Commercial Real Estate Investing with Don and Eden

Episode 9: Discussing Current Strategies for Investing in Commercial Real Estate with Paul Moore

After graduating with an engineering degree and then an MBA Paul Moore decided to enter the business world working at Ford Motor Company. After a few years, he departed to start working with a partner who was interested in real estate investing just as he himself was. Three successful developments, including assisting with the development of a Hyatt hotel and a very successful multifamily project, led him into the commercial multifamily arena. 

On this episode of Multifamily Real Estate Investments with Don and Eden, Paul shares his strategies behind the steps he took to develop and successfully execute his real estate projects, and his reasoning for what lead him to move into the self-storage development area after being in multi-family units. 

Highlights: 

• Paul’s Beginnings in Real Estate 
• Past Deals with Multi-Family and Commercial Real Estate 
• Why Paul invests in Self-Storage and Mobile Home Parks 
• Benefits of Self-Storage and Mobile Home Park Investing 
• Current Projects

Connect with Paul

https://www.wellingscapital.com

Bigger Pockets- Paul Moore

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPTION: 

Hey, guys, this is Don your host and today my guest is Paul Moore. Paul is one of the people that influenced me the most as I heard him talk over a different podcast a few years back and that was when I decided to actually make the move from residential investing to commercial real estate and what I like about Paul is that it feels like he's always one step ahead of everybody else. And after finishing the interview with him I decided to record this intro a little differently because I was really blown away from the more practical things we've talked about towards the last third of this episode. So I don't want anybody to miss out on that. We're going to talk about amazing value eight strategies in different asset classes so stay tuned and I hope you guys are excited. Let's get started. 

Welcome to the real estate investing podcast with Don and Eden where we cover all aspects of real estate investing with special attention to multi-family apartment buildings and off-market strategies. 

Hey Paul, welcome to the show. Hey, it's great to be here. Thanks, Don. 

Ok, so I got to say personally that you're one of the guests that I am excited to have the most on my show. And that's because listening to you on a podcast I can't remember which one exactly because it was a long time ago was what actually made me decide to do the transition from residential real estate to commercial real estate. And the reason for that is because I heard you talk about commercial real estate and you were so passionate about it. Well yeah. You were so excited about it that I was like wow well this man talks about this as if this is the best thing ever so I got to check it out. And so I hope you know this makes you feel good that you have an impact on people. 

Absolutely I am really honored to hear you say that Don. Thank you so much. 

Of course, of course, well you deserve any kind word. And what I'm so excited about is that really when I heard you talk then I could hear that you're an expert. You're really somebody that knows what you're talking about. So how about you tell our audience a little bit about who you are, what you do and what's your what is your main focus right now. 

Okay great. Well I got an engineering degree which was a big mistake because I didn't know who I was, what I wanted to do and I went out and got an MBA back in the mid 80s and went to Ford Motor Company for five years and then I just really loved Ford- still do, but just had an entrepreneurial bug and so I quit Ford, my buddy, and I started our own company and we just hit the timing just perfect. You know Bill Gates said, “the problem with early success is it makes people feel like that they're smarter than they are.” And I think that's kind of what happened because we sold that company for several million dollars and I went out and started investing. And you know what? I wasn't really investing at all. I was speculating and calling it investing you know investing is when your principle is generally safe and you've got a chance to make a return. And speculating is when your principal is not at all safe and you've got a chance to make a return. And so I didn't know the difference. And so I actually had all kinds of issues and problems along the way I lost a lot of money along the way and eventually got involved in real estate. And when I did I was able to see over time what the difference between speculating and investing is. And at this point, I'm really excited to be doing what we're doing in commercial real estate. 

Wow, that's an amazing story and I'm going to tell you why I can totally relate to that. I recently read an amazing book by Napoleon Hill which I think is an outstanding book and it's called “Outwitting the Devil” and what he says in that book - you gotta check it out it's amazing so it kind of works on your mind it kind of changes your mind and the way you think mentally it makes you a more positive person whereas which kind of gives you the fundamentals for success. I got like a manuscript for success. This book is kind of different and so one of the things he says in the book that I could totally relate to is that there is no such thing as failure only temporary defeat. And for every failure or for every temporary defeat you have the same equivalent seed of success. And so when I hear you talk about how you were speculating and how you were actually kind of investing money in the chance of making a return that kind of makes me feel like you even if you've done mistakes you've learned from the mistakes am I right about that.  

Yeah absolutely and that's one of the reasons we have a podcast called “How to lose money.” You don't really want to teach people to lose money but we want to teach people what not to do because I think it's a lot easier sometimes to avoid other people's mistakes than it is to copy their successes. And if we can learn what to avoid what not to do which all of our guests on almost 200 episodes now have told us what they did wrong then you can be better positioned to be sure you're doing what's right. And so I've got to tell you I never heard of that book and I just looked it up. It kind of looks like it's a newer book. I wonder if it's just never been published before. 

Yes, so I'm happy to talk about this book because it is truly a life-changer in this podcast. I know it's about real estate but you know if you want to be good in real estate your competition is constantly acquiring knowledge. So you've got to acquire knowledge right. It was actually written in 1936. Right. I don't know maybe 1938 one of them got it was. Published in 1980. And so yes it was. It was hidden for 50 years. And the reason it was hidden is it was because of Napoleon's Hill's family, they were afraid. They were afraid of publishing this book because of the things that they talk about over there are just life-changing. And back in the day if you had published things like that to talk about you know our culture, schools, churches and the things they put into your mind when you were young then they were afraid that they would be there would be frowned upon. So that's why it wasn't published. And now a lot of people know about it. And but that's an amazing book. Yeah. I want to hear about your first successful deal. Tell me how you found it. What were the struggles in that specific deal? How did you come up with the money? I know you had money. So tell me a little bit about that. 

