So you want to start in real estate but don't know where to begin? I'm joined by Reed Goossens, a real estate entrepreneur from Australia, and we dive into how you can get started in building a prolific business from scratch. 👉👉 Join the MultiFamilyMBA and get exclusive free training: https://theinvestormindset.com/mfmba One of the biggest benefits of investing is commercial multifamily is economies of scale. However, this can be very tough if you don't have the right people, processes and systems in place though. We talk about this and how Reed came from Australia as an expat and grew a successful real estate business from scratch here in the US. For anyone wanting to start a real estate business this episode is a must for you. In 2012, Reed quit his job in Australia and moved halfway across the globe to the US to change his life, and to chase a dream. With limited funds, no investing experience, and no credit, Reed went from purchasing a small duplex to growing his own real estate investing firm, Wildhorn Capital. Reed now syndicates large multi-million dollar deals across the US. He has also achieved financial freedom, and has taken control of life. Reed is also the host of the successful podcast, Investing in the U.S., wherein he invites other distinguished real estate investors and entrepreneurs to speak with him about their success and help guide other investors who want to successfully invest in the U.S.! Reed is also a best-selling author with two books now on Amazon: Investing in the US – The Ultimate Guide to US Real Estate, & 10,000 Miles to the American Dream. Hit subscribe to join the community and build your investing knowledge today!
So you want to start in real estate but don't know where to begin? I'm joined by Reed Goossens, a real estate entrepreneur from Australia, and we dive into how you can get started in building a prolific business from scratch. 👉👉 Join the MultiFamilyMBA and get exclusive free training: https://theinvestormindset.com/mfmba
One of the biggest benefits of investing is commercial multifamily is economies of scale. However, this can be very tough if you don't have the right people, processes and systems in place though. We talk about this and how Reed came from Australia as an expat and grew a successful real estate business from scratch here in the US. For anyone wanting to start a real estate business this episode is a must for you.
In 2012, Reed quit his job in Australia and moved halfway across the globe to the US to change his life, and to chase a dream. With limited funds, no investing experience, and no credit, Reed went from purchasing a small duplex to growing his own real estate investing firm, Wildhorn Capital. Reed now syndicates large multi-million dollar deals across the US. He has also achieved financial freedom, and has taken control of life.
Reed is also the host of the successful podcast, Investing in the U.S., wherein he invites other distinguished real estate investors and entrepreneurs to speak with him about their success and help guide other investors who want to successfully invest in the U.S.! Reed is also a best-selling author with two books now on Amazon: Investing in the US – The Ultimate Guide to US Real Estate, & 10,000 Miles to the American Dream.
Hit subscribe to join the community and build your investing knowledge today!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. If you focus on why you could fail... it's easy to then create excuses and reasons why NOT to take action.
2. Figure out what your step by step plan is from the beginning.
3. Find a mentor and work on yourself and your own brand because investors are going to invest in YOU as a person.
4. Be patient and realize that success is a process and journey that takes time. Being impatient can easily lead to failure.
5. Find a partner to work with who has experience already and offer them one of your skills or unique abilities that they don't necessarily have so you can be the strength in the area of their weakness.
6. Realise that you may need to let go of some control when your business scales up.
7. As a leader make sure that you have the right team in place and that they manage the business like it's their own.
BOOKS
The Passive Investing Playbook - https://theinvestormindset.com/passive
LINKS
https://www.linkedin.com/in/reed-goossens/
Learn more about investing with Steven at https://theinvestormindset.com/invest
Join the MultiFamilyMBA and get exclusive free training:
https://theinvestormindset.com/mfmba
Steven: [00:00:00] One of the biggest benefits of investing in commercial multifamily is economies of scale. But scaling as multifamily operator can be tough if you don't have the right processes and systems in place. We talked about that and more with today's guest, Reed Goossens who scaled to over 2400 units in just a few years. Absolutely incredible multifamily operator. You're not going to want to miss it.
