Table of Contents
Podcast Transcription
Georges El Masri [00:00:00] Thanks for joining, you’re listening to the well-off podcast, where today I interviewed Mandy Branham for the third time. So for those that don’t know, she is known as the J.V. Queen, and we talked all about joint ventures. So if you are just getting started in real estate investing and you want to learn more about joint ventures, she broke down the 10 steps, 10 steps for JV deals, and we talked about all the basics, everything you need to know to get going. So I think this is a great one for you. We also talked about how she was able to buy multiple cities and places like Kingston, Midland, Hamilton and so many other places. She’s done dozens and dozens of deals over the last couple of years, so very experienced investors and very experienced when it comes to raising capital. So there’s a lot for you guys to learn. I hope you’ll enjoy. And if you do, I just ask you to share this with a friend or family member, somebody who’s going to benefit from tuning in and listening to the episode. And again, if you guys are interested in some deals in Hamilton while St. Catharines, I encourage you to reach out to me. I’ve got a couple of off market opportunities. You are welcome to go to well-off dossier. Contact me through there and I’m happy to connect. Enjoy the episode! Welcome to the Well Off podcast, where the goal is to motivate, inspire and share success principles. I am here for probably the third time with Mandy, Branham, Mandy. I appreciate you coming all the way out to Vaughan to record this. It’s always great to see you. Thank you for joining me today.
Mandy Branham [00:01:27] Thanks for having me. I’m still driving to this podcast soon enough. Storage, I hope to be taking my private jet. Nice.
Georges El Masri [00:01:35] I like that you. You make the effort to, like, come out and be. I just find it so much better in person personally. I feel like you can connect so much better with people that way. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. OK, so let’s talk about where you’re at now. What’s life like for you? How are how’s your family doing? How are the kids?
Mandy Branham [00:01:54] Your life. Is 2020, right? I still get confused. This is 2021. Like there is some and some like, you know, weird the last two years of just kind of gone by. We were busy. We did not stop in all of 2020. If anything, we expanded and took an opportunity to know that there was a new market and we went. My family is, you know, kids are 16 and 18. Meghan went off to school one of my hardest purchases. We bought a small apartment building for her to live in in Toronto when she went to Humber. I yeah, I mean, small
Georges El Masri [00:02:30] apartment building
Mandy Branham [00:02:31] six units. OK, that’s awesome. Purpose built. It’s cute, but again, just really brought back all of the emotions of like, what if this doesn’t close? And it was so much more because she was moving in and the gym and mom, I want to go in. I need to be able to paint and I, you know, so it was a difficult purchase, but I’m glad that that one kind of went through. So she’s going off to school. Jacob is 16. This whole online learning and back and forth, so he I’m happy that he is starting to socialize again. And Larry and I, you know what? It’s just good. We’re still, we’re still. We’re still married.
Georges El Masri [00:03:07] Yeah, that’s great.
Mandy Branham [00:03:08] And yeah, just choosing to we’re changing up the business a little bit, allowing for a little bit less cumbersome small units getting into nothing but big stuff.
Georges El Masri [00:03:20] So yeah, before we started recording, you were telling us kind of what markets you’re in and you’re in a bunch of different markets. Tell us a little bit about how you were able to purchase these properties in like Kingston, Sudbury Midland, all these different areas
Mandy Branham [00:03:36] You know what, I am not afraid of outside of my vicinity. And you know, if this is a huge takeaway of somebody right now is like, Well, I want to be able to buy it in my backyard. I need to be able to drive to it. I need to do my own management. I want to do my own renovations well. I want to blow up that bubble that they’re sitting in right now and go, You know what? Our latest city is Cornwall, and there are some amazing assets out there in great price ranges. I don’t know if I’ve heard and I’ll bleep out my word, but my motto for 2021 is just buy the f an asset like just buy it. People are overthinking their back and forth. You know, I really was like, Well, you know what? I think I’ve decided that London is the city. What do you think? Is that a good city? And I was like, Done, your research is over. Yeah, go and buy the asset now. Like, Stop, stop pretending that you have to research all of these cities. So yes, so I mean, Cornwall, Kingston, Sudbury, Midland Poontang, Orillia, Berry. So my Simcoe County and Hamilton and now Toronto.
