Aileen (00:01):

Welcome everyone to today’s episode of the, How Did They Do It Real Estate podcasts. We are your hosts Seyla and Aileen and today’s guests. We have Garrett Lynch. Garrett is a director of acquisitions at Nighthawk equity, where he manages all sourcing, underwriting, due diligence and closing processes. He has been in the multi-family investment industry since 2011 and in 2013, he co-founded a firm that grew from zero to 3,400 units and a management company with 125 employees. He successfully exited that venture and teamed up with hot equity. Thank you so much for joining us today, Garrett. How you are doing?

Garrett Lynch (00:33):

I’m doing great. Thanks for so much for having me.

Aileen (00:35):

Thank you so much. So we’d like to get started. If you could share a little bit more by your background and just how you got started in real estate.

Garrett Lynch (00:44):

Yeah. So I was, I’m actually kind of like, I had, I came from kind of a sales background. I was always like somewhat entrepreneurial. I think the closest thing to being an entrepreneur is probably being a commission only sales person. So through college, I was putting my way through paying my way through college selling knives. I sold Cutco knives and I did that for about five years. And so I kind of had a re I had a really good foundation built in the business world, just from that. I mean, learning how to sell is a big component of anything that you do, but definitely in the business world. And so I kind of, I went from there into actually nightlife in Chicago. And so that was a weird pivot. But after college, I was like, I’m going to go and do this VIP thing in the nightlife and basically find customers to come into the nightclubs I was managing and selling them experiences is kind of what I was doing.

Garrett Lynch (01:46):

And so in that process, I met someone that was spending a lot of money with me and we became friends and I asked him what he did. And he was like, well, I do real estate. I own, you know, 150 houses in Indiana. And I was like, wow, 150 houses. That’s crazy. How do you do that? So I was like interested right away into, into what he was doing. And so long story short, we became close enough where I convinced him to have me come work with him and understand the business that he was doing. And so I started working with him and then I started to just re work really hard and get some in, we were wholesaling deals in the South side of Chicago essentially is kind of the venture we were on. So I found some investors, one big one out of Canada and a few others.

Garrett Lynch (02:33):

And we just kind of took that for a ride. And then we found out that there was this guy that was doing like larger apartment complexes. And then we figured out a way to go work for this guy. And so we went and worked at this guy who was doing hit about a thousand apartments. And when we got in there, we’re like, Oh, I see, you know, we worked there for, I was there for six months. He was there for a year and we’re like, we could do this. Like, we have all the resources available to us to try to, you know, syndicate deals. So there was a period of like right around, I don’t know, we were still working for this guy. And then we got, I got involved in a Ponzi scheme and I like lost like all my money.

Garrett Lynch (03:17):

And it was like a weird moment. And I remember sitting there losing all my money and be like, what do we do now? We’re like, well, we got to start this company now. So that was in 2013. And we just started that company, like that day, we just start open an LLC and we’re like, let’s search some deals and try to buy them. And fast forward three and a half years who had 3,400 apartments in 10 markets and we managed to self-manage all of it. So we found a good equity source and just kind of took for a ride. And then that was, that’s kind of how I got into it.

Aileen (03:56):

So how did you start sourcing the deals? And then how are you being able to find those deals?

Garrett Lynch (04:05):

Yeah, so, I mean, it’s, for me, it’s just, it’s most, mostly about consistency and building relationships. So there’s not really too many shortcuts. You just have to be consistent with looking at and underwriting a lot of deals. It’s like a funnel like anything. So you’re going to see a lot of deals. You’ve got to know how to find them. Well, you could check all the brokers’ websites to get deals off those. You can call the brokers yourself. Hey, is there anything that’s I’m not seeing that’s maybe not on your website that I could take a look at where we’re serious. We want to make an offer on something, get them to send you off market deals that way. And you know, you can always try to go a little bit deeper and build relationships with owners and stuff like that, too.

