Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Dave Seymour - Unlocking the Code to Multi Family Investing

https://www.jayconner.com/dave-seymour-unlocking-the-code-to-multi-family-investing/

Dave Seymour - Unlocking the Code to Multifamily Investing.
Commercial Real Estate has some of the best overall returns out of all asset classes. Yet the majority of investors are unable to participate due to a lack of information and options. Freedom Venture Investments is breaking down the barriers to entry, giving our clients clarity and confidence, while always being results-driven.
Discover how Dave went from Fire Fighter to Real Estate Investor.
https://www.Jayconner.com/trial
Get a 30 day trial to Jay Conner's Private Money Academy (May end without warning)


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Jay Conner (00:07):
Well, hello there! And welcome to another episode of Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner. I’m Jay Conner. The Private Money Authority. And the host of our show. If you’re brand new to Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner, whether you’re listening in on iTunes or Google play, or following us on one of our YouTube channels or Facebook live streaming, we’re glad you’re here. If this is your first time, we talk all about different kinds of real estate. Single family houses, commercial, land deals, self storage, anything to do with real estate investing. And again, if you’re brand new, I’m known as The Private Money Authority because from 2003 to 2009, I was relying on local banks and mortgage companies to fund my deals. And I got cut off like the rest of the world did in 2008, 2009. And I learned about this wonderful world of private money.
Jay Conner (01:07):
So I haven’t missed out on a deal since 2009 for not having the funding. And so if you would like to get plugged in to funding for your single family houses, I’ve got a free online training waiting for you to go to, so check it out after the show is over. Go on over to www.JayConner.com/MoneyPodcast. That’s JayConner.com/MoneyPodcast. And there I’ll be teaching you the five easy and quick steps from having no funding for your deals to, into the millions of funding. Again, without relying on banks or mortgage companies. Well, also here on Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner, since we launched in June of 2018, I’ve had some amazing guests here on the show, share their secrets and strategies as to what they’re doing.
Jay Conner (02:03):
And today is no exception. So my guest today after 16 years as a firefighter and a paramedic, he launched his career rapidly becoming one of the nation’s top real estate investors. So within his first few years, he had transacted millions of dollars of real estate and have become one of the nation’s leading experts in both residential and commercial transactions. Well, his passion for business and real estate put him on the radar of A&E television network, as well as multiple news organizations like CBS, ABC, CNBC, Fox news, and CNN. In addition to that, the New York times reported that his series titled Flipping Boston posted the highest ratings ever for the A&E network at the time of its airing. His greatest joy comes from being a husband and a father to three boys. And so with that, I’m so excited to have your own the show with us today, Mr. Dave Seymour! So Dave, welcome to the show.
Dave Seymour (03:09):
Hey Jay! How are you, man? I tell you, it’s funny. I listened to the, I listened to that intro and I’m, man, I sound pretty cool.
Jay Conner (03:15):
And Scott, I will need for you to do a little edit right here because my internet has stopped working. So I’ve got a sign out and sign back in. So if you would, Scott, come to the forefront and keep Dave alive and I will be right back,
Dave Seymour (03:30):
Oh, Man! I miss him already. So I got to do the show without Jay. Is that what you’re telling me, Scott?
Scott Paton (03:36):
That’s right! That’s right! It’s just you and me. So,
Dave Seymour (03:39):
That’s all right. It’s all good, man. I can play this game. No worries.
Scott Paton (03:45):
What part of the country are you in?
Dave Seymour (03:47):
Oh yeah, we’re up in Boston. Boston, Massachusetts. It’s where they threw the tea in the Harbor. We’ve been going through a little bit of a heat wave up here right now. So it’s an interesting time, man. I mean the real estate game in Boston has always been incredibly fluid and it continues to be. And I gotta be honest, man. I’m questioning some of the common sense that people use in the real estate marketplace right now. So I’m a super conservative investor.
