GI172: Living Overseas and Investing in the U.S. with Suzy Sevier & Michael Barnhart

GI172: Living Overseas and Investing in the U.S. with Suzy Sevier & Michael Barnhart

Suzy Sevier and Michael Barnhart are the owners and asset managers of 388 units across Oklahoma and Texas. They host “The Adventures of a Real Estate Investor” podcast and they created a monthly meetup for real estate investors living overseas and investing in the United States.

Watch The Episode Here:

Listen To The Podcast Here:

Transcript:

Announcer:
Welcome to the Global Investors Podcast, a show that focuses on helping foreign investors enter the lucrative US real estate market. Host, Charles Carillo, combined decades of real estate investing experience with a professional background in international banking to interview experts in all areas of US real estate investing. Now here’s your host, Charles Carillo.

Charles:
Do you have money sitting in the stock market? And you’re worried about it or worse. You have money sitting at the bank, not keeping up with inflation. My name is Charles Carillo, founder and managing partner of Harborside Partners. And since 2006, I’ve been investing my money and my family’s money into income producing properties. These are real assets, real properties with real addresses that produce real cash flow. At Harborside Partners, we provide passive investors who love real estate with a turnkey investing solution. If you want to put your money to work in real estate, but can’t find deals, don’t have the time to get funding in. The last thing that productive people want to do is manage real estate. We find the deals. We fund the deals and we manage the tenants, the termites and the properties. Partner with us at investwithharborside.com. That’s investwithharborside.com. Go to investwithharborside.com. If you love real estate, you like the idea of passive income and believe that income producing properties will appreciate over time. Go to investwithharborside.com. That’s investwithharborside.com.

Charles:
Welcome to another episode of the Global Investors Podcast; I’m your host Charles Carillo. Today we have Suzy Sevier and Michael Barnhart. They are the owners and asset managers of 388 units across Oklahoma and Texas. They host “The Adventures of a Real Estate Investor” podcast and they created a monthly meetup for real estate investors living overseas and investing in the United States. So thank you so much for being on the show.

Michael & Suzy :
Absolutely, Charles, it’s a pleasure to be here. Really excited to provide value for your listeners. Yay.

Charles:
Awesome. Yeah, I definitely I definitely believe you will. And so give us a little background in yourself both personally and professionally prior to getting involved and in real estate investing.

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, so I’ll do a brief background by myself and I’ll let su jump in here in a second. <Laugh>. So I am active duty military. I’ve been in the Air Force, US Air Force for 17 plus years now. And I’m, yeah, basically my background is in program management for the Air Force Chem Biodefense systems for a while. And then finally got my dream job teaching, which is teaching at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. And then they want me to continue teaching, so then me get a PhD. That’s why we are in Cambridge, England right now. I’m gonna a PhD in biochemistry, finishing up here this year. Really excited to be done with it. And then we will eventually make a way back to Colorado Springs where I finished out my military career and retire. So

Charles:
Wow.

Michael & Suzy :
Me. Yeah. Great. And then me I guess right before real estate investing, I was a project manager for a biotech company here in Cambridge. But then before that life I wasn’t accounting and once you get to know me, you realize that like my soul is not meant for accounting. And so I decided to get an MBA and kind of do a career change. And so that is what I did twice in the last, what, two years, but that’s okay. <Laugh>. It works out really well. <Laugh>.

Charles:
Awesome. Awesome. And then, so how did you guys get you, when you say you’re in Cambridge, you’re not in Cambridge, Massachusetts, you guys are in Cambridge uk, you United Kingdom. So how did you get the, the bug, let’s say, and choose real estate investing as your fuel coal and you know what, what kind of made the change in your life that you need something else in real estate? Was that

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, yeah. That’s a great question. So for us, it all started with Covid <laugh>. And so over here we had three lockdowns total and the first one was a little over a hundred days, but we didn’t know that. But everyone was sent home from work. And so I was working, you know, from home, but Michael like doing wet lab research, it’s not like he was bringing a back, back home, a ton of bacteria. And so we’re like, Okay, well what are we gonna do now for this first lockdown? Cuz we could only leave to go to the grocery store, the pharmacy or work out once a day. And so we decided to do a mini book club with each other. And the first book was The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. And in the back of that there was an amazing yeah, recommendation, like reading list.

