“Work Shop” Author Joe Brady on the Evolution of Retail Real Estate

 

“Work Shop” Author Joe Brady on the Evolution of Retail Real Estate

 

Guest: “Work Shop” author Joe Brady is an expert in retail commercial real estate. He served as CEO of Americas at The Instant Group as well as head of real estate for Walgreens. His early career includes capital markets & brokerage with a business-sale exit to JLL.

 

Big Idea: Real Estate may go up in value, but it certainly comes with an expiration date. Retail & office are the 2 recent asset classes where much of the product is simply useless and worthless-as many properties have sold at land value minus demolition costs. Joe has observed that retail has been forced to evolve because of the iPhone and now office is facing the same challenges.

 

 

    

Dan Breslin: Yeah, for sure. So, Joe, we’ll talk about his background with Walgreens as head of head of National Real estate. I believe we were talking before we hit record about how we’re both Philadelphia guys, then Chicago guys and then Florida guys still to this day. But with that, do you want to give a brief background of your career history and how that’s led up to what you’re currently doing, Joe.

Joe Brady: Sure happy to. You know, I’ve been in commercial real estate for 35 years or so, and during that time I’ve had a chance to sit almost at every seat at the table. So I’ve been on the capital capital market side. Been on the brokerage side, the advisory side. I’ve been on the principal side. And so I really grew up in the retail business, and it was a part of some very high volume rollouts, including Hollywood Video back when that was actually a that was actually an industry. Right? There’s only one blockbuster left. Did you know that. Somebody mentioned that to you. Yeah. It must be like a museum now, or something. I mean. It’s a swag shop. It’s.

Dan Breslin: Okay.

Joe Brady: Bend Oregon of all places, right? So that industry doesn’t exist. But was part of the team that rolled out 2,000 of those stores. And then we we took that business we took the skills and the relationships and rolled that into an outsourcing business. That, we ran from 2,000 to 2,008 and T-mobile, U.S.A. Became our biggest client. So we opened another 2,000 of those stores, the 1st 2,000 T-mobile stores in the Us. And wound up selling that business to Jll. January 3, rd 2,008. So for those who, you know don’t track history that was really really lucky timing and I’ll take it so.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

https://JoeBrady.ai/

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Joe Brady & I Discuss The Evolution of Retail Real Estate:

  • How to Engage a Mentor with Cold Outreach

  • Effectiveness is Superior to Productivity

  • Recent Grocery Anchored Retail Development

  • Tenant Driven Development = Lower Risk Development

 

    

Relevant Episodes: (200+ Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Redeveloping U.S. Malls Part 2 with Brait Fund Saul Zenkevicius

 

Redeveloping U.S. Malls Part 2 with Brait Fund Saul Zenkevicius

 

Guest: Saul Zenkevicius is a personal friend and prior business partner of mine.  We used to flip houses together in Chicago & Miami. Now he’s moved on to redeveloping underperforming Malls with his partner Rafik and their team. 

 

Big Idea: The biggest opportunity in commercial real estate is leasing up large amounts of vacant space.  This is how to earn profits exceeding $10,000,000.  The key to doing this is building a business focused on attracting tenants and building an ecosystem of tenants that will bring traffic to those properties over a long period of time.

 

 

    

Dan: Saul Zenkevicius, welcome back to the show. How you doing?

Saul Zenkevicius: Good. How are you, Danny?

Dan: Good. For listeners who’ve been around a while, March 1st, 2019, Saul was on the show. We talked about leveling up in real estate, and he was just getting into industrial properties, and I think getting out of the house, flipping business. Saul and I were also partners in the Miami market, and we did quite a bit of business together in the Chicago market before the focus became commercial. Saul is the founding member of Z Equity. Do you have another company or any other company associations at this point we know.

