Deals & Dollars: Real Estate Investors and Entrepreneurs
Welcome to the Deals & Dollars Podcast, hosted by David Choi, Eric Panecki, and John Libretti, three real estate executives from the New York City metro area. Every week, they bring on the best real estate investors and entrepreneurs they know to learn about how they got started, how they source their deals, and -- most importantly-- how they make their dollars.
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Deals & Dollars: Real Estate Investors and Entrepreneurs
How to Acquire 1.5 MILLION Sqft. of Industrial RE in 2 Years w/ Spencer Pascal
Spencer is a young entrepreneur who has carved a unique path through the industrial property landscape at the ripe age of 28. With anecdotes from his early days before investing, Spencer's story is one of embracing a legacy and making it his own. His candid discussion reveals the nuances of the real estate business, debunking myths of instant success and highlighting the virtues of patience and perseverance that have shaped his rise in the industry.
Navigating the challenges of rebranding a family business, Spencer shares the insights and humor behind Commerce Park Investors' transformation. From scheduling slip-ups to modernizing operations, his experiences underscore the importance of organization and clear communication. You'll laugh along with Spencer's personal misadventures while gaining a sincere appreciation for the entrepreneurial spirit that fuels growth and innovation in the competitive world of real estate.
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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Through that time, I actually ended up getting my pilot's license through that.
Speaker 2:No shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I got my pilot's license and that's when my sales started, because I convinced my mom to buy me a plane. What that can be an easy. Shout out mom, thank you. 3, 2, 1, go.
Speaker 2:Alright, today we have Spencer Pascal, is that correct?
Speaker 1:That's correct. That's correct.
Speaker 2:Spencer Pascal, I remember the first time I got introduced to you and we had a three-way call. I called, obviously, because I'm looking at an industrial building that I'm looking to acquire and, quite frankly, I don't know industrial from. I don't know anything about it, right. So you came in as a resource, just to kind of guide me, and the amount of knowledge and expertise you had in this space was just like holy shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, man, thank you.
Speaker 2:I got off the phone and looked at Anthony, to my right, who was on that three-way call with us, and we were, just like that guy's, smart as fuck.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:And today, just to find out that you're only 28 years old. That you just turned 28 is just beyond me. Obviously, you've learned an incredible amount in such a short period of time. Your background and just what you've accomplished over the over the short few years is truly incredible. So, dude, welcome to the Deals and Dollars Podcast, man.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you guys for having me. This is quite the treatment.
Speaker 3:Welcome brother, welcome why don't you give us Because I got your bio here but I don't know a ton Besides what Dave just said. It sounds like you're a really smart fucking guy. But yeah, why don't you give us a little background on kind of you, where you're at and where you're going?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so I started this game about five years ago.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:I grew up in it. My dad has done real estate his entire life and so you know I eat, slept, breathe real estate growing up as a kid, nice and so I never really had interest in it. Because I guess you know you watch your parents and you're like, wow, shit, I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1:Right, you know my dad was, you know, not as home that much, because, you know, back then it was a little different. It was hard to like get every deal going and everything. So, you know, I ventured on to different things and I got to college and I found that marketing was the easiest thing to graduate with and like shit, let me pick the easiest thing. And as I was doing that I just, you know, I I started seeing my dad do it more and I started going like, oh wow, this is like he makes good money. Look at all the trips he goes on, look at all this, and so that kind of got me inspired a little bit just to like actually learn the nitty gritty of that market.
Speaker 1:So he really grew up doing retail. It's all he did was retail. He had a partner and those two, I mean they were buying hundreds of properties a year all over Jersey. His partner was Bruce Jeffrey from Jeffer Realty. So they did everything together in probably about 2009. He transferred over to industrial and just branched out his self a little bit and just started doing all industrial.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So obviously I was really young back then, I didn't, you know, I wasn't still too much in it, so yeah, so I started dappling a little bit and really how we got into it is in college. I got a job with American Airlines and throw in bags on planes Nice and I was like they had free flight benefits. I was like, oh wow, this might be the perfect opportunity for me to use the benefits and go back for my dad. I was living in Virginia at the time, going to college down there, and I started at Old Dominion University. I did two years there and then I didn't like beyond campus, I went to online and my mom moved to Charlottesville at the time, so I just lived in Charlottesville. Okay, so I was going back. I was spending one week with American Airlines and I was spending one week with my dad. I spent that for about a year, year and a half, and throughout that time I was just like I learned some other things and through that time I actually ended up getting my pilot's license through that.
Speaker 2:No shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I got my pilot's license, and that's when my sales started, because I convinced my mom to buy me a plane.
Speaker 3:What.
Speaker 1:That campaign easy Shout out mom, thank you. So I told my mom. I said look, if you buy me this plane, when I'm done I'll sell it and I'll make you a profit on it. And she's like oh, you know, okay. So she bought me the plane and so now I'm flying myself back and forth to Jersey and I'm part time at the airlines and I'm doing a more, I'm learning everything about the company and I'm in college at the same time.
