Multifamily Investing for Long-Term Success with Ashley Garner

Christian (00:00.57)
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show. Today we have an incredible guest with us today. Ashley Garner. He’s a seasoned real estate investor and the owner of ABG multifamily. He’s based out of Wilmington, North Carolina. He’s built a strong reputation for transforming multi-family properties and creating long-term value in the real estate market. So today we’re going to dive into his journey from how we got started in real estate investing, the strategy he uses to identify, acquire and optimize multifamily properties.

Ashley Garner (00:20.674)
Thank you

Christian (00:28.528)
And we’re also going to explore his approach to navigating market shifts, scaling a portfolio and the key lessons he’s learned along the way. So if you’re an investor looking to grow in the multifamily space or just curious about the world of real estate, this is an episode you’re not going to want to miss. So stay tuned. So Ashley, my friend, welcome to the show. I’m super excited to talk with you today, So why don’t you just introduce the audience? You know, your background, who you are and how you got here.

Ashley Garner (00:47.244)
Yeah.

Ashley Garner (00:54.284)
Yeah, Christian, thanks. Thanks very much. I appreciate the opportunity to be on and talk to everybody. You know, talking about real estate and specifically investment real estate is like my favorite thing. So this is a treat for me. Yeah, so I’ve been in real estate my whole life. You know, I like to say jokingly that I’ve never had a real job and I’m not sure that’s a compliment. It just means I’m a bad employee.

But you know, I got my broker’s license in North Carolina in 1994. So that’s a long time ago. And I kind of grew up in, you know, my dad was always into something, you know, flipping a house or buying a rental or buying a single family house and internally subdividing it into, you know, two or three units and things like that. So I kind of grew up in that business.

around it all the time. And I’ve had a long and wonderful career as a residential real estate broker also, and still continue in that and enjoy it very much. have a small team of people that work with me on that. But most of my time, like most being like 99.9 % of my time is spent on multifamily apartments.

You know, I kind of went on this journey. Like I said, I grew up in the business. And then when I started buying things on my own account, I did what I hear most people say that they do, which is like they start with a single family and then they like it. So they buy another one and then maybe they buy a duplex and a triplex. And I did all of that. And I always knew.

I’m a big believer in the pursuit of financial freedom, right? So it’s just math to me in order to get to that point. And I realized pretty quick that I’m not that old, but I’m already mathematically eliminated from reaching my goals if I don’t pick up the number of units pretty quick. And so I made a real effort to…

Ashley Garner (03:11.31)
educate myself and force myself out of the comfort zone of the smaller number of units into larger so I got a 10 unit place in 2013 that I still own and then I went from there to 32 units 37 units and And we just like a month ago acquired a property. That’s all 196 units

And we are hoping to close another one in 2025 to kind of continue that scaling up. And that brings us pretty much where we are right now.

Christian (03:46.832)
Let’s go. That’s awesome. That’s awesome, man. So how did you land your first deal? Can you talk about how that happened?

Ashley Garner (03:54.958)
Yeah, yeah, you know I Think that the ten unit one is a well, I mean they’re all about the same, you know, I just I was always I’m always on the hunt right? So, you know and I wasn’t and still am a residential broker so I had access to the MLS and things like that but the the deals didn’t really come through there as much as just

Christian (04:01.862)
Thank

Ashley Garner (04:23.99)
being connected, right? So, you know, I had my area, which at the time was a pretty specific area in Wilmington, and I just kind of was always there. I was always walking around there or researching a house or talking to the neighbors and those types of people and things just kind of came about. That, which is really how this all works. It’s all relationship stuff, you know, it’s…

It’s really that’s the whole connection to everything. that’s really, you know, so I found. Yeah, yeah. So I found these, I found the deal or the connection and then, you know, you run the spreadsheet, you do the math and like, yeah, looks like it works. And so let’s give it a go. And, you know, at the beginning and all the way through really the 32 unit, I used my own money.

Christian (04:56.398)
I was just about to say the same thing.

Christian (05:11.504)
Yeah.

Ashley Garner (05:21.356)
right? My own like down payment on my own equity or down payment on the loan. and, so that was a stretch, especially the 10 unit, cause that was kind of a big purchase for me. And I was like, I felt like I was really out on a limb with that. And, it’s turned out to be just one of the most phenomenal things I’ve ever done. But at the time I was pretty nervous. and you know, that’s what 12, 12 years ago, I guess.

Christian (05:45.883)
Yeah.

Christian (05:51.034)
Wow. Well, thank God you did, right? Thank God you took the risk. Absolutely, man. So Ashley, mean, how do you specifically, how do you identify the right markets and properties for your investments right now?

Ashley Garner (05:53.998)
Indeed.

