Multifamily Investing in 2026: How to Find Apartment Deals at 30%–40% Discounts

Buck Joffrey (00:00)
I think like it we’ve been you know we’ve been very active the last couple of years with these huge discounts that we’ve been lucky enough to pick up, you know, 30 to 40 percent discounts compared to just a few years back. So we’re buying an incredibly good basis. Now, what I’m excited about is that I think that this market is gonna turn. We’re still this is still a bloodied market.

Multifamily. It’s not not, you know, it’s not a where the froth is at all. In fact, it’s probably the only market out there where there is no froth. Right. And that’s gonna turn.

Michelle Tack (00:38)
Mm-hmm.

Hi everyone, I’m Michelle Tack. I am the real estate podcast host for this session. welcome Buck

Joffrey to our discussion today. We’re thrilled to have Buck for a couple of reasons. Buck has been successfully investing in multi-unit large-scale properties for quite a bit of time, as well as has had an interesting background as a a previous surgeon is my understanding, and has changed his career to really look at real estate

invests in it but also speaks I believe has a book and also does his own podcast. So we’re very happy Buck to have you here today and I would love you to for those that may not come from the large-scale multifamily acquisition side of the business tell us what you do and what markets you serve and we’ll take it from there.

Buck Joffrey (03:13)
Yeah, I mean we’re we’re focused we’re focused on we’re still focused on value add you know opportunities typically no less than 150 units, larger apartment complexes. we focus on red states, states that are with high job growth, lots of you know, we’re states where there’s plenty of jobs, plenty of people moving in, and where we think that there is

also some opportunity because of less development. you know, I think it it is certainly a a value add play, but right now I think we are also opportunistic simply because even without the value add, if you look at what the the the prices are right now, we consider the prices that that these assets are coming up for opportunistic and value added in and of themselves as well. So

Michelle Tack (04:10)
That’s interesting. in terms of, you know, you you switch careers. How did you how are you able to run the business efficiently operationally, given the fact that, you know, you’ve been doing this for a while, but what are the key items that you know foster that in terms of picking the right properties, you know, keeping the powder dry as it were, but really

to be efficiently making, you know, revenue. maybe you could talk a little bit about how you’re doing that operationally.

Buck Joffrey (05:34)
It’s definitely not a one man show, right? These are large these are businesses, right? So you have an entire underwriting department, you have entire, you know, you have operations, you you know, you have you have all the different asset management components and all that. So so you know, I think the better way to think about it is, you know, not really like one person doing all of it because I I think that sure that’s a recipe for disaster, but it’s you know it’s it’s it’s a business.

Michelle Tack (06:04)
Yep. Absolutely. do you approach it like you did surgery and very containerized, operationally efficient? I I would think that might be some key to that.

Buck Joffrey (06:16)
I think that’s that’s very true. in in surgery, you know, it’s we always talk about minimizing movement. no extra movements, the less extra movements, the better. So there’s you know, this idea of of being creative and all that, but that that actually is not the case. You want these moves to be very, very similar to the last time you did it and the last time it worked well. So I think that when you look at a large-scale

apartment business, value add components, stuff. You gotta you you gotta do the same thing every time. You gotta have the your buy box be very similar. You gotta have your execution very similar. you you know, you can’t you can’t do a lot of variability, otherwise I don’t think you’re gonna be as successful.

Michelle Tack (07:06)
You’ve grown over the period of time and are continuing to purchase larger properties. Have you ever experienced a time where a deal started going sideways or south and you had a pivot quickly and were able to resurrect the situation? And or if not, it was instrumental in really maturing your skill set as you know you look for forward to

Other opportunities.

Buck Joffrey (07:37)
I mean, I think those challenges happen all the time. listen, we we have had especially in the you know interest rates went up rapidly. I mean, that was a challenge for not only us, but I think pretty every every major operator out there. I don’t I can’t think of anybody who’s not had that challenge, but you know, I think the the the things that you know we had one asset in in

DFW is a great asset that, you know, we we acquired and it was on bridge debt. and obviously that that debt was floating. And I think we just singularly focused on in increasing that net operating income and managed to actually double net operating income in about 18 months. I mean that was a really spectacular thing. Now the the

The sad thing about that was that that got us just enough to refi, right? Whereas if it was in if it was in other markets, it would have made an enormous amount of money for everybody. So so there’s, you know, just trying to focus on the principles of, you know, taking care of the assets you have and increasing stuff. But there’s stuff that happens all the time, you know. I mean, we just had a you know, we just had a an asset that’s doing just fine in the

the the pref lender decided they wanted out. And so what do you do with that? There’s, you know, they they don’t want to be in the space anymore. And they had this small little way they could get out. There’s a publicly traded company. we managed to replace that with investor with investor money just because again I mean basically you’re getting opportunities here

you know, that are in the money that are basically institutional level. So so things are happening all the time. It’s not it’s definitely not all roses. I mean that is anybody’s been in this market for the last several years knows that we we, you know, everybody’s had a lot of challenges. So

Michelle Tack (09:44)
I think the the learning lesson there though is that you may not consider that a win, but it’s a win given if you took one place in time and that was going to extend for a decade, you would say, Hey, we’re glad, right, that we were able to salvage that bridge, right, and be able to create more opportunity. So kudos for that. Can you tell me, as you look out for the next 24 months or so?

