Episode 174: Treat Your Business Like A Business with Founder of Multifamily Investing Academy Charles Dobens
The Profit First REI Podcast
April 20, 2023
David Richter
Welcome back to the Profit First for REI podcast. Our guest today is Charles Dobens, a multifamily attorney investor with years of experience in the real estate industry. He is the founder of Multifamily Investing Academy, the creator of the MultifamilyOS™️ System, and the host of the award-winning Multifamily Investing podcast.
Charles joins us to share his insights on the business of real estate and emphasizes the importance of treating it like a business. He also delves into the three parts of a real estate deal, breaks down the benefits of holding real estate, and offers practical steps for those looking to build wealth through real estate investments.
Whether you are interested in transitioning from single-family to multifamily real estate or simply want to keep more of the money you make with your investments, this episode is packed with valuable tips and insights that you won’t want to miss.
Key Takeaways:
[00:18] Introducing Charles Dobens
[04:08] Why It’s Easier to Treat Multifamily as a Business Compared to Single-Family
[05:12] Ups and Downs and Lessons Learned in His Investing Journey
[08:42] What is a Cap Rate?
[15:43] The Five Ways to Make Money in Multifamily
[18:47] Transitioning From Single-Family to Multifamily
[22:16] Asset Management and Property Management
[26:24] Connect With Charles Dobens
Quotes:
[15:34] “[What] I really loved about multifamily was no emotion involved. It’s just a formula. And if the formula works, you buy the property.”
[23:45] “If you set it up right the first time, and you build the systems to be constantly taking care of your clients, your investors? Yes, then you’re going to have yourself a nice business.”
[26:46] “I spent over $200,000, building a CRM for members of my multifamily OS program. That helps because…acquisition Management is all about finding the deal, right? 90% of the business is sales and marketing and finding the deal.”
Connect with Charles and get a copy of his book, How to Get 1,000 Apartments in Five Years:
Website: www.multifamilyos.com
Tired of living deal to deal?
If you are a real estate investor or business owner who is tired of living deal to deal, and want to double your profits, head over here to book your no-obligation discovery call with me. Either myself or someone from my team will hop on a short call with you to get clear on your business goals, remove any obstacles holding you back, and map out a game plan to help you finally start keeping more of the money you work so hard to make. – David
Transcription:
Charles Dobens:
That’s the beautiful thing. That’s what I really loved about multifamily, was no emotion involved. It’s just a formula. And if the formula works, you buy the property.
Outro:
If you’re a real estate investor who’s sick and tired of living, deal to deal, then welcome home. Hear from everyday real estate investors just like you, and discover how they’ve completely transformed their business by taking a profit First approach. This is the profit first for REI podcast, where we believe revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. It’s time to start making profit a habit in your business. So here’s your host, David Richter.
David Richter:
Charles Dabbin is our guest today. This was an awesome episode. He talks about the business of real estate. He specializes in multi-family and goes back and forth and we go back and forth between single family, multi-family, but then he talks about being treated at white gay business. So that’s where you’re gonna get a lot of value from this episode. He breaks down too, the three parts of a deal. He talks about the emotions like in single family and in multi-family. He talks about the different benefits of just holding real estate. You want to become wealthy. That’s what this show is about, keeping more of the money you make. There’s practical steps from this episode. Can’t wait for you to listen to it. Thank you for being a listener of the Pro First r I podcast. Hey everyone, this is David Richter, your host again with Charles Dobbins, and he is a multi-family attorney investor. He’s been in the real estate game for years now. He’s gonna give us some great knowledge, especially I think he could talk about going from, uh, you know, single family, multi-family and talking about that journey, but also just making sure you know exactly where your money’s going to here on the Profit First podcast. Charles, thank you so much for being on this podcast today.
Charles Dobens:
Thank you for having me, David. I appreciate it.
David Richter:
He’s got an award-winning podcast too. He was showing me his award right beforehand, and if you’re watching it on YouTube, he’s, it’s right there. The aoe award for I think best podcast.
Charles Dobens:
Best podcast,
David Richter:
yeah.
Charles Dobens:
Best Real Estate podcast. That’s it.
