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How to Buy Your First Apartment or Triplex | Commercial Real Estate Tips

By September 25, 2025Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Erika interviews Steve Lampe, a seasoned professional with RE-MAX Commercial. Steve shares his journey from an accounting background to a successful career in commercial real estate, highlighting how his finance skills help him analyze deals. He discusses the appeal of commercial real estate, the importance of networking, and current market dynamics in Southern California. Steve also provides valuable advice for new investors, from considering triplexes to exploring syndication and REITs. He dives into future market trends, including generational wealth transfer and the impact of interest rates, while emphasizing the importance of understanding legal documents. Finally, he underscores how technology has leveled the playing field for newcomers, making research and historical sales data more accessible than ever.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Steve Lampe (00:00)
    OK, you mean as an investor, right? OK, well, I think that one of the best ways, especially if you’re looking at an opportunity, most of the commercial loans, five units and above, and most of the strip shopping centers, whether or multifamily, a lot of that, you’re going to need 30 to 40 % down, maybe even more in some cases.

    ⁓ One of the easiest way to get in is, and it’s the first property that I ever bought was a triplex where I lived in one unit and I rented out the other two. So one of the good things about three to four units is you can get a 30 year fixed loan. It’s easier to qualify because they have the income from the other two units or three units to offset your mortgage.

    Erika (02:13)
    everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m joined by someone that I’ve been thrilled to chat with, Steve Lampe. He’s been making serious moves with RE-MAX commercial. And Steve, I’m so glad to have you on the show today.

    Steve Lampe (02:29)
    Well, thank you for having me, Erika. Looking forward to it. And I’ve enjoyed our chat so far and looking forward to, you know, to moving, moving on, keeping it going. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me today.

    Erika (02:41)
    Yeah, so let’s dive on in. For our listeners who may not be familiar with your world yet, can you share more about what your journey was like getting into real estate? What motivated you to start in the first place?

    Steve Lampe (02:55)
    Well, you know, I got out of college, I went to college in Florida, I got a degree in accounting and finance, and I was at an auditing firm called Pricewaterhouse doing audit and tax. And I had a great experience there for a few years, but you were always the person that was kind of keeping score, like putting the numbers in the boxes. And I really wanted to be out there making the goals and the home runs and the, you know, scoring on the field. So

    I actually had an uncle who was in real estate, which kind of piqued my interest. And I went to work for a company where I started working with no experience. I got my license. I had a year’s worth of ⁓ income saved up, you know, because when you’re starting out, there’s, no salary. And I started focusing on apartments, selling apartment buildings, mainly five units to maybe 50 units, work my way through that as well as added retail and strip shopping centers. So, ⁓

    You know, it was kind of a move that I really am so happy I made because my finance and accounting background really helped me, even though I always say real estate is seventh grade math because it’s just operating income expenses and your net income and cash flow. It’s very easy to learn. But yeah, for me, it was just kind of a natural segue. So and I’ve been doing it for over 25 years now.

    Erika (04:11)
    Yeah, and your focus is commercial and investment reality. Can you share more about what drew you to that aspect of real estate?

    Steve Lampe (04:21)
    Sure. Well, I still enjoy, you know, going by an open house in the neighborhood and seeing residential properties, but I really like the numbers aspect of it, especially when people are buying property for an investment opportunity. so, you know, in that regard, the also it was a little bit more business. Like I didn’t really want to be working on Saturdays and Sundays, but primarily I just think it was the numbers aspect that piqued my interest.

    And just so how you could see how someone could buy a property, either reposition it or renovate the units or put a new tenant in a retail center that might’ve had mom and pop tenants and you get a Starbucks in there. And just to see how they were able to add value to the property and create wealth in that regards.

    So I just really enjoyed it always. And I enjoyed talking to people that were successful at it. it’s the other thing about

    investment properties is unlike a house where someone usually has to sell one to buy one. Many investors own multiple properties. So there’s a great opportunity to have clients where you do multiple transactions with over the years.

