The Tony Stephan Show · Episode #003
Buying A 12 Unit Apartment For $1.5M? Multifamily Deal Analysis
Jerome is one of Tony's coaching clients. He works in corporate supply chain, owns single family rentals and wants to trade four of them through a 1031 exchange into a small multifamily property. He tells Tony he realized single family would take too long to reach the financial freedom he wants for his wife and kids.
They underwrite an off market 12 unit the team sourced. The seller is asking about $1.5 million and the P&L is very light: rental income of $11,325 a month and almost no expenses. With 30% down, a 6.5% rate and a 25 year amortization, the deal comes in at a 1.17 debt service coverage ratio as is, just under the 1.2 banks want.
Tony shows where he would add NOI without heavy construction: pet fees, admin fees, utility bill backs, late fees, lease break fees and creative income, such as a barn rented out on a 7 unit and offices at his 42 unit. Every dollar at a 7% cap rate is worth about $14 of value. He then adds the expenses a new owner really faces, from taxes to turnovers and evictions, and sketches a cash out refinance that could return most of the $450,000 down payment in about two years.
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Key takeaways
- All you need to evaluate a small multifamily deal is a T12 and a rent roll. A light P&L with only rental income is an opportunity.
- Fees add value: at a 7% cap rate every dollar of yearly NOI is worth about $14, so a $10 admin fee is worth about $140 per unit.
- Look for creative income. Tony rented an empty barn for $250 a month and turned unused space at his 42 unit into offices.
- Underwrite the expenses you will have, not the seller's: uncapped taxes, marketing, turnovers, a few evictions, reserves and a 5% management fee.
- Plan for year one to be break even at best. The goal is the refinance in about year two, not first year cash flow.
- A single family home has one customer. One move out means 100% vacancy; a 12 unit can lose a few tenants and still pay its bills.
Guest: Jerome
Jerome is one of Tony Stephan's coaching clients. He works in corporate supply chain, owns several single family rentals, and plans to sell four of them through a 1031 exchange to buy his first small multifamily apartment with Tony and Andrea's team.
Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction
- 2:08 The Underwriting Analyzer
- 7:25 Analyzing Income and Expenses
- 12:23 Value Add Strategies
- 17:34 Projecting Future Performance
- 22:45 Operating Expenses Review
- 27:16 Valuation and Final Analysis
- 33:53 The Refinance and Cash Out
- 41:45 Long Term Wealth Building
FAQ
Why is Jerome moving from single family rentals to multifamily?
He says single family would take too long to get his family to financial freedom. Tony adds that with a single family home one move out means 100% vacancy and the loan is personal debt, while a 12 unit can lose a few tenants and still pay its bills. Multifamily also lets you raise the value by raising NOI.
What two documents does Tony need to evaluate a deal?
A T12, the trailing 12 months of income and expenses, and a rent roll. A broker may add a marketing package or OM, but those two documents are enough to underwrite a small multifamily property.
How does Tony add NOI without renovating every unit?
By running it like a business: pet fees, an admin fee, utility bill backs, late fees and lease break fees, plus creative income. On a 7 unit he rented an empty barn for $250 a month. At his 42 unit he turned unused space into offices for local businesses.
Does the deal work at the asking price?
Not on today's numbers. At $1.5 million with 30% down it lands at a 1.17 debt service coverage ratio. Tony's model puts it at about $1.42 million today and about $1.9 million in year two at a 7% cap rate. His advice is to buy somewhere in the middle, as close to today's value as possible.
What does the refinance math look like?
In Tony's example, a 70% cash out refinance on a $1.92 million value is a $1.35 million loan. After about two years of principal paydown the old loan is about $975,000, so roughly $371,000 comes back out of the $450,000 put in. He notes it is very interest rate dependent.
Underwriting an Off Market 12 Unit for $1.5M
Trading single family for multifamily
Jerome did well with single family rentals, but he tells Tony it felt like a very long game. His goal is to reach financial freedom for his wife and kids, and at a couple hundred dollars a month per house it was going to take too long. Tony's team is helping him sell four of his properties and 1031 exchange into a small multifamily deal.
Tony recognizes the path. He owned 11 single family rentals before multifamily, and he points out the risk: when a single family tenant moves out, you are 100% vacant and the mortgage is personal debt. "The worst number in business is one," he says. One way to make money, one customer.
A light P&L
The deal is an off market 12 unit the team sourced, with a simple marketing package. Tony only needs two things: a T12 and a rent roll. Rental income is $11,325 a month, or $135,900 a year, and the seller shows almost no other income and very few expenses.
He sets up the debt first: about $1.5 million asking, 30% down ($450,000), a 6.5% rate and a 25 year amortization. Lenders look at one ratio above all, the debt service coverage ratio. "It's like biblical," he says: about $1.20 of income for every dollar of debt. On the current numbers the deal comes in at 1.17.
Where the money is made
When the only income is rent, Tony gets excited. Five pets at $50 a month is $3,000 a year. A $15 monthly admin fee across 12 units is $2,160. On his own 56 unit, a resident pays base rent plus a utility bill back, an admin fee and a common area fee. At a 7% cap rate, every dollar of yearly NOI is worth about $14 of value, so a $10 fee is worth about $140.
He also looks for creative income. On a 7 unit he rented out an empty barn for $250 a month. At his 42 unit he turned storage space into offices for local businesses, and he explains the value that income created at a 6% cap rate. Other buyers called that deal overpriced. "They don't see what I see," he says.
For rents, the broker's estimate at market is about $196,000 a year. Tony does not assume he gets there in year one. He models halfway in year one and full market rent in year two, and he tells Jerome to treat year one as break even at best. "You're buying a failing business that you need to pump new life into."
The expenses you will really have
The seller's expenses are too light, so Tony adds his own. Taxes of about $16,000 go to $20,000 because they can uncap after a sale; he calls the assessor for a worst case number on every deal. He adds marketing to fill units, a 5% management fee the bank will underwrite even if Jerome self manages, $250 a unit in reserves, turnover costs for half the units and a few possible evictions. He leaves major CapEx out of the monthly budget and negotiates for it instead; he says he has netted hundreds of thousands in concessions from sellers who said they would give nothing.
Value today and value tomorrow
On paper the building is worth about $1.42 million today and about $1.9 million in year two. The seller wants $1.5 million. "Your job is to buy it somewhere in the middle, but as close to here as possible," Tony says. If the asking price already equals the upside, you walk.
Then he sketches the refinance: a 70% loan on a $1.92 million value is about $1.35 million, the old loan is about $975,000 after two years, and roughly $371,000 comes back out of the $450,000 invested. That money goes into the next deal. His last advice to Jerome: do your due diligence, drive the property at night and on the weekend, and do not be afraid to pull the trigger.
