Military Real Estate Investing With Erik & Jeffrey Freeman
In this episode of Multifamily Rockstars, Rod Khleif interviews brothers and military veterans Erik and Jeffrey Freeman, who transitioned from single-family rentals into large multifamily acquisitions. Their story highlights how military discipline, teamwork, and perseverance translate powerfully into commercial real estate investing. For investors looking to scale, their approach demonstrates how to move from accidental landlords to strategic operators partnering on multimillion-dollar syndications.
From Military Life to Multifamily Vision
Erik and Jeffrey spent years serving in the Navy and Army, building resilience and leadership skills while moving across the country. Each built small rental portfolios through buying homes at different duty stations. Eventually, they realized the limitations of single-family investing and made a joint decision to scale together. Their search for mentorship led them to the Warrior Group, where they connected with coaches, partners, and a community of investors who helped them quickly accelerate.
The brothers credit their success to taking decisive action, investing in education, and surrounding themselves with experienced operators. Attending Rod’s boot camp was a turning point that helped them set clear goals and build the confidence to pursue larger multifamily projects.
Landing Their First Multifamily Deal
Through networking both online and at Warrior events, Erik and Jeffrey were invited to join a 168-unit acquisition in South Carolina. The deal required a $10 million raise and presented an opportunity to participate in due diligence, investor relations, and strategic planning. Their primary value-add strategy centered on securing a significant tax abatement tied to affordable housing requirements, which would substantially increase NOI and improve long-term cash flow.
The timing was challenging, as market volatility and tariffs created uncertainty at the start of 2025. They overcame obstacles by leaning into education, building investor trust, and sharing consistent content about multifamily investing. Their combined backgrounds helped them explain critical concepts like NOI, cap rates, rent growth, and value-add strategies to first-time investors—many of whom later committed capital.
Raising Capital Through Authentic Education
Much of their early traction came from teaching their audience about multifamily fundamentals. As a hard-money lender, Erik already had relationships with local investors, while Jeffrey created relatable social content to attract new leads. Their strategy was simple: educate consistently, tell their story transparently, and show the advantages of scaling beyond single family.
Their early investors were a mix of fix-and-flip operators, friends, family, and connections from the Warrior network. Over time, they received inbound messages from followers asking how to invest, proving the power of organic education and storytelling.
Building Momentum and Expanding Their Portfolio
After their first large acquisition, the brothers secured a second 200-unit opportunity and set their sights on bigger roles within deal teams. Their long-term plan includes becoming more active in acquisitions, forming deeper broker relationships, and building systems that support sustainable growth. They emphasize that success in military real estate investing—or any asset class—comes from daily consistent actions, networking, underwriting practice, and staying committed through setbacks.
About Erik & Jeffrey Freeman
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman are military veterans, real estate entrepreneurs, and members of the Warrior Group. With backgrounds in engineering, leadership, and lending, they merged their complementary strengths to build East Coast Equity Group. Their portfolio includes multifamily syndications across the Southeast, and they focus on educating investors through social media, events, and online content. Their mission is to scale their holdings while helping others understand the power of commercial real estate.
If you want to hear the full conversation and detailed insights, watch the podcast video or read the complete transcript below.
FAQ: Military Real Estate Investing
What is military real estate investing?
Military real estate investing refers to the strategies active-duty service members and veterans use to build wealth through rental properties, multifamily syndications, and long-term investment planning. It often leverages unique military benefits and disciplined decision-making.
How can military members start investing in real estate?
Military members can start by buying homes at duty stations, using VA loans, house hacking, or investing passively in multifamily deals. Many begin with small rentals before scaling into larger assets through partnerships and mentorship.
Why is military real estate investing effective for building long-term wealth?
Service members benefit from stable income, strong credit profiles, relocation opportunities, and access to favorable financing. These advantages allow them to acquire multiple properties over time while building equity and cash flow.
Can VA loans help with military real estate investing?
Yes, VA loans are one of the most powerful tools for military investors. They allow for zero-down financing, competitive interest rates, and the ability to buy multifamily properties up to four units while living in one unit.
What skills from military service help with real estate investing?
Discipline, leadership, teamwork, planning, and problem-solving translate directly into real estate. Many veterans excel in underwriting, negotiations, and operations because of their structured mindset and resilience.
Is it possible to invest in multifamily while on active duty?
Yes, many active-duty service members invest passively or partner on multifamily deals. Technology, online networking, and mentorship programs make it easier to participate even while deployed or relocating.
What are common challenges in military real estate investing?
Frequent moves, time constraints, and learning complex investment strategies can be challenging. Most overcome these obstacles through partnerships, coaching, and building strong local teams.
How can veterans scale from single family to large multifamily deals?
Veterans scale by joining mentorship groups, building broker relationships, partnering with experienced operators, and learning underwriting. Sharing educational content also helps attract investors and raise capital for bigger acquisitions.
