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Can help@swepe.com hi, I'm Richard Karn and you may have seen me on TV talking about the world's number one expandable garden hose. Well, the brand new Pocket Hose Copperhead with Pocket Pivot is here and it's a total game changer. Old fashioned hoses get kinks and creases at the spigot, but the Copperhead's pocket pivot swivels 360 degrees for full water flow and freedom to water with ease all around your home. When you're all done, this rust proof anti burst hose shrinks back down to pocket size for effortless handling and tidy storage. Plus your super light and ultra durable pocket hose Copperhead is backed with a 10 year warranty. What could be better than that? I'll tell you what an exciting exclusive offer just for you for a limited time. You can get a free pocket pivot and their 10 pattern sprayer with the purchase of any size Copperhead hose. Just text water to 64,000. That's water to 64,000 for your two free gifts with purchase W A T E R to 64,000.
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By texting 64,000 you agree to receive recurring automated marketing messages from Pocket Hose. Message and data rates may apply. No purchase required. Terms apply. Available at pockethose.com terms hi Zoe Saldana. Welcome to T Mobile. Here's your new iPhone 16 Pro on us.
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Thanks.
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Hand sanitizer.
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It's lavender.
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I'm good.
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See T mobile.com what's up science Flipping Podcast fam I'm back with a very special guest. He is a business partner of of mine, one of my best friends, a true real estate genius. He's been doing this for a little bit longer and I I've started in 2004. He's flipped hundreds of homes and he has moved from the single family asset into apartments and is now flipping apartments and I need know what the hell he's up to. Adam Williams.
A
Hey man, thank you for having me. Matter of fact, he you actually came out here to Scottsdale to do this, which is rare because usually I have to come to Miami to see you. So it's a treat to have you here, man.
B
Dude, this is phenomenal. I'm in your studio. For all the watchers, I'm in his studio. If you're in Scottdale, it's an incredible studio here. Listen, we've known each other a long time.
A
Yeah.
B
You've done a very good amount of single family assets and now you're moving yourself into the apartment space. You've done several already. You're a doer, which we're going to talk about because I think there's a difference between why you've reached success and why others maybe haven't. But talk to me about the general idea behind single family assets and apartments and why you've chosen to essentially move into a different direction.
A
Yeah, I mean when I found this game, like I grew up around real estate, right. My dad had a couple like single family rental homes. Not a lot. He was not like super successful in the game. But from being a tiny little kid, I remember he had a couple of rental homes, maybe three or four little shitty rental homes and, and a little five unit building that he had had since he was like a late teenager. He kind of got in the game early. And so I went in and I remember like move helping him move furniture out and helping him go collect rents and all those things as a little kid. But it Was very, very lower class. Like D class type properties. Right. Really, like slumlord, almost.
B
Yeah.
A
And so with that comes very dirty and gross and like, I remember like moving a chair out of a place and cockroaches scattering everywhere as a kid. Right. And it just freaks you out. So. Really turned off from real estate as a kid. And he kept telling me as I was a teenager and getting into my early 20s, you got to get into real estate. You got to get into real estate. I was always an entrepreneur.
B
Yeah.
A
But I was struggling, trying to figure out, like, what business I could generate real income at. And my dad would always tell me, you got to get into real estate. You got to get into real estate. I was like, dad, I don't want to deal with cockroaches and going at 2am to collect rent because that's the only time they have it and all the things. But I was in my late 20s and I got invited over to a buddy's house for a Halloween party. And I pulled up to this house and it was the biggest house I'd ever seen. It like, wrapped around the whole corner. It was like, I was just like, mind blown, right? And here, like I was running a decent little marketing company at the time. But I walked in and met the kid who owned this house, who was way younger than me, by the way. I was probably 26, 27. Kid was 18.
B
No way.
A
And I'm instantly like, what do you do and how can I get involved?
B
Right?
A
And he goes on to tell me, you know, I own a mortgage company, but that's not how I make my money. I invest in real estate. So this thing just kept popping up, Right. And so I went to long story short, because that's a whole nother. We could go on about this story for 45 minutes. But I went to meet him at his office the next week because that's what he told me to come do if I was serious about getting involved and found out what he was doing was he was buying and flipping single family homes.
B
Okay.
A
And so that's how I got in the game.
B
And this was when.
A
This was in 2004. 2004. I am old. But, but, but I, I did very well with him. We struck a partnership. We did 252 single family residences in just under three years. But I, what I realized was about a year and a half into that, like, I'm like you, man. I don't want to do anything super small or take a hundred years to get there.
B
Yeah.
A
And I'm I was looking at like, okay, this is cool, we're making money, but how can. How do the guys get 10,000 units? Yeah, right. It's taken me a year and a half to get, you know, 100, 150.
B
Yeah.
A
I'm never going to get to 10,000. I'm going to be 100 years old.
B
Right.
A
And so I started studying apartments and multifamily and how the whole game worked and what I found that was so brilliant about it. And why, to answer your question, I quickly moved from single to multi was a number of reasons, but the main reason is single family investing. Whether you own rentals, whether you own a couple Airbnbs, whether you're a flipper, whatever, it is all great ways to make money, but you can't really operate it like a business. A single family residence, there's a lot of emotion tied to it. You've got renters, you know, you've got a lot of risk. With multifamily, it's all operated as a business. It's just numbers. That's it. It's how much cash flow is that asset spitting off every single month. And that's how you value what it's worth. Right. And so I quickly found that Instead of flipping one house at a time or two houses at a time, we could go flip 200 at a time. And now I could get there. And was just very lucky. Fast forward. Lucky enough to partner with an amazing operator, Started our own. My wife and I started our own private equity firm, Ellades Capital. Partner with an amazing operator. And now, I mean, with them we have over 11,000 doors.
