Brandon started his journey in commercial real estate at the end of 2020. After a challenging start to 2020 with his W2, he knew he needed a different path to achieve the life he desired. Brandon joined the Warrior group to jumpstart his education into real estate investing and to surround himself with like-minded people. Brandon is now a passive investor in 203 multifamily doors and a GP in 23k sqft of self-storage.

Here’s some of the topics we covered:

  • Moving Quickly In Multifamily
  • Passive Investing
  • Value Add Property
  • How You Find Your Super Power To Add Value
  • How To Network
  • Weekly Actions To Take For Success

To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com

Full Transcript Below

Intro
Hi, my name is Rod Khleif, and I’m the host of “The Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing” podcast. And every week I interview Multifamily Rock Stars and we talk about how they built incredible wealth for themselves and their families through multifamily properties. So hit the “Like” and “Subscribe” buttons to get notified every Monday when a new episode comes out. Let’s get to it.

Rod
Welcome back to Multifamily Rock Stars. So as you guys know, this is where we interview people that are crushing it in this business. And we show you the inside scoop and how multifamily investors and today is going to be a little different. This is not just multifamily, it’s actually self-storage as well, but how they’re creating massive success in their businesses and in their lives. And as always, I’ve got my co-host, who is the director of my massive action team for my warrior group on the call, Mark Nagy. Mark, what’s up, brother?

Mark
I’m doing really well. Excited to hear the story today. I remember Brandon, bringing him in a little over a year ago to the group. So I’m excited to add some value to the listeners here.

Rod
Nice. Well, today we’ve got Brandon Hicks. And Brandon is investing a couple of hundred doors as a multifamily investor, passively, but is active in self-storage. And I thought it would add value to you guys to have you hear Brandon’s story and talk about– and then we’ll get into why I think it’s going to add value to. So, Brandon, welcome, brother.

Brandon
Thanks. Thanks for having me. I’m grateful to be here.

Rod
Absolutely. So why don’t you take a minute and just tell us a little bit about your story? How you got into this business, buddy?

Brandon
Yeah, absolutely. So I worked as a mechanical engineer for my day job. I’ve been doing that for about nine years now. And back in 2020, I was working on new product development. And that’s when, you know, Covid hit. Normally, we would travel overseas and do our manufacturing, but we couldn’t do that. We had to figure out a way to get around that without travel because of the restrictions. And that just resulted in a ton of work. Working throughout the day, into the night, every night to midnight, 01:00 A.M. And after doing that for a few months, I really started to kind of burn out and start to question, you know, is this what my job is going to be like for the rest of my life? Is there another way? It was very controlling. And so I did something a little crazy. I decided to read a book, and I happened to read “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. And it was just all over social media. And it just gave me an idea that you know, passive income, real estate, some things that I never really knew much about, just kind of being in the corporate world. And that sent me down the path of learning, reading books. I read your book and started listening to podcasts. And that’s ultimately how I found your group and found real estate.

Rod
Nice. So you signed up in December of 2020 if I recall. Another Warrior program, right? So you’ve done a lot, you know, in a very quick amount of time here. So I know that you’re a passive investor in some multifamily. Was that– tell me about that?

Brandon
Yeah. So I think my first passive investment was maybe around the April time frame. So about three to four months in the group, all with warriors. So it was 42 units in Ohio.

Rod
Okay. And now you’re up over 200. I know. So I know you met a warrior that’s big in the self-storage space. And the reason I wanted to bring you on is I want you to talk about the value, you know, the skill sets that you learned that you’re able to apply to another asset class. You know this is not multifamily. I know it’s a multifamily podcast, but talk about the skill sets that you need to learn for this business and how, you know, those cross-correlated to a different asset class, like self-storage.

Brandon
Yeah. So a lot of things apply, like the financing, very similar rate, the structure. So whether it’s a joint venture or syndication, all very similar value add strategy, trying to find little nuggets and where you can add some value. Maybe it wasn’t managed properly, maybe the rents are below market. So a lot of the principles that we talk about in multifamily apply in self-storage, just in a little bit different of a way.

Rod
Right. Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, everything from, you know, you said joint venture, you join venture self-storage, you can syndicate self-storage. The financing is similar. You raise money, just like you would for you know, a multifamily deal. So you talk about the value add component, you know, you can improve the facility and raise rents and, you know, just really use, you know, similar, really, skill sets to, you know, get into a different asset class. I mean, it doesn’t have to be self-storage. It could be mobile home parks, you know, it could even be asset classes I’m a little leery of right now, like office or retail. But it applies to all of these asset classes.

