All right , we're back . I know it's been a while . We figure we come back with a big hitter today .
Ian Hurwitz , who's an old friend of mine and he's been kind of a guiding light for a lot of people for investing , started out in Baltimore City as a firefighter , made the smart move to leave and then became a multi , multi , multi , multi , multi , multi millionaire . But he's going to tell us real quick about what he's got going on .
Multimillionaire he's going to tell us real quick about what he's got going on . The only thing I got going on is I'm glad I quit a few weeks before Tyler . I got a little head start on the beard , but I think he's outpacing me Anyone that's watching this .
Obviously me and Tyler are on the top because of our beards and you boys are on the bottom because you're cleanly shaven . So therefore we must know that you guys are still gainfully employed I mean by a service provider , a government agency , yeah , but yeah , definitely the I , even when I do retire .
Like I said , I don't know if I can go with the beard game that strong , but we'll see . Um . So instead of if .
If anybody hasn't heard your first episode , uh , ian , I think was episode number like two or three , and if you want to hear kind of his background , founder story and what got him kind of started where he's at now , I'd recommend listen to that one .
But could you give kind of like the 30 to 45 second overview of like what Aaron just said Baltimore City Fire firefighter from 08 to whenever , kind of what that transition looked like ?
Uh , I still remember my badge number two eight , five , eight , um , no , I was a fireman for the city of Baltimore got hired in 08 . My business partner , dan Matthew , got hired in 2007 . Um , and I like to say and we've done enough podcasts out there You'll find us or just reach out and give you the whole story but they forced our hands right .
Global financial crisis furloughed us company closures , pension systems going bankrupt , threats of layoffs , said screw this , how can we secure a path forward for our family ? And led us into a wormhole of real estate . And so , while we were still gainfully employed with the city of Baltimore , we started buying real estate .
In 2012 , ish Really got going in 2014 , grew a crazy big portfolio and then , in 2022 , fall of 22 , we were able to leave our jobs by refinancing an apartment building . That paid us out over seven figures and it's been a crazy career path . I was on a podcast the other day and I was talking about this .
I was like , if you would have asked me day one of Fire Academy what are you going to do ? 30-year career , no doubt in my mind . Day one of real estate investing still a 30-year career as a fireman just , I'll have 10 rentals at the end of the whole thing and they'll be paid off . And today we have right around just shy of a nine-figure portfolio .
We're sitting around $70 million of assets , although we just sold our ransom West Virginia apartment building so we cleared off a couple of million bucks off of that . But still we have a sizable portfolio , actively growing it and love what we do today , the same as you know when we first started in the fire department .
What's cool , though , is like Dan started his thing , so Ian's partner is Dan Matthews . So , as you see , my helmet is DNI Investments , which is Ian's investment group , that equity warehouse . So you guys started separately . Then you combine forces , and they just kind of skyrocketed from there .
Yeah , and you know me and Dan grew up together . I've known his wife since we were yay big . He's known my wife same way . We grew up outside of Philadelphia together . We volunteered together . You know everybody would say don't get in business together . And you know , oddly enough , I started buying rental real estate on my own . I wound up having 10 houses .
Dan got jammed up . It's his story to tell . If you guys can ever get him on a podcast , he's the elusive one , good luck . He got jammed up with the global financial crisis trying to refinance his house that he had bought had some bad credit card debt . He's like I need to get out of debt . I need to get out of this issue .
He started wholesaling and generating income and then it just became a natural progression of how we came together . Because Dan Dan's good at like the backend stuff , but not good at like getting outside of his comfort level and I'm good at like looking forward and trying to build something . But dad's Dan's a great integrator . So we're like great offsetting .
And he brought a package of properties and said , hey , there's four here , let's wholesale three and flip the last one . And we did that . We made over six figures . We're like , holy shit , let's do that again . And that was really the start of D&I development .
That's why I say 2012-ish , because I was on my own , but D&I development Development Equity Warehouse was founded in April of 2014 . So it's been 10 years , technically , formally , in business together . It's been a crazy , crazy run and I can't imagine what a 30-year career in real estate looks differentially from a 30-year career as a first responder right .
So one of the things I love that we used to go out and have like dinner once a month . I miss the hell out of that because we'd all meet up with , like Jason Balan , the hard money bankers and do like an investment thing . Mike has the same thing going on in I-81 real estate investing group with the panhandle of West Virginia where it meets Maryland .
PA .
It's like it's a great atmosphere to network and meet people who are kind of on the same path . So , mike , real quick , give an overview of how you operate your , your meetups , your REI meetups .
Sure , yeah , so we're coming up on I think we just finished finishing up our sixth year running it . So it's been every single month for six years , which is , you know , it's a little bit of work but at this point the way we kind of have it set up is we try to plan quarterly so that we have speakers .
Emphasis on try Cause inevitably somebody will cancel , something will happen . But we try and keep our schedule fairly full three months out and we just rotate topics and obviously sometimes we try and pair it up with any pertinent legislative changes tax code stuff , tax time et cetera and we have always set it up with the philosophy of give , learn , grow .
So it's free to attend . We offset the cost of running it through using a couple sponsors which we bill and I personally use , so I don't have an issue referring them and it just show up network .
