Welcome to The Accelerated Investor Podcast with Josh Cantwell, if you love entrepreneurship and investing in real estate then you are in the right place. Josh is the CEO of Freeland Ventures Real Estate Private Equity and has personally invested in well over 500 properties all across the country. He’s also made hundreds of private lender loans and owns over 1,000 units of apartments. Josh is an expert at raising private money for deals and he prides himself on never having had a boss in his entire adult life. Josh and his team also mentor investors and entrepreneurs from all over the world. He doesn’t dream about doing deals, he actually does them and so do his listeners and students. Now sit back, listen, learn, and accelerate your business, your life, and your investing with The Accelerated Investor Podcast.
Josh: So hey, welcome back to Accelerate Investor. I am so excited and grateful and honored that you’re back with me again today. To learn more, to get better, to level up your business, level up, your investing level up your entrepreneurial journey. I’m excited to be with my new friend Kenny Wolfe today. I met Kenny recently, just in the last couple of months through a mutual friend Augustino. Augustino was a guest on the Accelerated Investor podcast. I was fortunate to meet up with Kenny and Augustino about a month or two ago for some amazing vegan food in Lakewood, Ohio.
Josh: And Kenny is a wildly successful multi-family investor. He gives apartments and in different investments in Texas, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Ohio has been involved in over $180 million worth of multi-family investments. And just yesterday was up in my backyard in Cleveland, Ohio, scouting properties, looking at some investments that he has up here. And today we’re going to talk about multi-family investing and also talk about Kenny’s entrepreneurial journey. So welcome Kenny Wolfe to the show. Kenny, what’s going on bud how are you?
Kenny: Hey, good Josh, how are you?
Josh: I’m fantastic. So you were up in Cleveland yesterday, so tell me about your day. What were you doing looking at existing projects that you have scouting for new ones, checking out vegan restaurants, is that right?
Kenny: That’s right, yeah, I always got a hit up Cleveland Vegan they’re in Lakewood, right by the airport. But yeah there for the day, a day trip, it’s a long day from Dallas, but we own a 126 units there in Euclid, Ohio. It’s now rebrand into Lakeland Tower. And then we closed on 148 units in the next two, three weeks over by the airport as well. So, and then, yeah, looking at some downtown properties.
Josh: Nice. Yeah, we have a little, a little project that we’re potentially cooking up that we kind of looking at it together. We’ll leave that for another day. So Kenny, let’s talk about why multi-family. Let me just, I always like to hear from my guests whatever their investing strategy is. So why don’t you just describe your strategy within multi-family? Is it value add? Is it traditional syndication, and why are you passionate for that strategy to build your investing and help you obviously achieve the entrepreneurial dream and the lifestyle that you want? So tell us about your strategy and tell us why.
Kenny: Yeah, so we started about nine years ago, multi-family and I came out of the oil and gas business. I was an accountant. So it’s easy transition. It’s all numbers and multi-family more income statement driven then comp driven on valuation. So it’s easy for me to understand that stuff. So he jumped right in and went from the two passive of deals and then jumped in, syndicated a 76 unit deal and had been syndicating deals since our, since we’ve been in it for this whole cycle we’ve been really we kind of had to change our, the properties we were looking at the past 18, I’d say months maybe, and 24 months. You know, early on we were buying stuff on the market. You know, our first indication deal was a B class deal.
Kenny: We bought for 45 a door at an 8.25 cap. And that was on the market. I mean, back in 2012.
Josh: Things have changed.
Kenny: Things have changed. We’ve, we’ve actually refinanced that property twice now. So it’s the gift that keeps on giving. But you know, it kind of fast forward to the past 18 months, we’ve bought a $78 million and multi-family assets. All of them have been off market off market. Having two definitions, you know, in a multi-family. One is truly off market where it’s just you and the seller no broken evolves. So we did one of those and then the rest were, you know, a handful of folks saw it before it hit the open market. So but that’s been it. I mean, so in this part of the cycle, we’re definitely looking for a lower basis and a value added component. You know, buying a fixed up asset today for cashflow not sure if I’d trust the low cap rates. But something where we could still find deals where that need to be turned around and have management issues, the rehab, you know, repair, stuff like that.
