• Summary

  • This Real Estate Investing Podcast, Behind The Curtain Podcast, is a property investment podcast created to expose the reality of real estate investing and property management and to let you hear the experiences and opinions of investors and real estate industry professionals. If you are just getting started in property investing or you are a seasoned investor with your own journey’s experiences, our property investor podcast will enable you to be equipped to invest with common sense.
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Episodes
  • California-based Realtor & Investor on Investment Real Estate & Property Management in Memphis, TN

    California-based Realtor & Investor on Investment Real Estate & Property Management in Memphis, TN
    Oct 28 2021
    Todd Riccio, Realtor and longtime Investor from California, discusses how he became interested in the Memphis real estate market and offers his experiences over the years of real estate investing and management of rental properties here in Memphis, TN. Find out more about this real estate investing podcast at: https://epmrealestate.com/podcast/california-based-realtor--investor-on-investment-real-estate--property-management-in-memphis-tn   Aaron: Today on the podcast, we have Todd Riccio. He is a longtime investor with Enterprise Property Management and EPM Real Estate, and we're going to talk a little bit about how he has become interested in the Memphis real estate market and maybe even tips and bits of wisdom that Todd has had over the years investing here in Memphis. Todd, you have been an investor with Enterprise Property Management for six years. Is that right? Todd: Yeah, six years.  Aaron: It's been a fast six years, right? Like, you really got in at a great time. Todd: I remember flying out to you, man. Well, I flew out to you and said, look, my goal is to get 40 to 50 properties. I want to get at least one to two a year, and you said right now, when we spoke, you said it's the equivalent of California's 2009, and six years later, you are pretty accurate, man. You know what I mean?  Aaron: Yeah. Todd: Because the prices have gone up and the properties that I first bought on Ross Road and stuff like that, that was like $105,000, probably like 250 right now. Just real estate agent out here in California. Obviously, prices make it extremely hard for me to build a portfolio out here. When the average house in Memphis, that would be 120,000, out there would probably be about 700,000 out here. So I knew that kind of branching outside of California would be the best option for me to accomplish my goals of having a portfolio that brings me $50,000, $60,000 a month when I get older. That's the goal right there. That's my 401K. That's my pension. That's my retirement, all these properties. Aaron: Do you remember what brought your attention to Memphis originally? Like what caused you to look over in our direction? Todd: I always did a bunch of research. I was going to seminars. I'm always looking for passive income, and Memphis was at that time one of the cities that would always pop up in different websites of best cities to buy rental properties, and Memphis popped up. Boise popped up, Indianapolis popped up, and Fort Lauderdale popped up. I think Scottsdale popped up, but Memphis was one that always consistently kind of popped up to me. Personally, I don't like the Panhandle States. I don't like Florida. Every time you turn on the news, Florida is getting a Hurricane. They're getting flooded. All this other stuff. There's Hurricanes. There's tornadoes. So Memphis was super stable. I remember when I spoke to you, you said, look, Memphis is pretty much an established metropolis. It's gone through its growth stage, and it's pulled backstage. You got Amazon headquarters there. You got Nike, it's growing. They're putting money back into the community. You got the Amazon fulfillment center. You got Shelby Farms. You got all this stuff. So it was kind of one of those cities that have already been established. It's not like an up-and-coming one, and I just felt comfortable. I felt comfortable with you guys. I felt comfortable because I actually flew out and me flying out and checking out the different neighborhoods is just one more piece of info gathering and due diligence, and ever since then, I'm comfortable with the knowledge, and I kind of think that that's kind of one of the things that I respect you on is there's times where I've said, hey, Aaron, what about this area, and you're like, look, I don't even think we could get a roofer out there because the neighborhood is not the best or anything like that, and you need that as an investor because it's not just about numbers, oh, this is a quadplex or a fourplex at this price, and the return is good. You need someone that's boots on the ground. That's, like, you probably want to like, from what you're looking for Todd, this isn't the neighborhood that you would express to me that you wanted or anything like that. I appreciate that info, and I think I'm comfortable after the first couple of them to get in my kind of system now, my numbers and my algorithms and everything, you know what I'm looking for and stuff like that. So it just seems to be working, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Aaron: Yeah, well, one of the things about working with you that I wish that other investors and other clients of mine would adopt is you do have a very decisive approach to investment real estate. You understand exactly what it is that you're looking for. I think that you had a really good start to your run. We bought some single-level homes in established neighborhoods that were built in the 90s, I believe, and you and I discussed this. We discussed in ...
