Aileen (00:00):

Welcome everyone to today’s episode of How Did They Do It Real Estate podcast. We are your hosts Seyla and Aileen. And today we don’t have just one great guest, but we have two  Chris Pomerleau and Collin Schwartz are both co-founders of park Avenue capital, where they manage over $46 million in real estate assets, and 700 apartment units throughout the Midwest. Chris is the director of investment strategy where he oversees the acquisitions of assets and business development activities, as well as the overall investment strategies is also an attorney and mediator at Nebraska legal group. Prior to his entrepreneurial activities. Chris served in the United States army. Colin is a director of operations at Park Avenue where he directs the day-to-day operations of investments is also an investor and owner of Bricktown. Management’s a property management company located in Omaha, Nebraska, please welcome Chris and Colin. We’re super grateful. The two of you were able to join us today. Welcome to the show.

Chris and Colin (00:57):

Thank you.

Aileen (00:58):

So can we please start off by sharing a little bit more about your background and how did you get started in real estate?

Chris (01:05):

I think Colin said he wanted me to go first. Is that what he said?

Collin (01:08):

I always absolutely age before beauty.

Chris (01:13):

So I started investing seven years ago. I like mostly hear about, I read rich dad, poor dad, but that was in 2008. Actually. It just so happened. I was, I was in the military at that time. And so in the morning I was in the military throughout the day I was in law school. And then at night I was in grad school getting my master’s in negotiation. And so I read rich dad, poor dad and make complete sense. It was certainly eye opening, but I just didn’t feel like I could find the right time to fit real estate into that mix. Looking back on it. I probably could have, but I certainly didn’t at that time. And it wasn’t until I got out of the military in 2013, that’s when I started investing in real estate and I’m sure we’ll get into it later, but it was four years. And for single family homes later as in 2017 and I realized one single family home each year is not going to get me to where I want to be. It’s not getting my family where I want to be an Intuit. And 17 is where I call her and I have partnered up foreign park F capital. And it’s been the best three years of my life. Collin.

Collin (02:14):

No thanks buddy. So yeah, for me it was January 1st, 2017. I remember it very clearly similar to Chris. I read rich dad, poor dad, but my reaction was I basically had to burn all the ships and that what I did, I asked myself, what have I been doing and what am I working for? And I realized they didn’t have a solid answer. I was looking at my 401k. I was looking at retirement accounts. I was looking at, hey, when I’m 70, I can do this. Well, I’m not very comfortable with that. And the thought of that, just kind of just, just really irked me at the time I had would be considered a really great corporate job. I was in it. I was a project manager, managing groups of great teams, great company, but there was something I would get up early, I’d drive to work, drive home. I would not see my children as much. And I was also having another child at the time. So it kind of just like resonated that I needed to do something. So basically started just kind of listening to podcasts, reading books, bought my first three Plax and yeah, and then Chris and I met shortly after that really just kind of, kind of catapulted us because we both were driven in very similar fashions and want to go very, very fast and work incredibly hard at it. So yeah, it was kind of the, kind of the beginning of what got me into it.

Aileen (03:35):

How did you two meet and what was it about each other that just clicked for you guys?

Chris (03:43):

Let’s see. Well, I had known of Collin in early 2017, he had posted something in January about turned 17 about investing on bigger pockets and actually that bigger pockets post. And maybe it wasn’t in January. It could have been a few months later, but it was just basically how many units he had accumulated in a short amount of time. And that post on bigger pockets blew up. And I was just getting into networking and trying to learn who is in the community. Because I only had four single family homes and I was amazed. I think he had, like 40 some units in the first four months or something calling you can correct me if I’m wrong, but whatever it was, he got a decent amount. So I had actually reached out to him on there. I think he responded, but I think that his post blew up so much. He probably had probably had a lot of people reach out to him. And so I just, I kept hearing his name and whatnot. And then he, and we ended up finding ourselves the same properties or always bidding on the same properties. And then he outbid me and one of the properties was really upset me because he actually did now bid me. I had the better bid, but he got the property internet anyway. And I think it was probably because he had built a track record, but also because I’m a divorce attorney, that’s my, that’s my, that’s my W2 job. And it just so happened. And I didn’t know this at the time, but the, the property that I was putting a bid on was owned by the other party, the wife. So there’s a possibility that even though I was the highest bid, the reason I didn’t get it is because she saw my name on there. And she was like, I don’t like that guy. So I ended up not getting it. So, so when I drove by the property, I noticed it was done, it was closed. And I noticed there were some maintenance trucks outside vans outside. And so I just walked in and introduced myself and calm was standing there. So that’s how we met.

