Heartland USA. The nation’s breadbasket. Flyover country. The in-between states.

By any definition, the CRE investment market is booming right now, and that’s a great thing. . .unless you’re in the hunt for new deals, because it’s a crowded marketplace. As we regularly highlight on our LinkedIn page with examples from around the country, the multifamily sector has proven its resilience during the horrors of the recent past. And as the economy inches back to pre-pandemic levels, investors have found rents not only holding steady but dramatically rising in many markets. People are moving between cities and suburbs seeking new residential options, and new developments with flexible living arrangements mushrooming.

As we at Offerd have said before, and as known by other leaders in industry, perhaps half of all multifamily acquisitions take place off market. That means there’s usually no public listing of the property, none of the complications associated with a standard brokerage process, and never a bidding war that ends badly. We’ve covered why property owners go off market (hint: for different reasons, both buyer and seller come out ahead); how the Acquisitions-as-a-Service process is uniquely suited to enabling Principal-to Principal (P2) transactions; and served up examples of ongoing and completed deals. We’re rightly proud of tracking more than 90,000 off-market assets around the country at any given time. When investors partner with us, they find that a lot of the hard work is already done—every search is shorter, better focused and more successful.

In this blog series, we’re looking at how the process for Acquisitions-as-a-Service really works. We appreciate that change isn’t easy: many investors still conduct all acquisitions in-house, because that’s the way it’s always been done. That’s why we developed an ebook that offers a handy overview—it’s a quick and easy read—but it definitely helps to hear about real world examples too. What’s the thinking at investment entities that outsource the acquisitions process? How does the engagement begin, and how does the relationship move forward? What are the parameters involved, and how are metrics developed for success? To be clear, there’s isn’t only one way to do this. Tech-enabled acquisitions around the country to find the right asset for the right investor at the right time and the right price requires a dynamic approach, which means that just about every aspect is quite flexible. There are best practices, to be sure, but each investor has unique needs and objectives, and the goal is always to do whatever it takes to achieve those, and even exceed them. Here’s one example: Cross Mountain Capital, which specializes in acquiring multifamily assets that are mismanaged, underperforming, undervalued, and off-market. The company develops specific strategies to reposition these properties through operational efficiencies and renovations, as needed, to optimize the financial performance of each asset. This creates a passive income stream that builds long-term wealth, while also providing the ideal tax shelter. A marketing campaign led the company to Offerd in May 2020, and even in that inhospitable business environment, it took only three days to reach an agreement to partner on acquisitions. At the time, CMC had around $50 million in assets under management, mostly focused on smaller properties in the upper Northeast. It wanted to go bigger and broader, growing exponentially in the next 36 months with a portfolio that stretched into the Mountain West. Like most multifamily investors, CMC had always conducted acquisitions in-house. The company specifically brought in Offerd to supplement and enlarge the acquisitions team—it wanted to identify prime assets it could never find on its own. In such initiatives elsewhere, almost every search has to start from scratch; by partnering with Offerd, CMC gained access to a huge asset base that allowed it to refine its own search parameters. That’s because Offerd tracks 90,000 ‘off-market’ assets around the country, with algorithms that encompass occupancy rates, demographic shifts, neighborhood incomes, population forecasts, educational levels and more, some 10,000 different categories in all. That’s how we find the best multifamily properties to match buyer and seller, and it all happens fast. Our skilled and experienced acquisitions team—including VPs, a managing director and a president of acquisitions—leverages this deep well of data and technology, as well an eight-prong approach to prospecting, to source a targeted and qualified deal flow for our partners. In CMC’s case, the work has already paid off: Less than 60 days after launching the Offerd Proactive Sourcing Campaign, a target asset was not only identified and evaluated, it was under contract; the deal closed in another 90 days. For the record, Offerd has itself invested in that asset, and so far it’s performing even better than expected. CMC has renewed its agreement with Offerd, and is looking forward to achieving more acquisitions goals in the months and years ahead. We’ve got more real world examples coming—stay tuned.

Late last month, Offerd sourced over $698 million worth of off-market multifamily acquisition opportunities. These were not assets randomly found through searches of online listings—they were meticulously selected to meet specific target parameters set by our partners. That’s one week during a scorching summer when many investors are on vacation.

So with a global pandemic mercifully receding, and the multifamily market showing great resilience in a tough environment, are there only good times ahead for investors? Or do other factors need consideration?

Every year, approximately half of all multifamily property transactions nationwide are considered ‘off market.’ The term is broadly applied, but it typically means the property will undergo a transfer of ownership without an exclusive listing agreement in place or without a full marketing campaign.

It’s generally accepted that every year, approximately half of all multifamily property transactions nationwide are considered ‘off market.’ The term is broadly applied, but it typically means the property will undergo a transfer of ownership without an exclusive listing agreement in place.

Even in this era of technology-driven transformation, a new service that disrupts long-held operating practices is still viewed with skepticism.

In this series, we’re looking at Acquisitions-as-a-Service (AaaS) as a standout discipline within the real estate market. We recently covered why this field is so important; from new technologies and data analysis to outsourcing specific tasks, some changes were clearly long overdue. This time, let’s step back and look at the big picture. The concept of AaaS is already giving rise to new business models and a new breed of real estate company and professional.