Multifamily investing
Mastering Broker Calls and Market Expansion in Multifamily Investing
This article explores practical strategies for engaging brokers, evaluating multifamily deals, and expanding investment markets effectively. It emphasizes the importance of clear communication, understanding market dynamics, and strategic growth to build a successful multifamily investment portfolio.
Introduction to Broker Engagement
In multifamily investing, establishing strong relationships with brokers is essential. A conversation with Garrett Huey, an experienced broker active in markets like Oklahoma City and Texas, highlights the importance of direct communication and understanding deal specifics.
Related reading: Mastering Broker Relationships in Multifamily Real Estate: Insights from Eric Bubbel
A key initial step is verifying whether a deal is still available and understanding its financing terms. For example, a 60-unit property in Oklahoma City was recently relisted after a previous transaction fell through. This property features assumable debt through Walker Dunlop, which can influence investor interest and negotiation strategy.
Navigating Deal Listings and Market Perceptions
Properties that have been on the market intermittently or for extended periods may appear stale to buyers, but this can present opportunities for investors willing to investigate further. For instance, a 60-unit deal that appeared to have been listed for over 500 days was actually relisted only two months prior, indicating renewed seller motivation.
Understanding the listing history and seller behavior is crucial. A seller who previously canceled a transaction might be more motivated now but could also be more challenging to work with. Such insights help investors prioritize deals and tailor their approach accordingly.
Evaluating Multiple Deals and Market Proximity
Investors often encounter multiple deals in close proximity, such as the 60-unit Rockwell Terrace and the 100-unit Manchester on May in Oklahoma City. While these are separate sellers and not required to be purchased together, acquiring both can lead to operational efficiencies, such as shared maintenance staff and reduced management costs.
Considering the benefits of geographic clustering helps investors maximize returns and streamline property management, especially when expanding into new markets.
Off-Market Opportunities and Lender-Owned Properties
Off-market deals, particularly lender-owned properties, can offer attractive investment opportunities. One example discussed was a 200-plus unit property near an Air Force base, built in the late 1970s or early 1980s with pitched roofs, managed by a reputable group.
Lenders holding such properties may be open to creative financing solutions, including loan modifications or discounts to avoid foreclosure. This flexibility is increasingly seen across markets like Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, providing investors with avenues to acquire assets below market value.
Related reading: Key Insights from Multifamily Strategy’s Live Q&A: Broker Relations, Creative Financing, and Market Choices
The Importance of Market and Population Analysis
Population trends and employment diversity are critical factors in multifamily investing. Stable or growing populations support sustained rental demand, while markets reliant on a single employer pose higher risks.
Investors should define their market area based on the rentable population for their properties, which may be a city, neighborhood, or county. For example, in tertiary markets like Stevenville, Texas, the city itself constitutes the market, whereas in larger metro areas, submarkets like Ballard or Capitol Hill in Seattle have distinct dynamics.
Avoiding single-employer risk is vital. Military bases can be stable but also carry closure risk. Diversified employment sectors in a region enhance investment security and potential for appreciation.
Expanding Investment Markets Strategically
Limiting investment to a single city or market can restrict opportunities. Expanding in concentric circles around a core market allows investors to find more deals and diversify risk.
For instance, after exhausting opportunities in a smaller market like Stevenville, investors might expand to nearby cities such as Mineral Wells, Granberry, or Weatherford, and eventually to larger markets like Waco or Abilene.
However, expansion should be deliberate and paced. Building a reliable local team, including property managers, contractors, and legal professionals, is essential before entering multiple markets simultaneously to maintain operational efficiency and profitability.
Effective Communication and Relationship Building with Brokers
Maintaining professional and natural communication with brokers fosters trust and opens doors to more opportunities. Investors should avoid excessive or awkward follow-ups and instead reach out when they have relevant questions or new information.
A typical approach includes verifying deal details, expressing genuine interest, and requesting financials or additional information. Demonstrating that you are a conventional and serious buyer encourages brokers to prioritize your inquiries.
Regular but reasonable check-ins, such as asking about new listings every few weeks, help keep investors top of mind without overwhelming brokers.
Practical Tips for Initial Broker Calls
When initiating contact, briefly introduce your background and investment focus, such as targeting secondary markets within a specific driving distance.
Ask straightforward questions about deal availability, financing, and property condition. Avoid pressing too deeply into seller motivations unless the broker volunteers that information.
Conclude calls by expressing interest and requesting relevant materials to review, setting the stage for a follow-up conversation with your team or partners.
This approach respects the broker's time and builds a foundation for a productive relationship.
Conclusion: Building Momentum and Making Informed Decisions
Successful multifamily investing requires a balance of thorough market research, strategic relationship building, and disciplined expansion.
