5 Things to Know Before Walking a House with Your Realtor
Real estate agent, Carly Swihart, discusses five things to know before walking a house with your realtor.
About Today’s Guest
Carly Swihart is a Real Estate Broker at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Professional Realty (BHHS Pro), a leading statewide real estate brokerage in Ohio. Carly is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati where she studied Communications, Business & Real Estate.
Carly and her team works with a wide range of clients that are buying and selling personal & investment properties in the Cincinnati & South Dayton Markets. She’s also working as the Director of Agent Development and Training for the brokerage to manage a team who helps create a forward thinking and innovative culture at BHHS Pro.
She’s traveled far and wide, yet she spends her free time exploring new parks, restaurants and shops in the ever-evolving Queen City with her toddler and husband. Follow her team’s Instagram (@Lattes_Listings) to stay on top of the Cincy/Dayton real estate markets.
Episode Summary
It’s no secret that the housing market is challenging to navigate at the moment. Now more than ever, you need a great real estate agent on your team. With this in mind, we’ve brought in one of our concierge network agents to talk about what it’s like to be an investor and how you can set yourself up for success. Your hosts, David Bright and Nate Hedrick sit down with Carly Swihart, Director of Agent Development and Training at Berkshire Hathaway, one of our favorite brokers in Cincinnati and one of the first real estate concierge agents to join our network. Carly brings her nine years of experience to the table as we discuss the five things agents wish investors knew before walking a house together. Carly shares how each of these can save you time, money, and set you up for a great deal (or help you walk away from a bad one). We clarify what an agent can’t do and shouldn’t be involved in, and Carly shares her top advice for first-time investors on some ways to get clear on what you want. From financing and timelines to why you should look at your property as a bank, you’ll discover what you need to know before setting foot in the door.
Key Points From This Episode
- Introducing Carly Swihart and how she accidentally found her love of real estate.
- Diving into the five things investors need to know before walking a house.
- Having a good relationship with a lender and knowing what your options are.
- The difference between pre-approval and pre-qualified.
- Carly’s top advice to first-time local investors on how to get specific with what you want.
- Property condition, timelines, identifying your risk appetite, and more.
- How she coaches a client who’s feeling a little overwhelmed.
- Unpacking the importance of order and timing when it comes to repairs.
- How she walks the line of price points and ballpark figures when it comes to repairs.
- The importance of knowing your numbers before setting foot on the property.
- Getting an agent who is honest and also knows all the factors to get creative with.
- Looking at your property as a bank and working backward from there.
- How Carly makes sure she’s working on the business and not in the business.
- Her top two resources in this journey: BiggerPockets and great mentorship.
- Closing advice around using your imagination to role play a deal and see how you feel.
Highlights
“Talking with a good agent can definitely help you identify areas and price points that are going to make the most sense for you.” — Carly Swihart [0:11:39]
“Usually, when people are early in their investing career, they are willing to learn because, if the property does need a little bit of work, then they’re going to learn along the way and they’ll learn what to look for in future properties.” — Carly Swihart [0:19:14]
“Walking the property is so important to make sure that the photos do check out, including getting into every single unit, which cannot always be done until you’re under contract. Make sure you see every unit before you get to the closing table.” — Carly Swihart [0:24:56]
“[I’m] helping them understand that I’m there with them and supporting their decision, but not necessarily swaying them in one direction or the other, because it’s their money. It’s not mine. I want to make sure that they’re making a sound decision themselves.” — Carly Swihart [0:26:52]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode
- YFP Real Estate Concierge Service
- YFP Real Estate Investing
- Zillow
- BiggerPockets
- Carly Swihart
- Follow Carly Swihart in Instagram: @carlyrswihart
- Join the YFP Real Estate Investing Facebook Group
- Your Financial Pharmacist Disclaimer and Disclosures
Episode Transcript
[INTRODUCTION]
[00:00:07] NH: Hello and welcome to the Your Financial Pharmacist Real Estate Investing Podcast, a show all about empowering pharmacists to achieve financial freedom through real estate investing. I’m Nate Hedrick. Each week, my co-host, David Bright, and I explore stories from pharmacists all over the country who are achieving their real estate goals, while maintaining a meaningful career in pharmacy. Whether you’re a first-time investor or a seasoned pro, we’re here to provide education and inspiration about the world of real estate.
