In most states, you will need to be "under" a brokerage, this can be a large chain like Keller, or even a friend who has a brokers license and allows you to "hang a license" there. 

Also, if you are buying older, non-renovated multies you'll want to thoroughly assess things like current condition and needed work (since such a large % of inventory here is from early 1900s etc).

I want to be honest for the sake of the relationship, but I guess at the same time I need to be up front with contracting costs and materials.Work needed:- Back deck torn down (awkward 3 story high), fill in double doors from bedroom with wall or very large window spanning adjacent windows.- Tear down old ugly car port.- Landscaping, add nice garden up front, trim trees, remove overgrown vines from house siding- Remove old walkway and replace with new right angle walkway to driveway instead of street- Fix up front porch, new concrete probably- Repair any problem siding- Flooring has some unevenness, joists in crawl space/basement need to be added or adjusted.- Exterior paint, interior paint - HVAC and water heater appear new, roof appears new- Interior has some water stain marks, replace drywall patches- Replace kitchen with modern cabinets, granite, appliances- Oak floors downstairs hopefully can be refinished- Replace carpet upstairs with composite flooring or nice carpet - stairs are carpeted!

I keep seeing podcasts/videos about scaling quickly, buying 5 units in one year, but don't see what the path to that is, or how they got the loans.

If you know any (or are yourself) large apartment, self storage, mobile home park, etc. syndicators in the Bay Area and Los Angeles area, please reach out to me as I'd love to go out for coffee and learn more about you and your firm.Cheers all, and hope to meet you.Andrey

At first, it would be for smaller commercial properties, but if the relationship grows well and we make a good team, I'd love to scale up with them.Ideally it's a win-win for all:For the PM:They get a large chunk of equityThey get more business.They get access to my investors' capital for potentially future dealsIn a way, they eat what they killFor me:I look favorable to the lender with an experienced PM team as a partnerI'll get a deal under my beltI'll be able to get help with the downpayment, reducing the burden on my investors and myselfFor my investorsSure, they lose out on some equity, but they'll get a (slightly) higher return due to the lower monthly management feeThey'll sleep easy knowing that the PM has skin in the game and is experiencedTo be clear, I'm playing the long game, so I'm more than willing to do say, a 55/30/15 split with the PM/Investors/Myself and with a 3-5% monthly management fee.

Or suddenly it turns out the roof wasn't in as good of condition as it seems and starts leaking badly and needs large repairs or replacement and you only have $2,000?

I compare that to people I know that are successful in their jobs but just can't get over the fear of the unknown to become real estate investors.There are well known people that did not go through college education to be successful, but there are also a large number of others that did not help themselves by lacking one.

Bergen county has a lot more open space, so there is a lot of larger scale development going on there, but it takes months to years and years to get approvals, so there seems like less going on, but the market really is not stagnant at all. 

Then, decide on the product: SFHs, small MF, large MF, office, retail, etc?