Garrett Lynch (04:54):

I like the brokers. I like to have the brokers just work that, so I’ll pay the broker fee to have them work. Those channels. It’s just a lot of time spent. So for me, it’s, it’s really just doing it through brokers, but under it, but understanding the value of the relationships. And then when you, when you build a track record, eventually you want to make sure that that track record is amazing, so that, so that you’re on their short list. And so that’s what I, my focus now is to be the, on all their shortlist. So every time that there is a deal, we transact, I try to do it as quickly and easily as possible. Every time we just closed the deal on Monday 24 and a half or 24.9 million purchase price, we raised 11.6 million for that deal. And we did it in 45 days and we did it flawlessly.

Garrett Lynch (05:46):

So we had no hiccups in the process to just be lined it to the finish. I had third parties on site while we were under LOI, not even under contract to speed up the process, that kind of thing sends, you know, ripples through the broker community. So the, so the brokers get word of that. And like, all these guys are like the silver bullet buyers. Now we want to go with them. And so you start seeing more deals. So that’s another way to find deals, but that’s, if you, if you haven’t done a deal yet, it’s a little bit more challenging in this environment is you need to have a track record. If you don’t have a track record, you need to partner with someone else that has one and then go about it that way.

Seyla (06:28):

So when did you first started in 2011, you mentioned that you went to work with your friend that you met what after Dan’s or what happened after then? What was the best way to get into the business and learn the business itself?

Garrett Lynch (06:46):

Well, I mean, you got to take an ego check, but I went and I worked for somebody then that was already in it. And I learned the business that way while I was getting paid. So I, it was only six months, but the amount of knowledge that I gained in that six month period was astronomical and not everybody’s going to have that kind of an opportunity. But the point is that you need to get educated somewhere and, and just start trying stuff. I mean, don’t fear the failure, get in, and get aligned with somebody that’s doing it by a mentorship program that works. It’s not, you know, just some scam and then, you know, get going on. It, get educated as quickly as possible. So that’s how I got kind of a fast track into being educated by having a mentor and then working for someone that was already in it.

Aileen (07:39):

And so within the three and a half years, you were able to scale from zero to 3,400, that’s quite a feat. And so how are you guys able to find the investors and source all the deals that were coming in? Yeah.

Garrett Lynch (07:53):

So with that venture, we got pretty lucky because we found somebody that was like, basically had all the ambassadors and she was just like, I’m just going to write you a check every time. So we had, you know, anywhere from three to $6 million that we could just literally make a phone call and get as long as the guy liked the deal. And that was pretty unique. You don’t find that a lot. And so that was, we just kind of got lucky with that. It’s different now. So at that time, you know, we knew we had the equity, so it was like, let’s just find as many deals as we can and, and buy him. Right. And then let’s, let’s work on work that pipeline. And so once, once we knew we had the equity side, it was easier. Now, it’s more challenging because, you know, you have to, you have to syndicate and attract investors into your pie. We’re doing it now. I don’t have that luxury that we had then, but I’m partnered with Michael Blanca who has a really big presence in general in our industry. And so he’s been able to attract a lot of investors through his podcast and his content, and then we kind of round them up and get him into some great investments that are really going to help them moving forward. And so that’s kind of how we do it now.

Seyla (09:15):

So from zeros to 3,400 units, that as I mentioned earlier, that’s really fast in three and a half years. And you find all these deals pretty quickly is and how, how, how is your underwriting process what are you looking for that actually make all this still work for you and your company?

Garrett Lynch (09:36):

Yeah. So I think one of the biggest skills that you can acquire, if you’re, especially if you’re newer, like starting out the gate is to be able to underwrite really well, because if you think about it, you, you and I may look at an OEM, it’s an offering memorandum. We might look at the same one. And if you don’t know how to underwrite well, or if let’s say, I don’t know how to underwrite well, and you’re on, you’re amazing genius at it. Okay. I may not see a deal and you guys see the deal because two numbers in your underwriting model were different than mine. Now it’s a deal to you and it’s not to me. So that’s kind of transparency is, is something that if you’re waiting on people, like sometimes you need to move fast and you need to get through deals quickly.

