BiggerPockets Interview: Revitalizing the Local Community With a 22-Unit Apartment Building [Project Pictures Included!]

So you want to invest in real estate. Maybe you’ve read article after article, listened to podcast after podcast, and even attended a seminar or two. But as much as you’re an expert on real estate, you have zero properties to show for it. Something is stopping you from truly taking action.

No Properties (Yet)? No Problem

If you’re tired of reading (inspirational yet) unrelatable posts about the impressive investor who owns 700 units and has been investing for the better part of their 50 working years, this series is for you. In a collection of video interviews, my colleague and BiggerPockets Director of Member & Public Relations Hilary Catton and I plan on chatting with investors about their real estate beginnings, what they’ve learned along the way, and the individual projects that excite them most. Our goal is to take a closer look at the smaller triumphs that make up a successful real estate career in order to help our newer members learn from others and gain the motivation they need to move from real estate student to real estate investor.

Related: How to Get Involved in Your Local Real Estate Community [Video Interview!]

Building Up a Portfolio AND a Community

Without further ado, we’d like to introduce our first interview, where we had the privilege of sitting down with husband and wife team Matt and Liz Faircloth of Trenton, New Jersey. You may be familiar with this pair, as they are both regular blog writers and have been featured on the BiggerPockets Podcast. Today, they’re involved in a number of intriguing projects, including apartment buildings, from-the-ground-up construction, and revitalization of historic spaces.

They run a regionally specific investment fund, committed to the area around the Transit Center in Trenton, NJ. This fund has several projects in development and more properties under contract.
One of the projects includes a 7-unit almost under contract [update: it’s under contract], as well as a gut rehab of a mixed use building.
They are also working with partner Clinton Lofts to build on a vacant piece of land close to the train station, and when it is complete, it will be a 22-unit apartment building. They are currently shovel ready and finalizing funding for the project.

We discussed everything from how they originally caught the real estate bug to the crucial pieces of advice they’d give to newbies who’d love to be where they are someday.

We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

***Correction: In the video, I note that Liz and Matt manage almost 100 units, when in fact, they own and manage over 100 units of residential and commercial real estate.

Project Pictures

22-Unit Apartment Building Construction Plans

Rehab Project

7-Unit by the Trenton Train Station

Where to Find Matt & Liz

Any questions you’d like to ask Matt and Liz? Have a cool real estate deal going on and interested in being interviewed by us — or do you have someone to recommend?