The Cincinnati Mistake That Built a $2 Billion Company with Joe Fairless

Joe Fairless built Ashcroft Capital into one of the most recognized multifamily syndicators in the country — $2B+ in assets, properties across the Sunbelt, and a vertically integrated management company. But he started with $30K, student loans, and an apartment in New York where one paycheck covered rent and the other covered everything else.

In this episode, Joe gets candid about the deals that didn't work, the market conditions that are keeping multifamily investors in a holding pattern, and the one acquisition strategy most operators are completely ignoring right now: going direct to the lender.

Here's what we cover:

• Why Fort Worth and Orlando are Ashcroft's two highest-conviction markets heading into late 2026
• How Joe acquired a property for less than the outstanding debt — and what it took to get there
• The lender relationship play that gives you first look at off-market distressed deals (even if you don't have your own management company)
• Where the supply/demand shift is — and why Q3 2026 is the number operators keep landing on
• Joe's personal 3.5% math: out of 140 LP deals across 50+ operators, what's actually gone to zero
• The fixed vs. floating rate lesson that still stings
• How Joe defines success — and it has nothing to do with deal count

Joe also shares his three bucket list goals for the year. One involves a fifth grader with a 2040 chess rating. That's all we're saying.

This week's book: The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

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Additional Resources:

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Social Media:

• LinkedIn -> Ed Mathews (President at Clark St and Elevista)

Transcript

Joe Fairless 0:00

But I realized I didn't care about what I was doing anymore. It was just, yeah I was just chasing money and I wasn't fulfilled. And Tony Robbins talks about the two keys to fulfillment. Growth you make progress. Yeah. Growth and contribution. Those are the two. So we've gotta feel like we're pro progressing, growing, and we've gotta feel like what we're doing matters.

Ed Mathews 0:24

If you're within three feet of me, we're probably talking about real estate, much to my family chagrin. But here's the thing, most people see 7% rates and freeze. I see opportunity. They're waiting for the perfect deal and well, I've analyzed thousands of them and perfect just doesn't exist. So I talk to operators across every asset class, flippers, multifamily, syndicators, note investors, and whatever else is working. No sales pitches allowed, just real lessons from people actually doing it. I'm Ed Mathews, and this is Real Estate Underground. Greetings and salutations real estate underground. It is Ed Mathews with the Real Estate Underground. Thank you so much for making us a part of your day. I'm really grateful for all of the comments as well as all you new folks who are following us. Thank you for those comments. 'cause it actually gives us a really good path in terms of the types of guests that we should be bringing on the show. And with that, I'm very excited to announce that Joe ish from Faris, from Ashcroft Capital is joining us today. Joe, welcome to the show and thanks for joining. Well,

Joe Fairless 1:34

thanks a lot Ed, and looking forward to our conversation.

Ed Mathews 1:37

Absolutely. So for those three people out there who don't know who you are why don't you give us a little bit of background about you and your company?

Joe Fairless 1:46

Sure. I'm originally from Texas and I went to Texas Tech University and then right outta college, went to Gunville. There you go. I went to New York City, so right next to where you're at now.

Ed Mathews 1:59

Yep.

Joe Fairless 1:59

And lived in New York City for 10 years, made $30,000 had about. 20,000 in student loans. And had an apartment where, you know, my, my paycheck was covering my, the rent was one of my paychecks for the month. And it was like 700, 800 bucks and the other paycheck went to everything else. Yeah. Including student loans. So that's how I started. And I ended up climbing the corporate ladder. Relatively quickly became the youngest VP of a New York City advertising agency on Wall Street. And I ended up, my goal was I wanna make a hundred thousand dollars form 30. That, that was my goal. And I achieved that goal, I think around 28. I ended up, around 150,000 at my last role. But I realized I didn't care about what I was doing anymore. It was just, yeah I was just chasing money and I wasn't fulfilled. And Tony Robbins talks about the two keys to fulfillment. Growth you make progress. Yeah. Growth and contribution. Those are the two. So we've gotta feel like we're pro progressing, growing, and we've gotta feel like what we're doing matters.

Ed Mathews 3:13

Right.

