First post – wooohooo! Hello all. I have been in the multifamily business for quite some time now, but never as an investor. I work for a large multifamily lender, and I’m on the asset management side of the house. Essentially, I do a lot of relationship management, risk management, market analysis, financial analysis, etc. So in many ways, I have amassed a good deal of experience and available resources. I look forward to actively participating in this community!

At present, I’m seeking recommendations for a very specific type of book, if it exists. Most of the multifamily reading recommendations I have seen appear to focus heavily on multiple aspects of the big picture like finding deals, raising capital, financing, etc. While I will no doubt be reading some of these books – is there a book that focuses very heavily on the operations of multifamily properties?

Ideally, I would like to find a book that zeroes in on the management/operation phase of multifamily investing. So we’re talking about how to handle the initial phase of multifamily acquisition, setting rents vs market, capital improvement plans, and essentially re-positioning an asset from say a Class C dog of a property to a solid value added Class B asset.

Are there any book recommendations offhand that would fit the bill? Thank you!

@Stephen Seals . There is a book by Joe Fairless and @Theo Hicks that you can look into.  The best ever apartment syndication book.

https://joefairless.com/apartm...

@Christopher Hunter thank you!

Hey @Stephen!

I would recommend checking out "How to manage residential property for maximum cashflow and resale value" by John T. Reed. Although I have not read this book in particular, I have read several of John's books and they're absolutely phenomenal. He's extremely granular in his analysis and leaves no stone unturned. I've provided a link to the book below:

https://johntreed.com/collections/real-estate-investment/products/how-to-manage-residential-property-for-maximum-cash-flow-and-resale-value-7th-edition

Also, if you get a chance, I would recommend reading his book "Aggressive Tax Avoidance for Real Estate Investors". It's probably his most well known work and it's the best book I've read on real estate taxes. Hope this helps.

All the best,

Good stuff!  Thank you @Christopher Hunter @Theo Hicks @Raphael Collazo .  Looking forward to getting my learn on!

@Stephen Seals   Buy it Rent it Profit by Bryan Chavis  This book will give you a really good idea how to operate a multifamily property. Bryan is a property manager and a syndicator. I picked up quite a few nuggets from this book.

@Stephen Seals Even more important than a book, is great software if you are trying to scale up quickly. We have found Buildium to be really, really worth the money for our 33 units we would certainly have struggled more getting started wihout it. Setting up processes so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel each time you turn over a unit, makes life so much easier and I used forms and suggestions from the e-book and podcast by michele fischer; it's especially great if you are looking at C/D properties

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Originally posted by @Raphael Collazo :

Hey @Stephen!

I would recommend checking out "How to manage residential property for maximum cashflow and resale value" by John T. Reed. Although I have not read this book in particular, I have read several of John's books and they're absolutely phenomenal. He's extremely granular in his analysis and leaves no stone unturned. I've provided a link to the book below:

https://johntreed.com/collections/real-estate-investment/products/how-to-manage-residential-property-for-maximum-cash-flow-and-resale-value-7th-edition

Also, if you get a chance, I would recommend reading his book "Aggressive Tax Avoidance for Real Estate Investors". It's probably his most well known work and it's the best book I've read on real estate taxes. Hope this helps.

All the best,

I will second this recommendation. Most books are written from by marketers/"thought leaders" so they will not dig deep into asset management because it is not their forte. Any junior/senior from a top 100 college in accounting/finance should be able to give you 80%-90% of the same knowledge (without providing a pitch for their coaching/mentorship product).

That being said, typically you will need:

- Budgeting skills especially comparing against #s promised to investors vs. budget set with PM vs. actual operational results. 

- Capex tracking by line item for exterior and interior.

- Marketing/leads tracker to understand weekly operations

- Rent comp surveys (your PM should be able to help you with this)

- Portfolio level (if applicable) software that allows you to roll up results by property type. E.g. iLevel (if running a fund), or the Yardi / ResMan platform (not very nice from an IR perspective, also minimal data analytics)

The above are just a few of the items you will need (and might be already using). 

Your best bet is to create dynamic dashboards to combine all these items together in an easy to understand manner.