Brandon
Exactly. Even the underwriting. All very similar. A little unique, but at a high level, very similar.

Mark
So for someone brand new into the business, who’s listening to this, obviously, you were brand new about a year ago. How do you think people can really find their superpower to add value to a team, whether it is self-storage or multifamily or whatever? How do you think people can figure that out when they’re getting started?

Brandon
For me, with my technical background, I kind of looked at the different areas within real estate or within even multifamily. So, like, acquisitions, investor relationships, asset management, kind of like at a high level. And I was like, well, what skill set do I already have that I could bring to the table to start adding value as quickly as possible. And for me, I thought that would be the underwriting. Familiar with spreadsheets, familiar with numbers. I was like, okay, well, I can’t just do the underwriting. So what if I find a deal and bring that to a sponsor? And that was something that I had learned, you know, in the group is if you have a deal, if you have a really good deal, someone’s going to want to help you close it. So I was reaching out to sponsors, people experience in the group, finding out what their criteria were and then how they like to underwrite? What their criteria is and with a goal to bring them one of those deals and then partner with them and learn.

Rod
Is that what happened? You are actually able to locate a deal that you guys closed on, or is that just how you started?

Brandon
That’s how I started. For me, I was not actually able to do that in that time frame. But what I also started to do was, you know, I knew that I could pick up the underwriting, but I knew that it wasn’t what I wanted to only do. And so I started just trying out pieces of the business, like capital raise or a newsletter or networking. I just started trying a bunch of things and seeing what really resonated with me and what actually brings me a lot of energy. And one of those is I really like to network with other warriors, with other investors. And I’ve started to consider capital raise for future deals.

Rod
No, that’s great. Now, you know, I’m sure that by sending deals to warriors or other operators, it doesn’t matter if they’re warriors or not. You know, you’re building a relationship with those people, and they’re like, okay, this guy actually wants to work this and do this. And I’m sure that’s how you got the interest of the people that you’re partnered with now. And I don’t want to name names, but, you know, you’re partnered with you know, I know some awesome people in the group. Okay. That’s very important. So, good. Good.

Mark
I know you started passively, Brandon, in a few deals. Some warriors choose to do that, right? They want to start passively because they like to learn it and not necessarily take on the responsibility on their first deal. Obviously, some warriors go above and beyond with the education just because they like to help out other people. But what are some of the biggest lessons that you’ve learned, being a passive investor alongside some of these other warriors and students?

Brandon
Yeah. So for me, I need to be involved and see how something goes. I feel like if I don’t actually see that, then I don’t fully get an understanding and a grasp of it. So just by being a passive investor, seeing how the money might get moved over, and then when you’re on the calls with you know, whoever your investor relations person is or talking with the property manager, just seeing the conversations and how that all unfolds just made it so much easier for me to understand the bigger picture as an LP investor.

Rod
Yeah. Actually, I just lost what I was going to say. Hey, Perry, cut this part out. Go ahead and ask your next question.

Mark
Yeah, no worries. So, Brandon, what are some actions that you take on a weekly basis or maybe monthly if you want to go there that you think every listener should just get started with, you know, some logical, actionable items that people can go and take and do today?

Brandon
Yeah. So I’ve got a system in place right now that I actually really like, and I integrated part of what Rod teaches as well here. So I identify the three or four major things that I want to be working on. So I have my goals, and then I’m basically taking my goals and working them down backward to actionable steps. So for me, that’s finding real estate deals is one, another one is I’m actually training for a marathon right now and raising money for a fundraiser in the process. So those are a lot of big things that I’m working on. So I have two to three things. And then I brainstorm on Sunday. Everything that I could be doing this week for those specific what’s called workstreams. And then I picked the top two or three that I think are going to have the biggest kind of bang for your buck, kind of using the 80/20 method because there are only so many things I can do in a week, and I want to make sure that I’m doing the highest value items. So I figured those out at the beginning of the week. I put everything into my calendar, lunch, dinner, family time, my runs, what I’ll be doing for fundraising, all of that, and then I start to block that time, and then I make sure that I get that done by the end of the week. I learned from Jesse Itzler. I think in terms of weeks, sometimes something comes up in the middle of the day and you might not get to what you plan for. And I would be hard on myself if I didn’t. But when you plan in a week, you give yourself a little bit more leeway, you have a little bit more time to get those things done, and then I make sure that I get those done by the end of the week.

