Announcer:
Welcome to the Global Investor Podcast, a show that focuses on helping foreign investors enter the lucrative US real estate market. Host Charles Carillo combines 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 Eric Chadderdon. He is a multifamily apartment investor and syndicator based in Houston, Texas. Eric spent over a decade in direct sales and management before making the transition to becoming a full-time real estate investor. His firm has invested into nearly 500 units in the Houston and Fort Worth Texas area. Thank you so much for being on the show, Eric.
Eric:
Thank you so much, Charles. Happy to be here.
Charles:
So give us a little bit of your background, both personally and professionally prior to being involved in real estate investing.
Eric:
Yeah, sure. So you know, I, I think it goes back all the way to, you know, when I was a kid, I played sports growing up and I was always really into my education. Took education very serious, and same with my athletics. So that gave me this competitive drive, and I think that’s what translated over into the real estate space quite a bit. But as far as professionally, I just come from a sales background. So I used to run a a solar company mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, and so we put solar panels up on roofs, which has been blowing up the last you know, number of years. And it was great. Loved it, saw a lot of success. But I was ready for a new challenge, a new chapter, and something to make me better and something that I could wake up every day and be really, really excited about.
Charles:
Nice. So why did you choose real estate investment as your, as your investment vehicle, I should say? Going forward?
Eric:
Yeah. for me, it, it goes back to my parents. My, I kind of grew up in and around real estate both single family and multifamily. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. My parents had 10 to 12 single family homes and and also two small multi-family buildings as well, all in Oregon. And so part of the reason why I was inspired to take it up and pursue this was because I, I felt like they were doing it wrong.
Charles:
Okay.
Eric:
Though they had seen a ton of success mm-hmm. <Affirmative> you know, they were still in their sixties working, you know, 14, 15 hour days. You know, they’d go to, they’d go to the apartments, you know, from six to nine, then go, you know, to their nine to fives and then back to the apartments every single day. And so they were self, they were self-managing everything themselves.
Charles:
Were they also doing like, repairs on it themself and everything like that? That sounds like they
Eric:
Were everything. Yes.
Charles:
Oh, wow. Yeah.
Eric:
Yeah. And I mean, there, I remember there being times, man, where my parents would get phone calls at 10:11 PM that there was a leak, and they’d get up and run over to the properties. And it was just, you know, I I, I just felt like there was a better way. And you know, though they had seen a lot of success. I wanted to be able to, one, seek out this better way, but two, help them be able to participate in it.
Charles:
Interesting. I my, my dad was very involved with a number of different rentals owned a own, a lot of ’em in all different buildings, like your, your parents did. He self-managed them, but he never did the, a lot of the labor per se. He had superintendents for that and stuff like that, but he wouldn’t hire a third party manager. He’d like built his own kind of team mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And it’s, it’s difficult to scale. I d know exactly what you’re saying, but it’s mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s very, very difficult to build the business when you’re, you’re doing everything yourself.
Eric:
It is. And I can happily say that you know, since I’ve been in the space, my family, my parents have since then sold all of their assets in Oregon, redeployed funds into my, my properties. Nice. we’ve recently closed a couple more since even you knew, but we’re now at 724 units across five different properties. And my parents are investors in those deals as well. And so they’re making you know, a pretty healthy amount of passive income from the cash flow of those deals.
Charles:
Right. True passive income is what everybody tell, you know, the only way you do it. Yeah.
Eric:
You know, as much as, as, as much as we can be my pa <laugh>, you know, being active for 30 years, it’s, it’s, it’s definitely a challenge for them to take a backseat. But we’ve been working together and, and, you know, getting them through it and helping them learn to just enjoy life and let us do our, our thing.
Charles:
Awesome. That’s the way it should be. Yes. So, Eric, let’s talk about your first real estate investment. You know, you, you made the shift going into syndications. So tell us about your first real estate investment. What, what it was, and you know, how it turned out.
