From Firefighter, to Flipping Boston, to Real Estate Empire

0:00First strategies were the quick ones, down and dirties, right? I learned how to wholesale contracts during the crash and wholesale of a contract for those who don't know simply is as I control the asset with a purchase and sales agreement that I can then assign for equitable interest is the legal term. I can assign that contract to another cash buyer and there's a little bit of juice in there for me. Beautiful strategy, not an easy strategy as most of these gurus tell you. You got to understand construction numbers. You got to understand your after repair values.

0:31You got to know the business and you got to build a strong network. And it takes a little bit of time for you to create momentum in in your business. So we started there, you know, five grand, 10 grand, 20 grand on a on a flip on a contract and then moving into flipping houses. So what was interesting was is while I'm doing this, Damon John, the black guy from Shark Tank, right? Damon John always says, "Be careful in what you're doing because the big boys are always watching." Right? Somebody's always watching you. If you don't pay attention to your business and your money, I promise you somebody else will.

1:06And I remembered that and I was flipping a few houses, doing my thing, and then the educators that I learned from, they said to me, "Dave, you're getting you're getting results, man. Why don't you come on in on the education side and teach?" And I'm like, "You guys are out of your trees, brother. There's no way I'm going to go out there and teach. I still got another 50 grand in credit card debt I'm trying to get rid of. I'm not going to stand on those stages and not be authentic. And they said, "Look, just teach what you know.

1:38Let the mentors that you've had be the guidance." He said, "As long as you're comfortable in what it is that you're teaching and know that it works, then go for it." And I found a new niche, man. There was something about, you know, being a platform speaker, education trainer that was so powerful because you would see these people and you'd see the results and you could just enjoy influencing and helping people along. And that then grabbed the attention of the TV shows and there's a guy out there who started ClickFunnels having a a brain fart.

2:15I can't remember his name right now. I can see Russ — Russ Branson. So Russ Brunson was part of a little crew that was running around back then. It was Gary Vanichuk, Russ Brunson. There was a few other players back then and I'm kind of on the periphery. They knew me. I kind of knew them. And Russ Brunson sends me an email. And he's basically the email was, "Dave, you're a funny bastard. I know these guys are trying to start TV show again. Your flipping houses in Boston with some of your firefighter buddies. You should apply." And I sent in a vanilla application, loaded it with profanity to make sure everybody read it, right?

2:48Like bad, like my grandmother was turning over in her grave. But I've been around enough internet marketers to know that I had to grab the attention. Right. Tony Robbins calls it a conscious interruption. — And I needed to interrupt the consciousness of the guy who's reading all these boring applications. Right. — Right. — And that's how it started. They came up to Boston. We shot a couple of little pilot silly things and that started the TV show. And that obviously sent my business on a different trajectory. You know, everybody fights for prominence as a quote expert and once you get a TV show, you're an expert.

3:26Doesn't matter if you're a donkey, you got a TV show, you're an expert, right? And yeah, we did the very best we could to leverage that out. We did 29 29 episodes, four seasons. We did real flips, not the crap you see today. We did real flips. You know our stock is anywhere from 100 to you know 150 years old is our inventory up here and we we went from that I started buying small multifamily assets I learned property management cash flow assets I learned you know how to be a good landlord how to be a bad landlord and a couple of nice portfolios that we liquidated and then we kind of transitioned into where we are today with the larger deals and you know investor capital.

4:13And what's really cool is now back to teaching because there's so many people out there that that understand the power of of of positive cash flow, but passive positive cash flow that they're hungry for that in the environment that we're in today. So, that's kind of like how those things transitioned along the way. — Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. I'm I'm always curious on those shows like you mentioned it was it was real flips that you were doing. Is there what's something weird or unexpected about those renovation shows that most people wouldn't know?

4:45— I don't know how many people listen to this podcast, but we'll let you in on a little secret. It's called a reality TV show. Emphasis on show, right? Like I I it would amaze me that people would see me out in public and they'd relate back, you know, some component of a of the show. — Yeah. — And they're like, "That was amazing." Like, you had no idea that was going on. And yet, if you rewind and watch the episode, there's a camera in my face when I'm going in.

