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Answer the Phone: How Brian Truman Built a Multifamily Business on Relationships · Real Estate Investing with RealDealCrew

• 0:00
  you know, the other thing I tell our agents, I said, you know, you don't, you don't need more money.
• 0:06
  You need more people.
• 0:07
  Cause the people are the ones that have the money.
• 0:09
  So you just need to meet, you know, and get rooms with people that think bigger than you do.
• 0:14
  That's where you're going to, you know, meet the folks.
• 0:17
  I said,
• 0:17
  you own real estate, really, if you have seven to 10 real good clients that buy on a regular basis, you really don't need a whole lot more to make a real good living in
• 0:31
  commercial real estate.
• 0:36
  Brian Truman joins me here today and believe it or not, he's gonna direct you to his cell phone.
• 0:42
  So give him a call or maybe even send him a text at 615-260-2121 because one of the things that makes him stand out is the fact that he actually answers his phone.
• 0:56
  So maybe you wanna give that a test.
• 1:00
  Hey Brian, how's it going?
• 1:02
  I'm I'm I'm not not not not not not not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm I'm not not not sure.
• 1:12
  I'm not I'm I'm I'm not sure.
• 1:15
  not I'm not sure.
• 1:20
  Yeah, I have been uh making sure that when I walk into the church, for example, I power off the phone.
• 1:28
  Yeah, yeah, that's, that's good.
• 1:31
  Well, let's start with I kind of warned you we're going to start with your origin story a little bit but kind of a truncated version of that.
• 1:37
  How did you find your way into this?
• 1:39
  I appreciate the question because it's question I get all the time and when I tell them the origin story they're like wow that's very very interesting.
• 1:50
  Very interesting how you got into it.
• 1:52
  uh So I do basically
• 1:58
  all day long, every day is help people buy and sell multifamily.
• 2:02
  So buyers and sellers, uh existing multifamily do help a little bit on developers find land to build them.
• 2:13
  But how I got into multifamily is it uh was, so it would be almost 10 years ago.
• 2:22
  uh
• 2:24
  Probably about another well couple months from now will be in December and it was it was 2016 and I had just barely got my license and It was the Saturday before Christmas My wife
• 2:44
  and I are going out to dinner 630 a night and my phone rings
• 2:50
  And this is before I had the reputation of always answering it, but it was a 310 area code.
• 2:56
  And I had known from my days before I got into real estate of traveling all 50 states that 310 was LA.
• 3:06
  So.
• 3:07
  And normally I didn't answer my phone at that time of night and on a Saturday and on the way to dinner.
• 3:13
  But I went ahead and answered it.
• 3:15
  And it was a gentleman who said, hey, you don't know me.
• 3:18
  I've got your number from a residential agent.
• 3:22
  He said that you do commercial and I'm in a real pickle bind and I want to see if you can help me.
• 3:28
  And I said, so what is your bind?
• 3:30
  He said, well, I have until midnight tonight to identify my three properties for my 1031 exchange.
• 3:37
  And I was like, yeah, you are in a bind 630 at night and you haven't tell midnight.
• 3:44
  I said, I was like, well, what are you looking for?
• 3:46
  And he said, well, I just sold some properties in LA.
• 3:49
  I want to buy in Nashville and I need to have some, you know, need to get some properties to give to my 1031 intermediary.
• 4:01
  And I said, well,
• 4:04
  then give me about 15 minutes, let me call you back.
• 4:07
  So I called the gentleman that I'd went through real estate school with who had had the conversation that I was gonna be doing commercial.
• 4:15
  And he had told me that his stepfather had five multifamily properties.
• 4:23
  And I said to him, well, is he interested in selling any of them or entertain offers or anything?
• 4:28
  He said, well,
• 4:30
  Give me 15 minutes.
• 4:31
  Let me call you back.
• 4:32
  So, so he called me back within like five minutes and said, yeah, he has three of them.
• 4:37
  And I said, well, can you send me or text me the, the property name, the address, all of that information, and then I can pass them along.