There's usually a presentation of 20 to 40 minutes and then network afterwards and I always say it's like your target audience in that , like geographic area , and we get like geographical area and we get people from Baltimore , we get people from Chambersburg , a lot of Northern Virginia .
So I mean that's why we kind of call it the I-81 group , just because it's not specific to Berkeley County , west Virginia , but it's a target audience of people doing what you're wanting to do , whether it be . I've got my first storage deal from that group I got .
I've got numerous opportunities out of that group , but it all started with just give , give , give , give , give , give , give , give and then eventually , uh , it started to like produce a little bit , so to speak , and there's a lot of deals that get done in that room and it's pretty cool just to watch some of the folks that have grown and succeeded and , uh ,
taken action . And the only thing I would say that's the frustrating part of it is because there's , in essence , no barrier to entry except attendance . The churn rate , I would say , is fairly high . I don't know what it is , but a lot of people come in , they're hot and heavy for three months and then I never see them again . So that's the only thing .
It's kind of the you know the downside of it , I guess . But hey , maybe they showed up , realized it wasn't for them and they rolled out . But I think a lot of it is people show up , get excited , think it's going to be easy , and then they realize , uh , it's maybe not quite as easy as they're led to believe I was going to say .
Usually it's the reality of hard work . That squirt hits him square in the face and they're like , ah , this is not a get rich quick scheme .
Yeah and everybody thinks they can do it no money out of pocket . I mean , dude , there for a while , aaron's right , like we would . We , that was the one meeting we would go to . There was some .
There was one point we were doing the tour every night , you know led to a lot of long nights and good drinks , but in the the same sense it's really camaraderie . It's no different than the firehouse or the . You know anybody that's in the first responder to you know you're looking for that brotherhood .
Like , uh , mike just came down to our mastermind and it's like , dude , there's a lot of lonely souls and , like I have a business partner , mike has a business partner . I know , aaron , you're on your own , tyler . I think on your own tyler , I think you're on your own right . Like it's lonely , dude , it's real fucking lonely .
And those groups , whether it's the freemium ones or it's a mastermind one , and you're paying for it , like you're in a room of other people that are trying to do the same thing as you and it produces a better , um , a better , better success story , right , like I remember when I first got involved in real estate , sitting around the firehouse .
You know , you , I'm sure you guys experienced the same thing . The old head said you're going to be one of those ghetto that are running the houses that we go to all the time . I said , no , actually that's not what we're going to do . But and I had to prove them wrong but those dudes are just trying to tear you down because they won't .
They don't want you to leave the fire , they don't want you to be more successful than you or whatever it is , and I get it's all type a personalities . But you need that support system in some way , shape or form to get you over the hump , and I think that's why I mean I'll just straight up say I think your group's really cool .
I'm active like sometimes and not all the time , but I do watch it a lot .
It's just seeing other first responders with businesses and generating income and taking a different path other than just what they carve out and say , hey , 30 years , put your money , trust us , our pension , we got you and just put some money over in your deferred comp and it'll all work out at the end . And seeing guys actually take action I think is awesome .
So I just want to say thank you for being the first person to cuss on today's podcast , because normally it's me and I get the flack for it and I'm talking about getting muted all the time . So , on air today it was not me , it was my buddy from Baltimore .
I thought it was a first responders podcast .
It is .
But that's fine , I'll be politically correct so you don't get scrubbed on YouTube .
No , you're good , it's fine , Real quick . I do want to mention that . So you said that you know you're active and then sometimes you're not so active and it is cool . A big part of it and I'm sure Aaron and Mike have the same stories that I do A lot of people are watching and they're working in the background that we don't see .
It would be cool if they were a lot more active . But you know they're busy , right , and a good example is we had a guest who we had on before he's going to hop on . He hit me up and said hey , I actually decided to leave the fire department because I had me . It's not a bad thing , but it's all through not through our group , but it's .
He started his roofing business , it's grown and now he's doing this . So we always laugh like are there five people listening ? It's kind of like social media . When you post on instagram , does anybody ever watch my stuff ? I find most people are getting value and they're applying it .
We just don't always get that instant feedback and I think in a mastermind you do right . You see stuff , you see people implementing it and I think that's a . It's a little bit different in that respect .
Yeah , and there's , there's a forced , forced hand there , cause you are usually paying to go to that . Also , I feel like , even though some I probably have the biggest portfolio if I had to guess in our mastermind . But then I look at other people in the group . I'm like wow , they're successful at other parts of their life .
So I put them up on a pedestal and it's like we're all trying to achieve a goal . Just , some people are monetarily trying to achieve it , some people are personally trying to achieve it or anywhere in between , and I think that's what's what's cool about the whole thing .
And , yeah , masterminds are a little more forced , whereas , um , you know , you , on Facebook it's like I saw someone post like who knows commercial real estate ? And I was like , oh , I'm gonna put . I was like , ah , you know . Then I got to respond to everyone . I got some other to put . I was like , eh , you know . Then I got to respond to everyone .
I got some other stuff going on . I was like I'll just watch this . I think web tag me , but I still lay low to wait to see if the person would just reach out to me directly , cause sometimes it's like , yeah , you want to lay low . I mean , you guys know how it is is just , uh , some days are better than others .
But you know , in the end I agree , I do , but then they actually do it . You're like , oh shit , all right , let's go talk to that guy , you know so .
So can we talk ? So two things about levels , because you brought that up a little while ago there's different levels to this thing , Right ?
