June 10, 2025 • 39 mins
Episode Resources:
Social Media:
- www.facebook.com/vince.gethings
- www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-gethings-50420a137
- www.instagram.com/vince.gethings
Email:
- vince@wheelbarrowprofits.com
- tricityequitygroup.com
Clark St Digital helps you grow your real estate company with:
- Amazing Overseas Talent who cost 80% less than their US equivalents
- Done-For-You subscription services
- Done-For-You project services
Go to ClarkStDigital.com to schedule your free strategy meeting.
Additional Resources:
- Clark St Capital: https://www.clarkst.com
- Clark St Digital: https://www.clarkstdigital.com
- Keyholders Collective: https://www.keyholderscollective.com
- Podcast: https://bit.ly/3LzZdDx
Find Us On Social Media:
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clarkstcapital
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clark-st-capital
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/clarkstcapital1
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClarkStCapital
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarkstcapital
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Vince Gethings (00:00):
You don't want to spend your whole life
climbing a ladder and then youreach the top and realize it's
leaning against the wrong wall.
Ed Mathews (00:36):
Greetings and salutations, Real Estate
Undergrounders.
It is Ed Mathews, again withthe Real Estate Underground.
Thank you so much for making usa part of your day.
Hopefully you're enjoying yourcar ride or your run or wherever
you are right now.
Today I am joined by VinceGethings.
If you've met him at any ofJake and Gino's things, we were
just trying to figure out if wemet at the one I attended.
(00:57):
Vince, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for your timetoday and it's good to see you.
my friend.
Vince Gethings (01:02):
Thank you so much, Ed.
I'm excited to be here.
Ed Mathews (01:03):
So for the folks that haven't met you, why don't
you tell us a little bit aboutyour background?
Vince Gethings (01:08):
Absolutely.
The military is the biggestchunk of my adult life.
I've been in the military since18 years old.
So 2006,.
Started getting into realestate around 2013 using my VA
home loan.
Did what's called the househack on using my VA home loan.
So we did that and I was in astation in California at the
time.
So California, 2013.
(01:30):
Got into my first real estatedeal.
Got the bug.
We sold that house in 2016.
I think I netted around 130,000, if I remember right and I was
like, wow, this is way betterthan my military paycheck.
Let's do more of this.
At that point, 2016, I startedbuying a small multifamily Early
education, pretty much biggerpockets.
There was a couple books outthere it was my knowledge base
(01:51):
at the time.
So I bought single families,duplexes, fourplexes, things
like that.
I had about 20 units from 2016to 2018.
And then at that point, I hit aceiling.
Pretty hard, as most investorsdo, they hit this plateau Once
they run out of their initialcapital, whether it's their nest
egg or 401k accounts orwhatever it is they're pulling
(02:11):
money from, they deploy that andnow they don't know how to get
to the next.
So I hit that very commonplateau investors hit in their
journey and I went, solved itthrough just more education
Cause I was like I see theseother guys doing deals, how are
they doing it?
Especially bigger ones.
So that's when I went to thementorship route.
And 2018, I got into mentorshipgroup, as you mentioned earlier
(02:32):
.
We very quickly caught on tomultifamily, figured it out, got
all the education I needed.
2019, we bought our first 52units.
So I went from four plexes sixplexes so 52 units.
So I went from four plexes, sixplexes so 52 units.
My first deal that was a jointventure with three people, so we
didn't syndicate or anything.
It was a joint venture.
Three people other than myself,so four total.
We spent the whole year of 2019trying to figure out our
(02:54):
systems, our processes, how theteams work and everything like
that.
I'm multifamily, building ourbusiness.
And then 2020 rolled around andwe were off to the races from
there.
Obviously, covid hit and gaveus some good buying
opportunities, really, but wewere off to the races for 2020.
So since 2020, I think as ateam Tri-City Equity Group, my
equity team we've done, I think,18 deals.
(03:15):
Seven or eight of those havegone full cycle.
I think we hit a hundredmillion.
I think right now we might be alittle bit less down.
Maybe 80 million right now inassets, but we have a couple
LOIs out.
We should be at 200, probablyby the end of this year or early
next year.
Assets under management bringsyou up to speed a little bit on
where we're at,
Ed Mathews (03:32):
yeah, and you're also a serial entrepreneur,
right?
So you own a flooring company.
Obviously, you manage in-houseas well, I think, right?
Vince Gethings (03:38):
Yes, we're working integrated.
Ed Mathews (03:46):
Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Vince Gethings (03:46):
Yeah, that was not something we had originally
planned.
So, for the property managementcompany, 2022 hit and if
anybody is listening to this,which a lot of people here are
probably in the game at somelevel of real estate, the market
turned and it's been on a slumpsince then as the cyclical
nature of markets.
2022 hit and we were gettingjust destroyed by our
third-party property managers.
And it wasn't just poorperformance.
There was some negligence,there was some theft, there was
some fraudulent stuff going onand it was just like, month
(04:09):
after month, it's gettingbombarded.
We had some scale in my market.
We went to the team at the Ithink it was the summer of 2022.
I just remember I was like, hey, if there was a time, this is
it.
We have to take control, wehave to wrestle our properties
back.
We owe it to ourselves, we oweit to our investors.
It's going to suck the braindamage of taking our properties
over and starting a propertymanagement company with only I
(04:30):
think we had maybe 250 unitsknowing we're going to have a
significant cash burn becausewe're going to have to hire the
payroll and overhead of aproperty management company.
But we did some math and it waslike, hey, we'd rather have the
cash burn now and scale our wayout of it and continue to have
the performance we're gettingfrom the third party property
managers and it wasn't just one,it was like three Back to back.
(04:51):
We fired them and the next onecame in and very similar, so it
was out of necessity we'rescaled out of it now.
We just kept acquiring andwrapping them up so we have the
payroll now to support itselfand that was a good milestone to
hit in a property managementcompany.
And now we're looking forwardinto the future, the next couple
of years, and we're very happythat we made that decision
(05:12):
because we are very, I guess,lethal when it comes to
underwriting and executing ourbusiness plans because we have
so much more control.
Ed Mathews (05:22):
Yeah, it's amazing.
So we did the same thing and wedid it at around 200 units.
So, yeah, it's a little tightthere for the first step, or
maybe even longer.
So what does that team looklike?
You said hiring people, so wewent down the path of using
handymen and third-party folksthat we had worked with for
years and trusted, but we didn'tbring them in as full-time
(05:44):
employees, and so I'm curiousabout what your team looked like
and how did you scale it?
Vince Gethings (05:49):
when we started, we penciled out a president.
We have Tri-City Equity Groupand they have Black Sand
Property Management Groupseparate entities.
One of the people that washelping me a good friend of mine
.
I've known him for over 10years.
He was helping me as assetmanager under my original
Tri-City Equity Group.
We moved him over and he becamethe president of the property
management company that most ofthe GPs from Tri-City own.
(06:12):
We own the same company buthe's the president, so now we
can divide and conquer.
I'm the asset manager, he's thepresident of the property
management company, checks andbalances.
So that was a really gooddecision there, the way we split
that.
And then under him weoriginally had two property
managers that were floatingbetween the properties.
The original product was smallwe're talking 50, 60 unit
(06:32):
properties so we could split twoproperties between a person and
we're able to help with thepayroll burden that way.
And for maintenance wecontracted out.
We put them on as 1099.
And then we gave them a perticket work order fee.
Maybe it was like $100 toanswer a work order and then,
depending on the triage of it,if it was a plumbing emergency,
(06:55):
maybe it would go up to 250 orsomething like that and that's
what we did until we had enoughscale to hire W-2 employees,
enough scale to hire W2employees.
And where we're at now is wherethe seats we are needing to fill
and we're actively filling is.
We want to bring in unit turnscompletely in-house.
Right now we're one foot in,one foot out.
We're still relying oncontractors a lot for unit turns
(07:15):
, more than I'd like.
So we're going to have a At thenext acquisition.
We can afford a dedicated kindof roving unit turn team two
guys, three guys that's all theydo is bounce around the
portfolio and just do unit turns.
So we can afford that.
I want to bring in landscapingin-house and I want to bring a
marketing director in-house thatjust does all the marketing and
(07:37):
I want to have a legitimateregional VP position.
Right, because we got this onelady.
She is absolutely fantastic andshe's sitting as a regional,
but not fully.
She's still one foot in thetrenches, one foot overseeing.
So we want to be able to affordto pull her all the way back up
to be a legitimate regional orthat kind of VP position and get
(08:02):
some support under her.
So then the next acquisition wehave planned payroll wise,
should be able to fill most, ifnot all those.
Ed Mathews (08:10):
Right on.
Wow, congratulations.
That's one hell of a scalingjob, and so how did you figure
that out?
Obviously, your militarybackground probably led a lot of
in terms of how to build theteam and when to hire and when
to move someone from doing toleadership.
I'm curious where did you learnhow to do that?
Vince Gethings (08:28):
No, there's no secrets to military.
So the military definitelyteaches you how to build,
because me and my partners wereall military, so I was a senior
enlisted officer, my partner isa senior enlisted officer, or
non-commissioned officer rather,and my other partner he was a
retired chief foreign officer.
For so we're all seniorleadership type positions in our
(08:48):
units, building teams, holdingpeople accountable, figuring out
org charts.
