Great question @Kate Weinberg, I have seen this scenario many times while working with my clients. If you want to be very hands on, buying a multifamily by yourself may be your best option, just know that multifamily and single family are two different business models. Very few things about them are the same. So educate yourself before jumping in. Also, most lenders will penalize you slightly on the leverage since you are a higher risk borrower having no experience. Also your debt would be full recourse, meaning if you default, you are responsible for the entire amount of the loan, not just your investment.
Your other option is to invest with a professional multifamily investor who syndicates deals. You would be 1 of several investors who are pooling your funds to buy a much larger, less risky property with a non-recourse loan. A non recourse loan limits the investor's loss to only their investment. Exceptions apply.
In regards to your 10k/mo goal, or 40%/year average, that is only doable with value add multifamily properties. We have done it several times before where the investors averaged a 60-75% return per year only because they received a huge refi cash out in year 2-3 for 150 to 200%. After the refi, the stabilized properties operate at about 8-10% return. Just keep in mind that these deals are very risky and involve large rehabs based on market data with no guarantee of success. You want a very experienced syndicator who specializes in the market you are investing. I see lots of out of state investors over paying for value add properties only to end up missing their proforma targets because the believed the exaggerated market figures the broker provided them since they had no market experience.
In regards to your question about syndicators, I am a full time syndicator but I can put you in touch with any of my investors who are participating in our current deals if you have questions about what its like to be a Limited Partner. For what its worth, it is a very hands off option and the investors are not involved in the day to day. We may have a vote every 2 or 3 years to refi or perform a large update to the property, but otherwise the syndicator manages all of the day to day and provides monthly and weekly reports along with conference calls.
I believe @Joe Splitrock recommended a 1031 exchange but don't think that will work since those only apply to a single asset. And it has to be an exchange from a single asset to an equal sized or larger asset. Since you have multiple assets you are selling at once, i do not think this option is available to you. But please check anyway.
@Mike Dymski Her expected returns during a downturn depend more on where she invest (tertiary market vs MSA) and the type of investment (value vs yield). its almost an impossible question to answer since there are so many variables.
I may be misunderstanding what @Abel Sng but we syndications average around 200-300% over a 5 year period, although we specialize in value add which is riskier but pays better.
