
Welcome back to the Real Estate Investing School Podcast! We are stoked to have the one and only Beardy Brandon Turner on the podcast today! Today's Real Deal episode takes a in-depth analysis into how Brandon found, funded, and forced his first...
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A
That zero dollars and that hustle of a couple hard years of work. It was hard year. Hard years of me and Heather working at that apartment complex led to million, million plus dollars down the road. Tons of cash flow. Dude, I love real estate.
B
What's up, everybody?
A
What's up, everyone?
B
Welcome back to the Beardy Brandon.
A
The Beardy Brandon podcast.
B
We've been practicing.
A
We've been practicing that you're a little off.
B
This is what my 6 year old daughter does. Did you know that?
A
This is what my 6 year old daughter does.
B
She does that too, you know, because you have a seven. Oh, what's up? If you don't know by the voice and by the beard and by the sarcasm, we are honored today to have a special guest, Mr. Brandon Turner, in the house.
A
So in my house. Well, in my office.
B
Yeah, yeah, this might be your house.
A
Sometimes there's a shower here.
B
Kick you to the curb.
A
Yeah, there is a shower and a couch. So a person could live here.
B
Yeah, you got your barber down the.
A
Street, your house, Akamai Coffee right over there. Barber.
B
That was a Maui brew. We met there. That was. I don't know if that was the first time we met.
A
It might have been. We did meet there.
B
Might have been the first time we met. It might have been. Yeah.
A
We should go there afterwards.
B
Yeah.
A
I don't know what time they close at Big Coffee. I know you and your coffee. You can't get enough of it.
B
Those smoothies are good, though.
A
They are good smoothies.
B
But hey, I'm excited to have you here because I'm more excited. Dude, you actually are. You're not more excited. You actually finish the ends. You actually are like the legend when it comes to teaching, coaching, inspiring, all things real estate investing.
A
Thank you.
B
So, I mean it. There's a lot of real estate legends out there. I'm one of them. Just kidding. No, but I mean, you have like, you have like, you know, Robert Kiyosaki. You have like the Grant Cardone we actually had on the show a couple weeks ago.
A
Did you?
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone, for the record, everyone's been asking, how much did you pay him? How'd you set all that up? And I'm like, he DMed me on Instagram and we thought it was fake and it was real. And so we had a podcast.
A
That's great.
B
So it was awesome. But anyhow, low key. I like Brandon in his philosophies. Probably aligned a lot better than we are.
A
Thank you. I probably agree. He's got some admirable Things about him. I like him.
B
No, me too, dude. Yeah, it's one of the. I was like, you should go back and listen to the episode. But the first 45 minutes, we even talk real estate. And, like, I loved it. It was so good. And then we got into real estate and it wasn't as good. No, it was.
A
Well, you have a podcast. That's the line I should have said when you said the podcast. Dang it. I missed it.
B
Hey, good thing is, when you have the. The keys, you can edit out any of this.
A
Dang it.
B
Silver, Golden. But. But no, dude, on the. On the real. Like, that's actually how we became friends. Because I resonated with you. I listened to your podcast.
A
I thought it was Tinder that we became friends. Oh, we don't talk about that one. Edit that one out.
B
Is it Tinder or is it Grindr?
A
Grindr is the better one.
B
Y. I didn't know if your audience.
A
Would know that, though. I didn't. I didn't want to make that joke because that doesn't make sense. The fact that you know about Grindr makes me wonder a little bit.
B
Well, we are going to talk about real estate today. It's going to be a quick episode, but we have a real deal episode where we go over one deal that somebody has found funded and forced, and today we get none other than the real estate legend to dive into it. So, beardy Brandon, what deal are we going to talk about today?
A
I would like to talk about. Oh, man, there's a lot. Why don't we talk about the.
B
You like that little, like, oh, there's thousands. There's thousands of deals. There's hundreds of thousands. These not even exist. Maybe 100,000.
A
Hundreds of millions of deals. Why don't we talk about. You know what? I'm going to. I want to talk about this one. Said I was going to talk about the one, but that's a more lame story. I want to talk about the very first mobile home park I ever bought.
