Epic Real Estate Investing - A Billion Dollars or Bust with Joe Fairless | 251

Episode Date: March 13, 2017

Epic Real Estate Investing catches up with fellow podcaster Joe Fairless. Get inspired to chase down those big goals. Discover some new and creative ways to make money in real estate with a variety of engaging marketing strategies. Continue to put the people first and make better use of your networks. Realize the power of establishing your voice in the community and close more real estate deals. Whether you are on your first deal or your first billion dollars. ______   The free course is new and improved!  To access to the two fastest and easiest strategies to a paycheck in real estate, go to FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com or text “FreeCourse” to 55678. What interests you most? • E.ducation • P.roperties • I.ncome • C.oaching Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terrio Media. Broadcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Welcome to Epic Real Estate investing. This is the place where I show people how to escape the rat race using real estate. And if you're just getting started and or you're looking for new and creative ways of making money in real estate, I've put together a free course just for you, including a checklist on how to find motivated sellers. What's a motivated seller? Well, these are property owners that are willing and able to sell you their property at a discount.

And, you know, that's kind of where real estate investors live. If you're not buying it at a discount, you're not being a very good investor. So I show you how to do that. And to access that free course, go to free real estate investing course.com. Free real estate investing course. All righty. So I've got a fantastic show for you today. Real quickly, though, before we get started, March 17th and 18th, the epic wealth experience and bus tour.

It departs in one of the more powerful cash flowing cities in the country that's St. Louis, Missouri. there are a few. Actually, I'm going to roll that back. There are only two seats available. So only two left. Go to Epic Wealthexperience.com. Reserve your seat. That's March 17th and 18th in St. Louis.

And then if you don't want to go on the full bus tour and you just want to congregate with the Epic team, you can do that on Friday, March 17th, in St. Louis, of course. At 5 p.m. It's our Grub and Grow Rich event. Our Grub and Grow Rich event. And this event is an opportunity to

meet the epic and cash flow savvy team as well as other like-minded investors in person. You know, we understand that investing for the first time, it can be full of new experiences and concerns. So bring your questions and your appetite. And it's just a very relaxed atmosphere that includes food, includes a workshop and a presentation, plenty of time for open format questions and answers as well as personal conversation with the team and myself. All right? So you also get the opportunity to mix and mingle with other investors. And that can never be underestimated or underrated in this business. We will not leave until all of your questions are answered.

And finally, mark your calendar is not a big announcement, but March 25th, 26th, and 27th, the epic intensive, the next epic intensive. It's on the calendars. Can't get in yet, not for sale, but at least you can mark your calendars. Hopefully I'll have some information for you on that in the next week or so. March May 25th, 26, and 27th, and that's in Manhattan Beach, California. Woo, all righty. On the phone today, I'm joined by fellow podcaster, successful real estate investor.

So from the best real estate investing advice ever podcast, please help me welcome to epic real estate investing, Mr. Joe Fairless. Joe, welcome back to the show. Hey, thanks a lot, man. You have got all sorts of things going on. It sounds like a lot of fun going to St. Louis doing bus trips around the market and got grub and grow or whatever that is, man. Signed me up. That's awesome. Yeah, I've got these three notes here now and it turns into, you know, seemingly a 20-minute announcement. But yeah, I guess we do have a lot going on. But super. Bring me up to speed. What's going on with you? Well, let's see.

We are closing on my company, closing on a couple deals next month. Well, by the end of this month early next month, last time we talked, man, I don't know where I was last time we talked, but I can tell you in the last 15 months, I have purchased over $100 million in real estate. Wow. And I have 100 and 100. We've sold one property. That's why the math.

You're about to hear the math. We currently have 102 million in assets under management. So we did one sale. But just really focused on growing the business. And my focus is multifamily syndication where I raise money from high net worth individuals. And we buy apartment communities together, add value and then refinanced, hold for a little bit and then sell. So that's been the main focus. I got a book coming out mid-March.

Actually, right after your St. Louis trip, my second book's coming out, Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever, Volume 2. Nice. And then I got engaged, too. I got engaged to the love of my life and getting married this June. So a lot of big events and rock and rolling. That's awesome. Well, congratulations.