Georges El Masri [00:04:36] Yeah, and you’ve been able to do that by kind of working with different people, right? Like I think Barbara and Hamilton, for example, I don’t know who you have in Kingston, but has that worked out well for you?
Mandy Branham [00:04:47] Yes, it did. So an GOCE is my Kingston property expert. Barbara is my Hamilton property expert. I do have some helpers out in Cornwall, up in Sudbury. I went up with a JV. You? The working partner and we created our own property management company up there. We’re now expanding, which is part of something that Larry and I are doing. We’re expanding our construction company so that it can go on a, you know, a provincial wide wherever the jobs are. There’s such a lack of, you know, qualified certified rental contractors. So we’re actually going to create a space and service that need. And so that’s kind of how we did it, but I’m not doing that anymore because it got very cumbersome and lost. I mean, it’s a logistical nightmare is what is what we can describe that as lots of bank accounts, lots of insurance renewals, just a lot, a lot of everything. And it’s great. It’s working. I do have an assistant so that that was new in 2021. She’s been a life saver and without her, I would not be able to do and have what I have right now with the space for me to know that I can, that I can alter away from that now.
Georges El Masri [00:05:58] Okay, so let’s talk about that a little bit because there are certain things that maybe like certain bills that you get, utility bills, certain things you have to kind of take care of is your assistant handling that kind of stuff? Do you give them access to your bank account so that they can pay for bills, that type of thing?
Mandy Branham [00:06:13] I do. I do. Yes, she’s definitely on a trust level. She is my niece and her husband has been my property management manager in Midland for many years. So actually, like both of them were just there. We have this, you know, I have this, you know, if you can’t do a handshake deal and give somebody $50000 on a handshake, then you might want to really question if they’re the ones that you want to go into business with. So she’s definitely a handshake on a $50000, and you start to open up my bank account and you’re like, Whoa, like, what’s kind of going on in here? So, yeah, so she will look after that. No bills aren’t necessarily too often because they’re set up on preauthorize. You know, it takes a little bit. We always talk to our JV partners, be like, OK, for the first three to four months, we’re going to be, you know, still watching the tax bills coming in and the hydro bills and the consistency of rent payments in the property management invoices and stuff. So there’s some stabilization absolutely going on. But once everything’s set up, there’s really not too much that you need to go into a bank account for, except the fridge broke. And so you need to, you know, put that on a MasterCard bill or something like that. Yeah.
Georges El Masri [00:07:20] So what are you delegating to your niece, to your assistant?
Mandy Branham [00:07:24] So a lot of JV communication back and forth. Hey, letting you know all the tenant is moving out on December the 1st, you know? So if you wondered why there was no rent in November, it’s because they’re using their last month’s rent. Hey, we’re switching. We’ve we found a new insurance provider, and so come your renewal. I’m going to, you know, put out the application just to let you know that there might be a little bit of a, you know, an interruption of coverage. They might have questions. Hey, they’re coming up for refinances. That’s a big one, right? They need copies of the leases they need, you know, proof. A lot of the lenders are needing proof of the rental payments going into the bank accounts, so she’ll help out with a lot of stuff like that and my joint venture agreement. So as much as my agreement has been looked over by so many different lawyers, I now have, I think it’s about 15 different spots on a joint venture agreement. Because of the cookie cutter agreement that I have entered into with my JV partners, there’s about 15 spots that need to be changed for names or type of properties, address amount of dollars, things like that, and then a way they go. So she’s been doing up some joint venture agreements as well.
Georges El Masri [00:08:30] OK, cool. So you’ve unloaded a lot or offloaded a lot of things that you don’t need to do that are taking up time and that’s allowed you to go after bigger projects, right? So you talked about 100 plus units in Sudbury. Is that being that your most recent project that you’re working on?
