Multi-Family commercial property

[Lionel Miller]

Looking to start buying Multi family commercial properties what are some good question to ask before even looking at the property. 

[Erik W.]

@Lionel Miller, hi and welcome to BP.

As with any business/investment venture, priority #1 should be to establish a goal and measurable steps to achieve it.  What are you trying to accomplish?  "Make lots of money" is nice, but vague.  "Achieve financial independence" is slightly better, but still too vague.  I suggest thinking over the following to flesh out your goals and plans:

1) Why do I want multi-family investment properties (MF IPs)?  Why not single family houses?  Why not stocks and mutual funds?  Why not Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies?

2) What about MF IPs helps me achieve my goals in the optimal time-frame?

3) What is my time frame?  Figure out if you're replacing income from your current W2 job or building an empire for retirement 2 decades from now.

4) How many hours per week/month/year am I able and willing to spend on this endeavor?  Hint: 20 hours is a minimum for a starting out, part-time investor.  Full time investors will spend 60-80 hours.

5) What specialized skills do I have that will help me succeed?

6) What specialized skills do I lack that could cause me to fail, and how will I overcome the lack of said skills?

7) What resources (finances, education, network connections, business associates, etc.) do I have available that will help me succeed?  

8) What resources do I lack that I will need to get and how will I go about getting them?

9) What is my measure of success and how will I track it?

10) If I find something that I'm doing isn't working, how much time will I have to correct my course?  In other words, if you find yourself 6 months from now working full time to score a great deal, but you haven't gotten past the "looking" stage, will you have the residual income, savings, etc. to keep going, or will you end up with 90%+ of MF real estate investors who give up and go back to W-2 employment?

All good stuff to consider now before jumping in.  Best wishes!

P.S.  #11 is optional and only applies if you're married: What does my spouse think of all this and how much are we on the same page with this venture?  This may be the most important one of the list, if you're married.  Spouses must support each other.  If they don't, everything you accomplish financially can/will eventually fall apart, or it won't achieve lasting satisfaction, or it will get divvied up by the divorce attorney.