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Jullion Cooper - The Overseas Apartment Owner · REL Freedom Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because most of my career has been overseas, I've been forced to think outside of the box.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I've always been comfortable investing outside of my wheelhouse.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I own six properties, I've seen one of them.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's not because I just you know bought them side unseen, like, okay, you know, let me just buy them.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, I, you know, did some market research and I have boots on the ground, you know.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to make myself comfortable with doing that.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: But again, knowing that I don't not feeling sort of beholden to like, oh my god, do I actually have to see it?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Can I touch it?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, that has opened the world for me.
• 0:36
  Mike Swenson: Welcome to the Real Freedom Show.
• 0:38
  Mike Swenson: We inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate.
• 0:43
  Mike Swenson: I'm your host, Mike Swenson.
• 0:44
  Mike Swenson: Let's get some real freedom together.
• 0:55
  Mike Swenson: Hello, everybody, welcome to another episode of Real Freedom, where we talk about different ways that we're building time and financial freedom through real estate.
• 1:04
  Mike Swenson: I'm your host, Mike Swenson.
• 1:05
  Mike Swenson: If you want to get started on your real estate journey, check out our website, freedom throughrealestate.com.
• 1:12
  Mike Swenson: It's where we put all of our content and all of our great interviews to inspire you to find a path that might work for you, find a way to take action.
• 1:18
  Mike Swenson: That's what it's all about is being able to take a step forward and figure out if you like it and go from there.
• 1:24
  Mike Swenson: And so today we've got a super awesome guest not living in the United States.
• 1:28
  Mike Swenson: So we're going global today.
• 1:29
  Mike Swenson: We've got Julian Cooper.
• 1:31
  Mike Swenson: Julian is with Properties by JMC and currently in Liberia, although you travel all around, we'll talk about that.
• 1:36
  Mike Swenson: Essentially, uh did single family, got into multifamily apartments, and continuing to grow from there and raising capital and doing bigger deals.
• 1:44
  Mike Swenson: And so, Julian, we're so excited to uh have you on the show.
• 1:46
  Mike Swenson: Welcome.
• 1:47
  Mike Swenson: Thank you so much, Mike.
• 1:48
  Mike Swenson: Take us back a little bit.
• 1:49
  Mike Swenson: Obviously, you're you're working a different job, not in real estate part-time.
• 1:53
  Mike Swenson: So, kind of talk about your roots into real estate, why real estate, how you got started in that, and we'll go from there.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I mean, I think that you know, being from the United States, everyone knows about the American dream, and like part of that American dream is like owning property.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't really own my first property until uh 2020.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have been living overseas for for quite some time.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, before you know, like my current work um in international affairs, um I was teaching uh English in in Spain and and uh living in some other countries, uh doing that type of work.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: But um in 2020, uh things kind of changed.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: I decided I wanted to buy a property.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um COVID hit and um, you know, it was a it was the wild, wild west.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um living in the DC uh area, um ultimately got a property, got a really good deal on it, um had to move back overseas to um, you know, for work.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I needed someone to live in the property so that way, you know.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just I didn't need someone, but I I wanted someone to live in the property so that way um I didn't just have it vacant.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I was like, oh wow, like this is interesting.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like someone's paying my mortgage and I, you know, I've got a little bit of money on top.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh in 2023, so so 2020 to 2023, that's kind of how things stood.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: In 2023, I got a divorce.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I ultimately uh ended up selling that property and I got a hundred thousand dollars in my bank account because the property had appreciated well so well that you know both me and my my ex-spouse um both got a hundred K cut.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh, whoa, like this is this is real, this is real money.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's not just you know the the the couple hundred I was receiving every every couple of every month uh on top of what I was paying the you know mortgage and what I was getting in rent.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um I already pay out my 401k.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um I max that out.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: So this is extra money.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: What can I do with this?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, well, I got it from real estate.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't I continue to look into real estate?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I didn't want to look in the Maryland area or the DC area because properties are just so expensive there.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I decided, like, where can I, you know, what can I get into that's where I can use this this money?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I started to research different ways.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: I ultimately ended up going into tax-defaulted properties or researching that in the Michigan area because that allowed me to do it um online.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started doing buy and hold in Michigan because um the price points are so much lower.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,$500,000 house, five bedrooms, three bedrooms in DC, you know, you can get a three bedrooms, uh bathroom in uh in Michigan, Detroit, Flint, uh, Saganal, depending on where you you invest, 30K, 40K.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I was like, wow, this is a different, this is a different ballgame.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: So let me let me stick here for a while.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Then I started to buy more properties, same type of strategy, you know, buy the property, get tenants in there, uh, have passive income through that.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I ultimately decided, all right, do I want to keep buying properties or do I want to, you know, own a business?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: And started to learn about how to do apartments.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where that's what took me to to where I am today.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:57
  Mike Swenson: So just kind of out of curiosity, you know, you mentioned learning about apartments.
