What if you could invest in real estate without dealing with tenants, toilets, or day-to-day headaches?
In this episode, Dr. Kate Gress shares how she’s transitioning out of her 26-year chiropractic career by building a scalable real estate syndication business.
Kate breaks down how syndications work, the role of general and limited partners, and how you can generate cash flow and tax advantages without being a landlord. She shares how coaching, networking, and a clearly defined investment “buy box” have helped her build long-term wealth through value-add multifamily deals.
Whether you're a busy professional or a real estate investor exploring passive income strategies, this episode is packed with real-world advice.
📌 Topics covered:
- The structure of a real estate syndication
- Defining your buy box (Kate’s focus: 40–80 unit B & C class multifamily)
- Using cost segregation to reduce your tax bill
- Finding the right partners through networking and passive deals
- Why she’s planning to exit her chiropractic practice by 2026
👉 Connect with Dr. Kate Gress:
Kate’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkategress/
Ascend Equity LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascend-equity1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascendequityy
Website: https://ascendequitygrp.com
Free Passive Income Playbook: https://link.ascendequitygrp.com/widget/form/jIEgAsoXMxwtgYPAj9io
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, corey Raymond, your host here for the
Wisconsin Investor Podcast, and,as usual, I have another guest.
Today, we are talking about adifferent topic than we've ever
talked about on the show before,so I'm super excited to get
into this show with you.
Before I do, though, I alwaysbring up our sponsor, wisconsin
Discount Properties.
Every week, guys, I bring youeither a deal that you missed
(00:20):
out on to create some FOMO, or Ijust talk about our process,
and so today I'm just going totalk about the process at
Wisconsin Discount Properties.
One of the biggest challengesin real estate is finding deals
right.
If you can find money, wellthen you got to find deals to
place it somewhere right, andbefore you can go find money,
sometimes you got to have somedeals to be talking about, and
so getting on our buyers list atWisconsin Discount Properties.
(00:40):
Every week, we're putting goodquality deals in your inbox
spreads for rentals, flips,whatever your exit strategy is.
All you have to do to get onthat list is go to our website,
wisconsin Discount Properties,plug your information in and
you'll automatically get addedto the buyer's list, where you
get text updates and emailupdates Every single week.
We put the offers and the dealsout on Monday mornings and by
(01:03):
Thursday at one o'clock, weaccept offers.
And if you're the highest andbest deals out on Monday
mornings and by Thursday at oneo'clock, we accept offers.
And if you're the highest andbest offer, you got a new
project coming to you and you'rebuilding wealth or building
your income With that.
Let's get into today's episode.
So today I have Dr Kate Gress.
Did I say your last name right?
You did yes, okay, awesome, howare you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'm great it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yes, okay, awesome.
How are you doing?
I'm great.
It's another beautiful day inWisconsin.
Absolutely, absolutely Well.
At the time we're recordingthis, kate, we met last week at
a networking event called theREI Success Club.
So if you've listened toprevious episodes audience,
you've heard me talk about this.
You've heard me talk about thepower of networking.
Today, kate, I have a feelingyou're going to probably have a
lot to share about the power ofnetworking with what you do.
But before we get into that,can you just tell the audience a
(01:49):
little bit about you, yourbackground and how you got into
real estate?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Sure, so I am a chiropractor.
I've been practicing for 26years.
I have a practice I do not seepatients, so I just work, you
know, basically on the business.
I have a couple of I do not seepatients so, um, I just work,
you know, basically on thebusiness.
Um, I have a couple ofassociates that see the patients
.
Um and uh, I got into realestate, uh, 23 years ago and
(02:15):
built a commercial building withsome rental space, um, yep, and
, and that was basically thehouse, my practice, right, and
uh, I always said I was going todo more in real estate and kind
of wanted to keep going withthat and I kind of took a pause.
So it just kind of, you know, itgot busy practice, got busy
life, got busy kids, family,that sort of thing.
(02:36):
And uh, then a few years back Isaid, okay, I'm going to do
more, I'm going to do more realestate, um, and part of my exit
(02:56):
strategy too.
Um, I'm going to do more, I'mgoing to do more real estate and
part of my exit strategy too.
I knew I was going to passiveinvestor in a uh, offering a
syndicate, um and multifamily.
And that's where I actually metmy um, current one of my
(03:16):
business partners now that I dothe syndications with and um, so
, yeah, just basically meetinghim that way and talking to him
about um syndications and youknow how do I go big, how do I
do this Like and like a shorteramount of time because I'm
selling my practice and um, yeah, that's kind of what I want to
(03:37):
do is just go full in.
So that's kind of the story.
So then I just started doing it, started learning and that's
amazing.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So you, so you.
Basically what I'm hearing here.
The key to your progress here,Kate, is networking.
So you went in, you metsomebody who had this
syndication right and then youstarted asking questions right,
how do I, how do I do this, howdo I do what you're doing, how
do I grow on a bigger scale?
And then it sounds like youstarted just taking action based
off of that.
Is that pretty accurate?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
That is pretty accurate.
Yeah, you know, and you saidnetworking.
It is all about networking.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I don't care what business you're in.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You know, chiropractic, real estate, you
know it's all been aboutnetworking.
That's how you meet your people, how you, you know, in real
estate, find your deals Right.
So, um know, in real estate,find your deals Right.
So, um, that's been invaluable.
Um, so, networking and then um,just meeting those people and,
yeah, just just learning.
You know I love learning andand doing what I can, uh, taking
it all in, absorbing it all andum, and started coaching,
(04:37):
actually with a coach for um,learning more about syndications
so that I could just learn asmuch as I can and just be the
best that I can at doing what Ido.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I love that.
You know, I was actually justreflecting on this case because
I'm going to be starting sort ofsome other initiatives within
our company in the real estatespace and sometimes I think for
a couple of years I've likewanted to do some of these
things, but then there's just,like you know, you're complacent
in other areas maybe, or maybeI was, maybe I was held up, but
I think what it was is like Ilook back and I'm like what do I
need?
(05:12):
Every time I did something orbuilt something within the
company, I hired a coach, foundwho was doing the best at it,
and I went and like I'm going topay you.
I I'm going to pay you.
I know it's going to be a quoteunquote expense right now, but
really it's an investment andI'm going to pay you and I'm
going to take as much as I canfrom you to learn, and then I'm
going to put it into action.
It's going to be messy, butwe're going to figure it out.
(05:32):
But having that coach, I think,is so important.
You know, what Was that?
Like a really big catapult foryou with your coach that you
found.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yes, definitely.
I mean, it's just someone tolike bounce stuff off of learn
from um from day one.
Even in chiropractic I've had acoach.
I hired a chiropractic coach,consultant, whatever you want to
call them from day one.
I ended up marrying one also.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So um well, you're going to.
You get a better rate, I hear,if you marry him.
I think.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Not really actually, but no still charges me.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Wow.
I know I know what a guy.
Oh, that's hilarious.
That's such a great nugget,though I think you know you have
two people here guys thatyou're listening to, who've had.
You know I guess you'd call itsuccess it depends on how you
define it.
But you know we've, we've madeprogress, we're doing.
You know she's new chiropracticand not seeing patients.
I mean that should tell youguys something here.
You know, if you unless you,love seeing patients every day,
(06:27):
but you're using the power ofleverage of other people and
you've built a business now thatyou can work on the business,
not in the business, and nowyou're just taking a lot of
those skills that you learn andit sounds like you're applying
that into the real estate spaceand you're just taking the same
lessons, like I love what yousaid.
It doesn't matter what industryyou're in or what business
you're in, you're just doing thesame basic principles here.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, it's so true.
It is the same basic principles, from your systems and your
procedures when you're running abusiness, to your networking,
your marketing, it all applies.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It all applies.
Yeah, that's awesome.
How did you find your coach?
Because I think this could besomething for some people when
they're like, great, I'd love toget a coach, but where do I
find one?
How do I know they're reputable?
How do I know that they'resomebody I can actually get some
value back from, versus justthrowing money down the drain?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
the Wisco Rio Um.
He was a speaker and that's howwe connected and um just
started talking with him andkind of did my research on them
and thought, okay, you knowsomeone who's been doing this
for 35 plus years, that's who Iwant to learn from.
You know the person who has,you know, had the successes, has
had been through failures, whohas, you know, been through it
all.
So that's that's what I, that'swho I want to learn from.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, Been.
Through 08 and the marketdownturn they probably got a lot
of bumps and bruises thatthey've learned from right.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yep, yep.
So that's, that's how I foundmy coach, but there's so many
people out there in that space,you know.
Again, probably going back tonetworking, you can talk to
people and, you know, findreferrals that way.
So yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I think for me, the biggest way I've done is exactly
what you're talking about, kate.
It's asking other people who'veeither gone through that
coaching program like hey, whatwas your actual experience?
Or, like I belong to anetworking group called the
collective genius.
You know, I've had a LeonBarnes on a few episodes ago who
represented the collectivegenius on there, and it's just
an awesome group of networking,you know, at a level of people
(08:29):
all over the country.
And then you can same thing,like oh, I want to now want to
get into this.
You know a vertical over herewithin real estate who is doing
it at a high level over here.
And then hey, who did you learnfrom?
Like I could learn from thatperson too.
But then it's like, hey, whodid you learn from?
And then I can go and you know,get that coach or get that
person as well, but it is, it'sjust we're probably going to
(08:54):
beat this dead horse here alittle bit, but it's about the
networking.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, it truly is, um , and you know it doesn't even
have to be kind of like you weresaying, um, it doesn't have to
be like even just a one-on-onecoach.
You know, it could be like agroup coaching or like
mastermind group that you canlearn so much from.
You know, I do, I've done, I'vebeen part of masterminds.
I've, you know, go to seminarsand conferences regularly,
(09:17):
listen to podcasts, so just youknow learning all of that and
you just, you know, kind oflearn and basically just find
your people that way.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Right, and that's like all the listeners of the
Wisconsin investor podcast, kate.
They talk about how much fasterthey reach success just by
listening to the show.
It's amazing.
Yeah, I'm just kidding, but inall, reality.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I'm sure it's true.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Listening to a lot of this stuff and the podcast and
the audio books and all thosekinds of things, I could be like
a little mini mastermind orcoach for you when you're out
there.
Talk about now.
So you've kind of zeroed in now.
You've done the single familystuff and the small duplex,
small multifamily, that kind ofthing and it sounds like you
still hold those assets.
