From College Athletes to Multifamily Investors with Bo Burrup
Sep 19, 2023Season 1Episode 57
Ciaara Hoffmann
Bo Burrup and his wife Kaitlyn went from being college athletes to now full-time real estate investors. Find out how having 2 kids changed their perspective and caused them to up-level their life by getting into commercial real estate. In just 1.5 years, they've acquired 472 units.
Today we discuss:
How to stay motivated when you don't see progress
The small sacrifices they made to get where they are today
How to laser focus on the market(s) of your choice
Bo Burrup is a Managing Partner of Eephus Capital Group, a privately held investment firm, focused on the acquisitions and operations of B and C class multifamily assets. Bo travels across the US educating new and seasoned investors about multifamily syndications.
Are you looking to level up your commercial real estate game? Join the Commercial Real Estate Bosses Community for free at https://crebosses.com/join and get access to the Passive Investing 101 masterclass, live and recorded trainings, and a network of like-minded investors.
To listen to our past shows and be notified of our upcoming episodes, subscribe to our Podcast or Youtube channel:
Bo Burrup and his wife Kaitlyn went from being college athletes to now full-time real estate investors. Find out how having 2 kids changed their perspective and caused them to up-level their life by getting into commercial real estate. In just 1.5 years, they've acquired 472 units.
Today we discuss:
How to stay motivated when you don't see progress
The small sacrifices they made to get where they are today
How to laser focus on the market(s) of your choice
Bo Burrup is a Managing Partner of Eephus Capital Group, a privately held investment firm, focused on the acquisitions and operations of B and C class multifamily assets. Bo travels across the US educating new and seasoned investors about multifamily syndications.
Are you looking to level up your commercial real estate game? Join the Commercial Real Estate Bosses Community for free at https://crebosses.com/join and get access to the Passive Investing 101 masterclass, live and recorded trainings, and a network of like-minded investors.
To listen to our past shows and be notified of our upcoming episodes, subscribe to our Podcast or Youtube channel:
Hello, everybody. Welcome to commercial real estate bosses, where we interview badass investors who are crushing it in the commercial real estate space. I'm your host, Ciaara Hoffmann. And on today's call, we have Bo Burrup of Eephus Capital. So thank you so much for being on the show today.
Bo:
Hey, thank you so much for having me excited to be here.
Ciaara:
Absolutely. So as usual, I always like to start off by knowing more about your story. So tell us about your background, what you did before and how did you get into commercial real estate?
Bo:
Absolutely. So backing up all the way to college. So I'm 27 years old. My wife is 26 years old and in college we were both D one athletes. So my wife ran track and I played baseball for. Brigham Young University in Utah. And when we were in school and when we met, I feel like we both just wanted to get into real estate. We didn't really know what we wanted to do, but we saw the benefits of real estate and what it can do. And so we set up our life is wanting to get into it, not really knowing what to do. So in college, I worked for a guy who owned about 30 homes in the single family world. And saw how to do flips and to grow that business and owning other properties than your own home. And that kind of caught my interest. At the same time, my wife got an internship for a real estate investment company that flipped Airbnbs and they would basically flip these big themed Airbnbs. So fast forward, we started to do that for a couple of years out of college. Got my realtor license and we got our first home when I was flipping and she was growing that Airbnb business. Like you say, we loved it. What we've learned in the skill sets, but at the same time, we were growing together. And for us, that was a big thing. Now we have two kids as we wanted to grow together and be able to, do the same thing. And so fast forward to, so June of 2021 we went to a multi, Family mindset event. And we went to that event and learned about, how to buy apartments and how to syndicate deals. And we met our business partner there. His name is Jed Tolman. And we went to that event. We just decided to learn the ropes and go all in. And we went and learned everything we could from multifamily mindset. Tyler Devereaux and Ryan Woolley. We owe them so much for teaching us what we know now. And then our partner Jed is just an amazing human being who we met as well. And he's our business partner now. So he's with Eephus Capital. And from that date, we did our first deal. That was 272 units in Missouri. That was six months after doing that after that workshop and then fast forward two months later, we had our second one, which was 128 units under contract that was in Houston, Texas is called Coventry park. And then on Friday just a couple of days ago, we just closed on our third property Rochester, Minnesota. It was 72 units.
Ciaara:
Nice. Well, Congratulations. That's an amazing success story. Being able to connect with Tyler Devereaux, Ryan Woolley and Jed. Those guys are amazing. My husband's also known all of those guys for, I think about 18 years now. And that's how we got involved as well. We, came through the multifamily mindset, same as you. So I love that we have that connection. And, it is a great network and I do strongly believe, and I'm sure you can agree, that this is a team business, right? We can't do it on our own and we have to have that network. And that's why it's so important to establish those relationships early on In your investment career.
Bo:
Yeah, a hundred percent. I agree with that team work makes the dream work, right? But no, truly surrounding yourself with the right people is amazing. What you're able to achieve. And it's not really anything you have to do. It's just the ability to change your mindset.
