Stop Thinking Small: The Real Way to Build Wealth with Multifamily Syndications | Adam Williams

Summary

The Science of Flipping: Episode Summary Title: Stop Thinking Small: The Real Way to Build Wealth with Multifamily Syndications
Host: Justin Colby, Bleav
Guest: Adam Williams
Release Date: June 27, 2025

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Introduction to Adam Williams

In this compelling episode of The Science of Flipping, host Justin Colby welcomes Adam Williams, a seasoned real estate investor and business partner. Adam shares his extensive journey in real estate, transitioning from single-family home flipping to multifamily syndications, and the profound insights he's gained along the way.

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Adam’s Journey in Real Estate

Adam’s introduction to real estate was influenced by his upbringing. He recounts his early experiences helping his father manage a few rental properties, which initially left him disillusioned due to the challenges and unpleasant aspects like poor property conditions and tenant issues.

Adam Williams [02:50]: "Single family investing... there's a lot of emotion tied to it. Multifamily, it's all operated as a business. It's just numbers."

Determined to find a more scalable and business-oriented approach, Adam pivoted to flipping single-family homes in 2004. Within three years, he successfully flipped 252 single-family residences. However, seeking greater scalability and efficiency, he explored multifamily investments, leading to the establishment of his private equity firm, Ella Vest Capital, which now manages over 11,000 doors.

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From Single-Family to Multifamily: The Strategic Shift

Adam explains the rationale behind moving from single-family properties to multifamily investments. He highlights the emotional and operational challenges associated with single-family homes and contrasts them with the systematic, business-like nature of multifamily investments.

Adam Williams [05:28]: "Instead of flipping one house at a time or two houses at a time, we could go flip 200 at a time."

This shift allowed Adam to scale his operations exponentially, enabling him to manage a larger portfolio more efficiently and with fewer emotional entanglements. Multifamily syndications offer consistent cash flow, better risk management, and greater scalability compared to single-family investments.

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The Importance of Clarity and Purpose in Wealth Building

A significant portion of the conversation delves into the psychological aspects of entrepreneurship and wealth building. Adam emphasizes the necessity of having a clear purpose and the resilience to overcome the inevitable challenges of the entrepreneurial journey.

Adam Williams [07:28]: "Entrepreneurship 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."

He illustrates this with a personal anecdote about a painting he created called "Abundance," symbolizing the transition from struggle to success. Adam stresses the importance of evolving one's vision and being adaptable, citing examples like Grant Cardone’s transformation from a car salesman to a real estate mogul.

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Ellevest and the Evolution of Business Models

Adam discusses the inception of Ellevest, a venture aimed at educating and facilitating multifamily syndications. Drawing from his two decades of real estate experience, he identifies gaps in existing investment models and sought to create a more efficient and investor-friendly platform.

Adam Williams [14:31]: "With Ellevest... how can I educate more people on how to build wealth with this multifamily investment syndication vehicle."

He highlights the iterative process behind Ellevest’s development, emphasizing continuous improvement and adaptability as key to maintaining relevance and effectiveness in a rapidly changing market.

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Understanding Multifamily Syndications

The core of the discussion revolves around the benefits and mechanics of multifamily syndications as a wealth-building tool. Adam breaks down the concept, explaining how pooling resources with other investors allows access to larger, more lucrative real estate deals that individual investors might find unattainable.

Adam Williams [29:30]: "Syndication simply means that we all pool our money together to buy a larger asset together."

He contrasts this with single-family investments, pointing out the inefficiencies and higher risks associated with managing numerous individual properties. Multifamily syndications offer streamlined operations, professional management, and significant tax advantages, making them a superior long-term investment strategy.

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Benefits of Multifamily Syndications Over Single-Family Investments

Adam provides a detailed comparison between single-family and multifamily investments, underscoring the scalability, reduced operational burdens, and enhanced financial returns associated with the latter.

Adam Williams [36:04]: "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."

He explains how multifamily syndications mitigate common issues like tenant turnover and maintenance hassles, offering investors peace of mind and consistent passive income without the day-to-day headaches of property management.

