How Measuring Progress Transforms Real Estate Investing
How to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Release Date: 11/23/2023
How to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s guest is Greg Friedman. Greg has more than 23 years’ hospitality experience with an emphasis on deal-structure and financing. He successfully has led Peachtree in more than $8 Billion in hotel acquisitions, investments and development since co-founding the company. Show summary: In this podcast episode, Greg Friedman shares his insights on the commercial real estate landscape, focusing on the lucrative opportunities in credit trade for financing acquisitions, developments, and recapitalizations. He recounts Peachtree's adept navigation through economic downturns...
info_outline How to Get Money for Real Estate Deals Without Relying on Traditional Money LendersHow to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s guest is Jay Conner. Jay Conner has been buying and selling houses since 2003 in a town of only 40,000 people with profits now averaging $78,000 per deal. He has Rehabbed over 475 houses and been involved in over $118 Million Dollars in Transactions. Show summary: In this episode, Jay Connor discusses the advantages of using private money and private lending over traditional banking methods for real estate investments. He shares his personal success story of raising $2.15 million in private funds within 90 days. Jay also highlights the importance of mastermind groups,...
info_outline From Medicine to Money: Dr. Joseph Ryan's Journey into Commercial Real EstateHow to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s guest is Ryan Smolarz. Dr. Joseph Ryan Smolarz is the founder of STOR, leveraging his experience as an entrepreneur and Otolaryngology practitioner to guide people toward financial sovereignty. Show summary: In this podcast episode, Dr. Joseph Ryan, a former otolaryngologist and founder of Store Partners, shares his transition from medicine to commercial real estate, focusing on self-storage facilities. He highlights the importance of team building, relationship-driven negotiations, and ethical business practices. Dr. Ryan also discusses his podcast, "Medicine and Money...
info_outline The Power of Delegation and Automation in Land InvestingHow to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s guest is Mark Podolsky. Since 2001 Mark has completed over 6,000 raw land deals with an average return on investment of over 300% on cash purchases and over 1000% on land deals that he financed. Free Book: October 2021 podcast: Show summary: In this episode, Mark shares his journey from hands-on management to overseeing his business in just 30 minutes a week by building a capable team, establishing efficient systems, and utilizing technology for automation. He stresses the importance of delegation, staying focused on high-impact activities,...
info_outline Can Self-Storage Strategies Thrive in the Current Real Estate Market?How to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s guest is Ben Lapidus. Ben Lapidus is the Chief Financial Officer for Spartan Investment Group LLC, where he has applied his finance and business development skills to construct from scratch a portfolio of over $500M assets under management, build the corporate finance backbone for the organization, and organize over $200M of debt capital from the firm. In addition to completing over 50 real estate transactions at and prior to Spartan, Ben is also the founder and host of the national Best Ever Real Estate Investing Conference and managing partner of Indigo Ownerships LLC....
info_outline A Deep Dive into Flex Warehousing with Portal WarehousingHow to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s guest are Alex Morrison and Andrew Runnette. Alex Morrison has broad experience across real estate, capital markets and startups. Alex currently is the founder and CEO of Portal Warehousing, an innovative real estate operating company in the flex warehousing space. Show summary: In this podcast episode, Andrew and Alex, co-founders of Portal Warehousing, discuss their innovative flex warehousing business. They detail how they provide small industrial spaces to various businesses, emphasizing the flexibility and services they offer, such as logistics support and...
info_outline Navigating Challenges and Opportunities in Commercial Real Estate FinancingHow to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s guest is Ben Fraser Ben Fraser is the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Aspen Funds, where he combines his analytical nature with a passion for delivering outstanding client service and strong returns through out-of-the-box investments. Show summary: In this episode, Sam speaks with Ben Frazier from Aspen Funds. They delve into the complexities of raising capital and the strategic shifts Aspen Funds has made to adapt to the evolving market. Ben outlines three common scenarios they encounter: providing gap funding for urgent capital needs,...
