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Real Estate Investing School Podcast
4. The Power of Proximity and Growing Through Partnerships with Eric Gubler
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- [00:00]
Eric Gubler
When I put deals together, it happens very, very quickly. Like when you see a deal, you jump. But the preparation before that is a long process.
- [00:14]
Joe Jensen
Alright, welcome to the Real Estate Investing School podcast. I'm your host, Joe Jensen. We've got a really awesome guest on today. His name's Eric Gubler. Say what up, Eric.
- [00:26]
Eric Gubler
Guys. Happy to be here today.
- [00:29]
Joe Jensen
Sweet. So Eric's done. You've done a lot of stuff. Let's see, I'm gonna pull up your bio here real quick. You, you're a real estate agent. Where you, how long have you been licensed as a real estate agent?
- [00:40]
Eric Gubler
Six years.
- [00:41]
Joe Jensen
Six years. Okay. You're actually the team leader at what, the Joe Taylor Group in St. George, Utah, is that right? Awesome. You own kangaroo moving and storage. Your investor, husband, father, pickleball enthusiast. Is that, that, that kind of nail you down?
- [01:00]
Eric Gubler
Yeah.
- [01:02]
Joe Jensen
That's great. Well, sweet, man. Well, we're excited to kind of dive into the different roles you've played in all those different places because that's pretty cool and diverse. Now from your bio we talked about how you, you own about six homes now that you have as investment property, is that correct?
- [01:22]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, so six different deals. Whether that's being bought or sold or transferred into the main. The main property that I transferred a lot of everything into is our. We have a facility that's 300 storage units right now that's got some pretty dang good cash flow on that. So we can talk a little bit about that today. If anybody's ever interested in getting the commercial side going from residential to just trading doors for more doors. Right, but just garage doors for sure, right?
- [01:51]
Joe Jensen
No, I think that's something interests a lot of people. I know it interests me. So I definitely want to hear about that. So let's kind of back up before we get into all of that. Too much, you know, but doing, you know, you've only been in it a few years. Six years. Really. How did you get started with real estate? Why? What made you want to be interested in real estate itself? It sounds like maybe you start as an agent. Did you have the eyes that would become more of as an investing thing as well or you know, what kind of got you going?
- [02:21]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, for me it was, it started with an LDS mission, I think, you know, that question all starts there. And that was just getting out of my comfort zone, learning how to knock doors. And then after my LDS mission I went and knocked doors for pest control company and kind of learned how to take that side of things to like a business door to door but what I quickly learned is I don't want to knock doors for 10 years and then just be left with nothing. I could grow a team and get into the back end side of it, but I just wanted to be in St. George. And that's where I was raised, born and raised. It's where I'm from, where I wanted to raise my family. And so real estate was just like a natural call to me because it allowed me to still have a high income, but then also learn how to invest that money once I earned it. I think that was the draw for me. And that's kind of how I got in, is I just learned how to work really, really hard young and then just transfer that into the real estate game.
- [03:27]
Joe Jensen
That's cool. I love. One thing I love about real estate is it has so many facets to it. Like you can use it to make your money or. Or you can use it to grow your money and put your money somewhere if you're making your money other places. I have a lot of students that I teach in the school that they have a lot of money, but they don't know really where to put it. So like say at the end of the day, you know, 10, 20 years down the road, what good did making all that money do if they don't have any sort of nest egg or retirement or asset portfolio? And it sounds like you saw that early on and wanted to make sure you're making the right stuff.
- [04:00]
Eric Gubler
Steps, I will say, kind of going along with what you're saying. We mapped it out. So me and my wife, it's no coincidence that six years ago, the reason I started six years ago and everything kind of started six years ago is around when I met my wife. I think is a. Is a whole thing in and of itself. But to have somebody to push with. Yeah, not too much, but it's important to know. And then from there just. We dreamt it up. We had the dream and the vision of like, this is what we want to do. This is where we want to go. So we thought back then six years ago, we want to get our real. I want to get my real estate license. We want to create a moving company that runs 24 6. Just not on Sundays, not really 24. And we don't work at 2am but we're running all the time. But then when I want to move clients, I can. So it's a value app. And then get into the storage game so that we have an income, another income to support us and a value add and Then another value add, but a way to invest our money into something that's passive. And so that was kind of like the dream six years ago. And I think everybody needs to be a dreamer at some point. But then, like, where the rubber meets the road, like, you've got to push and push really, really hard. It happens faster than you think. And it's not as much work as you think. But in the middle of it, it flows. Feels like heck, yeah.
- [05:29]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. It's funny, with real estate, it's so sexy on the outside to hear about someone's portfolio. Oh, you own multiple homes. You've done six different deals. You own this, you know, this storage unit. And like, oh, that's so cool. But, like, when you're in the middle of building that, it's like, it's not cool. It's not sexy. It's not attractive. It's just like, it doesn't look as nice as it will someday. You know what I mean? You haven't received any of the appreciation or the, you know, the increase of the value of these things yet. But so what made you have that vision? You know, a lot of people just kind of stumble upon this and dabble here. I know a lot of agents that will just be agents for a while, and they see, you know, and they add another piece, oh, maybe I'll start investing, you know. But it sounds like you had the vision. Like, say you almost. You wrote it down. You had a game plan from the beginning. Like, how did that come to be so clear from the beginning?
