Investment Property Analysis Course Overview

The goal of this course is to teach you how to analyze an investment rental property at the initial purchase and then review it every year to optimize your rental portfolio for long term retirement planning. In a nutshell, it’ll help you understand and play the real-life Monopoly game — from buying your first your property (a green home), to accumulating more, and then trading up into bigger and better rental properties (red hotels!)

Course Overview

The goal of this course is to teach you how to analyze an investment rental property at the initial purchase and then review it every year to optimize your rental portfolio for long term retirement planning. In a nutshell, it’ll help you understand and play the real-life Monopoly game — from buying your first your property (a green home), to accumulating more, and then trading up into bigger and better rental properties (red hotels!)

The creation of the Property Analysis Course came from two aspects of real estate investing that I wanted to understand better:

  1. Understanding the complete return on investment from rental properties to compare against other investments like the stock market or a business venture. The typical real estate return metrics of cap rates, GRM, and cash-on-cash return just don’t cut it.
  2. Understanding how to analyze current rental properties after holding them for a few years. After owning a property for five years, using the initial amount of money invested or the cap rate at the time of purchase is looking in the rearview mirror. Over those years you’re building equity, the market is changing, rents are increasing, and there are new investment opportunities. How does one take all of that into consideration to optimize your rental portfolio and determine what properties you keep, refinance, or sell and “trade up” to better rentals via a 1031 exchange?

Course Price: Free

Completely free. No ads, no upsells, no affiliate links. Just good content! Rather than spending your money on a course, use it to help buy a deal.

Why do I give it away for free? One reason is that I genuinely enjoy creating content and teaching. It’ll spark conversations and debates that I always learn from. Plus, the more I give, the more I get. Providing valuable information grows my network which increases deal flow and new clients. My goal is to make money from real estate investments and doing deals, not selling “how-to” information.

Course Highlights

After reviewing this course, you’ll know:

  • How to analyze a property with the four returns you earn in real estate.
  • How to analyze a rental you’ve held for a while to optimize the equity to decide if you should keep it, refinance it, or sell it.
  • How to download our rental analysis spreadsheet for free and understand how to use it.
  • How to analyze your primary residence to see if it makes sense to convert it to a rental, pull out cash or sell it to redeploy your capital.
  • How to optimize your portfolio for retirement planning by using your overall understanding of maximizing real estate returns.

Course Outline

Module #1: The Four Returns in Real Estate: Cash Flow is NOT everything

Cash flow is NOT everything when it comes to analyzing rental properties. Yes, it’s important, but if you’re only looking at cash flow, then you’re missing a few very important pieces to the puzzle. This module covers:

  • The four ways you make money in real estate investing.
  • Defining your true total initial investment to accurately measure your ROI.
  • Using a powerful visual aid to calculate the four returns to determine your complete ROI.
  • Two real-world Denver rental property analyses and their ROI.

Most likely, it’ll be a different property analysis perspective than you’ve learned elsewhere. As the title states, cash flow is NOT everything!

Module #2: Rental Property Analysis Spreadsheet Tutorial

Don’t buy a bad deal! Use our Denver Rental Property Spreadsheet to quickly and accurately analyze Denver rental properties. The spreadsheet was created by Joe Massey, Senior Loan Officer at Castle & Cooke Mortgage, to help investors find the “right deal” for their portfolio. Stop spending money on investment calculators and download our free Denver focused spreadsheet to start analyzing deals immediately.

Module #3: Return on Equity: Playing Adult Monopoly

After owning a property for a few years, is using return on initial investment the best way to measure the performance of your rental property? No, it’s not. You’re building equity, which has an opportunity cost. Do you leave it in the current property or take some or all of it out to buy more properties? What you do or don’t do with the equity, can have a big impact on your rental portfolio.

This modules covers:

  • How to calculate and understand return on equity.
  • The three common scenarios for determining your equity opportunity costs.
  • An overview of the “Equity Optimization” Spreadsheet
  • A real-world case study for optimizing return on equity.

Module #4: Refinancing Your Primary Residence to Purchase Denver Investment Property

If you’re like many Denver homeowners who have owned their primary residence for a few years, then you’re probably sitting on a decent amount of equity that is often in the six-figure range. This module explores the opportunity costs of equity trapped in your primary residence. This module uses a real scenario for a client and covers:

  • The client’s goals and profile
  • How to gather information to map out long term goals
  • Three different options for using their primary residence to create a rental portfolio
  • Four scenarios from the Real Estate Financial Planner™️ to model achieving goals of $5,000/mo and $10,000/mo.

Module #5: Tapping into Your Primary Residence Equity Updates – Part #2

My clients reviewed the first Real Estate Financial Plan™ model IN MODULE #4, and then we hopped on a call to discuss it. Not surprisingly, there were some updates to make. It takes at least a few meetings to get details fleshed out and to find the right path. Check it out for updates and new scenarios.

Module #6: Case Study: Investing $100,000 from a Primary Residence Cash-Out Refinance

In November 2019 I closed on a cash-out refinance on my primary residence to pull out $106,000 to invest into Denver rental properties. As discussed in earlier posts, the equity in my home is an opportunity cost.

The new loan increased my monthly mortgage payment by $480. This post will walk you through all the details of my decision-making process to pull the trigger and why I’m happy to spend $480/mo to have $106,000 to invest now.

Three Ways to Learn

You’re probably like me. You’re busy, can’t spend hours watching videos on your computer, and bounce around between computers, iPads, and iPhones to consume content. I’m presenting this course in three different formats:

  1. Listen to the audio on the Denver Real Estate Investing Podcast. Each module will tell you the name of the corresponding episode. They’ll start with “IPAC #:”, which is short for “Investment Property Analysis Course.”
  2. Watch the video on the YouTube channel.
  3. Read the material on the blog.

All three mediums should have the same format and flow. If you’re listening to a podcast but want the details on the numbers discussed, then check the show notes, and go to the blog for all the details!


If you have any questions, please reach out or leave them in the comments!

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Rental Property Spreadsheet • House Hacking Spreadsheet BRRRR Calculator Spreadsheet • Fix and Flip Deal Analyzer Investing Maps • Rehab Pricing Estimator
Start analyzing your Colorado investment properties today
Rental Property Spreadsheet • House Hacking Spreadsheet BRRRR Calculator Spreadsheet • Fix and Flip Deal Analyzer Investing Maps • Rehab Pricing Estimator
Authors
Chris Lopez
Chris Lopez is a Denver area real estate entrepreneur and investor, as well as the host of Bigger Pockets’ House Hackerz and the Denver Real Estate Investing Podcast.
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