All Forum Posts by: Hubert Washington

Danielle,

Welcome to the BP community! You will find BP to be an incredible resource as you begin your journey into real estate investing. There is a lot to learn but the most important thing is your "why". It sounds like you already have that figured out. Hold on to it and let it fuel you every day. The journey will be filled with plent of ups and downs but never lose sight of why you are doing it.

I'm in Jacksonville and usally go to St. Augustine once or twice a month. PM me if you have any interest in getting together for lunch or coffee sometime.

Best of luck on your journey!

@Andrew David

Don't work work just one broker. A large percentage of apartment deals are not listed anywhere. Often times brokers market their properties to their buyers list of investors. You want to have relationships with as many brokers as you can or at least all of the major players in your market.

@Jered Sturm

Great story and thanks for sharing. It's like playing Monopoly...trade in 4 green house for one red hotel! Congratulations on your REI success and on buying many more "hotels"!

@Chris Washington check out Jered's story. He's over in your area.

@Nieka McDowell

Welcome to the BP community! You will find that BP is an excellent resource with tons of great information and helpful people. Jacksonville is a great place for real estate investing. If you haven't already, figure out what segment of real estate you want to invest in. Then learn as much as you can about it and network with people who are already doing it.

Best of luck on your journey!

@Tyler Goulden

I asked the same question earlier this year and received a lot of great responses from the BP community. Read through my discussion 

In my opinion, the answer to your question is yes. I am currently actively searching for my first 75+ unit apartment complex in my market. However with that said, there is significantly more effort required for your first deal to be an apartment complex than single family or residential multifamily (<5 units). My recommendations would be:

1. Educate yourself about apartment investing. There are several great books on the subject. My favorites are:
   1) ABCs of Real Estate Investing by Ken McElroy
   2) Wheelbarrow Profits by Jake Stenziano & Gino Barbaro
   3) Multi-Family Millions by David Lindhal
   4) The Complete Guide to Buying and Selling Apartment Buildings by Steve Berges
2. Listen to podcast about apartment investing. Jake and Gino, Michael Blank, and Joe Fairless have great podcasts on the subject.
3. If after educating yourself you still feel that this is the direction you want to pursue for your first investment, begin connecting with other apartment investors (you can find several here on BP).
4. At this point you can look to invest with an experienced operator in a syndication, partner with an apartment investor on a deal, or as @David Thompson recommended you can hire a coach.

Is it easy buy an apartment complex as your first investment? No. Is it doable? Yes. It all depends on how hard you are willing to work to get there and whether or not you give up before your get there. I know an experienced apartment investor that it took 2 years to get his first deal. Now he has over 675 units. If you are looking for an easier entry to real estate investing, go single family. But if you are truly passionate about apartment investing, don't let anyone tell you that it can't be done.

Best of luck on your journey!

Google "Columbus Multi Family Brokers"

@Peter Molina

Most apartments are not listed in a central place. You can find some on Loopnet.com but often times these are stale and leftovers that have been passed on by most investor. Some brokers will list their properties on their websites but a lot of them already have relationships with buyers/investors. When they get a new listing, they will send them out to their buyers. If you want deal flow, you need to connect with commercial/multifamily brokers in your area. You can use Loopnet.com to find brokers. I've also found some brokers in my area using LinkedIn's search feature.

Also there is a new site www.apartmentbuildings.com that has some listings.

Best of luck on your journey!

@Andrey Y.

You may want to check out Principles of Real Estate Syndication by Samuel K Freshman and It's a Whole New Business by Gene Trowbridge. These are two great books on syndication.

Best of luck on your journey!

@Cameron Edens

Welcome to the BP community! You will find that BP is an amazing resource for learning the ins and outs of real estate investing. Make sure to listen to all of the podcast and review the resources that others have posted about.

Best of luck on your journey!

@Brandon Velikaneye

Great question and in my opinion it all depends on you. My passion is investing in apartment complexes and I decided to skip the duplexes, triplexes, and quads. It is definitely a steeper learning curve to get into commercial multifamily vs residential multifamily. It really depends on how badly you want it and how hard you are willing to work to get there. I know another apartment investor who took 2 years to get his first 26 unit property but he now has over 650+ units. I agree with the comments by @Bill S., commercial is definitely a different animal. However it is doable if you are willing to invest the time and energy to educate yourself and learn what it takes.

Best of luck on your journey!