Speaker 1:So, I decided I was like, look, I'm getting too deep into the company. I'm like I think I want to do this. This is what I want to do. I'm going to every meeting with my dad sitting down learning about it. My dad's one of those guys where he like, if you're selling the building, he wants to sit with you. He'll talk to the son, He'll bring it, like he'll sit with you. He'll go out to dinner with you to buy a bill.
Speaker 3:He'll do whatever he has to do to buy this building, and so I was learning how you do it, exactly, exactly how you guys did it.
Speaker 1:Like that's how you do it. And so one day I was just like you know what this is stupid. So I packed my car up. I said I love you mom. I got to go back to Jersey. I didn't want to move back to Jersey and I was like I got to give this a shot. I was like I would just start. At my twenties I was like this is my only chance. If it doesn't work, I was like I know I can go back home to mom and stuff like that. So I fill my car up and I just drive right to Jersey. Three months into living Jersey, I sell the plane for $20,000 more than I bought it for. So I give my. You know, I got my mom a $20,000 profit and I just kept my head down. I just kept going and going and learn every single thing about property management and that's basically how I got started. I just, you know, gave up a lot of things to just focus on one thing.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of. You know what got me into real estate basically. Yeah, that's amazing bro. Yeah, that was a lot right there.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's great. That's great. That's a great background, yeah. So, like you obviously took a one year journey, yeah, of flying back from Virginia to New Jersey to learn the game, what was it about that experience, that one, one and a half year experience, just really learning the ins and outs, that that got you that excited to pack your shit up and move out of of North Carolina.
Speaker 1:Charlottesville, virginia, virginia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just move to New Jersey and do this and go all in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think a lot of it. You know, at the time I was, I was watching a lot of these guys on like YouTube and all that you know, between the Grand Cardon guys, the Gary Vee guys, all this, whether it's like you're young, you're like I don't care if you're 50, so I'm trying to figure it out. Yeah, and I was like, well, fuck, I'm 20 years old, Like I know I could always go home. But I was also thinking like, in the back of your mind, I was always going like, look, if I do really well at this, I could buy a house in Arizona and live in Arizona and Jersey. Like it creates options for myself if I do really well at this. So, and I'll know in a year if I don't want to do this, Like I'm going to go. You know, some people know in three months if they don't like some, and so that was kind of my motivation and that's you know.
Speaker 2:You saw, you saw, like, how much financial benefits you could gain.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of financial benefits too, and but I the problem is I don't really know what I know now. Like you know, if you were to ask me that same question now like that's what I thought back then If you were to ask me that same question now, I'd be like now I don't even care about the financial benefits, because all I needed to do was stay focused, like I did, and worry about, like learning every single, every single thing about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And and put that to work. Once I put it to work, then the reward was the financial side of it.
Speaker 3:Right, right.
Speaker 1:So because you could buy a building with a partner at weight, five, even 10 years, before you even get a return on that. And then you're already. You're already, you know, five, 10 properties deep on other stuff. You know, oh shit, here comes a distribution for the property to start out with right yeah. So like, but I didn't know that in the beginning. All I saw was my dad doing really well, buying things, doing this, going on nice trips, you know, and I was like shit, you know, I mean this is a great you know, yeah, but I didn't remember how many times my dad had to fail to learn everything.
Speaker 1:Wow, so it was. It was now. It's so much different than what I thought then. Yeah, and I mean I'm glad I thought thing, because it's honestly what got me into. It was like the financial freedom, right, and that I know I'll be able to get you know because financial freedom is so much different, right. Yeah, you know I can make a million, but now I want to make two million, then I want to make five, you know, right. So I think now it like I have such a different vision on the real estate side than I did five, six years ago.
Speaker 3:What I think is funny about real estate is like it's, it's, it's like the cool thing for like a lot of like our generation. Yeah, but our generation is so impatient, like they're impatient as fuck.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right and like. Real estate is like a patient's game. Oh, so like everybody gets into this thing and they're like well, I'm gonna like, why am I not making millions of dollars?
Speaker 1:It's like the amount of people that win got the real estate license during COVID to sell houses, right, and then they're gone, like well, you know, it's going to start to change a little bit. I'm like you change your entire lifestyle, thinking you're going to be a millionaire because it was happening to a couple of people, right, you know. So I mean, yeah, I mean COVID was tough for us on a standpoint of like it changed the market, right, you're not not financially, but like now it's a whole different market too.
Speaker 3:It's not the same. For sure it was, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean yeah.
Speaker 3:So I'm I'm curious, you know, like a lot of people would say like, oh well, like his dad did a easy start, right, but you still want to take that leap, which is like I'm going to try this thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when I started, my dad and I had a deal Like. He was like you're going to live with me for a year in my apartment and you're going to eat and sleep and breathe real estate and I'm going to your. My learning curve was like this year's going to be like this, bro, I'm going to teach you everything that I know in a short amount of period. So, if something happening to me tomorrow, you know how to manage everything in the portfolio.
Speaker 3:And I'm like let's go.
Speaker 1:He's like it's going to be over. And now I'm scared. I'm going like I don't know any of these fucking terms. I'm reading real estate books and the same thing my dad's saying I'm reading. He had real estate math books and I'm like this ain't anything. My dad is saying so you know I'm. I'm calling my mom every other day I'm like no, this is like scary. And she's like well, you can always come home if you need anything, like I'm here, blah blah.