- [06:24]
Eric Gubler
It's. It's your circle of five, I think, just putting yourself in position. And I won't even say circle of five, because I think that's true. Like, the people who you're closest to, you'll be the most like. So, like, show me your friends. I'll show you your future. But I like the law of 33 better. The rule of 33, and that rule of 33 is that you should spend 33% of your time with people under you to teaching and coach and help them. 33% with people that are just like you and kind of network market mastermind with them. But then the 33%, then 33% of your time with people that are above you. And back then, that's what we did all the time. I was addicted. I'm still addicted to it. Like, I just went this afternoon and went and dropped off a gift to a friend of mine that makes 2 million a month. Like, that's not me yet. Right? But he's Freaking killing it. And that's the 33% up. So find those people, because success leaves clues. And as you find more and more of those people, you just, your mind starts to expand and you're like, hey, there's opportunities here. So to answer your question, Joe, that's what we did back then is we just found tons and tons of people that we wanted our life to look like theirs one day. And we take them to lunch, or we'd have them over to dinner, or we just network with them however we could. So get started. Do that all the time. Like it's 12 bucks to pay for somebody's lunch.
- [07:50]
Joe Jensen
Right.
- [07:51]
Eric Gubler
But they can leave you with a couple thoughts that are worth a couple grand. Yeah. And if you keep trading that money, like it literally is a direct correlation in time, but we just don't see it. But like 12 bucks could be a thousand dollars. And like, just think of how many times you do that with high level people. Eventually, like it's gonna tip and you're gonna be able to just explode with that value.
- [08:14]
Joe Jensen
So I like that, like how you break it up into three different groups though too, because like, then you take what you're learning and you teach it. Because you learn best when you're teaching. Right. So you share it, you teach, you still hang out with people on your level, and then you reach up to the people on another level. That's really cool. I actually haven't heard it broken down quite like that before. I really like that.
- [08:35]
Eric Gubler
Yeah.
- [08:36]
Joe Jensen
So maybe you could tell us a little bit of some of, you know, some of the deals you've done. I guess like kind of like your first deal. I just always think it's interesting to like, just get to the nitty gritty of how it happened. The good, the bad and the ugly of, you know, maybe your first deal. Maybe some of you, what we call your favorite failure, like what's something where it's just everything's gone wrong if you have any. Or the worst failure you have. But let's start with your first deal though. What was your very first real estate deal?
- [09:06]
Eric Gubler
First deal, just getting into real estate. You have to have two years of income in order to qualify for a loan on a house. And so being self employed, 1099, we didn't have that yet, but our income was actually starting to come in pretty decent. We were renting in a place out in Washington, in Washington, Utah, and which is right next to St. George. And it was just a little condo, like a two bed, two bath, 900 square feet and one day a sign went up across the street, and I was like, I know what things are selling for in here. So one, I was an expert in my area, and then I, I saw the sign and I went over and I asked the lady who lived there, like, hey, what are you selling it for? And instantly I knew it was like 50, 15 grand below market value.
- [09:56]
Joe Jensen
Nice. And I was like, how did you know all that? Were you an agent at this point or you just paid attention to the market on, like, Zillow? Like, how did you know the area?
- [10:05]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, I was an agent, but you don't have to be an agent to know, like, just be a mark. Yeah, I just know your area. Right. And it's funny because it was literally, like, right out our front door because there's buildings on this side and buildings on this side, and it was like, like staring at me when I walked out that morning at like 8 o' clock in the morning.
- [10:21]
Joe Jensen
And for a sign, right? Yeah, literally, like, there's a sign.
- [10:27]
Eric Gubler
But to, to the your point, Joe, it's like, if you. Or if I wasn't educated, it won't be a sign. Right. So that's the principle. There is like, you've got to be the Kobe Bryant of your area so that, you know, an opportunity is there. No, I. I told her right then I was like, I'll have an offer to you this afternoon. And I called lenders and I was like, how can we make this work? We found a way to make it work where I wasn't. Full hold income, whatever. We bought it for 113,000.
- [10:58]
Joe Jensen
Nice.
- [10:59]
Eric Gubler
And that's probably gone up in value a little bit. Yeah. And so that was one of the. That was one of the properties that we sold and rolled over into the storage facility that we've been. That we've been building. But that was our first deal, man. And it all just came together. It was like, knew the market, knew my area. And it was funny back then, I just wanted to make like 20K, you know, and I ended up making, I think close to 100k on that one. And it was like, you know, back at the time that you, you never know where the market's gonna go. You have these thoughts of, like, oh, the market could crash and die. And like, that's never why you should get into it is the appreciation side I, me and Brody talk about all the time. It's like, as long as the numbers make sense, just do it.
- [11:46]
Joe Jensen
Sure. So how long was it between when you bought it and when you rolled it into the storage unit facility.
- [11:53]
Eric Gubler
Three years.
- [11:54]
Joe Jensen
Okay. Just three years. That's cool. That's really cool. So you, you hit a point where you, you didn't hit the normal lending criteria of having the steady two year job. When you're 10, 99W2, you can usually put off in one year. You know, you just got the job, like, oh, you're secure. Banks are funny what they think reality is. But, but how did you get around that? Then you said you found a way around it. You know, I'd love to hear the details of that.
- [12:24]
Eric Gubler
So I owned the Kangaroo moving business and that tax returns. The first year in real estate didn't make anything, which is common. But I started in like July, didn't do a deal until January the next year, so there was no tax return for that year. So I needed a full another year for tax return. But the moving business, I made enough to barely squeak it by with. Like I was starting to do real estate deals. So I had a good down. So with the down and then income for the moving company, I qualified just on the moving company. So the moving company actually proved to be a huge blessing. Sure. To get into our first real estate deal.
- [13:07]
Joe Jensen
So did you buy it in the real estate moving company's name and you just guaranteed the loan or was it in your name? How did that work?
