February 24, 2025 • 58 mins
Join Nick Lamagna on The A Game Podcast with our guest Alex Pardo a real estate investor, entrepreneur, financial coach and self storage unit investing master who went from flipping baseball cards to flipping real estate. He went through the rollercoaster of ups and downs from massive deals to massive tax debt and back as he found his way to success along the way through multiple asset classes on his destination to financial freedom.
He left working from GE to backpack through Europe when he saw himself on a path to a future he did not want and learned about real estate investing on European trains starting as a wholesaler, graduating to fix and flips and rentals doing over 700 deals and now focusing full time on self storage investing. He not only achieved his own success fighting through obstacles and adversity along the way he now helps investors just like you through his massively successful podcast the Flip Empire Show and his coaching platform where he shares his no-nonsense, straight-shooter approach to give you tools and strategies to achieve results and not settle for mediocrity.
Topics for this episode include:
✅ Why self storage is an economy resilient product
✅ What are the best markets for self storage investing?
✅ Two types of risk in self storage investing
✅ Reasons to choose self storage facilities over residential real estate
✅ How much money do you need to start self storage investing?
✅ A perfect buy box for self storage investing + More
See the show notes to connect with all things Alex!
Connect with Alex:
Connect with the Flip Empire Show:
The Flip Empire Show on Apple Podcasts
The Flip Empire Show on Spotify
---
Connect with Nick Lamagna
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:13):
Welcome to the a game podcast withNick LaMagna digging into the minds and
experiences of some of today's brightestentrepreneurs in real estate and business,
along with Hollywood stars, UFC fighters.
And your favorite rock bands, peoplethat have figured out how to overcome
obstacles, take chances, live boldly.
And no matter what they do,they always bring their a game.
(00:48):
Welcome to the a game podcast, where weshow average people that they can achieve
extraordinary things every single day.
And this episode is no different today.
We have Alex Bordeaux, just the 300plus episodes that we have so far.
Bring on all the top performers in theworld from sports, fighting, athletics,
entrepreneurships, and of course,business and real estate to teach you
from all the things that they have doneright to make money and all the things
(01:10):
that they have done wrong to lose moneyand stress out that you do not have to.
So the blueprint is already therefor you, but we bring on another
great guest today named AlexBardot, who went from wholesaling.
After growing up, flipping baseballcards, and then decided to go
backpack through Europe and figureout what he really wanted in life.
And he got into a really successfulwholesaling model where he was done over,
over 700 deals and decided it still wasn'treally what was making him truly happy and
(01:31):
shifted his entire focus to self storage.
So we talk all about the process, thementality, how to handle some of those
bad deals, how to look at some good deals.
And then of course, self storage and whyhe feels it's one of the most resistant
recession, resilient strategies outthere, as far as an asset class, how
he finds them, how he analyzes them.
The type of people he buys themfrom, what to do, what not to do.
And of course, we talk about fighting.
(01:53):
We talk about UFC and MMA and someof the training he's done, some
of the people he's trained with.
And of course, at the end, he givesyou guys an amazing free gift.
So make sure you stick around.
And the only payback we asked for.
Is the show is free.
We just would like you to please subscribebecause it makes all the difference
in the world to keep this party going.
So anywhere you watch and listento your podcasts, the a game
entrepreneurs, the a game podcast,real estate investing for entrepreneurs
(02:16):
is absolutely available there.
If you still need a place to connect withit with one button, and you would like
to connect with us on social media, weare available everywhere through Nick.
com slash links.
The way Alex knows that he gave you guysvalue is for you to please interact with
some of the posts we make from this show.
It only takes a second.
Give it a thumbs up, give it a give ita fist bump, and definitely connect with
Alex and let him know that he got valueto you so he knows to tell other people
(02:40):
to come on so they can do the same.
But the big thing here is Iwant to do real estate together.
So let's do something else together.
Whether you want to buy propertiesfrom me, sell properties to
me, or partner on some level.
Let's get it together.
Shoot me a direct message onany of my social media with
the words real estate in front.
So I know to look for it or just textme the words, real estate to 5 1 6
5 4 0 5 7 3 3 5 1 6 5 4 0 5 7 3 3.
(03:03):
Thank you guys so much for listening.
Thank you.
Alex Bardo.
Have a fantastic day.
Everybody.
18 pockets.
All right.
My guest today is an entrepreneur,a financial coach and investor who
went from flipping baseball cards.
to real estate and went through theroller coaster of ups and downs from
massive deals to massive tax debt andhas had vast experiences through multiple
(03:23):
different exit strategy and assetclasses for almost 20 years and counting
on the quest for financial freedom.
He worked at the GE financialmanagement program and saw a glimpse
of his future that he did not want.
And then backpacked around Europe, learnedthe real estate trade on a European train.
He started as a wholesaler and jumpedeventually into flipping rentals,
single family and commercial doingover 700 deals, and now has found his
(03:44):
focus investing in his new passion,which is self storage facilities.
He not only achieved his own successmultiple times in spite of falling.
All the way up and all theway down multiple times.
He now shares those lessons andsuccesses that he's made with investors.
Just like you through such things as hismassively successful podcast called flip
empire, creeping on 800 episodes andhis coaching platform, where he shares
(04:05):
his no nonsense, straight shoe loading.
Whoa, sorry.
No nonsense, straight shootingleader who will give you the tools
and strategies you need to achieveresults and not settle for mediocrity.
He is a fight fan.
Fighting out of South Florida, please.
Welcome to the a game podcast, thelegend himself, Mr. Alex Pardo.
Welcome, sir. Nick, that was such anawesome and unique intro that I don't
(04:27):
think I've ever heard before, man.
So kudos to you for wrappingeverything up in 60 seconds or so.
Dude, I'm excited toconnect with you, man.
I love your energy.
I'm grateful that you and I haveconnected and just excited to
share, man and help people here.
Man, you've been around a long time.
When we first connected not too longago at one of the masterminds, I was
like, I need to know who you are, dude.
How does anybody in the realestate game not know who you are?
(04:47):
You've been around for so long, man.
But for anybody who might be livingunder a rock, what are some blanks
we can fill in for your origin storyfrom that initial bio for who you
are and where you came from today?
Yeah, man, I'll keep this briefand succinct so we can get
to the meat of the show here.
But I grew up in humblebeginnings, middle class family.
I didn't have a silver spoon in mymouth, but at the same time I don't
have a rags to riches story either.
(05:08):
I'm super blessed and grateful that God'sput surrounded me with the right people,
just incredible parents and family.
And they've always been very supportive.
And I understand that there'slisteners and viewers here that
maybe haven't been as fortunate.
But for me, my, my parentsare not entrepreneurs.
And so I was like, they talkabout enriched dad, poor dad.
That was my family.
I was taught, go out and get educatedso you can get a good job and, earn a
(05:31):
salary and, but something in me, Nick,you mentioned from flipping baseball cards
to real estate around 10, 11 years old.
I remember buying packs of cards for 50cents a buck and then flipping them for
a quarter, 50 cents, another dollar.
And I really liked that.
I went out and graduated from FIUand got a job in corporate finance
thinking that I wanted to, climbthe corporate ladder, so to speak.
(05:53):
And three months into that role, brother,I just realized I'm not cut out for this.
This doesn't bring me joy, fulfillment.
I don't like being told when to goto lunch and when to take vacation.
And I'm not good at a lot of things, butthere's a few things I'm pretty good at.
And one of those is.
Reverse engineering, like gettingclarity about what I want and then
figuring out my way to that destination.
(06:15):
And I looked at my boss all the way upthe ladder and I said, I don't care how
much, what their comp package looks like.
I don't want to do this.
I want to go out and do my own thing.
So I just immersed myself whilebackpacking from city to city in
Europe for three and a half months,I immersed myself in personal
development books and real estate.
And I made a commitment at thatpoint, when I moved back to
Miami, which by the way, Nick.
(06:37):
At 25 years old, I was going tobe moving back in with my parents.
That is not how I envisionedthings happening for me.
So I had a lot of motivation.
I was driven by the pain of living at homeand going out and having to get a job.
I was driven by that.
And I was like, I'm going tofigure this real estate thing out.
So I went to this marketing fordeals bootcamp back in October
(06:59):
of 2005, got home and I'm a readyfire aim type of dude, right?
So I had a ton of questions.
There was a lot of fear anduncertainty, but again, I was
being driven by I certainly know Idon't want to go work for somebody.
I want to figure this out.
And so I said, I'm committed to this.
So I went to, at the time, I think it wascalled Kinko's and I just, I made a bunch
of photocopies of pre foreclosure letters.
(07:21):
And I remember watching TV atnight and licking and stamping
and stuffing envelopes.
And I sent out 300 and somethingpre foreclosure letters.
Fast forward a little bit, somewherebetween two and three months into
that process, I closed my firstdeal, It happened to be a short sale.
We made 44, 000 bucks.
I was so green.
I didn't know what I was doing that.
(07:41):
I brought in a partner, a friendof mine who was a few steps ahead
of me in real estate, and weended up splitting a 44, 000 deal.
And man, that was we closed on thatdeal early of 2006 and that this
is all I've done ever since then.
I've been unemployable and just andwe'll go from there, but I've done
a lot of deals throughout the years.
That's incredible, man, dude.
There's so many things that I think.
(08:03):
Would be a great Talking point that we canprobably just do hours or just that stuff.
But one of the things was youmentioned getting the baseball car
for 50 cents on the dollar and thenjust selling it for market value
or even a little bit of a discount.
And I feel like I've come acrosspeople over the years where they're
like, Oh, I can't do real estate.
I'm like, well, what do you do?
And you're like, well, I found thissoap online and I bought it from
this one guy in Craigslist and Isold it for twice the price in eBay.
(08:25):
And I'm like, you're already doing it.
You're just doing it with adifferent product, but it's the same.
Principle, and I've always beentold from some of my mentors that
your evidence or your confidencecomes from evidence, whether it's
these small little wins that work.
So I'm always curious about howdo people get the confidence to
get in there and ready fire aim.
So I guess my backtrack question is,do you think like getting some of those
(08:45):
smaller wins and understanding theprinciple behind really wholesaling?
Before it was houses, did that give youthe courage to move forward and really
start swinging like that because theyfind a lot of people when they take their
first class or they watch their firstYouTube video, they get in their heads
and they don't actually start swinging.
So what was it that made you actuallygrab the bat and start swinging instead
of overanalyzing or over researchingeverything before you took any action?
(09:08):
Yeah, like one, it's sucha great question, Nick, and
there's a lot to unpack there.
One of the things I realized just fromconsuming and reading a lot of books, by
the way, the first 24 years of my life.
I think legit, maybe I read cover tocover four or five books from the moment
I committed to like personal developmentand to get involved in entrepreneurship
and real estate, like I've readhundreds and hundreds of books now.
(09:28):
And so one of the things that I gotfrom reading books is figuring out that
there's clues and success patterns.
And one of those that hit me earlyon in my journey was that anyone and
anyone that has achieved anything ofconsequence or however you deem success.
I didn't read one success storythat didn't involve hundreds
(09:52):
of failures before that point.
So early on in my journey, Iwasn't expecting no resistance.
I wasn't expecting a lack of setbacks.
I knew there were going to be challenges,but the, what I also knew was that the
only way this wouldn't work for me is ifI stopped believing in myself and I quit.
So I think going into it with theright mindset, I don't have some like.
(10:14):
Sexy answer for you otherthan expecting that it's going
to be challenging at times.
And there's going to be setbacks andtrials and all this kind of stuff.
And I also knew that if I didn'tquit, I would eventually succeed.
So I just had this like mindsetbrother, that no matter what I'm faced
with, I'm going to figure out how togo through it, over it, under it, or
around it, like one way or the other.
(10:35):
And the first two years of mycareer, Nick, I viewed coaches
and mentors as an expense.
That was big mistake.
Number one.
Fortunately out of the gate, I hadsome success until I didn't 2007 came.
I had wholesaled probablyfirst couple of years.
I probably wholesaled somewherebetween 20 and 25 houses.
And I said, okay, it's time tojump into a luxury fix and flip.
(10:58):
And super long story short,the market obviously crashed in
2008 and between myself and apartner, we lost 102, 000 bucks.
I lost 51, 000.
People oftentimes ask me like, Hey, canyou share a story of your best deal?
And I'm always met withsurprise when I share that deal.
And people ask me how is losing 51grand on your first fix and flip your
(11:22):
best deal, that was the deal and thecatalyst that drove me to go higher.
Coaches and mentors thatwere a few steps ahead of me.
So back to your original question.
I think I just understand that I'm notgoing to have all the answers when you
decide to get involved in something,you're going to have more questions than
answers, but understanding and trustingin yourself, knowing that it can be done.
(11:43):
I didn't have any questionsabout real estate.
I knew I could succeed andmake money in real estate.
I just said, Hey, I don't have tofigure out the how at this moment.
It's about asking the who can help mehere, and then just taking steps forward
and figuring it out as you go along.
So, I know that was a long windedanswer, but I think a lot of it
boils down to mindset, brother.
No, that was incredible, man.
(12:04):
You brought up something that You know,part of the hard part about this is I do
so much research on the guests that whenyou say things I want to take you down
these other paths that I know you can godown But i'm like we'll never get to the
thing if I do that but one thing you didsay That you really didn't click until
I heard you saying this is We have alot of similar backgrounds like i'm sure
most people at when you get to a certainlevel do of going through and hiring
(12:25):
mentors along the way and I always findit fascinating where Nobody has a story
where they go, man, every day was great.
I never thought I was crazy.
I never had days I doubted myself.
It was all wins.
It's always wins and losses.
Regardless of if you do it on your ownor if you have mentors, and I've always
looked at as, as bad as the bads wouldhave been, they would have been worse if
I didn't have some sort of mentorship.
(12:46):
And as good as the wins would have been,they wouldn't have been as good if I
didn't have these things along the way.