So the first successful deal in multi-family was actually something I would never do again. It just happened that the timing was right. And again going back to Bill Gates it made us think we were probably smarter than we were. What happened is in the year two thousand eight we had this little economic crisis in the US I'm sure nobody remembers it but I took some time off of real estate to learn to do marketing copyright and actually trained under some of the great copywriters in the US a couple of them and I really enjoyed that. But somehow in that process I stumbled into oil and gas investing, now I had a Petroleum Engineering Degree and like I said I never used it but I thought hey I can maybe put this to work and so I actually stumbled into this North Dakota oil and gas project and without explaining all the details I'll tell you that I convinced about six or seven friends to invest in this with me. One of those friends has a jet and he actually is a very successful entrepreneur. He's the guy who I started the company with when we both left Ford and we flew together to North Dakota once and he flew a couple of other times to talk to this oil and gas guy and we could never find a place to stay. 

Now we were both involved in real estate and had some commercial real estate background and well you know we looked at all these pickup trucks and cars and larger trucks you know parked along in the Wal-Mart parking lots alongside of the road because there wasn't enough housing and we said why don't we quickly build a multi-family facility to house these oil workers in this huge oil boom. There are 18000 job openings. So we built these little 300 square foot really nice cabins 300 square foot units. They were usually in two or four units per building. And we know that the average rent for an apartment around the US is more or less a dollar per square foot per month. So an eight hu

Episode 9: Discussing Current Strategies for Investing in Commercial Real Estate with Paul Moore

After graduating with an engineering degree and then an MBA Paul Moore decided to enter the business world working at Ford Motor Company. After a few years, he departed to start working with a partner who was interested in real estate investing just as he himself was. Three successful developments, including assisting with the development of a Hyatt hotel and a very successful multifamily project, led him into the commercial multifamily arena. 

On this episode of Multifamily Real Estate Investments with Don and Eden, Paul shares his strategies behind the steps he took to develop and successfully execute his real estate projects, and his reasoning for what lead him to move into the self-storage development area after being in multi-family units. 

Highlights: 

• Paul’s Beginnings in Real Estate 
• Past Deals with Multi-Family and Commercial Real Estate 
• Why Paul invests in Self-Storage and Mobile Home Parks 
• Benefits of Self-Storage and Mobile Home Park Investing 
• Current Projects

Connect with Paul

https://www.wellingscapital.com

Bigger Pockets- Paul Moore

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPTION: 

Hey, guys, this is Don your host and today my guest is Paul Moore. Paul is one of the people that influenced me the most as I heard him talk over a different podcast a few years back and that was when I decided to actually make the move from residential investing to commercial real estate and what I like about Paul is that it feels like he's always one step ahead of everybody else. And after finishing the interview with him I decided to record this intro a little differently because I was really blown away from the more practical things we've talked about towards the last third of this episode. So I don't want anybody to miss out on that. We're going to talk about amazing value eight strategies in different asset classes so stay tuned and I hope you guys are excited. Let's get started. 

Welcome to the real estate investing podcast with Don and Eden where we cover all aspects of real estate investing with special attention to multi-family apartment buildings and off-market strategies. 

Hey Paul, welcome to the show. Hey, it's great to be here. Thanks, Don. 

Ok, so I got to say personally that you're one of the guests that I am excited to have the most on my show. And that's because listening to you on a podcast I can't remember which one exactly because it was a long time ago was what actually made me decide to do the transition from residential real estate to commercial real estate. And the reason for that is because I heard you talk about commercial real estate and you were so passionate about it. Well yeah. You were so excited about it that I was like wow well this man talks about this as if this is the best thing ever so I got to check it out. And so I hope you know this makes you feel good that you have an impact on people. 

Absolutely I am really honored to hear you say that Don. Thank you so much. 

Of course, of course, well you deserve any kind word. And what I'm so excited about is that really when I heard you talk then I could hear that you're an expert. You're really somebody that knows what you're talking about. So how about you tell our audience a little bit about who you are, what you do and what's your what is your main focus right now. 

Okay great. Well I got an engineering degree which was a big mistake because I didn't know who I was, what I wanted to do and I went out and got an MBA back in the mid 80s and went to Ford Motor Company for five years and then I just really loved Ford- still do, but just had an entrepreneurial bug and so I quit Ford, my buddy, and I started our own company and we just hit the timing just perfect. You know Bill Gates said, “the problem with early success is it makes people feel like that they're smarter than they are.” And I think that's kind of what happened because we sold that company for several million dollars and I went out and started investing. And you know what? I wasn't really investing at all. I was speculating and calling it investing you know investing is when your principle is generally safe and you've got a chance to make a return. And speculating is when your principal is not at all safe and you've got a chance to make a return. And so I didn't know the difference. And so I actually had all kinds of issues and problems along the way I lost a lot of money along the way and eventually got involved in real estate. And when I did I was able to see over time what the difference between speculating and investing is. And at this point, I'm really excited to be doing what we're doing in commercial real estate. 

Wow, that's an amazing story and I'm going to tell you why I can totally relate to that. I recently read an amazing book by Napoleon Hill which I think is an outstanding book and it's called “Outwitting the Devil” and what he says in that book - you gotta check it out it's amazing so it kind of works on your mind it kind of changes your mind and the way you think mentally it makes you a more positive person whereas which kind of gives you the fundamentals for success. I got like a manuscript for success. This book is kind of different and so one of the things he says in the book that I could totally relate to is that there is no such thing as failure only temporary defeat. And for every failure or for every temporary defeat you have the same equivalent seed of success. And so when I hear you talk about how you were speculating and how you were actually kind of investing money in the chance of making a return that kind of makes me feel like you even if you've done mistakes you've learned from the mistakes am I right about that.  

