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Real Estate Investing School Podcast
179. Boutique Hotel Secrets from Blake Dailey
00:59:04
Welcome to the Real Estate Investing School Podcast! Today host Joe Jensen welcomes Blake Dailey, a successful real estate investor specializing in short-term rentals and boutique hotels. Blake started his journey with a single Airbnb unit and...
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- [00:00]
A
It's the intersection of business and real estate. It is a real estate focused business. We buy and operate commercial real estate, but I have to build systems, I have to manage people. All those different things that lead us into getting guests at our short term rentals in our hotels.
- [00:18]
B
Welcome to the Real Estate Investing School podcast. I'm your host, Joe Jensen. Our guest today is Blake Daly. Blake School started with a single Airbnb unit and over the last five years he scaled his business to four states, 30 plus employees, virtual and domestic. He's got over 200 current short term rental listings that generate millions a year in revenue. Blake has insight and expertise on how to grow and scale short term business, obviously to earn passive income for an active lifestyle and investing opportunities for past investors looking for the same. Blake, you. This is special. I don't know if we realize this. I think you're our first return guest. We had you back like episode 40 or something.
- [01:05]
A
Really the first man. I'm, I'm honored and I'm here with knees, so I feel like I'm, I'm doing pretty well for myself.
- [01:12]
B
I'm excited to hear what's happened over the past, you know, year or so. I think it was back in March of last year, 2023, that we met originally and I know a lot's changed in your life since then with work and family and some of those stuff. I'm sure you've done a lot more real estate projects as well, but.
- [01:31]
A
Yeah, it's been a very formative year since then.
- [01:33]
B
Yeah. What are some of the big changes you've had with your military and the kids and everything going on?
- [01:39]
A
Yeah, oh man. Yeah, I, I knocked a girl up so got my wife pregnant. She's due in, in October and we're super excited for that. You know, like just becoming a dad I think is going to be a very fun challenge. Like maybe probably more so than all the business and real estate and short term rental stuff. Like, I'm very, very excited for that. But we also sold a business since we talked last. We, we took those funds, we bought one very, very large hotel is 130 units. So it's kind of like the past five hotels that I, that I bought put together on one property. 10 acres, 10 buildings, those 130 units plus an event venue. So that's taken up a, a lot of time and attention. In a good way though. We've been making really good progress with it and we're finally about to get our renovation funds from our construction loan to start doing that we sep. I separated from the Air Force just a couple months ago now, and it feels good to be a free man. We moved across the country. We've been traveling a ton and doing all this movement while. While my wife's just getting bigger and doing a lot of foot rubs.
- [02:40]
B
So that is wild, man. That. That's a lot in. In one little moment right there. Let's dive into some one. Congratulations. You guys are due in October, you said?
- [02:52]
A
Yep, mid of mid October.
- [02:54]
B
That's awesome, dude. That. That'll be a game changer for sure. That's super exciting.
- [02:58]
A
I'm, like, excited and nervous at the same time, you know, like, conflicted thoughts. First. First child. It's a boy. So I feel like I've got a little bit more leeway, you know what I mean? Like, I don't have to be the perfect parent. Just make him tougher, you know, If I do bad things as a parent, he'll just be out there and have, like, some resentment and take it out on, like, his opponents or something like that in sports.
- [03:17]
B
You know, it's funny, I was just listening to this podcast that Brody shared with the group, and it was. They were talking about successful people, and, like, almost all of the guys have this common theme of, like, not necessarily resentment, but almost this, like, still trying to make dad proud because he never, like, told them they were proud of him. Like Michael Jordan. They're listening. Like, all these, like, super successful people, and there's, like, that common theme. I was like, man, I was just too loved.
- [03:45]
A
It makes you think about it, right? How you're gonna. What you're gonna do as a parent and, you know, even, like, relating it back to business for people that don't have kids. Like, how you lead your team. Right. How do you set them up for success? Probably a little bit different than you'd parent a little boy, especially going through sports. But I think those are the fun questions to answer. Like how to maximize people.
- [04:06]
B
Yeah, for sure. So a little neglect can push some people. So we'll see. Say it like that if that work. But no, yeah, that. That's cool. That's awesome, man. So you. And you. Yeah, you left the military finally. You kind of finished your. Your run there. Congratulations on that. How's that been going from military life to just, like, being in control of everything in your own world?
- [04:31]
A
Man, I tell you what, I'm busier, believe it or not. Like, I feel like having all that time that was you, like, utilizing my calendar as time for the Air Force or time Working my job is now just like free and it's mine to do what I see fit with. And I just been like filling it with more meetings and more work and more stuff to do. So now I've had to like take a step back from that and kind of reassess. Like, I feel like I was very, very good with my time management, my productivity, my, you know, managing my schedule really well while I was in because I had to, like, I didn't have any other choice. And now that I've got the additional freedom, it's like I got to rebuild the discipline and really try to get it to where like, all right, Blake, like slow down, dude. You don't have to wake up at 4:30 and just start working and then go to work. Work during your lunch break and then come home to work and then work all weekend. Like you don't have to do that anymore. You can just set up right, like whatever workday works for you. So if I want to get up at 4:30 still and work out and come back and start my workday at 8 or 9 or whatever and work until the evening, like I can actually enjoy an evening and just not do things and hang out with. Hang out with Nicole or whatever that looks like and get a little bit more better, get it, get better work, life balance. But I think in the grand scheme it's been awesome. We've traveled a bunch. I think it's really cool if anybody's listening to this has been in the military and then not like. Or just not in the military. You don't realize that you have to put in a leave request and get your supervisor to accept it. And then, you know, like this, it's this whole process to go take a couple days off or you know, even to go like from Salt Lake to Denver. Right. Like when we live there, just to go like a seven hour drive. Like I got to put in leave, take time, like do all this stuff. It's like I'm going to be back before work's even here. Why do I have to take leave so now not to have to do that to just be able to go places. Me and Nicole have been to, you know, California and Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Georgia, Florida, California, Utah, like all these different places the last couple months. And it's been maybe a little bit too much travel, but it's kind of cool because we just can. So we have. And just figuring out how to work on the road kind of mobile has been pretty fun. So yeah, I think it's been super positive and like the challenges have just been things I gotta, that I work through, you know, normal entrepreneur stuff. So just gotta, you know, discipline myself a little bit more.
- [06:46]
B
I love it, man. You know one thing that's really interesting you mentioned you're like, now that you have more freedom and more time, it can so easily just be filled in with work. And that was something I remember when I started doing like real estate as like my main focus. I was like, the tasks are never done. It's not like something where like, well, I'll just get the things done and then when, you know, I'll go play afterwards, it's like there are, it's unlimited amounts of work.
