The Creative Problem Solver's Secret to Real Estate Millions

The Real Estate Investing Club

Join an active community of RE investors here: https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen   0:00 Introduction to Brian Truman's Real Estate Journey  2:30 How a Saturday Night Phone Call Changed Everything 🔥  6:20 The Power of Relationships in Real Estate Investing  8:02 Business Brokerage vs Real Estate: Which Makes More Money?  12:45 Multi-Tenant Industrial & Multifamily Investment Strategies  18:30 Best Time to Sell Your Real Estate Assets for Maximum Profit  25:09 When Deals Go Sideways: Creative Problem Solving That Saves Millions  27:10 Using AI and ChatGPT to Scale Your Real Estate Business  30:25 How to Connect with Brian Truman   MASTERING MULTIFAMILY AND COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE INVESTING  In this powerful episode of The Real Estate Investing Club, I sit down with Brian Truman from SVN Excel Group to uncover the strategies behind successful multifamily investing, commercial real estate brokerage, and business acquisitions. Brian shares his incredible origin story of how he went from corporate America to building a thriving real estate portfolio during the 2006-2008 market crash, proving that opportunity exists in every market cycle when you know where to look 💰   BREAKTHROUGH MOMENTS IN REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE  Brian reveals how a single Saturday night phone call with just six hours until midnight transformed his entire career trajectory. This emergency 1031 exchange deal not only launched his multifamily brokerage business but connected him with high net worth investors who became the foundation of his success. The lesson? Always answer your phone and leverage relationships relentlessly. This episode demonstrates how being relational rather than transactional separates top performing real estate professionals from everyone else.   This episode delivers practical wisdom for anyone serious about achieving financial freedom through real estate investing, whether you're focused on single family homes, multifamily apartments, commercial properties, or business acquisitions!  Want to learn more about our guest? Connect here: https://strykerproperties.com/  Want to learn more about the REI Club Podcast, how to invest with Gabe at Kaizen, or join our community of active real estate investors on Skool? Visit the podcast website at https://www.therealestateinvestingclub.com or click here: https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen  #RealEstateInvesting #MultifamilyInvesting #CommercialRealEstate #PassiveIncome

Transcript

00:00all right we are back with another episode of the real estate investing club i hope you guys are

00:11having a great week a great day wherever you are in whatever day it is for you as always on the

00:18podcast it is friday so we're bringing that good friday energy to you this is going to be an

00:22interesting episode we got brian truman with us on the podcast here from sbn excel group

00:27brian buys multi-tenant industrial multi-family he also is a broker specializing in multi-family

00:34and he brokers the sale of businesses as well so maybe we can hop into that topic a little bit we

00:40rarely talk about anything but real estate here but i'm always interested in that side of things so

00:44brian i'm excited to jump into it thanks for hopping on thank you appreciate you having me

00:50absolutely i i told you before we got on here we always like to start with stories we like to hear

00:56how people got to where they are um so why don't you take us to the beginning of your story in real

01:00estate and tell us how you got here well the the beginning on the buy side is uh back in

01:08oh six oh eight you know everybody knows those years years uh i happened to be in corporate america

01:18that time and uh had some extra cash and uh somebody was telling me hey real estate is is something you

01:26ought to invest in and so you know i at that time uh i went and bought a couple of apartment complexes

01:34and uh didn't know really anything about her real estate you know um so i i wish i knew back then what

01:44i knew now so on the vesting side that's that's kind of where i got started and then you know fast

01:51forward to uh basically 10 years ago i had exited out of a business and um and then was trying to

02:02decide what to do and uh my wife happened to be a former commercial real estate appraiser and had

02:10as the praisers say she went to the dark side and became a broker and so she said hey why don't you

02:16come and why don't you get your real estate license and come and join me and so i had had my license all

02:23of all of maybe a month six weeks and i got a call on a saturday night about 6 30 is right before

02:31christmas my wife and i are going out to dinner from a gentleman and he said hey i'm in a real pickle

02:36i've got until midnight tonight to identify three properties for my 10 31 exchange and i was like

02:43talk about leaving until the last minute yeah yeah you know this is 6 30 at night and i you know so

02:49again you know and i'm i'm new into real estate and so i said what do you want to buy and he says i will

