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Own the Outcome with Tyler Deveraux
Own the Outcome dives deep into the real stories of resilience and triumph that arise from the depths of failure. Join Tyler Deveraux on a journey of inspiration, growth, and authentic conversation. Within every stumble lies a valuable lesson, a chance for transformation, and a path towards success. Each episode features compelling stories from a diverse range of guests, from entrepreneurs and artists to everyday heroes—all sharing one thing in common: their ability to turn adversity into an opportunity for growth. Because in the end, it's not about avoiding failure; it's about owning the outcome.
Own the Outcome with Tyler Deveraux
Transforming Fear into Real Estate Triumph with Blake Dailey
What does it take to transition from military service to real estate mogul? Join us as we unravel the incredible story of Blake Dailey, an active duty Air Force officer who mastered the world of property investment starting with zero initial capital.
This episode of Own the Outcome highlights the endless journey of growth and self-improvement that entrepreneurship demands, and how embodying your future self can help you overcome self-doubt and achieve success.
Listen in and learn how taking consistent action, managing expectations, and embracing continuous growth can lead to financial freedom and fulfillment in the real estate industry.
Connect with Blake Dailey on Instagram
Attend Boutique Hotel Con with Blake
Thank you for listening to today's episode. If this podcast has brought a smile to your face or sparked some new ideas, I'd love to hear from you! Leaving a review would mean the world to me. Appreciate you!
Connect with Tyler on Instagram: @tyler_deveraux
Interested in multifamily investing? Attend one of our events!
All right, aloha. Welcome to the only outcome podcast. My name is Tyler Devereaux. I'm here with Blake, daly Blake. What's up, bro? Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:Tyler, what's up? Man Excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Excited to have you. Thanks for taking the time. I'm excited to dive into your journey. It's uh, you know we connected recently on Instagram and it's I'm excited to dive into your journey. We connected recently on Instagram and I'm impressed with what you put together and how you started putting it together. That's what I thought was awesome, because you started investing while you were in the military, correct?
Speaker 2:I did, yeah, active duty the whole time I've been investing, up until about three months ago.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about your journey, a little bit about your background. I don't want to go through more tactical things of what you're doing and how you're doing it, but tell them about your journey and how you started, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I started out as a new active duty Air Force officer, green behind the ears, 22 years old, and used my VA loan to buy my first property. So like what a better way to start than zero down you don't need money because I didn't have any money. Better way to start than zero down, you don't need money because I didn't have any money. So it's kind of perfect.
Speaker 2:And like during that time I remember we were staying in like a temporary lodging facility on base waiting to close our first house and like I'd already been bitten by the real estate bug. So I was already handwriting letters to to property owners in the area and we were in Panama city, florida, at the time and they just got hit by a category five hurricane like nine months before we got there. So like I showed up and it was a war zone. I was like oh crap, this is crazy. What did the Air Force send me into? But I was like it kind of looks like opportunity, you know. So I started writing these handwritten letters and would drive for dollars, write down the addresses. My wife would put the return addresses on the in the stamps on them.
Speaker 2:Like we were two weeks married at the time I was like, hey, we're going to be real estate investors now and I started doing that and got a few properties under contract. So we closed our first one in July of 2019 with a VA loan, then closed on literally 30 days to the day after on a on a seller finance direct to seller deal that I found some partners at a local meetup. On exactly 30 days after that closed another one. That was a flip. So, like the first 90 days, we had three deals and I was like, oh man, I think I think we're on something and just kept going from there bro, I love I didn't know that part.
Speaker 1:I love that part because you didn't know. I mean you didn't know anything right or you just don't full force because you saw an opportunity. What made you be like I'm diving in?
Speaker 2:Dude, it was just manufactured confidence. I was like I've got no business, you know, showing up in these sellers houses trying to negotiate a deal. But like I felt just just dangerous enough, right, listen to podcasts reading the books, that I could go in there and at least sound like I knew what I was doing. And then I was like then it just becomes the work, right. Then, like the balls in my court to fulfill that promise and, you know, be able to get the deal done, find the pieces, whether it was, you know, a capital partner, a partner to help with the rehab, you know the right contractors, like all the different pieces you need to put together your first deal. When you're not the money guy, right, like all you have is your hustle, like I didn't even have experience. So I literally just had the work, the sweat on my brow, kind of to go off of and I was like, if that's all I got, man, I'm going to hit it as hard as I can.
Speaker 1:I love that so much, man, because I believe a key trait from those who are very successful to those who aren't is the the span between what we feel like we need to know before what we take like before we take action like it's like. A lot of times it's like I need to know all this before I'm able to take action in reality.
Speaker 2:The real learning comes from diving in full force and using what you have yeah, yeah man using what you have action is the most important thing, because that that you know metaphorical list that you could hold up would never end right. There's, there's always more things that you would need to be 100% confident to do a deal, whether it's your, you know your first live in flip or you know your house hack and like very low risk, right, because you're you need a place to live anywhere. It's probably going to be cheaper than than rents Like the lowest risk thing you could do. Still has a long list of things that you don't know or jumping into. Like your first commercial deal and it was like you're never going to.
Speaker 2:You know, get past that If you just, if you don't just take the action to do it, because you learn through doing and as long as, like my whole thing is like taking the calculated risks to to kind of well in the beginning I didn't have anything to lose anyway. Like never bet at all on one horse. Like never make them a decision that could make you bankrupt or hopefully not. But like push yourself and just leap in. And like cover your downside as much as you can because, like the upside, you don't even know what it could be right if you never, if you never jump on it. So that.