B
Oh, yes. I love this because this is a little bit different than what we get. So 10,000 foot overview mobile home park. What was the purchase price? Where is it? Kind of give us. Give us an idea.
A
All right, so here's the backstory. So I owned a 24 unit apartment building in Grays Harbor, Washington, Little county out on the coast in Washington. I bought that with seller financing, actually a variety of methods, but ended up seller financing with it. Have it for, I don't know, almost 10 years, something like that. Fixed up every Unit myself, My wife and I were there all the time fixing it up. We were ready. One day, we just got an unsolicited offer. Just like some random guy driving by, saw it, contacted the property manager, they said, hey, I want to buy it. We were like, okay. Which is a good indication. Like, people sell sometimes. Just like it never occurred to me to sell. I was just like, I just moving along, just in life. And then the guy hit me up and I was like, oh, yeah, I don't know, I'll talk. Offered me a decent price for it, which today is probably worth double that, but whatever. I sold the property to this guy. And then I had to do a 1031 exchange. I didn't want to pay like 100 grand in taxes, which is what I was gonna be faced with. So I decided to go out and hunt. And I told everybody I knew I wanted a mobile home park. And for no other reason other than I interviewed a bunch of people that did mobile home parks. And I always thought that sounded cool. So I thought, I'm gonna buy one. As many might know and might not know, you only have 45 days to identify your property after you sell the first one. In order to avoid those taxes, I gotta identify it within 45 days. So I'm telling everyone I know about this. Then I take this trip over to New York City. Cause I. I'm asked, a friend of mine's like, hey, I have a meet up in New York. Can you come fly in? I'm like, sure. I lived in Washington at the time, so I fly six hours across the country. My daughter is like a few months old. She throws up on my wife in the airplane within the first minute of getting on the plane. And we did not bring a change of clothes. We're young parents. We didn't realize this was the thing that you should do. So we didn't bring a change of clothes. She throws up all over my wife. She stinks. I stink like throw up. Cause I got trying to clean her off. I get it on me. It's a red eye flight. We sleep not a wink at all. Fly all the way across the country. I land at 9am or whatever in New York time, which is really like, what's three hours earlier? It's like 6am Whatever. I say land. And I have a podcast in one hour with Grant Cardone.
B
Okay, I have to get.
A
I am. It's funny that the story is in person. No, but that was. The problem is I didn't. I had one hour to get to a Place I could have a podcast. So I ended up driving around, I found some random, like, Hampton Inn or something like that. And I'm like, do you have any WI fi? And they're like, you have to rent a room. And I'm like, fine. So I rent a room at this Hampton Inn and I get the WI fi and I interview Grant went fine. I go to this meetup that night and the whole time like, what the heck am I? Like, I should not be here. This was such a waste of time. This sucks. I'm flying across the country. I still smell like puke, haven't showered yet. I'm like, this is just. Why am I doing this for free? To fly across the country to go speak at an event. And while I'm there, I mentioned on stage I'm looking to buy a mobile home park, ideally somewhere around 50 units. And I'm getting desperate. I'm like, I got like a few days Left on my 1031. And somebody in the audience, out of curiosity, I had like 200 grand. Well, I had 200 grand to spend. Like, is what I had to put into something roughly. So there was a gentleman in the audience of that speech I gave there. Whatever the meetup, there's probably 200 people there. And one of them had flown down from Bangor, Maine, tall, handsome, Nordic looking fella named Ryan Murdoch. And Ryan Murdoch did not come up and say hi. We don't even think we shook hands that night. But a few days later, I get an email that says, hey, you probably don't know me. He was on a podcast years earlier, but he's like, I don't remember me, but I was on your podcast and I was there in New York and heard you say you want a mobile home park. Well, buddy of mine is selling his and it was A. It's 52 units or 49, something like that. I think it was 49. We made it 52. Here's the numbers. I just, you know, I'm sure it's a terrible deal, but here you go. And that's how that started. I said, hallelujah. This actually could pencil out. It looks like a decent deal.