    Erika (06:10)
    Yeah, and you, I’m sure you build those relationships quickly when you’re doing multiple deals with them.

    Steve Lampe (06:16)
    Yes, yeah. And then if you do a good job or the investment pans out, they’re usually a good long-term client.

    Erika (06:24)
    Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. When it comes to the space that you’re in, Steve, what would you say is the biggest misconception that you see when people come to you and they’re interested in the commercial real estate space?

    Steve Lampe (06:37)
    Well, I think that I try to do a good job. I’ve mentored a lot of agents, so I really try to tell them the good, the bad, and the ugly. But a lot of it is just a matter of getting on the phone and contacting people because I know in residential, the agents talk about their sphere of influence, family and friends, but when you’re doing commercial real estate, you really have to realize that nobody knows that you are now a commercial broker.

    you have to reach out and call them. No one is driving by in their car and decides to stop in and buy a property. So there’s a lot of prospecting and I try to have a consultative approach. you know, but it is a numbers game. So I think the one of the biggest things that people need to learn that you’ve got to be on the phone, stay on the phone. Sure, there’s technology and social media and other avenues to promote yourself. But the number one is to get on a phone and talk to someone that you’ve never heard from you before.

    and develop a rapport with them.

    Erika (07:35)
    Yeah, and ⁓ Steve, when it comes to building those relationships, especially when you’re early on and new to real estate, what kind of networking would you say could be a game changer?

    Steve Lampe (07:47)
    Well, you know, at our company, Remax Commercial, we used to have these forums. And so we would do two things. We have two kinds of forums. One would be I would partner up with maybe a CPA or a tax advisor or someone that was familiar with 1031 exchanges. And we would send out invitations to people to come to our forum and to learn about it and talk to the advisors. Because I think that because not everyone is always transacting, it’s

    very beneficial if you’re providing some value to them in the interim, whether it’s rent surveys, whether it’s historical sales comps or something like I was talking about where there’s a forum. And we would do the same thing for agents where agents could come on a separate thing and we would have, you know, at a convention center or a hotel where you can bring your listings. And we would do this for a while. We were doing it like once a month.

    everyone from different companies. So there was a full cooperation, networking, and then other agents from other companies would come and promote their listings, you know, whether it was a PowerPoint presentation or whatever the medium is. So that’s that those are the two probably best networking avenues that we found were very successful in in bringing people together.

    Erika (09:02)
    Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s really great. And when we were talking earlier, Steve, you had talked about all your experience in the Southern California market. What kind of opportunities and challenges are you seeing there?

    Steve Lampe (09:15)
    Well, I think that it depends product type by product type. if commercial properties encompass multifamily, which is five units and above, although still sometimes we get the occasional triplex or fourplex. And in addition to multifamily, retail like standalone, like it could be like a McDonald’s or a Jack in the Box or Starbucks, retail strip centers.

    office and industrial. So a lot of the market is dictated by supply and demand. There’s a shortage of housing. So apartments, even though they’ve come down maybe 10 to 15 % over the peak of 2022 due to interest rates, there still is a limited supply of them and vacancy rates are relatively low. At the other end of the spectrum, you have office buildings. And even before the whole pandemic, people were already starting to work at home or work from WeWorks or these other

    types of

    office settings. there’s a glut of office space. the, whereas the vacancy and apartments might be three to 4 % overall, the vacancy and office can be 20 % or more. So that really crushed a lot of projected cash flows and left a lot of empty buildings. And then in the middle, you probably have ⁓ retail, retail strip centers. And then I would say industrial is, has always been like

    lower vacancies than apartments. But there was a lot of overbuilding because of that. you know, real estate is kind of like the ebb and flow of the tide. know, there’s over time, there’s overbuilding, then there’s absorption, and then there’s equilibrium. So right now we’re just seeing a lot of vacancies in those types of product types. But I think it’s a good correction because it’s brought values downward the return. You know, when people were getting loans for 3%,

    you know, everything seemed to cashflow. Now that rates are in the 6 % plus or minus range, I think it’s made people more cautious and stabilized a little bit. But there’s a little bit more pain to come. We’re not going off a cliff, but I think there’s still a little bit more settling to occur.