Speaker 1:That's it, man. You said manufactured confidence. Earlier, bro, you said all I had was manufactured confidence. How did you manufacture? Where did that come from? How did you do that?
Speaker 2:Oh man, that's a good question. I think probably just from hubris maybe, maybe a youthful exuberance, but no, I think it came from like growing up Like I knew I wanted to to go into business. And once I got the real estate bug, you know I like a lot of people read Rich Dad, poor Dad, rich Dad, poor Dad then fell down the bigger pockets rabbit hole and, you know, like credit to their community, especially at that time, for you know putting enough out there for you to go take action on. So I felt like at the very least I knew enough to stumble into a deal.
Speaker 2:And then I think it's, you know, whether you're calling an owner, like cold calling, or sending a mailer, like you've got to put the smile on your face before you press in right, like you've got to just build up your own confidence, or when, like you're sending the mail or you've got to, you know portray kind of the potential that's there.
Speaker 2:And I think it's like trusting in your potential, knowing that when you go through with this you're going to put in the work that it requires to do the thing that you want to do. So knowing that me like personally, as like a workhorse I played, you know football at the air force academy as a guy who should not have played D1, not athletic enough, not fast enough, but it was just the work ethic to get to that point and then like bringing that same thing to business. So I think if you're willing to put in the work, if you manufacture that confidence and get yourself the opportunity to execute on that work, then you can do it. So it's like this confidence piece of like you almost have to be before you are to get to what you want to be.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, man, there's so much gold. There's so much gold in what you just said. I want to make sure people don't miss what you just said, cause it's literally success leaves clues, right, and those are little nuggets that you just said. Like even the call portion, your state literally changed when you talked about it. You said for to make this over call portion. You, your state literally changed when you talked about he said, before I make this over call, you got to put on that smile and you got to be like that's it, you're changing your state, right, and yeah, I bet, did you learn that in sports? Like because I mean, I, I know that I played football and I know that that's what I did. Like, you put on the, the uniform.
Speaker 2:literally, you're like, yeah, you put pull the helmet over, like what looks out of the face mask is like a different version of you, you know, like that's the dog eat dog version. You know, line up across from me and you're going to be filmed the next day kind of mentality. And yeah, I think when you translate that into into business, know that like your advantage as the entrepreneur is you're willing to do the work other people aren't right because you're trying to build something You're not satisfied with, with the job that you're in or the career path that you're on or whatever life has dealt you to that point. You know, maybe you grew up wanting and now you have the opportunity to go chase those things that you wanted, those things that you didn't have growing up. Most people don't make that decision, most people don't make that jump. So you, by already putting yourself in that position to do real estate, investing or, you know, to start a business or whatever, it is like you've already got something that most people don't have and then you just got to freaking go for it. And I think that's where it comes from. Is just this, this willingness to not let you know your current situation or your current standing, your bank account right now, not let that define you, but chase the vision, because you're never going to get there If you don't take the action.
Speaker 2:You're never going to get there. If you don't take the action, you're never going to learn the things that you need to be the person in the future that you want to be, unless you're willing to go through the grind right, like go through the whole, whatever the, the, the Rocky cut uh, the Rocky cut scene phase of. You've got to be willing to put in that work. But if you do, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and there's like all this fear of failure, fear of rejection oh, they're going to turn down my offer. I'm not good enough. Whatever that is like is all just shit in our mind that we tell ourselves that that's really not true. It's just all like a, a, a barrier to taking the action. It's like dude, if you just do the thing like you'll, you'll find out that those things aren't even true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is up? Y'all listen. If this podcast has brought joy or value at some point as you're listening to it, we would love it if you would be so kind as to leave us a review down below. That is how we keep this thing moving and finding individuals just like you to pour value into. Now let's get back to the show man. That's exactly it, and we all do it. I know you still do it at this level. I still do it at my level. We all, we all do it and we all do it. I know you still do it at this level. I still do it at my level. We all, we all do it. Dude, we still do it. But the key is to overcome that, recognize it, catch it, correct it and move forward regardless.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm still talking to myself here, right Like this is, this is something.
Speaker 2:I face and that, like you mentioned that you face, it's just at a different level. Right, it's like you know calling, whatever it might be in my position, a commercial broker who traded a billion dollars of real estate and I got to go in as the guy who's bought a lowly $25 million of real estate and convince him that I'm worth his time. But it's that manufactured confidence, right, it's trying to like get, get something that I want, give him something that he wants. It's like this is going to be a win-win. I'm trying to show him the value that I bring to that.
Speaker 1:That that relationship and that plays out a hundred different ways. Okay, but this is I want to hone in on this part, because you said earlier, you said it's essentially be do have. Right, you have to be that person before you are that person. Right? You can't let your current state, your bank account I love how you said that your bank account, your current state, define you. You have to let that vision define you, but it's backed by action, right? It's like you know what you want, you know why you want it, and now it's like the how you know you're going to figure it out, dude, because you're committed to figure it out. So you cast the vision.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite books is called be your future self now, by Ben Hardy. I don't know if you've read that book, but phenomenal. Most people get so caught up and they can't see them. They know the result is, but they haven't focused on who they need to be to get that result. And so your point you're talking to this big, you know hedge fund manager, whoever it is that you're talking to, who is, you see, is this next level above you?