Joe Fairless 3:13

I didn't really feel like that anymore.

Ed Mathews 3:14

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 3:15

So I started learning apartments, so I, excuse me. I, as I was progressing along the way, I bought some single family homes in Texas where I was from. My first one was $76,000, and then I bought three more and three. A one a year for three more years. And then I realized that I was making a lot of money in my spreadsheet, but not in my account because when someone would move out all those, all the income that I was making from the year went right back out to get it moving. Ready.

Ed Mathews 3:46

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 3:46

And so I, I started buying or I started looking at and researching apartments and I got my first deal in Cincinnati. Where I currently live even though I was living in New York and I raised money from 12 investors and it, I learned all the things not to do on a deal, right? I made every mistake in the book on that deal, and it lost money. But I ended up paying back my investors plus a return outta my own pocket over the next couple years. And then I realized that. So I ended up moving to Cincinnati. I lived in the apartment, it was 168 units. So I lived in the model unit and in the mornings I would pack my stuff up, put it in the dresser of the model unit, and then walk over to leasing office and then go show that model unit to prospective tenants. Yeah. And in the evenings I'd go take my Toyota Corolla to Home Depot and get a bunch of asphalt filler for potholes and put it in the trunk of the car, drive it back, and then just scoop it outta the trunk of my car and fill potholes in the parking lot. What I realized is that sometimes. Despite our a hundred percent effort, and I do believe I was given a hundred percent effort. I moved to Cincinnati despite my a hundred percent effort, some things just aren't going to succeed the way we think they will or want them to. Sure. Even if we really, even if we really try hard, and I realized I needed a business partner to, to focus on the areas that I was not good at.

Ed Mathews 5:28

Yep.

Joe Fairless 5:28

Which is asset management and identifying the right deals. So I ended up partnering with my now business partner. This was 10 years ago, 2015. And then we formed Ashcroft and off we went. And, we've had challenges along the way too, but we've also had a lot of successes.

Ed Mathews 5:46

Who hasn't? The fact is that I was at hunter Thompson's conference two years ago and everybody was talking about survive to 25, right? And then, we got to 25 and it's oh, this isn't even any better. It's been an interesting couple years. I was talking with somebody yesterday mike Slotnick and from Big Mike's podcast. And he was, tell, he was asking me, when was the last time I actually bought a multifamily? And I had to think about it. It's probably been about 18 months. And, not I, there are deals out there for sure, but we tend to stick to our knitting and stay local here in the northeast and, oh,

Joe Fairless 6:19

nice.

Ed Mathews 6:20

It's great. In that it's my old flipper's mentality of, I, I want to go out and touch the Yeah. Property. Much like you moving to Cincinnati I want it to be a drive. Yeah. A drive away so I can go do whatever needs to be done. But it's interesting, the I'm starting to see a shift in terms of. I'm always looking for that spread that 2%. That two point spread between cap rate and and debt cost. And elsewhere in the US I, I know for a fact out in the Midwest that can be found, but here in the Northeast we're not quite there yet, i'm curious, you tend to invest in the Sunbelt, if I'm not mistaken. You know what and also obviously Ohio, but where where are you seeing movement? Where are you seeing opportunity in this market?

Joe Fairless 7:02

In the Ohio property? That was the only deal that we've ever owned. And actually, my business partner never did I, I met him after I. I acquired property with

Speaker 7:12

this.

Ed Mathews 7:12

This is Frank Greer.

Joe Fairless 7:14

Yeah. Yep. So we've only purchased Ashcroft. We've only purchased in the Sunbelt. So we have properties, Dallas-Fort Worth. We, the first property was in Houston, first couple were in Houston. We don't own, we don't own any in Houston now. We've got deals in Chapel Hill. Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and then right outside of Miami.

Ed Mathews 7:37

Sure.

Joe Fairless 7:38

To answer your question about the, where we see opportunity I'll just give some context. There was a migration from like 2020 2020 21. Up to 2020 through 2024, there was a migration to the Sunbelt.

Ed Mathews 8:01

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 8:02

People in California, they would move to Texas, number one, and number two, they'd move to Nevada. People in new. They would move to Florida, number one, and they'd actually move to Jersey number two, so they weren't migrating too far. But they're getting at it, getting outta New York and I don't really, maybe just, they're looking for more space, but they wanted to stay in the northeast. Yeah. But a lot of people from New York were moving to Florida. And that wa that spurred a lot of new apartments.

Ed Mathews 8:36

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 8:36

And that spurred a lot of, rent increases in those areas because the new apartments hadn't been built yet and it was spiking the rent because of the restriction on supply. Then interest rates while interest rates were low as I just mentioned, the, there's a lot of new construction that was being built, but it just hadn't come on online yet. Then interest rates. Increased, as we all know, and the new supply that was being built, started coming online, started getting leased up at the same time that the interest rates were increasing. And at the same time that. As we all know, expenses were running wild.

Ed Mathews 9:22

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 9:23

With costs, right? With payroll and, lumber and every, everything. So you had a perfect storm of good stuff of followed quickly by a perfect storm of bad stuff.

Ed Mathews 9:38

Right on.

Joe Fairless 9:39

And so now where are we at? People aren't moving. People are not moving in the way they were moving.

Ed Mathews 9:47

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 9:48

To Texas and to Florida. And the reason why is twofold. One is because. People just aren't moving in general right now, right? 'cause of they're locked in with the mortgage,

Ed Mathews 10:02

right?

Joe Fairless 10:03

At a lower rate and they look at, 6% and they look at 4% or 3% or 2% that they currently have. Nope, not gonna do that.

Ed Mathews 10:10

Right?

Joe Fairless 10:11

So generally people aren't moving as much. The second thing is that there is more return to the office. Before it was remote work. Now it's more employers mandating that you spend some time in the office.

Ed Mathews 10:31

Yep.

Joe Fairless 10:31

Which, limits the flexibility that people have. So you're not seeing that migration like you were before, but you still have. A, you still have a large population base and you still have people coming into the states just not in Groves like they were before. So now with that context where do we see the opportunity? Df, Texas and Florida are still, the two markets are still the two states that we see opportunity. DFW in particular Orlando in particular. Our two markets and, for Texas people. Yes. I just grouped Dallas and Fort Worth together, so I'll be more specific. We we like all the w but we just bought a deal in Fort Worth, north of Fort Worth north Lake for my Fort Worth people. I'm from Fort Worth. So I'm. I wanna make the distinction. I'm not grouping in Cowtown with City Slickers of Dallas. And so we like Fort Worth. We like Dallas too, but we see growth, a lot of growth opportunities at Fort Worth. And we also see it in Orlando, you had mentioned the the, on the acquisition front. We've made two purchases in the last. I don't know, 12, 12 months. We made two purchases in the last 12 months. One is in Fort Worth, north Fort Worth, and the other is in Orlando.

Ed Mathews 11:54

Gotcha. And in terms of the expense issues, right? I mean from here in the Northeast labor has. Rates have at least stabilized. I wouldn't say they've gone back down, but they've certainly stabilized Material costs are similar. They've stabilized they've come back to historical norms in terms of, board feet and all that. The one thing, the one category that, that I know we're challenged by, and I'm curious what your experience is the insurance costs they went through the roof. Three, four years ago. And with a couple of those catastrophic storms, the one in particular that hit Southern and central Florida. And so I'm curious about how you're managing that across your portfolio.

Joe Fairless 12:38

It's higher than it was before those storms. Yeah. It's lower than it was right after those storms and. We have a portfolio insurance.

Ed Mathews 12:51

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 12:51

It's, it helps with the burden of, have with, of just being in Florida. But I'll say that, orlando is considered inland, so it doesn't have the same type of risk profile as say a obviously Miami or other Yeah. Cities or right on the water.

Ed Mathews 13:10

That's good. In terms of opportunity, so you mentioned Fort Worth, Dallas, I'll be respectful and not bunch them up either in central Florida is that where you tend to stay or I've been speaking to a lot of investors who are really looking at the Midwest Oklahoma, Indiana. And

Joe Fairless 13:28

Don't you dare tell an Oklahoma person that they're in the Midwest, by the way.

Ed Mathews 13:33

Oh, okay. Hey, you mean those,

Joe Fairless 13:34

those are fighting. Those are fighting words.

Ed Mathews 13:35

All right. Fair enough. My apologies to the four people out in Oklahoma who listen to this show. Thank you for saving me.

Joe Fairless 13:46

Yes. I got your back.

Ed Mathews 13:47

Appreciate you. Nevertheless, I'm curious about are there other markets that are interesting or, you're a well established operation and, I would imagine that one of the reasons you focus and planted your flag in those two areas is for economies of scale, right? It allows you to build teams around those geographies. Have you looked elsewhere? Or are you sticking to your knitting?

Joe Fairless 14:11

We have looked elsewhere. We've looked at Vegas, we've looked at Phoenix. We have not seriously looked at the Midwest or the West Coast or the Northeast. And that is because, as you mentioned, we are well established and we have systems in place and it would need to be a portfolio acquisition.

Ed Mathews 14:34

Yeah, makes sense.

Joe Fairless 14:35

Yep. 1200 units. To bump outside of the Sunbelt for us to for it to make sense. We are vertically integrated. We have our own management company. Yep. Currently it only manages our properties. So we, we have a system up and down the line and it just would need to be really compelling there. There's over the last couple years I'd say over the last three, four years. The best place for rent growth has been the Midwest.

Ed Mathews 15:05

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 15:06

Yeah. So I get it. Like the operators that just invest there everything's cyclical though, right? The Sunbelt was bonkers before that.

Ed Mathews 15:14

Yep.

Joe Fairless 15:14

So it's just, it, I think instead of trying to chase the next market, it's more, Hey, we have relationships established in the markets we're in. We've got the systems, the people, the process. There's plenty of opportunity in Atlanta and Dallas Fort Worth. Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville,

Ed Mathews 15:33

yeah. Where you don't have to move beyond and it totally makes sense. We do the same thing as we were before we hit record. I was telling you, I tend to stay in the Northeast for that exact reason, so I get it.

Joe Fairless 15:42

Yeah.

Ed Mathews 15:42

So let's talk about a deal you walked away from. I'm always interested in, they say that sometimes the best deal is no deal. Yeah. And so I'm curious, as you've looked into these other markets, Nevada, Phoenix you mentioned, or Vegas, Phoenix what was the situation that, you thought you might be interested in? You went nope. That one doesn't, that one doesn't get through the filter. Walk me through that.

Joe Fairless 16:04

Yeah. It's interesting. The Fort Worth deal that we purchased, we bought it a direct from the lender. And we got financing that is advantageous to us. That is like really low interest rate and fixed, and it's a lot of good things

Ed Mathews 16:23

trying to get it off their balance

Joe Fairless 16:24

sheet. Yes, that lender came to us previously with a handful of other deals, and oh, by the way, the deal that we just bought it was for actually for a little bit less than the debt. So it got foreclosed on, the bank foreclosed, and then they offered it to us for the debt and they said, oh, this looks great. And due diligence. And then 750 KI think less after due diligence. And we ended up with the price.

Ed Mathews 16:54

Gotcha.

Joe Fairless 16:54

But before that, the lender reached out. We got these four or five other deals in GFW. Great. And we're gonna offer it to you for the debt. That sounds very appealing. We look into it. It's not worth the current debt that is owed on the property, and they wouldn't budge with us on those deals. I think there's a lot of opportunity right now and let me rephrase. I don't think there's a lot of opportunity right now, but there is opportunity right now to get deals direct from the lender because they are having conversations with many of their operators. About workouts or if they're gonna, take back keys or, what their approach is gonna be. And depending on the operator, it could go in any number of directions. Sure,

Ed Mathews 17:42

Sure.

Joe Fairless 17:43

And depending on the lender, it could go in any number of directions. So being in touch with your lender and other lenders about acquisitions is. Is going to be a valuable source of new leads for everyone listening to this interview. Just be mindful of as I'm sure you will be, that just because they're offering it for the debt doesn't mean it's gonna be a good deal.

Speaker 18:06

Right.

Joe Fairless 18:06

And it might mean it's actually still a very bad deal. Yeah. It's it's a good lead generation tool though. And one a tip, I have. We are vertically integrated, as I mentioned. So we can offer this relatively easily. But then I'll, so I'll say this in a moment and then I'll say how we apply to, if you aren't in our position. So what we offer to lenders is, Hey, you're speaking to a lot of operators. We. We have a management company. If you're looking for help on the management side, after you foreclose on a deal, you know we can help, we can manage that for you and smart. And if it works out where we buy it, great. If not, we'll we just wanna help you out

Ed Mathews 18:45

and you get an early look, which is interesting.

Joe Fairless 18:48

There you go. There you go. If you don't have your own management company, which I'm, I assume most listeners might not have their own manage company, just simply talk to the management company you work with and say, Hey. X, y, Z company. I want to tell these lenders I'm talking to, I wanna refer them to you. And with those referrals, just, let, give me, help me get in on the first look of a, of off on these deals. So just partner up with a manager company and refer them. Refer an ally your, and that could help you get some really good deal flow.

Ed Mathews 19:22

Absolutely. That's absolute genius. Yeah, my banker is one of my closest friends and a because he is awesome. But also they're, they see a lot of deals that I don't, that I'm not even aware of. And at the very least, the cup of coffee or the sandwich that I grab with 'em every once in a while. The beer we grab, I get insight into the market what's going on? Where's thing, where are things moving? How are things going? 'Cause it was interesting and I'm interested in what you said about the lenders and the way that they're handling this. 'cause Moody's had that report, I wanna say early 24, January 24, about the fact that they were. There were probably 22, 20 3% of the loans that were about to be repriced back in 24 and into 25 that were below water. And it's interesting, I didn't see, saw a lot of bridge activity, but I didn't see a lot of what you were describing in terms of the operators handing the keys back. And so I would imagine that there was a lot of. Workouts and behind the scenes, but even those, given the fact that interest rates really haven't moved all that much in the last 18 months and per that I'm curious if you're still seeing that's, that problem was not resolved, but actually kicked down the road.

Joe Fairless 21:09

I think it, it depends on. If we're talking macro level, then I agree with that. It depends on the workout that the operators got with those lenders. If it's a workout of fee, I, because Mo I assume most of these loans that we're talking about are variable interest rate

Ed Mathews 21:30

without a

Speaker 21:30

doubt.

Joe Fairless 21:30

If it is a workout of, okay, no extension tests. And fix the loan for two more years, then they are in a much better position than if it is a workout of, okay, I'll pay the rate cap. And I still have to hit an extension that we don't think we're gonna hit in 12 months. That's. A not as desirable scenario, and then something in between would be you pay the cap rate and you get a more a more realistic extension test. Yeah. With the, with the ratio that needed. So it's it just depends. But in general, I'd say. I don't know about in general like what, what in the individual deals are doing. I can tell you, I can speak personally as an lp. Yeah. I'm in about 140 deals. I think 140 deals as an lp. Yeah. And that includes all our deals also. But it, we. That's a lot of people's deals. I think it's 50 some different operators, and I'm in multiple deals with different operators and none of the deals that I've been on, none of my GP deals. I wanna be clear about that. None of my GP deals have gone to zero yet. It's possible that they will but the, I've had five deals as an lp that have. I've gone to zero and so I was just doing the math on that, a 3.5% so far. And I think that might be about,

Ed Mathews 23:14

that's about right. Historically.

Joe Fairless 23:16

About yeah. It feels about right. Like 3.5% have gone to zero. I think there's a lot of workouts. Depends on the mechanics of the workout.

Ed Mathews 23:25

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 23:25

What they negotiated. And then when things rebound, survive. The 25 is what the saying was. As you mentioned didn't happen. It's later it's now, it's Q2 of 26. Q3 of 26 is when, yeah. Ultimately, what. I don't, I think what investors are, multifamily investors in general are just freaking waiting for is. And anticipating is what we know will happen, but it's just not happening as fast as it sh as we thought it would. And that is the supply demand to shift back into the owner's favor. Because right now concessions are brutal across many markets because you've got those new apartments that were built and they're still getting leased up. Their lease up has taken longer because people aren't moving. Yeah. And. Because the lease up are longer than concessions for current operators are higher and it's, there's a trickle down effect. Yep.