It definitely helped.
And then, on the civilian side,I think the best thing was
Traction, gina Wickman, tractionand Scaling Up by Vern Harnish.
Those are probably the bestbooks on just being able to get
a grip on your business andorganization.
I don't there's no reinventingthe wheel, they invented it.
(09:09):
If you need help in this area,just read those books and
execute on the best of yourabilities on that.
I know it's, when you readthose, easy concepts to
understand, incredibly hard toimplement.
You definitely need consistencyand accountability with it, but
that's the secret for thatorganizational structure.
And then, as far as like thepayroll, about what seats to
(09:29):
fill, when that was more soduring our quarterly meetings,
we're looking at payroll.
Do we have a bucket of payrollwe can pull from?
And like the 80-20 rule, wehave 80,000.
That 80,000 to go toward W2payroll.
Where are we going to get thebest bang for our buck on that?
And that's you know how webring our people.
Ed Mathews (09:50):
So when you look at I'm just curious, because we're
actually going through the samething right now.
We're only a few years behindyou.
So the question is when you'relooking at bang for the buck, so
to speak right, are you lookingat it from a revenue generation
perspective?
Are you looking at it from anoperational efficiency, like
when you look at okay, we'regoing to hire and we need value
(10:11):
here.
What's the decision processthat you and your partners are
going through?
Vince Gethings (10:15):
Great question.
The two things that I think wepulled from the most was I can't
remember, it might've beenprofit first or simple numbers.
Yeah, I think it's SimpleNumbers by.
I'm actually looking at GregCrabtree Fantastic books, very
small reads.
I'm going to check that out.
Yeah, it's a good one.
So I think in that one, when weread that as a team, he talks
(10:36):
about revenue per employee, likeas far as KPI Right?
So these people hit that oneno-transcript up units.
(11:10):
So that's how we're looking atit.
You have all your KPIs as anasset manager and now you can
look at it.
Okay, all that's going to leadto economic vacancy.
So how are we going to startknocking that out, that burn off
and those are the ways that wethought about it of who to hire
when,
Ed Mathews (11:28):
yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
There's, as far as EOS goes,Gino Wickman.
I'm a huge proponent of themand you're right, it's a pain in
the neck to install, but do youuse EOS as your operating
system within your company, ordid you just take some facets of
it that worked for you?
How did you think about that?
Vince Gethings (11:46):
We implemented it and then over the years of
tailored back, just based off oflaziness.
So I would say if I were tograde us, I would probably say
we're probably like a C minus on.
We have all the things in placebut we're not doing everything
all the time.
Like the score cards are notlike getting those things,
things.
But we do have our level 10meeting on every company,
religiously, like without fail.
(12:06):
We're doing our level 10 andkpis.
We do the vtos every quarterand update those.
So we do a lot of it, but it'sjust not as intense as that
program is designed to be.
So I think that's part that wecan definitely improve on yeah
those mentors are very expensiveso
Ed Mathews (12:24):
They are, yes, using best practices.
Nothing wrong with that if it'srigorous to implement that, and
it's probably even more rigorousthan your initial career in the
military yeah, or at least asrigorous, right, yeah and okay
and then.
So you're at about how manyunits these days.
Vince Gethings (12:44):
I'm trying to think where we have.
We have one under sale orselling in two weeks maybe like
800, 800 or something.
Right now I think we'vetransacted around like 1400, but
it's we always.
So we got our conveyor beltright, so we always got stuff
coming on, stuff going off.
But I think ad centermanagement is around a hundred,
I think, units around 800.
Ed Mathews (13:05):
Okay, wow, congratulations.
And so what's the grand plan?
When are you?
You're a young guy.
When do you know you're done,if you ever are?
Vince Gethings (13:13):
I think I'll be done with certain aspects of
this business Once I hit certainlevels of either passive
cashflow or net worth.
I think me and my team arealigned on moving intentionally
toward consistently higherquality, bigger assets.
The bigger the asset is, thebigger the payroll bucket is,
(13:34):
and we can just hire somebody todo that job for us.
I think we're all consciouslygoing toward longer term holds
bigger, newer assets that we canjust have a full on team doing
everything.
So we've got to work our way upthere.
Ed Mathews (13:47):
Yeah, and let's briefly talk about your buy box,
right, so you're talking aboutnewer assets,
Vince Gethings (13:51):
Absolutely! Exciting too.
Ed Mathews (13:52):
, yes, so where did you start in terms of targets
and where are you looking thesedays?
Vince Gethings (13:58):
Yeah.
So this is actually prettycrazy.
Every time I say this I'm like,wow, that really happened.
So, for context, that first JVwe did that was like 1.4 million
, did that was like 1.4 million.
The last deal we did was 29million, and we're talking a
span of five years.
So it's pretty crazy.
The analogy that we use is theconveyor belt theory.
Right, so it's yourfive-year-long conveyor belt.
(14:20):
Your job is to stack assets onthe conveyor belt as it's going
down the conveyor belt.
You're building up equity,you've got the cash flow, you're
getting the depreciation loan,pay down all the things that we
do this game for.
And then you have those capitalevents, sale of refinances and
then the key is not to eat offthat.
Don't go by the course just yet.
Just reinvest that, get thatsnowball going, the Warren
Buffett snowball.
(14:41):
And when we look back at ourportfolio of how we executed
this, the first deals we did,the first four, were all between
1.5 and 2.5 million.
That was the first kind of runof the conveyor belt.
The second turn we're talkingnow, 2021 to 2020, was like five
to 6 million.
So we sold all those tradedwith the $1 million properties
but $5 million properties andthose are all selling now and
(15:02):
now the last couple of dealswe've bought were 10 to 30
million In the buy box.
We're going on now.
We're not really looking atanything under 20 million right
now.
The exponential growth of thatconveyor belt is pretty exciting
to watch happen
Ed Mathews (15:18):
50 some odd units at 1.4,.
That was probably a class Cbuilding a little bit.
Vince Gethings (15:22):
We didn't even start switching to nicer quality
buildings until really, like2023 is when we made the
decision hey, we're going to gofor higher quality product.
Okay, but everything up to thatpoint was C-class value add.
Ed Mathews (15:38):
Yeah, gotcha, and yeah, we are on the same path.
That's so funny.
I'm two years behind you.
So, as far as the buildings now, what markets do you like?
Vince Gethings (15:47):
We're only in Dallas, fort Worth Metro Park.
So that was a big decision wemade in 2020.
We scaled really fast by goingwide, going a mile wide.
We picked a lot of markets andwe're going to go wherever the
deals are.
So we had deals in five, sixdifferent states.
I was flying all over and thenI became the bottleneck, because
that's a lot of propertymanagers to manage A lot of
states.
That's a lot of propertymanagers to manage.
There's a lot of states.
That's a lot of stuff to managein a lot of different areas.
(16:08):
So we started dropping someplates and we became the
bottleneck.
At the end of 2022, we're likeall right, what market do we
like the best?
What's the most best performing?
What properties are the bestperforming?
What has the best outlook forthe next 10 years and for us and
our goals and where we were inour lives?
Dallas was the choice we pickedwith, so we started selling
everything that wasn't here inDallas and then I moved here.
Ed Mathews (16:30):
Smart, yeah, and if only for the efficiency of the
property management company.
Vince Gethings (16:35):
But I was flying a lot, so I was like yeah, we
just moved there.
Ed Mathews (16:39):
Yeah, and you require sleep right Every once
in a while you got to shut thoseeyes, so it's a lot being on a
plane all the time.
Okay, and then the otherquestion I'm curious about is
with regard to the otherbusinesses that you have the
flooring business, theinsulation business do they
serve your property managementcompany or are they client
facing?
Vince Gethings (16:58):
Both, and it's actually interesting so the way
that this came about.
Most people think propertymanagement is just going
vertically and bringingeverything in the house.
That's what we're doing now,but that wasn't the original
idea.
So the original reason that Igot into the business side of
the house home services wasbecause when I was getting out
of the military, I needed a W-2job, because for anybody that's
listening, that has someproperties and they're trying to
(17:19):
quit their W-2, that'sfantastic.
Once your cashflow reaches thattakeover thing, you're going to
have a huge problem when you goto get a loan for a car or a
house and all you have is abunch of passive income.
The bank's going to destroy youand that's what happened to me
was I was getting out of themilitary, I was trying to buy a
house and I got denied and I waslike I make way more to cover
(17:42):
this and they're like twoproblems.
One, you're leaving your W-2that you've been in for 16 years
and so we can't use that incomeand all your other income is
passive income from real estateand our underwriting guidelines
is to discount that or notaccept it at all.
So that is the double side ofhaving that passive income for
(18:02):
freedom is you still need to becredit worthy, and a lot of
banks don't like passive income.
They'll discount it if theyaccept it at all.
So my solution for that wasI'll just start a company and
I'll give myself a W-2 from thatcompany.
Now that's what theinstallation company was for.
It served a purpose to givemyself a W-2.
So if I want to go get a carloan, anything with credit, I
(18:24):
could give them my pay stubs ormy W-2 from being the owner of
that franchise and that worked.
That solved that problem.
Going forward, that's when westarted.
So there's about a three orfour year gap between the
installation company and theflooring company.
And then that's when we startedlooking at the efficiencies,
and mainly I was.
(18:45):
That company happened to fallon my lap and so we can do a
whole show just on that.