Mandy Branham [00:08:48] So those were all I think there were 40. We bought 46 properties, just over 120 units total in Sudbury since I think the first one was October 31st, 2020, that we closed on.
Georges El Masri [00:09:00] So that wasn’t like one portfolio that was multiple properties that you purchased, and they added up to 120 units, correct? OK. Is that what you’re focusing on now? Or are you looking at apartment buildings where you’re buying more units into a smaller space or a more confined space? I would say,
Mandy Branham [00:09:17] yeah, we’re doing I’m not doing anything less than 10 units, so my JV structure is definitely going to change. You know, that might be somebody having to come in with a million dollars and it could come from one person. Maybe it comes from two or three where I never did that before. My joint ventures were always just one, one couple or one person and myself, and now I’m kind of spreading that out a little bit. We’re going to do share sales. So it’s we’re going to open up Corporation one to three Main Street. That’s actually going to be the address of the property. And we just make it one to three Main Street Inc and somebody is going to bring in money for their portion of the potent up to 50 percent of the shares. And I will still have 50 percent of the. A shares for finding, negotiating and qualifying is a little bit different, but in these cases, I get to go on as a covenant onto a mortgage and I have I help. I benefit an application because of the strength that I am in a borrower, so as so my still have to qualify, but not the same emphasis on qualification as it did on the on the smaller.
Georges El Masri [00:10:19] And that’s because you’re getting a commercial loan where the financing, the approval process is different. They’re not looking at GDS TDs, they’re looking at DCR that the property, the income that it’s generating that type of thing. So you are an asset in that situation rather than somebody who’s limiting the amount that you can borrow on a residential property?
Mandy Branham [00:10:39] Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. So it takes a little bit more capital for a jayvee to come on board, but it’s actually less of a time consuming application for them. What did somebody say that as long as they aren’t a burden to society, they’ll qualify? Yeah. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
Georges El Masri [00:10:56] As long as you have the capital and usually on the commercial end, if the asset is solid, then then it makes sense. Can you tell me a little bit about your systems with your JVs? So obviously, like you’ve got hundreds of units, how are you able to manage all of this stuff? Are you like, I know your assistants doing it, but you have to have systems in place to manage everything? Can you kind of share with us some of your systems?
Mandy Branham [00:11:19] Yes, absolutely. So I have a 10 step javy easy 10 steps for your first deal. Also, when it comes up with a few of the systems, so to speak, because I think, you know, it’s not as much, you know, a system post exit acquisition is the same as how you would own an asset. OK? Other than the name of the tax bill in the water bill is in your JV partner’s name, so you might need a letter of authorization stating that Mandy can call the city of Kingston and find out about the tax bill stuff like that. But the like the systems, once the asset is owned is very similar to just owning an asset. And clarity, I know a lot of people say that or Mandy, you’re a good communicator. So it is because it’s really important for you to be able to communicate to your JV partners. I don’t have systems that say, OK, every week I’m going to send you an update every quarter, whatever. But again, it depends on the type of asset that you’re that you’re getting into. So if it’s a renovation, you’re going to hear from me every two to three weeks. I often send pictures letting them know, Hey, the sightings going up the stairs just went in like, you know, what’s the progress that’s going on in the property? And that’s great stuff to be able to share or guide. The contractors got COVID. And so there’s nobody on site for the next two weeks, and there’s a crazy tenant upstairs who’s putting glue into all the door locks like, there’s some stuff that I tell them about and the other stuff I’m like, That’s why they’re passive TV, because they don’t need to know all this stuff and not don’t need to. But probably it doesn’t really affect them, right? So my ten steps to your first JV deal, if somebody’s looking to be able to attract a joint venture. Step number one is to gain attention. So are you on the social media platforms period, right? Welcome to the. And you could say, Well, I’m not on social media. Hey, that’s fine. And if you want to be able to do it the old fashioned way, by all means. But again, success leaves clues. So if we’re saying hop on Facebook, Instagram, if you want to get a TikTok account, if you are on LinkedIn, like people need to know and be consistently knowing what it is you’re doing to, to attract joint ventures. And so you’re talking about, hey guys, whether it’s a joint venture deal or not, look at the bathroom renovation I just did on my own house. Let me tell you about my