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.