Drew Breneman

Protect & Grow Capital With Our Multifamily Investment Opportunities For Family Offices, Fund Managers, & High-Net-Worth Individuals

When I was 19, I bought my first property.

I didn’t realize it then, but that little duplex changed my life.

Now, 20+ years later, I’ve sourced, capitalized, and closed on over $250 million of properties for my firm, Breneman Capital.

I’ve worked closely with investors - family offices, PE, Fund of Funds, RIAs, and individuals - to help them generate income and wealth through multifamily real estate.

The old real estate adage says, “You make your money when you buy in real estate.”

I agree with that - but I think it’s only 50% true.

The other 50% comes in the execution. And I’ve built Breneman Capital through that lens. 

Our realized investments have produced an average gross return of:

• 27% IRR
• 2.3x equity multiple
• 14% average annual cash yield

This is across 14 full-cycle investments with an average hold period of 6 years.

In my opinion, our longest-standing investor relationships come down to 2 factors:

1) Our deals have performed well.
2) We focus on giving investors the best possible experience.

Real estate can be complex. But we like to keep our goals for our investors simple.

- Strong returns.
- Great experiences.
- World-class communication.

Here is what our investor said about us:

✅ Tim B.
“My wife and I wanted passive real estate heading into retirement. We’ve invested in multiple Breneman Capital deals and have been very pleased. They’ve helped us preserve and grow our nest egg without day-to-day work, and I recommend them to friends and co-workers.”

✅ Jim H.
“I’ve invested with Drew for 10+ years across 20+ projects. He’s the most knowledgeable real estate operator I’ve met and someone I trust. These investments have built long-term wealth for my family, with solid returns.”

If you’d like to set up an exploratory call, feel free to click the link in my Featured Section.

Founder & CEO

I started Breneman Capital in 2005 at age 19 to purchase my first rental properties and grow my own wealth. 

Today, we work with individual investors, Family Offices, PE, Fund of Funds, RIAs, etc., and allow them to invest alongside us in the best opportunities that we find (and have been for nearly 20 years).

Invest with us: https://www.breneman.com/invest

50% of people would choose to make less money if it meant they earned more than most. A 1998 Harvard Study proved it:

Participants were asked to choose between earning $50,000 when others earned $25,000, or earning $100,000 when others earned $200,000. 

50% took the lower salary.

People value status relative to other people more than absolute wealth. It's one of those "look under the hood of humanity" things that is so revealing, it's almost unnerving. 

That's why so many people can feel “poor” even while rich. 

If you let your desires grow faster than your assets...

And if you always compare yourself to someone else... 

You'll never have enough.

Talks about #realestate, #passiveinvesting, #realestatetrends, #multifamilyinvesting, and #investinginrealestate

Founder @ Breneman Capital | Passive Multifamily Investments That Protect & Grow Capital | 21+ years in Real Estate | Trusted by 100+ Accredited Investors

If you can forgo $10,000 in your 20s, do it.

It'll put you ahead in your career.

I get this question a lot:

"Drew, what's your best advice for starting a career in real estate?"

In a sentence?

𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁.

So many young 20-somethings only look at salary when it comes to their first jobs.

Zoom out.

Think in decades.

Let's say you want to do real estate as a principal.

Job A pays you $60,000/year as a lender.

Job B pays you $50,000/year working directly under a principal.

Throw that $10,000 away.

Take Job B.

When you're in your 40s, that extra $10,000 you would've made when you were 23 will have disappeared.

But the exponential value you gained from getting to the right spot will have multiplied time and time again.

Money is money.

But experience is wealth.

Throw away $10,000 today.

Reap the rewards for years to come.

--

What was your first job in real estate?

For about 10 years, I turned away everyone who wanted to invest with me.

People would come to me with $50,000 or $100,000. The kind of money that’s staggering when you’re in your 20s and early 30s. My parents were both teachers, so I understood what it meant for someone to hand over that kind of check.

But I only had infrastructure to work with my one investor. 

I could have taken their money, but I kept thinking about what their experience would actually be like. And the answer was: not good enough.

So for basically a decade, I said no. 

It wasn't until I finally built the systems and built a very talented team to actually serve investors well that I started taking outside capital. 

