How to Create the Ultimate Real Estate Investing Team

Daniel Shin | The Darwinian Doctor

Introduction

The majority of my real estate investment portfolio is in Indianapolis.

While I’m happy I invested there, I recently moved to Memphis, TN from Los Angeles, CA.  The move was an experiment in geoarbitrage and self-determination and was the start of a new, exciting chapter for my family.

Now that I’m in Memphis, a traditional cash flow rental market, I’d love to invest locally. Specifically, I’m excited to invest in Memphis for two reasons:

1. I’d like to add to the economic growth and housing stock of the city where I live.
2. I’d like to experience the advantages of local investment.

All of my real estate investment until now has been done “long distance,” since cash flow positive real estate investing is difficult to accomplish in Los Angeles.  While my experience serves as a great proof of concept for long distance investing, I have to admit that there are significant downsides of investing long distance.  I’ll go into these more at a later time.  But suffice to say, I’m looking forward to investing “in my backyard” for once.

To invest in Memphis, I have to create a new real estate investing team from scratch.

You might be in a similar situation where you want to create your own real estate investing team.  Perhaps you’re a new real estate investor, or perhaps you’ve also decided to break into a new market.  Either way, this post should be helpful to you.

By the end of this post, you should know how to create the ultimate real estate investing team.

Let’s talk about the first step.

Define Your Investment Strategy, Market, and Financing

Pick your strategy

Before diving into the world of real estate, it’s crucial to have a clear investment strategy.  Are you looking to focus on rental properties or commercial properties?  If you’re going after rental properties, will you be a a long-term investor or are you more interested in short-term rentals? The type of real estate you choose will greatly influence the type of professionals you need on your team.

Although I’ve investing in everything from single family homes to luxury short term rentals, I plan to transition to large multifamily from here on out.  I’ve got a number of reasons why I’m doing this, but the two I’ll mention here are 1) economy of scale and 2) superior financing options.

When it comes to the apartment buildings, I’ll be focusing on a value add strategy that allows for two exit options:  long term hold or 1031 exchange.  I want to be as comfortable holding onto the apartment buildings for the rest of my life as I am using them as a starting point and trading up to larger projects in the future.

Pick your market

After you decide on a real estate investing strategy, it’s also helpful to think about which specific geographic market you’d like to target. There are a number of things to consider in this decision. You can read this article to help you decide on a market: How to pick a real estate investment market.

Pick your financing strategy

A final thing to consider before you assemble your team, is financing.  While you don’t necessarily need to have all the details worked out in the beginning, it’s helpful to know from the outset if you’ll be self-funding your acquisitions or using partnerships.  Will you sell mutual funds or cash out individual holdings from the stock market?  Or will you utilize a well capitalized physician or private money lender to fund your purchases?

In my case, I expect to do a little bit of both.  I have a few pools of capital to tap internally, but it’s likely that I will need to partner up with others to acquire the quality and volume of real estate that I desire.

Assemble your one page personal statement

Next, I highly recommend putting together a personal statement.  This statement, or “One-page” as I call it, is all of your essential characteristics on one page.  You don’t have to share too much information, but your document should include the following essential data:

• Name
• Picture
• Contact information
• Brief biography
• Investment strategy

This is a extra step that can really differentiate yourself from the pack.  When you send this document along with your introduction, it can help grab the attention of team members and signal that you’re a serious investor who should be taken seriously.

I used this media kit template from Canva to create my One Page. This is what mine looks like:

You’ll need to eventually create a personal financial statement in order to obtain financing, so I recommend doing that at this step as well.

A personal financial statement is a list of your assets, liabilities, and current real estate holdings. You add everything up to determine your net worth and current cash flow.

If you do this step now, it’ll make every step along the way easier.

Assemble Your Core Real Estate Investing Team:

After you define your investment strategy and assemble your One Page, it’s finally time to create your core real estate investing team.

Real estate investing is a team sport, which is why I love it so much.  Ideally, everyone on your team is aligned in goals and incentives.  Taking a real estate deal and using it to create quality housing units and profit for everyone involved is the name of the game.  But as I’ve learned, having the right people on your team is essential.  The right team can save you a lot of time, money, and headaches.

