Ep. 95: Scaling with Investors with Gino Barbaro and Dylan Marma

Gino Barbaro was an entrepreneur in the restaurant business for 20 years, but it was his real estate partnership with Jake Stenziano that morphed into a portfolio of over 1100 units. More recently, Dylan Marma came on board to elevate the business and drive their first real estate syndication. On this episode, Gino and Dylan talk about the journey to develop and grow Rand Partners and open up about the limiting beliefs that held them back from working with investors. In addition, they share key details surrounding their focus markets and best practices to have a successful syndication.

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Key Market Insights

In 2013, Jake and Gino started investing in multifamily
Jake is the operator, self -managed, vertically integrated
Gino was in the restaurant business for 20 years
Dylan joined in 2018 after being mentored by Vinny Chopra
Jake was a W-2 employee and wanted to leave his job
In 1 year, they had almost 200 units with a vertically integrated company
Decided to start a podcast to teach others about it
Gino became a certified life coach
Constantly learning as markets change, people change
His dream was to move from NY and live in FL
March 1, 2016, Gino left the restaurant business
Started investing in 2008-2009 in Rochester – 7 hours out of market
Bought cash flowing, older assets, but created another job
In 2011, focused on Knoxville and took 18 months to find the first deal
Knoxville was growing, is affordable, great place to live and raise families
Stable market with reasonable prices and rents
Near 5% rent growth with lots of population growth, no state income tax
Education x Action = Results
Lots of new construction, the market flies under the radar a bit
Growth Markets: Jacksonville, Atlanta
Value-Driven Markets: Knoxville, Louisville
Strong job growth in healthcare, manufacturing, blue-collar workforce
Berkadia and Marcus and Millichap are great resources
Knoxville Key Stats: Unemployment - 3.3%, Job Growth – 0.7%, Rent Growth - 4.7%, Occupancy - 96% (better for C Class and Workforce), Cap Rates - 6-6.5%, Population Growth - 1%, Median Income – 3% growth now at $54,000
Jake and Gino always wanted to hold these assets and get a good cost segregation
Had a limited belief surrounding bringing on investors
Only a $6MM, raised $2MM in two days
Started with a smaller syndication to make the mistakes
Equity hounds, not transaction junkies
Legal documents available 10 minutes before the webinar
The day after the webinar, spent 20 hours on the phone to discuss the deal
The communication is critical when ready to invest
Wheelbarrow Profits is the #1 multifamily podcast on iTunes
Add articles on Quora, LinkedIn, and BiggerPockets
Had 175 investors for the event last year, 475 in Nashville
Investor event on October 19th and 20th – Gaylord Palms in Orlando