Yeah, thank you. Gosh, you started the show off saying I have all these exciting things going on. Let me see what else I can throw on top of the pile. No, if I remember correctly, though, you're not a big volume guy. You're more of like, you know, you're very strategic. You're looking for your bigger deals and just one or two at a time. You just kind of go deep before you really go wide or you're not focused on volume. That's correct, right?

Yeah, that's correct. We did six deals last year. And the goal is to do eight this year. Yeah, and our average deal is, oh. say 20 million where we're bringing about I don't know 12 million or so well not 12 million probably about 8, 9 million to the table in that scenario equity fees due to the diligence costs and so you know we're not I'm not if someone were to ask me you know how many deals have you done in your life well I've done a four single family homes and

seven apartment community. So I've done 11 deals in my entire life. Right. But at the same time, they're big ones though. They're bigger ones, yeah. Right, totally. So how is it different? What's the difference between looking for a single family deal and looking for a large

multifamily deal? Are there some key nuances there that make them barely different? Are they pretty much the same? Well, I mean, I think the focus is for multifamily is, especially now when the markets, hot and I hate using that generalization because it's totally location specific. I get so annoyed when people are like, when's the bubble come? Who the hell knows? It's market specific. Right. And so, but in the markets that I'm in, Dallas is one of them. And I, it is getting more competitive to find deals. So to answer your question, the focus for me between, you know,

difference between single and multi is we have to really create opportunities with multi and i suspect that's the same with single if you're looking to buy single families maybe you need to buy him differently but with multi family we're we're needing to create opportunities i'll give you a specific example the two the two properties that we're closing on at the end of this month or early next month uh we one of them was on the market it was uh promoted to everyone that this broker knew and it was getting bid up pretty high. And so we looked at it and we're like, ah, this is, it's getting really competitive and almost ridiculous. So we're like, it doesn't make sense to buy this property as it currently stands. But here's an idea.

Let's look across the street. And let's, and lo and behold, across the street, there's another apartment community. Mm-hmm. And we got that apartment owner to get to sell us their apartment. So simultaneously, we're making an offer in a competitive environment on the on-market deal, but then across the street, we have zero competition with this other apartment community. And it just so happened that the one that had lots of competition, it's over 300,000.

units, 90% one bedrooms, and the one across the street, about 250 units, primarily two and three bedrooms. So they complement each other really well. And as a result, we were, and we did get both properties under contract. And we were able to pay a more competitive price for the on-market deal, but we were able to get, as you said earlier, you got to buy things at a discount. We were able to buy the other property across the street at a discount. And overall, the portfolio was at a slight discount relative to the market. But we, so we buy at a slight discount. But on top of that, we're able to have economies of scale with the operations, with the marketing. We can refer people back and forth. So all in, it's a wonderful transaction for us. And I guarantee,

guarantee nobody in the entire world took that approach on these two deals because we were the only ones making offers on the second one. So how is it, how is it trying to find properties? We have to be creative and create opportunities. And that's something that I'm proud of our team for doing because we created something out of thin air and we're closing on two deals worth over 35 million bucks. It's fantastic. Super. Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more as far as, you know, creating your own opportunity in this type of environment. I think another part of it that, you know, I've been harping on and preaching for a really long time. You know, we talk about direct mail.

We talk about pay-per-click and bandit signs and all this stuff that generates fast deals in the right type of market. But when it gets tight like this and gets really competitive, it really comes down to your relationships as well. That's a big part of it. And if you weren't spending time building your relationships during, you know, the really the Wild Wild West days of marketing. I'm not going to say wild-while West days, but, you know, when less people are in the market and there's a lot more response and, you know, the response rate to your marketing is much greater. You've got to be building your reputation. Yeah, you've got to build that too. Your relationships at this while you're doing all of that.

Because in these times, this is when it really pays off. So you've got to get a little bit more creative, like creating your own opportunities, tapping into your relationships, keeping your best contacts close, treating them well. I think today still probably 60% of our deals have always come through the relationships that we've built over the years. Do you find the same thing? Yeah, yeah. I kind of just went off on a tangent there. No, no, I do. No, I completely agree.

