From Small Deals to a $400M Portfolio: The Real Estate Blueprint

If you want to scale your real estate portfolio, this video is going to change the game for you. Recently we joined forces with Randy Lawrence, who has over 400 million in assets under management. He is also known as the real estate preacher and was a pastor for over 15 years. He did such a great job of breaking down how he scaled to that in a relatively short amount of time and how you or anyone can do the exact same thing. So get your notepad out because here he comes.

Thank you so much. It's great to connect together with everybody. No doubt what God is doing and bringing us together, that I look at those things. There's a great quote that said, a cord of three strands is not easily broken, meaning, you know, there's strength that comes. There's another great quote from one of my favorite books. It says, iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. And so there's just truth in, you know, when you come together and focus on a mutual common goal and you have synergies, you have the ability to produce more. And that's ultimately part of the inherent philosophy of the mastermind. Like, really, if you ultimately go back to trace the first mastermind, you've got Jesus 2000 plus years ago mentoring 12 guys. And 12 guys, you know, change the world right through God's power. And so I think ultimately, you know, that there's just a lot of benefit that comes from being together and, you know, learning from one another, etc. So, you know, just a little bit quickly on my background, you know, I was a stockbroker and a money manager for 15 years. Registered investment advisor, series 65, series 7, did that for 15 years. Sold my company in 2006. We had bought our first duplex in actually 1997. Yeah. And. And, you know, ultimately bought my first small apartment complex in 2003. And part of that was, you know, in 99, when you had the tech crash. I mean, some of you guys remember Y2K and all that. Well, the entire stock market, you couldn't escape from it. You know, it was funny. Now you laugh and how people thought like the entire world was going to shut down, computers were just going to stop it. I mean, it was kind of crazy what people thought. And, you know, it just came and went. But ultimately that did bring on the onset of the tech crash and the tech bubble and. And, you know, but at the same time, I had this great little duplex. It was just, you know, spitting off rent money every month. They're cruising right along. And so that really began the journey for me of, you know, really exploring real estate more.03 we bought our first little small apartment community. Just begin that journey into real estate. And then you know, really clearly saw that that was a better future for me and my family and the folks that invested with us than what we were doing in the stock market. Portfolio management sold that company like I said in 2006. And really part of that was in conjunction with. We moved also north of Tampa is where I'm located at. And we were involved with starting a church up there. As Jonathan said, I was a pastor for about 15 years simultaneously. Kind of like Paul, who's a tent maker, meaning I did the money management and the real estate and did both full time. Not that I'd recommend that, you know what I mean. But again, I probably the way God put me together, I had a lot of energy, strength, capacity. But so we had moved north of Tampa, involved with starting a church up there, also with the real estate. Both, you know, single family homes was a big, you know, element here in Florida. We had the, you know, the market crash that took place in 2008. There was just a lot of, you know, opportunity to help people. So we did that as well in the single family front. Probably bought and sold a thousand houses over that maybe 15 year period of time. And then also small apartment communities as well. And then really probably 16, 17 focused on those scaling skills to the larger communities, 75 to 250 unit size communities and begin, you know, really focus on buying those in addition to what we were doing on the single family front. And then, you know, Fast forward to 20, 21, 22, 23. We were right about 3,200 doors, 400/million dollars we've sold down right now to about 2,700 doors. Ultimately our typical model is where we're holding a property for three to five years will be the typical goal. Most oftentimes it's a value add strategy where we're seeing how would you drive, you know, noi and make improvements to the property, which would of course in turn improve the value of the property. We have had folks that have invested with us along the way going back as far as, you know, 20 years. And so that is part of the model of, you know, we're continuously cycling through communities and properties and selling those. You know, part of the thing that Jonathan said earlier and I've just also say as well is it's important to maintain the focus. You know, again, like so when we bought and sold a thousand houses, the majority of those houses were all kind of single family homes. Most markets that we were in here in Florida, it's kind of your first time or second home buyer. Meaning, you know, back in the early days, they were 150 to 300,000. Now in this market here, those houses would be, you know, 300 to 500,000 just because of the price appreciation, what we've had. But that being said, meaning we could just say, okay, here's the, here's the model, here's what it is, here's the flooring, here's the paint, here's all the mechanics. Every single one of them is exactly the same. Yes. The initiative starts with you, the one woman, the one man ready to go. Maybe you've got your spouse or a partner, that's great, you know, but yet with that, you've got to then begin to be focused of, hey, what it is we're going to accomplish. Like Jonathan said early on, you know, not jumping down into a rabbit hole to do, you know, 10 different things. You know, kind of the old saying, there is a jack of all trades, master of none. You know what I mean? And so ultimately I think it's important. And that's part of, you know, there's the good and the bad of a mastermind group and a group of this nature. The good is that you can learn from your peers. And that's what it should be. It should be peer to peer improvement as we come together, that there's a constancy of learning, improving. You're sharing your best ideas. Now the bad side of that could be, is that you get too many ideas, right, that you, oh, look, hey, John's doing this and Mary's doing this and Bob's doing that and I want to do all of it. Well, I think it's important to, you know, get singularly focused, move