Listening vs Talking

When people do business, they are usually always talking and selling. Frankie Herrera, however, takes the opposite approach. Frankie’s strategy is to get in front of the investors and listen in order to understand the problem and then provide a solution that’s mutually beneficial.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE Q&A:

[13:55] Does Frankie have a specific formula to determine if the property is a good investment?

Frankie does not have a specific formula but instead looks at the big picture. Ultimately, it just has to make sense. Frankie likes to physically be there to see the property and the surrounding area to get a gut feeling as well as to see what the comps are saying.

[18:05] How does Frankie find the people he can help?

In 2014 he bought into a franchise called HomeVestors. For advertising, they do mass mail marketing, TV spots, billboards, and pay-per-click — all on a very large schedule. There are 34 local franchises, and they pool their money together to be the “100 pound gorilla” in the room.

[24:05] How does Frankie acquire capital?

Frankie maintains very clean and understandable books/financials so that banks can look and easily see it’s a good investment. This really helps to get good size lines of credit. They leverage those lines of credit as well as their own money from their property management company.

[30:30] How is the market right now?

It’s hard to read the market so they do a lot of testing. They buy a lot of property and throw it out there wholesale to see how the investors are doing.

[33:20] Any advice for Newbies?

Pay attention and listen to absolutely everything that’s out there. Try to stay in a relatively safe place. Don’t feel like you have to shoot for a home run on your first one. Start hitting singles. Singles turn into doubles and triples, and then your home runs will come. Focus on one thing at a time. Be careful of the amount you will improve a property. You will not be living there, so don’t get wrapped up in too many improvements. Don’t over-improve the property.

About Our Guest

Our guest this week is Frankie Herrera. Frankie has a B.A. in Finance from the University of South Florida. He started his career as a project manager for Volunteers of America Florida in 2006 where he learned building construction. In 2009 he furthered his career by joining Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.

In 2011 he started Partners Associated in Development by Herrera, LLC at HomeVestors – where his team has bought, rehabbed, rented, and sold over 300 properties.

In 2016, he opened up RealVest Florida, LLC – a boutique real estate brokerage. In 2017, he opened up Versant Managmeent Group, LLC – a property management group which manages properties for local investors.

Investor Resources

If you would like to contact Frankie Herrera, you can can reach him at directly at 813-944-3908 or 813-966-9734. Frankie can help you with you with questions about deals, the area, how things are going, looking for a house, property management, retail real estate and investments.

Opportunity Zone Program

The Opportunity Zone Program can provide a big financial gain for investors through generous capital gains tax incentives. Since the Opportunity Zone program is so new (late 2017), relatively few investors are familiar with it.

The tax overhaul bill that was passed in late 2017 contained the Investing in Opportunity Act, which established the Opportunity Zone program consisting of Opportunity Zones and Funds. The program was created to revitalize economically distressed communities using private investments rather than taxpayer dollars. In exchange for investing in communities within Qualified Opportunity Zones, investors can access capital gains tax incentives both immediately and over the long term.

As an example, if you sell a piece of property and use the entire proceeds to invest in an Opportunity Zone Fund or a qualified Opportunity Zone Business, and you hold that investment for 10 years, 100% of your capital gains tax liability goes away.

Of course, you do need to use due diligence. Don’t make real estate investments based primarily on tax incentives or as tax avoidance strategy. The real estate investment needs to make sense, and any tax incentives should just be the icing on the cake.

In this episode, Steven Rinaldi will answer such questions as:

What exactly are Opportunity Zones?
What are the benefits of Opportunity Zones?
Where do I find Opportunity Zones?
What do I need to do to start an Opportunity Zone Fund?
How do Opportunity Zones compare to 1031 exchanges?

About Our Guest

Our guest this week is Steven Rinaldi, who has his own law firm in downtown Bethesda concentrating on business law and intellectual property matters. Prior to September 2005 he was a software licensing attorney for Mercury Interactive, was the associate general counsel of the American Bankers Association, and was responsible for all business agreements for a $30 million dollar a year division of the association. He handles all kinds of real estate related activities such as private placement, angel investment, venture capital, merges & acquisitions, technology issues, crowdfunding, and more.

Steven was a previous guest in Episode 132 and spoke about What You Need to Know About Investing in Real Estate Securities.

Investor Resources

Want to find out more about the Opportunity Zone Program? You can contact Steven Rinaldi through email at stevendrinaldi@msn.com or by phone at (204) 481-2708. You can also check out his website here.

Each state’s economic authority has a list of Opportunity Zones. Click here to link to Florida’s Opportunity Zone Program as discussed in the podcast.