Disclaimer: This summary was written with the help of AI and reviewed by Rod’s Team.
00:00:28:24 – 00:00:44:12
Rod
Welcome back to Multifamily Rockstar. So as you guys know, these are the episodes. We dive deep into our guest deals and we give you practical and actionable items for actually getting started in doing your first deal, especially if you’re brand new to multifamily. And I’ve got my co-host, Mark Nagy with me here, as usual.
00:00:44:14 – 00:00:53:13
Mark
Yeah. What’s going on? Right. I’m I’m excited. We’re stacked this week, man. We got six, six interviews with, warriors that are done some deals. So we got a lot of good. So but, so this one.
00:00:53:15 – 00:01:10:03
Rod
Is that many. Wow. Well, we’ve got a great interview for you guys today. We’ve got Eric and Jeffrey Freeman. They’re both ex-military, which I just admire like crazy. I thank you for your service, gentlemen, before we get started here. But they’ve done a ton of stuff, and I’m not even going to try to talk about all the things that they’ve done.
00:01:10:03 – 00:01:13:15
Rod
I want them to tell you their story. So welcome to the show, guys.
00:01:13:17 – 00:01:15:12
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Thank you. Glad to be here.
00:01:15:14 – 00:01:35:01
Rod
Yeah. So why don’t you, one of you or, you know, take the lead here and, just tell us, you know, why real estate? Maybe when you joined the program, and kind of bring us current, you know? Yeah. What you what you did in military as well. Like, that’s kind of cool. I love hearing about that, too.
00:01:35:01 – 00:01:36:11
Rod
So, yeah.
00:01:36:13 – 00:01:56:11
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Yeah, for sure. I guess for the real estate side, we both have been in single family residential for, probably the better part of 15 years. We did it separately. I had been at different military stations, bought a house and moved, bought a house and moved and became a, accidental landlord. And so we had several rental properties.
00:01:56:13 – 00:02:14:02
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
About a year and a half ago, Eric and I decided that we needed to join forces and take on bigger projects and start to scale this and build a real business out of it. From there, we quickly discovered that we needed some, professional help, and we needed to get either a mentor or get into a warrior group.
00:02:14:17 – 00:02:39:10
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Some kind of, mastermind group that could help us accelerate, in this profession. And so we shopped around. We went to a couple of different conventions, we actually interviewed with some other, you know, mentoring groups out there, some local. And then we came across Ron’s group, actually on his live, Facebook, ask me anything questions.
00:02:39:10 – 00:02:58:21
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Right. And it says Text crush to learn more. And so we text crush, to find out more about the warrior group. From there, we had our interview sessions where we were able to walk through what our needs are. And, so we ended up joining the warrior group. We went to the bootcamp in November.
00:02:58:23 – 00:03:03:00
Rod
And in Orlando. Yolanda bootcamp? Yeah, that was a lot of fun year ago.
00:03:03:01 – 00:03:04:13
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Exactly. Yeah.
00:03:04:15 – 00:03:24:06
And, so Jeff dragged me to the bootcamp. He actually he actually bought, my ticket and my son’s ticket. My son, who’s 17 now, because you we talked about it, my my brothers and I can take care. And he said, hey, I got your ticket. You’re going. And, so that was my introduction to you, Rob.
00:03:24:06 – 00:03:25:10
00:03:25:12 – 00:03:27:23
Rod
It’s been all downhill from there, right?
00:03:28:00 – 00:03:35:16
That was great. That was great. But it was, it was really neat. You know, my brother, he said he interviewed, he did all the legwork, and then, you know, he said, hey, I’m.
00:03:35:16 – 00:03:49:23
Rod
So glad your boy was there. I’m so glad your boy was there. I haven’t forgotten that. Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. I, I love impacting, you know, teenagers, just love that. So I hope I hope I fired him up a little bit, you know.
00:03:50:02 – 00:03:55:10
Oh that’s great. Yes. Yeah. I go to college now. He wants to get the real estate. So thanks a lot for that.
00:03:55:12 – 00:04:14:08
Rod
Yeah, well, we can have a conversation about that. You know, I feel about that. In fact, we just did. In fact, before we started recording, I was tell these guys I had a virtual boot camp this last weekend and the last panel, there was an orthopedic surgeon and a pediatric dentist. And then I did a little conversation around, hey, you know, I believe in college for technical things.
00:04:14:10 – 00:04:33:19
Rod
And, but, you know, so it’s there’s a lot of people that don’t really get much and never use their degree for anything. And it was just perfect timing because I had those guys on and they have thousands and thousands and thousands of units, you know. But, anyway, so so tell us more. Tell us, you know, looks like Eric, you were in the, in the Navy, and, Jeff was in the Army.
00:04:33:19 – 00:04:35:06
Rod
Yeah.
