Vacay Replay: Solving Problems, Building Wealth with Monty Froehlich

Mike and Mark are out enjoying a little summer sunshine, so we're digging back into one of our favorite conversations from the vault.

This week we're joined by Monty Froehlich, owner of US Property and one of Nebraska's most respected commercial real estate investors and developers.

Monty shares his unlikely journey from working in the dairy industry to building a commercial real estate portfolio spanning multiple states. Along the way, he discusses why solving problems is the real business of commercial real estate, how diversification has shaped his success, why historic buildings still capture his imagination, and the importance of surrounding yourself with trusted advisors who aren't afraid to challenge your thinking.

Whether you're a seasoned investor, just getting started, or simply enjoy hearing the stories behind successful entrepreneurs, this episode is packed with timeless lessons and plenty of wisdom.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy this Vacay Replay from In the CRE Vault with Mike and Mark.

Thanks for tuning in to In the CRE Vault with Mike and Marc—where we break down commercial real estate without putting you to sleep. Powered by NAI FMA Realty in Lincoln, Nebraska. For more, visit naifmarealty.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hey, thanks for coming back to the vault. Mark, where are you at, buddy? Oh, that's right. We're on vacation for a bit. Summer sabbatical. We've tuned we've tuned up some pretty good throwbacks, reruns. Enjoy those, and we'll see you in August. Take care. Bye. Welcome to the podcast in the CRE Vault with Mike and Mark. All right. Welcome back to In the Vault with Mike and Mark. I am Mike Ball and I'm joined with Mark Housman. And we have a special guest today.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

But first, how are you doing today, Mark? I'm doing excellent. It uh it is a beautiful day out. I think we skipped spring. Um, but you know what? There's that's just fine. We jumped right into August heat. We did August heat, and there is just no give on it.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

But uh my backyard is hard as concrete.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

It is, it is grass is all dead, but you know, we're like farmers. It's uh we complain when it rains, we complain when it doesn't rain, and that's just that's kind of how we run. So that's true. In Nebraska, maybe I think we need to just dive right in here. I have not slept since last Thursday in anticipation, in anticipation of our new guest here. And he is uh, you know, we we we try to bring in uh the the the big people of of every industry, and I think we found the one. He is the goat of all industrial, he is a a marvelous story, and I'm excited to hear his story. Um, but more than anything, he is one of the top five best humans that I know. And I'm excited. So you why don't you do introduce him?

SPEAKER_03 1:41

Uh well, we're joined here today with uh Monty Frelick, and thank you for for taking the time today.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

It's really nice of you to do. My pleasure. Built that up way too high.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

We try we try to build egos up a little bit as they before they come in. But you know, we we had a few hiccups to get you in here, but I tell you what, we would have we would have came in at one o'clock on a Friday night to get you in here. It's uh would have been a different sale, possibly. It would, and it would have been a lot of slower, but you know, it's uh we're we're very excited. So so as a general recap, Monty is a a a fairly large investor. Um is it fair to say you started Monty with with very little knowledge? I mean, uh talk about your background up until buying your first property, right? I mean, is it uh something you just kind of just just hit the third tower at Woods Park and jumped in the deep end? Or unwrap that a little bit? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Well, I'm 64 years old, so I've been at it for a while. So um it it may appear that, but it certainly didn't start out uh that way. I was, I would say I actually got started in real estate when we uh my wife and I bought our first house. I mean, I really think that's where you get, you either decide it's gonna be like where you live, or you look at it more like this is gonna be an investment. And and you know, Lisa looks at it a little differently than I do, but uh we are very different people, but we really tried to maximize where we live and we've tried to improve those homes. And I think that's really where I got started. I mean, I didn't know that I was starting in the real estate business, but but that you know, I really trace it back. That's that's how it got started.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Interesting. Did you did you just start pretty heavily in residential or or did you was it just your your home property that you purchased? So what was number two? It's always number one's the easiest, number two always seems to me to be the toughest purchase because there's a different it's a different ballgame, and now all of a sudden you're you're really into it. So yeah, what was your second? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