Collin (05:31):

Yeah. And it kind of just like quickly after that, we just, it, it was an interesting story to begin with and just kind of what our goals were. And basically started talking every day or texting back and forth, Hey, you’re looking at this property, this property. And as Chris said, we continue to compete against each other. Like we would, I remember one day I was picking my kids up from day-care and I was like, Hey, I’m going to go look at this package of 14 units tomorrow. What do you think he’s like, is it at such and such address? I’m like, yeah. I’m like, but it’s off market. He’s like, yeah. I called the same guy too. Okay. So we both showed up and after that time, we were just like, well, why don’t we just partner together? We obviously have the same goals. I mean, similar age, we both have young children and we had, we had similar aspirations. So just, yeah. Went from there. I mean, same ethics, same morals and same goals I think is what’s really helped in work ethic. Although I think Chris is part cyborg. He does work harder than pretty much anybody. I know

Chris (06:33):

[Inaudible] He works hard too.

Seyla (06:36):

So how did you guys come up with the name park Avenue and what is the vision of the company?

Chris (06:44):

Well, the house that he outbid me on that house, I just told you about was located on park app. So that’s why we chose that. I think there’s a financial play to it as well with park Avenue York and the financial sector and whatnot. But certainly that’s how we chose park app was, was that was the, that was kind of the property where we met and decided, well, let’s start seeing if our interests can align. So that’s how we chose the name.

Seyla (07:08):

Yep. That makes sense. Will you be able to share some advice on how to have a successful partnership such as in terms of communication decision-making process or workload centre?

Chris (07:21):

I think we just kind of learned through trial and error things. Haven’t always gone perfectly. When we first started, we were doing a lot of the same tasks as the other, because we were so used to doing them all of ourselves. So it was just kind of a, a trial and error type thing. I think now it’s important to looking back. We could have perhaps decided who, who did what, but I guess we, him and I had to call and I had never really done that. It’s just kind of been like, let’s just figure it out. And if we, as a military phase called double tap, that means if we both do the same thing, if anything, you’re just kind of really just guaranteed. You’re certainly guaranteed. It’s going to get done because now you’re having two people to try to carry it out, kind of a trial and error thing.

Chris (08:03):

And it’s been three years now and now we just kind of fall into that realm of, we just kind of understand what the other person’s going to do. So, but I think the most important thing is really to just have that discussion with your partner because see call wasn’t my first partner, I’ve had many other partners in the real estate sector, and sometimes we didn’t see eye to eye. We didn’t know that until we got months into the project or sometimes not necessarily a negative, but just our goals or how much we want to push the envelope. And I think that’s what Colin kind of alluded to earlier is that that’s where we really hit it off as it would come full type a, we both want to get things done, but we also are always pushing each other to continue to get bigger and bigger and better and better.

Chris (08:45):

I mean, we just started a hard money lending business a month ago and that wasn’t even on our radar. I mean, of course you always think about things like that, but if you’re by yourself or if I were with some of my previous partners that would not have been on their radar and nothing against them, we all have our own comfort level, but I think there’s a kind of drives us. So, and I’m not just making them feel special, but it’s also just the personal side as well. Like numbers make sense. We all would prefer to make money and not lose money. There are certainly financial aspects that we all enjoy, but there’s the, I enjoy being around column, but I also trust Collin’s outlook on life and how he wants to take care of others. Collin’s company Bricktown manages about 450 units, and I know that his staff and his crew is always taken care of the tenants because they care and he’s somebody you can trust and stuff. So that’s really huge in a partnership.