Eric:
Yeah, so this is kind of a two-part question. I think for me, cause the first deal I did, you know, I don’t really feel like that’s like what I would call my baby. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> the one that really, I feel like, you know, I had all the, you know, A to z I took this thing over, but the first first one I did was it was a 224 unit apartment complex in Fort Worth, Texas. But the deal wasn’t even my deal. It was actually some of my mentors and coaches deal mm-hmm. <Affirmative> but they had a big two and a half million dollar investor back out before closing. And I had been raising capital for the previous seven months. And so I actually had investors that were ready to go for the right opportunity. And this one was a good one over in Fort Worth.
Eric:
So, you know, good market, good population growth, good job diversity, job growth, all of the above. So, you know, great market there. And and so I, I had investors ready to go and so I just put my capital into their deal. And then also on top of that, the operators, Tyler, Debra, and Ryan Wooey. Tyler lives in Maui, and Ryan lives in Orlando. And so the deals in Fort Worth, I happened to live in Dallas at the time, so I also help out a little bit with asset management on that property as well. So for me, that first one was just a lot of exposure and a lot of doors opening. But really I just wanted to, and yes, I did add a lot of value with bringing in two and a half million dollars of capital. But, you know, more than anything, I just wanted to be a sponge and learn from people that were experts at this. And just take it all in so I could be more prepared for the next one going forwards, which is the second deal I did, which is what I feel like was my true baby.
Charles:
Okay. So is, you know, with that big whale investor, cause we’ve had that happen before and now it’s, if anybody ever says that they’re putting in that much money, it’s kind of like, you know, it’s kind of a red flag for me. I’d rather have a lot of smaller investors that are gonna be, you know, that, you know, are gonna have a higher probability together of sure. You know, investing. So do you, do you now have a red flag like that as well? I mean, since you’ve been involved with a deal that had that or
Eric:
No, we do, but on that deal specifically, I didn’t have two and a half million. It was spread across multiple investors. Oh. And so I had been raising that for several months to be able to get, get to
Charles:
That point about your sponsor that had an investor pullout of two and a half
Eric:
Million. Oh, oh, oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it was, I, yeah, great question. It’s a couple things. One, one time, you know, when people come in with that amount, couple things happen. One, you know, sometimes they like having control and maybe they’re not the most experienced as far as operations go and executing business plans go. So we like to be able to maintain that. Usually we’ll have an investment minimum, usually at a hundred thousand. And then we’ll also have an investment maximum as well. So just also, also to make sure that they don’t have to get underwritten by the lender and all of the
Charles:
Above. Right, right. Definitely. so is it true that you quit your job after, after you’re like, one of your first apartment deals? Is that correct,
Eric:
<Laugh>? Yeah, it is true. I’ll, I’ll be super transparent with you. Like Yes. It was exciting. I got a big portion of the, you know, acquisition fee from that deal. I was able to pay off a bunch of debt and buy my fiance a ring, which are the two things I was hoping to do. And I get married now this week. So by the time your listeners are listening to this, I will be a married man. Happy. Congratulations. Married man. Thank you so much. I’m very excited. We got four days till the big day. But yeah, so, you know, hopefully that answers it a little bit.
Charles:
Yeah. it’s, yeah. Cause one thing I think people are always sometimes they’ll quit before doing a deal, and then sometimes they quit. I guess it’s, everybody’s has different financial positions of when they’re making the leap into becoming a full-time investor.
Eric:
Well, for, for me, I, I, I, I was able to step away and like, like I was saying, full transparency, I actually wish I didn’t mm-hmm. <Affirmative> because I had paid off a bunch of debt, bought Savannah a ring, but then I was, I was broke again, <laugh>, I was like, oh man, I gotta go, go do another one of these deals, or, or I’m gonna be hurting. And so anyway, for me it was, it was motivation and drive. But I do truly wish, if I was to go back, I wish I would’ve kept working for another three to four months or at least until we closed that second deal, which was November 4th of last year.
Charles:
Nice. how hard, I mean, you, you grew up in a non syndication real estate investment family, which most people do if they invest in, if they grow up in a real estate family, and it’s usually not a syndication family. How hard was the shift for your mindset going from investing your own money, which is I imagine what your, how your parents had built their investment portfolio to now bringing on a whole nother part of the business, which is investors. And I mean, did you have to really work on changing your mindset to do that?