By engaging brokers thoughtfully, analyzing population and employment data, and expanding markets methodically, investors can uncover valuable deals and build resilient portfolios.
Avoiding overextension and focusing on operational readiness ensures sustainable growth and maximizes returns over time.
Read the original episode transcript
Hey, Christian. How's it going? >> Hey, Garrett. Oh my gosh. Wait, Garrett. Okay, I just realized I'm accidentally cheating. This is the Garrett that I already know. >> We do. We do know each other and we've done a couple. >> Okay, well, this is cheating. Okay, well, oops. Um, well, okay. Well, we're gonna run this anyway. Garrett, um, welcome. Okay, so Okay, this is a little bit different. Um, Garrett Huey, I should have read the last name. Okay. Uh Garrett, I have you in front of people. I don't want to surprise you with that. Um cool. Well, we'll do another one of these afterwards so I don't accidentally cheat. Turns out if you transact uh Garrett uh did the uh he's actually we've done Abalene and Stevenville with Garrett. Okay. Uh Garrett, I am actually calling on uh North Rockwell Avenue uh in Oklahoma City. >> Uh oh, yes. Yes. Yes. That's the Rockwell Terrace. It's the 60 unit. Um this is so funny. I appreciate that it's you. Hey buddy. Hey, >> you know, whenever you do a couple deals, uh, you know, your name gets around and unbeknownst to to you, I guess, looking at it, we've we've done a couple together and, uh, looking forward to doing some more. >> That is that is actually very funny. Um, okay. So, uh, for context, guys, Garrett's amazing. He's also a fantastic hunter. He's either selling huge deals or he's hunting awesome things. He's either off-grid or extremely available. Um, >> yeah, that's that's about accurate. >> Yes, I a big big fan of Garrett. Also, he is not patient with uh inspectors who take way too long on 44 units. >> I forgot about that and uh we still talk about that from time to time in the office. >> Uh so, okay. Well, I'm going to run this exactly as I was planning on running this conversation and then we'll I'll not cheat later. Um okay, so on this particular deal, uh it's 60 units. Uh my first question, is this deal still available? >> Yes. Yes, it is. Uh, so I guess long story short, we had it tied up about a year and a half ago and we were getting down to splitting hairs and the seller actually ended up uh cancelling the transaction which is, you know, an odd occurrence and uh that buyer didn't want to come back to the table. So, we are we are back out there. >> Okay. So, you're back out. When did it get relisted? >> Um, I think it's been maybe maybe two months now. They went so they refinanced uh put new debt on there through Walker Dunlop and now we've got that with the assumable debt component. Uh it's not the best debt in the world but you know sometimes that's a plus. >> Okay. So so the financing is assumable. What's the terms of the financing? >> Um I'd have to pull it up. It's been a little bit since I've looked at that. Let me see if I have it in the folder. >> No problem. If it's not readily available it's not like a just if you had it in front of you. Okay. Okay. Well, that explains my because my first question was going to be it's been on market for like 523 days. So, it was really like on and off. It it just came back up. >> Yeah, that's actually uh good to know. After this, I will call and have them reset that date because that does not look >> There you go. Well, yeah, for me I'm like, "Hey, we might be solving a problem here." This is >> me as a listing broker. It doesn't doesn't show as well as, you know, as you guys as the buyer, you'll see, you know, kind of blood in the water that's been out there for a while and is probably stale. >> There we go. Josh, strike this from the record. This never happened. Um, okay. So, we're Okay. So, um, on this particular deal, the seller So, the seller killed it. Uh, it's been listed for two months. How has activity been on this listing so far? Have you guys getting a lot of attention on it? What's the general temperature? >> We've we've gotten, you know, we've gotten a good number of calls. Uh, no one that's really been been real. Um, I mean to be quite fair, it seems like the Oklahoma market's slowed down a little bit, which, you know, is good for, you know, advantageous buyers. Um, you know, it's we've had some issues with insurance, you know, more specifically in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, but, >> um, seems like we're starting to see some pickup. We we got that Manchester on May deal on market as well, and we're, you know, fielding calls on both. Um, you know, Oklahoma City is a pretty pocketed market, so you just gota got to be aware of the markets that you're in there. with uh Manchester on May. How many units is that one? >> Um >> if you're off the top of your head, >> let me see. >> Sorry, I apologize. It's a He called me on Friday. >> No, that's totally fine. You didn't get any prep for this either. >> My partner uh Chase is is running that Manchester May deal and he sold it to the current group, so I was kind of hands off, which is uh pretty nice. >> Totally fine. that my question I was going to ask is if I was looking at either of these, are you recommending I look at this one, Manchester or May, or do I have to look at both because they're both so awesome? >> So, these are uh separate sellers, so you know, it's not required to be purchased together, but they're actually pretty close in proximity, so it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have them both together. >> I do like that. I I prefer to do both deals, generally speaking, if they're both good. >> Yeah. Management efficiency, so you know there's money to be saved, you