Lunch of a Lifetime

[msa1]

I have decided to get into commercial RE this year even if it kills me. I have met with brokers, and bankers and soon i'll be shopping to investors. I have seen a couple of "deals" that the brokers have sent me and with what I get, i'm not quite sure how to proceed.

Enter my friend. Well, he's not really a friend, more of a business associate and he's agreed to meet me for lunch on Wednesday. Woo Hoo!!!

Now I get to ask questions (hopefully) to get me over this current hurdle.

My question to you guys is, if you could sit down with someone that has already done what you aspire to do, what do you ask?

Most of my questions will be centered around intellegent due diligence.

Anything else come to mind?

 

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[Jill]

"What's the toughest obstacle you've had to handle and how did you do it?"

"Can you think of a time that you've looked back at your early experiences and thot, 'Boy, if I'd only known then what I know now!'? What are those things that you would've told your younger self?"

 

[Jonleehacker]

Ask about his challenges and then ask, "How can I help?" and mean it.

In other words, don't just go to the lunch with the attitude of 'what can I get.'

He'll respect you a lot more, and you'll have a chance to build a relationship that will be far more valuable than just a couple hours of Q&A at lunch.

 

[SteveO]

There is more than one stage to the due diligence. You will need to have some location specific work done prior to even making an offer on a place. The more you understand about a deal with regards to income and expenses, the better you will be able to do on your offer. This could lead to better relations during the contract period.

Things you might want to touch base on:

Due Diligence:
- Lease and other contract reviews
- Taxes, how are they calculated and assessed in this particular area
- Physical inspections, who to use. Some locations are different than others.
- Timing
- Due Diligence resources (perhaps you might contract it out)

Financing:
- What are the new rules and challenges?
- How has he manuvered to still obtain financing?

Investors:
- Who to use for securities attorney?
- Where does he get downpayment money and what has been used in the past?
- Contacts for finding deals would be great.

Just as a note, there are a lot of listings. Some may appear to be good and others may not look so good. The trick to finding a good deal is to really dig in. Understand all the deals out there and look to see which ones fit into your target range. It will take a lot of evaluation and detective work to find the right deals. Agents will be very dismissive these days. It is hard for experienced players to get a deal closed today and the agents are doing a lot of weeding out. Without their support, you will be chasing wind. Any contacts and support you can get to be an INSIDERS would be helpful.

 

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[TaxGuy]

Ask about his challenges and then ask, "How can I help?" and mean it.

In other words, don't just go to the lunch with the attitude of 'what can I get.'

Rep+

I know I'm having this same issue as I will hopefully be meeting this weekend with a buddy who is building his portfolio that already has 7 SFR's and do not want to make it look like I want to talk to him just for MY benefit. A little backstory to this is- I met him through a car forum about 6yrs ago and have had too many of those "long time, no talk" or "we need to keep in touch" conversations that even the one I had last Sat was one(it had been about a month+ since we last talked). Well I found out about his real-estate pursuits when I was unemployed back in May and desperate for ANYTHING and he threw me a line, he paid me to help him with odd jobs on his properties in exchange for learning how to maintain properties. Well for the 3 months or so I helped him, while I know he was thankful and I did put in a good effort, I knew that my mind was elsewhere and that I was more focussed on finding a "j-o-b" so I could pay the bills than what I was really getting- EXPERIENCE.

So anyways, as I hope to re-connect and make this a fully mutual benefit, I'd like to know how to approach this weekend which'll probably be a casual "board game night" or maybe a home-cooked meal to catch up so it doesn't sound like I'm just having him over to pick his brain and not have something else to offer(I did recommend these forums to him and hopefully he'll be on here soon).

 

[msa1]

Thanks to all so far. I'm always willing to help this person but I also dont want it to seem that i'm buying lunch to get into his business.

 

[MattThomas]

I would ask: "What are your most tried and true techniques for moving big projects forward as fast as possible"

and

"Where do you go for help, resources and to learn more about your craft? Do you have any learning hacks that you could share?"

These questions would probably help to discover how to cover more ground a take in a lot more information very quickly.

 

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[msa1]

Matt, I really like your first question. Thanks.

I also like the suggestion of creating a reciprocal relationship. Not sure what kind of help this guy would need but it may be interesting.

 

[msa1]

Lunch went well today. I used some of the suggestions you guys made. My friend doesnt have too optimistic a view of the near term future but he certainly didnt try to steer me away from my goals.

Not only that, but he bought lunch (I intended and tried to pay but he insisted) then he threw a deal my way and gave my name to his broker.

Now i'm off to find an investor cause I want to put an offer in on this property.

Thank you again for the suggestions.