CGBagne

I've been noticing some good and bad indicators for the health of the Detroit, Detroit Metro markets in the managing of my own portfolio. I've had a sudden spurt of turnover after an extended period of very little. Two residents moving out to consolidate due to financial strain. Two residents have moved out to buy homes. On the bright side, there seems to be healthy demand for these units, some of which have already turned over. Some might panic thinking that this is indicative of a crash. Personally, I'm not seeing it due to the volume of interest that I have for me soon to be available offerings.

I posted a video a few days ago that was basically just a walk through of an apartment to show how it had been left after a move out. I posted it to tease this video. The walkthrough video can be found here: https://youtu.be/xoElZhobbaI Real estate investing is great. I love it because I get to fix up a lot of neglected properties, rent them to good people, enjoy immensely more freedom of time than I had at my old engineering job, all while making wayyy more money. I also interact with a much wider cross section of society than most ever get to on a regular basis and I really enjoy that. The downside; however, is that there are traps that you can run into that can set you back or slow your progress. Allowing the wrong tenant into one of your units is definitely one of those traps. Scaling requires change and sometimes a bit of experimentation is involved. In this case, I experimented with delegating my tenant screening and the outcome, unfortunately, was a setback. I ended up with a roughed-up apartment, and more importantly, wasted time. This video overviews the whole experience from start to finish. Hopefully it can serve as a lesson that you learn vicariously through me if you're in the real estate business, or as entertainment and a new perspective if you're not. May you never have to deal with a trashed apartment! I overview how to screen tenants, what my tenant screening criteria is, and the reason why it was not applied in this situation. Screening section 8 tenants is a bit different and I overview what matters for them to be good tenants as well. In any case, I hope you enjoy!

Sometimes bad things happen. So it goes. What's important is that we learn. In this case a section 8 tenant moved into one of my units, placed by a leasing agent who I experimented with using. I quickly started getting complains. Literally multiple complaints the first day that she moved in. I weight a variety of options, hoping to make it work, but quickly realized that I needed to get her out to preserve the quality of life of the other residents and to keep my building from going down the tube. What I ended up doing worked pretty well and I'll be releasing a video in the next few days that covers the whole experience, how it happened, what happened, what I did to handle it, and lessons learned. Make sure you watch that other video--it may help prevent you from experiencing a torn up unit of your own.

Mastering forced equity is what unites everybody who has ever made it big by investing in real estate. Real estate can be a good investment if you just buy it and wait but if good isn't good enough, and you want to scale up fast and chuckle to yourself as you calculate your returns, this video is for you. What is Sweat Equity, or Forced Equity: https://youtu.be/7pWACu08Gc8 Net Operating Income: https://youtu.be/LorBK1IwgJE After Repair Value, or ARV: https://youtu.be/WrIrxn6MhFY

To find a good deal, you often have to look at a number of bad or mediocre ones first. Your time and money are valuable so it's good to recognize when a "deal" isn't worth pursuing. This, despite being in a neighborhood that I like, is one of those deals. For me at least, and for the friend who I made this video for.

Sweat Equity is the key that helped me scale to 27 units in three years without a lot of new capital. Learning how to force equity can help you achieve financial independence as well!

Real estate can be used to build wealth in different ways. Learn those ways to get the most out of any deal that you come across!

I break down the numbers on my 10 unit Detroit apartment building while giving you a tour. This is a stellar deal and I'm excited to share it with you!

The after repair value of a property is the market value of a property after you've fixed it up. This video explores why that matters and how you go about determining it.

I became financially independent at 31 by investing in real estate and now own a 27 unit portfolio that generates some pretty solid cashflow. Learn the specifics of what my portfolio is producing and begin to develop the mindset and knowledge to help your current self take actions that your future self will be thankful for.

This video about Net Operating Income is part 2 of a series on foundational knowledge that help me to achieve financial independence at 31 years old through investing in real estate. Familiarize yourself with all of the concepts in this series and you'll be off to a great start! CN: Net Operating Income is the sum of pre-tax income that a property produces, AKA it's gross income, minus the expenses of the property, excluding debt service and CapEx.

I quit my engineering job at 31 years old and it was 100% the right move. Achieving financial independence through real estate investing made it sustainable and allowed me to quit without any regrets. Watch as I share what was on my mind at various stages of the process--motives, shifts in mindset, and some actionable steps for you, if you choose to go down the same path. Real Estate Audio Books: ~Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robery Kiyosaki ~The Book on Rental Property Investing - Brandon Turner ~Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat - David Greene ~Crushing It in Apartments and Commercial Real Estate - Brian Murray ~Am I Being Too Subtle - Sam Zelle (This is more an autobiography of an extremely successful investor than a how too, but a great read or listen)

This video about cash on cash return is part 1 of a series on foundational knowledge that helped me to achieve financial independence at 31 years old through investing in real estate. Familiarize yourself with all of the concepts in this series and you'll be off to a great start! CN: Cash on cash return is a metric for analyzing and comparing deals and it equals the pre-tax cashflow that a property produces divided by the total amount of money that you have tied up in the property.