Street Smart Success

In the multifamily apartment category, Class B provides the greatest hedge against risk. Renovated Class B apartments often have many of the same amenities as Class A, but cost anywhere from $300-$500 per month less to rent, depending on the market. In a tough economy, a lot of Class A renters move down to Class B properties in order to save money, but Class B renters generally don’t move down to...

One of the keys to success in multifamily investing is picking a market that’s not fully discovered and still experiencing a lot of growth. Another aspect of this strategy is buying B class properties with huge rental upside without having to pay a lot in unit or exterior upgrades. Christopher Stout, Principal and leader of StoutCap, has selected Northern Alabama, NW Arkansas, and Fayetteville, NC...

There aren’t too many asset classes within Commercial Real Estate right now where you can generate a strong cash-on-cash equity return plus great upside. One exception to this is RV Parks. RV Parks are where Self Storage and Mobile Home Parks were ten years ago.  There are approximately 15,000 RV Parks in the U.S. and many of them are often filled to capacity. Several of them are owned by ma and p...

Although multifamily Real Estate has been a stable, cash-flowing asset class for the past several years, many properties are facing major headwinds. Interest rate hikes, rising expenses, and slower rent growth has presented big challenges. Despite these current market conditions, however, there’s still a significant supply-demand imbalance of housing in the U.S. that portends well for multifamily...

If you want to invest in Real Estate, but don’t want to tie your money up for an extended period of time, a great way to do this is through non-bank private lending. When you invest in single family fix and flips in stable markets, for example, it’s a conservative way to generate high yield, consistent passive income. Kevin Amolsch, Founder of Pine Financial Group, owned several of his own single...

Other than Class A office space in top-tier markets, the overall office building asset class remains a healthy and viable investment alternative. There are several types of office product, and most are faring well depending on the location.  Stewart Heath, CEO of Harvard Grace company, is building a portfolio of properties in the Nashville to Huntsville, Alabama, corridor, including cash-flowing o...

In highly desirable, steady markets not subject to excessive volatility, Real Estate values tend to hold and appreciate consistently over time, and are great, low risk capital preservation assets. One such market that has withstood the test of time is Chicago. Chicago remains a powerful magnet that attracts residents from all over the greater Midwest and beyond. Joe Smazal, Senior Managing Partner...

If you’ve been paying attention at all, you know there are clouds on the horizon in Commercial Real Estate. This is caused in no small part to escalating interest rates, which can move even higher. Amongst asset classes facing headwinds is multifamily. Depending on the market, there’s a glut of new construction, rents and occupancy are down, and expenses are up. As a result, many apartment complex...

Investing in the right operator is more important than investing in the right deal. A poor operator can make a good deal bad; a good operator can make a bad deal good.  When selecting who to invest with, it’s important to vet how often, how much, and what they communicate, in addition to making sure they’ll prioritize the operations of the deal before they move on to other deals just to reap the a...

You don’t need to be a direct operator of Real Estate to get a great return on your money. You can invest in the secondary mortgage market and get conservative, mid-high teen returns with almost no leverage against single family homes. Bill Bymel, CEO and fund manager of First Lien Capital, invests in pools of mostly non-performing single-family notes at a discount and a conservative loan- to-valu...

It’s hard to find businesses that consistently generate profit margins in excess of 20%. One such asset class most investors don’t think about is laundromats, but they’re everywhere and simple businesses to run. Over the past couple years, Real Estate investors, in addition to others, have entered the laundromat space because of the strong cash flow and the ability to dramatically increase revenue...

To be successful in the long-term in Real estate, you need to buy things right at today’s value versus hoping the market will carry you, because the market is undependable. The market has carried a lot of investors over the past few years, even when they overpaid for properties, but these days are temporarily over. We’re currently in a Real Estate recession as lending has all but shut down, but gr...

Finding a new niche in an increasingly crowded marketplace is close to impossible. One asset class which has yet to be scaled, however, is laundromats. Laundromats are run mostly by small operators with antiquated systems, often in outdated facilities. Sam Wilson, a successful Real Estate investor and entrepreneur, is acquiring laundromats and modernizing. He’s achieving huge revenue increases and...