Josh: Yeah. And why, Kenny, why do you think that this cycle being invested in since 2010, what does it do for you in your entrepreneurial journey, your goals? How does it fit within your framework of your family and why have you been so passionate for multi-family as a way to kind of pivot out of oil and gas really, you don’t provide for your family and create financial independence?
Kenny: Yeah, I mean, it’s been a great tool for us. We’ve, you know, grown our net worth massively over the past, you know, nine years through multi-family. It’s a great business to be in. People have to have places to live. If they can’t afford housing, you know, single family, then they got to be apartments. And then if the housing market crashes, they got to move back into apartments. So apartments are a pretty safe bet. I mean, it’s the only, not the only, but one of the only real estate assets you can get nonrecourse financing on from, you know, from Fannie or Freddie, right. So that kind of tells you how it’s not obviously safe, but it’s I’d say there’s less risk in that as opposed to some other ways to do real estate. You know, so it’s a great tool for us.
Kenny: We’ve really grown with it. We started vertically integrating. So we’ve bought a management company, we’re about to buy a second one as well, kind of bring that in house and have better control. And then for the family. Yeah, I mean, I get I mean I get to do what I love every day. I love coming to the office or flying around, you know, to go see the properties and then adding new properties to the portfolio, bringing it out to our investors. And then, yeah, I mean, our family, we’re fortunate to have, you know kind of reap the rewards and all that and we get to travel with the family. We just surprised our 11 year old daughter to a trip to Orlando, to Harry Potter World for a birthday. So you can do that kind of cool stuff when you have, when you’ve created this cashflow and the net worth through real estate.
Josh: Yeah. So help me understand a lot of people that you went right from being a CPA and jumping into multi-family. The income statement is a natural fit for you. Many people start investing in real estate and a much smaller level. You pretty much jumped right into multi-family. What gave you the confidence coming out of oil and gas to be able to just jump in directly into, to larger deals?
Kenny: Right. So I had, so we were looking at, we were looking to exit the oil and gas business on the active side. And then and so we actually talked to family friend. She was a trust fund kid. And so you knew you always want to do what they do. You know copy down model them if it works. Modeling works folks. It’s not a big secret, but so I asked her what kind of, what she did and so anyways, she got us connected to one of, there’s a guru group here in Texas down in Houston. Anyways, we went to their two day event. And then in that event they talk about single-family the first day. And so my wife and I were super excited about single-family. We’re going to buy 10 houses, you know, at the time we were living in Shreveport, Louisiana doing oil and gas, but we’re going to buy in Dallas. And then the next day they talked about multi-family. And so we said, forget single families it’s too much.
Josh: It took one day to treat your mind, huh?
Kenny: One day to change our mind. And we had the capital to jump right in, right. And that that was, we took our oil and gas money from, you know, doing that to go right it into multi-family. And it’s a great way to scale.
Josh: So your first deal. Tell me…
Kenny: Oh go ahead.
Josh: Yeah. It is a great way to scale. When you say that, help me understand what you mean by that when, cause I hear people talking about scale and growth all the time. That kind of means different things to different people.
Kenny: Yeah. So I mean it’s all about scalability. So like and it’s multiple ways. So we were always looking at 76 or 75 units and above because we could afford a full time, third property management company. So I didn’t have to deal with any of the day to day stuff. I didn’t want to do. I still don’t know how to change out a toilet. I don’t touch keys on our property. So they handle all the day to day stuff so we can focus on building our portfolio. So that’s one aspect to it. But another is that on the loans we get are non-recourse loans. So those non -ecourse loans I think I’ve signed on probably $150 million probably on loans now. Maybe right around there, but they’re all, you know, all those are non recourse, so they don’t it doesn’t affect my borrowing ability but if you go to like single family, those are recourse loans. That’s going to slow you down a little bit on how much you can borrow. So it’s all about scalability and being able to build your business quickly.
