Restaurant Roots to Multifamily Real Estate Riches with Gino Barbaro

On this episode with Gino Barbaro, a multifamily real estate expert, he shares his inspiring journey from his family's restaurant to becoming a successful multifamily investor and educator. Gino discusses the personal and financial challenges he faced, including the loss of his father and the 2008 economic downturn, which led him to seek mentorship and new opportunities. Discover how his partnership with Jake, strategic broker relationships, and persistence built a strong foundation in real estate. Learn key strategies for successful investing, from identifying motivated sellers to navigating market cycles and bank regulations. Tune in for expert advice on achieving financial freedom and building a lasting legacy through real estate.


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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:45

Welcome back to the Money Focus Podcast. I'm your host, moses Dementor, and in this episode, I'm excited to bring you Gino Barbero, who's a powerhouse in the multifamily real estate sector. Gino, along with his partner, jake, has transacted over 2,200 multifamily units and they manage assets over $350 million. He's here to share his journey from starting out to becoming a leading educator in real estate investing, so let's dive into his insights and strategies that helped propel him into this remarkable career. Let's go All right. Thank you for joining the Money Focus podcast. I really appreciate you, gino. The first question I always like to ask my guests is to really walk us through your career journey, your professional journey, just, ultimately, how you started your business.

Speaker 2: 1:36

So the floor is yours as we were speaking before camera. I'm one of the products of the 90s. I was watching the New York Knicks back in the 90s and got out of college and my father owned a restaurant and I got into the restaurant business. That was the family business for years and years and years and I loved it until I didn't. In 2007, my dad passed away and I had to ask myself am I living his dream or am I living my dream? And it felt like I was living his dream. I just loved working with him. I loved being around him. He was my mentor Ever since I was seven years old. I was working with him at the restaurant. And in 2008, you know what happened? The Great Recession hit us and I was blaming everybody. I was blaming Bush, I was blaming Obama, I was blaming the economy, when I really had to take a look in the mirror and say it's me, it's no one else.

Speaker 2: 2:25

I read the book by T Harv Eker, ironically enough, in the beginning of 08. And in the book he talks about your fruits or your roots. I mean, fruits is what you see. Fruits are the results. Fruits the money that you've created. The roots is all the work that you put in all the hard work, the desire, the dedication, the value that you created, my roots sucked. My roots were really shallow, and I got pissed at T-Hard when I read the book. But at the same time, I knew deep down inside that I didn't have enough value, I wasn't smart enough, I didn't have the skill set. So I went and I sought mentorship. I went out, I joined a couple of groups, like you did. I joined a couple of really good mentorship groups and I learned multifamily.

Speaker 2: 3:02

I met my business partner, jake, in 2009. He was a pharmaceutical rep, taking orders out of my restaurant and going to doctor's offices and selling pharmaceuticals with my food. 2011,. He decides to leave New York. He moved to Knoxville, tennessee, and we partnered up and took us 18 months to find the first deal, me and Jake. But after that we just continued to buy and buy and buy and 10 years later, you buy one or two deals a year. You look back and you're like, wow, we've got 1,700 units, we've got $350 million in assets, we've got 80 people on our property management team and you just need to start out with really the foundation. And I didn't have a good foundation early on and I needed to learn that foundation and to build that foundation.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Yeah, so you said it. Just quick clarification. You said that it took you 18 months to find your first deal. Was that, were you guys being real picky, or or did you just? You know what were you doing at part time? Like, is there a reason why it took that amount of time, or can you kind of talk us through that?

Speaker 2: 4:00

Combination of a lot of things. Yeah, there's a lot of things. First of all, I always like to classify my life before Jake and life after Jake. Life before I met Jake, I'd been in a couple of real estate deals and they did not go well. I'm going to be completely honest with you. My first deal I lost 172 grand. It was a mobile home park. On the second deal, it was a strip mall retail center up in New York. That was a terrible investment and I had no map, I had no process, I had no framework.

