Building Toward Commercial Real Estate: Would Love Your Advice

Banker · Nationwide · Member since 2020 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes

Rainer,

I would reach out to Christian Welch owner Operator or Welch Luxry Realty and also owns a construction company in MA. He covers both Commercial and Residential and has helped multiple clients of mine find and secure strong NOI REI properties.

He is also licensed in Multiple states including MA, NH, VT, MN, CT, RI, TN, FL and TX.

[email protected]727-637-4289

0 Reply

Vijay FriedmanBusiness Member

Miami, FL · Member since 2026 · 766 posts · 124 votes

4mo

Quote from @Rainer Djohan:

Hey BiggerPockets community,

I’m a real estate investor based out of Massachusetts and I wanted to share a little about my journey so far.

In December 2024, I purchased my first investment property, a three-family home. Since closing, I've been fully immersed in the renovation process and have completed updates to all three units, including:

New kitchens
New flooring
Fresh paint throughout
New appliances
General repairs and improvements

I'm currently house hacking one of the units while renting the others.

What started as a goal to buy an investment property has quickly turned into a genuine passion for real estate. I found that I enjoy every part of the process from analyzing deals and creating renovation plans to managing contractors and solving problems that come up during a project.

The photos below show some of the work that has been completed over the past year. Seeing these units transform from what they were at purchase to what they are today has been incredibly rewarding.

While I'm proud of what I've accomplished so far, I know I'm still early in my investing journey. My long-term goal is to transition into larger multifamily and commercial real estate investments, and I'm looking to connect with experienced investors who have already traveled that path.

I'd love to hear from anyone who:

Invests in commercial real estate
Owns larger multifamily properties
Has experience syndicating deals
Is willing to share lessons learned from scaling beyond small residential properties

I'm always eager to learn, contribute where I can, and build relationships with like-minded investors.

Looking forward to connecting with everyone and hearing your stories as well.

Thanks for reading!

Rainer

@Rainer Djohan
Congrats on getting through your first project. A lot of investors never make it past that stage. One thing I've noticed is that many of the skills from a successful small multifamily rehab, managing contractors, budgeting, and operations. Translate surprisingly well as you scale. Curious what part of the process you've enjoyed the most so far.

786-656-0387

DreamPoint Capital

Website View Page

0 Reply

Evan Polaski

Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2020 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes

4mo

@Rainer Djohan, congrats on the first project.

The biggest question to ask yourself is where you want to be when you "grow up"? I know successful real estate people that lead great lives owning 20-30 units with all their own money. They have time for family, travel, hobbies and are not constantly hunting for deals and needing to manage a large portfolio.

I know people who are pushing billionaire status through real estate. They have built companies of hundreds of employees and love what they do, but their lives are entirely centered around their company. And to get to that point, it was sleepless nights, particularly early on, about making payroll, having capital available for earnest deposits, firing a key hire that didn't work out, etc.

I will say, I love retail assets. Multifamily have their own benefits, but are hugely management intensive and, while there is a lot of competition for good retail assets, it still pales in comparison to the competition around MF deals.

If you plan to syndicate, you need experience and a good story to convince investors to trust you. It is also its own full time job, and your investors are your defacto bosses. You need to answer their calls, emails, and generally keep them happy everyday.

Biggest lesson to scale up, or at least first real need is: you need a lot of money. Even if you are going to syndicate, you need earnest deposit money, you need marketing dollars and due diligence money. You need net worth and liquid capital to secure loans. I would factor 1-2% of purchase price for earnest. So, if you are looking at a $5mm deal, even if you plan on syndicating it, you need $50k-100k just for EM. Your DD costs will likely be in the 30-40k range.  Your legal will be another $10k just for syndication legal (on the cheaper side) plus you will be paying buyer legal and lender legal costs. Lenders will want, typically, 10% of loan balance in liquid cash and 1:1 net worth to loan balance. So $3.5mm loan on $5mm asset, you need $350k liquid and $3.5mm net worth.

Yes you can find a Key Principle to help with liquidity and net worth, but it is very hard to find someone to pony up your EM and DD costs, and the terms to get that person will likely be onerous.

And yes, the EM and DD costs are reimbursed from the LPs, if you are successful at raising the money, but you still have to pay those costs, typically, before you can begin collecting investor capital, so you still need it available.