Transcript
0:00 Let's underwrite another small multifamily apartment. I have one of my coaching clients here. We're actually helping him sell four of his properties to 1031 into a small multifamily. We have a 12-unit apartment we're looking at today. It was a very light P&L. So, I show you guys what to look for when the P&L is very light and they're not giving you a lot of information and some of the creative BRRRR strategy things we do beyond just increasing rent to increase NOI because remember, it's all about NOI. So, if you enjoy this content, let me know. Drop a comment below in the comment section. Make sure you hit the thumbs up. If you want to buy the deal analyzer, the spreadsheet that I've created over the last few years that has helped me buy 258 plus units of multifamily. I put the link for that in the description. As always, if you have questions about underwriting, put in the comments. I share this video to help you get in the game and let's underwrite this deal together.
0:47 Remind me again, man, what made, you know, you did really well. You bought bunch of single family homes. What made you want to get from the single family to the multifamily? Like I understood there was it's like a different game when you head into the multifamily and with the goals that I had in mind with retiring my family and then reaching that financial freedom for my wife and kids I thought single family would get me there but then eventually I realized it's kind of a long game that I'm going through here if I want to get all these single families at what 2 to30 a month why not go bigger at mult multifamily and scale that way. And that's when I talked to you and you opened my eyes to, you know, the possibilities of the BRRRR method, the NOI that comes through with multifamily.
1:37 So, yeah, I think I think it's a huge opportunity and I'm excited for it. 100% agree, man. Yeah, we all we kind of all start off that way like, oh, I'm just going to buy a bunch of single family homes and pay them off over 30 years and you know, all this and then you're like, oh my god, it's never going to happen. And if one person moves out, then I'm 100% vacant and like getting my money out isn't as easy. You know what I mean? I'm single family. So, what we want to just be able to do here is like multifamily, dude. It's not It feels more complicated. And can you see my screen here? Yeah, I can. So, this right here is just a basic deal analyzer. This is what I've used to buy 258 units, you know, over 40 million now cuz we sold some things off. This is a stu, this is like called a proforma or business plan, a business projection.
2:28 When you buy a multifamily deal, it's a business. So, you have to submit a business plan to the lender so they can see what you're going to do with it. Like you get your money out by making the property more valuable. This is how you're showing it. Now, this is not super robust. Like, there are crazy deal analyzers out there. Like, I bought one of them. It was super exp it wasn't super expensive like 100 bucks or something like that. But it was so crazy, dude. Like I have a degree in chemistry and nutrition, not in calculus or mathematics. So I like things stupidly simple and easy. I've never had a lender object to this. Like I said, this has bought me a whole heck of a lot of real estate. There are things on here that will not be applicable for the deals you're looking at for the 10 to 20 unit deals.
3:17 There are things because I mean I've underwrote the biggest deal I've ever looked at was 270 units, right? So there'll be things on here that just aren't applicable today, but I leave them on here so you guys can see and start to like assess and learn and be like, "Oh wow, as I get to bigger deals, it comes with more income and more opportunities and things like that." So all this is income. These are all the income categories. We're probably not going to utilize 95% of these, but that's okay. Income, then your expenses, and then it will calculate your NOI, and then we just have a very simple like debt service calculator in here. So, stupidly simple and easy. And then I have like rent projections here that you can fill in for your property.
4:05 But this is as simple as it goes. So, real quick, we're looking at for this example, this was an offmarket deal that we sourced. So, this is a 12 unit apartment building. Okay. And he was asking, so the first thing I do is just fill in the debt for what they're asking. Okay. So, he was asking I think 1.5 million. Most loans today, and it's all interest rate dependent, I would tell you 30 to 25%. So, let's just for example say we're going to do 30% down here. Okay? It shows me my loan amount. My equity is what you need to bring to the table, right? That's your down payment. Okay? Okay. So, in this example, it's 450,000. Interest rate 6 1/2 is pretty good today. All depends on where the treasury's going and all that.
4:51 But just for simplicity, we'll say 6 and 12%. Lenders will tell you though, like, hey, here's what I'm, you know, offering. Here's where we're spreading at amortization different than single family. Okay? It's usually 20 to 25 years. Now, as a client of ours, we're going to fight for you, and I'm going to send you to the right lenders who know, like, and trust us, and will offer 25-y year AMS because of a lot of, especially since you're a newer multifamily investor, they're going to want a 20-year AM, which just means you're paying more principle down, which is okay, but it reduces your cash flow. And you'll see everything comes down to a multifamily. This ratio right here, your debt service coverage ratio. For every dollar in debt you have, you need to produce a$120 in income.
5:38 That's it. That's their only like general rule, right? Is that pretty firm? When you go to a lender, they're looking for that 1.2 debt service. Yeah. It's like biblical. Like it's in there. You know what I mean? Like that's what they're looking at. Now, I'm going to connect you with ones who are a little bit more aggressive and we'll say, "Hey, it doesn't really meet that today." But we see the plan and we see Jerome and we see, okay, he's working with Stephan Group like, "Okay, we trust the plan. So, we'll do the deal because there I've never bought a deal that meets this today." Yeah. Because it's all value at But they see real quickly where it's going to be at. And track record. Track record is so important in this business, dude.
6:25 So, like your first deal, we want it to be a home run. So, then you do more and more and more and these banks and lenders trust you and it's a good thing. So, yes, it's a hard and fast rule. We have to look for that. So, 25. This is interest only. If you're going to do interest only, you're probably not going to get interest only on a small deal like this. So, it just comes up with your debt payment. Perfect. Perfect. Why is this saying Oh, there we go. So, yep, there's your mortgage one in that line. Okay. Then if you ever did like a supplemental loan, it can go there, but we're not going to worry about that today. And if you did interest, sorry, is there so when you do interest only, if that's an option, is there like a shorter balloon period where you need to pay off a certain amount before the whatever depends on the lender, okay, and what they're going to offer.
7:12 And typically on deals this size, you're not going to get interest only, but sometimes you will. But just for this simple example, we're just going to keep it straight. Straight principal and interest. Right now, multifamily 2, it does not include taxes and insurance. You pay those separately. So, you'll see those in the expense category here. So, this is what's called a marketing package or an OM. The only thing you need to be able to evaluate a multifamily deal is two things. A T12, which is a trailing 12 month income and expense, right? Profit and loss statement. And then a rent roll. Now, if it's really nice and put together and like a broker has it, they'll do what we did here on this deal, which is put together a very light OM or like marketing package. Make sense? Yeah. So, all we're going to do is take the income, add in the expenses, look at where the potential income can be, look at where the expenses will be once you take over.
