Army Veteran with 571 doors his first year

Multifamily Rock Stars Series
Ep #445 – Eric Upchurch – Army Veteran with 571 doors his first year

In this episode:

• Networking for details
• Taking action removes fear
• The value of connections
• Getting started the right way
• Learn, Network, Add Value, Take Action
• “Success with hunt you down”
• The value of total immersion
• Getting your mind right
• Identifying your motivator
• 5 Seconds of Courage
• VeteransCommunityProject.org

To find out more about our guest click here.

Full Transcript Below

Ep #445 – Eric Upchurch – Army Veteran with 571 doors his first year

Hi my name is Rod Khleif and I’m the host of the “Lifetime Cashflow through Real Estate Investing Podcast” and every week I interview multifamily rockstars. We talk about how they built incredible wealth for themselves and their families through multifamily properties. So hit the like and subscribe button and get notified every Monday when a new episode comes out. Let’s get to it.

Rod:  Welcome to another edition of How to Build Lifetime Cashflow through Real Estate Investing. I’m Rod Khleif and I am thrilled that you’re here. And I’m super excited to interview the gentleman that we’re interviewing today. His name is Eric Upchurch and Eric is former military and one of my favorite students and I mean, to tell you why, he went from zero units to 571 units his first year in our program and, but what I really love about Eric is he’s a member of a of an organization called Active Duty Passive Income that helps military veterans active duty and passive. I mean active duty and former active duty get into real estate investing. In fact, they wrote a book called Military Hacking and I was honored to write the foreword for that book and it’s really all about, oh there it is right there, he held it up if you’re listening and, right it’s just about you know getting into this business you know utilizing your VA benefits and you know what an incredible opportunity that that is. Welcome to the show brother

Eric:  I am honored to be here. What a whirlwind this has been the last couple years thank you for that

Rod:  Yeah no this is going to be fun so you know let’s take it take it take it back like we always do on the show and talk about you know, we start with the military maybe and then work your way up to you know where you are today brother

Eric:  Yeah sure. So I served in special operations in the army and loved what I did. I got a master’s degree in aeronautical science while I was serving. When I transitioned out, I was coming back from Georgia to the San Francisco bay area, super high price market. And we had we left behind a rental in Georgia that we used the VA loan on. So a 100% leveraged, bought it in 2006, really good time to have 100% leveraged house right, 2006. So anyway that house ended up being a rental and my wife and I were like, well that’s making a little bit of money. Could we do better? And so anyway fast forward we ended up buying a house in the San Francisco bay with a VA loan and kind of started calling that our capital building phase and we end up living flipping three times and then I got into my first limited partnership deal because a buddy of mine was syndicating and he kind of told me hey this is a great vehicle. I could potentially double your investment in five years and I just, my mind kind of blew right. I didn’t know anything about it at that, I  hadn’t even heard your podcast yet at that time or anything. So your own knowledge. But yeah that’s kind of where I started out and started you know went to a boot camp, single family boot camp and I knew that there was like Rich Dad Poor Dad and some other stuff. And I was really just trying to feel it out and figure out what I could do and what niche I could find in real estate investing

Rod:  Nice nice. So talk about your first multi-family deal and I know you guys have a great team via the ADPI organization, your group there at ADPI and you guys have put together something really formidable on a team standpoint and guys you know this business is a team sport and so let’s talk about that first deal and yeah take us through the first one and then you know or the first exciting one it doesn’t have to be the very

Eric:  No, I’ll tell you the first one that we did as a team on our own collectively um you know I’ll say that the reason we found this is because our CEO and my partner, Mark Yan, he and his mom had been following your podcast and that ended up and they were one of your, they were a caller on your show you know back in the early days and that got them to buy a 56 unit just outside of Indianapolis and so then that’s how I ended up going to your boot camp and seeing everything you know two years ago in LA and so fast forward we started this partnership and we’re just like holy cow, we can really do this. So that same broker who found them that 56 unit found this deal also off market and it was an 80 unit asset and the owner lived in Japan had no debt service, owned it outright, had not been taking care of it very well, had a pretty lackluster property manager. She was aging. She actually unfortunately passed

Rod:  Where was it located?