But I've always looked at myself andsaid I could always basically point out
I didn't make that phone call, I didn'tfollow that system, I didn't reach out to
the you know what you did after, and youlearn from it, and I feel like that's the
biggest difference between people thatgo through trainings like that, and they
have a successful experience, or a notsuccessful experience, but they learn from
(13:08):
those lessons and move forward, versusstopping and then blaming the mentor,
or blaming life, or blaming the economyI've heard you talk a lot about some of
the big losses you've had, but I've neveronce heard you say, It wasn't my fault.
This person did that.
You've always just said, here's a lesson.
I learned from it.
I'm grateful for it.
Where did that accountability come from?
How did you learn to take that sortof mindset and that accountability for
(13:31):
wins and losses without pointing blame?
Because I think that's amassive part of success.
Yeah, I know.
And I appreciate you recognizing that.
I think it goes back to my parents.
I remember I was big into sports.
Always so much so that I had theopportunity to play one year of
college baseball and then quicklyrealize I didn't have the gifts and the
talents to make it to the next level.
And so I just played one year, but Iremember growing up and men, there were
(13:54):
games I specifically remember, and Idon't think I've ever shared this on
a podcast, but I remember I must havebeen, I don't know, nine, 10 years old.
I had a game where Istruck out three times.
It was like a big, important game to getto a divisional playoff or something.
This was in like little league.
So nine, 10 years old, man.
So but I was, I've alwaysbeen so competitive.
Like no matter what Ido, like I want to win.
(14:15):
And I had a game where Istruck out three times.
I had a couple of errorson the field, like just.
An atrocious game.
And I remember like legit crying.
And it's funny to share that backwhen I was nine years old, I was
crying because I had a bad game.
And I remember my mom and dadlike comforting me, but not
in a coddling kind of way.
They were like, Hey, listen, whatcan you learn from this experience?
(14:36):
How can you leverage this moment?
So you struck out three times.
You had a couple of errors in the field.
How can you leverage this?
To get better.
So that next time you're inthis position, you can shine.
And I just, that's always stuck with me.
And I don't know if that was themain driver, but I think early on
as a kid, man, it was instilled inme that don't ever blame somebody.
(14:57):
Accept responsibility andaccountability for where you are
based on the decisions you've madeor the lack of decisions you've made.
And if you just have that self awarenessthat it starts and ends with you,
brother, life is so much easier, right?
Because when you deflect, you giveaway the opportunity to grow and learn.
(15:18):
When you accept responsibility.
You can always learn something ifyou just open your mind and heart to
whatever it is you're experiencing.
And then I'd be remiss to say my faithhas always been a big part of my life,
especially the last handful of yearswhere I've really leaned into that.
And and so anyways, that's probablya whole nother podcast, but I
think there's just so much power.
(15:38):
And not giving away and owning yourmistakes, owning the responsibility,
that's what allows you to grow, notpointing the finger because, and God
knows there's so much of that going aroundthese days in this political environment
and season we're in where there's allthis finger pointing and this and that.
And, we just had the election.
Right.
And so regardless of who was going tolike step into office, like I wasn't
(16:02):
going to blame or point fingers at,Oh, this is why the economy sucks.
So this is why the economy is great.
Like the me economy, right.
A friend of mine, Mark Evans authoreda book called me economy, where it
talks about essentially worry aboutyour economy and not to say that
you shouldn't have a finger on thepulse as to what's going on, because
that, that, that wouldn't be smart.
But it, I think the premise of thatbook is what you and I are talking
(16:24):
about it starts and ends with you.
I love that man.
And you shout out to Mark Evans is oneof the most shadow that guys on this
on this podcast, actually that likecollective genius are always out there,
but you talked about having these lossesalong the way and before we bounce
back into self storage and actual realestate stuff, I always tell people,
if you don't quit, you can't fail.
And right.
You've had some big wins, but you'vehad some big losses and sometimes
(16:46):
where I think other people mightsay, you know What this is my sign.
This is gonna work out for me I'mgonna quit but you didn't you kept
going so I'm always interested in Whenyou're feeling down when you're feeling
defeated when you're feeling like you'retaking some L's What were some of the
mental or physical things you said oractually did to talk yourself out of
that mental ditch to live, to fightanother day and find that success?
(17:09):
Yeah, man, such a good question.
I think number one, as the analogy goes,like you got to fill your cup up, right?
So make sure that you'redoing things that fill you up.
So for me, some type of exercise,like I have this thing on my.
Let me see if I can, I have this,which is like my daily five, right?
It's like my five commitments, dailysweat reading 10 pages a day, connecting
(17:30):
with family, plugging in with God.
So those are five.
I just mentioned four, but Ihave five daily commitments.
Like these are my non negotiables andno matter what I'm going through, I
think number one, Connecting to thesource, which for me is God, right?
Number two, leaninginto my trusted circle.
I'm very, Nick, I'm veryintentional about the people
(17:50):
that I've surrounded myself with.
And I'm not just talking coaches andmentors, but friends, people that I
can pick up the phone and say, Hey,I'm going through this and I know
that they're going to they're notgoing to tell me what I want to hear.
They're going to tell me what theythink I need to hear, but they're
also going to pull me up, right?
Cause we, man, we all have ups and downs.
Like the last thing you're going tohear from me is coming on a podcast
or speaking from stage as if Ilike, I had everything figured out.
(18:13):
Because I don't think anybody does right.
Like we all have challenges.
That's life, but I'm not afraid ofthose challenges because I know that's,
what's helping me like become a betterversion of myself moving forward.
Right.
I look, we just sold.
And when I say we, I had a partner on oneof them and then I was the sole owner.
Another, I just sold in the last.
65, 66 days.
I just sold two storage facilities,about 80, 000 square feet.
(18:37):
And brother, I experienced so manysetbacks and challenges in the process
to give you an idea, one of thosefacilities was on the market for
just over two years, two years tryingto sell a facility, and there's a
variety of reasons I had setbacks andchallenges and this and that, but.
Like while there were some challengingtimes and I had a bunch of money
trapped in equity in these deals, right?
(18:59):
And there was issues with operations.
There were some things going on.
Man, I specifically remember likeconnecting to the source Calling, some
key people that maybe were a few stepsahead of me that could pour into me
and then just staying confident, man.
Again, I think having a mindsetwhere it's like, Hey, this
is what's supposed to happen.
I meant to learn something from thisexperience and it's going to be all right.
(19:22):
It's just having that ultimate faithand trust brother that no matter
what I go through, like God's got me.
I'm learning, I'm growing,I'm meant to go through this.
So it goes back to a Tony Robbinssays, he's one of the many things
he's shared that stuck with me is areyou the type of person where you view
life as happening to you or for you?
Right?
(19:42):
So when setbacks happen, challenges,whatever it might be, I take L's
Hey, that's life happening forme, not to me, not, I don't have
a victim mentality about it.
I love that, man.
I think that's awesome.
And that's all you can do, right?
You take what you're given.
And I know there's I always go backto fighting, but I know sometimes,
and it took me a while to appreciatethis, but some of the mentors I would
have, I'd ask them a question andthey would answer with a question.
(20:03):
I'd be like, dude, justgive me the answer.
You're like, stop Mr. Miyagi me, but itteaches you how to think things because
it's I don't know especially like withjujitsu, it's well, we were just talking
about Kenny Florian and he'd be like,well, what do you mean you're here?
And I'm like, well, what do I do?
And he's well, here'sthe principle behind it.
Because.
The amount of things that they could bedoing to you that you have to react to.
Like you can't account for all that.
(20:24):
So you take what youget and you react to it.
And that's really where the magic happens,how your action was getting there.
And I think that's thesame thing with life.
Same thing with business and learningthose principles of how to expand.
I think regardless of what it is.
Apply to all of it.
So it doesn't surprise me that youwere successful flipping baseball
cards, successful wholesaling, and nowwe're finding success in self storage.
So let's pivot to why self storage, likewhat was it that made you get out of the
(20:47):
wholesaling game, out of the residentialgame and say, I'm going to now focus
full in on self storage facilities.
Yeah.
So I was a I was focused onwholesaling for 15 years and I've
evolved throughout the years.
I remember the first five years, Nick.
I was a one man show.
Then I read the four hour workweek and I immediately hired a VA
paying nine bucks an hour in India,hired this person, didn't know what
(21:10):
to give them, or I, again, ready,fire, aim I'll figure it out.
And I've learned so muchthrough those experiences.
2012, 2013 is when I started hiringpeople because I remember when
I was single, I'd be on a dateand I had a direct mail campaign.
And then my phone was blowingup and I couldn't take the calls
and I said, okay, well, I need, Iwant to build this as a business.
So I started bringing peoplein and in 2017, I think I had
(21:33):
a team of six at that point.
And I remember feeling likethere was a lack of alignment.
Between what I ultimately wanted long termand the business model of wholesaling.
And I remember being on a cruisewith my wife and there was.
Deals falling apart andhiccups and challenges.
And I told my wife, I'm like,this feels like a grind.
(21:53):
This feels like a rat race.
It was a high paying job and I'mgrateful for the money I've made in
wholesaling, but at the end of theday, like I got into real estate,
Nick, because I wanted cashflow.
I wanted the benefits of realestate, appreciation, depreciation.
I ultimately wanted time freedom.
And yet, even though I had a teamand I wasn't the one talking to
sellers and buyers, and I wasn'tthe technician in the business.
(22:16):
It was a transactional business andI started from scratch every month
and 2019, my overhead balloonedto about 40 to 44, 000 a month.
And I remember having to closetwo deals just to break even.
Right.
And I'm like, dude thisdoesn't align with what I want.
So I already started to think about,okay, well, what's the next plan for me?
(22:38):
And for me, I had startedcoaching people in 2013.
I started the flip empire podcast in2016, which I still do to this day.
And I remember getting more joy andfulfillment from having somebody
reach out to me saying, Hey, thankyou for this podcast, or thank you
for this coaching call, because itreally helped me in these areas.
(22:59):
That would fill me up more than thenext 15, 20, 30, 000 wholesale deal.
And so when COVID came, it was ablessing in disguise for many reasons.
And one of those was, Hey, this isgiving me the reason to shut down
this wholesaling business, eventhough it was profitable and we were
still doing multiple deals a month.
(23:20):
I said, I'm going to shutthis down because I asked
myself one important question.
I said, if I'm still doing thisbusiness 12 months from today,
How would that make me feel?
And it was almost akin to the feeling Igot on a Sunday evening when I had to go
to my corporate job on Monday morning.
And I'm like, what's this is my business.
I've created this thing, but yet itfeels like I'm stuck in this prison.
(23:41):
Right.
And I happen to be coaching somebodywho owned a storage facility.
And I got an inside lookinto the asset class.
And then I realized that.
He had time freedom.
He wasn't dealing withtenants, toilets, trash.
He had cash flow.
He didn't have employees.
His, he didn't have crazy overheadand I'm like, let me start
looking into this asset class.
(24:02):
I automatically assumed Nick,that I would transition from
single family to multifamily.
I figured that's a natural progressionfor a lot of real estate investors.
And then I got exposed to storage andI realized that it's considered the
most recession resistant asset class.
It's a very sticky 10 by 20 unit,they tend to stay for years.
(24:23):
In fact, now that I own multiplefacilities Our average length of
stay is just under three yearsat one of my storage facilities.
So I just got exposed and then to storageand then I shut down the business.
I think it was May of 2020 andthen December of 2020 is when I
remember specifically committing tosay, Hey, this is my path forward.
(24:44):
And here's why.
So I got very clear about the end.
Back to like my corporate job, likestart with the end in mind, what
do you want and why do you want it?
And then is the business, is the modelthat you're currently in, does that align
with getting you to where you want to be?
And for me, for all those reasons,and I can go on and on about why
storage it felt like the right fit.
(25:05):
I knew that I could ultimatelyaccomplish what I wanted
through the storage asset class.
That's awesome, man.
So I like the pivot because I feellike wholesaling, even though it was
something that became transactional,it allows you to get some quick money.
So was it an easier transition becauseyou were able to have success at one
asset class, maybe stock away somefunds, because I imagine to get your
(25:27):
first storage facility, You don'tget money like with a wholesale
deal, you can get paid in a week.
I imagine to actually get some cashreturn out of a storage facility
probably takes months, maybe even a yearor more to get that first check back
unless you're buying stabilized stuff.
So what does that cash conversion cyclelook like for finding your first deal?
And how does that compare tothe timeline and the amount
of offers you would put out?
(25:49):
Because I know it's competitive,but I imagine it's not.
It's not as competitive asresidential, but there's
probably not as much out there.
So where's that balance?
Man, it's sharp question.
And there's a lot to unpack there.
So let me just go step by step.
Number one, I actually think.
Looking back on it, the fact thatI had success in single family
in that particular asset classalmost worked against me when
(26:12):
I decided to get into storage.
And let me explain to you why I, ifI'm being honest with you, brother,
like I came into the businessoverly confident, not like a cocky,
arrogant way, but like internally,I was like, I'm going to crush this.
That's how I was feelingand thinking internal.
And I remember at the time I washosting a mastermind and one of my
members at the break pulled me asideand said, Hey man, this was in February.
(26:35):
I said, I saw in your podcast, Iheard in your podcast on social
media that you got into storage.
How's it going for you?
This was a little bit over twomonths after I made the decision,
I had zero results to show.
Like when I'm talking zero, like I haven'teven talked to a storage owner and.
I had to be honest and I said, I don'thave anything to show for it yet.
(26:56):
And he goes, why?
I go, that's a great question.
And I paused him like.
I haven't done the work.
That was my answer.
I haven't done the work.
Yes.
I had educated myself.
Yes.
I had consumed a bunch of content and thatinternally made me feel like I was making
progress, but I hadn't done the work.
And that's a principle that I hopepeople like our hearing is that no
(27:16):
matter what you do, wholesaling, singlefamily storage drop shipping, Amazon,
whatever you do health and fitness.