Mark
Now, real quick, I know you talked about a strategy there, of setting a goal and then working your way backward. That’s an awesome strategy. Some people might not be familiar with that. Could you elaborate on what that kind of means in terms of multifamily, if you could?

Brandon
Yeah. So, you know, you hear operators talk about how many leads they have to talk to before they close the deal. So let’s say I wanted to close four deals this year, and that means, you know, you got to look at 200 deals to close one. So I’d say, okay, I need to look at 800 deals this year, but what percentage? And then I would work backward from there. If I want four deals, let’s say maybe we’ll do it the other way. So I’ve got 800 leads, and then how many of those are going to– am I going to put an LOI in? Okay. And then how many of those are going to actually go under contract? And then how many of those are actually going to close? And over time, you’ll learn what those percentages are, and then you can set your target number throughout the year and then work towards that.

Rod
Nice. Yeah. You’re back into it. By the way, your little weekly planning thing sounded very familiar. I actually teach a version of that where you know, you do it a week at a time. Jesse’s awesome. I got to see him speak with his wife, Sara Blakely, at a Mastermind. That got to meet them. They’re beautiful people. That planning process, guys, just so you know, is at a high level very fast. By the way, I did this with my goal-setting workshop that I did on January 1st on my Rod Khleif official Facebook page. I did that process. If you want to see it, just DM me on any social channel, and I’ll see that you get the link. But, you know, it basically just involves being very clear on what your priorities are. Having a thinking list, a list of things that you’re, you know, high-level things that you have to think about on a weekly basis, creating a task list. And there are some other steps in here, but I’m really abbreviating it quickly here. You create a task list, but then you do what Brandon said. You identify that 20% that will get you 80% further. That’s the Pareto principle. They’re always there. Those things that you know will get you further faster, and then you really block time for those. Now you have a W2 job, right? Still, full-time job.

Brandon
I did.

Rod
Do you have a family? Do you have kids? I don’t know what your personal situation is.

Brandon
I’m engaged.

Rod
Congratulations.

Brandon
Yes. Thank you.

Rod
Awesome. You have a life outside of work, too. You’ve got a fiance. You’re doing this marathon. Kudos to you. And then the real thing kudos to you is the fact that you’re doing something charitable. And, guys, I don’t know what it is about warriors, and, you know, I seem to attract people that want to help other people. And that’s the beautiful thing about our warrior group. In fact, let me mention this. If you have an interest in applying, text the word “CRUSH” to “72345”. This is applied to our warrior group. You know, my students now own well over 50,000 doors, and I’ve only been teaching four years, and it could be significantly more than that. That’s all were–you know, we track it very loosely. But if you’re interested in applying to the warrior program, text the word “CRUSH” to “72345”. We check you out. You check us out to see if it’s a fit. So what’s next for you, buddy? You’re going to double down on the self-storage? Are you still looking at multifamily? Give us an idea of what’s next for you?

Brandon
Yes, I’m doing a little bit of both. So I still do the underwriting, and I’m still trying to add as much value as I can. So there are several warriors that I work with who find deals but need help with the underwriting. And I’ve seen a lot of value in that. It’s like once I started partnering with one Warrior, we found, you know, I was hesitant or I would procrastinate on calling the broker or the city or the local police department to learn more about the deal and he jumped right in on that. Whereas he would kind of hesitate on the underwriting, and I would just jump right in on that. So we found that you know, that worked really well. So I still do that as deals come up that they think are worth taking a look at and then also working with other warriors on self-storage. So growing out my portfolio there.

Rod
Nice. Yes. And what I want to flag is something that Brandon just said, and that is he found where he could add the most value. And there are so many different places you can add value in this business. Like underwriting would be Brandon’s, but there’s also, you know, relationship building. If you’ve got some sales background or if you’re a good communicator, just building relationships with brokers, potential investors, and the like. There’s asset management. After the fact if you manage anything you know, that ties into asset management and project management, for example, if you’ve got some experience doing that or just managing people in general, you can asset manage. You can bring money to a deal. You can bring the at-risk capital to a deal. You can just bird dog and find deals. So there are a lot of different places that you can add value. And Brandon has settled into, help, you know, adding value to other people in the Warrior group. And so he’s seeing all these deals come across his desk, and, you know, he certainly can participate in deals that make sense. Now, of course, we’re kissing a lot of frogs right now to find a deal, obviously, but you have to. But here’s the other thing. Yes. And I get complaints sometimes even from warriors on occasion. I’m looking at so many deals, and, you know, I haven’t been able to find one that pencils out yet. And I’m like, yeah, but you’re getting better every single freaking day. You’re getting better at this. And it’s not always going to be crazy like it is right now. It’s definitely, you know, at some point there’s going to be a pullback. And I think it may be actually even started a little bit.

