He Landed A $41.4 MILLION DOLLAR Self Storage Deal From Sending A Letter.....

Summary

Action Academy Podcast: “He Landed A $41.4 MILLION DOLLAR Self Storage Deal From Sending A Letter.....”

Host: Brian Luebben
Guest: Rob Dubrock
Date: March 23, 2026

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Episode Overview

This engaging episode tells the remarkable story of Rob Dubrock, a self-storage entrepreneur who went from humble, small acquisitions to landing a $41.4 million self-storage portfolio—all triggered by a simple direct mailer. Rob details the highs, lows, and the learning curve involved in raising over $15 million for the deal, stepping into commercial syndication for the first time, and transforming both his business and mindset in the process.

The episode is packed with practical advice for real estate investors, especially those seeking to break out of “small deals” and make the daunting leap to larger, market-defining acquisitions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Small Deals to $41.4 Million: Rob’s Origin Story

• Rob started his journey buying one small self-storage facility at a time, often with his own money or through small JV deals. ([02:41])
• The massive leap occurred when his direct mail campaign caught the attention of a seller looking to offload an entire portfolio in Kentucky.
• “It took about as long as it takes to make a baby to get the deal closed. So we closed in August [2024] and now in December, we're four or five months down the road.” ([02:41])
• For perspective, Rob’s first ever facility cost $372,000 in 2020 (which later appraised for $1.1 million), providing early proof of concept. ([04:56])

2. Mindset: The “Oh Shit” Moment and Blinders-On Execution

• The leap from small personal deals to a massive syndication required, in Rob’s words, “pure ignorance” with unwavering faith and tunnel vision. ([06:37])
  • “I would put my blinders on and had tunnel vision that was determined to get this deal across the finish line come hell or high water.” ([06:43])
• Rob recounts the intense pressure, the need to “clear the calendar,” and negotiating with his wife that this was a “season” for going all-in. ([06:37], [09:26])
  • “I didn’t do a bunch of epic trips last year...My wife and I had a conversation, hey, if we’re going for this, we’re going for this.” ([06:37])

3. Raising $15 Million from Scratch—Zero to Hero

• Before this deal, Rob had never raised money at scale and had no institutional partners.
• He started with a $100k refundable earnest money deposit, negotiated through sheer persistence. ([12:10])
• A major turning point: leveraging existing relationships and building a deal team of professionals rather than trying to do every part solo.
  • Key partners included specialist attorneys and a broker who secured “commercial mortgage backed securities” (CMBS) financing WITHOUT a key principal (KP), a rare feat given Rob’s personal net worth was far short of the required loan amount. ([13:57])

“That was attractive that I didn’t need a KP...So, yeah, I was able to—the only one who signed on the loan, which was awesome.” —Rob ([15:02])

• He compiled a list of 70 potential investors but was surprised at how few were ready to write a check (“not as many people ready with money as I thought”). ([16:32])
• First investor was his long-time mentor, Jason, who even came in with last-minute funds to ensure closing. ([19:37])

4. Capital-Raising Tactics & What Actually Worked

• Rob shared and documented his storage investing journey for years, including building a 5,000+ member Facebook group, which unexpectedly yielded a third of his investors.
  • “A third of the people were friends, like direct network. A third of the folks were referrals. And then I'd say a third of them were introduced [through Facebook groups].” ([22:14])
• Instead of co-GPing with strangers (“not looking to get into a material participation partnership with somebody I don't know”), Rob relied on direct connection and trust. ([21:50])
• The capital raise was about quality, not volume: focused conversations, solving investor problems (“what’s in it for me?”), and deeply understanding their motivations—especially tax strategy and diversification. ([25:35], [26:41])
  • “Raising money is not about you. It’s about what you’re doing for the investor.” ([25:44])
• Notably, several active operators chose to invest passively in the deal, seeking better returns without direct headaches. ([24:29])

5. Deal Structure & Why It Was a Home Run

• $41.4 million purchase: $28.5M senior CMBS debt (69% LTV), $15M equity (syndicated).
• 10% LP preferred return, 50/50 split above the pref, targeting 2.5–3.66x equity multiple.
• Rob invested everything he had—selling six existing properties to fund it, deeply aligning with his investors. ([29:07])
  • “I put pretty much everything I could push in the deal I did...that commitment...people are like holy shit...you're putting everything on the line.” ([29:07])
• The killer advantage: market dominance.
  • “We have 86% market share...We're buying a market. And when you buy a market you control the market.” ([29:07], [34:57])
  • Under-rented units allowed for safe, data-driven rent increases and significant cashflow upside.
  • Committed to retaining existing staff, which also helped win the deal over other buyers.

6. Operations, Team, and Empowerment

• Rob runs a blended team—stateside staff and near-shore VAs—to ensure quality and adaptability. ([33:06])
• Clear message: culture and empowerment matter—a team that “feels like this is our company” produces exponential value. ([34:01])
  • “I sat down with two of the employees...they both said, look, we feel like this is ours. We want to see it do really good and reach its potential.” ([34:01])

7. Relationships, Long-Term Play & “The One Thing”

• Rob credits his success to relationships, not transactional hustle.
  • “Relationships over transactions. That always stuck with me.” ([40:19])
• He stresses the importance of concentrating on one core initiative—his “one thing”—to maximize focus and impact.
  • “This is the one thing. Until we execute the business plan, this is the one thing.” ([41:07])
• Passed on other opportunities, ignoring distractions, to ensure the big deal’s success.
  • “I have a deep respect for people that have a one thing over people that...you're doing like 30 things. I'm going to beat you because I'm doing one and I'm doing one like, really well.” —Brian ([42:34])
• Gradually, then suddenly: Exponential growth follows years of steady foundation-building. ([37:14])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Mindset & Execution