You got to commit and then there'sno substitute for doing the work.
And that was a blessing thatconversation, because when I got
back from that mastermind, I said,I'm going to put my head down.
I'm going to do the work.
I know what to do.
I don't necessarily know all thehow, but again, I'll figure it out.
(27:40):
Less than two months later, I wasunder contract on my first storage
facility, a 43, 000 square foot facility.
Now, the other part of your question wasthe cash conversion cycle and all that.
One of the limiting beliefs.
Nick that I find with people thatare interested in getting involved in
storage or any commercial asset classfor that matter, is this belief that you
(28:01):
need to have hundreds of thousands ofdollars, if not millions of dollars to
buy these large commercial properties.
And what I can tell you with certainty,because every single storage deal
that I've been a part of, I haveyet to use any of my own money.
Now I'm not saying you don't need capital.
I'm just saying itdoesn't have to be yours.
So, we can get into specificcase studies, but I've.
(28:22):
Closed deals from raising all of theprivate money to leveraging equity
partners that put in money into the deal.
And then they get a percentageof ownership, essentially equity
to seller financing, whichis one of my favorite tools.
What I wish I knew then that Iknow now, and this is one of the
things I share with our storage winscoaching clients is that all of the
(28:43):
skills that single family investors.
Acquire and sharpen, like all the skillsthat we applied in single family, they
translate very smoothly over into storage.
It's the same marketing, the conversationsI find there are a lot easier because
they're business owners that are notemotionally attached to the asset, like
(29:03):
motivated single family owners are.
And really the differences inhow you evaluate the deal, right?
There's a few nuances there, but byand large, the same skillsets apply in
single family as they do in storage.
So, yeah, now look, to your point,you talked about stabilized assets,
a stabilized asset just means.
An asset that has, relatively highoccupancy and it's producing cashflow.
(29:26):
It's got net operatingincome, which is by the way.
How we value these storage facilities.
It's not based on comparable sales.
It's based on the NOI, the net,the income, the asset is producing.
So when I got intostorage, I got very clear.
Maybe this is the theme that I'mnot even realizing I'm sharing with
people, but I got clear on the factthat I wanted stabilized properties.
(29:49):
What does that mean?
Again, I wanted properties whereI could step into cashflow, if not
from day one, within the first sixmonths that also had equity upside.
And one of the things that really helpedme in my journey, Nick, was I was so
clear about my storage deal avatar, my buybox, that I planted a seed with everybody
in my network and ecosystem that I wasactively pursuing my first storage deal.
(30:14):
Like I was not shy about tellingeverybody I came in contact with, and
the reason I got my first deal wasbecause somebody I was working with
shot me an email, he called me rightaway and he said, check your inbox,
I think I found your first deal.
I said, awesome.
But how do you know?
He goes, because you've toldme exactly what you want.
Here it is.
So I'll pause there, but yeah.
(30:35):
If you have been kicking yourself thatyou didn't start investing in real
estate sooner, whether you're a beginner,intermediate, or advanced, any way
you're looking to get out of residential,commercial, land development, wholesaling,
fix and flips, whatever it is, let'sfind a way to get you involved in some
projects, get you some properties, whetheryou want to sell some properties to me.
Whether you want to buy some propertiesfrom me, whether residential fix and
flip cashflow, multifamily, whatever itis you're looking for is figure out a
(30:57):
way to get you involved or find a wayfor us to partner up on some deals.
Reach out to me on any ofmy social media channels.
If you go on www.
nicknicknick.
com slash links, you will see allthe different ways to connect with
me and figure out how we can startto work together, make it happen.
Everybody that invests inreal estate always just says
they wish they did it sooner.
Best time to start istoday That's awesome, man.
(31:19):
So you bring up an interesting pointbecause I think when you talk about
this stuff you're doing When I seepeople thinking they're going to get
into commercial, they go, well, Iwant to own an apartment building in
New York city, or I want to own anapartment building in Los Angeles.
And you realize that themoney's not really there for the
average investor starting out.
It's like a totally different buya box, a totally different thing.
And sometimes I see the samething with residential where
(31:41):
people want to get their feet wet.
So they start in some of thesecondary, the tertiary markets.
So I think when people are listeningto you talk about self storage,
they immediately go, oh yeah.
Like I see those big buildings withall the orange signs all over, I'll
go buy one of those, but you're notbuying like these big a list chain type
ones in these major markets, right?
It's a little bit of a different scenario,different strategy, different market.
(32:03):
And Nick, I can tell you'vedone your homework, man.
I love it.
A hundred percent.
I am not buying.
So what Nick is referring to is.
What the REITs own.
So a REIT is a realestate investment trust.
The REITs own the public storages ofthe world, Extra Space, CubeSmart,
Life Storage, the big box A classstorage facilities that you and I
(32:24):
and people listening would probablywant to rent our stuff, like that's
where we would put our stuff.
That is not the type offacility that we're buying.
We are buying class B class Cmom and pop operated facilities
in secondary and rural markets.
So I like to focus on cities that have apopulation between a thousand and 60, 000
people where the population is increasing.
(32:46):
And then the medium householdincome is 50, 000 and up.
So those are the markets like,look, I live in Miami, Florida.
I've never spent one minute lookingfor storage in South Florida.
The chances of me buying a facilityhere and impossible, but not the type
of market that I'm focused on, right?
Like I own a facility in AmeliaIsland 37, 38, 000 square people 37,
(33:08):
000 people in terms of populationmedium household income is well over
a hundred grand, like strong market.
Those are the types of marketsthat I like to go after.
I love that, man.
And so when you talk about these,I guess, underperforming assets
or a lot of them locally owned or,similar to like multifamily, you
(33:29):
would have somebody who they boughtyears ago, they self managed it.
And it's not that it's bad.
It's just that it's not reallyfiring at its potential.
Or you're looking for stuff that's likereal bad that you got to get everybody out
and fix the place up or a happy medium.
Like what's your bread and butter buy box?
Yeah, no.
So I look for so every singlefacility that I've bought has been
owned by a mom and pop operator.
(33:49):
And what do I mean by mom and pop?
They're usually somewherebetween 60 and 80 years old.
They've been running andoperating the storage business
for well over two decades.
And they're just getting ready to retire.
You know how, like when we talk tomotivated sellers in the single family
space, there's circumstantial distress,there's physical distress with the asset.
There's financial distress.
(34:10):
My experience in storage of nowhaving been in this almost four
years is that more than 80 percentof the time, the seller is not
necessarily financially distressed.
They're just getting ready to retire.
Like they're done.
They've been in it for a long time.
Here's where the opportunity.
Should be really exciting for peoplelistening that are interested in storage.
(34:32):
Most of these mom and pop owners,Nick, they don't have websites and
if they do, they're not very good.
They don't market likethey do no lead generation.
They have no automationand technology in place.
And so I look for storage facilitiesthat are run and owned by mom and pop
operators that have not brought it upto the 21st century where I can go in
(34:55):
there and I can add an automated gate.
I can add a website.
I can implement some marketing, right?
And.
Raise rates.
So let me give you an example thatsometimes like floors, people imagine
Nick, you and I partnered on a deal25 years ago, let's say in 2000, you
and I bought a single family home, butyou and I were so comfortable with the
(35:17):
tenant in that single family rentalthat we never raised the rent on them.
And let's say it was a three, twothat we were renting for 800 bucks.
And today in today's market,maybe it's 2, 500 or three grand.
That is the equivalent of a lot of storageowners that we come in contact with where
they haven't raised the rates in years.
And they might be rentinga 10 by 10 for 40 bucks.
(35:39):
But if you look at the market and thecompetitors in a five mile radius, the
race for a 10 by 10 or 70 or 80 bucks.
That's an easy, like what we callvalue add, where you can go in there
and we can just raise the rates tothe average of the market rates.
Those are the types ofopportunities that we look for.
That's incredible, man.
So, when you start to break that downnow, something I heard you say that I
(36:02):
thought was awesome, which I think is amissing piece that a lot of people forgot
about in the single family side is ifI remember correctly, you were talking
about how when you make offers, youactually do a multiple offer strategy.
And I think, I mean, who wasjust telling me about it?
I was just reading a book.
You probably know who it was, but theywere talking about the illusion of choice.
And it's like when you presentmultiple options, instead of them just
(36:23):
saying yes or no, they're saying A,B, C, or D. So either way, they're
taking what you're giving them.
They have the illusion that they're makinga choice, but whatever choice they make
for you, it's still the right choice.
So talk a little bit about themechanics and the psychology behind
the multiple offer strategy you do.
Yeah.
Look, I think if people opentheir eyes and maybe it's the
reticular activating system, right?
(36:43):
It's like all of a suddenyou're aware of it.
So you see it more often, like the exampleof the car, the new car that you buy.
Look at internet marketers.
You see this all the time where you goto the pricing page and like a basic.
A popular and an executive choice, butthey're highlighting, they want you to
focus on like the middle version, right?
So when you give people options,now the pendulum can swing too far.
(37:06):
You want to make sure that you don'tgive people too many options, right?
I'll give you an example.
My wife and I we like to dine out everynow and then we'll hit cheesecake,
which I'm not the biggest fan of,but cheesecake factory, you grab that
menu and there's a hundred pages.
And I'm like, And I like to try to make,do the best I can to make a decision,
even though I might ask like thewaiter Hey, what's your recommendation?
If I haven't been there withcheesecake, I always take longer
(37:28):
because there's so many options thatsometimes I don't know what I want.
There's I want this.
I want that.
It's well, versus if you just goto a diner and there's like a menu
with five options, like you'regoing to make a decision pretty
quickly, like you're limited.
So I like to give sellersbetween two and three options.
And no, it's not dissimilarto single family.
(37:48):
It could be a low cash offer.
It could be a 100 percent seller financedoffer, or it could be a hybrid, right?
Or it could be a convey.
So I like to, now I'll craft myoffers based on the seller's needs.
I'll always ask consultative typequestions about the seller situation.
(38:09):
What is it they want?
Is it the timeline of the closing?
Is it a certain amount of money?
So the more that you can dive deep,ask the right questions, listen,
and get to understand and knowwhat the seller's ultimately after.
I will then take that and try tocraft offers that can help the
seller accomplish what they're after.
Right.
I don't, I'll always givea seller their price.
(38:32):
As long as I can name theterms or vice versa, right?
So people sometimes will ask, well, howmuch would you pay for that property?
I'll pay them whatever they want.
Do I get to set the terms though?
Right.
So that gets into a whole differentconversation about creative
financing and seller financing.
But again, those are things thatI learned in single family that
now I'm applying over to storage.
The difference is storage owners, becausethey're business owners, they're more open
(38:56):
and understanding to seller financing.
And many of these people that are lookingto retire have this big tax bill coming.
And I always tell them I'm not a CPA.
But would you be open or would youconsider if I could give you your
price, getting payments over time?
Right?
And so I'll never talk in terms of I tryto like, scrap the industry jargon and
(39:19):
I'll just try to speak to them like asif I was speaking to like my grandmother.
And I just basic, basic layman's terms.
I think it's just a generallygood principle to follow.
I love that, man.
So I always am big on there'sso much information out there.
And obviously as you and I bothknow, there's a lot of people out
there that celebrate all their winson social media, but that's, cause
that's what people think they wantto see, but I've always been big on.
(39:41):
Man, I know real estate makes me money.
I know people are successful.
What don't I know?
Because that's what really the stuffyou read in books, the stuff you hear
in podcasts, like it's really whenyou're in the middle of the fight that
you realize how a punch feels and youknow how you're going to react to it.
So with self storage now.
What do I not know?
What are the things I don'teven know to ask about?
What are some of the risks or some ofthe lessons you've learned that maybe
(40:04):
somebody listening goes, Man, I'm sohappy Alex taught me I don't have to
make this mistake that he made, or Idon't have to learn this lesson the hard
way that he already learned from me.
Yeah, so the first thing is understandingthat you don't need to have all the
money to get involved in storage, right?
There's this can be extremely valuablefor people if they can just take this
one thing away Is that you don't have tobe all things to all parts of the deal?
(40:28):
When it comes to commercial realestate and storage is no different.
There are people who find deals.
There are people that raise capitalThere's the operators of the actual
deal once you close on it And thenthere's a bunch of people in between.
They could be connectors.
They could be people thatunderwrite and analyze deals.
They could be people that generate leads.
One of the things I always walkmy coaching clients through is.
(40:51):
What are your uniqueskill sets and abilities?
What are the things that you're reallygood at or the assets and resources
that you have at your disposal?
And when I say assets, Nick, I'mnot just talking about money.
Money is just one form of an asset,but an asset could be your time.
It could be your experience.
It could be your network.
It could be a unique knowledgethat you have about something.
So if you're really good, ifyou're listening to this and
(41:12):
you're good at generating leads.
Like you're just a good marketer.
You can go out there and market tostorage, just like you do single family.
And you can carve out ownership andequity in a piece of the deal, just
by generating leads for somebody likeme, or maybe you're good at raising
capital, but you don't care aboutoperations and you don't want to learn
how to talk to owners and do all thiswell, you can bring money to deals.
(41:35):
And get a piece of the deal.
So that is one way that anybody can getinvolved in storage is by leveraging
their skillsets, their experiences,their assets, and their resources.
Now, if you're somebody like me that youwanted to take it from start to finish.
Is what are some of the challenges thatthe storage business brings that I didn't
really know and understand early on?
Well, now that I've owned and operated andhave exited and sold some facilities, I
(41:58):
think the biggest challenge Nick that I'veexperienced when it comes to storage is
the two that I sold were in a tough marketwhere the demographics that I talked about
earlier, as far as the medium income,the population, I violated those rules.
Now, fortunately forme, I bought it right.
And it's just further proofthat you make your money.
(42:20):
When you buy, you just realizethe profits when you sell.
I bought it, right?
