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Changing Their Family’s Fate by Building a 600+ Unit Portfolio (At Age 20!)

Real Estate Rookie Podcast
50 min read
Changing Their Family’s Fate by Building a 600+ Unit Portfolio (At Age 20!)

There are those who accept their circumstances and then there are those like today’s guests —the Donis Brothers (Jeffrey, Kenneth, and Kerwin). These three brothers have created immense success for themselves at only twenty & twenty-three years old through self-education, network building, and hard work. They’ve done seventeen wholesale deals and co-sponsored three multifamily syndications with a total of 636 units between them in a mere two years.

They got their start in college when the oldest brother, Kenneth, heard about wholesaling while watching The Breakfast Club. After taking a humbling trip to Guatemala and realizing how many opportunities they had access to, they knew they had to pursue real estate. Once they decided to pursue real estate, each brother separately came to the same conclusion—college wasn’t for them. They collectively decided to focus on building their business so they could reach their ultimate goal of financial freedom and retiring their mom. 

They started their real estate journey with single-family homes but quickly realized multifamily properties aligned more with their goals. During their transition, it took six months of straight cold calling before they got their first deal. While working to get their first deal they also joined a mastermind and spent time expanding their network. They actively sought out people in spaces they were trying to penetrate which led them to their current mentorship program. Their ability to scale their business and network simply proves they are a force to be reckoned with. Make sure to listen closely because the Donis Brothers could be the next big thing.

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Listen to the Podcast Here

Read the Transcript Here

Ashley Kehr:
This is Real Estate Rookie episode 175.

Jeffrey Donis:
I would say in the beginning I was scared and it wasn’t something I wanted to do but eventually I started to actually love growing a business and I saw once we closed on our first deal it was something real. And I’d made more money than my mom makes in two thirds of a year just in a few months.

Ashley Kehr:
My name is Ashley Kehr and I’m here with my co-host Tony Robinson.

Tony Robinson:
And if you’re joining us for the first time, the Real Estate Rookie podcast is the place for new real estate investors because we give you the inspiration, the information, the motivation that you need to get started or keep going. So Ashley Kehr, what’s going on? What’s new? How are things in your neck of the woods?

Ashley Kehr:
Pretty good. I’m still crutching around living my day in physical therapy but doing good. Yeah. I went and looked at a campground this weekend. Then I’ll probably put an offer in on tomorrow hopefully so that’s exciting. But yeah, just loving living life, trying to protect my ACL from re-injury and hopefully get back to full mobility before the rookie conference.

Tony Robinson:
Yeah, I know. We got like three weeks for you to get back on your feet so fingers crossed you can get back to normal.

Ashley Kehr:
So Tony we have to talk about your big event.

Tony Robinson:
Oh yeah. So look, I actually, let me see. They’re not too far-

Ashley Kehr:
So Tony had a big event and I gave specific instructions to his wife to make sure that they would be in the video.

Tony Robinson:
If you’re watching on YouTube, there you go. There you go.

Ashley Kehr:
Yeah, Tony. Yay! So Tony did a fitness competition.

Tony Robinson:
Yep.

Ashley Kehr:
You have to go look at his Instagram and check out how defined he got. And I mean it was amazing, Tony. You did awesome. You took place in each of what was it? Three.

Tony Robinson:
Yeah. So there are three different classes that I competed in and took first and all three. So it was a shock. You never know who you’re going to compete against until you get there. And there was some really solid dudes there. And I’m just super humbled and happy that I was able to compete and take that number one spot. So it’s cool. It was a good experience.

Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. Congratulations. I’m just very proud of you and excited for you. I remember the day that you told me you’re going to do this, we were at a Vegas pool party and at the same day, I said, “Yeah, I’m going to do it with you.” And yeah, [crosstalk 00:02:28] downhill fast.

Tony Robinson:
We’ll blame it on the ACL.

Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. Four months later the ACL tear.

Tony Robinson:
But that was cool. It was a good time.

Ashley Kehr:
So what else is new?

Tony Robinson:
Yeah. So actually we got a property actually. We’re going to sign the contract I think tonight in your neck of the woods, over in New York. So, yeah. Out by a lake out there in New York and it’s actually being run as a bed and breakfast right now but I think we’re going to convert it to just be a really big Airbnb. So we’re still trying to debate on what the business plan will be, but yeah, just randomly met an investor who was in that area and we figured to take a look and found something that made sense for us.

Ashley Kehr:
Oh, I can’t wait for you to come out and do your due diligence.

Tony Robinson:
Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I think we’re already anticipating it’s going to take like a year to close because everything takes forever in New York, right? So.

Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. That’s exactly. I was just looking at a campground I had offered in it would’ve been 2020, so August 2020, and I got outbid by an investor from California. And I think we joked that it was you. Yeah. So that property just closed this, I think it was December. So it took over a year for that property to close that camp. Actually, no, it was just the last month so in March. Yeah. So over a year to close on that campground. Yeah.

Tony Robinson:
Well, fingers crossed it. It doesn’t take this long or take that long for this property because we’d love to get that closed and wrapped up here before the quarter is over. So we’ll see.

Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. Well, good luck.

Tony Robinson:
Thank you. I needed it.

Ashley Kehr:
I know you do great with the deal but getting them fast closing is-

Tony Robinson:
Outside of my control.

Ashley Kehr:
I said closing table for three hours the other week, closing on a property and it was a Friday and we ended up not even closing. We had to wait until Monday to finish the closing. It was the longest closing ever. Yeah.

Tony Robinson:
Cool. Well, we got some good guests today, right?

Ashley Kehr:
Yeah, we do. This is just an awesome episode and usually you can feel a bit crowded when we have more than one guest on, but I think this worked out great. We have three brothers on who started when they were 18, the two youngest ones, the twins, and they started out wholesaling. So they go through exactly what they did and how long it took them to get their first deal but most importantly, why they stuck with it and why they kept spending money, why they kept putting in the work for it and then that they transitioned now to multifamily syndication with only being investors for less than two years and how they were able to actually do that.

Tony Robinson:
Yeah, really cool story. And it’s the Donis brothers that we have on today. So it’s Kenneth, Jeffrey and Kerwin. And Jeffrey and Kerwin are actually twins. And then Kenneth is a couple years older, but yeah, they do a really good job of breaking down how they found success as wholesalers, how they built their network, even though they didn’t come from some well to do background, but how they were able to surround themselves else with other really successful people. And I think one of the things that was really cool towards the end was how they’ve been able to scale to over 600 units by using their network on the multifamily side. This conversation could have gone on forever. There were so many different golden nuggets that they had that we could have talked about a bit more, but really enjoyed this conversation with them.

Ashley Kehr:
Let’s welcome. The Donis brothers to the show. Would you guys like to start off just introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about how you got started in real estate?

