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Real Lives of Real Estate w/ Brendan Da Silva
Welcome to the Real Lives of Real Estate, a brand new real estate podcast unlike any other. Your host is the #1 Realtor in Newark, NJ, Brendan Da Silva, and every week he interviews real estate professionals about how working in the industry has affected their lives and stories.
Real Lives of Real Estate w/ Brendan Da Silva
The Making of a Real Estate Revitalist with Kyle Webster's Journey
Have you ever felt the heartbeat of a historic mansion, thrumming with stories of the past, waiting for someone to breathe new life into its venerable walls? Kyle Webster and I have embarked on such a quest with the Carré Scott Mansion, a labor of love that's as demanding as it is rewarding. Sharing our trials and triumphs, we delve into the intricate dance of real estate restoration, where partnerships can be as intimate as marriages and success hinges on an alchemy of trust, empathy, and unwavering commitment.
From the diverse streets of Glenridge, New Jersey, Kyle's journey is a testament to the influence of one's upbringing on their life's path. His narrative, interwoven with mine, paints a vivid image of childhood homes filled with aspirations and the multi-faceted role of real estate, from generational wealth to community cornerstones. We reminisce about the neighborhoods that shaped us, the lessons learned from athletic endeavors to racial identity awakenings, and how these experiences carved our individual paths in education and personal growth.
Embarking on the entrepreneurial odyssey, Kyle and I reflect on the transitions from finance to real estate, the pursuit of autonomy, and the power of strategic partnerships. Our conversation is a mosaic of personal evolution, revealing how real estate isn't just about properties, but about empowering communities and improving lives. Tune in for a compelling narrative that intertwines professional insights with the profound impact of mentorship, integrity, and the human element in the relentless pursuit of success.
To get more insight on episodes and to apply to be on the show, visit www.BrendanDaSilva.com!
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Investors are different, because that's just like that's capital. I look at right Financial partner, meaning that we're GPs on a deal. Right, that's like a marriage. I view that right, like you have to be very, very comfortable with the person who's also going to be on the deed or also going to be on the mortgage. How I've been able to get the most out of people is through being able to empathize with them and being human. Yes, we need to have rules and there needs to be some structure to it, but also, like I'm forthcoming, yeah, sometimes that line of personal and professional gets blurred, but for me so far, it's been okay.
Speaker 2:Get ready for Real Lives. Real Estate where the world of real estate meets the essence of your life. Buckle up as we unravel stories, homes and the heartbeat behind it all. Let's dive into another episode. I hope you share and are encouraged. I'm here with Kyle Webster, my new contractor. I just am using him on a great project that we're doing on Maple Street in Kearney and friend and local Newark lover and a bunch of other accolades, I'm sure. Welcome to have you, kyle.
Speaker 1:Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:No, we are happy that you could join us, for sure, trying to keep it as Newark as possible.
Speaker 1:Yes, so Newark. We're sitting in a great building in Newark.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's all Newark man. This building. Actually, I drove by it for like a year and a half or a year before it was right before the pandemic. I was trying to get into this building. I couldn't get a hold of anyone. I didn't know how to do it and I rumor whatever during the pandemic, they had these open, uh, you know, webinars about finding out more about the career scott mansion being a makerhood applying all these things ends up, long story short, I finally only got a hold someone like nine months after, via personal recommendation to the building owner developer, okay, signed a lease with him december of 2021. I moved in here only july of 2023. Okay, long, and we were supposed to move in january of 2023. So it's just a fit out was just taking a while forever. It was brutal anyways, no, but, uh, my, so that's a little bit about, uh, this beautiful mansion.
Speaker 1:We never actually talk about the mansion but it is like a home, you're speaking to a contractor, right. So it kind of yeah it's. It's one of those things I notice.
Speaker 2:Guess how much this guy spent on this building restoring it. It's 15,000 square feet.
Speaker 1:Wow, 15,000 square feet.
Speaker 2:Not including the basement, and there were structural issues all throughout.
Speaker 1:Probably about $100 a foot, maybe $125 a foot, so what would that be? I'm be 125 a foot.
Speaker 2:So what would that be? I'm bad at math like that, but yeah. So 15 000 times 125. Yeah, pull up the calculator, why not? Whatever the numbers, I'm sure it's low. So I'm saying like 18 oh brother, believe it or not, this guy, you underestimate how bad the condition was.
Speaker 2:I think that's why, yeah, uh, half the building. Literally it was nearly condemnable. It was at that point. Okay, he ended and he everything, he restored it all by hand. So he had literally I'm not kidding you he was getting people who did plaster from another part of the country, literally from New York State, upstate New York. He was housing them here for four months for them to do plaster repair, paying for their housing as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And there's, apparently, and it's a historic home. And there's, apparently, and it's a historic home, yeah, and there's some little things, whatever. So historic society raised him, raised him, raised him. And not only that, the guy he had believed that the building, his name, is obvi, the developer he believed the building was speaking to him. So I believe I might be wrong, but he spent like eight or nine million dollars restoring the building yeah, it's a lot of money.
Speaker 2:It's definitely more than a hundred dollars a foot oh yeah, well, no, it would have been like that if it was like a normal thing, yeah, when it's happening. To the guy he just said like he went like four million over budget. It was something like it was so insane. It was like literally three million over budget and he could have built it from the ground up.
Speaker 1:Honestly, oh, that's what he says.
Speaker 2:He says it was like one of the worst like real estate investments of his life in terms of the money he's like this is one of the worst investments, but in terms of like the passion that he has, so it was like a joy of his life yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:I think that's what real estate does. It calls you right it's like if you're really attached to a project, you're gonna get it done yeah that's a beautiful thing because it's physical space. You can feel it, you can touch it oh he, he like slept here.
Speaker 2:Brother, I saw this man have like several nerves. This guy inspires me so much because I literally saw him have like truly I think nervous breakdowns. Wow, I didn't think he was going to survive the end of the project. I would go in and literally like a contractor screwed him over, didn't pay the subs. It was a huge thing. And, um, yeah, he's really gone above and beyond and now he's like fighting through. He's finally working on getting everything occupied because I guess maybe that's baked into the cost to the vacancy, right, probably that baked into the cost because it took him over. He was the timeline one past two years when he thought it was incomplete, so you got two years of additional holding cost plus yeah and yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think all that ended up being making like a million dollars, but it was brutal, so that's really fun. So when I always ask that question, everyone always gets the same thing. It's like oh, maybe 2 million, 3 million, 2.5, 1.5, 2.5, 2 million, 3 million.
Speaker 1:I'm like 8, 8, 8 everyone always does the same thing.
Speaker 2:They're like oh god, but even this tower we're in right now was almost. They almost had to knock it down. It was crazy what he had to do to save the tower. That's awesome, yeah, anyways. So about UConn, not about this beautiful Courier Shop mansion in Newark that we call home here for the Da Silva team. But tell us about where did you grow up and what did you grow up in?
Speaker 1:Great. So I grew up in Glenridge, new Jersey, here in Essex County. Both my parents my mom was an engineer for job insurance and my dad was an engineer for job insurance and my dad was an educator. I'm the oldest of three boys so I wear that hat proudly as the oldest son.