Eric:  Its in Alexandria, Indiana

Rod:  Okay okay

Eric:  So just outside of Indianapolis. It’s like a 45-minute drive to downtown. So tertiary market and that scares some people. In 2019, buying in tertiary markets maybe or now people are scared of it but as long as to us, as long as you know the people, you know the location, you know the property managers, you know the broker, and the property has a good story, and a good reason that it’s a good deal. We felt comfortable with and I grew up in a tertiary, you know in Central Iowa. So I know the people I know kind of the culture around small

Rod:  I remember now, this is taxing my limited brand capacity but I remember the deal now. I can even picture it in my mind. I remember going through it with you anyway continue so 80 units yeah

Eric:  So 80 units and we started digging and you know how much by this point how much I love to dig and network and talk to the people in the community. And so we talked to the school superintendent, the tax commissioner, you know the, so this i’ll just say this, the superintendent told us when we called them that they were they just passed a bond to build a brand new elementary school across the street. There was already the middle and high school and they’re adding a new wing to the high school as well. So we’re going to have K through 12 across the street which we now do in this community and if they’re building in that community you know signs are good

Rod:  Let me stop you. Let me stop you for a second only because I want to hammer home what you just said and that is, guys when you’re taking down an asset, I mean he took it to a whole another level. I mean I think there’s even a punch line at the end of this you I think somebody even higher up in the political system there you met with but if I recall but you know you get out there and you meet as many people as you can public and private to ask questions about the asset you’re considering. And you’re going to discover things that the average person will not discover but you, if you’re listening to me you’re not average and so you you know you turn over every rock and every stone um and to find out both the good and the bad and the ugly like I’ll give you an example on a Louisiana asset, if I hadn’t asked a resident what was going on with the particular asset, I wouldn’t have found out that there were drainage issues and we were able to get a million dollars off on that particular deal because of that conversation. So anyway please continue

Eric:  Look I’m just doing what my mentor told me to do right. You have to be willing to do what others are not. And there’s nothing to me with all the things that I’ve been through and our team has been through. There’s nothing scary about real estate investing. There’s nothing scary. There’s nothing hard about it. You’re providing Rod the well-traveled path the system in place. All that stuff is just, okay I’m a military guy. Yeah I can check boxes like nobody’s business right. So learn something, once you do something and take action, it’s no longer scary. So that’s one thing I like about what I learned through your coaching program is that it’s centered around, sure learn the stuff too, you got to learn the language but step two and kind of the most of your coaching students focus more on this which is just break through and take action. If you take action with that stuff that you’ve learned it’s no longer scary. It’s not hard to talk to a broker once you know the language and you’ve built up a little confidence. So be willing, be vulnerable, you’ve got to be willing to screw up sometimes

Rod:  Sure sure. I remember phone calls from you on this deal because you were stressing a little bit on the equity raise I remember this specifically now but continue with what you did as far as your due diligence

Eric:  Oh man so look, we, so my role I love talking to people obviously I don’t know where that came from because I’m an INTJ. So I’m kind of introverted but when I know something really well, my life mission is to educate empower and to help people grow. And I’ve known that for 10 years and so I love to digest some some kind of new information and go out there and put it to use and tell as many people about it as possible. So look, I went to the property. I had lunch with the mayor just because I reached out and said hey we’re a group of active duty and veteran investors we want to invest in your community can we sit down and talk about it? He’s like yeah sure. He liked the conversation so much he ended up taking me through a tour of the city hall. Introduced me to the building commissioner and all these other people. And so it was amazing. And now look I gotta say too it doesn’t stop with the mayor I contacted the Governor of Indiana and one thing that we do that’s unique and I hope we talk about this a little bit later but one thing we do that’s unique is we dedicate every property to a medal of honor or local military hero, a medal of honor recipient,

Rod:  Love it

Eric:  And so we bring the community together. So we invited the principal and the dean across the street, we invited the mayor, we invited state representative, Melanie Wright, we invited the governor, Eric Holcomb of Indiana and he’s actually sending a proxy to our event to talk to the community. So it’s about bringing the community together and networking

Rod:  I love it. I love it. Now guys, this is taking you know I talk about this what he was referencing is in my course and in my live events I talk about doing what other people aren’t willing to do. This is taking that to a whole another level. I love it uh beautiful job

Eric:  And just because I like it you know. So I’m kind of doing it for I feel like almost