02:56i want to buy multi-family and i said okay so then i just quickly thought of a guy that i went to real

03:04estate school with when i told him i was going to be doing commercial he had mentioned that his

03:09stepfather had five apartment complexes so i told this gentleman i was like hey give me 15 minutes

03:17so i immediately called this gentleman i went through school with and said hey you said your

03:23stepfather had five five properties is he interested in selling one two three any of them and he said the

03:31same thing to me he's like give me 15 minutes i'll call you back so he called me back in about

03:3710 minutes they said yeah he's got three of them and so i said well can you send me the the addresses

03:42the information on them which he did and then i called this gentleman back and said hey i'm going to be

03:48texting you the address all the contact information address everything on these properties so then

03:54you can let your 1031 in a mediary you'll know about it and so that's what i did and we put offers

04:03in on those went under contract right after the first year he came out to come and do the interviews

04:11and i told him you'll be in a good broker i said hey i'll pick you up at the airport and he said well

04:17you'll have to come to the private airport because i don't buy a commercial i was like whoa okay so who

04:24am i dealing with here you know um and um anyway we so we put the offers he ended up purchasing them

04:33come to find out he puts on a big uh a big uh event for you know real estate investors and uh he

04:44invited us to come this is shortly after this transaction come out and when we did he put me

04:52right on the front row and he told his rags to riches story and said hey this is how i you know

04:58this is what i what i have done i own these properties in tennessee now and by the way my

05:05tennessee realtor's here and he's like hey brian can you stand up then this is right before lunchtime

05:10and so we go to lunch or he's announcing lunch and there was like 1500 people there and i tell

05:20people that's the closest i would know of what it would be to be famous because soon as he said

05:26lunch break i got mobbed by you know all kinds of people because he had said hey if you want to buy

05:33in tennessee like myself and then you know grant cardone or a bunch of other people you know this is

05:39the guy you need to contact yeah so i sat there for an hour and a half and answered questions

05:46and came back with you know with hundreds of contacts of people that wanted multifamily so

05:53i tell you that story and you said you like stories because you know everybody has an origin story and

06:00everybody asked me how did you get into you know selling multifamily well that's how i got into it

06:05right i mean you know you talk about lucky fortunate blast whatever it just it happened to where boom

06:14within months i had you know i had more buyers than i knew what to you obviously knew what to do with

06:21and so it was it was learning on the fly jumping with both feet you know just trying to understand the

06:29whole multifamily space and world and you know everything about it but yeah that's how that's

06:36how i got into and i've done multifamily ever since 10 years now so yeah i love that story because it goes

06:43i mean there's two things that i'm really pulling from it one you never know what's going to happen

06:48around the corner you just got to put yourself out there and two relationships are key especially in

06:54real estate you don't know what's going to happen um relationships if you just keep developing them

06:59you know keep being friends with people keep connecting with people uh things come out of

07:03those relationships uh and you don't really have to be you know you don't have to be so aggressive

07:08about it you just have to have those relationships there and eventually through conversation things will

07:13happen you know you happen to meet this guy and be put in the right connection and and then you

07:18started to get deals done and one thing led to another and so i've heard that that same type of story

07:23so many times where it was just the right connection right time um and and it led to a big windfall so

07:30i'd love to hear that yeah yeah and you're you're so correct on the uh the relationship thing because

07:35you know i i often tell my agents you know the way to the many is through the one and this one

07:43gentleman has introduced us to so many people that you know it's unbelievable but it is it's all a

07:50relationship relationship great game you know real estate is you know i tell people don't be

07:57you know our agent says like don't be transactional you got to be relational that's the way you're going

08:02to be successful and that's how you're going to beat your competition so um so that's how you got

08:08into multifamily and you started buying and brokering multifamily properties um but all you also have been

08:14doing businesses and this is real estate investing club we do we only talk about real estate but i gotta

08:19ask about the business brokerage side because we haven't had somebody on who has brokered businesses

08:24yeah um so i'm just curious between buying businesses and buying real estate which of the two do you prefer

08:30um actually i that's a that's a tough question i love brokering i love i love doing any kind of deals

08:43you know whether it's real estate or that i love buying um you know multifamily and uh brokering

08:51deals for you know clients and that um but i i do tell you i i absolutely thoroughly enjoy the business

