All Forum Posts by: Michael Orlando

I grew up and live in Cleveland. My partner and I have about 200 units here. Happy to offer any insight if you'd like, just reach out!

Do you want to be active or passive with your investment? Passive you could invest in a syndication. If you wanna be active you could JV on a deal and be more involved in the day-day.

Definitely start networking ASAP with potential investors and partners! It's one thing to find a good deal and another to take it to the finish line. You're going to need a few pieces in place, but investors/partners are a huge part of it. Besides that, make sure the rest of your team is ready to go i.e. attorney, lender, title co, contractors.. 

Also, if you don't have a mentor or community for support as you navigate your first deal, I would suggest looking for that as well! You don't wanna make mistakes that can kill a deal when it's crunch time.

We work with a lot of investors from California here in Cleveland, Ohio. It's pretty affordable in the grand scheme of things and tends to be a solid cashflow market if that's what you're after. I've seen it become more and more competitive from a lot of west coast money coming here, but we still love it :)

Dude definitely take him up on the offer! My first deal was a 22 unit property. My partners and I bought that before I had any real estate experience at all... I would just bring in one more partner for the time being so you can shorten your learning curve as well as have the track record needed for financing an apartment building. Then, when you've built up a track record and some experience, you won't necessarily need that person/people for every deal. Don't let the size freak you out too much though! If you have any questions, I'm happy to offer any insight I may have as I've only been doing this for 1.5 years but gained a good amount of experience as my partner and I have about 200 units now. 

I'm a syndicator myself and know a few that are smaller ( like me) and larger (not me lol). I think first decide if you want to work with someone smaller and more personal (although might not have as much experience), or someone larger and less personal, but probably has much more experience. There's good and bad operators in both groups IMO, but depends what you are really looking for as an investor in the relationship. Then reach out and have some conversations about their past deals and talk to some other investors that work with the people you're considering as they probably won't be untruthful in their experience. 

Hey! I'm in Cleveland and have about 140 units here - all apartment complexes. Feel free to reach out and I'll do my best to assist. 

Investment Info:

Large multi-family (5+ units) buy & hold investment in Cleveland.

Purchase price: $2,220,000

Recently acquired a 42 unit, C+ property in a solid suburb of Cleveland! Deal was direct to seller, off-market and sourced by my partner and I. We were in conversation with the seller for nearly a year before we finally closed.. This deal was our second syndication and we ended up raising about $970,000 for the down payment, closing costs, and initial capex for renovations.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This deal was completely off market and actually came from a cold call I made! Negotiations were directly with seller based on what he thought comps were going for as well as analyzing the financials and proforma.

How did you finance this deal?

We used non-recourse financing through a mortgage broker we work with locally. They were able to get us 2 years I/O and a 3.375% rate with a 54321 PPP.

How did you add value to the deal?

Interior renovations, utility savings, organic rent bumps for under market units, and cable contract.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

On acquisitions, follow up and patience is huge! We spent so much time upfront just building a relationship with the seller which ultimately lead to him doing business with us.

Investment Info:

Large multi-family (5+ units) buy & hold investment in Cleveland.

Purchase price: $2,220,000

Recently acquired a 42 unit, C+ property in a solid suburb of Cleveland! Deal was direct to seller, off-market and sourced by my partner and I. We were in conversation with the seller for nearly a year before we finally closed.. This deal was our second syndication and we ended up raising about $970,000 for the down payment, closing costs, and initial capex for renovations. Through renovating the property over the next two years, we should be able to refinance and pull out approximately 70% of our initial capital and return it to our investors once stabilized and value add is complete. The value-add consists of strategic interior renovations, decreasing utilities through a water savings plan, and also implementing a cable contract available to tenants. Our investors should see double digit COC returns and nearly 15% IRR over the hold period!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This deal was completely off market and actually came from a cold call I made!

How did you finance this deal?

We used non-recourse financing through a mortgage broker we work with locally. They were able to get us 2 years I/O and a 3.375% rate with a 54321 PPP.

How did you add value to the deal?

Interior renovations, utility savings, organic rent bumps for under market units, and cable contract.

@Jag C. Clark Fulton tends to be a pretty rough area - I'm not sure your info is correct? I would make sure you do some good due diligence on the area. Also, 7% COC for this type of area sounds very low.