Corey, the visionary founder of Kahuna Investments, is dedicated to delivering exceptional value to investors through strategic multi-family apartment investments, providing stable cash flow returns and long-term capital appreciation. With a remarkable $200+ million real estate portfolio, he’s a bestselling author (“Why The Rich Get Richer– The Secrets to Cash Flowing Apartments”), host of the Multi-Family Legacy Podcast, and a sought-after speaker at esteemed institutions like Harvard and Nasdaq. Corey is also a frequent guest on major media outlets, including FOX, CBS, ABC, and NBC affiliates, solidifying his status as a leading authority in real estate investment.
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- Corey’s Childhood In The Ozarks
- The First Mistakes of A Newbie Real Estate Investor
- The First Steps In Quitting a W2 Job To Pursue Multifamily
- Community Building On Your Properties With The Tenants
- Being Vertically Integrated In Multifamily
- How To Build A Successful Team In Any Business
- The One Regret Of Every Multifamily Investor
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com
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Full Transcript Below
00:00:00:10 – 00:00:18:07
Rod
Hi, my name is Rod Khleif and I’m the host of the Lifetime Cash Flow to Real Estate Investing Podcast. And every week I interview multifamily rock stars. We talk about how they build, inquire audible wealth for themselves and their families through multifamily properties. So hit the like and subscribe button to get notified every Monday when a new episode comes out.
00:00:18:11 – 00:00:44:05
Rod
Let’s get to it. Welcome to another edition of Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing. I’m Rod Khleif and I am freakin thrilled that you are here. And we are going to have an awesome conversation today with my friend Cory Peterson. Now, I was just on his podcast, the Multifamily Legacy podcast. We had a lot of fun and he’s the CEO of Kahuna Investments, like the Big Kahuna and just wrote an awesome book which I read, which you must go read and see.
00:00:44:05 – 00:00:56:17
Rod
It’s called Copy Your Way to Success. It’s really about emulating the thing you know, nothing is new in this world and so you emulate the things that you want to do and and produce and so on and so forth. Anyway, welcome, brother. Good to see you, man.
00:00:56:17 – 00:00:57:26
Corey
Yeah, Thanks, Rob. Thanks for having me on.
00:00:57:26 – 00:01:12:02
Rod
Yeah, let’s have some fun today. So, you know, why don’t we start by having you just kind of tell your story and you know, where you started, where you came from. Kind of bring us current. Yeah, we did a lot of stuff before we started recording, and I’m fascinated to get into it, but let’s hear this whole story.
00:01:12:02 – 00:01:25:06
Corey
Yeah, well, the rags to riches success story, I mean, I started I grew up in the Ozarks, like the one on Netflix and so it was it was a rough beginning on the farm and by the lakes. By all the lakes and shit. Yeah, Yeah. Oh, I was.
00:01:25:13 – 00:01:33:03
Rod
I was looking. I was looking at property up there. I thought that’d be cool to have a, you know, house on one of those lakes. And anyway, I digress. Please keep. Yeah, yeah.
00:01:33:06 – 00:01:48:05
Corey
But, you know, on the farm, you know, you realize that there’s not a lot of things to do, so you have to dream. And, you know, on that farm, I dreamt big things, and I always. I had a wild, vivid imagination of who I wanted to be. And you get in life and then it starts to knock you down.
00:01:48:05 – 00:02:09:08
Corey
So I didn’t get out of bed, kind of got out of high school, didn’t go to college, become a used car salesman. Yeah. And, you know, that’s where I was. But I really wanted to be something special. And. And then something changed. I actually I was dating now my wife of 21 years, but I was dating her back then, and my mom was married to a man named Bruce.
00:02:09:10 – 00:02:29:23
Corey
I call him Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne. He was a Batman, but he was loaded. Okay? And he had a house in Hawaii. Wow. And so my mom invited me and my girlfriend to go there. And so we get there. And it was the first time that I saw true wealth. Right? Like Bruce had time and money, Right? Most of us have one.
00:02:29:25 – 00:02:50:01
Corey
He had both that I saw it like. So I’m like, Dude, what do you do? And he said the magic words, Real estate. So it was in real estate. He owned apartments, no kid. And so I left the island thinking he was the big kahuna. Right? And shortly after I read the book, Little Purple Book, which would be the book, and I was like, Oh my God, that’s Bruce.
00:02:50:01 – 00:02:56:25
Corey
Because Bruce was self-made, too. And I said, If he can do it, I can do it. That’s it. And then so, you know.
00:02:56:28 – 00:02:57:28
Rod
That was the epiphany.
00:02:57:28 – 00:03:24:10
Corey
That was it. Yeah. That’s when I got the download from the mothership at 30 years old that this was what I was supposed to do. So read a lot of books. 2005 started Real estate called it Kahuna Investments. I thought about Bruce. I was like, I want to be the big kahuna like him. Cool. So that’s what I named it after and start off as a wholesaler back doing single family stuff where, uh, this was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, then moved to Phenix.
00:03:24:10 – 00:03:44:13
Corey
Oh, nice. Actually moved to Phenix because I, I got, I made the first mistakes of a real estate investor. I invested all my money in three properties, and it was paying me $200 per property. So 600 bucks was going to get me very far, right? So I got a job, but I actually got a job. Probably the best thing I ever did was I became a financial advisor.
00:03:44:15 – 00:03:46:23
Corey
Oh, no kidding. Yeah. So. Wow, I.
00:03:46:23 – 00:03:49:11
Rod
Would never have pegged you for that one, because that’s a fairly analytical.
00:03:49:11 – 00:04:02:29
Corey
Position. It is. And so. Well, they told me you didn’t have to have a degree. They said to be a salesperson. I was like, Well, I own this company called Kahuna Investments. And but I, I studied really hard. I made a 72 ride and I got my license right in 70.
00:04:02:29 – 00:04:07:23
Rod
Two to pass the test. Yes, that’s. Hey, it’s like an atom bomb. You can be close. That’s all that.
00:04:07:23 – 00:04:27:21
Corey
Matters. Oh, my gosh. Edward Jones himself. Edward Jones. They taught me money. And you, when you start really learning about money and how it works, what people eat, stocks, bonds, meat, the whole gamut. And so I was doing that full time. And then the next thing happened, which was the Great Recession, right? 2008 and 2009. How’d you do it?
00:04:27:23 – 00:04:43:29
Corey
Well, and I was in the stock market. I wasn’t really buying a whole lot of real estate. I was still kind of stuck. Oh, thank God. Because I’d run out of money on those first three deals. But my vision was still there. And when the market crashed, all my investors. But I realized I couldn’t put my my dream on hold for just a minute.
00:04:43:29 – 00:04:57:22
Corey
Sure. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I have no control in the stock market here. I was telling everybody like, I’m a financial advisor. When it crashed, I realized there was no control. There’s no levers, right? It’s the market and.
00:04:57:22 – 00:05:04:17
Rod
It’s I think it’s coming again. I really do, brother. I will. You know, people tell you I’m freaking crazy, but I think we’re headed for a big.
00:05:04:17 – 00:05:05:28
Corey
Crash.
00:05:06:00 – 00:05:13:10
Rod
As as this commercial debt starts coming due and bank starts failing. If you’ve got money in the stock market, man, I wouldn’t right now. That’s my.
00:05:13:10 – 00:05:24:15
Corey
Too. That’s exactly. So when that happened, every investor that I had went, you know, there for one case become two of one case. I realized that I had no control. My heart left the business. So did the cells.
00:05:24:18 – 00:05:28:29
Rod
I’m sure I’m sure you had a lot of unhappy people and there was a lot of blame getting thrown around.
00:05:28:29 – 00:05:29:12
Corey
Yeah, sure.
00:05:29:12 – 00:05:30:00
Rod
Back then.
00:05:30:00 – 00:05:44:13
Corey
Yeah. So I end up getting fired from that job. Did you really? Best thing ever happened, though? Can I walk into my office, you know, on a Wednesday afternoon at seven in the morning and my secretary couldn’t look at me and I knew had a meeting at ten. I was like, the fix is on.
00:05:44:13 – 00:05:45:02
Rod
No kidding.
00:05:45:02 – 00:06:01:19
Corey
And in my office, all by myself, with no one else looking, that’s when I made the most deep down, honest. You talk about mindset. This is when I fully committed to real estate. I like every book I ever read. The biggest plays were in the downtown.
00:06:01:19 – 00:06:03:08
Rod
Oh, yes. And it’s coming. It’s coming.
00:06:03:08 – 00:06:15:13
Corey
Right now. It was like right in front of it. I was like, This is probably the worst will ever see in my lifetime. Maybe we get a second chance at it too, by the way. Yeah. And I was like, If I don’t go all in right now, I will forever hate myself.
00:06:15:15 – 00:06:16:24
Rod
So that was that was a pivotal.
00:06:16:24 – 00:06:31:26
Corey
Moment, right? That was the rocky moment, man. I mean, I’m telling you, I got beat. Clubber Lang hit me, and I was like, had to decide whether I was going to get up or not. And I studied that that little kid, that little inner voice that we have, it was screaming, put me in. And so I went full time.
00:06:31:26 – 00:06:37:04
Corey
I got my mind right. And so I sort of said, Center real estate. Yeah. And I just.
