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By Tom Wilson, CEO of Wilson Investment Properties

There are so many reasons to get excited about owning a multifamily property that it can be easy to overlook one or more critical areas of due diligence. I’ve been investing in real estate for five decades, and I love multifamily products. My best performing asset is a multifamily that I purchased 17 years ago. And the worst deal I ever owned was also a multifamily asset.

Often deals look amazing with the proforma (projected returns with ideal conditions and assumptions) showing high cash flow and high IRR (Internal Rate of Return) projections. These returns are indeed the goal; however, you need to determine if they are just virtual (on paper) or if they can actually reach your pocket. I’ve seen the good and the bad, compiled my experiences, and would like to share the top ten things to consider before closing on your next multi-family deal to maximize your success.

1) LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

The metro and the sub market are critical. What is the traffic count? Visibility? Is it on the right side of the freeway, or in the path of progress for its city or town? What do its neighbors look like? Who is shopping in the local stores? Would you walk the streets at night?

The answers to these questions are going to be indicative of your experience if you purchase the property.

2) GREMLINS INSIDE?

Every property has surprises. Some good, mostly not. While a smart purchaser always includes contingency and reserve accounts, certain multifamily properties hold more surprises than others.

The foundation, age of chillers and boilers, environmental review, roofing and all deferred maintenance can be major red flags of potential deal-breaking capital expenditures. Make sure your team walks every unit, not just a sample. Twenty percent of the units can chew up 80% of your rehab capital. Also, who is actually living inside your potential property? Review every lease and check if they are really representative of the area. Did the seller fill up the property with low qualification residents just to show a high physical occupancy?

3) JOB & POPULATION GROWTH.

How good is the metro? Any multifamily property requires stable or growing rents and tenancy to be a successful investment. Good tenants have jobs and pay their rent on time. Look at individual job growth statistics. Is the city growing faster than the state or nation? What about in your sub market? Good job markets attract people, while bad markets see net negative population growth.

If your property’s market is stagnant or on the decline, chances are your occupancy rates will follow.

4) ONE HORSE TOWN?

So you like the metro, employment is good, and population increasing. Now ask yourself “why?”. A good metro has good employment diversification that will weather storms and booms of economic sectors and individual corporations, while singular economy metros are more vulnerable.

Remote military towns can be shut down overnight by congressional base closures. Large corporate offices or manufacturing plants can be relocated else-where or even overseas with mass layoffs in the local area. Natural resource boom towns are vulnerable to single commodity prices and competition.

Even government offices can be moved to newer, cheaper areas, which can leave a non-diversified metro in shambles and hurt your investment. I like growing metros over 1 million people with a broad economic base.

5) PARKING LOT TEST.

Another surefire way to take a litmus test of a property’s tenants is to drive the parking lots at different times of the day and week. Good tenants have jobs and are at work, and the number of cars during the day should be pretty scarce.

If you find a full parking lot during mid weekday, chances are there are many tenants on various levels of subsidized or governmental support, who tend to live with less of a financial buffer to pay rent and care for their unit. This could indicate a higher likelihood for turnover, make-ready costs, and lower occupancy. Park at the property at night and watch. Who is coming and going? A lot of traffic on site that are not occupants could indicate illegal operations or extra tenants who are not on the contract.

6) SELL STORY.

Why is the current owner selling? Have they been struggling for years to make it perform and have just given up? Did they not have enough capital to mitigate deferred maintenance or to attract higher rent tenants? Perhaps the neighborhood is rougher than the listing broker is making it out to be.

I’ve passed on what appeared on paper to be amazing investment opportunities, simply by asking,“Why couldn’t the existing owner do better, and what makes me think I can outperform the current owners?”. Sometimes the property is good but the nearby properties are better, and it would take too much capital to just come up to par with the competition. Remember, the seller knows more about the property than you, so it is important to fully discover the history and challenges.

