From outfielder to millionaire investor! In this inspiring episode of Multifamily Millionaires, you’ll discover how Bruce transformed his financial life by creating $5 million in equity in just four years through strategic multifamily investing.
Meet Bruce: Multifamily Millionaire in 4 Years
Peter: Hello, everyone. Welcome again! I have an amazing guest here today, his name is Bruce. He’s been with us for a number of years, and he’s a multimillionaire. Thank you, Bruce, for joining us today.
Bruce: Hey, thanks so much for having me.
Peter: All right, well, we’re going to jump right into it, Bruce. Could you share a little bit about yourself or a brief introduction of who you are and why you jumped into multifamily?
Bruce: Oh, sure. So let me start with why I jumped in because I think this is important. I started with single family houses, purchasing single family, duplexes, triplexes, and quads. But the scale wasn’t there and the time it was taking to recoup the money or make good money, it just wasn’t happening.
So, I was searching around, I saw you online and followed you for a little while. I was like, this man is easy to understand, and I think I can relate to what he has to offer. I do want to have a mentor; I don’t want to jump into something like this and not know what I’m doing. And so, I joined Commercial Property Advisors. I wanted to be able to spend more time with my family and get outside of having to worry about the W2 and being beholden to what that dictates. I thought it was very important to take my life in my own hands and I’m happy I did.
Peter: And I understand that you have an athletic background. What was that?
Bruce: Yes. I got drafted out of college, I was an outfielder. The Braves selected me back in the 1993 and I played a few years with them and then got a chance to go over with the Yankees before sports injuries caught up to me at a young age. But it was fun.
Peter: Awesome. Well, you still look like you’re in good shape.
Bruce: Thank you, I try! You got to keep up.
The Power of Multifamily Investing
Peter: All right, Bruce, let’s jump into what you purchased with us. You purchased a 19 unit and then a 24 unit. Can you just go over this with us briefly; what you bought, why you like them, things like that?
Property #1: 18 Unit Multifamily + Single Family Cottage
Bruce: Certainly. This is the good part, right? So, we’ll start with the first property I bought. I was only in the program a few months and I caught a gentleman that wasn’t really trying to sell anything. Honestly, I’ve never met him to this day. But we had spent hours on the phone, me building rapport with him. One conversation was about 4 hours, believe it or not. But the reason this property was so appealing to me is he had owned it for quite some time. He had not raised his rents in years so it had a ton of upside and it’s in an area that’s highly sought after.
So, I went ahead and continue the conversation with this gentleman and through that process I was able to get him to fix all of the dry rot, water leaks, everything that needed to be done. He took care of $100, 000 worth of issues for me only through rapport because I’ve never met him. We have never even had lunch or dinner together.
Value Add Strategy: Renovate and Increase Rents
So, these were a mix of 2 bedrooms and 1 bedroom: the 1-bedroom units were renting for $660, the 2 bedrooms were about $800.
We were able to raise those rents over time to about $1450 for the 2 bedrooms and now we’re at $1095 for the 1-bedroom units. Plus we had put some storage underneath that we rent to tenants and a cottage that’s out there too and we rent that as well.
Appreciated Value
It’s been tremendous. We purchased it at $1,730,000 and now it’s worth about $4,500,000. That’s the value add that we were able to create with this property and it’s been steady. We don’t have any vacancy issues. I have a solid property management team that I’m always in contact with, it’s very important to have a relationship with them. Inspect what you expect because you never know what could happen, but it’s been a good relationship. I think I’ll hold on to this one.
(Check out our first interview with Bruce and his wife Renee for more details on their first multifamily deal: Why Invest in Apartments Over Single-Family Rentals)
Asset Management
Peter: I think so too. The property management is key, isn’t it?
Bruce: It certainly is. It is, we basically live and die by them. So, if you’re absent and you’re allowing them to take care of your building and you’re not involved. Well, you never know what could happen. Then later, it will be too late for you to find out what it was and fix that. And now you’re in arrears six months. That’s not easy to get out of sometimes.
Peter: I recall you and I and your wife sitting down for many months when you first purchased it, making sure we had everything in place and then you’d take over and the system is running.
Bruce: And I appreciate that guidance, making sure things were lining up and we were on track with things. The financing is always the tough part, no matter who you are and what you have, with the banks and what they need. I got knocked down a couple of times, but we kept going and we were able to make it happen with this property.
Property #2: 24 Unit Multifamily
Peter: So that was a 19 unit, then there was a 24 unit right after that, right?
Bruce: Correct. So, there’s another upside property that we found. This was out in Wichita Falls where the market’s a little different. It’s a little smaller market but it had upside too.