Collin (09:35):

Yeah. Partnership has to be, I mean, Chris said most of the points, but you have to be able to trust one another. I mean, and trust and also understand each other’s goals. You’re going to come across people in life and I have other partners and some of them have certain goals and some of them have much larger goals. Chris and I have very large goals as well as do, as well as some of our other partners. But it’s important if that Chris and I are committed to continuing to push the envelope, to create a company, to, you know, spend money on coaching, to put money into marketing, that we both have the same goals and aspirations, and that we’re both willing to send emails and text messages at 3:00 AM because we just can’t stop. And we just keep thinking about projects and want to keep doing more. So, yeah, but, but the trust factor is huge. So it’s, it’s important to also, if you go through this business and you don’t say no to a partnership at some point, you should also be worried because I have said no to a few partnerships person was great deal looked great, but our goals didn’t align it. We were misaligned in what we were planning on doing or the work that we planned on putting into the project,

Aileen (10:49):

Those kinds of conversations. Is it over a span of many conversations that you’ve had before making that decision to jump into the partnership? Or is that like, what’s the timeline or how do you determine when you get that confident feeling that yes, this is the right one.

Chris (11:07):

That’s tough. It kind of, as far as when that feeling comes, I think Collin and I now, and we’re learning too. Right. But I mean, we learned through the different partnerships and people we’ve talked to and things we’ve learned throughout the way that kind of what we’re looking for. I mean, we were asked recently to be a part of a larger syndication and we didn’t really know these, these people. So it took time over the phone to build that rapport, to build time over zoom, which by the way before, COVID I never, even when the thought about jumping on a zoom call with somebody, and there are certainly a lot of negative things that, COVID has brought, but that’s one of the benefits is you kind of get a feel for that person. And then it’s also important to actually just sit down and say, look, I plan on doing this. I would imagine you plan on doing list. Let’s make sure that our goals and interests in our tasks are aligned so that not only are we overlapping, but we can also trust that the other person wants to get those certain things done. I think it just takes time. And I think it will stick. You should start small, right? So the scenario I just gave you isn’t necessarily small. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a larger syndication, but it’s something we’ve done before, as far as that size of syndication. So we certainly know how to, we know what to expect when Collin and I first started, like he said, that was a 14 unit, and Collin. I don’t look at 14 units anymore. And there’s nothing as for, to use. We’re just looking at bigger items. But when we started our partnership, it was on a 14 units. So the risks weren’t as large.

Collin (12:35):

I think the other thing, I mean, is that anytime some types of issues come up or there’s some things that need to be resolved, it’s important to have open communication with your partner. There are certain things I hate to do that Chris is really good at and vice versa, like answer emails. I hate doing that. I like being in more of the operations, etc. But you know, at first when we’re both trying to do it, one of us is just like, ah, I hate doing this. Why didn’t you do that? Why did you do that? So then we just have a conversation. That’s where it goes like, okay, cool, I’ll handle this. You handle that. Like, and you actually have to talk through it, but I see lots of partnerships. They just kind of have some negativity and they start growing farther apart. It’s a relationship. The less you communicate the less, less, well you guys are going to be off. So I think just having that constant communication, because you can just start making these little iterative processes on the partnership itself in a perfect world, you would come in and say, I’m in charge of operations. You’re in charge of this. I manage the insurance side, you manage the financing side, and you find deals. I find capital that is going to be incredibly difficult on the onset, but there still has to be some overlap too, to make it, to make it like a trustworthy partnership where you can still have confidence in what the other individuals doing. But you also need to, you still need to understand all the sides of the business.

Aileen (14:00):

Yeah. That totally makes sense. And also, it also sounds that both of are also willing to compromise also in order to be able to get to the desired end goal and results after your communication with each other. So that sounds like it’s important as well.

Seyla (14:14):

Yeah. But not agree is trust is very important in a partnership, especially in this business. And like you mentioned, you have to be able to trust the, either partner to do what they say they going to do. And can you walk us through how your day to day look like of how you setting up in terms of a meeting or like how you overview and your business together, how how’s the process look like?

