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Speech Transcript

0:00  

Hey guys, this is Brooks O’Hearn with shamrock Capital Group. And if you really want to learn how to level up your life you should be listening to the time to shine today podcast with my good friends Scott Ferguson.

0:09  

Time to shine today podcast Farsi squatted a Scott Ferguson and I am coming at you with my really good friend Brooks O’Hearn of shamrock Capital Group. His niche really is commercial real estate, although he’s invested like my team in residential real estate, but he really turned a focused into commercial real estate and his story of why he did that is fantastic. And he’s forgotten more about commercial real estate really than I’ll ever cared to know. It’d be great to have an advisor like Brooks, in my corner when I really want to take that leap. And I’ll tell you what, if you’re looking to take the leap, make sure you sit back relax, break out your notebook, because Brooks is going to really for lack of a better term dumbed down commercial real estate for you. So without further ado, here’s my really good friend Brooks O’Hearn from shamrock Capital Group. Let’s level up.

1:09  

Time to shine today Marcy squatted a Scott Ferguson and I get to bring on a guest that’s near and dear to my background, my profession in real estate but this guy’s forgot more about commercial real estate than I’ll ever care to know but I know there are people out there that want to know about commercial real estate a lot of my listeners have reached out said bro bring on a commercial broker bring on a commercial investor. Well, now Your wish is my command. Lack of better term, but that is and I got my guy Brooks O’Hearn and B Brooks actually connected on Instagram I this is my first interview that I actually connect to someone on Instagram first. And he had liked one of my podcast drops or something I just asked him for an interview. And he’s grateful enough to do it. He say he ran out got a mic, you know, so he can start getting on podcast. So you know, here he is. Brooke started flipping houses in 2013. With his family since flipping over 30 million in real estate coaching over 1000 investors on digital marketing. He has shifted his focus into buying and flipping underperforming apartment buildings. And he is a rock star and he also will give you five proven ways to generate passive income. And your first deal just go to his website, which I’ll put in the show notes. shamrock Capital Group llc.com. And Brooks Come on Introduce yourself the varsity squad. But first, what is your favorite color? And why?

2:31  

Ooh, I’d have to say red is the favorite color. And I don’t know I you know that they always say that the the mentality behind it is power. Anything like that. I don’t know about all that. But I love the Sunday read for tiger woods to finish.

2:45  

It gets it done. But yeah, I’m baffled, though. shamrock you think it’d be green? But you know, we’ll let you roll with red. Yep, yep. Awesome, brother. So let’s get into the origins of Brooks. I mean, you’re relatively young man. You’re out there killing it, crushing it, and flipping over 30 mil. In real estate, so let’s get the origin there. How do we get that started in leveling up to that?

3:10  

Yeah. So it started when I was when I was young in high school, my parents. I think I could trace it back to a handful of things. But really, one thing is they stuck the book Rich Dad Poor Dad in front of me. Boy, kid, yep, yep. as a as a kid in high school. So my parents recognize that I didn’t read really any books in high school that were assigned. So they said here, try this one. You know, let’s see what you do with it. And then that that morphed into we started taking cash flow the game on to family vacations. I remember, I remember the rat race? Absolutely. We would pack we’d pack cash flow game and go on vacations. And then you know, I started studying more and more about real estate and getting into it. And then as I got into college, I started realizing like, this is it. This is not translating into a real estate career. And so I was transferring from junior college where I was actually playing golf. And then I was transferring to a four year university. I ended up taking a semester off. And as they say, Don’t ever take a semester off because you’ll never go back. And that was absolutely true. So I didn’t go back. In fact, in that semester, I started really making steps and realizing what an action plan would need to be to jump into real estate. I approached my parents with the plan in Long story short of you have all the money and I have all the time. So let’s make something work. And they bought it. We started we started the company. Of course, you know, then we went out and sought mentors and coaches on our own. And then you know, that kicked off. We bought our first property, like one week shy of my 21st birthday. Okay, and so you’ll say yes, I was a single family house and it was actually down in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is about an hour south. Both of us, okay, back then we paid we paid $70,000 for the house. And it and then you know, try and translate that into just just a couple years ago one of our one of our recent purchases actually we had this like string of four or five purchases right in a row at 775. Like it was like 775-770-7780. Like right in there, it was what we were buying properties at. So all you know, it, it grew 10 x from from that point. So that’s a very short description of how I got in but yeah, through, you know, always learning and it was kicked off with my parents really.