7) MANAGEMENT & MAINTENANCE.

A critical way to control the tenant density environment, improve service to tenants, and reduce costs is to have full time on-site property management and maintenance.

This allows you to better control who lives in your property and get prospective tenants to sign leases before finding other options. It also allows you to quickly evict problem tenants, and to get maintenance and other problems fixed with minimal wait times and maximum tenant retention.

Typically, a multifamily has to have $40-50 thousand minimum income to afford to have on-site management and maintenance. Any less or a parttime solution with less effective service can hurt your property’s performance. That is why I avoid small multifamily properties.

8) WEAK ASSET IN A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD.

You can have a lot of control on improving a property, however, almost no control on fixing the neighborhood. I will look at C properties but almost always insist on a B- or better neighborhood.

You’ve heard one philosophy for buying houses to look for the ugliest house on the best block – the same can work for multifamily properties. Find a property for which added value and better management can take advantage of the lift from neighborhood. The sub market around you can help or hurt you. Choose it as carefully as you choose the property.

9) RECESSION REVIEW.

It’s easy to have a Midas complex in this bull market and start believing that everything anyone touches turns to gold. And it’s true, when the economy is on an up-swing, even mediocre properties with average management can be successful. This holds true until it doesn’t, and those who don’t plan accordingly will get hurt the most.

I look at the great recession performance years  (2007-2010),  and  see  how  the  product  and sub-market performed then. How much did the occupancy drop? Did the NOI crater? How did the sub-market’s population and unemployment do?

These are good tests on how the property and area will do in the next recession. And all expansions end, we just don’t know when. Select a historically resilient market and plan on having enough reserves and low enough leverage so your property will survive the next recession.

10) FRIENDS AND FAMILY TEST.

Lastly, especially if you are responsible for other investors’ money to help fund acquisition, ask yourself “would I offer this investment to my friends and family?”.

If the answer is “no”, or even if you have to pause and think about it, you likely already know the answer and should listen to your subconscious and walk away while you can. That final “gut test” is useful in overriding our mind’s uncanny ability to talk ourselves into a bad decision even when we know deep down it’s likely higher risk than we feel comfortable with.

This is just a sampling of the many important things to look for during due diligence before closing or even making an offer on a multifamily property. One of my top observations is that sub-markets vary a lot from the average of the metro, and the sub-markets and surrounding areas can be as important as the property itself in determining likelihood of success.

And lastly, don’t reinvent the wheel. Ride on the coattails of experts and utilize the experience of others. Even though I have almost five decades and 4,000 unit transactions of experience, I never do a new deal without consulting an expert for every aspect of the investment, including the sub-market and the asset class. Use those trusted advisors around you that have honed their expertise and judgment and you’ll greatly increase your probability of having a successful multifamily asset.

To your financial success,

Tom K. Wilson

CEO Wilson Investment Properties

Interview by Anita Cooper

In the real estate world, investors have a lot of choices to grow their portfolios; fix and flip, buy and hold, residential, multi-family or commercial, and finally, one type of investment that’s often forgotten or at the least remains shrouded in mystery: note investing.

Note investing is a fantastic way to grow your wealth, but until the last ten or so years, it’s not been on the radar of many property investors. We sat down with Jasmine Willois, founder of The Note Assistance Program (N.A.P.) to learn more about her and to discover how her organization can very often help investors reap double digit returns.

Question: Jasmine, how did you get involved with note investing?

ANSWER:Note investing is one of those things that kind of came to me. I started out with a real estate investment club called Lady Landlords of San Diego, and that really took off! We ended up expanding to two clubs, the latter being Lady Landlords of Orange County.

After years of flipping homes, offering turn-key investments (rentals) and some life changes, it occurred to me that I didn’t want to work this hard at investing.  So I called a hedge fund manager I knew from networking, and we will it off. I ended up shadowing him for the next two years of my life, and learning everything he did inside and out.

