move from single family to multifamily

[Sharon Cole]

My husband and I have 4 single family rentals and one commercial office condo. We want to make the switch to multifamily. What are the best learning resources out there?

[Erik W.]

@Sharon Cole, hi and welcome to BP!

It depends on what you mean by multi-family.  Duplex/Triplex/Fourplex?  5-20 unit small apartments?  21-50 unit medium apartments.  200+ apartment complexes?

The reason for this largely stems from two concerns: 1) financing and 2) scaling.

FINAICING: Most small MFs (2 - 20 units) can be handed via a standard commercial loan.  4 units and fewer can go conventional, especially if one unit is owner occupied.  Anything over that and you're in the commercial area or you have investing partners.  For larger deals (50-200 units), you will be looking bigger pots of money and more sophisticated investors, such as equity partnerships, syndication, non-recourse financing from institutional lenders.

SCALING: Obviously, you know some things about land lording which would apply to smaller 2-4 units, but when you get over 20 units in one place that's a whole different ball of wax as you will be handling daily maintenance calls, snow plowing (I hear even TX gets ice and snow....too soon?), fights over parking spaces, etc.  When you get over 100 units, now you're managing a team of a leasing agent, maintenance man, etc.

Let's define your goals specifically so we can give better advice.