How Jinil bought a 48 unit apartment deal with $0 (and no experience)

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What's up, guys? So today we are having a special guest on today, Janelle. He just bought his first apartment complex and literally 30x his wealth and assets under management in about 8 or 9 months. So through apartments, we're gonna bring him on. And before I introduce him, we got Larry here and Randy on. On the team. So all combined, if you were to tally up everybody's portfolio, there's around 500 million plus represented in assets. And so today we want to break down and have Janiel share exactly how he was able to accomplish such a feat. And so thanks, guys, for being here. Thanks, Janiel, for jumping on Janelle.

Thanks for having me.

30X.

All right. Yeah. And look, guys, Janil, let me just say this before he shares, this is a guy who, against all odds, all right, against the. It disrupted the typical narrative of, you know, the slow, perilous journey, real estate investing, going single family. He disrupted all that and was able to make a change into apartment investing and literally transform not only his life, but his family's generations to come. And it was all because he took action and he was able to really think bigger. And so I'm really excited to have Janelle on today because I, you know, and the other thing is, he had no major prior experience. I think he had one single family before taking down a 48 unit apartment complex and no major access to capital. So, Janelle, thanks for being on. Let's get into it, man. Let's talk about your deal that you just bought. And I know you got more that's now snowballing and you're looking to do more. So killer job. One thing I love about what you did with these deals is you. You took a very creative approach in many aspects. Not just the financing portion, but also bringing capital partners on with a 1031 exchange. Coming into the deal and doing several different things like that, that just showed your resourcefulness. And so I'd love for us to break down this specific deal, but then each. Each part and just kind of elaborate. How can other people do a similar thing? And when they get into a deal, how can they structure it to be advantageous for them? So thanks for bringing on. Why don't you break down the deal for us?

Yeah, no, Jonathan, thanks for having me. It feels like an honor. You know, believe it or not, like you mentioned, you know, I only had one single family house before I joined REI. And since then, we've. I've acquired this 48 unit and got a couple other deals in the pipeline. Um, and so the 40 unit. It was actually quite. It was quite intense. For being my first one, I feel like I got to see a lot, a lot, a lot. I got to experience so much. It was unbelievable. You know, we had, like you mentioned, we had somebody come in with a 1031 exchange. We had prep equity involved. We had, you know, we did a syndication where originally it was just one class, and then two, incentivize the current investors to invest more. We created multiple classes so that way they could earn more additional equity per 100,000. And so we pretty much did whatever it took to be able to get this across the finish line. And again, you know, it's like, I think that's the beauty of real estate, right? Is there is no such thing as a right answer and there's no wrong answer. As long as it makes sense for everybody and everybody's happy, you can get a deal done. And so for R48, that's what we had to do. We had to get somebody that it only made sense for them if they, if they were allowed to do a 1031. So we said yes. We had the seller, we asked them to be a prep equity partner. In order for us to get it across the finish line, we got them to agree. We had one investor that was investing 100,000, and then we brought on a second class where if anybody invested a quarter million or more, they would get 50% additional equity. And we got people to commit that way as well. So it was, it was a great learning curve. And it was, it was tremendous what you can do. If you allow your mind to really open up and be creative, you can, you can really get any deal done.

Wow. Yeah.

And.

And let me just say this too. You have a very busy schedule. You're not necessarily just using a bunch of your free time here. You have a, have a family, you have a newborn, right? Yeah. And you own a couple restaurants.

That's right, I do.

So, so not, not, not too much time on your hands, but you were still able, I mean, what. Give us a little background on yourself and like, you know, how you, how you kind of went through this as far as your ability to, to set this time aside and all those kind of things.