00:04:35:08 – 00:04:54:02
Yep. Yeah. So I went to the Merchant Marine Academy for school, you know, born and raised in Florida. First time seeing snow was up there in New York, Long Island, where I went to college and then, was in the reserves for ten years after that. I had an engineering degree, worked in a lot of, power plants, across the country.
00:04:54:12 – 00:05:02:22
But, yeah, so I was in for ten years and, you know, through the academy. Great experience. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It.
00:05:02:24 – 00:05:31:15
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Was a little bit different. I ran out of money while going through college, and so I joined the army so that they would finish paying for school. Went in as, active duty as an officer and spent seven years in the Army and immediately got deployed during that duration. And spent, you know, the next seven years, going back and forth between, deployments and stuff like that, and finally had enough and decided that it was time for us to focus on our family.
00:05:31:17 – 00:05:38:10
Rod
Nice, nice, nice. Hold on. One last, one last question. Where do you guys live, by the way? Do you live near each other or.
00:05:38:10 – 00:05:45:09
No, we live in Florida. I live in, Saint Augustine. My brother lives in Melbourne, so we’re about two hours from each other. Oh.
00:05:45:10 – 00:05:49:24
Rod
You close? Okay. You guys, you guys down here where you belong? Florida. I love Florida, right? Had Mark.
00:05:49:24 – 00:06:05:23
Mark
Martin, now my business partners in Saint Augustine. Maybe. Maybe we’ll have to get together for something. Some nights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know if I were to work with my brother, we’d probably be butting heads all the time. How how have you guys been able to kind of segment your skill sets and play different roles?
00:06:05:23 – 00:06:14:01
Mark
And and I don’t know if anything in the military helped you kind of figure out what your superpower might be in multifamily, but how have you guys been able to do that and figure out what to play?
00:06:14:01 – 00:06:20:24
Rod
I can answer that question for him. Okay. All right. So so, Eric, you’re a you’re an engineer. Yes.
00:06:21:01 – 00:06:21:11
That’s right.
00:06:21:11 – 00:06:25:13
Rod
Yes, sir. Okay. So you’re analytical and you’re probably introverted as well. Yes.
00:06:25:15 – 00:06:26:18
Very much so. Yes.
00:06:26:18 – 00:06:48:08
Rod
Okay. And and where we know Jeff, is it because Jeff dragged your ass to my bootcamp? There’s the answer right there. You got yin and you got yin and yang going on here. You know, because and I’m obviously I’m the mouthpiece in any relationship that I have. And, you know, that’s a match made in heaven, man, when you get those two combinations because you’ve got the you’ve got the empirical piece of this, you got to have the numbers.
00:06:48:08 – 00:06:55:19
Rod
Right. And then you also have to build relations. Sorry I stole your thunder, but I couldn’t help it. I when you tell me you’re an engineer, I knew the answer.
00:06:55:21 – 00:07:14:15
Yeah, well, that’s exactly right, you know, and that’s boot camp. And, you know, obviously being in front of people and being, you know, putting from YouTube videos and posts is important. And that is not my, that’s not what I enjoy doing. But my brother is, you know, really complimented, you know, that weakness very well. And he makes YouTube videos.
00:07:14:15 – 00:07:17:19
People love him, you know, and it’s it’s been it’s worked out really well.
00:07:17:21 – 00:07:33:05
Rod
And I want to hear all about that, because I think, you can add some value there for sure. Well, let’s talk about your first deal, if you don’t mind. Let’s go. Let’s go right to it. So, so, whichever one she wants to start, let’s let’s talk about that first deal.
00:07:33:07 – 00:07:41:08
Mark
Yeah. Tell us the number, how you got into this deal. Because you guys were just telling us you had an interesting story of how you met these people. So just start from the beginning.
00:07:41:10 – 00:07:42:04
Rod
Yeah. Oh, good.
00:07:42:04 – 00:08:01:08
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Yeah, sure. So, you know, we went to the boot camp. There’s a lot of great panelists there. And it was kind of serendipitous. You had, my wife had just got back from a Costa Rica trip, and she had an amazing experience. And she said, Jeff, you got to go one day. I said, okay. And we have six kids, by the way.
00:08:01:08 – 00:08:03:07
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
I know we to get to that part. We have six kids.
00:08:03:08 – 00:08:03:24
Rod
Wow.
00:08:04:01 – 00:08:28:08
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And, the last day of the bootcamp, there’s a flier for our Costa Rica trip and it’s put on by other warriors. And I took a picture of it and I sent it to her. I said, you won’t believe this. And she said, you have to go. And I came up with every excuse of why it was a terrible timing is right before Christmas, you know, we’re we’re already, you know, spending time in this boot camp and another stuff.
00:08:28:08 – 00:08:48:05
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And we had other things going on, had every excuse not to go. And she convinced me to go and step out. And so we were able to network with some great folks there, some other warriors. And then when we got back, Eric had actually network with some of the same folks and we didn’t know it, but, it happened at different times with the same warrior group.