• 4:47
  he, fair enough.
• 4:48
  He did that.
• 4:50
  I called the guy back and said, said, Hey, you, uh, you're lucky day.
• 4:55
  And, I'm going to send you and text you properties.
• 5:00
  you to give your intermediary.
• 5:02
  The crazy part of the story was that that was oh Christmas.
• 5:08
  We put offers in on all three of them.
• 5:13
  And he came out right after New Year's to come and look at the property.
• 5:18
  And I said, OK.
• 5:19
  I said, well, hey, I'll just come pick you up at the airport as well, since you're flying in from California.
• 5:26
  And he said, OK.
• 5:27
  He said, well, you'll need to come to the private airport because I don't fly commercial.
• 5:33
  I was like, oh, OK.
• 5:35
  So then I was like, well, who am I really dealing with, right?
• 5:38
  Who is this and so sure enough wouldn't pick him up and watch him his wife nanny when they're Video photographers all that kind of stuff Well come to find out he was Grant
• 5:51
  Cardone's right-hand man and Grant was the one that had recommended that he buy in in Tennessee because grand own stuff here and and uh so
• 6:02
  That's how I kind of got started in there into multifamily.
• 6:09
  This gentleman puts on an event every year in California.
• 6:12
  And so right after we went under contract and we closed on him, his vent was coming up and he invited us to come out to the event.
• 6:21
  And he kind of told his rags to riches story and then told about and grant was our grant and Elena Cardone that were speaking.
• 6:29
  And so then he told his story and how he bought some stuff in Nashville.
• 6:35
  And he told this story right before we were to break for lunch.
• 6:40
  And soon as lunch hit, there was like 1,500 people there.
• 6:44
  And he said, yeah, my Nashville realtor is actually here.
• 6:47
  He's like, Brian, can you stand up?
• 6:49
  So he had me stand up.
• 6:51
  And then we broke for lunch.
• 6:54
  And that's the closest I've ever known what it'd be like to be famous.
• 6:59
  Because then I got mobbed by people from all directions.
• 7:03
  Because boy, if Grant and this guy invested in Nashville, then I
• 7:09
  We need to be there.
• 7:10
  And so I spent the next hour and a half during lunch break just standing there talking to people.
• 7:16
  And I came back with uh hundreds of names of buyers.
• 7:23
  So that's how I got started.
• 7:25
  Never had to worry about having enough buyers.
• 7:29
  And so that's kind of the origin story of how I got into doing nothing but multifamily.
• 7:36
  Well, that's quite the kickoff or quite the story.
• 7:40
  mean, most people only dream of falling into that situation and you manage to manage that in the first go.
• 7:50
  Yeah, the first, the first really basically six weeks of having my license.
• 7:56
  yeah, whatever you want to call it, extremely fortunate, blessed, lucky, whatever term you want to use.
• 8:03
  Yeah.
• 8:04
  Yeah, I was that.
• 8:10
  Well, he had been on Facebook, saw an agent and...
• 8:16
  called this, you know, reached out this Facebook, on Facebook to this agent and said, hey, I'm looking for commercial.
• 8:23
  see you do residential, anybody you recommend.
• 8:27
  And I just happened to know that agent as well.
• 8:32
  And so he was like, yeah, I know somebody.
• 8:35
  So he gave him my name and phone number and that's how he just called me out of the blue.
• 8:41
  So, so lucky I answered my phone.
• 8:45
  Yeah, I guess that's why you give out your phone call.
• 8:48
  If it worked early on, why not keep going with it?
• 8:51
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:53
  yeah, so it was, it was interesting.
• 8:55
  I mean, I still, still work with that guy today and he's, he's introduced me to, you know, there's the same, you know, basically the way to the many is through the one.
• 9:11
  That one individual has introduced me to so many people, not only investors, but, you know.
• 9:20
  some of the largest national speakers in the country.
• 9:25
  So early on then, I would imagine you were kind of thrown into this situation.
