Multifamily investing: Is it easy? Does it work? Can I do it?

Brad Sumrok

The answer to each of those questions is a universal yes, but with the caveats of personal effort, the willingness to accept guidance and follow a proven system and especially commitment to your personal success.

Revelation

Andrew Waite, the founding publisher of Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine, says unlike so many rags-to-riches experts who have put themselves on stage as self-proclaimed real estate experts, “Brad Sumrok emulates none of them. He is the anti-guru. He came from a middle class background and was taught to study hard, get good grades and get a good job.”

Here are Waite’s additional thoughts: Brad does not have a story of hard luck or deprivation, but rather went from the “rat race to retirement.” Sumrok was brought up in a working class suburb of Pittsburgh, Pa. Family, community, hard work and a respect for education as a route to upward mobility and a meaningful income were the basic building blocks.

Following this mainstream advice, after high school Sumrok enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University and graduated with a degree in chemical engineering, paying for much of his own education by working on-campus jobs and taking out student loans.

The next step in his career path was a move to Houston, the chemical manufacturing capital of the world, where he took a job at a chemical company. Sumrok’s employer, recognizing him as promising management material, sponsored him into a graduate Master of Business Administration program at the University of Houston. But after two degrees and 17 years of corporate America working at five different companies, Sumrok had no sense of financial security or freedom to live as he had come to expect. It was clear to Sumrok that something was just not right and needed to change.

“Educated and Desperate”

To succeed as a mid-level manager in corporate America requires extraordinary discipline and commitment to career and an employer. But over the years Sumrok observed many of his peers and managers get laid off, fired, outsourced or just plain downsized. Some even lost their homes and their families due to the financial distress. Sumrok began to realize that even after investing in a formal education this did not automatically mean financial freedom and security. His job security fears materialized in 2001 when he was laid off from a six-figure position with a software company.

It had become clear to Sumrok that at the rate he could earn and invest in the course of traditional employment, he would be working well into retirement to maintain his style of living. This contradicted the idea that getting an education and working hard would deliver substantial rewards and a fulfilling retirement.

What was missing was the desirable combination of life, family, community and work that he was unable to obtain even with a good job. Succeeding at work often meant crowding out family or community.Imagine a playground teeter-totter where “balance” literally implied doing one thing well at the expense of another, or more likely, doing two things halfheartedly.

Realization

While maintaining full-time employment, Sumrok began to explore what could be done to make changes in his life and augment his income.

He happened upon Robert Kiyosaki’s allegorical “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” The notion that spoke to him most clearly was that the choices we make automatically categorize us into a role in Kiyosake’s Cash Flow Quadrant. Sumrok’s moment of revelation occurred when Kiyosake asked in the book, “Are you an employee or self-employed working for your money, or does your money work for you as an investor and business owner?”

Invest in yourself and focus

Sumrok set about to change, studying and attending classes by leading self-help educators. The specialized niche education provided by these experts and mentors differed dramatically from formal college education because these educators impressed that mindset, mechanisms and mentorship required on-going attention. This was not “one and done.” One strong message Sumrok learned was that mentors also need mentors, as self-improvement is a never-ending path.

Today Sumrok’s entire low-key, self-assured approach adheres to the lessons of his upbringing. Specialized education is basic to success, no matter what your goals may be. “Taking a specialized educational approach to niche like multifamily,” says Sumrok, “provides a real implementation formula that can succeed. Compare this to a generalized approach of a formal or classic education that teaches concept and disciplines but does not necessarily make a graduate “job ready.”

Though many gurus and would-be investors seem to believe success is found in a magic “insider” formula, success without work is illusory. For those who do not accept mediocrity as the new normal, the key is to learn, wisely apply the lessons, work and win.

Squirrel! Squirrel!

“Squirrel! Squirrel! is the punch line of the joke about the near-useless cattle dog that is distracted from his daily rounds by squirrels and rodents he can chase, or the “shiny new object.”

This is part of the dilemma confronted by most individuals curious about investment success. Their first encounter with the notion of real estate investing comes by way of an Internet wealth therapy or guru marketing pitch that promises a new way to amass untold riches. This beguiling message often causes the readers not to examine the options, providers and asset classes in which they can invest, instead opting for the investment riches message of the moment. And then, barely have they grasped that message when another, conflicting one, takes its place.

Sumrok believes in focus. “Become an expert by focusing on a few things,” Sumrok says. “Focus has power.” One of his mentors taught Sumrok the acronym FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Success.

Sumrok has kept to investing and educating in multifamily properties for over 10 years. Of course he is often presented many “business opportunities” but his focus and specialty are one thing: multifamily housing.

Anti-guru, pro-student

Sumrok is considered somewhat of an anti-guru because of his adherence to the Mary Kay Ash approach of helping students and clients thrive.

Answering the questions: Is it easy? Does it work? and Can I do it? with honest answers, affordable education and first-hand help is way Brad Sumrok has taught hundreds of students to succeed. Read more here.