Eric:
No, actually for me it was, I knew that there was a better way to do it. And so this was it, you know, this was the way, and so for me, it was actually very easy because it’s all I’ve ever been taught. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, I jumped into a, a mentorship program called the Multifamily Mindset with Tyler Dev and Ryan Wooey. And I, I just, you know, I just followed their path. I just did what they taught. I didn’t deviate from it. No need to reinvent the wheel. And so I was just a student of the game. I committed to learning this business inside and out and making strong relationships with people that could help our business and, and vice versa. And so for me, you know, some people say, well, your first deal was 224 units. It was, but you know, it’s, that’s all I really know. You know, we were taught to go big from the beginning and not start with, you know, six units or 20 units or even 40. We were taught to go big. And, you know, sometimes the bigger that they are, sometimes it can even mean that they’re safer investments as well.
Charles:
Yeah, I definitely agree with safer investments. So there’s lot, there’s less volatility when you’re dealing with a, you know, six unit 600 600 units versus six units or visa versa, you know? Sure. Hundred units plus is, gives you so much more safety. I definitely agree with that. What, what is your firm’s current investments strategy and criteria look like today versus going forward?
Eric:
Yeah, so today and up to this point we have focused primarily on the, the Texas market. So mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, we’ve got that 1 224 unit in Dallas Fort Worth. And then the rest of our, our properties are all in Houston. We do live here locally in Houston. It makes it easy. We’ve built some very strong broker relationships out here. So deal flow is not really our issue. So we really kind of, it’s nice to be able to just pop over and go check out the property and tour it and meet with the brokers face-to-face on a weekly basis if we need to. And so you know, we like being able to invest in Texas. We are open to other markets. There’s been a few that we’ve had our eyes on. But really what we’re looking for is value add deals, B and C type properties, just any, anywhere where they are below market rates where we can come in and increase the NOI and force the appreciation and really just give our investors a good solid return.
Eric:
We like 1980s vintage and newer. Yeah. You know, we wanna avoid certain piping and wiring and stab lock panels out here in Texas. So, you know, for those reasons we like the 1980s and newer. But yeah, the, you know, anything a hundred plus we, we will go lower if we need to. But you know, for the right deal, and especially if it’s close to some of our other properties like for example, the deal that we just closed a few weeks back, it was a 60 unit, so our smallest one, but part of the reason why we pursued it, it’s less than two miles away from two other properties we own here are Houston.
Charles:
Yeah. So you already have economies of scale built in and those investors investing into that smaller property, even though we just said it’s better to have larger properties, they still have that economies cuz you’re using labor and handyman and all the time, you know, contractors from property to property. So that definitely makes sense and kind of gives you all that right away.
Eric:
Exactly. Yep.
Charles:
So Eric, what is your team look like today and like, what is your role on your team?
Eric:
So my team is pretty unique. I love my team. My team is comprised of myself and Brett and Megan Davenport, who also happen to be my fiance’s mom and dad. So I, we are the definition of a family operation. We work together as family. We have three partners on our team. Brett does our acquisitions in underwriting. He’s phenomenal at it. He is very conservative and if he gives me the green light, then, you know, I feel good and confident moving forwards on it. He is very selective on the deals that, you know, he decides to, you know, bring to us to pursue. So so that’s what he does. Megan does all of our asset management. She’s comes from a construction background. So she, you know, can easily go be like, oh, that’s water damage, or that’s wood rod, or that’s mold. And that’s very valuable when you’re, you know, in that role as an asset manager. And that leaves, you know, me and my role and I kind of do all the investor relations, the capital raising social media, content creation, marketing and overall brand development to attract investors to us so we can fund the deals, you know, in a timely manner.
Charles:
Interesting. How has that been working with your fiance’s parents?
Eric:
Not gonna lie, at the very beginning I was extremely hesitant to do it. At the time I was just boyfriend and girlfriend with her and jumping into a business. Granite, yes, I knew we would be getting married, but still boyfriend and girlfriend and jumping into business with her parents was it, you know, made me a little uneasy at first. So we tested the waters for a few months and we just worked extremely well together. We have, we literally have different skill sets completely. So, you know, it’s cool because we compliment each other in very good ways. And we all kind of stay in our lane, but together as one, we’re a pretty strong unit. And so it it, you know, it was gonna go one of two ways. You know, we were either gonna, you know, we’re either gonna do a bunch of deals together or, you know, I might not have a wife. So <laugh> I’m thankful that, you know, it went the, the first route and now we’ve closed on our fifth deal together as a family and we are moving and grooving and we have a ton of momentum and we’re excited for 2023. And all it did was bring Brett, Megan, and I a whole lot closer.
