197 units multifamily deal worth $21M (here's how we closed it)

What's up, guys? So in this video, you are going to hear from two of our REI members who just closed on a 197-unit deal for $21 million. Now, these two had never done a big deal before. So you are going to see the good, bad, and the ugly that comes from doing deals like this at this size so quickly. In fact, you're going to also see how they almost lost the deal. And why it matters to have a strong community in your corner that can either fund your deal or find investors who will. And the final $1.3 million that they needed hit the account, came from the community and within minutes to spare. All right, so essentially they went from zero to $21 million deal, raising $6 million, and they did it all in less than 4 months. All right, so we typically don't recommend someone who is brand new to start out at that level. So you're gonna see the struggles with capital raising that may not be as present if you are tackling just say a 30, 50-unit deal in 6 months. But success favors the bold, and that is what happened here. So let's get into it. Hey guys. So today we have Brett and Bridget, Bridget Baker and Brett Lazer with us. Just 12 months ago, These guys had about 10, 15 units total combined. Today they are 3 months post-closing on a 197-unit apartment complex for $21 million. And with little to no real estate or capital raising experience, they've raised $6 million in capital raised for that deal. And from, from capital partners and investors to help fund this deal. And so I am excited to have these guys on. They're here to break down exactly how they did it, exactly what their plans are for the future, and what they believe about the apartment investing market today. So was that— is that all that true, Brett, Bridget? Is that right?

Yes, sir.

That's true.

6.4 million. 6.4. Man, I messed that up. 6.4. That makes a big difference. Yeah, when you got 30, 45 days to close, 60 days, whatever it is, that makes a big difference. So welcome guys. Thanks for being here. We're excited to jump in and look for everyone watching before I get started. 197 units is not for the average Joe, right? The average Joe just wanting to get started in real estate, or maybe you even have a few units under your belt to go from that to 197 units. Takes a special type of person, guys. Takes somebody who is fearless. They're ready to scale, right? It's someone that's ready to commit time, energy, effort, right? So I just want to say that before we jump in, this is not the typical speed of scale, but it's something that can be done with the right environment if you put in the work and if you partner with the right people. So Let's jump in. I want to just go through a few questions with you guys and maybe we can have a discussion about your experience and what the future looks like for you. So why don't you guys just break down what happened? What did you close? What does it look like? And you know, what was the, what was the actual deal itself?

So this 197 units is actually 2 properties as part of one portfolio. One is 100 units in Bristol and then 97 units in Kingsport, Tennessee. We are 2 of the 5 GPs in the deal. And actually, I was brought into the deal when somebody else stepped out. So I am very fortunate to be a part of this deal. And it was because I was in a seminar in Nashville, actually with REI. We were in a meeting and somebody had stepped out of this deal. They were looking for somebody to step in and I was in the right place in the right time in the right room. Right? Isn't that always the way it goes? And so very fortunate to be invited into this, into this project. So I didn't start the project until December and it had already been identified, sourced, and, and I think it was just going under contract in December. So right as it was going under, under contract is when I, I stepped in. And then Brett, you were about the same time?

Same exact story.

Yeah.

Then I went to the boardroom in Nashville, got to meet you, Bridget, met a couple of our other partners. Didn't know at the time that a deal was in the works, but obviously that's part of what we're doing. Part of what REI is setting up is that opportunity. Where do you find a peer group working on a project like this? Well, you go to REI Boardroom. That's what you do. There they are.

Yeah. So Accelerate.

Yeah.

And Boardroom. Yeah. That's, that's good. Tennessee.

And then, yeah, I got a call, said, hey, would you like to join us on this project? And I said, of course.

$21 million deal, 197 units total. You got 80% finance. Was that Fannie Mae?

Fannie Mae, 80% LTV.

Started at 75%.

Right.

The lender came at the same time we did our due diligence. All of us met in December shortly after we said we were taking this on. We met at the property, you'd have both, and the lender was there doing their due diligence. And after the lender saw the property, they said, wow. This is great. The numbers are super. And we went from a 75% LTV to an 80%.

All right.

That was helpful. You know, with the capital being difficult, that 5% was helpful.

Yeah. We're going to jump into capital raising in just a minute. $6.4 million. You had 17 investors. Is that right?

I haven't counted them, to tell you the truth.

17 investors on the $6 million, $6.4 million. And then what, what happened for the, uh, investors though, what was the returns and what does that look like?

So we were projecting a 7.5% pref paid quarterly, a 2x return. Well, actually 2.1x return after taxes. So you're going to have some passive losses to carry through to equal your returns. And there's no place you can get that today, that kind of a return. And we thought this was going to be a slam dunk. I mean, we had a 5.6% interest rate and it was amazing. There's no way that not everybody you talk to about this was going to want to be in it.

Yeah. There's a different side of capital raising we're not thinking about here. So 7.5%, for those who don't understand, 7.5% pref, what she means by that is just preferred returns, meaning they pay out, you invest $100,000, you get back $7,500 per year. And, and then there's typically an event of a sale or a refinance. And at that point you get refinance proceeds or sale proceeds. So the GP/LP structure was 70% LP, 30% GP. So in other words, the passive investors putting in the money got 70%. The operators, you guys got 30% of the deal. Let me ask you this, you know, because a lot of people look at that and think, Man, you know, you got this big deal, but only 30%, you know, what, why do you think that's worth it for you guys?

