In this YouTube interview, host Christian Osgood sits down with experienced broker‑investor Brandon Vukelic to discuss the fundamentals of out‑of‑state multifamily real estate investing. They cover Brandon’s background, how to locate and vet deals in distant markets, the importance of building personal relationships with brokers, agents, property managers, and lawyers, and when a deal is large enough to justify travel. The conversation emphasizes starting locally, consolidating a foothold before expanding, targeting 10‑30 unit properties for personal investment and larger 30‑100 unit deals for syndication partners, and the critical role of reliable property managers—preferably owners themselves. They share practical anecdotes, including a failed 73‑unit syndication in Lexington and a successful 38‑unit acquisition that grew cash flow dramatically, illustrating the value of pre‑flight due diligence and market immersion. The episode concludes with actionable advice for new investors, a reminder to work with experienced team members, and Brandon’s contact information for further learning.
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Hello YouTube, it's Christian. I am here today with Brandon for our new series. We're going over the real estate basics, some of the main questions that we get through social media on this channel. We're going to do topical stuff, and there's a lot where Brandon is actually a much better expert than I am. So today's topic is something I am underqualified to talk about, which is out-of-state investing. Now, if you haven't followed them yet, Caleb and Chucky from our mentorship group just bought their first 10-plex. They closed yesterday. We'll have them on the channel soon. However, Brandon's been playing this game for a while.
Few years, yeah.
Yeah. And so Brandon, just tell us a little bit about you. You've been a broker for some time, you've owned for a while. Let's learn a little bit about your background.
Okay, real quick. I've been a broker in Washington State since 2010, so going on 12 years now, investing for about 20. My first rental property was a condo in Las Vegas.
I didn't know that.
And it went well, but we should have just done cookie-cutter stuff, but we got greedy. And then we did real estate speculation on new construction in Vegas, and that was right as the market was crapping out in 2008 and got our asses handed to us. Hey, but education, right? You get massive education from taking action, and that's what we did. I don't regret it, and I try to share that story with people so they don't do the same mistakes that I did. But then my brother and I, we did a 1031 with our Seattle property in 2017 and bought an 18-unit in Boise, and that was one of the best decisions investment-wise I've ever made. We were looking at Austin or Boise, and Boise just, we thought was a little closer to Seattle, easier to hop over there and check it out. And that was a, that was a home run, and it's been great. And so then now we've got an 8-unit over in Eagle now too. But I watch other markets, like you said, out of state— Tulsa, Kansas City, Colorado Springs. Out-of-state investing does not need to be scary at all.
By the way, if you have deals there, post them in the chat. We'll, uh, we might fly out and check them out. But, uh, Really common question: how do you actually find the deals out of state? What Cody and I typically do is we meet with the owners in the markets we want to be in, and we do coffee meetings every week. Obviously, that would be hard to do in Tulsa if you're doing a weekly coffee meeting. I think your, your flight tickets are probably gonna outweigh your cash flow. How do you actually find and negotiate those deals in different areas?
Networking online, putting out feelers, connecting with other brokers, agents in the area, and then actually flying out there. Investing a little bit of my own money, time, and effort to go out there and say, I'm a legit investor, right? I want to be on your list. This is what I'm looking for. Give them specific criteria, get on their drip, and respond quickly. When they send you a deal, you need to respond quickly. You know, they don't, they don't have patience for tire kickers.
And that's huge for us. You need to be able to, if you're working with a broker, you want to be able to convince them that you are ready, able, and willing to buy the property. The capacity, you cannot beat a relationship. In person is the strongest method that you can possibly build that. You have body language, you have tonality, and you just can communicate. So, order of operations: you find opportunity, you talk to that broker. Phone call is always better than an email. You actually have tonality and some personality to those. If you're too far away or can't afford your plane ticket— I know there's plenty of people I've talked to who literally can't fly to their market yet— hop on a Zoom call. The closer to in-person you can get, the better, right? How often would you say you actually go out of market and fly to look at an opportunity or form a relationship?
Oh boy, only a couple times a year, honestly. But I try not to waste the trip. I'm also meeting with property managers. I try to meet at least 2 property managers so I get those kind of vetted ahead of time. So when I do find the right property, I'm ready to go with the right partner.
Okay, and I'm guessing for you, you're probably not flying all the way across the country for a single-family house. Is there a certain investment size or What opportunity makes it worth it for you personally to hop on a plane and actually go check it out?
You know, I'm trying to find a sweet spot between 10 and 30 units. That's for my personal investing, but I also have syndicating buddies that are looking to get into new markets, and they want the 30 to 80 or 100 unit type of deal. And so I'm also trying to make connections and vet properties for them as well and get connected.