5:18Cut. Then there's a camera behind me as I'm going in. So, they get both shots, but you can't see the It's like, come on, people. So, you you got to have you got to have a little bit of skills. But that being said, there was some serious drama that was not manufactured in our show. Legitimately having tools stolen from my guys, legitimately, you know, guys having trouble with John Barley Corn and a few other substances and and having to deal with that stuff. So, [clears throat] you know, just remember it's a reality TV show and you can't make $50,000 in an hour with no education, right?

5:54You just can't do it, right? So, yeah, but it it makes for good TV. For sure. For sure. — Absolutely. Yeah. — Yeah. Yeah. — — well, that's awesome. Yeah. I mean, I can see how that became a platform then to continue to grow and and I think that's so smart of you to continue to grow from there and leverage that, you know, where I think a lot of people like get stuck in like that was a thing I did and that's the only thing I've ever done, you know, and — so — yeah, — I'm curious now today like you you've grown a much larger real estate business.

6:26It looks like you guys focus on building and developing larger multif family projects. How did that evolve, you know, from flipping at that time when you were doing the show to this much larger business now? — Goes back to the entrepreneurial spirit that we talked about before. Just cuz I'm making money, if I'm bored, I'm not I'm not going to do it well. It's it's been bizarre, brother. It's almost like a like a five to sevenyear itch, right? — Okay. And it's not like I I walk away from past experiences, but they set up a platform for for the next challenge going forward.

7:04And you know, to be frank with you, I'm never going to retire. As long as I can run a computer and and flap my gums, I my goal is to do a little bit of business. But what happened was is, you know, during the COVID crisis, my my lending business was firing, my speaking business was firing, my real estate stuff was going strong. And then COVID comes in and that obviously smashes everything and like shakes it up. You know, all the the wheat and the chaff are separated. You know, the the amateurs are removed and you know, what's next?

7:39And I I reached out to a partner of mine, my partner today, a gentleman by the name of Walter Noviki. Major Walter Noviki, retired, and he had been doing some smaller development work down in Southwest Florida where he lives. And I'm like, and he's my age, you know, we're in our late 50s. I think Walter just turned 60. And we've seen some stuff. We've done some stuff. And I'm like, what what's next, brother? What, you know, what are we doing? Like I don't I don't know what to do. I hate being untethered. And he just said, you know, he'd done some existing structures, multif family, a little bit of commercial, some mixed use, some development.

8:15He said, why don't we raise some money? He said, let's raise some money. We'll we'll partner up on it. And you know, that's how that began to to manifest into where we're at today. And for us, it's not just development work. It's delta driven. So everything is delta driven today. We own a piece of land on McGregor Boulevard and we've tried to monetize this this property a couple of different ways and the market keeps on like throwing curve balls at us. And right now we've gone from a mixeduse building to a pickle ball facility.

8:46The pickle ball facility fell through because the the the dollar store, the big box dollar store next door got bought up by a national pickle ball franchise. So now my 16 courts aren't going to mean anything. It's like, you know, you got to be able to move around. But anyway, you know, we're looking to do a a flex space is what they call it in Florida. Flex space build up some facilities there. So that's that's where it lent us today. It put us in a position to learn how to service accredited investors, some smaller multifamily investors, some family offices.

9:23And I again I was challenged, man. I had to pivot from I can underwrite a single family and a small multif family deal with my eyes closed. But now you start you start giving me, you know, waterfalls and promotes and, you know, all the different structures that we can incorporate into private equity. That's a whole new game. And that's that's where my younger partner Eric Wilson comes in. He was stolen from Fidelity Investments. He was part of a almost like a pool of 20 people that were so smart they were writing algorithms for stock predictions with infidelity and I'm like I don't know what you do Eric but come be with us and you know he's done all of our proformal work and underwriting work.

10:02So goes back to what I said before team right what's the team look like? So th those are the three principles that drive that drive the business as best they can. And you know then we bring in contractors and property managers, insurance and lawyers and all that stuff comes in underneath us. But we we try and run a very lean lean ship. You know we're lean and mean is the idea behind it. So yeah, I get bored. Once I get bored, I I gota I gota I got I need a new challenge. — Yeah. Well, and that's I think the theme of entrepreneurs, you know, you when you're first starting out, what you think is possible is is just the first milestone along the journey.

10:41And it's amazing how quickly you can get there and — new ones made. But I'm curious around the team aspect because I have a lot of people who I talk to and work with who have had experiences — partnering with people. Some good, some bad. Dave Ramsey always says the only type of ship that won't sail is a partnership. So, you know, it it can it can go sideways. How did you guys decide to structure it, you know, to where it it works for you guys? — Yeah, it's, it's all about skill set.