B
That's incredible. So, and so that journey is not a straight line.
A
Oh, God, no.
B
And I think that's what I think most people need to hear also is 2004 to 2025. It's not a straight line to find, oh, 11,000 doors, billions under asset and not whatnot. But talk to us about, like, the idea of that journey for a little bit, right? Like, what does it take to get to a place where you can have extreme clarity? Understanding where I'm going to go for the next decade, I'm going to put my head down, I'm going to go do it. How do you get there? Because a lot of, you know, that age old, it's like iconic. It's a drawing of like a squiggly line to success. Right. That's the reality.
A
Yeah.
B
Right. And so how do you get to that point where you, all of a sudden, you do have a straight line? I know exactly what I'm going to do, and I'm going to go crush it for a decade.
A
I actually. I painted this. I'm not an artist by any means, but there's a painting in my house that I actually painted. It's the only one. Yeah. Everything else somebody else did. I painted this painting, and I'm actually pretty proud of it. It's called I get Vince to get a picture of it and send it over to you so you can put it on there. It's called Abundance. I. And it's a pretty large painting, and the whole bottom of the painting is black, and it has this thin, like, creamy kind of white line. And then above that, about a quarter of its gold. And I think of it like that. Right? Like, you're going through this black, muddy, like, no clarity. Like, just. This is where everybody gives up. This is where dreams go to die. Right. And. And entrepreneurship's interesting because you get punched in the face over and over and over and over and over again while you're in this. Your plan that you thought of, that. That thing you drew on the napkin, that vision you had of driving Lambos and sailing on yachts with a hot chick, that's not how it ends up. Right. And so you're going through this muddy part, and that's where most people give up. But if you can get to where that little line is envisioned and you can punch through that, it just gets so much easier on the other side. That's that clarity that you start to.
B
Get, and you have to give yourself enough Runway. Right. So initially, everyone starts out, I want to go make money. I want to make some again, Lambo, boat, whatever. But then you have to understand what is the purpose I'm doing this all for and get some clarity around that. And. And listen, there's a lot of really hyper successful people that you and I both know that are in their 20s.
A
Right.
B
I would argue they're hyper successful financially in the cash flow business, in. In the sense of, like, making money.
A
Yeah.
B
I believe most of the people that I surround myself with that you do. That clarity, that little gold line, you start to get there in your late 30s. You start to really understand, what am I doing it all for? Money's fine. It's all fun. You've made a lot of money. I made a lot of money. But then there's, what's it all for? If there's not a bigger purpose of what you're going to fight for, that's where it fades away. This episode is brought to you by motivated sellers.com America's leading pay per lead platform for real estate investors Whether you're doing your first flip or your 500th deal, there's one thing you need more than anything else. Motivated Sellers that are exclusive to you. That's where we come in. At motivated sellers.com we specialize in helping real estate investors connect with homeowners who are ready to sell fast all over the nation. Our platform is laser focused on quality over quantity, using cutting edge digital marketing and partnerships with the biggest tech and AI leaders to deliver exclusive leads in real time. Not shared, not recycled, not cold. No babysitting cold callers, no junk data clogging your CRM. Just motivated sellers directly in your inbox phone CRM ready to make the deal. Over 2000 active investors are already scaling their business with us from newcomers to industry pros. Our system is simple, scalable and and built for serious closers ready to stop chasing and start closing. Go to motivatedsellers.com to learn more about pricing. Our amazing return policy. Claim your territory and get your first leads flowing today. Motivated sellers.com Stripe is the go to.
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Choice for AI companies. From early stage startups to scaled enterprises.
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C
Can help@swepe.com hi, I'm Richard Karn and you may have seen me on TV talking about the world's number one expandable garden hose. Well, the brand new Pocket hose Copperhead with Pocket Pivot is here and it's a total game changer. Old fashioned hoses get kinks and creases at the spigot, but the Copperhead's pocket pivot swivels 360 degrees for full water flow and freedom to water with ease all around your home. When you're all done, this rust proof anti burst hose shrinks back down to pocket size for effortless handling and tidy storage. Plus your super light and ultra durable pocket hose. Copperhead is backed with a 10 year warranty. What could be better than that? I'll tell you what an exciting exclusive offer just for you. For a limited time you can get a free pocket pivot and their 10 pattern sprayer with the purchase of any size Copperhead hose. Just text water to 64,000. That's water to 64,000 for your two free gifts with purchase w a t E R to 64,000 by texting.
A
64,000. You agree to receive recurring automated marketing messages from Pocket Hose. Message and data rates may apply. No purchase required. Terms apply available@pocket hose.com terms.
B
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A
Well, that's exactly right. And the two things that you said there, number one, putting these false timelines, which are just complete BS anyways. Like, I can say I want to be here in one year, I want to be here in 10 years. Okay, cool, great. But if you tie yourself to that and that's your end all be all. Well, what if you don't get there?
B
That's right.
A
Like you're just going to give up.
B
Yeah.