Saul: Yeah. I am also managing partner in Braid Fund where Rafik Morris is my partner over there and we’re buying malls with that company.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

www.Zequitygroup.com

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Saul Zenkevicius & I Discuss Redeveloping Commercial Real Estate:

  • Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro
  • Leasing 300,000 sq. ft. in 15 months
  • Creating $10M in value in that same period
  • Simplifying Life instead of Chasing Money Exclusively

 

    

Relevant Episodes: (200+ Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Real Estate Development with Darcy Marler

 

Real Estate Development with Darcy Marler

 

Guest: Darcy Marler is a seasoned real estate investor and developer with over two decades of experience in flipping houses, rental properties, land development, and new construction. From an MIT graduate to a successful real estate entrepreneur, Darcy’s journey has been marked by valuable lessons and insights. Passionate about transforming raw land into subdivided lots ready for construction, Darcy specializes in building and flipping houses, duplexes, and small multifamily properties.

 

Big Idea: In this episode, Darcy Marler delves into the transition from fixing and flipping houses to land development and new construction, stressing the need to align real estate strategies with personal preferences. He outlines risk mitigation and profit maximization strategies, emphasizing the substantial benefits of new construction, including higher returns, better tenants, and efficient management. Darcy highlights advantages such as ease of financing and incentives for developers addressing the housing crisis. He underscores opportunities for smaller investors in smaller-scale projects like multifamily units or residential development. Understanding market demand, leveraging financing, and exploring exit strategies are key takeaways for maximizing returns in real estate development.

 

 

    

Dan Breslin: Yeah, absolutely. I was excited by the topic. I think our listeners will be equally as excited. Most of us listening are probably fixing flipping houses. We are interested in buying and selling real estate. We would improve said real estate to get to that profit. And I think that our discussion today around land and development and making that transition will be a very much well-received topic by the audience and by myself today. So Darcy, would you mind giving us the background and the career evolution to getting where you’re at today?

Darcy Marler: Well, a lot of people, I was an actual IT guy way back in the day, about 23 years ago, I got tired of that. So I wanted to get into real estate and I started flipping and doing long term rentals and that led to some land development and construction. The bird, I’ve done all the strategies I’ve owned, had close to a thousand tenants and 240 renovated units, written a couple of books and then yeah. So now I’m doing a bit of everything, but I keep coming back to new. I like new, I like being creative. I like knocking stuff down instead of fixing it up now. [inaudible].

Dan Breslin: So why don’t we start with an example then this could be your first development deal, or you can not do that one. If that one’s not maybe the biggest lesson and maybe you could pick one that came with a really big lesson that helps us expand our vision from single-family fix and flip or buying duplexes that exist to ground up new construction?

Darcy Marler: Yeah, so actually the first one is a perfect one. So I had this 1950s bungalow. I was just going to flip it. The person next to me passed away, so I bought that as well. I said, ” You know what, I’ve always wanted to build. So what does that look like?” Actually I moved both of the old houses off. I didn’t even demolish them. I actually sold them. They got moved off. I split those two lots into four. I made sure all four lots were serviced and then I built four new homes and I loved it. It was exactly what I wanted. So the big thing that I’m all about too is, is not your personality to your strategy. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, what’s a better fit. And I love creativity. I love the pride of watching the stuff come out of the ground. I think it’s awesome.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

https://www.hrrealestatementors.com/

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Darcy Marler & I Discuss Real Estate Development:

  • Budgeting and Risk Management in New Construction (3:31)
  • Philosophies on Holding vs. Selling Properties (10:02)
  • Pre-Selling Land vs. Building Spec Homes (15:54)
  • Identifying Potential Land for Development & Subdividing (18:21)
  • Evaluating Opportunities in Aging Neighborhoods (23:16)
  • Benefits of new construction for rental properties (36:38)
  • Importance of demographics and location in real estate investment (45:36)
  • The significance of partnerships and operational support in real estate ventures (49:48)

 

    

Relevant Episodes: (200+ Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Tom Dunkel: Strategies to Build Wealth Through Alternative Assets

 

Tom Dunkel: Strategies to Build Wealth Through Alternative Assets

 

Guest:  Tom Dunkel is an experienced entrepreneur and corporate finance leader who specializes in value-add self-storage investments, distressed mortgage note investing/dealing, private lending, and private investing in multi-family and self-storage properties.

 

Big Idea: Tom Dunkel is an experienced alternative asset investor who has completed over $40MM of transactions in fragmented, dislocated markets such as distressed debt and self-storage. He has over 25 years of real estate and investing experience, including $1.2B of middle-market M&A and financing transaction experience. Tom is passionate about helping alternative investors build wealth while improving communities through disciplined real estate investment initiatives.

