So, you want to invest in commercial real-estate …

… but, you don’t know where to begin?

At least, that’s the case for IJ who e-mailed me:

I’ve always wanted to find some sort of mentor.  It would be great that everyone had a mentor that can help with advice and bouncing ideas off of … [people who’ve] owned their own businesses, residential and commercial RE.  I want to get more involved in commercial RE and do not know of anyone who I could turn to on how to get started.

I’m a great fan of mentors; but, when you can’t find one then you have to make do with getting info. from a variety of sources: friends, accountants, attorney’s, investor’s clubs, and – of course – Realtors.

This takes time and energy, so in the meantime, you can refer to the resources on this site and others …

For example, you can start by checking out these posts;

If you are interested in property development:
 
http://7million7years.com/2009/09/09/ive-been-out-shopping/
 
http://7million7years.com/2009/09/16/can-your-real-estate-development-project-make-money/
 
http://7million7years.com/2009/09/23/how-much-money-can-you-make-developing-real-estate/
 
And, these posts if you are interested in how to analyze a commercial property deal (offices):
 
http://7million7years.com/2008/12/22/anatomy-of-a-commercial-re-investment-part-1/
 
http://7million7years.com/2008/12/23/anatomy-of-a-commercial-re-investment-part-2/
 
http://7million7years.com/2009/01/05/anatomy-of-a-commercial-re-investment-part-3/
 
And, you should follow up these resources if you are interested in multi-family-type ‘commercial’:
 
Dave Lindahl: (I bought and USED his ‘multi-family millions’ course to help me analyze 100’s of potential deal (but, in the interests of full-dsclosure, I didn’t end up buying any, although I already own millions of dollars of residential RE, but my largest is only a quadraplex)
 
Dolf de Roos: I have bought a number of his products, including his Commercial RE audio course and some s/w … more basic than Dave Lindahl’s course, but helpful nonetheless, especially for noob’s.
 
To be fair, a few others consider these guys to be ‘scammers’, but I don’t make any money from either – have bought their material at full price and found it useful, so what more can I say?
 
Oh, and here is a guy who is definitely NOT a scammer and has some useful stuff, too: John T Reed.

Of course, you could also try and do what IJ did:

E-mail me with your questions … I don’t mind, if you don’t mind if I [perhaps] choose your question for a future post 🙂

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2 thoughts on “So, you want to invest in commercial real-estate …

  1. … and if you want to learn how ID a good mentor, you should read this.

    http://careerade.com/?p=256

    It’s mainly about finding a corporate-type mentor, but the same rules apply for a general business or entrepreneurship mentor.

    Some people in my family own multi-family apartment buildings. If you are disciplined and in a location with land-lord friendly laws, you can do well. But boy is it hard-earned money. Apartments with a no pet policy trashed and full of dog pee and poop in every room etc.

  2. I don’t really like lumping in multi-family with other commercial (offices, retail, etc.) because of those ‘unusual’ tenancy issues that you mention … but, I do have some residential and haven’t had any of those issues.

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