Editor’s Note: Dennis Fassett is a former corporate finance executive turned real estate investing “Cash Flow Mercenary.” Dennis specializes in single-family and multi-family cash flow properties and thoroughly enjoys assisting his fellow investors with their own strategies, including how to buy your first apartment building.
As an ongoing contributor to Mogul’s “Market News Updates,” Mr. Fassett provides us with his own unique, lively and thought-provoking commentary on the timely industry news and events of today that are impacting our industry. And be sure to check out his other super-helpful Market News Updates. For now, enjoy...
From Dennis Fassett, Cash Flow Mercenary...
Last week I posted my top rants with respect to real estate investing in 2017.
From the feedback I’ve received, it looks like a lot of folks share my rants – and have a bunch of their own.
Not too surprising.
So this week I want to focus on my top raves. Because there’s a lot of good stuff happening these days in our little business.
Here they are…
My Raves
1. Facebook groups
I joined Facebook back in 2008 primarily to use for my real estate business. It’s been a great tool. I’ve done deals, rented properties and even raised a lot of private money with it.
But I think the real benefit of Facebook is their groups. We have an awesome local real estate investing group in my area. It has almost 2,000 members, and it has become a nexus of activity and communication for investors in my market. It’s an incredibly active group with a ton of action every day. Deals are done there, properties are sold, partners are found and recommendations are made.
I have to say it’s probably the group I visit most often on Facebook. It’s on point, spammers and scammers get shamed away and it’s moderated with a sense of humor.
2. Small real estate meetups
Personally, I don’t attend the big REIA meetings anymore. Too much hype and product selling for my taste. Thankfully, several smallish meetup groups have come into existence in my market, and I find them a lot more enjoyable to attend than the REIAs.
My favorite is a group of 15 or so people – we get together for breakfast one Saturday morning every month. Most of the attendees are the same each month, but others come and go all the time. We meet for 90 minutes or so and kick around various real estate topics. Sometimes the subject matter is interesting and relevant to my business, and sometimes it’s not. But it’s always fun.
3. Mastermind meetings
Several years ago when I stopped attending the REIA meetings, I started up my own “scotch and cigars” meetup at a local cigar bar. I shut that down after a couple of years, and it morphed into a small Mastermind group.
This is a small group of six of us that get together and share the details of what we’re doing in our real estate businesses. We get direct and honest feedback on what we’re doing, and it has really helped all of our businesses.
4. Educational real estate sites like Real Estate Mogul
There was nothing like Mogul in existence when I got started back in 2004. What I would have given to have a knowledge bank like Mogul and access to the heavy hitters who contribute the lessons back then. I would have grown faster and made far, FAR fewer costly mistakes along the way.
5. Real estate investing related podcasts
If you haven’t noticed, there has been an absolute explosion in real estate podcasts over the past couple of years. I know a lot of them are hypey and salesy, but there are some exceptional ones too.
There’s a guy in my market who has been doing the quintessential podcast here on real estate investing for the past several years, and now has over 150 episodes recorded. I think they’re a great way to learn about real estate investing – who’s doing what and what’s working and what’s not, and also to learn more about the folks in the local market.
6. New folks who do it right
One of my rants was with new people who expect free mentoring. Well, on the flip side are the new folks who are doing it right…
They’re learning, sure. But they know that at some point they need to jump into the deep end of the pool, and they ACT on what they’ve learned. They’re marketing. They’re making offers. They’re getting good advice about what they’re doing. They’re making mistakes. And they’re pressing on. It’s great to see.
7. The low barrier to entry and level playing field that REI offers
I think one of the very best things about real estate investing is the low barrier to entry.
Pretty much anyone can get started if they just put their mind to it. All it takes to succeed is drive, determination, and in this market, persistence. And having a roadmap like Real Estate Mogul helps.
So there you have it – my rants and raves.
What Say You?
Got any other positive raves to add to my list? Share below.
Dennis Fassett
earned a BS in Economics and followed that up with an MBA in finance. After working and corporate finance and banking for several years, he started buying single family houses, and quickly built a very nice portfolio of cash flowing rentals. When the credit markets started to dry up and he couldn’t get any additional single family mortgages he shifted his focus to apartment buildings. He now has over $3 million in rental real estate. He manages most of it his self and still has a day job. Dennis has even created his own Private Equity fund to buy apartment buildings.