Deals & Dollars: Real Estate Investors and Entrepreneurs

From Airline Pilot to Multi-Billion Dollar Fund Manager w/ Ryan Tseko

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On today’s show we have a very special guest: Executive Vice President of Cardone Capital, pilot, and real estate investor Ryan Tseko.

Have you ever dreamt about leaving the predictable routine and stepping into the world teeming with opportunities and challenges? Well,  Ryan Tseko did just that. From flying a $40 million jet at 21 to becoming the right-hand man of real estate mogul Grant Cardone, Ryan's journey is nothing short of inspirational. He candidly talks about his transition from being a pilot to a successful real estate investor, and the realizations that led him to this path.

Diving into the details of his journey, Ryan shares how he built a substantial real estate portfolio, starting from his first down payment of $140,000 for his home to owning a four-plex that cash-flowed $500-600 per month. In this episode, Ryan goes into employing creative financing, utilizing the cash-flow from his investments to clear his liabilities, and how he acquired 11 units by the age of 26. Ryan's story emphasizes the power of perseverance and an unwavering determination to succeed, making it a must-listen for both budding and seasoned investors.

But it's not just about the financial aspects. Ryan also talks about the significance of having a strong team, and the roles of accredited and non-accredited investors at Grant Cardone Capital. He strongly urges listeners to leverage the power of collective wisdom, asserting that it can propel you towards your goals faster than you think. So, sit back and soak in the insights as Ryan Tseko shares his journey and strategies in real estate investing. 

Join the Deals & Dollars community today. If you're interested in becoming a guest on the show or receiving exclusive invites to our networking events, sign up on our official website.

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David Choi:

Three, two Ryan Tseko! Today we have an unbelievable story, an unbelievable guest. This is the right-hand man of Grant Cardone of Grant Cardone Capital. These guys are a multi-billion dollar asset managers in the real estate space. Ryan, thank you so much for taking the time to come out here today. How are you doing Of?

Ryan Tseko:

Of course. Thanks for having me, Of course our pleasure. It's great, like when I come to New York City. I literally posted this like whose podcast can I go on? I had like seven or eight. No other city can you do that? So, number one, thanks for having me here. I look to add value.

David Choi:

Amazing, absolutely Amazing. So I read your bio and I was like, oh my god, there's just no way I'm going to recite this off this script. Can you just give a little background on who you are or what you do?

Ryan Tseko:

Yeah. So, look, my background is actually quite interesting because I started out as a pilot Most people know me as Captain Ryan When I was really young, though my uncle was a developer, so I've always been in the real estate game. When I hit 17, i realized I didn't have any money. Because you looked at me, i'm like I want to do my first house, i want to do my first flip. And he's like, son, you don't have any money. And so I literally made the decision OK, i'm either going to use my hands and work at all these odd jobs, or I looked at him one day and I'm like I could actually get paid to fly airplanes. And so I was 17 years old. I just got my driver's license. I then got my pilot's license And I was hired on at the airlines at the age of 21 years old 2008, 2009 happened. I actually upgraded to captain when I was 23. So these are the youngest ages that you could actually become first officer and then captain. I was flying a $40 million jet at the age of 21 years old Wow. So this is crazy. I literally went into the office to get hired And I was still wet behind the ears, like I literally was 21 years old, flying a $40 million jet for United Express.

Ryan Tseko:

With that in mind, i always wanted to be in real estate because I knew I couldn't trade my time for money Like we all here sit today like, ok, i can go and work my ass off and go and get paid 100, 150 bucks an hour. But there's something about real estate that has always been inside of me And I've always been a very curious cat. I've always been curious And for me, it's always been about timing. I know this is kind of vague, but I'll get into it later. I always studied my uncle. He was a developer.

Ryan Tseko:

I always studied timing When do you do this? When do you do the foundation? When do you do the walls? When do you do the plumbing? Because I think timing is very important in any real estate deal. And so, as I was going through my career at the airlines, i hit 25 years old And I'm like, ok, i need to get back into real estate. In 2008, 2009, 2010 happened, so perfect timing And I got a crash pad. That was my first thing, because I was a pilot. I got a single family home 50% discount in Scottsdale, arizona, and I literally had a four bedroom home that I rented three rooms out, stayed in the master for free, had 400 bucks extra coming in, realized one of the mistakes that I made was I didn't want to live with these people.

Ryan Tseko:

I was like this is super dope, this is super cool. But I didn't want to live with people and collect rent. So then I bought my first fourplex. But really for me it's like OK. People are like well, how did you go from being a pilot to a real estate, to fun, to running Cardone Capital with Grant Cardone? Well, it's been the plan from the beginning. It's just taking 20 years. I mean, i've got 10,000 hours in flying. I've been flying for 20, almost 40 years old. So I've been flying for 23 years And I've been with Grant for almost 10. And I've been doing real estate since my first single family for 15 years.