know, instead of having one, you know, maintenance guy at both properties. You can have one that floats between the two and cut some money there. >> Well, I am curious though if if you run into the unit count on Manchester Maine, that would I was calling you as an example. That being said, and now I'm kind of interested. I might actually want to buy this. >> Well, hey, we can definitely talk more offline uh on both of these. I actually do have a offmarket deal that's pretty attractive as well that I can share details on you with that's lender owned. Oh, okay. I do like I've been doing a lot of lender owned stuff. Um, okay. Uh, if out of respect for the fact that I've already told you that other people are listening, so thank you for playing with us. I appreciate it. Uh, out of curiosity, what could you tell me that you're also comfortable with a couple other people hearing about the offmarket listing just so they can hear what this part of the call looks like? >> And uh, before we hop over Manchester on May 100 units on a dot. >> Oh, I love this. >> So, yeah, little little uh, info there. And then the offmarket deal, it's closer to the Air Force base on the east side of town. It's over 200 units. Uh I think it's the late 70s or, you know, mid early 80s vintage. >> Um >> pitched roofs, you know, that's always a plus. No flat roof, so you don't have to deal with tpo. Um and the lender's been holding it, the the group that manages it, um they're phenomenal. They're out of Fort Smith and they've got that thing humming. Um so that's it's a good property. You know, granted, the lender's been holding it and they've been running it well, so they're not looking to take exactly a loss, but I think they would, you know, reend on the deal in some, you know, some capacity until you can refi them out after like a year or so. >> Okay. I I've been doing a few deals like that this year where we're working directly with the lender. Uh, and I have you seen flexibility Oklahoma with the with the lending? I've had a few where the lenders actually modified the loan to fit what we're doing better. Have you have you seen that in OKC as well? >> Yeah, we're seeing it in Texas as well. um you know, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, we're seeing that kind of across the board. You know, because these these lenders, they don't want to, you know, they're not operators. They don't want to own and operate these assets. Uh you know, typically, you know, this one's kind of a a misnomer because usually the properties will go further into disrepair as the lender owns them, you know, because they're just not they're not operators at the end of the day. >> So, um this one's a a good opportunity. You can come in, you know, the properties are performing. Obviously, you know, you can put more money into it, do the value ad program, push rents further and, you know, take it to that next level. >> Yes. Okay. Well, since I already know you, um actually actually legitimately interested. If you can send that to our favorite Caleb, uh that would I will um I will review this with him as well. I like these. >> Yeah. >> I like the sound of all of this. This sounds like this sounds like potential money. >> Yeah. I'll send that to Caleb uh and and tell him uh we chatted. >> All right. Well, thank you so much for uh thank you so much for playing, Garrett. And uh I will Yeah, I will I will call you not in front of a lot of people uh shortly because this is very interesting. I actually like the deals that you have. >> Yep. Awesome. Love it. >> All right. Talk to you soon. >> All right. Thanks, brother. See you. >> Bye. Okay. Oops. Um I was really confused. He's like, "Hey, Christian." I'm like, "Wait a second." That was really offputting for a second. I was like, "Wait, Garrett Huey?" Oh, I referenced him all the time. Uh yes, I've done two deals with him. I really like Garrett. Um okay, that's why I was like, that's why I gave the I was like, "Oh, Garrett loves hunting." I just wanted him to know I I actually remembered who he was. Um, okay. Well, interesting. Um, first illustration. We will call someone else. I don't have anyone else in Oklahoma. He happens to transact in Texas. That was kind of a fluke. Illustration. That took what, two seconds? He has an offmarket deal. There's another deal. There's 160 units that we know about. There's another one near the Air Force base. Oklahoma, guys. Is is the air force base different cities that's good or bad? Is near the air force base good or bad in this city? >> Generally >> depends on rents but yeah I would say generally the area over there has been increasing in value pretty well. >> So I really like over there. >> I like this a lot. The when I say do no thought I mean maybe read the broker's name before you call them. Um this is read their first name and last name. They don't. The illustration though is you don't need to give any you can just call it based on the picture. I don't I didn't need to know anything about anything. I just wanted to talk to the broker. Um we'll see if I feel like that moved our relationship forward. If I buy something, it definitely will. Um I've already transacted with him. >> If you need some help down there, I know somebody. >> Can someone Can someone choose a broker that I don't know? Let me try Let me try the other listing. I'm I'm going to read their name this time. Villas. I know no one with the last name of >> Schneider. Okay, do we do we know anything? No, don't tell me. Don't tell me that's cheating. 