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In a previous video, I covered the first 5 rules of successful real estate investing that I discovered through my personal experience and by speaking with successful real estate investors. If you haven’t seen that video, you will find it in the description below. Anyway, these rules reminded me what to do to thrive in good market cycles and navigate through the rough ones. So, here are the last 5 rules for successful real estate investing: 6. Go Deep In Your Market When you are considering a market, make sure it aligns with your overall goals. Beginning with the end in mind means defining the number of units, revenue, or units under management at the beginning and working to acquire the properties in that area. Look at the overall health of the state, city, and neighborhood. Understand drivers to the local economy, job market, and population growth. Know the demographics and unemployment rates. These are all factors a sharp real estate investor knows to decide whether they want to be in the area. Don’t make the mistake many investors, especially out-of-state investors, make: They see a nice, newly renovated property and its income, expenses, and asking price seem to look good. They end up acquiring the property without understanding the market. Often times, they are sold properties in D-Class or depressed areas at B-Class pricing. It would be better for them to either do the deep research to know that area, get on a plane and visit the area, or partner with an active investor in the area. 7. Invest in Multiple Markets As we touched on in #6, different markets experience different cycles. With that said, you can reduce your risk by investing in three to five income-producing properties in multiple, performing markets. Of course, this number varies on how many units you are targeting in a given area. So, how does this work? After you build your portfolio of strong income-producing properties in an area, move to another geographically diverse area with its own economic drivers. It would be best to move to a different state. You may consider investing in different asset classes to further reduce your risk. All this becomes easier when you have a team built out to help you manage the property online. Great property management is key. Watch my videos on building a team as it applies to doing the same thing in new markets. 8. Leverage Your Property Management Team In my other videos, I’ve discussed the power of focus. Unless you are a property manager and you are very good at it, you shouldn’t be managing any of your deals. The more units you have, the more complex things become. Aside from servicing tenants, you need to manage the tactical nuances of daily operations. If you are trying to strategically grow your portfolio, it becomes difficult to provide the right attention to your properties. You want to focus on what you do best and remember why you got into this business in the first place: cash flow. 9. Be a Control Freak! When I say to be a control freak, I mean that you need to control and run the asset effectively. You want to make sure that property is performing optimally and the people you have on your team have your back. The passive investors that put their money with you rely on your ability to make good decisions and get that deal to produce returns. This means you must work with your team to make that deal sing. 10. Leveraging Human & Financial Capital The United States is one of the few places where you can leverage bank money up to 80% along with investor money to get into a deal. Using leverage can not only build wealth for you personally, but also provide great returns for your investors and stakeholders. This only works if you get into the right asset. Lean on your team of commercial banks, lenders, and operational support to make sure you are getting into a deal that you can comfortably sell to your stakeholders. Anyway, that’s the second part of my 10 rules for successful real estate investing. Remember, as long as you have positive cash flow and operationally, the property is performing, you will be able to scale and grow your real estate business. If you like the content, check out our podcast on iTunes and Stitcher and subscribe to the new YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily.

When you are ready to make the leap from duplexes and fourplexes to multifamily and commercial deals, you will need to understand some of the nuances of a commercial mortgage versus a standard residential loan. Residential loans are pretty much “cookie-cutter” loans by most banks. But if you want to get more than 5 units, you are now needing to get a commercial loan. In commercial loans, lenders are looking at the asset and its ability to cash flow, which allows for flexible financing options. There are 5 areas a bank will need to make sure you have buttoned up before you approach a bank to give you a loan. 1) Your Credit Score Unlike a residential loan, where your credit score is one of the top considerations for them to give you a loan, for most commercial banks it is not a top consideration. Keep in mind that the bank is looking at the property as a cash producing asset as opposed to a house that actually costs people money to own. However, you still will want to have good credit - above 600. Anything lower will cause the bank to ask questions about why your score is so low. Keep your balances low to keep your score up. 2) Your Management & Ownership Experience The commercial lender will want to know about your experience managing and owning other properties. This is a major sticking point since they want to know that the property will be run profitably to cover the note. If you own a handful of single-family rentals or duplexes today, that is good experience you can bring into play. It’s a very different animal, but you can at least point to your ability to run small deals. If the plan is to go way bigger than you have traditionally done, you may want to lean on the background of a strong property management company and their experience. If you are looking for smaller deals - say 5 to 50 units - some lenders may allow you to self-manage. However, you need to demonstrate that you have previous management experience and know how to underwrite tenants. They understand why you would want to self-manage as the margins on these smaller deals is fairly small. Just bear in mind that ownership experience is valued more than management experience. 3) Your Net Worth The bank is going to look at your overall net worth, which is the difference between your assets and your liabilities. They are looking to see that your net worth is equal to or greater than the loan amount. For example, if you want to buy a $1.5M building and want an 80% loan to value, the bank is going to want to see that you have a $1.2M net worth. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are out of the game if you don’t have the net worth. Let’s say that you have $800k of net worth but have a high income, it may be enough to get the deal done. 4) Your Income Whether you are a W2 employee of self-employed, if you have income, the lender is going to want to understand how much personal income you have - including the income from other properties you own. They are looking for your global cash flow. They want to know that if one of your properties has a problem, that you can still make the debt obligation of the loan you are requesting. The bank is not looking for a ratio on your global cash flow per se. Instead, they are looking at the property’s loan-to-value and debt coverage ratio. They want to know that the net operating income will exceed the monthly principal and interest payment. Most banks are targeting a minimum debt coverage ratio of 1.25. The higher, the better. 5) Your Liquidity Finally, the bank will look at your overall liquidity - how much liquid cash you have at your disposal. If you are going for that $1.5M loan I mentioned earlier, and you are putting down $300k for the down payment, the bank wants to see that you still have some money in the bank. Really, you should have extra cash in reserves in case you get hit with a boiler breakdown or a $15k insurance claim. The liquidity requirement varies from lender to lender. Most lenders like to see 10-20% of the loan amount. This means that is you borrow $1M, you should have a minimum of $100k liquid after your close. Other lenders want to see 6 to 12 months of principal and interest payments in the bank and available. So if your monthly payment is $12k, the lender will want to see $144k in your account. Some other lenders may even have an escrow requirement. It really depends on the lender and their guidelines.

Having the right mindset affects us positively. If you are looking to build your business, a growth mindset is the best approach to life. For those who have a growth mindset prosper in what they do because their "basic abilities" - or their mindset - acts as the foundation for their future. They work hard on their mindset by discovering their true-life purpose and succeed in life. The good thing is that there are tools and mind tricks to make the small shifts in your mindset for meet your goals. The #MindsetReset program will push you to get deliberate about what you want. It will show you what to do when you get hit by those limiting beliefs and interrupt the old habit default. From there, you will insert something that's positive into your mind. This is powerful stuff that everyone from athletes to CEOs use to build their success and you can do it too. HELP US OUT Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you! Thank you in advance! ♡ HAVE A QUESTION? I am working on a new show where I answer your questions. To submit a question, go to www.bulletproofcashflow.com and you will see a widget where you can speak your question. If I use your question on the air, we'll send you our newly designed t-shirts. ✧✧✧✧✧✧ DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS ✧ Talk to Brokers: http://bit.ly/FindBroker ✧ Raise Capital: http://bit.ly/RseFunds LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ✧ BCF on iTunes: https://apple.co/2B4AvXp ✧ BCF on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/StitcherBCF SOCIAL MEDIA! DM me! I want to hear from you! ✧ IG: http://www.instagram.com/bulletproofc... ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/bulletproofc... ✧ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bull... ✧ WE: https://www.bulletproofcashflow.com JOIN THE GROUP ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bulle... ♡ Be Bulletproof!