Josh: Yeah. So scale meaning don’t have to touch tens toilets, keys, talk to tenants, and also a lending perspective versus obviously what single family does. You’ve got to kind of get going with tenants, toilets, keys, buying properties, contractors, and every loan if you get one is of course recourse lending, which, awesome. So Kenny, tell me a little bit more about your thoughts on your longterm plan. Are you looking when you buy buildings now, value add component, looking to force the appreciation? Are your investors that you’re working with, staying in deals with you longterm or you’re looking to refinance that out at some point? What’s kind of the longterm plan with, with your portfolio, is that almost all buy, hold and build longterm wealth or help me understand what your thoughts are typically with the building.
Kenny: Yeah, so I’m a longterm holder. But we do try to do some kind of capital event in the first two or three years to get the majority of the investors money back to them. Yeah and our deals, you know, if an investor comes in for 10%, they own 10% until they sell it or until we sell it. So they’re in it for the long haul. But we do try to do that refi, get their money out. And it’s a, you know, like on the first indication deal. We just did a second refinance on the property and we’ve returned 386% of their money over those six years, you know, six, seven years. So it’s pretty awesome too. And we still own it, you know. And so we’ve got our residents paying down our loan every month and we’re able to cashflow on the property as well.
Josh: So give us a little bit of more thoughts around that deal if you don’t mind telling us about it. When you hear somebody say we returned 386% of the investor’s money, a lot of people hear that and they’re like, well how does that work? How does that happen? Especially in six years where you’re nearly given, I mean, you’ve given them back almost four times what they initially invested. So if you don’t mind talking through some deals, general numbers just gone down with maybe the rent rolls going up, management getting more efficient, maybe the cap rates going down, property guy going up. Help us understand.
Kenny: Yeah. So w, so we bought it actually as a yield play back in 2012 there wasn’t much for us to do. The guy we bought it from had just bought it, cleaned house, did new windows, new, you know, kind of really dress it up. But we actually introduced a new, we’re on our second round of upgrades now. So we did one basic upgrade, did almost the entire property, and then now we introduced a new level of upgrade and are getting an extra $75 to a $100 bucks more a month on top of those. So, you know, there’s the thing where if you’re going to hold a long term, you’ve got to keep reinvesting back in the property and it’ll keep, you know, treating you very well.
Kenny: It was a, you know, eighties deal, all individual HVAC pitched roof, great location. It’s right across the street from an elementary school. So our marketing budget is about zero. It’s at 7:30 and 3:30. That’s our marketing right there.
Josh: Walk across the street.
Kenny: Drop off the kids. They got to go right by our property. So it’s a great location. We’re able to key raising rents that stays occupied at 95 to 100% on the property. So it’s a great little deal. It’s in Dallas Fort worth, which is obviously booming as well, so that helps to be here in this market.
Josh: Nice. So let’s talk a little bit more. Let’s do a deeper dive, Kenny into the active versus passive discussion, right? Half, a lot of investors want to be active operators, but either, you know, if you have time, often don’t have money and it allows you, if you have time to be more of an, on the active side, there’s many different hats you can, obviously in multi-family. Finding deals to, you know, sourcing investors to looking for, you know, insurance and lenders and networking and, you know, really being active on the deal side or the asset management side.
Josh: And then there’s the whole passive side, right? Or maybe being a key person or signing the PG or investing equity capital. So if, let’s talk first about active investors. You’re obviously an active investor, you’re looking for deal flow. What are some of the things that you’re doing now or maybe, I know you have a conference that you guys do a couple of times a year, to help kind of joint venture with more operators, get more deal flow from operators. What are some of the tactics and things you’re doing as an active operator, specifically wearing that hat to find more buildings, find more deals and build your portfolio on the active side?
Kenny: Right. So on the active side, it’s really about networking and all of multi-family is to, even if you’re a passive, but networking is key. So I was just in Sarasota for two days at a mastermind. There’s 6 billion of multifamily in the room. We’re probably about 35 or 40 of us in the room. So that’s great to be a part of that group. We’ve actually teamed up with one of those folks to take down a 400 unit deal down in Shreveport earlier this year. And so that’s, you know, but they also, you also learn from each other as well. So on the active side to have that kind of a caliber group around you is awesome to learn from and help others as well and then team up as well to take down large deals. So that’s good.