But you shifted into thesesyndications.
For those who don't know whatthe heck is a syndication, can
(10:04):
you just kind of make it thirdgrade level what is a
syndication?
And as it relates to realestate, yes, so basically a
syndication.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You've got your group of investors.
There's the active group, whichis the GP general partners, and
then you've got your passiveinvestors, which are your
limited partners and the activepartners.
The GP team basically does allthe work.
They, you know, source thedeals.
They, you know, find themarkets.
You know, talk to the brokers.
(10:31):
You know, find the deals.
Um, you know, do theunderwriting, get the financing.
You know everything start tofinish and um bring in um
passive investors to partnerwith them, uh, to share in those
profits.
So basically, that's asyndication in a nutshell.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So basically I'm in the wholesaling space.
What it sounds like to me, Kate, is again, you're just using
network, but I go out, I find adeal and then I find a buyer.
You're kind of doing the samething and we try to do a lot of
the legwork up front.
So we get inspection, we dovideo walk thing.
We try to do a lot of thelegwork up front, so we get
inspection, we do video walkers.
We try to make it as easy aspossible for our buyers so when
they're going to look atunderwriting a deal it can be a
quick 15 minute hopefullyprocess for them.
(11:12):
It sounds like you're doingkind of the same thing, just on
a bigger scale, and then you'restaying in these deals right,
yes, yes, so, yes, so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Basically, yeah, we do all the underwriting, all the
work trying to, you know,figure it out and, um, you know,
there's so much, you know I,there's been so many things that
I've been um underwriting, youknow, over the past couple of
years, and a lot of them don'tpan out.
But, um, you know, so we do, wedo all that, we do all that due
diligence, all the underwriting, find the right properties,
find the right offerings andthen bring that to the investors
and then, yeah, that's thething, we stay in the deal, the
(11:53):
GPs stay in that deal.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Okay, got it.
I have a lot of questionsaround that too.
But for you, when you'relooking at, like, getting a
passive investor, how long arethey typically going to invest
in some of these deals?
I'm sure it varies.
But, like, is there a periodwhere you say, hey, you know you
can buy X amount of shares inthis for, say, a hundred
thousand dollars.
This is your expected return.
Here's how long it's going totake to get that?
Or like, what does thattypically look like?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yes, when you're you're putting an offering
together, so there's not justlike, okay, it's always you know
X number of years, it justtotally depends on the
underwriting and what is goingto pencil out for the numbers.
Basically, when we'reunderwriting, we're trying to
(12:35):
get to a minimum of 15% IRR forour investors, Um, and then with
us, like at least a minimum ofseven to 9% preferred return um
for the investors.
So typically I'd say, you know,when we underwrite, it's
anywhere from four to sevenyears, four or five years to
seven years.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Okay, and that four to seven is that you said it's
to get to that target return,but is that also is the exit
strategy?
Then you guys refinance thatproperty in that four to seven
year period and pay off theinvestors at principal plus
their, their investment, or howdoes that?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So usually we try to basically just exit that
property, all of us.
I mean we could, we could, youknow, refinance and then pay
them back and and you know, thenthey're done with that but, and
then they're done with that,but no kind of.
The goal is then to move on.
Basically, we're looking forvalue-add properties, so we do
(13:35):
what we can to increase thevalue of that property, turn
around and sell it in thatwhatever two to four to seven
years, whatever it might be, andthen, yeah, in that whatever
two to four to seven years,whatever it might be, and then,
um, okay, yeah, so we have alittle little bit of meat on the
bone for the next buyer.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Okay, so you as the general partner team or if it's
you and maybe some other folksyou're talking about some
partners and things like thatAre you guys then getting the
big spread on it?
So you're saying, hey, this isour target for you as the
passive investor.
Anything above that is ourvalue that we're bringing.
Or how do you guys typically doit?
Let's say you have a banger ofa deal and four to seven years
(14:16):
you've got a huge spread.
You guys are exiting it.
You're going to make a bunch ofcash.
Is that going back to thepassive investors or are they
getting their agreed upon sortof amount up front?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
They well, they're getting their agreed amount,
their agreed upon amount upfront If it ends up being more
than that like.
So it's basically a 70-30 split, so 70% to the passive
investors 30% to the GP team.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Okay, got it.
And are you guys typicallyfunding some of these as well?
Or is it everything fromoutside investors and you guys
you're funding quote unquote?
Is your sweat equity you'reputting into the deal?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Your funding, quote unquote, is your sweat equity
you're putting into the deal.
Both, both.
I mean yeah, okay, we put money, our own money, into it.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And then also, you know, our sweat equity Okay, got
it.
And so most of these folks thatare investing in this, then,
kate, they're basically coveringlike the down payment and the
rehab.
Is that what the passiveinvestor is for?
Is that their purpose in thedeal?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, basically that's a lot of it.
Yeah, yeah, we.
So, when we were raising, whenour capital raising, we're, you
know, trying to come up with themoney for the down payment and
then, yeah, whatever value addrehab that we have to do.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Got it Okay, cool.
And then I'm going to go backto.
Just for those of us who arethird grade level here, like
myself IRR, can you just explaineverybody in third grade terms?
Irr.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Internal rate of return.
Basically it's the amount thatthey're going to like, like with
the investors what they'regoing to get per year, their
returns per year.
So when we, um, when we have aninvestor come into the, the
offering, we pay them theirpreferred return, uh, which is
(16:06):
getting paid out along the way.
So if they say, have a 7%preferred return, uh, we usually
pay that out quarterly.
And usually when we, when wetake over a property, it might
be, you know, maybe within youknow, towards the end of that
first year, just to get thatproperty stabilized.
But then we start distributingthose returns to the investors
(16:28):
and they get their initialcapital back plus their IRR, the
difference between what theygot for the preferred return and
the IRR.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Okay, so let's say they're going to 7%, they're
going to get an extra 8% bump atthe end.
Is what you're saying, based onthat whole period of time?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, so say it's a 17% IRR, 7% of that 17% is going
to get paid out along the way,or 7% of that 17% will get paid
out along the way.
Then that difference, which isthe 10%, will all get paid out
at the end.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Does that make sense?
Did I explain that in a waythat makes?
sense 100% for me.
I think that's clear, as can beYep.
One question I have now withyour guys' offerings if I'm a
passive investor and let's saymaybe I'm a doctor or something
else where I have active income,and then there's me the passive
(17:35):
investor who's a full-time realestate professional Are there
any kind of tax benefits?
As far as you know, if I'minvesting in some of these, can
I get a chunk of thedepreciation offsets on my, my
income, or how does that work ifyou're passive in some of these
deals?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, absolutely so.
We usually will do like a costsegregation study.
So one of the offerings that wehave currently that we're
bringing in investors still,which we own the property, that
one we did a cost segregationstudy when we took it over last
fall and it was between 40 and50 percent and then this year it
(18:14):
should be a little bit lessthan that.
But so, yeah, if you're inactive, if you are in real
estate, then you can get thatdepreciation.
So there are some tax benefitsthat way.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, 100%.
Well, if this big beautifulbill gets passed, we're going to
be back to 100% bonusdepreciation is what I'm hearing
out there.
So that's exciting for us as asinvestors out there.
If you're not understandingexactly what we're talking about
, that's okay.
We have other episodes, youknow, back with some accountants
that are talking about this.
Just know that you can writeoff a lot more stuff If bonus
(18:49):
depreciation is at a hundredpercent and you're an active
investor who's buying andholding properties, but you also
have active income.
Yeah, properties, but you alsohave active income.
Yeah, fingers crossed, we getthe 100%.
I was like you can do whateverelse you want with that big
beautiful bill.
Cut whatever else you want,just leave bonus depreciation
please 100% for me, thank you.
Because I think right now thisyear it's currently set to be
40%, is that?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
right, that sounds about right?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I think it's 40%, which basically means if you
have $100,000 of loss that youcould have taken against your
income, you can now only take$40,000 of that this year.
But if this rule gets put backin or this thing gets added into
the big beautiful bill now,you'd be able to take the entire
$100,000 against your income,which saves a lot of money in
taxes for sure.
(19:30):
Yeah, that will be huge whenyou guys go to sell that.
How are your investorsoffsetting?
Because you do have to pay itback on the road if you do sell.
So how are the investorsoffsetting?
Are they just investing inanother deal with you then to
take that future bonusdepreciation?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
They can.
Yeah, they can definitely dothat.
That's, I guess, kind of up tothem if they want to continue to
invest or just walk away andfigure it out.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
You probably wouldn't be too upset if they did that
right.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You'd be like, yeah, that's a good If they invested
again now.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, throw that money back in here.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Come on now.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Let's keep it rolling Right.
Well, that's pretty excitingstuff.
How are you guys finding these?
You mentioned talk to brokersbefore.
Has that been like theacquisition strategy?
The brokers are sending youguys a lot of deals to
underwrite.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah, again, it goes back to those connections, right
?
So, especially my partner,who's been in this for forever,
he just knows has theconnections with the brokers.
But that's been part of my workas well is just making the
connections with the brokers,just finding the markets that we
want to be in and then makingthose connections with the
brokers.
You know, just finding themarkets that we want to be in
and then making thoseconnections with the brokers.
(20:38):
You know, letting them knowwhat our buy box is, what we're
looking for and, um, hopefullythey can bring us, bring us some
, some good deals.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
That's awesome.
Are most of these just kind ofoff market?
Like they have a seller who'sinterested in selling and they
they have the buyers that theyknow are ready, willing and able
to buy and they're just sort ofshopping those to the people
that they know Like their shortlist.
Are these listed on some of thewebsites and you guys are going
out there and finding them?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Oh yeah, some of them are listed on the website.
So, yeah, some of them are notjust off market.
But obviously that's where, ifyou can make those connections
with the brokers and let themknow, reach out to them, let
them know what you're lookingfor.
Then when they find something,or they have something before it
goes to market, then they'llreach out to you and let you
know.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I think those of you out there that are listening to
this, you're like I don't wantto get into this multifamily
syndication stuff.
This isn't for me.
I'm going to move on to thenext episode of something else.
Before you do, just listen towhat Kate just said there.
This is so important for us too, when we're thinking of like,
hey, we have this deal that wecould get under contract.
If I know your buy box and Iknow exactly what you're looking
(21:46):
for, I'm going to have a lotmore confidence.
A to go lock that up at thenumbers that I know I can get it
for, because I know it's goingto fit your buy box and I'm
going to be able to provide youanother deal and you're going to
be the first person I think of.