Speaker 1:I think you know prime sort of middle class upbringing right I think my parents, you know, try to provide everything that they could and they've done a great job sort of raising me and my brothers. I take a great deal of pride in just sort of being connected to my family. I think sort of where and I know that we'll probably get to this in a little bit in terms of kind of how that sort of derived my background my mom's always been sort of numbers-based, being an engineer or you know, just sort of STEM-based right.
Speaker 1:And so I think it was just a natural sort of path for me to kind of just pick up the mantle and kind of run with that. My grandfather was an architect. He built homes, oh really. My uncles were architects and masons and so it's kind of in the DNA a little bit.
Speaker 2:So you had like two or three different architects in the family. Yeah, yeah, all residential or commercial, and residential, residential and commercial.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, so both. So yeah, I have an uncle right now who's actually an architect for the Navy.
Speaker 2:He also does residential as well. My brother-in-law's an architect for the Navy too. Yeah, yeah in the Navy.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know that was a job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had no idea. Honestly, as well, I don't know what he builds, so it's Like the most minor.
Speaker 2:my brother-in-law was telling me he's like I literally do the most minor things, like around the base, like if they're building like a new storage facility. Yep, that's it. I'm like helping the storage. You're the guy Ooh top secret. He's like it's not top secret. I can tell you we're storing food.
Speaker 1:It's just food Good.
Speaker 2:There's nothing there. And what did you grow up in? Single-family house, an apartment.
Speaker 1:So it was actually a multi-family, a two-family house. So the story is my parents actually.
Speaker 2:In Glen Ridge.
Speaker 1:In Glen Ridge. Very few. Two-families Very, very few. I think my parents had the foresight to see that, okay, we're going to rent this property for a little while and then ultimately, with the hopes of buying it right and then being able to supplement income by renting out the other unit Kind of house hacking before it was popularized in the 90s, they rented.
Speaker 1:We lived in one of the units in my current house, my parents' current house. We lived in one of the units for, I'd say, probably the first six or seven years of my life. My parents bought the home from the owner, were you aware when they bought the house or no. I was, because they ended up renting out the unit beneath us to someone else. So I was aware of that, because there was a little girl who my parents, a single mother with her daughter, who ended up living downstairs.
Speaker 2:Oh, they were like you guys should get married.
Speaker 1:Not necessarily that but like definitely play together, play together, keep quiet kind of thing. Okay, no better, keep quiet, more so.
Speaker 2:And now I was thinking about that too, Like growing up. You know we rented. My parents never owned. My mom now is a property owner, actually in Newark, which is pretty cool. She owns a three-family on Camden Street Beautiful. I remember I had a friend across the street right when I lived in Lindhurst for like a few years and their parents owned the house and I knew it was crazy because it was a single-family house and usually our friends from church they live further out. So when we visited people they live in like West Caldwell, for example, right, or they lived in Hillside, so it was like a 25 minute drive, 20 minute drive, whatever. It's a Hillside 15 minute drive. But he had a single family house. But for me I was like this person lives in the same neighborhood to me and they have one family living in this. When I was probably like fifth grade, fourth grade, really yeah, I was like huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very perceptive.
Speaker 2:It was weird, though, because I'm like why do they have one family Like no, I was like, where's the other apartment? There was just no other apartment. It was weird, was it?
Speaker 1:a big family, or was it just a?
Speaker 2:No, that house I remember specifically which house it was, because their house was baller Okay, baller okay, and they had like they had three boys, uh, husband and the husband wife, right, and they had like a finished basement, they had a video game room in and they had like, uh, the first floor like had like a big living space, normal, and then top floor had bedrooms where us we usually had one floor apartment for my me and my three siblings, okay, and my parents gotcha so we would be like share room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. So I'm like what's going on?
Speaker 1:yeah, okay, yeah, I grew up sharing a room with my brother until like yeah, like double digits. I'll put it that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah how old were you when you switched over to uh single? Did you guys stay in the glenridge the?
Speaker 1:two family, like my parents, still own that house do they live there still?
Speaker 2:they live there still.
Speaker 1:Oh, so they were committed yeah, yeah, they're not, they're not moving um they kind of dug their heels in.
Speaker 1:I think it was one of those. You know. I think that generation, um, you know, real estate was really really you know sort of important right. I think it was like kind of my parents come from like the pension generation right, where you know it's be a civil service employee, do something you know for a while, put in your time and then retire right. But along the way, obviously you know, buy a home, um, and so they were able to buy that home and that's their, that's their everything right is is that, and so they were able to buy that home and that's their everything right is that asset. So they still live there, they take care of it.
Speaker 2:It's probably immaculate condition.
Speaker 1:It's in good condition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm imagining they really take pride of ownership. They do. They do for sure they have a garden in the backyard.
Speaker 1:The whole. So the interesting thing and I will say this because you mentioned perception when you know sort of growing up and kind of what you notice across the street. So the street that I grew up on, half the side uh, the side that I'm on is glen ridge and the other side is bloomfield. So, um, I always sort of grew up with that kind of little chip on my shoulder a little bit, because the services were just different. Right, we didn't have block parties on our blocks like some of the other blocks that you would imagine, in glen ridge, where it's very, very, you know, very, very nice and affluent.
Speaker 1:So our block was just a little bit different right. We had a little bit more diversity than sort of what's typical in Glenridge by far.
Speaker 2:You're aware where Glenridge meets East Orange and Bloomfield.
Speaker 1:So we're actually Glenridge meets Bloomfield, so at the sort of like the south end of Glenridge right next to Bloomfield train station. Oh, okay, gotcha. Yeah, it is funny too, because I do now like the south end of uh of glenridge um right next to bloomfield train station oh, okay, gotcha, yeah, yeah, it is funny too, because I do.
Speaker 2:Now it's funny. But you grew up. How old are you now? 32 232, so right now glenridge is super affluent comparatively to like all of essex county, right like they are. It's glenridge, maybe you got montclair, upper montclair even. Yeah, essex fells, yeah, right, but same thing. Actually, we think about it's like uh's Upper Montclair, and then there's Montclair, and then there's like Montclair meets East Orange Of course.
Speaker 1:And then that section of Montclair, south End South End.
Speaker 2:And that section is like ah, it's not that nice, yeah. So it's interesting because, even though you're in like Glen Ridge, you felt, as they were, still diversity in the neighborhood um, I think my block was literally, literally my block was the diversity I think in town.
Speaker 1:You know. Growing up I can recall being I think like one of five. You know black families in glenridge in the entirety, in the entire town. Like glenridge is not a big town at all, it's uh, somebody's gonna correct me on this but like it's probably like a maybe two miles long and then like maybe a half a mile wide, it's oh wow it's it's a small community right. There's really no downtown, there's not a lot of commerce. Um, we're known for being the place where tom cruise was raised.
Speaker 2:Tom cruise from glenridge yeah tom, but hated glenridge.
Speaker 1:Hate is his timing really yeah.
Speaker 2:Why is that?
Speaker 1:um, I know a little bit of the backstory on that um so apparently you know, single mother um moved to glenridge and I think that she was just sort of ostracized at the time oh, back then, Back then, yeah for being a single mother.
Speaker 1:You know sort of raising a child on her own In the 70s, yeah, and in a community that wasn't really inclusive and wasn't ready for that, unfortunately, and so you know, I think that Glenridge has obviously come a long way since then. But, yeah, I grew up with like the most diversity, on my block right, having one of five black families, literally, and I was one of them and the other one was one of the other ones was on my block as well, like two doors down.