Chris (14:38):

It’s kind of, it’s kind of fluid right now. I still have my attorney job. So I have responsibilities that I have to take part in with that job. So my schedule is a little than others, Just like Colin has responsibilities through his property management company. And so we may talk at 7:00 AM. We may talk at 7:00 PM. We today we recorded a webinar at 11:00 AM. It’s just kind of around availability. It’s another trial and error session. I know there are certain times of the day that I should not expect a response back from Colin. He understands, there are certain times of the day. It’s just harder for me to get on the phone as well. So it’s just kind of trying to when you’re, when you’re managing this many units in this much, this much in assets, under management, and there’s a lot of, there are a lot of things that are going to happen. So it’s more just trying to get things done when you can. I understand the perfect structure is to say every day at 10, we will speak. But when you’re, when you’re not only doing the asset management, but also the property management and also balancing an attorney job, sometimes that doesn’t work out the best. So it really is just taking care of things when you can, and again, more trial and error stuff. So,

Collin (15:51):

Yeah, and I think what’s helped us is finding, we’re starting to find some really good staff. So that’s allowing us to get closer to have some actual timelines and specific dates, but it’s very fluid when we get an offer back on a property and they want a response in 12 hours, or we find a capital investor who wants to have a conversation in their conversation time. Is that that time? Well then it’s just something we typically have to work around and putting our kids to bed and feeding them and doing all that fun stuff. So yeah, it has to be very fluid. So it’s a constant, I guess.

Seyla (16:27):

So since you partners with what metrics do you, If are you eating a new poppy opportunity now compared to before you actually project?

Chris (16:38):

I mean from day one, we always look at every property the same. We, it’s not that we’re not flexible to other ideas and we’ve certainly entertained many different options as far as purchasing properties, but ultimately we start from a value add component. I understand that that’s a hot keyword that everybody likes to use, but our long-term business plan is to hold the property forever. So not only do we want to stabilize the property by raising income and lowering expenses, but we’re not looking for a great sale on year four. We don’t care about selling. Now, of course there’s a, there’s a ticket price that would be probably not smart to pass up, but we’re never listing properties. Our goal is to raise that property enough to where you can refinance the property, put it into even better debt and then return all of that initial capital back to all the investors. And then what we feel kind of sets us apart. And many people do this, but not everybody. We keep the investors in indefinitely. So we have a hundred thousand dollar investor put who gives us money. They make cash flow quarterly throughout the stabilization process. And then in year three or four or five, when we refinance all of it, they get that $100,000 back. But then moving forward every quarter, they’re still getting cash flow and that’s really rewarding to us. And that’s what we want to do on our own single family homes and duplexes. So that’s what we want to do on our eighties, seventies, a hundred units. And we want to make sure everybody so is able to capitalize on that. So that is our goal. We want to be able to find something that we can get a relatively fast turnaround on the refinance.

Collin (18:25):

Yeah. In some of the metrics we look at are just for increasing that value is obviously the rental income. Like what are these being rented at? We have a 72 unit under contract. The individual has owned it for 27 years, at least 30% under market. Okay. So that, we can obviously add value to there’s no washers and dryers in the unit that can increase the overall rent there’s opportunity for a utility bill back. And he’s paying for water and sewer. These are things that it can all be built back. So with that value add perspective, we’re trying to break down all these different areas. And as Chris said, our goal is to keep our investors into the projects, provide all the tax benefits, likely we’re doing cost segregation studies on these properties and the depreciation that they see allows for a reduced capital gains. So yeah, it’s kind of, it’s kind of the overall gist.

Seyla (19:18):

Yep. So Collins, do you also own the brick town management property management company? Do you use, do you actually doing in-house or property management or your for PAX Avenue as well?

Collin (19:29):

Yeah, so what I manage is our local Omaha properties. We do have one which is managed by a third party, but all the properties and Omaha excluding that one, I do the management on that’s, the day-to-day collecting rent, that’s maintenance calls. We have a maintenance team. We have a leasing office, have an in-house bookkeeper office manager, somebody answering our phones, etc., the properties and Sioux Falls and Kansas City. We have a third party property management, which we communicate with them heavily. And Chris does a great job of this, but really, truly doing, being the asset manager of them, because Chris has seen kind of how I operate. I kind of understand the property management side. So we still have kind of like an overlay role, but we don’t actually have individuals out there in Sioux Falls, Kansas city, just locally in our area.

Aileen (20:20):

So can you give us some, some advice on how do you manage, or how do you maintain them communications with the different property managers and making sure that everybody’s on the same page.

