Multi-family lessons learned the hard way

[Jeffrey Donis]

Hey all!

For any and all who have any advice/input/experience that they feel would help someone who is new to the multi-family space- please share! I personally feel like this is a space that has a high barrier to entry and the knowledge available can be hard to find! Platforms like BP are a great aid- and for all of us on this platform- what is something that you wish you would’ve known starting out? What are somethings you have learned from it/through your multi-family journey?

Thanks!!!

[Charles Seaman]

@Jeffrey Donis I'm a big fan of the school of hard knocks.  If you ultimately want to run your own multifamily syndication business, then you'll want to do the things that are recommended below (and I made each of these mistakes, even though other people warned me about them beforehand).  I have a few more pointers that I can share from a deal that I'm currently working on as well, if you want more.

Recommendations When Starting Out

1. Pick a target area. You want to focus on one area so that you're familiar with the area and so that you have meaningful relationships with brokers, property managers, and other professionals that will ultimately lead to you getting better deals and better information.

2. Find sponsors. Sponsors are people that have the financial and experience track records to qualify for the loans that you'll need to acquire properties (unless you're not planning to use any debt). If you develop good relationships with them, then they might even let you use their track records to get good deals that you wouldn't get otherwise and to attract investors that would be more skeptical about investing with somebody that has no prior track record.

3. Find investors. Many syndicators make the mistake of spending too much time finding deals and not enough time finding investors. You should be spending as much time finding investors as you are finding deals. It's often said that you'll be able to find the money if you find a good deal. While there is truth to that in certain regards, it's tough to do that in syndication because there are strict rules and regulations that must be followed when raising capital.

4. Find partners. Most successful syndication groups have at least two (2) partners. It gives investors more confidence knowing that multiple people are involved because having only a single person in charge can be risky in case anything happens to that person. It also helps to divide the workload. When you first start out, there won't be much to do. But as you start building momentum, you'll quickly have more to do than you'll be able to handle, especially if you're working a full-time job and have other life obligations. My recommendation is to have one (1) person handle the acquisitions and one (1) person handle the investor relations. If you have more than two (2) people involved, then you can always further divide the workload accordingly.