Eric Upchurch is an Army Special Operations veteran who has a passion for educating the military community on how to create long term wealth through real estate investing. He has invested in thousands of multifamily, storage, mobile home park and student housing units as a General Partner over the last decade with involvement in sourcing, capital raise, risk capital, asset management, investor relations and as Key Principal.
While serving our nation, Eric completed 5 combat deployments, and earned a Master’s Degree in Aeronautical Science while managing a 27-man squad, deployed around the globe.
Eric now serves as Co-Founder of Active Duty Passive Income (ADPI) and is a Senior Advisor with ADPI Capital.
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- The Impact a Great Coach Can Have On Your Life
- Getting a Deal and Building On Top of It
- A Network Can Help You Take Down Any Deal
- What Is an LOI? (Letter of Interest)
- What Is The Purpose of At Risk Capital?
- Advice For Newly Aspiring Operators
To Apply for The Warrior Program: Text CRUSH to 72345 and we’ll help you crush it in this business.
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Full Transcript Below
Intro
Hi, my name is Rod Khleif, and I’m the host of “The Lifetime Cashflow Through Real Estate Investing” podcast. And every week, I interview Multifamily Rock Stars and we talk about how they build 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 just flaT-out crushing it in this business. And we show you the inside scoop as to how multifamily investors are creating massive success, not just in their businesses, but also in their lives, and I am super excited to welcome back somebody who’s been on the show previously, very proud of this kid. Sorry to call you a kid, Eric, but to me, you know, I’ve got socks that have a decade on you. But anyway, and also, of course, I’ve got the director of my massive action team for my Warrior group, Mark Nagy on the call. But we’ve got Eric Upchurch back on the show.
Mark
Yes. Yes.
Rod
And Eric is a former special operations veteran. He’s in almost 2,000 doors as a GP in multifamily. He’s got 3,100 self-storage deals under contract. He’s a high-performance coach. He’s a Limited Partner in almost 2,000 doors. But most importantly, and I mean this sincerely, he’s an incredible advocate for veterans, okay? He and I have had a show for veteran suicide. We’ve had a show for veterans’ homelessness, and he has raised tons of money and built homes for veterans. And it’s an honor to have you back on, my friend.
Eric
Thank you so much, man. I love spending time with you, as you know, and I’m glad to be here to add value to the community.
Rod
Absolutely. So, you know, because it’s been a long time since you’ve been on, hasn’t it? I should have looked at it.
Eric
I think so, yeah. It’s probably been a couple of years by this point.
Rod
Right.
Eric
Time flies, though. I’ve known you for five years now.
Rod
Right, that’s crazy. You know, talk a little bit about you and bring us current, you know, and maybe a little higher level than you might normally on a podcast because you’ve been on before. But give a little better background than I did, please.
Eric
Yeah. So one thing I’ve discovered in my– I appreciate that you apologize for calling me a kid. I don’t mind if you call me a kid. I’m a 42 year old kid at heart, and I love kind of leading with that. That’s totally fine. So at 42 years old, I’m at a point where I know myself. And as a special operations veteran, and Mark and I were joking before this, I identify as– you know, I said, I identify as a multifamily investor, you know. Tell yourself that. Make that part of your affirmations. But for me now, at this point in my life, I identify as a giver, and raising money for the charity that I support is more impactful and more important than raising money for a real estate deal any day. And I think those are the type of people you attract very well, Rod. And it’s a reflection of the Warrior community, obviously, and the people that I do deals with within your ecosystem as well. And that’s kind of you know, yeah I have–
Rod
I’m really glad you said that because you were one of our hall of fame members, okay, where at our Denver event, we selected 10 exemplary Warriors in the space. And I mean, we could have selected 50, but we selected 10, and we did a slide for each one of them. And it was incredible that I noticed that every single one of them does something charitable. You know, maybe not to the degree that you do because you really live it. But I mean, building schools and sexual trafficking and all these crazy things that we’re dealing with today as a society. And it was just so cool to see that every single one of my super successful Warriors was philanthropic. And that was just like, holy– and I told the crowd, there were 900 people there. I said, guys, this is a freaking clue. Okay? What you give, you get. So, you know, and you’re a shining example of that, brother. I know it’s going to be great because we’re having our Warrior-only event this weekend and you’re coming and it’d be great to see you again. And, you know, we do that every couple of times a year where we just all get to– you know, some of the Warriors together and we go deep dives on, you know, analysis. And I’m doing a couple of hours on raising capital because that seems to be the biggest thing people are worried about now. In fact, my book just got finished as well on raising capital.
