All Forum Posts by: Andrew Campbell

I think there are areas all over town that can meet your criteria.  We have many properties in Harlandale south of Downtown that I feel meet the criteria you've laid out. They are C-class properties, but they are safe (by my definition) and they cash flow. 

We are also in the process of buying nearly 200-unit apartment complex on the Northwest side.  Different demographics and tenant profile, but also will cash flow and is safe.  I'm a big fan on San Antonio in general, and there are many pockets that will give you what you're looking for--depending how you define safe and what you want in schools. 

Good luck!

John, 

I've had good luck with The Leaf Group.  They manage my Austin & San Antonio portfolio of mostly C+, B- 4plexes. 

Good luck!

Like @Todd Dexheimer, it all comes down to access to capital if you're ready to start syndicating.  Yes, you need to understand all the legal responsibilities and make sure you don't go to jail--but without investors/access to capital you've got nothing.  

I'd also think about getting a mentor.  There are lots of folks out there offering mentorship programs--I think the advantage is they can help walk you through your first few deals and answer questions as you proceed each step of the way. 

Good luck!

@Mason Peacock.  I grew up in Austin, and today we're focused only on the Texas markets--buying the same B/C apartment complexes you are interested in.  I'd be happy to chat--send me a message. 

I also recently wrote an article about why I think Texas is the best place to be investing--hopefully that can be a start for your education on some of the different metros.  

Look forward to talking with you.  Good luck!

It doesn't really matter how old it is,  to @Michael Le's point. What you need to check is how much recent capex has been invested into the property? When were roofs replaced? Major mechanical systems, etc. From there you can figure out how much Capex you're going to need to invest--and then see if the numbers work.

In Texas, there is a lot of early-mid 80's product you'll see, which puts you right around 25-30 years old.  That's most of what we target and a good age to find some great value add deals. 

Good luck!

Agree with @Krystallin Baker. Start at the beginning.  Why are you interesting in investing?  What attracts you to the strategies or asset classes you are learning about? What are the biggest challenges?  Biggest lessons learned?  What are you learning during your education that is surprising you?  

Biggest advice is to just be consistent in your timing--whether once a week or once a month.   Commit to a cadence and then always deliver.  Over time you'll get a good audience. Good luck!

@Garrett Diegel.  "Texas-its like a whole other country" is something you hear a lot, and its true.  In this case, I'm talking about the size.  Its tough to generalize the whole state, because there are pros and cons about each big market individually, and all the secondary and tertiary markets. 

I would add it comes down to your goals, and how you define success criteria for investments.  In Austin for example, it is very difficult to find anything under 10-units that will cashflow at purchase.  In what I'd call mid-size (100-200 units), it is very competitive but we are still finding deals that meet our criteria and are pursuing properties in Dallas/Ft Worth and San Antonio. 

I'd suggest picking a market, then a few submarkets in that area and study up.  Austin is very different than San Antonio, which are both worlds apart from something like El Paso or Corpus Christi. Overall though, I do believe Texas is a strong market with great job and population growth, low unemployment and a positive outlook for the future. 

Good luck! 

If you know your criteria and your goals, then only you can answer if you are paying too much.  We'd all love to get pay as little as possible for a new asset, and it feels like right now--especially in Texas--there are many people willing to pay more than we are. 

"All roads lead back to your spreadsheet" is something one of my mentors says a lot.  It doesn't matter if you feel like you are paying "too much".  If it fits your business model and meets your objectives, then figure out your maximum price. If you get the deal for that price or less, then you got a good deal. 

Good luck!

Totally agree with @Josh Koett.  You don't need a RE license to become a multifamily investor, and if that is your goal, what actions can you take to get you closer to that goal?

Of the two options you laid out, seems like doing something in the real estate arena, with less debt would be the better option. 

Good luck!

@Hamid Hotaki On the refinance front, we were in the same boat as you.  I didn't want to give up our traditional 30-year financing, so we kept talking to banks until we found a community bank that would refinance each one individually, and allowed us to pull the equity from the properties we wanted to.  It didn't extend our number of loans, but we were able to put new 30-year fixed rate debt on each property, and gain access to the equity individually. 

When we reached our cap of 10 loans, and knew we were staring down commercial loans--we decided to take the plunge and go big.  We just completed our first syndication deal earlier this year, and are hopeful to have our second under contract later this month.  I detailed the reasons why in a blog post you can read here.  At the end of the day, commercial bank terms didn't work for me on a smaller 4-10 unit property, so we opted to go big where you capture the efficiencies of operating a big complex and partner with investors to take them down.

Good luck!  Let me know if I can help in any way.