Build Wealth Faster with Multifamily Strategy

The Real Estate Investing Club

Join an active community of RE investors here: [https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen](https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen)  0:00 Introduction & Friday Energy 🌤️ 1:35 Gino’s Journey from Restaurant to Real Estate 4:50 Scaling to 800 Units & Financial Freedom Mindset 💰 7:10 Seller Financing & Creative Deal Structuring 10:20 Balancing Family, Business, and Entrepreneurship 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 13:00 Financial Freedom vs Chasing Wealth 16:30 Money Mindset & Communication in Relationships 20:10 Teaching Kids About Money & Real Estate 24:50 Building Foundations for Real Estate Success 🧠 28:30 Lessons from Bad Deals & Market Analysis 32:00 Favorite Deal & Creative Financing Win 🏆  WELCOME TO THE REAL ESTATE INVESTING CLUB PODCAST In this episode, I sit down with seasoned multifamily investor Gino Barbaro to break down the real strategies behind building wealth through real estate investing. We go deep into multifamily investing, financial freedom, and the mindset shifts required to scale from a single income stream to thousands of units. If you’re looking to grow cash flow, build equity, and escape the 9–5 grind, this conversation is packed with actionable insights.  HOW TO BUILD FINANCIAL FREEDOM WITH REAL ESTATE Gino shares how he transitioned from owning a restaurant to acquiring over 1,900 multifamily units using proven real estate investing strategies. We discuss how financial freedom isn’t about chasing luxury, but about creating consistent cash flow that covers your expenses. This episode highlights how investors can achieve passive income faster than expected by focusing on scalable real estate assets and long-term wealth building.  MULTIFAMILY INVESTING & SCALING YOUR PORTFOLIO One of the biggest takeaways is how multifamily real estate allows for rapid scaling compared to single-family investing. We explore how building a strong foundation, understanding market cycles, and leveraging relationships with brokers and lenders can accelerate your growth. Gino explains how he went from zero to hundreds of units in just a few years by focusing on systems, discipline, and execution.  #RealEstateInvesting #PassiveIncome #MultifamilyInvesting #FinancialFreedom #RealEstateTips  Want to learn more about our guest? Connect here:  [https://jakeandgino.com/link-tree/](https://jakeandgino.com/link-tree/)  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](https://www.therealestateinvestingclub.com) or click here: [https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen](https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen)

Transcript

00:05All right. We are back with another episode of the Real Estate Investing Club. I hope you guys

00:11are having a great week, great day, wherever you are and whatever day it is for you. It is Friday

00:17on the podcast as always. So we're bringing that good Friday energy to you. It is nice and cloudy

00:22here in Seattle. We're looking forward to spring. I saw there's a window or there's a tree outside

00:28my daughter's window and it has buds on it right now. And I was looking at it yesterday.

00:32It got me excited. So I'm looking forward. I'm actually, I planted a whole line of trees

00:37on the side of my property to get a security fence. And I've been like, just really trying

00:43to get those things to grow. So this spring, I'm looking forward to it. But today is a good day

00:47for a second reason because we got Gino Barbaro with us on the podcast. If you guys have been

00:52listening to me for a while, he's been on here a few times. He has so much good stuff to

00:57go into.

00:57Super successful investor. They invest out of Nashville, I believe, right? Oh no. Knoxville

01:04out there in Tennessee. And now he's with Gino or Barbaro 360. A lot to go into with Gino. He's

01:09very, very wise when it comes to real estate. So Gino, thank you very much for hopping on the show.

01:14Gabe, thanks for having me. And I am always partial. Every time I see the word Gabe Peterson,

01:19the name, it brings a smile to my face because my firstborn daughter, I've got six kids,

01:23is named Gabriela. So I just, I love the name. It's just, it just, it crushes.

01:29It's solid. There actually aren't a lot of games out there. It's a, it's a little bit of a rare

01:33name, but it's unfortunately. Yeah. Um, Gino, I told you before we're going on here and you know

01:40how kind of how this show goes. We always like to start with stories to hear how people got to

01:44where

01:44they are. Um, I love your story. You've told, told it a few times, but let's rehash. Let's get back

01:49to

01:49the beginning. Um, tell people how you got started and, uh, and how you got to where you are today.

01:54Well, the beginning is pretty interesting for me. I was, you know, son of two immigrants. I have to

01:59start out with that because that led me to go to college. My parents sort of forced me to go

02:03to

02:04college because they didn't have the opportunity. So I went to college, got a corporate job for a year.

