Speaker A

Foreign.

Speaker B

You're listening to the Master Passive Income Podcast Network.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Hey guys, this is Charles Seaman here with Erica McNew and we're hosting the Master Passive Income Multifamily Podcast.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And today we're going to be talking about a very exciting topic, going to be talking about different strategies you can use in multifamily.

Speaker B

Welcome to the Master Passive Income Multifamily Podcast.

Speaker B

We guide you to invest in commercial real estate with a special focus on raising money from others to buy bigger and better deals.

Speaker B

And now, here are your hosts, Charles seaman and Erica McNew.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Erica, do you want to share the first strategy with the listeners?

Speaker A

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A

And thank you, Charles.

Speaker A

I think one of the first strategies, probably the most popular one I would say, is the buy and hold for cash flow, the multifamily.

Speaker A

Especially when you get into economies of scale, that cash flow, you know, gets juicier and juicier.

Speaker A

So I think that the strategy of purchasing for a long term hold can be great.

Speaker A

One of the other kind of things that you can stack onto that long term hold would be purchasing an opportunity zones.

Speaker A

Those are, you know, I think they're only lasting till about 2026, last time I checked.

Speaker A

And those allow for a really great opportunity for you to mitigate taxes with long term holds, especially when you're doing that long term hold for cash flow.

Speaker A

So I think that is one of the strategies.

Speaker A

Have you ever done that one, Charles?

Speaker A

What do you think about that one?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

You know, so it's a favorite strategy.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

I think nowadays people look at that and kind of say, oh, that's boring, but I'm going to make.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Real estate's supposed to be boring.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

You don't want it to have too much excitement because the more exciting it gets, the more money you risk.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And it's a very smart strategy if you have the capital to go in there and purchase multifamily and hold it for the long term.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

You know, I always say you'll never go broke by holding for the long term.

Speaker A

Absolutely.

Speaker A

It is, I guess the number one way to build wealth in real estate is to do so slow and steady.

Speaker A

And when you're purchasing multifamily for long term for the cash flow, it's definitely that slow and steady wealth building.

Speaker A

And you're right, it's, it helps, you know, mitigate a lot of risk because even the financing you're getting with that, with long term loans can help reduce that monthly debt service.

Speaker A

And so I agree it's one of, I think the less risky strategies and one of the Best, I think to build long term wealth.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yeah.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And you know, I think something else that's important.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

You know, one thing that people often talk about is market timing.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And they say, is it important or isn't it important?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

The answer is, I'm going to tell you it depends on your strategy.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So if you're a long term owner and your goal is to hold that property for 30, 40 years or maybe pass it on to the next generation, the market timing is probably not as important because you have a lot of time to, for lack of a better term, make up for any mistakes that happen by buying too high.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

As long as you, well, capitalize and you can maintain the property, you can hold it.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Generally, if you hold any property for 30 years or regardless of what type of property or what area it's in, it's probably going to be worth more than it was.

Speaker A

Yep, absolutely.

Speaker A

I think on average American real estate market appreciates about 4% year over year.

Speaker A

And that's on average.

Speaker A

Obviously with 2021, 2022, we saw something much different.

Speaker A

However, I think that that's another reason that like that long term strategy, being satisfied with the cash flow and kind of stacking properties that cash flow well, that are less risky is a really smart way of going about it.

Speaker A

You're going to have that appreciation over time.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yep.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So let's talk about another strategy, very popular one in the syndication space, but also with smaller property as well.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And that's called Value it.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So what is value it?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So value it's taking a property and typically that property's underperforming in some way and it's figuring out how to improve it.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So sometimes it could be operational, sometimes it could be through capital improvement, sometimes it could be a combination of both.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

What do you think of this strategy, Erica?

Speaker A

Yeah, a lot of my current investors are actually doing this one.

Speaker A

And I think that the key here is like, you really have to be careful in measuring the level of experience that you have in a particular category.

Speaker A

And if you don't have experience doing like construction, if you don't have the right team to do construction, I would highly recommend on this value add strategy that you look more at doing the operational efficiency side and kind of mitigate the amount of construction you're doing, especially on your first go round.

