How I Raised 1 Million Dollars for My First Multifamily Deal

Are you an aspiring apartment syndicator looking to raise equity for your first multifamily deal? I know how daunting it can be to secure equity for your first deal especially when you, and the potential investors, know you just don’t have the track record, yet. However, with the right approach and strategies, it is possible to raise the necessary funds to get your first multifamily deal closed.

In this article, I will share my experience on how I managed to raise 1 million dollars for my first deal.

Here are some tips that could help you too:

1. Leverage The Track Record Of A Mentor

When approaching potential investors, it can be helpful to leverage the track record of a mentor. If you have a mentor who has successfully completed similar deals, you can point to their success as evidence of your own potential. You could also consider partnering with a more experienced investor who can provide guidance throughout the process. This is exactly what I did in the beginning by having a mentor, who at the time had about $100MM Asset Under Management (AUM).

2. Create A Big Company Aura

At first glance, the sentence above may leave you feeling confused and unsure. I agree that it is not immediately clear. However, I will never forget what my father-in-law said when he saw the newly launched Dwellynn website. He exclaimed, "Wow, this looks like a big company!" This initial impression is crucial. Potential partners, investors, and lenders who visit your site for the first time should feel the same way. It is important to pay attention to every detail. Perception is reality, so make sure to appear big from the get-go. And when reaching out to stakeholders, avoid using an email address with "@gmail.com" at the end.

More to come about this in the Apps and Software we use at Dwellynn module.

3. Build a Strong Network

Now that you have created a “big company” aura, it is time to go out with confidence into the world. Networking is crucial when it comes to finding equity for your first multifamily deal. You need to build a strong network of passive investors, mentors, and partners who can help you fund your next deal. Attend real estate conferences, events, join business associations, and participate in online forums such as BiggerPockets, LinkedIn or even Instagram to expand your network.

Personally, this is where I was able to find my partners who were out-of-state but needed a boots on the ground partner in Texas and someone who can find good assets, control the deal, and take it to closing. This is how I did it.

In conclusion, raising equity for your first deal can be challenging, but not impossible. By adding your mentor’s track record to your team’s section on your website, creating a professional look for potential stakeholders, and continually building a strong network.

That classic, though corny, line of Your Network is your Net Worth is true!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.

🧠 The Smarter Way To Make 💵 $10,000/month: SFR Rentals vs Apartment Syndication

Real estate investing has been one of the main, preferred investment vehicles for thousands and thousands of years! Owning land and property has been an important principle that has been passed from generation to generation all over the world and it’s one of the major factors fueling the beloved American Dream.

Real estate will always have a seat at the table when it comes to investment strategies, and it’s more important to talk about real estate now more than ever, especially with the rapid population growth and the national shortage of affordable housing.

Just like in most industries, there are numerous ways to make money. You can develop properties from the ground up, get your hands dirty and start flipping houses, or put on your landlord hat and start building a portfolio of rental properties, amongst other viable methods. However, all real estate investing strategies are not created equal; some are more active than others and some more passive.

Most people are attracted to real estate investing for the potential of passive income. With this in mind, we’re going to put two real estate investing strategies toe-to-toe and see which one will come out on top.

The Race to $10,000/month: SFR Investing vs Apartment Investing

For our “case study”, we’re going to compare single-family residence (SFR) rentals to investing in apartments through apartment syndication. We’re going to assume that you want to build up an income of $10,000/month or $120,000/year in passive income. It is possible, and even realistic, to do this using either strategy, so we’re going to take a look at which one will get you to $10,000/month faster!

• SFR investing, for simplicity’s sake, will be characterized as buying single-family houses with your own money for down payments on loans and then renting the house out for income.

• Apartment investing will be defined as buying a property with 50 or more units through apartment syndication deals, in which you are a passive investor, and you and the rest of the partnership rents out the units for income.

The categories we’ll be comparing the two strategies on are risk, scalability, and barrier to entry.

1) Risk

With no risk, there is no reward! All investing strategies have some level of risk associated with it, and there will always be pros and cons list that comes with any investment. In real estate specifically, some investing strategies are considered riskier than others. For example, real estate development is considered riskier than SFR rental investing or apartment investing, and that is where you need to look yourself in the mirror and be honest in identifying your risk tolerance.