Kenny: And then also, yeah, we put on the conference obviously as well to kind of obviously networking as well. And then, you know, whenever we buy a whoever the first time we buy a property, it seems like in a new city we’ve got to buy about a hundred units for them to believe that we can really buy the deal. So our first deal ever in Cleveland was a new, it’s 126 units, which is, which is small for us. We, you know, it was no problem to raise the funds or anything, but now that we bought that first one, now we’re starting to see much bigger deal flow from brokers that know that we’re a proven buyer there in Cleveland.
Kenny: So that’s another thing too is once you buy that first one in that city, you’re kind of known as a buyer and a closer, you get a reputation quickly. So we don’t retrade on our deals. It’s you get a bad name quickly in this business if you do that. So it’s really networking with brokers. We started buying management companies and so our, so that’s kind of how we’ve been growing. But prior to that we were using third party management companies. So you’d have to, we’d have to interview them, you know, pick the right ones, plug them in and then work with them.
Josh: Yeah, that’s right. There’s a couple of different strategies there for those people who are listening. So can Kenny talked about and partnering and joint venturing? Then he talked about, you know, getting in with brokers, especially with off market properties. Again there’s kind of two types of off market. There’s truly off market, direct to seller. And then there’s off market with a broker who’s got a, basically a pocket listing. That’s a big part of it. And then buying management companies or knowing management companies because management companies typically know when somebody is about to sell or when somebody’s going to buy or when somebody, you know, becoming a tired landlord and they’re thinking about selling, they know that stuff in advance and they’ll often be involved somehow in that transaction.
Josh: Especially if they’re a decent management company and the seller or the owner trusts them, they’ll have more inside scoop. Sometimes the management company is the problem, right? And then they don’t, they don’t know that they’re about to get booted out the front door. So before we move into the passive side of things, you mentioned your conference, right? The multi-family investor network. You partnered up with Disrupt equity to put this on a couple of times a year. You do it massive cities, right? Houston, San Francisco and Boston. What is the multifamily investor network? How can people plug into it? What do you guys do there? What’s the mission of that group?
Kenny: So yeah, the website is MAndFInvestorNetwork.com. But so what it is we, you know, a lot of these two day conferences, there’s always something like $20,000 or $30,000 ticket item to buy at the end. So we just created this conference as a just networking education. So we fly in national speakers to the events three times a year in the cities you mentioned next one is in Houston, February 8th. But flying a national speaker. If you’ve got vendors that do breakout sessions as well, so you can learn about management companies, you’ve got insurance, title, all kinds of breakouts there as well. And you know, in Houston, we’re expecting about 400 people there that are interested in multi-family investing whether they’re new or seasoned syndicators, you know, as well. We see the full gamut. So it’s really just education, networking. And then if, so if you go to the website, use the super secret code Wolfe, you’ll get a bit of a discount.
Josh: Yes, I like a super secret code Wolfe. And guys makes you check that out. I’m actually, it’s interesting. The more and more multi-family investors that I mastermind with and talk with, I’m learning about all these amazing buds of the Wolfe by the way, is with an E. So W O L F E. So plug that in. But it’s an amazing company. Things are going on there. And then I’m also seeing there’s a tremendous amount of overlap, right? So because the world of multi-family is not that big that at different events that you’re going to, you see some of the same guys, right? Some of the same characters hanging out there. Everyone’s got a different strategy for finding deals, different strategies for raising capital, different vendors to work with. So yeah, Kenny, when we were talking offline, let’s make sure we communicate on that because I’ll definitely want to be there, but also it could be a vendor sponsor for that event.
Josh: So let’s about that. So Kenny, on the passive side, right? A lot of people that began to have money, but no time. Earlier, we talked about people with time and not as much money. Sometimes you have people with both, right. Guys like us that have time and money, which is awesome. But sometimes people have one or the other, right? Now you have guys with money, you know, accredited investors, doctors, lawyers, business owners, ECOMM guys, but no time. So what are some of your thoughts around you know, building relationships with those guys, recruiting capital and then kind of having a devastating offer for them as a way to, for them to invest passively in your real estate deals. Like how do you basically get their attention I guess is what I’m asking?
