Multifamily Investment Specialist with Matthew Sarro

Matthew Saro joined Colliers International in 2014 after specializing in apartment sales throughout the Central Valley for a year. He decided to remain focused on multifamily properties after joining Colliers. He now focuses on representing investors and property owners in Sacramento County and Northern California. Throughout his career, he has honed his knowledge of the Sacramento submarket and has remained focused on multifamily investment opportunities for my clients. His business finance and real estate experience adds value to his clients, whether he is marketing and selling a property or underwriting potential investments.

Matthew Saro’s honest and educated advice is relied on by multifamily investors to help them make sound business decisions. It is his responsibility to his client to stay current on rental rates, occupancies, and trends in the Greater Sacramento Area’s many submarkets. He can examine any deal from various angles because he works with both institutional and local apartment owners. He has firsthand knowledge of the economic cycles that have impacted our market as a native Sacramentan. He is passionate about making Sacramento a thriving community, and he believes that small and large business owners are at the heart of that.

Episode Highlights Here:

Matthew Sarro:

For a lot of people, it’s so easy to get distracted in real estate. Like you said you do residential or I’m sure some multifamily as well. But some people get pulled from every direction.

Pierce York:

What’s the number one secret to being a successful multifamily broker?

Matthew Sarro:

Going back to, as you said, just jumped out of cold reading the Marcus & Millichap, they had always taught, they had a really good training program and I always advise people getting in the business, if they’re gonna do investment brokerage works Millichap is a great way to start. I think the secret that just kind of investment sales 101 is just building a good database. So not spreading yourself too thin. Just picking an area. So Sacramento County, I know you guys do a lot in El Dorado County. So picking a market, say downtown Sacramento, I want to focus on five units and above. So just staying in that realm, say call it a 500, 1,000, maybe even 2,000 contacts and just sticking with it. I mean, a lot of people, it’s so easy to get distracted in real estate, like you said, you do residential, or I’m sure some multifamily as well. But some people get pulled from every direction. They’re like, I have a gas station, can you help me sell this, it’s like, you almost want to stay in your lane and stay in your focus and stick to that 1,000 or 2,000 contacts, and just constantly getting in contact with them and wanting to get in front of them. So we mainly make a lot of phone calls to that target market. It’s just introducing yourself and wanting to get in front of them. I noticed on kind of the smaller size, you get a lot more mom and pops, you get like three reactions, they really want to talk to you and get information from you. They just say hey, eff off, and didn’t hang up the phone. Or they just say, they’re polite and or I’m not interested but follow up. So it’s just staying in contact with the same people over and over and over and you start kind of seeing results.

Pierce York:

So it really is just consistency and picking a market and not getting distracted with the shiny objects.

Matthew Sarro:

Exactly. Just not getting discouraged. I mean, there are so many people, it’s funny, I’ll call someone and they’re just rude as hell, and then I’ll talk to them the next year. They’re the nicest people I’ve ever talked to. So it’s not getting discouraged by all the hang-ups and stuff like that and just sticking with it. I think after they see your name, we used to joke about this. Our old boiler room days of just making a ton of calls. Some of them start becoming kind of your friend, you’ll want to get through a bunch of calls and you’re on the call for 45 minutes talking about God knows what these guys I mean, they’re just sometimes they’re older. Then the yangs and they’re bored, sometimes they’re busy, it just you become kind of friends with them. That’s the whole goal, just getting some FaceTime. It kind of very COVID just start doing like, I used to not be very technically savvy and doing like zoom and stuff. But now I’m like, if I know you’re busy, if you got a moment to hop on Zoom, and then they kind of feel like they know each other. Like even just talking to you for the last few minutes. If we were just on a phone call. I wouldn’t know what you look like or what you’re about. Do you know what I mean?

Pierce York:

Absolutely. That’s interesting.