Yeah, well, you know, I think it all started, you know, again, you know, once I got married, you know, so it's like a lot of the credit goes to my wife because if she wouldn't have came into my life and then once we, if we never got together, we would have never had our newborn. And so these two really changed my life and changed the way I started thinking, because as soon as we found out that she was pregnant, I said, listen, I got to do something, and I got to do something big, and I got to do it now, because once he comes, I may or may not have time. And so when we found out, it was a total surprise, of course, and. And I said, okay, how can I get a deal done? And what's the best way to accelerate my knowledge? And that's where I put God first. And I joined REI and gained enough knowledge, you know, made a lot of connections, talked to a lot of people like yourself, Larry, on all the calls. And I told myself, when I joined, I said, listen, I do not care what happens. I do not care what lines I have to cross. I don't care how far I have to go, but I am going to make it a goal that I am going to get a deal done, no matter what. No if, ands, or buts. That's the only thing that was on my mind. And, you know, I'm not sure if you're aware, but, you know, while we were working on this deal, you know, I had. Our newborn was born towards the end, and then four days later, my dad had passed while we were still working on this deal. And so it was a lot. But I said, you know, God sees the amount of effort and energy and time you put into it, and if he feels you're doing your absolute best, I think he will help you find the end of the tunnel. And that's exactly what happened.

That's awesome, man. That's exciting. All right, man. Well, thank you for sharing that. So 48 units, $3.65 million deal. How did you come across this deal? How did you identify the deal? How was that process?

Yeah, so this deal, I actually came. I came across from a broker. I actually reached out to the broker regarding a different deal. Even though I knew this deal wasn't going to fit in my buy box, I wanted this opportunity to really make that connection and give them the respect of, hey. I responded to him within 24 hours and said, listen, this deal, deal doesn't work, but if you have something in this criteria that fits my box, please send it my way. I will submit an offer in 24 hours if it makes sense for me, and if it doesn't, I will simply let you know that it doesn't make sense. And so he appreciated that. It was like a couple of months had gone by, and then he sent me a portfolio of three properties that were for sale at the Time, same seller selling all three properties. This 48 units, was the only one that I felt really made the most sense for our investors and for what we're trying to accomplish. And so I submitted an offer on the 48 and told them the other two didn't work for me. I said, listen, if I get this 48 done, maybe we can circle back and revisit those two properties if they're still looking to sell them. And so they had actually accepted our offer. And then actually, before we were able to execute a contract, they had another buyer that submitted an offer for all three properties. And so when that happened, he called me and said, listen, the seller, nothing wrong with your offer, but he wants to sell all three together. And so that's why he's not going to move forward. And I said, listen, I totally understand. If I'm in the seller's shoes, I would do the same thing. I want to sell all three. Somebody wants to buy all three, I would go with them. So left it on good terms. And I said, listen, if anything changes, this 48 unit is really attractive to what I'm looking to accomplish, and please let me know if anything changes. Well, I stayed up on him every two weeks. I would just pick up the phone and give him a call and say, hey, listen, how are things going? You know, are things progressing? Are you guys out of contract? And it was actually after my third call, it had been six weeks, and the seller, the seller that was going to buy all three properties had not submitted his EMD yet. And I said, listen, I'm looking at another property, but I still like this 48 unit better because of the location. If you tell me in the next few days that you know it's going to be available, I would like to submit an offer. So he called me back the very next day and he said, listen, the seller backed out. If your offer still stands, he would like to sell you this 48 units. And so that's how we ended up getting under contract. And then rest is history, like they say. I know it was like a super long story, but that was really the whole process, I think, just to get under contract. I think the whole process was about three to five months, give or take.

Well, let me interject here, too, just to not swim past that goal that fast, you know what I mean?

That.

That so oftentimes, you know, and again, people that are listening, you know, they'll get. You're starting into this arena. You're already in the arena of looking at real estate, and something comes into your inbox. That doesn't work. Delete without, you know, and Jamil did something that we talk about and recommend all the time is you're developing relationship with those brokers or with those parties, developing the element of them seeing the, you know, respect, if you will, towards them by doing the work. Like he just said, like, hey, this one doesn't work for me. And here's why. That way the guy sees, hey, like the guy literally looked at it and didn't just blow it off. And then out of that, that bore, the other opportunity that materialized, you know, a couple months later. And so that right there, when you know, people are missing, hey, I'm not getting nothing. I can't find nothing. It's like, but are you really doing the work? Right? So that was part of doing the work. And you know, there's a great. You got to persevere in doing good, for in due time you shall read.