Speaker 2: 4:28

So when I met Jake we're still trying to figure it out and he was a young salesman. He didn't understand broker relationships and real estate are key. They have the golden eggs, they have the deals and it took us a while to figure that out. And in the process of us looking for our deal, his fiance moved down to Knoxville. So he's like Gino, I got to buy a house, so he took a couple of months off from there.

Speaker 2: 4:51

But it was really understanding what we were looking at, understanding how to underwrite these deals, creating those relationships with the brokers and then ultimately putting in offers and getting one offer accepted. We found one broker his name is Ricky G, who really took us under his wing and said guys, I've got a deal for you. And it was actually back then, 2013,. Things were on loop net. I mean it was very different than it is now. I mean, the sentiment, the economy, no capital raising Everything was a lot different back then than what we're experiencing over the last couple of years. So, I mean, the short answer to your question is we just didn't know what we were doing in the beginning.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Well, you do now. So that's cool. So the great thing is that you ultimately figured it out. You know, you and your partner. But what were some of the initial challenges that you faced? You know at least after that broker put his arms around you. I'm sure there were some things. There was an uphill battle to get where you ultimately are today. Can you kind of talk us through some of those things you experienced?

Speaker 2: 5:50

I think the first thing, moses, is everyone, we all experience fear when we first start out something that we've never done before. That's the reality. I had never partnered with Jake, so I had never done a deal with Jake. That was the first fear. I think the second fear was my limiting belief that I had failed previously and how am I going to really overcome that now? It was challenging to me to think I went from a fourplex, then to a failed mobile home park, then to a failed strip center. Now our very first deal is a 25 unit deal and we even have seller financing on this deal. So there's a lot of different moving parts going on saying how are we going to figure this thing out?

Speaker 2: 6:27

And we bought a challenging property. On our first property it was a 25 unit, it was weekly renters, so weekly renters had a challenge in and of itself. It was scattered sites, it had cottages, it had duplexes on it, it had a six unit efficiency motel. It was a challenging property, to say the least, and I remember buying it the first month. There was no rent rolls. We bought it from my mom and pop, so it was one of those things where you just you jump into the fire. But, moses, I'm going to be completely honest with you. I was at my wits end. I needed to find another way to make money. Like most people who get into real estate, I said this has to work. So I put all my energy and all of my effort into that very first deal.

Speaker 1: 7:08

So not knowing was also like your. You know what they say ignorance is bliss. You know what I'm saying, so maybe it was good that you didn't know all the ins and outs of it, but now that you're in a position where you can teach others, what is some advice that you can give someone who's just now starting a multifamily, investing or have a desire to go into it? What are some tips that you would say flat out. I wish I knew it. You need to know this before you make this endeavor. What are some tips?

Speaker 2: 7:40

That's a great question. What I would say? The first thing is always start within. I mean, what are you trying to accomplish as an investor? We all have different goals. Some people want to quit their jobs and go into real estate full-time. Some people want to do it passively and earn a couple thousand dollars a month. Some people want to do it for retirement. Understand that component, or that piece, first. The second component is are you in a market where you can invest in your backyard? If you are, that to me is a lot easier than if you're living, let's say, in California and need to invest in somewhere in Texas. Different mechanics, different things. You need to learn. I think the third component is what we created at Jake and Gino. We created the framework buy right, manage right and finance right and what I would say is every deal that you look through from that lens whether you're doing single family homes, whether, moses, you're looking at your section A properties, whether you're looking at RV parks, whether you're even looking to buy a business we call it the three-legged framework.

