And welcome to another episode of Passive Real Estate Investing. I’m your host, Marco Santarelli, and you know, on today’s episode, I am going to do something a little bit differently. You know, there’s a quote, it says “The first step in getting an answer is being brave enough to ask a question.” And, you know, with that, I got thinking we’ve got six investment counselors here who talk to investors literally on a daily basis. And I’m sure there is a lot of questions that are common, but each investment counselor has a different experience with every client that we work with. Plus every investor client that we work with is very unique. Not everybody has the same situation, they have different scenarios, they have different locations, different interests, different investment goals, different amounts of investment, capital, different credit profiles, different concerns, certainly different levels of experience and knowledge, and understanding.
Some of them are very new. We refer to them lovingly as newbies, and some of them are seasoned, very experienced. I’ll refer to them as seasoned or professional. And so we’ve got every shade of gray in between. And with that, I got thinking, well, why not, you know, have a conversation with one or more of our investment counselors here and ask them what are the most common questions that they get asked by their investor clients.
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And so with me today, I have one of our investment counselors here, Melissa. So Melissa, welcome to the show.
Hey Marco. Thanks for having me.
It’s great. Having you back on, it’s been a number of years since you’ve actually been on the show. So I think we’re long overdue. So welcome back.
Thank you. I agree with that.
Yeah, good stuff. So, you know, what I thought we would do today is kind of break the, uh, investors journey from getting started to post-closing and I broke it down into seven categories from getting started to, you know, whatever is related to the post-close. And if we take those seven sections, I’m just gonna go through them one at a time with you and ask you what is at least one of the most common questions you get asked related to that particular area. So you ready to go with that? I’m ready to go. Cool. Okay. Well, every investor starts at the beginning and I just refer to that as getting started. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s their first investment property. They may already have 5, 10, 15, 20, or more properties, but they’re getting started with the next purchase. And so this is going to be a broad question, but what is the most common question you get asked in general when it comes to getting started? This is before you even have a conversation about markets or even working with us, what are those getting started? Common questions that you get.
Yeah. Good question. Like you said, there’s a lot of questions that people have and depending on what their experiences and where they’re coming in and how new they are, I would say generally the questions that people want to know about is everything from how do I read a proforma? How do I know if a return is good? What is a good return? And of course that leads down a big rabbit hole because there’s so many different strategies for so many different people, you know, what they’re trying to get to and what their end goal is. And that’s what my job is, is to help investors kind of narrow that down and kind of figure out what makes sense for them. So definitely reading a proforma, understanding the numbers is probably a big one. And then, you know, down the line to financing and everything else that you mentioned.
Okay. So when you first get on a call with someone, I’m just going to drill a little deeper with you. If I may, let’s just say it’s an initial color or a strategy session. One of those first scheduled calls that they have with you, what is one of the first questions that people ask? Is it, I mean, I don’t want to put words in your mouth cause I have no idea what you’re going to say, but is it about, you know, what we do or how we can help? Or is it something different? Like what is usually the first question that comes out of their mouth?
Yeah, it’s definitely about our process. You know, tell me more about you guys. How do you help me? Who’s involved. Am I working with you the whole time? All those things up, you know, where our properties come from, how we get paid, all of those are definitely like the beginning stage. And then as soon as we get through all of those, then the next thing is, is, you know, people tend to just jump right into, okay, well, that’s great. I’ve been listening to the podcast or, you know, whatever for so long. I’m good. I’m golden there. I just want to, I want to take action now. What do I do?
So how do you answer a couple of those questions that they asked you such as, you know, how does the process work or pick any of those that you just mentioned?
Yeah, so, well, the first thing that I always let people know is Norada has been around for a really long time. We’re not a new company. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong that you started this company 18 years ago, isn’t that about right. 18 years now
In two months in January, it’ll be 18 years.