Charles:
Well, that’s awesome. Yeah, it’s great because it sounds like everybody on your team has different specialties that they focus on and that’s what makes a a great partnership. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So one thing here is you, you’re, you’ve been, you know, you, you raised two and a half million dollars for your first deal, which is rare for someone raising money that much for the first deal in real estate syndication. I mean, how have communication been and relationship building been as, especially you being in investor relations, how important has that been to building your business and you know, building a portfolio?
Eric:
I hon I honestly think that that’s probably the most important factor. I don’t sit here, you know, across the screen from you and claim to be some real estate guru cuz we’ve done five deals in the last 14 months and 724 units now. Like, yes, we’ve seen success, but I, I feel like where my true skillsets lie is the ability to surround myself with people that are better than me and you know, surround myself with people that are experts at this and learn from them and just build very strong relationships in a, in a quick and timely manner. And I think those relationships have gotten me into deals and you know, gotten us to get off market properties and it’s just opened a lot of doors. I think relationships, this is very much a relationship business. And you do not have to be an expert at every part of this business to be successful. At least that’s what I believe. I think you could, you know, have one skillset and add value to a group of people or a team that has other skill sets and together you can tackle deals and win.
Charles:
Yeah, definitely agree on that. So I know you’re not an underwriter, but I had a question cause since you are, you’re based in Houston, I’m based in South Florida and Yeah, I, how with what we have going on, we’ve had, you know, over the last few years with hurricanes mm-hmm. <Affirmative> mainly in these areas. How does your team accurately estimate property insurance during the lifetime of a hold? Because it’s pretty easy initially, you get a quote, you know, what your first year’s gonna be, but how do we know two, your two, your 3, 4, 5, you know what I mean? How are you guys doing that and like how have you been able to mitigate that risk, let’s say?
Eric:
Sure. You know, it, it just like you said, I mean, I, things have changed a ton. You know, even when I first started in this space, we were underwriting deals at between four and $600 a door for insurance. And since then things have changed. You know, tremendously. You know, it got to the point where on one of our deals, like now we underwrite anywhere from 12 to $1,500 a door for insurance. And so we’re trying to be as conservative to, to mitigate that. We try to, you know, be as, like I said, as conservative as we can. If we come in at 1400 bucks a door, but then we get it for 1100, well great, we’ve got a little buffer there mm-hmm. <Affirmative> that we can use for other, you know, for other things. And so I think to answer your question, I would just say plan ahead and, and just be extra conservative, especially in states like ours. You know, you guys have hurricanes over there, we have hurricanes here. You need to be prepared for that and make sure that you’re also getting good quality insurance and not under insuring the properties as well. Things can happen.
Charles:
Yeah. And it’s also not just in hurricane for listeners, it’s not just also in hurricane areas. When I had, we sold a, a portfolio of smaller properties that we start buying years back in Connecticut this year. And one of those policies about a year, about a month before we sold, went up like 12%. So it’s, you know, and obviously I’m keeping it for one month. I’m not gonna put it out the quote again. But the thing though is that in that scenario is it’s, it’s everywhere in the United States, you know what I mean? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So you have to make sure when you’re writing these estimates, you’re not putting two or 3%, you know what I mean, for your insurance going up. It’s gonna be a lot more than that. And like you said, it’s all benefit if it doesn’t.
Eric:
Yep. You got it.
Charles:
But so what have you found to be your biggest challenge, Eric?
