Scaling Real Estate: From Single-Family Rentals to Multifamily Wealth Strategy

Bobby Ahmed (00:00)
Yeah, a deal could go bad, but you know, I would say think about opportunity cost. People don’t talk about opportunity cost a little bit. When people s— talk about cost or think about cost, they talk, they think in terms of dollars going out of your pocket. But there’s a big thing called opportunity cost. If you ponder on a deal that’s really gone bad and you know you waste a lot of time on it, just pondering and sitting on it, you’re losing the next deal.

Freddie Steen (02:02)
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Freddie, and I today am joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Bobby Ahmed, who’s been making serious moves in the BRRRR, the BRRRR niche space. Bobby, I’m glad to have you here. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching BRRRR, as well as your plan to scale, your experience in flips. And let’s dive in. I mean, so first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days and what markets are you operating in?

Bobby Ahmed (02:43)
Hello, thanks for the introduction again. Yes, my name is Bobby. My main focus right now as we speak is basically offloading properties that I have bought in 2020 or 2021 within those two years. So we’re offloading some of these properties right now in 2026 and going into 2027, and then simultaneously you know acquiring more properties with the proceeds. So— so that’s been my focus in 2026 and it’s gonna be well into twenty twenty seven as well.

Freddie Steen (03:24)
Love it. What caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to handle multiple markets, to handle different strategies in real estate as we talked earlier, but still, of course, maintaining your margins strong in a— in a different climate. That’s not easy, especially in this climate. What’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Bobby Ahmed (03:47)
Well, I would say, you know, yes, it’s true that, you know, I’ve been doing multiple aspects of real estate. Number one is the fix and flip in Maryland, and then number two is the buy and hold in Northern Virginia. And I started this off in twenty seventeen. so what I realized is that you know, I was started off with the BRRRR method, as Freddie just explained. but there’s been a hiccup in the sense that interest rates have gone up since twenty twenty significantly. So the other major part of that BRRRR method is to refinance the properties and take the money out. We’re not able to do that because we’ve bought in a certain lower interest rate and now the interest rates are higher. So we’re not able to fully accomplish that and it’s something beyond my control. So that’s the reason I’m offloading some of these properties. That’s another way really to take out the equity from these properties because they have increased in value, and take the funds, and then you invest into some other property that is meaningful. Really, an option in this environment. So it’s just, you know, me thinking out of the box a little bit. How can we tweak the BRRRR given the market condition? Haven’t really been able to focus on the fix and flip as much as I would like to in 2026. but we did a couple of flips in 2025, and hopefully we’ll do some more in the last quarter of twenty twenty six and going into twenty twenty seven. So in order to answer your question, you know, it’s just you have to keep a broader view of the macroeconomic factors, to see what real estate transaction makes sense in what market. And see what the Fed is doing. There’s opportunities everywhere. You have to scout out the opportunities. You know, different cities brings different types of opportunities and risk in the United States. I only focus on the DMV market. So analysis and good knowledge of your surrounding economies goes really a long way into successfully managing investments within different markets. Sort of research is I think it’s— it’s really is the backbone to it, meaningful research.

Freddie Steen (07:25)
Bobby, I agree. Keeping a good hold on macroeconomic climate, particularly with real estate, is pretty tough to do and very important. Thank you for that. Now, every operator I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments for you, Bobby?

Bobby Ahmed (07:47)
Yeah, a deal could go bad, but you know, I would say think about opportunity cost. People don’t talk about opportunity cost a little bit. When people s— talk about cost or think about cost, they talk, they think in terms of dollars going out of your pocket. But there’s a big thing called opportunity cost. If you ponder on a deal that’s really gone bad and you know you waste a lot of time on it, just pondering and sitting on it, you’re losing the next deal. That’s your opportunity cost that might have bought you, you know, two folds or three folds ROI. So I would say move fast. Move steady, but move fast. Don’t ponder around. you know, I have— I’ve done the mistake. I— I was holding on a flip property for two years. I— I— I— I bought a property in Maryland. When the market was really rosy and as you know, on— on fix— fixed deals, fix and flip deals, before you buy a property, you should know what the rehab costs are going to be, and you should know what the sales price is gonna be. Well, inflation— this was in twenty twenty three. Inflation did not have kicked in yet, and none of these wars were there. So I had a rosy picture as to you know what I’m going to sell for and what my rehab costs. But soon after I bought the property, inflation went up, my labor and material costs went up, and then I realized because of the interest— now of higher interest, my sales price has to be much lower, 20-30% lower. So what did I do? I made a mistake. I held to that property for two years. I deliberately slowed down the rehab, the— the reconstruction in the hopes that it’s gonna get better in two months, it’s gonna get better in three months. And two years went by, I probably lost several deals just holding on to the property, tying my cash to it, you know, so— so I’ve made mistakes. So I would say just honing on that experience, don’t sit on bad deals for too long because you— you’re— you’d be missing much more an opportunity.