00:06:37:04 – 00:06:39:07
Rod
This was when exactly at that point, 20.
00:06:39:07 – 00:06:40:13
Corey
28, 20.
00:06:40:13 – 00:06:40:25
Rod
Eight.
00:06:40:28 – 00:06:43:02
Corey
Which was a great time to enter in the marketplace.
00:06:43:08 – 00:06:49:01
Rod
If I got in 2009, we’d be doing this on the back of my 300 foot yacht right now. Dude, I’m telling.
00:06:49:01 – 00:07:06:15
Corey
You, and I know your story and I so I know the pain. Yeah. And so it was a great time to get in. And then I started wholesaling because I didn’t have any money. And then I but I got into real estate. Then I started I raised my first piece of private money by accident. I was just asking one of my old clients at Edward Jones, right.
00:07:06:16 – 00:07:12:09
Corey
If he knew anybody and he was like, Well, Corey, I want to do the deal. How do I finance it? And they gave me some money and I was like, What a.
00:07:12:09 – 00:07:16:13
Rod
Great framework for the real estate thing, because you had all those connections at the.
00:07:16:16 – 00:07:22:14
Corey
End. And once I understood it, once I understood it, the next year, I raised $3 million. Right?
00:07:22:17 – 00:07:23:19
Rod
And this is in 2000.
00:07:23:19 – 00:07:24:20
Corey
Nine, 2009.
00:07:24:21 – 00:07:26:16
Rod
Wow. And it was an easy to raise money.
00:07:26:16 – 00:07:28:06
Corey
And that’s the only way you could do deals.
00:07:28:06 – 00:07:45:16
Rod
Wow. Yeah, Well said. That’s coming again. We’ve got a fund we’re going to be putting out here in, like days an opportunity fund. And so if you’re accredited tax partner, 272, three, four, five because we’re going to be taking advantage of some opportunity and it will there’ll be a return the minute you put the money in. Okay. Like I think 4%.
00:07:45:16 – 00:07:53:00
Rod
But, but there’ll be much higher returns once we get rocking. But yes, because I believe let’s talk about the economy later. But anyway, continue your story.
00:07:53:02 – 00:08:12:22
Corey
Well, so then, you know, it’s crazy how it works, but it’s like, you know, you start putting those the single family flips together. But then I realize my first problem was I can’t scale this. Right. Right. And then the market, you know, the short sales Oreos were starting to die up. And I was like, oh, my God, But I’ve got all this capital saved, put me to work.
00:08:12:24 – 00:08:31:16
Corey
And that’s when I drove by an apartment complex. And I used to say, I wish I could own an apartment complex. And then one day I just finally I framed it differently. I said, How can I own the apartment complex? That was your first one? And so that’s one. So once I made the mine, I’m like, okay, who do I know?
00:08:31:18 – 00:08:42:11
Corey
So I got to mentor and man, it just I learned the business and then I jumped in and my first deal about it in 2011, $3.2 million.
00:08:42:13 – 00:08:43:12
Rod
How many units?
00:08:43:14 – 00:08:46:27
Corey
144. Oh oh, Well.
00:08:46:29 – 00:08:57:12
Rod
Hold on, hold on, hold out all rolled up. I got to look. I got to hold on. Jeez. Oh, God. That’s if that’s coming. Oh, my God. We’re going to we’re going to do so well. So 3 million?
00:08:57:15 – 00:08:57:25
Corey
Yep.
00:08:57:29 – 00:09:06:16
Rod
Okay, hold on. 3 million divided by 144, 20,000 units, 21, just under 20.
00:09:06:16 – 00:09:11:15
Corey
One. This was in South Carolina. This was. This was in Greenville, South Carolina.
00:09:11:17 – 00:09:13:25
Rod
God in that place is worth now.
00:09:13:29 – 00:09:25:02
Corey
Well, so it’s funny. I just. Look I just drove by it. Yeah. Because that was it just transacted for 18 million or something like that. Yeah. I sold it five years later for 8.8. Yeah. Yeah. And your.
00:09:25:02 – 00:09:28:14
Rod
Timing was fricking incredible and.
00:09:28:16 – 00:09:29:09
Corey
Crystal balls.
00:09:29:09 – 00:09:35:11
Rod
Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Oh, God, don’t get me started. I. But. Well, that’s, that’s pretty cool.
00:09:35:11 – 00:09:51:02
Corey
That’s how I started playing Monopoly, right? I really realized that you got to get rid of the green houses. It you got to go to the Red House quickly. And so now we own we have, you know, $250 million worth of commercial real estate, ten active projects. And it’s it’s been an amazing journey.
00:09:51:02 – 00:09:56:21
Rod
Yeah. Now now, before we start recording, you talked about the fact you were heavy in student housing right now.
00:09:56:21 – 00:09:56:28
Corey
Yep.
00:09:56:29 – 00:10:02:11
Rod
So you’ve made you pivoted. At what point did you pivot from straight multifamily long term rentals to student housing?
00:10:02:13 – 00:10:15:02
Corey
It’s funny, we bought so right around COVID right before COVID, but a year and a half before COVID, we started buying some student properties like, well, this is pretty good before COVID, right before COVID, right?
00:10:15:03 – 00:10:16:06
Rod
That screw you up when it hit?
00:10:16:06 – 00:10:32:29
Corey
Well, yes. So this is a curveball, but it ended up being a beautiful curveball. Okay. Okay. Because I believe you buy where the pain’s at. Yeah, right. Oh, yeah. So going through COVID. Yeah. The initial ones that we had, we went to 100%, 100%. All of a sudden COVID happened 45%.
00:10:33:00 – 00:10:33:22
Rod
Wow.
00:10:33:25 – 00:10:40:26
Corey
That’s almost a death sentence, right? We managed to get through it. Get through it Well, but I also said.
00:10:40:26 – 00:10:43:25
Rod
Let’s stop there for a second. What did you do to get through it?
00:10:43:28 – 00:10:48:19
Corey
We had to raise capital. To raise capital? Yeah, we’d do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had to work around with the bank.
00:10:48:19 – 00:10:49:25
Rod
We did. We did Forbearance.
00:10:49:25 – 00:10:51:07
Corey
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. You were able to.
00:10:51:07 – 00:10:52:07
Rod
Pull it off and pull it back.
00:10:52:07 – 00:10:52:25
Corey
Together. Yes.
00:10:53:02 – 00:11:02:19
Rod
Well, fintech and there’s a lot of that going on right now. I mean, yeah, my my big SEC attorney in Dallas, half of his business now is forbearances and capital calls in foreclosure as well, fortunately.
00:11:02:20 – 00:11:10:18
Corey
So I learned a lot. I learned a lot through the whole process how the banks work, what happens when you go into, you know, special servicing, things like that?
00:11:10:20 – 00:11:16:01
Rod
Yeah, that’s what that’s where they put you. When you do that, they put you in special servicing. They’re basically really put you under a microscope.
00:11:16:01 – 00:11:18:17
Corey
Yeah. Make sure that they control your money.
00:11:18:20 – 00:11:20:03
Rod
So they actually control the money too.
00:11:20:04 – 00:11:26:20
Corey
Oh, yeah. I was in. I was in a lock for sure. Okay. I only got my expenses. Okay, okay. It was. It was. It was.
00:11:26:20 – 00:11:27:04
Rod
No fun.
00:11:27:07 – 00:11:49:02
Corey
It was hard. Yeah. Yeah. But then we finally were able to refi out of it. No. And I mean, COVID was just a black swan event. But because of that, though, I was like, the fundamentals have not changed. And usually when the market goes down, enrollment in colleges go up. Really? Yeah, I know that. Yeah, because everybody’s like, I got to go retrain, I got to go go back to school.
00:11:49:04 – 00:11:50:09
Rod
That makes sense. So that makes.
00:11:50:09 – 00:11:59:16
Corey
A lot of sense. And so I just started kind of thinking about COVID. I was like, man, I think there’s going to make us, even though the multifamily world was going crazy. Right, Right. At that time, rents were.
00:11:59:19 – 00:12:02:08
Rod
Great and we got hundreds of thousand dollars in rent relief.
00:12:02:08 – 00:12:17:14
Corey
And I had some of that too. So I still had some regular multifamily. So this is why I’ve learned to diversify, right? But I also said, man, there’s probably some opportunity on this on the student side as well, and which is going to play out really good, I think, as we’re going moving forward into what we’re coming into that.
00:12:17:18 – 00:12:28:12
Corey
So we end up buying another four projects, four or five big projects, 25 million, 20, 22 million, and we’ve bought a $40 million project. Right. And those.
00:12:28:12 – 00:12:29:28
Rod
Are valued based on bids.
00:12:30:00 – 00:12:34:02
Corey
Right? Yeah. We rent by the bed, right? Yeah. It’s a lot more labor. Awesome.
00:12:34:04 – 00:12:36:18
Rod
And there’s a lot of turnover and you’ve.
00:12:36:18 – 00:12:37:29
Corey
Once you got an all housing.
00:12:38:00 – 00:12:40:09
Rod
Season within like a month or something.
00:12:40:09 – 00:12:51:17
Corey
And it’s happening right now. It’s about year. Yeah. We’ve got every property is different but next week it really starts, everybody moves out and moves back in in a matter of three weeks.