info_outline All-Cash Real Estate Investment StrategyHow to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s guest is Joel Friedland. Joel has 40 years of experience as a broker, investor and syndicator in industrial real estate. Show summary: In this episode Joel Friedland shares his journey from starting as a broker to establishing his own firm. He stresses the importance of specialization and building lasting client relationships. Joel discusses the industrial market's growth due to e-commerce and manufacturing but warns of economic downturns. He advocates for all-cash deals, avoiding debt for investment stability, and highlights the competitive edge it...
info_outline Capitalizing on the Surging Demand of RVsHow to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s Gust is Ben Spiegel. Ben is a experienced portfolio manager specializing in niche lower middle market commercial real estate opportunities. Show summary: In this episode, Ben Spiegel, founder of Redwood Capital, discusses his transition from investment banking to real estate private equity, focusing on niche lower middle market opportunities. He shares his "asset agnostic" investment philosophy, in-house property management strategy, and his goal to build a premier outdoor hospitality brand. Ben also talks about the benefits of diversifying asset classes, the growth...
info_outline Nomad Capital: Repurposing Retail for Premier StorageHow to Scale Commercial Real Estate
Today’s guest is Clint Harris. Clint spent 16 years in medical sales, built a STR portfolio to replace that income, and a property management company. He made the jump to self storage conversion projects, and then syndication, and is now a General Partner with Nomad Capital, $120 million AUM. Show summary: In this episode, Clint Harris, a partner at Nomad Capital, shares his transition from medical sales to real estate investing, focusing on short-term rentals and self-storage conversions. He emphasizes financial independence and the value of time and location freedom. Clint discusses the...
info_outlineToday’s guest is Sean Tagge.
Sean is a Biomedical Engineer turned REI. He uses a data and science approach to investing. 1500 SFR and 750 MF doors.
Show summary:
Sean shares his journey from flipping single-family houses to multifamily syndications, discussing the importance of measuring progress and accountability in real estate investing. He also talks about the challenges he faced during his first multifamily project, the benefits of investing in Nashville, and his recent acquisition of a 206-unit property. Sean emphasizes the importance of using a data-driven approach in real estate and shares his strategies for securing deals and managing properties.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Intro (00:00:00)
Sean Tagi's Background and Real Estate Journey (00:01:13)
Analyzing and Investing in a Multifamily Property (00:07:24)
The cost of living in Nashville (00:10:01)
Using a scientific approach to investing (00:10:59)
Renovating and raising rents in the property (00:16:11)
The phone answering race (00:20:01)
Measuring and reporting data (00:21:27)
Simplicity of focusing on one trade (00:22:40)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Connect with Sean:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seantagge/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SeanTagge
Web: https://acornea.com/multifamily/
Connect with Sam:
I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HowtoscaleCRE/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwilsonhowtoscalecre/
Email me → [email protected]
SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A RATING. Listen to How To Scale Commercial Real Estate Investing with Sam Wilson
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-scale-commercial-real-estate/id1539979234
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4m0NWYzSvznEIjRBFtCgEL?si=e10d8e039b99475f
--------------------------------------------------------------
Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:
Sean Tagge (00:00:00) - What gets measured gets done. And then I think add on top of that what gets measured and reported on the rate of improvement increases. So it's just having that accountability is like, hey, you know here here we're at in the project and every week we're just following up on the numbers. Here's where I'm on our budget. Here's how much is completed. Here's the goal I mean, like you don't even really need to say much after that. You just look at the data and the person who's responsible for it can just see, oh, I'm ahead or not on this. And then it gives you a lot of opportunity for coaching and help and giving them tools to succeed. Welcome to the how.
Intro (00:00:36) - To scale commercial real Estate show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we'll teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big.
Sam Wilson (00:00:48) - Sean Tagi is a biomedical engineer turned real estate investor. He uses a data and science approach to investing. He currently has 1500 single family residence doors and 700 and multi 750 multifamily doors.
