Hello friends, first of all thank Lior and Ido for this wonderful forum and on the stage you gave ...

Hello friends, first of all thank Lior and Ido for this wonderful forum and the platform you gave me.

So for those who do not know me yet, my name is Yariv Golan, I am 46 years old, married + 3. I started investing in real estate in Israel as early as 2005 and by 2011 we had purchased 10 investment properties in Carmiel and the Krayot. Over time prices went up and yields went down and I was looking for another place to invest.

Like many of you who are just starting out and still do not understand enough how to look at a deal or area and did not know someone who has already invested in the US so I also had no one to consult, I found myself in 2011 walking around Tel Aviv between real estate companies that market US properties and fascinated From the high returns and promises and without thinking twice I bought from one company 2 single family properties at a cost of about $ 50,000 per property (the company is still active today so I can not reveal its name) and in addition I entered through a company called Global Paragon for 2 multi-family deals in Houston Texas About $ 55,000 per project.

Time passes and the private homes that were supposed to bring in $ 850 a month each stand empty with no tenants, and I do not understand why? Society in the country pulls the time with various excuses. After three months I decided to contact the US management company directly to hear firsthand what the problem was. It turns out that $ 850 for these houses is not feasible at all, the average price is $ 600. I immediately asked to lower the price and rent the houses as soon as possible. And indeed within two months the two houses were rented, but then the mishaps began. Turns out the company did a very basic renovation to sell at a more significant profit and I was left to deal with the results, hundreds of dollars every month going on various repairs. After a year completely discouraged from the houses, I want to sell, at this point I ask the management company to connect me to the realtors. Now the big scam turns out, the assets are worth only $ 25-30, about half of what I paid for them.

I realized that in the houses I had fallen into now I could only hope that the transactions would work properly. After a few months we suddenly received a letter from the owners of the company that they were in financial difficulties and that they could no longer manage the assets and they simply leave the picture and leave us alone. After a few days of total shock, a meeting of all the investors of the project was organized and we established a management committee for each property. Slowly we discovered the size of the entrepreneurs' fraud. One project disappeared $ 1 million, which was intended for renovation and another project purchased entirely cash from investors' funds we discovered to our surprise that there is a loan of 1.2 million dollars taken without our knowledge and of course this money disappeared. Add the fact that the investors are not listed at all in the company and the properties themselves are registered in the name of the American partner, a guy named Alon Solomon who disappeared and can not be reached.

Investments totaling $ 210,000 at this stage are defined for me as lost funds.

This is the stage in which I decide to take a mental check, understand what I did wrong and make difficult decisions. Do I continue to invest in a place where I have only been disappointed so far or am giving up and looking for another direction.

At this point my wife and I work as employees, I run information systems and my wife is the CEO and there is also rental income from the properties in the country so thank God there is something to live on and the purpose of the investments is to generate additional income for us when the dream of leaving the job as an employee seems very far away.

I also do not remember ever leaving something I believed in and therefore I made a decision that despite the fall in 4 deals I continue to invest in the US market but now it has to be done properly. I can not afford to trust anyone else and I have to start learning the field so that I have the right knowledge to locate the right areas, find good deals and the entire envelope of professionals I need to make it work well for a change.

A whole year of American courses in which I have invested thousands of dollars and mentors that I admire to this day. Robert Kiyosaki, Matt Triolet, Josh Cantwell, Jay Massey, Phil Postiowski, John Cochran, Preston Eli and more.
The second stage involved the creation of working relationships with intermediaries, management companies, contractors, informers, analysts and project managers.
The third step was to go down to the field to look for properties and closely follow the team I created for myself. Along the way you identify the people you can build a long relationship with and those casual who disappear after one deal and those who try to work on you and sell you properties at prices above their value, these people you immediately neutralize and get out of the equation.

I bought myself a double digit number of properties, made flip trades, some of which were better and some less, every deal you learn and improve.

In 2013 income from property in the US far exceeded my income from work as an employee and allowed me to leave work and make real estate my main occupation, since I help investors invest wisely without experiencing the mistakes I made at the beginning of my journey, to date I have accompanied over 200 investors in purchasing Single Family Homes.

Before I finish, I will tell you that in the first four transactions I managed to recover my investment fund, I did not go out on a profit, but I earned a great lesson in which I managed to achieve everything I have done to myself to this day. Because of price increases after three years I managed to sell both properties at the price I bought and a year and a half ago 2 also sold the multi-family projects in Texas and the investment fund in these projects was back again.

My focus on 2019 is to continue to accompany investors in single family acquisitions while simultaneously acquiring multi-family projects or small shopping centers along with a limited number of investors. I have a number of deals that are already in the sights and are in preliminary tests.

I prepare you for posts with a lot of value this week, wish you successful investments and financial freedom as soon as possible.

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