Ep #543 – Building his Multifamily Empire through Joint Ventures at 29
Brian Wagers has 425 units purchased mostly through joint ventures. At his age he has done some very impressive things and has good insight for those wanting to get started quickly in this business. Here’s some of what we covered:.
- Making the shift from single family to multifamily real estate
- The value of non-commercial brokers
- Driving for dollars
- Seller financing
- Regional banks and financing
- Managing the managers
- Creating reach to attract investors
- Providing value to your audience
To find out more about our guest:
https://wagerscapital.com/
Full Transcript Below:
Rod: Welcome to another edition of “How to Build Lifetime Cash Flow through Real Estate Investing.” I’m Rod Khleif and I’m thrilled that you’re here. Now, I’m very excited about the interview I’m having today mainly because the age of this gentleman and what he’s accomplished at that age. His name is Brian Wagers and he’s in over, he’s in 425 doors, quite a good chunk of those on his own, the rest just in joint ventures and at that age that’s pretty extraordinary, so I’m very excited to get into his story and talk about how he’s gone this far, and what’s next. Brian, welcome to the show, brother.
Brian: Thanks, Rod. Long time listener. Great to be actually on here talking with you.
Rod: Well, thank you. Thank you. So, you know, take us back, my friend, I mean, you’re a 29 years old, good lord, I’ve got socks that have probably a decade and a half on you. So, you know, it’s a real treat to have someone your age with at your level of success on the show, so I’m very excited to get into this. So, take us back and give us a little bit of the chronology why real estate when you got started, so on and so forth.
Brian: Yeah. Absolutely. So, I went to school for economics. I got a job in sales right out of school, commission based sales. I thought I wanted to be a stock broker for a long time but ended up in sales. Put my head to the grindstone for three years there with the company and I started having, you know, I started making pretty good income and I wanted to do something with that income like, you know, a lot of your listeners and I was looking at either the stock market or real estate. I tried my hand in the stock market, I bought GoPro at $35 and watched to go to $5 and that was my quick lesson with the stock market. I have zero control over that, so, you know. The other side of the coin was real estate and I started getting involved in real estate looking at single-family properties in my area, in my backyard. I set up a search for anything under a hundred thousand dollars and I got one finally under contract after making about 20-30 offers, got it rented out. Mortgage was $500, I rented it out for $950. No sweat to me, had to rent it out pretty quickly. But, as soon as I had that rented out, I did the math and, you know, it was gonna take me so long to get where I wanted to be with if I kept that process up, and everything I listened, you know, on your show and everything I read about, you know, everyone talks about how they graduated from single-family homes to commercial real estate. They all said, you know, you asked them at the end of show, what’s one thing you would have done differently? And they would have said, I would have got started earlier. I would have done, I would have made the switch earlier. I wish I would have had that, so that was always in the back of my mind, you know, ready to make that switch and jump. So, you know, just about as soon as I had that rented out, I went on the hunt for multi-family properties. I got a little, I found a 12-unit property on market. That was my first deal about one year and three months after that single family home and that was at the end of 2017, and here we are 2021 with, now I got 425 doors. 54 of them, I own 100% of, so I’ve just been going after multi-family properties any way I can, you know, whether that’s seller financing, joint venturing, you know, I knew that was a vehicle I picked that niche of multi-family and that’s what I went after.
Rod: Nice. Nice. Yeah, you know, it’s funny I invested $20000 in the stock market lost every freaking penny, and I’m just impressed that you got the memo on the single family versus multi-family early on. It took me 2000 freaking houses to get that memo, so I’m impressed, brother. And, you know, and I appreciate you mentioning that question because I asked that question by design and you’ve just now validated why I asked that question, you know, which is, you know, what would you do if you if you knew what you knew now and it’s always go bigger faster and get into multi and all that, so I’m really glad that, it’s really kind of refreshing to hear an example of success as it relates to what I was hoping would happen with that questions because I try to ask it on every interview, so that’s awesome. Thank you for that gift. That’s actually a gift to me. So, Brian, you know, let’s talk about some of these deals that you’ve put together because, you know, the fact that you’ve done all of this, I mean, you know, almost, you know, 500 doors, 425 doors, as a, in a JV capacity and then you’ve said you’ve done some seller financing. Let’s drill down on some of those. So, you know, let’s talk about how you found them. So, let’s start there. How did you find the deals? Then let’s talk about some of the structure that you put together in your mindset around putting these things together.