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Key Takeaways and Actionable Advice

Towards the end of the episode, Adam and Justin summarize critical insights for aspiring real estate investors:

1. Think Big: Move beyond single-family investments to multifamily syndications for greater scalability and efficiency.
2. Clarity and Purpose: Define your long-term goals and remain adaptable to navigate the entrepreneurial journey.
3. Educate Yourself: Utilize platforms like Ellevest to gain knowledge and access investment opportunities.
4. Choose the Right Partners: Invest with reputable operators who have a proven track record to minimize risks and maximize returns.
5. Long-Term Commitment: Real estate syndications are a long-term wealth-building strategy requiring patience and consistent investment.

Adam Williams [37:54]: "This is not a get rich quick scheme. It is a long-term wealth building blueprint."

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Conclusion

In this insightful episode, Adam Williams shares his transformative journey from single-family home flipping to managing a vast portfolio of multifamily properties through syndications. His expertise and strategic approach offer valuable lessons for investors seeking scalable and sustainable wealth-building avenues in real estate. Justin and Adam emphasize the importance of making informed choices, staying resilient, and leveraging collective investments to achieve financial freedom.

For listeners eager to explore multifamily syndications further, Adam encourages reaching out through Instagram at AwInvests or visiting Ella Vest Capital’s website for more information and upcoming events.

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Notable Quotes:

• Adam Williams [07:28]: "Entrepreneurship 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."
• Adam Williams [29:30]: "Syndication simply means that we all pool our money together to buy a larger asset together."
• Adam Williams [37:54]: "This is not a get rich quick scheme. It is a long-term wealth building blueprint."

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This episode is a must-listen for real estate investors aiming to scale their operations and build lasting wealth through multifamily syndications. Adam Williams’ practical insights and strategic advice provide a roadmap for navigating the complexities of real estate investment with confidence and clarity.

Transcript

[Adam Williams]

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[Justin]

I feel like I have to give.

[Adam Williams]

You something in return for karma. That's okay. I don't really have much in my purse. Oh, let's see.

[Justin]

Hand sanitizer.

[Adam Williams]

It's lavender. I'm good. Seriously. Let me check this pocket. Oh, mints. Really, I'm fine. Oh, I have raisins. I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec. I've got cupcakes in the car. It's our best iPhone offer ever. Switch to T Mobile. Get a new iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence on us, no trade in needed. We'll even pay off your phone up to 800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits. New line $100 plus a month on experience beyond Finance Agreement $999.99 and qualifying ported for well qualified plus tax and $10 connection charge. Payout via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days credits end and balance due if you pay off early or cancel. See T mobile.com High interest debt is one of the toughest opponents you'll face unless you power up with a Sofi personal loan. A Sofi personal loan could repackage your bad debt into one low fixed rate monthly payment. It's even got super speed since you could get the funds as soon as the same day you sign. Visit sofi.compower to learn more. That's sofi.com p o w E R Loans originated by SoFi Bank NA member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply.

[Justin]

NMLS 696891 what's up science and Flipping Podcast Fam. I'm back with a very special guest. He is a business partner of mine, one of my best friends, a true real estate genius. He's been doing this for a little bit longer and 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 to know what the hell he's up to. Adam Williams.

[Adam Williams]

Hey, man, thank you for having me. Matter of fact, 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.

[Justin]

Dude, this is phenomenal. I'm in your studio. For all the watchers, I'm in his studio. If you're in Scottsdale, it's an incredible studio here. Listen, we've known each other a long time. Yeah. 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, the general idea behind single family assets and apartments and why you've chosen to essentially move into a different direction.

[Adam Williams]

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 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 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 slum lord almost.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

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 I was 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.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

But I was struggling trying to figure out, like, what business I could generate real estate 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.

[Justin]

No way.

[Adam Williams]

And I'm instantly like, what do you do? And how can I get involved?

[Justin]

Right?

[Adam Williams]

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. Okay. And so that's how I got in the game.

[Justin]

And this was when.

[Adam Williams]

This was in 2004. 2004. I am old. But, but, but 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.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

I'm never going to get to 10,000. I'm going to be 100 years old. Right? 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, Assets 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, Ella Vest Capital, partnered with an amazing operator. And now, I mean, with them we have over 11,000 doors.

[Justin]

That's incredible. So and so that journey is not a straight line.

[Adam Williams]

Oh, God, no.

[Justin]

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. That age old, it's like iconic. It's a drawing of like a squiggly line to success. Right? That's the reality. Right. And so how do you get to that point where 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.

