133: Flipper, Wholesaler, Landlord, and Multifamily Investor Devin Elder

On my first podcast of the new year, Devin Elder is my guest. Devin has done a lot in real estate and is expanding his business more every year. He started out as a rental property owner, moved into flipping houses and wholesaling some deals, and now he is focusing on investing in multifamily properties. Devin has recently bought a 75- and 192-unit apartment building and is looking to buy more. You can hear him discuss his real estate career on this podcast.

How did Devin get started in real estate?

Devin started working in the corporate world but knew he wanted to be financially free without having to depend on a job. He worked on many different projects to create passive income on the internet. He never saw much success in the internet world and decided to switch to real estate. Devin bought his first rental in San Antonio using a hard-money loan, which he then refinanced into a 30-year fixed loan. Using this process, he had very little of his own money tied up in the deal but was making positive cash flow. Devin was looking for at least $20,000 in equity and $350 per month in cash flow from every rental he purchased. Within a few years, he was able to replace the income from his corporate job.

How did Devin get started flipping houses?

After Devin had purchased 10 to 12 rentals, he started to flip houses. He was mostly finding his deals from wholesalers but used a variety of sources. He also would drive for dollars and got many leads from his website. Devin has had up to 8 rehab projects going at once, and his biggest problem has always been finding great contractors to fix up the properties. I know how that goes! Devin was still in the corporate world while he was doing all of these deals and building his real estate empire. He also started to wholesale a few deals that he was able to get from his marketing that he did not want to flip or hold as rentals.

Why does Devin want to focus on multifamily investing?

After flipping houses and buying many rentals, Devin has started to buy multifamily apartments. He has purchased a 75-unit and 192-unit apartment building. He loves multifamily investing because of the ability to scale up. Devin likes the 100- to 200-unit properties because the institutional investors are not looking at properties with fewer than 200 units. He also loves the fact that he can have onsite management to handle most of the work involved with the properties. Devin is looking to buy more and more large apartment complexes, and you can hear all about it on the podcast.

How can you get in touch with Devin?

Devin is always looking for more investors for his large multifamily deals. Devin also primarily uses private money to fund his flips. You can find him on http://www.djetexas.com/ if you want to talk about investing in his projects.