Scott Paton (04:14):
So you think people are being too aggressive?
Dave Seymour (04:17):
Yeah, man! I mean, look! People sometimes forget. I mean, I listened to Jay’s intro and he had his own challenges in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, which we all did. And you know, there were investors that folded up their tent and never came back out to play after that. And Hey man! Welcome back!
Jay Conner (04:39):
I got kicked off the internet for some strange reason. And so, ever since you started talking, I haven’t heard a word, you said.
Dave Seymour (04:47):
Don’t worry. Nobody listens to me, including my wife, Jay. So it’s all good, man. No worries.
Jay Conner (04:55):
Scott can edit this for us anyway, but so let’s pretend like I just said welcome to the show and you picked it off from there.
Dave Seymour (05:03):
All right, man. Well, I appreciate you having me on the show, Jay. Thank you for having me. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, even with all of the chaos and the craziness going on in the world, for sure.
Jay Conner (05:13):
That’s for sure, Dave. Well now I’m really curious about how you got on the A&E network and got your show started. What was it called? Flipping Boston?
Dave Seymour (05:27):
Flipping Boston. Yeah. So I was listening to your intro, Jay. It was kind of interesting that you developed a new source of capital for your deals because the market kind of went sideways and I went through that same experience myself. I got, I started investing. I was a firefighter, like you said on the intro there for 16 years. But unfortunately I had the financial intelligence of a donkey and I did not, I didn’t understand capital. I didn’t understand how it worked. And I’m just following the same plan that everybody else is. And I went to a seminar to learn real estate and I’m a product of that seminar world. And the funny thing is, man, is I invested the last couple of thousand dollars that I didn’t have. Well, my wife did. I didn’t, it was her credit cards.
Dave Seymour (06:14):
I was maxed out with a credit score of two. So nobody was giving me credit. But it’s kind of interesting. I did what my mentors and coaches told me, like, you know, I listened to you again at your intro, talk about the newer investors, or maybe you got some seasoned investors listening to us today, or watching us. But I just followed what worked. And next thing you know, I’ve done one deal, two deals, three deals, four deals. I’m actually doing a little teaching myself and somebody in the marketing world reached out to me and said they were looking for teams to start another show. And I was still firefighting. So I was like, firefight in 42 hours a week. And real estate invest in every other hour I was awake. And I sent in an application to New York and no offense to anybody, but I loaded it with profanity cause I wanted to make sure they paid attention to what I wrote on my little application.
Dave Seymour (07:09):
Yeah. They came, they picked up the phone and the guy was kind of laughing. And he said, you’re either a lunatic or a genius. I said, is there a difference? And we started filming a little sizzle reel and we did four episodes and like you said, in the intro, their ratings were the highest they ever had for that time slot. And they said, well, people like you. And I’m like, I was just doing it for fun. I didn’t think it would ever go anywhere. And you can actually see the episodes on Amazon right now, Amazon prime in the video section. Yeah. So me and Jeff Bezos struck a deal. No, we didn’t. You can find the episodes on there. And you know, I got that reputation as an expert in the marketplace and with that comes a, you know, some really good relationships and you have to find yourself sitting on Squawk Box and Fox News and all of that silliness. So it’s kinda, it’s kinda cool, man. It was a cool journey.
Jay Conner (08:04):
That is really cool! So let me give you the 30,000 foot view question and that is, why did you choose real estate for yourself?
Dave Seymour (08:13):
Yeah. Look man, it’s, like I said, I was good at working, you know, and trading time for money. I’m kind of like a blue collar guy in a white collar world when it comes to that stuff, you know? I was instilled with some good solid core values, you know, don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, work hard, respect your fellow man, you know, have a little faith and do the right thing. And that’s great. Don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t give you any financial freedom because the income potential is capt. And you know, I was working construction on my days off from the firehouse and I was watching these investors like popping up. And I’m thinking to myself, hold on a second, I’m building a deck, digging a ditch. I’m sitting on a post hole Digger with a bunch of friends here and this guy’s coming in and you don’t look too sweaty and he don’t look too dirty.
