I’ve gotten a lot of bad advice in my career and I see even more of it here on Twitter.

Time for a stiff drink and some truth you probably dont want to hear.

👇👇

College isn’t worthless for everyone.

All of the successful folks who tell you college is worthless went to college.

What does that tell you?

It’s not about the learning, though.

It’s about growing and learning how to sell yourself and your ideas.

Miami isn’t the next tech hub.

It’s surrounded by a swamp.

Construction costs are insane because of hurricane codes. Vacant land doesn’t exist.

Property insurance has risen on average 20% per year for 5 years.

Plus it’s hot AF. Ever been there in July?

Starting a business isn’t right for everyone.

95% of folks are better off getting a job.

It’s hard AF. Decisions are critical and plentiful. Risk is for real. Stress can be crippling. Delegation can be impossible for poor communicators.

Most folks don’t have what it takes.

Technology isn’t as far along as the media makes you think it is.

We’re 5+ years away from autonomous vehicles.

Alexa still can’t play the song I want 25% of the time let alone make decisions and “learn”.

Robots fall on their faces when they aren’t on perfectly flat ground.

A THREAD on how most real estate folks structure deals with outside investors.

Most people utilize the "preferred equity" structure when they raise money from outside investors. They "syndicate" deals.

Here's the basics:

The person (or team of people) putting the deal together is the "sponsor". Also called general parter. Referred to on twitter as the GP.

They find the property, do all the work, hire the management company and take fees. They often co-sign debt and always secure the financing.

The investor is generally passive, doing no work and putting in cash. This is the "limited partner". Referred to on twitter as the LP.

They don't co-sign debt. They simply read reports and ask the sponsors questions and cash checks every month (if the deal is going well).

There are two equity classes.

"Preferred equity" belongs to the LPs. Cash talks, so this is a higher class of shares. They are first in the "capital stack" behind the debt (bank loan).

"Common equity" belongs to the sponsor. They are generally last in the capital stack.

Sponsors generally co-invest. That means they hold both equity classes. A 10% co-invest is standard.

That means the GP has skin in the game. His 10% co-invest makes him both an LP and a GP.

If you're new to real estate twitter this is a must-read.

A thread on how most real estate folks structure deals with outside investors.

Most GPs utilize the "preferred equity" structure when they raise money from outside investors. They "syndicate" deals.

Here's the basics:

The person (or team of people) putting the deal together is the "sponsor". Also called general parter. Referred to on twitter as the GP.

They find the property, do all the work, hire the management company and take fees. They often co-sign debt and always secure the financing.

The investor is generally passive, doing no work and putting in cash. This is the "limited partner". Referred to on twitter as the LP.

They don't co-sign debt. They simply read reports and ask the sponsors questions and cash checks every month (if the deal is going well).

There are two equity classes.

"Preferred equity" belongs to the LPs. Cash talks, so this is a higher class of shares. They are first in the "capital stack" behind the debt (bank loan).

"Common equity" belongs to the sponsor. They are generally last in the capital stack.

Sponsors generally co-invest. That means they hold both equity classes. A 10% co-invest is standard.

That means the GP has skin in the game. His 10% co-invest makes him both an LP and a GP.

Time for a BOOK LIST.

I've read over 250 self-help and business books..

Heres a list of the ones that have had the largest influence on my life and career.

A thread:

Never Split the Difference - @VossNegotiation

It outlines and reinforces the fact that business, negotiation and any human interaction is inherently very emotional. Mirroring, tactical empathy, starting with no and labeling are all phenomenal.

The E-Myth Revisited - @MichaelEGerber

The first stop for any beginner. This is a great book about the importance of creating a business that can thrive without you. Preaches a lot of my favorite business principles like working on the things that are important but not urgent.

Entreleadership - @DaveRamsey

This book just has non stop quality advice about how to build a business the right way. Dave doesn’t preach about politics or religion. He just tells it like it is and tells the stories of what worked for him. Phenomenal read.

Ego is the Enemy - @RyanHoliday

Ryan preaches stoicism and how to handle emotions, rejection and stress. Managing that split second between an event and your reaction is what life is all about. It shows the importance of remaining humble and the dangers of overconfidence.

Don't identify yourself with any one business or one industry.