The typical monthly cash flow from a SFR rental property is $100-$200/month, which adds up to roughly $1,200-$2,4000/year in positive SFR rental cash flow per property. This profit margin can be very fragile, with the risk of it being depleted, or even going in the red and causing you to come out-of-pocket if there are any maintenance issues. An HVAC system can cause thousands of dollars, but even if you consider less severe issues such as plumbing, this can still cause a huge dent in your profits, with the typical job like repairing faucets, toilets, sinks, or bathtubs costing between $175 and $450 to fix.

Another profit-drainer that must be taken into consideration is any vacancy you may have due to a non-renewed lease or an eviction. When there is no one renting your single-family house, there is no one sending you checks each month, therefore, there is no profit being made. While you may have a heads-up about an upcoming vacancy, what can be somewhat unpredictable are the cases in which old tenants cause your turnover costs to skyrocket.

Just think how quickly costs can add up when you have to repair or repaint walls, get carpets cleaned or replaced, deodorize pet smells, etc. These profit-drainers, can not only impact your monthly profit but can potentially wipe out your entire cash flow for the year.

When you take a look at multi-family rentals and apartments, a major benefit is the risk distribution. You no longer have one unit that can only be rented to one family at a time, you now have multiple units that can help offset vacancies. Isolated instances of vacancies, evictions, and maintenance issues should have a significantly smaller impact on your cash flow, as the tens or hundreds of other units will be there to balance it out and protect the cash flow. This type of risk distribution would not be possible with SFRs until a larger portfolio of 10+ houses has been built.

In the category of risk, apartment investing through syndication better mitigates risk factors.

2) Scalability

The longer it takes you to scale your rental portfolio, the longer it will take you to build your cash flow, pretty simple and straightforward. Now, there’s no argument against the idea that both SFR investing and apartment investing can get you to your $10,000/month goal. The argument, again, is which one will get you there faster, in which the level of scalability will play a major role.

We know that a SFR will average $100-$200 in cash flow a month, and with some quick math, we realize that you’ll need somewhere between 50-100 SFRs to generate around $10,000 in monthly cash flow. There are two fundamental issues with this; the cap of conventional mortgage loans and the amount in down payments that you’ll need to fund these transactions.

The cap on traditional residential loans is set at 10, however, many banks will stop lending after the 4th loan, as this is associated with a higher risk of default. Of course, you can build strategic relationships with local banks and credit unions to get closer to 10 loans, however, after the 10th house, you’ll need to get creative and get private funding or find portfolio lenders.

This leads us to the next hurdle. In most cases, you’ll need at least a 20% down payment on each property, which adds up to around $1,000,000 needed in down payments if we keep it simple and assume you’re buying each house at $100,000. If you make $200,000/ year and invest $50,000 each year, or one-fourth of your yearly salary, to buy SFRs, it would take you 20-40 years to buy 50 to 100 SFRs that would bring in $10,000/month in cash flow at the average cash flow of $100-$200/month per SFR.

If you were to invest in apartment syndications with the same amount of money, you wouldn’t have a cap on the number of syndication deals you can have at one time, unlike the cap on traditional residential loans. Also, if you invested the same $50,000 into a syndication deal with a preferred rate of return of 8%, this would break down to $333/month in cash flow, which is above the average cash flow of a SFR. This doesn’t even take into account the profit you will receive once the apartment is sold in 5-7 years, which would make the average monthly cash flow throughout the life of the deal higher than $333/month.

It’s a clear winner in the category of scalability: apartment investing.

3) Barrier to Entry

The barrier to entry refers to the level of ease to start investing in either type of investing strategy; SFRs or apartment investing through syndications. To invest in SFRs by using conventional residential loans, you typically will need a 640 credit score and above, however, your income can vary as long as your debt-to-income ratio satisfies the lender’s requirements.

To invest in apartment syndication deals you either need to be an accredited investor or a sophisticated investor, with many syndication deals you run across requiring you to be an accredited investor. A sophisticated investor has to be able to prove extensive experience in real estate investing, which can take years to build. An accredited investor has a single net income of $200,000 or more per year, a joint net income of $300,000 or more per year, or a net worth of $1 million or more, not including the primary residence. This creates a higher barrier of entry either in experience or in income when it comes to participating in a syndication deal.

In this case, SFRs win in the category of the barrier to entry.

The Final Score

With a 2 to 1 final score in the categories of risk, scalability, and barrier to entry, apartment syndication comes out on top as the better investment strategy when trying to get to $10,000/year in passive income. Once you’ve overcome either the experience or income hurdles, apartment investing through syndication proves to be the better investment strategy.