David Richter:
That’s awesome. So
Charles Dobens:
I know
David Richter:
You get to hear an award-winning podcast host. Uh, actually be the guest on this one,
Charles Dobens:
<laugh>.
David Richter:
So why don’t you, just for the people that don’t know you, Charles, give a bit about your background. Like, how’d you get into real estate? How long have you been in the game? Did you start with multi-family? Just give people a taste of Well,
Charles Dobens:
Yeah. I, um, from a real estate investing standpoint, I did start with multi-family. I owned businesses beforehand. I owned a benefits administration company. I had about 35 employees working for me and I hated life.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
It was absolutely miserable. And so I, um, you know, at one point I told my wife, I can’t do this anymore. I gotta get out of this business. And she goes, what do you wanna do? I said, I’ve always wanted to own apartments ever since I was young. I’ve always wanted to be in the real estate game. And so she says, okay, let’s do it. So I sold my business and we started buying apartments and never looked back. And the thing is that when we were getting our feet wet, we were trying everything, you know, fixing and flips all that stuff. We were, you know, learning about everything.
David Richter:
Sure.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah. And none of it felt right. None of it felt comfortable. And a part of the reason my wife has her mba, you know, I own businesses with the single family side. It just seemed like there was too much emotion. And if I didn’t do it right, I could lose my shirt in a big way with multi-family. It really, and as I teach all my members my program, I said, it’s really not about real estate, it’s about the business of owning multi-family. It’s, you have to understand that we sell a product and nobody makes a dime until that profit, uh, until that contract is signed. And that’s the thing that we buy. We buy paper.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
And multi-family is a business. And that’s the way I’ve always looked at it. And that’s what I teach.
David Richter:
That’s so interesting that you bring that up because getting to see a lot of the people’s backend and like their, how they run the finances on the single family side, a lot of people we work with, a lot of people don’t treat it like a business. Why do you think it’s easier to treat multi-family as a business versus single family?
Charles Dobens:
Because the millions are locked up in the spreadsheet, in the trailing 12 financial.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
And if you understand how to unlock the value of the property by understanding the financials, you are gonna win. I had, um, I always talk about my buddy Paul Moore. Uh, he was, he wrote a blog post, uh, for um, bigger pockets. And he said, you know, as a real estate investor, we don’t care what the market’s doing, we don’t care if interest rates are going up. We don’t care if they’re going down. We don’t care. We are investors and our job is to unlock the value within that property, the value add proposition.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
In order to create the millions. That’s how millions get made. Not whether you bought it at the right time. You know, you, have to be able to look at that property and say, nah, that’s not a good deal at that price. So that’s how, that’s how we do it.
David Richter:
Okay. I like that. So then when was that year? Or how long have you been in the multi-family space?
Charles Dobens:
Oh, so I started about 2005 and I’ve been doing it ever since. And, um, you know, I started getting in on the, you know, as a lawyer. Um, I represented some multi-family owners and yeah, you know, back during the crash. Um, and there was really nothing I could do for them. I mean, I just held their hand through their losing their properties. And, um,
David Richter:
Did you lose any property during that?
Charles Dobens:
Oh yeah, I did. Oh, absolutely. But I mean, the way I lost them, uh, was because the value had gone down so much during, when Fannie and Freddie filed for bankruptcy, I paid the bills every month. I met the mortgage payments, I did everything right. I ran that, those properties perfectly. And at the end of the day, the cap rates had ridden risen from what I bought it from. And you just couldn’t get out of it. Uh, you just, you had to drop the keys back on the bank’s desk, which is another benefit to commercial real estate. If you purchase your properties with what’s called a non-recourse loan, um, with a non-recourse loan, it’s just, you know, a couple of business guys, sorry it didn’t work out. Here’s the property back and you walk away and there’s no harm no foul on a single family side. If you screw up and you can’t do it, that destroys your credit, you know, it’s gonna set you back years. Um, so that’s how it works with, uh, multi-family.
David Richter:
So there’s another plug for multi-family cuz of the non-recourse loans. Okay. So then, cuz you said you have, you unlock the millions, you know, like with the spreadsheet with the numbers. Did you learn that after 2008? Like, did you have to go through the ups and downs? Like what lessons did you learn during that time that you’re still using?
