Paul Montelongo and Letitia Montelongo are entrepreneurs and real estate investors who co-founded Montelongo Capital, focusing on undervalued multifamily and specialty properties across the U.S. With decades of business experience, Paul has built eight multi-million-dollar companies and invested in 582 units, while Letitia, a licensed real estate professional and former Fortune 500 executive, leads investor relations and capital raising. Together, they teach others how to build passive income and create a life of freedom, all while enjoying life in San Antonio with their four children and seven grandchildren.
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- How Paul Turned Letitia Into a Multifamily Underwriting Pro
- The $2M Pandemic Pivot That Changed Everything
- From Froyo Shops & Sallie Mae to Owning Big Multifamily Deals
- Why Sharing Your Emotions Can Transform Your Relationships
- Letitia’s Heroic Battle With Breast Cancer & How She Rose Stronger
- The Bold Leap From Multifamily Into Data Centers
- Data Centers vs Multifamily: Which Asset Wins?
- The Next Big Assets On the Team’s Radar
- Cutting-Edge Stem Cell Therapy for Knees & Shoulders
- Secrets to Thriving as a Family While Building a Business Together
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com
Full Transcript Below
01:19:42:03 – 01:20:07:28
Intro
Welcome. This is the lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing podcast. This is where you’ll learn strategies to help you achieve lifetime financial freedom through real estate investment. Your host, Rod Khleif, has owned over 2000 homes and apartments, and he brings experts in all aspects of real estate investment and management onto the show. Now, here’s your host, Rod Cleve.
01:20:08:00 – 01:20:29:00
Rod
Welcome to lifetime cash flow to real estate investing. I’m Rod Cleef, and I am thrilled you’re here. And we are going to have a really fun interview today, guys. Okay. I’ve got Paul and Leticia montelongo here. Now, not only are they in a thousand doors in multifamily, they’re doing storage. They’re doing data centers. But we’re also have they also have a website called High Velocity Couples.
01:20:29:00 – 01:20:38:22
Rod
And, they do couples retreats, which, you know, is just cool. So we’re going to have a lot of fun, wide ranging conversation. So buckle in. Welcome to the show, guys.
01:20:38:27 – 01:20:40:10
Paul
Man, we’re so excited to be here.
01:20:40:17 – 01:20:57:20
Rod
We’ve been talking about Tony Robbins since they got here because the you know Paul’s done the Tony stuff like I have. You guys know he’s one of my one of my mentors in a big way. I he’s he’s the one that really got me going on mindset and psychology. So we’ve had some some pre recording conversation about all that.
01:20:57:20 – 01:21:06:05
Rod
So we’re going to have a lot of fun today. But why don’t you why don’t we start with your story. Yeah. You know let’s start there. So take it away. Whoever wants to go first and.
01:21:06:06 – 01:21:07:22
Letitia Montelongo
I’ll let you this time.
01:21:07:24 – 01:21:17:06
Paul
All right. Montelongo, San Antonio, Texas, as you know, a great market, right? For what we do. Real estate. So we’ve been married six years as of last week.
01:21:17:07 – 01:21:18:24
Rod
Congratulations.
01:21:18:26 – 01:21:22:25
Paul
And, independently, we were single. 13 years.
01:21:22:26 – 01:21:23:11
Rod
Wow.
01:21:23:11 – 01:21:30:09
Paul
Each of us. Wow. And neither of us had a plan to get remarried. But, you know, you go through life, you meet the right person.
01:21:30:11 – 01:21:33:26
Rod
So you want to make God laugh. You tell him your plans.
01:21:33:28 – 01:21:49:01
Paul
Can I repeat that? And so, and, we met, and, ten months later, we were married. Wow. Right. And so, together, we have four children. She has two. I have two together. We have seven grandkids. Wow. Two of them are downstairs right now.
01:21:49:02 – 01:21:59:02
Rod
Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, we walked up. There were a couple little girls there on their little laptops and iPads down there playing, and I’ve got 4000 movies down there, but look like they were, well, well taken care of. They’re good to.
01:21:59:02 – 01:22:01:12
Paul
Go. First question is, what’s the Wi-Fi connection?
01:22:01:13 – 01:22:03:05
Rod
Right, exactly. Okay, good.
01:22:03:06 – 01:22:17:19
Paul
But, no, we’re here with six grandkids. We’re visiting Florida. We’re just doing vacation, that’s all. Six grandkids and three of our kids. And so we’re nice. We’re just. We got a house full of people, and and, you know, we got this opportunity to come talk with you. So here we are.
01:22:17:22 – 01:22:18:10
Rod
Here we are.
01:22:18:12 – 01:22:45:15
Paul
Love it. Love it. But, Yeah. Leticia and I has a Leticia has a really extensive, you know, corporate background. And so, I she can tell you about that. The short of it is that I’ve been in real estate forever since I literally since I was 17, but I’ve been buying multi-unit properties since 2012, I bought several we got together, she saw what I was doing, and she’s like, how do we how do we amplify this and which we’ve done?
01:22:45:15 – 01:22:47:07
Paul
And we can get into that, you know?
01:22:47:12 – 01:22:50:19
Rod
Well, yeah, let’s do so, so yeah, for sure.
01:22:50:20 – 01:22:56:13
Paul
All right. You remember this thing called, the pandemic? Yeah. You remember that,
01:22:56:15 – 01:23:10:09
Rod
Yeah. In fact, this is the result of that pandemic. I was up 800 people in Orlando for an online for a real bootcamp, and I sold most of the tickets. I’m like, holy sh. We going to do. Yeah. So this video studio got built like overnight. Know that. Yeah.
01:23:10:16 – 01:23:19:16
Paul
Well, I was upstairs the training about 28 people every week, just all by zoom, mostly just to keep myself sharp.
01:23:19:16 – 01:23:20:15
Rod
Training them in what.
01:23:20:15 – 01:23:39:24
Paul
Multifamily, how to buy apartments. Okay. How to buy specifically how to buy apartments. Okay. Mostly just to keep myself sharp and as a as a lead source in, as a, perhaps an investment source. You know, I just I just wanted to teach. She heard me, and she knew I had been in real estate, obviously. Right. And she’s like, can you can you teach me how to do this?
01:23:39:26 – 01:23:47:12
Paul
Can I sit in? I’m like, heck yeah. So she’s downstairs, she’s sitting in, I’m upstairs, I’m teaching. And about two months later.
01:23:47:15 – 01:24:08:08
Letitia Montelongo
No, not two months later, two weeks later, two weeks later, I am a realtor. I had been a realtor for a few years when I met Paul, and so I jumped on the zoom and I was like, okay, learning how to do underwriting. So I started looking on of all places, loop net right, two weeks at two months, even two weeks later, I found something and I was like, I’ve got something, we’ve got to go look at it.
01:24:08:08 – 01:24:17:16
Letitia Montelongo
So Friday we drive just across town in San Antonio, put in an offer on Monday, and in 60 days we closed on our first 64 unit together.
01:24:17:17 – 01:24:24:17
Rod
No kidding. Together. And you found it on loop. Net I did. Wow. You know the catch phrases loop net is the place deals go to dot.
01:24:24:18 – 01:24:41:23
Letitia Montelongo
They do and I revived it and it was awesome. And I think it’s because it was the pandemic though, right? Because and I wanted something to do because as a realtor at that time, you and I was doing residential real estate. You know, you can show houses in Texas. They like, forbid you from doing it. But we were able to go see this.
01:24:41:23 – 01:24:48:20
Letitia
And it was it was so exciting. We kept it 16 months, sold. It, made $2.5 million. And I was like, no kidding.
01:24:48:22 – 01:24:51:17
Rod
Oh, so you announced a flip?
01:24:51:20 – 01:25:10:07
Letitia
Yeah. So that was that was my experience. And it was really fun because he was teaching a lot of guys. I was like, I’m going to jump in here and do some some things and really get this going. My background was I worked in corporate America for ever, in 2008 when we got a new president coming in, the company that I worked for, good away.
01:25:10:07 – 01:25:17:02
Letitia Montelongo
I worked for Sallie Mae. I was a senior vice president. I traveled around, yes. So I had that background.