- [07:14]
A
You can work until, like, until your fingers are just bone. Right. I think you gotta like figure out the right things to work on. And how I like to think about it is like the most important next step thing, right? Like you have your goals. Like first of all, if you don't have a clear direction of what your goals are, sit down, take some time, thought, practice of just kind of shutting out everything, like asking yourself what you really want ideally in like a short enough time span, like the next quarter, the next year, so you can actually work towards it and then just plan your day. Like what's my most important next step? To get to that thing for the quarter. And you just break that down. Like, is this taking this random meeting with, you know, with, with somebody when I'm trying to, like when we could be on this podcast or I could be meeting with my team or I could be working on something. Like do I need to just fill my calendar with that kind of stuff? Probably not. So then it like helps clarify what you need to actually be doing. And then all the little pop up tasks, like you can do those in between or you can hire an admin or something or you can hire a handyman. A lot of times as real estate investors we want to do everything ourselves. Like that $15, $18 hire might be the best thing you ever do just to get yourself out of doing the thing so you can step back, work on the business and not in it.
- [08:20]
B
So yeah, I found like it can be really valuable to either like come one of two ways. One, make sure to schedule in the things that matter to you that aren't work. Like you said, schedule in that free time, schedule in that play day, schedule in that.
- [08:33]
A
I had to start doing that like with, with date nights, right? Because especially like, like when you're telling your family or your wife, your kids that you're going to do something with you don't. Like, that's a bigger disappointment than you not showing up on, you know, one of your meetings with somebody with your team. Right. Because that's just. Just business and just work that has to be done. Right. You could be motivated by the mission, what you guys are doing, but at the end of the day, it's just work. Like, the. The relationships and your family and stuff are. Are the more important things. And those are, like, if you're balancing all these balls, like, out of the. Out of the one thing, the book, like, you have glass balls and rubber balls. Like, drop the rubber ones because they'll bounce back up. You can pick them right up. Like, the family is the glass one. Don't drop that. So I really had to start scheduling in that. So we have date night every Friday night. And I always say, like, you know, whether she came home and was tired from work or I had a long week or whatever, like, it's Friday night, we're going out. Like, you can't be in a bad mood. You can't be crappy because it's Friday night. So I love that saying in our house. Like, can't be in a bad mood. It's Friday. I love that. That's a good one for us. And then we have. We call it the state of the marriage meeting on Tuesday. So every Tuesday, we just actually moved it to Wednesday because I adjusting my calendar a little bit for better time utilization. But every week for the last. I think we probably started this in November, December, so a little bit under a year now. We've been meeting every week talking over our couple goals, which we have. Like, hey, we want to, you know, take a vacation to a new place per quarter. We want to go somewhere international this year. We want to have X amount of net income by the end of the year. We want to have, like, all of her student loan debt paid off. Like, whatever those things are, Talk about them, assess where we're at, ask each other how we need to be loved this week. What do we got going on where you need help? And that stuff really, really helps ground us as a couple, because that's the stuff that's important, right? I think the work stuff, especially this is in the evening. Put the work down for a little bit anyway. You need a break from it and just focus on what really matters.
- [10:28]
B
I love that, man. Yeah, I found that. I said to start putting a time cap on myself, say, at this hour, I'm done working, like, no matter what. You know what I mean? Like, because if not, I would just.
- [10:39]
A
That's hard to do, man, because it is, it's like.
- [10:42]
B
And when you're trying to build a life of freedom though, it's so funny because a lot of people talk about freedom, freedom, freedom, but then like all they do with that freedom is fill it in with more work. What's, what's the point in that, right? So I had like put a cap. I'm like, I can't work past these hours no matter how much needs to be done because it'll just never, it will never end. And you need to start structuring and retraining your brain. And because we get so used to grinding for so long that when things start to pivot, we don't know how to like let it go, you know. But you need to retrain that if you're actually going to start living a life of flexibility.
- [11:15]
A
That is exactly. I feel like we're talking to like my subconscious right now because that's exactly what I'm going through. And it's funny because I think a lot of times for most people listening to this, the hard truth is probably that you need to be doing more, that you need to be like getting more reps in analyzing more deals. Like a lot of the people that listen to podcasts, reading books are growth minded, right? So you're trying to get to the next thing or you're still stuck like in that, you know, maybe got my first or second rental. But I'm really trying to get to that financial freedom number that like the passive income that I need, like bust your butt to that. Like you can work it on like a lot of times, you know, you hear, you know, like me or Joe talk about like work life balance. Like that comes after a lot of the times like I didn't get honestly to where I'm at now with healthy work life balance. And a lot of people would have been burned out to you know, buy five hotels in a year and then go sell, sell business after building it and then go buy 130 unit hotel. There's a lot involved in that and a lot of late nights and most people burn out or don't have the consistency to just keep going. Like you just cannot quit. And so the balance is super, super important. But there's, I look at it as a seasons. So I kind of just on the back end of a season, I'm just grinding my butt off. Got through the deal, started the operations, got the team in place, we're in a good spot operationally. Income is Increasing. And we're getting a renovation fund soon. So that's kind of like the closeout of that phase of grinding. And like, now I'm hiring some more people, bringing some more people on the real estate business to go to grow the company and buy more, bringing more people into the operations, like, keep it stable so I can, like, all right, now we're in a different season, so I can step back, work on the balance a little bit now. And you just like stair step your way up, right? You're gonna have to go through these seasons where you grind your freaking butt off. Then you got to pull back, like, invest in the relationships, like, spend the time with your spouse, have the weekends and like the evenings that you take off. So that's what I'm doing now is like, I just moved back. Like my mastermind calls from earlier in the day, so they end at 5, and then I have my evening because, like, yeah, working starting at 5am and going till 8pm, like that. You can only do that for so long. You know, you. You do need the balance over time. But I think a lot of times in the beginning just keep going until you're like, all right, now it's time. I can pull off a little 100%.
- [13:38]
B
Especially when you don't have the kids or the spouse or those things to focus on, because those things are the glass balls that matter more. But it's like when you don't, like, yeah, like, sprint with that, like every hour, every day, every week, every year you put in before you have the kids and the wife, that's an those, that's the time you can now spend with them, you know, but if you spend it wasted, when it's just you, it's like you're giving. You're going to have to steal it from your future spouse and your future kids because you didn't do it.