00:08:48:07 – 00:08:58:05
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And then we got a phone call in January asking if we are interested in partnering on a deal. I skipped over a few steps. Eric, do you want to come?
00:08:58:06 – 00:09:14:05
Rod
Well, let me let me interject a couple of things, okay? I allowed them to throw that flier up because my because because ego hit. Because they allowed me to they flew me down and let me speak there. So that was that was that. And that’s where I met you there. And that was wonderful. And I love Costa Rica.
00:09:14:05 – 00:09:21:24
Rod
My God, I would absolutely have a second place there. But but yeah, please continue from there. I just had to throw a little color on it.
00:09:22:01 – 00:09:29:00
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Yeah. Eric, tell them about where you met some of the same folks, and we didn’t know that we were paralleling efforts. Really?
00:09:29:02 – 00:10:02:12
Yeah. So just, you know, kind of funny story. I did, as much as I’m not a social media person, I did my introduction post, you know, on the on the wider website, or the Facebook page and, you know, started getting some calls and setting up some, different discussions and, you know, different lawyers and ran across, one of ran across it and, we, we pretty much just talked about just, you know, fun stuff, surfing, you know, like our kid, you know, like kids and stuff and what they were up to, he was actually in California at the time, surfing and, you know, just hit it off really well,
00:10:02:18 – 00:10:19:22
we talked about some of what, you know, I could offer what we, me and Jeff would offer. And then you kind of left it at that and said, yeah, we’ll do a deal together one day. And, you know, kept in touch. Well, we didn’t realize that, you know, he was partners with some of the people that Jeff was actually spending time with in Costa Rica at the time.
00:10:20:06 – 00:10:35:00
They get back, you know, from the trip and, and they start talking like, oh, yeah, you know, it’s with this guy Jeff Freeman in Costa Rica. And he’s like, well, I was talking to Freeman and, you know, so it just kind of happened. And then that’s how we got the call. You know, doing their thing, you know.
00:10:35:00 – 00:10:37:15
Rod
Yeah. He’s he’s a beautiful soul. He’s such a wonderful guy.
00:10:38:01 – 00:10:38:24
Yeah. Yeah. He’s awesome.
00:10:38:24 – 00:10:44:00
Rod
Yeah. That’s the pediatric dentist I was referring to earlier. So tell tell us about the deal.
00:10:44:02 – 00:11:04:20
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
So the deal is in South Carolina, and we’re in. We like to focus on the southeast. We like the East Coast, and we like Florida in particular. But, you know, we’ve also vacationed. I used to live in Georgia, Eric’s vacation many times in South Carolina. So we’re very familiar with the area. It’s 168 units. Pretty big asset to get in for our first deal.
00:11:05:02 – 00:11:24:23
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
The purchase price was 24 million, and the race was right about 10 million for that, for that project. So it’s a really huge undertaking. We committed to, you know, helping raise capital and being part of an investor relations with that one. We actually, wanted to participate in the due diligence as well. So we, asked to be on that schedule.
00:11:24:23 – 00:11:42:05
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
We drove up there, showed up for due diligence, walked through the units, walked through the property. Got to have some dinner with some other GP’s that we had, and you have to meet in person yet. And then, you know, we just really had a great time. Everybody got, you know, to meet each other, get to know each other better.
00:11:42:24 – 00:12:06:08
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And then, you know, came back and started raising for that one. And then if you remember, at the first quarter of 2025, the market just took a dump with, you know, volatility, there’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of speculation with the tariffs. And, all of a sudden, you know, that, that commitment started to look real, real tight.
00:12:06:10 – 00:12:25:08
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And, but we persevered. We definitely believe in that. Your mindset sets, everything else. Right? So your thoughts lead to actions which lead to your results. And so we stay committed to raising you know, we faced some hurdles during that race, but we persevered and then, you know, came out with, exceeding our goal.
00:12:25:10 – 00:12:27:07
Rod
Wow. Nice nice nice.
00:12:27:08 – 00:12:38:22
Mark
Give us some practical stuff on that. How do you go about finding these people for raising money? What does that conversation look like? How does the conversation even start? You know, for the listeners that are listening that have no idea how this stuff works.
00:12:38:24 – 00:12:50:07
Rod
Yeah. And your your circle of friends is probably ex-military. And sadly, we don’t pay our military nearly enough. So what did you do to go out there and raise money? Talk about that a little bit.
00:12:50:10 – 00:13:15:19
Yes. Talk about some of that. So you know obviously it had some ups and downs. But you know, both both of us have been, you know, in the real estate space. Right. So, I’m actually a hard money lender. I have a lot of investors I work with here locally. And so that was kind of our, you know, our first step of which are some of these single family, investors that are fixing flips builders and start bringing them and educating them over into the multifamily space.