When you do the math on any of these, especially we're looking at, like you said, $21 million deal. When we sell it, we're expecting some pretty large payouts amongst ourselves if we get everything done, the value add that we're looking for. And you play that math out, the work is going to be worth it. You know, it's like we talked, both Bridget and I started about last July. Here we are a year later and we got this closed in April. Pretty spectacular when you do the math on that amount of work. And we both work, you know, I mean, you work hard when you start here, right? It's the fire hose effect for sure. Trying to learn as much as you can in a short amount of time. But that's where, what makes it effective is that all the information is in one spot. If you had to do this on your own, I mean, who knows how long it would take.

Jonathan Cronin, as you were just talking, I was talking about cap rates and pref returns, and I didn't think about that a year ago. And now it's something you, when I talk to other real estate investors, it's like how we start a conversation. It's an entirely different vernacular today, right?

When, when you guys first started out, I mean, take me back before any of this. What did, what was your portfolio? What did life look like? Um, before you really jumped into, you know, hitting the gas on this opportunity.

So for me, back when I did start in 2002, I loved real estate. It's great. It's a great investment vehicle, but I started out single family. Duplex, fourplex. And the most success I had flipping was actually duplex and fourplex. I would take a place, fix it up, get some renters in it, and hand it to a new investor who wanted the turnkey. It's working great. But I, I was also running 27 units. My children are getting a little older and I'm doing it all. I'm also currently an airline pilot. I was then too. And so now I'm traveling through the skies, talking to every renters, the electrician, everyone on it. It's too much. So I sold all that. And then in 2018, everyone lost the chance to itemize their taxes. We lost that. If you have a W-2 starting in 2018, all of a sudden there's no protection from the IRS. But I remembered real estate, so I looked and jumped into multifamily as an LP. Super way. There's just no better way to have your money grow than to make returns that are tax protected.

Talk about that 2018. You said what happened there?

Well, that actually was when President Trump came in and it was just a change to the tax law. That unless you had a business, you could no longer itemize. And so as a pilot, we didn't have a lot, but we had a little pile of things we could itemize, you know, meals and this and that. But all of a sudden, 2018, zero. If you don't have a business, nothing. Well, when you go into multifamily, you're in a business, you're in an LLC, you're going to get the depreciation, you're going to get the itemization. So what you make there is going to be protected. And not only that, when you get your K-1, all that depreciation, the itemization can be work for other passive income. If you have it, won't necessarily work for your W-2, but all of a sudden your passive income, different than a 401, different than your stocks and bonds. You cash those out, you pay taxes. So I said, okay, here I am back in multifamily, but Uh, the GP looked like the way to go. I wanted to set up my children in a business and they're both working hard. I don't know how you do what we've done as a young person, starting a career. We, we put everything in. You couldn't do what I've done if you had another career going. You can't do what I've done. So I said, I'm going to get this going. We'll bring them in, hand it off. And I really liked the way REI Accelerator is faith-based. Uh, I enjoy that. I enjoy also doing this to help younger people that aren't as fortunate. This is a vehicle that will go to investment returns into the future. You get in something like this as an LP and you're looking at 5 years of income, and then probably a good chance that the property will sell or refi and you'll get a big payday. It's great. You get enough money in this, you're, you're set. You're not going to need that Social Security or whatever else is being promised out there.

Yeah.

That's awesome. Bridget, what are you, what, what about you?

I guess my real estate started in my twenties. I was in sales during the day and at night I flipped houses. I flipped single-family houses for a long time. And I liked that. That was fun. It was really lucrative in Chicago at the time. And then I went to work for, uh, Shearson Lehman Brothers and I sold stocks, bonds, securities, annuities, all that, all the capital market stuff. I understood that, loved that. I wasn't flipping then. That was all, that was an all-encompassing job. Shortly after that, I started a telecom company, which I ran for about 30 years. Actually just sold that June 1st of this year. But during that time I bought a condo in Florida and then I needed a bigger one because we were spending more time there. And I kept the first one and now I have somebody paying me to stay in a property and I still own it. That's a fundamentally different— it was a big shift for me. It was a, it was sort of an aha moment. I had a couple of life transitions, ended up buying a 5-unit property in Florida. It was a huge, huge— still is a huge rehab, big, big lift. Um, but it's been fun to do. I bought a second 5-unit down here in West Palm and they've been cash flowing. Now I've got 2 properties. I'm still running the telecom company, but I've got these 2 properties that I'm operating and they're good, but I want to scale. I want to get bigger. Um, I don't know how to do that. That's when I found REI. Because that's, that's the whole, that's the whole game, right? Trying to figure out how to do what you're doing, but you can't do it all. The big mantra is that it's a team sport. I would say that that's true. I've always had a business, so I didn't have the 2018 aha moment. I've always had a business until June 1st of this year. And now I'm really happy that Golden Spiral is right where we are because we're set up still to have income, still to have opportunities or tax-advantaged disposition. And this is something that can grow, not just for me, but for my kids. It's something that you can do because you can buy whatever kind of properties you want, but you can do things that can make other people's lives better. And you can, if you set out that way and you have people who are aligned in your thinking, you can actually make huge contributions in a sort of an, I'm going to call it kind of an anonymous way. That just makes life better for everybody. And that's, you know, you get paid to do that. That's a rare opportunity there. Very fortunate to be aligned with some GPs who think the way I do and are actually living the thesis. We're actually doing the things that we said we were going to do. And I am so grateful for that. Wow.