Here are the essential six people that you’ll need to assemble:

1. Real Estate Agent: A good real estate agent, specializing in investment properties, can help you find the best properties, negotiate deals, and provide valuable insights into the local market.
2. Mortgage Broker: A knowledgeable mortgage broker can help you find the best financing options for your investments, whether it’s a traditional loan or a hard money lender.
3. Property Manager: A reliable property manager can oversee the day-to-day operations of your rental properties and handle tenant relations, freeing you to focus on growing your real estate business.
4. General Contractor: A skilled general contractor can handle renovations and repairs on your investment properties, ensuring they’re completed on time and within budget.
5. Insurance Agent: An experienced insurance agent can help you protect your personal assets by recommending the appropriate insurance coverage for your properties.
6. Real Estate Attorney: A real estate attorney can provide legal advice and help you navigate complex real estate transactions, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. They will help to set up legal entities to protect sequester real estate risk from your personal assets.

These six people are pretty much all you need to invest in real estate.

How to find your real estate investing team

The amazing thing about assembling a real estate team is that all of these people can be found online.  There’s no secret phone book that you need to access to find all these people.  Just do a Google search, create a spreadsheet of options, and email or call them all!  If they have online reviews, this could be valuable information, but keep in mind that online reviews often represent the opinions of just a few very happy or very unhappy clients.

In addition to Google, I recommend checking the forums at Biggerpockets.com.  It’s a community of over 2 million real estate investors and professionals, and there are location specific resources for almost all markets.

I recommend starting with finding a real estate agent first.  A good agent will be well connected and can help you find the other members of your team.

Depending on your level of experience and presentation, I’d expect a call back from approximately one in three emails or calls.  Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get a call back.  You can just move on, or set a reminder to call them again in a few days.  I’m a believer that if you really have your heart set on working with someone, you should attempt to contact them three times.  If they still don’t get back to you after the third attempt, just move on.  It wasn’t meant to be.

Your average real estate agent will have lots of inquiries from both potential clients and investors, so again, having a good One Page can be a great way to set yourself apart.

Develop a Strong Network of Industry Professionals:

In addition to your core team, having a strong network of real estate professionals can significantly impact your success in the industry.

These organizations and events can help you find resources, deals, and provide invaluable advice as your start your real estate investment business:

• Real Estate Investment Clubs: Joining a real estate investment group or club is a great way to connect with like-minded people, share experiences, and learn from seasoned investors.
• Online Real Estate Platforms: Social media and online forums can be valuable sources of information and networking opportunities for real estate investors.  Most cities will have one or more online real estate investor forums on Facebook, for example.
• Local Real Estate Events: Stay informed about market trends and investment opportunities by attending local real estate industry events and following market research reports.

Last Step: Be a Strong Team Leader

Remember: as the real estate investor, you will be the leader of the team. As the team leader, your role is to manage your team members and ensure they work cohesively towards your investment goals. This involves clear communication, setting expectations, and fostering a positive team environment.

As you run across deals, you’ll inevitably have a number of false starts as you learn to separate the good deals from the duds.  This can be frustrating to both you and your team.  But as you keep going and finally get a deal underway, you’ll have the opportunity to test out your team members.

Don’t be afraid to change out your team as needed.  As you create your ultimate real estate investing team, it’s natural for you to discover that some people aren’t going to be a great fit after all.  Perhaps your property management company is not proactive enough about marketing your properties.  Or you may have to cycle through a few different agents before you find one that gives you the perfect amount of attention and support.

​Regardless, try to view your real estate investment team members are essential, but interchangeable parts of your company.  Sometimes, being a strong leader is knowing when to part ways with a team member.  This is just as important as knowing how to recognize true loyalty and talent when you come across it.

Conclusion

Now you know how to create the ultimate real estate investing team.  As with most things in life, you’ll find that real estate investing is a lot of “learning by doing.”  As you define your goals and start evaluating real estate deals, you’ll naturally collect these team members to execute on your business plan.

With the right team of experts, you’ll be able to navigate the world of real estate, maximize your investment returns, and minimize risks.

Good luck!

–The Darwinian Doctor