A big part of building a portfolio of multifamily properties is fundraising. I’m sure that many of you out there are afraid of asking friends and family to help fund your deal for fear that it may go sideways and lose all their money. So that begs the question: Should you let friends and family in on your deal? I totally understand where that question would come from and fear is a powerful thing. We are afraid that if our brother or sister puts down $100,000 and the deal fails, they would not only not speak to us again, but they would talk to the rest of the family and tell them what happened. Losing that same money from a lifelong friend could ruin a relationship too. That fear is something that haunts everyone, and more so when it comes to money. But it all depends on how you handle that fear. When a person invests in one of my deals, I feel an immense sense of gratitude that someone has trusted me with a sizable amount of their money. I also feel such a great deal of responsibility to protect their capital and produce a reasonable return - even more than if I used all my money. The thing is, I make sure that the deal I am working on is so solid that the chances of it losing money are very small to non-existent. My margin of error has to be great enough that it would take a total disaster to wipe out the property. And even then, there is still insurance to protect the asset. That said, the probability of losing my investor's money is remote. It all begins with me getting comfortable with my underwriting, plan of attack and selling the property to deliver the returns promised and protecting the investor’s capital. We all know that sometimes deals don't work out. So what do you do in that case? Let’s go through a scenario where you’ve made some money flipping a few small houses and now want to go a little bigger. You get your hands on a run down 4-plex for $40,000, you plan on putting another $50,000 and selling it for $175,000. You borrow the entire $90,000 from your family and you get to work. But there are some mishaps; You underestimated the construction costs by $25,000 and you can only sell the property for $125,000. Instead of an $85,000 profit, you only made $10,000. This is a terrible disaster. But what do you do? You have a couple of choices. You can either: A. You can honor your commitment to your family by making them whole on what they gave you. You pay them back the principal plus interest. They will feel for you because you took the money from your savings, but that trust will go a long way. They will still talk to you and not ostracize you from the family. In fact, they would probably tell their friends about how you made good on your word. B. You let the 9 family members that kicked up the $90,000 - plus your parents that kicked up the other $25,000, know that you will be returning their principle, but no interest and roughly $1,000 of the profit from the sale. Since you at least returned their principle, they will probably still talk to you, but you did not fulfill your promise. They will keep that in mind for the future - especially on the next deal you want to do. It will take a lot more convincing, but since you have a good track record, they may lend to you again. We’ve looked at the best case and worst case scenario, but there is the consideration of not using friends and family in the first place. When you are first starting out, friends and family is usually the first place you turn to get the financial support for your deal. This will extend beyond just the immediate people you know, but also their friends, neighbors, and people they work with. If you think about it, your friends and family network is huge. If you don’t leverage these people for your deals, it will be difficult if not impossible to raise the money needed to get the deal done - especially when you are starting out. You need to take the money if you are going to do a deal. This means overcoming the fear and ask everyone you know - friends, family, people at work, everyone - to invest with you. It’s that fear that will hold you back if you don’t act and raising capital is important to getting the deal locked up. The way you overcome the fear is to get so good at underwriting, get broker opinions before you buy, and plan for the worst. By preparing, you will eliminate your fear. Have you taken money from friends and family? How did it go? Please let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you. And if you learned something from this video, give it a thumbs up and check out our podcast Bulletproof Cashflow on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to the new YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great.

If you have shopped for anything online, you already know that product reviews are always helpful in helping us make the decision and hit that "buy now" button. Online retailers know that good reviews provide an edge to moving their product and even beat the competition, and the same is true for the real estate market. If your property has good reviews, it will attract more prospective tenants. From there, you are able to increase the price because of the increase in demand of your property. However, when you list your property on the various Internet sites, you are going up against every other landlord and property manager on that site. If all things are equal between your unit and the others in a similar location, good reviews and ratings can be your way of differentiating yourself from the competition. And because it impacts your occupancy, also has a direct impact on the valuation of the property. If a good review increases the property value, then a bad review can have a negative impact as well. So it’s critical to understand when and how to motivate your tenants to submit a review. Getting tenant reviews is not easy, but it’s not impossible. Here are 5 ways to get reviews to boost your property values. 1. Get Professional Real Estate Promoters If you have a property manager, they more than likely have access to a property marketer or promoter. There are also online listing companies like Foursquare where tenants will post their comments on an apartment community. You can also engage companies like Crowdly where they can leverage their strong online presence, influencer marketing, and high-quality SEO to promote the positives of your apartment community. Services like Crowdly create unique campaigns that reward customers in unique ways and help find customers that help in producing positive feedback. You can get these reviews and connect them with your website or your Instagram or Facebook page and increase your market value. All this is part of your overall digital marketing plan. These days your primary tenants are Millennials and Generation Z’s. This means getting in front of these people where they hang out online. So you are opting the services of third parties like Crowdly and Foursquare. I will include links in the description so you can check it out. 2. Getting Feedback After the Maintenance Call Simply put, after each maintenance call, you can send an automated text message with the link for posting the feedback online. Tenants can do it with their phones, making it easy and less time-consuming. When you are doing this you need to make sure your staff is on-point and they are able to resolve the tenants' issue quickly. This will also help maintain the high standard of maintenance work and increase the level of satisfaction of the residents. If you tie rewards to tenant feedback, you will be in good shape. 3. Tenant Satisfaction & Follow-up Having good relations with your tenants is important. You should be very responsive to any complaints and needs of your residents regarding the property. Make it easy for the residents to interact with you and take care of their needs. When you do, they will leave a good review upon the completion of the requested task. The best retailers and etailers have great customer support and are always available via phone or email. For good feedback, you should always be available to attend the calls or reply to the emails within a few hours to address the concerns. 4. Rewards for Reviews People love free stuff, so go ahead and give away free stuff in exchange for a review. Things like key chains, hats or football jerseys are very popular and if given free, appeal to your tenants. To make it easy for your tenants, you can send an automated text or email with a link that sends them to the review page. When you give something to someone, it is human nature to return the favor. Before you do this, make sure you do your best to identify major issues and handle them quickly to minimize bad tenant pushback. Also, the cost of items like key chains and jerseys are small in comparison to the boost in valuation you will get. Additionally, the higher the rating of the property more will be the rent you can charge. 5. Community Events Organizing a community event, barbeque or block party for your tenants can spread healthy and positive vibes. To make it cost effective, tenants can bring their own food, and you arrange for the chef and other functions of the venue, like tables and chairs. From there, you can place an interactive touch screen kiosk or a small stand with an iPad with someone standing by to answer questions. What innovative ways have you used to get positive reviews? Please let me know. I’d love to hear from you. And if you learned something from this video, give it a thumbs up and check out our podcast Bulletproof Cashflow on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to the new YouTube channel.

We are ramping up our 2019 and I hope you guys are getting after your goals. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is the amazing interviews I’ve had on the Bulletproof Cashflow podcast. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet so many successful syndicators, authors, and masters in the field of real estate and share some of their biggest lessons with you. There are some commonalities with all the people I spoke with so far - from mindset to taking massive action. There are still many lessons to be learned from their journey. I’ve narrowed it down to 5: 1) You Must Have a Focused Plan: Without fail, every real estate entrepreneur I’ve interviewed has a detailed and very focused strategic and tactical business plan. They are experts in the asset class they are working and very rarely deviate from their asset class. Whether it’s multifamily, retail, storage, or land, they stick to what they know and only expand if their team can expand with their plan. They know their market inside and out. They are focused on chasing one rabbit versus chasing many rabbits all over the country. 2) You Must Have Good Relationships: Building strong relationships with everyone in your circle is important for you and your business. These relationships will not only propel your business to new heights in the way of investors, vendors, and deal flow, but it will also allow you to help others with their needs. In any business, it’s about giving first to get back and building good, strong relationships. In real estate, some of the best deals are found off-market and the only way to find these deals is from your strong relationships. In the end, it all comes down to deals and dollars and the relationships you have developed. 3) It Takes a Little Patience: It sounds simple, but the best deals are taken down by those that are patient. I have looked at many deals where the price and terms just didn’t make sense. In those cases, I wait it out. I never take down deals outside of the set parameters because I have an obligation to my investors. In several cases, we waited over a year before the deal made sense for us to pursue and close. In any case, I always part ways on good terms with the broker and leave the door open for that seller to reach out. We make it easy to deal with us and those on the team. 4) Take Massive Action: The people I interviewed did one thing extremely well - they continually executed their business plan relentlessly. They also continually refine and improve their business model so that it becomes more efficient and profitable. They push through barriers and do whatever it takes to deliver. 5) They Invest Heavily in Personal Development: Aside from investing in buildings, they spend a lot of time investing in themselves. Without fail, every successful entrepreneur invests in improving themselves. Whether it’s reading a book a week to improve their mind, hitting the gym to improve their body, or going to conferences to build their network, they are committed to improving themselves. They are not complacent with the status quo and work to be at their best. Anyway, make 2019 your breakout year by checking out the Bulletproof Cashflow podcast on your favorite media channel. There, I interview some of the most successful real estate syndicators. You will hear about their experiences first hand and you can implement some of these great lessons into your business. Be great. HELP US OUT Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you! Thank you in advance! ♡ HAVE A QUESTION? I am working on a new show where I answer your questions. To submit a question, go to www.bulletproofcashflow.com and you will see a widget where you can speak your question. If I use your question on the air, we'll send you our newly designed t-shirts. ✧✧✧✧✧✧ DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS ✧ Talk to Brokers: http://bit.ly/FindBroker ✧ Raise Capital: http://bit.ly/RseFunds LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ✧ BCF on iTunes: https://apple.co/2B4AvXp ✧ BCF on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/StitcherBCF SOCIAL MEDIA! DM me! I want to hear from you! ✧ IG: http://www.instagram.com/bulletproofc... ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/bulletproofc... ✧ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bull... ✧ WE: https://www.bulletproofcashflow.com JOIN THE GROUP ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bulle... ♡ Be Bulletproof!

