Passive Income Through Multifamily Real Estate

Today’s episode is a case study that provides a detailed blow-by-blow of a multifamily deal by Founder and CEO of Sterling Rhino Capital LLC, Chris Roberts. Chris has been a full-time entrepreneur and investor since 2007. He owns and operates a sales and marketing company that, when acquired, had annual sales of 7.2 million in 2007. By 2019, Chris and his team grew that business to 24.5 million. Chris holds investments or shares in over 2,100 units across the country and recently closed on 112 unit in Georgia and 104 unit property in Virginia. In this episode, Chris shares the details from the 112 unit deal in Georgia, from how he came across the property to what stood out about it and why he describes it as a diamond in the rough. He addressed the challenges and the lessons he learned along the way, namely the importance of building rapport, putting in the hours, doing the hard work, and following the numbers! Chris also shares some of his favorite tools and what others can learn from his biggest mistake, so

In today’s segment, we focus on building better systems and becoming best-in-class real estate operators. Our guests, Ed Sittler and Perry Zhang, walk us through the ins and outs of their latest deals and share insider tips along the way. We open the show by hearing about Ed and Perry’s professional history and get up to speed with their most recent CapEx development. Ed reveals some of the immediate challenges he and Perry faced, as listeners find out how the two were tasked with making a building habitable again. Perry expands on this and tells us about the different lenders and players which made their success possible. Yet, there is an important sequence to all this. One might have all the right ingredients, but if you don’t follow the recipe, failure will be your result. In light of this, Perry details his entire process, referencing each player and what their role is. Adding to this, Ed shares valuable information about how you can keep your contractors accountable and why jobs are never perfectly execu

Branding is a key tool in the competitive world of real estate, and there are endless opportunities to build a successful and reputable brand. However, with thousands of similar offerings out there, investors, agents, and business owners need to position themselves in a way that helps them stand out from the crowd. Today’s guest,  Stace Caseria, offers strategies that help businesses do just that. Stace is the Founder of Trust Deep Branding Agency and an award-winning writer and branding expert with 20 years of experience. Stace has also been investing in real estate for more than 20 years and is currently both an active and passive investor. Through his branding and marketing expertise, he enables businesses to create long-term loyalty in relationships built on deep trust. In this episode, Stace shares a bit about his real estate, branding, and marketing experience, explains what branding is, its top level benefits, and its two halves: image and substance. He also talks about personal versus professional bra

Preferred equity is not something you tackle when starting out as a new syndicator. It comes with a large amount of added paperwork, legalities, due diligence, and much more. Today on the show we talk to a leader in this field, Ellie Perlman, founder of Blue Lake Capital. Ellie has over 10 years of experience in real estate investment, law, and property management. She started her career in Israel as a commercial real estate lawyer, leading commercial real estate transactions for Israel’s largest development company. Later, as a property manager for one of Israel's most prominent oil and gas companies, she oversaw properties worth over $100M. Ellie leads Blue Lake Capital, which owns and manages multifamily properties across the U.S., with a focus on Texas, Florida, and Georgia. At Blue Lake, Ellie oversees the acquisitions and asset management of the company's portfolio. She is a Forbes author on real estate investing, the host of the podcast “REady2Scale,” and an avid real estate investing blogger

Kris Reid, ‘The Coolest Guy in SEO,’ joins us today to share some of his valuable knowledge around digital marketing. The digital space is becoming more relevant by the day and the traffic on one’s website can be the determining factor between failure and success. There is much more to a successful website than just making it look good; if you want people to visit your page, and more importantly, make use of your services or buy your products, there are certain tools that you can use to ensure this. Kris talks us through some of these tools, his journey into the SEO space, the importance of having a growth plan for your business, how backlinks work and why you need them, and more! We learned a lot from this interview and for anyone looking to start a real estate company, or any company for that matter - don’t miss this episode! Key Points From This Episode:Kris’s journey from big banks to online games to SEO.Why a good digital marketing strategy is key to a successful business.The importance of having a plan

