Ep 175 - Mindset of Staying Calm in the Eye of the Storm with Melvin Landry

Today we introduce Melvin Landry, currently an operator of 248 multifamily units and 517 self-storage doors while also a limited partner on 2,710 additional doors. Hailing originally from Louisiana with procurement and college professor backgrounds, Melvin brings relentless positivity and success-oriented, ""beast mode"" energy towards massive expansion in Pittsburgh real estate during 2024.

We explore Melvin's adventurous rollercoaster journey into real estate, including downturns that taught resilience, before his fierce comeback with full momentum. Melvin shares how maintaining faith and an obsession for achievement drives his positive mindset. He explains how connecting with people from all walks of life, from homeless to millionaires, has unlocked opportunities. We discuss how Melvin synchronizes his procurement negotiating skills and passion for educating others with his investing. Finally, Melvin leaves us with advice on starting small in real estate, getting educated, plus the power of giving back.

Connect with Merv thru the social links below and learn more about his business:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melvin.landry.5
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melvin.landry.5/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melvin-landry-1984118/
Website: www.morelandequity.com 

Unlock 3+1 degrees of freedom (time, location, financial + health) with our 5-Point Blueprint! https://elevateequity.org/podcastgift

If you really enjoyed this content and are looking for more, you can continue to learn more about us in several different places for free!

• on our website for blogs & other podcast interviews! elevateequity.org
• our YouTube channel! youtube.com/channel/derekclifford
• our book/audiobook! amazon.com/dp/ebook

If you'd like to have a FREE copy of our 7 Ways Commercial Real Estate Syndications Protect and Build Wealth, simply click the link below. We are here and vested in your long-term success! elevateequity.org/7waysEbook

Transcript

Derek: 0:01

Welcome to the three degrees of freedom podcast, where we explore lifestyle engineering with our expert guests to bring you in alignment with your own three degrees of freedom, location, time, and financial independence. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the show today. We're delighted to introduce Mr. Melvin Landry. Actually, you go by Merv, right?

Melvin: 0:21

Merv or Melvin, either or works, whatever

Derek: 0:23

you, whatever, whatever you prefer. All good. Sounds good. Merv is currently a GP or operator slash operator for 248 units in multifamily and 517, self storage doors and a limited partner on another massive 2, 700 plus doors. He comes from a procurement background. And the college professor as well. And he's based in Pittsburgh and originally from Louisiana. He's aiming for significant growth in 2024. And he mentioned to me also shortly before we were recording him through his application paperwork, that he actually left the real estate industry and he's back, with a vengeance. He incorporates a strong success oriented mindset uses positive attitude to create massive impact. And today we will delve into his rollercoaster journey into real estate, leading to his current completely full turnaround with full momentum into real estate. So Merv, it's amazing to have you, man. How are you? I'm

Melvin: 1:18

good, man. I'm, I'm, I'm blessed, happy, healthy, positive peace of mind. That's

Derek: 1:22

half the battle. I love it. All good. Great. All good. All right. So as you know, I always ask my guests the first famous question, right? Which is which of the three degrees of freedom. And of the three, I'm talking about location, time and financial. Do you feel like you're in the strongest in right now? And which one of those three do you want to develop further? I would say I am

Melvin: 1:44

in. financial freedom right now.

Derek: 1:48

Congratulations, man. Progressing,

Melvin: 1:50

doing well. I'm blessed. Continuously improving on the time aspect. That's key. Yeah.

Derek: 1:57

I know that you, that you also said that you've got like some part time work going on. You've got some, W2 as well while this is all happening. And I think this is just testament for everyone out there, right? That here you have Merv in front of us. He's got 250 units, multifamily as a general partner and over 500 as a self for self storage. And then he's a LP on over 2700 doors. So if you guys want to know if it was possible to work a full time job and be a general partner and have that much real estate in your books. Merv's an awesome example, man. So congrats on that big portfolio.

Melvin: 2:35

Thank you, man. It's a foot on the gas and it's just flat out beast mode. And you know, just, you just, you just my wife says I'm obsessed and that's okay. To be overly obsessed. And for me, it's a bit fine tuning the routine. So yeah, life is about continuously improvement. I'm not perfect. And there's always things I'm always working on my wife and son reminds me every day, but that's okay. And, as long as you're positive, try to keep the negative always in the rear view mirror. Oh, yeah. Couple of streets away and just, keep going. So that's kind of been, it's been a mindset for me last four or five, six years. And just like, you can do anything, man. I mean, you put your mind

Derek: 3:22

to it, you can get it done. So, yeah, of course, man. I love it. All those failures that people experience, whether they're trying something out. Or they have tried something or they just couldn't get themselves to try it. Those failures are just setbacks, right? They're just temporary defeats in the longer game because success is not one battle, right? Success is a war and you win some battles and you lose some battles, but as long as the numbers work out and you keep learning something from each battle. You're going to win in the end. That's just the way that it is. And so that's why I think, you know, I, I love the mindset piece of what you do, because that is the underpinning for everything that, that we do in real estate, whether you're working a full time job or not, that's the one thing that's definitely going to get you there. So let's back up a little bit. I want to talk a little bit about your story when it comes to real estate investing. So you mentioned that you. Ramped up a lot at the beginning. Right. You like, you really found something with real estate. Then you took a little bit of a break and now you're back. So can you talk to us a little bit about what happened with these pickup and then stop and then pick up again. Sure. Curious about that.