Kenneth Donis:
Yes. My name is Kenneth Donis and I’m 23 years old.

Jeffrey Donis:
My name’s Jeffrey Donis and I’m 20 years old.

Kerwin Donis:
And I’m Kerwin Donis. I’m also 20 years old.

Kenneth Donis:
And they’re twins. Yeah. If you were wondering.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And we got started in real estate little over two years ago now in that single family space. We started through wholesaling just self-education and then that’s what spiraled us into multifamily.

Tony Robinson:
Can we just take a second to appreciate that? You said you got started two years ago, so the twins you guys were what 18 and then Kenneth, you were 21, that’s amazing. You don’t see very many people at 18 and 21 who are really putting their nose to the ground when it comes to real estate investing. I know we’re going to get into your story but just what piqued your interest at that young age to want to start investing in real estate?

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. Well, one day I was in college sitting on my bed and I was watching The Breakfast Club funny enough. And a guy came on and started speaking about wholesaling real estate and how he came from nothing, no cash, no credit, no education and came from the hood and then he built a multi-million dollar business through wholesaling. And at first I thought it was a scam. And so, just did more digging into it and it really caught my attention. And I went to my brothers and said, “Hey, this is something that we can do.” At the time I was studying to be a physician assistant but I wasn’t thinking that big. And so broke that paradigm shift of multimillion dollar business is something achievable.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And we actually, the first book that we read that started the journey, I always say it broke us is Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki of course. And once we read that book, I was actually headed into my first year of college. And so I started cold calling for a flipper in the area. And I was the first time I got experience in real estate, but it wasn’t for our business at the time. And we had always been interested. We kept telling each other we were going to get into wholesaling and start our own business but we kept postponing it. I think we had limiting beliefs around time and the opportunities we had at the time as college students. And so it wasn’t until we went to Guatemala for the first time, that’s where my mom’s from. So we’re first generation Americans.
And we went to that country and we had cousins there and as humble and grateful as they are, we realized they didn’t have the opportunities that we do in America. And we realized the privilege that we had of being born here. And we just honestly came to a realization that we couldn’t keep postponing starting our business and achieving financial freedom to change our family’s financial tree. So as soon as we got back, we decided to take action.

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. And we knew that we came from a low income background, just growing up we were always on Medicaid and stuff like that. And my mom would always, she wouldn’t do it on purpose, I don’t think, but she didn’t hide the guilt of like I used to play club soccer growing up and she wouldn’t hide the fact that it was very expensive. The trips and everything she’d let me know that it was hard on her. So growing up, I knew that I didn’t come from a lot of money. So to answer your question, Tony, like I just always knew that was something that I didn’t have. And I felt like it was something that I could produce now that I realized that we’re in America, we have the opportunities, we just need to utilize them and make the most of them.

Tony Robinson:
And so just one thing I want to add before we move off of that, a lot of people come from backgrounds that aren’t rich or financially successful. I, myself didn’t come from a well to do by background, but I feel like there’s two responses that people have when they come from moderate to lower income backgrounds. And first is that they get stuck in this trap where they feel that’s all that they’ll ever be able to do. And they don’t really see a way out. And then other people who go through that experience, they use that as a motivation to say, “No. I know I got to change this because I don’t want to live like this for the rest of my life.” And it sounds like you guys took that ladder approach in terms of really taking control of your life so just kudos, you guys for having that mindset.

Kerwin Donis:
Thank you.

Jeffrey Donis:
Thank you. Yeah. And in school we were all college students when we got into it and Kerwin always likes to say, what we would do is we would look up on Google, what’s the highest possible job I can get out of-

Kerwin Donis:
With the four year degree in this.

Jeffrey Donis:
That’s how we would think. We didn’t know we could become entrepreneurs until we found Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And that led us to where we are.

Ashley Kehr:
Did you guys go to college or you didn’t go to college yet?

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. So Kenneth was there for a few years. Jeff and I were in our first year when we started wholesaling. I think Jeffrey dropped out after his first year and I waited an additional year to drop out.

Ashley Kehr:
What was that feeling like that you’re dropping out of college, you’ve spent money going for a year, you’ve had a plan in place, was it a feeling of excitement? Like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t even have to finish school. I found something else.” Or was there that little bit of hesitation, like this is the normal thing to do, what’s your mom going to say? Anything like that?

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. Well, one thing that really made me realize was the fact that one day I was in class and my teacher, I had missed an assignment already. And she was nice enough to let me make it up. But she was a real estate agent herself on the side. So she had her license so she understood the grind of real estate. And in class I would express things and base it off of what I was doing in real estate. So she would hear how passionate I was. And then one day I came into class and I completely forgot to do another assignment. And I was not a bad student.
I was just putting a lot of time towards the business, which made my grades slip a little bit, but she pulled me off to the side and she pretty much told me, “Hey, Kenneth, you always talk about how passionate you are about in real estate. Let me ask you a question. I want you not to take this the wrong way, but I want you to actually think about it.” And she said, “Why are you here? Why are you still in school if it seems like you found something that you’re very passionate about and I think you can be very successful in?” And that is when I realized that I did not want to go back to school. And I went to them and I told them, “Hey, I think I’m dropping out.” And I told my mom that and she was not very happy.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And I would say in the beginning I was scared and it wasn’t something I wanted to do, but eventually I started to actually love growing a business. And I saw once we closed on our first deal, it was something real. And I’d made more money than my mom makes in two thirds of a year just in a few months. So I was like, okay, I can see where I’m going. And then when you say we had a plan to be honest, I went to school because I felt like I had to. In high school that’s how we’re groomed. The next step is college.
I didn’t know there was another option, but once I saw there was another path that I could take that excited me a lot more. And I felt like not going this route would’ve been less of a plan than staying in school because I really didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was in college. So finding real estate really excited me. And I also realized that I was more scared and more excited at the same time to do this than to stay there. So I like to be uncomfortable.

Ashley Kehr:
What would you recommend for a Rookie listener who maybe is in college or is deciding to go to college? What are some things they should think about? And what plan did you have in place before you actually dropped out as school and said, you know what, I’m not pursuing this career path. Did you sit down and write out your financial goals or how you were going to make money? Did you have a backup plan in case this didn’t work out? What’s some advice and tips you can give our listeners?