00:12:51:20 – 00:12:52:16
Rod
Wow, that’s.
00:12:52:16 – 00:12:54:01
Corey
Intense. It’s crazy.
00:12:54:01 – 00:12:59:16
Rod
I know. I know. Right now you’ve got, what, 1800 units? But like, a lot more beds than that.
00:12:59:16 – 00:13:07:26
Corey
Yeah, because when you rent by the bed. So the typical bed on some of our property is 650. A bed. Well and a four bedroom. Yeah. Place. Right. Significant. Yeah.
00:13:07:26 – 00:13:13:18
Rod
There’s are these, are these are these complexes built for student housing. So they’ve got a bigger common.
00:13:13:18 – 00:13:14:25
Corey
Area, more bathrooms.
00:13:14:25 – 00:13:15:07
Rod
Whatever.
00:13:15:09 – 00:13:34:21
Corey
Yep. Usually either they’re Fortus or four fours, they’re really built for student housing. One of the things we said, if we’re going to go into that market, the most important thing for us was closest to the college wins, right? So location, location, location. Oh, that’s interesting. Right? Because if if the enrollment ever goes down and listen, colleges enrollments are slowly dwindling.
00:13:34:23 – 00:14:03:16
Rod
I want to talk about that in a minute when we talk about it now. So I had Harry Dent on the show. He’s an economist. I don’t know if you know the name. He he he works on population demographics. That’s a big part of his economic forecasting. Okay. And I saw him. And the reason I give him credibility is I saw him, I don’t know, maybe ten years before the oh eight crash, I went to Canada and watched him speak and he said it was coming.
00:14:03:16 – 00:14:26:21
Rod
Now, of course, you know, these guys all say, you know, Rich dad’s been saying it forever. Peter Lynch has been saying it forever, and so did Harry Dent, but he called it in the end. And had I gotten out of real estate, like he said, get out of real estate, I wouldn’t have wouldn’t have lost $50 million. But the thing that I picked up on that, you know, I don’t want to I don’t want to negate student housing.
00:14:26:21 – 00:14:39:08
Rod
But he did say that college, because of these population booms and busts, that college enrollment is going to go down here at some point in a big way. Yeah. So so, you know, just something that something that maybe.
00:14:39:11 – 00:15:02:13
Corey
Already has in some of the smaller markets. So what have we learned through that? Is the smaller markets d2d3 schools are not as attractive as in D one school or D one schools are crushing it. Right. Okay. Are did you schools because we bought location. So I typically don’t buy unless I’m right next to the college. Okay. And that’s the last one to get not filled up right.
00:15:02:13 – 00:15:18:03
Corey
So that makes it the ones that are farther away, two or three or four miles away, those are losing arguments. You see first. So it’s really got to be you’ve got to be a little strategic in it. And we always have been, because that was our my biggest mantra. That was what I was scared about the most, because, you know, my eyes wide open when I came into it.
00:15:18:04 – 00:15:21:06
Corey
Okay. But I said, how can we make the opportunity work for us? Right.
00:15:21:07 – 00:15:39:08
Rod
I know what you said makes complete sense, you know, And whenever you position yourself like that, you know, if you’ve got a restaurant on the water, I don’t care if the food sucks, you’re going to do okay. And so if you got an apartment complex, our student housing right next to the college or whatever, you know, you’re golden and you know, those are those opportunities.
00:15:39:10 – 00:15:45:07
Rod
You know, they’re not they’re a little harder to find. Yeah, but, you know, I’ve got I’ve got warriors coaching students that have a ton of student housing as well.
00:15:45:07 – 00:15:48:23
Corey
And well, here’s what we have to love about mom. They usually guarantee the low.
00:15:48:23 – 00:15:49:24
Rod
Yeah. Yeah. So the leases.
00:15:49:24 – 00:15:53:11
Corey
Are guaranteed, the 12 month leases. Kids stay there for nine months.
00:15:53:13 – 00:15:54:22
Rod
Oh, so you do a 12 month, you make.
00:15:54:22 – 00:16:06:19
Corey
Them for 12 months. So there’s no way to. You have to. Okay. All right. So. And they pay, okay? And they pay. And then mom always pays with, you know, if kid breaks something, right? Like, listen, these are college kids.
00:16:06:19 – 00:16:10:07
Rod
Oh, yeah. Good God. Yeah. There’s always an occasional alcoholic drink, and there.
00:16:10:07 – 00:16:14:09
Corey
May be some, you know, drywall repair is is a thing that we do. Well, no.
00:16:14:09 – 00:16:35:12
Rod
Kidding. Oh, that’s funny. That’s funny. Well, that’s awesome. Well, so. So, you know, I know that I’d like to shift to operations for a minute. What’s so let’s talk about the differences between student housing and multifamily. Just because I hardly ever I don’t know that I’ve ever really gotten into student housing on the show. So let’s talk about what’s different about it.
00:16:35:14 – 00:16:48:22
Corey
It is, yeah, great question. What’s really different is the amount of staff needed and the extreme care to to the the students, right. These college kids like I’m not saying their.
00:16:48:22 – 00:16:49:09
Rod
Care in what.
00:16:49:09 – 00:16:57:25
Corey
Way? I’m not saying they’re prima donnas but like listen the average person is you know, got it’s have a mom and dad right. Their daughter’s going to college and they want that old.
00:16:57:25 – 00:16:58:11
Rod
Thing coming.
00:16:58:11 – 00:17:07:29
Corey
On here. And there’s a little something like that. Okay. Right. Okay. They’re a little bit more privilege. I don’t know if that’s the right word to use, but you just have to. It’s customer service is huge.
00:17:07:29 – 00:17:09:00
Rod
No kidding. Okay.
00:17:09:01 – 00:17:29:18
Corey
Huge, Right. Maintenance wise, getting people in Internet. Oh, my God. We got to make sure. And it’s fast. Okay. Right. Okay. And then it’s a really about resident. So the pitch that we give and this is what we do is in the operations of it, is making sure that you have an environment that your mom and dad come there.
00:17:29:18 – 00:17:46:26
Corey
Like what they’re worried about is how is my kid going to say, successfully go through their college experience? Right. Right. And they’re looking at us as housing to provide a community. So community events. But that’s what’s happening a lot of time of money making community events with some.
00:17:46:26 – 00:17:48:03
Rod
Examples of some of the community.
00:17:48:05 – 00:18:09:16
Corey
Socials, grocery bingo, pool parties, you know, anything that we can get residents in and get them because if they know a friend or they have friends at the ED where they’re living the A, we know they’ll stay longer, right? They’ll renew right, Right. And so that’s why we do it for sure. But also it’s about community. You build communities.
00:18:09:18 – 00:18:10:21
Corey
Well, you do that in a.
00:18:10:23 – 00:18:23:18
Rod
Multifamily complex as well. We just had a pool night at one of our pool movie night with a big screen at night with popcorn and all that stuff at one of our complexes in Nashville. And so it’s similar to that. But but probably it’s more intense and way.
00:18:23:18 – 00:18:41:02
Corey
More intense, way more where we frequently frequent. Yeah, right. So and you got to have and usually these things are going on later on the evening. So we call them community ambassadors is right they’re going to come and there’s these are the ones are going to college or working part time. They’re kind of our liaisons to the student body.
00:18:41:02 – 00:18:46:24
Rod
Oh, no kidding. Okay, so you’ve got OC light. You’ve got you’ve got students that are actually laser ons that that tell you what’s needed.
00:18:46:24 – 00:19:00:07
Corey
Yeah. What we should be doing to do this. So they’re the ones that are running the events and you know and posting on the social. Oh that’s smart you know, and you know we got to get them where they’re at, like tick tock. Oh sure. Instead, so our instead counts and all that stuff. It’s we’re so blown big.
00:19:00:08 – 00:19:04:11
Rod
Big there and social. Okay. Yeah, that makes good sense. So you’re posted there all the time to.
00:19:04:13 – 00:19:04:18
Corey
Get.
00:19:04:18 – 00:19:12:11
Rod
People in. Wow. Okay. Well, and so but you’ve got a short leasing window. That’s another short leasing window.
00:19:12:11 – 00:19:24:14
Corey
Leasing. But we lease all year long. So we do okay. We start, you know, we’re moving all the kids in in August, Right? September is the one month that we kind of have off. We actually will throw a couple of big parties.
00:19:24:17 – 00:19:25:21
Rod
Welcome home. Okay.
00:19:25:22 – 00:19:35:08
Corey
Right, Right. And then in October, renewals season starts. Really? Yep. We start renewing lock in the best rate right now.
00:19:35:08 – 00:19:38:27
Rod
So you’re renewing for August? In October?
00:19:38:27 – 00:19:39:09
Corey
Yeah.
00:19:39:12 – 00:19:41:01
Rod
Holy shit. Wow.
00:19:41:03 – 00:19:51:17
Corey
Wow. And it’s a nine months in advance. Wow. They. But these kids will know it. So in the right markets they already know and they’re like, this is the best. And we do tiered pricing. Okay, So just like.
00:19:51:20 – 00:19:53:12
Rod
So if they renew early, they get better price.
00:19:53:12 – 00:19:54:13
Corey
They get the best price. Yeah.