Perfect. And that's one of our biggest tips for out-of-state investing. It has to be worth the flight. You can't do this unless you, if you wanna see it sight unseen, I suppose you could, but houses, duplexes, probably not going to be worth the plane ticket. You need to buy a little bigger real estate. When we have 'em on here in about a week, Caleb and Chuckie will talk about their 10-plex they just bought, $0 out of pocket. They live in San Diego, they're buying in McAllen, Texas. They have another few deals under contract, but the way they do that, it's the exact same thing. You need to build relationships. They couldn't make the flight, so they called a lot of brokers. They scheduled Zoom meetings, they saved up, did a bunch of DoorDash to get to one property. So practical application, anyone can do that because they're 19 with no money. Um, Brandon's been at this a little bit longer.
Well, yeah, and real quick, Cody and I actually, when we first kind of started to get to know each other a few years ago, we got a 73-unit under contract in Lexington, Kentucky that we were going to syndicate. And, uh, we didn't fly out there, we We did a lot of due diligence ahead of time, got our attorney involved in everything, was working with the broker, and it turned out to be kind of a dud of a deal. But we didn't waste money flying out there and hotels and cars and all that stuff. It's easy to pre-vet that deal financially.
What was wrong with that deal?
It had a lot of unique financing that was going to stay with the property, like HUD grants and things or something like that, that made it tough to kind of get out of, so.
Okay. Yeah. Well, for Cody and I, practical application, we don't invest out of state yet. We absolutely will, but right now we've built a really good base. Huge advocate for wherever you buy first, whether it's out of state or in state. Once you buy those first few properties, keep building in that area, because market control really can help you. Don't spread out everywhere immediately, especially if you're buying smaller real estate. That's going to be a headache to manage. Consolidate some of the real estate, get a good foothold in a market before moving somewhere else. That's what we're going to be doing. However, we do invest a lot out of area. So our primary investment market is about 300 miles away from where we're at right now. It's over the mountains, which get extremely snowy and hard to pass in the winter. So it's not exactly out of state, but it is absolutely out of market. For us, it's the same thing. The opportunity needs to be big enough. The first deal that we partnered on over the mountains was a 38-plex. That property Granted, made about $6,000 a month the day it closed. Today, 10 months later, it brings in $28,000 a month. That is enough to justify a drive over the mountains. We didn't just buy that one property though. Within a few months of closing on the 38, we bought a 12-plex together, a 6-plex together, a 10-plex together, a few triplexes that were side by side with the same owner. We expanded rapidly in one area. Now it is always worth the drive because we have a large enough foothold in that market where I can go over there once, twice, three times a month, and it makes sense. We have a bunch of contacts there, and you build it out. If you're just trying to buy your first rental property, you want to get your foot in the door, maybe you're buying your first duplex or fourplex, that's where I started, with a duplex, I wouldn't go too far out of market for a very small property. That's my personal advice. Brandon, you've done a lot in Idaho. What is it like managing a property in Idaho? Do you have— have you outsourced management? Do you manage it yourself? How's that look?
So what I try and tell people, you don't need to be scared about owning out of state, right? It's about finding a good property manager. And keep in mind, property managers are not house sitters. They're not going to drive by the property every week to check to see that the grass has been mowed, right? So they're there to protect the value of your asset, place good tenants, retain good tenants, And so you do have to kind of manage your manager. And as owning a property management business in the past myself, I know what to expect from them. I know what their job is like, right? So I just, it took a few months for them to kind of get to know what I was expecting out of them and understand I don't like month-to-month rentals so much, you know, leases. I don't like the premium, even though there's a premium. I like my leases to cycle April to August or so, or I'm sorry, September. And so it took a few months to get them kind of dialed in, but. Now they're rock stars, in my opinion.
That makes sense. You need to have the ability to manage your manager a little bit. Please don't hound your property managers. Brandon and I— Brandon runs our property management company as our designated broker with Cody, me, and Brandon. He is on the team. Please do not hound your property manager, but give them clear instructions. Give them guidelines for what you want them to do, and they should be happy to work with you.
Right.
One other thing I would add to that: make sure your property manager owns real estate. If at all possible, if there's anyone in that market who has real estate, an employee just doesn't think the same as an owner. If they're a service provider or an employee, they're— it's nothing against them, it's just they do not have the same mindset that you do. They're not going to think about the property the same way. But if you can find that out of market, it's exactly what you're looking for.
Same with the agent that you're working with, right?
100%. And the lawyer.
Yeah, then make sure that All your partners should have owned or do own now rental properties.
Mm-hmm. Doubly important if you're a new investor. If you don't own rental properties today and you're getting in the game, just make sure the team members do so you're working with some level of experience. So that's what we have for today. If you have any questions for Brandon, he's actually going to be joining our channel every Tuesday. We're just going to go over some of the real estate basics together because he's been doing this a little bit longer than I have. So sharing our knowledge. Brandon, you also have your own YouTube channel. How do people reach you and find you online?
Right, Multifamily Momentum, that's my YouTube channel. I'm also on Facebook and Instagram, and you can hit me up anytime on that too.
Awesome. This is Brandon Vukelic. I'm Christian Osgood signing off. Like, subscribe, put your questions below. We'll see you guys tomorrow.