INTRO: This is The Investor Mindset Podcasts and I'm Steven Pesavento. For as long as I can remember, I've been obsessed with understanding how we can think better, how we can be better, and how we can do better. And each episode we explore lessons on motivation and mindset for the most successful real estate investors and entrepreneurs in the nation. Welcome back to The Investor Mindset Podcast. I'm your host Steven Pesavento and today I've got a very special guest Reed Goossens is in the studio. How you doing today, Reed?
Reed: [00:00:56] Good mate. Thanks for having me.
Steven: [00:00:58] Well, I'm excited to have you. We've become good friends in the end. For those of you who don't know, Reed Goossens is a real estate entrepreneur and managing partner of Wild Horn Capital. He's moved to the United States from native Australia back in 2012. And since then, he's been able to grow a portfolio of over 2400 units, over $320 million of assets under management, which his company Wild Horn directly controls, and he's also the host of the Investing in the US podcast, and the author of two books, including his most recent 10,000 miles the American dream, our story of financial freedom. And so really excited to talk with you Reed because of course, you've built a very successful scaled multifamily operation, you know, one that's built on proven processes and systems and it's really impressive. You're one of the people I think, is best positioned to scale through whatever that next cycle looks like. So I really want to dive in today into kind of uncovering this belief that a lot of new operators have that they think they can't succeed for x reason and whatever that reason is, everyone's got one. And they end up holding themselves back from succeeding because of that belief so what I'm curious about, tell me a little bit about how you overcame some of those fears and those beliefs as an immigrant to the United States and have since scaled to 2400 units.
Reed: [00:02:19] Yeah. I think the biggest thing is going by what you just said is move my life halfway across the world was such a big move in itself that anything beyond that, it seems small, right? Like you can just say screw it. I had a very well paying engineering job in Australia before I moved here. My backgrounds in structural engineering, and I just said -- like throwing a bit of caution to the wind Steve, I didn't have a dream to be this multifamily operated 8 years ago when I moved here. It was more just pushing the boundaries of what is comfortable. And that started with literally just like, hey, I want to live in New York City. I just want to do it for a period of time. I don't know what's going to happen. I may move back to Australia, but also maybe some other doors might open which clearly has happened and be able to walk through those doors. I think a lot of people get so caught up with the negativity around failure, right? Like if I try this thing, and I could fail, well, then I'm not going to try it at all. And for me, it's about you know, setting yourself up so you don't have regret in life. And then for me when I first moved to the United States, it was just all about, I don't want to wake up when I'm 70 years of age going Geez, I wish I moved to America back in 2012 and lived in New York City for a period of time. And through that doors start to open. When you start to push your boundaries, when you start to learn to take a bet on yourself. Because the only person you can really take a bet on is yourself. And if you don't want to take a bet on yourself, you're not going to bet on anyone. And just getting a little bit more comfortable with not having all the answers of what on the other side of that door might look like or what that opportunity may look like, and just letting go of that. It's easier said than done. But it is around mindset. It is around understanding how to push your boundaries. It is it around being uncomfortable, getting comfortable being uncomfortable. All those sort of cliche things that we say on these podcasts and Tony Robbins has also said. But for me it was really about coming to America and living life on my terms and not having any regret when I'm in my older age of 70 or 80 and looking back at my life and going geez, I lived a good life.
Steven: [00:04:16] Yeah, I think that's such a big point here because it's so easy for us to get caught up in that feeling of well, what happens if I fail? What's the negative outcome going to be, and how is that going to hurt my income? When you start focusing on that, you start creating a bunch of reasons why not to take action. So you know, you've moved here from Australia, obviously, if you can build something without having any network. I think it's true to say that anybody no matter where you are in the country, no matter what market you're in, that you can build relationships and be able to scale. What did you do to start overcoming some of those fears? I mean, obviously, you made the move, that was a big step. Once you made that move, talk to me a little bit about the momentum that ended up coming from it.
