089. Shattering Money Myths with Stephanie Walter

Connect with the host:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-e-jenkins/

Website: https://www.birchprosper.com/

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About the guest:

Stephani Walter Today’s guest, Stephanie Walter, is the CEO of Erbe Wealth, a capital raiser, syndicator, and author of her new book, “Shattering Money Myths: How the Wealthy Invest.” She recently retired and sold her insurance agency of 16 years by following the key principles she teaches professionals to use. She teaches professional people to “unlearn” what most of us have been wired to think about money and re-educating people on attaining lasting wealth. Stephanie lives with her husband and young son in Colorado. 

Connect with Stephani Walter: 

Email: skw@erbewealth.com

Website: www.erbewealth.com

Episode Highlights:

✔️ Finding the right partner

✔️ The 401k myth

✔️ How the wealthy put their money to work

✔️ Educating your investors

✔️ When to adjust your buy box

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Have you ever wondered how wealthy people invest their money? Many of us were taught to hold on to our money, stuff it in the mattress for fear of the sky falling. Or some of us were taught that wealthy people are overly risky when it comes to investing their money. Of course, neither of these are true. You can't build wealth without keeping your capital in motion, keeping it in play, and wealthy people don't take unacceptable risks with their capital. These are some of the common money myths some of us were taught that were now or that are now ingrained in how we think and deal with money. So today we're speaking with Stephanie Walter. She's the CEO of Airbag Wealth. She's a capital raiser, syndicator, and author of Shattering Money Myths, How the Wealthy Invest. And so you don't want to miss this episode because we're going to challenge some of the advice that so many of us received and accepted as conventional wisdom when it was anything but that. So I'm here to help you grow, and so is Stephanie Walter. Here she is from Airband Wealth.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

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SPEAKER_00 2:21

What would you do if you had the freedom to pursue the things you enjoy the most? How incredible would it feel to have the resources to pursue your passions fully and live life on your terms? This is Brandon Jenkins, host of the Capital Stack Podcast and principal of Birch Prosper. You might have heard that 90% of the world's wealthiest people attribute their wealth to real estate investing. Well, guess what? It's true. Investing in real property continues to be the greatest generator of wealth all over the world. So join us each week on the Capital Stack Podcast to hear about how commercial real estate group investment opportunities can help you reach true financial freedom and give you your time back. Hello, everyone, what's up, and welcome back to the Capital Stack. So I'm super excited for today's show because we're going to dig uh deep into some of the myths that come along with um, you know, how we've been sort of wired and pre-programmed um to think about money, think about wealth. We'll dig in a little bit on tax strategy. But I'm just uh super excited to introduce our uh featured guest for today, Stephanie Walter. How are you doing today, Stephanie?

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Oh, great. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here. So, Stephanie is the CEO of Air Bay Wealth. She's a capital raiser, syndicator, and an author of her new book, Shattering Money Myths, uh, How the Wealthy Invest. So, very, very uh important topic. Stephanie teaches professionals to unlearn what most of us have been wired to think about money and re-educating people on attaining lasting wealth. Very important key word there, lasting, lasting wealth. She lives with her husband and young son in beautiful Colorado. So, Stephanie, uh, with that, why don't you kind of fill in some gaps on your journey and uh sort of what brought you to this space?

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Oh gosh. Um, well, I think I started just like most people, I graduated from college, went straight into uh W-2 World and uh stayed in there for quite a quite some time, eight years. Um, uh around that same time I bought my first house. Uh I had an interview with my boss at the time, who said I was doing the best job, you know, very best in my field and kind of where they saw me going in within the company, and just saying you're gonna, and you you did so well, you got a 2% raise. And uh I went that night and just sort of, you know, thought about that and what did 2% look like over the rest of my life and uh talked to my dad who who was an entrepreneur, and he's like, you've got two choices either stay. They've already told you, you know, what they envisioned for you with the company, or leave and strike out on your own, create your own company and really what you create is up to you at that point. Um, so uh the very next day I went in and gave my two weeks notice.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