Melvin: 4:28

Just kind of rewind back. Let's go to 2007, 2008. Went to a seminar. The seminar at the time was led by Brookview Financial private money lender. Went in, kind of got educated, did my own homework. And, you talk about the full circle, right? I live in Pittsburgh when I started, I wasn't living in Pittsburgh. I was in Omaha, Nebraska, investing in Pittsburgh because the prices were cheap. Yeah, rents were stable, but my thinking was, oh, buy cheap, cheap, cheap. Let's go. So, jumped in bought a duplex 32, 000. 18 K renovation, . Geez. Yeah, man. And I, look, look, I mean, I'm, I recall these, you know, this data and stuff.'cause I mean, it's like, on the tip of my head, man. Oh

Derek: 5:15

yeah. The first one I know, man. All I'm thinking in my, in the back of my head is like, dude, you know, if there was a way for me to get all into any duplex anywhere in the country for less than 80 k. Very, very interesting. Oh, dude. Oh, dude.

Melvin: 5:27

So 32, REO 18 into it. One, one bottom two, one top 575 and like 800 cash flowing had a garage was doing well. You know, I kind of catch a little bit. It was good. And then man, right? I'm like, Ooh, okay. Some cash flow. And my thinking, my mindset at the time was I had a job, right? I was like, okay, I have a job. This real estate is secondary. So I, you know, I started buying gang buses, I went kind of went crazy buying

Derek: 5:56

properties. Sounds like me, dude. I love it. Yeah.

Melvin: 5:59

So, you know, man, I was buying, buying, buying, you know, Western PA, I was buying them for eight, 10, 15, 12 K using cash. Had a crew, right? Build a power team, contractors, realtor, title company. I had my go to people and I started buying in other States too. So I bought an Indiana and I bought in Scottsdale, Arizona. You know, imagine you're in three

Derek: 6:20

States and you go one for three.

Melvin: 6:21

Not bad for a typical baseball game, but, I ended up short selling the condo that I paid 300 K for in Arizona, short sold at an 82. Ouch. The single family home I had in Indianapolis, that cash flowed pretty good. I short sold that but 90 and I owed like 140 on it. Ouch. So took a loss, kept going, I kept buying, kept buying APA, kept buying APA and I had amassed up a pretty solid portfolio. In between that I got a mentor. I got a mentor who to this day I still rely on. And I joined a system, at the time it was the Leonardo system of real estate, which I'm still a member of by the way. Good comradery, good, good, good system. And, it kind of taught you about the circle of wealth. So I became a broker. I became a lien abatement specialist how to get properties with this heavy in taxes cash flow specialist. I got all these different certifications put a lot of money into my education and was pretty bound by that. Because even then I have 3 college degrees. I'm up and always a stickler for kind of trying to get as educated as I can. So I did that and did very well and, grew the portfolio to door near what? 62 rentals. Wow, man. And that was with my foot off the gas. I was going to Pittsburgh once a quarter checking on tenants. I had low income housing was my primary target. I knew my tenants, tenants, family members, right? They were folks who had vouchers or rent for me. And it just became, and at one point I was fielding calls and I couldn't keep up. But it was a good problem to have. While I was still, you know, uh, the nine to five I, you know, had, and I was still teaching part time as well. I was teaching as a passion I have. I'm, I've been a professor of economics. Next March you make 20 years. Yeah. Congratulations. You've been doing it for a while. Yeah, man. So adjunct capacity only. Never full time. Yeah. I'm a practitioner. That's kind of, you know, so it grew, grew, grew and kind of grew my foot off the gas and it was going quite well for a while. So. And then, you know, you fast forward, you know, I kind of got burned in 0809. I told you about the situation in Indiana, the situation in Arizona, but I wavered the storm and just was able to buy and stuck to Western PA. Cause like, okay, this is my niche. This is my market. I know it. So, you know, grew it. And, uh, you know, you fast forward, uh, you know, met my wife in 2011, 2012, got married in 13. And we just, you know, in between the time we've Nebraska, Vegas, and now we're in Dallas and we decided to open up a dessert franchise.

Derek: 8:43

Nice. Some, a little bit of extra stuff too, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Melvin: 8:46

yeah. A little, yeah, yeah. Little, , little restaurant, expertise, if you can, you can say that. And, we did that and, that ended up being that hurt. Oh, okay. That one hurt. That one hurt. So, ran the restaurant and, you know, the rents from, the cash flow from the rentals was funneling to pay the rents for the store and, that ended up not being sustainable. So we ended up closing in what, 2019 fast forward to 2019, closed the store and had to liquidate nearly 90 percent of the portfolio.

Derek: 9:11

Wow. So let me read between the lines here. It sounds like, in the time between your initial ramp up, when you first went into Pennsylvania. You had a lot of personal stuff going on, right? Like you had, you had your wife, like you, you had some of these, temporary setbacks. I'd like to call them in Indiana and also in Arizona. Then you had this other venture with start trying to start a business, right. And doing something through retail and your cashflow and rentals were what's what was feeding it. And as you got your mentors, Kind of like in your ear this whole time. And you started building up community and continuing to build education and continue to build your portfolio in Pennsylvania. I'm wondering if you had that light bulb moment where you're like, you know, I should just stick to rentals and then go full into it. Is that what happened there? Or what, what happened next early on? Yeah.