Speaker 1:I just want to make sure everybody gauges what you just said, because it's literally the key. It's like okay, it's not about where they're at. Where you're at, it's about what can you do to provide value to them, what is that? And then you go in with that identity, with that mentality, and that's just what it is. That's the key. So, yeah, like that aspect of it, I think, is absolutely massive and I I hone in on I know like we've probably spent I don't even know how long we've been talking. We've spent a long time on this topic, because I think this is where people miss it. It's an identity piece that they miss because they're not willing to take the action. The action breeds the identity right yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 2:you, you've got to go out there and kind of go through. You know, and let's be honest, like you'll go through some rejections doing this, you'll go through some failures doing this, but what I found time and time again is you know, that failure, that rejection, that thing you were afraid of, the thing that you're trying to get, is right on the other side of it. So you just got to blow through that wall, go around it, jump over it, like whatever it is Like. I think so many times and I've done this myself, like we get in our own ways, because it's the, it's the fear, it's the doubt, it's the worry, but you got to let who you want to be be bigger than like those fears and those doubts. And you literally got and I had this thing like tangible example, like when I was buying my, my first boutique hotel right, I had eight short-term rentals jumped up about eight unit building and then it turned into another 15, another 14, another 18 and a 20 unit and like a 12, a 12 month span. So you know, five, 10 X, whatever, like five or eight X in that time span, with the amount of units I had, the amount of employees that we now have the amount of revenue we're now making. And I still felt like I was like not quite a hotel investor, like I was still trying to prove myself to myself in a way to be like worthy of like the portfolio that we just built. But then, like, looking back, I was like I had to be in, you know and I kind of was like in this zone of like I'm going to figure out how to do it, like I was doing five projects at the same time while active duty there in three markets spread across the country, and like it didn't make sense how we kind of got through that. But I was just living the part, not even kind of knowing it at the time. And then like fast forward a little bit now, like going through that, now I've got the confidence, now I've built it. So, like before it was manufactured confidence, you do the thing, then you go through the fire, you get you know kind of battle tested, so to speak. And then you know you, you have this improved version of yourself, but you also you know you need to assume some of that to get there in the first place, right, and then that gets you up to a level right, you stair stepped up and then you got to do the same thing to get to the next level. So it's like you have multiple versions of this.
Speaker 2:I know entrepreneurs who are far, far ahead of me. You know they have they go through these growth phases and get to a plateau and they got to redefine that. You know their identity, what they're all about, what they're. You know reassess the future vision, cause a lot of times you know you get there and I got there faster than I thought I would have like, oh shit, this is bigger than what I was originally imagining.
Speaker 2:Cause I was just head down, grinding right, like just assuming that manufactured confidence in the beginning and it becomes this confidence that then propels you forward. But no, like you've got to get into this rhythm of just being comfortable, knowing that you're going somewhere new. You're set. You know your feet haven't walked that path before, so you're just going to get berated at all sides of new things. You know learning lessons, failures. You're going to lose a little bit of money on your way to making more money. That's just part of the entrepreneurship journey and you kind of I don't know man. The bad part of entrepreneurship is sometimes you just got to be willing to get kicked in the teeth and smile through it Right and then and then through that you got enough money to go buy dentures.
Speaker 1:That's it, bro. Oh, you just nailed. You just nailed that description, because that is literally what it is at every level. I was going to ask you, as you're going through it, I was going to say do you think that ever changes Meaning? I felt like I was trying to prove myself as this, you know, as a hotel, as a boutique hotel investor, and I was like do you think that ever changes? Because it doesn't. That initial thing will change as you elevate your identity. But you always chasing man and right right before we started this, you have an event coming up, but, by the way, any of you who are interested in boutique hotels to go to this event, it's the boutique hotel con. It's september 13th through 15th, and he was telling me about and what I loved about what you're doing. I thought it was so unique, bro, is that you're doing it at one of your boutique hotels, correct? Yeah?
Speaker 2:yeah it, yeah, it's happening at the hotel. So, like I just envisioned as, as we've gone along, even at the smaller hotels like they had 18 rooms, right I was like what if I can get 15 people to come like experience this with me? Like I love the creativity and the creation and there's so much like pieces that have to come together to like bring it, like to turn this old, ugly, tired asset into something that's nice and you know that you can actually call a boutique hotel and that just evolved into now we've got 130 units on 10 acres with mountain views, right by the Smoky Mountain National Park and an event venue. And I was like here's where that dream comes to fruition is hosting the conference here while we're under renovations too. So we'll have by that time, enough renovated rooms to house most of the people. So if you buy your ticket early, you get the renovated room.
Speaker 2:And you get to see the non-renovated too, but also rooms that are under renovation currently. So you get to see every phase of the project. We'll go through our operations and not only are you going to learn how to find deals and raise capital and structure your deals, design them all that stuff, operate them right, like all the tangible pieces, and structure your deals, design them all that stuff, operate them right, like all the tangible pieces. But you get to go see it in practice, happening real time, and you're lodging tickets included in the price. It was like dude, no brainer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sick, seriously. I think it's such a unique offer because being in an environment any type of you know an event like that is huge. But being in the environment, in the actual environment, bro, the amount of learning that will take place there is huge, like I, the minute you told me about it, I was like that is so sick. But here's what's crazy. That's what I want to point out. I hope you're okay with me doing this because as we were going through, you said you said something along the lines of like, yeah, I got my first event coming up and I'm pretty nervous about it. I'm nervous about it. It's my first one. Yeah, right, very much, so same shit, it's the same shit.