So I ended up doing very well onthe sale, but I experienced a lot
of security challenges, break ins.
We had to hire a security monitoringcompany, which increased our
cost in, in, in managing andowning and running the facility.
We had to deal with repairs becausepeople would break into units and break
(42:42):
the latches and the half and the doors.
And so that was the biggest challengethat I've experienced in storage.
But that was because I was in a marketthat bred that type of activity, right?
The facility that I own in Amelia.
I've owned it for over two years andI've never had a break in, right?
The second thing that's an inconvenienceit doesn't happen too often, but
(43:04):
maybe once a quarter it happens isthe gate operator will stop working.
And then I have to now call my boots onthe ground to go and fix it and open the
gate outside of those two things, man,it's a pretty slow and boring business.
They're not too many thingsthat happen that it's like.
Stop what you're doing.
Put out that fire.
Very rarely does anything like thathappen in storage based on my experience.
(43:28):
That's awesome, man.
And I think a lot of the thingsyou're saying are, it's real estate.
It's business.
It's just a little bit of a different typeof thing, but like picking the right area,
having to deal with some break ins, havingto like, that's a real estate problem.
I feel like regardless of what theasset class is, when you deal with real
estate, that's just part of what you do.
And I tell everybody, the more crapyou're willing to put up with, the more
money you will make in this business.
(43:48):
So you, sir. You putup with a lot of crap.
So that's where you'remaking a bunch of money.
Yeah, man.
Yeah.
But no, let me tell you, it's, I onepart of the story I didn't mention
is in around that time of 2017, whenI was talking to my wife and saying,
Hey, I gotta figure something out.
I don't know that wholesaling iswhat I want to commit to long term.
We started buying single family rentalsin Cleveland and thinking that building
a rental portfolio was going to be myway to time freedom and to cashflow.
(44:12):
And while it's certainlyfeasible to do that.
After owning a handful of rentals,I'm like, first of all, there's
nothing passive about this.
Second of all, like one work orderwhere I have to replace a furnace or a
roof or this or that, and it wipes outmy cashflow for the year and storage.
I just, I have the economies of scale.
I don't have the tenants in thetoilets and all those things.
(44:33):
So it's just, it's easier.
It's not a complicated business.
We rent space and in storage,there's a lot of profit centers that.
Give you cashflow from admin feesto late fees and auction fees.
And so all that contributes to thenet operating income, which has a
a profound and massive effect onthe overall value of that facility.
(44:54):
That's awesome, man.
So is the analysis process very similarto a multifamily in the sense that
you're basically just looking at currentincome, current expenses, future income,
future expenses, you're based on thecap rate, you're looking at the income
like any other real business you wouldlook at, it's just a little bit of a
different avatar, but the same principle.
Pretty much the same principle.
One of the things I always lookat is I look at, okay, here's
the current income of the storagefacility that we're looking at.
(45:16):
And then we're looking at what could werealistically increase the net operating
income to based on all these differentfactors that I've, talked about in
this podcast, and then looking at thatdelta to figure out like, Hey, what
would be an offer that makes sense?
And so, yeah, it's no different.
We're looking at revenue expenses.
That operating income and then whatcould we get the NOI to that's awesome,
(45:38):
man And the last thing that's so storagebefore we kind of pivot to one more
thing is you said it's recession proofand I think there's a lot of people that
have been scared to jump in because theydidn't know what was gonna happen with
the election are they gonna have to worldand interest rates and I've heard from
a couple of people that they love Selfstorage because regardless of who wins
an election doesn't matter regardless ofwhat happens the interest rates doesn't
matter Why is self storage looked atas such a economy resilient product?
(46:02):
Yeah.
So the minor edit tweak that I would useis I wouldn't say it's recession proof.
I would say it's recession resistant.
And part of the reason is if you look atall commercial asset classes, storage is
the one that has the lowest default rate.
Now, why does, why do you rarely see.
I don't know if I would use rarely,but why are all the commercial asset
classes, do you see storage come upfor foreclosures or things like that?
(46:25):
The least well, number one, the operatingexpenses in storage are lower than
most other commercial asset classes.
So to operate a storage facility,generally speaking, anywhere between
30 and 40 percent operating expenseratio, depending on the size of the
facility and some other factors.
If you compare that to multifamily, theoperating expense ratio could be 50, 55%.
Okay.
(46:45):
Right.
So the margins instorage are a lot bigger.
It's a very sticky product,like we talked about.
So people move in, they tend to stay.
It's a nuisance expense,Nick, for most people.
So think about what does itcost to rent the storage unit?
Let's say on average anywhere between 50and 350 dollars for most people that is
not going to make or break you Right, andso when you pick when you go in there,
(47:09):
you know how many times I've had peopletell me I mean I continue to pay month
after month and I haven't been there inmonths or years Because think of the pain
To go move your stuff out of a unit, yougot to get a truck or a moving company.
You got to bother friends and family.
You got to take a whole weekendor Saturday to get your,
I mean, it's just a pain.
(47:29):
So that's great for usfrom that perspective.
And so, and we get to do one otherthing called forced depreciation
is that enforced depreciation.
We get to increase the NOI, notbased on comparables, but based on.
All the different like profit centersand ways that we can continue to add and
generate revenue that could be vendingthat could be selling locks that could be
(47:51):
all the different fees that are involved.
So a lot of those reasons aresome of the reasons why people
consider storage and not people.
But if you go look at the data,it's very recession resistant when
people were in a great economy.
What do people do?
They buy stuff and theyneed a place to store it.
When we're in a bad economy,people downsize, but.
Like the U S like Americans are verywhat's the word I'm looking for?
(48:14):
Like we like to consume thingsand then we have a problem
detaching from those things.
So they don't want to get rid of it.
And where do they go?
They go rent storage.
So those are some of the reasons whyit's a recession resistant asset class.
Man, that was a fantastic answer.
I love that dude.
So as we start to pivot, I knowwe're getting a little tight on
time, but we were talking earlier.
And what I always love is.
(48:35):
You gotta work hard,but you gotta play hard.
And I always like the debrief andthe decompress of what people can do.
And when we first connected, westarted talking about fighting and UFC.
Yeah.
And just being a fight fan.
You're in South Florida, whichis I think one of the highest
gating, UFCs in a long time.
You got a bunch of big names outthere, but talk about you enjoyed to
decompress by watching MMA, watching UFC.
Talk a little bit about your loveof fighting, why you love it.
(48:55):
Who's some of your favorite fighters?
Yeah, man.
Well, as a kid, I talked about how,growing up in sports and baseball
and basketball and temple karate waslike when I got involved in mixed
martial arts at I think nine, 10years old, did that for four years.
Fast forward to 2010.
I joined the gym called MMAmasters, which is now where
Colby Covington fights out of.
(49:15):
And.
A good friend of mine is close.
In fact, Colby's corner man, CharlieWeiss is a really good friend
of mine and him and his brother.
So I've had the opportunityto hang out with Colby.
Anyways, I was part of that gym for fouryears and brother, I got, I just had such
a love and appreciation for the sport.
And so much respect for fighters andpeople that train MMA, like I would see
(49:38):
these pro fighters at the gym, spendingeight to 10 hours a day at the gym,
putting their body through things thatyou could not imagine just getting beat
up through not just the training, butthe sparring and the rolling and the,
this and the, that, and they would doit six, sometimes seven days a week.
And they spent months andmonths training to get to this
one point where it's a fight.
(49:59):
And anything can happenin a fight, as right?
And so, just The mental fortitude thatyou have to have, not just physical,
but people underestimate, I thinkthe mental aspect of the fight game.
And I'm speaking from somebody who'snot a, an actual fighter, but has
trained with professional fightersand man, I just, again, I have
so much respect for those people.
(50:19):
And dude I remember watching UFCone back before, like Dana owned
it and when there was no rules and.
Just fell in love with it dude.
I just I just I love the sport Idon't watch every pay per view, but
I do watch a lot of them and someof my favorite fighters I was a
big george st. Pierre fan, right?
Some people would argue that he's up therein terms of the goats the greatest of
(50:42):
all time I don't know if I'd go that farbut john jones, whatever you may think
of him as a person like just Undefeatedright outside of that, that DQ for for
elbowing this dude what's his name?
Matt Hamill, I think.
Matt Hamill.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Remember Matt Hamill?
Yeah.
Talk about Kenny Florian earlier, man.
Ultimate fighter one.
I remember looking at it, lookingat Kenny and being like, this
guy doesn't look like a fighter.
(51:02):
And yet he gets in there andhe's a beast, and just being a
black belt jujitsu practitioner.
And just, so yeah, man, I just,I love mixed martial arts.
And that's one of the things that whenI heard you were big into jujitsu, I was
like, man, I got to connect with this guy.
We got to talk fight game.
That's awesome, man.
It's interesting too, because you talkabout the, there's the mental side, but
for like business and for real estate,if you do a bunch of self storage stuff,
(51:24):
you made money, you're successful.
And I think what people don'tsee the other side is Colby.
Covington is a great example of the guyput so much time and he runs these ultra
marathons, like he, he works his butt off.
And he was winning fights, but theUFC was still going to cut him.
That's right.
So we had to put this personalitytogether because you have to be a
showman for TV because at the endof the day, everybody thinks, well,
(51:45):
UFC is all about the best fighters.
No, UFC is a fight promotion.
They care about.
So, and that's why all of asudden John Jones is the champ.
There's no interim because theywant John, but, and they just
changed the 12, six elbows.
So technically I wonder ifthey're going to reverse.
That whole thing, because he gotdisqualified for that elbow, which
last week was the first time thoseelbows actually became legal.
So I didn't know that.
(52:05):
Wow.
They just changed it.
As far as like the car lastweek, they changed that.
And you can't put yourhand on the ground anymore.
And so you're like, you couldstill get elbowed in the head.
Now you can't strike a downed opponentis what they would call it, I think.
Yeah, but like the definition of a downedopponent was like very shady where if
a guy put one hand on the ground Hewas considered down and out so they
would play the game now They have tobe grounded So it's interesting the way
(52:27):
things change but there's that wholeother thing of some of these fighters
even though they're great fightersThey're working their butts off every day.
It's still not enough You stillgot to put butts in seats.
There's all these other things inthere that people forget about.
So those guys are under like a lotof pressure, not only to perform
physically, but to perform as as anentertainer, it's it's not enough that
you're kicking all these guys butts.
Like you got to make it more exciting.
Got to be more fun.
It's what else do youwant from these guys?
(52:48):
But you know, it's, there's so muchthings people don't see that go on behind.
And I think that's why hanging around.
Guys like that.
You learn to appreciate all thestuff that people don't see.
And I feel like it's a nice transitionbecause the same way that happens,
they see all this stuff that they don'tsee that you go through on that side.
I feel like that's where that naturalconnection is between entrepreneurs
and athletes is as my buddy, Aljamain,the funk master Sterling always says,
(53:10):
it's what I do when no one's watching.
That's what people do.
Yeah, dude, that's right.
A hundred percent.
By the way, man, you think aboutfighters, like an active fighter
would fight what three times a year.
That's not a lot.
So think about the prep time, like howmuch you have to prepare and what you
have to put yourself through just to beable to perform for 15 to 25 minutes.
(53:30):
If you're talking about the UFCor like you have this small little
window in which to perform, but 99.
9 percent of the timeis spent in preparation.
So as an entrepreneur, as a real estateinvestor, How can you apply a fighter's
mentality to what you do, right?
Like you and I do in this podcast,like this is like our show time, right?
But it's it's the experience.
It's the prep time.
It's all the stuff we've talked abouton this podcast that is, is what it's
(53:54):
allowing me to share these things.
I didn't just read a book and nowI'm sharing all this stuff with you.
It's the experience of it.
Right?
So.
Think about how you can prepare.
And that's one of the things that I reallythink separates people that succeed in
life and business from those that don't,is they take the preparation seriously.
I love that, man.
And for people listening that arelike, man, I like what Alex is saying.
I'm interested in learning more from him.
(54:15):
Hear more what he's talking about.
Talk about how they work with youwith storage wins and how they connect
with you on the flip empire podcast.
Yeah, man.
Again, thank you for theopportunity, Nick, man.
This conversation has been effortless.
It's been a lot of fun for me.
I'll tell you what if people text theword storage and then in parentheses,
just put Nick, so that I know thatyou heard me on Nick's podcast.
Put store text mestorage and Nick 305 318.
(54:36):
6, 2, 1, 3, 3 0 5, 3, 1, 8, 6, 2, 1, 3.Text me storage with the word Nick in it.
And I'll send you over a bunch oflike free training and resources,
like no strings attached.
I'll include my purchase and salecontract, the letter that I use that has
been responsible for multiple storagedeals, along with some video training
text me that I'll send that to you.
(54:56):
I'll have my assistant.
And then if anybody'sinterested in going deeper.
To learn more about storage, www.
storagewins.
com W I N S storage wins.
com.
And then yeah, man, the flip empire show.
I've been doing it for alittle bit over eight years.
So apple podcast, Spotify, most of themajor podcast platforms it's out there.
And I've been I've been releasinga weekly show every single
(55:20):
week for over eight years.
So continue to do that and look forwardto to having you on the show, brother.
So, so thank you, man.
That's awesome, man.
Dude this has been awesome.
So, social media, stuff like that.
What's the best way toconnect with you on socials?
And I'll put all that stuffFacebook if you, facebook.
com forward slash Alexparto15,or just search Alexparto.
You can connect on Facebook andthen Instagram is at Alexparto25.
(55:43):
Awesome, man.
Well, you serve as somebody who bringsyour A game to everything you do in
life and everything you do in business.
And this interview has been no different.
You definitely brought your Agame to the A game podcast today,
sir. Any final thoughts beforeI let you go about your day?
Yeah, look, here's what I would challengepeople with speed of implementation.
What is one thing that maybe I sharedor maybe something Nick shared that
resonates with you and how can youapply it to your life and business?