• “Pure ignorance, man. I was just ignorant enough to try.” —Rob ([06:37])
• “I put my blinders on and had tunnel vision that was determined to get this deal across the finish line come hell or high water.” —Rob ([06:43])
• “I did believe it was going to be a lot easier to get this one done than it was...I had unwavering faith on the end that I could get this done.” —Rob ([06:43])

On Relationships and Raising Capital

• “All of my interactions that were deal centric or I just met you because you’re interested in the deal were harder than somebody I met and had formed a connection with and already knew what I was about.” —Rob ([25:44])
• “Raising money is not about you. It’s about what you’re doing for the investor.” —Rob ([25:44])
• “Relationships over transactions... I haven’t deviated from that.” —Rob ([40:19])

On Focus and the “One Thing”

• “Don’t half-ass five things, whole-ass one thing.” —Brian ([43:41])
• “There is a time to buckle down and operate and get out of acquisition mode, I think that's really what resetting the goals is about.” —Rob ([41:07])

On the Deal’s Unique Advantage

• “Brother, we're buying a market...We're not buying a facility. We're buying a whole market. We control the rents.” —Brian ([34:57])

On Growth

• “Gradually, then suddenly.” (Referenced by Brian as the arc of massive growth after years of incremental effort.) ([37:14])

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Important Timestamps

• Kickoff & Context: [00:00–02:41]
• Rob’s Small-Beginnings to Mega-Acquisition Story: [02:41–04:56]
• Mindset & Going All-In: [06:37–11:52]
• Capital Raising—Process and First Commit: [12:10–21:00]
• Investor Sourcing & Networking: [22:14–24:29]
• The Power of Documentation & Online Communities: [24:29–26:43]
• Deal Structure, Staff Retention, and Market Dominance: [29:07–34:01]
• Focus, The One-Thing Philosophy, and Passing on Distractions: [41:07–43:41]
• Final Advice & Takeaways: [40:15–43:46]
• Where to Find Rob Online: [43:53]

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Conclusion & Takeaways

Rob’s story is a high-wire example of what’s possible when you get laser-focused, leverage years of relationship capital, and deploy persistent, learning-driven execution. The episode delivers actionable insights for investors dreaming of making the leap from small real estate deals to big, generational wealth-creating opportunities. If you ever asked “What if a $40 million deal landed in my lap?”—Rob’s journey is your blueprint to not just dream, but do.

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Follow Rob Dubrock:

• Instagram: @obdubrock
• Storage business: ontrackstorage.com
• Investor info: dubrockcapital.com

Host: @brianluebben

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Transcript

[A]

What's up, Action Academy fam? I have a question for you. Imagine you just started out real estate investing and you bought a house. The next year, you bought another house. Then the following year, guess what? You bought another house. Then all of a sudden, you start sending out direct mail and you have somebody come to you that wants to sell you their portfolio of hundreds of houses. That would be a little intimidating, right? And you would most likely pass it off to somebody else. Well, guys, in today's podcast episode, we have a hell of a story for you. Today's guest, Rob Debrack, was doing that same strategy. He was buying a small mom and pop local self storage facility. Then he would buy another small local self storage facility, and again he would buy another one. Until one day, one of his direct mailers caught the attention of somebody with a $41.4 million portfolio that they wanted to sell. He isn't buying a facility at this point. He is buying an entire market. And instead of going and just giving it away to somebody else, like a mentor or a friend, because he didn't believe in himself, he pulled the deal off, raising over $15 million of capital this last year on his own for his first ever raise to pull off this deal. And he got to the closing table and finished the deal. Today's podcast episode is all the highs, all the lows in the entire bumpy ride along the way to the closing table of all of our dreams, where you have that one whale that you land from a piece of direct mail. Today's podcast answers the question, what would happen if a $41.4 million deal landed in my lap, where I had zero experience managing anything that size before? You will learn today with my friend, Rob Dubrock. Guys, let's get to it. And as always, if you are loving this podcast, if you are loving this content, if it is adding value to you, the only way that we grow the show is through sharing these episodes with friends, family, fellow investors. Please text this episode over to other investors that could get value from it. Post it to your socials. I will happily share it. Let's get to the podcast. We're recording this the end of year 2024. You, my friend, have had a hell of a year. You have made a massive jump in your portfolio and your sophistication in every level of your life, which is causing you to completely reevaluate your goals for the next year and start from scratch. So, man, walk us through this year. What happened? What did you do this year that we're going to Be discussing today. Yeah.

[B]

What the hell happened? I just got out of a car crash. That's what happened. So about this time last year, end of December 2023, we got an LOI sign for a $41.4 million self storage portfolio in Kentucky. I'd been working on it for over a year and I. And the first question people ask is, how the hell did you find it? I found it through a mailer. I was just. I sent mailers out. I didn't even package envelopes myself. I just, I paid for data and was just shipping out. I was trying everything and cold calls, mailers, you never know where you're going to get a deal. So this one happened to be from a mailer. It's the, the only time mails have mailers have ever worked in history, I think was on this deal. And we caught a big fish. So yeah, this time I got. This time last year I got the. This self storage portfolio under contract by the end of January. Or sorry, I can back up because you edit, right. So this time last year, we got this storage portfolio under LOI In January we got under contract and then I had to raise $15 million over 15 million bucks. So I think that was the oh shit moment was like, all right, I've got earnest money down. I've never raised money before. No self storage. I know how to underwrite self storage, how to operate. We were at the time, I had six facilities, mostly my own money. I had a couple JV partners on a few of the deals, but really just a completely different level. When you start raising money, that's a total different business. So really this time last year, I started a completely separate business to bolt onto the self storage business. It took about as long as it takes to make a baby to get the deal closed. So we closed in August and now in December, we're four or five months down the road. Started investor distributions in November. It's a hard work, but yeah, I don't know where you want to start, if you want to unpack some of that, but. But really I'll just show the Contrast though. In 2020, my first deal was $372,000. Didn't know what I was doing. Ended up being a home run deal worth 18 months later, that one appraised for 1.1 million. And I go, oh my gosh, I. I figured it out. This is it. This is where I need to focus. This is my one thing. So that's 2020, starting with a $300,000 facility. And then now we're working on bigger portfolios.