You know, what you’re excited about in terms of opportunistically, you know, your vision, what your vision is.

Buck Joffrey (10:20)
I think like it we’ve been you know we’ve been very active the last couple of years with these huge discounts that we’ve been lucky enough to pick up, you know, 30 to 40 percent discounts compared to just a few years back. So we’re buying an incredibly good basis. Now, what I’m excited about is that I think that this market is gonna turn. We’re still this is still a bloodied market.

Multifamily. It’s not not, you know, it’s not a where the froth is at all. In fact, it’s probably the only market out there where there is no froth. Right. And that’s gonna turn.

Michelle Tack (10:58)
Mm-hmm.

Buck Joffrey (11:02)
And the impetus of that is going to be interest rates. Now we have have been a situation right now where in interest rates were going down every month until this entire Iran mess started. Yep.

Now the Iran mess is going to end. Okay. It’s going to end. We know it is. Trump is you know, even told us why, because if we let it go for another four weeks, we’re gonna be in a catastrophic, you know, global depression. It’s gonna end. Now, when that ends, you have the confluence of energy prices, the not only the the Iranian thing, but the

Michelle Tack (11:31)
Mm-hmm.

Buck Joffrey (11:39)
OPEC is looks like it’s weakening. You’ve got the United Arab Emirates going online. You’ve got Venezuelan oil that’s gonna continue. Energy costs are gonna go down. And meantime, you’ve got our artificial intelligence that is inherently deflationary. So what does that mean? Inflation is is is gonna come down, and I think rates are going to come down. And if you give me two years, I I I feel like I can, you know, I’d bet the farm on that.

Michelle Tack (12:06)
Mm-hmm.

Buck Joffrey (12:07)
That happens, that’s the singular impetus that is going to bring this market back quickly, in my view, from being depressed to potentially even getting frothy.

Michelle Tack (12:17)
Yeah, I thought it was interesting that you said that you’ve been, you know, prognosticating this for a bit of, you know, in terms of you know

maybe don’t wait till it hits the bottom. You know, Warren Buffett would say, don’t chase the market, right? Go into those asset classes that you have a good idea about. And if you think they’re of value, right, you and you know about it, buy them. So for those of us that are that have, you know, some view on this, I just bought a town home. I was lucky enough for two and a half percent, but I’ve owned 13 properties and I bought one in California at 14% in the 80s.

So this idea when we talk to younger people that say, I got a seven percent a lot, I’m like, no, it’s not, that’s pretty average for a mortgage if you look at thirty years in in a over a period of time. What do you say to people like that that may have the the assets to invest but are trying to get it perfectly timed to when the best time to invest is?

Buck Joffrey (13:18)
Think when you I think when you have to think about is not where we’re at now, but where we’re going to be in 24 to 36 months, right? Yeah. You never you’re not gonna you’re never gonna invest. I mean, there what’s you know, based on the economy today, if you’re saying, you know, real estate is beaten up, well, then if it’s beaten up, you shouldn’t invest in it. Well, the idea is it’s not gonna be beaten up in twenty-four to thirty-six months. Yep. There is always

And this may almost be the rare occasion where real estate is is the only thing that keeps us true, but there’s always something on sale, right? And and if you can buy good assets, solid assets, they’re not going anywhere, right? People need to live somewhere. you know, the these are quality assets that are trading at huge discounts. There’s still value at opportunities in these things. you have to buy today.

with what what’s in mind for the next twenty-four to thirty-six months or beyond. and I think, you know, that that’s actually a famous quote. it’s not a quote, but as famous thought as Stan Druckenmiller has been talking about a lot lately, which is like you gotta start, you know, you don’t you gotta think about what’s happening in the future. You can’t, you can’t just look at what’s happening now. And I mean, frankly, that’s one of the big ethos of my podcast is trying to like,

figure out where the puck is going, not where it’s at right now.

Michelle Tack (14:48)
Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about your podcast, what type of content you provide and, you know, what got you into it.

