Landlord Association Podcast

Today we have Evan Trinidad, President and co-founder of Tourlie. What’s Tourlie you might ask. Tourlie is a new start-up company that helps busy real estate agents with showings and open houses and also provide extra income other agents who has time and looking to do some side hustles. It’s almost like Uber/Lyft concept but for real estate showings. Some brief background on Evan, he was born and raised in Austin TX and has a bachelor degree in finance from UT Austin McCombs School of business. He cofounded Tourlie with Robert Johnson in 2019. If you want to learn about Tourlie, you can find their website and social media information below. Website link: www.tourlie.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tourlie/?viewAsMember=true Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TourlieTours Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tourlie_tours/ Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have Howard Wang from Alpha One Capital to share some of his experience in the multifamily real estate syndication world. As you'll hear in our conversation, Howard has a very impressive background. He worked in private equity consulting firm and performed valuation for over $600m of transactions. Then he started his own RE investment career about 8 years ago, and quickly grew from single-family investments to his portfolio today that consists of 529 units of apartment in Houston, TX and Atlanta, GA, and over 75,000 square feet of Class A shopping center in Houston as well. Not only that, Howard received his engineering degree from the University of McGill in Montreal, Canada, and an MBA from Rice University. So he speaks French, English and Chinese fluently and he is also a Level III candidate of Chartered Financial Analyst. In our conversation, we talked about how he transitioned from single family to multifamily investments, as well as some of the challenges he had over the course of this investment career and talked in-depth about a recent syndication projects that he's working on. If you want to learn about Howard or his projects. You can reach him at a1capitalgroup.com or call him at 832-815-9167. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have Christine Lin from Fidelity National Title to shed some light on what title companies do during the real estate transactions in Texas and also what to look for in Schedule A through D of the Title commitment documents, and most importantly what are some of the state regulated fees vs. other negotiable fees.  She also offered some tips on how to save money on title insurance costs on future transactions as well some examples of difficult title situations that she came across during her many years of experience.  We didn’t get a chance to cover the COVID related updates on this call.  But Christine and her team at Fidelity has dramatically improved the closing process for buyers and sellers to work remotely during the transactions.  To find out more about the remote notary options as well as any other title related questions, please contact Christine at 713-779-7779 or email her at closing@fidelity88.com .  Lastly, this was recorded with Jimmy Lam who is also the broker at Acres Realty where they are creating a education series for new realtors and we’re very glad to be sharing the content on this podcast to reach and educate our landlord association members as well. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