Brian: Yeah. So, it started with MLS. So, it’s always kind of evolving, you know, now I have great relationships with commercial brokers and everything like that, but it was on the MLS, I just set up a notification on my realtor.com app, set up a notification for any multi-family listings to notify me and I actually used the broker that sold me my single fam, my house that I live in, you know, before I actually knew about commercial brokers and everything. So, I just knew I wanted multi-family, so I set up that notification and that first one, it was on market, you know, I found it. The structure was actually, I got a personal note from a family member, and as soon as I convinced them that it was a good deal, they were used to single-family homes and actually owning stuff debt-free, told them about the power of leverage and showed them all the worst case scenarios, best case scenarios, and as soon as I had convinced them, the deal had fell off the market as it was under contract but I stayed in touch with actually the listing broker and checked out their website and everything and about a week later, the listing came up on their website and it wasn’t on the MLS again but it was on their website, reached out, he said, yeah, I just fell out off contract today. So, I was, you know, I had already had the commitment from the family member for the personal nuts, I’ll meet you over that property today. Let’s get it under contract and we did that, so. And now, it’s evolved to commercial brokers like I talked about but–
Rod: Let me stop you, if you don’t mind. Let me stop you.
Brian: Yeah.
Rod: I want you to go back there, but I wanna circle back to something you just said, just because it’s so important. Guys, and I hear this all the time, in fact, in larger deals as well, you guys know I have my mastermind, the multi-family boardroom, it’s like 13-14 billion in assets in there and I hear this all the time and from panelists at my boot camp where, you know, if you lose out on the sale, if you’re in the number two or number three spot, circle back with that broker because so many deals fall through. And so, I just wanna hammer that home how big a deal that is because, just because you lost out on the first time, I can’t tell you how often I hear this that if you stay in touch with that broker, you know, you’ll very often, I mean, a bigger percentage than you might think you could get right back in the driver’s seat. So, that’s number one. But number two, I wanna mention to you because before we started recording, you brought up Kevin Bupp, and he’s a good friend of mine and he’s in mobile home parks. Got the largest mobile home park podcast on the planet. In fact, when I started my– when he started his podcast, he asked me to do it with him and I’m like, No, no way, man. I don’t wanna sit and talk. Because, back then there wasn’t any video. It was just auditory and I’m like, No, I’m not gonna do that. And of course, he killed it. And then, finally, I did it. But, the reason I bring that up is you talked about having an alert in realtor.com and that’s one of the ninja tricks in this business, is to have your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the residential MLS because those brokers haven’t got a freaking clue what to do with multi-family. And so, and the reason that triggered my memory is, I spoke at one of Kevin’s seminars. He was teaching how to buy mobile home parks and I think he’s doing it again now. But, I spoke at one of his seminars in Orlando and we went and did a bus tour of this $2000000 mobile home park that he found in the MLS. Okay? So, that’s kind of the example I use. So, sorry to interrupt but I just wanted to hammer a couple of those points home, Brian, because that’s really profound. So.
Brian: Yeah. No, that exactly, I mean, I told you I had a one-on-one call with him and one of the things he told me was sell my single family home and listen to your content.
Rod: Oh, that’s nice.
Brian: You know, because you are so narrowed in on the, you know, he’s mobile home park commercial real estate but, you know, your apartment investing. You’ve obviously got the mindset stuff now, which I love as well. But the apartment investing is your main course.
