201: From Russia With Love for Real Estate Investing

SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 201: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTING

Immigrating from Russia to the U.S. as a teenager, joining the U.S. Navy and earning a technology degree in the evenings while in the military, were just a few of the many accomplishments of this 31 year old “accidental” real estate investor.  In today’s podcast episode, Anton Ivanov shares how, after completing 6 years of active duty in the military, getting a job as a software engineer and becoming an accidental landlord, he loves real estate investing and sees it as the key to his retirement in the next 4 years.

What You Will Learn

• Why quitting your full-time job should not be your first priority
• How to educate yourself in real estate investing
• Why having a full-time job can be your best strategy to growing a rental property portfolio quickly
• Where to find strong cash flowing properties
• The importance of building a strong out-of-state team
• Creative tricks to locate great off-market properties
• How to tell the maximum purchase price you can offer a property
• The value of acquiring multiple properties quickly

About Our Guest

Anton Ivanov

Anton Ivanov is a real estate investor and entrepreneur with a 35 unit rental portfolio spread out across 4 states.  His portfolio generates $10,000+ in monthly passive cash flow and is a cornerstone of his plans to retire early at age 35.  He is also the founder of DealCheck – the leading real estate analysis software used by over 50,000 investors and agents to quickly analyze and compare investment properties.

More About ANTON

• Currently lives in San Diego, California with his wife
• Originally from Moscow, Russia.
• His family migrated to U.S. when he was fifteen (15) years old.
• Joined the U.S. Navy right after high school and served 6 years in active duty mostly spent in Japan where he was deployed.
• Has a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology
• Acquired his knowledge in software engineering basically as self-taught
• Initially, he obtained online courses on software development during his military service in Japan.
• His parents passed away in 2008, while he was serving in the military, and left him with a condo.
• Anton decided to hold on to the condo and rent it out to generate additional income while in the military.
• After military service in 2013, he continued taking more courses on software engineering and web development, did several sci-projects to build his resume and get hired as full-time software engineer.
• Being in transition from military service to civilian, he was able to compare the historical numbers on returns for each kind of investment and realize that rental property is very unique in the sense that it can generate a very strong cash flow while it appreciates in value.
• He became more interested in real estate that can create cash flow and can deliver high returns from 15% to 20% in many cases and is much better than equity and stock investment, which can only generate 6% – 8% rate of return, historically.
• This open his eyes with which asset class to focus on and would work well for his plans to early retirement and build passive income, thus he started looking for more properties to buy locally.

Becoming an Investor

• He liked how the condo provided him with cash flow and started looking for other investment properties in the San Diego area while working full-time as a software engineer
• He began educating himself in real estate investing and spent 6-8 months to build a knowledge foundation before his first property acquisition by reading online and few books.
• Before he finally decided to focus on buying rental properties, he went in meet ups with local investment clubs, networking with local investors online – BiggerPockets.com, and collect different opinions and strategies on the possible ways in making money in real estate.
• Would connect with people he would meet on BiggerPockets.com and invite them for coffee.
• Found a duplex, purchased it with a VA loan (8% down) and moved into one of the units with his wife.  Did a lot of rehab
• This is Anton’s real firsthand experience with real estate from start to finish (e.g. escrow, purchase, rehab, property management).
• Anton and his wife both work full-time and are able to save 60-70% of their income to grow their rental property portfolio
• It was a mathematical decision for Anton to start putting more money on rental property.  Anton believes on diversification and, this is a good way to diversify.
• Real Estate has always been a means of investing and growth for Anton.
• Set a goal to obtain 50 units by the time he is 40 years of age
• With focus on cash flowing market, Anton started learning about other market across the states.  Having figured out high prices with in California with relatively low rent, Anton deviated from this market and look on other states with strong cash flow with good economic population, job growth, historical numbers that will drive up prices
• Started looking at emerging out-of-state properties (Atlanta, Kansas City, Birmingham, AL and cities in Texas)
• Bought 4 turn-key properties. turn-key single-family home model to give him safety net, less risk, and allowing him to bypass all other ground works since he doesn’t have a team yet at that time:
  • 1 SFR in Atlanta
  • 3 SFRs in Birmingham, AL

