The Andrew Hines Real Estate Investing Podcast · Andrew M. Hines

How to Turn a Structural Disaster into a Cash Cow with Ara Poladian

·51 min·3 clips

Ara got 11 of 12 tenants out after discovering the building was settling on peat gravel.

Ara Paladian returns for a second appearance. He and Andrew Heinz spend most of the conversation on multifamily buildings that need major structural repair, with Ara explaining how his background in engineering and construction changes the way he approaches those projects. The work is not abstract. Andrew keeps pressing for the real investor logic behind it, and Ara talks through how he looks at risk, repair scope, and the path from problem property to something that can produce cash flow. The numbers are concrete. Ara mentions projected numbers of about $5,000 or $4,000 a month on a 12-plex and about $2,000 on a 6-plex, making clear these are in-process deals rather than finished results. Flips are part of the mix too. He says they do one house at a time, usually targeting about $50,000 to $60,000 in profit, and he uses his realtor license to capture commission on the buy and the sale when the structure of the deal allows it. Speed matters, but only when the deal works. Ara says the shortest flip has taken about a month and the longest about three months, and that he is not running a volume operation so much as waiting for the right opportunity to show up through wholesalers. He describes strong relationships with wholesalers and says the real filter is whether the deal makes sense after he analyzes it. Andrew and Ara also talk about pace across years. Ara notes that one year can include three flips and another only two, which fits his point that the business is driven by fit rather than by a fixed quota. The discussion widens beyond investing. They talk about life, having kids, and the way family and philosophy shape how someone approaches work, risk, and long-term planning. The tone stays practical. Ara says his goal is to help people understand buildings well enough that a problem like an overcut floor joist feels manageable instead of overwhelming. He is not raising capital. What he wants most is to use his realtor work, and the knowledge behind it, to help listeners get into good investments.

As heard by us

A plainspoken multifamily rehab conversation with projected numbers and practical deal logic.

The episode stays with Ara Paladian's multifamily work, especially buildings that need serious structural repair, and the engineer-construction angle makes the risk easy to follow.

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Why you'd press play

When you want structural-disaster math, not polished guru talk.

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