I know you're very clear onexactly what you want.
As soon as I find it, I'm like,yep, this is going to Kate.
I'm calling Kate first.
Let me give Kate the firstopportunity.
(22:06):
So I think those of you guys outthere listening to this get
really clear on exactly what youwant and then tell everybody
exactly what it is that you wantand let them bring you those
specific deals.
And you'd be surprised that,like there's one guy I know he
buys only in a specific town, Iliterally just wholesaled him a
deal the other day because I waslike, ah, the numbers are kind
of tight for us to go put it outto anybody.
I'm just going to call thisdude, because otherwise we're
(22:28):
just going to cancel thiscontract and move on.
And we ended up working a dealout and boom, he just I know he
buys everything in this town, sobut I know his buy box, so I
brought him the deal first andhe got first crack at it.
So, I think that's a huge nugget.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That is yeah, and that was one of the first things
.
When I started, you know,looking for some of these bigger
properties and you know, doingthe syndications, just got
really clear on what my buy boxwas going to be.
So then, yeah, then when you'recommunicating with the brokers
or the wholesalers or whoever,then you know you can, you know,
let them know what you'relooking for and they can find
(23:06):
you the best deals.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Magically it starts showing up, right, you don't
have to do a lot of work afterthat.
Then it's just making moreconnections with more of the
brokers, right, right, andletting them know how.
Then it's just making moreconnections with more of the
brokers, right, right, andletting them know.
How did you come up with yourbuy box, kate?
Maybe you can talk about thatprocess.
So somebody out there listeningto this they're new or maybe
they're like, I don't know Firstof all, what the heck is a buy
box this is talking about.
And then, how did you come upwith crafting your buy box, like
(23:29):
?
What was your process to get towhere you are right now?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
So a buy box is basically what are you looking
for?
You know, is it like with mewith syndications?
Okay, am I looking formultifamily?
What kind of assets Am Ilooking for multifamily?
Am I looking for hotels?
Am I looking for parkinggarages, mobile home parks, what
is it?
And so you know, getting clearon your asset class, um, and
(23:57):
then you know so, okay,multifamily, I knew that that's
what I wanted to do and, um, youknow from there what you know.
Break that down Okay, a, b, c,d class properties, what am I
looking for?
I knew it was value addproperties, um, bc class
properties, uh, that we can addvalue to, and um, you know, just
(24:19):
kind of the number of units andthe price, um, what's your
price point?
What are you looking for?
Um, part of that is you knowwhat do we think we can.
You know what's our investornetwork?
Um, you know how much capitaldo we think we can raise?
So that was another part oftrying to determine.
You know, my buy box.
(24:41):
So, yeah, so that's the buy box.
That's kind of how I narrowedit down and figured that out.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Now were you basing a lot of this, kate?
So those are really goodanswers.
By the way, for you guyslistening.
There's a lot of nuggets inwhat Kate just said.
But when you were thinkingabout it, were you also thinking
of, like, your end goal, whenyou were crafting this Like, so
I need to do these multifamilysyndications because I, I know I
like multifamily, or whateverthe case is, but also because
it's going to get me this endresult that I'm looking for.
How did you, how did you end uplanding in this, this area or
(25:12):
this arena as you were craftingthe buy box and settling not
settling, but figuring out thatmultifamily is what you want to
go after?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Hmm, that's a good question.
Um, I kind of, oh, did I kindof figure out that?
You know, I don't know if Ilooked at the end result, I just
knew, like what, what wasreasonable to me at the time and
and what could I figure out?
And and I think my confidencelevel, you know, I wasn't going
(25:42):
after a $50 million propertieswhen I'm just starting out, so,
um, so that's, I think that'spart of it.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, question because, like for me, I think
about a lot of times it's like,why am I doing what I'm doing
really, at the end of the day?
Or why do I want duplex, or whydo I want this, or why do I
want that?
Like, I get clear on why I wantit and then I'm like, okay,
this is a means to get me tothat greater purpose or that end
result or that lifestyle.
(26:12):
I'm looking for that passiveincome level, I'm looking for
that active income level,whatever the case is, if I think
it's a viable option for me andI'm really strongly attached to
the outcome I'm looking for.
You know, it's like you tookmassive action in this arena.
My guess is, either consciouslyor subconsciously, there's some
kind of greater pull, and Ithink you mentioned it.
Maybe it has to do with, youknow, getting out of the
(26:33):
chiropractic business and havingsomething you know to to do
outside of that.
Maybe that was the biggerpurpose.
And where multifamily came in,maybe that was, you know, uh,
intellectually stimulatingenough maybe for you to like all
right, this is more of achallenge for me.
This is going to be I don't youknow and that's why I was
wondering if there was somethingthere that was beyond just
(26:54):
multifamily as well.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yes, absolutely, that definitely had a huge part in
it.
Uh, just knowing that in 2026,I'm selling my practice, I'm
exiting chiropractic, um, andyou know just kind of, you know
just real estate in general,kind of part of my plan, um, you
know you can do it fromanywhere.
Um, you know I want to do moretraveling and and have more, uh,
(27:18):
freedom to just kind of do whatI want to do and, um, yeah, and
yeah, I think the challenge oflearning something new, um, like
I said before, I love learning.
I, you know, it's just I lovechallenges.
You know I'm one of thosepeople too.
I set goals and I meet my goalsand I'm on to the next goal.
So what else can we do?
(27:39):
How much bigger can we get?
So I'm just kind of that way.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, I think a lot of entrepreneurs are like that,
right.
We're like, okay, cool,conquered that board, what's
next?
Right, let's move on.
Yeah, somebody else go run thisother thing.
I started it, I got it going.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I need something else .
Speaker 1 (28:00):
That's good.
Done there, done that.
Let's just move on 100%.
Yeah, we're totally jiving onthat level.
Was there a reason?
You know you could have doneparking garages, you could have
done mobile home parks, youcould have done some of these
other bigger asset classes still.
What was the reason for youthat you chose multifamily
classes still?
What was the?
Speaker 2 (28:16):
reason for you that you chose multifamily, I think,
because I was already doing thesmaller single family, small
multifamily stuff, kind of knewthat and I invested passively in
the multifamily and so Ithought, okay, that's kind of
what I know.
And then I think too, I mean,there's a huge housing shortage
(28:39):
in the US, right.
So I think multifamily ispretty safe that way, pretty
recession resistant multifamily.
So it's not like retail oroffice space, which you know
what happened in 2020.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
So, yeah, I'm making a little bit of a bounce back
now, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Right.
So I guess that's whymultifamily and that's.
I felt like I knew that better,so I kind of wanted to just
scale that more.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Sure More natural for you.
You already had a little bit ofa base of knowledge.
You had some some of your ownstuff going.
You mentioned BC class.
Now, just for the audience, canyou, can you explain B and C
class and what are these classes?
Because when I got started inreal estate I'd hear it on
podcasts all the time.
People would be like, yeah, Ibuy C class properties and then
I'm like online I'm like wheredo you see what class it is?
It's like how do you know?
(29:28):
Now I know, but at the time I'mlike where are people getting
this information?
Can you just explain to them?
You know, general terms wouldbe in C-class or these classes
mean to you.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Right.
So C-class and I don't knowexactly the years.
It could be like a 1960s, 70sproduct, even 80s, that
basically they're a little bitmore rundown, they need more
work.
So that's where you know youhave the value add.
You can go in and rehab andupdate.
(30:00):
You know the units, you can,you know, update the exteriors.
So you know, bring them fromlike, say, a C class up to a B
class property.
A class would be like you knowyour new, you know apartment
complexes or you know maybe evenlike luxury apartments, b and C
class not.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Right, yeah, I just thought like I'm glad you
mentioned that.
I wanted you to explain that alittle bit, because I think for
newer people they're likethere's got to be some kind of
like if it's this, then it's B,if it's this, then it's C, and
it's kind of like you, justthere.
Everybody kind of agrees onwhat's a, c and what's a b, but
it's not a set like it's 1960sand 1970s and it's this type of
(30:54):
stucco and this, you know it'svery much like yeah, there's
value add here, it's affordable,probably more so, right, it's
this, that, or you know, butit's, but it's not a, it's not a
set.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, it's not black and white, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I'm glad we, I'm glad wementioned that.
I think this has been, this hasbeen awesome.
Kate, as you, as you're outthere, like what are the, what
are the sizes of properties?
You mentioned this earlier.
Like you're limited sort of bythe amount of capital you think
you can raise.
Is there a certain number ofunits?
(31:30):
You mentioned that as your buybox, but like where did you when
you, you know, did your firstoffering?
Has that grown since you'vedone the first offering, or is
it kind of within a similarrange?
And about how many units areyou guys typically putting
together?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, probably, it's probably still about a similar
range.
So, like the first one, 65units, um, so in my buy box was,
uh, I think anywhere from like40 to 80 for my first first uh
offering and um, so I mean wewere fine going bigger.
(32:03):
You know, I've grown.
I started, you know, since Istarted doing the syndications
I've added another partner andso we've kind of grown that way.
So we have more, I guess,access to capital, um, you know,
more investors, um, one of mypartners is also a chiropractor.
So, um, you know, we do a lotof events and make a lot of
(32:25):
connections with otherchiropractors, of course.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So, you know, in fact we're going to Miami on
Thursday.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So we have a big chiropractic event that we'll
have a booth for a sound equityand just make some good
connections with chiropractors,which you know so many of them
have no idea what, what this is,you know syndications, and that
they can actually own realestate without having the work
of the real estate.
Um, it's just been kind of.
It's actually been pretty coolwhen we go to these events and
(32:54):
we're talking to otherchiropractors and they're like
wow, what's this?
Like I can have real estate andI don't have to do anything
with it.
Um and and usually we're theonly ones like, the only
exhibitors with any kind ofbooth financially related or
anything with real estate, andthe feedback we get is great.
They're just like wow this isso exciting, like there's
(33:15):
nothing else like this here,like yeah, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
cool.
Oh, that's amazing.
That's awesome.
There's a gentleman in ourmastermind group, uh, david, dr
David Phelps, and he's a retireddentist and he does very
similar.
He has a whole mastermind groupnow and it's just dentists in
it and all they do is they findassets to passively invest in.
So what you're doing, I think,is so awesome because you have
the credibility with them ofbeing a chiropractor and then
(33:40):
that partner now is also achiropractor, so you can talk
the language with them and talkabout your struggles and how did
you find you know ways to putyour money to work and all those
things as you're trying to growyour own practice and you can
leverage that.
