Investment Insight

Are you where you SHOULD be or where you WANT to be?

Average.

That is the person I would have become if I had not decided to change the trajectory of my life. There are millions of people who have perfected “average,” so why not try something a little different? For so much of my life, I believed in the notion of “keep your head down, work hard, and good things will come.” While that concept is still relevant, I believe everyone must be willing to take the leap and change the trajectory of their own life.

Before you assume I had any special privileges...

I had more obstacles than I can count. I am from a low-income (by today’s standard), household. Black Male. Predominantly white industries. Neither parent understood investment real estate. Both of my parents were employed by my local school district, but never let me feel like I was missing out on anything. College may not have happened if I didn’t earn a full scholarship. If I had simply stayed the course after my parents sacrificed so much for me, I know where I would have landed, and that is not how I envisioned my future.

My path drastically changed when I understood the value of real estate.

I started in loan origination, then moved to sell single-family homes, then moved to wholesale homes, then property management. While in Alabama, I saw a Commercial Broker with a lifestyle that I wanted and figured out if he could do it. I COULD DO IT. I interviewed with my current brokerage then and was turned away. I stuck it out. I moved states and decided to start over and re-interview then the real leap started…

My first paycheck in commercial real estate, after nearly 10 months of daily 3-hour driving and 75 calls per day, was ~$600. During those 10 months, I scoured craigslist for questionable gig- jobs, I drove for Uber & Lyft…I did everything I could to keep myself afloat, along with my extremely supportive wife, as we lived below the poverty line. Six years later, we purchased our first home, we purchased our first investment property, we are both small business owners, we published a children’s book, we have traveled the world, she earned her PHD, and I have become a certified Sommelier.

I am blessed.

It has not been easy.

I now have the ability to change the trajectory of my son's life. So he can be even more awesome.

I am finally where I WANT to be.

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Investment Insight
How Much Is My Apartment Building Worth in Richmond, Virginia Right Now?

# How Much Is My Apartment Building Worth in Richmond, Virginia Right Now? Right now, Richmond multifamily assets are trading at roughly a 6.2% to 6.4% market cap rate, with recent closed deals ranging from 5.7% on newer Class A product to 6.9% on older 3-Star assets. If your property is generating $500,000 in NOI, that spread is the difference between a $7.2M and an $8.8M valuation — so your actual number depends far more on your asset's class and vintage than on any single "Richmond cap rate" headline. ## Why cap rates vary so much right now Richmond's 4 & 5 Star assets are trading tighter — averaging around 6.0% to 6.2% year-to-date on completed deals — while 3-Star product has traded between 5.3% and 6.7% over the past year, and 1 & 2-Star assets have landed closer to 6.9% to 7.4%. Two comparable-sized properties across town from each other can price a full point apart in cap rate purely because of build quality and unit mix, not location. ## What's actually driving Richmond pricing in 2026 Three things matter more right now than the market-average cap rate: - **Rent growth has stalled.** Asking rents in Richmond rose just 0.9% over the past year — well below the market's 10-year average of 3.7%, as the market digests a wave of new deliveries. That directly caps how aggressive a buyer can underwrite your rent bumps. - **Vacancy is elevated and rising.** Richmond's vacancy rate sits at 8.3%, above the market's historical average of 7.4%, with 4,700 units still under construction (a 4.3% expansion of inventory). Vacancy is expected to tick up further in the second half of 2026 before easing in 2027. - **Transaction volume is thin but pricing is holding.** Only 46 market-rate deals closed in Richmond over the past 12 months, well below the 10-year average of 58, yet dollar volume ($835 million) is actually in line with historical norms — meaning buyers are still paying full pricing for the right assets, they're just being far more selective. ## The variable that changes everything: absorption in your submarket Demand has been heavily concentrated — Western Henrico County, Midlothian, and Downtown Richmond have captured most of the market's net absorption, while other submarkets have seen far less renter demand. Downtown Richmond and the West End currently carry the highest vacancy in the market because of abundant recent completions. If your property sits in one of the in-demand submarkets, you can defend a tighter cap rate than the market average; if it's competing against a wave of new lease-up product nearby, buyers will price in that competition regardless of your own occupancy today. ## The takeaway Your property's value isn't Richmond's average cap rate — it's your specific NOI, divided by the cap rate that matches your building's class and your submarket's supply pipeline, and getting that second number right is where a broker earns their fee. ## What to bring me If you own a 50-400 unit property in Richmond and want an honest read on where it sits in today's range, send me your trailing 12-month operating statement, rent roll, and unit mix. I'll come back with a real number, not a market-average guess. #RichmondMultifamily #VirginiaCommercialRealEstate #ApartmentInvesting

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