B
And he. And Ryan wasn't doing mobile homes.
A
He was not. He was managing them. He was a management company at the time, or had owned one at one point. He owned a bunch of his own rentals that just kind of like crappy little rental property in a small town like I had. And I looked at it and I was like, this looks awesome. But I said, the only way I would do it is if you partner with me on it, because I don't know Bangor, Maine. I don't know the area. I don't know the property managers, contractors, nothing. And this thing was pretty rough. Like, it was not like, we buy today. We buy nice ones today. This was rough. We had a bank robber in one of them. We had a prostitute in one who wasn't actually a prostitute. Let me tell you guys a little scheme if you want to make some money. This is a good one. If you advertise that you are a prostitute and you get men to come to your trailer, and then your boyfriend comes out and robs the guy, they can't do anything about it because they can't report you because they were there for hooking up with a hooker. It's the perfect crime.
B
So the prostitute and the boyfriend.
A
Yeah, the robber and the prostitute are together in on this scheme where they would send people. The guys would come in, the truckers or people would come through and they just would rob them. Then she wouldn't have to sleep with the guy. And they get money. It's like a win, win, win for everybody involved.
B
Except for the guy.
A
Well, he didn't have to commit a crime. Everybody wins in this situation is really what I'm trying to get at. He gets punished correctly. Okay, Everybody wins. What a great. So Brody and I have a new business that we're starting.
B
I'll be the Robert.
A
Anyway, so this is a rundown place, all that to say. And Ryan and I partnered on it, but I still did not have enough money for it.
B
Okay, so when you. When you say you partner with them, what did that partnership look like?
A
So the way that we looked at it, I said, I've never done a syndication before. At this point, I'd never done one. I didn't know much about it. But typically in a syndication, 70, 30 split is typically how a syndication is done, where 30% goes to the general partners, the one put the deal together, and 70% goes to the limited partners, the people put right in the money. Well, I didn't have enough to buy the whole thing. We needed a pretty large down payment, so I didn't have the whole money. So we went to a third friend, another partner. They brought some money, I brought some money, and Ryan brought a little bit of money. So the way we structured it is like a syndication. We said, let's just pretend me and ryan are the GP. So we each took 15% each of the deal. So 15 and 15, the other 70, we just carved up Based on how much each person invested. So I was putting in roughly half. So that's how it. That's how it worked out. So I think I ended up with 42% of the actual deal at the time. It was all said and done, and ryan maybe had 15 or 20, and the other partner had the rest, so.
B
Cool.
A
Okay.
B
Yeah, I want to dive into that. First off, do you still have this? Out of curiosity?
A
I don't. We sold it a few years after that for about double what we paid for it.
B
Okay, and what did you pay for?
A
Just to touch on that. 950.
B
The.
A
Somewhere around. 950.
B
950.
A
950.
B
And you sold it for about double that.
A
Yeah, just about double that somewhere. Right. It was like 1.8 maybe.
B
And this was over five years. Six years.
A
We held it only. We held it for four years, roughly.
B
Dude, it's crazy. We've done in four years.
A
Yeah, nuts.
B
Because, I mean, I remember literally you talking about, like, I'm gonna do this thing. I'm getting a mobile home. Because you. You voiced it before. You did it quite a bit like, hey, I want to do this. Into this.
A
I'm a big believer. Put it. Yeah. Put it out in the universe, what you want. Like, put your desires out there.
B
Like, this takes a lot. When you have a lot of people that are listening to you consistently, like, I'm gonna go do this. And now you have how many units?
A
13,000.
B
13,000. So you had to choose from 100,000 deals. You weren't.
A
That's actually. Yeah, it's like 13,000 deals, but we've only actually done maybe 80 actual deals because there's a lot of large properties.
B
Properties. Yeah. So what was that? Was the down payment on this one? I know you kind of.
