Silos to Skyscrapers

What if your North Star was so clear that every decision—career, family, even a risky move to a new city—aligned with it? 

In this episode, we sit down with Spencer, a commercial real estate developer and co-founder of Oak Multifamily Brokerage, who turned a leap of faith (and a 90-day South American adventure) into a blueprint for building freedom—both financially and creatively.

📌 Key Topics:
✅ From Journalism to Skyscrapers – How a degree in journalism led to cold-calling Omaha’s real estate scene—and why "no" became fuel.
✅ The Four Buckets Rule – Creativity, wealth, community impact, and family flexibility—the non-negotiables behind every deal.
✅ Why Omaha? – The moment a downtown office view revealed a city ripe for reinvention (and why grain silos are now luxury apartments).
✅ Brokerage Boot Camp – Lessons from $0 commission years: integrity pays, bad partners cost, and how to turn coffee meetings into a $230M pipeline.
✅ The Silos Project – How a walk along a neglected trail sparked a 230-unit development—and the mindset shift required to ignore the "just sell it" noise.
✅ Raising Future Builders – Why his kids already know the word "skyscraper"—and how to instill a "no limits" work ethic without burning out.

Freedom, to Spencer, isn’t passive income—it’s the resources to act on any idea and the flexibility to chase adventures with his family. If you’ve ever felt behind or doubted your pivot, this conversation is proof: urgency + aligned action = momentum.

Listen now—then ask yourself: What’s your North Star?

Transcript

Ryan Miller (00:19)

All right. Well, Spencer, thanks for joining us on the podcast. We're excited to hear your backstory and hear your pursuit of freedom. Do you want to start by telling where you came from, how you got stuck in Omaha? Yeah. Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Like he says, I don't have much time to think about this, but this is what we do. just talk about stuff. So I'm from Kansas City area, Overland Park.

Stillwell, Kansas, which is south ⁓ OP. And I grew up there, went to KU, met a girl at KU at University of Kansas. And that turned into my wife and she's from Omaha. And so I moved here. She actually got a pretty good opportunity back in Omaha. My opportunity, I found out school was not that cool. So I had that for five months and I quit, moved to Omaha, followed her. And that was like 2014.

moved here in 2014 and then that's how I got here. And so I moved here without a job and I, I'm just gonna kick into it I guess. So moved here without a job and when I was in school as a journalism major, ended up, I thought I was gonna kinda do film stuff, lots of things like this, broadcast.

And then software, I just.

I can't remember exactly because I was a knucklehead and I can't remember lots of things from that time. But I think was just, you know, the school was kind of antiquated. There was a lot of like newspaper writing, which I could do, but it just wasn't having fun. And I knew I wanted to make some serious money. And I was like, I don't think this is going to do it. And so then I went to the business side of the Journal of School, which is like,

marketing, advertising, PR, Stratcom. So I ended up graduating with that. But I knew I wanted to go and do lots of things and have success, but when I got out of school, so that would have been 2013. I think I graduated December 2013, did a half lap there then. And then couldn't find a job.

out of school because I was a 3.0 student and it was not the easiest time to get into that like ad agency marketing world where my degree was like kind of marketing too. So I didn't have a job and then so I kind of took the first random like sales job which was like a staffing gig in Overland Park and then did that five months and moved because my wife got a good opportunity here but we were still just dating. Just dating. Decided to just say screw it.

Follow the girl, see what happens. so moved here without a job. I keep touching that. Moved here without a job and, took me a couple months, but then I found a job at a company called T-Sys, which is like a credit card processing company. just, the good parts about it was they had an office downtown in the tower, in the first national tower. So I was like up on the 20th, third floor.

That was kind of a cool way to just like enter the city. Like you're in the city, got cool views. Um, and my wife also worked downtown. So we've got an apartment downtown in the old market. And so that's how I really got introduced to Omaha was living downtown or working downtown. And that's when I realized this place is pretty special. It's cool. It's got opportunity. Cause I didn't know anything about this place before I moved here. Like maybe we came to the zoo one time.

kids and and you know my wife wasn't like super connected or anything like her family super connected so was like just didn't know anybody and but working downtown learning about the city we end up adopting a dog and so that we're walking the dog all around the city it was just exploring it my observation was man like this is a nice city and there's a lot of like talk

the momentum that's like, you know, kind of being rumored. but there was still a lot of work to do. And you says 14 this 2014. so that's Blackstone's kind of come in, you know, kind of, yeah, was definitely not going to Blackstone, know, like a Blackstone really, I wasn't really going to Blackstone. think really our spot was like Benson. No, but I guess what I'm saying is the development of all this That's all just started. It was just starting. Yeah. And it was, you know,

Midtown crossing, were plusing that up and still plusing that up. you know, all that stuff was kind of in, in works during that time. So, yeah, yeah, it was all, it just had good vibes. mean, there's something, there's something happening here. And so that was, think, just subconsciously in my mind a little bit. then, ⁓ so then I've got this job where I like, I know I'm not going to do this for awhile.

I'm not to this forever, so I need to figure out what I want to do with my career. At that point, I had some ideas. I moved on and had a couple ideas on how to start a business and went down some rabbit holes, even spent some time ⁓ exploring those ideas. then, yes, they happened. And I study a lot of successful people in history. There's all sorts of podcasts and memoirs and biographies and all that stuff, and I'll just listen to them.

something I noticed was that all of these people had, or a lot of them, had some sort of foundation in some trade of business. Whether it was finance or marketing or engineering or whatever it was, usually had some sort of skill set, some sort of expertise, and then they would have an idea and they would go do it and then they created these things. So from that, I like, right, man, I don't.

have a foundation at all. mean, journalism school, it gave me good core values of curiosity and just like how to investigate and like go and report things and all that stuff like that. But it just didn't, I had no idea. don't know, I got nothing. So I need to pick an industry and commit to that industry. And then once I get in, I'll start having the ideas because I always have ideas. so with that,

I'm at this credit card processing company just making like 50 plus cold calls a day. That was kind of the deal. Like you make 50 cold calls and they usually leave you alone. So I'd make a bunch of calls and then I would just go and long walks and think and did that from at some point in 2014, I got that job and I was there until 2016. And during that time, I like, right, like what am I gonna do? And then just did a whole thought exercise where

What are my long-term goals? What are some things that I'm good at? And then what are the industries I'm interested in? I couldn't even tell you. mean, film, like the film stuff was on the industry list, but I can't remember what the other ones were, but commercial real estate development was one of them because I ended up choosing that because it hit my four buckets of my long-term goals, not short-term, which were creativity, need to need to do something where I'm being creative frequently and

making wealth, becoming wealthy, positive impact on the community, and then just the flexibility to have a big family. Those are my four big buckets. Can I do that? To me, commercial real estate, development, hit all those because creativity, you take a piece of land, you make something out of it, you take a shit building, you do something out of it, you find some silos, you try to turn them into apartments, stuff like that. To me, it hit those and then...

If you get good at that, you're improving the community, you're making it better. I know there's some people who probably really don't think that, but I think that is the case. You're improving the community, and then if you get really good at it, you're gonna make lots of money, and it'll take care of itself. And then the last bug was if I can just focus in Omaha for a while, and we start raising a family and all that, I can just be around all the time and help raise kids. So that was the theory that I had.

And so just went for it and so quit my job at T-Sys. I actually went and traveled for like nine months or for 90 days in South America, got back and then just started, just Googled commercial real estate Omaha and started a cold call and just all the companies that were on that list. And I probably made like 20 something calls and found one gig, but I'll pause there for a second because that's kind of like the first phase of like, boom, I'm in Omaha.

learn the city and here I am. So I got a question on that. just kind of as you're unpacking your, your life and your, your thought process, clearly your cerebral and your, your thinking, where does that come from? Does that part of your upbringing? Is that part of being a journalist and journalism school or whatever? But you, I mean, you got your notebook, you know, your road notes before this, your, your planning, you got buckets, all that stuff. Like, where does that come from?

I don't know. Have you always been like that? I'm just trying to think.

I mean, I remember like a middle school, high school, I was always, I'm always a spiff, just thinker. I always liked to think and I am extroverted. I like people a lot and I like being around people, but I do need a lot of time to just be in my head. like, I don't know, I mean, got notebooks from, I just always had ideas. I think that's, I've always had ideas. And when I was a kid, it always translated to like,

inviting friends over and inventing games and inventing stupid stuff to do. just would, I'd make up all these games and we'd go play it. And then, you know, we'd take like a dirt bike and tie a rope to it and put a wagon, you know, get a wagon and put one of my brothers in it and we'd drive a dirt bike and we'd film it. Like we'd do film stuff like that. ⁓ So my creative outlet when I was a kid was like just getting a camera and filming things and putting videos together. ⁓ then just like having ideas and writing things down.

