Off-Market Deals Win: How Kevin Romney Finds Multifamily Opportunities Before They Hit the Market

Kevin Romney (00:00)
I’d love to share the story of what we did in Ephraim, We’ve purchased about 310 acres that we are ⁓ master planning. And we were able to sell 40 acres to the largest health care provider in the state of Utah. And they intend to a ⁓ hospital, a rural hospital there in ⁓ rural Utah, in Ephraim, Utah.

And in order to be able to accumulate the land to sell to them, was quite the juggling act.

Michelle Tack (02:03)
Hi, welcome to Real Estate Pros podcast. I am Michelle Tack, the podcast leader. We have a great operator today, Kevin Romney, who I’m thrilled to spend some time with and think there will be a lot of valuable content. Kevin, just say say hi to the group.

Kevin Romney (02:18)
Hi, pleasure to meet all of you.

Michelle Tack (02:19)
Thank you, Kevin. In our preparation for the podcast today, I thought there was some really interesting things that you spoke about and some of the strengths and differentiators that you have. And you are a person and a company that looks for off-market properties, and you’ve been successful in that. You’re doing residential, but you’re doing

You know, often 20 to 60 units and looking to go beyond that. I thought it was great that in Utah, which is where your base that you’re going south into areas in the country, you know of the country, ⁓ meaning specifically, you know, not a lot of ⁓ units available like an hour and hour and a half south of South of Provo. So I’m wondering if you can ⁓ for those that may not know.

And don’t come from your world. Describe what you do and the markets that you serve.

Kevin Romney (03:19)
Sure. So we’re actually based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. And we have two main areas of our company. And that is the purchase of value-add properties. And then also, we are doing a development that’s in E from Utah, which is about an hour and 15 minutes south ⁓ east of the Provo area. And so those are the two main areas that we concentrate in.

We’ve got product in Las Vegas, but we also own property in Kentucky, in Iowa, and some in California as well.

Michelle Tack (03:52)
What’s got me interested in is how do you go about finding opportunities that are off market and keeping your business running smoothly? How have you done that? Because that’s quite a feat.

Kevin Romney (04:04)
Sure, so one of the things that we’ve done, most of the properties that we’ve purchased have been off market. And we do that ⁓ in a variety of different ways. One is through brokers. We’ve developed incredible contacts and connections with our local brokers here in Las Vegas. ⁓ First property that we purchased was three months after we started the company. We purchased it, put it under contract, closed on it. We got a reputation for being able to close and because of that,

⁓ We’ve had our brokers be able to bring us deals that are off market or give us a pre-look before they list it and give us opportunities to be able to put it under contract and close it. So that’s been a great ⁓ boon in our business is being able to have great broker relations. ⁓ One of our fun stories of an off-market property was one that we purchased in ⁓ Kentucky.

And ⁓ my partner is Mike Ballard, and he was a partner in a company that does the accounting for many, many units nationwide.

And a gal had decided to start her own property management company. she brought us a, and she said, look, I’d like to manage some properties for you. And we said, we’ll find one for us and we can purchase it. And she brought us an off-market deal that was phenomenal. were able to, the owner was, ⁓

His family was managing it. They didn’t have the great books and great records. They couldn’t really go put it on the market for sale and enlist it. And so we were able to purchase it on a seller finance ⁓ deal, 250 units plus, and ⁓ managed it for about a year and a half, at which point we were able to go put long-term debt on it. And it’s just been a phenomenal, phenomenal asset for us, and one that has been.

Michelle Tack (06:15)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Romney (06:37)
produced very well for us and for our investors. that was a fun one where, know, property manager, you know, actually brought us the property and we were able to close that one.

Michelle Tack (06:47)
That’s fantastic. Can you talk about how you’re able to run your business efficiently? Maybe there’s another case study that could articulate that, but what are you doing operationally to ensure that the business continues to run that your ⁓ risk mitigation, what have you?

Kevin Romney (07:07)
Sure, so we own ⁓ multiple properties here in the Las Vegas area and frequently when we purchase them, the property, our current properties that we have are older properties. ⁓ When we’ve purchased some of them, for example, one that we purchased had many that were down units. And so we come in, we renovate, we ⁓ upgrade the units.