Speaker 2: 8:42

Think about a wheelbarrow. Jake was one day sitting in his garage looking at the wheelbarrow and he's like, wow, there's two legs in the back. There's the buy right leg and the finance right leg. They're both fixed. When you buy a deal and you finance that deal, they're done. The wheel of the wheelbarrow is the manage right portion of the wheelbarrow and that is in constant motion that you're always going to have to implement systems. You're going to have to continue to scale up and what you do in your business. Do you have to self-manage? Absolutely not, but you at least have to learn how to manage the manager. You have to learn what type of KPIs you're trying to achieve. I mean, if you'd like we can go through each leg individually so, as you're looking at a deal as a potential real estate investor, we can nail down some parameters for you.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Yeah, I mean, the management part is partly why I ended up self-managing my own properties, because I kept hearing all these horror stories about property managers. So how do you guys actually vet property managers when you invest?

Speaker 2: 9:48

Excellent, excellent question. I would say. For us it's a little different work. We're vertically integrated. We manage our own portfolio. Also, jake started out with that very first deal. He started managing that deal because he was boots on the ground and since then we've grown to over 80 team members.

Speaker 2: 10:03

But a lot of our community members in the Jake and Gino community use third party and I think the first thing that you need to do when you're looking for third party property management is you need to set expectations. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, when you're hiring third party, have they ever managed that kind of asset? If you're running and you're hiring a property management company that has 100 unit properties and 200 unit properties and these big complexes and you've got a six unit property, are they the right fit? You have to find a property management company that aligns with the asset that you're trying to property manage. I think the second thing that I would say is you want to create what we call a cadence of accountability. You need to be on weekly calls with this property management company and it's important Every whatever day. You pick one day a week and people are going to say, oh, I don't have time to do that. It's a 15 to 20 minute call. You're going to set expectations with your property management company and you want to be proactive. You don't want to be reactive.

Speaker 2: 11:02

I remember when I used to invest up in Rochester, new York, I did the same thing. You did, moses. Early on. I wanted to buy these properties. They were in older neighborhoods, they had good cashflow numbers, but I would meet with the property management company and I'd meet. I'd get my statement the month after. So if I'm collecting rents in March, I'm getting a statement in April of what happened in March. And I made that mistake. How can I catch anything? I've got delinquencies, I've got late payers, I've got things that I have to fix and I'm getting on a call a month later. It's too late Every week. Get on with this property management company, drive the ship, set up some key performance indicators that will help you manage this asset and if you see anything that's out of alignment, you can address it, and that's how you become successful with these property.

Speaker 1: 12:14

Yeah, and I mean ultimately, you know that's the management of the property is key. I 100% agree with that, because once you buy it, I mean you know real estate is not a liquid asset I mean it's going to be yours, right, and if you need to get rid of it fast, you're probably going to sell it in distress and lose money. So how you operate it, you know, month over month, is really key and it takes a while to implement some systems, you know. But once you get it there, it's smooth sailing, pretty much. Any problem that comes your way, you have a solution for it. Now the solution might mean that you have to dig into your reserves, but it's still a solution. You're not starting from scratch, you know. So what made you? You noted a moment ago about what was your. Why Did you want to become as large as you are today? Or did that just happen? Because by chance?

Speaker 2: 13:08

I don't think Jake and I are really that large. We don't syndicate deals so we don't raise capital, so we are buying deals with our own capital. We've done three syndications and we've exited all three of our syndications. I think for me, early on I just wanted to create a great, enduring organization that had culture in it. And when I had the restaurant I didn't have any systems, I didn't have any core values. I had one restaurant for 20 something years and I wanted to scale that restaurant. I wanted to add more locations just to, obviously, to earn more money. But then one day, if I ever wanted to decide to retire, I could sell that location and I just found it was such a hard business to scale. So when I started investing with Jake in the real estate, I'm like I want to buy really good quality assets, quality deals that we can buy and we can hold them for the long-term, and that's why we're invested in Tennessee. We love that market. We love the state pro-growth state. I mean there's no state income tax, it's a great place to actually. Yeah, I mean you have people moving down there, you have tons of jobs, so it's something where I want to be for the long-term.

Speaker 2: 14:11

But the big why. For me, obviously, we always point to saying our family. And listen, I have six children, I've got tons of bills. But if I really had to drill it down, I think most people think they're doing it for the money. But I think, ultimately, what we're all doing it for is for the autonomy or for the freedom that money provides.

