Creative Financing for Multifamily Real Estate: How Aman Singh Structures Win-Win Deals

Aman Singh (00:00)

I think the biggest market threat in real estate, especially if you’re getting into it, is a great market. If things are hunky-dory, everything’s performing well, the stock market is the best, jobs are the best, interest rate is the lowest, I feel that’s the worst time to get into real estate. I think the best time to… The biggest threat in real estate is a great time.

the bad times, the tough times, the high interest rate times, know, stock market crash times. These are the times that are the best opportunity to be in real estate, and I can give you multiple examples.

Scott Bursey (01:53)

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. Glad you’re with us. And today, listeners, we have an impressive guest on the show, Aman Singh. Aman is a seasoned real estate investor and licensed New Jersey realtor with Keller Williams, who has built an impressive portfolio of nearly twenty units across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. From single family homes to multifamily investments.

and strategic exits. He specializes in structuring deals, properties, and building long-term wealth. You can expect to learn how to scale into larger multifamily properties while structuring win-win deals. Aman, welcome to the show.

Aman Singh (02:34)

Thank you, Scott. Happy to be here.

Scott Bursey (02:36)

It is awesome having you here. Very, good. And Aman to help our listeners get up to speed. Please give us the ninety second highlight reel of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Aman Singh (02:49)

Yeah, so my journey started as a kid. saw my dad do a lot of real estate deals apart from his business, which he had. And there were ups and downs, but always came out succeeding. When I came to the US, I had very limited reserves.

And I was still able to get into one of the property real estate deals by using creative financing. And that’s how my journey in the US started. But two years ago, I started aggressively pursuing it more. And over the last two, three years, I’ve bought almost 35 properties, and I’ve sold about 15 of them.

I now feel my forte is in multifamily value addition and that’s where I’m trying to pour most of my fuel. again, like I said, I always say an entrepreneur doesn’t have the luxury of deciding. The market decides, you adapt, adopt and improve every day.

Scott Bursey (03:40)

Absolutely. Well, thank you for highlighting that, Aman. And you know, what really stood out to me about you was the way you’ve been able to seamlessly transition between client facing realtor representation and executing high yield value add acquisitions and strategic exits for your own portfolio and building off that. Curious to know.

What do you consider your biggest strength when identifying value add properties across Pennsylvania and New Jersey?

Aman Singh (04:09)

So I think I’m an engineer by education and my mind works a lot with numbers. It’s the most structured part process. There is definitely a sentimental side to doing real estate or anything in life, but I really feel you should balance that out, your sentiments with quantitative data.

and then make your decisions. If things look good in person but don’t look good on paper, be wary of that. And vice versa, you might look at a property and not like it, but the numbers look great, why not try it? Because don’t let your personal bias come in the way of where this amazing value to be created.

Like for example, you might look at a house and say it’s a dump, right? And you don’t want to touch it. But if I look at the numbers and I say it can make me two X or three X of what I’m going to put into it, I don’t care how it looks. If I can have something that looks like a dump today with a nice family with two kids playing in the yard someday, that gives me a better emotional high than looking at a dump and walking away from it.

Scott Bursey (05:13)

Let’s stay focused on the data. I always wondered how has that specific strength directly helped you secure better terms during deal negotiations?

Aman Singh (06:11)

So that’s an interesting question because you really have to be able to think from the seller’s point of view as well, when you’re buying a deal, what is motivating him to sell? What is non-negotiable for him? And what is somewhere, he can be flexible because my first property I bought, the seller was adamant on the price. He was a millionaire. He didn’t care about what the property

even if the property burned down, he wouldn’t care. It won’t really bother him. He had an emotional attachment to the property and he was adamant about the price. So if I tried to reduce $1 on the deal, I would have lost it. Instead, I asked him to seller finance it and he got his price. I got my terms and we created a win-win situation.

There was another deal where there was a 10 unit building, right? It was very hard to get finance for that building. And I didn’t want to put up as much cash on that building, because I needed a lot of cash after the fact of buying it. needed a lot of renovation. So, we were able to convince the seller to hold a note just for 20 % of the property.

for a few years. And also, there was another reason. We wanted the seller to be on board after we bought the building because there was a lot of can of worms to be opened and we needed the seller’s cooperation to make this work. So now with this 20 % in, it, we had his cooperation, we’ve stabilized the building, now we’ll restructure and we’ll pay him off now. So we don’t need him anymore.

So we can pay them off, get better terms, better interest and move on from there. So you have to be able to foresee these things when you’re getting into it because you don’t want to land up with a 10 unit building and a of worms which you don’t know how things have worked, why things are working, why is something not working and the seller is over and out not picking your call, right? So yeah, I think that’s where…

these like data becomes very important along with sentiments and kind of IQ, I would say. it takes everything to make a deal happen. IQ, EQ, data. It’s like an orchestra. you cannot say that, one instrument won’t play and the music will sound good. won’t. Everything has to play simultaneously, you know.

