Why look at apartment & multifamily investment? The real estate investor buying multiple residential single family rental homes has a major goal of getting the best cash flow.

Appreciation and other financial benefits of ownership are desired as well, but cash flow is king. And, investors successfully operating a number of residential home rentals are generally enjoying great cash flow. What they should consider is raising their expectations and the return on their investments from apartment & multifamily properties.

Economy of scale – It’s easy to dismiss apartment & multifamily properties as being just another rental unit with the same income that a home would get for the same square footage. But, even if their rents are exactly the same, the apartment & multifamily properties owner will realize much better cash flow due to economy of scale in operations.

With a large number of units concentrated at one location, often under one roof, costs per unit drop dramatically. Maintenance, repairs, management, marketing and other expense items all will take less of the revenue per unit in an apartment & multifamily investment.

Mortgages are Not Difficult – Another incorrect assumption that keeps some investors away from apartment & multifamily investment is the large amount to purchase, and the large mortgage. They are accustomed to the residential mortgage process, verifying income, credit history and getting an individual loan for each property.

Even if the lender takes the cash flow into account, it’s a loan on one property, so any vacancy or credit loss will impact performance greatly. The economy of scale of apartment & multifamily investment jumps in here as well. A couple of vacancies or non-paying renters in a 100 unit complex aren’t nearly as damaging to cash flow.

For these reasons, lenders originate mortgages based mostly on cash flow, not the credit score or other income of the buyer. In determining whether they’ll make a loan and for how much, two ratios are used frequently.

DSCR – Debt Service Coverage Ratio: to arrive at this number, the expected mortgage payment is divided into the cash flow, using monthly numbers is best. So, if the mortgage payment is estimated to be $8,000/month, and income is $10,000/month, the DSCR would be 1.25, generally considered to be the bottom line for lenders.

Break-even: to get this number, the operating expenses are added to the mortgage payments or debt service for the year, and divided by the income for the year. So, $275,000 in expenses & debt service, and $350,000 in income would result in a break-even of about 79%.

Knowing how lenders look at apartment & multifamily investments and cash flow will help you to identify amazing potential in the market.

I’ll share more with you soon…

Fondly,

Karen Hanover, CCIM Candidate
Apartment Education Institute, President

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