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In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Eric Girard, a seasoned real estate investor and agent based in Boston. Eric shares his journey into real estate, focusing on unique strategies for finding undervalued properties, the importance of persistence in financing, and his future goals in the real estate market. He emphasizes the significance of looking beyond surface-level issues in properties and the potential for growth in the Worcester area. Eric also discusses the challenges he has faced and the lessons learned along the way, providing valuable insights for aspiring investors.
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Eric Girard (00:00)
this happens a lot in real estate where the first lender will tell you no and then people just accept it like okay no I can’t do it but if you keep looking and keep asking and keep going you can find great opportunities because that’s the reason why the properties haven’t been sold is because the majority of lenders told buyers no and if you know better to keep going then you can get some some great deals.Michelle Kesil (02:01)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Eric Girard, who is a real estate investor and real estate agent in the Boston area. So excited to have you here today, Eric.Eric Girard (02:05)
YouThank you. Thank you for having me.
Michelle Kesil (02:21)
Yeah, of course. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching finding unique deals. So let’s dive in.First off, for those not yet familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is?
Eric Girard (02:39)
⁓ Main focus would is in Worcester, Massachusetts, which is about an hour from Boston by in multifamily properties or condosMichelle Kesil (02:55)
Cool. And how did you get into that?Eric Girard (02:58)
I started Real Estate 18 years ago and about 11 years ago I finally bought a condo investment and I bought it as if it was going to be an investment but I lived there for four years and I rented it for three years. And then I did a lot of rentals and property management so was kind of building up skills to buy larger properties and then from thein East Boston sold that condo for a large profit and that was a one bedroom that was on the market at the time for like six months and no one wanted it. And I bought four one bedrooms in a four family with those proceeds. So, and here we are, the four family investment, which is doing pretty well.
Michelle Kesil (03:45)
green.Awesome. And how did that process go for your first investment purchases?
Eric Girard (03:59)
For the East Boston one, that went well. At the time, condos, mortgage companies, lenders and banks, they have like specific rules that they don’t tell you and they change all the time. And at that time, if you had like a three, it was three units for sale that we got renovated and none of them had closed. So it looked like the on-arquancy rate was 0%. So all I had to do really istalk to the listing agent and find out that units two and three were closing in like two weeks and I just had to close after those on unit one, the one that I bought. So that unique opportunity helped me buy something at rock bottom price at the time. Literally it was the bottom of the market. I bought a one bedroom that was completely renovated from the studs for 174,000 in East Boston. To put that in perspective,
right now the same place would be 420,000.
sold it for 374,000 which was a great profit and then I bought a four family in Worcester and the four family in Worcester that was tough even though it cash flowed it was a very expensive purchase for my income so the first bank
like a week before closing said they weren’t going to do it. But luckily, I looked up, ⁓ who else did loans in the neighborhood? And I found a lender and I was like, they’ve done a couple. So I called somebody there and they were like, yeah, let’s look at everything. And then they closed in two weeks. So that was cool. It was another opportunity.
that I found and this happens a lot in real estate where the first lender will tell you no and then people just accept it like okay no I can’t do it but if you keep looking and keep asking and keep going you can find great opportunities because that’s the reason why the properties haven’t been sold is because the majority of lenders told buyers no and if you know better to keep going then you can get some some great deals.
Michelle Kesil (07:05)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s great. You mentioned when we chatted a bit earlier that you’re really good at finding deals that don’t look like deals. Can you expand on what that means and what that looks like for you?Eric Girard (07:20)
Yeah, so I’ve helped my clients do this as well. One thing to look for is bad photos. Just because they have bad photos doesn’t mean the property is bad. The first condo I bought, it had bad photos and a bad paint job. was yellow, yellow walls. It was brand new everything and the walls were yellow. So it looked terrible. And then for this four family I bought,It looked terrible too because he took a couple photos like five or six years before he put it back on the market and you couldn’t tell anything. then another one is to look at the details. In the Northeast we have a lot of old properties, they’re a hundred years old. So look at your built on MLS or ask the agent, the listing agent. This one was built in 1991. So it has no lead, no asbestos.