own house getting a heat lock on it to be ready to invest like I want you to be talking real estate so people aren’t just like, you know, blown out of the water that you start to ask them for money and they didn’t even know what you were doing before. Step number two is the property finding the property, working with a realtor, understanding the city that you want to be in, the strategy that you want to be able to do and really homing in and focusing on to be able to find a property, right? And I know that sounds simple, except there’s just so many, so many variables that can go in this and some people are choosing to go east. Great. Choose out east. Stick to it. Stick to it and go out east if you want to do it in Windsor. Pick Windsor. The research is done. It’s a good city now. Go and buy an asset, right? So less of this in-between back and forth. I’m not sure I’m telling you the research is done. The cities in Ontario, wherever you want to go right now, there is more of a need for units than there is for you to kind of, you know, be hemming and hawing about what city. And here’s the thing I also don’t believe that there’s any mistakes. OK, if you’re going to buy an asset in Windsor and then you’re like, Oh, but it’s five hours away. There’s no mistakes. Higher Property Manager Oh, I thought I could get there and renovate. Well, then don’t hire a contractor. There’s no mistakes. There’s just learning opportunities for you. So I’m just kind of I want people to feel that because there’s just so many people. Well, sitting on the sidelines right now, and they’re hemming and hawing, they know they want this real estate for the security of their financial, you know, their financial future, but they’re stuck in limbo. OK, so step number two to two, a joint venture asset is the property. Step number three financials. This is where we’re going to get funding. So run the numbers, create the proforma, run the numbers, practice a variety of scenarios with the numbers. Rehearse the numbers, run the numbers. Do you know the numbers? Show me the numbers. Talk to me about the numbers like step number three when I see financials is there’s a lot of a lot of new people that are looking to get into joint ventures and they think it’s about the color of the walls. They think it’s about the kitchen. It’s not. It’s not. It is about the financials. How much are the renovations going to be? Not what are you going to do in all those renovations? Because you know that. But what are the numbers? What’s the renovation cost? What are the timelines? What’s the carrying costs? What’s the purchase price? What’s the potential after repair value? Which brings you back to step number one, step number two of the property. When you work with a realtor, they’re going to be able to help you with all of that. Right. So it’s just super important. Step number three is financials like make sure that you are just amazing at knowing the numbers inside. Step number four prop is the partner. What comes first? The partner or the property? Well, if you don’t have a property to be able to run numbers to understand the type of JV partner that you’re seeking, then you’re going to be kind of seeking potential people. And maybe they’re going to be like, Hey, I’ve got $40000. So you go shopping for a property, you realize that that’s never going to happen. And so you have to go back to your partner and be like, I can’t do anything with 40000. So if you go for the property and you’re searching around and you find something, you’ve run the numbers now you’re able to say to your potential partners. I have a great single family in Welland and I’m going to create a legal secondary unit down in the basement. I like well, and for all these reasons, I you know, and here’s the renovation budget for all of these reasons, are you interested in coming with me? So that’s when you start to connect with people. This is where you go back to your social media platforms. You’re putting some information; you’re putting in potentially some of your numbers up there and you’re really attracting the partner to be able to come on board. And it’s really important for the JV working partner. We call ourselves the expert partner, not to waver when it comes to how much money somebody has. Well, I’d really like to do it, but I only have 80000 and you’re like 80000 is not going to get you a property with me at all right now. But I have a lot of new JV partners that will they’ll bend to that and then they’ll put in their own money or they’ll work for free or they’ll, you know, whatever it might be. And you know, in today’s numbers, you like 100000 is got to be close to minimum. If you’re doing a single family conversion in almost any city right now, you’re almost 200, what, 100000 for four down payment, 100000 for renovations. And like, we’re just squeaking by there. So I really want my JV people to understand that they’re going to have to step up and start asking for some higher numbers because the lower numbers just aren’t around anymore. OK. So step number four was partner step number five. What is your financing strategy and this is different than your financials? Financials is ROIC financing strategy. This is a single family. We’re going to buy, renovate, refinance and rent pay. This