Real estate investments are a strategic way to diversify one’s investment portfolio and they come with a variety of benefits. Primarily, real estate acts as a tangible asset with multiple revenue streams that come coupled with many useful tax deductions.
When most people start to dabble in these alternative investment options, they begin with a single-family home, potentially building a portfolio of multiple properties like single-family homes. Some go straight to looking at commercial spaces.
However, apartment buildings are a great option for some people and there are many ways to start investing in them. Let’s look at the benefits of investing in apartment buildings and the different methods for getting started.
Best Ways to Invest in Apartment Buildings Remotely
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Best Real Estate Investing Platform
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Best CRE Investing Platform for Accredited Investors
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Minimum Investment: $10. Fees: Fundrise: 0.15% annual advisory fee. Fundrise Pro: $10/mo. paid monthly, or $99/yr. paid annually.*
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Minimum investment: $5,000.
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Is an Apartment Building a Good Investment?
If you invest in apartment buildings where there is little supply and high demand, collecting monthly rental money from tenants can be very lucrative. Plus, insurance, advertising, property management fees, and more, are all tax-deductible. You even get to write off a portion of your apartment’s value each year thanks to MACRS depreciation.
Additionally, you can typically sell the multifamily properties later for a profit and potentially enjoy their treatment as Section 1231 property.
Apartment investments are a top investment strategy for people who want a slow, but steady appreciation in their portfolio value, as well as rental income, a useful source of cash flow.
Unfortunately, while the profits can be substantial, so can the amount of work apartment owners required to do.
Your monthly costs, including unexpected expenses, such as repairs, need to be paid no matter what happens. If you have too many vacancies, or tenants behind on rent, it will cut into your net operating income and cash flow.
The good news is that you can hire a property manager to help with many of your responsibilities on your rental properties. Of course, that means you make less money in a multifamily property investment. You decide if the reduced workload is worth the lower cash flow.
Another option is to use a real estate crowdfunding service like Fundrise or EquityMultiple to do all of this for you.
The services offer access to investing in real estate alongside other investors, sharing the risk and return and also outsourcing all of the administrative legwork to the platforms.
Fundrise accepts both accredited and non-accredited investors and has a $10 minimum to start while EquityMultiple caters to accredited investors and comes with a higher $5,000 minimum.
Is Owning an Apartment Complex Profitable?
If you invest in the right apartment complexes at reasonable price points, owning an apartment complex can definitely be profitable. Apartment complex investments create a dependable income generating asset and over the investment’s lifetime can provide a high return on investment.
Many real estate investors use the 1% Rule to estimate if a property will be profitable. This rule states that the monthly rent should equal at least 1% of the rental property’s purchase price. If you follow this rule, the monthly rent must exceed the property’s monthly mortgage payments (assuming you used a mortgage). Otherwise, you would not be earning enough money each month.
For example, if a property rents for $3,000 per month, you usually wouldn’t want to pay over $300,000 for that property.
It’s still important that you’re able to control costs, such as landlord insurance and maintenance. If you can target properties that meet the 1% rule and can manage expenses, you have an excellent opportunity to earn money.
This rule is less of a concern if you were able to pay cash for the rental property.
6 Ways to Start Investing in Apartment Buildings
There are several ways to start investing in apartment buildings. The best choice(s) for you depends on the amount of risk you’re willing to take on, how much money you have available to invest initially, and your level of real estate investing expertise.
Having some real estate in your portfolio is advised for its non-market correlated performance, income and appreciation features, thus making it one of the best investments for young adults.
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1. Do Your Own Due Diligence and Real Estate Investing
If you invest on your own, you get to keep all of the profits. However, this is a significant amount of work. At this point, this is not a passive income-producing real estate investment.
Therefore, if you want to be an actively-engaged real estate investor, it’s essential to examine several elements of an apartment complex before investing.
Some of the most important requirements you should research include:
- Financial Audit Report (including a trailing 12-months and 3-years profit and loss statement)
- Property Condition Assessment (third-party report examining the current condition of a property)
- Market Report (helps determine a property’s estimated occupancy level)
- Lease Audit & Rent Roll Analysis (looks at several aspects of leases, such as billing schedules and unpaid or late rental payments)
- Environmental Site Assessment (checks for traces of dangerous chemicals and other contaminants)
- Appraisal (estimates market value of a property)
- Site Survey & Title Report (a title report ensures there aren’t competing legal claims to the property and this usually requires a site survey confirming property boundaries)
Even when everything looks positive on paper, it can be beneficial for you to see the property in person and walk around. Look for any potential problems and any improvements you could make if you really want to learn how to make easy money while you sleep.
For additional ideas on how to grow a real estate portfolio of properties you own and manage, you might consider looking into the BRRRR Method.
