REITD 003 - Ron Walraven - Former Top REO Broker Turned Real Estate investor and Deal Maker

REI Talk Detroit | Weekly News and Interviews With Active Real Estate Investors in Metro Detroit, Michigan

In this episode I interview Ron Walraven. He’s a former top REO broker turned real estate investor and deal maker.

Ron is incredibly knowledgeable about REI. Having done over 3000 BPOs, he has a lock on property values which is a great advantage when he sizes up deals. He’s also a great resource to new and experienced real estate investors.

Even though we’ve both been in real estate in this area for a long time, our paths have really never crossed. So I really enjoyed sitting down with him and catching up. I think you’ll enjoy it too!

REI News

One item today:My friend Oscar Garner has started a new company called Garner & Associates LLC. They’re doing Venture Capital and Commercial Lending, and so he’s now facilitating venture capital and commercial mortgage loans.

If you’re looking for some big ticket funding, I recommend that you call Oscar and see if it makes sense to work together. You can reach him by phone at 248-718-0173 or email at [e-mail].

And I want to remind you that I’m still looking to put a group of folks together to do some decent volume of suburban turn key properties for a couple of hedge funds that called me.

So if you’d like to participate with funding deals, or if you can do some volume in the suburbs (not including cities like Pontiac or Inkster) then go to the contact page http://www.REITalkDetroit.com/contact and let’s talk.

Ron’s Current Business

Ron has transitioned from being one of the top REO brokers in the metro area to being a full time real estate investor and deal maker. Spending so much time on the REO side has given him tremendous insight on values, so it’s no surprise that his investing business is going well.

He’s also working on an opportunity to get access to pre-REOs. He’s looking for funding to do it in the amount of $500k to fund one or two deals at a time. If you’d like to participate with him, contact him via email or give him a call. His contact information is below.

Ron’s also a board member at the Oakland REIA, and he recently took over the Advanced Investor Subgroup. He repurposed and refocused it from more of a networking group to an Advanced Investor Mastermind. The group meets once a month, and you can find the logistics information below.

And finally, he’s creating a Private Mastermind for newer real estate investors. It sounds like a great opportunity to get access to him. So if you’re looking for some direction or guidance, you should get in touch with him. His contact information is below.

How He Got Started in REI

Ron was a high-end auto mechanic when he severely hurt his back and had to find another way to make $100k per year.

So he chose real estate!

He got his license and started doing the retail agent thing, which turned out to not be a great fit with his mechanic background. So he jumped at the chance to work the REOs at the office his was in.

He grew his business to a highly profitable nine person team. Then the foreclosure moratorium was put in place and he saw the handwriting on the wall. So he made the transition to real estate investor.

Biggest Mistake

Ron doesn't have any regrets - but the one thing he says it might have made sense to consider was shifting to short sales once the foreclosure moratorium went into effect. He thinks it might have made the transition from broker to investor a little bit smoother.

Biggest Success

Ron says that his biggest success was opening himself up to new opportunities outside the comfort zone of metro Detroit. He worked with another local investor - Bob Norton - in Arizona and Washington DC.

In both cases he went into the area cold, and with Bob used his experience from this area to analyze and evaluate those areas and decide where the most profitable deals were.

Money Talks - How He’s Funding His Deals

Ron is exclusively using Private Money to fund his deals. He’s not doing anything really fancy - he says that when he finds the deals then the money is the easy part!

That’s the power of building a sterling reputation in the area where you invest.

Answer to a Listener Question

The question that I asked him is "Is it worth it to me as a relatively new investor to pay to be in a mastermind?"

His answer is - it absolutely makes sense! If you pick the right Mastermind.

He made the point that while you can have success with the big-ticket coaching programs that cost a fortune, you need to be careful because you may not get the information that you need.

He talked about the value of a local Mastermind, where you meet with local folks to talk about the local market and local issues, and how valuable that would be to people that are relatively new to the business. He also emphasized that that was the point of both the Advanced Mastermind and the private mastermind/coaching program that he’s thinking about starting.

Links and Resources

If you’d like to contact Ron about any of the topics that we discussed, here are the two best ways to do that. Remember - he prefers getting a text over a voicemail message:

Cell: [phone]Email: [e-mail]

Ron’s Advanced Investor MastermindDate: Fourth Saturday of each month.Time: 8:30 - 10:30amCost: $20 per meeting, free if you join the Oakland REIALocation: Kerby's Koney Island 5407 Crooks Rd in TroyWebsite: http://www.meetup.com/Real-Estate-Investment-Association-of-Oakland-County/events/171548072/You can also contact Ron on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ron.walraven

Oakland REIA: https://www.facebook.com/groups/31744834164/The Advanced Investor Meetup information is on the home page in the right side bar

If you have feedback on the show, a question you’d like answered, a news item, or perhaps a recommendation of someone you’d like me to interview, or if you’d like to be a guest on the show, go to http://www.REITalkDetoit.com/contact and let me know about it.