But we were already looking atthose types of opportunities and
the way I was looking at it wasas an asset manager.
I'm looking at the P&Ls all thetime and I'm like, wow, these
foreign guys are getting a lotof our money, but what can we do
for that?
So I was just going down theP&Ls trying to figure out what
we can bring in house or what wecan eliminate and just get
(19:07):
control of.
And that's where the homeservices really stuck out to me.
They're really simplebusinesses.
They're everywhere, notcomplicated to run, and then
once you figure out one of them,a plumbing company is going to
be 90% the same as a flooringcompany, as a HVAC company.
It's like the same businesscycle, just different tradesmen,
maybe a different certificationor whatever, but essentially
the way the business runsmarketing, cashflow cycle,
(19:30):
that's all the same.
Ed Mathews (19:31):
Yep, a hundred percent.
So, in terms of, there's a hugemove in private equity, for
instance, to buy boomerbusinesses that are just about
to retire and are thinking aboutretiring and coming in and
cashing them out and taking onthe business.
What's your thinking in termsof?
I know you bought theinsulation business.
I think I heard you say it wasa franchise.
What is your thinking in termsof buying existing businesses
(19:55):
versus starting your own andgrowing it organically?
Vince Gethings (19:59):
I probably wouldn't start a company
organically.
It's a lot of brain damage andit's been very popular.
You have a lot of influencersand very smart people like
Walker Deibel or Cody Sanchez.
That's their thing, that'stheir wheelhouse.
Very smart people Having doneboth real estate and running
multiple small businesses.
The real estate's way easier.
(20:20):
So I don't want to romanticizethat.
Hey, real estate's dead.
You got to buy these the silverwave and the boomer businesses
and they're just out there forthe taking.
There is a ton of opportunitybut it is way more work.
You have employees, you havepayroll, you have angry
customers, you have all thethings right.
So all the things and all thestressors, it is significantly
(20:43):
more than just buying a 40-unit,50-unit, 100-unit property and
find a property manager thereand having to deal with that and
the cashflow swings can giveyou a PTSD.
In multifamily you run at 80%occupancy and it's like
devastating right.
Oh my God.
This is terrible In a business.
You can have a $50,000 swing.
(21:04):
One week you make 200 grand,the next week you can make 50.
You have to have the stomach todeal with it.
I've done it and it stillhappened.
It's still happening.
It's not for the weak stomach.
I definitely don't want toromanticize it, saying if you
can figure this out, you can dothat.
It's significantly harder.
It's more risk, a lot morereward If you can get the cash
flow businesses right.
For me, my experience is homeservices.
(21:25):
I'll just talk about homeservices.
If you can get that right, theyare money printing machines.
The biggest lessons is I wouldtry to do with no debt at all or
very little debt.
Sba loan is probably the worstdebt on my balance sheet of $50
million of debt.
That one SBA loan is probablythe worst terms I've ever gotten
on anything.
(21:45):
I would try to avoid that.
I would try to either do paycash seller financing, anything
but the SBA.
It's a good resource If youhave nowhere else to turn.
They will usually get it done,but it wouldn't be my first
choice ever.
Yeah, I do think there is anopportunity out there.
They are right that there's theboomer thing out there, but
it's retiring and thosebusinesses are out there, but
(22:06):
definitely not something to justget shiny object syndrome and
hop into and take on a bunch ofrisks.
Everything that goes into that.
Ed Mathews (22:13):
Yeah, and it's a lot right, yeah.
So I wholeheartedly agree withyou on the SBA thing too.
Tread lightly, that is a loanof last resort.
Yes, yeah, seller financing isusually better for the seller
and it's usually better for you.
Absolutely Right, all right.
Hey, let's start to land thisplane, let's get into the final
five and you're a reallysuccessful guy.
(22:35):
Congratulations again.
When I meet people like you,one of the things that I've
realized about all of us is themortgage is getting paid.
If you have a family, the kids'college funds are all funded.
Your significant other has anice new car.
Every couple of years, payingthe bills is not a big deal, but
nevertheless you get out of bedon Monday morning and go to
(22:55):
work with a whole lot of energyand passion.
So what is?
And obviously that boils downto purpose.
I'm curious what gets you outof bed on Monday morning?
What's your purpose?
Vince Gethings (23:06):
Wow.
So that's usually the firstthing.
I think it's a balance betweenlike legacy for my family and
just making sure that theyunderstand how to, because the
money will come and go, thematerial stuff will come and go,
but if they understand how tomake money in this world, how to
live a happy life in this world, what it actually takes to be
successful in this world, and Ican pass that on and they can
(23:28):
pass that on and so on and havethat in terms of generational
wealth.
In that way, rather than justthe money and the trust, the
principles, the values, the workethic, I think is what gets me
up.
And then the other side of itis just trying to push to see
what my true potential is, likefull potential, rather of like,
what can I actually do?
Where's the breaking point?
(23:48):
And I get there.
Often You're like, oh, that wasa little too far, let's tone it
back a little bit.
Ed Mathews (23:53):
Look back on the last six, seven, eight years.
Right, how many of thosebarriers did you bump up against
, eventually push through.
And now you look back and it'swow, I can't even believe that
was a problem.
Vince Gethings (24:05):
Yeah, exactly, and a lot of things that you
thought was just insurmountable.
Just needed a little bit ofpatience, a little bit of time
and a little bit of gooddecision-making and get through
it and you grow through it.
Growth on the other side, yeah.
Ed Mathews (24:17):
All right.
Another thing that I'm alwayscurious about is mentorship and
the people that have had animpact on our lives and because
I think that, especially in realestate, this is a team sport by
and large, right, and it's ateam sport in terms of the folks
that work with and for you, butalso the people that have
helped you figure stuff out thatreally don't have a stake in
your success other than the factthat they like and respect you,
(24:39):
right.
I'm curious about mentors inyour life and, specifically,
what's the best advice you evergot and who gave it to you.
Vince Gethings (24:47):
Absolutely.
A lot of people hesitate so muchon getting a coach, getting a
mentor in any aspect of theirlife.
And I'm telling you that everyroom I've been in with
successful people, all the wayfrom just you know they hit the
1 million mark, all the way upto billionaires they all have
coaches, they all have multiplecoaches to serve.
Maybe it's a health coach,maybe it's a business coach,
(25:12):
maybe it's a business coach,maybe it's a mindset coach,
maybe it's a whatever.
They all have coaches, they allhave mentors.
They all have a personal boardof directors that they can go
into and trust with theirproblems.
And hey, I just need to bouncean idea off you about this
business deal.
You know, you don't even haveto say anything, just ask
questions.
So help me pull through thisidea.
Most people don't have that andthey don't look for that and
for some reason they don't thinkit's necessary.
I'm telling you, everysuccessful person I know has not
(25:35):
just one coach or mentor, butmultiple for very specific
things.
I'm 36, been in the military,know how to work out, and I was
just like, hey, I'm droppingsome rungs on that ladder.
And my wife said, hey, youshould go get a personal trainer
.
And I never would have crossedmy mind to go get a personal
trainer to work out for somebodythat's generally fit.
(25:55):
That dude whooped my ass thisweek, the three sessions.
I'm like I haven't felt that inyears.
So I was like, yep, she wasright, just a little bit humble
there and now it's boom, I gotthat box checked.
Now I got a personal trainerand get my health back in check.
Okay, as far as best advicevery situational, I think one of
the best advice, not from apersonal one the first thing
(26:15):
that came to mind and I'll gowith that is Stephen Covey.
His books are absolutelyphenomenal.
I went through the seven habitscourse very early in my career
probably 24, 25, which is apivotal time of me getting into
real estate.
You don't want to spend yourwhole life climbing a ladder and
then you reach the top andrealize it's leaning against the
(26:36):
wrong wall.
That is a quote from his bookand he talks about it in his
lectures.
That really stuck with me ofmake sure you have an end in
mind, make sure you have clarityon what you're pushing forward.
You're sacrificing your youthfor the time with your family,
all this stuff that you'resacrificing for and working for
make sure it's something thatyou actually want.
His example is more corporateright, you don't want to spend
(26:57):
your whole life climbing aladder the corporate ladder and
realizing you're miserable as aVP or whatever.
That corner office thing as myvertical background as a corner
office in New York, but thatthings as my vertical background
as a corner office in New York,but that was a great example
and that one stuck with me andthat was planted that seed of
the inception of maybe themilitary.
Isn't this the 20 year careerthat I set out for?
Maybe it isn't going to fulfillme like I thought it was
originally.
Ed Mathews (27:18):
Yeah, it's interesting, I experienced that
as well.
I know a lot of friends andcolleagues who have worked their
butts off to get to that corneroffice.
And then you get there andyou're like, man, is this all
there is really?
This is what I've been doingfor 25 years.
Everyone drinks a lot.
Vince Gethings (27:34):
So when I became a senior so it's like your
mid-management type, you mean,the guys that actually work for
a living yeah, they're alldrinking like so much and I'm
like, wow, you guys just reallyjust drink every day and they're
generally not happy.
So that was kind of like, isthis really what I got to look
forward for the next 10 to 15years
Ed Mathews (27:51):
as far as you've had a lot of success in your career
, obviously, but we all makemistakes, and I personally think
mistakes are a good thing,because that's how we learn.