00:13:16:17 – 00:13:32:17
And then, you know, of course, friends and family is a big part of that. You know, it basically started with just educating people, you know, kind of like Jeff did. We originally, you know, like, you know, showed them the numbers of of what a single family investment looks like, and then how you can really scale that on a multifamily level.
00:13:33:07 – 00:13:39:15
And then, you know, introducing them to the, to basically this multifamily space and then to the specific deal.
00:13:39:17 – 00:14:05:01
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Yeah. I think education is key when you can, teach your investors, especially new folks who have never got a chance to invest in a syndication before, but they’ve looked for the opportunities to invest in real estate, and you start, educating them that you can pull your money together and you can buy these larger assets, and they collective group, rather than trying to tackle on something that’s individually, they really get interested in it.
00:14:05:01 – 00:14:24:11
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And we just kept sharing our story. We would talk about things like what’s NOI, what’s a cap rate, what’s CapEx. And then sooner than later, we actually had people reaching out to us and ask what we were working on. And then they soon became our first investors. These were friends either just following some of our videos, some of our social media posts.
00:14:24:24 – 00:14:43:14
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
You know, that we’ve been talking about some of these assets that we are looking at taking down, and our growth and the potential for some of these opportunities. So it really came full circle on just helping others find, you know, helping them find a great opportunity. And then they came full circle back to us.
00:14:43:16 – 00:14:59:20
Mark
It was the exact same way for me on my first race, by the way. So very common. What makes us a good deal, by the way? Because if I’m reading this correctly, it’s not a traditional value ad. It’s kind of a unique value add here. So tell us about that. And what what you guys are going to do with the property to, to make money on it.
00:14:59:20 – 00:15:00:00
Mark
Yeah.
00:15:00:00 – 00:15:22:16
So I had yeah. So this one, you know, really wasn’t a I could tell, like you said, typical value ad with a bunch of CapEx and improvements are bringing, you know, the, the units, you know, upgrading the units or anything. The big one on this one was a tax abatement. So, you know, there’s, affordable housing, as you guys probably are more than aware, it’s a crisis in the country, actually, for certain areas.
00:15:22:20 – 00:15:48:02
Florida is another area around in Saint John’s County. Is is, you know, it’s getting very expensive to live. So, there’s you know, certain cities and counties that are providing tax incentives for people to have affordable housing and tax abatements is one of those strategies where, you know, the, the city or county will give you a deduction on their tax bill for keeping a certain amount of rents, you know, within a certain range.
00:15:48:04 – 00:16:01:10
And so it’s quite significant off the tax bill. So obviously reducing operating expenses, you know, and that taxes there’s NOI and make your cash flow look a lot better. So yeah this was it was pretty much a tax abatement play.
00:16:01:12 – 00:16:02:11
Rod
Love it. Love it.
00:16:02:11 – 00:16:12:01
Mark
So give us a little bit more detail on that. Like how many what are you guys have to do. Is it a certain amount of units. Is it a certain percentage of the property you have to do that. What does that logistically look like.
00:16:12:07 – 00:16:30:16
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
That’s right. So they have an army right. So it’s a 6,080% army for a certain amount of the units that at 168 and in about 20%, we can keep that for rent scale. And so we have to partner with the nonprofit, which we’re already working on with our other GPC team, and get that submitted, you know, here this year so that we can implement it into next year’s taxes.
00:16:30:16 – 00:16:47:16
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And that way it’ll help boost up our NOI, which, change that valuation. Right now, we have a short term loan. It’s a three year loan that we’re looking to bridge that, that timeline so that we can go into agency financing at a reduced rate. And then also, you know, which helps us with that aspect, too.
00:16:47:18 – 00:16:52:04
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And that increases our that jump starts our cash flow right into that first to second year.
00:16:52:08 – 00:17:05:05
Mark
Do you know, did the seller, why was the seller selling then. Were they unaware of this tax deal. Did they just not want to deal with it? What why did they want to sell the property if there was such a good incentive in place?
00:17:05:07 – 00:17:25:07
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Right. Yeah. So actually the, the lead sponsors on this deal, they had tried to purchase this, two years prior at a higher price, and the seller wasn’t ready to go. And then just after dealing with, you know, the the ownership for management and stuff like that. So they didn’t they got tired of owning the property essentially.
00:17:25:09 – 00:17:43:13
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And then they’re approached our lead, sponsors on this deal and said, hey, we’re ready to sell. And then they negotiated price. They actually got it for $2 million cheaper than what they had planned to buy it just prior. And so all the stars aligned. And, you know, it just it it came to fruition.
00:17:43:15 – 00:17:47:00
Mark
And two years of follow up. Imagine imagine that. Right.
00:17:47:05 – 00:18:09:05
Rod
That’s that’s that’s for you. That’s perseverance by God. That’s frickin perseverance. I will tell you, you know, I, I have lots of warriors that state, you know, lose out on a best and final, auction process on a property and stay in touch with the broker. When that first, you know, the offer they accepted falls through because they can’t for a deliver or can’t execute, they end up with the deal.