[A]

Obviously this is going to be the topic of conversation for the podcast is literally that how do you go from doing some $300,000 deals with your own money, which most people would feel comfortable with, to doing a 41 million dollar syndication and all of a sudden overnight you're like, wait a second, hold on a sec. I read the books, I listened to the podcast. I'm supposed to do this 20 years from now. Wait a second. They replied to my mailer. What's going on? I want to highlight something that is an interesting thing that I think about a lot, which is it's not about how hard you work, but it's what you work hard on that matters even more. And I like to highlight what you just said because you're like, this is my one thing is storage. Like I'm going to learn storage and I'm just going to put my reps in. And had you not put those reps in and been technically proficient, there's no way that we would have even had a prayer of this $41 million dropping out kind of the sky, literally. And so it's the same thing with multifamily, it's the same thing with all this. But if all you're learning is single family, like, you're just going to see single family. But you are able to see these opportunities and hit it. So let's start. We'll break this episode down into a few different components to make it more easily digestible for the listener. My first question is the mindset component. So you said that you just completely scrapped all the goals that you had this year. I can imagine why going into 2025, talk about your experience with like goals with the mindset behind chewing on this and what was what tools or tactics allowed you to believe in yourself enough to do the deal. And then we'll break down more of the deal finding and deal management tactics later.

[B]

Yeah, pure ignorance, man. I was just ignorant enough to try.

[A]

Seriously. Yeah, same.

[B]

Honestly, I think I was. I to be. I think there's some truth in that though. I was, I would put my blinders on and had tunnel vision that was determined to get this deal across the finish line come hell or high water. Honestly, the selling party, I'm not going to get into their details, but it was a hostile transaction. It wasn't friendly by the. You get to a certain point in the transaction and you're going, okay, I've signed contracts for all of these reports. Think about it was over 50 parcels. I've got Alta surveys, I've got a ton of sun cost that I owe my lawyer money. We're talking seven figures worth of at risk capital. You're like there's no going back, right? We're getting this thing done. I think I underestimated how difficult raising money for the first time would be now. I think it'll be easy because we got a home run deal and we've good relationship with investors that are on this deal. And I know already folks are saying, hey, let me know when you got something else. I did believe it was going to be a lot easier to get this one done than it was. We had ignorance comment was tongue in cheek, but I think that was part of it. But I had unwavering faith on the end that I could get this done. And I think what set that up was the last several years in 2020 is when I got into storage part of the great resignation and shifted all my focuses into storage. So I was had a good run at it, fairly profitable on and I've taken five of my six deals full cycle and done well on the exits. Bought at the height of the market, sold at the bottom market, but still came out doing very well. So I was confident that if I just got this thing closed, like I know the potential in it and I can repeat what we've done historically, which is moving markets not dependent on cap rate fluctuations or getting great financing, we've got, we financed this thing at just under 7% interest. It's not a great rate. It's not a deal that works because it's four and a quarter. It's a deal that works at seven. I was just unwavering faith in getting it done I guess is how I would say the mindset was just like tunnel vision. I shut everything else out. So going back to the goals, like resetting from 2024, like I we cleared the calendar. Like I didn't do a bunch of epic trips last year or this year. I cleared the calendar and my wife and I had a conversation, hey, if we're going for this, we're going for this. Like we're committed and we both understand that this is a season and this is not going to be great. And there's a lot of sleepless nights and all of that stuff that goes along with like high pressure cooker situations. But this is easy, man. So I think I just adjusted for the season, kept tunnel vision and I really shut every, almost everything else out.

[A]

So I love that we're talking about this and we're not doing this bullshit dance of balance. Balance comes and it will come for you later. But there are seasons that are. This is just what is required. And I, the last two years I was able to travel, but people don't see like when I'm traveling, I'm still working. And so a lot of it was like 100 hour weeks where I'm just like, maybe it's. My locations are changing, but it's just that was what was required to get things off of the ground. Because in the beginning you're doing everything and I got coaching one time that I think is applicable to your situation, which is you have this growth curve, right. So you have like time and then like your growth on this chart. And then so you've got 10 years normally of growth, which is like a little slow trickle line, hopefully trending upwards. But then if you just skyrocket that line and you have 10 years of growth in one year, you need to integrate that 10 years of growth in that one year. And that is not a pleasant process. And that's the conversation that you had with your wife, which is like, shit's about to get real. We're about to become a new type of like entrepreneur. Like, walk us through. I want to hear about what that conversation looked like and I want to hear about your first conversation after that. Loi comes back. Who'd you call? Right. Who was the first person that you called? You're like, hey, we're accepted.

[B]

Honestly, I think I have amnesia from the. Just blacked out, I think so. I think I blacked out. And I would say it's even like my. So we had, we have twin boys. They're almost seven and they're chaos. And when they were born like that first, I don't know, 18 months, it was like the same thing for me, man. I don't remember a whole lot.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

As far as like details on that, I know for sure. When we sat down and talked about this deal and if I was pursuing this and going under contract, it was, I think we had a very serious conversation about what time was it going to look like and also what the opportunity is. So weighing opportunity cost, being very open about it. So we already had a trip to Hawaii planned for February last year. So we got that. It was two weeks out there. It was awesome. It's like after that, hey, we're off to the races and the foot doesn't come off the gas. Pedal. Tour done. It was, yeah, it was a hell of a year.