So if I come to you and I'm saying , hey , man , I got a row house in Baltimore and you know , Baltimore is , you know , 20 feet wide , 30 or 40 feet tall or deep , and then three or two or three stories tall , that doesn't entice you anymore because you have now graduated past that .
So , like , when we talk about the masterminds and the meetups and stuff like that , like what level are you at ? Like I don't think that somebody just starting off should jump into a mastermind where the guys are doing deals , like like Ian is , because he is way beyond their knowledge and expertise and they don't have the experience and everybody .
I mean I'm sure you guys are going to disagree with me for some of this stuff , but I feel like you need to get your feet wet doing certain things before you jump headfirst into something without some kind of either coaching which we also don't always agree on or some kind of mastermind where it's very focused on one specific topic and not a very broad general
Instagram famous , you know .
I think it probably depends on the person to some extent . I'm thinking of a dude named Nick . He came to an event and he didn't have any real estate holdings really and then took that information and like whacked down like a 50,000 square foot facility right out the gate . So , um , fire , firefighter also .
So it's like I think it depends , cause I've seen people pay thousands of dollars and not do a damn thing . So it's like I think it really depends on the person and like what their drive is . And I think the people that are got the drive and are going to do it , they're going to do it either way .
The , the group or the coaching or whatever you want to call it , I think might speed it up and save them some headache in the process . But ultimately that person that's going to be successful . They're probably gonna be successful in whatever they do . You know , yeah .
And the people that aren't going to do anything , are going to not do anything , whether they pay for it or not . They might just maybe take a little more effort if they pay for it .
I would , might just maybe take a little more effort . If they pay for it , I would . I would agree with that , um , and I would also say I'm like laughing because I'm like foster's the guy at the kitchen table that likes to start the pot . Now , this is when he gets up and go , gets his cup of coffee and we're still fighting about it six hours later .
So , uh , but , dude , I agree with . I agree with webb that like you really need to know your personality . I tell everybody go take a personality test . Like you might find out that you're super cautious and you need somebody , you need a group to push you over .
Or you're like me , where you're like I'm going to buy everything and you need a group that grounds you . Now it's all different stages of your life . I prefer the mastermind more than coaching , just because it's more productive conversations .
And even to take it a step back further to what you first said , you're like , oh well , row house in Baltimore doesn't excite you anymore . And I'm like , well , yeah , but you know what From what I've learned is I got a tool and a skillset in my toolbox and it's like well , I'm not going to fix and flip it , I'm not going to rent it out Most likely .
I'm not going to airbnb it . I could wholesale it at the right price , like we just did a wholesale deal of a single family property out in dundalk which is in baltimore county . We made 60 grand right and it was two phone calls and it was done and it was like well , why wouldn't we ?
so it's not like anything that excites me , yeah , hell yeah like nothing , nothing's beneath us , right , like , like , and you , I think that's what the mastermind show us . I don't know web kind of like , and I don't want to make this about our mastermind , but we just did . We're in a room together . It was like that was .
The one thing that I took away from our group was like you know , there's multiple . You know , if it comes to you , execute on the opportunity , if not kill it , and keep it moving . And that's kind of what I noticed .
You know , chris butler , he's not a fireman , but like uh , our other buddy , mike shock , is just like , yeah , I'm still wholesaling , I'm making a bunch of money and I reinvest it into my assets . I'm like , damn , what a great idea . You know , so it's uh yeah , cool watch .
yeah , um it , it certainly is , and it's first off wasn't a room , it was more like a champagne lounge .
But that's a whole nother story without the polls , guys , without the polls .
Yeah , no , no , strippers were harmed , trust me .
But no , in all seriousness , like I think a lot of people just think it's a bunch of by my course , by my course type stuff , just think it's a bunch of , uh , by my course , by my course type stuff and , uh , what I , what I always kind of leave with that kind of setting is like , ultimately those are just like the guys that are trying to be the best
version of themselves , whether it be financially , uh , personally , married . I mean , there was talk there was . There was way more talk about things not real estate related at this one , I felt , than most groups that I've been a part of .
But yeah , I think it's pretty cool and ultimately you just got to kind of find where you fit and if that's a free group to get started , absolutely so yeah .
I mean the free group , though it's just a support system . Like you know .
I remember early on like I happened to bump into someone that could help me out and I didn't really go to a real estate group until I got started but I still had someone to support me and you know , you go get a house under contract and you want to wholesale it , like you might have to go to a group and I think , going old school right now , like I
I've been debating cause I recently moved back to philadelphia . I'm like I don't have a network here and I've been staring at web and um bill's model of running a group and foster . Like you said back in the day , our group is the shit .
I just didn't know how to monetize it at that point because you know jason and chris had a better business to monetize it with at that point and and really what it came down to is like I've been debating about restarting like an in-person group side by side with our online group , and just talk about commercial real estate and do it right here outside of
Philadelphia and whoever shows up great , nobody shows up , whatever and just do that . And just do it one night , one night a month , and see what happens and , um , yeah , because it's a network , it's , it's , it's the network , right like it's .
I don't know about you guys , I didn't go to college so I don't have this vast network of people that I was with , and I know we've probably gotten so far from your original question , but I think somewhere , in some way , shape or form , everybody needs some sort of some place to go vent and talk shit , and that's really what it comes down to .