(56:05):
It's not just enough to devote yourtime and energy to want to get better.
I applaud you for that, but the waythat you could really just thank us
for doing this is just we want tosee you succeed in life and business.
So what's one principle, oneshift, one tweak, something
you can get from this podcast.
Apply it to your business,no matter what that is.
And then just like rinse and repeatand you tweak and you learn and you
(56:28):
just keep growing and getting better.
So that would be my finalpiece of advice for people.
Wise words, man, everybody check the shownotes, find all the ways to connect with
Alex for his podcast, for his business,and just for the entertaining stuff
he puts on social media all the time.
You're a stud, sir. I appreciateyou coming on a game podcast.
Alex Pardo, ladies andgentlemen, have a fantastic day.
Welcome to the a game podcast withNick LaMagna digging into the minds and
experiences of some of today's brightestentrepreneurs in real estate and business,
along with Hollywood stars, UFC fighters.
And your favorite rock bands, peoplethat have figured out how to overcome
obstacles, take chances, live boldly.
And no matter what they do,they always bring their a game.
(00:48):
Welcome to the a game podcast, where weshow average people that they can achieve
extraordinary things every single day.
And this episode is no different today.
We have Alex Bordeaux, just the 300plus episodes that we have so far.
Bring on all the top performers in theworld from sports, fighting, athletics,
entrepreneurships, and of course,business and real estate to teach you
from all the things that they have doneright to make money and all the things
(01:10):
that they have done wrong to lose moneyand stress out that you do not have to.
So the blueprint is already therefor you, but we bring on another
great guest today named AlexBardot, who went from wholesaling.
After growing up, flipping baseballcards, and then decided to go
backpack through Europe and figureout what he really wanted in life.
And he got into a really successfulwholesaling model where he was done over,
over 700 deals and decided it still wasn'treally what was making him truly happy and
(01:31):
shifted his entire focus to self storage.
So we talk all about the process, thementality, how to handle some of those
bad deals, how to look at some good deals.
And then of course, self storage and whyhe feels it's one of the most resistant
recession, resilient strategies outthere, as far as an asset class, how
he finds them, how he analyzes them.
The type of people he buys themfrom, what to do, what not to do.
And of course, we talk about fighting.
(01:53):
We talk about UFC and MMA and someof the training he's done, some
of the people he's trained with.
And of course, at the end, he givesyou guys an amazing free gift.
So make sure you stick around.
And the only payback we asked for.
Is the show is free.
We just would like you to please subscribebecause it makes all the difference
in the world to keep this party going.
So anywhere you watch and listento your podcasts, the a game
entrepreneurs, the a game podcast,real estate investing for entrepreneurs
(02:16):
is absolutely available there.
If you still need a place to connect withit with one button, and you would like
to connect with us on social media, weare available everywhere through Nick.
com slash links.
The way Alex knows that he gave you guysvalue is for you to please interact with
some of the posts we make from this show.
It only takes a second.
Give it a thumbs up, give it a give ita fist bump, and definitely connect with
Alex and let him know that he got valueto you so he knows to tell other people
(02:40):
to come on so they can do the same.
But the big thing here is Iwant to do real estate together.
So let's do something else together.
Whether you want to buy propertiesfrom me, sell properties to
me, or partner on some level.
Let's get it together.
Shoot me a direct message onany of my social media with
the words real estate in front.
So I know to look for it or just textme the words, real estate to 5 1 6
5 4 0 5 7 3 3 5 1 6 5 4 0 5 7 3 3.
(03:03):
Thank you guys so much for listening.
Thank you.
Alex Bardo.
Have a fantastic day.
Everybody.
18 pockets.
All right.
My guest today is an entrepreneur,a financial coach and investor who
went from flipping baseball cards.
to real estate and went through theroller coaster of ups and downs from
massive deals to massive tax debt andhas had vast experiences through multiple
(03:23):
different exit strategy and assetclasses for almost 20 years and counting
on the quest for financial freedom.
He worked at the GE financialmanagement program and saw a glimpse
of his future that he did not want.
And then backpacked around Europe, learnedthe real estate trade on a European train.
He started as a wholesaler and jumpedeventually into flipping rentals,
single family and commercial doingover 700 deals, and now has found his
(03:44):
focus investing in his new passion,which is self storage facilities.
He not only achieved his own successmultiple times in spite of falling.
All the way up and all theway down multiple times.
He now shares those lessons andsuccesses that he's made with investors.
Just like you through such things as hismassively successful podcast called flip
empire, creeping on 800 episodes andhis coaching platform, where he shares
(04:05):
his no nonsense, straight shoe loading.
Whoa, sorry.
No nonsense, straight shootingleader who will give you the tools
and strategies you need to achieveresults and not settle for mediocrity.
He is a fight fan.
Fighting out of South Florida, please.
Welcome to the a game podcast, thelegend himself, Mr. Alex Pardo.
Welcome, sir. Nick, that was such anawesome and unique intro that I don't
(04:27):
think I've ever heard before, man.
So kudos to you for wrappingeverything up in 60 seconds or so.
Dude, I'm excited toconnect with you, man.
I love your energy.
I'm grateful that you and I haveconnected and just excited to
share, man and help people here.
Man, you've been around a long time.
When we first connected not too longago at one of the masterminds, I was
like, I need to know who you are, dude.
How does anybody in the realestate game not know who you are?
(04:47):
You've been around for so long, man.
But for anybody who might be livingunder a rock, what are some blanks
we can fill in for your origin storyfrom that initial bio for who you
are and where you came from today?
Yeah, man, I'll keep this briefand succinct so we can get
to the meat of the show here.
But I grew up in humblebeginnings, middle class family.
I didn't have a silver spoon in mymouth, but at the same time I don't
have a rags to riches story either.
(05:08):
I'm super blessed and grateful that God'sput surrounded me with the right people,
just incredible parents and family.
And they've always been very supportive.
And I understand that there'slisteners and viewers here that
maybe haven't been as fortunate.
But for me, my, my parentsare not entrepreneurs.
And so I was like, they talkabout enriched dad, poor dad.
That was my family.
I was taught, go out and get educatedso you can get a good job and, earn a
(05:31):
salary and, but something in me, Nick,you mentioned from flipping baseball cards
to real estate around 10, 11 years old.
I remember buying packs of cards for 50cents a buck and then flipping them for
a quarter, 50 cents, another dollar.
And I really liked that.
I went out and graduated from FIUand got a job in corporate finance
thinking that I wanted to, climbthe corporate ladder, so to speak.
(05:53):
And three months into that role, brother,I just realized I'm not cut out for this.
This doesn't bring me joy, fulfillment.
I don't like being told when to goto lunch and when to take vacation.
And I'm not good at a lot of things, butthere's a few things I'm pretty good at.
And one of those is.
Reverse engineering, like gettingclarity about what I want and then
figuring out my way to that destination.
(06:15):
And I looked at my boss all the way upthe ladder and I said, I don't care how
much, what their comp package looks like.
I don't want to do this.
I want to go out and do my own thing.
So I just immersed myself whilebackpacking from city to city in
Europe for three and a half months,I immersed myself in personal
development books and real estate.
And I made a commitment at thatpoint, when I moved back to
Miami, which by the way, Nick.
(06:37):
At 25 years old, I was going tobe moving back in with my parents.
That is not how I envisionedthings happening for me.
So I had a lot of motivation.
I was driven by the pain of living at homeand going out and having to get a job.
I was driven by that.
And I was like, I'm going tofigure this real estate thing out.
So I went to this marketing fordeals bootcamp back in October
(06:59):
of 2005, got home and I'm a readyfire aim type of dude, right?
So I had a ton of questions.
There was a lot of fear anduncertainty, but again, I was
being driven by I certainly know Idon't want to go work for somebody.
I want to figure this out.
And so I said, I'm committed to this.
So I went to, at the time, I think it wascalled Kinko's and I just, I made a bunch
of photocopies of pre foreclosure letters.
(07:21):
And I remember watching TV atnight and licking and stamping
and stuffing envelopes.
And I sent out 300 and somethingpre foreclosure letters.
Fast forward a little bit, somewherebetween two and three months into
that process, I closed my firstdeal, It happened to be a short sale.
We made 44, 000 bucks.
I was so green.
I didn't know what I was doing that.
(07:41):
I brought in a partner, a friendof mine who was a few steps ahead
of me in real estate, and weended up splitting a 44, 000 deal.
And man, that was we closed on thatdeal early of 2006 and that this
is all I've done ever since then.
I've been unemployable and just andwe'll go from there, but I've done
a lot of deals throughout the years.
That's incredible, man, dude.
There's so many things that I think.
(08:03):
Would be a great Talking point that we canprobably just do hours or just that stuff.
But one of the things was youmentioned getting the baseball car
for 50 cents on the dollar and thenjust selling it for market value
or even a little bit of a discount.
And I feel like I've come acrosspeople over the years where they're
like, Oh, I can't do real estate.
I'm like, well, what do you do?
And you're like, well, I found thissoap online and I bought it from
this one guy in Craigslist and Isold it for twice the price in eBay.
(08:25):
And I'm like, you're already doing it.
You're just doing it with adifferent product, but it's the same.
Principle, and I've always beentold from some of my mentors that
your evidence or your confidencecomes from evidence, whether it's
these small little wins that work.
So I'm always curious about howdo people get the confidence to
get in there and ready fire aim.
So I guess my backtrack question is,do you think like getting some of those
(08:45):
smaller wins and understanding theprinciple behind really wholesaling?
Before it was houses, did that give youthe courage to move forward and really
start swinging like that because theyfind a lot of people when they take their
first class or they watch their firstYouTube video, they get in their heads
and they don't actually start swinging.
So what was it that made you actuallygrab the bat and start swinging instead
of overanalyzing or over researchingeverything before you took any action?
(09:08):
Yeah, like one, it's sucha great question, Nick, and
there's a lot to unpack there.
One of the things I realized just fromconsuming and reading a lot of books, by
the way, the first 24 years of my life.
I think legit, maybe I read cover tocover four or five books from the moment
I committed to like personal developmentand to get involved in entrepreneurship
and real estate, like I've readhundreds and hundreds of books now.
(09:28):
And so one of the things that I gotfrom reading books is figuring out that
there's clues and success patterns.
And one of those that hit me earlyon in my journey was that anyone and
anyone that has achieved anything ofconsequence or however you deem success.
I didn't read one success storythat didn't involve hundreds
(09:52):
of failures before that point.
So early on in my journey, Iwasn't expecting no resistance.
I wasn't expecting a lack of setbacks.
I knew there were going to be challenges,but the, what I also knew was that the
only way this wouldn't work for me is ifI stopped believing in myself and I quit.
So I think going into it with theright mindset, I don't have some like.
(10:14):
Sexy answer for you otherthan expecting that it's going
to be challenging at times.
And there's going to be setbacks andtrials and all this kind of stuff.
And I also knew that if I didn'tquit, I would eventually succeed.
So I just had this like mindsetbrother, that no matter what I'm faced
with, I'm going to figure out how togo through it, over it, under it, or
around it, like one way or the other.
(10:35):
And the first two years of mycareer, Nick, I viewed coaches
and mentors as an expense.
That was big mistake.
Number one.
Fortunately out of the gate, I hadsome success until I didn't 2007 came.
I had wholesaled probablyfirst couple of years.
I probably wholesaled somewherebetween 20 and 25 houses.
And I said, okay, it's time tojump into a luxury fix and flip.
(10:58):
And super long story short,the market obviously crashed in
2008 and between myself and apartner, we lost 102, 000 bucks.
I lost 51, 000.
People oftentimes ask me like, Hey, canyou share a story of your best deal?
And I'm always met withsurprise when I share that deal.
And people ask me how is losing 51grand on your first fix and flip your
(11:22):
best deal, that was the deal and thecatalyst that drove me to go higher.
Coaches and mentors thatwere a few steps ahead of me.
So back to your original question.
I think I just understand that I'm notgoing to have all the answers when you
decide to get involved in something,you're going to have more questions than
answers, but understanding and trustingin yourself, knowing that it can be done.
(11:43):
I didn't have any questionsabout real estate.
I knew I could succeed andmake money in real estate.
I just said, Hey, I don't have tofigure out the how at this moment.
It's about asking the who can help mehere, and then just taking steps forward
and figuring it out as you go along.
So, I know that was a long windedanswer, but I think a lot of it
boils down to mindset, brother.
No, that was incredible, man.
(12:04):
You brought up something that You know,part of the hard part about this is I do
so much research on the guests that whenyou say things I want to take you down
these other paths that I know you can godown But i'm like we'll never get to the
thing if I do that but one thing you didsay That you really didn't click until
I heard you saying this is We have alot of similar backgrounds like i'm sure
most people at when you get to a certainlevel do of going through and hiring
(12:25):
mentors along the way and I always findit fascinating where Nobody has a story
where they go, man, every day was great.
I never thought I was crazy.
I never had days I doubted myself.
It was all wins.
It's always wins and losses.
Regardless of if you do it on your ownor if you have mentors, and I've always
looked at as, as bad as the bads wouldhave been, they would have been worse if
I didn't have some sort of mentorship.
(12:46):
And as good as the wins would have been,they wouldn't have been as good if I
didn't have these things along the way.
But I've always looked at myself andsaid I could always basically point out
I didn't make that phone call, I didn'tfollow that system, I didn't reach out to
the you know what you did after, and youlearn from it, and I feel like that's the
biggest difference between people thatgo through trainings like that, and they
have a successful experience, or a notsuccessful experience, but they learn from
(13:08):
those lessons and move forward, versusstopping and then blaming the mentor,
or blaming life, or blaming the economyI've heard you talk a lot about some of
the big losses you've had, but I've neveronce heard you say, It wasn't my fault.
This person did that.
You've always just said, here's a lesson.
I learned from it.
I'm grateful for it.
Where did that accountability come from?
How did you learn to take that sortof mindset and that accountability for
(13:31):
wins and losses without pointing blame?
