43) When a Deal Goes Sideways & The Binder Method for Rent Increases

House Money Weekly

In this week’s House Money Weekly segment, Lauren and Alan get together with their special guest Jonathan Rich. They discuss blog 141, How Real Estate Agents and Investors Can Both Get More Business. The first secret is agents and investors should create a niche for themselves. Alan wrote in his book "House Fire'' that no one looks highly on the “one man band.” When you try to do everything yourself, you don't grow, and people don't think of you as a go to. Lauren asks Alan about his niche and although he’s a jack of all trades, you should do as he says rather than what he does. In general, his experience is in town in Atlanta. Jonathan thinks that you can build a network of people that will believe in you, and it’s very geography specific. Don’t be phony! The second secret is agents and investors need to walk the walk. If you are the guy in a certain neighborhood, you need to know where the property lines are, you know the schools, and where the bus routes are located. The third secret is to create a rockstar team. Alan says that rock stars hang out with rockstars. Don't be that one man band! If you know a rockstar property manager, they probably know the best plumber, the best painter, and the best realtor in town. Jonathan says that if you’re a real estate agent and you’re trying to build your team, the members of your team must be as excellent as you are, but it can take time and work.

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Mortgage Minute: Jasmine answers the question: How often does the lending quote change by

the time you get under contract?

Sponsored by: Jasmine Mortgage Team https://www.jasminemortgageteam.com/

Real Estate Is Easy Interview

Lauren interview Dion, on YouTube as Dion Talk Financial Freedom. He is known as the lazy investor. It all started for him in 2008 when he was laid off, got divorced, and found out about $89k in debt he didn’t know about. Even with that start, it only took him 10 years to reach financial freedom, which he accomplished by investing in a small multi family. He retired in 2022 with 16 rental units that produce a little over $204,000 because he invested the lazy way. Lauren asks Dion why he chose real estate to help him get out of his bad debt. He didn’t have time to invest in stocks to reach the 4% rule. Also, Dion’s brother had 10 paid off rentals and his friend had 30 rentals. He figured if he could acquire one rental every two years that in 10 years he would have five and that could make his retirement a lot better. Dion thought that the next 10 years are going to happen no matter what and he has to live somewhere. That's why he incorporated house hacking as one of his first steps. Lauren asks Dion why he continues with small multi-family properties versus any other asset class. He loves the lending structure of 4 units or less. Dion also explains how he gets tenants to raise their rents through the binder strategy. His strategy is to find properties on the MLS where the tenants are paying low rent. He buys the property and then shows a 3-ring binder to the tenants showing the comparable rents. He then asks the tenants to suggest market rent. They pick a higher rent, and Dion suggests a rent slightly lower than that for the next year. Now, everyone feels like they’re getting a good deal. Lastly, Dion makes real estate easy by buying properties that make it easy to own them: each is 10+ miles apart, buys side-by-side small multi-family properties, pet friendly yards, good parking, and different tenant groups. Alan finds the 10+ miles apart location diversification interesting. Jonathan doesn’t believe in investing far away from him. Lauren points out that there’s always a right way for YOU to invest in real estate.

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Guest Host's Segment

Guest Host Jonathan discusses the deal he did that went sideways. You’ll really appreciate the transparency here. It was supposed to be 102 units. They had investors. They had plans. But they didn’t have the lending, and they couldn’t make it work. Who knows what the future holds? They may come back to it. One of Alan's takeaways with this deal is that Jonathan is not quitting real estate because one deal doesn't work, he's pivoting and looking at other options. Alan thinks the deal is not a complete throw away but it's a reminder that new construction of anything, even a single family house is for veterans and experienced folks. Alan also asked for Jonathan’s thoughts on the NAR settlement about real estate agent commissions.

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