    Erika (11:52)
    Yeah, and knowing all those ins and outs of those different product types are so important. And I know you have your own investment experience as well. For our listeners who, you know, let’s say they want to get started in real estate today. What kind of advice would you give them for getting into their first property?

    Steve Lampe (12:13)
    OK, you mean as an investor, right? OK, well, I think that one of the best ways, especially if you’re looking at an opportunity, most of the commercial loans, five units and above, and most of the strip shopping centers, whether or multifamily, a lot of that, you’re going to need 30 to 40 % down, maybe even more in some cases.

    ⁓ One of the easiest way to get in is, and it’s the first property that I ever bought was a triplex where I lived in one unit and I rented out the other two. So one of the good things about three to four units is you can get a 30 year fixed loan. It’s easier to qualify because they have the income from the other two units or three units to offset your mortgage.

    And the down payments are usually 20 to 25 % fixed. ⁓

    I would say that would be a good investment property and everyone can relate to that. Everyone at some point needs a place to live and everyone’s not ready to buy their dream home. So I think that probably a three to four unit building would be the best in multifamily. The other way would be to find partners that are experienced, that are syndicators that are putting out, maybe they’re buying an $8 million property, but they are taking investments of $100,000 from individuals.

    So that’s another way where you’re part of a partnership syndication is just a fancy word for a partnership where there’s someone that finds the asset, manages it, distributes the cash on a quarterly basis, the return. And that’s the second way to do that would be the Cohen. There’s a third way. If you just want to do something real passive, you can invest in a real estate investment trust in the stock market. You’re buying the paper, you’re not really buying the asset and there’s no depreciation. ⁓

    There’s a stock fund called Cohen and Steers. The symbol is RFI. R as in Randy, F as in Frank, I as in Igloo. And they invest in multitudes of different REITs, which are real estate investment trusts that own apartments, industrial, retail, like very large institutional assets. So that’s the third way. You could do that today and be…

    be in real estate in about half an hour. Just open up an account at any brokerage.

    Erika (14:24)
    That’s exciting. And Steve, with all of your experience, I’m sure you have a story or two, whether it’s with, you know, your your realty group or

    Erika
    was there something that you learned from that experience that changed how you operate with these deals? I mean, with that situation, you were going above and beyond to make it work. So I’m curious to know what you’d say about that.

    Steve Lampe
    Well, and I think it still holds true to a lot of agents and brokers. they get the paperwork and they just shuffle it over and they’re like, they don’t read it. And you really, we’re really conducting a legal transaction. And although we’re not lawyers and we can’t give legal advice, we are an agent for someone. And it’s incumbent upon us to actually read and understand so that.

    If there is some nuance that whether it goes one direction or the other, that we have that knowledge. So I think that was the one thing that I learned a lot from that transaction.

    Erika
    Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, when it comes to what’s on the horizon, you know, you’ve dealt with a lot of crazy deals, you’re well established in the Southern California market. So what’s the next on the horizon, Steve?

    Steve Lampe
    would say that for right now, a lot of the agents are looking and calling clients that they’ve done business with over the years. have some longevity. As far as me personally, the ⁓ company’s running very well. ⁓ I’m looking at doing maybe some more investing on my own, where I’m either bringing in other partners that could be other agents that work with me or third party friends, family, associates, things of that nature.

    Because it’s still a real estate as a business that you can segue into different areas, you know, just because you’re an agent and doing brokerage, some people get into property management, some people get into investing. I’m kind of more in the direction of investing because I know it well just from representing owners and seeing what has worked and what hasn’t worked and, you know, looking out for those opportunities to reposition or renovate a property, not with the idea of flipping it.