I think we learn a lot more fromour mistakes than our successes
, and so I'm curious about adecision you'd love to have back
and how did you handle it andwhat'd you do?
Vince Gethings (28:11):
If we were going to keep it for real estate,
Ed Mathews (28:12):
Whatever you want.
Vince Gethings (28:13):
A more recent one was we got retraded on loan
terms from a lender right at theclosing table and at the time,
in my experience and kind of theemotional hey, we got to close
in two days.
They just re-traded us and itwas what are we going to do?
Kind of thing, and we ended uppushing through and closing the
deal out of the scarcity mindsetof I don't want to lose my
(28:34):
earnest money because we failedto close.
But they ended up retrading uson terms.
This was two years ago and inhindsight, with my experience I
have now I probably could take adeep breath, went back to the
broker and seller, explained tohim what happened and say, hey,
I'll give you another 30, 40, 50grand of earnest money for 30
(28:54):
more days.
Let me figure this out.
Let's pause the clock for alittle bit and let me work on
this lender that just pulledthis move on us.
At the time they were playinghardball and I just didn't know
the nuances of the game like Iknow now.
Actually, this was three yearsago and, looking back, I
probably could have got them toextend that contract with a
(29:15):
little bit of hey, I'll put 50Khard, just give me 30 more days
to figure this out.
And we're feeling the effects ofthat retrade now.
It's putting us in a positionwhere the deal is not in
jeopardy in any way.
We have a good liquidityposition, we have a good equity
and everything that.
But it's forcing us to eitherrefinance or have our interest
rate, because what happened isthe interest rate is going to
(29:37):
reprice the market.
So we were locked at four andnow it's going to re-rate, lock
at seven.
We didn't underwrite that right, so our cashflow is going to
take a pretty big hit.
We'll still be fine, the deal'snot in jeopardy.
But it's like we're trying towork through that now with the
lender and try to get them tohonor their original terms.
But in hindsight that mistakeis causing me a lot of time.
Now that I'm dealing with it,we'll probably have to pay some
(29:57):
fees for whatever.
Looking back, I probably shouldhave held my ground a little
more, been a little bit morepatient and less emotional and
just bought more time to figureit out, rather than say, hey,
we'll close and figure it outlater.
It's not slated, you'refiguring it out.
Yeah, now I'm figuring it out.
So that was a more recent onethat I could think of.
But generally go a little bitslower in these deals and not
(30:20):
just getting emotional what Jakecalled it to get their itis.
We got to get the deal done.
You don't want to lose your EMDor reputation or whatever with
the broker.
It's a ghost law and this iswhere partners really help.
If you know you're theemotional one I'm generally not
the emotional one but if youknow that you have this fault or
weakness about yourself, havingpartners to keep you grounded
(30:40):
and say, hey, let's take abreath, let's take a pause,
let's talk this through, and youhave those people in your group
that you can trust and justsounding board ideas.
It's immeasurable how valuablethat is.
Have that group of peoplerather than you in a silo trying
to figure all this stuff out onyour own.
There's a lot of moving partsand the bigger the deals get,
the more those consequencessting and you make a mistake.
(31:02):
But it's not a $10,000 mistake.
It could be a $100,000,$200,000,.
Make a mistake, but it's not a$10,000 mistake.
right, that's really smart.
All right, I'm also interestedin how leaders like you take in
information and how you grow.
So talk to me about the book orhowever you take in information
on your virtual or physicalnightstand.
(31:22):
Who are you reading these daysand what are you paying
attention to?
On my nightstand I have the Bible and Atlas
Shrugged.
I've been reading this thingfor like a decade.
I don't know if you ever heldthat book, but it's like yeah
sitting upstairs as we speak.
So I'm going to finish it thisyear.
So I'm trying to finish thatone and then get into the Bible
a little bit more than I used to.
As far as technical information, as far as running businesses,
(31:45):
it's usually Audible.
I'll usually go get the Audibleand if I like what I hear and
it's not just a plop marketingpiece, then I'll buy the hard
copy and then I'll go throughthis in Audible and highlight
with my highlighters and usethem as like textbooks and
reference books.
So I always have myhighlighters and I'm always
highlighting and tabbing out ifit's actually a useful book and
(32:11):
that's usually what I do forkind of the more technical
aspects and then I try to teachit back as fast as possible.
That's one of the most powerfullearning methods out there and
retention is as soon as you getinformation.
If you can have somebody evenif it's your spouse or whatever
try to explain to them what youjust read, will make it stick.
I forget the stat on this, butit's significantly higher
retention and comprehension willmake it stick.
I forget the stat on this, butit's significantly higher
retention and comprehension Ifyou read something and
immediately try to teach it backto somebody.
It like swaps it over from likethe left side of the right side
(32:33):
or something like that, and itsure does the long-term.
I don't know all the technicalstuff on that, but I know that
absolutely works.
Ed Mathews (32:39):
So is active reading , which is what you're talking
about in terms of listening andreading along the way.
I'm one of those guys too.
I take them in the margins andunderline stuff, and I use a
highlighter as well.
So the last thing I wanted toask you about and then we'll get
into the close of the show isabout success.
How do you define success inyour life?
Vince Gethings (32:57):
I'm in a transitional period right now.
Up to this point me today.
It's going to be the ability todo what I want when I want,
with whom I want, where I want.
Right, it's 10 am on a Fridayand I'm here speaking with you.
Right, I'm not at some officesomewhere, I have the location
freedom.
So I have some of these boxesI've already been able to check.
(33:18):
We're going to France most ofthe month of August and I can
work from there as long as Ihave Wi-Fi.
So I have the location freedom.
So we're checking off this ideaof freedom that we have for our
family.
The next level of thattransition is probably the
ability to just happily say noto pretty much anything I want
for any reason.
It's thank you, but no, anybusiness opportunity, anything
(33:42):
that comes my way.
I think that will be for me.
Where I'm at now is a good nextstep is because right now
it's's I have businesses and Ihave people relying on me.
I have people that need me.
I'm a leader to them.
I have to serve them becausethey have families.
So I can't just be like allright, guys, I'm out and I have
30 something, 40 employees,their families.
So I am still, I haveobligations and I am at the top
(34:04):
of that (no-transcript).
Ed Mathews (34:33):
Awesome, it is a good goal.
One of the things I did want tomention is the wheelbarrow
profit, so you're now involvedwith that.
Can you tell me a little bitmore about that before we close
out?
Vince Gethings (34:41):
Oh, absolutely.
So.
I actually acquired the companyin January.
So I was a member and I cameback as a coach.
So I've been coaching for themfor five years and then in
January I took over.
So now the owner of it, jakeand Gino, are still around, but
I'm the one leading it andtaking it to the next level.
We're very excited about thingsthat are coming and continue to
(35:06):
carry that torch.
We are biased here, but I thinkwe are the best community out
there.
Our stats are unbelievable wehave.
Last time Gino gave me thenumbers, there was like 80,000
units acquired from thecommunity, over 5 billion in
real estate acquired from thecommunity.
There's not another group outthere that can really touch
those numbers for success in thecommunity.
I am very grateful and veryexcited to see if the next
(35:29):
chapter is a Wheelbarrow Prophet.
Excellent Congratulations.
Yeah, and then I did have a.
I did put this here.
So I have a book, theWheelbarrow Prophet's Book.
It's the original book by Jakeand Gino.
That kind of started it all.
Anybody that wants to reach outI'm sure you'll have something
in the show notes Reach out.
I got digital copies of this.
I'll send it to everybodylistening that just wants to
check it out, and I'm happy todo that.
Ed Mathews (35:49):
Yeah, so I did not go through the Jake and Gino
training, but I have read thatbook and I had Gino actually on
the show last year sometime andthey have been incredibly
generous.
They've taught me a whole lotabout what it means from a
customer service perspective interms of whole lot about what it
means from a customer serviceperspective in terms of I
(36:09):
remember Jake saying somethingalong the lines of that they
aspired to be the Chick-fil-A of.
That's true and it's a standardI try to live up to as well
here.
Congratulations.
It's a heck of a community.
I know you went, and I did aswell, at five and I'm pretty
sure we shook hands.
That's a heck of a communityand if you want to learn more
about it, first step is to readthat book.
I highly encourage everybody totake advantage of Vince's very
(36:30):
generous offer.
All right, man.
So when not talking about realestate, you did talk about
France, so we'll assume that'spart of this.
Vince Gethings (36:36):
What do you like to do.
Right now I got my kids intodirt bikes.
We try to do that when we can.
All my kids play travel soccer,so that pretty much consumes
everything out to the very thinmargins of the calendar.
If anybody listening has everplayed any kind of travel sport,
or their kids have a commitmentthere.
I am a private pilot and nowthat I'm in Texas I've been here
for about a year, so I'mlooking to possibly get back
(36:58):
into that, get another plane andjust cruise around in the sky.
That's my happy place issomewhere around five 6,000 feet
just cruising.
Get back into that, hopefullyhere, maybe this summer, wow.
Ed Mathews (37:07):
That's great.
And then if somebody wants tolearn more about you or Tri-City
or any of your other companies,what's the best way to do that?
Vince Gethings (37:15):
For me, I'm on all the social media so you can
reach out to me, connect with meon social medias.
I'm usually the only VinceGethings or Vincent Gethings on
all the channels.
