Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into real estate investing ?
You do a lot of wholesaling , fixing and flipping . Are you involved in other types of real estate investing such as nonperforming notes , commercial real estate , vacation homes , etc .?
HOW TO GET STARTED INVESTING IN DISTRESSED REAL ESTATE LEX LEVINRAD
Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into real estate investing ?
I was a stockbroker and money manager for about 12 years prior to getting involved in real estate . That all ended in 2000 when the Nasdaq crashed and I essentially lost all of my money and most of my clients ’ money too . That experience was one of the lowest points of my life . It was then that I decided that I wanted to pursue something else other than the stock market .
After arriving in Florida I met a guy who specialized in investing in foreclosures and buying houses at the court house . I became friendly with him and I ended up working for him and his partner for two years . I learned a lot from that experience and I highly recommend working underneath an investor like I did in order to learn as much as possible . That experience was my “ apprenticeship ” and I learned so much from both him and his partner over those two years . Finally , after two years , I had the courage to go off on my own . I still have a great relationship with them and they are close friends .
About a year later , I saw a late night TV infomercial called “ No Money Down ” by Carlton Sheets and decided to purchase it . That experience led me to a few real estate investing boot camps and seminars where I used my credit cards to spend money that I did not have , to learn more about investing in real estate . It was at one of these events that I first heard about the book “ Rich Dad Poor Dad ” by Robert Kiyosaki . After reading that book everything started making more sense and falling in to place .
I decided that I wanted to make investing in rental properties my career choice . I decided to move my family from Los Angeles California to Florida because rental properties were much more affordable in Florida than they were in California .
You do a lot of wholesaling , fixing and flipping . Are you involved in other types of real estate investing such as nonperforming notes , commercial real estate , vacation homes , etc .?
I believe in specializing in one area and becoming an expert in that area . My focus was and has been single family rental properties and I have spent the past 13 years specializing in buying , fixing , flipping and selling single family rental properties primarily in Florida . With regards to commercial real estate we buy duplexes , triplexes and small multifamily properties up to around 20 units . We also purchase nonperforming first mortgage notes directly from the banks ’ Loss Mitigation departments and after acquiring these notes we typically foreclose and get the deed to the properties .