From Israel to Iowa to 100+ Doors with Adam & Caroline Metzker
The Investing in Iowa ShowJune 27, 2024
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45:18

From Israel to Iowa to 100+ Doors with Adam & Caroline Metzker

In this episode of Investing in Iowa, we delve into the dynamic journey of Adam and Caroline Metzger, a power couple in the real estate industry. From Adam's early days in Israel to navigating the oil booms of North Dakota, and finally establishing their roots in Des Moines, Iowa, their story is filled with valuable insights and lessons for aspiring real estate investors. They share their experiences in property management, the strategic shift to land development, and the unique challenges and rewards of contract sales. Join us for an inspiring discussion that highlights the importance of resilience, adaptability, and partnership in real estate.

Key Talking Points:

[00:00] - Introduction to the Investing in Iowa show and welcome to guests Adam and Caroline Metzger.

[02:00] - Adam's early interest in real estate and his move from Israel to the US.

[05:15] - Adam's experience in property management in Los Angeles and the challenges faced.

[09:30] - The move to North Dakota during the oil boom and subsequent bust.

[13:45] - The decision to move to Des Moines, Iowa and start investing in real estate there.

[18:00] - The focus on acquiring single-family and multi-family properties.

[22:15] - Challenges and benefits of contract sales versus lease with an option to buy.

[26:30] - Caroline's role in property management and the importance of managing properties well.

[30:45] - The shift towards land development and the complexities involved.

[35:00] - Final thoughts on real estate investment strategies and maintaining a balance in business and personal life.

Links & Resources:

Closing Remarks:

Thanks for tuning in! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. For more insights and updates, follow us on social media and visit our website. Stay connected, and keep investing in Iowa!

[00:00:12] From cornfields to high rises, office to industrial, houses to hotels and every other asset class in real estate we cover the people, the projects and the profit. Welcome to The Investing in Iowa Show. This show is for go-doers, action takers and business owners.

[00:00:33] It's for people like you who are sick of Uncle Sam taking a huge bite of your apple. If you're looking to get ahead of what's taking place in Iowa, learn who is doing what and how you can get in on the action. You're in the right place.

[00:00:46] Hosted by Neil Timmins, an Iowa native who has been involved in over 300 million dollars in real estate, right here in Iowa. Recording in studio from West Des Moines, here's your host, Neil Timmins. I've got Adam and Caroline Metzker here with me. Welcome to The Show, Gash. Thank you.

[00:01:06] Thank you for having us. It's great to have you here. Seeing from the audience to say, who are you? Where are you from? What do you guys do? Originally I'm from Israel, born and raised in Israel. I came to the US in 2005.

[00:01:22] I always knew that real estate is something that I wanted to do. I used to pick up the mail at home. And I was a nosy kid and my folks would let me go pick up the mail and open the mail and process it.

[00:01:34] And I would see, I saw a check that came in and I asked my father, what's this check? I didn't really see it go work. It's this check. So he says, oh, this is some real estate that they have been herring from my mom and my folks.

[00:01:48] This is part of the rent check. And we weren't big into real estate. My father wasn't big into real estate. He was a DJ. And so I got to ask him more. I got to learn about that from him.

[00:02:00] And so in 2005 I finished the service in Israel, in the army. The Israeli army. I spent three years in the Israeli army. And I came to the US, started in New York. I started as a real estate agent.

[00:02:14] I figured that very quick that that's not really the direction I want to go. New York's sharkie had to say the least. Sure. And so I said, okay, what's my next into property management to real estate? And I thought about property management. So I knew someone.

[00:02:31] So I called, called, called to pick up the phone. I called this guy that I knew through some through his family really well. And so I called. I said, hi, my name is Adam. I don't know you. You don't know me, but I'm really interested in real estate.

[00:02:48] I understand you're in real estate. Can I come and meet you? And he's in Los Angeles. I'm in New York at the time I fly to LA. I stay in a hostel. I have no money to my name. And I had a strategy.