• 9:32
  Did you combat any kind of like imposter syndrome or anything like that as like, you had to have been thinking, what the hell am I, what's going on here?
• 9:42
  You're exactly correct.
• 9:44
  Absolutely.
• 9:45
  oh
• 9:45
  Absolutely, because I only had my license like six weeks, right?
• 9:50
  So I mean it was it was jumping in to the deep end with both feet and now I did have My my wife is a commercial broker as well and so when I got my license and decided it's because
• 10:06
  I had just sold a business and it was like, okay What do I do now?
• 10:10
  Right?
• 10:10
  And so she said hey, why don't you come and work for come and work with me in real estate?
• 10:15
  Right.
• 10:16
  So so at least I had somebody that had some experience to to lean on and say but but her especially wasn't multifamily and that isn't really what she had done much of although
• 10:30
  Although before becoming a broker she was an appraiser Commercial real estate appraiser so she had appraised multifamily but as far as doing the buy and sell stuff she hadn't but
• 10:43
  least I could rely on her to
• 10:46
  to quickly get me up to speed.
• 10:50
  So you're right, there was some of that, because it was, I couldn't say, yeah, I've sold, I've sold $100 million worth of multifamily or all this.
• 11:01
  I couldn't say any of that.
• 11:04
  But thank goodness the guy believed in me enough and...
• 11:08
  I came across well enough to like I knew what I was doing to uh get started.
• 11:15
  And so I was drinking from the fire hose and I was reading and listened in to every podcast and everything I could to gain knowledge.
• 11:27
  Well, well, outside of scrambling and finding that first deal for that person, what were some of the other hurdles you had to work through to just get?
• 11:38
  Yeah, I'm sure there had to have been some growing pains.
• 11:40
  I mean, especially that fast.
• 11:42
  yeah, because as you know, real estate is a team sport, right?
• 11:46
  So I had to quickly kind of understand all the lending when it came to this.
• 11:53
  Agency lenders, know who they were, what their requirements were, if they're going to go conventional, get some of those in my tool belt as well.
• 12:04
  Find a good attorney or two, look at property managers, kind of vet them for my clients.
• 12:12
  so you know I had a lot of that to go through CPAs you know so to basically you know build a team of people to you know like now when somebody calls you know I'll give them I'll
• 12:27
  give them three or four lenders and all my lenders they know that when I give out
• 12:35
  lenders to my clients, they know that they're gonna be one of like three or four, right?
• 12:40
  They know they're gonna have to compete for the business.
• 12:42
  And it's the same with property managers.
• 12:45
  I'll usually give them a couple and let them visit with them to see how they match up and basically say, hey, this is what I wanna do with the property and interview them to find
• 12:57
  out whether the way they go about managing a property is in line with
• 13:05
  what they want to do with the property, right?
• 13:07
  So, you know, and so I'll give them a, you know, a couple of attorneys names, CPAs, things like that.
• 13:14
  I'll give them a whole list of, uh you know, for them to have a team, especially if they're from out of state.
• 13:21
  It sounds like you really had to spend a lot of time, especially initially building that network fast.
• 13:28
  But I mean, it's so crazy that with the amount of technology that's coming out these days, mean, we still, it's so relationship reliant when it comes to any of this type of work.
• 13:47
  You know, and that is, man, that is, that's key, Jack.
• 13:52
  What you just hit on is, you know, this is a relationship business.
• 13:56
  There's, I joke because, so, you know, I have a brokerage of.
• 14:03
  15 agents and You know, that's one of the biggest things I teach them is real estate is a relationship game.
• 14:10
  It's not transactional and you can't be transactional So yeah, I had to go about you building relationships you know that the the thing I can say today is that many of the
• 14:22
  clients that Started working with me, know nine ten years ago are still with me today Right.
• 14:30
  I mean they've been you know, very loyal but you know, I know
• 14:34
  A lot of them, I know their families, I know their kids, I know a lot about them just because of what you just mentioned.
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  It's a relationship game.