Value Add Strategy: Renovate and Increase Rents
That property was about a $1,850,000 purchase. It’s another mix, 6 1 bedrooms and the rest are 2 bedrooms, and we were able to raise those about 200 per unit across the board. But we did go in and we updated the interiors for the value add. We’re also going to paint all the exterior like we did with the first property. We painted it, and it looks beautiful. We put solar panels on that one.
Appreciated Value
The valuation on this one is $3,500,00 now.
Peter: Awesome. $3.5 million, how long did it take you, Bruce, on that project to go from $1.85 to $3.5? What amount of time has elapsed?
Bruce: So that took about 2 and a half years. We could have got there faster, but the problem was I had aligned myself with a property management company, that I vetted, but unfortunately, they weren’t holding their end of the bargain up. I had to get out of that contract immediately because it was causing vacancies that were not being filled. I then put something online myself and advertised and I started getting people asking me about the apartment complex that they weren’t getting. So, that was a real problem.
I’d already had relationships within that area, so I made my phone calls, and I spoke with you about this too through your mentoring and we talked through that. And then I signed up with the current one I have now and it is the night and day for I was before to where it is. Now, I’m glad I did it. This is why I stress it’s very important that you’re close to your property management company. If I weren’t, it might be months before I understood where I was. It took me 3, that was all I could give him and then I had to make change.
Peter: Thank you for sharing that Bruce because a lot of other podcasts out there don’t talk about the difficulties of owning a bunch of multifamily or commercial properties. This is part of the battle, and you must know how to navigate those waters.
You did that quite well and now the property is worth $3.5 million. So, congratulations there.
Bruce: Thank you. That’s very true. Here we are transparent in what we do and how we offer what we share. It’s very important. Yeah, I appreciate it.
Achieving Financial Freedom: What’s Changed?
Peter: So, now that you and your wife are multifamily millionaires, what’s changed in your life?
Benefit #1: More Family Time
Bruce: A lot! Yeah, so this is the best part of everything, with us doing this and jumping into the commercial space, it’s afforded us the time for family. Everybody wishes they had more time but the 9 to 5, you’re here, you’re gone, you’re passing in the night, you have young kids and the time is limited, right? But once you figure out how you can take that monetary system in your own hands and understand how it works with commercial property, it’s just a beneficial thing. And now you have the time with your family to do what you want when you want to. You don’t have to wait and ask for time off. It’s your time, you control that now. It’s a beautiful thing.
This is what I wish and hope for everyone, to take their life in their own hands. It should be in their own hands. And then steer it the way you want to go, and commercial property is the avenue for that. That’s to me is a no brainer. You have all the tax benefits and you’re helping people live somewhere with a roof over their heads in a nice place. And you’re benefiting too through appreciation.
Peter: So your first benefit was no W2, because every time I call you, you’re taking kids to karate practice or something. You’re sending me pictures the kids doing a karate pose.
Bruce: I know they love it. They love it. That’s right.
Peter: That reminds me of one of the true benefits for me too. I mentioned to you as well, that when my son PJ was maybe your kid’s age, I was a single dad and my neighbors, we used to team together and take a kid to school. I said, “One day I’m going to take all the neighbor’s kids to school.”
And I did that through buying real estate. So, I was able to, the junior and senior year of high school, I took them all to school. They piled up in my truck, took them all to school. Didn’t brush my teeth, didn’t comb my hair, my pajamas on, a t-shirt on, hair messed up, but a big smile on my face. That’s what’s important.
Bruce: That’s right, because I can take mine to school and pick them up and their field trips, I can go on and chaperone and be involved. You’re not missing those pertinent times. That’s what it’s about.
Benefit #2: More Opportunities
Peter: How about another benefit?
Bruce: Again, benefits would that be more opportunities. I have more opportunities to either take vacations or pursue other avenues. One of those, my passion is martial arts. I really enjoy that. And with the income that I’m getting from my commercial properties, it’s allowed me to pursue that and open a few academies. It helps the community, I’m helping a lot of young kids learn confidence, dedication, perseverance, and focus and it really helps them in school as well.
Peter: This is what real estate can do for you. It gives you options, and you have a passion for martial arts and you’re able to take the income from your real estate and apply it to your passion, right? And make money while you’re at it. These are cash flowing entities. These are cash flow, right? That’s awesome.
Pearls of Wisdom from Bruce
Peter: Bruce, thank you for sharing all this. Our audience is mainly beginners, intermediates, some advanced, what are some pearls of wisdom you’d like to share with them? For those that want to get into the business and perhaps do what you’re doing?
Pearl #1: Get a Mentor
Bruce: First and foremost, I will tell each one of them: If you’ve been here a while or you’re new, you must have a mentor. You do not want to jump into this without having someone who has been there, done that, and can guide you through the ups and downs so you don’t make mistakes that cost you millions of dollars because you thought you could do it on your own. This is not a game here, right? This is life, and you want to make sure that you’re making your best educated moves when you’re using this kind of money. That’s why I joined Commercial Property Advisors and look at where it took me.