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. Before we dropped out we definitely took some action. We were cold calling in our dorm rooms. So I would say get some exposure. And I was interning for a flipper, cold calling. So there’s different ways to do it. You don’t have to start your own business at first. I would also suggest listening to podcasts like this one and reading books, just exposing yourself to the language of real estate investing and also listening to stories of other people just to demystify the process and realize that it is possible for you to do it.
A big thing that was really impactful for us was attending local networking events. They were free. We met people that were doing it in real time and we’re always big believers in the saying, be cautious of who you take advice from. And so when we met Max Maxwell for the first time in person, we got his 2 cents and we got different influencers and different real estate investors who we believed in and who we knew were successful. We just got their advice and we really took it to heart and tried to piece together the information. So I would recommend people look for people that are successful and get advice from them.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And we didn’t necessarily drop out until we had made some type of income. So we proved the concept before we ended up leaving and we were surrounded by people and that’s what Kerwin touched on. We built a network of people that were more successful than us in that single family space. So we knew if they could do it, we can do it. And we knew that we weren’t just going into it by ourselves. We had access to people that could help us along the way. So I think those are some steps that I would take is just build a network of people that can help you because you’re going to fail. Just understand that there’s going to be obstacles, but maybe prove the concept to a certain extent before you go all in. Because what we did was we burnt the bridges and we weren’t in that much debt. Kerwin had pretty much it all paid for. I had some debt but it wasn’t a lot but I didn’t want to leave until I had proved it to myself that I could do it.

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. And lastly, I would also say as far as having a plan, so I think you should at least think far enough ahead to where you want to think about what you want to do in life. And if you’re in college and you’re studying something that you actually enjoy, we’re not against college in any sense, but if it’s not, then you could potentially maybe take a year off and just explore some options. But as far as the plan, honestly, we didn’t really have a plan. We just knew that what we were doing was going to work. And I mean, we were just taking action and the action was paying off. And so we were just slowly just building that momentum.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And we quickly picked up on our why. I’ll quickly touch on this. So our mom’s a single mother, she cleans houses. She’s done that for our whole lives here in America which is a hard job. It requires a lot of labor. And our goal was to retire her as soon as possible. So I thought if I’m going to be in school for the next four years, that means that I won’t have any income coming in for the next four years, but I knew I could retire my mom in two, three years if I work really hard at real estate. And I could always go back to school or we’re obviously spending a lot of money in our own education and reading a lot of books. So the education didn’t stop. So that’s how we looked at it.

Tony Robinson:
I love the fact that you guys have such a strong why outside of just money. But it’s like we want to retire our mom. And it’s like that driving force is enough to keep you grinding every day and really push through. One of the things you guys mentioned that I want to go back to is the networking piece. So you guys are at the time, 18, 20 years old and you talk about building your network with successful people who are doing what you want to do. How did you make that happen? How are you getting people to take you seriously as these relatively young kids that aren’t already super successful? How did you go about building that network and finding the right people to surround yourselves with?

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. We went to websites like biggerpockets.com, meetup.com, netbright.com. There are free. Most places have free networking events specific to real estate investors. We would go out there of course, we exposed ourselves to the language of real estate. That’s why we’re big advocates for listening to podcasts and reading audio books before you get out there just so that you can at least be an active listener and ask good questions. But I think it’s a misconception that we had at first limiting the belief that people wouldn’t take us seriously. And just not really want to talk to us because we were younger. And sure there’s a few people like that. But overall, I think it was overwhelmingly positive energy that we got from people. They would be impressed that we were even there in the room and that we could honestly use that even today to our benefit because we stand out. And I think any way to stand out is a really good benefit you can use.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. I mean, just quickly, we took a lot of action before actually going to the event. So by the time that we were going to events, we hadn’t done a deal yet, but two months later we did our first deal and then we did another one and then we did another one and we were always actually doing what we were trying to tell people that we were doing. So based on the way I look and the way my age, yes, we’re young, but it’s not like we’re just people trying to get into it. We were actually trying our best and we had really good questions. Having that actual knowledge helps us when we’re talking to these older people because we’re asking really good questions and they can tell that we’re actually doing it. So I think that helped as well.

Tony Robinson:
Now when you guys go into these rooms, are you looking for a specific type of relationship? Are you guys looking for private money lenders? And if so, what does that conversation look like? Are you looking for JV partners? If so, what does that conversation look like? Just walk us through how conversations typically flow.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. So there’s three things typically. An investor who’s looking to passively invest, an equity partner, someone that just has access to their investors and they might be looking to JV on a deal or people that are in our mastermind group. They are deal finders. They have success in certain markets that we like. So I would say, those are the biggest three avatars that we have when we’re going to networking events or just a friend. One thing that I did once was we were on another person’s podcast, they reached out because they heard us on that podcast and I connected him with someone else I had met at another event. And they’re both very valuable people that I look up to. So just being able to bring people value based on who I’m talking to, that was something that we were able to do.
But anyway, that I can bring someone value. That’s what we’ll try to do in the conversations. But in regards to those three, if it’s an investor, I’ll just ask them what their goals are. Have they ever invested before? What markets do you like? And then try to get on a call with them later in the week and build some type of relationship because we’re doing 506(b) deals typically. So that’s what is required. And then on the equity partner side, it’s really just me learning more about what they look for in a partner. I talk to them about my team. It’s not just my brothers and I, we’re very young obviously, but our team has a lot of experience. And then for the deal finders I just look for the markets that they’re in. And typically they’re already in my mastermind group so I already have a relationship with them. So just catching up, seeing what they’ve been up to.

Kerwin Donis:
And I think a thing I want to emphasize is that we look for ways to bring them value. There’s not just monetary ways to bring value, but like Jeffrey said, we’re big advocates for growing our own network just because making connections is really powerful. And so-

Jeffrey Donis:
And it’s free.

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. So we don’t really always go in with some alternative motive. We really just try to meet as many people as we can at the event, have in-depth conversations and see if we can maybe benefit them in some way.

Ashley Kehr:
How are you guys keeping straight all of these people that you meet at all of these events without walking out of there and just being like, “Okay, that guy in the yellow shirt, I think he had money.” How are you keeping track of all these people that you’re meeting?

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. A cool skill that we learned in the single family space when we were scaling our wholesaling company was the importance of follow up. And the way that we kept track of all those was to have a CRM. And at the time we didn’t have that much money. So we used something that was free. It was Podio, P-O-D-I-O. And that was just customer relationship management system that we used. But I still use that today for anyone that I’ll meet at an event, what we learned in the beginning we were giving them our phone number, but that didn’t allow me to reach out to them, which is more likely than them calling me. So what I would end up doing and Kerwin told me to do this is make sure you get their number and their email.
And we put that in our phones and then when we leave. I upload it all. You have to be very disciplined with this kind of thing because it’s easy to just forget about it, but you just put them in the system and then put a follow update. And then I keep track of notes. Every time I call them or email them or text them, I just try to keep track of everyone. And I don’t let anyone fall well within the cracks. I try to just stay in touch with everyone a few months, check in. And then eventually there’s certain ways that you can bring these people value.