0 Reply

David Switzer

Member since 2024 · 36 posts · 21 votes

4mo

Hey man - congrats on everything!

I do commercial investing and am up to my 4th commercial unit (3 retail commercial condos and now 1 building), and I take a different approach than a lot of people. I buy empty commercial units and then find my own tenants. Actually, now I find the tenant first and then buy the empty unit and have a signed lease before I even close.

Am happy to talk anytime if that's interesting to you, it's a cool niche :)

0 Reply

Rainer Djohan
OP
Member since 2023 · 2 posts · 3 votes
4mo
Quote from @David Switzer:

Hey man - congrats on everything!

I do commercial investing and am up to my 4th commercial unit (3 retail commercial condos and now 1 building), and I take a different approach than a lot of people. I buy empty commercial units and then find my own tenants. Actually, now I find the tenant first and then buy the empty unit and have a signed lease before I even close.

Am happy to talk anytime if that's interesting to you, it's a cool niche :)

Absolutely would love to discuss further! I sent you a DM.
0 Reply

Nyron Isaac

Member since 2024 · 144 posts · 28 votes

4mo

Congratulations on completing the renovations, Rainer. Executing a full update across a three-family home while house hacking is the ultimate way to build your initial capital stack and learn the reality of contractor management.

As you look to scale beyond 3 units into true commercial real estate (5+ doors), your absolute biggest hurdle will be the Broker Pro Forma Trap. Commercial brokers routinely understate real-world expenses to artificially inflate the advertised Net Operating Income. For older Northeast assets, always underwrite a baseline 45% to 55% expense ratio, and mandate a forensic audit of the Trailing 12-Month (T-12) business bank deposits to verify the rent roll before lifting contingencies.

To fund your jump into commercial real estate, leverage the sweat equity you just created. Look into a Commercial Cash-Out DSCR Refinance under an LLC via a specialized nationwide alternative lender. They will lend against your new, post-renovation appraised value based purely on the triplex's cash flow, completely ignoring your personal DTI. This allows you to pull out a non-taxable lump sum of cash to serve as your down payment for a 5+ unit commercial building, using your proven renovation system to repeat the process on a larger scale.

0 Reply

Gabe OrlanskyPro Member

Lender · Miami, FL · Member since 2026 · 21 posts · 4 votes

4mo

Congratulations, Rainer. That's a huge accomplishment for your first investment property. The renovations look great.

I'm in commercial real estate finance, so I enjoy seeing investors make the transition from residential into larger multifamily and commercial assets.

Out of curiosity, what asset class are you most interested in once you make the jump—multifamily, retail, industrial, or something else?

Looking forward to following your journey.

1 Reply

Gibran Ramia

Member since 2026 · 15 posts · 4 votes

3mo

Nice renos!

The jump to commercial is more doable than people make it sound. The lease becomes the asset. In residential the property is the value and the lease is a formality. In commercial it flips. A 10-year NNN lease with a strong guarantor is worth real money, and the same space with a shaky month-to-month tenant is worth a fraction of it. Learn to read leases before you learn to tour buildings.

check out leasedesk.co. Admittedly it is my site, but it is a nice way to get into CRE with many of the difficulties put to rest.

0 Reply

Gabe OrlanskyPro Member

Lender · Miami, FL · Member since 2026 · 21 posts · 4 votes

3mo

Congrats, Rainer. That's an impressive first project, especially completing renovations on all three units in your first year. The before-and-after transformation must be satisfying to see.

I'm also focused on larger multifamily. I work on the commercial lending side, so it's been interesting seeing how experienced operators structure acquisitions and financing.

0 Reply

Max Houghton

Specialist · Boston, MA · Member since 2026 · 6 posts · 2 votes

3mo

Congrats, Rainer. I'm also based in MA. I worked on the public government (permitting/development review) side for a couple years before making the switch to brokerage/development. Would love to connect and hear about your experience investing up here.

One thing I'm curious about - how did you go about identifying which renovations to prioritize first? Always interested in how different people arrange their reno timelines (and how much of it you conceptualized yourself vs. with a designer, etc).

Max

0 Reply

Building Toward Commercial Real Estate: Would Love Your Advice

Building Toward Commercial Real Estate: Would Love Your Advice

Most Popular Reply

10 Replies