Yeah. That's the beautiful thing about commercial real estate is it's a team sport. You know, we all win together and, you know, you're actually not only changing your life or your family's life, you're also changing the investor's life. You're changing the, the other partners involved. Like everybody is a part of the, the win. And it's exciting because you can do so much more together. And it's crazy. It's not just, it's not just 1 1 2, right? It's like, it's, it's, it's compound effect. It's like, You know, in your guys' case, 6 and 17 equals 1,000, you know?

Well, the nice thing though, you're talking about the partners and the investors, but it is also the communities that you're affecting.

Yes.

That's the way that we make money in the community is to make them better. Right. So if your job is to make everything better, you're making it better for the investors, you're making it better for tenants, you're making it better for like, that's everything. Yeah. You can help a lot of people in that way and it isn't, Cause people sometimes think, oh, well, people who are investing already have a lot of money. They don't really need it. It isn't, but everybody wants to feel good about what they're doing. Right. And this is a way you can actually make a difference and feel good.

That's so important. So important. And we're going to probably touch on that in capital raising, but, uh, so it sounds like, you know, the big thing that changed or that, uh, made you kind of step into this lane was you really wanted to scale. Why were you trying to scale? I know you were kind of in your business and, and probably same for you too, Brett, you're an airline pilot. You know, you're cut, you have these, this job, we're doing all this stuff, but what's the why behind that?

To bring my family into is number one. And then to have the opportunity to help other people with the, with the money we make here. You know, we do good. I'm helping a friend in Montana. Get a boys club, uh, it's running, but trying to scale that also, but it doesn't come free. You got to pay for it somehow.

Right.

Well, here you go. Here's that vehicle again. You know, I'd like to have this scaled up so I can show my children, nieces and nephews, hey, here's a way to run a business and all they're super smart. They're super motivated, but this isn't easy. So I'm going to be their conduit to get started. And we're going to take the money that we're making, not all of it, obviously, we're still going to do fine, but we're going to take some of the money and we're going to help, help the Boys Club too. That has been the driving force in this to get it going. And I like a challenge too. And it's definitely that. You can't help it. You start going, you're going to see it, you know, that Yeah. This is a challenge. This isn't for someone who's gonna be, uh, weak and bashful and shy. You, you're gonna have to go get this. You're gonna have to, you're gonna have to buckle down and go get it.

Success favors the bold, for sure.

And, uh, I would say we have some very bold GPs.

And then to follow up with that too, it's not just the bold, cuz anybody can set a big vision and say, you know, uh, let me do something big, but then to follow through. And I think success follows the diligent just as much, you know, the success follows the, the grind.

That's the second half of it for sure. Yeah. You, you're gonna have to buckle down and do your part. It's, it's not gonna just happen cuz you said I'd like it to. You, you, you got some work to do, but yeah, if you do it, it is gonna happen.

Yeah. So I would flip that and say you're gonna grind. And then it's going to happen because it is a huge grind up front. And I agree with you, Brad. Like, I, my kids are, you know, they're successful, they're launched, they're doing their thing, but they're very interested in this. I would love to have them come into this. I think this is a great opportunity to work as a family toward, you know, big goals. I love that you're doing Boys Club. I just think anytime you have things like that where your kids are interested, And it's something where they can do good, make big changes. It's an opportunity. It's a, you know, those are life teaching opportunities for the, for your kids and then their kids. I'm, I'm excited about my kids being interested in coming into the business.

Yeah. You know, that's the thing with any job. I, you know, I'll say it, my pay is pretty good as an airline pilot. Nothing wrong with it. You're going to live on it fine, you know, but it's still limited. It's a paycheck. I don't get paid unless I show up.

Guess what?

We now have two properties in Tennessee paying us, and Bridget and I haven't been there since December.

That's true.

So, you know, it's a, it's a different ballgame as you get into this and start making things happen. It doesn't, not going to happen overnight, but it's just a totally different ballgame than a paycheck.

Yeah.

And, and, and with the grind part, um, I tell people like, look, you know, you got us, you got one job. You're trying to add this, you can absolutely do it even if you're not full-time, but you gotta be focused during that time that you do have, right? You gotta be, it can't be the scraps of your day, right? It can't be the leftovers and you're, you're half focused, half, you gotta be consistent. You gotta be dialed in.

Yeah, I would say 100%. So when somebody said it's 4 hours a day, I would laugh at you. It'll take you forever to get. What you need to know. I will tell you that if, if you're going to do this, you have to commit. If you do it halfway, you're not going to get there. And that means whatever it takes for you. It might not be 4 hours a day, but it's going to be real time with your brain working.