00:19:54:14 – 00:20:14:29
Rod
Okay. You know, guys, in multifamily, you do renewals and that’s one of the KPIs we look at. I want to see three months of lease expiration. Every time we meet on a weekly basis, how many of those have been renewed at two market rent and how many, you know, are moving and or noticed or leaving? And that’s one of the KPI, is you do in the multifamily, but you’re talking about doing that nine months in advance.
00:20:14:29 – 00:20:16:02
Corey
Holy cow. Yeah.
00:20:16:04 – 00:20:29:20
Rod
That’s, that’s a big difference. And so, so so the the customer service is more intense here because of the privilege entitlement, whatever it is that they’re used to being babied by mom and dad, they want to be babied where they go, okay. And you can realize.
00:20:29:20 – 00:20:38:13
Corey
These kids don’t know how to do anything right. Right. So they they can’t fix this. Like the maintenance guys, bless their hearts. Right? These guys are small angels, right? Because.
00:20:38:19 – 00:20:43:08
Rod
But, you know. Ha ha ha ha ha. How do I turn this stove on?
00:20:43:13 – 00:20:58:29
Corey
Yeah. Oh, yeah, Yeah. You. Oh, so we we actually make videos. We have a lot of short videos out. Yes. You know, we make tiktoks. We have maintenance guys to make tiktoks. Here’s how to, you know, if you had a water problem, here’s how you turn off the valve valve.
00:20:59:01 – 00:21:06:07
Rod
Turn on. Yeah, turn the shutter or should you shut off? Off. Oh, that’s hilarious, man. That’s freaking awesome. Well, it sounds sounds kind of entertaining.
00:21:06:09 – 00:21:21:13
Corey
But here’s the great news is once they move in, so this is what’s funny is they moved and now we’re just we already know we have the occupancy for the rest of the year. Right? Right. So you don’t have to worry about it. Like, yeah, there’s no real hard push up front, right? And then you just manage it and then make sure you’re getting great customer service.
00:21:21:15 – 00:21:36:04
Corey
And then a lot of times in some of these cultures, in spite of yourself, you’re going to renew and fill up again just because that’s, you know, like we don’t get to choose when our kids get of age of college age, right? And if they’re going to college, they’re going.
00:21:36:07 – 00:21:38:14
Rod
That’s it, that’s it. And you’re in seven markets, I.
00:21:38:14 – 00:21:39:08
Corey
Think you said, Yeah.
00:21:39:13 – 00:21:59:23
Rod
Seven markets. Well, let’s shift then. That’s really informational. And you’re always getting cosigners because they have no income or whatever, so that parents are always signing and it’s expected. Okay, let’s shift because you told me that you vertically integrated. And I was kind of shocked because I asked you, you know, where are you located? You’re in seven markets.
00:21:59:23 – 00:22:22:10
Rod
I’m like, so by by vertically integrating, what that means is you’re doing your own management, okay? Maybe even your own construction. That’s called vertical integration. And it’s great. It’s fantastic way to have complete control. But typically you’re geographically close together so that you can have a regional manager that manages those assets and and so it’s very unusual to be a spread out as you are and vertically integrate.
00:22:22:10 – 00:22:23:06
Rod
So why don’t you speak to.
00:22:23:06 – 00:22:32:20
Corey
That a little bit. Yeah. So and this is this other so I said I would never do this right. Really I said I would never be in property management because we know it’s a thankless job. Right.
00:22:32:22 – 00:22:43:27
Rod
You’re you’re nobody calls when they’re happy. The tenants don’t go when they’re happy. And if you’re managing for other people, good God, they never call when they’re happy. So people burn out, actually. And you know, I’ve had management companies for decades.
00:22:43:27 – 00:23:04:10
Corey
But yeah, so I looked at were so I just kept on having bad experiences with the management companies that we were working on for the same exact reasons, as you just mentioned. Yeah, because they’re doing the same thing, even though because these locations are all different spots and typically you don’t own more than one or two properties in one college town because that’s too risky.
00:23:04:10 – 00:23:08:04
Corey
Right, right, right. Something happens to that college. You’re really in a band, so you don’t have.
00:23:08:04 – 00:23:13:13
Rod
A lot of leverage. It’s a lot of oversight in your asset management. And you’re like, screw this, we’re just going to do it ourselves.
00:23:13:13 – 00:23:22:18
Corey
Yeah. So we just decided to pull the trigger. We were we found that big enough where we felt like, hey, because you got to have a whole accounting department. You’re right. You got to have that’s the number one. You got to make sure.
00:23:22:20 – 00:23:23:19
Rod
Your timing is everything.
00:23:23:19 – 00:23:44:05
Corey
Yes, Right. Number two, then it’s about the management of your people and staff. And so we felt like this is the biggest reason we did this was about control and culture and understanding your people. We’re in a people business, right? I mean, whether you’re in multifamily or student, we can agree that the best thing you can do is have great people working for you.
00:23:44:05 – 00:23:46:15
Rod
Every business is nothing but people in systems.
00:23:46:18 – 00:23:47:01
Corey
You get those.
00:23:47:01 – 00:23:49:16
Rod
Things down, you, your success is inevitable.
00:23:49:16 – 00:24:11:05
Corey
And so we believe that we could put in better people and better systems and better training. Right? And so one of the things that because we only manage for ourselves. Right, Right. And we will never probably ever third party managers, but we manage just our own stuff. We’ve created this thing called an MIT team, a manager in training each property piece to the collective right.
00:24:11:10 – 00:24:18:06
Corey
Oh, the A.T.M.. 1200 bucks, I think, is what we have at right now. Two bucks for property.
00:24:18:06 – 00:24:20:08
Rod
Per property into a collective and what’s done with them.
00:24:20:08 – 00:24:32:29
Corey
And so that’s used to hire managers in training. So we will go to these colleges tomorrow in the colleges, Right. And we’re recruiting people that want to be in the management business. No kidding. And then we’re putting them onsite where we have a place for them to live.
00:24:33:01 – 00:24:35:09
Rod
So it’s not free. They’re actually paid interns.
00:24:35:09 – 00:24:39:22
Corey
Basically, and we’re taking them through the curriculum of here’s what here’s.
00:24:39:27 – 00:24:41:26
Rod
So you’ve created a video curriculum.
00:24:41:26 – 00:24:52:10
Corey
Is that Well, that and we’ll have we’ll have a physical manager. You know, we have every we have certified trainers now at our property. Oh, very cool. I’m the property manager. I’m a certified trainer. Okay. We have a you know.
00:24:52:12 – 00:24:54:10
Rod
Makes them feel good that they’re there. They’re.
00:24:54:13 – 00:25:15:13
Corey
Yes, Here’s the kahuna way. Okay. Right. Okay. And so and then what they do is they go in and migrate on this one training property to the maintenance. So the main supervisors. Hey, manager and track me, Mitt. I’m going to show you how. What a great maintenance supervisor looks like. Here’s how my shed looks, here’s how, here’s how we.
00:25:15:16 – 00:25:15:29
Rod
Inventory.
00:25:16:04 – 00:25:35:09
Corey
That we save cause here’s what I do. Nice. And he has a checklist and a curriculum and he’s teaching off of and then they go into the leasing department. Here’s what leasing does. Here’s what the property manager does. Everything has a role in a system and a deal. So now here’s the beautiful thing. People quit. We buy it.
00:25:35:09 – 00:25:51:28
Corey
We buy a new asset value property. Sure. That’s one of the biggest problems I’ve seen with property management companies is the staffing. You buy a property is you buying it? You’re usually buying a problem, right? Yeah, That needs fix. Sure. And most of the times I say it all the time. Most time it’s the people that are there.
00:25:52:00 – 00:25:57:01
Rod
It’s almost always the people or the or the seller has as discontinued spending on or.
00:25:57:01 – 00:25:58:02
Corey
You make any.
00:25:58:04 – 00:25:59:16
Rod
Money. Yeah. So it’s one of those two.
00:25:59:16 – 00:26:13:03
Corey
It’s both usually both agree. I agree. Yeah. So now we know that. So then what solves it and how can you solve it the most efficiently? Quickly. It’s not training that new manager, that old manager that’s got bad systems.
00:26:13:03 – 00:26:17:00
Rod
The bad habit got to go. But but the fact that you’re already grooming future.
00:26:17:00 – 00:26:18:08
Corey
Managers, it’s good that frickin.
00:26:18:08 – 00:26:18:22
Rod
Brilliant.
00:26:18:22 – 00:26:20:19
Corey
Kahuna read, right? Love it.
00:26:20:19 – 00:26:22:09
Rod
And so gonna read right.
00:26:22:12 – 00:26:24:26
Corey
I love it. This is this is how I like it.
00:26:24:28 – 00:26:28:25
Rod
Too. By the way, we won’t go down that rabbit hole, but thank you.
00:26:28:27 – 00:26:33:29
Corey
But I mean, it’s all about culture, and I would love to talk a little bit more about know I want to talk.
00:26:33:29 – 00:26:36:15
Rod
More about culture for sure. So I want to talk more about culture because.
00:26:36:18 – 00:26:52:18
Corey
But you know, that’s the premises of what we what we built was because we knew if we if we have an asset we’re buying or someone leaves and we can send these managers and training are deployable. They’re young college kids. Sure. Hey, go move to whatever town. Yeah, no problem.