- [14:08]
A
Now. Yeah, that's a conversation me and Nicole were very intentional about upfront, or at least I was with, like, telling her this, and she just happened to be a way, way better woman than I deserve and stuck with it on this. I was like, hey, my. At least our early to mid-20s, like, like, I'm thinking of our first five years of marriage. Like, I'm grinding on the business, building, building that, building the portfolio, getting us financially. Because when we're in our, you know, when we're 30, early 30s, when we have kids, when they're growing up, like, I don't want them to be growing up in the phase that I, like, just lived through with, with everything I did with the new deals, with selling the company, with building the new one, with hiring more people. Like that is a very detached, like laser focused Blake. Like that Blake is very hard to go play with the kids or you know, take time off to like go to the park or whatever that is. So I was very intentional. Like I'm doing it now and then I just had to be very, very good about when me and Nicole have those times, you know, on the state of the marriage or the date night or the weekends or the little trips that it's like put the phone down. Like you just busted your ass for five days in a row for like 12 plus hour days. Nothing's going to fall apart in these two days. Like, like, like keep, keep that, that glass ball good. Like we were intentional about doing that work up front so that we had the freedom later on built in because the work was already done. And of course like I'm continue to work hard, right? It's just a different alignment of work. And then you also get to the point where your work is higher leverage. Like when you have a business, when you have people, you have managers in your company, you really steer the ship and they help you get the work done. Like you're not doing everything yourself anymore. So the time you work right, you might work less, but you get way more done because you have the infrastructure underneath you and that's what you need to build. It's like the, you just extend the lever and then apply. It takes less force to get the same amount of action out. And that's the really cool fact about business, is you don't have to work as hard as you do your first five years to get to multi, multi millions. Like your first million is so, so, so hard, but the next two, three, like they get much easier.
- [16:15]
B
I love that, man. Let's pivot a little bit. Let's talk about how you, you, what you bought, what you put together and then what you sold, you know, because the way you look at real estate, the way you talk about it is a little different than some people. It's very much like said business. It's like you're, you're building a business, you're buying a business and what, what you do with your short term rentals and your niche boutique motels and stuff like that. It is more of a business than just like buying a duplex and putting tenants. It's a whole different world.
- [16:46]
A
Yeah, it's very, it's the, it's the intersection of business and real estate. It is a real estate focused business. We buy and operate commercial real estate. But I have to build systems, I have to manage people. Like I have to, you know, focus on my customer attention, my market. Like all those different things that lead us into getting guests at our short term rentals and our hotels. Like we have, you know, these, these big KPIs that we're focusing on. Whereas like if you're just investing in real estate, you've got, you're focused on your leads and like maybe your cash balance and just like getting, getting more deals. So, and I think the evolution came from like I started in residential real estate, worked my way up to commercial, which I, I think the sooner, in most cases, the sooner you can make that transition, the better because your lever extends and you get more leverage out of your actions. Right. You have bigger deals, you're now valued on the income of the property. You have enough revenue to then hire people so that you're not doing the stuff. So I love commercial real estate. It's much more, much more passive as an asset class. Right now I'm doing the business side of it. So that's like the real estate is not a lot, but the operations company, the management of the hotels is. Yeah, I started on the residential side where I was very, just like my skill set early on was finding deals. Like I did everything with cold calling sellers, going to meet potential sellers in their living rooms. Like a 22, 23 year old kid, really very green behind the ears. Like what's this slick talker got to say? And just really wanted to do the best I could at being a deal finder. So scrubbing list, direct mail, driving for dollars, the cold calls, the, the late evening meetings with these sellers. Like, however I could find leads. Like I wanted my goal to like find the best deals because I didn't have money, right? Like you either got to bring deals, bring capital or like bring the nut, the, the hustle and the experience to get all this stuff together. Like the three things that you really need to put together the deals. I was like, my thing's gonna be deals because I don't have the experience and I don't have money. So it kind of, that's the only, that's the only thing I can do. So I got really good at finding the deals and I got to that point right in the, in the, in the first, probably a little bit over the year we got to the point where the residential real estate, long term rentals and short term rentals, I think we had 11 units the W2 income, or excuse me, my, my cash flow, net cash flow after all the expenses was now more than my W2 income. So I was like, boom, right there. That was my five year goal because I had a five year Air Force commitment. And it happened pretty quickly. Cause I was just very intent on like the action that it took to get deals and stuff worked out. And usually it happens like that when you have a really good deal, like you find ways to fund it, find a partner, you know, whatever, find the capital, whatever, whatever that situation is. And I have that backbone of the residential real estate where we still have like even higher now than the cash flow from my real estate is or from, from just the residential. So then it like it gave me more risk tolerance to go do these bigger deals and also more experience now. And now I'm thinking like in my phase that I can do, spend more effort on one deal in a condensed amount of time, right? Three to six months to buy the deal, get it set up, build the team and then elevate out of the operations and let that thing run. And I can continue that and you know, even, even make it faster. Whereas like residential is like, you're just, you just continue to build like another house is like that much more workload, you know, you don't get that much more cash flow from it. So I'm thinking much longer now because I have the financial background, like the solid financial background of the residential side, the short term rentals, the houses. I can go do the business side of buying the hotels and that's much more scalable. Right. Because not only do I have the commercial real estate, but I have the management company that runs it all. So I can sell the real estate or I can sell the management company. I could sell them both together. Like there's a lot of exit plans there and all of them are like my plan is somewhere in the 50 plus million range, exit in like early 30s probably and take that and buy more passive real estate. And then like the active business over the next couple years in this grind phase then plays out to a much, much bigger passive portfolio later. So I'm just like skipping the steps, I think.
- [21:02]
B
I love that, man. Let's talk a little bit about the what you have sold then. Because you put together a pretty impressive portfolio and kind of a business, a whole system maybe kind of break down what you structured and then how you sold it and what that looked like because that's different than what most people do. I'm excited to learn some details on that.
- [21:23]
A
Yeah, so what I sold was four hotels that I owned with a partner and the management company that operated those hotels. And then separate from that portfolio that we owned together, the management company also managed another hotel that I owned by myself, small eight unit and then the rest of my short term rentals. So we built that OPCO infrastructure, the management company infrastructure to manage everything that we both owned. And when it came down to it, we want to go our separate ways. Amicable partner split and we just sold the portfolio that we owned together. And it was a sale of the real estate and of the valuation of the management company based on the cash flows that the management company got from owning the real estate. So two different value drivers, two different like components to the sale. But one transaction, right? And then from that had that pool of money, went and bought the, the one single bigger hotel. So is that answer the question? Like we had had the, the real estate company, the Propco that I would call it, and then the opco, the management company so sold both the Propco and the opco. So like the management company was the one that ran everything we had. That's where all the employees were, right? Our property managers, our cleaners, our econ Sears team who do all of our guest messaging, our director of operations, marketing. Like everything that runs what we have, like that is the business, like the real estate is just, you know, P and L essentially. Like you just make sure you pay the utilities, make sure you fix deferred maintenance. Like and then as the managers we run everything that is in, that happens in that property.