[00:02:59] I said, I meet with him and we had a great meeting. And then after when the meeting is kind of ending, I said, you know, this is great. If I could pay you to come work here, I would do it. I'm 23. I don't have any money.

[00:03:16] And I'll tell you what, I'm willing to come work for free. When I said that, that was a hope. He took me under his arm under his wing. And I was very fortunate to spend two years in Los Angeles working in property management.

[00:03:31] And that's where I learned really well about real estate and how to manage real estate. And so I have some cool stories about that, but we can keep that for a different time. But like firecrackers being thrown at me. I mean, I used to manage properties in Compton.

[00:03:45] Oh, really? Yeah, all sorts. Yeah. So fast forward. It's 2012. It's time for me to kind of get on my own. I feel like I'm kind of stuck there and I always wanted to start my own business.

[00:04:00] So I look online and for a place in the U.S., the economy is really strong and the numbers are really good. And all the research that I did pointed to North Dakota. So in 2012, we were boyfriend and girlfriend at the time.

[00:04:16] I tell Caroline that I'm going to go up to North Dakota. You remember what you're about then? Yeah, I was just going to interject and say, I got a conversation saying I'm going to North Dakota. Do you want to come with me? That was the text? Yeah.

[00:04:32] I don't think it was a text. I think it was in person. We were just dating at the time and I said, sure, why not? So we moved to Dickinson, North Dakota. Yeah. You marry the woman who moves to North Dakota with you, my friend. Right?

[00:04:48] All right, so North Dakota. What was the oil boom? You oil. That's what was taking place. Yes. Crazy oil boom, insane. I mean in the history of books, this is going to be really something that's written for sure. I would buy houses.

[00:05:03] I'd be all in for $80,000 and I'd get $4,500 a month from an oil company. A two-year lease, check in the mail, no issues, no, no, no. Just amazing returns. Amazing. Now, of course, big returns, big risk. Yes. And 2015 comes along and there's a bust, the oil bust.

[00:05:23] And so it goes from $140 a barrel to about $26 a barrel. The writing is on the wall. In fact, we experienced serious rent declines here. An apartment that I would rent for $1750, the same unit would rent for $350 at the bust.

[00:05:40] So I had to navigate and manage that decline and I'm very thankful for that experience. That's a tough meal. And so, yeah, so North Dakota was amazing. It was obviously very cold, but we had a great time there and I'm very thankful for my time in North Dakota.

[00:05:55] So 2015 comes. We sell the writings on the wall, the bust is here. You know, I sell as much property as I can in 2016. Finally have a little bit of money to my name. Have something to lose. You have something to not. You don't have something to lose.

[00:06:10] You don't have some. Yeah. And so I looked, I love the Midwest. Very business friendly, landlord friendly. And so I looked for a place in the Midwest, went to different cities here in the Midwest. And when I came across Des Moines and visited Des Moines,

[00:06:27] that's the place I chose to invest in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you've been here since what year? 2016. 2016. People ask us all the time, how did you guys end up in Des Moines, Iowa? And I always tell them, my husband just pointed on a map.

[00:06:43] We could have ended up in a lot of different places, but he liked a capital city. He liked the university system here. There was a lot going for it. So it was just kind of, yeah, we could have ended up a lot of other places,

[00:06:58] but we are in Des Moines, Iowa. I like it. So you come here in 2016, what do you do? My my first property. Yeah. Yeah. That's a property. We just sold it recently on the east side. I think the writing was on the wall for me.

[00:07:17] The numbers made a lot of sense. So I slowly started learning the market and really getting my foothold here. So we started buying some houses and one thing led to the other. I was really at some point, I was trying to,

[00:07:31] I was buying three to four properties a month. That was my goal there and that's what I did. Private early age rentals. Yes. All houses, all rentals. And multi-themed. Right. We graduated from houses eventually a little bit. Yep. To more of the multi-family. We got two of us.

[00:07:50] More of the recent acquisitions that we did in the last few years is some land. And things of that part. Talk to you about the single family portfolio roughly, maybe at its peak if you're, where is it at today? Where we are today.