Kerwin Donis:
And if it helps, because we do meet a lot of different types of people. You can add a tag, if it’s a potential passive investor or an equity partner or a deal finder, there’s different ways to organize your system.

Tony Robinson:
So quick question on the follow piece. So when you guys are reaching back out to these people, what does that follow up conversation look like? Are you just saying, “Hey, we met. How are things going?” Or is it more specific in the reach out? Just guide us through that conversation?

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. It depends on what we talked about at the event. But typically if it’s just another person that I just met, I’ll say checking in, it was nice talking to you. If this is an email or a text, how have things been? And this is probably a few months after I met them. But if this is someone that I want to get in touch with me immediately, I’ll just call them and then say, “Hey, we met at this event.” And sometimes it’ll be awkward. And they’re like, “Why are you calling me?” They won’t say that but you can get that vibe. Other times, they’re like, “Oh yeah, I remember you guys.”
And the cool thing about being young in my opinion and I think my brothers would agree is that all these people for some reason they’re impressed and they are attracted to us and they want to help us, but I want to help them too. So it’s a symbiotic thing. And they don’t mind giving me their time because most people don’t call these people after they meet them at an event. So just having that extra hustle and grind and showing the intention of trying to just stay in touch and build a relationship I think goes a long way.

Ashley Kehr:
I love it that you guys see yourselves as an advantage and not a disadvantage because you’re young and you don’t have a ton of experience or you haven’t been doing this for 20 years. I love that. You’re turning that into an advantage and that’s such a great way to look at it. So you guys have started out wholesaling. What has happened since then? So you quit college and what’s going on now?

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah, so we were cold calling and then we got sent home. So we were cold calling in our dorm rooms for about four hours a day. I would find some time in between classes and meals. And then we got sent home due to COVID. And so we were in quarantine and that was a great excuse to cold call from 9 to 8:00 PM all day, every day. And we would while we were eating and we would just take the laptop with us no matter where we were, we were cold calling that took about six months to get our first deal. And funny enough it was not easy to get that first deal. We were running low on funds. Kenneth had to take $7,000 of credit card debt. And we had a lot faith in ourselves. Our mom at the time did not, understandably.
And we had to actually access our savings account. She had access to it because we were still kids at that time and we hadn’t done the transfer yet. And I remember going to her and asking her, “Hey mom, can I get 500 more dollars?” This is the second time we’d asked her. And she said, “You’re wasting your time. You’re wasting your money. This is the last time I’m doing it.” And I was really down but we did end up getting our first deal a few weeks after that. And Jeffrey can touch on that.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And after that, we ended up closing on our first deal which was the biggest deal we did in the whole time that we did single family. And we used the funds to not only pay off the debt that Kenneth took out. We made him take it out because we didn’t have credit cards.
And then we invested that into a mastermind group called the Substitute Group by a guy named [Pace Popi 00:24:51]. It taught us a lot of creative financing and we were able to actually acquire two rentals using those strategies. We didn’t have a lot of money at the time. So we had to learn how to do that. And then we had to negotiate with the sellers on allowing us to pretty much take it over with no money down. We were able to do that. Eventually we got into one fix and flip as well. That just came, I would say not out of luck, but we just built a really good relationship with one of our cash buyers. He really wanted to help us. So he actually funded the whole deal. We found the deal and then we partnered 50/50 on the profits. Kenneth handled that so he can touch more on that if he wants to.

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. Well, so overall we did about 17 deals after six months of no luck. So 13 months in my brother then eventually just decided that multi-family was a better suit for our goals and he can explain.

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah, we just recognized commercial real estate and big multifamily was always the end goal for us but we realized that it was limiting beliefs that kept us from taking action on it sooner. And so as soon as we realized we had some capital to work with and it was more aligned with our long term goal of retiring our mom and creating passive income to reach the life by design that we were aspiring to reach. And so we just decided the same fears that kept us from dropping out of college and pursuing real estate were the same fears that were keeping us in single family and preventing us from pursuing multifamily. And so we let go of single family. We took down the wholesaling operation and went full send into the multifamily space.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And the way we started that was by investing in a mastermind group pin. That’s how we got here.

Tony Robinson:
Yeah. So a lot of good pieces of this story. I want to bring it back just a little bit because I think the very beginning, I just want to make sure I’m understanding this the right way. You guys were cold calling from pretty much sun up to sundown for six months before you got your first deal, is that right?

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. We looked up the legal times you could call people and we each had our own dialer. We had a three line dialer for each of us and we were just calling all day, every day.

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. Probably making over thousands of calls a day. We were running through lists like crazy. If you are in real estate, you know that lists are pretty expensive you can easily spend thousands of dollars.

Tony Robinson:
So a couple things want to break down here. I do want to touch on the list creation in a bit but before we do that six months of cold calling that’s enough to drive anyone crazy. Or at least to make you start second guessing yourself like, oh man, is this really going to work? So what was it that kept you guys from stopping at month two of no deals or month six of no deals or month eight, how did you guys keep going?

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. Well, I would say number one, just having a strong, why like my brother said. We landed from Guatemala January 4th, 2020. And after seeing the impoverished conditions that our family, literally our cousins, aunts, uncles live in, we just knew that we had the ticket to change all of that and then also change our lives forever, our mom’s life forever. So I would say like having a strong why. Also once we were two months in, I was already like $7,000 worth of debt on my credit card. So I was not going to be able to pay that off unless we actually kept going. So honestly we had no choice, but-

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah, no, but a big thing that we always did was listen to podcasts. So you just keep hearing success story after success story. We had built a network of people that were already successful. So actually two weeks before I dropped out of school, I got a call from one of my friends and we can talk about social media, but we’re very present from day one. And we’ve been documenting our journey and it worked to our benefit because this person that reached out, found us on Instagram and he looked like us. He is Hispanic. He was a few years older than us and he’d been in the business for two years more than we had. So he actually called us and said he had closed a $30,000 deal that week. He saw what we were doing and he motivated us and let us know that we can do it too.
So that day actually, we were supposed to close on a deal, but ended up coming back with a tax lien on it. And that was really devastating for two days. And then we were, the next day we woke up and 9 o’clock hit and we kept calling. So that motivated us to keep going. But yeah, it was really just the books as well that we were reading like Think and Grow Rich. We understood it was something that your mindset and it’s going to happen. Everyone else can do it. Why can’t we? So we just kept going.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And just add to that. Also it helps to have a support group. So we have friends that are in real estate as well, but also we have each other. And that day that I went to ask my mom for money, it really put me down. I had a weak mindset at the time. And so I went to Kenneth and I knew our why but it got blurry and you lose sight of it sometimes. And so I walked up to Kenneth and I said, “Why are we doing this again? Please remind me, because I don’t know.” And it was my battery was low, but that’s why it’s beneficial to have people that can recharge you.