That's all right. Well, so it's something he gave you say sage advice there, though. Um, you know, I I I share that with people as well. Is that listen, you know, at some point um when you're you know working for an employer, you do have the opportunity to get a fairly decent uh view of where you'll be in five, 10, you know, 15, 20 years, because you can look um, you know, to your one up or your two up, your senior manager or whatever it is, and you get a fairly decent sense of, you know, if everything uh goes your way, how you might turn out. And so I share the same thing. It's like, listen, you know, once you have that perspective, it's now you know you you have yourself, um, I don't want to say to blame, but but you know, it's now up to you to determine whether that's what you want to do or uh uh you know strike out on your own and chart your own course to where the sky's the limit, you know. And so that's that's very wise advice that uh that he gave you there.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Yeah. And um, and then shortly after that, I I started an insurance agency. Uh that was my kind of ticket to uh felt like to get where I wanted to be. So I started my business in 2005 and um the grew grew the agency pretty pretty big. Uh and then in, but I'd always loved real estate. Real estate always kind of made sense to me. I didn't have a lot of education, but it was sort of my goal to buy a single family home, you know, every year, every other year. And so I just did that in the Denver area. Um and uh then we got to the, you know, in 2016, I went, I was invited to a boot camp where I could learn how to invest in apartments. And I that's when I first heard the concept of a syndication, which I'm sure uh your audience is familiar, is basically uh buying a piece of commercial property that no one could do on their own. And I was just kind of sold on that. I did edu, I signed up for an education program that took about two years to learn everything ins and outs and all that while I still had my business. And then I did my first syndication in 2018. Uh, it was very stressful and hard. And I decided after doing that, I never wanted to go through uh syndication by myself. I hooked up with a partner that we had real complementary skills. He's very good at details and um finding a deal and negotiating the deal and all that stuff. And I love raising money. Um, my the person that uh my partner doesn't is shy, doesn't like to talk to people. So that was really so together we are we did completed our first deal in 2019 and we've done 12 since then. So um we have about 300 million assets under management. But during this process, I I got to know a lot of my investors, um, which is something I love about what I do, is you get to work with who you want to. But there uh these investors, some of them are very, very successful and very wealthy, and some of them are just kind of um working their way to getting there. Um, but I learned a lot from a couple key investors that were willing to share because uh looking at their finances, I noticed they were doing different things than what I was doing. And uh started to take notes of that. And and I thought, gosh, this would be good, good news for people to learn about. I myself took a lot of their strategies and implemented them pretty immediately in yeah, in 2019, 2020. And in 2021, I had replaced my business income and so I sold my business in 2001. And now my passion is really just talking to people about some of these myths and learning, teaching people how they can get to the next level in their wealth building.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

That's very, very powerful. Um, there's some things that I'd like to sort of highlight um in there. The first thing is, although I know it's been a couple of years, but I certainly would like to congratulate you on a successful um sale and exit of your of your business. You know, there are a lot of people who uh spend the time to build a business, but but they might not always get to the point where they can comfortably sell and and um sort of uh go up even farther up from there. So certainly uh applaud you for that. Um, the other thing is that you you took uh really quick action. So once you kind of realize that this is the path that you want to go down, you found you sought out um mentorship and education, you you went uh and took the training, you applied the training, and then now look at you know, $300 million um in assets under management, um, a very powerful story and a testament to what happens when you commit to taking action in this business. You know, I I find that um uh you know, I was watching a YouTube clip the other day where there was a guy who he was selling a course on single family real estate, and so he highlighted a very recent um for anyone who's sort of been paying attention to the syndication space, you know, there is that 3200 plus unit foreclosure in in Texas. And so this guy was highlighting that as this is what happens with syndication deals. And so um, so that what happens is people, some people will gravitate to that because that's the he's spending a message in order to uh sell his product. But I find that um it's very rare that you have people who uh uh who will find seek out education, take action on that education, make sure they're getting the right information in the way that you did. And so um, I I think that's that's very powerful. Um, you know, that you're able to do that. Uh the other thing I think that's really essential here is you found someone who complimented your skill sets. Um, and so how can you maybe share a little bit about how you formed that partnership? Because that's one thing that people are are um struggle with, right? Some people, even though they want to find that person who can help them fill in the gaps, it's challenging sometimes. How were you able to do that?