And so the you guys listeningout there like what?
What do you know?
Like what industry?
And what do you know?
What are you really good at?
Go find the people that aresitting idle or that they're
(34:08):
struggling with a place to placeit.
Trust me, you're giving them anopportunity.
You are not asking for money.
You are giving people anopportunity to put money that's
probably dead cash just sittingin their bank account or in some
low yield savings account theycall it high yield, I call it
low yield savings account andput it to work at a much higher
yield and something else thatthey don't have to do anything
(34:30):
other than scratch the check.
For the most part Right.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Oh, yeah, absolutely so.
Yeah, it's, it's pretty cooland, like you said, yeah, you're
giving them an opportunity.
You know, you know it's notlike, okay, I'm selling this.
It's like, no, you know what,this is an opportunity that you
didn't have access to before.
And you know, I, I've.
I tell them too.
It's like okay, chiropracticisn't going to make you rich.
You might make good money, butwhat are you going to do with
(34:53):
that money?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
For sure.
Yeah, In the chiropractic space, do they have other?
You know, like, I know, likeyou go work for somebody else,
right, you get a 401k.
Or you think like, arechiropractors doing that, or are
they pretty much just like youknow, putting their cash in the
bank account?
Or like, what's the generalwealth building strategy for you
know, a retirement strategy foryou know chiropractors for, for
(35:16):
your example, is there any?
Speaker 2 (35:18):
You know, I don't.
I think it just variesdepending on the person.
Um, you know some of them.
I think it could just be allright, we're going to put it in
an IRA or 401k or whatever itmight be, um, and just let it
sit there.
And you know, that's myretirement.
Um, I, you know some of thechiropractors that I talked to
(35:39):
have multiple practices so theyreinvest in, in building you
know a business, uh, which isgood, good strategy, but then
again you got to turn around anddo something with that money,
right?
Um, so, yeah, some of them doreal estate, but you know,
there's only been a like a verysmall handful that actually
(36:00):
passively invest.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
So, and I think, just because they don't know that
that is out there, right, thisis so good, you guys again, if
you tuned just because theydon't know that that is out
there, Right, this is so good,you guys, again, if you tuned
out because you're like I'm notdoing syndications, you're
missing out on a lot of reallygood nuggets here.
You know, one of the one of theother challenges for a lot of
people, especially newer people,is access to cash.
Right, they want to do flips,they want to do rentals, they
(36:22):
want to you estate, but they'relimited by the capital.
They have a good W-2, butthey're not accumulating enough
cash to be buying 100 doors.
I mean, it's tough to do onyour own when you're first
starting out.
And so how do they raiseprivate money?
This is exactly what you'redoing, Kate.
You're going out and you'renetworking and you're raising
capital and you're bringingpeople in to help do it.
(36:43):
You're just doing it on abigger scale with bigger
properties.
But what are some of the thingswhen you're having
conversations like when you werewhen you started this with
people who are raising capital,like, do you have any like quick
tips for somebody, say, who'slooking to maybe get a duplex
and they need, you know somebodyto come in and be the capital
partner for the down payment andthe rehab?
Like what would you say forthem?
For quick tips on how toapproach maybe somebody out
(37:05):
there who's a potential you knowmoney partner?
Speaker 2 (37:08):
I think just tell them what you're doing, Tell
them what you need and you know,be transparent, do your due
diligence with.
You know the properties thatyou're looking at so that you
can come back and you know, showthem the numbers.
Like, we're very transparent,you can go into our investor
portal, see all the numbers, seeall of our underwriting, you
(37:31):
know.
I think that helps.
So, just being transparent withall that knowing, knowing what
you're getting into, so that youcan convey that to your
potential investor.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yeah yeah, the credibility piece is a big piece
.
Even if you're brand new andyou don't, you've never done a
deal.
If you prepare and you, youknow you do your homework and
you and you present it in aprofessional manner, you're
probably gonna have bettersuccess than just kind of
running and gunning and tryingto figure it out as you go.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Right, Right, writing it on a napkin.
Here's my numbers no-transcriptGone.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
You know what are some things that you know.
How do you, how do you, youknow, juggle that as much as
possible when you're raisingthis capital?
Like, where do you get thatconfidence from?
Is it from the underwriting, tomake sure that you're feeling
really confident that thesepeople's money is safe, or how
are you?
How are you juggling that?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I think it's the underwriting, you know.
You know we, we did our duediligence.
You know, I feel comfortablethat when we find something,
okay, this is, we're doing theunderwriting.
You know I feel like we'redoing it for them.
It's not, you know, just for us, but you know we have to bring
something that's going to be areally good offering to our
(39:08):
investors.
Um, so I think that is huge.
Um, just um yeah just yeah,doing your due diligence, that's
a bit, that's a big part of it.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah, that'll give you the confidence to know.
You know there's a really lowprobability this deal is going
to fail.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Right, right.
And then, um, you know, just,you know the team, you know my
team, I have full confidence inmy team.
Um, so that's huge.
Um, you know I put my own moneyinto it.
So you know, you know I, I havethe confidence myself.
So it's not just like I'm goingto you and asking for you to
put your money in when I've donenothing.
(39:52):
Of course, you've got thatsweat equity that we talked
about, but, yeah, I think thoseare some of the big things.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Right on.
And one, the other thing I wantto touch on before we start to
wrap here.
Kate, you mentioned markets,right, and doing the due
diligence on the markets Forsomebody out there who doesn't
have a market picked yet fortheir own purpose.
A lot of times we recommend hey, if you're just starting out,
start in yourunk, wisconsin,which is a very real possibility
, and they're looking to getsomewhere where there's some
(40:28):
population like what are somejust key things that somebody
could be looking at as far asyou know, maybe picking a
certain market to start in?
Speaker 2 (40:38):
You know, I guess what we look for is markets that
are showing growth as far aspopulation income.
You know, we don't want a dyingmarket.
Safe schools, you know safe orgood schools, safe neighborhoods
, that sort of thing, okay.
(40:59):
So yeah, I think that's thething.
Just looking at and thenlooking at also, you know what,
what are you if you're lookingat multifamily or you know
single family, whatever it is?
Just looking what, what is theoutlook, the comparables, like
rent, rent wise.
You know what can you get, whatyou know what, maybe, what you
(41:22):
can.
You know what you can you buy,that you can maybe is under
market rent that you canincrease, and you know, increase
that.
Noi, that way.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
What are some resources youknow when you're talking about,
like we're looking forcomparable rents, we're looking
for population growth, like whatare some of the resources you
guys use to look that stuff up?
Speaker 2 (41:45):
So when we're looking at the markets like one of the
big thing is the CoStar reportyou can look at those Um that'll
tell you a lot of information.
Um quite a bit Um just lookingup like apartmentscom and
looking at comparable rents thatway.
Um.
So those are some of theresources that we look at Um.
There's another one as far asand I can't think of it um as
(42:10):
far as neighborhoods and safe,safe neighborhoods and schools.
Sorry, I it's, I've lost it.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
I can't remember the name.
That's right.
If you think of it after this,text it to me.
We'll throw in the show notes.
Okay, there we go.
Yeah, that'll be perfect.
Well, that's good.
The CoStyle report, is thatsomething?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
you guys have to pay for, or is that something that's
available for anybody out there?
I think you know.
Sometimes you have to pay forit, but if you know people or
you have good connections withthe broker, sometimes they'll
just give it to you.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Yeah, Because they get it all anyway.
Sure, yeah, that's really good.
That's really good.
I know there's another one.
We had Colton Van Elzen on whowas at.
He was at the meeting as well afew episodes ago and there's a
few resources in there that youcan look at for a lot of market
data.
I think it's the Redfin datacenter is, if I remember
correctly.
(43:00):
They've got a lot of reallygood data on, you know, just
more for the single familyduplex type of stuff.
But you know, sale prices arethey going up or down?
Days on market, you know, thosekinds of things too can be a
good indicator of the strengthof a market, of whether we're a
buyer's market, a seller'smarket.
Are prices going up, pricesgoing down?
All that kind of good stuff.
But okay, this has been awesome.
(43:21):
I learned a ton on here.
I've got a whole page of notesover here that I was taking down
and probably have to go backand re-listen to this because
there's a lot of stuff Again.
Some of this stuff I neededsomebody to explain to me.
I've been doing this for eightyears, so if you're brand new
out there listening to this andyou're still listening, that
means we got a lot of goodinformation in your earbuds, but
(43:41):
you might have to go back andre-listen to this.
A lot of this stuff is a newconcept for you, but these can
all be helpful, even if you'renot at the level of what Kate's
looking for right now.
There's so many things thatKate talked about in here that
you can apply and where you'recurrently at in your real estate
investing journey.
Kate, before we wrap, we alwaysask one question, because we
love Wisconsin and we havepeople outside of Wisconsin that
sometimes they want to get inWisconsin, they want to get in
(44:02):
the market a little bit For you.
Do you have a favoriteWisconsin tradition or a place
to visit?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Hmm, that is a good question as far as anything like
.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Anything, whatever, fill them in.
What do they got to know aboutWisconsin?
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Well, of course you know you have your traditional
Wisconsin stuff.
You've got your Friday nightfish fries and your supper clubs
and all that.
So one of the supper clubs Ilove is in Tomahawk, Wisconsin
bootleggers Okay, it's on LakeNokomis, Okay yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Ooh, there we go and Tomahawk's a beautiful area
that's come up a lot for a lotof the guests on here.
That area, that area of VilasCounty, that kind of stuff is
beautiful and you're up in thatneck of the woods.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
right, you're in Antigo, not quite.
Yep, I'm in the Antigo area?
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yep, yeah.
So maybe if you're in theAntigo area, come visit Kate,
get a little adjustment from oneof her people up there and feel
a little bit better on yourjourney up north or whatever
you're doing up there.
Maybe after a long weekend offour wheeling or whatever you're
doing, you might need a littleadjustment.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
You're hanging out in .
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Hanago.
So, kate, this has been great.
If anybody wants to connectwith you to talk about maybe
investing passively or getinvolved, you know, with you and
anything, any of the offeringsthat you have, what is the best
way for them to get in touchwith you?
Speaker 2 (45:21):
So you can find us on our website, which is ascend
equity grpcom.
Uh, you can email me just Kategrass at Gmail.