[00:08:04] So today I tried to focus more on bigger deals and not so much on single families anymore. And so what we found to be very helpful actually is to sell properties on contract. Oh yeah.

[00:08:21] And that's something that's been a great addition to our portfolio and our income stream because we take a lot of the quote unquote headaches aside. And so we have done several of those and it really seems to be working out nicely.

[00:08:41] What I like about it also is that you really get to help people that on a day-to-day basis they won't get a loan from the bank. We give them an opportunity. Granted, we charge for that. Right. It's fair. Yep. It's very fair to be honest.

[00:08:58] And I think it's a win-win situation for everyone. Talk to you, I want to go one step ahead of contract sales. You've got rental properties, you're managing these rental properties. Was there something, what was the genesis of going to contract sales?

[00:09:13] Was it a problem or you just happen to see an opportunity? Yeah, there's a problem but I'm not allowed to say it on camera. Well, for the audience's sake, I don't know what the problem is.

[00:09:24] The reason I ask is because I see a lot of people move or migrate towards contract sales because when you're dealing with a class C rental properties in Des Moines in particular, it is challenging not just from a city standpoint where here's a list of all the

[00:09:41] things that one has to do or one needs to do and all of a sudden you feel like you're building a brand new home and you're like okay, well at that point if I'm required to do that,

[00:09:50] I can't keep the house. The numbers don't work all the way to even if I did do it, given where it is and the types of tenants we attract in this particular neighborhood, oftentimes don't keep, it's challenging for them to keep the condition of that house up

[00:10:09] and all of a sudden your wear and tear be rose all their profit. I think there's a couple different answers to that but I think a big one is the story that

[00:10:20] Adam told in the beginning of receiving that check in the mail. You don't totally just receive a check every month and you don't have to do anything but it's one step closer to achieving that,

[00:10:34] that really passive income. You don't need to send a maintenance guy to unclog a toilet, to unclog hair that's in the drain. So you definitely remove some day-to-day challenging tasks associated with that property. There's also more pride of ownership so there isn't the

[00:10:57] wear and tear or you're not responsible for that wear and tear. So there are numbers that you need to figure out. There's still property taxes that need to be paid. You still get things from the city because you're still the title holder so there's still sometimes unlicensed cars

[00:11:14] that you need to bother the contract sale buyer that they need to take care of this or it will end up back on us at some point as the title holder but you do remove a lot of the day-to-day

[00:11:31] headache. Yeah and I think what I like about this also is that you get to lock in your profits, you get to lock in your income so there's of course a pluses and minuses for that as well

[00:11:44] because you potentially give up some of the app, not some, you give up all the upside, the rest and they're still upside and I think they're going to be upside but yet again you

[00:11:53] get to help people and that's really what we do in this business. Yeah you sell it on contract you become the bank, ultimately when a bank doesn't exist meaning these contract buyers oftentimes are

[00:12:04] not bankable if you will from a loan standpoint and you get an opportunity and you empower them to become homeowners. To take that as you said girl in that pride of ownership, then ultimately take

[00:12:18] better care of it. Why contract sales versus lease with an option to buy? Good question. So lease with an option to buy you're still kind of stuck in the management part of it,

[00:12:33] the turnover, less pride of ownership, it's an option for them to buy in the future but it's not guaranteed they will. Sometimes we do use that and utilize this vehicle especially if

[00:12:45] we're not very confident about doing the contract sale with them so at that point we will do a lease option to buy and keep that control more and more and make sure they stand behind the initial lease

[00:12:56] agreement which is a contract and if they adhere to the terms and conditions that are there and we see that it's working out then we'll move to the next step of the contract sale itself.