Because I think that's amassive part of success.
Yeah, I know.
And I appreciate you recognizing that.
I think it goes back to my parents.
I remember I was big into sports.
Always so much so that I had theopportunity to play one year of
college baseball and then quicklyrealize I didn't have the gifts and the
talents to make it to the next level.
And so I just played one year, but Iremember growing up and men, there were
(13:54):
games I specifically remember, and Idon't think I've ever shared this on
a podcast, but I remember I must havebeen, I don't know, nine, 10 years old.
I had a game where Istruck out three times.
It was like a big, important game to getto a divisional playoff or something.
This was in like little league.
So nine, 10 years old, man.
So but I was, I've alwaysbeen so competitive.
Like no matter what Ido, like I want to win.
(14:15):
And I had a game where Istruck out three times.
I had a couple of errorson the field, like just.
An atrocious game.
And I remember like legit crying.
And it's funny to share that backwhen I was nine years old, I was
crying because I had a bad game.
And I remember my mom and dadlike comforting me, but not
in a coddling kind of way.
They were like, Hey, listen, whatcan you learn from this experience?
(14:36):
How can you leverage this moment?
So you struck out three times.
You had a couple of errors in the field.
How can you leverage this?
To get better.
So that next time you're inthis position, you can shine.
And I just, that's always stuck with me.
And I don't know if that was themain driver, but I think early on
as a kid, man, it was instilled inme that don't ever blame somebody.
(14:57):
Accept responsibility andaccountability for where you are
based on the decisions you've madeor the lack of decisions you've made.
And if you just have that self awarenessthat it starts and ends with you,
brother, life is so much easier, right?
Because when you deflect, you giveaway the opportunity to grow and learn.
(15:18):
When you accept responsibility.
You can always learn something ifyou just open your mind and heart to
whatever it is you're experiencing.
And then I'd be remiss to say my faithhas always been a big part of my life,
especially the last handful of yearswhere I've really leaned into that.
And and so anyways, that's probablya whole nother podcast, but I
think there's just so much power.
(15:38):
And not giving away and owning yourmistakes, owning the responsibility,
that's what allows you to grow, notpointing the finger because, and God
knows there's so much of that going aroundthese days in this political environment
and season we're in where there's allthis finger pointing and this and that.
And, we just had the election.
Right.
And so regardless of who was going tolike step into office, like I wasn't
(16:02):
going to blame or point fingers at,Oh, this is why the economy sucks.
So this is why the economy is great.
Like the me economy, right.
A friend of mine, Mark Evans authoreda book called me economy, where it
talks about essentially worry aboutyour economy and not to say that
you shouldn't have a finger on thepulse as to what's going on, because
that, that, that wouldn't be smart.
But it, I think the premise of thatbook is what you and I are talking
(16:24):
about it starts and ends with you.
I love that man.
And you shout out to Mark Evans is oneof the most shadow that guys on this
on this podcast, actually that likecollective genius are always out there,
but you talked about having these lossesalong the way and before we bounce
back into self storage and actual realestate stuff, I always tell people,
if you don't quit, you can't fail.
And right.
You've had some big wins, but you'vehad some big losses and sometimes
(16:46):
where I think other people mightsay, you know What this is my sign.
This is gonna work out for me I'mgonna quit but you didn't you kept
going so I'm always interested in Whenyou're feeling down when you're feeling
defeated when you're feeling like you'retaking some L's What were some of the
mental or physical things you said oractually did to talk yourself out of
that mental ditch to live, to fightanother day and find that success?
(17:09):
Yeah, man, such a good question.
I think number one, as the analogy goes,like you got to fill your cup up, right?
So make sure that you'redoing things that fill you up.
So for me, some type of exercise,like I have this thing on my.
Let me see if I can, I have this,which is like my daily five, right?
It's like my five commitments, dailysweat reading 10 pages a day, connecting
(17:30):
with family, plugging in with God.
So those are five.
I just mentioned four, but Ihave five daily commitments.
Like these are my non negotiables andno matter what I'm going through, I
think number one, Connecting to thesource, which for me is God, right?
Number two, leaninginto my trusted circle.
I'm very, Nick, I'm veryintentional about the people
(17:50):
that I've surrounded myself with.
And I'm not just talking coaches andmentors, but friends, people that I
can pick up the phone and say, Hey,I'm going through this and I know
that they're going to they're notgoing to tell me what I want to hear.
They're going to tell me what theythink I need to hear, but they're
also going to pull me up, right?
Cause we, man, we all have ups and downs.
Like the last thing you're going tohear from me is coming on a podcast
or speaking from stage as if Ilike, I had everything figured out.
(18:13):
Because I don't think anybody does right.
Like we all have challenges.
That's life, but I'm not afraid ofthose challenges because I know that's,
what's helping me like become a betterversion of myself moving forward.
Right.
I look, we just sold.
And when I say we, I had a partner on oneof them and then I was the sole owner.
Another, I just sold in the last.
65, 66 days.
I just sold two storage facilities,about 80, 000 square feet.
(18:37):
And brother, I experienced so manysetbacks and challenges in the process
to give you an idea, one of thosefacilities was on the market for
just over two years, two years tryingto sell a facility, and there's a
variety of reasons I had setbacks andchallenges and this and that, but.
Like while there were some challengingtimes and I had a bunch of money
trapped in equity in these deals, right?
(18:59):
And there was issues with operations.
There were some things going on.
Man, I specifically remember likeconnecting to the source Calling, some
key people that maybe were a few stepsahead of me that could pour into me
and then just staying confident, man.
Again, I think having a mindsetwhere it's like, Hey, this
is what's supposed to happen.
I meant to learn something from thisexperience and it's going to be all right.
(19:22):
It's just having that ultimate faithand trust brother that no matter
what I go through, like God's got me.
I'm learning, I'm growing,I'm meant to go through this.
So it goes back to a Tony Robbinssays, he's one of the many things
he's shared that stuck with me is areyou the type of person where you view
life as happening to you or for you?
Right?
(19:42):
So when setbacks happen, challenges,whatever it might be, I take L's
Hey, that's life happening forme, not to me, not, I don't have
a victim mentality about it.
I love that, man.
I think that's awesome.
And that's all you can do, right?
You take what you're given.
And I know there's I always go backto fighting, but I know sometimes,
and it took me a while to appreciatethis, but some of the mentors I would
have, I'd ask them a question andthey would answer with a question.
(20:03):
I'd be like, dude, justgive me the answer.
You're like, stop Mr. Miyagi me, but itteaches you how to think things because
it's I don't know especially like withjujitsu, it's well, we were just talking
about Kenny Florian and he'd be like,well, what do you mean you're here?
And I'm like, well, what do I do?
And he's well, here'sthe principle behind it.
Because.
The amount of things that they could bedoing to you that you have to react to.
Like you can't account for all that.
(20:24):
So you take what youget and you react to it.
And that's really where the magic happens,how your action was getting there.
And I think that's thesame thing with life.
Same thing with business and learningthose principles of how to expand.
I think regardless of what it is.
Apply to all of it.
So it doesn't surprise me that youwere successful flipping baseball
cards, successful wholesaling, and nowwe're finding success in self storage.
So let's pivot to why self storage, likewhat was it that made you get out of the
(20:47):
wholesaling game, out of the residentialgame and say, I'm going to now focus
full in on self storage facilities.
Yeah.
So I was a I was focused onwholesaling for 15 years and I've
evolved throughout the years.
I remember the first five years, Nick.
I was a one man show.
Then I read the four hour workweek and I immediately hired a VA
paying nine bucks an hour in India,hired this person, didn't know what
(21:10):
to give them, or I, again, ready,fire, aim I'll figure it out.
And I've learned so muchthrough those experiences.
2012, 2013 is when I started hiringpeople because I remember when
I was single, I'd be on a dateand I had a direct mail campaign.
And then my phone was blowingup and I couldn't take the calls
and I said, okay, well, I need, Iwant to build this as a business.
So I started bringing peoplein and in 2017, I think I had
(21:33):
a team of six at that point.
And I remember feeling likethere was a lack of alignment.
Between what I ultimately wanted long termand the business model of wholesaling.
And I remember being on a cruisewith my wife and there was.
Deals falling apart andhiccups and challenges.
And I told my wife, I'm like,this feels like a grind.
(21:53):
This feels like a rat race.
It was a high paying job and I'mgrateful for the money I've made in
wholesaling, but at the end of theday, like I got into real estate,
Nick, because I wanted cashflow.
I wanted the benefits of realestate, appreciation, depreciation.
I ultimately wanted time freedom.
And yet, even though I had a teamand I wasn't the one talking to
sellers and buyers, and I wasn'tthe technician in the business.
(22:16):
It was a transactional business andI started from scratch every month
and 2019, my overhead balloonedto about 40 to 44, 000 a month.
And I remember having to closetwo deals just to break even.
Right.
And I'm like, dude thisdoesn't align with what I want.
So I already started to think about,okay, well, what's the next plan for me?
(22:38):
And for me, I had startedcoaching people in 2013.
I started the flip empire podcast in2016, which I still do to this day.
And I remember getting more joy andfulfillment from having somebody
reach out to me saying, Hey, thankyou for this podcast, or thank you
for this coaching call, because itreally helped me in these areas.
(22:59):
That would fill me up more than thenext 15, 20, 30, 000 wholesale deal.
And so when COVID came, it was ablessing in disguise for many reasons.
And one of those was, Hey, this isgiving me the reason to shut down
this wholesaling business, eventhough it was profitable and we were
still doing multiple deals a month.
(23:20):
I said, I'm going to shutthis down because I asked
myself one important question.
I said, if I'm still doing thisbusiness 12 months from today,
How would that make me feel?
And it was almost akin to the feeling Igot on a Sunday evening when I had to go
to my corporate job on Monday morning.
And I'm like, what's this is my business.
I've created this thing, but yet itfeels like I'm stuck in this prison.
(23:41):
Right.
And I happen to be coaching somebodywho owned a storage facility.
And I got an inside lookinto the asset class.
And then I realized that.
He had time freedom.
He wasn't dealing withtenants, toilets, trash.
He had cash flow.
He didn't have employees.
His, he didn't have crazy overheadand I'm like, let me start
looking into this asset class.
(24:02):
I automatically assumed Nick,that I would transition from
single family to multifamily.
I figured that's a natural progressionfor a lot of real estate investors.
And then I got exposed to storage andI realized that it's considered the
most recession resistant asset class.
It's a very sticky 10 by 20 unit,they tend to stay for years.
(24:23):
In fact, now that I own multiplefacilities Our average length of
stay is just under three yearsat one of my storage facilities.
So I just got exposed and then to storageand then I shut down the business.
I think it was May of 2020 andthen December of 2020 is when I
remember specifically committing tosay, Hey, this is my path forward.
(24:44):
And here's why.
So I got very clear about the end.
Back to like my corporate job, likestart with the end in mind, what
do you want and why do you want it?
And then is the business, is the modelthat you're currently in, does that align
with getting you to where you want to be?
And for me, for all those reasons,and I can go on and on about why
storage it felt like the right fit.
(25:05):
I knew that I could ultimatelyaccomplish what I wanted
through the storage asset class.
That's awesome, man.
So I like the pivot because I feellike wholesaling, even though it was
something that became transactional,it allows you to get some quick money.
So was it an easier transition becauseyou were able to have success at one
asset class, maybe stock away somefunds, because I imagine to get your
(25:27):
first storage facility, You don'tget money like with a wholesale
deal, you can get paid in a week.
I imagine to actually get some cashreturn out of a storage facility
probably takes months, maybe even a yearor more to get that first check back
unless you're buying stabilized stuff.
So what does that cash conversion cyclelook like for finding your first deal?
And how does that compare tothe timeline and the amount
of offers you would put out?
(25:49):
Because I know it's competitive,but I imagine it's not.
It's not as competitive asresidential, but there's
probably not as much out there.
So where's that balance?
Man, it's sharp question.
And there's a lot to unpack there.
So let me just go step by step.
Number one, I actually think.
Looking back on it, the fact thatI had success in single family
in that particular asset classalmost worked against me when
(26:12):
I decided to get into storage.
And let me explain to you why I, ifI'm being honest with you, brother,
like I came into the businessoverly confident, not like a cocky,
arrogant way, but like internally,I was like, I'm going to crush this.
That's how I was feelingand thinking internal.
And I remember at the time I washosting a mastermind and one of my
members at the break pulled me asideand said, Hey man, this was in February.
(26:35):
I said, I saw in your podcast, Iheard in your podcast on social
media that you got into storage.
How's it going for you?
This was a little bit over twomonths after I made the decision,
I had zero results to show.
Like when I'm talking zero, like I haven'teven talked to a storage owner and.
I had to be honest and I said, I don'thave anything to show for it yet.
(26:56):
And he goes, why?
I go, that's a great question.
And I paused him like.
I haven't done the work.
That was my answer.
I haven't done the work.
Yes.
I had educated myself.
Yes.
I had consumed a bunch of content and thatinternally made me feel like I was making
progress, but I hadn't done the work.
And that's a principle that I hopepeople like our hearing is that no
(27:16):
matter what you do, wholesaling, singlefamily storage drop shipping, Amazon,
whatever you do health and fitness.
You got to commit and then there'sno substitute for doing the work.
And that was a blessing thatconversation, because when I got
back from that mastermind, I said,I'm going to put my head down.
I'm going to do the work.
I know what to do.
I don't necessarily know all thehow, but again, I'll figure it out.
(27:40):
Less than two months later, I wasunder contract on my first storage
facility, a 43, 000 square foot facility.
Now, the other part of your question wasthe cash conversion cycle and all that.
One of the limiting beliefs.
Nick that I find with people thatare interested in getting involved in
storage or any commercial asset classfor that matter, is this belief that you
(28:01):
need to have hundreds of thousands ofdollars, if not millions of dollars to
buy these large commercial properties.
