Analyzing and negotiating
3 Skills and 20 Offers: The Apartment Method That Always Works
The three free skills behind hundreds of units, plus the offer metric I've never seen fail: 20 offers in six months with a 50% or better chance.
I'm going to make a bold claim: if you do what's in this article, you will buy a multifamily deal this year. One hundred percent.
After five years of running Multifamily Strategy, this is why my students are successful. There are only three foundational skills you need, they're all free, and none of them take long to learn. Then there's one metric on top of them that we have yet to see fail for anybody. This is the method I used to buy hundreds and hundreds of units, and it's the same method my students use.
Caleb Hommel is a good example. He's a great friend of mine. At 19, no money, living in California, he moved to Texas. By 23 he had over 425 units (429, I believe, to be exact) and lives in a penthouse. He's growing like crazy, and there are people all over the country running the same strategy.
So what are the skills?
Skill One: Analyze a Deal
You need to be able to analyze a deal. That's it.
If you go to Skool and find the Multifamily Strategy community, you can download a free calculator. If you can fill that calculator out for the day-one math and the future value (where you expect the deal to be down the road) you're answering two questions:
- How do I buy this deal?
- How do I never lose this deal?
If you can buy it and keep it, and it cash flows on day one, you've given yourself a raise for life.
Here's the other thing I can guarantee. If you are not clear on the math, you will not write offers. If you don't know the deal is going to make money, you're definitely not going to convince anyone else it's going to make money, and ultimately you won't write the offer at all. That's where most people stall out, and they never realize it's a math confidence problem.
Basic analytics you can learn in a week or less. Watch videos on this channel. Ask people in the community. There are free videos in there on how to analyze deals. Download the calculator, save a copy, and just run through a few listed deals until you're comfortable with the numbers. Anyone can learn this in a week.
Related reading: How to Analyze a Multifamily Deal in Minutes With One Calculator
Skill Two: Talk to Brokers
Second, you need to know how to talk to brokers. There's an actual, simple script, and it's five basic talk-track items.
The first one is: is the deal still available?
That question covers two things. It avoids the awkward conversation where they say "actually, it's already under contract, sorry, bye." And it's an easy way to ask whether you can talk about the listing at all. It preps them for the reason for the call, removes a lot of their hesitation, and moves them into sales mode, which is exactly where we want them.
Your goal in the whole conversation is to establish yourself as the most able, willing, capable buyer to take out this deal. You want to position yourself as the most likely buyer, and you do that by building confidence with the broker.
From there you move through an open-ended conversation about the deal, then more specific questions, and then my favorite question of all time:
How is the bank going to look at this?
Instead of asking for seller financing directly, get them to tell you whether the deal is conventionally financeable or whether you're going to need to get creative. That one question also surfaces deferred maintenance and bad books, because basically every problem with a deal comes down to bankability. Always ask it, every single time.
Once you're comfortable with your math and you've got those inputs from the broker, you can start offering on deals. Some of them you'll actually buy: I've bought many deals off LoopNet and Craigslist, and it is still possible.
More often, though, what happens is this: you put in offers that make sense, some may get accepted, and the broker now knows exactly how you underwrite, how you offer, and that you're someone who actually writes an offer when you talk about a deal. Because of that, you start getting sent better deals: off-market and pre-market. And suddenly you find yourself owning a lot of multifamily.
Skill Three: Meet With Owners
Third, and I think most importantly, you need to know how to talk to owners and meet with them.
That first owner meeting you do in a new market usually introduces you to just about everyone else. When you start meeting the people who are already operating and who've already built a business in your market, they have access to deals, contractors, property managers, and accountants. They've already built your business: multiple times, in multiple cities, all over the country.
I've met with owners who eventually sold me everything they built across a 20-, 30-, sometimes 50-year career. I've taken over complete real estate empires and had them transferred to me. Many of those were seller financed. I didn't even need to go to a bank. No credit checks, no money trading hands, because I had the relationship.
