I am not looking for help with buyers and homeowners, I want to know how other professionals built a team, or did they even bother? Do you have partners, and if so how was the partnership structured to keep everybody happy? Is this a dog eat dog world? Is it even realistic to pretend that you CAN build a team?
I have already been screwed once and I am finding this business to be tougher than I anticipated. I suspect that this is pretty common.
I am located in the middle of San Diego (280 NOD filings last week), Riverside (500 NOD filings last week), and San Bernardino counties (420 NOD filings last week). As a loan broker with appaisal, accounting, and credit repair expertise I am heck and gone from being a newbie.
I want to partner with someone who can carry their own weight, but more and more I am beginning to believe that such as goal is extraordinarily unrealistic.
Any thoughts?
I find the overwhelming flood of responses to this post verrrrryyyyyy interesting.
Partners double your problems and halve your profits. I would only consider one to get a project done that is out of your league alone. You are doing ok on your own right? Why bother?
Rich is right on the money! If you’re not a newbie, why partner with someone. Team? It doesn’t take a village to raise a child and it doesn’t take a team to be successful in real estate investing. Partner? NO THANKS!
Mike
Hello Everyone…
I have to disagree a little with Rich and Mike… A team is extremely important if you plan on succeeding in the REI game… One person cannot do it all and you better have people around you who can…
That doesn’t mean create partnerships or the like but it does mean having buyer reps, escrow coordinators, rehab supervisors, mail and phone support and more importantly someone to manage them…
The fewer deals you do the more of those jobs you are going to fulfill yourself…
Some of your personnel will be salary some will have a stake in the outcome… All of this should and can be set up to maximize your profit while decreasing your daily activities.
The goal is always to work on your business and not in your business…
As an investor who has done over 200 deals in a year all of this can and should be done…
My number one goal was to give tools to the investor to become more productive and eliminate unnecessary expense and time while increasing productivity…
I have partners in two different REI companies. One buys and sells land and the other is a homebuilder. I could never have done it without my partners and we each have our own talents. Having said that, I didn’t find these guys on the street. One is my brother, he is a partner in both companies. The others are a relative and a college room mate. The key is trust and I doubt I could find it anywhere else.
If I had to start over I’d forego partners because I think it would be too hard to replace the ones I have.
I believe building a team is most important, but you are right it is a dog eat dog world out there and you need to be careful, because what Im finding is every one is in a deal for themselves. After 1 year I have gone through 3 mortgage brokers, 3 realtors, 1 accountant and looking for another. I cant seem to find people with the work ethics and morals that I have. So I would have to say finding a team is like finding a life partner. (Good Luck with that) I have been so discouraged that I think what is this all for. I have put so much time and energy into this part time business with so much disapointment. I put so much time in trying to educate myself in all aspects, that Im burning my self out, because I have not been able to find anyone that I can fully trust to take care of business.
In my opinion when building your team start with people who have never been given the opportunity to succeed…
Instead of trying to find the most qualified find the one who is under qualified and bring them up to your standards…
This does two things and both are positive…
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Builds an incredible loyalty factor
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Allows you the ability to replace that person with ease…
We have a policy at the office that any employee can buy from the company any house we buy after the 10th one that month…
The cost for them is 10,000.00 more then the contract price…
I try and create a win win situation at all times…
Michael Quarles