[00:13:10] So I think that's kind of like the nuance there. We're also more of a mom and pop operation so you walk into Wells Fargo it's pretty black or white. For us it's more of a gray area

[00:13:24] so if someone comes with great credit not a lot of money for a down payment but they tell us in six months I'm going to have this chunk of money or I can save this amount of money

[00:13:38] we're able to sit down and get to know the person and come up with a deal that benefits everybody which I think is something unique about having the ability to be creative. Yeah on both sides by

[00:13:56] the way we're not just contract sellers we also like to buy on contract as well. In fact I think that's a great way to get into real estate especially if you're at the beginning

[00:14:10] we're very much buyers on contract as well. Huge benefits on the buy side on the contract. I know night and day from the two things we just described you're selling on contract in the scenario which you do generally very beneficial dollars and cents wise to you the seller

[00:14:29] and buying on contract can be very beneficial to the buyer when structured correctly and so things give you any example of maybe a couple of components of a contract which

[00:14:39] which would be negotiated on your side to your bet. Yeah as a buyer. Yeah for sure so I think one of the things I like the most about buying on contract is at the end of the day you end up

[00:14:51] dealing with a lender that's again a mom and pop and not a big financial institution and so there's so much more flexibility so much more understanding and it's much easier to work with an individual than to work with a big financial institution. Right especially if and

[00:15:09] when things go south which could happen in this world it has happened in the past and so when you work with the seller as a buyer you end up getting a much less exposure

[00:15:25] much less you just it's a risk management that kind of sense and so I think that's that's one of the yeah versus dealing with a bank with perhaps an unlimited personal liability and limited personal

[00:15:36] recourse you're exactly limit some other recourse generally speaking to your down payment. Yeah a bit unworked for a reason the property goes back highly unlikely but you do have limited exposure as you said. Very true I will say the last one I've done was really really cool

[00:15:53] the seller came up with one of the terms she wanted to put in there was that I will personally guarantee the interest that you're supposed to make on that loan. Interesting yeah

[00:16:06] it was a commercial deal so it's I thought it was very interesting yeah so we're reading the price but if I got forbid don't stand behind the contract I can give the property back but

[00:16:18] she just wanted me to guarantee that interest so I agree to that. Yeah I thought that was cool. Hi it's Ava Baukamp the investment relations manager for Neal's firm Legacy Impact Investors. I'm inviting you to join us for our next investor workshop our monthly legacy briefings

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[00:17:13] month visit legacy briefing dot com go to legacy briefing dot com to register if you're our first time registrant I'll send you a free resource at sign up head to legacy briefing dot com and I'll see you

[00:17:25] soon yeah I'm curious how long is the term on that five years five years yeah it's incredible what can get negotiated yes I think creative deals is the way to go and that's something we've

[00:17:40] been working on for four years I go to seminars about it there's guys like Peter Fortunato all OG of real estate type deal and Bill Koch John Schwab so many there's Jack Miller that's not with us

[00:17:54] anymore those people I highly recommend the you guys everyone that's listening yeah I'm gonna try to follow I'll share this one with you then I want to pivot to another one that's the dominant conversation but I'll share one that we did about two years ago we bought a

[00:18:10] self storage facility 1.4 million dollars and it bought it on contract to so seller financing $200,000 down so that left 1.2 million dollars to be financed seller financed the whole thing 1.2 million dollars 5 interest rate interest only payments there's a kicker ready for this

[00:18:31] 20 years oh the bigst all the one has to do in that scenario is just make the payments inflation will do its thing right $100 today is not worth the same thing as a dollar tomorrow so 1.2 million

[00:18:45] dollars a day is not worth 1.2 million dollars 20 years for now to be a fraction of it right and so I like where you headed up or where your head is and what you're doing on the

[00:18:57] career finance side because tremendous thing yeah record what you said I really agree and usually you can really negotiate a better interest rate than even the bank at times yeah that's very true

[00:19:09] the single family uh do you still have single family rentals today yeah and then I'm curious as to how you matters those today um let me let Caroline chime in on that she's been really

[00:19:20] helpful and the management side of things so yeah we do this how am I gonna make the matters work he really wants to know because he's we were just talking about this we put out a lot of

[00:19:31] fires yeah our goal is to be ahead of the fires but property management is a lot of every day is different you never know what the phone call is going to be is it about