Eric
Oh, nice.
Rod
I got the rough draft today. But anyway, yeah, so let’s get into it. You know, you’ve fallen on your face a couple of times and I remember when you first got started. Let’s have some fun and talk about some of the lessons that you’ve learned.
Eric
Fun for you.
Rod
Yeah, well, really fun for me. I remember you calling, you know, freaking out because you were trying to raise, I don’t know, I think it was only like a million dollars.
Eric
It was a million. Yeah.
Rod
It was a million bucks. And you were like freaking. And I’m like, dude, you got this. What did I say? I don’t even remember.
Eric
Keep calling.
Rod
Keep calling. Okay.
Eric
Just keep on hammering the phones, you know. Just don’t quit. And I should know better because my unit Credo you know is, Night stalkers don’t quit. There is no quit. You have to deliver your precious cargo, special operations forces, time on target, plus or minus 30 seconds. There is no fail. And so for me to take that you know, get reinvigorated by you in this space, in the multifamily space and go, that completely correlates to this space. And now I’m telling other Warriors, do the same thing. Okay, well, you got to close in three weeks. You got to close in a month, whatever it is. Both your extensions are already exercised. You got, you know, a quarter million hard. Whatever your situation is, keep pushing, keep talking. Who else do you know.
Rod
Massive freaking action,okay?
Eric
Yeah.
Rod
So Eric, you know, I know we talk about speed of implementation all the time at the events. And if I recall, you had an example of that, okay, because you know, guys, you have to move quickly in this business. Sometimes– you know, I remember a couple of deals that we got because we moved literally in 24 hours and got them done. Big deals that have made us a lot of money. So tell us your story about speed of implementation.
Eric
Yeah, I mean, the easy thing here, explanation for speed of implementation for me. April of 2018 is when I stumbled across your boot camp in LA. It was your second boot camp, my first. I didn’t even know who you were, had no idea. So it was like drinking through a fire hose and people, I’m sure at events are doing the same thing and going like, holy cow. I didn’t even know you could buy multifamily. I’d never even heard your podcast before.
Rod
Right.
Eric
So I sat down with your action team and I wasn’t sold at that point because I didn’t know enough. I felt like I just needed a little bit more, but I knew enough to go to your next event also. I was like, there’s something there and I want more and I deserve more. And I didn’t think that– and I was smart enough to know that Monday was going to roll around and I wasn’t going to be able to do this stuff on my own. So I went to your next event in Chicago three months later and I signed up for coaching. And that– a 100%, it just made all the difference. If you look at anybody who’s a professional athlete or, you know, an Olympian or whatever, do they have coaches? That’s what I ask people all the damn time. Like special operators, do we have coaches? Yeah, we’ve got some of the best coaches out there, the best military leaders out there. Can’t do it on our own. You have to have somebody who’s leading you that’s been there already. And so I recognized that, signed up for coaching, closed almost 600 units in my first year as a coaching student within my first year. And never looked back. So had I have– now, if I had had that three months back, that would have been probably at this point, another two deals, you know, that we would be closing, which is good money and it’s helping my investors out and it’s you know, all around great. So speed of implementation is critical and sometimes you just have to take the damn leap and trust the coach, you know.
