Michelle Maran and Craig Smith both had prior exposure to rentals but it wasn’t until they started looking at multifamily rental and purchased one that they actually started seeing real estate as a huge investment opportunity. They had to grow their confidence over the years – and the key was taking it one step at a time.

Here’s what we talked about:

Episode Highlights:

How They Got Started

Back in college, Michelle got her real estate license thinking she could do it part-time while she was in school and also a new mom. Given the nature of the industry, she decided to do referrals over the years and making money by connecting family and friends with real estate agents.

Michelle and Craig both had prior exposure to renting out single families. He had a couple when he was in the UK at different times, while Michelle had one in New Jersey.

In the UK, there's a fairly high capital appreciation, but actually a fairly low rent return. Craig ended up selling his properties in the UK because he had to move to the U.S. There was negative cash flow but it still worked out financially because he sold it for a premium. To put it in context, the property went up to 30% in 14 months.

Aware that finances work a lot better with multifamilies, they started looking at multifamily.

Building Confidence One Step at a Time

Michelle's knowledge of the real estate market was a big thing. Michelle had the vision, she felt confident in the investment, knew the area very well – and she proved it 100%. Now, they have a lot of equity in the property. The rent has increased as improvements have been made. Once they felt confident to take another step, they bought a larger multifamily building.

Why You Don't Want to Chase Deals

You really don't want to chase deals. Instead, you need to do your homework in terms of finances because there's an optimum price for every deal. If you get better than that, then great. If you get worse than that, you just need to look at the additional risk.