Ashley Garner (06:05.942)
Yeah, so, you know, our target market, just as a side note, is basically most anywhere in North Carolina, right? So we happen to know that market really well, you know, we’re from here, our families are all over the state, and, I feel like I know somebody just about every town in North Carolina, but that’s not really the reason it’s our target market.

Christian (06:15.078)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Garner (06:31.318)
It’s our target market because of the inbound migration. There’s so many people that are moving here. This is one of those states where everybody wants to be right. Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, blah, blah. And so that’s one reason. You know, the, landlord tenant laws are not too lopsided in favor one way or the other. So it’s a pretty even playing field when it comes to that.

you know, the math works, not all the time, but most of the time that we can, we won’t buy a deal unless the math works, but we’re able to find deals where the math works. And so that’s really why, you know, it’s a place that it’s got a very bright future. And so we feel like we can count on the appreciation and the rent growth.

Christian (07:09.764)
Makes sense.

Christian (07:21.7)
Absolutely, definitely, definitely. So what are maybe just some ways that you would increase the value of a multifamily property and just ways that you’re currently doing that now?

Ashley Garner (07:32.342)
Yeah, you know, so today is the day of the week where we have all of our property manager meetings and we meet just like this, virtually. so I just hung up on those calls like 30 minutes ago. And so we’re doing things like, you know, I’m a big like pride of ownership kind of person. Like I believe that if a tenant likes, if a tenant’s proud of where they live,

that they’ll take care of it. The turnover is lower and the new tenants coming in are willing to pay more in rent because it’s just a nicer place to live. They feel safe and comfortable there. So we do things like pressure wash all of the surfaces, know, clean everything up, know, seal and stripe the parking lots, paint when it needs to be painted, update things like the dog park.

the fences, the little dog stations, just little things like that that overall mean a lot to the tenants. And that’s the biggest thing, I think, just to keep tenants happy.

Christian (08:48.986)
Absolutely, absolutely. They’re gonna be your best friend in your lifeline, right? So you might as well treat them right. So that’s right, that’s right. So let’s talk about maybe just some major trends you’re seeing in the multifamily space right now. How are those shaping your investment strategies? Obviously we know you’re in North Carolina, but maybe let’s talk about what type of trends are you seeing and where do you see those trends going in the next five to 10 years?

Ashley Garner (08:54.104)
They’re paying the bills, that’s right.

Ashley Garner (09:13.454)
Yeah, you know, I’d say the biggest trend that kind of sticks in my mind all the time is that there just are not enough places for people to live. There are more people than there are places to call home. so bottom line, the supply and demand is in the favor of the people that own the apartments, right?

There are some temporary ups and downs there. In other words, like last year, there was a lot of new construction and new development that was delivered to the market. So it takes a while to absorb that stuff. for a snapshot, split second, maybe the vacancy rates go up a little bit. But we’re already starting to see those vacancies go down.

in 2025. So we’re already seeing occupancies up and rent starting to notch back up. So it didn’t take long to absorb that new stuff. And going forward, again, more people moving into our market and there’s already not enough housing for them. And so as more people move in, then the demand just keeps rising. That’s a major trend that I see.

Christian (10:36.774)
That’s very interesting. That’s very, very interesting. I appreciate you sharing that my friend. Awesome. And well, let’s talk about maybe raising capital, right? You know, how do you approach raising capital for deals? Maybe this is also something you can talk about as well, Ashley, that you are looking to raise funds for that. Also, maybe let’s give advice to, you know, some new investors that are just looking to, get funding as well. Maybe you can list out some actionable steps on, you know, good ways to how they can build relationships.

Right? Because we know you just can’t walk up to anybody and just ask them for money. Right? There’s an approach to these things and you obviously have to nurture and provide value upfront to somebody. Right? So I’m curious if we can talk about that.

Ashley Garner (11:18.69)
Yeah, sure. That’s really, that’s such a huge part of this. And even when I talk to people who want to get into this business, the biggest obstacle seems to be, well, I don’t have enough money. Where am going to get the money to buy it? And the real answer is that if the deals, if the math works on the deal, there’s more than enough money.

Christian (11:23.366)
Mm-hmm.

Christian (11:38.116)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ashley Garner (11:47.214)
to buy it. It may not be your money. It may be a limited partner investor or a partner or a friend or family. It may be their cash. And so it’s all about the relationship. If the people, if you know them and they trust you, then

Those are the most important things and then you show them a deal that where the math works and they’re like, okay Let’s give it a shot. And so that was a big me moving from Like the ten unit that I did by myself to try to go to the bigger ones It was really scared and nervous about man Where am I gonna get this money? And then I was even more nervous to go ask my friends and family Hey, would you like to kick in some money on this thing? And and really the answer that I got was yeah

like we would love to because the returns were good and they trusted me to manage it. So that was a pretty big eye-opener. Then what I found was that eventually you run out of, you know, you run out of your own money, then you go friends and family money, and eventually if you go big enough, you’ll run out of that also. So then you’ve got to get in front of new people that you don’t know make new relationships.

and build that trust, show them the math, and then you create new and happy investors as you go. that’s really, mean, raising that capital is the key because you’re limited by what you may, what’s in your own savings account. And so if you want to go bigger than that, you’ve got to have other people come join you.

