Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Apartment Investing Has 2 Primary Benefits

By Brad Costanzo

With so much attention on how the economy has suffered recently, you might believe that it is a bad time to invest in real estate. You've probably heard something like "the housing bubble has burst" or something else negative and pretty much discounted the notion of real estate investment. "Where would I even get the money?" you might think. While it might not be the best time to get into single family housing, have you ever thought about apartment investing? Multifamily is one of the most overlooked areas in real estate. However, it's not as crazy of an idea as you might think.

Apartment investing is one of those things that just seems astronomical to the common person. They think that it takes millions of dollars to get a property like that and they would never be able to get the money. While it is true that it's difficult to get money for single family houses, its a misconception that you can't get money for apartments. In fact, it's easier than you might think to get the money you need for an apartment. You just have to know where to look and who to ask.

Multifamily real estate offers many advantages. Not least of which is the lessened competition versus single family homes. You do not typically have as many investors bidding up the prices on apartment buildings the way they do with houses. However, if these other investors truly understood how to leverage their time and effort into apartment investing, they would be spending their time elsewhere. Their fears and misconceptions are often misguided however because apartment investing is a very different type of transaction.

Interestingly, it's often times easier to borrow money for larger transactions than it is for smaller ones. Getting out of the comfort zone to analyze apartment deals is often times as simple as adding a couple extra zeros to the analysis. But this keeps many investors away even when the math behind the deal makes perfect sense.

The comfort zone is known for sucking people into mediocrity. It can be scary to take on larger projects, however, the knowledge you need to acquire is readily available. The leverage from apartments is also enormous. Having several apartments to cushion the blow if one tenant vacates is one area that actually lowers the risk of apartment investing.

Understanding the enormous potential of apartment investing to generate cash flow and equity with lessened risk and economies of scale is the key to creating inter-generational wealth. Getting past the fear of large number is usually the first step. Luckily, it's an easier step than you might realize. - 23210

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