Um, so yeah, that's how you canget ahold of me.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Awesome and you have a book out.
Okay, Can you talk about thebook and how if anybody wants to
get a get access to the book?
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, I have an ebook , um free ebook.
It's on basically passiveinvesting and passive investing
blueprint.
If you want it, just reach outand I'll give you the link,
corey, and you can put it in theshow notes if you'd like.
And then they can just go tothat and sign up for my free
ebook so they can learn moreabout passive investing.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
so they can learn more about passive investing
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Kate, forbeing on.
Thank you guys for listening.
As Kate mentioned earlier,share the show.
If you're still listening tothis point, share it out on your
socials and whatever else.
Again, helps us, but also moreso for you guys, to tell people
what you're into.
Tell them what you're doing.
It's going to createconversations.
It's going to create leads.
It's going to bring people inwho have money and want to
(46:31):
invest passively with you.
So share the show.
Help us get the word out, buthelp yourself as well as you're
building your network.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Kate, thanks so much for being on.
Thank you, guys, for tuning inand we'll see you on the next
episode.
Thank you.
Hey everybody, corey Raymond, your host here for the
Wisconsin Investor Podcast, and,as usual, I have another guest.
Today, we are talking about adifferent topic than we've ever
talked about on the show before,so I'm super excited to get
into this show with you.
Before I do, though, I alwaysbring up our sponsor, wisconsin
Discount Properties.
Every week, guys, I bring youeither a deal that you missed
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your income With that.
Let's get into today's episode.
So today I have Dr Kate Gress.
Did I say your last name right?
You did yes, okay, awesome, howare you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I'm great it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yes, okay, awesome.
How are you doing?
I'm great.
It's another beautiful day inWisconsin.
Absolutely, absolutely Well.
At the time we're recordingthis, kate, we met last week at
a networking event called theREI Success Club.
So if you've listened toprevious episodes audience,
you've heard me talk about this.
You've heard me talk about thepower of networking.
Today, kate, I have a feelingyou're going to probably have a
lot to share about the power ofnetworking with what you do.
But before we get into that,can you just tell the audience a
(01:49):
little bit about you, yourbackground and how you got into
real estate?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Sure, so I am a chiropractor.
I've been practicing for 26years.
I have a practice I do not seepatients, so I just work, you
know, basically on the business.
I have a couple of I do not seepatients so, um, I just work,
you know, basically on thebusiness.
Um, I have a couple ofassociates that see the patients
.
Um and uh, I got into realestate, uh, 23 years ago and
(02:15):
built a commercial building withsome rental space, um, yep, and
, and that was basically thehouse, my practice, right, and
uh, I always said I was going todo more in real estate and kind
of wanted to keep going withthat and I kind of took a pause.
So it just kind of, you know, itgot busy practice, got busy
life, got busy kids, family,that sort of thing.
(02:36):
And uh, then a few years back Isaid, okay, I'm going to do
more, I'm going to do more realestate, um, and part of my exit
(02:56):
strategy too.
Um, I'm going to do more, I'mgoing to do more real estate and
part of my exit strategy too.
I knew I was going to passiveinvestor in a uh, offering a
syndicate, um and multifamily.
And that's where I actually metmy um, current one of my
(03:16):
business partners now that I dothe syndications with and um, so
, yeah, just basically meetinghim that way and talking to him
about um syndications and youknow how do I go big, how do I
do this Like and like a shorteramount of time because I'm
selling my practice and um, yeah, that's kind of what I want to
(03:37):
do is just go full in.
So that's kind of the story.
So then I just started doing it, started learning and that's
amazing.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So you, so you.
Basically what I'm hearing here.
The key to your progress here,Kate, is networking.
So you went in, you metsomebody who had this
syndication right and then youstarted asking questions right,
how do I, how do I do this, howdo I do what you're doing, how
do I grow on a bigger scale?
And then it sounds like youstarted just taking action based
off of that.
Is that pretty accurate?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
That is pretty accurate.
Yeah, you know, and you saidnetworking.
It is all about networking.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I don't care what business you're in.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
You know, chiropractic, real estate, you
know it's all been aboutnetworking.
That's how you meet your people, how you, you know, in real
estate, find your deals Right.
So, um know, in real estate,find your deals Right.
So, um, that's been invaluable.
Um, so, networking and then um,just meeting those people and,
yeah, just just learning.
You know I love learning andand doing what I can, uh, taking
it all in, absorbing it all andum, and started coaching,
(04:37):
actually with a coach for um,learning more about syndications
so that I could just learn asmuch as I can and just be the
best that I can at doing what Ido.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I love that.
You know, I was actually justreflecting on this case because
I'm going to be starting sort ofsome other initiatives within
our company in the real estatespace and sometimes I think for
a couple of years I've likewanted to do some of these
things, but then there's just,like you know, you're complacent
in other areas maybe, or maybeI was, maybe I was held up, but
I think what it was is like Ilook back and I'm like what do I
need?
(05:12):
Every time I did something orbuilt something within the
company, I hired a coach, foundwho was doing the best at it,
and I went and like I'm going topay you.
I I'm going to pay you.
I know it's going to be a quoteunquote expense right now, but
really it's an investment andI'm going to pay you and I'm
going to take as much as I canfrom you to learn, and then I'm
going to put it into action.
It's going to be messy, butwe're going to figure it out.
(05:32):
But having that coach, I think,is so important.
You know, what Was that?
Like a really big catapult foryou with your coach that you
found.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yes, definitely.
I mean, it's just someone tolike bounce stuff off of learn
from um from day one.
Even in chiropractic I've had acoach.
I hired a chiropractic coach,consultant, whatever you want to
call them from day one.
I ended up marrying one also.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So um well, you're going to.
You get a better rate, I hear,if you marry him.
I think.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Not really actually, but no still charges me.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Wow.
I know I know what a guy.
Oh, that's hilarious.
That's such a great nugget,though I think you know you have
two people here guys thatyou're listening to, who've had.
You know I guess you'd call itsuccess it depends on how you
define it.
But you know we've, we've madeprogress, we're doing.
You know she's new chiropracticand not seeing patients.
I mean that should tell youguys something here.
You know, if you unless you,love seeing patients every day,
(06:27):
but you're using the power ofleverage of other people and
you've built a business now thatyou can work on the business,
not in the business, and nowyou're just taking a lot of
those skills that you learn andit sounds like you're applying
that into the real estate spaceand you're just taking the same
lessons, like I love what yousaid.
It doesn't matter what industryyou're in or what business
you're in, you're just doing thesame basic principles here.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, it's so true.
It is the same basic principles, from your systems and your
procedures when you're running abusiness, to your networking,
your marketing, it all applies.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It all applies.
Yeah, that's awesome.
How did you find your coach?
Because I think this could besomething for some people when
they're like, great, I'd love toget a coach, but where do I
find one?
How do I know they're reputable?
How do I know that they'resomebody I can actually get some
value back from, versus justthrowing money down the drain?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
the Wisco Rio Um.
He was a speaker and that's howwe connected and um just
started talking with him andkind of did my research on them
and thought, okay, you knowsomeone who's been doing this
for 35 plus years, that's who Iwant to learn from.
You know the person who has,you know, had the successes, has
had been through failures, whohas, you know, been through it
all.
So that's that's what I, that'swho I want to learn from.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, Been.
Through 08 and the marketdownturn they probably got a lot
of bumps and bruises thatthey've learned from right.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yep, yep.
So that's, that's how I foundmy coach, but there's so many
people out there in that space,you know.
Again, probably going back tonetworking, you can talk to
people and, you know, findreferrals that way.
So yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
I think for me, the biggest way I've done is exactly
what you're talking about, kate.
It's asking other people who'veeither gone through that
coaching program like hey, whatwas your actual experience?
Or, like I belong to anetworking group called the
collective genius.
You know, I've had a LeonBarnes on a few episodes ago who
represented the collectivegenius on there, and it's just
an awesome group of networking,you know, at a level of people
(08:29):
all over the country.
And then you can same thing,like oh, I want to now want to
get into this.
You know a vertical over herewithin real estate who is doing
it at a high level over here.
And then hey, who did you learnfrom?
Like I could learn from thatperson too.
But then it's like, hey, whodid you learn from?
And then I can go and you know,get that coach or get that
person as well, but it is, it'sjust we're probably going to
(08:54):
beat this dead horse here alittle bit, but it's about the
networking.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, it truly is, um , and you know it doesn't even
have to be kind of like you weresaying, um, it doesn't have to
be like even just a one-on-onecoach.
You know, it could be like agroup coaching or like
mastermind group that you canlearn so much from.
You know, I do, I've done, I'vebeen part of masterminds.
I've, you know, go to seminarsand conferences regularly,
(09:17):
listen to podcasts, so just youknow learning all of that and
you just, you know, kind oflearn and basically just find
your people that way.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Right, and that's like all the listeners of the
Wisconsin investor podcast, kate.
They talk about how much fasterthey reach success just by
listening to the show.
It's amazing.
Yeah, I'm just kidding, but inall, reality.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I'm sure it's true.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Listening to a lot of this stuff and the podcast and
the audio books and all thosekinds of things, I could be like
a little mini mastermind orcoach for you when you're out
there.
Talk about now.
So you've kind of zeroed in now.
You've done the single familystuff and the small duplex,
small multifamily, that kind ofthing and it sounds like you
still hold those assets.
But you shifted into thesesyndications.
For those who don't know whatthe heck is a syndication, can
(10:04):
you just kind of make it thirdgrade level what is a
syndication?
And as it relates to realestate, yes, so basically a
syndication.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You've got your group of investors.
There's the active group, whichis the GP general partners, and
then you've got your passiveinvestors, which are your
limited partners and the activepartners.
The GP team basically does allthe work.
They, you know, source thedeals.
They, you know, find themarkets.
You know, talk to the brokers.
(10:31):
You know, find the deals.
Um, you know, do theunderwriting, get the financing.
You know everything start tofinish and um bring in um
passive investors to partnerwith them, uh, to share in those
profits.
So basically, that's asyndication in a nutshell.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So basically I'm in the wholesaling space.
What it sounds like to me, Kate, is again, you're just using
network, but I go out, I find adeal and then I find a buyer.
You're kind of doing the samething and we try to do a lot of
the legwork up front.
So we get inspection, we dovideo walk thing.
We try to do a lot of thelegwork up front, so we get
inspection, we do video walkers.
