Episode 132: Why He Chose Real Estate and Multi-Family Investing with Sean Thomson
The Profit First REI Podcast
November 24, 2022
David Richter
Summary:
Are you an investor who wants to transition from single-family to multi-family investing?
We’ve got Sean Thomson with us today to give us his knowledge on multi-family real estate investing. He himself has made the jump from working in the single-family space to founding the Thomson Multi-Family Group and working with accredited investors to join his ventures throughout the country.
Join us as we cover multi-family real estate and beyond, including financial independence, self-belief, and more, in this episode of the Profit First for REI podcast!
Key Takeaways:
[00:40] Introducing Sean Thomson
[02:03] Sean on Why He Chose Real Estate and Multi-Family Investing
[07:07] His Current Progress in His Multi-Family Journey
[12:06] Financial Struggles He Experienced in His Journey
[17:06] What You Need to Start in Multi-Family Investing
[24:41] On Sean Working With His Family
[27:52] The Biggest Lesson Sean Has Learned in His Investing Journey
[31:11] Connect With Sean Thomson
Quotes:
[07:28] “I had to convince myself to believe in ME.”
[07:34] “I feel like one of the big things that happen in real estate is you always hear this old adage that real estate investors are extremely wealthy on paper, but they’re broke in their bank account.”
[14:17] “We’re constantly reinvesting…We’re always looking at how to create a better future. And I think that’s a very important skill for anybody that’s going to be in any business.”.
[28:23] “I think if you think things through—if you really think about the strategies you’re deploying, if you do things on a fundamental level that are solid and principled, and if you do your business properly—I don’t think losing money is an inevitable inevitability.”
Connect with Sean:
Website:
https://www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.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:
Sean Thomson:
If you really think about the strategies you’re deploying, if you do things on a fundamental level that are solid and principled, if you do your business properly, I don’t think losing money is an inevitability, right? So I don’t think they have to lose money in real estate.
Outro:
If you are 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:
Hey everyone. This is David Richter with The Profit First II podcast. Today we have another great guest, Sean Thompson, of the Thompson Multi-Family Group. I don’t know of a real estate investor who hasn’t one time in their life said, I want to get into multi-family because I feel like a lot of people do, and Sean gives some amazing tips in this episode. He is in the multi-family space, and one of the biggest things on this episode was how he transitioned from single family to multi-family and the beliefs he had to incorporate in his mindset to get over that hum. So we talk about that, how he needed to believe in himself. We talk about how to buy a multi-family. We talk about the importance of the team. We also talk about how he says that casual management is one of the most important pieces in multifamily, if not in business overall.
So be sure to tune in. And also at the end too, you need to know if Sean has ever lost money on a real estate deal or not. So he tells that near the end of the episode. So make sure that you listen all the way to the end. And one of his biggest regrets in real estate that I think can be an encouragement to every single person on this call. So, and on this podcast. So thank you so much for listening. Here we go. Sean, it is great to have you on the show today. I’m so glad that you could be on here. And I know we’ve, uh, we’ve met at a lot of the different mastermind groups and whatnot to that you’re actively out there helping other people. So I wanted to ask you first outta the gate here, why real estate, you know, why, and then specifically why multifamily now too?
Sean Thomson:
Well, you know, real estate, um, ever since I was 12, I’ve wanted to be successful, right? Financially successful and financially independent. I don’t know why that is. I just remember when I was a kid. Um, I just, I wanna have money, right? They’re, you’re always dream about having money. I used to watch Miami Vice and the guys had the fast cars and stuff. Maybe that’s what it was. But so ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be financially independent. And, um, I’ve worked my whole life. I never really knew what the formula was to do that. And I’ve always thought of myself, um, as, as a, you know, strong worker and, and all those sorts of mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and you’ve always, I’ve been told since I was a kid that if you work hard, you’ll, you’ll be successful, right? And, uh, that’s not really true, <laugh>.
Cause I worked hard for most of my life, and it didn’t, financially it didn’t benefit me a great deal. So, um, and then I, I, I was always trying to figure out a way to kind of make my own own way in the world, right? I knew that was the path that I would have to take to be financially independent and real estate. Uh, you know, I of course read the Pivotal book, the, the Robert Kiyosaki, um, rich Dad Poor Dad book, right? Yep. And, and that was what kind of introduced me to the thought of, hey, real estate may be a path to, to build wealth, right? And so, ever since kind of that book that’s been on my mind is something to do. But I, you know, that was when I was, I don’t know, in my twenties when I read that book or you know, 30 and I still worked.