Kenny: Sure. Yeah. So we, you know, we put on, you know, this equity conference, that’s one of them. I speak at a whole bunch of other events too. So that’s a way to kind of get in touch with everybody. And then we have a pretty big social media presence as well. So we do a lot of stuff on YouTube. We had a web TV show for 17 episodes on YouTube as well. A commercial cashflow show. So we’re just trying to get our name out there. Meet folks meet new folks as well. We host a monthly meet up here in Dallas half for three years. So we’ve been doing that kind of stuff. And then we host a big if you invest with Wolfe Investments, we have some big party downtown, Plano, Texas.
Kenny: I have live music and this year’s thing was a Monopoly. So it was pretty cool. I was actually Wolfeopoly so it had a lot of properties on the monopoly board, so that’s pretty cool. So it was fun. So we got to, you know, we’re always active in that kind of reaching out to new folks. We’re about to plan a big friends and family event here in Dallas. So folks that are invested with us can invite their friends, family, whoever they want to, you know, as a, as a referral way to get in touch with us, to meet new folks.
Josh: Nice. So meetups, your conference, you’re using social media, your web show, you do podcasts like the one we’re doing right now. Obviously got your website and then you know, doing a number of different types of, I guess more local events for investors, friends and family. All different ways and strategies to meet people. I’m sure Kenny, you find yourself every transaction is a little bit different. Sometimes you might be using a Reg D 506B sometimes it might be 506C but you’re constantly, what I found is I think there’s, I start to see more and more people, and I’d love to hear your take on this. More and more people using Facebook for 506C recruiting. So they’re doing general solicitation, looking for accredited investors.
Josh: And I just did a podcast on this this week where I was always kind of almost taking a jab at some investors that are like, hey, I have this multi-family deal. It’s 506C make sure you check it out and subscribe. We’re going to sell out fast. Then the next week it’s like the same message. We’re going to sell out fast and three weeks later they’re still on Facebook saying we only have three spots left. And there’s, and that’s fine. Like I, I don’t want to make fun of them, but there’s a big difference between using 506C as a flat out cold call recruiting spam technique, right. And that works to some degree to recruit capital. There’s another way of using 506C when you are also building relationships with people and you’re really using it more as a tool to just kind of take the handcuffs off of your marketing so you can talk about your deal flow. But really providing value, providing education, giving people something that they can actually sink their teeth into. Then pulling them potentially off of social media, maybe through messenger, maybe through individual emails or phone calls, and then spending the time to create relationships. So just talk about how you’ve done that so successfully.
Kenny: So we did one 506C so I’m old school. I like the 506B to be honest with you. I like the 506B, we’ve got, I think almost 900 investors on our database now. So we, you know, we did one 506C it was a $6 million raise, for Shreveport, Louisiana, a big value add deal. The you know, we did the 506C to try it out. We offered like %35 to 40% of our investor base cause they’re sophisticated, not accredited. So, but then we did make up that 35% 40% of that database by, you know, posting on social media or you know, wherever else you can, you can advertise for it. So I don’t plan on doing another 506C. I want, I want 506B from here on out.
Josh: Yeah. So when people ask the question, well, if you’re not general soliciting and you’re going with B, well then what do I do to make relationships? And frankly, we’ve already covered that, right? We’ve covered things like delivering content with an offer like the web show, a podcast, delivering content without an offer. We’ve talked about the multi-family investor network conference. We talked about your meet up group, we’ve talked about your friends and family offerings and asking for referrals and getting referrals, treating people amazingly well, right. All of those are strategies. One of the add to that because that really was, would have been the answer to my question if I’d asked it right. How do you build relationships and create contacts if you’re not using 506C.
Kenny: Yeah. I mean it’s, you know, 506B it, it definitely gets us on the road a lot. I get to speak in a lot more events and do all the touch points with the podcast like this. And then we’re going to get kicked back up our web TV show here next year as well. So it does make it a little bit more of a leg work on that end. But I think it gives a better a better feel for the investor because they actually know you somewhat. They, you know, a lot of them come to our events. They seek us out. But they can find us, you know, speak to us in person. We did that, I have, I’ve got a great marketing team here, but they ran the numbers and I think 70% of our investors came from are came from an in person meeting.