Ciaara:
Absolutely. And obviously having the two kids that really changed the perspective for you and what your goals were and expanded what you were able to accomplish and being able to align you and your wife, Kaitlyn's goals. Together. So how have you been able to take, all these properties that you've acquired? Are you currently living entirely off of your multifamily income right now? Or are you still working a W2 job on the side? What does that look like?
Bo:
Yeah. So we actually just moved to Utah about a month ago and yeah, so we fully gave up being a realtor is what I was before. I'm flipping houses at the event we went to that's when Kaitlyn decided to quit her job and just do this full time. And obviously, we still had bills to pay. So I worked mine for the remainder of time, but now this is honestly what we do full time and it's the greatest blessing. I have the opportunity to go out with a multifamily now to the events they put on. So I get to travel, meet new people that are wanting to learn more about it. It's just a great opportunity and this has truly changed our lives and we just are so grateful for it.
Ciaara:
Absolutely. And so you're a product of the program and now you're helping to teach others how to do it, which is amazing. So just in a short time, a year and a half, you've acquired how many units total do you have now? Yeah.
Bo:
So we have 472 units and so we have 35 million assets under management.
Ciaara:
Perfect. All right. And given all of that, obviously you and Kaitlyn are doing this business together. You both have different roles in the business. So tell us about how you were able to divide the roles and work on this business together.
Bo:
Absolutely. That's a really good question. So something that's pretty amazing about me and Kaitlyn and Jed as well, but our skill sets with me and Kaitlyn are 100% different. She is an underwriter, right? So she's very analytical, very good at the research and diving into a lot of stuff that honestly, I'm not very good at and don't love to do. I love to meet people, make new connections work with our investors and, help find the deals. And so it's pretty cool that we completely do two different sides of the business where our skillsets are able to be strengthened and we're able to, use what we're good at, but at the same time, then they mold together for us to be able to come together and to get a deal done.
Ciaara:
Perfect. So what kind of challenges, a lot of new investors, they come into this role and maybe raising capital might seem a little daunting, a little scary to, talk to friends and family and ask them basically for pretty large sums of money to invest in deals. So what kind of challenges did you have to overcome in order to get to where you are right now?
Bo:
Yeah, I think the first thing you have to do is establish your identity of what you do. And then when it comes down to raising capital and in real estate in general, I think the first thing is it works for those that stay at it and are consistent. I think in the beginning it's definitely hard to get going and there's days where you don't feel motivated because you might not see progress, things like that. And it really comes down to your belief in yourself and to be able to. Just keep going at it. And if you keep going at it, I truly believe you'll see opportunities and things open up. I truly believe that. And, so with, on the capital raising side, truly understanding that like with our investors, what the returns are going to get, they get an 18% to 20% annual rate of return. They get tax benefits as well with depreciation, bonus depreciation. And truly understanding the numbers and how the deals work, but also letting the investors see that you want them to invest because of the deal itself, let alone anything else.
Ciaara:
Absolutely. So currently, in your business, how is it that you're able to add value to investors and also protect their capital?
Bo:
Yeah. So it's a really good question. Number one is the importance of underwriting, just on this. Rochester, Minnesota deal, just things we do to make sure that we under promise and over deliver. That's one thing that with the Eephus Capital, we do is we pass on a lot of deals that maybe other operators would do because we want the cream of the crop because our number one importance to us is our investors and their money. And we know that if we take good care of that, and that's our number one priority, if they get the returns they want, we look at this as a long term play. We're playing, we're looking at them investing with us for the next 25 years. Number one is that and going into the deals a little bit back to this Rochester deal, always try in. Under promise over deliver, right? So we make sure that we're very strict on things we do. For example, insurance, we always over insure ourselves. And we have a million dollars in CapEx for this 70 unit, just to make sure that we have everything covered, our debt service on it, which is our mortgage is 250, 000 per year. And we have 300, 000. In reserves just in case. So does it breaking down those numbers that it's truly is investing because of the numbers and the deal itself really do help to protect your investors and earn their trust.
Ciaara:
Absolutely. So now you mentioned, obviously you're full time parents. And when you first started out, I guess maybe for about the first year and a half. You did have another job. So as far as time commitments go for a new investor, what's expectations can you give them as far as how much time they should commit to their business? If they already have a lot of things going on, like they're, juggling a W 2 and maybe also parents as well.
Bo:
Yeah, I love that. And the biggest thing I'll be real about multifamily is it takes work, right? And it takes time. And if you have another job or other things you're doing. How do you do both? And really it comes down to the dedication. I think that's where the sports background helped me and Kaitlyn be able to make those sacrifices where we get up a little bit earlier. Big thing I think about is it is similar to the weight room and training for a marathon in a way, right? If you just workout on Saturdays and, put a couple hours in is that going to truly get you to your goal? Yes, I will say that does help you. It's better than doing nothing, but it's about the consistency of doing it every day, and maybe on Wednesday it is your recovery day where you just sit in a cold bath or, listen to the podcast or something to grow mentally. But I truly believe it's just, making those extra steps. So like one advantage me and Kaitlyn look at is most our deals are on central time or eastern time, right? Because we're mountain time. So when we get up before the kids to allow us to be able to get work done, just small sacrifices like that. That over time had up those hours.