[Adam Williams]

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 called it. 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 it's gold. And I think of it like that, right? Like you're going through this black, muddy, like, no, CL 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 n. 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 get.

[Justin]

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. They're in their 20s, right. I would argue they're hyper successful financially in the cash flow business. In. In the sense of, like, making money.

[Adam Williams]

Yeah.

[Justin]

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 motivatedsellers.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 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.

[Adam Williams]

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. Yeah. 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?

[Justin]

That's right.

[Adam Williams]

Like you're just going to give up. 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. Yeah, but the second thing and more important is this, this sense of like, purpose. Like, why? Right in. 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 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.

[Justin]

Right.

[Adam Williams]

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, dude, hard.

[Justin]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Williams]

Who said it? Who was saying not too long ago, I watched. Who's the guy with the beard that everybody knows?

[Justin]

Marcella.

[Adam Williams]

No, not for Cella. The guy that did this created school.

[Justin]

Oh, Hermosi.

[Adam Williams]

Hermosi. Yeah. 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. Yeah.

[Justin]

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. What did I learn yet? So every morning I have this ritual to do that. But you said something about it changes over time.

[Adam Williams]

It does.

[Justin]

And I think that's where, you know, we can talk about Ellevest. Right. And what Ellevest 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. LFS today may not be the same LFS in 10 years. It just may not. It might, but it might not. Yeah, 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.

[Adam Williams]

He was a car salesman and then he trained, started training other car sales into sales. Car car dealers.

[Justin]

What do you think about Grant Cardone today who is a guy, Real estate guy.

[Adam Williams]

Yeah.

[Justin]

Iteration.

[Adam Williams]

Yeah.

[Justin]

He's done well along the way, but he has changed how it got him to where he is.

[Adam Williams]

Exactly. Right.

[Justin]

So let's talk about Ella Vest. Let's talk about what we're doing with Ellevest, what your mission is, but then also that iteration and how you had to find that within yourself along business trajectory.

[Adam Williams]

100. Yeah. With Ellevest, 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.

[Justin]

Estate going what have you been able.

[Adam Williams]

To do in three years a decent amount? Yeah, yeah. 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 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 lfs 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, 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.

[Justin]

Right.

[Adam Williams]

And now you're an equity owner in my company, which is awesome. Right. And what. And I'm sure 10 years from now, we'll be doing three other things that we're not even thinking of. Right?

[Justin]

That's right.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

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 LFS going to be. And you do this brainstorming, mind mapping. Maybe you hire a consultant to map out the entire organization.

[Adam Williams]

Yeah.

[Justin]

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.

[Adam Williams]

Yeah.

[Justin]

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, you don't wait around, you don't perfect, you don't make sure everything is perfect before you move. You start running.

[Adam Williams]

Well, you have to because you know, this whole, and I know it's cliche, this paralysis analysis, it's a real deal.

[Justin]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Williams]

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, uh, we're going to try some shit. We're going to learn some shit, we're going to try some new shit.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

And that's it. But if you don't try some shit, if you just think about shit, you ain't getting shit that you're doing nothing.

[Justin]

No doubt.

[Adam Williams]

Right. You got to try. You got to 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.

[Justin]

Right.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

It's a whole different animal. I'm, 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.

[Justin]

This is why I was so successful as a single man, by the way. Yeah, you mouth shared. Hi, my name is 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, right. To give yourself a chance, which is the second you gotta take a chance on it to change your life or to change where you're going.

[Adam Williams]

Yeah.

[Justin]

So make a choice to give yourself a chance to make change.

[Adam Williams]

That's right.

[Justin]

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 can they find you on Instagram.

[Adam Williams]

Aw Invests.

[Justin]

Aw Invests. Yeah. Also Ellevest Capital but the, 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.

[Adam Williams]

Well, it's so impactful because most people don't make a choice.

[Justin]

Right.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

I'm going.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

Right. What's the worst that can happen?

[Justin]

The same shit happens you and I all the time.

[Adam Williams]

It's gonna happen anyway.

[Justin]

Eat sandwiches.

[Adam Williams]

Yeah.

[Justin]

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.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

No. Well. 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 or 40 people will be here in the office. We're talking about a 248 door property in Dallas.