Yeah absolutely and that's one of the reasons we have a podcast called “How to lose money.” You don't really want to teach people to lose money but we want to teach people what not to do because I think it's a lot easier sometimes to avoid other people's mistakes than it is to copy their successes. And if we can learn what to avoid what not to do which all of our guests on almost 200 episodes now have told us what they did wrong then you can be better positioned to be sure you're doing what's right. And so I've got to tell you I never heard of that book and I just looked it up. It kind of looks like it's a newer book. I wonder if it's just never been published before. 

Yes, so I'm happy to talk about this book because it is truly a life-changer in this podcast. I know it's about real estate but you know if you want to be good in real estate your competition is constantly acquiring knowledge. So you've got to acquire knowledge right. It was actually written in 1936. Right. I don't know maybe 1938 one of them got it was. Published in 1980. And so yes it was. It was hidden for 50 years. And the reason it was hidden is it was because of Napoleon's Hill's family, they were afraid. They were afraid of publishing this book because of the things that they talk about over there are just life-changing. And back in the day if you had published things like that to talk about you know our culture, schools, churches and the things they put into your mind when you were young then they were afraid that they would be there would be frowned upon. So that's why it wasn't published. And now a lot of people know about it. And but that's an amazing book. Yeah. I want to hear about your first successful deal. Tell me how you found it. What were the struggles in that specific deal? How did you come up with the money? I know you had money. So tell me a little bit about that. 

So the first successful deal in multi-family was actually something I would never do again. It just happened that the timing was right. And again going back to Bill Gates it made us think we were probably smarter than we were. What happened is in the year two thousand eight we had this little economic crisis in the US I'm sure nobody remembers it but I took some time off of real estate to learn to do marketing copyright and actually trained under some of the great copywriters in the US a couple of them and I really enjoyed that. But somehow in that process I stumbled into oil and gas investing, now I had a Petroleum Engineering Degree and like I said I never used it but I thought hey I can maybe put this to work and so I actually stumbled into this North Dakota oil and gas project and without explaining all the details I'll tell you that I convinced about six or seven friends to invest in this with me. One of those friends has a jet and he actually is a very successful entrepreneur. He's the guy who I started the company with when we both left Ford and we flew together to North Dakota once and he flew a couple of other times to talk to this oil and gas guy and we could never find a place to stay. 

Now we were both involved in real estate and had some commercial real estate background and well you know we looked at all these pickup trucks and cars and larger trucks you know parked along in the Wal-Mart parking lots alongside of the road because there wasn't enough housing and we said why don't we quickly build a multi-family facility to house these oil workers in this huge oil boom. There are 18000 job openings. So we built these little 300 square foot really nice cabins 300 square foot units. They were usually in two or four units per building. And we know that the average rent for an apartment around the US is more or less a dollar per square foot per month. So an eight h

Fresh out of business college and a yearning desire to be an entrepreneur, Joseph Reyes sought a life of more than being confined to a 9-5 corporate position. He knew from his drive and high ambitions that he wanted to start involving himself in real estate - he just needed to start on the path to get there. From working in the restaurant business and as an Uber driver, Joseph temporarily took unconventional jobs that he knew would work around his schedule to spend his spare time on educating himself in the real estate wholesale business and looking for his first deal. Ultimately, through cold calling, driving for dollars and perseverance, Joseph came across his first deal and with the assistance of Don, was able to drastically change his life. Today, Joseph is one of Don’s most successful students and they have managed to generate over 90k worth of assignments in the past three months together.

On this episode of Multifamily Real Estate Investments with Don and Eden, Joseph shares his ability to generate solid leads through driving for dollars, cold calling, Don’s ability to guide him through the steps and use his connections to find cash buyers for his deals. Joseph also discusses with Don, the importance of having a mentor and why you should partner up with local established players when you are at the beginning of anything you're going to do in real estate if it's wholesale or if it's real estate syndication and multi-family.

Highlights: 

• Joseph’s Beginnings in Real Estate Wholesale 
• How Joseph and Don Crossed Paths
• Why You Need A Mentor 
• How to Pick the Right Mentor 
• Current Projects- 5 Year Outlook 

Connect with Joseph

#: 954-940-2366

[email protected] 

----------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPTION:

Hello everybody. Welcome to the show. Today's episode is going to be a little bit different. I have Joseph Reyes here with me. Joseph is one of my students in my local market here in South Florida. And I've been teaching him the secrets of real estate wholesale which I'm still very much active in today despite being involved in commercial real estate and syndications. Joseph is one of my most successful students and we have managed to generate over ninety thousand worth of assignments in the past three months together. And the reason we've been successful is Joseph's ability to generate solid leads through driving for dollars and cold calling and our ability to guide him through the steps and use our connections to find cash buyers for his deals. So it's critical to be able to partner up with local established players when you are at the beginning of anything you're going to do in real estate if it's risky at wholesale or if it's real estate syndication and multi-family. So let's welcome Joseph to the show.

Welcome to the Real Estate Investing podcast with Don and Eden where we cover all aspects of real estate investing with special attention to multi-family apartment buildings and off-market strategies.

Hello, Joseph, I'm so happy to have you here. Welcome to the show. I appreciate you having me on. Thank you. Of course of course. Well, you deserve it. If there's anyone that deserves it, it's probably you. So tell us a little bit about your day and what you've been doing today?

Today I have been cold calling driving for dollar leads and doing follow-ups, always grinding - so let me ask you this.

We have obviously had a relationship and we know each other very well for our audience. Tell us a little bit about your background and when did you decide to get into real estate.