A
No, you're going to keep. Hopefully you're going to keep going the second thing, and that's what you have to do. Most people do give up. They're like, oh, it didn't work. In two years, I'm out. Right. Well, good luck then. You're just going to start something new and that's going to fail in two years and start something new and you're going to be 50 and you've never done anything.
B
Yeah.
A
But the second thing and more important is this, this sense of like, purpose. Like why? Right in. I mean, I have two kids, so people say my family, my kids and all. That's my purpose. My wife and I are very into our. We're very into animals. So like our dog rescues and stuff like that that we support. And until I started, like I pinned it, I have a notes thing on my, on my phone like everybody does. And I have my goals in my purpose and my, in my clarity on there that I review every single morning while I'm eating my breakfast. And that evolves Too Right. That's not just doesn't stay the same all the time. But it's because I'm constantly putting it back into my mind, like, thank you so much, God, I'm so grateful to have this amazing opportunity in front of me today. Right. I don't ever ask for anything.
B
Right.
A
I just thank for the opportunity. And here's what I'm going after. Even when I got kicked in the nuts yesterday, because I still get kicked in the nuts. Well, do hard.
B
Oh yeah.
A
Who said. Who was saying not too long ago, I watched. Who's the guy with the beard that everybody knows?
B
Marcella.
A
No, not for seller. The guy that did this created school.
B
Oh, Hermosi.
A
Hermosi. Yeah. He said being an entrepreneur. This is the thing about being an entrepreneur that most people that are just starting out don't understand. Being an entrepreneur is like getting punched in the face every single day for two years straight just to get a glimmer of hope and get kicked in the nuts the next day.
B
Yeah. I mean, and it's so true. It's so true. Right. Whatever level. Now you said something about, first of all, you talked about kind of writing it out and reviewing it every day. So I do something similar. There's a five minute journal you can get on Amazon every morning I write out what I'm grateful for, what's going to make today a great day or what did I learn yet? So every morning I have this ritual to do that. But you said something about it changes over time.
A
It does.
B
And I think that's where, you know, we can talk about Ella Vest. Right. And what elvest is today and where it came from. Because this is your company. I'm a minority owner in it. But you run it. But it literally, people have this vision of what their end goal is and they think it is this. Like that there's no iterations of how to get there or what it will ultimately be. All of us today may not be the Same Elves in 10 years. It just may not. It might, but it might not.
A
Yeah.
B
There's iterations and people don't give themselves the opportunity to understand iterations in business or in life. And they don't give themselves enough grace to iterate. They think they're failures if they have to change from this vision that they put out there, right. That like, oh, it's going to be this thing. And if they don't do it the exact way that they had in their head, they feel like they're failing or whatever the case is, all of the Successful people iterate. I'm going to use Grant Cardone as an example. What did you originally think of or hear of Grant Cardone? What was he initially when he first.
A
He was a product salesman and then he trained, started training other car sales.
B
Into sales car deals. What do you think about Grant Cardone today?
A
Who? Real estate guy.
B
Real estate guy, yeah. Iteration. He's done well along the way, but he has changed how it got him to where he is.
A
Exactly. Right.
B
So let's talk about lms. Let's talk about what we're doing with lvest, what your mission is, but then also that iteration and how you had to find that within yourself along business trajectory 100.
A
Yeah. With Elevest, which, look, we're a relatively new company. We, we started this just under three years ago. So although I've been investing in real estate, going.
B
What have you been able to do in three years?
A
A decent amount. I've been investing in real estate for nearly 21 years. I'd been investing in other people's syndications. I'd been investing in other operators and sponsors. So I've. I've known this business for two decades. Right. And been in it. But I started to see, like, what did I like about the things I was investing in? How did I feel they were doing a great job? How did I feel they could do a better job? What were the things I just hated because, you know, every operator is different, every fund's different. And so I felt like we could build what my ultimate vehicle would be. And. And when we set out to build it, I think the biggest thing. And you talk about evolution of, like, ideas and stuff, and we're still in our infancy stage. That's why I preface with that. But we've already iterated a dozen times in just under three years. Right. And now my big. What I wake up every single morning and I come into this office and I do is I focus on how can I educate more people on how to build wealth with this multifamily investment syndication vehicle. Yeah, that's it. If I focus on that and that alone, everything else seems to fall into place. And I don't charge for it. I'm not, you know, none of that. I just. I just give away as much education. I know you do this, you give away a ton of education, help people as much as you can, and then I want them to come do deals with us. Yeah, right. And it's why you and I hit it off so well. I hired you as a coach and then we started Doing deals. We've done, what, nine or ten deals together now. Some. Some single, some multifamily. Now you're here with me and Ella Vest. We're doing some more stuff together. That's right. But the evolution is crazy. I mean, that's a perfect example. I hired you as a coach. Literally paid, I don't know, 10, 12 grand to coach with you. We hit it off, became fast friends. You're like, holy shit, this guy actually does what he says he's going to do. I started doing. Now we're partners on deals. But we never knew that in the beginning, right? And now you're an equity owner in my company, which is awesome. Right? And. And I'm sure 10 years from now we'll be doing three other things that we're not even of, right?
B
That's right.
