Learn this week’s Best Ever guest’s best ever books, personal growth experiences and lessons learned, real estate deals, ways to give back and biggest mistakes
Best Ever Book – Bible
Best Ever Personal Growth Experience and What Sensei Learned From It – The great recession
“It opened up my eyes that I definitely need to get outside my comfort zone [and to] get out there and do different types of deals that I wasn’t doing previously.”
Best Ever Deal Sensei has Done – 80+ unit property purchased from tax lien firm w/ zero money out of his pocket
“I just picked up over 80 units in an apartment complex. [I] bought a tax lien from a tax lien firm for $350,000. I didn’t use any of my own money. I borrowed it from a private moneylender. I promised him $100,000 back within a year’s time…I’m foreclosing on it right now. I’ve got it presold to someone else for $1.5 million.
Best Ever Way Sensei Likes to Give Back – Tithing
“I tithe through my church and that money goes to help planting more churches and helping to feed and clothe children throughout the world.”
Biggest Mistake Sensei Has Made So Far In Real Estate
“Not buying enough.”
Best Ever Book – The Alchemist
Best Ever Way Kolby Likes to Give Back
“Every business I’ve ever started has a component of giving back. The areas that I focus on most are women and children in need or technology for kids. I make it a core competency of every business that we build…whether it’s a percentage or education or actual money.”
Biggest Mistake Kolby Has Made So Far In Real Estate – Listening to others and not following his intuition
“Not listening to my gut. I was going down a route and let other people…guide the decisions that I made and it didn’t turn out in my best interest.”
Best Ever Book – Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Best Ever Personal Growth Experience and What Ivan Learned From It – Lessons learned from making the decision to purchase an apartment complex too quickly
“One of my early apartments deals, I made every mistake in the book. The one saving grace was that I was a snob about the location of the apartment complex and that location what’s saved me from having to turn the keys in.”
What did he learn? – “You’ve got to look at 150 to 200 deals to find one good apartment deal. If you haven’t looked at that many deals, that’s a big red flag. People get over zealous and just want to get in the game but when you’re going after apartment projects, the profits are amplified and so are the mistakes.”
Best Ever Deal Ivan has Done – 237-unit deal in Indianapolis
“We got it for a great price – less than $50,000 a door – in a market where we should be able to raise rents $100 a door. Our financing came in above expectations so we’ll have a pool of capital – a little over $2 million – to put into new improvements to the property. The way our financing is set up, I can finance $2 million worth of improvements…with only an extra $400,000 of equity”
Best Ever Way Ivan Likes to Give Back – Donating time and providing sponsorships
“Right now, my wife really pushes me to actually give time, which is hard for me to do. But I think it’s critical for people to actually roll their sleeves up and give some time back of their own. Other than that, every so many doors we buy, we’re trying to sponsor more kids through programs that help needy children.”
Biggest Mistake Ivan Has Made So Far In Real Estate – Not starting his own business earlier
“Mistakes are stepping stones, but if I can jump in a time machine, I would go back and tell that young guy to start his own thing much sooner.”
Best Ever Book – The Big Short
Best Ever Personal Growth Experience and What Nick Learned From It
“Figuring out how to run a real estate private equity fund without any money.”
What did he learn? – “Keep showing up every day. I spend every morning for 30 to 60 minutes reading different books… [I make] sure I know what’s going on in the world and [I] take every single meeting that I possibly can, no matter whether I think it’s going to be valuable or not. Just showing face and putting the time in is the most crucial thing for me.”
Best Ever Deal Nick has Done
“[For] one of our three sales in our proof of concept, we hit a 35% IRR on a 4-unit building that everyone told us we were insane for buying. It was a total disaster. It was on market, everybody knew about it, and we just knew we could execute on it and we did.”
Best Ever Way Nick Likes to Give Back – Donating time
“I donate my time…here in Austin to a nonprofit that sends 1000 underprivileged kids to camp every summer for free. That’s where I mainly donate my time right now, but I’, always looking for new ways.”
In the comment section below, what is your best ever book, personal growth experience, deal, way to give back, or biggest mistake?
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.