Freddie Steen (10:34)
Bobby, not sitting on bad deals, that’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. And honestly, it’s what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term. Let me ask you this, Bobby. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for you?

Bobby Ahmed (10:56)
Well, I think the real goal is— I’ve been able to, you know, acquire about seventeen or eighteen single family homes in the last seven years. And there’s something called economies of scale, meaning that you put more of your investments under one roof, so your management you know dilemma sort of dies— dies down a little bit, you have less, you know, properties to worry about. Now you say, let’s say you just sold seven properties and you bought one big multi-unit property, right? So— so you’re now managing just that one building. So that’s what I’m trying to do is do the economies of scale, basically sell as many single family homes and go into one— I don’t know, five, six or seven-unit multi-unit building. So that’s what I’m focused on now. I— I think you know managing too many rent single family homes is challenging. It takes a lot of undue time. And if I can just, you know sell them and— and and get one large multi-unit, I think that’d be ideal. That’s what I’m looking to do now, really, between this year and next.

Freddie Steen (12:11)
Bobby, scaling between this year and next, especially when you’ve already got your footprint in the BRRRR space, dealing with the rising interest rates and some of the other capital things that are happening on the macro side in the economy, that’s really big. So that next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now, I know a lot of people listening are either earlier in their journey or looking to level up. And I think they’d benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you, Bobby?

Bobby Ahmed (12:45)
Relationships versus networking. Not so much about you know, I would say, well, my personal characteristic, to be very honest, has been very— how should I say, I’m not very sort of people friendly. You know, I don’t like— I don’t like to take advices for— from too many people. They— they might be all right, you know, but it’s sort of like, you know, I internalize things and I do things that I feel is right. And— and so, you know, I just take the chatter out. But if you were to say, you know, the— those things are very important, but you have to approach the right person. One person who’s been very helpful to me is my brother-in-law. He’s been in real estate for many, many years. He comes from a family of you know, from— from such a family that’s been in business for many, many years. So I take his advice. I take his advice and I have a handful of people that I go to for advice, but you know, I might just generally talk about real estate, but not really hone down into you know what the situation is, what the subject matter is with too many people. Because then, you know, their ideas might be good, but it sort of like clutters your brain a little bit. You know, so I would say if you were to ask me, I would say pick two— two people, one or two people really that you know you go for advice that you think are your mentors. You don’t have to designate them as mentors, but just you know, you— you— you feel like you’re able to get subject matter expert advice from them. Pick one or two people and then just go with the flow.

Freddie Steen (15:15)
Well, Bobby, I mean, you definitely— you can’t fake that. I mean, relationships are everything in this space. So right before I wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you, Bobby?

Bobby Ahmed (15:32)
you know, just email me or call me anytime. I’m— I’m available. You know, I’m somebody who does real estate and I— I’m— I’m happy to talk about real estate, never gets me bored, never gets me tired. I’d be happy to talk to somebody, give my you know, honest opinion or advice, and just a phone call away, really.

Freddie Steen (15:57)
What’s your email, Bobby? Would you like them to find email, IG?

Bobby Ahmed (16:01)
Sure, it’s [email protected].

Freddie Steen (16:07)
That’s H-A-M-E-E-D-8-6 at Hotmail dot com.

Bobby Ahmed (16:12)
That’s right. The number eight, the number six at Hotmail dot com.

Freddie Steen (16:15)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. So thanks again for being here, Bobby. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Bobby Ahmed, who are out there building real businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.