A
But when we talk about the evolution, what's. What's so eye opening to me that I think most especially people just getting started out in business, don't quite know yet. And it's not their fault. It's just that. You're right. It's maturity. It's. It's, it's. No, it's doing it for long enough. Everything around us is constantly evolving, right? You're evolving as a human. You're growing. Your family is evolving, Whether you have a wife, a husband, children, what, whatever may be people around you. Right. Relatives are getting older and dying. Right? Like, it's. Everything is evolving. And then the world around us is evolving. Especially some people aren't in real estate if you're in tech. I was having this conversation with one of my venture guys the other day who's an investor in some of our deals, and he's like, the crazy thing right now about all these tech entrepreneurs is by the time they get the idea out of their head onto a napkin, somebody else has already built it three times. It's just everything is evolving so rapidly right now. If you're not willing to be fluid in anything you're doing, just give it up and go get a job.
B
But you also have to go. What you brought up is, is what I see all the time. People want to perfect their. What. Let's just use LS as an example. What is Ellis going to be? And you do this brainstorming, mind mapping. Maybe you hire a consultant to map out the entire organization. Da, da, da. Yeah. Meanwhile, you have a guy that literally comes in, says, I'm going to go invest in apartment buildings. Not really know what I'm doing and raise some capital. I'm going to make some calls, I'm going to do the thing. Might do it a little bit wrong to start, but just went and did.
A
Yeah.
B
And what I appreciate about what you've done is, is you and I have done deals more in the single family space, an apartment already. And you just said, dude, I have a different vision of what I want to be doing. And I'm going. And as recent as 2 weeks ago, you're with me in Miami, you iterated again. You brought to me like, here's this new way we're going to do this new thing. I mean there's these iterations, but you go, yeah, you don't wait around, you don't perfect, you don't make sure everything is perfect before you move. You start running.
A
Well, you have to, because you know this whole, and I know it's cliche, this paralysis analysis, it's a real deal.
B
Oh yeah.
A
People will sit there and run this idea they have through their brain a million times and never do it. What does that do for you? They're wasting your time. I heard a guy say, we're going to try some shit, we're going to learn some shit, we're going to try some new shit.
B
Yeah.
A
And that's it. But if you don't try some, if you just think about, you ain't getting, you're doing nothing.
B
No doubt.
A
Right. You gotta try, you gotta go out and try. When we started ellevest, I had known by being an investor what I thought I wanted this world to look like, right? But when you go become an owner of a private equity firm and create these funds to invest tens of millions of dollars in real estate deals, it's a whole different animal. I'm learning, you know, SEC regulation I'm working with just completely like upside down from what an investor experiences. Right. In this business as a passive investor. So no matter what you're looking to do real estate, start a business, whatever. Like if you see a pretty girl and you're single and you want to get with that girl and you keep thinking about it, but you never go ask her on a date, you're probably not going to get with the girl.
B
This is why I was so successful as a single man. But yeah, you mouth shared. Hi, my name's Just Right. I get you to go say hi. I, I just, I had a look at my phone real quick while doing this interview because I wrote down a note, someone sent me something that I thought was so impactful, which is, goes to this, there's something called the three Cs of success. And I've never heard that before. And I was like, what? So he sends me this thing and he's talking about, you have to make a choice. And you've heard me say this. The number one law of success is decide what you want. So you have to make a choice.
A
Right.
B
To give yourself a chance, which is the second you got to take a chance on it to change your life or to change where you're going. Yeah. So make a choice to give yourself a chance to make change.
A
That's right.
B
And so if you're sitting here watching this and watching Adam, and by the way, all, everyone follow Adam, follow Ellevest. We'll put everything in the. The comments or where, where can they find you on Instagram.
A
Aw Invests.
B
AW Invests. Yeah. Also Ellevest Capital. But the point of making the choice is that's how you give yourself a chance to succeed and change the trajectory. And I thought that was so impactful because that's what people lack.
A
Well, it's so impactful because most people don't make a choice.
B
Right.
A
They have an idea, they have a want, but they never make a choice. Draw that line in the sand and jump over that line and say, I'm in it now. I'm going. Yeah, right. What's the worst that can happen?
B
The same shit happens you and I all the time.
A
It's gonna happen anyway.
B
Eat sandwiches.
A
Yeah.
B
Or, you know, the other side of this is it won't happen to you, but you have to be okay with living a pretty mediocre life at best.
A
Right? Yeah. And. Well. And life's getting more and more expensive. Right. To live a very basic life now is very expensive. So I don't care if. Well, I don't want fancy cars. I don't want a fancy house. Cool. No worries. Not for everybody. But even a very basic life is extremely expensive and getting more and more expensive. And I don't know anybody that wants to eat top ramen every single meal for the rest of their life. No, it's great. Pennies to pay rent.
B
No. Well, and. And people need to know how to invest. And that's why, like these, even the apartment we're talking about today, tonight we're having an event. You guys will hear this afterwards. But we're having like small little get together. I think 30, 40 people will be here in the office. We're talking about a 248 door property in Dallas.
A
Yep.
B
Massive discount. This thing sold in 2022. We're buying it 20, 25. At a 30% discount from their price.
A
Yep.
B
But people need to understand how to invest, because if life is getting more expensive, they need to know how to take their money and make their money work for them.
A
Well, and that's what happened to me. So I, you know, over and above the real estate stuff, I'm just an entrepreneur. I've been building businesses since I could crawl. Right. Like, I built a ton of businesses and a lot in the marketing space, the call center space, you name it. We did it in that arena for about a good 20 years. And what I found was a lot of those I failed at. Right. A lot of those I failed at. But when I had success, which I did once every, for some reason, every seven years, I knock one out of the park. When I had success and made a bunch of money. We're.