Question: Do you enjoy your work?

Yeah, it’s exhilarating… it really fits my personality. It’s something that allows me to use my problem solving skills to help those in need. You see, I used to be a day trader and a stock broker. It was a lot of money, but not as rewarding. With note investing I’m able to make good money and also feel good about what I do.

Question: Why should investors add notes to their investment portfolios?

ANSWER: Outside of the sheer return, which is very alluring — it’s really a product that, whether investors know it or not, they’re most familiar with.

The majority of people use traditional means to invest and save, such as stocks, bonds, ETFs and mutual funds. These vehicles are really hard to understand and that’s the difference with notes, if explained correctly almost anyone can get it.

Again, because most of us are familiar with the underlying asset, real estate and even further a majority of them have experience getting mortgage loans from one of the bigger mortgage banks, like Wells Fargo or Chase.

As far as the underlying asset, which is the actual real estate, investors who buy notes are already very familiar with the concept. They’ve bought a home before with a loan, so whether they realize it or not at first, they’re very familiar with the product.

Question: What is The Note Assistance Program process and how quickly can investors expect it to take?

ANSWER: Well there are two opportunities, but what is making this revolutionary and bringing real change to the market is that we have built a platform for the retail investor. You no longer have to go to a $16,000 to $40,000 program unless you need the crowds.

Until recently, the past three to six years, this side of the market really wasn’t open to the average investor, never-mind the fact that still to this day it’s hard to find out about notes without running into a guru, broker joker or scam artist.

One product we offer is our Non-Performing Note Trade Desk. Here you will find a cornucopia of notes usually around $35M to $55M worth of unpaid balances nationwide that can be cherry picked.

Investors have access to tapes that are direct from the seller, so no daisy chains! And here’s the most exciting part, because we have established such a track record with the sellers, our clients are actually benefiting from lower pricing than they can find anywhere else. Our members benefit from our relationships by being able to curtail on a bulk trade or with direct pricing from the sellers.

This is something the average note buyer cannot get just due to barriers of entry. Seasoned investors love our trade desk because they are finding that we have the inventory and the pricing that cannot be beat. Even in cases where they have access to the same inventory our the transparency and pricing you find on our trade desk is hard to beat.

They get to benefit from those relationships with my pricing so they’re buying in bulk, and then they get direct pricing from the seller there, THAT’s something that the average individual can’t get.

The second way investors benefit from The Note Assistance Program is the educational piece. We’ve put together the most comprehensive on-line note education platform to date. This platform takes out all the fluff and distractions that can be found to throw investors a loop.

For those, like me who learn best by doing, there is our accelerated hands-on program where we have a flat fee. This program is different because you have to be committed to buying a note to join, it’s not one of those programs where you can join and hang out for a few years and not invest.

Like I mentioned, we have well over 37M worth of inventory on our trade desk as we speak.

We’ve got big banks like Bank of America, all the way to smaller hedge funds in rural america. So for those who are committed to learning, buying and have the capability the program is here for you.

Through this program we offer support for the life of the loan the investor purchases. This in not a joint venture situation where we split the profits in the end, you get the full experience and the full profit at the end of the investment. To that point, being actively involved with your note is mandated here at The Note Assistance Program.

So you’ve got to know how to be active and know what you’re doing. This industry is just as dangerous as the others, you can hurt yourself and the borrowers so it’s very important that you are trained correctly. I have found that most of the programs out there are too cumbersome or leave out certain tips and best practice that ultimately leave the investor dependent on the guru. We do it differently here, and that is how we are shaking up the industry.

Question: How does the additional layer of protection work?

Answer: The protection really is for the people using self directed IRAs. It’s not a “dollar-for-dollar” type of protection; it’s really about keeping these investors compliant with IRS regulations, and avoiding decisions that jeopardize their tax benefits. If you own a self directed IRA, you shouldn’t be doing “hands-on” activities with the investment. There is a fine line with the IRS, they have prohibited transactions and even disqualified people for investors to navigate around. So a lot of people choose to use The Note Assistance Program and it’s team to handle these grey areas.