That's the whole foundation. You can analyze a deal. You can have an intelligent conversation with a broker. You can sit down with an owner and have a non-transactional conversation about how they built their business and how you're trying to build yours.
The Metric: Three to Four Offers a Month
The skills aren't the whole answer, though. They don't explain how you get to "100%, your offers are going to get accepted."
Here's the metric that's worked for me and for every student in Multifamily Strategy. We have yet to see an exception to this ever.
Three to four offers a month.
But read that carefully, because it is not shotgunning. We're talking to the owners and brokers as we analyze the deal. We're not offering exactly what's listed every time. We're offering exactly where the deal works, and we've had conversations with the broker or the owner, so we believe we know what they want.
So you map it out. I need a deal that cash flows day one that I can hold forever, so my income goes up for life. They need, and then you fill in the blank for everything they need. Wherever those intersect is where you write the offer. We have cash flow for life. They have the combination of their price, their terms, and their goals all met. People will accept it if you nail the offer.
So when do you write one? When I'm 50% sure or more that they'll accept the offer in front of them. I do that two, three, four times a month.
Over a six-month period, that's 20 offers where you truly believe you have a 50% chance or higher of getting the deal. And that is not hard to do: this is the bare minimum. Twenty offers at a 50% chance each. It is almost statistically impossible not to go under contract.
Closing Is the Easy Part
You might be thinking: fine, I can go under contract, but how do I close?
If you have a great deal, the money will be easy. Trust me, the money will come, and we have a lot of videos on how to do exactly that. That's the easy part.
The hard part is having the opportunity. If you have a deal that makes a lot of money, there's no shortage of people with capital who want to make money in real estate.
And by that point you've already done the hard part. You learned how to analyze a deal and actually applied it: even though it only takes a week and the tools are free, most people never do that step. You have confidence in your number. You've negotiated the deal. You've identified what all parties want and come up with a solution that gives everyone what they need.
Do that again and again, and statistically you'll do two, three, four deals every single year. That's exactly what I've done. It's relatively low volume. It doesn't take a lot of time. It is not all that hard. And it's how I got to over 600 rental units.
I opened Abilene, Texas, as a new market in December 2025. By February 2026, I had reached 225 units there across multiple transactions, using the same approach to analyzing deals and working with owners and brokers.
Key Takeaways
- Learn to analyze a deal with a free calculator (day-one math plus future value) and answer two questions: how do I buy it, and how do I never lose it. This takes a week.
- If you're not clear on the math, you will never write the offer. Math confidence is what unblocks everything downstream.
- With brokers, open by asking if the deal is still available, then always ask "how is the bank going to look at this?": it surfaces financing, deferred maintenance, and bad books in one question.
- Owner meetings compound. One owner introduces you to the rest of the market, and some will eventually seller finance you everything they built over a 50-year career.
- Write three to four offers a month, only where you're 50% or more confident they'll be accepted. Twenty such offers in six months makes going under contract nearly statistically unavoidable.
- Lowballing everything, negotiating only on price, and writing a million LOIs is the losing strategy, not the winning one.
This is the secret formula, and notice what it isn't. It's not writing a million letters of intent. It's not ripping out offers indiscriminately. It's not calling a thousand brokers about a thousand deals.
Know your numbers. Talk to brokers. Offer where the deal makes sense, and identify what the seller wants. Write something with the minimum amount of creativity that gets you everything you need and everything they want. And submit it when you have a 50% chance or higher of getting it accepted. It doesn't have to be perfect.
The people losing right now in real estate are the ones writing offers on everything: "well, I know it definitely works at this price, let's just lowball everything." Lowballing, or negotiating only on price every time, is not the method.
Twenty solid offers with a relationship behind them and a clear identification of what all parties need means you do way less work and close a lot more real estate. I've done this 32 times in the last five years, and I have students who've bought more rentals than I have in less time by applying these exact methods the exact same way.