If you have seen my previous videos, you may already know that I got my start in real estate with single-family and small multifamily. When I wanted to kick it up to larger multifamily, I called up an attorney friend of mine who was very much into real estate and asked him how I would get started buying larger multifamily deals. He didn’t have much time on the phone and just told me “you syndicate the deal” and then he left. I didn't exactly know what he meant at the time, but I got to work, studied how to do multifamily syndication, and have done many deals since. Today, I will give you a high-level view of what syndication is and give you an opportunity to perform your own research. Syndicating multifamily real estate is an evolution in income generating real estate for passive investors. Basically, you are partnering up with investors to buy an apartment building and cash flowing them afterwards via the tenant rents. While multifamily syndication has been around for a while, it has become more popular recently as a way for business professionals, doctors, and other W2 income earners to produce passive income while protecting their income from taxes. But before you begin syndicating your own deals or investing in them, you need to do the research and understand how it works and how it will make you and your investors money. So, let’s define what a basic Multifamily Syndication looks like, but keep in mind that. there are many ways of structuring a deal. So this is a very high-level overview. A deal syndicator puts together deals by first underwriting the property and then seeking out investors for the down payment capital needed to purchase the building. The General Partnership consists of the syndicator and any operating partners. The investors have a stake in the deal, like investing in shares, bonds or mutual funds, but are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the business. Returns are distributed first to the investors, and then to the General Partnership. Investors will have their risk tolerances and returns expectations. If you are the syndicator, you have to be sure to structure all this ahead of talking to your investors. Risk tolerances vary on the building and what the plan is. If it is an older, class C property, there are primarily two types of projects the syndicator will be doing: 1. Distressed property: These properties have a low occupancy, 85% or less. A distressed property is an apartment building that is unstable, the maintenance is poor, and the operations are inefficient. There could be many problems with the building itself, such as a bad boiler or electrical problems. Typically, the tenants base is not very good as screening is poor. 2. Value-add property: These properties are more stable than the distressed ones. With occupancy greater than 85%, perhaps they have inefficient operations or poor maintenance and there is an opportunity to increase the value of the property. The main point about this kind of syndications is that it's generally economically viable due to the high occupancy rate. Banks typically like these deals. In any case, the General Partnership should maintain transparent throughout the venture of any deal. Risks should be clear to all the investors; every deal has its own risks, no matter how good the offer looks. All this should be covered in the syndicators’ subscription agreement that is prepared by an SEC attorney. I will be working on more training programs that will further explain the finer details of syndication. There is much more to it. The point is that for you guys and girls out there, there is indeed a way to buy larger multifamily. I have done it. You can do it too. Are you wondering how to do or how to invest in your first deal? What would you like to see in a syndication training program? Let me know in comments. If you learned something from this video, give it a thumbs up and check out our podcast Bulletproof Cashflow on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to the new YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great.

Being An Entrepreneur Isn't Easy. The life of the entrepreneur is one of uncertainty, fear and worry. There will be many struggles to overcome, but I know you can make it. Just keep going. 💛💛💛 HELP US OUT Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you! Thank you in advance! ♡ HAVE A QUESTION? I am working on a new show where I answer your questions. To submit a question, go to www.bulletproofcashflow.com and you will see a widget where you can speak your question. If I use your question on the air, we'll send you our newly designed t-shirts. ✧✧✧✧✧✧ DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS ✧ Talk to Brokers: http://bit.ly/FindBroker ✧ Raise Capital: http://bit.ly/RseFunds LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ✧ BCF on iTunes: https://apple.co/2B4AvXp ✧ BCF on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/StitcherBCF SOCIAL MEDIA! DM me! I want to hear from you! ✧ IG: http://www.instagram.com/bulletproofc... ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/bulletproofc... ✧ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bull... ✧ WE: https://www.bulletproofcashflow.com JOIN THE GROUP ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bulle... ♡ Be Bulletproof!

Investing in multifamily real estate is nothing new. Many have invested as active and passive investors in deals as a strategy to offset their W2 income while making great returns, especially since the popularity of crowdfunding has really caught on over the past several years. The “crowdfunding concept” has only accelerated the flow of money into multifamily deals. This is because the multifamily investment strategy was once reserved for the super-rich and this concept has made it so just about any accredited investor get in on a deal. The syndication model is a popular way to invest in real estate deals, created before crowdfunding was even a term. It is basically the pooling of capital from individuals for a common purpose, such as investing in a business or buying a multifamily property. In the world of real estate, it is the most used method for purchasing large, commercial properties. As I mentioned, to get in on a syndication deal, you must be accredited, as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This means you need to have a net worth of at least $1 million, or have an annual income of at least $200,000 for an individual, or $300,000 for a married couple. If you don’t meet these requirements, there are other options for you that I will talk about in the future. Anyway, I will include a link in the description to the SEC website where they provide more color on the qualifications needed. Many of the people invest to protect their wealth, so many more have opted to multifamily real estate for the cash flow, tax shelter, and other great benefits. Most investors are focused on running their businesses, law practices, and doctor offices to search and analyze hundreds of properties to find a deal - then underwrite it to make sure it makes sense. It takes a great deal of time, experience, and know-how to look at properties and determine if it will work. You, as an investor, don’t need to worry about any of these things, because my team and I work on cultivating the relationships with brokers, banks, CPAs, attorneys, and vendors to make sure we are maximizing the value of the property. When you come on board as an investor on one of our deals, you are leveraging our expertise and borrowing power along with a team of experts so you can focus on what you do best. HELP US OUT Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you! Thank you in advance! ♡ HAVE A QUESTION? I am working on a new show where I answer your questions. To submit a question, go to www.bulletproofcashflow.com and you will see a widget where you can speak your question. If I use your question on the air, we'll send you our newly designed t-shirts. ✧✧✧✧✧✧ DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS ✧ Talk to Brokers: http://bit.ly/FindBroker ✧ Raise Capital: http://bit.ly/RseFunds LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ✧ BCF on iTunes: https://apple.co/2B4AvXp ✧ BCF on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/StitcherBCF SOCIAL MEDIA! DM me! I want to hear from you! ✧ IG: http://www.instagram.com/bulletproofc... ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/bulletproofc... ✧ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bull... ✧ WE: https://www.bulletproofcashflow.com JOIN THE GROUP ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bulle... ♡ Be Bulletproof!

There are slim pickings when it comes to deal flow in today's market. Once you find a deal, you need to put your best foot forward to WIN THE DEAL! To win, you need to submit a Letter of Intent (or LOI). This document shows your intent to buy the asset and follow-through. This CRITICAL first step is key to landing the deal. In this episode of "Real Estate, Explained LIVE", we cover the "5 Things to Know About Your LOI". Check out the recording. If it gives you any value, please like and subscribe to the Bulletproof Cashflow YouTube channel. I would greatly appreciate it! ============== Go to https://bulletproofcashflow.com to submit your question for use in upcoming episodes! If we use your question on the show, we will send you a FREE gift! ===🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏿 Join our Community Join the Bulletproof Cashflow community for entrepreneurs. https://www.facebook.com/groups/bulle... === 📚 Get Agostino’s Free Ebooks 🌟 The Bulletproof Guide to Finding a Broker 🌟 https://bulletproofcashflow.com/guide-to-finding-a-broker/ === 👨‍🏫 Get a Coach Want to kill it in Multifamily? We have online training available. Check out the details here: https://multifamilycoaching.bulletpro... === 💬 Connect with Bulletproof Cashflow Instagram: @bulletproofcashflow Facebook: fb.com/bulletproofcashflow YouTube: youtube.com/c/bulletproofcashflow Web: bulletproofcashflow.com Linktree: @bulletproofcashflow === 🎧 Check out the Podcast Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/iTunesBCF Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/GooglePodcastsBCF Stitcher: http://bit.ly/StitcherBCF Overcast: http://bit.ly/OvercastBCF === 👍 Share & Comment Below Feel free to ask me any questions that you have regarding multifamily real estate, property management, raising money or anything - I'm here to help! If you found this video valuable, give it a like. If you know someone who needs to see it, share it. Add it to a playlist if you want to watch it later. . . If you're reading this, I want to let you know that you have influence over the lives of others. Stop waiting for permission, and go out there and DOMINATE. #course #courses #onlinecourse #onlinecourses #invest #investment #investments #investing #passiveincome #cashflow #outofstateinvesting #legacywealth #financialfreedom #income #wealth #retireearly #financialpeace #investlong #bulletproofcashflow

