Unlocking Real Estate Wealth with Joseph Kimbrough: Navigating Business Development in the Digital Age

If you can thrive in a market that's tough, imagine when the market actually levels out, things get smooth, everybody gets very optimistic, how much better you would do. So this is actually a great time for people to get started in real estate.

Welcome to the High Voltage Business Builders Podcast, a show where we interview high voltage entrepreneurs growing and scaling through e-commerce, real estate, and other wealth without Wall Street ventures, showing you the path to making your first or next million.

All right, folks. Welcome back to the High Voltage Business Builders Podcast. Your host, Neil Twa here. I appreciate it if you like, share, comment, help me beat big tech. I want to get out the message today. My guest is going to be talking about business, real estate, motivation, financial development, financial wealth, and some of the things we talk about here on this podcast is it's about business and building. We talk about e-commerce and all these different things as well. Today, I want to focus on the business development of real estate. And of course, the opportunities that that might provide you both virtual and physical real estate. You know, we operate in both worlds. And so We're going to cross over, I think, a little bit today in this conversation. So Joseph, thanks for joining me, brother.

Yeah. Thank you for having me on.

Yeah, man. So where are you hailing from? Where in the world are you?

Yeah. So I live in Dallas, Texas.

I won't hold that against you. That's cool. No, he's actually, you're only about 6 hours south for me, which is cool. Yeah. Is that where you're originally from? Born and raised Texas guy?

Yeah.

So, yep. I originally was born and raised in Dallas. I stayed outside of, outside of Dallas for a little while though, in California when I was in the military. In the Marine Corps. And then also a few months in East Africa for vacation purposes.

Excellent. Excellent. Traveling man then, been around the world for a while.

Well, I would say not around the world, mainly Africa.

All right.

Yep.

Family, family guy. What kind of guy are you? A single guy out there just busting it in Dallas? Are you doing, you got family?

No, I'm married. I'm married. My wife, she goes with me also.

That's cool.

I have a daughter also.

Oh, excellent. Good. Are you, uh, so real estate, has this been your thing? Is this what you started out doing? Is this what you fell into? Is this, tell me about that.

So it was very intentional. I'll put it like that. I was, I was doing stuff like trading in the Forex market, more online stuff, learning stock options and stuff. And then I saw like Robert Kiyosaki was like, okay, I wanna transition into real estate. And so I started learning, learning under a mentor, not anyone from his people, but just a guy that I had met out. I used to do business taxes for him. So I started learning under him and got into single-family real estate. And this was back in 2018.

Okay.

But I would tell you, 2018, I did not do a deal. I didn't do my first deal until 2019 after I learned about something called wholesaling. And then I went, got a property under contract and was just selling properties, whether it was in Houston, throughout Dallas. And I got to the point where I was doing it completely virtually, but also while doing that for like 3 years and making really good money. My first deal ever was $10,000 for the month and then $15,000 a few weeks later. So really good money doing that business, but I had no equity. So what I did was I transitioned into being a private equity fund manager where now I work with different operators, 2 of which are in the top 200 of the Inc. 5000. And I've just, I provide equity. So again, it goes back to doing real estate without having to literally go door to door and be at every single building and be the man that's managing every building. So it's, it's basically virtual.

That's fantastic. So no toilets, termites, or tenants you really have to deal with?

No, no toilets, termites, or tenants that I have to deal with.

The 3 Ts of real estate, right? Which is always what some people don't understand. And they're thinking about kind of the old school real estate, I say to some degree, which is buy a house, rent the house, buy a house, rent the house, which is just one real estate methodology. Obviously we've got short-term rentals now, or STRs. We've got the REI side. You're working on the wholesale side. There's multifamily, multi-tenant. You mentioned single family.

Why did you end up with— I don't do wholesaling anymore.

Okay. What are you doing predominantly now? What are you focused on?

Yeah. So now I'm a private equity fund manager. So what I do is I raise money into a fund and that money is utilized to acquire these apartment buildings by working with experienced operators in the field. So I work with pretty much anyone that you might hear their podcast and you know them, like they can be on the screen and stuff. I can work with them.

And what are you investing in then?

And like what type of properties, maybe location-wise, where are you finding them?

