Book Review by Joshua Snape
Introduction to Joe Fairless
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.