Be an open-minded opportunist.

THREAD:

I've been very serious about personal development for 10+ years.

But not just reading...

I've been putting the principles to work as I've grown and sold my business (7 figure exit) and built a real estate portfolio worth $20MM+.

Here are a few of my top takeaways:

20% of your customers will produce 80% of your profit.

20% of your customers will also produce 80% of your headache.

The sooner you learn THESE AREN'T THE SAME CUSTOMERS the sooner you can grow, scale AND experience less stress.

The 4 quadrants of time management concept changed my life.

Urgent + important is where stressed out owners spend their time.

Not urgent + important is where you add long term value to your company and your life. Its also the easiest area to push to the back-burner and ignore.

3 keys to hiring and managing great employees:

#1 Raise your prices (so you can afford them)

#2 Simplify the job so average employees can thrive (and killer employees can crush it)

#3 Give them praise in public (it means just as much as money)

Execution > Idea

Ideas are a dime a dozen.

Folks who are willing to do the work are a bit more rare.

Folks with the chops to execute well are extremely rare. And they are the true winners when it comes to entrepreneurship.

There is a lot of bad advice floating around online when it comes to real estate investing.

Time for a stiff drink and some stuff you might not want to hear.

A thread 👇

Most real estate influencers spend 99% of their time trying to sound smart.

They purposely make things too complicated.

When you do this for a while you can tell if a property is worth buying with a napkin and 30 seconds.

The problem with being a big real estate PE firm:

You need to do good deals year after year and deploy 10s or 100s of millions in capital.

It’s a hamster wheel making others wealthy.

The advantage of being you:

One building like this can change your life.

Buying real estate that doesn’t cashflow well because values have risen 10% / yr for 10 yrs while wages have risen 3% / yr for 10 yrs is very risky.

I don’t care how long your interest rate is “fixed” for.

Markets are cyclical. Trends change. Bankruptcy is real.

If you don’t know anyone with money and you have less than $250k of your own cash real estate isn’t the best way to make money.

Even a $500k property (like the one pictured above) requires $150k down and another $100k in cash reserves.

Too many folks set the bar way too high with entrepreneurship. The next million dollar company. The next sexy startup.

Forget all that.

Why isn’t the goal to build something that pays you good $ every year and requires only a few hours of your time per week to make it happen?

When you start a business your goal shouldn't be to get an article in TechCrunch or raise VC $.

It should be to make $1,000 as quickly as possible with as little risk as possible.

Trade your time for money to test an idea.

Speaking of ideas.....

Business ideas are OVERRATED.

The only thing a brand new, world-changing idea will get you is an interesting Twitter bio and very shitty odds of success.

We only hear about the unicorns like Jobs and Musk.

The successful entrepreneurs in your town all have something in common...

They did common things uncommonly well.

They did something that someone else was already doing and they just did it a little bit better.

Young entrepreneurs hear the same advice over and over again...

Change the world. Do something you're passionate about. Thing BIGGER.

That advice is BULLSHIT.

Shoot for the stars and the odds you'll end up with a JOB.

We've used "seller financing" on two self storage deals in the past year.

And it raised our cash on cash return by 20%+.

And lowered the amount of capital we needed by $500k.

Here's a THREAD about a deal of mine and how this magical debt structure can work.

👇👇

My method is simple. In the late stages of negotiation I submit two offers:

One at a lower price.

And one at the exact price the seller wants but with him holding back 10-20% of the purchase price in the form of a 2nd mortgage (with a second position to your bank loan).

Contrary to popular belief seller financing rarely includes the seller holding back 70-80% and acting as your bank.

Two reasons:

#1 most have some debt on the property.

#2 most want most of their money now.

Have you heard the saying:

"you name the price and i'll name the terms?"

This is a case of that situation exactly.

Lets paint a picture here:

Last week I was negotiating with a seller on a property in a small western PA town.

Not many interested buyers so I knew I had some leverage.

His asking price was $4.5MM. I wanted to pay $4.2M.

After a week or two and a lot of back and forth I found his lowest number.

I got serious about Twitter on April 12th 2020.

Since that day:

I've raised $5MM and met with over 200 future investors in my real estate deals.