Speaker 2: 14:30

And I knew at the restaurant I was trading time for money. I was working the week. At the end of the week I'd get paid. Some weeks I didn't get paid because it snowed or we lost power so many times in New York, so I wasn't getting paid.

Speaker 2: 14:46

So I understood that I wanted to have some type of wealth building. I wanted to have some type of stability. I wanted to create some type of legacy that when I passed on, I'd have something to pass to my kids. So I think the greater question and this is what everyone should be thinking about as they're going into real estate for the longer term why are you doing this? It's not just for the money. Money is great, money is the result. But there's got to be a bigger reason why and for me it was I wanted to create this great organization and we've done that at Jake and Gino, where employees want to come to work, where it can impact other people's lives, and, at the same time, let's invest in an asset where we know for the long-term, we can create wealth as well.

Speaker 1: 15:23

Nice, I mean well said, I mean freedom is definitely why I'm doing it. I want to be able not that I want to make less money, but I would take less money in the autonomy and the freedom to be able to do what I want to do with my family and help people, versus having to worry about, you know, pursuing, you know furthering someone else's dream. So that's really key for me. I want to back up on two things because I'm thinking in the mindset of my audience and I want them to, you know, understand two things. You pointed out. You mentioned syndication and I probably glossed over that and some people may not know what a syndication is. Would you mind giving a high level breakdown of what exactly a syndication deal is, so people can?

Speaker 2: 16:11

understand. So, moses, you're driving down your car in Atlanta, you're looking all over the place and you're saying to yourself, 100 unit. You're looking all over the place and you're saying yourself, 100 unit apartment complex, 300 unit apartment complex. Who owns all these buildings? There must be some rich guys that own all these buildings, when in reality, a lot of those buildings are owned by investors.

Speaker 2: 16:31

A syndication is simply pool of investors that are pooled together. They get, pool all their money together and they have a lead sponsor or a couple of operators, sponsors who are running the deal right. There's a general partner that would be the lead sponsor. Let's say, for instance, me I find this a hundred unit apartment complex Great, it's amazing. Oh well, I don't have any money. I need $6 million for this deal. Where am I going to get it? Well, we create the syndication. We get these partners, these limited partners, out there. They're passive investors. We're going to raise capital from them and we're going to go out and buy this apartment complex.

Speaker 2: 17:07

Now there's syndication laws. It goes into securities laws, because you're really creating a security, because really what happens is I am the general partner, I'm going to be doing all the work, you're the limited partner. Let's say I'm going to be doing all the work. You're the limited partner. Let's say that I'm going to be raising money from. You're passive, with the expectation that I do all the work. So you're creating a security. So you get into securities laws.

Speaker 2: 17:26

Now it's not that daunting. Once you've done one or two it's not that complicated. But you just go out and you hire a securities attorney and you get the paperwork done. But to think about it, you're looking at all these buildings. A lot of these are done through syndication, through raising capital and pulling that money together. That's why when people say, well, I don't have the money to get into multifamily most of us don't have the money to get into multifamily we start out small, with maybe a duplex or a fourplex or a six unit. Then we start to create some equity. We may refinance that equity out, buy the next deal, or we may sell that and go up. And then at some point we run out of money, there's no more money left and we go out and create a syndication. We start raising money from investors.

Speaker 1: 18:07

No, a great break now. Hopefully that makes sense. If it doesn't make sense people who's watching? You can go ahead and put it in the comments. I love your example on how it's like. Most of these buildings and stuff like that are not owned by this mega billionaires. It's everyday people or people who might have some some money and they're putting it to work. I'm an active investor, right, but you don't have to be an active investor. You can put your money to good use and stop spending it on things that's going to lose value and actually work in a syndication deal and be hands off pretty much you know.