is a long term buy and hold. Are we going for a variable rate mortgage or are we going for a fixed rate mortgage? Or are we going to do private financing to buy this piece of crap that the banks won’t touch right now because of the foundation issue and the leak and whatever? So we’re going to buy it in cash and exit finance. So I really want people to not only focus on the property, but how am I going to finance this property? What is the financing strategy? Because to a jayvee financial partner, they are coming along and they’re saying, You lead me, George, you lead me. And so you’re going to have to tell the JV partner what kind of product they’re going to need for the type of property that you’re bringing them along for. OK? Step number six is letter of intent at this point. You have the property, you have the partner, you’ve got the financing strategy you’ve kind of got. And in the letter of intent is going to be able to lay out what each partner is bringing to the table. So it’s not it’s not just a hearsay anymore. It’s not just conversation back and forth. You’re going to put on their financial partner. I need you to qualify for the mortgage. I need you to bring in all the capital. The down payment, closing costs as per the pro forma right. And it’s going to say on their exactly how much you anticipate will be the capital required and then what you’re going to do, what the working expert partner is going to be able to do. So I’m going to find a negotiate. I’m going to oversee the project management. I’m going to oversee the management of the tenants. Maybe you are the property manager, maybe you are the project manager. Maybe you own a construction company and you are going to be paid as a contractor. Not work for free as a contractor. Maybe, you know, whatever those roles are, that each of you are going to do. Maybe, you know, it’s often that, you know, the working partner will qualify or will go on title, and that’s OK. Maybe if that’s what gets you into your first deal, great. Do what you need to do to get into your first deal. You won’t be able to do it for many because of course, you’re going to be tapped out of your mortgages. But so step number six is, is your letter of intent. Let’s get that done and cleared. And it’s really it doesn’t need to be done up by a lawyer. It just means that your financial partner is going to hold their cash for you and you’re going to go looking for a property for them. OK, so let’s just say you missed out on this property because you didn’t act fast enough or you didn’t get coordinated, but you both agree now that you’re like, go ahead and find another property just like that. And we have a letter of intent. It’s typically good for about 90 days, which says if you can’t find a property for me in 90 days, I’m not holding my money here for you any longer. And the working partner is saying to the financial partner, Hold your money for 90 days if I can’t find what you’re looking for in 90 days and we can both go our own ways. OK, so letter of intent is pretty important. Step number seven four to get yourself up and running for your first joint venture property, is your power team, right? I talked about realtor a little bit, but I want you to get your lawyer on board. I want you to get your accountant, your bookkeeper and insurance provider. Bank account reps like my bank account lady at TD. She knows me by name, you know, just hey, I send her an email and we open up a new joint bank account. So get those people ready on your power team so that when you’re presenting stuff to your joint venture partner, it’s clean and smooth and people understand on your power team, Hey, I’ve got a new joint venture partner coming in. Can you please set them up with a bookkeeping portal and, you know, in a password and all that kind of stuff? And then they are now connected to your power team so that it’s really important. And I don’t think there’s quite enough emphasis put on the power team. You know, your real estate agent like you need to understand, I’m going to put this property in my name with an and or a sign so I can assign it over to my to a JV partner. But if your real estate agent doesn’t even understand that, then they’re obviously not somebody you want to be able to be on your team and they might be your brother’s cousin’s next door neighbor. Probably not the best real estate agent to be able to work with, right, George? We’re talking here real estate focus too. I just Mary Keller Williams investor focused realtor, right? Step number eight with a realtor involved is to assign the property over to your JV partner, so you’re going to do an assignment. This could be a clause in the assignment or could be a clause in the offer, and it might just be that and or assign depending on. Right. And there’s some strategies around which way you want to be able to do it. If it’s a little old lady and she doesn’t want to sell to a corporation, you might have it in your personal name and or a sign knowing that you’re just going to flip that over to achieve partners, you know, side of things. Or you can, whatever the story might be, right? But you kind of get that clause in there. It’s really important and you flip that assignment over to your JV partner once their financing is approved.
