2025 A Year of Never Quit

2024 has ended and as many companies do, The Duer Urakami Group has done some reflection. We had ups and we had downs in 2024. This was the first year in business for us and we accomplished A LOT of firsts: 

1. We bought our first property! A 10-unit townhome community in Tucson Az. 

2. We raised over $600,000 from friends and family in our first syndication!

3. We helped 19 investors total, 11 young professionals invest in their first Real Estate deal!

   1. If you know our mission, we are dead set on helping 500+ young professionals invest in apartments.

4. We started our first interior/exterior renovation project which will be finished by March of 2025.

5. We beat our income/expense projections and are on par with our renovation budget.

6. We attended over 25 networking events where we met with amazing people in our industry.

7. We organically added over 75 investors into our investor portal, a large majority being young professionals!

8. We started a weekly podcast, posted 89 videos on Instagram/TikTok, started a monthly blog and launched our website: duerurakamigroup.com.

There were more goals we achieved and firsts we accomplished throughout the year and I am very proud of how far we’ve come, but also we understand how far we need to go to reach our long term goals. 2025 is a pivotal year for us as we are no longer rookies in the multi-family real estate world. We plan to build off of the successes and failures of our first year in the business and continue to achieve. One of our core values is Progression, we are committed to forward progress. Not only for our business, but our investors as well. With every investor we help, our business becomes more fulfilled and fuels us to take on our next project. This year will be a year of will power as we work toward reaching more investors, acquiring more projects, executing our business plan, and fostering amazing partnerships. 

As for the real estate market, last year was very trying as sellers had higher price expectations than buyers were willing to pay and the demand to sell was low. Investors factor the cost of money into their decision on whether to sell or not. The cost of money simply means the cost of the debt on a property or their interest rate. It’s very hard to sell a property that has an interest rate of 3%, especially if you want to reinvest that money into a new project that’s going to cost you 6%+. In that scenario, there are only a couple of reasons to sell. One, you need the cash personally or you’re looking to move on from that particular investment. Two, your loan is coming due and your debt payment on a refinance is going to crush your cash flow. 

Last year, not we didn’t see those scenarios play out, but on the horizon, we do see more loan maturities (Loans are coming due) and interest rates are not cooperating like people had hoped. This could mean one of two things. Either the banks will start to work with investors and extend their loans or work with them on their rates. Or investors will need to sell, potentially taking losses on their projects. The second scenario could be disastrous for those who need to sell, but could be quite profitable for those ready to take advantage.

Making sure you stay in front of these opportunities and do all the work upfront so that you’re ready to make your move when the time comes is what Real Estate is all about. There’s a quote by Benjamin Franklin “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” This is what 2025 is all about.