Chris (20:31):

I think you have to know what to expect first. You have to understand what you’re looking for. And I think that our experience has allowed us to do that. There was a time where that wasn’t the case, right? But I mean, if my first purchase to do a syndication was me owning an apartment four hours away. I may not know what I’m looking for. Luckily we stayed there, started and build up our business here in Omaha. So first off, I would say, it’s important that you understand what you’re looking for. And then second, I think that they have to understand what’s going to happen with this. They need to be prepared for those conversations. And it’s not like we warn them ahead of time, but call will tell you, I have no problem with really reaching out a lot. Maybe, maybe that annoying ex-boyfriend too much, a little bit, but I look they’re handling millions of dollars for us. And if they don’t give us answers, we like we pry deeper. And it’s not just because we care, but we also need to be able to disseminate that information to our investors. And so we obviously set up weekly phone calls. Now we talked to them more than weekly. Believe it or not, which would be perfect. It’s sooner or later, it gets the position where it’s only, but look, and we’re reaching out through texts and email and phone calls because we’re trying to make sure that what we expect is actually taking place. So they know that though. I mean, we engage these property management companies in other markets. We engage them most of the time before we even under contract, because we’re kind of interviewing these different property managers in that area. Now we’re really stuck on a few certain areas. So we have good property managers, those areas, but on top of that, then we’re working with them through the due diligence.

Chris (22:16):

So they see how we are and if they can get through that dating period, then we can marry up when we close on the property. And, and they know that they have a multimillion dollar thing to watch for us. They should not expect anything less of us, but to be really engaged (and hopefully no depressants down the line) notable, hopefully, hopefully I actually have been, let go, a couple of property manager companies. I have, I know you’re joking. I can take that. I’ve heard much worse, the attorney jokes. So I’ll take that one, but I’ve had to let them go before, because it’s like, this is not property management is not easy. Nobody’s says it’s easy. And if they tell you it’s easy, then they’re not doing it right. There’s something wrong, but there’s a, you can judge a property manager or perhaps even a person with which, with how they handle the setbacks and the stress. And if they say, well, yeah, it’s just, it’s September, summer’s over with. So we probably won’t fill the vacancies until next summer. I mean, not that they would ever say something like that, but if they’re okay with that, if they don’t have an answer of how to fix that, it’s time to find somebody new. So we’ve had to let them go. We’ve had to divorce a property management company before.

Collin (23:33):

Oh, sorry. I was just going to say yeah, I think on the onset, it’s also important to, besides just the dating period and for them to get used to, or your personality and kind of what the communication is going to be looking is for them to really understand what the goal of the project is. This is a value add project. We are going to treat our customers. Well, we are going to increase our ads. We are going to improve the properties. And we were going to do it in this certain time period. So that there’s no if ands or buts, because a third-party property manager and maybe the property manager person, isn’t going to look to go do a burst strategy or a syndication. So their first thought isn’t like, well, the goal is to get it to this so that they can refinance their capital out in two years, you have to tell them that you have to make sure that it’s very clear. This is the expectation, because this is what’s at stake.

Aileen (24:29):

Definitely makes sense. So, so far since you’ve been building up your business, what has been the most difficult, challenge for you with scaling up your business?

Chris (24:37):

The tasks I’d say, just figuring out and look as we grow, we’re getting spread more and more thin if you will. So we hired somebody new, we hired a gentleman named Nick Bruin. Who’s been extremely helpful for us? And when it comes to being type and really, really wanting to control how things are going, it’s a big step to then partner with somebody. And that’s what Collin and I took a while to get through, but it it’s worked out great. It’s another big step then to hire somebody who, you know, even less than you did each other and expect them to succeed. And so that’s been the biggest step is just really learning the systems through which we scale. But because as concept earlier, we’re not afraid to talk at all hours of the day or whatever we have found time to make that happen a lot faster than maybe others would be able to, but I’d say my biggest hurdle and all that. Colin’s big on his, but I’d say mine is certainly the ability to delegate and make sure it’s getting done correctly.