We try to make it as easy aspossible for our buyers so when
they're going to look atunderwriting a deal it can be a
quick 15 minute hopefullyprocess for them.
(11:12):
It sounds like you're doingkind of the same thing, just on
a bigger scale, and then you'restaying in these deals right,
yes, yes, so, yes, so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Basically, yeah, we do all the underwriting, all the
work trying to, you know,figure it out and, um, you know,
there's so much, you know I,there's been so many things that
I've been um underwriting, youknow, over the past couple of
years, and a lot of them don'tpan out.
But, um, you know, so we do, wedo all that, we do all that due
diligence, all the underwriting, find the right properties,
find the right offerings andthen bring that to the investors
and then, yeah, that's thething, we stay in the deal, the
(11:53):
GPs stay in that deal.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Okay, got it.
I have a lot of questionsaround that too.
But for you, when you'relooking at, like, getting a
passive investor, how long arethey typically going to invest
in some of these deals?
I'm sure it varies.
But, like, is there a periodwhere you say, hey, you know you
can buy X amount of shares inthis for, say, a hundred
thousand dollars.
This is your expected return.
Here's how long it's going totake to get that?
Or like, what does thattypically look like?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yes, when you're you're putting an offering
together, so there's not justlike, okay, it's always you know
X number of years, it justtotally depends on the
underwriting and what is goingto pencil out for the numbers.
Basically, when we'reunderwriting, we're trying to
(12:35):
get to a minimum of 15% IRR forour investors, Um, and then with
us, like at least a minimum ofseven to 9% preferred return um
for the investors.
So typically I'd say, you know,when we underwrite, it's
anywhere from four to sevenyears, four or five years to
seven years.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Okay, and that four to seven is that you said it's
to get to that target return,but is that also is the exit
strategy?
Then you guys refinance thatproperty in that four to seven
year period and pay off theinvestors at principal plus
their, their investment, or howdoes that?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So usually we try to basically just exit that
property, all of us.
I mean we could, we could, youknow, refinance and then pay
them back and and you know, thenthey're done with that but, and
then they're done with that,but no kind of.
The goal is then to move on.
Basically, we're looking forvalue-add properties, so we do
(13:35):
what we can to increase thevalue of that property, turn
around and sell it in thatwhatever two to four to seven
years, whatever it might be, andthen, yeah, in that whatever
two to four to seven years,whatever it might be, and then,
um, okay, yeah, so we have alittle little bit of meat on the
bone for the next buyer.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Okay, so you as the general partner team or if it's
you and maybe some other folksyou're talking about some
partners and things like thatAre you guys then getting the
big spread on it?
So you're saying, hey, this isour target for you as the
passive investor.
Anything above that is ourvalue that we're bringing.
Or how do you guys typically doit?
Let's say you have a banger ofa deal and four to seven years
(14:16):
you've got a huge spread.
You guys are exiting it.
You're going to make a bunch ofcash.
Is that going back to thepassive investors or are they
getting their agreed upon sortof amount up front?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
They well, they're getting their agreed amount,
their agreed upon amount upfront If it ends up being more
than that like.
So it's basically a 70-30 split, so 70% to the passive
investors 30% to the GP team.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Okay, got it.
And are you guys typicallyfunding some of these as well?
Or is it everything fromoutside investors and you guys
you're funding quote unquote?
Is your sweat equity you'reputting into the deal?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Your funding, quote unquote, is your sweat equity
you're putting into the deal.
Both, both.
I mean yeah, okay, we put money, our own money, into it.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And then also, you know, our sweat equity Okay, got
it.
And so most of these folks thatare investing in this, then,
kate, they're basically coveringlike the down payment and the
rehab.
Is that what the passiveinvestor is for?
Is that their purpose in thedeal?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, basically that's a lot of it.
Yeah, yeah, we.
So, when we were raising, whenour capital raising, we're, you
know, trying to come up with themoney for the down payment and
then, yeah, whatever value addrehab that we have to do.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Got it Okay, cool.
And then I'm going to go backto.
Just for those of us who arethird grade level here, like
myself IRR, can you just explaineverybody in third grade terms?
Irr.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Internal rate of return.
Basically it's the amount thatthey're going to like, like with
the investors what they'regoing to get per year, their
returns per year.
So when we, um, when we have aninvestor come into the, the
offering, we pay them theirpreferred return, uh, which is
(16:06):
getting paid out along the way.
So if they say, have a 7%preferred return, uh, we usually
pay that out quarterly.
And usually when we, when wetake over a property, it might
be, you know, maybe within youknow, towards the end of that
first year, just to get thatproperty stabilized.
But then we start distributingthose returns to the investors
(16:28):
and they get their initialcapital back plus their IRR, the
difference between what theygot for the preferred return and
the IRR.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Okay, so let's say they're going to 7%, they're
going to get an extra 8% bump atthe end.
Is what you're saying, based onthat whole period of time?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, so say it's a 17% IRR, 7% of that 17% is going
to get paid out along the way,or 7% of that 17% will get paid
out along the way.
Then that difference, which isthe 10%, will all get paid out
at the end.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Does that make sense?
Did I explain that in a waythat makes?
sense 100% for me.
I think that's clear, as can beYep.
One question I have now withyour guys' offerings if I'm a
passive investor and let's saymaybe I'm a doctor or something
else where I have active income,and then there's me the passive
(17:35):
investor who's a full-time realestate professional Are there
any kind of tax benefits?
As far as you know, if I'minvesting in some of these, can
I get a chunk of thedepreciation offsets on my, my
income, or how does that work ifyou're passive in some of these
deals?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, absolutely so.
We usually will do like a costsegregation study.
So one of the offerings that wehave currently that we're
bringing in investors still,which we own the property, that
one we did a cost segregationstudy when we took it over last
fall and it was between 40 and50 percent and then this year it
(18:14):
should be a little bit lessthan that.
But so, yeah, if you're inactive, if you are in real
estate, then you can get thatdepreciation.
So there are some tax benefitsthat way.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, 100%.
Well, if this big beautifulbill gets passed, we're going to
be back to 100% bonusdepreciation is what I'm hearing
out there.
So that's exciting for us as asinvestors out there.
If you're not understandingexactly what we're talking about
, that's okay.
We have other episodes, youknow, back with some accountants
that are talking about this.
Just know that you can writeoff a lot more stuff If bonus
(18:49):
depreciation is at a hundredpercent and you're an active
investor who's buying andholding properties, but you also
have active income.
Yeah, properties, but you alsohave active income.
Yeah, fingers crossed, we getthe 100%.
I was like you can do whateverelse you want with that big
beautiful bill.
Cut whatever else you want,just leave bonus depreciation
please 100% for me, thank you.
Because I think right now thisyear it's currently set to be
40%, is that?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
right, that sounds about right?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I think it's 40%, which basically means if you
have $100,000 of loss that youcould have taken against your
income, you can now only take$40,000 of that this year.
But if this rule gets put backin or this thing gets added into
the big beautiful bill now,you'd be able to take the entire
$100,000 against your income,which saves a lot of money in
taxes for sure.
(19:30):
Yeah, that will be huge whenyou guys go to sell that.
How are your investorsoffsetting?
Because you do have to pay itback on the road if you do sell.
So how are the investorsoffsetting?
Are they just investing inanother deal with you then to
take that future bonusdepreciation?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
They can.
Yeah, they can definitely dothat.
That's, I guess, kind of up tothem if they want to continue to
invest or just walk away andfigure it out.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
You probably wouldn't be too upset if they did that
right.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
You'd be like, yeah, that's a good If they invested
again now.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, throw that money back in here.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Come on now.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Let's keep it rolling Right.
Well, that's pretty excitingstuff.
How are you guys finding these?
You mentioned talk to brokersbefore.
Has that been like theacquisition strategy?
The brokers are sending youguys a lot of deals to
underwrite.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah, again, it goes back to those connections, right
?
So, especially my partner,who's been in this for forever,
he just knows has theconnections with the brokers.
But that's been part of my workas well is just making the
connections with the brokers,just finding the markets that we
want to be in and then makingthose connections with the
brokers.
You know, just finding themarkets that we want to be in
and then making thoseconnections with the brokers.
(20:38):
You know, letting them knowwhat our buy box is, what we're
looking for and, um, hopefullythey can bring us, bring us some
, some good deals.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
That's awesome.
Are most of these just kind ofoff market?
Like they have a seller who'sinterested in selling and they
they have the buyers that theyknow are ready, willing and able
to buy and they're just sort ofshopping those to the people
that they know Like their shortlist.
Are these listed on some of thewebsites and you guys are going
out there and finding them?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Oh yeah, some of them are listed on the website.
So, yeah, some of them are notjust off market.
But obviously that's where, ifyou can make those connections
with the brokers and let themknow, reach out to them, let
them know what you're lookingfor.
Then when they find something,or they have something before it
goes to market, then they'llreach out to you and let you
know.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I think those of you out there that are listening to
this, you're like I don't wantto get into this multifamily
syndication stuff.
This isn't for me.
I'm going to move on to thenext episode of something else.
Before you do, just listen towhat Kate just said there.
This is so important for us too, when we're thinking of like,
hey, we have this deal that wecould get under contract.
If I know your buy box and Iknow exactly what you're looking
(21:46):
for, I'm going to have a lotmore confidence.
A to go lock that up at thenumbers that I know I can get it
for, because I know it's goingto fit your buy box and I'm
going to be able to provide youanother deal and you're going to
be the first person I think of.
I know you're very clear onexactly what you want.
As soon as I find it, I'm like,yep, this is going to Kate.
I'm calling Kate first.
Let me give Kate the firstopportunity.
(22:06):
So I think those of you guys outthere listening to this get
really clear on exactly what youwant and then tell everybody
exactly what it is that you wantand let them bring you those
specific deals.
And you'd be surprised that,like there's one guy I know he
buys only in a specific town, Iliterally just wholesaled him a
deal the other day because I waslike, ah, the numbers are kind
of tight for us to go put it outto anybody.
I'm just going to call thisdude, because otherwise we're
(22:28):
just going to cancel thiscontract and move on.
And we ended up working a dealout and boom, he just I know he
buys everything in this town, sobut I know his buy box, so I
brought him the deal first andhe got first crack at it.
So, I think that's a huge nugget.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That is yeah, and that was one of the first things
.
When I started, you know,looking for some of these bigger
properties and you know, doingthe syndications, just got
really clear on what my buy boxwas going to be.