Speaker 2:So they had two boys, um, so really two out of five, or one block.
Speaker 1:Can I ask you a question, maybe this is like ignorant of me, I don't know.
Speaker 2:no, growing up, when did you come to realize that? Did you were you, did you always realize like, hey, like we're one of five, like black families in this whole neighborhood? Where are the black families?
Speaker 1:Yeah, does that click? I think it clicked in first grade where I had an incident on the playground where I sort of realized oh yeah, this is who I am. Understanding your color understanding kind of how that plays out. Yeah, and realizing that there's just not many people who look like you I think that's the easiest thing for a child to sort of acknowledge is okay, well, these people don't look like me um they're my friends, but they don't look like me right um, and so realizing that they're not a lot of me um is is just different, right um yeah, but I had.
Speaker 1:I had a good group of friends, though I've, you know, good group of friends growing up. Uh for sure, my block was really, really tight, even though they were a little bit older than me.
Speaker 2:Um, we all stuck together so that's probably actually good for you kind of matured quicker, you had the older guys yeah, the friends, you learn you're a little bit wiser.
Speaker 1:They got into a bunch of stuff, but yes, yeah, well, you know how it is.
Speaker 2:You can't go bad, yeah oh, okay, so wow, and I wow, I really just have a profound impact on how we grew up, right, I'm interested in seeing so you end up, you tell me a little bit before we got in the camera here.
Speaker 1:You end up graduating in glenridge, I imagine, right, so actually, um, I went to glenridge public schools through uh ninth grade well, through eighth grade rather and then ninth grade was at seat and hall prep. Um I went switch uh track. So track has been a theme in my life. Sports, um, my dad ran track, my mom ran track, both in college. Um, committed, committed right, great athletes. Um, I ran track in college, so it's kind of one of those things. It's a unique, unique sport and I think my parents were trying to put me in the best environment that was going to foster sort of my growth right and my athletic talent. So I ended up going to Seton Hall Prep for four years Nice, obviously, in West Orange, yeah, up the road. So that was a great experience. And then I took a postgraduate year.
Speaker 1:Um so postgraduate years. Think of it like a fifth year. That's what it is right. It's a fifth year of high school, Um why'd you do that?
Speaker 1:So I did that for a number of reasons I think you know. First was, um I didn't get into the school that I wanted to get into, um off the bat, uh, senior year. So I was going to try and get into Princeton, didn't get further options right, um. Secondly, from an athletic standpoint, um, in a maturity standpoint, um it allowed me that postgraduate year, allowed me sort of like it was like an intermediate step right I kind of like that, yeah, that's what they do like pretty much like in europe, I imagine.
Speaker 1:Right then they do like a gap year, yeah, gap years is the way, yeah, and I think for someone who, like myself, had been really, really family-based and had not spent much time on my own, sort of discovering my own sort of living habits and what have you? It was good, right, it was good to be in a different environment and to be living on my own. And also don't forget, like Seton Hall, prep is an all-boys school right, and so it's very, very different, very, very different environment and, to go from that to, you know, a co-ed environment in college.
Speaker 1:I've seen a lot of guys crash out and burn. Oh yeah, I can imagine you go from being really cooped up to having all the freedoms in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, and mom and dad are not around.
Speaker 1:So I had that sort of intermediate step.
Speaker 2:To grow as a man, et cetera. And then, what college did you end up going to?
Speaker 1:University of Pennsylvania. Oh okay, cool yeah down in. Philadelphia and you political science and american history actually okay so here's the grandiose question ask it track star.
Speaker 2:Come on. American science history, love life boom. American political science. I think you said american history and political science and political science how does that connect with you finding your way into the promised land of real estate? Because I remember during that gap you're, didn't you get your license, or where'd that?
Speaker 1:so no, I did so I got my license um real sales license.
Speaker 2:Yeah, real estate sales license, right.
Speaker 1:So, um, as I mentioned before, my mom was an executive over at chubb insurance, right? Um, she was an industrial engineer by trade. Um, she made a late sort of, uh, career change, um, you know, they were doing a bunch of layoffs at chubb and she just, you know, wanted to do something else. Right, realize that it was. She had the, you know, extremely well versed in numbers and just really, really a smart woman, and so she wanted to try her hand in real estate, right.
Speaker 1:And so she actually became the team leader when she got her license. We got our licenses together.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 1:Same time took the test same day. I was giving her a bunch of slack about you know, if she didn't pass and I passed, obviously my I was giving her a bunch of slack about if she didn't pass. And I passed, Obviously my mom. There's that competitiveness there, but she ended up being the team leader at the brokerage in Clifton for Keller Williams.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So you and your mom really got put on together into the KW world 100% and you entered in through the real estate path. Yes, what was your goal when you got into real estate, versus your mother's goal?
Speaker 1:So my goal was literally just to have some spending money. Right, I was just like I'll sell a house a year, I'll be good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one house a year, two houses, three houses, maybe a lease.
Speaker 1:Exactly, Exactly. You hit the nail on the head right. Some leases Enough money where I could just say, okay, well, I have a little bit of spending change, make anything so you can always lease, exactly you can do a lease and it's. It's relatively simple done that's it, and so, um, yeah, that was my sort of foray into real estate is getting my license at 18 and you know doing it during the summers in between my internships wow, yeah, what a trip.
Speaker 2:And now your mom, did she go on to? She would. She was highly committed. She became team lead. Sure, yeah, you become a tl. Like you, that's a you are is your mom still in real estate now.
Speaker 1:No, no. So she actually sort of left real estate. She actually had a bout with breast cancer and then left, like three years ago, okay, and then she says stress level. Enough, right Enough. She's done what she needed to do.
Speaker 2:She worked like you said the pension generation, right, yeah, okay, and now all right. So then you go, you do the license. Did you ever think any point when you were like, you know, realtor, hey, I'm going to go all in on this and make wealth. And did I ever come across?
Speaker 1:Honestly, no, I don't think so. Um cause I thought that actually, coming out of college um well, let me step back in college I thought that I was going to be a lawyer, right, I thought that I was going to go to law school, I was doing some homework and then realizing that, like you know, they weren't, that wasn't the path for me.
Speaker 1:I just didn't see many people who were happy, you know, and I think that happiness and freedom has kind of been a train throughout, sort of a current in my life and my career trajectory. So, yeah, you know, I did the you graduate college day one.
Speaker 2:I'm going to Wall Street. I'm going to Wall Street. What were you doing on Wall Street?
Speaker 1:So I worked during my internships, during my summers at Penn, I was working at NASDAQ, right, I had a great opportunity to work at the Stock Exchange, so I worked there. I had a job offer, you know, probably I think at the beginning of my senior year, right, junior summer. I'm good I did that, right, I will say that much. So I did that. And then, you know, I worked. I worked at NASDAQ for a year, a little bit more than a year, and then I worked at JP Morgan and that was sort of the path, right. But by no means did I think that I was going to come back to real estate and, like, hit it big. I thought that, excuse me. I thought that my, you know, path was going to be through, potentially finance, right that was it um, but it just turned out not to be for me.
Speaker 1:Why wasn't it for you? Um a number of reasons, I, I think that, um seeing, like the whole meritocracy thing, that they preach on wall street is not real, and that's and that's sort of what I like, just kind of it's the brass tacks. You see, you see it, and you see it quickly, right. It's like oh well, you know, the best will sort of thrive, and you know that's the case right.