And I don't know, I don't really know where came from. just think, I don't know. My mom always just instilled in us, you can do whatever you, she just made me very confident person and very comfortable with my skin. So hey, you're awesome and you can go do all these things and even knowing my grades and things like that didn't reflect those things.

just always instilled that in me. So I have no idea. It's a great question. really have no idea. I think you hit on something. Confidence is as important, more important than grades. How you handle yourself. I think there's something to be said about when you came into Omaha working in First National Tower. I get this immense feeling of limitless possibility being up in the Woodman building. I've done a couple of seminars downtown just in the upper floors.

looking out on the town and seeing all these structures grow out of the ground. That's just, I love development for that reason. And I think working there and punching the clock and hitting your, like you said, 50 cold calls, seeing all this growth around you, it's like, you see that I could be the orchestrator of this. And so do you think that ⁓ you were already in the mindset of wanting to create those things or were you still in the small-minded kind of...

got a grind mindset? ⁓ I've always had ⁓ just very large expectations for myself. So I've always been a pretty big thinker. I'm just like things that I would just tell myself I'm going to become. But I mean, the reality was I wasn't that good at school. mean, somehow I maintained a 3.0. Don't even know how I did that. ⁓

Got out of school, couldn't find a job because I didn't care at all about putting a resume together. I didn't do internships and all that stuff. It really just was having fun. And luckily I found a wife. And then I got out school, couldn't find a good job, realized how hard this world really is, and then it just kind of hit me in face. I mean, I've been lying to myself. I've told myself I want to do all these things.

and my actions are not aligned with what I say and what I do. So I'm like, I'm lying to myself. And so when that happened, I really just decided that I need to reset my mind and I need to take things more seriously and make a plan and go figure some stuff out and just take action because I have this...

I just always feel like a sense of urgency that like I am behind and I need to like go get things moving as quickly as possible because ⁓ you you get old. Every year goes by a little faster and just freaks you out. it's like, all right, you gotta really do things that you say you're gonna do. so with that, mean, the big mindset, like the big plans for life have always been there, but the actions were not aligning with that. then.

This is probably like 25 or something. We were real old in life. Well, yeah, now I'm 34. But I was like, I got to figure this out. So then I just started listening to lots of podcasts and just started studying business people. For me, studying is just like listening to stories. That's how actually I study. I will listen to this person's story and I'll just take mental notes and sometimes I'll like...

you know, text myself a note that I thought of when I was listening to him, to that person, and just making sure that like, I'm, you know, like if I do what these people did, that should at least somewhat get me in the right direction. And then when you have that, when you start to like really identify your north star of where you want to go, it just helps you. You know, it helps, that helps a lot. So, yeah, just really, I mean, and then,

So that's where it started. I just started rewiring my brain a little bit, putting a lot of positive stuff in there, really. And then when I quit my job and went to South America, because I knew during my thinking, I'm going to do commercial real estate, when I was at TSA, I'm like, get out of this, this is the plan. I did identify a plan, went to South America, and during that time, met

Um, one of our buddies, went with my best friend, but then there was a guy from school that was also, we hung out with down there and he was really into just, um, the personal development stuff, which I never really, I mean, I've explored it a little bit, but, um, not a ton, but he was really into it and he was crushing it. He was just really doing a great job in his early career. And he's like, oh yeah. I mean, this is like my, we, we, um,

He was actually living in South America. We stayed at his apartment for like a week. so that had a big effect. So when I got back, I was like, right, I'm going to brainwash myself with just personal development stuff, just positivity. You know, just like, cause you just kind of have that. Cause I knew what I was getting into was going to be really hard. So, so it sounds like is you caught on very quickly that success leaves clues and you.

look for those clues in every success story to see how you can apply that to get to your North Star. And I think that's one the most important things is that you found this North Star, you called it your fourth, your four buckets that you weigh every decision against. And I think having that North Star, every opportunity that you're presented with, you weighed against that. And if it doesn't serve that purpose, then it's not worth it. Even if it might be profitable, it might be, know, fruitful.

If it doesn't serve those four buckets, then it's not the direction that you need to be headed. Yeah. Well, like to expand a bit on like the North star thing, like the buckets, like I just, I, I think before that I was making like short-term decisions. like, because I think unfortunately a lot of people just make short-term decisions and it never actually serves you the best. All right.

What is just in 20 years from now plus, like what do I really want? And so that's where I came with these buckets. ⁓ for business, my North Star was like got back from South America. My wife, still a girlfriend, she came the last two weeks. Like I basically, I went to South America with 10 grand, I came back with zero dollars. And that's how that happened. ⁓ But it was worth it.

It was amazing. It was awesome. so, but it was part of that was like, you I her, got her flights from there back and we got engaged out there and we had been dating for a while. So like, it was all good timing. And so we got back and, you know, during our travels, I told her, you know, this is, this was a big deal, like doing this trip and all that stuff. And honestly, she was the one who encouraged me to do it because I'd always wanted to do it.

go do that because I don't want you to not do it, get stuck in some career, then you're just some cranky, you know, butt head. You know, it's just like regretting like this family time that we're gonna go create, you know, sooner than later. And I was like, I mean, and I literally, that's when I, I mean, I really planned out, I went, I didn't go to bed till like 3 a.m. that night, planned out this whole trip, well, at least the high level, called my best friend the next day, hey, I'm gonna go do this thing.

⁓ Quit my job this day. I'm gonna buy my ticket one-way ticket that day and Then he called me back 24 hours later. Hey, I'm gonna do the same thing. So then that's what we went and did but anywho end of the trip with my wife and now fiance, they like Just so like, know, we're not gonna do anything like this again until I go build a skyscraper in Omaha. I mean, that's that's the goal Like we're gonna get back to the city or go build skyscraper

And that is my North Star. And obviously I've got my buckets to keep me in bounds to make sure I'm like not losing my way. But that's, that's really like my North Star was like, how do I get back to the city, get into this industry, start a and like survive, survive. And then like from that, learn how to create a business that can then in turn build a skyscraper. That was, that was, that was everything. And then once we built the skyscraper.

We'll go spadical. We'll go. Cause I'm crazy again. Chill for a while. Cause it's going to be a grind to get to that moment. So that was, that was the North. That's always been, and it's still my North star. It's like, how do I go figure that out? And, um, so yeah, I mean, honestly, good. I mean, maybe that was from sitting up in the 23rd floor, just looking and thinking, I definitely could have been, you know, I wish I, you know, yeah, I wish I would have journaled a little bit more after everything. Cause you know, you forget things, but, um,

So anyways, that was that and then we'll do the cold so that it got back. It was cold calling a bunch of people, a bunch of companies, getting a lot of nos because one, before that, when I was telling people, oh, am getting a commercial real estate? And they're like, you're a journalism major. It's kind of a finance industry. You're really good with people. You got good energy. You should be a realtor, sell houses.

There was a lot of that. And then when I was getting all these no's because I didn't have any experience, and well the journalism major, that was tough. But I just kept cold calling and then finally got a call back from DP management, which is part of dial companies. And they needed a entry level property manager. And they actually didn't want to bring me in for an interview because they're like,

we think you're overqualified, like you have sales back, the last time was sales, like we don't think you're ever really want to do this. I was like, no, no, no, no, like, let me come in and just talk to you guys. And prior to that, I had two interviews, because I was getting so much bad feedback from the real estate company, from the Kersh Real Estate Companies. I was like, all right, fuck it, I need to go call some of these tech companies, because maybe I'll just go to some of these cool tech companies.

be a salesperson there, make money and start buying real estate. That was my backup plan. So I got to like last round of interviews with Sojourn, got pretty deep into interviews with Builder Trend, got to like, you know, where I would be like talking to my boss or my boss's boss and they would ask me both times, they're like, well, what's your long-term goals? Like, what do you want to do? And I was just very honest and they were like, like, yo, do this. And then I'm like, you know, I'm going to buy a real estate, I'm going to start a business. And I was super honest.

And that was a very dumb thing to do. not have done that. But thank God I did that. So after those interviews, they yeah, we're not going to hire you. And I was like, okay, well, I should stop doing that. I need a job because I have no money. so then anyways, so now I'm interviewing for this entry level property manager job. It kind of seems like you could grow into this ⁓ position someday. This would be like, yeah, you can grow. This is your growth path. I was like, yeah, sounds great.

So got the job, it was a $28,000 salary. And that's it. even countered, like, try to get to 32. I know 20 is all right, let's just do it. So that was January 2017. That's when I finally got into commercial real estate. And then from there, signed up for the real estate classes, got my license. And then in October, I actually got my license right before my wedding, got married in October, right before the wedding, got the license.

And then after my wedding, I came back and went to my boss and said, I quit. I'm going to be a broker now. And because leading up to that, had had some, they do, they have some in-house brokers who work on just like their properties. And I'm not going to go into what dial is. Like people can do their own research, but it's their OG developers have done a bunch of stuff. they kind of were like that, but I kind like a holding company and ⁓

So one of the in-house brokers, hey, you might be a good broker if you wanted to try that. And I well, I'm about to get my license and I learned, I didn't know what a broker was. And I was like, learned what it was. Okay, like this might be it. Cause property management was, it is just so important if you're gonna, I mean, what I learned was, okay, this is what it's like to own property and it's a grind and there's a little, it's very expensive.

to maintain property and learn what cams were and triple nets and tenants and tenants will stop paying rent. And then that's real thing. so I did it. So I learned, I thought, okay, I think I learned what I needed to learn, but brokerage would allow me to network with developers and investors and business owners. And it made me a 1099, a hundred percent commission person, which would like basically put me in a really tough spot.

which was good because I needed that. I needed to learn how to not, you know, what it means to eat what you kill. And then if I got good at it, then I would have money. And if had money, then I could buy deals and start doing development. So that was all right. That's what I needed to do. So then I just came back, quit my job. And then I went, you know, can you help us find, like you can stay here and be a broker, but can you help us like find somebody to replace? know, can you just work the year out and we'll start your January 2018?

