Buying Right: Why Patience and Discipline Win in Multifamily Acquisitions

In real estate investing, there is no shortage of deals, but there is a shortage of good ones.

In competitive markets, it’s easy to feel pressure to act quickly. Capital is waiting. Brokers are calling. Headlines suggest opportunity is everywhere. Yet one of the most important lessons we’ve learned at Cornerstone Multifamily is that long-term success doesn’t come from buying often, it comes from buying right.

That principle has shaped how we approach acquisitions, and it’s one of the biggest reasons our Weyburn property has performed the way it has.

The Temptation to Move Fast

In multifamily investing, or investing in general, speed is often celebrated. Being “decisive” or “aggressive” can sound like virtues. But in practice, moving too fast often means compromising on fundamentals, overpaying, accepting thinner margins, or underwriting best-case scenarios instead of realistic ones.

We’ve seen this temptation firsthand.

Before acquiring our Weyburn property, our team reviewed hundreds and hundreds of deals. Many of them looked promising on the surface. Some even penciled out initially. But once we applied our criteria with discipline, most fell apart under closer scrutiny.

At times, it felt uncomfortable to keep passing. But that discomfort turned out to be a feature, not a flaw.

What “Buying Right” Really Means

Buying right doesn’t mean timing the market perfectly. It means maintaining discipline regardless of market conditions.

For us, buying right has meant:

• Sticking to clear Performa standards

• Refusing to stretch assumptions to “make a deal work”

• Prioritizing downside protection over upside projections

• Being honest about risk, not optimistic about outcomes

We had to shift from a mindset of “Can this deal work for us?” to “What can go wrong and this deal will still succeed.”

That mindset naturally slows things down, and that’s a good thing.

Lessons from The Outsiders

This idea of disciplined patience isn’t unique to real estate. It’s a recurring theme across many of the world’s most successful businesses.

I was recently reminded of this while reading The Outsiders by William Thorndike (not to be confused with the movie). The book profiles eight CEOs who dramatically outperformed both the market and their peers over long periods of time.

Despite operating in different industries, they shared a striking common trait: patience to wait for the right opportunities, and discipline to do nothing when those opportunities weren’t there.

They didn’t feel compelled to deploy capital just because it was available. Instead, they waited often for years, until conditions aligned. When they did act, they acted decisively and with conviction, because they knew their parameters and knew a good deal when it came up.

That approach maps remarkably well to multifamily investing.

The Cost of Impatience

Impatience in acquisitions often shows up in subtle ways:

• Slightly higher purchase prices justified by optimistic rent growth

• Deferred maintenance risks that are “manageable” in theory

• Thin margins that rely on perfect execution

Each compromise may seem small on its own. Collectively, they compound risk.

At Cornerstone, we’ve learned that the deals you pass on are just as important as the ones you pursue. Avoiding a bad deal doesn’t show up in performance reports, but it protects capital just the same.

Weyburn: A Case Study in Discipline

Our Weyburn property didn’t come from chasing the market. It came from patience.

By the time that opportunity surfaced, we had already built a strong internal process: deal screening, underwriting reviews, and clear investment criteria. That preparation allowed us to recognize quality when it finally appeared.

The result wasn’t just a property that worked on paper, it was one that aligned with our long-term strategy and risk tolerance. And that alignment has translated into solid performance.

Weyburn wasn’t the first deal we saw. It was the one worth waiting for.

Patience Is a Competitive Advantage

In overheated markets, patience can feel like a disadvantage. In reality, it’s one of the strongest edges an investor can have.

When others feel pressured to transact, disciplined buyers gain leverage. When sentiment cools, opportunities re-emerge, often with better pricing, terms, or risk profiles.

The key is being ready before those moments arrive.

Discipline Builds Trust

For us, buying right isn’t just about returns, it’s about responsibility.

Whether we’re investing our own capital or that of our partners, discipline is a form of respect. It signals that long-term outcomes matter more than short-term activity. It reinforces that we’re willing to wait rather than compromise.

Over time, that approach compounds, not just financially, but reputationally.

Final Thoughts

Multifamily investing rewards patience far more than urgency. The most successful acquisitions are often the result of saying “no” repeatedly, until the right “yes” finally appears.

At Cornerstone Multifamily, we believe that discipline is not about doing less, it’s about doing what matters most, at the right time.

Buying right isn’t always exciting. But over the long run, it’s what wins.

Wes Wiens, Treasurer