How I Made More Money by Taking Myself Out of a 100 Unit Apartment Deal

I found an apartment complex that looked like a serious deal. 100 doors. Spent months going back and forth with the owner working through every detail. The final number we landed on was $34,000 per door.

Then I took myself out of it.

Not because the deal fell apart. Because I found a way to make more money by stepping aside than by staying in.

Here is what happened.

I had a potential partner on the complex who needed more profit upfront than the deal could support with both of us in it. His number only worked if I was out. So I got out. Not as a favor. I do not invest my time and expertise into things for free. I got out in exchange for a ten year maintenance contract and a management contract on the property.

The ex-potential partner agreed to the terms. The seller got the money he needed. The buyer got the margins he demanded. And I got two contracts that when I sold them were worth more than double what I would have made as a partner on the deal.

Everyone got what they actually needed. Including me.

The lesson is not complicated but most people never apply it because they are too focused on the obvious version of how a deal is supposed to work.

Do not limit yourself to one way of making money on any transaction. The partner slot, the equity position, the flip profit — those are just the most visible options. Maintenance contracts, management agreements, consulting fees, referral arrangements, and a dozen other structures exist in every deal if you are willing to look for them.

More than half of my best outcomes have come from deals that looked dead from the outside. They were not dead. They just required a different structure than the one everyone started with.

When you go into a deal ask one question before you walk away from it. Is there a version of this where everyone gets what they actually need and I still get paid. The answer is almost always yes if you are creative enough to find it.

If you want to talk through a deal structure that is not working in its current form, let's talk.

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