January 1, 2018. So we did that, found a replacement, stayed at Dial, in-house broker there, but they didn't have anything for me to work on. They told me, hey, we don't have anything for you. And again, I was just naive and probably overconfident. They're like, oh, that's fine. I don't need to be handed things. I'll go figure it out. And it was just struggle bus super hard. But everyone again, then from going to a broker, I was like, well,

You're just gonna struggle and it's gonna take you three years to make any money. You're not gonna make any money your first year. Hopefully you make some money your second year and by the third year, you'll kind of figure out if you have what it takes or not. all right, so let's do that. so the one thing I knew, I kind of accepted, right, I'm not making any money. And again, talk to the wise I hate.

table for a while and she said, that's fine. And I'm lucky that I'm married and all-star like she is the rockstar and has always been good at working. she's always had her career has always been going that way. so with that, I all right. I know I'm not going to get any money. So what is in my control? Like I would say you need to cold call. You need to go find deals, you know, walk into buildings, do all those things. like, I think, you know, number one thing is I need to build my network. Like no one knows who I am.

in this city. I don't really know anybody in this city. I, one of my superpowers, like I, do like having friends. You know, I like meeting people and I just had like friends. like, yeah, friends has always been a thing. You know, I like making friends. So, so I need to go make a lot of friends in this industry. So I just, you know, just went to every single brokerage company, went through all the brokers and I like, man, I went to college.

with that kid, he used to work at one of the bars in Lawrence. So I was like, I'm call that guy first. So that was Ryan Keel and got lunch with him. And then from there, just, I mean, didn't have any kids. So it was just like coffee, lunch, beers, nonstop. I mean, and my wife at that point, she had just was even more into like the ad agency world. And so she was working a lot. And ⁓ so we both just work a lot. And then we'd go grab a drink, whatever Thursday.

Friday and then like, I mean it was just fun. So I just networked a ton. And I mean, I did that for a year straight. I mean, I probably met four to five new people every week. And then obviously still doing the cold call and working on that stuff. And from that, you know, boom, now it's 2019.

I made no money, made zero dollars. then said that, but I did have a couple of deals that were like in the works. So I like, right, like there's some, little bit of momentum, but this is very hard. Definitely a few potential tiers like, you know, forming and, uh, what I, what the most important thing I learned is like, okay, I, if I'm going to be a broker, then I need to probably go work at a brokerage house. Like not at a

Development company that has like in-house things. I probably need to go See me go to the big shop. Where's all these high producing brokers? I need to be around that I see me around high producers knife like I could become so what are you doing? And were you looking for new properties that were for sale or were you? Looking for land or what? I mean so no dial had like five office buildings in the miracles business park. We're doing so like after a while

I think by 2019, they kind of let me start working on some of the office a little bit. then, mean, really it was just like cold calling and walking in the buildings and just trying to get listings. If I saw an empty building, I would find the owner. This is all office stuff, no, retail. My first deal I ever did was a retail lease. ⁓ I think I did a couple of office leases. Then one of the brokers, one of the in-house people, he brought me on.

on a deal which is super, super nice for him. Honestly, I probably need to go buy him a beer. It's been too long. But he brought me in on a deal and I was like, oh man, I made a little bit. So it was just kind of all the above. Pretty much if I saw an empty building or a vacancy and there was no brokerage sign on it, I would call. Usually it didn't have a brokerage sign on it because it sucked. It was a bad listing, but I didn't care because I needed to get my sign.

I need to my name on signs out around town so people would know who I am. The whole thing is, I can't even get my name in the market, you know? And if I just did the right things and was nice and told the truth, my reputation would take care of itself. So that was the whole mission on that. But it's all sorts of stuff. The best deal I ever did there was I just asked myself, all right, if I had money.

what neighborhood would I buy into? what neighborhood would I want to buy property at? And I said Little Italy. Personally, I think it's the best. And this was, you know, at this point, this was 2019. So just went to CoStar, started looking at all the properties and just looking for all the commercial properties. And there was a storage facility on Fifth and Pacific. And so I found the owner, called him and hey, would you ever look at a...

and or would you ever sell or whatever it's just probably super annoying and then he was he was an ass and he was like I get these calls all the time like just you like get out you know basically he's about to hang up okay but like do you have a price and he's like yeah I can't remember I think one point is in the is like in the ones one million something and I okay and how many units do you have and he told me okay okay perfect and then he hung up on me and then all right well I got a price and I got the amount of units

And then you can usually just do the math. So then I, at the time in my, I was sharing an office with a guy named Nathan Gretman who was about to leave for Collier's, but like Nathan is in there. was like, I was like, do we know anybody that wants to buy a storage facility? And then he called a banker and the banker said, yeah, call Jeff McGregor. And then called Jeff McGregor and said, man, got this opportunity. And you know, would you be interested? He's like, well, hell yeah. And then, uh, yo.

Long story short is I was trying to middle man it and then finally Jeff's like, it was just struggling to get momentum and then Jeff called me and man, I promise I'll pay you a commission if you just pass me off. And I like, can I put that in writing and in emails? Yeah, absolutely. So then we got that email and honestly, just doing deals with good people is the best business advice you could ever do. Have you ever got burned doing that or have you done it since then? Yeah.

We, can't talk about it. Cause I don't want to bash people. But yes, I have been screwed over. I probably lost like a hundred thousand dollars in total of just being screwed in this business. mean, then legitimately probably just been burned. you argue, I mean, obviously you're not going to say publicly, but I'm sure behind closed doors you've had. I'll put the cameras off. tell you. Yeah. Like for example, Tanner, Tanner screwed me over on this deal. And then Tanner ends up like, yeah. So they made an extra $20,000 on this deal.

But all the grand scheme of things, once you get a bad reputation, especially in Omaha, you know, it's not the biggest market in the world. Like now you got that black mark on your, on your record, if you will. And now it makes it harder for the next one. So Tanner might've made $20,000 that he's been paying a commission, but he's going to lose out on the long run. Would you agree with that? Yeah. I I'd like to think that that that's how I operate. Yeah. It's like, it's just bad. It's bad business to be bad.

Like just like do the right thing. You'll get yours in the long run. It is yours always. It'll like karma. I don't know. I want to say yes, that is the case, but I still know some of these guys that are out there still doing it, you know, like, so I mean, sometimes when you just grind hard enough, you're just going to keep doing it. Like some of these, some of these people, like, you know, they're just going to keep grinding and they're going to keep finding some opportunities. But yeah, like I'm never going to send them a deal again or I'm never going to work.

I'm never gonna do a transaction with them again. So it's like, so you've lost my business, which I like to think is worth something. So. Well, and on that, mean, on the residential side, we talked earlier, podcasts, there's 3000 agents, right? On the commercial side, there's maybe 200. Yeah. And so word does travel fast, but what I've learned to push back against it is that the greed and selfishness will always surpass the blacklist.

Like there's always someone else who will just take a chance and they'll, they'll give them the leads and then get the business. And so it doesn't really, I mean, it's obviously unethical to have a formal blacklist, but there are people and lenders that I won't work with because they've screwed me on deals. but I won't go out and just start name bashing them. you know, if I have someone come to me and say, Hey, I'm thinking about working with this person. Like have you ever met them? Like I'll share it. And I'll say, yeah, I mean, watch out for this. Just protect your six, know, but

I don't think that, I think there's always gonna be a greedy broker that comes along and just is like, good. Yeah, they screwed you, I'm not gonna get screwed. Yeah, I will say Omaha really has a lot of good brokers. mean, really, majority of brokers in the city are actually, I think, pretty good. I've been more bitten by just a bad buyer or a bad seller. I didn't properly, you know,

I just, could have, you know, like one time a seller did something, I was representing somebody and they went and did another deal. Like without, behind my back when we had a signed listing agreement and this was like, I was so, I mean, this was 2018, I think maybe 2019. And like, I went back and looked at the listing agreement and man, like it was this, you know, I had the deal to list, this is to lease it, you know, I did it, it wasn't to sell, but we had talked about it anyways.

I could technically sue you for 50 grand that you technically owe me, but I was like, I didn't do it. I was like, just whatever, I'm not going to do that. But ⁓ yeah, to me, it's been more on the buyer. If you represent a bad buyer or represent a bad seller, it can really get you. ⁓ What makes a bad buyer a Just not being honest.