- [22:58]
B
So what was the main motivation to sell off that portfolio? Was it because you guys wanted to kind of do your own thing as partnerships and that was the easiest way to liquidate it? Was it because you could, you created such a value value add that you could get an awesome exit? Or like what was kind of the motivation?
- [23:14]
A
A little bit of both. Like yeah, all these were big value at hotels, right. So we bought them very cheap comparatively, right. To what was on the market. For sure. We want one we bought like just over the cost of the land that was right across from the beach in Panama City. So very good buy. Right. So we're adding a lot of value to these properties over the course of the renovation, increasing the income. And because they're commercial real estate, they're valued based on the net operating income, which we increased a lot on those properties. So that, that was the plan, right? It's just, it was basically we went into it thinking it was big, a big bird deal. So buy rehab Refinance, repeat, but with short term rentals on hotels. So we're doing the same exact thing in a much bigger scale. So our goal was to buy them, renovate them, refinance, get that money back and just hold for the long term for cash flow because they're in great markets and they're pretty good assets. After we did, you know, the renovations, like everything was fixed up, you know, the, the only deterrence or the only alternate to that plan was that I think my partner and I at the time, the reason like, like the, the split happened, it was because there's a lot that happened in those two years, right? Like we were both in the air force at the time. He's a pilot how to fly. So I think it was just, he's like, oh man. Like I kind of want to slow down and I'm the crazy one. I was like, I want to keep going. It was like, cool. Let's, you know, high five, tag team each other out here. I stay in the ring and he'll go do something different. So I wanted to continue buying the hotels. So we just found a, find a, found a value from the portfolio, assess the value of the management company, combine those together for one exit. And we would have made more if like, we would have stabilized the whole portfolio. Because this was post renovation, right? You need at least the 12 months of solid financials to get the maximum value. So we didn't quite get there on the last like two hotels, they're a few months shy of it. So it wasn't like maximize the value and out. It was just like, hey, we need to do this now. So let's figure out as friends what the best way to do this is. And it was enough to go for the fresh start, I think for both of us. So it was a good move.
- [25:16]
B
And what kind of buyer, how do you find a buyer to buy a portfolio like that? And was that difficult? Was it like crazy negotiations or there's buyers for that? Like what kind of buyer does that?
- [25:28]
A
I think like the, the exit really for like the boutique hotel game, right, is you buy a hotel, fix it up, renovate it, and find somebody who's, who has the hotel experience is going to come in and buy a business, right? They're going to be a hotel operator that comes and buys the hotel. Now where it gets really cool is if you get a big enough portfolio or a big enough hotel. Now your buyers can be hedge funds or REITs or private equity groups that, you know, private equity hospitality groups that come in and Buy these hotels and take them under their ownership and management as well to maximize even more. Because I'm sure there's, you know, big private equity groups out there that do hospitality better. Better than myself at this stage. Not always, but right now, right, so they can still buy something that you value added, they can still value at it and they're going to roll it up in a bigger portfolio. So like that's kind of your exit. And that's what I'm thinking right now is, you know, we continue to buy in these destination markets and you know, get a couple dozen hotels across the country that, you know, spreads out the risk, spreads out the seasonality, get a really big income stream and sell the whole portfolio in one transaction to one to one big company. But for us, so it's just kind of like giving the lay of the land, like you can buy to the operators all along that spectrum, but they're going to be people who want to buy and operate that as a business. So you're value adding. Think about you're not just going to sell to another investor like yourself, like, or a mom and pop owner because they're going to want to do everything themselves. So you kind of get in the range where now you're too big for smaller single investors, but you can almost be too small for the bigger investors too. So what we dealt with was that we tried selling both of our properties individually, 15 units and 18 units in Panama City. And we did not really get bites. We got questions, we sent financials, we had some discussions, but never any solid offers because individually they were too big for small people, but they were too small for big investors. So like nobody wanted to buy it. But as a portfolio now you can like operate more efficiently, right? You're spreading one manager over two properties, you're spreading maintenance over two properties. Like all your expenses get split up. So it maximizes the noi of each property and increases the value so they're more valuable together than a part. Now that's a little bit different. Like when you get to the 130 unit hotel like mine, like that one stands on its own. But for the smaller deals you actually have a better exit because somebody can come into that and not have to do everything themselves, which you're not going to go buy. Sell a 2, $3 million property where the owners have to come do the cleaning and be the maintenance guy and be the front desk and all this other kind of stuff. Like a business owner is going to buy that and want a team in place and you need the scale to do that. So that's where you like when you break above a million, 2 million in revenue, where you have adequate margin, then you have a much higher, much bigger buyer pool.
- [28:20]
B
Yeah, the benefits of scale are really cool. Like say, because it can make everything more affordable. Like I always say that with people who want to do short term rentals. I don't do short term rentals. Obviously I've interviewed a lot of people to do Airbnb and stuff, but what I've seen is the guys who are making money on it is when they bundle it and you do the hotel. So you just did kind of an automatic bundling. The hotels, you know, more in one market.
- [28:43]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [28:43]
B
If you have five or ten short term rentals in the same area that you self manage, you can have the same maids, the same cleaning, the same like that benefit of scale, that's where the guys like making really good money with it are. But if you have like one random one here, one random one here, it's a lot harder. Especially if you're trying to hire management. It's like there's no money.
- [29:07]
A
And just for example, for people like why that's so important, like imagine you have one house, right? You have a, you have a contracted cleaner. They're gonna charge you 150 bucks to clean your three bed, two bath house. That might even be cheap. It's called 200 rounded up. Now when you get the second and third unit in that market, you can go to that same cleaner and say, hey, instead of 200 for each, for each additional one, what about 180, right? And then you add those ones on and then you start adding them at 160 per turn. So your cleaning costs come down as you scale out and that happens across your supplies because now you can buy in bulk. Your cleaning costs, which we talked about doesn't really affect like your utilities, but like any, any contract services that you have, you know, lawn maintenance, plumbing, like hey, I can give you this whole portfolio if you do this at, you know, x amount of price instead of your regular. So it's more bulk for them but a lower price. And you get the price savings with the portfolio. And now just multiply that by 10 with a hotel because it's built in so you're operating more efficiently. And then that's why like that second hotel, or really it's like a revenue figure. If you can get over a million bucks in revenue, you're going to have a good chunk of, of buyers because there's going to be the margin there to have the team. And that's the cool thing man. And that's in like in every realm of commercial real estate, right? Going from single family to multifamily or you know, you rent out your garage or go buy storage units or you know, it's in all of them. So I think that's the really cool benefit of commercial real estate is that scalability and it becomes yes, more of a business. You have to manage more things. It's not you know, quite a passive setting up the deal but the management of that whole system, of that whole portfolio is way, way easier.
