All Forum Posts by: Cody L.

 This specific deal was via a owner I bought from in the past.  A few years ago I bought 1/2 his portfolio (brought to me by a broker).  I kept in touch, always having a bug in his ear that when he was ready to sell the others, I was there to buy.

Because he didn't have much in the way of data/financials, and was out of state, he wanted someone that could be an easy closer.  So in exchange for buying under market, I had to just write a check and close.  This wasn't a typical prolonged 60+ day close with 30 days of DD and $500 of EM.  This was $250k of EM and close as soon as title is ready. 

 ^^^ I agree with @Dan H.

 There is no code to crack.  The properties are listed (it's more than I can write in a comment as far as off market deals).  You just have to find one that makes sense and buy it.  Obviously that requires having 20-40% to put down.   But if I was able to do it without any classes (or BP / youtube at the time) than anyone else can.

People have  been building up multifamily portfolios on their own since forever.  However, like I mentioned above, it does take time and risk.  You have to be willing to put in the time and capable of  dealing with the risk.

 Two main ingredients are time and risk.  It's hard to grow a portfolio w/o those two things.  But it's not like I started with $0.  My first building was $440k and I had enough saved from my previous 'real job' that I could buy it (along with a loan).    If I had absolutely zero, then you have to find that very rare sub2/seller finance deal.  Or borrower friends/family $ till you get going. 

 Basically by doing what I just said in the OP, but many times. 

 Bleh, BP doesn't let you edit.  Subject should be "infinite" returns...  Not "infinant".   Oops. 

Of all the deals I've done while being on this site, I don't think I've ever posted in this area.  Normally my use of BP is to come on from time to time, offers some help where I can (pay it forward) and leave it at that.  Given I don't share my company info and I'm not trying to sell anything or build a 'brand', I don't often go into much detail on things.   I've given my aprox portfolio size when context matters and that's about that. 

However, it's 2024 and I figured I'd share a deal that might just motivate those of you looking to finally jump in and get started.

In a very cool/desirable area of Houston, I just bought a portfolio of four multifamily buildings.  3 of them are walking distance to each other, while the 4th is a few miles away.  I let a broker friend of mine know that I'd consider selling the 4th property for $x.  It was a fair price (and quite a bit under my blended average per door).  He brought me a buyer, and we made a deal happen.  The other 3 were financed with Freddie.  I had started the process before I even bought them so I was able to refinance quickly after I closed (and got to take advantaged of the recent rate drops -- I'm at 6%)

But the meat and potatoes  (I'll use round numbers, but they're within a few %)

The group was $5m

I sold #4 for $1.5m

My Freddie loan was $3.5m

So I'm left being in the deal with no #.  The 3 properties I kept cash flow nicely.  They're in a very nice area so high land value, high appreciating, etc. 

It wasn't as large as some of my other recent deals, but I love the deals I can quickly get debt on and get my cash back to do it again...   For a while it seemed like I'd keep finding these little 10 unit type deals for about $750k (I'd pay cash to close quickly w/o fuss -- part of how I got a good deal).  They'd appraise for ~$1m, and I'd refi and get about $700k back out.  Then do it again.   That was just before covid and zero interest rates which made prices skyrocket (when rents didn't) and I could no longer find good deals since the market was flooded with new buyers willing to pay whatever. 

I use buildium.  One bank account for all properties.  Buildium will keep track of income/expense for each property so no need to have separate bank accounts (which, IMO, doesn't scale.  What happens if you own/manage 50 properties?  100?  500?  Do you send maintenance to home depot with 50 different cards?, etc)

My thoughts anyway

I just hit 2,000 doors (without investors).  But I wouldn't say it was "so fast"  In fact, it was almost exactly 15 years.  There is no way around it.  It's going to take time -- unless you're raising money by giving up equity -- in which case do you really own it?

If I have a $1m property with no investors and $500k of debt, I feel like I own the property 100%.  But if I have a $1m property with $500k of investor equity (let's assume they have 1/2 the deal) and no debt, I'd feel like I only have 1/2 the property 

Just accept the fact it's a long game.  The good news is once you start building a portfolio, it really starts feeding on itself.  Cash flow issues go away and you're really just dealing with lenders to take advantage of the equity to fund more purchases. 

Also stop listing to podcasts.  You won't likely learn anything that'll help and you'll likely hear people taking nonsense.  Remember if they're on youtube or a podcast, they're doing that for a reason.  Likely to build their own brand.  And so, personally, I wouldn't put much stock in anything they say. 

I buy those types of deals all the time in Houston (well, not homes, but multi).  But it's mostly situations where a building is 1/2 empty or some other type of issue.   Under market rents, a good deal on a non performing property, etc. 

How much cash flow has my BTC made me that I mined way way back?

I love all my cash flow properties, but unless you're gaining equity it's going to be hard to scale as it takes a lot of years of cash flow to get that next building.