If you had one question for a professional Syndicator, what would it be??

[Rene Hosman]

If you had one question for a professional Syndicator, what would it be??

Now is your shot to ask! Brian Burke has acquired over half a billion dollars’ worth of real estate over a 30-year career, including thousands of multifamily units and more than 700 single-family homes, with the assistance of proprietary software that he wrote himself. Though he prefers to reposition existing multifamily properties, he has also subdivided land, built homes, and constructed self-storage. So he has a ton of experience in all types of Syndications, raising capital, and he literally wrote the book on passive investing The Hands-off Investor - The Insiders Guide to Investing in Passive Real Estate Syndications. To celebrate BiggerPockets book sale happening NOW Brian is answering your questions!!

Want to get more of your questions answered about investing in real estate in a truly passive way? Check out Brian's book The Hands-off Investor on sale THIS WEEKEND for Black Friday. Get your copy at the best price ever, right now here!

[Timothy Hero]

Sorry if this was already asked, but what's an average return per year, in terms of cash flow? If I live a busy life and don't have the time or care to invest on my own, but want to put, lets say $200k to work, is a 15% cash flow return reasonable?

[Brian Burke]

Quote from @Robert Ruschak:

Would you skip the 700+ single family houses and scale up faster into multi-family?

@Robert Ruschak I'm a firm believer in "everything happens for a reason." My first multifamily purchase was my 34th acquisition and my first multifamily syndication was my 103rd acquisition (and wasn't my second multifamily purchase, either). That pace feels pretty good to me...I can get past the "rookie mistake" phase of my career before there is investor money on the line, and I can "fail small" because SFRs and small multifamily doesn't hurt as much as larger properties when things go wrong.

Timing had a role, too. Had I scaled up in 2002 after buying my first multifamily, I'd have had a much larger multifamily portfolio during the great financial collapse and I probably wouldn't have survived it. And I certainly wouldn't have survived it with no investor losses, as I was able to do thanks to having a manageable portfolio at that time.

All that is to say that I wouldn't change a thing. Had I scaled faster, I wouldn't be where I am today--I'd probably be working a job somewhere and have a lot of investors hating me.

[Brian Burke]

Quote from @Timothy Hero:

Sorry if this was already asked, but what's an average return per year, in terms of cash flow? If I live a busy life and don't have the time or care to invest on my own, but want to put, lets say $200k to work, is a 15% cash flow return reasonable?

 @Timothy Hero unfortunately not. If anyone tells you that you can get 15% cash-on-cash it's either a scam or ultra high risk. Fifteen percent IRR is possible, and single digit cash on cash is achievable. This would mean that the difference between the cash on cash return and the IRR is appreciation, which you'd receive upon sale. Higher risk structures can achieve higher IRRs, but can also break even or even lose money.