Garrett Lynch (10:23):

And it’s, it’s kind of an art form in a way, because you have to include enough padding where it makes sense to do the deal, but not too much where it doesn’t. And so you, if you get really good at that, I think that’s a great first step into getting involved, because then you can find deals and add value to other people. And you know, I think that that was as far as specific things that we’re looking for. I mean, we’re just trying to get an equity multiple similar to 1.8 to two times between a five to seven year period is kind of what our target is and where our investors, that’s what they care about the most. I think if they’re looking at one metric, its right. If I give you a hundred thousand, what does it turn into in five years? Well, the equity multiples an easy way to gauge that.

Garrett Lynch (11:13):

And so I think that 15% IRR 8% cash on cash. I mean, that’s kind of where we’re at now before, before we honestly, like, you’re so stupid, we didn’t do any of that. We just bought, we just knew that if we bought somewhere between 20 and 30,000 a door and 20 and 35,000 a door, that we’d probably make money. That’s how stupid we were. The first 3,400 units. There was no real plan. It was just like, let’s buy a deal. That’s cheap. And I think we think it’ll make money. And now that doesn’t work now at all, it worked then in 2013, 2014, it was working fine because you’re just going up, you know, now you’ve got to be careful. And so definitely more meticulous.

Aileen (11:56):

So as you’re building up your 3,400 units, which deal was the most difficult, and what was the biggest challenges that you had to face?

Garrett Lynch (12:06):

And the most difficult deal was it was a 380 unit deal. So we’d gone from doing South side properties, portfolios of South side properties in Chicago. They’re terrible declassee deals. And then we started to branch out and do a few C class deals on the suburbs. We had a 54 unit, a 72 unit and a 32 unit, whatever. Then we’re like, well, there’s this other deal in Memphis? And it was definitely a declassee deal, but I don’t think we realized that at the time. And it was about the same price as like a hundred unit in Chicago. And we’re like, let’s just buy this 380 unit deal. We bought that deal. And that one was just like had gang violence. There are shootings all the time. Someone on one side of Congress should shoot someone on the other side. And like we had 30 people move out every month and like 30 in every month.

Garrett Lynch (12:58):

So it was like a constant churn. And it was insane. Like if you didn’t lease up two months, you would drop your occupancy by a ton every month. So it was just a ton of risk in that deal in general, very, very challenging property. And plus we had all the crime, so I had to figure out a way to clean up all that crime. And that was just being like progressive on a lot of stuff. We put a curfew in, put a fence around the property. When there was a shooting we used to we used to go in and basically storm the place with a militia.

Garrett Lynch (13:36):

So yeah, we had this militia that we hired because there’s the cops at the time, there were only like 1500 cops in Memphis. They’re supposed to be 5,000 and you call nine one. And there were literally, it would go to a voicemail and you’re like, I just called nine one how’s this going to voicemail. So the only way we could protect this property is we hired like ex cops that were, they had nothing going on because they lost their jobs. And they were like our militia. They had like shotguns, they walked around that property. They were like scary looking. They looked like military pretty much. And so if there was a shooting, I would send a bunch of those guys in to go and arrest the person or whatever, get it you know, boarded up. And we would do a 30 minute eviction, or we just get them out in literally 30 minutes.

Garrett Lynch (14:22):

Totally not legal to do that. But our risk of the shooting affecting the property in a negative way was so much worse than anything that we would have going on with regards to that. So we just kicked them out and they never did anything. And then pretty soon we did like three of those, every time there’s a shooting, we’d go in like busting at like five in the morning with a bunch of shotgun guys with shotguns. And they knew we weren’t messing around. After that it was like, all right, we don’t mess around on this property anymore. So all those thugs and gang members, they all left, they cleaned up. And then we got the occupancy from like 75% up to like 92%, but it had to clean up first. We couldn’t get there without that. So that was probably the most challenging deal.

Aileen (15:09):

And how long did it take you to turn around that? That apartment unit

Garrett Lynch (15:14):

Took about a year, about 12 months to get all the, everything cleaned up the right way. And there’s still challenges with that one, but like people, we had a big bedbug problem there. They had like 50 apartments with bedbugs. I can’t spend $1,200 per unit to treat bedbugs like that. So it was unfortunate because people would like throw out a mattress at bedbugs and someone else would come grab it and throw it in their place, not knowing. And then they would get bedbugs. So just to see a free mattress by the dumpster. Well, there’s probably a reason they didn’t think that.