A
Yeah, I think it was somewhere on the 300k mark, if I remember right. So I brought, you know, roughly, I think, because I actually ended up buying two. It goes in the weeds a little bit. I don't need to. I ended up dividing and buying two properties with that money I had. I had 200 grand to invest, but I ended up needing, like, 80 of it for another property I bought and ended up being a terrible deal. And we. There's actually a lesson here. I bought another 24 unit in Ohio, just. I found. Somebody sent it to me on bigger pockets, was like, here's a. Here's one that I think might fit your 1031. And then somebody else brought. Then, you know, Ryan brought this mobile home park. I bought both. So I put. I put a hundred and something into it from the 1031 exchange.
B
Okay.
A
The one in Ohio, though I ended up keeping it for two years or a year and a half. Ended up losing me money every single month. I sold it for what I bought it for. At the end of it, it was terrible. I bought it for 650. I sold it for 650 or 630 or something like that. Ironically, within six months, the property I held for almost two years and couldn't make a dime, the guy had it completely turned around, fixed up, rented out fully, the new buyer or the guy who bought it for me, and then it was worth, like, twice, if not more. And now today, it's probably worth four times what I paid for it.
B
I'm glad you sold it to me.
A
No, this guy. This guy that bought it from me, he was local. It was a weird, small, little sub market, like 20 miles outside of Cincinnati. He understood it. He invested there. He knew what the market, he knew how to handle it, and he could get there every day and check on it. So some areas are just really hard to invest long distance, and that's one of them. And so what's the difference? It's like a tale of two investments. Why did the one work better? Because I had Ryan. I still got two crappy areas. Like, they were both crappy areas. They're both C class tenant. They're both similar in every way. Mobile home parks, probably worse. But that one thrived because we had Ryan. And so don't underestimate the value of boots on the ground and really, like, intimate knowledge of a market when you're investing. That's that lesson.
B
That's a great lesson. Yeah. Thank you for touching on that. It's interesting, too, because I almost like not to get too deep in the weeds, but I look at, like, what led into this. Where did you get that $200,000 to be able to. 1031 exchange? And you go back to this property that you essentially sell or financed. Right. I don't know what your down payment was, but nothing. Nothing. Okay.
A
Basically nothing.
B
This is what's crazy. And then you follow that to, like, the story doesn't end with $200,000. The story doesn't end with taking that and then getting cash flow and then doubling that money. The story, like, is still going, right? Because then Ryan. And then, like, you're still doing.
A
Yeah, we partnered together, so we got to experience. Experience the whole thing. But I sold that property, the mobile home park, after a few years. It was just A. There's a hassle factor to it. It was a headache for Ryan. Headache for us.
B
Yeah.
A
And actually didn't produce prostitutes. Yeah, yeah, prostitutes. We had a bank robber in there who actually, like, was on the run from the feds for robbing a bank with a gun. It was great. So, like, it was just a lot of hassle factor. And we learned what we liked and didn't like with mobile home parks. We learned that we like larger ones. Like, the bigger you get, the more stable they tend to be. So we learned. But then I took that money that I made, so I turned my hundred and whatever it was, like, I think it was 120, maybe down payment, and I more than doubled that. I think I like quadrupled it. I took that and I put it as a down payment on a condo here in Maui over at the condo complex over there. And that thing produces well over $10,000 a month in cash flow today. So it's part of a line. And this what I like about this whole story that started and that allows.
B
Your life, your wife to be real.
A
Estate professional, which offsets our taxes. And so millions, millions, it's. It's a fun, like, it just shows a lifestyle, like life cycle of an investor where like, it starts very small with this. I was 20 when I bought that first apartment complex. I was like 24, didn't know what I was doing, had almost no money. And yeah, when I say no money down, that's a whole different deal we could do someday. But I basically, the sellers wanted to sell to me. They didn't want a down payment, but they had to be able to pay the transfer tax, which was like, I don't know, seven grand or something. And they didn't have that. I didn't have that. So they couldn't even sell it to me on seller financing because I couldn't even at 0% down because I couldn't even afford the closing costs. So we ended up doing a lease on option on it where I rented it from them. And then I just managed it and I fixed up the units until the cash flow was making a couple thousand a month. I used the cash flow to save up the money needed for the down payment, which then I used for the closing costs, which wasn't even down payment. It was like seven grand, which got it seller financing. So just it's like from pure hustle to million. And by the way, that condo, I have a million dollars of equity in it now, which is absolutely nuts. I mean, I bought it for 700 it's worth 1.5, but I put a $300,000 down payment on it, so I have a million in equity. So, like that zero dollar and that hustle of a couple hard years of work. It was hard year hard years of me and Heather working at that apartment complex led to million million plus dollars down the road, tons of cash flow. And that's just one piece of that branch. But it branched this way, right? Like, yes, dude, I love real estate.