John Libretti:

It's amazing.

Ryan Tseko:

So I've been doing both. Like that's what people? they get a little confused, but I've been doing both for a very, very long time And I encourage other people to do that too. You got a job go and get a piece of real estate. You got a job, go work for somebody else. You got a job like you can't break away from what's making you money. You got to start studying now so that way you could actually buy and control real estate.

David Choi:

Absolutely Dude. You already knew 17 years old. I did, And that's incredibly real. What was it about 17-year-old Ryan? How the hell did that guy figure it out?

Ryan Tseko:

Well, the crazy thing is is so in high school I got voted class clown. I definitely didn't get voted the most successful right. Like people, you know, i was the typical guy. I like fast cars And I rode street bikes and motorcycles when I was growing up. The thing about it was when I found aviation. Aviation really gave me the outlet where it did a couple of things right, because my dad always wanted me to do the military, my uncle was an entrepreneur And so when my parents split, i was 10 years old, my uncle really like grooved me and raised me and got me into this fighting shape where, at the age of 17 years old, i was ready to go, because he was like, he had a business, a computer business, and he was a developer, and so I started learning all these different traits of like man.

Ryan Tseko:

That is what I want to do. I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I also always knew that I needed some, not the military, but something like that. You know where it's like, it's discipline, it's the showing up every single day, and that's really what the airline did, because I mean, if you had a showtime at 5.30 in the morning, like you had to be on time, otherwise you got fired. So I literally for 10 years I was in the airlines. They were very strict And that has helped me to where I am today.

David Choi:

I love that. Yep, I love that. So, by the way, being a commercial airline pilot by 21 years old is absolutely unheard of. My two of my best friends are pilots and they work their tail off. I think they became airline pilots like 28, 27. So that's an incredible feat. Number one Yeah.

Ryan Tseko:

The youngest age is 21, by the way.

John Libretti:

That they'll even accept. That's the youngest age that they'll accept.

Ryan Tseko:

Youngest age, because that's the youngest age you can get your ATP, which is airline transport pilot, and so I got in it with 800 hours, like 750, or now you have to have 1500. So I literally, guys, i'm telling you can't make this shit up Like I literally hit different tracks in my career where I just I slid in there because I was that guy where people can count on I wasn't the best. I actually took longer than most people to get spooled up and flying. I just did it three times a day when they were doing it. Once, yeah, these guys were drinking and smoking and parting by the pool.

Ryan Tseko:

Like we had a compound in Scottsdale, arizona. There was like the puppy I called the puppy mill. You go to the puppy mill and you get your ground school and then you go flying in the airplanes. I was literally studying. I had no friends and they were out partying and they were like, oh, having fun and their parents were paying for it. I talked my mom and assigned in 140,000 all alone. I was not gonna let me down but, more important, i wasn't gonna let her down.

David Choi:

So I love that, i love that. So, so you're, you become a pilot. You're doing this. While you're you're a pilot, you're buying a, a single family property. You're ratting out to three of your friends and you go damn, i don't want to live with three of my knucklehead friends, i want dudes, you come home.

Ryan Tseko:

I brought home my girlfriend. I was like that was the day. I was like that was probably, yeah, the day that you were like I can't do this shit, god, it ain't worth it. My home, my home is my meditation, my home is like my zone, yeah, yeah, coming home to three dudes. I'm like 400 bucks ain't worth it. Yeah but it was cool.

David Choi:

So what? you kicked them all out. You bought a four plex, like what was the transition?

Ryan Tseko:

No, so what I did is actually I, so I bought another house and I bought a four plex. So so my second deal was a four plex and it's crazy the numbers like I was buying deals at 150 175 for four units in Scottsdale and Mesa In 2009, which is like 40 50 grand unit now keep mine. The rents were 500 bucks And so I was cash flowing 500 600 dollars per month. But I bought a four plex and the crazy thing was, when I first bought my my first four plex, i thought that I had to overdo it because people that were living there. I was like, oh man, this is nice, but it could be nicer.

Ryan Tseko:

And so what I did is I kicked everybody out and I redid the entire four units and I bumped the rents by like 50 bucks And I thought that was a huge deal. I was like, man, this is a home run, it was cash flowing, five, six hundred bucks, and so I was like, okay, this is cool, but how do I do it again? Right, and so I literally started walking the blocks of Mesa, arizona, and I found a three plex one block away, and then I talked the guy next door to my four plex, because there's a bunch of and this is the crazy thing like when I grew up in Scottsdale and Fountain Hills in Arizona I didn't even know there was such a thing as like four units and six units and eight units I was like what the hell is this? like? I felt like I hit the jackpot. When somebody told me I can go and buy four years, i'm like, oh, i get the same loan. I was trying to get the primary thing, but it didn't work.

David Choi:

You know, i had these other homes.