And for me, it's much higher than 60%. It's probably on deals we closed, it's 90%. On the majority of deals we see, it's probably not. 95% because, I mean, you know, commercial real estate's a small industry and especially having a podcast. We get lots of opportunities sent our way. I mean, earlier today, I got two quote unquote off market deals. One of them was a bunch of BS. It was fully marketed. It's just some dude who sent me as like, hey, I got an off market deal in Las Vegas. And it wasn't off market. But it happens a lot when you have an internet presence. Yeah, yeah. You get

Yeah, exactly. But when you do get sent a lot of stuff, one, it's important to have a team member to help with the sanity, and you can send it to a team member. But then two, eventually something's going to shake from the trees. And it, the majority of all the stuff I receive is from relationships that we've built. And that's one of the, well, one of the thousand benefits of having a podcast, because I'm able to build relationships to get to know, So people get to know me better faster than if I didn't have one. And as a result of them getting know me better faster whenever I'm snoozing away in my bed, but they're listening to my voice, then they, you know, I know you've had this happen where you jump on a call with someone.

They say, I feel like I know you because I listen to your podcast. Does this sound weird? I'm like, nope, because I've heard it. I've heard it before. Right, right. And so through that, which I consider some form of a relationship, I'm not sure what exactly, but there is a relationship that's forming. We're getting deals left and right, and so it's just a matter of waiting through what works

and what doesn't. Did you ever imagine that your podcast would turn into this type of, you know, lead generating machine for you? No. I did not. It's a total pleasant surprise, wasn't it? Well, my friend, there have been so many pleasant surprises from having a podcast. No, right, totally.

I mean, I started mine to self-publish a book. That was my whole reason for starting a podcast. And who even knows what happened to the book, but so many other amazing things have happened aside from the book, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Have you monetized yours? Do you have ads, like sponsor ads? I just advertise my own events and stuff, but I haven't monetized anything.

I don't mean, I've got, I don't have enough downloads to, I've looked into it and I just didn't want to cloud the airwaves with stuff where if I'm going to make, you know, a couple thousand bucks a month. It just wasn't worth it for me to, you know, to kind of impede on the quality of the show. That's all. Yeah. I like, I, whenever, whenever I launched my podcast, I, um, I made a focus of having ads in there so that my listeners from the very beginning would get, accustomed to having them in certain spots. That way, once I reached a certain tipping point, I didn't say, oh, by the way, here's some advertisements.

Yeah, Joe's selling out. Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. It's like, dude, we're subscribing, but now you got all these ads. And I can just visualize all the negative reviews and iTunes and whatever. But I, and the reason why I monetize it with advertising sponsors is because it helps me, well, first, it costs money. I mean, I do a daily podcast.

Right. Daily. I've had almost 950 episodes now. So for 950 days straight, I've had a podcast release and it's an interview-based format where I interview someone. So the point is it costs money. And just to break even, I don't make money on my podcast with my sponsors, but just to break even, I have sponsors come on who I believe in and then it breaks even. And then the benefit for me is one learning from wonderful people who are doing, you know, bus tours in St. Louis like yourself, to also getting leads and then building relationships with people whenever I'm asleep.

And then they reach out and we become friends and they end up being business partners. Right, right. Totally. You know, and for people that are listening like, okay, there's two podcast guys talking to each other. How does it, how is this relevant? I think there's an old premise of those who educate the market, dominate the market. And before I even had a podcast, that was my premise. Like I had a couple meetup groups.

I would hold events and I would teach and that would always generate stuff that I never even could have envisioned for myself beforehand. And, you know, for generating leads, especially in a competitive market like that, people are looking to partner with experts. They're looking to partner with people that are just not just. don't even have to be an expert. Just someone who's in the game doing it. And if you can teach people how to do it, there's so many people out there. And I mean, this is how we started a whole turnkey business.

They're like, wow, this is really cool, this real estate investing, but I just don't have the time or the desire to go do it. Can you just do it for me? And that same type of result you can get by hosting your own, you know, whether it's like a networking party or it is a formal meetup group where you meet once a month. Or it turns out to be something like a podcast. That's generated some of the best relationships and the best partnerships

that I've ever had in the business. And I can tell you that we don't even need to be, and we don't even need to be well-versed or experienced in the topic because that's the beauty of the interview-based format where you just go find the experts. So if we've got people listening, we're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't have the experience yet. Well, great.