[A]

Yeah. So let's break this down into chunks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So capital raising, you go from raising no capital outside of doing a few JV partnerships to raising 15 million. And then how much was your hard money? What was your EMD that you had down? You said it was like seven figures hard.

[B]

No, so the EMD was a hundred thousand dollars.

[A]

Okay. So that's, I mean that's.

[B]

We were going, yeah, we were going back and forth on terms and I started, I had started at a pretty like half a million bucks. And then it just. Whenever somebody in a negotiation asks you for something and you concede, you ask for something back. And I just kept chipping away on that non. And I made it non refundable. I think at the end it was still refundable at like a hundred grand because I, they would chip at something and I chip back at the. Yeah, we'll do that, but we're gonna go down to 200,000, we're gonna go down to 150. And they never balked at that. But I don't think they, they did not believe I could close. And they made it very clear the entire time, even two weeks before closing. We're like, guys, we gotta, we have to get all these calculations and prorations and we gotta get the deeds. Your attorney has to prepare the deeds. I really, if we sat down and today they'd be like, I can't believe you pulled it off. So that they truly did not believe I could get financing and raising the capital. So actually before the capital raise bit, let me talk a little bit about the going and getting your balance sheet. I didn't go get a balance sheet. That's probably what's remarkable about this. So finding your good lending partner, finding a great broker. So I worked with Judah Etteret, probably butchering his last name, but at Princeton Capital Group. And he. If you find a good broker that's got great relationships with banks that can give you all sorts of different options. And we looked at Life Cos and big banks and like you said the balance sheet bit like they want you to be have a net worth equal to or greater than. Right. So we borrowed 28 and a half million bucks. I don't have a balance sheet of 28 and a half million bucks. Right. I'm not going to BS. You like CMBS loans get a bad rap because of the loan servicers and the reporting requirements.

[A]

And some of those where CNBC loans for somebody that's unfamiliar, okay.

[B]

Commercial mortgage backed securities, that's where they're collateralizing against the property or properties it needs to be a grade that they want to take back. If they or that they feel like they are, they're happy to collateralize. That's a non recourse loan. The issue with some of the other loan types was they didn't have as high of a loan to value. We got a 69% loan to value. We got pretty competitive lending terms, interest only for five years. But they. The one thing that stuck out was they didn't require that balance sheet partner. And a balance sheet partner can take a pretty big chunk for signing on the loan and rightfully so if they're signing a personal guarantee. David Osborne is one that he's a big fan of the non recourse loans and has a lot of those loans out there. So I appreciated that we found a solution where I didn't need to find somebody and give them whatever percentage they demand for being a balance sheet partner. And so yeah, I was able to. The only one who signed on the loan, which was awesome.

[A]

That's insane that you didn't have a KP on this. That's insane.

[B]

Nope.

[A]

That's crazy.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. So that was, that was pretty awesome. And then so that was attractive that I didn't need a KP. It was also attractive that I could get 69% loan to value instead of 55. But I talked to some capital brokers and they were saying oh, we could run it all the way up to 80, 87% LTV you using a blended capital stack. But at that point I don't want to lose what I've built so far. Their point, it's all a trade off. So I could do that and maybe give away less of a pie and keep. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. I'm good. I'm good with the 69% and so it gave us a what I thought was a reasonable raise. We did get stuck with a lot of fees though. Closing costs exceeded what even they estimated because of the number of properties. That's just in learning now I could now I learn more in this than in grad school. Honestly. Like that we're laughing about it but. And I also paid legal fees in excess of grad school at an Ivy League give you. I think we had around $450,000 in legal fees between and my attorney was the smaller portion of it. But lender legal was like 300 grand. It's just some of these numbers are, are insane to get that type of loan. And then also just on this size transaction.

[A]

So you go from raising no money to the 15 million. Walk me through. What is the plan? Like you get, you come to the realization you have the capital stack and you're like, this is what is required. I need to raise $15 million this year. What was the timeline? Like 90 days, a hundred days? What was the timeline?

[B]

I so that I started raising capital in February, right? Mid, mid, mid end of February was once I had the senior debt figured out because you can't really finalize your pitch deck until you have those lined out. So got that finalized and actually through this process you'll notice like, so I got the senior debt locked in. I found the right guy like this. A lot of this goes back to that whole who, not how, right, find the right person, the expert. Because I didn't know what I was doing. My attorney, he's. His name's Ferd Neiman. He's a syndicator. He's a mobile home park operator. Andy's an attorney. And so since he's experienced specifically in this thing, I had him whole holding my hand the whole way. But so he's on my team. My judah, my broker is on my team. You start gathering these teams, they don't have to be like per permanent hiring organization. It's a deal by deal team you assemble. So I, yeah, I had those two guys. But then like just for the deck. When you start raising money, it's, gosh, I'm not a graphic designer. I'm trying to raise hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in this case. I need a polished deck. So there's a guy that does decks for a lot of the gobundance guys, Rolando. So hit him up. He gives me a banging deck. You know, you just. Every time I needed something I went straight to the professional. Like, I know I'm friends with Ben Call, who's another syndicator and it's, hey, who have you used for this? Who have you used for this? What would you do in this situation? Critique this. So that helped me a lot get the, that helped me get the confidence when I was just constantly bouncing ideas off syndicators. I already know the storage side, been doing that for years. I needed to figure out capital raising what is going to resonate with investors, what's going to make my deal stand out for investors versus another deal that they could invest in with somebody who's done somebody who's done 10 multifamily properties, what's going to make mine stand out. This is my first deal. That's one of the red flags in the guidebook of these are the things to look out for when investing in real estate. Don't ever invest in somebody's first deal. That's like, number one. So, yeah, what do I got to do? And last night, I actually heard it on one of the calls. David Osborne said, invest in talent. And I'm like, okay, So I have to show these people that I know what I'm doing, show them my track record. The only difference is we're raising money this time. I'm letting people come along for the ride. But, yeah, as far as raising money, in my head had this list of 70 people who told me, hey, if you ever start letting people in on your deals, let me know. I'd love to get into storage. So I went through my phone and I called every one of them, and there wasn't as many people ready with money as I thought. Right. So shocking. Shocking. Yeah, yeah, we. Yeah, tried pretty much everything. I joined a mastermind to learn how to raise capital. I didn't really learn anything from those guys. And then just. I think it was that I hired somebody to help me and, like, coach, and that was helpful. But, yeah, really just like, role playing and getting the reps in. Like, really just getting the reps in was where it started to come together.