Ciaara:
Perfect. And what would you say about someone who's looking to invest, in a certain market, as far as should they be focusing? Right now trying to get the first deal, just researching and looking and, trying to find deals just in one given market. It sounds like you've been able to diversify between a few different markets, in your first few deals. So what's your advice on that?
Bo:
Really good question. Yeah. In the beginning that's one of the mistakes I think me and Kaitlyn made is I would, go out and find the deals and I'd find one in florida and Arizona and like just all these markets where it takes so much time to truly understand a market, to truly understand the city, what are the tax laws? And so that's a great question. What I recommend, what worked out best for us is you pick two or three markets that you really like. And as you get to know those markets, then branch out a little bit, but don't be all over the place to where it's like every deal is a new market, right? If you can really understand Rochester for us, we really like that market is a market that we're going to do our research on. We have, and we can see ourselves doing more deals there.
Ciaara:
Perfect. All right. Now I'd like to switch gears a little bit and walk through one of the deals you've done. Just choose one. Maybe that had more challenges than the others so that our listeners can take, have some takeaway lessons from that. So you can go ahead and choose whatever deal you like and just walk us through how you found it. And. How you overcame any challenges associated with it.
Bo:
Yeah. First one that kind of comes to mind just cause we just closed it on Friday is our deal in Rochester, Minnesota. The reason why is because before we're under contract, like two weeks before. We're under contract on one just across the street. And when you finally found a deal, you get the numbers to work, like you're stoked and you're ecstatic and things are like, finally we're under contract, right? We got our inspections and to get our roofs replaced is what they needed done was a million dollars. And we had about a million dollars in CapEx. Just to show you like that million dollars killed the deal. So what we have to do is we had to retrade with the sellers to be able to, meet some middle ground there to negotiate the price. And when we were working with the sellers to negotiate that price, they were thinking we were taking advantage of them and not willing to drop the price. And so we said if you're not going to drop the price, we're not going to be able to close the deal. What's awesome is you do learn to protect yourself. So you don't lose any earnest money or things like that, but we had to walk away from that deal. And it stung, cause you've worked so hard to finally find a deal. Your partners have gone out there. You've done your homework and then just, you have to back away. Because like you say, the deal could have worked, but not like we wanted it to. And going back before what's more important to us is our investors money. And so we decided to walk away. And one of our partners as well his name is Michael. And he's part of the MFM network and he's an absolute stud. He's the one that built the relationship with these sellers. And his last name is Peeler, Michael Peeler. But anyways, we just backed away and two weeks later, we found out that there was one across the street that the sellers might not close on. And if it came to market again, we'd be able to have it. And long story short, we Two weeks later, we just hit the ground running again and we're able to be under contract. So just got to celebrate those small wins, right?
Ciaara:
Absolutely. And that just goes to show number one, persistence, like you were saying, just doing those daily actions. And number two is knowing our market really well, right? So you didn't have to do a whole bunch of new research again with this new property, because you already knew that. Marked really well, you had built relationships with, brokers, property managers, and other, people that you needed to be able to just underwrite pretty quickly and know if this was a good deal for you.
Bo:
100%.
Ciaara:
All right. So tell us about what you're working on right now and what is next for you and your company.
Bo:
Yeah. We're onto the next deal now, enjoying our small wins. But yeah, we're just looking for our next deal. We're submitting a few LOIs out there to see if we can get one to stick, but really for our company now is just to just keep growing. I think right now we want to hit these next few years really hard and dive in as much as we can and then just see it progress, and that's, what's awesome about having the importance of having good partners that push you every day, cause every day you're going to make mistakes or maybe do things not correct, but when you have partners that just hold you accountable and have a different outlook on it, it's just so easy to be able to move on and be ready for the next one. And it's just truly amazing and grateful to have, Jed and Kaitlyn on my team.
Ciaara:
Perfect. Now for our listeners that are listening to this today, and maybe they want to connect with you. now What would be a good way for them to be able to maybe reach out and add value to you? Is there anything that you maybe need in your business that they can help you with?
Bo:
Absolutely. I'm always looking to connect with people and get to know them all over. Best way to reach us is on social media. If you look up Eephus Capital is our Instagram handle or, bo knows 42 is mine. And then if you want to email me, I'd love to touch base with you as well. It's just B O. So Bo, and then at eephuscapital. com and that's E E P H U S.
Ciaara:
Perfect. Thanks everyone for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's show, please write us a five star review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. Every review helps us to be able to reach more and more people looking to get involved in commercial real estate.
Bo:
Awesome.
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