B
We're about seven years right now. Right? Okay.
A
When I had success and made a bunch of money in those businesses, I needed a vehicle to take that active income and put it into so that money could start working for me. That's right. And what I, what I. Where I made a lot of mistakes early on in my, like, my first success where I was like, oh, my God, I went and made, you know, a couple million bucks. And I thought that was all the money in the world, which it is not, because if you don't keep making it, that shit goes fast. What, what happened was I went and I found, like, my buddy had an idea for a business, so I invested into his deal, and then this guy had something that sounded fancy that I could make a bunch of money, so I invested in his deal and that shit went away because none of it worked out. My second go around, I was already investing in real estate and doing the real estate deals. But my second big win where I was like, in one of my businesses where I made some money is when I really started investing in the syndication stuff. And this is exactly what we teach people now with Ellevest. Our ideal client is either the high W2 income earner. You work a job, you don't have to be an entrepreneur. You don't have to own a business. There are guys that work jobs, guys and gals that make, you know, 500 grand a year. Yeah, right. All day long.
B
Yeah.
A
If you're a high income earner for a W2 job and. Or you own your own business and you do very well financially, let's just use easy number for just number's sake. So you make a million bucks a year. Right. You should be Keeping your expenses to about 20% of that if you can, right? And I know life's expensive and we all like fancy shit, but if you can keep your expenses to about 20% of that, you're going to have some tax liability, you're going to have some things, whatever's left over you should be shoving into these multifamily real estate deals, these multifamily real estate syndications. And the reason is I call it, I'm going to talk about this tonight at our event. I call it the fuel and the gas tank. Your active income that you're going to work to earn every single day or running your business or every day is the fuel. That's the gas. This is the gas tank and you need the fuel to fill up the gas tank. But once you get that gas tank really, really full and you're able to do this and shove that couple hundred grand, 2, 3, 4, 500 grand every single year, year over year over year into this gas tank and watch these things start to compound. We're talking about syndicating and being a part of an equity owner in 150 doors, 250 doors, 350 doors at a time. And then we, we get in. We have a very strict business model where we get in, we acquire the property, we, we, we, we execute our business plan and renovate all the units, increase the rents are up to market rent for the new class A units that we've now created for the workforce housing. And then we're selling off that deal. That's why I say flipping apartments, flipping houses. We're in and out of these as fast as we can. Our average hold time right now is 17.7 months. So we do not hang on to these deals. We get in, we do the business plan, we get out, right? Take a property we bought for 33, 34 million bucks, put about 8, 10 million into it. We're looking to sell it for 65 million. It's wild quick, right? You can't do that in single family. But as a one guy, I'm not gonna go write a 30 million dollar check and then another 10 million to renovate. Like that's just, I'm not gonna do that. But we can syndicate these deals together so you, Justin, can just keep running, running your business, doing what you do to create that gas, to create that active income and then take whatever portion, move it into this gas tank, right into these deals. We do all the work over here. Our investors don't have to do anything. They get their monthly distributions all the way along. And when we exit that property, the smart ones, 92% of our investors, 1031 into the next deal. And so now you're just building your wealth over time. And you look back 10, 12, 15 years, you've taken whatever you've done and you've double it about every three to five years. Yep, it doubles about every three to five years on average. So not only are you building your net worth, but you're building your passive income because we do monthly distributions. So you're, you may only be getting, when you first start, a thousand bucks a month. Nothing exciting, right? But if that doubles every three to five years, and now it's two, and now it's four, now it's 8,000 and now it's 16,000, and now it's 32,000, you fast forward 15 years, you're 32,000amonth before you get out of bed. And there's ways to mitigate taxes on that and have most of that, if not all of it tax free. I don't know anything else that does that. Yeah, right.
B
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B
Available@pocket host.com terms well, the reason why I love real estate in a general sense. Apartments more so because they're technically easier to have tax write offs.
A
Yeah.
B
But one of the main reasons real estate gives you a tax write off. Real estate gives you income. Real estate gives you what I call bankability.
A
Yep.
B
And that's writing the ride up to gain the equity to be able to do things like pull out more mortgages or refi and go buy another property. It gives you bankability. And I think all people need to understand then you have the what I call like the profit where you exit and you have this big payday. Right. There's four really great things that you can do with real estate. People just need to be educated. So a lot of this is new to a lot of investors. Syndication. What is that? Adam, I can't afford to buy this 15 million dollar. How do I do this? So what are People looking for like, what makes a good syndication? Why is ellevest and why is this opportunity good and protecting people's downside? Because there's a lot of people out there that don't understand it. They don't even know what to look for.
A
Yeah. Syndication simply means that we all pool our money together to buy a larger asset together. So we pull in money from various investors, guys and gals that are like the client that I just talked to you about. You know, they're running their business, they're working their job, they have income that they know they need to move in. A passive income strategy. I invest in every deal alongside our investors. So we put our money together, the operator brings their capital in and we go buy this $30 million asset. Adam's not going to write a $30 million check. Right, right. But together with a couple hundred of us, we can. So that all goes into one entity. We have a llc, right. The fund. And then the LLC goes and acquires the property. Now we execute the business plan, we sell it. Everybody gets their principal back plus their profit, plus their cash flow along the way. Way. And that's basically a syndication. They're equity owners deal. So you get all the tax write offs, you get all the stuff that we.