Speaker 3:And you know, fuck that.
Speaker 1:Oh, super supportive, but like no, it was good. You know what it was. It was good because I needed that like other person to talk to, because with my dad and I was just like my dad would be there in a heartbeat if I need something, but it was like he was the best coach. I had right, he was that. You know that mentor, everyone needed it and that's so. That's what it basically I take away from. Like all right, I'm going to struggle through this and I didn't make anything my first couple years at all, and so I was like All right, how do I make something to die? He's like find properties. We say that again. I didn't make anything for years, years, years pay you shit.
Speaker 1:Well, now I got enough. Yeah but you make money. I was still living with my dad, right, right. So I I sold my car. I came to us like look, I only have a savings count and that's gone. And he's like Okay, what about if I give you a company credit card? And I was like no, like I need to get paid.
Speaker 3:Dad like and I got to take girls out on a date.
Speaker 1:Right. So he was like sell your car and I'll buy you a car and we'll keep it here and that'll be your car. Like you don't need to have a car payment, you don't need to have credit, you need nothing. You want to buy real estate, you need to have clean credit, you need to do all that. And I was like fine, I mean, I was trying to find someone to buy this stupid car I thought I wanted when I lived in Virginia, finally sold the car. I'm like, all right, that's gone, bam, brand new car.
Speaker 1:He's like now you have a car, now you have no car expense and no insurance expense. So what's the next excuse? And I was like well, you know, I want to go out to have dinner with girls, I want to go and do all this. So I came up with like a little something that like worked and all that stuff. And so he's like Okay, now that that's done. Like you have no excuse. Like, go and find buildings, that's how you're going to get paid. So I remember I would bring him like 10, 15 buildings a day, print them all out, all nice and packets. And by the end of the month he was like All right, we get a problem. You're wasting all my fucking ink.
Speaker 1:You got to stop, you got to stop printing all these properties out, like, show me them and I already know if I like it or not. But like every single, I mean, I could have brought 100 properties every couple months. All of them said no, except for one, right, and and like, once I found one, I was like, okay, now I know what's doing. I just kept doing that and doing that. And he would find properties Like, oh, give me percentage, give me percentage of that. Nope, this is mine. I found them, okay, and so we just kept doing that and doing that. And then, yeah, kind of like you know it, like on your point of, oh, you know, did your dad give everything? No, what my dad gave me for free was all the knowledge that I know now, all like the phone call we had. That's everything my dad basically gave me for free. You know, you want to talk about all the golden. You know a gold spoon and all that. That's why I got free knowledge.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:I didn't have to pay for that. I didn't have to go to pay for a seminar or go to a grant card on a veteran, so that's probably the best thing out of. I got out of that and I could still utilize that to this day.
Speaker 3:Love them in but other people could do that right. I don't know percent other people could do, just because it's your dad that's.
Speaker 1:That's obviously better and there's a lot of people that do that too.
Speaker 3:You. They could go and say like I'll work for free or whatever, yeah, and if I could find buildings, you pay me on them, right. And like I'll eat what I kill. People could do that. There's no reason they couldn't do that.
Speaker 1:No, and and that's my biggest thing on, you know, like I thought about is when people used to ask me I have a good buddy from Virginia who we worked in the airlines together. They used to be trying to get into that and everything. And I know I always felt like I don't know how to get started. I don't, you know, I've never been a broker. I respect the brokerage industry but I've never been a broker. But I'll expect that hustle inside the brokerage industry but I'll be a go be a broker. I don't know. But now, now that I'm in my spot, I got the. The way you can do this and be successful is you got to get a Mentor?
Speaker 1:yeah and either you have to give something up or sit down and really focus, because that's how I did it and if I was gonna do it again and let's say my dad wasn't in the spot that I would just get a mentor, that I could be next to him for free, eat and sleep, real estate, and you 100% be successful.
Speaker 3:That's great. That's great advice, that's amazing advice.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That is like that's, that's really it right, take a year, take a year, take it, make a sacrifice and go learn right like that's and you could do that for anything.
Speaker 1:I mean, I have mentors that on top of my dad, that are his partners and you know they do Maybe residential apartment complexes, and I'm like I want to sit down, go have dinner with you and I want to pick your brain. I want to be like, how do I own 200 apartment units in one building? Like, where do I even get started? Where do I get approvals for that? Right, I always speak to the person in town. So, like, milk them to go, like, yeah, we need this into. Like how I don't, I don't care about the financing side, I need to know from like to shovel on the ground side. And so you know I don't.
Speaker 1:My dad's my industrial real tech guy all day, but there's other mentors I have out there that I'm like I'm gonna go down your throat every single, every event you host. I'm gonna be there, right, and I just need you to see my face. Whether we talk or not, I want you to see my face, and so you know that's, that's what everyone has to do, and I think you could. You could be successful Without, without a doubt, you know I totally agree.