Sam Wilson (00:01:02) - Sean, welcome to the show.
Sean Tagge (00:01:04) - Hey Sam man. Super excited and honored to be on the show with you. And yeah, excited to dive on in. Hopefully, you know we can get some good golden nuggets for the audience.
Sam Wilson (00:01:13) - Absolutely Sean. Appreciate you coming on today. There are three questions I ask every guest who comes on the show in 90s or less. Can you tell me where did you start? Where are you now and how did you get there?
Sean Tagge (00:01:23) - Yeah, started in Memphis, Tennessee. I moved from Utah to Memphis and joined on with some partners and started doing turnkey single family flips. So flipped 1500 single family houses. I came on as a VP of operations and got made partner after two years. Ramp that up a lot. That business. We're up to doing about 320 houses a year at one time in the heyday, and then about 3 or 4 years ago started doing multifamily syndications and syndicated about five different complexes in $750. And we currently have 650 that were still in the operating phase.
Sam Wilson (00:01:59) - Wow. Okay. So you came on as partner there at a firm here in Memphis, and you guys did your you helped do 1500 single family residence flips and then you guys and you're doing more. What did you say on average I guess 320 a year.
Sean Tagge (00:02:14) - Yeah. The highest we did in one year. But yeah 250 or so a year to three, 320. Yeah.
Sam Wilson (00:02:19) - That's rolling. I mean that's a house every single day almost.
Sean Tagge (00:02:23) - Hey we were yeah that was our goal house a day. You know it keeps the doctor away. We were trying that got up there. It gets a little hectic after a while.
Sam Wilson (00:02:32) - Yeah no I can't I mean I don't even want to imagine that. Right? I mean, like there's some businesses where you're like, oh my gosh, someday, like, maybe we'll grow to that size. Like I have no aspirations of that. When I think about that, I'm like, no, man, I'm already bald. Like, I don't I don't ever want to do a house.
Sam Wilson (00:02:46) - Yeah, I don't care what the payoff is. That's that's a.
Sean Tagge (00:02:49) - Lot. There's only a few in the whole country that even do up to there. I mean, I only knew maybe five that were in the 300 plus in the whole country. And yeah, it's for a reason. And that's kind of why we started flipping. Had rather do 100 houses one time instead of 100 houses 100 times. Right. So multifamily.
Sam Wilson (00:03:07) - Right. So you got a new multifamily and did you do this on your own or there with that firm here in. Yeah, with.
Sean Tagge (00:03:11) - The same partners. We kind of had a lot of big investor lists. I already had rental crews and everything. And it's a lot easier for them to do 20 doors in one little area instead of 20 kind of spread out. So yeah, it just really helped out from that, that perspective and just kind of started slowly growing.
Sam Wilson (00:03:25) - That did there's because was there a shift in the model? Because in the turnkey residence model, you know, it's it's for most turnkey providers at least it's buy the house, renovate it, put a tenant in place and then sell that individual home off to an investor.
Sam Wilson (00:03:41) - But when you're doing an apartment complex, the model is typically as a syndicator, raise the money, buy the apartment complex, hold it in house, execute the business plan, and sell it later on down the road when it makes sense to exit. What was the model in the multifamily space?
Sean Tagge (00:03:56) - Yeah, so like I said, the single family, yeah, we were done with them in 90 days or so. Just a quick flip with the multifamily. Yeah, there are more a year or two hold and then a couple others. We're doing a five year old model with a refinance in it, and the first one we just did with our own capital, you know, played around with our own money first, made the mistakes and learned. And it was very successful. So then the other four we brought on investors, put in a lot of our own money as well, and one we hope to be selling maybe summer of of 2024. That would be like a two year. I guess a flip for a multifamily is probably that's like the timeline for multifamily flip.
Sean Tagge (00:04:34) - And then the others. Yeah. And then two others we refinance pulled out like 70 to 85% of the investors capital, and we'll hold on to them for another three years completing like a five year total hold.