I've done $75k worth of consulting.

And I've met mentors and friends I'll carry with me for life.

What worked for me 👇👇👇

First of all I tried the mainstream advice and built my own blog, podcast, email list, YouTube. Spent 2 years. 500k downloads. Some success.

Got more value out of Twitter in 30 days.

If raising money or in business THIS is the platform.

Okay let’s go:

1. Stay on topic.

The most valuable folks here are here to learn. They curate their feed. They want business and to LEARN.

No fantasy football. No gifs. No pop culture. No one liner jokes.

Be an expert at what you do. Stay on brand.

2. No politics.

At all. Ever. It’s a great way to piss off (and say goodbye) to 1/2 the folks here.

Not everybody feels the way you do and the smartest folks don’t want your opinion. Nothing good comes of it. So avoid it.

3. Be incredibly open

Nobody will steal your ideas. Yes it’s uncomfortable and yes you’ll get challenged.

I shared my profit and loss statements on here. It led to discussions with many brilliant folks in the DMs and several folks who wanted to partner reaching out.

Customer friction is a huge part of running a biz.

How hard is it to engage a company to work with you?

Data-driven companies obsess over reducing this friction.

Mom-and-pop operators SUCK at this and it’s costing them millions.

Here’s what I’ve learned 👇👇👇

1985 companies have a lot of friction.

Call them. Leave message. Wait. Guy may or may not call you back. Quote by phone or email. Scan signed contract.

A self storage facility we purchased recently had a lot of this.

Drive across town M-F 9-5. Spend 20 mins. Sign paper lease.

Get a physical key and lock. Drive back. Get your unit. Mail a check each month or stop by office with cash.

Owner charged $52 a month for a 10x10. Completely full.

We instantly setup software for online rental.

No phone call necessary. Rent a unit in 4 mins from your browser.

Sign lease online. Pay online. Upload photo of DL on phone.

Go straight to your unit 24/7. Type in gate key that was sent to you by text. Lock and key waiting in unit.

We can now charge $77 a mo for the same unit. $25 more. And we rent MORE units faster.

How significant is this?

That $25 increase per unit across the board turns out to be a 35% increase in revenue.

That takes revenue from $14k a month when I buy it to $18.9k a few months later.

An extra $58k to the bottom line over the course of 12 months.

On Sep 3rd 2020 we closed on a 120k sf glove factory built in 1890 in a small NY town.

Has 45k sf of self storage inside and had $14k a month of net operating income at closing.

Let's breakdown this deal.

A THREAD on creating $2 million out of thin air in 18 months...

👇👇

First saw the property on Loopnet in mid 2018. I ignored it. Who wants to try to operate a business in an old factory in a dying NY town.

A few months later I reached out. Broker sent me financials. They were good. $24k a month in revenue and $10k in expenses.

So I visited the property. It was old. Needed a new roof. Full time manager. Only accessible to customers 9am-5pm M-S. No autopay. A lot of folks paying 1/2 market rent.

I loved everything about it.

But I knew they were going to have trouble selling this thing no matter the profitability, so on July 1 2018 I made a low offer. $750k + seller pays for new $250k roof + $20k in environmental work.

Countered at asking price + $100k credit towards roof.

I ignored the response.

Broker called me back mid September of 2018. Make another offer, he urged.

I knew it was a good biz so I got more aggressive - $1MM + seller pays for roof / environmental.

Declined. Countered with $1.2MM but they'd give me a new roof and do the environmental.

The wealthiest person I know prints millions out of thin air in the real estate business.

This is what he does...

A thread.

He finds a distressed retail plaza. Let's say 50% of the space isn't leased.

On a 300,000 sf plaza that might mean 150k square feet is vacant.

If asking rent is $8 per square foot per year, that means the building has a "potential revenue" figure of of $2.4MM.

So in this retail center 50% is leased and 50% is vacant. So the actual revenue, right now, is $1.2MM.

Most retail leases are whats called "Triple Net" or "NNN". This means the tenant pays the taxes, insurance, maintenance and CAM (common area maintenance).

They basically pay all of the landlord's expenses (except debt service on any loans he/she has, of course).

Commercial properties are valued based on something called a "cap rate".