Yeah. So that’s kind of a big deal because we have a history, not only with the markets, but also with our clients. So my goal and our goal at Norada, I know everybody is like, this is to really dive into what their needs are. So I let them know that upfront, that we’re all very experienced here. And so we’ve got you, we’re going to take care of you and make sure we lead you down the right path. Then from there, I just explained to them, you know, we have properties that come in and they go very fast. And so we need to get them prepped and ready to go so that when they are ready, we can help them find a property. And some of those things are going to be getting what they, uh, one of our recommended lenders, we make introductions there to make sure they’re qualified and ready to go.
And then the process itself is once they give me that green light and they say, Hey, let’s go. Then I can help them. And then in each market we have a team of local vetted partners. And that’s probably the biggest thing because we can’t do this alone. Obviously we’re a California based company and we’re in 16, 17 different markets. And we can’t do this without our amazing vetted partners that we’ve been with for so long. And so that’s part of the process is letting them know that, you know, you’re in good hands, we’ve got local people that include our property providers that include recommended property managers that we have vetted out. And that do a great job for our clients, title companies, escrow companies recommended inspectors. I mean, anything that they need, we’ve got great people that we’ve partnered with to help along the way. So once people understand that somebody has their back and it’s going to be helping them, then it kind of makes a little bit easier to get into the strategies.
Right, okay. So it sounds like a lot of it is lay of the land, how things operate. Who’s your primary point of contact? How does the process unfold? And, you know, I think it’s worth mentioning actually, I don’t know if you use this, Melissa, maybe we need to revisit and revise it. But many years ago I created this detailed two page checklist. I titled it, the purchase process checklist, and it was literally a checkbox. You can go down and check the boxes off as you go through each and every step in each and every phase of that purchase from making that first contact with us right through to the closing and post-close. So I think that was a good tool and I’m not sure how often we actually send that out because we talk about everything on the phone.
Marco, I use it all the time. I send it to investors all the time. I think it’s great. It’s a great tool for people just to have and remember, you know, having a nice checkpoint box. I’ve always liked to help my investors take action and having a checklist sometimes helps. So no, I absolutely use it. It’s great.
Okay. Great. All right. Well, let’s move to the second section here, cause I’ve divided this up into seven sections. So we talked about getting started. What’s the frequently asked question there, and obviously there’s more than one. So what is the, uh, most common question you get that is market-related and how do you answer it?
So basically this one’s kind of a, you know, I got to talk with people for a little bit to kind of really figure out what their goals are and what they’re trying to get to. You know, some people are doing a 1031 exchange and they just have to get a property or some people really want the cash flow. Some people want appreciation. There’s so much wrapped up into that. And so I love to go through questions with investors to really determine what they’re trying to get to and what their end goal is. And then I can make them recommendations from there generally with neighborhood grades, that one, I think the days are definitely gone. And we all know this where you can go to a really high cashflow market and get a B class property for $80,000, um, that really isn’t happening or that doesn’t really exist.
And so that’s, my job is to help people understand what they’re going to be getting for their dollar. Like somebody comes to me and says, Hey Melissa, I have a budget. I have $30,000 to spend you put down on a property. My goal is to help them find the best quality property for their budget. So I’m not going to be recommending a higher price market like Florida because they don’t have the funds to do that. So my job is to help them figure out how to get them in the best neighborhood with the least amount of risk. That’s truly, I mean, gosh, for as long as we’ve been doing this or happiest investors are truly the ones that are in the better quality neighborhoods where you’ve got rental increases happening, you’ve got appreciation happening, you’ve got less tenant risk. And so just going over those with the investors and finding out what their risk levels are, is really how I help them determine all of that.
So the question you’re getting asked related to a market is I guess, indirectly, how do I pick a market? But you are essentially turning it back on them by asking them, well, you’re doing two things when you know, how much investment capital do they have, because obviously that will exclude them from more pricey markets. And then the second thing is you are assessing their risk tolerance. How are you actually picking the market or helping them pick the market? Because we don’t pick the markets for clients, you know, we help guide them to pick the markets that make the most sense for them based on what they’re trying to achieve, their investment goals. Also their capacity to buy, which is the investment capital, but is the frequently asked question is, you know, how do I pick a market? Is that essentially what you’re getting from investors?
