Three National Companies Join Forces to Leverage Multifamily Skills
By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorCincinnati—Huff McDermott, Assurance Property Management and the National Condo and Apartment Insurance Group have announced an alliance to help investors overcome the obstacles of multifamily acquisitions and ownership. “It made sense to offer this as a coalition for multifamily investment,” Frank Constant, President of Assurance Property Management, tells MHN. The companies have…
By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorCincinnati—Huff McDermott, Assurance Property Management and the National Condo and Apartment Insurance Group have announced an alliance to help investors overcome the obstacles of multifamily acquisitions and ownership. “It made sense to offer this as a coalition for multifamily investment,” Frank Constant, President of Assurance Property Management, tells MHN. The companies have “a proven track record to come together and go out and have these resources available to others if they are interested in having them together. In my opinion, all three components are vital in an acquisition.”The three organizations have collaborated over the past several years in the acquisition of more than $41,000,000 in multifamily assets. So far, 12 locations have utilized the three companies’ offerings at once.Huff McDermott provides comprehensive financing packages for multifamily real estate projects, while Assurance Property Management offers high-touch property management solutions to multifamily investors. National Condo and Apartment Insurance Group provides insurance solutions for every real estate scenario, focusing on the needs of investors in apartment complex insurance and condominium complex insurance. Kent Littlejohn, CEO and president of the National Condo and Apartment Insurance Group, explains, “If a broker lists and sells properties around the country, he can utilize all three services because when it comes to purchasing, it’s hard to get a property manager, insurance carrier and lending. We thought we’d let investors utilize them together.” While investors have the opportunity to use the companies’ services together, the entities will remain separate. Investors and brokers may also choose to use two of the three services offered. “However, what we run into often on new purchases is trying to get financing, management and property insurance at the right rate. We have it down to a science as to how we work together,” Littlejohn notes. “I believe that, when offered together and with the experience of all three groups, we are able to overcome obstacles. Part of getting financing together is having the right property management and having the right insurance in place. I believe by offering all three services a broker or investor can have one outlet by utilizing all three of us.”Constant agrees. “The reality of it is that the three components are pretty much the vital aspects of any acquisition,” he says. “All three companies have worked together on a number of acquisitions, so it’s not like trying to find three specific companies who haven’t worked together in the past and have to come together and make things work. It’s just one of those things we’ve done for so long it makes sense for us. When I think about having to put companies together for a common cause, it’s always helpful if they have already worked together.”Though the economic downturn was not the motivation behind the companies joining forces, Littlejohn tells MHN that “as lending standards have tightened, I think it has drawn us closer because insurance and property management are key components in order to get lending approved. You have to show a bank that the property has good cash flow, and different banks and lending institutions have tightened down on insurance standards. When we first began it wasn’t because of economic times, but I believe that it will pull us forward.”