• 5:01
  Mike Swenson: So kind of what for for people that you know haven't gotten into that yet, what are some of those main attractions versus the the single family side for you?
• 5:10
  Mike Swenson: What was it that drew you to that?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Just like when you talk about traditional uh investing in the stock market, there's this idea of compounding interest, right?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: The the reality is that when you have a single family home and you have zero tenants, you have zero income.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, but if you have uh a 23-unit compound, for example, or 23-unit uh apartment or whatever that number is, if there's at least one tenant there, you still have cash flow.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I mean, just from a numbers perspective, it made sense.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, it's a very different risk profile, it's a very different game to get involved in um in apartment investing than it is in single family.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I had to educate myself in order to do that to protect myself and to protect you know the investors um that came in with me.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: But for me, it also was also important to me that um I know that I can go faster if I leverage, you know, what they call OPM, other people's money.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I didn't it reached a point where I didn't want to use only my money.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to learn how I could grow faster in scale.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and just learning more about apartments, the, you know, again, the common sense uh factor that, you know, when you have more than one tenant, um, you still have cash flow.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: The reality that uh it's more and more expensive for people to afford single family homes.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, renters are going to be renters for longer.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, people are always going to need a place to live.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Apartments just kind of made sense.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:34
  Mike Swenson: And out of curiosity, because I know people who have, you know, done the single family or small multifamily, sometimes it is kind of the vacancy piece.
• 6:41
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, if if I've got one tenant in a single family and now it's vacant, I'm losing 100%.
• 6:46
  Mike Swenson: Some of it's that, some of it's maybe some capital expenses that came up, um some larger repairs, things that maybe they didn't plan for, or maybe just the management of that took more time if they're trying to do it themselves versus a company.
• 6:59
  Mike Swenson: Just kind of curious there on those uh three issues, or maybe something else.
• 7:03
  Mike Swenson: Was there any sort of maybe sticky points or or kind of things that you were hoping that the multifamily, in addition to the the scaling piece and that sort of thing, were there things on the single family that were maybe just a uh a struggle where you're like, hey, I I I don't think that I like that side of it as much.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, to be honest, like being a multifamily investor has made me a smarter single family investor.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't I don't see myself doing single family investment anymore because I've been, you know, I've I've I've listened to the gospel, I've been I'm a changed man.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's there are things, there are reports, there are um inspections that I, you know, I'm trying to save money, so I'm like, I'm not going to do this on, you know, the single family.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I've actually I've learned now.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've got one of my my property in in Maryland, for example.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's one inspection that I didn't do, and it's actually bit me in the butt.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I'm doing them now.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: I've I'm doing these types of structural um, you know, inspections and and and having contractors do deeper dives on the multifamily because again, it's a bigger investment, so you you don't want to have any surprises.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I I wasn't really thinking in those terms uh as a single family investor.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, well, can I afford it?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'll figure it out.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I have to admit, like even uh just scaling up has maybe a smaller single family investor.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:20
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, great.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say mostly it's the vacancy part, yeah.
• 8:23
  Mike Swenson: Yeah.
• 8:24
  Mike Swenson: So then as you as you started to think about multifamily, right?
• 8:27
  Mike Swenson: For some people it's a duplex, fourplex.
• 8:30
  Mike Swenson: For some people, it's you know, kind of eight units.