Right.

So that perseverance came into play that, you know, not only the first round, but then getting pulled back and the second round having to do the same thing. And so again, kudos to you, Jamil, for, you know, stay in the course because that's ultimately what it takes when we're working on stuff like this.

Yeah.

And one thing I do want to add real quick, I know is like Rennie Manchin, you know, it's the, one of the biggest hurdle to get across as a newcomer is the proof of funds. You know, that's, I feel like that is one of the biggest challenges people, is how do you get across proof of funds? We, I had built this relationship with these guys for almost three to five months where the question of proof of funds was never there. It was just, when are we going to be under contract? And so like you mentioned, I think is that relationship is really important is to avoid questions like, okay, proof of funds, because it's not, it's not easy to provide proof of funds.

Right.

But every, every problem is solvable. Right. Especially if you have that, that network and those relationships. And Jamil, what I, what I heard was just your determination and your persistence to get a deal done. And you kept following up and you kept staying after it and you were determined to get a deal and you did. And it's really inspiring your, your entrepreneurial story and, and now you're a successful real estate investor. I look forward to seeing you pass us all in your portfolio size.

Yeah, that's right.

I don't know. I think that's. I gotta have a long way to go. One day. But I don't.

It'll be very well, one asset at a time, right?

That's right. You got one that you could share about, this one that you bought. You're about to lock into contract here soon. But I mean, let's just, let's break that down because there are some key factors and part of that deal that I just thought was incredible, right, and one that you got the seller to finance $500,000. Right. And so, you know, that is a major deal for a lot of people that are trying to navigate the market right now. You know, seller finance is a, is a, comes in clutch and a lot of these deals to be able to make sense of it, especially in today's market with financing being outrageous. And, and so why don't you walk through a little bit of that because obviously seller financing means we can get better terms or we can give the seller their price for our terms. Right. And so navigate. How did you get the seller, convince the seller to do $500,000. And, and really you had a, what million dollar raise here? So I'm sure that was intimidating, right, when you've never raised that kind of money before.

And I would bet his first answer was no if I had to.

I think, you know, I think a lot of it comes down to, and I'm a big believer in this. It's not what you say, it's all about how you say it. And so, so when we, when, when I approached the seller for the seller carry, it wasn't so much like, hey, this is the only way we're going to get the deal done. You know, I, we hopped on this call and I said, hey, listen, the rates when we were originally looking at this deal was, you know, it was 5.8%. I'm like, as you know, the interest rate is about seven and a quarter, seven and a half right now. And I said, we do not want to lower your purchase price, but instead I said, if the seller is willing to provide us some assistance for a couple of years just so we can stabilize, we want to keep the purchase price the same. Otherwise we would have to lower the purchase price, which is not what we want to do. We want to keep the seller happy by giving him what he wants in terms of purchase price. We're just asking for a little bit of assistance to be able to get across the finish line and make sure all the other investors are happy as well. Because, you know, at the time the total raise was about 1.7 million and at an interest rate of about you know, seven and a quarter. It really kills your, you know, at seven and 7.5 opposed to the 5.8 when we were originally underwriting. That's a pretty big difference, almost 2%. And it really kills the cash flow. And I helped. I made sure the seller understood where we're coming from and why we're asking for this help. I said, Listen, this 2% gap is really killing our cash flow. There's just not enough for us to be able to get this across the finish line. I said, our EMD hasn't gone hard yet, but I want to make sure we sort this out before EMD goes hard. I said, if we can't get any assistance and if the rate doesn't just magically drop close to 6% again, we're going to have to pull out. And so I said, we need to know. I'm like, we have another two weeks. I'm like, talk to the seller. You know, I said, talk to the seller. You have about a week. Please let us know at least 72 hours before the money is going to go hard. He comes back, you know, he calls me back two days later, and he said, listen, the seller is willing to help. And that's how we actually convinced the seller to give us the Karen Desperate.