None of that. I have none of those issues whatsoever. ⁓
some more techniques to look for. mean, see everything. Don’t just hand wave it away and say, I don’t need to see that. It’s not in my buy box. Another great thing to do is look at properties that been on the market for a long, long time. Just because it’s been on the market for a long time doesn’t mean it’s a good deal. It’s probably a great deal. It’s just that people, like I mentioned before, don’t understand the financing for it.
or saw it the first couple weeks and don’t know that, hey, that deck was repaired, that foundation was repaired, or it’s been cleaned. And that brings me to another one that’s a great way to find a deal is to look for places that are dirty, places that smell like cigarette smoke, or might have people that wore ⁓ hoarders and had things everywhere. So what? Especially the smoking thing, you can…
Air it out, there’s machines you can buy, you can paint it, you can use kills paint. And before you know it, that smell is gone and you have a great property. And the last one I would say is that just because the like the bedroom count or the unit count is small doesn’t mean it can’t be a good deal. Out here in the northeast Worcester, Massachusetts, Boston, around here, tons of people want one bedrooms and you
would not believe the prices people get for their one bedrooms for rent. You would think like, oh, what’s that? It’s probably going to be like 2000.
This people rent 5000, $6000 one bedrooms. So just because it’s smaller than you would that would you like that you’re used to that what you would like doesn’t mean it’s not a great opportunity. And you got to run the numbers. Don’t just assume
every property is the same. Some properties have separate utilities, some properties, ⁓ there’s an old, what we call snowman-like furnace for gas, and it’s super inefficient, and all three or four units are freezing, and it’s covered with asbestos, and you gotta get rid of it. So, and look at the expenses, like the roof. I passed up two doors down from where I bought, because the roof was, should have been replaced five years before, and it was rubber.
That’s very expensive. So really got to dig deep and have an open mind.
Michelle Kesil (11:33)
Yeah, amazing. Thank you for sharing that perspective. I think that could be helpful for people.Eric Girard (11:41)
You’re welcome.Michelle Kesil (11:44)
What do you feel are some keys that have made the biggest difference in allowing your business to be able to run smoothly and begin to grow?Eric Girard (11:56)
The key what? I didn’t hear that part.Michelle Kesil (11:59)
Like some biggest keys that have made the difference for you.Eric Girard (12:05)
The biggest key that made a difference was to not ⁓ to sell and then move up with properties. It sounds like it should be easy but a lot of times you buy property, you live in it, then you rent it and then you love it and then you don’t want to sell it and then you don’t buy anything else and then you have a property that’s worth a lot, you have a lot of equity which is good but the cash flowcould be really low. Like for the East Boston condo was ⁓ when I sold it, it was around 600 in cash flow. No, 300 in cash flow. And the four family here, ⁓ you know, cash flow around 2800. So I would, the keys is to keep expanding and keep growing.
Michelle Kesil (12:57)
Yeah, amazing. And what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next for your business?Eric Girard (13:07)
I think the next thing to solve is how to get ⁓ more capital to buy more properties. ⁓ In the real estate business, I’m a broker and I have been producing a lot more. So that will obviously help, looking to probably partner with some people and find deals and someone who’s like-minded. So, you know, when I go looking for deals and I find them, we make, can pull the trigger.I don’t look at properties the same way as all investors. A lot of investors want to buy stuff off market, steep discounts, and that’s not wrong. If you can do that, that’s great. depending on the markets, like for instance, when I bought both of these places, the East Boston Place and the Worcester Four family, the market was going up. As an agent, I knew the market was going up. I just need to buy something. And then the rates were so low, you couldn’t lose. So, kind of like,
knowing the market well, I need someone like that or a few people that know the market well and know that it’s going to get better and see things beyond today, see what the future value will be. So something like that.