 Anton’s Real Estate Investing Today

• After deciding on diversifying out of state, the bulk of his portfolio is now centered in Kansas City.
• Kansas City was an open and dry market at that time with lots of inventory and few investors.
• He built his local team (brokers, agents, contractors, property managers)
• Started buying mostly 4-plexes.
• Anton is looking into buying larger multifamily units e.g. 10-20 unit buildings and complexes to scale faster and make management more efficient.
• Currently, Anton has 35 units –
  • One in Atlanta
  • Three in Birmingham
  • One Condo Unit in San Diego
  • One Duplex in San Diego
  • Twenty-Eight (28) units in Kansas City
• All the properties he obtained in Kansas City have been off-market properties:
  • Sent out 80 – 100 Direct Mail to targeted market which is personalized
    • Personalized hand-written letters
    • Included actual offer price
  • Built relationships with a local broker where he got off-market “pocket listings”

Biggest Mistake

• Wish he started investing in real estate earlier
• Lost time is what Anton considered his biggest regret.
• He realized that owning a property longer enough you will start seeing those compounded interest growth, price appreciation, rent increases.
• Basically, the longer you delay, the more difficult to get big a snowball rolling.

Biggest Success

• The deals he acquired in Kansas City
• Moving into multifamily within the last 18 months
• Growing his portfolio at a rapid pace while maintaining great returns in capital.

Advice for Old Dawgs Interested in Getting Started With Real Estate Investing

• Having savings and good income are your advantage
  • Use savings to buy rental properties
• Live frugal to build your portfolio as fast as you can
• Carefully research potential markets to invest in
• Identify market and properties that cash flow
• Focus on market that has strong cash flow
• Make a decision. Pull the trigger and don’t get stocked in the whole analysis paralysis phase, reading lots of information. Never feel that you are not prepared.
• Buy 5-10 properties

The DEAL CHECK App

• Anton was looking for a Mobile calculator to run cash flow projection on rental property that can be used his on phone while driving around attending open houses and being away from computer, but he failed to find anything one, thus he build one and created DealCheck
• It started as a side-project that grew popularity and basically helps to project the cash flow of the property as a basis if it will be a good investment or not.
• Deal Check is basically a property analysis tool similar to BiggerPockets calculator with extra features like importing data from the MLS and offer calculator that can tell you the maximum purchase price you can offer for the house.
• It can be used online or web, IOS and android.
• Leading real estate analysis software used by fifty thousand (50,000) investors and agents to quickly analyze rental property, flips, commercial, residential, and multi-family buildings and compare investment property.
• It is free to use for basic version.  To obtain the app, click here: DealCheck

Where He Sees His Business in the Future

• Anton hopes to retire with his wife at the age of 35, quit his full-time job and have freedom to travel and enjoy other activities that he and his wife have been planning.
• At the time of this interview Anton is 31 years of age.
• Anton believes that together, with his wife, they are right on track and might reach their goal a little sooner than they have expected.
• His original goal is to acquire 50 rental units by the age of 40 will likely go up to 65-75 units
• Continue buying cash flowing properties that will generate good passive income.
• Continue more in a “maintenance mode” with his properties.
• Will focus on paying down the mortgage balances
• Work on growing DealCheck, which Anton started by himself.  He has a team of five (5) and some marketing staff (mostly remote) and continues growing.

Rap-It-Up

• Favorite real estate book: The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
• Favorite business book: The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris
• Most valuable web site for success (other than your own): BiggerPockets.com
• Favorite app: Evernote
• Favorite quote: “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take” – Wayne Gretzky
• If you had to start all over, knowing what you know, and you only had $1,000 cash, what would you do to launch your real estate investing business?  First thing is to get a job.  Start saving and have a stable financial situation to be able to buy real estate property.   Do exactly the same thing that I did.

How to Reach ANTON

• BiggerPockets – Anton Ivanov
• anton@dealcheckio.com

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