Affordable Housing Multi Family Syndicator. Generating Market Returns *&* Community Impact. ($180MM AUM) + Tweets on a decade in the housing BIZ +
#REtwit
Why Affordable Housing for me? 🧵
My birth mother was 16 when she had me. We lived in a shitty apartment, disconnected, disenfranchised and ignorant of how life worked.
When I was 1, I rolled off the bed onto a floor heater and suffered 2nd degree burns.
I started in multi family 6 years ago with 4 mentors…
1) Bigger Pockets
2) Rod Khlief
3) Joe Fairless
4) Ken McElroy
(In this progressive order 😂)
My partner and I started with W2s & podcasts. Today we have just over 1,500 units.
We bought a 151 Unit Complex back at the end of 2022.
-Low fixed rate debt.
-Revenue is up 40%.
-Property Taxes Fully Abated.
We have an economic mobility program onsite, funded by our non profit.
🌟 This deal fully embodies our MISSION DRIVEN - For Profit approach.
Hey I’m Mario
I buy, renovate & layer affordable housing incentives into“market rate affordable”MF deals.
Since 2018, My biz partner & I have raised over $55million from our network of IMPACT investors.
We believe that we can BOTH make money & create positive community impact.
I used to renovate single family homes to flip, now we renovate workforce multifamily housing to hold.
Love lining up market skill w/ real community needs.
How I secured my first 1mm+ investor
I used to have a client come into a
@D1Sports
I managed in 2013.
Super Quiet -Never asked for much just came in/worked out/showered/ left.
At renewal I asked him what we could do better. He mentioned the cleanliness of the bathroom. 🧵🧵
Here is where we found our first 3 multi family deals
1) 8 Unit -MLS
2) 36 Unit -Craigslist
3) 27 Unit -LoopNet
Today we have 1,500 units and all our deals come from brokers but they wouldn’t give us the time of day back then. Instead of complaining, do what you have to do
Start making real money when I was 27 in real estate sales. (175k+)
No wife, No kids. No debt.
I BET every dollar on real estate investing. Every F*cking dollar.
Financing the construction of a personal home - wife is pregnant with our third and we have to have more space. Horrible timing I know, but life moves on 🤪
Just quoted on a 7 year construction -to perm fixed product, 30 year amortization, 4.75%. Think I like it, Am I crazy?
🧵
#FlashbackFriday
🧵
Feb 11th, 2017, I bought my first 8 Unit MF property. Before i start raising money/partnering i needed to prove out the value add, income approach myself
4.5 years later my partner and i bought a 151 unit complex across the street
Niche down level up.
Bought My First house at 26
First SF investment at 29
First multi family at 30
(using a heloc)
Found a compatible biz partner at 31
Start raising money at 32
Refined our mission and unique value at 34
Today at 35, have a real RE business with multiple verticals.
We are redefining affordable housing one unit at a time in Greenville, SC. Paid 35k per unit, spent 25k on renovations, and now collecting a $400/month rent premium.
Local slumlords beware!
#hometownheroes
#realEstate
Learn the multi family jargon.
Here is a BASELINE of
10 terms w/very simple examples you need to have a firm grasp of as you enter the space.
They are simple, not easy. 🤓
Early on, We did a lot of studying as we broke into the space, as always, “do what you have to do!”
Flipping houses ( capital gain strategy) is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of energy to find deals, add value, sell them and pay the taxes. And once it's over, you start again. Just my 2 cents, flipped 7 houses before realizing this.
#recoveringFlipper
We did over 4MM in capital improvements at our properties last year.
**** 1 Construction Lesson that never gets old****
Never pay for the entire job, until the entire job is done.
@CaseyMericle
Typically the rule is that no one LP can have more that 20% equity without signing on the debt. Our typical workaround is either restrict investors investment to 20% or
Split investment within their household -
husband 20% /wife 20%
individual 20% / entity 20%
Adding value to MF assets is also adding respect.
• 1 of these mailboxes says I don’t care about you as a tenant, customer or person.
• 1 of these mailboxes says, I respect you and the mail you receive.
Just because you shouldn’t SHIT in your backyard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t INVEST in your backyard.
Proud of Our CPA who just wrapped up a gorgeous FLIP, right next to door to his primary residence.
Early on I realized the key to success is just taking action…without an audience, without likes or applause just take MASSIVE actions, next guy either can’t or won’t.
Love redefining affordable housing in my hometown. Bought a package of 16 duplexes from a local slumlord a couple of years ago..
Paid - 35k a unit
Capex - 25k a unit
Rent premium - $400/month
Very First Multifamily Deal - Closing Day 2016, 8 Unit, Flea Infested complex I found on the MLS.
Price - 235k
Rehab- 135k
Down Payment - 75k
18 months to stabilize.
Sold for $630k.
💰Profit - $260k
@ 30 years old, I was Hooked
After 7 years of using third party managers, we are finally taking ownership of our tenant experience.
N. naturally
O. occurring
A. affordable
H. housing
Property Management
High service, high tech, high impact.
Back in Sept.
