From a 25 unit Mom & Pop to a 243 Unit Syndication!

[Gino Barbaro]

I wanted to share our multifamily journey with our most recent acquisition, a 243 unit syndication in Louisville, KY.

Jake & I bought our first 25 unit Mom & Pop back in Feb 2013. It took us eighteen months to find and close on that first deal, and within 4 months of closing the first deal, we closed on 36 units. Six months after closing the second deal, we closed on 136 units.

First deal:

The keys to our success in the beginning are now clear to me:

• Focus on one niche (no shiny object syndrome)
• Paid for my education. You either pay to play or seek to serve, and paying to play got me to take action. It also dramatically shortened my learning curve. Education*Action=Results!
• Focused on my “why” for multifamily. I hated my restaurant business and desired financial freedom. When times got tough, I had no other choice than to push through the obstacles. I wasn’t going back to making pizzas. It really is that simple when you have a burning reason why.
• Partnered with an amazing partner who has a tremendous work ethic and who hated his job more than I hated mine. We shared similar values, ethics and wanted to create passive income.
• Selected a market, and started underwriting deals.
• Got constant rejection for about a year before we found a great broker.
• Stumbled onto the Mom & Pop seller, and the rest is history.
• Built a strong team around us.
• Think BIG, start SMALL! Just start!

Since the first deal, we have been able to purchase 1000 units between Jake, myself and another partner. Where did we get the capital? We have been able to refinance $9.5 million from our deals, going from community bank to agency debt.

We closed on our first syndication back in November 2108, a 132 unit deal. We learned the process by doing, and the deal was relatively small for us.

That has led us to this deal, a $16.9 million acquisition. And to think it all started from a run down, dilapidated twenty five unit Mom & Pop.

Should we have started syndicating sooner? Probably. The key is to start, and to take action every day towards YOUR goals.

Join a community that will support you, and begin to identify as a multifamily investor. And don’t be afraid to partner.

There are so many different ways to get into multifamily. You can buy your own deals, raise money for someone else’s deal, invest money as a limited partner to learn, be boots on the ground and help investors (seek to serve).

Just always focused on adding value to other’s lives, and you will ultimately be rewarded.

That’s why my goal is for everyone to become financially free. Once your worry about paying the bills has subsided, you can focus on truly helping others. By becoming financially free, I have found my true passion of coaching and helping our community invest in multifamily. And building multiple streams of revenue with multifamily (Education, Syndication, Property Management, Capital Company)

Stay focused, don’t drift from your dreams and continue to work hard. Surround yourself with amazing people and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Actually, expect to make a few, but learn from them and try to remove your ego from every transaction. Real estate is a relationship based business, so go out there and have fun networking and meeting people.

Finally, it doesn’t matter how many units you accumulate. Enjoy the journey, and try to help as many as you can! Profit is the fuel, it is not the destination (not sure who said that, but I love it).

It’s time to MIH!!

All the best

Gino

[Mike Montana]

@Gino Barbaro congratulations! What a great story and very inspirational. I’ve enjoyed your podcast content very much as well as your book. Thanks for sharing. I actually toured that property while I was in Louisville for a friend of mine who is now one of your LP’s. It’s a nice asset. In fact we are in the process of a deal just a couple miles away from this property. Maybe we’ll be neighbors soon so to speak. Well done!