Scott Bursey (08:20)

Aman, fascinated to learn. Looking back at your twenty unit growth, what was the biggest operational bottleneck or internal weakness you had to overcome in managing properties across state lines?

Aman Singh (08:32)

So I think I’m again pushing towards the biggest operational bottleneck I feel is your own ability to deal with stress because some people get stressed out if a tenant calls them. What I ask people is, when you don’t get stressed, you’re able to find a solution. When you do get stressed,

You create emotional drama and solution doesn’t really come out and I don’t think you know all these business investment should be taken personally or to their heart, you know There’s a tenant. He’s gonna complain. You’ve got to be wise enough to know that’s gonna happen at some point, right? I always ask people how many times does your boss call you? Before he gives you a payday Probably calls you twice a day 60 times a month, right?

versus the tenant. The tenant calls you if maybe twice a month, worst case scenario five times a month and most scenarios zero times a month. And he still pays you every day. He pays your mortgage every day, right? You should worship this tenant. There is no bottleneck in any operation. If you’re able to add some kind of value addition every day.

you have to focus on automating things, making systems that people, that will work without your presence. if you can, if you can do that and one small improvement every day, the sky’s the limit. That being said, I think the only bottleneck in real estate, which has been there, is the life cycle of real estate. You know, that is not something that you can control.

you need to have patience and you need to be able to build resilience and enough capital like a corpus that has the patience to wait to get maximum profitability. That I think is the biggest obstacle in real estate. There are cycles. If there is a cycle not to sell this year, but you are trying to desperately sell, you are going to lose out on that.

icing on the cake. You have to have the capacity to wait to do things, when they are the right time to be done. That, I think, is the biggest bottleneck for anybody in real estate.

Scott Bursey (10:25)

Appreciate you sharing that. And in your markets, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, what do you feel is the biggest opportunity right now?

Aman Singh (11:13)

Like I mentioned, these three areas, the Netflix project I feel is a great one. There could be others, but I’m not aware. The Lilly plant around Allentown. is a growing city anyway. It’s the only airport in the area. And now it has this $3.5 billion investment. You cannot go wrong around that is what I feel. And also for Schuylkill County. Schuylkill County, it’s, Pennsylvania is a landlord-friendly state. know, investors are really secure.

as compared to the other states like Jersey and New York, where it could be a nightmare. Pennsylvania, the rental returns are amazingly high. And with these distribution centers there, I think there’s long-term stability and jobs being created. And you really can’t go wrong in these three pockets is what my sphere of…

Influence I know but they could be others definitely, but this is what I’ve come to know also I’ve explored a little bit of South Jersey closer to Philadelphia Where I’ve seen, know the rental returns kind of disproportionately high I Help the friend invest and the rental return is amazing. I think it could be

a big reason why a lot of builders are also pouring in projects there, know, in and around Berlin. You have D.R. Horton, have, you K. Hovnanian and you have Ryan Builders. There’s multiple builders making multiple big projects. And probably they see something that we don’t. And yeah, I think that’s another small pocket that might be of interest to people. I also see one more.

opportunity area which is the area between where Netflix is going to be, Long Branch and North Jersey. So there are these coastal towns, Keansburg and which have traditionally not been developed as much as they could have been close to the water. But I feel once there’s traffic between New York and

a new airport and Netflix. I think that whole patch should also hopefully develop well.

So yeah, these are the four things that come to my mind.

Scott Bursey (13:08)

And stepping back for a moment, what external market threat or economic shift keeps you most vigilant when structuring creative deals today?

Aman Singh (13:17)

I think the biggest market threat in real estate, especially if you’re getting into it, is a great market. If things are hunky-dory, everything’s performing well, the stock market is the best, jobs are the best, interest rate is the lowest, I feel that’s the worst time to get into real estate. I think the best time to… The biggest threat in real estate is a great time.

the bad times, the tough times, the high interest rate times, know, stock market crash times. These are the times that are the best opportunity to be in real estate, and I can give you multiple examples.

Scott Bursey (13:49)

I always wondered what is your primary strategic advantage when balancing your active realtor business at Keller Williams with personal investment acquisitions?

Aman Singh (14:00)

So I think they complement each other. When I speak to somebody as a realtor, I’m able to empathize really well on how they feel about things, what things might come their way if they go ahead with certain investment, what things might not come, what are they worried about, which need they need not be, what are things they are not worried about, but they should be.

What is it going to cost them to do this, to fix the roof, to get this, shower done or I’m able to foresee these things and suggest or guide them as an owner because I am one, and I have dealt with these things and I still like, I have friends or clients who reach out to me when,

they’ve rented a unit and some issue happens and the tenant is not happy and I’m able to help them maneuver those things because I deal with that myself as well. So I think they do complement each other, but at the same time, I don’t really push and pursue my realtor services as much as I can or should be because I feel, if I can add value to somebody and I would rather have that person approach me and

they understand what I can bring to the table then it’s what it’s best for both.

Scott Bursey (15:07)

Expanding on that, fascinated to learn how do you maintain complete trust with fellow buyers and investors while competing for similar value add assets.

