Cody Davis built a portfolio of over 100 apartment units by age 22 using seller financing and low-down-payment deals. He acquired properties ranging from a 12-plex in Quincy to a 38-plex, emphasizing that relatability, clear goals, and trust with partners matter more than traditional syndication.
Chapters
Relatability grabs attention, and at the end of the day, your relatable points are your past. It is just that simple. The things that you've gone through to get from where you were growing up— everybody comes from a different position. Some people are further ahead. I didn't have any real estate connections. I was not one of those people that was starting further ahead. I had to start from ground zero. Relatable point. There's a lot of people that start there. And even the people that do inherit the real estate, they don't start from ground zero. They start from zero education, which is a great place to start because we can all relate on that. I grew up playing soccer for 11 years and I had to quit because financially we couldn't afford it. I gave that up. That is a conversation starter for someone who understands that money— yes, there's a lot of money out there, but we don't all start with it. And it is not the end goal, it is just a method to get there. And so as far as relatable points go, when I got started and I called this broker, there was someone in the office who had written up a deal. I was a real estate agent at the time, not a good one. I didn't make next to any money. And there was another agent who was making a lot of money, he was selling deals. Well, there was this 22-unit deal that popped up over in Central Washington. I'm based out of just south of Seattle. And so Central Washington, I didn't even know what the town name was. I brought it up to a close friend and they were like, what the heck is Quincy? You know, nobody knew about it, but it's this little tech town that it's not really that public. But there was 20 units that popped up and the buyer backed out. It was seller financed. If you don't know about seller financing, it's something you should look into. It's what's allowed me to take $3,000 and turn it into a little over 100 apartment units in 2 years without syndicating. But the deal fell apart for the buyer, and my original mentor at the time said, "Oh, you should just go buy it." And there was no brokers involved. Well, we're talking about instilling confidence in brokers. I'll share with you, that deal didn't come together. I needed a 1-week extension to get that deal. I would have been financially retired with a signature, and that'd be it. Well, seller didn't give me the 1 week. I didn't have the confidence to transfer to him. This is all about transference of emotions and confidence. That deal fell apart and I found a 12-plex in the town of Quincy. It was offered with seller financing. I had to call the broker. Well, it starts with relatability. Relatable point, I was just working on a deal. It was 22 units, same market, and that thing just fell apart. You gotta find something out of your story. Whether it's real estate based or not. You start with relatable points, and at the end of the day, this is what will get you to the table. Then you look at goals. You get to the table, you're talking with a broker, this could also be with an investor. The goals get people to work with you. Who here in the room has met with someone and realized your goals didn't align? Anybody? Okay, great. Relatability got you to connect, but at the end of the day, goals were not in sync, didn't get them to want to work with you. One of my goals, I put up a few pictures of the properties. The bottom right is the very first 12-plex that I ended up buying. I didn't have any money for maintenance, uh, so I had to rake all the leaves myself. I had to do all the lawn care. And over time started buying some more buildings, bought some duplexes, bought some 6-plexes, bought a 38-plex. Bought a few more 12s. In the beginning, it is very hard. You have to find your track record, but at the same time, regardless of whether you're at step 1 or you're at the very end of your goal or your dream, you have to be able to convey your goals. 'Cause at the end of the day, the story you tell people about yourself is significantly more important than the piece of real estate you're buying. It's always more powerful because people love to connect through stories. In this situation, I started out with a 12, and then I found another person who wanted to sell a building. It was another 12. I was like, relatable point, get me to the room. And I developed the goal that I wanted to be the single largest apartment owner in all of Grant County. Right now I'm number 3, and there's a billionaire ahead of me, so I have a little bit of work to do. However, I have the right goal. And now I'm getting phone calls from brokers, which I had to do all the legwork in the beginning. Very difficult to do. Now a broker just called me yesterday and we're going mutual on a seller-financed, zero money down, 10-plex today. We're signing right now. My business partner Christian's over in the room. Now the, the 10-plex is great. I mean, it's gonna put me over 100 units. I'm super stoked about that. But the significance is in the story, not the real estate. Because at the end of the day, the real estate— nobody just buys real estate just to say, oh, I own real estate. It allows you to do something. And so when you're communicating with people, specifically today we're talking about brokers, but it could be brokers, it could be investors, it could just be friends you're trying to inspire to play this game. You have to share goals big enough that are significant to you to where that you're gonna grab their attention. 'Cause yes, you can get people in the room, but at the end of the day, you know, it's hard to do this and you need people on your side. It's not a solo game. And so you have to share goals that will get people to want to work with you. And then the last piece is significance. A lot of people think of this as quantify, your why. Yes, you can get people to the table. Yes, you can share your goals. People want to work with you. But at the end of the day, I needed a lot of help to do this, and I had to inspire a lot of confidence in people to get to where I'm at. This is not a solo game, and it's not always gone well. I've had relationships that have blown up that have been huge, you know, huge blows. People I trusted, built great great relationships with other brokers. And, you know, not everybody has good business ethics. That's okay, but you learn from it. The significance of what you're doing creates buy-in. And the buy-in is what gives you the opportunities to move forward quicker than anybody else. The syndication model. Anybody can syndicate. Anybody in this room can go buy real estate. You can buy 100 units, 1,000 units, whatever you set your goal for, you can accomplish it. The difference is how long is it gonna take you to actually get there? And that's gonna come from significance. 'Cause once you get in the room in front of a bunch of people, what it comes down to is I need to share a goal that people can relate to, that they can see the vision in, and then the significance. When I'm talking to brokers, why me? 'Cause there's a whole bunch of people that have a lot more money than me. And in your situation, relate it to youth. How long have you been in the business? If you've been doing this 1 to 5 years, I'm on year 3 almost, you're in the beginning. I'm still in the beginning, and as are a lot of people in the room. You need to create buy-in from folks. And part of that comes from not just talking about yourself, but inquiring on them. Ask how many brokers actually get asked why they're doing what they're doing, why they went through all the hoops they did to broker those type of assets you want to buy. No one's asking them that. They're asking for deals. It's why they're asking for lists. I don't want to be on a list. I don't want anybody here to be on a list because that's not relationship-based. That's transaction-based. At the end of the day, yes, you can do transactions. You can go build a 2,000-unit portfolio doing transactions. I met with a guy 2 days ago who's done that. He owns it in one LLC, which is crazy to me, and he owns it in cash. He started with $900. He had to build enough relationships with people. You can build it being transactional, but there has to be a relationship somewhere. That guy during our dinner was taking calls from tenants. Amazing. But he was building relationships with people trying to get them into housing. And his son's a broker and he helps out, assist those. But the main thing I'm trying to hit home here is that when you build a relationship with people, you understand the other party's significance and they understand yours. It's powerful. And they will give you opportunities that no one else gets.