But the second property that we bought would have been another home. And that's when we we were we actually first home we I'm from Norfolk, Nebraska, and uh moved to Lincoln to go to University of Nebraska, Lincoln, got a food science degree and an MBA, and then my first job out of college was at Gillette Dairy in in Norfolk, spent a couple of years there, bought a house there, and then we the kind of the industry changed a little bit, and I took a job at Meadow Gold Dairy, which is at not too far from where we're at right now, about a less than a mile. But uh moved to Lincoln uh in 1985 and and with had no intentions of uh going into real estate, just bought a different house, sold the house we had, and uh that was my second purchase. So it's still in the same genre, but but it really um I I ended up in real estate not by design or even there was nothing formulaic about it. There was it was just kind of I stumbled into it, and it was mostly because I was in a job that was not it got super boring, and I was looking for a hobby that might I might be able to make some money in, and that I might be interested in it. So it I started looking at auctions and you know, just all kinds of just stuff that was for sale, and because I was salaried and I worked oh probably 50-55 hours a week, quality control manager was kind of a 24-7 job, and I mean my schedule changed all the time. I'd I'd go in and work on the cleaning crew one one week, and I'd be in the lab the next couple weeks, and I'd be filling in for the cottage cheesemaker, you know, when he went on vacation one week, and you know, just my schedule is just you know always shifting. And so many times I'd find myself available during the day, and I would start looking at available property that I might be able to buy. And more as a hobby, more of an interest, and more more to try to solve uh a real boredom issue.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

That's interesting. So you're managing these properties yourself.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yeah, you're wasn't uh designed at first either.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Okay. And you're so so you're managing the properties yourself, you're helping the cottage cheesemaker. At what point do you do you change gears and say, listen, there there is no more. I can't I can't help you with uh I can't help you skim the cheese and the fat off anymore. What it was small curd. Was your next step joining a brokerage?

SPEAKER_01 6:30

I mean, it understood that next step. Uh, so this is probably going out to the people who maybe are in a career that is not really checking all the boxes, uh, which is definitely the case for me. At first, I would say probably the first six years out of college, I really enjoyed the career path I was on. It was interesting. I was solving problems in kind of the food manufacturing arena, and I I loved it. The next then, you know, and and as is the case with a lot of people, life changes. And we got a uh food plant manager that was just so good that he was ahead of every problem that used to come up. And so my life got super boring. And I just I would every week I would just fill out forms and and it became very corporate and very stale. And and I, you know, part of this whole I think life is trying to figure out like how God made you and you know, why am I here? I think Mark Twain talked about that. The two most important days are the day you're born and the day you figure out why you're born. And I had not figured that out, even though you know I had two degrees and uh lots of friends and people that knew me, and my wife knows me well and is like, man, I this is just not working. I just I I would just regret like every Sunday night before the work week started, I would this depression would fall over me. I was like, oh gosh, I gotta go back to work tomorrow. And and I just didn't know how to solve that. And and that was very unusual because I approach life like I'm a problem solver, and really that's what I do now in real estate. And and that that makes it fun again. But anyway, so that's kind of what led to that. And I just started looking like what else can I do? I started talking to a lot of people that knew me. Sometimes those people got really tired of hearing the same story because I could not crack the code on what I should do next.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Okay, so you you're continuing buying these residential units.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

So so I bought a my first investment property was a house, a rental house in Chester, Nebraska. Chester is down by the Kansas border. Yeah, and uh, and uh it was a nice house, so it was probably in 1980. Oh, maybe seven somewhere in there, and I paid $1,800 for this three-bedroom house that probably at the time would have been worth $30,000 in Lincoln. And it was like $1,800. That's a you know, before you make a big decision, and and for us at that time, that was a big decision, and I had never done anything like that before. And but it was something that I could afford for it to go south, and we would not like end up, you know, you can still eat mac and cheese a couple days. Yeah, I could still like it wouldn't change our lifestyle if we if that went south. And so I pulled the trigger on that, bought the house for $1,800 or a share of sale. And then, you know, the next time I had a week of vacation, I spent that week painting the house, and I rented it to a couple in Chester, and Chester's 100 people, maybe. And they paid $100 a month. And you know, I thought this is working pretty well. But Chester's probably an hour and a half from Lincoln. And so it's like, you know, this isn't this isn't great. It's it's not really doing a whole lot in terms of you know the investment value. And it's, you know, you kind of go, is this a good investment or is this a distraction? And you know, you kind of with a lot of investments, you kind of waffle. And and one thing about real estate is it's not static, it always changes, and you always have to be prepared for it to change. You lose a tenant, something happens in that industry, uh, COVID, you know, whatever. Right. Um, so anyway, it it was a good exercise. And I tried to, I thought maybe I could sell this house after I got it fixed up and rented for twelve thousand dollars. And so I put it on the market, on the market for twelve thousand, and I had no interested people. And so that kind of optimism quickly turned into, oh, gee, am I gonna be stuck with this house? Uh like, are there any buyers? And so it was really a good opportunity to just think about depth of market. It's like uh Chester, Nebraska has no depth in the market. It's like the couple that was renting it was actually willing to buy it, and they they bought it for $7,500, which is, you know, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and they were happy with the deal. I was happy with the deal, and and it was my first opportunity in real estate. It's like, you know, hindsight is like, wow, that that worked pretty well. Yeah. So that kind of planted the seed of, you know, as long as I'm maybe a little more careful, maybe I could do this again.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