[00:19:43] a vacancy that someone wants to come and rent it from you or is it because their ceiling just fell in because of water so it just depends on the day yeah mainly just putting out fires and

[00:19:57] trying to make everybody happy someone just um said something really interesting that when you are the landlord you become everyone's dad and if you have a family in there you're the whole

[00:20:09] family's dad and so that's what we deal with a lot too is just trying to make everybody happy and comfortable and then get our rent in return what kind of systems do you use

[00:20:22] like a property management system stuff like that yeah we use at folio we we have a good team we have maintenance we have so it's a lot of coordinating and their staff are they third party to you

[00:20:39] guys no they're they work for us yeah I'm curious about how the two of you work together seen a lot of husband and wives and some work fantastically well and some well a lot don't

[00:20:51] work together couldn't I'm curious can you give me just come here from from North Dakota and clearly pure line you got into this at some point on the business side what what you're

[00:21:02] in and what keeps you well um I haven't always been in I've gone through periods of being involved and not and those ebs and flows usually coincide with having children we have

[00:21:16] four kids and small kids and so um he always wanted help and so I would help and then usually have a baby and then my you know my my contribution was not in the business it was in the other

[00:21:34] business so um and we've I feel like we do work well together and very much agree we're a good team we so just I would say in the past maybe eight months I've really gotten

[00:21:52] more involved on a daily basis before I was doing reconciliations and back end stuff and now I'm really trying to head up more property management to take that off of his plate so that he can do

[00:22:09] other things like development and make deals it's really hard someone else just told us recently when you make deals it's like a full-time job because you have to run all the numbers it's

[00:22:18] you really have to be focused on it and that's not something I do so that what I do is just free up putting out all of those fires so that he doesn't have to to do that and I

[00:22:30] do want to take this opportunity to thank you very much Caroline for your help it's been amazing every time things get a little overwhelming for me it's like the voice of reasons and it's just

[00:22:41] been an amazing journey to help her by my side to help me help the business and more importantly again help help our people the people you know help our tenants our contract buyers dealing with with the city and getting all the permits that are needed and just

[00:22:59] making sure we stand in line everywhere I kind of am the disruptor I make the mess and then thankfully I have her to come help me try to get that mess put together he says all this now but

[00:23:10] he hasn't gotten my invoice yet I'm afraid if he did you have to file a backup I'll make a creative deal where I take you ever seen Chris and see you this way I'm indebted to her for sure I know what

[00:23:36] it takes to run a business and I know what it takes in the people side to have somebody like that oh you're right in your best friend your partner to somebody you can trust whole life it has to

[00:23:46] go a long ways especially when you can compliment each other that yin and yin to where because property management is a completely different business than acquired property so true and when I was a

[00:23:57] courier sorry when I was bought and they brought into the business and in my methods they taught me buy right manage tight that's the same buy right manage tight and so we always did management

[00:24:07] in-house and we always want to make sure we are in the control and the driver see it and so even for me to release to a third party management is much harder where I have Caroline

[00:24:18] as someone I trust that's been amazing yeah I love the opinion the only way money gets made in C class property is if you manage well it's through management period and then this and that

[00:24:31] often times it means you must manage yeah yeah it also has given me a greater appreciation of everything that Adam has built and how much time he has dedicated to the business

[00:24:48] we do two full-time jobs plus we have other people in the company so before he was doing it all himself so it's thank you yeah yeah the the offloading from him was a necessity

[00:25:07] and it really freed up a lot of my time to go and sit down in meetings with engineers now and learn a whole new language development is a whole new different ball game and it's very interesting but

[00:25:19] definitely takes a lot more brainpower and you go out of meetings with more questions and answers type deal yeah so it's talk to me about that the land side and the development side of things

[00:25:31] you know you seem like a person who enjoys taking on learning new things and then kind of leans into some of the risk proof of the risk right North Dakota kind of kind of ebbs and flows

[00:25:42] right from a risk standpoint land can give me the same way you can you have some wild wins in that in the development into the business 100 percent bit they're saying I agree

