Why It's So Hard to Find Real Real Estate Partners in Houston and What to Do About It

Every day I see dozens of posts from new investors looking for deals. Wholesalers expanding their reach. Groups, clubs, forums, and meetups full of people saying the same thing over and over. I just need to find a deal.

People will pay thousands of dollars a year for courses and systems promising easy ways to find properties.

And yet every single day I talk to people who need help with their property and are genuinely willing to share the upside with the right person. The deals are there. They have always been there. The gap isn't the deals. It's the people willing to do the actual work to put them together.

I spent years trying to connect people with opportunities just to take care of someone who came to me looking for help. Simple stuff. A property needing a basic make ready with subs already in place. Should have been easy. Instead people wanted more than what was offered, tried to play games with the numbers, refused to provide documents, went missing for days at a time. Every time.

Now I get people wanting to pay me to mentor them, either upfront or through a partnership split. That's fine but it changes the dynamic. It starts to feel like a transaction instead of a real working relationship.

But if I post that I'm looking to joint venture on a deal that pays a partner a minimum of 6% free and clear on a $100,000 note I get nothing. Zero. The number of people who want you to invest your time and money into them while offering nothing real in return keeps growing.

Trades are still the biggest challenge in actually getting work done. I've learned to manage it and I'm rarely surprised anymore but they still win first place for making it difficult to share the wealth. If more people in the trades took real ownership of their work and their behavior they would be significantly wealthier and happier. It's a hard truth to swallow but it's the truth.

This is ultimately why I general contract my own projects. I was a GC for 20 years. I rarely partner or JV on deals, not because of greed or lack of profit to share, but because I don't have the desire to spend my time convincing someone or trying to figure out if they can actually deliver on what they claim to bring to the table.

I'll be honest about something else too. I like the physical work. I have more pants with paint on them than without. That's not an accident.

The great relationships I've built in this business over 20 years were built on trust, integrity, and enough shared war stories that we understand what we actually mean when we talk. Those relationships can't be manufactured. They get built one honest deal at a time.

If you're the kind of person who shows up, follows through, and means what you say, let's talk.

📅 Book a free 15-min strategy call: calendly.com/jeph-reit
🌐 reiguideservice.com