You you made a statement in a strike accord with me. Um, there's a difference between investment versus distraction. And I think on when anytime you're buying a property, you can you can get stuck in the distraction mode where it's just it's really not a good investment and it's a hundred percent distraction. Have you I mean, do you find yourself in a lot of those modes or do you do you find yourself making good investments now? Do you still find yourself making mistakes as you're buying investment properties? Do you understand my question? Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

The first few years of my real estate career, even though I was still working a full-time job, I I didn't make any mistakes per se where I lost money. But if you're gonna be in the real estate world, you can just plan on losing money on a deal because you're gonna miss something or something's gonna change that's beyond your control, or something's gonna happen where it's just like, okay, I got to get out, I gotta take my beating and move on. Um, but it's it's it's it's really a thinking person's game. Um, because it's just but it is, it's kind of like if you like to solve problems, it's you know, it's a great place to focus your efforts because it's it's all about solving problems. And really, that's what makes it fun. It's fun that you've been on the landlord tenant side to just like you're there really to solve a tenant's problem. And and and the better you can do that, then the better. I mean, it just makes it you enrich their their lives, you enrich your life, and and it's just kind of it's just kind of spreads.

unknown 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yeah, I agree with that. On the on the projects of say where you've lost money, uh, do your do your gains outweigh your losses exponentially? Um, on do you find yourself easily realizing that you have losses on a property and you just walk away from it versus you know, I I tell my kids life is a 70% theory. If you walk into every conversation knowing 70% of what's being talked about, you're doing pretty good. Yeah, if you if you bet on football and you win 70% of the time, you're doing better than most. And if you, you know, and if you win on real estate or even a job in that matter, if you win 70% of the time, you're you're doing better than most. And and so my question is uh, you know, do you find your losses being minimal and your gains being exponential? Do you understand my question?

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah, yeah. Um, I think I'm gonna answer that a little differently in terms of just I think probably one of the things I have benefited the most from is just um I try to make I consider myself a student of the Bible, and and Proverbs has so much good nuggets, and and I think we underestimate that as a culture, but one of those nuggets is in the council of many, there is victory. And one of the things that we as humans don't recognize is what we call blind spots. And so one of the things I've done, and I've been doing that for almost 18 years now, is have a board of advisors. They're just volunteers and they're friends, and they're from a cross-section of different industries, and we meet once a year. And my wife and I sit down with them and spend an afternoon, buy them lunch, blue orchid, it's awesome, and have a meeting and just go from one to four, unless they want lunch, which is optional. Um, but we just kind of show them the financials, talk to them about like how staff are doing, talk about where we're in involved in deals, um, and then just invite uh it's very casual. Just what are your thoughts? And you know, cross-section a marketing person and a you know, person in real estate and a person in you know, financial stuff, and just kind of a variety. And one of the things that was said, and none of what they say is binding, but my wife and I listen to what they say, and we try to take away maybe two or three things is like, okay, this is what we need to try to focus on for the next year. One of the things that was said a couple years ago is I have a passion for redeveloping historic buildings. I love, I love how old buildings 100 plus years ago were built, and you know, including the grand man's. It's just like I mean, just the construction, the wall thickness, the just how robust older buildings were built. It just I find it fascinating. And I I always try to save those kind of buildings and preserve that history and try to be the person that is the next page in the chapter. Yeah. And I really marvel at how Europe does it. And I and I just wish the US was a little bit, had a little more of that mindset where it was more feasible because that's what I love doing. But a couple of years ago, one of my board advisor members said, I think you need to go on a diet on these historic buildings. Like you're just getting way too many, and and all of them are more challenging, more expensive, and take more time. Like, I'm not saying like stop, I'm just saying go on a diet. Like, like you're you're really getting top heavy with these old historic buildings that you haven't been able to do anything with because they take more time, are more expensive, and and just you know, are are challenging. And and trying to mesh that with today's building and safety code is like it's in some cases impossible. And so it's like I they actually said that two years in a row because I didn't want to listen to them, to this person, and and the rest of the board members did not disagree, and I didn't want to, I didn't want to do that. It's like, no, this is what I love, and so I don't want to do the easy, simple deals that make money. Like, I know that I need to do that, but those aren't as fun, yeah, those aren't as challenging. It's not your passion, yeah. But it's kind of like the second year in a row, it's kind of like gosh, I dang it, you're right. I I really need to, I really needed to heed that. And so we embarked on a about a five-year plan to try to get every single historic building in the portfolio either sold, redeveloped, or demoed. And and I've got one left. And you know, so it's like we've made a lot of progress. It it was the right thing to do, but I would never would have done it without somebody saying, uh, hey, you really, you're really kind of you're you're you're doing too much of this. So that really helps me.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

