🏢 🎙️ BONUS EPISODE | Inside a Multifamily Property Walkthrough

Buying an apartment building is about much more than reviewing an MLS listing.

In this bonus episode, award-winning REALTOR® Devin Gray joins fellow Wealth Genius members Daniel and Victoria as they tour four multifamily properties across Edmonton, evaluating neighbourhoods, common areas, apartment suites, utility rooms, tenant appeal and the countless details experienced investors look for before writing an offer. 

Throughout the day, they compare value-add opportunities with fully stabilized turnkey properties, discuss transit-oriented development, historic buildings, property management and why walking a building tells you far more than photos ever can.

If you've ever wondered how investors evaluate apartment buildings, this episode gives you a rare behind-the-scenes look at the real due diligence process.

Real Estate in Edmonton is a weekly real estate show featuring podcasts and mini-documentaries that bring you behind the scenes of Edmonton's real estate market, investing, community and lifestyle.

Helping you live well in Edmonton by bringing you behind the scenes of the city's real estate market, investing, community and lifestyle.

Thanks for listening to Real Estate in Edmonton—where we talk real estate... and real life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What defines a successful multifamily investor? It's not just luck. You have to know exactly what to look for before you put in an offer. Today you're coming along for four real apartment building walkthroughs to see what experienced investors and new investors are looking for.

SPEAKER_05 0:21

This is Real Estate in Edmonton, helping you navigate buying, selling, investing, and living in Edmonton, hosted by Realtor Devin Gray and professional broadcaster Tracy Gray.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Hi, let's dive in. I'm Tracy, and this is Real Estate in Edmonton, where we talk real estate and real life. Welcome back. Today we're taking you behind the scenes as Devin meets up with Daniel and Victoria outside of the mobile realty group office, just before they head out to tour four multifamily properties across Edmonton. Now, today's guests are members of Wealth Genius, that's an investor community focused on helping build wealth through real estate. As part of their investing journey, they're putting their education into practice with real-world multifamily property walkthroughs along with Devin. Now, because buying an apartment building isn't just about the numbers, it's about walking the neighborhood, exploring the common areas, inspecting the suites, and checking the utility rooms, as well as paying attention to all the details. That can reveal the true story behind each property. And one more thing. If you watch closely, now you might even catch something that you've never seen in the wild: a real estate agent on their phone. I know it's unheard of. If you look closely, you might just catch it. What's next, Swatch? All right, time to find out.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Good morning, Eagles. It's Daniel and Victoria from Edmonton. We have a very exciting day today. Um, we're actually doing our first walkthroughs today. So we're with Devon, who's also part of the Wealth Junius group, uh, who's part of Mogul Realty, and he's going to be taking us uh on some tours today. So we've got four properties lined up, and Victoria and I are super excited to get started. Let's roll.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

Hello, we are here with Victoria and Daniel. They are Wealth Genius members. They started uh or they signed up in April, is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Yeah, that's right on.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

And uh I cannot believe how fast you two are going through this course. You guys are doing two modules a week or every two weeks, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, we're we're full speed ahead.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

But uh you've got an interesting background, like you mentioned, you both have experience in you know dealing with commercial buildings and various things like that. Just chat a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Sure. So I work in real property with the federal government. So in our portfolio, we mostly deal with um a lot of uh office buildings, but at the same time, we do deal with a lot of specialty, uh, single-purpose use buildings too, like a couple of RCMP buildings. Um for me, my interest today is to I think uh really see what the difference is between uh multifamily real estate versus commercial buildings and how I can apply my knowledge from my work uh in my walkthroughs to it.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

That's gonna really come in handy. And Victoria, you're on the finance side.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Yeah, so I have a background in finance um before her dealing with loans and uh so I'm excited to see this property. I also have some background um working with my family on like land development and land syndication. So I'm super excited to see what a multifamily could look like because um I think my family has always been like, oh, okay, look into real estate, look into land development, look into this and that.

SPEAKER_04 3:59

You're mentioning your uh your dad has a history in real estate as a developer. Right on. So uh uh this could be the second generation here.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

I hope so.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

Yeah. Okay, so we've got four properties to see. Uh this first one is in the west end, and uh one of the big advantages of this property is the fact that it's uh not too far from the west end LRT. Uh we drove through that construction beginning here, and so this definitely is within that um 800 to a thousand meter um uh uh sphere or perimeter uh that makes it appealing for people that might not necessarily be driving. Um, this West End LRT is really gonna open up um this whole west side of the city, and um it's a 12-unit building, and uh there is some um creative financing opportunities for it, and so we're excited to get in and see it. So why don't we get going?

SPEAKER_03 4:51

All right.

SPEAKER_04 5:36

So we just finished up touring the first property, and what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Uh, I think it's a good value add potentially, and there's things that could be upgraded, um, redone. So I guess looking at the numbers to see if it makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Daniel? Uh for myself, I think this is gonna be a great area in the future. Like you can see all around West Edmonton here that there's a lot of investment going into infrastructure. Uh there should be a brand new LRT line, I think, uh coming into service pretty soon, hopefully in the future. Fingers crossed. And uh yeah, I think uh for a unit like this, um there's a lot of potential for a value add. Um walking around the property, we notice that in a lot of the common areas you can use a little bit of uh tender love and care. But I think you know, if you were to get a underwrite this property and get a good deal on the negotiations and the numbers, then I think it's a great opportunity.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

Great. All right. The uh the tour continues. We're off to uh property number two. So you know you have some very die hard investors when they're prepared to be out in the rain. We started with sunshine, but now we've got this drizzling rain, but that's not stopping us, is it?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