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Well, I mean, I can't say it was a uh a straight line process because in my first deal that I mentioned that I did in 2018, I did have a partner that was involved in that deal, but it became really clear that during the the whole process of um us trying to close on this property that he wasn't doing any work. Um he found it and and that was great, but like it was a hard property. I had to go to almost 30 banks before I found one that would uh find carry the loan for it. Um there's just, you know, there's a ton of work when it comes to this, to these things. And um, so and then he had not disclosed some stuff to me that was fairly relevant until almost, I think it was a week before closing. He was like, I said, you know, some of these investors are getting concerned because, you know, they don't really see what you bring to the table here and um why you don't want to be on the loan and stuff like that. And he said, Well, Stephanie, uh, I have had two bankruptcies. And I was like, Okay. Wow. That would have been that would have been great to tell me before we can't have you on this anywhere on this deal. So thankfully he was he was um gracious and he bowed out. I paid him a finder's fee for finding the deal and and ended up closing by myself. But that was a big lesson to me to be a lot more vigilant about who you work for or work with. And so I had been looking in Florida and I'd gotten a few deals under contract. I exited uh almost or every deal that I'd found because once I started doing doing due diligence and stuff like that, it it was time. But um, my coach through the program I was with said, Hey, this guy is starting out too. He's in Florida. He's really um, why don't you ask him to come along with you on this? I had a deal in Tallahassee. So he came up uh with his wife and and we talked and um he walked the property and we kind of worked that property, but we ended up exiting because of some things we'd found in due diligence. And we were in his car, and I had actually invited a couple investors to go through the inspection process with us because they lived in Florida too. And I think he saw that I developed connections with people. People tend to like me or I connect with people. And I remember he was like, hey, Steph, you know, I have this property in Tallahassee that I want to close on. Would you be interested in raising money for it? And that, and we never created, we still to this day haven't created a formal partnership document. Uh each deal is, hey, will you take a look at this and let me know if you want to be involved? And um yeah, and and lucky enough, you know, after that first deal, if we didn't like each other or something was went awry, you know, you didn't have you weren't tied to them. But sometimes it does don't feel bad, I'd say to your audience if they do, if they're trying to find someone and a first partnership doesn't work out. Partnerships are really, really hard. And um, so you just have to, you know, uh you might have to fail once or twice and and then you'll find your your match.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Yeah, I would I would agree with that. You know, partnerships are very difficult and and um it's certainly something, you know, if you think about it, everything has to almost line up in order for them to go well. I mean, first you have to find someone who's very much interested in in the business, the line of uh business that you're in. Then you have to find someone who's an action taker and a self-starter that you don't have to kind of drag, you know, along with you, uh, someone who's motivated, then you have to make sure you find someone who complements your skill sets instead of you both having the exact same um skill set. So there, I mean, there's a lot to, and even once you get sort of the deal closed, you have to make sure it's someone who is will do what they say that they're that they'll do. So I mean, yeah, there's there's there's definitely a lot of layers to it. And so um definitely appreciate you know the advice there. It's it's you know, we have to take our time and make sure you you don't try and rush it. I mean, I think it's I think it's super important. Um so so let's let's talk a bit about then uh because you mentioned that you started to notice that the people uh that you that are your investors and that you that you form connections with, they do things a little bit differently, right? Um can you maybe uh talk about that just a little bit uh more?

