A complete guide to Season Two of the Multifamily Mentors Show on Bigger Pockets.
Episode One: Two College Dropouts & Their $4.7M Multifamily Syndication Deal
Multifamily syndication is thought to be a more closed-off part of real estate investing. You need connections in high places, partners with millions of dollars ready to invest, and a team of employees working behind you to find deals. These so-called “requirements” of multifamily syndicating weren’t necessary for two college dropouts, Van Hagye and Kyle Marcolette.
\You might recognize Van and Kyle from our interview with them on the last season of The Multifamily Mentor Show. Now, they’re back to talk through the progress they’ve made since their prior appearance. Both Van and Kyle have been working hard to expand Zion Capital, and have closed on two deals since. Van and Kyle walk through the acquisition of their first deal, a 42-unit, $4.7M property that they just nearly closed thanks to some quick thinking and a strong investor relationship.
Episode Two: Pitching Private Equity Investors on a $4M Deal
Private equity investors are the lifeblood of many real estate syndications. The money they provide can either make or break your deal, and the relationships you form with them will send ripples throughout the real estate investing community. If you can pitch a property well enough, investors will fund your deal, making it absolutely crucial that you know exactly what to say when it comes time to pitch.
Van Hagye and Kyle Marcolette are back to pitch two private equity investors on a $4M deal. They walk through the type of leverage and real estate debt they’re using, yields that investors can expect, how they will handle supply-chain issues, and whether or not they have the experience to take down a deal like this. Van and Kyle are also in a particularly interesting position, as syndicators in their twenties, they need to push their experience due to the impression that youth could be confused for a lack of real estate knowledge.
Episode Three: 100+ Units at 25 and How to Find a Mentor in Multifamily
If you want to find a mentor in multifamily, you don’t start mass messaging investors over Instagram. To find a truly great mentor, you need to ask truly great questions. If an experienced investor sees that you’re thinking outside the box and that you have grit, determination, and a vision, they may just let you into their close-knit circle.
Alessandra Thompson met her mentor when all the real estate meetups and conferences were shut down. Through the Clubhouse app, Alessandra was able to listen in on leaders in their field talk about raising capital, multifamily syndications, apartment investing, and more. When her mentor, Pili Yarusi, a past guest on the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, invited her out to Nashville to meet, Alessandra couldn’t say no.
Now, at only twenty-five years old, Alessandra is close to closing on her second deal, bringing her unit count to over one hundred units. She is the perfect example of what can happen when you give something your all and follow through. If she can do all this in under a year, what can you do?
Episode Four: Multifamily Underwriting in 7 Steps
Multifamily underwriting is an absolutely crucial skill if you’re trying to build a large real estate portfolio. At first glance, underwriting a multifamily deal can seem complicated, with so many moving parts in the mix. Thankfully, with some practice and advice from mentors, you can become an expert in multifamily and find the gems that other investors are missing.
Alessandra Thompson joins us again this week to discuss the seven steps she takes to underwrite a multifamily property. If you own single-family rentals, you may see some similar steps used. While there are some very similar steps, it’s important to note that multifamily properties take a bit more effort to underwrite, since accuracy is crucial to forecasting rents, appreciation, and the ability to refinance in the future.
Episode Five: Tax-Free Millions w/ Cost Segregation Study Expert Yonah Weiss
A cost segregation study is rarely talked about in residential real estate. If you’re not a big player in the commercial real estate game, you won’t be able to capitalize on the massive benefits of things like cost segregation. Thankfully, you’re here watching the multifamily mentors show, so you already may be sitting on tax-free millions in the making!
Our guest today is the Cost Segregation King, Yonah Weiss. Yonah specializes in building this expedited deduction for his clients so they can outright avoid paying income tax or even walk away with hundreds of thousands in the form of tax refunds. And yes, this is completely legal and is heavily used by titans in the industry.
Yonah helps his clients save MILLIONS of dollars on their income taxes thanks to the not-often-talked-about cost segregation study. If you’re looking into multifamily investing or commercial real estate investing as a whole, this is a write-off you do not want to miss!
Episode Six: Cost Segregation Walkthrough on a 276-Unit
Last week, we interviewed cost segregation study king, Yonah Weiss from Madison Specs. Yonah walked us through the massive tax savings behind cost segregation studies and why every commercial and large multifamily investor should take advantage of them. Now, he’s literally walking us through the cost segregation details on Terrance’s new 276-unit apartment complex in Arvada, Colorado.