Speaker 1: 18:42

The other part I wanted to ask you because this is so important to your brand is partnerships. So you mentioned that you met Jake coming in. He was a salesperson. You guys build the rapport, things like that. But the reason why I want to touch on this is because this is another factor as well, because if you might have a partner who has the capital and the money, but then you might have another partner who maybe doesn't have the money, but they have the knowledge you know, and if you both have both, then great. And if you both have both, then great. But I wanted you to touch on the importance of partnerships, because you can rely on each other and two heads can be better than one to pursue and grow your business. So it seems like you and Jake are really doing great things. So any advice for someone who would be seeking a partner?

Speaker 2: 19:34

Multifamily is a team sport, bottom line. I think real estate myself is a team sport because it is a business. Once you shift your mindset around, I'm just buying a few buildings to wow. I'm buying a current stream of revenue and a future stream of revenue and I'm buying these little businesses, each property that we have. If you view them as a business, your mind starts to shift.

Speaker 2: 19:57

At Jake and Gino, we like to say we're creating multifamily entrepreneurs. My mentor, rick Sapio, came up with this phrase and it's four words. It's values-based decision-making. When you're out there and you're going to seek a partner, you need to seek a partner based upon your values. Do your values align? And when I met Jake in 09, I already knew that he was a hard worker. I already knew that he was dedicated. I knew there was a lot of hustle. I knew he didn't make excuses. I knew that he was a family guy. I knew that he wanted to invest in multifamily long-term. I knew that he was responsible All of the values that I aspire to. He had them and we really aligned really well. And from that very first deal we've been partners ever since. We've built multiple businesses together.

Speaker 2: 20:44

So if you're out there looking for a partner, I would challenge you to say what skills, what value do you bring to that partnership? Number one and number two do your values align with your potential partner? On my very first deal I was telling you about with Maserati, mike, maserati, mike drives into the parking lot with a gold Maserati and I'm like, all right, game on, I've got money, he's got a deal. I never did due diligence on him. I never thought about are we in alignment? I just saw IRR. I saw I've got money, he's got a deal.

Speaker 2: 21:14

Let me put it in that's not how partnerships work and you really need to understand what value you bring. And then ultimately, if you're going to join a partnership, you cannot make excuses. If there has to get something done and there's two partners there, one of the two of you has to do it. You can't let your partner down. Jake is out there right now running the property management. I'm doing the education and I'm helping source deals with him as well. There's never a day that we say, oh, I'm a little tired, I don't feel like doing it. There's no such thing in a partnership. You can't let that partner down. And if you say to yourself you know what, I don't really want to work hard, then don't go out and don't seek partnership, because it's not going to be a really good fit for you. There are days that are hard. Now the pros about a partnership is great, I'm having a tough day.

Speaker 1: 22:14

You're an entrepreneur. It's a pretty lonely life out there. I can always call Jake up and say, hey, I need help here. So there's pros and cons to it. But once again, it's really about figuring out what your goals are and if know I mean so we're pretty aligned. So it is what it is. Let me ask you, about what is it? May of May of twenty twenty four? So interest rates are inflated based off of recent times. I know not historically right now, but how do you you know what is your investment strategy during times when interest rates are actually running higher? How do you manage the market trends? What advice would you be able to give us about that?

Speaker 2: 22:47

So there's a market cycle and right now, when we go back into when I started back in 2011 and 2012, rates were around 6%. It was really hard to raise capital. There was deals on LoopNet but there wasn't a lot of capital and the financing was difficult. Well, if we fast forward to what's going on today, it's eerily similar. It's really harder and more difficult to raise capital because the deals that are currently working right now there's been a lot of capital calls, there's been a lot of distress in the larger assets, so a lot of people are a little leery about putting money into multifamily. Now we've been shocked over the last year and a half to two years. It's not where the rates are, it's the quickness and how quick they did it and they shocked the system and people couldn't react quick enough to where we are right now. We're early on in the game. Right now, I think rates aren't going to go any lower. They thought rates were going to go a little bit lower, but the Fed can't lower rates right now because we still have inflation and if they do lower rates, they know that it's going to spur a recovery a lot quicker. So what I'm thinking for myself long-term, if I'm looking at a deal right now and I can make a deal work at 7%, 7.5%. I'm going to do that deal because I know in the next 18 to 24 months that interest rates are probably going to drop at some point. I can refinance that deal out.

