2023 Year Review: The Naked Truth of My Real Estate Investing Year

Commercial Real Estate Investing From A-Z

What went right and what went wrong in 2023? Which goals did I accomplish and what have I failed on? Since a lot of you have been following my career for a few years I thought it would be good to share the things that went right and wrong in 2023.

My goals for 2023 were to purchase 6 properties worth $5M each and get one land ready for development in CA. My other goal was to sell or convert the car washes. Here is what I accomplished:

I accomplished 3 properties worth $5M, and this was in a partnership with 2 different people that helped me get there, so this is a fractional ownership of these opportunities and not exactly what I had in mind, my goal was for me to have sourced, closed on and operated the deal, along with my investors. And this was a partnership with a couple of other parties.

I also accomplished closing on another property that was part of my 2022 goals. This property took a long time to close because it was off market, and the seller was not organized, he hadn’t done his taxes for 3 years and it was like pulling teeth to get him to file his taxes. It took almost one year to close on this property and we are at least doubling the value of it in the next few months. The best way to describe the closing on this property is with two words: follow up. This is something I reiterate often in this podcast because nobody follows up. Only a few successful people follow up with me, and if you want to get something done, or a relationship built, you must follow up, period. Especially with someone that is busy, they get so many requests, emails and people trying to reach out to them. The only way to stand out is by following up.

What went wrong in 2023:

The car washes are not doing well because I am not a car wash operator nor do I want to be one. After my best employee had to leave due to personal issues, it went downhill, people started stealing, breaking in, things started to break and the list of things that needed fixing started to pile up. I am actually grateful for it because I learned quite a few things such as: don't ever invest in a new asset class that you know nothing about. If you find a property in a good city, make sure that the property is in a good part of town. This will save a lot of headache and potential issues.

I am also still not making what I was making at my sales job. I fully expect to make what I was making in 2024. One of the ways I will be doing that is partnering up with someone that has build many properties before and we will get land in contract, get them entitled for building either storage or multi-family and sell the entitlement.

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