Rod:  But guys, you think that if he’s introduced to the building inspector, to the mayor, to all of these people, if there’s a problem at that property, even one that you know that could be that property related do you think he’s going to get taken care of better than someone you know that’s just a you know somebody off the street? You better freaking believe it. So love it

Eric:  We had a drunk driver run into a row of eight units of our garages, one of our tenants and um I know the building commissioner and so we just made sure that you know we’re going to condemn the thing and coordinate off so it’s not hazardous you know so just having those connections was you know it’s amazing thing

Rod:  Oh yeah yeah so you took it down, and it’s doing well and so I think you’ve also done a mobile home park haven’t you? You did some other asset classes

Eric:  We did a 71-pad mobile home park community in Southern Indiana and now we’re looking actually, we’re close on a couple other deals right now that we’re excited about and

Rod:  Fantastic

Eric:  That thing, we just renovated eight units and we can talk about that if you want to, I’ll let you lead the conversation but we just increased the value by $411,000 by renovating and selling off eight pads

Rod:  Yeah I don’t wanna digress in the mobile home park business. Guys, if you’re interested in mobile home parks my best one of my best friends, Kevin Bupp has the best podcast on the planet about that. He’s very good friend. He’s a member of my mastermind as is Eric now and so you know check him out. But let’s go back to this business because you’re gonna, I want you to inspire the listeners on this show that know they want to do this, that haven’t done it yet, and let’s talk about some of the some of the things that you might some of the advice that you might give them to get started here and this is not a plug for my coaching or anything like that. This is let’s get into the mechanics of this. Certainly, we’d love to talk to you if you’re interested in coaching. Text the word crush to 41411 and we’ll talk to you about our mentorship program, our warrior program, which is incredible or if you want to come see me at a live stream. I’ve got a live stream coming up July 25th and 26th the last one had 900 people. It was incredible and for that just go to multifamilyvirtualbootcamp.com or text rod live to 41411 but if you don’t want to wait till July 25th and 26^th, text crush to 41411 and we’ll have a call with you about our mentorship program but what I want to get into is some specific content that’ll help my listeners whether they work with us or not as to getting started in this business. So let’s take them through some of the things you did to get started like soup to nuts. What are some of the first things you did when you got, you know that you learned when you got into this business with us?

Eric:  There’s four things okay. The key to getting started and I got to tell your listeners, anybody can do this if you dedicate yourself to it. I’ve got a wife of 15 years, two young boys, ten and seven years old. I’ve got a full time W2 job, five businesses, five brands and we bought that many doors this year. So look guys, if I can do this with a program like this, anybody can do this. You just have to be able to take action. So let me tell you the four things, the four keys to success here guys, the first thing is you got to learn everything you can, Rod’s podcast, there’s books out there, just learn and learn. You have to learn the language. So my recommendation to fast track that of course is to get coaching. Never in my life ever again will I not have coaching. Michael Phelps has a coach. Why shouldn’t I have a coach right? There’s potential energy there you got to put it to use. So learn all you can. Network your butt off. Get out to national events, local events, meetups, whatever it is, create your own, pretend like you’re the subject matter expert, but bring others in that actually know what they’re talking about, whatever you can do, you got to be able to network and step out of your comfort zone. And if you’re an introverted type, that’s okay. Find somebody that you know that loves to talk and bring them with you

Rod:  Yeah let me interject, let me interject. I apologize but I want to hammer some things home that you’re talking about here. So guys you know if you didn’t hear my interview with, I called it the young rockstars I think episode and had three guys and they had I don’t remember just uh 65-70 million dollars with assets between them. All in their 20s, every single one of them, I was amazed to see this was a partnership between an introverted person and an outgoing person. So I just want to reference that. So you know yes you need both pieces. You need someone that can look at a deal and analyze it because this business is empirical. It’s primarily numbers all things being equal you know get our due diligence checklist, it’s free on my website and you answer all the right questions and you get the numbers right, it’s pretty hard to make a mistake if you’re conservative. But you also need someone to go out there and build relationships because this is a team sport. So he’s talking about networking, do you mind showing, for the people that are on Youtube, you guys on iTunes can’t see this but show them what you showed me before we started recording. So Eric, I think has been to yeah look at these lanyards every single event that I’ve ever had, I believe you’ve been to, have you? I missed the first one, Tampa but I’ve been to eight

