It was a cold and wet start...

My friend Craig and I volunteered as “Sweepers” at the Moreau Half Trail Race.

Race Day is always fun! We had it easy as volunteers but the racers were prepared bright and early to navigate through a challenging, 14 mile single track course riddled with rocks, roots and layers of wet leaves.

Resiliency is necessary with difficult things, especially when the beginning is the most uncomfortable. The beginning of this race was a cold and rainy incline into the woods….

It made me reflect back when my friend Greg and I purchased our 1st rental property when we were 21 years old in the City of Albany. I read my first real estate investing book and I was ready to begin my career.

We quickly purchased a 2 family home in an unfamiliar neighborhood…. UH OH!

Lesson #1 – The most important component to any buying criteria is Location, Location, Location, Location, Location!

Man, it was a wet, chilly start to our investing careers. We were blessed with a great couple on the 2nd floor that became long term residents. The 1st floor became a new learning opportunity each time the apartment turned over. We learned the following early on:

· Importance of tenant selection

· Importance of a buying criteria

· Identifying and calculating the cost of deferred maintenance

· The challenges of subsidized tenants

· How to go to war with cock roaches and mice!

The book, “Nothing Down for the 90’s” by Robert Allen clearly explained the long term benefits of real estate investing. We had to figure this out!!!

Looking back, we were young, raw kids with a “proof of concept” from a book. The first property was our lesson about resiliency, learning from our mistakes and simply making it work, no matter what!!!

It’s been a journey consisting of problem solving, creating systems, and efficiencies necessary to scale the portfolio into other markets.

My largest lesson was understanding that we cannot do everything ourselves. My burnout in 2019, turned into the biggest opportunity. At that point in my career, I had the necessary resources to aggressively and patiently leverage partners, property managers, and contractors to properly acquire larger Commercial Real Estate in the Albany, NY and Florida markets.

There isn’t a perfect market. We are excited about our markets for a variety of reasons, but we understand the challenges for each.

New York has seasonal challenges and asymmetric Landlord/Tenant laws that property owners must handle. Florida also has weather challenges that create a cause for concern.

New York is our primary, back yard market, which is the foundation of my career. Florida’s Tampa/Pinellas market has been a Top 5 market for several years, and

recent activity shows signs of continued momentum. Our Florida assets are operating according to our projections.

We will continue to focus on opportunities in these familiar markets, that have treated us well.

Regards,

Bill

REAL ESTATE LINGO:

Deferred maintenance – Postponed maintenance necessary at some point. If it goes unattended; it can become a costly, emergency repair.

Asymmetric – Unequal.

Subsidized tenants – Tenants in need of financial/quality of life assistance.

Proof of concept – Evidence that provides confidence to be successful.