You can email me, vince@willfulprofits.
com If you want to learnanything more about that.
Tricityequitygroup.
com is our group, but if youwant to see what we're doing
down here in DFW as far as theacquisitions, excellent.
Ed Mathews (37:35):
Vince Gethings.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
We did go a little bit long, soby the time we get through the
editing process, it's going tobe a two-part, but it's time
well spent and you are a wealthof information.
Thank you very much.
Vince Gethings (37:46):
Thank you so much for having me.
You don't want to spend your whole life
climbing a ladder and then youreach the top and realize it's
leaning against the wrong wall.
Ed Mathews (00:36):
Greetings and salutations, Real Estate
Undergrounders.
It is Ed Mathews, again withthe Real Estate Underground.
Thank you so much for making usa part of your day.
Hopefully you're enjoying yourcar ride or your run or wherever
you are right now.
Today I am joined by VinceGethings.
If you've met him at any ofJake and Gino's things, we were
just trying to figure out if wemet at the one I attended.
(00:57):
Vince, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for your timetoday and it's good to see you.
my friend.
Vince Gethings (01:02):
Thank you so much, Ed.
I'm excited to be here.
Ed Mathews (01:03):
So for the folks that haven't met you, why don't
you tell us a little bit aboutyour background?
Vince Gethings (01:08):
Absolutely.
The military is the biggestchunk of my adult life.
I've been in the military since18 years old.
So 2006,.
Started getting into realestate around 2013 using my VA
home loan.
Did what's called the househack on using my VA home loan.
So we did that and I was in astation in California at the
time.
So California, 2013.
(01:30):
Got into my first real estatedeal.
Got the bug.
We sold that house in 2016.
I think I netted around 130,000, if I remember right and I was
like, wow, this is way betterthan my military paycheck.
Let's do more of this.
At that point, 2016, I startedbuying a small multifamily Early
education, pretty much biggerpockets.
There was a couple books outthere it was my knowledge base
(01:51):
at the time.
So I bought single families,duplexes, fourplexes, things
like that.
I had about 20 units from 2016to 2018.
And then at that point, I hit aceiling.
Pretty hard, as most investorsdo, they hit this plateau Once
they run out of their initialcapital, whether it's their nest
egg or 401k accounts orwhatever it is they're pulling
(02:11):
money from, they deploy that andnow they don't know how to get
to the next.
So I hit that very commonplateau investors hit in their
journey and I went, solved itthrough just more education
Cause I was like I see theseother guys doing deals, how are
they doing it?
Especially bigger ones.
So that's when I went to thementorship route.
And 2018, I got into mentorshipgroup, as you mentioned earlier
(02:32):
.
We very quickly caught on tomultifamily, figured it out, got
all the education I needed.
2019, we bought our first 52units.
So I went from four plexes sixplexes so 52 units.
So I went from four plexes, sixplexes so 52 units.
My first deal that was a jointventure with three people, so we
didn't syndicate or anything.
It was a joint venture.
Three people other than myself,so four total.
We spent the whole year of 2019trying to figure out our
(02:54):
systems, our processes, how theteams work and everything like
that.
I'm multifamily, building ourbusiness.
And then 2020 rolled around andwe were off to the races from
there.
Obviously, covid hit and gaveus some good buying
opportunities, really, but wewere off to the races for 2020.
So since 2020, I think as ateam Tri-City Equity Group, my
equity team we've done, I think,18 deals.
(03:15):
Seven or eight of those havegone full cycle.
I think we hit a hundredmillion.
I think right now we might be alittle bit less down.
Maybe 80 million right now inassets, but we have a couple
LOIs out.
We should be at 200, probablyby the end of this year or early
next year.
Assets under management bringsyou up to speed a little bit on
where we're at,
Ed Mathews (03:32):
yeah, and you're also a serial entrepreneur,
right?
So you own a flooring company.
Obviously, you manage in-houseas well, I think, right?
Vince Gethings (03:38):
Yes, we're working integrated.
Ed Mathews (03:46):
Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Vince Gethings (03:46):
Yeah, that was not something we had originally
planned.
So, for the property managementcompany, 2022 hit and if
anybody is listening to this,which a lot of people here are
probably in the game at somelevel of real estate, the market
turned and it's been on a slumpsince then as the cyclical
nature of markets.
2022 hit and we were gettingjust destroyed by our
third-party property managers.
And it wasn't just poorperformance.
There was some negligence,there was some theft, there was
some fraudulent stuff going onand it was just like, month
(04:09):
after month, it's gettingbombarded.
We had some scale in my market.
We went to the team at the Ithink it was the summer of 2022.
I just remember I was like, hey, if there was a time, this is
it.
We have to take control, wehave to wrestle our properties
back.
We owe it to ourselves, we oweit to our investors.
It's going to suck the braindamage of taking our properties
over and starting a propertymanagement company with only I
(04:30):
think we had maybe 250 unitsknowing we're going to have a
significant cash burn becausewe're going to have to hire the
payroll and overhead of aproperty management company.
But we did some math and it waslike, hey, we'd rather have the
cash burn now and scale our wayout of it and continue to have
the performance we're gettingfrom the third party property
managers and it wasn't just one,it was like three Back to back.
(04:51):
We fired them and the next onecame in and very similar, so it
was out of necessity we'rescaled out of it now.
We just kept acquiring andwrapping them up so we have the
payroll now to support itselfand that was a good milestone to
hit in a property managementcompany.
And now we're looking forwardinto the future, the next couple
of years, and we're very happythat we made that decision
(05:12):
because we are very, I guess,lethal when it comes to
underwriting and executing ourbusiness plans because we have
so much more control.
Ed Mathews (05:22):
Yeah, it's amazing.
So we did the same thing and wedid it at around 200 units.
So, yeah, it's a little tightthere for the first step, or
maybe even longer.
So what does that team looklike?
You said hiring people, so wewent down the path of using
handymen and third-party folksthat we had worked with for
years and trusted, but we didn'tbring them in as full-time
(05:44):
employees, and so I'm curiousabout what your team looked like
and how did you scale it?
Vince Gethings (05:49):
when we started, we penciled out a president.
We have Tri-City Equity Groupand they have Black Sand
Property Management Groupseparate entities.
One of the people that washelping me a good friend of mine
.
I've known him for over 10years.
He was helping me as assetmanager under my original
Tri-City Equity Group.
We moved him over and he becamethe president of the property
management company that most ofthe GPs from Tri-City own.
(06:12):
We own the same company buthe's the president, so now we
can divide and conquer.
I'm the asset manager, he's thepresident of the property
management company, checks andbalances.
So that was a really gooddecision there, the way we split
that.
And then under him weoriginally had two property
managers that were floatingbetween the properties.
The original product was smallwe're talking 50, 60 unit
(06:32):
properties so we could split twoproperties between a person and
we're able to help with thepayroll burden that way.
And for maintenance wecontracted out.
We put them on as 1099.
And then we gave them a perticket work order fee.
Maybe it was like $100 toanswer a work order and then,
depending on the triage of it,if it was a plumbing emergency,
(06:55):
maybe it would go up to 250 orsomething like that and that's
what we did until we had enoughscale to hire W-2 employees,
enough scale to hire W2employees.
And where we're at now is wherethe seats we are needing to fill
and we're actively filling is.
We want to bring in unit turnscompletely in-house.
Right now we're one foot in,one foot out.
We're still relying oncontractors a lot for unit turns
(07:15):
, more than I'd like.
So we're going to have a At thenext acquisition.
We can afford a dedicated kindof roving unit turn team two
guys, three guys that's all theydo is bounce around the
portfolio and just do unit turns.
So we can afford that.
I want to bring in landscapingin-house and I want to bring a
marketing director in-house thatjust does all the marketing and
(07:37):
I want to have a legitimateregional VP position.
Right, because we got this onelady.
She is absolutely fantastic andshe's sitting as a regional,
but not fully.
She's still one foot in thetrenches, one foot overseeing.
So we want to be able to affordto pull her all the way back up
to be a legitimate regional orthat kind of VP position and get
(08:02):
some support under her.
So then the next acquisition wehave planned payroll wise,
should be able to fill most, ifnot all those.
Ed Mathews (08:10):
Right on.
Wow, congratulations.
That's one hell of a scalingjob, and so how did you figure
that out?
Obviously, your militarybackground probably led a lot of
in terms of how to build theteam and when to hire and when
to move someone from doing toleadership.
I'm curious where did you learnhow to do that?
Vince Gethings (08:28):
No, there's no secrets to military.
So the military definitelyteaches you how to build,
because me and my partners wereall military, so I was a senior
enlisted officer, my partner isa senior enlisted officer, or
non-commissioned officer rather,and my other partner he was a
retired chief foreign officer.
For so we're all seniorleadership type positions in our
(08:48):
units, building teams, holdingpeople accountable, figuring out
org charts.
It definitely helped.
And then, on the civilian side,I think the best thing was
Traction, gina Wickman, tractionand Scaling Up by Vern Harnish.
Those are probably the bestbooks on just being able to get
a grip on your business andorganization.
I don't there's no reinventingthe wheel, they invented it.
(09:09):
If you need help in this area,just read those books and
execute on the best of yourabilities on that.
I know it's, when you readthose, easy concepts to
understand, incredibly hard toimplement.