And what I can tell you with certainty,because every single storage deal
that I've been a part of, I haveyet to use any of my own money.
Now I'm not saying you don't need capital.
I'm just saying itdoesn't have to be yours.
So, we can get into specificcase studies, but I've.
(28:22):
Closed deals from raising all of theprivate money to leveraging equity
partners that put in money into the deal.
And then they get a percentageof ownership, essentially equity
to seller financing, whichis one of my favorite tools.
What I wish I knew then that Iknow now, and this is one of the
things I share with our storage winscoaching clients is that all of the
(28:43):
skills that single family investors.
Acquire and sharpen, like all the skillsthat we applied in single family, they
translate very smoothly over into storage.
It's the same marketing, the conversationsI find there are a lot easier because
they're business owners that are notemotionally attached to the asset, like
(29:03):
motivated single family owners are.
And really the differences inhow you evaluate the deal, right?
There's a few nuances there, but byand large, the same skillsets apply in
single family as they do in storage.
So, yeah, now look, to your point,you talked about stabilized assets,
a stabilized asset just means.
An asset that has, relatively highoccupancy and it's producing cashflow.
(29:26):
It's got net operatingincome, which is by the way.
How we value these storage facilities.
It's not based on comparable sales.
It's based on the NOI, the net,the income, the asset is producing.
So when I got intostorage, I got very clear.
Maybe this is the theme that I'mnot even realizing I'm sharing with
people, but I got clear on the factthat I wanted stabilized properties.
(29:49):
What does that mean?
Again, I wanted properties whereI could step into cashflow, if not
from day one, within the first sixmonths that also had equity upside.
And one of the things that really helpedme in my journey, Nick, was I was so
clear about my storage deal avatar, my buybox, that I planted a seed with everybody
in my network and ecosystem that I wasactively pursuing my first storage deal.
(30:14):
Like I was not shy about tellingeverybody I came in contact with, and
the reason I got my first deal wasbecause somebody I was working with
shot me an email, he called me rightaway and he said, check your inbox,
I think I found your first deal.
I said, awesome.
But how do you know?
He goes, because you've toldme exactly what you want.
Here it is.
So I'll pause there, but yeah.
(30:35):
If you have been kicking yourself thatyou didn't start investing in real
estate sooner, whether you're a beginner,intermediate, or advanced, any way
you're looking to get out of residential,commercial, land development, wholesaling,
fix and flips, whatever it is, let'sfind a way to get you involved in some
projects, get you some properties, whetheryou want to sell some properties to me.
Whether you want to buy some propertiesfrom me, whether residential fix and
flip cashflow, multifamily, whatever itis you're looking for is figure out a
(30:57):
way to get you involved or find a wayfor us to partner up on some deals.
Reach out to me on any ofmy social media channels.
If you go on www.
nicknicknick.
com slash links, you will see allthe different ways to connect with
me and figure out how we can startto work together, make it happen.
Everybody that invests inreal estate always just says
they wish they did it sooner.
Best time to start istoday That's awesome, man.
(31:19):
So you bring up an interesting pointbecause I think when you talk about
this stuff you're doing When I seepeople thinking they're going to get
into commercial, they go, well, Iwant to own an apartment building in
New York city, or I want to own anapartment building in Los Angeles.
And you realize that themoney's not really there for the
average investor starting out.
It's like a totally different buya box, a totally different thing.
And sometimes I see the samething with residential where
(31:41):
people want to get their feet wet.
So they start in some of thesecondary, the tertiary markets.
So I think when people are listeningto you talk about self storage,
they immediately go, oh yeah.
Like I see those big buildings withall the orange signs all over, I'll
go buy one of those, but you're notbuying like these big a list chain type
ones in these major markets, right?
It's a little bit of a different scenario,different strategy, different market.
(32:03):
And Nick, I can tell you'vedone your homework, man.
I love it.
A hundred percent.
I am not buying.
So what Nick is referring to is.
What the REITs own.
So a REIT is a realestate investment trust.
The REITs own the public storages ofthe world, Extra Space, CubeSmart,
Life Storage, the big box A classstorage facilities that you and I
(32:24):
and people listening would probablywant to rent our stuff, like that's
where we would put our stuff.
That is not the type offacility that we're buying.
We are buying class B class Cmom and pop operated facilities
in secondary and rural markets.
So I like to focus on cities that have apopulation between a thousand and 60, 000
people where the population is increasing.
(32:46):
And then the medium householdincome is 50, 000 and up.
So those are the markets like,look, I live in Miami, Florida.
I've never spent one minute lookingfor storage in South Florida.
The chances of me buying a facilityhere and impossible, but not the type
of market that I'm focused on, right?
Like I own a facility in AmeliaIsland 37, 38, 000 square people 37,
(33:08):
000 people in terms of populationmedium household income is well over
a hundred grand, like strong market.
Those are the types of marketsthat I like to go after.
I love that, man.
And so when you talk about these,I guess, underperforming assets
or a lot of them locally owned or,similar to like multifamily, you
(33:29):
would have somebody who they boughtyears ago, they self managed it.
And it's not that it's bad.
It's just that it's not reallyfiring at its potential.
Or you're looking for stuff that's likereal bad that you got to get everybody out
and fix the place up or a happy medium.
Like what's your bread and butter buy box?
Yeah, no.
So I look for so every singlefacility that I've bought has been
owned by a mom and pop operator.
(33:49):
And what do I mean by mom and pop?
They're usually somewherebetween 60 and 80 years old.
They've been running andoperating the storage business
for well over two decades.
And they're just getting ready to retire.
You know how, like when we talk tomotivated sellers in the single family
space, there's circumstantial distress,there's physical distress with the asset.
There's financial distress.
(34:10):
My experience in storage of nowhaving been in this almost four
years is that more than 80 percentof the time, the seller is not
necessarily financially distressed.
They're just getting ready to retire.
Like they're done.
They've been in it for a long time.
Here's where the opportunity.
Should be really exciting for peoplelistening that are interested in storage.
(34:32):
Most of these mom and pop owners,Nick, they don't have websites and
if they do, they're not very good.
They don't market likethey do no lead generation.
They have no automationand technology in place.
And so I look for storage facilitiesthat are run and owned by mom and pop
operators that have not brought it upto the 21st century where I can go in
(34:55):
there and I can add an automated gate.
I can add a website.
I can implement some marketing, right?
And.
Raise rates.
So let me give you an example thatsometimes like floors, people imagine
Nick, you and I partnered on a deal25 years ago, let's say in 2000, you
and I bought a single family home, butyou and I were so comfortable with the
(35:17):
tenant in that single family rentalthat we never raised the rent on them.
And let's say it was a three, twothat we were renting for 800 bucks.
And today in today's market,maybe it's 2, 500 or three grand.
That is the equivalent of a lot of storageowners that we come in contact with where
they haven't raised the rates in years.
And they might be rentinga 10 by 10 for 40 bucks.
(35:39):
But if you look at the market and thecompetitors in a five mile radius, the
race for a 10 by 10 or 70 or 80 bucks.
That's an easy, like what we callvalue add, where you can go in there
and we can just raise the rates tothe average of the market rates.
Those are the types ofopportunities that we look for.
That's incredible, man.
So, when you start to break that downnow, something I heard you say that I
(36:02):
thought was awesome, which I think is amissing piece that a lot of people forgot
about in the single family side is ifI remember correctly, you were talking
about how when you make offers, youactually do a multiple offer strategy.
And I think, I mean, who wasjust telling me about it?
I was just reading a book.
You probably know who it was, but theywere talking about the illusion of choice.
And it's like when you presentmultiple options, instead of them just
(36:23):
saying yes or no, they're saying A,B, C, or D. So either way, they're
taking what you're giving them.
They have the illusion that they're makinga choice, but whatever choice they make
for you, it's still the right choice.
So talk a little bit about themechanics and the psychology behind
the multiple offer strategy you do.
Yeah.
Look, I think if people opentheir eyes and maybe it's the
reticular activating system, right?
(36:43):
It's like all of a suddenyou're aware of it.
So you see it more often, like the exampleof the car, the new car that you buy.
Look at internet marketers.
You see this all the time where you goto the pricing page and like a basic.
A popular and an executive choice, butthey're highlighting, they want you to
focus on like the middle version, right?
So when you give people options,now the pendulum can swing too far.
(37:06):
You want to make sure that you don'tgive people too many options, right?
I'll give you an example.
My wife and I we like to dine out everynow and then we'll hit cheesecake,
which I'm not the biggest fan of,but cheesecake factory, you grab that
menu and there's a hundred pages.
And I'm like, And I like to try to make,do the best I can to make a decision,
even though I might ask like thewaiter Hey, what's your recommendation?
If I haven't been there withcheesecake, I always take longer
(37:28):
because there's so many options thatsometimes I don't know what I want.
There's I want this.
I want that.
It's well, versus if you just goto a diner and there's like a menu
with five options, like you'regoing to make a decision pretty
quickly, like you're limited.
So I like to give sellersbetween two and three options.
And no, it's not dissimilarto single family.
(37:48):
It could be a low cash offer.
It could be a 100 percent seller financedoffer, or it could be a hybrid, right?
Or it could be a convey.
So I like to, now I'll craft myoffers based on the seller's needs.
I'll always ask consultative typequestions about the seller situation.
(38:09):
What is it they want?
Is it the timeline of the closing?
Is it a certain amount of money?
So the more that you can dive deep,ask the right questions, listen,
and get to understand and knowwhat the seller's ultimately after.
I will then take that and try tocraft offers that can help the
seller accomplish what they're after.
Right.
I don't, I'll always givea seller their price.
(38:32):
As long as I can name theterms or vice versa, right?
So people sometimes will ask, well, howmuch would you pay for that property?
I'll pay them whatever they want.
Do I get to set the terms though?
Right.
So that gets into a whole differentconversation about creative
financing and seller financing.
But again, those are things thatI learned in single family that
now I'm applying over to storage.
The difference is storage owners, becausethey're business owners, they're more open
(38:56):
and understanding to seller financing.
And many of these people that are lookingto retire have this big tax bill coming.
And I always tell them I'm not a CPA.
But would you be open or would youconsider if I could give you your
price, getting payments over time?
Right?
And so I'll never talk in terms of I tryto like, scrap the industry jargon and
(39:19):
I'll just try to speak to them like asif I was speaking to like my grandmother.
And I just basic, basic layman's terms.
I think it's just a generallygood principle to follow.
I love that, man.
So I always am big on there'sso much information out there.
And obviously as you and I bothknow, there's a lot of people out
there that celebrate all their winson social media, but that's, cause
that's what people think they wantto see, but I've always been big on.
(39:41):
Man, I know real estate makes me money.
I know people are successful.
What don't I know?
Because that's what really the stuffyou read in books, the stuff you hear
in podcasts, like it's really whenyou're in the middle of the fight that
you realize how a punch feels and youknow how you're going to react to it.
So with self storage now.
What do I not know?
What are the things I don'teven know to ask about?
What are some of the risks or some ofthe lessons you've learned that maybe
(40:04):
somebody listening goes, Man, I'm sohappy Alex taught me I don't have to
make this mistake that he made, or Idon't have to learn this lesson the hard
way that he already learned from me.
Yeah, so the first thing is understandingthat you don't need to have all the
money to get involved in storage, right?
There's this can be extremely valuablefor people if they can just take this
one thing away Is that you don't have tobe all things to all parts of the deal?
(40:28):
When it comes to commercial realestate and storage is no different.
There are people who find deals.
There are people that raise capitalThere's the operators of the actual
deal once you close on it And thenthere's a bunch of people in between.
They could be connectors.
They could be people thatunderwrite and analyze deals.
They could be people that generate leads.
One of the things I always walkmy coaching clients through is.
(40:51):
What are your uniqueskill sets and abilities?
What are the things that you're reallygood at or the assets and resources
that you have at your disposal?
And when I say assets, Nick, I'mnot just talking about money.
Money is just one form of an asset,but an asset could be your time.
It could be your experience.
It could be your network.
It could be a unique knowledgethat you have about something.
So if you're really good, ifyou're listening to this and
(41:12):
you're good at generating leads.
Like you're just a good marketer.
You can go out there and market tostorage, just like you do single family.
And you can carve out ownership andequity in a piece of the deal, just
by generating leads for somebody likeme, or maybe you're good at raising
capital, but you don't care aboutoperations and you don't want to learn
how to talk to owners and do all thiswell, you can bring money to deals.
(41:35):
And get a piece of the deal.
So that is one way that anybody can getinvolved in storage is by leveraging
their skillsets, their experiences,their assets, and their resources.
Now, if you're somebody like me that youwanted to take it from start to finish.
Is what are some of the challenges thatthe storage business brings that I didn't
really know and understand early on?
Well, now that I've owned and operated andhave exited and sold some facilities, I
(41:58):
think the biggest challenge Nick that I'veexperienced when it comes to storage is
the two that I sold were in a tough marketwhere the demographics that I talked about
earlier, as far as the medium income,the population, I violated those rules.
Now, fortunately forme, I bought it right.
And it's just further proofthat you make your money.
(42:20):
When you buy, you just realizethe profits when you sell.
I bought it, right?
So I ended up doing very well onthe sale, but I experienced a lot
of security challenges, break ins.
We had to hire a security monitoringcompany, which increased our
cost in, in, in managing andowning and running the facility.
We had to deal with repairs becausepeople would break into units and break
(42:42):
the latches and the half and the doors.
And so that was the biggest challengethat I've experienced in storage.
But that was because I was in a marketthat bred that type of activity, right?
The facility that I own in Amelia.
I've owned it for over two years andI've never had a break in, right?
The second thing that's an inconvenienceit doesn't happen too often, but
(43:04):
maybe once a quarter it happens isthe gate operator will stop working.
And then I have to now call my boots onthe ground to go and fix it and open the
gate outside of those two things, man,it's a pretty slow and boring business.