This is a perfect way for you to go have the license to find the best of the best and give them exposure to an audience. And you might say, well, I don't have an audience. I'm just starting. They don't know that. Get a couple people on the podcast before them and then bring them on. And ultimately, you will get an audience if you launch it right because you'll be,

if we're talking a podcast, you'll be a new and noteworthy and that reaches tons of people. But if it's just a local thing, like you said, then that's great too because you can find someone who's doing some pretty wonderful things in your market, invite them to your local meetup that it's you and three, four friends plus anyone else on meetup.com or Eventbrite who said, yes, I'd like to attend. And then you've got your meetup and you're just by organizing, just by being the ringleader and the organizer, you're elevated to a higher statue. Versus if you're an attendee. Now, there's nothing wrong with being an attendee, but just by organizing the people and finding the...

expert, you're elevated to a different level. So that's, it's, and you know, I was talking to one of my business partners on, we do something called Follow Along Friday where we do Facebook Live every Monday, but it's for my Friday podcast. And it's the first time, he asked me his question, it's the first time I actually recognize this. When I was leaving my advertising job and going into real estate investing full-time while I was leaving, but I still had my advertising job, I had a meet-up in New York City where I helped, I taught people, hey, this is how I buy homes at the time. So I was buying homes in Texas living in New York City. And my first investor, who gave me the idea of buying apartment communities, came from this because it was my

oldest brother's friend and he said, Joe, I've heard that you do this single family home thing. I'm looking to get in the real estate investing and this guy owns like four or five high end gyms in Dallas, Texas. He said, I was looking to get in the real estate. Can you send me the presentation that you're doing? I was like, yeah, sure. So I sent it to him and he came back to me. He's like, that looks good. But if you ever do something larger, let me know I'd be happy to partner with you or I'd be interested in partnering with you. And just by hosting that meetup and having this presentation in the word of mouth, I got the idea. to raise money or partner with him, and he ended up being an investor on my first deal.

So it can snowball. It's incredible the type of effect and the domino effect that this will have. Absolutely, absolutely. You know, if you just want to kind of dip your toe in the water, I think another really good strategy that I had practiced in the beginning because I had gotten started from such a low point in life, is that you find these, then podcast didn't exist, but the, the local events, the meetup groups, and volunteer. Go to the actual person that is the organizer that is hosting and offer to volunteer and

help out with the meetup group. And that aligns you with the expert. So it will, how do they say, it'll rub off on you and you'll get that same impact and dynamic. And you can never predict it. Just like what you got there. And I just, I wish there was some way I could bottle this and sell it in a way that people were just really convinced and saw the value

and the way that they see like the sit on your couch and push a button and you'll be rich type stuff that's out there being sold because there's just so much good stuff that comes that you just have no idea what it is or where it's going to be but just by being out there and being in the mix and then position yourself or aligning yourself with experts

so much good fortune comes your way that you just wouldn't have happened otherwise Yeah it's it's pretty much mandatory to be outstanding in real estate investing to have some sort of platform. And I call it a thought leadership platform. We have to have some platform where we are interviewing people who are having success. So it's important to that it is interviews. It doesn't have an interview format.

Otherwise, you're just talking to your own people and it doesn't grow as much as a podcast or a meetup or something where when you have the expert there, they'll then talk to their friends. And I mean, we are the, we, what does Tony Robbins say? We rise to the level of expectations of our peer group, something like that. So the successful people are hanging out with other successful people, is my point. And when they share out their experience with their network, well, shoot, you just elevated one network up. And it just grows organically. And it does not happen overnight.

But I will tell you, I guarantee you what will happen overnight is once you do one or two of these, then the people who are already in your network be like, oh, shoot. Susie over there is doing some real estate stuff. And I've been thinking about real estate. Let me talk to her. You know? So it takes a long time, at least for me, maybe not for you. but it takes a long time to get the outsiders who don't know you to start reaching out because it takes some time to build that trust, the credibility and the rapport with them.

