Where to Find Great Multifamily Deals
The place to start is where you know the market, code for: where you live. Don't try to go into new markets in the beginning, shop where you live and stay close to where you live until you start to learn the market. The first market I ever shopped was within a 10 mile radius of where I lived. For 3 years, every weekend, when I wasn't working my main job, I shopped deals, exhausting every broker in the market, and I never bought a deal.
But, I got a great education and I learned what a good deal looked like and felt like. I realized after leaving Houston to move to California, how much money I would have made had I invested. I saw what I thought were a lot of good deals, but I wasn't ready yet. I didn't have the confidence yet, because I hadn't yet done enough homework to KNOW enough to know the difference between a bad deal, a good deal, and a screaming deal. What you learn from walking properties is 10 times more valuable than what you will learn reading my book.
When I moved to San Diego, I realized I had learned a lot and walked away from some very good deals, but rather than regretting what I didn't buy, I resumed shopping properties in the new market I had moved to. The difference was, this time, I had the confidence of KNOWING what I was doing, what I was looking for, what a good deal looked and felt like, and what a bad deal looked and felt like. The bad ones are easy to know. You immediately know it doesn't work and you don't spend time trying to make sense of it. If it doesn't feel good, I don't buy it.
I was only in San Diego a year when I bought my first deal. It was 48 units in Vista, California. I still remember driving up to it the first time. It was two stories, had great presence from the road, looked like it was quality build, nice space between the parking lot, the street and the units, and I knew immediately I would buy it.
I closed the deal in 45 days and 30 days later, I bought another 38 units in Point Loma. 90 days after that I bought my third true rental deal. A 92 units, C Class, value-add beauty.
Within 3 years, I had collected 500 units. Over the last 25 years, I have since bought and sold over $1 billion worth of real estate, in 8 different markets, through all types of economic climates.
What I know today after doing this for years is:
1) Apartments are the best investment for protecting your capital, providing dependable cash flow, and appreciation over long periods of time.
2) It's vital to know the market you are investing today and looking forward over the next 5 to 10 years.
3) Knowing the market starts with knowing where the deals are and who has them.
4) The brokers who have the deals you want are CBRE, Cushman Wakefield, Marcus & Millichap, HFF, JLL and a few private broker shops in each market. Of course, there are also the private sellers. By having the right technology, you can get access to the broker property intel and the data is priceless.
How you contact those brokers and what you say to them is too much for this introduction, as that is an art in and of itself.
I learned very quickly, the fasted way to get deals is to close on the deals you make offers on. Be a closer, stay true to your word, and never violate the trust of the brokers market. Once the market knows you are a real buyer (a closer) the game of creating wealth through real estate investing becomes possible. The broker network is very small, and in most markets, only a few guys control all of the apartment inventory, at least the good stuff.
If they don't believe in your ability to close, you will never get the good deals.
-GC