Rod: Yeah. He’s one of my best friends. He’s a super guy and a shout out to him because he’s literally raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from my tiny hands foundation, you know, where we feed families for the holidays kids for the holidays. We’re over a hundred thousand kids served now and tens of thousands of backpacks filled with school supplies and thousands and thousands of teddy bears for local police departments for officers to put in their vehicles, if they encounter a child and, you know, that’s been traumatized and it’s been one of my greatest gifts in life. And if, by the way guys, just a plug, I hardly ever do this but I’m gonna do it since I brought it up, it’s tinyhandsfoundation.org, every dime goes to the food and the stuff because I cover all the operational expenses and then some. So, if you wanna donate it’s $22 to feed a family. tinyhandsfoundation.org, so I’ll put in a little plug for that. But anyway, I interrupted you. Please continue with the commercial, the brokers now because I just wanted to hammer home those points before–
Brian: Yeah, like you said, you know, as a ninja tool and I think, for me, it was just, just go after multifamily any and all ways you can. So, that was one way. Another way was my wife drove a car, drove my car around and I would write down the addresses to distressed apartment complexes in our area.
Rod: Driving for dollars. Wow. Love it, I mean, people do that in the single family space but they don’t do it in the multi-family. It’s crazy. And there you go, I’m so glad that you’re validating some of these things that I talk about in the boot camp because, you know, people like, yeah, does that really work? Well, you’re a shining example that it does work, you know, and few people do it in the multi-family. It’s the craziest thing ever, so I love it. So, you found and you’d research the owners and then you’d contact them and see if they wanna sell, yeah. Love it.
Brian: Yeah. So, that was another way, you know, I would write down the addresses, find up the owner’s information on the county assessor’s website. I would actually, I’d have her pull over and I would take a quick picture of the apartment and I would send a letter to them with a picture of the apartment on the letter and everything just telling them, hey, you know, I’m buying value-add apartments in this area but love, you know, congrats on your success. I congratulate them, too, because obviously they made the first step and, so I found a seller financing deal that way, 20-unit.
Rod: Wow. Was it an elderly seller or just a normal not elderly?
Brian: Yeah, you know, elderly 50 years old? What’s elderly? I don’t know.
Rod: Oh, 50, No, no. Buddy, I’m 60. Okay? That’s not elderly. 50 is a kid. Yeah, but, okay. Well, one of the strategies that I talk about is mailing people that have owned 20 plus years, because you’ll get elderly sellers. But no, that’s fine and they’re the best ever for seller financing, because they just want cash flow and they’re not gonna take their money and put it in another high risk investment. That’s why I asked. But fantastic. So, let’s talk about that deal, that 20-unit. So, did you propose seller financing? Talk about how it came together.
Brian: Yeah, I mean, that was my strategy with it. When I was driving for dollars, that was my strategy was to do seller financing. I wasn’t confident in how much money I could raise for my family at the time so, you know, my main focus was, you’re not gonna have to pay commission and I can keep you some cash flow and you’re not gonna have to pay a big tax income, you know, as great if we defer some of that cost. So, that was my pitch to him and, you know, I told them, you know, with it just being me in the deal, I can usually be a little bit higher on the price. I don’t have to pay other investors on it, so it’s just me and I’m young and I’m okay riding it out. So, that’s how we did it.
Rod: Fantastic. Now, did it have a mortgage that you assumed or wrapped or– Talk a little, let’s go a little deeper, or was it free and clear?
Brian: So, he owned it free and clear. He financed 25% of it, and I told him I would give them 6% interest, and I told them I would give them 500 a month. I would pay them 500 a month and I have found a bank that would finance the rest of it. They actually financed it.
Rod: No kidding?
Brian: Yeah.
Rod: No kidding? Wow.
Brian: They financed the rest. And banks like that, local banks are your best bet for that, you know, so I just got a list of about 20 banks in my area that only had one to three locations and then I wrote them all down and just called them and, hey, can I talk to your commercial lending department from there, you know, do you guys finance apartment complexes? Here’s what I’m looking at doing and, you know, most bank, you know, most local banks, if you’re in a pretty good market, they like financing an apartment complex, you know, when they hear you’re buying apartment complexes, their ears perk up and they can be pretty flexible with terms, so–
Rod: Fantastic. Yeah. Well, I wanted to– I’m gonna tell you, you know, and that’s the thing, guys. You have much better luck with those smaller regional banks, you know, like Brian said, one to three locations because they have a lot more flexibility, you know, they’ve got a, you know, small loan committee and, you know, I would encourage you actually to build relationships in the markets that you’re in with those bankers because, you know, if the market turns and there are, you know, bank owned properties coming online, you’ll be in the catbird seat to get some of those. If you listen to some of my podcast episodes, you know, some of these guys have bought in 9, 10 and 11. They had sellers, they had a bank finance deals on bank REO properties because of those relationships but you’re another great example for building, you know, relationships with these smaller banks because you basically got into that thing for really nothing down, I mean, or little or nothing down, right?
