Here’s How to Start and Scale a $650 Real Estate Company

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to build a real estate empire worth $650 million. You have to put in years of hard work, dedication, and strategic planning. As Brandon Turner, founder of BiggerPockets, shows, it’s possible.

Who is Brandon Turner?

In case you’re not familiar with Brandon Turner, he’s a real estate investor, podcaster, author, entrepreneur, and speaker. In addition to hosting the BiggerPockets podcast, Brandon is widely recognized as one of the best real estate investing experts. He’s also the author of several best-selling books, such as; “The Book on Rental Property Investing,” “The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down,” “The Book on Managing Rental Properties,” and “How to Invest in Real Estate.”

He’s also the founder and managing member of Open Door Capital LLC, a private, well-capitalized real estate investment firm that helps clients acquire value-added assets nationwide at superior returns.

Throughout this blog post, Brandon shares his insights on how to grow a real estate investing business. More importantly, this leads to passive investments so you can live the life you want.

Be clear on your goals and have a plan.

What’s the first step to making money in real estate? It’s to set clear goals and develop a plan for how to achieve them.

If you’re stuck, you might want to answer the following questions:

• How do you want your real estate investing business to grow?
• Would you like to buy a few rental properties and earn passive income?
• What about building a big commercial portfolio?

Brandon realized he could buy assets and over time, they would make him more money, and he could do whatever he wanted.

After all, “life is more than sitting in a cubicle until you’re too old to enjoy yourself”, he says.

The next step is to figure out how you’re going to get there. You’ll need to set financial goals identify target markets, and come up with a sourcing and acquisition strategy.

Start small and scale gradually.

When building a real estate empire, it’s important to start small and scale gradually. As you learn, you will be able to minimize your risk.

Additionally, to get going, you don’t need a lot of money. Buying real estate with little or no money down is possible in many ways.

The more properties you acquire, the more you will be able to scale your business; once you have a good understanding of the real estate market.

For example, in phase one Brandon was making $3,000 to $4,000 a month in profit. “In there, I bought a 24-unit but that put me over the edge. I bought a duplex, then a triplex, then a couple of houses, and then I bought a 24-unit with seller finance since I don’t have to get a loan on it,” he adds. Since the contract was carried out, there was no need for a large down payment.”

Build a strong team.

One person can’t build a successful real estate empire on your own. The key to a successful property management business is to assemble a team of professionals who can handle everything from financing to property management.

Your team must include real estate brokers, lenders, and property managers with extensive experience. Your investment strategy may also benefit from the help of a financial advisor.

“I hired my buddy as like basically CEO essentially, and he then hired some VPs who then brought in some more people,” explains Branson. “And we had five or six people on the team.”

“To build a $50 million portfolio, what do you need? You need a guy who analyzes like an underwriter”, he adds. Plus, you need someone who knows how to find deals and manage everything. There needs to be someone in charge of asset management. “You need maybe a bookkeeper, somebody to handle the money side of it, maybe an investor relations guy to handle like talking to investors about raising the money.”

Plus, when you have a strong team under you, you can work however much you want. For Brandon, that’s just five hours a week.

Leverage your network.

It is very important to leverage your network to find deals and scale your business. Find out what other investors, lenders, and property owners are doing. Attend conferences and events related to your industry. As you gain more contacts, you will be able to take advantage of more opportunities.

As an example, Yeshua, Brandon’s friend, started Kiawe Outdoor as a side gig. One of the business events Brandon attended impressed him with the connections and camaraderie formed.

Brandon became close to Yeshua and hosted masterminds at Kiawe Outdoor. He also hosted two $50k dinners at Kiawe Outdoor in Austin. This led to more meaningful relationships and other opportunities for Brandon.

In life, Brandon says it’s important to have peak experiences. These are the moments when people feel connected and elevated. He believes that curating peak experiences with amazing people can change your life.

Be patient and persistent.

It takes time and patience to build a successful real estate empire. It won’t happen overnight. There will inevitably be setbacks along the way as well. You will eventually achieve your goals if you remain persistent and disciplined.

If we raise more money, Brandon says, his business can have people begging to invest. “I mean, like we could sit and not take it, which would be fine. Or I could scale and I could go into apartments,” he explains.

“And I’m excited to see people which I will buy $10 billion of real estate in the next decade”, Brandon adds. “That’s the vision. So, $10 billion in 10 years.”

To build a real estate empire as large as Brandon’s, implement the following strategies:

• Focus on buying undervalued properties. Brandon searches for properties listed below market value. As a result, he has a cushion in case the market falls.
• Use creative financing strategies. You can acquire properties using a variety of creative financing strategies, including seller financing and hard money loans. If you do this, you may be able to purchase properties without putting down a lot of money.
• Scale your business by raising money from other investors. The purchase of real estate may be financed by different investors, for example. As a result, you may be able to purchase larger and more expensive properties.
• Build relationships with other real estate professionals. With the help of lenders, brokers, and property managers, Brandon has built strong relationships. By doing this, he has been able to close deals more quickly and scale his business more quickly

Take Brandon’s lead if you’re serious about building a successful real estate empire. Plan ahead, start small, build a strong team, leverage your network, and be patient and persistent.

To help you scale your real estate empire, here are some additional tips:

• Automate as much as possible. As a result, you will have more time to focus on finding deals and managing your properties.
• Use technology to your advantage. You can streamline your business operations by using software programs and tools.
• Outsource tasks that you need more time for. A few examples include property management, bookkeeping, and marketing.
• Join forces with other investors. Using this method, you can acquire larger properties and pool your resources.

It takes hard work, dedication, and strategic planning to build a $650 million real estate empire. However, these tips are designed to help you set yourself up for success.

Want to hear more about this? Listen to the whole podcast episode here