Eric:
You know, I think at the beginning it was mindset. You know I jumped into this space and it took seven months to get the first deal mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, and I think it’s good for, you know, listeners to hear if they’re new in this space. Like, you know, I, I’m a firm believer that the only time you lose in this business is if you quit. If you keep going and keep trying and keep building relationships and keep trying to add value to other people, eventually the deals will come as long as you’re working hard and continuing to make progress each week. And so mindset was, was tough at the beginning, but, you know, thankfully we had a good program that also taught on mindset. And so I, you know, I was very appreciative of that. And then since then, it’s just been in increasing our investor database, you know, just like a lot of people, we wanna be able to do more deals, but the only way we can is if we can fund them. And so we’re always building our investor database out and always embracing new passive investors and giving them good opportunities, but at the same time, there’s deals that we’re, we’ve been having to pass on because we didn’t have the capacity to fund these deals. And so, you know, we, that, that’s a big focus for us moving forwards over the next three to six months is increasing that investor database substantially. So we can fund all the deals that we actually wanna do.
Charles:
Yeah. It’s, it’s two separate funnels, deals and investors, and they have to keep on being filled up or mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, everything stops. So Eric, how you made progress in your life by getting outta your comfort zone. How has that worked for you and how has that kind of grown you as a person?
Eric:
You know, I, I think when, when I was younger, I used to be ashamed of things that weren’t good. You know, call it my own insecurities, whatever you might call it, I’m not sure. But I used to be afraid to tell people that I lost. I used to be afraid to tell people if I something didn’t go right. I felt like I had to portray this image of, you know, always successful and, and man, that that couldn’t be further from the truth. When, when I finally just became comfortable in my own skin and I was willing to be vulnerable and put myself out there and, you know, tell the good, bad, ugly about my journey, the amount of people that I’ve impacted since then has take, you know, skyrocketed. And it’s because people can relate with those things. And so I’ve been, it took me a while to be able to step outta my comfort zone and be vulnerable and be able to explain to people, you know, things don’t always go right or tell people where I messed up, but if I keep that to myself, how can I help other people learn from it?
Eric:
Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. Right. And so it actually is a big value add by you being able to give back by just being a little bit open and telling people where you lost or telling people where you messed up. And it’s more so for the idea that you don’t want them to make that same mistake.
Charles:
Yeah. What are common mistakes you see real estate investors make in all the decades of being around and in real estate investing?
Eric:
You know, I, I, I think there’s enough good to go around in this business, you know, and so I, I think one mistake is people get, you know, some people can get a little greedy. You know, especially on these larger deals, there’s so much good to go around on ’em that no reason to nickel and dime partners. You know, at the end of the day, the overall goal is to help our investors make more money and to make this property a success, and you, you wanna make sure you’re partnering up with the right people. So I think partnerships is definitely something really big for us. You know, we wanna make sure we’re partnering with people that are hardworking, that have the same morals and values as we do. And that won’t quit at all. And that will keep finding solutions until the very end.
Charles:
And Eric, as we’re closing up here, what do you think are the main factors that have contributed to your success over the years?
Eric:
I, I, I think it, it comes from a value add mindset. And just and having grit, grit to just keep going. You know, I submitted 27 Lois before I got my first one accepted. And so, you know, it, it is a numbers game, but you gotta, you better believe that around 22, 23, I was feeling less motivated for sure. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, and so that’s when you lean on partners, your team, a network if you have one of those. And so I, I think grit mindset and just the ability to build relationships has probably been my number one. My first couple of deals I got were purely because of relationships I had built, and because of those relationships, there were doors that opened.
Charles:
Hmm. Great, great insight. So how can our listeners learn more about you and your business, Eric?
Eric:
Yeah, I mean, we’re very active on social media, so you can find me on Facebook LinkedIn, Instagram even. But really we’re, we’re putting out content quite a bit. We’re putting more educational content out. We’ve got some things that we’re launching here in the near future. We’re starting to put out more educational web webinars to attract investors or to, to, you know, help educate other operators in the space. There’s a lot going on with us. You can also go visit our website, www.gibbscapital.com. Gibbs is G I B B Y S. And there we have, you know, different blog posts. You can see all of our contact info. Feel free to reach out to me personally anytime. We also have some webinars and different informational videos on, on the website too. You can go and get some more information and I’m always open to connecting.
Charles:
Well, sounds great. Eric, thank you so much for coming on today and looking forward to connecting with you in the near future. And congratulations on getting married this weekend.
Eric:
Hey, thanks again, man. Appreciate it.
Charles:
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.
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