160 units. What are the We just talked about 160 units uh between two deals. Okay, this is a different one. Phil is at Stone Lake. It's been on market for 100 days, so like three-ish months, a little more. It's listed by callers. It's really tempting to ask you questions about this, but then I'm cheating and that would really ruin the demonstration of how easy this is. >> Look at him making money while he's teaching. >> I know. That's That's how easy it is. >> There we go. Should I go under contract for another 400 years by doing 372? The answer is no. Don't Don't because you can buy everything doesn't mean that you should. And Cody and I have learned that lesson. um at least four more times than we needed to. >> But your wife said you could buy anything and everything you wanted to this year. >> She did say that. That is that is why we're buying everything this year. >> Okay. Um this looks cool. It's by the river. >> I agree. >> It's not the prettiest. >> It's a lake. >> Not too glad I didn't say that on the call. Yeah. There's nothing fancy, but this is a good this is a good example. I'm um always start with a piece of relatability that is true for you. So on this one, I recently closed 144 unit. You don't lie. Just tell something that's true for you. I'm just going to say something that's true for me. I recognize that my background is not your background. You are always going to be you. But I'm going to call it exactly as I would without knowing anything and we'll see if they pick up. I promise I don't know this person. >> Which one do you guys call? >> Okay. The only thing I'll cheat on, which which is there a preferred person I'll call so I have a better odds of getting it picked up. >> I don't know. I think I called a guy named Chris. >> Is there a Chris on this? There ain't no Chrises. >> How many? >> Maybe that was a different one. >> No one. No one. No more Chrises in Texas or in Oklahoma. That's too confusing. >> I still can't believe it was Garrett >> Huey. 405 514 >> 03 4 >> Please leave your message for 4 0 55 5 1 4 0 3 4 Z. >> Hey, this is Christian. I had a quick question for you on villas at Stone Lake. It looks like 160 unit you guys have over there. Uh, if you can give me a call back, my number is 425 3369332. Appreciate it. Try one more person there. Obviously, Jason Turner was who we needed to call. One thing I found, if you call out of state, they almost always call you back. But if your area code like is a super mismatch, like I'm Seattle, I I'll get less picks up pickups in Oklahoma than I would if I was calling Seattle. >> It's also 5:30 there. So, >> I mean, you know, >> on a Friday, >> we certainly could. However, this is how many things I pulled up into our awesome internet. Okay, Jason Turner. If not, at least I mean at least you guys can see how it works. I'm glad we got something. >> I'll see if this person is available. >> Christian Ozgood. The villas at Stone Lake. >> Brokers, don't do that. Don't do that to me. >> Thanks. Please stay on the line. >> I don't want to talk to your AI assistant. I'm already turned off. I don't want this anymore. Eric records his own voicemail. Get Eric's voice when you call him. It's great. >> I'm sorry. This person is not available. If you would like to leave an addition, please reply after the tone. >> Hey, this is Christian. I had a question for on a listing you guys have. Villas at Stone Lake. Sorry for calling a little late in the afternoon here. If you get a moment, if you can give me a call at 425336-9332. I would appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Well, here's where we're at so far. All right, let me do a little let me do a little teaching between these and I'll try to pull up I'll try to pull up one more. The difficulty of going through this process of seeing a number and then calling the number. Uh the cool thing is you will not have to do it in front of a whole bunch of people. It's way easier. It's it's it's kind of weird to it's not very hard to do and you're just a normal person asking about a normal deal. The normal flow of conversation which was a little harder to get into with Garrett because he already knows me. So there wasn't like the intro is first of all ask if it's still available which we did verify on this particular one. I would let him know in like two sentences my backstory. I live in Dallas. I invest in secondary markets around Dallas that are about a three-hour drive away. Oklahoma City is the same distance as every other market I'm in. We're just not in OKC yet. I saw this deal. It's similar to the type of stuff that I like to buy. I wouldn't say anything else. just let them respond. And then we'd pretty much get into the exact same conversation. Well, my partner really knows more about this deal than I do. Awesome. What do you know about the deal? We learned right off the bat they screwed up the way they listed it. Who here has looked at a listing that either says unpriced or on market for like an eternity and didn't call it because you're like, "Uh, there's a problem." Show of hands. Who Who's actually like skipped? Okay, I'm seeing a few hands. it wasn't even really on market for a long period of time. It was on and then it was off and then it was on. It's also really good to know, okay, if I'm working with this individual seller, we might have like they've been difficult on the transaction before. That almost makes me more interested in the 100 unit opportunity. Not that I'm telling everyone to do a first deal for 100 units. I'm just as an example. I'm more interested in a 100 units than I am the 60 with the problem seller potentially. If the deals were both identical and the same, I'd probably lean that direction. We learned a lot. All we got out of an intro call that any of you would have got roughly with the same conversation. If you were just talking about the deal, yes, I have this deal. We have another deal that you might want to take a look at. There's an offmarket opportunity that I can get more information for