How To Break Into The Competitive Niche Of Multifamily Syndication

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the Land Geek, with your favorite niche real estate website, www.thelandgeek.com. and I'm super pumped for today's guest. But before we talk to our guest, I'd be remiss if I didn't properly introduce my co hosts. You know him, you love him. The Brain, the Professor, your Land Geek, flight school Sherpa. Scott Todd from scotttodd.net landamoto.com and most importantly, if you're not automating your Craigslist and your Facebook postings, postingdomination.com TheLand Gig Scott Todd, how are you?

I'm good. I always feel like you're gonna say Anne Marianne. Like, I don't know why, but I feel like you're doing something with Gilligan's island. You know, like the Brain, the Professor, Anne Marianne. I don't know. I don't know.

It's not a bad idea to bring it in.

Listen, we could. We could just change that, but then everybody be like, well, who's Marianne? So let's not do that.

Right. But you know who we do have on not Marianne? Tamar Marr. Did I say that correctly?

You sure did.

All right, if you don't know about Tamar Mar, she's an entrepreneur, investor, and proponent of intentional lifestyle design, which I'm very excited to discuss. She has nearly 20 years under her belt working in the startup and small business arena, but she took the plunge and launched her own business and invested in others. And she often says that she is the CEO of her dreams. She consistently focuses on ways to maximize business opportunities and generates enough passive income to be financially free and curate the lifestyle she and her family desires. Tamar has been investing in real estate since she was 19 and has owned rental properties for more than 15 years. She's done a lot, and she's actually like our doppelganger in a way with this whole lifestyle design passive income thing. And I'm really excited to talk to her. Tamar Mar, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much. I'm super pumped to be here. And I have to say, that was a really, really fun intro by y'.

All. Well, thank you.

This is going to be a fun conversation. I can tell already.

I am really hoping it is. But the first question I think is going to be a curve ball for you.

Okay.

Are you ready for it?

I can do this. I am ready.

When was the point in time in your life where you said to yourself, I am going to intentionally create the lifestyle of my dreams? Was there any point where, okay, things are not going the way I want, I'm bouncing around like a pinball and now it's time for me to take control, design it.

So there's a yes and a no. I am Glass is almost full time type of a person all the time. And ever since I was a little girl, I've always been super optimistic and I laugh all the time. And I just have always loved life and I always feel like life is wonderful where like, that's just how I approach things. I just show up with excitement. And so it's not that there was anything that was happening to me that wasn't great. But I think if I were to go rewind the clock back a little bit, maybe when my kids were littler. So maybe about seven years ago or so when I started doing some personal development type of a work, then I started focusing more on actively looking to my future and making changes now to create an even a more amazing future. Whereas more before I would more just focus on the present, which, you know, when you're focusing on the future, you also want to take action steps in the present to get to that place. But I think the personal development work led me to that place where I was very focused on writing out my goals every day and dreaming a lot bigger than I had ever dreamt before. And, um, so no specific moment. I did have a moment very specifically, and that was just over two years ago during a conversation with somebody where I realized I want to not be the CEO of somebody else's dreams anymore. I was in the executive suite for a couple of startup companies, smaller businesses, and I just realized, I've done this long enough, I'm ready to pursue my own dreams and go after those and be the CEO of them. Because I know that once I was unleashed and not working for somebody else, then I could pursue them and reach my goals much faster. So that was a very specific moment that actually made me leave my job and start going after this whole multifamily investing thing and switching from single family houses.

Yeah. So let's talk about that. And the Meroda Group, you focus on the acquisition of underperforming multifamily and commercial properties. Of all the real estate niches, why that one?