Rod
Yeah. And guys, I don’t care if you use me or not, but let me tell you, we could be facing an incredible opportunity in this country. You know, some people are saying it’s the greatest transfer of wealth in our lifetimes. Regardless, there are going to be deals. We’re already seeing deals. Things are really opening up.
Mark
Well, just as of yesterday, Jerome Powell came out and said inflation is not where we thought it was going to be. Interest rates are going to be higher than you might have originally expected. So they’re actually going the other way. They’re not even starting to pivot. They’re actually saying, hey, this is actually maybe worse than what we thought it was going to be. The Fed chair just said this yesterday. Today’s the 8th of March.
Rod
Right. And Elon Musk said if they don’t lower the rates, this is a direct quote from a pretty freaking smart guy, said, if they don’t lower the rates immediately, we’re going to have a severe recession. Well, there you go. So, you know, who knows if he’s right or wrong, but I think it’s going to be ugly. But with that said, there’s going to be an incredible opportunity if you get up to speed as fast as possible. So, you know, whether it’s my boot camp or somebody else’s, I don’t care, but get up to speed as fast as you possibly can right now. So anyway, yeah.
Mark
And I want to ask you about network here as well, Eric. And then we’ll get into maybe some of those specific deals that you’ve been working on because you go through the group and I see you networking with people, doing different deals with all kinds of people. Obviously, something you’re really, really great at. How has the community and other people, I guess, helped you do things faster with more speed versus if you were to try and go do this on your own by yourself?
Eric
I’m not the smartest guy in the room ever. So when I started this, I was like, well, I’m not going to be the greatest underwriter. Financial accounting isn’t my bag. You couldn’t pay me to stare at a spreadsheet all day. I don’t like being behind a computer. I want to be in front of people and talk to people. I give a talk, and I’ve done this a few times for the Warrior group about networking like a pro and just being intentional about your networking and coming with a plan. And I implement that stuff that I teach at conferences because it matters. And when I make those connections in the Warrior group, these are my peers. These aren’t students. These aren’t like you know, “coaching students”. These are my peers. I only do deals at this point in my life with other people in the Warrior ecosystem because I don’t– they’re professionals. They’re not just coaching students that are getting started. There are some very serious operators in this community that can help me achieve my dreams and goals. And all I have to do is fit into one piece of the pie and being a connector who puts teams together and can raise capital and can do some asset management and do all those things, that is value.
Rod
Yeah.
Eric
And I’m okay with that now. It took me a while to get there, but I’m okay with it.
Rod
You know, our Warriors own upwards of 150,000 doors. I mean, we’re trying to track that right now to really get an accurate count. But, I mean, it’s staggering. And most of those deals are done between Warriors, which is why I started doing the Warrior events so we could connect them, so we could help facilitate those connections because our most successful Warriors by far are the ones that are the most connected inside the Warrior community. So we do, you know, every other week at our Q&A calls, we do breakouts like speed dating after our Warrior events. And then we introduce new Warriors to all the Warriors that live in their state. And there’s you know– we’ve got Warriors in every corner of this country and internationally. And so we’re trying to facilitate those connections because this business is a freaking team sport and it really is who you know. I mean, I tell new Warriors when they come on, it’s more important that you connect with other Warriors than you study, honestly. Those connections are more important than you’re learning. And, you know, sometimes they look at me funny, but that’s the truth of it. So let me ask you this, Eric, you know, you are incredibly motivated, you’re incredibly driven, you know, you’ve got a beautiful family. What makes you jump out of bed in the morning? What is the driver for you?
Eric
Selfishness.
Rod
Please elaborate.
Eric
Yes. So I serve with the memory and pride of those who’ve gone before me for they loved to fight, fought to win, and would rather die than quit. So my motivation is to serve my brothers and sisters who are no longer here. And that is something that will get me up out of bed and out of a funk any time I need it to. If I’m doing something challenging physically, that gets me through it. I just did a half Ironman with no training in December.
