Why Not Apartment Complexes???

[Jesse Chunn]

I am new, have not bought my first property yet, but I have been a "businessman" for 20 years. I have a higher than average tolerance for risk, so long as it is "calculated" risk. For the sake of this question, assume that I have good credit and $500k under my mattress (not really under my mattress, but available).

So, the question is "Why not apartment complexes?" I have looked at (analyzed) a few dozen potential single-family deals, and at least 15% of them were worthy of further investigation. BUT, I would have to go through the whole process of: Analysis, Loan, Close, Rehab, Rent.... for each one, about 100 times (literally) to get to my goal of approximately 20k in passive monthly revenue, and my properties would be scattered all over the place, and it would take forever (many years by my estimation).

On the other hand, I see that there are apartment complexes out there to be had with (for example) 70 units, $90k net operating income, that can be had for a down payment and rehab cost of maybe $500k. Obviously the reality is all over the map, but I am finding this to be doable (on paper at least).

Now, I am not an expert, but it seems that almost all "Make Money in Real Estate" books, and this website, are geared towards folks that don't have $500k burning a hole in their pockets... so there's not a lot of conversation on this topic... Am I naïve to think I could pull something like this off? I like to think big and go big, but I also try to be smart about it and avoid stupid mistakes. Would it be a stupid mistake for me to go down the path of 70+ unit apartment complexes right out of the gate?