Okay, so we had been doing single family houses, my husband and I, for years at that point. And we had ramped up our investing game for about four years leading up to that point where we were buying houses on auction and sight unseen, turning them into rentals. And I just knew that at the rate we were buying them, we were using our own money, we're using a heloc, purchasing them with cash refinancing, rinse and repeat. And it was taking us probably about every nine months. We were getting a house and I thought that's going to take an awful long time to reach my passive income goals. So I wanted to figure out a way to do that more quickly. I had been hearing about syndication for several years on BiggerPockets and because I had worked at a regulatory solutions firm on Wall street, essentially which we went into the world's largest financial institutions and solved regulatory hurdles as pertain their technology solutions and other problems that they were having. I really understood the law and regulations and finance and everything that I heard about syndicating was a combination of those things. And then making a lot of friends in the industry and raising capital and putting it together. And then with my operations background as a coo, I realized that a multifamily asset, every single one, is a small business. So really the bottom line that you need to do is increase revenues, decrease expenses and improve overall operational efficienc. So between all of that experience, I thought it's a no brainer for me to go and just start a syndication business with all this experience I have. So that's why I did it. And it's not that I ruled out all these other ideas, it's just the one that sometimes there's an option that comes into your path and you start looking into it a little bit more and it seems like the right thing to do and it felt like the right thing to do for me.

I love it. Scott, Ty with your thoughts.

All right, so look, I have looked at multifamily, right. Like I look for what you're talking about because I think that there is. Even though we focus on land a lot.

Yeah.

The reality is, is that you, it's so easy to get shiny object syndrome. And then you hear something like oh, syndication. Or you hear all this stuff. And so I'm not going to lie, I've gone out and I've like peruse, you know, you know, listings or whatever, looking, looking for that type of a deal. And clearly I don't have the education that I need in order to find the deals. And I mean like the syndication part, I know it's not, I know it's not, you know, easy but at the same time I know it's not like impossible to do. It's just really, you know, getting the paperwork done and then, you know, finding the people who can invest in it. But, you know, like, it seems like multifamily is so competitive. And, you know, I like, I don't see the deals. Like, I don't see them. How, how do you source them, how do you find them? You know, how would somebody get started in that, that kind of a strategy?

Yeah, I really believe. Very good point. And it is a super competitive game, and it really depends on the market that you're in and the size of deal that you're going after and who your competitors are, and knowing how to work with them, knowing how other people put in offers and making competitive offers that throw you under the bus. So how do I find them? I'll be honest, I haven't felt like it's been super competitive for me. And I think it's really boils down to having great relationships with brokers. And one of my biggest philosophies in my business is outsourcing everything that I possibly can. It's not everything by any means, but it's the things that are more complicated and take more time. So, for instance, outsourcing my loans to a mortgage broker that they have the relationship with 70 different banks. And I don't want to, nor do I have time to, because that's not what I want to be spending my time doing with brokers. With, with the real estate brokers. They spend their time 100% of their time trying to find deals. And so they're making the relationships with the owners and every. Everything like that. And so there's a lot of folks out there that will do mailers or they'll go driving for dollars, and I go and look at neighborhoods, but I won't spend my time going and doing mailers because it's not the best use of my time. If I can show up and fly to a new market or drive to a new market repeatedly and get in front of brokers and have a great relationship with them. In essence, build a friendship with them and show them that we want to create win win situations. Who are they going to want to do business with? They want to do business with the people that they want to hang out with and they trust and they know that they can perform. And so part of that is just communicating what you're capable of and what you've done in the past and then just repeatedly getting in touch with them and saying, I want to see everything that you have within this criteria. And when they send over something, this doesn't meet my criteria, but this would meet my criteria. Let me know if you have anything else? Getting in touch with them for a market evaluation, what's changing in the market, Let me know what's going on. Talk to them about their kids, birthdays, or how was skiing last weekend. Just be personal about things. So that has been the number one tip that I've found, has been the most helpful. And, and even though my very first multifamily deal was on LoopNet, my second one was an off market deal. My third one was an off market deal. My next one was through my multifamily investor connection, like throughout the country. I'm just involved in networking throughout the country with other investors. And I found my other deal that way. The deal that I'm getting ready to get under contract on right now, it's from flying out to a new market meeting with some new brokers, and they brought me an off market deal. So there hasn't been the super crazy competitiveness that I think other people are seeing. And that, that isn't to say there's lots of other deals that come my way that just are not good. There's that stuff that happens as well. But the deals that I've gotten under contract have not been very competitive for me.