So I was a finance major at the University of Florida. I was doing really well. I had my dreams of working in hedge funds and corporate America and just financial services. And after I graduated I was looking for that nice corporate gig. Kind of gets my foot in the door. Finally got a corporate gig and I was getting paid pretty well for about two years. It was really cool living, but I wasn't satisfied because I was locked into a kind of a 9 am to 7 pm role. And it was just daunting and I had to be somewhere from 9 to 7 Monday to Friday. It really annoyed me. Ultimately that company kind of tanked and I got laid off. So I was in a position where I was thinking of my next step in life and I was kind of assessing where I want to go. And I know I wanted to make a lot of money in my lifetime and I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I didn't really want to work for someone. So with that mindset, I always had in the back of my mind passive income and the concept of passive income really intrigued me and I took out a couple of real estate books to kind of educate myself on what real estate is and the whole business. And it ultimately led me to a different seminars and trainings which taught me the concept of wholesaling and wholesaling really allowed me to kind of say hey I can make money in real estate without utilizing a lot of capital because my previous knowledge which was just ignorance lack of knowledge was only thought you could fix and flip or buy and hold. I don't know about this concept so then I started kind of going on Bigger Pocket forums and doing a lot of researching to understand this process. A lot of YouTube education and then I ultimately got my first deal and then that kind of just enlightened me and opened my eyes to OK this is a thing and then I just did more research on it. And that's pretty much all it is.

Ok, so we're going to talk about that first deal soon enough. But first I want to talk about a few things you mentioned. So you had a job in a corporate office and I know you and I know how talented and how motivated you are. And so that is something that I want to talk about with our audience because a lot of people don't understand that you could be the strongest smartest person ever right, but then you could get laid off for whatever reason you know your boss and you don’t get along and you know nobody had faith in you or you maybe you were not doing your job right because you were not satisfied with your position that the amount of money you were making. And so that's exactly the disadvantage of doing the corporate gig which you know is sort of the American dream like you know to go to study, go to college, have a degree, you know to apply for a job, get a job to have a career and so on. But what happens if you get laid off all of a sudden and you have a mortgage and kids and family and people that you've got to support then what happens? And so that is something that you discussed and it's so nice yet sad to hear you know that from somebody like you that I know who you are and the things you know how to do. On one hand, it's amazing to hear that you've got out of it and that now you're doing so well in real estate as a real estate investor. But on the other hand, it's kind of saddens me to know that there are so many people in that position that feel miserable and unhappy about their life and they're not changing it. So I want to ask about that. When was the moment that you decided that you're no longer going to try to get back into the corporate gig and that you know you're going to get into real estate? Tell me more about that moment specifically.

I mean so in the back of my mind I just always had the thought process of passive income the ability to sleep at night and still make money always resonated with me and I know I couldn't do that with a corporate job. So I was exploring the financial markets I was exploring real estate different concepts that I can utilize without having so much capital. I explored business ownership, but I had no business ideas and I thought about the unconventional lifestyles like entertainment there's a lot of people that make money on Instagram and on platforms like Snapchat or Vine and stuff like that just unconventional professions in the world. But ultimately when I went to a training seminar like a workshop I would say that introduced the concept of wholesaling no money down, no credit, being able to assign contracts and double close on contracts that really piqued my interest. And the overall concept of it allowed me to say hey let me do a couple of these deals and kind of go into a position where I build capital and I can establish some type of like a rental for.

Ok. So you’ve learned that at a seminar. People talked about risk and also that's the first time we heard about this.

First time I heard about wholesaling at a seminar I never knew there was okay.

And then when you heard about it what was the amount of money you thought an assignment would be?

I would say like to build between 3000, 10000 or 15000 if you go to probably on a contract that's typically what the assignment fee is. And that's what was being kind of explained to individuals and that's what they always say see.

And so I want to talk about this so I thought when I got into real estate I thought that an assignment fee is 5000 -10000. But we all know that we know better than that right now. I mean I do 5000 and 10000 assignments. And after what you've seen and the deals that we've done together I guess you would also get used to something else. So for me just you know a typical assignment for me is 40,000-50,000 that's what I'm trying to make in a wholesale deal. And it is possible if you do it in the right market and you have the right system and the right technique. So the first thing that I want to ask you about your first deal. Tell us a little bit about how much money you made? How did you find it and what was the assignment over there?

So that particular deal was an interesting one. I was driving in the City of Lauderhill and I came across a 15 unit boarded up an abandon

Fresh out of business college and a yearning desire to be an entrepreneur, Joseph Reyes sought a life of more than being confined to a 9-5 corporate position. He knew from his drive and high ambitions that he wanted to start involving himself in real estate - he just needed to start on the path to get there. From working in the restaurant business and as an Uber driver, Joseph temporarily took unconventional jobs that he knew would work around his schedule to spend his spare time on educating himself in the real estate wholesale business and looking for his first deal. Ultimately, through cold calling, driving for dollars and perseverance, Joseph came across his first deal and with the assistance of Don, was able to drastically change his life. Today, Joseph is one of Don’s most successful students and they have managed to generate over 90k worth of assignments in the past three months together.

On this episode of Multifamily Real Estate Investments with Don and Eden, Joseph shares his ability to generate solid leads through driving for dollars, cold calling, Don’s ability to guide him through the steps and use his connections to find cash buyers for his deals. Joseph also discusses with Don, the importance of having a mentor and why you should partner up with local established players when you are at the beginning of anything you're going to do in real estate if it's wholesale or if it's real estate syndication and multi-family.

Highlights: 

• Joseph’s Beginnings in Real Estate Wholesale 
• How Joseph and Don Crossed Paths
• Why You Need A Mentor 
• How to Pick the Right Mentor 
• Current Projects- 5 Year Outlook 

Connect with Joseph

#: 954-940-2366

[email protected] 

----------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPTION:

Hello everybody. Welcome to the show. Today's episode is going to be a little bit different. I have Joseph Reyes here with me. Joseph is one of my students in my local market here in South Florida. And I've been teaching him the secrets of real estate wholesale which I'm still very much active in today despite being involved in commercial real estate and syndications. Joseph is one of my most successful students and we have managed to generate over ninety thousand worth of assignments in the past three months together. And the reason we've been successful is Joseph's ability to generate solid leads through driving for dollars and cold calling and our ability to guide him through the steps and use our connections to find cash buyers for his deals. So it's critical to be able to partner up with local established players when you are at the beginning of anything you're going to do in real estate if it's risky at wholesale or if it's real estate syndication and multi-family. So let's welcome Joseph to the show.