B
It's actually crazy because, I mean, I can go back the same thing. It's very similar stories.
A
Yeah, patch them all in.
B
Yeah, just patch them all in. Like I tell her all the time, like, my first house, house that I bought for $6,000 down 5,600 bucks has made me over a million dollars cash. You know, I mean, probably more than that actually, if I went through all the ways. But people are like, no, you can't make a million dollars cash over one property that costs 155k. Like, no, look, I'll show you. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. This is what it looks like, you.
A
Know, it's like a tree. Steve Jobs once said has a great quote. It says you can't connect the dots looking back or sorry, looking forward, only looking back. Yeah. And so like, you can never, like when you're getting into real estate, you just have to believe that the those dots are there. You will get to them. It will branch if you keep with it, and your wealth will build. You just don't always feel that when you're in it.
B
Yeah, so good, dude. Okay, so. So people that are listening, as far as this mobile home, the first one you bought, you kind of know how you structured the partnership as far as funding it goes. Did you. Was it 30% down? Was it a, you know, a commercial loan? What does financing look like on something like that? And, and who did they use to underwrite the deal? Was it you? Was it all your partners together?
A
I don't. I'm pretty sure with seller financing, actually, I think the seller carried it, but it wasn't zero down. I think he wanted a pretty good down payment, but he carried the contract on that. He was an older investor, super nice guy, and just he was at another phase of his career where he just wanted cash flow. He seller financed it and yeah, that's how that was. And then I kind of ran the math side of the deal and Ryan ran the management side. And then the other partner was really just money. And she's amazing and great. Yeah, cool.
B
And then kind of last One on this. How did you. How did you force. I know you've touched on a bunch of different things already, but anything else? Like, on how you forced the deal and got creative?
A
Oh, man. I mean, I think the biggest lesson on forcing that deal to, like, make that actually happen was just in the relentless pursuit of my goal. And what I mean by that is, like, I had to do a 1031 exchange, or I thought, you know, I wanted to. And so I just. I told everybody, and I worked at it every single day, and I had a countdown of, like, these are my 45 days. And I was hustling. And so, like, you could say I manifested that deal. And, like, I think it's a good example of. Some people look at manifestation as, like, magic. Like, oh, yeah, I manifested. I thought about it, and it came true. You know, I look at it as, like, I manifested it because I freaking worked at it every single day, and I got it and I made it happen. So I forced it into existence by sheer will and some good luck.
B
Yeah, that's. Dude, so cool. And the fact that you, like, voiced that, too, like, voiced it to, you know, thousands and thousands of people.
A
Billions.
B
Billions that. I mean. I mean, maybe. Maybe billions. Who knows? What's that? What's your downloads at all times?
A
7 and a half billion.
B
I thought you pretend like you didn't know the stat for a second. I'm not sure. Yeah, you know, he's got it tattooed on his eye.
A
Every time I get a new billion, I just add another. I think bigger pockets has 120 million.
B
Or something like that. Yeah, that's awesome, dude. Way cool. Way cool. Which, I mean, if you haven't heard of Brandon Turner, you're. You're. You're missing out. So you.
A
If you have not heard of Brendan Turner, you're clearly not on Grindr. That's all I can say. Yeah, so I'm a big deal there. Okay.
B
We might have to. My kids listen to this podcast, so.
A
I'm just saying, I'm a big deal.
B
Hey, so this is your. His barber cut my hair today.
A
I'm like.
B
I'm like, yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I need to. I need a barber. The person on my side. Yeah. Burnt down. Yeah, it was good. I was just. I was like, how much would you, like, take money from me to accidentally, like, shave beardy Brandon? Yeah.