Yeah, I think that that's kind of like the challenge I see is like, I see these things and it just seems like there's a lot of them that just aren't as great or don't meet the criteria that I'm looking for. I guess it seems like. And look, I'm. Not like. I know it, but, you know, essentially if my only source is LoopNet, I've heard like numerous times that LoopNet is like the garbage can.

Small portion of, you know, properties that are listed go on to LoopNet, not nearly half of them go on to LoopNet. So it's a. Not a great source of information.

Yeah, See, that's. I think that's kind of the missing component.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you know, to echo Tamar's point, you know, it's a cliche, but it's really so true, is that real estate is a relationship business. And so oftentimes, you know, you'll see people who want to, you know, go into the numbers of it, but the numbers, you won't get the numbers until you have the relationships. And the relationships have to come first. So the next question then, Tamar, is, what's the worst advice you see or hear given in multifamily investing?

Ooh. Okay. So I have to say that's a tough question for me to ask or to Answer. Because I filter out that sort of stuff all the time. You know how you just have this thing where you pay attention to the things that really matter and make a difference in your life. I do that so much that I don't even remember the really bad stuff. So I don't think I can even come up with something right there.

Yeah, I mean, you know, if I had a guess, I bet it'd be something to do with funding or, you know, something like that, you know, do your first deal with X like something like that. If I had to guess, I don't know. But.

Well, I would say do your research on funding. So specifically of, I think you're going to have different perspectives from your mortgage broker or the bank versus economists and other successful real estate investors that are out there that have been doing it for a really long time. So there's a reason why I pay attention to people who have been in the business for, you know, 10, 15, 20 years. They clearly have some solid advice to offer. If you're listening to a mortgage broker, they might say, well, why don't you just take the three year note or the five year note, this might get you a better rate. Whereas if you go for a 10 year note, it's going, going to be this much more expensive and it's going to be harder to refinance out of it. Whereas in my mind right now I'm thinking, well, I want the longer note. I don't care if I'm paying a little bit more for interest because I want to make sure that I position myself accordingly with a market correction and I'm not stuck with a note that's due in five years where we might have a downturn in the economy. So in regards to advice, I never take advice from one person, then completely trust it. I always validate by many other sources and I listen to so many different podcasts. I read a ton, I follow the economy and politics and everything else that's going on. So you have to really get your information from a bunch of different sources instead of just going to one person who's maybe a leader in the space and trusting everything that they say.

Yeah, I love that. Scott. Todd?

Yeah, I think, you know, I think that there's there's relevant, relevant stuff in there, you know, that you just said, you know, like kind of deciphering from your own, from multiple sources. Because like we all have, we all have our own experiences and we all have our own ways of doing things, but it's never really the one way fits all there's not just one expert. So I'm glad you actually said that.

Right.

You know, I think that, I think that kind of. I think that there's cool opportunities to kind of do what you're doing in terms of the syndication. I think that you know where you're going there. But I want to know, like, how do you, how do you get going in front of a broker when you, when you don't have that truck record, it's your first deal. Like, you go to the broker and he's going to want to know, like, what have you done before? I've invested in land. Okay, cool. Or I've done nothing. I listen, I want to break free. I want to be like you, but yet I want to leave my corporate gig. How do I leave my corporate gig and break that cycle if I've never done the deal? What, how do you start? What do you recommend to people?