Reed: [00:04:58] Well, the big thing was trying to put one foot in front of the other, which was, let's get a job. I needed a job to stay here. So literally hit the pavement, you know, with my CV in hand. One thing I realized, I just wasn't going to be sending my CV out online to the big dark web because as soon as someone, a recruiter looked at it, it's like, oh, he's from Australia, visa - no -- out, next. So I literally just did guerilla marketing. I literally walked into engineering firms until someone said yes. And so it was all these no's, no, no, no, no, no, and for every no, you get one step closer to a yes, and that was the start. Once I did that first thing, okay, got a job great. Got a visa. Great. All right. Next thing, let's talk about, you know, educating myself on the American way of understanding real estate. Before moving to the US Steven, I had been been bitten by the real estate bug. And so when I moved here, the plethora of opportunities, and particularly living in New York City, you know, the Big Apple, when I realized there was these things called REAs, the real estate investment associations, that was huge. They don't exist in Australia. We didn't have this sort of tapestry of each MSA around the country, having their own REA and then going and paying 30 bucks at the door to, you know, be surrounded by the people who are doing exactly what you want to do, but also learn really quickly about what you should do and what you shouldn't do. And so investing in my education, first and foremost, was really important on the front end. But also, the ability to realize what I didn't have in Australia, and what Americans do have here at their fingertips. And so the excuse of old, you know, I can't get educated or I can't find the time to go to meetups, or I can't find the time to read books, or whatever that might be. That was all out the window, because I had come from, there was so little of that coming and seeing it at my fingertips was just hugely overwhelming and I took that ball and ran with it. So that was sort of the start of again, putting one foot in front of the other to then start paving a way or pathway forward towards "success."
Steven: [00:07:04] Yeah, it's having that perspective that really made you appreciate what opportunities are afforded to us living in the United States investing United States. And it's easy to take that for granted, right. We often hear this story about immigrants who make the trek to the US, and then they find success. And I think one of the reasons why is because they took action in order to get here. And they have to keep taking action in order to move forward. I thought there was something really, really cool just because I know you I want to point it out. If you guys heard there, what Reed did was he figured out step by step, what actions and steps he needed to take in order to succeed at getting this first job to stay in the US, and that's exactly what you have to do if you're going to be investing in any type of real estate or business. You have to figure out what is that step by step. And so, you know, Reed, how did you figure out when it came to going in and becoming an operator, how did you figure out what that step by step is?
Reed: [00:07:59] Well, very good question. And I think a lot of people get caught up, and probably a lot of the listeners on this show of what you want to be when you start down this road of real estate. For me, I always knew I wanted to be an operator. I always knew I needed to be the owner and I needed to, you know, control the deal. There's something about that. I don't know what it is, but I needed to control the deal. So for those people listening, you may not necessarily be in that boat and there's other ways you can get involved. But for those people who want to control the deal, I have to look at my resources, and say okay, what do I have available to me, right? And being Fresh off the boat back in 2012, I had saved a bit of money because I'd been working in a corporate world for a couple of years. I think I had 30 or $40,000 saved and I quickly realized these cheap properties in upstate New York, which I could get on a Greyhound bus to and travel up there on a Saturday would get me going. I took a lot of inspiration out of Rich Dad Poor Dad, and I needed to get that first deal done and start developing cash flow. I needed to start supplementing my income otherwise I'll never be able to escape the rat race. And for me, it was like well, what can I afford? Like no one's lending to me. And by Gosh, there's these really cheap properties upstate New York in Syracuse and again, coming from Australia, that international perspective, I had no idea you could buy a place for $30,000. And so that to me was like okay, next step. Okay, let's find a market that I can go to I can travel to pretty quickly or, you know, relatively quickly. I didn't have a car at that point but I was getting on the Greyhound bus, going up there, talking some brokers was able to do it in a day on a Saturday. And again, taking action learning some markets and then after a period of about six months, you know, getting comfortable enough to pull the trigger and you know, buy my first deal and that first deal led to my second deal that second deal led to my third deal. And so it's all about that