Ed Mathews 24:32

That costs capital,

Joe Fairless 24:32

but there's not a lot of new supply after this wave.

Ed Mathews 24:37

Right.

Joe Fairless 24:37

Gets their stuff taken care of.

Ed Mathews 24:40

Yeah. And there's not a lot of building going on either, so that's exactly take off as well. Right on. Okay, so let's get into the lightning round. Let's talk about the final five. I I'm always interested in five.

Joe Fairless 24:51

I thought there were four.

Ed Mathews 24:52

There were, I got a love letter that that I'm not allowed to talk about. Okay. But it's a trophy, I'm not gonna lie. I'm always interested. I come from a Silicon Valley background and I, I was blessed to work with and for, some really accomplished and amazing entrepreneurs. And, one of the things I noticed about all of those people, almost to a person. Is that the mortgages were handled, the car payments, if there even were handled, the kids' college was all taken care of, they were doing really well financially, and yet every Monday morning they came into the office shot out of a cannon. And to me, that's purpose, right? They, you're, it's not about money, right? It's about something else. And I'm curious, you've done very well, and you've done right very well for your investors as well. And and yet here you are on a Friday talking to me and I know Monday morning you're gonna be back in the office, working at it again. And so I'm curious, what is your purpose? What drives you these days? I,

Joe Fairless 25:50

oh, I'd say it is the core of it is the way I was raised. Parents divorced fifth, fourth, or fifth grade bounced around different homes. 'Cause we were getting booted.

Ed Mathews 26:07

Yeah.

Joe Fairless 26:08

Leading up to that point and saw how not to do things. And then fortunately saw how to do things after that around sixth grade and on. I think there's I recognize that there's, there there's how to do things right and how to do things in a way that puts yourself in a challenging position. And yeah I won't put myself in that spot.

Ed Mathews 26:31

Right on. Okay. And along the way, I'm sure one of the reasons I'm where I am and I'm sure the same can be said for you and your journey is I had a lot of help. And so I'm curious about the mentors that you've had in your life. You mentioned Tony Robbins. I'm, I am also a Dave ote. But I'm also curious about, those mentors and their role in your journey. Specifically the advice you've been given. What is the best advice you ever gotten and who gave it to you?

Joe Fairless 27:00

Take all the free advice you can get and then decide what you wanna do with it.

Ed Mathews 27:04

Right on.

Joe Fairless 27:05

And that was my brother's, oldest brother's, friend's, grandfather who gave it to him, who then told me it. And yeah I, that always resonated. I live by quotes. I've got

Ed Mathews 27:17

me too.

Joe Fairless 27:17

A lot of quotes in my head that I live by. That's just the first one that comes to mind. Yeah. Awesome. And, men mentor I, I've had a lot of 'em. It's Trevor McGregor comes to mind. He helped me really get indoctrinated into the Tony Robbins when I was getting started in 2000. 12, 2013.

Ed Mathews 27:36

Right on. Awesome. Yeah. Charlie Mills is my guy at, in, in in Robin's research world. Nice. So I'm also interested in, I fundamentally believe that we learn way more from the mistakes that we make professionally than than our successes. And so I'm curious about a decision that you look back on now, now, 10, 15 plus years into this part of your career. What's a decision? You look back and go, man, I would love to have that back. And what'd you do about it?

Joe Fairless 28:06

I would love to have it back.

Ed Mathews 28:07

Yeah. In terms of being able to make that decision again or differently?

Joe Fairless 28:10

Yeah. I'd say knowing what I know now about interest rates having fixed interest rates instead of floating.

Ed Mathews 28:17

Yeah. Yeah. It was something that, certainly bit me as well is We've gotten into the habit of putting everything in long-term debt as quickly as humanly possible for that exact reason. Yeah. It's, bridge debt is can be a little sticky. Yeah. So I'm also curious, obviously I read your book and books actually but I'm curious about who you pay attention to, proverbially, what is the book on your nightstand these days? Who are you paying attention to?