Speaker 1:It's like if you're pursuing anything, the way that you know that you're growing is if you feel that way and you already know. I already know you know it because of just how you even how you mean how you correct yourself. I don't even know if you feel that way and you already know. I already know you know it because of just how you even how you mean how you correct yourself. I don't even know if you caught how you correct yourself, but I wanted, I just want to give everybody a peek off camera. So off camera, before we start all this. We're talking about the hotel or the the boutique hotel con and he says, he says, you know, I just think myself like how amazing it would be to get you said, 150 people or whatever there. And then you're like you know, we're, we have about 50, but in reality, man, even if I can get 15 people there would be amazing, Cause, man, I gotta have my gratitude exceed my expectations.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, I did say that and that's what I'm trying to do. And you know what the funny thing about that is like I'm still having this I don't know if I want to call it necessarily imposter syndrome, but it's all the doubt and the fears that we've talked about. Like I'm hosting my first conference, you know a bigger one that people are paying money to come to, and I'll come to this place with kind of like all eyes on me in a way hotel shit. You know, is he a bad speaker? Like what? Like how many ways could this go wrong? Right, and just playing out all the fears. But what I'm doing to like squash the fear is just doing. So it's like you know we've got the the weekly deep dive planning conference. You know the planning meetings of all of all the stuff that's going into into the conference and what. You know how we're going to provide value to the people. It's you know how we're going to provide value to the people. It's you know it's the planning, it's building my presentations, it's building out our speaker list. So like I'm doing the work to squash the fear. So I'm like if I do this work, it's going to be a really good freaking event. So then it's like stop being worried about it, cause you're doing the things that's going to produce the result that you want. So I'm doing it the same thing to get this hotel Like before we closed it was a seven month contract period.
Speaker 2:Like I've never been under contract so long. It almost fell out multiple times I raised double the amount of money. Well, me and the other co-GPs raised double the amount of money that we needed because big investors backed out multiple times because of how long it went. Thankfully we closed before the end of the year and was able to lock in the tax benefits. That was a big piece of it.
Speaker 2:But what I would do is like, on a several trips there, it's like walking the property and just like visualize. It was like I'm going to do the work that it takes to get this mother effer closed and that, like that's how I talk. I was like buckle up, mother effer. That's how I talked to myself, like we're getting this sucker closed. See it now, cause it's going to happen. And like I didn't know exactly how. I didn't know who the investors were going to be that were going to come in to complete the raise so that we could, you know close the property, but it's like through doing the work that you get past the fear stuff. So came full circle there.
Speaker 1:Bro, that's how you own the outcome, like the title of the podcast is own the outcome, and you literally just laid out the framework of how to do it, which is action, like I literally tacked, laid out the framework of how to do it, which is action, like I literally typed it out the minute you said it. You said what I'm doing to overcome the fear is taking action. And then you said doing the work to squash the fear. Do the work to squash the fear, man, I love how you talk to yourself. That's how I've talked to myself. I haven't told anybody this, but I'm creating. I have a number of events, but now I'm creating a new, more advanced event that I want to do.
Speaker 1:And I love creating these, bro, and I was listing out the other day when I get in this frame, it's like what am I great at? Because anytime I start feeling overwhelmed, I just list everything out, everything that's on my plate, and then it's like, okay, what am I great at? What do I enjoy doing? And then I can, you know, offset the rest. And one of the things that I wrote out was like I am great at creating events like this, like the structure of an event and how it works, but I haven't created like. I have created some here and there, certainly, but like I haven't like created a big like, like I'm trying to create now, for probably, I don't know, a year and a half or so, like a new one, a true new one. And so how I wrote it out literally in my notes. It said I'm great at creating, you know, event, the experience, blah, blah, blah. And then, underneath it, as a sub point, I put prove it, motherfucker, do a new one. That how I said, that's how I talked to myself Ron, the same way, man.
Speaker 2:I do the same thing and you should see my, you know my whiteboard, my sticky notes. It's like this is the stuff that gets done. And then you know what I like to is like that, that doer mentality, that action mentality. You, you manufacture more confidence by getting the stuff done. You know like, after you host this event, I guarantee you're going to be on the other side of it and be like, damn, we could have done, we could have done bigger or we could have done better or whatever it is right we could have. You know, the venue could have been different, the speaker, so there's going to be something. You're like, all right, now we're going to go do that and it's just. This comes up.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people who maybe feel I don't know contentment or whatever it might be, bring up like, when is enough enough? Like me and you both are probably could already be set, not you know kind of sell a business or you know, get ourselves passive in it, step out, let the passive income do what it does and be passive and provide income.
Speaker 1:But it's this like chase of being blissfully dissatisfied.