• 14:47
  You gotta be relational, not be transactional, because the clients can tell if you're just in it for a transaction.
• 14:54
  uh I tell our agents, too many commercial agents have what I call commission breath.
• 15:03
  to get the deal done, to get a commission.
• 15:06
  They don't really care about a relationship.
• 15:11
  the way to stay in this business a long time and outlast others and to be top of mind is to build those relationships.
• 15:22
  You know, and I'm probably stealing this from somebody, it reminds me of that.
• 15:27
  think somebody says, uh, you're just one relationship away from, you know, it, it, it, it's, it, it's pretty crazy how important any, like, look at the series of events with
• 15:41
  your origin story.
• 15:42
  I mean, the, it, it's, it's just unheard of.
• 15:46
  Yeah.
• 15:47
  And that, you know, that, like I mentioned earlier, the crazy thing is, is that that one individuals introduced us to, you know, many, so many different people.
• 15:55
  Right.
• 15:56
  And, you know, the other thing I tell our agents, I said, you know, you don't, you don't need more money.
• 16:03
  You need more people.
• 16:04
  Cause the people are the ones that have the money.
• 16:06
  So you just need to meet, you know, and get rooms with people that think bigger than you do.
• 16:13
  That's where you're going to, you know, meet the folks.
• 16:15
  I said,
• 16:16
  you own real estate, really, if you have seven to 10 real good clients that buy on a regular basis, you really don't need a whole lot more to make a real good living in
• 16:30
  commercial real estate.
• 16:32
  Well, if you want Brian to help you with your multifamily transaction, especially in his neck of the woods, he can be reached at 615-260-2121.
• 16:45
  And if you found some value in what we're talking about so far, this show only grows if you share it with an investor friend.
• 16:51
  So consider doing that.
• 16:52
  If you're watching us on YouTube, give us a like and subscribe.
• 16:57
  So
• 16:59
  With everything going on, especially regarding the economy right now, Brian, I would imagine a lot of people are going to ask you what's working.
• 17:11
  Are you seeing deals to be had?
• 17:14
  it like a lot of people sitting on their powder?
• 17:17
  What's going on?
• 17:18
  Yeah, uh all of that.
• 17:23
  Yes, there are deals to be had.
• 17:25
  uh I tell people look in some of the tertiary markets, because that's where you can find deals.
• 17:40
  is in some of those, I do have some people who are like, well, I won't buy in any city that doesn't have a Starbucks, right?
• 17:48
  And I'm like, okay, that's fine.
• 17:52
  But there's a lot of cities out there that I feel like are the emerging markets is more of what I call them.
• 18:02
  So they're markets that are very much emerging.
• 18:05
  And that's where you can find the deals and you can know that you buy that deal now.
• 18:11
  know a few years down the road two three four years you know what you I mean I'll use an example there's some of the guys I worked with early on you know like nine years ago I
• 18:26
  tried to get them to buy in Chattanooga Tennessee right and when you could buy stuff at like 40 and 45 a door right and now it's over a hundred
• 18:37
  there.
• 18:37
  You know, and I kept telling them then, you know, if, you buy now within four years, I guarantee you that this will be probably 80 a door.
• 18:46
  Right.
• 18:47
  And sure enough, I was, I was correct.
• 18:49
  And, know, if you talk to them today, they'll say, yeah, I should listen to Brian.
• 18:54
  Now, you know, there are other markets out there that are, you know, are emerging markets.
• 19:00
  And that's where I try to get people to look at is some of those.
• 19:06
  Um, I kind of go.
• 19:07
  a step beyond a lot of other brokers, Jack, in the fact that in some of those, what I feel like are emerging markets, I will go and visit with the economic development directors in
• 19:20
  those areas and say, hey, tell me what's coming, right?
• 19:23
  What's happening?
• 19:23
  What's going on in the city?
• 19:25
  What's going on in the county?
• 19:27
  What businesses are coming into town?
• 19:30
  All of that, the city, kind of where's the direction.
