There are many different investment properties to consider while capitalizing on commercial real estate. Among the most common is multifamily real estate investment, which favors both new and seasoned investors and can be a rewarding activity that may yield returns competitive with alternative investments.
There are notable benefits to investing in multifamily buildings. They include tax benefits from depreciation and cost segregation, leverage, force appreciation, equity buildup, economies of scale with larger units and better cash flow that results in passive income for investors. Ola Dantis, an entrepreneur based in Houston, Texas, has been making headlines in assisting investors in getting terrific returns while building wealth through multifamily real estate.
Ola is the founder and CEO of Dwellynn, a real estate investment firm with a strong focus on multifamily syndication through acquisitions, repositioning, development, and management of affordable, quality multifamily residential properties. Ola had no idea he would be living the American dream. Having lived on three continents and starting businesses on two continents, he discovered that real estate, specifically multifamily, continues to be a solid asset class to invest in, thus driving him to establish Dwellynn.
“Dwellynn is a real estate private equity firm where we help our investors create legacy wealth by investing in assets they cannot acquire alone due to the high cost. So, we pool funds from different investors to buy a building that one investor may not be able to buy on their own. We have achieved so much by doing this; we bought and sold a whole city block in a city in Texas and acquired $20M worth of real estate assets in the last two years during a pandemic,” says Ola.
Many entrepreneurs believe that money will automatically appear once you find a deal, but Ola and his team believe otherwise. Interestingly, this played out for them but never stopped them from working hard and staying consistent regarding raising capital. While the company’s major challenge has been raising equity, it sought strategic partners whose interests in capital preservation and conservative underwriting aligned and collaborated on deals.
Mindset is a huge part of Ola’s success. “Being successful should not be about how much money you have earned but more about what money can do for you.” The idea has never to be the senseless pursuit of wealth. Most people focus on return on investment (ROI), which is fantastic. However, I also put a metric I call return on stress (ROS) at the forefront of my mind when evaluating real estate deals,” adds Ola.
According to the investment mogul, the community is the backbone of everything. He started a pledge called Dwellynn’s 1HousePledge that aims to give a mortgage-free house to a family in need on Christmas every year. He mentioned, “This is Dwellynn’s way of saying thank you, Houston! Again, the gift will allow families in Houston to focus on developing other aspects of their lives such as education and career advancement.”
The prominent tycoon believes that having many units under one roof is less risky because if a tenant moves out, the other tenants are still paying rent, covering the monthly costs of the asset. On the other hand, when a tenant leaves a single-family rental, the investor is left with an empty house and has to cover the financial obligations alone.
Ola looks forward to giving back through speaking and educating others on how to get started in real estate or entrepreneurship. He hopes to see Dwellynn doing larger real estate deals, going into ground-up development, and achieving their philanthropic goal of donating mortgage-free houses to disadvantaged families every Christmas.