Speaker 2:What do you think the other variables are?
Speaker 1:It's. It's some of its EQ right. Some of it's like how well you're, you're like with people. Some of it's just plain out. You know, simple favoritism, nepotism, right there's that element too Right, and I think you know there's just corporate politics, there's all of it which is it's, it's very tough, I can't do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I didn't do it long, right, and so I recognized that early on and I said a good friend of mine in college asked me a phenomenal question, and I think that this has been one of those sort of inflection points that I've had. He said Kyle, if you don't want your boss's job, why are you doing your current job? Say it again If you your boss's job, why are you doing your current job? And the idea behind that being that, like, if you want to progress, you're ultimately going to take your boss's seat, right, is it? That's?
Speaker 1:sort of the natural sort of food chain right is to kind of progress. Great question if you don't want your boss's job, then why are you doing what you're doing if you want your, you know, three levels above you. That's one thing, right, and I saw that that I wanted to be kind of being able to make decisions, um, be an investor, um, be responsible for my own sort of track record, yeah, um, and have more autonomy and sort of uh ability to you know sort of move the needle, so to speak, right, um, but you don't have that as an analyst, right?
Speaker 1:you don't even have that as an associate or vp. So, um, it made sense for me to kind of, you know, believe in myself and go do something on my own so when you said go do something on your own, was that like realtor, salesperson?
Speaker 2:Was that? What was that?
Speaker 1:So it was a combination of both. Right, it was a combination of doing sales at the beginning, sales and leases, but also I had the goal of just buying assets, right.
Speaker 2:Because your mind was really open when you were on Wall Street. You're like got it you were saying like I want to be autonomous, I want to build my own track record. Yeah, okay, that's going to take me another 10 years at jp morgan if I'm great, if the meritocracy really you know that's not happening. Yeah, you know, I may need to go get too many dinners with people I don't want to talk to and, you know, go play golf or something I don't want to do that.
Speaker 2:So then you say I'm going to build my own track record via real estate investing. Yeah, how did that click, though. Were you just reading a book one day?
Speaker 1:um, I think it clicked for me once I was exposed to. You know, I think everyone of our generation bigger pockets, right? Like oh yeah, you know, just big pockets change so many people's lives and and, and not that I'm a huge proponent of bigger pockets, so much as just like the idea of education around real estate right and and just sort of it becoming more and more sort of in like the cultural zeitgeist, right People are talking about it, people are aware of it and I think that sort of naturally, it made sense right To do the house hacking, and so that's what I did, right I bought a house while I was working on Wall Street right Bought a house in East Orange, new Jersey.
Speaker 2:And that was it. That was the first one. It wow nice. I bought my first house east orange too. Yeah, and what'd you buy? Single family two, family three family three fam. Did you move in or no? Yeah wow, what a trip. How much you buy for uh this was 225, I think oh yeah, so what year is this? This was 2017 how did you find the deal?
Speaker 1:I found the deal through the broker, actually um through my broker that's uh david, david, yeah oh, so how did that work out?
Speaker 2:it's interesting because usually brokers they don't really help anyone in the team yeah right, they usually just hoard hoard, hoard 100. So he he was gracious enough to help me with with the deal so would you mind, because I think I was with one of my team members today. Um, and he's putting an offer on his client, an off-market property of ours on bergen street. It's a duplex. It's 430 000 including our uh sorry, yeah, 435 including our commission, but he can get it for 410. It's worth probably 500 so I said 5525.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as is. So I said, brother, you got to go ahead and you know, make this happen and you know, maybe if you do a little bit repairs, it ends up ends up being worth $500, $525, but whatever I said, you can do this. You're walking with six grand equity. Why don't you buy it? You can use your FHA. He's like I don't think I should do it, man. I said, why shouldn't you do it? Do it, do it right now. You can make $70K on equity. Then, a year from now, you fix, you win, yeah, or you keep it as a two fam.
Speaker 1:And that's it.
Speaker 2:But it was so interesting because he's like I don't think I should do it, and it was so mind-blowing because I know so many brokers that whenever they get opportunity, they hoard from their team, they hoard from their agents.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is my investment, my investment, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, yeah, that opportunity. Then they become like a walking testimonial, not only to their clients right Like our clients who are looking to buy a house with them but they become a testimonial to like in this brokerage we grow wealth. Yeah, in this brokerage we win, certainly. So it's like I had a huge conversation with this guy. I said, man, you're making a big mistake. Yeah, you got to buy this house yourself right now. Do it? I know so I got a little ramble.
Speaker 1:I think it's important to understand that people. There's some statistic about the number of agents, the percentage of agents that actually own investment properties.
Speaker 2:It's like 5% or 10%. By the way, yeah, very small, very small, 5%.
Speaker 1:And that's the thing, right, people, we're in the space, but we're not actually doing what we preach right, or doing what we're working on on a daily basis, and so to be involved is important.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's actually really good. Yeah, you're right, we're like hypocrites.
Speaker 1:You're making other people a lot of money. You're finding deals for people and you're making them a lot of money, a lot. And we're talking like a lot Thick margins yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, so did David push you to buy the three family? How did that come about?
Speaker 1:So he sourced the deal, he knew the seller and, yeah, he pushed me to buy the deal and he sort of walked me through the process. That was back in 2017. And at the time, that brokerage had because obviously my mom was the team leader there that brokerage had all of the pieces to the puzzle right. So they had the lending arm I think at the time it was Bond Street Mortgage with Craig Andrew Lee and there were some other folks that were there as well and you know they were. That's what they were doing. They were helping fha buyers, you know, sort of go through the process right, really take off, yeah, and I think it's that's that's a noble, that's a noble cause right, to make sure that people are, you know, able to, you know, find a home right.
Speaker 1:Um, granted, that market was a lot different in 2017 well, you just said 225 for a three-fam I'm like, oh, yeah, I know, if I could repeat that deal right now, I'd buy three of them. Oh, by literally as many as you could, yeah, I would sell my, I would cut off my arm and just buy like as many as I could.
Speaker 2:No, wow, yeah, no, that's definitely the way. Okay, now did you I'm guessing you kept that. Do you still have it or not? Yeah, I still have it yeah, Wow you. And now let me guess it's cash flowing great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. It's been a great asset. I've refied it, made my money on it. You pulled out, I'm sure yeah yeah, winner, great, great, great, great deal. Yeah, great deal. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 2:Oh, so good. I'm so happy for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then, once you get that right, investing and agency.
Speaker 1:Um, so that was, that was the. The big thing. Um, a lot of people were like, why, right, why are you? This is the, you're leaving the golden goose. Nobody leaves, nobody does this, nobody does the leaving jp morgan to work on their own right. It's not heard of um. And so, yeah, I think for, to a very real extent, I think there was a lot of doubt, right, um, you know about, like, the ability to sort of make it, but I viewed it like like okay, well, I can be unhappy here or I can try and find happiness elsewhere, right, and try and do something on my own. And the worst comes to worst.
Speaker 1:I'm still young right, we can get back in the workforce if I need to. I'm not, I don't have dependents yet right. So now's the time. Right Now's the time, if you got, to make a move.
Speaker 2:And make a move, and so I did um.