step by step momentum building, pushing the boundaries, but also really taking action each and mindful action. It's not just randomly spraying bullets or ideas and going, I might go after this one and that one but it's actually being very methodical about and going what's the process to get to that first deal? Well, I need to find a market, right? I need to find a broker in that market. I need to understand the market ins and outs and become comfortable enough to pull the trigger. What is the deal look like if a deal comes across my table? Getting boots on the ground and start walking those markets. For me it was, I just did a four hour radius around New York City because that's where I was living at the time and that was affordable. For people who are like I don't live in an affordable city, if you draw a four hour radius around your city, I'm sure you'll find affordable places to go which you can drive to. So for me it was just backing into what I could and couldn't do, and the things I could do, which was in my control, go out and try and take a lot of action to get to that point of going, okay, what's that first deal look like? And knowing that I wanted to be an operator. Because for me, Stephen, I vividly remember going to the REAs going to the pitches and the seminars, and I could have spent more and more money on more seminars, more education, but I got to the point where I was like, I'm not going to get to deal number 10 without doing deal number one, and I'm willing to take the risk with my own money. Again, you talk about that door opening. I'm willing to take the risk because it's my money and I can control that. I can control the risk and even if it went to hell and high or lightning in a lunch basket, it was my money, right? I was willing to risk it and knowing that I wasn't going to lose my shirt over it because I'd done my due diligence correctly. That was enough for me to again open that door and step through it and get to deal number two.
Steven: [00:11:26] Yeah. And so you went and you got yourself educated. You started learning these things but you made sure that you actually went to that next step of actually applying the lessons learned so that you could iterate so you can continue the process of applying those learnings and continue to grow. Obviously fast forward, now you have 2400 units of multifamily that you guys control. You've got a very, very successful business and you've worked with operators, you know, from all levels for people who are just beginning to people who are looking to scale past 1000 units and beyond. What prevents most operators from scaling successfully?
Reed: [00:12:02] I think it's around the team that you surround yourself with. So the real, you know, value of my success was two things. One, I got a mentor early on. So I ended up selling a couple of properties in upstate New York to release some cash to invest in the business and invest in a brand that was myself Reed Goossens, because that's what people are going to invest in first and foremost. They're not going to necessarily invest in the deal, they're going to invest in you as a human, right. And so if you can't build that trust or build that brand around who you are and your identity, then you're not going to be able to ask him at any point in time saying, hey, I've got this really great deal you should invest with me. So I spent a lot of time in the early days, building that brand, building that sort of trust and transparency and trying to compress my story and my journey into a very short period of time. I use mediums like podcasting, and books and all that sort of stuff, to get that message across and using that story because I had an interesting story that people may find that interesting, and then thus, want to learn more from me, right. And I was able to build my investor networks. That's one side of the coin. The other side of the coin was that I went and got a mentor and a mentor who I aspired to be. And this is really important, because you do surround yourself with people who -- if you surround yourself with people you aspire to be, you will become the average. And it again, it sounds cliche, but it is true. And being able to use money that I earned from a deal, or my first couple of deals, and go and then invested it in myself, it wasn't anything physical, it wasn't a physical asset. It was investing in my education. And again, it was me taking a bet on myself saying, hey, I'm going to take myself seriously. You need to go out and get a mentor, because you'd been going for sort of three or four years learning by yourself and I was starting to get to the end of my tether. I knew I needed to uplevel my game, and break the sort of ceiling that I was getting through and that was through a mentor. Then the third thing I did, which was and we can summarize this in a little bit was I actually had a skill set that if I had to be in corporate America for a period of time --I was a structural engineer, how can I go and work for a developer, get a well paid corporate gig, but then continue to be surrounded by real estate 24/7. So my day job and my side hustle, and grow my beard grow my "brand" at the same time. So all those three things happened around the same time in 2014. And that was a really incredible launching pad to where I am today.