I was trying to raise my family and pay for my, you know, mortgages and things like that and raise my family until I was, you know, 38, I guess, or so, you know, almost pushing 40. And I, I, I’d left a job and I decided, Hey, I’m never, I’m never going back to a job. I’m gonna make my own path in the world or, or die trying, right? And real estate’s always been one of those things. I would drive down the highway and see an apartment building and think to myself, man, if I could own just one of those, I’d be set. You know? And of course that’s not true. Only one is just not, that’s not the secret formula. But, um, unless you own the whole thing, of course. But, uh, I’ve always kind of had that in my mind and, and I started thinking, well, I know how to buy houses.
Uh, maybe I’ll just figure out how to buy houses and, and, uh, go that path. The problem is buying a house, fixing it up and selling it is not that hard. Anybody can do that once. Uh, but making that a business is kind of where the struggle comes in, right? Doing that every day, making consistent, you know, leads and calls and getting deals all the time. And I didn’t know how to quite do that, but at the same time, I decided I’m just gonna buy a house and I’ll figure it out, right? I was gonna learn how to do this on my own and my contractor. Um, well, I bought a house and I did that, that HUD 2 0 3 B loan, where they give you the money to fix it up and things like that. And, um, and I, my contract at the time had just bought a Home Buster’s franchise, which was, uh, the we Boley houses guys.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And he was telling me about this system on how to buy houses. And I thought, well, that’s what I’ve been looking for. That’s exactly what I need. And I went down and bought a franchise right away. And, uh, so that led to buying houses as a business. That was, that was what I’ve been looking for, that I was hoping for. And I figured out how to, you know, do it through the system that they had. And for a couple years, that went pretty well. Um, home visitors and I didn’t really have a, uh, same vision for my future together. So, right. I, I branched out on my own. Um, but after a few years of that, I was, I, I’ve always wanted that monthly income. It’s kind of my goal in my investing business. And, um, building that in a single family, one door at a time, just got to be where I started looking at it, thinking, man, this is gonna take me 20 years to where I can get to a place that’s gonna make me happy.
I started thinking, there’s gotta be a better way. And I always thought, like, like I said, I dreamt about apartment ownership, but I always thought that was for hedge funds and REITs and those big, those big financial guys. And, uh, I thought, well, I can’t do that, you know? And then I met Corey Peterson at a, at one of my masterminds, the Investor Fuel Mastermind, uh, that you’re also, uh, affiliated with, uh, put on by Mike Hembre. And I heard Corey’s story, and Corey was one of those guys that had transitioned from single family and successfully buying big, large multi-family, uh, properties. And I thought, man, I, that’s exactly what I wanna do. So I convinced him he has a teaching or a coaching component in his business. I convinced him to take me on as a, as a student. And he showed me kind of the basics of that. And for the last three years, we’ve been building our business, uh, from single family into multifamily. Um, and I, I’m not great at doing a number of different things I have to do One thing, I I’m really kind of a focused person. Yeah. And so I actually was transitioning, shutting down my single family business and building my multifamily business kind of at the same time. So now I do only multifamily pretty much right now. So, uh, that’s kind of the long, the long version. Sorry.
David Richter:
Yeah, no, I, I love it. Cause you said, I love what you said at the end there, the focus on that one thing, cuz I know, you know, real estate investors, and if you’re listening to this, you probably have that shiny object syndrome too. Like, everything sounds good. You go to a mastermind like that and it’s like, oh, they’re doing that. Maybe I should do that. Or they’re doing this a strategy, maybe I should do that too, or multi-family. That sounds fun. So I like how you said, I’m good at one thing. I wanna get one thing down. And you’ve pivoted into multi-family, so I really like that. Now, how has that gone so far over the last three years? Where are you now on the multi-family journey? Like, how many doors or buildings or units, or how are you measuring that today?