Large apartments, large apartments, 100 units or more. So just as an example, In Charleston, South Carolina, we currently have 160 units. And then in Phoenix, Arizona, we have 432 units and currently working on 192 units in North Carolina.

And how much money do you put in in order to acquire those units?

So typically anywhere between half a million to a million dollars, depending on the group that I work with. Now, some groups, they require me to bring $2 million. So it just depends on who I'm working with.

How many people are in the group or how, how much you're syndicating? What do you typically syndicate between numbers of people? Is there a max? Like, I don't wanna do a deal with more than 5 people or like, what do you use as a structure? Yeah.

So it's, it's kind of like whatever those operators are doing. So let's say I work with an operator and they only want a couple more people, a couple more private equity people to come in, then I'll be one of them along with someone else. So it's really just 3 of us, like a triangle. So no, no more than 5 people are really in it.

So nobody, not everybody understands how this model works in terms of breaking down the, the money in, money out, time in market, um, cash on cash value. Can you break some of that down on a deal for us real quick?

Yeah. So typically you're in, you're in these properties for 5 years. It is an illiquid asset. So when you're investing in this, what that means is that you're not able to just call me up and say, hey, I want my $100,000 back because of whatever reason, because it's in a physical asset. So that's why. And that stuff goes towards operations. That stuff goes towards renovations. That stuff is going towards— now on the, on the plus side, it's very beneficial because what you're doing is now Your money is being hedged against inflation. So whether you trade stocks or real estate, if you're doing both, it's great. It's a great combination.

Yeah.

Physical assets is a hedge against inflation. It's why we do it on the physical side of assets in the private label brand world while doing a virtual real estate move into the digital markets of Amazon, TikTok Shop, et cetera. Our asset base is where tangible cash goes in, fiat currency.

Yeah. Fiat currency.

Yep. Worth more. Say the keywords, right? Where inflation is obviously being created and continuing to move forward thanks to our governments. But Asset real estate and business building, when done with assets, are really the 2 ways to create generational wealth. Would you agree with that?

I definitely agree with that. Wealth, like real estate and also digital assets, stock market, all that stuff is great for creating wealth.

We produce more of a Wealth Without Wall Street strategy on our end of the house in terms of what we invest in. And so real estate or business development or that kind of stuff will typically take us away from traditional Wall Street activities of investments in stocks. Now, that's not everybody's gig, right? It just has to be one we're at. Where are you at now? You mentioned it, but just outta curiosity, where, where do you take people when they invest in real estate? Where do they go from there?

Oh, so as far as the locations or is it more—

Strategy.

So if you're into real estate and you're into multi-tenant and you're developing a portfolio, is it just hedgehog into the real estate syndication? Is that where you're at?

Oh yes. That's where I'm at. I pretty much get into these here big syndications with these different apartment buildings. And bring my investors along with me because they, because they'll, the operators, they'll want to work with me because I am an accredited investor myself. And so they'll want to do these deals.

Yeah. So if I, let's say I've got, what's your minimum buy-in, like for certain units or properties you're looking at right now? Is it $50K minimum buy-in, $100K minimum buy-in if somebody wants to get involved?

So $100K is typical, is typical of what I have people invest. Now, if you're bringing a group of people, then $50K.

Got it. Because you're going after the larger opportunities, the bigger builds, right?

Exactly.

Yeah. Are you purchasing existing assets or are you in the build development stage of those projects?

Existing assets.

Existing assets. You don't do any build to develop or buyout? Because I know there's some of those that will allow you to fund up to 80% on credit without even having to put any money down, right?

Yes. So I can do build projects as well, but currently I don't just because if it's going to take 3 years before my investors see a return on their investment, then it's kind of, it's not really something I like. I prefer existing where it's going to cash, where it will cash flow within the first 90 to 180 days.

Okay.

Like for example, with the Phoenix property, we acquired that one late last year. It started cash flowing within the first 90 days. So that's the, that's the kind of stuff that I look to invest in. Monthly cash flow, quarterly cash flow, because people want to invest, but they also want to make sure they're getting paid something while they're investing.

See something coming back.