• 19:34
  So I find out as much as I can.
• 19:37
  And that's how I can tell whether they're really going to be a good emerging market.
• 19:42
  And then I will recommend to clients look at some of these areas.
• 19:47
  em It's too expensive in Nashville, in the core.
• 19:54
  But to answer your other question, uh yeah, uh there's a lot of dry powder sitting on the sidelines that people are looking to start deploying.
• 20:03
  And we've really seen the...
• 20:06
  Probably January through March, there was a lot of activity.
• 20:12
  March through July, it really kind of slowed down.
• 20:18
  And now July on, it's really picked up again now.
• 20:23
  And I think, to your point, think, yeah, you had the new administration that came in, you had people trying to figure out, where...
• 20:35
  Where might we stabilize a little bit with tariffs and everything else going on?
• 20:42
  uh And that seems to now...
• 20:49
  come July, August really kind of ironed itself out a little bit or enough to people are comfortable and jumping back in again.
• 20:59
  The rate cut didn't hurt even though 10 year treasure went up right after that.
• 21:06
  But the six weeks or so before that, it dropped 50 basis points too.
• 21:12
  so.
• 21:12
  uh
• 21:15
  There's a lot of activity right now, I guess I would say.
• 21:19
  em And then I think it'll be interesting to see what happens em with this administration on privatizing, if they privatize Fannie and Freddie, right?
• 21:36
  We have affiliation with the group that does a lot of distressed assets.
• 21:42
  em
• 21:44
  And they said that Fanny and Freddie is looking to really get a lot of stuff off their books because of the fact that it might be privatized.
• 21:59
  And so they don't want to have that if the administration takes it out and does an IPO of something, then do they want to have that stuff on the books?
• 22:08
  And we've done five BOVs in just the last three or four weeks for Fannie on properties that they've taken back.
• 22:22
  So I think there's gonna be some distress assets available ah and I think you're gonna see a lot more of that in the next eight months.
• 22:31
  oh
• 22:34
  You know, and I was gonna ask you about this too.
• 22:36
  And it could be just my my market.
• 22:38
  But right now is probably the most I've seen when it comes to multifamilies or commercial properties, where I'm seeing it in the offer from the brokerages, carry backs and some
• 22:52
  creative finance things being proposed by the sellers.
• 22:56
  Are you seeing that type of thing too?
• 22:58
  It just seems to be a bit of a trend that I'm not from I haven't seen before.
• 23:03
  Yeah, the last couple of years.
• 23:06
  I've been a big proponent of when you submit an offer to submit options, different options for uh pricing and financing, absolutely.
• 23:20
  When interest rates started going crazy the last couple years, it's like, okay, have an option A, B, and a C, right?
• 23:29
  Option A may be, okay, we're gonna do all financing and do a spreadsheet.
• 23:36
  Excel spreadsheet, you you can have a page that says, know, hey, we're offering A and B and a C pricing wise, but then you have a spreadsheet that goes through and says, okay, on
• 23:50
  option A, you know, this is how this be financed, you know, when we close, this is what you're going to make, you know, option B may be a combination of some financing and some
• 24:05
  seller carry back.
• 24:07
  And then option C is mostly all carry back, right?
• 24:12
  And it's showing what they'll make at the end, which on the seller carry back, they're gonna make more than they would on option A.
• 24:23
  But it's really...
• 24:25
  it's really painting the picture so they can see those numbers and what they would look like.
• 24:31
  you know, there are, we've had sellers that have taken, you know, those different options, you know, from there, but I have never been opposed, uh especially, you know, if I'm
• 24:46
  representing the seller.
• 24:48
  I will ask the seller, are you willing to accept any owner financing or do any owner financing, anything like that?
• 24:57
  And even if they tell me no, if...
• 25:04
  If a agent that is looking to buy calls me and said, will your peer person look at it owner financing?
• 25:11
  I'm like, he, he has said he won't, but if you submit it, you know, I'll, I'll show it to him, right?
• 25:20
  I'll present it to him.