I mean, just not doing what, well, two different things like, bad seller. I they're representing something. This is the thing, are they realistic? mean, that story where the deal happened behind my back, that's honestly never really happened again. bad sellers, like when they have just extreme unrealistic expectations.

but you're just desperate and you wanna do it, he's like, I wanna get a listing, so you just do it and then just setting boundaries. And then if the realistic boundaries aren't set, if they won't at least be reasonable, then probably just need to walk away because opportunity costs. But I mean, we've had sellers where we tried to sell a fourplex for this guy and his price is way up here. We told him it probably needs to be down here, but whatever, we'll list it and then.

you know, we got a couple offers that were obviously closer here and then he just got frustrated and then, you know, didn't renew with us and then went, like six months later, sold it for the exactly what we told him. And then that same person reached out back to us like, hey, what do think about this? he had like 20 units and he well, what do you think? And like, well, he could probably get like this, but he didn't want to pay a commission or something. And then some buyer,

who's a good buyers. I mean, in terms like they get deals done, got ahold of them and did a deal with them. And like, he sold it for probably 20 % less than what we would have gotten for him, but he didn't pay a commission. So he's like, Oh, I won. He's like, no, you just lost like half a million dollars. know? So, you got those sellers like that. And then you got buyers who, you you, it's, don't really, it's, it's hard to like sign up buyer rep agreement. You're like a buyer. It's all based off of like,

I mean, so like I really have only represented like a few buyers like exclusively and that's just because we're friends at this point. you know, for example, you got one buyer who these, had bought a couple of deals together and from the same group, that group calls a buyer, my buyer and says, Hey, would you look at this deal? And he's like, yeah. And then he went and at it and then he said, Hey, I've got to include Spencer.

in this somehow. We gotta make sure he gets taken care of. It doesn't have to be a full, a big commission. So he made me, it was something. It was like 10 grand. He went out of his way, probably hurt him. He had to pay probably an extra 10 grand for that. But that's how much his relationship meant. And then he got another buyer who was out there saying, oh, yeah, if you help me find a deal, I'll pay you a 5 % fine interest fee or buyer fee.

And, you know, go down the path, find a deal. It actually was listed, but I had been negotiating with another buyer on that property and they backed out. I was like, man, I know this is a good deal. Part of it was like, I should just do this deal, but I really tried to draw a line in the sand. Like I don't do existing multifamily because I broker it so much. So they're like, no, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to call these guys because they told me I ever brought them a deal. And so did that. Couldn't make it work.

like we submit an offer, they want to take it and then, and then later on I find out they reached back out to the seller broker, because the seller broker didn't want to pay a commission because multifamilies just fricking sucks like that. Like our company is like one of the only companies that like if list a multi, I'm sure, but Tanner probably is too, like, but a lot of these companies, like if you list a multifamily deal, they don't pay a buyer fee. They just won't do it.

But like, oh, we do that. You we always just want to share the commission because we feel like that brings more. You're bettering your client because you're bringing more offers. so, anywho, buyer goes behind my back, calls the seller, selling broker. They say, hey, I think we could do this deal if we don't have to pay a buyer fee. And then boom, they did it. you know, that happened. so, you know, so you got, and that happens more on like this, that does happen.

Like that stuff happens a lot. Yeah. at that point, I definitely just know who not to help. You know, you know, one guy going above and beyond to include you and other people cutting you out. Yeah. And honestly, the only way you learn that is just by feeling the pain. You know, there's only one way to learn some of these things. That's just kind of going through it. And brokerage has been a nice way to learn things because, you know, you're learning in brokerage when you make a mistake or you get

you have a painful moment, it's like, I lost a commission or something like that, where, you know, it's not like you had to write a check and make a mistake. just kind of like, I just spent like 10 hours or whatever on this and it just turned into nothing. And so as broker, you're just constantly risking your time, always. then, yeah. I agree. It's a lot of front end trust. And I work primarily with buyers. I've done, you know, handful of listings, but the buyers,

There's a huge difference between the ones who are just they'll take any deal from anybody. They don't care. They have no loyalty at all. And then I have a buyer pool of they're really loyal because I've had sellers reach out to my buyers and offer them deals and they'll take it to me and they're willing to pay me more as a consultant than a broker because they want those guardrails and I'll look at the underwriting. I'll tell them like, I mean, this could be a deal at this and they'll take it back to the cell and they won't work anything out because sellers are trying to take advantage of a naive buyer.

So I do think that our responsibility in brokerage is more to be those guardrails. And we talked earlier about, we look at hundreds, if not thousands of deals every year, we can see the things that might slip through. And that's where we're there to be the protection. Yeah. You want to make sure people are doing good deals, you know? yeah, and I agree 100%. I agree 100%. So, um.

So Little Italy storage facility. So anyways, did that deal. It's kind of like, it was just like, Jeff, I'll just wrap that up. like, because it's just another example of a good person. Jeff calls me and like, hey man, we are like so close to like making this deal work. We are under contract, but he needed to do a little bit more negotiating. He's like, can I knock your commission from?

but half a point, still gonna be a good commission. And I was like, yeah, will you buy me a whiskey? He's like, yeah. So we did the deal and then he invited us over to his office and we had whiskey, it was awesome. And that was the best deal I ever did at Dial. So pretty much that was like right before I left, that deal finally closed. But then when I got into 2019, it was...

Okay, I gotta go to a big broker house. That's how that's the next step that I need to do So, you know again, I from all my networking I thought investors realty kind of had the best brand the best reputation there again, I Really think there's lots of good brokers. Most people have good reputation but investors realty just like overwhelmingly everybody just kept talking about how Legit they are and I'd had and they'd had a ton of high producers there

But they're very hard to get into. It a very challenging place to get your foot in the door at. So, okay, well, that's where I wanna go. And so then I go to their website. It was like, yeah, kind of see how they're set up. They're a team-based company. And so you got your retail team, office team, industrial team. And then they had their investment team in quotes. ⁓ But on the office industrial retail, it was like, okay, really what are teams?

the senior person with lots of experience and you could tell they had brought on some younger, more green people and they would learn from that. It was a good business model, you could tell, they were trying to do. And then they had this investment team and it wasn't really a team, it was just three dudes doing their own thing. And... Well, and for context, in commercial, multifamily is the redheaded stepchild of commercial. It's like...

It's like from everything I've experienced, like the retail industrial guys that are heavy into those sectors, like I guess multifamily can sit with us. Yeah, it falls under the broad bucket of commercial, but yeah, most brokers do not want to mess with multifamily. yeah, that was a good cut. So like in the investment team was like one guy who was doing like the, you know, selling the grocery anchored strip center or the $20 million office building, just kind of legend.

in the market and I'd never met him because he turns out he's like the nicest guy in the world. But on his picture on the website, like, man, he's intimidating. I don't know if that's my guy. And then there was another guy that's really old. He's actually one of the founders of the company. And then there was a guy doing multifamily. ⁓ from my experience with the storage facilities, that was the biggest check I ever got and it was the most fun deal I ever did. And my leasing...

It was just a grind and I'd probably done like eight leases as a man. My eight leases didn't even equate to half of my Sales checks like I'm just gonna do I'd rather just do like 10 deals a year than you know 40 leases. So Alright, so anyways, this guy's name was John and he was doing multi-family all by himself. So we got a coffee and I just I we had met each other I think once at like a showing

And I literally just pitched him on the spot. like, no pressure, but I want to team up with you, help you make a multifamily team at Investment Fidelity. And he was like 10 years older than me. He was definitely doing really, really well. I like, I can take the smaller stuff, I can bring in energy and help bring in things, but it will help you work on the bigger stuff.

planted a seed, he was like, hey, no pressure, just planting a seed, I'll stay in touch. And I just stayed in touch. I I just like every month, I would just like shoot him a note and then we'd get another coffee or something. And then finally it was like Christmas time-ish of 2019 and hey, let's ⁓ go grab lunch. And I just said, hey, it's time.

to make a decision. The pressure is on now. Now we need to make a decision. We're going steady. We got to do this. Because if not, I'm going to go to plan B because it is time for me to move on to a bigger broker shop. And I think it's totally okay if it's a no, I want to give you, I just want to let you know that if we do this, I do expect us to crush it. And if we crush it, we'll have money. If I have money, I'm going to buy deals.

do development and probably try and start a business, maybe a couple of businesses, I don't know, but something's gonna happen. And I just don't want to blindside, I don't want to not tell you that this is what's gonna happen. And he's like, okay, well, is that gonna be in Omaha forever? Yeah, this is home base until the beach houses and stuff. This is home base and he's all right. He's just like, fuck it, let's just do it.

Then, so then we had to go through the whole like getting, then talking to the owners and doing all that. So it took a couple more months, but got in, so they got to Invest Reality and then COVID hit like three weeks later. And you know, that's where like luck and timing really is a thing. Cause like, who knows if it would have got delayed an extra month and then COVID hits, like, probably wouldn't, I probably would never have gotten it. I probably would have just been, ah, sorry, timing's not right. But they already let me in. I was like, I'm here. And.

And I was used to like being broke. it didn't really matter that the market shut off. I was so pumped that I got into investment reality. And then, you know, again, still did not, we still didn't have our first kid yet. And John didn't have any kids. was just like, we kind of just started showing up to the office. Yeah, the office was really, it was empty. Like, it was like us and then like a couple other people. But we just work all the time. And then obviously.

summer of 2020 comes along and people are like, okay, like we're going start doing deals again. And that's when it all really took And that was like, that was boom. Next level of the theory from like a long time ago. Okay. Now I'm and I'll make money. And now, so that started happening. when did y'all, how long were you at investors royalty? We were at this until October of 2021. during our time together, you know, he had mentioned that

One of his dreams was to start his own brokerage firm. He had been a broker for 15 plus years at that time. uh, you know, I was like, well, I mean, I want to learn how to businesses. And, uh, and then after, after 2020 was over, um, and it was like all this momentum. And I just noticed that, like Tanner said, like multifamily is, is, it's just like odd ball.

in the commercial estate. So a lot of business and deal flow just kind of like gets passed around these big firms and like comes into the president and then like, okay. Like it's kind of, just, there's all a lot of like passing back and forth, which is awesome. But multifamily is just so such a weird thing where you don't get a ton of referrals. And John had organically built just such a, such a good book of business organically. And ⁓

So I just noticed, I just noticed, what I learned from him is that he just, he's very detail oriented and just tracks everything. So I got started tracking all of our deals, just basically copying what he did. It's like, okay, so I'm supposed to track my deals. So I tracked my deals and I just like, I was tracking who sourced them. Cause I wanted like, my goal is to try and become my main source of business someday. And so it's like, oh wow, I was like dude, John sources like 70 % of our stuff and then I.

brought in maybe like five plus and then the rest were referrals, but still 75 % of our deals were just, we had it. And to me that's like a recipe to start a business. So then anyways, was like, dude, you said you wanted to do this, I'm down, let's do it. then we hired a kid out of college to be our marketing and research person ⁓ and that was like.