Steven: [00:14:27] I like that. I like that because it's a different perspective, right? I'm a boat burner. When I go and do something, I have to go all in. I have a very difficult time doing more than three things at once. Very simple. I got to be all in 100%. So when I got into real estate, and I burned the boats. I fired all my clients. I went 100% and I had no other way to make money other than succeeding and it took a long time and a lot of stress and I wouldn't recommend it to everybody. But what I like about what you're saying here is that you figured out a path that didn't have to be immediate. You looked at well, how do I build something long term? And these are the steps in order for me to get there. Sometimes people get too impatient that they want to quit their job today, but they're making $100,000 to $200,000 a year. And it's like, well, wait, let's just pause a second, you're making really great income. Let's figure out how we can pivot that income into something that's going to grow you long term into the space. And that's one of the reasons I think you've had so much success is that you were very, very patient from the beginning.
Reed: [00:15:26] Yeah. And that's you hit the nail on the head. We're always like, I rewind when I first moved to United States, or when I first picked up Rich Dad, Poor Dad back in 2010. I was like, I want to have this happen tomorrow, right? We all want that. And it takes a long time. And there's been a lot of ups and downs, you know, along this journey. So please, for those people listening out there, it's not a overnight success. I've been at this for over a decade, and I'll continue to grow and to build my business over the next 2, 3, 4 decades, because I love what I do. But what in the beginning you have to train yourself to be is persistent, and is patient. Patience is really, really important in this game, because I saw so many people failing. When they go out there, they you know, don't have the right mindset on the front end, right? They think I'm going to get this done and I'm going to be financially free in a year. And there's some freaks out there you see on bigger pockets, and all their blogs that can do it, and I applaud them well done. But I wasn't one of those people. And probably the majority of people listening to this podcast are not those freaks. So how do you use the tools that you have i.e day job, keeping the roof over your head, keeping bills paid, but continue to move the needle towards your ultimate goals. And if you think it's going to take a year or two years, well, then think, again. You're laying the foundation for a life changing -- set yourself up for financial freedom and retirement, that's going to take 5, 6, 7, 10, 15, 20 years, whatever it takes, that's okay, but you have to have the right mindset on the front end, because then when it gets hard, and it will get hard, when it gets tough when it gets to the bottom of the barrel, you will know that, hey, I'm not going to give up because I knew this was going to take 7, 10, 11, 12, 15 years whatever it is, and you have the right mindset on the front end, rather than be like I'm going to get it done in six months. Then at the end of six months, asking why have I not got financial freedom? I quit. You know, people just give up too easily then, and having persistence and having grit, and knowing that it will take a period of time is the most important thing to lay a good foundation as you go off down this journey because it is an incredible journey.
Steven: [00:17:26] Well, it's like when you're realistic about how long it might take and what you're going to take away in the process. Then you don't get so down on yourself that you haven't made those strides. Because when you think okay, well, I'm going to make $10 million a year multifamily business, or I'm going to create these amazing operations, or I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that, and then it doesn't happen, you feel like giving up. But if you're realistic about it, and you figure out what some of those milestones are, because you've worked with mentors who've been down the path before, you know, realistically, well, I'm on the right path, I'm making progress. And that's really what we need to feel, we need to find a way that we can feel the progress that we're experiencing day in and day out, so that we can, you know, keep motivated, because you got to keep being pulled in that direction. Otherwise, that pushing, you're going to end up running out of steam quite a bit. So what I'm really curious about here is, you know, we talked about what prevents some people from scaling, obviously, it's having unrealistic expectations, not having mentorship, not having the right kind of connections. What are some of the biggest challenges that you see operators experience when they're getting started, and how have you coached or worked with other people to kind of get over some of those?