Seyla (15:47):

So from that apartment’s lessons I would assume that you now, including that intuitive due diligence checklist, as well as when you acquire them,

Garrett Lynch (15:57):

Oh, I don’t even buy crap like that anymore, man. I will never buy another deal like that in my life. That, that was just, that was the old days when I didn’t know what I was doing as much. And so it’s we made money on it. It still worked out, but it was just made the phones ring. I don’t buy properties anymore that make the phones ring. So that’s, that’s a rule now it’s going to make my phone, my life more hectic because it’s got a bunch of problems going on. I don’t want it.

Seyla (16:28):

So will you be able to share some of the due diligence checklist that you use to vibrate or days new deal that’s coming in on your desk and making sure that those are not the deal that make the phone rings?

Garrett Lynch (16:44):

Yeah, so it kind of it all starts kind of with the, you know, so you get an O M and then you got to go into the details on that specific market. So typically, you know, I know the market already, so I’ve kind of, we have like a bubble that we kind of stay within in the Southeast. So we’re in Memphis, little rock Huntsville and then Atlanta right now. And so I’m just trying to really build around that. Not so much on the West side, I don’t know about Memphis and little rock as much. I like Atlanta, Huntsville, and the Carolina’s a little bit more. So I’m focusing more on that, but trying to buy properties that are buyer other ones, or, you know, you get an OEM and it’s an area that, you know, that, that helps. Obviously if you don’t know which more likely that you don’t know what’s going on now, you have to go into the research.

Garrett Lynch (17:37):

You, you’re initial underwriting, see if, and see, if you add like a general rent bump, like let’s say a hundred bucks. If it pencils out, you can do that in like 15 minutes. So if your plan is to go and renovate units and get a hundred dollar rent bond on that, just pencil that out, see if it works, if it works or it’s close, then you got to go a little bit more into proving that out. So, okay. What is the median income in this specific area? So like, you got to look at that to see if you bumped around how many people can actually afford to pay the rent. In that, in that specific vicinity, look at the crime, is the crime going up or down? Look at the rent growth, look at you know, the job growth. I think that that’s, you got to look at all these factors in your, and go into the sub market.

Garrett Lynch (18:27):

It’s a lot of cities, especially if you don’t know them, they have good pockets and bad pockets. You want to make sure you’re not in a bad pocket. So our plan now is just to buy location. So we buy really well located properties, but maybe there’s some kind of value I’d play on the property. So like we paid 166,000 a unit for our deal that we closed on Monday, but it’s a really well located asset unique in that it’s like right next to the highway. And it’s, it’s very close to a lot of major entertainment places, and it’s just got great access to jobs and all that stuff. And so that location, or that can’t be beat, and then there’s the value I can punch to the property. And so paired to all the other comps is actually priced pretty well. And we projected it out. We’re going to hold it for like seven years and then do a supplemental refi in your three to give investors back their money. So that’s, it’s kind of things have shifted. I mean, we’re doing a lot more, sorry about that noise. You turn that off. Yeah, so, so basically we’re just looking at more of a location-based it just keeps the phones from ringing a lot. If you’re, if you’re going into markets where you got just a lower-class and there’s always a play, I think you can make money in any market, but it’s a lot easier if you have a tailwind behind the market that you’re picking and a tail, a tailwind in the sub market. So that’s a little bit how things have changed.

Seyla (20:02):

Thank you for showing that. I’m going to ask a little bit about the closing process. How long do you usually take to close an apartment buildings? Do you do your due diligence and getting ready to close it?

Garrett Lynch (20:20):

I mean, so you’re our process not recently is we’re trying to get a competitive advantage in the market. So we’re doing a 45 day close. So it’s literally just like, you’re like, you’re just going all out. It’s like a sprint for 45 days. So, you know, I’ll put up a deal on our contract with a 60 day contract, one extension, and then I’ll close it in 45 and everybody’s shocked because I set the expectation at a different level. And then I over achieved the goal of getting it done quick, but you just have to really know the process well. And so I think getting a lender on track with you ahead of time and understanding that their process and how they work, and what’s going to potentially be an issue with them. And just being able to kind of understand them is very helpful.