Charles Dobens:
Oh my gosh, I tell you as I tell the members of my program, I say, listen, sign up with me because I’ve already made all the mistakes
David Richter:
<laugh>
Charles Dobens:
And I’ve made ’em for both of us. You don’t have to do it ever again. Uh, oh my gosh. There are so many mistakes I made early on, uh, that I didn’t understand. Uh, you know, how to unlock the value. Yes. It was, um, uh, you know, that took years of understanding and learning about cap rates and the power of the cap rate, uh, is one thing that I like to talk about. Um, you know, the beautiful thing about multifamily is when you to make a profit, when you own a subway franchise, you’ve gotta sell that sub for a dollar more than what it costs you to make it.
David Richter:
Right.
Charles Dobens:
And that’s the only way you’re making money in that business. On multi-family, there are five ways to make money on one particular property.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
And one of the, and when you, the appreciation side is, if you generate that same dollar that the subway guide did, you take that dollar and you divide it by the cap rate and that’s what your new family’s net worth is because of that. I mean, if you go out and buy a four cap property and you increase the rents by $1, your family’s net worth is now $25 more. The subway guy cannot ever make that claim.
David Richter:
Right.
Charles Dobens:
That’s how multi-family works. It’s the most amazing business.
David Richter:
So then for the people that are listening, maybe new to real estate or new to multi-family side, can you explain cap rate? What is cap rate?
Charles Dobens:
Okay. So, uh, David, I was on uh, a live program one time and the woman who was, who was running the show, we started a bantering and I had a, my set schedule and um, so just off the top she says, why don’t you explain to everybody on the call right now, what is cap rateon, how does it work? And here I am the expert, the multi-family attorney, she caught me so flatfooted and I was like, ha ha. And I couldn’t,
David Richter:
<laugh>
Charles Dobens:
I couldn’t come up with an explanation. I said, that is never going to happen to me again. I’m going to explain cap rates and I’m gonna explain it in a way that makes everybody understand what we do. Let’s say for instance, you have two multi-family properties right next door to each other. Location is irrelevant.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
In the analysis here, both of them generate $1, one property on one side generates a dollar, the other one generates the same dollar. The difference is that one of those properties was built yesterday and the other property was built 50 years ago. Which property is more valuable, David?
David Richter:
Hmm.
Charles Dobens:
They both generate the same dollar.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
But what I’m not telling you is the effort that takes place to generate that $1.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
And the cap rate is essentially a measure of effort. This is the way I like to describe it. So if the cap rate’s higher, that means there’s more effort required to generate that same dollar.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
If you have a lower cap rate, it’s less likely because, just think about it this way. You own a property that was built yesterday, you got the best tenants. Everything is brand new. Nothing breaks on it. The tenants pay their pay their rent on time.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
Every single month. New roof, nothing. Life is easy. It’s effortless to own that property. So that property’s cap rate is gonna be lower, let’s say a four. The other property, you haven’t hit it yet, David, but when you hit 50 years old, like this property, everything’s breaking right. You’re in a lot of maintenance. You got the worst type of tenants cuz they can’t get, they can’t live anywhere else and they can only afford the 50 year old property. That property takes a lot of effort to own and operate. So that’s gonna be a higher cap rate. So if you both generate the same dollar, the person that owns the newer property that say is trading at a four cap every time they increase by a dollar their family’s net worth increases by 25. Let’s say the other guy’s at 10 cap every time that he generates one new dollar, his family’s net worth increases by $10. Is that right? 12 and a half. Six. Yeah. 10. Do the math
David Richter:
<laugh>,
Charles Dobens:
Their net worth increases by $10. So you wanna own the lower cap rate property because every time you earn one more dollar, it generates so much more. That’s why the you know, the big institutions, the insurance companies pension money, that’s why they all invest in those big properties. And there’s new properties that have the low cap rates because they make a lot more money. And it’s all because of the cap rate. The cap rate I like to explain is a measure of effort when you’re looking at a property and David, every CFA and every financial advisor out there listening to your call right now is saying like, that’s so soft more, I give an explan explanation. I said Yeah, but people get it. People understand it now
David Richter:
Because there’s an actual formula Correct. To get the cap rate.