Speaker 1:But yeah, 100. There was hesitancy and doubt and like, oh well, you know, even the folks at jp morgan before I left were like well, are you sure that you want to do this? Really do you want to leave? You know?
Speaker 2:wow, and what were your parents saying?
Speaker 1:um, my parents were saying go be happy, go, go, do it on your own, do it figure it out on your own, because I think they saw me like wow you know how stressed I was. You know there was a period in time where I was like we're talking, working, getting up and being on the train, because I was commuting, being on the train 6 o'clock, being in the office 6.45, leaving the office. Sometimes I'm leaving the office at 2 am in a car coming back. It's just not sustainable long term.
Speaker 2:Right now. I don't know. Have you paid attention to JP Morgan since the pandemic? How much your salary, like, has increased? Yeah, like just to be competitive. Now you basically have to buy. Buy people's like wellbeing yeah, that's the only thing. Like you're like hey, we know this is going to cost you wellbeing.
Speaker 1:My brother.
Speaker 2:Uh, he was with BCG. Okay, he just finished his seventh year. Now he's transitioning. You know, you coach up or you coach out, that's the whole thing there. Okay, so he's like transitioning out of bcg and he opened up. He's like, not open up, but watching him, this guy man, it was one of the most insane lives and I worked a lot like when I first started yeah, I work a lot as my own business owner. I'm all in you have to I do not play games.
Speaker 2:I'm willing to die. I love what I do, I'm willing to run for it, I'm willing to live for it. Perhaps I die, cuz now I have a dependence, so I wouldn't die for this. I'll probably die for him first, you know, and my wife. But I saw my brother, my older brother, brian, do the sheer volume of corporate stress insane. Yeah, they get golden handcuffs on you. You could be making four, five hundred K a year, yeah. So then at that point you're like what am I gonna do? Leave this? Yeah, exactly, I grew up poor, we grew up super poor yeah so it's like, okay, am I gonna grow up?
Speaker 2:am I gonna leave four or five hundred grand? I'm gonna make a hundred grand bonus at the end of the year. Yep, you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's like you can't really do that, yeah, so you've created a lifestyle where you got to maintain some of it to a certain degree.
Speaker 2:I think that's how they get you my other friend right now he's starting with Deloitte. That's another consulting firm, right Deloitte, and basically I think it's Deloitte, I don't know. But basically he says he goes like when I first got into the industry out of college I was making like X amount of money, maybe 100 grand, he told. With so much money I was so content. But they put me up at these five-star hotels. Every restaurant is five-star, everything we do is so baller, he said. When I'm by myself, I feel poor.
Speaker 2:So I got to make more money. I got to get that all the time and I'm kind of thinking, maybe that's how they trap you in. That's my theory.
Speaker 1:I don't know, man, I would yeah, because.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking you started your own business. How much money did you make your first year in real estate, brother? Think about it honestly First year in real estate, I would probably say a lot less than you would make at JP Morgan. Oh 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can go far and say maybe half.
Speaker 2:Okay, right. So you took a 50% pay cut, probably to work the same amount of hours.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Now, I guess, move forward. How. What did your dating life look like for someone who's getting into real estate? Were you dating at the time? Were you single? You said, hey, I'm just going to focus on my business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was focusing on my business. Right, I was focused on my business, I was doing deals and I think that was my time, right, it was kind of the time to be a sponge. How old were you at the time? More or less so, right out of college 23, 24.
Speaker 2:Women were the last thing on your mind. You said I got to grow my business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's growing, your business and then finding time to, obviously to date, but yeah, yeah. I think it was primarily, you know, just focusing on kind of your craft right and perfecting it and trying to get better at it. I think that there were a lot of resources also available at that time, especially with the Keller Williams brand.
Speaker 2:How so.
Speaker 1:Just the amount of knowledge that was just being transferred right. You know, keller Williams, they preach the whole, you know sort of, just, sort of as a training organization, right, an educational organization, educational platform, and so I really took advantage of all that, going to all of these different trainings, going to all of these different you know events, just to learn more right, just to be sort of in the sphere of information, right, information, right you want to soak it up, and so that's what I was doing for a while I think that's one of the biggest hacks the educational piece and really leaning into it consistently.
Speaker 2:I the first time I met, I saw you. Actually I remember the exact uh day. It was a friday night, city men's meeting at um. What's closest central? Yeah, central, sorry, so it's at central high school and you went up and you were in front of the whole man. There's like 100 men in the room, right. It's my first time I was there, I think first one I went to or second one I went to. It was maybe a year and a half ago, two years ago, two years actually.
Speaker 2:And uh, I remember I saw you and you said something so interesting. You got up. You're like, it was so, so interesting. You got up you said here's what I've done. I've bought x amount, because now you're an investor, you're a developer, right. You're country, you're a general contractor, builder, you don't. You were just talking about you buying the note to do big project, new star inch, the whole nine, right. So now you really kind of I don't want to say graduated right, because I think everyone has respect in their own like. I'm a realtor. I love being a realtor, yeah, I really do enjoy it. I honestly enjoy more than I do investing. Frankly, I really just I'm much better just being a realtor is that because you like dealing with people?
Speaker 1:I love people yeah, and I can tell that, and it shows right, it shows them what you do and shows how you interact with people. I think that that's. It's a beautiful thing. You have to lean into that right. Lean into who I am.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all I want to do is deal with people. I hate dealing with you're a person. I hate dealing with you're a person, but I hate dealing with contractors. Yeah, I hate, hate, hate, hate with all my soul, all my soul dealing with tenants. I hate it. I don't talk to any tenant. If a tenant has my number. I immediately delete. I immediately block them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's no reason any tenant should ever talk to me. Yeah, I have my property manager, karina. If you ever talk to me, she's the only person you talk to you never call me.
Speaker 2:That's how I see amy's. But you said this at that men's meeting. It was so beautiful. That's how I immediately liked you, because you said you were like this is what I've done. You were very transparent, so I bought this, I'm doing it. I'm making mistakes and that's why I loved. You said like I don't have it all figured out, but I'm doing it. I have a proven way. I have I'm getting some success on my track record. Yep Right, this is two years ago.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I am offering you the opportunity. If you want to do it, we can do it together. We can partner on deals together. If you don't want to partner, it's okay. I will give you free consulting. Yeah, I will give you free advice. I will take time out of your day, which I'm sure you're busy. You're just not sitting on the couch all day right no, okay, yeah, you have a schedule right, yeah you're walking on the phone.
Speaker 2:The podcast after podcast ends, you're back on the phone and you're like, hey, I'll meet with you guys, I'll coach you guys to a room above 100 men yeah and I was so interested in that because usually when I hear that there's a course that you have to pay for, you know or, or you're in a brokerage, so there's a commission cut, so you kind of like, okay, but these are just people you don't even know in Newark.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think my whole sort of thing, I think in just life in general, is like each one teach one right. I think I've been raised around folks who have been given a lot right. They may not have like a ton of financial wealth, but they have knowledge, they have experience, they have these things that are very, very sort of tangible in a lot of ways that they can pass on. And so I think that you know, if I've gone through the gauntlet, my desire is for everyone to have you know the same right, like have you two can have it right. I'm not particularly special. I've followed, I've listened, I've learned from people, but I definitely want everyone to win right and I think that that's that's sort of just in my nature is wanting to give, especially in a community that I care about, right. Um, I mentioned that I grew up in glenridge but I was actually born in newark right, so I was born at beth israel hospital and so um.