But the people who we already know and thank goodness for social media, people already know they'll know about these meetups or the podcast or YouTube videos or a blog that you start because you're sharing it out. And I guarantee overnight you're going to get some response from someone who already knows you, and it's going to lead to something, whether it's another conversation, then you meet their friend or whatever. It will have immediate results and the long-term results, as we've talked about already, are incredible. Absolutely. Hey, let's kind of redirected a little bit back towards real estate. I don't want people to fall asleep out there, two podcast guys talking about this. But there is real estate. This is real estate. It is real estate. I want to make,

I want to make another point because it's black and white. We're in marketing. If you're a real estate investor, you're a freaking marketer. And if we don't recognize that and embrace that, then we're dumb. And I'm not calling you dumb because I know you know this, but I'm just talking about, like, in general, this is it. Like, if real estate is about having a being sales oriented, but being value added where we give a lot of value and we learn from others and we keep we we are focused on the circle that we

keep and the core of how I mean if the question is how did you get a hundred million dollars in 15 months I'm going to say I got a freaking podcast because like this is real estate because I'm able to have 900 relationships in some form of fashion with people who I've interviewed on the podcast and I'm incredibly valuable to my investors because I have those experiences that I've had the Q&A sessions with these people who I've gotten to know. And so it's important that it all ties together and that we embrace that. And I know you do, but I'm just saying in general because what we're talking about with the podcast stuff, I want to make sure there's a direct connection. This is also real estate investing. This is what

we have to do to be competitive in the real estate industry. Right. It is a marketing business, and I agree 100% about the podcast. I was trying to draw it into a context that it works in multiple formats, multiple mediums. The concept is the same. So I was bringing the context back that I didn't want everyone out here thinking that they weren't going to be successful in real estate if they didn't have a podcast. Yeah, meet up, YouTube channel, blog, whatever.

It works in every environment, for sure, because before. or this is how I built my business before I even know what a podcast was, was the point I was getting to. But absolutely, we're in the marketing business. People think we're in this investing business. And no, if you know basic math, you got enough there for on the investing side. Now you just got to be an expert at the marketing. Yep, absolutely.

Sweet. So, in the last 18 months, you said, how much money have you invested? 102 million, asset center management. 102 million. Fantastic. So let's start with the raising the private money. And maybe you're just going to say it all came from the podcast. I don't know.

But what are some of your favorite ways of raising private money? Well, at this point, over 50% of my investors, my new investors come from referrals from existing investors. So that doesn't really help people, but it is important to note. But let me mention some things that will be more helpful for people just starting out. and that is to have a to do it in a methodical way and I did not do this when I was starting out but I should have and now I'm looking back on and like and now I do it this way have a spreadsheet and in the spreadsheet list have some columns have first name last name how you met this person and investment level so amount address and miscellaneous notes then

write out, write in this spreadsheet all the people that you know at least 100. And if you say, I don't know 100, baloney, you know 100, look on Facebook and just write down people there. It doesn't matter if you think they're, if they are going to invest. But just put them in here because I guarantee you people who you think are going to invest won't invest and vice versa. And when you, the key to the spreadsheet is the column that says how you know them. Because when we write down how we know them, then you sort the people by how you know them. And then, lo and behold, now you've got some groups of people that all know each other. So in my case, when I was starting out, it was the, I'm on, I'm currently and I was on the Texas Tech Alumni

Advisory Board. I was a flag football captain. I was working in advertising and some other networks. Well, when I look at those networks, the key is to get one person and ideally the most influential person in each of those networks to say, yeah, Joe, I'm interested in that. And then name check that person. So say, you know what, Matt said he was interested. And I know we both know Matt through XYZ organization, one, to see if you'd be interested too, because we thought this would be something that you'd find interesting. And by having that warm referral and that connection, that gives you social credibility. And the number one influencer of purchase intent is word of mouth referrals. So when we approach it that way, we're much more likely to be successful when we're talking to investors.

And I have that spreadsheet and I give it to all your people. You can email me info at jofairless.com. Give it to you for free. it's the same spreadsheet I use and it's the same one that I used to track my investors and their commitments and the different networks. Sweet. Thank you very much. Cool.

So it's a people business. It's relationship based. And when it comes to private money and using other people's money, that relationship has to be in place. And it doesn't happen with just the push of a button. There's work involved and there's relationships to be built. And yeah, so it's picking up the phone and it's dialing. A lot of people just ask, what's the secret to raise in private money or how do you raise private money? I was like, you have to create those relationships.