Rod
Wow.
Eric
That got me through it. So when I look at multifamily, there’s nothing hard about multifamily. There’s nothing hard about business. There’s nothing hard about being an entrepreneur and making money and taking risks. Those are easy. What’s hard is not being able anymore to feel those, to feel growing pains, and to experience great relationships with other multifamily operators or whatever. So what motivates me selfishly, I serve for those who cannot, and there is no greater motivation.
Rod
Well, that’s not selfish. I mean, and you know, I forgot to say thank you for your service. And for any of you that are in the military or even first responders that are listening, thank you for your service. We live in the greatest freaking country on earth because of you. And I’m so grateful, which is, you know, why this is such– you know, doing everything I can to help these causes is a big passion of mine as well. Not like you, obviously, not even close, but it is so important.
Eric
Well, I say selfish, Rod, but I’ll argue back that it is selfish with good– I mean, a good result. The result is it helps other people and it’s great. But I do it selfishly for many reasons to keep myself out of my own head. I do it you know, to make sure that I’m inspiring other people that are in my position to go and do things. And honestly, I get great feelings. It makes me feel really good. So all that stuff, it is a little bit selfish, but there’s nothing bad about it when I say it kind of in a funny way. But there’s nothing bad about me saying you know it’s selfish because it does make me feel good and it helps people along the way.
Rod
Dude, it stirred me, honestly. You know, I’m thinking, what an incredible motivator for you. I mean, I felt it when you said it.
Eric
Appreciate it.
Mark
That’s good stuff. Well, cool. I wanted to dive into some projects that you’re working on. And correct me if I’m wrong on any of this stuff because I just saw it from one of your posts. The 72-unit that you guys are building, I believe building another 72 units. But I think you brought on a brand new Warrior with construction experience to help you guys with that. Tell us about that. Why the building? Was the deal sold that way? Did you guys come up with that idea? How did you build the team? Tell us about the story because we don’t–
Rod
I didn’t know about that.
Mark
We don’t hear a lot about deals that you buy and then build on top of them. We don’t talk about that much on the podcast here.
Eric
Well, so it all comes down to the team. And I’ve been listening to Rod say how important it is to build a team for years now and also to understand the story behind every deal. You got to do what others are not willing to do. That’s like beating into my head from listening to Rod over the years, right? And so one thing that I do well is listen and seek. And as a connector, I think, you know, listening to fellow Warriors saying, here’s my problem, here’s a solution. And I’m always looking for those to be that connector of a problem to a solution. And so the way this one came around, it’s in Wilmington, North Carolina, fantastic market. A fellow Warrior lives there. He’s a contractor there. He was building for a– his name is Barry Copped, he’s absolutely fantastic. He was working for a family office and built you know 3,000 multifamily units for them and said, I’m done with this. I’m joining the Warrior program. I’m going to go build them myself. So he comes to me and says, hey, I built these 72 units in 2018, and it’s a stone’s throw from the UNCW entrance. And It’s fully occupied and they’re newer units. And by the way, I know the seller still. He’s a great friend of mine, been a friend of mine for 20 years. So we end up buying those 72 existing, plus a two-acre parcel next door that had two homes on it. We demolished the two homes and actually, we just got building permits yesterday.
Rod
Wow.
Eric
And so the pads are ready and we’re building just a mirror image of the first 72 units. So it’ll be 144-bed student housing development and we’re going to have it occupied by August. So we’re excited about that one.
Rod
Steve’s in on that one.
Eric
Yeah, Steeve. And so here’s another connection point. I was like, Barry, the only way I’m doing this deal is if we get a rock star operator who understands student housing. And I knew that Steve because I’m–
Rod
He’s another Warrior. Yeah, Steeve’s another Warrior. Been around for a long time.