Georges El Masri [00:23:14] Just a quick tip on that because I know sometimes when I put assignment clauses in some sellers or the realtors will be very uncomfortable with that and say, like, I don’t really want to put this in, I don’t want you to assign it to somebody and then whatever. So what we do, sometimes we just put a clause that says that you can change the buyer’s name. So it’s not as scary to some people and they’re like, OK, you want to change your name? No, no, it’s basically the same thing.
Mandy Branham [00:23:39] It’s basically the same thing. And, you know, sometimes we’ll say, Oh, this is in, you know, Miranda Brennan’s name, but we’re not sure if it’s going to be in her name and her husband’s, if it’s going to be in a corporation that they own. Sometimes a buyer will put in or a seller will put it in there, that the assign or will stay on as a liability in case that the person that they assign it to screws up and doesn’t close. That’s right, there’s always going to be that on there. And that’s fine, too, because you know that you’re working with your financial partner, you’re both on the hook to be able to get this thing closed. Mm-Hmm. So, yeah, so your assignment is number eight, number nine in our, you know, my 10 step to get your first TV property is closing right is actually getting the property closed. And I know that it’s like it seems silly, but there is a lot of hurdles at the end making sure the insurance applications are there, making sure that they have met all the requirements for closing, that the cash is there and you know, whatever. Yeah, in time,
Georges El Masri [00:24:39] because sometimes it takes a few business days for the money to clear, and that can be an issue. I know we’ve run into stuff like that before. So yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Having some guidance would be good in that scenario.
Mandy Branham [00:24:49] Yep, which is means working with your right lawyer. Yeah. You know, none of my JV partners ever give me money. Let’s just be clear on that. Their money goes. Was directly into the lawyer’s trust fund. So it does save a step of, you know, potential holds on money and stuff like that. And it goes directly into the lawyer’s account because there’s no need for it to come to me. So it goes to the lawyer, closes on the property. And you know, and then there should be no holds.
Georges El Masri [00:25:14] Well, the holds are if you have like if you have a lock on your personal residence, for example, and you want to put that money into the corporate bank account if you’re closing in a corporation that could take a few days. Right. Because then you’re writing a check to the lawyer from the corporate bank accounts stuff
Mandy Branham [00:25:28] allow me to do on me too. Just like maybe share a little something right there. Sure, you don’t need to put it into your corporate account.
Georges El Masri [00:25:35] Yeah, if you have the right account, they can. They can.
Mandy Branham [00:25:37] The accountant can make the transactions. She can. She be like, Absolutely right. So these are those little things that as a working expert partner, you’re going to advise your JV partner to go through. We went to close on one very recently and, you know, the partner said, Yep, we’ve got this corporation. Well, it was two couples. So four people and they had two kids on the corporation. So however, the lawyer had advised them wrong because you can’t have under 18 year old kids on your corporation, so that needed to come off. But now they had four people on their corporation, right? So now it’s four people having to go on title and go on the mortgage and all this kind of stuff. So even if you win, if you know you want to work with an expert partner and I say expert partner because gosh darn it, they seriously will save you a bunch of time. You can even go back and be like, OK, I’m going to set up a corporation. What are some of the, you know, the tips and tricks that you have heard along the way? Again, this is an accounting advice. It’s not legal advice or stuff like that, but it’s like, Hey, well, you know, oh, you’re coming to me and you’ve got a couple of million dollars? Well, let’s get a corporation just for you and a corporation, just for your wife or your spouse. And don’t cross them over. So that way we can, you know, get even more qualifying powers through the residential mortgage program if you’re both not on the mortgages together. So these are the steps I have a million dollar mortgage strategy and, you know, it was like, Oh, that sounds so good. I’m like, Yeah, it’s just me helping you get a million dollars’ worth of mortgages, right? And I think that’s brilliant right now, because if you can borrow a million dollars at two percent like honey, start the car, that’s like free money, right? But people don’t necessarily see that. And they, you know, get all worried that they’ve got some debt. So if you can guide your financial partner into the best mortgage product right back up to that financing strategy, then you actually might be able to set them up for three or four mortgages and blow their minds, not even realizing that before they wouldn’t have even been able to do that.