Most investors want to be active so we train them to outsource with the professionals in the industry, and extend our black book of trusted vendors to them as well. There is no need to become an attorney, to learn how to read title or do foreclosures on your own. We attract those investors who want to build a working portfolio, not another job. We focus on building the right team of professionals who can help keep us out of trouble, because as I mentioned, you can loose money.

Question: How many investors have you helped?

Answer: So far we have helped over 200 people since we opened our doors. We’ve expanded and added two locations one in Newport Beach, CA and another in Bayonne, New Jersey. Our investors are very successful, which in turn is why we are successful. We are not running a private island or club, it’s a community of investors that have established and implemented best practices.

We take our community of clients in small teams. The classes for the Non-Performing note lab that we teach isn’t more than thirty-two.

Four times a year, I get out there and teach small classes of 20 or less in our 2-Day Non-Performing Note Lab as well, so that has helped us with our reach. We keep those classes small and practical so each investor can get what they need from the experience. We want to make sure the investor is given a real life view of what it means to be a note investor, not a lot of hype.

Question: What would you say is the average return an investor could expect with a note?

Answer: It’s definitely double digits, and if you approach the business the right way you can do that consistently.

That’s what this is really about, beating Wall Street. We get these numbers because of the relationships we have built over the years with these banks, and because we have a system of people who work our system. We also only play in the 1st position space, so we aren’t buying 2nds or 3rds for that matter. You will find that most investors are junkies for control and security, we find both when note investing.

With that first position comes THE security and the control that we’re looking for, to make sure that we can tackle those types of returns. Unlike second or third position, when you buy in first position, you pretty much “win some and win some”, and that’s what appeals to me.

ABOUT JASMINE WILLOIS

An advocate for responsible investing Jasmine spends her time educating audiences on conservative real estate strategies. She has owned rentals and flipped out-of-state properties since 2005 in states such as California, Mississippi, Indiana and New Jersey to name a few. She is the Managing Director of The Note Assistance Program a firm that provides additional security and education on real estate investing, specifically with non-performing notes. Her reputation for the judicious use of resources, result-oriented management style and skillfull negotiations, has opened many doors.

Jasmine offers a unique blend of experience. She received her B.A in Economics from California State University at Long Beach, and enthusiastically accepted her first job as an equity trader with Joseph Stevens, in New York, NY. She emotionally ended her 7-year long career on Wall Street as financial advisor with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter after losing colleagues to the world trade center attacks.

Jasmine focuses on conservative real estate cash flow strategies and the abundance of opportunities that lay out side of her backyard. She hosts a note mastermind at her Note Lunch & Learn every Thursday from noon to 2 pm at her Newport Beach, Calif., office. Find out more on Meetup.com or their Facebook page.

Photo caption:Known for her signature pink cowgirl hat, Jasmine Willois, MBA, likes to incorporate fun while learning about a serious topic: distressed notes.

By Linda Liberatore

As you build your real estate investment portfolio, you dream of ending your 9 to 5 corporate job and the day your freedom begins. No need to go into the office. Now you can spend your days finding properties and evaluating progress on rehabs while managing your current assets.

To operate as an investor having an office space is not necessary and it’s a great way to save capital. Let’s be sure that while you have saved on the cost of office space, you are able to keep great records in your new mobile workspace. There is a multitude of ways to stay organized while on the road. You might want to consider adding these mobile apps as you embrace your new virtual office. First things first, you’ll want to be sure your notes are logged from your mobile device. Some of our clients enjoy the speech-to-text features and exclusively use the Google suite of apps to manage their documents. This works perfect for sharing documents with a future virtual assistant.