Yonah helps detail which parts of the property will be depreciated on a five-year, fifteen-year, and twenty-seven and a half-year timeline. This allows new owners to come into a newly purchased property and immediately pull apart the most tax savings possible, even if they’ve bought none of the furniture, appliances, or upgrades themselves.
Yonah also walks through bonus depreciation and why you should take advantage of it now. You don’t need to have a 276-unit building to save huge amounts on taxes, you just need a great tax segregation expert like Yonah at your side!
Episode Seven: The Perfect Multifamily BRRRR
The perfect multifamily BRRRR deal is hard to come by, which is why it’s so surprising that Kimberly Marie from Red Door Renovation was able to land it as her first multifamily deal. Kimberly didn’t have much multifamily experience and had only dealt with residential flips and single-family rentals. She realized that she was putting in far too much effort to get such little cash flow, hence the move to multifamily.
So how does a newbie like Kimberly get a deal with such a big upside? Well, she credits her success to real estate education, constant networking, and having the follow-through to show brokers you mean business. She was consistently getting sent multifamily deals by her broker that other brokers would send days later.
If you’re in multifamily investing, you know how important it is to have an ultra-fast lead funnel. If you’re thinking of making the move from residential real estate to multifamily, commercial, and beyond, take Kimberly’s advice and get out there, get talking, and get a deal!
Episode Eight: The Easiest Way to Find Areas Worth Investing In
If you’re doing real estate market analysis, you’re probably staring at a map or a bunch of numbers on a spreadsheet. While it is crucial to get your numbers accurate when investing in real estate, it may be arguably more important to see a property in the flesh (or bricks) before pulling the trigger on a deal. This is exactly what Kimberly Marie, multifamily investor, does every time she is looking at real estate deals.
Today, Terrance and Chris walk with Kimberly through the Cherry Creek area of Denver, Colorado. This could be described as an A-class neighborhood and would make for a stable, low headache, but low cap rate multifamily investment. Kimberly details the exact classifications that set apart a great neighborhood from a neighborhood that’s just okay. Her analysis may help you find your next multifamily diamond in the rough!
Do you walk the neighborhoods where you’re investing? If you’re an out-of-state investor, how do you ensure a property is in a great area?
Episode Nine: Structuring a $13M+ Real Estate Syndication Deal at Age 20
Real estate syndication is a more advanced form of investing, especially if you’re the integrator of the deal and not the investor. As Tomás Cardenas touched down in Las Vegas to view a potential $13M deal, he saw what every investor wants to see: cracked sidewalks, low rents, and value-add galore.
As the director of development at Team Kekoa, Tomás’ days are dedicated to building the systems that allow his team to find, fund, purchase, and renovate deals. In fact, the majority of his time on this $13M, 150+ unit deal was spent purely on the spreadsheet side, fine-tuning the rent rolls, T12s, and expenses reports as best he could.
So how does a 20-year-old find himself in this position? Or for that matter, how does any aspiring real estate investor put themselves in the position to tackle huge deals? Well, one piece of advice Tomás preaches: go slow, go steady, and provide value!
Episode Ten: How to Find a Mentor That Will Change Your Life
Episode Eleven:Wondering how to find a mentor? If so, you probably already know that spamming someone’s direct messages or sending fruit baskets to their home isn’t the best way to get mentorship. Smart entrepreneurs, investors, and BiggerPockets viewers know that finding a mentor isn’t done by chance, but by design.
Last week we talked to Tomás Cardenas from Team Kekoa, where he mentioned his mentor, boss, friend, and investing partner Kekoa Lwin. Today, you’ll learn exactly how Tomás used a three-step approach to earn Kekoa’s trust and make his way onto his team. These steps aren’t groundbreaking, and they’re simple enough for anyone to use in any industry, not just real estate!
Kekoa even stops by to give his own personal advice on how to approach a mentor and how mentors can truly give back to a mentee. If you’re looking for a mentor, comment below what type of mentor you’re looking for and what value you can add.
Episode Eleven: From 3 Units to 300 Using This Simple Off-Market Strategy
Off-market deals tend to be the best in the business. More often than not, mom-and-pop multifamily owners have properties sitting with low rents, deferred maintenance, and outdated marketing, waiting for an investor just like you, or in this case, Axel Ragnarsson to come in. Axel got his start in multifamily real estate investing when he was a junior in college, scoring an under-market triplex with the help of private money.