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    42 mins
  • Real Estate Investor Groups & Real Estate Investment Strategy

    Real Estate Investor Groups & Real Estate Investment Strategy
    Oct 6 2021
    COVID brought new challenges to real estate investing over the last 18-months. Aaron Ivey sits down with real estate investor, Chris, to reflect & chat about his investor group, property investment strategy, relationships, and the need for professional property management services. Find out more about this real estate investing podcast at: https://epmrealestate.com/podcast/real-estate-investor-groups-real-estate-investment-strategy   Aaron: Here with me today, I have a 2-year partner in the adventures of property management. His name is Chris, and he’s a member of a larger partnership that he is in with other investors, known as Round Oak. Round Oak partnership, if you will. Chris is here with me today to talk about operating real estate during the COVID era, the last 2-years of doing property management and real estate investing inside of COVID. So, Chris, I want to thank you for joining us today.   Chris: Yeah, Aaron, thanks for having me. I’m excited to join and talk about our relationship and our dealings over the last 2-years.   Aaron: Fantastic! Chris, just to start us off, I would like for our listeners to know I’ve laughed with you over the last couple of years, telling you that I often speak to you more than I’ve spoken to my own wife, on a daily basis.   Chris: That is a good point. I think you and I, on average, have talked once a day for the last year and a half. Certainly, more than I talk on the phone to almost anybody else.   Aaron: Yeah. I actually find it quite endearing that I know when we text during the day, that it’s probably going to lead to a conversation, and I think that, hopefully, our listeners will be able to pick up on just the natural chemistry that you and I have. And there’s a reason why we have chemistry. I believe it’s because you are one of four partners in a real estate investment partnership, and the partner that you are in that partnership is the operating partner. So, when you and I initially met, I understood you as being a decision-maker and an analyst for your partnership, and that you and I were going to be making a lot of decisions together throughout the course of our relationship. So, I was wondering if you could tell us just a little bit about yourself, about how you came to be interested in real estate investing, and how this partnership came about?   Chris: Sure, so a little bit about myself. My background is more of an accounting background, I’m a CPA by trade. I worked for a real estate company that manages and owns apartment real estate, and so I’ve always kind of been interested in that and just through friendships, the people I knew from college as well as other people I’ve met within the Memphis area, really started talking about getting and owning some real estate. There was actually a group of guys, again that I went to school with, they started a small organization where they were buying and renting properties. They had a need where another partner was getting out and they needed to bring someone else on, and it was at a time where I was able to jump feet first and I was able to hook up with them. Kind of my role in it, as you mentioned, was because of my background in real estate I agreed that I would work on the day-to-day operations along with another one of our partners, Adam. While our other partners would be more on the backend recruiting investors or looking for deals in the market, that sort of thing, and so that’s kind of how our roles are defined within the partnership.   Aaron: Got it, and so it sounds like the partnership came together in a very organic way. You know, if you don’t have good chemistry with the other people you are partnering with in a long-term investment, like real estate investment, then it’s going to be a very challenging partnership. I think it's really cool that you got into this partnership with people that you knew or that you knew of through your personal relationships. And so, when would investors do come to me and they say, well, I'd like to form a partnership with someone in order to expand my buying capacity or share the load of management and debt servicing, and all of this other stuff, I often recommend that they should talk to people that they know, that they should consider and survey their friend and professional group in order to, to think about this people, that would be the most qualified to work with. People with whom they've got a good working relationship. I remember when you and I first met, one of your partners had reached out to me and said, and I didn't even know you as he hadn't mentioned your name yet, and he just said, hey I'm part of a partnership. We own, at the time about 30 houses, some somewhat in flux, you know, around that 30 house range, 25 to 30 house range and he said we need help. We've been self-managing and one of the reasons why I would like for you to be our property manager is because we're all moving and we're all, you know...