So then, yeah, then when you'recommunicating with the brokers
or the wholesalers or whoever,then you know you can, you know,
let them know what you'relooking for and they can find
(23:06):
you the best deals.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Magically it starts showing up, right, you don't
have to do a lot of work afterthat.
Then it's just making moreconnections with more of the
brokers, right, right, andletting them know how.
Then it's just making moreconnections with more of the
brokers, right, right, andletting them know.
How did you come up with yourbuy box, kate?
Maybe you can talk about thatprocess.
So somebody out there listeningto this they're new or maybe
they're like, I don't know Firstof all, what the heck is a buy
box this is talking about.
And then, how did you come upwith crafting your buy box, like
(23:29):
?
What was your process to get towhere you are right now?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
So a buy box is basically what are you looking
for?
You know, is it like with mewith syndications?
Okay, am I looking formultifamily?
What kind of assets Am Ilooking for multifamily?
Am I looking for hotels?
Am I looking for parkinggarages, mobile home parks, what
is it?
And so you know, getting clearon your asset class, um, and
(23:57):
then you know so, okay,multifamily, I knew that that's
what I wanted to do and, um, youknow from there what you know.
Break that down Okay, a, b, c,d class properties, what am I
looking for?
I knew it was value addproperties, um, bc class
properties, uh, that we can addvalue to, and um, you know, just
(24:19):
kind of the number of units andthe price, um, what's your
price point?
What are you looking for?
Um, part of that is you knowwhat do we think we can.
You know what's our investornetwork?
Um, you know how much capitaldo we think we can raise?
So that was another part oftrying to determine.
You know, my buy box.
(24:41):
So, yeah, so that's the buy box.
That's kind of how I narrowedit down and figured that out.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Now were you basing a lot of this, kate?
So those are really goodanswers.
By the way, for you guyslistening.
There's a lot of nuggets inwhat Kate just said.
But when you were thinkingabout it, were you also thinking
of, like, your end goal, whenyou were crafting this Like, so
I need to do these multifamilysyndications because I, I know I
like multifamily, or whateverthe case is, but also because
it's going to get me this endresult that I'm looking for.
How did you, how did you end uplanding in this, this area or
(25:12):
this arena as you were craftingthe buy box and settling not
settling, but figuring out thatmultifamily is what you want to
go after?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Hmm, that's a good question.
Um, I kind of, oh, did I kindof figure out that?
You know, I don't know if Ilooked at the end result, I just
knew, like what, what wasreasonable to me at the time and
and what could I figure out?
And and I think my confidencelevel, you know, I wasn't going
(25:42):
after a $50 million propertieswhen I'm just starting out, so,
um, so that's, I think that'spart of it.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, question because, like for me, I think
about a lot of times it's like,why am I doing what I'm doing
really, at the end of the day?
Or why do I want duplex, or whydo I want this, or why do I
want that?
Like, I get clear on why I wantit and then I'm like, okay,
this is a means to get me tothat greater purpose or that end
result or that lifestyle.
(26:12):
I'm looking for that passiveincome level, I'm looking for
that active income level,whatever the case is, if I think
it's a viable option for me andI'm really strongly attached to
the outcome I'm looking for.
You know, it's like you tookmassive action in this arena.
My guess is, either consciouslyor subconsciously, there's some
kind of greater pull, and Ithink you mentioned it.
Maybe it has to do with, youknow, getting out of the
(26:33):
chiropractic business and havingsomething you know to to do
outside of that.
Maybe that was the biggerpurpose.
And where multifamily came in,maybe that was, you know, uh,
intellectually stimulatingenough maybe for you to like all
right, this is more of achallenge for me.
This is going to be I don't youknow and that's why I was
wondering if there was somethingthere that was beyond just
(26:54):
multifamily as well.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yes, absolutely, that definitely had a huge part in
it.
Uh, just knowing that in 2026,I'm selling my practice, I'm
exiting chiropractic, um, andyou know just kind of, you know
just real estate in general,kind of part of my plan, um, you
know you can do it fromanywhere.
Um, you know I want to do moretraveling and and have more, uh,
(27:18):
freedom to just kind of do whatI want to do and, um, yeah, and
yeah, I think the challenge oflearning something new, um, like
I said before, I love learning.
I, you know, it's just I lovechallenges.
You know I'm one of thosepeople too.
I set goals and I meet my goalsand I'm on to the next goal.
So what else can we do?
(27:39):
How much bigger can we get?
So I'm just kind of that way.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, I think a lot of entrepreneurs are like that,
right.
We're like, okay, cool,conquered that board, what's
next?
Right, let's move on.
Yeah, somebody else go run thisother thing.
I started it, I got it going.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I need something else .
Speaker 1 (28:00):
That's good.
Done there, done that.
Let's just move on 100%.
Yeah, we're totally jiving onthat level.
Was there a reason?
You know you could have doneparking garages, you could have
done mobile home parks, youcould have done some of these
other bigger asset classes still.
What was the reason for youthat you chose multifamily
classes still?
What was the?
Speaker 2 (28:16):
reason for you that you chose multifamily, I think,
because I was already doing thesmaller single family, small
multifamily stuff, kind of knewthat and I invested passively in
the multifamily and so Ithought, okay, that's kind of
what I know.
And then I think too, I mean,there's a huge housing shortage
(28:39):
in the US, right.
So I think multifamily ispretty safe that way, pretty
recession resistant multifamily.
So it's not like retail oroffice space, which you know
what happened in 2020.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
So, yeah, I'm making a little bit of a bounce back
now, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Right.
So I guess that's whymultifamily and that's.
I felt like I knew that better,so I kind of wanted to just
scale that more.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Sure More natural for you.
You already had a little bit ofa base of knowledge.
You had some some of your ownstuff going.
You mentioned BC class.
Now, just for the audience, canyou, can you explain B and C
class and what are these classes?
Because when I got started inreal estate I'd hear it on
podcasts all the time.
People would be like, yeah, Ibuy C class properties and then
I'm like online I'm like wheredo you see what class it is?
It's like how do you know?
(29:28):
Now I know, but at the time I'mlike where are people getting
this information?
Can you just explain to them?
You know, general terms wouldbe in C-class or these classes
mean to you.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Right.
So C-class and I don't knowexactly the years.
It could be like a 1960s, 70sproduct, even 80s, that
basically they're a little bitmore rundown, they need more
work.
So that's where you know youhave the value add.
You can go in and rehab andupdate.
(30:00):
You know the units, you can,you know, update the exteriors.
So you know, bring them fromlike, say, a C class up to a B
class property.
A class would be like you knowyour new, you know apartment
complexes or you know maybe evenlike luxury apartments, b and C
class not.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Right, yeah, I just thought like I'm glad you
mentioned that.
I wanted you to explain that alittle bit, because I think for
newer people they're likethere's got to be some kind of
like if it's this, then it's B,if it's this, then it's C, and
it's kind of like you, justthere.
Everybody kind of agrees onwhat's a, c and what's a b, but
it's not a set like it's 1960sand 1970s and it's this type of
(30:54):
stucco and this, you know it'svery much like yeah, there's
value add here, it's affordable,probably more so, right, it's
this, that, or you know, butit's, but it's not a, it's not a
set.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, it's not black and white, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I'm glad we, I'm glad wementioned that.
I think this has been, this hasbeen awesome.
Kate, as you, as you're outthere, like what are the, what
are the sizes of properties?
You mentioned this earlier.
Like you're limited sort of bythe amount of capital you think
you can raise.
Is there a certain number ofunits?
(31:30):
You mentioned that as your buybox, but like where did you when
you, you know, did your firstoffering?
Has that grown since you'vedone the first offering, or is
it kind of within a similarrange?
And about how many units areyou guys typically putting
together?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, probably, it's probably still about a similar
range.
So, like the first one, 65units, um, so in my buy box was,
uh, I think anywhere from like40 to 80 for my first first uh
offering and um, so I mean wewere fine going bigger.
(32:03):
You know, I've grown.
I started, you know, since Istarted doing the syndications
I've added another partner andso we've kind of grown that way.
So we have more, I guess,access to capital, um, you know,
more investors, um, one of mypartners is also a chiropractor.
So, um, you know, we do a lotof events and make a lot of
(32:25):
connections with otherchiropractors, of course.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So, you know, in fact we're going to Miami on
Thursday.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
So we have a big chiropractic event that we'll
have a booth for a sound equityand just make some good
connections with chiropractors,which you know so many of them
have no idea what, what this is,you know syndications, and that
they can actually own realestate without having the work
of the real estate.
Um, it's just been kind of.
It's actually been pretty coolwhen we go to these events and
(32:54):
we're talking to otherchiropractors and they're like
wow, what's this?
Like I can have real estate andI don't have to do anything
with it.
Um and and usually we're theonly ones like, the only
exhibitors with any kind ofbooth financially related or
anything with real estate, andthe feedback we get is great.
They're just like wow this isso exciting, like there's
(33:15):
nothing else like this here,like yeah, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
cool.
Oh, that's amazing.
That's awesome.
There's a gentleman in ourmastermind group, uh, david, dr
David Phelps, and he's a retireddentist and he does very
similar.
He has a whole mastermind groupnow and it's just dentists in
it and all they do is they findassets to passively invest in.
So what you're doing, I think,is so awesome because you have
the credibility with them ofbeing a chiropractor and then
(33:40):
that partner now is also achiropractor, so you can talk
the language with them and talkabout your struggles and how did
you find you know ways to putyour money to work and all those
things as you're trying to growyour own practice and you can
leverage that.
And so the you guys listeningout there like what?
What do you know?
Like what industry?
And what do you know?
What are you really good at?
Go find the people that aresitting idle or that they're
(34:08):
struggling with a place to placeit.
Trust me, you're giving them anopportunity.
You are not asking for money.
You are giving people anopportunity to put money that's
probably dead cash just sittingin their bank account or in some
low yield savings account theycall it high yield, I call it
low yield savings account andput it to work at a much higher
yield and something else thatthey don't have to do anything
(34:30):
other than scratch the check.
For the most part Right.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Oh, yeah, absolutely so.
Yeah, it's, it's pretty cooland, like you said, yeah, you're
giving them an opportunity.
You know, you know it's notlike, okay, I'm selling this.
It's like, no, you know what,this is an opportunity that you
didn't have access to before.
And you know, I, I've.
I tell them too.
It's like okay, chiropracticisn't going to make you rich.