Speaker 3:That's really great, that's right. Where are you at now, like what's what's the company look like now? What's your structure, what where you at?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when we, when I started with my dad, we had to come up with some type of formula, because there was a lot of teaching and, as you can see, I would get like really boring as Like an early 20 year old, and so I was like, well, look, I got this marketing degree. I you know why don't I try to use it? So my dad had no marketing, no website, no company emails, no merch, no, nothing right. And so I was like, well, why don't I do that? Give me a budget, I'll stay on it, and Whatever I can stay in, if I stay under on something, I can use it for something else, to market. So if it's two grand to go build a website and I do it for a thousand you give me, I could take the other thousand and go Start something else that he's like deal. So I took two years and I rebranded the entire company. You know, I helped us build an office, come up with a logo. He already had the name commerce park investors and I was like, great, let's use that, create a website as our portfolio and everything. And then, you know, create the Instagram marketing, everything for the company. Now, right. And so I was like, okay, like got to use my marketing degree a little bit.
Speaker 1:Then after that I was like we had a big talk and I was like, all right, I want to do this, but the problem is my dad's old school, you know. It's just like you should use just him. So he's like I don't need a website, people just know my name, I don't need any of that. And I was like, well, people don't know me, right, and they know me as Roy's son, right? I don't want that. So I said if I'm gonna take this company over someday, I need to build a company. Yep, and he was like, fine, fine, we could do that, increments and all that.
Speaker 1:So I just start from scratch. I mean, I threw every file in the office converted into like documents online. I was like I don't like paper. We got to get a revolved paper. You should be able to show up to any meeting and be able to pull up a document release on your phone, right. So we changed that change. Property management software started hiring place. When we started it was him and I. Then we hired a project manager was a good friend of his at the time and now we have eight employees and you know all W2 employee base and all that stuff, and we had about Probably about seven hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand square feet at a time.
Speaker 1:Now we have 1.5 million square feet and and yeah, and so basically being able to change the company into a company, versus just him and I allowed Us to divide and conquer in certain duties. So, instead of my dad, weren't about property management and hey, it's this lease sign, get all that, but don't worry about that, we have a guy who does that now. Yeah, hey, we have a bookkeeper in house. Now we don't have to have you stress on a vacation. Oh man, to that, that tenant actually pay the rent to get messed up. Now you have one job fine buildings, wow and I'll manage the rest of the company. I'll manage the entire portfolio.
Speaker 3:I'll be he's probably great at it too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and so, and that's how we got Roy's a dog at getting deals. Yeah, oh, insane. So as soon as I clean that up, in six months we bought 500,000 square feet. Wow, six months after clean that up. I love that's amazing, bro. Yeah, so it just showed that, like as soon as you stopped wearing about all the nitty-gritty stuff, it was like bam game on.
Speaker 3:Well, it's, it's kind of two. There's a theme with you which is like focus right, like focus on one thing. Well, you got him focused on one thing All right. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah that's amazing. He's probably so much happier too. Oh, so much.
Speaker 1:Like I could tell like when he would go on vacations, and now he would like call me all the time asking this I was like just going your vacation and me, and I'm in my hand, I'm going like gives me opportunity to like run the company without people going to him asking questions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ask me and so now it's exactly like that and I'm like that's what it should be, bro, like you should be able to go on vacation and not get a phone call, right? You know, let us, there's plenty people to run it. We're okay now, yeah, and and and. All that real estate in there, all value add. You know that those, those aren't six or seven cap properties on there, those are eight or nine plus cap properties on there. We're talking hundred thousand square foot plus buildings All over Jersey, some in Pennsylvania, you know all non Overpriced properties, most of that stuff all under a hundred dollars a square foot. So you know that was I was like that was a specialty, and so you know I mean our goal was to hit two million this year, but you know 500,000 was a lot for a small group of people. So we'll get it next year.
Speaker 3:But yeah, well, I mean still, with rates going the way they are and the world crashed, nobody doing transactions, that's still Very impressive.
Speaker 1:I mean, we're still finding deals, though that's the thing, you know. It's either those off-market deals where I was like bring it to us first and We'll pay the broker. Well, like, look, we'll pay you to bring it to us off the market first, don't show anyone else, and they love that. And then, yeah, just like these hidden little gems that come out of it, we have three things under contract right now. Something's struggling from last year, you know, but we're building an industrial building and so that's obviously takes time and all that. And then Two or three properties right now that we just went under contract, that we just signed a month ago, right, that are all All normal market stuff, that we ended up figuring out the rates and all that that were totally fine, you know, and so that are still value, ideal. So I think it was, like to your point, exact, it's an exact thing of once I got him focused we're about to do what we need to do, which was to grow and grow rapidly, and so yeah, were you always entrepreneurial, like growing up?
Speaker 1:Not really. I was like I was severely dyslexic and ADHD grown up so I was like I couldn't really I could, like I couldn't reading class, I couldn't do any of that, so I would just come up with other things to do that would get me out of doing those type of subjects. I was like, oh, if I could go do woodshop or things like that, yeah, and like in woodshop I couldn't pass any of the safety things and what shop they make you do. But I knew how to build every single thing in there. The kids know how to do. And I was like, just let me come after and take the test. And all they're like, no, if you can't pass, can't be a woodshop.