Brian: Exactly. Yeah.
Rod: Yeah. Fantastic.
Brian: A little bit of closing costs and that was it and, you know, that helped me even more with my confidence, you know, I had a 12-unit, now I have this 20-unit, you know, I was, build a relationship with a lender and title company, so it just definitely kept 15:12
Rod: Now, are these in your backyard?
Brian: Yeah. Everything that I’ve done, so far, is in my backyard. Farthest one away from me is about two hours, but most of my portfolio is about 30 minutes away from me.
Rod: So, are you managing it yourself?
Brian: No, I use– That’s why I got into apartment complexes. I did not– That single family home, I managed myself. There’s nothing wrong with it but I knew if I continued that, something would eventually happen. So, you know, that’s one of the big reasons why I got into apartment complexes because, you know, you’re buying the business and professional property management is built into that system. So, I use, I have two different property managers depending on what area of the market it is, but yeah, I use professional property management.
Rod: Fantastic. So, talk about how you asset manage those managers. What sorts of things do you keep an eye on? How often do you speak to them? How do you communicate with them? Speak to that a little bit. Speak about that relationship.
Brian: Yeah. It’s a good relationship. You wanna have trust there, you know, so, I mean, it starts with vetting them. In the beginning, that’s the first thing you need to do is, what kind of assets are they currently managing? If they’re buying C-class apartments and they’re managing A-class stuff, it’s gonna be a totally different approach, you know. So, same thing with the smaller ones, you know, I heard it on one of your podcasts but someone made a mistake of hiring a single family property manager that, you know, they had a great track record, all their reviews were great, but they were all doing single families and it was just a completely different model when they did apartment complexes. So, I made sure they, you know, one they’d manage the type of assets that I was going after which was C-class value-added apartment complexes.
Rod: Right.
Brian: And had a portfolio close to that area.
Rod: Similar size as well. Yes, like you just said, yeah, if you get somebody that manages single family and you give them a 20-unit, they’re gonna crash and burn. If you give somebody that manages a hundred unit, a 20-unit, they’re gonna crash and burn. You give an A-class manager or C-class, I mean, I have proof of that with an asset we bought in Louisiana with a partner, just train wreck. His management company was a train wreck because they had no clue how to manage a C-asset. So, okay. That’s really good. And so, you vet them, now let’s talk about the communication with them and the ongoing accountability. How does that work? How do you structure that?
Brian: Yeah. So, I ask for weekly report, you know, most are trained to do monthly reports, I try to ask for weekly reports to try to keep a pulse on the vacancies and expense, anything out of the ordinary. It started with monthly reports but then I switched to weekly reports just to get a pulse on what’s going on if we have any expenses. I have it set, you know, at my portfolio now, I’m asset managing myself, so I have anything over $200, I’m asking for approval on, so if there’s something funky that I see, I might ask for that second and third quote, you know, even if it’s a regular vendor of ours. Sometimes, they get comfortable if they keep getting more business with you, you might notice that they’re upping the prices just because they think it’s appreciated.
Rod: It’s called vendor creep. Yep, it absolutely happens. And so, you are utilizing their maintenance and contractor infrastructure then you don’t have your own maintenance guy that runs around all these.
Brian: Right. Yeah, so for minor stuff, you know, because I’m in my backyard, I have a couple good construction contacts, so like gut rehabs, I put in a new parking lot on one. I actually set that up myself. I didn’t use my property management company. I’m here, like I said, 30 minutes to an hour for my asset, so I’m fine setting up the construction, if it’s a big job, I will go ahead and vet that myself, so I know people in town, so any construction I handle myself.
Rod: Got it. Okay, so let me ask you this. What suggestions would you have for a listener that, you know, wants to do this business, hasn’t pulled the trigger yet? Let me ask it a different way. Did you have any fear getting into this? Did you have any, are you just a go get it kind of guy that didn’t have any fear? But be honest, let me, go back and think about when, right when you started. Did anything come to mind?
