All Forum Posts by: Matt Moreland

Justin! Not on the passive side of the audience but there are a lot of questions that passive investors often have during the exploratory phase of their journey that would make for great blog, podcast, and short-form video content. Here are a few ideas off the top of my head that I think would provide value and be relatively easy to rank on search:

-What strategies are Operators/GPs implementing to adapt to shifting market conditions?
-What traits/experience to look for in GPs when considering investing with them
-How to find private funds to invest in
-How to get priority access to new syndication offerings
-What amount of my net worth (or another for liquidity) should I allocate towards REITS, funds, etc.?
-Strategies for investing in multifamily during market shifts

Hope this helps, and best of luck! Looking forward to hearing the podcast when it comes out, Justin!

Dustin Jones, Chris Raney, and Shaw Wofford could all take care of that here in Lubbock and provide you with an official appraisal report. 

I work as a farm & ranch agent and also farm multiple large tracts in 4 counties around Lubbock, so have my finger on the pulse of land prices/values. I am always happy to give you my (free) opinion of value if that would be helpful as well as I know appraisals can be slow and costly. 

All the best!
Matt

For land appraisals, mine have always been outsourced to companies all across Texas depending on who has availability to come out and appraise a large tract of land. For some more color, are you needing an appraisal on a piece of land that you already own, are looking to purchase (and appraisal is needed by a lender), or for another reason? Depending on the size of the tract as well, may have some folks that could do it for a reasonable cost. Alternatively if it is not for any lending institution or regulatory body, a BPO (broker price opinion) may be adequate and significantly cheaper (last large land appraisal I ordered was $20k+ with a 90+ day turnaround time due to a lack of appraisers with availability to appraise large tracts.

For surveyors, there are some phenomenal choices in the Lubbock area. For the most part, Hugo Reed is the largest (or one of the largest) in the area and takes the lion's share of surveying busines in the area, particularly for large jobs. 

J.N. Newton & Associates out of Seminole, TX to the south is another great surveying outfit that has lots of experience with land and has come to the rescue for myself and my farm, ranch, & development clients on multiple occasions. Cannot go wrong with either of these companies.

Hope this helps! Feel free to shoot me a message if you have any more questions or need any recommendations for the Lubbock area.

All the best,
Matt Moreland

 Accidentally posted all of the contact info for my recommendations not realizing I wasn't supposed to outside of the Marketplace, so here goes my second try! This one shouldn't get auto-deleted!

There are several title co's here in Lubbock I've worked with on double closings that have been exceptionally pleasant to work with. They are:

Title One - Sarah Cypert and Donna Ragland make every deal a breeze.

True Title - I've only worked with Franchesca Valdez over there but she is exceptional

Hub City Title - Greg Noyola and Lee Williams are top notch and handle double closings regularly

Western Title - Bob Brandt or Holly Hamill

Best of luck and hope this helps you! 
Regards,

Matt

@Oscar Perez, if you are wanting to get into investing in commercial real estate as a principal in the deals, I would suggest investing alongside some experienced sponsors for the first few deals in order to build up enough multifamily credentials in order to have options to approach commercial lenders yourself as the sponsor on a deal that you put together.

If you are not wanting to put in lots of time or be a principal, and would prefer more passive investing, you should find some great investors who specialize in multifamily and begin signing up and soft committing to future raises. Being a reliable capital investor is super valuable to syndicators, and you can often have first shot on new deals in the pipeline and how much you want to put in. Additionally, consider what position you would want to take (would you take a preferred return, or would you pass up a safe bet and take a riskier stake in exchange for the possibility of much higher payouts?)

Best of luck, Oscar, and congrats on the new career!

Wow. Very concise explanations of each--going to start linking to this when people ask about structuring waterfalls!  

Hi, Seth! That's awesome that you're already planning so far ahead for your success.

Something that may make it more feasible is if you're able to rent out to other college students by the bedroom. Not sure if that is common in Eugene, but it is very common in the college market I'm located in (Lubbock, TX). Where you may be able to get $1750/mo for one side of a duplex that is a 3/2/2, perhaps you could rent out each bedroom for $700/mo to slightly increase the monthly gross rental income. Definitely worth considering, but be sure that it is legal in your county.

Additionally, if you can find roommates to offset the lost rent on your side and bring in an additional $1400/mo from having two roommates, that would take a sizable chunk out of the negative cash flow each month and get you in a better position.

Either way, real estate will continue increasing in value over the long term. While cash flow may be slightly negative or really tight while you are in college, it is worth weighing the pros and cons that come along with owning the real estate. Building equity, cheaper housing expenses for you, and you will have a strong asset by the time you graduate college.

Best of luck in your studies and investing!

-Matt

Set aside 10% for reserves, lever up with the other 90% and take down some more cash flowing properties to add to the portfolio. 

Get the historical T12 (trailing 12 month profit & loss statements) and rent roll, and compare to the norm for the area. If you don't have a strong idea of what is typical in the area, get with a local multifamily broker or another multifamily investor who can help you spot irregularities (irregularities can point to either opportunity or be a sign of caution depending on what they are).

Disregard any proformas and projections provided by listing brokers. Most are optimistic and unrealistic. Use your own experience and historical data for the area to determine realistic figures and do your own modelling to determine if it's a good deal based on your investing strategy. 

With shifting markets we often see strategies change, and the factors that we use to determine whether or not a deal is "good" or "bad" change. For example, it may not make sense to underwrite a deal for a 5-7 year holding period but instead the deal is a solid base hit if you underwrite for a 20+ year hold and get investors on board who are in it for the long haul. Before underwriting a bunch of deals, I would first start with your strategy and determine what makes a deal good to you, and work backwards to find that deal.

Best of luck, I know you will crush it!

-Matt Moreland

@Sadaf Mik! Great question. I took classes in university at Texas Tech, but after graduating I went on and mostly read books on the topic (Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book by Joe Fairless is invaluable), and worked for investors who were taking down large apartment communities before ever getting into investing myself. 

Taking a course is a great way to establish a baseline, and in my opinion it doesn't matter so much which one you choose as long as it teaches you fundamentals. Preferably, the one you choose provides you the option to go back and re-read/refresh on certain topics at your convenience in the future.

Ideally, regardless of which course you choose, you can link up with or partner up with other more experienced investors who are several steps ahead of you in multifamily investing to show you the ropes. Concurrently, as you begin co-sponsoring multifamily deals with more experienced multifamily investors, you'll then be one step closer to being able to get commercial loans on multifamily properties yourself in the future as you get the experience as a sponsor on your resume.