Aside from buying the deal right, implementing the right property management on the deal is absolutely crucial to the success of the property. Finding creative ways to maximize operational performance, both in driving revenue and controlling expenses is always a challenge, but with proper planning and execution, you can take advantage of trends in property management and stand out from others. So, here are five key property management trends and considerations to keep an eye out for: 1) Staff Retention Is Hard Whenever there is a good economy, retaining good people always becomes a problem. If you have property management in your deals or manage your own team, retaining your in-house and on-site talent continues to be an operational challenge for many managers and owners. To hang on to good people, you need to become an expert at old-fashioned relationship building, recognition, and helping them meet their personal career goals. If they are performing and the business is doing well, you can also reward them financially. As long as the employee is an active part of the team and engaged with the business, they will stick around. 2) Everybody is Going Digital Over the past 5 years, there has been a massive wave of people that use mobile phones instead of their PCs to access and consume information from the Internet. Social media has become the predominant application where people are spending their time. The days of posting an ad on Craigslist and getting flooded with emails are over. Today, prospective tenants go to places like Facebook Marketplace, watch a video, and send an instant message in response to a post. Integrate these technologies with your property management system and you will be able to manage showings more efficiently and accelerate the process of onboarding tenants. 3) Demographics are Changing The United States has more immigrants than any other country in the world. We are built on immigration. In a research report by the Pew Research Center, they estimate that by 2065, Asians will make up some 38% of all immigrants and Hispanics will make up 31%. In many large markets - especially in the sunbelt states - these immigrant populations gravitate toward multifamily rentals. What’s more, the most important marketing source is word-of-mouth through their community. So, depending on where your properties are, you may need to build a multilingual customer service team to handle the needs of this diverse and growing tenant base. 4) Tenant Amenities are Rightsizing As time passes, people are opting to work from home and employers are looking to use their office space in other ways or just getting smaller spaces altogether. For property managers of some property classes, this means creating workspaces for these tenants that allow for meeting rooms as well as incorporating high-speed internet and offering work areas with printing and copying. The days of amenities such as tennis courts are gone. If you have areas in your properties that are not much used anymore, consider repurposing those expense dollars for a community garden or building out an outdoor entertainment center. 5) Old Fashioned Customer Service is Still a Must-Have There is no substitute for good customer service. I’m not talking about putting a doorman at your Class C property. Instead, I’m referring to providing the basics for comfortable living; things such as friendly staff, a clean property that tenants can be proud of, responsive maintenance teams, and modern touches like online account handling and payment acceptance. Anyway, these trends present opportunities for property managers and us as real estate entrepreneurs to up our game and stand out from competitive properties. Are you seeing any trends I didn't mention? Please leave them in the comments. We would love to hear from you. If you learned something from this video, give it a thumbs up and check out our podcast Bulletproof Cashflow in the podcast app you prefer, and subscribe to the new YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great.

One of the greatest strengths of buying cash-producing multifamily real estate is the ability to use leverage to buy that property. The US is one of the few places in the world where you can put down a percentage of the total on a large multifamily deal, finance the rest at a good rate and term and make a nice return month over month after you pay the note. However, the one mistake people make getting into their first deal is overleveraging. A highly leveraged loan comes at the expense of a higher monthly payment, and probably at a higher rate. If you use too high a leverage, it will be difficult to cash flow the deal or there will not be enough margin to make the returns for you and your investors. When this happens, there are a couple of ways that your deal can go sideways and come back to bite you. The First Way to Bite You: You Hit a Higher Than Expected Vacancy If you have a multifamily property and your vacancy increases, your loan’s debt coverage ratio (DCR) will drop. This is true for all multifamilies, but if you’re overleveraged, it may make it impossible for you to make the higher payments to meet your obligations. This is especially true for smaller multifamily, where each vacant unit has more impact on the overall income of the property. The Second Way to Bite You: Your Underwriting is too Optimistic This is particularly important for new real estate entrepreneurs. If for any reason, your underwriting is not thoroughly done, having more equity in the deal can save you from a loan default because your payment will be smaller and you can still cash flow. Your first deal may not go smoothly and you will probably make a few mistakes, especially if you’re doing it alone. It may be due to not getting your rents up as you specified in your proforma or you may get a bump in vacancies. And that’s OK; getting experience is meaningful in your first deal. Just don’t get overly optimistic with an overleveraged loan. A good success is always better than a default - losing money for you and your investors. So, you may be wondering, how to find the right leverage for your deal: First, be conservative with your underwriting. You are looking for the worst case scenario. If you are using a good model, you need to stress test the deal to know how low the vacancy can go before you start losing money. You want to try to kill the deal and understand what it will take for that to happen. Run the deal at lower rents, lower cap rates, and higher interest rates. As you go through the thought process, you will keep an eye out for the worst case after you close. Second, structure the deal toward the worst case scenario so no investor or lender will think that your inexperience is sending you down the wrong path. If you analyze the deal and your model say you will have a 19% cash on cash of return, don’t tell your investor that. Scale it back to 9 or 10%. If you hit your targets and deliver a better return, it’s better to surprise them than to disappoint them. Getting your first deal nailed down will take some time, but study and train. Go to meetups and talk to mentors. Read, listen to podcasts. Learn from the mistakes of others. When you are ready, get in the game. Whatever you do, don’t over-leverage to get into your deal. Please let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you. And if you learned something from this video, give it a thumbs up and check out our podcast Bulletproof Cashflow in the podcast app you prefer, and subscribe to the new YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great. HELP US OUT Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you! Thank you in advance! ♡ HAVE A QUESTION? I am working on a new show where I answer your questions. To submit a question, go to www.bulletproofcashflow.com and you will see a widget where you can speak your question. If I use your question on the air, we'll send you our newly designed t-shirts. ✧✧✧✧✧✧ DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS ✧ Talk to Brokers: http://bit.ly/FindBroker ✧ Raise Capital: http://bit.ly/RseFunds LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ✧ BCF on iTunes: https://apple.co/2B4AvXp ✧ BCF on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/StitcherBCF SOCIAL MEDIA! DM me! I want to hear from you! ✧ IG: http://www.instagram.com/bulletproofc... ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/bulletproofc... ✧ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bull... ✧ WE: https://www.bulletproofcashflow.com JOIN THE GROUP ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bulle... ♡ Be Bulletproof!

The "ups and downs" in the U.S. economic cycle are defined in terms of periods of expansion or recession. During expansions, the economy, measured by trends like production, sales, and job growth. Recessions are periods when the economy is contracting or shrinking. In this case, you will see mass layoffs, a massive dip in home prices because of no demand and a decrease in business investment. Having been in the real estate business for over 15 years, I personally experienced many cycles in the market. Through these phases, I’ve noticed a variety of trends, but there is one, in particular, that is interesting: The landlords & owners that operate their properties with a strong management team typically forecast the market turning and prepare in advance. These landlords are connected with their teams and track the occupancy, rent levels, competition, and time to rent numbers. Armed with this information, they are able to anticipate market turns. Of course, the market you are operating in will determine how the properties are affected. New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other popular metros will typically only see a slight drop in overall valuation of a property while other areas will experience a larger drop. It’s important to understand the market you are buying. Sure, we are always buying for cash flow, but appreciation will vary depending on where you are buying. When we are going through a real estate downturn, multifamily properties that are cash flowing, have cash in reserve, and are run very well will have the highest chance of surviving. The consensus is that we are still years away from a correction, but it’s best to prepare now and budget for downturns and difficult times. Here are 8 tactics for you to consider: 1. If you are due for a refinance and it makes sense, do it sooner than later. It is easier to refi now while your cash flow is healthy. After you do, push for a longer amortization. 2. Before taking on an extra expense, consider the benefit you will receive. By performing a cost-benefit analysis, it will keep expenses under control, and give you a bare minimum to watch for in case the local economy goes from bad to worse. 3. Keep emergency fund/reserves in each property to cover tenants that cannot meet their monthly expenses and for unexpected expenses. 4. If your multifamily has multiple leases that are coming up at the same time, you will want to renew their lease early. You may also want to incentivize them to sign on for a two year in exchange for painting a room or installing a ceiling fan. The cost of those items is small compared to the benefit of maintaining a high occupancy in your building. 5. Update your break-even point. You probably calculated the minimum number of units needed to cover the mortgage, any required utilities, and formal obligations. If not, find what vacancy rate will result in the property’s monthly cash flow equaling the mortgage payment plus the additional required expenses. Know your number and protect your break-even point. 6. Try to find ways to create additional revenue streams. Aside from updating finishes internally, such as upgraded countertops and accent walls, you can also offer door-side trash pick, covered carports, and cable. 7. Work on the major repairs and upgrades before the downturn. Borrowing money for improvements is much easier during an expansion. 8. Make sure your tenants are happy. Whenever you have a turn, you are not only losing on that rental income, you also need to turn the unit, increasing your expenses. The feel of a market downturn will be different depending on your asset class and location. The properties that will see the most fluctuation are those that are already in weaker markets, C- and D Class properties, as well as properties located in areas of low population and job growth. Properties in high growth and high activity markets like New York and Los Angeles will still feel the downturn, but not to the magnitude these other properties will. While a C Class in New York City will be felt, they will still be able to pull in the rent level they did the previous year. They just will not have the ability to increase until the market turns again. Finally, remember, never buy on speculation. Always buy for cash flow. When you are in uncertain economic times, it’s the cash flow that will keep the property from getting into trouble. What lessons did you learn going through a recession? Have you implemented anything of what I just mentioned? Let me know in the comments. If you learned something from this video, give it a thumbs up and check out our podcast Bulletproof Cashflow on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great.