Charles Dobens:
Oh right. But the thing, the formula for the cap rate is the net operating income divided by the purchase price.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
But the thing is, the purchase price is a moving target. Obviously the seller has a different price than the buyer. And eventually you come to what ultimately is the closing price. So that becomes the denominator. The net operating income is the number that you know in income less expenses. And that’s the net operating income. And that is the equation for giving you the cap rate. So from a financial equation standpoint, cap rate equals NOI divided by the price.
David Richter:
And that would be why in your example where you were cuz I like, I like simple for sure.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah.
David Richter:
Because that’s what helps people understand more. Helps me understand more.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah.
David Richter:
Where you say it’s a measure of effort, the newer property is probably gonna be worth more. So in your example that’s like, you know, it’s worth, you know, the a hundred thousand divided by the dollar or whatever, you know, it’s like
Charles Dobens:
Exactly
David Richter:
Whatever it is just around numbers. And then the other one, you know, it’s like worth less but you get a bigger cap rate, but then you have things that you’re gonna have to replace and
Charles Dobens:
Exactly.
David Richter:
You know, the tenants might not be paying as much. So that’s where it’s like, okay, it makes sense the property value is lower as the cap rate’s higher, but I’m gonna have to put more work into it to get the dollar out, the same dollar out that that new property over there, you know, right next door is generating as well too.
Charles Dobens:
Exactly.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
Yep.
David Richter:
Well cool. So that’s a really good No, I like that the measure of effort cuz I’ve never heard it expressed like that. And I think that’s a really good, I like that a lot. So then
Charles Dobens:
I’m gonna trademark it now, David. I invent it.
David Richter:
Sure
Charles Dobens:
Yeah, that’s good stuff. I mean it’s, cuz it makes sense cuz then if you think about it like that, you know the higher cap rate, it’s not necessarily your friend <laugh>
David Richter:
No.
Charles Dobens:
Of uh, where everyone goes after that.
That’s what everybody look, I remember when I listened to somebody said, oh, I like to buy it at a high cap rate. I’m like,
David Richter:
yeah,
Charles Dobens:
well yeah, everybody likes to buy it at a high cap rate and then, you know, bring it down to a lower cap rate. But you know, the cap rate is uh, not set by mere mortals <laugh>, it is set by the market.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
And you know, you can’t just say, well I’m gonna sell this property at a four cap.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
I mean the guy that owns the 50 year old property can’t say, well I’m gonna sell this property at a four cap. Okay. If you’re gonna sell it at a, that property at a four cap, then plug that four into the equation. And the NOI is whatever the NOI is, I mean that’s, it’s a number that we all come, come to a conclusion over and therefore what if you’re selling at a four cap and the NOI is and that that’s your x and the NOI is a y the purchase price is just going to be a the uh, z. And so you just need to figure that out. And it’s, that’s the beautiful thing. That’s what I really loved about multi-family was no emotion involved. It’s just a formula and if the formula works, you buy the property.
David Richter:
Awesome. So you said there’s five ways to make money with multi-family. What are the five ways?
Charles Dobens:
Oh my gosh. What is this like a quiz? Come on David.
David Richter:
It’s a podcast where I interview you with questions. So yes, it’s basically the same thing.
Charles Dobens:
<laugh>.
David Richter:
<laugh>
Charles Dobens:
Okay. Um, the first one is obviously, uh, the monthly cash flow. You know, if you’re, if you show a profit every month, that’s one way you make money.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
The second way you make money is by, uh, if you purchased a, uh, an amortizing mortgage and your tenants are paying down the note every single month, that’s another way that you’re making money. Um, the other one is on what we call forced appreciation, or that’s just you being a good steward of the property. And unlocking the value within the property. And that is, uh, by increasing the noi, take that increase divided by the cap rate. That’s what your new net worth is. Um, another way that we make money is the acquisition fee. Like if you’re putting together a deal and you’re raising money with from friends and family and other investors,
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
You can build in a percentage of the purchase price as a fee to you. And then we also put in there a disposition fee. So when you go to sell a property, which takes just as much work as you buying the property, um, uh, you get paid again. Um, so lemme see,
David Richter:
Uh, that was five. It sounds like cash flow tax.