A
Oh, yeah, she probably would, but then.
B
It would turn to a lawsuit. Probably sue her. Because it's now your brand.
A
It's my brand. It's my trademark.
B
Yeah. It's your brand.
A
So I would love to know if that's ever happened. Anyone ever gotten sued over a beard brand cut?
B
You could do it.
A
Probably could.
B
Have you seen those videos? Stop the knot or whatever it is? No, people, you know, the top knot, really big on those YouTube videos. Run up, grab it, and cut and just sprint. We need to do that with Brandon's beer.
A
That's so funny.
B
Shear the beard or something. All right, dude. Well, if people want to find you, they're probably not going to find you online. So where's the next best place to do that?
A
There's an app called Grindr. A big deal.
B
Don't Google that.
A
Don't Google that. My name is Brandon Turner. You can find me on every social media platform ever invented. I'm especially fond of Instagram these days. Beardy brandon over there, YouTube, beardybrandon over there, and TikTok, where I do dances to music. That's not true. But I'm also eardybrandon there. You can join my text Message newsletter@bardybrandon.com where every week I text you the book that I'm reading and what I'm learning about it and a bunch of real estate questions that I answer there. So it's actually Beardy Brandon.
B
It's actually clutch. That's good stuff. And then tell people just about Better Life really quick.
A
Better Life is a accountability mastermind for real estate investors who are active and want to become more successful. And we give 100% of profits away to charity.
B
So legit. Amazing. So amazing. I remember when you were pivoting from podcast that you were doing and started a new one now, Right?
A
Yeah. My theory in life. Why make money when you can give it all away so much more?
B
You have given so much away with, which is super, super remarkable. So, dude, people have seen a new side of you on this podcast, and they might be questioning if they actually know who Brandon Turner is or not.
A
So, listen, I lead worship at church, all right? I'm not on Grindr. All right, Calm down.
B
He plays the drums. If that means I do not play.
A
Well, I do play. I do play the drums, though. Yeah. Just not at church. They don't let me do that.
B
You play it in the. At Little Beach.
A
I do. Me and the drum circle.
B
That's one of the great circle, right? Yeah.
A
All the hippies at Little beach playing the drums. Yeah. It's a good time.
B
Well, hopefully you've gotten something from this podcast that's been beneficial in the real estate space.
A
Yeah, I really doubt it.
B
If you haven't, tune back in next week and we'll catch you guys there for some more knowledge bombs. So, thanks. Thanks, Beardy B.
A
Thanks. They call me Big Brandon.
Release Date: February 15, 2024
Guest: Brandon Turner
Host: Real Estate Investing School
This episode dives into the hustle, lessons, and partnership strategies behind Brandon Turner's very first mobile home park investment. Brandon—one of real estate's biggest names—shares the story from zero down beginnings, through a 1031 exchange under the wire, to a life-changing deal that catalyzed exponential wealth. The theme: how relentless pursuit, wise partnerships, and taking action with imperfect information can produce game-changing results.
On Core Hustle:
“From pure hustle to million. And by the way, that condo, I have a million dollars of equity in it now, which is absolutely nuts.” — Brandon Turner (15:11)
On Manifesting Deals:
“Some people look at manifestation as like magic…You know, I look at it as like, I manifested it because I freaking worked at it every single day, and I got it and I made it happen.” — Brandon Turner (18:22)
On the Branching of Wealth:
“It’s like a tree. Steve Jobs once said…you can’t connect the dots looking forward, only looking back…you just have to believe that those dots are there.” — Brandon Turner (16:58)
On Partnerships and Local Experts:
“Don’t underestimate the value of boots on the ground.” — Brandon Turner (13:33)
On Showcasing the Real-Life Side:
“People have seen a new side of you on this podcast, and they might be questioning if they actually know who Brandon Turner is or not.” — Host (22:12)
“From pure hustle to million. Hard years led to million, million plus dollars down the road, tons of cash flow. Dude, I love real estate.” — Brandon Turner (00:00)