You definitely need consistencyand accountability with it, but
that's the secret for thatorganizational structure.
And then, as far as like thepayroll, about what seats to
(09:29):
fill, when that was more soduring our quarterly meetings,
we're looking at payroll.
Do we have a bucket of payrollwe can pull from?
And like the 80-20 rule, wehave 80,000.
That 80,000 to go toward W2payroll.
Where are we going to get thebest bang for our buck on that?
And that's you know how webring our people.
Ed Mathews (09:50):
So when you look at I'm just curious, because we're
actually going through the samething right now.
We're only a few years behindyou.
So the question is when you'relooking at bang for the buck, so
to speak right, are you lookingat it from a revenue generation
perspective?
Are you looking at it from anoperational efficiency, like
when you look at okay, we'regoing to hire and we need value
(10:11):
here.
What's the decision processthat you and your partners are
going through?
Vince Gethings (10:15):
Great question.
The two things that I think wepulled from the most was I can't
remember, it might've beenprofit first or simple numbers.
Yeah, I think it's SimpleNumbers by.
I'm actually looking at GregCrabtree Fantastic books, very
small reads.
I'm going to check that out.
Yeah, it's a good one.
So I think in that one, when weread that as a team, he talks
(10:36):
about revenue per employee, likeas far as KPI Right?
So these people hit that oneno-transcript up units.
(11:10):
So that's how we're looking atit.
You have all your KPIs as anasset manager and now you can
look at it.
Okay, all that's going to leadto economic vacancy.
So how are we going to startknocking that out, that burn off
and those are the ways that wethought about it of who to hire
when,
Ed Mathews (11:28):
yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
There's, as far as EOS goes,Gino Wickman.
I'm a huge proponent of themand you're right, it's a pain in
the neck to install, but do youuse EOS as your operating
system within your company, ordid you just take some facets of
it that worked for you?
How did you think about that?
Vince Gethings (11:46):
We implemented it and then over the years of
tailored back, just based off oflaziness.
So I would say if I were tograde us, I would probably say
we're probably like a C minus on.
We have all the things in placebut we're not doing everything
all the time.
Like the score cards are notlike getting those things,
things.
But we do have our level 10meeting on every company,
religiously, like without fail.
(12:06):
We're doing our level 10 andkpis.
We do the vtos every quarterand update those.
So we do a lot of it, but it'sjust not as intense as that
program is designed to be.
So I think that's part that wecan definitely improve on yeah
those mentors are very expensiveso
Ed Mathews (12:24):
They are, yes, using best practices.
Nothing wrong with that if it'srigorous to implement that, and
it's probably even more rigorousthan your initial career in the
military yeah, or at least asrigorous, right, yeah and okay
and then.
So you're at about how manyunits these days.
Vince Gethings (12:44):
I'm trying to think where we have.
We have one under sale orselling in two weeks maybe like
800, 800 or something.
Right now I think we'vetransacted around like 1400, but
it's we always.
So we got our conveyor beltright, so we always got stuff
coming on, stuff going off.
But I think ad centermanagement is around a hundred,
I think, units around 800.
Ed Mathews (13:05):
Okay, wow, congratulations.
And so what's the grand plan?
When are you?
You're a young guy.
When do you know you're done,if you ever are?
Vince Gethings (13:13):
I think I'll be done with certain aspects of
this business Once I hit certainlevels of either passive
cashflow or net worth.
I think me and my team arealigned on moving intentionally
toward consistently higherquality, bigger assets.
The bigger the asset is, thebigger the payroll bucket is,
(13:34):
and we can just hire somebody todo that job for us.
I think we're all consciouslygoing toward longer term holds
bigger, newer assets that we canjust have a full on team doing
everything.
So we've got to work our way upthere.
Ed Mathews (13:47):
Yeah, and let's briefly talk about your buy box,
right, so you're talking aboutnewer assets,
Vince Gethings (13:51):
Absolutely! Exciting too.
Ed Mathews (13:52):
, yes, so where did you start in terms of targets
and where are you looking thesedays?
Vince Gethings (13:58):
Yeah.
So this is actually prettycrazy.
Every time I say this I'm like,wow, that really happened.
So, for context, that first JVwe did that was like 1.4 million
, did that was like 1.4 million.
The last deal we did was 29million, and we're talking a
span of five years.
So it's pretty crazy.
The analogy that we use is theconveyor belt theory.
Right, so it's yourfive-year-long conveyor belt.
(14:20):
Your job is to stack assets onthe conveyor belt as it's going
down the conveyor belt.
You're building up equity,you've got the cash flow, you're
getting the depreciation loan,pay down all the things that we
do this game for.
And then you have those capitalevents, sale of refinances and
then the key is not to eat offthat.
Don't go by the course just yet.
Just reinvest that, get thatsnowball going, the Warren
Buffett snowball.
(14:41):
And when we look back at ourportfolio of how we executed
this, the first deals we did,the first four, were all between
1.5 and 2.5 million.
That was the first kind of runof the conveyor belt.
The second turn we're talkingnow, 2021 to 2020, was like five
to 6 million.
So we sold all those tradedwith the $1 million properties
but $5 million properties andthose are all selling now and
(15:02):
now the last couple of dealswe've bought were 10 to 30
million In the buy box.
We're going on now.
We're not really looking atanything under 20 million right
now.
The exponential growth of thatconveyor belt is pretty exciting
to watch happen
Ed Mathews (15:18):
50 some odd units at 1.4,.
That was probably a class Cbuilding a little bit.
Vince Gethings (15:22):
We didn't even start switching to nicer quality
buildings until really, like2023 is when we made the
decision hey, we're going to gofor higher quality product.
Okay, but everything up to thatpoint was C-class value add.
Ed Mathews (15:38):
Yeah, gotcha, and yeah, we are on the same path.
That's so funny.
I'm two years behind you.
So, as far as the buildings now, what markets do you like?
Vince Gethings (15:47):
We're only in Dallas, fort Worth Metro Park.
So that was a big decision wemade in 2020.
We scaled really fast by goingwide, going a mile wide.
We picked a lot of markets andwe're going to go wherever the
deals are.
So we had deals in five, sixdifferent states.
I was flying all over and thenI became the bottleneck, because
that's a lot of propertymanagers to manage A lot of
states.
That's a lot of propertymanagers to manage.
There's a lot of states.
That's a lot of stuff to managein a lot of different areas.
(16:08):
So we started dropping someplates and we became the
bottleneck.
At the end of 2022, we're likeall right, what market do we
like the best?
What's the most best performing?
What properties are the bestperforming?
What has the best outlook forthe next 10 years and for us and
our goals and where we were inour lives?
Dallas was the choice we pickedwith, so we started selling
everything that wasn't here inDallas and then I moved here.
Ed Mathews (16:30):
Smart, yeah, and if only for the efficiency of the
property management company.
Vince Gethings (16:35):
But I was flying a lot, so I was like yeah, we
just moved there.
Ed Mathews (16:39):
Yeah, and you require sleep right Every once
in a while you got to shut thoseeyes, so it's a lot being on a
plane all the time.
Okay, and then the otherquestion I'm curious about is
with regard to the otherbusinesses that you have the
flooring business, theinsulation business do they
serve your property managementcompany or are they client
facing?
Vince Gethings (16:58):
Both, and it's actually interesting so the way
that this came about.
Most people think propertymanagement is just going
vertically and bringingeverything in the house.
That's what we're doing now,but that wasn't the original
idea.
So the original reason that Igot into the business side of
the house home services wasbecause when I was getting out
of the military, I needed a W-2job, because for anybody that's
listening, that has someproperties and they're trying to
(17:19):
quit their W-2, that'sfantastic.
Once your cashflow reaches thattakeover thing, you're going to
have a huge problem when you goto get a loan for a car or a
house and all you have is abunch of passive income.
The bank's going to destroy youand that's what happened to me
was I was getting out of themilitary, I was trying to buy a
house and I got denied and I waslike I make way more to cover
(17:42):
this and they're like twoproblems.
One, you're leaving your W-2that you've been in for 16 years
and so we can't use that incomeand all your other income is
passive income from real estateand our underwriting guidelines
is to discount that or notaccept it at all.
So that is the double side ofhaving that passive income for
(18:02):
freedom is you still need to becredit worthy, and a lot of
banks don't like passive income.
They'll discount it if theyaccept it at all.
So my solution for that wasI'll just start a company and
I'll give myself a W-2 from thatcompany.
Now that's what theinstallation company was for.
It served a purpose to givemyself a W-2.
So if I want to go get a carloan, anything with credit, I
(18:24):
could give them my pay stubs ormy W-2 from being the owner of
that franchise and that worked.
That solved that problem.
Going forward, that's when westarted.
So there's about a three orfour year gap between the
installation company and theflooring company.
And then that's when we startedlooking at the efficiencies,
and mainly I was.
(18:45):
That company happened to fallon my lap and so we can do a
whole show just on that.
But we were already looking atthose types of opportunities and
the way I was looking at it wasas an asset manager.
I'm looking at the P&Ls all thetime and I'm like, wow, these
foreign guys are getting a lotof our money, but what can we do
for that?
So I was just going down theP&Ls trying to figure out what
we can bring in house or what wecan eliminate and just get
(19:07):
control of.
And that's where the homeservices really stuck out to me.
They're really simplebusinesses.