01:25:17:05 – 01:25:17:14
Rod
Or what.
01:25:17:15 – 01:25:32:12
Letitia Montelongo
Was, you know, loans, I mean, student loans. Yeah. So I called on VP of finance at colleges and universities. And then I left that job and I was like, all right, I’m going to go do something on my own. So I had a few small businesses throughout the years. I had a yogurt shop, I.
01:25:32:12 – 01:25:32:24
Rod
Had.
01:25:32:24 – 01:25:35:03
Letitia Montelongo
Yogurt, yogurt. I had a self-service all.
01:25:35:03 – 01:25:50:05
Rod
Though, stop, stop, stop, stop the press, stop the press. You know, I had two frozen yogurt shops. What were the names? J.R turtles was the name I was going to. I was going to I was going to franchise them. I had well you know, how had dairy Queen had the hurricane or whatever they called it. I had the turtles Blizzard, you know, the blizzard.
01:25:50:05 – 01:26:01:29
Rod
Yeah, I had the turtles tornado. I was going to. Yeah. I mean, it was a $250,000 seminar. I call them seminars. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah. Well, it’s just so funny when you said frozen yogurt. Yeah, I had them in Denver. Anyway. Please continue. Yeah.
01:26:01:29 – 01:26:06:15
Letitia Montelongo
No, I bought the frozen yogurt shop. We built it from. We had live music on Palumbo.
01:26:06:15 – 01:26:08:21
Rod
Frozen yogurt was the brand I was using.
01:26:08:24 – 01:26:31:05
Letitia Montelongo
The thing that made ours are so fabulous is that we lived in San Antonio, and, the Hispanic kids in that town love big Red. It’s like a drink. It’s like a red sugar is kind of like a bubblegum, but it’s a soda. And it’s big in the Hispanic community. So I figured out how to take that big red sirup and make a frozen yogurt, and the line would be out the door.
01:26:31:05 – 01:26:46:14
Letitia Montelongo
It was crazy. So it was very fun. So we did that for a while and they, you know, had a med spa. I had a women’s boutique. So I went through all these little businesses because my real job selling my even though it was in finance, it was really more of a marketing role in sales. So I was good at marketing.
01:26:46:14 – 01:26:53:25
Letitia Montelongo
So it and Paul and I got together and started to do apartments. It was like, I should just do the marketing. So, so it was fun.
01:26:53:25 – 01:26:58:00
Rod
What a match up. Wow. Good for you. That’s impressive. All the stuff you did good for you.
01:26:58:00 – 01:26:59:14
Paul
Yeah, it’s been a good match.
01:26:59:14 – 01:27:00:18
Rod
You got a keeper there, bud?
01:27:00:25 – 01:27:04:26
Letitia Montelongo
Yeah, well, I was on the list from day, from Destiny. All the things you are.
01:27:04:29 – 01:27:24:02
Rod
Yeah. So we talked about it. By the way, guys, we were talking about one of Tony’s events, Tony Robbins events called date with Destiny, and I was telling them that I literally went to that event every year for 11 years. It’s his premiere event because every year I felt like I was working on something new. You know, my health, my relationship with my kids, my my intimate relationships, my, you know, my business acumen.
01:27:24:02 – 01:27:43:20
Rod
And you talk about all that stuff. And, and then finally, you know, I was the Tony’s head of security was like, dude, why don’t you just join the security team? So I actually joined his security Amazon security team for eight years. And, you know, and by the way, that shout out to Tony, if you have an opportunity to see him live, for God sakes, go do it, because he’s not going to do it forever.
01:27:43:20 – 01:27:51:23
Rod
And he’s really very, very good. He’s counseled presidents and impacted, you know, pretty much every area of my life in a positive way. Yeah. Do you would you agree.
01:27:51:26 – 01:28:15:06
Paul
100%? Yeah. I when you know, I, I went to him originally in the early in the mid 90s and the thing that I came away with was you actually have the ability to arrange your thoughts on purpose. Yeah. Like you’re not subject to just the whims of the, of the world and the way you were raised and what your church taught you and what your school and community like.
01:28:15:06 – 01:28:22:23
Paul
You can actually put ideas in your own brain, right, for the path of your life and.
01:28:22:26 – 01:28:28:08
Rod
In the past as well. You can rewrite your past. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Teaches you how to do that as well. It’s fascinating.
01:28:28:12 – 01:28:34:22
Paul
Who does that. That’s so awesome. And that right there changed my entire life. Yeah. You know it literally did.
01:28:34:22 – 01:28:41:05
Rod
Yeah. No I agree. And yeah so shout out to Tony. But but anyway so why why.
01:28:41:05 – 01:28:44:08
Paul
Why why why we went there was because of the list.
01:28:44:10 – 01:29:01:12
Rod
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So so yeah, one of the things that, you know, Tony has what he calls his relationship to, it’s actually the most popular day because everybody, you know, it’s it’s a lot of fun. And he talks about, you know, the things you do when you don’t do in a relationship. Like, you never threaten a relationship.
01:29:01:16 – 01:29:29:21
Rod
And, and the different stages of a relationship from, you know, the initial point to, unfortunately to, you know, the death of a relationship. But, one of the things that he talked about, which I did implemented as well, was you literally write out exactly what you’re looking for in the other person with exhaustive detail and I did, and, and, you know, because how do you know what you how do you identify what you want if you don’t have it clearly articulated, if you don’t have clarity?
01:29:29:21 – 01:29:46:22
Rod
Clarity is power. And that gives you clarity. And you did the same thing, Paul. You wrote it out and I did it, you know, before I met Tiffany. And I’ve done it again. You know, my ex and, and, you know, the minute I met her, I knew she was the one back then, and, and same thing with you, I guess.
01:29:46:22 – 01:29:47:16
Rod
And Leticia, here.
01:29:47:17 – 01:30:09:11
Paul
It is in the, So the gap for me was, okay, here’s here’s here’s this really nice list, right. And frankly speaking, that was like way above my pay grade. Yeah. Get it like like. Yeah. So so then the next step in Tony’s teaching was okay, what kind of a man do I have to become? Right. With emotional intelligence.
01:30:09:11 – 01:30:10:28
Paul
Right, to attract this kind of work.
01:30:10:28 – 01:30:22:01
Rod
Right. So there’s two lists here. One. Yeah. Yeah, there’s two lists. One is the list of what you want. Yeah I forgot. Yeah. The other list is who you have to become to attract that person. And you say you’ve you’ve added to that now I think.
01:30:22:01 – 01:30:26:18
Paul
Yeah I did. So first of all the gap between those two lists was about 13 years.
01:30:26:18 – 01:30:30:20
Rod
Yeah. Yeah. Right. No I got your same sense of self training right.
01:30:30:22 – 01:30:36:22
Paul
You know, but but you learn out of your experience right out of the we talked about.
01:30:36:23 – 01:30:56:18
Rod
And your and your, you know, your self-education, you you commented on my library downstairs. I, we share a lot of the same books and their relationship books down there. You talked about John Gray, author of, men are from Mars. Women are from Venus, who’s just frickin hilarious, if you’ve ever seen him live. But but yeah, you self educate you and your experiences.
01:30:56:18 – 01:31:07:13
Paul
So then the piece that I added, just again from my own experiences. Okay, once I attract this person, then who do I have to grow into to continue to keep them?
01:31:07:13 – 01:31:08:04
Rod
And I keep.
01:31:08:04 – 01:31:09:12
Paul
This and attract you.
01:31:09:13 – 01:31:15:27
Rod
Guys. And I miss that piece. This is why I’m saying extra, extra charge. Yeah, yeah, that’s why I’m single right now. But
01:31:16:01 – 01:31:31:09
Paul
But that also. Right. I’ll just tell you that also because that also came out of listen, I’m from the traditional, family in a middle America where mom was stay at home and dad was machismo. Yeah, right. Okay. So that’s.
01:31:31:09 – 01:31:32:09
Rod
Traditional.