Brian: I mean, I think even the single family just gave me a little bit of confidence but I didn’t necessarily need that. I felt pretty good after that, you know, I got this deal under, you know, it was 100% me. I felt good about it.
Rod: Well, how about any hiccups in the journey here? Talk about any like, “Oh crap. What am I gonna do now?” moments. Do you have any of those to share?
Brian: And back to as far as like educating yourself, you’ll feel a lot more comfortable. If you can educate, you’re not obviously never gonna learn it all or know it at all, I’m still learning every day and that’s part of it, but I think having good communication and on that point and I felt pretty, just always keep moving forward, but I guess setbacks, my first 12-unit, I put in a like $40000 parking lot. I probably didn’t need to do that. It’s a 12-unit complex and, you know, I did 12 inch graded concrete and, you know, I let someone–
Rod: You don’t probably not need to do that. You definitely did not need to do that. Now, I will tell you guys, you know, when we do a CapEx, well, that’s a seminar. It’s okay. You learn, it could have been a lot more money but, you know, when we do CapEx, we try to see a repayment of that money, maximum three years. And so, unless you got a rent bump that equated to enough income to get you that $40000 back, then, you know, it might have been a little overkill, but that’s okay. That’s, I mean, still, it is what it is. We’ve, you know, that’s how you learn. So, now let’s talk about, yeah, so, suggestions. Talk about suggestions for people that are thinking about this business haven’t pulled the trigger yet, you know, anything comes to mind when I ask that question?
Brian: Yeah, I mean, educate yourself, you know, like as much as you can listen to every podcast like, find that what do you wanna do? Are you going after medium size, or big apartments, or C-class or A-class? Figure out exactly what you want and just zone in on it. You can look up to, go to Rod Khleif apartment comp, you know, you have the mindset stuff and then you talk about some other asset classes, but if you zone in on what you want and search for that, there’s so much, you know, information about that.
Rod: A lot of content out there. Yeah.
Brian: Figure out exactly what you want and don’t zone in on that, and then know that you’re never gonna know it all. It’s okay to make, like, fumble. Leverage other team members, you know, you start talking to a lender. Now, if you talk to a property manager, tell them that you talk to the other lender. Same thing and vice versa. So, once you start having these conversations, you can actually leverage each part of that teamwork. So, yeah. I’m talking to United Banker, I’m talking the legacy bank when you’re talking to the property manager. And same thing with the property manager, leverage–
Rod: You name drop a little bit. Gives you a little more credibility and confidence and they take you a little more seriously. No, I get it. That’s absolutely smart. Okay. And so, I know you’re going to get into syndication now because, you know, you maxed out the JV, you mentioned this before we started recording. What’s the game plan for that? Is it just you? Do you have a partner? What’s the game plan there?
Brian: Just me, my wife is my marketing coordinator, so she has a marketing background so she’s putting out content and everything for me. That’s a big, you know, because I’ve built this portfolio, I’ve been able to retire her, so she does it full-time now with the marketing aspect. But yeah, just me and her so, you know, now I’ve got this track record of these units where I’ve built multi-family and like you said, you know, I’ve started to get capped out of that family money, so now it’s just networking and letting more people know what I’m doing, you know, that’s something I didn’t do in the beginning, you know, I was super focused on the deals and talking to commercial brokers and talking to lenders and everything and that served me great for for three years, but now I’m, you know, about capped out of the friends and family money. Maybe not friends, but family money, and I’m starting to get more deals from these commercial brokers, so it’s really pushing the market in peace is the game plan.
Rod: So, let me ask you this, how are you? How’s she doing that? How is she helping you create reach? Because that’s a really important piece of this business is creating reach, I mean, obviously, you know, there’s podcasts, there’s Facebook groups, there’s LinkedIn, there’s Instagram, there’s Clubhouse now, there’s all these different places. How is she going about it for you?
Brian: So, we really focus on picking two outlets, you know, if you spread yourself too thin, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, you know, there’s so many, you know, do one or two that you’re comfortable with, so that was, for us, was Facebook and Instagram just to start, she created a home base for that. She also created a website for us, hired a video guy, one of her friends does videos, and he took a video of me that we put on the website.