Okay, so I have two things that I like talking about here. Number one is you have to have confidence in yourself before anybody else will believe you. So work on that first. And if you do not believe in yourself, nobody else is going to believe you. So I like walking into a place like, I own the place. Not from a cocky sort of standpoint, but just shoulders high, smile on my face. I'm excited to be there. This is what sort of value I can bring. So that is, number one, have confidence in yourself. And if you don't, you better start working on it right now. Number two, any experience that you have in this life led you up to the moment that you are at right now. So how did I get my first deal and how did I convince brokers that work with me? Number one, it was confidence. And I told them exactly what I was going to do. This is my plan, and I made them believe me. And I also outlined what I've done in the past, which was just kind of what I told you guys before. I've been in a small business in the startup arena for 20 years. I've done investing before. I'm transitioning to this space. This is how my past experience directly relates to what I'm going to do in the future. And I made it so, so easy for them to understand and that they couldn't but want to be part of the journey. Number three, something that I've really started doing lately is when I show it. Like, a couple weeks ago, I flew into Arizona to go check out a couple markets down there. I didn't have any deals lined up. I just wanted to start building A team. And I told people, everybody that I met with, I want you to be part of my team. I want, I want to help you reach your goals. And I would love it if you help me reach my goals. My goal this year is to acquire $20 million worth of real estate. Are you on board? And every one of them was like, heck, yeah, I'm on board. Let's do it. You know, like people, if you, if you, if everybody's helping each other out, there's no room for others to fail. You know, like, just build, Continue to build each other up and see how you can add value to their life.

All right, one, one follow up question. I'm sorry to monopolize Mario. I'm just interested in this. Like, okay, so I go there. Do I need to have the investors lined up for first or the deal lined up first? Like, what am I doing? Chicken or the egg?

Neither. I didn't have anything lined up. I hadn't started talking to a single investor before I got my first apartment under apartment complex, under contract. And that's because I told everybody that I was going to have my first deal under contract six months down the road. But today I'm doing, I'm learning everything I need to learn. I'm meeting with people, I'm getting all my ducks in a row. So fast forward, maybe three weeks later, I find my first deal. It seemed too good to be true. And I was like, no, I can't put in an offer on this. I haven't started talking to any investors. We weren't going to do this for like four more months. But I stopped myself and I said, nope, we're doing it. Because for me, taking action is what makes me take more action.

And then what did you do?

And then I got it under contract. The very first building I ever put an offer on, although there were five offers, and I won it. And then I started reaching out to people after that. So it only took me three weeks to raise the capital for it on that first one. Now I can raise capital within a couple of days for a deal. But, I mean, everybody knew that we had been investing in real estate for years. It was just a transition of, okay, now I'm looking for partners to join me along for the ride. And it forced me to reach out to people that I hadn't reached out to before and to start going to networking meetings like crazy, which I had also never done before.

All right, so you used your own network and you went to like, RIA meetings or whatever to find those investors.

Yes. Yeah.

Good deal, Scott. Tamar be hustling.

Mark, I'm telling you, man, like, I get it. Like, I'm interested. I want to learn from the best. Here we are.

Yeah. So that leads me to kind of an off the wall question.

Okay.

What do you believe is normal or. Or cool that other people think is crazy?

I'm so sorry, you guys. My dog is barking at a neighbor. Can you repeat the question?

Yeah, we both have dogs. We get it.

Okay.

What do you believe is normal or wise or cool that other people think is crazy?

Oh, what is normal, wise, or cool that you think is crazy? Books. I love books. That's such a silly answer, but I like, last year I read almost 60 books and they're all different variety. And yeah, I get up at 4:45 every morning and I spend an hour on my sofa over here with my coffee.

Now we're talking crazy.

That's crazy. That's crazy. And I get up to read, to study every morning. And it could be on ancient history or a business book or real estate or personal development or spirituality or a fiction. Like now, right now I'm reading fiction that's from the 1800s. I've been doing a bunch of that to do some historical fiction. It propels me forward so much when I spend time studying. And yes, I get up and do it early so that I make myself do it. And it starts my day off in a wonderful way.

I love it. All right, so tomorrow you're going to go to a island.

Oh, okay.

For a month.

I like this.

You can only bring three books.

Okay.

Which three books would you bring?

Okay, I would bring Walden by Thoreau. And I would bring the Bible, and I would bring Les Miserables.

All right. All right. Very good.

Mm.

Scott, do you have your three books that you would bring on a desert?

Oh, yeah, I have them.