Actually, let me ask this question. Why multifamily syndication specifically versus kind of go down the path you're currently going down or, or maybe any other path?

For me, multifamily is recession resistant, right? Somebody, you always need a place to live, whatever happens, you're always going to have that. And again, it's an opportunity to help people. If you're doing it right, you don't have to look too hard for ways to make people's lives better. You know, storage, that's a big thing right now. There's no interest to me in that because I don't feel like there's a big amount of emotional return. I don't care about storage units. I do care about people. That for me is a big difference.

I like it. It's, uh, you can touch it, see it. Everyone understands living in a house or an apartment. Most everyone started in an apartment. You understand it. So although there is obviously a lot of other parts, it's pretty simple to go up to an apartment building, especially near where you live and go, yeah, that looks nice. That doesn't look nice. So you can learn about it. It's, it's pretty easy. And I think like Bridget said, Everyone needs a place to live. It's not going away. It's actually becoming— apartment living is becoming more of a norm, especially right now. Housing, houses are out of touch for a lot of people. So it's, it's a good business no matter what you do. Cool.

Cool. Yeah. So next question, walk me through how you found the deal, or in this case, how the deal found you.

Right.

So how did that play out? Because there's several ways to find deals, right? There's off-market, there's direct-to-sellers, brokers, there's all kinds of different things. But then in a lot of cases, partnering up, you know, being— joining something else, like doing all kinds of stuff. So can you touch on that a little bit?

Came into the deal as a partner, just pure luck. One of our other partners, really a pair of them found found the deal, got things going. They needed partners. They started putting together this partnership, this syndication. And then I think Bridget and I got asked onto the deal when someone else thought it was too much risk and backed out. They, they missed the bold part, or I guess they thought they were being smart.

I don't care.

Either way, it worked out. So we came on and they had, uh, an accepted LOI when we came on. And then right about there, when we came on in December, the purchase agreement was signed. A week or two after we started, I think.

I think so.

Okay. I thought the purchase agreement was signed in September. You're saying it was signed in December?

Yeah, I think they identified it in September. And I think one of the, one of the other partners had a relationship with a broker and the broker actually brought it. So there was a preexisting— yeah. Dan had a preexisting relationship with a broker who brought the deal to them.

Y'all went from 10 units to 197 in like 4 months.

Yeah.

You came in in December and you end up closing in April. That's not too bad. And you say luck, but you know, they say, you know what they say about luck? It's where opportunity meets preparation, right? It's, it's the the fact that you took, you did take action, you got involved with the group, you got, you got out there, put yourself out there, and that's, that's how you were asked, right?

So, and we said no, and we said, we said yes.

Yeah. You're going into the right words with the right people at the right time. That's just that, that in this case for me is lucky, but I'll tell you what, Jonathan, I'd rather be lucky than good.

It turned out good. I mean, that is part of it. You know, same way with our, with our capital raising, we, some of that was just work and some of it feels like luck.

That life favors the bold, success favors the bold. And you know, I, I, I just truly believe that, you know, there's no luck if you ain't doing anything right. If you ain't seeking the opportunities, you know, so that's, that's right. You know, You attracted that. But, uh, what, so let's talk about the deal process itself. You got it locked up in contract. You guys went off to the races, high hopes to raise the capital and thinking, oh, we're going to crush the capital raising. What, talk to me about what happened in between contract to close. How was the capital raised? What happened there? What almost stopped the deal from even closing?

I had also worked with another faith-based group right before Real Estate Accelerator, and I was helping them try and raise money. So I had a little experience. I'd got to talk to people. I'd got to put information out on Facebook and LinkedIn and all. And I was like, oh boy, you know, I'm hitting here telling people I got the greatest deal around. And, uh, I'm not getting a lot of people talking to me, but I did get to talk to some. And, uh, a lot of those people I was talking to were personal friends, whether I hadn't talked to them in a couple years, some of them 5 or 6 years I hadn't talked to. These are the people I'm talking to and getting interested. And I had several of these people say they were going to go in on the deal., and then they said no. And then we get this deal going. So like 6 weeks after they heard me talking to 'em about one deal, I come to 'em again and I say, now look, I got another one and look at this one. And those people hopped on. It was literally the purchase agreement was signed, whatever, the first week of December about. We all met, I believe the second week of December in Tennessee. At the properties to do some due diligence. First time in person meeting each other. We'd been on Zoom calls together. And I immediately, I did like you said, Jonathan, I took some photos and everything of what we were doing around the place. One of our partners, Sean Cronin, had already been setting up a pitch deck. Some pretty, pretty sophisticated actually for that quick. And I came home and I immediately went online. I was on LinkedIn, I was on my Facebook, I was posting here, posting there, because I was like, the clock is ticking, guys, the closing's coming. That's what I felt like from my experience. And I think that was right. And because I had already been talking to some people and they understood I was in multifamily, it wasn't strange for them when I came back to them. And I believe there was some FOMO for them. They just gave up the first try and here's the second one and they jumped on it. So we barely had our platform. Agora is the platform that we've been using for investors and we'd barely started and boom, we had 2 investors putting in $100,000 and everyone was like, we're going to kill this. We're going to be done soon. And I was kind of going, no, no, no. And, uh, and that's what it turned out, you know, those, uh, and actually those first two investors, uh, were two that I brought in that did both of those two actually did back out too. So the first $200,000 that came in and got everyone excited, they, they both had one reason or another and didn't stick with it.