Rod:  Okay wow yeah, every one of those sold out but you know we encourage in fact we insist on networking. In fact, on the first day we make people stand up and say, go meet you know go get in groups of five tell them who you are where you’re from what your superpower is because everyone’s got a superpower and we force it and people come up to me afterwards. They’re like man I was really uncomfortable doing that but I’m really glad you made us do it and because once you’ve done it a few times, it’s not scary anymore. So anyway networking was number two keep going brother

Eric:  The only way to progress is you have to grow by being uncomfortable, so get comfortable being uncomfortable

Rod:  And by the way, you know in our live stream event, you know this last one we had we set up a private Facebook group and you know people are connecting on there like crazy just for the participants. So that’s one of the benefits if you decide to join me for a couple of days in July that’s one of the benefits because you know we can’t do live events right now. We will be doing them again. In fact, I just talked to a hotel in Dallas yesterday and we’re looking at next October for a huge event in Dallas but you know. I’m not willing to commit and risk anybody’s lives until we know for sure that this COVID thing is straight but anyway so number two is networking please continue

Erid:  Yeah so learn all you can, network your butt off or find somebody to help you network and you’ll get more comfortable with that. The third one, a lot of people miss is, add value to as many people as possible. When I’m connecting with people, when I’m networking, and some people will lump that in with networking, no because if I’m cold calling a broker or if I’m talking to somebody at one of your events, my goal is to look at them as a real human being with real aspirations, real intentions, real goals of their own, and I’m listening to what they’re saying i’m not just nodding my head and looking through them. So if you pay attention to what people are saying no matter who you’re talking to, you’re able to add value to more than one person at a time if you talk to John over here and Suzy over here and they both have you know one person has a deal and one person has money, I become the connector of two people. I’m more valuable to more people

Rod:  And guys, what I call that, that is actually called, I call that super networking because when you go at it like that and what you know he’s talking about active listening, you’re not listening you know to try to respond, you’re actually listening to understand. And I will tell you that and I’m guilty of this probably more than anybody um because my brain moves so freaking fast that’s my excuse but that’s my story which is all that is but the point is that that Eric is really good at that and it’s a skill that I highly recommend you embody because when you pull two people together and add value to multi and I want to hammer that home as well guys you know the more successful people in this business find a medium to add value like you’ve got a podcast, go ahead and put a plug in for your podcast, what’s, is it ADPI?

Eric:  Active Duty Passive Income

Rod:  Okay so and he’s had Kiyosaki on his freaking show. I haven’t even gotten Robert Kiyosaki on mine. I mean he’s had some real hitters Jocko Willick, the Seal that’s got his own podcast and so it’s really kudos to you brother because you haven’t done it anywhere near as long as I have. But the point is, when you go out there with the mindset to add value, I live by that motto is you add as much value as you possibly can, it always comes full circle. So back to my conversation here the most successful people that do this business, find a medium, they set up their own meetup group, they start a podcast. I’ve helped, I’ve helped literally probably three dozen people in my warrior group start podcasts and outside of the group as well a LinkedIn group, a Facebook group, you know Instagram whatever. I don’t know anything about Tiktok. I don’t know if you can do any but whatever there’s so many ways to go out there and create reach now. But the key is to add value all right please continue

Eric:  No, I was saying and that was something that I had to work on I recognized that it’s inherent I think in humans to go out and have an, you know go to these events and just want to do something for yourself you’re trying to propel your own knowledge, and your own family, and your own education, your own but so it’s a struggle for me too because it’s natural for me to go and want to do things for myself. So it’s a skill like you said it’s something that I had to develop and I still always have to be intentional about it when I go to those types of things because I I’m naturally drawn back to like me me me normally you know naturally like a person

Rod:  It’s human nature

Eric:  Human nature yeah that’s what I’m trying to say. So add value to as many people as possible and that comes back and so you kind of can almost think of it as doing it selfishly in a way but you’re helping people as you’re doing it right