you on if you're interested. Excellent. snag some details on those, hop off the call, underwrite the deal, it's a Friday afternoon, text them back this, email them or text them back this evening or you can wait till Saturday and like, "Hey, had a chance to look over the stuff. I'm actually really interested. I think I'm your buyer for this. Let's hop on a call and discuss. I think that's a good place to start on this. You're building a relationship. I don't want to just shoot an offer at him. I probably have a couple of questions. I didn't waste any of his time." That that took very little of Garrett's day. I'm now a potential He might make a lot of money off me. Again, I'm super happy with this. See if we can grab another one. >> You want to know more about that one? >> Oh, yes. Yes. Grab the mic. I want to know more about this. Hop on up. What would have happened if we actually got them on the call? I'm I'm interested. >> So, when I called about this one, I asked for what's the whisper price. It said 6 million. owner wants at least five. >> Okay. >> It's owned by hard money. >> Oh my god. >> Um probably needs three to three and a half >> to put into it, but they think it's worth about 12. >> Well, that sounds doable. >> What's the What's the several several units are burned out >> renovation? >> Um so it just needs a lot of work. I think they're like 30% occupied. >> Okay. So it's it's in hard money. They want to sell for a really low price for what it is, but you have to take all of the risk of doing the deal. Yeah. >> Wait, whisper price six million, but they want five million. Well, I I didn't That's the only part I didn't follow. >> Uh they've been telling people six million, but the broker basically said I think he he might take five. >> I like that the whis price is six, but it's five. >> It's really four. >> Yeah. I have and then you underwrite the deal and you might find out 4.5 is where this is worth the risk and what where I get day one cash flow out of where it's at. And then I have to have that conversation with them. If I get you out of hard money and 4.5 is what solves your problem. You might that's what I tal this actually perfect illustration. I mentioned earlier your goal is to find out what the problem is and are you equipped to solve it. If I can buy this deal where it cash flows day one I'm much more interested in solving because now I have upside but I'm at least getting paid while I hold it. like I'm I'm now interested in the construction project. If that condition could be met, I don't know if it can. When I talk about like we have a legitimate chance of getting it accepted, if I went through this conversation and now I have an idea what the project is and I have a proposal that makes some amount of financial sense, I would call the broker and the broker I keep now broker just synonymous with Eric, so I automatically look at Eric. Uh I would call the agent on the deal and I would tell them, hey, I underwrote this deal. This is where it works for me. They have hard money pressure. That's they're obviously bleeding on it. Their debt may or may not already be due. They could accept that. I could be solving a problem for them. If they owe more on it, maybe they owe 5 million and it only works at 4.5. Your next step there is you would have a conversation with the lender. If they're about to go into default, is there a universe in which you guys take a little haircut to not take this deal back? Which is how I'm buying a deal right now? And there's I've seen a few opportunities through Texas, Oklahoma, uh Louisiana, and Tennessee that all have that same condition. The lender will take a discount on what they owe in lie of foreclosing on the seller. And not getting forclosed on is awesome. As an owner of a building, not getting a foreclosure foreclosure is best case scenario. You do not want that to happen. That is you are done playing with conventional debt for a long time. If that happens, that is the ultimate don't have that happen. Any questions so far? >> I have a question. >> Yes, sir. >> What's your opinion on a population that's stale? Has an increased? >> The deal has to be a little bit better. I a good deal in a good area is great. If we're not seeing declining population, that's what I would be worried about is there's a ton of new build and the population is not growing at all. that would be a little bit concerning. But if you're in an area where it's just like, hey, that the housing's good, the deal's good, that's a deal that moves you forward financially, I would want to look over the timeline and make sure that it's been equally stale for a long time. If it's like recently flatlined, I'm not sure that it's going to go up or start trending down. But if you're looking at a market, there's markets that have had the same population for 15 years, more or less. If it's that stable, the night basically, you want to know what you're buying. But I would not be banking on, hey, I'm buying in an area based on cash flow for a ton of appreciation if there's no growth. So I would really focus the metric that I would hyperfocus on is we need more cash flow than a deal that is in a high growth area. If I usually would see 8%, I really want to start closer to 12%. I want to be in the double digits. So at least 10% cash flow. I'm like, okay, if I'm holding this, there's good returns. If we don't get a lot of upward pressure on demand, if we hold the same, we're doing pretty good. So, I I just want more cash flow out of that deal. Phil, >> what what are you defining as the market or the area? Are you >> hop hop to the mic really quick? Even though you're the loudest person here. >> No one knows what I'm talking about. Those are your level. >> Can you define Oh, wow. Uh can you define