It's an organic conversation . We'll go wherever this thing takes us . It's funny that you said that , though , because Sean Wagner and I talked about two weeks ago about the PG investing group that I run , and I haven't done a meetup in probably a decade , and I was like it's just kind of stagnant right now , but I've got a lot of membership .
He's like why don't you try to grow it and monetize it off ? Same thing you just said and I was like , well , maybe . Then I'm like , yeah , I don't have the time or mindset right now for it yeah , I mean , you're building an email database , right , you're getting contacts .
You're just you're learning about new vendors , like I know personally at ours like web left with a business tactic , and then it turns out a couple of days ago I interviewed the person that he needed in his business . I'm like , well , there's a backup plan to what you need , and I just find all these things interesting .
It's like I don't go to conferences anymore . I don't really want to travel to that shit . I don't want to go where people are wearing suits . I don't need people to buy me beers .
I want to be with guys like you , right , I want to be back at the firehouse table hanging out with dudes that are actually doing deals or want to do deals or want to be a part of something , and that's really what I'm looking for , and I don't care if we pay for it or it's free . I do want to .
I do want to run the group , because that's probably some sort of deeper to control issue .
I have a disc profile .
Yeah , way deep in the disc profile , hey . But come on , man , there were some cool gifts . It was a good venue . I thought I did good from a planning aspect .
Absolutely .
But , with that being said , yeah , I just think there's so many benefits and , especially if you're not going to do a podcast or you're not going to do outbound marketing , it's such an easy outbound marketing thing . You go there , you literally standing on the wall , somebody in the room is going to walk up . I'm usually the one going up talking to people .
But if you're a wallflower , somebody's eventually going to come up and talk to you and be like what do you do ? And you're like , uh , uh , uh , and it's going to force you to be like I don't know what I'm doing . And someone's like , hey , I got this idea , you want to help it ?
I mean , room that we were just all in , it was probably way over his head . My brother has no real estate experience whatsoever . He's a nurse .
He buys and sells body parts for a living for the University of South Carolina , whatever their medical center is down there and he got thrusted into it and he left talking to someone from that group to say , hey , I want to learn how to wholesale . And the guy's literally holding his hand right now as we speak and his first deal might be a six-figure deal .
It's an interesting experience , hopefully for him Again , if he didn't go to that room , he'd still be bitching about I don't have any money , my life sucks , blah , blah , blah . I put him in a room full of similar type people from all over the country that he was like , oh shit , this is possible .
Like , look at Webb , look at Nick , look at myself , look at whoever . And he was like , wow , I'm like blown away , you know , yeah 100% and it was really cool to listen to his story .
But yeah , just to your point about starting a group and to anybody listening , it's kind of like I don't know , that's not me . Just to be clear , like , whenever Bill and I started that , we did the first one at a restaurant .
We made a reservation for two to 10 because we didn't know if we were going to be two dudes having dinner together or people were going to show up . We threw it out there , ended up getting like 12 people and it's just grown ever since . But we didn't even have really a network in the area specifically .
We were having it in and the whole goal was to build a network and now it's just grown organically to where that is our network .
So to your point about the commercial real estate thing outside Philly man , like , absolutely , and instead of competing with all the other ones , I'd just be like , well , absolutely , and instead of competing with all the other ones , I'd just be like , well , let's do a luncheon one you know like , and it's it's , it doesn't cost much , it doesn't have to be a big
production , like if you saw the way we operate ours . It's like we finally have a QR code you can scan in with to sign in , but uh , man , it's . It's low budget , you know , but the returns are worthwhile .
I think , too , it's one of those things as far as , like , I know why Aaron's asking it , because Aaron obviously , like , when we do disagree , he likes there's so many free resources and most people don't need to use it , and I can see that .
And then this is kind of like I love masterminds , but I see Aaron's side as well and I would say this like when you're starting out free , like let's talk bigger pockets , right , every back in the day , that's where everybody got a good start we're learning , we're learning , we're learning .
And then , honestly , I got burnt out on bigger pockets because of it was the same mantra , just over and over . I'm like , dude , this is so negative . No . So then Justin Williams , who used to own seven figure flipping before Bill Allen . He had this group 99 bucks a month . I was like , okay , I'll do that , I can afford that , let's do it .
What does that do ? It separates you from about 90% of the tire pickers only 99 bucks . And then the conversation level increases , did that for a while and I'm like , okay , this is no longer serving me . What's bigger and better ? I went to investor fuel and I'm like , whoa , this is , this is what I want to do .
I get it and it helped me balloon my business . At the same side or same token , if I had gone from bigger pockets to investor fuel with nothing in between , I could have walked in that door and been like dude , I don't belong here . This is like so far outside of where I'm at , and then I kind of lose interest that way . So I get what Aaron's saying .
I'm a huge proponent of masterminds . I think it's just you have to be like , you have to find the right one , it has to jive with you and like . I'll be transparent too . So , mike , it compared to fuel , because fuel no longer serves what I want to do and I'm pretty sure it doesn't serve what Mike wants to do . It's very good at what it does .
It's residential fix and flip to like the nth degree and wholesaling right . I mean , dude , that's fuels , bread and butter Very good at it , but that's very specific and that does not like to Aaron's point with Ian that it's like flipping another house . At this point I will always take the money . It's good money , but it does not excite me whatsoever anymore .