01:31:32:11 – 01:31:51:17
Paul
You know, don’t express pain. Don’t cry, be tough. You know, don’t be emotional. All those kinds of things. Well that can have its place but I don’t think and I learned it, it doesn’t really have its place in a relationship and an intimate relationship. There has to be vulnerability which frankly I, I still struggle struggle with. Yeah.
01:31:51:18 – 01:31:56:12
Paul
Yeah. And and you know, but maybe just the fact that I said that is vulnerable.
01:31:56:14 – 01:32:13:00
Rod
Right. Well, no, it absolutely is. And, you know, and that’s one of the big benefits in that Tony environment, because you look in the mirror and you have to act one up. You know, I remember I remember what you just said, how you know, you don’t, you know, in the Maximo relationship, I remember coming back from a Tony event and I called my stepfather.
01:32:13:02 – 01:32:31:10
Rod
And, and I called him and I said, dad, you know, you know, I never told you first that I love you. And second, that, you know, thank you for what you did for my, my brother and my step brother and my, my real brother and I, you took us in as your own and we wouldn’t be the men we are today without having you in our lives.
01:32:31:10 – 01:32:51:15
Rod
And I just wanted to thank you. And I hung up, and I’m getting a little emotional thinking about this. And my my mom called me a little bit later. She said, my dad got off the phone. He just started crying. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, that’s that’s awesome. It’s incredible. Yeah. It’s beautiful is. Right. And so and I know this is a real estate podcast guys hang with me because this shit’s more important than the real estate.
01:32:51:15 – 01:32:52:22
Rod
Candidly okay.
01:32:52:25 – 01:32:55:27
Paul
But you get your emotions right. You can buy a lot of real estate.
01:32:55:27 – 01:33:12:25
Rod
Listen. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And you. And that’s the other piece of this though, is your environment. You get your environment. Right. So, you know, like at my boot camps, one of the things I do is I ask people, you know, who has had a person in their life that was like, oh yeah, go do that, but leave me the hell out of it.
01:33:12:25 – 01:33:30:16
Rod
Or, you know, good luck with that kind of a thing. And who has it and who who is in that situation with their spouse. And then I ask people to come on and say, how did you get through that? How did you get to, to, to to get buy in from the spouse because it’s so critical, your environment so frickin critical, right.
01:33:30:18 – 01:33:43:28
Rod
And so that’s one of the things we do. But, no, I, I know that, you do these retreats for high velocity couples. I’m guess a couple that gets together and does this together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s very cool.
01:33:44:00 – 01:34:04:06
Paul
Yeah. And this, this was by request, I think, more than anything, you know, because people would see our journey. Right. The piece that she was going to right before she, she, was going to get into this, was that in, in the fall, I mean, the spring of 2022. Yeah. In the spring of 2022, which is just three years ago.
01:34:04:06 – 01:34:35:01
Paul
Right. We discovered she had breast cancer. Oh, wow. Okay. Wow. So, we decided as a, as a couple to double down and not to be afraid of it, right. To, really, you know, amplify, build in our legacy for us, for our family and for people that we interact with. Right. And so out of that came our work with couples, specifically couples that are in business together.
01:34:35:01 – 01:34:40:02
Paul
Yeah. And that want to grow their wealth, that want to grow their legacy and they want to grow their love.
01:34:40:04 – 01:34:58:16
Letitia
We just, you know, I thought it was get June 23rd would have been my three years cancer free. But yeah, like in May, May it has come back. So when we get back from our vacation, we have been we’ve had a fabulous month. So we went to Maui for two weeks for anniversary. And then we’re bringing all the grandkids here for a week.
01:34:58:16 – 01:35:08:18
Paul
So, you know, we made a conscious decision, like I said, not to let this control us. Right. We’ll work it will work with it. You know, we’ve got great professionals.
01:35:08:20 – 01:35:09:04
Rod
You right.
01:35:09:04 – 01:35:34:19
Paul
With us. And, that doesn’t change our mission. You know, that doesn’t to. In fact, it just it amplifies it. Yeah. And so that’s, you know, that it’s giving us a nice opportunity to work with couples. Well, because we’ve done a lot of work together to, to build our business, you know. Right. And, we have actually codified what we’ve done.
01:35:34:22 – 01:35:52:17
Paul
Like, you don’t know what you like, like when you’re in the middle of doing it, you just do it right. And then you step back. And we actually had, you know, people that we hired and they they helped us to document it, codify it. You know, put it in, in, in, some kind of a syntax so that we could actually help other couples.
01:35:52:17 – 01:36:07:10
Paul
And, we found it to be really very empowering to us, but very empowering to the other couples. Right. Because a lot of couples, they know they love each other, they know they want to work with each other, and they know they’re good at what they do. But then, okay, what’s the next level?
01:36:07:10 – 01:36:32:08
Rod
What’s your friend? Speed bump, speed bump, bump up and and and and you know, it’s it’s it can be a challenge to work with your spouse. I mean I could never do it. Honestly. Let me be candid I to so I would have been divorced years ago if I’d have tried. But but some couples are, you know, can can make it work and, and and, you know, when they’re aligned like that, I mean, it’s like a rocket ship, right?
01:36:32:08 – 01:36:35:07
Rod
Yeah. I would guess that’s that’s that’s what it actually is.
01:36:35:07 – 01:36:40:16
Paul
And so like we had we had to get clear on what were our skill sets were. Yeah.
01:36:40:21 – 01:36:46:01
Rod
And make sure they’re complementary complement because otherwise you’re like two butting hits if. Yeah. Yeah.
01:36:46:06 – 01:36:51:16
Letitia
That’s a it was just learning to stay in your lane. Right. Right. And Paul has a hard time with that.
01:36:51:20 – 01:36:58:04
Rod
Well so do I. Which is why I know I couldn’t do it. I, I, I’m less of a control freak. I there’s no way I could pull it off.
01:36:58:05 – 01:37:03:29
Letitia
So he does life the same way he does pickleball. He doesn’t stay in his lane sometimes I gotcha.
01:37:04:02 – 01:37:16:20
Rod
That’s funny. We put a pickleball court in the regard. So they they they bid on the, they tried to buy the regatta place, complex that we bought in San Antonio, and we converted that tennis court to pickleball. Yeah. The way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:37:16:22 – 01:37:18:08
Paul
It’s probably occupied 100%.
01:37:18:11 – 01:37:35:23
Rod
No, you know what? It believe it or not, it’s hardly ever occupy the kitty. Yeah. No, but, and I, I’ve never played it. Give us a key to the gate. It. Right, right, right. That’s funny. So let’s let’s let’s, So let’s, let’s, let’s land the plane on the, on the on the retreats and stuff. Do you have a website for that?
01:37:35:23 – 01:37:37:25
Paul
We do. High velocity couples.com.
01:37:37:25 – 01:37:45:15
Rod
High Velocity couples.com. You also have a podcast that you just got going on that as well, High Velocity Couples. And it’s on YouTube. It’s on YouTube and Spotify.
01:37:45:16 – 01:37:45:22
Paul
Yeah.
01:37:45:22 – 01:38:04:03
Rod
Fantastic. Okay. Well, let’s talk real estate for a minute. Yeah, I know, you know, this is a real estate podcast, for God’s sakes. So, you’ve got assets in Kansas, Texas and Alabama multifamily assets, but you’re which, you know, we talk about ad nauseum here. Let’s talk about the other things that you’re doing. You’re also in storage.
01:38:04:05 – 01:38:05:24
Rod
Yes. Well, you were you.
01:38:05:24 – 01:38:10:06
Paul
Know, what we were. And then we sold our development also student housing.
01:38:10:06 – 01:38:10:28
Rod
Student housing as.
01:38:10:28 – 01:38:34:10
Paul
Well. Yeah. And then our latest endeavor is data centers. Right. So so elaborate on that. Yeah, sure. At this moment, what we’re doing is we’re investing along with our investors in the equipment to for the inside of data centers. Now, the actual viewers computers. Yes. Gotcha. Yes. Storage racks. So okay. All that because nodes. Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, just I.
01:38:34:10 – 01:38:35:09
Rod
Have no idea what that means.
01:38:35:10 – 01:38:38:06
Letitia
Pick like a pizza box, okay? You stack them on top of each other.