Speaker A

So those two different parts, the construction, value add and then the operational efficiencies, I think so many people underestimate what you can do value adding with operational efficiencies.

Speaker A

So I know that you're a big fan of that.

Speaker A

Too.

Speaker A

Charles, you know what?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

I am, I think definitely a lot of benefit to it.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

I would actually say in general, I prefer the operational side.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So, like, for me, if I'm going to go in there and do evaluate 95 times out of 100, I prefer a strong operational play versus a heavy capex lift.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Now, the challenge with that is sometimes it's harder to conceptualize because, like, for most people, it's easy for them to think, okay, I'm putting $5,000 into the unit.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

I'm going to increase rents, 100 bucks versus I'm going to go in here and do this differently than the prior ownership of the prior management and push rents.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And so from like a sales tactic of like putting in front of investors and getting equity interested, the capital improvement play is definitely the easier one.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But I'm going to make the counterargument and say that operational plays actually reduce the risk because by putting more capital improvement dollars to work, yes, there is a benefit to doing that, but sometimes you're wrong on the rent targets.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And you know, it's better to be wrong on the targets when you have less capital estate than when you have more because it takes the risk and it reduces it a bit.

Speaker A

I think that's something that's really good to point out, is that if you are doing that construction value add that you definitely want to be very strategic on the amount you're putting into that construction value add and making sure that it's going to yield the rents that you expect for it to increase.

Speaker A

I guess the point of both the value add strategies, operational and construction is to do those rent bumps and to utilize, you know, take advantage of any rent bumps that are available totally.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And keep in mind, even aside from rent comps, also underlying market conditions.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So there's a lot of syndicators who bought properties in 2021 and 2022, and they made what seemed to be reasonable assumptions at the time.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But then when you kind of look at the bigger economic picture, certain things change.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And the comps that existed at those times may not necessarily be good comps or six or 12 months later, which many of us, myself included, probably found.

Speaker A

Out, I think in that, again, going back to that millionaire real estate investor book.

Speaker A

I love that so much, such a guide and a manual.

Speaker A

And it's really.

Speaker A

It drills in so much about your work team and knowing that you have like the right work team, you have a broker that can pull comps for you, that's boots on the ground.

Speaker A

You have a property manager that can give you Realistic numbers of what can be rented for currently and what are the rent bumps available after construction and value add.

Speaker A

So I think like your work team and then having the right contractor, I think that becomes extremely critical if you're interested in doing a that construction value out.

Speaker A

Especially because like you're saying you don't want to overestimate the rents.

Speaker A

Now you've put all this money into it and it's not going to yield the return you thought.

Speaker A

So I think your work team is.

Speaker A

It becomes more and more critical as you get into this type of strategy especially.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Right.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Well, let's talk about another strategy and kind of a play on the value, but maybe a specific type and it's called the Burr strategy, which many of you probably heard of.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

I believe that's a term that Biggerpockets coined once upon a time.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And for everybody unfamiliar with that, it's buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So who might that strategy work forever?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Who's that a good fit for and what do you find with that strategy?

Speaker A

I actually, I love this strategy.

Speaker A

I think that a lot of people think that you're going to do this on single family and I don't think they realize you could do this on multifamily too.

Speaker A

And so I really love this one because you're going in.

Speaker A

You know, again, my suggestion would be to do the operational efficiency side of the value add.

Speaker A

And you go in, you increase the rents.

Speaker A

You have to wait a certain time period depending on your financing, whether it be six months or a year, to be able to get your money back out.

Speaker A

But what happens when you get the money back out?

Speaker A

You cash out refi after increasing the value of the asset is your cash on cash return now skyrockets.

Speaker A

And I think that some of those key metrics are what allow you to scale so much quicker.

Speaker A

So I really love the brrrr method.

Speaker A

I'm a huge fan of this one.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So I think most of my single family investing friends would agree with that.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

I know for many of them it's their favorite strategy and kind of they go through play over and over again.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But the Erica's point, something a lot of people don't think about with multifamily.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Now, it's probably not going to happen as much with 100 unit property.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

I mean theoretically it could, but it's less likely.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But if you're buying small multifamily, you know, a duplex, a fourplex, an aplex, there's a lot of people who use this strategy very effectively and it's a way to do it without having, you know, a gazillion partners in the deal.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So that way you actually keep more of the properties and you're getting more of the benefit once the properties are stabilized that people like using.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And most of them do it again and again and again.