Melvin: 9:58

Early on is like, look. I mean, I can get X for these prices here and, you know, I just kind of keep building it. you know, I built relationships within the housing authorities and then local market, which where I live now. And, you know, once you understand the system, you just keep going, man. It's just, yeah. And you just kind of get with it. So, you know, life was good for, uh, an array of years and, you know, I mean, I had been getting, you know, my cash flow had more than tripled my W2 income, but the mindset at the time was, you know, still kind of keeps the job, right? So, kind of stuck with it and, uh, kind of took my foot off the gas and just cruised in neutral, my cash flow. You're talking 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014,

Derek: 10:42

right? So that's not bad. That was like, what, five years after you started five or six years after you started and through the massive like real estate collapse. Yeah, that's pretty good. Like that's. That's a lot. There, there's a lot of people that tried to do what you did and most likely got burned and were nowhere near getting to cashflow neutral. So that already is an achievement.

Melvin: 11:04

Yeah. So, yeah. So I had a few, , you know, I had a few scars here on my hand. I got burned a little bit, but it didn't run me away out of the kitchen. So I just kind of stuck with it and I, and after that, I just kind of really just kind of chilled. Mindset focus was helping to kind of grow the entrepreneurship journey with my spouse at the time. So we did that. And, you know, it, it. It was a, it was a money pit to say the least. So it bled a lot, a lot of income that I had earned behind the scenes of my real estate. And then it got to the point where as, you know, once you exited, once we exited the business, we had to, you know, I had to sell rentals to kind of tender, you know, legal fees and things of that nature. Look, it was, you know, it's a setback, but, you know, would I do it again? No, but at the same time as a learning experience and, it led me to kind of lead this recollection in terms of what I should have been doing. Right. I should have kept my foot on the gas and maybe that 50, 60 unit portfolio could have grown to 120. And I could have even been in a better position versus what I was, which I was still in a real good position, but I had a system that I had learned and had a mentor and, you know, it's just okay, you fall back down. You can always get back up, kind of follow the same system and you'll come back to the stability that you need to get to. And, man, that's the best thing that ever happened to me. So I was able to again, set back, was able to come back strong and, uh, been furious ever since post, 2020 been fierce ever since.

Derek: 12:19

So, yeah. So let me ask you, what was, what was the thing that you did next? You know, after that, after you had to sell off a bunch of your rentals, how did you start heading into Multifamily and self storage from that point. Cause right now we've heard just single family homes, right? So how did we get into multifamily and, you know, recovering from the first that, that temp that set temporary setback there. Yep. So,

Melvin: 12:41

uh, decided to go participate in a seminar, you know, new figure that I can open up my mind to some bigger things. Didn't know the scale of what I would have been able to do that and, just kind of see what was out there and I stepped into a room and had a seminar 20, 21.

Derek: 13:00

Wow.

Melvin: 13:00

Okay. And it was like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. It's kind of blown away. And, you know, the community was pretty cool to see. So, decided to kind of get into another mentoring program to kind of enhance my education. You can never not have enough. Oh, yeah. And I was willing to kind of build that investment on that and, kind of learning tips and tools and trades of things in terms of, like, underwriting, you know, uh, distinguishing class B class C deals, honing. Down on locations, you know, and really kind of fine tuning the process to kind of build and grow with the multifamily. So, that was, it's 1 of the best decisions ever made. So, you kind of low and behold, kind of forward into it. You know, talking to my wife about it and then decide to even get into mastermind. That 1st year, it came with some resistance, but, at 1st, right with the price tag when I was just like, you know. You know, the mindset for me was that, look, you know, I spent a ton of, we lost a ton of money. 10 fold versus what this investment will be. And I know, I think to like to know, think that I know real estate quite well. So, it was that first mastermind event that went to my wife and it was hands down from there. Game over. That, that was, that was the convincing moment. It was a, it was, it was a, Jesse Itler event in Atlanta, Georgia, that was hands down a convincing moment, a hundred percent she was bought in. And from there, we sprinted out the blocks and sprinting down the sprinting down the track. And, you know, I'm a track athlete in college, so we're sprinting and we're still running. It's a good feeling, man. That's for sure.

Derek: 14:29

You know, I think it's also really special to have your spouse, you know, with you too during the whole thing. Cause. A hundred percent. When you have your spouse with you and you've got your family behind you, it turns into more of like a, this is my thing to like, this is what we do. And there's a huge power shift when it comes to that, because now all of a sudden you get support with. The things that you need at home, right? Like, you know, all the things that, that, that were obstacles before. Now you guys are a team, all the little things you don't think about, like going to pick up groceries, right. Or, you know, you can't underwrite that property cause you got to go pick up the kids or you have to, you know, do whatever, right now you guys are a team and working together at the same thing. And so I love that, that example there, which is really great. And so congrats, man. I mean, you are living proof that, you know. You start and about, you know, if you put about seven to 10 years worth of work into this, you're going to get to a point where eventually you're completely financially free. Right. And I think at this point you're probably there. It's just a matter of when you want to unplug and when you want, like what type of lifestyle you want to live. And so if you're building it, you're, you're good. So let me, let me shift here a little bit more once again, I want to talk about your superpower of having a positive attitude. can you talk, I mean, obviously there's plenty of points in your story where that was absolutely necessary to, in order to succeed. Can you talk about any particular time or any particular highlight or any feeling where you felt that your positive attitude, really shined through and helped you get to where you are today? You

Melvin: 16:02

know what? I will say post closure of our business. Yes. Maintaining. A positive mindset, right? You know, my spouse was the face of that business. And as you could imagine, I'm behind the scenes helping families behind the scene helping and it doesn't work out. Right. So, you know, you could sit back and look like, oh, you, oh, we failed. We failed. I don't look at it that way to set back. It didn't, you know, I understand. Right. You, you know, you were the face of the business and everyone knew this particular business

Derek: 16:33

to you to I.