Sam Wilson (00:04:45) - Right. Okay. Cool.
Sean Tagge (00:04:47) - So you said so just kind of yeah. Just kind of depended on the, you know, the the investment, the area, you know, the, the IRR we could achieve if we think we could flip it quickly or hold on longer. So we just kind of analyzed each deal and had a different plan.
Sam Wilson (00:05:01) - Got it. Okay. So you said you made some mistakes in the first one with your own capital. What would you say some of those mistakes are.
Sean Tagge (00:05:08) - Yeah. So this one we bought during Covid time. So underestimating and really not predicting inflation and rehab costs and material costs just going through the roof through all that. And then we had a plumbing issue where we had like 2030 grand. We had to dig out a plumbing line and fix all that.
Sean Tagge (00:05:30) - And it just took a while. Also working with the city through Covid, when a lot of their employees are, you know, whatever, working from home or whatever. And it just took a while to get all that done. So it's like some things like that, you know, just some are unforeseeable, but some we could have planned a bit better.
Sam Wilson (00:05:46) - Yeah. And build. Thing in. I guess that margin for those unforeseeable things is probably just something you do guess, probably naturally at this point. Correct? You're right. Yeah. In getting inspected, I don't know. Were you guys part of the zoom inspections? Did you guys have any of that stuff?
Sean Tagge (00:06:02) - No, we man, we weren't lucky enough to get those. I think yeah some the. Yeah. Like the what is it, the section eight. They would just have us like inspected ourselves. So we're like yeah it looks great. You know, it looks you know, there's a few things we're going to fix. But yeah right.
Sam Wilson (00:06:18) - But no, everything else is perfect I swear. Yeah, yeah. We had we had some of that here. I'm surprised you guys didn't see that as well. So it. Yeah, there was some zoom inspections that occurred. I thought it was pretty funny. How are you doing a structural inspect anyway? Yeah, those those guys are behind us, but, you know. But none of those are things I don't hear, you know, you know, to right now, we're hearing a lot of pain in the market. We're seeing a lot of pain in the market where people are going, hey, you know what? They took out short term debt and now they can't refi. Or they, you know, they didn't, you know, capitalize the deal properly. And so expenses, you know, I just had another guest on the show today that their insurance costs in Florida have quadrupled since they acquired the asset a couple of years ago. And suddenly their cash flow negative just because of, you know, enormous insurance premiums.
Sam Wilson (00:07:06) - Right. So it doesn't like you made any of those mistakes. It was just, you know, some of the more common ones along the way where you're like, oh, well, that that kind of stunk. But we figured it out and keep moving, right?
Sam Wilson (00:07:15) - Yeah.
Sam Wilson (00:07:16) - That's awesome. That's awesome. What is your plan moving forward? Are you still working with this same group? Because now you've you've even relocated back to. Yeah Utah.
Sean Tagge (00:07:24) - Yeah. So I've exited the single family turnkey flipping. You know just just a grind. I'd rather do multifamily. So I'm off on my own. Doing Acorn Equity and Acquisitions is my company. And we are. Yeah we actually have under contract. So I've been searching this whole year for a multifamily, you know, tons of brokers and you know, seller expectations are still high. So we finally got one down to the right price where it fits our, you know, returns and business plan model. So we have a 206 unit under contract in Nashville Tennessee.
Sean Tagge (00:07:57) - Simple value add C class 1970s build type of house multifamily and going to raise rents $200 a door across all the units with 2 million in repairs or so.
Sam Wilson (00:08:08) - Got it. Okay, well, let's let's dig in to this particular asset because I think this is an interesting conversation. You mentioned C class. We're seeing a lot of C class defaults. We're seeing assets trade below what they were purchased for two years ago. Currently in C class. Why do you feel like now is a good time to buy a C class asset? I guess just tell me. Tell me why this asset in particular makes sense for you, right?