Speaker A

Yep.

Speaker A

And just like you said, I think something to note on this too is that like, this is a very strategic play that is being set up to happen within a certain time frame.

Speaker A

So like if you're trying to do it with a hundred doors, that's a hundred tenants that you're trying to do this, you know, this strategy with.

Speaker A

That's not, I don't think the play here with the brrrr method.

Speaker A

I think doing it on the smaller multifamily is really key because it allows you to kind of consolidate your resources and hit those time frames of when you cash back out versus, you know, a hundred tenants, that's 100 leases that you're trying to do operational efficiencies with.

Speaker A

So I think this is a really great method, especially for those like two to four units.

Speaker A

I really, really love this for the small multifamily.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Oh, totally.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And most of the people I know do it is usually they're using a private lender.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

I mean, do you find that too, Erica, that most people, you know, is that usually the strategy?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Because usually conventional financing is the exit play when you kind of rehabbing the property and getting the money out.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But most people are using private money just to close it faster and be able to get going and hit the ground running as soon as they get in there.

Speaker A

Yeah, that's exactly what I find too, Charles and I, I think even a lot of my investors will even like look at doing hard money lending for this.

Speaker A

And I think some, so many people hear hard money lending, it's like, ooh, scary.

Speaker A

But it's just you're, you know, you have a certain interest rate, you know what your timeframes are and you're just, you're making sure your cash flow equations are still going to, you know, match what you need from the property and your strategy.

Speaker A

So I, you know, definitely more private money lending.

Speaker A

Hard money lending I see used with this especially my investors are doing on single family.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Well, let's talk about another strategy.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And this next one I think is going to be really popular for anybody who's brand new, especially if it's something that you don't mind putting maybe a little sweat equity in and getting something that's going to boost your net worth and hopefully boost your income and take a major expense with your plate.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And that's house hacking.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So this is another term that's really become very popular in the last decade.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And for anybody unfamiliar with that, what you're doing is you're buying a property and you're living in one unit and renting out the others.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So now there are times where people house hack actually even in the same unit, maybe you buy a single family home or you buy a condo and you're renting by the room.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Now that really takes a special type of person.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

I mean, for me personally, it probably isn't my cup of tea, but if you have the space and you have the willingness to do it, you can do it that way too.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But the way people use is they're buying a duplex or a triplex, maybe a four plex.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

They're putting, you know, it's a residential property at that point for lending purposes.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So you're putting a long term loan on it most times.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And what's happening is that, you know, for many of us, you know, for somebody who's in that average person demographic, what you're finding is that housing is usually one of your biggest costs.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And by house hacking, the benefit to that is, let's say even if you have a duplex, you're living in one unit and you have somebody else paying rent for the other one.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So it's paying at least part of that mortgage, so you don't have to come out of pocket.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Now if you have a fourplex, there's a good chance you're not coming out of pocket at all for the mortgage.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And then you're kind of living for free.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So you get all that money you would have spent on housing back and you can use that for other things, whether it be your next investment or some other area in life that you want to spend it on.

Speaker A

Yeah, good stuff.

Speaker A

That's absolutely.

Speaker A

I love it.

Speaker A

And like you said, the house hacking, it's like two different ways of doing it, right?

Speaker A

You have the two to four units and that way you're typically, you can even do an fha.

Speaker A

I was looking at three and a half percent down FHA loan for a four unit.

Speaker A

And one of the keys to that is you do have to have, well, according to my lender, when I was looking into it, you have to have six months of cash reserves for each unit because they don't want you to just get in and, you know, start making cash flow and be a landlord and not have the cash reserves you need.

Speaker A

If anything were to go wrong, especially with an FHA loan.

Speaker A

So that's one of the caveats.

Speaker A

But I really like that one a lot because, like you said, like, it's just a duplex.

Speaker A

Like, they could be covering half your mortgage by the time you get to a four unit.

Speaker A

Like, you're living for free.

Speaker A

And then you literally just live in it for a year and cash out, refi.

Speaker A

Move on to the next one.