Speaker 1:My dad has always been sort of involved in the community and I grew up in newark yeah, involved here in newark and east orange, and just you know, reminded me of you know I have right. What I have and what other people who look like me may not have right, and so being aware of that and understanding that you have an obligation to help, I think is important.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I don't have a course to sell you, it's not whether you give me a call on the GC side or a realtor side, it doesn't matter to me. But if you're genuine about this craft and this space, I'm gonna help you because I've done that right, I've. I've someone said to me if you want, to learn.
Speaker 2:I'll teach you. I think it's so cool what your father did for you, though I gotta just I want you know I'd love to meet this guy, because he sounds like a legend yeah he said, yeah, because you just said he's like you had glenn ridge, you were one in five. Uh, you know black families in glenn ridge, right example, right, maybe 10, who knows. But the point is this I find oftentimes I'll give you the, I'll give you the great example in the Brazilian culture.
Speaker 1:Certainly.
Speaker 2:Very interesting In Brazilian cultures. My parents, my parents, were actually the opposite. My parents. They actually ran away from the Brazilian culture, my mother more so than my father. He became very Americanized, All Brazilians. My church was in Newark, right In Ironbound and McWhorter Street the Brazilians would live in, or Portuguese would live in, Warren County, Warren Township rather, and Hillside they would live in Elizabeth Kearney. That was it. Yeah, that was the area. If you were Brazilian, you lived in these townships, the end.
Speaker 1:Or Newark or.
Speaker 2:Newark. That's it. Newark Done what happens? My parents, they did everything they could. They did everything they could to get us out of those townships to get us into Lyndhurst North Arlington, rutherford we went up the Passaic River.
Speaker 2:Yep Arlington, rutherford we went up the Passaic River on the east side. And the reason why I give your father-in-law credit is my parents they gave us. We would come back to the church very often, but our church was our only community of Brazilians. We didn't really see Brazilians in real life, we just only saw Brazilians within a church structure.
Speaker 2:Because, even the church's parties, etc. My parents, they had their own group of friends. Okay, they really weren't. You know what I mean. So it was so interesting because I hear your father he didn't just leave you in Glen Ridge saying, hey, we're trying to be in like the highest socioeconomic bracket, yeah, no.
Speaker 1:It's like no, we're trying to be, estes county are here, yeah so we want to be around, we want you to see the people that look around you and look like you.
Speaker 2:Most of them don't have the opportunity you have exactly very interesting that he did this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's his background. You know, my dad grew up, you know, in a single parent household um and so you know t-neck, new jersey. Um, I think my dad was definitely on welfare at one point, so he grew up with, I think, a chip on his shoulder as well and I think you know just sort of um that idea that we talked about. Right, like each one, teach one and realizing that you have a place and you have a place and if you know better, you do better, right and helping people out.
Speaker 1:I think being exposed to athletics um at an early age track and then football, for me um were critical in terms of just development right and realizing what you have um and sort sort of expanding your social circle as a child right. And so I definitely, we definitely my parents definitely pushed that.
Speaker 2:I would say this, without a doubt in my mind yeah, you ready for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go. Your parents putting you that early on set you up for massive success, because what they did I just thought about this now and this is how real estate really impacts people. I'm not talking about real estate like the industry, I'm talking about real estate like city boundaries. There's a thing that in Florida they do. I think it's a wonderful thing they do. Basically, it's a lottery system of just because you live in Newark doesn't mean you go to Newark schools. You can apply for it depending on where you're at there. See if you would be a good fit for the school. I think it's like a great thing in Florida. But my friend who moved down there told me his kids they lived in Newark Like dude, the Newark schools. They were like this is terrible. They could not do it. They said they're in a neighborhood just like Newark, a city just like Newark, but their kids go to schools like Glen Ridge's schools. I said how do you guys do this? How is that possible? He's like that's what we do here in Florida.
Speaker 2:You can go anywhere within the county. Okay, it's like the county has the schools, the county district.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:But your parents. What they did is, from what I'm seeing, they allowed, allowed you to escape the bubble, yeah, and be able to play in both worlds?
Speaker 1:yeah, you have to, well, you do have to very few understand yeah, dude certainly I had the same thing.
Speaker 2:I was in rutherford high school my sixth grade to senior year. We were evicted, I believe, four times in those six years three times in those six years and um, we live in four different places, five different places in those six year time and I remember seeing, like man, everyone here has a single family right, that was a big thing.
Speaker 2:I'm like man everyone's got a house right. Whoa, and my friend David Choi from Leverage Companies yeah, he was my best friend in high school. He stayed best friend throughout the past, like 15 years where we've been friends. One of my oldest friends in my whole life. One of my oldest friends in my whole life Awesome. He became a business partner. He got me into real estate in a way Really.
Speaker 2:It was him and my other friend, juan Carlos. So Juan Carlos, he paid for me to get my real estate class. But David was really an amazing friend. That's awesome. I love that guy. I had no money to my name. He held me down 400 bucks.
Speaker 2:And David Choi because my parents they gave me the Newark Ironbound Brazilian Portuguese like Lock your Doors Someone just got beat up with a bat down the block from the church, but we're going home to Rutherford, so all the time I saw these two worlds, two worlds, two worlds, two worlds. And then so I could be in the environment where it's like, oh, this is and that's like a middle. At the time it was middle class. Now we've rather first become upper class, upper middle class, but I've been. I could be in that room of like okay, this people are like, they have some houses.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Right, these guys bring it in like a million dollars, 500 grand and like I could, be bringing in 60 grand like both parents together, making like 65 grand like the whole household income. Yeah, with children, with children, yeah multiple, like literally yeah.
Speaker 2:So anyways, and now okay, so well, I guess fast forward to where you're at today. Certainly, what does life look like for kyle weber?
Speaker 1:um. So life is um life. Life is good. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm perfecting my craft, still doing a lot of just learning, putting myself in the right places and the right people like yourself, being around the right folks in terms of the orbit. But I think you're asking for tangibles, so obviously you have the construction company right.
Speaker 2:More so actually not tangibles.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I guess tangibles then impact so construction company and then real estate investing Soibles, then impact, so, yes, so, construction company, um, and then real estate investing, right. So I tell everyone this right, the, the construction company is how I pay my bills, right? That's, that's the, that's the day-to-day, that's the cash flow, um, I don't eat off of my real estate. I just never have um. That's just not how I was taught. To invest um only when there's refis or or or sales, right, otherwise I'm not does that mean?
Speaker 1:eat, so I'm not taking any money and putting it into my pocket per se. On the personal side.
Speaker 2:So let's say your company, let's say your portfolio, just example profits 15,000 a month, example. Certainly what do you do with that money, that?
Speaker 1:stays in the account.
Speaker 2:Stays in the account. That's it, yeah.
Speaker 1:And what does do? Just that just grows. Do you reinvest the money when it's important or no? No, I haven't yet stop. Yeah, only, I only reinvest, so I don't. I don't reinvest the actual cash flow, right, that just stays there as like a reserves for the actual property account. I reinvest whatever I have from a cash out, refi or from a sale. That's how I do it so you'll leverage the debt?
Speaker 2:yeah, certainly. Now you seem like a very down-to-earth guy. General construction is you know, general contracting is very stressful. Are you working with more so end users or other investors?
