\n<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the key to escaping the rat race in 2023<\/strong>? Do you need a rental property LLC<\/strong> for every property, or can you put multiple in one? And how do you create cash flow<\/strong> when housing prices are so high? For the everyday real estate investor, it can seem like profitable rental properties are getting harder and harder to find, and financial independence<\/strong><\/a> is slowly slipping away. And while many would give up on their pursuit for early retirement<\/strong>, time freedom, and autonomy over their schedule, we\u2019re here to give you the knowledge you need to hit your wildest investing goals in 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n We\u2019re back with another Seeing Greene<\/strong>, where your agent, investor, broker, and system-building savant, David Greene, answers your real estate investing questions<\/strong> on the spot! In this episode, we\u2019ll touch on rental property LLCs<\/strong> and how many properties to put in each one, what to do when home prices are high<\/strong>, and cash flow is low, the \u201cnew build BRRRR\u201d <\/strong>that could create crazy equity gains, and a smarter way to shop for landlord insurance<\/strong>. All that (and much more) is coming up, so stick around!<\/p>\n Want to ask David a question? If so, <\/strong>submit your question here<\/strong><\/a> so David can answer it on the next episode of Seeing Greene. Hop on the BiggerPockets forums<\/strong><\/a> and ask other investors their take, or follow David on Instagram<\/strong><\/a> to see when he\u2019s going live so you can hop on a live Q&A and get your question answered on the spot!<\/p>\n David: Jordan: David: Sayli: David: Liam: David: Marc: David: \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found here<\/a>. Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n Interested in learning more about today\u2019s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email <\/em>[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast Show 744. I\u2019d rather see you buy a five, two and a half or a five, three and rent the rooms out individually. I\u2019d rather see you buy a small apartment complex of seven to eight units and rent that out than just go buy a three, two, especially if new construction.
If you\u2019re in this expensive market in Colorado, you can\u2019t go buy a new construction home, pay market price and try to make that work as a rental. You\u2019re going to lose money. You got to do something more creative.
You got to find a property that has square footage that can be added, square footage that can be converted to get three units out of one unit. You got to try a lot harder to make this stuff work and today\u2019s market than before. I think you\u2019re probably seeing that.
What\u2019s going on everyone? This is David Greene, your host of the biggest, the baddest, the best real estate investing podcast in the world, BiggerPockets. We are here today with a Seeing Greene episode where I share my insight and knowledge on questions that you, our listeners, ask.
One of the only podcasts where you, the listener, gets involved in the show. If you\u2019d like to be on the show or have your question answered, go to biggerpockets.com\/david where you can submit your questions there.
Today\u2019s show is awesome. We get into is New Construction: The Path for RE in 2023. How should LLCs be structured? Do you need one LLC or several, if you have more than one property? When a contractor\u2019s bid comes into high and the deal doesn\u2019t work, what can be done as well as a very lengthy and detailed answer from me on how to build, develop, and evolve systems in your business to help you?
Make sure you stick around all the way to the end because that\u2019s a really good question that is asked, and I put a lot of effort in the answer and I\u2019m excited for you to hear it. Before we get into the show, I\u2019ve got a quick tip for all of you.
Vet your team to make sure they know a wide swath of knowledge in their industry and not just one piece of it. So often, people go to a lender at Wells Fargo or Chase Bank or an insurance person they found online and they say, \u201cI need something for my rental property business, for my real estate investing business.\u201d
The person goes, \u201cOh, this is what we do.\u201d They\u2019re like, \u201cWhat about this? What about that?\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know that.\u201d Remind of that scene in Meet the Parents where he wants a nice bottle of wine to take to his in-law\u2019s house because he is meeting him for the first time and he says, \u201cWhat\u2019s your most expensive bottle?\u201d
The guy says, \u201cMums, it\u2019s like a $5 bottle of wine.\u201d He goes, \u201cWell, do you have anything more expensive?\u201d The guy says, \u201cWell, you could buy a lot of Mums.\u201d That\u2019s how you get a lot of comments from a loan officer, a insurance broker, a real estate agent, a construction person, a handyman, they\u2019re everywhere.
They don\u2019t study the business that they\u2019re getting into and those are not the people you want to work with. This is why I start companies and educate my employees so that they have a wide range of knowledge for different loans, different scenarios that will work.
I don\u2019t want to say loopholes, but different ways that we can get you financing where other lenders say, I don\u2019t know how to do that. I\u2019m just giving up. We don\u2019t look for that. Ask a lot of questions of the person you\u2019re working with. If they can\u2019t answer them, they don\u2019t know how the industry works, that\u2019s not the person you want to talk to.
You could also use a BiggerPockets agent finder to find an agent in your area that is a BiggerPockets member. Use the same process with them. Don\u2019t assume just because they\u2019re on BiggerPockets, if they\u2019re a good agent. They might have never sold a house or they might have only sold new construction homes and they\u2019ve got 75 houses sold on their resume, but none of them are a resale.
You want to make sure the person you\u2019re working with has a wide degree of knowledge. That was not a very quick, quick tip. That was actually a very long quick tip, but it was very important. I hope that you all heard it and take it seriously.
All right. Let\u2019s get into today\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
How\u2019s it going David Greene? My name is Jordan Ray. I\u2019m actually a local real estate investor in the Memphis, Tennessee market. I own a real estate company that I started earlier this year with the idea, of course, to replace my income and walk away from being a truck driver, which is what I\u2019m in right now. I\u2019m in my truck.
I enjoy truck driving, but I also enjoy real estate and I also enjoy my family and I would like to be able to spend more time with my family and also build a generational wealth. Of course, like most people do when they get into real estate.
My few questions that I have, just two questions. First question, I want to know when you have multiple properties \u2026 I have one right now. It\u2019s a cash cow by the way. But when I get another one, when I\u2019m trying to figure out is if I should put it in my LLC, then I currently have the first property in or should I get another LLC?
How you go about doing that, because to me having multiple LLC seems like a lot of work as far as taxes go. Well, I like to do my own taxes. I\u2019m really good at doing my own taxes. I\u2019m really going to due diligence, so I prefer to stick that way until it becomes too much to handle. Right now, one property, maybe two properties, I feel like the taxes are not going to be complicated at all.