- [13:16]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, no, I bought it in my name.
- [13:19]
Joe Jensen
Okay. But they just let you use the. Because it was a single llc, just kind of a pass through entity. So they let you use it as your personal.
- [13:27]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, Honestly, how we made all that work is a little fuzzy. I just remember at work we moved in and then did some like painting, painted the cabinets and got quartz countertops and things like that.
- [13:41]
Joe Jensen
Yeah.
- [13:42]
Eric Gubler
And so we just kind of lived in it for a little bit, fixed it, which don't recommend, but I do. When you're young, like, and you don't have kids or if your kids are young, go through the grind then. But it is a pain for sure. Like paint and crap everywhere.
- [13:57]
Joe Jensen
Oh yeah. I've lived in some construction zones in my time for sure.
- [14:01]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, you know, it's, it can be sucky, but it always pays off. So.
- [14:05]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. And I'll just say this for the listeners, like, lenders are on your side. Like I always say, like your lender is like your lawyer, like fighting for you. And then there's something called the underwriter, which is the person gonna look at this deal and decide, is Eric worth lending money to? Like they're like the judge and the jury. They're gonna decide if you get the loan or not. But your lender's on your side. So they'll do anything they can to like, you know, within the law, just like lawyers have to. But they're gonna try to warp and you know, hold back information that's not attractive and push the information that is. They'll do anything they can to help you get the loan because that's how they make their money. And if they do it legally, then it's all good. Right? And so I have no idea how I got my first loan either. I had some part time job making, like, I don't know, I lost the job the week before and like, I don't think they checked. They just assumed I still had the job I said I had when I started the process and it went through, but I didn't feel like I made enough money. Like I have no idea how it worked out and I didn't know how any of it was. I was just like, can I buy this house?
- [15:10]
Eric Gubler
Like, help me.
- [15:11]
Joe Jensen
But lenders are a huge tool tell, you know, just go. That's what I always tell people, the very first piece of advice and like, how do I get into investing? Like, go to a lender, see what you can get qualified for. Like that's the number one step. And they're well, I'm not ready for that. It's like, no, that's what lets you know what you need to do to get ready. And like I said, what's really cool is you had the LLC from the business. I tell people that too. Open an LLC today, you're not. Even if you don't use it, if you have it under your belt for a few years, it might end up being useful. And even if it doesn't, it's no sweat off your back. It can be beneficial just having that, especially if you're not W2. As a 1099 guy who jumped from a bunch of different sales jobs, but I had one consistent llc. I could show lenders, hey, here's six years of consistent work history at the same place my llc. And even though I, I did sales for five different companies, you know, so there's a lot of power in that if you're not just a normal W2. So that's cool.
- [16:10]
Eric Gubler
And cool that that helps you get your. Listen to what you just said. Because it's gold. I think a lot of people get scared for some reason to go and talk to their lender just because maybe they think it's going to cost them something, which it Doesn't.
- [16:22]
Joe Jensen
Yeah.
- [16:23]
Eric Gubler
Do they think they're too busy or they're just scared to show their finances? I think there's some people that are just like, yeah, I know I'm not there. And it's kind of like, vulnerable.
- [16:34]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. The funny thing is how many people know they're not there that are there. You know what I mean?
- [16:38]
Eric Gubler
Like, oh, I'm not there. And. And, yeah, like, where your. Where your thoughts go, your energy flows. Right. So. But if you don't have the thought in your mind of what you need to do to get ready, you'll never be prepared and ready for the deal. And Corinne and I, my wife, swear by that. Like, if we want something to come down the road, we've got to lay the groundwork now, because once the time of preparation has passed, like, you're either ready or you're not.
- [17:10]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. That deal comes across your front door. But if you're not ready, it's like you can't take advantage of the opportunity.
- [17:17]
Eric Gubler
Literally. One deal can be life changing. Mm. One deal can change your life forever. Like, that deal for me was my one.
- [17:26]
Joe Jensen
Yeah.
- [17:26]
Eric Gubler
That was the one deal that just set me up to win.
- [17:32]
Joe Jensen
And that's what's so cool. And your first deal was a home run. I mean, you made six figures on. You rolled it into a better deal. You know, it's like a lot of home first deals are trash, and they can still change your life just because you've got in the game and you learned something. You learned how what not to do, and you learned what to do. But a lot of first deals work out great. I still have my first little townhome that I bought, you know, with that job that I lost. And I couldn't afford the mortgage even with the job, you know, so I moved in and put. Then I had other people pay my rent by, you know, moving other people in, you know, and so, you know, that whole house hack stuff. And we can get into that. But let's get into some of your other deals. So it sounds like you haven't held everything that you've bought. You bought a couple other properties. Maybe you could tell us one of your favorite deals. Maybe that's the storage unit. I'm excited to hear about that. But also, have you had anything just go south or, like, what's one of your biggest failures in the industry?
- [18:28]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, I haven't yet. And I'm not saying that to bolster, say, like, oh, look at me. It's just true. I haven't had anything go south. Yet I am very, like, be 95% sure. And the 5% is I'm just going to work like hell to make it happen.
- [18:43]
Joe Jensen
That's awesome.
- [18:45]
Eric Gubler
That doesn't mean that. I mean, you take the last six years. It's great market, you know what I mean? Like, timing was great, and. And I think we're very blessed and fortunate that way. Plus doing it all the time and having a lot of good friends to bounce ideas off, man. I think that is a key. Like, get close to people that have done and have 15 properties, 20 properties. People like yourself and Brody and other people in the real estate investing school. Get close to you guys so that when a deal does come, you're on speed dial to be able to, like, really quick. And then if they get your blessing, like, that's gonna help.