Brandon
I’ve got one more example for value add that also that I learned from multifamily that I’ve applied over to self-storage and that’s off-market deals. So one of the warriors had expressed that he was focused on on-market but not off-market. And I was like, that might be a place that I can add some value, and there’s a lot of work to find off-market deals. So I’ve been putting that system in place, but it is almost essentially the same as what we’ve learned within the warrior group to find off-market apartment deals or multifamily deals. It’s just about the same. I’m just doing it for a different asset class. And one of the things that I learned throughout this process of building the system for several months, one, I find that I actually really like to build systems, but the first system I built was more like, I think back to the book “Turning Pro”, amateur versus Pro. I kind of build myself a job in the business. And then I went away to our warrior event, and then nothing happened with my system because I was not able to work in the business. And so I realized, okay, this is really not a system here. And so what I ended up doing is hiring a virtual assistant. I had that fear of like, well, how much money is this going to cost? X, Y, and Z. And I started the whole analysis paralysis thing. Like, should I do this? It’s going to cost so much money. And I said you know what? Commit for six months, put the system in place and we’ve been working together for four weeks now, and she basically runs the whole system and I do one to two hours a week. And I’m so glad I pushed through that. The time leverage, creating my own system. It just really gets me excited and energized, and I’m glad I pushed through and ended that.

Rod
Good for you. You pushed yourself. You know, guys, “The quality of your life”. This is Tony Robbin’s quote “is in direct proportion to the amount of discomfort that you can take on”, and you push yourself. And that’s freaking awesome. And, you know, the fact that you got a VA and we teach–you know, in our course materials as a Warrior we teach you how to do that. And you took advantage. And you mentioned “Turning Pro”. My love language is gifts, guys. And my warriors get gifts from me, you know, practically on a monthly basis. And one of them is the book “Turning Pro” by Steven Pressfield, you take your life and you stop being a freaking amateur and you become a professional. You know you want to be a success in anything, you become a professional. And so that’s why that’s one of the first books we send out. I’m glad that you got value out of it, buddy.

Brandon
Yeah. Thank you.

Mark
We’ve come a long way in a year, Brandon, I know you mentioned, you know, you were only listening for maybe three, four months before you kind of got started, jumped into this thing, which, you know, as an engineer, analytical, maybe, you know a lot of people that I talked to maybe listen for three to four years before they decide to take action. But how did you overcome that fear so quickly when you first got started?

Brandon
It’s funny. What really pulled me in was that sometimes, Rod, you say analysis paralysis, folks. And I was like, oh, my God, he’s speaking to me. I do a lot of thinking and not taking a lot of action. And I was describing that to somebody else who was thinking about the group. And I’m like, yeah, you took action on joining the group really quickly. And I was like, well, it was probably the right timing for me. You know, I just come off of that really challenging work year, and I knew I needed, I wanted to learn something else, and it’s probably the right place at the right time. But also, I kind of needed to know myself. I’ve thought about some other ventures in the past, and I would think about them and do a little bit of research but not take action. And my concern was that I would think a lot about real estate and not take any action. And I knew for me I needed the coaching. That’s really what got me over that hump. And jumping in has gotten me there. So that’s why I ended up making that leap.

Rod
Let me ask you this. What do you think are some good questions that someone might want to ask themselves about getting into this business?

Brandon
Yeah, I think, why do you want to get into the business? What is it that you want from it? Is it time freedom? Is it financial freedom? What is it? Because if you don’t have a strong enough why then you won’t stick with it. For me, it’s that time freedom and the ability to have more control over my life and be fully in control of my time and my finances. And that’s what drives me to keep on going. You know, like I mentioned, I had tried a few other ventures, and I didn’t stick with them very long. And this is by far the longest I’ve stuck with a venture. And I know that this isn’t going to change because my why is strong enough.

Rod
And guys, I already mentioned my goal-setting workshop. There’s a reason–you know that’s the first thing we do at my boot camps. By the way, I’ve got a virtual boot camp coming up here on March 12th and 13th. If you haven’t registered, it’s like peanuts to come. I don’t sell anything there. It’s just 18 hours of training. So make sure you know, you look into that. It’s “multifamilyvirtualbootcamp.com”, or you can text “MULTIFAMILY” to “72345”, or I think you can even text “RodLive” as one word “72345”. But the reason that the first thing we do is goal-setting is because you’ve got to have that burning desire like Napoleon Hill talks about in his book “Think and Grow Rich”. So, you know, I wanted to just hammer that point home because that’s the biggest thing. You guys have heard me say it. Ad nauseam. 80% to 90% of this is psychology and mindset. You have to take action. You have to push through analysis paralysis. Like, Brandon, you have so successfully done.