Tony Robinson:
So I want to talk a little bit about the list building because you got to have like a pretty robust list to call for six months. So just give us the crash course on what software you guys use in pulling your list, what some of the criteria was, and then just how you put that piece together.

Ashley Kehr:
And even what is a list for somebody who doesn’t know anything about cold calling.

Tony Robinson:
Totally.

Ashley Kehr:
What is even a list, a list of what?

Kenneth Donis:
Of course, so a list is basically just a list of numbers and addresses that belong to the homeowner. Numbers that belong to the homeowner of certain addresses and we targeted absentee owners, vacants, and we usually pulled our list off of PropStream. And this was 2020. So there are likely better options out there that we don’t use at the moment because we’re not currently actively calling single family, but we used PropStream, BatchLeads-

Kerwin Donis:
ListSource.

Kenneth Donis:
… Sometimes ListSource just to get data and then we would use batch skip tracing to get the phone numbers. And we would just put them in the dialer and start calling.

Tony Robinson:
Explain what skip tracing is.

Kenneth Donis:
So skip tracing is just once you have data, you actually, I don’t know exactly how they do it, but basically you get the phone numbers to the addresses of your data.

Tony Robinson:
Cool.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yep. And then what we would do is we would upload the list by just clicking a few buttons to a dialer. We used Mojo Dialer at the time, and then we would hop on the call and at 9:00 I would be in my room, Kenneth would be in the kitchen and then Kerwin would be in his room and we would just be calling all day and then we’d have to eat. And what we’d do is we’d have it there, we’d meet it while we’re eating. And then anytime that someone answered you’d stop it. Keep talking, you have to stop chewing, but I felt like you won’t be able to speak. And then you keep going.
But the reason we went so hard was because we understood the value of having a pipeline. That’s something that we learned and we still implement today. That’s why we keep track of our network because it’s so valuable to have people there and you don’t want to let it to fall through the cracks. And the thing about cold calling is you’ll get results for the work you put in a few months ago because you have to nurture the leads and I think that’s honestly a lot of marketing, but specifically cold calling for wholesale leads.

Ashley Kehr:
I want to get into is that what you guys picked is your selections for the list like you mentioned absentee owners, but before that, can you give us a breakdown of what you were spending on the different software to actually pull these lists, to have the dialer, all these different things that you needed?

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. I think PropStream was $97 a month. And then BatchLeads was, I want to say like $50 a month. And then that was, oh, Mojo Dialer, I think for the triple line dialer, it might be like $150 a month. So total under $500 a month before-

Jeffrey Donis:
That’s on the softwares but on the list too-

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. On the lists. I mean, I think we were paying like 12 cents for skip tracing plus like an additional 3 cents for the lists. Yeah, the data itself. So 15 cents per lead is what we were spending back then. I think that there’s definitely better places to get data, but like I said we haven’t been cold calling in a while, so.

Ashley Kehr:
Well even just the $500 for software to pay for that for six months with no income coming in, that is a lot of money to be investing into this business before it actually gets its first deal. So like Tony had praised you guys before for sticking with it until you got that first deal. And maybe it is the pressure. Maybe everyone needs to rack up credit card debts. Take it off. I’m just kidding. I’m not giving that advice.
So when you guys started pulling lists, what are some resources you’ve talked a little bit about a mastermind, what are some resources you were like, “Okay, this is the kind of information.” I’ve gone in PropStream and done a list before and there are a million different selections. You can target seniors, you can target people who have high equity, you can target by acreage, all these different selections. How did you decide and narrow down what the lists were going to be that you pulled?

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. We tried to call a little bit of everything, but honestly, YouTube university was where we got all of our information. YouTube and podcasts. We listened to a wholesaling ink a lot and a lot of people, they went through their success stories. We know what lists they were pulling, things of that nature. So, that’s really where we just got the information on what we should be pulling. And from there we just did it. And yeah.

Jeffrey Donis:
Also, talking to people that were already doing a lot of deals, we asked them what they were pulling. And a lot of people they have the abundance mindset, so they’re willing to help you. You just obviously have to be someone that they want to help. So you just have to be there.

Tony Robinson:
So after you guys have your initial success with the wholesaling and you get this proof of concept and you’re feeling good, you guys said that you transitioned into multifamily. So walk us through a little bit about what drove that decision and then how you guys set yourself up for success to make that transition.

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. So we first were exposed, I was exposed to what syndication was and Jeffrey, do you want to define what syndication is real quick?

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. Syndication is pulling together a group of investors money to buy something.

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. So we were exposed that you could do that in real estate when Alvin Hope Johnson, he’s a developer and he syndicates a lot of his projects and we were exposed to him and he was speaking to a group of us, we were single family investors and it sparked something in me. And so we started doing some research, listening to podcasts, and Kenneth had been a big fan of Grant Cardone for some time so he had already been exposed to that. And we’d been talking behind the scenes, we want to do development or commercial real estate at some point. And we just said, okay, we have to wait.
But then we started doing more research and realized that it’s possible to start early on. We just needed the right team and the right mentor. And that’s what set us out. We went to biggerpockets.com, funny enough. And we did some research on the forums. We were able to get connected with a few mentorship programs and after vetting a few and turning away some, we nailed down the big multifamily, which is who we eventually ended up going with.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And we didn’t initially think we would need a mentor. We tried calling the brokers ourselves but Kenneth was getting rejected so much. So they were telling him like, “We read the book the Best Ever Real Estate Apartment Syndication book by Joe Fairless. And we learned that you obviously need to have a track record and experience but we were like, you know what, let’s just try it.
I tried it didn’t work. So we came back, regrouped, learned that we probably would want to leverage a mentor that would be willing to partner with us. That was one of our criteria was that they would be willing to partner with us and that we’d have direct access to the person that we were partnering with. We didn’t really want to do a deal with coaches because we knew what we needed and that’s what we were looking for. And that’s what I think multifamily group provided. So that’s how we were able to fund that group.

Ashley Kehr:
So I have a question with this mentorship. So when you picked the mentorship, you wanted to be a part of, it was already like, no, that you would be partnering with this person to do the deal. So that was part of the value is they teach you how to do it, but they’re also going to help you through is it your first deal or is it several deals you’re doing with them? How is that structured?

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. So he actually partners with you as long as you’re in the group and it has to meet his criteria and his specific markets that he likes, but yeah, he’s willing to partner with us. And do you guys want to clarify that?