Like they put the money in the account.

And then they didn't, I'm sorry. They were soft commitments. They were soft commitments, but terribly exciting. We opened the investor platform and boom, we got, you know, we all hooked up to the email. You getting those emails? So-and-so just put in $100,000. So-and-so just, everyone's like, we're going to kill this. And, and, uh, having done it, I didn't have that confidence.

We were coming up to closing. Where did the money come from? Where, what happened there?

Our lender. Loves this deal. And our lender says, um, I, this is like one of the best. You don't see deals like this. You guys have positive leverage. Our interest rate is 5.6%. Our cap rate is 8.1%. I told you about that. So we have this huge disproportionate lever, which makes our cash flow even bigger than what we had underwritten. So this deal is just so good. And I said to the lender, well, can you invest? Why don't you invest with us? You think this is so good, invest with us. And he says, no, no, I can't do it because we're writing the loans out of my office. I don't know if that's really true or not, but it was a good, it was a good save on his part.

Yeah. I don't know.

I'm not sure, but okay. It's a save for him. But he kept telling us what a great deal it was and we believed him and I still believe him today because when I look at other people's deals and that's something that also is really different. I can look at other people's deals and say, wow, this isn't as good as Bristol Bridge. So the failure for us is that not every single one of our friends and family is in it because they actually lost. And that's, that's the failure on our side in this deal.

We had people coming in 50 and 100, you know, here and there, and it's not going to be something that happens every day, but we had them. We had conversations coming in. We had people right near the end. We actually had several that were in pretty big, $300,000 and $400,000. That backed out at the end when we thought it, when we thought it was done, you know, we did it. And a couple of the, you know, those are big chunks. Uh, most of the time I know from when I started, most people are going to start at $50,000 or $100,000, still a pretty good pile of cash when you look at it. And people want to put their toe in and know that it's going to be good. And you can give them all the assurances you want, but they got to trust you. And usually that trust comes from their experience with you and your experience with multifamily. And none of it, a couple of us had that. So we were banking on their experience to say, look, these guys own some places. They've done well. No investor has lost money, but it's creating that trust with the investor that's going to get them to put their money in. And, uh, $300,000 or $400,000 is a big chunk.

For sure. Good. So where did the money come from? What was the main pieces? And what order did it come in? Like, what was the, so you had, you had a family office come in $3 million.

And that's another, that the family office came in at a little over $3 million. And that's another sign to me that this is a really good deal. These are sophisticated real estate investors. These aren't just people who don't know what they're doing. They know, they know how to evaluate a really good deal and they see this as a good deal and they put in a huge chunk of money. After that, we had, we had a couple other really big investors come in, $1 million, $1 million, $1.3 million. We had a couple of really big ones.

Walk me through this now. You almost lost the deal. Yeah, right. You were what, 4 days before closing? You needed $1.3 million. Is that right?

Little harder than that in that our original closing was actually March.

Oh, that's right.

We had to pay $30,000 for the month extension with the lender. And by the way, the way this happened, when the LOI was signed and they went to the purchase agreement, they were using T12. They were using numbers from October, end of the third quarter. So everyone was happy. Then we come, the purchase agreement is signed, December, T12 numbers come. And the seller is regretting it. The numbers have improved. We have our partners getting those numbers in and telling us, and they're like, guys, look at this. We're killing it. Good on them. The seller kept operating. The numbers come in in March when we're supposed to be closing, and they're even better than December's T12. Now the seller's really regretting it. They, they want this property back and they want to sell it at a much higher price, but we got to close. Well, luckily we had the deal with the lender. We paid $30,000 to extend a month and that's way better than losing the whole thing. And the seller was not going to give us an extra 30 seconds on this. They're missing a lot of money under the deal they signed. So we're still going. We about finish it with a couple of weeks left to go. I, said there's some fairly big chunks left. And now we actually had about 7 days to the close and we're short $1.3 million. So I had remembered, uh, actually an REI person who I had spoken to clear back in February when we were going to get this deal done easy. And they said they needed to be a GP or they, or they couldn't participate. Well, we already had an operating agreement. The lender had already vetted all the GPs. There was no room to bring on a GP. But I remembered this person. I didn't even know how much money they might have invested. We just, we needed $1.3 million now. I didn't know what he might have, if it was $50, $100,000. Called him up and we had a meeting. We, we had a meeting every day. One of the things you get to do, we'd had, we had literally just had a meeting, said we are $1.3 million short. I call this guy up and he says, yeah, I can help you finish the deal. Uh, how much do you need? $1.3 million. I can do $1.3 million. Literally 10, 20 minutes after our meeting, when we said that, I got to send out a text to everyone. We got $1.3 million. It was hilarious.

How did that feel, dude?