Speaker A

So you can even do the burst strategy with house hacking the other one, the room rent market.

Speaker A

So room renting is super popular in Charlotte just because of how many people are moving here a day.

Speaker A

I will say, like my investors that look for those houses that could fit for room renting, it's very strategic based on the floor plan.

Speaker A

Right.

Speaker A

And you have to make sure that you have like, the bathrooms that would be needed.

Speaker A

And so like, the floor plan becomes really important of the home.

Speaker A

And also, like, it's.

Speaker A

It becomes even more critical that you're actually qualifying tenants.

Speaker A

And he's like one of my investors that does this one a lot with several properties.

Speaker A

He's always like kind of matchmaking, like this person will fit into this community that I've created in this one house because you have to make sure like, that they're going to get along, you know, so there's this extra element of vetting the tenant and making sure that you know that you mitigate risk when you're doing house tacking with the room renting.

Speaker A

So I like the two to four unit strategy more, but definitely both of those can be really great strategies to scale.

Speaker A

Scale much quicker.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yes.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

You know, that definitely takes the right personality.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And if you're, if you're married, you probably want to check me spouse, make sure they're comfortable today as well.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But you're very effective strategy if you're just starting out and, and to really help you get control of your cash flow and get control of your wealth building.

Speaker A

Yeah, I will say one of my investors, the house hacking, like the room renting a property in Gastonia that she was doing, she actually received a letter from the city or from the county that said that they don't allow house hacking with room rentals.

Speaker A

So you can't have more than three people that are renting a room in any particular home in that county.

Speaker A

So I will say on that one, you definitely want to check with your local municipality and ensure that that strategy is going to be something you're not going to run into problems with.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yes, 100%, I agree with you on that.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Okay, so Then we have another one.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

This is probably a less common one, but you will see it in some properties is using them as short term rentals or corporate housing.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So what's the benefit for this?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Well, as many of us know who have been following the short term rental market, and probably the few of us who have been following corporate housing over the last couple of years, is that you generally get higher rates for those than you are going to get for a long term rental.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Now, obviously there is some more, some more care involved with the short term rental.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Once you get into that, it's almost more a hospitality business than it is real estate because there's a lot of moving parts.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

You have to make sure the units are ready and they're presentable and they're properly furnished and they're, they're marketed correctly.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So that way you can get that premium.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And same thing with corporate housing, with the main difference being that with corporate housing, instead of renting to somebody on Airbnb or Verbo, a lot of times you're seeking a corporate client that may have people coming into and out of an area on a regular basis.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So a lot of large companies do corporate housing, you know, companies like Microsoft, companies like a lot of healthcare companies, because they're cycling people in and out of areas on a regular basis.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So instead of putting them up in a hotel, it becomes cheaper to rent a couple of apartments and keep them furnished all times and be able to have somewhere for people to stay that actually becomes more cost efficient.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Now, one thing that's really important with this strategy is you have to make sure your loan agreement allows you to do that.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Some do and some don't.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And they may have restrictions on how many units you can apply it to.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So just be careful that you don't violate anything that can get you in trouble.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So make sure you understand the financing and the terms of any agreements that you sign.

Speaker A

What a good point that is.

Speaker A

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A

I do know that with corporate housing, short term rentals, especially when you're doing it on multifamily, it is phenomenal how it can increase your bottom line profit.

Speaker A

But like you said, especially short term rental, you're getting into the hospitality industry and it's some heavy load on operations.

Speaker A

So definitely it can be a great strategy to add in and duly noted on the lending.

Speaker A

That's a really good point.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yeah, but definitely a way to increase income and certainly something that's become more popular and especially if you have a desirable area that people want a vacation in, you know, the people with properties in areas like Myrtle beach or any of those beachfront areas.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And that's probably a great spot.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

A lot of the mountain areas, especially as you kind of get into the holidays, it gets a little bit cooler.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

People like spending the holidays in the mountains.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So those become destination spots.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And sometimes you can find extra revenue by using some of those units in that manner.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yeah.

Speaker A

And then adding the furnishings.

Speaker A

I guess there, there are companies that will allow you to actually lease the furniture and like just bake it into the cash flow equation or buy the furniture outright.