Please note, this podcast is intended for educational purposes only, and should not be considered financial or investment advice.
[00:00:41] NH: Hey, David, how’s it going?
[00:00:43] DB: Hey. Good, thanks. How you doing, man?
[00:00:44] NH: I’m good, thanks. We’re excited for today’s episode, we wanted to bring on a real estate agent, actually a concierge real estate agent of ours, because the market is tough. Everyone, I think, is aware of that. This past couple of weeks has really reminded me how important it is to have a great real estate agent on your team. So we thought why not bring in one of our concierge network agents, have them talk about what it’s like to be an investor and how you can set yourself up for success.
[00:01:11] DB: Yeah. There’s a lot of things that you can do as a buyer. Today’s guest currently walks through five of those things that that you can do as a buyer to set yourself up for success. I think inherent behind all of that is having a really good realtor that can leverage all that to get that momentum, to get that push forward, to get that deal done for you, because yeah, it is definitely a competitive market, you have to have all of your ducks in a row to make something work in this just low-inventory world.
[00:01:37] NH: If you’ve not heard about our real estate concierge service. We have basically a way to connect you with an investor friendly real estate agent, if you head on over to www.yfprealestate.com, you can get connected with me, we can talk about what your goals are talk about what your budget is, what markets you’re looking in. We can get you connected for free with a real estate concierge agent. These are agents that we’ve vetted ourselves to make sure that they’re actually going to be investor friendly.
Again, we’ve had so many stories recently of these agents being able to help investors and first-time homebuyers pull out deals where others have really been struggling. So we’ve got Carly on. Carly’s a cool story, because she is actually one of the very first real estate concierge agents we had in the network, she actually did my, completed my very first referral deal, which is really neat, based out of the Cincinnati, Ohio market, and just an awesome individual.
[00:02:31] DB: Yeah. She brings great points about knowing your numbers and doing the math so that you can more objectively identify if this is a good deal or not. Then how a realtor can come in and can check that math for some of that neighborhood nuances and some of the construction nuance and those kind of things that are going on right now.
[00:02:48] NH: Yeah. We also clarify, which I thought was important, about what an agent can’t do, or what an agent should not be involved in. They’re not telling you if a deal is good or not, but they are helping you to verify some of your own numbers. I think that expectation setting is important as well.
[00:03:04] DB: Yeah. Carly talks a lot too, about being creative in that process, so that you can figure out how a house could be a deal. Maybe it’s a better flip than a rental. So it’s still a good deal, but maybe not a good deal for you, depending on your criteria. Thinking through all those kinds of things to really help understand and to bring some safety behind those the numbers, because sometimes that’s a scary thing to jump into.
[00:03:27] NH: Yeah, great. Well, hopefully this episode is helpful. If again, if you are interested in finding your own local real estate agent to make sure that you get off on the right foot, head on over to yfprealestate.com, but otherwise, I’ll take you the interview and hope you guys enjoy it.
[INTERVIERW]
[00:03:41] NH: Hey, Carly. Welcome to the show.
[00:03:43] CS: Hello.
[00:03:45] NH: We’re so happy to have you on. I know you and I have been connected for a long time and just great to have you on talking about real estate investing and working with investor clients. So why don’t we jump right in. Tell us a little bit about your background, your story? What brought you to real estate?
[00:04:00] CS: Yeah. So I actually got started in real estate after going to UC for a while. I changed my major a lot and just decided I wanted to get out with a degree. I saw, I think, I needed 12 credit hours left. The real estate required courses for licensing were offered in three weeks over the summer. So I took those and enjoyed the classes which is weird, because nobody likes those classes. Then I found a job at Berkshire Hathaway, which was Prudential at the time and just everything’s history from there. Right now, I’m the Director of Agent Development and Training for the brokerage, we’re statewide. Then also I am a broker. So quite a bit of real estate on a yearly basis working with the two of you guys pretty often. It’s been about nine years since I got started and yeah, we’ll see where the future goes with it.
