New To the Site... Opinions welcome

I would like to welcome myself to the site. Im a young 21 years of age, and have aspirations of building a real estate hold for myself. I hope to move from residential real estate to larger commercial properties in a later day. My father is the owner of about 20 properties, residential and now mostly commercial. His investments are mostly commercial due to being a believer that residentials are a PITA. He is also the owner of the family business which began its roots in 1907. Some day it will be inheritance(God willing), but for now that doesnt matter, and I want to pave my own way to be more successful than my old man. Ive been employed at the family business since i was a little boy and now making my way through management and learning the ins and outs of owning/operating a successful multi-million dollar business. I have always been a conservative when it comes to money. I make my own and have always done so to purchase the things I want (cars etc.). Im quite proud of that ;D I have been saving for years to begin this project in my early to mid 20’s…The sooner I start, the sooner I will have been successful and the sooner I can retire wealthy. I own about $40,000 in assets of my own, half (20k) being savings in cash (bank CD) for this project. I grew up in a business field meeting and listening to educated individuals who were successors in thier own private fields. Since I was little, I respected them and the way they were able to make thier money work for them. For those of who did it on thier own, Im wanting to jump aboard that ship.

For those of who are successful, where would you turn with such an option at an early age? I know that there are not many 21 year olds that are in my position. I see that there are some “newbies” here on the site, some owning a couple properties, and some others who have more than a handful of investments that they own/operate.

Maybe this could be a “what would you do different, or what would you do if you were me” type of thread…lets see where this goes. Again, hello to all. I hope to learn more on my quest to entreprenuership :wink:

Derek,

You have the perfect setup to be a successful real estate investor. Your father IS a successful real estate investor AND is running a family business that has survived since 1907. WOW!

You should ask your father to be your mentor! I’m sure that he is eager to help you as you start on your own and would be proud for you to follow in his footsteps. You can learn from the mistakes he has made over the years and you should be able to become very successful.

Good Luck,

Mike

Derek,

you have a tremendous advantage over the average beginner because of your experience and respect for business operations. you probably are familiar with the importance of a system of operations and sound mission for any business to be successful.

apply the principles you’ve learned and will continue to learn working in your family business. ask your father for guidance and make him aware of your intentions (if he doesn’t already know).

i’ll leave you with this. i recently went to the Real Estate and Wealth Expo in NYC. i saw trump, robbins and a bunch of guru’s. the most chilling thing i heard was Robert Kiyosaki, during his presentation (which was mainly to try and sell his books and game - cashflow 101) - when he said during his talk about investments and business and becoming ridiculously wealthy,

“this ain’t about flipping fXXXin houses”…

treat your investments in real estate like a business. it will probably come natural to you.

best of luck!

I second PropertyManager. Use your Fathers knowledge to the utmost. You seem to have the drive which is a huge part of success, the other part is knowledge which your Pops can provide. You are in an extremely good position. I envy you.

Thank you all for your responses. It means much :slight_smile: As far as learning from my father, he has told me on several occations to steer clear of residentials due to untrstworthy tenantcy. Where else is there to begin in the real estate field? Many residential property owners fight for years and sometimes thier carrers in this field to manage commercial properties, but struggle to get to that point and most, never make it.

Is it possible to begin with commercial property? As far as I can tell, the key to the door is for residentials- as a stepping stone.

Comments or experiences?

As everyone else has said, your chances of success are higher than most.

I’d recommend starting out in residential properties for a while. You will deal with every problem imaginable with apes as tenants and will be more then capable of then dealing with professional businesses as tenants. Residential properties are also easier to liquidate if you decide this game isn’t for you. There are some barriers of entry in the commercial world as well. Experience and money are the two biggest things lenders like to see. Although you may be able to supplement your lack of either with your father, you said you want to make it on your own.

Going from residential management to commercial will be the best thing that ever happened to you (beside marrying a super model). You can’t truly appreciate how great it is to work with professionals who insist on paying their rent on time and insist on keeping the unit in impeccable condition, until you deal with apes who come close to throwing feces at the wall.

Making some money in residential first will make commercial properties seem like smooth sailing.

Dan,

might you agree…somewhat…that alot of “investors” are focusing moreso on commercial, given the residential market currently?

i know there are many residential markets that are very hot right now, but in general - commercial seems like a gem.

i must say, i’m very drawn to commercial…i guess many people are, given the monetary potential, which dwarfs residential.