Speaker 2:It's like I'm happy with where I'm at. I like the push, I like the chase, I like having these fears and these anxieties and then busting them and like becoming a better. You know, more, more refined, improved version, more productive version, and just this, this, this self pursuit of trying to be the best human provide, the most value. And you know, I think from a from a business perspective, like the more value you provide, the more income you make, the more people you know, the more like your sphere increases, the more powerful they get in their own lives, and just this really cool effect that you elevate and you elevate the people around you and just getting these bigger, bigger and better spheres. So it all comes back to it, man, it's like you, you, you do the work and it happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at your narrative though. Everybody pay attention to his narrative. Like I love the, the, the pursuit, I love the discomfort, I love the. You have to have that narrative because that's exactly what it is. But it is also true, true man. That's like true fulfillment comes from growing and giving. So it's like my wife meant we got to a point where we moved to Maui and lived the life that we wanted to live. Like that's like that was like this goal, this work, this grind to get there. And then we get here, and then I'm like like we're talking about reaching a level, like a goal, and then needing to level it up because I had reached. It's like I got there and it's like it's a goal that I didn't even know if I'd ever get to, and so you know here for a couple months. Then it's like what, what's next?
Speaker 1:you know what's next and then I start this education company and this education company, my wife all the time would be like what, why are you doing? Like why? Because it takes. It takes so much, dude, it takes so much. But it's fulfilling, bro. It's like I don't care. I literally don't care the trial, I don't care the challenge, I don't care, I don't like whatever I don't. I know the purpose behind it, the why behind it, and it's the fulfilling aspect of it, you know. So that's what it is, that's what gets you through. It's something bigger than us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the coolest part there is with, like the education company, like empowering others, like you start to get your fulfillment through other people's success and like as the people touch, as they get more successful, you get, you get more successful. So it's like everything moves in this just really positive direction, like, if you do it right, you know, it's like you're actually focused on providing value to people and that's what you hang your hat on. And there's some like integrity there. Right, it's not the, the online course guru, and it's not you know all the. You know all this funnel talk and and maximizing, you know, your leads off of people because they're really people. But if you provide, like get your fulfillment out of that, and that's what I'm finding really cool in it right now is that it takes a little bit of the pressure off me almost to like satisfy my inner desires, because it becomes like helping other people gives you fulfillment and that's like. That's been a really cool shift over like the last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's connection, man. It's like what better way to connect with people than to help them along their journey? You know, it's beautiful, bro, so beautiful. So I want to. I want to get into the hotel space. I'm on the boutique hotel space with you, man, and why? I'm in the multi-family space, so why the boutique hotel space? Like, why is that the one that you doubled down on? Sell me on boutique hotels?
Speaker 2:oh man, um, where to start? I just think they're so cool, man, first of all, like from the creativity outlet, like you can really like envision something like the experience that you'd want as a, as a, as a traveler, of like what would be perfect. Like you have the opportunity to create that for other people and make money doing it. I just think that aspect is really cool. Um, and I got into it through. Like, my background at the very beginning was like an Airbnb and the acquisition, the operations me and my wife would you know, not great designs, but we design them out, furnish them and like, do that whole thing and then do the refinance, go buy the next one, and we really didn't enjoy that process and it was super rewarding for us because we threw that, uh, replaced my air force income with, like the net cashflow from the portfolio and I was like dude, that was my five-year goal. I just did that in like 12, 13 months Again had to become a new version of myself, elevate the goals and what we were chasing, and that got me into commercial real estate. So I love apartments too, love the asset class.
Speaker 2:I think right now is a little turbulent time in the multifamily space, but I think probably in the next now or maybe even the next 18 months, really good time to buy, with a lot of these private equity companies had funds trading out of assets to get more liquidity in their funds, so probably a good time to get into it. But I syndicated an apartment complex right around like the beginning of the COVID time. So through that it was like my my first big capital raise. You know, underwriting hundreds of multifamily deals to get there. So I got really comfortable with like the commercial underwriting the deal, structuring the SEC regulations of the capital raise and all of that. So like I learned commercial by doing it and like it took me 10 months to get my first multifamily deal. But I was like committed to it and I was like we're going to make this happen or I'm going to make this happen and get this done.
Speaker 2:So at that time, you know, covid hits kind of everything shuts down and we're down in the panhandle of Florida at the time, which is a blessing in retrospect, because when the rest of the country was shut down, florida and the beaches were popping dude, it's like everybody that's going to go outside was just coming to Florida and I still don't think I've ever seen the beaches so packed. It was crazy. Like as soon as the, the band was lifted, it was like hospitality was hurting everywhere but here was doing great. But these assets were old and tired and outdated, you know, not using the online booking channels, not doing online reservations like call in or walk in, and they have no marketing, and just, you know, older condition properties that they just let go right. So there's a really good opportunity to purchase. So that's why's why we ended up doing, uh, five hotel purchases in 13 months, cause we've got really good deals and really good locations and turn them around and um, um, you know cashflow and refinance them, ended up selling them Roman, rolling them into this bigger one in Tennessee, and so that's how like that was the Genesis of it and why I really like it is.
Speaker 2:There's so many ways to add value. I mean like in multifamily, right, you can increase the rents, you can lower the expenses, but on the hotel side, you can do better marketing better, better, better listing, distribution, better photos, like all these little things that can net you higher returns. And because it's commercial real estate, you know your cash flowing higher than you would and your equity multipliers are higher than they would be on a multifamily deal. So it's the same benefits of doing, you know, a short term rental versus a long term rental. Your cash flows higher for you know, not necessarily the same amount of work because you got to message guests and stuff like that and that scale, you know you've got a guest experience is a big thing, but it's that same benefit of you know you buy the same asset and you can do long-term rental or short-term rental on it.