01:38:38:09 – 01:38:44:07
Rod
Oh, the nodes got you, got you. So that’s that’s the different. Right. Each each one’s got a hard drive or whatever and all that okay. Correct.
01:38:44:08 – 01:39:08:07
Paul
You know every every company just pick a company. Right, right. They got to store their stuff somewhere, right. Store their video files somewhere. I mean, we don’t have to make a case for the advent of AI here, right? It’s just like enormous. Right. But what attracted us was, and you might have had this thought as well as in, during the pandemic, I was like, what’s going to happen to all those abandoned buildings, offices?
01:39:08:07 – 01:39:10:12
Paul
People are exiting, right. You know.
01:39:10:12 – 01:39:33:08
Rod
So there’s yeah, I and I’m sorry to interrupt at least continue. I’m sorry. Get excited I no no no, I mean, it’s like you can’t convert them to multifamily for the most part because they have interior. There’s no egress for, you know, like if you have an office building, you’ve got to have windows in a lot of the office offices don’t have windows and and of course you got to re plumbing electric.
01:39:33:14 – 01:39:35:10
Rod
I mean it’s just not able. Yeah. It’s not.
01:39:35:10 – 01:39:52:00
Paul
Viable. But if the facility has the right electricity. Yeah. The right electrical power going to it. Right. Which in office building would be a medical facility. An unused hospital. Right. A manufacturing plant, right. Scenery, a warehouse. Right. If it’s got the supply.
01:39:52:06 – 01:40:16:19
Rod
So maybe you’re one of those people that say to yourself, how can I only charge 97 bucks for a two day online virtual bootcamp? And he doesn’t sell anything. They’re 16 to 18 hours of training, and it’s only 97 bucks with nothing being sold. How can it have any value? Well, I’d ask you to do this. Go into radcliff.com and look at the boot camp reviews section and see what hundreds and hundreds of people have said about the experience.
01:40:16:21 – 01:40:35:24
Rod
Now, I will say this it’s drinking through a fire hose, but I’ll tell you from the thousands of people that have attended my virtual boot camp, I’ve actually never had a complaint other than the fact that my breaks are too short because I’m trying to pack so much into those 16 to 18 hours we spend together. So again, 16 to 18 hours of training, nothing being sold, around 100 bucks.
01:40:35:27 – 01:40:57:29
Rod
Kind of a no brainer, my friend. No excuses. Now my next event is November 1st and second. So go to Rod’s Boot camp.com or text the word boot camp to seven, two, three, 4 or 5 right now and I promise you’ll be glad you came again. Text Boot Camp to 72345 or go to Rod’s Boot camp.com and start this journey to create the life of your dreams.
01:40:58:01 – 01:40:59:23
Paul
Then you can convert it to a data center.
01:40:59:23 – 01:41:00:17
Rod
No kidding.
01:41:00:19 – 01:41:18:16
Paul
And so these are what’s called, these facilities are called edge computing. In other words, they’re not these huge mega warehouses out in the country that AWS is using or meta or anything. These are more local facilities that that are on the edge of the communities that they’re serving.
01:41:18:16 – 01:41:37:08
Rod
Interesting. Right. And and so, so, the key is the power that comes in from the main power that comes in. It’s got to be sufficient. And, you know, I’ve seen, you know, as far as office conversions, you hear about storage, like, like to convert them to storage. But there’s not a lot of other options.
01:41:37:11 – 01:41:49:15
Rod
I mean, what else can you. I mean, you can’t really do hotels, can’t really do assisted living because they need the plumbing in power and everything is as well. So, I mean, storage seems like a hell of a a viable option.
01:41:49:19 – 01:41:49:27
Letitia
Yeah.
01:41:49:27 – 01:41:54:27
Rod
It’s great. I mean, I’m sorry. I mean, data storage. Yeah. It seems like a hell of an option.
01:41:55:01 – 01:42:12:23
Letitia
Yeah, you can put 21. You put $20 million worth of equipment in a 1000 square foot home. Yeah, and you can build out. And the great thing about it is these data centers, if you look at them, compared to these large data centers, these large data centers take a couple of years to build, right? It takes about a year and a half to get all the permitting done.
01:42:12:28 – 01:42:16:12
Letitia
So these within a couple of months you can have a data center.
01:42:16:12 – 01:42:17:14
Rod
No kidding. Up and.
01:42:17:14 – 01:42:17:23
Paul
Running.
01:42:17:23 – 01:42:21:07
Rod
So so so do you have to have like cooling cooling components.
01:42:21:07 – 01:42:22:12
Paul
Relates to the power.
01:42:22:12 – 01:42:40:17
Rod
Supply. Yeah. So you got to have cooling. You’ve got gotta you’ve got to you buy the racks, you buy the nodes, you buy the hard drives or whatever. And and I’m sure there are vendors that provide all this stuff and, and then how do you I mean, do you have to have someone on site to, to, to take care of it or how does that work?
01:42:40:17 – 01:42:44:12
Paul
So we’ve partnered with, a company that does all the property management.
01:42:44:12 – 01:42:44:24
Rod
Okay.
01:42:44:26 – 01:43:08:16
Paul
Oh, it’s a similar analogy. Okay. Right. You’re not going to do it yourself. You’re not going to collect rents yourself. Right? So we don’t collect the rents in the data center. It’s fed to us obviously. And then we feed it to our investors. The return. Right. So, they manage the property, they manage the cyber security, all of the and by the way, these are long term fixed contracts already in place with end users and with building owners.
01:43:08:22 – 01:43:14:00
Paul
Interesting. To, to lock in the lease rates so that we know that what we can offer to our investors.
01:43:14:04 – 01:43:14:16
Rod
Gotcha.
01:43:14:18 – 01:43:25:19
Letitia
So currently with what we’re working with. So if we as we bring this money into deploy these, assets into the building, we already have a five year contract in place, so you don’t have to worry about leasing it for five years.
01:43:25:25 – 01:43:30:15
Rod
So, so, so I just overheard what you something you just said? You’re not buying the building. You’re leasing the.
01:43:30:15 – 01:43:32:02
Paul Montelongo
Building? That’s correct.
01:43:32:04 – 01:43:37:05
Rod
Okay. So you’re leasing the building, and then you’re buying the equipment? That’s correct. Okay, so this is.
01:43:37:05 – 01:43:45:16
Paul
Which which along with it comes depreciation. It’s an equipment plate. Now as a real estate couple. Right. Our next move is to go buy the real.
01:43:45:16 – 01:43:46:19
Rod
Estate I got and have.
01:43:46:19 – 01:43:53:06
Paul Montelongo
Both sides of the equation got you right. So we’ve got the leases to the end user as well as the equipment installation.
01:43:53:06 – 01:44:16:00
Rod
And so you’re you’re this operator quote unquote that’s that’s doing this for you. They’re the ones that facilitate the end user. They’re selling this storage to the end user. They’re the ones that are managing that storage, the cybersecurity for that storage, managing the actual equipment and all that. And so you just work in the capital piece of this thing.
01:44:16:00 – 01:44:16:26
Rod
That’s exactly right.
01:44:16:26 – 01:44:19:08
Letitia
Got you. Yeah. All we have to do is provide insurance.
01:44:19:09 – 01:44:39:06
Rod
We’re I’m doing the same thing in the senior housing space. Okay. Same same exact thing. Got an operator. Kickass operator that loves elderly, takes care of the elderly, has a great culture. They want to go. You know, we want to buy distressed assets. There and there and there. It’s the exact same model. We’re just bringing the money and and we don’t want to take care of grandma, you know.
01:44:39:10 – 01:44:44:06
Rod
So it’s the same model that’s. And that’s a fantastic. How did you get into that.
01:44:44:08 – 01:44:45:18
Paul
I mean well it’s relationship.
01:44:45:19 – 01:44:46:09
Rod
It’s it was just.
01:44:46:09 – 01:44:47:24
Paul Montelongo
It’s a relationship. It’s a, it’s a.
01:44:47:24 – 01:44:48:22
Rod
Unique what are unique.