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Well, um, you know, I think the biggest thing that hit me anyways, I I didn't really have a name for it right away, but I I figured it out eventually. But uh the terms I've I've come up with is that most people, myself included, uh viewed money as accumulation. My goal for retiring was I'm gonna buy a single family home every year, every other year, then I'll pay it off in 30 years, I'll retire. Okay. So that, but most people in our society do the 401k thing. They they set their money aside in 401k, have their nest egg grow, and then they plan to take and live off of that when they retire. So um, and for me, it really made me look at like, and I guess we'll switch to the wealthy, they view money in a utilization um mindset, which means that that money should be working for them at any time and all the time, and hopefully as as quick as possible for them. So, in the sense that the and they have control over their money, they don't uh turn their money over to other people to watch. They uh they invest with people like myself. Um, they they are but they have control over it. They ask us the questions, what have you done lately? How what's your experience about, you know, so they vet the companies, which it isn't very hard to do, but they they tend to, yeah, not to give away control of the money, which I unfortunately I think a lot of people do now. And also they truly diversify. And when I say diversify, I'm not talking about in the stock market diversification. I'm talking they they invest in real estate probably consistently. It's pretty interesting. I think uh I have found uh a real wealthy group of entrepreneurs, and every year they categorize what they're invested in. It's pretty similar every year. Say of about 20% in real estate, 20% in private equity. Um and you know, just uh they have some in the stock market and then they have a little play money, you know, probably 5% in you know, startups or something like that. Um, but they it's very important. So what they clarified for me is that what is my money doing in all the rental properties? I was, you know, cash flowing maybe a hundred, two hundred dollars a month. So not much. So when I looked at what that equity could do in an investment that was giving me cash flow, which I happen to like syndications because that's the world I'm in. So gosh, there was no comparison of you know what my actual cash flow was there versus using that equity to put into syndication. And um, and it just like supercharged my um, you know, supercharged me to be able to sell my business. They look at a lot of uh things that corporations look at to invest in to diversify, like like life insurance. There's so many um misunderstandings about life insurance, but they use life insurance in a way that I can tell you that almost a hundred percent of people I talk to have never heard of before. So, yeah, so I that's a long answer for a short question.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah, no, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Are you referring to velocity um uh banking there or um I it's called premium finance insurance and corporations have used it for years, they basically leverage the bank, a bank, to pay uh their insurance premium and the insurance grows. Like it's like taking steroids into a life insurance policy that provides tax-free growth and tax-free income. And uh yeah, it's it's a phenomenal thing. It works much like real estate, actually, because you're using leverage um to accelerate your gains.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Yeah, that that's awesome. I mean, I think that um, you know, the what you mentioned, the comp the concept of of utilization and how it money always needs to be um you know at work and moving, you know, as opposed to having this stagnant view of let's stockpile it. And then once I've stockpiled enough, then I can do, then I can do what I want to do, you know. Um and um two very, very different philosophies. And I think you're right. It's you our capital, our money needs to always be at work and always be in play, and we should always have some element of control over it. You know, if you you you're penalized heavily if you have money in a 401k, and then at one point you decide to pull some out, um, unless it fits, you know, three or four very, very narrow categories. And so right off the bat, you know, it's you would think more people would would look at that and say, well, why is that? Why is that really uh that the way that it's arranged? But um, yeah, yeah, I think that those philosophies make sense. We you know, and that's one of the reasons why I also really enjoy the syndication space um for many reasons. I mean, you can it all the benefits of investing in real estate, and then you have um, you know, the opportunity to connect with and decide who you want to uh try to entrust your capital with uh based on their track record. So all things that um I think are very powerful. So I I want to um you already touched on a couple of uh myths in there, but you know, the first thing I love the title of your book. Um, you know, I certainly think it's important to shatter uh money myths, and there are plenty of them um out there, you know, but what are some of the money myths? That you discuss in your book?