02:09I hated it. My dad owned the restaurant. So I ended up going into the restaurant business

02:14at the age of 23. I loved it for about 15 years. Then the great recession of 08 comes along

02:21and things drastically change, working harder, making less. At that point, I had done a couple

02:28of real estate deals that did not work out. Fortunately for me, they didn't work out because

02:32I had to become serious. I had to learn the business of real estate. I went out and I took

02:37a couple of mentorship programs. I was fortunate in the restaurant business to be able to meet my

02:42business partner, Jake Senziano, who was a pharmaceutical rep. He was coming to the

02:46restaurant, taking orders and bringing them to doctor's offices and selling them legal drugs.

02:52And he loved his job until the sunshine act came in in 2009. This seems like it was like

02:58a millennia ago, but it wasn't that long ago. So you have a pizza guy and a drug rep. They

03:03both

03:04hate their jobs. They're both saying to themselves and they're both grumpy, miserable pricks at the

03:09time. Cause like we hate New York. Everything's expensive here. We hate our jobs. We don't see

03:15the future here. What do we do? So the two of us get together. And in 2011, we start looking

03:21at

03:21real estate down in Knoxville, Tennessee of all places. I'm a New Yorker. I had never heard of

03:25Knoxville, Tennessee back in 2011. Jake moved down there. So like, okay, let's look. I mean,

03:31deals look really good down here. You can actually cashflow down here. It took us 18 months to find

03:35that first deal, Gabe. But after that first deal, things started to accelerate for us. We've met the

03:40right brokers. We started doing the right deals. And within five years, we're at almost 800 units.

03:46So if you put it to context, I had one restaurant over the course of my career for over 20

03:52years.

03:53And within five years, Jake and I had a little over 700, 800 units. It was actually really

03:58interesting. And I'm sure you're going to touch upon that. But for me, a lot of that mindset coming

04:03along, a lot of getting into a different business, a lot of getting into a real estate business

04:07that I knew wasn't just buying assets, I realized, wow, real estate and multifamily are scalable

04:15businesses. So that's how Jake and I started. And to this date, I guess to date, we've transacted on

04:21over probably 2,400 units. We currently own 1,900 units in the portfolio. We do not have any syndications.

04:27It's all our own capital. We've sort of positioned ourselves that way. And we have a vertically

04:33integrated company. So we've managed our own assets. Nice, man. Yeah. And I love what people

04:39I feel like don't realize when they first get into real estate is how quickly you can... I mean,

04:45800 is beyond financial freedom. But how quickly you can get to that point, because when they first

04:52get started, that is the goal that everybody has in mind. They want to get financial freedom.

04:55They want their cash flow to exceed their monthly expenses. And that can actually happen a lot

05:01quicker than you think. It's not that many units that you need to buy in order to get to that

05:07point.

05:07But to your point, you were working in your business, in your pizzeria for 15 years. And I'm

05:14sure you couldn't have left that business without it cratering at some point. But you were able to get

05:19to a point where your family was relatively free within... I mean, you said five years, but I'm sure

05:23it was previous to that where you realized that your expenses were covered.

05:28It's interesting because when I started in 2011, it was the depths of the recession. And it's very

05:33similar to what's going on right now. Debt was hard to get. There weren't a lot of deals out there,

05:39but nobody was financing these deals. The economy at that time was terrible. I'm not really sure where

05:45the economy is now. I mean, GDP, is that a function of what's going on with AI? I just don't

05:49understand

05:50where we are with the economy. It feels uncertain. So back then, there were a lot of deals, but nobody

05:56was financing these deals. And Jake and I, it did take us 18 months. We actually had a broker named

06:01Rick who liked us for some reason. We're New Yorkers, we're in Tennessee, we're Stenziano,

06:08and we're Barbaro. We heard a lot of, y'all ain't doing business down here. And Jake was this young,

06:15I don't want to say egotistical, but a little brash. He didn't understand that the relationship

06:20building in real estate and getting brokers to like you and to trust you was of vital importance

06:26for us. And that's what actually turned the table. Rick liked us. He brought us a couple of deals.

06:31Even on that very first deal, we used seller financing on that first deal. And that was the

06:35crazy part. I mean, I had all these beliefs around money. And on the very first deal, it's like,

06:40holy crap, 10% of the money that we need is being financed from the seller. And the irony of

06:45that

06:46is we just paid off that note back in 2013. We took a $60,000 seller finance note back in

06:532013.