Reed: [00:18:36] I think the big thing is partnerships. I've had failed partnerships in the past before I got into the the large multifamily space, and understanding that you don't have to have all the answers. So you might be really good at capital raising or you might be really good at underwriting operations, you might be really good at one element of the business, you can go out -- and this is a big enough pie to split around, you can go out and get other partners to go and do bigger large deals. And it might not necessarily be 100 units tomorrow, but it might be you've gone from 10 to 50 unit deal, right. And that's going to take more equity, that might take a little bit more advanced underwriting, it might take a little bit more bit of broker relationships to find those types of deals. So all those little elements, you don't have to put it all on yourself and say I've got to figure this out myself. But in saying that, just try to find the right partners and understanding those right partners come through being out in the street, you know, talking to brokers, talking other people doing it, talking to mentors, and just going through those conversations consistently to find someone who would then be like, okay, I'm interested in what you have to do, and maybe we can partner up and maybe we have complementary skill sets in order to get this done or get this first big deal done. I think that's the key because so many people want to be the deal finder, be the capital raiser, be the operator, be all these things and it just is sometimes too much. Then throw into that, keeping your day job, throw into that, having a life, throw into that having relationships with the kids or your family and keeping food on the table, it just becomes over bloody whelming. Also partnerships in itself can be very challenging, and you gotta find the right partnership, but it's about starting with, okay, I can understand that I don't need to take on everything and that I have a skill set that can be complimentary to maybe someone else who struggles in the department that I'm really, really good at.
Steven: [00:20:28] How does somebody go about figuring out what is that skill set or what is their unique ability?
Reed: [00:20:33] I think you've got to, you got to sit down with a pen and paper, write it down. For me, I happen to have a unique ability that I was very mathematically orientated, you know, I was a structural engineer. I was able to pivot to be valuable to a developer here in LA to continue to have the food on the table, a roof over my head as I was learning, but that also then taught me different skill sets of, you know, institutional project management, how to underwrite deals better, you know, from an institutional grade point of view, how to run deals in from a operations point of view, how to build stuff and understand how things are put together. Again, I'm using every single opportunity in life to take away some some very valuable lessons to then use them for another project, or bring that skillset to another partnership. So for me, it happened to be that I was very new that I was very mathematically oriented. I knew how to underwrite deals, I knew how to manage large scale projects, and was also very comfortable with managing large sums of money being responsible for building a lot of high end multifamily here in Los Angeles for that original developer. So having a lot of that responsibility, put me in a very good stead to go out and do it on my own. But then I needed to find someone who had a complementary skill set to me, because what I was lacking was maybe some of the equity, or some of the broker relationships in markets that I'm active in, and that's where I needed to fill that void and that's where I found my business partner, Andrew.
Steven: [00:22:01] Yeah, I think that is really solid advice. And so over that time now, you've built this business. When people hear 2400 units, sometimes people are listening to folks who don't really manage or operate those, or maybe they've got like, 1% of that. And I know, that's not the case with you guys. You guys are controlling and managing all 2400 of those units. Talk to me a little bit about the ins and outs of what's going on on the operation side of a business that's that big as you're prepping to scale even larger.
Reed: [00:22:31] Yeah, well, we're at a very interesting inflection point in the business today. And I can be vulnerable with you about exactly how we built it. It's really been Andrew and I, for the last five, six years building it. I've been the operations, he's been the equity, he sort of shakes the tree, and I determine if we make lemonade or lemon juice out of it. And that's been really good. But as we've come to both of us feeling very stretched with, you know, so many deals, we've got nine deals. There's just a lot of investors to answer. We've had to bring on executive assistants, and we've had to bring on new business partners to go and help relieve the pressure in terms of management in terms of, not necessarily firing myself, but also understanding what's my highest and best use in the business today. It was different than what it was three or four years ago. So overall, it's understanding what that highest and best use is and then backing into knowing that if you go and, you know, invest in employees and invest in different systems that will help you scale from 2400 units will help us go from 2400 units to maybe 5000 or 6000 units, which we definitely have an aspiration to go do.
Steven: [00:23:39] Yeah, that makes sense. And you get to this point in your business where no longer can you continue to be the only one operating and doing the day to day. But sometimes people when they're only at 100 units or 500 units, they think, hey, I want to find a way for me not to have to do any of the work. But the end of the day, you really do as an operator need to put in the work. You need to figure out well, where is your best skill set? And how are you going to go and execute on a day to day basis so that you can you know, really deliver for your investors.