- [19:22]
Joe Jensen
I had that back then.
- [19:23]
Eric Gubler
I think that's why what you guys are doing is so huge, is because that takes away a lot of that fear. You've done it. You know what it's like, you gotta have a coach. You got to have accountability. You got to have a coach, got to have a team.
- [19:37]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, I think that helps a lot is having, like I said, when you can just kind of cut that. That fear out a little bit. And I was just teaching this group of guys right before this call, I was meeting with this whole team, this whole company about teaching them, you know, real estate. And I talked about, like, I don't believe in high risk, high reward. I think that is a loser's mentality. That's a poor mindset of high risk, high reward. You know, get into this risky and maybe you'll make money. It's like, I believe in high education, high vetting, like, high underwriting, and even way higher reward. You know what I mean? But the risks should be very capped. You should have a capped bottom risk where, you know, you can't lose more than this. And that should be very, very low compared to the reward. That should be asymmetrical investment. High risk, high reward is symmetrical. You want it to be the opposite. Low risk, high education, high reward. And when you say you haven't had any losses, one, yeah, you've been in a great market, but you've done your research. You shouldn't have to have losses. You know, the biggest failures I see a lot of people have is also, it's like, oh, I could have made. I only made 50,000, but I could have made 150. And that's. Their failure is like, oh, I like, I sold this duplex in St. George made 70k and I was stoked. If I'd held on to that. Oh my gosh, you know what I mean? So that failure of making 70,000 was, you know, that feels like a failure compared to what it could have been. But, you know, that's the thing.
- [21:12]
Eric Gubler
With my condo, I could have made another 50k if I would have held up for a little bit longer or maybe more. But. But you know what my grandpa who was in real estate, he used to always tell me, said, you know what, Eric? It's hard to go broke making profits. So failure, like, you're never gonna hit the peak.
- [21:28]
Joe Jensen
Sure.
- [21:29]
Eric Gubler
Let me just say one more thing. When I put deals together, it happens very, very quickly. Like, when you see a deal, you jump. But the preparation before that is a long process.
- [21:41]
Joe Jensen
Yes.
- [21:41]
Eric Gubler
I think you, I don't know, maybe you're the same way. I think a lot of us are. Is that you. When you see the deal, you smell it before you even put pen to paper and start to, to work the numbers like you know it's gonna pencil. You just want to see how good it is because you, you've. You've done it so many times. You just. It's like a six sense. It's like, it's like golf. Like, I'm, I'm trying to learn golf right now, and my. I, I've never golfed before, and I'm like trying to learn how to swing. And I watched somebody who grew up golfing, like, they could go. They could not golf for two months, but because they put so much prep time in, they could walk up to a golf ball and just smash it 300 yards. For me, it's like I'm trying to learn. Like, you just got to get over that learning curve in real estate. Right? Like, you just, You've got to just dive in somehow.
- [22:29]
Joe Jensen
Well, like I said, the preparation comes beforehand. If you wait till the deal falls in your lap and then you start to learn how to. Oh, now I'll go get pre qualified with my lender. Like, and now I'll try to figure things. It's like, it's late, it's gone. You know, you have to do that before. And so there's never a bad time to start learning real estate. Dude, let's get into the storage unit. I think that's something that interests a lot of people. Obviously you can get some pretty cool returns on that. I'm so interested in learning one how it's turnkey and passive because it's a business. You got to market it, you got to have clients, they come and they go. So how do you keep it passive where it doesn't eat up your whole life? And how did you acquire the deal?
- [23:13]
Eric Gubler
Well, I'll tell you, it all started because of the moving company. And, and back six years ago, we. We kind of saw as we started it that everybody was full. All the storage facilities in St. George, they were just 99 full. When clients would call me and say what storage facilities are open? And I would call and try to find them one, they never find them one. I'm like, man, this is a great business. Yeah, that was number one.
- [23:41]
Joe Jensen
Go ahead.
- [23:43]
Eric Gubler
Were you gonna say something?
- [23:45]
Joe Jensen
No, I said, yeah, that's a good sign. When you know there's. There's such a high demand for it, it's like, that'll probably work.
- [23:52]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, demand was super high. And then I would just kind of go through, like the basic numbers. Hey, they have this many units. I would ask them how much they're charging for each unit, and then just do the math. I'm like, holy cow, this is amazing. Especially when they're all paid off. So like, long term investment play and then just like generational wealth. Great. The other thing is, I always noticed that there was just one person on site. And it was never the owner. It was just one person that they paid maybe 30 to $50,000 a year, depending on how big and how much they do now. Even from the last six years, it's so automated. It's. It's literally turnkey. Like you said, you. You have a gate that has a code for. Also, for instance, you just go on our website, there's a grid that has a red dot and. Or like on our storage facility, anything that's red is taken. Anything that's green is open. You click on a green one, you fill out your information, sign a waiver, hit, done. It gives you a code that's attached to your name. So we know whenever you open, like, punch in that code. When you're in our facility, it also, if you're late on your payment or your credit card is old, it will, when you go and punch in your code at our facility, it will automatically send you a text and say, oh, hey, by the way, like, your card isn't working. Do you want to add another card? And if you do, then this code will work again. So you just get on it, gives you a link, you go upload your card, you come back, boom, your code works. And get into your unit.
- [25:24]
Joe Jensen
What software is it that you guys use for all that.
- [25:28]
Eric Gubler
So it's a software of some friends of mine in St. George called Easy Storage.
- [25:34]
Joe Jensen
Like E Z Storage?