like are you talking about county, city, like geographically? How big of an area are you talking about when you're saying population size? >> Oh, great question. >> Cuz you can have a city or a burrow that's gaining, but the county is shrinking. >> It comes Well, and then there's also So, the answer you could look at Seattle, and it's not even the city, it's a submarket of the city is what you're looking at. So, what you're looking at is really I'm looking at the population growth for the rentable population of my unit. So in a a tertiary market like Stevenville, the city of Stevenville is my population size. All the cities outside of Stevenville have a little bit of distance, but people aren't driving over from Minerals and Granberry to live in Stevenville and people aren't vice versa. My market is Stevenville, therefore it's Stevenville. If I'm looking in Seattle, Ballard is not Ballard isn't even Fremont. Like each neighborhood in Seattle has its own supply and demand and population. And I really Capitol Hill during COVID the police just abandoned the area and it was just an autonomous zone. That is much different than again like Fremont. I don't know enough of Seattle. I only know Ballard and Fremont and Capitol Hill. So the the three of them are their own markets. I'm not going to compare one hill in Seattle to the other hill because it's not the same renter pool. Generally speaking, you have some crossover, but I'm looking at my rentable population. So there's areas Grant County where Cody and I invest a bunch. It is feasible that someone from Moses Lake would go over to Afraid. They're about 20 minutes apart. It's not the exact same population, but I would look at Quincy, Soap Lake, Aphraa. I would look at really all of northern Grant County and say this is my rentable population for these units. Cody, would you say that's pretty accurate for for Grant County? We'll look at more than just Moses for where you would find renters. >> Yeah, similar but different. Quincy's got richer people a little rough around the edges. >> Yeah, >> there's different people living there. >> I would be more concerned in that area if population was going down in Quincy, down in Afraid, down in Soap Lake, up in Moses Lake. I'd be like, "Oh man, there there's I need to understand this area better." If everything's going up in population, I'm like, "This is great." But it's going to be the short answer is who who would potentially be a tenant for you? I want to see that going up. >> It could be a city, it could be a neighborhood, it could be a county. It really depends on population. >> So, what I was looking at is the area I was looking at lost a major employer and so rent has been stabilized or on the decline. But there is a potential new employer, a government contract. >> And I think a government contract, you could pretty much count them on that's going to happen. >> Typically, what you want to avoid in any market is single employer risk. I would not have invested in Grant County, Washington, if Boeing was the only employer. And thank goodness because they actually did some layoffs. They have battery manufacturing. They have a bunch of data centers. Microsoft's over there. They have agriculture. You have multiple employers in that area. There are areas where if this company lays off people, your portfolio is now dead. I worry about those around military bases. Military bases sometimes just get shut down. It's a thing that happens. So if it is like I'm not worried about Breton. We're the largest naval base on this coast. Not worried about that shutting down. You're looking at me weird, but it is >> think for the for the summer nuclear base. We we would do the nuclear. Good correction. My my buddy's a nuclear engineer there. >> We're we're not shutting down Breton. Very unlikely. It would be almost impossible to take that and move it somewhere else. But there are some bases that do shut down. If that is all of your rentable population or the main one, I would not invest there unless there were other drivers. There's some markets in Texas that I've had people bring to the calls where it's like it's a giant meat packing facility is like 85% of the jobs. I'm like, they're probably not going to move. But you're not investing in housing in that area. You're investing in the success of a meat packing company. That's not that's not really my thing. I don't know enough about that industry. I'm not going to do that. And it can expand to large markets, too. Like the biggest example being like the auto industry in Detroit. like or the steel industry on Pennsylvania like the Pennsylvania got absolutely slammed. >> Yeah. It's taken them two decades to dig back like they're starting to get medical, tech, AI and and government. Yeah. Investing in So now there's multiple. >> Yeah. So if you have if you have single employer risk, you have to factor for that risk. It is a legitimate thing that could happen. Would my portfolio survive? The foundational rules. Can I buy it and can I never lose it? I need to be able to keep it in the event that this industry completely collapsed. Will my property survive? If the answer is no, then I probably that area is too small or too niche. Any other questions on the on the owner thing and finding deals? Not I have one thing that I really want to share. Huge bottleneck for people. You get same as falling in love with a debt product. you fall in love with a specific city, you get too specific on your market. And you go, I I'm only going to buy in Stevenville, Texas, and I've decided that's my market. I just I have my Tarlton hat. I love this market. I'm only going to buy here. I'm looking for deals here. And you find there's only four deals to do. I've done the deals that are available to