My second question would be, do you wholesale and if you wholesale or if you know who wholesales what their favorite way or your favorite way to market to get leads is? I currently have been doing a lot of cold calling and postcards and I\u2019m actually about to start trying Facebook ads.
Because honestly, the cold calling just isn\u2019t working. Postcards are working. I\u2019m getting calls back. But I haven\u2019t necessarily generated any leads yet. I\u2019ve been on and off trying to wholesale now for about six months, haven\u2019t closed a deal yet.
I\u2019ve gotten quite a few of them under contract. At first I was good at getting properties under contract and then it flipped around and then got good in finding cash buyers but not getting one under contract. I\u2019m trying to dial this down to combining it, too, and I feel like I\u2019m getting pretty close. But I just wanted to know your opinion on that.
Yeah. I appreciate all your help if you could can answer my questions. I really look forward to seeing my video on your BiggerPockets Podcast. Thank you for your time and have a great one.<\/p>\n
All right. Jordan, thank you for your question. I can answer the second part really quick. I don\u2019t wholesale. I don\u2019t do that. I\u2019m not going to say it\u2019s immoral. But in generalized, don\u2019t like the model. It\u2019s skirting lines of legalities. It is rarely beneficial for the seller of the property.
Wholesalers will always tell you that they\u2019re working on a deal. It\u2019s win-win. Sometimes I do think that happens. But the majority of the time I think that the seller would make a lot more money if they put their house on the MLS where everybody could see the property and other investors would have access to more inventory versus when they just sell it to a buyer\u2019s list and a guy like me gets instant access to those properties that I buy all of them and your normal investors just don\u2019t get to see them.
I\u2019m not really a huge fan of the wholesale model. The people who come to me that want to make money in real estate, I\u2019d rather sell their house for them and get them as much money as I could, then just get them a quick sale and some investors going to make money.
Now, the first part of your question I can address here. Do you use an LLC per property or one LLC for all properties? This is a good question because not many people understand the complexities of the LLCs. It\u2019s typically looked like an LLC is safer, so just own your property there. It\u2019s complicated and it\u2019s not always safer. Okay.
I have a lot of LLCs. I typically have several properties per LLC, but it becomes a headache to try to keep these all together. I pay 75 grand a year to CPAs to try to straighten it all out. It\u2019s terrible. Me alone and paying someone\u2019s full-time salary, which I guess if I think about it, I\u2019d be better off to hire a CPA who just was my full-time employee than pay that maybe I need to look into it.
But what I\u2019m getting at here is CPAs are hard. They\u2019re expensive. They\u2019re hard to manage. You have to file with them every single year. There\u2019s a lot that goes into this. Don\u2019t just think the LLCs are a magic pill is going to solve all of your problem for your properties.
What you want to try to do is mitigate how much equity is in any one individual LLC. You don\u2019t want to have four properties completely paid off in cash in one, and then other LLCs where properties are leveraged at 80%. You want to split it out so each LLC has a limited amount of equity.
Because if you are sued, they\u2019re going to go after the equity in the LLC, which is why you don\u2019t want it all in one. Hope that helps with your question. Thank you for your service. Keep on keeping on, and I hope that you find a way to get out of the truck driving job and into a job you like more.
All right, our next question comes from Kenny McGregor in Las Vegas. I\u2019m an active duty military. When I got to Las Vegas, I bought a small condo with a conventional loan while I built my first home with a VA loan. Now three years later, I\u2019ve gotten my real estate license and decided to sell the condo, which I 1031 Exchange into two more rental properties and recouped my initial investment.
Next, I sold my primary. Now I\u2019m living at my friend\u2019s house and need to buy another place. My question is, in this market, how many properties should I go for? I can reuse my zero down VA loan, which is a great benefit, about 120,000 in the bank. But most of the deals I\u2019m running in the local area with zero down and my current interest rates leave no cash flow.
So worth doing. Should I buy a fourth property as well or wait for the market to settle a bit more? Thanks.
Okay. This is a really good question. First off, I would say, No-brainer. Use your VA loan with zero down to get yourself into a house. Actually you could have your own home. You might spend a little bit of money. You might come out of pocket some.
But that\u2019s okay, because owning real estate over the long term is worth. If you have to lose money for a couple years just to have a place to live, it\u2019s still way cheaper than paying rent or owning your property. That\u2019s a no-brainer. You need to buy a house to live it as a primary with your VA loan.
Now, the rest of the money that you have, $120,000, I don\u2019t think you should ask the question of \u201cHow many houses should I buy?\u201d The right question is, \u201cWhat\u2019s the best way to deploy $120,000 into real estate?\u201d
Now, there is no rush. That\u2019s what\u2019s awesome about this. You don\u2019t have to go put that money into play. For years before prices were going up, rents were going up. You had it to pull your capital because of inflation. There was a lot of pressure on us. That\u2019s been temporarily slowed as rates have gone up.
There isn\u2019t as much pressure on you to go invest that money. I would settle in and I would wait. But I wouldn\u2019t wait for the market to tank. I just wait for the right deal to cross your path. If you\u2019re telling me that current interest rates leave no cash flow, you got to look at different properties or different strategies.
Maybe you\u2019re looking at two units, you need to look at three units. Maybe you\u2019re looking at single family homes and you need to buy a house that has an ADU or two ADUs. There\u2019s a way to make properties cash flow. Maybe you\u2019re going to have to buy a property and Airbnb the main house and live in the ADU yourself.
There\u2019s different creative ways that you can look at this. But my advice to you would be don\u2019t just go cookie-cutter, \u201cOh, well, what worked before is going to work now.\u201d When you bought that condo, it was a different market. You could get cash flow, you got appreciation. It\u2019s a harder market now.
Combine taking your time with looking at deals creatively. When the right one comes along, jump on it, but don\u2019t feel pressure to jump on it before that. I don\u2019t think that anything\u2019s going to turn around anytime soon to where you\u2019re going to miss out if you don\u2019t buy a house tomorrow.
All right. From Sayli in Hayward. We\u2019re getting a lot of Hayward people coming in here. I always talk about the red chilies, a restaurant in Hayward on mission that I love. We\u2019re getting a lot of people from there. That\u2019s cool. If you\u2019re in the Bay Area, if you\u2019re in California at all, reach out to us. I\u2019d love to talk with you. I\u2019d love to get to know you better because these are my stomping grounds. All right. Let\u2019s see what Sayli has to say.<\/p>\n
Hi, David. Thank you for listening to my question. My name is Sayli. I\u2019m from Hayward, California. I have been investing in Michigan for past three and a half years. My question is regarding long distance rehab project.