Kenny: And then the rest came through social media and then they did the in person meeting. But everybody wants to meet, meet you face to. And which is, you know, do you think about it in our minimums are 50K for a multifamily deal. So we’re, you know, this is, people do want to know who they’re investing 50K $100,000 $200,00 K with, you know. And so I just think if 506B you’re going to get folks that either, I don’t know, I think it’s a little anyway, so we’ll, I won’t pick on the 506C guys, but the I prefer the B’s. I think you could because you, because you do know the people, right? It’s a , better field of the business for me.
Josh: Well, you know, to Kenny, like you know somebody with all of the crowd funding platforms that are out there, crowd Street, Yield Street, Pierce Street Cadre, all these different crowd funding platforms. If people want to invest and have somebody else do the due diligence, what I see when we get those kind of leads, and we did a 506C campaign two years ago, we ramped up a 506C fund and we did a bunch of advertising and we’re getting opt ins for about $50 bucks an opt in. What we found was that almost nobody would get on the phone with us. They wanted information, they wanted a packet, and then if they did invest or they were interested in investing, they were talking about like a $5,000 commitment or a $25,000, why? Because no relationship, right? They were just investing in a platform, not in a relationship.
Josh: So I think that’s what people are dealing with 506C is that they’re toggling the fence between B and crowd funding. And if you’re going to go with the general solicitation, my advice would still be to use 506C, but to do it with the intention of creating relationships. Just kind of taking the gloves off. And same thing with you. Kenny may have a ton of sophisticated but not accredited investors. So you orphan them. If you go with C, right? I would tell people, look, if you’re thinking you’re just going to go with C, you’re going to throw your multi-family deal up on Facebook, Instagram, social media, email marketing, and get leads and people are going to invest and they’re going to invest substantial amounts of money. I think you’re, you know, you’re smoking something, it’s not going to happen.
Josh: Because if they’re going to invest, they would rather just be like, well, I’m going to go with a crowd funding platform because they’re going to vet out the operator, they’re going to do the due diligence and then they can invest a small amount of money, right. So I don’t know if you, you’ve obviously experienced very similar things. That’s why you’ve gone with B’s. So any additional thoughts on that or even thoughts on what crowdfunding, if you’ve had good or bad experiences with your investors considering that option versus what you do?
Kenny: Yeah, so we, I mean, we’ve talked to the crowd fund guys and it’s probably been a year or so, but I wasn’t all that impressed on how much they could raise. And then, and then how much they took her, the deal. It just was to me, not worth it because we’ve got such a big marketing machine that it wasn’t worth it for me to go, you know, get $10,000, $5,000 investors, you know to get up to, you know, $3, $4 or $5 million deal. That’s a lot of investors you’ve got to have. So to me it was, it wasn’t worth it. I think it’s a budding industry. I think it’s going gain, I think it’s going to gain some steam. That’s probably something we revisit down in the future. But right now with, you know 900 plus people on our, you know, in our investor list, there’s really no, you know, right now we just don’t have the need for that.
Josh: Yeah, absolutely. Well, fantastic. Kenny, listen, I want to do is give you an opportunity again, to have our audience connect with you. Whether they want to joint venture on a deal or potentially invest in a deal or just get to know you better or come to your conference. Tell us just a little bit about where they connect. I know you have a book, so tell us about your book on Amazon, your website and where they can connect with you.
Kenny: Yeah, so our book, I sold one book in Australia and then we were best other for a day. So I’m an international bestseller seller.
Josh: Nice. Who else can say that? That’s awesome.
Kenny: That’s right. So it’s called an Investing In The Dream. It’s on Amazon. Check it out. I’m actually working on a second book now, which will, so the first one’s about investing kind of kind of how we got started and how folks could get started in the business as well. And then this next book I’m working on to some of the funny stories we come across by owning all these deals because there’s a whole chapter on animals and the weird stuff people do and all that. So that’ll be a fun book to write this over the holidays. And so that’s coming out.