00:18:09:05 – 00:18:23:10
Rod
It happens all the time. And that’s a little longer than normal. But the perseverance is is beats, beats pretty much anything. So how many total units have you guys been involved in since you? I’ve only been in the warrior program a year. So how many units?
00:18:23:12 – 00:18:24:04
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Right?
00:18:24:06 – 00:18:31:01
Yeah, yeah. That unit, that deal with 168 units. And we’re actually on another one right now for 200 unit.
00:18:31:03 – 00:18:34:02
Rod
Oh, fantastic. Congratulations. That’s fantastic. One.
00:18:34:03 – 00:18:49:12
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Your goals. Erica. We went to the boot camp, and you have a set our goals. Eric puts on their 100 units by the end of next year. I told him he needs to add a zero to that. Now, that’s pretty ambitious. Obviously, but we’re kind of ending up right about in the middle. He had 100. I put a thousand.
00:18:49:12 – 00:18:53:19
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And so we’ll just come right about, you know, almost 400 by the end of the year.
00:18:53:21 – 00:19:01:13
Rod
Love it. Yeah. It my boot camps. Everybody has to do their goals. And, I’m glad to hear that you guys played full out in that process.
00:19:01:15 – 00:19:19:23
Mark
So obviously networking you guys talked about that and how that helped you get into that deal. What are some of the other practical things that listeners can take away of stuff that you guys are doing on a day to day, week to week, month to month basis to move this business forward, get you to that thousand, 2000 door mark, whatever it might be.
00:19:19:23 – 00:19:21:22
Mark
What are some of those specific things that you guys do?
00:19:22:03 – 00:19:49:23
So it kind of, you know, obviously me and Jeff have different strengths. So, you know, Jeff is very much active on social media. You know, reaching out, we, you know, we use, a software called the Bob Lee to build out our website. So reaching out to people we know, you know, on, on the multiple, channels as far as Instagram, Facebook, you know, and just, you know, really, really kind of focusing on that right out of our circle that we were very comfortable with started right there.
00:19:49:24 – 00:20:09:06
Then, on expanding out like, and like, you know, my side, it’s more personal. So reaching out to some of the folks that I work with, you know, with the lending, investors that are, you know, active in the area, introducing them to the deals, working with some other brokers and things, to kind of, you know, bring them just kind of little steps each day, really.
00:20:09:19 – 00:20:25:10
I wouldn’t say there’s any big, you know, massive thing we’re able to accomplish each week. Sometimes it feels like we get nothing done and we’re just, you know, but, you know, Jeff and I have a weekly meeting that we, a weekly call that we do together. And sometimes we’re like, man, what do we do next? You know, what’s what’s our next, next letter to pull?
00:20:25:12 – 00:20:34:09
And, you know, some days it’s, it’s it’s just trying to reach out to somebody, make one, you know, small little incremental changes over time and and really makes a big difference.
00:20:34:11 – 00:20:57:12
Rod
There’s a book that I, used to give warriors. I don’t know if I still do. It’s called The Slight Edge. It’s about those little decisions you make every day that predict your life up or or down, depending on what you do. And, it’s it’s very profound. So if you had to go back and start over with no knowledge or experience, how would you get started in multifamily.
00:20:57:14 – 00:21:18:10
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Find a mentor or a, you know, a group, find somebody, there’s a book called Three Feet from gold. It talks about three key parts, right? Stick ability. And that’s your perseverance through the hard times because you’re going to go through some lows. The number two thing it mentions is, seek professional help. And so you can’t do this alone.
00:21:18:10 – 00:21:32:12
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
You needed you to get, a mentor who’s done the things where, you’re wanting to go. Right. And so and the other part of that, too, is, Oh, I’m drawing a blank stick ability. And.
00:21:32:14 – 00:21:48:24
Rod
It’s a great book, by the way. You know, it talks about this miner that gave up basically three feet from a big gold mine and gave up. And we just talked about perseverance, a great, great example of perseverance. And of course, somebody stepped into that mine and and got the, got the gold. So, you know, it applies to anything.
00:21:48:24 – 00:22:02:09
Rod
I remember when I had I was about to go bankrupt on a, on a litigation support company. I started in 2010 and, stuck with it, turned it around and turned into a $10 million company that I sold a few years back. So yeah. Love it.
00:22:02:11 – 00:22:08:06
Mark
So why did you guys pick right then instead of some of the other ones that you that you looked at?
00:22:08:08 – 00:22:27:07
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Well, that’s a good question. So, you know, there’s a lot available out there that are ready and willing to take your money, but, broad invest and the vision and I found that more attractive than anything else, which is your mindset because you can accomplish anything that you put your mind to. And a lot of them don’t focus on that.