Michael & Suzy :
And for us it was perfect cuz it was like, cool, we don’t have to choose anything on our own. We’ll just buy a few books on here. One of those was multiple streams of income by Robert Allen. And when we, Michael got to the second section, he was like, You have to read this. Like we need to figure this out. And like from there it led to finding bigger pockets from bigger pockets. It led to finding like from military to millionaire. And in that Facebook group Michael had just posted like, Hey, is anyone like living overseas but investing in real estate? And we just needed one person to say yes for, for it to like, to give ourselves permission to be like, this is what we’re going to do. So that was the bug. That’s how it started <laugh>.

Charles:
That’s awesome. That’s that’s fantastic. So tell us about your first real estate investment after you went through this extensive reading list and that Robert Allen book is like a a famous, I mean, I remember reading that years and years back. Cause I think the original copy came out like decades ago. Didn’t, I mean, it’s a,

Michael & Suzy :
I mean it’s in this nice like 1980s style, like That’s true. You like purple and gold. It’s, but yeah. I can, Yeah, you go about so like, actually our first foray into real estate investing was actually we, we were gonna do single family investing first, right? We were gonna do like the burr strategy, like, so buy undervalued homes, rehab them, and then refinance them and then rent them out. That was our goal. We were just gonna accumulate a bunch of these properties and then slowly move into multifamily, which is like a a 10 year goal for us. And anyways, we ended up getting two doors on the contract. And this one market that we did extensive research on spent like two months like building a team in this, in this market as well. And then the, I think it will happen like inland hurricane came through.

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah. Took out like 60% of the trees in the area and the, the, the town was like pretty devastated. It was a very, very devastating unfortunate natural disaster. And coming to find out like none of the contractors in the area were interested in remodeling a rental property. They’re more focused on rebuilding the city. And so like from that, like the financing fell out for our property. And then we ended up walking away from those two doors. But anyways, it was a blessing in disguise because what en ended up happening from that, instead of panicking, Susan and I pivoted to our tenure goal, which is multi-family. And so we just evaluated a different market, move markets, build a team, and then just started submitting allies, made sure we had the right team, smiting allies and large apartment complexes. And from there yeah, we got our first property and and then quickly accumulated 71 after that.

Michael & Suzy :
So yeah. But then our first one though was 88 units mm-hmm. <Affirmative> just for the concept of we wanted a property manager on site like Monday through Friday, nine to five. So you just, you know, that you had to get close to like that 100 mark, but for the 88 it worked. And so that’s how we ended up, you know, instead of going from two, instead of trying to get 10 or 50, that’s how we decided like to go up a little further just because we knew that we needed somebody there for us being so far away. Mm-Hmm.

Charles:
<Affirmative>. Yeah. That’s smart. And then you’re also gonna get some scales of economy with that as well because it’s gonna help you a lot managing it. And then also when you go to your next property, I mean you’re just, it’s, it’s really gonna see that decrease in cost across everything. So for both of you, tell us, like before you get into your team that you mentioned, tell us like what each of you handles and like what your specialties are.

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, so now, because I’m doing real estate full time, so I left my job that I felt like I needed to get an MBA for <laugh> in August of 2021. Yeah. So now I’m doing a lot of the broker relations, investor relations, asset management cuz Michael and I are the lead sponsors from afar. And now Michael has, is doing the lovely role of underwriting because although I wasn’t accounting, the underwriting is just not that thrilling for me yet <laugh>. So it’s kinda how we split it. But at the beginning Michael was doing underwriting, broker relations, I was doing a lot of investor relations, but now that I’ve moved full time, I’ve just taken more of that so that he can focus well one on his final year school, but two, just cuz now it’s fun and now I now doing it all is wonderful <laugh>.

Charles:
So what is your current like investment criteria and strategy? What, what are you, what kind of properties you’re looking at and, and kind of what’s your goal with them as you’re looking at them, underwriting them and ultimately purchasing them?