Rod:  Yeah you know I’m sorry, I just want to add one thing and I’m really sorry that I jumped in there. I was talking about all these mediums that you can use to create reach and guys, you don’t have to be an expert to start one of those and they’re free to start. We live in a time that was unheard of you know a decade ago. We didn’t have this when I was getting started in this business, ways for you to go if you wanted to market you had to spend money that was the only way to do it and here you’re able to do it for free as long as you add value. So even if you’re not an expert you can interview experts and just by virtue of you being the host or the you know the meet up organizer or the you know the group administrator on a group, gives you credibility. It’s the whole acting, as-if thing, listen to one of my Own Your Power clips on acting as-if, you’re basically acting as if you’re already successful and by virtue of you being the one putting it on you can fake it till you make it. And so this is how so many people start in this business anyway sorry brother I just wanna bring that home

Eric:  A 100% and we started a community first right a very niche down community and it’s 10,000 members because we’re adding so much value. So if you’re out there listening and you don’t know how to do that, just start your own Facebook group and add five free pieces of value of something that you know or whatever is in your niche maybe that’s your face on there talking about what you know that’s a free piece of value to people. So you can start your own little niche and community okay. The last and probably most important thing of the four things. So again learn, network, add value, is take action. If you don’t take action, you’ll never succeed. You must fail, you’ve got to fail forward just not on your butt just make sure you’re moving forward at all times. And if you do those four things over and over again with the intention to be one percent better daily, success will hunt you down. You don’t have to worry about the details

Rod:  I love it. I love it and guys, you know that’s one of the biggest things that I message, massive freaking action. And like he said fail your way forward. We fail our way to success guys. There’s no straight line. There are going to be setbacks. They’re going to be hurdles. You’re going to fall on your face. You’re going to get your nose bloodied it’s not if it’s when and it’s only a failure if you don’t get back up and you don’t learn the lesson. That’s why we call them seminars and you know if you haven’t heard me say this, I’ve built 24 businesses and several worth tens of millions, most, spectacular flaming seminars but I got up and I was better every single time and so you know don’t fear failure my friends. Fear being in the same freaking place a year from now that you are right now unless you love where you are right now. That’s what you should fear. So great message Eric. So those four things, now how about a little more tactical? Let’s go a little, let’s drill down a little bit more because I really want to add you know you know have you download so from a tactical standpoint, what are some of the things a person should do you gave them those four which are fantastic but those are pretty overarching. Let’s drill down a little bit so somebody wants to get in this business, what would you say uh you know give some steps some more micro steps on this and I can coach you on this if you need it but you shouldn’t need it

Eric:  Yeah no I mean honestly, you’ve got to have the resources. First of all, like I said if you want to learn the language, immerse yourself in it. It’s like if I want to learn Spanish, I’m taking a trip with my family to Guatemala for 30 days right. I want to learn the language total immersion. So get in there, get coaching and get a get a mentor

Rod:  or come see me for two days. It’s 97 freaking dollars for two days. We’re not selling anything just get there okay

Eric:  There’s a kick start. That’s actually the kickstart that got me. When I saw you and met you that first day and you told me at that boot camp without no you didn’t know me but you’re talking to the audience that you have to take bold decisive action. So I walk up to you and I say Rod, will you write the foreword to our book here’s me, I’m Eric you know blah blah blah and you said you know yes I don’t know you but yes okay fine. But I’m just saying that was what kickstarted me because I went and I immersed myself for three days into a niche that I had zero knowledge of by the way. I hadn’t listened to your podcast yet or anything. So that was an immersive piece right there and then a light bulb kind of went on and I think that’s probably why you do this a lot is if you can get a light bulb to click on with somebody and change their life, I mean my family legacy has changed forever now you know my kid

Rod:  For sure, the goal the goal is to inspire and that’s why I want to drill down with you because you’re going to inspire thousands of people with this interview today because you know you’re a proof of what’s of what’s possible and I’ve got numerous examples of this in in our program but your energy is contagious and so so again, yes you learn the business for sure and I will tell you you know to even micro down a little bit more than that so what are some of the steps first of all you look in the mirror, what are your strengths and weaknesses you come up with your investment criteria, you you know you decide where you’re gonna buy, what size you’re gonna buy based on your strengths and your team, you start putting a team together and like I said, I told you about these guys in their 20s that have you know what was it 60-70 million dollars worth of assets and they’re all teams. So you look at your strengths and your weaknesses. You focus on your strengths. You hire, align, or partner for your weaknesses. And then you know you pick a market and guys, if you’re not following my Rod Khleif Official page, I go live with content like this all the time. I just did finding deals on Monday uh of this week on Friday I’m doing finding the money for your deals and i’ve talked about how to pick an area and how to you know how to do all these pieces how to create your investment criteria and so just follow my Rod Khleif Official page for that but the point is, then you pick a market, then you start building a team in that market, and I’m not talking about an in-house team, I’m talking about the relationships with brokers, with property managers, with lenders, with investors, anybody that holds still and lawyers, anybody that holds still long enough better know what it is you do and that is you’re buying multi-family properties like I promise you that anybody that Eric talks to for more than a minute knows that he’s in multi-family.