Reed: [00:24:08] No, and that's up until this point, we've been lean for a reason, right? We've been lean so you don't have a lot of overhead. You don't get too far over your. I see a lot of other startup businesses, in any type of business, maybe bring on too many employees too quickly. We don't have the revenue to pay for that. And so, you know, individually we have to roll up our sleeves and do more work. But that's because we want to keep it lean and be sustainable in our growth. Not get too far out there and have a lot of overhead and burden because it's really important to have a controlled growth because if you don't have controlled growth, you come into other issues of starting businesses like you know, payroll and benefits and all that sort of stuff. We've just hired our first full time employee as of today, Monday's of this recording. So, you know, up until then, we've been using 1099 analysts. We've been using 1099 executive assistants virtual assistants. We still think Third Party property manage. So all these things help us be more effective in the way in which we control the portfolio. But as we get to this point, we've now realized we've also become a bit of a bottleneck. And thus we need to let go of some of that control and bring some people in underneath us so we can go off and do our highest and best use and double that portfolio which is the goal.
Steven: [00:25:22] Yeah. What I really appreciate learning with you and from you is that you guys are in the trenches right now going through those scaling pains. You're not a company that's a billion dollars and you're well past that point. What I've noticed is that I can relate a lot to the day to day challenges that you're dealing with, because you're only three 4, 10 steps ahead of me. I can still see you while you're on the path, but you're able to share some experience that's really relevant today, because the market is changing so quickly that it's so important to have somebody like that in your space to be able to learn from so I definitely appreciate that. I want to thank you here live on the air for that. But what I'm curious -- you come from a construction background, when it comes to managing these types of properties, how has that played in and how have you been able to leverage that experience into making sure that you kind of de-risk some of the projects that you guys work on?
Reed: [00:26:21] Yes. Look, I think in general, most deals go south, and this is everything from ground up construction to buying existing assets. And this is not just multifamily, it could be anything, even as small as doing fix and flips, which I know you're very, very familiar with. It comes down to management of people, right, and you can make money when you buy but you can lose it really quickly through bad management, that's property manager, that's construction management, that's, you know, management of the GEC -- all this management of keeping people in the boat rowing in the same direction. So really my job to de risk that is making sure clear communication, being a leader and an effective leader in empowering my team, to think like I would think as an owner. Making sure that people feel supported in their decisions they make on a day to day basis so I'm not also becoming a bottleneck and goes back to that making sure that the team is managing it as if they own it. So all those things have been very eye opening and is now building this in scaling this business. It comes down to people. Who's the bomb in the seat at the property, who's looking at the daily leases, and looking at the financials each and every day, who's making the decisions on how we grow the rent. Now, obviously I'm backing into that, and I'm very much dictating that. But who's who's going and executing it on a day to day basis and from each deal will be some nuance difference, particularly coming through COVID, which we can talk a little bit about in a second. But those types of things matter. They matter. How you manage your GEC and how he gives you the best pricing on your turning unit so you can really turn the screws on him and say, well, hey, I've got another 100 units to give you. I need you to jam this price right down because it ain't effective for me right now, because I'm getting to scale. It's also using the property management company where we started out at three and a half percent property management fee, when we first started, we are down to 2.75%. We're able to share staff between assets. All these things help in de-risking the probability of a deal going south. But that's come through scale. And that's the beauty of building wealth is through true scale and creating a business ecosystem within all the elements of the business to help de risk a particular asset that you bring on board, because you have your systems in place, because you have the right people to execute. So now when we go and look at deals, I know exactly who the property management is, I know exactly who to call at the property management company, from the regional point of view, say, hey, have you heard of this deal? What do you think of this deal, I'm calling my GEC directly and say, mate, let's get on site and give me a pricing on what you think certain things need to be done. I've got a pricing on my side of the fence, and let's compare notes. And then making sure that you understand from a banking point of view, having those relationships to know that you're going to get the deal done with the bank because right now Freddie is a bit weird and so you go down a different path from a banking relationships point of view. So all those relationships again boils down to management of people. And that, to me, is really the crux of how you make a deal successful or not.