• 8:32
  Mike Swenson: Um, yours was larger.
• 8:33
  Mike Swenson: So kind of talk about that that uh journey of trying to figure out like where am I gonna land and how big and what opportunities you know you're you were finding at that time.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um I ultimately decided to so one of the things that's it that's exciting, that's interesting, that's scary, that's crazy.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: It depends on uh, you know, how how you view me and what it is that I do.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because most of my career has been overseas, I've been forced to think outside of the box.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I've always been comfortable investing outside of my wheelhouse.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I own six properties, I've seen one of them.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's not because I just you know bought them side and seen, like, okay, you know, let me just buy them.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, I you know did some market research and I have boots on the ground, you know.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to make myself comfortable with doing that.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: But again, knowing that I don't not feeling sort of beholden to like, oh my God, do I actually have to see it?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Can I touch it?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, that has opened the world for me and it's opened the country and opened you know different markets.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, my bread and butt, my bread and butter is Michigan because um I first started there, like I said, um, with tax defaulted properties and doing auctions online.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Then I went into the single family buy and hold.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and because most of my properties are there, I started to focus on Michigan.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Not only because of that, also the price point is just so much different, like I said earlier.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um what you your your your dollar just goes much further in the Midwest than it does um in the uh you know on the Eastal uh or the coastal markets.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um so when I was looking at the uh the the apartment uh comp you know acquisition game, I mean there's just so many things that you have to think about as an operator.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's the capital raise side, there's the you know, uh what you so you have to you have to make sure that you're not buying um something that you can't actually raise for, right?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to make sure that I was I was doing something that um yeah, I mean, that I could I could raise comfortably.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um so for me, that was kind of in the the um the 15 to 30 unit uh spot.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um that also is gonna depend on uh you know whether it's a C class or a B class or an A class property.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mostly deal with workforce uh properties that have value um that can be that I can add.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I'm not looking to be uh again, my whole business model falls apart, you know, not being there physically if I don't have professional third-party property management.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I also am not interested in, you know, overseeing um this huge development project, right?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So um I'm looking for value add in the sense of like, how can I improve operations?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: How can I improve curb appeal?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: How can I improve um you know the tenant experience and also you know, um get more bank for the buck for the for myself and the investors in the deal.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um Michigan's really been a good market for me in that regard.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I was looking at the city of of Lansing, um, which is the capital there.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um another thing that was really interesting for me about that city is um, you know, you have uh lots of different anchors in the economy that tell you that it's kind of not recession proof because you know there's no such thing, but um, it can weather recessions better than other places.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: You've got uh uh different, um you've got the state um, you know, government economy, you know, the state because it's the state government, you've got um state universities that are there, you've got the insurance industry that's there, you have car industry that's there.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: So um that just based on the trends and like looking at how the um you know employment and and population growth uh and you know path of development, like looking at all these types of things to make sure that you're um you're investing in an area where people want to live, of course.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, you can benefit from that that idea and that concept that you know people always want people always need a place to live, and you're gonna be in a place that can generally appreciate and get value added for you and your investors.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that again, that's that's a few of the reasons why I decided to um focus on the Michigan market.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:24
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, great.
• 12:25
  Mike Swenson: And then I know for uh you know finding multifamily, it's it's different than finding single family.
• 12:30
  Mike Swenson: You're fishing in different ponds, you're talking to different people.
• 12:33
  Mike Swenson: I know for us as we were transitioning, that was something that was different as well.
• 12:37
  Mike Swenson: So talk about how you were sourcing properties or networking with different groups of people to get that deal flow in.
