All Forum Posts by: E. C. "Stony" Stonebraker

@Moncy Samuel, I recommend you check out the numerous videos by Toby Mathis or Chris Coons of Anderson Business Advisors.  They have legal and accounting help for RE investors.  Search for them on YT and they have more short videos than you can watch in a year.  Then consult an attorney.  Don't invest before you get legal help to understand the consequences.  Good luck.

 @Remy Piazza, check out DavidMonroeCCIM.com.

@O'Licia Parker-Smith, try DavidMonroeCCIM.com and JakeandGino.com for two that help investors get started and provide educational materials.

@Kyle Curtin, as always, @Evan Polaski has excellent advice here.  I would also suggest you check out a couple of books on raising capital or asset management to see what they have to say about specific actions to take.  You might look into Hunter Thompson's book "Raising Capital for Real Estate" and Matt Faircloth's "Raising Private Capital."

And as Evan suggests, don't over-communicate.  Answer only each question asked so the investor doesn't get confused by other issues.  Investors have a lot on their minds when deciding to invest and unnecessary information may just confuse them.

@Nikki Cepeda, please retain an experienced attorney to advise you...I'm sure that's your plan, but I want to emphasize that.  

While many of us have experience with JVs and syndications and can offer advice, we don't know enough about your situation or the law to offer legal advice.

Having said that, a 30 unit multifamily is a business and should be treated as such. So retaining an attorney who can develop an arrangement for you is important. 

As for family, it might be best to buy out your siblings, so you don't develop family issues with the property.  You can arrange terms for your buyout, again, with the help of an attorney.

A JV requires all JV partners to be active managers of the property. From your brief description of your situation, this doesn't sound like it fits.

Your attorney doesn't have to be local to you or your property.  The most important criteria is the attorney's experience in structuring commercial deals.  You don't want a local transactional attorney to works mostly in local single family residential deals.

For examples of attorneys, see Kim Lisa Taylor (SyndicationAttorneys.com), Dugan Kelley (KelleyClarke.com), or Mauricio Rauld (PremierLawGroup.net).  They all can give you lots of good advice on how to proceed before you retain someone.

Talk to local multifamily brokers who would know the local investors and operators/sponsors/syndicators. Go to REIAs and meetups in your area. They are usually posted online in Meetup.com and Eventbrite.com. Call financial advisors and ask bankers. Go to public presentations made by self-directed IRA companies. Look for any kind of networking events where people interested in real estate are likely to hang out.

If you are just starting out, a landlord unfriendly metro is typically a challenging place to learn investing lessons.  You have to have plenty of capital to ride out economic tides and wait for appreciation to reward you.  You will not usually see many cash flowing properties in those markets as many syndicators prefer more conservative investment opportunities.

 James, you should get Beau Beery's book "Multifamily Investors Who Dominate."  Beau is a top USA multifamily broker who covers central and north Florida and his book is the bible, IMHO, for investors.  Just to be clear, it is about developing relationships with brokers, not how to underwrite, invest and operate a property.  Also check out his YouTube channel, "Beau Knows Multifamily" for a lot of good tips.

@Deepu John, Arn Cenedella is correct.  There is no complete, or even near complete listing of commercial multifamily properties.  And 85% to 90% of the commercial multifamily sales are through brokers anyway, so they are your best resource.  You might go to the websites of brokers and get on their email lists for multifamily listings in the markets you are interested in.  If you want a starting list, try CBRE, Marcus & Millichap, Cushman & Wakefield, Coldwell Banker, and SVN.  All are significant players, depending on the market.  If you are new to real estate investing, be sure to get some coaching or education in the field or team up with an experienced partner or team.  Serious brokers won't work as hard with new investors who don't have experience or significant capital resources who aren't likely to bring them much business.  Smaller brokers may be more willing to work with you, though.  Good luck!

The way I started and many others have is partnering with more experienced investors who are looking for someone with your skills.  They can bring capital, experience which will help get the financing you need and help guide you to manage the property (if that is what you want to do).  You'll learn from them lots of the details that you can't know unless you actually participate in an acquisition or two.  Get that experience, build some equity and capital yourself and then you'll be in a better position to acquire something on your own.

Cole, there is no equivalent to MLS in the commercial space. Most properties are owned by entities and many are behind Registered Agents who will not reveal their clients. The 4 best databases for commercial owners I've heard are Reonomy, CoStar, LandVision, and ProspectNow. But they are not cheap. You might also try netronline.com which has public property records from the counties and might be cheaper. Another way to find more accurate data is to use a skip tracing firm like Propstream or REISkip.com. They do more research into finding the actual owner, but, again, you'll pay for it.