I don't believe there's any one secret in real estate, but this one feels like the secret to all of it. Two to four offers a month, at a 50% chance or higher. I believe everyone on the planet could get there within a month of studying real estate.
Watch the full video above for the complete breakdown of each skill. Grab the free calculator in our Skool community, take the free multifamily starter course at multifamilystrategy.com/get-free-training, and if you want direct help applying this, my mentorship is at mentorship overview.
Read the episode transcript
0:00 Hello and welcome to multif family 0:01 strategy. We are talking about how to 0:03 absolutely for sure buy multif family 0:06 deals this year and there's only three 0:08 skills you need to learn and they're 0:10 easy and they're free and I'm going to 0:12 share all of them with you on this video 0:14 so that by the end of this video you can 0:16 guarantee that if you follow these steps 0:18 you too will buy multiple deals this 0:21 year. Here we go. 0:25 All 0:30 [music] 0:37 right. 100% you will buy a deal if you 0:41 do this. That's a pretty bold statement. 0:43 And after 5 years of running multif 0:44 family strategy, this is why my students 0:46 are so successful. I'm going to tell you 0:48 the three foundational skills and I'm 0:50 going to help you get there. So, I'm 0:52 going to dive directly in. And by the 0:54 way, this is the method that I've used 0:55 to buy hundreds and hundreds of units. 0:57 Some of my students have bought hundreds 0:59 and hundreds of units. Caleb Hmel, a 1:00 great friend of mine, he has bought at 1:03 age 23. He went from 19, no money, 1:06 living in California, moved to Texas, 1:08 lives in a penthouse, has over 425 1:11 units. I think 429 to be exact. This guy 1:15 is growing like crazy. And there's 1:17 people all over the country doing the 1:18 same strategy. So, what do you really 1:20 need to do foundationally? What are the 1:22 skills? First of all, you need to be 1:24 able to analyze a deal. And if you go to 1:27 school.com and you go to multif family 1:29 strategy community, you can actually 1:31 download a free calculator. And if you 1:33 can fill out that calculator for the day 1:35 one math and the future value, so where 1:38 you expect the deal to be in the future, 1:40 you're going to answer two questions. 1:41 How do I buy this deal? And how do I 1:44 never lose this deal? If you can buy it 1:46 and keep it, and it cash flows day one, 1:48 you've given yourself a raise for life. 1:50 And I can guarantee you another thing. 1:51 If you are not clear on the math, you 1:54 will not write offers. Like, if you 1:56 don't know the deal is going to make 1:57 money, you're definitely not going to 1:59 convince anyone else it's going to make 2:00 money. And ultimately, you're not going 2:01 to write the offer. So, number one, 2:03 basic analytics. This you can learn in a 2:06 week or less. Watch some of the videos 2:09 on this channel. Ask people in the 2:11 multif family strategy community. I also 2:12 have free videos in there on how to 2:14 analyze deals. Follow the instructions 2:17 there. Download the calculator for 2:19 yourself. Save a copy. just run through 2:22 a few listed deals until you are 2:24 comfortable with the numbers. But anyone 2:26 can learn this in a week or less. And 2:28 again, all the resources are there for 2:30 free in the school community. So again, 2:32 sk multif family strategy.com. There's a 2:36 link in the description below as well. 2:39 Number two, you need to know how to talk 2:41 to brokers. There's an actual simple 2:44 script. I've also done multiple videos 2:46 on this before, but there's five basic 2:48 talk track items you need to go through. 2:50 First, is the deal still available? Now, 2:53 asking if the deal is still available 2:54 covers two things. One, it avoids an 2:56 awkward conversation where they're like, 2:57 actually, it's already under contract. 2:59 Sorry, bye. It also is an easy way to 3:03 just ask them, hey, can we talk about 3:05 this listing? It preps them for the 3:07 reason for the call. It gets rid of a 3:08 lot of their hesitation and moves them 3:10 into sales mode, which is where we want 3:12 them. We want to establish where the 3:14 most able, willing, and 3:21 the most able, willing, capable buyer to 3:24 take out this deal. You want to position 3:26 yourself as the most likely buyer 3:27 ultimately. And you do that through 3:28 building confidence with the broker. 