Sean Tagge (00:08:34) - Yeah. So we're buying it at an attractive price. So about 20% below the previous years. And it's this group. Why. Well the group has they own thousands of units their larger real estate private equity firm. And this is their last one in Nashville. And most of their plans and their funds they have they're open for five years. And so they need to close the fund.
Sean Tagge (00:08:54) - And this is like the last one in the Nashville area. Most of their other assets are in Texas. So I mean, they've owned for five years. So they're doing really well even at the price, selling it below market of two years ago or a year ago market. It's fine for them. So win for them and then a win for us because we're getting it down lower and attractive entry. And then I feel my data and research I feel very strong on Nashville, the headwinds and the sorry the tailwinds behind it of, you know, long term. Maybe there might be a down year in the next five years. I mean, I think there will be, but in five years, long term, I think it's going to average out good appreciation and rent growth.
Sam Wilson (00:09:30) - Right? I think picking picking your market, it sounds like it's one of the things that plays into a big part of your data and also your research. Obviously you got to spend some time here in Tennessee, actually. How long were you here? You lived here for a decade.
Sean Tagge (00:09:43) - Yes. Six years. Yeah.
Sam Wilson (00:09:45) - Okay. Okay. You're here for six years. So you got a good feel for what the state has to offer. And Nashville in particular, you know, obviously has some tailwinds to it that, you know, a lot of cities don't. So I don't know where where Nashville ranks on the fastest growing cities in the US. But I think it's it's there.
Sean Tagge (00:10:01) - Yeah. It's always up there with job growth and this. And then another thing nice about Nashville, I don't know if you want to dive too much into it, but it's it's still below the national average cost of living. And like if you've been in Nashville, you walk that city, you're like, this is this is a Dallas Houston. You know, this is you know, it's not New York yet, but this is up and coming city where it's going to be expensive someday. So it's still below the national average.
Sam Wilson (00:10:24) - Cost of living, which.
Sam Wilson (00:10:25) - I think in Tennessee in general, probably exactly.
Sam Wilson (00:10:27) - Still trends, trends below that which is which is great for those of us that live here. We we appreciate the lower. Certainly.
Sean Tagge (00:10:34) - Yes, yes, it's nice, but we can obviously see it's not going to be that way forever, I think.
Sam Wilson (00:10:40) - I don't know, I think Memphis might be.
Sean Tagge (00:10:42) - Yeah, maybe some specific city. Yes, maybe. But the Nashville. Got a new guy, you know, not, you know, Knoxville. Those are nice cities.
Sam Wilson (00:10:50) - They are. They are indeed. What are some things you said you use a science and data approach to investing? What does that mean to you?
Sean Tagge (00:10:59) - I mean, yeah. So it's, you know, data spreadsheets. So when I was doing biomedical, I did artificial heart research. And so yeah, learned a lot of just, you know, using the scientific theory data and spreadsheets and basically just, you know, getting averages and then looking at macro and micro micro trends. So yeah, just kind of see that with with Nashville, you know, the rent growth appreciation, everything like that.
Sean Tagge (00:11:23) - Then also of course, you know, jobs coming in and all that stuff is what I use. And that's kind of how I picked Memphis about seven years ago is I just saw it had a high rent to value ratio, did did that across the whole country and is one of the top three consistently now. It's not quite so much so. So yeah.
Sam Wilson (00:11:43) - Yeah. We've certainly seen a price appreciation here in Memphis again. You know compared to a national average it's still probably on the lower end of things. Are there anything though. But guess when when you. When you say you use data in a scientific method approach. I mean, is there anything that you say, hey, this is a this is a data point. I look at that many people wouldn't think to consider.
Sean Tagge (00:12:05) - Of I mean man, it's so with with you got co-star and all the data. It's really just it's out there for everyone. It just really takes that work though, of gathering several cities, comparing them across one another and yeah, diving into that.
Sean Tagge (00:12:20) - So I can't say I have a secret sauce I wish I did. Maybe I wouldn't tell it if I did, but I really don't, I don't, I swear I don't. It's just it's.