• 12:44
  Mike Swenson: I'm assuming maybe you had landed on Lansing first and then started looking, or was it kind of I'm looking at a few different areas and a few different opportunities, and you happen to maybe kind of as a magnet gravitate towards Lansing, or how did that work for you?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I mean, uh AI is our friend.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's so much data that you can't really uh you know consume yourself.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, when I'm looking at the profile of, hey, okay, in the Michigan area, what places are, you know, where can I have a decent exit strategy?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Where are where is there where is their path of development?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: What types of you know investment is is is going on in in in XYZ area, um, Lansing kept coming up.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Lanzing is also very is very well situated because it's about an hour from Grand Rapids, it's about an hour from Detroit, it's about an hour from Ann Arbor.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a it's a really great place to invest because again, um even if people don't necessarily um you know work in in Lansing, but they want to live there, they can uh easily commute to um to different areas um you know right outside of it.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's one thing.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: But the other, so I landed on Lansing first and then started to you know reach out to brokers.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that is the very that's a huge difference in multifamily versus single family.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: In single family, you it's it's like um it's kind of like divorce court, you know, you know your ex-partner, but like you kind of only communicate to them uh via the lawyer.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's the same thing with real estate for single family.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like you may know who the owner is, but you don't speak to the owner unless you're doing like an off-market deal.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the time, most of the time you're dealing with an agent.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: But as a um multifamily, multifamily investor, as an operator, you become the broker, you become the person that's you know um advocating for yourself.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that was that was a very different role to step into.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but again, having educated myself and invested in myself to do that, um, I knew what types of questions to ask.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's also super important that, yeah, like uh similar and excuse me, well, similar to the point I was making earlier, when it comes to single family, you can kind of look on Zillow, you can look at you know these websites and and just kind of look for what uh what options are available.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um in multifamily, you have all-market deals that don't tend to be as good, and you have off-market deals, which tend to be a little bit better.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so there are different strategies, you know, uh there as well.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I ultimately went to a website, you know, Crexy, uh, Loopnet, um, you know, to see what deals were available.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: But you're usually only using those websites in order to cultivate relationships with brokers.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that, you know, that uh cultivating those relationships and having those types of conversations, demonstrating that, you know, you're a serious buyer, um, even if, you know, at that particular time I didn't have proof of concept.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: But knowing the lingo, knowing, you know, uh, you know, asking questions, right?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because at the end of the day, these uh, you know, the brokers want to uh want to get a deal across the table.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, just showing that you're a serious uh person that they can work with.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um that was that was a learning curve as well.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, that that's one of the again, huge difference between single family and multifamily in that regard.
• 15:50
  Mike Swenson: Yeah.
• 15:51
  Mike Swenson: So out of curiosity, then this this property that you found, um, was it was it off market then or was it was it something that was on market?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, it it's it's actually funny.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: So um I I saw there was someone who reached out, the broker who I ultimately did the deal with.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um I passed on it at first.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then there, you know, I was looking, I was continuing to have a conversation with him to see what other deals he had.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um and what I was, you know, before I landed on this particular property, I mean, I probably underwrote 40 or 50, 40 or 50 deals, right?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean like I landed on this one, but like it certainly wasn't the first, the second, or the third that I that I underwrote.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I understood what normal numbers I was looking for.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh at the end of the day, like I needed to, I knew that I didn't wanted to get to, you know, X percentage of IRR.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted X percentage of equity multiple, I wanted X percentage of cash on cash.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And if it checked the box, then you know I was ready to go.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: So um in terms of the price point, you know.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh I ultimately passed, but then I started to, you know, when I started to do more deals and do more numbers, um, I looked at that one again and the numbers at the beginning didn't work, but I was able to negotiate down a little bit.
• 17:01
  Mike Swenson: So you've got your spreadsheets, you're running your numbers on the single family side, and then you get to multifamily, and and in some ways, like uh they're just bigger numbers, and yet at the same time, they are bigger numbers.