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, so what we’re looking at right now is really stabilized assets. We like stabilize assets where we can we can get long term financing on it, especially with in fixed rate financing, especially with the rising interest rates we’re experiencing currently. So we’re looking at, you know, C plus B minus or B, we’ve even dabbled a little bit into like a properties as well. You know, this all depends if the deal works or not. But stabilized assets meaning 90% occupied for at least 90 days like that. And we like light value add and or like four plus if you’re familiar with that term as well. And that’s kind of what we really targeted like 70, like late seventies and above. Asset cla assets as well. Vintage and, and B and C areas as well. Yeah, like one thing that we noticed, sorry, right away just because of like Covid, when we were on a lot of our runs, like the laundromats were either closed or you saw like an X on every other like washer and dryer.

Michael & Suzy :
And we were like, that’s a bummer. You know, like if I had to, if I went to the laundromat and found out that half bummer closed and I had to like sit and wait, like what a bummer would that be, right? Cause I’ve only ever rented and so I like felt it from that side. And so like we also really try to see if we can add in unit washer and dryer connections and then washer and dryers just cuz that amenity is loved by majority of the people that we chat with, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> or the residents, like, they don’t necessarily want like new paint on the walls or back splash if like, if they can have a washer and dryer, they will choose that. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> over a lot of other amenities or what like a, a regular renovation can give.

Charles:
Michael you mentioned two terms light value add and core plus. Can you explain what those are for our listeners?

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, so I mean, I mean the core plus and light value add isn’t really, there’s not really delineation between it too. It’s a gray area, right? But core, core plus. So core, core is like where you’re just doing light turns every single time you’re turning, like there’s no major rehab that’s, that’s required when you turn the units. Basically, you know, when you turn a unit in a core property, you just clean the, clean the carpet, maybe touch of flooring here and there maybe paint, paint the walls very, very light. And renovation is needed in order to turn, like when you get into the more value add you’re thinking of like when you turn the unit when somebody moves out, like you’re replacing the carpet or you know, painting full paint, you’re, you’re replacing countertops, resurfacing bathtubs, or even me redoing the bathtubs, like, right? So like that would be, you know, maybe core plus or maybe five a thousand dollars turn per unit. I’m just arbitrary through numbers out there, but this is how I kind of see it. But like, and then like maybe a light value add, maybe like two, two and a half, you know, $2,500 getting into the heavier value ad like when you’re remodeling, getting an entire problem, that would be a heavy value add for those units. And you’re putting like 10, $15,000 in per unit.

Charles:
So you’re getting better financing, longer term financing, fixed rate financing because these properties are in better shape and you’re pretty much going in there doing minor things to increase you know, just increase efficiency, increase the value by increasing rents. But also decreasing a lot of probably expenses that you have there that a lot of apartment complexes have that are just not needed, You know what I mean? And so that’s kind of, I see as I understand exactly what your business model is. That’s great. And that makes sense because it’s, it’s a lot easier to do that and you’re gonna have a lot more consistent cash flow for your investors with that model. So that’s, that’s great. Suzi, I won’t think you, like, you utilize, I, I believe it’s probably you that you’re working Morris on this because you’re utilizing, as I’ve understood both of you are virtual real estate events to build your network and you start doing this. And can you explain how you, how you started them? Cause this is something interesting, This is like your thought leadership I guess you would say. But it’s, I I haven’t seen it really done virtually in meetups before, so how are you, you know, how’d you start it and how are you effectively marketing it and ultimately building them up so that you can utilize them as potential, you know, active partners or passive investors?

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, so at the like very beginning of like all of Covid, right? Like so many people just took their meetups and conferences virtually. So like how Michael and I utilized that at the beginning was that we were probably attending, you know, like eight meetups a week. We went to like 10 to 15 conferences in 2020. And what we did was actually, cuz the majority of it was in Zoom or somebody had made like a spreadsheet where you could like have your name, your email address, LinkedIn what, whatnot. And we would snip the screen and just actually follow up with people, right? And be like, Hey, we didn’t get a chance to chat at the meetup or at the conference. Like, I’d love to get to know more about you. And because of that, like a lot of people didn’t respond, but a lot of people did <laugh>, which is perfect.