It's just a tool to make income to allow me to do things you want to do so I do agree with you and I know where you're coming from .
I do agree with these two as well and I think I think ultimately the community and stuff like that that you build in a mastermind and then shut up mike and I are still on this group text with a bunch of guys from fuel and I think nobody and I honestly the other day I was like dude I'm pretty grateful that I'm listening to this conversation , because there's
some dudes in there that like do a ton of business . I don't have any membership , I've just been friends with them through a few see the conversation they're having and I'm a wallflower yeah , 100 , I mean it .
It ultimately just creates relationships and stuff . You're going to resonate with different people in all these groups and I mean I still lend money to the one guy like it's like you know , there's a lot of reciprocal relationship that from and you don't even know it .
But anyways , take it . Take it one step further . Like creating a group , like look at Beardy Brandon , like him , love him , whatever you want to say about him . And there was two guys in our room that are a part of this mastermind that they pay 50 grand a year for , which is insane .
With that being said , that dude was a part of BiggerPockets , built himself a brand by running BiggerPockets and now has hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate and had a platform to work off of , probably similar to what Webb's doing with his hard money lending .
You're lending in the exact area you want to be and you're running the group . You're the thought leader . It was the same thing that happened with me and Foster when Balin was running his group , because it was like he had a service to provide , because he could lend right to the exact market that he wanted to .
I didn't know how to monetize it and it's like , oh you know what . Now it starts to make sense when you start to really think about it . Like running a group if somebody wants to do that , and this is like the next step . The next iteration is you're the thought leader . You're the thought leader .
You're the person that people come to with deals , people that come to you with problems , people that need money , whatever it is you get . First , look , someone from our group reached out to me today . He said , hey , I got this problem and I'm sitting there thinking , well , how can I help them ? Is there a way to monetize it ?
There's no way to monetize it , let's just help them . But we get the first calls on the deals , on the lending opportunities , on the investment opportunities , and also , you know what I'll tell you right now , vendors really start to sniff around you Like Crexie came in and sniffed around our group . They're like , wait , you got a commercial real estate group .
I was like , dude , it's nothing big . But like , yeah , we got people paying us to be here and got a couple hundred members in here , either free or paid . And he's like I don't care , I'll come talk to your group . I said , done deal .
And then he's like , hey , if you want to , you know we got an offer to sign up at a discounted rate , above and beyond the discount that everybody in our group gets . And I was like , well , sign me up . And it just gives you power . It sign me up and it just . It just gives you power .
It gives you credibility in the marketplace , the same reason you do podcasts , the same reason you do any marketing . Outbound material just builds credibility and different opportunities that are presented to you is that why I got a call with crexie monday ? oh , is that what you did ?
you did call him I , I got a call . I'm like hello , he's like it was so-and-so from crexie , so I'm doing the little thing on Monday , whatever .
Oh , they might do , they might've just randomly found you . But , um , if you , uh , if whatever they tell you , just tell them , I'll give you the information to say hey , I'm .
You said you have a mastermind group . Obviously I'm in it , I'm full to script , but you also have an online group and this is where I went to lunch with somebody recently and he said he was in your group and I was surprised when I got to the meeting in South Carolina he wasn't there . So you do you do offer like a stepping stone , correct ?
Yeah , we have a stepping stone . I didn't realize that for a long time yeah , and I've I've gone back and forth on it , um is because , like I'm with I'm a foster , like early on , it's hard for me to like pay for something , and it's like , well , now you're just a sales guru .
I mean , I think you obviously you guys know , I mean I think most people probably listening to this have run into me somewhere , like I feel like I'm pretty like down to earth dude and I have trouble paying .
But like in the same sense , like how many times have you guys had the conversation around the kitchen table with the same dudes to be like yo , just go do some real estate . You keep talking about it , go fucking do it . At some point you got to like get them to open their wallet and be like , oh shit , I'm spending money to do it .
So , with that being said , I was doing self-storage secrets , but also that didn't serve me well either . It's like we like all commercial real estate opportunities and that could be anything from building a 10 house subdivision to buying a hundred thousand square foot storage facility or an industrial site , whatever it is , it doesn't matter .
So we've changed the name to cre syndicatecom . Um , and yeah , it's an online platform and you can go check it out . I try to do several live videos a week or several posts a week . Uh , I got challenged by our buddy stratton out in california to buy 50 million dollars of net or like arv real estate by the by the year's end .
I don't think I'm gonna hit my goal , but I try like hell and I just show people what we're doing . Right , like , yeah , some people are paying to be in there , but it's like you're learning what we're doing and it's like you know YouTube university . You can go on there all day , but everybody's they're just giving you free information to try to sell you .
It's like here's the . You know it obviously costs money to run these things . You guys know that and whatever it is what it is . But I try to share as much info that we're doing and real deals to say this is what we got going on , this is how we underwritten it .
I earlier this year I was trying to run AI underwriting tools so I case studied that whole thing . That was a goddamn debacle . I tried hiring an underwriter that worked well for a minute , but then I didn't have enough deal flow like it really challenged and you know you start putting yourself out there .
It really challenges you to look deep down inside your business . You know , I'm putting this info out there . Are we actually doing this , or are we just like lying about it ? You know .