01:44:48:22 – 01:44:51:24
Paul Montelongo
Business. Yeah. It’s a group that we met a year ago.
01:44:51:24 – 01:45:08:09
Letitia Montelongo
Maybe go. And then another one of the guys we met four years ago. So someone we’ve known a while, and then it’s actually one of his students. So we’ve known them for about a year. But the great thing about it, there’s so much money in data centers compared to what we’re doing, like when we were raising money from wealthy family, when are we paying like 8%?
01:45:08:11 – 01:45:11:00
Letitia Montelongo
We are able to pay these investors 35%.
01:45:11:02 – 01:45:11:22
Rod
Wholly.
01:45:11:25 – 01:45:12:08
Letitia Montelongo
And.
01:45:12:11 – 01:45:16:04
Rod
With guys cash or cash 35%. That’s right.
01:45:16:07 – 01:45:23:00
Letitia
How it ends up being about a 29% ROI of for seven years IRR I’m sorry. IRR.
01:45:23:03 – 01:45:33:08
Rod
Yeah, 29% either. So the cash on cash is higher than the IRR because you don’t really have an end game because I’m sure the equipment loses its value over time.
01:45:33:08 – 01:45:36:23
Paul Montelongo
It does. And it’s not an equity play right. Like your real estate.
01:45:36:25 – 01:45:39:06
Rod
It’s a cash. It’s a it’s a cash return.
01:45:39:11 – 01:45:41:03
Paul
At least cash on cash return play.
01:45:41:10 – 01:45:53:10
Rod
So you know so you’re not going to have it. You’re not going to have a big hit at the end. This is just the cash flow correct while you’re doing it. So what are the risks. What. And lay it out. What I mean what could go wrong. Yeah.
01:45:53:11 – 01:45:54:08
Paul Montelongo
No a great question.
01:45:54:08 – 01:46:00:21
Rod
So I those returns I’m like, holy crap. Right. But there’s you know, there’s always two sides of a coin.
01:46:00:25 – 01:46:08:15
Paul
Okay. So let’s compare it to the real estate business to, to what we do. Multifamily. Right. You could have a property management company that goes wonky.
01:46:08:15 – 01:46:10:12
Rod
Right. You got to dealing with it right now.
01:46:10:14 – 01:46:21:17
Paul Montelongo
You got to regroup. You know you are right. You do. Okay. All right. You could have, you could have a catastrophe. The disaster. Yeah. Right. But that’s usually offset, mitigated by insurance.
01:46:21:17 – 01:46:26:11
Rod
Insurance. You got insurance on the equipment? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. And probably loss of use and all that.
01:46:26:11 – 01:46:34:03
Letitia
But yeah, we have insurance. They have is an admissions the asset management group. Right. So we’re kind of covered for any of that type of stuff.
01:46:34:05 – 01:46:35:21
Paul Montelongo
So then about the bigger you have.
01:46:35:21 – 01:46:37:19
Rod
A fire or whatever, but you got insurance.
01:46:37:19 – 01:46:45:15
Paul
From that. Right. Okay. About the biggest risk that that we’ve been able to identify thus far is, equipment being antiquated. Yeah.
01:46:45:15 – 01:46:47:02
Rod
Because it changes.
01:46:47:03 – 01:46:48:23
Paul
It changes. So rapid. Right.
01:46:48:23 – 01:46:49:09
Rod
Right, right.
01:46:49:16 – 01:46:54:06
Paul
So then how do we mitigate that? Right. Is the question. Right. Because in real estate.
01:46:54:06 – 01:46:59:26
Rod
Chips the chips got smaller, they get faster, they get stronger. With AI that’s probably going to accelerate as well.
01:46:59:26 – 01:47:00:22
Paul
Absolutely. Yeah.
01:47:00:28 – 01:47:12:01
Letitia
However, the great thing about that is we have a five year contract in place. So we’re not we don’t have contracts with people that are like doing huge AI jobs. Most of them are like, what is this like?
01:47:12:04 – 01:47:16:02
Rod
What is like a like a local grocery store? A lowest lows. Gotcha, gotcha.
01:47:16:06 – 01:47:25:28
Letitia
The type of clients that are in these warehouses. So they don’t need high end data storage. They just need data storage. So the equipment that we have doesn’t have to be like the next.
01:47:26:00 – 01:47:34:09
Rod
It doesn’t have to be the Centrum. Whatever the fancy, the fancy, chip, you know, that, mega computer kind of stuff. Okay.
01:47:34:09 – 01:47:35:02
Letitia
Has to do what?
01:47:35:02 – 01:47:41:27
Rod
The storage. It’s video storage. It’s their. It’s their customer base. It’s their, you know, all of that. Got it.
01:47:41:28 – 01:47:54:13
Letitia
And this particular equipment that we’re purchasing has a 7 to 10 year life. That’s why our our agreements with our clients for seven years. So if it keeps paying after seven years we’ll keep paying them. Kind of like oil and gas right? Until it runs out.
01:47:54:15 – 01:47:58:22
Rod
That’s the biggest risk. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. The equipment I could see that been.
01:47:58:22 – 01:47:59:01
Paul
Yeah.
01:47:59:07 – 01:48:05:13
Letitia
So we’ve done all I think we’ve done a really good job with the due diligence, poking the bear and trying to see what’s up there.
01:48:05:15 – 01:48:07:00
Rod
So are you up and running with this first one.
01:48:07:00 – 01:48:17:19
Paul
We are. Yeah. Yeah we are. We’re actually in the. By that I mean we’re in the, capital raising piece. Oh yeah. We will, finish the capital raise likely at the end of August.
01:48:17:19 – 01:48:19:07
Rod
So you haven’t closed yet?
01:48:19:09 – 01:48:32:17
Paul
Well, I don’t know if we call it close. What we do is we we, we we have the fund. We have a fund. Okay? The fund is open. The fund is collected money. Okay. We then take the money and we go deploy it to buy equipment. Okay. So the first tranche of equipment will be purchased in September.
01:48:32:17 – 01:48:34:01
Rod
Gotcha. Okay. She’s getting.
01:48:34:01 – 01:48:40:13
Letitia
Roll. Yeah. We’re going to do it in $2 million tranches because you can put it about this particular warehouse. What did they say.
01:48:40:14 – 01:48:41:10
Rod
How big is the warehouse?
01:48:41:10 – 01:48:43:16
Letitia
That’s $200 million worth.
01:48:43:19 – 01:48:44:14
Rod
Well, it’s only a thousand.
01:48:44:14 – 01:48:49:23
Paul
So the warehouse is like 75,000. Oh oh, that’s the corner for the equipment is like a thousand.
01:48:49:23 – 01:49:02:12
Rod
Oh, so you just take a small piece of his warehouse? Oh, it’s red. So you just. You’re going in an existing warehouse now, are you? You’re are you enclosing your area and putting in additional air conditioning or what. Do you have to do that.
01:49:02:13 – 01:49:03:11
Paul Montelongo
Yeah. And think about.
01:49:03:17 – 01:49:04:13
Rod
It already or you.
01:49:04:13 – 01:49:11:26
Paul
It is, it is. There’s already a piece of it that has been in operation for about 9 to 10 months. Okay. So we’re buying the next tranche.
01:49:11:26 – 01:49:13:01
Rod
Oh, gotcha. Okay.
01:49:13:02 – 01:49:18:05
Paul
And you think about it, a 75,000 square foot warehouse has the power. Oh, shortcoming to it.
01:49:18:05 – 01:49:19:00
Rod
Sure, sure, sure.
01:49:19:01 – 01:49:20:00
Paul
Okay. And so and.
01:49:20:07 – 01:49:23:00
Rod
So there was already an existing data center there.
01:49:23:03 – 01:49:28:04
Paul
No. Oh, okay. Okay. This was, a warehouse in Georgia.
01:49:28:10 – 01:49:30:10
Rod
Okay. So that’s where this is located.
01:49:30:11 – 01:49:49:17
Paul
It’s in Georgia. Okay. Is operated by owned and operated by a family. It’s a it’s in the family trust. Got you from time ago. Okay. One of the kids. And by kids, I mean grown adults, right? Right. Discovered that they could use this real estate for something else. The data center. And so they made arrangements.