Speaker A

But actually having it furnished for the short term and the corporate housing I think is something just to note.

Speaker A

That is, while it does increase your cash flow as far as what you're bringing in, that's where that operational expense comes in as well.

Speaker A

Because you do have to typically have them furnished.

Speaker A

So just something to consider.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Well, the next one we have and it's going to be combination syndication and joint venture.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So syndication typically is going to be for a larger deal and there's no specific size.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But like for me, I would usually recommend people use them for deals that are $2 million and above.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

It's smaller than that.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

It's probably more of a hassle than it's worth.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And a joint venture can really be used for any deal.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So it can be used for a single family home all the way up to a 10,000 unit apartment complex.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But most likely you're probably not going to see it used as commonly for a very large deal because the JV strategy is based on usually one partner or multiple partners putting up the money and one or more putting in the sweat equity.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But usually it's a small group, two to four partners.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So for most people, they're probably not going to have enough capital to go out there and buy a the 500 unit apartment complexes at JV.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Some will.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Depends how good your connections are.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Mine aren't that good yet.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But if you have connections that have that type of money, then sure.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But most people use that for smaller multifamily.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So you might see it anywhere from like a duplex up to maybe a 50 unit deal on a typical case.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Unless you happen to have really good connections with very deep pockets and then syndications usually for deals larger than that many times.

Speaker A

Yep.

Speaker A

One of my partners is actually doing both of these right now.

Speaker A

Syndicating on the larger multifamily.

Speaker A

Here's our disclaimer.

Speaker A

Make sure you have a really good SEC attorney.

Speaker A

If you're going to be taking money from people and raising capital, it's really important that you know what you're doing and that you are abiding by all regulation for that.

Speaker A

And then he's doing a JV on purchasing a Gold's Gym right now.

Speaker A

So there's only going to be, I think, four of them in that JV partnership.

Speaker A

But it's a very neat, it's very neat to see like that.

Speaker A

It's almost like you said, if you're doing it less than 2 million, it kind of doesn't make sense to have to pay that amount for the student syndication paperwork.

Speaker A

Even.

Speaker A

So, like putting together the syndication, you know, it costs money.

Speaker A

The, the legalities of putting the paperwork together.

Speaker A

So it's just something to consider.

Speaker A

If it's a deal that's a little bit smaller, maybe a JV actually makes more sense for that kind of deal, especially if it's something raised from, you know, from people you already know.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And for somebody who's taken from somebody who's syndicated many deals, syndications can be a pain in the butt.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Sometimes there are benefits to them, but there's a lot.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

There's typically a lot of partners involved.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So if you can have a scenario that affords you the option of doing a jv, you know, you have a lot less partners, which means a lot less opinion.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So sometimes that can be a good thing.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So keep that in mind.

Speaker A

Yep, absolutely.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Okay, so another one we'll talk about.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And this could also apply to single family, but specifically here for multifamily and commercial assets.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And truthfully, almost my exclusive focus at this point, distressed properties.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So right now, as we record this, It's November of 2024, there's a lot of different opinions about where the, the market is and where it's heading.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Some good, some bad, some ugly.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And any of those scenarios are going to have at least a couple of distress deals, because even in the best of conditions, there's always going to be some deals that don't quite go as expected.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So, Erica, what is a distressed deal?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Why don't we start with that so people understand?

Speaker A

Yeah, so, and I think this is twofold.

Speaker A

I think that you have distressed sellers who are just personally in a financial position where they need to pull the money out and the timing didn't align like they thought it would for them.

Speaker A

And then you have like, actual distressed properties that are dilapidated, you know, needing a lot of repair.

Speaker A

And so for me, right now, I have a listing that she's five months behind on the mortgage.

Speaker A

We stopped the foreclosure, and we're actually going into short sale status.

Speaker A

So like, it's, we've stacked some distress things on that one.

Speaker A

So I think that you'll find, like typically distressed situations happen from the four Ds as we call it in real estate investing, death, drugs, divorce and debt.

Speaker A

And those situations happen no matter what the economy is doing.

Speaker A

So I think it's really important to note those opportunities are always available.

Speaker A

In certain economic shifts, they become more available than in others.