08:58brokerage side uh you know and and i got into you specialize um do you specialize in a specific type

09:05of business or anything under 15 million okay okay yeah and i'm assuming this that i mean you're

09:14talking like hvac companies uh laundromats i mean just go down the line cpa small manufacturing

09:21companies custom cabinet companies a company that makes all the glass for the big high rises that are

09:29being built in 10 in nashville and you know just could be a restaurant you know as small as a

09:35restaurant or flower shop like as big as some of these industrial manufacturing companies you know so

09:41so everything in between i came out of corporate america and was like what do i do next i started this

09:48business brokerage company um from scratch and within you know that was in 2011 then 2016 i had somebody

09:59approached me and want to buy it oh my business brokerage jack because i had taken it from scratch

10:05to by 2016 um i never understand and i don't mean to jump in here but i never understand why people want

10:12to buy brokerages because a brokerage is it really is just relationships i mean there are systems and

10:18processes but you can't buy relationships that's not how that works and so i don't whenever somebody says

10:24they want to buy a brokerage i'm just like why not just go out there and make and you know create

10:28relationships i don't understand yeah to tell a little bit about that why yeah i i absolutely

10:33absolutely agree with you that's why when they contacted me i'm like you sure you know so much of

10:40you know so much of what you're going to be buying is is that the relationships i have built right yeah you

10:47know from from that so yeah any any so i you know i told them my business is always for sale for the right

10:54price they got to the right price i you know signed over ownership signed a three-year non-compete you

11:02know this is back in 16 when that three years was up i just started to back up again so to your point

11:08right why do people buy them because you know three years later i've started to back up and orders

11:12we're going gangbusters just like we was before so and i'm assuming the process uh you know the process

11:20for brokering real estate is the same as the process for brokering businesses is you just

11:25reach out to the owners and you say hey you know we broker business we broker businesses we broker

11:30real estate we'd love to represent you um are you interested in selling that kind of thing yeah

11:36yeah yeah and i just tell people we're the we're like the e-harmony of business brokerage

11:40we make the connection you know i love it i love it all right let's uh let's turn back to real

11:47estate we got to take a little bit of a side uh side side street there into business um but so you

11:53do commercial or multi-family you also do multi multi-tenant industrial uh that is an asset class

11:59that i've had my eye on i buy mobile home parks rv park self-storage facilities and i've been trying to

12:05you know say no to the shiny object syndrome um because i love all types of real estate and i've

12:10been trying to just focus in on what i'm good at uh but multi-tenant is one of those ones that you

12:15know keeps uh keeps knocking at the door and wanting me not to do the shiny object thing or

12:20want me to go towards the shiny object um so tell me about it why multi-tenant why'd you get into it

12:25and uh um yeah what do you like about it well i will just i will agree with your statement first about

12:33the shiny objects right i you know we all see too many clients that this is the next shiny object and i

12:41i keep telling them no you got to focus on you know two or three asset classes and just stay there

12:46uh i like i like multi-tenant industrial from the standpoint here particularly here in nashville

12:54there is you know there is there's so little of it that when it does become available or if it is

13:07i like it hey number one there's a need for it here number two is that you know it's it basically

13:16really is um uh one of those asset classes that is mailbox money because you know it is it's all

13:25triple net your tenants usually sign you know but are many of them sign 10-year lease they're not the

13:33kind of tenants that you know it's not a smoke shop or a shop or you know something that's go out

13:39you're going to go out of business your tenants are you know are like you say hvac companies and

13:45these they're going to be around a long long time right and it's all triple net you know from from

13:52that standpoint and you know it can be anywhere from you know flex space of 2500 square feet to

14:00you know up to 5 000 or 6 000 depending on you know what you want to do with it and uh they sign

14:07long-term leases and you know you just sit back and you know collect the money you know from from

14:14that standpoint and uh so i i i was introduced to it way back when i first got into real estate 10 years

14:23ago by a gentleman that was speaking at a conference he was uh an economics professor

14:29at texas a&m and he was telling he was telling us that attended that probably 75 80 percent of all of

14:40his investments were multi-tenant industrial right so i was like okay if this guy's doing this why is

14:48this you know what is it about it right and you know and and the thing is i like it because if you