Charles Dobens:
Well the acquisition and disposition I counted as one.
David Richter:
Oh, you counted that as one.
Charles Dobens:
Let me see. You paid down the mortgage, you got the appreciation, um, uh, cash flow. Oh, oh. The most important one of all. And the one that you are gonna love.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
The property management fee.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
I teach all my students that you will ultimately own your own property management company because that is 5%. Every dollar that comes in, you get the first 5% of that dollar and that is the money that’s gonna pay your salary, that’s gonna pay your kid’s tuition, it’s gonna pay your mortgage. You see the cash flow every month. Well, you might not have a good month and you don’t make a dime. The acquisition fee you get one time.
David Richter:
Right.
Charles Dobens:
The um, uh, paying down the mortgage and uh, the forced appreciation. You only realize that when you sell a property.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
The rest of the time, the only money that you can absolutely be sure of is the property management, uh, income.
David Richter:
Awesome.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah. That’s key.
David Richter:
I love that. Cuz then it sounds like there’s, like you said, those five key ways, then there’s also Right. The huge upside of the tax benefits. Correct.
Charles Dobens:
Oh my gosh. Oh, I don’t even count that.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
You know, because I, everyone’s gonna be different, but I mean those five things are the same on every property.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
You know, uh, but for the syndication, but yeah, absolutely. The tax advantages are huge.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
Absolutely.
David Richter:
So in your multi-family experience, I’m sure you do you run into a lot of single family investors? Like do you talk to them? Because I’m just wondering why don’t more people go from single family to multi-family?
Charles Dobens:
Oh, they do. That’s like my number one, you know, buyer persona. My avatar for my program are people who are done with single family. One guy said it best and I really surprised he said it, but it was so true. He was, when I got into fixing, flipping, I just got a new job. I didn’t, I just, you know, I went from one job to another job.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
And you know, it’s like when I sold insurance, you know, I, with my father I’d come in, you know, after making a big sale and say, dad, I made a thousand dollars today. He goes, okay, what are you gonna do tomorrow?
David Richter:
Hmm.
Charles Dobens:
I’m like, you know, can I just kind of rest on my laurels a little bit? Now you’re only as good as your last sale. And so that drove me crazy because I thought I gotta keep doing this for the rest of my life.
David Richter:
Right.
Charles Dobens:
And that’s as tough. It’s the same thing with single family. You’re only as good as your last deal.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
And, but the thing is, multi-family, everybody ultimately wants to get into multifamily. It’s like monopoly. Y’all buy the little green houses, but y’all want the red hotels.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
Because they pay you the cash. So, nah,
David Richter:
I like that. So it sounds like, sounds like uh, a lot of people want to go from single family to multi-family.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah.
David Richter:
What do you think holds people back from getting into multi-family?
Charles Dobens:
Fear?
David Richter:
Fear.
Charles Dobens:
They’re just afraid. I mean, I had Brian Burke on my podcast yesterday. The guys owned thousands and thousands and thousands of apartment units. And I said, Brian, how’d you get your start? He goes, fix and flips,
David Richter:
huh.
Charles Dobens:
Yep. That’s how I got started buying foreclosures. That’s how we get started. But he realized that it’s just he’ll have to be doing that all for the rest of his life. And for some reasons people, I try to keep the concept, all the concepts of multifamily very, uh, easy to understand. Sure. Because once you overcome it, it’s really a very simple business. It really is a simple business.
David Richter:
Do you think people have to go through the single family route first? Or can
Charles Dobens:
No
David Richter:
They just jump into multi-family?
Charles Dobens:
No, I didn’t because I didn’t feel comfortable.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
No, you don’t have to do that. You really don’t. Um, it really, it’s just, it’s where you feel most comfortable. Some people may feel they need to do that just to say they’re in their real estate business.
David Richter:
Sure.
Charles Dobens:
But I’m telling you right now, single family fix and flips and multi-family, two totally different businesses. I mean, I, you know, my book, where is my book? Why do I always never have the book around when I need it? How to own a thousand apartments in five years? That’s my book.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
Um, and in that book, I teach you that there’s no way that you can get from zero to a thousand units in one deal.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
It’s just not gonna happen. The only way you get to a thousand units that I’ve had, many of my members start with zero and are now over a thousand. The way you get to that level is by building a business that runs that the machine.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
I mean there’s three levels to that business. There’s the acquisition management, there’s the asset management, and there’s the property management. And once you understand the three concepts and un how they all work and tie together, you’re gonna build yourself a very nice business of owning and operating multi-family property.