It makes them feel a lot better. Exactly. Makes them feel a whole lot better.

So you're typically gonna look to purchase in and then withdraw any sort of cash back value, uh, over time in 90 to 180 days is kind of what you're expecting when people get involved with you.

Yeah. So within the first 90 to 180 days, we, we expect cash flow to begin. And then obviously you're getting the cash flow, but then you also get lump sums when we sell the property. You pretty much get to share in the whole process.

Yeah. Beginning through the end.

Okay.

And how long do you typically hold a property before you sell it? Like if someone's in and they're getting cash flow every 90 days, and then what's the kind of turnaround? 2, 3, 5 years before you're gonna sell the property or what do you typically do?

That really depends on the market at the time, right? So anywhere between 5 to 7 years we wanna hold, but sometimes we can sell 'em in 2 years if it makes sense. If the market just skyrockets and you can get top dollar, why not? So 3 years. Yeah. So it just depends.

Well, with the market right now and interest rates where they are, what is, what do you say about that in terms of the way you are doing deals? Because I know interest rates are on everybody's mind, whether Whether they're looking for mortgages or they're looking to invest in real estate, or they're trying to pencil in deals on a short-term rental. Where are you at in that? What's your thoughts on that? Yes.

So I think it definitely changes the way you do business, the way you purchase a property.

Mm-hmm.

And this particular climate of, of real estate. Yeah. I would say the, for exa— just to give you an example, there's a property that, that we acquired and we did creative financing. So instead of, instead of getting into the property by going out there and getting a loan with these high interest rates, what we did was we turned around and we assumed the debt on the property at a low interest rate and then just paid. Of course, you paid on top of that to the people who's selling it and you just take it over and you have that property now.

Yeah. Yeah. So definitely a short to long-term hold. It really can depend on the market. I mean, Market fluctuations and stuff right now are changing. Obviously Fed's mentioning multiple potential rate cuts coming up. What's your, you feeling bullish on the market right now? Are you just kind of holding? Where, where are you at?

As far as for real estate, I feel, I feel like a lot of opportunities are about to happen this year in 2024. And the reason why I say that's because a lot of people who acquired properties 5 years ago, 3 years ago, 4 years ago, a lot of those, those loans are maturing now. So they need to sell those properties. And so now you can get really good deals on these here properties when they selling them, because with the interest rates being this high and people need to sell, they're willing to lower the price up.

So there's some deal making when there's blood in the water, as the saying goes, right?

When there's blood in the water. I hate that.

There's blood in the water. It is that way. Well, that's wondering, that's kind of where I'm at in your thought process and digging in a little, like where, where are you feeling? We're in the first quarter of January or first quarter of 2024 in January at the time we're recording this. But, yeah, I'm just curious as to what you kind of see and where you're going with your cash if somebody's coming along where they kind of feel comfortable.

Oh yes. Like we're looking at, I'll just put it like this. One of the operators that I'm working with, they're looking at acquiring 6 properties this year. Now that's a lot of properties for a syndicator. So that's how bullish we are. Both another operator I'm working with, they're looking at doing somewhere between 4 to 5. This year. So between that, they're, they're very bullish. We are all very bullish on the market for this year.

Yeah. So somebody just looking at this, just wanting to get started, they're not necessarily as bullish for some reason. Maybe they are and they're like, okay, where do I get started? What, what do you suggest to somebody who's maybe not at that level of capital syndication that you're talking about?

Yeah, so it depends on where they're starting. If you're starting off in real estate, this is the best time you want to start. When it's, as you said, blood in the, blood in the streets. Because if you can start, imagine someone who started in the real estate market back in 2008, how much experience they gained during that time. And if you can thrive in a market that's tough, imagine when the market actually levels out, things get smooth, everybody gets very optimistic, how much better you will do. So this is actually a great time for people to get started in real estate.

Yeah, there are historical trends of ups and downs. We've gone up, we've gone down, and the people that were in the 2008 situation, 2009, were probably thinking this never is gonna get better. And it did, of course. And I'm sure there's people right now thinking this is never gonna get better, and I'm sure it will change.

Yeah.