Welcome to the Real Estate Investing podcast with Don and Eden where we cover all aspects of real estate investing with special attention to multi-family apartment buildings and off-market strategies.

Hello, Joseph, I'm so happy to have you here. Welcome to the show. I appreciate you having me on. Thank you. Of course of course. Well, you deserve it. If there's anyone that deserves it, it's probably you. So tell us a little bit about your day and what you've been doing today?

Today I have been cold calling driving for dollar leads and doing follow-ups, always grinding - so let me ask you this.

We have obviously had a relationship and we know each other very well for our audience. Tell us a little bit about your background and when did you decide to get into real estate.

So I was a finance major at the University of Florida. I was doing really well. I had my dreams of working in hedge funds and corporate America and just financial services. And after I graduated I was looking for that nice corporate gig. Kind of gets my foot in the door. Finally got a corporate gig and I was getting paid pretty well for about two years. It was really cool living, but I wasn't satisfied because I was locked into a kind of a 9 am to 7 pm role. And it was just daunting and I had to be somewhere from 9 to 7 Monday to Friday. It really annoyed me. Ultimately that company kind of tanked and I got laid off. So I was in a position where I was thinking of my next step in life and I was kind of assessing where I want to go. And I know I wanted to make a lot of money in my lifetime and I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I didn't really want to work for someone. So with that mindset, I always had in the back of my mind passive income and the concept of passive income really intrigued me and I took out a couple of real estate books to kind of educate myself on what real estate is and the whole business. And it ultimately led me to a different seminars and trainings which taught me the concept of wholesaling and wholesaling really allowed me to kind of say hey I can make money in real estate without utilizing a lot of capital because my previous knowledge which was just ignorance lack of knowledge was only thought you could fix and flip or buy and hold. I don't know about this concept so then I started kind of going on Bigger Pocket forums and doing a lot of researching to understand this process. A lot of YouTube education and then I ultimately got my first deal and then that kind of just enlightened me and opened my eyes to OK this is a thing and then I just did more research on it. And that's pretty much all it is.

Ok, so we're going to talk about that first deal soon enough. But first I want to talk about a few things you mentioned. So you had a job in a corporate office and I know you and I know how talented and how motivated you are. And so that is something that I want to talk about with our audience because a lot of people don't understand that you could be the strongest smartest person ever right, but then you could get laid off for whatever reason you know your boss and you don’t get along and you know nobody had faith in you or you maybe you were not doing your job right because you were not satisfied with your position that the amount of money you were making. And so that's exactly the disadvantage of doing the corporate gig which you know is sort of the American dream like you know to go to study, go to college, have a degree, you know to apply for a job, get a job to have a career and so on. But what happens if you get laid off all of a sudden and you have a mortgage and kids and family and people that you've got to support then what happens? And so that is something that you discussed and it's so nice yet sad to hear you know that from somebody like you that I know who you are and the things you know how to do. On one hand, it's amazing to hear that you've got out of it and that now you're doing so well in real estate as a real estate investor. But on the other hand, it's kind of saddens me to know that there are so many people in that position that feel miserable and unhappy about their life and they're not changing it. So I want to ask about that. When was the moment that you decided that you're no longer going to try to get back into the corporate gig and that you know you're going to get into real estate? Tell me more about that moment specifically.

I mean so in the back of my mind I just always had the thought process of passive income the ability to sleep at night and still make money always resonated with me and I know I couldn't do that with a corporate job. So I was exploring the financial markets I was exploring real estate different concepts that I can utilize without having so much capital. I explored business ownership, but I had no business ideas and I thought about the unconventional lifestyles like entertainment there's a lot of people that make money on Instagram and on platforms like Snapchat or Vine and stuff like that just unconventional professions in the world. But ultimately when I went to a training seminar like a workshop I would say that introduced the concept of wholesaling no money down, no credit, being able to assign contracts and double close on contracts that really piqued my interest. And the overall concept of it allowed me to say hey let me do a couple of these deals and kind of go into a position where I build capital and I can establish some type of like a rental for.

Ok. So you’ve learned that at a seminar. People talked about risk and also that's the first time we heard about this.

First time I heard about wholesaling at a seminar I never knew there was okay.

And then when you heard about it what was the amount of money you thought an assignment would be?

I would say like to build between 3000, 10000 or 15000 if you go to probably on a contract that's typically what the assignment fee is. And that's what was being kind of explained to individuals and that's what they always say see.

And so I want to talk about this so I thought when I got into real estate I thought that an assignment fee is 5000 -10000. But we all know that we know better than that right now. I mean I do 5000 and 10000 assignments. And after what you've seen and the deals that we've done together I guess you would also get used to something else. So for me just you know a typical assignment for me is 40,000-50,000 that's what I'm trying to make in a wholesale deal. And it is possible if you do it in the right market and you have the right system and the right technique. So the first thing that I want to ask you about your first deal. Tell us a little bit about how much money you made? How did you find it and what was the assignment over there?

So that particular deal was an interesting one. I was driving in the City of Lauderhill and I came across a 15 unit boarded up an abandone

In true American Dream fashion, Michael Beeman’s story exemplifies just that. Motivated with needing to provide for his family of seven children on just a corporate salary of $60k, he wanted to do more than just make ends meet. Michael started cutting firewood to generate an additional income stream and while doing so immersed himself in listening to countless multifamily podcasts and real estate audiobooks. While his splitting firewood business brought in an additional $15k a year, Michael decided he was ready to make the leap into real estate investing. 

