Jumping Right into Mid-Sized Multifamily with Alan Hill
Alan Hill – the co-founder of Crystal Coast Capital, and mid-sized multifamily investor, talks to Neil Henderson and Brittany Henderson, the hosts of The Road to Family Freedom podcast. Alan Hill talks about his start in leveraging assets for income from a young age and how he jumped right into investing in mid-sized multifamily with childhood friend Jimmy Johner as Crystal Coast Capital.
Post-Interview Analysis
- Key Lessons Learned: Don’t let no stop you. In almost every real estate transaction there are going to be times someone tells you no. That’s an opportunity to use your problem solving skills to find a way around that obstacle. If it’s a good deal, find a way to push through rather than giving up and going back to watch Netflix.
- How did they acquire their knowledge or what knowledge did they need to acquire? Learning to underwrite deals was the key piece of knowledge he had to learn in order to be successful.
- How much money did it take to get started? Alan and his partner got into the deal for about $2,400 a piece because their investor put up most of the capital to purchase the deal.
- How much time does it take now? He puts in about 10 to 15 hours a week on his real estate endeavors.
- Could they do this strategy from anywhere in the world? Not really right now. They are focused on purchasing properties in their local market.
Episode Highlights:
- Schedule a video chat with Neil Henderson at roadtofamilyfreedom.com/selfstoragecall
- Neil Henderson introduces Alan Hill
- Alan Hill recounts how he first got experience buying a cash flowing asset with debt with a riding mower and a lawn mowing business at a very young age.
- Alan talks about how his childhood friend, Jimmy Johner, approached him about investing in real estate.
- How they partnered up with each other and then an investor on the purchase of an 18 unit apartment building
- How they structured their partnership
- How they avoided having their investor on the loan
- Lessons learned about the need for entering a deal with sufficient working capital
- How they did much of the remodeling themselves
- How new investors often fudge the numbers on their underwriting to make the deal happen
- The long, strange saga of their second deal, a 48 unit complex
- The struggle to negotiate seller-financing with the seller
- What they discovered during due diligence on the property
- The seller nearly sold the deal to another buyer while they were under contract to purchase his property
- How they nearly lost the deal when the lender suddenly balked at loaning them the money because of their perceived lack of experience
- How they built a credibility packet to ease the fears of the lender
- All the obstacles they had to overcome to complete the acquisition of the 48-unit complex
- How are they finding deals to purchase?
- What was the key piece of knowledge he had to learn to be successful?
- What does a day in the life of a mid-sized multi family investor look like?
- How much time is his real estate investing business taking each week?
- Are they looking to invest long-distance?
Books and Resources Mentioned:
The Road to Family Freedom: roadtofamilyfreedom.com
About the author, Neil
Neil Henderson is the co-host of The Road to Family Freedom, a self-storage investor, and avowed proponent of short-term rental house hacking. He founded The Road to Family Freedom to guide busy parents to financial freedom through passive real estate investing.