Speaker 2: 24:07

I just think there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of negativity and the average investor is going oh, real estate stocks. Real estate stocks you can always buy in real estate. You can't always sell real estate and right now we're using something called creative financing. We're using seller financing as part of the market cycle and our very first deal that Jake and I did, we also had seller financing. So it's interesting how market cycles tend to repeat themselves.

Speaker 2: 24:32

And I promise you, if you get into real estate right now, you're going to need a little bit of time to create those relationships. You're going to need a little bit of time to create those relationships. You're going to need to understand how to underwrite a deal. You're going to need to understand how to start building your investors, your database of investors. That takes a little bit of time and for anybody to say I'm going to wait till the market crashes. When it crashes, you won't even know number one and number two, you won't have any relationships. I mean, now's the time, because brokers are actually calling you back. They didn't need you 18 months ago. Two years ago they had deals and they were selling them. Right now they need Moses and Gino to put offers on deals because there aren't as many buyers right now. So now is the opportune time to get into real estate.

Speaker 1: 25:13

Yeah, I mean, it's eye opening for me. We talked before we jumped on and I was looking for, you know, commercial deals, apartment buildings and stuff like that. But it was when interest rates were pretty low, you know, and it was hard to get a broker on the line. It was hard to get these buyers, these sellers, to even entertain creative financing. And we, my wife and I, we went hard for about a year I mean sending thousands of letters, handwritten letters, and we would get some people to buy his colas and things like that, but they never was realistic on a price. It was always inflated. So it sounds like this is the time that I should revisit that.

Speaker 2: 26:00

And Moses. It's interesting, you said the word inflated. I don't know if values were inflated. Values were where they were because there was a ton of money in the economy and interest rates were low, so the cost of capital was cheap. So you're able to pay more for that asset because your cost of capital is cheaper. Now that the cost of capital has risen and all of a sudden rent growth has slowed down and all of a sudden expenses have really creeped up, now things are starting to reset and it's interesting because sellers understand that they missed the boat.

Speaker 2: 26:32

I mean, if they had sold a year and a half or two years ago, they may have gotten their price. But now that price is gone and they're coming to the, as we like to say, come to Jesus moment where if I have to sell the property, I'm going to have to take a haircut. If I don't have to sell, I'm going to try to extend it for the next two, 24 months or whatever, and get over to the other side. But if they have to sell, now's the opportunity. So if I was you and I would call back a lot of those sellers. If they haven't sold, they may be motivated.

Speaker 2: 27:01

80% of a real estate deal, it's all about the seller. If the seller is not motivated, then you're not going to have an opportunity to create value and to buy that property at a proper price. And I think one last thing I'd say is buyers, right now we've been bitten, we've overpaid, like you said, over the last five, six years. We're not overpaying right now. We can't overpay right now because banks won't allow us to overpay. So you can want whatever you want for your property, but if it doesn't pencil out and there's no debt service coverage ratio of 1.25, it's going to be really hard to finance that asset.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Debt coverage service ratio. It's a key metric. So essentially the amount of income that the property brings in needs to cover the debt, the loan, the monthly payment, by at least 1.25. So if it's $1,000 a month for the mortgage, you need to at least be bringing in $1,250 a month in income. So for anybody that might have missed that, but that's all that is, but that's on a much lower level. Gino is in the millions. He's big time.