• 17:12
  Mike Swenson: And so when you're you're thinking about your deposits or your you know, earnest money that you're putting up or things like that, or negotiating it's it's bigger numbers, it's bigger ticket items, things like that, that certainly feel a little bit scarier, but kind of talk through that process of you know going from these smaller properties to all of a sudden now you're consuming these bigger numbers and having these higher level conversations and still being able to trust your gut and trust that you feel like you're making a good purchase, even though everything's got an extra zero or two on top of it.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man, it is a very, very different game.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Imposter syndrome was my uh was my best friend and worst enemy.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but because it really did allow me to, I don't know, make sure that I was approaching this from the right perspective.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I mean, uh like I said, I mean, I we're not talking about uh a six thousand dollar, seven thousand dollar you know, down payment to uh to do an investment property.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're talking about three hundred and thirty-five thousand, you know, dollars in order to make an a million dollar plus you know acquisition, right?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I wasn't gonna be able to just pull out three hundred, you know, three hundred thousand dollars out of out of thin air.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so uh that's where you know the capital raising comes into it.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's also where the storytelling, I mean, there's storytelling associated with being a um a capital raiser when it comes to these buildings.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um my investors aren't in Michigan, they don't know anything about the market.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: They're leaning on me and my expertise and the due diligence that I've done to make sure that I'm not selling them a lemon, right?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: So that was super important.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I also need to make sure that the story that the sellers were telling me is actually can be verified on paper.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's ultimately what um, you know, I had to do it.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: We I it allowed me to do a retrade.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I got about a hundred thousand dollars, uh, I negotiated a hundred thousand dollars off of the um the asking price.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um because just the story that they were saying about the building, you know, it's stabilized, it's turnkey, you know, market, you know, uh rents under market right now, but you know, you can just uh raise rents um and uh you know raise them to market and it'll be fine.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, okay, well, number one, if you could raise rents, I'm sure you already would have.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Number one.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, I'm looking at this maintenance log over the last year.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is information that you provided me in the due diligence process.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, this isn't anything that I'm making up.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: This is something that you, you know, earnest uh, you know, uh uh negotiating a good faith seller provided me negotiating a good faith buyer.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the story that you're telling about how much it costs for maintenance just doesn't make sense.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: The story that you're telling me about how much you pay for insurance doesn't make sense.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: So when I reconcile these numbers and you kind of play on the Excel spreadsheet, and it's like, okay, well, can I can I make this work with what they've said?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm moving this up, moving this down, and the answer is no.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's like we either have to do a retrade or I have to walk from the property, right?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: So um I ultimately went to them and I said, hey, this is what I'm seeing.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Help me see what I'm what I'm not seeing, right?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because again, you don't want to uh assume, right, that they're yeah, you want to assume that they're negotiating good faith.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um and this is obviously the the brokers, right?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're not you're not speaking to the the sellers unless you're doing a um a seller to seller, right?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Or a seller to buyer direct, like it's like an off-market type thing if they don't have a broker.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, like just knowing my stuff, knowing that you know, I was the person who fronted the money for um not only the legal team, but the accountants and the you know, the inspections, like getting a general inspection of the building, learning about the life of the roof, learning about the life of the boiler, learning about the electrical systems, learning about what the plumbing system looks like, um, getting a sewer scope.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like I know that building inside and out.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you can't, as they say, pee on me and tell me it's raining, right?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: So like I knew that there was there was something that was kind of off.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like, I still like the building, I still want this building, but like I can't take it at the price that you're telling me because I don't think that the stories that the numbers that you're giving me are the most accurate ones.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, again, being able to speak with confidence and being able to back it up puts you at a better negotiating position when you go to the table.
• 21:24
  Mike Swenson: Are you looking to get started or scale in real estate investing, but don't know your next step?
• 21:28
  Mike Swenson: Are you overwhelmed thinking about finding deals, analyzing deals, doing due diligence, and managing properties on top of it?
• 21:35
  Mike Swenson: Go ahead and push the easy button and invest with us.
• 21:38
  Mike Swenson: Real estate investing is what we do full-time.
• 21:40
  Mike Swenson: We've done dozens of deals with hundreds of doors.
• 21:43
  Mike Swenson: We have the knowledge and experience to handpick the best deals that most investors can't find.
• 21:48
  Mike Swenson: We've at large off-market deals all the time where you can hopefully find returns and economies of scale that you just can't find on your own.
• 21:54
  Mike Swenson: The best thing is it's 100% passive to you for less capital than you've put down trying to acquire.
• 22:00
  Mike Swenson: a property on your own.
• 22:01
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• 22:04
  Mike Swenson: Add to your portfolio or you just did an analysis by browser.
• 22:08
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• 22:13
  Mike Swenson: You can book a call and learn more there.
• 22:15
  Mike Swenson: So get to scaling your portfolio now with us by your side.