Last month I purchased my seventh single family rental in Michigan. It\u2019s my second BUR project. I got bids from four different general contractors. All of them are very well-known and well-recommended on local FP groups. I have worked with two of them, two GCs on my previous projects. I have some experience with them.
This is a typical renovation project, a dated house that needs an uplift, flooring, paint, bathroom, refresh, light fixtures, HVAC, et cetera. I\u2019ve been listening to other investors on podcasts and YouTubes. They do this rehab under 30K, 35K, but I budgeted about 45,000. The bids I got from GCs are 70K and about.
My question is how can I cut cost without compromising quality? I take pride in providing quality products to my tenants. But 70K rehab cost is too high to justify the rent. Any word of advice? Thank you for that and thank you for taking my call.<\/p>\n
All right. Sayli, this is a really good question. When you\u2019re in a situation like this where you have to cut costs but you don\u2019t want to cut quality, you\u2019re going to have to give in somewhere.
Now for you that would be managing the project yourself. When you work through a general contractor, you\u2019re paying the contractor to basically manage the project and find the subs. They\u2019re not always doing the work themselves. You pay them a certain amount of money to do the plumbing.
They go find a plumber that does the work for less than they got paid and they keep the difference. In a sense, they\u2019re a project manager who has the pieces that are needed. If you want to cut them out of the deal and the GCs are all giving you bids of 70,000, but you think it can be done for 45,000, you\u2019re going to have to go find the subcontractors yourself.
You\u2019re going to have to go find the plumbers, the painters, a handyman that can do the renovation stuff like the bathroom light fixtures, the HVAC. If you find those people yourselves, you can do this. I just want to caution you, it\u2019s trickier than you think. This is why most people use a general contractor.
If you go out there and try to find these people yourselves, they might lie to you. They might take your money and not finish the job. This is the problem that you\u2019re going to get stuck in. One way that I mitigate that risk is I pay them after the job is done or maybe I pay them a third of the money that they\u2019re asking for and then I pay them the rest after I verify the work\u2019s complete.
But again, they might tell you the work\u2019s complete. You\u2019re going to have to send an independent person there to make sure that HVAC worked to make sure the paint was done to make sure things are done to your liking, especially if these are out of state, that could get tricky.
Your only other option I could think of is if you could find a person who lives in a area where wages are lower and fly them into that area to do the work. Now the problem is Detroit, Michigan\u2019s not really like Malibu here. Okay. This isn\u2019t Beverly Hills. The people there already aren\u2019t making a ton of money on the wages. That $70,000 quote might be just the going rate for what this work is going to be.
The only other thing I can think to say is when I get in these situations, I look for ways to cut costs in the areas that are least likely to affect the deal. You probably don\u2019t want to cut the paint because you get a lot of bang for your buck on that.
You probably don\u2019t want to cut the light fixtures because those are relatively cheap. But some of the other stuff that you\u2019re talking about, maybe the flooring, maybe you leave the flooring in there. You put a cheaper flooring though what you were thinking, because that\u2019s expensive, both the materials and in labor.
The bathroom refresh, maybe you don\u2019t upgrade the bathroom, you just upgrade the light fixtures. Maybe you just make what you already have nicer and so you do less work to make up some of the work in the budget there. That might end up being your best option. Thank you for the video. Keep representing Hayward and let me know how it goes.
All right. At this stage of the show, I want to make sure that you guys all like, comment, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Especially comment, I want to know, what do you think about the show so far? Do you like the Seeing Greene episodes?
We\u2019re going to take a minute to read some comments from previous episodes that you, our listeners, have left. You can see what other people think.
From Shaka Boom 01. \u201cDavid, I love your show. But words I hear too much on your show are one duplex and two duplex. Something I never hear you talk about is buying land and building. I would love to hear your thoughts on investing in land and building the ideal single family home with ADU, which I\u2019m going to do. I know it\u2019ll be a lot of work\/learning, but I think the outcome could be great.\u201d
Well, Shaka Boom, the reason I don\u2019t talk about that a lot is I\u2019ve never done it and I try to avoid things that I don\u2019t understand. It\u2019s incredibly complicated compared to just buying a house that already exists.
We just heard our previous question about how to manage a contractor, and we saw how that can get out of hand where the bids get too high. It gets even worse when you\u2019re building it from the ground up. Tons of things go wrong you weren\u2019t expecting.
You\u2019re borrowing money from banks where they\u2019re expecting work to be done. You\u2019re working through permits. There\u2019s so many moving pieces here. It could be very easy for this to take way too long and lose a lot of money.
Now, I\u2019m not going to discourage you from doing it because if you\u2019ve already decided you\u2019re going to do it, I\u2019m assuming you\u2019ve got some training, some expertise, some background in this area that makes you think that you can do this better.
But for people that are getting started investing in real estate or have a small portfolio and want to grow it, the average listener that we have on this show, the avatar person that\u2019s listening, this could absolutely bankrupt them financially.
I know a lot of people that tried to build spec houses and lost a lot of money, including some family members of mine. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t talk about it as often. But if you know what you\u2019re doing, you can make money in real estate in every way.
All right. Our next comment comes from Rubai Khan. \u201cWhere would David Greene live if he ever left California?\u201d Ooh, this is really good. I\u2019ve enjoyed my time in Florida. I\u2019ve been visiting South Florida to look at some of the projects I have going on down there. I don\u2019t think I could live in southern California because I just cannot stand traffic and things moving slow and it\u2019s everywhere.
I enjoyed visiting the Smoky Mountains. Oh, I know, probably be Scottsdale. I really like when I visit Scottsdale. I like the heat, especially the dry heat. Heat doesn\u2019t bother me. I go running when it\u2019s 100 degrees, hiking when it\u2019s over 100 degrees all the time. I love it.
I can\u2019t do cold. I have cold air-induced asthma that happens when I exercise. My windpipe freezes up. It\u2019s really hard to breathe. I can\u2019t stand it and just being cold sucks. I would definitely live somewhere where there was sun and I\u2019d probably vacation to Hawaii a lot.