David Richter:
So acquisition, you said the asset management and then the property management.
Charles Dobens:
Exactly. That’s all it takes.
David Richter:
The differences between those, obviously I can get the acquisition and property management. I feel like acquisition’s acquiring it, like the whole process there.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah.
David Richter:
Property management’s actually the management, once you have it under the, what’s the asset management portion?
Charles Dobens:
Asset management is for those people. Because once you own the property, you gotta take care of it. Not just from a physical standpoint, but from an investment standpoint.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
They’re so, especially if you’re looking to, uh, raise private money and bring on, uh, investors, you’ve got to work with those people. Remember they become your customers.
David Richter:
Yep.
Charles Dobens:
And so your business needs to take care of those customers. The most successful students that I’ve, that have been in my, through my program are the ones who have repeat business from all their investors because they’ve taken such good care of those people.
David Richter:
Okay.
Charles Dobens:
Yep.
David Richter:
That’s good. So let’s, a lot of the people that we work with or that we see don’t treat the business like a business.
Charles Dobens:
Right.
David Richter:
And they don’t know that, you know, like what they don’t know. It sounds like that asset management piece is a lot like what we see on the single family side of just people not knowing the best way to take care of the, their private lenders or the people, you know, like this is where the money’s going. Would you say that, I guess have you seen a lot of that in the multi-family space or do you think that it’s a lot more buttoned up that people know what they’re doing? People know the cash flow, they know their numbers, they know that side.
Charles Dobens:
No.
David Richter:
What do you think?
Charles Dobens:
No. They, no, they see if you can, if you set it up right the first time
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
And you build the systems to be constantly taking care of your clients, your investors, yes. Then you’re gonna have yourself a nice business. But David, like you just described on the single family side, the same is true on the multi-family side. People don’t set it up the right way. They don’t take care of those investors and you know, they miss out on the big portion of their business or what their business could do. I mean, that was like the podcast I had the other day. I said, where do you get your investors? And he says, they just, I’ve had ’em for years. These are people that just keep investing with me because he took care of those people. And what he did, uh, when he put them together is he said, in order to raise good investors and build a business with good investors, you’ve gotta close the three loops of trust. And they’ve gotta, you’ve gotta get your investors to trust real estate, to trust you
David Richter:
Yeah
Charles Dobens:
And to trust the deal. And that doesn’t happen on a 30 day period when the escrow is opened. That takes months
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
To develop that type of relationship with your investors.
David Richter:
Okay. No, I like that a lot. You have to trust the real estate, you and the deal then I like you, there’s been lots of good stuff here. Three parts of a deal. The acquisition, the asset management, the property management. You’ve got the five ways to make money in real estate. I love that you ni name-drop your book too. Uh,
Charles Dobens:
<laugh>
David Richter:
Have a thousand dollars. How to get a thousand doors at five years.
Charles Dobens:
I got, hold on.
David Richter:
That’s great stuff.
Charles Dobens:
Got it right here. Geez,
David Richter:
You found it.
Charles Dobens:
I got it right here. There it is.
David Richter:
There it is.
Charles Dobens:
I own a thousand apartments. Five years. That little shit. Yeah. But I gotta do what you do.
David Richter:
No, this is good. Is that right? Just have a honey.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah
David Richter:
It’ll be there all the time.
Charles Dobens:
I really, I gotta get on a game man.
David Richter:
Exactly.
So that
Charles Dobens:
I gotta get the game
David Richter:
You’ve gotta, I’ve got the video channel, but that’s where this has been awesome. This is, I feel like you’ve helped people go from they, if they’re single family, they could jump into it. If they’re not even in real estate, they could jump into multi-family.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah.