[A]

So how'd you start getting. What was your first commit? And then how'd you start, like, getting traction? So you've got a list of 70 people, and you're like, all right, cool, 15 million to go. How'd you. What was your first commit? And then how'd you, like, get the snowball rolling?

[B]

Yeah, my first commit was a guy named Jason, and he's. He's been a mentor the entire time I've been in storage. I actually met him because I was trying to buy apartment complexes at the time. He was trying to sell all his apartment complexes. When I went to tour the apartment complexes, he was really honest. And what a crappy business it is, at least, like, class C minus the ones he had that were, like, band aided together. He's. I don't know how you're going to run this and be profitable, especially the dealers. He was burnt out, man. He was just really burnt out from dealing with that type of tenant. And so I asked him, like, why are you selling this? This is. I read a book about this, which I did, and this is my dream. This is, like, where my fix and flip houses turn into mailbox money. And he's, yeah, it's not mailbox money. Like, you're gonna have to work your ass off. And I Don't think you're even gonna be profitable. But hey, if you know better than me, I've been doing this for 14 years. And so I'm like, huh, okay. But he said, yeah, I'm selling all this. I'm all in on storage. People don't pay. We just load their crap up and take it to the dump. And versus going through the eviction process and going to court and all that. He was just tired of it. So we hit it off, became friends and. And, yeah, the. The rest history. But, yeah, he was my first commit. And he just said, yeah, I'm in. And that felt good. So he's actually a guy who, when we were at the finish line, came up with extra cash to get me across the closing table and pulled a line of credit and was like, hey, my line is your line for this man. Just get it closed. So that was pretty cool.

[A]

Wow. And then when you finished, how many people did you end up with? And was it just pure grit? Did you tap anywhere else's.

[B]

Did you co. GP or no code gps? That was something also I learned was, I think there's a place for it. But initially, when I started talking about the deal, I took more calls from people who wanted to raise money for me than people that had money. Yeah. So it was like, is this how it's supposed to go? These guys all say they can raise all the money in two weeks. Just give me part of the gp, get me on the paperwork. And my attorney was just adamant that, hey, there's probably a right way to do that. There's just some legal implications with people who just raise money and get GP shares. So I.

[A]

It could be they have to have a material participation in the deal, otherwise it gets dicey. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

[B]

And I'm. And, dude, partnerships. I'm not looking to get into a material participation partnership with somebody I don't know or barely know or I'm an acquaintance. So I think that's not to be taken lightly. And there wasn't anybody on that in that world that that would have been a good fit.

[A]

So did you just do it from a bunch of cricket commits or did you find some family offices or somebody to come in and be able to have some substantial.

[B]

My average investor is over $200,000. A third of the people were friends, like Direct Network. A third of the folks were referrals. And then I'd say a third of them were introduced. So a third were like, friends and people in my immediate network. A third were referrals. From friends, which was pretty darn cool. One friend that was like five referrals from one friend. Another one was four referrals from one guy. So really what'll be cool is to see how that pans out down the road as we have a deal that is already performing and where that leads growth wise. I didn't know that the referrals just have baby referrals and you can grow your business that way. But the next group of of investors, a lot of them came through a Facebook group that I have. I started as part of like just networking in the storage community. So I started Midwest Storage Investors. We ended up dropping Midwest because we got a bunch of people from Georgia and California and Michigan and all over the country. So we have over 5,000 members on that. I have a secondary site that's just self Storage dealmakers and it's just for posting deals. So the investors is just, let's talk about operations. You get deleted if you start posting spam deals, wholesales, whatever. This is for like real people that are operating that to communicate my goal with this. And it's funny, it's like everybody's complaining about finding a deal in this market. This deal outperforms a lot of deals that you'd have to operate. So I'm like, if you just find a great deal and operate it well, then these people that are looking at Crexi or LoopNet, it's like the returns on this passive investment are actually better than the active one. Why the heck wouldn't I invest with Rob? So I had. I have several people who are active operators that invested in this deal because they want to be a part of. This is a really cool project with great returns. And they're like, heck yeah. I got an IRA from an old job. I don't like the stock market. I'll kick it over here. So that was really interesting. So yeah, about a third from that group. And that was unexpected too. That was really unexpected.

[A]

So it really just goes back to you just being gritty and also like the power of sharing and documenting your journey. Had you not documented your journey over five years and built up 5,000, anybody could build that. Anybody can build a Facebook group of 5,000 people over a period of a few years.

[B]

And that was. People have an aversion to the goo. Like some people have the guru in them and some don't. So like just stirring up a Facebook group if you're not like comfortable on camera, which I've done the videos on my Instagram and talked about storage et Cetera. But a majority of that Facebook network is a whole total different thing. It's like genuine connection with people and helping them out and sharing experiences. And if I can share something and. And just fast forward you three years or five years of learning curve and just give you the hack. Why not man Cheat on your homework all day like we. It doesn't matter. Let's just get. Let's get to the right thing.