Collin (25:34):

I just think when you, when you first get into real estate, and this was something I was incredibly naive to, I thought that a hundred units would maybe be if you had a hundred single family phone homes and maybe be a hundred times harder than just one unit. But the thing is, if you’re really trying to scale a business, it almost becomes exponential on the tasks that occur. We need somebody to market. We need to be on social media. We need to raise capital. We need to set up new bank accounts. So these, these things, aren’t just as simple as going to a residence, home, collecting rent, and depositing it, there becomes numerous tasks, steps stacked on top of that, setting up different utilities, being in multiple areas where I think that has become, it’s become easier now that we’re hiring staff. But I could say at the beginning, that was one of the biggest hurdles was answering the phone, talking to the bankers. And I think when Chris and I had the same tasks that were overlapping and didn’t utilize each other for our best strengths, because we were both doing everything. So that made it multiply. So yes, having staff is having good staff is huge. And having them be empowered if you are, if you micromanage a staff, you’re going to get all that you can give. And if you don’t have a lot of time to give, that’s all you’re going to get. So it really finding quality people that can help you and that understand the business and see the vision.

Seyla (27:05):

So Chris and Collins, You now control over four $40 million of asset. What is next for you guys?

Chris (27:12):

60 and then 75 and then a hundred. And it looked for ways to grow, but not only grow, give back. And I sincerely mean that. I mentioned earlier, we started a hard money lending company. It’s correct to say that we’re not losing money on that. That’s correct, but I’ll be honest. I have utilized personal and formal loans in my process of growth. Colin has done that and we understand the business and I sincerely do stand behind how much that availability can help real estate investors grow. So I wouldn’t say we’re giving back, but we’re certainly very transparent in that and willing to think outside of the box, we’re not just looking at multi-family, we’re now doing something like that. We do want to continue to get bigger, bigger on multifamily, grow the property management company. And when I say giving back, I think calling it a good job here, even throughout COVID of like giving out coupons or putting tenants in touch with people of how to get through these times. And those are really not all probably managed companies do that. So I mean that the food drive put, put on last year, a lot of money in food raise, and these are the things that, you know, with great. What’s the saying with great responsibility comes great reward on it. Maybe that’s what I was trying to say.

Aileen (28:25):

Great power comes great responsibility.

Chris (28:27):

Yeah, sure. I’ll do that. Yeah, because yeah, I mean, look, I mean, as we grow, we’re doing well and we want to continue to do better, but it’s important to also give back as well.

Collin (28:36):

Yeah, we are. I mean, I have to say that we are incredibly lucky. We may be hardworking. We may be dedicated, but just to be in the positions that we’re in so that we can kind of do some of those things. I think it’s important to, to capitalize on those and just to, if we can help other people, we needed help and we got started and we’ve needed help at some points in our life and our career and having those opportunities to do that. I think it’s kind of what this business is all about being an entrepreneur.

Chris (29:05):

Yeah. Like to give you an example of that, I guess we didn’t even mention, we also coach students, so sure. There’s a financial aspect of that, but there’s much more money to be made in the syndication and investment realm than there is in coaching. I sincerely stand behind the fact that if you can find a coach, if you can find someone who’s going to help you through this, basically teach you what they’ve done. I think it’s, if you want to accelerate your business and that’s the way to go. And that’s something that both of us too, because we benefited from coaches and we understand how important that is for people who would have benefited. If we would’ve started, I wish to the 2013, I was in 2008 when I read that book and put it down and didn’t pick it up for five more years, I wish I would have had a coach. I would be in such a different part of my life right now.

Seyla (29:54):

It’s amazing that you guys think about the power of give back and you guys are doing the food drives and everything and helping to attend and just helping the community out there. So it’s amazing that you guys are doing that. So how has real estate investing impact your lives?