Melvin: 16:34

Keep you moving, right? And I kind of, I'm nonchalant in many ways and when I kind of speak, but you kind of got to take that approach to be able to build and just kind of move on, right? Imagine being in a meeting and you're 9 to 5 and you get embarrassed in the meeting by such and such.

Derek: 16:50

It happens to all of us.

Melvin: 16:52

Kind of got to be thick skin and charge to the game and keep it moving. And that has kind of been my mindset, you know, words will never hurt me. And that's kind of what I pride myself on. You can say whatever, man, whatever I'm gonna be okay. Yeah. And I'm gonna keep, you know, and the higher road is always the best road and that's bring success and that's kind of has been my way of thinking and, yeah, man, I try not to sweat the small stuff as much. You know, we all have our own inner, inner workings. I try to keep it stress free as possible. We're going to keep it moving. Life's going to be okay. My heart's beating and I'm able to run. I'm able to do the things I want to do. That's half the battle. I don't care about the other stuff. As long as you kind of take that mindset, you're going to be okay. And that has always been my positive message to my spouse. I got a son, right? You don't win. You don't win them all. You don't win all the games, right? You may go undefeated in X, Y, Z, but you got to look at the bright side and keep it going, you know, so, mindset has kind of served me well from the even keel demeanor that I have and being able to look at things just a little different, bode me well,

Derek: 17:56

for sure. Where do you think Merv this came from? Where do you think this mindset of positivity and persistence? And the ability to kind of have the right perspective moving forward. Where did you learn this from or where did it come from?

Melvin: 18:10

Man, you know, look, I have one parent remaining my mom's pretty even keel, but it's kind of maintained

Derek: 18:14

a meter. My father, who

Melvin: 18:15

is no longer with us is always kind of high, strong, whatever. You know, so, probably part of it, my parents, but, part of it for me is to try to. view myself as look, I'm in my mid forties now. It's a growth trajectory. Life was different in the teens versus the twenties versus the thirties versus the forties. You know, you realize that, shoot, man, one day, we're not gonna be here. Okay? One day, we're not gonna be here. So, you know, make it happen, right? Make it happen, right? And make the best of those moments, right? I mean, you know, true, we might live to 80, 90, but I guarantee you, we probably not gonna live to 150, right? So, setting the stage, trying to have that mindset for those who kind of come behind you, right? I got one son.

Derek: 18:56

I'm sure you got kids as well.

Melvin: 18:58

So, you know. And your legacy follows or they watch what you're doing every day. So having that exemplary behavior and trying to carry the torch. And again, man, it's just like life's too short. So I'm trying not to get work up, even though sometimes I do, but I kind of try to bring myself down to bring myself down to size or just

Derek: 19:16

like, it's going to be okay. Keep pushing, be pushing forward. Is there anything that you do? And maybe you touched on this briefly without knowing it, but is there anything you do to continue to maintain this mindset? Because, you know. I know, you know, it's easy for you to say, okay, let's just, you know, let's keep going with it. Right. And we'll keep, we'll keep moving forward, but being able to maintain that mindset day after day. And I know, you know, if you have, if you have 20 rentals, you better believe that something half is happening every week on one of them. And if you've got 60 rentals. Something's happening almost every day, like it's very rare that you go by like maybe half a week, like three or four days without anything coming up, right? Or if you do, you're very lucky because you spent a lot of time and money rehabbing the units and you know, they're all clean and they're, and you know, you've got B class, A class type of situation going on. But I know that you had, that you have some low income niche going out there. So going back to the original question, how do you actively maintain, like what, what exercises or techniques do you do? If anything, do you have to kind of keep your positive mindset throughout all this madness with real estate on the side and then your full time work and then your family life and all these different lives. I would

Melvin: 20:31

say part of it is maintaining faith, right? So, I give a lot of donations to a lot of different charities. Good. I am. I am meticulous for, look, I send this charity, a 25 donation, find the extra prayer intentions. I write my prayers out on all my intentions and it takes up time, but that's okay. That's where my meditation and my blessing comes from me. You know, I'm a runner. And when I'm running, right, I try to run regardless. If it's 20 degrees outside, it was 100 degrees outside. I get out and I run. I have my prayer book with me, man. So my, part of my ritual, you know, it's pretty hilly where I live versus where I grew up at now. Southwards. Everything's flat. It's hilly. And, you know, when I tag the hills and I walk the flats and when I'm walking, right, just kind of reflecting in some type of meditation prayer, that Works for me. Everyone's different. I just like reading, seeing different type prayers and it helps soothe the mindset, man, at least for me. So, it kind of level, levels me, gives me a chance to reflect while working on my health, right? Because without you, without your health. Who cares about the window?