[A]

So how many texts, how many phone calls, how many emails do you think it took? You obviously you don't know the exact number, but are we talking hundreds? Are we talking thousands? That to pull this off when it was all said and done. The reason I ask all these questions is because a lot of people listen to this show and they're getting into their first commercial properties while and they may not be raising 15 million, probably a million or two. They underestimate the amount of effort it takes sometimes to raise the capital. So that's why I'm asking.

[B]

So I'll say I feel like I had better results from the lower volume times that were more focused on quality of connection and solving somebody's problem.

[A]

Who.

[B]

Yeah, like the. Just the connecting with the right people. Right. And so I think building relationship like building relationship capital outside of a deal. Like all of my interactions that were deal centric or I just met you because you're interested in the deal were harder than somebody I met and had formed a connection with and already knew what I was about. Like they had already been informed and knows the deal with me, knows who I am. And then it's just a footnote and they're either in or not versus having to go through the whole thing. There's a lot of different. So you got to remember raising money is not about you. It's about what you're doing for the investor. So like on this there's significant tax advantages. Right. So one example specifically is had an investor who's great guy and he's. I really care most about the tax advantages. Cause he's got a profitable business and real estate professional status which is what you need, right?

[A]

I know, I'm working on it.

[B]

Yeah. But he invested one cycle and then came back after thought hey, do you have any more room Because. But the problem. It's solving a problem. Right. So you have to understand it's almost. So I was in software development before and we build these user Personas. So in the investor world you need to look at all these different investor profiles. It's okay. So I have the. Let's say A doctor or dentist, high income earner. They might not be able to take advantage of the tax benefits, but what's important to them, they want diversification. They want to have 20% of their portfolio in real estate, but they don't have the time or bandwidth. They're busy making big dollars. And another area, you might have a business owner with a problem. Maybe they have rep status so they could pass through some depreciation. That's a whole different thing. So, yeah, just really understanding the people and then helping solve their problem with whatever your. Your product is. So I. Dude, I'm a newbie at this, but the. It's been really fun learning this.

[A]

Last year, dude, I. I post for people listening. I posted on one of our. Our Mastermind groups pages, and I said, hey, I need rep status. I got this big tax problem. Props. Yeah, get a wife. Go get married. And that's what everybody kept saying. I'm like, I'm looking for appreciation and depreciation, baby, come on with it. Come on, honey, let's get rep status. Hey, so if any of you maybe I just didn't. Marry me a realtor. That's all I got to do. Hey, baby, go sell a house.

[B]

You just need to cruise down to the Keller Williams office. And I don't. You know, I was saying that kind of tongue in cheek, but really like the network with people who are in the world you want to be in. So I don't think that's.

[A]

I'll text Jay Papazon and say, hey, Jay, I need a Rolodex of your top performing Latina agents. There you go. I have a deal for them. Let's go to dinner. That's why it's awesome, man. It's Keller's home office.

[B]

Yeah, you could do they still have missed connections on Craigslist.

[A]

Oh, my God. I'll post the Facebook ad and say, looking for appreciation and depreciation. Oh, it's funny. All right, dude, that's freaking awesome. For the sake of time. So walk us through. Like, I think a core theme of this is that it comes back down to the deal and the wifm. What's in it for me? And the deal just sold itself. So it's your job just to get it out there, get eyeballs on the deal, and so you did that. So walk us through a little bit of the deal itself, how you structured it. How was it a home run? $41 million. Absolute insanity. Walk us through it.

[B]

Yep. Yeah. So it was a $41.4 million purchase. The capital stack was 28 and a half million dollars of senior debt. We went through Citigroup CMBS note. So that was commercial mortgage backed security. They non recourse loan. I raised 15 and a half million bucks. I put in. I dude, this one other piece is. I think once people saw that towards the end I was like I'm not going to be able to raise all this money. I sold 5 pro or 6 actually 6 properties last year to fund this to fund. I put pretty much every my nuts on the line. Like everything I could push in the deal I did so that there at the end that commitment. A lot of people are like holy shit. Like this is the real deal. You're you're putting out, you're putting everything on the line. Yes I did but this how I structured it. It was a 10% LP preferred return and then above that it's a 5050 split GPLP. And then like we're targeting a 2 and a half to 3.66 equity multiple which really equity multiples and target IRRs. Those are all things you have to present. But I don't like them because the right thing to do is what I did. And it was not be as aggressive as I wanted to be. Everyone jokes about conservative underwriting this that I underwrote a very confident. At a conf. Very confident level. And I plan on just like crushing what those numbers are. So I don't even repeating them. But yeah, that's how, that's how that was structured. We used InvestNext as an investor portal. It was awesome. It facilitated very smooth transactions. I think like even Opendoor and some of the bigger players are using those guys. The biggest thing with this deal that made it a home run is that we have 86% market share. And so the way I looked at it and the way I helped the investors understand is dude, we're buying a market. And when you buy a market you control the market. And when we're looking at like even market runs, there's only one REIT in that town. So that's like your corporates, right? This is a U haul franchise. They're almost always full. Like they only ever pop up one or two units at a time available. But we were 30% below them which if you're going down the numbers are different than going up. So we could go up like 56% to match them on rates. When I did, when I came in, I didn't change anything day one. But you come in when you acquire storage like an owl observing stuff and testing things 10 by 20 is a common unit size. They were charging $84. I had some in a much crappier market, like a really low tier thousand population market. And I was getting over 150 bucks. And so I'm like, I know there's room 8450. So like currently we're getting 145 for that unit and we're selling them, but it's all in like testing. So we didn't go to 145 overnight, but we got there pretty quick. I got there in four months and then another piece of it was like the existing staff. Like, it's just plug and play. I don't have to build a team, I don't have to reinvent. The wheel deal was really, that's really what got this deal across the finish line is they had the gentleman who runs their whole organization, their chase. What made me stand out as a buyer was I was the only one who committed to retaining the staff and the sellers. For the sellers. That was important to them. But as far as getting the deal with them, that was very important for them that I wasn't just coming in and firing everybody. I know you've had Cuber on the podcast, these other storage operators, and everybody operates a different way. I utilize a hybrid technique. We have some VAs out, like nearshore, actually like Mexico. But I also like having stateside employees.