Speaker 1:So I just, you know, I did strange things. I mean, that's how I got into flying. It was just something different. It took me three times to pass the private pilot written exam and one time to pass the oral exam, because I was like I could show you how to do it. But the second you put an exam in front me. I'm like, you know, like I probably couldn't pass a broker's license thing, but I could. You know, I could sell, or at least the hell out of a building, right, you know? So, yeah, I just I didn't have an. I bounced around a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that's what helped. I bounced around, did a bunch of different traits and and that kind of helped me home into exactly what I really wanted to like. I Guess do.
Speaker 3:How many entrepreneurs you think are ADHD? I feel like like most, most of them every single one of them yeah, like most of them.
Speaker 1:I mean I don't. If I was, I mean I don't know like I could People tell me they go. I look at your calendar and your emails and I don't know how you function day to day and I'm like what do you mean?
Speaker 1:same and they're like, well, no, like Like literally these past couple days I've been at home because my girlfriend was sick and she's like your phone doesn't stop, yeah, and I was like, oh really. And she's like, no, it just keeps going. And then you're doing emails while on the phone and I was like, yeah, like that's easy. She's like, nah, I couldn't do that.
Speaker 3:But then you feel weird when the phone stops.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then I'm like what the fuck?
Speaker 2:is going on. I.
Speaker 3:I go, I get panicked.
Speaker 2:I start to get a little shake. It's like to 11 o'clock at night. I'm still checking my emails like why aren't I getting?
Speaker 1:another. Yeah, where's the stimuli? Like I can't believe I've completed everything. Like something has to come in now.
Speaker 3:It's funny because, like Recently, I had to get really, really regimented with the calendar, just because we have almost 30 employees now and like everybody's trying to get you In a meeting or this or that. And I had a doctor's appointment with my girlfriend and I had somebody come to the office at 11 and the appointment on the counter said 9 30. I'm like that's plenty of time.
Speaker 3:Yeah right now we're on appointment. I'll be back in the office, no problem. And then she's like I'm like getting ready to leave. She's like no, it's a 10. I'm like what the calendar says 9 30. She's like why put it for when we are gonna leave, like what. I'm like, who even does that? Like? Do you understand how my calendar is like? You put it at the wrong time. I already had calculations, guys coming.
Speaker 2:What is going on?
Speaker 3:who does that, and then she gets like upset. I'm like All right, well, maybe I was a little over the top of like. If you saw how my calendar is, you saw how my cat, you would understand, yeah, I 100% come.
Speaker 1:So my girlfriend and I, I use Google for everything. Google calendar.
Speaker 3:Yep she mail runs the company.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh. So I said she's like, hey, Can we go to? Like you know, my sister and I want to take her baby out. We want to go do like a Christmas thing this week. I was like good, you got put in the Google count.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but throw it on the cow.
Speaker 1:I do the same thing and it's, but it took me forever to be like you have to send me a calendar. If I accept it, it'll get added to the regiment of a bunch of other crap. And she's like I should have to do it, like really have to put it. I'm like, yes, dude, it's so funny now. Now she puts like, when she's getting her nails done, or sir, or she's getting massage, it's on my calendar. So the employees would be like, oh, you're getting your nails done today, but it's gotten so bad. She puts so many things on my calendar where I start to mess me up. I'm like I don't have a haircut.
Speaker 3:I don't even have a haircut today.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is the best meal. But it's her getting a haircut and like it's gotta get her own.
Speaker 3:Her own user.
Speaker 1:So now we have like this split calendar thing, like on our calendar Counter where has like all going through the same thing that you're going through right now. It's, it's a lot, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it's, it's fine. I don't know who put you. Don't have that problem. I don't know who puts a thing on the calendar for when you have to leave. Who's doing that? Nobody's doing I.
Speaker 2:Don't trust your touching my calendar. She just tells me I messaged Gia.
Speaker 3:It's on my calendar because I I couldn't, I couldn't believe that I don't put her in the calendar.
Speaker 1:She sends me the invite through Gmail. I still have to say yes or no exactly that's how I did that, Yep you know that would be convenient, but you know I'm so.
Speaker 2:I'm so micro managing on my, my calendar secret to me. No, no, yeah, nobody's allowed to touch that thing.
Speaker 1:Well, I can say no, she says you an invite, she's engine and I could put yes, maybe you're no, but the promise. If you get too many emails the morning, that thing makes it to the bottom. I never make it it to the top. You never seen it.
Speaker 3:You never seen it. No, that's funny, man, that's funny. I mean, I feel like for you, it's like your, your story is pretty inspiring because you know you did what a lot of people wouldn't do and just take the leap and just went for it. And I think that's what me and Dave did. We just kind of went for it and, like you know, dave was living at home, right Like we, like we both didn't really have like a great backup. We were able that job. So it's like it, worst case scenario, we'll just go back to right, yeah go back to working for someone else.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean and like I'm so glad I did that at the time I did, because if at 30 I'm 30 now, if I was working, I Would, if I would be really hard to just take a, take a jump and say, alright, screw it, I'm going for it.
Speaker 2:You honestly, could it?
Speaker 3:it would be really hard.
