Creating an Expert-Level Investor Resume: 101

You’re ready to invest in your next multifamily property. You’ve found the right property in the right location, you’ve chosen a broker to help find you the best loan—but now it’s time to actually get the funding. While choosing a location for your next multifamily investment may be the first big hurdle in the buying process, acquiring the loan necessary to complete the deal is a series of events you can’t overlook. The better prepared you are, the more successful the process will be—meaning you get the best deal possible on your loan.

Everything that goes into evaluating risk and reward—including the property and you, the potential investor—falls under the category of underwriting. Lenders hire underwriters to assess the risk of loan default, and more and more often, underwriting is done virtually by artificial intelligence software.

Every risk needs a mitigant, which is why underwriters use documents that outline your credit qualifications and investing experience to measure and calculate whether you and your property equal a smart, profitable risk.

Two of these documents you need to produce for the lender and their underwriters are a personal financial statement (PFS) and an investor resume, commonly referred to as a real estate resume. An investor resume is your chance to craft the most compelling reasons why you are the best, and thus least risky, investor.

What your investor resume can do for you

Like a professional resume, an investor resume should present you and your real estate portfolio in the best light possible. This document replaces the old practice of meeting the underwriters or loan officers in person.

When crafting your investor resume, imagine what you would say or point out about your resume if you were meeting with the underwriters face to face. What would you present? Communicate the highlights by showcasing the successful projects you’ve been a part of. Underwriters need to know you’re not a pretender trying to get your first deal. This is your best chance at convincing them you know how to lead a project to a successful, profitable conclusion.

This is your chance to tell your story—and more importantly your successes in the past. Summarize why you chose your real estate investments and outline your actions taken for rehab or NOI enhancement. When communicating about other properties’ outcomes, include a summary of return and the conclusions you reached after doing the deals.

An investor resume also outlines all training and certifications regarding real estate investing, your investment history, deals that have come and gone and properties that no longer appear on your SREO (schedule of real estate owned), which you will also supply. In the next section below, we’ll go into further detail of what an investor resume includes.

All of this works together to construct a narrative for the underwriters that will lead to you procuring a great deal on an investment loan. But what specifics comprise a successful investor resume?

The key components for a successful investor resume

An investor resume does not look much different than a professional resume. In fact, you can use current resume tips like these from Forbes to make your resume stand out against other investors’. There are many templates you can find online, or you could hire a writing professional to help you construct one.

The key is to craft your resume effectively and concisely to help communicate your ability to manage a profitable multifamily investment property.

Specifically, your investor resume should include:

1. Your complete contact information
2. An introduction

• Answer the following questions in your intro: What brought you to the world of real estate investing? Why is it a passion for you?

3. Education, certifications, nominations, and awards, especially those related to real estate investing
4. Experience

• Group your other investment deals by type (single-family, multifamily, retail, industrial, storage, development, etc.)
• The tombstone—a factual summary of price paid, the reason the subject property was selected, your plans to rehab or improve NOI, the kind of debt selected and why, disposition reason and result
• If this section begins to look too wordy or lengthy, you can organize or summarize in paragraph form

5. Summary

• Tie everything together with a few well-crafted sentences that summarize why you should be approved for this multifamily investment loan

Update your resume at least twice per year, or every time you acquire or dispose of a property, so you’ve always got a current version on hand.

Your investor resume is one of the few things you can give to your lender that encourages your approval outside of the bare numbers. You only have a few paragraphs to persuade, so make sure those few sentences are carefully crafted so your investor resume works in your favor.

Let your investor resume do the talking

As you get in the habit of keeping your investor resume current, it can help you in more than just the underwriting process. You’ll need it for your next multifamily mortgage application, but you should also provide it when raising equity or looking for investment partners.

When you hand over an expert-level investor resume to CRE brokers when sourcing deals, it will help you look like a legitimate professional investor with the resume to prove it. Someday your professional investment reputation will precede you, but until then, your investor resume can fill in.