Speaker 2: 28:09

No, but you make the best point because people have to understand that, because it's all about the math. If you're going to buy a property and you're going to say to yourself well, how do I get the debt coverage ratio lower? There's only two ways. You can either drop the price you'll pay less for the property or you put more money down and you make your mortgage smaller. Those are the only two ways that you can make a real estate deal work. Now, does it make sense for you to put more money down? If you put more money down, your return is going to be less. But that is a hard question to answer, because what is your motivation with this property? Are you going to sell and flip out? Are you going to hold it for the long term? So that debt coverage ratio look that up. That number is so key to financing a real estate deal. Agreed great.

Speaker 1: 28:56

What are the three pillars that you talk about in real estate that every investor should know? Can you break that down for us?

Speaker 2: 29:05

Yeah, I mean I wish I knew this before I met Jake. Our coach, bill Hand, came up with this. We trademarked it and the three pillars, it's just knowledge that we brought together. I mean they're out there, we just put them together and we want the investor to look at it through this lens of the three pillars of market cycle, debt and exit strategy. Those are the three pillars that we also couple alongside our buy right, manage right and finance right.

Speaker 2: 29:35

And if we go through the three pillars of real estate, this is why I think a lot of people in real estate make money, then they lose it. Then they make money and they lose it. They don't understand the market cycles and they don't understand exit strategy. Newer investors like myself, you think you're going to buy real estate and hold it forever. Well, in commercial real estate, mortgages have a term, they expire, they come due or they balloon. So understanding your exit strategy is so important because once you understand the exit strategy, you'll know what type of debt you're going to get. Is it short-term financing? Are you going to get bridge debt because you're going to refi it out I mean you're going to sell or you're going to get longer term fixed rate financing because you want to hold this asset longer.

Speaker 2: 30:19

And the market cycle is so important because, like I said, when I bought that property up in New York back in 2007, that strip mall, the second deal I bought it at the tail end of a seller's market. Six months after I bought it, the market crashed and all of a sudden it went strictly right into the buyer's market, right into a recession. So in that seller's market I shouldn't have bought it because I overpaid. I bought an older asset. It had a lot of work on, a lot of deferred maintenance on it and if you understand where you are in the market cycle, it'll help you understand what type of strategies to use.

Speaker 2: 30:55

You'd said, hey, I've got to start doing those letters again because of creative financing. Well, now, in this part of the market cycle, creative financing works. It hadn't worked three or four years ago because the market cycle was more of a seller's market. A seller didn't need to put anything on seller financing because they could just put their property on and it could sell. So you need to look at every deal you're looking at through that lens of understanding where you are in the market cycle, understanding your exit strategy, and then from there you're going to figure out what type of debt instruments you're going to use for your property.

Speaker 1: 31:26

That makes a lot of sense and it just goes to show I mean, it's really, it's not. It's something you really have to inform yourself and educate yourself about this stuff. You can't just be oblivious and just throw money at things and thinking you're going to get a return. And that goes to your point. How people make money and then lose money because they lack the education but they also need to seek it too. It's just not going fully in your lap.

Speaker 2: 31:54

So great advice, just really quick. This is an important point For those of you that had lost money in the last six months to 12 months. Look back and have you made money over the last four or five years? We're all complaining about the operators and everyone who's losing money now. Well, you made money, hopefully, over the last four or five years. Now you've lost money in this part of the market cycle because the market shifted and I did the same thing. I went out and I blamed Maserati Mike back in 2005 about losing money. It wasn't Maserati Mike, it was me. I was the uninformed investor. I was the one who was just giving Mike money and I was expecting him to drive the asset. I did no work on the front end. We need to do that work on the front end to understand what kind of sponsor it is, if it fits our goals, the underwriting all that work needs to get done on the front end to be able to have that deal.

Speaker 1: 32:41

Work on the back end Well, since we're on the subject of education, talk to us about your education services that you offer to potential investors and people that just want to get exposed to multifamily.