3:30 You're going to go through other talking 3:31 points such as open-ended conversation 3:33 about the deal, more specific questions, 3:35 then move to my favorite question of all 3:36 time. How's the bank going to look at 3:38 this? Instead of asking for seller 3:39 financing, get them to tell you if it is 3:42 conventionally financable or if you need 3:44 to get creative. That will also cover is 3:46 there deferred maintenance or there bad 3:47 books. Basically, all the problems with 3:49 the deal will all come down to 3:51 bankability. So, always ask that 3:52 question every time. But as you get 3:54 comfortable with your math and then you 3:56 get those inputs from the broker right 3:58 there, you can start offering on deals. 4:01 Some of them you might actually buy and 4:03 I've bought many deals off LoopNet and 4:05 Craigslist. It is still possible. More 4:07 often, you put in offers that make 4:11 sense, that may get accepted, and the 4:13 broker now knows exactly how you 4:16 underwrite how you offer, and that 4:17 you're someone who actually will offer 4:19 when you talk to them about a deal. 4:21 Because of this, you start getting sent 4:23 better deals, either offmarket or 4:26 pre-market deals, and suddenly you find 4:29 yourself owning a lot of multif family. 4:30 And third, and I think most importantly, 4:32 you need to know how to talk to owners 4:34 and meet with owners. That first owner 4:36 meeting you do in a new market, they 4:38 usually introduce you to just about 4:39 everyone else. But if you start meeting 4:40 the people operating who've already 4:42 built the business in your market, they 4:45 have access to deals and contractors and 4:47 property managers and accountants, 4:48 they've already built your business 4:51 multiple times, multiple cities all over 4:53 the country. I've met with owners who 4:55 eventually sold me everything they built 4:57 in a 20, 30, sometimes 50year career. 5:00 I've taken complete real estate empires 5:03 and they've transferred it to me. And 5:04 many of them have done seller finance. I 5:06 didn't even need to go to a bank, no 5:07 credit checks, no money trading hands 5:10 because I had the relationship. If you 5:12 have these three foundational skills, 5:14 and that is literally it. These do not 5:15 take a long time to do. You can analyze 5:18 a deal. You can have an intelligent 5:20 conversation with a broker. You can sit 5:22 down with an owner and have a 5:23 non-transactional conversation about how 5:26 they built their business and how you 5:28 are trying to build your business. You 5:30 have all the foundational skills, but 5:31 this doesn't answer the question, how 5:33 are we getting to this 100% absolutely 5:36 your offers are going to get accepted. 5:38 You're going to buy real estate. Here is 5:40 a metric that has worked for me and this 5:42 has worked for all of the students in 5:44 multif family strategy. If you do this, 5:46 you will buy real estate. We have yet to 5:48 see an exception to this ever. 5:51 three to four offers a month. You are 5:53 not shotgunning offers. We are talking 5:56 to the owners and brokers as we analyze 5:57 the deal. We're not offering exactly 5:59 what's listed every time. We're offering 6:01 exactly where the deal works, but we've 6:03 had conversations with the broker or the 6:06 owner and we believe we know what it is 6:08 they want. So, we have mapped this out. 6:11 I need to have a deal that cash flows 6:12 day one that I can hold forever so my 6:14 income goes up for life. They need and I 6:16 fill in the blank for all the things 6:17 they need. Wherever that intersects, 6:20 that is where we write our offer. We 6:23 have cash flow for life. 6:26 They have the combination of their 6:29 price, their terms, their goals all met. 6:32 People will accept it if you nail the 6:34 offer. So when do you write the offer? 