Buying an apartment complex?

Smart investment for long term? Anyone have complexes that can share stories? Advice?

Depends on how many units, location, what you plan to charge for rent, how effective and expensive your maintenance is, how well-qualified you want your renters to be, etc. It can be very lucrative, though, in the short and long terms.

If you're that rich...
how about hiring me as an assistant?

In my opinion multi-familly properties have the lowest profitability margins. This is because the operating and maintenance costs can be very high and eat into cash flow. If you are looking for income-producing property, you are better off with office or mixed use facilities.

Smart for the long term? Why that would depend on the property, the owner, the management and what is going on in the community.

If you own such a property in a city where the population is declining and jobs are moving out such an investment could be a great way to loose money. If you own a property in a booming community where new jobs are happening and there is limited supply of housing then you stand a better chance.

Buying an apartment building implies the value of the building will go up or down based on the Net Operating Income (NOI; income minus certain expenses). If you have rising rents but expenses that rise faster you will have a problem.

Your property management skills are important. Or your ability to select the right management company. Some investors in apartment buildings will only look at buildings that are larger than X as they want on-site management. Unless there are enough units on-site would not make sense.

Others like to focus in the 5-20 unit range as the large property owners tend to not look at buildings in this range. Note that below 5 is not a commercial property when discussing multi-family residential property.

So, the question really begs a larger set of questions.

If you are new to the topic I know one investor that has a great manual on the topic. He got into the business after he and his brothers took over their father's business. The guy has something like 30 years of experience and decided to write a manual. The NY Times quotes him from time to time. I can get you a link to where you can look at manual if you are interested. Just get in touch.

You will also find some books in a large library or bookstore. Some are for university courses and others are more for investors.