Because the market fluctuation changes continuously. Right. But what is your, what's your game plan? Just to dump as much properties as you can and then kind of buy the whole thing out and go sit on the beach in Africa somewhere, or what's your plan?

Nah, nah. Just acquire as much property as possible with this fund, set up another fund, acquire more property and keep doing that. But then also venture into other, other investment areas as well. Maybe, maybe I might get into investing in med spas. They, they do pretty well. You can set up a fund, like when you're in private equity, you can set up a fund to pretty much do anything. Like I have mentors, they, they own a chain of freestanding emergency rooms. You wouldn't expect that from people who got started in real estate. So there's different avenues of it you can get into.

Sort of the McDonald's methodology. I mean, McDonald's owns the properties, right? They just happen to sell burgers and fries on top. So I know exactly into real estate, it kind of doesn't always matter what's in the building. If there's operators, you know what's going on. It's the building and the asset that you're buying and the real estate that you're buying underneath it.

Yeah.

Anything I didn't ask you that I maybe you wanted to explain or discuss that I didn't happen to ask you just yet?

Well, actually there's, there's nothing you haven't asked just yet.

I was thinking— You mean I did a good job with my questioning?

Yeah, you did a great job with your, with your questioning.

There you go. Good, man. Well, hey, look, if you, if virtual real estate's ever your thing, there's lots of investments in e-commerce, physical assets. Maybe I could get you to come over to the e-commerce world.

That's something I wanna learn more about. Digital stuff is, it's the digital real estate. I, it's hard to wrap my head around that. It's kind of like the sky. I was, I was in an advisory board meeting with this guy and he was born definitely in the 1940s.

I kid you.

Yeah. We were having a conversation. He finds out about, what is it, what is it called? Esports.

Oh yeah.

He found out you can make money playing video games.

It's a huge market.

It is a huge market. He was like, I can't wrap my head around it.

Yeah.

These kids, they, Making money playing video games. What is the world I'm in now?

I'm Gen X and I still have a hard time grappling it, right? And I owned a game server company and played multiplayer online gaming before it was even cool and had a company that was running game servers online. So I was out there gaming before Twitch was a thing and YouTubes were streaming, but then I got out of it because really what I felt like it was pretty, well, I don't know, esports is interesting and it is for certain people. It's not for me, like at the end of the day.

Yeah.

Esports. I'm not in the game. That should be the code word for me, right? Isn't the other one get in the game? So I'm not in the game, right?

EA, get in the game.

Um, I'm dating myself, but at the end of the day, it's like, I see there's a big— Well, I mean, if you're advertising and you're getting on Twitch and you're trying to sell products in my world to gamers, yeah, huge opportunity. Like to get to the games. And, and in fact, I, my favorite chair right now is actually a game chair, um, because it's built for people who sit around for 8 hours and play games. And so it's super comfortable. It's really nice. It's even better than the office chairs and stuff that they have. So there are practical opportunities for all of that, even advertising and reaching that demographic. But there are also side effects to that. And I can see where I might feel like I'm a guy from the 1940s brain too, because I don't quite—

I feel like my head would hurt playing video games.

My head hurts just thinking about— Call of Duty. Call of Duty.

Oh my heart. Oh my God.

All they're doing is like jamming sugar and Prime drinks all day with their rage-filled online killing. And it's like, well, there's like, I could see problems with that. I see opportunities, but I can see problems with that too. Maybe I'm just dating myself. Um, with a dad who, you know, who's got young daughters and kids and you've got a young one too, it's kind of like you start thinking a little differently about what you want your kids to grow up and do, right?

Yep. Yep.

Yeah. You'd probably have them—

Definitely do.

More involved in real estate, I suspect.

Oh, definitely. My daughter, she's gonna, as soon as she was born, I was like, she, she's gonna be a fund manager.

She's gonna be a fund manager. Daddy's my little, daddy's little fund manager. Yeah, that sounds like a t-shirt. You should get her a little t-shirt. It says, Daddy's a little store manager.

Yep. Oh, she's, she's gonna own more property at 18 than most people. Wow.

Train her up well, brother, 'cause that's a lot of responsibility for an 18-year-old.

Oh, yes. Yeah.

But I have no doubt.

I was in the Marine Corps at 18, 18, 19.