[00:05:03] NH: Yeah. I love it. Carly is one of our favorite, not favorite, but favorites, I’m going to say it, senior agents that we send clients to in the Cincinnati market. We just thought you’d be great to come on the show. You work with a lot of investor clients, and we thought it’d be fun to walk through five things that we as agents, Carly, wish investors knew before walking a house together, right? Things that are going to set up an investor for success when working with an agent and actually walking a house. We’re going to go through each one of these. I’ll tee you up with each of the things that I think we want to talk about, and then get your perspective on each one of those.
Just diving right in, we’ll start with number one, which is know your financing. Talk to us a little bit about why that’s important, and why that helps when you’re actually walking a property. What that means for an investor, especially somebody that’s thinking about buying their first property, why does knowing their financing ahead of time matter so much?
[00:05:56] CS: Yeah. I think, it’s knowing your financing and knowing your financing options as well. A lot of times, as you get into investing, sometimes you have access to cash, other times you may be looking at an FHA 203(k) Loan or just conventional financing. You need to know what’s available to you when you’re searching for properties, so you can find the right fit to really leverage the financing that would work best in whichever situation it is, whether you’re looking at a shell of a property in an urban area that might be a cash play. Whereas a four family in more of a residential, you could probably go conventional or 203(k) loan, if there was some work that needed to be done.
But having a good relationship with a lender and knowing what your options are, I think are one of the, that’s one of the best things you can do as an investor so that you can be creative and make deals that maybe other investors or other people that are ready to jump into the game just aren’t as savvy about.
[00:07:02] NH: Yeah. We’re throwing around a couple of big names, right there, like a 203(k) loan versus conventional. If someone doesn’t know what that is, what’s the best way to go to maybe an agent and talk about the differences between pre-approved and pre-qualified, and how to find those good lenders?
[00:07:16] CS: Yeah. I as far as I would talk to make sure you’re talking to an agent that is familiar with different loan products, and has good relationships with lenders that can answer those questions, too. I as an agent like to give you the overview of the different types, but then really connect you in with the lender so that they can look at your situation and see what’s really going to work for you, because a lot of the times you have different loan limits with each option. Just because you’re pre-approved for $400,000 with a traditional conventional loan, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be the same with other types of financing.
[00:07:58] NH: Yeah. Are there any things that come out with in terms of providing an advantage when you’re doing the negotiations, if you’ve got those, this pre-approvals in hand, or the type of lending does that especially the one that always comes to mind, if you’ve got cash that you’re a better offer, right? So talk to us a little bit that too.
[00:08:15] CS: Yeah. This market, you want to really, you’re almost always competing. If you have access to cash, cash is a great way to get in. Some of my clients will even put up cash and pursue a loan in the background, the seller understands that that’s happening, but it’s not contingent on the financing. So there’s some creative things we can do there. You do have to have access to the cash if your financing isn’t quite ready. The difference between pre-approval and pre-qualified is really, with the pre-approval, you’ve talked to the lender, you may have given them some documents, but not all the documents they need.
They’re just saying, “Based on the information that you’ve given me, you’re pre-approved for x.” But when you get that pre-qualification letter, they’ve typically pulled your credit or received a credit report from you, they’ve reviewed your bank statements, W2, things like that, to really give you a more robust letter. Being able to provide that pre-qualification letter to a seller shows them that you’re more qualified than a pre-approval, a buyer who’s been pre-approved that just hasn’t taken that extra step yet. It’s a little bit less risky to work with a pre-qualified buyer than a pre-approved buyer.
[00:09:33] DB: No, absolutely. I think that’s really helpful to make sure that the financing is in order, because like you said, in a lot of places right now it’s a highly competitive market and you have to come in prepared to make that offer, to make that offer quickly and not walk a house and it’s been four or five days getting your documents together, getting the pre-approval, because the house could have already sold by then.
[00:09:52] CS: Yeah.
[00:09:54] DB: I think another thing that comes to mind with that need to act quickly and need to have of your organizational set is knowing your criteria when you’re looking at a market. I remember when we first got into this. I remember asking my realtor like, “Can you show me a house that would make a good rental?” I’m pretty sure that on the inside, she was cringing like, “What do you even mean by that?” Right? That you could define a good rental in so many different ways, so how would you advise a client that’s thinking about getting into investing? They think they know, they want to do rentals, but how would you help them to clarify a criteria set for looking for properties?