06:55Brenda last month said, I think it's about time you want to settle up on it. The note was $32

07:00,000.

07:01We paid her off after 13 years of paying $329 a month. It's an incredible business. And to what you

07:09said, you can make money in real estate in so many different fashions, but if you're getting into it

07:15in the beginning, the goal for you, especially if you have a little capital is to try to create as

07:19much equity as possible. And that's what Jake and I did. We did cashflow on these assets,

07:25but what really got us to become financially free was the ability to create value with the assets,

07:32increase NOI, increase value, and exit the asset through the refinance. A lot of operators

07:39would sell and move on to the next one. We just loved the deals that we were in. They were

07:43at a

07:44good basis. We added so much value. Why kill the golden goose? We liked the market we were in.

07:49Let's hold these things. Let's refinance the money. And as I'm working at my restaurant,

07:54making pizzas, that's paying for my lifestyle, right? And the money from the rest, from the real

08:00estate over here, everything that I made with Jake, all the cashflow, all the refinances was going back

08:06into the real estate. That's why it did take me some time. It took me five years

08:10from when I started looking with Jake to be able to exit the restaurant business. And I think that's

08:15what people should understand. You don't have to burn the bridges and go all in tomorrow to live

08:20your dreams, which you have to do. Yeah. But what you really have to do is you have to burn

08:25mentally

08:25and make the decision, Hey, I need to do this, but let me hold off because I don't want to

08:31burn all

08:31the capital I'm creating in this real estate business to be able to pay for my lifestyle.

08:35Let me, let my lifestyle suffer a little bit. Let me work a little bit harder here to be able

08:40to get

08:40to this point. And then there will be a point where you've got equity coming in sales of properties,

08:47refinances, exits, and then all of a sudden they're creating so much equity here that you can leave

08:51that job. Ultimately. That's actually something that I, that I wish I had done. Um, when I,

08:56when I first got started on commercial on the commercial side in 2019. Um, so I, I burned the

09:01bridges. Like I quit my job. I, I was like, this is what I'm doing. And I'm, I'm not looking

09:05back.

09:06It did work out for me, but I had wished that I had done real estate on the side while

09:12keeping a W2

09:13because that, um, the, the money coming in is actually beneficial, especially what I was doing.

09:21I was doing off market. And so it, it, it helps with the marketing budget, all that stuff. And so,

09:26um, I wish, I mean, if I wanted to stay in real estate, I wish I would have like even

09:30got a job

09:30in, in lending or whatever, you know, and there's no, there's no wrong way though. I think you did

09:35the right thing looking back on, I wish I'd done this, but that was right for you at that moment

09:39in

09:39time. It felt good in your bones. I had no other choice, Gabe. I had five kids at the time

09:43I'm living

09:44in New York. It's expensive. I just can't pick up and go, I'm done. Cause then what happens is I

09:49don't want to be set in a situation where I have to sell an asset or I have to all

09:53of a sudden

09:53downsize. And I didn't want to do that. So I was willing to work 70, 80 hours a week for

09:58a good 12,

09:5918 months there. I was willing to sacrifice that. And Gabe, this is another thing. Cause I know you

10:03want to talk about family, but this is truly what launched me into this idea. I came home from the

10:09restaurant one day at nighttime. I had my long Johns on cause it was 20 degrees outside. I smelled like

10:15garlic and I saw my wife in the laundry room and I said to her, I said, Julia, I can't

10:21take this

10:21anymore. I need to get out of this business. This is killing me. I'm not making enough money. There's

10:25no future here. I hate New York. I hate the taxes here. How about I quit the restaurant and we

10:32moved

10:32to Florida and she looked puzzled. And about three seconds later, she said, yeah, let's do it. And I

10:38was shocked. And I was actually afraid for a few seconds. Cause I didn't think she was going to say

10:41yes

10:42so quickly. But what that allowed me to do was I'm a male. I'm a man. I derive respect and

10:51I derive

10:51love and I derive significance by being able to provide for my family and by being able to provide

10:57for my wife. And when she said, yes, she gave me permission. But with that, yes, came a shit ton.