Joining us for this Asset Management Friday segment is Justin Fraser, host of the True Multifamily Podcast and syndicator at 88 Real Estate Capital. In our conversation, we get to hear about Justin's role at the firm and the most recent deal they completed before we dive into our focus of hardening assets and what this means for syndicators. Justin explains what an important part of the real estate game this is, strengthening parts of assets and investments that might cause problems down the road. He explains the simple steps that he and his team take early on with a property and how these easy measures can save a lot of time, money, and trouble for you! Justin also talks about the data he analyzes in this regard, emphasizing crime stats, and the monitoring of repair and maintenance costs. One of the big takeaways that Justin gives us is about how to spend money and his philosophy is one of never cutting corners and getting things done early for everyone's benefit. He also shares his thoughts on wha

Investing in multifamily is a great way to diversify your portfolio and profit as investors seek to grow long-term wealth. Today’s guest is Arn Cenedella, founder of Spark Investment Group, and a real estate expert with more than four decades of experience, including 35 years as a realtor navigating the unique real estate landscape in Silicon Valley. During that time, Arn invested in real estate ranging from single family homes and fix-and-flips to land subdivisions, condominium conversions, and commercial multifamily properties. Through these experiences, he developed a passion for helping others achieve their own financial freedom by investing in multifamily real estate syndications. Through Spark Investment Group, Arn is putting his decades of real estate expertise to work for his clients, helping them reach their goals and attain the lives they’ve always wanted to live. In this episode, Arn shares some of the lessons he has learned in his 42-year real estate career, how he has diversified his investments,

Welcome to another Asset Management Friday’s Edition of the Passive Income Through MultiFamily Real Estate Podcast. Today’s guest on the show is Veena Jetti, who is the founding partner of Vive Funds, a unique commercial real estate firm that specializes in curating conservative opportunities for investors. Veena is also a multifamily owner-operator, real estate investor, and entrepreneur with over 10 years of real estate experience. She brings a dynamic perspective to targeting, acquiring, managing, and operating assets using best practices combined with cutting edge technologies, and her professional expertise includes driving corporate strategy and business development opportunities. In this episode, Veena addresses the capital side of asset management, talking about investor experience and engagement, and she asserts the importance of being transparent and over-communicating with investors, especially during times of uncertainty. Tune in to find out more!Key Points From This Episode:Veena introduces herse

Former tech entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, J Scott, and his wife, moved to Atlanta in 2008 to start a new chapter. In the past ten years, they have bought, built, rehabbed, sold, lent-on, and held over $60 million in property all around the country. But, in 2016, they transitioned into multifamily and they have never looked back. J is today’s guest on the show. He is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and the co-host of the BiggerPockets Business Podcast. He is also the author of four books on real estate investing, which have sold over 200,000 copies and have helped investors from around the world get started in real estate. In this episode, J talks about his transition from single-family to multifamily and shares some lessons from his first multifamily syndication, including the importance of building a relationship with your team and understanding that multifamily is not simply single family at a larger scale. It’s a completely different beast! To J, being the team lead is just a word, and he is much m

Knowledgeable and passionate about all things real estate and with a keen eye for detail, Ashley Wilson, Founder of Bad Ash Investments, joins us on the show today to discuss topics ranging from construction management to COVID-19 to capital reserves. Before Ashley became a real estate investor over 10 years ago, she was involved in vaccine development. Her knowledge of pandemics meant that in the very early days of COVID-19, she had the foresight to take actions which helped keep her business afloat. Ashley stresses the importance of always having cash reserves and being attuned to what is going on in the real estate market because of the fast-changing nature of the sector. She also shares with us what's most important when it comes to managing projects, how COVID-19 has changed housing preferences, the processes that she makes use of to make sure her projects are going according to plan, along with experiences she has had when the opposite has happened. This episode is packed full of important insights