00:26:52:25 – 00:27:22:00
Rod
No kidding. Wow. Well, it’s a beautiful thing. What you’re doing is you’re creating no knowledge transfer loss when you lose somebody. You know what’s. That’s a big problem. Like, my my daughter right now is became director of marketing at a just digress for a second but it’s applicable at a cruise related company and she’s got a new team and she stepped in and they weren’t doing anything right And I said, Baby, one of the things you got to do in the next like 90 days, every single person there and to said document everything they’re doing, there are soapies with videos.
00:27:22:07 – 00:27:45:08
Rod
And I said, so that somebody from frickin McDonald’s could step in and do it. There’s a book about this called E-Myth by Michael Gerber How you basically franchise you you McDonald’s your business, which is what you’re doing, which is what you’re talking about with the checklists and the different pieces. And that way, when people are cross-trained and in and all those SOP standard operating procedures are in place, you’ll never going to have a knowledge transfer loss.
00:27:45:12 – 00:27:50:19
Rod
Somebody leaves, gets sick and hits by a bus. You start somebody steps right in because everything’s laid out already.
00:27:50:19 – 00:27:59:20
Corey
And it has to be that that’s the only way you grow. And that’s sigma like Six Sigma, Right? Exactly. We’re just talking about like efficiency is correct in that correct process.
00:27:59:21 – 00:28:21:22
Rod
And then constant and never ending improvement. You’re always looking at each one of these processes and how do you make it better? You know, Tony, that’s a Tony Robbins things. Can I. But really it’s Kaizen from from from the Japanese and how they, you know, they were so efficient in their processes, in their, in their manufacturing and there’s a word for it called Kaizen, but it’s basically never constant, a never ending improvement.
00:28:21:24 – 00:28:28:05
Rod
You’ll lose little shifts. You make these little improvements and you take them out, you know, you take them out a year or two years, three years, they become massive.
00:28:28:06 – 00:28:30:02
Corey
Oh, my God. They move. They move mountains.
00:28:30:02 – 00:28:51:18
Rod
Right, right, right. So culture something I freaking love. And and you know, I’ve had some big companies one the last one would have been in my litigation support company we had 60 employees and we had a lot of fun and we did a lot of fun stuff. You know, we had a CFO, a chief fun officer. Okay? They had come up with ideas, you know, like I was mentioning this on another interview.
00:28:51:20 – 00:29:12:25
Rod
Well, we did like Christmas decorating of our cubicles. I mean, there was one woman that I got to show a picture of it, and she she had like she brought in a train. She mounted it on the ceiling. It was going around the frickin ceiling. Just gives you an idea of how far they took this thing. And, you know, we gave cash prizes and we’d have costume parties, and these costumes were insane.
00:29:13:02 – 00:29:28:16
Rod
You know, when the the cold plunge challenge or that cold they drew on people, we got an we got one of those dunking booths. We followed it up with ice water. My happiness was sitting there first and got dunked like on the first throw. But you know, stuff like that, just to have fun and create that that culture.
00:29:28:21 – 00:29:41:25
Rod
I did goal setting for the whole team. People cried when they did their goals. They never had anybody do their goals from before. Administrative people never And and so you know that that so I love the the conversation I guess is what I’m saying.
00:29:41:25 – 00:29:53:14
Corey
Well and I think so because it’s the most valuable thing you’ll ever do as a CEO. Yeah, as a leader, the one thing you can do is because you have culture in your company, whether you know or not. Right, right, right. And it’s whether you want to can take control of it.
00:29:53:20 – 00:30:05:00
Rod
It can be a positive or a negative culture. And so, you know, as a CEO, let’s talk about that for a minute. Actually, as a CEO, you know, talk about what is important in that role.
00:30:05:02 – 00:30:16:25
Corey
Well, understand that the first part is that you understand that the people are the business. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Once you know that, then you say, okay, how do I then you start working on breathing life into your culture.
00:30:16:25 – 00:30:21:11
Rod
So I would back you up for one second. I would say the first thing is communicating your vision.
00:30:21:11 – 00:30:23:10
Corey
For what? Yes. Would you agree with that? Yeah.
00:30:23:11 – 00:30:25:04
Rod
Okay. So it starts with the vision.
00:30:25:07 – 00:30:26:03
Corey
Then your mission.
00:30:26:05 – 00:30:31:13
Rod
Then you focus on the mission, the people. And. And then. And then, like, what you’re doing.
00:30:31:13 – 00:30:48:23
Corey
Is even our core values. Like core values when we hire people right now, our first interview is a culture interview. And it’s actually 90% of me talking very little input. I’m like, Listen, I need you to understand who we are because you’re probably not going to want to work for us.
00:30:48:25 – 00:30:49:13
Rod
Oh, good, good.
00:30:49:13 – 00:30:55:07
Corey
Takeaway could take a while. So it’s one of those I’m going to push you away unless you are that person that you’re going to be attracted.
00:30:55:07 – 00:31:20:04
Rod
Nice, nice, nice that you know. That sounds similar to what Tony Shea at Zappos used to do. And fortunately, he passed away. But but I got to meet him at a Tony Robbins event and they talk. In fact, let me digress for one second about culture. I mean, they used to have parades through their company offices of employees, and he tells I tell the story.
00:31:20:04 – 00:31:37:27
Rod
It’s kind of a cool story where he was at a party. He told me he was at a party in San Francisco and it was late at night and there were some drunk people there and there was these two women talking about, well, they’re all about customer service, basically. So it’s not just culture, it’s customer service. So this is an example.
00:31:38:04 – 00:31:52:29
Rod
So these two women were like, I want a pizza. And the other woman goes, I’m going to call my lady at Zappos. And this is a true story. And he overheard it and and she’s she’s like, and they’re drunk and they call this person at Zappos because they have 24 hour phones and and and she goes, I want to get a pizza.
00:31:52:29 – 00:32:14:07
Rod
And this woman says, you know, we sell shoes here. And she but then she goes, Just wait a minute, where are you and what do you want? And she used her credit card and you know what happened? They got the friggin pizza. And and Tony knew this because he listened to the conversation to record all the conversations. But, you know, when you can create that kind of a freaking culture where people, you know, create raving fans, you know, in your students.
00:32:14:09 – 00:32:15:05
Corey
It’s game over.
00:32:15:05 – 00:32:15:22
Rod
Game over.
00:32:15:29 – 00:32:35:06
Corey
It really is. And when your team does that, they still show up. So I just love the part that we’ve we’ve took a if that’s the focus is our people and then we start building the things. Then we started saying, okay, well then we have our core values, but we need to breathe life into our core values, right?
00:32:35:09 – 00:32:40:09
Corey
They just can’t be four words or four or five words. You got to have stories behind it.
00:32:40:10 – 00:32:57:25
Rod
No, that’s good. That’s really good. Actually. That just gave me some some great advice. Yeah. I mean, our core values start with integrity, but then I had somebody realign them and they work with the acronym family. Like, the first one is fun. The the name have drawn a blank, but I.
00:32:57:27 – 00:33:14:13
Corey
Think so we do it. We went to one of ours is integrity as well. But then we’ll tell a story what that looks like in our company. That’s a that’s, you know, Davon, my controller, you know, she had a deal where we launched a new payment probe process. Right? And of course, we did it on a Friday, which was a bad idea.
00:33:14:13 – 00:33:37:24
Corey
Right. And of course, it glitch it didn’t go out. Right Now, this is the Vons Department. And she’s like, so on Saturday, she’s calling me saying, Corey, I am on tech support. I’ve been I’ve got this. This is, by golly, on Monday, this thing’s going to get fixed. And because she had so much integrity that she was burning Saturday and, you know, we hold our our time, dear.
00:33:37:24 – 00:33:46:21
Corey
You know, we want to work Monday through Friday. But anybody and everybody on my team knows that if you have to you and whatever you myself would jump in the ring and we go.
00:33:46:23 – 00:33:47:21
Rod
Yeah, whatever it takes.
00:33:47:21 – 00:33:54:23
Corey
Yeah. And that was her mantra. And she was like, and she had no issues with it. She like and she’s like, I’ll be damned if it doesn’t get, it’ll go out on Monday.
00:33:54:23 – 00:33:57:13
Rod
Corey Yeah, yeah. That’s, that’s, that’s what you, that’s what you want.
00:33:57:13 – 00:34:09:16
Corey
Should telling those stories along with your real words And then, and then I did call them out. So let me ask you, would you, would you be willing to do that on a Saturday strip? Call them up.
00:34:09:18 – 00:34:12:03
Rod
Good. That’s good. That’s really good. So use that as an example.
00:34:12:03 – 00:34:13:10
Corey
I call it called the question. I wrote that.
00:34:13:10 – 00:34:34:25
Rod
Down Family stories because family, again, is our acronym for our core values and and I love that I’m going to create some of my own. So let me ask you this. You know, we work with people getting started in the business. You know, is there a type of person that’s best suited for real estate investing.
00:34:34:27 – 00:34:40:26
Corey
If there is? I’ve never met that person. Yeah. The person I think is best suited is the one that thinks she can.