[00:25:55] with 100 yeah so just in the North Dakota part of it is it was really booming bust economy and I said I don't want to be in this store I want to have steady predictable and Iowa historically has been

[00:26:08] very very steady even in the downturn you don't see the same decrease that you see in other coastal cities or big cities that was definitely one of the reasons why we also chose

[00:26:19] Iowa and the Midwest and then as far as the risk profile that's very true where you get into land first of all I think it's very important to diversify within your portfolio as well that was

[00:26:31] kind of where it started and when you see a good deal you for me it's we got to do it we'll figure it out later now that's one way to do it then of course there's other ways to do it and each

[00:26:44] has as each investor has their own DNA is that's important to understand your investor DNA as for you get into anything and so and we were growing the portfolio we wanted to manage the

[00:26:55] height about 250 units on our own and so it was time to diversify into land so I started buying the land and more like a land bank gift and then I went to sit on it for a few years like okay

[00:27:10] it's knocking on your door I said let's do something you know it's time to do something that's when we started looking into development and full disclosure I haven't started development yet it's something that's very capital intensive the risk is much higher and so I'm slowly inching my way

[00:27:27] into it and I feel like we're getting there for sure well you say you haven't developed too and I think what you to clarify what I hear you saying and knowing you is the dirt has a churn

[00:27:38] but but there's a ton of front-end work that goes that that happens long before dirt turns and those are the types of things that you're deep in yes and that's where again I give thanks to

[00:27:51] carolines because you need time for these things and you need money but you need time especially and so I was able to in the last eight months or so really focus more on the development side

[00:28:02] of things and so uh let's say that's been really very very helpful very helpful so yeah we sit down and then you go into meetings with the engineers and with the city and just different entities architects landscape architects land planners utilities you got to look at so many

[00:28:22] things and it's just like thank chess yeah it's a fun puzzle to to put together there yeah very much so yeah I'm sure all right is there wait uh well excuse me why are you most excited about this

[00:28:35] year me I'm really excited to get the the operations working smoother and that's something that has been happening very nicely thanks again I'm very excited for the continued efforts in development and we're supposed to close on some more land here soon and uh that's really something

[00:29:01] that that's in the forefront of our of our mind right now and then I'm also excited for what the market's gonna bring to us now I think we're starting to see some deals that we haven't seen

[00:29:11] before so I'm excited to go back to acquisitions mode I think now's the time to buy it's always a time to buy you make your money when you buy that's when you sell I kind of know that so uh I think

[00:29:25] we can lock in even with this interest rate environment some some some of those loans now and then if they come down later great we'll refi if not at least we have something

[00:29:36] that's making sense now and outside of land what are you looking for just a little bit of everything again multi-family mixed juice single we'll go back to single families of course actually we love single families it's something I learned also in the recent years is single

[00:29:53] families are a great asset to to own everyone always needs a place to live we have been getting into commercial a different animal completely much harder to lease much more time on the

[00:30:07] market we're experiencing that with some of the properties we have but I'm excited to get those list up this year for sure besides summer in Iowa yeah getting a better handle on the property

[00:30:29] management side for sure being on the front end of those fires I think is my main goal on the from the property management side is that largely systems driven you say front end of the

[00:30:46] fires that does that mean to your staffing or through kind of not having fires meaning there's there's things system structures that go into place so they yeah all of the above yeah kind

[00:30:58] of right being new being more new into taking that part of the business over by the reins is kind of playing catch up and now finally getting to where I can see the benefit of the work and

[00:31:19] getting into a more not secure place but more on top kind of overseeing everything and not just trying to keep my head above water yeah so that there's no say why the

[00:31:41] systems run the business right the people run the systems right and it is as much more exciting because you yeah the marriage I'm really excited about the tenants I don't know at some point buying

[00:31:57] becomes a quote I'm caught easy and we should have the most important part is the management or happens from the day you close on a property they liquidated whatever fashion you do that

[00:32:09] and so I think another thing that I learned and what I'm excited about and I think that the chimes into what Caroline was saying is at the end of the day the real assets are the people