• 25:21
  And I've had a couple where they've sent those in.
• 25:24
  And even though my seller said, no, I won't take it.
• 25:28
  They've, they picked one of the other options to have, have owner financing.
• 25:33
  Right?
• 25:34
  And so, and then if I'm representing um a buyer, um I always recommend to them to have options on their offers.
• 25:43
  uh
• 25:44
  Sure.
• 25:45
  But you know, it's kind of interesting is that you know, I we buy and sell we buy a lot of distress single family homes.
• 25:53
  But it actually seems like you know, the few times we've done multifamily
• 26:00
  The sellers are usually, it seems more open to it or they're just maybe they're just familiar with it and it's the audience.
• 26:09
  It's something that seems to be easier to accomplish in the multifamily space than it is.
• 26:15
  Yeah, we had to get over some of that because before the interest rates went up, um really took off and went up.
• 26:26
  you know, that owner financing, you would never dream of seeing any kind of owner financing.
• 26:32
  You know, I mean, this was the days where, you you had to put, you know, the money you put, the earnest money you put down went hard immediately, right?
• 26:43
  I mean, you know, which, you know, was just, you know, when people were, were...
• 26:48
  oh
• 26:49
  what I thought over paying for some of their properties and that's why some of it's getting bought back is because they bought on way too thin of margins and they bought when
• 27:02
  interest rates were 3 % on a bridge loan and thinking that in three years they're gonna roll that over into 3 % permanent debt.
• 27:12
  That didn't happen, right?
• 27:14
  So that's why it's being taken back right now.
• 27:17
  you know, in 2024, I would say three fourths of the properties we sold in 2024 were what I would call partnership divorces.
• 27:35
  But that partnership divorce got stressed so much because of how they bought the property.
• 27:43
  Right?
• 27:43
  You know, and that's why a bunch of it's getting taken back.
• 27:49
  Yeah, it is one of those unfortunate situations there, we're partnerships.
• 27:57
  It's one of those things.
• 27:58
  And I'm sure my audience is tired of me saying it.
• 28:00
  You either start with an awkward conversation or it will end with one.
• 28:06
  And uh I think there was a lot of over-leveraging.
• 28:11
  In fact, we're seeing
• 28:14
  you know, it's not multifamily, but we're seeing a lot of commercial and retail space still empty that were built like during COVID.
• 28:23
  And I'm just not sure if we're going to see any some of this to bounce back the way it was anyway.
• 28:29
  Yeah, office is the, or here in Nashville office is still struggling a little bit, but, but it's coming back retail here.
• 28:38
  Um, you know, the, the vacancy rate on retail in the Nashville area is 2%.
• 28:45
  You know, and in commercial world, anything for or under is like basically like zero.
• 28:50
  So when we have people approach us about wanting to find a retail or retail space, all that stuff, I mean, it's, it's very difficult to find.
• 29:00
  But everybody thought in COVID retail was dead, right?
• 29:03
  They didn't think they'd ever come back.
• 29:06
  But here in this area, it's come back like gangbusters.
• 29:11
  And uh office is now starting to come back as some of the bigger companies are really forcing people to come back to the office.
• 29:23
  you know, like Amazon has really put their foot down about coming to the office.
• 29:29
  so, you know, so they had, they built two, it's called Nashville Yards and it's mainly.
• 29:37
  mainly has uh occupied by Amazon.
• 29:42
  And they had a whole building that was pretty much sat empty the last couple of years, but now they put their foot down.
• 29:49
  They're starting to fill that up with people that have to come back to the office now if they want to stay employed.
• 29:56
  uh
• 29:57
  Well, I'm sure, you know, especially a business such as yours, like, you know, it's it's so heavy on networking, there is likely a lot of value to be had with everybody working
• 30:11
  together the collaboration.
• 30:14
  It's it's hard to accomplish that in remote settings.
• 30:18
  Yeah.
• 30:18
  Yeah.
• 30:19
  Yeah.
• 30:19
  And that's what companies are finding out.