Michael & Suzy :
But that’s just how we slowly like gained people’s trust, right? Cause at the beginning with Michael and I was like, wait a second, like you’re in a different country. Like are you real? You know, like, will you actually show up again? And so because of the consistency and because of like reaching out and then creating content on top of that, like we remained top of mind for individuals and even what do I mean by that, right? Like why is it important to stay top of mind? Well, when Michael and I started telling people like, Hey, we’re in Tulsa, we’re gonna be in Tulsa, that’s where we’re going to start investing. Like somebody who had seen us in a lot of meetups and conferences and knew right, that we were people who were going to stick around had said like, Hey, I have a connection in Tulsa and I think you’d really benefit from this.

Michael & Suzy :
And that connection, like that individual ended up becoming like an organic mentor for us. And that was huge, right? But then now a lot of like meetups and conferences have gone back to in person. So like us keeping the virtual one from over here, just, just from a military side, right? So active duty and as a military spouse, like giving other people like the hope that they can do it from anywhere is huge because you can like with the right systems and processes in place and just being consistent with showing up. So like if nobody in your pack, right? Like where you look is entrepreneurial. Cuz like even over here, like our friends group in Cambridge went like, initially when I had said that I was leaving my job, they were like, Oh, like are you looking for something else? We’re like, No, we started business.

Michael & Suzy :
They’re like, So you’re, do you need any recommendations on a job? I’m like, No, this is really, you know, like, so it’s just a different mindset and that’s totally okay. But saying virtual and just being there for other people, especially when people were there for us, was like the biggest part of why we keep doing it and like why it’s helped us, like even within our marketing, because I want people to know that you can do it from anywhere and like that’s the message that we want to give mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. Because you hear people who even have families, right? Who say like, Oh, I wish I could do this for a month with my family. And it’s like, no, you can, like this is real no matter where you are.

Charles:
So that kind of brings us into my next questions, which I kind of asking because I’ve lived abroad while doing real estate still here in the United States. And prior to Covid, my wife and I used to spend several weeks if well maybe like two or three months a year almost two months a year outside of the us while still running real estate back in the United States and stuff like that. So tell us how you manage your US business while living, traveling abroad and I mean with everything that goes with it between time zones and between, you know, internet and overly the whole nine yards of everything that people probably aren’t thinking about when you’re living in another country.

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, I think the biggest thing that’s helped us manage everything from afar is just leveraging a project man project management software tool. So we use Asana, it’s like monday.com and Cabello and everything like that. It’s, it’s very similar to Asana, but Asana, we have all of our general partners on that. We also have our, well we obviously we asset manage through that. So we, we do our acquisitions through Asana, but then we transition asset management through Asana as well. And so we have all of our properties plugged in there with all the onsite managers, all the regional managers and the ceo, the of the property management company all plugged in there and the CFO and everything like that. So everybody knows exactly what’s going on with the property. And then what the great thing is too is like they can upload bids directly there.

Michael & Suzy :
You know, you create a task, you know, getting the roofs replace, right? Then you upload the bids on there. So okay, I, we approve this bid and so you keep a track record and everything, but then it’s not like emails where you’re going back and forth and you’re trying to find that email, Okay, who sent the other bit about the roof? You know, or who sent that bit or which bit did they approve? Things like that. Everything just handled directly through us on it and it’s lovely. And then yeah, it is. And then so with that we also track, you know, KPIs digitally as well. Yeah. and what else? What else do we use? We use, I mean obviously use LY to set up all of our meetings and, and, and Zoom and stuff, like all the tech stuff, we just really leverage all that.