8:08 Cuz remember there's diff it can be a slight difference of like how they're running it versus how you'll run it right and like how things change and then we evaluate the deal and we see if it makes sense at the number that's really simple. So all I do man is and again this is a very overly simplistic OM but this is what it's going to be. Where does he have the potential rent? Oh okay perfect. So he did this as your total rental income is $11,325 for the month. So it's all on an annual basis. So it's 135,900 bucks. Look at that. Pretty close to what? So I put 135,900 bucks. So this is what's called ASIS. And then this is like our projections like all right once you own the deal, what are we going to do right now?
8:59 Again, in this example, he just has rental income. That's when you get excited. And our value to you is teaching you the val the strategic value ad process, right? Which we'll get into way down the line when you're under contract. And we'll teach you that stuff. You know what I mean? But, this is all called fees. This is how you make your money. Like, you ever pay or you ever stay at a hotel and look at the invoice after? Yeah. It's like fee charge fee and you're like oh my god like sophisticated businesses do this. So it's very exciting when you buy from like a mom and pop owner and there's no fee management in there. Like this is a big way we make money. Like there could be pets on the property. So you're like, "Okay, wow.
9:46 There's five pets on there. So we charge 50 bucks a month for a pet. So what's 50 times five? 250. How much is it? 250. What's 250 multiplied by 12 months? 3,000. So, bam. Let's say you do your walkthrough and you're like, "Dude, there are five pets here not paying pet fee." Bam. 3,000 bucks. I'm going to add that in there. Wow. There's no administrative fee. Tony and Andrea charge five bucks a month or I'm sorry $15 a month in administrative fee just to be on our leases just to process payments just to do all that. So 15 * 12 it's 180 bucks * 12. Wow.
10:32 Administrative fee now I get 200 or 2,160 bucks in there. This is how it starts adding up. Hey there's laundry income. When I bought my 56 unit, there were on-site washer and dryers in all the buildings. They showed zero dollars on their tax returns for laundry income. Why? Because they owned it for 30 years and they didn't want to pay rent on it or pay tax on it, right? So, you might be like, "Wow, there's on-site laundry. They're not claiming any of it because they just don't want to pay tax." Well, I'm going to claim it because one, I don't do illegal things, and two, I want that to my NOI. So, let's say you identify 2500 bucks. You're looking for strategic ways to add in money. It's not just redo all the units, increase the rent.
11:19 It's how are they not running this like a business? And in this example, I mean, he's not charging late fees. He's not charging pet fees. He's not charging utility reimbursements. He's not charging anything. So, in my due diligence, I would go through it and I'd work with my broker, who in this case is Andrea, who's a really good broker who understands this she actually does it and start to identify like what not only what rent can I get, but what else am I able to charge back here in terms of utilities? Like on my properties, I charge back all utilities. I charge a CAM, a community area or community area maintenance and a admin fee on everything. So like my 56 unit, it's 1150 base rent plus 75 utility bill back plus 15 admin and I think like $25 CAM.
12:11 So that's 1,265 bucks. Yeah. Above the B, you know what I mean? Above the base rent, which is market that is market rates, but these small mom and pop owners don't do that. But every dollar, this is where the money is made. Every dollar is divided by the cap rate for your valuation increase. So let's just say this is a 7% cap rate here. A dollar is not worth a dollar. A dollar divided by 0.07 7% expressed as a as a decimal. You're an engineer, right? No. No. Wait. I thought you were an What do you do? Remind me. I'm in a supply chain corporate. Wait. Okay. So you crunch numbers all day long, right? Yeah, I crunch numbers anyways. Yeah. There you go. So you're way better at math than I am, right? So, you get this. A dollar divided by 0.07 is worth $14 in valuation increase.
13:01 Dude, this is how I've done five 100% cash out refinancing since 2021. And I don't I don't flip I don't I don't construction and do 20 grand a unit stop. Those people lose their lose their shirt on most their deals. Yeah. I look for undermanaged properties in great area and we run it like a real business and we provide excellent customer service and we provide excellent service. We take care of maintenance things immediately and this is how we're able to do this. So for every dollar you can increase the income or lower the expenses, it's worth $14.28 for you. So that's where it's like well Tony $10 admin fee. What's the point? The point is $10 is worth $140.
13:49 Yeah. You get what I'm saying? In valuation increase. So that's what you're strategically looking for. So Jerome, when you are looking at deals and when we're sending you deals and if all they have in income is rent, oh my god, dude, you got to get so excited. Yeah. You're like, I know base level. Tony said we can charge back for utilities, which again we'll have to like you'll have to really assess the property, assess the area and all that. Admin fee, CAM fee. I mean, dude, if they break a lease, they're like, I want to move out. Most landlords just go, "Okay, move out." We charge fees for that because now we have to go fill it. Like, go. Do you Do you lease or do you own your cars? I lease. Me, too. Why the would I want to buy a depreciating asset? You know, my sports car I own, but all the other ones I lease. You know what I mean?
14:35 So, if I go to Mercedes, I'm like, "Hey, I don't want this Mercedes anymore. I want to break my lease." They go, "No problem. You're going to pay off the entire lease in full today and we'll take the car back from you and you're going to pay this fee and this fee. You go cancel your cell phone bill. You're like, "Dude, I don't want Verizon anymore. I want AT&T." Like, "Dude, no problem. We hate to lose you." So, you're going to pay all this upfront and you're going to pay the phone up front that you finance through us and we'll let you go. So, like, why would you let them break the lease in your apartment and walk scotch-free? But these are things that unsophisticated owners and mom and pops do because they don't want to run it like a business. Yeah. So, a lot of the things or some of them and then what you just mentioned those numbers like the late fees and the lease break or whatever, these are not something that happens all the time, right?
15:30 So, are you still adding those numbers into kind of your projection? No. Th those like unexpected occurrences things. No, but based on the historical, so again, once you get to bigger properties, you'll see that they'll be on there because they're managed by professional management companies. So then you will underwrite for those. So like I said, part of what I'm doing today is showing you where you're at, but also showing you where you can go. Like dude, on that 270 unit I looked at that was above $30 million. I mean, there all these columns were full because that's all money makers. It's like, dude, they had a clubhouse. They rented out the clubhouse. Like, I at my 42 unit, I have a clubhouse. I'm like, Start letting them throw little birthday parties there and charge a ton of money. You know what I mean? So again, too, look for big thing I'm pushing is look for creative ways to make money.
16:21 On a 7UN, I took an empty barn and rented it out for 250 bucks a month. That was $50,000 in valuation increase. On my 42 unit, I took empty offices that were just in a common area that was full of storage, turned them into offices, rented them out to local businesses, produced just by doing that alone, dude. I kid you not. So, it's 5,000 a month in income that I generate 12 months out of the year, 60,000 bucks divided by 006 cuz that's Birmingham, Michigan. That's a 6% cap rate. That's a million bucks in valuation. So, when other people saw that deal and they're like, "It's overpriced. It's overpriced. I'm like, "Holy Look at look at what's here." I'm like, "They don't see what I see. I'm going to do this deal for sure." You know what I mean?