[Adam Williams]

Yep.

[Justin]

Massive discount. This thing sold in 2022. We're buying it 2025 at a 30% discount from their price.

[Adam Williams]

Yep.

[Justin]

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.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

We're, we're about seven years right now. Right. Okay.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

That's right.

[Adam Williams]

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 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 went away because none of it worked out.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

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 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, 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 run 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 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. 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, and 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.

[Justin]

As many of you know, I'm constantly on the move, juggling multiple businesses, traveling, and ensuring I get my morning workouts in. Staying fresh isn't just a preference, it's a necessity. But let's face it, after back to back meetings, juggling two kids at home, and the hustle and bustle of everyday life, body odor can become an issue. But here's the deal. Mando has revolutionized how I stay fresh. This isn't just another deodorant. It's clinically proven to control odor better than a shower alone with soap. My favorite scent, Bourbon Leather. It's fresh, is subtle and doesn't clash with my clone. And I was surprised by how well the solid stick works. Even after an intense morning workout. Mando's starter pack is perfect for the new customer. It comes with a solid stick deodorant cream tube deodorant, two free products of your choice like a mini body wash or a deodorant wipe. And free shipping as a special offer for listeners and new customers. You get $5 off a starter pack with our exclusive code that equates to over 40% of your starter pack use code [e-mail] that is S-H-O-P M A N D O dot com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you Smell fresher, stay drier and boost your confidence from the head to the toe with Mando. 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. Yeah. 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.

[Adam Williams]

Yep.

[Justin]

And that's riding 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. Syndicate. 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.

[Adam Williams]

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 this 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 an 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. 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.

[Justin]

We're not investor, not just a bank. You're.

[Adam Williams]

No, 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?

[Justin]

You do? Yeah. And it's out of a piece of a 548 building in Houston, Texas.

[Adam Williams]

That's it.

[Justin]

And I do, I'm a very small owner of it because it's a hundred million dollar piece of property, but I own it.

[Adam Williams]

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 and general partner.

[Justin]

Well, and by the way, guys, hit up Adam right now. If you're already having questions, go find them in 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 prowess analysis. Stop. Get some clarity from Adam, get some clarity from me about these type of deals.

[Adam Williams]

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. I got a question about that.

[Justin]

Cool.

[Adam Williams]

Get all your questions answered. If you have a team that you want to run it by, maybe your CPA or, you know, you're a 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.

[Justin]

I think everyone needs to understand their money needs to make money. If you're, 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.

[Adam Williams]

Oh, yeah. If you, if you've got money sitting in a bank account, it's dying.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

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 on he's. Because I'm just done.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

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 wiring 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.

[Justin]

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.

[Adam Williams]

That's right.

[Justin]

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.

[Adam Williams]

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 $100 every month to have a house.

[Justin]

Right.

[Adam Williams]

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 in two months. God forbid a H vac goes out and it costs 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.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

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 and 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.

[Justin]

It's. It's really brilliant.

[Adam Williams]

That's the difference.

[Justin]

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. Right. 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.

[Adam Williams]

Right.

[Justin]

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.

[Adam Williams]

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 going to have. You're not going to be worried about retirement.

[Justin]

That's right.

[Adam Williams]

Right.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

Totally.

[Adam Williams]

But I don't see it as a long term wealth building strategy.

[Justin]

Yeah.

[Adam Williams]

I just.

[Justin]

Not until economies of scale. I mean, Listen, you have 700 single family assets. It's a different. Is this equivalent of an apartment? Right. Or two. Right.

[Adam Williams]

But it would have taken me 10 years to get 700 single families. I've done 600 units so far this year.

[Justin]

Right.

[Adam Williams]

And we're just coming out of Q2.

[Justin]

And, and I'll tell you, there's more headaches in dealing with 700. Like, I bought 56 last year.

[Adam Williams]

Yeah.

[Justin]

And the headaches have been massive. Right. Turning those into single.

[Adam Williams]

Not want to be you.

[Justin]

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 into rentals soon enough. And I didn't need to be me or you when I first started.

[Adam Williams]

Yeah.

[Justin]

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 Ella Vest Capital. Go to the website. We have a pretty cool event tonight. We're going to be teaching more of this kind of stuff.

[Adam Williams]

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.

[Justin]

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.