Sean Thomson:
Yeah, so, uh, well really the first year was kind of me deciding, right? So I, I wasn’t sure if I was, if I was, you know, um, gonna be able to do it right? I had to convince myself to believe in, in me, right? Yeah. So the first year was kind of looking at my business as it existed because I had a, I had a small book, but it was, it was, I made money, you know, we had a great business. I was, I was headed towards a goal, uh, we were doing well. Um, but I, I, I never cared about being large, a large, you know, wholesaler or, you know, doing hundreds of deals a year. I, I was happy with my few handful of deals and, and making my money. Um, so I had a successful business and, and I was thinking, well, I have to, I’m gonna shut this down to now go do something new.
So that took me really kind of a year to make that jump, right? To have the confidence to do that, to figure out what I wanted to do, the path I wanted to go down, you know, I had to learn the new business. We’re still learning all the time. Of course, that’s, that’s, that’s an ongoing thing every day. But, um, you know, so we, the first year was really kind of just tr the transition time period, getting my mind, right. So the last two years have been what we’ve focused on really focused on multifamily. Um, and it’s, it’s been going great. So, um, you know, a lot of it we focused on initially putting a deal machine together. I, I think of my business as kind of machinery and, um, in multifamily you have a lot of different things you can do. You can raise capital, you can find deals, you can put all these things together, you can do a number of things.
It’s kind of a, in single family, it’s just one guy can go out and do houses. But in multi-family, you really do kind of need a team, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so the first couple years has been me putting together my team, my strategies and sort of going after the things that, uh, we were str strongest at. And one of the things, you know, that we’re, that we’re pretty good at is finding deals, right? So we have, I know how to evaluate properties really well. I mean, we go through that process and we’re really, I think, quite good at it. Uh, so I focus first on, on building a deal machine in my business. And that’s, you know, that takes quite a lot of time, right? You have to develop relationships with brokers, you have to get deal flow coming through your pipelines. You’ve gotta get an analysis system down to where you can go through those deals as quickly as possible.
You know, we underwrite hundreds of deals to just go buy one deal, right? So mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you know, you have to have all those systems in place. So it took a long time. Our first deal took us about 18, I think it was about 18 months to get our first deal under contract. Wow. Um, and that was six months ago. We’re, we’re just, we’re under management on that deal. It, it’s a larger, uh, multifamily deal here. I’m in the Dallas market. Uh, it’s a larger multifamily deal here in the Dallas market. To be able to buy anything in the Dallas market, I think is quite a challenge and quite an achievement. Um, you know, so we have our first property, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a 76 unit property. Awesome. It’s a, it’s a smaller one. Um, but we’re managing that one now. We’re going through some, some, uh, some challenges there and we’re learning quite a lot, um, and that sort of thing.
So it’s going pretty well. And, and the thing that we’ve successfully done, I think is all creates quite a, a great team around us. We have strong partners and advisors and, um, we’re, we’re reaching out to capital now that have us, um, give us the ability to go larger in our deal, uh, um, offerings, right? So now we’re looking at 30 and 40 million deals. We went straight from smaller property. Once we’ve kind of got that experience in that level, we have a team around us that is affording us to be able to go to the, to the next level again. And so now we’re out hunting for, I’m gonna go look at a property today after we’re done. Um, and I think it’s 300 units maybe. And, um, we’re putting an offer in on, on a property today also. We’ve got, we’re gonna best and final on a, on a $30 million property at 30 something, you know, million dollar property today too. So, um, we’re, we’re doing, we’re doing big things. Uh, so I think that’s, you know, that’s, that’s, to me, that’s success, right? So we’re, we’re still, we’re still trying to prove out a lot of those concepts and we’re, but we’re making traction and we’re, and we’re taking those steps. So I think it’s going pretty well.
David Richter:
That’s awesome. I wanna just hit a couple things. You kind of told us some of the secrets there. How to buy the deals, like the, the team you have to build, you know, like some of those processes, obviously you have to know the nitty gritty, but that was some, that was some good stuff. But I will say the most important thing that I think you said there was that first year was deciding to believe in yourself to take that leap. Cuz I think anyone listening right now, no matter what, if they’re wanting to go into real estate or they’re wanting to go from single family to multi-family, that is, it’s another growth step of do I believe in myself enough? Do I have the connections? Do I have the people in my life that’ll support me? Do I have those, those team members? Do I have someone like as Sean I can look up to, to say, I can do, do this.
