Tom started his journey in commercial real estate back in 2019, learning and investing passively in more than 340 doors but that wasn’t enough, so Tom joined the Warrior’s group and a local mastermind in San Antonio in preparation for his growth. Tom now is general partner in a large asset located in San Antonio, 296 doors where he played roles in the acquisitions and ongoing operations.
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- Setting Goals
- Don’t Miss First Steps
- Following Through
- Don’t Be Intimidated
- Identifying your strengths
- Being “boots on the ground”
- Finding deals
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com
Full Transcript Below
Rod
Welcome back to Multifamily Rock Star. So as you know this is where we interview people that are crushing it in this business. And we show you the inside scoop about how people are creating massive success both in their businesses and in their lives. And as always, I’ve got my co-host who’s the director of my massive action team for our warrior group, Mark Nagy on the call. Mark, what’s up, brother?
Mark
I’m doing well, Rod. Just love to get right into it, man. We got a really cool story today of a guy doing his first deal and super excited to hear about it. I think the listeners are going to like this one.
Rod
It’s kind of an unusual one in that regard. So this is going to be a lot of fun. So we’ve got Tom Petreca on the call today. And Tom is in over 600 doors as a General Partner and as a Limited Partner. But what’s interesting is Tom is actually my partner in that San Antonio asset, and we’re going to dig into that. Welcome to the show, Tom.
Tom
Thank you so much, Rod. Thanks, Mark, for having me here. It’s a pleasure.
Rod
Yeah, absolutely. So why don’t you take a minute and just give us a little bit of your background and that’ll be a great place to start and jump off from.
Tom
Definitely. So you probably first hear my accent, right? Born and raised in Brazil and live in this great country for ten years, specifically in San Antonio. Come from an I.T. background. I’ve been working for the largest companies, tech companies in the world, being a specialist in their technology, in the digital transformation technology. I made a switch two years ago into the multifamily space, matter of fact, 2019. And I had the opportunity to meet Rod and meet all the team and join the great program as well.
Rod
That’s right. You joined the Warrior program. Now, when did you actually join the Warrior program, Tom?
Tom
I did join specifically in January 2021. Well, it’s been one year, actually. Matter of fact, one year. Wow.
Rod
One year. Okay.
Tom
Time flies. Yeah, one year.
Rod
Awesome.
Tom
The year 2021.
Rod
So you’ve been in the tech business and you bring in, you know, kind of an engineering background and I.T. More analytical background. And talk about how you got in our San Antonio deal. How did that happen?
Tom
Yeah, right. I think, you know, first of all, I really followed the program very specifically. So I really trust my coach. I really trust the process. I really trust the program itself. Right. And one thing I really took as the main task was massive action. Massive action. I was like, how can I expand my time or maximize my time to the max value for others? Right. So then I started looking for some deals, and that’s how the whole thing started. Looking for deals. I always heard a sponsor say, hey if you find a good deal, bring it to me. We’ll help you. And that kind of sticks to my mind. I was like, okay, I got to find a good deal. And that’s exactly what I stick to the program and to the action.
Rod
Okay. So, you know, you live in San Antonio. That’s where this last asset that I was involved in was. And 296 units. Beautiful asset. That’s just killing it. I know that you worked with my partner Scott in evaluating it, and I think you actually, you know, you’ve acted as kind of our boots on the ground for that deal as well. Yes?
Tom
That’s right. Yes, that’s right. Amazing partnership. I love working with Scott as well. Great–we both think alike.
Rod
Right. Right.
Mark
So tell us about some of the advantages that you had then, being the boots on the ground that helped you get into this first deal here. Almost 300 doors, by the way.
Tom
Yes. I think you know, a couple of things. You know you got to know your market. You know, I think even before we actually found that deal, I was working on a presentation for my own market. Why should I invest in San Antonio? Even that helped me to really believe that. Okay, I’m on the right market.
Rod
So one of the things we have, all our warriors do is prepare a market presentation.
Tom
That’s correct.
Rod
And those of you listening, even if you’re not a warrior, you know, once you know where you’re going to invest, you need to know what’s going on there. Right. So we have our warriors give market presentations on some of our coaching calls and sell us on a particular market. You know, why do we like it? What are the hot points in that market? What are the demographics like? What is the population, the income, the jobs? You know, why should we want to invest with you in this particular market? And we have them do that even if they don’t have a deal yet, an asset yet because you have to know how to present the market as well as the deal. So anyway, please continue.
Tom
Exactly, Rod. That’s very important because, at the end of the day, we are also influencing other people to invest in your market because you really believe that the market is delivering and you prove that with data. Right. So I was working on that presentation in the same way I was also you know, creating relationships with brokers. As a boot on the ground, I know who are the brokers here in the city. Right. I was getting in contact with them, getting to know them, and also getting to know who is buying in San Antonio. That’s another very key factor. I joined some masterminds, local masterminds to know who are the buyers, when they are buying, what they’re not buying, what they’re buying, how much they’re buying for. So all those are the key value that we sometimes don’t have when you’re not local.