17:07 So, you're looking for creative ways to make money on these deals. And that is so much better than being like, "I'm going to rip up all the units. I'm going to rip up every like that's just harder to do." You know what I mean? That's a way to make money, too. But it's all it's all the NOI. How do you want to get there? I like to get there like this versus the heavy when you go to the bank to go through that whole refinance process, do will they consider the like the non-expected fees, too? Say that question again. So, when you go to refinance and they look at the NOI to kind of see how much you can get, are will you add in the non-expected fees into that NOI for them to look at?
17:55 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because that'll all be on your tax return. That all adds up to, you know what I mean? So, 100%. They look at all sources of income. Okay. All sources of income and they'll be like, "Wow, you do this and do this." And you go, "Yeah, I do." You know what I mean? Yeah. Wow. That's great. You know what I mean? Yeah, man. So, let's just say for this example, cuz our guy broke it down, the expected rental increase, what you can get in market rent, and again, your broker will verify this, Andrew will verify this for you, is 196,000. Now, normally what I like to do, Jerome, is you're probably not going to take everybody up from wherever they're at. I mean, he's got people paying 935 bucks.
18:44 You're probably not going to bring them up to 1,200 bucks just in year one. You know what I mean? You could if they're on monthtomonth, but what I generally like to do is say, "All right, the ASIS is 135,000. The potential is 196,000." So, I like to just say I'm gonna say it's going to take me two years to get there. And then I'm gonna just do like what's half of this, right? So 135,900 + 1 196 560 it's 332,000 divided by 2 is 166 230. Now does it take you 2 years to get to market rent and 12 units? Absolutely not.
19:30 Like we've ripped through 56 units in 8 months. But I'd rather be conservative than overly aggressive because again, maybe we'll only do slight rental increases, but we'll add in all these fees and then next year all these fees are already in there. Now you hit your rental projections. You get what I mean? Yeah, for sure. So, that's how I look at it. Again, it's going to be case by case basis. If all these are on month-to-month rent, I'm going to beg Derome, just bring it up. Because then if they don't want to pay the market rent, they just move out and then you turn the unit and you're good to go. It's kind of like ripping a band-aid. I would just rip it off on 12 units. Consider, and this is very important for you to understand, year one, consider break even at best. You're not quitting your job off of year one income. You're buying a failing business that you need to pump new life into to make it successful.
20:21 So, dude, you break even year one, you're good, man. You paid no money out of pocket, you're good. The property grew. Then that year two, we look to do that refinance, get your money out. Okay. Yep. So, any questions on the income? Like again, you would go through and maybe you're like, "Okay, wow. You know, this year I had " and this is like a fluid thing, you know what I mean? You're updating this. May, hey, this year I had 12250 in late fees cuz, right, no late fees. Nobody pays on the first of the month and these types of deals. So, you need to be swacking them with fees, man. Like, you pay your credit card late. Is there a fee? Yeah. Yeah. You pay your car late. Is there a fee? Yeah. They'll come rip the thing out of your driveway. You know what I mean? You got to do the same thing. Write this down. What you resist will persist.
21:07 So, if you resist running it like a business, they're going to walk all over you. Yep. And write this down. You only get in trouble when you don't follow your lease. So, you work with us, we'll show you a lease template to follow. That's like something we've, you know, worked on and built throughout the years. And if you don't follow that's when you get into trouble because the lease says rent is due on the first, it's laid on the second, you get a fee by the third. So, if you don't follow that, then that's your own trouble you're creating. You know what I mean? For sure. So then in that first year, you can kind of add things back in, be like, "Wow, okay." And then see where you're at. So this building right now generates 135,000 in income. In year two, we're seeing $25,000 in income.
21:53 That's substantial. There's always a vacancy factor. Most banks will do 5%. I have this set for 7% just to be ultra conservative, but a bank will always underwrite to 5% vacancy factor. That's moveouts, people not paying, whatever. So, you could very easily put this to 5%. I just normally underwrite to 7%. Especially on a BRRRR deal because I know I'm kind of like I'm shaking things up over there. There's going to be a little bit more moveouts. There's going to be a little bit more late pays. There's going to be a little bit more bad debt. So, that's how I have that set. Once stabilized though, dude, like we finished the month at like 2% like delinquency, like nothing. Oh, nice. So, that's where you make your money. So, all right. No questions on that. So now all we have to do is fill in our expenses which aren't going to be many and then we'll have our NOI and we'll see like do we have a deal here?
22:44 Do we want to you know increase decrease our offer whatever. So his expenses again it's going to be very light very light because this is a mom and pop. So property insurance he's got 4500. So you would then call an insurance broker and we'll make a referral and say what are my insurance is going to be on this. So, let's just say for example, it's going to go up to 5,000 because we have to underwrite where it is today, but where are we going to be at year 1 and year two? Okay. Property tax. So, 16,000 a year. Now, maybe this is already maybe you already wrote it out. No. So, I think a question on property taxes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know with single family, so when it changes ownership, it completely gets uncapped, right?
23:35 Same thing. Oh, same thing. Same exact process. That could completely screw you over. 1,000%. So, you call, you pick up the phone, you call the tax assessor, and you say, "Hey, I'm looking to buy ABC apartment. It'll close this year, it'll uncap next year. What's my worst case tax scenario?" Okay, I do that every time, and it always comes in less. So I underwrite for the worst case and I get a I get a pleasant surprise. Like my 100 unit I underwrote for 210,000. So when the tax bill came and it went up to 170,000 I'm so happy. So like I was ready to pay 210, right? So now I just got 40 grand in NOI back. You know what I mean? So let's just say we're going to underwrite it that it goes up to 20,000. But you pick up the phone, you call the tax assessor, you do that and that becomes a negotiation tool too because maybe they didn't know the taxes will go up, right?
24:24 So, we look at that. He pays quarter waterly bill. I don't know why he wrote out quarterly. So, that's 1,600 bucks a year. Then he pays garbage 200 a month. Man, he wrote this not super easy. 200 a month. So, it's 200* 12 2400, right? Garbage. Garbage. Garbage. Trash. Boom. 2400. And then I just have it set to go up 3% a year. It's kind of like your basic rate of inflation, right? If we go into hyperinflation, then everything goes up 10%, then you have to adjust. But if we go into hyperinflation, then rents go up, too. So, you know, it's a fluid baseline projection. Again, big thing I want to stress, you'll never have all the information.