When it comes time to find new tenants to rent that freshly turned unit you just spent money on, you need to make sure you know who you are renting to. Regardless of the market, you want to perform the proper underwriting upfront to avoid problem tenants. You want to attract good, strong tenants that will be happy to rent from you and stay in the property for as long as possible. There are many ways to attract a tenant to rent from you, but here are 5 tips to attract new tenants to rent your vacancy: 1) Focus in Curb Appeal When prospective tenants roll up to your property, they expect to see a clean property that looks well maintained. This doesn’t mean it needs to look like a Class A community. Rather, you should strive to make sure there is no trash on the premises, the entryways are clean and maybe even decorated. You want to make the place as welcoming as possible to a prospective tenant and make it feel like home. If you are not great at taking photos or videos, spend a little money on a photographer to take photos of the interior and exterior, highlighting the features of the property. 2) Make the Place Great, but Remain Neutral Using a neutral pallet on the surfaces of the units will appeal to a wider market. By that, I mean sticking with modern colors that people like. For instance, these days, it’s about light grey walls with white trim. Years ago, it was all about eggshell paint on the walls, which you can still get away with today. Landlords are installing dark grey laminate flooring which looks great as well. Update your kitchen counters and flooring. And make sure the place has natural light to brighten the room. 3) Target the Features of the Property to Your Demographic Depending on the target group you are looking to rent to, make sure they are aware of the advantages of the unit. For instance, if you are targeting families to move into your vacant unit, you will tout easy access to school and leisure facilities, parks, and other family-favorable places. If you are targeting business professionals, tell them about gyms, spas, office hubs, and restaurants nearby. If you are targeting students, advertise your proximity to the local university and social hubs. The point is, consider who would want to live there and describe how your vacancy will solve the problem they have today. 4) Green is Good Depending on the asset class you are promoting, you will want to make improvements to the exterior to include nice green spaces and places for people to congregate and enjoy the outside. This could be a small barbecue area, fire pit, garden, or playground. Make sure that in all these cases, you consider the distance from the property and any insurance you may need for these features.You can also market what you are doing to the interior of the units to “go green,” like switching from traditional lighting to LED lights, providing recycling services, and installing low-flow showers and toilets that use less water. Sustainable properties are not only popular for resale as it improves NOI, but it is popular with Millennials and older Gen Z’s. 5) Increased Security For some areas and asset classes, having security in place will make the tenants feel better about living at your property. Consider investing in high-def cameras to cover high traffic areas, bright lighting, visitor registration, key-card access, and possibly a security guard if you are repositioning a property while putting all these features in place. For tenants to feel truly at home, they need to feel safe. If you would like to keep that tenant long-term, this is something you just can’t overlook. Anyway, what do you do to pull in new tenants to your property? How do you keep them happy? Please let me know and leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. If you liked this, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. Also, check out the Bulletproof Cashflow podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great.

Since the iPhone changed the game in the use of mobile devices in 2007, people have been increasingly migrating to using their phones for just about everything on and off the Internet. And for prospective tenants in our communities, this is no exception. With 91% of tenants reading text messages within 3 minutes of receipt and 88% preferring to communicate via email, landlords and property managers can’t ignore the shift in communication preferences. For many of us, communicating via a messaging app to our family and friends is the primary way we reach people - second to making a voice call. Because of this trend, we as property managers should use this immediate and convenient channel to keep in touch with new and existing tenants. I would go so far as to say that this is even a competitive advantage. There are a handful of reasons why we need to leverage tech to keep in close contact with our tenant base, but I will cover the four reason why property managers need to use email, messaging, and text for prospective and existing tenants: 1) The Growing Millennial & Gen-Z Demographic are Driving Up the Rental Market According to Pew Research, Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force and have surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest living generation. Millennials are driving up the rental market month over month as they are much more mobile than previous generations. To meet this demand, property managers need to provide flexible ways to communicate with this demographic - from text messaging to Facebook Messenger to WhatsApp. Additionally, you should use systems and technology that allow the resolution of issues and rent payment via a mobile device. Even more than the Millennials, the Gen-Z demographic grew up with this technology and it will become increasingly important as these two generations age. It could even make the difference if they will sign up or renew their lease. 2) A Faster Response to Prospective Tenants will Give You a Competitive Advantage Today we live in a world where we get groceries delivered to our homes in one hour and Amazon is flying drones to people houses to drop off toothpaste. All things being equal, tenants expect the same quick response from their property manager. The faster you are able to respond to a tenant prospect, the more likely you will be able to build rapport and trust with them. As I mentioned before, these days, Millenials and Gen-Zs respond to text messaging apps over taking a phone call and usually read them within minutes of receipt. Emails are usually responded to within a 4-hour period. So text and messaging platforms should be your preferred methods of reaching prospects. 3) You Can Do More in Less Time The great thing about using this technology is that you can manage tenants and prospects anywhere on the globe. Using text messaging technology, you are able to provide these people with easy ways to sign or renew leases, enter trouble tickets with pictures, or send reminders of upcoming events in the community. All this efficiency means higher productivity and increased margins. If an emergency crops up, the property manager can handle it even if someone is not in the office. Many ways of communicating and high flexibility is key. If you are spending less time taping notices to peoples doors, you could be saving an entire workday depending on the size of the property. It’s worth noting that there is no actual cost for using Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp, and there are text messaging services available so you are not tying up your phone number. Additionally, there are platforms available that allow your team to easily handle and track these various methods of communication if you have a large portfolio of properties. 4) You Can Track All Your Communications Using email and texting in the prospecting process allows property managers to process more leads and close more leases. If you go so far as integrating your messaging apps into your CRM, you are able to set appointments to show units, keep notes on the prospect and answer their questions - all in one place with a trail of what was discussed. It allows the property manager to track all the inbound leads and nothing gets lost. What’s more, if the prospect wants to know how many units are available or the cost for the rent, you can quickly look it up and respond. Using all this tech to immediately get back to a tenant is a competitive advantage that will set you apart from other community's communication style right from the start. Anyway, technology has changed the multifamily space and given apartment communities a new way to stay connected to tenants. With so many choices for a prospect to live, it's important for your property to stand out. Today’s tenant wants to feel valued, and maintaining easy communication is a priority for anybody looking for a new place to call home.

Like most things in life, there is more than one way to look at something. When it comes to money, there are two predominant ways: there is scarcity thinking and abundance thinking. The financial industry has been built around marketing scarcity thinking to people. Financial advisors make huge commissions convincing the masses to live below their means, work hard, clip coupons, and put as much as they can in mutual funds, stocks and ETFs. Then, when retired, these same people are to nibble away at their savings with the thought that they will die before the money runs out. This plan may be fine for some, but it certainly isn't going to get you the life you dream of. I don't know about you, but I want to enjoy my 50’s and 60’s traveling and helping others rather than stretching every dollar so I don’t starve to death. When there is a market correction and the economic uncertainty, high taxes, slow stock returns and rising inflation make their way to the headlines, the scarcity thinkers start feeling the pinch. They delay retirement, take up a part time job to make ends meet, and downgrade their home. They have been sold that this is the only option for dealing with a recession. Unfortunately, these people are focused only on income instead of getting their money to work for them. The wealthiest people in the world think in abundance. They seek to expand their money and wealth beyond just surviving and instead are looking to create a legacy for their children and family. They know that cashflow is king and so is growth. So they are always working on creating multiple streams of income, like by investing in companies and real estate that throw off money quarter over quarter. These income streams allow them to enjoy the finer things in life, travel, and contribute to their favorite causes without affecting their net worth because all these great things come from their cashflow. These people are not scrimping and saving. They are not trying to figure out how to outlive their nest egg. The great thing is that you don't have to either. You are able to increase your net worth, improve your cashflow, and build a legacy for your family. For a long time, multifamily real estate investing was a tool used by the super wealthy. Most of the wealthiest people have either made or put their wealth in real estate. I’m not talking about a Real Estate Investment Trust. I'm talking about actual commercial multifamily buildings that have been around for decades and have produced income every month for generations. The way you get into these deals is to invest into a syndication. Right now, CEOs, doctors, lawyers, mid-level manager and home entrepreneurs can take advantage of all the benefits investing in real estate provides all without becoming a landlord or putting their name on a large business loan. They get all the tax breaks, depreciation and pride of ownership as well. Anyway, that's the difference between scarcity and abundance thinking. That is, working for your money versus having your money work for you. What do you guys think? Are you in abundance mode? Let me know in the comments. Be great. HELP US OUT Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you! Thank you in advance! ♡ HAVE A QUESTION? I am working on a new show where I answer your questions. To submit a question, go to www.bulletproofcashflow.com and you will see a widget where you can speak your question. If I use your question on the air, we'll send you our newly designed t-shirts. ✧✧✧✧✧✧ DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS ✧ Talk to Brokers: http://bit.ly/FindBroker ✧ Raise Capital: http://bit.ly/RseFunds LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ✧ BCF on iTunes: https://apple.co/2B4AvXp ✧ BCF on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/StitcherBCF SOCIAL MEDIA! DM me! I want to hear from you! ✧ IG: http://www.instagram.com/bulletproofc... ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/bulletproofc... ✧ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bull... ✧ WE: https://www.bulletproofcashflow.com JOIN THE GROUP ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bulle... ♡ Be Bulletproof!