So so you offset your passion by diversification, and and to be able to be that well disciplined is is just a home run. I mean, because I got 99% of people just say, Well, I don't want to do that. This is what I want to do. And and and you're sharp enough of a pencil to be able to say, you know, I hear what you're saying. It it sounds like it took a couple baseball bat hits to say, hey, look at this way. But right, I mean, it's it seems to me that that's the direction, and I just think that's that's amazing that you're able to do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

I think you will we really, as individuals, we just need to invite people who I mean, most people, you know, we grew up with if you can't say something nice, don't say anything.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

It's like, you know, we kind of had that drilled into us, but it's like, is that really the best thing that like if I really care about somebody, I'm gonna tell them what I think is helpful. But I also preface it with, I'm one person with one opinion. And, you know, then it's up to that person to whether they want to listen to it or not. And for me, it's like, okay, I I I feel like I have a pretty high level of intelligence, but I don't have the corner on the wisdom world, and and there's things that I don't see right. And so that's really helped in terms of a couple of big things that I, you know, never would have let go of if I wouldn't have had that kind of structure.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

It's nice. Let's let's switch gears here for a second. Talk about your retail versus office versus industrial space. Would you say you are uh heavily invested in the the industrial market? Would you say you have more office space? And and unwrap which one you think is a little more successful than the other and which one you enjoy the most.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Absolutely. Okay, so again, I'll go to Ecclesiastes 11 says, divide your portion into seven or even eight because you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth. It's like so the whole diversification thing, uh, that came from you know hundreds of years ago, and it's really smart. So diversification is important uh because you don't know, nobody knows what the future is going to be. So it is important to kind of divvy up somehow. Now, most financial advisors would say that means you know, diversified portfolio of stock. Uh, maybe some real estate, but you know, real estate, if you don't know it, you could really get hurt. Um, a lot of real estate people would say, you know, that just you know, this is what I know, so therefore that's what I'm gonna just kind of keep doubling down on. So we've tried to have a balance of, and there are good reasons for not being spread too thin. Um, because if you if you are spread too thin, you don't get the advantage of really knowing one segment really well. So we have applied that toward a geographic diversification. I mean, I really don't have much in the stock market, and it's because I don't understand it. I could go deeper in that and have thought about that many times. But I've looked at the history and it's like, okay, this has worked really well. And I really feel like we have applied the seven or eight because we're diversified geographically. This takes place over time. You can't just do it immediately. But we're diversified in right now 15 states. Makes it hard because we've then we don't know all the rules and regulations in every state. But that is balanced by okay, every market is different. So there's some pros for that. There's also cons. But we also try to be pretty diversified in terms of real estate type. And so we have, you know, some retail, some office, some ag quite a bit of industrial. But it is my passion is really industrial. So it we are heavily weighted in industrial, but we're we we we think we still, you know, that still works if we're have some of you know a lot of things, but not everything.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Are you still just with the boom in the industrial market over the past we'll say three, four years? Are you still acquiring industrial or is that is that uh less on on the hot list?

