Multifamily Syndication Business | Raising Private Capital

By Christopher Levarek

"If my only tool is a hammer, then every problem is a nail."

- Sholem Asch

In a recent blog post, we covered 10 Key Apps for Simplyfing Real Estate . This previous post was primarily intended as a entry point for aspiring active real estate investors or to assist those in the beginning stages of the real estate journey. In this “Part 2” edition, we will be focusing on 5 additional applications for mobile and/or desktop that are recommended for the advanced real estate investor or business owner. These apps fall under 4 specific categories for any real estate investing business or advanced investor which are Project Management, CRM (content resource management), Communication, and Automation.

The apps listed below are meant to assist in improving processes and systems relative to raising private capital for real estate, communicating with partners/investors and REI project management. Whether you are interested in growing a real estate syndication business, scaling your existing business model or simply interested in how other investors are doing it, this post should be highly beneficial. The list is not exhaustive and represents recommendations based on real estate expert inputs and personal author’s experience:

Monday.com
Category: Project Management

Cost : Basic($), Standard($$), Pro($$$), Entreprise($$$)

In any real estate investment or business, managing the flow of work with with accountability, communication and deadlines is essential, enter the project management tool Monday.com. Although this tool is one of many in the market of project management, it’s simplicity to configure project workflows, assign ownership and automate repeatable pieces makes it highly attractive to the business owner or investor. If a tool is too complicated, it won’t be used and Monday.com really focuses on being “1-click” friendly or deploy “drag and drop” customization.

To setup, a user creates an account on the online cloud platform of Monday.com. This gives ownership to a workspace (see image), and allows a user to begin creating “Items” or “Groups of Items”. These items or tasks can then be highly customized by adding columns which will define ownership, due dates, status tracking and much more.

Each Item additionally has its own inline “chat channel”, notes and file storage which can be accessed by clicking the message icon on the Item. This feature means any user in the workspace can directly comment or communicate on that specific item, store files relative to the item and ensure those files/communication stay with the task or item.

Some applicable uses for real estate include creating an acquisitions checklist, due diligence tracker, a hiring employee onboarding process, a renovations task list for flips, virtual assistant task delegation board and much more. With this tool, it really becomes up to the user or team to unleash the creative use cases.

TIP : Don’t forget to explore the Automation feature! This feature enables key elements to “auto-magically” change when specific actions happen. ie When a “Task” is created, set “Due Date” in “7 days”.

2. Mixmax

Category: Communication

Cost : Starter($), Small Biz($$), Growth($$$), Entreprise($$$$)

Any business owner or investor can attest to the clutter of an email box and overwhelming sensation of responding or prioritizing mail communication. Mixmax gives back control of one’s email, automates communication sequences, simplifies virtual assistant email task delegation and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

At it’s base, Mixmax is a Google Chrome plugin to Gmail that provides tracking, scheduling, app integrations, engagement features and of course automation. When installed and paired with a Gmail account, it will populate the writing of an email with specific actions choices.

Have a email or communication that occurs regularly? In Gmail, create a template with Mixmax and then easily click that template from the “Compose” or new email window whenever needed.

Want to track if your email was opened? Mixmax has a full web page tracking dashboard including statistics on clicked on emails, opened, downloaded, unreplied, etc.

Want to send your schedule of available times in an email? Within an open new email, Mixmax allows you to select times in your calendar at will which then populate the email as buttons for the recipient to select the best time for a meeting, all inclusive with Zoom/Google Hangouts links.

Want to send an email at a later date or reply at certain times? Mixmax lets you schedules emails to go out at specific times and create sequences that will trigger when certain actions or things occur.

We highly recommend this tool as it will maximize a business owner’s or investor’s productivity by offloading email management and streamlining communication processes.

TIP : Create written email templates for communications which occur frequently. Share these with your Mixmax account Group or Team or Virtual Assistant. This enables communications to be standardized for specific processes but also enables off-loading work to a virtual assistant with ease.

3. Pipedrive

Category: CRM

Cost : Essential($), Advanced($$), Professional($$$), Entreprise($$$$)

The backbone of any business is dependent the process of lead intake. How one tracks these leads, requests and follows up to bring leads to close or create revenue, is the lifeblood of the business. Commonly, these leads, contacts, statuses are tracked through a CRM or Content Resource Management. Without a quality CRM, the chances a business will scale efficiently and effectively are in question. However a CRM does not have to break the bank and we recommend exploring Pipedrive among the many competitors in the space, Salesforce, Insightly, Podio, Copper, etc.

Pipedrive is a CRM that is built around funneling leads or contacts through established pipelines or workflows with the aim of turning contacts/leads into revenue. These pipelines can be created with steps specific to the user business. Pipedrive creates “Deals” related to contacts which then are moved through the created funnel steps in the pipeline and “Activities” are required at each step which are triggered upon hitting those steps.