Rod: Can I give you some feedback?
Brian: Yeah.
Rod: Okay. I would encourage you to put educational content out there if you’re not already, okay? So, it’s not about sales content. It’s about adding value and this goes to everybody listening. So, you know, if you’re going to create reach, there are two secrets to doing it and you’re absolutely right, Brian. It doesn’t matter. Pick the vehicle you like the most. If you like video then do video. YouTube, Facebook, whatever. If you like to write, do a blog on your website. If you like to talk, do a podcast. Whatever it is, the medium that you enjoy the most because you’re gonna be the best at it. But then there are two pieces that you have to do. One, you have to add value and two, you have to be consistent. Okay? Like you said, you spoke with Kevin Bupp. Was that one of those free 30-minute phone calls?
Brian: Yeah.
Rod: Yeah. Right?
Brian: Yep.
Rod: Yes?
Brian: Yes.
Rod: Yes. Okay. So I did the same thing with my podcast and I got the idea from him. And it was just adding value, right? And look at the incredible value that he added to you and that’s why his podcast was a success. It’s why one of the reasons my podcast has been such a success is that focus on adding value. So, that would be my two cents. Now, maybe you’re already doing that? Forgive me if you are. But I want to share that more for the listeners as well.
Brian: Yeah. That’s huge. I mean, that’s starting to get more consistent. You know, two weeks ago, we just started the YouTube channel and that’s going to be the focus on the YouTube channel. Why apartment invest, you know, the main focus of why apartment investing is better than single family homes and why it’s a more passive vehicle. So, just kind of educating people. I think a lot of people know that you can– real estate such a powerful wealth builder and everything, so I think just educating them on the apartment investing side of it. And like you said, you know, the education and providing value. So, I definitely appreciate that.
Rod: No, for sure, for sure. So, any “aha”, I mean, you kind of talked about it. One of the questions I like to ask if you had any “aha” moments? I think it was that realization that you weren’t going to make it with single family that you had to, you know, to get scale you were going to do multifamily. Anything else come to mind with that question?
Brian: Yeah. I think that’s a great question. I mean, there’s constantly “aha”, I think there’s “aha”, hopefully you have “aha” moments like every week. You know, you’re like moving forward but, you know, big ones, you know, the big one single family to apartment investing, that was a huge “aha” moment. And I think the “aha” moment now is the marketing piece like you’re talking about being consistent with that and providing value to– There’s probably a lot of people in your network that are interested in it but maybe not, not know about it so–
Rod: Right, right, right. And yeah, just to hammer that home a little further, I mean, don’t even get started if you’re not committed to doing it for two years. And doing it, you know, either weekly or ideally weekly otherwise don’t even bother because you’ll get lost in the noise. I don’t know how many million podcasts there are now. But I mean, it’s very easy, you know, and social is like that. There’s a lot of noise. But the beautiful thing is you don’t have to have this huge base. You just, I mean, if you’ve got a few hundred people that are listening to you, that are getting value from you, you’re building that relationship and it’s just extraordinary how well it works. So, let me ask you this. Do you set any time aside to, you know, think about your vision, to think about where you want to go? Do you have any sort of rituals that you do that you think have contributed to your success?
Brian: Yeah. I mean, I wake up every morning at 4:00 a.m., just before 4 a.m. is my alarm set right now. So, I get up in the morning, I read 10 pages and then I journal a little bit. I’ll put a, create a power list of everything that I need to get done that day. Five bullet points and maybe three or people that I need to reach out to, are people that I need to do. And then I’m having, right as I’m doing that, I’ll go to the gym 5 a.m. From 5am to 6am I get my workout done for the day. I do that first thing in the morning because that’s health is wealth. I mean, health is huge for me and I feel good after that. And then at the end of the day, I’ll go back through that list. Anything that I didn’t do, I need to add that on to the next day. I think having goals is huge and creating lists for yourself on what you need to do and targets.
Rod: Love it. Love it. I mean, that’s kind of almost like the miracle morning. You know, I had Hal Elrod on the show. That sounds like the miracle morning. Is that where you got that from or you heard it talked about?