Mark
What do you think were some of the advantages that helped you guys get this deal versus you know, the competition that was also looking at it?
Tom
Yes. You know, I think it’s been living in the city for a long time. I really understand the area very well and what’s growing. So I really had a very advantage knowing that specific area very well. So I knew exactly you know, new developments that are happening. I knew the class changing, they’re happening as well. For example, from the profile of tenants, I knew the tenants in the area were making more money than the other specific Zip codes so they could pay more for rent. That means we could increase the potential revenue for that property. So I knew the key advantage. For example, when you go to Google Maps, you don’t see those developments that are happening in that specific area. So only boots on the ground can really drive and know exactly. I went to the Bexar County, for example, development website, and I was looking for permit approvals for that specific Zip code as well. So those are very small details that sometimes we take for granted, that we don’t really dig in that much. So coming to my background, I think that really helped because that’s what I do with my job. I need to find solutions and I need to prove it. And I need to convince the customers at the end of the day that they are doing the right decisions.
Rod
No, that’s great. You know, this particular asset is surrounded by new development. I mean, there’s all sorts of stuff going in. There’s a new apartment complex not that far away, new Starbucks, new entertainment complex. There are all sorts of cool stuff that you know, without that local knowledge, you know, you really have to do your homework to find. But you did your homework as well. I mean, you really have dug in on that. So you know, that was absolutely helpful.
Tom
And that’s one thing that you know, I share with a couple of warriors in some of our events that you really got to prove yourself as well because even though you have all this data, you have all this information but I still present it to someone that knows the market and knows the industry. Right. Someone that doesn’t even need to look at my numbers to make sure that it’s a good deal or not. So you still got to prove yourself as an expert. Say, look, I know what I’m doing. I did my homework, but I’m also here to prove myself and to work together.
Rod
That’s how you approach Scott. For sure.
Tom
That’s right.
Rod
And that’s how come you’re a general partner in this deal. I mean, you signed on the deal. That’s because of you know, the value you brought.
Mark
Just for the listeners what happened there? So you found the deal and then how did it get to Rod?
Tom
Yeah, so no, I mean, it was through Scott. I worked very closely with Scott and that’s another thing. People, sometimes they call them and they’re very excited. I watched them as well. But then the coaching, the coaching was really important. The coach also helped me how to show myself as an expert, not just as enthusiastic about finding that deal. Right. But someone that say, look, I have this deal and you don’t have to tell someone that’s a good deal one’s a good deal. Right. They know it.
Rod
Well, you know what, actually, Scott wasn’t so sure about the deal and you convinced him and it turned out to be better than we’d hoped. Okay. Because you had that local market knowledge. I remember that. Because he wasn’t going to pursue it. And I think you convinced him to pursue it. And I know you also spent a lot of time one on one with him, going through the evaluation, going through the modeling of that deal, the pro forma of that deal to make sure that it made sense.
Tom
That’s right. We did a lot of options like option one for finances. We did a lot of work. It wasn’t something that came to our plate. And we just offer. Right.
Rod
It wasn’t a small deal either. I mean, we raised $13 million for it.
Tom
Many other people pass on that deal and they regret it. I’m sure they regret it.
Mark
Well, I love the story just because again, you went out there, Tom, and you just took action on the things that you knew how to do and you just focused on that and then you found the right people to put around you that help you close on the deal. On the other things, you didn’t quite have, which is you know, money, experience, etcetera.
Tom
Exactly.
Rod
Well, you know, I’m going to tell you, let me interject something here. I’m going to tell you, you know, I’ve purchased I think gosh, within the next 60 days, it will be close to 26, 2700 doors with students. Okay. So this is an example of that just in the last two and a half, three years. So this is an example of that. It doesn’t have to be me. You know, those are you listening, it doesn’t have to be me. But you know, if you find the deal and you add value to an operator, someone like me, this is what can happen. And so you know, this is why I wanted to have Tom on the show, just to show you that you know, if you’re willing to do the heavy lifting and do the level of detail like Tom did or bring the deal and so on and so forth and add value in some manner, then you know, you can make something like this happen.
Tom
It can change your life. I mean, I’m telling you, you can change your life because, you know, now I’m someone with that amount of doors as investors, as a General Partner and it can change your life. It can change your life.
Rod
Yeah.
Mark
So taking a quick step back on that, I know you did some LP investing right before you did this deal and before you became a warrior. What made you ultimately decide to kind of take that next step, want to even do your own deals and take this thing to the next level and you know, not just stick with the passive investing?