That's some good sales training. You didn't come with a problem you gave him. You told him how he was going to be better for him, right?

Yeah, exactly.

That's amazing.

So sorry. Granted, you know, before we were under contract, we were. We agreed to a price of 3.65. But then after I toured the property, the broker calls me back and says, hey, listen. The seller countered at 3.68. I had a call with the attorney later that late afternoon, and I called a broker and I said, listen, we had an agreement to 3.65. Where is this counteroffer at 3.68? Long story short, I told him 3.68 was not going to work. I said, we will have to step away if 3.65 does not work. I don't think it was for me. It wasn't the whole $30,000 difference. I think it was a matter of principle. You don't agree, Let me go see the property now. I like it. And you come back and say, hey, the price has gone up. And so we were. We were willing to walk away over 30,000. And so I think a lot of that, you know, I think left a good taste in the seller and the broker's mouth with the way we were operating, you know, during the whole process.

Yeah, that's good. How did you know it was a good deal? How did you look at the deal and what's the game plan for it?

Yeah, so, well, I knew because one, I've been in Michigan for the last 25 odd years or so. Lansing, where we bought it's about an hour and 15 minutes from where I currently live. It is right next to Michigan State University. So I knew that area very well. You know, I'd gone there to hang out with friends and at the university. And so I knew exactly where this was. And this property, it falls under Lansing, but it's right on the border of the campus and it was directly behind a University of Michigan Health Health and Sparrow Hospital. And so I knew that location was really prime. And when they sent me the rent roll, it had been 100% occupied for the last several years, which made me think that, okay, the rents have to be below market. There's no way you're 100% all the time if you're getting top dollar. So I got his rent roll, I checked the neighborhood and I realized instantly, okay, these rents are about 250 to $300 below market rents. And for me it was more the location, location, location. That's where I knew it was going to be a great deal. And the fact that the rents were at least 250 to 300 below market just with the neighborhood.

That'S good. That's awesome, man. So look, you got a lender to loan you 70% loan to cost somewhere around there, right? Six point, was it 75% interest rate, 30 year a.m. yep, it was a.

6.71% five year term, 30 year. Yep.

Got you. Okay. How did you get that loan? First apartment deal. Never done a deal before. Obviously the, the requirements are probably not met from a lender. Right. You got to have the net worth equal to the loan amount, 10% liquid of the loan amount. And you need experience, which is the hardest part, right?

Yes. I mean this was, I think, I think there was a hurdle that I had accomplished each along each way. And it was always like, okay, now what's going to be the next problem that we have to figure out? You know, my mindset always is, there's always a problem. You just have to find a solution. There's always a solution. Nothing is impossible. I mean, of course putting toothpaste pack in a bottle, that might be a little impossible, but I promise, you spend enough time, you'll get that toothpaste back in there. So, you know, it was as soon as I knew what the next problem was, I said, man, I said, okay, how do we. I'm like, okay, I'm like, now how do I find somebody? You know? And again, the coaches at REI were great, Said, hey, these are some areas you can look at. So I went to Facebook. I was probably a part of 50 to 75 real estate related Facebook groups where I created a template where I could just copy it and then paste it on all 50 or 75 that I was a part of. And I would do this three to four times a week every other day. So this way I was right back up top and I did the same thing. I went on LinkedIn. You know, I found out LinkedIn was another one. This one requires a little bit more work, but I think it's a little bit more, I think you're gonna get somebody more legitimate a lot quicker when it does happen. And so I would just have to multifamily real estate and I would see everybody and I would just start messaging everybody, Hey, I got a deal under contract. We're looking for a loan sponsor. If this is an area you're looking for, I'd love to connect. And look, long story short, I mean, I think after like three, three, maybe four weeks and posting on all the Facebook and LinkedIn, I would probably say over a thousand times, just in the matter of a month, eventually came across somebody and we connected. And after one call, he said, listen, call your lender tomorrow, connect me and let's make sure I qualify. And that's how I came across this loan sponsor. And he slowly became a mentor as well because he started in the same, the same field. You know, he remembered, he remembered starting on his first deal and how he had somebody that helped him. And so now he kind of took that role to help me and guide me at the same time. So I've now created like this lifelong partnership and a mentorship where I can just call him any day of the week and he'll just pick up and help me in any way, shape or form he can.