Garrett Lynch (21:12):

If you think about it, you know, they’re taking up 70 to 80% of your capital stack. And so you need to make sure you understand what they’re, what they want and what they’re going to be able to do for you. So this one was, I worked the first time with this lender and we closed the first deal in 47 days. And there’s the first deal he did this year in July. And then it went so smoothly. I was like, let’s, I know exactly your process. Let’s just do it again. I found another deal. Let’s try it one more time. And so I think that’s a really good way to kind of speed up your closing is to get them on board. Because it really, a lot of the downtime is dictated by them. The two things are going to take maybe the most time or maybe the capital raise depending on how big it is and rounding all that up and then the lender.

Garrett Lynch (22:01):

And so if you can time all that up, like we had a capital raise this year, that what we did in 24 hours, it was done 8 million bucks in the bank. That was great. This last one took a little bit longer. It took 15 days to get it done. The outside market forces sometimes dictate that you know, it takes a little bit longer. You got to work a little bit harder, so you don’t always know that, but if you can get those things cranking and you understand the process on those two things, I think it’s really speeds everything up.

Aileen (22:30):

Can you share a little bit about what are the lenders looking for specifically? Like maybe if they’re there to talk to things that they’re looking at,

Garrett Lynch (22:39):

They’re looking at the, obviously right now, because of like COVID and everything they want to, they’re looking at collections with like a microscope. So our proceeds actually went up because the seller’s collections went up. So even a couple thousand dollars on the T 12, like you have to really pay attention to in that 45 to 60 days where your collections are and what they’re, what they’re giving to you. So one thing I don’t know that people always do is they have to kind of coat. You have to kind of coach the seller as to what you need along the way. That’s what I did in this last time. I’m like, I need this. Can you can you give me this? Can you make sure collections are here? So if you know that over here and you’re like, listen, I know you know exactly what my lender wants as far as collections.

Garrett Lynch (23:28):

And then you convey that over to the seller. They’ll be able to, if they can produce it, they will, you guys get on the same page and then things go a lot easier, a lot faster. And so I think collections is the biggest thing that they’re looking at right now. And then you know, the net worth liquidity of the sponsor is always a thing as well. Of course, you know, that’s always, typically, it’s 10% liquidity of the loan size. So if it’s a $20 million loan, you need to have 2 million liquid. And then right now it’s a little, it’s not quite a hundred percent of the loan size. I think it’s less not depending on what loan you’re doing. But it can be a hundred percent. So you need to have a 20 million net worth on that. And then, and then too many liquid, but yeah, most relevant to what’s happening now, I’d say is definitely the, that collection data.

Garrett Lynch (24:21):

And then they’re just watching it like a Hawk on the expense side as well, like in like delinquencies and stuff like that. We’re in a time right now where unfortunately, you know, people are cautious because of the delinquency that is around the corner that’s already happened. And, you know, you have in your, any businesses, each apartment complex, you have evictions. Like they come up and to not be able to get those people out, unless you’re creative, you know, it starts to add up, especially accelerate that with the pandemic and people losing their jobs, you know, it can be a real problem. So

Aileen (24:57):

Thank you for sharing. So after the 3,400 units that you co-founded with your friend how did you make that transition from that joint venture to I’m working with Nighthawk equity today?

Garrett Lynch (25:09):

Partnership blew up was just a straight up, like we just got in a huge fight and it was over. So, so it was, it didn’t end well. And after that I learned, I was just like, I didn’t know what I want to do because I hated everything. I hated everything about, you know, a couple of about a year. I was just like, I don’t know. I don’t even want to look at real estate. I don’t want to look at partners. I don’t want to do any of this stuff. So I got, luckily I got to travel, you know, I, it was like, I went the week. It was really weird. It was like, I went from having like 200 emails a day and it’s like thriving business to like lights out, no emails and fighting for my life. And so it was a weird, a weird time.