6:37 When I am 50% sure or more that they 6:40 will accept the offer in front of them. 6:42 I do this two, three, four times a 6:44 month. But in a six-month period, if 6:47 you've written 20 offers where you truly 6:50 believe that you have a 50% chance or 6:52 higher of getting the deal, and that is 6:55 not hard to do. I mean, this is like 6:57 basic basic the bare minimum. 7:00 20 offers with a 50% chance. It is 7:03 almost statistically impossible to not 7:05 go under contract for a deal. Now, you 7:07 go through due diligence. You if you 7:10 have a great deal, the money will be 7:11 easy. Don't I? And you may be watching 7:13 this video being like, "Okay, so I can 7:15 do all of this. I can go under contract. 7:16 How do I close the deal?" You have a 7:17 great deal. Trust me, the money will 7:19 come and we have a lot of videos on how 7:21 to do that. That's the easy part. 7:23 The hard part is having the opportunity. 7:26 If you have a deal that makes a lot of 7:28 money, there's no lack of people who 7:29 have capital who want to make money in 7:31 real estate. But you've just done the 7:33 hard part. You learned how to analyze a 7:36 deal and applied it. even though it only 7:37 takes a week and you have tools to do 7:39 this. A lot of people don't even do that 7:41 step. So, you have confidence in your 7:43 number. You've negotiated the deal. You 7:45 have identified what all parties want 7:47 and you've come up with a solution to 7:48 give everyone what they need. If you can 7:51 do this again and again, I'm serious. 20 7:54 offers with a 50% chance or higher of 7:57 being accepted every 6 months. 7:59 Statistically, you will do two, three, 8:01 four deals every single year, which is 8:03 exactly what I've done. It is relatively 8:05 low volume. It does not take a lot of 8:08 time. It is not all that hard. This is 8:10 how I got over 600 rental units. 8:14 I just opened up Abalene, Texas as a new 8:16 market. My first deal I ever bought 8:18 there was in December of 2025. So, as of 8:22 the filming of this video, it was just a 8:23 few months ago. 8:26 It's February. I'm already at 225 units 8:28 in this market. Multiple transactions. 8:30 How do we do it? Exactly like this. This 8:33 is the secret formula. It's not write a 8:35 million letters of intent. It's not just 8:37 ripping out LOIs or offers. It's not 8:39 calling a thousand brokers on a thousand 8:42 deals. 8:43 Know your numbers. Talk to brokers. 8:46 Offer where the deal makes sense and 8:48 identify what the seller wants. 8:51 Write something with the minimum amount 8:53 of creativity that gets you everything 8:54 you need and everything they want. 8:58 And they get your offer accepted when 9:01 you have a 50% chance or higher of 9:03 getting it accepted. It doesn't have to 9:04 be perfect, 9:06 but I think the people who are losing 9:08 right now in real estate are the people 9:10 who are just writing offers on 9:11 everything like, "Well, I know it 9:12 definitely works at this price. Let's 9:13 just lowball everything." Lowballing or 9:16 negotiating only on price every time is 9:18 not the method. Writing a million offers 9:21 is not helpful. Now, writing 20 solid 9:25 offers with a relationship with the 9:27 broker or owner and a clear 9:29 identification of what all party needs, 9:32 you're going to do way less work. and 9:33 close a lot more real estate. And I 9:35 promise that is true. I've done this 32 9:37 times in the last 5 years. And I have 9:40 students who've bought more rentals than 9:42 I have in less time because they applied 9:44 these exact same methods the exact same 9:46 way. So if you're looking for the secret 9:48 sauce, I don't believe there's any one 9:50 secret in real estate. But this one 9:52 feels like the secret to all real 9:54 estate. 9:56 two to four offers a month, 50% chance 9:59 higher of getting accepted. If you can 10:01 just get there, which I believe everyone 10:03 on planet Earth could do within a month 10:05 of studying real estate, you're going to 10:07 buy a ton of real estate. You can build 10:09 this business. You can get a lot farther 10:10 than I did a lot faster. Hope this 10:13 helps. Check out that free calculator on 10:15 our school community s k multifamily 10:19 strategy community and I will see you on 10:21 the next
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