Yeah. And you know, when they’re saying, how do I pick a market? I always tell them, let’s go down that rabbit hole. It’s not just so easy. That’s what I really am here to gauge for. Because most people know what they want. They just don’t know what they want, if that makes sense. And so by me asking them questions and kind of guiding them down and asking them the questions about what they’re trying to get to, then I can say, oh, okay. And market like Columbus, Georgia is a great cashflow market, but it doesn’t appreciate as high as let’s say, Indianapolis or something. And so a lot of times they go, oh, okay, well I do want something with a lot of appreciation. So it’s just kind of those conversations of where I can share real time experience with our current investors now. And that’s one of the things that I think is really important too, is we’re constantly getting feedback as our clients are growing their portfolios.
You know, they’re coming back to us year after, year in buying more properties and they’re telling me, Hey, Melissa, I’m doing really great in Birmingham. I want to buy another one there. Or, you know, this market is doing extra well, let’s go for a second there or the opposite if they’re saying, Hey, this market, isn’t what I thought it was going to be. I don’t want to go there because of this, this that’s real time information that I’m then able to give to the new client that comes on and share with them the experiences we’re seeing actually in the markets. So it really is it, I can’t just make a blanket suggestion and go, Hey, go here, go here. It really is catered around. I try to cater around to the investor’s needs and risk tolerant and expectations.
Yeah. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I think when it comes to the question of how do I pick a market, I mean, you can slice it and dice it a few different ways, but I think at the core of it often, and you can correct me on this, if you think I’m off, but investors are picking a market based on one of two things, is it a market that will provide me greater appreciation, potential than the other market choices? Or should I be looking at a market that is more prone to provide me a higher rate of cash flow or cash on cash return? And that’s often in lieu of that stronger appreciation potential. And I keep saying the word potential to emphasize the fact that appreciation happens over time. No question about it, but it’s not something that you can easily predict, especially long-term and it’s certainly not guaranteed. So the scale, if you will, is a market that it has greater appreciation potential versus a market that has stronger cash on cash returns or cash flow. Is that a fair summary?
It is. It’s a very good summary. And one of the things too, that I always like to mention to investors is when you’re in a market that is appreciating a little bit more historically, we can see it, we can track it. We know what the markets have done. Those markets. Also the markets that tend to have more frequent and higher rental increases and the more linear markets, the more cashflow markets tend to not have as much rental increase opportunity. So, you know, diving into like the next questions when we’re talking about reading proforma and all of that, which is another topic that people ask about. We have the ability to look at our proforma and look a few years ahead so that you can compare what a higher growth market is doing with those rental increases versus a more linear market. So yeah, there’s a lot there and I totally, I eat out and that’s the part I love. I love helping people strategize and kind of figure it out and put them in a direction. Yeah,
For sure. All right. Well, we’ll, we started with getting started and the most common question there, and then we just talked about market related questions or thought question, how do I pick a market? So let’s get a little more granular, lower level and that is neighborhood. So what is the most common neighborhood related question you get?
People are generally, you know, how do I know if it’s a safe neighborhood? How do I know who my tenant is going to be? That’s where those come in. And again, because of our history and our great relationships with our property managers, I talked to the property managers all the time and that’s one of the things that we’re always asking them is how are your vacancy rates? How is the tenant turnovers? You know, all of that stuff. It all, it all boils down to neighborhood grade because the better quality tenant generally is going to be a higher price point of a higher rent because they’re going to have a higher income and that’s everybody rents what they can afford. And so generally you’re going to have less tenant risk in a B class or an A-class property. Generally there’s a little bit higher risk in a C class property, but also generally you’re going to see higher cashflow on a C class property, the higher, the risk, the higher the reward that saying is, is definitely true. And so it goes back to again, everybody has a different risk level. Some people absolutely are fine with a C class. They know they might have a little bit more risk. They just want that higher cash flow. And some people say no way, I am not risk adverse. I don’t want any issues. I don’t want any problems. Then we’re going to guide them to maybe a higher price point property in a little bit better area where they might have a little bit less tenant risk.