Georges El Masri [00:27:31] Yeah, I think people often feel like they won’t qualify for whatever reason. And then you’re like, Okay, just talk to the mortgage broker and see, and they’re usually surprised.
Mandy Branham [00:27:39] Yeah, I always say, unless you get a no, yeah, don’t sit in your own head and think that you can’t, that you can’t get it. Yeah, right. Yeah. And step number 10 is the JV agreement. So the deal is closed, which is really important. I want people to understand that they’ve had to go through closing. The property is closed. Keys are exchanged. And then you sign the JV agreement. And that’s just kind of, you know, post, then you know, you can be. I tell people to call me the property expert. They don’t have to refer to me as a partner because we’re not partners where Cole ventures, where we enter into a profit sharing agreement. So I’m not vested to the asset. I’m vested to how profitable this this property is going to be. So I’m actually not crossing any lines with any banks like I don’t I’m not on title. I shouldn’t be on title. I’m really just making sure that this property is going to be super profitable for my co-venture, so. So I always signed JV agreements afterwards. Bank accounts are open, properties closed, keys are exchange, tenants have been introduced. And then, you know, away we go.
Georges El Masri [00:28:43] Awesome. So there you go. You’re ten steps for somebody who’s looking to do their first JV. That summer summarizes everything. Basically, that’s all you need to know. Um, yeah. So that’s for like residential JV. If you’re doing that, if you’re doing a commercial deal, it’s probably very similar. Except at this point you can. You’re both going to be on the financing most likely, like you’re going to support the file. Is there anything else that any tips or tricks around JVs, around systems that you have in place for that?
Mandy Branham [00:29:15] I really just want people to acknowledge that there is so much money right now ready to be placed into real estate that you have a duty. If you know how to buy the real estate and you know where to find it and you have the team set up and you’ve done it yourself and, you know, got the contractors and, you know, some power team people, you almost owe it to financial partners to able to put it out there. So, you know, one of the hardest things is for people to get over in their own head that they have the ability to attract capital. You know, your first hundred or two hundred thousand, you’re like, Holy shit, why is this person giving me two hundred thousand? Well, they’re not giving you 200000. They’re exchanging value with you and you have $200000 worth of value in this. What seems like an ordinary house that you’re going to create into two units and you’re going to be able to refinance and give them a big chunk of their money back, like that’s value. So I think one of the biggest steps for me and we’ve talked about this numerous times with work harder on yourself than you do on your job. This is still a very big mental mind game, and an expert partner needs to be able to step into it. The rest of it is, you know, like, don’t think so. I’m not focusing on system so much because there’s a lot of people that will get caught up in the I don’t have the system set up. I don’t have all of the answers. I don’t have, you know, everything just in place. And I tell you that story, that there was pacing around my pool and I’m on the phone with my mentor at the time and I was like, That’s it. I can’t buy any more properties this year. And he was like, F your systems keep buying. Yeah, right? And I bought 16 properties that year, about 16 properties. The next year, like I just kept buying. I think I’ve transacted on 50 properties over the last 12 months, so we’ll call it like, you know, November to November of 2020 to 2021. And I don’t have it all worked and I don’t have all the systems. I think we’ve had more staff turnover this year that is like a pain in my butt. But yet that’s just kind of what’s going on right now. You know, we’ve had changes in the financing rules that over the last five years you like. OK, that doesn’t work anymore. We better figure this out. We’ve had appraisals, right, that you just want to cry when they come in and they’re not where they’re supposed to be. You’re not getting the right loan to value the banks like, Oh, your income is too low and you’re like, it wasn’t two years ago when the value of the asset was $200000 less, but now all of a sudden, my rents aren’t keeping up with the value of the house. But now banks aren’t refinancing at 80 percent, and that’s not wrong. That just means that they’re being conservative and watching out for the money that they lend to write. Their rules are in place for a reason, but you know, it’s not about having all the systems set up, but being like, OK, this isn’t working, I need to do something different or this is painful. What can I do to alleviate the pain? So I hired my property manager very early. I say early on, I think I had 20 units before I hired a property manager. My husband’s still working full time. That was a pain, right? You know, he’d be like he’d go to work on Saturday mornings for overtime. And I was like, If you’re going to work on a Saturday morning, you need to come work for me, right? And he’s like, Why are you going to pay me time and a half? And I’m like, I’m going to pay you an equity. So, you know, it was a pain, but we needed him to go and work on these properties. We needed. We needed more workers. We needed more time we need like. So I think you just keep evolving to the next level. I mean, I heard this. I hired my niece and I was like, Why didn’t I do this years ago? Well, she wasn’t around. You know, you think to yourself, Well, do I have the money to pay her? And then I thought, Oh my gosh, if I would have known she had alleviated this many potential issues and she was an amazing touchpoint for all of my JVs, I should have hired her years ago. Even if I wouldn’t have had the cash to be able to pay her. I potentially could have done more if I had had somebody else on my team.