Want to learn more about how Dwellynn can help you get started? Sign up for our exclusive deal list or reach out at hello@dwellynn.com.

👏🏼 You Bought Your First Deal, So What’s Next 🤷🏽‍♀️?

BOUGHT YOUR FIRST DEAL, SO WHAT’S NEXT?

Finally 🙌! It seems as though all your hard work, long hours, and endless negotiations have finally come to an end. You’ve found a property with excellent investment potential, pooled together your investors, and now you’ve closed on your new apartment complex. You have drastically expanded your real estate portfolio and the rest should be a piece of cake, right?

Well, that all comes down to how well you and your team can jump into the day-to-day management of the newly-acquired asset. You’ve successfully convinced a group of people to give you their money to make them more money, and now it’s time to start using your knowledge and resources to bring the results (and the money) to the table.

You look up and all of a sudden you have multiple units and tenants to manage, and it’s new and exciting, but it may also seem slightly overwhelming. You’ve successfully planned this deal from top to bottom, and it’s all coming together. You’ve made it this far and now is not the time to get intimidated. So once the property keys have been handed over, what’s next?

---

Check out these 5 quick tips to jump start your new real estate asset management position:

1) Numbers Talk, So What Does the Budget Say?

You’re no rookie to the numbers game. You analyzed this property’s projections forwards and backwards, but the analyzing is a never-ending job. Your main job is to protect your financial investment, as well as your investors’ financial investments.

This requires you to constantly be aware of the budget and performance of your property to ensure its financial success. You need to continuously compare your projected rental income with the projected monthly rental expenses, as well as your realized rental income and expenses.

Your expenses should not only include a mortgage payment (if applicable), taxes, utilities, and insurance, it should also include potential expenses for costs related to the property such as maintenance, emergency reserves, vacancy reserves, and a property management company fees.

2) Put Your Property Manager In Place?

Part of your deal package and presentation should have outlined who will manage the tenants and units, whether you will take on this role, or if you’ve chosen a property management company to assume these responsibilities.

If you’ve already put a property manager in place, you should establish a process to get updates on a consistent basis in regards to the performance of the property and any issues that need to be addressed. These updates should be passed along to your investors as well.

If you have not chosen a property management company yet, you should consider the benefits of hiring a property management company that can find and retain tenants, maintain the property, execute leases, and collect rent, amongst other things. When choosing a property management company, you should make sure they have experience managing properties similar to yours and ask for references to get a better idea of the quality of their services.

3) Inspections Never End

You may think that once you’ve closed on your property that all the inspections have ended, however, they’ve only just begun. Delegating tasks to your property management company will, undoubtedly, allow you to play a more passive role, but care should be taken to follow up on the tasks that you delegated to the management company to ensure that they are completing the tasks in a timely, efficient, and satisfactory manner.

Walking through apartments and doing property inspections during turnover periods can help you gauge how well your property management is maintaining the units and if there’s any deferred maintenance that is not being addressed.

4) First Impressions Only Happen Once

When you and your investors acquire your new apartment complex, it’s time to let everyone know that the complex is now under new and improved management and that things will soon be changing for the better. You will want to change the community’s opinion of the complex by advertising the new management and the improvements that will soon take place.

It’s important to have a new sign that announces the new management, as well as immediately focusing on improving and maintaining the exterior of the property with improved landscaping, lighting, etc. You and your investors will be aiming to raise the rents of your units to increase your overall bottom line, Net Operating Income (NOI).

5) Make A Dollar Go A Long Way

Just as important as raising rent, reducing unnecessary expenses and costs will also lead to higher cash flow. You will want to make sure you and your property management team is consistently evaluating the expenses and finding ways to reduce expenses and hidden costs, without impacting the quality of the operations.

Attention should also go towards finding other services to provide your tenants at additional costs to also increase cash flow. This could include offering rental insurance, valet trash service, or installing vending machines throughout the property.

---

Watch the Best and Learn From the Best

Even though these are some important aspects to address when acting as a syndicator, or things to expect from your syndicator if you are acting as an investor, this is by far, not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities of asset management in apartment syndication.

It is recommended that first-time apartment syndicators gain the necessary knowledge and experience by working their first deal with an experienced apartment syndicator, who can provide resources, credibility and inspire confidence in the deal’s investors.

---

Dwellynn is a multifamily syndication firm with experience in acquiring, repositioning, developing, and managing affordable, quality multifamily residential properties.