Brian: I mean, I think you talk about like so many successful people are waking up early. You know, I don’t know how many successful people are not waking up. I mean, teach their own but a lot of waking up early and getting their day started early. So yeah, how talks about it. I know he does a brush in your teeth and cold shower and everything like that. So I think you can tweak it to your own sure preference but, yeah. And then, like podcasting is huge, you know. Now, you’ve got the mindset too. So, that’s big for me. In the mornings and the afternoons, you know, you’re having a bad day and then you hear someone on your podcast who like, had a hardship but now they’re at a thousand units or now they’re, you know.
Rod: Right.
Brian: Doing these things. So it’s pretty motivational to like keep pushing you forward.
Rod: Nice. Nice. So although, again, I’ve got socks older than you. I still want to ask you the question, if you could go back and change anything, is there anything with what you know now that you might do differently?
Brian: You know, I try not to have many regrets. You know, I think that’s probably what helped move me forward is not having any like worst case scenario. You know, I get told no. You know, so I think that’s part of the big reason why I’ve had the, if you want to call it success so far. So, I think we speak about it. But marketing, I would have done that more like you talked about putting– educating people along the way as what I was doing. You know, so maybe letting people know what I was doing and why I was doing it. If I would have started–
Rod: A little further ahead maybe. Yeah.
Brian: Yeah. So, I think that would be the one thing.
Rod: So, let me ask you this. What, you know, this business, this multifamily game really is a team sport. So I’m thinking you’re probably going to bring someone else in just so, you know, okay? I’m just going to share that with you. I would guess that that’s going to happen for you. If nothing else just because, you know, you go after a large deal. You’re going to need other general partners for the liquidity and the net worth requirement even though you’ve got significant of that, that’s going significantly for you. It’s probably not going to be enough for a larger deal. So, and I talk about this a lot on the podcast where you, you know, you’ve got your unique skill set or super power that you bring to a team. You know, how– a lot of teams are an analytical person with an outgoing person. You know, and then maybe an operations person to handle the asset management. What do you think is your superpower as it relates to this business based on what I just said? Your unique skill set that you’re really the best at. Is it, you know, is it the communication? Is it the analytics? Is it, you know, the operations? What do you think is the top for you?
Brian: I think it’s communication and tenacity. So, you know, if I say something I’m gonna– I think that’s what helped me along the way. If I say something I’m gonna do it and I’m not gonna waste time either. You know, if I see an email in my inbox, I’m replying within a minute, you know. Like, I’m okay, you know, staring at my phone all day, you know, eventually I won’t be doing that. But right now, I’m young and I don’t have a lot of responsibilities as, you know, at my age. So, I’m okay to, you know, respond right away whether I have an answer or not. I’m gonna let the other person know that I’m working on it. And whether I’ve done any deals with them or not, you know, I treat everyone the same so–
Rod: Do you have kids yet?
Brian: No kids yet.
Rod: Yeah. Okay, good, good. Really pleased to hear that. Based on what you just said prior to that. Good.
Brian: Yeah.
Rod: So, last question. If you could give one piece of advice to my listeners, especially the ones that haven’t taken action yet, the ones that know they want more for their family. Again, they might be sitting there in fear, fear of failure, fear of rejection, whatever the fear is, limiting beliefs, maybe they’re comfortable. What advice would you give them?
Brian: The best case scenario is gonna outweigh that worst case scenario a hundredfold. Just do it. You know, just take action. You know, the analysis by paralysis can really handcuff you. You’re not going to always have the right answer. You’re not going to have, you know, there isn’t always one right answer either. You know, there’s multiple ways to do it. So, I think just take that action. Take the first step. Make the first call.
Rod: That’s fantastic advice especially that little piece you put on the end about there’s always more than one way and you want to look at things like that because a lot of what we do is problem solving. And the most successful people in this business are the problem solvers that are the ones that can look at it from different angles to solve, you know, whatever hair is on that deal. And so, no, that’s really good. Well, listen. This been a real treat for me Brian. I’m really impressed with you buddy and just keep up the good work. I know you’re gonna be back on the show with thousands of doors in no time. So, great to have you on my friend.
Brian: It’s an honor Rod.
Rod: Thank you. Thank you.