Mark
Rea quick there, Brandon, is that you said you had a rough year and then you jumped into multifamily. So many people would use a rough time in their W2 to be a reason to not take action. You know, they might say, oh, I got to get things you know, finished up some projects, get better at my job before I pull the trigger on multifamily. But you used it as the opposite as motivation. Was it really the goals that helped you do or what did push you through that you know, where a lot of people would use that as an excuse, frankly.

Brandon
Yeah, that one’s a tough one. For many years, I definitely had limiting beliefs and somewhat of a victim mindset. I hate to say it, but I used to think that successful people just got there because they were lucky or rich people were there because they were lucky. And I was like, well, I’m a hard worker and I’m smart. Why am I not getting ahead? And it just never made sense to me. I remember I was coming home from a vacation. I was looking at a Marina, and I saw these huge, beautiful boats, and I was like, and the question was, why not me? More from a positive perspective. I could do this. Why couldn’t I have that? And I still vividly remember that. And it was just a little bit of a shift that as opposed to poor me, why not me? There was a little bit of a shift there, and I don’t know where that came from. It might have just been like just the year that I had and like, hey, you got to do something different than what you’ve been doing to get the results that you’ve been dreaming of. So I think it was just a combination of all of that.

Rod
One of the questions that I like to ask is you know, did you have an epiphany? And it sounds like that was a bit of an epiphany for you. You went out and got “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, which changed you know, millions of people’s lives about income and passive income versus active income and so on and so forth and all the things that he teaches. For me, a big motivator is disgust. Maybe you get a little disgusted with what’s happening. Does that resonate at all?

Brandon
It does. I would have considered myself– I do consider myself to be a very hard worker. I didn’t understand what burnout was when people say they were burnt out. And then I went through it and I was like, oh, I see how this is. And it just really impacted me. I did a time wheel, you know, a life wheel. You know, where your finances, your health, your wealth, all of these things. And my finances and my career were like, very strong and everything else, my health, family, my friends all suffered because I was so focused on that one thing. And I vowed that I would never let that happen again. I’ve got on my calendar that we’re going to have dinner together, we’re going to have family time together. I’m going to prioritize these things. I’m not going to let that happen again. So I think I needed to get to that place for me to make that change.

Rod
Love it. Yeah, we do that wheel at my events as well, just because it’s so important for you to see that visually and you know how I feel about that stuff. I talk about the fact that my biggest regret in life was, you know, coming home and playing with my kids, but I wasn’t there mentally. Greatest regret to this day with my kids who are, you know, they’re old and older, much older than, you know, they are 30 and 26. They’re not young anymore is my point. But they said I was a great dad, but, you know, nobody needs to have those sorts of regrets. You getting into a new relationship, into a, you know, committed relationship, ultimately, kids so important that you keep those priorities top of mind. Well, listen, brother, I appreciate you coming on and spending a little time with us and am super impressed with what you’ve accomplished in a short amount of time. You’ve been with us, my friend. So thank you for coming on, and I’ll see you soon.

Brandon
Thank you. Appreciate it, guys.

Mark
Thanks, Brandon.

Outro
Rod, I know a lot of our listeners are wanting to take their multifamily investing business to the next level. Now, I know you’ve been hard at work helping our Warrior students do just that, using our “ACT” methodology, which is Awareness, Close, and Transform. Can you explain to the listeners how they can get our help?

Rod
You bet. Guys, we’ve been going non-stop for three years building an amazing community of like-minded people, and our coaching students, which we call our Warriors, have had extraordinary results. They’ve purchased thousands and thousands of units, and last year we did over 1000 units with our students. And we’re looking to grow this group and take it to the next level. We’re looking for people who want to follow a proven framework that’s really step by step and then leverage our systems and network to raise equity, to find and close deals, and to build partnerships nationwide. Now, our Warrior Community is finding success in any market cycle. So if you’re interested in finding out more about how you can become more of our incredible network and take advantage of the incredible opportunities that are coming very soon, apply to work with us at “MentorWithRod.com” or text “CRUSH” to “72345” and we’ll set up a call so you can check us out and we can check you out. That’s “MentorWithRod.com” or text “CRUSH” to “72345”.