00:22:27:07 – 00:22:48:22
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
But one of the things that we did at the boot camp was we visualize where we want to be. We write down our goals, right, because a goal that’s not written down is nothing more than a wish. And so when you write those goals down, it creates this, you know, connection between you and what you’re going to do over the next course of, either the year, five year or ten years of goals.
00:22:48:22 – 00:23:02:03
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Right. And so that really set the the difference between Rod’s group and the warrior group being authentic versus just other groups who are just really, you know, they’re they’re they’re probably not going to have the same results.
00:23:02:05 – 00:23:28:03
Rod
I can tell you. I’m pretty sure not only are we, like by far the least expensive, but I believe our results eclipse all the other ones combined. It was something I’m very proud of. Yeah, but let me just say this. Let me just say this to those of you listening. If you’re considering possibly getting some guidance so you could experience the life you’re wanting this year rather than later, or maybe you thought you’d be more effective if you had the guidance with the goals and all these other things that we do inside the warrior group.
00:23:28:05 – 00:23:44:01
Rod
Text the word crush to seven, two, three, four, or five. See if the warrior program might be able to help you, you know, overcome any challenges that you have to actually get off square one to make something happen and build the life you want for your self and your family. Again, text crush to 72345 Eric.
00:23:44:01 – 00:23:49:01
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Tell them about the one that we interviewed with in Jacksonville for.
00:23:49:03 – 00:24:10:10
Yeah. So you know, another good thing you talked about, you know, asking what you can do every day podcast are actually very powerful, right? I mean, this if you have nothing else to do, you know, giving and listening to a ton of, rad podcasts, you know, just learning something and getting to meet people. So I was listening to a podcast and you were interviewing a broker, and it was a great interview.
00:24:10:10 – 00:24:26:09
The guy’s really knowledgeable. And at the end he said, okay, well, how can they reach out to you? And he was a guy in Jacksonville. And I said, man, that’s what I thought. So I looked them up, call them up, and and just, hey, hey, I heard you on Rob’s podcast. I hope you don’t mind me reaching out, but, let’s go, you know, grab lunch, do something.
00:24:26:11 – 00:24:38:16
And so, yeah. And actually, we’ve, we’ve had several deals come through and make several loi, with that broker and started developing a really good relationship and all that happened to my podcast, you know, that I was listening to that.
00:24:38:18 – 00:24:39:19
Rod
By the way.
00:24:39:21 – 00:24:41:05
It is Luke. Yeah.
00:24:41:07 – 00:24:50:14
Mark
That’s what I’m saying. Maybe we should get together and combine efforts, and maybe we’ll have a better chance of knocking down some deals. Then instead of competing against each other. Yeah.
00:24:50:16 – 00:25:16:01
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Yeah, we interviewed with, we interviewed with the local broker, not real estate broker, but, who runs a smaller program local for, like, mentoring. And, fast forward as, what, nine months later, we had been part of frauds group where had taken down the South Carolina deal. We had made some other losses. And that person that we are looking to for as a mentor to us actually reached out and asked if we wanted to start partnering on deals with them.
00:25:16:03 – 00:25:17:00
Rod
There you go.
00:25:17:02 – 00:25:20:01
Mark
Boom boom. Funny how things work out.
00:25:20:03 – 00:25:20:15
00:25:20:15 – 00:25:24:17
Rod
Yeah. So what’s that behind you that I see there Jeff.
00:25:24:19 – 00:25:35:15
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
So I got my warrior sword and you get to look at that whenever you close on your first deal. And the sword is legit. It is the real deal is a wonderful piece.
00:25:35:17 – 00:25:39:02
Rod
Oh that’s cool. It looks really cool back there. I just now notice it. Love it.
00:25:39:02 – 00:26:08:03
Mark
So at this point you guys have done a deal, a couple deals. You’re moving forward. At what point you know, because I know people always want to hear of like okay, buying doors. How does this trend translate into making money or freedom. If you guys were to kind of project it forward, like, what does that look like over the next couple of years in terms of how many doors, how many more deals where you get to a point where you can, you know, leave your jobs and get into this and be full time or financially free, whatever you want to call it?
00:26:08:03 – 00:26:31:08
Yeah. So that’s different for everybody, right? Yeah. Know Jack and I have been talking about this. Jeff’s got six kids. I have two, so that, you know, our financial heads are much, much different. But, yeah, so obviously we want to take a much more active role as we begin to you know, we’ve built a great network of people, you know, got a bunch of resources that we’re we’re starting to, you know, build relationships with.
00:26:31:08 – 00:26:57:12
I mean, obviously lenders, property managers, you know, insurance companies, you know, those are all the kind of the puzzle pieces needed to really close a deal. You know, obviously developing relationships for investor relations and capital and, and those things. So, you know, we’re really, our goal is to get much more active on the acquisition side, you know, and start really again working with these local brokers, and, and taking a deal down here in Florida.
00:26:57:12 – 00:27:02:00
Mark
Jeff, you anything you want to add in terms of timeline or what you think that might look like, if you were to guess.