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Oh, okay. I think a big one that is kind of open, eye-opening for a lot of people is uh that wealthy people become wealthy because they choose to invest in high-risk opportunities. And actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Um, wealthy people tend to uh never want a loss, and they are very diligent about that. They they want specifically to see asymmetric returns for their money. So basically, they want to see a big return for the investment that they put in. Um there they very much subscribe to Warren Buffett's rules of investing, which is rule number one, never lose any money, rule number two, never forget rule number one. And in my book, I I I give examples of, you know, if you lose 50% in the stock market, most people you ask, how much would they have to make to just get back to where they are before? They think it's 50%, when in fact it's a hundred percent a return that they would need to get. So when the we have these large drop-offs in the stock market, it can take, you know, sometimes it could take a decade to get. I've talked to people that lost money in in 08, 09, and they're still um, you know, just extended their retirement year, years out because they had to work longer.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Yeah, no, that's that's um an excellent point, you know, and and it's it's even potentially more than 100% when you factor in the opportunity cost or the opportunity loss in the meantime, right? Of kind of building trying to build back up to where they were before. Um, and so, you know, who knows? I mean, I you know, we're we're in this, we're in a period now where I I do believe some of these things are starting to be um challenged a bit, but the level of awareness is still not there. So, you know, who knows that how things will go in the future. Uh one thing that you mentioned earlier that was interesting as well is is capital allocation. There's there's a report um called the wealth report. I forgot who puts it out. It might be Knight Frank, I think, or something like that, um, where they their breakdown is almost identical to what you mentioned there, um, percentage-wise. And so you see that um every year. I've been re reading this report for the past maybe four or five years. And that breakdown is is always the same. And this is an international report. So it really gives you kind of a view into the minds of what the ultra-wealthy, the wealthy, you know, what what they're doing doing with their capital, what their philosophy is. And um, so what are your thoughts then on you know, people who uh mimicking that and doing that regardless of where you are? So even if you're not the wealthy ultra wealthy, is that a good uh strategy to implement, um, regardless of your position?

SPEAKER_02 24:54

Yes, I mean, I think uh that I work with investors all the time that are, you know, on their way but not quite there yet. And I just they ask me what what I should do. If they can't qualify for a syndication, I you know challenge them to look for other ways in which their money can really grow for them. Um, either either in just investing on their own in single family real estate, just starting to get some equity, starting to build your equity and then use it smartly. Um, put it into vehicles like, you know, something that a lot of people don't understand is the the life insurance options, um, and how that's a solid part of the wealthy people's portfolio. So people ask, why, you know, uh why do they do that? Because it's consistent is and they do it because they can put as much money in as possible. They're not limited uh like the Roth IRA is, and the money and if you it needs to be structured by a person that knows what they're doing, not not your um farmer's agent like I was. Um I wasn't aware of these strategies. So you have to work with someone that understands what you're you're wanting to achieve. And um, these I think outperform almost every other um, I I mean they're they're similar to to syndications, um, but yeah, they they grow double digits consistently for people. And it's liquid, like you say. So once you build up some value in the policy, you can pull the value out and invest in a syndication. Um, just I just say to do something because almost probably 100% of people are invested in the in the in the stock market. Or, but what I find where I find the opportunity for people is if you've left your job, which it seems like no one works at the same job forever, and you have an old 401k that's just sitting, it's probably everyone I talk to a lot of people and they're like, it just stays the same. It never really goes up, never really goes down. Well, that's because of the fees that you're being charged. And you, you know, you don't know at most people don't even know that it's allocated, how where it's allocated. Yeah. If it's you're gonna keep it there, it should stay in index, um, low fee index funds. Um, but what you can do with that is take some of the control back that we're talking about. And that's probably a good first step, is you can change that old 401k into a self-directed IRA. You still um don't have access. I mean, you you have access to choose what you want to invest in, but all the returns go back into it and um, you know, kind of stays in that tax-deferred structure. But that's a good way for people to like put inch your toe in and use that money that's just really not doing much for you at all. And um, I think that's a really great strategy that a lot of people just don't even know that's available to them. And they're they'd like to try it out, but they don't know where to get the money. That that would be the first place to look, I think.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