Ryan Tseko:

But I was like I could put 20% down or 10% down or 25% down, and then I started getting in, you know, grooved into the creative financing piece. But again, i've always been I'm not happy with just one, i'm not happy with just two, because I know my potential. And so I literally just started tracking these blocks like cuz. I was like, oh, if I could do it right there And I could do it again, and I could do it again. I ended up with like 11 units at 26 years old in like a block of a block and that, for me, was big. Like I was like, okay, this is, this is real and that's really. When I started grooving into like okay, what's next?

David Choi:

right. So you're, you hit your 26. You have 11 doors. Your cash flowing. What do you think you're cash flowing at that point?

Ryan Tseko:

I was probably cash flowing I don't know 1200 bucks or something I thought it was big time I was to actually taken. So what I did is I had student loans right, obviously the 140 grand Which is it seemed big at the time. It wasn't big looking back, but I took the cash flow So. So what I didn't want to do is is I had all these Liabilities. I had the BMW, the Ford, lightning, the Street bikes, all that shit right And I looked at my insurance bill is like, okay, this doesn't make financial sense.

Ryan Tseko:

And I started reading you know the rich dad, poor dads, and you know The, the kidney macaroids, like all these guys. Like social media and mentorship wasn't as big when I was 26 years old, that's 15 years ago, social media was actually just starting to groove in, and so I had to figure out okay, real estates the thing, and I'll figure out all these other benefits later But I had 1200 bucks coming in but I never took my principal out of my liability, got a car that was paid off, right. I took that and I put it down on a three plex, so that way the 500 bucks went back to go pay my student loans, and so I literally just started grooving all this stuff in where I was buying four units and three units. I saw it. So I ended up at the edge of 30 years old and 21 units. I had 21 units. I said, okay, this is enough.

Ryan Tseko:

And I started asking everybody who's the multifamily guy? Who's the apartment guy? Who's this guy? Who's this guy? And I actually found Grant on YouTube. So I found Grant Cardone on YouTube. Then I heard him on bigger pockets and he was doing this whole big spiel. Like I Want to grow my units. I'm at 2500 years, i'm at 3000, i want to grow this thing to five and six and seven. Anybody out there wants to join my team? You know, call me. I literally called his office And I got a nerve. You a Jared, and I was hired as a sales guy. Not even a pilot, not even for real is eight two weeks later, no, at the age of 30 years old, because I was tired. I was sick and tired of where I was. Everybody was saying you're doing so damn great, you're doing so good, you're like fantastic. I was like guys, this isn't even like, like, like.

John Libretti:

I feel like I'm so under performing right now Because of the people I'm hanging out with Well, part of you probably too thought looking back, right when you had no doors, right when you bought your first single family. You're like listen, this is what I could do. I got from here to there. Now, what's next?

Ryan Tseko:

totally like It's amazing and nobody, nobody around me, knew how to stack 150 units. I was literally calling the banks like cold column, like hey, can I get a loan for 30 units, or like well, doesn't meet the DSCR. And I'm like DSC who? And clearly I blew that call right. I mean I was like, but we all have to start somewhere. Yeah, i'm like DSCR, what does that mean? and he's like You know, you know, yeah, this hesitation. Right, i'm like look, look, i get it. You don't think I'm real, but I will be real to you one day. Hmm.

Ryan Tseko:

And so I hung up the phone. I got this. It was like a CD, that that that had all the definitions and all the words and all the stuff that you need, right that we teach today, because people aren't born with this stuff. No, what? the debt service coverage ratio 125. Oh, it's so simple when you know what it is, but if you don't know what it is, then it's like Is that Greek?

Ryan Tseko:

Yeah, that's like like okay and a while 1.25, you know, but you have to really you know understand these terms and in what the lenders want and what The sales brokers want, because it's hard as hell, even right now. Even more, it's hard as hell to get deals.

David Choi:

Oh, it's virtually pop dude, i gotta, i gotta ask, i gotta ask you're. I want, i want to come back to the story, but just to derail here. you're 30 years old, yeah right, everyone's looking at you and saying this guy, ryan, he's a pilot, he's. he became a commercial pilot earlier than pretty much like virtually anyone in his career, career and. You got. You got 20 something doors your cash flow. You're killing it. You're a stud. You probably got an eight pack going on right 12.

Ryan Tseko:

I was like goddamn, i got 18 days off. I'm working on my real. I was doing pull-ups on my four plexus.

David Choi:

Weapon, you're probably pulling the baddest girl. Your girlfriend's, probably a 10 at right and at 30 years old. You're like I'm just not satisfied with where I am. Yep, so you're calling up Grant Cardone. Not even getting a job into the real estate side, they're a sales side. Yep, you take the job Now. You're like alright, i got a chance to grow. Yeah, let's fast forward to right now. Yeah, ryan, today Do you feel satisfied with where you are right now Or do you got? you got a mountain to climb.