⁓ bring them up to par where they need to be. And balancing all of that while you’re looking for additional properties is challenging, but you manage your time and you put it all together. And we were able to get that one remodeled ⁓ and we’re able to spin it and turn it and give a great return to our investors on that property along with several others that we’ve turned as well.

Michelle Tack (07:42)
Mm-hmm.

I know that you had mentioned ⁓ earlier in preparation for this podcast is that you are as many companies you’re looking to sort of grow the size of your footprint from 20 to 60 to above. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Kevin Romney (08:10)
Absolutely. So, you we’ve learned that it’s almost as much work to close a 20 unit deal as it is a 200 unit deal. I mean, it’s all the same amount of work with the loan and everything else. we’re now looking to move up the ladder ⁓ with 50 to 150 units on the acquisitions that we’re doing ⁓ within Camino Verde Group. We also have sourced some incredible partners that we’re working with.

Michelle Tack (08:36)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Romney (08:39)
who have investors that are looking for properties that are bigger, 200 to

300 units in specific markets. So as I look towards the future for what we’re doing in the next 12 months, we’re gonna be doing a lot of looking for off-market properties, even on-market properties that meet certain criteria, certain cash on cash requirements, certain investor return requirements, and we’re looking to up our game and ⁓ get into bigger and newer properties as well.

we’re ready to move into some of the newer properties and even some class A type properties as well.

Michelle Tack (09:13)
That’s great. ⁓ What I found when I talked to the operators as they continue to grow and even if they stay the same, we all have challenges in our business and I think it’s always instructive for people that have been very successful like yourself is to ask this question. Did you ever have a deal that went sideways but you had to pivot quickly to resurrect it or you know, adapt to it? Or if that hasn’t happened.

where you were able to save it, you know, learning lessons that came from that that made you better at what you do today. Could you share that potentially, Kevin?

Kevin Romney (09:52)
Certainly, we’ve, you

I think everybody that’s been in the business for a while has had bumps in the road and challenges. For example, we had hired a property manager on one particular property that we thought was a great hire, a great property manager, and we get into it and occupancy begins to decrease and we begin to see some challenges. And so you’ve got to pivot.

And we dug and dug and dug and found one of the greatest property managers around. ⁓ It turned it over to her and she’s just done a phenomenal job with being able to get the occupancy back up where it needs to be, getting the right type of people in the property, being able to manage the people that are in the property. She just, we just love her. She does a phenomenal job. you sometimes you, you you’ve got to pivot, you’ve got to move quickly and ⁓ do the best you can to bring the ship back right. ⁓

Michelle Tack (11:01)
That’s awesome.

Kevin Romney (11:20)
And with those properties, we’ve been able to do that.

Michelle Tack (11:23)
Yeah, and I think that goes to a testament of, you we see all the time, you know, things on, you know, different video clips about getting into real estate. It’s really simple, right? Commercial. Just give me 100 grand and everything is going to be rosy. And certainly everyone that I talked to, you included, we know it’s not. It is really a commitment to long term. You can’t beat the market, a.k.a. Warren Buffett.

You gotta know what you’re doing right ⁓ and have that experience and it only grows with time. So I appreciate those comments.

Kevin Romney (11:55)
Exactly.

A lot of people think it’s all about buying. It’s all about purchasing the property. Finding it buying it. Then after you buy it, everything’s great. Well, you the reality is buying it may be the easier part. Managing it and keeping things running smoothly ⁓ can be a challenge at times. with the right people and the right staff, you can get that done.

Michelle Tack (11:59)
Yes, that’s right. Yeah.

That’s right. Yeah, that absolutely.

Can you tell me a little bit about your network? Obviously you are doing multiple things. You’re trying to find off ⁓ off market property. You’re developing the properties. There’s you know all of this. ⁓ You know what? How are you using your network and? To help you, yeah, absolutely.

Kevin Romney (12:35)
Sure, thanks for asking. Thanks for asking, Michelle.