Speaker 2:You do that with hotels and their commercial assets. They're protected against regulation. They're valued based on, you know, the NOI now, not the comps of other, not the comps of other houses in the area. So as you operate the property better, you're creating equity and I just love it right. You get the economies of scale. You get the cash flow of you know, short term rentals, which more people are familiar with, and that's like a bigger asset class. But this hotel game, it's the commercial side of that and I just, I just love it.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love that perspective. It's the commercial side of the. You know the short term rental. Short term rental vehicle. What would you say that? I love that. You have experience in both, by the way. What would you say the biggest difference, if you can identify biggest difference from multifamily to boutique hotels?
Speaker 2:On the operations side.
Speaker 1:I would clarify.
Speaker 2:Yeah, operations side, I would say like you get to this point with short-term rentals where you know you can get financial freedom. You can earn enough with a handful of deals. You know probably three to seven or so, depending on what markets you're in so a very reasonable amount of properties that you can purchase in a few years to get financial freedom, get out of your job. But with doing that you kind of replace your W-2 with another job which is managing those. You know three to seven short-term rentals. You've got the guest demand, you've got the inventory, you've got your cleaners, you've got your handyman, you've got, you know, all the little upgrades and high touch stuff that you have to do. So you really create another job for yourself. So you get stuck in this middle level where you have enough money to get out of your job but not enough money to reinvest to build your team from that point. So it's hard to scale Now, unless you go to management and get a bunch of clients quickly, but then your system's breaking. There's not a lot of good short-term rental property managers, yeah. And now on the commercial side, so you can buy one deal that allows you to hire the team from the beginning, just like a multifamily which you're very familiar with. If you buy whatever it is 70 units or above you can have an onsite property manager, onsite leasing staff, all that stuff, and it's truly passive. You're really an asset manager managing the managers. It's the same with one hotel and that might be a 15-, that might be a 15 unit, that might be a 30 unit hotel, depending on your market and the revenue that it's producing. But if you can get a hotel that generates 500,000 plus in revenue, which is not very hard to do in most markets, then you can hire in a, you know, local property manager. You know somebody who's a W-2, works for you, manages that property. You can have your cleaning staff you know, probably contracted maintenance. You can use VAs for the guest, for the back end, the guest administration or the guest experience and the admin, and really elevate to this place where you're now running a business, a hospitality business.
Speaker 2:But you have the time, the energy, that one's taken care of and then you can go do whatever it is you want to do, keep, keep growing and scaling to more hotels, traveling, spending time with family, like whatever that looks like.
Speaker 2:But with one deal you can get that or in most cases definitely like two, right, and that's kind of why we uh we scaled so quickly is because we got into markets where we had like 14, 15 units in Panama city beach and in Tahoe and it made economical sense to get a second deal in each market and get up to like the 30 unit range to really like to hit the revenue we needed to then be able to hire a team and still have the same net margins to get myself out of managing the team, being the director of operations, doing all the day-to-day management, and with fewer deals you can hit your goals. And then some like I, just it's that's the biggest difference and it's such an important one, right, because, like you get into real estate for the financial freedom aspect and to reap those rewards If you buy yourself another job, like it's not that it's all for nothing, but it's a lot better when you've got the scale in place.
Speaker 1:I completely agree. It's like what's the true outcome that you're looking for and does this vehicle actually get you there? I think this is where people get stuck. They get stuck because they're already doing something and it's not really the outcome they're looking for, but they're already doing it, so they're just going to keep doing it. But I love how you pivot along the journey to get you to where you want to be. How does it vary for your investors? Are your structures pretty similar?
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty similar. The first ones. I've done them a multitude of ways. So the very first hotel I bought was just a straight Burr B&B, so bought it, brought in a couple passive investors that just had a debt investment and then paid them off when I refinanced. On other ones it was partnerships, so we had fewer, bigger investors where we could just structure it as a partnership, keep the legal, very simple, simple operating agreement and rock and roll from there. And this most recent was bigger, it was a $4.1 million raise. So we structured that as a, as a syndication, raised from um more than a handful I don't know 14, 15 investors, maybe um to to pull together that 4.1 million. So it's very typical of what you'd see in the multifamily space on the syndication side. So, um, that's a cool thing, man Like. Once you put the tools in your tool belt, you can knock these deals down a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 2:And what I think is really cool, especially in this, this time that we're living in, is the baby boomers are retiring like crazy.
Speaker 2:This time that we're living in is the baby boomers are retiring like crazy. And most of the hotels and really most of the businesses in the US hotels included in that are owned by that baby boomer generation. A lot of them have, you know, maybe have kids that have grown up in the industry with mom and dad being the maintenance guy, being the front desk, being the cleaning staff. They don't want to do that, so they have nobody to hand these properties over to their you know, outdated their, their tired properties. They don't want to do that, so they have nobody to hand these properties over to they're. You know, outdated they're. They're tired properties they're not operating as a hotel should be today to get the, the get the guests who are looking online to travel. So it makes a really good case to to go to these sellers and structure and seller financing. So three of my six have been seller financed and you know, in all cases cases some sort of creativity on the financing side. So awesome good opportunities out there, yeah they've owned it.
Speaker 1:How? How long have they typically owned it, like some of these seller financing they owned it for? Yeah, I looked at this at one time.
Speaker 2:I think like the average was like 15 years and it might have dropped because, like the most recent guy, um, he bought it out of foreclosure two years ago and just wasn't doing what the property needed, didn't do that and just wanted to kind of focus his attention elsewhere and got a good little spread of owning it for two years. But most of them have been long, long-term owners.