Ryan Tseko:

I got a mountain climb. I've got many mountains to climb. I love it, many like, like. I feel like we're just getting started. I love, honestly, honestly, i do like there's without any hesitation, because the rules and the regulations and the people that I'm around right now You know, look it's, it's great to make money and in on, like, like, when you're coming up, you have to make money to do the things you want to do.

Ryan Tseko:

But the end result is helping people and if you have a big enough like like, if you have a big enough thinker, i've always thought, you know, i've actually always thought big like I in it And I've actually switched this, cuz I always used to say I've always thought really small. I've always thought really small, but I realized that that's actually thinking small. I've actually thought really big for my being at the time. But I know, as I continue to grow into this current being, that I'm gonna go into the next level Like, like. These mountains are actually like I was telling you guys. You know we did Barry's boot camp and I did the coal plunge And I did, you know, two laps around Central Park, like that shit really isn't that much fun.

Ryan Tseko:

Mm-hmm like it's 46 degrees water, like okay, would you rather be in a hot tub? or 46 degrees, like Freezes at 32,. You know, like, like, like I do with things that aren't fun because it makes other things fun. And you know, like like Goggins and all these guys, like there's something to be said about living in this pain, you know. So I've been with Grant for nine years, my girlfriend. He asked we were out dinner the other night and he's like do you think I'm hard on Ryan? and she had a little bit of hesitation because Grant has always looked at me as like a blade, right, i'm stealing. He's like wham, wham, wham. You guys got to keep in mind I was his lead captain and then also helping in the real estate department Six months after I started with them. So so once he gave me the first chance in the first opportunity I took it. I was nervous as hell. I was like if I could last a week, i could last a month. If I could last a month, i could last two because he's intense, right?

Ryan Tseko:

Oh yeah, in a very good way, of course, because he's he's, he's, he's Constructive, like he's like building, like he's building big buildings in his team around him, and so, like I just literally like, if I could last in this, which I knew I could, then it's just gonna end up being something phenomenal, and that's what we all need. We all need this place in our life where we're surrounded by somebody, a coach. I think that's why a lot of sports guys work so well too and they're so successful in that is because they always have the coach. I was done doing it by myself. I was like this thing is cool, 21 units. I'm like a manager, and I learned, like you were mentioning before, like hey, what are some of the mistakes? I made, all the mistakes. I was buying too small, i was thinking too small and I had to think bigger. So I wanted to go down and hang out with the big thinkers.

David Choi:

Right, okay, so let's go back to that Lots of unpacked.

Ryan Tseko:

I know, i know I'm trying to get it out.

David Choi:

It's like I appreciate because, like dude, like looking at like from me, sitting here across the table from you, I'm like this guy Ryan is an absolute monster, Absolutely Right. And here, here you go. Nah, dude, it's just the beginning, We're just getting started. I love the pain, Right. Bring that shit on Right. Next baby you know what I'm saying?

Ryan Tseko:

Baby, come on put in the plane. Get in the plane. Bucket 30 more seconds, please dude. Yeah, but one more ice bag, okay.

David Choi:

That's you. You're a sick pup And I love it, man. It's being around people like that that get you jacked up right. Yeah, this week, this Thursday, i was like I was relatively low energy and I hung out with my good friends. Yeah, absolute savages. They all want to be billionaires. I'm like just being around that energy makes you want to win so much, but it's contagious. So I appreciate you bringing this energy to deals and dollars right now. Yeah, keep it going.

Ryan Tseko:

But it really does, though. To that point I always say if you want to become a pilot, right, because that's where I started, everything's in gradients. If you want to become a pilot, just hang out with pilots. I promise you you will become a pilot because you're going to do what they're doing. You know, like I hung out with the best pilots because I wanted to be the best.

Ryan Tseko:

When you want to become a real estate person, i always tell people why would you start fix and flips by yourself? Just go work for somebody And they'll teach you the whole game And if it's big enough, you could actually partner and create something massive, because we all know when you start stacking these horses right, you can pull a much bigger sled than some game by yourself. Absolutely Like we were literally just riding today And I looked over to my girlfriend, i was like man, life is so much better with other people. Like we come up here by ourselves, it's like it's cool, it's fun, it's awesome. But when you add your friends and Christian and Brooke and my brother and his girlfriend, like things, just you know what I'm saying.

John Libretti:

Everybody who's doing the same shit, thinking the same. It's just like. It's that much better. It's that much better, 100%. I could make it for you more.

Ryan Tseko:

And so there's this thing like entrepreneur, which used to be a bad word when I was growing up. Now it's really like a solar manure And people think that they have to be the boss, like these whole boss t-shirts, like I gotta be the boss, no, no, what you need to be is you need to be curious. And you need to be curious enough to go in like literally and I heard somebody say this you don't want to go and add value to somebody's team by like, oh, can I wash your shoes? Can I beg your fee? You want to go and say, hey, what do you need help with? Let me take this off your plate And I'm gonna, each and every day, i'm gonna learn a piece that you're thinking with and I'm gonna continue to stack so we can grow and scale. You can't grow and scale anything by yourself.