[00:10:34] CS: Yeah. I would say just start by, if you’re a local investor, I would start by just thinking of neighborhoods that you would feel comfortable owning properties in. I mean, it’s that basic, you can buy a $100,000 property in Cincinnati. You’re going to have voucher tenants. There’s places that I wouldn’t feel comfortable going by myself. Obviously, write those off of your list, unless you’re going to go at it from the perspective of hiring a property manager, that’s a whole another conversation. We’ll just start with the areas and price point, and then work backwards a little bit and think about, what types of rents are you wanting to see? Typically if you’re looking in the Cincinnati area, I can give you a couple of ideas that are like in that B, C class area where the purchase prices aren’t going to be astronomical and the rents make sense.
Talking with a good agent can definitely help you identify areas and price points that are going to make the most sense for you, because I think, probably Cleveland as well. I’m sure everywhere has these neighborhoods that everybody wants to live in. It seems like the multi-families are going for single family pricing. The rents just don’t quite add up. They’re still selling for that residential buyer who’s going to move in and just offset their mortgage. So that’s not necessarily what most investors are looking for if it’s a long-term play.
[00:12:16] DB: Yeah. Jumping in and trying to identify those neighborhoods, I feel like is a huge first step, because I know, when I first started doing this, and I put up a Zillow or MLS map or something that, it was just absolutely overwhelming. But yeah, neighborhoods, I feel like is a huge help.
[00:12:31] CS: Yeah.
[00:12:31] DB: Then in looking for properties, then more specifically, are there other things you advise people to do as far as think about how many bedrooms you want or square footage or does it have a garage or not have a garage? Do you like to have clients that bring more specificity to the table than the neighborhoods or things like that?
[00:12:53] CS: Yeah. Honestly, most of my clients that I’ve been working for a long time, just want to make money. They’re here, they don’t, as long as they’re creative, as long as it fits into what they’re comfortable with, which is a wide range. So these clients make it a little bit difficult, we’re looking at everything under the sun. As long as it makes sense to them, they’re good to go, but for a new investor, I would say think about who you want to work with, who you want your clients or your tenants to be.
So if you want to work with single people, or if you’re likely to be running to families, you’re going to, you can work backwards and say, “Okay, a one bedroom is probably going to attract a single or a couple. A two or three-bedroom property might attract kids, what type of tenants stays longer? Which ones are going to be rough around the property?” And things like that.
I think it’s just, if you have an idea in your mind of what investing looks like to you, and who helps pay that vehicle for you, then definitely be clear on that. I don’t think there’s necessarily a right or wrong answer. I think it just depends on what you’re looking for. Honestly, what’s available in that area that you’re looking?
The other thing that we didn’t mention yet is property condition, which that’s a big one. That one ties into your financing as well, but mainly your comfort level. Just keep an eye on some of the properties out there. I know a lot of them, in our area, a lot of the multi-families are older. So they have the cast iron pipes, some of them have not been to wiring.
Before we even look at properties for certain clients, I’ll ask if any of those mechanics have been updated, just to find out what we’re working with, because I know some of them are just not willing to go in and update everything. Others are willing to do it at a certain price, but it just depends on what you’re comfortable with in terms of property condition.
[00:15:08] NH: Perfect. we’re talking to Carly about five things that we wish investor clients knew before they walked the house with a real estate agent. We’ve already covered, know your financing. So making sure you understand what your financing looks like and what your options are. We’ve talked about now, knowing your criteria, before you ever looking at a house. No reason to just go to a bunch of different houses and not know what you’re looking for. Number three, then is know your timeline.
So what this, why I think this is important is that you need to first understand how long a loan might take to close, depending on the financing that we’ve talked about. Also things maybe if someone’s doing a 1031 exchange, or if they’re going to be providing cash and want to close quickly. Talk to us about that, so what are what are important aspects to consider when they are looking at that timeline piece?