Steven: [00:29:22] Yeah. And it's all built around the processes that you guys have been able to implement and continue to effectively change and adapt to whatever situation we're dealing with. And we're in a unique time where the markets changing or the world's changing because of COVID. And so how has that impacted you and and what are you doing in order to continue to scale despite the challenges that are happening within the world?
Reed: [00:29:48] When COVID first hit, it was a very eye opening thing for us. No one's experienced this around the globe so it was first time in a century. Making sure that we were there to support, not only our investors, but support our tenants. Without tenants, we don't have a business. Making sure that the staff felt safe, particularly in the early days. And now it's getting through to the sort of the long in the tooth in terms of how you manage that and how you make sure that the eviction memorandum comes into place if people can't pay. Making sure you're managing the books on that point of view. So that's probably been the most challenging part is understanding how we manage all the different little nuances of, showing that we're a good and friendly landlord, we want people to stay, but also working with those people to pay the rent on time, and communicating that effectively. So that we don't miss a payment. We don't we don't miss distributions to investors. And then on the backside, making sure the investors know that, hey, we're going through a very unique situation right now. And each deal is going to be a little bit different depending on where you are through your value add process and how you've turning the rent roll. Also looking at certain sub markets and how you're attracting new leases, when no one wants to live in downtown CBDs anymore, your central business district. So all these things are different nuances to how we've navigated through these uncertain times and I think we've done a pretty good job, but we're not through the woods yet. It's coming into the slower leasing season of the holidays. Hopefully coming into 2021, now that we've got a vaccine, we will start to see the markets of old. I think it will take a period of time. But overall, it's been a very, very good lesson in sort of building the calluses on your hands, so to speak, going through this crisis, because one of the biggest things we face as a young company is we don't have gray hair. I've got some guys in the back. But we're not like the old 78 year old guy. Now we're coming through a recession, we're been dealing with it. And that is powerful when you can talk from knowledge when you're talking to new investors about how you did deal with the COVID pandemic, how did you deal with making sure investors with their investments remain safe with you as a steward of capital. So all those things are really important and helps us grow the business from a marketing point of view, because we can speak from knowledge because we're in the trenches doing it day in day out.
Steven: [00:29:48] Yeah, I think that that makes so much sense. And it's been amazing having you so I'm curious, how can people find out more about you or get in touch?
Reed: [00:32:21] Yeah, easiest way is go to Reedgoossens.com. That's where all sort of marketing stuff is. If you're interested to hear about any of the deals we've got going on, go over to wild horncap.com, and you can reach out to me at either of those sites.
Steven: [00:32:34] Awesome. Well,it was a pleasure. I look forward to the next time we get to hang out buddy.
Reed: [00:32:39] See you mate.
Steven: [00:32:47] Now is one of the greatest times in history to be investing in multifamily real estate with hundreds of millions of dollars literally moving from the stock market into alternative assets, like real estate every single day. We're in the midst of a golden era. And one of the keys of success is learning how to avoid those upcoming pitfalls and mastering the process of how to scale as an operator in the multifamily business. Regardless if you're just getting started, if you've been in the game for decades, you've got to join us for this very special training put on by the multifamily MBA on how to scale from 0 to 2400 units. The three biggest secrets for building a $320 million multifamily portfolio. Register to join us at Theinvestormindset.com/mfmba. That's theinvestormindset.com/mfbma. Look forward to seeing you there.
OUTRO: Thank you for listening to the investor mindset podcast. If you like what you heard, make sure to rate reviews, subscribe and share with a friend. Head over to theinvestormindset.com to join the insider club where we share tools and strategies from the top investors and entrepreneurs and how to take it to the next level.