In this Build It to Billions podcast episode, host Brett Swartz interviews Ryan Cadwell, a partner at Resolute RDM and certified property manager. Cadwell shares his personal journey from helping his dad manage affordable apartments to leading large‑scale multifamily and commercial projects. The core of the conversation centers on how modern property managers can maximize investor returns by adopting a proactive, under‑written approach rather than reacting to market shifts. Cadwell explains that the right strategy varies by asset class: office properties in Indianapolis face a "flight to quality" that forces repositioning of B/C assets, while multifamily faces downward pressure on B/C units due to a surge of new supply. He also introduces a three‑flow framework for evaluating deals—cash flow, tax flow, and debt flow—emphasizing that investors must understand each component to build sustainable wealth. Throughout, the tone remains conversational and enthusiastic, with occasional podcast promotional remarks about stewardship, scaling wealth, and subscribing to the show.
Chapters
Before we jump into this episode, I want to invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward, scale to billions, and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support. It's incredible to see your comments, and we're just getting started. I can't wait to go on this journey with you. Thank you so much for subscribing. It means the world to me. Welcome to the Build It to Billions podcast, where we got successful entrepreneurs and investors on their journey from millions to billions. We believe the key to Scaling and compounding your wealth and life starts every single day with a mindset and practice of stewardship over ownership and applying billionaire biblical principles. Our ultimate goal is to help you scale and compound your wealth and life so you can give more all the way to help MVPs. My name is Brett Swartz. On every episode, we are joined by some of the world's top entrepreneurs, millionaires or billionaires, and they share their secrets, wisdom, and insight with us so we can all level up and make a bigger impact. I'm excited about our next guest. He's out of the Indianapolis area, and he is a partner at Resolute RDM, a— it's a real estate firm specializing in commercial investment and property management. Over 17 years of experience, and he has— he's a CPM, a Certified Property Manager, and a CCIM candidate designation as well. He brings extensive expertise in income-producing assets, investment strategies, asset management, syndications, ground development. He's a real estate pro, is what we're talking about here. Please welcome to the show with me, Ryan Cadwell. Cadwell. Ryan, how you doing?
Good, Brett. Thanks for having me. So excited to be here.
Absolutely. And for our listeners getting to know you for the first time, maybe just give us a little bit more about your story and your current focus, and then we'll, we'll dive into how to, how to build some wealth in today's market with property management.
Sure. Um, start— I grew up in the business. My dad owned, uh, some affordable apartments when I was younger, so just cut my teeth mowing grass, changing toilets, doing the, doing, you know, the stuff you got to do when you're a newbie and grew that, you know, grew that into a several hundred property portfolio. And then, and then I've just been, you know, leveling up ever since. Switched from, did a couple hundred flips, didn't like, didn't necessarily like not being able to control all of that. So then got into ground-up development and then that's migrated into some of the bigger projects we're a part of now.
Excellent. Yeah, that's great. And so let's dive right into it. What is the number one thing you're seeing for maximizing property management in today's marketplace? I feel like there's lots of changes that are all kind of hitting at once, you know, in a lot of ways. Of course, it depends what market you're in, what you're, what you're managing. But what, what are you seeing right now that your investors and/or the owners that you work with most appreciate about what your firm is providing?
Sure. I mean, I think, I think the main thing we provide, we provide more, much more of a proactive approach, proactive strategy as opposed to reactive. I mean, anybody, you know, knows that, you know, reactive usually can cost you more money. The proactive approach has more to do with buying right, making sure you know what you want, why you want it, and then build a plan and we execute the plan. As opposed to just flying by the, you know, flying by the seat of your shorts and just trying to figure it out as you go. Let you know, let's build something together that's properly, properly underwritten with proper assumptions. Know where we got those assumptions from. And then, and then, you know, execute, execute as best you can with the, you know, with things you can't control. But I mean, the main thing that, you know, a lot of the things we're getting brought into is just it totally depends on the asset class type. I mean, you know, office here in Indianapolis, there's a lot of flight to quality. So your B/C assets are going to have to be repositioned in a different way. Multifamily here, tons of delivery on new units. So that's, you know, that's creating downward pressure on your B and C. Quality units. Um, totally just depends on the asset type. It depends on when you bought it, depends on if you've got any of those interest rate pressures, um, how leveraged you are, all, you know, all those different kinds of things. So whenever we get involved with somebody, it's, you know, it's learn, learn who they are, learn what they did, uh, and, and build accordingly.
Yeah, I could agree with you more, Ryan. And by the way, can you learn more about Ryan on, by finding them on, on LinkedIn? And Cadwell Ryan Cadwell, C-A-D-W-E-L-L. You know, I feel like there's 3 things to every deal, and there would be management, whether it be acquiring, whether it be exiting. And there's, there's cash flow, which most people know, right? But there's also tax flow, and the third one is also debt flow. I think a lot of people got, you know, maybe a little bit. So if you like this little short clip of the interview I just did, click over here to watch the full interview. And please don't forget to subscribe. Thanks so much, everybody.
More from Ryan
PodcastPart 2 ft. Ryan Cadwell - Exit Strategy First: Why Most Investors Build Backwards: Exit Strategy First: Why Most Investors Build Backwards