Georges El Masri [00:33:08] Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Well, we did touch on a lot of different things here and I don’t want to cover too many topics. I think the whole J.V. thing, that’s your specialty and that’s awesome that we were able to cover a lot of that stuff. I want to move on to the random five. So we’ve done this before. This is your second or third time doing it. But the questions are different this time. So the first question is what’s been your favorite city that you’ve visited
Mandy Branham [00:33:35] that I’ve visited? Yeah. Hmm. I think Niagara Falls. Okay. Yeah, it’s beautiful. I can. Oh, you mean in my life and your life?
Georges El Masri [00:33:44] OK, well, you said Niagara Falls
Mandy Branham [00:33:46] and you stick with Niagara.
Georges El Masri [00:33:47] Yeah, the first thing that comes to mind. Number two, what’s the best thing you got from one of your parents?
Mandy Branham [00:33:55] My family, right? Absolutely. I love my cousins, my siblings, you know, definitely got my family from my parents.
Georges El Masri [00:34:02] Number three, what are you a natural at
Mandy Branham [00:34:05] talking about real estate?
Georges El Masri [00:34:07] That’s an obvious one. Number four, would you rather be stuck on a broken ski lift or a broken elevator ski lift? Yeah, you can jump off.
Mandy Branham [00:34:16] It’s not that you’re dressed for the weather when you’re out there. Yeah, you’re in a good spot.
Georges El Masri [00:34:20] Yeah, yeah. OK, number five What is your theme song?
Mandy Branham [00:34:24] Oh, I had this one. It’s a pitbull song. Oh, there’s another one, though I can do anything by Jacob Hoggart. But he had a band when he did it, so I can do anything. Yeah.
Georges El Masri [00:34:38] OK, so that’s the random five. Do you want to tell people how they can reach you and what services you provide?
Mandy Branham [00:34:43] So go to Sandy Branham dot com. I do joint venture consult. If you’re like, Oh, I’ve got my brother that wants to come in or I’ve got a great property, but I how do I pitch it to a JV? I am right now ready just to be able to, you know, give. People that little bit of give guidance to get them going so they can go on and book a website, go book something through my website and you know what? Just follow me on social media. J Underscore V Underscore Queen on Instagram, Facebook And you know what? If you’ve got a problem, I never leave anybody stuck in a JV problem because it will cost. It will cost the industry with joint ventures more than it will in my time to be able to help somebody through it because I really want people to consider growing their portfolio not only for their own wealth, but for the benefit of other people’s wealth. Please do not discount joint ventures. Please know that they’re very legal, that there is. There’s just such a need for it right now to help not only yourself, but other and other investors who aren’t as expert as you are awesome.
Georges El Masri [00:35:54] As always, you bring a lot of value. I appreciate you coming out driving all this way, and it’s great connecting with you, and I look forward to our next conversation.
Mandy Branham [00:36:01] Absolutely, George. Thanks so much.