Here at Dwellynn, our reputation proceeds us, and we are recognized as a fast-growing firm that provides our capital partners with the opportunity to invest in real estate on a larger scale, while also providing better than market returns.

Click here to Get in touch with us today to become a capital investor in one of our upcoming projects, securing great returns and the necessary experience in multifamily syndication.

🗞🚨 NEWS ALERT: Why Real Estate Investing is A Better Retirement Plan Than Your 401(k)

Probably, you grew up with your parents stressing the importance of you getting a good job with good benefits, and a retirement plan is always falling into the category of “good benefits”. Starting your 401(k) or IRA is a modern American right of passage. You are officially a responsible adult planning for your future 30 years in advance. This is top tier “adulting”.

News flash, we, at Dwellynn, are here to tell you that the traditional 401(k) retirement may be damaging your retirement plans of watching the sunrise on the beach or the sunset in the mountains, even before those plans are finalized.

Most articles or blogs that were written over the past 30 years that go over how to save for retirement, will encourage you to maximize the contributions that you make to your 401(k) to help ensure that you are saving, to receive tax deductions, and to possibly get the company you work for to match your 40(k) contributions (aka “free” money).

To be clear, we are not saying that 401(k)s are inherently bad retirement models; however, there are several major issues that we want to raise about 401(k)s.

• 2/3 of 401(k) accounts were directly or indirectly invested in equities at the end of 2015, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, consisting of mutual funds and other pooled investments. This means that more than likely, your retirement savings are tied to market volatility, political climates, and market sentiment, amongst other things.

• Your investment options may be fully valued or, even worse, overvalued at the time the contributions are made.

• It's highly unlikely that the portfolio managers who currently manage your investment options will be the same portfolio managers managing them 10 or more years from now, meaning the “long-term” investing strategy for your retirement savings may change as often as the portfolio manager changes.

• 401(k) plans come with many compliance issues that need to be monitored with constant oversight and administration costs, creating participant fees, asset-based charges, and other fees.

• You create an enormous tax liability on deferred taxes.

There are many perks of investing in real estate vs a 401(k): higher returns, appreciating tangible assets, no hidden fees, predictable cash, forced asset appreciation, and inflation hedging.

With a self-directed IRA, you have significantly more control over the type of investments that you fund through your retirement plan. With a self-directed IRA, you can passively invest in multi-family syndication deals by simply choosing a syndication deal and having the custodian of your IRA to invest the capital for you. The returns that you make from investing in multifamily syndication will be put right back into your IRA account, and you can roll it over into your next investment.

Two Different Scenarios: 401(k) vs Investing in Syndications

Scenario #1: You put $100,000 into your 401(k) and add $10,000/year for 30 years with average annual returns of 7%

• When you retire after 30 years you will have around $1.8 million in retirement savings

• When you take into consideration an average inflation rate of 3.22%/year, your retirement fund will be worth less than $900,000 in today’s money

Scenario #2: You put $100,000 into your self-directed IRA to invest in real estate syndication deals, with 5-year hold times and 2x equity multiples

• With a 2x equity multiple [EM] and a 5 year hold time, every 5 years you will have doubled your initial investment.

• When you retire after 30 years you will have around $6.4 million in retirement savings, without taking into account the additional $10,000/year that you put into your retirement savings. If you include the additional $10,000/year, you’d have an additional $50,000 to invest every 5 years, which will bring your total retirement savings to around $9.5 million.

The Winner: Real Estate Investing for Retirement

As you see, $100,000 + $10,000/year goes A LOT further if that money is invested in real estate syndications, as opposed to just sitting in a 401(k). The difference between the two scenarios is $7.7 million in retirement savings. Of course, this is a simple projection that doesn’t take into account major market shifts or failed syndication deals that may impact your earnings and annual returns, however, if you took just half of the $7.7 million difference between the two scenarios, you’d still be looking at $3,850,000 more in your retirement savings through investing in real estate syndications.

If you paid close attention to the scenarios, both scenarios assumed 30-year timeframes for investing in your retirement plan. This means the longer you wait to decide to invest in real estate, the older you will be when you reach your retirement plan goals. The difference between a few years can be hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it is very beneficial for you to do your research, ask as many questions as you need, and educate yourself on real estate investing and multifamily syndication deals so that you can jump-start your retirement savings plan.

>> Find out more about how we can help you