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. But the caveat was this money was in the stock market and the man said, my brokerage is very slow at wiring money. So this is like a Thursday. Closing is Tuesday. That money has to be, uh, whatever, time on the clock on Tuesday has to be in there. And he doesn't even, he's willing to do it, but he doesn't even know if his brokerage can do it. So now one of our partners who's been, everyone was so great. All our partners were so great. One of the partners is creating the agreement that this investor is checking with the brokerage, liquidating stock, doing everything they need to. And bottom line is it all came down literally within what I remember is less than 30 minutes of what we needed. That wire hit the account that it needed to hit with the closers.

It hit 30 minutes before closing.

Yeah, that's, I remember it was minutes. It was literally minutes that this deal and the seller would've never given us another chance.

At this price, minutes away from losing a $21 million deal, not just a $21 million deal.

We would've lost all of our money in escrow. And at that point, what did we have in maybe $300,000? Something like that.

Yeah. Well over $500,000.

Well over $500,000. So we had, we were gonna lose $500,000 and lose the property cuz the seller, the seller knew it was sold at such a discount. He knew he could take it back and list it for $5 or $6 million more. That day and he did not want us to have that. Yeah.

Yeah.

That's why, when I talk about, you know, Brett like crushed it, there is no question that Brett crushed it.

Great job, Brett.

But again, that's what I'm saying is, is luck. Literally just, I don't know why I called this guy, why he popped up in my mind. We had never discussed a dollar amount. He just seemed like a super smart guy in business and all tends to be those people can put together some money sometimes.

Yeah.

So that, you know, there's some luck, maybe, I don't know, divine intervention. I don't know. That's who I called though. And it worked.

Well, he, this guy had just joined the community, I believe.

Correct. Right?

Like he had, I mean, this was, I remember Um, so this was an REI Accelerator member. He had just joined. And then I guess you guys just happened to connect and, uh, and then you reached out to him and he was able to come in minutes before the closing. That's wild. And that's, I think that's just a testament to how God brings people together and how, you know, uh, you know, when you, when you commit to something and you commit to get in the room with other people and you level up your network. And I mean, you know, you really can't buy your way into, uh, you can't really, can't buy, um, pay enough for network, right? Your network is everything. Right. And it's like the, the people in your life can, can make or break you, you know?

Yeah. And it's set up here. So I was a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps. And we grew up always hearing, right? Peer pressure, peer pressure, peer pressure is bad. Now I show up in a squadron and everything you think you can do, there's someone doing it better. You know, you're like, hey, yeah, I'm, I'm running a 10K. I'm training for 5:45 miles. You should come train with me. I'm doing 5:30.

Oh my God.

Yeah. You know, they go, where'd you get your degree? Oh, electrical engineering in Colorado. Oh, you must've used that book I wrote. You're like, what? I mean, it didn't matter what you were doing. So that's where I figured out peer pressure isn't bad. Peer pressure is great. It's your peer group. So look at REI Accelerator and look at your peer group now. Super. And that's what happened to Bridget and I getting in this deal. We had a peer group that's just been superb.

So the, the Bridget for you, like what, how, how did it feel when you actually closed? Like what was, what was going through your mind?

Well, that was relief, right? Yeah. At the point, by the time we closed, I don't know, we were celebrating. We, and it was, It was late in the day too, because I don't remember why it took so long, but it was maybe 6 o'clock or 6:30 or something. Cause I was out with my brother and my brother and I were, well, we were pre-celebrating thinking we were actually going to close, but it was 6 or 6:30, I think, before we actually got the text that it's done. And I was so relieved because up until then, that seller really wanted that property back and I was So hoping that this all fell into place. I just didn't know, but it was, it's a, you know, it was a great learning experience, not just because we got to be there from the PSA forward, the due diligence, the contracts, the lender negotiations, all of those things, but also post-close, the property management and tenant relations, I'll call it. Like all of the things that are happening, that experience has been phenomenal. And the group that we're working with is really, really good. So I feel like we just got lucky all the way around.

Well, even like, yeah, the funny thing about that story Brett shared, you know, with the $1.3 million coming in, just saying, yes, I'll do $1.3 on Thursday. Well, you know, you've probably heard that before, right? And it's like, Sure you will.

Right.

But, but to have somebody that's actually, you know, in, in, in a community like REI Accelerator, it's kind of like, you know, they've bought into this kind of environment. And some, some of these types of investors, you really need to be in rooms where it's not just like random networking groups. It's actually rooms where people are serious and people are actually buying in.

Right. You know, I agree. When you talk to people who already understand multifamily or interested in multifamily, know something about them, then you can show them a deal like this. They understand that the deal that we had is very, very good.

Not—

it doesn't come around every minute. Like Bridget said, you look at other deals and you're like, well, that might be fine, but ours is better.

Yeah.

So look, what— let's just recap that on the, on the capital raise side, what, uh, what would you have done differently? Let me ask that. If you had to start over, what— knowing what you know now when it comes to capital raising, what would you have done differently?

