
In this episode, Brian and John welcome Mike Rodriguez to talk about investing in commercial real estate. Mike owns rental units and has recently jumped into commercial real estate brokerage. He operates in Columbus and has been a full-time broker for about a year. Mike discusses work/life balance, his infatuation with commercial real estate, and the difference between the deals he does and residential ones. He also discusses some new initiatives that can be utilized for investing.
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Covered Topics:
- Why Mike prefers investing in commercial property rather than residential.
- Delays that Mike sees commonly in commercial deals.
- Mike’s daily activities and long-term goals.
- Programs that can help you find great investment opportunities.
- The rapidly growing city of Columbus.
Show Notes:
- 00:59 - Recent happenings.
- Working on some refinances to stabilize properties because of a possible correction in the market.
- Expanding into Dayton.
- 02:33 - Introducing Mike Rodriguez.
- Mike’s early days of investing and how he met John.
- Getting the “real estate bug” after his first deal.
- Joining commercial real estate firm SVN.
- Why Mike was motivated to leave his former job.
- 05:00 - Being drawn towards the commercial side.
- Seeing businesses that support communities and influence how they live.
- The differences between residential and commercial real estate practices.
- The average transaction time of a commercial sale.
- 08:41 - Common things that delay a commercial sale.
- Reasons that the bank may need to do some additional underwriting.
- Bigger properties mean longer wait times.
- Lenders having confidence that a flipper can perform.
- 11:06 - What Mike’s average day looks like.
- The daily goals that Mike has.
- Long-term goals that Mike has for investing and brokerage.
- Insight from John about setting goals in the real estate space.
- 14:37 - Programs that Mike is interested in recently.
- The Opportunity Zones program that is used to attract investors into various neighborhoods.
- Seeing lucrative opportunity zones despite the program being labelled as “low-income.”
- 20:00 - The program marketing single-family, residential portfolios to commercial buyers enacted by SVN.
- Assembling portfolios for commercials buyers and being a “one-stop shop.”
- The software that SVN has developed for this process.
- The biggest challenge for Brian and John in this type of investment.
- Changes in different industries that this program could cause.
- Cultural shifts in the perception of renting.
- 28:08 - Statistics on investing in Columbus.
- The size of the city.
- Job growth and wage growth numbers.
- The diversity of industries in Columbus.
- The attractiveness of Columbus for startups.
- 32:41 - The Volcano Round.
- What is Mike’s favorite book about business or real estate or in general that he has read lately?
- What does Mike think he’ll be doing in 20 years?
- If Mike had a business genie, what would he wish for right now?
- What is something that Mike wishes he started sooner?
Topic Takeaways
- Commercial real estate deals have a larger payout, but with a longer wait time.
- Research programs that can give you an advantage in property investing.
- Columbus is one of the best cities in the United States to invest in right now.
Tweetable Quotes
“The goal here is not to keep working for the rest of our lives, the goal is to create some sort of a solution that eventually we’re taking an income when we’re not working.” (Tweet This!)
“My daily goals are to be a deal facilitator… and being out in the marketplace. If I’m not doing those two things, then I’m not really performing as a broker should.” (Tweet This!)
“Investment into single-family is almost two times the amount investment into multi-family in the past two years. It’s a growing segment.” (Tweet This!)
