Hypothetical - SFR vs MF

[Bill Hinshaw]

Hypothetical...

Say you had $200k that you could put toward real estate. Also – that $200k is only a portion, say 50%, of your overall savings portfolio. You grew up cleaning/managing apartments and SFRs, but you have no prior knowledge of real estate deals except for some recent research on your local market and what you’ve learned from other investors over 4 months time.

Would you consider diving into multi-family with that $200k? I’d guess 99% of you would say no. What if you located a mentor that agreed to walk you thru the deal and the first yr? Maybe? What type of payment/deal would you be looking for if you were the mentor?

Common sense would probably say that someone new to real estate would start off with an SFR and go from there, but I am very attracted to the efficiency of multi family… one deal, one roof, etc

This is purely hypothetical. Maybe someday soon I’ll be at a place where this situation is real for me, but not at this point. The $200k is hypothetical, and I am not soliciting for a mentor from Bigger Pockets, but I am very interested in your thoughts on the subject.

[Jon Klaus]

I would go multi-family, If you look at SFRs as school (prerequisite) for MF, get your schooling another way. Study MF and business, learn it inside and out, and then partner with an experienced MF investor your first time out.

I would have answered differently a couple of years ago, but now see that scalability and a hockey stick chart pattern come quicker with MF, if done correctly.