    That’s one thing I think that’s key is that when interest rates were marching down, it was easy to buy a property, slap a coat of paint on it, maybe raise the rents a little bit, and all of a sudden, you you’re making a nice profit on it. I think real estate goes through cycles. And right now we’re back in a cycle of it’s a traditional long-term investment. It has cash flow. It has appreciation over time.

    And then you have the tax benefits of depreciating the asset to write off the income or selling it and doing a 1031 exchange into another asset versus just selling it and cashing out and taking your chips off the table. There’s no right or wrong. It’s just more, think that’s where we’re back to as far as the foreseeable future. But I always say I threw out my crystal ball years ago, but I do think that the foreseeable future, ⁓

    looks promising. There’s opportunities now. I think we talked earlier about a lot of these commercial loans are only fixed for three or five or seven years, unlike a ⁓ house that’s 30-year fixed. So a lot of those loans, when they become due or they become ready to reset at a higher rate, owners are going to have to sell or put money in to pay the loan down. So I think there’s going to be more transactions. And secondarily, there’s going to be a generational wealth transfer that’s been occurring.

    as people that are in their 80s and 90s pass the properties on to their children through trust, wills, and as a result, sometimes the kids don’t have any interest in managing the property or they don’t have any experience. So I think there’s going to be liquidation of assets, just in an orderly manner. I don’t see us going off the cliff in any way, but I do think it’s like the tide right now. I think the next few years are going to be good for real estate and there’s less uncertainty.

    you know, with interest rates and everything else.

    Erika
    Yeah, and like you said, you gotta throw out that crystal ball, but with that in mind, are there tools or systems that you’re using when you’re looking for these different assets?

    Steve Lampe
    Yeah, that’s a good question. Well, a lot of us is, you build a database based on your product type and sometimes you have to research or get a research assistant to look up the phone numbers. But one of the best sources is historical sales comps. Now the MLS has a limited amount, but ⁓ CoStar LoopNet ⁓ is one of those, CoStar is historical comps, LoopNet is more for marketing properties currently.

    So those are things we use because you can go back 15 years and look at who’s owned particular properties and you can see trend analysis and you can see which properties might have been owned a long time and haven’t traded hands. So that is one thing that’s really happened with, you know, there’s so many different avenues of research and acquiring information on properties where, you know, back in the 90s or even beforehand, you had to get in your car and drive around and

    get information from the title company. Now a lot of it’s readily available. So it makes it a level playing field for even the newcomer that’s coming into the business.

    Erika
    Yeah, absolutely. The accessibility that we have with technology is amazing today.

    Steve Lampe
    Yeah, that’s 100%. Well said.

    Erika
    Yeah.

    And, you know, before we wrap up, if someone wants to have access to you, they want to reach out, connect, collaborate. What’s the best way for them to reach you, Steve?

    Steve Lampe
    Well, I’ll tell you what, mean, I can, you we have our website, but I mean, I think that probably that’s ⁓ remaxcir.com, www.remaxcir.com. But I’m happy to give out my number here if anyone wants to call direct and ask questions or, you know, have any ⁓ need to, you know, do work on a transaction. You tell me, that, what do you suggest?

    Erika
    Yeah.

    Steve Lampe
    Okay, so 310-880-1151. That’s my mobile number, 310-880-1151. yeah, ⁓ even if it’s just whether you’re an investor looking for a property or someone that owns that’s looking to sell or whether you’re interested in real estate as a broker or agent, I’d love to talk to any of y’all out there for sure.

    Erika
    Fantastic. Well, Steve, I appreciate your time and your story and your expertise today.

    Steve Lampe
    All right, thank you again, Erika, for having me and look forward to our next time we get together and chat, okay?

    Erika
    Yeah, sounds great. And, and for our listeners here, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pros podcast. We’ve got more conversations lined up with pros like Steve who are out there building fantastic real estate empires. We’ll see you on the next episode.

    Steve Lampe
    Okay.

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