Peter: Also, you and I were talking a while back, there’s a cost to join our mentorship and you were able to recoup that on the first deal. Can you share a bit about that?
Bruce: That’s right. I paid some money to get in and with my first deal I recouped that multiple times already, so it’s well worth it! Yeah, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Peter: And you were able to recoup your tuition to work with us in your negotiations, right?
Bruce: Oh, that’s right. I forgot about. Yeah, that’s right. And through negotiations and all we did, soon as we closed on that deal, it paid for itself and then some.
Peter: Yeah, I remember that.
Bruce: So, yeah, it’s a beautiful thing. Again, anybody listening to us, you need a mentor. If you think you can do it on your own and you go out there and you make the mistakes that you may not be able to come back from – better safe than sorry. It’s open and available. Peter’s an awesome mentor and coach, very easy to understand. It’s well worth the time to do so.
Pearl #2: Establish a Network of Relationships
Peter: Great. So, pearl of wisdom from Bruce, number one is to get a mentor. How about number two?
Bruce: Number two, I would say, we like to get off market deals so there’s no liaison between you and the seller. So, it’s all about building these relationships; you must build and establish a network of relationships wherever you’re going to purchase your property. Make sure you have a network of people that you’ve dealt with so they know you and you know them. I think that’s essential in what we do. It’s all about relationships
Peter: And these relationships will be with whom?
Bruce: Well, these relationships will be with property management companies in the areas you’re going out to. They will also be brokers. I’m not saying you’re going to buy through a broker, but a broker can get you a pocket listing that’s not listed so you’re not competing against anybody. Don’t be intimidated by talking to brokers, right? They might be qualified, but you want them to be so you can tell them exactly what you’re looking for and they can bring to you what makes sense for you.
Peter: I would say, knowing you, you’re good at creating relationships with sellers, on both deals you did a phenomenal job there. Property management, your ability to nurture those relationships is why you’re so successful today. And lenders, your first deal you refinanced and pulled your money out and you have amazing terms on both deals because of your relationship with these guys.
Bruce: That’s correct. Elaborating on that, I’d say the lenders very important too. You want to get out there and let these lenders know in the areas you’re going after what you’re trying to do so they know you when you bring something to them. And you should have attorney. Your attorney should be state specific though. You don’t want to have an attorney out in Florida, and you live in California. They won’t know the laws out here. So, it’s very important that you also have an attorney in your Rolodex that you have communicated with to do business with. It’s essential.
Peter: Okay, another pearl of wisdom from Bruce?
Pearl #3: Fall in Love with the Numbers
Bruce: Fall in love with the numbers, not the property. A lot of times people see a property, it looks so nice, and they go ahead and purchase that property, but it’s not functioning or making the dollars that it could. So you’re going to lose money ultimately. You’re going to buy something that doesn’t make any sense.
Peter: You can’t say that any better Bruce. That is so true. And that’s what we teach here, right?
Bruce: Yes, it is. Analyzing the numbers. Again, for new folks, when you come and you join this family here, you want to go ahead and get yourself up to take the initiative to start getting deals that are listed, that you start putting into our system and analyze the numbers to understand what that looks like. Then when you have your own deal, you’ll know what it looks like rather than waiting until you have one that you want to acquire. And then you’re going to be asking, what is this?
Peter: Yeah. Three awesome pearls of wisdom. Thanks, Bruce.
Bruce: You’re very welcome.
Peter: All right, Bruce. I know you’re busy, I just want to thank you for joining us today.
Bruce: Oh, no, hey, it’s my pleasure. Again, I appreciate everything. Commercial Property Advisors and Mr. Harris has been able to do for me and my family. And again, I would say for everyone that really wants to live the life that you want to live, it is your choice to do so but do it with a mentor. And commercial property is an avenue that will give you so much more in return, especially once you understand the fundamentals of what it has to offer beyond the income, but also the taxes that you can save when you know how to do this properly.
Peter: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, Bruce thanks again.
Few stories inspire as much as Bruce Newman’s journey from outfielder to single-family home investments, to becoming a multimillionaire through strategic multifamily investing. Creating $5 million in equity in over just four years, Bruce’s success is not only a testament to diligent work but also the power of mentorship and resilience.
As you set out on your own journey to become a multifamily millionaire, remember Bruce’s pearls of wisdom:
- Get a Mentor
- Cultivate relationships that Help You Achieve Your Goals
- Fall in Love with the Numbers, Not the Property
Questions or Comments? Text PETER to 833-942-4516.
Every Successful Multifamily Millionaire Has a Mentor
Remember, the best time to start was five years ago; the second best is today. Let’s get started! Apply here and get mentored by me and my team: Commercial Property Advisors Protege Program
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