Once considered a fringe investment, mobile home real estate wasn’t the go-to for property investors and waned in the shadow of the more profitable multifamily. Today tells a different tale, though. Roughly 60 million Americans need affordable housing, and there are around 12 million mobile homes to service that need. According to Jonathan Tuttle, this is an opportunity. As today’s guest Jonathan talks to us about the rise of mobile home parks in the United States, and why they’re a great investment in today’s real estate. We kick off the episode by learning about his background in mobile homes. Growing up in the 80s, he spent a lot of time around his father, a general contractor, and was exposed to the ins and out of the business. It was during this time that Jonathan also grasped the resilience of real estate, considering its recovery from the savings and loan crisis during that time. These days, Jonathan is a fund manager at Midwest Park Capital which is a private real estate investment firm providing accr

Welcome to another Asset Management Friday segment, focused on educating operators, building better systems, and becoming a best in class operator. Today’s guest is Nic Espanet, a Principal at Thrive Multifamily LLC and a multifamily real estate investor based in Fort Worth, Texas. Nic has been passively investing in multifamily assets since 2016 and has been a multifamily syndicator and asset manager since 2018. He has worked as a licensed physical therapist since 1996 and has run his own private practice since 2012. His experience as a small business owner combined with his detail-oriented personality has equipped the strong growth of Thrive Multifamily, a Texas-based multifamily syndication company. Nic is currently an asset manager in 3 multifamily syndications totaling 452 units, and is a passive investor in an additional 1780 units at 7 properties. In this episode, Nic shares a bit about himself and his syndication business, his experience of asset management in tertiary markets, and some of the challen

The best way to find a commercial opportunity for sale in an out-of-state market is to work with a broker local to that market. They will have access to internal listings and listings coming on to the market, as well as connections with local operators and investors. Today’s guest is Logan Freeman, a real estate investor, developer, and agent who has found his niche in the industry, acting as an investment property specialist and actually representing buyers instead of sellers in the transactions process. Logan has also completed multiple joint venture projects and equity partnerships and works as a developer. Completing over 120 transactions in less than a year, Logan has found a process and relies on his most valuable priorities to guide his profit-producing activities. In this episode, Logan shares a bit of that process with listeners and outlines some of the best ways to find the best broker to work, and establish relationships with them, as well as how to maintain those relationships. While nothing beats

Being an asset manager can require you to keep track of hundreds of issues — and that’s just for one property. If you don’t have the right systems in place as you scale your business, then managing your portfolio becomes an agonizing task. Today we speak with Ashcroft Capital founder Frank Roessler, whose company manages over one billion dollars of assets. Our conversation opens as we explore Frank’s business model and how he runs his asset management department. A common challenge when scaling, Frank shares his insights on when you should hire people and why you need time to make each hire. We then dive into the nitty-gritty of how Frank tracks his deals and properties through clever spreadsheeting and constant vigilance. After highlighting the importance of managing people, Frank discusses the software that he uses to develop his property metrics. We ask Frank to talk about some of his early mistakes and his answer highlights how business plans unfold over years and that communication is key in sticking to

Even the most successful W-2 workers can find themselves trapped in toxic work environments that affect their wellbeing. For Chris Soignier, today’s guest, real estate investing was a way for him to earn the financial freedom to live a more balanced life with his family. We talk about how Chris left his 20-year corporate career to become an investor within only a year of discovering real estate. Now, he’s a passive investor in 27 multifamily syndications. Chris shares his motivations for leaving his job and how reading Robert Kiyosaki inspired him to leap, feet-first, into real estate. We discuss his start in investing and the sacrifices that he made during this transition, including how he sold his BMW M3 to finance his projects. Chris opens up about his first real estate lessons and that, although he was financially astute, marketing was an unexpected skill that he needed to learn. He tells us about his first deal, how to make sure that your first investment is the right choice for you, and how he tracks ho