Garrett Lynch (26:03):

And then it ended up working out. I got bought out of the company, but then I did, and then I had a bunch of cash and I didn’t know what to do. I was like, okay, well now what and so I had to kind of figure out back in, I had to build up enough confidence to get back into the game. And it just kept like, resonate with me. Like, you know, I just built up all this experience as so much experience, be such a shame to put that all to waste. And so I had to figure out an in, I needed to, I needed to find partners. So I reached out to Mike, well, the Michael blank program. And I was like, Hey, I can set up a call to like coaching call down. And I talked to my now partner drew Knifing, and they’re like, Hey, do you want to, you know, get coaching with us?

Garrett Lynch (26:51):

I’m like, I don’t think any coaching, but I brought you guys a deal. Would you do it with me? And they were like, yeah, sure. So I did brought him a deal. We went on a contract on it and it was a 545 unit deal for bow, no Paso. And I was like, let’s do this deal. And then we worked as I’m like, man, I’m finally back in, this is great. First deal back. This is going to set me back up and we’re going to, you know, start in certain things off. Right. Well, lot of things went wrong. It’s too many to name, but I mean, I think we launched the deal, like literally like a day before Christmas, like it was just, everything was just not what you want to do. And we chased that one for about a year and then ended up losing it and losing all of our risk capital and getting smoked.

Garrett Lynch (27:40):

And so I wasn’t back, I guess in that process, we built a really good relationship and we weren’t mad at each other. You don’t want to kill each other. So we were like, well, let’s try to do another one. And then right before that one tanked, we had a student bring us a different deal, you know, doing it. And then we closed that deal, lost the other one, close this one, then closed another one December last year. And then we just close two more this year as a partnership. And so now it’s just us three partners and its going great. It’s now, now we’re in, like, this is a really good spot where we can start to scale efficiently. We have some really good people up top that we’ve hired in. And so it’s pretty exciting, but it was an evolution. It was definitely a lot of pain, a lot of pressure. And it was just everything, every kind of emotion you just got it. We just stayed persistent with it. And now we’re in a pretty good spot.

Aileen (28:37):

And so during the, all the ups and downs of this entire process, how are you able to continuously pick yourself up and just continuing to take one step forward at the time?

Garrett Lynch (28:49):

Yeah, it’s a good question. Actually. I think like, I think you just kind of like I don’t know, you know, that it’s like, I don’t know, Elon Musk says this like kind of famous line. It’s like staring into the abyss and eating glass. That’s kind of what entrepreneurship is like, where you don’t know what the outcome is actually going to be. And it’s painful a lot of times along the way. And you’re just like hoping that things work out and you just keep putting one foot in front of the other and things are going to go downwards. And I think a lot of it is just having the mind-set that this I’m learning something from this failure consistently, there is something I learned here that I can use in the next attempt and have enough confidence in yourself to be able to use it properly to that pitfall. Next time I have failed so many times, and I know it’s cliché to say that, but it’s just, that’s why that’s what made me to, that’s why I’m here because I kept failing. And I know now when I fail that, it’s it. I’m like, wow, I failed. I learned something so big from that. Let’s just keep going. It’s just becomes a lifestyle and a mind-set. And so that kind of stuff doesn’t phase me anymore. Even big things. There’s always big problems that come up and the people that are most successful in the world, they really just solve the biggest problems. Look at any major, major player, Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or any of these large, really big time entrepreneurs. They solve way bigger problems than any of us. And so that’s why they get paid for that. And I just try to elevate my problems that I’m solving.

Seyla (30:39):

Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And I just want to go back and ask a question about when you exited the venture and were there any lessons that you learned from Dan that you that, that you used in order to not to repeat it again in terms of partnership?

Garrett Lynch (30:59):

Yeah, I think just, you know, being in a position, one of the biggest lessons that I learned is don’t, don’t think that if you’re in a partnership that you can just do a few things and you’re going to be able to maintain that for a long period. Like, like don’t, if you’re like, listen, I’m the deal guy. I find the deals. Okay. But that’s all I do. You’re kind of a one trick pony. And so, you know, obviously there were a lot of things that I did, but I could’ve learned, I could’ve gone deeper probably on that venture where I could have gotten more into the depths of the accounting or this, or the money raising or whatever, you know, we kind of had the partnerships split up, but you need to, you still need to be somewhat well-rounded to add value to the partnership.