So I thought that was great. I think that’s probably the biggest piece there. Cuz if you don’t have that, you’re not gonna find the team and you’re not gonna find the deal. So, no, that’s awesome. So that’s why multi-family, that’s where you are now in multi-family. So I have to ask you, cuz I ask all the, I ask all the guests this, when you went from working a job to being a business owner and working your own business in the real estate world and now multi-family, have you ever faced any money struggles during your time as a business owner? <laugh>
Sean Thomson:
It’s constant. Yeah. It’s, it’s, there’s the, the money struggles always there, right? So the problem with the, the problem with being in a business like mine is, um, you’re always challenging the next level, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it doesn’t matter how much money I make, I, make, I can make a lot of money, but I’m always gonna spend that money on the next thing, right? So I’m, I’m gonna buy a property, I’m gonna, I’m gonna make another investment. I’m perpetually broke, right? So the, I find it funny all the time that, uh, I have all this real estate and all these assets, but you know, my cash is always gone, right? Right. Cause I’m always in reinvesting, I’m always buying new, new properties. I’m always investing in my business. Uh, the cash is always allocated. So, you know, it doesn’t matter kind of what your, uh, financial position is.
You’re always sort of, sort of trying to accomplish the next level. I, I guess at some point I’ll get to a place where I’m, I’m just like, that’s it. I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna reallocate capital to investments or something like that, but I can’t imagine a day that that will ever come. So I think control of your capital is, I think it’s a major, um, I don’t know what you would call it. I, it’s a skill that that is, that is required in this business. You have to know, um, some fundamental accounting, some fundamental finance. I mean, you gotta, you gotta forecast your finances. You gotta have some, some fundamental, um, you know, basics on taxes and, and all those other things. If, if you don’t have kind of that baseline of, of knowledge for, you need to, you need to start gaining that knowledge, uh, that’s critical.
And I, think money is the flow of your money and your business. Uh, man, if you, if you can’t, if you can’t figure that part out, you’re gonna struggle all the time. You know, we, we struggle a lot in our business already, and I think I have a pretty high level grasp of finance and, um, you know, my accountant is really good and, and my wife does on my books. You know, we’re, we’re pretty, we’re pretty solid in what we do. Um, and, but our business is challenging. Like I said, it’s, we’re constantly reinvesting and stuff. So we’re, we’re always looking at, at how to create a better future. And, uh, I think that’s, that’s a very important skill for anybody that’s gonna be in any business by themselves.
David Richter:
Yeah, I agree a thousand percent since it’s the profit first for real estate investing one, and it’s all about not just cash and cash flow, but that management of the cash as it flows through the business and where you put it. Which does lead me to ask, have you struggled then in multifamily or this, or when you were in the single family realm to pay yourself in the business, you know, like to make sure that you’re taken care of? Or has that been a priority all the time?
Sean Thomson:
Uh, no, it’s always a struggle, right? So, um, you know, even still today, so I, in my single family business, we were making money. My wife was still working. So we had kind of a consistent income there. So I was, I was able to deploy my capital in my business over and over reoccurring to grow that area. Uh, like I’ve said before, I was trying to, I was trying to create a portfolio of, of rental properties too, and that takes capital, right? So I was luckily that I could allocate my capital mostly to, um, growing that business and my wife kind of handled our expenses, right? So now in my multi-family business, I, um, the whole family works in my business, right? So my, my wife is my operations manager and my operations person and does all my underwriting, my daughter’s my partner, you know, so she does all our marketing, she’s kind of our chief marketing person.
Yep. And then I do, I do all the other stuff that, whatever, I don’t know what it, you know, that takes, but, so my whole family’s in my business now. And so we, our income comes from solely from the business and, uh, in multifamily, it’s, um, it’s kind of a strange business. We do make some cash flow, you know, we have trickles of cash flow coming in every month here and there. Uh, but our business really is big hits of capital, big hits of capital, and then we deploy all that capital over, you know, uh, 18 months, right? It took me 18 months to get a deal, right? Uh, so it can be 24, 24 months before we see, you know, these infusions of capital. And so managing that, that sort of, that runway or that space is, is, is, uh, the challenge. And so we we’re able to fund our life and all those sorts of things, you know, out of our, what we have for cash flow and, and the, the amount of money we, we get from the sales and purchases and stuff.
