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Updated 12 months ago, 01/03/2024
Best Multi-Family Syndication Coaches
I am looking to really dive head first into the multi-family syndication world. I have been listening to The Old Capital Podcast, Rod Khleifs podcast and reading books and blogs on syndication and at this point I'd like to hire a coach who can provide me with the guidance needed to really take massive action. I'd like to build up a cash-flow income stream of between $250k-$350k/year to replace my current income.
I have not yet participated yet in a deal passively and that is something that I plan on doing in the next couple months but ultimately I'd like to be a sponsor/operator myself along with a more analytical partner as I am the type that hates sitting down and diving into every single little line item expense.
Who would you recommend as a coach? And what do you think the number one thing is that I should look for in a coach before signing on with one?
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#1 Multi-Family and Apartment Investing Contributor
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- Santa Rosa, CA
Originally posted by @Karen Margrave:
@Brian Burke Once again, calling you in for your expertise. Maybe you can weigh in on the pros and cons of getting started in syndication and the process.
Thanks for the shout-out Karen!
Kyle, if you hate working in the granular level minutiae, you definitely need a partner (or an employee) if you want to take a deep dive in syndicating investments. Income property is all about the numbers and having one obscure number (or formula) off in one of your spreadsheets could throw your projections way off and cause you to lose the confidence of your investors. Or one sentence in your purchase agreement could turn into a big problem.
And in talking with investors, they will have detailed questions about your numbers and your plan. If you don’t know the answer, you might not win the trust of the investor. So granular detail is part of the everyday life of the successful syndicator.
Investment sponsors cross disciplines from real estate into financial services. Your life changes from evaluating dry rot and roof leaks to one of sending K-1s, distribution checks and quarterly reports. Well, maybe it doesn’t change for everyone, I hear plenty of complaints from investors about poor reporting from sponsors so I guess plenty of sponsors don’t make the shift and remain stuck in the real estate side of the business.
That said, it's a very rewarding business and a natural growth step from SFR. So you know real estate, what is left is learning how to properly analyze and forecast income, how to select markets, legal aspects of selling securities, investor accounting, managing large assets, growing NOI, and marketing your business and your brand.
Most gurus targeting real estate beginners are selling a dream—get rich in real estate. Most students do little to nothing with what they learn but the guru makes a ton of money because dreams sell for top dollar.
Education in the syndication space is different (dream sellers excluded and there are some) because you are already successful in real estate and you are just looking for some knowledge to bridge the gap to the next phase of your career. You’ll get so much more value from it than the newbie at a dream seminar.
I guess the challenge is in finding the right teacher. I’m no expert here because I’ve never had a mentor or coach, and I’ve always been leery of having one. But that’s just me—plenty of people have reported on a lot of success thanks to their mentor or coach so I’m sure there are good ones out there.
But I’ve had plenty of coaches and teachers reach out to me for advice. So I guess I could be a coach, but I’d be a real bad one for two reasons. First, I’m too busy doing deals and taking care of my investors. And second, I give advice to coaches for free and then hear the same advice repeated and they are charging for it. So how good of a business coach could I be if I can’t even monetize my own knowledge? LOL
@Kyle Kovats. I am in the same boat as you. I have been evaluating Brad Sumrock, Joe Fairless and Michael Blank. My goal is to learn syndication and acquire at least one MFH with 40+ units in 2018.
@Kyle Kovats and @Alpesh Parmar .
I'm in a similar state of mind and I have been investigating a few syndication education options myself. I have been looking at some material from Craig Haskell youtube channel.
I do have some Commercial RE Experience with office building deals. I have analyzed MF apartments, but never successfully purchased any. All the offers I made were outbid by someone with deeper pockets.
I currently own a 20k sf office building ($1.5M ) and I'm in the process of purchasing a second one of a slightly smaller size ($1M). I have plenty of experience with Single Family, as that is where I started 10+ years ago and owned up to 4 at the same time. Sold them all, when I purchased commercial office.
I'm curious to see if some more knowledgeable people here think I might need to get my feet wet on some smaller MF deals first.
@Henri Meli you are ahead of us in the game. I owned SFR for 5 years before buying my first duplex and then I closed a 9-unit MF in Dec' 17. I am working on a 12 unit deal right now but want to get a 40-50 units this year.'
Let's connect and share our notes and keep each other in check.
Good job on office buildings.
I would look for active investors/syndicators in the desired target market. I agree with you it would be an excellent idea to start by participating in one of those deals as an investor. Ounce your in it will be much easier to connect the dots and reverse engineer the whole process! I actually had a kind of similar experience/dilemma but in different industry, I was trading oilseeds/grains from dubai but had decided it was time for a career move and I wanted to switch to trading cacao/cashew nuts sourced from Ivory Coast. I found one of the most respected traders for that market and signed a deal to buy some small quantity from him (I didn't make much money on that trade :) ). But to make a long story short, from that opportunity we became friends and he learned me the whole business inside out.
I will be attending the seminar by real estate radio guys in early march, not sure what to expect. In terms of names as some people previously said and I agree with them is Gino/Rod Keith they both have some great content and you can feel the passion/they are genuine about educating students.
without naming names about who to avoid, personally I would watch out for some patterns:
-If they make money only from educating and don't actually have a track record or an investment business
-promise success or money
-the free content produced is not actual tangible information, but its used only as a bait to buy a course/coaching
@Kyle Kovats There are definitely some great coaches out there, but take time to understand what you're really looking for in a coach. As @Ola Dantis said, they're coaches, not magicians.