Speaker 2:You got it, you got you know, with everything going on and like it would be really hard. Yeah, it's really it's tough. Yeah, you got actual responsibilities now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's that fallback right, like that we have is like at the time we're like well, we could always go back and get that generic job and always move back with their parents. If there's a prom or you know, go get that. But I think Doing it younger is a lot easier than doing it when you're older.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and to your point, like that, like all these, all these gurus are like oh well, it's never too late, you could be 50, or the KFC guy was 55 or whatever, right, you see that. But like who's really doing that at 55?
Speaker 2:You gotta have a pair of balls on you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you really a very supportive spouse, yeah.
Speaker 2:One, one thing about you is that your dad was like All in. Yeah, the day that you started your journey as an entrepreneur, your dad was your biggest fan.
Speaker 3:Yeah it's like my son's gonna fucking make it well, I think for me, like I was always doing shit too, like what? Like Growing up, my parents were like you gotta get a job and I just would do anything not to get a job, but I would make money and I was shoveling business. I would sell lighters online, I would sell concert tickets. I lost like 10 grand because I forgot to sell concert tickets on the day I was supposed to do it like just random shit. So they always knew I was gonna end up Doing something. Like I started an e-commerce business. I made 30 grand in a month and then I lost it all. So, like somewhere, some way.
Speaker 3:Yeah but I think a lot of people don't. So I already had my failures right. So like I wasn't afraid to fail, really I think a lot of people are are afraid, afraid to fail.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, you know what the weird though, but I never thought about that when I made the jump you never thought like what if this didn't work out?
Speaker 1:I think there was part of me it's like, oh one with my dad, so like He'll, my dad's gonna do the best he can. I always found that my dad was the my was the best teacher To anybody that came in off the street, because I he loves what he does and so made him. It made it really easy for him to teach somebody how to do the business. My biggest issue was I saw a lot of people that went to him for help and failed, and I Was scared that I would go in there either, not learn it quick enough and just fail, and I'm like that sucks to be, like you know, as a father.
Speaker 1:First of all, he's his first generation in real estate. He started from scratch, started with nothing and never had a job when he got out. He's never created a resume in his entire life. That's awesome. He bought his first building in college and then, when he was in college, he did other things with vending machines and all that stuff. So he had a built in and so I was like this is my dad's opportunity to be like second generation kids gonna join and hopefully his kids will join, and I was like so I have to really make sure I want to do this, or else he's gonna go around tell everyone that his kids doing real estate with him. You know he doesn't have to sell his properties and get a bow in the middle of the Atlantic and you know, yeah, deliver to, he gets to push on. And I was like, so that pressure really really hit. A lot of like I Can't figure out in five or ten years. If I want to is I had to figure out in a year, yeah, and then COVID.
Speaker 3:Oh wow.
Speaker 1:so that's where I learned how to drink to kill in the rocks, and I would say it was the best thing that happened to me, because it wasn't a recession, it was a medically induced Crash on the market right, yeah and so my dad loved that a little bit. On the standpoint, if he gets to teach me how to deal with this Right now, like his, like I don't get to do, I don't have to deal with an O8. But this was basically like an O8, but many medically.
Speaker 1:Yeah it, do space it's like alright, I could teach my son how to take care of this, go through all the obstacles, so when we get out of it well, he'll know how to do it the right way. That's awesome. So we spent like two, three years or two years normal market buying $50 a square foot real estate, industrial real estate, to then COVID, hitting to no one buying anything, and To then go into like a $300 market, to then go into a 200, now get into like the mid to high 100-dollar market. So he got to teach me that different span of it. But COVID was great because I was living with my dad.
Speaker 1:Still, we woke up together, we drank coffee together, went over a bunch of real estate, then drank in the afternoon together and they were up until like 10 11 at night doing real estate again and then and that's all. So that's why, like, my learning curve really shortened and and so there was no like at that point. That's when his discussion was what do you need a salary for? You live here, we do nothing, you can't even leave your door dash and food every day.
Speaker 3:And tequila?
Speaker 1:oh, and we were both. No, my parents are divorced, so he was single and I was single. So it's like oh god we hadn't, we hadn't report, do anything to anyone.
Speaker 3:so you know that, just like you guys are just slinging the old like like In the same way together.
Speaker 1:I moved out of my mom's to my dad and do this. We're like my mom does.
Speaker 1:It's just gross, like you're, just like and so it's like a complete turn up, like I would. I live to Virginia. I didn't drink, I didn't do everything. I hit the gym every day and I worked and that's it. I didn't do anything else and that was my life out there. And then to move here, it's like, boom, I'm gonna teach you about this, boom, I'm gonna teach you about that. And and so it was like awesome, like it was exactly what I needed, because there was no way for there be any other distractions because the world was shut down. So, as an age see person I was, it was easy, cuz I was like well, this is what I gotta do.
Speaker 1:There's no I can't throw myself a curve ball here. Like everyone's doing e-commerce, so I'm like I ain't even try that, because you know who my competing against you didn't do any game stop.
Speaker 3:But.
Speaker 1:I did a little bit of coin trading.
Speaker 1:I, I didn't do any dogecoin, I did Someone show me like oh, just day, trade Amazon, amc or something no it was you just game stop here and I did it and I made like 200 bucks and I was like this is so stupid. And then I started to figure out, like you know what I I can't put money into things I can't touch, right, so I just gave that up. And so what's really funny is when I started my journey with my dad, I had a savings kind of thing, had like five or ten grand in it.
