Your team members are even more important than local investors: not only should they be fluent in real estate investing and in the local market, but they also should be ready for out-of-country investors: they should be tech savvy, good communicators, and not easily offended by miscommunications resulted from cultural differences.
When I think of our team, I like to think of them in two: the growth team, which is responsible for helping us purchase and finance our deals, and the maintenance team, which is responsible for managing, leasing, and handling service calls.
Before we dive deeper into each of the team members, there are a few things essential to mention:
When acquiring new properties, we will be in touch more often with the growth team, and other times we will be in touch with the maintenance team.
The growth team is easier to replace should there be an issue.
Although it is easy to have a few roles serviced by the same team member (i.e., an agent and a PM, a PM, and renovations), it is also not the best practice.
We should have a few service providers for each role at all times (a few PMs, a few agents, etc.) for stability.
We should maintain a list of all providers we encounter to be able to switch relatively fast if the time comes.
So, without further ado, let's dive into the team members.
Growth team
Our growth team consists of members that help us grow and scale up. These members will help us to find, negotiate, and fund our deals.
Deal finding team
The deal-finding team includes anyone who brings us deals - agents, wholesalers, listing sites like Zillow, and even ourselves with various techniques - doorknocking, bandit signs, cold calling, and more.
Purchase team
The team that helps us purchase our deal includes anyone who will take the deal from being under contract to inspecting the property until it is ours.
Note that responsibilities change between the title, the legal team, and the agent based on the state you invest in.
Finance team
Our finance team includes anyone with money that can lend us to complete the deal. The financing can come with the purchase or at a later stage after stabilization as a refinance. We will include private money lenders, hard money lenders, banks, federal unions, mortgage brokers, and more.
Note that we can also ask the seller to carry the note; in this case, our finance team includes the seller.
Maintenance team
Our maintanence team will include anyone that participate in the communication with the tenants and with the units after acquisition.
General Contractor
The general contractor or contractors are the ones that will fix your property up when things break and can include any contractor: from a foundation contractor to roofers and anything in between.
For out-of-country investors, at least at the beginning, it is wise to have a project manager on payroll to manage big projects - collect bids, negotiate prices, and keep an eye on the day-to-day job.
Property Manager
The property manager is one of the most critical pieces of our team. They talk with the tenants monthly, collect our rent, get and handle service requests, lease the units, and more.
Eventually, they can make an okay property to cash flow with care to the tenants and the investor's budget or run an excellent property to the ground with poor management.
Insurance
While we accumulate properties, we can also work with an insurance agent instead of shopping around with various insurance companies. The agent will shop around for us and can find us a good insurance company that will meet our criteria while simplifying the payment, renewal, and tracking of things.
The most critical team member?
We ask ourselves who is the most critical piece of the team. The internet decided that it's the property manager as they are doing essential and hard work - they keep your tenants in, your property in good shape, and your CAPEX low.
While we agree with that, we also see the agent as a critical role in the business for rental owners. We plan to buy and then hold the property for a while, and as out-of-country investors, we should make sure you are buying the right properties on the right side of town.
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