01:49:49:18 – 01:50:03:08
Rod
No kidding. And so. And you found an operator that operates you, you they’re going to they’re going to, they’re going to source the, the the equipment. That’s right. Put it all together in there for you. Right. They take a fee for doing all that, managing it.
01:50:03:08 – 01:50:05:22
Paul
And they have a track record. And that was important to you as you’re.
01:50:05:22 – 01:50:06:12
Rod
Bringing the money.
01:50:06:16 – 01:50:07:09
Paul
And we’re bringing the money.
01:50:07:10 – 01:50:11:08
Letitia
And they built a data center and sold it already. So they have a really extensive background.
01:50:11:08 – 01:50:13:06
Rod
Okay. So they’ve done it. They’ve done it.
01:50:13:06 – 01:50:20:27
Paul
Before. So as you know, in multifamily, you know, investors are kind of, sitting on their hands, you know, a lot.
01:50:20:28 – 01:50:31:21
Rod
Yeah. You know, it’s hard to raise money right now because there’s a lot of deals in trouble. I were telling you before we started recording, I just found out about a deal in Texas for 10,000. A frickin unit. Okay, 10,000 a unit. Yeah, I mean, you couldn’t find.
01:50:31:22 – 01:50:32:03
Letitia
A in.
01:50:32:05 – 01:50:53:00
Rod
100 grand in Texas. I mean, the the proverbial stuff’s hitting the fan told you about the asset right next door to the one we already own. They bought for 40, and we’re talking about 24 million right now. And it’s right next to the one we already own there that you we were just talking about. And I mean the deals are starting to come, but the money is that is the is the is the piece.
01:50:53:00 – 01:51:08:19
Rod
And you know, I’ve been telling my students this for years that the proverbial stuff’s going to hit the fan here, and the raising the money is going to be much harder than finding the deals. And that’s starting to materialize. This literally just happened today on these these crazy. Yeah, I’m on these deals right now.
01:51:08:21 – 01:51:13:12
Paul Montelongo
I take a really good look at it. And I said, no you will. Yeah the equity is going to be there. Yeah okay.
01:51:13:12 – 01:51:17:04
Rod
Multifamily the capital. It’s got to be there. The cash flow. It’s got to be there. Yeah yeah. Good.
01:51:17:04 – 01:51:24:04
Paul
It’s a long term play short at this moment on the calendar right. Is sure it is. So the data center is a now play.
01:51:24:04 – 01:51:24:19
Rod
Gotcha.
01:51:24:22 – 01:51:32:29
Paul
You know with the with the return on the cash flow. And then of course the, the real estate that we own, that’s, that’s the equity. Yeah.
01:51:32:29 – 01:51:41:00
Letitia
And one of the things that we’re really loving about this, I mean, everybody loves the fact that bonus depreciation is back, right? That this equipment qualifies for it.
01:51:41:00 – 01:51:47:12
Rod
Right. Oh it does. Yeah. Oh very cool. So you can you you do you do a cost seg. You don’t really do a cost seg. No. It’s just.
01:51:47:12 – 01:51:49:01
Letitia
It’s just we think we’re going to do straight.
01:51:49:09 – 01:51:51:26
Rod
Rate depreciation. Yeah okay okay. But you still get to.
01:51:52:00 – 01:51:56:19
Letitia
Because they can use their IRAs put them in there and not having to pay anything on it for the first three years.
01:51:56:25 – 01:51:57:28
Rod
Sure. To me okay.
01:51:57:28 – 01:52:01:00
Paul
It does qualify for self-directed you know okay.
01:52:01:03 – 01:52:03:23
Rod
Very interesting. So so.
01:52:03:26 – 01:52:05:20
Paul
As an entrepreneur you got to always.
01:52:05:20 – 01:52:17:22
Rod
Be like hey shiny Penny, baby. Shiny penny. I’m always looking via right and left for. Yeah. What’s what’s interesting? Yeah. But, so besides that, is there any other thing you’re looking at right now.
01:52:17:28 – 01:52:18:20
Paul
In real estate?
01:52:18:20 – 01:52:19:21
Rod
You know, it just.
01:52:19:24 – 01:52:44:26
Paul Montelongo
I mean, we’re going to close next month. We’re going to close on us, student housing. Oh. You are? Yeah. We’re in, Auburn, Alabama. Okay. About two miles from the university. Gotcha. And what we discovered there is a particular the SEC. I’m going to give away a real estate hint now. Okay. If you can find property in the SEC campus, towns, the demand in the SEC is so overwhelming.
01:52:44:26 – 01:53:03:22
Paul Montelongo
Really? And think about it. It’s tied to athletic wins. So you have a team that goes to a national championship, and all of a sudden all everyone wants to go to go there. Yeah, Bird City, which is interesting. We won’t do a social commentary on education right now.
01:53:03:25 – 01:53:05:15
Rod
Well but but.
01:53:05:18 – 01:53:14:24
Paul Montelongo
The demand like in Auburn, the demand right now is like 11,000 bed short. Wow. You know, and that is the case throughout many SEC towns.
01:53:14:24 – 01:53:29:05
Letitia
And Auburn is a lovely town. It is so nice. It’s small. It’s super quaint. The people that we are partnering with on to do our property management have been managing this property for several years. That’s how we found that. That’s how they found it. Right.
01:53:29:07 – 01:53:31:05
Rod
So they they’re familiar with it. They know how to run it.
01:53:31:09 – 01:53:40:16
Letitia
She, she has $100 million real estate company. She’s never bought a multifamily unit before, but. So we’re. Yeah. Oh, yeah. She’s. Yeah. Absolutely.
01:53:40:19 – 01:53:58:01
Rod
Yeah. Well, you know, the thing, you, as you know, with student housing, you got a short window to rent. You miss that window, you’re screwed. So. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so, you know, that’s the big piece I’ve got students that have tons of student housing, built it, bought it, you name it. And, and that’s, that’s the that’s the catch all.
01:53:58:01 – 01:54:13:19
Rod
You got it. You got to be there, ready to go when they’re ready to rent. You know, the only cautionary tale I’ll say about student housing as, as I, I got to see Harry dent, economist Harry dent speak. He lives in Tampa, I think. I know now he’s in, Puerto Rico, but, and he’s been on the podcast as well.
01:54:13:19 – 01:54:40:14
Rod
But I got to I got to hear him speak in Vancouver. Oh, gosh. Probably in 99 or 2000. And he, he basically called the crash, totally called it. You know, I lost 50 million in that crash. If I had listened, I wouldn’t have lost it. But he did say something about student housing. And you really got to pay attention to the demographics because he he bases his economic analysis on population demographics.
01:54:40:16 – 01:54:58:12
Rod
That’s one of the big pieces. And and including student population, which is going to decrease now because the baby boomer students are, you know, much older. So just some to pay attention to. But I love your strategy with the whole SEC piece, because demand is is the driver.
01:54:58:15 – 01:55:10:23
Paul
Yeah. We’re seen also in that particular demographic a lot of for national students. No kidding. So and people from other countries, they, they like the education here. And, and they send in, you know, they’re they’re they’re.
01:55:10:25 – 01:55:26:17
Rod
So, I was telling you guys, I’m having a real problem with this pinched nerve in my back. And I went to, Taiwan. I got stem cells in my knees. You know, Joe Rogan talks about that CPI institute down there was fantastic. So I’m going to go back there and I’m probably going to go up there from my.
01:55:26:17 – 01:55:28:07
Paul
Back with, Scott mid.
01:55:28:07 – 01:55:40:00
Rod
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. But they, it was, it really helped the knees a lot. And their, their testimonials are fantastic. And you so yeah. Interested in doing that. Knees. What’s the.
01:55:40:03 – 01:55:40:28
Letitia
Knees. It helps your.
01:55:40:28 – 01:55:44:29
Rod
Knees. Oh God. Yeah. I got shots in my knees because I tore my meniscus in both my knees. So they’re.
01:55:44:29 – 01:55:47:15
Letitia
Not like. They’re not like corticosteroids.