My view:

Just because you *can* take someone's money doesn't mean you *should.*

A lot of people think the “right time to syndicate” is whenever they find a deal. But I think that’s a really good way to risk burning your reputation before you’ve even built it.

The right time to raise capital is when you can deliver an experience that respects the trust someone is placing in you.

That $50,000 check represents years of someone's work. It’s best you treat it that way.

Most wealthy people I know aren't the smoothest talkers in the room.

For every Grant Cardone, there are hundreds of hyper-successful real estate investors who are quiet and unassuming. They're great at forming relationships through reputation. People know they'll do what they say they're going to do. 

That's not to say successful RE pros aren't charismatic, but more often than not, flashiness doesn't correlate to success.

The loudest person in the room is usually selling something. 

The richest person in the room is usually taking notes.

Breneman Capital has K-1s out to our investors on 14 of our deals for 2025 tax returns.

Love seeing our investor's reactions when we're the first K-1 they receive of the tax season.

Took us a while to get to this point operationally, but we're really firing on all cylinders.

In 2009, the 2nd-largest U.S. mall owner declared bankruptcy with more than $27,290,000,000 in mismanaged debt. 

Here’s what you can learn from it:

The company was General Growth Properties (GGP). Back in the 2000s, GGP was a behemoth.

They owned all sorts of world-class assets:

-> Ala Moana Center in Honolulu
-> Water Tower Place in Chicago
-> Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian in Vegas 

But in 2008-2009, the CMBS market dried up.

Too much of GGP’s debt came due at the same time. 

They couldn’t refinance quickly enough and they went into bankruptcy.

The lesson I learned?

-> No matter how great your assets are, you need to stagger debt maturities.

The more loan term, the better.

If I have the option of picking a 5-year fixed-rate loan or a 5-year fixed-rate loan with 25 years of floating rate term but a slightly higher rate, I always take the loan with the additional floating rate term. 

--

What real estate lesson has stuck with you over your career?

10 pieces of real estate advice I wish someone had given me when I was 20:

1. Start before you're ready.

I bought my first duplex at 19. I didn't know what IRR meant. My entire strategy was: If it's cash flow positive, my worst-case is holding it long-term and receiving cash flow each month.

2. Buy what's in front of you.

I was a student at UW-Madison, so I bought student rentals in Madison. My market study was polling friends about what they were paying.

3. Your W2 is education on someone else's dime...

I worked at a multifamily developer, then a retail developer. I knew nothing about commercial property when I started. I learned everything there, and I wasn't in a rush to leave while I was still learning.

4. ...So build while you work.

From 2008 to 2011, I worked three jobs simultaneously: my W2, self-managing my Madison rentals, and buying deals with my first investor.

5. Quit when your job starts costing you money.

By deal five, I'd already exceeded my W2 income. I still didn't quit until deal six was under contract. 

The math was simple: Could I make more reallocating my 9-to-5 hours to the next deal? When the answer was yes, I left.

6. Optimize for learning, not salary.

Comparing a $65K job to a $75K job? When you're 40, that extra $10K you passed up won't matter. What you learned is what compounds.

7. Get to your spot.

On that note, if you know where you want to go with your career, prioritize experience that will get you there. If you want to go out on your own someday, don't take a job as an analyst at a rating agency. Be a broker, get in the mix on actual transactions.

8. Periods of discipline feel longer than they are.

I lived in places under $1,000/month into my late 20s. At 26, I moved back in with my parents to extend my runway. 

At the time, it felt like a lot of sacrifice. But looking back from now that I'm in my 40s, it was all just a blip.

9. Get creative with financing.

I owner-occupied my first duplex for a lower down payment and better rate. You can still do FHA loans at 3.5% down on a 1-4 unit. Someone I know went 50/50 with her sister-in-law. One qualified for the loan, the other brought the cash.

10. The compounding happens later.

I bought $2 million of property as a college student. Same strategy on repeat: Buy, increase operating income, improve value, refi, buy again. 

By 2019, my first investor and I had built that into $80+ million.

--

P.S. What advice would you give to yourself when you were 20?

When I was 16, I read "Investing in Real Estate" by Gary Eldred. 
 
It changed my life. 
 
Here are 10 real estate books that have the same power to change yours:

Job-hopping is one of the best ways to stay broke long-term.