What are they?

What are they?

One, I would bring dirt rich.

Oh, you know what? Flattery will get you everywhere.

I know, man. That's why I did that.

Of course.

It's like a gimme. That way I can like pass it out. Like if I come across someone. If I'm talking to Wilson.

Oh my gosh, there's his book right there.

I'm talking to Wilson. See how you put that in there for your mark?

It's a.

It's a product placement. You'll send me the check later, right?

I will, absolutely.

Okay. No, really, I would. I would take. I would take the success principles. That is by far by Jack Canfield. That is by far my Every time I read that book, I get something out of it and it, like, lifts me up. That's the guy from the Chicken Soup for the Soul. I love that book. Yeah, I would take. I don't know right now, Mark. I would take anything by, like, just something to read for entertainment. I would take like a Patterson book, a James Patterson book. I don't know which one. Just. Just pick one. He's got so many. Just pick one.

There's only about 700 that you could choose from.

Yeah, I mean, just throw one in there. I think I'd be okay. And then I think I would take. I think I would take think and grow rich by not pulling Hill only because I like the older references where he talks about Charles Schwab and kind of the people from America of the day or back in the day. I think it's kind of cool to read about business history, and so I would kind of take that one.

Nice. Very.

Have you. Have either of you watched Side note Men who Built America? If you like that, you would really enjoy that show.

Noted. I'm going to go watch it.

It's a History Channel documentary and you would be fascinated with it. It's great.

Oh, great. Great. All right, well, tomorrow. This has really been a phenomenal podcast, and I think your mentorship has been really valuable. But we are now at that point in the podcast where we're going to grill you with one more question. Your tip of the week. A website, a resource, maybe even another book that you would recommend for the art of passive income listeners to improve their businesses, improve their lives. What have you got?

You know, talking to some folks this week, when I was speaking at a local real estate club, I realized how few people reach out to brokers. I did a survey of about 70 people in the room and how many people reached out to 10, 10 brokers a month, there was nobody. Five people a month. Five brokers a month. There was probably three people. Two brokers a month. There was probably five people. And my goal this month is 50. I'm reaching making 50 personal connections with brokers because I have massive goals. And so I think you need to elevate your goals and your daily tasks to reach your future self. So if, specifically, if you're looking at real estate and you want to find more deals, either it's a wholesaler or wholesalers or brokers, start reaching out to them like crazy. And whatever you think you need to do, multiply that by 10.

I love it. You know, what if. I mean, I don't know how this is going to sound, but tomorrow you're almost like the grant cardone of multifamily. Oh, hardly 10xing. You know, the energy. What do you think, Scott? Is that a fair comparison?

It could be, yeah.

Could be.

Well, I do have boundless energy, this is true. Except at 8:30 at night, then I fall asleep sitting up often. Actually.

If I was up at 4:30, I would be too.

Yeah, that's true.

So, Scott, Todd, what is your tip of the week?

All right, Mark, I want everybody to get a good night's sleep. And so one of the things I want to do to help you get a good night's sleep is I want you to check out. I'm sure you've heard the mattress company Casper. I don't want you to buy them a Casper mattress. I mean, you could if you want to, but check this out. They have. They have what's called a glow light. So if you go to Casper.com. glow Light. Glow Light. Here, I'll put it in the chat for you. Okay, Check this out. I'm gonna put in the chat real fast. Here we go.

Boom.

This thing is so dang cool. Because what it will do is basically it helps you like, you know, you go in your bedroom at night and you like, turn on all the lights, getting ready for bed or whatever. And then you want to sit there and relax or decompress a little bit, maybe do a little bit of reading. This thing will start off bright. You just lift it up, turn upside down, it comes back on. It comes on. It will slowly dim down. Time for your bedtime. When you want to wake up in the morning will begin to brighten up the room, waking you up. So teenagers that want to fight you on waking up, check out the glow light.

Boom. Nice tip.

This is a great tip. Son of a gun.