There are many ways to getting started on building your real estate career. Whether it’s flipping houses, buying land, or wholesaling, there is something you will like and feel comfortable doing.There are so many niches and asset classes to choose from. At our live events, all people are interested in building a portfolio in multifamily. Some of them, however, when they hear the word “multifamily”, they get a little scared. They convince themselves that their lack of experience or resources would prevent them from getting into multifamily. The truth is, multifamily is no easier or difficult than doing any of the niches I just mentioned. I would even say that multifamily investing is one of the easiest ways for new investors to get into real estate. Perhaps it’s because of the intimidating name, or the fact that there are rules and laws around landlording, but new investors should consider investing in multifamily deals to grow their net worth. I’m not big on starting small, and by small I mean less than 16 units, but if you want to start with a fourplex, you can live in one unit and rent the other 3 units to cover the mortgage while still getting some additional income. If you live in a very active market, you could even live off the three other units while the mortgage gets paid down by the rents. You only have one roof, one HVAC, one yard and one foundation to worry about. All this while collecting multiple rents. When you do it correctly, you can reduce the amount of expected maintenance on a property. For many people starting out, new investors are scared of multifamily for one simple reason: the price of entry. In most cases, a multifamily deal in good condition and in a good area will be much more than a single family home. And while it may be enough to scare some investors off, many people don’t understand that it is actually easier to get loans on multifamily deals. This is because lenders see multifamily as a cash producing asset. A cash flowing business. If you want to scale into larger units, you can become successful in real estate by using mentorship, partnering with someone with experience, and aligning with a property management company. Anyway, are you looking to get started in multifamily? What are you doing today to get rolling? Are you going to meetups to network with other multifamily people? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you. If you are getting started in multifamily, check out the Bulletproof Cashflow podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success. Be great. HELP US OUT Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you! Thank you in advance! ♡ HAVE A QUESTION? I am working on a new show where I answer your questions. To submit a question, go to www.bulletproofcashflow.com and you will see a widget where you can speak your question. If I use your question on the air, we'll send you our newly designed t-shirts. ✧✧✧✧✧✧ DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS ✧ Talk to Brokers: http://bit.ly/FindBroker ✧ Raise Capital: http://bit.ly/RseFunds LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ✧ BCF on iTunes: https://apple.co/2B4AvXp ✧ BCF on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/StitcherBCF SOCIAL MEDIA! DM me! I want to hear from you! ✧ IG: http://www.instagram.com/bulletproofc... ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/bulletproofc... ✧ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bull... ✧ WE: https://www.bulletproofcashflow.com JOIN THE GROUP ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bulle... ♡ Be Bulletproof!

We are in a competitive market today. When you are preparing an offer on a deal that you want to buy, you need to do your best to be easy to work with, aggressive and able to close. This means handing over a Letter of Intent that is strong and has the best chance of winning. Doing the homework ahead of the LOI is important and this info applies whether your deal is $100,000 or $10,000,000. Ultimately, you are looking to write the LOI the way the seller and broker wants to see it, complete with the price and terms that will get the deal done. But before you get into that, you need to prepare for writing up the offer. Here are the three things you need to do before you actually write the LOI: 1) You Need to Ask Questions When you call the selling broker and introduce yourself, tell them about your background, team and what market you are buying in. From there, you want to express your interest in the property and ask questions about it. - How much are is the seller looking for? - What due diligence period is the seller looking for? - How much earnest money is the seller looking for? - What is the most important thing to the seller, besides price? - How would the seller like the LOI written? Maybe the broker that is selling the deal is also the one that sold it to the current owner. Ask the broker, "How was the offer written previously?”, “What did it sell for last time?”, “Why are they selling today?”. You see, when you get to the point of preparing the LOI, you can write it the way they want to see it, and you have a better chance of winning the deal. Because you wrote it the way they want it, they will agree with your price, due diligence and down payment. You want to give the seller what they want. 2) What Price and Terms are Acceptable to the Seller During this conversation, you want to go into a deeper dive with the broker around what they believe the deal will be worth to the market. This info is typically backed with data that supports the price. On larger deals, the broker will forward a ‘Broker's Opinion of Value’, also called a BOV. This is prepared by the selling broker after they inspect the property and pull the recent listings and sales nearby. Make sure to pull your own data to make sure their opinion isn’t skewed. It is very easy to do as certain properties in better condition will get a higher price. After you get an idea of what they are looking for in terms, continue to ask questions. - Who is the decision maker? - What’s their story? - What price will this sell at? They may tell you that "this deal will sell for over $5MM". Keep that number in mind and wait it out a bit. You don't want to offer too much too early. Often times, brokers will inflate the prices and they will get a bunch of lower offers. If your analysis can support a $5MM price, send it over and call the broker to verify receipt. Ask them how your deals stacks up. Ask them how many other players there are and how many offers they have. The point is, go in strong with your best and final bid so you can lock the deal down. 3) You Need to Express Confidence to the Broker As you go after a deal, you need to know that you want to have it in the first place. Do you want to handle that property for the next 5 to 10 years? Are you sure you want to be in that location? Are you sure you want to take on the repairs and maintenance of that property? Are you sure the area will improve the way you think it will? These are all things you need to ask yourself. With this out of the way, you then need to express confidence to the selling agent that you are the one that can close the deal. They need to have confidence in your ability to deliver. You want to express that you are super easy to work with. You want to pull them in and get the property under contract. You need to get control of the deal. But first, you need to get an LOI together. Once you get through these three things, you can put your Letter of Intent (LOI) together. If you want any chance at winning, you need to be aggressive with your offer. This includes putting together the shortest due diligence you can do, going in at your highest and best price, and removing all the contingencies before you go to finance. Again, you want to be easy to work with. Do not include crazy stipulations or other types of unconventional clauses unless they asked for them and it’s what THEY want. I suggest using a broker that specializes in writing up multifamily deals. They will tell you how to write the deal up. Your broker may have even worked with the seller’s broker in the past and they know how they like to see the offer written.

Doctor Maya Angelou once pointed out that people will forget what you said and what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. This statement is important to remember because it does not end with your close personal relationships. It is true for everything we do, as we interact with others all the time. From the way you record your voice mail to the way you sell a deal, people don’t just “hear” the words you say or “see” your body language. They actually “feel” how passionate or non-passionate you are about a given topic. Passion is contagious. You cannot inspire others unless you are inspired yourself. You stand a much better chance of persuading someone that you can, for instance, close that deal if you express an enthusiastic, passionate and believable connection to what you are conveying. You see, we as humans respond more to what we FEEL more than anything we hear or see. To make a difference in this business, it comes down to your ability to master the transfer of energy between you and your audience. And it doesn’t matter if it’s one person or a stadium of 35,000 people. You can call this energy obsession, excitement or even vision. I call it influence. You can use influence to get someone to feel about your deal, your mission, your vision, the way you feel about it. It becomes a transfer of energy from the center of your being to the center of theirs. ⁣ ⁣ Most people do not understand the outcome of words. They are trying hard to get people to HEAR the words they are saying. The secret is to stop getting people to hear you and get them to feel what you are saying. Think about it: You could be telling people a factual thing about a historical fact. If your audience does not feel you believe it, they will not get on board with what you are saying. Your passion is core to your self identity. It defines you. You cannot separate the pursuit from who you are. It's core to your being. This is the energy you need to transfer to others if you are going to persuade and win deals. So, what I’m actually telling you is that in order to influence somebody, they don’t even have to believe what you’re saying. They have to believe that you believe what you’re saying. The greatest persuaders know this and now you do too. If people feel you are desperate or you can’t close that deal you have an eye on, it will be picked up and will kill the transaction. This is the type of energy that will not influence somebody to sell you that deal. ⁣ ⁣ If you are a genuine believer in what you are doing, you can evangelize your vision. You can clearly say what and how you will close that deal with confidence. But you have to physically be experiencing it in the moment. It can’t just be a reading from a script.⁣ I get that when you are first starting out, you will need to lean on books for your message, but you must believe in what you are doing. The action of moving passion is an ENERGY transfer. You can’t transfer to someone if you don't have it yourself. ⁣ If you want to increase your influence and close more deals, you need to invest time in your own belief, in your research, and in your knowledge. That way you can transfer your passion and energy to other people! ⁣ ⁣ Anyway, do you think you sound believable when you are talking to lenders or sellers? Are you in any training programs to help build your confidence? Let me know in the comments. If you liked this, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. Also, check out the Bulletproof Cashflow podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great. HELP US OUT Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you! Thank you in advance! ♡ HAVE A QUESTION? I am working on a new show where I answer your questions. To submit a question, go to www.bulletproofcashflow.com and you will see a widget where you can speak your question. If I use your question on the air, we'll send you our newly designed t-shirts. ✧✧✧✧✧✧ DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS ✧ Talk to Brokers: http://bit.ly/FindBroker ✧ Raise Capital: http://bit.ly/RseFunds LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ✧ BCF on iTunes: https://apple.co/2B4AvXp ✧ BCF on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/StitcherBCF SOCIAL MEDIA! DM me! I want to hear from you! ✧ IG: http://www.instagram.com/bulletproofc... ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/bulletproofc... ✧ LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bull... ✧ WE: https://www.bulletproofcashflow.com JOIN THE GROUP ✧ FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bulle... ♡ Be Bulletproof!