01:55:47:20 – 01:56:09:29
Rod
No, they’re not steroids. Steroids damage the tissue. This is these are stem cells. Embryonic stem cells. Yeah. And I’m going to I’m going to go back there for this pinched nervous I don’t get it. I’m going to try platelet rich plasma I can do that domestically here because I did that I did PRP. I did that for my shoulders because I tore my rotator cuff trying to lift too much weight without warming up.
01:56:10:02 – 01:56:32:24
Rod
And, and it healed that I, I mean, I literally couldn’t push 10 pounds and I can do a couple hundred now again, but, but, no, I, I’m a huge advocate from the stem cells. Yeah. They’re fantastic. But so question. So, you know, you’ve done a little bit of training to people and can share your experience in the, you know, real estate investing space.
01:56:32:27 – 01:56:50:26
Rod
You know, what advice would you have for someone that knows they should get started in this business knows you know, they’re not happy where they’re at in their life. You know, maybe they, they, they, they see, you know, the fact that there could be opportunity coming down the pike. And we were just talking about it briefly, and it’s coming for sure.
01:56:50:26 – 01:57:00:09
Rod
In fact, I just got two more e-mails, phenomenal deals being sold for bankruptcy sales. But, you know, what advice would you have for someone that wants to get into the real estate.
01:57:00:09 – 01:57:04:00
Paul
Space, jump in the pool and learn how to swim?
01:57:04:00 – 01:57:05:22
Rod
That’s it. Just do it.
01:57:05:22 – 01:57:27:06
Paul
I mean, you just got to do it like this is if you’re going to wait and what are you waiting on? You got to wait for the perfect time. The perfect situation. The perfect environment. Yeah. You know, you can have a plan. You can have an idea. You can have a vision of what you want, but take action, even if they’re small actions.
01:57:27:06 – 01:57:37:13
Paul
And then those actions build up on each other. And before you know it, you look back and you’re in it, you know. And that’s the other thing I would say too. Once you’re in it, be in it.
01:57:37:14 – 01:57:38:02
Rod
Yeah.
01:57:38:04 – 01:57:40:14
Paul
Like don’t don’t half ass, don’t.
01:57:40:14 – 01:57:40:27
Rod
Dabble.
01:57:41:01 – 01:57:58:17
Paul Montelongo
Don’t dabble, be in it. Right. Go to the education. Go to the training. Yeah. Go to the masterminds. Yeah. Network with people who are in it. Yeah. You know, if you’re lucky enough to have a partner that can be with you on it. Yeah, even better be in it. But I would say that about anything. Sure. Wouldn’t you?
01:57:58:17 – 01:57:58:29
Paul
Sure.
01:57:58:29 – 01:58:01:26
Rod
Absolutely. Like, you just. You got to dabble if you’re going to do it. Freaking do.
01:58:01:26 – 01:58:02:26
Paul Montelongo
It. Absolutely.
01:58:02:26 – 01:58:16:24
Letitia
Let’s. Yeah. Come in. Always commit and and then get the right mindset. Right. Because that’s the thing. And that’s what a lot of people do. They do. You know how many people that I know I go to the conferences. I see them at conferences. They go to every conference I go to, and they’re going to do this, and then they’re at another conference.
01:58:16:24 – 01:58:31:06
Letitia
They start and I’m like, how’s it going? Well, I’m going to another. It was really motivational. But did you do anything? No. It’s like you have to commit to do it. And then every day work on your mindset about it. Right. Do your affirmations. Get yourself going. If you’re going to. You just see.
01:58:31:06 – 01:58:33:02
Rod
My affirmations in my workout room down there.
01:58:33:02 – 01:58:33:23
Letitia
I haven’t yet.
01:58:33:23 – 01:58:34:27
Rod
Oh, you got it. You got to take a look.
01:58:34:27 – 01:58:35:14
Letitia
It’s so funny.
01:58:35:14 – 01:58:38:29
Rod
We are statements down there and things like that. But yeah, we are.
01:58:38:29 – 01:58:41:05
Letitia
Rereading Napoleon Hill together, right? Oh, yeah.
01:58:41:07 – 01:59:00:18
Rod
Yeah. Do you realize, I’m no exaggeration. I’ve given away probably 6 to 7000 copies of thinking real, rich physical copies. That’s awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it’s a it’s a book. It’s a book you should read a couple times a year at least. But, no. So let me ask you this. Did you have any mentors? Absolutely.
01:59:00:18 – 01:59:03:21
Rod
Yeah. You know, like, like, for example.
01:59:03:24 – 01:59:25:23
Paul Montelongo
Well, so first of all, I would say that Tony was Tony Robbins was a mentor in person. And then by proxy for still is, you know, you pay attention to him. I pay attention to him. I’m like, that makes sense. Right. And it’s so there’s that. And then, you know, when I started my my first multi-unit deal was a Marina.
01:59:25:25 – 01:59:27:00
Paul Montelongo
Oh, no. Okay, a Marina.
01:59:27:00 – 01:59:27:14
Rod
Oh very.
01:59:27:14 – 01:59:32:26
Paul
Cool. So I went to, Dave Lindell’s program, pavement.
01:59:32:29 – 01:59:34:12
Rod
Oh, the real estate mentor.
01:59:34:15 – 01:59:35:12
Paul Montelongo
Love me so. Dave.
01:59:35:13 – 01:59:36:07
Rod
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:59:36:07 – 01:59:40:11
Paul
And he said you can buy an apartment complex in 30 days. Wow.
01:59:40:12 – 01:59:40:25
Rod
01:59:40:28 – 01:59:42:10
Paul
Now, who am I not to believe him?
01:59:42:10 – 01:59:42:22
Rod
Right.
01:59:42:27 – 02:00:02:19
Paul
So I sit there on the front row, and I took the little notes and everything, and I said, I can do that. And so, as it turns out, someone presented to me an opportunity to buy a Marina. And in my head I said, boat slips and RVs. Pads equals the same thing as doors. Yeah, there’s 158 checks coming in every month.
02:00:02:20 – 02:00:16:06
Paul Montelongo
Yeah, like you’re up by 158 doors. So that’s the way I logic that where it was in Charlotte, North Carolina on Lake Wylie. No kidding. But I was there. But I had been a flipper a residential flipper. Right. And I’d had multiple construction businesses.
02:00:16:06 – 02:00:20:06
Rod
Most of my students are flippers, but they start out that way flipping, wholesaling or buying.
02:00:20:10 – 02:00:23:29
Paul Montelongo
And as you know, that’s a singular event, right? I don’t care if you’re doing ten at a time.
02:00:24:00 – 02:00:24:26
Rod
You’re only as good as the last.
02:00:24:26 – 02:00:44:14
Paul Montelongo
Deal. It’s a singular event. Right? So but I did have the, the knowledge and the experience of how to close a transaction. Okay. So that’s helpful, right? Yeah. But but I was asked to raise $1.4 million to close that deal, and I, I’m like, great. I’ll just go right into my Rolodex. Shouldn’t be a problem. Yeah.
02:00:44:21 – 02:01:03:23
Paul
No one knew me as a multifamily or multi-unit, right. Operator. So it became a challenge. So someone introduced me to Neil Bauer. And so I met someone that had experience that could help me raise the money. Got it in, nine days, he and his group raised the $1.4 million. Gotcha.
02:01:03:26 – 02:01:05:29
Rod
So he brought him in as a coach.
02:01:06:01 – 02:01:06:22
Paul Montelongo
As a coach.
02:01:06:25 – 02:01:08:05
Rod
And then come in, right.
02:01:08:05 – 02:01:10:12
Paul
He mentored me. You know how long.
02:01:10:13 – 02:01:11:22
Rod
Who was this?
02:01:11:25 – 02:01:28:12
Paul
13 years ago? 13 years? 13 years ago. Wow. Okay. Yeah. He mentored me for, It was in 2012. Yeah. So that would be 13 years ago. So he mentored me for, for a while, and just, I mean, just taught me he was doing it, and he just taught me.
02:01:28:15 – 02:01:30:28
Rod
What’s the best way to learn is from somebody that’s doing it?