25:12 You just have to be able to look at it. Snow removal, lawn maintenance, 200 a month. So, 2500 for snow. Where's snow? So, contract services. I just put it under here. Contract services are like cleaning landscape. If there's common areas, you'll need to have those cleaned, right? So, very normal to see something like this where you're like, "Oh my god, there's like no expenses cuz he's either doing it all himself or he's just not claiming it, reporting it, whatever." Right? So, now we have to be able to look at though, what's going to be your cost to do it? Because I'm assuming you're not going to go there with a vacuum on the weekend, vacuum the common areas, and pull the weeds in the front yard. Right. Right. So the thing with multifamily to understand and this is why I really push you guys to play monopoly.
26:00 Buy a deal, force the value, trade up. Oops. Sorry. I just my Labrador is underneath me. Sorry buddy. Buy a deal, force the value, get your money out, and trade up and up and up. And that's why I left all these things on here to kind of like tease you guys a little bit and show you what's out there. Because dude, you buy this 12 unit, you have to pay for snow, you have to pay for grass, you have to pay for pest control. I have to do the same on my 56 unit, but I have 56 people paying rent to pay for all that versus you only have 10 people paying rent, right? Or 12 people. So, still much better than four single family rentals, right? But you just start to see there's power in scale.
26:46 So, your goal is get your money out of this deal and up and up and up and up and then you start to get to 40 50 units. You have an on-site manager, the game totally changes, then you're not dealing with anything. They deal and then you just manage the manager. So, just kind of showing you that, right? Cuz like, dude, if we put a manager on this, there's no way there like a 12-un apartment doesn't pay a manager, you know what I mean? So, that's where it's like you know, have to pay them a little bit or you pay a management company, which you never want to do. So that's that. All right. So we have our insurance, our taxes, our water and sewer, trash, all that. There's no pool. So reserves. Oh, perfect. I already had this set for 12 units. Every bank is going to underwrite to two. Every bank's a little different, but 250 multiplied by the unit count for the year.
27:36 Okay? So 250 in this example, there's 12 units. So, they say 3,000 bucks a year they want to see you put in reserve for like rainy day funds, CapEx, whatever. Now, obviously too, if a roof needs to go next year, that's not a monthly budgeted thing. That's like a CapEx item that you're like either I need a concession for, I need to take care of this, like they need to take care of this. So, I'm completely omitting CapEx here because I'm assuming when I buy a deal, I want no major CapEx items for my first like 10 years of ownership. Okay? And if I if there are within the first one to two years, they better pay they're paying for it one way or another. If it's like five years, I need to underwrite for that.
28:23 So, maybe then I add like roof budget and I add in a roof budget, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Then I say like 3,000 bucks a year goes towards the roof budget. Or I say, you know what, I'm just going to have to put that money in my own reserves cuz maybe my 12 apartment, the birthing, you know, isn't going to do that. With our 7 unit, we had like 25 grand in CapEx that needed to be done. We went the full year, we refied it, pulled out 200 250,000 bucks. We took 25 grand and did all that. But we used the bank's money, not our money. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, that's something to consider, too. You have to look at. But, if it's something like that immediately needs to get done, that's where we negotiate for you and we make sure they pay for it. I've had every seller I've ever bought from told me they're not giving me a dollar in concessions.
29:12 I've netted hundreds of thousands in concessions. So, that's like, yeah, dude, that's my value to you. The guy at the 56 unit last sold in 1993, so 30 years. I bought it in 2023. He said, "This is my price. I'm not giving a dollar in concession." I got a hundred. The roofs were all going to go. All going to go the next year. I got 180 grand. The 100 unit, he said, "I'm not giving a dollar. I'm going to walk away. I got over 300 grand." You know what I mean? So, like, it's just you got to know how to do it, negotiate it, cuz that's where we discover what's wrong. Major item, we can't pay for it. That's how that goes. So, that's that. Sometimes people like, "Well, where's cap X?" You know, all that good stuff. Now, marketing and advertising, how are you going to fill units?
29:59 So, you can use Stephan Group. We'll lease it for you, but obviously, you know, we put on the MLS. You have to charge the first month's rent, right? Because half goes to us, half goes to another agent that comes on the MLS. You could do apartments.com and fill it yourself, but you got to pay for apartments.com, right? So, I would say on a deal this size about 250 bucks a month for marketing one way or another because two, if you're going to raise the rents and increase the value, people are going to move out. You know what I mean? So, he's not paying any marketing because his stuff's super low and he hasn't had to fill a unit in forever. So, we would underwrite for, hey, you're going to have some marketing expenses there, right? Either you're gonna fill it yourself, but you got to get people in or you're gonna have, you know, a brokerage do it, but there's commissions for that.
30:44 So there's that management payroll. Even though you're not going to pay for this, they're going to underwrite for it, okay? So typically all they do is 5% of gross revenue, okay? Or gross rental income. So equals where we at times. 05. So this building on paper they would say they would pay a management company 5%. And when I say they it's the bank underwrite the bank always underwrites it as if they have to take it back over from you. Yeah. Right. That's how they look at it. So they're like well cool Jerome you don't pay a management company but we'd have to pay a management company. So this is what it is. Turnover cost.
31:31 Right. So like dude he's probably not turning any units. You know, I'm going to tell you units on average, depending, you know, your contractor, how savvy you are, couple hundred bucks to a couple thousand bucks for turnover. So something on this, I would just average like I'm going to assume half are going to move out. I might have to turn half the units. So 1,500 times six could be 9,000 bucks in turnover costs. Now, this wouldn't be every year, but again, I kind of want to run my worst case scenario and then look at things, right? Property tax. We went over legal and collections. So, he has no nothing on legal and collections, but new owner, people stop trying to pay. They try to start trying to see what they're getting way. You start making changes. You might have to do a couple evictions.
32:19 On average, an eviction costs a couple hundred bucks. So, I again, I might say, I'm going to have to evict half the people. Probably not, right? That's like a horrible scenario, but you know, better be safe than sorry. 500 bucks times six 3,000 bucks. So now I add in some extra expenses that aren't just there. I'm not going to just look at his expenses. So very simply, there's the ASIS number. Doesn't really meet the debt service coverage ratio. Even with his very light expenses, right, at 1.5 million, 30% down, I'm falling at a 1.17 debt service coverage ratio. But look at year two, year two, year three, year four, and we're just kind of focusing on year two and three here.
33:04 When I get the rent up, and then when I get to market rent in year two, dude, look at this. Crushing it, right? Killing this here. Now, what do I have this set at? Oh, I have this set at 8% cap rate. So, NOI divided by cap rate is your valuation, right? So, we're for this example using a 7% cap rate. So I'll just tweak these. So you would just come in here and tweak this. So this deal on paper in year two is worth 1.9 million. I paid 1.5 million. On paper today, it's really only worth 1.42 million, right? Based on everything. And his expenses are super light.