Speaker 1:I work with investors a lot right, and I think that's a beautiful thing. Investors and then also like nonprofits. Nonprofits have been good to me.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Nonprofits and cities, you know. So there are cities that we work with, that we're doing a lot of work Because, as you know, right in the subsidized space, when you're playing with affordable housing right, there's a lot of upkeep right, a lot of compliance, a lot of, you know, fire safety. A lot of that paint the whole thing. So that's what we do a lot of ready when we and we specialize in doing that and helping folks who have you know, affordable portfolios or have compliance issues, and we help them.
Speaker 1:I stay away from the end user because it's just a different ballgame. Yeah, I'm doing a, it's just a different ballgame.
Speaker 2:I told you I'm building this house in the Ironbound.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm getting this.
Speaker 2:You know, interior like building designer, architecture designer. He's like, just like you know, I never work with end users and I go. Okay, well, you work with me, he goes. But you know, if we do end up, you know making you an opportunity, if we do end up with opportunity, we will have to charge you extra yeah he's like, I'm like just curious, why am I going to get charged more?
Speaker 2:he said you're going to take about three times the work. Yeah, I'm like. No, I'm pretty like decisive. He said, no, you're going to take about four times the work. And he like made a joke yeah, he goes you're the, you're the exactly the kind of person, yeah, who ends up making me like do so more. I'm not trying to offend you, sir. I'm like and I'm thinking, and I've already sent over a change.
Speaker 1:A change order we haven't even started design.
Speaker 2:I'm like you know what? I know. I said this kind of kitchen, I want this kind of kitchen.
Speaker 1:And he's like I told you. I'm like, oh my God.
Speaker 2:So I guess you seem so composed. How are you able to maintain such a level of composure and such a high stress? You're not like very different. I want to be clear. I just bought my first six units. You're doing bigger projects than I am Trying to. How are you staying composed in the stress of it all?
Speaker 1:So I think a lot of it's a good poker face, right, because there is a lot of stress underneath. You know, it's like the duck the ducks cool up top and then their legs are kicking underneath, um. But, with that said, I think it boils down to having a good team, too, right, so having the right people in place who are competent, know what they're doing. Um, I rely on my partners, right. I rely on delegating responsibility on the construction side. So I have a great foreman, I have great subs, I have a great team, right, and having very clear responsibilities and roles in terms of like expectations, right like what are you expected to do, right?
Speaker 1:what, how, what's the level of quality and communication that you expect? And making sure that that's sort of filtered out throughout your organization, that's for sure. And then, on the investment side, my partners, my partners are great, right, and they're much bigger fish than I am, and so it's good because I'm able to learn. Right. I'm able to learn and I'm the small guy in the room to a degree for sure, but being able to learn from them great right, you're 32, you're not 62 yeah my big thing.
Speaker 2:I'm struggling now is I feel like this is not a good thing by any means. The majority of rooms I'm in and the real I am the big guy in the room, yeah, and it's a very bad thing. And I'm not big. Yeah, I know, in reality I'm like a, an inch warm, but it's like it's hard in the realtor not real estate developer but realtor world to find like, because our team does about 200 units a year.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, it's volume.
Speaker 2:It's volume and we're doing about 100 million. The other kind of people who are doing those kind of units are more like bougie, like you have, like people who I like have a lot of respect for, like Sue Adler team you have, like the Michelle Pius different markets.
Speaker 1:Also, they're not playing in Newark the same way that you are. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So like the people in Newark. The second guy we did 91 houses last year in Newark. The second guy is like these two old school Portuguese guys nothing but love and respect. It's like who's here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you, that's it, and we see you right, yeah, right.
Speaker 2:But it's like I think it's, I'm envying, I really am envious of you, and that you find yourself in these bigger rooms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that I've tried. My best was in on the corporate side at JP Morgan right.
Speaker 1:So that's that's my goal is to be able to get back in the room and be a developer that they work with right, that's. That's like my goal. Right Is to be to be one of the partners that they work with, and they just don't work with that many people of color. They don't work with that many people who are small developers right. So it's it's a very limited room, right, the right mindset and the right people and taking risk. I think that I've taken more risk. People think that success is just some type of formula. It's hard work, it's risk-taking, it's loneliness as an entrepreneur, which is something that we can go on vimes about.
Speaker 2:Do you feel at any time that it's been lonely on your journey? Oh for sure.
Speaker 1:It's lonely all the time, because I'd be lying to you if I said that I knew that I had the answers at all the time. Right, um, I have conviction in myself and I know that I can do things. But yeah, am I? Do I weigh certain decisions when you make them? 100? Do you look back and be like, okay, making sure that this is the right move. My big thing is not to lose what I already have. That's, that's, that's how I sort of calculate decisions. It's like, okay, yes, this can be some monumental increase in terms of my impact, net worth, whatever you want to call it, whatever metric you're looking at, but is it going to, if this goes south, is this going to wipe out whatever I've already done? Wow, and so if it's going to do that, then I don't make those decisions right, because I'm only in it so that I'm able to linearly progress. I'm not trying to become some billionaire overnight, or whatever.
Speaker 1:That's by no means.
Speaker 2:Now I will say, though how do you? Because I find myself in the same position. I was literally just talking to my wife about this last night, literally, and I find myself in that position sometimes where I'm like how do I'm trying to explain to my wife a situation I was going through? And I'm also a Christian right, so I have a.
Speaker 2:Christian business owner, which is even a smaller group, and I paid for this membership to this program and coaching where you meet up with other Christian business owners once a year, I mean once a month, and it's really, really helpful. But I was trying to explain to her a situation I was in. I could just see she really gave it her all, but it was just. You can't really she just didn't get it.
Speaker 2:How do you go about handling the situations when you're in a tough spot? You feel the way you've kind of made me feel like you are going to lose what you made, and you look left and right and you're the only one at the line. Yeah, what do you?
Speaker 1:do. It boils down to me seeking counsel from people who I trust, right, whether that's my parents, whether that's other entrepreneurs. Yeah, I think that that's the answer for me. I genuinely try and form consensus, to try and reach an opinion, reach an end destination that I think makes sense, and if it feels right, then we'll do it. But I also rely because I realize that entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship, right. Yes, you can be selling real estate Real estate's a widget, right, but there are other entrepreneurs and they deal with similar, very, very similar problem sets.
Speaker 2:Very wise. That's my one hack I've learned.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Real estate's not that special.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's special in that it's a huge tool for which generation.
Speaker 2:Oh, especially there, but I'm talking about entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:It's just a widget. It's a widget, and so people who are dealing with widgets and dealing with people, who are employing people and taking risks and doing these things and sort of making these business moves, you're like-minded right. And so I have a group of guys who I can rely on, who have made decisions that are similar right, and who I can say, okay, well, let me go to you and ask you does this, you know, pass a sniff test? Is this like? Does this pass the gut check Right? Does?
Speaker 2:this make sense. Yeah, you mentioned that you have a very streamlined and one of the keys to your ability to grow and the scale that you're doing and be confident in that and be at peace and composure is a great team. Yeah, how?
Speaker 1:team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how are you able to manage boundaries personal boundaries, with your team members?