I think I joined REI in August. I think I'm not exactly sure. I would start capital raising in August. In December, I would've been reaching out to everybody I know. And one of the things I think is super important is to figure out how to Teach investors what a good deal looks like. I, I, I just built a, a whole series that I put on my website to teach investors how to evaluate deals. I think that's really important. And I, I think maybe it's more important to teach investors whether they're in your deals or not, just teach everybody so that when you have a really good deal, they know how to evaluate it. They know what a good deal looks like. I think the more people that we can get educated as investors, the the better pool it is for everybody.

For sure. I agree. Yeah. That education is big and you got to start it now. You can't start early enough. Right. Getting and setting yourself up as the person who understands this investment. I've done the same thing on my website. I have a blog where I'm putting information for folks and I like to put it on Facebook and LinkedIn. So I'm not currently raising money for a deal, creates some authority in the space and you can't have enough of that. People need to be looking to you as the authority, as the person who understands it. And then something I would do different is we, we all went off on our own to raise the capital, which was fine. You can do that, but I think we need a central We had a pitch deck that was super good. We had an executive summary that was super good. We had the website portal, uh, which was great, but also need a, a central way to get everyone on board with the capital raising training. You got to do that amongst yourselves, really talk more about this is what we're going to do. And we met every day and we talked about it. But we kind of didn't have a central theme and, and hold everyone. We had, I felt very confident. I think Bridget did too. When I started, had these experienced guys who'd already closed a bunch of places. We're like, man, this is going to be easy. We got, we, we got the home run hitters here already. Well, guess what? Um, that's not the way it played out. You know, the way it played out was all of us needed to make some money. It wasn't, it wasn't a given this was going to work, obviously, from the story, but at the time when we're on the team, we're looking at our team members going, man, we got this. This is going to be, and it's not that way. It's going to, everyone's going to have to pitch in.

So early on though, I'll tell you when we just, we did the preliminary pitch deck. I took that out to some of my friends and, um, again, I used to be in capital markets. I sold for Shear Sliman Brothers. So a lot of my friends are ex-brokers or current brokers. And I gave it to them and they came back and said they wouldn't recommend it because they couldn't evaluate it. And that's, that to me was, was a huge wake up that this isn't, that's when I realized I'm going to have a harder time and I did. But I think that's where I, that's why I am such a believer on the education side. Because if you have sophisticated investors who are already doing things, are already involved in stocks, bonds, and annuities and can't figure out how to evaluate this, then that was a breakdown on my side, right? I gotta, I've gotta figure out a way to, to explain this better. And these are people who like the detail, right? I'm happy to show you the underwriting. I'm happy to tell you how it works, but they couldn't evaluate it. So they were not comfortable doing it themselves or recommending it. And I came back to our group with that. And one of our partners is a CFO, a super numbers guy, right? Just understands the numbers inside and out and said, hey, you know, Let's have a call. And one of my big broker friends said, you can set us up, but I don't even know what to ask. So that's where there was a huge breakdown in my mind. And I, that's, that's the thing I'm working on today. That's why I have the investor series. I'm working on figuring out how to make this more accessible to people who are used to having all the detail.

Well, have you guys gone through the new capital raise? Accelerator that we just put out?

I have not done the new one, but I heard it was really good.

You gotta go through it. It's like triple the amount of like content, but it's also like, uh, we talk about that. So I think take that idea through that. Um, because we walk through like PDF funnels and like training funnels and things where you can educate people like, and, and yeah, people want to know about that. Like that would be a huge. Like lead magnet and things that like can actually attract people because they want to know about how to underwrite deals. They want to know like what is a good deal, all that kind of stuff. And so we could even help you set up like a deal calculator or something that you could like give out, like, and you could customize it to make it something that like, what would be my returns as a limited partner if I invested in multifamily or if I invested in this deal or this deal, this deal, whatever.

And that's a great idea.

Yeah. You could even do a, like a video series, a mini video series where you just break down each thing too. But, uh, yeah, you guys gotta go through that cuz it's super in-depth and, uh, I'll probably cover some of it in West Palm. But, uh, last few questions, guys. So what, what really helped you along the way? What, as I mean, start to finish, not just capital raising, but the entire process of you guys really ramping up. What's been a big, uh, help for you guys?

The whole REI Accelerator courses. You go through that, that, that's years and years and years worth of information. More than that if you have to go gather it on your own step by step. So there it all is. Little bit of money and you got years and years worth of experience and information there. So now you're very well armed, but there's going to be more. So yes, then there's the networking you were talking about. We're in with a peer group who are trying to do the same thing. You can network. You already know everyone here wants to be doing multifamily. Just got to put them together. And then, yeah, the event, being able to have the boardroom and be able to get together and network in person, that was important. That really helped.

Yeah.

A good follow-up maybe for Bridget is, you know, being a part of a mastermind like this or RE Accelerator, I mean, it's not a small decision. Like what, what really convinced you to do it?

I didn't know how to get to the next step, so I had to find somebody who's done it right. So I can continue to buy 5 units in West Palm, although they're sort of priced out right now, but I can continue to buy small units and just add to my portfolio. But I really wanted to figure out how to scale. I didn't know how to do that. And that's what this gave me. But I'd like to revert back to the people who've helped me here. I would say my coach has been unbelievably amazing. The other thing that was, um, Beau's been outrageously helpful to me. Um, Angelé is not my coach and she has been really helpful. Dan is a coach that I have through FAS and he has been, well, without Dan, I wouldn't have been in this deal. So the coaches are super well-versed in this field, but they also have real-world experience and are very practical about how they approach things. And I think that is, that's, that's gold right there because they're doing it. They're, they're, they're doing this in their own deals. So when they come to you or you go to them with something wonky, they've probably seen it before. And if they don't, they know somebody who has. That's, that's magic. Yeah.