Sam Wilson (00:12:28) - That. Okay.
Sam Wilson (00:12:30) - Okay. I was hoping for something really random where you're like, man, you know what I consider the number of feet of, you know, plumbing at any given, like, weight, right? Yeah. But somehow you figured out that that translates into higher rents. I don't know, just throw in throwing things out there. Okay, so no secret sauce, but yet there's still opportunity out there. What did you do to make yourself an attractive buyer to this seller?
Sean Tagge (00:12:54) - Right? Yes. So we you know what we were we were just there consistently. So is actually this broker relationship we've built up over several months. So that that really there were two other 2 or 3 other offers. We were actually a little bit lower. But the fact that we were consistently showing up, you know, and making offers and other deals, maybe getting outbid a little bit and just showing that we're here consistently.
Sean Tagge (00:13:16) - And then the fact that we own, you know, so I'm partner up with Compass Capital, Sam Brower and Michael Wheatley. They're kind of my my I've known them from college as well. Good, good buddies of mine. We've talked for six years wanting to do a deal together. So this is one we're finally on together. And yeah, so that as well as we own 200 units nearby and was able to perform on those raise rents and execute on the business plan.
Sam Wilson (00:13:39) - Got it. Okay. No that's super cool. That's super cool. So Compass Capital those are they going to be your boots on the ground running it.
Sean Tagge (00:13:47) - Yeah they're the boots on the ground. And then a property management company as well over there.
Sam Wilson (00:13:51) - Got it. Okay cool. Because that's gonna be my next question was going to say okay. So you're now living in Utah. How are you taking this down? How are you selecting contractors? How are you getting this thing, you know, on the ground?
Sean Tagge (00:14:01) - So I already performed the property management company has a rental company in-house, which I like that as well, you know, and they actually they actually hit the budget on the other 200 units, which is that was like that's some of the first questions like can they perform on the budget? And that's usually the roll of the dice when you're starting a new market.
Sean Tagge (00:14:18) - Is your contractor because I mean, us, whenever we try a new contractor, we're just like, hey, it's a third chance. We keep them for a year or longer. You know, it's just something that risky take. So it's nice to know that we already have tested that and they've proven and they have thousands of other doors they performed on.
Sam Wilson (00:14:36) - Repetition is so much easier than starting over and trying to figure it out in the beginning, I think. Yes, the stat you used there, which is there's a one third chance that you'll still be working together in a year when it comes to the general, which is unfortunate, but it's just it's a reality of things.
Sam Wilson (00:14:52) - Yeah.
Sean Tagge (00:14:52) - It's that maybe even less sometimes.
Sam Wilson (00:14:54) - Yeah.
Sam Wilson (00:14:55) - Right. Oh, man. Yeah. That's a that's really cool I like that. So you've already got the business plan in place. You've got the partners, you've already got the renovation, the property management. You guys are just hitting go. Is there any other hair on this deal that you look at and say, hey man, this is going to be an obstacle we're going to have to overcome? And if so, how are you going to do it?
Sean Tagge (00:15:11) - Great question Sam.
Sean Tagge (00:15:12) - So yeah, you know, for us it's just a straight base hit, which I kind of like. It's like, you know, someone smart told me, if you make money on something, you know, and it performs well, you've done it a few times. Just keep doing it. Do it and do it again. So this one is we're just going in. We're renovating the exterior, making it look nice, some of the railings and you know, the paint chipping the roofs, you know, the exterior siding on some units. Then in the interiors we're just, you know, we're putting in what's for the market rent. So we're not going anything too fancy and just keeping it in line and simply what it is, is just the current property manager. They haven't risen rents much over the past two years, and as we know, rents have gone up 20%. And so it's just simply asking and the property is 99% occupied. So that shows me they're not pushing rents really high is they're just kind of complacent and just it's just kind of easier just to renew and maybe not even ask for an increase.