And one thing you said that where 50% all come through referrals, well, why would they come to you through referrals? I think the second secret to raising private money or keep raising it is actually performing, you know, saying what you're going to do and doing what you said and not providing any excuses and not allowing any excuses and just performing. staying in communication and being with integrity of using that person's money. I think that's the number one source for generating referrals because, you know, it's, I know it's happened to you. It happens to me every time someone does invest money with us is once you give it back to them, they're like, I don't want it back.

Go put it to work again and go do it again, right? Yep. Yep. Yep. So, I mean, one of our best investors, she gave us $10,000 for a down payment. And this was like, what, nine, 10 years ago. and now she's got seven figures invested with us over the years, and I didn't even know she had seven figures when I met her.

I thought she was really scraping the barrel to try and give me her last $10,000. But we kept on performing, and it snowballed and everything. We met her friends, and it all started with that one person. So after, let's see, you've raised the prime money, you've got all this great business, you're on track to do more deals this year than you did last year. what have you learned in the last 12 months that you just find invaluable? I've learned that I need business partners who complement the areas that I suck at. Because when I focus on things that I'm really good at,

then my business makes a lot more money and we grow and we had a lot of value in the world. When I try to focus on all of it, then we don't do as well. And I get bogged down. I don't enjoy life as much. And it doesn't work out as much. So specifically what I've done is over the last 15, 16 months, we have, my business partner and I have formed a business partnership where his background

is in multifamily asset management, acquisition. He worked at a firm in Los Angeles, Los Angeles where he did asset management acquisition, disposition for half a billion dollars worth of apartment communities all across the country. Well, my background, I was the youngest vice president of a New York City advertising agency. So completely different backgrounds.

He created a underwriting spreadsheet, a financial model that is so robust and the most intricate spreadsheet I've ever seen my entire life, and that's how we underwrite our deals. And he focuses on underwriting asset management as his primary responsibilities, debt financing. I focus on getting us to money for all of our deals. And then we overlap some.

I also do some asset management. I look at all the opportunities and the business plan, etc. But those of our primary responsibilities. And the biggest thing I learned is if I want our company to continue to grow and add value and get those referrals from existing investors, then I just need to focus on the things that I'm really good at. And then he focuses on things he's really good at and together we grow together. You know, a lot of people will kind of frown sometimes, depending on who you get your advice from, but frown on partnerships. And, you know, the advice

of teaming up with someone that complements your weaknesses. It's rather time-honored advice, I'd say. Was there a turning point or something that actually happened that said, you know what, I have to get a partner. I have to do this. I'd say when I, I mean, I bought a place in July of 2013, and I learned, I do a presentation on this when I go to a conference. I learned a bunch of lessons.

and most of the lessons had to do with things that an experienced investor who had been doing it for 10 years wouldn't have been learning. And I didn't want to keep learning those things or having other things like those. And some specific are, and this is ridiculous, but economic versus physical occupancy, where economic is people who are paying to live in your apartment community, physical is people who are living in your apartment community. So the key is economic occupancy, not just physical occupancy. So things like that where I didn't do the proper due diligence on my first deal.

I did all by myself. And I realized, what's the point? I know what I enjoy doing. And I know what I'm really good at. And I know the areas that I'm not as good at. And I don't enjoy doing. So it just made a lot of sense. After doing the first deal, I was like, okay, I got to figure out a better way to approach this thing.

Mm-hmm. For somebody looking for a partner, what would be the advice that you'd give them so they could find a good partner in a partnership that will actually last and defy the odds? One, you got to trust them and get along with them. Two, is they need to be a good communicator. And so do you. A big deal breaker for me is if someone is, if someone is, not responsive when I have to be able to pick a phone and talk to them or email them they get

back to me as a business partner not not you know other people but as a business partner communication is so critical and I live in Ohio he lives in New York City he used to live in LA but now he lives in New York City so we're not physically in the same room together but we need to be able to communicate and then the third is what I said earlier just complement complement each other's strengths or weaknesses we talked a little bit about this shifting market and we mentioned how competitive it's getting out there and how quote unquote hot it's getting. How is this changing how you're running your business? You might have already answered that, but is there anything else you can add how you might be changing your business right now?

