You’re Starting Multifamily Backwards

 Early-stage multifamily investing feels productive—analyzing deals, studying markets, talking to brokers—but none of that replaces income. In this Multifamily Brief, Brian breaks down the exact path he would follow if he had to start over from zero, including what he would stop doing immediately and where he would focus instead. 

 If you’re serious about building real momentum—not just consuming content—the deeper conversations happen inside the Tribe of Titans multifamily investing community, where investors work through real deals together with live discussion and direct support.
Learn more at thetribeoftitans.com. 

What You’ll Learn 

In this episode, Brian challenges several assumptions that quietly stall aspiring investors, including:

• Why chasing “passive income” early creates false expectations
• The hidden cost of trying to do everything yourself
• What actually replaces income before cash flow ever does
• Why capital is the constraint—even for experienced operators
• How momentum is built before credibility feels earned

 Drawing from his own experience replacing his income in three years while working a full-time job—and raising capital across multiple deals—Brian explains why focusing on capital first creates leverage that everything else depends on. He also shares how shifting this focus earlier would have materially changed his trajectory. 

About the Host:
Brian Briscoe is an apartment investor, operator, and founder of Streamline Capital, focused on acquiring and operating multifamily properties in the greater Salt Lake City metro. He hosts the Diary of an Apartment Investor podcast, where he shares operator-level insights and real-world decision frameworks for aspiring multifamily investors.

If this Multifamily Brief helped you think differently, there’s a lot more where that came from. Inside the Tribe of Titans, we go deeper on these same topics every week, applying them to real deals and answering questions live. If you’re serious about building momentum instead of just consuming content, that’s where you belong. Visit thetribeoftitans.com to learn more.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Who This Is For
• 0:56 If I Had To Start Over
• 2:36 Passive Income Myths And Fees Reality
• 3:17 Step One: Mentors And Capital Focus
• 4:32 Step Two: Join An Operator And Raise
• 6:05 Step Three: Build Systems And Momentum
• 7:51 Step Four: Choose Your Long-Term Role
• 9:24 Recap And Tribe Of Titans Invitation