Speaker 1:Good deal. I love it. What's your? Is that what you look for when you're going in targeting? Are you looking for ones that have the operational side, like operational inefficiencies that you can come in and improve, that they just don't have in place?
Speaker 2:I love the ugly ones, man, I love, I love a transformation. All of my projects have been big value add from full gut, from full gut renovations, redoing everything to you know, you know just big, big in scope of. You know just the size of the property of all, right now we're adding kitchen ads, we're doing new flooring and paint and fixtures and furnishing the whole thing. So we've done a variety of renovation scopes but I like the ones that are tired, both operationally and physically, like the asset itself, but focusing on good locations. So, um, my last two in Panama city beach were like across from the beach. The next ones I buy are going to be on the beach, Right, and then we're going to do boutique hotel conversion to in the sand. It's going to be great, you know, one day that'll happen.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna start taking the action towards it now.
Speaker 1:I love it bro.
Speaker 2:But I like the ones that have the upside and just need the vision, need the right operator to come in, and what I'm typically looking for is where can we add the amenities? Like, where is there space to make this more than just a hotel but an experience? So I typically want something with with more land, like I was just looking at some and, uh, in Moab and I love Moab as a market, moab, utah, like the two national parks, all the hiking trails, the mountain biking trails, the ATV trail, like it's such a cool desert paradise but the two hotels I looked at were like just motor lodges with like just the parking lot in the rooms. I was like that doesn't really match the vision of the asset that I want to own and operate and doesn't really create the guest experience that matches matches our brand as a company. So I'm looking for something that has space that we can add amenities, whether it be pools or hot tubs or like this property now that we're doing in Tennessee we're adding putt-putt and pickleball in a game room, a fitness center, a pavilion, an outdoor pool bar like this freaking property is gonna be dope when it's done. So I want space to add stuff like that because I want the brand to be built out in this vision that prioritizes the guest experience. So it's very, very stringent criteria.
Speaker 2:But not every property that I bought to get to where I am now met all of that right. They had limited outdoor spaces that we could maybe add, you know, a fire pit, or maybe add a hot tub or something like that. And I think those are good thought practices of you know, starting out on these smaller scope projects and figuring out what you can put in place to maximize the value of them. And you know, just think of like you're listening to this. You don't have to start out with the 130 unit property. That's a multimillion dollar renovation. My first property was 357,000. My first, my first hotel super low price per key. The second one was 950,000 for 15 units and then 1.1 million for 18 units. So it's like you can get really good deals. You know one of those ones was seller finance too, so I was in for 10% down, super low price per key, had the budget I needed to do a really nice renovation and create it into something cool, even though, like, the outdoor space was limited.
Speaker 2:So there's different routes. You can go with it and, um, yeah, I think, as long as you're in a good market where people are traveling and you can see the vision of like this being a cool place that you yourself would want to travel to, or like you know, if you can extrapolate yourself out to a larger demographic of you know, will all the mountain bikers that are coming here to ride, will they like this? And then what amenities can you add for them? Or, you know, maybe it's like I've got a member of my mastermind that just bought one in Palm Springs. So it's like, how do you set this up for all the influencers to come out to get you the free advertising? And, you know, fill this up with Instagram alone and just looking for what that key is with the property. But being on the X to what draws people in there Cause there's really good hotel assets and really good locations out there that are just dog shit properties that need a good investor to come take them over- Principles I want to just drill home.
Speaker 1:One of them is, bro. I say that when the when the target is clear, success is near and your target is clear, you're not going to vary. Like your target is clear and it becomes clear on the journey, sometimes in the very beginning, your target clear, you're not going to vary. Like your target is clear and it becomes clear on the journey, sometimes in the very beginning, your target, like you said I'm just repeating what you said target may not be that clear, like it doesn't need to be this big thing, but it's. You're gonna just continue to hone that in, but you have to have a target for what you're doing. And then you're, you're looking for those opportunities all the time.
Speaker 1:I call it flip the focus, switch seats, or you're seeing it from their perspective, like you said it right in the very beginning. That I loved. I caught it immediately where you said I see it from like if I'm a guest here and how the experience that I want to have, and then that's the key to it, that's how you create it. Business is an experience, man. It's nothing more than an experience. It's nothing more than an experience. You're always making people feel a certain way with what you do and how you do it, and so, if you could really like take it and flip it from their perspective and put yourself truly in that seat, you'll be able to do what Blake has done, which is provide massive value to everybody who comes to his apartments and be clear on what apartments fit that mold to create that experience. Man, it's just powerful, it's awesome 100% man.
Speaker 2:This is powerful. It's awesome A hundred percent man. On the smaller side, 10, 15, 20 units, you can go a million different different directions with that property and still make it work. So again, going back to how we started at the beginning of the podcast, you don't have to have everything figured out. You just got to have faith in yourself to figure it out over time. So put in the offers man, go get out, go get it done. Have faith in yourself to figure it out over time, so put in the offers man go get out, go get it done.
Speaker 1:You just have to have faith in yourself that you will figure it out, or to figure it out. That's it, yeah. I'm going to ask you one more question, tactical question, which is your um, your markets? Like when you're doing your market research, how are you, what are you looking for? You know you're talking about people traveling there. Are there, you know, kpis I call them kpis key performance indicators within the market that you're looking for. That are your most important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I like to. I like to start out high level with, like, the appeal of the market, right. So, like I'm, you know, looking for the girl in the bikini type of markets, right, the one that catch your eye. Like all right, they're just like, uh, subjectively a cool place to be in, like panama city, beach, lake tahoe. Like national park markets, beach markets um, it could be state park if you got a lot of travel there, points of interest, whatever that is, but like typically these destination brands of missouri in the middle of nowhere, but it's like a little mini vegas. It's like markets like that, you know you could have things that inherently bring people there already. That's where I like to start.