@REconveneLA
@sweatystartup
gave me some advice
“if your a long term holder and you really want your core values to be reflected in your tenants experience. you have to self manage”
FF// we are almost live w/ “NOAH”Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing P. M.
Best Pizza in Greenville.
Nondescript Commercial Kitchen.
1 guy.
Pickup only.
Makes an exact amount of pizzas every weekend and is booked out weeks in advance.
Happy to pay the premium.
Had an awesome time planning our employee training coming up next month. We are moving at warp speed.
Our property management company in 10 months has gone …
0-1500 units
0- 20 employees
0-9 Remote team members / VA
4 - 0 third party managers
Thankful for the men building
2017 my first SF flip, everything went wrong that could.
Used a credit union for a 80% Loan to Cost (LTC)
Made $900 on my 35k investment & house doesn’t even look that good.🤯
That experience was so valuable to my RE education, I would have been happy with a loss 🤓
NEWBIE TIPS- Single Family Investing
#REtwit
Though I rarely buy single family homes anymore, for a time, it was all I did. Here are couple things that I learned
🧵🧵🧵
@REconveneLA
Impressions 🧵
How do you scale thoughtfulness?
I was first exposed to
@moseskagan
a year ago via YouTube, he was interviewing
@Keith_Wasserman
. Sure, big ASS names but the conversation was different. It was thoughtful. Every inch
@REconveneLA
was just that.
@REconveneLA
Impressions 🧵
How do you scale thoughtfulness?
I was first exposed to
@moseskagan
a year ago via YouTube, he was interviewing
@Keith_Wasserman
. Sure, big ASS names but the conversation was different. It was thoughtful. Every inch
@REconveneLA
was just that.
I sold new homes for a decade. Half with a production home builder selling entry level homes the other half with a luxury builder selling to the 1%. A transcendent people principle:
“The emotional tail wags the rational dog.”
//MF Value Ad//
Interest rate talk have you nervous??
Here are 4 things you can control🧵
We’ve aggregated a portfolio of 1970s/80s garden & duplex style units.Often times we are buying from mom & pops or average/to below avg. operators from out of state. Here is what we do…
Honored to be recognized by such a great champion of workforce & affordable housing in our community.
This year we deployed 30MM of investor equity into mission driven, for profit multifamily acquisition & workforce housing preservation. We Also eclipsed the 1,500 unit mark 🤓
The greatest compliment he gave me outside trusting me with his money, In reference to why he participated in our deals…
Half Smiling “The bathroom was always clean.”
Excited to get to
@REconveneLA
next week!!! Extremely thankful for a little stage time as well to share our firm’s mission and workforce/affordable housing model.
My dad taught me from a young age that I would have to be twice as good to “make it.”
At the same time, I watched him go to work everyday to a job he hated, without a complaint.
I never questioned why I would need to be twice as good. Just tried to do it, without a complaint.
#REtwit
Code of Conduct
Not an expert, but have had a couple of buddies ask me about “the rules” of RETwit, NO RULES just codes to tweet by!
#REtwit
OG’s would you add anything else here ?
🧵🧵🧵🧵🧵
Day 1 Highlight
@REconveneLA
.
I screwed up the address and we got lost in Uber headed to dinner, gave us time talk about the mistakes we’ve all made capitalizing personal construction projects
@mwmoedinger
&
@antonia_mdprjct
2 real estate SISTERS and an Affordable
@adaenechi
Intelligence is being able to extract information of value from invaluable/imperfect/broken people & arguments . Yes! Someone can be a raging racist and write a book about finance that improves your life . Are you smart enough to separate the wheat from the chaff?
I have personally raised over $50 Million in equity toward our market rate affordable housing deals
@AUgreenville
INVESTORS = Some family, mostly friends, all wanting a return and social impact.
Back when brokers wouldn’t give us the time of day. (2017) Here are the 3 weird places we found our first MF deals….
1) MLS -8 Unit
2) Craigslist -36 Unit
3) LoopNet - 27 Unit Portfolio
Where is the weirdest place you’ve found a deal?
So thankful to be headed back, back to Cali.
@REconveneLA
at the end of the month.
Last year
@moseskagan
was gracious enough to invite me and my biz partner as guest in his emerging GP conversations.
I experienced so much value, community & thoughtfulness.
I Seriously
@REconveneLA
Impressions 🧵
How do you scale thoughtfulness?
I was first exposed to
@moseskagan
a year ago via YouTube, he was interviewing
@Keith_Wasserman
. Sure, big ASS names but the conversation was different. It was thoughtful. Every inch
@REconveneLA
was just that.
Proud of N.O.AH!
We put the damn boat in the water last week. After months of planning and a two week orientation, we are now 100% self managed.
Our centralized community housing management team and maintenance professionals ARE READY!
Last month marked 5 years in the multifamily space for our 2 man partnership turned REPE shop.
Been a crazy ride but here are our first 5 years and our road to 1400+ units.
/// THREAD ///
🧵🧵🧵🧵🧵
#1
Problem Buying in Your Backyard
Historical Bias.
We have purchased over 1k units in my hometown, but I still find myself saying “I remember when that sold for X, I’m not paying that”
Really doesn’t matter what it sold for, my biz plan either works at present price or not.