Michael & Suzy :
But as not is probably the biggest thing for us. Yeah. And I think the biggest thing is to remember that like if an emergency arises, like while we’re sleeping, right? Like if something were to happen at the end of the day like that emergency would have to be taken care of immediately regardless of where we lived. You know, like if there’s a huge plumbing issue, I’m not gonna be like, no, like let’s wait till tomorrow, Right? Like that would have happen. So they know that like, doing that is more than okay. But I think it also is like having those conversations at the very beginning of like, this is how we wanna treat the residents. This is how we want our community to like be, we want the residents to know that like they are very important. So if they have a problem it’s gonna have to get fixed.

Michael & Suzy :
So, you know, like some problems, literal, smaller problems can wait, you know, like if somebody has like a, I don’t know, a missing board in their fence like that is not as important as somebody who’s electrical panel doesn’t work anymore. You know what I mean? So yeah, it’s, but having that conversation with your property manager is super important too. Cuz then they know what like we would probably say yes to and what we would say no to so that they can make those decisions if they have to be made like that. Or we also have the conversation of like, most things can wait till the next day and that’s okay both ways, so, Right.

Charles:
Yeah, it depends. I mean obviously you have that flexibility, you have that flexibility of them knowing a specific amount that you’re going to, you know, hey, you can do whatever you want up to this you know, this amount. And then it’s like hey, you know, if there’s a hot water heater that’s leaking, obviously replace it. You don’t have to call me. You know what I mean? Call me afterwards or let me know in my like weekly report or whatever it is, what, what got done. But it’s not something that’s like a major thing that needs to be taken care of or someone’s acs not, or something like this. I mean, that has to be done obviously if you’re replacing the whole, you know, that’s something you wanna talk to me about. Or if we’re taking bids for large CapEx like you said Michael roofs and stuff, you know, that’s definitely a great way of doing it through Asana.

Charles:
But you know, it’s, it’s everybody in, I think as you get more comfortable with your property managers, you’re gonna start raising that that limit a little bit and have them take care of more things. So something that might have started around 500, you know what I mean, as an arbitrary number that might be a thousand, you know what I mean? And it might be a 1500 where people are just like, Listen, this had to be done. I did this, you know, this is the re you know what I mean? And then you kind of have that you have people taking stuff off your plate and making decisions that’s going to keep the property in good shape and then keep your tenants happy as well, which are both very, very important.

Michael & Suzy :
No, totally. And even at the very beginning we found out that although our property manager is, you know, at the property all the time, that does not mean he or she even the maintenance guys right. Or our regional knows what a syndication is. And so like even explaining that like, this is why we have to do these things because it’s not Michael and I have millions of dollars for this down payment. Like let me explain the entire process to you so that you understand where it’s all coming from and how it even works. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And that definitely triggered, triggered a few light bulbs like, Oh, I didn’t know that. I’m like, I’m glad we had this conversation today, <laugh>.

Charles:
So, so tell us about your team that you have back in the United States and then how often you are physically back in the United States for properties.

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, so we, we have quite a few team members now that are kind of located in or around the area. Obviously we, we know, I mean now that our team has grown so much since we’ve moved into the area, as far as like, well obviously we have one property management team that we, she and her team like run all of our properties now which is awesome. Obviously we have a team of vendors that we trust, know, like, and trust now to, to look at properties for us and things like that. Go out and give bids and stuff like that. But then we also have like syndication partners that are also in the area. Because SU’s now full time and covid restrictions have been lifted for the majority all over here. Over over here. Yeah. she’s been traveling back once a month roughly. Yeah. it wasn’t gonna correlate and it’s kind of picked up now and, and just cuz we have more and more going on, so yeah, about once a month we travel at least su travels back. Oh,

Charles:
Nice. Yeah, it’s great. Yeah. You view have the team on the round. I mean, it takes care of a lot of issues because especially you have people that are, you know, reviewing different parts of the pro properties and they’re reviewing potential acquisitions. I think the, the hardest part is just getting your first acquisition and then after that your team members are gonna take you a lot more seriously and spend more time with you. And then I think that’s when it really starts rolling because now you’ve proven yourself to these vendors that probably get emails and calls throughout the week from new potential investors that never pull the trigger. So once you’ve done that, now you’re on a whole nother level, whole nother spreadsheet let’s say of hey, who I’m this person, I’m gonna actually review financials when they’re buying their, you know, seventh property or whatever. And help them, you know, close this because they’re gonna put this bant with us, which is an awesome place to to be in.