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. I mean, whenever we’re submitting LOIs, he’s open to signing on letters of intents and when you have 13,000 units across the Southeast, people recognize who you are. So, when I mention his name, it’s automatic credibility. So yeah, I mean having a partner that will not only partner with you, but you can leverage him, his experience, his track record, as well as I can call him anytime I want and ask him a question more than likely he will answer. And if not, he’ll get back to me almost immediately. Yeah. I think that’s very powerful.

Jeffrey Donis:
And I want to clarify that the way that multifamily works, commercial real estate is most of the deals I believe 90% of transactions are done through a broker, which is different from single family where you can go direct to the seller. And that was a learning curve for us because we had to develop credibility and a track record with the brokers. They were the gatekeepers to the opportunities. And so having a mentor who would allow us to leverage their track record and just their experience was a game changer for us.

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. And he did a great job. Him and his wife, did a great job of putting together the group. And he has a lot of partners now that help him put it together. But the environment and the family vibe that you get from it, the people in the group we’ve worked with on multiple deals now, and they’re willing to help you with a lot of different things. So I think it’s not only that we have access to our mentor and how valuable he is to us, but how valuable the entirety of the group is.

Ashley Kehr:
If you guys could each pick one thing that somebody should be looking for when they’re trying to choose a mentor, say they want to learn a whole new real estate strategy could each of you give an example of either a question they should ask this person or what you should look for.

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. I can go first. Funny enough, when we were doing the exact same thing, we asked a group if we could speak with people that were already in the group and they told us no. So, that was an immediate red flag. We were like, “Yeah. We’re out of here.” And that’s the first thing I would say is talk to people that are already in the group. And if they say no, then I would run away.

Jeffrey Donis:
And another question I would ask is make sure that the person whose face is on the brand of the mentorship program, you want to make sure that you have direct access to them. Because a lot of times these mentorship programs there’s a coach working under that main mentor and while that’s okay, we just wanted, I think it’s important to understand who you’re talking to and who you will have as a point of contact.

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. And lastly, I will also say that it really depends on what you need. For us in our situation, we didn’t need someone to pretty much hold our hands. I would say we’re pretty good at taking action. We just needed someone to be there when we had a question and also just experience. So I would say just realize what you need but also someone that’s willing to put their name on things alongside your name, it’s invaluable.

Tony Robinson:
So I want to talk a little bit about how you guys have structured this partnership between the three of you because I think the duties and responsibilities when you’re wholesaling are slightly different than when you move into apartments syndication. So talk us through what role each of you plays in the apartment syndication business.

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. So I’m the head of acquisitions. So primarily my job and role is to speak with brokers, underwrite deals, study the markets, go on property to tours. I would say all the fun stuff really?

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. I don’t like any of that. I do the investor relations, so capital raising. And then once we obviously get the investor in the deal, investor relations just keeping the ongoing communication.

Kerwin Donis:
And I’m in charge of the marketing. So we have a podcast, we also have YouTube channel, social media content, and a lot of copywriting that I’m heavily involved in.

Tony Robinson:
So what about the actual management of the asset? So, let’s take a step back. So how many deals on the syndication side have you guys done?

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah, so we’re co-sponsored on three so far. A total of 636 units in the Southeast, including Texas, not really Southeast, but and the other two are in Georgia. One of them is in Georgia at the other one is at Jacksonville, Florida. And right now since we’re co-sponsored, we’re just helping out with some marketing aspects of the deal. We were so new to it. Those are the first three deals we did in this space, but Kenneth is actually working on finding our own first deal. And that’s when we hope to get a bigger role in the asset management.

Ashley Kehr:
Congratulations, you guys. That’s awesome.

Tony Robinson:
Yeah, that’s amazing.

Jeffrey Donis:
Thank you.

Kerwin Donis:
Thank you.

Kenneth Donis:
Thank you.

Ashley Kehr:
Well, I was just wondering if you guys would walk us through a deal. I mean, we have a lot of guests down here that maybe go through a single family or a duplex. So I don’t know if you guys had even one of the multifamily deals you found, what that looked like, how you found it, how you acquired it, even with having the sponsor on there, or even if you had a wholesale team you wanted to go through.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. So the multifamily space we quickly learned is you have to leverage, you have to have a really good team and leverage that team. So the cool thing about it that Kerwin likes to always talk about is in single family we were the ones running everything, which is really good. But when it comes to the larger apartment space, typically you have a team and you divide and conquer, which we think suits us because we focus on what we’re really good at and what we actually enjoy doing. So when it comes to the first deal we did that was 138 unit property in Jacksonville, Florida. What I did was actually leveraged my mentor to have access to him. That was something that I’m obviously grateful for but we reached out to him, asked him if he knew anything going on in the group, anyone that needed help with anything.
He said, yeah. He gave me someone that I had already networked with. He told me how he had something going on in Jacksonville. I reached out asked him how I could help and bring value. He let me know. And then we got on a call. I talked to my brothers about what we thought we could do. We ended up helping with some of the investor relations like capital raising. So we were helping with some of the emails he was sending out, helping with some of the marketing deck. We went to the property ourselves, walked it with him, eventually got some of our own investors into that one.
So that was the first time we ever raised money. And that’s really how we found out one and obviously ongoing we get on the asset management calls, but a lot of this is really just about learning and then being really good at networking, learning how to be resourceful as well especially when you’re starting out at a young age. We didn’t really have a lot to kind of bring but we had to get resourceful, which was really just making connections. And yeah.

Kenneth Donis:
But to answer your question so, I mean the steps would be of course, number one, acquisitions, which would be more of networking with the brokers, speaking with them, finding a deal, then underwriting it, making sure that the market is a market that you would like to invest in. Then you would submit a letter of intent which is primarily what it gets accepted before going under contract in the larger commercial space. And then if the seller is happy with the letter of intent or your terms, pricing, et cetera, you then go under contract.
So then put down earnest money and go through the contract. You do your due diligence, you check every unit, inspect it all make sure that the property is in the condition that the seller said it was in and make sure that there aren’t any surprises of course. Then you move on, make sure you get funding. So mortgage lender, and then you of course have to raise the equity for closing days. So while all that is going on you’re also speaking with your investors, letting them know about the opportunity, what the returns look like, and then also just raise money.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And then what we did that was, I would say that we skipped over is we didn’t have to really build a brand new team because we were walking into a mastermind group that already had the insurance broker. They had them mortgage broker. They had the property management company in the markets we were already looking for. And then we already had people that are really good at asset management. So yes, we’re going to learn how to do it ourselves, but just being able to leverage someone else’s already built in team is really invaluable.

Tony Robinson:
So one follow up question here. So, obviously the three of you are good at networking and built in relationships with the folks, but up until the point of that first deal, all of your focus have been more so on the wholesaling side. So did you guys have to go out and build a new network to be able to raise money for this deal? Were you going back to your existing network and just how did that pitch differ from your old pitches when you guys were wholesalers?