With $12k to his name to invest, he turned to his mother and best friend to see if they were interested in working with him to start looking for his first deal. His mother and best friend contributed $20k. Then Michael was able to invest in his first deal and he has been acquiring multifamily units ever since with a current portfolio of 136 units. 

On this episode of Multifamily Real Estate Investments with Don and Eden, Michael shares the details of his current projects, how to find the right deal at the right time, and discussing the importance of networking to develop key relationships for future business partnerships. Michael describes how his passion for real estate investing paired with his resourcefulness helped him find his first breakthrough deal and overcoming the challenges he faced along the way. Listen in for a remarkable story of Michael starting a side-hustle of splitting firewood into real estate investing with a portfolio worth seven-figures in less than two years!

Highlights: 

• Michael’s beginnings in Real Estate Investing
• Key Tips for Acquiring Multi-Family Units
• How to Find the Right Deal 
• How to Stay Open-Minded when forming Partnerships 
• Ways to Analyze the Current Market and Anticipate 
• The Importance of Networking and Building Relationships

Connect with Michael

[email protected]

#: 217-508-8185

Hey, guys welcome to the show. Today we're going to host Mr. Michael Beeman. I'm very excited to have him here because his story is truly exceptional. Michael was able to educate himself in real estate through podcasts and books. And two years later his portfolio is worth a little bit over three million dollars which is phenomenal. So without further ado let's welcome Michael to the show. 

Welcome to the real estate investing podcast with Don and Eden where we cover all aspects of real estate investing with special attention to multi-family apartment buildings and off-market strategies. 

Hey, Michael welcome to the show. How's everything today. Oh, everything is going well. How are you? I'm good, I'm good. I can't complain. How is your day so far? 

It's going good. You know talking to some business partners talking to some possible investors looking at deals; always grinding. That's the key to success though. Honestly, I'm very excited to have you here today on our show because your story is a story that a lot of people could relate to as you know you started with a big family and you were splitting wood the last time I checked I kind of listened to your story in a different podcast. This story was so special that I wanted to have you on my show as well and see how you could change your whole life from one direction to the other with real estate. So, first of all, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself so my audience here would know this story as much as I do. 

Well back in early 2016, I was going through bankruptcy from a previous marriage where I had agreed to take on more debt than I actually could handle, but    I also got custody of my kids We met and we had three kids each and we have a very large family. And I was making 60 grand a year and she had to stay home with the kids because we had very young ones. Obviously, a newborn plus you know seven children altogether between doctor's visits and everything else it made working for her almost impossible with the cost of daycare and stuff. So I decided to start a side hustle splitting and selling firewood because I knew that that would help us to make ends meet a little better, but then I was doing that for about a year and a half or about a year into it I started listening to real estate investing podcasts. And one of my dreams, you know at the time I had been renting, was to own rental properties because I'd always felt like landlords were making pretty good money, of course, that was the naive mindset of a renter at the time, but I was willing to learn and grow. And so I had saved up about twelve thousand dollars and I went to my brother and my mom with this plan of what I was gonna do. 

And I was asking them to all pitch in - and let me guess they were not really up for it.

No, they were not up for it at all. So then my best friend he had said I'll pitch in twenty thousand dollars because I just inherited 80. What would you give me for that?

I said I will give you one-quarter of the business. And then my mom heard about that and she had actually wanted to go along with me before, but she did not want to upset my brother. So it felt like the easiest route was to just be quiet. So she went ahead and said No if he's going then can I have one quarter for 25 percent so then I had all of a sudden fifty-two thousand dollar pool of money to expand wisely to start investing.

So shortly after that one of my buddies was over and we were having a drink that evening and I was telling him about you know because I always talk about this you've got to be super excited and you've got to be really excited and you've got to really want to go for it. And so I was telling him about my dreams and what I was planning on doing. And he said, Well I don't know if you're interested, but my girlfriend's mom used to manage this 66 unit building for the guy and then he got tired of dealing with it. Now it's sitting vacant -it needs some work, but you can get it at a steal of a deal. 

So you know you basically heard about a motivated seller of a six-unit. 

Yep. So I bought the thing and I had to go through and rehab every unit, but I got 100 percent financing down. I spent a little bit of the fifty thousand rehabbing every unit. We did a lot of work ourselves, my wife and I and then we had some help from an outside contractor so what was the total amount of the purchase price. What was at this point I was sixty thousand, but it appraised even vacant right then for ninety thousand. It's amazing. 

Yeah I mean you're in the Midwest so you can buy six units for sixty thousand in the Midwest. 

Well, that's uncommon. I wish I could find another six units for sixty thousand. I'll tell you that you're usually looking at 30 to 40 thousand units around here, but yes. So it was a steal of a deal and I ended up putting about thirty thousand units and we ended up about two years later we sold it and made a significant profit on it. 

That was your first deal in real estate, wasn’t it? Yes. And that was basically for you. I remember my first deal it was a flip I flipped the house and it was just a residential deal. And I remember I made good money, but you know your first deal is as if it's there to teach you what's going on. And just the rules, but it's not there for you to be able to make a lot of money. Everybody feels this way about their first deal, but you managed to somehow jump from 16 a deal as your first deal to what was 61 62 units. 

Yes. For the next year, I was looking at triplexes - I found a 10 unit that was mostly vacant about six of the units were vacant and needed rehab. We got a really good deal on it and then I found a five unit that was vacant. So I was finding these landlords that were just exhausted that's all. 

Ok so let's focus on that. Let's focus on the people that are just trying to get into real estate we all know it's about finding the deal. That's how you make money. So what would you give as advice to two young investors that are trying to find deals? When you say I found these deals how did you do that. 