[00:32:21] not the properties so if we only replace those two keys people in property and put the people in front of the property I think then magic starts happening and that's what I think we're going to

[00:32:31] be focusing on this year to really put the people in front of the property and in front of the profits but that's that's where I'm lead there the rest full let's just I want to run another

[00:32:45] the final segment what I call the final three now I'm gonna either one of your answers or both of you how about both of you this will be fun if you could give one piece of advice to your 20

[00:32:55] year old self what would be buy more property I would I would buy property earlier I would take the risk a little bit earlier I think I'm pretty conservative with my risk profile and I think

[00:33:15] if I look back I would probably just that consume more property here Caroline what's that you um you know as I get older I always go back to I would tell my 20 year old self to always

[00:33:34] always think what your mom would do but I feel like my that and when I do that I tend to go into the right position but um I think also to get more involved with our business from from the start

[00:33:53] I think whenever we do work together good things happen for our family for everything so four kids didn't make themselves every time we have when people ask us it's four boys two our boys how about that

[00:34:15] and so man our oldest our oldest are not even so many it's good at being you're out you have no idea I think you're right I always look at her I said baby I think this is this

[00:34:24] is only the preview I'm the eldest of four sons yeah it's fun it's it's great for being and it's my brothers oh look out hang on hang on be a tornado yeah well it's fun from the outside

[00:34:47] looking and we're gonna have to stay in touch because I love to see here how things develop because both of your involvement in the business it's gonna be fun to see what happens as the kids

[00:34:56] get older you know to see where they latch on whose personality is leaning on who's sort of just maybe bent for a different different why don't work if you're a house flipper execute the birth

[00:35:07] strategy or do double closings and are in need of money little guy loans is your go-to lender here in the Des Moines area time is money loan approvals in 24 hours closings in five days

[00:35:20] little guy loans was founded by Neil Timmins an investor just like you since he has been in over 10,000 homes in Des Moines there's never an appraisal houses multifamily and commercial property loans up to one million check out www.littleguylones.com two books that change your life

[00:35:42] for me for sure and rich that poor dad that's the bible of real estate investing bible and then I'm a really really big worship or Jim Rohn and he has a book at the seasons of

[00:35:59] life I love Jim long Jim Rohn and when I discovered that he's not with us anymore actually I was very sad because I wanted to go see it speak but it was too late so also don't wait too long before

[00:36:11] you want to go see someone speak or someone you admire like I admire Jim Rohn yeah Caroline my answers are not very good I don't I don't read business books you're gonna have to cut this part

[00:36:23] out because there's no there's no uh there's no requirement that the book had to be a business book to chew your life there anything that to anything that comes to mind there's no wrong

[00:36:36] answer no I just made it all right well that should go on the book that changed your life huh well let's see if I can get you on this one this is a curve ball this is the this is

[00:36:50] the fun one if you were cast away on an island for a year you only get three pieces of data each and every month to know how your business is running what three things must you know where's Wilson for and I think I don't think I delinquencies

[00:37:14] and seeds I'd like to know a vacancy and retention retention of tenants super important so those I would say um delinquencies for sure just the rent role in general and then I'm wavering on maintenance or utilities all utilities yeah well I've read on that just

[00:37:47] there's a lot to know about utility let's talk about that because I agree with you we have kind of done some outsourcing of our accounting but one thing that I do always require my approval for

[00:38:03] is paying utility bills because there's a lot you can learn looking at the last bill and the current bill is there a water leak um you know is now did the tenant move it out

[00:38:19] of their name why are we even getting this bill why is this bill in the LLC's name and not in the company name I mean sorry in the tenant name let's go put a notice because did they move out

[00:38:33] and just didn't give us notice so there's a lot of really important things that I learn from making sure that I look at all the utility I think we're kind of experienced because every property every utility bill and every property we have commercial resident

[00:38:51] doesn't matter I see everyone yeah because I agree with exactly close when you understand the real estate not just the accountant can understand differentiations in no it's easy it's it's understanding the next like four questions you would ask yourself so do I need to dig a little