• 30:22
  That's what they found out.
• 30:23
  And they're like, okay.
• 30:25
  And, you know, they're just, they're exactly what you said.
• 30:30
  You know, the collaboration, working together, they're on teams.
• 30:34
  They seem to get more accomplished being back together.
• 30:39
  business, what was your first hire?
• 30:42
  uh A admin.
• 30:49
  Yeah, so the interesting thing, so when I started, I went and got my license, because my wife was like, well, hey, you got to have something to do now that you sold your business.
• 31:02
  Why don't you just come and hang out with me and do something?
• 31:07
  So I went and got my license not knowing whether I was going to do commercial or residential, right?
• 31:13
  I was like, okay, well, you know, why not?
• 31:16
  Let's give this a try.
• 31:19
  so uh when I got my license, then I just started calling all the people in my phone, you know, to tell them, hey, I'm doing commercial real estate.
• 31:31
  Well,
• 31:32
  I started generating so many people that were like, hey, would love to buy this industrial building for oh our business or this or that.
• 31:42
  And then my wife was like, now hold it.
• 31:47
  I'm not going to be working for you.
• 31:48
  Come on now.
• 31:51
  you
• 31:53
  So we just started generating some business that I was like, well, it sounds like we need to get an admin.
• 31:58
  so, so that was our, that was our first hire.
• 32:02
  And then we had so much business coming in the door that I just said to her, was like, you know, I built this business before like this, you know, I was like, I think we can build a
• 32:17
  team again and, you know, in real estate.
• 32:20
  that's kind of.
• 32:21
  what we did as, and we're not one of those companies that, there's so many real estate companies, especially in residential that they want to see if they can hurry and get to 50
• 32:35
  or whatever agents or what.
• 32:37
  For us, it's, we've only hired as we have needed to hire.
• 32:42
  Although we probably,
• 32:46
  We probably get a one to two calls a week of people wanting to come to work for us.
• 32:54
  And the biggest reason is is because we're probably the only commercial brokerage here in Nashville that offers training for commercial.
• 33:07
  Yeah, so we provide.
• 33:10
  You know, we provide training on Mondays, Wednesdays and that for all of our agents, because we don't want to put them out there kind of like I was with no training.
• 33:25
  figured it out, but we want to get them out there where they're well trained and continue to train.
• 33:31
  um
• 33:34
  Yeah, that's, and you know, the other thing you're talking about too, back to the office, all that.
• 33:41
  We had a totally different mindset during COVID too, in that we, a lot of our competitors and the bigger brokerages here in town were like, nobody's in the office, nobody's looking
• 33:55
  to buy, nobody's looking to sell.
• 33:57
  So we're gonna work on our website or we're gonna do something else or whatever.
• 34:01
  During that.
• 34:02
  During COVID, I think we were out of the office maybe a week, and that was it.
• 34:08
  uh Tennessee, thank goodness, Nashville, they were more welcoming on that.
• 34:16
  But during that time, we just took market share.
• 34:21
  So we went out and helped people buy stuff, sold stuff, while everybody else was just sitting trying to figure out what was gonna happen.
• 34:30
  Hmm.
• 34:31
  A good strategy.
• 34:34
  Yeah.
• 34:34
  frame to uh really take market share and grow.
• 34:39
  I've got to ask what was the other business that you sold before getting into this?
• 34:44
  ah I had a
• 34:46
  I had a business brokerage company that I had started from scratch.
• 34:51
  I was in corporate America doing government contracting for like 23 years.
• 34:58
  When I got out of that, I started a business brokerage company.
• 35:02
  That was in 2011.
• 35:04
  By 2016, I had somebody approach me and say, I'd like to buy your book of business.
• 35:09
  I told them my business is always for sale for the right price.
• 35:13
  So in about six months, yeah, in about six months, they got to the right price and I sold it and signed a non-compete, you know, three year non-compete and that's when I needed
• 35:28
  something to do and that's when I went into real estate.