This was one of the last episodes we recorded before COVID. Sam Yee is a Vice President on the Debt and Structured Finance team at CBRE, focused on small balance apartment lending in Houston and across the US. During his time at the firm, CBRE funded over $2 billion in small multifamily loans and in 2017 became the nation’s top SBL lender. Sam has extensive experience in the servicing, underwriting and financing of commercial real estate properties.In this episode, Sam shared his experience in the lending world, why you should get a lender involved as early as possible and how to avoid some of the common pitfalls in the financing process.  Please stay tuned in the end where Sam will share some of favorite hobbies and interesting  traveling destinations. If you want to reach out to Sam to get the latest market conditions and COVID impact or to talk about your projects and goals, you can reach him at Samuel.yee@cbre.com. Please enjoy my conversation with Sam. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Vivian Khai is a CPA and has a MBA from University of Houston. She has a very extensive professional background in accounting, project management, and software training on Microsoft Office products for small businesses and accountants. For the last seven and half years, she has been running her own tax preparation firm here in Houston and has a lot of clients who are realtors and other real estate related professionals. In our conversation with Vivian, she gave us a lot of good tips on how to organize our expenses, saves on taxes for the remainder of 2020 as well as updates on stimulus checks and PPP loans. I would highly encourage you to give her a call and check out her website if you have questions on your real estate related taxes because she does free consultations and would be more than happy to chat. https://khaithuehouston.com/ ( https://khaithuehouston.com/ ) Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have Misty Flanagan, co-founder and head of marketing at Elevated Development, a local Houston based residential and commercial development firm.  Misty came from a strong corporate background having worked for a Fortune 500 general contractor firm before diving into her real estate career.  What I found so fascinating about Misty is not only what she has accomplished in a relatively short time frame in multiple areas such as development, marketing and fund raising, but also how focused she is developing the right mindset and surround her herself with partners to help her excel in this business.  As she become more successful, She began helping others and eventually launching her own RE coaching program called Her Mindset Matters REI, which is an affordable coaching program aimed at helping other women in real estate launch their own careers by teaching them real world techniques, how to overcome challenges and most importantly, having the correct mindset and build a supportive environment.  In addition, she also started her wholesale business as well as a remodeling business to help other investors rehab and repair their properties.  In this episode, we’ll discuss how she and her partners started with no experience to developing multifamily properties and running four separate businesses at the same time.  If you want to learn more about Misty, see the show notes below for her contact information and links to her websites. Email: misty@guidewayinvestmentpartners.com Elevateddevelopment.co Hermindsetmattersrei.com Hereforyouhomes.com Levelupremodeling.com Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have Grant Burwash from Landlord Credit Bureau, which is a company based out of Toronto Canada started by a serial tech entrepreneur who was trying to solve his own problems with his rental portfolio to improve property management and rent collection. LCB is a consumer reporting agency when a landlord signs up, they can report all their rental payments to the credit bureaus and it would positively help tenants build their credit or on the other hand, if they miss payments, negatively impact their credit scores just like banks and credit card companies report payments for car loans, mortgages and medical bills. The ultimate goal empower both landlords and tenants and improve communications and help both parties more responsible. Grant is the VP of business development at LCB, and is himself is a successful real estate investor with a portfolio in US and Canada. He has a lot of Texas ties from his times living in Houston and graduated with a MBA from UT McComb Business School. You can find more about them at landlordcreditbureau.com and you can reach Grant at gburwash@landlordcreditbureau.com. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have Michael Seago, a local investor and broker who has been investing in the great Houston area for more than 25 years. As he mentioned during the introduction, Michael graduated from Texas A&M and got a business degree from Houston Baptist University. He went on to become the CFO for a multimillion dollar company before following his passion into real estate. What impressed me about Michael is not only his wealth of knowledge from years of investing and but his passion for sharing information and helping others in the real estate business in every stage of investing, everything from acquisition, due diligence, rehab, as well as property management, which sometimes is the hardest part. Michael not only shared a lot of golden nuggets about his investment and property management philosophies but also what drives him is helping others to succeed in this business. He knows what’s like to be a RE investor and always has his clients best interest in mind. I was really impressed with all the ancedotes he shared and example of recent deals he and his clients have done in the last six to eight month during the pandemic. Email: mseago@consolidated.net Phone: 832-439-8668 Bayou City Living Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today’s guest is Huy Nguyen from eXp Realty and one of the longest standing members of the Landlord Association.  This conversation was hosted by Jimmy Lam where the three of us shared our experiences from both a part-time and full-time real estate agents’ perspectives.  As many of you know, Huy transitioned from a W2 job to being a full-time real estate investor and agent about five years ago.  He shared some of his struggles and how he overcame them to today where he’s completing 50-60 deals per year.  He also shared a lot of good insights about what it takes to become a successful agent and how to look for a good agent as a real estate investor.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