If you have put a few smaller real estate deals together by creating partnerships and raising money, chances are you may have created a Joint Venture to get the deal done. But if you plan on taking it to the next level and raise capital for larger multifamily deals, you will want to know a little more about your options. Doing so will not only protect you as the person putting the deal together, but will also protect the investor in terms of understanding the risks when it comes to investing. There are two common partnership structures: The Syndication and the Joint Venture. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages, but executing the right one is absolutely important to how you execute and build your real estate business. Before I go on, please note that I am not an attorney. I am only offering some high-level information for educational purposes only. You should talk to a real estate attorney and a securities attorney to determine what structure works best for the project you are working on. Back in 1946, a case was decided by the Supreme Court where the SEC challenged a man named William John Howey because of the manor he sold off pieces of his land as an investment contract. The result from the case is something called ‘The Howey Test’. From this test, you will be able to determine whether you are forming a syndication or a joint venture. There are four questions to the test: 1. Is there an investment of money? 2. Is there an expectation of profits from the investment? 3. Is the investment of money in a common enterprise (that is, investors pool their money or assets together to invest in a project)? 4. Do any profits come from efforts of a promoter or third-party? We know that in both syndication and joint ventures, there is “1. An investment of money” and “2. There is an expectation of profits from the investment”. You can also say that the third rule is true. The main difference is the fourth part: “Any profit comes from efforts of a promoter or third-party”. If this fourth rule is true, then the deal can be classified as an “investment contract”, or syndication. If the fourth rule is false, then it could be a security, or joint venture. If this is a joint venture, the investors are actively involved with the ongoing management of the deal. They need to have a named role in the deal and you must be able to prove they actually performed their duties to the job description. The individuals or companies in the venture are pooling their resources to work toward a common goal and all parties involved are managers in the deal. An example would be if three contractors got together to work on the electrical, HVAC and plumbing on a fix-and-flip deal. All three contractors have defined roles and are actively working on the project. And since they are all managers, they have unlimited liability. Any decisions need to be done by majority rule and a single person cannot override the other two. A joint venture is much easier to set up and are less expensive to form as there is no registration needed with the SEC. Regardless, you should still have your attorney draft the documents so everyone on the team is clear on their responsibilities. If this is a syndication, then you are selling a security and you must have your attorney register with the SEC as regulated securities. While the “general partnership” portion of the syndication is a joint venture, the partnership between the general partnership (the syndicators) and the limited partnership (the passive investors) is a syndication. Unlike a joint venture, a syndication adheres to the fourth rule - “Any profit comes from efforts of a promoter or third-party”, with the third party being the general partnerships, or the syndicators. The investors are not actively involved in the management of the project and they are passive. It’s also worth noting that setting up a syndication is a bit more expensive because of the supporting paperwork that needs to be drafted along with the registration with the SEC. Again, you should talk to your securities attorney about this part and don’t skimp on hiring a good attorney. Finally, it is important to remind you that you should talk to a securities attorney before forming a partnership to take down a deal. If you form a joint venture when a syndication is actually needed, the non-compliance with the securities laws can cost you thousands of dollars in fines with the SEC or even land you in jail. If you liked this, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. Also, check out the Bulletproof Cashflow podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great.

You did the networking, called the brokers, and trained on taking down multifamily deals. After doing all that work, a broker sends you a deal that seems to add up. In fact, it’s a great deal, but you don’t have the money raised. What do you do next? This is the part when most people starting as real estate entrepreneurs freeze up. They become great at looking for deals, but come up a little short when it comes to raising capital from potential investors. They are afraid to pull the trigger because they don’t have any commitments. So they quit chasing the deal because they are afraid of locking it up. There are two reasons why this happens: 1) Having a strong, negotiated deal is undervalued Finding a good deal in today’s market is like finding a needle in a haystack. I personally look at over 100 deals before I find one that makes sense. So when you have a verbal agreement from the broker after you do a thorough and conservative underwriting, you have something of value. Even if you are unable to close on that deal yourself, there are many syndicators that would like to help you take that deal down. But like I said, you need to make sure your underwriting is solid and you know what you are doing. 2) Not watching for opportunity Something that comes up on my podcast time and time again is being in the right mindset. Our brains are designed to present us with opportunities even when we are not looking out for them. The big mistake is not seizing the opportunities when they present themselves. If you take advantage of a chance meeting with a big investor, they could very well be the partner on your next deal. This is not the time to be timid. You need to be ready to explain your model and what makes you stand out from the others that do what you do. As a rule, if an opportunity presents itself, grab it. Let’s say you are able to get over the two excuses, you now need to perform a “Worst Case Scenario” analysis. This is where everything turns bad. Maybe occupancy dropped because the seller put his family in each of the units to drive up occupancy or the boiler dies the first month after you buy the deal. You want to go through any and all scenarios. Ultimately, you are trying to find ways to kill the deal. For example, let’s say you found a 20 unit building. You run the numbers and make an offer. The seller countered and you came up a bit. The seller accepts. And you still have a great deal. Now, you need about $300,000 for the down payment to close and you only have a soft commitment of $75,000 from your parents. You put together an LOI and send it in with all the terms of the deal. Knowing that it will take up to another week to call investors for the deal. At the same time, you can also consider selling the deal to someone that may want to buy it from you. Meaning, you can wholesale the deal. I would keep this as a backup plan in case your investors don’t come through. You start calling everyone you know that can line you up with potential investors: property managers, brokers, attorneys - really anyone that could put you in touch with others that buy multifamily real estate. You may want to even call your local Real Estate Investor Association to see if they have a group that does multifamily. In the meantime, you get a signed LOI back. Now, you have 7 days to submit a purchase agreement. Typically, it takes another 5 days to go to review, but you can use this time to continue making the calls and get in front of investors. Now you have 30 days to work on your due diligence. If you put a clause in your agreement that says the clock doesn't start ticking until they submit all the info, you may have a little more time, but let’s say you have another two weeks to keep the calls going. If you think about it, since you submitted the LOI, you have almost an entire month to raise the capital needed or even sell the contract. The most difficult part of this exercise is the amount of calls and the “no’s” you will get. But if you have a good deal, and you are talking to actual real estate people, they will put the money up. The very worst case you can do is exercise the termination clause before the due diligence expires. This allows you to you to terminate the agreement for ANY reason before the due diligence period expires. I don't like recommending this as if you do this too many times, you will get a reputation and nobody will want to sell anything to you. The broker community is very small and they talk. If you waste their time, they will not give you any deals. When I put down an LOI, I intend on closing that deal. I recommend you adopt that same mindset. If you get a great deal even after you perform your worst case analysis, there is a very good chance you will raise the money you need to close. If you don’t, you can find a buyer for the contract or maybe they will even want to partner with you. If none of that pans out, you can execute the due diligence termination clause.