Eric:  My dentist knows that I’m a multifamily

Rod:  There you go

Eric:  The guy who owns the Chevron on the corner he knows I’m a multi-family investor also right seven chevrons nearby so

Rod:  There you go and he’s got money and so, by the way guys, when you’re evaluating someone to see if they can invest with you, I can’t tell you how many times I’m like this guy hasn’t got a pot you know what in and he’s a millionaire, she’s a millionaire. So I in fact there was this old lady that I met once back in Denver. This is decades ago and she loaned me millions of dollars and she lived in a little 30,000 house in Aurora, Colorado and so do not prejudge I guess

Eric:  That’s another thing that I learned Rod is that in this industry it may be in particular I don’t know, you cannot I feel like people are a little bit more flashy in the single family space certainly the retail space but in multi-family, you cannot judge anybody. I learned that and thankfully not the hard way really I just kind of realized it. You could have somebody wearing a hoodie and cut off jeans and they owned thousands of doors and they’re super successful. I mean my neighbor down down the cul-de-sac most down-to-earth guy owned six thousand doors met him at a New Year’s Eve party

Rod:  No kidding

Eric:  Yeah he lives three blocks from me

Rod:  Wow well so guys, let’s, let me ask you a question, and I still want to go deeper on some things here but give some advice to someone that hasn’t done a deal yet. What would you, I mean okay educate for sure educate but action steps maybe some action steps what would you tell them?

Eric:  This is an interesting one too and I learned this from you also which is your mind’s got to be right. Before you’re doing that I think I think it’s important to understand you’ve got to distill down what is your motivator what is your you have to if you’re going to take decisive action, what is going to get you out of bed every morning to make you do this because it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be simplified if you have the right systems in place but it’s not going to be easy so what’s your motivator. So distill down your why and mine is I do this for the memory and pride of those who’ve gone before me for they love to fight, fought to win, and would rather die than quit. So I do this for my brothers who I buried the ones who can’t seek success. They can’t feel failure. They’re no longer breathing. So if you distill down a deep rooted why, nothing’s going to stop you because you will go to that next step. You will be willing to turn around and talk to your neighbor. You’ll be willing to learn a new task nothing complicated but you’ve got to have that why in place

Rod:  Strong enough why and guys, you know people get irritated sometimes when at every event that I do we start with goal setting because if you don’t know what the hell it is you want and why you want it, how are you ever gonna get it? And that why has got and that’s a beautiful why by the way buddy and you can tell he has memorized that and it is in his soul. And guys when your why is that strong, there’s nothing you can’t do. There’s nothing that will stop. You are like a train on a track and and nothing’s going to get in the way and so love that answer brother, love that answer. And candidly, you guys have heard me say it ad nauseam on this show 80% to 90% of your success in anything is that mindset. It’s being willing to take action and push through fear and you know those you analytical people, you know not having to check off every freaking box, just do it you know fail forward you’re gonna make mistakes it’s okay it’s okay. That’s how the most successful people on the planet became that way and okay so know your why. So that’s foundational any other tips for that same demographic uh that I want you to inspire today?

Erid:  People who are just getting started?