B
You're not just an investor, not just a bank. You're.
A
This is not a debt fund. We are, we're equity fund. So you're an. You can say I own a piece of that 600 unit building right there, right?
B
You do, yeah. And it's out of a piece of a 548 building in Houston, Texas.
A
That's it.
B
And I do, I'm a very small owner of it because it's a $100 million piece of property. But yeah, I own it.
A
You're an equity owner in it. Yeah. And, and, and that's really what it is. Now you have to be careful in some sense because as an investor in these deals and we won't get too deep into the limited partner, you know, limited partner, general partner.
B
Well, and by the way, guys, hit up Adam right now. If you're already having questions, go find them on Instagram, hit them up. Ask me, hit me up. Hey, you guys were talking about this thing. Follow us and then start engaging with us. Right. Because the unclarity of what might be going through your mind may give you price analysis. Stop. Get some clarity from Adam. Get some clarity from me about these type of deals.
A
Yeah, they can book a call with my office and I'll get on a zoom with Them if they're here in Scottsdale, we can meet for in person. Like, I. I love meeting with investors, so. But here's the thing about the whole thing. I don't want to get too complex because, you know, it seems really complex, and it is. But my definition of success is finding simplicity on the other side of complexity. Right. So it's really complex. But that's why you have Elevest Capital. That's why we have the operator. That's why we have a team between us and the operator of over 300 employees that handle all the complexity. That's why we have two teams of attorneys for securities. So you don't have to do any of that as an LP or an investor in these deals. You literally have to evaluate the deal, take a look at it, say, hey, I like this, I like this, I like this. Hey, I got a question about that. Cool. Get all your questions answered. If you have a team that you want to run it by, maybe your CPA or, you know, your legal advisor or whatever, run it by them, get their questions answered, and then you sign the docs and you wire your funds in. You're not doing the work on these deals. You're back at your job or running your business, making your money more fuel for the gas tank. Right.
B
I think everyone needs to understand their money needs to make money. If you're an income earner, if you have money in an ira, by the way, it should be a debt ira, right? Meaning an old job. If you have money in your savings account, if it's just sitting. You guys have to understand what Adam's talking about here. This is a way for you to literally make money while you sleep in multiple different verticals. Right. So if you include the tax benefits, the tax write offs, if you include the actual income every month, you include the upside of the exit, your actual return becomes pretty darn staggering.
A
Oh, yeah. If you, if you've got money sitting in a bank account, it's dying.
B
Yeah.
A
Every single day, you're losing purchasing power. I was just on a phone with a guy. He invested in Fund 59. We're now on Fund 60. He pulled all of his. And I'm not saying you should or shouldn't do this. This is just what he did. He pulled. It was like 450 grand out of an old 401k that he had moved it all over to self directed. And he's splitting it up between four deals. Yeah, right. And he's like, look, I'm just done relying on the market and These ups and downs and the crazy swings and somebody says something and I lose 15%. He's. Because I'm just done.
B
Yeah.
A
You know, and he's like, look, there's risk in everything. These deals are not risk free. Neither is anything you'll do in your entire life. But in my opinion, in my experience, they're on the lowest end of the risk spectrum as possible, as long as you have a good operator, a good, solid team that's running the deals. Look, we're 60th acquisition, 11,000 units, never lost an investor dollar, never missed a debt payment. So you want to bet on a. It doesn't have to be us, but bet on a horse like that. Yeah, right. Go out and find, do your diligence on that operator that you're going to put your wire in this guy. Or yell, 100 grand. Yeah, right. Or 200 grand or 500 grand or whatever it is. You got to bet on the right horse, like anything.
B
You got to meet with them. You got to understand who they are, what their track record is, what they've done, what's their, you know, resume.
A
That's right.
B
That is absolutely it. How can, how can people, like, I think people think that, like, they don't deserve or they can't get into a big space like this? I mean, what, what, what can you say to the people sitting there, like, Adam, I don't. I don't know. Like, I don't know if apartments are for me or maybe I should do a single family asset. What can you tell that person? Like, this is a better reason to go into this way. And you can do it through me, through Justin, through us. Talk to the person that might be thinking smaller rather than thinking the way they should be thinking.
A
Well, everybody does that, right? That's, that's one of the things I'm going to talk to. And I'm actually doing a side by side comparison at our event tonight. I have people all the time that come in and they're like, hey, I've been running my business for 20 years. I make good money. I wanted to get into real estate. I thought I should go buy this Airbnb or I should go buy this single family rental. And so I went and I put 30% down. And, you know, I got this house in Anthem, Arizona, and, you know, I'm renting it out for 2500amonth. And I say, oh, that's awesome. What's your cash flow on that? Cash flow? I pay a hundred dollars every month to have a house. Okay, so let's get this straight. You took and put 30% down on probably a $500,000 house, right. So you took a massive chunk of your savings and you put it into this rental house. Right. You put your own credit on the line. Right. Then it took you probably a month or two to get a tenant in there. Right. And this, you had to do no repairs. You got a tenant in there and you're not even breaking even. And that tenant hasn't moved out. You haven't lost any rental income from it being vacant. Right. With a single family residence. If that tenant moves out and it takes you 1, 2, 3 months to get a new tenant in there, how much have you lost? 3, 4, 5 years of cash flow?
B
Yeah.