5:39  

So why the this the change from really like single family doors into the apartment buildings as a focus, I’m sure that if a hell of a deal came across your desk with a single family, you might still move on it, but like why really starting to focus in on apartment buildings?

5:55  

Definitely. Yeah, great question. So and we do still flip, you know, some single families from time to time here. But But the real thing was, we had this, we had this aha moment, this lightbulb moment where we, we realized that, you know, as as we’re, you’re flipping four properties at a time that are, you know, you’ve purchased for $700,000, there’s a lot of money going out every single month. I mean, you’re writing huge checks, and it’s stressful. I mean, you’ve got you, you’ve got that much money on the line, you’ve got then millions of dollars in construction to renovate those 6000 square feet homes, right. And so you’ve got you just got so many so many checks going outward, and then you wait until the end of the project, and then the project finally pays you back. And what we realized was, I started doing some research and realizing that, hey, there are there are apartment buildings that we could purchase at $800,000. And those apartment buildings need renovation that we’re already you know, we already know, based on our skill set, those apartment buildings need to be repositioned with more of a like, you know, flipping a business, right, you’ve got to flip the asset, not just the walls inside of it. And that thing, it pays you the entire time. Right, while while I’m doing renovations in two of the 25 units in this building. The other 23 tenants are still paying paying us

7:20  

Sure. Right, right.

7:22  

So it was just a it was just feasible, more feasible to you know, put our put our investments over there, and then focus more on just the apartment side and and the cash flowing assets that are going to pay us the entire time.

7:36  

Are you holding the apartments? Brooks?

7:38  

Yes, yeah, we do. So yeah. So we’ll flip them and it’s more of the bur model. So I’m sure you know, you you know, the bur model, but for those anybody that’s listening, that doesn’t, it’s buy, renovate, rent, and then refinance. Some people throw an extra r in there for repeat, but the end, but yeah, if we, if we buy it will buy it with, you know, construction funds or a bridge loan, and then, you know, flip it over the course of a year or two, get it stabilized, take it to a bank, refinance it out, and you know, a lot of times us and then some of our partners will be able to we’ll be able to cash out and keep it long term, just gonna say do you pull money out on that refinance, to maybe roll it into another project? The goal is yes.

8:23  

Okay. Very good. Very good. Very good. So what do you think makes a great investor?

8:30  

Um,

8:31  

somebody will say, Yeah, Yeah, good question. So somebody who can go with the flow, I mean, you got it, you got to handle, you got to handle some stuff, you’ve got to be able to handle the stress, it’s definitely a high stress gig, you know, with with a lot of money on the line. And you have to be pretty level headed, you’ve got to be able to respond and react to change. And then I also believe you have to surround yourself with the right team. So you, you can’t, you can’t do it all and, you know, any of these big investors that you see on TV or that have any coaching or anything, those guys have a bigger and better team around them. They just happen to be the pretty face. Right? Right. And, and the smart mind that kind of pulls the pull the right levers. So who’s on your team besides yourself? Yeah, so my family is an integral part. I mentioned. My parents got started with me, my brother was actually still in high school when we started the company, but now he has, he has come on. And he has he has joined us full time. We also have a an office manager. And then we have just numerous contractors that, you know, help us obviously, and then we have a large team of, you know, private investors and partners that that partner with us. So you know, it’s not like we’re you know, it’s not like we have $30 million sitting in the bank that we’re throwing at at some of these projects. Right. It takes it takes leverage. And then, of course, you know, bank relationships. And then I always say, the some of the realtors and brokers, right? Yes, I’m a realtor myself. But I know, I know, I can’t find every property. So that network of lead generation is is integral. So it really just, it’s a huge team when you really look at it. Um, and then, you know, but but if people were to look at us, they’re like, well, there’s only five of you, you know, kind of on the payroll of the right shamrock capital,

10:29  

or you guys Colorado only right now, where are you guys expanded?

10:33  

Yeah, so actually, we as far as apartment purchases, we don’t do anything in Colorado. Oh, this is just we just do our single family stuff in Colorado. For for apartment purchases. We have. Kansas City and Omaha are a couple of our target markets. Yeah. So some family ties back back to the Midwest. But just you know, the numbers make more sense. And those markets are still emerging. You know, Denver has kind of been, the secret’s out about Denver, right. Yeah, the secret’s out. Everybody has their opinions. But you know, people travel here once and they’re like, Well, we know it’s Denver. It’s beautiful. And it’s not the frozen tundra.