Rod:  Yeah

Eric:  Yeah I mean I think we’ve talked a lot about it okay, you’ve got to have the nuts and bolts of how to do this business but and then it’s really action I just feel like it’s not super, once you have the right resources it’s not something that anybody can’t do, you just have to make that one, have that spark something’s got to light up which you’re doing a great job of doing for a lot of people

Rod:  So how do you push through fear? How do you push through fear Eric? I just want to, they’ve heard everything I’ve said on. I want to just get your thought on it

Eric:  Yeah well I think it goes back to what I just said about having a why. When I walked up to you and asked you to write my the foreword to our book, I was terrified. You were taking a break in between sets and I you know trying to grab a drink of water and I was a little nervous to say the least. But I said you know what, I want to make sure that this is going to be something that can propel our vision for our company and for all of the things that we’re doing to influence people right

Rod:  Nice

Eric:  You’ve got to have that

Rod:  Five seconds of courage

Eric:  Exactly and you know the way I looked at you and part of this is perspective but there’s something about doing little things like that now that like no one’s gonna die or get hurt when I do that. When you guys go out there and you’re learning this business, no one’s gonna die or get hurt. If I make mistake in special operations someone might. So this was just a perspective of

Rod:  You contrasted it, oh what an awesome contrast yeah

Eric:  Yeah I got that tasted in my spine still but it’s not gonna no one’s gonna get hurt

Rod:  You know I love it. I had to do that the first time I walked across fire at a Tony event. I’m like good God. Well listen, and then I was like, listen if 3,000 people can do this, yeah my God Rod Khleif can do it

Eric:  Well you got me to go to UPW and when I did that, that was no that was not a big deal to me at all right okay cool let’s do it. It’s 1am let’s go you know

Rod:  Right right yeah right that too yeah. So let me ask you this, tell us about any aha moments that you had in this journey so far, any just like wow. Like I don’t know the clouds parted or it was just like a revelation anything come to mind?

Eric:  So getting, honestly and you heard we talked a little bit about this earlier but getting through that first 80 unit deal, you guys when you’re learning this business and Rod will say this too but the first deal, is the hardest deal to get through. What aha moment for me was when we had built the right team, we had found the deal, we had all the resources, we knew what we were doing, and when we closed and yeah when you close the work then starts right with all the asset management but then I realized the next deal was already on the table. That broker, who we closed with you know like right, one broker can make you wealthy, one good broker, one relationship and that broker is now feeding us our next deal now. So people ask you where are you getting your next deal? Well we’re not sending mailers out right now because we’re not in a super rush to buy something that’s overvalued. We’re just waiting for that off-market deal from the broker because he likes us

Rod:  Yeah nice so what, do you think that there’s a particular type of person that’s best suited for this business?

Eric:  Man, I almost said yes, but no. My answer is no. There’s not a particular person because you need introverts and extroverts. You do have to have somebody who’s willing to take bold action and those introverts are going to be more difficult to do so but they are going to be wildly accepted and wildly successful when they do take that action. Extroverts are easy to get in this business because they want to they want to be out there in front of people and they want to you know reach out for stuff but honestly I feel like the right person is somebody who’s just willing to try and has a successful you know vision ahead so

Rod:  Do you have any, do you have any quotes that you love that hang on your wall or anything that comes to mind when I say that or just talk about what inspires you because you’re so driven. It’s you know I always enjoy our conversations because uh you know in that regard you are very very driven

Eric:  It’s interesting. One thing I have is Lao Tzu, a leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim complete, people will say, we did it ourselves and that’s kind of just a leadership quote but I love it because that’s awesome it kind of ties in with you know my unit credo of being a silent professional and you know while I do have to outreach and you know influence more people, I want to do it in a way that ultimately gives back for a specific reason and you can lead from the front with kind of keeping that stuff in mind and I’d love to talk about giving here.

Rod:  Yeah let’s do that actually, let’s do that next I just got an email from you on that recently. I get you know out of the 400 emails I get each day, talk about that initiative that you’re doing for homeless vets please.

Eric:  So one thing that on my vision board and Rod thank you for putting this in my head but I have a things of gratitude and accomplishments and goals, vision boards on my office wall across from me hanging up high so I can see them all day long. And one of them is I want to give away, I’m going to give away a million dollars annually to my favorite charities or families

Rod:  And by the way, did you guys see him catch himself? He caught himself he says I’m going, you said “I want to” and then he said “I’m going to” because guys when you make a decision, it is freaking done okay. It’s not a one foot in one foot out it’s not I hope and I’m gonna try I might, or I need to or I should do this. No it is freaking done.