Dave Seymour (09:07):
He looks like he’s had himself a good old time. At his back bone aching. I think his wife is probably happy as well. Right? It was the investors. And I found myself in a position where I was losing my house, man, because I made some bad decisions. And I always knew there was money in real estate. I never understood the stock market investing in something that was imaginary. And I just went for it. I went to a seminar and my wife invested in me and I started doing what they said I should do. And the results followed afterwards. So real estate has been the biggest wealth builder in the history of animation period. And why should I reinvent the wheel? Why don’t I just learn the processes and get in the game? And that’s when I took her like a duck to water, man. I’m passionate about it. I love it. I dream about it all the time. So yeah.
Jay Conner (10:03):
What year did you go to that first real estate investing seminar?
Dave Seymour (10:07):
Yeah, I went in early 2000. And late 2007. Early 2008. I came out just as the crap hit the fan, man!
Jay Conner (10:21):
No, I tell you, you know, here in the midst of COVID-19 reminds me somewhat of what was going on in 2008, 2009, as far as, you know, banks tightening up and et cetera. And it was a blessing in disguise for me back in 2008, 2009, because that’s when I learned about private money and when the banks cut me off within three months, I had more money at my disposal. When I went out to raise money. Than I had, when I had a line of credit at the bank And I’m experiencing somewhat the same thing going on right now. I mean, I just had a phone call last week from four guys that have a private equity fund that want to give me $5 million just to start doing business with them. Right? They called me, they called me, I didn’t call them. Right. I have someone listening to my podcast here, not too long ago. They were laid up in the hospital for three days, listening to the podcast, they call my office and they want to lend me money.
Dave Seymour (11:23):
What a terrible problem to have, Jay.
Jay Conner (11:29):
So, now, how quick were you able to move once you got your education and start enjoying some success?
Dave Seymour (11:34):
Yeah, that’s a great question, man. You know, I’d love to tell you. You know, 30 days and it was all fixed. I mean, that would just be a flat out lie. You know wealth creation is a process. It’s not an event. For me it took me, it took me 12 months to 18 months to be what I call financially free. And what I meant by that was, was that I was able to sleep eight hours. You know, I wasn’t waking up at three o’clock in the morning, you know, riddled with fear, doubt, and insecurity. So it took some time it took a commitment and some traction. But to your point, about 2008, I mean, I was telling people, cause that’s what my mentors told me to do was to tell everybody what I was doing. And I was telling people, you know, I’m a real estate investor, I’m investing, I can buy distressed assets and you know, I can put them back on the market and I’m giving them the whole elevator pitch.
Dave Seymour (12:26):
And back then a lot of people were like, Ooh, Oh, I’m so sorry that that’s what you have to do for work. Like, you know, it was like a disease that we had as real estate investors in 2008, 2009. But like you, sir, I created an opportunity out of it, I can’t, you know, I became proficient at short sales. I became profecient at loan modifications. I became proficient at private lenders. I became proficient in helping people. And I found in my career and I’m sure you’ll testify to it as well as the fact that the more time I spend helping somebody else, the better it ends up being for me, you know, that and that. I mean, you know, God is good all the time and it’s like a real good friend of mine is down in Florida right now.
Dave Seymour (13:13):
And his faith is something to be admired. And he just says to me, he just says to me, David, just ask the right questions, man. Am I doing His work or my work? Right. Is it all about the almighty buck? He said, because if you find yourself just chasing the almighty buck and you’re not doing His work and taking good care of people, he said, you might find yourself facing a little bit of resistance. That’s how he puts it. And then there’d be a little bit of scripture to support it. But, you know, I love that about it. It’s like there’s nothing better than those families that we helped, you know, during the transference of wealth in this country, which is what we show in 2008, nine, 10, 11, 12, you know, to help families who were foreclosed on them and put them in a lease option. Where they could stay in the same neighborhoods, right? The kids could go to the same school. They couldn’t afford the crazy mortgages that reset, but they could afford a good decent lease option and a beautiful home to live in. And all we were doing was moving them from house to house in the same neighborhoods, you know? So you know, with some education, you can serve this stuff around pretty fast. And I’m no better than anybody else. I just did what I learned. Rather than finding excuses, I found answers. Does that make sense?