11:11  

So if

11:13  

you bring in like someone into your program, into commercial real estate, and how to learn, what is some of the secret sauce that you provide for helping these investors find their blind spots?

11:25  

Absolutely. So we really uncover it. And I think you got to start from from scratch, you’ve got to start with the, with the basic foundation of a lot of the blind spots are, they don’t have they don’t have their, their footing in the right market? You know, there, if you’re trying to invest in a market, let’s say like Denver, right? I mean, you’re paying a couple $100,000 per door. So that I mean, that gets expensive, you’re buying a five unit building for a million dollars. Right? Right. Where so that’s one of the biggest blind spots the other blind spot is they don’t really know what it’s going to take once you get into the building. And you know, that there are all kinds of these rules of thumb out there, you know, the the 1% rules, as far as you know, your rent be 1% of your, your purchase price, or, you know, there’s all these things, right, or the mayo maximum allowable offer and things like that, right. But what that’s like good enough for back of the napkin, just as you’re taking the initial call, I would say I had to get you in the ballpark, right? It’s kind of like, I’m kind of like, is this even worth another minute of my time, but too many people are trying to like buy and make long term investments off of that advice, God, and so where we start is we roll it all the way back to, you know, market analysis, and then, you know, really building a true networking team of brokers, because another thing people will do is they’ll log on to any of the any of the apartment sites or commercial real estate sites. And they’ll just say, Well, what can I find today, when in reality, there’s so many more properties behind the scene pocket, get connected? Exactly. You get those pocket listings, get those relationships built with the brokers. So that’s what I preach is building those connections, and then going into actually evaluating the building. And then you’ve got to get into the whole game of negotiating. I mean, there we go. commercial real estate negotiations is a whole different ballgame than be sent single family. I mean, right, you got, you’ve got guys, that it’s just you can get a big wide gamut. And then you could get some real sharks and commercial real estate that that’ll just, you know, put the screws to you. So you’ve got to be able to negotiate and, and know where you’ve got leverage. Because, you know, if you simply just say no, and or, you know, freeze up, you lose the deal. Absolutely. Oh, yeah.

13:47  

I love it. I love it. So, if someone’s coming to you learn about commercial real estate, again, the prospect or whatnot. Is there any good question that you wish they would ask you, but never do?

14:01  

Ooh,

14:02  

that’s a really good question. Um, I would say, let’s see, I’m trying to think what is the most common? Yeah, I would say I would say, honestly, it starts with it starts with their starts with their market. And I think I think they, they don’t ask because they don’t know to ask it. I don’t think they could ever do commercial real estate investing outside of their own backyard. Right. And, and they start to, they just start to analyze their own market and they never ask, like, hey, what makes a good market? Right? What are the indicators? Right, the indicators in a market where I can, I can make this base basically a math problem, right? I can take all the emotion out of it. You know, I mentioned Omaha in Kansas City. Yeah, we have family ties there. But my brother and I took we took like two dozen markets across the country. And we analyze them up and down as far as you know, trends over the last like 20 years, and we analyze them up and down, and then landed on those. Sure, because of the math of it, Robert,

15:15  

I love it. So yeah, so I’d love that answer, you know, if I was kind of come to you, and I’m gonna ask you right now, tell me about a deal that didn’t work out the way you thought it was going to a little bit of a fan happy little transparent here.

15:29  

Absolutely. You don’t have to dive

15:30  

into the whole deal, but just kind of give the 30,000 foot view of it.

15:34  

Yeah, so I mean, this one was this one was actually earlier this year, you know, we had we had a contract on a on a small apartment building. And we we got into it, and and this happens, but generally, generally, it goes a little differently. So it was it was direct to seller. And we got in there it was it was another family that was managing this building. And, you know, we got in there and the we realized we had seen everything we needed to see from a quick video walkthrough because I will ask for a video walkthrough. So I can do a lot of my due diligence before I ever leave my desk. You know, I don’t want to hop on a plane every single week to go look at a deal. That’s not going to be a deal. Love it. Right, right. So I get on a plane back to Nebraska. And this deal was actually actually in Lincoln. So just outside Omaha, and we go through it. everything checks out on the inside, we get up to this, we get up to the final floor, which was unoccupied. And we start to see that there’s there had been water that’s coming in from

16:35  

seeing sunlight.