I I would agree. This self-directed IRAs are an incredible vehicle. Um, you know, and it just opens up an entirely new world for most of us in terms of the types of private investments that you can now um take part in. And um I just think it's it's it's incredible. You know, you can I myself, I had two old um, you know, uh IRAs that I rolled over in. I'm sorry, uh formal case that I rolled over into what became a self self-directed IRA and use those for syndication deals. And um it's not limited to those either. You can do precious metals and you can do all you know any other uh number of things. But the bottom line is it allows you then now to um have kind of more control, you know, do some research, understand what you're investing in, and then you can actually invest in those, you know, whereas most 401ks you're you're um pretty heavily restricted in the types of funds and things like that that you can put uh uh allocate your capital to. And and like you mentioned, once you, you know, if you have an abandoned um 401k, which is essentially what what these things turn into, you have no clue as to what how they're being allocated, how how often the turnover is taking place, what it's being turned over into. Um, you know, and so um you know, yeah, I just I just think that uh having an awareness that's the first step, which is the reason reason why uh you know your book and and other types of material um is very useful in that. But then also taking the action to to uh move forward. So what what what what would you say kind of maybe maybe motivated you to write the book? Like what were some of the things that you know as you were sitting, uh, you know, as you you were spending your time doing, uh, you know, investing and and taking advantage of the things that you were aware of. What motivated you to say, you know what, I need to put this, uh put this down on paper to help people out?

SPEAKER_02 29:59

Well, I I guess I would go on a lot of podcasts and talk about syndications, and people would kind of ask me the same types of questions that would come up for them. And I was like, I'm I'm kind of saying the same things. I wonder, and then I just kind of reverse engineered it and was like, could I come up with 10, you know, myths that people believe in uh that aren't actually true? And I yeah, and then I worked out how long each chapter should be and how many words to each page. So I just really went went through it. Um, I reverse engineered it. But yeah, I think this information is so so important. And it's, you know, especially when I delve a lot deeper into the financial services industry. I, you know, I I actually did have my series six and seven when I was a farmers agent. And I was selling people mutual funds that we were told that need we needed to sell. And there was just a lot of misinformation. And none of us, no one that I have a friend that's just brilliant with the stock market. Not no no one saw, you know, oh eight, oh nine happening. People lost lots of money. I personally couldn't didn't have the stomach to stay in that anymore of managing people's money. So I moved, uh, I took because I was like, I never can, no one can predict what when you're gonna have a loss. And that to me was just not livable. So I returned my licenses and um yeah, just uh stuck with real estate. But yeah, I just I feel like there's such an arbitrary nature and also learning about the losses that that people take. Look, I look at people's statements all the time, and I'm like, do you see this number here? That this is what this has returned to you um since you took this out. I was talking to someone, I think it was an own. Uh she had she had invested with someone, I think it was for 15 years, and she averaged 4.19.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