Yeah. Let me tell you what happens in my household, man. Like a little household talk here. What happens is my bedroom, our bedroom is like right off of the kitchen there. And so, you know, you get. We tend to keep the door kind of cracked or whatever, but all of a sudden, someone want to get like a midnight snack, what they'll do is they'll go in, they'll turn on the lights, they'll. The lights from the kitchen, like bust into the bedroom. I don't know how light bounces off all the walls and everything. It bounces off. Da da da da. It does this. Next thing you know, you're like a half awake. Whatever. They can carry the light with them to. It's like the little nightlight thing, they can carry it with them. They can see, they can go back to bed. It's peace and quiet.

That's really good. My, my middle has a hard time waking up in the morning. Like we listened to his alarm for like 30 minutes this morning. Loud, right in his ear. Nothing we don't know. I promise you we are not giving him Benadryl before bed. He's just leaping through this alarm. It's crazy. So I'm going to get him this glow light.

It's time for a new solution for your middle something.

Yeah, we got you something right to change. But my tip of the week, I've got two tips of the week. My first tip of the week is the best tip of the week, which is learn more about tomorrow mar@merotagroup.com I have a link to this in our show notes merotagroup.com and there's lots of, lots of resources on the marotogroup.com yeah.

Like my podcast too. I have a podcast, it's called Investing for Life. It's about the crossroads of entrepreneurship, investing and intentional lifestyle design. So feel free to check that out if you want.

Yeah, absolutely. I think tomorrow you should have Scott and I on the podcast because we are the living personification of land investors living a lifestyle design. For example, Scott's a pilot.

That's so sweet. My husband. You became a pilot?

I wasn't a pilot and then I had all this time and I had the economics and the time freedom to go do it. And next thing you know, I'm living out a childhood fantasy to like learn how to fly a plane. I learned how to fly a plane in five months.

That's so cool. My husband literally just started like three weeks ago because I told him my he turns 50 in 18 months and my goal is to be able to retire him three weeks before his birthday, his 50th birthday. And we got him for Christmas flying lessons. So he just enrolled in ground school and he has a big test tonight. So he says, hey babe, I'm just going to start flying you to all of your like when you're flying out to your properties, I'll be your private pilot. And I'm like, sweet.

There it is. It's a great write off. You're going to need the depreciation on that private plane. I know, that's great. My other tip of the week was I didn't get a chance to say my three books, but I've got like so many books. And if you want to check out my reading list, go to Amazon.com shop thelandgeek so you can check out my readings there. Lots of great books that I think any one of them will move the needle in your life. And these are actually also a compilation from our land geek coaches and the books that they like as well. If you go to the landgeek.com readinglist and I will say that today's podcast is sponsored by flight school. If you want to learn more about how to take flight with Scott Todd, go up the land investing mountain. He's your sherpa. Over 800 deals. He's going to help you get there quickly, safely, efficiently. Learn more@thelandgeek.com Training Tamar Mar. Are we good?

We're good. You guys are so much fun and I can't wait to have you on my show.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal. Scott Todd, are we good?

We're good, Mark.

All right, well, I want to thank all the listeners and just remind them the only way, the only way we're gonna get the quality guests like a Tamar Mar to come on this podcast is if you do us three little favors. You gotta subscribe, you gotta rate, you gotta review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of your review to supportlandgeek.com we're gonna send you for free our $97 passive income launch kit course. So please do that. Alright, Scott, are you ready?

We're ready, man. Ready. One, two, two, three. Let freedom ring.

Maybe next time you'll. Wait.

You guys are geek.

Wait, wait. Next time we'll do what?

Yeah, I think our. I think our image.

No, we were synchronized. Yeah, I'm blame it on the Internet. We're in sync.

Okay.

Okay. Yeah, it was like a beautiful melody, but it just can't help Internet.

We can't help Internet delay. That's the way it is. No, you can't.

Exactly. I'm really hoping that as soon as we stop recording, tomorrow's like, you guys are too geeky. You're not coming on the podcast. Thanks for having me. All right, thanks everybody.

Thanks.