While that triplex never did turn a profit, it gave Axel the education and confidence to do it again. His small deals snowballed into larger deals, and now he’s sitting on three hundred units worth of multifamily with over $37M in valuations. Most of the deals were done off-market, meaning Axel had to direct mail, cold call, and cold email owners within his area.
One of these methods boasted a surprisingly high response rate, allowing him to lock up the initial deals that would help boost his image and credibility. Axel touches on getting into commercial real estate, funding deals when you’re not able to finance them yourself, how to find off-market deals, and the importance of finding a great mentor.
Episode Twelve: 3 Genius Multifamily Financing Strategies for ANY Size Deal
Multifamily financing isn’t as scary as it seems, even when it comes to big deals. The bigger the deal, the more money you can raise, and sometimes that means that you, as the investor, get to keep more money in your pocket. But maybe you have a great deal on the line that you just don’t have enough cash to acquire. Do you give up the deal or start to get creative?
Axel Ragnarsson isn’t one to let go of phenomenal deals, especially when he’s put so much work into getting them under contract. In our first episode with Axel, he spoke about getting off-market deals thanks to some simple cold calls, emails, and direct mail. Now, once he has the terms agreed to by a buyer, he needs to put together the financing to close. This is where some of his genius creative financing strategies come into play.
Whether you’re looking at a three-unit or three hundred-unit multifamily property, these tips from Axel could help you acquire the asset of your dream, all while making your investors happy!
Episode Thirteen: Zero Experience to $500M in Commercial Real Estate in 4 Years
Commercial real estate always seems like an invite-only club. Those who make it big in real estate syndications, capital raising, and deal-finding always seem to have a mentor or friend who helped them get their start. With so many moving pieces, it makes sense that someone would need a strong foundation before even trying to get started in commercial real estate. But, this isn’t true for Esti Lowenbein.
Esti didn’t have a family member or friend who was investing in big deals. She was a speech pathologist who was busy raising eight children. When she moved from Brooklyn, New York to Rockland County, New York, she felt that she needed a change. Funnily enough, Esti couldn’t explain what a mortgage was at the time but found herself on the residential side of being a real estate agent.
She didn’t love being a “marriage counselor” and preferred the definitive rules that came with commercial real estate. After successfully buying and selling deals for investors, she was asked to connect one client with an equity partner, and without knowing what to do, she did it. Now, only a few years later, she’s raised more than $50M for real estate deals and has done $500M in transactions. Not bad for a former rookie!
Episode Fourteen: How to Get In On Multi-Million Dollar Real Estate Deals
Real estate deals come in all shapes and sizes. To one investor, a $100,000 deal may be huge, but to another, that’s chump change. What almost all real estate investors want is a bigger piece of a bigger deal. But how do you get in on the under-the-table, multi-million dollar real estate investments? We’re talking about large apartment complexes, self-storage facilities, downtown parking lots, and other cash-flowing assets you dream of.
Can an average investor even get in on these deals? Well, for a second time, we have Esti Reizes-Lowenbein on the show, who only a short time ago was a brand new face in the world of real estate investing. Esti took charge of her real estate career going from agent, to broker, to capital connector and private equity raiser, with over $500M in transactions and $50M raised!
Esti knows what it’s like to be on the outside looking in when it comes to unbelievable deals. She lists out some of her top tips and steps to get into big deals, whether as a general partner, limited partner, key principal, or capital raiser. No matter what stage you’re at, if you’re willing to put in the work, you’re bound to get into a great deal!
Episode Fifteen: Giving Up Flipping to Build a 1,000+ Unit Multifamily Empire
Why do house flippers transition to multifamily? Or for that matter, why does any wholesaler, flipper, rehabber, or any other real estate professional start buying their own deals? Two words: cash flow. While home flipping is a great way to make one-time profits, it’s not a scalable way to build passive income and grow your net worth. Many flippers wake up one day to find they have had hundreds of successful flips, without a lot to show for it.
That’s how Multifamily Mentor host and today’s guest, Terrance Doyle, felt after completing over 600 flips. Terrance was newly engaged and was looking to start a family, but knew he couldn’t keep chasing one-time transactions all his life. So he put his main income source, flipping, on hold so he could learn everything possible about multifamily investing.