So let me ask you guys , all three of you , a question because we've all done the meetups , we've all done um the mastermind , some of us for real estate , some me for woodwork , obviously , and business . How , if you could give a percentage on how many fake you know how do I say this how many people ?
Are not like fake drovers , there are , what would you say ?
Yeah , say that they're all , we're making a ton of money . And then the you know and you find out their business is a dumpster fire . I mean , I don't want to go back and say it , but we just know some people that are a part of some really big know . So I would say it's north of 50% .
You know , I would verify , find out if the people actually hold assets . Are they actually doing deals ? What does it look like ? Do you get along with their content ? Is it just sales ? But I think it's north of 50% personally .
I think it's probably accurate . I mean , I think you know I've been lucky to build the two guys that I've paid as far as mastermind goes . Both of them are legit and I think a lot of it was just kind of vetting in different ways , right , Like I always ask other people's opinion of somebody , what their experience is , kind of see their track record .
But yeah , I mean I've , I'm sure there's a lot , because here's the thing Everybody knows that everybody wants to get rich some way or the other . Right , and it's not just limited to real estate . It's like how can you do bitcoin ?
Remember when , I mean , a couple years ago , every person and their mother went and they had bitcoin masterminds and all of these things . I'm like , wait , you were just in the same real estate mastermind . I was like yesterday , how are you now the expert ?
And I think that that's like I mean a fair point , aaron , and I think that's a big reason why not to pay somebody first ?
And that's kind of why I , like Ian , was talking about how you have , like the , even though I don't think you're going to do the starting group like some kind of entry level group , a feeder group , into the pay group , I think for me it's .
I want to see how this person operates , see who they are , see the information they provide and then make a decision . So for me at that point , $99 a month to find out what they're really about , I think is a good deal , right ? So ?
I don't know , I agree with you guys , I think over 50% , and I think I will say too I mean , sometimes these guys are legit , they get too big for their britches and then a lot of stuff happens afterwards , like I think for a while some big apartment syndicators were huge and I think they suffered through the last couple years , I think .
It just ebbs and flows and stuff happens too . Yeah , you hit the nail , dude . You hit the nail on the head . The people that like those are the ones you gotta watch out for . Go back and look at their five-year history . What were they selling last year or the year before ? Because everything's out there on the internet , dude .
You can go and dig and find people , google them . You know what's . Are they bouncing spaces ? That's usually a good telltale sign .
So what about the upsell too ? Like a lot of these gurus are like , hey , I'm going to show you how to do . We'll just say tax liens , cause I just got that email , I'm going to have a conference , we're going to show you how to do tax liens and blah , blah , blah .
And then you get there , you spend your thousand dollars and like , okay , we're gonna give you the next step . It's only fifteen hundred dollars more . In the next step , in the next step of the next step , I think that you need to have somebody that can vouch for you .
And I say that kind of tongue in cheek because I have vouched for mike , I have vice for tower , I have vouched for ian I've probably raised about a hundred thousand dollars and ian syndications , because I trust him with my money and I've had people bring him money We've all invested in .
Because now we know , okay , well , aaron trusts him , tyler trusts him and Mike trusts him . So I can , I can put my faith in this person to execute what he says he's going to do . Mike , I know you unmuted . So what do you get ?
I was just going to say .
I would guesstimate it to be a half or better , 50% or more , just because there is a lot of cash grab gurus out there from this space to that space and absolutely , but I would say , if you can find the right group coach , whatever it is , that's authentic and is aligned with your values and strategy , it can be like gas on the fire man .
However , if it is somebody that's not aligned , not authentic and , like you just said , bounces from bitcoin to metaverse , to what were those you know purple apes and all this other they were selling , you know , it's like I'd be very weary of that guy dude , I forgot about the whole flash here am I ? this is kind of just my .
This is kind of more my personal opinion than probably objective . But um the flash here they are , the more suspect I am what's the guy ?
I'm not gonna say his name . It sounds like chad cheryl hgtv guy you don't talk about . Oh yeah he does his circuit around his dad .
I think it's that , merrill so , yeah , they're from fortune builders .
Yeah , that's their whole model it's just like upsell , upsell , yeah , so like if you ever get the thing in the mail .
It's like free boot camp in DC area this weekend , you know HGTV , blah , blah , blah . They get you in there , they get you all and then they sell you . Then you get in there , they sell you something else , then they sell you . Then you get in there , they sell you something else and they sell you something else .
And yeah , I don't just to be clear , like that's not the model I'm saying I support To like Ian's thing . There's maybe like free content . Then there's CRE syndicate where , say that's the I don't want to say a price because I don't know what it is but say that's a couple hundred a month .
It is , but say that's a couple hundred a month , that might then lead into a quote upsell , but I don't think that's the case . To the mastermind , which is a higher ticket item , right .
But some of these places , like I can speak to Ian's because it's like okay , well , he knows the pedigree that's in this and he's like , okay , well , I think this might benefit you to step into this where those other rooms are .
You got a credit card , they're gonna swipe it , whether they think they can help you or not , and they're just gonna keep jamming it in to the next thing . You know they're paying 50 grand a year for one-on-one coaching with fan merrill and sorry , I probably shouldn't use his name because I don't think that's true , but fan ferrell , right .
And uh , next thing you know you're getting you're getting pawned off onto one of his students on a Zoom call . Like I don't support that model .