This is a follow-up interview with our guest from the last episode, Na Guo of River Bridge Investments who develops residential and mixed-use projects here in Houston. She gave us an update on the townhouse projects in Independence Heights and her two new projects in the Medical Center and Conroe.  We’ll talk about some of the financing hurdles as well as regulatory and permitting issues that she had to overcome during this period. Towards the end, Na is also going to give us a glimpse of her personal investment philosophy om electrical vehicles and commodities which I found very interesting. So definitely stay tuned for that . If you are interested in learning more about Na or her projects, you can reach her at na@riverbridgeinvestments.biz.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have an interview with Na Guo from River Bridge Investments who specializes in ground-up developments. This was also  recorded before COVID.  And like what we did with Nikhil on the commercial retail side, hopefully we can bring Na back to give us an update on how the pandemic has affected the real estate business from a developer’s perspective.  In terms of her background, even though Na is a relatively young investor, she has already completed many projects in very competitive areas in Houston because of her vision, tenacity and hard work.  As you’ll hear, before COVID, she was working on a development project in the Independent Heights area which has really blown up in the last 2 or 3 years.  She talked about how she identified the project, how she financed it, and what can investors can expect in terms of returns for that kind of risk profile. If you are interested in learning more about her latest projects, you can reach her at na@riverbridgeinvestments.biz.  Alright, hope you enjoy my conversation with Na Guo. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have a follow up episode with Nikhil Shah from SGRE Capital, whose business model is purely focused on buy, value-add, and sell commercial retail properties in the Houston and Dallas areas.  We brought him back to give us an update on how the retail sector is holding up relative to other real estate asset classes as well as get his future outlook on where the opportunities might be post-pandemic.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Nikhil Shah is a founder of SGRE Capital, which focuses on the commercial retail space in the greater Dallas and Houston areas. Before SGRE Capital, Nikhil has done more than $1b of transactions at GE Capital and has 6yrs of energy investment experience at Enron.  Today, Nikhil and his team focuses on value-added retail and neighborhood shopping malls. In this episode, he explains what does it mean as value-add operators, how he found assets that big operators didn’t want; difference in financing with other real estate assets  and the level of success he achieved in his projects. If you are interested in learning more about retail RE investment opportunities, you can get in touch with Nikhil at nshah@sgrecapital.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today, Jimmy is going to give us an update on his portfolio as an example and a glimpse of the market conditions.  He also mentions how he is dealing with some of the tenants who are struggling to pay rent and how his group is leveraging the SBA loan programs.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Hello everyone, welcome back to new season of the Landlord Association podcast.  Today we episode 18 that has been long overdue. This was a recording from our last meet-up in February with featuring Thaison Hua and a founding member of the Hua Law Group.  Thaison is a fantastic young attorney here in Houston that provides legal services on LLC formations; real estate syndication, contract draft/review, franchising, copyright, trademarks and some litigation work among others. In this episode, you’ll hear us discuss anything from series LLCs, trusts, Wyoming entities, and even discussing how to start a new CBD business. He was very forthcoming and share some great stories and practicable advice. If you want to learn more about Thaison, you can reach him at yourtexasllc.com or 713-300-5075.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have another Ask Jimmy session that was recorded on a webinar and converted into a short podcast.   We’re hoping that in the future, we can host live webinars online, have Q&A sessions to answer questions, host guests online instead of in-person meet-ups, presentations, excel tutorials, the possibilities are endless. So we’re very excited.  In this session, Jimmy answered questions about late payments, HVAC repair, pet deposits, ozone machine, section 8 and much more. Hope you enjoy! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have David Williams and David Hoke from Red Door Funding, a Houston based hard money lender focused on helping real estate investors for more than a decade and have done thousands of deals. They went over the basics of what is hard money lending, also the different products they have for fix-n-flippers and buy-n-hold landlord investors; as well as what they look for in a successful deal in terms of estimated repair bids, how the ARV was calculated to really vet the deal. And lastly why it’s important to have good mentors especially when you’re starting out. Hard money certainly isn’t for everyone and every situation, but it’s another alternative for funding and can be used successively if you have done your homeworks.  If you want to learn more about Red Door Funding, see their contact information below:https://www.reddoorfunding.com/ Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