• 35:31
  And as a side note, uh
• 35:35
  When the three year non-compete was up, we started the business brokerage company back up.
• 35:40
  So we have it today as well.
• 35:43
  Just different name.
• 35:45
  Yeah, I would imagine that there would be some crossover there.
• 35:49
  Some of the skills you learn from the one is probably applicable now.
• 35:53
  Yeah, it is because probably 30 % of the businesses we sell have real estate attached, you know, with it, right?
• 36:03
  And so, yeah, it's all congruent.
• 36:06
  also run a commercial property management company as well.
• 36:12
  So I didn't let any grass grow under my feet.
• 36:15
  got busy here.
• 36:16
  But, you know, but it's obviously, you know, if we manage a commercial property, who's going to know more about it than we do, right?
• 36:25
  So when they get ready to sell it.
• 36:28
  so all of that, it's all got real estate associated with it.
• 36:31
  It's all congruent.
• 36:32
  So, yeah.
• 36:35
  Well, Brian, this has just been such a great conversation.
• 36:38
  Before we dive into the rapid fire and close out this episode, is there anything we should have hit on?
• 36:44
  Uh, no, think that's, that's a, that's a lot of, that's a lot for people to take away, but yeah, I'm happy to, happy to help any, anybody, any of your listeners with any real estate
• 36:58
  in Tennessee, Kentucky, you know, Alabama, kind of the three states we really work a lot in, Northern Georgia.
• 37:07
  anybody looking for a good broker who's relational and they'll answer their phone.
• 37:15
  My phone's ready.
• 37:17
  Well, let's test that out.
• 37:18
  Give him a call directly at 615-260-2121.
• 37:24
  I'm going to put that in the show notes as well.
• 37:27
  Really appreciate your time here, Brian.
• 37:29
  If you're ready, we'll jump into the rapid fire and close out this episode.
• 37:34
  What lie do real estate investors often tell themselves?
• 37:38
  What lie do they tell themselves?
• 37:42
  The lie they tell themselves is uh they all want value add.
• 37:49
  And then they don't.
• 37:51
  they buy it and then they go, this is what value add means.
• 37:57
  Then the second property they ask us for is something that's stabilized, which is what they should have asked for before.
• 38:03
  But anyway.
• 38:05
  If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
• 38:10
  A younger self would be to buy real estate early and often.
• 38:17
  Unfortunately, I got started a little later than others and these young people that are in their 20s that are doing it, they make me jealous.
• 38:28
  Yeah.
• 38:30
  My daughter is rather young and she's already eyeing her first one.
• 38:35
  it's it's kind of.
• 38:37
  is awesome.
• 38:39
  So do you have a book recommendation or what are you reading right now?
• 38:43
  ah I am reading uh Chris Voss's It Never Split the Difference.
• 38:51
  I just finished The Power of One More by Ed Milett.
• 38:58
  Great book.
• 38:59
  And then finally, what single process or tool have you implemented that has had the biggest time saving impact?
• 39:05
  uh Wow, that's a great question.
• 39:09
  uh
• 39:11
  taking control of my time.
• 39:13
  So time blocking, absolute time blocking and self care is part of that time blocking.
• 39:25
  Meaning I don't take a meeting before 9 a.m.
• 39:28
  ever.
• 39:30
  Now.
• 39:31
  I used to.
• 39:32
  Because from five to nine is my time.
• 39:37
  My time to read books, my time to...
• 39:40
  read something spiritually, time to exercise, my time to do all that.
• 39:46
  But unless you give him a phone call.
• 39:48
  his number again is 615-260-2121.
• 39:54
  Really appreciate your time, Brian.
• 39:57
  It was great to meet you.
• 39:58
  And you're welcome back anytime.
• 39:59
  hope you'll...
• 40:00
  I look forward to another conversation.
• 40:03
  listened to number of your episodes.
• 40:05
  You do a great job.
• 40:06
  So I appreciate you having me on.
• 40:08
  Thank you.
• 40:09
  appreciate it.