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Yeah, we are. I uh I I make you know a written offer usually every week, and it's in typically in another state, but uh frequently it's in Nebraska. But it's uh we try to close on maybe three to five properties a year. So there's a lot of you know, there's not a really high closing rate. Um, but a lot of times it's because you know, people I think there's a lot of property that doesn't fit who the owner is currently. So we look for opportunities where the property and the owner aren't a great fit. And you know, that takes a lot of effort.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

So we try to kind of test motivation based on making offers. And sometimes we offer full prize cash, sometimes we offer something significantly less than asking because it's like, uh, I think there's some. If we're gonna get something in the contract, we want to have a pretty good feel that we're gonna close on it and that we wouldn't close unless we find something that's sure kind of weird. So that takes a lot of effort.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Where would you find most of your success on in in office retailer industrial? And and and you almost have to take out the past three or four years because I think industrial has probably been the most lucrative for you. Is that fair statement?

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Yeah, industrial's really been the kind of the clear leader of any product type in the last, especially three years.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Let's say pre-2020, what what would have your answer been?

SPEAKER_01 24:46

I would say probably all the above before 2020. Like I would chase office, I would chase retail. Uh pre-2020, you know, the Amazon effect kind of was in place, so retail was a little less prominent, but office was you know pretty strong. Now it's probably industrial's still number one. And and then multifamily is right under right after that.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

So talk about the future as we as we kind of wrap up here. Talk talk about the future. What do you what are you looking at now for for your portfolio? And what do you anticipate is going to happen over the next few years with the office market, the industrial market? Uh, you know, just unwrap kind of what your vision is and what you where you see everything kind of headed.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Uh well, this answer doesn't fit everybody because um, you know, you really, I think maybe earlier is kind of like find out where you're passionate and and what you're good at, and really try to develop that segment. So, but try to be diversified in in the process. So try to do everything at the same time. A lot of people like at first I started in residential and I just didn't I didn't enjoy that. I didn't I particularly like working with business owners. And I and for some reason that just I don't know if it's my background or just the way I'm wired, but it just that's where that's where I really kind of that's my sweet spot, really. We do have multifamily, but I don't do the property management side of it. It's not really my skill set, but but I think it's important in terms of diversification. So we do that. I think if we try to figure out like what is the herd, what is the herd doing? And let's try not to do that. So the common kind of whatever what whatever's hot, we try to figure out what's not. And like, are there segments in that that are underserved or or there's emerging kind of trends that might you know that we might be able to ride that wave instead of uh kind of going against the when it's it's supply and demand when when all the demand is in a certain direction, then that changes that dynamic and the prices go higher, and I think the opportunity is less. So we try to find where maybe it's a little unnoticed or not as noticed. And if it if it seems like it there's a particular deal in that category, then we'll take a hard run at it.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

I I I find that is a is a very good statement. Um, but the but the problem with that is I think about let's take, for example, the CBD districts and the office buildings and the the vacancy levels that we're seeing on a on a national level. Yeah. Who goes out and buys these buildings? Because if if you want to be the firefighter, you're going into those and you're buying those buildings. But where you I just think you gotta be you're gonna be sending that building alone. You get it, you're gonna be sitting in a lot of buildings alone. And I just, you know, you just gotta have a big pair to be able to do that. It just doesn't work that easily, you know. So I think good for you. And and and do you have any fear when when say certain certain people are leaving an industry and you're looking to buy those, say, assets in that industry? I mean, is there is there any fear or do you just are you are are you like the goldfish that just forgets what was said two minutes ago and you know they always say live life like a goldfish and because they forget what had happened five seconds ago? Unwrap that a little bit. I mean, is there any fear on your side when you're jumping into something like that?

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Absolutely. It yeah, it's usually more of a specific like I try to work through, especially, you know, we try to go after property that not everybody wants, and and it's like, okay, that means that maybe there's something in there that we haven't seen. But I usually go into that with a okay, plan A is this, plan B, so it it's more like preparation. So we got plan A, B, C, sometimes up to D. And because you know, you just try things and see if it works. And especially if it's in a market that we don't understand, it's like it's more about who do we work with. So it's if we do a good job on like, is there in the case of a commercial property, is there a good local broker who really will make the difference? And if the answer to that is no, we probably won't close on that property. Sure. If the answer is yes, then okay, this this person becomes our partner and they're our eyes and ears, and they're gonna they're gonna know who who needs space and whether there is demand, and whether if we do this to this building, we will open that, you know, open that building up to those users or not. So in my due diligence, I try to find who that broker is like during the walkthrough. And then like if that person, if if they've got good credentials, and typically it's a team. I I mean, I like how you guys do it with you know teaming an experienced person with a person with less experience but more capacity.