They're not too many thingsthat happen that it's like.
Stop what you're doing.
Put out that fire.
Very rarely does anything like thathappen in storage based on my experience.
(43:28):
That's awesome, man.
And I think a lot of the thingsyou're saying are, it's real estate.
It's business.
It's just a little bit of a different typeof thing, but like picking the right area,
having to deal with some break ins, havingto like, that's a real estate problem.
I feel like regardless of what theasset class is, when you deal with real
estate, that's just part of what you do.
And I tell everybody, the more crapyou're willing to put up with, the more
money you will make in this business.
(43:48):
So you, sir. You putup with a lot of crap.
So that's where you'remaking a bunch of money.
Yeah, man.
Yeah.
But no, let me tell you, it's, I onepart of the story I didn't mention
is in around that time of 2017, whenI was talking to my wife and saying,
Hey, I gotta figure something out.
I don't know that wholesaling iswhat I want to commit to long term.
We started buying single family rentalsin Cleveland and thinking that building
a rental portfolio was going to be myway to time freedom and to cashflow.
(44:12):
And while it's certainlyfeasible to do that.
After owning a handful of rentals,I'm like, first of all, there's
nothing passive about this.
Second of all, like one work orderwhere I have to replace a furnace or a
roof or this or that, and it wipes outmy cashflow for the year and storage.
I just, I have the economies of scale.
I don't have the tenants in thetoilets and all those things.
(44:33):
So it's just, it's easier.
It's not a complicated business.
We rent space and in storage,there's a lot of profit centers that.
Give you cashflow from admin feesto late fees and auction fees.
And so all that contributes to thenet operating income, which has a
a profound and massive effect onthe overall value of that facility.
(44:54):
That's awesome, man.
So is the analysis process very similarto a multifamily in the sense that
you're basically just looking at currentincome, current expenses, future income,
future expenses, you're based on thecap rate, you're looking at the income
like any other real business you wouldlook at, it's just a little bit of a
different avatar, but the same principle.
Pretty much the same principle.
One of the things I always lookat is I look at, okay, here's
the current income of the storagefacility that we're looking at.
(45:16):
And then we're looking at what could werealistically increase the net operating
income to based on all these differentfactors that I've, talked about in
this podcast, and then looking at thatdelta to figure out like, Hey, what
would be an offer that makes sense?
And so, yeah, it's no different.
We're looking at revenue expenses.
That operating income and then whatcould we get the NOI to that's awesome,
(45:38):
man And the last thing that's so storagebefore we kind of pivot to one more
thing is you said it's recession proofand I think there's a lot of people that
have been scared to jump in because theydidn't know what was gonna happen with
the election are they gonna have to worldand interest rates and I've heard from
a couple of people that they love Selfstorage because regardless of who wins
an election doesn't matter regardless ofwhat happens the interest rates doesn't
matter Why is self storage looked atas such a economy resilient product?
(46:02):
Yeah.
So the minor edit tweak that I would useis I wouldn't say it's recession proof.
I would say it's recession resistant.
And part of the reason is if you look atall commercial asset classes, storage is
the one that has the lowest default rate.
Now, why does, why do you rarely see.
I don't know if I would use rarely,but why are all the commercial asset
classes, do you see storage come upfor foreclosures or things like that?
(46:25):
The least well, number one, the operatingexpenses in storage are lower than
most other commercial asset classes.
So to operate a storage facility,generally speaking, anywhere between
30 and 40 percent operating expenseratio, depending on the size of the
facility and some other factors.
If you compare that to multifamily, theoperating expense ratio could be 50, 55%.
Okay.
(46:45):
Right.
So the margins instorage are a lot bigger.
It's a very sticky product,like we talked about.
So people move in, they tend to stay.
It's a nuisance expense,Nick, for most people.
So think about what does itcost to rent the storage unit?
Let's say on average anywhere between 50and 350 dollars for most people that is
not going to make or break you Right, andso when you pick when you go in there,
(47:09):
you know how many times I've had peopletell me I mean I continue to pay month
after month and I haven't been there inmonths or years Because think of the pain
To go move your stuff out of a unit, yougot to get a truck or a moving company.
You got to bother friends and family.
You got to take a whole weekendor Saturday to get your,
I mean, it's just a pain.
(47:29):
So that's great for usfrom that perspective.
And so, and we get to do one otherthing called forced depreciation
is that enforced depreciation.
We get to increase the NOI, notbased on comparables, but based on.
All the different like profit centersand ways that we can continue to add and
generate revenue that could be vendingthat could be selling locks that could be
(47:51):
all the different fees that are involved.
So a lot of those reasons aresome of the reasons why people
consider storage and not people.
But if you go look at the data,it's very recession resistant when
people were in a great economy.
What do people do?
They buy stuff and theyneed a place to store it.
When we're in a bad economy,people downsize, but.
Like the U S like Americans are verywhat's the word I'm looking for?
(48:14):
Like we like to consume thingsand then we have a problem
detaching from those things.
So they don't want to get rid of it.
And where do they go?
They go rent storage.
So those are some of the reasons whyit's a recession resistant asset class.
Man, that was a fantastic answer.
I love that dude.
So as we start to pivot, I knowwe're getting a little tight on
time, but we were talking earlier.
And what I always love is.
(48:35):
You gotta work hard,but you gotta play hard.
And I always like the debrief andthe decompress of what people can do.
And when we first connected, westarted talking about fighting and UFC.
Yeah.
And just being a fight fan.
You're in South Florida, whichis I think one of the highest
gating, UFCs in a long time.
You got a bunch of big names outthere, but talk about you enjoyed to
decompress by watching MMA, watching UFC.
Talk a little bit about your loveof fighting, why you love it.
(48:55):
Who's some of your favorite fighters?
Yeah, man.
Well, as a kid, I talked about how,growing up in sports and baseball
and basketball and temple karate waslike when I got involved in mixed
martial arts at I think nine, 10years old, did that for four years.
Fast forward to 2010.
I joined the gym called MMAmasters, which is now where
Colby Covington fights out of.
(49:15):
And.
A good friend of mine is close.
In fact, Colby's corner man, CharlieWeiss is a really good friend
of mine and him and his brother.
So I've had the opportunityto hang out with Colby.
Anyways, I was part of that gym for fouryears and brother, I got, I just had such
a love and appreciation for the sport.
And so much respect for fighters andpeople that train MMA, like I would see
(49:38):
these pro fighters at the gym, spendingeight to 10 hours a day at the gym,
putting their body through things thatyou could not imagine just getting beat
up through not just the training, butthe sparring and the rolling and the,
this and the, that, and they would doit six, sometimes seven days a week.
And they spent months andmonths training to get to this
one point where it's a fight.
(49:59):
And anything can happenin a fight, as right?
And so, just The mental fortitude thatyou have to have, not just physical,
but people underestimate, I thinkthe mental aspect of the fight game.
And I'm speaking from somebody who'snot a, an actual fighter, but has
trained with professional fightersand man, I just, again, I have
so much respect for those people.
(50:19):
And dude I remember watching UFCone back before, like Dana owned
it and when there was no rules and.
Just fell in love with it dude.
I just I just I love the sport Idon't watch every pay per view, but
I do watch a lot of them and someof my favorite fighters I was a
big george st. Pierre fan, right?
Some people would argue that he's up therein terms of the goats the greatest of
(50:42):
all time I don't know if I'd go that farbut john jones, whatever you may think
of him as a person like just Undefeatedright outside of that, that DQ for for
elbowing this dude what's his name?
Matt Hamill, I think.
Matt Hamill.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Remember Matt Hamill?
Yeah.
Talk about Kenny Florian earlier, man.
Ultimate fighter one.
I remember looking at it, lookingat Kenny and being like, this
guy doesn't look like a fighter.
(51:02):
And yet he gets in there andhe's a beast, and just being a
black belt jujitsu practitioner.
And just, so yeah, man, I just,I love mixed martial arts.
And that's one of the things that whenI heard you were big into jujitsu, I was
like, man, I got to connect with this guy.
We got to talk fight game.
That's awesome, man.
It's interesting too, because you talkabout the, there's the mental side, but
for like business and for real estate,if you do a bunch of self storage stuff,
(51:24):
you made money, you're successful.
And I think what people don'tsee the other side is Colby.
Covington is a great example of the guyput so much time and he runs these ultra
marathons, like he, he works his butt off.
And he was winning fights, but theUFC was still going to cut him.
That's right.
So we had to put this personalitytogether because you have to be a
showman for TV because at the endof the day, everybody thinks, well,
(51:45):
UFC is all about the best fighters.
No, UFC is a fight promotion.
They care about.
So, and that's why all of asudden John Jones is the champ.
There's no interim because theywant John, but, and they just
changed the 12, six elbows.
So technically I wonder ifthey're going to reverse.
That whole thing, because he gotdisqualified for that elbow, which
last week was the first time thoseelbows actually became legal.
So I didn't know that.
(52:05):
Wow.
They just changed it.
As far as like the car lastweek, they changed that.
And you can't put yourhand on the ground anymore.
And so you're like, you couldstill get elbowed in the head.
Now you can't strike a downed opponentis what they would call it, I think.
Yeah, but like the definition of a downedopponent was like very shady where if
a guy put one hand on the ground Hewas considered down and out so they
would play the game now They have tobe grounded So it's interesting the way
(52:27):
things change but there's that wholeother thing of some of these fighters
even though they're great fightersThey're working their butts off every day.
It's still not enough You stillgot to put butts in seats.
There's all these other things inthere that people forget about.
So those guys are under like a lotof pressure, not only to perform
physically, but to perform as as anentertainer, it's it's not enough that
you're kicking all these guys butts.
Like you got to make it more exciting.
Got to be more fun.
It's what else do youwant from these guys?
(52:48):
But you know, it's, there's so muchthings people don't see that go on behind.
And I think that's why hanging around.
Guys like that.
You learn to appreciate all thestuff that people don't see.
And I feel like it's a nice transitionbecause the same way that happens,
they see all this stuff that they don'tsee that you go through on that side.
I feel like that's where that naturalconnection is between entrepreneurs
and athletes is as my buddy, Aljamain,the funk master Sterling always says,
(53:10):
it's what I do when no one's watching.
That's what people do.
Yeah, dude, that's right.
A hundred percent.
By the way, man, you think aboutfighters, like an active fighter
would fight what three times a year.
That's not a lot.
So think about the prep time, like howmuch you have to prepare and what you
have to put yourself through just to beable to perform for 15 to 25 minutes.
(53:30):
If you're talking about the UFCor like you have this small little
window in which to perform, but 99.
9 percent of the timeis spent in preparation.
So as an entrepreneur, as a real estateinvestor, How can you apply a fighter's
mentality to what you do, right?
Like you and I do in this podcast,like this is like our show time, right?
But it's it's the experience.
It's the prep time.
It's all the stuff we've talked abouton this podcast that is, is what it's
(53:54):
allowing me to share these things.
I didn't just read a book and nowI'm sharing all this stuff with you.
It's the experience of it.
Right?
So.
Think about how you can prepare.
And that's one of the things that I reallythink separates people that succeed in
life and business from those that don't,is they take the preparation seriously.
I love that, man.
And for people listening that arelike, man, I like what Alex is saying.
I'm interested in learning more from him.
(54:15):
Hear more what he's talking about.
Talk about how they work with youwith storage wins and how they connect
with you on the flip empire podcast.
Yeah, man.
Again, thank you for theopportunity, Nick, man.
This conversation has been effortless.
It's been a lot of fun for me.
I'll tell you what if people text theword storage and then in parentheses,
just put Nick, so that I know thatyou heard me on Nick's podcast.
Put store text mestorage and Nick 305 318.
(54:36):
6, 2, 1, 3, 3 0 5, 3, 1, 8, 6, 2, 1, 3.Text me storage with the word Nick in it.
And I'll send you over a bunch oflike free training and resources,
like no strings attached.
I'll include my purchase and salecontract, the letter that I use that has
been responsible for multiple storagedeals, along with some video training
text me that I'll send that to you.
(54:56):
I'll have my assistant.
And then if anybody'sinterested in going deeper.
To learn more about storage, www.
storagewins.
com W I N S storage wins.
com.
And then yeah, man, the flip empire show.
I've been doing it for alittle bit over eight years.
So apple podcast, Spotify, most of themajor podcast platforms it's out there.
And I've been I've been releasinga weekly show every single
(55:20):
week for over eight years.
So continue to do that and look forwardto to having you on the show, brother.
So, so thank you, man.
That's awesome, man.
Dude this has been awesome.
So, social media, stuff like that.
What's the best way toconnect with you on socials?
And I'll put all that stuffFacebook if you, facebook.
com forward slash Alexparto15,or just search Alexparto.
You can connect on Facebook andthen Instagram is at Alexparto25.
(55:43):
Awesome, man.
Well, you serve as somebody who bringsyour A game to everything you do in
life and everything you do in business.
And this interview has been no different.
You definitely brought your Agame to the A game podcast today,
sir. Any final thoughts beforeI let you go about your day?
Yeah, look, here's what I would challengepeople with speed of implementation.
What is one thing that maybe I sharedor maybe something Nick shared that
resonates with you and how can youapply it to your life and business?
(56:05):
It's not just enough to devote yourtime and energy to want to get better.
I applaud you for that, but the waythat you could really just thank us
for doing this is just we want tosee you succeed in life and business.
So what's one principle, oneshift, one tweak, something
you can get from this podcast.
Apply it to your business,no matter what that is.
And then just like rinse and repeatand you tweak and you learn and you
(56:28):
just keep growing and getting better.
So that would be my finalpiece of advice for people.
Wise words, man, everybody check the shownotes, find all the ways to connect with
Alex for his podcast, for his business,and just for the entertaining stuff
he puts on social media all the time.
You're a stud, sir. I appreciateyou coming on a game podcast.
Alex Pardo, ladies andgentlemen, have a fantastic day.
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