I would guess that most clients are focused on B, B plus A minus neighborhoods. Is that true?
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I definitely encourage my investors to when we talk about and they come to me and they say, Hey, I like these C, D class areas, then I’m like, that’s fine. That’s what you want to do. But I just want you to know the different risks and the different things that are involved so that you have can make a great, good, solid decision. But definitely I would say most, most of our inventory anyway is going to be B or A, and most of our clientele and our investors want a
Yeah. And I did an episode. I forgot exactly when it was actually, if you really want to go back to the very beginning way back when I launched the podcast, which was in the middle of 2015, I actually did an episode called Choosing the Right Neighborhood. It was episode number seven. And so if you go back to that one, you know, you can educate yourself on what the differences are between the different types of neighborhoods and what makes one neighborhood, A neighborhood versus a B versus a C you know, what characteristics does it have? So I think that’s a good place to start. I also did an episode, uh, I believe it was episode 35, Make Better Decisions Using Neighborhood Information, and I did that with Dr. Andrew Schiller. So that’s another episode that you could go back and listen to that will help you to educate yourself about the differences between neighborhoods and why choose one over another. So, anything else to add to that before I move on with the next section?
Nope. Let’s move
On. Okay. Cool. All right. So talk about a, market-related frequently asked question a neighborhood one and now property. So what is one frequently asked question you get related to the property itself? Basically the dirt and structure that’s sitting there.
People always want to know if the property was renovated or where our properties are coming from. We do a quite a bit of new construction, so that’s kind of a different topic and a whole other direction we can go. But so, you know, my answer is always the expectation working with us here at Norada is you’re either buying a property that’s been newly renovated or a new construction property. The idea for our investors is to have a property that’s as, as maintenance free as possible. This is supposed to be passive and turnkey while these houses are not, they’re not perfect. I mean, obviously the new construction ones, everything is new with warranties and they’re great, which is why they’re so popular. But the rehab properties, you know, these are older houses and the contractors go in and they put together a scope of work and they put together the list of items that need to be done to get it rented out anything that is safety, deferred maintenance, some cosmetics.
It certainly does not mean the house is going to be perfect, but the investors will have an opportunity to get an inspection done. If we require our investors, we want them to get an inspection done. And again, we’ve got recommendations and names locally for them to use. They can use whoever they want. And then if they have any questions or concerns about the inspection report, you know, we can help guide them through that and make recommendations for repair requests and that sort of thing. But, um, that’s generally where the question comes in there on the properties is what am I getting here? So a renovated or a new construction property would answer that.
So are they asking about whether the properties are newly renovated or new, or are they asking a slightly different question? In other words, a comparison between new construction versus a newly refurbished property? I just wanted to make sure I understood the question that you’re getting often.
Yeah. It’s more just, Hey, what, what has been done to these houses? Is this, what am I buying? Where’s this property coming from? And it’s more actually like, what is this?
Fair enough. Yeah, I think, um, I don’t know if everybody’s aware of this, but at least people are aware of this after they speak with us, but new construction has become more and more commonplace and popular because that is the new inventory that’s coming out on the market across the country. There are still a lot of deal flow when it comes to newly refurbished homes, but less so than years past. And it comes in waves. Inventory is very tight. Demand is strong. And then these properties just sell very, very quickly. So fortunately builders have stepped up and recognized that that there’s a market out there for the build to rent model. So whether it’s referred to as B2R or just new construction builders recognize that their clients are not just homeowners, but also investors looking to acquire properties that they’re going to keep in good shape and rent out to qualified tenants. So there’s been a trend going on for years with more and more new construction and more and more of what our clients are purchasing are new construction versus the, uh, you know, the newly refurbished properties that we’ve done exclusively for many, many years. So I just wanted to throw that in regarding properties.