David Choi:

That's a good point. So you get added to the sales team, which, by the way, is the nastiest sales organization I've bro, i signed up for a freaking Instagram ad. Dude, we doing you a service, dog, dog. Yo, christian, i signed up for an Instagram ad, uh-huh. I was like, oh, free online training courses, let me sign up. So I sign up. It's a six o'clock, it's a six PM meeting with one of Chris Dietz or something.

Ryan Tseko:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, chris Dietz, yeah, chris Dietz.

David Choi:

Chris Dietz calls me at three, three times. By 9.30 AM He's triple dialing me. Industry standard double dial that's fine, but the triple dial relentless.

Ryan Tseko:

I don't answer, I'm like who's this guy from Miami?

David Choi:

called me three times I was like no, 12 o'clock runs around, i get another triple dial. I go hello, yep. Who's calling me like this? Right, chris Dietz. He disarms me so good At the end that I call him like Chris. I love you, man. I can't. here's my credit card.

Ryan Tseko:

Bro, here's my credit card, just take it.

David Choi:

Bro, bro, just like. No, yeah, Dude, the best closers know. I could go on for days about what this guy did to me on the phone, but unbelievable, He's this hell of an organization. The way that you could just take good salesman, darn them into freaking Chris's out of control Anyway so you're in the sales team.

Ryan Tseko:

Well, and to that point though, because I was flying right, i was flying for Grant and he said hey, if I'm gonna give you this contract and you're gonna commit to being on my team on our days off because, as a pilot, you'll fly half the month or you'll fly a trip and you'll come back, and what tends to happen is you'll go and do your own thing He's like will you work with me in the business? I said, grant, that's why I'm here, like I wanna learn. Like you put me anywhere in your organization. You put me anywhere, coach, i'm gonna do it. And so he's like go in the sales, go into this, go to the properties, Like I literally.

Ryan Tseko:

Guys, i started from zero. I took the four bars that I worked my ass off. I worked for the FAA, the four bars I had checked here, and I had all these titles in the airline. I was there for 10 years and I worked every day And I gave it all back and I said you know what? I'll go in sweet floors, i will go and meet the managers, i will go and just teach me. Just teach me and help me get better. And it wasn't like a teaching like Ryan, let's do a lesson. Today, it was more like Ryan, i'm gonna put you in this position and I want you to find solutions, and so that's what I do. That's how I'm. That should be on my resume.

David Choi:

I love that Solutions.

Ryan Tseko:

No problems, only solutions. baby I love that Dude.

David Choi:

That's what my core values. Yeah, It's important.

Ryan Tseko:

We always talk about this all the time. It's important.

David Choi:

So, dude you get, he puts you into the fire. basically, yeah, figure it the fuck out.

Ryan Tseko:

Ryan, i sucked.

David Choi:

What like? like you've been doing it with. you've been on the real estate side for about over a decade now. Yeah, so tell me how you went from sweeping floors, doing whatever you fucking basically anything at all to running the show at this point, like, what was that journey? what's that journey? look like.

Ryan Tseko:

Well, look, and when I got hired on as his lead captain, i was running the aviation piece, running everything, and that's really like a business right Cause you have the budget and you have to. I mean you got staffing, you know, you got travel. I mean there's a lot that goes into aviation. The other piece where and again, i just wanted to be, i wanted to be full with Grant, like, hey, i'm not above, i'm up below, i just want, i want to get out of non-existence with everybody. And so I want to understand Grant And I think it's important when you go and work with somebody who you're going to grow and scale with and you want a partner that you understand exactly what he's thinking right. And so he was a big car sales guy and he became a really big corporate sales trainer, meaning where he has staff in Cardone University. And so I literally and this is another funny thing like Cardone University, right, guys were doing it once, like Chris Deets, like they'll go in there and do it right And some guys will fall off. I did it three times in like a month. I'm like, just give it this information to me as quick as possible, let me get it done, let me retain it. And then let me move on, cause it's been my whole life right. You have to understand as a pilot, you get really good at training, really good, And I think that's what is missing in a lot of this younger group coming up is like they don't want to train, like you have to train in order to get good. To get 10,000 hours you got to fly at 10,000 hours To get really good at purchase and sales agreements and due diligence, like everything that you have, like you have to do a lot of them to ask a lot of questions to really, really smart people, and so that's just what I've done.