do in Stevenville. I challenge anyone else to do a deal that is a sincerely good deal right now. I know every building, every owner that is multif family. There is no way. I don't believe that someone will shake loose a deal right now this second in that market. We have I have worked that market. However, if you expanded a little bit, you would find opportunity concentric circles. If I was like Stephenville is the number one place I want to invest, I would do exactly what we just did. I would call brokers. I'd have these conversations. I would try to meet some owners in that market. I would get traction going and then I would draw a little circle outside of that and you'd end up in Mineral Wells in Granberry, Texas and these other secondary markets. and you go as another circle out of that and now you're starting to hit Weatherford, Texas. You go a little further out, you're hitting Waco. But what I don't want to do is stop calling on deals or stop working opportunities. If I'm running out of momentum in a certain area, just keep expanding the circles. I closed what was closable in Stevenville at that time. It's a 30,000 person market. It's not a big market. We did 186 units. That's that's what would shake loose. and I have great leads on other deals that will come available later but aren't they're just not available right now. Perfect. Instead of trying to hammer the daylights out of that market, we expanded a little bit and then we expanded again and we hit Abalene and we did the 144 unit and then we did an 80 unit and we just went under our contract for another 80 unit. And Abene has 180,000 people. So there's more deals to do in Abalene. we'll hammer Abene, but there's going to be a point where we're not going to do every single property in Abalene. And so, we're opening Long View at the same time. But that that is the way to do it. Don't lose momentum because you married one city or one specific market. But when you close in that market, double, triple, quadruple down, close what is closable there because your plumbers, property managers, electricians, lawyers, title company, you you're you'll be able to build a business there with people that you know, like, and trust, and you'll make way more money. >> That that's actually leads exactly into my question. It's like, okay, you said go out in this concentric circles. What happens if those circles go outside of your your lawyer, your doctor or your uh uh you know contractors and all that stuff. >> Yeah, you got to sit there and build a new team. But like how do you >> don't open every market at the same time. That is that is the answer. >> You do not what you don't want to do is build so much business and buy so fast. Cody referenced this uh briefly earlier. If you are buying so quickly that you're like I'm over here and I'm over here and I'm over here and you're not setting up anything. I mean, this is part of what I'll I'll open tomorrow with this specifically, but what happens when you do so much that you've just bought everything, but you haven't finalized your systems anywhere. And what happens typically is you perform worse and your profit margin starts decreasing. Your expenses go up, your income goes down. You need to set up systems in the market before you expand. It's part of why I engineered my PM organization the way that I did is we have after doing enough of these markets, I've built a core team of people where we have a rapid deployment plan of like this one deal is scheduled to close in 45 days. We opened it up yesterday. We're doing hire like on Monday we're opening the hiring for the position. If you don't have that in place yet, that's fine. But don't don't open up Stevenville and Abalene and Long View in your first year because you can. I'll go way more into that tomorrow. But that's that's the model. >> Come up to the mics. We're already doing Q&A. Well, we'll come up here and then we'll do a full full group Q&A here right after, too. So, we'll we'll we'll wrap here at five minutes, take a break, and then we'll do a full team Q&A. >> Uh, just on the broker call, you kind of got into, have you gotten any engagement so far? But um would you also try to get into um things like what's the motivation of the seller? What kind of finance do they have? I mean if the conversation's going well, you kind of try to lead into that a little more, right? >> Uh yes. I what I don't do personally is I don't grill the broker on the specific specific seller motivations. I'm going to a answer and ask questions that relate to me closing on the deal for what the deal is. If I'm And this is just when I was a broker. If someone's just grilling me on, like, hey, what does the seller want here? What does the seller want here? I'm like, I'll answer to an extent, but my goal is not just to like give you all of the pieces and have you come back with something creative. I want you to be ideally a relatively conventional buyer. That's my perfect, >> right, >> perfect universe. So, your best case scenario in my opinion is just going through the details of the deal. get the financials, get the feel for the deal. I I do like the the question, hey, how do you think the financing is going to work on this? He led with the financing is assumable and I need I need to look up more information on what that is. So, I'm not going to then go like back to my script and be like, "All right, now ask him clarifying questions about finance." Like, he already mentioned it. Move on. Um, and then on this one, you always end building confidence. So, on this one, for me, it was just, okay, I'm actually pretty interested. This sounds really good. The context of this was you're in front of a bunch of people. You know, you're in front of a bunch of people, but it the ending was