This is a recording from our September monthly meeting last Thursday. We invited Lance Langenhoven, who is a commercial real estate broker who has done more than $150M of transactions in the Houston area. This is not a typical presentation about apartments and multi-families. Lance focuses on properties that doesn’t have ‘overnight’ tenants, that includes office spaces, land, RV and boat storages. As he explains it, when you have tenants that go home at night, you have less complaints and less toilets to fix at night. I apologize in advance for the length of this podcast but Lance went through a great overview of his strategies and four real-life case studies from his personal investments that follows these principals. Also, at the end of the presentation, he had a surprise for us and gave away hat and t-shirts for a great cause that he’s raising awareness for and that’s Kiva.org, which is a microlending platform that lends as little as $25 to farmers and small businesses in third world countries and transforming peoples lives. So if you get one thing out of this podcast, please go check out Kiva.org and joins Lance’s team to help him achieve his goals.www.bringhopetotheworld.orgSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

We have a great episode for you this week.  We met up with John Hernandez from Houston Rooming Houses to talk about his investing experience and how he differentiates himself from other investors with an unique investment style that specializes in buying fixer-uppers and turning them into rooms for rent that really maximizes the cash flow per property as well as help revitalize properties and neighborhoods and transforming peoples lives by providing stable housing.  He’ll get into his target demographics, buying criteria, and what are some of the hurdles or challenges about renting by room. Even though this may not be a strategy for everyone especially beginners, but if you have right coach, mentor or partners and really focus your energy, this can be really profitable way to invest. John also talks about what he learned from his master minds and mentors like and how he has a clear vision to expand his business by 10x in the next 5 years!  I was blown away by his knowledge and am sure you’ll have a ton of take-aways too. If you want to learn more about John and his company, please visit roominghouse.net. As he mentioned, he also has a book out called Buyer & Seller Beware!: Real Estate Questions You Need To Know As A Buyer And As A Seller. It’s available on Amazon and in Kindle format.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have another Q&A session with Jimmy Lam, the president of the Landlord Association, to answer some of the questions posted on our Facebook page.  We always get great questions from our members and so Jimmy is here to give his perspectives.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Last week, we have the honor of speaking with Michael Plaks, who founded the tax accounting company call REI Tax Firm.  Michael is an expert on IRS taxation and real estate business and he frequently writes and speaks on these topics and is a regular contributor on the biggerpockets forums. Michael also has over 20 year of experience representing clients in dealings with the IRS. Mostly importantly, as he talked about in this episode, his company doesn’t just prepare the tax returns but offers tax strategies year-around to help you plan for your changing business needs. Michael also talks about the capital gains tax and how that’s different between the rental property vs flipping or wholesale business.   Michael also touched on lots of other important topics such as depreciation and opportunity zone fund and how that’s different than the traditional 1031 exchange.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have the pleasure speaking with Charles Nguyen, a Houston-based wholesaler who was corporate IT professional and built a wholesaling business with scalable systems and processes while maintaining his full-time job.  So he has since became known as the “wholescaling ninja”. Now Charles has expanded his wholesaling business into multiple markets nationwide and runs Houston Real Deal, a local networking group that focuses on building a community of real estate investors and professionals.  In this podcast, we’ll get into how he got started in the real estate business; why he continues to invest in his real estate education and mentorship programs even today by attending mastermind meet-ups across country to order to take his business to the next level. Sorry our conversation went a little long again, but he shared a lot great mindsets that a wholesaler would need in order to be successful in this business.  Also, he mentioned two or three books that are must reads for any new investor. Lastly, if you’re interested in attending one of his local workshops where he brings in national speakers to share real wholesaling strategies, he provided a special discount code just for Landlord association members. Towards the end, we also got side-tracked and discussed some of his personal health strategies.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

We have another installment of the #askJimmy segment where he answers some of the burning questions posted on our facebook page. Also, as a bonus, just to give our listeners a different perspective: we talked at a high level about the commercial office building asset class, based on Jimmy’s professional experience at Hines. Obviously, class A office buildings not the right investment vehicle for everyone and usually reserved for the big players. But this will give everyone a flavor of how developers and large LPs look at this asset class. As always, if you have a question, feel free to visit our facebook page at facebook.com/groups/landlordassociation and post a question there. Thanks and enjoy!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

