Josh Cantwell:   Welcome to the Accelerated Investor Podcast with Josh Cantwell. If you’re looking to retire early with forever passive income, you’re in the right place. This podcast is the go to destination for real estate investors, both active and passive, and multifamily apartment investors, both new intermediate and advanced. Now sit back, listen, learn, and accelerate your business, your life, and your investing with the Accelerated Investor podcast.

[INTERVIEW]

Cameron: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the accelerated real estate investment. We have a phenomenal guest on today, Tony Gillingham.

Cameron: He is going to take us through.

Cameron: His journey of how he has arrived to where he is today. Thank you so much for being part of this program and this project. Tony, please bring us into your space. Give us a little history about your journey through real estate. But more importantly, how did you find Josh?

Tony: Okay, well, I started back in Real Estate in 1986 when I got my real estate license, and one of the first houses we ever bought was a duplex, and we lived in half of it and basically lived there for free and then built our portfolio from there. We’re buying one or two houses, duplexes and singles, and actually held that portfolio until just recently. We sold most of that off and was able to buy a 14 unit over in Mylan, Ohio, the birthplace of Thomas Edison. They’re all townhouses.

Tony: We bought it from a friend, and we totally turned that property and was looking for more. And I just didn’t know how yo purchase large, expensive properties.

Tony: So I was a member of the Lake Erie Landlord association, and I was at a meeting, and Josh was a key speaker there. And Josh talked about his struggles, and he had just came out of the pancreatic cancer surgery and talked about his why, and he was making the big shift from doing flips to multifamily. So after that meeting, I was in the corporate world with Westinghouse and doing automation and stuff, factory automation, electronically, went back to work.

Tony: I was let go during COVID and at the age of 59, figured, I know, and my units were doing well, and I thought, I’m not going to go build another sales territory for someone else. I’m going to do it for myself. See, I flipped a few houses back 2004 to 2008, the crash. So I had a taste of that. But there again, you’re only as good as the last sale, right? Just like I was when I was selling electrical supplies.

Tony: I was good as what I did the month before. Anyways, so after I met Josh.

Tony: Was about a year or so, and I was thinking after this happened to me, well, I should look him up. So I thought, well, maybe I can go to work for him. And then I watched one of his podcasts, and it said to join. And so I looked into it, and I interviewed, and actually I was accepted because I had my portfolio on that. Let me think. I joined in.

Tony: Let’s see here.

Tony: 615 of 2021 is when I joined the masterminds.

Tony: It’s been a great thing because I.

Tony: Tell you, you try to figure this out on your own, you make one mistake, and your whole life savings gone. Anyways, since being there, I bought a 38 unit townhouse complex right here in my hometown of here in Ohio, and I am in the process of turning that right now. We put it in contract late last year, and we closed on it just before the end of the year. That was a huge success story. And Josh held my hand through all that stuff.

Tony: So we were successful, and we’re turning that now, and we’re almost to halfway through it. So we also own a trailer park, a little ten slot that we bought down on the river. That’s been a challenge. It was less than nice, and we’ve got it turned around a bit and looking to do some stuff or maybe even redevelop it. I have a lake, waterfront property on the water in the river, so it’s a nice spot. But other than that, we own a couple other duplexes and single families. And we were in the vacation rental business.

Tony: We live right up here on the lake of Lake Erie, right between Toledo and Cleveland. And so we had two lakefront condos, one here in Sandusky. There’s a huge amusement park. We had one there, and we did really well with that.

Tony: We ended up selling that unit and.

Tony: Using that at a 1031 when we bought the 38 unit in Huron. So that was some of our down payment, I guess. We own another one that’s out by Putin Bay. Put in bay is what they call the.

Tony: West of the north is what they call it. So it’s pretty much a party downtown and a lot of cottages and lakefront homes out on that island. We own the next island up, we own a condo and we do vacation rentals out of that also. So that’s pretty much what I have. I have, like, a total of 66 units in my neighborhood here within 25 miles radius.

Cameron: That is so awesome Tony.

Cameron: You said something that was kind of key.

Cameron: I wanted to touch on two points you made. First point was you left your job of so many years, not because of.

Cameron: Your choice, but because of COVID So let me ask you this question. When it was that time to make the decision of, I’m no longer going.

Cameron: To build the future or build somebody’s mansion for them, I want to build my own. What was that like?

Cameron: What was that process like when you said, enough is enough, it’s time to go all in on the real estate. We understand this. Let’s go all in. Take us through that process. How did that feel? The emotions of saying, we’re going all.

Cameron: In and we’re building our future?

Tony: Yeah, well, that was easier now that I had the 14 unit. Well, the 14 unit units and my wife also had a business that was doing well, which she’s retiring at the end of this month. That was one of my goals.

Tony: And let’s see here.

Tony: I built, I don’t know, three or four or five different territories for different companies throughout my years, and I just knew I could do it. I already had the experience in real estate. I hold a real estate license. I bought and sold many units and just thought, I can do this. So it’s just having the will to do it. I had a heart attack at the age of 36 and was one of the reasons I would probably been in multifamily a long time ago. If I’d have just believed in myself back then.

Tony: And with security, having babies and needing corporate. I’m sorry, I’m stumbling here. To have the benefits of being in a corporate world is what gave me the security to stay there. And my wife is. I probably would have took a lot more risks, which she kept me tied down a little bit there.

Tony: But anyways.

Tony: That’S basically it. I just knew I could do it because I was already doing it in a smaller scale. And then once we got that 14 unit, I saw the light of the multifamily.

Cameron: I love that everything else was like.

Tony: Duplexes, singles, but there were stepping stones.

Cameron: You also mentioned that once you got into program, Josh was able to help you.