A
In two months, God forbid a H vac goes out and cost you 12 grand. Or a roof needs completely redone at 20 grand or this or that or all the. I did 252 of these things. Yeah, I know. What a pain in the ass you've done. Oh, my God, Thousands of these.
B
Yeah.
A
With an apartment building, I don't put my credit on the line, I don't have to sign on the loan. I don't have to put a down payment down. And I don't Even know if 5 tenants move out, 10 tenants move out, 20 tenants move out. I don't even feel it. I don't get a phone call when an H VAC needs repaired. I don't get a phone call when a toilet needs replaced or plunged. I get zero. You know what I get? I get a financial report every single month in my email and in my investor portal, and I get a wire ach sent to my bank account for my cash flow. And when we're getting, and when the deal is getting ready to be sold three, four, five years down the line, I get an email that says, hey, we're getting ready to sell this deal. You're getting $186,000 on the 100 grand you invested. Would you like us to send that to you to your bank account, or would you like us to send that to a qualified intermediary so you can 1031 into the next deal we're going to do? And oh, by the way, here's the next deal.
B
It's. It's really brief.
A
That's the difference.
B
I mean, it's being a part of these. Right. It's something that I think you got to treat it like a business, I don't think. But people need to treat this like a business. Right? So if you don't have to work in your business. And you can just be an investor in your business, almost an angel investor. But it's your business because it's run like that. It removes the frustration, removes the headaches. And that's where I think people think they need to start small. And it's not necessarily true.
A
Right.
B
And by the way, one of the things that people think is I don't have enough money. You think that because you just don't know.
A
Right.
B
You actually don't know the reality of it. Right. And that's where I would tell people. Make sure you're reaching out to Adam. Make sure you're reaching out to me. Get some clarity behind this. Because a confused mind can't make a decision. But what's even worse is someone who just doesn't know anything. Yeah. And won't give themselves a chance. Right. They don't make a choice. They don't give themselves a chance to make the change that you really deserve, which is wealth accumulation, higher income, most likely being able to quit your job and move on to better things.
A
Yeah. What I will say about this business, about. About the whole multifamily syndication. This is not a get rich quick scheme. No, it is not. This is a long term wealth building blueprint. You will become wealthy beyond your wildest dreams for sure. But it will take 15, 20, 25, 30 years of time and compound pounding to do that heavy lifting. But during that time, you don't have to do any additional work. That's the beauty of it. You just focus on what you're already doing in your job, your business, whatever you're doing to earn that fuel, to keep filling up that tank. And if you do that long enough and you bet on the right operator, you're gonna have. You're not gonna be worried about retirement.
B
That's right.
A
Right.
B
Yeah.
A
If you go to flip houses or, or, or buy a couple single family rentals here in Airbnb, you know, you might do. Okay. I'm not saying that that's a complete no go. People make money doing it. Totally. But I don't see it as a long term wealth building strategy.
B
Yeah.
A
I just.
B
Well, not until economies of scale. I mean, Listen, you have 700 single family assets. It's a different. It's this equivalent of an apartment. Right. Or two. Right.
A
But it would have taken me 10 years to get 700 single families. I've done 600 units so far this year.
B
Right.
A
And we're just coming out of Q2.
B
And I'll tell you, there's more headaches in dealing with 700. Like, I bought 56 last year.
A
Yeah.
B
And the headaches have been massive. Right. Turning those into single.
A
Not want to be you.
B
Right. And so think about the framing and like, okay, what's an easier path to be able to create the same type of agenda? Right. That's. That's where the iteration can come in. To say, my biggest mistake is obviously, and I've said this time and time again, not getting in the rentals soon enough. And I didn't need to be me or you when I first started.
A
Yeah.
B
I could have just bought one single family. Like, get into the game. Right. And that's what I would encourage everybody. And I'd encourage you to follow AW Invests, follow LFS Capital. Go to the website. We have a pretty cool event tonight. We're going to be teaching more of this kind of stuff.
A
And this was awesome. Justin, I. Anytime you want to get back and just talk about this stuff, my number one goal, it's my mission. It's the top thing on that note that I told you about, my mission is to help as many people as I can learn this stuff because this will change your family for generations to come. If you learn it, implement it, and then your kids see it and then their kids see it and so on and so forth. So, man, anytime I can come on here and chat with you. Love it, brother.
B
This has been a blast, dude. Thank you very much. We'll do this again if this was pretty cool and you might think a couple people need to hear about this, maybe even about the deal. Share this with two of your friends. We'll see you on the next episode.
The Science of Flipping: Episode Summary
Title: Navigating the Transition from Single-Family Flipping to Multifamily Investing with Adam Williams
Host: Justin Colby, Bleav
Guest: Adam Williams
Release Date: June 27, 2025
In this insightful episode of The Science of Flipping, host Justin Colby welcomes a special guest, Adam Williams, a seasoned real estate investor and business partner. Adam brings over two decades of experience in real estate, having successfully flipped hundreds of single-family homes before transitioning into multifamily apartment investing.
Adam shares his early exposure to real estate through his father's investments in single-family rental homes and a small five-unit building. Despite a challenging upbringing in a market dealing with low-class properties, Adam's entrepreneurial spirit was ignited early on.
[04:09] Adam Williams: "Growing up around real estate with my dad’s projects, I saw both the potential and the pitfalls firsthand. It was dirty, chaotic, and frankly turned me off as a kid."