Right on. So we are now at property number two, and it is right downtown. It's a historical property, and um very close to uh the legislature grounds, which actually we should be able to see from the roof because I know we can get up and view this property from the roof. What's your initial thoughts on the property?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

I think it looks really beautiful on the outside. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

Yes, it's very old, 1913 historic property. Looking forward to get into it, and uh let's go. The uh the Heritage One downtown.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

It was a very interesting building. Uh people in there were very uh, kind of not what I expected for tenant promo, but it was really cool to see how like the property manager was so hands-on impression it. So uh it's very interesting to me.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah, uh, my first impressions walking on the property was that it's uh very well kept. Uh there's clearly a lot of attention to detail and the common areas. Um it looks like when we toured the building that there was a lot of uh uh upgrades done to it, new water boilers, uh steam generator, and a brand new roof as well. So that's uh very nice to see. Um talking with a couple of the tenants in the building, it's uh great to see that you know they love the place, they're very enthusiastic. And talking with the property manager, it seems like there's a lot of passion and care uh taken to taking care of this building, and it's it's great to see that uh there's a lot of engagement between the tenants and the property manager.

SPEAKER_04 9:30

Wow, that uh that was an amazing uh summary of that property. So um yeah, it had a good vibe to it. It's quite interesting, and uh the property manager Ivana, uh wonderful lady, and uh probably one of the most passionate property managers we're gonna come across. So um, however, uh this property here, uh we are going to see the property manager in a second. She also is very good, and this is uh basically about as turnkey of a property that you're going to see. It's in a C area, uh, but the property is definitely showing an A. And uh one of the cool things that uh you're gonna see is uh a little uh dog park uh that's on the other side of the building. It says uh dogs or pets are allowed, and so they've got a little dog park uh which helps to attract some some good quality tenants. So uh let's head on in, see what this property is like. Alright, we just finished our tour of building number three, Columbus Apartments, and uh Victoria, what did you think?

SPEAKER_02 10:43

So it was good. It was more modern of a building, and uh the apartments were more spacious than I would think normally in this area. I went into the building thinking um tenant profile would be a certain way because this is a C area, but then um it's very spacious, very clean, very modernized. But this building I wouldn't expect in this area, I would more expect in the like one twelve avenue area. So yeah, it's really nice. And you can tell that like they did a lot of work to make it like better and like more clean and more like appealing. There's also nice overpeel, the building looks nice outside and it doesn't look messy. I think the first one was a little bit messy with like on the balcony with like a lot of storage, and this one just doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

I thought they did a great job with the front foyer. I thought that was an extra. Daniel, how about you?

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Um I think uh driving up to the property at first, um, it has really good great curb appeal um compared to a couple of the uh first examples we went to, like everything from the outside looks well maintained, and then when you step through that front entrance, like everything in that building looks brand new in the common areas, and through the couple of units that we've walked to, um the space uh that they're offering is pretty massive, which is a big plus. And I find it pretty neat that uh they're allowing pets in this building, they have a common area in the back where you can take your dogs out, so it definitely opens up the different options to uh more tenants that you can attract.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

That was an interesting comment. Uh so they did some information or did some research and found out that about 55% of tenants have pets, and so if you don't allow pets, then you're cutting off over half of your rent potential or tenant potential. So, yeah, they did a great job of taking this nothing space on the side of the building where basically everybody moves in, brings all their furniture in, and turns it into a dog uh dog do their business park. And uh so the tenants actually take turns cleaning it up, which uh shows some tenant responsibility, and uh yeah, it was just a great idea. So they've worked really hard on this building um and uh not necessarily well, not at all a value add situation. This is fully stabilized. Um but hey, if the numbers work, then we'll take a look at it. So it's number crunching time. Alright, we're off to the fourth building. Alright, we're at building number four, the last building of the tour, and as you can see, it's right next to well, pretty close to Humphrey Stadium. Uh, and also about that way, it's about a block off the river valley. So it's an eight-suiteed property and or eight-unit property, and uh, we've got a chance to go see a renovated suite up on the top floor. So let's get going.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Um, I think in terms of building style, it's very close to the first one that we toured. Uh I think the biggest difference is coming up to the property. You notice that it has a bigger curb appeal, the property is a lot cleaner. Um, the common spaces uh were well taken care of, so you can see that there's been a lot of uh attention and care and detail put into the maintenance of the property. Umise, um, it looks like there has been uh quite a bit of work put into the property. Um touring the unit that was rushed and rerunted. Um it was nice to see that there's a lot of big wide open spaces, and it I think overall it's a great property.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

Yeah, I definitely uh certainly from the four buildings we saw today, and and uh it was one of the nicest border rooms and one of the nicest water rooms. What did you think?

SPEAKER_01 15:29

That is great. I actually joined in on the fun for a little bit and went out to a couple of the properties just to have a little look-see around. One thing that really stood out to me, every building had its own personality. Some had obvious potential, others were more turnky, but every stop offered another opportunity to learn what experienced investors and new investors are looking for. If there's one takeaway from today's episode, it's that you simply can't evaluate a multifamily property from just looking at the listing alone. Walking the building, exploring the neighborhood, checking the common areas, the suites, and even the utility rooms gives you a much more complete and a completely different perspective. Well, we hope you enjoyed going behind the scenes with us. If you have questions about any of the properties, the walkthrough process, or investing in Edmonton real estate, just leave us a comment below. We'd be happy to answer it. And thanks for spending time with us today. We're gonna see you next week on real estate in Edmonton, where we talk real estate and real life.