[00:15:51] CS: Okay, so timing wise, I think it just depends on really what you’re looking for. I think being clear with your agent on your expectations, if you want to do one or two properties per year. Like you have that type of goal, but being realistic on specific closing timelines. If you are doing a loan, then you can expect 30 to 60 days, depending on the type of financing. Even cash can take two to three weeks, depending on the title company and everything that has to happen behind the scenes.
[00:16:26] NH: Yeah. I think setting that expectation upfront and being able to cover that with your clients. That’s super important.
[00:16:32] CS: Yeah. The other thing that if we’re talking about timing, I know it’s the beginning of the year now, but there are a lot of deals to be made by close of the year too. I’ve had a couple investors get amazing deals, even in this market, just because the owner of that property wanted it off of their books before the next year started. If you’re thinking around that timeline, November, December is typically a good time of year to lock something up.
[00:17:05] DB: Yeah. That speed of transaction can really matter, like you mentioned, the seller circumstances. We bought a house that was scheduled to be taken back by the bank in just a few weeks. So there was not enough time to close it with a mortgage, but by making a cash offer, we were able to help out the seller get them in a situation where they would avoid a foreclosure essentially. Sometimes those win-wins can happen with it with the timing, but you have to understand those windows. Yeah. 30-to-60-day mortgage timeline isn’t always compatible with every situation. In others it might be just fine.
So, the financing was the first piece, criteria is a second piece, timeline considerations are the third piece. You hinted towards this earlier, I want to pack this a little bit more, the appetite for construction. So when you said cast iron pipes and knob and tube wiring, like I started that like, “Yeah, that’s no fun.” So when I first started, I just have this vivid memory of going to a local real estate meet up and someone asked me, “How big of a rehab are you willing to do?” I’m like, “I don’t mind doing a little bit of work.” Then they started telling me, “Well, I have this house that was in a fire and the back of the house is gone.” I’m like, “Okay, I need to get a lot more specific about what a little bit of work means, and what I’m really willing to do. How do you coach a client through that when they walk through the house and they’re instantly overwhelmed? Or how do you help someone identify what their risk appetite is for taking on a major construction project?
[00:18:39] CS: Yeah. I think even just asking if they have any experience at all with managing renovations or doing projects at their own house, that’s usually a pretty good indicator. If they’re already stressed, talking about a simple kitchen remodel, then maybe they’re looking for a turnkey property that’s been totally renovated and is fully rented already. If they’re more comfortable with digging in, and a lot of it is just being willing to learn. I think if they’re willing to learn about different problems, usually when people are early in their investing career, they are willing to learn, because, if the property does need a little bit of work, then they’re going to learn along the way, and they’ll learn what to look for in future properties and whatnot.
Yeah. I think it’s just getting in there and getting some quotes and showing them the numbers during that due diligence period so that they can understand what renovations cost from a financial perspective. Also, I do try to make sure that my client is having good conversations with those contractors to make sure they understand the timing aspect of everything and if there’s multiple repairs that need to happen. The order and the timing, and how long that could take, because many of those repairs are going to take you away from your profit in terms of getting tenants in the buildings or flipping the properties, whatever type of investment you have. That’s where I think the timing and condition and comfort with the renovations is. They all go together, so just the property has to make sense with all three of those terms, I guess.
[00:20:25] DB: Yeah, absolutely. It’s not just a math problem. Yeah, we don’t record the video to this, but you should see, Nate and I vigorously nodding our heads, the sequence of this and how big a deal that really is. Like making sure that the repairs happen in the proper order, they are redoing work and things like that. Like gosh, that is a huge thing. Do you ever help a new investor connect with those contractors? Because that was another thing that overwhelmed me early on is I didn’t know hardly anyone in that space, but my realtor here locally was able to make a few recommendations and a few warm handoffs to people.
[00:21:00] CS: Yeah, absolutely. There’s definitely different types of contractors that work different ways. As an agent, I think that’s something that we all should be pretty well versed on in our areas. Yeah, definitely.
[00:21:14] DB: Yeah. Then as far as estimating those rehab costs like, when I would walk into a house, and I would see cast iron pipe. I early on had no idea, is that $100 thing? Is that a $10,000 thing? What is that? How do you walk that line of not being a plumber yourself, not trying to give specific quotes, but try to get people in the ballpark of those things, so they can understand what they’re dealing with?