Now only five years later, Terrance is a leader in the Denver and Des Moines multifamily space. He’s quickly scaled up from a four-person team to a thirty-five-person team. Terrance talks about how this scalability is what truly lead him to become successful in multifamily, and why you need a rock-solid culture if you’re going to beat the competition in value-add investing.
Episode Sixteen: The 3 Phases of Value Add Real Estate Investing
Value-add real estate investing can mean a lot of different things depending on who you ask. For a single-family rental investor, value-add can simply mean updating the kitchen and bathroom. For a self-storage investor, value-add can mean automating and systematizing their facility. And for multifamily real estate investors, value-add can mean an entire remodel on dozens of units, at the same time, in the same place.The benefit? Multifamily investors can capitalize on renting out units while in the middle of renovations on other parts of the building. This allows them to keep cash flow coming in while immediately deploying it into the same investment. And we haven’t even talked about the millions of dollars worth of equity through rent increases that value-add can provide!
If this all seems a bit complicated, we’re here to help. Today, Terrance Doyle, multifamily master and value-add expert, walks through three of his properties all in different phases of the value-add cycle. You’ll get to see first-hand what the professionals do to get their apartments in tip-top shape so they can rent to the best tenants and sell to the highest bidder!
Episode Seventeen: From Pizzeria Owner to 1,500 Rental Units by “Buying Right”
Large rental unit counts can seem almost impossible to acquire. How does someone, with limited business and real estate experience, scale to hundreds or thousands of rental units? What’s the secret behind the “overnight” success? For starters, every multifamily investor at one point begins without any units, businesses, partners, or deals. Some multifamily investors were cooking pizzas just years before uprooting their whole career to chase financial freedom.
Gino Barbaro didn’t start as an investor, agent, broker, or really anything related to real estate at all. He was managing his father’s pizzeria and simply assumed that the restaurant business was the area he was supposed to be in. After struggling to scale, no matter the effort, Gino knew he had to pivot positions and find something that would truly change his life.
After subconsciously vetting his now partner, Jake and Gino were able to close on their first deal after eighteen months. Once the cash flow started to come in and the tax benefits were realized, Gino saw the power of “buying right” and went full-force on multifamily investing. Now, the Jake and Gino duo manage over 1,500 units and aren’t looking to stop any time soon.
Episode Eighteen: Marriage & Millions: The Secret to Investing with Your Spouse
Real estate investing is a team sport, no matter what anyone tells you. Even as a solo investor, you’ll be working with an agent, a lender, a title company, a buyer, a seller, and many other counterparts in between. But what about when you invest with a partner or invest while your spouse takes care of the family? How do you keep the love, respect, and excitement lasting in a marriage when investing can be so time-consuming?
Don’t worry, you won’t have to ask a marriage counselor that question. Back on for part two is Gino Barbaro and his wife Julia. This investing, coaching and wealth-building powerhouse has gone through the trials and tribulations of scaling a business and a family at the same time. While Gino was out acquiring properties, Julia was at home, running the house, raising the kids, and doing everything else needed to keep the family afloat.
Julia and Gino share their biggest lessons as an investing couple, plus what other real estate investors can do to ensure a happy marriage and a multi-million dollar business. They discuss getting your spouse on board, how to communicate with each other, mentorships, coaching, and teaching your children about the power of investing.
Episode Nineteen: Turning an $800K Mistake into a $1.9B Multifamily Portfolio
How big is a big multifamily portfolio to you? 100 units? Maybe 1,000 units? What about over 13,000 units and over $1.9B in assets under management? That’s quite the real estate portfolio. It would only make sense that it belonged to Ashcroft Capital and ran by real estate heavy hitter, Joe Fairless. You’ve probably seen Joe on a past BiggerPockets Podcast episode or his own show, the “Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever” show.
Joe is a leader in the multifamily space, not only in his home state but throughout the entire country. It seems strange that such a prominent figure in the multifamily investing community got started in investing only a decade or so ago. Back then, Joe was working in advertising, bringing home six figures, but lacking purpose. He tried doing improv, stand-up comedy, teaching single-family investing, but eventually landed on multifamily.
After his first deal, which turned out far less than optimal, Joe continued to build relationships, network with investors and operators, and build one of the biggest multifamily portfolios and real estate podcasts on the planet. He shares advice for new investors on what not to do when getting into the space, plus how to grow your capital-raising “treasure chest.”