Eric
And he had done a Wake Forest student housing deal. And so I said, if Steeve comes in on this deal, we will do this deal. And so I contacted Steeve. And so it’s us three as General Partners on that deal. And it’s fantastic. Bought it for $5.2 million and it just appraised– stabilized appraisal at $12 million.
Rod
Nice. Post-construction. Stabilized. Right.
Eric
Yeah, post-construction, stabilized [inaudible]
Rod
That’s fantastic. Right. Yeah. No, I will tell you, you know, Steeve is a great Warrior example because he had a very high-paying corporate job that he retired from. I don’t know if it was last year or the year before because his income from multifamily had eclipsed you know his high-paying job. He was a coach for a while and he’s taking a year off now just to live life and enjoy himself. By the way, guys, if you have an interest in the Warrior program you know, there is no time like the present to check it out. To apply, what you do is you text the word “crush” to “72345”. Would you agree, Eric, we can help them crush it in this business?
Eric
Yeah. I mean, as long as they’re coachable and have the will to win and the passion for it. 100%. Literally, anybody can do this.
Rod
Anybody.
Eric
I am walking proof.
Rod
Yeah. So again, text the word “crush” to “72345”, and we’ll check you out. You check us out. And man, I’m telling you, if there’s ever a time, it is right freaking now because opportunity is upon us. I’ve got more deals coming across my desk now than ever since you know literally in the last five years. And I don’t say that lightly at all.
Mark
So tell us about a time– I know we mentioned a video that you posted earlier that I thought was super interesting. Tell us about a time that you kind of made a mistake, maybe lost some money where if you knew beforehand that didn’t need to happen, and what was the lesson learned there? [inaudible]
Eric
I also learned along the way not to spend money on traveling to a property that you have under contract until you have a PSA signed and you’re actually out there for due diligence.
Rod
Purchase and sale contract. [inaudible]
Eric
Yeah, purchase and sale, until you have it actually under contract, not just the LOI, you know. So thankfully, we had another asset in this local market.
Rod
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. An LOI is a Letter of Intent, guys. And what that is is you know contracts, I will tell you, anytime you’re doing a contract on a multifamily property, you will always use an attorney. Always, always, always. I’ve written thousands of contracts. I would never do one on a multifamily asset. So you always get an attorney and attorneys cost money. So you start the process of negotiation with what’s called a Letter of Intent or LOI, and that has all the major deal points on it and to see whether or not the seller or the broker are interested. And then you spend money on an attorney. So anyway, please start over.
Eric
Wait, you’re not using ChatGPT to write your contracts yet?
Rod
Yeah, right. That’s funny.
Eric
You can. It just needs to be reviewed.
Rod
ChatGPT is freaking awesome. It is awesome but no. Okay?
Eric
Always use a lawyer. Always use a lawyer.
Rod
Sorry to interrupt.
Mark
I don’t know if we’re there yet. Yeah.
Eric
Always use a lawyer. Okay, so yeah, we got a 72-unit under contract. This is in Indiana. We had an 80-unit nearby, actually about 10 miles away. So we went there for due diligence. We had a $50,000 deposit. Let’s just say 1% of the purchase price, we had 50k down, and we had about $20,000 in legal fees between the syndication fees. I’m just trying to keep this simple. And then the transactional fees you know for the attorney. And then we had some inspection and appraisal fees. And so let’s just say all in $100,000. Okay? Now, we went to the property and we found that they had not disclosed about $500,000 of drainage problems at the asset. And so we did back out. We tried to retrade. We tried to get them to come down in price, in other words.
Rod
Yeah, retrading means renegotiating, guys.