00:34:40:27 – 00:34:47:24
Rod
Oh, God. Good answer. Good freaking answer. My most successful students are the ones that don’t even. They don’t even think about what could go wrong. They just take massive.
00:34:47:27 – 00:34:50:21
Corey
You just say job and they say how? Hi, I’m already doing it.
00:34:50:23 – 00:34:55:02
Rod
They don’t get caught up in analysis paralysis. They just take massive freaking action.
00:34:55:02 – 00:35:06:24
Corey
Life is too short and honestly to waste. Like what makes successful people successful is is action. Yeah, right. You build, you jump out of the plane, you build the parachute on the way down. That’s entrepreneurship.
00:35:06:24 – 00:35:17:23
Rod
One on one. That’s it, man. That’s it, right? You nailed it. So let me ask you this. What do you think is your greatest personal. I was a business professional. I’m sorry, greatest professional success so far.
00:35:17:25 – 00:35:34:16
Corey
I know how to solve things. I don’t know if that’s the right word to say it, because I guess I could put it in a quantitative deal. But like, I think my the best thing that I’m that I’m known for around my company is Corey solves things. Okay? Right. When there’s problems. And sometimes they seem complex to a lot of people.
00:35:34:16 – 00:35:51:00
Corey
For me, I’m like, oh, wait, no, no, this is not do this call that get this guy, bring it together, solved. And to me, those are my biggest wins because they usually generate the most money for me, right? Because a lot of times I putting together deals sometimes. Right.
00:35:51:07 – 00:35:57:12
Rod
Does that let me ask you a question on the flip side of that. Does that lock you up because they’re coming to you, too much.
00:35:57:15 – 00:36:09:15
Corey
Used to you. So this is me trying to be become a CEO, right? I’ve started adding layers. So we just hired a CEO. Okay. And man, oh, that’s. Oh, my. Yeah.
00:36:09:17 – 00:36:31:10
Rod
You know, because because, you know, part of I think, you know, the most successful companies in the world hire the CEOs, hire people and try to get them to solve their own problems as much as possible. Right. That’s why I asked you that question. Because, you know, if if you know, because it can lock up the CEO, I’m the bottleneck of every business is always the CEO.
00:36:31:12 – 00:36:32:05
Corey
Well.
00:36:32:08 – 00:36:42:08
Rod
Here’s the is a perfect example. I’m bottleneck. I mean I’ve been waiting on stuff for a frickin investment website that it’s getting a little mind numbing how long it’s taken. Yeah.
00:36:42:11 – 00:37:07:03
Corey
Well so we talk about in our hiring process, we talk about Googling this godliness, Googling is I got it. Okay, what is your ability to Google and solve problems? And we ask it like that. I’m like, listen, in this company, in our organization, you have to be and have the kind of mindset that if you don’t know before you come to anybody higher up that you are going to get on the Internet.
00:37:07:03 – 00:37:10:01
Rod
You put the monkey. It used to keep the monkey on your back for the time being.
00:37:10:02 – 00:37:11:04
Corey
Try to solve the problem.
00:37:11:04 – 00:37:12:26
Rod
Well, you know, with chat.
00:37:12:28 – 00:37:13:19
Corey
Get on chat.
00:37:13:20 – 00:37:15:14
Rod
Yeah, get on there and get out.
00:37:15:14 – 00:37:23:28
Corey
Because Google is get it on Google, get on chat. There’s answers there for you because that’s probably what the other person’s going to have to do to solve whatever you think you have anywhere. Sure.
00:37:23:28 – 00:37:26:03
Rod
Unless it’s knowledge that they have innately.
00:37:26:05 – 00:37:26:25
Corey
Yeah.
00:37:26:28 – 00:37:33:08
Rod
What do you think is the most challenging part of your role right now with this this this endeavor with student loan housing?
00:37:33:10 – 00:37:55:13
Corey
My most challenging thing is it’s well, always it’s always raising capital. It’s it’s funny, as you know, even we’ve been really good at raising capital around we think we’ve raised like $5 million in private equity. That’s not bad for a small outfit like Mike spent himself self. But what I think know how do you do more right. So I I’m a real estate junky.
00:37:55:16 – 00:37:57:21
Corey
I love it. I don’t know how I live.
00:37:57:26 – 00:37:59:00
Rod
Live, eat and breathe it, man.
00:37:59:01 – 00:38:07:01
Corey
And yeah, you know and so I and I’m but I get bored of it once after we buy something.
00:38:07:03 – 00:38:18:06
Rod
You’re an entrepreneur. See, there are three archetypes, okay? There’s the entrepreneur. They want to get in, get it done, and get. Get out of it. Okay. Then there’s the manager leader who comes in and steps in. The CEO.
00:38:18:06 – 00:38:19:13
Corey
Oh, okay. Yes.
00:38:19:14 – 00:38:39:23
Rod
Then there’s the artist. Okay. Now, sometimes you were in multiple hats, the artists or the innovator, like in Silicon Valley, you there’s these guys that are doing these companies haven’t got a clue how to run a company, but they’re very creative and they’re the artist. So those the three archetypes, then their entrepreneur will come and get the business going, then then like a venture capital fund, and then they’ll bring in the C-suite to manage it after the fact.
00:38:39:25 – 00:38:40:20
Corey
Right? Yeah.
00:38:40:25 – 00:38:41:09
Rod
So you’re an.
00:38:41:09 – 00:38:59:04
Corey
Entrepreneur. I’m learning and have 1,000%, right? Total visionary. Right, right, right. But learning to put all the other people in. Yeah, that was the hardest thing for me to do. But now that we have started to do it and I’m just like, Oh my God, yeah, it’s running better. Yeah, right, right. I was the cog all the same.
00:38:59:07 – 00:39:18:00
Rod
Always CEOs, always the cog, always the bottleneck, you know? And this is stuff I learned from Tony at his business mastery. So. So Sheryl, Cheryl, you know, everybody thinks it’s all golden, that there’s no, no, no, no problems. And no, I call them seminars, failures or seminars. But but talk about a war story. Talk about a time you got your ass.
00:39:18:03 – 00:39:37:23
Corey
I’m going to talk about the first deal I got my butt kicked right away. Okay? Right. Talk about I did the first deal. I went to a seminar and I. I got in the back room, said I got a lot of money If you got a deal, I’m interested. So two guys approached me. They had a deal. It was the other I bought in South Carolina, and so we agreed to a 7525 split.
00:39:37:23 – 00:39:54:18
Corey
I was going to get 75% of the ownership. Okay. Why? Because I was bringing all the money. I was going to rescue their deal, okay? They were under contract and they didn’t close in 30 days with, you know, 1.4 million. They were going to lose the $200,000 earnings they had. So I came in as that. And the one thing I did right was I underwrote the deal.
00:39:54:18 – 00:40:07:21
Corey
Well, okay. But but I didn’t know the operating agreement. Oh, we agreed to something. But when I signed papers, I missed it. My lawyer missed it. Maybe I didn’t have the right lawyer at the time, so it’s was still pretty new run.
00:40:07:21 – 00:40:08:26
Rod
Oh, yeah, I know a lawyer.
00:40:08:28 – 00:40:27:16
Corey
It when I had 75% of the owner of the outcome of the not to manage the numbers but not not the control it was 3333, 33 GS. And I’m like, wait a second, I just, I just committed $1.4 million of my investors money to this project, and I’m not in control that I told them that I would be.
00:40:27:17 – 00:40:48:02
Corey
Wow, that was a major hurdle, right? I’m like, Oh my God. So I’m not proud of this. But I mean, I may have called the guy up and said, Listen, I’m coming in, Hell’s coming with me, coming to your house, and you’re going to we’re going to we found an arbitrator, a friend to sit between us and we we negotiated a price to buy him out that that day.
00:40:48:02 – 00:41:03:02
Corey
No shit. Yeah. And I didn’t even have the money, so. My God, I had to call another buddy. I’m like, Dude, I need a couple hundred thousand dollars to make this thing happen. And, you know, the great thing is, when you when you know, you’ve got really great friends with capital is when you can make a call and they like, Yeah, no.
00:41:03:05 – 00:41:05:18
Corey
Yeah. Where do you want me wire. Right. Right. No problem.
00:41:05:18 – 00:41:08:25
Rod
Right, right, right. Yeah. That’s, that’s, that’s it’s invaluable.
00:41:08:25 – 00:41:36:19
Corey
Yeah. Right. But solve that. So, but then the next problem happened so I bought one guy so I got now 66% control. But the other guy sued me right out of the gate. I mean, first deal, I’m like, gosh, I’m in litigation, I’m sued. Makes matters worse. The loan that they had gotten was a fully controlled loan. I’m trying to think what it’s called, but we had no access to any of our moneys as full lockbox.
00:41:36:19 – 00:42:00:15
Corey
It was lockbox controlled because it was a it was a bridge over the bridge. It was bridge. And back then that and because they were so new that they were putting the screws to us. So I’m like, wait a second, hold on. We we can’t even pay our investors now. Wow. For two years. Wow. And so I had a lot of uphill battles and that was scars that no one will see.
00:42:00:20 – 00:42:03:27
Corey
Right. But it’s the amount of mental pressure.
00:42:03:27 – 00:42:05:20
Rod
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Took a couple of years off.
00:42:05:20 – 00:42:07:29
Corey
You look at how our diamonds made.