forward with what the plans and intentions are, have the right team beginning with yourself and even, you know, with that. One of the benefits of the group here is that as there's, you know, different training and benefits that are available, you don't have to recreate the wheel. Like some of the stuff. Like early on when I would, you know, do our asset management with our third party property management, that was, you know, me now I learned from other guys that mentor me in and provide me some best practices. But again, like I put that into place and then, you know, hand it off to somebody else and then begin overseeing it. So it's a process with all things. And then again, as we focus on some of these things with asset management, Property management. What are the pitfalls? And look, don't let anybody tell you there's not pitfalls. Right. Like there's pitfalls for all of us. Right. None of us have an easy path. All of us, you know, gotta climb. And sometimes it's an arduous climb, sometimes it's more difficult. But yet if you're determined and purposed, you can move forward and be able to achieve it. And so I'm excited about what we have on deck, what we're going to be doing collectively as a group and just, you know, everything that you guys will be able to provide as value as well as part of the mastermind and as part of the group. You know, a lot of people had been, you know, talking about interest rates, you know, they're coming down and good lord, you look at the, you know, the 10 year Treasury, I think today is, yeah for almost four, seven, you know, so the Treasury's up 100 basis points in the last just under 90 days. And you know, yes, the Fed has cut rate but again, ultimately Fannie and Freddie are driven by the ten year Treasury. That's, that's your permanent debt. The, the, the, the Fed, you know, does not influence the bond market. The bond market is driven by supply and demand. And so ultimately what we saw in the last, you know, what was, what was one of the biggest events that happened in the last three months for this country. And though I would say this, that there are going to be those properties that come. But again, even two, you know, I think of a project that we have, we're looking at either selling it or refinancing it at our sales number. It's probably like a break even proposition. Meaning like, you know, from where we bought it, we drove no I by about 45%. We probably have an ability to refinance it cash neutral, keep it another couple of years or sell it and break even. So like it's a property that is, you know, well stabilized, doing good B asset. It's not like you would be in a position to say, okay, we've got to sell it and we're taking a 30% haircut, you know what I mean? Like, and there will be people that will pay the number that it is because it's, it's a good property. Yeah. Now that being said, in that tranche, there are going to be people that maybe bought it in 21 and they didn't drive NOI by 45 or 50%. Right. Those people are going to have a challenge because the reason we're in our position of where we're in like that is because we drove NOI by 45, 50%. Now, if interest rates hadn't gone up and cap rates hadn't gone from five to six, that's probably worth about seven and a half to $8 million. It's not worth that much today because of those reasons. So, you know, yeah, I mean, there's definitely opportunity. But you know, the people that say it's the once in a lifetime opportunity, those same people said that back in 2009. Right. Everybody's going to make mistakes. I make mistakes even now. Right. Like, I mean, my mistakes probably cost more money, but it's the truth. Because why you're making decisions with the best information that you have. And there are like what Eric asked about, there are at times some unknowns. And so look, that's part of the learning model, man. Like, look, Paul, who was involved with authorship of two thirds of the New Testament, probably starting the majority of churches in the known world at the end of his run, he's like, one thing I do is I press on to the mark of the high calling that's mine in Christ Jesus. Meaning he hadn't arrived. He was still learning at the end of his journey. John Maxwell said the same thing to me, talking about with his dad, who Melvin. I had the blessing of meeting with him in his home and getting to know him before he passed. It's like you can keep growing and improving at 65, 75, 85, 95. And so, and that's part of our journey together. So, yes, Steve, I would say, you know, if you can make money on an eight unit and it benefits your plans, then that's okay. You know, if your plans are differing from that, like, there's nothing wrong with acquiring a good 100 unit as that first deal as well too. You know what I mean? It just depends on where you're at. And that being said, one of the things Alicia said earlier too, though, you probably have faster traction with respect to the smaller deals or different markets. But one of the benefits of this moment in time, as a buyer, you know, their brokers and even sellers are interested to talk to anybody just because, you know, there's less activity in the market. You know, the market's down about 80% in both MSAs on transaction volume. And you know, your goal would be, is to hire people or bring people on your team that are better than you. Like our operations director, she's, she's a rock star, right? She's, she's better than me. At navigating some of the software stuff and things of that nature. Just she's living and swimming in every breathing moment, you know what I mean? And that's what it should be. So I mean ultimately I think it goes back to that question that Alicia and I talked about is you know, you have job growth, demographic growth and most that's existing in the smile Southeast, southwest of the U.S. you know what I mean? That's, that's where companies move into to get away from, you know, probably a more you know, oversight of what's going on and taxation what's going on in certain markets. So the smile of the US represents your strongest demographic growth and it's projected currently and future look over the next 10 years. I want to just encourage everybody as well to again in that mastermind, you know what I mean? You're peer to peer, empowering, motivating, inspiring and encouraging one another. And that's ultimately I think you know, part of that long term goal for the group.

If you want to be a part of a community that motivates you, keeps you accountable to achieve your goals and gives you all the tools and resources needed to scale quickly to 100 million, 400 million and beyond, click the link in the description. We will see you on the inside.