This was recorded at our last monthly meeting when Nacy Zheng invited Hang Dao and Richard Blanchard from the Loan Factory, where they have closed more than 60 loans last month.  Because it was recorded at the meeting, some of the questions didn’t come out but you’ll understand the gist based on Hanh and Richard’s response. They also walked through a couple of handouts, but they are not necessary to follow the conversation.  But if you want to get the handouts, feel free to contact Hanh and Richard and I have provided at their contact info at the end of the show. During the meeting, we touched on so many different topics. Everything from how to show more income on schedule E due to depreciation and one-time expenses; how to buy properties without a W2, housing hacking; how to improve your credit scores; what impacts the scores and what doesn’t; what’s rapid rescore; how does disputes affect your credit; programs for foreign buyers, what to do if you have more than 10 conventional loans, and other guidelines that many people have not heard about.  Plus we got a little silly, so I think you'll really enjoy our conversations. We had to edit the conversations down a little bit due to the length but if you want to learn more and hear all the back stories, give Hanh and Richard a call and they’ll fill you in. Please enjoy our discussions with Hanh and Richard from the Loan Factory.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have Tommy Lee from Kirkwood Haven Partners, a real estate development company where he is a managing partner responsible for overseeing construction projects.  I have known Tommy and his wife Nancy for about a year. Together, they own many single family rentals in their portfolio as well as have done about 30 fix and flips in the last twelve months. In this episode, Tommy was very open and honest about the tips and strategies that have worked for him in the Houston market as well as shared the ups and downs of his personal real estate journey. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Jimmy Lam answers questions about rent-to-own, appliances warranty, benefits of owning rental properties and how he does rental inspections.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have MaKieba Hatton from Salvation Army where she currently works as a Housing Navigator or case manager, which means she helps veterans and other Houston residents find affordable housing with the support of government agencies based on their unique situations.  She came to our meeting last week to tell us about the different types of public housing programs and covered a variety of topics like background checks, fair housing rules, and emotional support animals and gave lots of real life examples. It’s a long episode, so I’ll keep the intro brief.  Please enjoy the talk by MaKieba HattonSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Rich Drake is the CEO of Renters Warehouse franchise in Houston as well as an active investor. Rich and his team grew Renters Warehouse into one of the biggest property management companies for single family residences in the Houston area.  In this show, we’ll talk about some new ideas and strategies for property owners like how to increase you potential applicant pool by offering reduced initial payments and still be protected on deposits. And also how to attract pet owners and not have to worry about recovering the loss from potential damages. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

#asJimmy segment where Jimmy answers Facebook member questions on trampolines, evictions and rent increasesSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Today we have Larry Waidhofer from Premier Home Inspection to talk about some of things to watch out for during a home inspection. Larry has been in the home inspection business since 2013, and have done more than 2,200 inspections on a wide range of properties built anywhere from the 1900’s to new-builds. Many of our Landlord Association members have been very satisfied with his services and he pointed out issues or dealbreakers that would have saved us a ton of money and hassels. He also gave a tip for an online tool on how to get a good estimate for the repairs near the end of the show. Please take a minute to listen to my conversation with Larry.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

In this episode, we interview Trista Carr from Sunup Insurance to talk about a wide range of topics related to property insurance including flood insurance, cash value vs. replacement value policies, umbrella insurance, and commercial property insurances.  Some of our listeners maybe familiar with Trista because she helped underwrite policies for many of our investment properties. She was introduced to me by Nancy Zhang and Jimmy Lam who you’ll hear referred to in the episode. You’ll also hear how her passion of helping others really keeps her grounded and motivated through difficult situations. Hope you enjoy this conversation with Trista!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations

Hi everyone! Here is the first episode of our Landlord Association podcast. This episode was a recording of our last meeting with Derrick Long of Quest Trust who discussed the ins and outs of a self-directed IRA. It's a little long, about 1.5hrs but totally worth the time. Please leave a comment or feedback to let us know what you think or suggestions for future guests/topics. Thanks!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/landlord-association-podcast/donations