still the same. I want to do this deal. Send this to send this to Caleb. You know, I'm going to look at it. We're going to get this done. It would have been a different version of that if he didn't know me. It would have been this this is probably what we're looking for. I probably would have asked him, uh, hey, my my plan involves moving employees and resources into this market to open the market. Does this deal have an office? That's really interesting to me. And that also is a closing qu to me if I'm a broker. I'm seeing them put together the pieces of this deal might really work for me. I might be the right buyer for this deal. >> So I it would be an iteration of what makes me uniquely a good buyer to do this. It just this happened to be we're all friends. Send it to Caleb. It's a fluke. >> Okay. >> So you can run the numbers and then come back with something that fits. >> Yeah. And that's exactly what we'll do. He's going to actually send us numbers and I'm actually going to get back to him. What a closer. >> I want to buy real estate. The goal is to buy the property. I'm I'm not uh I'm not uh ambiguous with that to the uh to the broker. >> So, this is not really a question, but a statement what you just said. between myself and this gentleman here, we looked up Craig Crexy and Lutnet >> in the city I want to look into and that three listings. One listing says it was built in 2027. So, it's not even built yet. So, that that just goes to say what you uh said. You know, expand your search area. >> Yes, you want to expand the search area. Have you called the other listings that are there? >> Not yet. >> That's a good start. >> Do that. Okay, >> that'll help >> because that may tell you that they have another 200 units that's not even listed. >> They they may know more units available and now you've worked that area and now you can look at another one. What I wouldn't do is choose another area before you called the one that you really wanted to buy. Like open up the opportunities there and then move on to the next opportunities. Don't get stuck there, but also don't skip it because there's not a lot. See what you can open up. Any other questions on owner or sorry on broker specific calling, negotiating, putting it together as an investor? >> Oh, there go. >> How frequently is too frequently to communicate if they don't lead with like, hey, I have another deal or something like that, but you want to keep building the relationship with the broker. >> How frequently should you communicate with a broker if you're trying to build a relationship with them? It's exactly like any other relationship. Don't be weird. I I don't know why I need to say it, but it's very And Cody can attest to this. My first few calls, I was really weird. You're going to be awkward. You're going to be a little bit clunky. Don't make yourself even more awkward. Like, you're trying to date someone, you text them, and they don't text you back. Don't like text them seven more times. It's weird. Like, don't don't be weird. Uh, also, if I have a reason to talk to you, I'll talk to you. So, for me, the general thing is if I don't have anything to talk to them about, like any of my friends, I don't usually call my friends just to be like, "Hey, man. I was thinking about you. Let's chat." I don't know. Maybe maybe people do that. That that's weird to me. If one of my especially as men, but if a guy called me like, "Dude, how are you feeling?" I was like, "Fine. What's up?" Like, it's just it's weird. Don't be weird. Um, but if I had a question, I was like, "Hey, I saw I saw a listing in your area. You just came to mind. What do you think of this neighborhood?" That makes a ton of sense. And so if I talk to you three days ago and I see a list in your area, I think about you again, I'll absolutely call you and be like, "Dude, I know we just talked. What do you think of this area?" So I don't think there's a correct amount. There's just too much or not enough based on what you actually have to legitimately talk to them about. Yeah, I think to go with your question, if you do an ask about a deal and he wants to keep you, shoot an email and just say, "Hey, we talked about two weeks ago. I just want to see if another steps It's just quick, hey, you know, I'm here to buy. I don't want to waste your time. You got anything popped up in the last month or two weeks or two months, whatever it is. You do that periodically through, you know, whatever brokers and that's not >> that's a normal thing to do, right? >> Yeah. You got to stay on top because they get new calls. They might not. So, it's help. >> So, we're gonna add that to the course. Don't be weird. That's a good That's a good rule. That's a good rule for all real estate. >> Real the real estate is just like literally everything else. It's just that there's more zeros and so people get weird. You're buying a building. You're buying a product. It's like shopping for anything. You would love to get a good deal. That's why I use the buy guitar analogy all the time. I'm like, for some reason, if you're buying a $2,000 guitar and they want 3,000 for it, I can do that negotiation and it clicks for everyone. And then we talk about buying a building and people are like, "Whoa, what do we do?" It's like the same thing you do for everything. It just be be a normal person is the easiest answer to that. Good question, though. Any other questions for this section? The next one's Q&A, too. So, think about your questions. Hang out with everyone. Cue the music again. We'll take a one last final break and then we are going to stop exactly by 5 or earlier because the band needs to set up. So we'll get rolling here soon. Take a 10 break. On the shells.
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