Speaker 1:You know whether it's a job site or you know an investor who's perhaps crossing the line personally, yeah, so investors are different, because that's just like that's capital. I look at, right, my partners. I view anyone that I'm in a relationship with is like a partner, whether that's a financial part, like, let me, let me step back financial partner, meaning that we're gps on a deal, right, um, that's like a marriage. I view that right like you have to be very, very comfortable with the person who's also going to be on the deed or also going to be on the mortgage. Um, with you, that's like the ultimate trust same thing with um.
Speaker 1:You know the guys who are on my team. I trust them implicitly, right, um? And that's the personal side. I just think that in many regards, through my leadership style, how I've been able to get the most out of people is through being able to empathize with them and being human. Yes, we need to have rules and we need to have regulations and what have you, and there needs to be some structure to it. But also, like I'm forthcoming with kind of how right, they know where I'm coming from and, yeah, sometimes that line of personal and professional gets blurred, um, but for me so far it's been, it's been okay, um, it's been okay.
Speaker 1:So what do you attribute that to? Um? I attribute that to me trying to find um, trying to find solutions, right. Uh, I try and make sure that people are happy with it when they deal with me, that you know you walk away from the situation. You're like, okay, well, he did, did right, he did the right thing, because this is not a game where it's winner take all. I don't view that. I don't view business that way. It's like, at the end of the day, it's my name, my name's on the line With every transaction that I do. With every partnership that I do, every job that I do my name's on the line, making sure that the people who are working for me, working with me, they understand that right.
Speaker 2:Very interesting because I completely agree your mindset is the way. It's difficult to keep that mindset I find in moments of high financial stress.
Speaker 1:Oh it's tough.
Speaker 2:I find it best to not put myself in a position of high financial stress, so I put all my chips down on. I talked to you about it in December, yeah it's a big move.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I basically emptied out my bank account on a property. I emptied out the business's bank account. I had a $65,000 bill hit that I didn't anticipate for like my 401, my Roth or whatever it was. I had to do it for tax purposes, whatever. I didn't see that coming and ended up having to take out Like 60k of personal loans and then another Like yeah, it was like 70k of personal loans, all that stuff and I ended up Like putting myself In so much stress. Thankfully I built Like it ended up being very profitable. The stress I endured, but it was not worth it Because the way I treated Others, I felt, was more like harsh. I treated myself harsh. I wasn't proud of myself in that 45-day period. In fact, I was a lesser version of me. So I can definitely agree, I can definitely empathize. In order to be at that level like hey, very forthcoming, you've got to really maintain that composure.
Speaker 2:Because, if you don't have it, your team doesn't have it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, you spoke to something that was incredibly true and valid for me. Being introspective and looking and taking sort of an assessment of your own behavior. I think that that's what I did when I was working in the corporate space.
Speaker 1:I was like I'm being more of a snippy person. I'm adopting my circumstances and my environment too much and it's just not who I am, by nature, right to be that person. Yeah, you can turn that on and turn that off. There's a time and place to be very, very tight with things, but there's also a time and place where you need to be empathetic with people, right, and you need to actually be able to speak to someone and have a conversation, for sure, and I think that for me, it couldn't be truer right To figure out where those moments of pain are, where you're seeing yourself that you're not being like yourself and do less of that, right.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And try and stay away from those situations or try and create as much. Put yourself in the best position for you to be your best self right. At the end of the day, that's it.
Speaker 2:What would you say is your favorite type of construction job to do? Ooh, ooh.
Speaker 1:Just curious Popped in my head A favorite type of construction, because you've done it.
Speaker 2:Residential. Yeah, you've done. Commercial, yeah, you've done. Have you done any industrial?
Speaker 1:No, okay, no industrial have you?
Speaker 2:done any ground up development.
Speaker 1:So we're working on ground up development right now.
Speaker 2:Sweet, sweet. What are you looking at to do?
Speaker 1:So 40 units in Patterson.
Speaker 2:Oh nice, Patterson.
Speaker 1:Wild West. They're wild Patterson's an environment, for sure.
Speaker 2:They just thumbs up the project, they say we want a building. Yeah, come on yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, the building department is its own.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're wild man.
Speaker 1:In terms of like favorite thing to do. Yeah, I think you know I found myself doing like affordable housing, right. I think it's. It's the double bottom line thing, right. It's like doing well and doing good at the same time.
Speaker 2:You know, what I mean um that's a great thing doing well and doing good.
Speaker 1:I like that expression yeah, you have to, you have to be able to blend it right it's like at the end, make it sound flowery, but you can do that right. You can create a niche for yourself where you are doing well. You're doing well, you're helping people here in Newark and you're doing good for yourself and your family, right.
Speaker 2:I do. This is one of the biggest things I've learned. Not only do I feel personally, because I have a team of 15 right now, like seven agents. We have, uh, three people overseas, four people overseas. We have two transaction coordinators the director of ops and rami, the man behind the lens yeah, the sniper. One of the best things I do is I provide people an opportunity to do what they love I feel like a job yeah like via, like an opportunity to build, and I like really do push like me around right now.
Speaker 2:We're locking in on content. I just I'm turning 30 on Monday.
Speaker 1:Wow, happy early birthday. Thank you, taurus. Right, taurus, yes.
Speaker 2:And my team. We do Friday gratitude right. So every Friday we say what are you great for? In the morning and I say, well, I'm really great for my 20s.
Speaker 2:But here's why my first like half of my 20s, my first like really like my first five, like survival mode, look out for me I gotta win yeah, when I turned 27 into 28 like around 27, 28, 27, like three years ago I had this click and I said I gotta do this for others like I'm. I'm pushing myself so much. I have way more than it happened november 2021 actually, so not even three years two and a half years november 2021, october 2021 I had like basically a nervous breakdown.
Speaker 2:I literally like collapsed, like physical collapse. I didn't go to work for a few days. I ended up basically taking off for like over a course of three months, like maybe like a whole month Just didn't like would go into work and just leave like an hour later two hours later I was just beat, I was burnt and I ended where I hired a coach.
Speaker 2:the coach helped me and what they basically said was you're pushing yourself so, so hard. A lot of trauma, poverty, et cetera. But what do you actually want? And I realized what I actually wanted was not the McMansion. What I really wanted was not the recognition of others. I used to want to be number one real estate team in New Jersey. I have zero ambition to be number one real estate team in New Jersey. All I want to do is impact and improve people's lives. That's it. That won't burn me out, because I know, logically thinking and emotionally, it's like well, if I burn myself out, I can't impact others because I'm not impacting myself. So who am I really going to improve life if my life sucks?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Anyways, with that said, enough about Brendan Kyle, here's my question I love to end on. What would you say is one of the most surprising ways real estate, the industry, the landscape, the cityscape has formed you in your current life today?
Speaker 1:It's a great question. I think it goes back to the ability to impact people right. It goes back to the ability to impact people right Because of where we are right now, because of the rate environment, because of the need for affordable housing, because of the need for housing in general, right here in the state of New Jersey, where we're sitting right. It's allowed me to help a lot more people right and also, in turn, help myself right and help my family build wealth right, because there's a lot of work to be done. And so, yeah, I think the current state of New Jersey, current state of the markets, the environment I know we didn't really touch a ton on markets, but that is allowing me more freedom to run and I think there's opportunity and you just have to look for it.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, kyle Webster, kyle Webster, there we go. We have Kyle here. If you're looking to build, if you're looking to just get some wonderful value into your life, please, please, reach out to this man. We'll tag his information below Adios, thank you.