2. Team Up with a Partner
You may want to split profits and risk with another individual for your apartment building investment. This arrangement is referred to as a real estate limited partnership (RELP). While the returns and risks aren’t as high as individual investments, both are still significant. Working with a partner may be a smart option for you if you have limited real estate education or experience.
Teaming up with a partner in an investment property or several rental properties provides an alternative perspective, helps with the overall workload, and gives you more capital to invest. An experienced partner may also have an extensive network to raise money, source tenants, find quality property management and more.
While there are many benefits of teaming up with an investment partner, there are also downfalls. If you choose to work with a friend or family member, mixing in business may strain the relationship.
There can also be conflict if responsibilities aren’t clearly discussed or if one partner contributes more money or time. Still, for many, the pros outweigh the cons.
Related: Best Video Intercom Systems for Apartments and Office Buildings
3. Invest through a Syndication Arrangement
Real estate investors can pool money and resources together through syndication agreements. These arrangements allow one to invest in larger projects than they could afford or manage individually.
The Sponsor of the arrangement typically invests between 5-20% of the required equity and manages the day-to-day operations. Other investors contribute the rest of the equity. Often, Sponsors take an upfront profit (an acquisition fee) since that person acquired the property.
Everybody involved makes money from rental income and property appreciation, usually on a monthly or quarterly basis. Some syndications last only between 6-12 months and others last 7-10 years. Services like Fundrise and Equity Multiple all operate under this model.
They help investors source properties like apartment complexes, multifamily properties, or commercial real estate for investing, manage them on a daily basis, find tenants, and eventually sell them to other investors. If you don’t have the experience to manage rental real estate as real estate owners, you might consider making your first apartment building investment through these services.
Related: 11 Best Fundrise Alternatives [Accredited & Non-Accredited Apps]
4. Invest through a Real Estate Fund
A real estate fund is a type of mutual fund that mainly focuses on investing in securities offered by real estate companies. Investors make money through buying real estate as appreciating assets.
The three types of real estate funds include:
- Real estate mutual funds (these can be actively or passively managed)
- Private real estate investment funds (only available to high net worth investors)
- Real estate exchange-traded funds (these trade like stocks)
Real estate funds primarily invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs) and real estate operating companies, but some invest directly in properties.
Typically, you don’t receive short-term income, but rather receive value mainly through appreciation. These provide more diversification than buying individual REITs, but REITs come with their own set of advantages.
5. Invest through a REIT
Real estate investment trusts are companies that pool investors’ money to manage income-producing real estate properties they own. A major benefit of investing in real estate investment trusts is that it’s a very liquid option. REITs are bought and sold similarly to stocks and can be sold at any time.
Investors make money both from passive income earnings and from selling their shares at a higher price. REITs are passive investments you don’t need to actively manage. The financial barrier to entry is lower than many other types of real estate investments.
You can purchase publicly-traded REITs through a brokerage firm like Webull. This brokerage is a free stock trading app that offers free stocks for signing up.
Related: How to Invest in Stocks [A Beginner’s Guide to Start Investing]
6. Crowdsourced Investing
Crowdfunded real estate investing is another method that allows you to invest in apartment buildings without having to pay for the entire building on your own. It’s possible to have just partial ownership in your apartment investing. You don’t have to manage the buildings and you still earn a portion of the proceeds.
Typically, you earn dividend returns monthly, quarterly, or annually. You may also get a portion of the profits when the apartment building is later sold. On your end, the investment is passive as you rely on experts to keep your investment profitable.
These investments are very illiquid, so you shouldn’t invest funds you’ll need to access in the near future.
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How to Invest in Crowdsourced Real Estate
If you’d like to gain exposure to real estate investments in other markets that have higher expected annual returns, you might consider looking into crowdsourced real estate investing platforms. These platforms leverage fintech tools and services to scale real estate investing in a cost-effective manner.
Many services target different investing objectives, risk preferences and income segments. Have a look at three leading crowdsourced real estate investing platforms and what types of investment they offer.
→ Investing in Individual Properties (EquityMultiple)
Some platforms like EquityMultiple allow you to invest in individual properties, specifically commercial real estate.
Others, as discussed below, allow you to invest in real estate property portfolios.
EquityMultiple carries a minimum $5,000 initial investment and comes with a limitation on the type of investors who can participate.
Namely, EquityMultiple only allows its individual commercial real estate projects to receive investments from accredited investors, discussed more below.
Accredited Investors: While this definition recently changed, from one which usually meant high-net worth/high-income individuals, to now one which also includes investor experience and knowledge, it typically skews more towards investors with financial wherewithal and familiarity.
That said, the new amendments from the SEC allow investors to qualify as accredited investors based on defined measures of professional knowledge, experience or certifications in addition to the existing tests for income or net worth.