- [25:37]
Eric Gubler
No, I think it's just. I spelled easy E A S Y. Storage.
- [25:40]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. Nice. Anybody that has a storage unit could see if they could add that software to their business.
- [25:47]
Eric Gubler
Say it again.
- [25:48]
Joe Jensen
So anybody that has a storage unit could reach out to them and see if they could integrate that software into their storage business.
- [25:54]
Eric Gubler
If they haven't, then it's just, it's so cheap. And that's cool. Like 200 bucks a month or something for a property that could be bringing 50k a month. Like, it's so cheap.
- [26:05]
Joe Jensen
That's awesome.
- [26:06]
Eric Gubler
Be dumb not to. So. So, yeah. And the other thing is with storage, like, the reason I like it, you don't have plumbing. You don't really have much electrical. You don't have people living there all the time. At least you shouldn't have squatters. It's just so basic. It's a shell. Stuff goes in, stuff comes out.
- [26:25]
Joe Jensen
Like.
- [26:26]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, they can hit corners of walls and stuff. But maintenance is pretty low. You don't have to rip out carpet. You get what I'm saying? Like, it. It's super turnkey. You almost don't need a manager anymore. You kind of just need somebody to float if you want to be totally hands off.
- [26:44]
Joe Jensen
Cool. That's really cool. So how did you acquire it then? So, like, mean, if you, if you want to share, like, you know, how much was it? Where did you find the money to put into it? Like, how did you end up acquiring this?
- [26:58]
Eric Gubler
So. I think I just got sick of saying I wanted to do it because like I said, it was a goal. And I. I just finally one day got sick of it actually going to pickleball. I was teaching a pickleball lesson to a guy who was in his 60s and wealthy and he'd done a lot of real estate deals. We got done talking after the lesson. Somehow storage units got brought up. And I finally, in that time, at the end of the lesson, said, I am so done saying that I want to someday. And I committed to him that day that I was gonna go out and find land to build storage units. And so you have to have the right zoning and all that stuff. Size matters with that and all that. So I did. I went out that afternoon and hunted around, called a bunch of agents, found a lot, five acre lot. And we. It was funny because the agent said, I'm going on vacation, so I'm gonna have to wait a week or two to come Meet with you. And my response was, well, when are you leaving on vacation? And he's like, well, tonight at like seven. I'm like, well, it's like two o'. Clock. Can you meet me there at five?
- [28:16]
Joe Jensen
Nice.
- [28:16]
Eric Gubler
And we did, like, we went by with that guy I was playing pickleball with, and we put the deal together, like, had him. Had him, letter of intent the next day, put it under contract, figured out the financing. Like, I had never done a commercial deal before. So there were some. There was some learning curve there. But the numbers were like a 50% return on investment. Like, it was like, no brainer. Let's freaking do it. We have to do it.
- [28:43]
Joe Jensen
So you say we. You. Were you going, you're doing this as a partnership?
- [28:47]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, yeah. With the older guy. Nice. He's been the best partner. Like, it's so crazy how I've had partnerships that didn't work out. I love him. Like, is it dad almost? He is wiser than me. He is calm and collected, and he's got a background in construction and investing, and he is the perfect partner for this deal.
- [29:14]
Joe Jensen
How did you guys structure that partnership? Was it like one person bringing in more capital and one doing more legwork, or how did you guys structure that?
- [29:22]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, it was a, you know, first I would say get an attorney involved and what we did, and that way you just can work through it the right way. With us, he did put down a little bit more capital than we did. But the. The other. The other part of it is we actually decided that we wanted the Easy Storage guys to come on board with this. So we have three entities involved. Me and my wife, him and his wife, and then three Easy Storage guys is one entity.
- [29:55]
Joe Jensen
So the guys that do the software are actually part of the deal from the beginning.
- [30:00]
Eric Gubler
Yeah. And to answer your question, like, how do we break up effort? It was. We had a very clear conversation. Like, it's pretty close to 30. 30. 30ish. But Mark has. The older guy has a little bit more than everybody. But the thought from the very beginning is, look, this is gonna get really complicated if we're not all in. Everybody's got to be 100% in. And we have been everybody, 100% in. It's been the greatest thing. But, yeah, it didn't look like that at the beginning. Right. Like, I didn't know all the answers at the beginning.
- [30:36]
Joe Jensen
You just.
- [30:37]
Eric Gubler
You figured it out when the numbers make sense.
- [30:41]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. And that point right there, Eric, I think, is really powerful when it comes to real estate, because even when you've done dozens of deals, it's like the new one is different. Like, you know, like there's certain things that, like said, once you've done it tons of times, you feel the confidence to move forward, but you also just feel the confidence that I know I'll be able to troubleshoot and figure out what I don't know and what's going to happen. And you need to have that belief in yourself that or on your team or your partner is like, we'll figure out the things that we don't know. Because you're never going to know everything going into a deal. You know, I mean, there's always going to be surprises. There's always going to be, especially if you're pushing the limit and you're doing different kinds of deals and going bigger and stuff, there's going to be things you don't know, but it's, it's figureoutable. You know what I mean? Like, you can figure it out.
- [31:30]
Eric Gubler
Yep, 100%, man.
- [31:33]
Joe Jensen
And that's cool. That's super cool. I guess that leads to a question I like to ask is like, have you had a certain guiding principle or, or habit that maybe it was specifically about real estate or maybe just kind of bled over into to make it possible? But what's kind of been some of your guiding principles or habits that you've done along the way that have helped you?
- [31:55]
Eric Gubler
You know, that's a great, great question. I would say first there's this concept that it's a math equation and it's IV equals ev. Okay, I'll remember back to algebra class whenever we took algebra last.