Speaker A

So right now I'm seeing not short sailing yet, but I am seeing several, like pre foreclosures that are popping up.

Speaker A

So been reaching out to those people, seeing how I can help them.

Speaker A

And then the distressed property, you know, like if you see, last year I wholesaled my first property, made $60,000 off of it.

Speaker A

It was a property that was on my street.

Speaker A

I just noticed that the grass was overgrown, the mail was overflowing out of the mailbox, and the property looked like it was kind of falling apart.

Speaker A

And so I got the contact information for that person from the neighbor and ended up closing that within a month.

Speaker A

So dilapidated properties, you'll see those often as you're driving by.

Speaker A

Definitely make note of those addresses, skip trace, get owner information or talk to neighbors.

Speaker A

And then right now I'm forming relationships with the, you know, the bank managers, especially a small community banks, starting those relationships, making sure they know like I'm, I'm well versed in helping these people.

Speaker A

And please let me know anything that, you know, comes through the pipeline.

Speaker A

So I think right now is a really good time to position ourselves to help a lot of people that are in distressed situations.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yep.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And keep in mind on the buy side, the benefit to the stress is that often times you're getting it at a very favorable price.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

You know, for me, I always say the best defense with any property is buying it at a good cost basis.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Because when you can lower the amount of risk you have going in, I don't want to say that you buy yourself the ability to make some mistakes, but the reality is in any deal, it's always going to be things that don't go quite according to plan.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So by having that lower basis, it gives you more downside protection.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So that way you're something doesn't go 100% according to plan, you know, you still have some room there and the deal can still perform.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Want to make a lot of money for everybody on the back end.

Speaker A

I agree.

Speaker A

That's the number one thing, right?

Speaker A

Buy it.

Speaker A

Right.

Speaker A

If you buy it right, you are mitigating so much of your risk buying it.

Speaker A

Right.

Speaker A

And Then also like buying something if it's multifamily that has that rent bump available per door.

Speaker A

Those seem to be the two metrics that I find that are like the best way to mitigate your risk going in.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yep.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Okay, so the next thing we have and, and this is probably a more advanced and probably the most advanced strategy I would say on this list list that we're giving you, but, but nonetheless a very lucrative one if you do it right is development or redevelopment.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So what are you doing there?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

You're taking land, you're taking an existing building and you're developing or redeveloping the property.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So right now, you know, we have a lot of properties in our country and, and in many areas that are no longer functional with the purpose they were initially built for.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And you know, I guess that's become kind of a talking point through many areas.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Right.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

What do we do with these properties?

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So for those who are very bold and they're well capitalized and they have the expertise, they're going to go out there and take these properties and they're going to redevelop them to something that's more useful for the current time.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

A common talk, although this one's probably going to be a lot harder to execute than many people are thinking, is some of these office buildings in urban areas that are no longer desirable may be trying to find a way to convert them to some type of housing.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And you know, believe it or not, there are certain property types that do convert a lot easier than others.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Office and multifamily isn't quite so cut and dry because the, the layouts are so different that you'd almost have to redesign significant portions of the buildings.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But for those who come up with creative solutions, there's going to be opportunities there.

Speaker A

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A

I actually have a property right now that's a 20 unit that my investor is underwriting.

Speaker A

And based on the location I told him like one of the strategies for this one is actually that the property currently stands as it sits, is probably like a, like a class C plus, like B, B asset.

Speaker A

However, it's in a location that with a, you know, like a five year hold, really like ten year hold, it makes sense.

Speaker A

After you have depreciated the asset, you've gotten your cash flow out, you value added, you did all these things, it actually makes sense to tear it down and build a class A asset on that land because that land is going to appreciate so much.

Speaker A

So I thought it was really interesting that one of the, some of these opportunities Are like currently multifamily is sitting there, but it's older, it's like 1960s, 1970s.

Speaker A

And after a certain amount of time with the land value, it will begin to make sense to actually tear it down and just build class A multifamily again.