 

 

    

Dan Breslin: Tom is an experienced entrepreneur and corporate finance leader who specializes in value add self-storage investments, distressed mortgage note investing in dealing private lending, and private investing in multi-family and self-storage properties. Today, Tom and I are going to discuss this $40 million plus of transactions in fragmented dislocated markets, such as distressed debt and self-storage. Tom also has over 25 years of real estate experience and investing experience, including $1.2 billion of middle market M&A and financing transaction experience.

We’re going to discuss the internetization. Yes, I made that word up. The internetization of real estate as a trend, especially pertaining to the self-storage real estate industry. We’re also going to touch on market selection and of course generating high passive returns. Let’s begin. Hi, welcome to the REI Diamond Show Tom, how you doing today?

Tom: Doing great, Dan. It’s great to be with you. It’s been a long time.

Dan: Yeah, for sure, so for listeners, Tom and I go back to the early days, probably 2006, when we were both dipping our foot into the Philadelphia Regional Real Estate Networking meetings.

Tom: That’s right.

Dan: What a path since then, right Tom?

Tom: I know, man. It’s been quite a wild ride, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I know about you. It’s been a lot of fun.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

www.BelroseStorageGroup.com

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Tom & I Discuss Real Estate Development:

  • Pitfalls for High-net-worth Investors and How to Avoid Them

  • What are the Hidden Risks for Self-Storage Investors

  • Why should I Consider Participating in an Equity Syndication

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 213 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Real Estate Development with Karl Krauskopf

 

Real Estate Development with Karl Krauskopf

 

Guest: Karl Krauskopf is a multi family real estate investor and developer based in Seattle, Washington. He is the managing partner of Auroras Investment Group.

Big Idea: Real Estate development, specifically the entitlement process can produce large gains without the risk of construction. Flipping houses is a great place to start in real estate, but can be challenging to scale. This is why many real estate developers progress to development of land and larger projects after finding success in single family homes.

 

 

    

 

Dan Breslin: Welcome to the REI Diamond Show. I’m your host, Dan Breslin, and this is episode 209 on real estate development with Karl Krauskopf. Karl is a multi-family real estate investor and developer based in Seattle, Washington. He is the managing partner of Aurora’s Investment Group. Real estate development, specifically the entitlement process, can produce large gains without the risk of construction. Flipping houses is a great place to start in real estate, but it can be challenging to scale, which is why many real estate developers progress to the development of land and larger projects after finding success in single family homes. On this episode, Karl and I discussed this as his recent or past transition to larger deals and the same transition that I am currently going through myself.

Karl: Sure. Happily. So, how I got into real estate was probably a little bit different from most folks. I got into real estate. That was 10 years back, I was a veteran and working in the healthcare industry. I was a director of corporate strategy and business development. So, that is where my passion lies, which is really around growth partnerships. How do we basically, how do we grow an entity of business?

And what ended up coming to fruition and what bore the real estate endeavour was my wife and I going into a conversation about wanting to start a family, wanting to have a kid, and what better way to start a side business, which would become my future business, is having a kid. So, spent about six months during my wife’s being pregnant, self-educating myself, really learning how to maximise my income, as well as getting into diversifying my income by adding additional streams of revenue. Decided it was time to take the first leap, which was buying a duplex, a remote duplex across the state from me, and with full intentions of rehabbing, refinancing it, and repeating it. Come to find out that I was not the right asset for that. And now I just spent about $75,000, the majority of my at that time, disposable income in putting it, parking it into a duplex that had no direct path for the refinance. So, I started sweating. I was nervous, didn’t know what to do. We were about to have a baby. So I figured what’s the best next step? Well, the best next step, apparently at the time was to flip a massive home. My first flip ever, it was a hoarder home too. Fantastic idea, right? No, it was awesome. I believe it was four dumpsters’ worth, 440-yard dumpsters’ worth, of junk that we took out of this home. All this direct to say back is, I’m working a 40, 50 hour a week job as well as we just had our newborn, and apparently I’m a glutton for punishment.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

www.AurorasInvestmentGroup.com/

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Karl & I Discuss Real Estate Development:

  • Entitlement Process-Real Estate Development

  • Finding Mentors doing Larger Deals

  • “Covered Land” play-teardown deals

  • The Microsoft Real Estate Market-Seattle, Washington

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 209 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Franchise Investments with Kim Daly

franchise_investment

 

Franchise Investments with Kim Daly

 

Guest: Kim Daly is an independent franchise consultant with FranChoice. She is also the co-author of Franchising Freedom & Mission Matters Volume 5, Top Tips to Success.