And I was like, this is what this is crazy. And also in my book, I think I rest referenced like 93% of people think that um there are no fees charged in their 401k, which is pretty amazing because I do the same thing. I I run numbers for a person that's um getting 1% fees, 2% fees, and 3% fees, and seeing what that does to their retirement over time. And it's it's staggering the between the 1 and the 3% fees, you you don't think that's a real big difference. It can mean working another decade in in there. It's it's very significant. So to know what the fees are, and even if you ask, I think what kills me is it's not very straightforward. You could talk to a financial planner, they'll say, Oh, this is this fee has less than 1% um one 1% uh charges in it. And I'm like, okay, because they'll come and ask me, I'll say, go to your prospectus of this fund, go to the last like 40 pages where they where they go over every fee that's charged on top of that. So um it's just it's it's a big a big hurdle to to overcome to question the financial industry because they do what what you know banks have traditionally done. They want to hold your money, they want to hold it for as long as possible, they want to distribute it slowly over time. So this is this meets the 401k to to a T. And I think the other point I just point out to people, just to help people just start questioning things, is that 10, I think there was a study that was done, and most people think when they retire they can take 10% of their nest egg out every year. Um, that number is actually closer to there was a company that just ran a study recently, Morningstar, which is an independent consulting firm, and they found that number is 2.8%. So that means if you've acquired a million dollars in your nest egg, you're gonna be able to take $28,000 out a year, and then that is very likely gonna be taxed, probably much higher than it is today. Um, so I just I don't want people to be surprised because these these are things that um the financial planners are really good at accumulating money, or you know, I I could have an argument against that, but the job is to accumulate the money, but they have no plan for the people want to distribute the money when they retire. That's kind of when they disappear.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Yeah, yeah, that's it's unfortunate. And and the thing is, you know, what's what's concerning is so there's an awareness issue, but but even on the other side of that, there's also sort of um um a lack of action or desire to do something about it issue, which is even harder to address because you know, once you make people aware and say, listen, here's what's really going on, the other piece is okay, so now that you know and you can't unsee what you've seen or what I've revealed to you, then now what are you going to do about it? And you here you have, you know, said the syndication space is a perfect vehicle to help. Um, you know, but some people still have reservations. And so I was kind of curious, um, the the mechanism through uh where you educate and help people unlearn what they've been programmed to uh to believe. Is that through Air Bay Wealth? So that's a okay, so so can you can let's talk about that just for a moment about the platform, who who's it for, um, and that and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Yeah, um, well, my website has it's not, it's you know, not doesn't have quite as much on it as I'd like. There's it's pretty heavy in uh the syndications, which you know, we personally haven't invested since 2023 was our last investment. And we're just gonna kind of wait it out and see, you know, what's gonna happen if this, if there's gonna be some opportunity at the end of this year or next year. That gave me time to write my book. So you can go to my website and download the book. Um, and that will get you started. There's lots of stuff on my um website to look over, but it's nice to just, you know, talk to uh the investors that come to my website just to hear what they, you know, what they think and what they're looking for. And I just help people, you know, try to, you know, get a plan in in place. And that's really my passion right now is uh just, you know, the people that really like what you're saying want to take action because there's lots of people that don't. Um, but people that truly want to take action and change um, you know, the the trajectory of their of their uh retirement, um, I'm I'm happy to to talk about those things.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

No, that that's incredible because that yeah, that education piece is is huge, right? Um and actually I think that, you know, on the kind of the topic of connecting with people and even raising capital, uh education is a big piece of that. Um, because you know, making sure that your network and the one, you know, whether they are sort of retail investors or higher, uh, you know, or come from a different source of capital, whether it be high net worth or even institutional or what have you, uh, making sure that they're educated in not just the business, but also who you are and how you operate. And those things, in my opinion, are very important as syndicators. You know, I think that's just that's just kind of how the that's one of the best ways to make that connection and and and let it be sort of this genuine relationship that you build uh with your people. So so kind of what's what's what's next um for you then? So you at the moment you're you're you're um like many of us are are are trying to see which way the market's going and and what's what's kind of next uh for for you and and and your uh your your partner.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

Yeah, that's what we're we're waiting for, just kind of to see what's gonna happen. There's uh quite a lot of uh you know people that that say that they think at the end of this year or the beginning of next, there's a lot of people tied up with with bad um rates now that they didn't lock in. Um they didn't think to lock them in. So now they closed on a deal where they had a 2% interest rate, and now their interest rate is 8%. Well, they can't perform for their investors as they thought um they could. There's probably not enough equity in the property to refinance. So these people are gonna have to sell. Now, how many there will be, I'm not sure. But definitely there's gonna be some opportunity in all asset classes in um for people that just didn't think to lock down long-term debt when they bought these properties.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Yeah, that's right. And of course, we're talking about bridge bridged ed not being um de-risked by uh an interest rate cap. Um, right. And so um now out of curiosity, you know, during times like this, because these are sort of once in a um, I don't know, maybe 10 or more a year uh type of occurrence, um, do you do you think that that someone should sort of maybe broaden their buy box a little bit? Only be and only ask that because, you know, one of the fundamentals, yeah, you mentioned Buffett earlier, and one of his uh, you know, points was always to buy below intrinsic value if you can. So, you know, naturally there might be a lot of opportunities for that now. Would you say that that's a a good strategy to sort of even stretch the buy box a little bit to to maybe pick up something that you might otherwise might might not? But um, yeah, what are your thoughts on that, Justin Raspberry?