- [32:15]
Joe Jensen
Yeah.
- [32:19]
Eric Gubler
On each side of the equation with the equal side in the middle, both sides have to balance. Right. So if one side goes up, what has to happen to the other side? It has to go up to be equal.
- [32:29]
Joe Jensen
Right? Okay, so I'm not good at math, so I'll try to follow here.
- [32:33]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, yeah. So IV is basically just interpersonal value coming from your own self education and just your hard work that makes you who you are. Your honesty, your integrity, all of the things that make you valuable. Right. What is valuable? Rare. Like anything that is rare is valuable. So like become rare. Become somebody that does things that few people do. So as that IV interpersonal value goes up, guess what has to happen to the other side of the equation. Well, EV stands for external value.
- [33:13]
Joe Jensen
Okay.
- [33:13]
Eric Gubler
What value you could give externally to the world. And so I would say a guiding principle for everybody listening to this is focus on yourself, your self education, dump Money into yourself, go to events, learn. Sign up for real estate investing school. Okay? Seriously, because you're gonna grow connections with people and you're gonna learn things. They're gonna help that IV grow. I'm a firm believer in just invest in yourself. And all my network and friends that I mastermind with were addicted to it. Right?
- [33:49]
Joe Jensen
Yeah.
- [33:49]
Eric Gubler
Because the other side of the equation, it's always a lag. Like you'll invest time and energy into your iv, but eventually like your ev just like. And this is like also like profit, like how much money you make. Because money is just an exchange of value creation. So once you all of a sudden like that EV takes off, it almost surpasses your iv. You're like blown away, like, holy cow, how did I make this much money this year? So I would say that, man, like IV equals increase.
- [34:18]
Joe Jensen
When it's funny because it goes back to what you said at the beginning is like, it's doing the work before the opportunity comes along. You know, like you did the work to graze your interpersonal value so that when there comes a time where you could add external value to someone else through a business connection or putting a deal together or whatever it is, you've done the work so that you can do that. You know what I mean? So now you're the guy that can add it value to someone else. Cuz it you built up your own knowledge base and did that work ahead of time, you know, because you could have been playing pickleball with this dope investor guy who has money and trust and all this experience, but if you hadn't done any work on yourself, he would never would have invested with you. Like not in a year, you know, in a million years. What if he had put anything into your deal except for he trusted you and saw that you knew what you were doing. So he's like, yeah, like this makes sense.
- [35:15]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, yeah. So true. You know, another, another thought that we battle with too is once we've seen success and some successes, that's a perfect time to start again. Right? Like there's always a bigger fish. And it's not about the money. It never is and it never will be. For me. All it is is just like more value creation. Like how do I become a better person and then exchange that to other people and just naturally your, the profit will follow. But focusing more on your purpose. Profit will follow.
- [35:51]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. And you like say, yeah, you grow you and you can grow that. That's really cool. So what would you say to someone? Because a lot of Your story and not everybody's story is going to work for everybody. So you don't need to have, like, a perfect answer for this. But what would you say to somebody? Like, well, I don't have the kind of connections that you do. Like, it sounds like you've, you know, you had all these really cool connections with this person. That person bounce ideas off. Like, and I don't have tens of thousands of dollars to put into masterminds groups. Like, what do I do? What would you say to that person?
- [36:24]
Eric Gubler
I mean, they're all around us. Like, people love telling their story. If somebody came to me and wasn't making six figures yet and said, hey, I want to learn how to make six figures or multiple six figures, how did you do it? There's no chance that I'm not gonna tell them my story, because people love sharing how they, how they. They love sharing their wins.
- [36:47]
Joe Jensen
Yeah.
- [36:48]
Eric Gubler
So ask it that way. Don't make it about you. Don't come up to somebody and say, hey, I'm just trying it. And I'm this. And I'm. I'm trying to get here. And I'm like, think about them. How did you get there? What were the things that you did to get you to the point where you're at? I'm so inspired by you. And if you do that, there's no chance that somebody's going to say no to that. You're going to feel that you're a hustler, and they. They want to give you that value for free. So start there.
- [37:17]
Joe Jensen
That's cool. And it's funny with real estate, I think there's something about it that people, they love to talk about real estate. Like. Like, I could do this all day. Like, I actually, I teach real estate, you know, as my job, I invest in it. And then for fun, I do the podcast to just talk about real estate even more. You know what I mean? So, like, people love to share their stories with real estate. It's a very welcoming community. And, like, especially their wins and their cool stories, like, it's hard to get them to shut up. So it's not a stretch if you look for it. I think you're right.
- [37:53]
Eric Gubler
Yep, 100%.
- [37:54]
Joe Jensen
And then on, you know, I just add, it's like, if you don't know people, people talk about, you know, all your five people that you surround yourself with. Like you mentioned, it's like, if you don't have those people, it's like, do we live in a world of information? It's like, find The. Your five podcasts, five or five books. Like, you can pick these people's brains and be influenced by them. Even if they've never met you, you can still meet them. You know what I mean? And learn everything. They can be your mentor, even though I don't know you exist, you know?
- [38:25]
Eric Gubler
Yeah. Like. And then. That's the point I didn't even think to bring up. But it's a perfect insert. I read a ton of tons of podcasts. Again, very intentional about what I listen to, who I hang out with. And I'm not saying all the time, like, you can't be that jerk that's always, like. Like I said, the 33% rule. Like, you're not always hanging out, like, up for a group. Like, you got to give value, too. But. But I'm always stretching that, and I'm always reading and learning and constantly trying to grow and ask questions. And if we're always doing that, we'll never. In fact, most people just say that they realize how much they don't know.
