Nearly three months ago I decided to start investing in Oklahoma City (OKC). I’ve learned a lot and made a lot of progress since the L.L.C. was established in OKC on August 24th, 2020, so I decided to write an article and update everyone.
The Criteria
I decided to focus on the northwest side of OKC because that area has the right balance of good schools, affordable property, appreciation potential, and cash flow. It’s also a large enough area to offer a good supply of homes. Within the northwest OKC sub-region, I rely on my team’s local knowledge to ensure a potential property is in a C or better location.
My focus is on single-family homes and duplexes, with 2 or 3 bedrooms, 1 or more bathrooms, and some value-add potential. I’m not looking for a full rehab on my first few properties, but I want a property that needs some cosmetic work at least. Ideally, the properties would qualify for conventional financing which should weed out most regular home-buyers. The goal is to find properties to BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat), but I’m also considering flips as well to help fund the business. I’ve learned marketing can get pretty costly so a flip here and there will help pay for those expenses!
I’m looking for properties that will cost no more than $150,000 including the purchase price and rehab. Most cosmetic rehabs for the homes that meet my criteria will run $15,000-$25,000 (roughly $20 per square foot).
The Team
“Bring people along with you. No matter how smart your strategy, success, or failure usually comes down to one thing: the team.” Those wise words by Indra Noori, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, capture the importance of having a great team around you no matter what you’re trying to achieve. Real estate is no exception, so I spent weeks researching, interviewing, and vetting key members of my real estate team.
The Bigger Pockets forum was the best way to find people. One of the key finds was when a local OKC real estate investor named Alyssa suggested I contact Eli Davis at The Property Center in OKC, a property management company. I set up a call with Eli (an Army veteran) and had a great conversation discussing what his company does, the local market, and much more. He told me that they not only have an impressive property management operation, but they have great relationships with local contractors whom I could use to do the rehabs on my properties. Also, his wife Abbie is a real estate agent who could help me find deals, AND he knows a great wholesaler. I did my due diligence by following up with all of the references he provided and checking out TPC’s online reviews and website.
On the financial side, I’ve made a few contacts with commercial (a.k.a. hard money) lenders to help fund the deals. They can provide the capital for both the purchase price and rehab very quickly, but that convenience comes with high fees. I learned that I can save thousands of dollars per deal by going with private money instead. I reached out to my network of friends and family and was pleased to find that as many as half a dozen people would be interested in lending me the necessary capital for deals! This was a big win, as it means people believe in me and the process. I also love that I’m able to provide a great return to these people and help them make money!
A mentor of mine recommended I reach out to a title company in OKC to make sure I have the private lending documentation squared away before I do the first deal. Each state has different paperwork requirements for private lending. I reached out to my OKC network and found a title company that said they would draft the necessary paperwork whenever I do the first deal with private money. This is another huge plus to having a great network! The last thing I want is trying to figure out the right documents to use in a hurry with someone who is trusting me with a large sum of money!
The final key member of my team is one that may surprise you. I used Upwork.com to hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines to handle most of the marketing. I pull lists of properties from Propstream (software that pulls MLS data on properties) and she cold calls the owners asking if they want to sell. I’m currently working on a plan to send text messages to these owners as well since most people don’t answer calls from numbers they don’t know.
The Tools
I have started using 4 key software tools since starting this process:
Upwork – Upwork.com is a freelancing platform that connects enterprises and individuals in order to conduct business. I used Upwork to find Lexi, my virtual assistant who specializes in real estate cold calling. I also used Upwork to find the social media management team that creates some of Honor and Equity’s social media content on Facebook and Instagram.
smrtPhone – smrtPhone.io is a dialing and text messaging software that allows you to call and text people within your web browser. I created an account and gave access to Lexi. She spends about 20 hours per week calling and texting people who own homes in OKC that fit my criteria. My favorite part about smrtPhone is that it syncs well with Podio, another critical tool I use every day.
Podio – Podio is a web-based platform for organizing team communication, business processes, data, and content in project management workspaces. Podio has been invaluable for staying organized. Lexi has access to Honor and Equity’s Podio workspace, and she is able to do her cold-calling and text messaging directly from Podio because it syncs with smrtPhone. For example, I upload potential sellers into Podio, including their name, mailing address, phone number, property address, etc., and Lexi can go straight to that contact in Podio and call them from Podio with one click. It’s pretty awesome.
Propstream – Propstream is Zillow on steroids. It’s a real estate data aggregator that provides up-to-date information on mortgages, tax liens, property ownership, plus everything else you can find on Zillow or Trulia like square footage, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms for a given property, recent sale information for an area, and lots more.
What’s Next?
As of the publishing of this article, I have submitted 5 total offers on properties in OKC, and one was finally accepted just a few days ago. I will send the earnest money this week and begin the due diligence process. Follow @honorandequity on Instagram to see the progress! Supply is overall very low in OKC due to a super hot seller’s market, but I’m continuing to analyze properties, fine-tune my systems, and improve my deal funnel. I believe there will be more properties up for sale soon as the forbearance period ends and the COVID pandemic becomes more under control. I think 2021 will be a fantastic year for real estate in OKC, and Honor and Equity is poised to capitalize on these opportunities!
Thanks for reading! Make sure you follow @honorandequity on Instagram and send me a message there or send me an email at doug@honorandequity.com if you want to connect!