Eric
Yeah, and they would not because they thought they could sell it for even more than we had previously negotiated. But they did not disclose that there were problems. And the engineer that came out to give us a survey, a quick look at it, actually brought plans from 2012 of them you know when they came out originally to look at the problem. So we backed out and because we backed out, we got our earnest money back. That’s fine. But we also had money in legal fees. So it’s called risk capital or at-risk capital for a reason. You put that money up and if you do not use– if you do not close the deal, then that money might– and I’ll put an asterisk next to this, might be wasted. Now, if you have an attorney that might roll in some of those costs into your next deal, that’s fantastic. If you have a property management company that can roll in your due diligence you know to the next property, if you buy one locally there, that’s fantastic. Otherwise, that money is gone. And that’s why we charge acquisition fees when we buy these deals because we are invested with our investors as well. We have our own capital. At least somebody on the team has their own capital in the deal as risk capital. So we’ve lost money that way.
Rod
Yeah. And I’m going to tell you guys, sometimes the best deal is the one you don’t do.
Eric
Yeah.
Rod
So, you know, the worst thing you can do is get into a bad deal and push forward on something you shouldn’t push forward on. And it’s a shame that you encountered a nefarious seller and they’re out there. And so, you know, and yeah, risk capital is there for a reason. Whoever puts up that risk capital for the earnest money, the due diligence cost, these things you’re talking about, gets a slice of the deal for doing that. But again, it is at risk.
Eric
And that’s why I don’t mind doing that on deals because it gets me in more deals. It gives me an opportunity. I want my money to move. Even if it’s like using my heel lock on a short-term, you know, risk capital play. Here’s the key, I have to know, like, and trust that team. Even more than the deal. I have to know, like, and trust that team because the timeline matters. Are they going to be able to pull out and cancel that contract before my EMD goes hard? You know, those types of questions. So you really got to know who you’re working for before the what you’re working on.
Rod
Yeah, agree completely. So, you know we have a lot of aspiring multifamily investors on this show. They come on, they listen, they know they want more out of life. Maybe they’re comfortable and maybe they have a good life, but they don’t have a great life and they know they want and deserve a great life, financial freedom, time freedom, you know freedom to do whatever the hell they want. But they haven’t taken action because of fear or limiting beliefs or that comfort, you know. What might you say to those people that are listening that fit that description?
Eric
I’m going to say you need to go get the life you deserve. You’re here for a purpose. And the older I get– it’s funny trying to explain this to my kids, like, oh, life is short and you hear your parents say it and your grandparents told your parents. And it’s like, you’ve got one shot at this thing. Go do what you want to do and live the life you deserve. And I’ll say if you’re worried about that cushion, guys like Steeve Breton, that we talked about a minute ago, and myself, hold on to that W-2 as long as you can. Rod will agree with that because you can do multifamily on the side.
Rod
I just interviewed a guy 30 minutes ago that was a physician, critical care physician, full-time, two young kids, and he’s already up to 1100 doors. Okay? So–
Mark
And how many kids do you have, Eric?
Eric
I have a full-time W-2. I own five companies in the military real estate investing space. I have a wife of 18 years and two boys, and I never miss a night reading to them to put them to bed and around 2,000 units and a lot more to come. So if I can do this, anybody can.
Rod
Thank you. Thank you. Well, listen, brother, I’m really looking forward to seeing you this weekend, man.
Eric
Yeah, me too.
Rod
I’m so glad you were able to pop on. I know how busy you are and yeah. Well, thanks for coming on, brother.
Eric
Absolutely.
Rod
Thank you, Eric.
Eric
Great chatting with you.
Rod
All right.
Outro
So one other quick thing. We encounter so many people that are frankly frustrated. 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. And maybe they see other people buying real estate and creating incredible cash flow and they think, well, it’s just scary. You know, buying apartments is intimidating. And I get it. See, that’s why we created our Warrior Mentorship Program. They’re our coaching students and they’ve had extraordinary results. My students, I’ve been teaching about five years and they own 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. 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 word “CRUSH” to “72345”, or you can go to “MentorWithRod.com” 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 “MentorWithRod.com” or text the word “CRUSH” to “72345” to apply, and we will speak soon.