So it, it works, but I don’t know if that our business has gotten to a place yet where we’re able to say, okay, here’s my salary every month, right? And it’s just gonna, it’s just gonna hit that every month. Um, you know, we kind of win and then we, we sort of, um, manage our capital, right? So it’s more of capital preservation and management than it is of having a consistent cash flow type business, right? We’ll eventually get there to where we’re just cash flowing properly. But, uh, it’s, you know, we need, we need a few more assets under management before that happens. So, uh, we’re, we’re getting there. But yeah, that’s always, that’s always kind of one of those things you have to manage too.
David Richter:
Right. And which leads me to a couple different questions. The first question is, with that first deal you did, cuz I’m sure like you said, the belief in yourself was, and one of the things that might be going through the listener’s mind is, did you need a lot of capital to do that first deal yourself? I know you all, you know, like multifamily, you’ll raise money and whatnot, but did you need to take money from, you know, the active income you were generating from the single family side and pour a lot of it into that first deal? Or, you know, like do what is your take on multi-family and if you need a lot of money to get into it?
Sean Thomson:
Uh, well, the way I did it, you do. Yeah. So you, you do, you need a lot of money. You can, you can get into multi-family with, with nothing, right? So you can be an asset to someone in the position of an operator, right? The operator of a deal mm-hmm. <affirmative> Yeah. Is the one that, that has to deploy the capital, right? So the, the, just give you an example. The, the properties I’m looking at now, um, they’re gonna have, uh, earnest money of four three to $500,000, right? So I have to, I have to have three to $500,000 from somewhere. It doesn’t have to be mine, you know, it can be someone else’s, but I’m, I have to have that to put up the expenses just to create that transaction, the loan, the loan application fees, the, you know, all the, all the different fees you’re gonna pay lawyers, you know, um, that can be to, you know, a hundred, $200,000 on deals like this.
So that’s, so we like right there, that’s four, 500, $600,000 that has to be brought into a deal of this size, right? Yep. And so someone has to, someone has to come up with that money. It’s either me or partners or somebody, right? I, I use a lot of my own capital for those things. I also do have partners for those things as well. The other thing is, once you put your money into a deal in multi-family, it’s, it’s there for, you know, five years, right? Yeah. So my, my first deal, I, I invested quite a lot of my own capital in that deal just to kind of get it over the finish line. And that money’s just stuck, right? I, you know, I can, I can carve it out, take investors, put investors into that slot and take my money out, which is actually what I’m, I’m planning on doing mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Um, but, uh, so because I need that capital, that liquidity to, to do more deals, uh, to do those things. But if you wanted to get into multifamily and you could capital raise, or if you could go find deals and bring those to someone like me, so someone came to me and said, Hey, I wanna, I’ve got this great deal and they presented it to us, we underwrote it, and we went like, um, executed on that, on that deal. You know, they could be part of that deal. They need to be part of that deal because it’s theirs. They need to be part of that deal. And then we would execute all the operations, all the capital raises, all those other things that wouldn’t cost them any money because they, they would come to someone like me and say, okay, I want to put this, this deal together and I would take care of the rest, right?
Yeah. Or if someone wanted came to me and said, Hey, I’ve got investors that really wanted to get into multi-family and they want to go that route, you know, those, those people may have a position in a deal too, right? Yeah. Um, they, they would have to, you know, manage their investors and work with us on the management side and there’s all these other requirements, you know, s e requirements and things. But as long as we adhere to that, you know, those people could also be part of our deals too. So, uh, those are, those are much lower investment levels. Uh, if you do it the way I do it, it’s, it’s, it’s quite a lot more expensive building a deal machine, going out and looking at properties. You know, we spend a lot of money. I spend six figures, you know, easily every year trying to get, um, deals just through our system. Yeah. You know, so, uh, it depends, it depends on what you, how you go about it as to what capital level you would need to invest. I, I wanna be in, in charge and in, in control of my deals. And so that takes quite a lot more, um, capital for sure to be in that position. But you can get in into deals on, on a different level with very little infusion of capital.