Garrett Lynch (31:58):

You can’t just be like, there’s things you need to learn on every level, even if you don’t know them, as deep as your partner, you should understand them. And I think that’s a big takeaway is like, if you, if you have the luxury of being a partner with somebody else on a real estate deal, you should learn every single facet of that business so that, you know it inside and out, there should be no stone left unturned. You should know everything, not from the accounting to the leasing, to the staffing, to everything, that’s your business. You need to know it inside and out know better than anybody. And so if you do that, you have a much better chance of maintaining a long-term relationship. Because if let’s say your partners out, they need someone to cover, you know, how to cover, come in, handle it, you know? And so there are a lot of changes that I made on this go round that I learned from the last one. And I think that’s probably the biggest thing is just to not get, not think that skill is all you should give to the partnership. You need to give a lot more

Aileen (33:03):

You’re continuously adding value to the partnership.

Garrett Lynch (33:06):

Yeah. No, and I, there’s a lot of people that are like, well, you should never do what you’re not good at. Yeah. That’s probably true to some extent, like, there’s things that, but there’s always things you have to do that you’re not good at. We have to learn regardless. Like I could just say I hate accounting. Yeah. I don’t really love accounting, but it’s such a vital part of the business that had to get good at it, how to learn it because it’s what the business needs, the business, your child, you have to be able to take care of that child. And so learning all those, getting good at them, even, maybe you might start to like them. So now that, you know, let’s just say, accounting, you start the good at it. You’re like, Oh, actually, you know what? I kind of like this now. And you may not even like the real estate business as a whole, but if you’re good at it, it’s, you’re going to like it naturally. And so you know, I met people that they they’re like, I don’t really love real estate, but I love the fact that I’m good at it. So you know, just get really good at everything. Learn as much as you can while you’re in it.

Seyla (34:07):

Great advice. Thank you so much. So carrot just want to ask you a couple more questions for closing questions. How has real estate investing impacted your life so far?

Garrett Lynch (34:20):

Well, you know, it’s, I think it’s, it’s been such a great vehicle for me to just expand my thinking. And so, I mean, it’s, I’ve been doing this for 10 years around that. And you know, learning through the ups and downs, I mean, it could have been this way with any business, but I luckily was fortunate enough to find an industry where the larger multifamily that I have an appetite for. It doesn’t require that I be there so I can be, you know, anywhere. So I, you know, everybody wants that remote lifestyle or whatever. I can actually have it if I want. And I kind of do. And I’m, that’s only available really on a bigger multifamily because you can hire a full-time staff to be there, to cover everything for you. I think that that’s been really cool.

Garrett Lynch (35:15):

That was just kind of a by-product of this industry, but I get set, like add a ton of value to these two wealthy people that, that, you know, how these huge companies, they need somewhere to put their money. So I’m like solving problems for people that, you know, think about traditionally, what are you, what do you find? You have somebody come sit down at the dinner table, Hey, these are some, this here’s some life insurance, here’s some stock, and you know, options that you can buy into whatever mutual funds. And so not everybody knows about this kind of asset class and the benefits that it has and how awesome of an investment it can be. Now it’s riskier than some, but it’s also, you know, it, I think it’s less risky compared to some of the other things that exist out there. And so you’re getting it, you have so many good things happening and just real estate in general. And it just changed my thinking about everything and, and everything entrepreneurial. I can go to any entrepreneur and start picking apart their business and understanding what it’s about just because of everything I learned in this business in general. And so I think that’s how it’s pretty much impacted my life.