Now it's just we have to look for opportunities where we create, we create them versus passively sit on our hands and wait for brokers to send us opportunities because everyone, I don't want to use hyperbole. There's a lot of people bidding on multifamily properties. Therefore, we have to do what we can to differentiate ourselves and find the right opportunities, or rather create the right opportunities. Yeah, I just close on one tomorrow.

I'm the one that I'm selling, not buying. And I can't believe the activity, the phone activity that has been generated from that process. Oh, yeah. I would say 20 times more inquiries, maybe even more than that than my single family deals. It's out there for sure. You know, the cycle of real estate, if you look back in history and quote-unquote experts,

like to reference this all the time of, you know, every seven to nine years, there's an adjustment period or there's a reset or maybe even a flat out bubble burst. And we're right at that approaching that nine year, right in the middle of that nine-year cycle, Is that impacting your future view for real estate? Three things that we make sure that we do. One is don't over leverage on the debt. Two is to have adequate cash reserves for each project. And three, we buy for cash flow, not appreciation.

When you follow those three rules, bring it. And then when the correction happens, not if, but when the correction happens, we'll sit tight, we won't sell, we won't be rehabbing to the level that we're rehabbing the projects, and then we'll ride it out because we're cash flowing right now on all of our properties. When we close, we're cash flowing. We just won't do the upgrades and command the premium rents. The people who are going to get in trouble are the single family home fix and flippers

because their properties don't cash flow. and whenever they're in the middle of a project or, God forbid, dozens of projects at once, and then the market turns in two months and they take a little bit longer to do it and they can't sell, then they're going to get in some trouble because they're fixing something up and they're flipping it and that thing does not cash flow. So those are the three things that we're doing to mitigate the risk, not prevent because you know, we'll take a dive or take a dip, rather, just like everyone else with rents and we'll make sure we do what we need to. But when we have those three guidelines, I'm confident

through the people I know and through, you know, just learning from people who have gone through this before that will mitigate the risk as much as possible. Sounds like it's right out of our playbook as well. Yeah, if you're a cash flow investor, you're not as concerned as most people are. You're not, uh, um, vulnerable or emotional about headlines or predictions. I think it's a good place to be. And, you know, I always say it's not the most exciting path to wealth, but it is the surest and fastest way to get there by being income focused.

Yep, absolutely. Cool. So what about the future of your business or what about the future of your real estate? I know you're getting married, so that's exciting. But what about your business has you the most excited? I mean, just continuing to acquire and a profit. properties as well as looking for ways to optimize the current properties we have to get the most cash fill. I mean, that's really, I mean, my goal is to control a billion dollars by my 40th birthday. I'm 34 years old.

Have 102 million. We're closing on 30 million at the end of this month. And we've got a couple other deals that we don't have under contract, but it's looking good. So, you know, it's just a billion dollar mark is my focus. And it's not for, it's not. It's not. not for any monetary gains for me primarily. I mean, yes, that's cool. But I have everything I need financially. I mean, I got a house, a beautiful fiancee, and I can put food on the table, and that's that. I mean, it's more about, it's fun. I'm enjoying it. And I mean, it's just, it's a, it's a, it's a scorecard. It's just a kind of a goal thing that I have. So that's my focus. Well, John, it's been an absolute pleasure. If any listener wanted to to reach out to you, what would be the best way for them to do that?

Well, you can get that spreadsheet that I mentioned, the investor-raising spreadsheet, info at jofairless.com, and anyone who's interested in apartment resources, just different books I've read, blogs that are obviously free, and other podcasts like yours, Matt, we have a resources guide that we continually keep updating, and you can email again info at Joe Fairless and just ask for the resources guide

and the investor spreadsheet and then you can get that stuff. Fantastic. Well, Joe, again, it's been an absolute pleasure and it won't be the last time. We'll certainly do it again. All the best to you and yours, and thanks for being here.

Matt, really enjoyed our conversation. Great catching up with you. Likewise. Take care, buddy. All righty, so that's it for today. I'll see you next week on another episode of Epic. real estate investing. God bless. And to your success, I'm Matt Terrio, living the dream.

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