Yeah. That's a lot of responsibility.

It's a lot of grownups. Called airstrikes. That's responsibility.

Where were you?

So I was in, uh, California. I, bless, I didn't get deployed, right? 'Cause 2012, I graduated in 2012, so 2013. So it was, we wasn't really doing much during that time.

Yeah.

Today though, mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Total different story.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

A whole different story today.

Yeah. When I graduated, we were right ahead of Desert Storm. So by the time I graduated, I was gonna go to the Air Force, got my fighter pilot, went in there and was gonna be a fighter pilot. That's what I wanted to do. I had no other plans. Some people who listen to this know that story, but the end, end result is I was too big to fit in the cockpit. So they're like, you can't get in, you just won't fit. And I'm like, dang it.

That's crazy.

Now what? And so I went to college and failed outta college cuz that was stupid. I didn't wanna go there anyways. But, um, literally if you look forward, it's always circumstance and time is very fascinating to me. But if you look forward from the time that I would have gone through the training and passed the training and been deployed as a fighter pilot, that was literally like 90 days before Desert Storm. Yeah. So I would've got out, but deployed and went straight into war. And that would've been the first time that had occurred in so many decades. So I'm kind of glad I didn't end up with that. I know a lot of people who did it and that's, I'm glad they did for the protection of our country. But at the end of the day, I'm like, oof, I kind of dodged a bullet on that one a little bit. I wasn't meant to go to war apparently. So I didn't, but yeah, I'm too old for that.

Yeah. His eyes can't even see the phone now.

I can't see anything close enough without my glasses now. So it's like, ah, I can read things from like half a mile away, but I can't see things in front of my face. So I probably wouldn't be able But, oh yeah. Well, yeah. Well, good, man. Look, anything else you want to tell us about?

Anything else? That's, that's pretty much it, man.

Yeah, no, I, I'm, I'm, you got the gist, dude. Real estate is not, you buy something, you sell something, right? It's kind of like the physical product world. You just have to understand where and how you buy it and what mechanism and whatever kind of works for you. Whether you like to, you know, buy it and hold or whether you want to go after the big multi-tenant deals or you want to syndicate or go short-term rental. Real estate is one of those things that, you know, at the end of the day, you're buying dirt and that's pretty awesome if you do it right. And, but you can screw it up if you're not paying too much attention. There's some nuances in the details, but guys, if you want to learn more about that, obviously check out what Joseph's doing below in the syndication, in the notes, go check him out online, see what he's doing and maybe make a deal and see if there's some multi-tenant opportunities that you guys can get involved in with Joseph below. Dude, thanks for joining me. I appreciate it.

Yep. Thank you. And to find me, you can go to My Instagram, which is Joseph Kimbrough.

There you go.

And then also my LinkedIn, which is Joseph Kimbrough as well, spelled J-O-S-E-P-H-K-I-M-B-R-O-U-G-H.

Awesome.

Guys, go check him out at that. We'll put it in the show links below here too, so they can click over to it. And it's like, as always, guys, help me beat big tech in their stupid little game they play online by liking, sharing, comment, subscribing, giving Joseph some love. Really appreciate it. Thanks again, brother, for joining me here.

Yeah.

Thank you for having me.

Let me ask you this. If you're serious about building an e-commerce business starting on Amazon FBA, what if myself and my team worked with you one-on-one to execute the steps outlined in the podcast while helping you discover what the heck to sell, how to make sure it's profitable, and how to successfully launch a brand? Plus, how to do it under a consulting plus performance-driven model where I put a $10,000 skin-in-the-game guarantee for those that show up and are serious about building a real business done with us. If you If yes, text keyword profit to +1-417-413-4209. That's 1-417-413-4209. And I will personally respond with a few simple questions. If you're not in the US or Canada, please visit voltage dm dot com. That's voltage dm dot com. Click get started and book a no-pressure discovery call with me or a member of my team to learn more about the Business Builders one-on-one coaching and mentoring. For CEOs, entrepreneurs, and those looking to build an empire or retire using the power of e-commerce. Once again, thank you for listening, and be sure to tune in next week for a brand new episode of the High Voltage Business Builders Podcast.