Derek: 21:41

Correct. Yeah, your health is like, is your time, right? And time is really the true currency you've got left. If you're not taking care of your health, not only is it your time, but it's also your, like, your ability to think and your ability to do all of the things, right? So that's why it's, yeah, it's super, super important. So I love that you mentioned that there. Indeed. Indeed. So, you also mentioned somewhere, that You've got the ability to resonate with people regardless of status and, you know, that's kind of put you on to a whole nother level in real estate. Can you explain what you meant by that? Well, you know,

Melvin: 22:13

I use the adage my wife tells me you could talk to absolutely anybody regardless. Someone who's on the street who may be homeless to someone who is a million million dollar high, you know, and I think for me, just the ability to resonate with each and every person in some way, shape or form, I think is key. I think, you know. Teaching college over the years, different type individuals, different levels, I think have helped kind of lend to that adage, I think, but, I just feel I can resonate, I can resonate with, many, man, in terms of regardless of level, regardless of creed origin, I kind of feel that I can speak to and kind of be bring out my true self. Right. So, you know, you're to a country boy who grew up, you know, right outside New Orleans, Louisiana, you know, in the middle of the lower income family. And I kind of feel the prolonged link to the notion that I've made it from that standpoint. Yeah, you know, I kind of lend that kind of lend that aura out to other individuals as well. So,

Derek: 23:11

I love it. Yeah, I mean, no, I, you know, it's funny. I know, know that knowing that you grew up in, in New Orleans or in the area, Nolens. I went, my wife and I went to New Orleans back like I want to say two or three months ago for the first time. And everyone there was amazingly friendly and had that air about, being friendly with everyone. At least that's what I saw most of out there. And, I just love that you're taking that with you, you know, in your professional life and in your investing life, because it's such a great skill to have. If you can talk with anyone, it means you can talk with brokers. You can talk with lenders, you can talk with other investors. And that ability of communication connects dots and builds trust. And then that trust ends up expanding outward into creating wealth for everyone or creating win win situations or win win win situations where your tenants are winning too. So I think that's an excellent place to start. And so if there's anything to take away from Merv outside of the mindset thing here is find a way to resonate with people, no matter where they come from. It's going to be super important for your success. I don't know if you want to add anything to that or if that makes sense, but, just wanted to throw that out there. No, no. I

Melvin: 24:24

mean, I agree with you a hundred and 10%, you know, at the end of the day, will you resonate with a hundred percent of the people you come across? Probably not. I'm sure there's some folks out, you know, even who's in the real estate ecosystem who I may not resonate with. That's okay. That's okay. Right. You can't make everybody happy a hundred percent of the time. Come to that realization also as well, you know, and for those of you don't resonate it, but guess what? We keep it moving. I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be okay regardless. So, and it's having that convincing mindset that wins at the end of the day. So that's kind of how I approach it and think about it. But for the most part, I mean, you know, every interaction, every engagement, like I mentioned before, right? Regardless of where they're at on level, you know, yeah, I get

Derek: 25:04

back from generally. All right. Yeah. in

Melvin: 25:07

respect to, you know, be able to kind of have a discussion in some way, shape or form, regardless of what we're talking about, we're talking about real estate or maybe we're talking about family or we're just talking about just trying to get by. Right. So, the ability to resonate, I think is key and critical. And that's a life tip. Right. You need to be able to have a level of diversification to kind of reach different masses who may not look like you, right? We look different, right? We came through different journeys and I think, and that's an award winning

Derek: 25:34

tip for success. Oh yeah, man. For sure. I I think that it's key. And, um, if, if this is something like, if you're able to take away anything from this, This is an ability that you can work on that anyone can work on. and I think for you, you've picked it up naturally because it's your upbringing and also your career in real estate and your, all of your other, the things that you've been doing has taught you to do that. And for me, I've had to learn that skill too. Yeah. But, I'm super proud of like what it's enabled because you never know who you're going to meet. And if you shut off doors before they even open, you know, like, that's just not, it's you're making more work for yourself and making it harder than it needs to be. So. Let me ask you Murph too, if someone came to you looking for advice on how to enter the real estate world, to create what you've created for yourself, right? Getting yourself really close to financial freedom, what would you tell them starting out? I would say

Melvin: 26:30

it's okay to start small. You know, you see a lot of folks out there reaching, you know, go hard or go home, go bigger, go home. That's okay. But it's okay to start small, directly or indirectly get educated and get a mentor. Would say, you know, Rome wasn't taken down in 1 day and same goes in the real estate. And, I would also say, you know, be careful in your decision making from that standpoint. So, that's what I, that's what I would tell them. Get some education, some type, right? Invest, you know, investment in education comes in different levels, right? And I would also say, you know, if you got any question, I'm here, Derek, you're here, right? Oh, yeah. No such thing as a dumb question. And, if someone's trying to figure it out, I'm always going to try to provide value. I've tried to always provide value, you know, and it doesn't need to come at a respective cost. I'm an educator indirectly or professor. So. Trying to always add value in some way, shape, or form. People remember that they remember that at the

Derek: 27:30

day. So, yeah, yeah, no, I think that's amazing advice. I think also by adding value, whatever thing that you teach people, they're always going to remember you for that thing. So be someone that people can attribute most of their success in real estate. To or to business building or mindset in general, if you're there, if you're that example. And so I think that's a really great advice there for that, for people starting out. So shifting again, your background as a procurement professional and college professor, they deem like two different things, two different worlds, amongst the world of real estate. How does all of that synchronize up? Like, has there been skills that have crossed over from your teaching in college? into real estate and has real estate helped you become a better procurement professional and vice versa? Love to hear your perspective on that. Sure. I'll

Melvin: 28:26

say, I will say my profession of procurement, which deals with vendor management negotiations have helped me to fine tune on the real estate aspect of things, right? Regardless of if you look at it or not, everything in life is a negotiation. Absolutely everything.