Speaker 3:I just want to stop. I can't put money into things I can't touch. It's a good model. It's a good yeah, everything that I made money in this, this stuff, but I've all ended up losing it anyway.
Speaker 1:Well that was my problem. I'm like this is so stupid, I'm losing it. And as an HD person, I'm like, oh shit, I woke up. I'm like I forgot to check the stock and now it's lost everything. Yep. So it's like if I put in real estate, I can control my outcome, in that I could control if I'm gonna lose everything in it or if I could greedy to make it a dollar extra square foot. I know how much more I'm gonna get out of that.
Speaker 1:So it was taking me so long to get a building or to make any money real estate. So I just say this count. I was like sure it, I'm gonna give it to Grant Cardone and I'm gonna try something here. So he was running this thing where you could put like five grand in and you can get be a non-accredited investor. I'm like done, here's ten, I want to do it.
Speaker 1:It was the most brutal experience I've ever gone through in my entire life and that kind of like screwed me up a little bit because I was like it was like brutal, like no one would get back to me. Docusigns took forever eight months to close. When they said it was 30 days, it was. It was a brutal process to go through and and I barely made anything. You know, maybe made a couple hundred bucks a quarter where I was like, okay, cool, I'm getting a return on investment. And but meanwhile, through that, bought my first industrial building on Roxbury. With my dad's help and he taught me everything. I bought two.
Speaker 1:And we bought two industrial buildings On two separate. One was like 17 or 18,000 square feet, one was like 13,000 square feet bottom-growth from a User and they were got sold out by a company in California and it was funny. We were actually. I found a building down the street and I was like, dad, you got to come in here. I think I could buy this building. I need your help because banks aren't giving me any money and and this was before COVID and everything. And he's like, okay, we walk through. He's like, yeah, dude, this is crap. And I looked at the program like you have anything else. He's like, why this one building? But I don't think you guys were like I'm like I don't care, let me see it, we go over there. My dad's like it's not bad, it needs a lot of work. I'm like that's fine, I'll do it. I need to learn on something. And so he was like, alright, fine, I'm going away to Florida, here's the, here's a mount, you can't go past this amount.
Speaker 1:So we start a bidding war on the phone with this other guy back and forth, and I'm like, fuck, I'm gonna lose this property like this the first time to get my first property, lose it, and all my dad and farm like Can I go to this number? He's like, no, no, you're done. You're done. I'm pissed off. I'm upset. A Month goes by, broke, cost me back. He's like you still want it. And I was like, yeah, nice. So I was like but I wanted on my number. And he's like, yeah, well. The other guy was like had more, he put up more. And I was like, yeah, well, I'm not gonna do that. You know, I'm real.
Speaker 1:You see your portfolio online now it's just start getting the website come like you could see your, I was gonna ask yeah the website started and he's like no, no, I know you're good, your credit, you know I've reached your dad's name and everything else, like yeah, so like that's my price and they finally go back no, I find we'll take it. We'll take it for your price, I'm like, oh, let's go to vacant buildings. I tell everyone the story and they're like surprise, it's a bank. Start to vacant buildings 117, 113.
Speaker 3:What thousand?
Speaker 1:square feet. What it's 17? Together, both of them together was 17 plus 13.
Speaker 2:Okay 30, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we go to the bank and this is my first time buying a property, going to a bank. I'm asking for 25% from my Dex and, like I found it, I'll manage, I'll run it, I'll make sure I get tense, I'll do everything. So we go to a bank, roy gets it approved a hundred percent. I financing what a million dollar renovation what, so yeah where so I I'm like what bank Madis Gawain? Madis Gawain is our people. We love them. They do what they do so much wow, yeah, that's crazy so I'm like wow, this is like crazy.
Speaker 1:So we got 100% finance, million dollar renovation loan. And he's like all right, go. And I was like well, what I do is like just go figure it renovate it and if you have questions, let me know.
Speaker 1:And I was like but like I need guidance. He's like right, go out there. You know you've been watching YouTube videos and all that. Go and figure out what you need to. Come back to me I'll let you know if you're right or wrong. And that's all my coaching started. That's how I learned everything like we talked about. That's how I learned about HVAC prices, roofing prices, epoxy floors, and so I spent 1.3 million not a million. I'm renovating him because no one told me I had to do tenant fitouts. So when I spent, I was like, oh my god, I came at budget for renovating it but then to put two tenants in.
Speaker 1:I had to spend money so I did two great leases for those buildings and it took five years to get a distribution from the property and that that property basically it did so well allowed me to. Basically I'm under contract to buy a brand new town home that there we're working with their building right now and so I remember saying they're going like holy crap, this property. That, like all I did was ask the broker you have anything else? And he said yes and he came back, allowed me to put a 20% deposit down on a brand new town home for myself and I had to wait five years to get that money to go before it start cash flowing. Tents are in there. Now I have two tents in there.