David Richter:
I love that cuz I love that specific scenario, those specific scenarios because, you know, we work with a lot of active investors who wholesale or flip and they’re always like, oh, I want to get into multifamily. And it sounds like there’s two options for them. Is they, since they have an active business, they could take a portion of their business, you know, proceeds and put it into a deal and have that more control and learn that side like you did believe in themself, get over that hump and then buy that first deal. Or they could bring someone like you a deal and try to learn on the first time, you know, like learn that first time and see what really goes into it. Do they want to be Sean or do they just want to be the deal feeder to Sean? Right? So it sounds like that, but would, and this might be a question too, that if someone’s like new to real estate, but they’re like, I wanna go hard in a multifamily, it sounds like they would more need to, and if they don’t have a, they don’t come from money or don’t have a lot of capital, it sounds like they would need to go, the need to go the route of, you know, finding a deal and bringing it to someone like you to, you know, get started on that side.
Would you say that’s correct?
Sean Thomson:
Yeah, multi-family, if you’re doing large multi-family, I mean, you can go and buy four, you know, fourplexes and things like that. You can probably do that on your own. Large
David Richter:
Multi-family.
Sean Thomson:
Yeah. We’re talking about, I do a hundred plus unit deals, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so the deals I’m looking at are several million dollars. Um, you know, they’re, they’re, they’re large and complex, right? And you can’t do those deals unless you have previous experience doing those deals. You have to have net worth that secures the, the mortgage. Uh, you have to have liquidity that, that secures the mortgage. You have to have all these requirements that the banks are gonna require, the lenders are gonna require to even give you the money to go do those things. So there’s, it’s a way more complex system, and you’re gonna have to build a team, like I said before, multifamily, you’ll hear this all the time, but multifamily is really a team sport. And there’s all these different people. There’s the people that bring the deals, that manage the deals that, that bring the capital, all these different deal, uh, people in those deals.
So if you wanna get started on whatever level it is, you wanna see what you’re good at, what you kind of bring to the table in terms of that, that, that partnership mix up that, that team what, what position you play on the team, right? Figure out if you’re good, if you’re good at raising capital, you can bring capital. If you’re good at finding deals, you can bring those deals. If you have money, um, and want to get in the operations side, you can do that as well, right? So it kind of, whatever you are, if you’re sitting there looking at your situation, you just say, Hey, what am I great at and what can I bring to the table? And then go find a team, right? So I, I’m always looking for people, um, in our, you know, I network constantly with people that have, you know, whatever assets they have to bring onto our team so that we can go further and farther and faster, right?
Yeah. I’m always looking for those people in my life that help me, you know, get to the next, next deal, right? Yeah. So I would, I would suggest if anybody’s kinda listening saying, Hey, I wanna, I, I don’t have any real estate experience, first thing you need to do is convince yourself you can do it and then go learn and then go learn how to do it. Um, and then, and then create a plan and then, and then find a network that you can get into. Um, and if you’ve got real estate experience, then just maybe look around and say, Hey, who’s, who’s in my network that I can partner with or get in touch with and, and, and start doing business with, right? And start developing those relationships. That would be my suggestions.
David Richter:
There you go. So that’s, if you’re listening to this right now, there’s a couple different ways to get into this. So yeah, he just gave you some great things, but it is, it is all about that belief in yourself. You can do this, you can get into this. There’s, there’s someone out there doing it. Just figure out where they are, how you can bring value to them and go and do it. So, and if you are, if you’re on YouTube watching this, he’s got this plan right behind him. Dream it, believe it, learn it, plan it, do it. I love that. That is great. But you have to do it. That last step is the most important piece. You actually have to go and do something. So I do have another question. You brought up your family’s working with you. How is it, how do you like working with your family?