Dude . We know Shock right . He used to coach for those types of guys . He said by the time he went to go coach them they've already spent upwards of $50,000 to $75,000 to get there .
He said during those two-day boot camps they would literally teach you how to cash advance your credit cards to free up the cash to do this , because they know the allure that everybody wants to be financially free . And then they come to find out it was way too hard . I mean , it got so bad .
I think at one point the ftc was um , and I'm not a big government guy but they were literally investigating these dudes and shutting them down for not fair trade , right , because these guys are not having success . I mean , if you want to go watch that and learn how to sell from a stage , just go to one of russell brunson's events .
The guy the guy's the most amazing guy you can watch sell from stage dude .
All the mormons are so good at selling . It has to be correlated to the missions well , it's because they sell religion , right ?
how many times do they get told no ? And they knock on these doors and they refine refine , refine , refine yeah and then they go out and crush it . I mean him . You'll watch her mosey like that dude . That dude is , he's a product of russell brunson absolutely insane .
And it's amazing to watch these guys sell and just the key words or the how to break down barriers . It's just , it's pure insanity and that's not what I want to do . So let's take it way back . It's like that's pure insanity and that's not what I want to do . So let's take it way back . It's like that's that's not me , that's not what I want to do .
I want to just be in a group full of people that I want to help and , specifically for our mastermind or high level group , I personally hand invite those people to say , hey , do you want to come here ? Cause these are 20 of my coolest friends that I know that I think you'll get value from Our other group .
I just legitimately want to help people , but I also know that people need to pay . There's more success when people pay to get off the sideline than going from free to off the sideline . Now , we're unique , right , and so it's hard for us to understand that .
But in the same sense , it's hard for people to take that leap of faith to do that and when they start paying , they start to pay attention if they want to learn for free . Youtube universities out there , we all put out content and there's tons of content out there . You can do this for free . Go do it , you know . 100 agree .
So there's a guy that tyler likes .
He's mentioned before chris voss , I know I think mike you read his book or something like that . He's a master negotiator . If you just watch his TikToks you can see how to change people's mindset and responses to you and how to sell and talk to people .
Oh , he's never split the difference , right .
Yeah .
Yeah , yeah .
Good book . It's definitely a good book we're taking a look at . That's another thing . As we've gotten older , I think we all read more . Yep .
I think we all read more . Yep , yeah , I almost got a stack of books . I got my fire helmets out for you guys today , but I got a stack of books back there . See , there you go , finally got some books up on there .
They must be dusty them helmets .
Yeah , they've been hung up for a while huh . Yeah , you know , dude , they just collect dust and you can't throw them out . And it's like whatever man , it looks good . But here's the thing . Those things are cool .
We'll make our conference room look cool whenever we renovate this place , but the real winner is going to be that fish that we're going to put on the wall . That's what I'm excited about .
Hell yeah .
We'll pick that up .
That's the thing I like conversation pieces . You can see in my office I've got a lot of conversation pieces hanging around , a lot of stuff I had to take down because my wife also uses this to see clients and patients . Some of the cool stuff I had to take down because she didn't want it to be too much of a man cave .
I guess we'll say what's that thing in the background ? A shake weight plate . What is that thing ? You stand on it and it vibrates you .
That .
Yeah .
It's a treadmill .
Are you serious , really ?
It's just a walking treadmill . I need it after Versus a non-walking treadmill . My knee repaired .
You can't run on it , it's just a walking treadmill . Okay , I've never seen one like that .
It's small . I need something small for the office so I can walk after having my knee repaired .
Interesting . You're not a small dude , that's like one step each .
That's why it's a lopping treadmill .
Huh , interesting I'm better myself . Yeah , that's what you get for trying to better yourself , and , you know , no fireman can let you better yourself .
Yeah , yeah .
Sounds great . I'm an asshole . Me and Mike were on a call . This dude , dan Martell , was speaking to our group . The guy wasn't a fireman , but Dan Martell was like you know've never been fat . I was like , dude , you're such an asshole dude .
That was funny .
While we were bantering here , I did set up a discount code I do think it's only $97 to join and I did a 50% off code for all first responders . I obviously want to give back and that's not bullshit because I'm trying to sell . I was a first responder . They suckered me into joining the local volunteer firehouse so whatever .
Hell yeah , are you volunteering ?
now Dude , it's two blocks from my firehouse . They needed drivers . They fucking sucked me in .
He's going to be hustling pancakes and will be chief by next year .
The interesting thing about the firehouse that me and Dan grew up in is they own a bunch of commercial real estate and it's been floundering . So they asked me to come back and drive and help them fix their commercial real estate portfolio . So I have been doing that . I've I've increased their revenue by almost 60 grand so far this year .
I'm trying to get to 80 grand by the end of the year . So they're jumping for joy . Um , but I , I do care , and so I set up a 50% off discount code and the codes FRFF it's CRE syndicate , cre-syndicatecom and just use discount code FRFF . You can put it in the show notes . I hate selling like this . That's it . I'm done Like I don't .
I don't not why I'm doing this , but it's already been posted to the Facebook group .
What's ?
that .
It's already been posted to the Facebook group .
Yeah , spam City buddy . Was that ? It's already been posted to the facebook group ? I haven't ? Yeah , spam city buddy .
