Trying to move up to apartment complexes

[Toben B.]

Hello,

I now own 9 units via 3 duplexes and 3 houses, and I would like to make the jump to a 40+ unit apartment complex. I want something big enough to pay a property management company as I already have a full time job.

I seem to have 2 major problems:
A. I can scrape up enough to buy a small house with cash, but this does not appear to be big enough for a down payment on a midsized apartment complex.

B. Although I understand CAP rates, I can't seem to find any apartments priced well unless they have huge vacancies or are all 1 bedroom units and I know those are hard to keep rented in my market.

1. How do I move up with only $50-75K in cash

2. How do i find the good deals? I know how to do so with duplexes/houses, but I am missing something with apartments. I am targeting south or east Tulsa metro.

3. Has anyone else made the jump easily from single family and duplexes to midsized apartments?

[Toben B.]

I thought I would update this thread as other people are likely in the same situation.  I kept trying to buy apartments for a solid 5 years after this initial post. I built my portfolio up to 18 units consisting of duplexes a quadplex and houses and got a line of credit and sold a couple properties to raise money for a down payment. I bought the Michael Blank training package and used it to make some offers and finally got a great deal on 16 units about 45 min out of town. I have a good manager in place and finally figured out how to buy apartments after years of effort.  This is encouragement to all of you to keep at it. Some times we don't find success overnight.