All Forum Posts by: Jordan Becker

Hi, I'm a newbie trying to get into multifamily rentals with a partner, and have a couple of questions:

1) When you buy a small commercial multifamily property (say 50 doors or less), how much in liquid assets does a lender typically expect you to show, in addition to the down payment?  

2) I have been told that one should not buy an older apartment building because it has already depreciated most or all that it can depreciate. Is this true?  Is there an age limit for a property, beyond which you can no longer take depreciation on it, or where the amount of allowed depreciation diminishes?  

Thanks for any help!

Ryan, I see that this is an old thread, but wondering how this worked out for you? I am a newbie investor and wanting to go directly into small MFH rather than SFH. With 3 more years experience now, do you have any regrets about having gone with MFH? Did you find a good MFH turnkey provider? If so, I would be interested in knowing who they are.

Thanks again to all who have replied (and apologies for not individually acknowledging each one)! This is all really helpful feedback! To clarify, I was not thinking of going into large-multifamily totally on my own as a newbie (I'm new at REI, but not stupid :-) ). I definitely was thinking of putting together a team with some solid experience in that area, and hiring professional management. But I also really like the idea that several of you suggested of starting with passive investment in a syndication, *provided* that would still give me enough visibility into the whole process to gain some actionable knowledge. At least @Aubrey Tatarowicz seems to believe it would, so . . . cool.

@Daniel E., just curious, why do you prefer REITS to syndications?

Thanks to all who replied, great feedback! It sounds like partnering with an experienced investor is the best way to go for a newbie interested in larger multi-family.  Regarding syndication as an option, as a LP/passive investor in a syndicate, would I likely have enough visibility into the process to gain enough experience to eventually enable me to be a sole (or more active) investor in those types of properties?  I had assumed not.  BTW, I would *never* try to *manage* a large multi-family myself, my questions here assume I would hire professional management if I were the sole/active investor.

I'm in my mid-50's and just getting started RE investing (haven't yet bought my first investment property). I'm feeling pressure to scale up cash flow quickly because of my age -- so I'm considering jumping right into large multi-family as a way to do that, rather than starting out with SFH or small multi-family to gain experience first. Is that foolish? I understand large multi-family can be a lot of work and has different sorts of problems than SFH and small multi-family. I also have a full-time professional career that takes quite a bit of my time (which I don't want to give up just yet), so worried about biting off more than I can chew. Should I just stick with SFH or small multi-family to start off with? Thanks in advance for any advice.