After partnering with a young investor in 2004, Adam rapidly scaled by flipping single-family homes, completing 252 transactions in under three years. However, he soon recognized the limitations of single-family flipping in achieving large-scale success and long-term wealth.
[05:35] Adam Williams: "After flipping hundreds of single-family homes, I realized I couldn't scale to 10,000 units. That’s when I began exploring multifamily investments."
Adam discusses the non-linear path to success, emphasizing the importance of gaining clarity and understanding one's purpose beyond mere financial gains. He uses a personal metaphor involving a painting titled "Abundance" to illustrate the journey from confusion to clear vision.
[08:09] Adam Williams: "Entrepreneurship punches you in the face daily for years, but pushing through that muddy clarity leads to profound understanding and success."
Highlighting the necessity of adaptability, Adam explains how both personal growth and business strategies must evolve. He cites Grant Cardone as an example of someone who successfully iterated his business model from sales training to real estate investing.
[16:35] Adam Williams: "With Ellevest, we've iterated a dozen times in three years to refine our investment vehicle, ensuring it meets our mission of educating and empowering investors."
Adam and Justin founded Ellevest Capital, a private equity firm specializing in multifamily real estate syndications. Ellevest Capital leverages pooled investor funds to acquire large apartment complexes, implementing business plans that enhance property value and maximize returns.
[17:34] Adam Williams: "Our mission at Ellevest Capital is to educate and facilitate wealth building through strategic multifamily investments, allowing investors to focus on their primary income sources while we manage the complexities."
A significant portion of the discussion delves into real estate syndication, where multiple investors pool resources to invest in large-scale properties. Adam outlines the benefits, including tax write-offs, passive income, and reduced personal risk compared to single-family investments.
[34:00] Adam Williams: "Syndication means pooling our money to buy larger assets together. As equity owners, investors receive tax benefits, monthly cash flows, and profits from property sales without the hassles of day-to-day management."
Adam emphasizes long-term wealth accumulation through consistent investment in multifamily properties. He compares the scalability of multifamily assets to single-family homes, highlighting how apartments offer better stability, cash flow, and growth potential.
[37:00] Adam Williams: "By investing consistently in multifamily deals, your passive income can compound, potentially reaching $32,000 a month over 15 years, far surpassing the returns from single-family investments."
The conversation contrasts the challenges of single-family flipping—such as tenant management and variable cash flow—with the streamlined, business-like operations of multifamily investing. Adam points out that while single-family investments can offer immediate gratification, multifamily investments provide sustainable, scalable growth.
[40:21] Adam Williams: "With apartments, I don't put my personal credit on the line or handle tenant issues directly. Instead, I receive regular financial reports and passive income, making it a more efficient wealth-building strategy."
Wrapping up, Adam and Justin urge listeners to make informed choices about their investment strategies. They stress the importance of education, choosing reliable operators, and committing to long-term planning to achieve financial freedom and generational wealth.
[42:24] Adam Williams: "This multifamily syndication model isn't a get-rich-quick scheme. It's a long-term blueprint for building substantial wealth, requiring patience and consistent investment."
[44:07] Justin Colby: "Adam’s mission is to help as many people as possible learn and implement these strategies, ensuring financial growth for their families for generations."
Notable Quotes:
Adam Williams [04:09]: "Growing up around real estate with my dad’s projects, I saw both the potential and the pitfalls firsthand. It was dirty, chaotic, and frankly turned me off as a kid."
Adam Williams [05:35]: "After flipping hundreds of single-family homes, I realized I couldn't scale to 10,000 units. That’s when I began exploring multifamily investments."
Adam Williams [08:09]: "Entrepreneurship punches you in the face daily for years, but pushing through that muddy clarity leads to profound understanding and success."
Adam Williams [16:35]: "With Ellevest, we've iterated a dozen times in three years to refine our investment vehicle, ensuring it meets our mission of educating and empowering investors."
Adam Williams [34:00]: "Syndication means pooling our money to buy larger assets together. As equity owners, investors receive tax benefits, monthly cash flows, and profits from property sales without the hassles of day-to-day management."
Adam Williams [37:00]: "By investing consistently in multifamily deals, your passive income can compound, potentially reaching $32,000 a month over 15 years, far surpassing the returns from single-family investments."
Adam Williams [40:21]: "With apartments, I don't put my personal credit on the line or handle tenant issues directly. Instead, I receive regular financial reports and passive income, making it a more efficient wealth-building strategy."
Adam Williams [42:24]: "This multifamily syndication model isn't a get-rich-quick scheme. It's a long-term blueprint for building substantial wealth, requiring patience and consistent investment."
Justin Colby [44:07]: "Adam’s mission is to help as many people as possible learn and implement these strategies, ensuring financial growth for their families for generations."
Scalability: Multifamily investing offers greater scalability and efficiency compared to single-family flipping.
Passive Income: Syndications provide investors with passive income streams, reducing personal management responsibilities.
Long-Term Wealth: Consistent investment in multifamily assets can lead to significant wealth accumulation over time.
Education and Iteration: Continuous learning and adapting business models are crucial for sustained success in real estate investing.
Choosing the Right Partners: Investing through reliable operators and firms like Ellevest Capital minimizes risks and maximizes returns.
For more insights and investment opportunities, follow Adam Williams on Instagram @AWInvests and visit Ellevest Capital's website. Don’t miss the upcoming event on investing in a 248-door property in Dallas, offering exclusive deals and in-depth education on multifamily real estate investing.