Jay Conner (14:24):
It makes a lot of sense. You and I have got a lot in common, Dave, because my followers hear me say all the time, this, all the facets of the business is all about serving and helping other people, as you said, because if people didn’t have a problem, we wouldn’t have an opportunity to serve. From the buyers to the sellers, to the private lenders, you know, even when it comes to raising money. And we’re going to hear your story here shortly in the next minute or two, about how you’ve gotten into raising a lot of capitals, but, you know, I’ve never asked anybody for money. They say, Jay, how in the world are you raise all those millions of dollars without asking for money? It’s real simple. I put on my teacher cap, I teach people what private money is. I teach them what self directed IRAs are. Cause they never heard of that stuff. And, you know, the light bulbs go off. And if they’ve got investment capital or retirement funds, they’re not happy with what they’re doing. They’re going to, they’re going to want to do business with you, right?
Dave Seymour (15:24):
Correct. Correct. It amazes me how many intelligent accredited investors I sit down with and communicate with. And I start giving them a breakdown of the tax advantages of using a solo, 401k as a retirement vehicle to invest in my fund, into a piece of sticks and bricks, a syndicated deal. And it’s like these light bulbs go off in their head. And I don’t know about you. You tell me this. I found that, you know, high finance on occasion, it kind of brings an air of you know, like it’s almost pretentious at times, like you’ve got this additional vocabulary than they tend to use in high finance. And I was talking to a local guy, a friend of mine, a neighbor in fact, and he’s an injury attorney, very successful. And I’m in the middle of my, you know, my conversations through teaching.
Dave Seymour (16:19):
Obviously I’m raising capital with salesman. We’re good at what we do, but he’s, he stops me in the middle of it. And he says, David, David, you’ve got to stop. I go, what, he goes. I just figured out what you’re doing because I applied a logic commercial assets, you know, 60 to 150 unit apartment complexes, not just one of them, but 30, 40, 50 of them. And then I fixed them up. I get the rents up and I create a better asset. And I’m trying to give him the delivery, Jay. He says to me, David, stop it. I go, what, what what’s up? Did I offend you? He goes, no, no, no, no. He goes, I think I understand what you’re saying. He said, all you’re talking about is flipping Boston on steroids. Instead of just taking a little single family house and make it that pretty.
Dave Seymour (17:02):
He said, you’re doing 5,000 units and making them pretty correct? I said, yeah, that’s right, Kevin. He said, okay, how do I subscribe? Let me see if I can get some capital into the fund, you know? And it’s amazing because it’s, you know, my trajectory, it’s interesting. We were in a marketing meeting a couple of weeks back and I had a young intern in our marketing meeting. And what we’re doing right now is we have a private equity fund and we raise capital. We invest in multifamily assets, primarily in the Gulf region of Florida, but other markets. I mean, you guys in the Carolinas in such a great position there, I mean, it’s fantastic the opportunities there. So maybe we should talk offline, Jay, but you know, these assets allow us to go in there with what’s called a core plus asset class.
Dave Seymour (17:52):
What we do just like I said, we take these settings and we make them pretty, but it never was that way. I mean, the first deal I did was a $5,000 wholesale transaction on a single family home. And I felt to myself what I’d had to do in the past to make $5,000. And then when I stepped out of the attorney’s office, I’m waiting for the five votes to pull up and take me to jail. Cause I felt, it felt so bizarre to have a check for a house that I’d never owned, but I’ve learned along the way to your point to simplify it. You know, you, you lead by attraction, not by promotion. I turn away capital, Jay, because it’s not a good fit. And you know, again, the universe works in a wonderful way if it’s of service, which is, is for us because we help people with the longterm retirements. They get to invest in our fund, and they get a preferred rate of return, targeted rates of return in double digits.