Yeah. Well, and also exit strategy for new construction is something we talk about a lot as well. If somebody decides to buy a new construction property and they want to sell it or trade up in five years and take advantage of some of that equity, it’s still considered somewhat of a new property in five years. You’re not going to have to put a lot of work into it, or a lot of, you know, you’re not going to expect to see a lot of stuff on the inspection report. In fact, the things still might be under warranty. So exit strategy wise, new construction is a good one for that too.
Yeah. Another interesting thing about new construction is some of them, not all of them have some level of built-in equity when you put it under contract, they actually appraise for more than your contracted purchase price, which is kind of interesting, but it’s still factual in the sense that the appraisals that are coming back from the appraisers are showing market comparables in the area of properties that have sold to justify that higher valuation. So you’re actually buying a property with not just the equity you’re putting in the down payment, but some additional equity from market sales in the neighborhood and the surrounding area. So that’s a nice little perk when it comes to new construction.
Yep. And that’s, you know, that’s one of the things that I talked to investors about on calls, we go through all of those different, you know, pros and cons. So yeah.
Okay. Management, what is the most common question you get related to property management?
Probably who are they? I would say, who are the property managers and maybe what do they charge?
Okay, how do you reply?
Yeah, so our property management companies, um, who are they, they’re local in the market. Most of them I say are, I don’t think we have any national property management companies at this time. Although we do have a couple of recommendations. If somebody wants to go down that route, but the local property management companies are not us. That’s probably the biggest confusion. People think that we are the property managers, or they think that somehow we get like a kickback or money back from the property managers. And that’s not the case at all. We literally recommend them because we recommend them. We’re not getting paid their own third-party company. They’re local in that market. They can drive by your property. They can meet tenants. I think that’s really important to know that that we truly are recommending them because we think they’re awesome. And we have other investors with them and we have nothing to do with them as far as they’re their own entity.
And every property comes with a property management company in place, ready to go to manage the property for you. Some people think that they have to go out and find their own property manager. And that’s not the case. We have it. I mean, you can use any property manager you want, you don’t have to use them, it’s your property. But certainly we recommend them. And we know that they’re experienced in our clients are very happy with them. Price point wise, you know, you gotta pay a property manager, you get what you pay for. So they’re all going to charge anywhere from, you know, nationwide average is 10%, some property managers charge eight, then we’ll do an introductory, maybe seven or something, you know, but most of them are going to be around 10%. That’s pretty standard. They’re also going to charge you lease up fees.
That’s another thing that is really important to know, because it’s just a one-time thing that when they placed the tenant for you, they have to there’s there’s expenses associated with that. They have to stay in business and they have to make money. Property managers can’t work for free. And so that’s another thing people think, oh man, they’re charging me so much, you know, 10% and isn’t that enough? Well, it’s actually not. If you look at the numbers and you run them, you know, they have to pay people to show the property and market the property and vet out the applicant and go through all of that, all the applications and you know, it’s quite a process. And so there is a cost to that and it’s worth it because they’re going to do a good job and they’re going to vet out correctly. Definitely think you get what you pay for in that.
Yeah. And one thing I’ll add to what you said is that all these items that are essentially fees from property management companies, number one, they are all negotiable. Although not necessarily every management company is going to negotiate on it. However, if you have multiple properties under management with a particular company and you came in with them early on in the beginning at their street rate, whatever it may be, let’s say 10% of the monthly collected rants plus whatever they charge for maintenance and repair coordination and leased up fees, those things sometimes. And I will say maybe even often can be negotiated as you build a relationship with a management company and you build the size of your portfolio under management with them. However, I will say this, I’m not a big fan of nickeling and diming your property manager, even though sometimes you may feel that they’re getting, you know, they’re nickeling and diming you.