Sean Tagge (00:16:06) - And so we're going to push that a little bit and yeah get it up to market rents.
Sam Wilson (00:16:11) - Right. Well and especially in the Nashville market which again was just seeing incredible growth. If you're if your rents aren't keeping pace what what what do you think about this? I heard this strategy one time. The guy came on the show and he's buying mobile home parks. And one of the things that he required his sellers to do was to raise rents before they bought the property.
Sean Tagge (00:16:34) - That dude, I like that a lot is like, hey, let's test this on whatever's vacant right now. Let's bump it up to whatever, 100 bucks more a month. I like that a lot. Yeah, we haven't tried that on this one, but I've heard a couple of guys doing that. I think that's a great strategy. Maybe even writing that in your contract and just. Yeah, getting the feedback from the leasing.
Sam Wilson (00:16:53) - People, getting.
Sam Wilson (00:16:54) - The feedback from the leasing people and then making the sellers the bad guys, I mean, that's that was his strategy.
Sam Wilson (00:16:59) - He said, hey, look, one, we get a raise in rents and then we also come in, you know, without having to get the flack of, oh, we just bought the property. And now you guys are, you know, coming in here and raising prices and all that. The previous seller did it. Right.
Sean Tagge (00:17:12) - So another another thing like this is totally crazy idea of that was like why not maybe like renovate it to what you kind of are going to make the units renovated at and do an a, B split test of two units in the nicer, higher range, which is kind of what our model is versus the current ones at maybe just even a little less in your range, but higher than currently, obviously. Like you got to write something in of who's going to pay for those renovations and everything. But I mean, that may be worth the, you know, whatever, 1020 grand risk to kind of know if you can prove the.
Sam Wilson (00:17:42) - Theory, right.
Sam Wilson (00:17:43) - No, I think that's great.
Sam Wilson (00:17:44) - Think that's great and that's that. I mean, and again, people are constantly looking for new ways or new strategies to add value in that term. Add value is getting tougher to do.
Sam Wilson (00:17:54) - Mean yes for.
Sam Wilson (00:17:55) - Sure. So, you know, do it. Taking some creative strategies like that I think is really, really important. Let's let's shift gears here a little bit. You said you spent all year working to get this 206 unit under contract. You're moving forward. That that sounds amazing. But I know we talked about this before the show began. You've also got your hands in business. So tell me why you're kind of splitting your focus here.
Sean Tagge (00:18:20) - Right? Yeah. So of course, flipped 1500 single family houses. And I had renovation crews and they had subcontractors. And what I've just seen from the single family residential era of any Hvac, plumbing or electrical, roofing, fencing, I mean, any type of contractor. If you answer your phone, number one, show up to the job and give a bid and then actually do what you're going to say, you're probably ahead about ahead of 80%, 90% of the competition.
Sean Tagge (00:18:51) - And so, yeah, I'm under contract under lock on an Hvac company. And it's it's also I'm keeping one of the partner who's licensed on will stay on. So it's kind of nice is you know I'm good at high level business stuff marketing you know, systems and processes, you know, and acquiring more. And so but then I have a day to day operator as well that I'm partnering up with. So if we're up a bit of my time, take up a bit of my time, but I'll learn a lot from that and can translate the business principles for multifamily and also the renovation.
Sam Wilson (00:19:23) - Side of.
Sam Wilson (00:19:23) - That business in Utah. Or is that back here in Tennessee?
Sean Tagge (00:19:27) - Yeah, it's in Utah.
Sam Wilson (00:19:28) - Okay, okay. The skilled trades I mean, finding, as you said.
Sam Wilson (00:19:32) - Finding.
Sam Wilson (00:19:33) - Not just I think the four criteria, whatever, 4 or 5 criteria you gave, one is for any contractor to show up. But finding then also the skilled trades I mean those are those are the places where it is, like you mentioned, plumbers, electricians, Hvac guys.