[A]

So sure, yeah, I have mostly stateside, like I. And I have one offshore va. I've got one near shore VA who's very sophisticated. I wouldn't even call her, like she is a virtual assistant, but I wouldn't even call her that. She's a member of the core team. And yeah, our thing is, I would rather like for our Action Academy thing, I was like, I can do the admin, Like I could do an army of admin, or I could have 5 to 10 really highly paid, competent, badass core staff. And that's the route I opted to go.

[B]

Yeah. And. And I. I feel like our remote team is genuinely like a part of the team. When I worked in software before, we always had folks in Uruguay and Colombia and it wasn't a cost thing. It was more of, can I find somebody highly skilled quickly and in software. They were your good engineers. Stateside were always getting sniped, so that opened me up to it. And then I'm like, dude, this is awesome. But yeah, the goal is really to have kind of a blended team and everyone's on the team and it forces technology on the local team. So you're not Just getting lazy and complacent. And it's all hallway conversations. Like, we got everybody on zoom, which kind of acts like Slack the version that we have. No, it's awesome. I'm stoked about this one. I had a call with an investor on my drive back from Kentucky because I been going back, I live in Kansas City, and I drive back and forth. And he was like, how's it going? And I gave him a brief update. And then at the end, I was just like, but, dude, I'm just having fun, man. Like, this. We've got to the point where it's fun. Like, raising money was hell.

[A]

This is.

[B]

This is the good stuff. Yeah, that's where it's at, man. It's fun and it's a lot like, I think one of the other. One of the other pieces on, like, how are you? How do you get it done? And all that. It all, like, it goes back to the people and the team you build. Go. You have this whole team you build for the capital raise and getting it closed on such a complex deal. Dude, we had. This was a syndication with 1031, so tenants in common and seller financing stuff. And it was just like such a complicated deal. You have to have the right people to get it done. But then getting on the other side of the deal, it's really like empowering the team to. And having the right people that care about the business. And really, like, I sat down with two of the employees last week when I was in Kentucky, and they both said, look, we feel like this is ours. I know we don't, like, technically own it, but we've worked here so long, and we just. We feel like this is our company and we want to see it do, like, really good and reach its potential. So, dude, those are the people you want on your team.

[A]

Dude, you had a line there that was so badass. You're like, brother, we're buying a market. Yeah, that's badass. Yeah, come on now. We're not buying a facility. We're buying a whole market. We control the rents.

[B]

So one cool thing about controlling the market or having friends in the market is. So I mentioned Jason before. He's an investor in the deal. He's a mentor. He tossed me a deal in his hometown of Newton, Kansas. I got it, and it was too small for him. He's working on $30 million projects now. So he tosses me this half million dollar deal, and we're operating and raising rents and all this, and he and I are sitting at dinner with Another friend and we're eating steaks and I just start talking shit. This is in 2021. Because he's, oh, how's it going? I'm like, oh, we're doing good. But why are you charging like $75? We're getting 115 on the same unit. Like, we're doing real good. So like we challenged him on like, we can get these rates in this market. And so he started raising his rates. Six months ago he sent me an email, he goes, hey, here's a snapshot. Site link is a software he uses. He goes, I have about the same amount of units rented back in 2021 before I started just doing annual increases, Just discipline over time. He goes, now, same number of units rented. I'm making over a hundred thousand dollars more. All because you're talking shit that one night while we're eating steaks and drinking beers. So it's funny, what we're hoping is in that market that the other operators will see, oh, wow, they're like, they're getting this. We're still going to be lower than them. Okay, whatever, fill up, that's fine. But get more into what the standards are. And we're also. So we're not moving rates like just on a whim. There's data, there's mini storage messenger does a bunch of research. There's store track that does a bunch of research on what pricing trends are in regions. And so like when I analyze this deal, I have this book, it's called the self storage outmac. They charge 250 bucks for it. That's my whole thing. I look at that, I go, okay, in this market we should be able to get X. We're like less than half that. Even if I am only halfway to where they should be, we're going to smoke this thing. So they are data driven decisions. And like, obviously that comes out when you're talking to the investors. Like, where do these numbers come from? Like, show you can get that. Look at these guys over here, 30 minutes away.

[A]

Yeah. I think the theme of this episode is a quote that I got from a coach that pissed me off, of course, which is all good quotes, all good coaching. Pisses you off. At the time. He said gradually then suddenly. So it's like gradually comma, then suddenly. This is you, like gradually talking shit, building relationships. Five years, it's always a hockey stick. It's never, oh, I'm gonna do 7% growth and 7% growth, then 7% growth. It's like you're growing a little bit. And then all of a sudden, it's exponential. Like, we have those moments where you got the pitch across the plate and you took a swing, and I freaking love that. Like, that is so cool. And I actually just had something like that happen in my business as well. Like, out drove to Dallas to meet a friend. That's why relationships matter more than anything. That's another key theme from this episode is it's who, not how. There wasn't ever a time where you're like, oh, let me go buy this course or let me go buy this book on this. You're like, no, who does this? Like, I need to get in their world. And so I had a buddy, Christian, and that lives in Dallas. And so I drove up to Dallas. We could have done a zoom call, but no, I was like, I'll drive up to Dallas to go see you. Because he runs a community. He's big in multifamily, and he's just a buddy. And I hadn't met him yet. And so we. We're. We're shooting the. And literally, he's wiping off of his baby's bottom. He just had child, and he's just over there, like, wiping his kid, and he's, what are you doing for Black Friday? I was like, nothing. I'm like, joe, we run a community. We don't do discounts. And he goes, he's no, do something. I'm like, that doesn't work for us. Like, doesn't work for communities. He goes, yeah, it does.