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah, our network definitely changed to approach the single family network that we built, but it just didn’t really align. So we ended up starting to invest in multifamily conferences. We started traveling and that investment, it really exposed us just to first off how to raise capital, what other people were doing, what was working. And we also tapped into our own network. One of our first investors was somebody that I met and called. So funny enough, there’s this saying that you don’t judge a book by its cover and they apply that to investors. You never know who has money or whose parents have money. So I think just by documenting our journey on social media, just exposing everyone in our immediate network to what we were doing, people are paying attention, even if they’re not engaging with your content or letting you know directly.

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. One thing he touched on was the social media aspect. We started the podcast a few weeks after we got into multifamily and we started producing a lot of content based on what we were doing, which was now multifamily. And our goal was to come off as, not only come off, but we were obviously educating ourselves by doing it. But we were trying to establish some type of thought leadership platform which we learned by reading the book by Joe Fairless. So all this, in my opinion, I feel like it must have helped us come off as more credible because when someone met us on a conference, they see we’re young, but they’re like, okay, they sound too young to be this, sounds too good to be true or something like that. So they look us up and they see us everywhere. They see that we’re not only we’re doing, we’re practicing, we’re preaching, but we somewhat know what we’re talking about.

Tony Robinson:
So I want to pause on this because I think the platform building aspect is so important especially for newer investors. So I shared this before but my journey as a real estate investor happened at the same time as my journey as a content creator in the real estate space. So before I joined the BiggerPockets podcast, I had my own podcast. It was called Your First Real Estate Investment. And I started that podcast before I had my first real estate deal. So I started the podcast in like September of 2019, I didn’t get my first deal done until the following month. And the reason why I did that was the same exact reason that you guys mentioned is because if you can get people to know you, to like you and trust you, then when you have opportunities for them to invest in, it makes that ask a little bit easier.
Even if you haven’t had these amazing levels of success, you can still go out there and interview other people that are doing the things that you want to do. And when I started, that’s what it was. I told people on the podcast, I’m a new investor. I’m here to go on this journey and I’m going to take you guys along with me. And all I did was interview other people. And that gives you a certain level of credibility. So for everyone, that’s listening, all of our rookies, if you want to scale to a relatively big portfolio and you want to do it with the help of other investors, having a platform of some sort is super critical. So whether that’s a podcast, a YouTube channel, an Instagram, a TikTok, like whatever platform it is, figure out which one resonates with you the most go deep into it, and then use that to help build the business.

Jeffrey Donis:
Absolutely. And I think it’s important like you mentioned, when you have this high caliber guests on your show, even if you’re not necessarily at the same level of success they are, if you’re rubbing shoulders with them, then you get that social proof. And just by being in the same room or in the same conversation as them.

Kerwin Donis:
And you’re learning a lot.

Jeffrey Donis:
Exactly.

Ashley Kehr:
Before we move on to one of our segments, I just wanted to mention, if anybody wants to learn more about underwriting and syndication, you have to check out the BiggerPockets OG podcast, episode 571 and 586. They go into great detail as to actually how to underwrite a large multifamily property. So if you guys are interested, even if you think that’s something that might be far out for you, just go ahead and take a listen to it to see if it’s something you’re interested in. And I bet you’ll even learn something that will be valuable to you right now, looking at single family, small multifamily too. So check out those episodes. It’s episode 571 and 586. Okay, guys, are you ready to go to the rookie request line?

Jeffrey Donis:
Yes.

Kenneth Donis:
Let’s do it.

Ashley Kehr:
So anyone can call in, they can leave us a voicemail at 1-888-5 ROOKIE. And leave a question for us and we may just play it on the show for our guests to answer. So today’s question.

Tim:
My name is Tim [Defor 00:49:42]. I’m from Norfolk, Nebraska. And my question is what kind of materials would you prepare for presenting an opportunity to a potential private money lender? Thank you.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. So what we do and we now do multifamily syndication. I honestly don’t think we ever used a private money lender but I can tailor it towards a passive investor. We’d always want to have some type of marketing deck or executive summary where it goes into the sponsorship team. So who’s going to be doing the asset management, who’s all on the deal, all the general partners as well as a property management company we will be using. And then we go into the investment highlights, we’ll touch on the business plan, the market that the property’s located in. We’ll give them the highlights as to why we like this market. And then really we’ll go into just general information in regards to the hold period and what the returns look like, et cetera. But that’s some information that we just need to give them.
And then what I’ll do is I’ll have an investor webinar where I’ll come on and present it with my partners and then I’ll answer any questions that my investors have. So I just think having all that information there that can answer most of the questions that they’re probably going to have, I guess, one spot present that to them and then be open for questions. I hope that helps. But-

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. And to add to that, I mean, one of the objectives of having that marketing deck is to instill confidence in them and not only in your own track record and credibility or that of your team, but also establish the opportunity and explain to them why you’re excited about it and why you think it’s going to be a great opportunity for them.

Kenneth Donis:
Yeah. And, and to tailor it more towards like a single family thing, not that we’ve ever done this, but what I would do is do the same thing, but put your team on there, put the attorney that you either plan to use, or you’re currently using, if you’re closing deals. If you have a hard money lender that you’ve ever worked with, put them for contact information. The market that you’re in like my brother said what you’re looking to do if you’re only looking to do like buy and holds, run them through an example of what that might look like or a fix and flip run them through an example, just the mock deal. Something that’s not necessarily that you’ve done but that can give them an idea as to what an investment with you would look like, what you’re going to use the money for and yeah, et cetera.

Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. One thing you guys could do too is just like Google pitch deck and look at samples or I know two of my friends, if you go to bardowninvestments.com or cedarcreekwealth.com go to those two websites and they have just right on their four investors to look at what their pitch deck is for properties that they’re trying to acquire now. And you can just pull information off of that but it’ll give you a great starting point. And then another investor friend of mine, Tyler Combs from Rare Bird Real Estate out of Portland, he actually puts together, he has this template packet for investors where it’s all about his business, all about him, all about his partner.
And then each time he has a new property that he wants to get private money for, he puts pictures of the property. He does the analysis for the property, what the expected return is, what the cash and cash return is going to be for this property, what he may be offering on it. And just one thing to be careful of is that if you are raising private money for a syndication, just make sure that you consult an attorney first, before you go out and say, “Hey, everybody, I need this much money and I’m going to give you this much return,” or all these different things. So just make sure you know what the laws and regulations are on that too because there are some. Tony, did you have anything to add on that requesting?