- [30:39]
B
Yeah, that's something that attracts me about the commercial like the more scaled stuff because it seems like oh man, like you know, it seems like oh that's going to be a lot more difficult because there's so many units like owning a hotel or an apartment building or whatever. You know, it's like that's a lot. But once you hit a certain point there's enough there that it, you can hire an in house team. Hire in house management. When you have a hundred unit apartment building you're not self managing that, you know what I mean?
- [31:06]
A
I hope not. If you are, you're doing it wrong.
- [31:08]
B
That's crazy. You know, but there's enough there that you can actually have, you know and it's probably a maintenance guy that lives in the building and you know, you could, there's enough there that it's, it can really run on its own. When you just have a dozen of your own individual things it's like you're kind of running around and you can't bundle that all together necessarily the same way if they're, if they're not in the same location. So anyway, like I said, the bigger you go the sometimes the easier it is because now you're forced to hire it out, manage it right, run it right. And so that's why I feel like.
- [31:39]
A
Get to a commercial as soon as you can. Like it doesn't, you know, you don't necessarily need to jump into the deep end and try to go like Syndicate 100 unit apartment complex for your first deal. But you know, close a few deals, do some rehabs like do a small multifamily and then like once you raise some capital, work with contractors, get through like go through title insurance and getting an insurance quotes and like all that kind of stuff. It's just the same, same things, the same base actions that you're doing. It's just more detailed and you know, you just ask more questions as you go and you learn it along the way. But that's why I say get there, get there sooner. Right. If you get enough experience, like it's really how much you feel confident with. Right. As the person making that jump. There's no set threshold. Like you don't need to do five deals then go to commercial. If you do one deal and then go do your first commercial deal, it's all in your own comfort level and your own risk tolerance.
- [32:28]
B
Yeah. So let's talk about your most recent project then. You've been tackling. You bought a big. I mean, you buy these hotels, you turn them into Airbnbs virtually. I mean, what's the difference between a hotel and Airbnb really nowadays? But may break that down. Just kind of tell us about this project.
- [32:45]
A
Yeah, so the first ones, the first five were definitely like you just said, they were like these hybrids of like hotels. Airbnbs, you know, you've got the consistency and quality of a hotel, but the amenities, the self check in, the ease of booking of an Airbnb all in one property. Like no management on site, no front office. You just book, go to your room, check in. Like it's that hybrid. Right? It's a. Yeah, commercial building multiple units on site. Now, the new one is very much a hotel with like a splash of like short term rental operations and, you know, obviously having the units live on Airbnb and stuff like that. But it's a hotel. Like this one, like they were all hotels, but this one is the most on the spectrum of hotel because it's an actual hotel. But we have front desk of this property because we have 130 rooms. Like it's just a big property and people come there. So we're probably not going to ever be able to fully eliminate that. We are upgrading our smart locks that, you know, you can use your phone as the key or you can come to the office and get a key card. Because a lot of our guests down in this area in southeast Tennessee are, are older and they come to the peaceful side of the Smoky Mountains, which it's called to be, you know, closer to nature. Not so crazy in the, in the crazy touristy areas that are super busy and loud and stuff like that. So we have a little bit older demographic. And I think that's important to understand is if you're going to completely modernize everything. But if you're like, typical guest is 50 plus, they're probably not going to resonate with your product that you're providing too much. So you need to like, understand what you're providing. So we have the front desk. We have like full on housekeeping. It's on 10 acres with eight different buildings. So we've got housekeeping closets in each one. We've got one laundry facility right now on site. We're building a second so that we can do like four buildings here, four buildings there. Of our, of our hotel buildings, we've got a general manager, assistant general manager, three maintenance staff, including a head of maintenance, housekeeping leads, laundry leads. Like, we've got I think 15 or 16 employees that are housed at this hotel. And then the management, company staff manages the hotel staff. Like, and we work together. Right. There's a lot of carryover there. I'm still helping with some of the things still, you know, maintaining the general contractor relationship. I've mostly handled off all the vendor relationships, but, you know, we're, we're working as a team. But it's a big enough property that it supports its own staff.
- [35:01]
B
Yeah. Which is so cool.
- [35:02]
A
So.
- [35:03]
B
And it's a straight up hotel. So the goal here is you buy this hotel and you increase the noi, you know, streamline the operations and then you sell it to a bigger player. Is that kind of like you were describing earlier?
- [35:16]
A
Yeah, exactly. Yep. It's modernizing the business model. Right. Like before they had the direct booking website, it was very, very poor. So that we did that, we created a new one right away. They were only on booking.com and had terrible reviews. So booking.com wasn't even a big source of bookings for them. It was mostly just like random call ins and walk ins and people who would go to the site. But the site was like super hard to use, so they had to drop off some conversion. So they were not really competing anywhere near the comp set in that market. So I knew right away, just by coming in, fixing the operations, modernizing how, like the business plan, I mean, like how guests find you, how you market, how you integrate your booking systems, how you manage your channels and your calendar. Like simple stuff. Right? Like you, you have airbnb and expedia, booking.com and your direct booking website, they all sync to one calendar and you have one inbox. Like that's what a pms. That's the software that you do, like, manages stuff with like doing that's easy and it doesn't take a lot of like, energy and effort. Like, what's more on this one is like improving the reputation, getting better reviews, dealing with the like, unrenovated parts of the property. While we're renovating other parts, like housekeeping over, you know, what, 16 housekeeping closets that get funneled from one laundry room. So it's very operationally involved in some parts complex. So in that regard, it's like, it's very much hotel, but we've got the splash of, you know, the Airbnb esque of it, right? Like, really trying to focus on the amenities, really the appeal, the pictures, the marketing, like, everything about how you find the property. Check in book. Like, we want all that stuff to be very, very smooth and then just run it really, really well with our team on site. And then what you get from that is better reviews, better reputation, this virtuous, virtuous cycle of more people finding you, more people booking you, making more money. Then over 12 to 24 months, you stabilize the property, you double, triple the revenue, which is the goal on this property, too. Refinance, get the money back, and then we hold it to sell it to a big buyer for double or more than we bought it from in a few years.
- [37:23]
B
That's awesome, man. It's so crazy to think of, like, how you can just see that obviously you're very passionate and focused on what you do. You know, you start with an Airbnb, which is everything you described on like the smallest level, right? And you're like, well, I'll just do that bigger and better and then I'll do that bigger, better. I'm gonna do these little motels. No, no, I'm gonna do, you know, a couple of these boutique hotels. And, you know, now you're just buying, I mean, how many units.