- [39:03]
Joe Jensen
Mm.
- [39:05]
Eric Gubler
But that's how I feel. Fulfillment in life is just the journey of progression. And the second I stop is when I feel the most depressed and, like, sluggish, you know?
- [39:17]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, yeah, we. We thrive off accomplishment as human beings. We want to see progress. You know, you want to feel like you're doing something even if you're killing it. But it's easy now. You just don't feel that same sense of accomplishment anymore. So to walk us through your story a little bit again, you've done, you know, multiple deals. We talked about your first one. We talked about the storage unit. What did some of the stuff, like, in between or other things that you've done kind of look like, like, all.
- [39:44]
Eric Gubler
Residential until the storage facility. And it was just always, like. For me, it was always, do the rents make sense and. Or can I move in and update it a little bit? Buys it a prime. Sorry, buy it as a primary, and then make sure you get that lower interest rate. Living it for six months or something like that. Fix it up while you're there, and then turn it into a profit. And you could sell then. Or just, I would just say rent it. Wait, you know, a little bit, and then whatever you want to do. But it. It's just. It's actually really easy. The hardest part is the mental side, man, like, thinking that you can do it. Like, I think people get stressed out when they look at people that have. That have done it, and they go, oh, I don't know if that can be me, but honestly, anyone can do this.
- [40:41]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, it's amazing how quickly like you said, when you decide I'm tired of talking about it, I'm going to do it. I don't know how, but I'm going to. It's amazing how quickly the pieces can align. Like I wanted to buy a mobile home park this past year. You know, I'd seen there's just really good numbers in it and it was just like, I don't know, I just wanted to do it and so I just put it on one of my main lists. I was like, I want to acquire one. And you know, I didn't know how soon would happen and it's just crazy how quickly the pieces fell together and I was able to get this little, you know, one that I could afford, one that I could do that on, payment on. And it was, funny thing is there's a wholesale deal which almost always wholesale deals are cash. Right. It's like that's why they're doing a wholesale is they're not going to sit around for a lender to qualify you and blah blah, blah, you got to buy those cash. I didn't have the cash and I said I'll buy it but I've got to get a loan on it. And. And they said okay, alright. So and then like I got denied by like three different lenders, finally got a lender that would say yes on this mobile home park, got it, paid for and purchased it. And it was just crazy how it didn't fit the mold. But I just, it was on my list and so I was gonna find a way to make it work. And even if it wasn't as cookie cutter as I was expecting, but it worked out, you know, so like I say, having that mindset that even if you don't know how it will work, get it on your list, start looking for ways to make it work and you'll get there. You know, none of this is, we're not geniuses. People aren't super special. It's just about taking action and learning what you need to learn along the way, you know.
- [42:21]
Eric Gubler
Oh good bro. I got one other thing that I and thought of as you were sharing that and I want to share. Sometimes we get so busy in life that we don't have time to dream big. And I see it all the time. Even people that are higher earners.
- [42:35]
Joe Jensen
Yep.
- [42:36]
Eric Gubler
So even if you, even if you're making a million dollars a year but you're just working 80 hour weeks, you might be really good at Your job and you're a really good earner, but you're blind to opportunity because you're, you're so busy and you're so stressed and you're so tired. And I think in our lives where we're so busy and life is busy and we have so many distractions, the thing that I'm constantly working on right now is taking a four hour block a week or whatever works for you to just silence everything and start to dream again. Because when I get really, really busy with deals and people buying and selling new listings, I start to hate it almost because like, yeah, the money is good, but that's not why I'm doing it again. Right? It's, it's the growth and development. And if I'm not putting my mind in a, in a state of like a mindset where you can dream, you just always get in that hamster wheel. So even starting out, like, you've got to make sure you de stress for a long period of time every week as much as you can give to start dreaming it. Like, stand up, show them your shirt. I love Brody's thing that. Dream it, write it, build it, live it. I freaking love it. The first part. Dream it. You'll never dream it if you don't have time. And if you're not super intentional about.
- [44:11]
Joe Jensen
Dreaming, I think that is super. Like I want to end off on that basically. I think that is such a huge key point. That sounds so simple. It's like, well, yeah, take some time to like think about what you want. Like it's so differently said. When you really carve out that time and become very intentional about it and you continue to do that, you know, I mean, throughout. I think that's. Anyway, I don't want to repeat what you just said, but I think it's very profound and super impactful. If people just take a second listen to that and let that really sink in, that can be the biggest game changer I know. I don't know if you follow Ray Dalio at all. He's a big hedge fund manager, ran this huge corporation. He's like kind of like a Warren Buffett, just multi billionaire. And he equates a lot of his success at the number one thing that's been the differentiator was meditation was true transcendental meditation. Taking that time to, to do that makes all the difference in the world. And I think that that's really powerful. And that for financial, for personal, for spiritual, for fitness, like health, whatever it is, these principles carry over to every realm you know what I mean? Obviously we're talking real estate but it definitely carries over.
- [45:33]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, I can echo that for sure. I meditate every morning for 10 minutes.
- [45:37]
Joe Jensen
I love it.
- [45:38]
Eric Gubler
So many good on Apple Music, Spotify. There's guided meditations that like kind of like talk to you and get you in a state of mind where you can start, calms you down, gets rid of that anxiety. We've got to do that more to dream because it kind of just puts us in a, a different frame of mind.
