Brian Green
Brian Green has been a guest on Collecting Keys, the real estate investing podcast hosted by Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin and Dylan Koch.
Brian Green: Mailing Letters to Buy 20-Unit Apartments
Brian Green of Green Springs Capital Group explains how he moved from owning Verizon Wireless stores to building a vertically integrated real estate company in Saratoga Springs, NY, with over 100 rental units, short-term rentals, brokerage, in-house property management and a 36-unit ground-up development. He walks through finding multifamily deals with direct mail, heavy-renovation underwriting based on ARV, building construction scopes and systems, and how his entitlement-contingent land contract is structured.
Key takeaways
- Direct mail works on small multifamily: Brian's letters produced a six-unit and two 20-unit buildings, and a year of follow-up offers on one deal ended with the seller giving him first right of refusal at $50k above his last offer.
- Underwrite to after-repair value, not current condition — he bought a 20-unit for $1.25M and spent roughly $1M–$1.1M on renovations, with rents going from about $750 to $1,250 a unit.
- Taking buildings to zero occupancy (paying tenants moving fees and buying out leases) lets the whole renovation finish in about 10 months and get recapitalized faster than phasing it.
- Detailed, written scopes of work per kitchen and bathroom make contractor bids apples-to-apples, reduce change-order padding, and tighten renovation estimates for offers.