Aman Singh (15:18)

So I try not to do that because I am licensed in Jersey only. And even in Jersey, when I have other realtors, brokers, I clarify to them that if they bring me a deal that I want in an area that I want, and I am happy to not use my license to have any conflict of interest.

And Pennsylvania, which is a bigger part of my portfolio, I don’t have a license and I don’t want to compete against my realtor friends and brokers there so that they bring me the best deals. In Pennsylvania, I’m purely an investor.

Scott Bursey (15:49)

High level integrity right there. And Aman, looking at your journey, what does your professional network look like right now?

Aman Singh (15:57)

Professional network right now is my realtors, my bankers, private financers. I’m making a few friends through the multifamily groups. I just want to surround myself with like-minded people. Apart from my family, of course, my family is, I have a lot of extended family around here. They’ve always been there for me, supported me, and I allocate a lot of time to my family.

But yeah, at the same time, on the professional side, it’s mostly these people. It’s realtors, the bankers, the financers. These are the people, know, and vendors like contractors, roofing guys, these are the people I like to network with, stay in touch with, know, wish them on Thanksgiving, Christmas, things like that.

Scott Bursey (16:38)

Thank you for highlighting your network structure and diving into the details. What is the most valuable creative deal structuring lesson you’ve learned that allowed you to execute successful exits and scale into larger multifamily properties?

Aman Singh (16:52)

Creative financing and multifamily, right? So like I mentioned in the 10 unit building, it was my first 10 unit. It was my first property over five units, which is considered commercial. So up to four units is considered residential. The finances are different. Everything is different. Five and above, it was a big leap for me and it was my first one.

and it was under contract with somebody else who was not able to close on it. And I got into contract and I put a deposit with a leap of faith. I got that deal. And I promise you not, I might have not left any commercial lender in the entire country of United States of America.

I dug out from the 20th page of Google Search every possible commercial lender because this was a low value deal. It was a distressed property. The value was lower. And most commercial lenders do not want to lend below a million dollars because they have a lot of fixed costs. So most commercial lenders shy away from lending smaller ticket loans. They want the loan to be more than a million dollars.

And that was a big challenge. And finally, I found a local bank who agreed, but we still had a gap between the equity I wanted to put in that. So we really worked hard on convincing the seller to hold a note for 20 % of the deal for a few years. And

That’s how we were able to, apart from the 20 other things and inspection and a few tenants left when the deal was underway because they panicked that the seller is selling the building, we had to literally get authorization from the seller to be able to rent a unit of a building which we had not even bought yet to get the finance through. Because the banker wanted a certain occupancy at the time of closing.

and all these tenants were running away due to the sale. And the seller was not able to or motivated to rent out these. When people are selling an asset, they’re mentally checked off from that, right? So we requested the seller, we came out with a solution, we requested the seller to authorize us to rent the apartment.

on behalf of him until the closing is done post which we keep the proceeds from the rental and in case the closing doesn’t happen then we switch the lease back in their name so it was a little complex but we found a way seller was happy we got the work done tenant came in, bank was happy we were able to

figure it out.

Scott Bursey (19:27)

That golden nugget right there was worth the entire conversation. Thank you for that, Aman. And Aman, you have given us a lot of great golden nuggets here today. But is there any additional words of wisdom that you like to leave with our listeners?

Aman Singh (19:42)

Yeah, definitely. would say.

like you said, you what is the biggest bottleneck in real estate or what is the biggest bottleneck in any business or anything you do in life is your own attitude and your own mindset. if you want to, if something is good for you and you want to do it, you have to be able to understand yourself, your nature, what is your nature? Like, for an example, in real estate, you need to know that are you happier doing repetitive things, and

you are able to account for the last dollar every month and not feel guilty about asking anybody. I think then rental is a good way to grow, right? Whether it’s BRRR or whether it’s multifamily. If you’re of the nature of, you’re like a project mindset where you like challenges, you take them up, you get them done with, you’re out. Now you want the next challenge, right?

if your strength is supervising construction or even doing some of it yourself if you’re very handy, maybe fixer uppers are a better fit for you. So understanding your own nature.

and then getting into the right aspect of the business and trying to balance that with what opportunities are available. I feel those two things are, it’s very important to know because the biggest threat to your business will eventually become you if you have not identified that, you know.

Scott Bursey (20:55)

Thank you for sharing, Aman. And for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you on future deals, what’s the best way for them to plug into your pipeline and reach you directly?

Aman Singh (21:08)

I have a Facebook page, have an Instagram page, I have a TikTok account. My cell phone is ready to be available. Be happy to text me anytime because unknown numbers sometimes I don’t know if I should say, but yeah, I can always share my phone number. It’s 917-815-4433.

Scott Bursey (21:26)

Aman, thank you so much for joining us today on the Real Estate Pros Podcast.

Aman Singh (21:30)

Thank you. Thank you, Scott. My pleasure.

Scott Bursey (21:32)

It was a sincere pleasure. And to our listeners we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like Aman Singh, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.