16:37  

Yeah, no, yeah, seriously, seriously. So So we looked at it. And and, you know, we started asking, well, when you know, when was the last time that the roof was replaced? You start asking these questions. Sure. And then the seller says, Well, yeah, I don’t think I don’t think it’s been replaced. While we owned it. I asked, Well, did you have it inspected when you bought it? No, of course he did. So he had no idea this was an issue. Right? And so now he has to go take this back to the family who’s not in state and it just became this this like, game of telephone. Sure. Right. And so you know, I talked about talking about being able to negotiate and sometimes you get those those wildcards right, where just no matter what I gave to this guy, I mean, I went to, I went to we brought in multiple roofers, we helped him go to his insurance company and try to file a claim, right? It ended up being an especially this roof. So I started doing a quick Google search. Obviously, they had not manufactured as bestest asbestos shingles since 1989. Right? I was like, well, the roof is minimum. 30 years old, you know? Yeah. And, and so it just got to this point where you sometimes get these wild cards where you, they’re just not receptive to anything you’re trying to tell them, right? No. And so the fact that there were literal shingles missing off the roof, and you could see daylight through the roof, right, you know, in Lincoln, Nebraska, it’s humid, it rains a lot, and it knows a lot, it gets super cold, right? Yeah. So you know, the weather, the elements had really taken a toll on that building. And we just, we just weren’t able to get over that hump of them coming to terms with the actual condition of the building.

18:14  

Right.

18:14  

So it was one of those it was it was kind of a failure, you know, you spend spend a lot of money to get out there, get get all your inspectors lined up for the day, do all your due diligence, and then only to find out you know, they just they’re not able to come to terms with the truth about their building. And like I said, it happens sometimes. Yeah, you’d obviously love it to go the other way. Right? You’re right on my due diligence did did what I couldn’t be

18:37  

a time suck a little bit. That’s what

18:40  

it was, you know, a couple days out out of the state and, and working on it. And then you know, another few days trying to negotiate with them. And it just, it kills ya.

18:49  

I feel Yeah, yeah, I’ve been through those. Absolutely. So how do you want your dash remembered that that little line in between your incarnation date, your expiration date, you know, that life date? How do you want your dash remember,

19:02  

I want to be remembered as somebody who helped other people reach their goals, but I also want to be remembered as somebody who challenged people to reach those goals. And so I’m the kind of person that will that will look you in the eyes and and challenge your way of thinking for not for no other reason other than to get you to think outside the box or to get you to try to defend and rationalize where you’re at. Right and, and I think if you can do that, then First off, I’ll learn from you. Absolutely. And you know, if you can’t then hopefully, you know, hopefully we can come to a hope hopefully we can kind of collectively put our brains together and and come to a consensus conclusion so love it

19:45  

You’re late. You’re living legacy man I that’s that’s what you’re what you’re doing with your life. So what do you think is the big the big thing that you really want to accomplish in your life Brooks?

19:58  

The big thing is say is I want to, I want to be able to simply teach. Okay? Teach and, and that’s why I mean coaching and teaching has has become one of my biggest passions. I kind of knew it at a younger age that I always naturally take the lead in group situations. But I didn’t ever really realize that it manifested as, as a coach or a teacher, I think that’s really where where my passion is, is getting in front of people, whether it’s speaking on a stage or you know, courses or one on one coaching, whatever it is, just the ability to teach and see other people use the stuff that I use to then succeed is is the greatest pleasure to me. I love that. I love that. So

20:49  

what what’s your definition of a life will live be

20:53  

life well lived would be a life full of, of travel a life full of golf? a life full of real estate investments that provide that for me, you know, I don’t think it’s I don’t think I’ve ever Yeah, I know, it can’t happen without real estate. So so I don’t want people to think I’m ready, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I don’t I don’t want people to think I’m waking up, you know, with, with stars in my eyes about right, you know, the joys of everything that comes with real estate investing, but I understand that it is, it’s the vehicle to achieve all of that. So love it, um, golf, travel, I have a, I have a girlfriend and that I would be you know, that I’ll be settling down with guys, you know, starting a family. So I’ve always envisioned, you know, a family. And then, you know, especially with my parents, I want to give back to them. Are you given to me love it. So this, that’s one of my biggest things is to be able to, I joke about it all the time has pushed them into retirement. You know, at some point soon, at some point soon, we’re gonna have the conversation and I’m gonna say, all right, get out. God, my brother and I are taken out, taken out of it.