They're everywhere, notcomplicated to run, and then
once you figure out one of them,a plumbing company is going to
be 90% the same as a flooringcompany, as a HVAC company.
It's like the same businesscycle, just different tradesmen,
maybe a different certificationor whatever, but essentially
the way the business runsmarketing, cashflow cycle,
(19:30):
that's all the same.
Ed Mathews (19:31):
Yep, a hundred percent.
So, in terms of, there's a hugemove in private equity, for
instance, to buy boomerbusinesses that are just about
to retire and are thinking aboutretiring and coming in and
cashing them out and taking onthe business.
What's your thinking in termsof?
I know you bought theinsulation business.
I think I heard you say it wasa franchise.
What is your thinking in termsof buying existing businesses
(19:55):
versus starting your own andgrowing it organically?
Vince Gethings (19:59):
I probably wouldn't start a company
organically.
It's a lot of brain damage andit's been very popular.
You have a lot of influencersand very smart people like
Walker Deibel or Cody Sanchez.
That's their thing, that'stheir wheelhouse.
Very smart people Having doneboth real estate and running
multiple small businesses.
The real estate's way easier.
(20:20):
So I don't want to romanticizethat.
Hey, real estate's dead.
You got to buy these the silverwave and the boomer businesses
and they're just out there forthe taking.
There is a ton of opportunitybut it is way more work.
You have employees, you havepayroll, you have angry
customers, you have all thethings right.
So all the things and all thestressors, it is significantly
(20:43):
more than just buying a 40-unit,50-unit, 100-unit property and
find a property manager thereand having to deal with that and
the cashflow swings can giveyou a PTSD.
In multifamily you run at 80%occupancy and it's like
devastating right.
Oh my God.
This is terrible In a business.
You can have a $50,000 swing.
(21:04):
One week you make 200 grand,the next week you can make 50.
You have to have the stomach todeal with it.
I've done it and it stillhappened.
It's still happening.
It's not for the weak stomach.
I definitely don't want toromanticize it, saying if you
can figure this out, you can dothat.
It's significantly harder.
It's more risk, a lot morereward If you can get the cash
flow businesses right.
For me, my experience is homeservices.
(21:25):
I'll just talk about homeservices.
If you can get that right, theyare money printing machines.
The biggest lessons is I wouldtry to do with no debt at all or
very little debt.
Sba loan is probably the worstdebt on my balance sheet of $50
million of debt.
That one SBA loan is probablythe worst terms I've ever gotten
on anything.
(21:45):
I would try to avoid that.
I would try to either do paycash seller financing, anything
but the SBA.
It's a good resource If youhave nowhere else to turn.
They will usually get it done,but it wouldn't be my first
choice ever.
Yeah, I do think there is anopportunity out there.
They are right that there's theboomer thing out there, but
it's retiring and thosebusinesses are out there, but
(22:06):
definitely not something to justget shiny object syndrome and
hop into and take on a bunch ofrisks.
Everything that goes into that.
Ed Mathews (22:13):
Yeah, and it's a lot right, yeah.
So I wholeheartedly agree withyou on the SBA thing too.
Tread lightly, that is a loanof last resort.
Yes, yeah, seller financing isusually better for the seller
and it's usually better for you.
Absolutely Right, all right.
Hey, let's start to land thisplane, let's get into the final
five and you're a reallysuccessful guy.
(22:35):
Congratulations again.
When I meet people like you,one of the things that I've
realized about all of us is themortgage is getting paid.
If you have a family, the kids'college funds are all funded.
Your significant other has anice new car.
Every couple of years, payingthe bills is not a big deal, but
nevertheless you get out of bedon Monday morning and go to
(22:55):
work with a whole lot of energyand passion.
So what is?
And obviously that boils downto purpose.
I'm curious what gets you outof bed on Monday morning?
What's your purpose?
Vince Gethings (23:06):
Wow.
So that's usually the firstthing.
I think it's a balance betweenlike legacy for my family and
just making sure that theyunderstand how to, because the
money will come and go, thematerial stuff will come and go,
but if they understand how tomake money in this world, how to
live a happy life in this world, what it actually takes to be
successful in this world, and Ican pass that on and they can
(23:28):
pass that on and so on and havethat in terms of generational
wealth.
In that way, rather than justthe money and the trust, the
principles, the values, the workethic, I think is what gets me
up.
And then the other side of itis just trying to push to see
what my true potential is, likefull potential, rather of like,
what can I actually do?
Where's the breaking point?
(23:48):
And I get there.
Often You're like, oh, that wasa little too far, let's tone it
back a little bit.
Ed Mathews (23:53):
Look back on the last six, seven, eight years.
Right, how many of thosebarriers did you bump up against
, eventually push through.
And now you look back and it'swow, I can't even believe that
was a problem.
Vince Gethings (24:05):
Yeah, exactly, and a lot of things that you
thought was just insurmountable.
Just needed a little bit ofpatience, a little bit of time
and a little bit of gooddecision-making and get through
it and you grow through it.
Growth on the other side, yeah.
Ed Mathews (24:17):
All right.
Another thing that I'm alwayscurious about is mentorship and
the people that have had animpact on our lives and because
I think that, especially in realestate, this is a team sport by
and large, right, and it's ateam sport in terms of the folks
that work with and for you, butalso the people that have
helped you figure stuff out thatreally don't have a stake in
your success other than the factthat they like and respect you,
(24:39):
right.
I'm curious about mentors inyour life and, specifically,
what's the best advice you evergot and who gave it to you.
Vince Gethings (24:47):
Absolutely.
A lot of people hesitate so muchon getting a coach, getting a
mentor in any aspect of theirlife.
And I'm telling you that everyroom I've been in with
successful people, all the wayfrom just you know they hit the
1 million mark, all the way upto billionaires they all have
coaches, they all have multiplecoaches to serve.
Maybe it's a health coach,maybe it's a business coach,
(25:12):
maybe it's a business coach,maybe it's a mindset coach,
maybe it's a whatever.
They all have coaches, they allhave mentors.
They all have a personal boardof directors that they can go
into and trust with theirproblems.
And hey, I just need to bouncean idea off you about this
business deal.
You know, you don't even haveto say anything, just ask
questions.
So help me pull through thisidea.
Most people don't have that andthey don't look for that and
for some reason they don't thinkit's necessary.
I'm telling you, everysuccessful person I know has not
(25:35):
just one coach or mentor, butmultiple for very specific
things.
I'm 36, been in the military,know how to work out, and I was
just like, hey, I'm droppingsome rungs on that ladder.
And my wife said, hey, youshould go get a personal trainer
.
And I never would have crossedmy mind to go get a personal
trainer to work out for somebodythat's generally fit.
(25:55):
That dude whooped my ass thisweek, the three sessions.
I'm like I haven't felt that inyears.
So I was like, yep, she wasright, just a little bit humble
there and now it's boom, I gotthat box checked.
Now I got a personal trainerand get my health back in check.
Okay, as far as best advicevery situational, I think one of
the best advice, not from apersonal one the first thing
(26:15):
that came to mind and I'll gowith that is Stephen Covey.
His books are absolutelyphenomenal.
I went through the seven habitscourse very early in my career
probably 24, 25, which is apivotal time of me getting into
real estate.
You don't want to spend yourwhole life climbing a ladder and
then you reach the top andrealize it's leaning against the
(26:36):
wrong wall.
That is a quote from his bookand he talks about it in his
lectures.
That really stuck with me ofmake sure you have an end in
mind, make sure you have clarityon what you're pushing forward.
You're sacrificing your youthfor the time with your family,
all this stuff that you'resacrificing for and working for
make sure it's something thatyou actually want.
His example is more corporateright, you don't want to spend
(26:57):
your whole life climbing aladder the corporate ladder and
realizing you're miserable as aVP or whatever.
That corner office thing as myvertical background as a corner
office in New York, but thatthings as my vertical background
as a corner office in New York,but that was a great example
and that one stuck with me andthat was planted that seed of
the inception of maybe themilitary.
Isn't this the 20 year careerthat I set out for?
Maybe it isn't going to fulfillme like I thought it was
originally.
Ed Mathews (27:18):
Yeah, it's interesting, I experienced that
as well.
I know a lot of friends andcolleagues who have worked their
butts off to get to that corneroffice.
And then you get there andyou're like, man, is this all
there is really?
This is what I've been doingfor 25 years.
Everyone drinks a lot.
Vince Gethings (27:34):
So when I became a senior so it's like your
mid-management type, you mean,the guys that actually work for
a living yeah, they're alldrinking like so much and I'm
like, wow, you guys just reallyjust drink every day and they're
generally not happy.
So that was kind of like, isthis really what I got to look
forward for the next 10 to 15years
Ed Mathews (27:51):
as far as you've had a lot of success in your career
, obviously, but we all makemistakes, and I personally think
mistakes are a good thing,because that's how we learn.
I think we learn a lot more fromour mistakes than our successes
, and so I'm curious about adecision you'd love to have back
and how did you handle it andwhat'd you do?
Vince Gethings (28:11):
If we were going to keep it for real estate,
Ed Mathews (28:12):
Whatever you want.
Vince Gethings (28:13):
A more recent one was we got retraded on loan
terms from a lender right at theclosing table and at the time,
in my experience and kind of theemotional hey, we got to close
in two days.