January, 2021 we hired them. And so anyways, we kind of worked that. So we started October of 2021 is when Oak started. really that's, I'm like a partner there, but ⁓ it's John's baby, you know? So I've just been trying to help grow it. ⁓ And now we've got six brokers and we brought Colleen who is a partner. Quickly after we started, we brought Colleen on. And then we...

got like NAI's, NPDodge is like their brokerage coordinator who like was in charge of like 20 brokers and she came and was in charge of, you know, four of us. So now we've got six brokers, property manager, director of operations, and then an intern who helps on the property management side right now. you know, it's just kind of like very organic, just grow when it feels right. It's safe to say you're also more, at least smaller multifamily.

I'll say 30 units or less in Omaha than any other brokerage. I don't know. think like almost every thing I see you guys on, you know, we're very active. I mean, again, it's a really good time. a lot of a couple of like multifamily brokers were getting older and like, so they were kind of retiring, leaving the market. And then one broker that was ⁓ same career path, like love, like age and all that stuff.

As John, he left and went to California. So then all of sudden it was like, oh, it's kind of just like us. And then obviously there are other people who do it, but I know. I just say we have probably the most consistent brand in multifamily. So. It's good way to put it, yeah. Yeah, it's like, don't know. I mean, because when you look at transactions, like, oh, shit, we didn't really have as many as we wanted, you know? But I don't know, John is like, usually one opportunity a month kind of comes in somehow. And usually it's from him.

Like, because he, he, mean, his, should put that guy on a podcast. He's going be really timid about it, but he's got a cool story. Like he was struggling for a long time as a broker at Investor's Realty was trying to kind of just like figuring out like, what do I do? And like, there are already people who kind of had these other food groups covered. So he just wasn't like breaking in and then he did that for like five plus years, not making lots of money. Then he, and then he just realized like, okay, cause he, he's

Started in 2005 I think and so then you know got me probably got a little bit of momentum and then the great recession hit and then all of a sudden they all got so I think it was like 2010 ish 2011 kind of 12 range there I'm focusing on multi he lived in Midtown and started he's like notice like most the product was in Midtown kind of urban core area so he just started tracking and login and Doing everything like when you you know

At Investors Realty, they'll give you a big, huge textbook of like, this is how you're a successful broker, like read it. And you know, that probably got like halfway through it. But like, I mean, he is literally like step by step. He just just followed the book. did what he was supposed to do. Like, Investors Realty, when it comes to the X's and O's, blocking and tackling of like brokerage, like they're just, there's a reason why they have so many successful people there. It is like in a very impressive place.

And that's probably what I, just like being around, again, like just being around, was the first time in life that I had been around a lot of successful people and it just had a very big impact on me. Because one, when you're around successful people, you're like, oh, they're human beings like me. You know, they just have more discipline and structure and like, you know, just are working, they just work it. They work hard and they do what they're supposed to do. So this is like, so that was a massive piece of it. But yeah, so then we started Oak and then before that,

I had some money in there, I'm gonna do my first investment, because I always told myself, once I have some money, I'm gonna do a deal. And me and one of my buddies I made when I was at Dial, he worked at a construction company. I told him, hey, I'm gonna be a big developer someday and do lots of deals. And he had said, all right, well, let me know when you have some money and we'll do a deal together. so, had some, had like probably like 40 grand. I like, all right, I'm gonna do it. I started calling Patrick, hey Patrick, let's go do a deal, I got some money. And he's like, all right, well.

Maybe we should just flip a house, see how that goes. was like, all right, that's a good idea. So, found us a house, we flipped it, we brought on a third partner. He was supposed to bring in some capital and bring in some like, you know, physical labor. And ⁓ so, we did it. We made a little bit of money, but it was my first lesson learned. like, ⁓ there's such thing as a bad partner. So I learned my lesson on bad partners. ⁓

So the third part that we brought in, like day before we were supposed to close, I can't put in the money. So then I had to put in every single cent I had to cover him. now I have everything I have in this little house. then he's like, well, I'll put in all this time and effort. And then obviously he didn't. And then Patrick had to overcome that. So it was just super stressful. ⁓ It was very stressful.

We just got lucky because the market kept going up. Do you have any kind of partnership agreement ahead of time or you just kind We made like a little LLC thing and you know, could we have, could we have like not paid them? Yeah, but we did. So, so we, you know, it's 2021, market keeps going up. We sell it. each, we each made eight grand. And so, but we pay him, we pay the guy, but I just told Pedsley, hey, I'm not talking to that guy anymore. He's not, he's out.

He's not on the next deal. I'm pretty like, I feel like I'm pretty cutthroat. was like, once you burn me, I really kind of just done with you. so, unless there's a reason behind it, but yeah. So I was like, Patrick, but the flip side was me and this Patrick guy, we became really, really close from that experience. And we're like, right, let's go do some big deals. And so I just thought, I'm never flipping a house again. That was painful.

I'm gonna go find us commercial deal. then in the meantime, but let's go find us our third partner. Because we really liked this idea of finding an engineer as our third partner or like an architect. But there was this young guy named Justin who had just left one of the big ⁓ engineering firms and started just his own shingle. And he was younger than us, but just super stud. So we called him and hey, do you wanna be our third partner? I'm gonna go, you know, had golf together at one point via Patrick. ⁓

So he's like, yeah, that sounds fun. So anyways, it took me a while, but then that's when I found the silos. I feel like that's kind of like another chapter right there. Closing one, moving on to silos being another, which we talked about quite a bit before we started. But what are the silos if someone's not in Omaha? The big old concrete silos off of the interstate that

goes along 34th and Vinton, but really it's 34th and Field Club Trail. it's like Vinton and Field Club Trail is really what it's on. But just like in this little south midtown neighborhood and you know. It's kind of like where everything in Omaha comes together interstate wise, least on the midtown. I-80, 480, you go south. it's like, you can't, I it's actually impossible to them.

⁓ I guess do we want to keep going? I know. I want to touch on one thing that you've, you've covered a lot and that, mean, proximity, the people you surround yourself with, you know, ⁓ just osmosis of gathering from being around these successful people. I see one of the things in my workings with John, you know, the first apartment building I bought was, was from John. And that came from a coffee meeting of me just.

cold calling brokers that I saw were doing business. And that one happened to fall out of contract the night before. And I said, I'll get you an offer today. And through that process, learned, and every conversation I have with John, learned a lot, but he was very fair in his dealings. There was no haggling. There was no back and forth. There were things that it was, you know, I went and asked for these credits for something. It was like the deck staining. I wanted to get the decks stained before we closed on it. And he said, well, it was in that condition when you put your offer in like,

we're not gonna do that. And so was very fair. And so since even the beginning of your story, you talked about how important your word is to you. And when people show that they don't share that same value, that's where you kind of draw the line. Do you think that being around someone like John has solidified that as one of your core values?

I mean, even in your word to yourself, you have to have faith in your own word. I yeah. mean, he's an example of, he's an example, like you can be very successful and just do the right thing pretty much all the time. And, you know, there's times where, you know, your goals can change, you know, like you can say one thing, but then you gather information and they go, man, shoot.

You know and like when those that those are awkward moments and you have to confront them and like just have the awkward conversations and there's like a book so the answer your question. Yeah, I mean he I mean out Yes, John that was also just like that was my experience of investors reality. It was a bunch of very high character people Who were trained properly and like this is how we do business and they like wrote this they basically wrote the book and like we don't

We don't break the book, you know, we do the right thing all the time. So like, and then you see that and then you see all the success and you're like, okay, it's odd then even more of a reason why you just go do the right thing. if, you know, even if it's hurt sometimes, I mean, I've, yeah, there's been a deal where to resolve a situation like we've had to write like a $5,000 check to like, just like mend the gap, you know, like buyer and seller.

just like yell, it was like this thing and like, ah, so we just, but you know, I started one of my years like in the negative because of that, you know, like, so like, uh, yeah, that's not, yeah. So anyways, the answer is yes. The answer is yes. Integrity, think is extremely important in this industry. I mean, my best John story is when we were doing this deal and I was at a residential brokerage at the time trying to, you know, do commercial deals.

very hard, like you said, you were at investors having that background of at least you get the notoriety of that brand. I didn't have any of that. And so John, when I put in that offer on that and I was like, you know, in commercial commissions never implied, right? It's request. And I submitted my offer with a commission and his answer was, well, we don't pay commission to residential agents. And so through that he...

basically gave me the opportunity to earn my commission more than I had ever before. it was understanding now being more experienced, there's a lot of risk involved in a transaction. And when the listing broker has to do 95 % of the work, why are they going to split half of their pay? And so through that, ⁓ eventually did wind up paying me a commission. There's a little bit of a backstory to that too, because we had been super hard. I know the deal we're talking about. So yeah.