Rod
Good question.
Tom
Yes. Very great question. You know, to be honest, I felt something that I was like, I think I can do more. You know, with my skills, with my expertise you know, on the computers, analytical. I was like, I think I can offer something else to someone else more than just my money. Right. I think I can probably dedicate a little more of my time and knowledge and passion. I mean, today, I’m very passionate about it. Rod knows.
Rod
Oh, yeah.
Tom
I’m very passionate about it.
Rod
Well, you’re playing a much larger role even now in the CapEx piece of this and the asset management piece of this. So Tom is at the asset all the time. When we have our weekly calls, he’s there very often. He’s helping get the bids on the capital expenditure projects that we’re doing. So there are a lot of things that you’re learning as you’re helping as well, which are you know, just invaluable for your future. And the other thing you know, I want to give you, kudos, Tom is also helping us on our back end systemize our– I’m sorry, on our front end more systemize our front end, where we’ve you know, utilize software to manage our deal flow and our deal analysis. So we’re using our CRM HubSpot. Literally, we just communicated on that this morning. We’re finalizing that. We hired a virtual assistant to help us enter data.
Tom
For me, it’s something that, as I said, it’s part of what I was trained for as a background and something that I value on the business, on the enterprise, on corporations. You got to have a coach. That’s why I made the decision to join a program so I could scale. But now that I’m in, I was like, how can I also take my expertise from my enterprise to this real estate? And that’s actually what Rod just mentioned.
Rod
No, that is great– I’m really glad you said that, because I’m going to tell you, you know, I don’t care who you are, those listening or watching this. You’ve got something to add. And whether it’s like your background as an I.T., whether it’s project management, asset management, management of any kind, whether it’s you know, analytics, whether it’s your ability to build relationships and develop relationships, there is some way that you can add value. And that’s why you know, the warriors have been so successful. I mean, they’re over 50,000 doors. I can’t even keep track of a couple of thousand a month they’re adding right now. You see it on the Facebook group, right, Tom?
Tom
Yes. You lost counts.
Rod
I mean, it’s just like crazy how many deals are happening right now. And by the way, if you are interested in the Warrior program, to apply, you text the word “crush” to “72345”. And then you know, you see if we’re a fit, we make sure you’re a fit and we don’t take everybody. But I can promise you, if you set up the call, you’ll leave the call better than when you came in, whether you work with us or not.
Tom
That’s how I joined. I was listening to your podcast, driving in the middle of the pandemic, when you said, hey, text this number. And I was driving, I was like, I’m not supposed to text and drive. But then I was like, you know what? I’m just going to text really quick. It’s only four number, five. And then I came back from my trip two weeks later, I was like, oh, yeah, I got to sign up. I remember the hype. I was like, I got to sign up. That’s how I signed up.
Rod
That’s funny.
Tom
That was in December 2020, I was driving you know, middle of pandemic.
Rod
Well, I know that you also came to our warrior event here in Sarasota, and you met a bunch of other warriors as well. You know, one of the things we do for our warriors is we do warrior only events that you know, we have, typically 200-300 people. And we had, I think, 230 here in Sarasota a couple of months ago. And you know, we’ve got another one coming up in April. But this business is a team sport, and that’s how you meet. And we do everything we can to help you know, connect our warriors with each other through a lot of different things that we do because it’s just–you know, so even if you go out there and do this on your own, get connected, get around people that are doing this, go to your local meetup groups, do whatever you have to do to get around people that are doing this, because that’s how you ramp this thing and accelerate this thing.
Tom
And tell other people what do you do? Tell them because they are eager to get into this space as well. Might be LP, might be someone with a contractor company that can help you, might be someone as a warrior, whatever. But tell people.
Mark
I know a lot of people Tom, they default when they’re getting started to kind of the smaller deals. Right? They think, oh, I want to start with five units, ten units, 20 units. Work my way up. Right. I hear that all the time when people are talking to myself and my team. Obviously, you came out and you did almost 300 doors on your first deal here. Did you originally start with that mindset? If you wanted to go big, did you start smaller? And then did that change? Tell us kind of about the mindset and how that came into play in terms of the size of the deal here.
Tom
Yeah, no, that’s a great question. I think everyone battles that right at the beginning. What can I get started? Where can I get started? What should I do? I did you know, kind of get lost a little bit the first couple of weeks until I really see where’s my value at. And then I was like, you know what? The same amount of time that takes me to underwrite 50 units, it takes me to 300, right? I just have to have a different sponsor for that 300 from the 50. So actually open more opportunities for me to really see the market as a whole, not just as one single profile of criteria. But then I was like, I need to expand my team as well. That’s how I came to Rod and Scott. I was like, okay, those are different players, 300 units. Different than a 50, different than 20, but the same. I was just on my mind. I was just trying to maximize my time. I only have a few times an hour per day, per week. How can I maximize it?