All right. Our next comment comes from Haggy 2013. \u201cThanks for outlining videos. They\u2019re easy to navigate, and for that I\u2019ll give 10 likes.\u201d Yeah. Shout out to Nate Weintraub and our production team who help you know what topics we cover by adding in the little breaks on the YouTube timeline there. They got to sit there and do a lot of work. Thank you guys for doing that.
Our last comment comes from Unio Brainwave Music App who says, \u201cToday is a very lonely day for some reason. To counter that, I\u2019m saying hello to as many people that read this post. Hello. I hope you all have a better day than how it started, even if it started really well.\u201d
Well, if you guys are also feeling lonely, it might be that you need some community in your life. At BiggerPockets, we\u2019re here to provide that. Check out our website, biggerpockets.com where we have a forum where lots of people answer questions and ask their questions as well as meetups in your area that post on the website. Go meet some other investors and get involved in a community.
All right. We love and we appreciate all your engagement, so please continue that. Leave me some comments on today\u2019s show to let me know what you think about how we\u2019re doing here. Remember, if you want to be featured on the show, you can go to biggerpockets.com\/david and submit your question to be put on the show.
All right. Our next question is a video from Liam Quintana.<\/p>\n
How\u2019s it going? All right. My name is Liam from New Orleans. All right. I own a construction company. My question for you is I want to BUR new construction. I\u2019m able to build houses, duplexes, single families for a lot cheaper than what they sell for on the market even though the market [inaudible 00:19:34].
But I want to build a duplex, run it out, do a cash-out refi, take the money out and build another one. This method allows me to never run out of money. If I take the liquid that I have now and just put down payments on a bunch of rentals, I would eventually lose money. What do you think about BURing new construction?<\/p>\n
All right. Well, Liam, that is how the BUR method works. The only thing that\u2019s different is you\u2019re talking about building instead of buying and rehabbing. This would be build, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat, which is kind of funny. It\u2019s a little bit different there.
I\u2019m not going to discourage you. I\u2019m just going to say you got to understand how the building process works. If it is true that you can build a new property for significantly less than what people are willing to sell them for, this might be a new wave with real estate investing.
If sellers are just not willing to drop their price and enough new properties are built and sell for less than what the existing inventory is, that would force comps to come down and it would help the market correct. The problem is I just don\u2019t see enough investors learning how to build and becoming proficient at doing that in the period of time that we would need to push prices to come down.
But if you\u2019ve got some background, if you\u2019ve got it in with a home builder, I think this could be cool. Just make sure you know what you\u2019re getting into. Okay. There\u2019s a time that I looked into doing the same thing. I was going to build a bunch of properties in Jacksonville, Florida that were fourplexes.
I had the land picked out. I had the builder. I had a lot of conversations. I realized, thank God before we got into the project, that the zoning would only allow us to build one door per like square mile. I was looking at buying 10 square miles of land. I could only put 10 houses, but I had planned on building 50.
I was going to do what you\u2019re doing. I was going to build two or three, fourplexes, refinance them out once they were appraised, put that same money into the next four and just build my own subdivision of fourplexes and have my own rental community kind of like apartment complexes.
Then I found out at the last minute zoning was not going to allow me to do that. That\u2019s what scares me. There\u2019s a lot of little things that can pop up like that you don\u2019t realize when you don\u2019t build often and you can run out of money very easily.
I would definitely recommend talking with a home builder who has done this many times before that can guide you through the process before you commit to doing this new home construction.
All right. Our next question comes from Paul in Utah. Paul says, I invest in Kansas and I currently have seven doors from a triplex and a four single family homes. I am a long-term buy and hold investor and I plan to get 10 to 12 doors total.
When I was getting insurance set up on my most recent rental property, the person I was on the phone with mentioned that I\u2019m getting to the point where it could be a better option to get a commercial insurance policy for all my properties than individual properties on each one.
I haven\u2019t really heard this before and I was hoping to get the David Greene and BiggerPockets thoughts on this. What pros and cons should I be aware of? Any companies that I should reach out to or avoid? I called one local insurance broker and they seem pretty confused when I was asking about this.
It\u2019s so funny you say this because I\u2019m in the process of launching an insurance company right now. I believe we\u2019re going to call it full guard insurance and it\u2019s going to be providing insurance to landlords.
Now, I\u2019ve run into a couple issues where I have had pipes break. When I was in the middle of construction, issues with short-term rentals. I bought property and it turns out the quote I was given from the insurance company ended up being way lower than what they quoted me once the property was purchased and it ticks me off, and that\u2019s when I go start businesses.
In a couple months, I will probably have a lot more information to give you about this once I\u2019ve dove into that business. Now, it doesn\u2019t get talked about a lot, so I can\u2019t give you a ton of information about this.
What I can say is that this is not a bad idea. If you can get one policy that will cover everything, I think that\u2019s good. As far as the local insurance broker \u2026 You just called the wrong one. If you call and you ask about it and they say, \u201cI don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about,\u201d call someone else. Keep calling until you find a person that either knows or they say, \u201cOh, yeah. We don\u2019t do that. But here\u2019s why.\u201d They can educate you on the process.
Guys, in general, when you\u2019re trying to find an insurance broker, a mortgage broker, a real estate agent and construction person, whatever it is, if you ask them questions and they don\u2019t know, that usually means it doesn\u2019t fall within their specific wheelhouse and they just do the same things all the time and no one\u2019s good at something that they don\u2019t do a lot.
You don\u2019t go ask a professional skateboarder about snowboarding because they don\u2019t do that. They skateboard. They\u2019re going to have to learn the hard way how to be good at snowboarding. You want to hire them to be a coach just because they can skateboard.
You need to take people the same way. If you\u2019re reaching out to someone on my team, if you\u2019re reaching out to someone on BiggerPockets, if you\u2019re reaching out to someone that a friend referred you to, ask a lot of questions and make sure that they are confident and competent in the way that they answer those questions.
They should have a wide range of knowledge or at least the broker they work for should have that. It\u2019s a huge red flag if you ask your lender about a DSCR loan, a bridge loan, a HELOC, any of these other loan products, and all that they can say to you is \u201cWe just do conventional. I don\u2019t know.\u201d
Get away from that person. That\u2019s not the person that you want to be overseeing, managing, directing, guiding you in your journey. You need a person that is familiar with those products and can tell you which one works best for you, which is how I try to train my staff and what I look for in different agents that I might be working with.
