Real Estate Funding

Category: Real Estate Funding

multifamily_investing

Jan 27, 2021

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The Pros and Cons of Investing in Multifamily Real Estate

Investing in multifamily real estate is a smart way to diversify your portfolio. Investors find multifamily real estate attractive because it lends itself to a slow and steady return on investment. Between Covid-19 and rapid changes in politics, today’s economic outlook is uncertain and rookie and seasoned investors alike are looking for investments that will grow their capital.  Multifamily real estate is less complicated than other commercial real estate opportunities and can generate a strong cash flow. Keep reading to explore the key pros and cons of multifamily investing.  What is multifamily real estate? A multifamily property contains more than one rentable unit - like an apartment complex or high-rise.  Investing in rental properties, like multifamily units, is a preferred strategy for investors who want to generate an additional monthly income at a relatively low cost.   What are the pros of investing in multifamily real estate? Investing in a multifamily property holds its fair share of advantages.  Large demand = lower risk. Multifamily investing is considered a safer investment than other real estate assets. Even in the face of economic uncertainty and poor job markets, people need a place to live. During an economic downturn, rental properties may see a boom as people sell their homes, relocate, or move into a rental.  Grow your portfolio faster. Investing in multifamily real estate is a unique opportunity to expand your portfolio in a short period of time. It’s a lot easier and timelier to acquire 30 apartment units than to acquire 30 single-family homes. Avoid the headache of multiple loans, sellers, and inspections by investing in a multifamily property.  Streamline your property management. Investing in a multifamily property improves daily efficiencies in your property management. By managing one property with multiple units, you save time and money traveling between properties to perform maintenance duties. Also, it makes more financial sense to hire a property manager for a multifamily property rather than a string of single-family homes.  Increase your cash flow. One of the biggest advantages to investing in multifamily real estate is the ability to significantly increase your cash flow. Investors are attracted to multifamily properties because of the predictability of income each month. In both bull and bear markets, rents are collected each month, and units are easily turned over for new leases leading to a steady cash flow.  From lower risk to higher rewards and increased efficiencies in your property management, put your investment capital to work with multifamily real estate.  View open investments with Holdfolio.  What are the cons of investing in multifamily real estate?  Despite the strong advantages of investing in multifamily properties, we wouldn’t be doing our due diligence if we didn’t share some of the drawbacks of this investment strategy.  Increased competition. The advantages of multifamily real estate draw attention from new and experienced investors alike, creating strong competition in the market. This can pave the way for more experienced investors to crowd out the market because they may be more likely to pay in cash or appeal to sellers. Newbie investors may find luck partnering with experienced investors or joining a real estate crowdfunding platform like Holdfolio.  Higher upfront cost. Depending on where you’re investing, multifamily properties can be extremely expensive, much more expensive than a single-family home. Cost tends to be the biggest barrier to new investors, even for seasoned investors. Most banks look for investors to put down at least 20% as a down payment. However, banks are more likely to grant loans for a multifamily property than a single-family because there is less risk involved.  Despite the higher upfront costs and competition, avenues like real estate crowdfunding platforms have become attractive to multifamily investors. Crowdfunding platforms allow investors to put a small amount of capital into a property to become a shareholder.  Diversify your portfolio and increase your cash flow with multifamily real estate in 2021. Assess the pros and cons and seek the best investment for your wallet.  Start investing with Holdfolio today. 

Jul 11, 2017

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Property Management: Preparing for the Back to School Rush