Speaker 2: 32:56

Jake and I started the community back in 2016. We launched our book, wheelbarrow Profits, and we've been around for the last eight years. Our students have done over 80,000 units, they've closed over $5 billion in deals. They've raised over half a billion dollars in real estate to buy deals, and it's all based on that framework buy right, manage right, finance right. And I remember we started out with a simple product online and from there we grew it to a little bit of fulfillment. We had these weekend events, then we started putting coaching in and now it's grown. So I mean, we have thousands of students in the program and I love it because I get on podcasts every week. I have weekly lessons, we have monthly masterminds. We have an event next week in Dallas which is a buy-write bootcamp. We get students to come together. So for us, for me, it's all about accountability when it comes down to it.

Speaker 2: 33:47

Like you said, Moses, you can go on and watch a couple of videos, but what's the next step? I mean it's education. Knowledge is out there. You can find watch videos all day long, but what's the implementation Like? What's my next step?

Speaker 2: 34:00

And I think that's what an educational community, that's what a mentorship, should provide for you. I mean, okay, I've read this video, I've got the market, now how do I select the market? Oh good, now I've selected the market, now how do I do a property tour? And that's what I think anyone who's looking to mentorship or education should look for in a community is that people have done it and people are continuing to do it. So Jake and I, we're still buying deals. We closed on 300 units last year. This year we've closed on a fourplex. That's all we've closed on so far. But look for people who are continuing to do the business, and for me at jakeandginocom, I just I love the business because every day I'm not only the investor, ginocom, I love the business, because every day, I'm not only an investor, I'm also learning as well.

Speaker 1: 34:41

And if someone wanted to be a part of your community, what's the best way to tap into you?

Speaker 2: 34:46

Oh, just go to JakeandGinocom If you want to email me. Just email me, Gino, at JakeandGinocom, and I'll even send you a free PDF copy of our book Wheelbarrow Profits, for at least to start getting the framework of buy right, manage right and finance right. And you had said something earlier that really has stuck with me throughout. Mark Twain has a quote and he says it's not what you know, it's not what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure. That just ain't so. And if you're listening to this and you're thinking well, I need a lot of money to get into real estate, I need a lot of experience to get into real estate. I had neither one of those, and if I had thought and I had believed that I needed that, I wouldn't be here right now talking to you.

Speaker 1: 35:27

Appreciate that I was going to ask you what final advice or thoughts did you have? Was there anything else you wanted to add on top of that before we close?

Speaker 2: 35:37

out. Yeah, I would say personal development. I would say just watch what goes into your mind, watch what goes into your mouth. Your input shapes your outlook and that's the reality. The reality is the mastermind or the group is not going to make you successful. You need to get into that group and you need to add value to that group. And the bigger the groups are, and the better the groups are, the quicker you will get to where you want to get into that group and you need to add value to that group. And the bigger the groups are and the better the groups are, the quicker you will get to where you want to get to. That's the reality. The reality is you need to find people who are doing what you want to do and learn from them.

Speaker 1: 36:08

I've been doing this podcast for some time now and successful people like yourself say the same thing. So I mean it is. It just is what it is. You know anybody that's listening or watching. It's just like, if you want to get in shape, you know what I'm saying. If you're going to be around a whole bunch of people that drink beer and eat pizza all day, you're not going to have a six pack. It just is what it is. You got to be around people that's really successful with money so that you can learn about it, whether it's if real estate is your vehicle, or that you you know asset that you want to be into, or if it's stocks, whatever the case may be. Surround yourself with someone that's really successful at it and just keep learning. Be a sponge. So that's key. So, gino, you mentioned JakeandGinocom. What about social media? What's the best way to reach you on social media?

Speaker 2: 36:58

Oh, just go to Instagram on Jake and Gino. We've got a pretty active Instagram page so you can DM me there if you'd like. And, Jake and Gino, we have a Facebook page as well.

Speaker 1: 37:05

Perfect, so it's just easy brand name Jake and Gino everywhere. I appreciate your time, man. It was great to get to know some best practices in multifamily and understanding your story and background, so really appreciate you, Thank you, thanks.

Speaker 2: 37:19

Moses.