Derek: 28:42

Yes, sir. Love it. You know,

Melvin: 28:44

your decisions you make with your spouse, decisions I make with my nine year old, everything is a negotiation. Kind of look at it that way. From an education standpoint, now I am articulating to learners more now than what I did before in terms of my passion for real estate. Wasn't doing that before. Students back then didn't know I was a landlord. They didn't know I had 30, 40, 50 properties. They just didn't know because I wasn't saying it. Now I feel it's up to myself to really kind of market, continually market myself, right? Best form of marketing is word of mouth. We all know this. And tell folks what I do, right? Can teach two to three classes a semester, primarily, and it's a mix, graduate, undergraduate. Telling folks with my channel, right? I got a podcast on, right? You, you know, thinking about things a different way, looking for diversification. The name of my podcast is Get Diversified, right? So, oh, okay. Folks are kind of starting to get in and get good positive feedback about that. So telling folks about what you do. I think, is key also as well. So, um, you know, they're interchangeable, but now I'm starting to trying to market myself a little bit more telling them, but what I do and look at me, I'm hyped up, but what I got going on, man, it's fun. I mean, I, you know, I love being in a real estate game in addition to working in procurement because they go hand in hand. So, the kind of way I see it, and oh, by the way, I get to help educate and kind of share the story to others as well. Yeah. How does that circle of wealth come in full circle for me? You know, that I didn't think about that 10 years ago now, it's kind of full circle for me. So, you know, it's pretty cool to see it come together. And again, man, putting my foot on accelerator and just not letting up. So, uh, going quite well.

Derek: 30:26

I love it, man. I think one thing that, that I have to share, it's related to this too. Is I was, , I was working a full time job back a couple years ago and I left the full time job temporarily to end up, you know, going into real estate full time. And what I realized, Merv, is that there were people ahead of me in my career that were like two or three levels above me, like my boss's boss, my boss's boss's boss, right? Yeah. And they didn't know anything about what we were doing. In real estate, right? Like building portfolios up like they, they probably have owned rental properties, like where they converted their old single family home that they used to live into, into a single family, but they didn't know anything about intentionally going out there and grabbing it. So for me, having a W2 and having this real estate career is like, it's like. How do I say it? It's like a power up, you know, it's like you have this extra ability to get people to learn what it is that you're doing and expose people to something they normally wouldn't see because these people are around on a day to day basis and they're watching you come in early to the office. Like what I used to do, right? Come into the office early, making phone calls to Indianapolis, talking about buying my next acquisitions. Right. And I was able to do it just like you, Merv, like buy properties like once or twice, you know, twice, once every two months or once every month because of my unfair advantage, which was my big salary in the California Bay area, going and buying cheap properties in Indy. Right. Yeah. That was it. I was doing the same thing that you were doing and people were watching me do this and they were like, what the heck is going on? What is happening? And so people start talking. And then pretty soon I got called in to My VP, which is usually someone that I never would talk to ever. Right. Okay. There's a big problem. So he sets up a meeting and pulls me into the meeting and I am like, really nervous. I'm like, am I losing my job here? Or like, Oh, what's happening. And he said, yeah, I just want to set this meeting up because I heard that you're into real estate investing. Can you tell me a little bit more about it? And I had the most amazing time, like, you know, sharing. Educating with them, how it all worked and like, you know, what different angles you can go at it. And it inspired me so much Merv that I ended up writing a book about it. And that book I gave to all of my, all of the people around me at work. And I wrote it for them. I wrote it for that specific avatar. And so I guess long story short is that the overlap between all these different spheres that you have in your life, real estate investing and investing in general is about trust. If people trust you because they know who you are based on some of the things that you're doing, it's a way to, it's just a way to supercharge your own investing and their change their lives too. At the same time, you get to educate, you get to serve others and you can serve those people in those spheres that you're already in. So, I would encourage people to like, really think about where their place of work is. Don't look at it as a downside or disadvantage. Like, this is an awesome thing to be able to do. Right? Take these incredible lessons that you're learning and share it with them. What do you think, man? I'm with

Melvin: 33:27

you and I mean, I know you were trying to search for that, that term you actually, what you, that was a power plane. So I, that was a power play, which you did with your boss and you shared and you educated accordingly, right? So I mean, look, there's a lot, I mean, there's a lot of. A lot of communications out there in terms of folks wanting to kill the nine to five that's okay. Perfectly fine. I like my job. I mean, my job is full scale in terms of helps me piggyback off of what I'm doing in the real estate space and, can never stop learning. Always be a student of the game. That's kind of how I look at it, you know, and I'm compensated very well for what I've got going on and the flexibility. That I have now. I didn't have that. Yeah. Years ago. It's a different world now. So you learn to appreciate those type of, Yeah. Those supporting opportunities in the grand scheme of it. And that kind of ties to the mindset piece, man. In terms of full circle. And, you know, I'm able to kind of contribute in my profession. I'm able to grow my portfolio for my family. I'm able to embrace, my family. And we talk about real estate 90 percent of the time in the household. That's fun, man, that has me fired up. I mean, my son knows, you know, go and look at an apartment. My son's having communication with me, you know, you know. Allowing those decisions allowed my wife to stop working her nine to five last year.