Big Idea: Kim Daly is an expert in franchise investment. Kim Daly has spent the last 20 years helping people achieve financial freedom by enabling them to find the perfect franchise opportunities. Her skill for matching a client’s background, interests, skills, finances and life goals to the ideal opportunity has made her one of the top franchise consultants in the country. On today’s episode we discuss the way some real estate investors transition from house flipping to owning a portfolio of franchise businesses-which might be a great solution in today’s low inventory real estate market. We also discuss the process of getting started and then building to scale, where you reap the real rewards of the franchise business.

 

 

    

 

Dan: Love it. I found a quote online. I think this would be a good place to start. I don’t know if you wrote this or someone wrote it about you, but it said “She worked as a personal trainer and had medical school dreams before entrepreneurship and franchising found her.” Tell me about that.

Kim: That is all true. In franchising, Dan. The question that’s commonly asked is, how did franchising find you? Because nobody really wakes up and says, “Oh yeah, I think I’m going to go get into franchising.” Right? It’s more like you’re looking for some outcome in your life and you stumble upon the advantages of franchising and go, “Ooh, this is a way to get where I want to go.” That’s pretty much what happened to me. There were two things I wanted to do when I was young. One was to become a motivational speaker, but like, how does one do that? You pursue the more logical thing. I was a straight-A student. I’m going to go to medical school and help people. Like I just always desired to be a person of influence, to do something that genuinely improves the lives of other people.

After undergrad, I answered a classified ad in the newspaper that was for a franchise consulting company, not the one I’m part of today. But literally, that classified ad changed my life when I found what franchising as an industry is and does for people, which is, it’s an industry of people helping people. It’s an industry where every single day people are realizing their dreams, living their dreams, just inspiring, and helping each other. I knew that I had found my homeland. I did make a temporary deviation into entrepreneurship because like every good business owner, I think we all think that we can go out there and do it on our own. I tried to do that for five years and figured out how hard it is and mainly how lonely it is and the things that I now help other people realize and learn about in franchising like that.

In a franchise, you’re in business for yourself, but not by yourself. You have the comradery of, not just a corporate office, but all of the other franchise owners that are out there that are part of this brand. Together you are building something. It’s like people who go off to war together often talk about the part they miss about being in the military is the comradery, right? People that go through an intense situation together in anything in life, they’ll reflect back fondly on the people that they went through that experience. Like if you’re bringing a company up to an IPO, right? I think the same thing is true in franchising. We’re all trying to achieve our own individual dreams, but collectively we’re coming together to build a brand altogether and so it has that same sense of camaraderie. Once I came back to entrepreneurship at the very old age of 29, I’m sorry, but once I came back to franchising at 29, I never left. I’ve spent 20 years now as a franchise consultant.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

How to Invest in a Franchise Business with Jon Ostenson

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Kim & I Discuss Franchise Investing:

  • Is Franchising Safe in an Uncertain Economy?

  • Why does Franchising Grow in Challenging Times?

  • How to Find the RIGHT Franchise for You

  • Best Franchise Opportunities in the Market Today

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 208 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Nashville Tennessee Real Estate Development with HBG Capital Founder Brandon Cobb

 

Nashville Tennessee Real Estate Development with HBG Capital Founder Brandon Cobb

 

Guest: Nashville Tennessee Real Estate Investor Brandon Cobb is the founder of HBG Capital.  He is also a licensed and bonded General Contractor in TN managing more than $1O Million of new development annually.

Big Idea: Investing in Nashville Tennessee real estate is like most of the U.S. at the time of this recording:  Low inventory combined with an insanely inflationary environment.  There is also a housing shortage which has created profitable conditions for residential real estate developers who are capable of building with scarce & expensive building materials and labor.  Not an easy task.  On today’s episode Brandon & I discuss this situation and the system he’s developed to build profitably.  Shall we begin?