[B]

He's.

[A]

I made, like, quarter million dollars last year doing Black Friday. He's just having a deal. People are ready to buy, people are ready to move. And so I was just like, okay, cool. So we announced on this podcast, Action Academy Podcast, and we did, like, $184,000 in a week.

[B]

Damn, that's awesome.

[A]

Oh, shout out to all of you guys from the podcast. And you know what? Everybody said all of you said the same thing. I was going to join anyways, but I just love a good deal. So I was like, okay, so now that's something. So I called him the other day and I said, hey, bud, good advice. That helped a bunch. I've had friends. I've had friends say the same thing to me before I gave a piece of advice. And then all of a sudden, a year later, they're like, hey, I bought a car wash off of what you told me. I'm.

[B]

What? You serious? That's funny. Crazy. So Black Friday, I. I guess if the team's working, they're not off on Black Friday this year. We have a record rental day on Saturday after Black Friday. I go, is this just consumer behavior? We didn't have any outside the normal, but I'll take that. And I think we'll. We'll run with that one, too.

[A]

Any closing advice for anybody that's listening to this and they're where you were. Were they slow and steady, they're winning the race. But whenever they do get a big deal across their desk, they're always like, I'm going to assign this to somebody else. I'm going to give this to somebody else. I'm going to call my mentor to go take this down instead of me. What's some advice you can give to that person that gives me the confidence to swing when they get the.

[B]

Yeah, when they get that big whale of a deal, they can go ahead and email it to me.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But no, in all seriousness, there's two things. One, it's just what I live by relationships over transactions. There was like a realtor, Ricky Carruth, that's one thing. When I was trying to be a. When I was a wannabe realtor, that was one of the things he just said. He was like a free online coach. Right. But he's just relationships over transactions. And that always stuck with me. And I think it served me well. Cause that's. I haven't deviated from that. And then the, the next bit is like, know when to stop swinging. Know when, when enough is enough, and when you need to focus on the one thing. Last year, I had a lot of deals thrown at me, and I'm like, I'm on the one thing. And even in a conversation with an investor recently. So are you doing anything else? I'm like, no, this is the one thing. Until we execute the business plan, this is the one thing. Unless something pops up that's next door and it's like, not a distraction.

[A]

Right.

[B]

If there was like a little facility in the same town and we go, hey, we could just bolt this on. We'll just take this one down. Sure. But I'm not actively trying to get distracted. Like, there's a. There is a time to buckle down and operate and get out of acquisition mode, I think that's really what resetting the goals is about. Last year, I wiped out all my acquisition goals. I just said, this is the one thing. And my POD challenged me. They go, what if this deal, like, doesn't. So we. We have an annual meetup, and I was just getting this under contract. I go, this is My, like, my one goal for the year. I'm not doing any other business deals. What if it blows up? Like, it won't blow up. And we'll. We'll figure out if that happens, then I didn't meet my goal. But I'm not doing. I'm not signing up for anything else. This is it.

[A]

So normally I give the opposite advice, but for this type of deal, I think it made sense to put your chips on the table.

[B]

Yeah. I had health goals. I had other stuff. But I'm saying as far as business goals, it's. And it warrants it. And sometimes it doesn't warrant it. But if you cannot give a hundred percent of your focus to five different things all at once. I've figured that out. Right. Like I have. So I mentioned I sold five of my six properties. The one that I held onto was a value add that when I started working on this project, I was not putting a hundred percent of my energy on. And we're not. When we closed on this Kentucky deal. Yeah, this one's not positioned to sell yet because we didn't. I didn't have the energy to execute the plan. I didn't have the people in place. I didn't have the marketing in place to do what I needed to do. So it just had to be on pause for a little bit. And I knew that. Yeah.

[A]

I have a deep respect for people that have a one thing over people that, like, now I can recognize it. And I see people. I'm like, like, you're doing like 30 things. I'm going to beat you because I'm doing one and I'm doing one like, really well. And it's like people that are 10 times worth what we are. I'm just like, you're act. It's different if you're passively doing some stuff like air quotes, passively. But people. And you're like, you're doing that and that. You're like. And so my favorite thing was from Hormozi, the woman in the red dress. And it's just like whenever you get a deal like this, then all of a sudden the most beautiful deals start piling onto you. And I got. I get hotels sent to me. I get apartments sent to me. I get storage sent. I get everything sent to me and I say no to everything. And I keep my one thing. So respect. I think it'll serve you in the long run. Thousand percent.

[B]

Yeah. I appreciate it. We're. We're all chasing fulfillment. So you don't. It's. Yeah. I've chased all the squirrels, man. I've got into day trading and flipping houses and realtor stuff and this and this and this and dude, it's not worth wasn't fulfilling. Half assing 10 different things is zero fulfilling.

[A]

So in closing, don't half ass five things, whole ass, one thing. Buy a bunch of stores.

[B]

Yes. Whole ass, the one thing.

[A]

People want to find out more about what you're doing and they want to follow along for the adventure. Where can they find you?

[B]

Yeah, so they could follow me on Instagram, OB Dubrock and then they could also check out our storage facility website, ontrackstorage.com or on the investor side, dubrockcapital.com are both good places. And they've got email. Dubrockcapital.com will have my email address.

[A]

Beautiful, man. Thanks for coming on. Been a blast.

[B]

Yeah, appreciate it.

[A]

See what's next, man.

[B]

Yeah, thank you.

[A]

And with that's Brian and Rob with the Action Academy podcast signing off.