Yeah , so yeah , but I mean it gives I think this goes back to the whole conversation we started off with was like there's the ones that you can depend on , the ones that you have faith in and trust , and there's ones that are not .
There's ones that are just upsell , and upsell , which we talked about so this is the one I want and I'm always going to vouch for you it's going to be . This is the one where you're going to actually get real content and not be BS and kick down the street a couple times .
If you feel like that , just pick up the phone , call me , yell at me and be like yo dude , that's not what I signed up for . Send it back . We don't want anyone to be upset . We want people to get value . I just remember sitting around the firehouse how many guys would like ask you . I would make them ask me three times before .
I'd be like all right , come to our office and sit down and like really need to vet the person and be like are you real or are you not ? Because everybody wants to do this but then nobody takes action I know , so I know the feeling .
So well , all right so let's end on that note then . So let's talk about um action . Like what , mike , I want to start with you because because you're all over the place too , with storage and masterminds and meetups and the fire department , you're kind of like me You're all over the place .
So what actionable items do you think people can take to be successful ?
In the real estate world . I would say it really just starts with do one thing each day , and that one thing could be as simple as going to meetupcom and searching for a list of meetups in your area . All right Day . Number two put them on your calendar , pick one or two that you're going to go to . Number three I see the comments here .
Yeah , I'm babysitting the dog , so I'm sitting here trying to pet the dog so that he's not like eating a pillow or something .
We just didn't know if you were petting yourself , staring at me and Tyler's beard .
You see this going on .
I was about to say you guys really just need to publish a private chat . That's well worth everything , yeah .
We're going to upsell you to read the private chat and text messages . That'd be good , but no man , I think honestly . Think about the one thing the book the One Thing by Gary Keller . It talks about just doing what is the most important thing today . Because if you just try and get everything in front of you , everything looks like a priority .
And I just recently heard a quote that kind of spoke to me , something really effective . Everything looks like a priority . And I just recently heard a quote that kind of spoke to me Something to the effect of give me , give me , a list of your priorities , and if you give me more than one , I none of those are a priority .
You got to pick one priority , not priorities . So I don't know , I think taking action is just getting it on your calendar , at least for me . If it's not on my calendar , it doesn't happen nearly as quickly as it should .
And it could be as simple as going out and meeting people at the next meetup saying , hey , I'm brand new , I don't know shit about shit , but I have a little bit of background in woodworking . I'd love to talk about rentals . You'd be surprised how many people would be like hey , man , yeah , I'll sit there .
You know that's the first , next step to doing something else yeah for me for me it's .
It's really just like , if you want to be successful , it's just getting really good . You hit the nail on the head getting really good at one thing you know it's how we've built what we have Like . At the time we didn't realize it , but we were refining our construction skills to allow us to then continue to do value add projects .
That allows us to buy other stuff that people are afraid of , right Like we're buying an office building that we're going to convert to flex space . Nobody else wants to touch it because of all the drama around it . We've learned how to cope and deal with these things that allow us to be successful .
So go out and learn , find out what makes you tick , and then go and go all in on that one thing until you get so good at it that you're making millions of dollars at it , and then you can go and look at expanding into other lines of business .
All right , Tyler , what about you ? Actual items .
I'd say the same thing . I mean , focus on what you're good at and then expand , expand , expand and I think that's the biggest thing for me this year is I've done lending for a really long time Like , why not expand my business with my private lending business ?
I have SOPs , I have processors , everything already set up , and here I am looking for a new thing , when the new thing is just the current thing I'm doing with a new twist and then ramping it up that way . That , and then to our point earlier , I think people should read , read , read .
It challenges your assumptions , it gets your brain going creatively and to that point , I read a ton . This is what I'm reading right now Dude , I like this , yeah it . It's talking about what does he say ? It's talking about knowing what you don't know .
And it's dude , it's it's been really good so far and it's making me think to this point , like what do I need to be doing with my next step ? But I think action and then drilling down , just becoming super good at one thing , and I think that'll make you more money than than anything else .
It's funny that if you ever go to like a lot of rich people's houses most rich people they have books and books and books and books and libraries . Not so much like 72 inch flat screen TVs . They might have it , but they also have a lot more books than the average person . But go to an apartment complex where people are renting .
You'll see more flat screen tvs and you'll see books . I'm sure that's not in our districts right yeah , yeah , that's . We see that . Yeah , yeah . So that's all I got um anything I'm missing .
Mike ty eun no no , you want to learn about more what we're doing , go check us out at equitywarehousecom . We're out there . Love you guys . I appreciate you having me on .
I tell Webb all the time I'm like I'm so jealous and envious of the group that you guys have created because it hits right at home of exactly who we want to help , who we want to work with and everything else .
And you guys have something cool going on and I'm I do get I'm going to be I'll just straight up say it on mine I get jealous of what you guys have , cause it's it's such a cool community that you've built and right around the ideal target avatar . So good for you guys and I'm glad what you're doing for all of our brothers and sisters out there .
Look to come back on , hopefully less than several years . I could be on sooner , but I'm always willing to come back on if you guys ever need a guest , because I enjoy these conversations .
Absolutely . Thanks for pouring into the group . Appreciate it . We absolutely need to have you on more than once every three years .
It's all good , I'm here . You know where to find me .
All right , you handsome motherfuckers . We'll see you guys next time See you guys .