[00:21:45] CS: Yeah. What I try to do is really look at if it’s a knob and tube issue, just talk them backwards and just say, “This could be active, it might not be active, we’re not sure, let’s get the inspector out here. Let’s get an electrician out here.” In the past, I’ve had clients get quotes for X for a similar size property. Lately, I’ve had to add this little disclaimer in here, but that was two, three years ago, when labor prices were very different.
[00:22:15] DB: Yes.
[00:22:16] CS: I got a little carried away. Then my clients get a quote from a current contractor. That’s a current quote, and I’m like, “Okay, that’s a little bit different than the prices were a couple years ago.” I try to give a ballpark of what I’ve seen before, but ultimately every job is different. My husband actually owns an outdoor construction company. His prices I’ve seen go up just based on obviously everything that’s going on right now. So just trying to be very careful about not misleading them into a lower price point. Yeah, definitely giving them something to work off of even doing a quick Google search, just to check myself, make sure that’s within average ranges and whatnot. Yeah. That’s where I do recommend a lot of the same contractors over and over, so the pricing shouldn’t be too much different, but yeah, it’s all over right now.
[00:23:17] NH: In talking about numbers, I think the other thing that comes to mind is actually our fifth thing on the list. Our last item here is, knowing your numbers before ever walking a property. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is when I have an investor client that sends me out to a property, especially out of state right, and I go do a whole video tour of the property, send it back to him, and then they go, “Yeah, I mean, it looks fine, but the numbers actually don’t work out on paper.” It’s like, “Well, why didn’t you look at that ahead of time.” It drives me crazy. Talk to us a little about that. What are ways that you can make sure that your clients are running those in advance or looking at comp rates before ever setting foot in that property?
[00:23:50] CS: Yeah. I just, I think, it all comes down to specifying those areas that you’re looking for and knowing your market. If they’re looking at a $200,000 property, where you can get $700 per door on a four unit like that’s going to be a decent property. You can, I guess just if you have your ranges set where you’re comfortable at certain price points and whatnot, it shouldn’t be that hard to know your numbers. In our MLS, we do publish most of the multifamily listings will have their rents on there and then annual expenses. We have those in advance. We try not to rely on them verbatim, but you can after you look at a few. You see what you can expect and then just paging through the pictures and seeing property condition you can tell if it needs can typically tell if it needs a full renovation or not.
That’s where walking the property is so important to make sure that the photos do check out, including getting into every single unit, which cannot always be done until you’re under contract. Make sure you see every unit before you get to the closing table so that you do know the condition. I mean, so many times investors on the sell side, don’t want to disturb their tenants. They’re not letting people in three out of four of the units, they may have one unit vacant, for showings, and then we really push that buyer into getting all the way to closing before they’ve seen all four units. I’m pretty adamant about getting in all of them so that you can see that they’re all the same.
[00:25:43] NH: Yeah. I think you’re spot on, because you have to weigh all those different factors at once. I think the thing that that I’ve run into in the past, and I’ll get your take on this as well is, if you have an investor that’s looking at a property and they say, “Hey, here’s are my numbers.” What do you think? Where do you find the line of being able to help them but not trying to say, “Yeah, this is a great investment, go buy it.” Because it’s hard, we can’t do that, right. Where is that line in terms of how to help them out with their numbers?
[00:26:09] CS: Yeah. I think if it makes sense, I’ll say it looks like that makes sense. Ultimately, it has to fit in there end goal. I don’t want to say that’s a great property, and then they purchase it and realize that they have to replace the roof in two years, and that eats into their profits. We do typically, before my clients will make offers, they know about how much if they are going to raise the rent, how much they’re going to raise it by what their monthly will be. We identify the major upcoming expenses as much as you can. Obviously, there’s always going to be those unexpected expenses, especially when tenants are living there, and it’s not your own home. So just really helping them understand that I’m there with them and supporting their decision. But not necessarily swaying them in one direction or the other, because it’s their money. It’s not mine. I want to make sure that they’re making a sound decision themselves.
