#3: From Teaching High School to Scaling a Multifamily Investing Business with Michael Ketchen

May 26, 2020

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You’ll love this unbelievable episode with Michael Ketchen - we talk extensively about using local banks and credit unions to capitalize deals, the value of taking care of your private investors, and the importance of maintaining relationships as it related to finding multifamily deals. We also talk about partnerships, the Airbnb model, and how the market is reacting as a result of COVID-19.

Michael Ketchen is an entrepreneur and owner of Commonwealth Collective, LLC, a New England-based real estate investment company. After graduating from Lasell College with a bachelor’s degree in Business in 2006, Michael worked in a variety of sales roles prior to launching his career in education. He held positions as a teacher and high school administrator for over a decade, earning a master’s degree in education during this time.

With a strong desire to return to his business roots, he co-founded Commonwealth Collective, LLC in 2016 to purchase, rehabilitate, and rent vacation and residential properties in Maine and New Hampshire. In the two years since its founding, the company has grown to encompass a large portfolio of rental properties and now supports its own community fund, which donates a portion of profits to a variety of charitable causes.

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Time Stamps:

2:40 - Mike discusses his background as a high school teacher and how he became interested in real estate

4:12 - How Mike got into real estate and the details of his first deal

11:50 - Why Mike chose to Airbnb as his first investment, how he found refinanced it (it was a challenge!), and how he structured the deal with his private investors

16:10 - Some of the specific challenges Mike faced when finding lending partners to refinance his deals with and why he believes setting up an LLC early in your career is important

20:34 - Why he and his partners transitioned into multifamily

23:33 - How Mike is finding deals, the importance of maintaining relationships, and why deals are often bought from other successful investors (this is great!)

31:13 - We discuss the property management side of Mike’s business and how he found his partner, Matt Hitchcock

37:45 - How Mike is adapting to COVID-19

41:28 - We discuss Mike’s short-term goal and why he encourages new investors to partner with others, the importance of time, and how you can add value as a new investor