[00:39:09] deeper what what may have transacted what could be and sometimes it's pay the bill and move on because you can answer yourself and other times this you got a lean hand because that water bill

[00:39:18] is about to get real bad real quick right and making sure you have your Des Moines Waterworks landlord lien agreement signed when uh someone moves into a single family house yeah for that

[00:39:29] saves a lot of money yes for those in the audience who don't know what that is maybe a lavery that so the water bill follows the owner of the house the electric bill does not

[00:39:41] the electric bill the gas and electric follow the tenant but the water bill is tied to the owner of the house so we have been burned many times with a tenant leaving and leaving a $700 water bill

[00:39:58] that now we're responsible for but if you go in within 30 days of signing a lease on a single family house it can't be a multi-family but on a single family house um it's individual

[00:40:10] water meters and you sign the Des Moines Waterworks lien waiver agreement I think it's called it could be wrong on that but that bill now follows the tenant and it relieves you of

[00:40:26] responsibility for that unpaid water bill and it saves a lot of money a lot of money this has been a terrific conversation I could talk to you guys for a long time because there's

[00:40:40] a lot of things here but for people they want to they want to find you guys they want to follow you guys they want to connect with you guys what should they do where should they go

[00:40:47] uh they should go to our website I guess legacy 515.com and we also are on Facebook 515 rentals and sales actually so those two options and you can look at look up myself Adam Metzger on Facebook or Twitter we'll get the links below in the show notes everybody

[00:41:11] last question what should I have asked that I did not ask no no no I'm not shooting us it's if not us mom you can come to your land you know I don't think you did a you're doing an amazing job

[00:41:29] first of all so I don't know that there's one of those but I think maybe um maybe some some tips for maybe someone that wants to start in the business you know

[00:41:39] and so maybe we'll ask you what would you uh what would you advise we're gonna turn the tables huh uh the very first thing I wrote down because this is this is the second time it's come up in

[00:41:49] like 10 days now in your story you went and offered to work for free yes that was the this is the second time it's come up in almost a week um that would be it because you're

[00:42:00] the second person to tell me that exact same experience and both people you and the other person both have hundreds and hundreds of rental properties today and they both started coming from the a place of giving and when you give and you pour you always receive way more

[00:42:19] it always comes back and so I think that thought of being in that position in a learning you know I try to instill this in my children who are teenagers is

[00:42:35] what when you go to a job and if all you ever leave with is a paycheck you did not you failed you didn't learn but we need to be like it was way more that would be it

[00:42:47] yeah amazing very nice uh how do you feel about when you grow the business grows uh how do you manage a growing pains and how uh how do you manage a adversity that happens also say the way to the

[00:43:01] top is lonely and sometimes you know there's some collateral damage that happens how do you deal with that oh yeah we've really turned the tables here uh so your your first question I'm sorry I'm generally curious but yeah no yeah that's fair uh well let's talk about adversity

[00:43:20] it's understanding you know he who has a why can accomplish anyhow meet you set it it's it's keeping that in mind because there are there are days where you get down and anything can happen

[00:43:33] and so you better have a big enough why and and if there are too many days that's stuck up and you get too down and can't dig out I would challenge you to that your why is not big

[00:43:42] enough that it is not big enough to power you through it so it's understanding what that is I mean cool this is this is a terrific conversation yeah yeah well I really appreciate you guys being

[00:43:56] here this this is fun and I know uh we got into a lot of things here we cover we touched on about every asset class and so it's gonna be fun to do this again in some period of time because

[00:44:06] I want to hear how the land comes together how things progress on the on the property management side what goes and still here in Tricorin Tricolourx I'm excited for the year for you guys I appreciate you thanks for having me yeah thank you very much thanks for listening

[00:44:21] if you're enjoying the show may ask a favor of you naturally subscribe so you never miss an episode but would you rate and leave an honest written review on apple pod guests does a lot for us here

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[00:44:58] invest with us button in the top right corner and there you can pick a time for the two us to get on the calendar and connect until next time keep investing in Iowa

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