00:27:02:02 – 00:27:13:22
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
So like a quote, I actually stole it from somebody else. I think Elon Musk said, you know, try to accomplish ten years worth of goals in six months, even though you’ll fail, you’ll do more than what you, would have done if you just set smaller.
00:27:13:22 – 00:27:20:13
Rod
Goals and you’ll do more than anybody on the planet when you when you approach it like that. That was Elon, by the way. Yeah, I love that that one.
00:27:20:13 – 00:27:25:03
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
And you know, to quote Trump, if you’re going to be thinking anyways, think big.
00:27:25:15 – 00:27:25:24
Rod
I love.
00:27:25:24 – 00:27:47:16
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
The art of the deal. And you know, for us, like, you know, we are very ambitious and we’re looking for opportunities where we can have multiple roles in a, as a partner. You know, like Eric mentioned, the, acquisition side, you know, and then you have lead sponsors, you have asset management and other stuff. So we’re trying to learn each role, you know, and stick to our, our skill set.
00:27:47:19 – 00:27:58:04
Rod
Where do your best ideas come from when you guys are, you know, brainstorming and looking for, ideas from the past?
00:27:58:06 – 00:28:00:15
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Yeah. Go ahead Eric.
00:28:00:17 – 00:28:18:11
Yeah. I mean, honestly, I would say our best ideas come from like, networking and talking to people. It’s really. This is a relationship business, hanging out, talking to different folks, having lunch, meeting for a cup of coffee, you know, and then even, you know, obviously, podcasts are a great way to start, you know, seeing what other people are doing.
00:28:18:23 – 00:28:39:23
Yeah, there’s a lot of resources out there. And I encourage people just to take, you know, take learning as part of it, podcast website, you know, doing some, you know, practice underwriting and things and then take that and go actually, you know, meet with people, have lunch, have coffee, discuss ideas. And you’d be surprised, of all the things that people will bring up and some of the stuff you’ll have.
00:28:39:23 – 00:28:47:08
Oh, I had never heard of that or I don’t know anything about that. And, you know, you go back and you start learning more and figuring it out. Absolutely.
00:28:47:10 – 00:29:09:20
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Yeah. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Look to somebody who’s actually accomplished something, what you want to do. And, you know, we have people doing flex space. We have people doing storage units. And so there’s just an inner network of of people there doing all these amazing things. You know, some people know how to lead you through getting, a great due diligence, you know, and finding the right people to do and inspections and get the right lending and get the right insurance.
00:29:09:20 – 00:29:13:16
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
So that network of support is critical.
00:29:13:18 – 00:29:32:12
Rod
Yeah. I mean, like you just said in the warrior group, I, I’m starting to teach other asset classes now because so many warriors are doing them between senior housing, student housing, industrial flex space, hotel conversions, new construction development. I mean, you know, it’s just it’s incredible what’s happening. It’s not just multifamily anymore, which is very exciting.
00:29:32:14 – 00:29:36:13
Yeah. There’s a yeah, there’s someone a warrior that owns a yacht and rents that yacht out. Right, right.
00:29:36:15 – 00:29:36:22
Mark
Yeah.
00:29:37:02 – 00:29:54:17
Rod
That and and a boutique hotel in Punta Cana. That’s Frank. And there you go. I mean, you, you know, Tysons doing, raising money for, roll ups and paving companies and some medical thing. I mean, just you name it. It’s just such an exciting environment.
00:29:54:19 – 00:30:07:13
Mark
Yeah, right. Well, you mentioned networking, connecting for people that want to, you know, maybe they’re in the military or they just connect with your guys. The story here, for people that want to connect with you guys, how what’s the best way that they can go about doing that?
00:30:07:15 – 00:30:28:12
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Yeah, they can follow us on our social media sites. We’re on, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, obviously Instagram at East Coast equity group dot net. They can contact us that contact East coast equity group dot net or visit our website. They can sign up to join our free, investor club. Or they can find out more information.
00:30:28:12 – 00:30:49:22
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
We just like to share content that educates our audience. So anything from what a 1031 is, what is the syndication? You know, what is a GP versus LP versus JV? And the more that we can share that knowledge, the more comfortable they become with wanting to invest and that they become a, you know, more sophisticated investor, and help for their future.
00:30:49:24 – 00:31:05:03
Rod
Nice, nice. Well, listen, I appreciate you guys coming on, and I’m dying to see where you’re at two years from now, because we’re definitely going to have you back. So, it’s great to see you. And, and, thanks for thanks for sharing some wisdom, boys.
00:31:05:05 – 00:31:07:03
Mark
Thank you for the opportunity.
00:31:07:03 – 00:31:10:10
Erik and Jeffrey Freeman
Thank you. Yeah.
00:31:10:12 – 00:31:17:03
Rod
Thank you for watching Multifamily Rockstars. If you love the show, please subscribe and leave us a five star review.