So our network is incredibly important. Probably the most important part of our network is our brokers that bring deals to us and let us look at deals. So brokers are incredibly important to our network, but also very important to our network, our partners. On a couple of our deals, the deal that we did in the Clarksville, Tennessee, MSA area, we partnered with a group out of Texas. They’ve been phenomenal partners. They’ve been great to work with.

Finding good partners is incredibly important in this business. And your other important thing in your network is your investors and who you’re working with and their ability to be able to assist you in the capital stack. And so those three partners are just incredibly important. Your lenders are important as well. And we’ve got great relationships with many of our lenders.

Michelle Tack (13:10)
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Romney (13:26)
And so, you know, having a good network is incredibly important in this business. You can’t do it alone. You’ve got to have other people that can help you and bring you along as you move together as a group. So your network is incredibly important to your success.

Michelle Tack (13:40)
Last thing before we wrap, is there another case study that you have that you’d like to talk about in terms of, you know, a recent acquisition maybe that you’re psyched about? I’ll leave that up to you, Kevin, to determine what you’d like to share.

Kevin Romney (13:52)
Sure.

I’d love to share the story of what we did in Ephraim, We’ve purchased about 310 acres that we are ⁓ master planning. And we were able to sell 40 acres to the largest health care provider in the state of Utah. And they intend to a ⁓ hospital, a rural hospital there in ⁓ rural Utah, in Ephraim, Utah.

And in order to be able to accumulate the land to sell to them, was quite the juggling act.

had acquired most of the land, but there were three acres we still hadn’t acquired yet. And the sellers didn’t want to sell. And so we had to do a lot of horse trading. We had another property that we had that…

Michelle Tack (14:35)
Hello, boy.

Kevin Romney (15:21)
was a former mobile home manufacturing plant and a gentleman was using it to store hay and we purchased that property. It had a garage, we were able to take the garage off and trade it to the guy for one acre. then another two acres were owned by the local tractor dealership. And he said, I don’t wanna sell them. And we bought 10 acres that were just down the road from him and said, we’ll give you 10 acres for two.

Michelle Tack (15:34)
wow.

Kevin Romney (15:49)
Will you trade? And he says, no, I like where I’m at. So there was a farmer that owned 10 acres right behind the dealership. ⁓ And we were able to buy two acres from the, we were able to trade our 10 acres for two acres to the farmer. And then we were able to trade the two acres to the dealer for his two acres across the street. We were able to accumulate all the land and be able to put it together and be able to sell it ⁓ to the group that’s going to build the hospital there.

Michelle Tack (16:07)
Wow.

Kevin Romney (16:18)
You know, it’s fun putting those deals together, but sometimes it’s a lot of work and a challenge to get it all come together. But in the end, we did. So.

Michelle Tack (16:28)
Yeah, I think that

obviously that goes to straight persistence. I’m a big fan of the concept of 1 % improvement per day, which a lot of people know about that. It’s about the British national cycling team that was terrible, but then they got a new coach and he did these tiny improvements and within a couple of years they were ⁓ champion. So ⁓ those last details that you just talked about take time and perseverance and creativity and trust. So ⁓ that’s an also example.

For those that are on the podcast that may have interest in investment or talking to you, brokers, what have you, or whomever, can you provide your contact information, Kevin?

Kevin Romney (17:12)
Certainly.

Glad to provide you my email address. My email address is [email protected]. That’s C-A-M-I-N-O-V as in Victor, E-R-D as in David, E-group.com (caminoverdegroup.com). Love to hear from you. ⁓ We’re always working on deals and love to talk to potential new partners and investors.

Michelle Tack (17:38)
Kevin, you’ve been great. For those that are in our subscription and find this content valuable, continue to tune in. And for those that have tuned in and are part of the subscription service and you found this valuable, sign up. Kevin, again, good luck. And I’m sure things will go smoothly for you and hopefully attract more investors, et cetera. Thank you very much.

Kevin Romney (18:01)
It’s

a to speak with you. Thanks for having me on the podcast.