00:42:08:01 – 00:42:10:08
Rod
That’s right. I love that. I love that analogy, brother.
00:42:10:08 – 00:42:11:29
Corey
I love that an and so.
00:42:12:01 – 00:42:12:14
Rod
Intense.
00:42:12:14 – 00:42:13:25
Corey
Pressure It’s it dude.
00:42:13:25 – 00:42:21:17
Rod
That that that 50 million I lost I came out stronger smarter you know you know what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
00:42:21:23 – 00:42:27:06
Corey
But you know that you’ll turn out good. My second no ever did though I bought one in Tucson.
00:42:27:09 – 00:42:28:28
Rod
And where do you live now?
00:42:29:03 – 00:42:47:07
Corey
I live in Arizona. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So Tucson. So Tucson, Arizona is, you know, was 45 minutes from my house, and I’m like, Oh, this was special, but I made my first mistake. Okay, this is a rookie mistake. I took a regional manager coming out of South Carolina to manage it. Oh, good. Yes, it was the idiot. Okay, so.
00:42:47:07 – 00:43:05:20
Rod
Let me let me let me just say this. Okay? When you are, by the way, have a look at Rod’s links on how to hire a third party property manager. I will tell you it’s the best book on the topic there is period I can on and it’s free so the price is right. But one of the things is how far is the management company away from the asset that you own and where does the rest?
00:43:05:22 – 00:43:11:11
Rod
More importantly, where does regional live and how many assets do they manage and how close are they to your asset, Right?
00:43:11:11 – 00:43:13:26
Corey
Yes, right. I didn’t I didn’t have that book.
00:43:13:26 – 00:43:14:23
Rod
Right. Sorry, brother.
00:43:14:23 – 00:43:24:10
Corey
Sorry. So this is 2012, my second deal. And so then I did the next worst thing is I fired them and I hired myself.
00:43:24:15 – 00:43:27:12
Rod
Oh. Oh, wow. Okay.
00:43:27:17 – 00:43:44:15
Corey
I was like, I could because this is like a 75 unit deal. I can manage it myself. Corey, I’m so smart. Wow. And then it got really bad. Really, Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Then I learned how you can get a fair housing complaint filed on you. Oh, God. You know, they can still. They don’t show up, you know, I’m, like, looking at the cameras.
00:43:44:17 – 00:44:03:17
Corey
Is my staff even there today? Wow. Finally. Now, this is about a year and a half. And I did this on my investors dime. Honestly, it felt bad. Finally, I smartened up and I was like, Oh, there’s a great management company in that marketplace. I hired them in in 90 days, solved.
00:44:03:23 – 00:44:04:24
Rod
Turned around.
00:44:04:26 – 00:44:05:14
Corey
Like that.
00:44:05:14 – 00:44:29:24
Rod
A good management company is worth their weight in frickin gold. We’ve got an incredible one on our asset index in San Antonio. Incredible. It’s a good, good friend of mine that owns it. But so let me ask you this. I like to ask this question of super successful people like you. You know, if you go back and tell 18 year old Corey something, you know, I’m sure you’ve had this question before, you know, is what, if anything, would you do differently?
00:44:29:27 – 00:44:32:09
Corey
I would have not sold anything that.
00:44:32:09 – 00:44:33:07
Rod
Oh, God.
00:44:33:09 – 00:44:36:14
Corey
Right. That’s what everybody says. No, no. Oh, that. Oh, you’re just bullshitting.
00:44:36:14 – 00:44:37:09
Rod
That’s not what you know.
00:44:37:09 – 00:44:38:11
Corey
No, that’s exactly what I say.
00:44:38:14 – 00:44:53:25
Rod
I you know, my first interview was a billionaire. His name’s Albert Albert Barris, and he and he told me I’m a real estate buyer, not a seller. I mean, this to give you an idea, this guy, he owns McKinley Corporation. Have you ever heard of the book Traction? Yes.
00:44:53:28 – 00:44:54:14
Corey
Yes, he’s.
00:44:54:14 – 00:45:09:27
Rod
In the book. Okay. They did his company and and we practice. I invited him to come to my mastermind and my assistant called his assistants, like, you know, Camille’s tell Anita. Yeah, we’re going to fly him down first class. We’re going to put him up in the Ritz-Carlton. We’re real excited he’s coming. And Nina’s like, It’s okay. A fly zone jet down.
00:45:09:27 – 00:45:30:28
Rod
It’s fine. Yeah. So but anyway, in another this funny antidote on that, I was 45 minutes. This was my first interview on the show. Okay. I was 45 minutes in and I realized I forgot to hit the record button. Oh, God, it was horrible. But he’s is an awesome guy. He’s been on the show like, three times. But yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:45:30:28 – 00:45:31:27
Rod
So.
00:45:31:29 – 00:45:50:09
Corey
Yeah, I don’t think I would. I mean, that would be the biggest. I don’t have any other other regrets in the whole process. I just look back and say, Gosh, Cory, you would have been and I would have raised I would have pushed myself in 2011 when I really went in. You go way harder. Oh, my God, Yeah, I would have went way harder because if I would have kept I sold that to Sundial.
00:45:50:12 – 00:45:57:21
Corey
Yeah. And I got out barely enough to pay off my investors. But it was like two years into it if I would have kept my original business plan. Oh, my God, we would have made so much money.
00:45:57:24 – 00:45:58:04
Rod
In.
00:45:58:05 – 00:45:59:04
Corey
Saying, Yeah.
00:45:59:06 – 00:46:13:08
Rod
Dude, I’ll tell you a really painful one. This is not in the multifamily space. In a single family space. I owned 500 houses in Denver. If I still had them, they’d be free and clear and I would be netting bottom line net $1,000,000 a month.
00:46:13:10 – 00:46:14:06
Corey
Yeah.
00:46:14:08 – 00:46:18:10
Rod
That’s what it could have showed. But I, you know, I say the.
00:46:18:11 – 00:46:20:26
Corey
Scars, but those are the battles that you, man.
00:46:20:26 – 00:46:34:21
Rod
And that’s the frickin growth. And life is about meaning. You place a meaning on what happens to you and the meaning I places I never would have met. Tiffany and I again, even though things have shifted in that relationship, I it’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. So, you know.
00:46:34:23 – 00:46:39:15
Corey
But why I say the journey is the reward for me. That’s my favorite. Like, the journey like.
00:46:39:15 – 00:46:39:24
Rod
That.
00:46:40:01 – 00:46:48:25
Corey
Is I have a motorcycle, a custom motorcycle, and I have that right down by the gas tank. The journey is the reward, and that’s what it is. We’re on a journey, man.
00:46:48:28 – 00:47:04:16
Rod
I couldn’t agree more, you know? And, you know, I talk, I tell you and I talk a lot about goal setting and goals, and it’s never about the goals that happiness comes from. Progress and growth along that journey, that pursuit. Yeah, that’s it. So what do you think is some of the best advice that you’ve ever received?
00:47:04:18 – 00:47:23:05
Corey
I got it from a dad. My initial advice I got from my dad, my dad said, Cory hustle and everything. You do not right. He said, Cory, I remember when I was young, young boy, he’d get down on me. You kind of got, you know, down to my level. I said, Son, if a coach says, run around that tree, run around that, whatever, you better be first.
00:47:23:07 – 00:47:39:01
Corey
The only way you’re not first is someone has to physically beat you and then physically beat you. That’s okay. But, Cory, they will not be able to do it every day, every practice. You will win by persevering and hustling everything.
00:47:39:01 – 00:47:47:06
Rod
And that’s an awesome advice. Love that. So what is your definition of success? What a success looks like to you?
00:47:47:08 – 00:48:03:11
Corey
That’s a great question for me. I think the definition of success is doing the things that make you happy and having the time to be authentically you. Most people are not authenticity, often authentic. Authentic?
00:48:03:11 – 00:48:04:15
Rod
Yeah, they’re not authentic. In fact.
00:48:04:16 – 00:48:05:20
Corey
You know, they were mask.
00:48:05:22 – 00:48:13:22
Rod
Yeah. And and believe it or not, this is not ego but the truth of it. That’s probably the word that’s used to describe me the most because I talk about every frickin mistake.
00:48:13:22 – 00:48:14:16
Corey
I make and.
00:48:14:16 – 00:48:35:02
Rod
Make and so on and so forth and, and, and you know, and it’s refreshing, you know? I mean, to not worry so much about the opinion of others and just be you know, and, you know, if you’re listening and you want to do something, for example, on social media or something, don’t try to be something you’re not. Don’t do the pictures in front of the Lamborghinis.
00:48:35:04 – 00:48:44:05
Rod
Be you and you’ll have a man excuse me, a Lamborghini. Okay. Just be you. So do you have any favorite quotes that you live by any any that you like?
00:48:44:07 – 00:48:48:26
Corey
I got this from the richest man in Babylon, but it’s just like the 10th of everything. I make his mind to keep.
00:48:48:29 – 00:48:51:02
Rod
A 10th of everything you make is yours to keep.
00:48:51:03 – 00:49:10:20
Corey
And I think that’s a financially being smart, financially and saving. And I say not saving, but really it’s learning how to invest money, right? And taking your own money that you make and making sure that you’re you’re putting aside to grow and to do the things that you really want. I think that’s super, super powerful.