Financial analysis is a critical aspect of asset management because that is where the data comes from, and today’s guest is an absolute whizz when it comes to this side of the business. With a past life in tech, Prashant Satoskar is a skilled systems thinker, and his real estate career has seen him invest in single-family, and more recently become an LP and GP in the multifamily space as well. Today he is a managing partner of Catalyst Equity Partners which has 700 doors under management. In this episode, Prashant drills down on his policy for financial analysis, getting into some of the hidden, below the line costs involved in asset management. For Prashant, his analysis starts top-down, going from NOI and occupancy collection and ending up on cash flow. Along the way, Prashant keeps an eye on things like P&R, R&M, cash flow statements, AP aging statements, and balance sheets, as well as ROI on marketing and traffic, all of which he mentions today. He also talks about some of the apps and platforms h

If you play the game right and keep your attitude positive, syndication can be easy, but don’t expect everything to fall into place overnight. Joining us today to talk about his inspiring journey into syndication and how he has achieved so much success in this space is Vinney Chopra. Since coming to the US more than 40 years ago with only seven dollars in his pocket, Vinney has excelled in many areas, including marketing, sales, motivational speaking, and real estate investing. Over the past 12 years, he has honed his skills and has done 29 successful syndications, 14 of those being in just the past three years. Today, Vinney shares his inspirational story, a true rags to riches tale fueled by his relentless positivity that earned him the middle name ‘Mr Smiles’ along the way. Vinney shares his method for scooping up deals in such a competitive market, his philosophy of treating his staff with immense respect, and the ultra-conservative underwriting strategies he implemented after COVID hit too. Some major ta

Investing in multifamily real estate is a numbers game in many ways, so being good at math will stand you in good stead. Today’s guest is Matt Owens, here to talk about how he handles his due diligence as well as some of his secrets for managing and operating properties. With a background as a CPA, Matt knows how to analyze the financials of his prospective properties so he can get better deals and put them to the best use. Matt gets into some of the main things he looks at before going ahead with a deal, mentioning how he arrives at his purchase price after doing a few calculations on an initial figure defined by the market rents for that area. We talk to Matt about how deep he goes into his underwriting when he prefers ‘back of the napkin’ versus full spreadsheet approaches, and how helpful his team is for sifting through deals to find the best ones. From there, we chat with Matt about why he likes value-add strategies for raising rents, his definition of deal-breaking details during underwriting, and what

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on-campus accommodation is facing some unique challenges, and there is increased demand for private student housing that not only has desirable amenities, but takes students’ health and wellness into consideration. Today’s guest, Zach Feldman, is the VP of Development at Aptitude Development, which is one of the nation’s top student housing firms. Aptitude currently owns 1,500 beds with another quarter million dollars of student housing under construction or set to break ground. Prior to Aptitude, Zach launched Enjoy 77 Holdings, which is a real estate investment company specializing in student housing and multifamily investment in the northeast and is still active today. In this episode, Zach shares his perspective on safe and affordable student housing, why COVID has been a tailwind for their business, and how Aptitude stays competitive. He also weighs in on metrics for multifamily versus student housing, building ground-up as opposed to buying existing, and how Aptitude unique

Systems are key to effective asset management. Joining us today to shed light on SyndicationPro, a streamlined, simple syndication platform, is its founder, Jacob Blackett. As an operator himself, Jacob conceptualized SyndicationPro from his own pain points. This inside, hands-on knowledge has gone a long way in helping them stand out from the rest. In this episode, we hear more about the advantages of this software, including database centralization, time-saving, and effective communication. We also discover how SyndicationPro is integrated with other platforms, like CRMs, and their constant drive to innovate. If you’re looking to take your asset management to the next level with cutting-edge software, this is the episode for you.Key Points From This Episode:Get to know Jacob, his real estate journey so far, and founding SyndicationPro.Benefits of SyndicationPro for asset managers.Standing out — What separates SyndicationPro from other investor portals.How being a real estate operator has helped Jacob deeply