Ryan Tseko:

My first, though, like to get me into the real estate piece with Grant was we were over Christmas dinner and he came back and he was pissed And he's like I've got, you know, 340 units in Daffy, alabama and there's 40 units that need to be leased. And I said, well, can I help? And he's like God man, we're going back and forth talking And he's like you know it's crazy. He's like I know you really like real estate. He's like I've been looking for a really long time for a guy who just wants to know everything about every deal, every T12 and rent roll and financial and team member and all this stuff for a really long damn time. And I was like, well, sometimes they're right in front of you.

Ryan Tseko:

What if I did this grant? What if I parked the jet, came back and did 40 leases in 40 days? What if I committed to get this thing 100% in the next 40 days? Would you give me a shot on the real estate team? He's like, bro, you would do that. And so literally that's what I did.

Ryan Tseko:

And so again, these things, you can't make this stuff up, like you can't make these stories up. I literally went there. I slept on an air mattress in a single bedroom unit in Daphne, alabama, and I called Grant every day. Hey, what would you do? What would you do? What would you do? He's like I'd put the signs, your cell number, on the front of the building. People call you. I would go back for the 60 days that people have come in who didn't rent and I'd start calling them. And so I started recruiting. I realized the manager sucked, i realized the assistant was awesome And I started recruiting the really good teams And I literally leased for 15 days. I got 15 leases and he called me on the 15 day and he says you're fucking good man. He's like you're coming back. He's like you're a goddamn animal. He's like you're coming back here on the real estate team.

John Libretti:

I love that You found solutions. You went out there and figured it out. That's it.

Ryan Tseko:

I just do work. I just do the shit that people are not willing to do knocking on doors. I was nervous man. I called Grant's office. I was nervous. He's like weird. I'm like I don't even sweat And I'm sweating.

David Choi:

You know what I?

Ryan Tseko:

mean Like God, like I've shaken a lot of hands you know, but he's an animal man And he wants a bunch of animals around him. I was like I've always wanted to be an animal. People just told me that animals belong in cages And I'm like, no, they don't Why. What the Like? really, we're the ones that changed the world.

David Choi:

Oh man, oh dude, i love you. Yeah, you're amazing Dude, i love you too. This is funny.

Ryan Tseko:

Yeah, I love you Because the energy and I was telling you I do a lot of podcasts on Zooms It's completely different, 100% different, Like the eye contact and the energy and just the. It's fun.

David Choi:

Oh yeah, Oh, this is a great fucking podcast.

John Libretti:

Yeah, this is my favorite by far, 100%.

David Choi:

Right, you got to drop some gold, because I know you got to bounce in literally five minutes. Oh, are you?

Ryan Tseko:

five minutes And you just gone by that away.

David Choi:

It went like this Look, you got to catch people up about what it is that you're doing right now. Yeah. Right, And it's just you know what. This is the issue. Right, I want to get. I go to a party, Like I go to a party and I'll try to. Just I'll get too drunk for my own good and start giving real estate advice to people, regular people, And they don't listen.

Ryan Tseko:

Anyway, right, They're like oh yeah, but my uncle said this Yeah, yeah, Dude, I had a dollar average cost in the S&P 500, bro.

David Choi:

I'm like god damn, bro, You're fucked Good luck, man.

Ryan Tseko:

You're going to lose money. Good luck, let me know how it goes in 10 years.

David Choi:

What would you tell? like because you're just cut with a different cloth. right, like you were just born different. You can say it any other way, but you're just an animal. Yeah, right, Like for a kid. like in college right now 18 years old, 17 years old, i guess, i guess high school. right, i guess 17 to like 21 years old. This kid's hungry, he wants to win, he's willing to put in the work. What's the best piece of advice to give that kid?

Ryan Tseko:

Well, i've already said it like three times You have to get around a team. That's going to mold you. If you don't become a part of a team like, you don't know how the teams work. That's why I'm always willing to start at the bottom, because if you don't start at the bottom, you don't know what the bottom feels like. It's important to know what the bottom feels like.

Ryan Tseko:

In my personal opinion, my brother and his girlfriend were saying today like we were actually walking down the street and they're like I think what makes all of us is that we were gritty. I come from Chino, california. It wasn't how it was back then, the way it is now, and I think that if I had the option and this is probably going to throw a lot of people off right, because I am who I am because of where I came from, but I do personally believe that it's an option up here If you were born into something like really, really awesome, that you could actually take that to the next level. I personally don't believe you have to come from whatever. It is right, because I know I didn't start from the like. There's people who have it much worse, but I just I believe that you have to know what all levels feel like, because you never want to be the seagull, right? The seagull comes in and shits on everybody and then they leave, right, like nobody wants a seagull as a leader, and I've really worked myself into a leadership role at Cardone Capital because I truly believe in what we're doing. I truly believe that where I started, i understand each step And I know how big it is. So if somebody's like where I was, if you're 17 or 18 or 19 years old, just find something that makes money. But don't just go to work to just earn the dollars. Go to work and make sure that you're actually learning something that outweighs the comp.