 

 

    

 

Daniel Breslin: Today’s guest, Nashville Tennessee Real Estate Investor, Brandon Cobb, is the founder of HBG Capital. He’s also a licensed and bonded general contractor in Tennessee, managing more than $10 million of new development each year. Investing in Nashville Tennessee Real Estate is like most of the US at the time of this recording, super low inventory combined with insanely inflationary environment. There’s also a housing shortage, which has created profitable conditions for residential real estate developers who are capable of building with scarce and expensive building materials and labor, not an easy task.

In today’s episode, Brandon and I discussed this situation and the system he’s developed to actually build profitably.

Brandon: Yeah, so I could probably speak to Nashville more than I can in the other markets. I know Memphis is a very heavy rental market. Over there, you can still scoop up properties for pretty cheap, but you got to be really careful because your tenant base is if you don’t have a good system to processes for vetting tenants, you will get hosed on that. Knoxville, you’re probably referring to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, tons of cabins going up Airbnb, right? COVID kind of blew that area up. Everybody wants to go on a vacation, but they’re scared of COVID or there’s a lockdown. So those areas where you can kind of get the whole glamping experience or cabin experience blew up, that area’s phenomenal. The Smoky Mountains are obviously one of the best places to go and hike, especially during the fall when the leaves change. A little tip for everybody, right? If you have not been in the Smoky during the fall, it’s great.

Nashville’s probably the only city that has gosh, 30, 40 cranes downtown. So you can just look if you just had a picture of three cities, you be able to identify Nashville from those three because it’s got a ton of cranes. Nashville’s just exponential growth. I think all the national builders are now officially here. They set up shop in the building. That mean, you’ve got these ginormous developments that are being announced every single year. They just announced one. It was like a $2 billion development over in the Bordeaux area, which is your first development where you’re going to have heavy commercial skyscrapers that are kind of outside the downtown core. If you look at Nashville, you get the Cumberland River that kind of rolls through it, and that’s sort of your barrier to all these heavy, deep skyline commercial buildings. Well, now, it’s starting to get outside of that and it’s across the river now. So it’s very interesting, and you’re going to start to see that area really kind of explode. So Nashville’s just a hot, hot, hot housing market.

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 6.99%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

www.HBGCapital.net

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Brandon Cobb & I Discuss Investing in Nashville Tennessee Real Estate:

  • Nashville Tennessee Real Estate Market

  • Developing Residential Real Estate

  • Lessons Learned from Losing $40,000

  • Getting Past a Bad Deal

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 207 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

How to Become a Real Estate Developer with Adam Gilbert

 

Episode: How to Become a Real Estate Developer with Adam Gilbert

 

Guest: Adam Gilbert is the President of The Firm Commercial where he leads a team of agents specializing in commercial real estate sales, leasing, land acquisition, development, government relations, and value added entitlement development deals.

 

Big Idea: Any Real Estate Agent, Developer, or Investor Generates Consistent Income by Positioning themselves to Receive a Continuous Flow of Deals Crossing their Path.  Adam has a unique way of doing this in the realm of commercial real estate, as discussed during this episode.

 

 

    

Dan Breslin: Some of my best partners have come through listening this podcast. Maybe you’re the next. Today’s guest is Adam Gilbert, the president of The Firm Commercial, where he leads a team of agents specializing in commercial real estate sales, leasing, land acquisition, development, government relations, and value-added land entitlement development deals. Any real estate agent developer or investor will generate a consistent income through positioning themselves to receive a continuous flow of deals that are coming across their desk. Adam has a unique way of doing this in the realm of commercial real estate as discussed during this episode. And we also dive deep on how to become a real estate developer covering details of a few recent development deals and we also touch on the Palm Springs, California Real Estate market.

So, I was doing some research for our show here and I found that you’ve recently exited your vacation rental business. So, I’d like to begin right at that point if we could, and maybe you could touch on how you built the business, how it operated at scale, and then what was the ultimate reasoning that led you to selling and exiting.