They just re-traded us and itwas what are we going to do?
Kind of thing, and we ended uppushing through and closing the
deal out of the scarcity mindsetof I don't want to lose my
(28:34):
earnest money because we failedto close.
But they ended up retrading uson terms.
This was two years ago and inhindsight, with my experience I
have now I probably could take adeep breath, went back to the
broker and seller, explained tohim what happened and say, hey,
I'll give you another 30, 40, 50grand of earnest money for 30
(28:54):
more days.
Let me figure this out.
Let's pause the clock for alittle bit and let me work on
this lender that just pulledthis move on us.
At the time they were playinghardball and I just didn't know
the nuances of the game like Iknow now.
Actually, this was three yearsago and, looking back, I
probably could have got them toextend that contract with a
(29:15):
little bit of hey, I'll put 50Khard, just give me 30 more days
to figure this out.
And we're feeling the effects ofthat retrade now.
It's putting us in a positionwhere the deal is not in
jeopardy in any way.
We have a good liquidityposition, we have a good equity
and everything that.
But it's forcing us to eitherrefinance or have our interest
rate, because what happened isthe interest rate is going to
(29:37):
reprice the market.
So we were locked at four andnow it's going to re-rate, lock
at seven.
We didn't underwrite that right, so our cashflow is going to
take a pretty big hit.
We'll still be fine, the deal'snot in jeopardy.
But it's like we're trying towork through that now with the
lender and try to get them tohonor their original terms.
But in hindsight that mistakeis causing me a lot of time.
Now that I'm dealing with it,we'll probably have to pay some
(29:57):
fees for whatever.
Looking back, I probably shouldhave held my ground a little
more, been a little bit morepatient and less emotional and
just bought more time to figureit out, rather than say, hey,
we'll close and figure it outlater.
It's not slated, you'refiguring it out.
Yeah, now I'm figuring it out.
So that was a more recent onethat I could think of.
But generally go a little bitslower in these deals and not
(30:20):
just getting emotional what Jakecalled it to get their itis.
We got to get the deal done.
You don't want to lose your EMDor reputation or whatever with
the broker.
It's a ghost law and this iswhere partners really help.
If you know you're theemotional one I'm generally not
the emotional one but if youknow that you have this fault or
weakness about yourself, havingpartners to keep you grounded
(30:40):
and say, hey, let's take abreath, let's take a pause,
let's talk this through, and youhave those people in your group
that you can trust and justsounding board ideas.
It's immeasurable how valuablethat is.
Have that group of peoplerather than you in a silo trying
to figure all this stuff out onyour own.
There's a lot of moving partsand the bigger the deals get,
the more those consequencessting and you make a mistake.
(31:02):
But it's not a $10,000 mistake.
It could be a $100,000,$200,000,.
Make a mistake, but it's not a$10,000 mistake.
right, that's really smart.
All right, I'm also interestedin how leaders like you take in
information and how you grow.
So talk to me about the book orhowever you take in information
on your virtual or physicalnightstand.
(31:22):
Who are you reading these daysand what are you paying
attention to?
On my nightstand I have the Bible and Atlas
Shrugged.
I've been reading this thingfor like a decade.
I don't know if you ever heldthat book, but it's like yeah
sitting upstairs as we speak.
So I'm going to finish it thisyear.
So I'm trying to finish thatone and then get into the Bible
a little bit more than I used to.
As far as technical information, as far as running businesses,
(31:45):
it's usually Audible.
I'll usually go get the Audibleand if I like what I hear and
it's not just a plop marketingpiece, then I'll buy the hard
copy and then I'll go throughthis in Audible and highlight
with my highlighters and usethem as like textbooks and
reference books.
So I always have myhighlighters and I'm always
highlighting and tabbing out ifit's actually a useful book and
(32:11):
that's usually what I do forkind of the more technical
aspects and then I try to teachit back as fast as possible.
That's one of the most powerfullearning methods out there and
retention is as soon as you getinformation.
If you can have somebody evenif it's your spouse or whatever
try to explain to them what youjust read, will make it stick.
I forget the stat on this, butit's significantly higher
retention and comprehension willmake it stick.
I forget the stat on this, butit's significantly higher
retention and comprehension Ifyou read something and
immediately try to teach it backto somebody.
It like swaps it over from likethe left side of the right side
(32:33):
or something like that, and itsure does the long-term.
I don't know all the technicalstuff on that, but I know that
absolutely works.
Ed Mathews (32:39):
So is active reading , which is what you're talking
about in terms of listening andreading along the way.
I'm one of those guys too.
I take them in the margins andunderline stuff, and I use a
highlighter as well.
So the last thing I wanted toask you about and then we'll get
into the close of the show isabout success.
How do you define success inyour life?
Vince Gethings (32:57):
I'm in a transitional period right now.
Up to this point me today.
It's going to be the ability todo what I want when I want,
with whom I want, where I want.
Right, it's 10 am on a Fridayand I'm here speaking with you.
Right, I'm not at some officesomewhere, I have the location
freedom.
So I have some of these boxesI've already been able to check.
(33:18):
We're going to France most ofthe month of August and I can
work from there as long as Ihave Wi-Fi.
So I have the location freedom.
So we're checking off this ideaof freedom that we have for our
family.
The next level of thattransition is probably the
ability to just happily say noto pretty much anything I want
for any reason.
It's thank you, but no, anybusiness opportunity, anything
(33:42):
that comes my way.
I think that will be for me.
Where I'm at now is a good nextstep is because right now
it's's I have businesses and Ihave people relying on me.
I have people that need me.
I'm a leader to them.
I have to serve them becausethey have families.
So I can't just be like allright, guys, I'm out and I have
30 something, 40 employees,their families.
So I am still, I haveobligations and I am at the top
(34:04):
of that (no-transcript).
Ed Mathews (34:33):
Awesome, it is a good goal.
One of the things I did want tomention is the wheelbarrow
profit, so you're now involvedwith that.
Can you tell me a little bitmore about that before we close
out?
Vince Gethings (34:41):
Oh, absolutely.
So.
I actually acquired the companyin January.
So I was a member and I cameback as a coach.
So I've been coaching for themfor five years and then in
January I took over.
So now the owner of it, jakeand Gino, are still around, but
I'm the one leading it andtaking it to the next level.
We're very excited about thingsthat are coming and continue to
(35:06):
carry that torch.
We are biased here, but I thinkwe are the best community out
there.
Our stats are unbelievable wehave.
Last time Gino gave me thenumbers, there was like 80,000
units acquired from thecommunity, over 5 billion in
real estate acquired from thecommunity.
There's not another group outthere that can really touch
those numbers for success in thecommunity.
I am very grateful and veryexcited to see if the next
(35:29):
chapter is a Wheelbarrow Prophet.
Excellent Congratulations.
Yeah, and then I did have a.
I did put this here.
So I have a book, theWheelbarrow Prophet's Book.
It's the original book by Jakeand Gino.
That kind of started it all.
Anybody that wants to reach outI'm sure you'll have something
in the show notes Reach out.
I got digital copies of this.
I'll send it to everybodylistening that just wants to
check it out, and I'm happy todo that.
Ed Mathews (35:49):
Yeah, so I did not go through the Jake and Gino
training, but I have read thatbook and I had Gino actually on
the show last year sometime andthey have been incredibly
generous.
They've taught me a whole lotabout what it means from a
customer service perspective interms of whole lot about what it
means from a customer serviceperspective in terms of I
(36:09):
remember Jake saying somethingalong the lines of that they
aspired to be the Chick-fil-A of.
That's true and it's a standardI try to live up to as well
here.
Congratulations.
It's a heck of a community.
I know you went, and I did aswell, at five and I'm pretty
sure we shook hands.
That's a heck of a communityand if you want to learn more
about it, first step is to readthat book.
I highly encourage everybody totake advantage of Vince's very
(36:30):
generous offer.
All right, man.
So when not talking about realestate, you did talk about
France, so we'll assume that'spart of this.
Vince Gethings (36:36):
What do you like to do.
Right now I got my kids intodirt bikes.
We try to do that when we can.
All my kids play travel soccer,so that pretty much consumes
everything out to the very thinmargins of the calendar.
If anybody listening has everplayed any kind of travel sport,
or their kids have a commitmentthere.
I am a private pilot and nowthat I'm in Texas I've been here
for about a year, so I'mlooking to possibly get back
(36:58):
into that, get another plane andjust cruise around in the sky.
That's my happy place issomewhere around five 6,000 feet
just cruising.
Get back into that, hopefullyhere, maybe this summer, wow.
Ed Mathews (37:07):
That's great.
And then if somebody wants tolearn more about you or Tri-City
or any of your other companies,what's the best way to do that?
Vince Gethings (37:15):
For me, I'm on all the social media so you can
reach out to me, connect with meon social medias.
I'm usually the only VinceGethings or Vincent Gethings on
all the channels.
You can email me, vince@willfulprofits.
com If you want to learnanything more about that.
Tricityequitygroup.
com is our group, but if youwant to see what we're doing
down here in DFW as far as theacquisitions, excellent.
Ed Mathews (37:35):
Vince Gethings.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
We did go a little bit long, soby the time we get through the
editing process, it's going tobe a two-part, but it's time
well spent and you are a wealthof information.
Thank you very much.
Vince Gethings (37:46):
Thank you so much for having me.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.