Hyper-focus is a key to success in business. In Real Estate, having a tight geographic and operational focus pays high dividends, especially in the Multifamily sector. There’s no substitute for living in the market you’re operating in, where you have intimate knowledge of the neighborhoods, blocks, and even the streets. On top of this geographic specialization, if you’re truly vertically integrate...

One of the critical components in Real Estate acquisitions is the lending piece. The wrong loan can end up dooming a project in the long term. Getting the right loan product with all the right terms and conditions for your investment can make or break the deal when unforeseen circumstances occur. Malcom Turner, President & CEO of Castle Commercial Capital in Detroit, helps commercial borrowers...

Most real estate classes require a lot of hands-on daily management that makes or breaks the success of the investment. Nowhere is this more the case than multifamily apartment communities. When you’re dealing with tenants 24/7, there’s things that need prompt attention at times.  Ryan Weiss, Principal Broker and Managing Partner at Blue Door Living, has gone from managing 40 units to over 400 uni...

After many years of escalating prices, it’s now a buyer’s market for institutional, quality multi-family assets. Institutions are on the sidelines as they rebalance investment portfolios, and it’s become much harder for newer operators to raise money. As a result, the buyer pool has shrunken, and prices have decreased. Class A, new vintage properties are selling for 10% off their peak in growing s...

Unlike most Real Estate asset classes, the Mobile Home Park industry will not see high levels of distress caused by aggressive, short-term floating rate debt. Lenders of Mobile Home Parks are typically more conservative, and operators are not facing the same level of occupancy and expense challenges of other asset classes. Mobile Home Parks aren’t pretty, but they still consistently cash flow bett...

Although the market for Multifamily still remains one of the most competitive asset classes, it still represents one of the best opportunities to add significant, predictable value in a relatively short period of time. Zach Winner, Founding Partner of Prosperity CRE, has had recent success in Kansas City where he 1031 exchanged out of an 80-unit apartment building into a 180 unit building and is b...

Many operators over the last couple years paid exorbitant prices for assets and have been unable to increase income as planned. Expenses have also increased significantly more than anticipated. These factors, combined with escalating borrowing costs, will make it very difficult for operators to hold onto certain properties.  As rates readjust upwards, there will be distress and opportunities for a...

In major markets across the U.S., residential rents have shotten up dramatically over the past 10 years. As a result, many renters have moved further out from urban cores. For operators of apartment complexes, investing in markets outside of the urban cores has made sense because these markets have also seen rental rate increases, but the prices are less, especially for buildings with fewer than 1...

When it comes to investing, nothing pays off more than patience and discipline. As sellers insist on prices that no longer make sense in this current interest rate environment, it’s gotten increasingly difficult to find deals that pencil out. Even before the interest rate surge, prices were at unprecedented levels because of the incredible amount of competition that were chasing deals. Andrew Cush...

When you invest your hard-earned money, it can make sense to have someone else vet opportunities for you to ensure success and reduce risk. When it comes to investing passively in Real Estate, there’s a lot to know, and there are countless opportunities to invest in. Many of these opportunities are valid, many aren’t. John Rubino, COO, Founder and Partner of JID Investments, helps investors avoid...

Short-Term-Rentals have exploded over the past several years and investors have prospered. Recently, however, several markets have gotten over-saturated, and vacancies have climbed. Appreciation in home values has also made these properties more difficult to cash flow. Kirby Atwell, CEO of Living off Rentals and podcast host of Living off Rentals podcast, has a different strategy for success. Kirb...

Great locations save the day when broader markets go south. High density, infill markets with lots of employers and desirable amenities insulate properties from severe downturns which inevitably occur. Mark Hentemann, Founder of Quantum Capital, started out building a portfolio of 20–30-unit Multifamily buildings in Hollywood, CA and nearby L.A. neighborhoods. These properties appreciated consider...