The Zillow Rental Manager app allows you to post an ad on several sites. With Zillow Rental Manager, you can have your ad on Zillow, Trulia, HotPads and other top rental sites. And unlike some real estate apps, Zillow Rental Manager is free. Simply enter details and insert a few photos. Applicants from Zillow and Trulia include pet information, credit score and income. Remember, finding the most qualified candidate quickly is the goal.

Homestyler is a wonderful app that helps you envision your next rehab. Take a picture of the current floor plan and let Homestyler show you how it will look with tile or hardwood. Take the dream-work out for contractors and leads. Let them know how furniture placement can work. Check out lighting changes and more. Homestyler removes the guess-work, and the multiple trips and returns to the store.

It’s great anytime you need to share your vision with others. With more than 200,000 vendors checking in nationwide try Thumbtack for the next unexpected maintenance request. It’s more likely than not that you may get an emergency call during unexpected conditions.

If you can’t get there it’s worth giving Thumbtack a try. You can search for contractors by listing the job and they will send you the bid. You don’t have to accept anyone you don’t want to and you have the ability to read reviews and check credentials.

Private messaging allows you the ability to ask questions before selecting a vendor. If your regular crews are behind on projects this app is a great back up plan. Think big picture. You can get started with a small job with these people and if you like their work then you can add them to your team down the road.

As you grow your portfolio you are constantly on the lookout for the next best deal. Auction.com allows you to find your next potential deal anywhere. This free online auction app has over 30,000 properties to select from. It’s powerful features include using an interactive map in both local and national markets with the ability to access details and property photos.

You can use the search and bid features while you are on the move. You no longer need to feel limited by attending auctions. You can start due diligence research with free title information or HomeDisclosure.com reports. Whether it is foreclosure or bank owned homes this is a leading source for the real estate marketplace.

No mobile app list is complete without the power of the app that allows you to finalize the deal, cue Docusign. Docusign saves you from the time and resources associated with completing business critical transactions. This app keeps everyone more productive and accountable from purchases to rentals.

Once you have reviewed the details of the agreements or contracts it’s both simple and secure to e-sign. Forget about the wasted time associatedwith sending out lease renewals to be signed andnot knowing if they are getting to your tenant securely.

This application has been a huge timesaver for us and our clients. It is a must for anyone looking to increase output and efficiency.

As an investor you are constantly on the road looking for properties or checking out existing properties. Make sure to dot your I’s and cross your T’s with the amazing technology available to you today.

From the array of Google products to the apps listed above this only skims the water on the countless ways you can improve your business productivity. Take advantage of these today and you will see a difference!

By Anita Woods

Investing in property can be frustrating, especially when you’re always searching for good financing options that suit your time-frame as an investor.

Having someone in your corner toprovide quality information and advice can help you reach your goals more quickly than going at it alone.

Steve Bighaus’s clients know they can count on him when they need to finance a new opportunity, even when that opportunity is their own place of residence.

Bighaus has a vested interest in the success of property investors…it’s why he does what he does. His number one goal is to become the all-in-one resource for property investors.

But as a forward-thinking kind of guy, Bighaus is always on the lookout for ways he can improve his processes to get better results for his clients.

One such process is technology, using it efficiently and effectively.

That’s why, after speaking with thirty to forty companies, Bighaus settled on working with Sierra Pacific Mortgage Company. They understand his goals as a specialist in lending to investors, and they share his vision of using technology to deliver exceptional products for his customers.

One exciting development is the creation of a new loan origination system that will allow a borrower’s information to be obtained straight from the source.

This will simplify the process for both investors and homeowners and expedite the loan origination process.

One particular issue that many fix-and-flip investors are facing is the challenge of finding eligible buyers for their properties.

Steve’s research has found that these investors are experiencing a dismal fall-out rate of 40 to 50 percent.

As part of his goal to be a full-service company for investors, Steve and The Bighaus Team at Sierra Pacific Mortgage Company aspire to preclude any potential problems as early in the process as possible.