Michelle Kesil (14:26)
Yeah, amazing. And are you like, what are your goals in terms of your investment career? Are you looking to continue expanding and multifamilies, condos, what do you kind of foresee?Eric Girard (14:40)
In the near future, think it’s probably going to be a condo. I’ve seen the condo market soften quite a bit in the central mass Worcester County market, not necessarily in Worcester, which is still very strong.see a lot of great opportunities. I just sold two studio condos in Marlborough, which is about 20 minutes from Worcester. And I mean, they’re like they sell for one
for 150,000 they rent for 1,500. You really can’t find numbers like that anywhere else. And then once I build up some more capital I definitely want to do like an owner-occupant so-called house hack with the multifamily because a lot of the properties in Worcester if you live in them you’re not cash flowing but you’re only paying like 1,000, 1,500 a month. And with time and with the rent increases and with improvements
And then you move out you’ll see that you can get a cash flow on property Which will go up in value And you really don’t find that anywhere else in the Northeast. It’s very hard unless the places are very cheap you find deals, but Worcester is a very strong market and the city has improved quite a bit and A lot of people have flocked here. I mean the single-family market
⁓ Is also like insane and like everything is doubled in five years ⁓
Michelle Kesil (16:55)
Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned capital raising. Is there a certain process that you go through for that?Eric Girard (17:05)
No, it’s all been really just self-financed, either saving up the down payments or doing ⁓ HELOCs for purchasing property. I did buy another single family as well ⁓ with a HELOC from the East Boston property. But with the current rates and the current interest rates and with the current ⁓ growth,I expect growth not to be like 10-20 % a year and more like 5 %-10%. That’s not a very good strategy so I’m looking for looking for partners, people that I can team up with. have the funds and I have the sweat equity and be able to find the deals like I mentioned before.
Michelle Kesil (17:57)
Yeah, amazing. So what are maybe some challenges or obstacles that you have faced that you now in hindsight have overcome and can see the lesson?Eric Girard (18:15)
I would say for finance and not ⁓ not believing the first or second and sometimes ten lenders that tell you no you can’t do it you really need to push past that if you want to buy a property you need to find the right lender and it’s not always your normal lender sometimes you have to go hard money or sometimes you have to go toAnd you know, local banks is a great one, credit unions. But really it’s random. Some banks are open to more risk and then they’re not open to those risks anymore within months. And some are, we’ll be open to it and be like, bring us that. We’ll let’s look at the deal. So I would say, you know, those have been the biggest thing is financing, but all you have to do is find the right lender and you can finance. You can finance it, you know, as long as all the numbers work.
Michelle Kesil (19:14)
Yeah, absolutely.So how are you finding your deals? Is it through being a real estate agent?
Eric Girard (19:26)
Yeah, so sometimes I’m listing the property and then I’m telling when it gets listed, I’m telling buyers like, hey, check these out. You know, this could be a great deal. Sometimes before it’s listed, someone can say like, I’m looking to sell this and that’s an opportunity. ⁓ But personally, I’ve actually just, it’s all on MLS. Just what I said earlier, looking forBad photos, bad marketing, incorrect numbers. I mean for the single family home I bought out here, the public record said it had around 1,400 square feet. When I went to the assessor’s website, I pulled up the property card and it actually said on the second floor it said half way complete, half done. Meaning they only counted half the square feet of the second floor because they added
In addition, well, it was complete. It’s been complete for like 10 years. So there it is 400 more square feet. So really looking at the MLS carefully, checking tax records, finding the ugly ducklings, the ones that people don’t want, don’t seem to want. Digging deeper.
It’s very important to dig deep and not just say, oh, you know, this property must be bad or I can’t buy this. I don’t have the lending. You have to just keep being more tenacious. When I bought this for a family, I just kept looking and looking for the financing. There was no way that I wasn’t going to buy it. It was such a great deal. I could see it. You know, I didn’t have to de-led the property, which could be, you know, you’re talking about, could be 50,000, 100,000 just to do that.
None of that stuff. So be tenacious. Keep going at it. And you can find properties on MLS. I’ve also listened to lot of podcasts and a lot of people say that it’s just MLS. And sometimes with the off market, people think, oh, it’s off market. It’s going to be a great deal. It could be an awful deal. It could be an overpriced deal. Could be anything. Sometimes they’re good deals, but off market doesn’t necessarily mean a good deal. It could just mean…
it can’t get sold on MLS or ⁓ some other reason why it’s not being listed. But just because it’s listed on MLS doesn’t mean it’s not a deal.
Michelle Kesil (22:05)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing your process.Eric Girard (22:09)
You’re welcome.Michelle Kesil (22:12)
So before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you and connect with you?Eric Girard (22:23)
The best way would be to email me. It’s my last name, Girard BCP. Be as in Boston, see as in condo, P as in properties at gmail.com. GerardBCP at gmail.com.Michelle Kesil (22:40)
Perfect. Well, I appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. Thank you for being here.Eric Girard (22:46)
You’re very welcome. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.Michelle Kesil (22:50)
And for the listeners tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Eric who are building real businesses and we will see you on our next episode.