• 22:18
  Mike Swenson: That's freedom through realestate.com and click on invest.
• 22:22
  Mike Swenson: And now talk talk a little bit about the capital raising side because you've got some expenses that you're going to have to pay for on the front end for the for the inspections and things like that and the attorneys and everything.
• 22:33
  Mike Swenson: And then obviously you've got your earnest money of s of some sorts and then obviously money to close and then you've got your reserves and your renovations or whatever you've got your budget for.
• 22:42
  Mike Swenson: So kind of talk about filling in that money gap and in that process of of raising capital.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah this was brand new for me.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I've never done anything to this magnitude.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think years ago you know one of the uh countries I served in was uh was in Haiti um uh you know very poor country in the in the Western hemisphere and I remember putting a uh a Facebook uh post and I I raised like$5,000 to to help you know for charity um very different raising you know for humanitarian purposes than it is for investment purposes obviously different profile et cetera but like I mean to make to pull this off I needed to raise I mean at the very least um you know not only the down payment but enough for closing calls so I mean we're talking you know 300k plus um how did I go about that I mean I mean it was an all out blast you know of uh providing information you know first of all was a pitch deck right I I wasn't going to just go to people and say hey I've got this idea what do you think so I had to have a structured idea about like um to present the information and that is the pitch deck um using the pitch deck was helpful um I mean crucial um to getting people on the phone um helping them understand like hey this is a venture that I'm I'm going into you can participate as well um and then breaking a lot of misconceptions around um you know what it is and what it isn't that I'm doing what you can do and what you can't do.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like um there are making sure that I am a good fit for for you as an operator and making sure that you are a good fit for me as an investor.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: For example, um there are a lot of people who um have uh for example in this particular investment is$25,000 minimum um in order to participate.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: For some people that was too much for some people that that was fine but they needed the money next year and it's like okay well then you're not gonna be a good fit because this is a five year hold you know so I need the money or you're gonna you're gonna get your money back through the dividends and through the through the cash flow of the building but we need that money for the duration uh of of owning the building right so um again just making people uh aware of what they're um what they're investing in and making sure that you're a good fit is super important as a capital raiser um I think it's also important to um I don't know like people are the thing that I've learned is people are investing in you just as much if not more than they are in the the asset itself um and just my profile my background like people knowing that you know I'm not gonna get myself involved in something that uh isn't not necessarily there's no guarantees in investments there's no such thing as a risk-free investment but like I'm gonna do everything that I can to make sure that I've mitigated the risks and I think also the thing that uh really sold people is I had skin in the game.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: I have skin in the game right like I said I'm the one who put down the uh you know uh I paid for the I paid the the the money for the legal team I'm the one who um paid the earnest money I'm the one who affronted the money for the inspections um I'm the one who negotiated with the the broker I'm the one who put together the deal um so I have a tremendous amount of risk uh associated with it and that it's not because like oh look at me look at you know I've I've got all this money to throw around and I I'm I'm being risky it's like look my our our fates are tied.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when people see that it it it provides them a sense of okay wow like I'm not just putting my money and just hoping that Julian's doing something with it.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like he's got his money in it as well.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I would be very cautious frankly of my of someone who was saying hey Julian let's invest in this and he's like oh how much are you investing?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well I'm not investing in it.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well then why you know so I think that the capital raising side has been um the I would say the the biggest hill to climb for me because it's uh when it comes to the relationship building and the conversations with brokers and negotiating and and looking at numbers and stuff like that like that is you know other things in in past professions in this current profession um those are things that I feel like I've I've done well and these are transferable skills.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: But the capital raising and thinking as an entrepreneur and and and expanding my mindset and changing my relationship with money that has been a really really interesting experience and journey um as I've as I've you know as I've been looking to to raise capital for uh for this building.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:14
  Mike Swenson: It's interesting because you you know you've got experience with single family so it's not like you're coming in completely fresh and it's your first time doing something of this size.