02:01:30:28 – 02:01:42:28
Paul
Because I was, I was on the GG team, and I was actually a sponsor because I had the business acumen. I brought some cash in. Right. You know, they wanted me to to to, get help out on a loan, which I did.
02:01:43:00 – 02:01:44:21
Rod
I would do they be a key principle in.
02:01:44:21 – 02:02:05:27
Paul
The door, right. So, so him and then another gentleman who was actually on the GPC team, who I have done six deals with since. Wow. They have been my in person, I would say mentors even now. I mean, the second guy, I talked to him this morning, right. So, even now I just, I can call up and I can say, okay, you know, what about this situation?
02:02:05:29 – 02:02:09:04
Paul
And then, of course, along the way, listen, I listen to your stuff.
02:02:09:04 – 02:02:29:16
Rod
Well, I appreciate that. Well, you know, what I want to interject here is that’s the reason my my warriors are so freaking successful. I don’t know if I told you this before. We started recording my my coaching students. Now, we know they own over 265,000 units. We think it’s probably over 280,000 because we can’t keep track anymore. And I’ve only been teaching seven years, so something I’m incredibly proud of.
02:02:29:16 – 02:02:47:04
Rod
But the point there is they’re able to get together and do these deals are all done between each other, you know. So so there’s numerous dozens of sponsorship groups in there. And they raise capital together and they they bounce ideas off each other. It’s it’s just it’s kind of got a life of its own. It’s magnificent how? Well it’s doing.
02:02:47:07 – 02:03:03:26
Rod
But but that’s the dynamic. And so you’ve got dozens of mentors in that group and, and that’s why I wanted to ask you if you had any mentors, because it just it just makes all the difference in the world. When you work somebody that’s already done it, you know, and then, you know, like for your first deal or two, like you did, this was your first deal.
02:03:03:26 – 02:03:25:03
Rod
You can use the word you can say, we own a thousand units, or we own 2000 units or whatever. And and you, you, you leverage their resume basically. And that’s that’s again why, why you know so guys, if you’re listening, you know, get around people that are doing this and, and and be able to leverage someone else’s experience to go out there and do this like, you know, Paul did here.
02:03:25:03 – 02:03:25:12
Rod
Yeah.
02:03:25:17 – 02:03:45:03
Paul
So and then and then you get the foundation for these bigger deals, which has led us into the data center and storage and student housing and whatever it is, it’s multi-unit. The underwriting is essentially the same. Yeah, yeah, there’s some nuances, but essentially the same.
02:03:45:03 – 02:04:03:20
Rod
Yeah, sure sure sure. Yeah. You obviously love this business. I can just tell just from your personalities that you guys frickin love this. But on the flip side, that what’s been the most challenging piece of what you’re doing, you know, now on the business front, on the business side.
02:04:03:22 – 02:04:19:26
Letitia
Not working, not working, not working, not working. 24 seven. That’s I mean, when you work together and you’re building a business together, there’s not a moment that you’re not talking about the business. So that has been I think that’s one of the things that we work on the most.
02:04:19:26 – 02:04:22:27
Rod
Being able to stop and say, okay, now we’re not going to talk like.
02:04:22:28 – 02:04:31:17
Letitia
At 7:00 tonight. We’re not doing this anymore, like because we’re excited about what we’re doing. Right. But at some point you have to stop and have another conversation. Yeah.
02:04:31:20 – 02:04:36:25
Rod
Yeah. And and and reconnect. And this is this stuff you teach at your at your retreat I would give. Yes.
02:04:36:25 – 02:05:00:13
Paul
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So you know at a real high level the you have a vision together. Like she said earlier you know your lane and you stay connected. Yeah. So like we like to say that our number one job, it’s great that we do the real estate investing in retreats. That’s really great. Right. Right. So but our number one job really is to protect our love.
02:05:00:16 – 02:05:02:07
Paul
Yeah. And to protect our relationship.
02:05:02:08 – 02:05:03:25
Rod
Yeah. Love it.
02:05:03:27 – 02:05:04:12
Paul
And then what.
02:05:04:12 – 02:05:05:09
Rod
Are the right way to say.
02:05:05:10 – 02:05:10:28
Paul
The, you know, sometimes the business puts pressure on that. Sure. A lot of pressure on.
02:05:11:00 – 02:05:35:26
Rod
Sure. You got stress. You know, Cheever’s word for fear. You shit pops up, things go wrong, and you’re sharing everything so that magnify and relationships are a magnifier. Okay, so that magnifies the stress. Sometimes as well. But, you know, when but but you’re able to mitigate that and you’re able to push through it. You’re able to set it aside when you need to set it aside.
02:05:35:26 – 02:06:01:00
Paul
Yeah. So that that’s the biggest challenge I would say that we face, wouldn’t you know. Okay. You know, because if, if you’re an achiever. But you got big dreams, big goals, big visions then it’s like you’re on the hunt. Yeah sure. And anything that distracts from that is a challenge. Yeah. And so it just that’s that’s the biggest challenge that we face.
02:06:01:01 – 02:06:01:26
Paul
Yeah.
02:06:01:28 – 02:06:19:24
Letitia
But I think we’re really good at giving each other grace too. Right. So you know we have for us only being together six hours I think we’ve figured out a lot of stuff on like if things get really crazy at work, I literally just go downstairs and just start cooking. It’s like, you’re going to take care of this.
02:06:19:27 – 02:06:23:29
Letitia
I’m going to go make us some food. I’m going to put on some nice music. We’re going to have a nice lunch.
02:06:23:29 – 02:06:24:22
Rod
Glass of wine.
02:06:24:22 – 02:06:43:27
Letitia
Just going to chill out for a couple of hours, and then we’ll go back and wonder why all this is falling apart over here, right? Because, you know, it’s the last couple years, as you know, multifamily has been very stressful with deals and, you know, just everything. Right. So we’ve done really well and keeping them all going. But it has been a lot of, you know, damage control.
02:06:43:27 – 02:06:50:05
Letitia
We got to we have to get ourselves in the right spot because it’s very easy to yell at the person next to you why things are not going.
02:06:50:06 – 02:06:59:06
Rod
Oh yeah, oh yeah, that’s adorable. Well that’s that. Thank you for sharing that. That’s absolutely the case. I’m in multifamily struggling right now. We’re seeing unbelievable deals come down the pike right now.
02:06:59:06 – 02:07:02:28
Paul
Yeah. But to that I would we’re still looking obviously you are sure.
02:07:03:00 – 02:07:03:10
Rod
You’re.
02:07:03:17 – 02:07:10:24
Paul
Because you may have to look at five times or six times more than you normally would. But there will be one there, you know.
02:07:10:27 – 02:07:28:21
Rod
Well, you have to be more careful. I don’t know that you have to look as more than in the past. I used to be super conservative because even like that deal where 10,000 a door, you know, okay, what’s the CapEx going to be on that do going to spend another 20 or 30 per door and then what’s the carry on that if the if the vacancy is high, which it is.
02:07:28:21 – 02:07:47:04
Rod
And so you really want to be careful even if that looks fantastic at first blush. You want to be very, very careful. Well, we probably should put a pin in this at this point. We’ve talked about we’ve had a pretty wide ranging conversation. We went around the world in classes, relationships and health and all sorts of crazy stuff.
02:07:47:04 – 02:08:04:02
Rod
But, listen, it’s been such a delight to have you guys here and, you know, and and have you share some of your story and, and, and. Yeah, I’m, I’m dying to see, you know, where you are a couple years from now, what you’re into at that point. But, you know, because I’m a shiny penny guy, too.
02:08:04:02 – 02:08:08:20
Rod
So, you know, this has been a real lot of fun for me. So I really appreciate you guys coming down.
02:08:08:20 – 02:08:09:22
Paul
Thank you for the invitation.
02:08:09:28 – 02:08:11:00
Rod
Glad to be here so much.
02:08:11:01 – 02:08:31:16
Intro
Thank you for listening to the Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing podcast. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and leave your comment. For more resources or to connect with us further, please visit our website at radcliff.com. Tune in next week for our next show.