Buck Joffrey (15:37)
Well, I got into it because I was trying to learn, you know, back over, you know, 12 years ago now, as much as I could about you know, these topics. because I was you know, I I came out of surgical residency in 2008, 2009, right in the middle of the recession. And you know, I I wanted to learn as much as I could. What I found was there wasn’t a lot of podcasts that were focused on people like me who actually were making

A decent amount of money, right? and we’re trying to figure out how to invest and trying to figure out, you know, well what how to make sense of the this economic world. If you’re a physician or a lawyer, you’re not necessarily tapped into macroeconomics, right? So the so I started the podcast with the intent of learning. the more people I could invite to ask them questions I would learn from, and that’s kind of how it started. Now it initially

you know, I had other people who were doing, you know, different types of things in apartments and that kind of thing, but we’ve sort of moved away from that and it doing more on, you know, larger economic concepts and macro economics and also in personal in personal finance strategies, right? Like asset protection, estate planning, tax mitigation, all those kinds of things. Things that are I think that people who are high paid professionals need to understand.

I think a lot of people go completely passive on this, but I think they need to understand it. And and if you wanna figure out what’s happening in the future, that’s you know, that’s that’s really important information for what you do right now.

Michelle Tack (17:20)
I interviewed someone recently that does 1031 exchanges and said to me that of the available properties that would be suitable for 1031 exchange, only one out of seven are being utilized to do to use that vehicle to save a time, you know, to avoid a lot of taxes legally. so there are there’s a lot of strategies that can be employed. how did you decide to?

Focus more on the multifamily, what got you there? And there’s no this is not a judgment, just curious as to why it was there versus, you know, some other assets that you chose.

Buck Joffrey (17:59)
I mean for me, like I think there’s bias from your background. And my dad, I grew up, he’s he’s also a you know, a professional. He was an he was an he is an in engineer by training, but went into pivoted into residential real estate back in the the in the 70s. And so I mean, that’s all I knew growing up. Uh-huh. That kind of investing. Now, of course, I didn’t head in his direction until you know, after

medical school and all that. I mean, listen, multifamily makes sense to me, right? Like no matter what changed, you look at office and how it was affected by COVID and the way we live and the way we work and everything like that. I cannot think of anything right now that fundamentally changes the way we have to live. We have to live in, you know, apartments, we have to live in homes. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon unless Elon figures that one out too, you know. So

Michelle Tack (18:30)
Yeah, yeah, well.

Buck Joffrey (18:59)
So, so for me it’s a it’s just a a practical thing. And there’s not, listen, there’s other things that I I like. I like self-storage. we’ve talked a little bit about aircraft, even things like that. but but multifamily is kind of what I feel like is the nucleus of of you know business.

Michelle Tack (19:18)
Appreciate—can you talk to us about your network in terms of those, you know, before we close today, you know how important it is in terms of either repetitive business or but, you know, how you’ve groomed that, you know, ideas about that. I’d I’m sure the audience would love to hear about that.

Buck Joffrey (19:38)
But remember, like I said, that there’s a lot of there’s a lot of great deals out there right now, 30%, 40% discount. But there’s a lot of transactions. In other words, people don’t want to sell their properties. I mean, because if you’re selling right now, you are selling at a 20-30% discount. Who wants to do that? So the number of of of transactions is down. The ones that are happening are great deals. So you have to figure out how you’re going to get those great deals. And the way that happens.

Michelle Tack (19:56)
Mm-hmm.

Buck Joffrey (20:08)
Is a great relationships with brokers across the country. they know you’re gonna close, they know you’re gonna do business, you’re not gonna, you know, retrade and make their lives difficult. then they become repeating, you know, individuals. And then, and then when you deal with individual operators and you perform when you’re buying things from them and if they want to do something off market, sometimes they’ll come directly to you, you know, and and and I think it’s just

It’s just a matter of of following through with what you say you’re going to do and showing a record of that. And that makes it very challenging, by the way, for anybody who’s trying to start in this business right now. Very, very this is a I mean kudos if you are, but it is probably one of the hardest times to start this business that that you you could possibly choose because you know it it’s there’s just not there’s not that much

Michelle Tack (20:49)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Buck Joffrey (21:05)
The big discounts, yes, but the volume of that is no and you gotta have relationships.

Michelle Tack (21:10)
Yep. Yep. Great. Before we go, you’ve been you’ve been great. You’ve you know, talked about a number of different things what you’re focused on, your podcast, I think very good advice. For those people that may want to have may have properties that want to invest with you or, you know, are interested in learning more about what you do or your podcast, can you provide information, Buck, how people can reach you?

Buck Joffrey (21:40)
Yeah, I think, you know, the best way to reach me and try to understand, I think if if you’re resonating with what I’m talking about is the podcast, right? *Wealth Formula Podcast*. You can find it anywhere. You can find any other podcasts or on YouTube and all that. It’s WealthFormula.com is a website. and if you want to reach out to me directly, you can reach out to me at [email protected].

Michelle Tack (22:05)
Really appreciate it, Buck. you’ve been very helpful. I think you’ve given some really good information and certainly good strategies to abide by. for those that have enjoyed the content today who are subscribers, please continue to subscribe and those that may be new, hop on the train and look at some of our other content. Buck, continued good luck in the future.