Usually he wouldn't even blink twice at it, but the buyer before really left a bit of heartburn on that case. yeah, no. That was an impactful part of my story. Yeah, I love that. got to earn it. mean, yeah, got to... brokers, as a broker, sometimes your hourly rate is like, whoa, I just made like $1,000 an hour. Sometimes your hourly rate is like, I just made like eight bucks an

You know, so it's just like, just is one of those things where sometimes I think people see like, you know, bro, they're lazy because, you know, they get this big old check or this percentage of a big number and, uh, you know, 52 weeks of 80 hour week. Yeah. You don't see the wall, the grind and it takes a lot to get a listing. Yeah. It a lot. Yeah. It takes a lot. It's quite an exhausting gig, but, um, but yeah. So

That's kind of where, yeah, like when the silos happen, that's really, well, that's three years ago, but it's where this transition really has kind of started into the next phase of career life a little bit. So I don't know if we're like running out of time, but you know. I'm good if you're good, but ⁓ I guess on that, what is the plan for the silos or that property?

So, because the silos have been empty for, ⁓ for a long time since.

Can I break into the story about it? Because I think it would give context for everything. So the silos have been, the silos were built in the 50s. So back in the day, there was no interstate there. So that was a railroad neighborhood. And so the rail went through there. Some developer like out of Texas, I think, came and built Spec, these monster, great silos. And ⁓ I think he did very, very well because I think they're full.

up until like the 70s and then the Interstate project came in. So then the Interstate came in, which then killed the rail, which then killed the silos. And then they covered it with a pedestrian trail, which then becomes field club trail. And so they've been empty since the 70s, 80s, somewhere around there when the Interstate went in. And like, if you go walk under the Interstate bridge, you'll see there's...

So when they made the interstate, actually cut like a couple, you know, two or three of them. And they just left the concrete under the, under the interstate. So they're just sitting there. And then there's like a boat there. I don't know how the boat got there. like, that's how, so that's the, I mean, that's like the history of the silos. And then, you know, fast forward to 2022, I've got a buddy who lives,

crazy enough is the guy who I went to South America with, he got a job in Omaha. And so he was living in Omaha for a couple of years. And he lived in a house, like renting a house in that, in a neighborhood like along the trail. And so we were just hanging out and he's like, hey, have you ever gone onto that trail and like walked down and seen those big concrete silos? And I, no, I just drive by it on the interstate every day to go to work, but I never.

go into the neighborhood. the next day, next morning, go get off the interstate early, get off for a second, drive in. Kind of like this cool drive, like, man, like, and then you just like, you're driving up on it, like, man, these are very big. And then you go and park in this little dirt parking lot and get out, standing on the trail, looking at the silos. And you just immediately, like, man, these are really big. They're intimidating. And, but as I'm standing there, it's a nice day and

there is a runner who's like kind of running by me and they like run, kind of stop on the other side of it. And like next to the side, they usually, these runners like would stop, look at them and then go back the other way, go back north, which is like field club and midtown. And that, so that happened a couple of times, like runners run, stop, look, turn. Same thing. Like somebody pushing a baby in a stroller turn, then a biker would come through. Bikers would usually go through, but

I was just like sitting there like, yeah, wow, like this is a real trail. This is a good pedestrian trail that people actually use. And so then I don't know, okay, like, you know, my wife and I have always talked about how Omaha has just not fun trails. Like you go to Dallas or Charlotte and like they have their, they built legitimate development along pedestrian trails. And that was something my wife would always like talk about. She'd man, this is no fun, Omaha doesn't have that.

So subconsciously that was in my head. But so I'm sitting there, seeing these pedestrians go back and forth. All right, this is interesting. So then I pull up my GIS map and all right, like how much land do these things sit on? And you pull up the map and okay, well one, the silos sit right on the perimeter. And I was like, oh my God, they sit on five acres. That is a huge chunk of property to be in a midtown neighborhood.

It's gotta be owned by some industry or some institution. It has to be. So then I look who owns it, it's like, well, it's a mom and pop guy. And he bought it for 250 grand seven years ago. And I was like, what the? I was like, this doesn't make any sense. So then I just do a little bit of broker math, because again, I'm a journalism major, not finance person, but you just kind of know simple formulas. So I like, all right, if this guy called me and said, Spencer, if I got these silos demoed,

We don't know the cost, if the silos were gone and this is no longer zoned industrial, it's zoned multifamily, what could you sell it for? could Oak go and sell it for? So you basically do 43,560 times five, and then I say, I think I could sell it for 20 to 25 bucks a foot. And the more I think about it, I could probably do it higher. And if it's properly, that's like you get your TIF and all this stuff, like you got everything baked in, ready to go.

So anyways, I see the numbers, oh my God, that's a huge number. Way more than what this guy bought it for. In my head I was like, there's probably enough for demo where you're have some yield. You're gonna definitely have some room to play with. with that, I gotta call the guy. So Cole called him, hey man, name's Spencer, would you ever look at an offer if I submitted one to you for the silos? He's like, yeah, yeah I would. I had an idea like five years ago, man.

never gonna do it. He wanted to turn it into like, just kind of use it more for industrial stuff. so he wanted 700 grand and I like, okay, seems a bit aggressive, but I feel like the potential of the site is worth it. So I told him, all right, I'll give you that, but I want six months of due diligence because there's a lot to figure out.

And he just said, no, that's way too long. I'm not going to give you that much time. And I just felt like, man, that's not cool. This is like, look how complicated this site is. Just kind of like, he's a really good Again, like, do business with good people. This guy's just a great guy. And he owns a plumbing business. And he's a successful plumbing business. He's just too busy. And that's why he's never gonna do it on the side of things. like, I'm busy. And his kids are getting older. He's like, I'm just like, I...

My ideas passed, I'm cool with getting rid of them. It basically, hey, no one else is even talking to me. Why don't you go think about it for a while because I'm not giving you that long of time to be under contract. So with that, I call Patrick, I call Justin, so I call it construction buddy, call it civil buddy, engineer buddy. All right, guys, this is the next site, this is the next project. I'm telling you, I think it will work. But let's be like,

Obviously I don't know, I know this feels like a good deal, but I don't know how to develop, I don't know how to build things. All of a I was like, let's be even partners. We'll go and be development partners together. But the one criteria is that when we go and do this thing, I'm going to put my development company sign in the yard. It's going be a light development project. And yeah, they're like, yeah, that's totally fine.

We would love to do this crazy thing with you. So then I go back to the seller and, all right, man, close in two months, 30 days due diligence, close 30 days after that, but I want 450, not 700. You're still gonna make good money ⁓ and then we'll lease it back to you so you can keep putting your plumbing equipment and dirt and stuff on the site.

And I told the whole game plan, here's the plan. We're gonna knock down a lot of the silos, keep some of them, because they're cool, or paint them, but we're gonna put in a village right here on this five acres, like an apartment complex and just housing, and we're gonna activate the trail, because that's the key. The key is the trail. The key is bringing positive energy to the trail. So right now, it's negative energy. People go, they go to this thing, they look at it, they kinda like, you can just feel, people don't feel super comfortable. And...

So the key is to bring positive energy to the anchor of the trail. And he's just like, all right, you know what? He's like, fuck it, I'll do it. I just want to see if you can pull this off. And that's like literally what he said. And all right. then we kept it super low key. Like no one knew. So then we went and...

We had some things we had to figure out. We had to get a demo bid. We had to get structural engineer to look at them. We had to get a phase one, it's like an environmental check on the soil. We had to get a survey, which you always have to do. And then we had to sit down with the city, like just at least tell them what we want to do and see if they would like be receptive to it or not. And so we did all those things in like 45 days and actually probably did less than that. So, and we got a lender to...

lend us on it so we land put like 25 % down. It's like us three were able to buy it by ourselves. that's how that all started. And so yeah, we did a sale lease back with the guys. He was paying our debt, taxes and insurance. And then since then he's like negotiated it way down. He doesn't really use it anymore, but we felt like different tenants using it to pay our debt and all that stuff. So we really haven't had to come out of pocket. So it's the definition of a covered land play because it's...

because the first year we had to get it into, it was a grandfathered industrial site, that's what the site was. from there, so the key is you gotta get it into a CRA or an EBA, a Community Redevelopment Area or Extremely Blotted Area, so then you can go and get TIFF and just different tools to help partner with the city. So that took a year.

So it wasn't, I that was the big risk. then, cause I mean, when you look back, you're like, well, why did nobody else do this? One was it wasn't in a QCT. It's like a qualified sense of track for like, what is like being tax credit housing. It wasn't in a CRA or any, it wasn't in anything. So basically most what I had learned, cause the reason I asked for six months of the diligence was cause the brokerage, that's what I've noticed developers do. Like they'll put it under contract, do a bunch of the legwork. And then if they get it, they'll close. But if they like,

falls through, like, well, now the site's not worth what I'm paying for, like, I'm not gonna do that. Is that why he didn't want to long due diligence, because he didn't want it falling out? Yeah, he's probably just like, well, you guys are just gonna do all this homework, and then you're gonna just bail, you know? Like, and then you're gonna waste my time. And so, so, like, looking back, you probably could have, well, you could have done it, but I really wanted the six months. Honestly, super pumped I didn't do the six months, because it just kind of forced us to get going right away. But...