11:04Sorry for cursing of responsibility and a shit ton of fear. And I'm like, if she's giving me permission

11:10to risk everything, I need to go to work. I need to really put in the effort. I need to

11:15put in the

11:16time. I need to put in the dedication to be able to make this a success. So I don't want

11:21to hear that.

11:22Oh, it's lunchtime. I need to take a break or I get home from the restaurant at 10 o'clock

11:26at night

11:26and it's too late to underrate deals. No, she said yes. So I have to, you know, I actually have

11:33to

11:33have my end of the bargain and we call it, we call it two things. Actually, we call it radical

11:38accountability and relentless execution. I'm getting a little emotional here because I remember

11:44that conversation. It was actually scary. So I don't want to let her down. So for any of you trying

11:48to make this decision, really lock it in. And if you need to blame somebody or you need to like

11:54not

11:54let somebody down, because I was more willing to let myself down than I was my family. And I think

11:59that's what really sparked it. That was really the motivator for me. I'm like, I don't want to let

12:03them down. She's giving me permission. I'm complaining here. Stop complaining. You've got an

12:08opportunity to do something about it. Let's go for it. Nice. And I actually, I want to take that

12:13opportunity to kind of pivot into like what you'd said. You know, you've been on the show a few times.

12:17We've talked a lot about, about the successes that you've had, about the ups, the downs. But we haven't

12:23really broached a ton on, you had five kids at the time. You were building this business while you

12:27were growing a family. You know, I told you before we got on, I'm kind of in the same boat.

12:33I don't have

12:33five kids, but I have one, one, two and a half year old. And then we have one come in

12:37due here in

12:38March. And so I'm, I'm going through these kind of mental, you know, thought processes of, of how to

12:45balance both growing a business and being a present father, bring a present husband, you know, really

12:51taking both roles on and doing a good job in both roles as the, as the entrepreneur, as the, you

12:58know,

12:58the owner of the company and the family person. So dive into that. How did you do it? And what

13:03lessons did you learn looking back that you feel like a new, you know, younger, not younger,

13:10but somebody who's in a different position could apply to their own life.

13:13Gabe, I was fortunate because I have an incredible wife. She can be annoying, but she's married to me

13:21and I'm a lot more annoying than she is. But the reality is that we had communication issues like

13:27every other couple. But when she saw me struggling there, when she saw the pain that I was in,

13:33I think she felt sort of sad, sort of empathy for me. And, and then we started the communication

13:37and I said to her, Julia, I don't want to become an entrepreneur to become financially free and to

13:44become rich. And I wanted to become financially free. And she didn't understand that. So the first

13:50step to do this with the family is to really map out why you're doing this. And I've heard so

13:56many

13:56people say, I'm doing this for my family. Have you ever asked your family if that's what they want?

14:03Or are you doing it unconsciously for yourself? There's nothing wrong with that. I was conditioned

14:10early on as a saver, as someone who's responsible, someone to take care of the family. But I ultimately

14:17just didn't want to worry about paying the bills, about going to the dentist's office,

14:21about going on vacation. And once I conveyed that picture to my wife and said, Julia, I just want to

14:27become financially free. Every time you ask me for braces, there's another $5,000 that I could use to

14:33save for a kid's college. That's what I'm really trying to work towards. I'm not trying to work

14:38towards a Lamborghini or I'm not trying to work towards these, these, these toys. I just want to

14:43become financially independent. Once I was able to paint that picture to her, it made sense to her.

14:48And we got on the same page. And I was fortunate because at the restaurant, the kids came to work.

14:53So they were always around me at work. Bring the work home. Start the conversation about money with

15:00your spouse. And don't be afraid to talk about money with your kids. Because believe it or not,

15:07150, 200 years ago, there were no schools. We taught our children. We taught them everything

15:12they needed to know. So you are more than capable about teaching your kids how to read,

15:18how to go to the bathroom, how to talk about money, all of these topics. You're, you're the

15:23parent. And especially if you're the father listening to this, you're the head of the household

15:27spiritually. And I think as a leader as well. So you have to take the mantle and you have to

15:31focus

15:32on that. And then from there, Gabe, talking about at your age and at any age, we talk about legacy

15:39as if it's something that we leave when we're not here anymore. Well, I want to flip it on its

15:44head

15:45and say it's something that you activate while you're here. Like from now on, you've had this

15:50conversation. The word legacy from now on is going to mean something different to you. You're building

15:55a legacy right now, not to leave it, but to actually teach the kids and involve the kids. And if

