Dan Rivers has amassed a 16-unit real estate portfolio worth $2.7 million in total. Rivers built his portfolio in just 4 years, after getting started in real estate at the age of 38. Here are his three top pieces of advice for beginners — regardless of their current stage of life. Real estate investor Dan Rivers is an excellent example of why it’s never too late to begin working towards financial freedom.
Rivers didn’t start investing in real estate until 2019, when he was 38 years old — right after he’d made a life-changing decision to walk away from a twelve-year career in property management. In the first year at his new job as a real estate agent, Rivers only made $28,000.
But Rivers’ “go big or go home” mentality, combined with his compound growth mindset, helped him persevere and gave him hope that real estate investing could eventually provide him with the time and income he was looking for — as long as he put in the hard work.
Four years later, Rivers has now grown his real estate portfolio to include 16 units across 12 properties, with a total valuation of around $2.7 million, according to official documents verified by Insider. Rivers’ personal equity in that portfolio sits at just above $1.9 million, and he also has an additional nearly $1 million invested across a number of different real estate syndications.
In a recent interview with Insider, Rivers shared his top three pieces of advice, pulled from his own experiences, to help aspiring real estate investors get started in the field — no matter what stage they’re currently at in life.
In his own words: “This is how you get started — get your knowledge base, build your relationships, do the deal, in that order.”
Get educated about real estate investingLike many others, Rivers’ first piece of advice for aspiring investors is to get educated and expand your knowledge base, whether it’s through books, courses, or other resources.
Rivers sets a goal to finish at least one or two books a month, either by reading or by listening to audiobooks. Some of his favorite business, investing, and personal development books include “What It Takes” by Stephen A. Schwarzmann, “The Ride of a Lifetime” by Robert Iger, and “Who Not How” by Dan Sullivan.
Courses and meetups, on the other hand, are extremely valuable as well — not only as an avenue for beginners to learn more about real estate investing, but also for their networking potential. Even though the costs for such a class can be steep, Rivers believes that the knowledge, takeaways, and benefits garnered by investors can often justify the expenses.
“If someone is coming out of high school, it’s so easy to say, I’m going to spend $150,000 or $200,000 and go to this college. Yet if you’re like, I’m going to spend $10,000 and join this mastermind group to learn about entrepreneurship, a lot of people think you’re crazy for that,” Rivers said. “It depends on what your goals are and what you’re trying to achieve. I think they both can be awesome avenues, but I just think there’s a stigma there.”
Of course, Rivers cautioned that not all courses are created equally. “Not all of them are the same, but if you’re in that right room, it is amazing the power of what you learn and what you understand,” he added.
Being in the right room is also essential for relationship building, a factor to which Rivers’ attributes a lot of his success so far in real estate investing.
For instance, while real estate syndications are usually reserved for accredited investors and have a high cost of entry, Rivers was able to join his first syndication with only a $50,000 initial investment because he knew the operators from local meetups in Charleston. According to Rivers, he earned steady payments of around $300 per month until the fund was sold a year and a half later, when he received $76,000 back, bringing his total profit to over $30,000.
Add value to a networking conversationOnce an aspiring investor has found the right people to network with, Rivers’ next piece of advice is to add value to a conversation. In other words, don’t simply ask for advice and risk making a seasoned investor think you’re wasting their time.
“Don’t ask anybody to pick their brain. That is one of the worst things to do in our industry, because basically what you’re saying is, ‘Hey, I don’t want to do any research or any hard work. I just want you to tell me everything you know and give me all your values so that I can walk away and be successful,” he explained.
Instead, a beginner should always try to offer value in exchange for a seasoned investor’s time and mentorship, which could take the form of first asking what they need help with in their businesses. For instance, if the answer is more inventory, an aspiring investor could offer to spend some time going door-to-door to source potential deals — and ask for some guidance in deal analysis in exchange.
“It also shows that someone is serious. I can’t count how many times I’ve spent a lot of time talking to someone about real estate investment and then they never invest,” Rivers said. “There’s only so many hours in a day, so I want to make sure I’m spending that with someone that really needs that time and wants to move forward in their journey.”
Don’t let analysis paralysis stop you from getting in the gameFinally, while research and preparation are important, Rivers believes that it’s crucial not to let analysis paralysis stop potential investors from actually making their first deal.
“I’m not saying don’t analyze and just go for it. Do your research, but don’t drag it on,” he explained. “Because that first deal’s the hardest.”
Once an aspiring investor has analyzed a few deals and is comfortable with their parameters and calculations, Rivers said it’s important to just bite the bullet.
As for learning how to do a deal, Rivers recommended looking up different deal calculators and finding the resources and data to plug into the formulas provided online. For instance, some county websites can provide very accurate information about an investment home’s potential tax liabilities.