You might make good money, butwhat are you going to do with
(34:53):
that money?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
For sure.
Yeah, In the chiropractic space, do they have other?
You know, like, I know, likeyou go work for somebody else,
right, you get a 401k.
Or you think like, arechiropractors doing that, or are
they pretty much just like youknow, putting their cash in the
bank account?
Or like, what's the generalwealth building strategy for you
know, a retirement strategy foryou know chiropractors for, for
(35:16):
your example, is there any?
Speaker 2 (35:18):
You know, I don't.
I think it just variesdepending on the person.
Um, you know some of them.
I think it could just be allright, we're going to put it in
an IRA or 401k or whatever itmight be, um, and just let it
sit there.
And you know, that's myretirement.
Um, I, you know some of thechiropractors that I talked to
(35:39):
have multiple practices so theyreinvest in, in building you
know a business, uh, which isgood, good strategy, but then
again you got to turn around anddo something with that money,
right?
Um, so, yeah, some of them doreal estate, but you know,
there's only been a like a verysmall handful that actually
(36:00):
passively invest.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
So, and I think, just because they don't know that
that is out there, right, thisis so good, you guys again, if
you tuned just because theydon't know that that is out
there, Right, this is so good,you guys, again, if you tuned
out because you're like I'm notdoing syndications, you're
missing out on a lot of reallygood nuggets here.
You know, one of the one of theother challenges for a lot of
people, especially newer people,is access to cash.
Right, they want to do flips,they want to do rentals, they
(36:22):
want to you estate, but they'relimited by the capital.
They have a good W-2, butthey're not accumulating enough
cash to be buying 100 doors.
I mean, it's tough to do onyour own when you're first
starting out.
And so how do they raiseprivate money?
This is exactly what you'redoing, Kate.
You're going out and you'renetworking and you're raising
capital and you're bringingpeople in to help do it.
(36:43):
You're just doing it on abigger scale with bigger
properties.
But what are some of the thingswhen you're having
conversations like when you werewhen you started this with
people who are raising capital,like, do you have any like quick
tips for somebody, say, who'slooking to maybe get a duplex
and they need, you know somebodyto come in and be the capital
partner for the down payment andthe rehab?
Like what would you say forthem?
For quick tips on how toapproach maybe somebody out
(37:05):
there who's a potential you knowmoney partner?
Speaker 2 (37:08):
I think just tell them what you're doing, Tell
them what you need and you know,be transparent, do your due
diligence with.
You know the properties thatyou're looking at so that you
can come back and you know, showthem the numbers.
Like, we're very transparent,you can go into our investor
portal, see all the numbers, seeall of our underwriting, you
(37:31):
know.
I think that helps.
So, just being transparent withall that knowing, knowing what
you're getting into, so that youcan convey that to your
potential investor.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yeah yeah, the credibility piece is a big piece
.
Even if you're brand new andyou don't, you've never done a
deal.
If you prepare and you, youknow you do your homework and
you and you present it in aprofessional manner, you're
probably gonna have bettersuccess than just kind of
running and gunning and tryingto figure it out as you go.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Right, Right, writing it on a napkin.
Here's my numbers no-transcriptGone.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
You know what are some things that you know.
How do you, how do you, youknow, juggle that as much as
possible when you're raisingthis capital?
Like, where do you get thatconfidence from?
Is it from the underwriting, tomake sure that you're feeling
really confident that thesepeople's money is safe, or how
are you?
How are you juggling that?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I think it's the underwriting, you know.
You know we, we did our duediligence.
You know, I feel comfortablethat when we find something,
okay, this is, we're doing theunderwriting.
You know I feel like we'redoing it for them.
It's not, you know, just for us, but you know we have to bring
something that's going to be areally good offering to our
(39:08):
investors.
Um, so I think that is huge.
Um, just um yeah just yeah,doing your due diligence, that's
a bit, that's a big part of it.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah, that'll give you the confidence to know.
You know there's a really lowprobability this deal is going
to fail.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Right, right.
And then, um, you know, just,you know the team, you know my
team, I have full confidence inmy team.
Um, so that's huge.
Um, you know I put my own moneyinto it.
So you know, you know I, I havethe confidence myself.
So it's not just like I'm goingto you and asking for you to
put your money in when I've donenothing.
(39:52):
Of course, you've got thatsweat equity that we talked
about, but, yeah, I think thoseare some of the big things.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Right on.
And one, the other thing I wantto touch on before we start to
wrap here.
Kate, you mentioned markets,right, and doing the due
diligence on the markets Forsomebody out there who doesn't
have a market picked yet fortheir own purpose.
A lot of times we recommend hey, if you're just starting out,
start in yourunk, wisconsin,which is a very real possibility
, and they're looking to getsomewhere where there's some
(40:28):
population like what are somejust key things that somebody
could be looking at as far asyou know, maybe picking a
certain market to start in?
Speaker 2 (40:38):
You know, I guess what we look for is markets that
are showing growth as far aspopulation income.
You know, we don't want a dyingmarket.
Safe schools, you know safe orgood schools, safe neighborhoods
, that sort of thing, okay.
(40:59):
So yeah, I think that's thething.
Just looking at and thenlooking at also, you know what,
what are you if you're lookingat multifamily or you know
single family, whatever it is?
Just looking what, what is theoutlook, the comparables, like
rent, rent wise.
You know what can you get, whatyou know what, maybe, what you
(41:22):
can.
You know what you can you buy,that you can maybe is under
market rent that you canincrease, and you know, increase
that.
Noi, that way.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
What are some resources youknow when you're talking about,
like we're looking forcomparable rents, we're looking
for population growth, like whatare some of the resources you
guys use to look that stuff up?
Speaker 2 (41:45):
So when we're looking at the markets like one of the
big thing is the CoStar reportyou can look at those Um that'll
tell you a lot of information.
Um quite a bit Um just lookingup like apartmentscom and
looking at comparable rents thatway.
Um.
So those are some of theresources that we look at Um.
There's another one as far asand I can't think of it um as
(42:10):
far as neighborhoods and safe,safe neighborhoods and schools.
Sorry, I it's, I've lost it.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
I can't remember the name.
That's right.
If you think of it after this,text it to me.
We'll throw in the show notes.
Okay, there we go.
Yeah, that'll be perfect.
Well, that's good.
The CoStyle report, is thatsomething?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
you guys have to pay for, or is that something that's
available for anybody out there?
I think you know.
Sometimes you have to pay forit, but if you know people or
you have good connections withthe broker, sometimes they'll
just give it to you.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Yeah, Because they get it all anyway.
Sure, yeah, that's really good.
That's really good.
I know there's another one.
We had Colton Van Elzen on whowas at.
He was at the meeting as well afew episodes ago and there's a
few resources in there that youcan look at for a lot of market
data.
I think it's the Redfin datacenter is, if I remember
correctly.
(43:00):
They've got a lot of reallygood data on, you know, just
more for the single familyduplex type of stuff.
But you know, sale prices arethey going up or down?
Days on market, you know, thosekinds of things too can be a
good indicator of the strengthof a market, of whether we're a
buyer's market, a seller'smarket.
Are prices going up, pricesgoing down?
All that kind of good stuff.
But okay, this has been awesome.
(43:21):
I learned a ton on here.
I've got a whole page of notesover here that I was taking down
and probably have to go backand re-listen to this because
there's a lot of stuff Again.
Some of this stuff I neededsomebody to explain to me.
I've been doing this for eightyears, so if you're brand new
out there listening to this andyou're still listening, that
means we got a lot of goodinformation in your earbuds, but
(43:41):
you might have to go back andre-listen to this.
A lot of this stuff is a newconcept for you, but these can
all be helpful, even if you'renot at the level of what Kate's
looking for right now.
There's so many things thatKate talked about in here that
you can apply and where you'recurrently at in your real estate
investing journey.
Kate, before we wrap, we alwaysask one question, because we
love Wisconsin and we havepeople outside of Wisconsin that
sometimes they want to get inWisconsin, they want to get in
(44:02):
the market a little bit For you.
Do you have a favoriteWisconsin tradition or a place
to visit?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Hmm, that is a good question as far as anything like
.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Anything, whatever, fill them in.
What do they got to know aboutWisconsin?
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Well, of course you know you have your traditional
Wisconsin stuff.
You've got your Friday nightfish fries and your supper clubs
and all that.
So one of the supper clubs Ilove is in Tomahawk, Wisconsin
bootleggers Okay, it's on LakeNokomis, Okay yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Ooh, there we go and Tomahawk's a beautiful area
that's come up a lot for a lotof the guests on here.
That area, that area of VilasCounty, that kind of stuff is
beautiful and you're up in thatneck of the woods.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
right, you're in Antigo, not quite.
Yep, I'm in the Antigo area?
Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yep, yeah.
So maybe if you're in theAntigo area, come visit Kate,
get a little adjustment from oneof her people up there and feel
a little bit better on yourjourney up north or whatever
you're doing up there.
Maybe after a long weekend offour wheeling or whatever you're
doing, you might need a littleadjustment.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
You're hanging out in .
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Hanago.
So, kate, this has been great.
If anybody wants to connectwith you to talk about maybe
investing passively or getinvolved, you know, with you and
anything, any of the offeringsthat you have, what is the best
way for them to get in touchwith you?
Speaker 2 (45:21):
So you can find us on our website, which is ascend
equity grpcom.
Uh, you can email me just Kategrass at Gmail.
Um, so yeah, that's how you canget ahold of me.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Awesome and you have a book out.
Okay, Can you talk about thebook and how if anybody wants to
get a get access to the book?
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Yeah, I have an ebook , um free ebook.
It's on basically passiveinvesting and passive investing
blueprint.
If you want it, just reach outand I'll give you the link,
corey, and you can put it in theshow notes if you'd like.
And then they can just go tothat and sign up for my free
ebook so they can learn moreabout passive investing.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
so they can learn more about passive investing
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Kate, forbeing on.
Thank you guys for listening.
As Kate mentioned earlier,share the show.
If you're still listening tothis point, share it out on your
socials and whatever else.
Again, helps us, but also moreso for you guys, to tell people
what you're into.
Tell them what you're doing.
It's going to createconversations.
It's going to create leads.
It's going to bring people inwho have money and want to
(46:31):
invest passively with you.
So share the show.
Help us get the word out, buthelp yourself as well as you're
building your network.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Kate, thanks so much for being on.
Thank you, guys, for tuning inand we'll see you on the next
episode.
Thank you.
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