Rod
Good, good. You know, if someone is listening to the show or watching the show, and they haven’t done anything yet, but they know they like what they’re hearing. They like the business. They like real estate. Maybe they’re doing single family. They flip something, wholesale something, just maybe buy a rental. But you know, they’re thinking about this multifamily business and haven’t taken action yet. Are there any words of advice you might give them, Tom?
Tom
Yes, Rod. Matter of fact, in this event that you just mentioned, I brought two of my friends, close friends, because I was telling them, don’t listen just for me, I mean, even though– you got a listen from other people, you got to listen from the group because that can change your future life. Right? The way you approach your earnings, the way you approach your financial freedom. You know, for me, getting to this business was a decision for my family as well. I want to make sure that they have the opportunities that I didn’t have when I was a child. Right? So I want to give you that opportunity. If you’re listening right now and you’re thinking, hey, this is not for me. I’m never going to make it or I was in the same shoes as you a year ago. So trust me. Trust the product, trust the program, trust your coach, trust the process and take action. That’s what’s very important for me. I didn’t see one week without underwriting a deal because I made a decision to myself. I was like, I’m going to get this deal and I’m going to make my money, and I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to give up until I find my first deal. And I didn’t. So I just sat there. I underwrote more than 80 deals.
Rod
Wow. Good for you.
Mark
That’s one thing I would like to ask, because I know a lot of people listening are probably thinking, oh, this isn’t an overnight success.
Tom
No.
Mark
It’s probably, he’s done this. What are some of the challenges you faced along this way, you know, working this deal or before you even got there?
Tom
I think you know, credibility, right? I was nobody you know, when I was touring the properties, the brokers would look at me as like, you know, who is this guy? I’m just wasting my time here. Yeah, he was probably wasting his time, but I was not wasting my time. Right. And the way I say this is not to brag myself, but I’m saying that I knew what I was doing there. I knew my objective. I knew my goal. I knew why I was doing this. Right. Maybe the broker didn’t know why there’s you know, a tour in the property. But at the end of the day, stick to your beliefs, stick to what’s your goals? Right? Your goals are very restricted. I made a goal. I was like, I’m going to find my deal by this time. And then I never gave up. And I see a lot of people sometimes they give up. I mean, we’re already on the 15th January. Some people already give up on their first year.
Rod
Yup. Yup. Yup.
Tom
So that’s a mistake because you made the right choice, but you didn’t stick with it. Stick with it.
Rod
That’s right. No, that’s great advice, buddy. That’s great advice. So many people will make a new year’s resolution that’s already gone by now or definitely gone by February, which is you know, one of the reasons you know, I do my goal setting. You know, exercise for people. I did one on January 1st of this year. And of course, we do it at our events as well.
Tom
Can I tell you something about that goal-setting Rod? Nobody knows yet. It’s the first time I’m going to share, but no numbers, no nothing. But you know, I came to this country ten years ago. I had nothing. Right? I just came here for a job and everything. And then I went to a sports car dealership. Very nice sports car dealership. And I took a picture next to a car. Like, man, one day I’m going to own that car, and I still have that picture. And literally, by Christmas, you know, last Christmas, I mean, two weeks ago, I just got the car.
Rod
You bought the car? Good for you, buddy.
Mark
Nice.
Tom
Same car, the same exact color. Everything. Just didn’t have the lace at the top because I couldn’t make it.
Rod
That’s awesome, buddy.
Tom
That’s the power of you know, the dreams. And then I went to a dealership, and then the guy on the dealership, man, what a nice car. And then you know, I really saw there was a young kid. I was like, you know why? Ten years ago, I showed him the pictures. See, ten years ago, I came to this.
Rod
This is a salesman at the dealership?
Tom
Yes. And then I told him–
Rod
Love it. Love it.
Tom
Just believe it, man. Believe in work. You’re going to get it. Because you know, I never believed it, you know. But here I am now.
Rod
I tell the story you know, of doing that with cars that I got as well. And so you know, you did the exact same thing.
Tom
It’s not about the money. It’s not about the car.
Rod
No.
Tom
It’s about like, man, I had a goal. I had a dream. That was my dream. For ten years I worked for that. And, you know, the best thing, Rod, who pays for that is my real estate investments. I don’t pay for that car.
Rod
That’s right. Well, listen, buddy, I appreciate you coming on the show.
Tom
Thank you.
Rod
And you know, adding some value and it’s great to see you and we’ll see you soon.
Tom
Thank you so much, Rod. Thank you, Mark. It’s a real pleasure to be here as well. So thanks, everyone.
Rod
Take care. See you later.
Tom
Take care.