Dave Seymour (18:46):
And then for the life of the time that their capital was working with us, you know, then now that targeted 20% returns on their money. So it’s a, it’s a real, it’s a real good asset class. And unfortunately COVID has all, fortunately, depending on what side of the equation you choose to put yourself on. COVID has given us a massive opportunity because the buying is already there. The buying opportunities are right in front of us right now. We’re just hungry to take these assets down, help the sellers, help the tenants, help our investors. I get warmed up, man. I get on a roll. You don’t. You got to stop me and ask me questions. Otherwise I just keep going.
Jay Conner (19:23):
You remind me of me when I’m on the other side of the microphone. Speaking of COVID, what’s your prediction and what’s your take on what’s the short term outlook from covid and what do you think is the longterm outlook and consequences on any front?
Dave Seymour (19:41):
Yeah, it’s, you know, kind of like pull off the bandaid, man. I mean, here’s what I see. We’ve got a short term pain that we’re going to have to, we’re going to have to experience, we’re going to have to experience as a nation. We’re gonna have to experience it together. You know, depends on how you look at it. So we’ve got the full balances where the banks have, you know, allowed tenants to own us to not pay their mortgages. You’ve got a tenancy not paying their rent. We had the PPP, the protection program there for small business. You know, Mr. Trump wrote everybody a check. There’s more, you know, more capital coming out which in its essence sounds great. And it’s a difficult position, Jay. It really is because it’s like, there’s the one side of me that used to live paycheck to paycheck that understands how necessary that is.
Dave Seymour (20:44):
But then there’s now the other side of me that the businessman, I look at it and I say, well, there’s no transference of services for that money. And if there isn’t a true transference of services for that capital, it’s almost like a house of cards. It’s, you know, it’s doomed to have a failure point and a stress point. And when we get there you know, we will see an increase in foreclosure. We’ll see these challenges going forward and we’ll get through. We’re America. You know, I’m an immigrant to this country. I came from England and back in 1986, I was born in London. But, you know, I, I came to the greatest country in the world for growth, for economy, for the ability to really be the best we can be. So we’re always going to overcome. So short term, I’m sorry, we’re going to have to feel the pain.
Dave Seymour (21:34):
Longterm, there’ll be two kinds of people just like they were in 2008, 2009, 2010, there’ll be victims and there’ll be victors. And, you know, I sense that we will be the victors and that’s not a moral battle. It’s just an intellectual battle of finance and real estate and business. But to be on the other side of it, as a Victor, we have a greater opportunity to help the people who didn’t, who didn’t come along the journey with us on the financial side. That’s kinda my full process on it. And that’s why we’re so bullish on our buying right now, we would invest the capital because everybody else is fearful. We go in there and we just get the good buying opportunities,
Jay Conner (22:15):
Take a couple of minutes and tell us in summary, your journey from, I suppose you started with single family houses, you mentioned you’re for real being a wholesale deal. And then you went into commercial and now you are in the capital raising business, and you have a fund that people can take advantage of and invest in. Tell us, give us an overview of that journey of when, what and why.
Dave Seymour (22:43):
Yeah, well, we don’t have nearly enough time, Jay. I’ve always tried to say it in three words, but it always comes out in 300 for some reason. It’s like I said, man, I learned the fundamentals of real estate. First transaction was a wholesale transaction for a house I never owned and I made 5,000 bucks. And I thought to myself, if it’s legal, if it’s honest and it’s ethical, I’m not going to do this once. I’m going to do it as many times as I can. And, you know, you slowly get out of debt. And then I stopped doing a little bit of a single family. Then I’m doing a lot of single family. Then I pick up that first two family unit and then a triplex and a fourplex then I’m always like got my eye on the commercial arena.