What you could do in that situation is just leverage your earnest deposit a little bit. So it's a heck I'll put You know 5,000 hard just for the opportunity for six months because a lot of people don't do that and to me I think people need to put earnest deposit at risk more these I think that's thing where I Think that I think it's important personally like when I go under contract I do like I let earnest money go hard like not from the set like once I know like, okay We still like the deal and it's I'll put

I mean, I do it all the time. anyways, so that's how that's year one, just getting it into it. We got it into an EVA. And then from there, that's when you can bring on some investors and start paying for architects. And like very slowly, never had a lot of money at times. It's just piece by piece. And now we're looking like we should start construction next year.

I'm thinking of an area, I mean, obviously it's five acres, what do you... There's renderings online so people can see it, the bin, the annex, it's really three sections. ⁓ There's the silos themselves, like, this is a bin that has eight of them, and then you got the big middle piece, and then you got the piece that butts up the bin. So the ones that touch the interstate, those are gonna stay. And then the rest of pretty much everything else.

Besides the very end are going to like get brought down to about 15, 20 feet high because there's a natural grade from east to west. So like silos sit on the west. So it's actually a perfect retaining wall. So we can use that 20 foot cut as like retaining wall. And then we're going to put a couple of structures over some of it, build a big podium building towards the east end, do some town homes for like our three bed product. So it'll be for a total of four structures.

230 units and Honestly, I really it was just my idea my vision obviously found the site since then I mean I've really been just listen I've just been in all the meetings I sit I listen I give Advice and then I do help with like the capital raising stuff and and I we've been assembling more property Over that three-year period we bought some more industrial

properties and some houses that are around that area. Yeah. Yeah. So like we've got a phase two site. Um, so yeah, we've got like the silos and we've got two and a half acre phase two site. And then, uh, then then I just, yeah. And then with that, you know, I'm under contract on like three other things. And, uh, so with all those, with all that, obviously my brokerage has definitely taken a massive hit and, uh, it's stressful, but, but

you know, to kind of go back to your North Star, like, cause there's definitely been moments throughout the silos, just throughout this whole process of like, all right, I'm gonna start putting deals together and doing these different things and risking all this money. It's a, well, the North Star at the top, you know, to go build the tower. So it's like, if, and I mean, I, there was a moment like a year and a half ago where there was so much like negative talk in terms of like, you guys should just sell it.

We had added a value when we got it into EBA. You guys should just sell it. You guys can all walk away with a bunch of money. You guys don't know what you're doing and all this stuff. It's a blessing and curse, but I talk to a lot of people. Probably too many people. Just always interested to hear people's insights on things. Just got to be a lot. I got to a point where was like, maybe we should just sell it and just keep the smaller two and a half acre piece and sell the big piece to like a

bigger developer and make money, but then we'll have this. But my partner's like, no, that's not the plan. You told us the plan. This is what we're doing. Just take one step. And they're like, just stop talking to people. I was like, OK. So that was a real moment. That was a year and a half ago where, again, just fighting through the negative energy. And just the voices in your head are like, ah, man, this is terrifying.

That's why you can pick good partners. The key is just you gotta have good partners and a good partner is are they good people and are they skilled? Are they good at what they do? Because if they're a good person, their skill at they do and your goals are aligned, because I have over time learned that you can be a good person, you both can be good people, you both can be skilled people.

But if your goals are not aligned, then you're just gonna have friction. So it's like, if you can hit those three things, align with the goals, the skills, complimenting one another, and then just like good character, know, again, it's all theory because nothing's been accomplished quite yet. Like the finished product's not there, but that's the theory. It's like you should be able to go accomplish lots of things if you do that. I think using that logic set on even

earlier in your story talking about when you failed those interviews because you were too honest. If you use that same logic, it's like a law that applies to all these areas is that you were a good person. had skill, but your goals weren't aligned. And I said all the time, we've talked about it when we were building our real estate team and do all these things is like our values need to align first and then our goals need to align because even if your goals are one degree different, eventually you're going to become separate and

I've talked myself out of interviews before too, just telling, I'm doing this in real estate, I'm doing this side and the other way. And they're like, well, I mean, you're a great person, but you're going to get bored here. And so I think it's very true. And one thing that, I mean, I've, think I've met two of your brothers, talked most with Jamie, he's doing very well for himself, you know, in creative outlets and real estate. And he's a very niche thing that he does. Yeah, we are very different art.

Yeah, absolutely. Both very creative and you talked about how, you know, lot of it was your mom almost breaking ceilings and just giving you guys that, that permission or empowerment to be as successful as you want. Now being a father to three, three kids, how are you kind of trying to implement that into your kids? Well, they're little people. So four year old and then two year old twins. then, ⁓ but I mean like,

It's a good question because, you know.

Well, a bit of a sidetrack, because I'm going get to the point. But I mentioned Light development. I told my buddies ahead, I'm going to put a light sign on the yard. And Light is the brand. They realize at point it's just a brand. But to me, Light is going to be the brand that builds the tower someday. And that's why it's so important that this silos is a part of the Light story. And to me, what I've noticed is

was that development, I've just been obsessed, like I'm gonna be a developer someday. And so like I meet a lot of developers and I just met a ton of developers out there where it is like a second, third generation family where like grandpa started something or death or whatever. And those kids are now learning and then the other half are like just kind of crazy old cowboys. Whereas it's like, know, they, cause they had a good reputation.

And it was like 50 years ago, they could basically do like a handshake deal almost where like they could put like 0 % down to go get their construction loan. But they're like good guys. like the thing, I trust you. Like, you know, like this, there's this bunch of stories like that where obviously that's, we just, that doesn't exist anymore. so like this barrier to entry development is just so intimidating for people. And I've met a lot of young people or like just around our age-ish and like,

So many people, they want to develop, they've thought about it, they've talked about it, and some of them actually are really doing it, which is awesome. But there's so many of them, like, man, you can just tell the mindset, there's just something in the way. And that sucks because they're very skilled, they have everything it takes, like, they need some help. And a lot of it's the mental barrier, a lot of it's just finding the deal and helping with the capital raising and all that stuff.

because the numbers do get really big, really quick. But for me, light, I want it to be this brand. I want it be this organization. Right now it's a brand, but I want it be an organization that can help those people go and do deals. That's a whole huge part of it. anyways, I do that because I really like trying to build light for two things. One, to go build cool assets in the community.

Because I think when you build good assets in a community, those are amenities that the city gets to use and you make your city better. then, ⁓ two, it's like, how I consider myself a first generation real estate person. I had a fantastic childhood. So I'm not like a, had a bad child, awesome childhood was like so fun, but like had no business. We were not a business family. And so like,

And I moved to this town where I don't know anybody. it's just like, it's just been, you basically just start from scratch. And so I want Light to be a company that like really can do a good job of recruiting and finding talented people where they really are like first generation real estate people, but they just have this innate drive and curiosity and just like energy to go do big things. like, and they come into our sphere where we're like we are doing fun, big, cool things.

we have resources and all these things and yeah, we'll help you do some deals. And with that, I say that because light really is built for the first, I really want it to just, at its core, always kind of have that first generation mindset. But with that, one of the reasons you get into real estate is it's for the generation. I talked to, so like, mean, I'm,

not trying to be too intentional about it, it's like you're brainwashing. We talk about engineering. I want my kids to get into engineering construction because I feel like that's where I don't have an edge at all. So we get our magnet tiles, we build towers. we go, ⁓ take the four-wheel with me and just drive them around. Every time we pass a silo on the interstate, he's hey, silos. Those are ours.

really, whatever they want to do, they'll do, I'm just like their environment is just real estate. And we talk business all the time, even though they don't, I know, I struggle talking to little kids, so I kind of just talk, you know? But it's just, we talk a lot, we have goals taped on the walls everywhere, and we talk about them, and if you ask them, they're like, hey, what are you gonna do when you grow up with your mom?

I mean, that's just like, that's why he thinks we're, that's like, he thinks that's what we do. And because when you just give yourself no choice, but to think, to like, to like believe and just tell yourself, Hey, this is what we're going to do. Then that's what you go do. Cause you don't know any better. And so with the two year olds, it's words, it's just survival. don't even know. But, but they are, you can't, kind of get to that point where I think they're just, I feel like you're just a product of, you know, what you see all the time. we.

With that, we just try to move around a lot, exercise, and try to eat. The little bit was like, just, we want to show, hey, we move our bodies a lot, and we play, we, yes, we do watch TV, but that is for relaxing. But then with the four-year-old, it really, we talk about goals. And me and my wife do talk about just family core values, because again, when you study these...

ultra successful people. Unfortunately, a lot of it is ⁓ ends up with like second, third, fourth marriages and like not awesome relationship with child. And that's like a nightmare. So, ⁓ so like there, but there are some stories out there where they did it all the way through. I mean, I like they, you know, they have this cool family and achieve their dreams. And that just takes patience because

you definitely can get to where you wanna go faster in business if all you do is work. I definitely noticed that. There's moments where I get super frustrated, where I'm like, I just need to work. I just need to not be here right now and go be somewhere quiet and just get stuff done. But over time, you kinda just realize, all right, when you have a long-term vision for what you're gonna do, which to me, that's what light is, that's what development is in general, so it's like,

if you just are just patient, just doing the right things and just being present. You're just being present and just like hanging out and doing your best to be where your feet are, which is tough sometimes. But I don't know, that's all I can do. But they're so little, I don't really know. But truly, mean, I do, we just talk.