16:00you're

16:00an entrepreneur and your world is all about money and your world is all about mindset, you need first and

16:06foremost to get on the page with your wife. And my wife does not care about money, but now she

16:11knows

16:11where the money is. We have these conversations. We make these decisions together. And now we're

16:17involving our children in these, in these decisions by building a business and by learning all these

16:22tools, because ultimately as a parent, your goal is to raise kids who are responsible and who can

16:28ultimately make decisions for themselves. And if you never talk about money, how are they going to be

16:34able to make decisions about money if they're never taught in the household or there's never even a

16:38conversation about money in the household? Yeah. Yeah. It's funny you said that because

16:43when I grew up, money wasn't really talked about. And that meant that when I got to the point where

16:50I

16:50got a job and now it was my responsibility to make money, I kind of freaked out. I didn't really

16:55have

16:55a context or a framework to understand how, understand that you can make your own money,

17:02that it's not, you know, you're not, to me, it felt almost like, you know, somebody controlled my

17:08life because I had to make money versus something that I can go out there and do. And, and it's

17:13something that I'm giving and something that I can create myself. So that really is, I don't know,

17:19that kind of stood out to me. The other thing that you're, you were saying, get on the same page

17:24with

17:24your wife. And that's something, at least for me, it is a lot for myself is I don't really

17:31communicate what I'm thinking out loud. I feel like I am, but most of the time I'm not actually

17:37saying the words. And so that is something that I've personally realized recently is like,

17:40you actually have to, things that you feel like are being communicated, at least as a guy,

17:45because a lot of times I feel like as guys, we can, we feel like things are being communicated,

17:50but they're not because we're not just continuously saying the words. And so getting into that habit

17:54is super important. Gabe, let me share a resource that I think will be valuable for you. And I think

18:01for men and women on the show, we just interviewed a gentleman named Dr. John Gray. He wrote the book,

18:08men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Oh yeah. Buy the book. And then you'll understand what you're

18:13talking about. Men are different than women in many aspects, as far as testosterone, as far as estrogen,

18:20which you're talking about is a man will retreat into his cave and we'll think about things. We need

18:26to calm things down. Whereas women are more emotional and tend to verbalize a lot differently.

18:31We are two different creatures. We've been created differently and we're not the same. And that's part of

18:38the communication problem that I had with my wife. I would retreat. I wouldn't say anything. She'd think

18:43something is wrong. And then we'd have an argument and, or she would come to me and start talking to

18:48me and I would go into solve mode. Instead, all she wanted was for me to listen to her. These

18:54are

18:54things we're not taught. And Dr. John Gray's book is incredible in the way he lays it out. And for

18:59me,

19:00what you can do with your wife, because my wife and I, we grew up completely different as far as

19:06money.

19:06My wife came from a single mom, three kids, week to week, blue collar, people who have money,

19:16they're a little evil, they're a little greedy. And I grew up from a household that was more

19:20entrepreneurial, that actually had goals. So when we got married, my wife is like, goals?

19:25She actually left her tribe and joined my tribe. And unconsciously, that's very scary.

19:32Years ago, if you left your tribe, you're dead, you're ostracized. And then all of a sudden,

19:37if you start having some success, you feel ashamed or embarrassed because all of a sudden,

19:42you're doing well here and your family is not doing well. And they're like, well, this rich person.

19:47And there was a lot of tension over the years. So what I would say to anybody listening to this,

19:51if you have that situation, just sit down with your wife and ask and be curious. What did you hear

19:57when you were growing up about money? My wife, they had no idea. It was week to week. They didn't

20:04really think about it. And they made good money. Back in the 80s, 90s, they were waitresses. They

20:09were making $1,000 a week in cash, but it seemed as if they never had any money left over.

20:13So when I'm

20:14telling my wife, we've got this money in the bank, she's saying to herself, well, we got plenty of

20:17money. And it's just like the conversation when the argument was always about money, but it's not

20:22about money. So have that conversation with your spouse, ask them where they came from,

20:26and then start telling them about your fears, your anxieties, what you heard, what you didn't hear.

20:32And then all of a sudden you start having empathy with the person. And then hopefully you can start

20:36having some kind of what we call financial intimacy with the person. And once you can be intimate with

20:41your partner, all of a sudden you become more transparent and more authentic. And then you can

20:46start to connect with the person. And then all of a sudden you're not fighting because fighting is

20:51pitting one against the other, but you're arguing and having an argument is healthy.