- [45:56]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. And really like, because that's something I need to do better on is the, the big block, you know because I'll do the meditation, you know, I stretch after the gym I put on and I do that kind of those little setting the zone for my day and I get in a good state and it helps. I have two little kids, I have a five year old, three year old. It's like man, if I don't, I'm like short tempered and I'm like ah, like stressed out. But when I've got like when I've set my state I'm a much better with them and same with you know, tenants or work stuff, whatever it is. But carving out the four or five hours to really like have more than a 10 minute state setting but dive deep into the dreams and the possibilities and what you're missing, like I think that's really powerful so we won't keep harp on that but I really appreciate that you brought that up but I think that's gonna be impactful. Well sweet man. We're gonna go through a couple kind of like fire round at the end of the podcast cross questions. But before we do that, is there anything else you want to share about real estate or what you love about real estate or your thoughts or why it's something you do or do we kind of COVID that?
- [47:00]
Eric Gubler
The only other thought that I had that I wanted to share is just don't be afraid to fail. Fail faster is something that I live by. Just think of it as the point that you're at and the point that you want to get to. Everything in between is just failure. So if you think of it that way, you don't want to fail on purpose, but there's a certain amount of failures. So just jump in and don't be afraid to fail. Because once you hit, let's say there's a hundred failures in between here. Once you hit 100, you're there. Right. So it's, it's almost that simple. You'll eventually as long as you don't give up. You'll get there. So for everybody starting out or maybe in the middle of it and kind of failing, you'll get there.
- [47:42]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. I love it. I love it. Well, sweet, man. So here's a couple questions to end it off on. One, and this isn't real estate related, what would you say is your next bucket list item you're excited to check off in life?
- [47:54]
Eric Gubler
Oh, dude, it's a travel one. Me, my wife. I really want to go to Switzerland. It's kind of where my ancestors are from. I've never been. Cool. And that's the next lineup. That would be hiking and camping in Switzerland.
- [48:10]
Joe Jensen
Have you heard of the Ladder to Heaven in Austria?
- [48:15]
Eric Gubler
No. You should send it to me.
- [48:16]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, I'll have to send it. You should check it out. So it's just north of Switzerland or whatever, but you see these images? Just this, like, ladder just in the air, just. It looks incredible. That. That's definitely on my list to do is get out there and do the ladder to Heaven. I'll send it to you. Maybe you can add it as part of your trip. Everything's close out there, so that'd be awesome. Do you have a date? Is that actually gonna happen, or are we just talking about.
- [48:42]
Eric Gubler
Well, we have a baby coming, so after that. Okay, but we. It's gonna happen.
- [48:51]
Joe Jensen
Babies are big bucket list items, too, so we'll take it. What would be your definition of freedom? I know that's the reason a lot of us have got into real estate and are passionate about it, but what's your definition of freedom? Eric?
- [49:04]
Eric Gubler
You know, there's three things, and I think if you don't have all three, then you're. You're not there. One for me. This is just for me. You need to be good at making a profit. You need to be good at earning. But that's probably the least of the three. The second one.
- [49:32]
Joe Jensen
Well.
- [49:35]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, so the second one for me is just that you. You kind of get. Oh, what's the word? You. Basically, I'm gonna butcher this. You leave an impact. Okay, okay. So, like, if you have money, that's great, but you could be, like, a drug lord.
- [50:00]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, sure. So what's the positive legacy you're leaving behind?
- [50:05]
Eric Gubler
Yeah, like, you're not. And that's the. The third one, right? Is like, then, like, teach somebody else how to do, like, the legacy, but, like, impact, meaning, like, are you. Are you giving to charity and. And other people? But then, like, the other one is more like family tree. Like, how Am I teaching my kids and my family? Right. So they're very similar, second and third. But like money to me is the least important out of all of those. I would say with one of those two is. The third one is time. Like, if you're. If your life doesn't look exactly like you want it to every day, if you feel like you have to go to work, if you feel like you have to go do things and you don't have freedom of time yet, so maybe we'll lump it into that and we'll say people that you impact other people through charity and then your future generations. Your time is the way that you would. You're spending your time the way that you want to and you're earning at a high level. So if I don't have all three of those, I don't feel like I've reached success. Right. And all those things I think need to be in balance.
- [51:14]
Joe Jensen
I love it. I think that's really good. I think there's a lot there to dissect. Ted, last question. If you could send a text message out to the world and everybody's phone blows up and they get to see what Eric has to say, what would your text bomb to the world say?
- [51:33]
Eric Gubler
Oh, man, Just live intentionally. And it would just be that. And I know not everybody would understand what that means, but if you really think about it, all of this that we talked about is just living intentionally. Planning out your day, planning out your week, dreaming big. Dream it, write it, build it, live it. Like your guys's thing. That's all intentional stuff. Like in two words. That's. That's it. Know where you want to go, right? Like, just live intentionally. If I could, if I could send that out, just like snip it where people would actually read it.
- [52:18]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, that's. That's powerful. I love that. I. That's. That was something I have like lived by and believed in my whole life. Like not just being passive and just letting life happen to you. You know, it's like be proactive about it. Live intentionally. I love that. Well, sweet, man. What's the best way for people to keep in touch with you or if people want to reach out to you or find you?
- [52:43]
Eric Gubler
What people reach out to me on Instagram. It's just at E Goobler. Goobler is G U B L E R. Okay. So yeah, just shoot me a DM on Insta. And I would love to connect or just follow me. I'm always trying to post different things. Real estate related or just mindset. Related, kind of some of the things that we're talking about right now. So if you like some of those things and follow me on Instagram, great.
- [53:11]
Joe Jensen
Well, awesome. Well, we're going to wrap up. This is Joe Jensen signing off for the Real Estate Investing School podcast, reminding you to find the silence and dream big.