Chris (30:10):

I mean, for me on the, on the attorney side. So as a family law attorney, it ebbs and flows depending upon what time of the year it is. There was a part during early on March to June March to July during the early parts of COVID, where we slowed down a lot. And I had, I knew of people in the attorney community that were, you know, relatively hurting because business has slowed down so much on, I’m happy to say that I didn’t necessarily have to worry about that because I had passive income and that’s not to toot my horn or to brag about anything. It’s to actually put into exercise and apply the concept of passive income and making money while you sleep, or if the economy goes down or if your job gets slower. So I’ve certainly benefited that just recently, for sure. And then also just the people I’ve met, just, okay, so just this last week, we, we ended up sending out distributions to our investors and it was certainly good. They should have expected distributions. We told them that we would do it, but just doing it felt amazing. And the phone calls calling and I got afterwards, because this is a, for us, this is just for one of the certain projects. And it was the first distribution we sent out and they’re already ready to invest in the next one. Many of them are extremely happy that they didn’t really think about that money hitting their bank account. I had a family member who I gave a distribution to a few months ago who called me and said, I think you made a mistake. This is too much money. And I said, no, that’s surely how the property’s performing. And that is such a rewarding thing because not only do we get to stand behind what we said we do, but it’s great to see them benefit from this. And then it’s like, see, I told you real estate to where it’s at. I wish you would just believe me. I wish every real estate is the way to go. So that’s one of the biggest pros if you will, in my life, is being able to positively affect other people’s financial situations.

Collin (32:11):

For me, I think I’ve met some of the best people I’ve ever met in the past four years, Chris, other partners, and just individuals in this industry, it takes something to be successful as an entrepreneur and to be in real estate, to be in businesses. And it is just, it’s just opened my eyes to just kind of this there’s a better world of people. If you grow up in a small town, you’re around X amount of people. Now you come out into the big world and you’re actually having conversations with people from all over the country, possibly all over the world. Some of them are professional athletes, big businessman, and just all around great people. So I think that is it’s it people. So that has been one of the, that’s been one of the best things on a personal note. And this was not how it was the first two years. First two years, basically it was nose to the grindstone, no days off, no vacations. So you’re getting into this. It’s very, very difficult at first. And it’s just a lot of work if you’re going in on the active side. But now I have some freedoms for past two months. I’ve been able to take long weekends with the family. I’m still working, still getting on phone calls, but to have that flexibility, to not be stuck to a cubicle, to not be stuck to a boss, that’s looking at what time I punch out and you know, what report is done when it’s great. So that, that freedom and just the people it’s, it’s been life-changing,

Seyla (33:34):

That’s amazing. So what is one thing that you know now about real estate that you wish you knew when you first started?

Aileen (33:42):

Other than the coach.

Chris (33:44):

I mean, I was about to say something like that, but take a kid, take the coach away. It doesn’t have to be a formal coach, but don’t try to learn it all yourself. Yes. That could certainly that that thought process could lead you to a coach, but it doesn’t have to ask your agent about the market rents instead of hopping on a rental meter, every pronounced it and thinking that that’s the way to go or only trusting the preform put out by the seller’s agent, which obviously you shouldn’t do, but surround yourself with people who know more about this situation than you. And yes, a coach is certainly one route, but even if you don’t do a coach, find a partner, Collin and I have good friends now who reached out to us through bigger pockets or LinkedIn or [Inaudible] a meetup 1700 member meetup in Omaha for real estate. And which has stayed active even through COVID on zoom and even a couple in persons recently, but we have good friends who have partnered with us on multiple deals who not only are friends who not only like what the project is going to bring, but also they want to learn how to become active as well. So as part of the process, they’re being passive, but they’re soaking up what they’re learning. And there’s no doubt in my mind someday they’ll branch off and do something active themselves. And that’s a good way to do it. They didn’t pay for a formal coach. They did put their money, money into a deal, but they surround themselves with people who knew more than they did. I think that I wish I would have done it earlier. Now. I learned a lot and I listened to every podcast ever recorded ever. And I listened to every book ever, but then there’s that analysis paralysis thing going on there. And I wish I would have partnered with somebody sooner. Yeah.

Collin (35:27):

Yeah. Chris pretty much nailed them all network and ask lots of questions. You, I think there’s always a fear of asking a question and I guess that’s from like the, the high school college days where you raise your hand and everybody knows the answer and you were half asleep for the first asset class. So you don’t know the answer, but real estate has so many different complexities that nobody knows all the answers. There’s not one person out there that knows all the answers. So just, I guess, being humble in that fact that you’re not going to know everything. And even if people think you should know it, you still might not know it. So it’s okay to ask those questions and start a discussion because real estate is a very creative and dynamic and fluid to just business. So what is an Apple to one person is an orange to another based on how, what they can do with that product, what they can do with the real estate, what they can do with the financing, what they can do with creative partnerships. So just, just ask lots of questions and yeah. Have an open mind to creative decision-making.