14:54build it or if you're repurposing it it doesn't you don't need a lot you don't give this these flex

15:03spaces whether they're 2500 square feet or 5 000 you know it's mostly just space it's like yeah it's like

15:10it's it's like it's like okay you know you have a reception you have a couple of offices maybe a

15:16conference room then the rest of it is all warehouse space with the roll-up door in the back

15:20that's it you know there's not a lot to them but yet they're in and they're in such a big need

15:28you know and here people ask me hey i got this money what do you think i gotta do with it i said well

15:34if you don't don't want to invest it build some of this multi-tenant industrial stuff because i

15:40guarantee you you know you'll have it all leased up before you even have it finally all finished

15:46built yeah i i've heard um so i i can't say that i'm very versed on the space but from the people

15:54that i've been speaking to in you know industrial uh it sounds like it has been overbuilt in most

16:00markets um at least what what's coming online and so do you feel like that's the case in nashville or

16:06is that uh no it's still it's still in huge need here okay oh yeah yeah nice that that that flex space

16:14and and the multi-tenant stuff here so you know we have you know we've sold a couple of older

16:20warehouse buildings that they're we are basically repurposing you know they're taking this you know

16:28these these that are 30 40 000 square feet and then just turning them into small bay yeah just making

16:36the small bay space out of right i mean there's small bay conferences is popping up all over now

16:42right yeah a few years a few years ago you never heard of that right there's actually uh there's

16:49this really huge warehouse here in tacoma um that is just it's just run down you can tell it's not

16:54being used and it's just sitting there in this great location and i keep telling myself i need to

16:58find the owner call him and get him an offer because uh it would be great turned into something like

17:03that but oh yeah yeah uh yeah that's yeah we had you know because the fact that you know there's

17:10certain areas here that in nashville that just are in such need need of it that you know if we can find

17:17anything that we can repurpose then you know that's what that's what we're doing you know and recommending

17:24that people do so so uh we are running down the clock we're almost at the 20 minute mark um so i do

17:31like to ask you know it sounds like your your specialty i mean you know you specialize in a lot

17:36of things but it sounds like your skill the thing that you are really um good at is developing

17:40relationships and making sure that that network is in place uh what tips and uh suggestions can you

17:46give people who want to create a brokerage business or or really create or develop their network over

17:53you know over time um what tips can you give them for doing that uh being relational

17:59get in rooms with people that think much bigger than you the more hands you shake the more money you

18:07make yeah and be a creative problem solver so do you um and just kind of thinking of tact you know

18:16tactful or tact tactic tactics there we go uh that you can actually implement somebody can implement in

18:22their life or you do you like go to conferences do you um i mean i'm sure you're cold calling and

18:27just calling people up but how do you usually initiate and then develop those relationships

18:31yeah the the cold calling and then i i hit as many as many in uh events networking groups

18:42um out there different conferences that i can and just you know again build those relationships

18:49yeah i mean you know so you know i just we had uh i'm on the board of a networking uh a big national

18:58networking a group um and we had bob knackle from you know out of new york come and speak um i don't

19:05know if you were aware of who he is but he it was interesting because he said that that was his 200

19:13different networking event that he has attended this year right for the year jesus christ yeah no i i'm

19:22not that active but but you know the point is i mean this guy sells billions and billions of real

19:28estate a year right and and you know he's like yeah this is you know it's a it's it all it's all a

19:35relationship game yeah yeah i that's one thing that i have been meaning to to do more of in my career

19:43um and i'm just really bad at it but uh you know go out to conferences more i usually get to maybe

19:48one a year but i want to i mean i want it would be great to do at least one a quarter um you know

19:53go to the ssa self-storage conference um the mobile home park conferences those ones but

19:58yeah i haven't done it but you know maybe this uh this is the kick in the pants that i need to

20:02actually get on that yeah and and i'll go back to the whole thing is and that's why i say you know

20:08the way to the many is through the one you don't know what what one person is going to

20:13introduce you to so many people and the other thing i tell people is you don't need more money

20:18you need more people because the people have the money there we go i like that that's quotable right

20:24there all right well with that i'm going to push us on to the quick question round are you ready

20:29yep all right it starts with education it could be any form i'm actually um since we've been