- [37:46]
A
It was all like, refining the skill. It was exactly that thinking the whole time, like, I couldn't go buy the. The big 15 floor condo building in Panama City beach was where we used to live and what got me into hospitality in the Airbnbs and all that stuff, like. But I would always drive down the beach, or we'd be sitting on the beach hanging out and be like, looking at it, like, I want to buy that thing. How cool would that be to have whatever it is, three, four, 500 rooms. They're probably completely full. Tonight. It's a July weekend in Panama City Beach. Like, everything is full. Like, how much revenue you think they're earning? Probably a couple million bucks just for that one night right there. Like, it's crazy. So, like, that's what, what got me into it. And it was like, we, we start, like my very first one was eight units, and then we went to, I think like 15 16, 14 and then 20. So it's like all in that realm, but we really managed it well, like a portfolio. Like, I wanted to prep for the bigger, better deals with more margin. And then we just did it with this one. So now it's like, how do we buy these really cool properties, these landscape resorts that are operations focused, that are team focused, that are barriers to entry for other people, that we can go generate 5 to 10 to 15 million dollars per year in revenue on these properties, wrap up a portfolio of them over the next five to 10 years, sell it to, you know, whoever, Blackstone or something like that, hopefully get a huge exit and, you know, then just go buy a bunch of passive real estate.
- [39:04]
B
So you had the bigger vision from the beginning. You were kind of like, it was just like, how fast can I get there? How much can I? What do I need to worry?
- [39:11]
A
Like with anything, you kind of know the direction that you want to go. Because I think hospitality for me is so cool. Like Airbnbs, the creativity of it, the, the almost the competition of it. Like, I want to be the best Airbnb in my market, right? Like, I want the best reviews, I want the most revenue because you can see that stuff on air DNA now. Whereas long term rentals is like, you know, maybe granite countertops is how you stick out. Like they're, they're very, very, very plain. Like there's not a lot of passion in that. For me though. I love real estate and you know, I've had a lot of long term rentals. I still have an apartment complex in North Carolina, so I love that and I'll buy more of them, but it's not like what I want to build my business around, not what I like, like doing necessarily. So that comes from like the quick turns, like the business side of it. Like it's much more interesting for me, like on the str side and hotel side to, to really be creative with it. And I like these boutique properties. Like people always ask, like, are you gonna go buy some Hiltons or Marriotts, some of the flag hotels? I'm like, probably not, maybe one day. But that's not like my goal anytime soon because it's just, it's just a box. Like, it's just a box property. It's no different than like commercial multifamily, but you've got like an extra point or two on the cap rate. So it's like you do all that extra work for not much more return. But on the boutique side. And like a boutique hotel is a small Independent, unique hotel. Like that's kind of what makes it up. Those you can crush on you can 2 to 3x the, the revenue and the value and make it something special, something that wasn't there before. That just, that's cool to me.
- [40:40]
B
Yeah, well, and it's like I said, how do you value add on a, a Marriott? Like they've already got it dialed. Like it's going to be what it is. Going to make it so much cooler. Like it is what it is. Yeah, but, but these, these boutique ones.
- [40:52]
A
Maybe a Waldorf, if they start like selling Waldorfs just like on the market, might try to buy one just to have one. Just. Yeah, if anybody wants to lend me like $100 million to go buy a Waldorf, I'd be happy for that.
- [41:04]
B
Yeah, that's cool, man. Like it's, it's crazy to see how far things can go. I want to talk a little bit about cash flow and profits. So you know, you talk about, oh, millions of dollars of revenue because you can have a lot of money coming through a door and not a lot sticking or there's so many expenses too. It's like, oh, but now we gotta re landscape and that's $300,000 here and then Uber. You know, it's like money can disappear really fast too. When you're doing bigger stuff, do you even think about like the cash flow and the profit that you're like putting in your pocket along the way or is it just the three five year plan of like the exit and that's when it's all there, like all the other money along the way is just self sustaining?
- [41:47]
A
Yeah, that's a really good question, man. The last part of like thinking about what money comes into your pocket. My, my wife tells me I need to think more like that, but I'm just like throw back into the business, man, you know, just.
- [41:58]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [41:59]
A
But no, I think in the beginning it was very much like that. Like, you know, as long as we could return to our investors and have an adequate profit margin in the deal, I'll delay my satisfaction all day long. Right. Like as long as I can promise what I'm delivering to my investors who are trusting me to give, you know, putting their money in the deal, I'm rent, running it and managing it. It's my responsibility to take their money, give them back more. Right. And like hit the returns that I project at the outset. So that's always like my number one focus. Now like as things have developed probably, you know, two, three years into it we bought whatever four or five hotels at the time. Then it became like, all right, we really kind of need to make sure that we assess this, that it makes enough money for us to even do the deal. Right. Because if you're gonna buy a hotel and only make 20,000 bucks on it, right. You might give your, your investors 20% return. Yeah, but you're only gonna make 20,000 a year. There's no reason for a time involved in that that you shouldn't just go buy a short term rental and make that net that same 20k a year. Right. So we definitely pivoted more towards that. And now yeah, like I won't look at a deal if it, like if I can't net six figures on it personally. It's just, it's not worth the time. And that's like you might hear that and say that's crazy or think that's crazy if you're listening to this. But like you do enough deals like these deals are producing one to four plus million dollars per year. Like if I can't net six figures out of that, like what's the point? And even to manage something like for if somebody else had a hotel, like, like if you're not generating a million plus in revenue where I can like have a, you know, 10 to 15 management fee and be good margin for me it's a lower than you get on the market. Like it's just, it's just not worth it. So you really gotta like think about especially like as being not a, not a government man anymore. You know, like we gotta feed ourselves now and we've always just kind of plowed it into the business for the last five years. So I think generally like the deals cash flow really well, which is why I like them. Like we've always been able to give great returns to investors and now with like Tremont, we're really fighting to make sure we can still hit our Q4 projection or Q4 distribution. Even though the USDA has delayed us with our refinance closing, which affects how much money we're going to make this year in the high season. But like at all, like my mind is like at all mean by all means we do what we got to do to you know, one, maintain the reserves to run the deal healthily and then two, distribute to the investors so that they can promise what we got there. So like my third consider consideration is always how much I'm going to make on it. But I'll make a couple million dollars on this deal over the Life of it. So I'm not really worried with, with year one. And the cool thing is about hotels is the real estate's one side of it. If you manage it and do the OPCO side, you can pull, you know, 10, 15, 20% depending on the size of your hotel, of the management fee. Right. Because the STR management is 20, 25, 30% depending on the market. You're going to do it for 15 or less likely because it's more revenue. You can afford to do that and then you've got another six figure revenue stream right there and then you have less expenses. That's how you kind of fund yourself in the meantime while the property builds in equity and grows and you get your return later on. So you have the delayed gratification on the real estate side plus the immediate hitter from the management fees which is a nice little perk because you don't get that in multifamily. Right. You don't get that in storage. Like it's a true three to five year play to even get paid as a gp. Typically.