Chris (36:31):

I would say one more, actually, don’t be afraid to give up a little bit of your usually financial returns in exchange for spreading the wealth and most likely learning to the process Collin and I have taken in partners, whether as a coach, GP, and, or just partners that maybe brought the deal and we’ll give them a large chunk of the deal, which would perhaps one outside person seem as though it’s a little too much, but not only do we see a benefit in what we’re doing, because they have something to offer on whether their construction background or they’re the ones that found the deal, but spreading the wealth is huge. And you build those relationships. And I know in my opinion, some syndicators or investors who are always thinking about owning it themselves, or, Oh my gosh, I would only make 75% of the overall profit as instead of a hundred. And I think we’ve been able to grow so quickly. That’s 46 million over three years and knock on wood. You’re not supposed to say it, but we’re thinking in the sixties, by the end of this year in three and a half years, 60 million, there’s no way of calling her. And I do that. If we only listen to podcast, we never asked any questions and we never took on any partners. And I think taking on partners is huge.

Collin (37:44):

Yeah. Giving up what, I can’t remember the saying, but I know that the end part of it is hogs. Get slaughtered. If you’re trying to be greedy in this business and coming from a scarcity mind-set versus an abundance mind-set, you’re you, you made you okay. And you may get some things, but I mean, Chris and me, I mean, there’s been times where we’ve gone back and forth on deals. I brought him in, he’s brought me in where if we were just too just like, okay, and we’re taking this for our own. We would, it would be, I mean, unsurmountable, how much less we would have done, because it’s like, okay, you need to give up something to get something. And if you find the right people to do that with it is 90% of the time going to come back in your favour.

Seyla (38:31):

Thank you so much. So what tools or techniques have you used to improve the efficiency of your business or personal lives?

Collin (38:39):

So for the property management side, I use software called Buildium. It’s a basic property management software. So we collect rent payments automatically set up leases, tenant, communication, etc. We use Google voice for our property management hotline. So yeah, those have been two of the, two of the items that we use.

Chris (39:00):

I mean, Google sheets is, it isn’t really that special. Everyone knows about that, but maybe sometimes people don’t, sometimes people are exchanging Microsoft Excel documents, and they’re always worried about who saved it last. I know that’s kind of many people don’t understand Google sheets, but believe it or not, when you start spreading out this number of partners and whatnot, I think just finding one location, just to share something like that with these shared drives, if you will, I don’t know. Google sheets.

Collin (39:25):

Yeah. Paperwork and documents can get lost really quickly. It’s it grows very fast. So yeah. Having one central location or even better, he was talking about me sending the Excel sheets, having a partner that knows do you use the Google sheets and saves everything? Because I have no clue where exactly. So that’s another benefit of a great partner.

Aileen (39:49):

That’s the best way to go, right. Well, thank you so much for sharing and we love that you guys have started your coaching business and then also your private lending. And so if our listeners wanted to find out more about you guys, your company, you’re coaching, where can they go?

Chris (40:05):

For me, Chris Palmer Lu on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or park app capital on, we have a Facebook page. We have a LinkedIn page for park app capital, its Park Avenue, investing.com. That’s the website parkappinvesting.com. You can also find us that liquidlendingsolutions.com for coaching its mentorwithChris.com. And we also offer a free report. We do stand behind the importance of partners. There’s no way it would be here without that. And so we offer a just report to kind of look over when you’re trying to choose a partner. What are some questions? What are some things you should look at? And that’s partneringchecklist.com. Other than that call-in I mean, go ahead.

Collin (40:47):

Yeah. I mean, same places. So LinkedIn College boards, Facebook college boards, Instagram. Yeah. Just all those areas feel free to reach out. I’m usually looking through lots of those platforms and always wanting to have a good conversation with somebody and talk real estate.

Aileen (41:02):

Awesome. Thank you so much. It was real pleasure having both of you on today.

Chris (41:06):

Thank you very much. Thanks for having us.

Collin (41:08):

Yes. Thank you so much.