Our next question comes from Kayla, Kayla Wright in Nashville. Hi David. Thank you for reading my question. I\u2019m a freelance marketer who recently started working directly with the real estate investor who has acquired 76 doors in the Nashville area since 2020.
In exchange from my marketing services, I received a 5% payout of total profits on the flip property aspect of the business, which is a new venture on top of the multifamily rental, which is 76 doors. This has been a great opportunity for me to learn the real estate landscape, set goals for myself for my own real estate journey, and build a strong relationship with the investor.
My investor partner has also agreed to offer an extra 5%, so 10% total, of profits on flips if I find the properties myself and bring them to him. For added context, I work full-time in another job and I\u2019m hoping this opportunity will help start my journey as an entrepreneur.
My question for you as an investor is what can I be working on aside from education that will be beneficial to my investor partner as one of the first employees? In what ways can I truly help him ramp up his flip business and stand out? I\u2019m currently working on the website, but he is expressed interest in my helping with other investor relations and other sides of the business as well.
The podcast has helped me immensely. Thanks again. What an awesome question. I love this, Kayla. All right. I was thinking when I first started hearing this that I was going to give you some warnings about what to avoid. But I don\u2019t know that that\u2019s necessary.
You\u2019re asking a really good question. What can I do to help this person with more? Guys, this is honestly how you\u2019re going to learn about real estate investing. It\u2019s not by finding a mentor who\u2019s just going to teach you stuff. It\u2019s about finding a person that you can bring value to and help them, and you learn from the experience of doing it for them.
Okay. That\u2019s what you\u2019re really looking for. Not how does someone teach me how to sell houses. You go find an agent that already knows how to sell houses and you do all the work for them that they don\u2019t want to do, and you learn from doing the work. That is the best way to learn anything is from actually doing it.
Working on the website, that\u2019s a great idea. My guess is they look at you like a marketer. They\u2019re thinking of marketing stuff that you could do. But what if you have more skills than just marketing? Okay. Do you have bookkeeping skills? Do you have project management skills?
Can you learn what their workflow is and help them by calling the different people that are supposed to be doing stuff and making sure those people did what they were supposed to do, as well as asking those people, what do you need to help do your job better and finding ways to solve that?
Many times people like me that are managing a lot of stuff, give an order or an edict, I want you to go do X. Then X somehow falls by the wayside, and I don\u2019t even think to go check in on that till two months later when I needed it done and I say, \u201cWhere\u2019s X?\u201d They\u2019re like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s halfway done.\u201d This happens all the time. I don\u2019t have a lot of people in my companies that take responsibility for making sure the stuff gets done.
If you could be that person, you could do anything. If you could just learn to be organized, if you could learn to do follow up, if you could create a to-do list of everything that person has, make yourself their personal assistant and then follow up to make sure everyone\u2019s doing things and ask that person a lot of questions, you will learn a ton.
I have this model that I teach the new people where imagine water falling into a bucket. Okay. The water that falls into the bucket is the stuff that needs to be done on the job, and the bucket is the person. As that bucket fills up with water, they have tasks that they need to complete.
Their job is to get the task done, which is draining the bucket before the bucket overflows, which is they ran out of time and they fell behind on stuff. Okay. One way that we help is we put a hole in the bottom of the bucket where water drains. A person underneath them, which could be you, which is another bucket that catches all the stuff that comes down.
The benefit of that is the person who\u2019s doing the initial work where all the water\u2019s coming down, they\u2019re getting all the learning. But if you can put yourself underneath them, if you can take over some of the responsibilities and do the work, you benefit from the same learning that they don\u2019t need anymore.
Something they already know how to do comes in. They pass it down to you. You do it for them. They didn\u2019t need to learn. They already know. But they still get the benefit of it getting done. You get the benefit of the learning and it becomes a mutually beneficial relationship.
My best advice when anyone is in your position is to quit running away from responsibility. Quit looking at real estate as a thing you can do so you don\u2019t have to be responsible. You don\u2019t have to grow. You don\u2019t have to learn new skills. Welcome responsibility. Run two responsibility.
Jump in and say, \u201cI want to do as many things as I can for this person as possible,\u201d and only commit to the stuff that you are willing to be responsible for the outcome for. If you do a good job with little, you will be given more and this is how you\u2019re going to learn. Great question.<\/p>\n
Hey David. I got a question for you. My name is Marc Irvison. I\u2019m an agent\/investor here in Northern Colorado. Moved here about a year and a half ago. Bought a new construction home. Ever since then I\u2019ve been ringing out on VRBO three to four nights a month.
After two years of doing this, I\u2019ll be able to offset most of the mortgage come next year during tax time. My DTI is going to improve probably about 1,000 a month, and so I\u2019ll be looking to buy again. I started really late in 2021. That\u2019s why the DTI isn\u2019t going to go up as much as if I had rented it out. You know what I mean? Two years full-time. But it is what it is. I\u2019ll get 1,000 bucks extra on my DTI next year. I\u2019ll be looking to move again.
The next one, since my first lung was on a VA, next one I guess will be FHA. But my question is, if I\u2019m eventually trying to get out of the rat race and get out of the W2 job, how do I make that happen in this Colorado market the way it is with average prices being a 450 to 500, unless we see some kind of real estate crash or something like that, which even then I doubt prices are going to go down here that much.
The only idea I\u2019ve had is that to go ahead and start buying in Greeley, Colorado. The issue there is that I work at Broomfield. That\u2019s probably about an hour commute. Do I just bite the bullet and drive an hour or two from work so I can buy duplex in Greeley for say 475, 500?
Or do I continue purchasing single family homes where you can get a new construction three, two, no basement for, say, 425 down, close to Brighton or near Firestone, something like that? Do I focus on duplexes up in Greeley or do I focus on single family home closer to Broomfield? Probably where there\u2019s, I\u2019d say, more demand.
Like I said, I\u2019m eventually trying to get out of the rat race to get out of a W2 job. I\u2019m just trying to figure that out. Like I said, this market\u2019s way different. I come from Hamilton, Ohio where my first house was 9,000 bucks and I put 25 into it, had 30 all in. I eventually paid it all off, had my house free and clear.