I know that's not the popular take… Switching jobs every 2-3 years has been trendy advice for the past few years. 

But compound interest applies to your career the same way it does your portfolio.

The richest friend I have (guy is worth 9 figures) told me the most successful people he knows all say the same thing: their 40s were when they really started making money. By then they knew what they were doing and they knew where to apply effort. 

The people who job-hop or switch industries every few years are just choosing to reset to zero over and over.

Finding a path with high upside, taking a long-term view, and letting experience stack… That's what gives you a real shot at building wealth in your 40s and beyond.

Same principle applies to your money. If you're focused on building your career, you need investments that compound without demanding your time.

Which is exactly what passive real estate is built for. 

To dive in, I put together a free 5-day course on how high earners can start investing without quitting their careers.

Get access here:

https://lnkd.in/gQfM3AUZ

.

Andrew Carnegie famously said, “90% of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.” Is that true? 

I’ve actually used this quote before in some of my content and firm materials, but Carnegie said it over 100 years ago.

Is it still accurate? 

At a certain point, most wealthy people start investing in real estate — but as anyone’s wealth grows, they start investing in a lot of things. 

I firmly believe that real estate is one of the best paths for the everyday investor to become a millionaire — and the tax benefits can legitimately change your life — but I’m curious if this quote stands the test of time.

What do you think?

Do 90% of millionaires still get that way through real estate?

Or do 90% of millionaires just happen to invest in real estate along the way?

The cap rate the broker just told you is wrong.

Brokers are salespeople, so they’re going to do everything they can to generate interest. You need to know that as a real estate investor.

Some brokers will show you a cap rate but bake in 3% rent growth in that calculation.

How do you grow rents 3% instantly? You can't. But this is done regularly when someone quotes a "Year 1 cap rate."

Other brokers will use very light expenses that look fine when you’re new. But once you’ve operated that type of property for a while, you’ll realize they're not achievable.

You need to develop your own apples-to-apples metric you can use to compare across every deal.

We focus on two cap rates:

1. “In-Place Cap Rate”

Rents: Current rents in-place going forward.

Other income: Use the trailing 12 months as-is.

Expenses: Based on our own buildings. Using some of the broker's information but not much of it.

Taxes: Adjust to whatever they'll be after closing.

Insurance: Get a new quote. Insurance has gone up significantly in recent years - just because the current owner is getting one rate doesn't mean you will.

2. “Untrended Stabilized Cap Rate” aka “Untrended Yield on Cost”

Rents: If you could snap your fingers and re-rent every unit today for what you believe is market. No assumed organic rent growth. All today's rents.

Other income: Implement any additional revenue generators - valet trash, internet packages, RUBs, amenity packages, charging more for parking, pets, move-in fees.

Expenses: Work similarly to the in-place cap rate - your real expenses with tax and insurance adjusted.

Cap ex: If you need to spend cap ex dollars to achieve those higher rents, add those dollars to your purchase price in the denominator when calculating your cap rate. 

We run these calcs for every deal we underwrite. When one jumps out as an outlier - mispriced relative to everything else that has sold - that's the one you purchase.

I bought my first duplex at 19 for $216,000 (using this strategy):

House Hacking

I knew I wanted to start investing in real estate before I went to UW Madison.

Most new investors are paralyzed by:

• Finding deals.
• Putting 20% down.
• Managing a rental property.

The fear of starting pushes their goal back years, causing them to miss out on long-term wealth.

“I’ll start next year when I feel ready.”

Here’s the thing:

You will never feel ready.

But you start anyway because that’s 80% of the battle.

House hacking is a great way to start investing.

• Buy a duplex.
• Live on one side.
• Rent the other side.

Look at the numbers and find a deal with positive cash flow.

Make sure the gross rent multiplier makes sense.

Your first deal gives you the confidence to do it again, and again, and again.

If you wait until you feel ready…

You’ll be sitting on the sidelines forever.

Just. Get. Started.

--
P.S. The duplex I lived in was cash flow positive because I also had roommates in my unit. 

If you're looking to build your real estate knowledge, we have a bunch of free resources you can access here: https://lnkd.in/dwXSYcsb

My analyst once told me our underwriting would kill every deal. I told him I didn't mind.