Transcript

Brian Briscoe: 0:06

Welcome to the Diary of an Apartment Investor Podcast, the show where we cut through the noise and talk about what it actually takes to build a real multifamily investing business. I'm Brian Briscoe, apartment investor, operator, and founder of Streamline Capital, and this podcast is built for the aspiring apartment investor who wants more than just theory. We talk about raising capital, closing deals, managing assets, and making the decisions that separate dabbling from building something that lasts. Now, if you're serious about taking the next step, this conversation continues inside of the Tribe of Titans multifamily investing community where investors work through real deals together with live discussions and direct support. So let's get into today's episode. Hey, welcome to the Diary of an Apartment Investor Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Briscoe. Today I want to talk about something that I get asked all the time. If I had to start completely over today, no portfolio, no credibility, no track record, just the desire to get into multifamily to massively change my trajectory. How would I do things differently? Okay. And really, you know, how would I go about replacing my income in three years or less while still working a full-time job? And that's exactly what I did. It did take me three years to replace my income. And if I were starting over today, I'd do it a lot faster with a lot less friction. First of all, here's what I wouldn't do. Okay. I wouldn't start by calling brokers. I wouldn't start by analyzing deals or markets or anything like that. And I definitely wouldn't be trying to do everything myself. Okay. That is how I started. And it ended up being kind of a slow process that, you know, like I said, I wish I would have done things differently to avoid a lot of the mistakes that I made. Now, just to set the framework here, you know, a lot of people come into apartment investing chasing passive income. And yes, passive income is a real thing, but not at the very beginning. All right. Early on in this business, it's very transactional. Okay. One deal is not going to change your life, but it can be the launching pad for something does. All right. In the very beginning, your cash flow, your passive income is going to be very low. All right. Your primary income is going to be coming from acquisition fees. Okay. Over time, as you reinvest those earnings, that's what eventually produces true passive income that's going to last a long time. Now, I've come up with a four-step path that I would follow if I were starting over today. Step number one, educate yourself. Okay. This is the part I did right, but I think I would change the emphasis of my learning. Okay. Books are fine, podcasts are great, you know, but the best way to learn is from real people. Okay. I would find a strong mentor and pay whatever they ask. Okay. In fact, that's what I did. In 2018, I paid$25,000 for the first mentorship program I was in. I've been in several and I made more in that first year than I paid for that mentorship. And I've made millions since. Okay. The key difference in how I would approach it today, you know, I'd obviously learn the basics of multifamily first. You can't go wrong there. But then I would focus entirely on raising capital. Okay. Not operations, not asset management, but capital raising. Okay. Where a lot of people get stuck is they think they have to do everything and they end up basically spinning their wheels quite a bit. Now, there's a lot of reasons why I would raise capital first. And I'm going to explain some of that later, but you know, everything else will fall into place later if you can raise capital first. Step two, you know, you've got your educational foundation. All right, you know about multifamily, you've learned how to raise capital. You know, it's all theoretical. Okay, now you need to put it into practice. You need to get into your first deal. I'd be looking for an experienced operator and let them handle the heavy lifting, let them handle acquisitions. You know, they can go out and find a loan, they can sign on the loan, they can take care of all the asset management and all of that stuff. And it's a lot of stuff, which is why on your first deal you should just focus on one thing. Okay. And that's the that's the capital raising. Let the guys with experience do the heavy lifting. My role, I'd look for an operator where I can come in and raise two, three, four hundred thousand dollars for the deal. All right. And your first capital raise, if you can hit$200,000, you're doing amazingly well. All right. Now, the first deal, it's not about the money. You're you're gonna earn something, you know, maybe$10,000,$15,000 on an acquisition fee for that amount, maybe a little bit less, you know, five, five, fifteen thousand dollars, but you're gonna get some credibility, you're gonna get some experience, right? You're no longer trying to break in, you're actually in your first deal. From when you start to when you can get, you know, that first capital raise done, we're talking about, you know, maybe a six-month period, three to four months to in that prep phase, and then a couple of months to do the actual capital raising. Step three is to build your momentum. Okay, you've got your foot in the door, but guess what? You're still a beginner. And one deal is a great start, but you know, here's the reality. If you've never managed millions of dollars or operated in a apartment complex, you still probably shouldn't be doing that at this point. All right, especially if you have a full-time job. All right. So I would continue operating with experienced operators, if possible, the same one or the same ones, you know, but focus on people who will help you learn, observe the process, and meaningfully participate. All right. There's a lot of operators out there that'll let you do that. There's a lot of people out there who say they'll let you do that, but you know, end of the day, you're gonna be on the email distribution list just like everybody else. Typically, you're looking for your smaller operators, you know, not the gigantic ones that are gonna have dozens and dozens of people raising for them. But with each deal, I'd aim to raise a little bit more. All right. And most importantly, I would be building my system. Okay. Automations, you know, things that are gonna make this a repeatable capital raising machine. Okay, build that process. All right, and that's exactly what I focus on in coaching, isn't, you know, one and done. It's building a system that's gonna work deal after deal. Now, here's what your progression might look like. You know, first deal, you get it in the first six months, you know,$200,000 raised. Okay. Deal number two, maybe you raised$300,000. You know, deal number three,$500,000. You know, and at this point, you know, your acquisition fees are gonna be somewhere in that$20,000 to$50,000. Okay. Not earth shattering, but you know, you've at least replaced that money you spent on coaching. Okay. And you have a little bit more money in your pocket. Year two, let's pick a number, you know, try to sustain$500,000 or more per deal. Okay. And ideally, I would try to get into one deal per quarter. There's enough time for you to find a new deal, find a new partnership, you know, maybe a month to review things and two months to raise capital and rinse and repeat. At this point, your acquisition fees are going to be pushing into that$50,000,$60,000,$80,000, depending on how much you raise per deal. You're still working your W-2, but now you've got some extra money to work with and to invest. Year three, now at this point, you know, you're kind of at a crossroads. All right. You're starting to earn meaningful dollars every time you do a deal. You know, your acquisition fees per deal are in the$30,000,$40,000,$50,000 mark. I just paid somebody$37,000 for helping on a deal that we just did. Paid a total of$100,000 out in acquisition fees to people who raised capital for me. So you can get larger and larger chunks as you go on. But this is the point where you come to a crossroads, which is what I'll talk about in step four. But you've built your system, you know how to raise capital, you've worked with different operators, you've been exposed to every part of the deal. You know, maybe you participated in asset management, maybe you've participated in other parts of the deal. But, you know, now comes step four, which is where you you decide what your long-term role is going to be. All right. You participated in a handful of deals, and now you get to choose. Okay. Do you want to be a lead sponsor? Do you want to be finding the deals? Do you want to be capital raising focused? Okay. Whatever you choose here, you know, you're doing it with experience, credibility, track record, and you're ready to go. If I'm being honest, if I had taken this approach, I'd be a lot better off right now. I still would have been able to replace my income in three years. That part I think I still would have nailed, but focusing on raising capital first would put me in a much better position right now. Because right now, my biggest constraint, the thing that's holding me back is how much capital I could raise. If I could raise twice as much, I would make twice as much right now. So just to recap, you know, learn capital raising first, do it a couple of times, three, five times, you know, become W-2 optional and then decide how you want to operate. If you want to start a fund, start a fund. If you want to operate the properties that you do, operate. Okay. That can all come later, but capital raising is the fastest way to get your foot in the door. And it is also the most important skill that you can do. Okay. Learn the skill that creates leverage first, and then everything else will follow. If this multifamily brief helped you think differently, there's a whole lot more where this comes from. Inside the Tribe of Titans multifamily investing community, we go a lot deeper on these same topics every week, breaking them down, applying them to real world situations, and answering questions live in real time. The Tribe of Titans is where investors stop just consuming content and start actually gaining trade. If you're serious about building momentum, that's where you should be. Learn more about this at thetribe of Titans.com, and that link's in the show notes. I'll see you there.