Yeadon & Jennings' First Big Deal

Episode 3: Goose Creek Deal

Welcome back to My First Million in Multifamily – My First Deal podcast, the series where we walk through our full-cycle deals: how we found them, raised the capital, closed, operated, and exited.

We’ve covered our first couple of deals, and today we’re digging into Goose Creek—our first real “big boy” deal: 63 units outside of Summerville, South Carolina, near Charleston.

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The Flywheel Analogy

You can imagine a 10-foot bronze flywheel. At first, it takes everything you’ve got to push it even an inch—it might even roll back on you. That’s what getting your first deal feels like. Even after that, the next revolutions take massive effort. But eventually, the momentum builds: brokers call you, investors reach out, opportunities start flowing.

Goose Creek was one of those early pushes where the wheel still felt brutally heavy.

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Finding the Deal

There are four main ways to find deals—we teach this in our Deal Room—and Goose Creek came from one of the oldest: word of mouth.

At the time, Yeadon was in his BNI networking group (Business Networking International). Instead of talking about managing properties, he started telling everyone he was looking to buy apartments.

That shift mattered. A commercial broker in the group—Hutch Hutchinson with Carolina One—mentioned he had a listing coming up. Hutch wasn’t a multifamily specialist, but he gave us the first look.

As it turned out, that first look turned into a live deal: 63 units listed at $4M.

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Negotiations & Early Lessons

We underwrote it, and at first it didn’t work with the super-conservative “65 cents on the dollar” model we were following after a conference. But after some back-and-forth, our LOI at $3.6M was accepted.

Here’s where we hit our first big mistake: we told too many people. Another group swooped in with their own LOI, and we almost lost it. Lesson learned: don’t run your mouth while negotiating.

Thankfully, our relationships saved the deal. Chad and Nick—loan sponsors we’d met at a conference—stepped in and backed us. The seller gave us a second chance, and we got it under contract at $3.6M.

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The Capital Raise Challenge

Now came the scary part: raising $1.2M.

Our first deal together (the 19-unit in Moncks Corner) only needed $250K, and Nick and Chad had raised that. For Goose Creek, they committed $100K but weren’t raising the rest.

So we partnered with another guy who swore he could raise the million. Weeks ticked by… and three weeks before closing, he admitted he only had $200K.

Cue panic. We had $300–400K soft-circled, but we were still $600–700K short.

That’s when we decided: no one is coming to save us. We combed through every contact in our phones, texts, Facebook friends, emails—relentlessly calling, texting, pitching.

It was brutal. Tons of “no’s,” lots of “maybe later,” but also enough “yeses.” Piece by piece, $25K and $50K checks started adding up.

Then—seven days before closing, on Thanksgiving weekend—the lender cut our loan proceeds by $200K. Now we needed even more. Back to the phones. Somehow, we raised it.

On December 6, 2019, we closed.

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Operations & Renovations

We knew we couldn’t manage 63 units ourselves, so we brought in a local property management company experienced in repositioning. With their contractor connections, we launched a full renovation plan:

• All two-bedroom, one-bath units.

• Rents were $700–800; market was $1,000–1,100.

• $13–15K per unit in renovations plus exterior work.

The CapEx was heavy, but over 18–20 months, we executed. By 2021, rents were up, units were stabilized, and the value had jumped.

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Refinance & Structure

We refinanced into long-term agency debt:

• Freddie Mac loan

• 10-year term

• 5 years interest-only at 4.75%

• Returned nearly all investor capital

Because we structured the deal with a 10% preferred return, investors got paid consistently but owned just 20% equity. We kept 80%.

Cash flow to us was minimal during stabilization, but once refinanced, the heavy pref payments ended and the pressure eased.

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Exit & Why We Sold

We held another year before selling. Here’s why:

• Bought at $57K/unit

• All-in around $76–80K/unit

• Sold at $105K/unit (~$6.8M total)

We had created $1.9M in equity. At that point, rents were maxed out, value-add was complete, and holding meant more risk than reward—hurricanes, rising expenses, deferred maintenance.

So we sold. After commissions and costs, it was still a massive liquidity event. Jennings and Yeadon each took home roughly $400–500K.

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Key Lessons from Goose Creek

• Don’t rely on one partner. Build a wide investor and loan-sponsor base.

• Capital raising is a skill. The only way to learn it is to do it—through rejection, persistence, and momentum.

• Know when to sell. Sometimes the best move isn’t “never sell,” but redeploying equity into better opportunities.

• Consistency beats talent. Showing up, making the calls, and pushing the flywheel is what separates those who succeed from those who fold.

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Goose Creek was our first real big deal. We found it, raised the money under pressure, executed renovations, refinanced, and exited successfully. It wasn’t smooth—it was scary, stressful, and nearly fell apart multiple times. But it proved we could do it.

That’s why we’re sharing these stories: not the glamorized version, but the real trenches. Because the first few revolutions of the flywheel are the hardest—but once it’s moving, it changes everything.

Stay tuned for the next episode, where we’ll keep unpacking the wins, losses, and lessons of our first full-cycle deals.