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah. And it’s even just like with the vendors and whatnot, like just treating them like people, right. Instead of just workers also. Like that makes a huge difference. Cuz I was there like in Tulsa most of October and most of February. And what I mean most, I literally mean almost every single day of the month. And so like they re we really got to like know each other so now I can call them and I feel much more comfortable like calling them and talking about something, you know, like even one of our contractors the other day called me and he’s like, Are you mad at me? I’m like, You’re you’re gonna know when I’m mad. I’m not mad. <Laugh>.

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah. And so like it’s cool that we’ve even gotten to a place where he feels comfortable enough to even ask if I’m mad. I’m like, No, you didn’t text me back. I’m not mad at you. I thought you were mad at me <laugh>. You know, just like little stuff like that. And so it’s cool when you can like create just those deeper relationships. Cause then, you know, like our goals not to always just have one property forever. It’s to like improve every property along the journey. And so when you can include some of the same vendors for all of them, it’s awesome.

Charles:
Yeah. That’s fantastic. That’s where you’re gonna, Another thing that helps with your scales of economy too. So you’re gonna get a you know, you’re gonna get a decrease in cost for everything that you do and everything moves forward and then you’re gonna have a much tighter ideas when you’re evaluating new properties when you’re doing out your performance of what stuff’s gonna cost. Cuz you’re doing it so often and you have that relationship with the vendor. So if something goes up in price, they might work with you on it if your numbers were off from, which is where we are now with all inflation happening and stuff going up every month. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. But with you guys reviewing so many properties, buying so many properties, working with passive investors, working with GP partners, vendors, and what are some come mistakes you see real estate investors make whether you’ve seen ’em firsthand or whether people have sent you you know, sent you any kind of underwriting or deals are looking at what, what do you think are mistakes you’re seeing not just from new investors but also maybe experienced investors to it where we are now in the cycle?

Michael & Suzy :
I was gonna say, not asking like clarifying questions. Hmm. Right. So

Charles:
That’s that’s a good one.

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah. I mean like getting down to like the hard part of the conversation and I don’t wanna, like, I think a lot of people assume that when somebody asks a question it’s like, oh well they don’t trust it or they don’t understand it. It’s like, well no, they don’t understand it. Right. Like a commute, a confused mind says no. Yes. And we don’t want to say no over and over and over, but asking clarifying questions can seem difficult to do, but that’s really where you get to the core of somebody’s underwriting or you get to the core of like why somebody’s actually wants to invest in real estate investing or how much money they think they can like raise for capital or why they decided to go with, you know, that lender with a variable rate. All of the above. Because like if we don’t know people’s motivations like active or passive for real estate investing, we actually don’t know how a deal will go.

Michael & Suzy :
You know, or we don’t know how somebody will react when it comes to like how a GP team works, right? Cuz as a passive investor, if I really need the money, like, because I want to build something faster than what the deal could do, like that’s when somebody could say like, Oh, I don’t know if this is a deal for you. Right? Like, we’re looking for five to seven years, not three to five years when you think you would want the return back. But like if you don’t actually ask right. Clarifying questions or deeper questions, you never get to know those answers. And those are huge because it just changes the vibe <laugh> of the deal no matter what side you’re on. What about you? What do you think <laugh> more from an underwriting perspective, they like I see people not bringing enough CapEx and then they get in trouble and then have to do capital calls early.