Sean Thomson:
Uh, it’s amazing. You know, I’ve found the only downside that I found is that we we’re in a very stressful environment, right? We’re, we’re, we’re trying to do something that is massive in our life and we’re leveling up. I’m level, I’m technically leveling up my grandchildren’s lifestyle, right? Yeah. That’s, that’s the kind of level we’re going after, you know, buying a 30 million deal. It’s, it is scary and very stressful, you know, and, and we’re, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re in that together is the problem. So, uh, when, you know, you can’t, like, when you have a stressful day at work, you come home and you vent to your wife or your kids or whatever, you know, your family with us, we’re all in the same stress at the same time. So this
David Richter:
<laugh>,
Sean Thomson:
You know, kind of expressing that and, and being there. So we try to support each other in that. That’s, but it’s hard because I’m stressed out, my wife’s stressed out, my kid’s stressed out. We’re all stressed about the same thing, you know? So it’s like, well, what do we do? So, you know, we, that’s the one downside, the upside is that we have an amazing life, right? We, we have this freedom that I don’t know that most people in the world have. I mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I do okay with my business, you know, we can fund our life. We can fund our lifestyle and, you know, if we want to go to, I don’t know if we wanna go skiing this weekend, the three of us can just literally get in the car and go skiing. I don’t have to put in for p you know, uh, private or time off work or vacation or Right.
None of us do. We just, we just go and do what we need to do. The reality is that we work a ton. We, we really work all the time, but we have the ability to set our own schedule, our own time that we do those things and we can, we can come and go as we please, as long as we’re getting the work done, you know, everything’s fine. And so that, that level of flexibility and freedom is I think really kind of what the American dream is for me anyway, to have that. And I think we’ve kind of created that in my little family and, um, that, that’s, that’s worth any level of stress that we, that we have to put up with for sure.
David Richter:
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that’s great cuz I love what you said that if you wanted to, you can go and do that, but, but you’re all in it together. You’re all in this for leveling up the and going after bigger deals and doing what you need to do. So I love that you’re in it together. I think that’s very important. And then, yeah, even the stressful times, it’s better to go through it with them than to bring it on and just throw it all, throw it up all over them, you know, it’s like, and it’s, cuz I know I’ve met your daughter. She is super sharp. She, you know, she coordinates a lot of the stuff behind the scenes as well too. And your wife is amazing, so I can tell that you guys are bonded by this as well too. So that’s been awesome to see at the events. I see all three of you going, you know, it’s like, that’s the coolest stuff that I get to see. So that was, I like how you said that too. I like how you gave the downside of working, you know, with family too. So that was really good stuff. I just have a couple last questions here. Um, unless did you have something else to add on that point?
Sean Thomson:
No, no. I’m, I’m glad, I’m glad that, uh, that you, that I’m glad that you, you’re seeing that in our family. I, it makes me feel good, right?
David Richter:
Well, it does. I think that’s awesome that they’re all there. They’re all going and you’re in it together and good. Just, it’s encouraging to see. So the last few questions here. Can you tell me, in your entire real estate career now, what is the biggest or hardest lesson that you’ve learned in real estate investing?
Sean Thomson:
Uh, you know, I’m pretty fortunate. I, I do a really good job of risk assessment, risk analysis and risk mitigation, right? So I, I, um, I have yet to lose money on a real estate deal. I have people tell me all the time that
David Richter:
I need to write that down.
Sean Thomson:
Yeah, you’re gonna lose money. It just, it’s inevitable. You’re gonna lose money. And I, I, I did, I disagree with that. So I, I think if you think things through, if you really think about the strategies you’re deploying, if you do things on a fundamental level that are, that are solid and principled, and if you do your business properly, I, I don’t think losing money is an inevitability, right? So I don’t think they have to lose money in real estate to be in a, to be in the real estate business. So I, that’s one thing I think I’m pretty fortunate that I’m, I have that skill. I’m gonna, I’m sure I’m gonna have a, an issue here and there, and I do, I have had some problems where it’s like, well, I gotta get out of this. Um, and I figure my way through it, and I do it, you know, analytically and, and try to do, do the best job I can.
But so I, I’m lucky in that regard. I, I haven’t had a lot of downsides financially in my business. Um, and I, I, I mean, I, this is probably a silly answer, but really, I wish I had started real estate when I first thought about it. Hmm. That’s, that’s probably the one thing that I regret the most is I was brought up to work hard, like I said, work hard and you’ll, and you’ll be successful. And I always thought, I, I’ve gotta, I have a job to do this. I’ve gotta, you know, I’ve gotta go down this path of, um, creating the American dream through other people’s workplaces, right? And I, I wish I just said to myself, just go and try this. If I were 30 again and, and thinking about real estate, I wouldn’t have wasted the next decade in my life working for someone else.
