Pending US home sales fell to the lowest level on record in 2008, according to the National Association of Realtors. With home prices dropping, and that market following Wall Street down the slippery slope, it stands to figure that the apartment market is up. With so many displaced former homeowners, they have to live somewhere. With educated apartment building investors enjoying higher occupancy rates and reaping higher rents, the only remaining question is ‘How do I cash in?’
Steve Steadele, author of Multifamily Millionaire: How To Get Wealthy Buying and Selling Apartment Buildings from New Wealth Publishing, can tell people how to get their share of a booming apartment market the way the pros do. Not a scam, not a gimmick – simply a solid market opportunity.
“What’s really exciting about this is that novice investors can be just as successful as seasoned pros,” Steadele said. “I own lots of properties and was able to get into them easily, without a lot of cash. One seller even paid me $20,000 to take his building. Today Sellers want out of their rental property because they bought at the wrong time in the wrong place. Some guru told them to mortgage their house and buy an apartment building at the top of the cycle. Those same Buyers are today’s Sellers. They lost a lot of money and in some cases they lost the property. Many have other investments that are tanking and they need to liquidate assets to stay afloat. It’s unfortunate. Had they been properly educated, they could have avoided this mess. Now their losses can be your gain.”
Most real estate investment ideas are faced with a natural cynicism, primarily because there are so many hucksters out there pitching their “secrets” to buying and selling real estate without capital and without experience. The old axiom of “buyer beware” usually accompanies these programs, because many people ask the legitimate question of, “if this was so easy, why isn’t everyone doing it?” Steadele offers no such illusions when talking about the burgeoning apartment market.
“The controversial part about this is that most gurus talk about how easy it is to do,” he said. “It’s not easy – but it’s not prohibitively difficult, either.”
Like all high-priced business deals, there is a strong component of research, planning and sweat equity that goes into being successful, which answers the cynic’s query. It’s not easy, but it is feasible.
The general clarion call here is that apartments make sense. They’re one of the best long-term investments a person can make. Steadele teaches people when, where and how to buy apartment buildings so they can do what they want, when they want.