Michael & Suzy :
We don’t want that. Also see people being very, very aggressive in year one. You know, over 5% increase in rental collections. Yeah. Which is, you know, it takes like three or four months to, to get your feet outta their property when you move in there and then you have another, you know, eight months to try to like push those rents to get significant increase. So like I usually underwrite something less than 5% year one and then around 10% a year, two. And then obviously with inflation, a lot of people are being very aggressive with rental increases. So, you know, 5% plus, which I think is very significant. And then you look at their exit price and you’re like, and you expect to get, you know, you bought, just say hypothetically you bought it for a hundred k a door and you expect to exit for 200 k a door in in five years when it’s just a, you know, core plus or, or a live value add deal. I wanna rethink that, right? So

Charles:
Yeah, the other thing too is that people put those rent, they’re taking historic rent appreciation from, you know, when I say historic could be, you know, 12, 24, 36 months ago and they’re saying, Oh, that’s gonna repeat itself and people should be more aggressive on your insurance going up versus, you know what I mean, in your taxes going up versus hey, rent’s just gonna keep on going up at this, you know, phenomenal rate. And the other thing too is during any type of light value, any type of value add at all, you’re going to be, you know, like you said, I love how you said too is like three to four months and I usually call it like the first six months, it’s like initial stabilization. I don’t even know what’s going on in the property to be honest. I mean, you have, you have ideas of what’s happening.

Charles:
You have, you have an idea of who’s paying and you have an idea here and there, but you really don’t know until you actually get in there and all your vendors have been switched over. You got rid of all the old vendors. Your new management is like comfortable to everything. You know exactly what units are vacant, which ones aren’t. And you’re just reading off those rent roll and you’re hoping it’s like still accurate and you’re kind of like calling people that aren’t there and all this kinda stuff. And, but the thing too is that so I love that about that, but it’s like you’re also kind shaking it up a little bit and you’re gonna have whatever the vacancy is, is gonna increase and you’re gonna have, you know, while you’re doing these, there’s gonna be longer than what the person was doing before. You know what I mean? It’s might take you three weeks for a unit versus one week, you know what I mean? When they’re doing it before because you’re going, you’re doing more work to the unit. Hopefully it’s less than that. But you know what I mean? So it’s like these are things that people don’t I see going on your point of what people don’t factor into their underwriting when I look at it.

Michael & Suzy :
Absolutely. Yeah. And when you, and we’ve, we’ve found this out as well as like when you take over a new property a lot of the residents will push back and see what they can get away with, right. So they’ll just like, Yeah, how long can I go without paying now? Right. And and then they’re like, you know, Oh, maybe I’ll just pay a little bit here or pay a little bit here, or Yeah. Like the manager used to let me do this. Yeah, exactly. So like, there’s a lot of those issues you have to work through. Right. It might take a, you know, like you said, six months. Yeah. We don’t even start distributions for our properties until we’re after through an entire six months of operation just cuz we don’t know what’s gonna happen. Right. So

Charles:
Yeah, it’s smart, it’s smart, it’s the most it’s the most conservative way of doing it and you know, the worst thing ever is going back to your investors. But when you have that, whatever it is, five, six months that you are that you own it before you’re doing distributions, it gives you an idea of figuring out exactly a hundred percent what’s happening at the property prior to start paying money out and they’re actually returns that you’re, you know, distributing not just money that, you know, investors gave you earlier on. So but that’s awesome. That’s, that’s fantastic. So what are some of the main factors that have contribute to your success? I mean, and you guys have been doing this for a handful of years, so like what have you seen in growing so fast and growing teams so fast? Especially from being, you know, five time zones from the United States?

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, I think for us it’s just a lot of people taking a lot of information. There’s, there’s so much information out there, right? Like it is scary to, you know, spend tens of millions of dollars on apartment complexes and then like, especially raising millions of dollars for investors, right? Like make sure that you’re properly educated enough Yeah. To the point where you can start taking action once you can start taking action, take action and make decisions, right? And take action. Make decisions, take actions. A lot of people will get decision fatigue and then they just like they don’t know what to do and then they have, you know analysis paralysis and things like that. Like for us it’s just like, okay, if I didn’t know something, I’m gonna read about it and then I’m gonna make a decision, right? And then next time it’s just easier and it’s quicker. So just continue to take action I think is the biggest thing for, for us. Excuse me. I was gonna say another thing that really like helped, and this is more just like after our very first deal because we didn’t know how it would go and people don’t really talk about that during needles. And so like we went through every single email and created an entire checklist. Like, okay,