33:51 And this is what we'll wrap up with here. And I'll take a question if you have it. But here's what the deal is really worth. It's probably a little bit less because again, he's not adding in any other expenses. Yeah. Here's what he wants for it. Here's what it can be worth. Yeah. Your job is to buy it somewhere in the middle, but as close to here as possible. Yep. You are never in a good area with a good seller with a nice property. You're never going to pay as value. Like I've never done it. Because it's the market. There's such little supply. There's such high demand for multifamily. Rents are just going up and up and up. I saw for Mcome County, there are zero scheduled deliveries in 2026.
34:39 That means there are zero properties scheduled to be built in 2026. You know what that means? We have a supply issue. But you know what that means for people who own rents have to go up and prices have to go up because there's just such little supply. You know what I mean? So, your job is to evaluate it of where it is today, see what they're asking for, see what it can be worth, and then you're the only one who can decide what you'll stomach to pay because what it's worth to you. And we didn't even get into like the tax benefits of it and like cost segregation. That's a whole another thing. But this is where most people get tripped up through them. They're like, "But it's only worth one." And this is in this example, this is not that crazy of a delta.
35:26 I've seen very crazy deltas. Yeah. They're like, "This deal is only worth 1.4 and they're asking 1.8. This is crazy." Yeah, it is. But if it could be worth, just saying arbitrarily, 2.8 million. Yeah. You're missing the whole picture. It's not about what it's worth today. Where it where it could be tomorrow. Now, if they're asking 1.9 million and our upside was 1.9, you don't do that deal because there's no upside. They will they will do that. They will try to get you to pay for like all the upside, all the work you're going to have to do. So, this is why you have to critically analyze it. You have to look for creative ways to make money. You have to look for things are missing. And you have to trust the area, right? If it's in a good area, you can change anything about a property, but you can't change the location.
36:14 So, you got to look for a good area and you got to trust your underwriting. That's where working with a brokerage that again lives and breathes it. We're not going to tell you, hey, you could go get this in rent if we don't actually feel it. Because if you don't do that and you're not successful, it doesn't help us one bit. We're not just trying to get you to do a deal, trying to get you to do a lot of deals. So, we need this one to be a home run for you. You know what I mean? For sure. So when I look at this, and I see the first two years at a 3.2 and a 5.1 return. Yeah. Is that a concern to you or are you mostly looking at, hey, what can this deal be when it's fully stabilized and that's an 11% return? No, dude.
37:01 This would be potentially an infinite return. I don't give a about this. I really don't. I put it on here because it's like a metric. Okay. But number one, where can you go right now and get a 5% return stock market? Yeah. Are they anywhere? Right. So people talk about that all the time. Like, oh, only 5%. Where's your 5%. Where's your 3%, your 4%. You know what I mean? Like, where's it at without the volatility of the stock market? Yeah. Right. Or cryptocurrency. Not to mention once you really get into this and you start getting the tax write offs because a deal this size could get you 200,000 in depreciation year one with a cost seg study that once you get the real estate professional status you wipe that off against your income.
37:51 But what I care about is this cuz let's just do this really quick. I'll go a little bit more in depth for you. 1.923 million is my st my what I call my stabilized value, right? Well, I'm going to go back to the bank and I'm going to say, "Hey, I want to do a cash out refinance at 70%." And now again, this is very interest rate dependent depending on what the rate will be at that time because the lower rates are Jerome, the more you can borrow. Like, let's say, and the more you can pay. Let's say this is going to make you sick to your stomach. But when I was buying deals at 4 and a half%. Look at the debt service coverage ratio. Yeah. They're like, "Do the deal, Jerome, we'll give you money." They're like 70%, we'll do 80% loan to value. You don't need to. This is the problem today, too, is everything's what's called debt service constraint.
38:39 Yeah. Meaning, it's not that the price is wrong. The interest rates are too high to and the property doesn't make enough money to support the debt. But people are buying. How are they buying? They're putting 50% down, 40% down. They're buying in cash because they're like, I don't care. I need to put my money somewhere. And I don't trust stocks. I don't trust crypto. I don't trust gold. Gold doesn't produce a return. Well, it goes up a little bit, but doesn't do any of this stuff. So, that's what it looks like, too. So, as rates come down, you know, we're in a great spot here. So, you owe right now a million50,000. You're paying down principal a little bit every month, right? So, like, let's say you get it to 1.923 million.
39:26 You go back to the bank, they're like, "We'll do a cash out refinance. It's been two years. You've stabilized it. You've proven it. You've got tax returns. Yada. You've made all your payments on time. We like you, Jerome. We'll do a $1.346 million loan against it gets appraised. It appraises at 1.923 million. I'll teach you what to do with the appraisal to I don't want to say I like I like get the appraiser to give me what I want, but I don't know. I have a formula. I think it works. I'll show it to you. You owe let's say two years of principal pay down let's just estimate 975,000. You put down 450 grand to buy this deal, right? You have a new loan of 1.346 million.
40:12 You owe 975. So this minus this, you get 371,000 bucks back. So you put 450 down. So this is just kind of how I quickly do it. So I put 450 down. I get 371,000 cash out. So I own this deal now for 78,000 in equity. Okay. What's your return then? You own a $1.92 million deal that you paid 78 grand for. Yeah. You get what I'm saying? And if we really ramp it up, which you know, again, we went very light on this, man. Very light on this, you know, we really ramp this up and get some other fees in.
40:59 You're very close to getting all your money out. Yeah. Yeah. Because then, like I said, if rates come down, you can borrow a little bit more. I did 70% LTV, right? You get all your money out, then what's your cash on cash return? Infinite. Because you have no money in this deal. And then you take your 450 and you go buy another deal because you're working. You and your wife are working. You're saving money. You saved another 200 grand or 100 grand. Now you have 550, but you still have this deal over here throwing off some cash, going up in value, appreciating. And that's how the that's what I look at. How quickly can I get all my money back? And this little drip here is just a little drip to keep me going in the meantime. Gotcha. Okay.
41:45 And I assume that's kind of your a similar mindset when you look at cash flow because when you refinance, your mortgage is going to go up, right? Because you're Yeah. Yeah. They won't refinance you if it doesn't cash flow. Yeah. So then are you are you sacrificing a little bit cash flow knowing that you're going to take all that money and put it into another 12 unit possibly? 1,000%. Cuz I again, do you want back to I think I asked you this question. Do you want 8,000 bucks a month or $100,000 today? 100 now because you can go redeploy that 100 now, right? And cash flow is variable, bro. A water heater goes, there goes your cash flow, right? You know what I mean? Like I want my money back because you can you can solve a big problem by writing a big check, right?