That doesn’t happen often. But I have had that feeling from one or two of my property managers in the past. So the thing is, is just, whatever’s fair and equitable. And as you have more properties under management, you can negotiate that. But what I say, nickel and dime, I don’t like negotiating down hard on the monthly management fee because I want my property management company on top of everything and happy with me as a client and doing everything they can and the best job they possibly can and managing my property. So, you know, the difference between going from 10 to nine or nine to eight or eight to 7%, that 1% difference is not going to make me rich. It’s not going to make or break me. So I’d rather know that they’re really happy with me as a client, as well as them know that I’m happy with them.
It just needs to be a good working relationship because you have to remember, they’re working for you. You’re hiring the property manager to do a great job. And as long as they feel like they’re being fairly compensated and you are fairly treated and you’re getting communication and good service, then it’s a very good working relationship. So anyway, those are just my 2 cents. Okay. All right. So unless you have something else to add on, on the management side, then the second to last section is financing. So financing related question, what is the number one or most common question you get related to financing? And there’s probably dozens. I’m sure that we get when it comes to financing.
Yeah, that’s definitely a wormhole. There’s a lot, most common question about financing is probably about rates or new investors. Sometimes don’t understand that investment loans are different than an owner occupied loan. And so they’ll say to me, oh, why is the rates showing up at 4% or three and a half or four and a half, whatever it is, you know, the rates are changing. We adjust it, but they’re like, oh, I was at Wells Fargo and they said it was two and a half, or I’ve got a prequalification from Wells Fargo because I was going to buy a house and I decided not to. And so it’s really just kind of clarifying that up. That investment loans are different than on your occupied. They’re always going to be higher interest rates, at least one point on average, about one point higher for an investment loan than it is on an owner, occupied loan.
But I always say that it is a little bit higher, but gosh, the rates are just so low right now. They’re historically low. Um, and so that’s just how it is. You’re going to pay a little bit more for an investment loan. And then also it’s getting qualified for investment properties completely different than for an owner-occupied. You have to use a lender that knows what they’re doing for an investment loan, because you want to be able to buy as many properties as you can. And as many as you can qualify for, and also just the process as you’re building your portfolio, I’m using a lender that’s experienced and they know what they’re doing is really going to save you a lot of time. And so we, we have our great list of recommended lenders that we work with. Aaron Chapman, Graham Parham, Sean Hart, I mean, we have so many names that are, you know, everybody kind of tends to hear those names a lot because they really, truly are good at what they do.
They know how to qualify you. And so one of the first things that I recommend investors to do, whether they’re ready to buy tomorrow or whether they’re ready to buy in six months is get with one of our recommended lenders. I don’t care which one they’re all phenomenal. And just clarify with them, you don’t need to have your credit run in that moment, but just kind of go over the expectations on your financials, make sure that your debt to income ratio is where it’s supposed to be. Again, it’s the numbers are different than an owner occupied. So just because you get your Wells Fargo, preapproval does not mean you’re going to qualify for an investment loan. And so we want to make sure that your ducks are in a row and you’re lined up ready so that when you are ready to purchase and you say, okay, Melissa, let’s do this. No questions asked. You’ve already spoken to a lender. You’re pre-prepped and you’re ready to go. And then you can just tell your lender, Hey, run my credit. Let’s get this preapproval rolling. And there isn’t going to be any surprises. So I would say that’s kind of where the financing questions and conversations kind of go.
Okay, one comment I’ll add to that. Just for people listening here is it’s not a good idea to try to compare a non-owner occupied loan, meaning alone for investment real estate purposes to a loan, you would get for your principle residence, meaning your home, where you’re going to live. There are similar loans, they’re both conventional loans, but you’re comparing, uh, loans for two different purposes. One is for your principal residence, that’s always going to have a lower interest rate. The one that is not owner-occupied has slightly different terms. One of the biggest differences is really just the interest rate, which is a little higher, but it’s not a lot higher. You know, you mentioned about 1% and that’s, you know, plus or minus that there’s, there’s a couple of different variables that’ll affect that rate, you know, such as your credit, the loan to value, et cetera, but you really shouldn’t be comparing them because you’re not going to be investing and purchasing or requiring investment real estate using a loan designed for an owner, occupied residence.