Well in my case I had a local broker that knew what I was doing because she had done a little bit of it years before, but never had done it in multi-family she would just buy single-family houses and she had been a landlord and decided she didn't want to be a landlord sold all of her portfolios and bought a hotel. She basically knew that there were still deals out there and she knew that there was finally a buyer around that would do it. You know that was gonna buy these and was gonna fix them up and actually do something with them. So she was bringing me a deal or two. And then when the landlords locally within 30 miles of me started hearing this the ones that were exhausted may occasionally talk to each other their friends they have their own community because these are generally 60 to 80-year-old men and they have their own community. And so as you know these might these portions of their portfolio that they don't want to deal with that you don't want to go through the hassle of a whole rehab. They don't want to deal with contractors and they're just kind of like the look I'll take a loss on this. And so that's how I built my portfolio over the course of a year. And then I got a deal from also an exhausted landlord that was a really good deal and I knew I was pretty well out of money getting close to being out of my own money to be able to just continue to buy up these deals because I refinanced out of as many deals as I could, but the bank was getting a little bit tight on being able to refinance. They wanted you to hold it for two years. And I'm not the type of guy that wants to hold onto something for t

In true American Dream fashion, Michael Beeman’s story exemplifies just that. Motivated with needing to provide for his family of seven children on just a corporate salary of $60k, he wanted to do more than just make ends meet. Michael started cutting firewood to generate an additional income stream and while doing so immersed himself in listening to countless multifamily podcasts and real estate audiobooks. While his splitting firewood business brought in an additional $15k a year, Michael decided he was ready to make the leap into real estate investing. 

With $12k to his name to invest, he turned to his mother and best friend to see if they were interested in working with him to start looking for his first deal. His mother and best friend contributed $20k. Then Michael was able to invest in his first deal and he has been acquiring multifamily units ever since with a current portfolio of 136 units. 

On this episode of Multifamily Real Estate Investments with Don and Eden, Michael shares the details of his current projects, how to find the right deal at the right time, and discussing the importance of networking to develop key relationships for future business partnerships. Michael describes how his passion for real estate investing paired with his resourcefulness helped him find his first breakthrough deal and overcoming the challenges he faced along the way. Listen in for a remarkable story of Michael starting a side-hustle of splitting firewood into real estate investing with a portfolio worth seven-figures in less than two years!

Highlights: 

• Michael’s beginnings in Real Estate Investing
• Key Tips for Acquiring Multi-Family Units
• How to Find the Right Deal 
• How to Stay Open-Minded when forming Partnerships 
• Ways to Analyze the Current Market and Anticipate 
• The Importance of Networking and Building Relationships

Connect with Michael

[email protected]

#: 217-508-8185

Hey, guys welcome to the show. Today we're going to host Mr. Michael Beeman. I'm very excited to have him here because his story is truly exceptional. Michael was able to educate himself in real estate through podcasts and books. And two years later his portfolio is worth a little bit over three million dollars which is phenomenal. So without further ado let's welcome Michael to the show. 

Welcome to the real estate investing podcast with Don and Eden where we cover all aspects of real estate investing with special attention to multi-family apartment buildings and off-market strategies. 

Hey, Michael welcome to the show. How's everything today. Oh, everything is going well. How are you? I'm good, I'm good. I can't complain. How is your day so far? 

It's going good. You know talking to some business partners talking to some possible investors looking at deals; always grinding. That's the key to success though. Honestly, I'm very excited to have you here today on our show because your story is a story that a lot of people could relate to as you know you started with a big family and you were splitting wood the last time I checked I kind of listened to your story in a different podcast. This story was so special that I wanted to have you on my show as well and see how you could change your whole life from one direction to the other with real estate. So, first of all, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself so my audience here would know this story as much as I do. 

Well back in early 2016, I was going through bankruptcy from a previous marriage where I had agreed to take on more debt than I actually could handle, but    I also got custody of my kids We met and we had three kids each and we have a very large family. And I was making 60 grand a year and she had to stay home with the kids because we had very young ones. Obviously, a newborn plus you know seven children altogether between doctor's visits and everything else it made working for her almost impossible with the cost of daycare and stuff. So I decided to start a side hustle splitting and selling firewood because I knew that that would help us to make ends meet a little better, but then I was doing that for about a year and a half or about a year into it I started listening to real estate investing podcasts. And one of my dreams, you know at the time I had been renting, was to own rental properties because I'd always felt like landlords were making pretty good money, of course, that was the naive mindset of a renter at the time, but I was willing to learn and grow. And so I had saved up about twelve thousand dollars and I went to my brother and my mom with this plan of what I was gonna do. 

And I was asking them to all pitch in - and let me guess they were not really up for it.

No, they were not up for it at all. So then my best friend he had said I'll pitch in twenty thousand dollars because I just inherited 80. What would you give me for that?

I said I will give you one-quarter of the business. And then my mom heard about that and she had actually wanted to go along with me before, but she did not want to upset my brother. So it felt like the easiest route was to just be quiet. So she went ahead and said No if he's going then can I have one quarter for 25 percent so then I had all of a sudden fifty-two thousand dollar pool of money to expand wisely to start investing.

So shortly after that one of my buddies was over and we were having a drink that evening and I was telling him about you know because I always talk about this you've got to be super excited and you've got to be really excited and you've got to really want to go for it. And so I was telling him about my dreams and what I was planning on doing. And he said, Well I don't know if you're interested, but my girlfriend's mom used to manage this 66 unit building for the guy and then he got tired of dealing with it. Now it's sitting vacant -it needs some work, but you can get it at a steal of a deal. 

So you know you basically heard about a motivated seller of a six-unit. 

Yep. So I bought the thing and I had to go through and rehab every unit, but I got 100 percent financing down. I spent a little bit of the fifty thousand rehabbing every unit. We did a lot of work ourselves, my wife and I and then we had some help from an outside contractor so what was the total amount of the purchase price. What was at this point I was sixty thousand, but it appraised even vacant right then for ninety thousand. It's amazing. 

Yeah I mean you're in the Midwest so you can buy six units for sixty thousand in the Midwest. 