Speaker 2:Then, from there, I like to look at the population growth. Right, I want to know that that market is having a net positive with people coming into the market. It's not a dying off market. You know, like a lot of these you know older town, small, old, small town beach markets that you know people are moving out to the cities and that's not quite where people are traveling anymore, like travel trends do change, like that. So you want to look at the population growth and then I would look at, like the local tourism statistics to see who's traveling there, from, where they traveling, like for the, the for for Tennessee. We know, in the Smokies specifically, we know most people come from like North Georgia, ohio, alabama and North Carolina. So like those are the four feeder states like you think about those markets, right, those are like Montgomery, atlanta, charlotte. You got Knoxville, obviously like there's a lot of Tennessee people that come there too, and Nashville, so those are the big metro areas, that kind of feed in, right, and then think about who's there and then why they're coming to this market. So then you've got like kind of going backwards.
Speaker 2:You got the pill market, the, the population growth, the travel statistics, and then you want to narrow it down to your avatar of who's traveling there and see how you can create a product that would fit that demographic of people, because that's how you're going to out-earn the competition. If you've got Plain Jane Hotel and you fit more closely to the people who are traveling there, you're going to be able to charge higher rates, you're going to get better returns and that deal is going to work out way better over time. So I like to start with the destination markets, cause I like to go where? Uh, you know, buy and go where I like to spend time at, so the mountains, the beach, ski resort towns, like I love those kinds of areas.
Speaker 2:Um, and then I just want to know, I'd say a good economic play and then a little sub factor that I like to put in there and I personally screen screen these out now. Now, unless like the caveat would be, unless you live there nearby is markets that have a big enough population to staff your hotel. So if you don't have a labor pool to get the like to fulfill the size of the hotel that you're buying, you become the one that does everything which you won't, you don't want to do. So you want to have enough, a big enough hiring pool to staff it.
Speaker 1:Your event that you're doing is going to be phenomenal. I know it because I know you know, like, just how simply you just explain that you can learn a lot about like sort of knowledge. With how simply they explain it. You just crush that. I love it. Love it, man. I'm excited for that event, to hear how it goes and, once again, for any of you who, uh, are interested at all of the boutique hotel space which, uh, you should be, I'm very interested, man. I have you on here for a reason like it's, it's appealing.
Speaker 2:Come up, man. You guys are gonna start hearing boutique hotels a lot more frequently.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you I agree with that. I actually totally agree with that. So anybody who's interested man go to the event. Uh, september 13th and 15th in Knoxville, correct?
Speaker 2:Yep, just outside of the Knoxville market, closer to the smoky, so picturesque setting.
Speaker 1:How do they get ahold of you? How do they, how do they learn more about the event?
Speaker 2:Uh, that would be. Yeah, you can hit me up on Instagram. It's Blake J daily on there. Um, if you got you know questions about hotels, if you know you're dealing with your own doubts and fears and want me to help you squash them, like, feel free to reach out. Love connecting with you guys and just help them where I can. So you can reach out on on Instagram.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll throw it in there. I'll throw the link and everything and all your in the show notes.
Speaker 2:So y'all hit him up, get to the event and man follow man, follow him and learn the lesson. Speaking of the event, it's boutiquehotelconcom, so you can go. You check that out, so boutiquehotelconcom it's a great domain name boutiquehotelconcom.
Speaker 1:Okay, we'll throw that in there too, bro, for sure. Any last things, bits of advice or anything that you would share with somebody who's a newer investor looking to transition to a new space or just grow in the space? Any last bits of advice that you would offer?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, just harping in on, do the work required, man, and be ready, be willing for it to take a little bit longer than you think it should, and be pleasantly surprised when um, you know when stuff just takes off. Cause I think if you're, if you're doing the things that you know you should be doing right, if you're trying to grow in real estate, right, it's, it's. It's it's analyzing deals, it's finding leads and then analyzing deals. And then here's the third one you got to put in the offers't be afraid of rejection and just do the thing. And um, and watch the things that you want come to you. I think it's such a um man, it feels like such a a weird thing, that you think that, oh, I do the thing, I get the thing, so just do the thing but it is though, bro.
Speaker 1:I think the advice is phenomenal, which is what are the actions you need to take to produce the result that you desire? Go, do that shit Non-stop.
Speaker 2:Don't get in your head so much Like if nobody's told you this and you're listening. Like me and Tyler, we believe in you. You can do this. And I say that genuinely because if you just boil it down to a series of simple steps and just do those things and do them consistently, you get in your reps, just like going to the gym. You will get stronger and you will get better. So, um, put the work in and I think it'd be pleasantly surprised. And then it worked out and I'm like great.
Speaker 1:Hey, do the work, the squash, the fear, damn it. Best part of the episode, brother. Yeah, like, thank you so much, man. I love chatting with you. I feel like you just crushed this and everyone out there. I know that you pulled value from this. Go follow this man, go share, go leave a review, go follow everything that does get to the event and they then live always. Aloha Peace.