Adam: Sure. So, quick background, I’m born and raised here in Palm Springs, and I left for school. I came back in about 2011, which was an interesting time in the market for a variety of reasons. But that summer, I had stayed in this new thing called an Airbnb in 2011, Washington, DC. We had spent the summer in New York and my wife was like, “We’re going to spend the night in someone’s room at their house? This is crazy.” I’m like, “We did it. This is the future, honey. This is going to be amazing.” And so, when I moved back to Palm Springs, there we have like a long history of vacation, rental properties for 50-60 years, but not on the platform of Airbnb. So, I was one of the ones who got just a couple of condos on the platform and they just started crushing. Absolutely amazing because this whole new marketplace of people were looking for properties on Airbnb. So, it kind of just grew organically. I was like, “Okay. Well, I’ve got a housekeeping service, I’ve got a handyman, I know how to do these reservations, and we just built this business.” By the time 2018 came around, I had 35 full-time properties. We had like, 50 around the time Coachella came. It was a great business. It’s a very labor-intensive business and it takes a lot of time, and it’s holidays and all that kind of stuff. So, at that point in my real estate investing career, it was just a little bit too much. And so, I made a deal with TurnKey, who’s a venture-backed vacation rental company out of Austin, Texas and they were acquiring small companies like mine at the time. I made an exit and focus my attention on other ventures.

Dan: Okay, so was it more of a freedom thing? Or was there some timing and pricing that also made it worthwhile?

Adam: There were a few factors in there. Just the perils of running a business, partners, all that kind of stuff. I think it was more timing. I had to decide. It was that point when I had 35 properties, I would have needed to invest in the business, in terms of employees. I did some calculations, I wasn’t going to make any money again until I got 75 properties, and I’m like, “Okay. Is this what I want to spend my time doing?” So, it’s kind of an 80/20 principle thing of “Where am I going to focus my time to have the best ROI?”

Dan: Got you. So, what’s been the focus of your career? Since 2018, you exited, you jettisoned the responsibilities, which was kind of what I was expecting an answer there. So, what’s been the focus since then?

Adam: Yeah. So, mostly since then, it’s been building of my real estate brokerage, both commercial and residential, here. It’s mostly commercial, but on the residential side, I do specialize in short-term vacation rentals, which the Palm Springs Market is well known for and has been absolutely blasting since COVID. Palm Springs has been a great market since that’s happened and then, I’m also working on my own deals and I have a little niche in value-add entitlement deals and zone changes. And so, I spent a lot of my time kind of doing that and entitlement work.

 

Episode Sponsored by the Deal Machine:

Driving for Dollars Software to Build a Team of Drivers, Manage Routes, & Even Automate Marketing.  Free Access at  http://REIDealMachine.com/

Resources mentioned in this episode:

www.TheFirmCommercial.com

 

 

Adam & I Discuss Commercial Real Estate Syndication:

  • Government Relations During Land Development

  • Identifying Value in Underzoned Property

  • Palm Springs California Real Estate Market

  • The Group Any Commercial Real Estate Broker is Wise to Join

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 191 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Land Entitlement Process for Multi Family Development with Reed Goossens

 

Episode: Land Entitlement Process for Multi Family Development with Reed

Guest: Reed Goossens is the host of the popular podcast “Investing in the U.S.” and also author of the book by the same name.  Reed was an engineer with experience in large scale development including infrastructure for the London Olympics in 2012.  He now focuses on buying, building, & operating large multi-family assets throughout the U.S.

Big Idea: “Even though a lot of institutional dollars have started to become big, big players in the game-we’re still selling to a group that is more entrepreneurial like we are.  We left meat on the bone”  Reed describes being able to sell the deal for MORE money than if he were to complete the renovation on the other 70% of the units.  A better bang for the buck by NOT finishing the deal.

 

    

Dan: I was listening to a multifamily investing podcast the other day and one of the members that was a, I guess on the show, I cannot remember what show it was, had 4 or 5,000 units. He sounded like he was probably in his late 60s or early 70s. So he had this nice solid multifamily career and he was looking back and he said that around the area now from what he is hearing, like the big names Blackstone and these are private equity Wall Street types. They are not afraid of the floating rates. They do not think that rate risk is going to be a realistic threat certainly at any point in time 2, 5, 7, or 10-year term that these big smart money investors are supposed to be doing business.

