In this part I will cover getting the loan for the portfolio of properties, the LLC formation, hiring, as well as dealing with challenges.

You can read this entire episode here: https://bit.ly/341nXip

Loan

The first lender that gave us a loan approval initially gave us a loan approval with an extremely unreasonable request, which was to basically tie up cash until we pay out the loan, this gave us no reason to get a loan. What I did when I got that news was that I asked to set up a call right away with the loan agent. We got on a call, I explained everything, not only from the property side, but also from my experience side and how, we have a ton of mentors, how I have access to hundreds of people, and all of that. You really need to show them that you are resourceful, that you are a professional and also a lot of times that you were successful in your previous career. It was a quick call, it was I think, a 15 minute call. After that, the loan officer scheduled a call with the president of the bank, and I told him the exact same thing. I asked them if they had any questions, etc. Shortly after that, we got the approval, that was probably the next day or two.

LLC

First I decided to break it down into two LLC's, one for the car washes and one for the Self Storage. This is purely for liability reasons. And with this decision, we had to change our closing date by about seven to 10 days. Because the lender had to rewrite all of the loan documents, the title company had to rewrite everything and divide into two entities. So that took a little bit longer. Ideally, in the future, you need to make that decision in the beginning, because we also had to sign another offer, breaking it down into two entities, even though when I signed the offer, it was under our name and/or assignee, which means we can assign this to anybody.

Hiring

We had someone in mind, but that person didn't even return my call when I left him a message, and the real estate agent had to remind him to call me back. So that was the very first red flag for me. And then after that, he showed up late for our very first meeting on site. And that was my second and last red flag. Some of you may know this, but there is a saying that says "hire slow, fire fast". You should take your time in finding the right person for the job, and do a really good job with the interview. And there are great resources out there. One of the books that I love is called "Hired", highlight everything that you can in that book, it is super helpful for hiring. And then on the firing fast side, people do not change. And I have seen that over and over again. And because this guy wasn't returning my very first call after we had agreed on him managing the property, and he was also late for our very first meeting, those were huge red flags for me. I decided not to work with that person.

Challenges

Nine days after closing on the properties, the roof in one of the car washes caved because of snow. Honestly, I was not scared when he told me that. I said, Okay, this is part of the game. Nine days, whoo. I'm thrown in the wringer. I made a claim with the insurance company right away. And I cannot talk much yet about the insurance because the project has not being completed. But all I can say is that I am very pleased with Nationwide, they really are by your side. This company has been phenomenal with the claim that we made literally nine days after closing. About 20 days later, the main maintenance guy quit. I started searching for staffing agencies in the city, posted an ad on Craigslist, and hired someone the next day. It was a blessing in disguise.

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