Sam Wilson (00:19:48) - You get inside of those three and that and if you can again answer the phone and show up, I mean, I commonly won't even ask for a second bid if you're if you're competent in any of those three trades and you show up and you're like, right.
Sam Wilson (00:20:01) - We can get it done.
Sean Tagge (00:20:01) - I mean, I was because, yeah, I've tried to personally get a house renovated and like I literally had to call, I think 3 or 4 guys and two of them didn't answer, then two answered, but then one didn't show up and one showed up like two weeks later. And the guy that showed up two weeks later, he got the job because I was just, quite frankly, just like, I need to get this done and I'm tired of this, like, just let's do it. And so it's crazy. And what I got good at when we flipped the 1500 single family houses is we had a ton of marketing and made a ton of offers and went on a ton of appointments to make offers personally at people's houses.
Sean Tagge (00:20:35) - And so I had a VA, basically a call center in house call center scripts and then boots on the ground guys making offers. And so I'm kind of going apply that principles and softwares that I connect together, because we follow up with automated texts and emails and tasks to call and all of that. So I'm kind of going to use all those processes to be, you know, be the person answering the phone, because basically it's just a race to the to the answering the phone and showing up is you'll get the business. Then the second end, of course, is, you know, the hiring people, managing the crews, making sure they're doing a job well done, have processes as well for that, which I learned a lot from flipping 1500 single family houses. And of course, some of the rentals go overboard and we're not doing as well in a timely manner and things like that. So using data and actually tracking it and reporting it weekly, right. So I mean, this is for anything, but, you know, this works for multifamily syndication as well as.
Sean Tagge (00:21:27) - Right. You just what is it. There's someone that said, you know, what gets measured gets done. And then I think add on top of. What gets measured and reported on the rate of improvement increases. So just having that accountability is like, hey, you know, here, here we're at in the project and every week we're just following up on the numbers. Here's where I'm on our budget. Here's how much is completed. Here's the goal I mean, like you don't even really need to say much after that. You just look at the data and the person who's responsible for it can just see, oh, I'm ahead or not on this. And then it gives you a lot of opportunity for coaching and help and giving them tools to succeed.
Sam Wilson (00:22:06) - That's really cool, I love that. I love that idea of, I mean, because there are other cross disciplines or other disciplines that go across all of these different segments, from an eight company to a multifamily property, it's kind of all the same in that that the measuring the key performance indicators, tracking all that stuff and figure out where people are is, yeah, really and powerful.
Sean Tagge (00:22:26) - And what I like to is when I was flipping a house, I had to do ten of those things, right? Ten different trades and electricians, plumbers, painters or this. It's just one simple, hey, just the Hvac system. We can focus on that. So I don't know. Frankly, I think it's simpler. Right? It's much simpler than flipping a house.
Sam Wilson (00:22:40) - So I would agree, man. There's there's I don't have any desire to go back to flipping houses at all. So don't I'm like you, I don't I don't miss it certainly was good to me, but I don't miss it. Sean, thank you for taking the time here to come on the show today. I certainly appreciate it. If our listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you, what is the best way to do that?
Sean Tagge (00:23:00) - Yeah. So my company, Acorn Equity and Acquisitions, the website is Acorn E just short for equity acquisitions. And you know also on LinkedIn Sean tag and have YouTube channel Sean tag.
Sean Tagge (00:23:12) - I'm just starting and putting out private equity and real estate investing things in there. So yeah. Hey Sam. Dude, man, it was a great pleasure being on the show. Thanks to all your listeners. And hopefully, hopefully you got a little Golden Nugget and helped.
Sam Wilson (00:23:25) - You out a bit.
Sam Wilson (00:23:25) - Absolutely. We did. Sean, thank you again for coming on the show today. We'll make sure we include your website and all those links right there in the show notes. Certainly appreciate it and have a great rest of your day. All right. Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate podcast. If you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, whatever platform it is you use to listen. If you can do that for us, that would be a fantastic help to the show. It helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories. So appreciate you listening. Thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode.