The Most Dwanderful Real Estate Podcast Ever!

The Metal King's Guide

• Dwan Bent-Twyford • Season 7 • Episode 396

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Ever wondered what's behind those small metal industrial buildings you pass on the outskirts of town? They might just be the commercial real estate sector's best-kept investment secret. Austin Edelmon, with 20 years of experience specializing in small bay industrial complexes, pulls back the curtain on this lucrative niche that's outperforming traditional commercial investments.

While retail, multifamily, and office sectors continue to navigate post-pandemic challenges, small bay industrial spaces are delivering impressive returns that have caught the attention of sophisticated investors nationwide. Austin explains why these metal construction facilities with multiple small units are especially attractive: "These parks offer better returns in some instances and even more upside on rental rates and other key factors," making them ideal for yield-seeking investors looking to diversify their portfolios.

The appeal extends beyond just returns. Austin walks us through why development in this sector is more accessible than other commercial projects - from simpler metal construction methods to fewer zoning restrictions when building in county areas. We learn how a portfolio of several 50,000-75,000 square foot complexes can create substantial value, and how even simple cosmetic improvements like exterior paint can significantly boost rental rates and property performance.

Whether you're a seasoned commercial investor or curious about expanding your real estate horizons, Austin's insights provide a roadmap to understanding this growing asset class. His co-authored book "Flex Space Domination" and the resources at FlexParksUSA.com offer even deeper dives into this investment strategy that's helping clients nationwide capitalize on the small bay industrial boom. Ready to explore what could be your next wealth-building opportunity in commercial real estate?

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Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Hey everyone, welcome to the most wonderful real estate podcast ever. I'm your host, Dwan Bent Twyford. I'm America's most sought after real estate investor. I'm really excited that you are here today. In case you haven't heard the news the most wonderful real estate podcast ever just reached 1 million downloads. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And it's taken a couple of years, so why not in 25? Why don't we try to hit 2 million by the end of this year? So y'all got some work to do, but let's get to the 2 million mark and not take five years to do it. So how about that? But I am super happy about the million, so I'm super thankful and I you know I appreciate your time. I have an awesome guest, Mr Austin Edelmon. How are you today?

Austin Edelmon:

I'm doing good. How are you?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, I love the uh, the brick walls. Is that in your office or is that a background, or is that where you are?

Austin Edelmon:

So it's our office. We have a we're in a hundred year old industrial building that was converted so they kept some of the original touches. So, yeah, we use it for the podcast and some of the stuff that we do online. Just because it's rustic, it looks good.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It does, it does. My husband and I are rehabbing a bunch of buildings in Clinton, iowa and people put stuff over the brick, I think like to modernize everything and we're taking everything off, it's like, but the brick walls are so pretty.

Austin Edelmon:

Yeah, I mean, they're just iconic. They look good and you know a lot of people are trying to modernize it now and everything. So it just it takes away from the color and just you know the years of history in them. So we like them a lot. A lot of people give us good feedback on it. It's better than the gray wall that I'm looking at.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

One of our buildings. Someone came through in the 60s. This is a beautiful brick building and they put some kind of metal squares and they must have went through the whole downtown so you can see all the buildings where they did it we decided to take it off last year.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But you know, you got to be careful because you don't know if they just smashed through all the bricks or and we took it off and there was hardly any brick restoration that we had to do and just, you know, cleaned them up and got any little bit of that goopy stuff off and then everyone's like your building looks so beautiful and fresh, it's like it's all original brick has been pressure washed and it looks amazing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So I know everyone wants to modernize everything. It's like you know, just some things just need to be left alone yeah, yeah, that's how we are.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I mean, that's why I have that we work on I almost bought one of those brick, fake brick and brick walls that do and I thought, no, because it'll look like fake brick and I really, I, I love it. So, anyway, let's talk about you. Let's talk about you, mr austin. So what we like to do over here at Twanderful, everyone knows we're just going to have a conversation like getting to know you, and we just want you to tell us in like a sentence or two, just tell us what you do and I'm going to ask questions about you, know how you got there and just what you do and how to find you on all of your socials, emails, giveaways, whatever you want to do.

Austin Edelmon:

Oh yeah, no, I'm pretty easy to find online. Everything's my name, so if you just type that into LinkedIn, instagram, youtube, any of those places, I'll pop up pretty quick. But basically so I work in commercial real estate. We do investment sales. Our primary focus is small bay industrial complexes. So when you're driving around town, if you see, like you know, four to 10 buildings, metal construction, small units within each of those buildings, we sell those on the investment side. So we've got a large network across the US. We're based primarily out of DFW. We focus on a lot of the Texas markets, but that's what we do specifically is we sell these type of investments to individuals, funds, anybody across the US.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's amazing. So then you have or find the buildings and then you sell them to people or are you constructing them?

Austin Edelmon:

So we do a little bit of both.

Austin Edelmon:

We started off just on the investment side. So we were just calling owners, getting in touch with them, giving them you know criteria of what we've sold similar parks for in the past and you know, kind of went through the process of getting them ready to list, market their facility and sell it to you know groups. But we have recently started getting into the development side. There's a lot of individuals, partnerships, cross-asset buyers, anybody from retail, multifamily office, some of that stuff that's been struggling for the last few years coming out of COVID. These guys they primarily like to chase returns. So the Small Bay Flex offers a lot better return in some instances and even more upside on rental rates and other key factors. So just with a lot of people wanting to get into this, we have begun partnering, working with individuals groups that want to start building this for themselves and you know, either sell them off, keep growing their portfolios, whatever they want to do. We're just kind of helping them get the jumpstart on that side as well, and so you help them.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

if they want to build, you help them with the financing.

Austin Edelmon:

Yeah, so we can help out with financing. We're investment sales the firm that we work for, colliers International. They have loan originators groups throughout the US so we have put a lot of people in contact if they need help on the financing. But where we really, you know, hone in with these groups as we start the process on the land side. So you know, these guys are looking for parcels that they want to buy. We do a world engine scenario which just gives them a very brief overview, kind of highlights some of the key metrics household income, population growth, number of businesses in the area, per capita spending metrics that we like to see, that we think these parks will do very well in for rent growth. So we kind of start that with them. We have them send us in land listings across the US. Right now we're working a lot of sites in New Jersey, north Carolina, arizona. We kind of tend to stick away from California just because pricing is very aggressive out there and fire yeah.

Austin Edelmon:

So there's a lot of yes, there's a lot of things that we kind of push them away from. But yeah, we just you know they're looking for anything from one acre up to 10 to 15, 20 acres, looking for anything from one acre up to 10 to 15, 20 acres. So if they're not too familiar with that area, we just want to give them something to have better understanding of that market going into.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So I've got five acres somewhere around the Dallas-Fort Worth area and I'm like, hey, listen, I want to put something on here, I want to run something, build something, put something, put a park, put whatever. How would I like? What would be like my first couple of questions? I find you because I listened to the most wonderful real estate podcast ever Like, hey, I want to do that. How, what would be the beginning process? I say, awesome, I got the land, it's paid for. I want to put a park on it.

Austin Edelmon:

Yeah.

Austin Edelmon:

So you know, in that case too, if you've already purchased the land, we would kind of run a model for you to show you what square footage you can build.

Austin Edelmon:

A lot of these guys, a 30% lot coverage is standard for the flex development side and, depending on where you're at the Houston market is one of the tougher ones because you have to incorporate some kind of detention pond so it can limit the square footage that you're building.

Austin Edelmon:

So basically what we would do is we would take the survey, we do a test fit model where we show you the number of buildings, a decent layout, and that will calculate your square footage and then we can backtrack that into your exit cap rate, which is just a metric that investors use in order to show a rate of return on the income of a park they build. So we would do basically a pro forma financial model where we just put in a rent rate If you're reimbursing triple nets, what you could pass through to the tenants and utilize for income as well, back out the expenses, and then we kind of show them hey say, if you built 45,000 square feet, your exit number would be X amount of dollars, and that just kind of helps them understand, you know, if it's economical sense for them construction cost wise and then if their exit is going to net them money, or if it gets a little hairy and maybe they're, you know, running closer to their expenses.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I got it. So when the people build these parks do, most of them do it with the intention to sell it for a profit, or are they like, hey, I'm going to rent these spaces out? I'm going to keep this in my portfolio as long-term commercial rental income.

Austin Edelmon:

So it all depends right now the majority of the groups that we're working with. They are looking to either build several and, you know, build out a portfolio and then sell that to a larger group. They get in through the building process, they get it completed and then they say, hey, you know, a couple of the units that I leased out are a little under market and I want to get those up to market rate then they can hold on to it. You know we're in the business where we don't really want to lead anybody and force them to sell if they don't want to. So you know we we've definitely had several groups that have gone through all the steps say, hey, we completed this, we really like it, it's cash flowing, great, we're just going to hold on to it. And you know there's nothing wrong with that. You know you put in on that work and effort and got it up and running. It's, you know, your pride and joy. So if they want to hold on to it, they're more than welcome to.

Austin Edelmon:

But a lot of the people that we are talking to that have just kind of entered the space. They are looking. You know they want to start small, so they build five to 15,000 square feet. They want to sell that and then hopefully the chances of them building another one where they can just, you know, do a ladder, stair, step and continue building larger parks and they get comfortable. And then they do the portfolio with something that's branded All the facilities look the same, similar size square footage complexes. So we like anywhere from 50 to 75,000 square feet is kind of the sweet spot for the largest buyer pool and you know, if you got three or four of those bundled them together, you know your exit pricing would be pretty nice on a sale like that, it would be.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Well, I love what you do. I don't know if I've interviewed anyone that helps build out these parks for people to turn around and sell. I'm just trying to think. I think you might be the first person. I've interviewed anyone that helps build out these parks for people to turn around and sell. I'm just trying to think. I think you might be the first person I've interviewed that does this exact concept.

Austin Edelmon:

Well, it's just, you know, it's an asset class that has gotten really competitive and there's a lot of people that are interested in getting into it. The metal buildings are, I wouldn't say, easy to build, but they're easier to build than a apartment complex, a retail strip center, an office tower, because you can do these in the county where zoning requirements are kind of not, as you know, stinging as within a municipality. So you can get a kit. A lot of these metal construction buildings are, you know, a Mueller kit or something like that, where you get every panel, every bracket that you need and you just put a slab down and put them together and put them together, yeah.

Austin Edelmon:

Yeah, so it's relatively on the easier side of developing to get into compared to a lot of other commercial assets. So with that and land cost outside the county you know your land is a lot more cheaper than if you were an infill location, say within the heart of downtown Dallas or Fort Worth. So it's a little bit easier for these groups to you know, see the cost up front and get into something.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I love it. My husband and I we live on 10 acres and out in back behind our house we need like a building. So this year we've been looking around all these buildings like poor slab, absolutely Just construct a big giant building that we can pull in our trains and our four wheelers and and all the things that we have. And so we've been looking around a lot in the last couple of years at these people that just like, as long as you have the slab, they'll just boom, boom, you got a building just like in a couple of weeks.

Austin Edelmon:

Oh yeah, and that's when you look on the outskirts of the DFW market. A lot of homes are kind of like that, where they're situated on five to 10 acres and a lot of people want that. You know. They've got the huge barn in their backyard. They have, you know, a little bar set where they can hang out with their buddies. The TV, you know, have all the games on. And then they've got their cars, motorcycles, rvs, atvs, you name it just parked in there. So it's a lot easier than a storage unit, because they can literally walk out their back door with their bags and, you know, hop in the RV and go cross country.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Exactly. Yes, we have that. We have an RV. We have yes, we do a lot of construction on old buildings. So my husband's got cranes, so many cranes. I'm like why do we really need so many things and backhoes and the bobcats, and they sit out. We're in Colorado. They sit out and they're covering the stuff. I was like, listen, you got to put a building Because the backyard is starting to look like I don't know, like a pick and pull. You got a million things out there. You got stacks of wood. You've got compressors of everything that's on demand.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Honestly, it's that it looks like people should come shopping in the backyard, so I am like put up a building.

Austin Edelmon:

Well, you know, that's what's great about these small bay spaces as well, because it's a lot of contractors, developers, automotive guys and a lot of the times, if their business is not occupying the entire space, they will use a portion of this for storage as well. We've seen that a lot lately, where yard space is a concept that a lot of these parks are moving to. So say, you have a 2000 square foot unit with an office and a restroom in it. The individual or company they run their business out of that, but then they add on a yard space and they store trailers, bulldozers, anything and everything under the sun, and they like it because it, you know, secure, it's fenced in and everything has good lighting, and they make it a part of themselves where it's not just their business but it's also a place where they can, you know, keep items that they want protected as well so, yeah, now I'm with every just you know, a couple of months.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Guys, like I'm ridding my four-wheeling, I'm going to go for the snow, and I'm going to go four-wheeling, and then it doesn't start, and then it's got this much snow on it by the time I get it scraped up and clean, jump the battery. I'm like I'm freezing outside.

Austin Edelmon:

You're already done with it. I'm done.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Love the fact that you're building like commercial and you're building things on with the metal. Like that it is cheaper construction yes, you know people want to get into it.

Austin Edelmon:

They can get into it, not that it's cheaper made, but like it's less expensive yeah, so I mean, when you look at infill product, a lot of that is your masonry or tilt wall construction. Uh, the prices of concrete have been going up drastically, so it's just, you know it's easy to maintain. Uh, they come in pretty standard colors, but obviously if you wanted to put flare on it you could do a paint scheme kind of spruce it up a little bit.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I have to make mine pink.

Austin Edelmon:

Yeah, I mean that would be a great look for it, because what a lot of these parks look like are? They're dark natural tones. So you know, you've got gray, tan, black is a big one. But if somebody we've got a group that we worked with on the north side of Fort Worth and they bought a park that was, you know, dust, tan, real dirty, they went in and painted the exteriors a silver, metallic with a neon blue door and he was able to increase rental rates. He converted a lot of tenants to triple net.

Austin Edelmon:

So, even something that small of a cosmetic thing can help out drastically on these facilities. And you know the investment game is all about income. So if you can increase it at a lower basis then you know that's the best way to play it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, as we had this little town in Clinton Iowa where we bought a bunch of old buildings my husband's from there. We start restoring these buildings and I'm like, listen, you're doing all this work on the inside which we need to get done, but the outside looks like the same old, ratty building, like let's go put some lipstick on it. And the outside looks like like that building with the gray. Put some lipstick on it outside. So then people want to look in the window and see what's happening on the inside yeah, oh yeah, it's like done first and I do so.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

The last summer I made him all summer. I said I want every building we've got. I said, go put some lipstick on it. So he spent the whole summer painting and changing colors and doing things and then all of a sudden it was in the newspaper, people coming by, what do you guys do? What's going?

Austin Edelmon:

on, had a fan base startup. That's it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's what you got to do, man. You got to. You know you got to bougie it up a little bit on the outside. Now, how long has your company been doing this?

Austin Edelmon:

So me and my partners, we've been doing this for about 20 years. Wow, nice, yes. So we started out in DFW. We've kind of started working our way through some of the larger Texas markets Houston, austin, san Antonio and over the past year or so we wrote a book and then we've started to help these guys get into the development side, so that's what's really helped us get nationwide. But this is the book.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Flex Space Domination.

Austin Edelmon:

It's available on Amazon. You can get a hard copy or you can do a download version, but it was basically we were going to meeting with a lot of these groups and they were all asking the same question, so we just wrote a guideline, basically of if you want to get into the flex space, here's how to acquire land. Here's how to find rental rates in your market. Here's how to acquire land. Here's how to, you know, find rental rates in your market. Here's how to do the financing. It's a step-by-step guide that just gives you a whirlwind of everything that you needed to know to get into it, and it's a pretty light read. We just wrote it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Hold your book up again so we can all see it. I like it. Flex Space Domination I love it. It's great, that's great.

Austin Edelmon:

Well, you know, me and a couple of guys, we just wrote it, so we don't have any background in, you know, being an author or anything.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So it's a very easy read. It's on Amazon and people are reading it. That's all that matters.

Austin Edelmon:

So it's been great success. Everybody that reads it. They reach out and they said hey, you know, I picked up some tidbit in here that I didn't even think of. So it's just, you know, even if you're experienced, like maybe you run across something in there that you never thought of. So it's just a helpful guide that we wanted to put together for these guys that maybe don't have a lot of experience but want to get more comfortable.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm going to read it. This is a portion of real estate that I don't teach or do. Or if someone says, hey, I'm interested in that, I always need people to send people to if it's outside of my realm, and I mean I can help people if they want to buy a commercial building that's already there, but all of this is, I don't do this at all.

Austin Edelmon:

so that's why I like to introduce my, my wonderfulness of my audience to all the different things, because there's so many avenues of real estate investing, oh yeah yeah, and that's why you know we talk to a lot of people that you know they they want to look at single family residential doing a builder rent concept. We focus primarily on the flex industrial, small bay stuff. So we don't we don't mess with any of the other you know areas. We are honed in on this. We see growth paths with it moving forward. So anybody that wants to get into this space we're the go-to group.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, the go-to people. I always love interviewing the go-to person. Go-to person is the top of the food chain, so I love that. Okay, I want to ask you we're going to, we're going to jump off topic and we're going to get to know you a little bit. So, austin, what is your favorite band of all time?

Austin Edelmon:

Favorite band of all time, Led Zeppelin.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, good choice.

Austin Edelmon:

My dad. We grew up driving into Austin and every time we got in the frequency there was a KLBJ was the classic rock station. We would turn that on and drive in listening to whoever. So I, just I grew up.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I was going to ask you. I said Led Zeppelin. I bet you you're a pig, because you were too young to be a Led Zeppelin era.

Austin Edelmon:

I bet you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It was your mom or your dad.

Austin Edelmon:

Oh yeah, he taught me everything about music, so it just grew into what I listen to now. Led Zeppelin is such a great band.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You know it's funny, my husband and I well, I'm 66. And so we have grandkids, so we're teaching our grandkids about, because today's music, honestly, you know, let's just be honest it sucks. There's so much.

Austin Edelmon:

It's not really, it's not really music, it's not music.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It's synthesized. And what is that? So, we have these four grandkids that are 10, 8, 5, and 3. So we're teaching them all the musicians from the 70s.

Austin Edelmon:

Nice Everyone from the 70s.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Nice Everyone from the 70s and I mean they know Tom Petty and not like a song or two, like an entire CD.

Austin Edelmon:

They know.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Tom Petty, they know the Beatles, they know who Led Zeppelin is, they know Queen Nice and they go to school. And they'll be like you know my one little grandson's always walking around Wee, wee, wee, wee. And they'll be like you know my one little grandson's always walking around.

Austin Edelmon:

Yeah, he's fine and he's just like what are you having here?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

oh, that's queen, we will rock you like. You know, my Mimi and Papi are teaching me all the cool music all the good stuff, yeah because, you know, I'm like my granddaughter, my daughter. She's like well, teach him Taylor Swift. I'm like girl.

Austin Edelmon:

Yeah, no way, I've got my son just turned one. So on the way to daycare I try to rotate through the classic rock playlists. So blues, just like good music. To have him start to listen and know the rhythms and be like OK, this is better than you know. The new version of the Backstreet Boys or whoever's popular.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And your text says Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Austin Edelmon:

Oh yeah, oh yeah. I listen to all that. Who doesn't?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

love, stevie Ray.

Austin Edelmon:

Yeah, exactly.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

When we started working because we listen to music all the time, and we started listening, I said you know, honey, if you really go past the 70s, in the 70s people, there was no cursing in the music. I mean, maybe once in a while they used the word damn or something, but 80s was still pretty clean. But from then on, man, the music it's so. There's so much. It's like I don't want my kids walking around singing in that duh duh duh, duh, duh. Like they're not ever going gonna learn that from me.

Austin Edelmon:

We are sticking to the 70s, as I know, for sure the music was clean?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

oh yeah, and it was.

Austin Edelmon:

Oh god, the music was so good, then everyone could that's why my dad always talks about the concerts that he went to, and it's just like man, I wish I could have been there for those, because it's all the bands that I, you know, grew up with but never got a chance to see in person. So, when you watch like the reruns of their concerts on like DVD or whatnot.

Austin Edelmon:

it's just not the same Like it doesn't matter what speakers you have, it'll never be like standing, you know, three rows back while they're playing stairway to heaven or something.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It's not my favorite song song I think now they're like, everyone's like. Oh, these are the two cheesiest songs that I swear. I think stairway to heaven and dream on or are still today.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love them, but we I am very lucky that in when I was in my teens, um, I went to every concert and if have continued to still go to concerts and like when people that are older, bands like six was touring recently with ario and journey, it's like I go see them again and again and again. And I told my husband I said you know that I don't think there's one or there's a lot, a handful of, like big bands that are in the 70s that I haven't seen at least. So I've seen the Stones three times. It's nice. I said, well, I know, but I loved music and when they came to town, me and my girlfriends, we saw everything. Yeah, Everybody.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And even still now. You know we took my granddaughter last summer to see Pat Benatar.

Austin Edelmon:

Oh nice.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

He's touring around. I haven't seen her in 100 years. She's in her 70s. I was like let's go see Pat Benatar. I swear to God, she just sings exactly like she sang.

Austin Edelmon:

Yeah, see, that's because, like none of them ever had the auto-tune and all that stuff that alters their voice. So you know, they're just singing from the heart and that's what keeps them going for all these years you know, it's like they're rolling stones. You know, they still jump around on the stage when they're playing their concerts, so it's like that's what they're good at, and it keeps them going yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I always say I like to ask people about their band because you can tell a lot about people by the music they listen to. I feel like you know and people connect. I feel like music is one of the things that connects people worldwide, whether you speak the same language or not, because music is like universal. There are songs that universally, people love, people cry, people are sad, like music brings out emotions and stuff, and I've interviewed a few people that like I don't listen to music, I have no bands, and I'm like what, what do you mean? You have no, I don't really listen to any music ever. It's like what? Who raised you? Were you raised by people?

Austin Edelmon:

what do you? What do you do then?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

what is happening. I have my Spotify open.

Austin Edelmon:

When I'm working. You know when I'm in the car when I'm working. You know when I'm in the car, when I'm at the house cooking dinner, like it's always going. So I can't live without music.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm with you. I was out there earlier putting together a patio set and I had my music full blast. I found a channel that plays all the hits in the seventies and the eighties and the nineties and in the eighties I was really into the disco-y and like two songs in a row and I'm sure that my neighbors are like she's just dancing in her patio. I'm just dancing and dancing, using like the pole for a mic and my name is fine what the hell's wrong with duan?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

it's like oh man, I got disco on man, I love that one for sure. It it's like it's good. What about food? What's your favorite thing to eat?

Austin Edelmon:

So I'm from Texas, so Tex-Mex is the go-to Enchiladas, tacos, queso, margaritas. It's starting to get good patio weather right now out here. So, like mid-70s, low 80s. So it's nice to you know. Go grab some chips and salsa with a couple margaritas afterwards.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, me too. I'm all about that too. Now, I always like to ask people this part. So what is your favorite time of the day? Where's your time in the day where you're like, ah, this is my happy moment.

Austin Edelmon:

Probably just when I get home. My wife, you know, she picks up our son early and then we get him to the house. I get off work, you know, get to feed him dinner, spend some quality time with them, get him ready for bed and everything. So right now that's my favorite time. Just because he's so young, you know, it's like a good time. He's at daycare all day, so it's just like get home, decompress a little bit, just have fun with him and hang out.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I agree. When your kids are little, especially when they learn to walk and talk, they're like Daddy with a little arm running at you. It's like oh my heart my grandkids are like maybe.

Austin Edelmon:

When they run to me, it's like my heart still melts. That's what he just started standing up, so he's doing that and wanting to be held, and he's going dad, dad, dad, dad.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So that's that's been really exciting for us. I will give you some unsolicited advice. Really take the time, because I'm telling you that fast. You've been asking you for the car keys and you're gonna be like what the hell just happened here.

Austin Edelmon:

That's yeah, within the last year. I've already been surprised by how quick it's gone, and that's only been 12 months. So I can't even imagine the elementary years, the teenage years, and you know next thing, you know, it's like they're going to college and you're like wait a minute, where'd the time go? So that's just been our biggest thing right now is spend as much time with them as possible.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

We took him out to the pickleball courts yesterday.

Austin Edelmon:

He was so excited, you know, watching us play and just you know zoned in on it. So hopefully we'll be able to you know bond over sports and stuff like that. Hopefully we'll be able to you know bond over sports and stuff like that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I just read a study recently and I think it really goes super off topic. But it said that, like mom is the one that when kids are little, like the hug and the mom you know, because mom makes them feel safe. But it said the time they spend with dad playing is part of what shapes. That is like almost more important because the playing time and the sport, whatever you're doing outside, but the playing with dad, that's what helps them build um testosterone and endorphins and serotonin. And they said, if you do nothing else as a dad, play with your kids every day and every day outside as much as you can, because that builds a piece of their brain that mom can't build.

Austin Edelmon:

I could see that. I mean, I have this little game where I kind of like you know, swing him back and forth and then I toss him into a pillow and I make like the sound like a whoosh whoosh, and as soon as he hears that he starts laughing. So he likes the rough house.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

He wants to be active outdoors, so that shouldn't be a problem, building all those things up with him all the decades and studying this, and that that the playtime with dad is something that mom they don't get it from mom, it's only from dad, but it has to do with, like, the testosterone and and their leveling, serotonin and dopamine and all that stuff. But they said dad's need to rough house with their boys or girls. The rough housing with dad is is a whole side of their personality.

Austin Edelmon:

That that's only where they get it from it's a, it's a builder, you know, so you got to do a little bit of something.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You got you have to.

Austin Edelmon:

You have to get them strong, so that that's the best way I'm with you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

kids are the great, are we're so rough with our grandkids? Oh, my lord, I'm just like I hope we don't kill. Yeah, I mean we've got them out like hammering nails and building decks. I mean they're like five years old, they got their own tool belt, they're working.