Ryan Tseko:

Because flying airplanes I made 48 grand my first year. I didn't go to the airlines to make a bunch of money. I went to the airlines to get really good at flying so that way I could fly corporate for really successful entrepreneurs, so I could travel the world with really successful entrepreneurs, so I could do deals with really successful people, so I could raise money and capital to change the world and help grant and the team and everybody else Buy great deals. Create this platform where people can have a business, have a career, have all that stuff, because real estate really wasn't meant for everybody. You gotta know your shit Like. You gotta know you know from like even NOI, like what's income minus expenses? NOI, what's debt, what's like. There's a lot of stuff happening right now where you wanna be really good, but we have this platform, and it's massive and it's big, where people can actually take their money and they can invest it in these deals.

Ryan Tseko:

Crazy enough, these weren't even we couldn't offer these like 10 years ago. You couldn't. It was actually against the law. General solicitation, whether it was for accredited and or not accredited meaning you just make under over 200 grand a year was not even permitted. I've been studying RAID for and RAID is just a regulation out of the SEC. I've been studying it since I was 25 years old And I used to drive home and I'm like why can I not have a billboard saying that I'm doing a four unit or an eight unit or a 16 unit or a 20 unit? Why do I have to have a relationship with each and every person when people want real estate, people want deals, people want real estate. It's just hard for people to trust, and so that's why it's great. Partnering with Grant is because he has done a phenomenal job at building this trust, and then we built an incredible team and we can find deals and get funding on deals and have great partners as lenders and really put it all together.

Ryan Tseko:

I love that There's a lot of pieces in this game.

David Choi:

Oh, there's a lot, 100%, there's so much that goes into buying an apartment complex. I mean, you literally just think about it. Most people don't even know how to read a lease And if it's a 500 unit building, you're reading 500 different leases, making sure that ties up with the financials that were provided by the seller. I mean they do diligence process. First time I bought an apartment complex I was like, oh my God, am I messing this up? Right? You probably were.

Ryan Tseko:

Yeah, it definitely was. I got the wrong debt right.

David Choi:

I definitely shouldn't have gotten something with yield maintenance if I knew. There's just aspects about this business that you need to really learn before you jump in. And being able to leverage Grant Cardone or a multi-billion dollar manager and their team and your team right is just it allows the regular folks to actually build some serious wealth.

Ryan Tseko:

You have to have a business that's sustainable and making money in order to hire and keep great smart people. It really is Like people are like oh, you have fund one and fund two You really need we're on fund 22. You need a lot of funds. Like we've raised one point it's over 1.1 billion straight to retail investors And we go out and we buy, so we control over four point it's like over $4 billion worth of assets And they're really all great quality deals like downtown Fort Lauderdale and Miami and Weston and Naples and Fort Myers and like all these really really key locations.

Ryan Tseko:

But you have to have a lot of funds because this isn't a get rich quick. My excitement, like please don't overthink this Like, oh man, this is gonna happen really quick. Just go and put in the reps You know. Like go and do. If you're starting a fund, go do one fund, get good. Go do two, go do three. Like if you're doing the right thing, you have to. you never wanna do something once. You always have to do something many times in order to scale it.

John Libretti:

That's what Eric always says about real estate, or other co-host Eric. He always says real estate is not a get rich quick scheme. It's a get rich for sure, not even scheme, but a get rich for sure. And it's exactly you just.

Ryan Tseko:

Because there's benefits that nobody even understands, like you understand it once you start investing in real estate. But people are like depreciation and appreciation and leverage and all these different components that go into real estate. Like there's different ways you wanna position deals for your investors for the exits, cause who knows about yield maintenance? You brought that up right. People are like, well, why don't you wanna sell your deal? Oh, because I gotta pay $2 million if I sell it right now, and so literally I'm gonna sell it for two and pay the bank two, because the investors thought that they were gonna get paid for the next 10 years. Like people don't think. Like they're like, oh, you're putting 10 year debt on it. It's like, yeah, that five, seven, 10, that's really normal in commercial real estate. You don't have a 30 year unless you're doing a HUD loan on a big piece of real estate.

Ryan Tseko:

Cause guys do private equity shops typically like to flip them because they wanna get their fees. We actually changed it up a little bit. We don't do some of the standard stuff as far as like prefer returns or fix and flips or two and three and four and five years. We do these funds for 10 years And we always tell the investors have a good attitude, wanna own real estate and let's let time. Let's let time create the value of that dollar that's going down.

David Choi:

Nice, nice. So, ryan, if the people wanna like, actually, before I let you go, i know you gotta I wanna keep you on for the next 20 minutes, you know.

Ryan Tseko:

But we can go for like five hours Marathon. you set up the Copeland right here.

David Choi:

Let's go, All right. you know what?

Ryan Tseko:

Sana, Sana Copeland, Sana Copeland.