42:38 That's how that's how I operate. And then there's I don't overleverage. I think my entire portfolio is at like 60% leverage, right? Okay. Nice. So, I refinance. They make me keep a lot of equity in there to keep the cash flow going. And then, dude, I get a couple bucks cash flow a month. Cool. Whatever. I just want once I get my money out, it pays for everything. All the maintenance is taken care of. If we need a new thing, the new thing gets paid for. No problem. All the bills are paid. I have management that I pay for. I have like salaries I pay for team members. All of them are paid. Man. I just want my money over and over and over again. I build this massive portfolio, you know? So, that's what I look at. That's what most people don't get.
43:25 And that's the game we like to play and that's what, you know, we're pushing you to get and to play. Does that make sense? Yeah, for sure. And then I think I know the answer. So I guess in your words you I mean your cash flowing your ROI is great with these single families, right? Yeah. Why give that up to go into a multifamily where you going to sacrifice ROI and cash flow for two or three years? Well, it's I mean it's your goals. You know what I mean? It's all about what you want. You know, some people love single family, but ease of management, right? What's easier to manage? 112 unit or four single families, right? Personal debt. That is all personal debt, right? One tenant moves out of your house, you are paying that mortgage.
44:12 One tenant moves out of a 12 unit, you're good. You're good to go. Two tenants can move out probably three and you're still good. So, you're protected. And you can't go get your 450,000 in equity out of those homes. Gotcha. In two years. Yeah. You know what I mean? Wait till you do this, bro. Wait till you sit at the table and they send you a wire for that kind of money. Yeah. Like you and your wife go to dinner. You're like, and we still own the deal. Yeah. And it's all being paid for and now they're pay they're paying down the mortg. So yeah, your mortgage goes up, but you don't pay it back. The bill pays it back. Bro, if I gave you a $5 million loan, but you didn't have to pay it back, would you care that it was a $5 million loan?
45:05 No. You're like, I'm not paying it back. Can I get 10? You know what I mean? Yeah. That you just kind of have to break out of the mindset of the single family home, dude. Yeah. I was on Rod Khif's podcast and he said he had 800 single family homes back in 2006 2007. He's like it was so stupid and they were all over the place and in this city and this city and this city and this state and he's like that's what put me under. He's like it wasn't the multifamily. He owned some small multifamily. He's like it was the single families that put me under cuz the economy hit a recession, a massive recession. People couldn't afford their rent. He had all these people moving out. Again, when a single family home moves out, you are 100% vacant.
45:52 You cannot pay that bill unless you pay that bill. You got to think about that, man. And that's personal debt. Personal your credit report. So, if all your tenants moved out, you have to pay all those nuts right now. And if you don't, they ding your personal credit that month. So, you also have to pe We tend to only think about what goes well, but you got to think about the downside. You know what I mean? It's just a different game. You know what I mean? You're going to have to personally guarantee this loan with a bank and a credit union, but you're more protected and you can then get out of a 12 unit and go to a 24. My real goal for you, if you really want to play this, like get to 32, man.
46:39 Get to 40, get to 50, get an on-site manager, then dude. You are like so resting easy. You and with 42 units, you're like, "Fuck, dude. Five people five people can move out. 10 people can move out. I'm good." You know what I mean? It's about It's about protection, man. The worst number in business is one. One way to make money, one customer. A single family home violates the rule because you have one way to make money and one customer. So, all your eggs are in that basket. And if anything goes wrong, dude, my old home it's a beautiful house in Wixom. I'm gonna sell it this year because my last year to sell without capital gains. It's been five years as a rental. I had a two I forget what they were. Two doctors or something living there. They lost their jobs. Their lease, you know what I mean?
47:27 Two doctors. They had to break their lease. It was either that or I mean, they can't pay. So, what do I do then? I'm 100% vacant. Yeah. 100% vacant. So, I had to pay that mortgage for at least one to two months. That sucks, right? You know what I mean? Pay a $2,000 mortgage. Yeah. There goes all your cash flow. And dude, remember cash flow, it's there until it's not right. So, your cash flow on your rentals, one thing goes wrong in that house, there goes that entire cash flow for the year. Right. Yeah. That roof goes, bro, there's five years of cash flow. You know what I mean? There's not enough income. There's only one source of income, rent. So, get in this game. Trade up. That's how you can then replace an income.
48:15 Get the wife to quit the job or whatever. I would tell you to keep the job, but then let her or go let her go down to halftime so you get the real estate professional status. So, then you're taking off your tax bill. Then, dude, then you're like, "Holy shit." Then you'll be like, "N now I see what he was saying. Yeah, I don't pay income tax because of depreciation." So, you're losing that benefit right now, but you can get that benefit as you get a little bit bigger. Yeah, dude. I love talking to you, man. You get me amped. I app I appreciate you, man. I like this stuff. Like I said, I get excited when people have bought deals cuz you're me and you have the right vehicle, which is real estate, but not all real estate is created equal, right? It took me a long time, dude. I had 11 single family rentals from one to twos to fours. Yeah, it was a very good experience, but man, if I could have just skipped it and went straight to this stuff, God knows where I could have been.
49:07 You know what I mean? So, there's just levels you need someone who's a little bit ahead of you who's just done it to be like, "Dude, I remember where you're at. I've seen what you see right now." I even saw I loved your Instagram post the other day. Shout out to you for making content. If people don't know you, they can't follow you. But I've read all those books, too. I just Keller is the man and it's such a good mindset and he preaches but dude he was talking about the 1980s it's 2025. Yeah. Money has been devalued and deflated and just like our buying power is so shitty. Like you need debt and you need hard assets. The 1980s were different man. He's like he's like offer 25% below market.
49:53 I know, man. You're like, Gary, what do I do now? Yeah. What do I do now, Gary? And you'll be a net worth millionaire. Last thing I'll leave you with, I got to jump to my next call. A net worth millionaire. Okay, so you're worth a million. Let's just say you have a million liquid. Okay, let's say you're a million liquid and you and your wife go, "We did it, sweetie. Gary Keller said, "We're a net worth millionaire. We're going to retire. It. We got a million cash. We're millionaires. Oh my god." Great. Cool. Million bucks. Let's say you put that in a money market or an account and you earn, let's just say high-end, bro. 6% a year. Oh yeah. Highend. Like 6% just protected safe. That's 60 grand a year before tax.
50:39 So the government's going to come take their whatever 30%. So you're going to be left with 70%. 42 grand a year, 12 months. Whoops. Divided by 12 months. 3,500 bucks a month, bro. That's a millionaire. Yeah. That's a millionaire. You know what I mean? That's a retired millionaire, bro. You're broke. You're broke, man. You're broke. Yeah. Yeah. You're sweating it. You're like, "Can we go out to eat tonight? I don't know. You want to just make tacos again?" You know what I mean? Like that. That's what I'm like. I have nothing to sell you, dude, besides the truth. Keep your job. Keep stacking your income. Bro, why do you think I do what I do?