Christian (13:25.882)
Mmm.

Christian (13:31.216)
That makes a lot of sense, Ashley. Well, let’s talk about too. I know you have some really cool stuff going on right now. You definitely have some projects that you’re working on and you also are looking to raise some capital for that. You and I were speaking offline about that. So why don’t you just talk on, you know, what you got going on right now what people could look to invest in right now.

Ashley Garner (13:46.403)
Okay.

Ashley Garner (13:50.294)
Yeah, so where we are is that we closed on the 196 unit property in Jacksonville, North Carolina, actually on February 10th, so a month ago. And we put that property under contract back in July of 2024. So it was a long contract period. And in 2024,

Raising money was tough. was very difficult. I’m not sure I know all the reasons why, but the stock market was pretty good. The interest rates were up there kind of high. So in other words, people, if they had their money in the stock market, they were doing pretty good. If they had their money and their cash in a money market or a high yield savings account, they were making pretty good money.

Maybe the resistance to taking it out of those and putting it into something new maybe was a little higher. So anyway, the capital raise took us a while and we got to the point where finally like, okay, it’s time to either close this or not close this. And we love the property. The cash flow is fabulous and the opportunity for improvement is fabulous. So we decided we want to close the deal. So we arranged like a

bit of a short-term financing, I guess, if you will, that allows us to own it and now continue our capital raise and then we’ll refinance it out to some long-term debt this summer and everything’s fine. So we still have room in the 196 unit deal. Are you able to hear me? My connection looks like it just got messed up for you.

Christian (15:39.066)
Yeah, you’re good Ashley. We’ll edit this part out, but what’s happening is the video is rendering right now. So that’s getting the 1080p quality. So it might seem blurry and frozen, but you’re not. It’s just Riverside actually rendering the video. But yeah, let’s pick up what you were talking about. Yep.

Ashley Garner (15:45.015)
Okay.

Ashley Garner (15:51.47)
Cool, my bad. My bad, yeah. So yeah, so we still have room in this 196 unit deal for limited partner investors to participate. we, now what I like about this is that, you know, when you go into a property before you buy it, everything is pro forma, right? You think like, well, if I buy this, then I can increase the rents and reduce the expenses and blah, blah, blah. But that’s all just a projection.

What I like about what we have to offer now is that we already own it, so that risk is gone. We’ve already put into place a lot of the expense improvements that we had in our pro forma because we own it. For instance, our insurance is way less than it was with the previous owner. Payroll.

We found some savings there, things like that. So now when we go talk to our limited partner investors, we say, look, we’ve already put into place these things. So you’re not buying a pro forma anymore. You’re buying actual performance, which is much less risky. So that’s been kind of cool when I talk to people and I could just see that comfort level in their eyes.

So that’s what we’re doing now. We’re still raising capital and we raise it like a $50,000 minimum accredited investors.

It’s one of those opportunities that allows people to get involved or maybe diversify their investments and get into real estate. Let us do all the heavy lifting and the hard work of managing it. And then we send you distributions and reports every quarter and everybody’s happy.

Christian (17:46.31)
I love it. I love it Ashley. Awesome man. I really wish we honestly had a lot more time, but unfortunately we don’t my friend. feel like we could go for another hour on this, but Ashley, I appreciate you sharing, you know, those opportunities for our audience to be able to partake in that. But why don’t you just share, you know, where they can find you, your website, your email, things like that. Obviously we’re going to drop that in the description, but why don’t you just share where they can find you.

Ashley Garner (17:59.864)
Yeah.

Ashley Garner (18:11.788)
Sure thing. Yeah, my email address is Ashley at ABG Multifamily. I’d be happy to have a phone call or text from you. And that number is 910-409-0861. Our website is abgmultifamily.com. And on Instagram, it’s abgrealestate. So check us out. We’d love to make connection with you.

Christian (18:41.296)
Beautiful. Ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first. Definitely be sure to reach out to Ashley. I appreciate you jumping on, my friend. It was a pleasure speaking with you, and I’m just wishing you nothing but the best in your future endeavors.

Ashley Garner (18:52.514)
You too, Christian. Thanks for your opportunity, buddy. Good luck. Thank you.

Christian (18:54.572)
Of course, of course my man would love to have you back on the Cool everybody. I hope you enjoyed today’s show. I know I did. And as always my friends, we will see you on the next episode.