Dave Seymour (23:26):
So I was in a marketing meeting, as I was saying, and I had a young intern in there and they said, why should anybody listen to you as a fund manager with a hundred million dollars invested in commercial real estate throughout the country, primarily in the Gulf coast. Guys says you’re that flipping guy from TV. And I went, Oh, from the mouth of babes. Ok, now, man I’m 21 years old, fresh out of college came in as an internship, fresh out of the mouth of babes. And it’s interesting because I have always been involved in commercial real estate. Had a portfolio of about 110 doors at one time in Sanford, Maine, which is just North of here, you know, a C class property C class neighborhood. I learned very quickly that I just want to be the bank. I don’t want to be property manager.
Dave Seymour (24:10):
So, you know, I’ve learned a lot along the way. I’ve coached people through large commercial transactions of rubbed elbows in the self storage space. I’ve always avoided office and retail. How sad is it right now for you know, leisure, office and retail investing right now? It’s a very hard time. So commercial has always been in my wheelhouse. It’s always been my excitement bottom and friend of mine by the name of Walton Evicky reached out to me, raised about 125 mil and syndicated commercial deals in multifamily assets throughout the Gulf coast. And he said, I want to bring your stop power is what he said. And I always giggle when somebody says that. He’s like, well, you’ve got a national reach. He said, why don’t we combine efforts, your team, my team let’s get together, put the fund together. So the fund is now up. We’re raising capital. We’ve got a couple of acquisitions that we’re about to take down, we’re raising a hundred million dollars, we pay, like I said, a preferred return, double digit target returns to our investors. And it’s an exciting time in the middle of all this chaos, Jay. You know, it really is.
Jay Conner (25:19):
That is awesome. Thank you for giving us the overview. Now, you’ve got a free ebook for our audience and listeners. So what’s the ebook that you’re offering to everybody?
Dave Seymour (25:29):
Yeah, you can see right on the screen there. FreedomVenture.com that’s our front door to our website spend a little time there. Learn a little while you’re there. Scroll down to the bottom of that page and you’ll be able to download a free ebook that I wrote with my property manager. Guy by the name of John Dessauer. He is out of Chi town, Chicago. John manages approximately 3 million square feet of multifamily real estate. He’s been an active investor himself for over 20, 25 years now. We wrote that book together. It’s called Unlocking The Code To Multifamily Investing. It’s an easy read. It’s not too heavy, but it will give you the high points and it will show why investors want to invest with us. It’s protected, you know, there’s a security there. They don’t take the the liability that most investors who were actually own the assets themselves, they own a piece of the company that owns the assets. So it’s a, it’s a smarter play big picture for a lot of investors who don’t have the time to get, to get their hands dirty like we have in their careers, Jay.
Jay Conner (26:38):
That’s awesome! Well, it’s been a pleasure to have you here on the show, Dave. Final parting comments.
Dave Seymour (26:45):
Yeah, just know that it’s gotta be okay. It’s gonna take us a little bit of time. And so always educate don’t speculate, right? Work on the education, understand what you’re investing in, but don’t be somebody who just analyzes all the time and doesn’t do anything. All right. Take a little action. Get off the couch and get in the game. Cause there’s the best game there is. I think.
Jay Conner (27:07):
That’s great! Well, there you have it folks, Mr. Dave Seymour, again, you can follow him. Get the free ebook and also find out about investing opportunities at www.FreedomVenture.com. Thanks again, Dave. Good to have you on.
Dave Seymour (27:29):
Appreciate you man. Thank you. God bless. Have a great day.
Jay Conner (27:32):
All right, there, you have another show folks. I’m Jay Conner. The Private Money Authority. Wishing you all the best. Here’s to taking your real estate investing business to the next level. We’ll see you on the next show.

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