Buying Your First Multifamily with Jennings Smith

Our guest today is Jennings Smith, who is an investment property owner, builder, general contractor, and property manager. He has grown his portfolio exponentially in a very short period of time. In this episode, he shares how he went from a couple of single-family homes to 600 units worth $40M in less than 2 years! If you’re looking to transition into multifamily and need some seasoned tips and tricks then this is the episode for you! To learn more about Jennings and his journey, visit reiclarity.com!

 

“The perfect turnaround on a property is trying to sell it to your tenant.”

02:48 Jennings followed his dad’s footsteps into real estate investing. He saw how his dad evolved from being a real estate agent to building long-term wealth. Jennings helped his father out in the beginning and then started to acquire his own single-family properties. He shares how he built up his business and why selling to your tenant is the best turnaround on a property.

 

“If you want to have hundreds of units, then why are you setting up systems and processes that are going to break and not work?”

08:15 In a few years, Jennings was running a full-time construction company, had a family, and grew his portfolio to 5-6 properties. He had trouble managing his properties because he didn’t have enough time. 

He decided to hire a property manager which helped his business tremendously. His advice for real estate investors is to always hire a property manager even if you have a smaller portfolio. If you would like to scale up to hundreds or thousands of units, you have to put down the right strategies.

However, property managers generally have a bad reputation. Jennings shares with us how to find a good one and what systems to put in place to truly leverage the relationship.

 

“I made the leap into multifamily eventually, or as quickly as I could because it's just a lot easier to scale.”

16:36 Jennings took the leap into multifamily investing, as it is easier to scale and it is more like a business. 

It took him 4-5 years to get 7 single-family properties, but only 2 short years to scale up to 593 units. His advice for business owners is to always invest in their education. He believes that he reached success quickly because he did numerous courses and attended REI masterminds. 

According to him, multifamily investing can exponentially supercharge your scaling goals compared to single-family. At the beginning of his career, Jennings set a goal for himself. He wanted to reach a 1000 units under contract by the time he was 50. He is still in his 30s and is about to reach his goal in 2020. 

 

26:20 Jennings’ top 3 pieces of REI advice he learned from multifamily investing:

Know your underwriting, do your research, and understand the risk you’re taking by picking up the property! Overcapitalizing is crucial! Figure out what you need for your downpayment and your closing costs, and always have a little bit in the tank! Think about your exit strategy from the beginning!

 

Mentioned in the show:

https://www.facebook.com/rentliveoak The download Https://bit.ly/2X8ov1y Jennings’ email: jennings@liveoak.com www.shineinsurance.com/reiclarity

 

Learn how to grow your portfolio and reach incredible success the right way! Visit us here for everything you need to know: www.shineinsurance.com/reiclarity

 

Special thanks to Jennings Smith for taking the time to share so many great insights with us   If you enjoyed this podcast, there’s a couple of things we need you to do right now:    SUBSCRIBE to REI Clarity on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts    While your there, please RATE & REVIEW the show    SHARE with friends   Finally, please, JOIN the REI Clarity Facebook Group

Then, please share the show with whoever you think it will inspire.

 

Until the next time, We truly appreciate you listening.

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