26 units in 10 months and 16 more under contract...

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26 units in 10 months and 16 more under contract...

Chris Levarek
Real Estate Syndicator · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2018 · 903 posts · 1k+ votes

Sharing our success after a highly successful first year from 0 to 26 units closed in under 10 months. 

In early 2018 my brother @Ashton Levarek and I began educating on investing in real estate through podcasts, webinars, books and meetups. Deciding to invest out of state, we selected Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina and built the team of partners to ensure our success, credit in the beginning to the @David Greene book on "Long Distance Real Estate Investing" and @Brandon Turner "The Book on Rental Property Investing". 

Developing our company "Valkere Investment Group", joined by our wives to round out the team and closing our first deal October 2018 we quickly followed up with an additional 9 units and finally closed on a 13 unit deal July 30th 2019. Taking 3 months hiatus to regroup, refocus and re-prioritize our goals, we are currently under contract for a 16 unit apartment complex with 34 more on the horizon to finish out the year.

Thank you to all those who have contributed in one way or another to our success whether our team partners, Bigger Pockets, conference connections, meetup relationships, books, podcasts and more. Looking forward to much more and my hope is this post inspires another investor to get after those goals no matter how big or small!

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Dennis M.
Rental Property Investor · Erie, PA · Member since 2018 · 6k+ posts · 9k+ votes
6y

Well How were you able to acquire these ? How much of your own cash was involved. ?  How much capital did it take 

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  • Chris Levarek
    OP
    Real Estate Syndicator · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2018 · 903 posts · 1k+ votes
    6y

    @Ian Walsh Great question! Always important to be aware of over leveraging. Most of our deals do involve building or acquiring equity through value-add, and the bank is only financing 70%/75% at any given time. It definitely is a company or personal decision on what is safe amount of leverage but viable number to track. One in which working with experts in the field in bank finances, accounting and asset management are key. That being said, with partnerships leverage or liability can be shared and growth can continue.

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  • Chris Levarek
    OP
    Real Estate Syndicator · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2018 · 903 posts · 1k+ votes
    6y

    @Ken Chud Typical price per door has been anywhere from 38k-60k thus far. Typical rents after renovations have been $750-800. Submarkets/Markets cause these price/rent differences. On the 38k per unit, rents are around $600. So it really comes into do the numbers make sense for your strategy? Are you marketing/working with to the right tenant/customer for your strategy? What level of comfort or risk are you willing to accept and how do you mitigate those risks to possibly purchase lower price per unit if those come with more challenges/risks?

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  • Paige Anna
    Member since 2021 · 1 post · 0 votes
    5y

    Chris Levarek seeing as you have so many units in the Raleigh area - do you have a recommendation for a good property management company? My brothers and I own 5 rental properties and manage them all ourselves right now. As we look to scale, we are thinking we really need to outsource the management. Any recs would be greatly appreciated!

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  • Chris Levarek
    OP
    Real Estate Syndicator · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2018 · 903 posts · 1k+ votes
    5y

    @Paige Anna We've been working with Jesse Martinez for last three years at One Village PM. Good group of folks and valuable team players. We value character first, followed by performance. They excel at both. Of course, always have that call and ask all the questions. 

    We also use Spoat Jackson Browne on our Fayetteville properties. Can't see enough about them as well. 

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  • Tucker Cummings
    Investor · Raleigh, NC · Member since 2019 · 433 posts · 743 votes
    5y

    That's awesome, congrats bro! What are you doing to source your deals? I've been successful sourcing deals in SFR but it sounds like you're doing this in multifamily.

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  • Tommy Revithas
    New to Real Estate · Long Island, NY · Member since 2019 · 24 posts · 8 votes
    4y

    @Chris Levarek

    Hi Chris,
    Hope all is well. Loved reading about your success in the North Carolina area and how you have been able to make a go of it over there. I am also an of of state investor an looking to get the process started! 

    I had a quick question if you would be so kind. I love the name "Valkere Investment Group" and was wondering how you structed it. First if it is an LLC or S or C Corp? But more importantly that, is not the business account that you use to acquire your properties is it? Because it is my understanding that you want to hold separate business accounts for different properties but then how does Valkere come into the picture? I have thought of an Investment Group name also but not exactly sure what to do with it next.

    Thanks for your help Chris. I hope you have a wonderful day!

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  • Will Fleischer
    Flipper/Rehabber · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2019 · 7 posts · 4 votes
    4y

    @Chris Levarek way to man, that’s awesome!!

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  • Chris Levarek
    OP
    Real Estate Syndicator · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2018 · 903 posts · 1k+ votes
    4y

    @Tommy Revithas Thank you! Valkere is actually our last name "Levarek" rearranged but also aligns with the symbolism of the Valkyrie in what we do :) Always good to enjoy the process. 

    It is a LLC. It's really a tree structure. So you have LLCs which own property, each having it's own bank account. Your main business LLC is your brand, it is 100% owner (or whatever partnership ownership) of the other LLC's which own property. Thus, you limit liability if any property has a legal issue. This is the power of LLC's and the main purpose.

    1. Property LLC
      1. Owned by Valkere

    Profits and Losses all passthrough to Valkere. An S Corp can have it's benefits but it is more costly to maintain, so you should have a well established profitability business before the need arises. 

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  • Tommy Revithas
    New to Real Estate · Long Island, NY · Member since 2019 · 24 posts · 8 votes
    4y

    @Chris Levarek

    Hey Chris! 

    Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question. That is something that has been confusing me since I have started looking into this topic. That definitely makes more sense now that you say it like that. I will continue to look into the topic and see exactly how to proceed going forward but that definitely helps get things started. 

    Thanks again Chris! 

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