00:49:10:20 – 00:49:21:04
Rod
Love it, love it, love it. So what’s something weird or interesting or unusual or surprising about you that very hardly anybody knows.
00:49:21:06 – 00:49:44:26
Corey
That I went to Kiev, Ukraine, on a Christian missionary and when I was 18 years old. Wow. Right. I there’s a lot going on right now. Yeah, there’s a lot going on there. We went right in 1991 is when they broke away from Russia. 92 is when I was there packing Bibles, going into high schools and talking to the English department and sharing our faith.
00:49:44:26 – 00:50:06:05
Corey
And it was the it was on mission was mission missionary. I’m a Christian. And then I went there and I’m telling you, I my eyes were opened because what I saw was that we’re all people, believe it or not, our country, even though we’re our countries, are at war side, our countries have problems. But usually people are are pretty good.
00:50:06:10 – 00:50:07:14
Corey
And in the quarter idiots.
00:50:07:14 – 00:50:11:02
Rod
It’s the idiots that control the the countries that caused the problems.
00:50:11:02 – 00:50:18:15
Corey
But I learned a lot and saw a lot. And that was my first taste of international. And I realized how good we have here in the U.S., bro. Yeah.
00:50:18:17 – 00:50:19:08
Rod
Greatest country.
00:50:19:10 – 00:50:32:22
Corey
I left with all the only clothes on my back because I gave away everything. Dubai. That back then was like Jordan’s right and like all these Jordan shirts and a pair of Jordans and Levi’s. Oh, my God. Yeah, that was. They went crazy. Oh, my God.
00:50:32:22 – 00:50:56:23
Rod
And you gave it away. Good for you, man. You know, I’ll tell you, if you don’t think we live in the greatest country on earth, get the hell out. Okay? That’s all I can tell you. I mean, I’m an immigrant. I’m a proud patriot. And, you know, I know we live in the greatest freaking country on earth, you know, is there a, like, a dark time in your journey, in this journey of yours that you’d be willing to share with your listeners?
00:50:56:23 – 00:51:04:14
Rod
Like and I don’t you know, everybody like I say, we kind of talked about the problems you had and maybe that’s the answer, but if anything else comes to.
00:51:04:14 – 00:51:23:27
Corey
Mind that I’ll go there, I’ll go there with you, man. And I and this is one this one’s tough to tell for me. All right. So this is in the this is why I got into multifamily, right? Okay. And at that time, so if you would have looked at me when I was flipping single family homes. Right, you would look and say, Man, Corey, super successful.
00:51:24:04 – 00:51:45:02
Corey
Well, right. But I’m telling you, internally, I am a train wreck because I’m tied to my cell phone. I’m finding deals. I’m I mean, and every day is like nonstop to grind, right? I have kids and a wife. And my son one day was like, hey, dad, are you going to go to my game on Saturday? Yes, I’m going to be there.
00:51:45:04 – 00:52:00:17
Corey
Right? I’ll be there 3:00. No problem. But in my mind, I was like, Dude, okay, I got to go look at I didn’t look at these three properties that I got rehabbing. I need to go early. So I go early and I got a planning. I’m gonna get the game on time and the first property, ohmygod, their stuff missing, whatever.
00:52:00:17 – 00:52:22:19
Corey
Yeah, they got to go rent a Lowe’s, right. Getting a little bit behind. I come to the game at the very end of the game. At the end of the game. At the end of the game. Wow. Rod, this is tough, right? So my son comes off the field crying and he’s like, Dad, you promised. You promised. Right?
00:52:22:19 – 00:52:45:02
Corey
And I’m. I got his head in my chest and it’s like, oh, no, I just that kind of So I tell the story because I have to go there to tell it. Right. And I’m telling you, it broke me. Wow. I was like, What am I doing? This money does not matter. Like I’m breaking my little kids heart because he just wanted dad one at a time.
00:52:45:02 – 00:52:56:24
Corey
Kids don’t measure money. Time is their equity. And here I am. And I my everything I’ve wanted to be was to be a good dad. I’m breaking it. Well, now kids are resilient.
00:52:56:24 – 00:52:59:07
Rod
And you made it up.
00:52:59:07 – 00:53:22:15
Corey
I’m sure Conner’s like, Well, he still wants to get in my truck to go home with me. That makes it worse because he the whole time. The whole time. And I’m just. I drop him off, I look at my wife, my wife’s like, You better fix it. Yeah. And I get in the car and I my truck and I’m driving around and I’m telling you, Brad, I am cussing myself, you son of a I mean, and I’m.
00:53:22:18 – 00:53:48:00
Corey
I am just giving myself the how to. And finally I just get exhaust it and I ask God for forgiveness and I receive it. And then that empty state of mind when I’m zero, dude, that’s when I drove by that apartment complex and this guy, God, turned me around and said, No kidding. Yup. Wow. He’s like, And when I saw it and I frame that question, how can I own?
00:53:48:07 – 00:53:58:17
Corey
And then I went back to Bruce because Bruce had time and money, right? And he did it from the Kahuna. You’re talking. Yes, he did it through. And like he was living that lifestyle. Right or not, I was.
00:53:58:17 – 00:54:02:04
Rod
Flip So you had him. I was hoping to get that thing to get that thing done.
00:54:02:05 – 00:54:04:10
Corey
Yeah. Yeah. And so that’s how it is.
00:54:04:10 – 00:54:19:13
Rod
That’s quite a story, brother. I will tell you on the same wavelength. You know, my greatest regret in life was I’d come home to my. My kids. I used to have an $8 million mansion right across the bay behind us here. God’s got a sense of humor. I lost it in all the craziness, so I get to see it every day.
00:54:19:16 – 00:54:39:09
Rod
But I’d used to come home to that house and I’d play with my kids, but I wasn’t there mentally. It’s my greatest regret to this day. Yeah, you know, and, and and that’s why I really impart this on my warriors and my students. We spend a lot of time on this because it’s not just about financial success. It’s about success in every area of your life, especially your relationships that matter.
00:54:39:11 – 00:54:40:26
Rod
And so we spend a lot of time on that.
00:54:40:26 – 00:55:00:04
Corey
But yeah, I’m glad to fix it then, because I’m telling you I’m living that life now. Yeah. And, and that was an early lesson. Think I was early, but it did break me and it made me so much more intuitive to like what am I doing with this? This business opportunities. We have opportunities as oh, as entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs.
00:55:00:04 – 00:55:04:22
Rod
It’s a shiny penny thing. Oh, shiny, penny, shiny, penny. Turn your head. You know you want to do this, you want to do that.
00:55:04:22 – 00:55:08:22
Corey
And yeah, right. So you learn. You learn one word with two letters in it. Yeah. No.
00:55:08:25 – 00:55:29:16
Rod
That’s right. And I have to learn that with I get asked all the time to go speak it stuff like I’m sure you do. And it’s like, you know, good lord it, you know, it just. It just. Holy shit, You’re still good. Holy. You were still recording? Yeah, you’re still recording. Okay, So we had we had an exciting lightning strike.
00:55:29:16 – 00:55:39:07
Rod
I don’t know if you guys heard it on the audio, if you hear it or not, but everything went out. We are on battery power right now, so I just want to thank you for coming, brother. This has been a lot of fun. I really appreciate you coming out, man.
00:55:39:07 – 00:55:54:01
Corey
Yeah, thanks for allowing me to come in and just tell the story. And, you know, one thing I’ll say is real estate’s crazy, man, but it will give you a life that you will never, ever dream of. I never thought it would be this good. Yeah. And. And I enjoy the process along the way. Yeah.
00:55:54:03 – 00:56:13:20
Rod
So one other quick thing. We encounter so many people that are frankly frustrated. You know, they’re looking in the mirror and they’re frustrated that they haven’t been able to escape the rat race. They haven’t been able to build cash flow to the point where they’re able to have financial and time freedom with their families, You know, and maybe they see other people buying real estate and creating, you know, incredible cash flow.
00:56:13:24 – 00:56:42:23
Rod
And they think, well, it’s just scary. You know, buying apartments is intimidating. And I get it. See, that’s why we created a Warrior mentorship program. There are coaching students and they’ve had extraordinary results. My students, I’ve been teaching about five years and upwards of 140,000 units now that we know of. Right. And we feel like it’s just getting going now, we’re looking to grow this group and really take it to the next level and honestly believe that the greatest transfer of wealth could be upon us right now with this current economic environment.
00:56:42:24 – 00:57:14:12
Rod
Everything’s going on sale. So we’re looking for people who want to follow a proven framework, really like a blueprint or a map, literally step by step, and then they’re able to leverage our systems and our incredible network to raise money and equity, to find deals and close those deals and build partnerships really nationwide. So if you’re interested in finding out more about how you can become more in our incredible network and take advantage of the unbelievable opportunities that are upon us, you can apply to my Warrior Mentorship program by texting the crush to seven two, three, four or five.
00:57:14:16 – 00:57:29:17
Rod
Or you can go to mentor with Broadcom. And what we’ll do is we’ll set up a call so you can check us out and we can check you out and see if it’s a fit. Now, again, you can go to mentor with Rod dot com or text the word crush to 723, four, five to apply and we will speak soon.