These tests for financial resources include having an aggregate net worth of over $1,000,000 and earning over $200,000 in each of the two most recent years or joint income with that person’s spouse in excess of $300,000 in each of those years with a reasonable expectation of reaching the same income level in the current year.
For those interested in learning more about EquityMultiple, consider signing up for an account and going through their qualification process.
- EquityMultiple is a commercial real estate platform for accredited investors, providing investment opportunities in real estate funds, individual properties, and savings alternatives.
- EquityMultiple has a team boasting decades of real estate transaction experience. Their due diligence process whittles down a large selection of properties, accepting only 5% as target investments that they use to build a variety of portfolios that suit numerous investing objectives.
- The company has made over $425 million in distributions since its founding.
- Makes commercial real estate Investments accessible
- Intuitive website design
- High net total returns and distributions paid to investors
- Only available to accredited investors
- High investment minimum to begin
- Fee structure varies by investment, complex at times
→ Investing in Real Estate Portfolios (Fundrise)
While EquityMultiple focuses on investing in individual real estate properties, other companies focus on investment in real estate portfolios, or several properties in one investment. In theory, this diversifies your investment risk while providing you access to several properties simultaneously.
To date, the most popular real estate investment platform offering a portfolio approach is Fundrise.
Among its options:
- Starter and Basic accounts: Investors can now access Fundrise for as little as $10. People who open a Starter account ($10-plus minimum investment) or Basic account ($1,000-plus) have their money automatically invested in the Flagship Real Estate Fund, which seeks a balanced objective of income and growth.
- Core, Advanced, and Premium accounts: Core ($5,000-plus), Advanced ($10,000-plus), and Premium ($100,000-plus) accounts all have access to more specialized strategies. The four primary funds, from low risk/income to high risk/income, are Fixed Income, Core Plus, Value Add and Opportunistic. These accounts also have varying amounts of access to Fundrise’s “eREITs.” Also, Advanced and Premium accounts may invest in the Fundrise eFund, which is a tax-efficient partnership that can also hold non-REIT-eligible assets with “unique potential.”
- Fundrise iPO: This “internet public offering” allows investors to buy a stake in Fundrise’s parent company, Rise Companies Corp.
- Innovation Fund: This fund does not invest in properties, but rather private high-growth technology companies. While the fund expects to focus primarily on late-stage companies, it can hold early- and late-stage private companies, as well as some public equities. (Fundrise would likely invest in these publicly traded companies prior to their IPO, or initial public offering.)
You do not need to be an accredited investor to invest in Fundrise, but several of its funds are closed to non-accredited investors.
Fundrise does share one thing in common with traditional commercial real estate investing, however: It can be highly illiquid. Fundrise itself states that “the shares you own are intended to be held long-term.” You can incur a penalty for selling any eREIT and eFund shares held for less than five years, for instance. Also, you can’t pick and choose what you sell—Fundrise’s “first in first out” system means that when you liquidate, the first shares sold will be those you’ve held the longest.
Even then, commercial real estate remains one of the best alternative investments you can own, and Fundrise helps people easily reap its rewards. Like with owning shares of publicly held real estate, private CRE price returns will often lag a major index like the S&P 500. But the passive income from real estate investing is nice: Since 2017, Fundrise’s average annual income return of 5.29% dwarfs that of both public real estate investment trusts (REITs, 4.1%) and the S&P 500 (2.0%). That includes a 1.5% total return (price plus dividends) in 2022 compared to double-digit losses for public REITs and the S&P 500.
Most of Fundrise’s real estate funds charge an annual 0.85% flat management fee. The Fundrise Innovation Fund, which provides access to venture capital-style investments, charges 1.85% annually.
Visit Fundrise to learn more about this alternative asset class or sign up today.
- Regardless of your net worth, you can now benefit from real estate’s unique potential for generating consistent cash flow and long-term gains with Fundrise starting as low as $10.
- Enjoy set-it-and-forget-it managed portfolios with standard Fundrise accounts, or actively select the funds you want to invest in with Fundrise Pro.
- Diversify your portfolio with real estate, private tech investing, or private credit.
- Low minimum investment ($10)
- Accredited and non-accredited investors welcome
- IRA accounts available
- Highly illiquid investment
How to Start Investing in Apartment Buildings
Investing in apartment buildings is an excellent method for diversifying your investment portfolio and can start earning you money quickly and a substantial amount long-term. This holds especially true if you’re interested in building generational wealth.
If you’re willing and able to front a high amount of money, you could invest on your own or with a partner. To reduce your risk and spend less money initially, you may instead choose to invest through a syndication arrangement, real estate fund, REIT, or a crowdfunding platform.
Whichever type of investment you choose, make sure to research your investment thoroughly. If you invest strategically, your profits can rise as high as the high-rise apartments you invest in.