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    36 mins
  • Screening Tenants: Rental Investments, Applicants, Criminal Background Checks

    Screening Tenants: Rental Investments, Applicants, Criminal Background Checks
    Sep 28 2021
    Tenant screening has many parts and in this episode, Aaron discusses how to properly vet tenants before allowing them to rent a home. He covers criminal background checks, rental history, the credit report, income verification, and he reveals the tricks to identify inconsistencies in the information provided by a rental applicant. Learn more about our real estate podcast at: https://epmrealestate.com/podcast/screening-tenants-rental-investments-applicants-criminal-background-checks   Aaron: One of the things that we've talked about, and actually I had an investor yesterday evening ask me about he said, Aaron, I've got one last question for you and I said, oh, great, what's that question?  He's said, well, it's a professional question and it's kind of a two-parter. He said, how long have you been in business? Like, how long have you been in property management and in real estate? and I said, well more or less 20 years. He said, okay great. He said, so how do you vet tenants? What is your application process and how do you employ it in order to make sure that the tenant you put into my property is going to be the best suited with the least amount of uncertainty? You know, I want a certain tenant that's going to be there for a long time, and so we discussed that. Would you like to know what I told him?   Richard: Yeah, I'm curious about that because I've seen the tenant process as we've worked on it together and we've published things on the website. It's a very complex and nuanced process, but yet you've managed to create a process that is probably as simplified as it can be. So, I'm curious to hear exactly what you told him, and see how that lines up with what I've seen.   Aaron: Sure. Well, he wanted the elevator pitch length of the discussion. So I'll tell you what I told him and then we can kind of break it down if you want. He said, so how do you make sure that the tenant you put in my property is going to take care of my property, they're going to pay their rent every month, they're going to communicate with you properly, and it's going to be an overall good experience? And I said, well, here's how our application process works. I said we have a minimum credit score of 625, we go back and check the rental history through a collections agency, which has the capacity to perform a skip trace on all of our applicants. This isn’t just simple plug-in information and get a report back, that we then have to decode. This collection agency, and we pay for this application, goes deep into these people's background, their credit background, their criminal background, that they look at everything. They also often suggest information to us, right? What are you smiling about   Richard: Well I’m smiling because now I want to know what you've seen. You know, what are some of the rejects, so to speak, that have come back and you've been like, yeah, I can't rent to that person.    Aaron: Well, okay, so the No.1 red flag for us as a sex offender. I’ll just get right to it. Sex offenders, they're are required, if they are prosecuted and found to be guilty and they serve prison time, once they become a sex offender... and by the way you guys, I'm telling you this as a Realtor. I'm not saying this to you as somebody who is an expert in this field. I'm not a criminal justice expert, okay? But what I do know is that it's my right as a realtor and it's your right as an investor, not to rent to sex offenders. So, if you are a registered sex offender, or have a felony due to a sexually related crime, then you are immediately rejected as a tenant for Enterprise Property Management. Just the easiest way that I can put it, we have had registered sex offenders apply. There are some sad stories, you know. There are some that I won't get into because I don't want to trigger anybody. But there are situations where people were prosecuted, they feel that the judgment against them was unjust, but we can't bend that rule. That is an Enterprise Property Management rule. We will not lease to sex offenders, so that's number one. No.2 is violent crime. If you've been convicted of a violent crime and what we see are guns, drugs, and the drug trade. So if you're a felon and it's been a violent crime, then you're off the table. We will not rent to felons that have been convicted of violent crime. The big one that's very recent, and had been very interesting to the leasing department and me, is identity theft. There is way more identity theft out there right now than I imagined was even the case. We actually had a house this summer for which we had five different applications, by the same group of people using different social security numbers, different copies of drivers’ licenses, and different identities - and it was the same group. We just started laughing. We were like, oh, you want 123 Main Street, right? We know who you are, you know? And we'd go back and we would point it out to them. Melinda, our leasing ...
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    21 mins
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