20:35talking about conference i'm going to force you to choose a conference here so give me

20:39one conference that you would recommend people absolutely go to um you know in their real estate

20:45career uh nmhc national national multi-house conference nice and that is uh vegas the end

20:53of january nice and that's that's once per year right uh-huh yep yep nice yeah all right i like it

21:01um usually we i you know i let people say books or anything but we've been talking about conferences

21:06and that's a really good suggestion so we're gonna go with it um next question is for your younger

21:11self let's go back to the brian who was still in the corporate world so many years ago go to him

21:17look him in the eye give him one piece of advice moving forward uh don't let don't let fear keep you

21:25from investing i like that don't let fear keep you and you know nobody's actually said that yet is uh

21:33you know don't let fear stop you but it is great advice um and something that is you know can often

21:38be masked by over analyzing things at least that's what i do if i i'm nervous about something then i

21:44just tend to just analyze the shit out of it until you get paralysis by analysis yeah you know from

21:51there but um yeah it's so it's that you know you've probably heard the comment too right everything

21:57you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear you know and i think to me that's the biggest thing

22:03i see is fear fear keeps people from from becoming the best version of themselves and whether that's

22:11financially wise or any otherwise yep i love it all right next question is about the u.s it is a big

22:19place there is a lot of opportunity out there give me the single metro and if you're going to say

22:24nashville give me the single area of nashville that you're most excited about investing in today

22:29uh yeah i would i would say nashville for a lot of different reasons but um i would say some of the

22:38tertiary markets in nashville are the best best buys in the country well give me one of those so um

22:49i would say something like murphysboro tennessee okay clarksville tennessee isn't murphysboro isn't

22:56that um that's fairly far from nashville isn't it is that or maybe 45 minute drive oh okay okay yeah

23:02my my my tennessee map is not updated so i like it all right next question is about finding deals it

23:10all starts with getting in contact with the seller and pen in that purchase agreement so what is your

23:14favorite way to generate leads and find new deals uh i'm still big on cold calling

23:20do you do it yourself or do you hire vas to do it for you i do it myself oh wow okay yeah at least

23:28at least two hours a day really two hours a day i like that so that's even now so do you do it in

23:35the morning in the afternoon like when uh how do you put it in your schedule uh i usually do it uh

23:42either i'll switch up i'll either do it first thing in the morning or i'll do it the end of the

23:47day nice i like that yeah i like i like calls at the end of the day because then my you know if i do

23:55it in the morning that's the time that i need to like get things focus things done and if i i try to

24:00focus later in the day it just does not work but i can talk and shoot the shit any any time of the day

24:05well and what i've found is people are more willing to talk to you the end of the day oh okay

24:12because it's it's you know it's the end of the day they're kind of you know through all of everything

24:17else they've done for their day they're a little more i wouldn't say worn out so they're they're a

24:22little easier to get a conversation going yeah yeah i remember i uh i saw an infographic earlier um

24:31like harvard did a study on cold calling and the best times or the the times when you're most likely

24:36to get somebody to pick up the phone and you guys are gonna have to google it because i don't remember

24:41the actual time but i see i want to say it was between like 6 and 7 p.m or something like that

24:46um but don't quote me on it no look it up it is out there yeah yeah really between like 4 and 7

24:54or the best times yeah yeah that makes sense studies yeah all right next question is about

25:01lessons learned not every deal we get into goes the way we expect it in fact pretty much every time

25:06something is going to go wrong and we get to learn a lesson so what was the deal that went a little bit

25:10sideways for you and then what was the lesson you pulled from it well the biggest lesson and this goes

25:16back to something i said earlier and this is what i you know i when i'm interviewing agents they want to

25:22come to work for us you know i i talked to them about okay tell me a deal where it's went sideways how

25:29did you do it but and and the reason why i ask that question is is to me the biggest trait a agent can

25:36have is be a creative problem solver right you know if they can if they can think through you know and

25:44basically think of every every possible solution to get that deal done and not just say oh

25:52man this is not going to happen so they just you know give up on it yeah right they if if you know

26:00i tell them if you you've got to think of every possible angle to get that deal done and the other

26:06two the other thing is is if you have a willing buyer and a willing seller you can find a way to

26:11get that deal done yeah that's funny the one that leads it it's funny you say that because i'm actually