Tony Robinson:
No. I think you guys hit all the big stuff. I guess one last thing. So we do use a lot of private money for our folks we’re doing right now. And pretty much everything you guys talked about is what we pitch as well. I think the one thing that you really want to have clear though is what the terms are, what kind of interest rate are you offering this private money lender? Are you offering any points? What’s the payment period? Is it a year? Is it 18 months? Is it less than that? What happens if you need more time?
So just make sure that you’re thinking through all the terms of the deal and then always having the right mortgage security document being drafted as well. So just walk through, like in California, it’s called a grand deed. I don’t know what it’s called in New York or where you guys write North Carolina but every state has its own document. So really understanding the ins and outs of that document so that way you can explain to that private money lender what the legal structure of that partnership looks like. I said I didn’t have anything and I had a lot to say, so I guess that’s how it goes sometimes.

Ashley Kehr:
And I think too, like we both mentioned that figure out what the rules, the laws, regulations are, what documents you need. This is where the expense of an attorney a lot of times really isn’t as much as people think it is.

Tony Robinson:
Totally.

Ashley Kehr:
And a lot of attorneys will sit down with you for free in that initial conversation or over the phone and then can give you an idea of what it would cost to get some of these documents. But once you get these documents, you can recreate them yourself over and over again just like filling in the blanks so definitely worth asking for attorneys for templates of contracts and documents. Okay. Tony, do you don’t want to take us to our rookie exam?

Tony Robinson:
Yes. Donis brothers, are you guys ready for the most important exam of your life?

Kenneth Donis:
Yes.

Kerwin Donis:
Yes.

Jeffrey Donis:
Let’s do it.

Tony Robinson:
All right. Cool. So we’re going to ask three questions. I guess we can just ask one question each brother. That works out perfectly. So Kenneth you’re the lucky one to go first. So the question for you, Kenneth is what is one actionable thing Ricky should do after listening to this episode?

Kenneth Donis:
So well, one is if you’ve already been learning, continue learning, always learn. I would say that you really just need to know what the next step is. You don’t need to know the whole plan but if you’re in the stages of your just beginning just pick up the phon or maybe ask around to your friends and family, if anyone’s looking to sell a property and just start taking action. Really, I would start by cold calling. So finding a list, going on YouTube if you’ve already been learning, finding out where you can pull a list, how you can get it. I don’t recommend this, but I would take out credit card and pull a list and then start calling it. But like I said, just to your own risks.

Tony Robinson:
Love that advice man. All right. So next up Jeffrey, you get question number two. So what is one tool, software app, or system that use in your business?

Jeffrey Donis:
Podio. It’s a CRM. It’s free. And I keep track of everything whether that’s my investors, my network, my equity partners, deal finders, literally anything that’s valuable. And I think network in business, especially real estate is the most valuable thing. You keep track of it in your CRM. And thankfully it’s free.

Tony Robinson:
All right. So, Kerwin, you get the last question here, brother. So where do you plan on being in a business perspective five years from today? And I guess this for all three of you guys, how do you see you three being?

Jeffrey Donis:
I’ll start by answering that. I don’t know if we have nailed down the assets center management specifically, but we aim to build a large apartment portfolio of cash flowing properties. And we’d like to get into development at some point down the road.

Kerwin Donis:
Yeah. With having hopefully rates financial freedom by that point and retired our mother. And of course, we’d like to take on more of an active role in the deals in terms of the asset management and manage our own deals and build out an entire team. So we can start doing our own deals and be self sufficient in that way.

Tony Robinson:
Love it guys. Well, I’m more than confident that five years from now, you will have met or exceeded those goals. And we’ll get you guys on the BiggerPockets Real Estate show with David and my boy, Rob, and you guys can talk about how you’re the next Grant Cardones of North Carolina.
All right. So as we wrap things up, I want to highlight this week’s Rookie rockstar. So for those of you that are listening, if you want to be highlighted on the show, just get active in the Real Estate Rookie Facebook group, we’re in the forums on bigger pockets.com, shoot Ash and I note on Instagram, we pull from all those places, but today’s Rookie rockstar is Hailey P and Hailey closed on wholesale deal number three. So this one came from a bandit sign. She grabbed a five pack of blank signs from Lowe’s actually. The homeowner was two years behind on taxes and she offered him some cash and she was able to make it work but it looks like her fee on this came out to a little under 20 grand on this one. So really good deal, Hailey on deal number three. So congratulations to you for knocking it out the park.

Jeffrey Donis:
Congrats Hailey.

Kerwin Donis:
Congrats Hailey. That’s awesome.

Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. Tony, great job on the math too. That wasn’t running in there for your quick math.

Tony Robinson:
Yeah. Doing my quick math. Yeah.

Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. Congratulations Hailey. That’s awesome and excited for you to do another deal and onto your next project. Okay. Well, you guys thank you so much for joining us and you definitely hinted that you have a podcast, you have some social media presence, can you please let us where more people can reach out to you guys and find out some more information?

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. We’re @donisbrothers. That’s D-O-N-I-S brothers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter-

Kerwin Donis:
TikTok. YouTube.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yeah. And we have our website www.donisinvestmentgroup.com/playbook. That’s where you can get a playbook that just essentially walks you through some common mistakes and lets [crosstalk 00:59:10]-

Ashley Kehr:
Awesome. Well, thank you for that. So everyone go and [crosstalk 00:59:10]-

Tony Robinson:
Wait on. What about the-

Jeffrey Donis:
Oh, the podcast-

Tony Robinson:
Yeah. What about [crosstalk 00:59:15]-

Jeffrey Donis:
… Is the Real Estate Monopoly. The Real Estate Monopoly podcast. It’s available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and essentially all podcast streaming platforms.

Tony Robinson:
Yep.

Ashley Kehr:
Very cool. So you guys are very busy.

Jeffrey Donis:
Yes.

Kerwin Donis:
Yes.

Kenneth Donis:
Try to be.

Ashley Kehr:
Well that’s good. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us and maybe we’ll have to have you guys back again to do an even deeper dive. So if you, as our listeners, want to hear more information about being a rookie investor and diving into syndications, leave us a review on YouTube and comment that you want them back or leave us a five star review on any of the podcast platforms. And we will be back on Saturday with a Rookie reply. I’m Ashley, @wealthfromrentals and he’s Tony, [@tonyjrobinson 01:00:01] and we’ll see you guys next time.

 

Watch the Podcast Here

In This Episode We Cover

  • How to invest at a young age and turn being young into an advantage 
  • Networking events and how to extract true value from each one you attend
  • Cold calling, its importance, and how to effectively nurture leads
  • How to make the transition from single-family to multifamily properties
  • Building a powerful real estate network of mentors, investors, deal finders, and friends
  • Syndications and how to use them to broaden your investing opportunities
  • Building a social media platform to expand your network and reach
  • And So Much More!

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Books Mentioned in this Show:

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.