I'd rather these things go well for everybody rather than getting deals closed just to close them.

1st-time passive real estate investors often make a critical mistake: 
 
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀. 
 
I hear it all the time when I get on calls with investors. 
 
“Drew, I’m looking for an asset with great cash flow.” 
 
Great ... 
 
But are you sure that’s what’s best for you? 
 
For instance — if you’re a doctor making $500,000/year, tax efficiency and building wealth is probably more important than cash flow. 
 
But are you evaluating your passive investing opportunities through this lens? 
 
In real estate, not all deal profiles are the same: 
 
-> Development is very different than acquiring an existing building  
-> Acquiring a new building is very different than acquiring an older building to renovate  
 
-> Multifamily is not industrial 
-> Industrial is not office 
 
And the goals of different deals are rarely the same, either.  
 
If you’re considering a passive investment opportunity, make sure to: 
 
- Define your goals. 
- Share your goals with your GP. 
- Invest in a deal that aligns with your goals. 
 
Don’t invest just to invest. 
 
Invest with intent.  
 
Invest with a purpose. 
 
Invest to meet your goals.  
 
-- 
 
P.S. What's a real estate investing mistake you've learned from?

"Passive" investing is passive for one reason.

(We tell this to our LPs often.)

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Without someone actively working on the investment...

Passive investing is not possible. 

Our passive investors are able to be hand-off because it's an active, hands-on investment for us.

Do your due diligence up front.
Align your investment to your goals.
Find a sponsor you trust and respect.

Then, real estate can truly be a passive investment.

𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗟𝗣 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 "𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲"? 

--

P.S. If you know a little bit about real estate investing but want to elevate to the top 1% of LPs...

Check out our free guide here: https://lnkd.in/dXcHquhx

Hiring general contractors can be a nightmare.

Use these 5 tips to find the best GC possible:

1. Check qualifications

Do your homework. Google the GC’s name and business name. See if any reviews are listed on public sites. 

2. Ask for referrals

The single most important part of hiring a GC is finding one you can trust. 

Reach out to other property owners and investors to ask for referrals. If you get a referral, take that GC out for a beer or coffee to get to know them better.

3. Ask questions 

• What is your payment schedule?
• How long have you been in business?
• Will I have a dedicated team for my project?
• How and where do you store your team’s tools?
• Do you have end-of-the-day clean-up procedures? 
• How far in advance do you order materials and where are they stored?

4. Vet the team

Talk with the job site superintendent and understand their expertise and approach to solving issues with subcontractors.

Who's going to run the painting crew? It's more important to talk with them than the salesperson for the contractor's company. 

5. Protect yourself when paying

Pay through a title company to ensure the contractors get paid and you avoid mechanics liens. This way, the owner is always protected since the title company will be providing a date-down endorsement.


To see the full list of 10 tips for hiring the right GC, check out our blog here: https://lnkd.in/dtdD2NjE

I studied the investing habits of people with $25,000,000+ in liquid assets.

The results might surprise you.

See, people think multi-millionaires are greedy for more wealth.

But someone who works with multi-millionaires every week, let me tell you... 

Most multi-millionaires are greedy for something else:

Capital preservation.

More than anything, wealthy people are terrified of losing their money.

More than anything, wealthy people want to stay wealthy.

So what do they do?

In Day 3 of my free email course, I break down the habits of a group of investors with $25MM+ in liquid assets.

You’ll learn:

-> Their exact asset allocation strategy.
-> Why their strategy offers higher returns.
-> How they reduce portfolio volatility.

And one more thing:

-> How you can do the same as a passive investor.

Receive the 5-day email course for free here: https://lnkd.in/dFuyGq2T

I spent over $10,000 on LinkedIn ads and got zero real investors.

A couple years ago, I had a larger deal I wanted to raise for, so I spent ~$10K on advertising directly on LinkedIn.

It attracted some tire-kickers, but zero investors actually came through.

Then I started just posting about deals we were working on and lessons learned.

The difference has been night and day.

Turns out, investors want to see your actual work, not your advertising. They want to understand how you think about deals, what you've learned from mistakes, and why you do things the way you do.

It's not really a "strategy" or anything like that, it's just sharing real examples of what we're doing and taking notice of the people who appreciate that sort of thing.

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