Those are just two different things. So in the grand scheme of things, you just have to look at the non-owner-occupied loans and recognize that the interest rates are very low, historically low. I mean, there’s been periods of time here over the last year or two, where we’ve hit record lows that we’ve never seen before with mortgage financing. So that’s super cheap money. And it’s also a huge benefit for you in times like these, when we’re seeing a lot of inflation, real inflation to have such historically low-interest rates in an inflationary environment, because your loan is being devalued every year at the rate of real inflation. And if you recognize the power of that, the fact that your loan is becoming worthless, in other words, worth less, worth less each and every year because of the effects of inflation, inflation becomes your friend. And you’re generating a rate of return on your loan amortization, as well as the loan being devalued at the same time.
And hopefully that’s not too much to understand, but you just have to recognize that your monthly mortgage payment does not change. And so 10 years from now, if you’re paying $500 a month, now you’re going to be paying $500 a month in five years in 10 years from now in that mortgage loan. And really it’s not you, it’s your tenants. Who’s paying it down. You know, I get excited about this and I really should dedicate an episode to it, but the power and the effect of inflation on your hard assets, your investments should not be taken lightly. It’s a real rate of return that you’re getting by actually borrowing money, having your tenant paid off. And it being devalued when your monthly mortgage payments are locked in, they’re fixed each and every month in each and every year. That’s a powerful thing. If you actually stopped to do the math on it, you’ll see that you are getting a very good rate of return on that alone. Even if you don’t factor in anything else related to your investment. So like I said, I get pretty excited about that. I just want people to really understand and recognize that and let it sink in because I’ve said it multiple and at different times on different episodes on the show. And I really think people need to understand the power of that. Anyway, I’ll get off my soap box, Melissa.
No, I, I wish we could add inflation to our proforma so that people can see that, you know, I mean, that would be, I don’t know if that could be added, but that would be kind of cool too, so people can actually see. Wow. Yeah. We’ll know.
Yeah. Well, it can be done in a spreadsheet for sure. We could do it on our site as well. I think it might be confusing for a lot of people, but something we could certainly look at and talk about, all right, well, let’s go to the last of the seven sections and that’s what I’m going to refer as the post-close related frequently asked questions. So what kind of questions you get, or what’s the most popular question that you get at the time of closing? Or maybe after the close from your clients?
Yeah. So funny enough, I would say the most common question is who owns the property after I closed, or how is Norada still involved? I guess, to clarify that is, you know, technically we’re not involved. I mean, it’s your property, you bought it, you own it. Um, you can do whatever you want with it. You can sell it whenever you want. That’s something people always ask us. They say, Hey, you know, if I wanted to sell it at some point, can I do that? Absolutely. It’s your property. You bought it. You can do as you wish with it, but we are here to continue to help you as you need it. And, um, I kind of said this earlier, I’ve got clients, you know, we all have clients that have been buying with us, buying properties with us for many years and they’re building a portfolio.
I’d never heard somebody say, Hey, I’m just going to buy one property. And that’s it. The goal is a portfolio. And as you’re building this portfolio, it helps me to help you when you give me feedback. So after you close on your property, I love to hear how it’s going. And what do you like? What do you don’t like, how’s the market? Is it hitting your expectations? So technically, yes, I’m not involved after you close on it, but I’m still here to help. If you’ve got questions, if you need help getting a hold of somebody or a property manager or anything like that, we’re always here, after the sell. And then of course, we want you to come back and build your portfolio with us and continue to earn your business.
I’m going to tee this up to some degree, but I’m curious, how often do you get asked a question about asset protection after the close? Because now they’re thinking about it or maybe even tax planning or tax strategy. How often does that come up?
