Investor · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2018 · 83 posts · 24 votes
Hello! I was wondering if there are any expenses I should consider when analyzing an apartment complex. Is it basically the same thing as a small multifamily but you just take the extra units into account, or is it way more complicated than that? Thanks!
@Eli Rollins, There are other considerations that you will need to take into account. I would suggest you read and learn as much as you can on the subject. In fact, just type in BP's search bar "apartment/multi-family books," or in Google. After you have read several books/blogs/forums and watched several videos on the topic, you'll be able to answer the majority of your own questions. Good luck!
@Eli Rollins, There are other considerations that you will need to take into account. I would suggest you read and learn as much as you can on the subject. In fact, just type in BP's search bar "apartment/multi-family books," or in Google. After you have read several books/blogs/forums and watched several videos on the topic, you'll be able to answer the majority of your own questions. Good luck!
It might help to find some commercial listings that have full financial breakdowns. That will give you a better understanding of what bills to expect. Though, it's just a starting point. You may need to handle certain parts of the operation differently, such as utilities, cleaning of common areas, pest control, dumpsters vs garbage cans, maintaining a boiler vs furnaces, striping a parking lot, etc.
Commercial contractors work on different terms and maintenance schedules are different as well. And at a certain point in multifamily it makes sense to have onsite management.
Commercial MFH is not much more complicated than residential. Rather it's a different animal. After you start reading books on the topic as @Matt Crusinberry suggested, and reviewing some of the BP blog posts on the topic, you will get a better sense. Also, you need to start analyzing large MFH by getting the listings from brokers or directly on loopnet and asking for additional details. This will give you a better understanding of what's involved in the evaluating commercial MFH.