- [45:20]
B
Yeah. And you can structure in and you're doing these as like syndications. Then you're syndicating these to.
- [45:26]
A
This last one was, yeah, this was the first hotel that I syndicated. The rest were like debt raises. So just a burr, right. People get their money back or it was partnerships. But yeah, this was the first syndication on the Tennessee one.
- [45:36]
B
And you can structure in just like a management fee to put an acquisition deal together. Like hey, like from the get go when you raise the money there's, there's cost for rehab, there's cost for purchase and there's cost for you for doing it. And you can.
- [45:50]
A
Yeah, exactly. Well, it's like an ongoing phase. So it, it comes out of the revenue just like any property management fee would. And it's either you're going to have a third party manager that doesn't care about the hotel as much as you would and probably doesn't like if they're a. If you're buying your first hotel, right, your inclination might be to go hire a short term rental manager, a management company, but they don't know hotels. Probably less than human. They're probably going to be less inclined to learn the differences of hotels and short term rentals. Because I can tell you from owning, both my hotel ops are very different and there's way more leverage points than in the strs. Like it's just simpler, it's more straightforward. Like they're not accustomed to doing all the extra work and that's why, like, I want to own the systems and hire the people and then they are directly accountable to how we set things up, as opposed to a third party management company that has, you know, you know, they've got client responsibility, but they don't really care, you know, like, it's just, it's their business to them.
- [46:45]
B
Man, it's so interesting, you know, because this is what I love about real estate is like, it touches so many parts of life. Like say, because we're really talking about business here, not real estate. And the mindset is, is so different in so many ways, but so much carries over and it's cool to see where you've taken it. I wanna, I, you know, we're obviously. I can't believe it's already been like 45 minutes. I was like, I feel like I want to dive into some of our final four questions and be able to have some time to kind of expand on those. But if people want to learn more about what you're doing, you're. You're putting on a conference to actually be able to teach this because it's pretty unique. And you, you talk about finding the niche within the niche and, and that's what you do. That's what you're doing. When is your conference? How can people be a part of that also if they just want to like, follow you and learn more, like fill us in on all that.
- [47:36]
A
Yeah, if you guys just want to, you know, follow me, see, see what I'm doing, reach out, have questions about hotels. You're looking at one. Whatever, we'll be happy to help. It's Blake J. Daily on Instagram, so you can go hit me up on, on there. And then, yeah, we got a conference happening at my hotel in the Smokies, so at the 130 unit that we were talking about, we also have them in the event center there as well. So we'll be hosting the conference out of there will be kind of in the midst of our renovation. So we'll have rooms that are completely done, rooms that are getting renovated and like the before. So you get actually see a boutique hotel project take place real time. And then everything that we're learning, right, Setting up your operations, building your team, how to find deals, how to raise capital, it'll all kind of come to light at that hotel. So I think it'll be super cool. And then lodging and food is included in that. So that's September 13th through the 15th in southeast Tennessee, like by Knoxville. And if you guys want to come and, or just check it out and check out the tickets. It's boutique hotelcon.com, so you can check that out and then.
- [48:34]
B
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited for that. There's so many conventions and so much real estate stuff, you know, and I love what we do and I, I love, you know, bigger pockets. There's all these cool ones, you know, but I think this one is very niche, very unique, I think.
- [48:47]
A
Yeah, very niche. You're right. Like, I, I love. I go to a couple short term rental conferences a year, a couple real estate conferences. But like, like, I just thought when creating this, like, what's all the stuff missing out of the conferences I go to? I was like, how do I just put it here? It's like, imagine going to a house flipping conference where you get to flip a house. Well, this is a boutique hotel investing conference where you get to, like, see how the boutique hotel investing happens, like at a real hotel. So I just think it's super cool, man. I think it'll be a pretty cool opportunity for people. And I don't know, maybe I'm biased, but.
- [49:18]
B
Well, I, I think it's unique. Get this content many other places, you know what I mean? And so that's essentially me because, like, I've just, you know, and I've only been in the game so many years, but, man, you know, you start reading enough of the books and they all sound the same. You know, you go enough conventions, they all sound the same. And it's like, even if you're not super into boutique hotels, like, at least it's going to be new and interesting, you know, and so I'm excited for it.
- [49:43]
A
I appreciate it, man.
- [49:44]
B
Well, sweet. Well, we're going to dive into our final four questions here, Blake. So question one. If you had to start your whole real estate journey over knowing what you know now, let's say you don't have the money, you don't have the, you know, the, the portfolio, but you have the knowledge. What would be your first, second, and third move that you would do if you were starting over in 2024?
- [50:05]
A
Man, I'm going to have to listen back to this to see if I answer this the same way as. As last March, but one, I'd find a good local meetup. I want to know everybody in my market who's. Who's doing deals, right? Who. Who's the big investor. So if there's not a meetup, I'm starting one. And, like, that sounds wild to you, maybe, but, like, if there's not One, be the source of, of information for people. You don't have to be the expert, but you can set that up. So I would go to the meetup or meetups or create one if there wasn't one. Find everybody who's doing things. I would get, I would get crazy good at finding deals again. Like just start up the driving for dollars, right? Very little capital involved. You know, you can handwrite letters, you can put the envelopes on yourself and for like, you know, whatever, 90 cents a dollar per mailer, you can start getting leads and then you know the people so you can start to put together the pieces. So that's one and two. And then my third step is really like the strategy of what I would look for. It'd be more. It'd be my first like multi unit short term rental. So price something residential, one of four units and then there'd be a value add. So I would go to the real estate meetup, I find the deal, go to the real estate meet up, find the partner, then I'd have that one to four unit deal. We'd value add it, improve the property cash flow as all short term rentals and I'd take the equity to go buy something new.
- [51:19]
B
I hope everybody listened to that. Rewind that like Blake's not here by accident. I just love how calculated everything you're doing is. It's like this is exactly what I would do.
- [51:28]
A
Boom.
- [51:28]
B
And it's so approachable deals and you.
- [51:30]
A
Need capital when you start find deals and find money.
- [51:34]
B
And I love you like go to the meetups or start a meetup. Like that's the number one thing to do to start networking and billion. Because like say you're not playing a solo game. What you're doing, you know, you're not doing a little house hack and then another house hack and then, you know, rolling out.