Joe Fairless 28:44

I have a goal of 19 books this year. I've read 14 so far. Wow. The book on my nightstand right now is a Wilderness survival book because I have three three bucket list goals this year. One is participate in the chess tournament, which I did. How'd you do? And that's a whole nother story. I six, sixth place out of three. That's really

Ed Mathews 29:05

good.

Joe Fairless 29:06

18. I was, I'm, I have a bunch of pictures and I have a whole like frame thing of it over there. Yeah. It was fun. It was a fifth grader ended up winning the whole thing, by the way. Yeah.

Ed Mathews 29:15

With a

Joe Fairless 29:16

ash 200

Ed Mathews 29:16

rating, right?

Joe Fairless 29:17

The fifth. Yeah. A 2040 was his rating.

Ed Mathews 29:20

Okay.

Joe Fairless 29:20

Yeah. And he was the very first person I played.

Ed Mathews 29:23

Yeah. So you,

Joe Fairless 29:24

I thought I was about to get. Smoked after I played him the fifth grader, and then there was like, no, he's really good. Okay. That and then the other two bucket list items for this year crate Fire Primitive, which I did. Two Fridays ago, and then build a shelter and sleep in it, which I'm gonna do tonight. Just, it's just for, it's just good to get nature. That's why I do it.

Ed Mathews 29:45

Personal

Joe Fairless 29:45

challenges.

Ed Mathews 29:45

I love

Joe Fairless 29:46

it. But that's on my, that's on my nightstand right now. That's what I'm, that's the 15th book that I'm reading for the year. I've read, sales books and a bunch of other things this year. But that's what I'm reading now.

Ed Mathews 29:55

Yeah. I'm a voracious reader myself. I'm actually reading Keith Cunningham's book another Tony guy the Road Less Stupid.

Joe Fairless 30:02

Oh, interesting.

Ed Mathews 30:02

I just started, okay.

Joe Fairless 30:03

I haven't heard that.

Ed Mathews 30:04

Yeah. Heard

Joe Fairless 30:05

I haven't heard of that book.

Ed Mathews 30:05

So far so good. I'm about five chapters in.

Joe Fairless 30:08

My, my, one of my favorite books is actually The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck, and he's, and then he is got Road Less Traveled and beyond, and further along the road, less traveled. But he's, that's just a great philosophy like psych, psychology book.

Ed Mathews 30:22

Excellent. I'll check it out. We'll definitely put it in the show notes so everyone else can check it out as well. So last question. I'm curious about how you define success in your life.

Joe Fairless 30:34

I define I measure my life based on the quality of relationships that I have, plain and simple. I define success by having meaningful relationships with people.

Ed Mathews 30:45

Excellent. Excellent. All right, Joe hey, I've really enjoyed this. You are a great guest and congratulations on the business that you've built or businesses that you've built. I'm curious when you're not talking about real estate what do you like to do for fun? I, you've mentioned being out with nature, but what else do you like to do for.

Joe Fairless 31:04

I coach my, so my daughter's soccer team. I'm an assistant coach for my daughter's soccer team. I grew up in Texas, as I mentioned, there were no soccer balls allowed in Texas when I was growing up. I played football and baseball,

Ed Mathews 31:16

right?

Joe Fairless 31:16

So I'm, I have I'm the rah. Organized the chaos guy for the soccer team. So I enjoy that. I also play softball on Thursdays. Been doing that for. 10 years or so. That, that's a lot of fun too, and hang out with family.

Ed Mathews 31:29

Excellent, excellent. Joe, if somebody wants to learn more about you or Ashcroft Capital what's the best way to do that?

Joe Fairless 31:37

Ashcroft Capital, you can go to our website, ashcroft capital.com and you can see the current offering that we have in Orlando actually.

Ed Mathews 31:45

Okay.

Joe Fairless 31:45

Tim and Disney 2021 Construction bought at a really good basis.

Ed Mathews 31:50

Nice. Joe, thank you so much for joining us today. It's really good to meet you and continued success.

Joe Fairless 31:56

Thanks Ed and enjoyed this, and thanks everyone.