A few things to consider when evaluating coaches:
- Is this person actively doing deals?
- What's their knowledge and experience (not necessarily measured in years)
- Does their personality and coaching style match what you need?
- Do they make conservative investments; what steps do they take to protect investors?
- What additional value can they bring in helping you do deals?
- What does their coaching program consist of? How much access do you get to them?
Interview a few coaches and get a feel for who you like. @Joe Fairless is a great person to start with. There have been others mentioned that are certainly worth reaching out to as well. Good luck!
REMentor (Dave Lindahl) has taught many of my most successful multi-family syndication clients. (Full disclosure: I co-teach his Private Money Bootcamps).
Also Vinney Chopra, one of my most successful syndication clients, has started his own multi-family training academy.
Great post Tom Lafferty !!!!
Brad Sumrok is the real deal !!!
Most programs target end to end syndication and charge a boat load. I would suspect that many students never put anything into meaningful action after the excitement from the seminars or coaching programs wane. It can also be overwhelming to many as its really a team sport when they are balancing full time jobs, families, etc. I'm sure there are a lot of programs that are fairly similar in nature. However, very, very few put you in practical, "think apprenticeship type" opportunities to learn alongside experts doing large, syndication deals enabling you to rapidly grow your experiences , knowledge and credibility in a safer environment (less bruises and broken bones) without damaging your pocket book and reputation doing bad deals in less than stellar markets.
I like what @John Casmon summarizes, do as much homework on yourself as you do on what the coach is offering to see if a match. Forget focusing on "who's the best"...that really is not the most effective way to go about it. Be more intelligent, introspective than that. If I ask the coach "how can I help you" is there a way, path to partner even if its a small role on the team. Do it for the experience and what you'll gain in your business as a result. Will the investors I bring to the deal be my investors? Will I grow my knowledge base across all areas of the business? Is this a person I can work with from a personality perspective who wants the best out of me and willing to give their time, energy and passion?
@Kyle Kovats - Which one you ended up going with ? I was also looking at rod khleif podcast and that seems good
Originally posted by @Nitin Agrawal:
@Kyle Kovats - Which one you ended up going with ? I was also looking at rod khleif podcast and that seems good
I went with Brad Sumrok. The value has been tremendous, the network of individuals even better
This thread is gold.
I'm completely new to REI but at 45 I clearly see large MF is the best option for me to go big in REI. However I know I need to get some smaller scale experience and network with the right people first. I'm going to the Jake&Gino event in Nashville in Oct and I've already talked to @Gino Barbaro and Josh Roosen from their company on the phone before I spent a dime. These guys have already been very helpful to me. I’ve got a long way to go both with experience and capital but I’ve taken several notes and visited several sites from recommendations in these comments and will continue to dive into the content.
Thanks @Kyle Kovats I’m not as young as you and have less experience but you’ve greatly helped to inspire me even further to get more obsessed with getting deeper into understanding more about MF.
Originally posted by @Derek Tellier:
This thread is gold.
I'm completely new to REI but at 45 I clearly see large MF is the best option for me to go big in REI. However I know I need to get some smaller scale experience and network with the right people first. I'm going to the Jake&Gino event in Nashville in Oct and I've already talked to @Gino Barbaro and Josh Roosen from their company on the phone before I spent a dime. These guys have already been very helpful to me. I’ve got a long way to go both with experience and capital but I’ve taken several notes and visited several sites from recommendations in these comments and will continue to dive into the content.
Thanks @Kyle Kovats I’m not as young as you and have less experience but you’ve greatly helped to inspire me even further to get more obsessed with getting deeper into understanding more about MF.
MFRE is in my objective opinion the best and most rewarding investment vehicle in the world. I’ve obsessed over MF syndication over the past year or so and the amount that I’ve learned and experience I’ve gained is incredible. When I first made this thread at the time I owned 3-4 units. Now, I’m passing invested in 1306 units in Texas, Florida and Kansas and I’ve gotten on the deal sponsor side of the transaction as a KP. I love this business and am obsessed with it
I didn’t even realize when I responded that this thread was older, that’s awesome @Kyle Kovats you’re an inspiration for sure. You took the track I fully intend to take!
Curious - how is this going now? Just found this post and, given it's been about a year, curious how it's going @Kyle Kovats.
I'm in a similar position, so curious to learn from your experience.
I took Jonathan Twombly's course and I would highly recommend it. I don't think I've seen his name mentioned on here yet. He has a podcast called Real Estate Launchpad and was also featured on a Bigger Pockets episode.
I just wanted to check in on this thread, @alan M. and @kyle did you guys end up going with any particular mentor?
Originally posted by @Alan M.:
Curious - how is this going now? Just found this post and, given it's been about a year, curious how it's going @Kyle Kovats.
I'm in a similar position, so curious to learn from your experience.
@Kyle Kovats like to find out what you ended up doing all these years later. Did you find a coach or mentor to help you out. I am currently looking to better understand syndication investing.
Quote from @Dave Wells:
@Kyle Kovats like to find out what you ended up doing all these years later. Did you find a coach or mentor to help you out. I am currently looking to better understand syndication investing.
So I learned pretty quick that the far less expensive route is to just go to their weekend events that cost like $200 and you get the same network there as their $35K+ annual “mentorship”. The truth is, I’ve never heard of one that actually does mentorship, its mostly a “join my group and ill mentor you”. And then they never talk to you again and send you videos to watch of the same content they covered in the weekend event haha.