- Day 2 Highlight
@REconveneLA
-
Jason’s (
@REExchangor
) company sold me my first single family flip back in 2016, never got to meet him in person .
@scottswag
made the connect on the PIER &
@CaseyMericle
joined.
Still not exactly sure what went down 😂
My senior year in H.S. I was 6’2” 230lbs,an All- State Linebacker & earned a full athletic 1-AA scholarship.
Every SATURDAY morning during that season, regardless of any achievements on Friday nights, my parents made sure I was at youth choir practice at 10:30am
What a lesson.
The bricks and sticks cost the same on a market rate multi family development & A Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) development.
The difference is the gov’s participation in LIHTC, paying the developer a MASSIVE fee and cutting all the risk. Otherwise why would he do it?
Affordable housing is a basic need, yet NIMBYs continue to block its development in their neighborhoods. They want to keep 'undesirables' out, but who are the real undesirables? Those who fight for a roof over their head or those who deny it?
NIMBY= Not In My Back Yard🙄
“The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice” - MLK
WHAT KIND OF EXTREMIST ARE YOU?
I am always looking for properties with the right things wrong with them.
What are the “Right things” = Things I am uniquely positioned to fix that create yield.
What are the right things wrong with the assets that you buy
#Retwit
?
Bought 38 units - All duplexes.
TENANT SURVEYS- clear having private yard space was what tenants wanted.
Budget forced us to use Chainlink Fences, wood was sky high at the time.
HACK -Metal slats are an easy way to create privacy on a cost effective chain link fence
When we first started Syndicating small MF Deals, we raised money 25k- 250k at a time.
A lot of conversations, leveraging trust long since established.
Awesome broker with real story in
@BrineteChavez
, she is in the Denver Market, check her out!
Daughter of a community grocer with real operational perspective! Thanks to
@REconveneLA
for exposing me to LEGIT, diverse players in the commercial space.
@CaseyMericle
There is RETwit & Then there is the
Business of RETwit
RETwit
Is like being in the Dream Team locker room, “can’t believe these guys are this transparent.”
The Business of RETwit
Is riddled with pretenders, peddling courses, RE clickbait and 3 easy steps to financial freedom
I think of RETwit as the Locker Room for Real Estate Insiders.
So
@REconveneLA
is the all-star locker room. Thankful to be headed there ✈️
A few Tips this year for attendees that translate from my college football locker experiences… 🧵
How & why I invest in workforce/affordable housing.
CRAZY ASS IDEA....
YOU don't have to pick between making money and impacting community. 🧵
examples included.
Pretty cool to see our Real Estate story covered in one our local newspapers
@postandcourier
From meeting randomly in 2016
@GvilleChamber
event to buying $160MM of affordable workforce multifamily housing in our community. Here are the highlights!🧵
Written by
@ConorJHughes
My tenants can pay their rent when they get paid.
Why shouldn’t they be able to split their rent payment into two payments each month and avoid the embarrassment of “being late” every month ?
“It's not just what you buy, it's how you structure it, especially late in the cycle
Long-term, fixed rate debt takes much of the risk off the table day 1. Coupled with good market & asset selection and sound underwriting”
-
@phil_mcalister
The shoe of nimbyism.😂😂😂
Nimby ( Noun)-
Not in My Back Yard.” In the housing world it's used to describe people, typically existing residents (especially homeowners), who oppose new housing development near their homes—particularly denser or more affordable housing.
Just got done doing our quarterly offsite in Black Mountain, NC.
A lot of ground covered for our leadership team. The growth we have experienced is humbling &wild. 🤯
NOAH- Property Management Co. - 1,500 units of Affordable Housing
SAHA - Non Profit Affordable Housing Corp.
I’d bought and flipped 9 houses before I learned about the INCOME APPROACH & Multifamily … decided to buy an 8 unit and see if i could do it.
Check it out …
🧵
#FlashbackFriday
🧵
Feb 11th, 2017, I bought my first 8 Unit MF property. Before i start raising money/partnering i needed to prove out the value add, income approach myself
4.5 years later my partner and i bought a 151 unit complex across the street
Niche down level up.
@sweatystartup
So many things have improved my quality of life that cost lesS than 50k. Hard to pick one….
Therapy.
Books.
RE Conference(s).
Yard Guy.
House Cleaner.
I bought my first 8-unit off the MLS😮
💥 It’s a great place to look for your first “larger” MF deal.
1 - 9/10 Realtors don’t understand the income approach.
2 - Small mom-and-pop owners still use Realtors.
3 - Most large buyers in your market aren’t sourcing deals from MLS
In 2013 I bought my first house, a live-work unit downtown Greenville.
The only way I was truly able to afford it was renting out the down stairs commercial unit.
Years later while listening to RE Podcast I learned that I had performed what the kids were calling
“House Hack”
🌟TENANTS LIVING in affordable housing use Amazon too!
So,just Converted an unused “conference room” into a package HUB at this 96 unit complex!
•Melamine shelving
•Commercial Glass door
•On brand signage
•Door Decal
• Luxer mail system
Huge impact and service for 9k😎