Cameron: That what I hear is that Josh helped you think bigger, bolder, and gave.

Cameron: You the confidence to know what you’ve already done in the past is now going to help you and transition into future purchases and future gains. Let me ask you about this. How has the leadership in the program been for you? How have they helped you along your.

Cameron: Journey path, your real estate path of the journey? Oh, man.

Tony: It’s a step by step process. He teaches you everything, and it’s raw. I mean, he will give you information you will not get anywhere else. He’ll hold you to it. He wants accountability because you are him, not just Josh all. It’s the whole group. So you’ll have like minded people like yourself in this group, and you see their success. Well, you. You know, you meet them at the masterminds and stuff, and they’re just people like you and me, and they’re doing it.

Tony: It gives you that you can do attitude, I guess.

Cameron: Got it.

Tony: He’ll step you through some of his deals, show you everything he’s doing. So, I mean, how do you go wrong with that?

Cameron: If you try to do that on.

Tony: Your own and make one mistake, like I said before, you could lose everything. And for the little bit of money I’ve been paid back, that one deal.

Tony: Alone, for what I got in investing.

Tony: In myself with Josh, is paid back ten times.

Cameron: I love that.

Cameron: Guys. You hear that can do attitude. Mentorship gives you the confidence and to.

Cameron: Be able to watch what Josh does.

Cameron: I mean, come on, you can’t beat that.

Cameron: It’s worth its weight and gold. And you’re hearing it from Tony telling.

Cameron: You it’s already been paid back. Let me ask you this question.

Cameron: What are one or two actual items that you could tell somebody who was looking to either first, looking to get in the program? What would be one or two actual items that you would tell them? And then second is, what would be one or two actual items you would tell somebody that’s in the program, but.

Cameron: It’S not all the way into the program. Yeah. Follow.

Tony: Got it. He’s on YouTube. I found him on YouTube. He teaches almost the same stuff and has excellent interviews with all these people.

Tony: And.

Tony: I ride a recumbent bike every day, and I time myself by his podcast every day. I watch his new stuff. I keep up on everything. He gives you a wealth of information.

Cameron: And it’s.

Tony: Know, I watch him, I watch other investors, Jake, and watch, you know, grant cardone, all that. I just soak it all, you know, Josh tells you, I mean, when you’re in this program, you meet on a Zoom call twice a week, and he goes over stuff. Not only that, with this program, you get a library of. Every time we sit down and have a pod meeting or a Zoom meeting, it’s all recorded. You can go back. It’s a library. Not only that, you got all his paperwork, all his contracts. Everything you need is at the fingertips.

Tony: And with a click of a button, you’re there and you got it. And you can call him. He’ll talk.

Tony: He’s just a regular guy, a hell of a guy. And you can call him on his cell phone. He’ll talk to mean the support is huge part of this.

Cameron: I love that. I love that.

Cameron: Tony, take us in your space, man. You kind of went through it all around the properties and stuff. How can people reach out to you? Networking is huge. We always tell people, network, network, network. And you can tell people want to reach out to you. Reach out and say, hi, touch base. How can they get in contact?

Tony: Yeah, my email is tgillingham 61 at@gmail.com tgillingham 61 at@gmail.com you can also give me my cell phone, 419-656-7006 you can look me up on the web@excelventuresgroup.com. I have my site up there. I am working on getting my foundation together as far as building up my company. So give me a call if you got something you need or I can help you out with. Please call me.

Cameron: Absolutely.

Cameron: Love it.

Cameron: Love it.

Cameron: Before I let you go, I love how you brought this up. You ride on the bike, you listen to Josh. Give us three to five books besides Josh’s book, because he’s got phenomenal books. What are three to five books that you would recommend or podcasts that you would recommend anybody to either read or listen to?

Tony: Well, read your bible. Rich dad, poor dad, was the easiest read. It teaches you in simplest form. And that’s basically what I read years ago when I start buying my singles and duplexes. So that’s one. I had a few other ones. I tell you, I’m not a great big reader because I think I have attention deficit disorder to you. Truth, I run around in circles like a crazy man. But I would say podcasts. I like Jake and Gino.

Tony: They’re very good guys. I like summer cardone. I like bigger pockets. I watch it all. Josh is by far, like I said, I looked at all those programs, and Josh is the real deal.

Cameron: Love it.

Cameron: Guys, if you listen to this, what you are, or watching this, what you.

Cameron: Are, take Tony’s advice.

Cameron: Get involved, get grounded, and get moving. Because as you can see, little, small steps, little things you do all the.

Cameron: Time is going to yield big rewards.

Cameron: And big success for you guys in the been. And this is why we do this, because we bring people on who are real and authentic. If you can’t fill that from Tony.

Cameron: You have no.

Cameron: Guys, this has been a phenomenal episode of the podcast.

Cameron: This is why we’re here on the accelerated real estate investment. Until next time, we’ll see you later.

Cameron: Have a great day.

[CLOSING]

Josh Cantwell: Well, guys, there you have it. I really enjoyed that episode with Liz. Man, being responsible to others is such a motivator. Giving to others, I feel so good about myself, right? Such and such a good place when I give to others. Number three, making a new decision. I remember when I was diagnosed with cancer and came out of my hospital bed and had an opportunity to restart my life, I had to relearn how to eat, I was not going to go back and redo my life the way I had been doing it, so making that decision. And then finally, as Caleb and I mentioned, don’t quit.

Guys, listen, everybody can do this business. Everybody can be successful. Everybody can be a multimillionaire with real estate. Keep getting your education, keep listening to podcasts like this. But most of all, go execute, raise capital, make offers. Don’t quit. We’ll see you next time on Accelerated Investor.