SPEAKER_02 40:03

Yeah, for sure. I believe that, you know, that's been our kind of our philosophy between the two of us is that we we won't, we want to have a good deal. At the end of the day, we never, thank God, we never had the philosophy of buying and knowing the appreciation would come when we start, you know, moving around the parts and in running the property. We always had to fundamentally make the money on the buy. And then what uh came after that was uh you know fixing the problem areas in the property and then you know getting getting a good rate of return for our investors. Um, so if you do that, you can't really go that wrong. And but I do predict in the future it's probably gonna be um the hold times. We've we've seen hold times for us. We're selling three properties this year um within the couple next couple months, and those have all been held for about three, three and a half years. I think in the future, the hold times will probably be a little longer, maybe five to seven years, to achieve what we were able to do um just a few years ago because of the opportunity of you know interest rates being what they were.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that. I think I think that, you know, in my view, I I think that maybe in the absence of a significant discount to intrinsic value, you know, yeah, I I would agree we're we're looking at you know longer hold times. Um I I I looked at uh it was a virtual summit that I attended um some some months ago, several months ago, and um there was a quick uh kind of catalog of the the certain operators' recent um performances, and they looked at some 11 deals, and I think all of them had a five-year projection uh or five-year hold, but uh but all of the deals that they surveyed sold within, I don't know, with in less than three years, you know, and it's like that those times uh they'll they'll at the very least they'll be put on hold. So but um okay, so you know this has been good. Um, you know, Stephanie, we're kind of getting getting close to uh to to close, but I did want to ask, you know, so if there is an investor, a potential investor, or even someone who is um obviously anxious about sort of the the times that we're in, they want to make sure that their retirement is pretty well covered and they want to unlearn some of the things that they've been programmed to learn. Um what's something they can do to take action um and maybe even pivot so that you can set them on the right uh wealth journey?

SPEAKER_02 42:35

I think um, you know, those are ideal people to uh, you know, for me to talk to uh to just determine uh, you know, where they are and what their goals are. Because people I talk to, most of my clients are actually 45, 50 years old. And people think, oh, that's too late for me. But it really isn't if you, you know, have your mindset changed and stuff like and uh have goals put into place and and use some of these strategies that we're talking about. Um, but yeah, I'd say at the very least, take my book, which is I'm offering for free right now on my website. Um and and that's a real great uh, you know, great compilation of uh, I think a lot of things that people are not taught about finances. And just I'd say just, you know, take control of, you know, take control. Don't be satisfied with just having all your money, you know, managed and you don't know where it's going, you don't know what it's invested in. Um and just look at some of these alternative strategies with people that, you know, have experience and know what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And the name of the book again is shattering money myths, how the wealthy invest. And so I'll include um links to that in the show notes. But so If um the listeners wanted to hear more about you or or um kind of follow you, how can they do so?

SPEAKER_02 44:05

Uh they can go to my website, which is www.uhairbayrbealth.com.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

All right, sounds good. Well, Stephanie, once again, just thank you so much for adding value here. And um, I've learned some things and listeners have as well. So thank you once again for uh for your time.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

As always, thank you so much for tuning in to the show today, brought to you by Bridge Prosper. If you enjoyed today's episode and you'd like to learn more about commercial real estate investing, please like, subscribe, and share. And we'll see you again next week. I'm Brandon Jenkins, and this is the Capital Stack, where we help you learn, apply, and prosper.