Kenny: And then, yeah, our website is Wolfe, W O L F E Investments.com. That’s the best place to reach us. We’re on Facebook, you know, YouTube, social media, LinkedIn as well. So, and then we’ve got the conferences. So check those out. It’s a great way to network and meet, you know, Houston, like I said, something about 400 people there be a massive event. It’s at the West End, super nice. A plated meal, so you don’t have to run off and go get a bag lunch from somewhere is, and it’s all about networking and round tables. So, yeah.
Josh: Fantastic. I love it. Well there you have it, Kenny. Listen, I just wanted to ask you one final question, which is, as an entrepreneur, whether you invest in multi-family or invested in ECOMM business or you’re in the, you know, selling cars, whatever you sell, I always like to ask my guests about what, or just one or two of their best thoughts, strategies, hacks, habits, what are some of the things that they do that they think has helped them become just a successful entrepreneur? So what are some things maybe that you’ve done or habits that you have, books that you’ve read, things that have had a big impact on your life, habits that you have, things you do that have really made you just a flat out successful entrepreneur regardless of the niche that you’re in?
Kenny: I mean, I think modeling is, is key. So, you know, my favorite book, genre is business biographies. And so anyways the so I’m reading one about the Guggenheims now, which is fascinating to me. Other folks probably don’t think that’s fascinating, but it’s, you know, it’s about JP Morgan, you know Rockefeller, all those folks that build up businesses and it doesn’t have to necessarily be in your sphere anyways, and you can, uh, you know, learn nuggets from everybody, but a big Warren Buffet fan, obviously, and we’re in the investing business, so we’ll see so learn as much from them. I tried to go to the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting every year. That’s an amazing event. If you get a chance to go, he’s not getting any younger.
Kenny: So say I a Warren. So I’m usually there at its first weekend of may. And then, you know, we, you know, something on the personal side and I mean, I, you know, we’re I’m a CrossFitter, so I like to do that kind of stuff with the family. Our 11 year old daughter, now, she does it as well, so, and wife and, and all that. So we’re big into that. And then every morning I’ll take them. I mean, just one or two minutes, wake up and focus on kind of three things I’m grateful for. And it can be everything from family to my favorite pen. So, you know, it could be, you know, you just got to pick three things. And it helps me start the day out. Right.
Josh: Favorite pen.
Kenny: There you go.
Josh: That’s awesome. Well, Kenny Wolfe, thanks so much for joining us today on Accelerated Investor. Look forward to seeing you at the multicultural investor conference. Check out his book again, Investing In The Dream on Amazon and Wolf-Investments.com.
Kenny: Thank you Josh. I appreciate it.
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Kenny Wolfe is an experienced multi-family investor with over $140 million worth of multi-family investments. Kenny exited the oil and gas industry and jumped right into the multi-family market in 2010, and it’s been a great experience for his family. We talked today about finding the right investors, building real relationships with investors, and why he prefers the 506B to the 506C.
Scalability has been possible for Kenny because he’s been using non-recourse loans, which don’t affect his borrowing ability. He’s been focused on being a long-term investor, so he’s worked carefully to find property managers that allow him to never touch a key or a toilet. In addition, his focus on long-term investing means he can provide his investors with huge returns, in one instance netting them a 386% return.
Whether you choose to use active or passive investors in your real estate deals, networking is still the key in this business. Kenny shares his experience as an active investor and some key points that have helped him succeed. Then he talks about how to approach passive investors so that you build real relationships, educate people, and provide value to the conversation. Using these methods to build trust with investors has really helped Kenny to become a trusted real estate investor.
When you’re asking people to invest $50,000 in your business deals, it’s really important to have that trust in your relationship. When someone can look at your emails, your podcasts, your websites, and really see that you know what you’re talking about, that’s when you begin to build the kind of network that you can tap into for capital. There are all kinds of crowdsourcing platforms out there that are popular, but people still want to meet you face-to-face before they invest that much of their portfolio with you.
We close up this conversation by talking about why Kenny prefers the 506B to the 506C and some of the advantages he sees in it.
What’s Inside:
- As a long-term investor, Kenny’s strategy is on building and sustaining profitability for many years.
- Building a network with investors and brokers begins with building trust, and Kenny shares how he does this.
- How do you build relationships and create contacts if you’re not using a 506C?