I would’ve gone out and done it myself. You know? So I think the biggest, probably, if you asked me what the biggest regret in my business is, is that I just didn’t take that step when I, when I wanted to. Yeah, I waited another 10 years working for someone else to try and be a good father and good husband and provide for my family when I really should have taken that risk earlier. And I would’ve been much farther along in my financial life than I am now. So that’s probably what I would say is my biggest regret. But I, I’ve been pretty fortunate in, in the risk mitigation side of things, for sure.
David Richter:
Man, that’s, that’s a powerful answer because it’s not every day you hear that someone hasn’t lost money in real estate. And what a great belief to have is that you don’t have to lose money in real estate if you can really get the lost mitigation and really know what you’re getting into. So just follow Sean. This is the one investor that has not lost money in real estate or on a deal yet. That is incredible. And that also too, if you’re listening to this podcast right now and you’re thinking about real estate, you just got Sean’s answer thereof, I wish I would’ve got into it when I first thought about it. So I hope that’s encouraging to you. If you’re listening right now, it sure encourages me. You know, like, just jump in, you know, like if you’re thinking about it, do something, go out there, partner with someone, whatever it might be, get your feet wet so that way you can not do 10 years and look back and say, oh no, you know, like, where’d it go?
So that’s, uh, thank you, Sean, thank you for opening up that. I think that’ll be a, tremendous help to the people that are listening right now. So I have just one last question here. You’ve provided a ton of value here on this podcast, and those last few things right there are just worth their wait. And gold, gold. Is there any way the listeners can connect with you or if there’s anything that you’re needing or how can they provide value back to you? I know you’re always looking for deals, for capital, for good people, so how can people get in touch with you and what you’re doing?
Sean Thomson:
Yeah, the best place to start with, uh, sort of getting involved with us is, uh, just go to our website. Our website has, uh, all of our resources on there. You can contact us through LinkedIn, Facebook, you know, our podcast is there, our blog is there, everything is there. So, uh, Thompson multifamily group.com. Uh, and Thompson is spelt a bit, a little bit uniquely, there’s no p in it, so it’s T h o m s o n, but Thompson multifamily group.com. If you go there, you can find, I think you’re can even set an appointment to call me or for us to call, right? So, yep. Uh, we’re, we’re very open to talking to people. I talk to people all the time about their business when they’re just getting started. I talk to people all the time that you know, they want to give us money and, you know, raise capital and then all these other things so that I talk to people constantly about, um, our business and their business too. If someone just needs help with something, I’m happy to do that. I don’t, I don’t know that I’m the authority on anything, but I try, I’m, I’m an open resource for anybody that, that wants help with anything. So, I just tell you my experience and you can take with to do with what you want. But, uh, so yeah, that’s probably the best place to go is Thompson multifamily group.com.
David Richter:
There you go. That’s, uh, that’s how to get in touch with Sean. Sean, this has been incredible. So on this episode right here, we got a lot of great stuff. I mean, how to buy a multifamily deal, how to, the importance of the team around the multifamily, how to get into it in different ways too, without any money or with the money if you’re an active real estate investor already. Honestly, the biggest thing that I think was the belief in yourself that was huge. The, belief in yourself and getting over that hump. And then also just what we heard here, you know, like if you’re thinking about getting into real estate, if you’re one of the, the people that haven’t jumped in yet, jump in, jump in with where you can get some of that train, do something there, and then working with your family.
Man, that was really great too, listening about that and seeing that. I get to see it in practice as well, too, out on the road, but I’m privileged to do that. But lots of great stuff here. So I just wanna say thank you so much, Sean, for being on, and then if you are a real estate investor listing right now, or a business owner and you’re tired of living deal to deal and you want to w your profits, head over to simple CFO solutions.com, click the schedule a call button and that’ll get you on the call, the phone with us and our team. We’d love to see if we can get you back on track with any obstacles holding you back, your business goals, a game plan, whatever it might be. We want to help you, just like Sean said, we want to help you with that cash management. If you’re going crazy right now, like if you don’t know where your money’s going, that’s what we help you do. So we want to help you there. So thank you so much for listening. I’ll see you on the next episode. Remember, start making profit a habit in your business.
Outro:
This episode of The Profit 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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