Activities ensure that the business owner takes action through a call, email, etc. at a specific date or time. By doing this, leads are less likely to go cold and status of the lead is clear according to which stage or step it is in the Pipeline.

The “Deal” links to and tracks all activities made, emails written to the contact, notes, files and even assigns potential/actual revenues leading to reporting on how efficient the pipeline or revenue-growing efforts actually are. Additional features with increased payment plans include, built-in automation for activities/actions at stages or steps, email synchronization with gmail directly tying all emails, contact synchronization of gmail contacts and integrations with apps such as Mailchimp, Google Drive, Slack or Asana.

Although Pipedrive is built around the "sales pipeline” or revenue-generating process, pipelines can be created for any workflows to include new business partnerships or interactions. This tool is especially effective when tracking capital-raising efforts for real estate or effectively meeting syndication raise efforts.

TIP : Always ensure an “Activity” is created for the next interaction step. Activities ensure that you the business owner or real estate investor do not miss a step or miss out on a lead going cold.

4. Mailchimp

Category: Communication/CRM

Cost : Free(0), Essential($), Standard($$), Premium($$$)

In a business, contact databases will continue to grow and consistent communications on a mass scale are essential. Many business owners or real estate operators turn to Mailchimp. This tool is an online marketing platform or CRM. Rather than focus on one-to-one communication such as Pipedrive, it utilizes mass contact lists or audience groups to send communications primarily in the form of email. In this way businesses can keep their contacts up to date on business events, notify to new opportunities and re-ignite cold leads rather than reach out to each contact directly.

The services offered by Mailchimp grow daily however typical applications for a business owner or real estate operator include sending monthly newsletters on company business, welcoming emails for signing up to groups/feeds, automated response emails for eBook purchases, advertising new product offerings, etc.

Mailchimp can effectively integrate with websites such as Squarespace, Wix or Wordpress as well, tying in the marketing campaign capabilities to your website. It can also post/share communications directly to Social media platforms such as Instagram & Facebook or, in the other direction, receive signups or new contacts with Mailchimp “Forms” presented on Facebook directly.

Mailing “campaigns” or notifications to your audience can be scheduled at specific date and times with easy to use “drag and drop” letter templates. These campaigns can be targeted to your main contact list or even to isolated groups via “Tags” defining specific audiences. Campaign analytics will show how many people opened, clicked or engaged with your campaigns giving insight into what is working or not working.

TIP : Ensure you only create 1-2 Audience groups and instead focus on the “Tag” feature to differentiate contact or campaign types. This is the recommended approach and using 1-2 lists integrates with the Mailchimp features better than having multiple lists.

5. Zapier

Category: Automation

Cost : Free(0), Starter($), Professional($$), Team($$$), Company($$$$)

The final recommended app for the scaling business owner or advanced real estate investor is one which will revolutionize how the business operates and return massive time blocks to the owner. In the sector of “Automation” or automating business processes, Zapier shines as one of the leading market owners in the space.

This tool acts as an app connector. It ties together apps and processes so that applications or actions can call across to other applications to execute certain functions. It works in general by using what are called “APIs”, application program interfaces, and passes information/data from one app to another.

So for example, a business owner could create a simple “Zap”, the automation process in Zapier, that would link to a Google Gmail account and save specific attachments to Google Drive for any email that comes in the Inbox for record-keeping. Another automation could link a website form submission in Squarespace to notify a Slack Channel of a new interested lead. Another process or “Zap” could be created to share Blog Posts on a website in Squarespace to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with no manual intervention.

As is visible in these examples, these automations could vastly enhance business processes and improve systems with less time required by the owner. These few examples are some employed at Valkere Investment Group however Zapier integrates at present with over 2000+ apps to include Mailchimp, Trello, Youtube, Google, Amazon, Asana, Paypal, etc.

Configured automations allow these apps to talk to one another, exchange information and perform functions relative to the business with ease. The automations or “Zaps” are configured through the online Zapier account login and are simple “1-click” configurable processes. Credentials or logins for the specific apps involved will be needed.

TIP : Create a Free account which allows 5 free Zaps. Explore the most “Popular” created Zaps by others and see if any of those processes would improve your business.

In Final

We have found the above tools monumental in scaling a business or completing multifamily syndications. Employing applications or tools in the categories of Project Management, Content Resource Managment(CRM), Communication and Automation truly creates a line of separation between being an effective vs. efficient business owner or advanced active investor. The 5 apps listed above have many competitors and we suggest reviewing 1-2 per category to select the vendor that best meets your business needs. Invest Smart!