SPEAKER_04 30:19

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

That's a that's a winning combination because then you've got you know active and experience. And so it's it's like uh that's a pretty good pretty good combination. And then, you know, we just need to create a property that tenants in that area can use and it can make their business flourish. And that's kind of like on a granule, granular level, kind of, yeah, we call it blight busting, where we can actually, you know, make a neighborhood better and and therefore the community.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

So still a good deal.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Yeah, it absolutely works all around.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

And you're buying the supply and you're creating the demand, and and that's difficult to do.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

And and if you buy it, we you know, we try to buy it right because there will be a surprise. And sometimes if there's more than two surprises, then that buying right became we we shouldn't have bought. Yeah, and that's happening. Yeah, or some I mean you we we can usually spot that, but every now and then there's something that's just wow, didn't see that coming.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

Could be haunted, yeah. Yeah, could you imagine? Jeez, I want to go back to just one quick thing, Monty, about your problem solving comment. And you know, on occasion, when we hire a new a new agent or broker, it's we'll sit down with them and we'll say, How do you how do you become successful in what you do? And I said two things is if you like solving problems and helping people, then you'll be successful. Yeah. And that's you know, that I think that rings very true for you. So I just picked that up among the other things, of course, but I just thought that was a great similarity that we share.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

So absolutely. And I think passion is a hard one to find when you're younger because you bypass your passion to say supply for your family. And I and I think back to uh what what the well one of our leading brokers here in the office, and he was on the property management side, and and then came into our group on the on the sales and leasing side, and he is just as happy as happy. Yeah, and you can see the pep in his step, and and even in the conversation, because I knew him on the property when he was a property manager, and and and I just you can see the difference. And and that is a difficult transition to do, and and it's easier said than done. Uh, you know, when you're talking back and you're telling the story, it looks really good in form, but it's it is not easy.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

So I think a lot of times if if younger people would just ask, you know, business people like, hey, can I can I shout out for half a day or a day? I mean, oh my gosh, the exposure is I mean, you really don't know what you're good at until you try it. And but if you can watch somebody and what they do, and especially if they're passionate about it, I mean that who knows? That can change the the career path of that person and yeah, maybe make a huge difference in that community and beyond that.

SPEAKER_03 33:14

Yeah. That's just kind of the that goes back to the fear of trying new things.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Yeah, absolutely. We kind of get stuck in our comfort, yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

And I think it gets lost in translation, just the people that have lived through it. I don't think the younger people want to hear those stories. And I tell my kids, always ask anybody about their life story because I have not met one person debt that does not want to tell you their life story. And listen to them, and and you will hear goods and bads, and it but listen to them and evaluate it because everybody's got a story. Yeah, that's what life is.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

And you really want to, I mean, I would I remember uh when I was early after after about my first commercial building in Lincoln, Nebraska, which is 4817 North 56th. I was painting the building. It's a masonry building, and a guy named Harley Bear drove up and got out of his car and introduced himself. And he was kind of a big real estate industrial person in Lincoln. And uh we were just chatting and and you know, I made some kind of comment about you know, learning from my mistakes or whatever. And and he said, you know, young man, uh, that's all well and good, but uh you'll find that in this business that if you're gonna learn from your expense your mistakes, the tuition is extremely expensive. I'm like, hmm, and I quit saying that. It's like, gosh, I would rather learn from observing other people or listening to other people and how they made mistakes and maybe learn it before and not be like naive, and then that costs way more time and money, and and it, you know, that's a way better approach than learn. I mean, yes, learn from your mistakes, but learn from other people's. If you can prevent that, that's way better.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Positivity is 100% perception.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

It's true. Well, Monty, I think, you know, we could sit here for eight or nine days and just ask you the questions. And I want to keep asking questions, but at some point we got them in the office. At some point, we gotta we gotta cut the cord here and and stop. You know, I I appreciate every moment you gave us today and your your insight just in the just in the life and res in the real estate side was just a home run. Yeah, and we appreciate the relationship personally and and professionally.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

So nice. Thanks for coming in, Mona. Same here.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

We'll see you again. All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of any high FMA realty. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. Any high FMA realty disclaims any liability or responsibility for any individual's use or reliance on the information presented in this podcast.