[00:27:13] NH: That’s a super important distinction, right? For everyone listening that’s an investor or would be investor, do your own due diligence, right? Don’t rely on somebody else’s numbers. Even when you’ve got a great agent like, Carly, supporting you, telling you, “This does make sense on paper, I see what you’re doing.” It’s still your dollars that are going out the door. So just making that decision blindly without an accountability partner, without somebody that you can actually run those numbers off of, does not make sense. Even the best agents out there, really, you want to make sure that you’re doing your numbers yourself.
[00:27:43] CS: Yeah. It’s your property. You’re going to be the one that’s going to be making these repairs, hiring the contractors. It’s just your threshold there, I guess. If you want to go for the cheapest contractors, you’re probably going to have more expenses. If you’re going to go for the quality contractors that fix it right the first time, it just – I think there’s different ways of managing property, is what I’m trying to say, and different ways of carrying it through the years. Is it a short-term thing that you’re just going to hang on to for five years and sell once it appreciates or is this really going to be a 30, 40-year property that you’ll pass on to your kids, or whatever it is. I think all of that goes into that decision, too.
[00:28:31] DB: Yeah, absolutely. There’s, there’s so much criteria that’s very individual to each investor. So trying to run that by your own criteria, I just know that it’s always – we pharmacists are inherently pretty risk-averse. They like the safety checks, they like that someone double checking their math. So I think that’s really helpful, particularly in those neighborhoods where, on one side of the street to the next, you can see big value shifts. So you can see big rent rate shifts and some of those things. To have another set of eyes on that, that knows the market really well. I think it’s just super valuable to make sure that the math you’re doing does check out when someone else looks at it that knows what they’re doing.
[00:29:10] CS: Yeah. I’ve told my clients too, “I do not see this working.” Or, “This is a property that is going to take a long time for the rest of the neighborhood to catch up to do what you’re trying to do here.” I don’t mean to say I’m going to support every property that everyone picks out or whatnot. I just, it is important to get that agent that’s going to give you their honest opinion. I think that’s where I succeed as an agent with investors. I have that creative mindset, knowing everything, sorry, I do not know everything or even close to everything. But know a lot of the factors that you can play with in terms of financing versus cash, different types of financing, different types of renovations. You might go into a property thinking it’s a flip, and then it turns into a rental. Just having that fluid relationship with a real estate agent and a lender and maybe even a commercial lender, those are the things that I think really help you get the best deals, because you’re looking at, almost, a property that’s more like a bank.
If you see it as a bank, you can work backwards and say, “How are we going to finance this? How are we going to change this into a new, business plan, that’s going to make a different type of outcome for us?” Just knowing that you have all these different factors, and avenues that you can use to get towards your end goals, I think, is what’s really going to help you as an investor. It takes a lot to get there. Which is why as a new investor, I think making sure that you’re teamed up with the right people from the beginning is going to really help you not take so much time in learning, because they’ll be walking you through that.
[00:31:10] DB: I couldn’t agree with you more. The team is so important, just not only for time, but also helping to manage risk to make sure that you don’t make a really stupid move, which is super easy to do, if you are just diving in and you don’t know what you’re doing. So for the next segment of the show, we do every week with every guest is we hit three final infusion questions. So the first of our final infusion questions is, what’s one tangible strategy that you use to make sure that you stay working on the business rather than in the business?
[00:31:41] CS: Yeah. So I wake up, I used to be earlier before kids. Every morning, pretty much the first thing I do is get on the MLS. I’m checking all of the new local listings, if anything’s back on the market, and just getting a pulse for the market for the day. I’m also looking through all of the new listings that are coming up just so that I have a heads up that XY and Z might be a good fit for my client before they’re sending it to me, and I’m out on appointment and don’t have time to really look at that property.
So that’s the biggest thing that I do, is just take my mornings to think about what I have to do and what’s going on for that day and the following day. I know it’s so simple, but it is just in real estate, your day can get away from you very quickly, so just taking that time to be more intentional with how I’m spending my time throughout the next day, two days, three days, just near future has been the most impactful thing for me.
[00:32:50] NH: Yeah. I love that. Just a little bit of planning can go such a long way when you get into the weeds of regular day. So that’s great. All right. The second question then is, what’s one resource that’s been most helpful to you and your real estate journey? Either a book a podcast, a person, an author, whatever?