Out here 30,000 bucks. That wouldn\u2019t even get you a shed. I mean, it might get you like a 50-year-old rundown trailer, but that\u2019s it. Nothing that\u2019s even close to even me inhabitable. This is different out here in this market. I\u2019m trying to adapt and do what I can.
Just help me out, man. Appreciate your service as a cop and I\u2019ll look forward to what you have to say. All right. Thanks, man. Bye.<\/p>\n
All right. Thank you, Marc, for your question. This is some good stuff here. First off, I think you\u2019re probably realizing the reality is getting out of the rat race is going to be harder than what it was eight to 10 years ago when prices were a lot lower, demand was a lot lower and competition was also a lot less, too.
It\u2019s just the reality is it\u2019s harder to get out of the rat race with real estate than it ever was before. I\u2019ve come to look at real estate investing as a supplement to my wealth building, not as necessarily the foundation upon which I will rely on my income to come in.
I think most people, there\u2019s a handful of people that don\u2019t fit that avatar, but most people probably would be better off if they looked at it the same way. Then if we have another big economic crash and you got a bunch of money saved up, that\u2019s when you can buy a lot of properties that will function to replace your income at some point.
But we don\u2019t have control over when that happens. It seems like every time we hit a recession, we just print a bunch of money so that never comes about. That\u2019s caused a lot of inflation, which has made the cost of living go higher, which has ironically made these assets even more expensive and harder to get.
Let\u2019s talk about what you can do. I don\u2019t like the thought of going to an area with less demand. I also don\u2019t like the thought of getting a new construction three, two. Three, twos are not rental properties. In 2010, 2011, I could buy a three, two as a rental property.
If you get a screaming good deal on a property like from a super motivated seller, you can make it a rental property. But even then, if you look at the return on equity on the price, you\u2019d have to pay to make that deal cash flow, you\u2019d be better off to buy it, sell it, move that equity to something that\u2019s like a six, three, two, three twos with that money as opposed to one.
Those are not meant to be rental properties. Those are meant to be houses people live in that can be made into cash flowing properties, but they\u2019re not designed for that. I\u2019d rather see you buy a five, two and a half or a five, three and rent the rooms out individually.
I\u2019d rather see you buy a small apartment complex of seven to eight units and rent that out than just go buy a three, two, especially new construction. If you\u2019re in this expensive market in Colorado, you can\u2019t go buy a new construction home, pay market price and try to make that work as a rental. You\u2019re going to lose money.
You got to do something more creative. You got to find a property that has square footage that can be added, square footage that can be converted to get three units out of one unit. You got to try a lot harder to make this stuff work in today\u2019s market than before. I think you\u2019re probably seeing that.
I\u2019d advise you on the duplex route over the new construction. But can you get something in the middle? Can you find something in the area that you like that could have more units in it than what you\u2019re seeing? Could you get a new construction duplex or even better a new construction fourplex?
Can you talk to the builder and say, \u201cCould you build me a four-unit property? Is the zoning going to allow for that?\u201d That\u2019d be pretty cool. I bet if you get four units, you could actually probably make it work. Maybe you got to have several conversations like that with different builders or different renovators to ask like, \u201cWhat could be done for the price that I\u2019ve got to get more than one unit?\u2019
That\u2019s why most properties are not cash flowing. Because you\u2019re analyzing a house with one unit and a couple bedrooms. You\u2019re not analyzing an apartment complex or several units, which is what you need if you\u2019re going to get cash flow.
Good luck on that, Marc. I know you\u2019re in a tough market out there. Your last option could just be invest out of state. If you know the Ohio market, like you mentioned, maybe you go back out there and you buy some other properties and you keep putting your money there until we have a crash and you can actually find something in Colorado that works for you.
All right. On our last question comes from John McKee out of Fairfax, Virginia. David, you talk about putting systems in place to help grow your business. What does that look like and how did it evolve? Can you give me some examples of these types of systems and how they made you more efficient?
Oh, my gosh. First off, great question. Second off, concisely worded. Third, you acid it in a great way. Not only what do they look like, but how did they evolve? Because that\u2019s the only way to answer this question is you got to talk about what your first system looked like and how it grew, because none of you are just going to go plop down a system and say, \u201cIt\u2019s done.\u201d
But that\u2019s what everyone explains it. You listen to Alex Hormoze or you listen to some of the other online gurus like, \u201cYou need a system. You want a business, not a job.\u201d You\u2019re like, \u201cOkay. Okay. Let\u2019s do it.\u201d Then they explain how it works and you think you\u2019re just going to go wave a magic wand and you have a system. You don\u2019t.
What you have is a first step out of 700 steps that will become a system. Ask you how it evolved is a great way to phrase this. Let\u2019s talk. I remember being in John\u2019s position here. I had a talk with Kyle Renke, who\u2019s now the Chief Operating Officer of The David Greene team. Helps me put a lot of the events together that I do, the retreats that I run.
He helps run the YouTube channel. He does a lot of different things. I remember saying, I keep hearing people tell me that I need a system and I don\u2019t freaking know what that means. I get the concept of a system, but how am I supposed to execute it? Is there software I\u2019m supposed to buy?
Am I supposed to write it down on a notepad? Paint a picture for me of what this looks like. I was so frustrated because I knew what I needed, but I didn\u2019t know how to get it. Kyle came back to me and he is like, \u201cOkay. What all you need to do is open Google Drive and start open a folder about whatever you want to make and then make subfolders inside the folder with the other pieces and then use Google documents to type out the instructions.\u201d
That little piece of information unlocked what my brain was looking for. Okay. I\u2019m like Forrest Gump. I\u2019m not a smart man, but I know what love is. I needed someone to just paint me a picture that I could get, like, \u201cOkay. That\u2019s what I needed. I can run with that.\u201d I just went nuts.
I became a systems guy because I had that little spark that started me. Hopefully me answering this question can be that spark for a lot of you. Let me give you an example of information that I teach real estate agents and how to build systems. Because I did a very good job of systemizing the job of a real estate agent.
Then I did a very good job of systemizing the role of a loan officer. Once I had that, I could hire people for the one brokerage, for The David Greene Team, for whatever else I\u2019m doing. They knew what role they were going to play. But before I could do that, I had to build the entire thing out.
