In a recent episode of On The Move, host Dustin Miles sat down with multifamily investor Hitomi Yasuda to discuss her journey from a successful but unfulfilling corporate career to multifamily real estate investing.
After 25 years in the textile and apparel industry, Hitomi had achieved what many would consider the traditional definition of success: advanced degrees, prestigious positions and a demanding career. But behind the accomplishments, she was burned out and searching for a different path.
Her experience ultimately led her to multifamily real estate—and to what she considers one of the most important skills an investor can develop: underwriting.
From Corporate Success to a Search for Something More
Hitomi spent decades climbing the corporate ladder. Her upbringing emphasized education, achievement and becoming a successful employee, and she followed that path closely, even earning a doctorate.
But professional success didn’t necessarily translate into personal freedom.
She worked long hours and generated significant value for her employers while building little ownership for herself. The death of her father at just 58 became a major wake-up call, forcing her to reconsider how she was spending her time and what she was ultimately working toward.
By 2018, Hitomi felt she had reached a low point. She experimented with several side businesses—including a cat furniture company, consulting and commission-based sales—but each still required her to trade time for money.
Then she saw a Facebook ad for a real estate seminar.
That event introduced her to multifamily real estate, syndication and joint ventures. Until then, she had viewed real estate primarily as single-family homes or perhaps a duplex. The idea that everyday investors could participate in apartment communities with dozens or hundreds of units completely changed her perspective.
She quickly immersed herself in real estate education and began building the knowledge and network necessary to enter the multifamily industry.
Learning to Navigate Multifamily Real Estate
Hitomi’s transition wasn’t easy. She dealt with skepticism from friends and family, fear, failed deals and the uncertainty brought on by COVID-19.
Instead of walking away, she doubled down on education and surrounding herself with experienced investors.
She attended conferences, built relationships within the industry and sought out people who were actively doing what she wanted to accomplish. Over time, she moved beyond simply participating in deals and developed a deeper understanding of how to analyze and operate them.
That led to one of the central lessons of her career: multifamily underwriting is much more than a spreadsheet.
Why Multifamily Underwriting Matters
For Hitomi, underwriting is one of the most valuable skills in multifamily real estate investing because it provides a framework for understanding both opportunity and risk.
Effective underwriting helps investors:
- Evaluate a property before acquisition
- Analyze the market surrounding the property
- Establish realistic revenue and expense assumptions
- Develop an asset management plan
- Communicate risk and potential returns to investors
- Measure performance after the acquisition
Hitomi views multifamily properties as businesses rather than simply buildings. Whether it’s an apartment community, student housing, assisted living facility or self-storage property, the investor is ultimately acquiring an operating business.
Underwriting provides the blueprint for understanding how that business should perform.
Asset Management: Ownership Doesn’t End at Closing
One misconception among new multifamily investors is that hiring a third-party property management company means the owner can step away from the day-to-day performance of the asset.
Hitomi strongly disagrees.
Property management handles the daily execution—things like leasing, collections, maintenance and resident issues. Ownership, however, is responsible for setting the strategy and holding the team accountable.
That can include establishing:
- Rent growth targets
- Occupancy goals
- Rent-ready and maintenance targets
- Expense budgets
- Leasing expectations
Hitomi compares the operation to an assembly line. Leasing generates demand, while maintenance and operations make sure units are ready to be rented. If one part of the process falls behind, the entire operation can suffer.
That’s where asset management comes in.
She also has a memorable description of the General Partner role: it’s not passive—it’s “passive aggressive.”
A GP may not be personally collecting rent or repairing units, but they need to aggressively monitor collections, income, expenses and property management performance.
And once again, underwriting serves as the scorecard.
Real Estate Is Hyper-Local
Another important lesson from Hitomi’s experience is that real estate performance can vary dramatically from one market—or even one property—to another.
A management company that performs well in one state may struggle in another. Even within Texas, performance can differ between Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio.
The on-site team can also make a significant difference, particularly the leasing manager.
For investors, that means evaluating more than just the property and the market. The people responsible for executing the business plan matter, too.
Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Debt
Strong operations can’t always overcome poor debt structure.
Hitomi emphasized the importance of evaluating loan terms, interest-rate assumptions and the risks associated with short-term or aggressive financing structures.
Her philosophy is straightforward:
Buy the deal right from the beginning. Don’t depend on appreciation to save it.
Conservative debt and realistic assumptions can give an investment the ability to withstand market disruptions rather than relying on everything going according to plan.
How to Evaluate a Multifamily Investment
For new multifamily investors and passive LPs, Hitomi recommends looking beyond the projected returns and digging into the assumptions behind the deal.
1. Evaluate the Sponsor
Before getting lost in the spreadsheet, understand who is operating the deal.
Look at the sponsor’s:
- Experience
- Track record
- Market knowledge
- Performance through different market cycles
The strength of the sponsor group is one of the most important factors in evaluating a multifamily investment.
2. Challenge Rent Growth and Vacancy Assumptions
Aggressive assumptions can make almost any deal look attractive.
If the market is experiencing 7% vacancy, for example, investors should question a projection that assumes the property will quickly achieve 5% vacancy without a compelling reason.
The same applies to rent growth. Projections should be supported by actual market data rather than optimism.
3. Examine the Exit Cap Rate
The exit, or reversion, cap rate can have a major impact on projected returns.
Small changes in the assumption can significantly alter the outcome of a deal. Investors should compare the going-in cap rate, projected exit cap rate and broader interest-rate environment rather than simply accepting the numbers presented in a model.
4. Make Sure There Is Enough Cash
Running out of money can put an otherwise solid investment in a difficult position.
Investors should pay close attention to operating reserves and CapEx funding. Major capital expenditures shouldn’t depend entirely on ongoing operating cash flow.
The goal is to make sure the property has enough financial cushion to handle unexpected challenges.
Conservative Underwriting Doesn’t Mean Never Doing a Deal
One of the biggest challenges for new investors is finding the right balance between conservative and aggressive underwriting.
Be too conservative, and you may never win a deal. Be too aggressive, and you expose yourself and your investors to unnecessary risk.
Hitomi believes experience and mentorship are critical to developing that judgment.
For newer investors, having an experienced operator or mentor review an underwriting model can help identify assumptions that may be unrealistic, overly conservative or unsupported by market data.
Sometimes the Best Deal Is the One You Don’t Do
Early in her career, Hitomi admits she was eager to get into her first deal and prove that she could succeed in multifamily.
That impatience sometimes made her want to stretch on price. Fortunately, mentors and equity partners pushed back when the numbers no longer made sense.
In some cases, deals she wanted to pursue eventually returned to the market after the original operators ran into trouble.
Those experiences reinforced one of the most important lessons in real estate investing:
No deal is better than a bad deal.
Patience, disciplined underwriting and the willingness to walk away can be just as valuable as finding an opportunity.
The Takeaway: Education and Discipline Matter
Hitomi Yasuda’s journey from corporate burnout to multifamily real estate investor is a reminder that there isn’t a shortcut to becoming a successful operator.
Education matters. Mentorship matters. But so does the ability to make disciplined decisions when the numbers don’t support a deal.
Her experience also highlights why multifamily underwriting should be a core skill for anyone looking to invest in apartments—whether as a General Partner or passive investor.
Underwriting isn’t just about determining whether a property can generate attractive returns. It’s about understanding the business, identifying risks, planning for different outcomes and creating a roadmap for managing the asset after closing.
For investors looking to build long-term wealth through multifamily real estate, that discipline can make all the difference.
This article is based on Dustin Miles’ conversation with Hitomi Yasuda on Momentum Multifamily’s On The Move podcast.