That is amazing. I hope everybody's still paying attention and caught that. That's like a multiple seven figure nugget. You just, you just gave there, you.

Did that right now wor thinking what we should have been on the deal, you know, Dang. Yeah, we should have been that guy. But no, he, that's.

But what else could you find? You did that in a matter of what, 30 days?

30 days. But you know, it was just that consistent.

What could you do in a year.

Oh, you could do a lot. You could probably buy a billion dollar skyscraper in a year. You just got to figure out how.

Yeah, again, you hear that posted a thousand times in three weeks. And again, you know, you think about times where, you know, people are like, well, I called three people and it didn't, didn't work. It's like, well, you know, three is probably not enough. Thirty may not be enough. The answer is it's enough until it works. You know what I mean? And so, so that's great. You know, that's definitely inspiring, Jamil, to hear that, not only for the audience, but for us as well. It's always good to be reminded about the tenacity, perseverance to get the outcome. That's ultimately what it. You know, in every circumstance and situation, what you echoed is true. There's always different challenges, but with those challenges is opportunity. And it's opportunity to figure it out and move forward. So, you know, well done, well played. You know, it kind of reminds me of Edison. He learned 9,999 ways that the light bulb didn't work. And on the 10,000, boom, it worked. And you know, too often times, like, look. And I mean, I think if we're being honest, all of us could admit, like, hey, sometimes I stop short, right? It's like, no, you got to go all the way. And how often do you got to do it? You got to do it all the time. It's like, that's the ticket, right? That's the ticket. Yeah.

That's good, man. So what's the plan going forward? What is. What are you excited about? What do you. And how have things changed for you since you did that deal? Like, what's it. What is your. What's going on now?

Well, I got another story for you. I know I'm like taking up so much time, but this one actually, I feel like it's very worth. It's worth to hear. So after we closed our 48 units, I got a call from a friend who was a broker that I connected with during early Covid, when I was originally trying to buy apartments with. With a group of friends. That didn't work out. So I stopped talking to him. So mind you, this broker I met through one of my best friends, so we really didn't know each other that well. Well, after I closed the 48 units, he calls me out of the blue. I was surprised he still had my phone number. He calls me out of the blue. This one after. It was like a Monday afternoon. I remember because I'VE been meaning to call him, but because our newborn was just, you know, he was keeping me busy. I didn't get a chance to call him, just to tell him, but he calls me. He said, he picked up the phone and just says like, hey, Jill, congratulations. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, one. I'm surprised you remember me because we never were on like a formal, like a friend basis like that. And I said, colin, I said, hey, man, thanks for calling. I'm like, congratulations for what? And he said, well, he's like, I found out you closed on that 48 unit deal. And my first question to him was, how did you find out? And he said he heard from his connections that the person that closed on a 48 unit complex was the same guy that owned the two hungry house pizza. So Hungry. How is this well known in Michigan? And he said he found out that the person that owned the two Hungry House locations in Ann Arbor bought that 48 units. I had told him this about six, seven years ago that I owned Hungry House in Ann Arbor. And he said as soon as somebody told him that, he instantly knew it was me. And he picked up the phone and called me and he said, I knew it was you. And so as soon as I called him, he said, he's like, well, are you still in the market for another deal? And I said, listen, we're always in the market. I'm like, as long as it makes sense for the seller, it's gonna. It has to make sense for us, but it also has to make sense for the seller. He says, I haven't. He's like, I have a completely off market 36 unit deal. Nobody knows he wants to sell other than the broker, the seller, the property management company, and maybe me now. And it was in the same exact neighborhood of our 48 unit deal. And so that's why he brought it up to me. And I said, absolutely. And asked him, well, I'm like, what is the seller looking for? He tells me that the seller would entertain anything at 50,000 per door. Mind you, we bought the 48 unit for 76,000 a door. And I said, colin, I'm sending you an LOI right now. I sent him an LOI literally 10 minutes after he sends it to the seller. Send. Seller counter is back at 2.2. And then I. I said, okay, 2.2. Even though it's still an amazing deal. I said, okay, what more can I say? Go back to brainstorming. I put myself in the seller's shoes. I Said, okay, what would make me happy? Well, me as a seller, if I'm getting anything north of 2 million, I'm happy. And so we offered 2,050,000 and he accepted. And right now we're under contract. Just had our inspection done last week. We're raising about 800,000. We offer, already have 650 committed, and we're not even halfway through our due diligence period yet.