[00:33:04] CS: Yeah. So I’m going to, this will be a two, two parts. I know this is mainly for investment today, but so in that aspect, I think BiggerPockets and you guys.
[00:33:18] NH: Oh, yeah.
[00:33:19] CS: I was introduced to that, I don’t know, in month two of being in real estate and I would just in the mornings, I would just go through all of it. I would read every new post and network with other investors on there and just really learn about what they were talking about. I had no idea about any of the different methods. That is just BiggerPockets is basically a social network for real estate investing where there’s different forums, podcasts, you can connect with different investors locally or not. It’s just a good way to open your eyes to the opportunities that are out there and different creative ideas. That was a good one. I actually met some clients on there, which is very nice too.
So I would definitely recommend everyone go to BiggerPockets. It’s very helpful.
In terms of real estate, my broker and director of operations were very involved in my career. I was actually working for the brokerage early on in a different capacity and just the two of them poured everything that they knew about real estate and the brokerage into me. And I feel like that as a brand new agent, I think I was one or two years in and was acting like I was 10 years in, so it just being close to people that were passionate about what they were doing in the industry was very helpful.
[00:34:53] DB: I think that speaks to that value of team even more, right? We talked about team being so important so those mentor roles on your team also that how to educate, inspire. That’s, that’s huge. That’s great. Third questions, what’s one piece of advice that you’d give someone that’s contemplating a start in real estate investing?
[00:35:09] CS: Yeah. I would just start browsing your local listings and role play it out. “Okay, if I were to buy this, what would I buy it for? What would use the mortgage calculator? How much would that cost? How much cash do I need? How much is that going to bring me on a monthly basis?” Just pretend that you’re buying these properties and then from there, if that still feels comfortable, I know it sounds silly, but just getting in the habit of running the numbers will really help you by the time you get to those meetings with your real estate agent and your lender. Ultimately, I think that decision has to start with you. That’s why I would start just learning and getting out there and just running different scenarios. If you get passionate about it from running those scenarios, it’s probably a good thing for you to get into. If you’re just focused on seeing the numbers, I don’t know. You really have to love it, because it’s a it can be a heartbreaking business. But it’s, yeah, definitely just roleplaying. Then once you have determined that you’re ready, just jump in there. Don’t hesitate. Just get it going.
[00:36:26] NH: Love it. Well, I know that people can connect with you via the concierge service, right? You’re one of our preferred agents in the Cincinnati market, but if someone wants to get in touch just to ask questions or something like that, where can people find you?
[00:36:37] CS: Yeah. So they can go to carlyrswihart.com. That’s just my Brokerage website. There’s a “Contact Me” through there. I think it has links to all my social media stuff that you can always direct message.
[00:36:56] NH: Perfect. We’ll make sure to put that in the show notes. Again, Carly. Thank you for being a concierge agent for so long. Thanks for coming on the show today. It’s just been awesome to talk to you and really appreciate all the work you’re doing.
[00:37:06] CS: Yeah. Thanks, guys.
[00:37:07] NH: Awesome.
[00:37:08] DB: Thanks so much.
[OUTRO]
[00:37:10] NH: Thanks for listening to the YFP Real Estate Investing Podcast. If you like what you heard on today’s show, please leave us a review and subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode. If you have a question, know someone that would make a good guest or want to connect with Nate or David, head in over to yfprealestate.com and join the growing YFP Real Estate Investing Facebook group.
[DISCLAIMER]
[00:37:31] NH: As we conclude this week’s episode of the YFP Real Estate Investing Podcast, an important reminder that the content in this podcast is provided to you for your informational purposes only and is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice. Information in the podcast and corresponding material should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial products. We urge listeners to consult with a financial advisor with respect to any investment.
Furthermore, the information contained in our archived newsletters, blog posts and podcasts is not updated and may not be accurate at the time you listen to it on this podcast. Opinions and analyses expressed herein are solely those of your financial pharmacist unless otherwise noted and constitute judgments as of the dates published. Such information may contain forward looking statements which are not intended to be guarantees of future events. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please visit your financialpharmacist.com/disclaimer. Thank you for your support to the YFP Real Estate Investing Podcast. Have a great rest your week.
[END]
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