26:18i'm selling um a couple properties that i own right now and i'm actually the difficult seller

26:23because because of taxes and all this stuff i know i am but it's a it's fine uh but my the broker that

26:29i you know i've known him for a long time and he's awesome um he's really good at coming up with

26:33solutions and working between the parties and he's been you know coming up with unique things

26:38creative things that we can do to get the deal done where both parties are satisfied so

26:42it just reminds me um you know there's always a solution and if two people are are willing then

26:48you just got to find something that works for both parties and and get it there so i really like that

26:52yeah um all right next question i'm not sure if if this is relevant to you but i'm going to ask it

26:59anyways um i am a huge proponent of ai i've been trying to implement it in as many places i

27:05responsibly can in my business so um is ai something you are using in your business and if so

27:10how are you doing it how you how can you suggest people do it in their own um yeah i use i use uh

27:17ai and chat gbt all the time you know whether it's even responding to emails you know um writes my post

27:28for my for linkedin yeah you know i try to post every day it's it's you know it's it's what i use

27:36uh you know but everything from you know reviewing uh contracts uh you know i mean

27:44there's probably there's probably not an aspect in brokerage where i don't use it

27:52nice and uh give me um so just typing into chat gbt is one thing but give me like a process that

28:00you can say like for instance like you mentioned um linkedin the way i do that is i usually just

28:05dictate into linkedin or into chat gbt and say hey i'm going to write a post to turn this into a post

28:10what i'm going to say into a post and then it will take my my word vomit and turn it into something

28:16that's legible uh what is the process that you do yeah it's very like that but the more that you can

28:22tell it what you want to do it in what say you know and and i will say okay make this in a you know

28:31write it as a broker you know in a very personal you know style uh you know and the more information

28:42you can feed into it of how you want it the better it's going to be yeah and whether it's a linkedin

28:49post or whether it's you know or whether it's um you know it's like oh i will feed into it like an

28:57email if i'm writing an email back to somebody because it helps take out the emotion yeah i will

29:04say okay right oh that's a good point yeah especially if you're angry about something exactly

29:09you know i'll say you know make this take the emotion out of this but have it be very firm

29:18with it about this point yeah i like right because i you know i tend to be a little bit emotional

29:27and so you know it's definitely helped me when it comes to you know responding to to like say emails

29:34anything like that yeah yeah that's a good use in something i haven't heard yet but i feel like it

29:40makes a lot of sense especially if you're writing you know if you're in a heated moment and you're

29:45writing or responding to an email that that is charged um if you can take that charge out with

29:51chat gbt it just makes the relationship better and like we're talking about relationships or

29:55everything you don't want to ruin any relationship so just taking that charge out of the email um that's

30:00a good use for it yeah yeah i i started using that doing that on email it's probably about a year ago

30:06and it has totally changed um you know responses yeah you know because then they come across seeing

30:14that you're the one that has the emotional intelligence that maybe they didn't when they

30:20first sent it sent it to you you know and they're like okay okay and then you get a response back that

30:25is kind of what you were expecting you wanted yeah nice all right that leads us to the very last

30:33question this is for the listeners you've given us a lot to think about i'm sure people want to

30:37reach out get in contact with you this is a two-parter where can they find you and then what can they

30:41expect when they reach out uh they can uh find me on linkedin i'm on on uh linkedin uh and then uh

30:50secondly i'm kind of have the reputation as the broker who actually answers his phone when somebody

30:56calls me so they're willing to call me um uh 615-260-2121 that's my cell number you can call

31:07me eight o'clock at night i'll be answering the phone so awesome well i'll put i will put your

31:13links as well as your phone number in the show notes so if you guys want to reach out all you

31:17got to do is click the little more in the description it'll pull down that full description and in there you

31:22can find brian's links all right man well that wraps it up thank you very much for hopping on the show

31:28yeah thank you very much man appreciate it it's been great absolutely for everybody who's with us

31:34today thank you guys for showing up you are the reason we do this so if you guys have any questions

31:38reach out to me gabe at the real estate investing club.com if you guys want to support the show just

31:42leave us a review or a comment or whatever other than that i hope you guys have a great week

31:47keep rocking real estate and i look forward to seeing you on the next episode

31:52thank you

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