For many of our readers, Joe Fairless needs very little introduction but in case you are not yet familiar with him, Joe controls over $265 million worth of real estate and he is the managing principal of Ashcroft Capital.
Joe is from Texas and started his corporate
life in the advertising industry; he became the VP of a New York City
advertising agency at a young age.
From there, he began in real estate investment,
buying his first house in 2009.
Joe is now the host of the longest running
daily real estate podcast on the planet called; you guessed it, “Best Real
Estate Investing Advice Ever Show.”
He is also the co-author along with Theo Hicks of
the book, ‘Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever’ – Volume 1; the book covers
the best of the best from episodes 1-99 of his podcast.
Introduction
to the ‘Best Ever’ Book
Joe in his introduction to the book reminisces
about his life in the advertising industry and how in spite of his supposed
success he wanted to take control of his most precious resource, his time.
He explains that by the time he bought his
fourth house he was well and truly over his career in advertising.
He began to focus on buying apartment
communities with investors, the first investors that backed him were from among
his close friends.
He also talks about his first big multifamily
deal, a 168 unit apartment community in Cincinnati, Ohio and how it almost went
sour with a one-two punch of the initial deal structure changing and also two
investors pulling the plug on their promised capital at the last minute. This
left him $200,000 short of the needed capital.
How did he solve the problem?
Think like
a Billionaire
Joe says he decided that since he was one day
going to become a billionaire, why not think like a billionaire right now. What
would a billionaire do? He asked himself.
Initially, Joe had not had an appraisal done
because the deal structure meant it was not necessary and getting one can cost
a couple of thousand dollars.
But then he realized that a billionaire would
order an appraisal and then use that information to get more investors
interested in the deal.
The valuation turned out to be $350,000 more
than the option price he had negotiated. He brought the appraisal valuation
back to his current investors and one of them covered the $200,000 gap. The
rest is history.
Joe then explains why he shared this story. He
shared it because it is an actual story from an actual investor doing an actual
investment deal. In these stories, there is priceless wisdom for others who
want to also become successful real estate investors.
The book is full of these actual stories from
actual investors.
Some of the stories in the book deal with the
following:
How to transition from single-family to multifamily properties
Step-by-step approach on raising money for your deals
How to creatively invest in real estate, no matter how bad your current financial situation is
A step-by-step approach for using market data to perform due diligence
The most overlooked expenses by buy-and-hold and fix-and-flip investors
A step-by-step blueprint for how to achieve financial independence
A step-by-step process for how to successfully wholesale probate properties
How lenders evaluate your loan application and what to do to get rid of it
A creative financing method for newbie investors
Each Investor tells the story of the ins and
outs of deals that they have been involved in and why they were either
successful or not.
Investor
Lessons
Invest
in Yourself
They then draw tangible lessons from their
experience which readers of the book can apply for their own benefit.
Each story is both educational and
inspirational.
The investors whose stories are shared in the
book offer certain general advice in common such as; never stop educating
yourself because the market is constantly evolving so we also need to evolve
with it.
Joe personally has committed to reading one
book a month and he has used the information he has learned in those books in
his real estate business.
How do you find the time?
One investor simply started to wake up 10
minutes earlier and he uses that time for reading and educating himself every
day.
Win/Win
Another piece of advice that is shared by one
storyteller in the book is to not believe in the cliché that there is always a
winner and a loser.
He tries to add value, in each one of his
deals, not only for himself but also for his tenants, for his investors and for
everyone involved.
Don’t
Pay For Potential
As well as general lessons that can be applied
in almost any area of life the beauty of these stories lies in the fact that
they offer real details and tips that are absolutely specific to real estate
investment because the lessons are drawn from the people doing these deals
every day.
For example, the same storyteller offers the
advice that you should not buy based off of the proforma.
The proforma gives higher income projections
and lower expense projections however these numbers are not how the property is
currently operating.
While it’s great that the proforma shows that
the property is going to increase a further $100,000 in value, these are based
on improvements that you the investor are going to have to pay for.
Don’t pay for what the property can do, pay for
what the property did do. If you buy based on potential you are most likely
overpaying.
Summary
It is not possible in this article to convey
even a fraction of the lessons that the book contains but rather just to give
you an idea of the kind of content that you will discover in the book.
Basically, by paying attention to successful
investors, you will become successful yourself and this book is one great way
to educate and expose yourself to that kind of practical wisdom.
In addition to investing in yourself by reading
and learning it’s important to also invest in your online presence.
To get your professional real estate investor
website up and running right away please connect with us here and
we will get you started.