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According to the U.S. Apartment list, five large cities saw a decline in the median rental rates over the past 12 months: Baltimore, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Seattle. No city or region of the country is safe from declining rents. As landlords, we need to track our local market and make adjustments to maintain as high an occupancy number as we can. When the collapse and resulting recession hit in 2008, rent growth froze. For some regions of the country, any increases were hard to push because people started looking for other means of housing, also call a Shadow Market in Housing. And the shadow rental market exploded. The owners of new and empty houses and condos pulled tenants from traditional multifamily. To be competitive against this situation, management needed to make retaining good tenants along with marketing to new tenants a priority. When rents continued to fall in 2009 and 2010, there wasn't’ much to do to increase rents. The country was still reeling from the collapse. With such high vacancy, tenants had plenty of units to choose from and demanded bonuses and incentives which often appeared as a reduction in price for rent. Fast forward to 2019. Depending on your region of the country, you could make small concessions to getting a renewal, such as a $100 Amazon gift card or a $100 AMEX Cash Card. You could even do a grocery gift card from Kroger or Walmart for renewing tenants to stay another lease term. We usually do a choice of carpet cleaning, painting of a room or even a small capital improvement to get the tenant to stay. Anyone of these things is far less than the cost of turning a unit, dealing with the vacancy and lease renewal costs from your property management company. This typically only works for Class C units. Aside from improving the tenant experience and getting them to stay in the unit, here are four things to do when you think rents start falling in your local market: 1) Verify the Falling Rates: Look at your competitors in a 5-mile radius by looking at Zillow or Cozy. Have they reduced their rent over the past several months? Keeping an eye on what the local market is doing is important not only if you think rents are dipping but also if they are increasing. One reason they could be making their way up is that your competitors are improving the property and you may not be. Or they may be offering a free 40” TV as opposed to 30 days free (which is much less expensive). If the landlord has a good tenant on the hook, they may cut the tenant a deal and give them an 18-month lease for a slightly lower rent rate. Depending on the asset class and what is going on in the economy, people will be more cost-conscious. For instance, you can offer a $200 gas card as an incentive if gas prices are on the rise. Of course, ‘charm pricing’ is always important as people will perceive a big difference if we list an $800 unit for $795. Keep this in mind as you price your units. 2) Multiply your Customer Service: Taking care of your current tenant basis is important to hold the line on vacancy. This means staying on top of service requests and work orders. Rent growth is already a losing battle when vacancy is on the rise. Don’t compound the problem by slacking on tenant requests. If you are using property management, something which I strongly suggest, they should be on top of the requests. You just need to make sure things are getting done. 3) Build a Marketing Strategy: I’ve put out a great deal of material on the various marketing tactics you should consider when targeting a given demographic. You should also consider what your local market is doing to pull those prospects in. For instance, if you are in a heavily hit market with an oversupply of 2 bedrooms, you may want to consider turning your 2 bedroom unit into a 1 bedroom by locking or sealing off the door to that second bedroom. This tactic will get you some additional occupancy. You may also consider giving away two months free with a lease with the first and last month of the lease being the free months. You can also add basic cable or wireless internet for 6 months so you can get them in the door. 4) Stress the Urgency with Your Team: As the leader of the group, you need to communicate your vision to your property management and construction team. They need to understand that the goal is full occupancy. You need to outline the plan for the team at large so they understand that keeping vacancy as low as possible is critical. Weekly meetings with each property manager to go over critical issues, cost control initiatives, and new move-ins are also recommended. Keep the meetings to no more than 1 hour and always have an agenda so the property manager has time to prepare. An economic slowdown or depression will cause people to substitute expensive rentals for cheaper ones, putting downward pressure on rents.

As value investors, we are always looking for multifamily deals we can get into, improve and drive revenue to increase the net operating income. This is referred to as ‘forced appreciation’, when you, as the investor, are actively working on the property to improve cash flow and reduce expenses. This is different from ‘natural appreciation’ where the market is driving the increased value of the property. Basically, you are selling the property for more than what was paid. You have no control over this type of appreciation and it is not always guaranteed. Forcing appreciation in a big way, such as installing new low-flow toilets to drive down water expenses (if you are paying for water) or increasing rents is not always possible. Perhaps you don’t want to invest in the plumbing work or you are already close to market rents and can't push them higher. Regardless, there are still ways you can improve NOI and force appreciation in other ways and reserve the cost intensive tactics for later. Here are 5 affordable ways to force appreciation in your multifamily deal: 1) Install Coin Operated Washers & Dryers: If your multifamily deal has a basement or storage area that is not in use, install a coin operated washer and dryer. It is not only a huge benefit for the tenants as they won’t need to go to a laundromat, you will also benefit from the income on the machines. If you have a small multifamily apartment building, something less than 30 units, you can probably get away with installing your own units and having the management company pick up the coins on a regular basis. Reach out to a few of your local laundromats and ask them if they are willing to sell their used machines. Depending on where you are located, you can charge $2/cycle on each. If you have enough tenants, it can add up quickly. 2) Offer Doorside Trash Valet: Depending on the asset and the market, you can consider either having your cleaning people put this in place or bring in a company that does this on your behalf. Not only will it keep the hallways clean, tenants won’t need to walk their trash to the dumpster on those cold, late nights. Many outsourced companies will split the profit with the property owner, so the barrier to implement is low. Again, this will vary depending on where the property and where it is located. 3) Add Storage Units: Tenants are usually short on space and will often pay for additional space if you offer it. If you have a dry basement, you can put up walls and doors and rent the space to the tenants. If you have space outside, you can have a steel structure put together on the premises. There are professional companies that put up prefabricated storage units and they are not expensive. Tenants have been known to pay an extra $30 to $50 per month for each unit - and all that cash goes straight to the bottom line after you cover the build cost. 4) Install Energy Saving Systems: Aside from LED lighting and motion sensors, you can also install systems for your furnace or boiler that will only activate depending on the temperature outside. There is usually some cash to kick up for the install, but it will pay for itself in two months if you are providing heat for your tenants. 5) Install Security Cameras: While this is not an income-generating investment, it does increase the overall value of the property. The active cameras will keep an eye on your investment while giving the tenants some peace of mind. In some cases, they may even make the difference for the tenant to move into your building versus one that doesn’t have such a system. Anyway, what are some low cost or affordable ways you are driving income or reducing expenses? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you. If you liked this, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. Also, check out the Bulletproof Cashflow podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great.

The other day, I did a talk about forcing appreciation and I mentioned how I only buy for cash flow. This led to a barrage of questions around buying for appreciation. So, I thought I would answer it here. As a recap, there are two basic ways a multifamily deal makes you money: 1) Through Cash Flow and 2) Through Appreciation. Before I go on, I’ll color in some details of each. In a cash flow deal, there is typically good net cash flow when you walk into the deal. In this type of deal, you are basically looking for income from rents and other income minus expenses to have cash at the end of the month. Expense items include insurance, the mortgage, taxes, any utilities and other costs associated with the property. We are always looking for this number to be trending positive on a month by month basis, but sometimes there are negative months or you just break even. This could be indicative of other problems, such as you have an overrun on expenses or you are just not collecting enough income. I covered ways of addressing both scenarios in my other podcasts, so be sure to check them out. Regardless, in negative and zero situations, you want to get that handled because if there is no cash flow, it makes for unhappy investors and unhappy owners. In an appreciation deal, you are relying on drivers outside of your control to bring up the value of the property over some long period of time. The thing to note is that it may be subjective and even speculative. These deals are banking on the local area to drive the overall value of the property. Maybe there is a new revitalization happening like a new arts and entertainment district, there is limited space to build in a hot area, or there is an economic driver that increases the demand of the area. The appreciation strategy is driven by the region and market you are buying in. Meaning, not every market will appreciate. The most extreme places are New York City and Los Angeles, where the cap rates are very low but people buy anticipating that in 5 years from now, that $1MM triplex will be worth $1.4MM. In these cases, there is very patient money and these investors are looking to park their money in the hopes to score down the road. With that out of the way, the reason to buy for either cash flow or appreciation depends on your motivation. As I mentioned, if you are looking for a long term gain, appreciation is your best path. If you are looking for cash in the short term, month over month, you need to be targeting cash flow. If you are syndicating deals and the objective is to make money in the short term you need to be investing for cash flow. The property needs to be cash flow positive and in a position where you can bring up income and reduce expense to maximize the net cash. But, if you are looking to invest for appreciation, then the strategy is much different. In this case, you are looking for an asset where there is a great deal of change and improvement. If you are using investor money, they would understand the strategy and get on board. If there is some cash flow, you can always provide some very small return, but the score will be on the back end when you go to sell the deal off. And this is the part where things get risky. Because appreciation is based on speculation, that big score when you sell it is not guaranteed. If you are putting your investors’ money into a deal, you better make sure you know your market and what goes on in that market. That is why places like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and more recently, Miami have turned into appreciation markets. Buyers in those areas KNOW it will appreciate over time and will go without cash flow - or even negative cash flow - for a score at the back end. If you plan on applying an appreciation play in markets that have not moved all that much, be careful. Your job as a syndicator is not to lose money. These days, the focus of my partners and I is cash flow. We may expect some appreciation, but we do not bank on it. We bank on running the property well, making improvements to drive income and doing a refinance to pull money out of the deal to return to investors and pour into the next deal. There is nothing wrong with buying for appreciation, it’s just not what we do. Anyway, what strategy do you prefer? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you. If you liked this, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. Also, check out the Bulletproof Cashflow podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We are working on getting new content out all the time to help you build your success in the world of multifamily. Be great.