Jeff, What Do You Do?
I met Jeff Brown last year on the telephone. After an hour or so of questions, we decided to work together. Somewhere within that hour, I asked the “What do you do?” question. Jeff had a wonderful answer. “I make people wealthy, and help them reach their retirement dreams.” Jeff didn’t need any lessons in conversation from this writer-business girl.
I liked Jeff right away. He is integrity, intelligence, and intuitive detail about his business. Last week, this week, before taxes seemed an appropriate time to interview Jeff about his business. You’ll note that neither Jeff nor I suggest that you invest your millions without developing a plan that you fully understand.
Let’s begin.
Jeff, why should someone have a real estate investment advisor? How can a RE advisor help plan my retirement?
Essentially when you begin anything as crucially important as investing for your retirement, you want to ensure you have the answers you need when you need them. The greatest value a real estate investment advisor brings to the table is answering questions you didnââ¬â¢t know to ask. Thereââ¬â¢s very little planning you can execute when you donââ¬â¢t even know the questions.
Your advisor should understand how to create a Purposeful Plan for your retirement. He or she should be able to integrate financing, proper cash reserves, where to invest the capital, (what region) along with what kind of real estate makes the most sense. And those are just the basics.
The ability to simultaneously understand the appropriate tax law, including 1031 tax deferred exchange, various depreciation approaches – including cost segregation. Maybe the most important skill is being able to get the timing right when making moves with all or parts of your real estate portfolio.
This next piece of advice may surprise you ââ¬â especially coming from a real estate guy. The very essence of retirement, at least financially, is nothing if not lots and lots of monthly income ââ¬â and it better be reliable. Towards the onset of retirement I have many of my clients convert some of their equity into investments outside of real estate. Why? Because these specific investments, offered by another segment of the investment community, produce the pure gold retirees long for ââ¬â annual TAX FREE income — for life.
In the end, your real estate investment advisor should be able to be the Captain of your retirement ship, navigating you to the retirement youââ¬â¢ve always dreamed of. He should be able to plot a course, and weather troubling seas. He should be able to adjust on the run, and in real time, because Murphy is alive and well.
It might help to know what a real estate investment advisor isnââ¬â¢t. He isnââ¬â¢t a real estate agent who sells houses one day, and the next heââ¬â¢s an investment expert. Iââ¬â¢ll make an absolute statement of fact here, unfettered by any wiggle room ââ¬â there is no such animal. The necessary training to be an effective advisor is almost daunting itââ¬â¢s so comprehensive. Tax law, after tax cash flow analysis, demographic trends, proper structuring of transactions, and a myriad of other factors.
And even though I have that training, plus almost 40 years of experience, I still have specialists in several fields just a phone call away. Retirement is too important to be ââ¬Ëpretty sureââ¬â¢. Doing things on purpose has to be the bedrock principle of everything you do when investing for your retirement. There are very few happy accidents.
Okay, so now I get the part of what Jeff does, well sort of. . . . He guides real estate investments so that I can retire with cash to live as well or better than I did when I was working.
In Part 2, we’re going to talk about the two myths that get in the way of most folks being able to retire with out having to supplement their cash income.
Thanks Jeff. This is important stuff.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Jeff writes at his own blog BawldGuy Talking and is a contributor at the Bloodhound Realty blog. Jeff will be attending SOBCon 07 in Chicago on May 11-12.
Jeff is indeed one of the good ones. I’ve been reading both of you for quite some time. It kinda freaked me out to see him on here when I went through the feed reader this morning….
Jeff is well informed and his blog is certainly worthwhile. I hate people who come to me and pitch , so if you want to remove this comment, I understand, but I just wanted to let you know about a resource we developed called BiggerPockets Real Estate Investment Community – http://www.biggerpockets.com . The site offers tons of free tools, articles, resources, investment property listings, a real estate chatroom, very active forums, and an investment blog. I think you’ll find it helpful in learning more about investing. Everything is free, so you’ve got nothign to lose!
Good luck to you and all my best.
Hi Jay!
Life sort of changes when you realize that the world is your community. 🙂
Joshua,
I understand, I think. Though I can’t help but wonder why you would do something you say you hate. 🙂
I’m looking forward to the rest of this interview. We are looking at getting started expanding our “portfolio” [has trouble saying that word with a straight face in his current financial situation] to include an investment property.
Hi Chris,
I know how you feel. You can go to Jeff’s blog and get a free case study there. Go to
http://www.bawldguy.com/ and in the sidebar click “Free Case Study” or go to http://www.brownandbrowninc.com/ and get free white paper report. 🙂
And Chris, whenever we’re at Starbucks, I’ll buy. 🙂
What’s this??? What’s this???
Chris is getting coffee and I’m getting the ????
I feel like i’m the kid with the two big brothers again.
At the conference when I’m present, you’ll never buy a drink! Of course I realize I’ll have to stand in line. 🙂
Yeah, I know, I’ll be standing behind those folks who will be trying to buy Chris drinks too. Oh well. 🙂
Retirement planning is the most important thing a person can do. I wish I had learned that early on in life. It is never too early to begin planning for it. You hear me? Never.
Carma,
You have said it! It is never too soon to start letting your money go to work for you.
Hi Jeff,
I have 4 rental properties, 2 are 2 family houses and 2 3 family. 10 apts all together.
Right now I am in a situation where my income is smaller than my expenses. In other words
there is negative cash flow.
At some point in the near future my savings are going to dry out, so this is a time bomb waiting to explode.
I would like to keep the properties for another few years to get them thru this difficult real estate crisis.
Can you comment on this and give me some advise?
Best regards,
Cesar
Cesar — My advice would have little to do with our current monthly operations, as painful as they are. If you have real net equity in these properties, then I’d be able to help you turn things around — at least potentially.
Contact me through my blog, and we’ll talk.
Hi Jeff,I was not aware of your response until now.
Thank you for contacting me so quickly.
Where do I go to get your comments?
How do I access your blog?
Cesar — Just go to my blog, http://www.bawldguy.com/ and click on the Contact Bawldguy thingy. 🙂