So he kind of shared the same sentiment as you and just did not view that as much of a risk. I mean, who knows who is right. So 12 deals in what? What is your exit strategy? Do you end up selling these at any point? Have you sold any of the deals that you have done or are you still in hold periods on everything?

Reed: No, good question. We start our first deals were in 2000, 2016, early 2017. I have been involved in multifamily as a Co-GP prior to that. So probably 2 or 3 years prior to that early 2014 I got started, but I really started my own shop at the end of 2016. So I have been into the 8 years in syndication space and then in terms of your exit strategies, yes, we are actually coming to exit a couple of deals right now, and they are the deals that have the most flexibility on the debt, right?

The deal we just spoke about that it was speaking to you back and previously in 2018. I cannot exit that deal because I have gone over big prepay, right? Unless someone to come and assume the deal, the deal is not sucking wind by any means of making money from my investors, making cash flow. So just keep it, we write out the prepay, but we have another two sets of deals. The billboard as a portfolio and we have to bridge on those deals and we have had them for about two and a half years now. We are going to, we sort of popped your head up thinking, okay, we can refile here or we can sell. We popped her head up and did a bit of an off-market type of shop around and we have got the number we wanted to hit and for this time period they give a good pretty solid return for investors and we decided to execute on the sale.

If no one had taken bit at the number we wanted, then we would have gone for a refi, but the opportunity to exit at multiple points along the deal is exactly what we assess every single day on over to go but on a very consistent basis to understand where the markets out and particularly with cap rate compression, compressing as interest rates continue to go lower that is you seen that shock wave across the country in terms of multifamily particularly in our area of Central Texas. So yes, we constantly look at what is the best opportunity to exit for deal for investors. A little bit selfishly, we as a company, myself, my business partner Andrew and I, as we are growing to 12 and hopefully going to go double the portfolio in the next 3 to 5 years, people are starting to ask.

Where is your schemes on the wall, where your runs on the board, and that is where you go to start pointing to the cycle deals, and how would it go, what was the returns, and we are really happy to say that we have finally come into the first set of deals that are selling and got to make a nice healthy little profit for all our investors involved?

 

Episode Sponsored by the Deal Machine:

Driving for Dollars Software to Build a Team of Drivers, Manage Routes, & Even Automate Marketing.  Free Access at  http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

www.ReedGoossens.com

 

Reed & I Discuss the Land Entitlement Process for Multi Family:

  • Finding the Right Lawyer to Prepare your Zoning Application

  • Understanding the Political Factors in the Zoning Process

  • Timeline of the Land Entitlement approvals

  • How to do Your First Land Entitlement deal

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 186 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Anchorage Alaska Real Estate-Developing Million Dollar Homes with Joe Bell

The Anchorage, Alaska Real Estate Market-the Land of Opportunity?

Joe Bell is a real estate agent and investor in the Anchorage, Alaska Real Estate market. The population is less than 300,000 people. Compare this with the metro population of Chicago at 8 million, or even Atlanta with 6 million, and you might wonder just how much opportunity could exist in a smaller city like this.

Episode:  Anchorage Alaska Real Estate-Developing Million Dollar Homes with Joe Bell

Guest: Joe Bell is the author of Assets, Acquisitions, & Abundance: A Guide to Building True Wealth & Legacy through Real Estate. Joe is also a Real Estate Agent from Anchorage Alaska. Joe used to run a billion dollar/year brokerage business before dedicating his primary focus to investing, building new homes, and helping others find the way to long term wealth

Big Idea: “You’re in the Business of Real Estate to BUY REAL ESTATE.” Joe’s experience running a billion dollar brokerage business revealed too many agents generated solid commission income their entire career, but found themselves without assets later in life as retirement loomed. He developed Legacy Beyond Listings to help real estate professionals see the opportunity in buying & selling instead of simply transacting.

Of course this comes with some risk. This past March, Joe was preparing to break ground on a million dollar new construction deal. As Covid began shutting down the world, his $900K in funding disappeared, leaving him holding the bag on the half-started, high stakes project. Think he was able to pull it off? You’ll have to check out the episode to find out!