Charles:
Oh smart,

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, this is what it was like before we submitted Ani all the way through, you know, closing mm-hmm. <Affirmative> even for a couple of weeks, just so that going into the next one, it wasn’t like a, oh my gosh, let me look back at the emails now to see what I can remember. It’s like, okay, these are all the things that happened granted, right? Like we might use the local bank instead of agency debt, but financing is still there, Right? Like you can still kind of figure it out. And it just, even when Michael was talking about decision fatigue, like it kind of takes a little bit of that away because it’s there and you can either, you know, allocate it to somebody else or just get it done super quickly cuz you’re like, Oh, okay, I know what to send this time. Like I know what is needed this time.

Charles:
Yeah. Yeah. Having that processes checklist and like, it starts you off as systems you’ve documented what you’re doing and now, you know, going back to it, this is what I did and I should have, you know, this should be moved up here mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and this should be, but then it’s after a few properties, after a few things with anything. You know what I mean? Then you’re, you’re, you’re kind of moving through moving smoothly. Yeah. So how can our listeners learn more about you and and your guys’ businesses?

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah, so I think best way to define us is just go to our website, adventurous rei.com and you can find out more about us on there. But one thing we really didn’t get to talk about too much on here is just the impact that we leave with our residents. That’s, that’s our main focus, right? And we’ve, Susie and I focused on what we call our own roi. It’s a different roi, it’s internal impact. And so like Susie kind of mentioned a little bit about like looking f you know, maybe adding those in unit washer dryer really make that experience for that resident even better, right? And so that’s what we always look at when we’re underwriting, looking at different properties, make sure that we can develop a business plan that has the largest impact on the resident base. And so if you wanna learn more about like what returnal impact is, you can go to adventurous rei.com/impact and there’s like a little little guide thing that we talk about return impact and, and how we use that and leverage that in our business. So that’s the best way to find this. Ob obviously we’re on LinkedIn, Michael Barnhart and Susie Sier is, well, we’re very active on there, finance and connect with this one there.

Charles:
Awesome. And the links for your podcast are well, is on your website as well cause I was checking out yesterday. So a lot of great information there for anybody that’s interested in following your footsteps of buying apartment complex, whether it’s be based in the United States or being based abroad. So that’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for you guys coming on and looking forward to connecting with you in the near future.

Michael & Suzy :
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Charles. It’s such a pleasure.

Charles:
I’ll talk to you soon.

Charles:
Hi guys! It’s Charles from the Global Investors Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show. If you’re interested in get involved with real estate, but you don’t know where to begin, set up a free 30 minute strategy call with me at schedulecharles.com. That’s schedulecharles.com. Thank you.

Announcer:
Thank you for listening to the Global Investors Podcast. If you’d like to show, be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Google play to get new weekly episodes. For more resources and to receive our newsletter, please visit global investor podcast.com and don’t forget to join us next week for another episode.

Announcer:
Nothing in this episode should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Any investment opportunities mentioned on this podcast are limited to accredited investors. Any investments will only be made with proper disclosure, subscription documentation, and are subject to all applicable laws. Please consult an appropriate tax legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of Syndication Superstar, LLC, exclusively.

Links and Contact Information Mentioned In The Episode:

About Suzy Sevier and Michael Barnhart

Suzy Sevier and Michael Barnhart are the Founders of Adventurous Real Estate Investors. They specialize in a different ROI, Return on Impact. Through real estate investing they create immeasurable impacts with the residents they serve to create thriving communities.

They are the owners and asset managers of 388 units across Oklahoma and Texas. They host “The Adventures of a Real Estate Investor” podcast and they created monthly meetup for real estate investors living overseas and investing in the United States.

Michael is Active-Duty Air Force, getting his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge and Suzy is Real Estate Professional and has a background in project management and finance.

Are You a Fan? Subscribe, Rate, Review & Share – Click Here To Learn How

What question do you always wish I would ask but I never do?

Connect with the Global Investors Show, Charles Carillo and Harborside Partners:

Scroll to top
error: Alert: Content selection is disabled!!