Speaker A

So that's something that's unique.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But one thing that's also really important to consider is that with development anyway, I don't know so much redevelopment, but development for sure.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Many cities and counties offer tax benefits because they want to encourage people to go in there and build.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

They need housing, they need different types of properties.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And for somebody who's going to go out there and take that risk at that time, there can be good tax incentives.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Many counties and cities offer benefits on the property tax side.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Some also offer income tax.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So those can be benefits that people like and they utilize and they really juice the returns.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Because many times as real estate investors, I know myself as a syndicator.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So for development there's definitely many tax incentives that can also be a lesson that a lot of people like to use.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Because as real estate investors, many times we look at returns and we really stop at the pre tax level.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And the reason we do that is because it's simpler.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And many of us, you know, we're not accountants, we don't have the tax expertise to know what it looks like post tax.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

But the returns we really should be interested in are the post tax returns.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And that's where strategies like development really come in handy.

Speaker A

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A

And I will say on this one, it's, it's really important.

Speaker A

It's not what you know, it's who you know and making sure to be involved with your local municipality.

Speaker A

Like I just signed up for chamber of commerce.

Speaker A

I think it's really important that you know who is the city council members, are they friendly to development or not?

Speaker A

Are you going to have some pushback from the local community?

Speaker A

Being very involved with your local politics and understanding, you know, who is in the planning department that you need to know, who's the city manager, who's the city council members.

Speaker A

I think that's also.

Speaker A

It plays a large part in making the development process a lot more smooth for you.

Speaker A

So those relationships, getting into those relationships sooner rather than later, development is something you want to do long term.

Speaker A

I think it's really critical.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yep.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And then the last strategy we're going to talk about today is affordable housing.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So in today's market and today's world, affordable housing has certainly become a hot button issue.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And you can probably Hear that issue in every city and every county in America.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Long story short, there's not enough of it in most cases.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So there's opportunities there because the government wants to work with people who are willing to provide this type of housing.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Being that there's such strong demand for it.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And affordable housing can take many different forms.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Sometimes it can just be a conventional property that you choose to accept Section 8 tenants.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And Section 8 in many areas, it's a government run program.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

There's no restriction on the property itself.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So you can choose to rent to a market rate tenant or to an affordable one.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

And what happens is the tenant receives a voucher from the local government that basically pays all or a portion of their housing corporation.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Another piece is lihtag Low Income Housing Tax Credit.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So when you get into that, that's actually going to have a restriction on the property.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

It has a covenant called a Laura L U R A and that restricts who can rent certain units of the property.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

So that will have a longer term impact on the property, but there can be income tax benefits from that and there can also be other opportunities to benefit from it.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

What are your thoughts on affordable housing, Erica?

Speaker A

So I had actually done, there was an off market 32 unit and the IT was a new construction, so it was at, you know, 0% occupancy.

Speaker A

One of the partners had actually backed out and they were up against a financing deadline.

Speaker A

And I was underwriting it with one of my investors.

Speaker A

And through my underwriting process I realized that it was one of the few in that area that were that small as far as like the unit count.

Speaker A

And the only other comparable property that also lacked the amenities was a smaller unit count, was subsidized housing.

Speaker A

And what I had found through that underwriting process is it seemed like they actually were netting a higher lease rate on that type of property that didn't have the amenities and was a smaller unit count with subsidized housing than they could have otherwise.

Speaker A

And so one of the key factors of that though was making sure to connect that investor with my property manager that specializes with subsidized housing so that he could give him all of the real information that he was going to need on what the operational side will actually look look like for that and just some tidbits on how to manage it and, and helped him kind of sort through.

Speaker A

Is that something that he even wants to do?

Speaker A

Right, because it's how much money are you making?

Speaker A

But what is the decibel volume of noise that it requires to make that amount of money.

Speaker A

So with subsidized housing like Section eight, you're going through annual inspections on the property.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Right.

Speaker A

You probably don't want to do that with a property that's going to require a significant amount of capex, or you're going to just continuously run into issues.

Speaker A

So really, again, understanding the ins and outs of it by making sure you have the right work network in your connecting with people that can kind of guide you on that process, I think is critical.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Yes, definitely is.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Well, guys, we want to thank everybody for tuning in and listening to this episode of the Master Passive Income Multifamily Podcast.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

We hope that you learn something new and that you go out and apply these strategies.

Charles Seaman / Erica McNew (Speaker C)

Till next time.

Speaker A

Thanks, guys.