• 27:25
  Mike Swenson: And you know a lot of times when I have you know large syndicators on or things like that, the things that they always say is like, you know, oh you want to flesh out the operator make sure they have you know uh experience in multiple real estate cycles they have multiple exits and all this and it's kind of like well I don't have that yet you know and so you're finding the people that buy into you and trust you um because yeah you don't have the experience and so I I still today talk about like I'm still building my resume for investors in capital raising because you know we don't have 10 20 30 years and you know we weren't investing back when the crash happened and that but yet what I can tell you is what I'm doing right now.
• 28:07
  Mike Swenson: Right.
• 28:07
  Mike Swenson: And so it's the imposter syndrome there is a challenge because you have all these people that are way longer in the tooth and and have bigger properties and all that but you can still present the story of where you're at today and find the people that know like and trust you for where you're at today.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely and that's that's really where it's at it you know the best time to plant a tree was yesterday or you know the best you know the second best time is is today right or actually it's probably years ago to plant that tree because it takes a while.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: But the point is like don't let you know the fact that you know oh I heard on this reel or I heard or I read this article like you know it's too late.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know the market is saturated.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: If it's something that you want go for it right um there's the reason there are people that are still doing it there's a reason why people are still doing it right there's there's a market for it.
• 28:55
  Mike Swenson: Absolutely so talk a little bit so you've you've closed on the property you're managing it right now give us you know how how are things going or you know kind of where where are you at today?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah where I am today you know it's going really well the uh property's operating according to plan like I said I'm only looking at value add properties so for this particular property there was a little bit of graffiti there was so that has been removed there uh there was some um the parking lot needed to be repaid so you know I'm trying to give the building a refresh in order uh in order to again attract a different um profile of tenant that you know will pay more uh uh closer to the market um you know right now the average is about 750 a month across the building and uh the the comps in the area um allow for a thousand right uh or or just below or just above depending on the amenities that the building has so um the real plan is to execute this um you know the the curb improvement appeal uh plan um it's managing the price you know the property manager even though I'm not there physically I have you know access to the portal I have cameras on the building um I understand you know what's going on in terms of the safety in terms of you know um how fast they are responding to um to tenant complaints um there's a whole portal with respect to that I get profit and loss statements um what are there's what are the collection um you know what's the data around the collection we I I had to um you know there was an there was a tenant that wasn't paying um rent uh we ultimately had to go through the eviction process so again just like keeping on top of that because you know you want to make sure that if you if you don't do that then you're you're sending a message to the tenants that you know they don't they don't have to pay right um and uh just again making sure that the the prop the the project and the execution plan that I've presented to my investors is going to plan so we're we we're in month three of of operation and it's you know we're steady steady steady goes the the uh the train.
• 30:54
  Mike Swenson: Well Jillian thank you so much for for coming on and sharing next steps uh where you're looking to go from here and then uh for people that want to reach out to you how can they do so?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I mean the I I I have uh a a 23 unit apartment complex which is not something I thought uh a year ago I I didn't even know about this type of thing and and here I am a year later and I have a 23 unit apartment complex.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: By the end of the year I plan on acquiring another one um 25 to 30 25 to 50 units we'll we'll see um I'm improving my my capital raising skills I'm improving the systems behind all of these so that way it's not um a uh a lot of the capital raise in the beginning was oh the first time was WhatsApp and text messages and phone calls and now it's much more systemized systematized um so that will allow me to um to improve um you know the the the front and the back end um but yeah that's that's where we're going we're moving forward to uh you know uh continue um making that uh case for uh investors who are looking for a way to make their money work for them and that's really what it's all about for me I know that beyond the paycheck that I receive there's a way that I can make that money work for me um and that's what the investors who are in the the deal um are are looking for as well so um that's what I'm doing that's where that's where I'm going and in terms of what uh where you can find me I'm on um you can use properties by jmc.com is my is my website um I'm at Julian the Delawarean on Instagram a shout out to uh the state of Delaware uh we don't have a lot of love not a lot of people from there but um that's that's where I'm from so a shout out to that and then of course on LinkedIn uh Julian Cooper uh as well J-U-L-L-I-O-N.
• 32:38
  Mike Swenson: Awesome well thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story excited to see all the cool stuff that's happened in in just a short period of time and I know you're gonna do some amazing things in the future.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much Mike