Chris Capri got me started and then my, my coach was actually the first one without, without Chris, I wouldn't have been on this deal either.

My coaches helped put me together with other people in the community that I wouldn't have met otherwise. And having other people help to hold you accountable, because when you're going this alone in the beginning, it's really lonely. You're, you're doing it yourself. You're online. Like there's not a lot of interaction for somebody like me. That's hard. It's actually hard to do. But meeting other people who are going through it with you, and then you have people to check in with every day and you can call and you can say, hey, did you understand this? What is, how does this work? That, that is game changing. And so, um, I think the coaches are really good about that too. They're good about connecting you with people in the, in the group who are kind of doing what you're doing and, you know, they understand your personalities a little bit and they'll put people together who might work well together and then you make some great friendships and that's hard to beat.

Yeah.

Well, last question, guys. So someone watching this is exactly where you were when you started. What would you tell them?

Don't quit. Just go. Take off and start doing it. It's going to work out great. You're getting the info. You're in the right spot to learn.

Yeah.

And you got to have that learn— you know, you can do it on your own. Or would you rather pay some money and boom, here's your huge pile of info? Yes, you are on your own in front of your computer quite a bit to start. That's how it's going to start. You know, you can call your coach and say, this is hard. And he'll say, yeah, go read some more. Um, watch more videos. They'll be good. So you can do that. And that's the way it's, you know, that's the way it is. You are, you're, you're taking years of gathered information and you're trying to internalize it all in one shot, but that's how you get there quick. So that's the way to do it.

If you don't do it, where are you going to be next year? I mean, what's going to change, right? I mean, if you want to be someplace different, you've got to make a change and you got to do it. So if you don't do it, where are you going to be?

Yeah. Yeah. Actually, here's the final, final question. Was it, What was it worth it for?

Sure. I wouldn't have 197 units on my portfolio schedule.

Now, if we hadn't closed that one, you know, I don't know.

I do know it.

I do know it's worth it. But, you know, I was sitting there gaming that, right? I mean, I was obviously doing everything possible to close. But I was there at the time, like deciding, am I going to be so mad we don't close? I'm going to go in on a PSA in less than a week on the next one. Look at this. I mean, oh my gosh, we, we took this thing so far. We were right there at the finish line with that little bit left, but luckily I didn't have to figure out what I was going to do.

That was really stressful.

It worked out.

Yeah, we did. We'll, we'll hook you guys up with some trauma counseling.

Well, and it's interesting, our more experienced partners said that the syndications often go this way, that it's pretty, you know, that it's everyone doing the best they can and you don't fund a deal in the first week. You know, you're going to take that full, whatever you got, 45 to 90 days., from the PSA, it's gonna take a while.

Well, and you know, the other side of it too is like the work experience for the time allotted, you know, and, and it may sound like, no, we were working our tail off, but like at, at the end of the day, like if we shrunk the amount of time that we had, you know, would, would we have done anything? Would we have done anything differently?

Maybe.

I don't know.

Yeah. I don't wanna find out. That was stressful.

Well, congratulations guys. You are rock stars. You crushed it. I'm so excited that you, that we're a part of this group together and you guys are, are, uh, with us here. And I know we, we got a big event coming up in West Palm. Um, but, uh, for everyone watching, this is, this is the kind of things that happen for those who, uh, really pursue greatness and, and not just dream big, think bigger, uh, not just are bold, which is a prerequisite, but also follow through, follow the process, continue, you stay consistent, be, uh, intensely diligent in, uh, your, your processes. And if you want to connect with Bridget or Brett, they are scaling. I know that's one thing we haven't talked about, but, um, maybe we'll do another one Or they can talk about their plans because, uh, they have their, their experience. They are executing on this current property. They're already, uh, looking to start sending preferred return checks and they've just closed a few months ago. So like these guys are crushing it in commercial real estate. These guys are elite operators. So if you want to connect with them and check out any, projects that they have coming up, um, connect with them. What, what would be your website? We'll put it in the description or in the, uh, chat, uh, on YouTube for you guys. But, uh, can you guys just shout out really quick where to connect with you at?

Jetstreampeg.com.

Jetstreampeg.com.

Private equity group, Jetstream Private Equity Group. That's the website.

Goldenspiral.co. That's goldenspiral.co.

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, we'll make sure to drop that in the description, but thank you, Bridget and Brett. Thanks for being here.

Thank you, Jonathan. Congratulations. Hey, Jonathan, if anybody's interested in more information on Bristol Bridge, have them reach out to us. We still have a little bit of allocation available.

Okay. Yeah.

Cool. Yeah, we'll have him reach out. This is a great deal.

All right, cool. Awesome. Well, thanks guys for tuning in and we will see you soon.