Well, that's uncommon. I wish I could find another six units for sixty thousand. I'll tell you that you're usually looking at 30 to 40 thousand units around here, but yes. So it was a steal of a deal and I ended up putting about thirty thousand units and we ended up about two years later we sold it and made a significant profit on it. 

That was your first deal in real estate, wasn’t it? Yes. And that was basically for you. I remember my first deal it was a flip I flipped the house and it was just a residential deal. And I remember I made good money, but you know your first deal is as if it's there to teach you what's going on. And just the rules, but it's not there for you to be able to make a lot of money. Everybody feels this way about their first deal, but you managed to somehow jump from 16 a deal as your first deal to what was 61 62 units. 

Yes. For the next year, I was looking at triplexes - I found a 10 unit that was mostly vacant about six of the units were vacant and needed rehab. We got a really good deal on it and then I found a five unit that was vacant. So I was finding these landlords that were just exhausted that's all. 

Ok so let's focus on that. Let's focus on the people that are just trying to get into real estate we all know it's about finding the deal. That's how you make money. So what would you give as advice to two young investors that are trying to find deals? When you say I found these deals how did you do that. 

Well in my case I had a local broker that knew what I was doing because she had done a little bit of it years before, but never had done it in multi-family she would just buy single-family houses and she had been a landlord and decided she didn't want to be a landlord sold all of her portfolios and bought a hotel. She basically knew that there were still deals out there and she knew that there was finally a buyer around that would do it. You know that was gonna buy these and was gonna fix them up and actually do something with them. So she was bringing me a deal or two. And then when the landlords locally within 30 miles of me started hearing this the ones that were exhausted may occasionally talk to each other their friends they have their own community because these are generally 60 to 80-year-old men and they have their own community. And so as you know these might these portions of their portfolio that they don't want to deal with that you don't want to go through the hassle of a whole rehab. They don't want to deal with contractors and they're just kind of like the look I'll take a loss on this. And so that's how I built my portfolio over the course of a year. And then I got a deal from also an exhausted landlord that was a really good deal and I knew I was pretty well out of money getting close to being out of my own money to be able to just continue to buy up these deals because I refinanced out of as many deals as I could, but the bank was getting a little bit tight on being able to refinance. They wanted you to hold it for two years. And I'm not the type of guy that wants to hold onto something fo

Today’s guest is a professor, author, active investor & developer, Richard Peiser. He’s a Michael D. Spear Professor of Real Estate Development at Harvard University, founded the Advanced Management Development Program and the university-wide Real Estate Academic Initiative. He has written a best selling book, Professional Real Estate Development: The ULI Guide to the Business.

Richard will give us some insight on his beginning stages in real estate, his biggest project thus far, and current projects in the works. He also discusses developing new towns and the executive program at Harvard for real estate professionals.

Highlights:

*Richards’s start in the Real Estate World

*Current projects

*Reducing crime through Real Estate Development

*Insights on New Towns

*Harvard’s Executive Program

Contact Richard:

[email protected]

Today’s guest is a professor, author, active investor & developer, Richard Peiser. He’s a Michael D. Spear Professor of Real Estate Development at Harvard University, founded the Advanced Management Development Program and the university-wide Real Estate Academic Initiative. He has written a best selling book, Professional Real Estate Development: The ULI Guide to the Business.

Richard will give us some insight on his beginning stages in real estate, his biggest project thus far, and current projects in the works. He also discusses developing new towns and the executive program at Harvard for real estate professionals.

Highlights:

*Richards’s start in the Real Estate World

*Current projects

*Reducing crime through Real Estate Development

*Insights on New Towns

*Harvard’s Executive Program

Contact Richard:

[email protected]

Our guest today will feature the author of ‘MY LIFE & 1,000 HOUSES: Failing Forward to Financial Freedom’ - Mitch Stephen. He’s a self-taught real estate entrepreneur, author and has bought many properties throughout the years with different strategies. Mitch writes about his life story where he describes everything from his childhood, his success and failures, his trials in tribulations in the real estate world and his personal life, and how he ultimately persevered to attain a level of success that he hadn't envisioned.

In today’s episode, he’ll discuss his “forever money” play, how to learn to make the right deal for you, the importance of finding where You fit in and why finding a mentor will save you tons of time and money. He learned the importance of asking for what you want and how starting with a few things will get the ball rolling. Most of all, he is an example of how to follow your heart, your dreams and to never give up on yourself.

Highlights:

*Mitch’s turning point during business school.

*Explains the art of Owner Financing.

*Importance of working with a business coach/ mentor.

*Mitch touches upon his successes, his failures, everything in between and he has worked through it all to end up where he is now.

*Mitch discusses his books and how he wrote it from the heart.

Resources:

www.1000houses.com

Our guest today will feature the author of ‘MY LIFE & 1,000 HOUSES: Failing Forward to Financial Freedom’ - Mitch Stephen. He’s a self-taught real estate entrepreneur, author and has bought many properties throughout the years with different strategies. Mitch writes about his life story where he describes everything from his childhood, his success and failures, his trials in tribulations in the real estate world and his personal life, and how he ultimately persevered to attain a level of success that he hadn't envisioned.

In today’s episode, he’ll discuss his “forever money” play, how to learn to make the right deal for you, the importance of finding where You fit in and why finding a mentor will save you tons of time and money. He learned the importance of asking for what you want and how starting with a few things will get the ball rolling. Most of all, he is an example of how to follow your heart, your dreams and to never give up on yourself.

Highlights:

*Mitch’s turning point during business school.

*Explains the art of Owner Financing.

*Importance of working with a business coach/ mentor.

*Mitch touches upon his successes, his failures, everything in between and he has worked through it all to end up where he is now.

*Mitch discusses his books and how he wrote it from the heart.

Resources:

www.1000houses.com