To be honest with you? It either comes up before, because for some reason it’s actually, I would say at the very, very beginning, that question comes up more than anything. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. I don’t know why or where it comes from or where everybody just thinks, oh, I have to have an LLC set up before I buy. You can do that route. And we obviously have again, amazing recommendations and resources of people that we work with. Who’s been on our podcast that can help people do that. But you can’t, when you’re getting a conventional loan, you can’t put the right into the LLC anyway. Um, but of course, you know, there’s many benefits of doing it for accounting and everything else. But so I would say a lot of those questions actually are, are a little bit more towards the beginning. And then maybe the only time I would get them after the fact is maybe six months or a year after they purchase, then they’ll come around and reach out to me and say, Hey, you know, what do you think I should be doing with you? Have a CPA recommendation. I’m I’m I know I’m going to have to have taxes soon or, you know, do you have recommendations to do LLCs? So I would say it’s usually really far down the road after they closed or it’s more towards the beginning.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, Melissa, anything else you’d like to add or share with our listeners before we wrap it up here?
No, I mean, I, I would just say that no question is a bad question. I’m giving you all these answers and you’re asking me all these questions so that I can help. And so I don’t know what your questions are or where you’re at. And so I would just say, please feel free to reach out to me, reach out to anybody at Norada and just ask those questions. I guarantee you we’ve heard them before. This is what I do every day and all day is talk to investors and I love it. And so don’t be afraid to ask questions, please do, if I don’t have the answer, then I know somebody that does somebody on our team, or maybe it’s a lender or, you know, somebody will have the answer for us and we’ll track it down. So yeah. Please just reach out to us. That’s what,
Yeah. That’s such a good point, Melissa. There really aren’t any dumb questions because everybody has the same question. At some point in time, you either ask it and get the answer or you hear it from somebody else. You know, just like what we’re trying to do with this episode here today. There’s always somebody thinking about the questions that are being asked. So well, good stuff.
Maybe we maybe what somebody is listening and went, oh, I’m glad they answered that for me.
Yeah. Yeah. And then what happens is they’ll have more, there are going to be more questions and the trick there is just send us an email or pick up the phone and ask your question. And that way you, you have the answer and you’ve learned, and you can move on to the next question, then the next step in your journey.
Exactly. And you want Marco, you know, our investors you learned by doing. And so a lot of people hold themselves back from not going forward because they don’t have all the answers and it’s kind of an unknown and we’re here to hold your hand and help you do it and lower your learning curve and support you. But you actually learn the most by doing so. Sometimes we, you don’t know what your questions are going to be until you’re in the middle of it.
Good stuff, Melissa. Well, thank you for taking the time to come on today. This has been great, and I like to try and actually do this with the entire team. So thanks for coming on.
My pleasure. Talk to you soon. Thanks.
You bet. And so for everybody listening here, we talked about the strategy session. Just remember that having this strategy session is free to you. You know, we’re set up to help guide you and counsel you and help you build and invest in real estate. So if that’s of interest to you and you’re thinking about real estate or looking to expand and grow your portfolio, or maybe transition from existing properties to growing a portfolio and you need help with a 1031 exchange, whatever it may be, just go to our website, fill out the form. We will connect you with one of the investment counselors, or if you already have an investment counselor assigned, just reach out to them directly. But remember we do offer a free strategy session. It’s a great way for you to get to know what we can do for you. What we offer, answer your questions, become more knowledgeable, a little more confident, and hopefully a little more inspired to move forward and build your financial future through hard assets like income-producing real estate.
So on that note, if you have any questions about real estate investing, you could also submit them to me at passiverealestateinvesting.com. Just click the Ask Marco link at the top, sending your question. I’m going to try and do more of those episodes going forward. And last but not least, if you haven’t already subscribed, remember to subscribe to the show, we are in a hundred and something like 50 countries, most of our listeners are in the US and Canada, Australia and the UK, but we have listeners all over the world and we appreciate that. So with that, thanks for listening. And we will see you all on our next episode.
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