Austin Edelmon:

Hey, as soon as my son's old enough, I'm going to put him to work. Yeah, they love it. It builds confidence. So you got to do something. You can't just let him sit around on a screen. So that's what we want him to be active outdoors. And, you know, stay away from the tv as much as possible and goodness, my kids came up before the screen time.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But my grandkids are like. They know I'm eating pappies. There's no screen time at all for anything ever. You're either playing, hanging out, we're doing a concert or listening to music, eating, we're playing, or we're in the hot tub. There's zero. Don't even bring them over because you can't watch them. Yeah, they'll stay eight, nine days and they don't even care really oh, that's good.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I mean, I don't let them. They just know that's the rule. They come here, they can't do it. And because, yeah, and they're like, oh, they always cry about their screen. It's like, no, I'm too old I won't make you go get a switch off the tree, all right. So what is your next big goal um in your business, and how can the wonderful people help you reach your next big goal?

Austin Edelmon:

uh. So our big goal is right now just trying to get our name out there as far as we can. You know we've been really excited about joining these podcasts and just being able to talk about our business, the book that we wrote, and just get people that maybe might have a sliver of wanting to get into the space, that maybe might have a sliver of wanting to get into the space. Maybe that helps push them over a little bit to say, hey, you know, here's somebody that seems to know what they're talking about, has good ideas. You know, reach out to them and that's been our biggest push right now because we're trying to go to the national scale and you know that's what our next process is is taking this coast to coast. So you know, we really enjoy being on these and getting to know the host and just getting our brand out there. So, um, that that's that's where we're at at this point in time.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I am excited. So everyone on my wonderful, my wonderful family, just check them out. On my wonderful, my wonderful family, just check them out. And austin says e-d-e-l-m-o-n, just so you get it right, and go to all the socials and and check it out, because I think the flux space is is. I think it's a great space.

Austin Edelmon:

I don't know a lot about it, which is why I'm happy to have you on here today, because I also need to learn about things like that too, and don't worry, right after this I'm going to get a book in the mail to you, so we'll have a copy ready for you to read and just let us know your thoughts and what you think of it?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I didn't spell my name right.

Austin Edelmon:

Do you know what I mean?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And I'll do a video.

Austin Edelmon:

I'm not that popular yet, so I don't know if my signature will help out at all.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

but we'll get you a hard copy. Yeah, but when you're rich and famous and you're way at the top of the food chain.

Austin Edelmon:

I'll be like I have a signature, yeah, but yeah, we also. Flex Parks USA is our website. It has a lot of good stuff on there from different types of, you know, building models, blog posts, just general articles about the Flex Industrial product. So you know that's also another hub where you can go in and get a lot of information. If you're looking at this stuff specifically, Say it again FlexParksUSAcom.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

FlexParksUSAcom. Flexparksusacom, flexparksusacom. And so for my team doing the show notes, put this at the top of the show notes too Flexparksusacom. Yeah, I like all your stuff throughout, because some people are, like you know, just read a paragraph of the show notes to decide if they want to listen or not. So I like all your stuff at the top. Well, I really enjoyed getting to know you. You're like super fun and you know you got a baby and you love what's up, and I mean, who doesn't love that?

Austin Edelmon:

Well, I know I try to keep everything simple in my life so hopefully you know it pays off. But I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for having me on today and you know, hope the listeners enjoy the episode and take some and take a snippet out of it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, I will. So let me just say goodbye to the audience. You hang on for a second, all right, so everyone. So again, thank you so much for spending your time. I always like to thank my guests, as well as my listeners, because time is your most valuable asset, and when you are out of time, you know you're literally out of time. So we always appreciate people like you that spend time with us, and also my audience Also. Folks, if you had fun today you laughed, you learned anything go to dwanderfulcom. D-w-a-n-d-e-r-f-u-l. I took dwanderful, made a new word. Go to dwonderfulcom and opt in and take my free real estate investing quiz. It's super fun. You should take it. You'll love it. And don't forget to subscribe, leave a five-star review and write something, because that is how I'm going to be able to get to 2 million downloads, and I cannot do it without you. So, guys, we'll see you back here next week, same bat time, same bat channel, and remember that the truth is in the red letters. Goodbye everyone. Thank you, austin.

Austin Edelmon:

Thank you.