 

  

Episode Sponsored by the Deal Machine:

Driving for Dollars Software to Build a Team of Drivers, Manage Routes, & Even Automate Marketing.  Free Access at  http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

Real Estate Transactions are Like Crack. Do it Once & You Can Never Stop…

Fix & flip investors, wholesalers, & even real estate agents typically begin their career by closing a deal. That’s where it all starts. Then they discover they have to close another deal, and yet another to keep the income machine moving. It’s like being on a treadmill where you can never stop running. If you stop doing transactions, the income also stops. I know this because it’s my experience.

I’ve been in the business of flipping houses since 2006. This past year we bought & sold 283 houses. We are running FAST on that treadmill to keep the income machine working. Contrast this “transactional” method with that of buy & hold investor whose goal is purchasing and controlling real estate or the long term.

The buy & hold investor eventually reaches a certain scale and can stop a acquiring new deals. Over time, as rental rates rise, the buy & hold investor reaches a point where they can sit back and simply manage the portfolio and live on the income. My path in real estate investing provides plenty of income, but automatic momentum if I were to stop doing transactions. I’m hooked, and I will not stop. Truth be told, I LOVE flipping houses & transforming neighborhoods. For me, this business stopped being about the money a long time ago.

Buying & Holding Assets is Like a Healthy Diet & Exercise

When I was in college I had a friend with a wealthy father. I grew up broke and assumed anyone who was rich just had a lot of money. When I asked him, “How much money does your dad have?” He answered, “It’s not about how much money you have. It’s about how many assets you own & operate effectively” It’s taken me years to fully grasp the truth here. Now my goals aren’t solely around how much income I can generate, but how I can acquire assets to create opportunities for myself later in life.

For example, a few years ago I decided to invest in a package of 5 houses throughout Philadelphia. I bought them for two reasons. First, I hoped the houses would appreciate in value. Second, I believed that those houses would be a better place to park my savings than a bank. I thought that in a few years I could sell the houses for a bit more than I paid and use the money to pay for my daughter’s education.

The results came much faster. I sold two of the houses 1 & 2 years after I bought and cleared a $35,000 profit on each. No renovations necessary. Worth noting, I bought them tenant occupied and sold them as the tenants moved. To this day, I still own 3 houses and am in good shape to profit once the tenants move. It would be important to note that I paid fair market value for all 5 houses. It actually felt like I overpaid at the time. But the rents have risen along with the values.

These deals work much slower than my fix & flip deals. The flips generate $35K in just 6 months or less, while I waited a year or two, or even three or more for the same profit. The flips are fun where the rentals are a bit boring. That’s why they’re like the healthy diet & exercise. Just like the diet & exercise are activities that payoff in the long run, so too do my rentals produce a feast at some point in the future when I sell or refi.

Assets, Acquisition, & Abundance-Spotting the REAL Money in Real Estate

The example I shared of my own 5 house package came as a result of me overcoming a few limiting beliefs around real estate ownership. Although I flipped quite a few houses before I purchased those houses, I hated the idea of owning rentals. I thought that every tenant would beat me on the rent. Like-no one would pay once I owned the house. While I have had a few evictions in my portfolio, most of the tenants have paid. But that fear stopped me from building my portfolio earlier-which would have set me much further ahead than I am now. Maybe you can relate.

Joe witnessed many agents with similar limiting beliefs while running the billion dollar brokerage business. It was the reason he wrote the book: Assets, Acquisition, & Abundance. Joe’s philosophy of Legacy Over Listings aims to help those “Transactional” minded agents into spotting the REAL money being made in real estate. Flipping & holding real estate long term, when correctly executed, pays out substantially over simply listing & closing deals.

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

www.LegacyBeyondListings.com

 

Joe Bell & I Discuss Anchorage Alaska Real Estate:

  • How Many Houses Could Possibly Sell in Alaska Each Year?

  • Who are the Buyers in the Alaska Real Estate Market?

  • How to Transform Beyond a “Transactional” Mindset to Investing

  • Integrating the Will to Win with Business & Real Estate

  

Relevant Episodes: (There are 181 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.