Derek: 34:48

Congrats. Yeah, man. So, I mean,

Melvin: 34:50

man, it's, we're blessed. We're blessed and, looking at through fate and through prayer, kind of keep that going, keep continuously working on the health, keep trying to grow the wealth and, live a good life, man. Life's pretty

Derek: 35:04

good. It is, man. We have a lot to be thankful for, you know, it really is. For real. We are talking about growing, right? And there's people in the world that are just trying to survive, you know? So, just the gratitude is an important underpinning under all of this. Okay. Last question I got for you, the normal part of our podcast, and then we're going to move on to our rapid round. I want to ask you, what is your plan to do to grow in 2024? As we record this right now, we are a few days away from 2024 officially coming. And I wanted to ask you, what do you got planned for 2024? What are you looking to do? And what's your criteria for yourselves and for your investments? Like, what are you guys looking to do? Man,

Melvin: 35:44

your timing of your question is like,

Derek: 35:47

are you really asking this?

Melvin: 35:48

Just two days ago, I had to sit down with my spouse in terms of what we need to concentrate on for 2024. A couple of core metrics came out of it for us. We need to, we have a certain core set of individuals we want to kind of build relationships with from the previous year. We feel that we could really turbo charge our own market. This coming year, Pittsburgh PA is my market. It kind of started way back when for me. Oh, yeah, here we are full circle. I'm living in my market that I never thought I live in and we're growing. We're building, growing on the capital raising aspect, getting a word out about the education, about passive investing and then diversification. Yep. That's key in 2024. So I see this for me kind of like twofold keep buying in my own local market. I love, we love affordable housing in our own local market, and we're going to keep building multifamily on where we can be exclusive GPs on our own properties. We know our market. We know the nuances of our market, and we're not going to stop investing here. So we're here. We're not going anywhere. We'll keep growing here. In addition, building relationships with other core individuals we've met throughout the past 12 months, building on those relationships, continually kind of building the scope and flow of our existing deals outside of PA. And passively and continually passive invested as well in 4 to 6 deals a year. I mean, that, yeah, that, , we don't, you know, some folks may give up on passive investment. We won't. And we've got to keep going diversification, so keep fueling the fire to our passive investment to get the cash flow and the tax benefits. And again, it comes to, you know, a circle of wealth. Everything really comes full circle. So those are kind of the three core metrics that we're pushing for in 2024. And it needs to kind of be gangbusters if I'm being laser

Derek: 37:37

focused on it. I love it, man. I can only imagine what 2, 700 LP units will get you if they're, if Once they become, once they go full cycle, just amazing, man, I'm super excited for you. And you guys have done a lot of work to get where you've done and congratulations for all that. I appreciate it. Yeah. So let's go ahead and hop into the rapid round. It's five minutes. I ask every one of my guests at the end of our show, that's meant to be answered in 30 seconds or less. And so if you're ready, we're going to go ahead and just rapidly ask them to you. And then we'll move on to the final segment. Are you ready? Let's do it. All right. Number one, name any resource that was or is essential in your journey to pursuing freedom. Podcasts.

Melvin: 38:16

Listening to podcasts. Didn't do it before. Now, along with my prayer book, I carry a satchel across my chest that has my phone in it that I can listen to a

Derek: 38:25

podcast. Amazing. I agree. There's so much good stuff out there. It doesn't have to be just real estate related. As a matter of fact, it shouldn't be there needs to be, you know, mindset stuff, their positivity, goal setting business in general. You need a lot of diverse things because this is a very, very much of an industry that's competitive. There's a lot of people doing this and it's very easy to get burned if you're not educated. So you gotta be educated. I love that, man. Sure. If you woke up and your business was gone, And you only had 500, a laptop, a place to live and some food. What do you think you would do first to rebuild?

Melvin: 39:01

Man, I would reach out to my associate, reach out to close confidence, to try to retool and try to figure out a way to grow. I mean, yeah, that, that, you know, I would get some advice from mentors to really course correct real quickly. That's what I would do. That's all I had. Yeah. That's what I

Derek: 39:19

would do. Yeah. I love that, man. I think that's very practical advice. Yeah. I think that the, this type of question. Always asks, like, it puts me into the mindset of what you would do in a worst case situation, you know, and, thank goodness it never materializes, but it's always great to like, think about what people would do who are at the top of their game, you know, what they would do if they had to start over. And so that's why I asked that question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Number three, what does your self reflection and goal setting practice look like if you have any? I write down my goals.

Melvin: 39:54

I write down my goals. I have a whiteboard here to my left. And I have a bunch of different things that I try to kind of stick to. And I look at

Derek: 40:00

them every day. You review them every day. I look at them every day. I'm in my office

Melvin: 40:04

every day. At least 360 days, unless I'm traveling. I know. My, my office is my little, my little ecosystem. It's a real small segment that my wife allowed me to have in the house. I have a lot of motivational art, monopoly art, and I have my goals sitting right here to my left. It's

Derek: 40:18

amazing. That's great, man. I love it. You're putting your environment around you that you want to have. Amazing. Yeah, that's

Melvin: 40:25

what I was

Derek: 40:25

granted in terms of, yeah. Yeah. My cave. So yeah. Number four. Yeah. What are the core work habits or personality traits that you attribute mostly to your own success? Flexibility, even keenness. Yes.

Melvin: 40:39

And obsession for success, that'd be number three for me. Look, man, I'm excess. I want to win. I want to win. Amazing.