22:08  

So we’re gonna wind things down with our leveling up lightning round. And you and I could talk 1520 minutes, maybe even an hour on each one of these questions. We got five seconds with no explanations. My producer is going to hold you to that. Okay.

22:19  

All right. Sounds good.

22:21  

So let’s level up. What’s the best leveling up advice Brooks has ever received?

22:26  

Find a mentor

22:27  

Buffett.

22:28  

Sure one of the personal habits contributes to your success.

22:31  

Working out. Okay, excellent.

22:35  

Other than your own website, shamrock Capital Group llc.com. And of course, time to shine today.com a shameless plug. What’s another website that you go to the level up?

22:43  

Ooh, Facebook groups.

22:46  

Beautiful. That’s great answer Facebook and LinkedIn and that you can’t beat them if you’re on the right groups. Right. All right, solely, not what you’re reading now. Not the flavor of the month. But if I’m in my doldrums just not feeling it. You’re like Fergie read this book. What is it? Ooh, um, How to Win Friends and Influence People at Carnegie baby. Love it. Love it. What’s your most commonly used emoji?

23:10  

Laughing crying face?

23:12  

sideways or upright? upright? Alright. Ah, man. Gotcha. What’s your favorite charity and organization like to give your time and money to? Woo woo.

23:22  

There’s a handful. Um, I’ll say Wounded Warrior on Fire Academy.

23:27  

I think saying that man for my fellow vets. Beautiful. So what his last question you can expand on this one just a little bit. But what’s the best decade of music 70s 80s 90s or 2000s 90s 90s? Your 90s baby?

23:42  

Yes,

23:43  

ma’am. I mean, yeah, hey, Brooks. How can we find you man?

23:46  

So Instagram just like you is the easiest way I’ve got definitely that’s my favorite app. Instagram, just Brooks O’Hearn all one word, no spaces. And actually, I mean that’s you can find me there on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Brooks O’Hearn. And yeah, that’s the easiest way to connect connect with me on on Instagram. I love to share stories out there. I’m sharing, you know, Teaching Tips as well as just funny moments as

24:13  

you are there. It’s an awesome Instagram page folks. down after you’re done listening and look up Brooks’s Instagram. It’s fantastic. In squad we’ve just had really our own personal masterclass for free from my good friend Brooks here, who does a lot of things by the bur method where you buy renovates, rents, refinances, and of course repeat. He’s gonna remind you to go with the flow, there’s going to be stress in the business but stay level headed. And you can do that by surrounding yourself with the right team, which if you’re wanting to get into the commercial real estate arena, this is the right team that you want to be introduced to So reach out to me, I’d be happy to put you in touch with Brooks in his team. You know, if you’re starting out into the commercial real estate is going to tell you ask yourself what makes a good market. And then as you’re doing the deals, take your emotion out of remember to take the emotion out of it, make it a math problem, like Brooke said, and that math problems that works out, it’s gonna work out for your end game. So take your emotion out of it. He wants to be remembered as somebody who helped others reach their goals. But while he’s helping you reach to them that challenge you to be even set higher goals the next time is big thing in life that he wants to accomplish is to really simply teach and coach people how he became a success if there’s no better definition of a go giver than that, you know, he’s all about the traveling the golf, the real estate investing. He’s gonna remind you as you’re starting his number one thing, find a mentor, and that you found them right now if you’re wanting to get into commercial real estate, you can put you together with into the Shamrock Capital Group LLCs team and Brooks can take it from there and Brooks, thank you so much for coming on. you level up your help you level up your wealth, your family oriented, you earn your varsity squad letter over here. Thank you so much for coming on. Man. We look forward to collaborating with you in the future.

26:04  

I appreciate you having me on Scott. It’s been a lot of fun. Awesome talk soon.

26:08  

Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast. Proudly brought to you by Southern Nugent real estate real estate excellence who can be reached at 561-249-7266 and online at www dot Sutter and nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com slash gust. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see a recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you have been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating and tell your friends to subscribe while you’re at it. I’m your host Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up it’s our time to shine.

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