I\u2019m going to give you guys an example of that and then I\u2019m going to show you a screenshot from my phone that shows you how one of the systems works when I\u2019m combining both agents and loan officers together in one system.
All right. If I was going to take a listing, which is one of the easiest things to systemize because buyers are crazy and they\u2019re very emotional and you got to do a lot of different things, it\u2019s harder to systemize that. It\u2019s like it\u2019s herding cats. It can be done. But poof, it\u2019s worked.
Listings are much easier. What I started was I made a list of everything I had to do in a listing. The goal of the original list is just to not forget. Your system starts off whereby eliminating errors of omission, you\u2019re just trying to make sure you don\u2019t forget to turn the insurance on in your rental property.
You don\u2019t forget to have automatic withdrawals set up for the mortgage payment. All of these, the utilities turned on. It\u2019s easy, man. I bought lots of houses and then realized, \u201cOh, my God. No one turned on the air conditioning. We don\u2019t have utilities.\u201d
The property managers showing it to a tenant the house is 105 degrees. This happens sometimes when you don\u2019t have these systems. It\u2019s just a checklist. Okay. Here\u2019s all the things that have to happen when I first buy a rental. Here\u2019s all the things that have to happen when I first list a home.
I have spreadsheets now where my employees, every time I buy a house has a column of all the stuff they got to do, they get the utilities turned on, get the auto-pay set up. Here\u2019s a link in the spreadsheet that will go to the Google Drive folder where we will keep the insurance, where we will keep the mortgage statement, where we will keep the information if we ever need this on a later date, because you always do.
For listings, it was order assigned to put in the yard, have the photographer go take pictures, have a lockbox put on the property, get a spare key from the client, make sure the listing agreement is filled out. This stone\u2019s obvious, but you just start by writing down all the obvious things you need to do. Okay.
I probably had a list of 15 things. When Krista was hired, my first assistant, that\u2019s what she worked on. Now what would happen is we would realize, \u201cOh, we forgot to\u201d \u2026 What\u2019s a thing you might forget on a listing to do? You got to put it in the MLS. Maybe we would forget to get a certain form filled out that we needed to put it in the MLS.
I would look at where in this series of 15 things that step should go, and I would just go into my Google Doc. I would step 12, I would hit Enter and that makes 13, and I\u2019d put that new thing. Every single time we made a mistake, somebody came to us and said, \u201cThis needs to get done and it wasn\u2019t on the list.\u201d It added to the list. It added to the list, added to the list. It went from 15 things to 50 things.
That\u2019s how much stuff is actually being done. Some of those 50 had subpoints. Get the listing agreement signed would then turn into, give a copy of it to the broker, give a copy of it to the escrow company. All of these things would start to apply. You did have those subpoints, but you still just have a checklist on a Google Doc, under a Google folder with the property\u2019s name, which is in a folder that says \u201cListings.\u201d Okay. It\u2019s that simple.
Now, at a certain point I realize there\u2019s these things can be clumped into stages. I broke my list of 50 things or 75 things into 4 different stages. The first was pre-listing. Okay. This was all the stuff I needed if I was going to go to your house to sell your home. I would have a comparative market analysis run by my staff and they look at every active, pending and sold home that was on the market.
I showed them by sitting with them, here\u2019s how you call every single person, every agent that has an active and a pending sale. You ask them, \u201cHow many offers are you getting? Where are the offers coming in? Do you think you\u2019re priced too high?\u201d Then I would teach them how to build rapport. There\u2019s no agent just wants to tell you that.
Before I went to a listing, this is the work I would do. I don\u2019t show up to sell your house and just be like, \u201cHere\u2019s what we should sell it for.\u201d I\u2019ve done some research. I know these houses are listed at 700, but they\u2019re selling for 780, so we don\u2019t have to list that low. We could come in at 765 or something.
Or these houses were listed at 850 and they\u2019re just sitting there. They\u2019re not selling. The agent says they\u2019re about to do a price reduction at 775, so we don\u2019t want to copy that person. I had all this information and I had notes. Their house looks like this. Your house looks like this. These are the best cops. I would have them do that.
Then we had these David Greene Team folders made and we had these pens. I don\u2019t think I have one around. But they look kind of like this, but they were red and black with our logo and the name. Krista would put, get the folder, put the pen. We had a marketing pamphlet. We still do, called the Blueprint that explains to sellers all the steps that go into selling a house as well as buyers, all the steps that go into it.
She\u2019d put the comparative market analysis. She\u2019d put a copy of the listing agreement. We have a pop socket that goes on the back of a phone. One of those things that you could hold it with that was branded. We had all these goodies that we would bring and all that would go in a folder.
Then I would have an iPad that I would bring with me is that\u2019s what I would give the presentation on. Okay. I know this is a bit of a long answer. But I\u2019m showing you guys a level of detail that goes into the system.
Then all of the steps that were needed for me to be able to sell \u2026 to get the listing signed were in this document up to the point where there\u2019s even a reminder for Krista to put the address in the calendar of my phone through the computer that was linked to it so that I would just get a 3:00 listing appointment.
You got to go to this address, and there\u2019d be a reminder 30 minutes before that would say, \u201cPut the thing in your car,\u201d because as you guys noticed, I forget to turn the light green. I would forget to grab the folder at, get to the listing appointment. It was bad.
Then Krista knew that she needed to be on call when I was at a listing appointment. If I was there and you were like, \u201cWell, David, I mean I know you have a team, but I really want to work with you. How do I know that I\u2019m going to get good service?\u201d I\u2019d say, \u201cLet\u2019s try this. Let\u2019s call Krista right now and see what happens.\u201d
I would call, she\u2019d be like, \u201cHi.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cHey, Krista, can you do me a favor? Pull up this house on the MLS or pull up this house on Zillow and can you tell me what the house is around her selling for?\u201d She\u2019ll be like, \u201cNo problem.\u201d She\u2019d pull it up like, \u201cOh, there\u2019s three other homes that are all pending for sale and no other active homes.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cThere you go.\u201d
Now we can see exactly. Do you want me to call one of the agents and ask them a question? They\u2019re like, \u201cWow. You\u2019ve got this dispatcher that\u2019s just ready to jump in.\u201d After that, I had a list of stuff that we would do after the listing presentation was signed, but before we went active.