Eric:  Yeah a great example, you were gonna get me on it if I didn’t I’m sure. So but I, at your first boot camp that I said I’m going to be on that stage within one year. I committed to it and I was. Yes you were. By that time I had developed relationship with your team and with everybody and I had had

Rod:  And you’d kicked massive ass

Eric:  yeah exactly

Rod:  574 doors i’d be an idiot not to get you up there and you know show people what’s possible yeah and you know and I do that with our successful warriors because you know the whole goal is to demystify and

Eric:  yeah totally

Rod:  And get people you know I feel like if someone doesn’t, if someone’s interested in this business and they don’t take action either with us or period with I don’t care who with but they don’t take action, we failed them. That’s truly our motto in my organization that if they don’t take action with us we failed them because people need a push. They need to and once they get past that initial fear,  you know having this conversation is I remember you calling me freaking out because you had to raise the money for that 80 unit. I remember this conversation now and I’d forgotten about it until we started talking about this

Eric:  I’d rather you just forget about it

Rod:  I know but dude you went, I said buckle down you got this and you made it happen boom yeah it was just you know you just did, that’s it, that’s all you needed and you made it happen

Eric:  Yep so let’s get back to giving, give a million dollars annually but there’s two other things. The veterans community project is a non-profit that we support we’re raising $35,000, we’re at 20 right now, oh we’re at 30,000 dollars right now, we’re raising 35,000 to build a tiny home for homeless veterans and they built 50 units in Kansas city and 26 now in Longmont, Colorado. I’m going to take my kids out there and help them build. But they’re going to end, we are going to end veteran homelessness in the United States this decade and there are 3,000 cities lined up for this program to come in and execute

Rod:  What’s the website so people can donate

Eric:  Veteranscommunityproject.org they can reach out to me too

Rod:  Veteranscommunityproject.org I love it I fucking love it

Eric:  And yeah and then the third one that we do to give, we created ADPI Helps which is helping everyone live post stress. It’s a PTSD and addiction support outlet. We have a monthly zoom call just anybody can come on and talk about anything and it’s not a non-profit and we don’t, we’ll never charge anything it’s just open to anybody. We have mothers of soldiers coming in and just talking about their sons that are deployed and stuff so and I have diagnosed with PTSD after burying several my friends in special operations and so something dear to my heart is just helping people understand that as they transition from the military, there is another life and we have to figure out a way to get them to understand that because you lose a lot when you lose, when you leave the service, you lose you know mission and camaraderie and accolades and so we’re loving that to people

Rod:  Love it love it love it okay so guys his website is activedutypassiveincome.com and guys, I want to point something out to you because I’ve had some of you young blood dripping from the teeth want this success so bad call me a call me and ask me do I really need to give back before I’m successful? Eric’s nodding right now, you better freaking believe it because what you give you get back guys okay. You want success, give off your time, give off your money, you know you want love, give love. You want happiness, give happiness you know the bottom line is, whatever you give, you get back in spades and I don’t know if Eric’s not an example of this, then you need to wake up, go have a cup of coffee because it is absolutely a law of the universe and well listen, thank you brother you’ve added tremendous value today. I really appreciate your time. And we will talk I’m sure probably a little late this afternoon on our coaching calls.

Eric:  I’m looking forward to it and thank you so much this has been honor. I can’t believe where we’ve come. I’m here and I hope I helped inpire some people

Rod:  Absolutely yeah I know you did. I know you did, take care bud. Take care I’ll see you later

Ads: Rod, I know a lot of our listeners are wanting to take their multifamily investing business to the next level. I know you’ve been hard at work helping our warrior students do just that using our ACT methodology which is Awareness, Close, and Transform. Can you explain to the listeners how they can get our help? You bet. Guys, we’ve been going nonstop for three years building an amazing community of like-minded people and our coaching students which we call our warriors have had extraordinary results. They’ve purchased thousands and thousands of units and last year we did over a thousand units with our students. And we’re looking to grow this group and take it to the next level. We’re looking for people who want to follow a proven framework that’s really step by step and then leverage our systems and network to raise equity, to find and close deals, and to build partnerships nationwide. Now our warrior community is finding success in any market cycle. So if you’re interested in finding out more about how you can become more of our incredible network and take advantage of the incredible opportunities that are coming very soon, apply to work with us at mentorwithrod.com or text “crush” to 41411. That’s mentorwithrod.com or text “crush” to 41411.