Derek: 40:50

Period. That's so great, man. Yeah,

Melvin: 40:52

I, you know, I'm, you know, I, you know, I ran track in college. And, junior year, you know, won a conference championship senior year. I was obsessed to win. I'm trying to get ahead any I'm trying to win. And that's. Yeah, I'm

Derek: 41:05

trying to win. I love it dude. I love I love the the combination of Wanting to win, being positive, being able to talk with people and having the heart of a teacher. It's very rare to find people with that. And so the people that invest alongside you, are very lucky to have your guidance. That's all I got to say. I'll appreciate that. Appreciate that fully. Yeah. Number five. Yeah. What tool or process has become one of your most important to time, money or energy ninja saving. Let me try that again. I'll edit this out. What tool or process has become one of your most important time, money, or energy saving ninja magic tricks that you use every day? For me, it's giving

Melvin: 41:42

back. Giving back. You know, I, I, I mentioned earlier in the show, I get bombarded with mail. I actually give a donation to this charity, that charity. I write out a check. And look, I'm old school with the checkbook. I get the checkbook out. I write the check on the back of that what my intentions are. You know, and I kind of feel that, testament to the faith and I, man, I'm a true believer in terms of, look man, , it's been a good life. It's been a, and you know what? Yeah man, that's so, don't hesitate to give, don't hesitate to give under any circumstance, whether it's the donation, lending advice, or things like that. I have a giving open-ended heart. And I'm, you know, and that, that has been, that brings me to peace and joy, man. And

Derek: 42:22

look, man, ice been pretty good, man. That energy, that energy flows in and out of you when you do something like that. I, you know, that 10% one time, I, you know, I did an experiment instead of giving, there's a charity that I give a hundred bucks to every month. And, um, instead one month I decided to do something a little bit different and I went to the bank and got 10. Tens, 10 bills. And this is back when, at the mall, so this was like, you know, back when we actually used to go to malls. Way back when. Yeah, way back. No, this was, this was maybe like, I don't know, eight, eight years ago or, you know, 2015, 20, 2016, something like that. And I remember taking those 10 bills and going to the mall and just putting them in random places. And attaching a post it note to them. A positive message. That says, please take this, you know, and enjoy. And I just trust that whatever it is that you want, you'll be able to at least get a little bit closer towards or some sort of positive message. I just slapped right onto those 10, 10 bills. And I walked around like the mall and just dropped it off. And I'm, I kid you not, like, I didn't look back to see who picked them up or when they were picked up or anything, but. There were like a few people that I saw that were like, just excited, just like Walking around excited. And I knew that that was right around the place where I had dropped a bill. And seeing that, that excitement is like an anonymous giver, right? Like kind of like if you give like a big tip, I mean, and then you just leave, right, like you leave a big tip and then you go, you walk away. That type of energy is really contagious and there's something to it. And, I think now that you mentioned it, and especially since we're close to 2024, I think that's something that I want to inspire myself to do a little bit more often because that That energy is, it's really special, you know, to be able to do that type of thing.

Melvin: 44:11

That, that's funny that you mentioned that. So, uh, you know, just real quick story. You know, sometimes you're never going to get 100 percent great service if you go to a restaurant every year. Sometimes the service is going to be bad. Yeah. I look at it differently, even if my service was horrific. I've had one or two of those times. I still give them 20 to 25%. Why? It's not about trying to prove a lesson to someone. You don't know what. Susie, Joe, Johnny, you never know what they've been going through. And I kind of feel that, look, the service could service is horrible. That's okay. You're blessed to come back tenfold if you give them the max. And that's kind of how I think about things now. Yeah. Versus before they don't deserve zero. I would give them zero. If you think 10 years ago, I don't think that way no more. So nothing's ever going to be perfect, but you always should compensate. And you never know if anyone else is going through who may be in a worse position than what you are. And again, that goes back to the mindset and the way I think about things. So, um, not perfectly, that's good on that story that, you know, you put a smile on someone's face directly or indirectly, you never know. So

Derek: 45:12

yeah, of course, man, I love it. This has been an amazing podcast. Now, before we wrap up, I want to make sure that I give you a little bit of time to tell the audience how they can get ahold of you and contact you, or find out what's happening in your world. So if you don't mind. Please do, share.

Melvin: 45:28

Thank you. Allow me to do the honors. I can be reached a couple of different ways. You can find me on Facebook, Melvin Landry. This beautiful face is not hard to miss, I'm sure. LinkedIn, the same way. Melvin Landry should be able to find me. Also, you can visit my website, morelandequity. com. M O R E L A N D, equity and, you know, you can reach me via email as well, Merv, M E R V at morelandequity.

Derek: 45:54

com. I love it, Merv. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Oh, and also, wherever you guys are listening or watching this, there should be a page with show notes. And so anything that Merv and his team provided to us, like his social media information, that should all be listed there as well. So you can go and look that up on the show page, but Merv, it has been a pleasure getting to know you here and also to have you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on. Hey man, I appreciate the

Melvin: 46:20

opportunity as always.

Derek: 46:21

Thank you so much. Of course. And for you listeners who have stuck with us all the way to this point in the show, I want to thank you as well, please, wherever you are watching or listening to the podcast. Please engage with us. Give us a thumbs up, a like, a comment, subscribe, the bell symbol, anything that you can do to help interact with us. When you do that helps get the algorithm gods to have, to have us get more and more people come on the show and listen to the show. So we really appreciate if you interact with us and I thank you for listening and Merv thanks again for coming on, man. It was a pleasure having you here. Appreciate the opportunity as always. Thank you, sir. We will see you guys next week. Mhm. Mm. Mhm.