Yeah, we're building scrapers. We're building skyscrapers. We go drive and look at real estate. Like I do like some side, like on the weekends, I'll go help some buddies like work and like I'll bring him with me cause he loves it. And then like, cause he'll make like a couple bucks. And then, you know, I'm just trying to, I just want, I just want him to enjoy working hard. Cause like that was something that was hard for me. Like to me, that was like a muscle. I've really had like, I enjoyed working hard at things I like.

So I enjoyed working hard in my broadcast class in high school, but I enjoy working hard in my math or science classes. I wouldn't do, so it's like, I just want to try and like build that muscle. Hey, like we used to work hard kind of all the time. Cause like we like to work, like we're just workers. So that's one of my really consistently trying to like just implement. then, and there's just like the, just the no limits, you know, just, Hey, there are no dreams that we can't do.

And it actually is true. Like the key is just the student, or you start when you're a little person, like obviously when you're, you know, four years old or four years old, but like when you get, you see some of these stories like, man, like some of these guys, like they really just started when they were in like high school. They didn't start like, like just tinkering around and just like trying things and just like doing stuff and like took things a little bit more seriously. Like always having fun, but they just, their definition of fun was a little different than what my definition of fun was when I was in high school. And so, ⁓

And that's part of my urgency is like, man, yeah, I had a lot of fun. Like you doing just playing and doing knucklehead things, but I felt like I kind of put myself back a little bit. And that's where a lot of this urgency and it's like, ⁓ just like, know, we got the clock ticking. Like we got to get to work because, ⁓ 10 years goes by really quick. So, I think what's really cool about what you said, there's something that we've always done in my family and with my wife and I is, is we don't do baby talk.

kids. We talk to them and we have conversations. They learn to talk a lot faster, like having seven kids and they hear normal conversations all the time. They pick up on it a lot quicker and we're not going to have them babbling when they're nine years old. Like you're going to talk. Yeah. And so we try to be more transparent with sharing the struggles and sharing the things that we're doing in business and you know, teaching them that to enjoy the struggle and not just like, I think parents tend to

think they're protecting their kids by not sharing that with them. And, you know, my, my kids have always seen me be in the Casco quadrant, be the, uh, self-employed, know, as broker, you're self-employed. Like you said, eat what you kill. So we bought a trucking company recently, small company. I mean, comes with its own stressors. There's a lot of learning curve, but the other day when my kids asked like, Oh, where's, where's the trucks at? And I like, Oh, well, the driver's, you know, out on the load right now. And they're like,

wait, but we're going to bed and like, yeah. And like, so we're making money in our sleep. And I was like, yeah. And they're seven, eight years old. they're like, dad, we made it. Like we're making money in our sleep. And I'm thinking like, I'm going to make $200 off this load. But still it's cool that they pick up on those things because we share it. And it just reminded me that we need to share it with them more often. And I think that's really cool is that you keep your kids involved and just show them.

And we, in the last podcast we did, he talked about the biggest thing that he does with his kids is that he shares it with them. And you're sharing this experience because we don't want to be so head down in the work that we forget why we're even doing.

Yeah, no, I like that a lot. Well, and then the other thing in closing thoughts, and I we could probably go for the next four hours, but the I heard something I don't remember who said it, but the most successful people have a constant, you know, the story of the two wolves and which one is going to win is this feeling of unworthiness and the imposter syndrome.

and the arrogant belief that you're indestructible. And those two wolves are constantly fighting each other. And I've heard that a lot in your story today and a lot in my own story is that it's like I'm constantly worried about I'm behind where I need to be for my goals. But I also have this naive sense of indestructibility where I go into deals and maybe I get burned sometimes and lose a couple hundred thousand.

speaking from actual experience. But it seems like you talk a lot about that. It's like, even when you guys did the open house when you bought the silos and I thought because you had an oak sign out there first and before light sign got there and I talked to John like, oh, so what's the story? When'd you buy this? He's like, this isn't me. This is a Spencer thing. But

We need that kind of thing because it's like, if your ideas aren't big enough to scare people, then you're cutting yourself short. Well, it's like you're supposed to scare yourself, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That's like the whole thing. I hear that all the time. Your stuff's just scary. I'm terrified. I was about to say that probably meets it, you know, one iconic structure in Omaha. Yeah. You know, so that's kind of, kind of interesting. So before we get out, I.

I want to give you the opportunity. What does freedom mean to you? think you kind of said a lot of it, but if you could distill it into a minute or two. I really, I'm glad I asked kind of what freedom fires meant because you're going into this before I, you like the 24 hours leading up to this, was like, you know, I, again, like a posture such as like, just don't think I'm even close to.

being somebody who can go on a podcast and be like, I've got freedom, you know, because I still struggle to like, you know, pay bills because I'm not making enough money in my brokerage because I'm doing all this. And it's just like a constant, you know, it's just a constant thing. it's like, I'm definitely not, yeah, so to me, like, you know, the classic definition of freedom, they're like, can just do whatever you want, you know, cause you have enough like passing money coming in and whatever cashflow, like I have no cashflow. So, ⁓

But the fighting part for their freedom, I really like that. so to me, because when I was doing my four buckets, for a while I had a fifth bucket and it was freedom. And I was like, what the hell does that even mean? And so to me, what that means is I want to be able to

I want to be able to do whatever I want to do in that moment. But to me that means like, want to be able to, any idea that I have, I want to be able to have the resources and the ability to go and do it. And like if I want to, I mean that to me that's the ultimate. I just have created the environment and which means like you have some money and you have like a team of people that.

you know, help you do things and you just have this system like any idea I have, because I mean, I've got crazy things, things that are crazy, much crazier than silos, but like I don't share them, but ⁓ I want to be able to execute any idea I have. And it just tinker to see if they work or not. Like I want to have enough money and enough resources to just like try my ideas. Cause you just never know which ones are going to work and which ones are not going to work. You just do have to like try them sometimes.

And you just have to be able to risk capital and time to do that. And then with that, just being able to hop on a plane and go, just go do things. With my family, I wanna take my kids to South America and show them my crazy adventure that I went on. So that's one of the reasons.

Usually for bedtime you do a story, or you read the book with the four year old or the two year old. But with the four year old now, mom will read him a book at a certain time for bedtime, but for me, I just tell him the story. But it's like real life story. He's like, can you tell me the story about how an uncle Jake got bit by that dog in South America? I was like, that's a serious story, is an off camera story, which I tell G-rated version of. But to me, that is freedom.

being able to execute any idea I have that's in my brain and being able to hop on a plane and just go on, you know, like I want to go, yeah, just go hop on a plane with the family and just go do, go on adventures. Like go on adventures, execute ideas. And then if, you know, and then those four, the four other buckets I told you about, like I'm doing those at like a high level and like helping, just helping people is, you know, is just so important.

Because, know, if you have lots of money and do all these things, then you're just like, yeah, not helping people, then it doesn't really make any sense. And I can definitely attest to, I think your true superpowers are this eternal positivity that there's no bad ideas, and the action and how quickly you take action. Like we've had meetings, like, you know, you meet my wife.

and we'll share ideas and we'll go back and forth and brainstorm and all this stuff. And her and I will go back home and we'll just linger on it like, that was a good meeting. And Spencer will text us and hey, I found a site for that. And we're like, holy crap, like we haven't even sat down to take our shoes off yet and he's already boom. And so I think that that is where you are gonna thrive is that you are willing to take action and you don't shoot anything down without at least giving it a fair shot. That's it, there are bad ideas.

But like you have to give every idea it's moment. You gotta give it a chance to breathe because then you don't know. But if it is bad, you don't say, that's bad. I don't, that's a bad idea, here's why. And then, and usually, you know, at this point I've had so many bad ideas that I can, I can actually, well, here's why, because look, I mean, I fucked up doing that. And so, um, but yeah, no, I really appreciate that. And yeah, you know, I hope that all of this stuff really works out and keeps going.

But it is just a long-term game. it's like, you know, that's where like, inevitably, if you keep breathing, which means you you know, stay healthy, but like, if you just keep breathing, and you're just around for a while, and you just are constantly in pursuit, and put the right people around you, ⁓ then it just really should work. I mean, to me, common sense is like, well, it will work, because if you just don't stop, and if you're having fun, and you're finding out a way, if you figure out a way to like,

pay, make enough money to pay your bills and support the people that you need to support, then ⁓ there's no reason not to keep doing the stuff. Which is why if young people are listening to this, just go on the crazy trip because I don't, because going on that crazy trip just allowed me to come here and this is, know, it's like eight, nine years ago now, but it's it's allowed me to not.

focus all I had to do is I did it. I did my fun journey. So now all I had to do is just focus on building a career and having fun doing it. I'm not worried about like going on some, I haven't been on a vacation longer than a week ever since then. So, um, all right guys, well, I really appreciate this. Yeah, I appreciate it too. And, uh, yeah, it's, definitely eyeopening and, uh, just kind of seeing someone push the limits and

dream big and like you said, don't even share a lot of them. it's a nice to see. forward to seeing you on season 25 of Shark Tank. All right. Well, thanks. Appreciate it.