51:26 I do what I do because I love, but I keep the main thing. The main thing I build my business. I build my brand. I put myself out there. My wife builds her business. We live on a fraction of what we make. We take our profit and we buy real estate. And we let that real estate buy what we want. But the more we keep this machine going, the more it feeds this machine, which then starts feeding additional things. And then you look, you wake up in 10 years, 20 years, and you're like, I have an empire, right? I have indestructible wealth. I have generational wealth. It's not five houses, bro. It's 500 units and a great income. And a great income because like dude, if you guys keep making great money and you cover all your living expenses with that money, everything you make here gets reinvested for compounding growth, right?
52:24 You're not like, "Oh, sweetie. We got the 450. Well, let's go blow it. Let's go do this." You're like, "Let's reinvest it." That's how you compound wealth. You know what I mean? So, it's just a different game, man. You know, it's a different game. So, but dude, I love it, man. I love talking to you. I mean, it's kind of nice talking because you've been there, too. That's what the biggest thing for me is that you were kind of in the same position and you're making it work, dude. 100%. So, I'll send you this stuff. I know we got the deals ready to go with Andrea, man. So, that's step one. Hopefully you're excited here. And then, let's just start looking for deals. Like I said, we're on the hunt right now. We're looking for you and when we find the first one, dude, it's off to the races. So, last piece of advice. Just do your due diligence, cross your tees, dot your eyes, drive the deal.
53:14 Drive it at night, drive it in the morning, drive it on the weekend, get a gut feel for it, you know what I mean? And don't be afraid to pull the trigger, you know what I mean? Just level up, you know? So, was this helpful to Oh, hell yeah, man. Love it. Love it, man. You excited? I'm pumped, dude. Like I said, I'm excited. Like everything you're saying, man. I'm ready for it. I'm excited for it. And yeah, glad to be working with you, dude. Likewise, man. And excited to meet you guys in person at the mastermind. So, if you need anything else in the meantime, let me know. I'll send you this recording. I'll send you the spreadsheet. And yeah, man. We'll go from there. All right, brother. All right, man. Enjoy your day. We'll talk soon. Yeah. Thanks, Tony. See you. All right. Bye.
Topics: Underwriting, Deal Review, 10+ Units, 1031 Exchange, Off Market, BRRRR
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With Daniel, mentorship client and barbershop owner from Brooklyn · April 22, 2026 · 20 min
A $525,000 duplex in New Jersey, a 1031 exchange, and an off market 10 unit in Metro Detroit with seller financing. - Episode #016: New Multifamily Investor Buys 19 Unit Apartment (Deal Breakdown)
With Victoria, mentorship client, investor and tax business owner from Detroit · April 5, 2026 · 28 min
From a $1,000 land bank house in 2017 to a 19 unit in Detroit: Victoria on cash flow, scale and pulling the trigger. - Episode #015: Small Multifamily BRRRR Breakdown: A 13 Unit Apartment With $500 Rent Growth
With Walter, mentorship client, former sheriff's deputy and house flipper · March 29, 2026 · 33 min
A 13 unit that last sold over 50 years ago, rents at $450 to $545, and a client who beat two cash offers to get it. - Episode #014: Teaching Our Clients How To Manage Their 10 Unit Small Multifamily Deal
With Nick and Kaylnn Riley, mentorship clients from Arizona who just closed on a 10 unit · March 12, 2026 · 13 min
Behind the scenes of a coaching day: the deal is closed, and now the Rileys learn where the money is actually made. - Episode #013: How Much Can I Pay For This 33 Unit Apartment? (Deal Breakdown)
With Tony Stephan · February 19, 2026 · 18 min
A client sent Tony a new construction 33 unit in Florida. He reads the offering memorandum live and decides whether to pass. - Episode #012: New Multifamily Investor Is Buying A 50 Unit Apartment (Deal Breakdown)
With Tony Stephan · February 3, 2026 · 18 min
A brand new client put an off market 50 unit under contract. Tony's checklist for deal or no deal, with the math. - Episode #011: Buying An Off Market 10 Unit Small Multifamily Apartment (Client Success Story)
With Daniel, mentorship client, entrepreneur from the New York area · January 6, 2026 · 16 min
Daniel sold one duplex and bought a 10 unit: two green houses for a red hotel, with seller financing and a 1031 exchange. - Episode #010: Small Multifamily With Massive Profit: $700K on 12 Units
With Tony Stephan · November 11, 2025 · 11 min
A client's 12 unit on the whiteboard: modest cash flow today, and about $768,000 of equity from bringing rents to market. - Episode #009: 24 Year Old Buys 14 Unit Multifamily Apartment (BRRRR Method)
With Nick, mentorship client, 24 year old construction business owner · July 27, 2025 · 16 min
He started raking asphalt at 15. At 24, Nick runs a 60 person construction company and just bought his first 14 unit. - Episode #008: Why He Sold 8 Single Family Rentals To Buy A 12 Unit Small Multifamily Apartment
With Dr. Ade, physician, business owner and Stephan Group client · June 1, 2025 · 15 min
A surgeon traded eight scattered single family rentals for a 12 plex and a duplex through one 1031 exchange. - Episode #007: Buying a 14 Unit Small Multifamily Apartment for $1.8M?
With Tony Stephan · May 27, 2025 · 19 min
A clean 14 unit with upside for a first time buyer: Tony adds up fees, bill backs and savings worth about $714,000 of value. - Episode #006: How These New Real Estate Investors Bought 23 Multifamily Units In 1 Year
With Hugo and Joe, coaching and Stephan Group clients from California · May 25, 2025 · 15 min
A 12 unit in April, 11 more under contract with 5.5% seller financing a month later: Hugo and Joe are not slowing down. - Episode #005: I Can't Believe This Apartment Is Only $1M! Multifamily Deal Analysis
With Tony Stephan · May 11, 2025 · 33 min
An 18 unit collecting a fraction of its market rent: a big problem with big upside, underwritten for a coaching client. - Episode #004: Buying A 9 Unit Apartment With 5.5% Seller Financing
With Keith, mentorship and Stephan Group client, roofing business owner · May 4, 2025 · 32 min
Keith and his wife Angela skipped single family and bought a 9 unit in Clarkston with seller financing at 5.5%. - Episode #002: Buying A 12 Unit Apartment For $800K? Multifamily Deal Analysis
With Shelby, coaching client, first multifamily deal search · April 16, 2025 · 57 min
Tony underwrites a 12 unit his coaching client found on LoopNet, line by line, and shows where the value is hiding in the fees. - Episode #001: How This Out of State Investor Bought His First 12 Unit Multifamily Apartment
With Hugo, mentorship and Stephan Group client, W2 worker from Los Angeles · April 13, 2025 · 27 min
Hugo bought a Metro Detroit duplex he has never seen in person, raised the rents in year one, then traded it for a 12 unit.
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