This would be getting the picture scheduled, getting the lockbox, put on the door, getting the sign in the yard, having cleaners go to clean up the house, double checking to make sure that homes didn\u2019t come on the market. There were competition that we didn\u2019t know about. They would check that every single day. I\u2019d have staff that were given tasks to do this.
You see how detail-oriented that we\u2019re getting into this thing, making sure that the information of the home was uploaded into the MLS even though we didn\u2019t go live. We wanted it there ready so that for one, if some reason we wanted to go live earlier, we could just click a button.
We were at the last minute taking two and a half hours to get the information ready and the client\u2019s like, \u201cWhy is the house listed? I want it live.\u201d Then we had stuff once it was listed, but before it was in contract that was on that list. That\u2019d be the next step that comes up, checking in with the client every week, checking in with all the agents to get feedback of what they said.
Krista would call every single buyer\u2019s agent that showed one of my listings and asked for feedback what they thought and what their clients thought. We would get that information to share with our clients who were letting us sell their house.
Then once it went in contract, a whole new stuff, the title company needs the contract. The lender needs the contract. We need to start a timeline of making sure that the buyer\u2019s lenders doing their job. What would happen is properties would fall out of contract because the buyer couldn\u2019t secure lending. I practiced extreme ownership.
Instead of saying, \u201cOh, well, nothing we could do.\u201d I\u2019d say, \u201cYou know what? We should have called their lender to make sure that everything was good.\u201d Instead of relying on the buyer\u2019s agent who lies. It became a part of that thing for Krista to call once a week and check with the lenders of the buyers who are buying our listings.
This is not my job. This is the other agent\u2019s job. But I would do their job because I needed that deal to close. If they were like, \u201cYeah. The person\u2019s not giving me their statements. The person\u2019s not getting back to me. They won\u2019t let me pull their credit.\u201d I knew something was going on.
When the agent was like, \u201cOh, yeah. Everything\u2019s fine. It\u2019s going along pleasantly. But I know that they\u2019re not submitting the information that they needed to their lenders. Maybe they\u2019re looking at other houses. Maybe they\u2019re thinking about backing out. I would go to our clients and I\u2019d say, \u201cI think we need to pull the plug on this buyer and put it back on the market and get another one.\u201d
Well, what if we lose them? We\u2019ve already lost them. They just haven\u2019t said that. This is what no other agents are doing because they don\u2019t have these systems. Then once the house sold, there was a whole another stuff. Making sure that the stuff got taken out of our client\u2019s name and put it into the buyer\u2019s name.
Making sure all the furniture got moved out of the house. Making sure that we marked it in the MLS that is now sold instead of pending. Making sure all the paperwork needed to be getting to the broker went to the right broker. Making sure we got the client a gift. Making sure we put a testimonial up on social media.
All of this stuff you cannot rely on your brain to tell you. You have to do all of it. It\u2019s the same way when I buy a rental property. It\u2019s the same way when I hire a person\u2019s work in the teams. You\u2019ve got to systemize everything. Now everything I just told you, okay, that\u2019s not enough. That\u2019s just the checklist.
What we then took was we took the checklist and we moved it into our CRM called Brevity, and we created auto plan. What would happen is that chunk of the list, get this stuff ready for David before he goes to the listing presentation was put in the CRM and saved as an auto plan.
Krista would check a box that would say like 123 Main Street pre-listing presentation or whatever, and it would automatically populate a series of reminders to tell her this needs to be done, this needs to be done, and then we could assign it to another employee.
If we had a listing coordinator, Krista would put the information into Brevity, check the box. The listing coordinator would get a reminder of the 12 things that had to be done to get me ready to go. Okay. Then after the stuff was signed, we would come back and she would check the next box that would say, listing pre-active, or whatever we called it.
Then all those reminders that were in the Google Doc automatically go to the right person on the team, and now they know with all that they need to do all those steps. Krista or me could look and see, are they doing their job? Are they checking things off? Is it going where it needs to go? It was beautiful.
It took all the memory out of it, which is how we got to the point that we could sell 50 homes with a handful of admin staff at a time. I had 53 houses in escrow at the peak with me and three other admin as well as just the agents, and it was running beautifully. Okay.
This is how systems need to work. Now, obviously none of that happens right away. We still refine these systems because occasionally something goes wrong that we never anticipated and we go add something to the system to say, \u201cOkay. Now we have to add this in here, or we need to take something out.\u201d That doesn\u2019t happen anymore.
That\u2019s how it involved in one area of my life, just a real estate agent. I put a lot of the stuff in the books I wrote for BiggerPockets Sold Skill and Scale, which you guys can buy at the BiggerPockets bookstore if you\u2019re agents.
If you\u2019re investors, this is stuff I teach to other people with the spreadsheets I have, like offers written, offers accepted, closed, closed under rehab, closed needing furniture, like all the different stages of when I\u2019m buying properties so that Krista and I and whatever admin we have can keep up with it.
This is why I tell you guys real estate is work. It\u2019s not like, \u201cOh, I bought a house and I\u2019m done.\u201d You still got to do a lot of stuff and these systems are what\u2019s so powerful. Thank you John for letting me go on a 15-minute explanation of how systems are born and evolved.
I could do an entire podcast about this, maybe an entire series of podcasts because they\u2019re so important. As you\u2019re listening, I just want to remind you, don\u2019t expect to get it right on the first try. Systems are evolved, just like John said, they are developed. They aren\u2019t just something that boom, you snap your fingers and say, \u201cHey. Can I have your spreadsheet of all your systems?\u201d and think you\u2019re going to be done. It\u2019s not like that.
All right, everybody. That was our show for today. Thank you so much for joining us on today\u2019s Seeing Greene episode. I love doing these and I love even more that you guys are submitting your video questions as well as your written questions for me to answer.
Please remember to take a minute to leave a comment on the YouTube channel as well as like, share and subscribe and let me know what did you think about today\u2019s show. You could follow more of me at DavidGreene24. I\u2019m on social media everywhere as well as YouTube.
If you want to meet in person and you\u2019re too shy to submit a video, go to davidgreene24.com\/retreats where you can check out ways that you can meet with me. We can talk about real estate. I can help you in your journey. We can get to know each other and we can form that community that is so necessary for people to get lonely.
Thanks a lot guys. BiggerPockets has lots of content out there. Check out another one of our videos if you have some time. If not, I will see you next week.<\/p>\n