David Choi:

You made it very clear to us five o'clock. Let's go one more, one more. Okay. What does your average investor look like? How much is that person investing And what does that? what does an invest like? what does a return profile look like for your ordinary?

Ryan Tseko:

investor. So we have two investor types right. One these is the accredited, which we started out and that's the easiest one to set up. They're doing three, four, five, 600 grand. I've got one guy for 17 and a half. He's one of our partners on our other company. But we have guys coming in for two and three and four and five plus million dollars, but they're business owners. They're people, whether they're business owners or successful individuals, that have careers, that have money sitting in either their 401K, ira or cash and they just wanna put it to work, but they don't wanna do the day to day. And so what we built is an amazing like, truly amazing, like. I can go down the whole list of our investors. We have it's probably 30, 40, 50% repeat where it's like yeah, we do marketing, we do all that stuff, but people are like every deal that you guys do, I wanna get in, cause we do monthly distributions right Now. On the flip side, we actually did this, not accredited the reggae Some people told us to like hey, look, it's more phone calls, it's lower ticket, da, da, da. If you think about life.

Ryan Tseko:

Going back to when I was a commercial airline pilot, i was not accredited. It was brutal. Like I made my best year was like 125 grand. It's not accredited. So you're telling me I can't invest with Grant, cardone or Cardone Capital because I only make 125? To me that was bullshit. And so I really, myself and Elaine and Grant, we had to come to like do we really wanna do this? And the answer for me has always been yes, because I truly believe that every accredited investor starts as non-accredited. And so that investor looks like, hey, they're doing five, 10, 15, 30 grand, some people doing 50, some people do 75, depending on their net worth and how their cutoffs are. But it's people who realize that these opportunities it's for them, it's better than their 401k. Like when I was a pilot, the only option I had was a 401k with the company And that's it.

Ryan Tseko:

Now. Alternative investments are people are looking at like okay, i can get all these benefits, i know and I could see, like on all of our funds, they can see the deals. They could literally go to our website and see the return profiles. What we do is, once we go hard on a deal, we give them hey, look, here's what the property's been doing in the past. That's the beautiful thing about real estate Like it's not made up. It's like 10 year track record or two year or whatever the trailing numbers are. And then you say, okay, this is what we think it's going to do for the next 10, with some assumptions in there. Here's the return profile on two pieces cash flow and then with the appreciation of the total return, and so that's what people are solving for. We solve for between 13, 15, 17% total return. We start out with like four 6% cash flow And look, honestly, people, including myself, i would take a million dollars any day of the week.

Ryan Tseko:

I took a million dollars one time. I invested it in 452 units. I still have this investment in Austin, texas. It says on 88 acres, 452 units. We bought this deal from USAA And, oh God, what's the name of the group? I've got so many institutional names in my head, but it's a group out of Houston. But USAA was the partner with them, right? We bought this deal for a hundred million bucks. We put 40 down, put $60 million on financing Full-term IO for 10 years.

Ryan Tseko:

I put a million dollars in. I get four or five grand every month. Boom, boom, boom, boom. People are like well, wouldn't you rather have the million dollars? And I'm like that's where you rely to. That's where you rely to. You don't want the principal, you want the cash flow, because my principal is now working And I personally believe that that one is probably worth between $2 million and $3 million, jeez.

Ryan Tseko:

And so people look at net worth. Right, they're like net worth, net worth. How is a pilot from United Express going to get a net worth of $10, $15, $20 million over time? This is how. This is how It's real estate. We all don't start. We all don't start with this fix and flips and everything else, because I had to sell to 21 units, get my 400, put it in with Grant, flip that, put it in the next deal, like all these stories. But they're really impactful. But I'm just here to tell people you have to start. You will be met with these opportunities that you have to take full advantage of. Never go to your next guy or your partner with a problem. Always go with solutions And, god damn it, get on a great team.

John Libretti:

Amen, Absolutely. Get on a team baby, Preach it. Rob The 10X team.

Ryan Tseko:

if you want, Call me.

David Choi:

Come on, i'll hire you right now, baby.

Ryan Tseko:

We're doing push-ups after this deal. Do the deal.

David Choi:

I love it. Ryan dude, really appreciate you man.

Ryan Tseko:

Thank you.

David Choi:

The people want to find you, reach out to you. What's the best way?

Ryan Tseko:

Ryan sec on Instagram or social media Or my number is 305-407-0276.

David Choi:

Awesome Guys, don't blow them up too hard. Full transparency, man.

Ryan Tseko:

I got a couple phones, but I'm just telling you that is one thing that people need to unlock in their life. People need, in order for them to flow, you, they need to know where to find you. People are like I'm a cellphone number, Why would I give my Instagram or my cellphone number? That's how people communicate. People don't communicate just via emails. They text. Thank you man, Thank you guys, Thank you guys for coming. I appreciate it. Yeah, that was great song.

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David Choi

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