ll close, you’ll reap the benefits.Not Having Direct MLS Access:29:17: In Eugene, OR, it’s pretty easy to determine comps since the market is so small.31:43: The Eugene team has even leveraged one of their broker relationships to mail letters in their name. He doesn’t do much work, but he’s someone we can bounce ideas off of on what it would take to get the property to top shape for a retail buyer.35:00: Bottom line, if you want to treat this as a business, you have to have access to where all of the business has done.Tools Mentioned:23:15: Skip Genie -- unlimited manual searches for skip tracing.23:58: PropStream -- “The poor man’s MLS.”Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast

Why Buy and Hold Investing?

Wealth By Buy and Hold Is Slow:4:20: This is a get rich slow thing, but not too slow.4:50: You can flip or wholesale to get to buy and hold.6:17: Look at your portfolio's needs when determining what to do with a property. Can you take on a project or do you need the liquid cash?Considerations for a Buy/Hold Strategy:10:24: Andrew’s goal is to keep everything as long as it’s not too expensive to cashflow.12:30: You have to have diversity in your portfolio, A to C minus class. That’s one of Ryan’s mistakes when he started out.14:48: Niche, group home story in the expensive Portland market.17:10: AirBnb can work, but be careful.20:22: Anything that helps you build up your cash flow is what it’s all about.22:17: If you are in a more expensive area, don’t give up. Think outside the box and ask yourself if you’re really committed to this buy and hold model.Survive Till You Thrive in Buy and Hold:26:13: Analyze your deals up front to determine if you’re doing a cash out refinance or if you’re into the property for 75% ARV on a mortgage. Does it still cashflow? You’ve got to make sure it’s paying for itself.28:50: Ryan looks at his buy and hold portfolio as a really cool 401k. But on the transactional side from wholesaling, wholetailing and flipping is the “now money”.30:45: Where you make your, your good, large chunks of money is in the appreciation. In the debt pay down in the depreciation, the tax benefits, and then occasionally you get a really nice cash out refi check.31:38: Real estate's always generally tight when you're using the BRRRR strategy. People expect just tons and tons of cash flow when you have debt on the property, especially early on, are just kidding themselves. Treat it with patience.34:52: What thriving in Buy and Hold looks like.Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast

Tools to Succeed in Commercial Real Estate Investing with Thomas Coffman

What’s Going On With Commercial:2:30: COVID has exposed people that have been leveraged with a lot of debt and highlighted the ones that are well capitalized and able to make it through.4:51: There’s going to be a lot of vacancy if it hasn't already from an office standpoint. From a retail perspective, COVID has opened up a tremendous amount of opportunity for people that want to get into the restaurant business.8:45: Anything with a high labor model, like a restaurant, is going to take a while to come back from. But the low labor model like carwashes and gas stations remained open and will still trade in higher multiples.10:14: Ryan wonders if we'll see people spending more on their homes since the work from home model is more widely acceptable and they’re not commuting as much. 12:00: With the hard hit areas with expensive rent (the Bay Area), they’re having to hold out longer now. Millennials aren’t patient, so it will be interesting to watch those markets. Who’s Buying and Selling:14:20: Thomas act’s as an acquisition and dispositions manager for buyers and sellers. He’s usually flipping these to private equity groups, institutional buyers and individual one-off buyer’s or sellers.16:30: A lot of commercial investors are one block away from success in commercial real estate. Specifically with car washes, traffic counts, accessibility and site visibility is crucial.Due Diligence for Commercial:18:20: in residential real estate, sometimes you can cross the street and you're in a bad area, then you just subtract 5%, 10%. With commercial, that could be 50%.21:51: The gas and carwash business is so fragmented compared to restaurant retail. You’ll find a lot of mom and pop style operations as well as the institutional-types.24:45: If you’re wanting to start out, don’t start with a new build. There’s alot of hurdles with that. I’d recommend letting a tenant drive the acquisition.28:00: A lot of the best commercial opportunities that you can flip or assign a contract to, are not going to be on CoStar, LoopNet or on the MLS. They're going to be something that you drive by and see that they just closed.Tools Of The Trade:30:00: CREXI, commercial real estate exchange is a great resource to find comps.30:54: ESRI-STDB, ESRI site to do business is great for finding demographics and traffic counts.32:00: Land Vision is a great resource to give you all property details including the owner information.Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast

Scaling By Adding Value

Adding Value to a Property:2:30: every time you look at a property in your mind should be, “How can I add value to this property, this situation?” And sometimes you're adding value by rectifying a problem.4:40: Different people respond to different things. Perhaps try a direct mail campaign directly from the realtor?6:00: It's a good idea to go out and take a look at what the new builders are doing and see what you can add to your properties that people want.9:10: We pay Sherman Williams $150 to advise us on the colors and trends anytime we flip a house to a retail buyer. Selling to Retail Buyers:13:00: One thing that's really cool about older properties and why they are so desirable for flips is especially in the pacific northwest is that they tend to be on bigger lots while new construction is crammed together.15:40: The longer you hold a property you intend to sell to a retail buyer, the more expensive it is. There’s a lot for a limited payout. Get contractors there quick and limit your holding costs.18:53: For something that’s being wholetailed, Ryan looks for little to no work required, builder grade or something that needs a major systems update like a roof.Maximizing Value Add:20:30: The most obvious form of value add is to see if you can easily go from a 2-bedroom to a 3-bedroom. 21:45: With basements, we don’t usually finish them unless it’s a walkout. Egress windows are incredibly expensive.23:18: Always ask if a garage conversion is permitted. If it’s not, you’ve got to take it out.25:17: The way people live changes, it’s cyclical.ADUs, Title Companies, Narrowing Focus:26:10: Cites are particular with ADU’s and we get around it by renting out the entire property and leaving it up to the renters to decide what they do with the additional unit.30:19: If a title company ever tells you that there’s a glitch, you need to pay very close attention to what that glitch is.32:00: We’re really talking about rentability here, by adding value and making sure you’re meeting the market demand, you’re going to be able to rent to quality tenants.34:45: As Stephen Covey would say, begin with the end in mind.Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast

Build Up An A+ Wholesaling Team

Starting Out:2:00: Starting out, you’re the one doing everything. Marketing, meeting with sellers, analyzing deals, etc. It’s easy to get stuck in that phase.4:45: How comfortable are you going to be IF you’re not doing everything?6:44: It’s a lot easier to delegate things if you have a process and system of monitoring the results.10:00: At a certain point you have to ask yourself if you’re the bottleneck? Does everything have to run through you? If so, you need to put yourself in a position to leverage others expertise. The Critical Hires:13:55: We’re really focused on one kind of person we want, an acquisition’s specialist. Someone who can leverage our time and efforts to find great deals.17:40: I would expect a bare minimum when you're starting out. You need to be able to guarantee somebody about $2,000 a month minimum.20:00: you just want to make sure that your people are incentivized in the same way that you are.23:15: With a disposition hire, they need to be good on the phone and with investor-centric relationships. Their job is to phrase deals in a way where it’s attractive.27:17: When Ryan started, he had a buyer’s made up of two people. You don’t have to have a huge list to get started.29:00: For admin hires, they need to be able to pay attention to the details and make sure all the pieces are in place. General Principles:33:14: The right people on your team are people that you want to make feel good about working for you.  36:43: If you're having success and you're growing, you also want to be cognizant that you don't hire too many people too fast, too quickly.Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast

Investors, Where To Go From Here?

What’s Keeping Us Moving In This Market:2:30: We saw the upward pressure in the market. Homeowners pulled their properties off the market, which has kept inventory low.5:10: Conventional wisdom is to pull back off the market, but Ryan’s team nor the Eugene team hasn’t scaled back their business.7:15: Buying at the best of your ability is Stewardship’s form of dollar-cost averaging.9:00: The margin of safety is a very important indicator of the soundness of a business. 11:05: We talk all the time about being able to get deals at price points that make sense for you. Why stop if they still make sense for you?12:00: People are perpetually sitting on the sideline making sure they don’t catch a falling knife.14:30: Amanda has a different perspective, it may not make sense for you to start out your investing career right now. Everything moved so fast and in our case, economies of scale are working in our favor.17:00: Every investor should have at all times multiple exit strategies and contingency plans.Government Regulation Has Increased:21:00: Real estate investing kind of mirrors business, and you want to be in a market that is pro-business. Educate yourself on the local laws and regulations.23:30: Anytime there is more government regulation, there are usually unintended consequences.What Banks Are Doing--Student Rentals?:24:26: The one thing that helped Stewardship through 2007, 2008, 2009 was keeping a pulse on the market of financing for buyers. At this point, it hasn't really dried up, but it could.27:50: Focus on expanding the number of banking relationships whenever you can.30:30: One of Stewardship’s four bankers said that they’re watching the Universities closely and probably won’t refinance our student rentals.Connect with the Good Stewards:Visit Our Website and SubscribeEmail | Ask@TheGoodStewards.comTwitter | @TheGoodStewardsInstagram | @GoodStewardsPodcastFacebook | @GoodStewardsPodcast