11:14It's all about skill set. You know, one of the first things I learned early on from from my mentors was, Dave, identify your god-given talent. And we all have them. We all have them. I don't care who you are. Identify what your special technique is, your special gift, if you will. And then learn how to bring that to the marketplace and bring it to partnerships and friendships. And you know, I'm on the podcast with you, Kirby, not Eric, not Walter, right? I'm the one writing books and putting out massive amounts of educational content and drumming up brand awareness for investors and partners, etc., etc.

11:50My guys are in the background, you know, underwriting and doing what they do well, overseeing management, etc., property management and construction management. So when we look at that, there is no one piece that we believe to be any more valuable than any other piece. — And again, that goes to, you know, if we want to use the the fire service analogy, the guy who's pumping the water is just as valuable as the guy who's on the tip of the hose, who's just as valuable as the guy who's doing search and rescue is just as valuable as the district chief who's standing outside looking at a big picture.

12:24Right? You got to have those components and one man or woman can't do it all. So I I I've been able to depress enough ego over the years to be able to delegate, you know, take on what I'm I'm good at and then try and execute on that to the best of my ability. And doing that has allowed us to you know, to to put some velocity behind what it is that we do. And again on our education side, I have an education component to what we do.

12:54It's called Legacy Alliance. And what's beautiful about Legacy Alliance is there's me and one other guy. And the other guy DC Forset, my partner in that particular component, which fits nicely with what we do on the in the investment side, is that he is he's the guy who ran with Russell Brunson and Gary Vee. Like he was part of that crew. — So I've got the very best in online marketers. I've got the very best in content creation. I got the very best, you know, and again, I don't want any of that, man. So, we work a deal.

13:26We work a deal where, you know, income from education is minimal, but he gets a bigger piece of that because that's his will set. And then we drive traffic to our investments and to our mentorship programs and those kinds of things. And then what we do over there is is he gets to participate in the real estate. That's what you call a win-win situation. — Yeah. He's crushing what he does. We do what we do and then we find an alliance. So I I love those kinds of relationships. But to your point, I've had some pretty bad ones over the years as well.

13:58So, you know, I love fail forward, right? Full circle. Fail forward. Enjoy your enjoy your failings. But that's how that's how we operate and execute. — That's great. Yeah. You got to know know your strengths and weaknesses. That's that's for sure. — For sure. — For sure. So, you hear a lot of things right now about commercial real estate investing. And that, you know, a lot of operators have found themselves in a little bit of trouble with the interest rates climbing and, you know, the environment shifting, especially, you know, over the last few years.

14:30What are your feelings on where the market sits today with, you know, in terms of multif family specifically and and where it's heading in the future? — Yeah, great great question. Here's here's my advice. Buckle up, buttercup. Here we go. That's it. That's really it. So, there's I think the last count we took was somewhere around a trillion dollars in commercial real estate loans that are going to reset 25 through 27. There's going to be a massive hit.

15:03Now, I can't control what happened in the past, but you know, preparedness for opportunity, some people call that luck, right? Prepared for the opportunity in front of you. So, we're focusing on the preparedness for what's next, which is really what Legacy Alliance is also focused in on is training enough people to understand what the market's doing in the multifamily arena and then looking for those JV opportunities if they don't want to do the deal on their own. We think there's going to be enough distressed asset paper smaller assets that you know 25 to 55 unit complex in the right market that can no longer absorb those those interest rate resets.

15:44You know they've they've been just running it thin unprofessionally. All of that creates creates a tsunami of opportunity. So so for us that's what we're gearing up for. We're gearing up for as many investor partners that we can we can attract. Got to be the right partner, not just anybody and everybody, but train people well to understand what multif family investing is all about. Teach them the business, teach them the underwriting. We do it through a a free wealth master class that they can just almost like getting a quick accreditation on.

16:19They don't have to be perfect. They just have to know enough. And then look for those opportunities and if they want to do them on their own, God bless. We'll we'll mentor them through if they choose to be mentored. Or we'll find some financing options and some joint venture possibilities for the right deals. So, we're in prep mode getting ready for, you know, the the four fourth quarter and then 25, six, seven, probably into 28 as well. Some of them will stretch through. So, that's what we see coming down the pike. I don't know about anybody else, but that's what we're focusing on.