Using all of the tools at their disposal, they can provide quality pre-approval letters towards the goal of improving results for investors. Other tools that Bighaus can use include an automated system for appraisals that will let the lender know whether or not an appraisal is needed, and a great customer relationship system.

And as any of his customers will tell you, Team Bighaus is known for their stellar customer service. Whether you leave a voice message, drop an email or send a fax, you will receive a response the same day.

Need a pre-qual letter and it’s the weekend? Just call Steve Bighaus! He’ll take care of it.

Think of him as your personal banker – someone you can count on to be in your corner.

Bottom line, while pricing is important, there’s something Bighaus and his team can offer that few can: Responsive customer service paired with innovative technology to create exceptional products to help investors grow their wealth.

By Randy Hughes aka Mr. Land Trust

Recently I read an article by an attorney telling his readers not to use a Land Trust. He recommended titling your investment property in a Limited Liability Company. His reasoning was that Land Trusts are only a “deterrent” to a lawsuit and they do not provide “true” asset protection. The attorney went on explaining how any lawyer “worth his salt” would find out you are the beneficiary of a Land Trust as the result of a judgment debtor’s exam (which is a hearing in a court room…sometimes called a Citation to Discover Assets). The attorney writing this article concluded that you have “zero” privacy with a Land Trust and if you want privacy you should “save the expense” of a Land Trust and title your investment real estate directly into an LLC (Nevada or Delaware).

After over 40 years in the real estate investment business, I can spot an attorney who understands the law but does not have practical real world experience. I agree that LLC’s have better asset protection than a Land Trust, but Land Trusts have far better privacy elements than LLC’s. I use LLC’s in my business but NOT to hold title to investment property. Let’s review the benefits of using a Land Trust.

LAND TRUSTS:

• Are NOT registered anywhere on the planet
• Do not require a registered agent
• Pay no franchise taxes
• Cost nothing to form (you can form them yourself)
• File no tax returns
• Require no tax ID number
• Can be formed in a state other than where the property is located (for terrific privacy and asset protection)
• Can easily hold each property separately from other properties to keep all investments insulated
• Can have an LLC, Corporation or Personal Property Trust as its beneficiary

Experienced real estate investors understand that putting all of your properties into any one entity (be it an LLC, Corporation or a Land Trust) is a nexus for a lawsuit. Remember grandma’s advice to not put all your eggs in one basket? It makes logical sense to put each property into its own separate Land Trust and then make the beneficiary of the trust your LLC or Corporation.

This yields the best of both worlds from a privacy and asset protection standpoint. Since the Land Trust Agreement is not recorded anywhere no one can find out who the true owner of the trust is without a full blown lawsuit…which is expensive for your adversary. Furthermore, if the property is in one state, the Land Trust is formed in another state, and the LL C beneficiary is registered in a third state you get a dy-no-mite structure that is not only difficult to unravel but legally expensive to pursue. Most contingency fee lawyers would give up and start looking for another sucker to pursue.

Real estate investors are more susceptible to a lawsuit than most other Americans. The general public’s perception of a real estate investor is that they do not have any debt on their property, have lots of cash in the bank and tons of positive cash flow. So, even if the investor is upside down on their property debt and suffers monthly negative cash flow they are still at the mercy of the contingency fee lawyer and his/her dead-beat client. Keeping property isolated in separate Land Trusts makes logical practical sense to those of us in the trenches every day. A huge benefit to holding title to each property in a separate trust is the ability to finance without affecting the other properties.

You can also sell property on an installment contract basis without affecting other properties. If you title multiple properties in one LLC the lender will want to tie up all the assets of the LLC as collateral for the loan on just one property. Take your advice from a streetwise investor with decades of real-life experience. Use a Land Trust to hold title to your investment real estate…you will be glad you did!

To receive a FREE copy of my booklet “50 Reasons to Use a Land Trust” send me an email at: mailto:[email protected]