David Richter:
I love these different things that you’ve been able to give ’em. Broke it down, broke down the cap rate too. Made it very understandable. I’ve never heard it explained that way. And I really like that. It’s just the measurement of efforts of the lower the me usually the lower the cap rate, the less effort it takes to generate that dollar on the other end, which was really cool. And then I like that you said multi-family is really not about real estate or the market, it’s about the business, about the business of multi-family. So that was awesome. This has been very informative. So my last question is how do people,
Charles Dobens:
Here it comes. Everybody here it comes. He’s saving it. Right Here it comes.
David Richter:
And this one’s not the trick question. How do people find you? I mean like now that you’ve gotten all that experience, how do they connect with you? You have the book, where do they find the book? Like obviously you’ve got a lot of knowledge.
Charles Dobens:
Yep. Go going multifamilyos.com, multifamily operating system.
David Richter:
Operating system. Do you have an operating system for multi-family
Charles Dobens:
Investors? Yeah, we do. Okay. I mean all of those things, those three things have a system. I mean, I’ve spent over $200,000 building a CRM from my members of my Multifamily OS program.
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
That helps cuz you know, asset management, I mean acquisition management
David Richter:
Yeah.
Charles Dobens:
Is all about finding the deal,
David Richter:
Right?
Charles Dobens:
And 90% of the business is sales and marketing and finding the deal. And I’ll tell you the CRM manages the flow, the systems for the three customers of you as a multi-family real estate investor. Do you know who the three customers are?
David Richter:
No tell us
Charles Dobens:
The property owner because he’s your first sale. Okay. If he doesn’t accept your offer, you haven’t made a sale. The second one are the brokers because they are agents for the owners. And so we still have to work with them and cultivate those relationships. And the third one is, um, is investors. And so the C r M is set up to help build tho your investor database. Help you uh, automatically, systematically reach out to the owners in your marketplace. Let them know you’re there. I mean we handle all of that and we give you your own VA who helps manage those tasks. And a cold calling VA who sits there every day on the phone calling owners, Hey, do you wanna sell? Hey, do you wanna sell? Hey, do you wanna sell? Uh, so we’re really working when you sign up, it’s like you’re getting a franchise. You get, uh, all of those systems on day one.
David Richter:
Awesome. Well that’s very cool. So it was multi-family os that’s a very simple website, multi-family.
Charles Dobens:
And it’s trademarked David, I actually, I got the trademark for it.
David Richter:
Do they, is the book there too? Like if they want that
Charles Dobens:
Oh yeah,
David Richter:
You
Charles Dobens:
Exactly. Yep. Awesome book could call and we’ll send you the book.
David Richter:
Look at that. So that way if you want to know how to get a thousand apartments within five years, and if you wanna just, I love that he’s got an operating system, he’s got the crm, he’s got a lot of that stuff that I think a lot of people just need that organization and treating it like a business from day one.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah.
David Richter:
You know, that’s what we’re really trying to get you to do and that’s awesome. So that go to multifamilyos.com and if you’re also listening to this and you’re like, oh man, I am not treating my current business like a business head over to simplecfo.com, we could put one of our fractional CFOs on your team to make sure that you can have the direction of the business of where you need to be spending the money, where you’re making it, where you’re keeping it if you’re not keeping any of it. So head over to simplecfo.com if you’re like, oh shoot, I’m definitely not treating it like a business. Like they were talking about
Charles Dobens:
David, I just hired a fractional CSO
David Richter:
What’s a CSO
Charles Dobens:
A Chief Sales Officer.
David Richter:
Nice. Okay.
Charles Dobens:
Yeah. Very cool. Oh man. The fractional component. I love that. That’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
David Richter:
You don’t need a full-time person sometimes in some of these CSO roles, so I get something in there that can help you from that perspective. So there you go. Charles, this was awesome. Thank you so much for dropping all the knowledge here and for coming on the
Charles Dobens:
Thanks David!
David Richter:
First podcast.
Charles Dobens:
Gotta get you on mine. Gotta get you back on mine.
David Richter:
There you go. Thanks Charles.
Charles Dobens:
All right.
David Richter:
Mm, bye.
Outro:
This episode of The Prophet first for REI podcast is over, but there are plenty more where that came from. Are you ready to learn how David and his team can help implement the Profit First system in your business? Schedule a discovery call at simplecfo.com right now. We’ll see you next time on the Profit First for REI podcast with David Richter.
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