The equation is:

net operating income / (cap rate) = value

The cap rate is a %.

Think about it as the return on your money, annually, as a percentage, you spent to buy a property.

What successful people understood before they were successful.

A short thread.

Mentorship isn’t about finding a great mentor.

It’s about becoming a person great mentors WANT to help.

Hiring isn’t about finding good people.

It’s about becoming a person good people want to work for.

Wealth isn’t about extracting value from others.

It’s about adding 10x as much value as you want to receive.

Winning doesn’t mean others lose.

The real winners help 1000 others win with them.

A thread on how real estate investors, developers and operators can make millions a year and pay almost nothing in TAXES by using depreciation, bonus depreciation, and 1031 exchanges.

How it works:

Depreciation is the act of slowly, over time, deducting the initial expense of an asset against your taxable income. Generally over a 27.5 (residential) or 39 (commercial) yr time frame. So each year you can write off 2-3.6% of the purchase price against your income.

Thats a big deal. We're buying a new property, a $3MM self storage facility. Thats a $60k a year write off against about $260k in NOI and 200k in cashflow on a $3MM deal.

It makes 30% of our cashflow tax free.

Very powerful but there is much more to it...

Different parts of the asset can be depreciated on different schedules.

We'll have a cost segregation study done to split up the depreciable lifespan of different parts of the building. The raw land can't be depreciated so you have to give that a value.

But other items can be depreciated on a quicker timeline. A roof, road, sidewalk, fencing, walls, gates, doors, latches, flooring, air conditioners, pavers, curbing, landscaping, etc.

The IRS has a depreciation schedule for each type. Some parts are 5 yrs. Others 15 years...

A thread on how to turn $100 into a lot more:

People are spending a lot of money on their homes right now. Its time to go get some of that money and help out some of these people.

Sound silly? Good.

It really is this simple sometimes.

Lets go 👇

Get on your computer and buy a web domain.

Get a freelancer (upwork or fiverr) to make you a logo/flyer and get $45 worth of flyers printed at your local print shop.

Buy a box of sidewalk chalk if you really want to grind and get gritty.

Go downtown with the sidewalk chalk and write “pressure washing and home cleaning 888-555-1234” as many times as you can in high traffic areas.

Go to a middle class or high end neighborhood and hand out flyers on porches and wherever else.

Get creative. You might get ran off but its low risk. Target those with dirty payment.

Your cell phone will start ringing. Book all of the jobs for Saturday.

Rent a power washer Saturday morning with the other $50 and go make $300 in one day.

Do the same thing the next weekend and then buy a power washer. Then put $200 into a website and nurture a Google My Business location.

Get reviews, upload photos, make it look nice. 50% of your biz will come through here.

Think slow, work fast.

A thread on entrepreneurship and what folks don't understand about opportunity.

It comes in waves.

Long periods of time are spent blocking and tackling and going through the motions.

Short periods of time can change your life.

Don't get me wrong, successful folks are consistent. They show up. They stay focused for years.

But...

Ask them to point to a time period where they made most of their money and they'll direct you to a time span between 6 months and 2 years.

When the opportunity arose and they seized it.

They built something that continues to create value. They built an asset that continues to create cash.

They seized an opportunity and did work over a short period of time and they harvest the fruit for years or generations.

Want to know how to get brokers to bring you deals first?

Want to build a machine that can buy real estate while you play golf?

Have a very professional and organized METHOD for closing on a property.

It's a system. And here's how we do it.

A thread 👇👇👇

The thing is most sellers (that I deal with) have never sold a property before.

They don't know what to expect. They don't know how it works.

So they naturally have unreasonable expectations and there is a lot that can get lost in the shuffle.

And it creates stress.

And most brokers are working several deals at a time. And they aren't at liberty to tell a buyer how to do business.

So their hands are tied.

And for that reason a lot of closings are shit show. They are delayed. They end up with lawyers huddled up on Thursday night at 10pm.

And for that reason its YOUR JOB as the buyer to take charge.

Set the expectations.

Set the timeline.

And be a professional.

Step one:

Get a signed letter of intent that lays out the terms for your attorney to draft a contract with.

Step two (5 minutes after signed LOI)

Send out an email linking all of the parties and outline their role and a timeline.