Seyla (36:27):

Awesome. What is one thing that, you know now about real estate that you wish you knew when you first started? But I know now that I wish I knew

Garrett Lynch (36:36):

Yes. A lot of things I wish I knew to not buy those declassee because I probably lost some years of my life and that whole transition militia. I probably, I probably would’ve started, so I got some great stories, but I definitely got some more gray hairs than stories. So that I think that would probably be something I would be like, hey, just don’t do it. Just go somewhere else, just do something else. I think, you know, I think other than that, I mean, there’s understanding like underwriting maybe, Oh, you know what the other thing is, I would have built out my capital relationships. So like my, or just my personal capital relationships. So going to events, getting to know other people, having a network, I didn’t really build much of a network. I just put my head down at work and it was good.

Garrett Lynch (37:37):

But then I didn’t really have in many relationships built when it was time for me to exit that partnership. And so I had to go kind of start from nothing. And I think if I had other friends or other people operators I knew, or I was tight with, I could have maybe transitioned easier or faster. So I really make a point to build the relational capital now more than ever, just, just because it’s good to do just to build relationships with other people and other operators and stuff like that. So that would be another major thing I would’ve done differently.

Seyla (38:07):

So what is one thing that sets the successful people applied into real estate investing business?

Garrett Lynch (38:14):

The successful people are the full-time people that’s you know, you’ll find that have really just not given up and continue to advance their, they pivot with the market and they don’t they don’t jeopardize their box of thinking around certain things. So they stick to like rules. They’re not just going off swinging the bat at anything. You know, when we buy a deal, there’s a specific box. It has to fit in order for us to do that deal. And if you start to get outside of that’s going to get in trouble. So there’s specific criteria. I hate it has to be this, the size deal. This has to produce these returns. It has to be in this kind of market. You know, those things, when you start to make exceptions or whatever, then you get into trouble.

Garrett Lynch (39:03):

And the really good people don’t do that as much. And I think they understand the value of having a really good team and building a team and always improving upon it. That’s really what you, what you’ll see out there and then nothing beats experience. I mean, just either you have something to partner with that super experienced or you are, and that, you know, I’m 10 years into this, that that really is a lot, I’m only in a much different place than it was five years in like completely dedicated to learning, learning more and more about the industry. And so just takes time patience. There’s no shortcuts, and you can get a lot further ahead if you have a mentor or somebody that you can partner with that knows a lot.

Seyla (39:52):

Thank you for sharing that Garrett. So what tools or techniques have you used to improve the efficiency of your business or personal life?

Garrett Lynch (40:02):

Yeah, so I really, I think focusing on your routine its routines are mundane and they are boring. And if you, if you were to look like I stopped even posting any social media or any of that stuff, because it’s just my life. Isn’t that exciting to be honest, but It’s exciting maybe behind the scenes, but I’m, I’m always grinding and I’m all, I’m always, you know, working, but it gives me a lot of pleasure. And so, you know, so continuing to, you know, better myself in that, in those day-to-day tasks, you know, getting up, making sure you have a ritual a morning routine, getting up super early, going to bed early. And, you know, just staying consistent with that, I think is a huge key to being successful in this business and just in life in general.

Garrett Lynch (41:01):

And then always trying to come up with solutions to don’t just present a problem, think through solutions, if you’re go to somebody or anyone, whether it’s your partners or your friend or whatever it is with a problem, try, I try to be a few steps ahead of that. So, all right, here’s a problem, but I’ve already thought of these solutions, pick one. That’s how I operate. And that’s a way that you can really move the ball forward is if you don’t just come with a problem, but come with the solutions ahead of time and then talk through it and pick one like that. I think that’s been a good way to look at things and it gets stuff done a lot faster.

Aileen (41:43):

Great. Thank you so much. And the friends, there’s one to find out more about you, Garrett, where can they go?

Garrett Lynch (41:49):

Yeah, you can. So you can check me out. So I’m a part of Nighthawk equity. I’m one of the partners there, so you can check us out. I’m actually Michael blanks co-host now on the podcast. So that’s going to go, so you can find me at night Hawk equity Garrett at night, Hawk equity.com. That’s garrett@nighthawk it’s nighthawkequity.com. So you can email me if you like just Google me if you like on LinkedIn or whatever, find me.

Aileen (42:24):

Awesome. Thank you so much, Garrett. I really appreciate everything that you shared today.

Garrett Lynch (42:28):

Thank you guys. Appreciate it.