There you go. That's beautiful, man. Great job. Look at that. That's what happens, guys. And that's what I love to see, is you get that first deal. It's the uphill climb, but then it starts snowballing. You have better deals that are being sent to you. You have more capital being sent to you. That's just beautiful, man. And, and, and what's key is you are stewarding the relationships you made on the previous deal. And, and you're going to have lifelong investors. I mean, you know, you're going to have lifelong people committed to your portfolio, your growth, and they're going to be recommending people. So taking care of each person is what's so key. Well, look, I appreciate you jumping on here, and I want to, I want to give, say, one more question, like, what would you recommend for someone who was in your shoes and, and, you know, was. Are looking for their first deal or maybe they want to scale up their portfolio. What is the biggest recommendation or steps you feel like they should take?

Listen, it worked for me. I don't see why it shouldn't work for them. Gotta join rei. You have to join this mentorship program because now, again, you know, I feel like I'm a prime example. You know, I didn't close my apartment complex until I joined rei. And I felt I just put God first. I joined the mentorship program. I said, listen, if it doesn't work out, great. But I can't say I didn't try. Put got first. I joined the group. Guess what changed my life forever.

Let's go, man. Change your generations to come.

That's it. That's it. And, you know, and it's crazy. I tell my wife right now, you know, it's like, well, thanks to her and our baby, you know, I went from dealing in dollars for pizza to millions in real estate. And literally, in about six to nine months, went from dollars of slices to millions in real estate. That's literally what happened.

That's good. Yeah, that's what we got a friend that says, you deal in dollars, you make dollars, you, you work with thousands, you make Thousands. You work with millions, you make millions.

That's right.

You know, so that's good, man. Well, thanks so much for being here, Janelle. Appreciate you jumping on and praying for just wild success for you this year, man. So I appreciate forward to working with you more.

We're hoping to get this 36 unit done and right now we're in talks with the seller to. Now I just got us to convince this broker and the seller to why they should sell us this 260 units. So that's next and hopefully we can wrap up the year and then hopefully a thousand doors by the end of next year. But that's the goal.

Awesome.

There we go.

We'll be, if we, if we get all three of these done, we'll already be at close to 400. So to get another 600 next year, I think it's only going to be that much easier because of all the relationships.

All right, man.

With that attitude, you will for sure.

You will.

Yeah, I hope so.

Great.

Great to see you.

Thanks again.

God bless.

This is always encouraging and it's a great motivator even for myself. We all need motivation every day.

Amen. Revisit your wins, your why. Well, look guys, thanks for joining. Thanks for jumping on. If you are looking for a community of high achievers, people that are going after it and are serious about increasing their portfolio size, it's serious about making generational impact, generational income. We'd love to see if re accelerator is a good fit for you. So we'll drop a link in the, in the description and, and you can book a call with, with our team and see if it might be a good fit for you to join in on this community. But God bless, have a wonderful time, a wonderful day and we'll see you on the next call. All right, guys.