How can landlords and property managers prepare for the end of summer rush before school starts? Late spring and summer are considered peak season for home buying and selling. This can result in a back to school rush for tenants to relocate and get into new places before school starts. When you’ve got this much action all at once, it can get really crazy. If you aren’t prepared it may become very stressful and expensive. Stay ahead of the game, and you’ll keep earning the loyalty of the best tenants, and keep your returns up. Preparing for Exiting Tenants The first step is to get ahead of the game on existing tenants. If you have leases renewing you want to touch base early and get new leases signed. You want to keep your good tenants and have a shot at talking them into staying. You also want to know if they are leaving as soon as possible. Then you can capture other movers in the market and get fresh rental property ads up before everyone is locked down for the next year. Prepare for Turnovers One of the worst blunders real estate investors make is waiting to put property management in place after a new lease is all closed, and it’s time to collect rents. Savvy investors get property management in the game before the change in tenants happens. A good property manager can help with the needs in getting the property ready, the rental process, and ensuring a smooth turnover. Bring in Extra Help With more phone calls, move-ins, and repair requests expected at this time of year, it is smart to bring in extra help. This could just be a part-time outsourced assistant. Factor in what it takes to line up additional vendors and backup vendors for landscaping, turning over units, and handling bookkeeping and tenant screening. Home Warranties Home warranty plans can be a huge help at this time of year. Between new rental units, new tenants in units with older appliances, and perhaps new appliances being setup, there can be a lot of glitches. These can be a big time and money drain. Home warranty plans can help eliminate or minimize these expenses and disruptions. Inspections and Preventative Maintenance This is a smart time of year to set up routine property inspections and tackle any maintenance issues in advance before they get more expensive or disrupt the ability to keep units occupied. Preventive inspections of the heating units and winterizing the A/C unit is good to schedule for early fall. Better Property Management Software Better software may help streamline bookkeeping, reporting to any investor partners you have, and with accurately tracking property condition. These programs are constantly being updated, with new companies offering better and better solutions. Make sure you know your options and pick the one that suits your business.   Preparing ahead of time and getting the proper players in place can get you ahead of the game and help you to deal with the back to school rush. Don’t let the big yellow bus, with the flashing red lights, get in front of you and hold you up in leasing your properties!

Jun 23, 2017

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Real Estate Success: 10 Professionals You Need In Your Camp

Who are the essential professionals you need in your camp before you start investing in real estate?   It is important to keep up your momentum when getting started in real estate investing. Yet, you also want to make sure you are investing wisely and can enjoy a smooth process which delivers the best possible real estate success. Here are the first five professionals you need to connect with before you invest:   CPA   Your actual investment returns will depend a lot on taxes. There can easily be a double digit difference in what you get to keep, depending on how you set yourself up, and how you file taxes. A good tax professional can help you strategize and get it right before you wind up with a big income tax bill.   Attorney   Sooner or later you will want or need an attorney. It is just smart to have one already pre-screened and on call for when that time comes. You may want a specialist real estate attorney who can help negotiate contracts, and aid you in defending against lawsuits. It might also be helpful to have a family law or asset protection lawyer who can help you personally set up the right structures to grow and pass on your legacy.   Insurance Agent   Part of real estate success is the reduction of risk. Even if you don’t need direct property insurance to cover individual real estate assets, you will probably need an umbrella policy, life insurance, and other types of insurance to cover your assets in various areas.    Capital Partners   Even if you don’t plan on needing credit or extra cash to invest, it can be wise to have relationships with these sources in advance. It will help you avoid any cash crunches or missing out on any great opportunities. This may be private lenders, mortgage brokers, or angel investors. You will also want to build relationships with bankers to make your transactions go more smoothly.   Experienced Mentor   Having someone you can pick up the phone and call or shoot an email to for urgent help or an experienced second opinion can make all the difference in your business decision making. Find someone who is experienced in what you are doing and who shares your values.   If you plan to be an active real estate investor, make this a full-time thing, or to start a real estate business, you will also want these five people in your camp before you get going.   Contractor   Having a trusted contractor on call can be invaluable for fast property inspections, repair estimates, timely turnovers and getting work done quickly.   Real Estate Agent   Whether or not you actually use a Realtor to help buy, sell, and rent real estate, investors can find them very useful for making sense of the market, and keeping on top of evolving trends.   Marketing Expert   You simply can’t do it all as an investor. Even if you have a strong marketing background, the most profitable use of your time is probably inking new deals. Still, with 90% of your success relying on your marketing to secure deals, fill them with renters, and resell them, make sure you have an expert on your team.   Virtual Assistant   An assistant can be used to protect and free up your time so that you are getting the best ROI on every hour of the day. A good assistant can handle a wide variety of time-consuming tasks, including finding the other people on this list.   Project Manager   As you grow your real estate business, taking on a big multifamily property, or are building new homes to rent out, a project manager can save you time, and help things go smoothly. This could be a true project manager for a specific mission, a property manager, or a general manager for your organization.   Putting some thought into what and who you need to have in your camp to be savvy and efficient will help direct you towards the path of success!