- [51:46]
A
You need a team, you need people. Like, you can't do it by yourself.
- [51:49]
B
Yeah, it's cool. I love it. All right, question number two. Book or podcast Recommendation.
- [51:57]
A
Book for just starting out. I think one that really helped me was Brandon Turner, the book on investing with low and no money dow. And it's all about adding tools to your tool belt so that when you get a lead right, you find a, a seller who's motivated, but you don't quite know how to get them over the finish line. That book helps you like with different ways you could, whether it's a wholesaler, you can make money on it, you can find a partner on it, you could, you could do A lease option. You could do private money, you could do seller financing. You have so many different options if you can get the lead. But you need to know you need to have those tools in your tool belt to be able to do it. So that is a really good one. And then the podcast, this one, I mean, like, I've met, you know, all of you guys, I've been to your guys conferences. This podcast is very, very tangible, I think helps people from a beginner, an intermediate, and an advanced level. So that is really good. And then no hit on Bigger Pockets, but I would just go back to one and, like, listen through 300 and just put them up for like, three months straight. And then after that, you don't really need to listen to anymore.
- [53:00]
B
I love that. Dude, I've thought the same thing. I'm like, the first few hundred episodes of Bigger Pockets were gold. They were gold.
- [53:08]
A
Yeah, they're super good. But after that, it's like, you know, it's just kind of like the books. Like, how many times can you say the same thing? So, like, I get it. You know, it's a. Yeah. I don't know if you guys have the same thing with the podcast, but that, I think that's the trap, like, of having podcasts is like you can only have so much content around the same thing and, you know, package it up so many different ways. But yeah, it just changed a little bit as the personnel change.
- [53:31]
B
But for sure, I love that. Okay, question number three. What are the most expensive or interesting mistakes that you've made in real estate?
- [53:45]
A
Well, right now it feels like the usda, man, they've cost me over six figures in delays right now, and I'm still trying to figure out the source of this mistake. So maybe in another two months. I have a good answer, but I think just a lot of. Of miscommunication between the agency and between the lender and a lot of deferring responsibility, like, oh, they should do this. Oh, they should do that.
- [54:06]
B
So let's break that down a little bit, though. So the usda, this is the loan you're trying to refinance the hotel?
- [54:11]
A
Yeah, USDA is the government agency that's like, you know, backing the funds. And then the lender actually, like. So it's similar to, like, SBA loans, right? The lender gives the money, the SBA backs it. Or the va, like, for VA loans, they don't actually loan money. The veteran, the vet. The Office of Veterans affairs does not loan money. They back and guarantee the lender's Loan that goes out. So same thing happening here. We have an actual lender who. I'm their client. Right. They're the lender.
- [54:42]
B
And this is for the long term debt on the place. You already bought this.
- [54:45]
A
Cool. With bridge debt to get it closed by the end of the year. Short term, high interest. And then we're refinancing to this better loan, getting the lower interest rate, getting the renovation funds. So we have me, we have the lender, and then we have the agency. And there's all this communication. All these boxes that have to be checked as the government. So lessons learned there of like, keep the communication flowing between them. And sometimes like, don't just be, don't just be like a victim to. This is how government stuff works. Like find out what the actual issue is and then push them to get it done. Like government stuff. They're very checkbox driven. If you meet their requirements, they'll push it along. So figure out what the dang requirement is. So being, you know, obviously I worked five years in the government, so I understand that better. And in acquisitions, no less. So same kind of stuff. So I'm just like, get them what they need and if they don't know, I'll find it out for them. Like, hey, you need this and we'll push forward. And then the other one was a bad renovation with a contractor that I did not vet his contractor's license. This is down in Florida. I hired a residential contractor. I actually, I've done this twice, but lesson learned. They're very close together in timing, but hired a residential contractor to do a commercial job and he did it all wrong. We had to redo the work and paid him more money than was actually done. So six figure mistake. Lesson learned, you know, better for it today. And all the hotels after that were that mistake wasn't made and they're much, much better. So I think sometimes, like don't be afraid to fail, but you do have big mistakes along the way. You just gotta make sure your mistakes are never big enough to like wipe you out. Like that's what you gotta think about on your risk mitigation. You can do it when you're young and like, you don't have kids and stuff like that. Make the big risk, but always calculate it that it can't be the thing that bankrupts you.
- [56:30]
B
Yeah, no, I love that and I appreciate you sharing those. You know, we learn a lot from other people's learning curves. And you know, it's funny, there's a.
- [56:38]
A
Million small ones too. Like you know, there's, like, I will be very transparent. I have. I have got to where I am today, which is, you know, I'm still going. Like, I don't feel like I'm the expert in a lot of regards, but I got here by failing, you know, like a lot of small failures that learned learning lessons and didn't. Did the thing better the next time or bigger and better. And it's just like, you can't. Can't be too scared. Like, you've got to take the action, get the feedback from the marketplace, from whatever it is, and then. Then go get it.
- [57:08]
B
As long as those mistakes, you leverage it, because now you have the increased knowledge to go do it safer and better.
- [57:14]
A
Right, right. Which is why it's like, you always take the risk to not bankrupt you, because even if you fail, you don't go bankrupt. You learn, and then you can go for it. Yeah.
- [57:23]
B
I love it, man. All right, what is one word or short phrase to encapsulate why you love real estate? Invest.
- [57:33]
A
Scalable. Like, unambiguously, just legitimately scalable. Like, anybody can do real estate. It's not easy by any means, but it's simple. Find good deals, find the right people, capital partners, whatever, to close that deal. Do that over time, and you become a millionaire, multi millionaire with real estate. It is a long game, and it is very scalable.
- [58:09]
B
I love it, man. Well, this is super cool. We look forward to your. Your conference coming up in September. Look forward to following your journey. It's fun to have you back on in such a different life.
- [58:21]
A
The only repeat guest in all this time. So I am. I am on. Thanks for having me back.
- [58:26]
B
We're glad to have you here. Look forward to hearing where you're at next year. I'm sure it'll be even, even bigger jumps than this.
- [58:32]
A
We finally got to go snowboard this winter, man. You got to rehab that knee, get it done. We'll go hit, you know, Beaver Park City, and we'll shred. You'll be like a whole new man. You'll have a bionic knee by then.
- [58:41]
B
Heck, yeah. Yeah, I just tore my mcl a few weeks ago, but hopefully I should be good by snowboard season. I'm looking forward to it. Let's make it happen still, man. All right, Blake. Well, this is Joe Jensen signing off for the Real Estate Investing School podcast, reminding you to find your niche within the niche.