Speaker 1:Njit is one of them, from Rutgers and all that. They're attending a laboratory in there. The other ones a big German company that makes conductive rubber and 10 year lease, five year lease and all that stuff. Great rents for the middle of nowhere off 80 and and so but. And at that point I was like, alright, I'm done doing everything else. I'm not messing with stocks, I'm not messing with anyone who's like, oh, I have a little deal here, you want to invest my shirt brand, you want? I was like nope, I'm done. I know this, I know I can make money through this now. Yeah and so yeah, that building, literally, you know it's a buy-and-hold.
Speaker 2:You're not gonna sell it, never, never never that those are like so funny.
Speaker 1:Another thing there for my dad right, so we were partners on this property. There's another property he finds he knows the guy who owns it. It's a dog with fleas but it's got an adult day care in it but it's behind. It's like it's got all these environmentalists. He's goes back and forth. The guy knows he's like look, we'll take on the responsibility. But like comes off the purchase price. He's like, okay, no, prom, my dad figures out he could probably do it for cheaper than what that guy's environmental guy got it for. He's like, okay, so I can make a couple bucks on this and all that off the purchase price.
Speaker 1:And at that spot we were buying so much stuff. We're like all right, we don't have the cash to close on it. So he's like, why don't we go back to the Roxbury buildings? Ask Matt if they'll give us a second on it? Yeah, and those buildings basically appraise for three times the amount we bought it for. Holy shit, all the way. So we would take that building and then buy another building with it and then we could just, you know, you just know, ball, just snowball, and I'm just, I didn't even think about that. So that's. That's what made me think of the commerce park ventures thing and that's you know kind of how I met those guys so so I just want to touch on one thing that you said you got anything else.
Speaker 3:You got anything else that that you're working on or you have any other properties we could look at that single. For I tell our sales guys all the time that single phrase is made as made me personally more money than any other phrase I know. Oh yeah, dude and you got anything else? What else are you working on, what else you got? That simple question will make you so much money, right, so much money and you know what doing.
Speaker 1:In an argument I literally had a raw match with the broker last week. I'm trying to buy stuff in Virginia just because I have a one-budget, my mom's there. I'm like, I want to expand, we're in Pennsylvania, run Jersey, let's be in Virginia. And so I'm telling the broker why the property is not worth what it is. I'm like, bro, it's a seven cab, he's like, but it'll be an eight in five years. When I was like I ain't worried about five, don't worry about now yeah and so he was like well, that's what the seller wants.
Speaker 1:And I was like but as a broker, you need to be able to go to them and let them know, like your competition's me there's we're talking in, the property's been the property for more than three months. I'm willing to do a cash deal with you. Let's do something here, but understand that like it's it's, we're not in a seven-cap market right now right, so we get through this whole battle and everything.
Speaker 1:He's like well, you know, I don't think you're proper to buy it anyway. You obviously you're qualified, but I don't. You know, it is what it is and I'm not gonna entertain the seller with any more of any of any more of what you want to tell me. And I was like, okay, okay, well, you give him one last. I was like no, if it's under this price that I'm not even entertained anymore. And I was like, okay, well, you have anything else for sale. And it's like well, why? I was like because maybe you have something that's for sale that's reasonable that I could pay for it. He's like yeah, but you know, if I'm sending you anything, it has to be at the price I'm sending. I said, okay, I'll make that determination, like when I, when you send it to me, and so literally he sends me something. And I was like now, this is what I'm talking about. Yeah, like I love that like.
Speaker 3:So we're gonna.
Speaker 1:We could play that game at the end of the day, but I want to buy something from you and I want you to lease it. Right, that's what I want to play that game. I ain't gonna bring another broker in and have them do it and say I'm never gonna talk to you again. I'm gonna buy it from you as a broker and I want you to lease it, and when I sell it, I want you to sell it for me and you're gonna bring me more deals and you bring me more, yeah, and so literally I have three deals on my desk from him that are all really good deals salt, it's still gonna be underwriting, but instead of walking away, going like, oh my god, you know what, screw you, like you're wrong in all this, which, even even if he's wrong, it doesn't matter who cares yeah, you're in the market, I want to be in right, so what else do you have?
Speaker 1:and then that would Tim all out like well, you know, I have, we buy land and I was like sure it's at the right price. You know I love that that's a great story yeah, you know I mean that that's. That's how I'm going to progress. My living right is buying real estate. Like we can get mad at each other. All I want, I don't care, sell me some properties, I think on that note.
Speaker 3:That's it. That's a good spot day. What do you think?
Speaker 3:that's perfect all right, spencer, it's been a pleasure. Brother, this was honestly amazing. I think you're an inspiration, for a lot of young entrepreneurs are looking to get started like take the leap man right, like you took the leap and look at you now and and you know it's it's been a great conversation and if people want to connect with you, if they want to find you, if they want to, you know, reach out to you. Maybe they want to do what you did with your dad, but except for you, yeah how do they find you?
Speaker 1:yeah, you could. You could email me, which is Spencer at commerceparknjcom. You can also follow me on Instagram. I do a lot of stuff on there. It's just Spencer Pascal and and if you want to see any of the deals we're working on, you're interested in anything. It's a commerce park investors is that Instagram too? I would, yeah, reach out if anything you want, just like awesome brother.
Speaker 3:We appreciate you. Having you, this was amazing awesome thanks so much.