20:55Because you don't want to hold anything back. You want to be able to talk to the person and

20:59communicate with the person. And always remember you're on the same side. That's what I think most

21:04couples may forget. It's not me against you. It's us. And how do we solve it? But getting down to

21:09the

21:09root of it is actually finding out how you grew up around it and what your thoughts were and seeing

21:14how you can reconcile those.

21:16Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. You were mentioning like your wife would see money in the bank. She'll be

21:22like, yeah, we have money. And I've had similar conversations because I could see $100,000 in the

21:30bank and I'll be like, that's not a lot of money because I don't think of that as money we

21:35can use.

21:35I think of that as how can we turn that into cashflow? And cashflow is the only thing we can

21:40use. And so one person can see plenty of money and the other person can see something not enough

21:47money. And you have to ask her, why is it that that's a lot of money to you? Or more

21:53importantly,

21:53once I told my wife that, Julia, we're saving this money to buy an asset, to pay for an event.

22:01And once that event is over, we still own that asset. And real simple, we bought our very first

22:08property, me and Jake, in 2013. I bought that asset to be able to pay for my kids' college.

22:14Once my first two kids went to college, the event was over, but I still own the asset.

22:20And guess what? That asset to this day is still producing between $2,000 and $3,000 a month

22:25for myself personally. So once I can shift her mindset around it and say, hey, it's not about

22:31the money, right? It's about buying for us, for our family, these assets that can produce cashflow.

22:36Once you start painting the picture to them, then it's like, oh. And then I hear a little bit of

22:40fear

22:41in your background as far as $100,000. It's in the bank. I need it. I don't want it to

22:46go.

22:47We all have that. There's a lot of us in this world have fear, have shame. We as men are

22:53conditioned

22:53that we should know about money. And when we don't, that's a scary thing for us. I mean,

22:59like when we don't know, when we're unsure and we feel like we're failures, that is really weighs

23:04heavily on us as men. And when we're not taught about money and we're supposed to figure out about

23:08it, then all of a sudden you can see why we have these conversations and these arguments with our

23:12spouse. Yeah. Dang. So we have run down the clock. It's already past the 20-minute mark. But I wanted

23:19to

23:19ask one last question before we moved on. And it was about how to involve your kids. So my kids,

23:25two and a half, zero, not born yet. When they're getting older, I want them to be excited about

23:31real estate. I want to get them involved. You've been through this process. How did you do it with

23:34your kids? You need to be excited about real estate in order to see them. You need to mirror it.

23:39This is exactly why I wanted to get out of the restaurant business. I would come home as a grumpy

23:45prick. I didn't want my kids to see me as a grumpy prick because then they'd equate work,

23:50working hard, being unhappy. That was my biggest fear, honestly. And I didn't want that to happen.

23:56I lost the joy of my job. I really did. And for me, once I got into the real estate

24:01space and I

24:02created Jake and Gino, the kids saw how much I loved it. The kids became a part of it naturally.

24:07They became part of the conversation. And then all of a sudden I said, hey, you guys have a little

24:11bit

24:11of money set aside. Do you want to start investing in my deals? And then all of a sudden they

24:15start

24:15investing in the deals. And now the conversations start changing. Now this is as they get older,

24:19right? As they get older, all of a sudden it's not, hey, can I spend thousand dollars to buy

24:24something? Hey, when's your next deal coming up? Dad, why didn't the owner draws pan out this month?

24:29What happened? Economic occupancy versus physical occupancy. Oh, these conversations you start to

24:34have. But when they're early and when it's younger, just make it simple. Make it fun. If they get a

24:40gift

24:40and you have money, use cash. Get your jar system where you can have save, spend, and charity. Allow them

24:48to be

24:48part of the conversation. Allow them to use their own money and to make their own decisions. Because

24:54as they get older, they won't be afraid of making those decisions. They'll feel empowered. They won't

24:59feel overwhelmed by money because now all of a sudden they know what money is. Money is just the result.

25:04Money is just to create impact. Money is just there to give you an opportunity. We're not working for

25:09money. I always tell my kids, I want to work for passion. I want to work for something I love.

25:13And if I'm

25:14really good at it, guess what? Eventually money will appear. And that money is used for the household.

25:20It's used for impact. And it's just the result. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with everything. Everything

25:31said so far. But with that, I do have to move us on to the quick question round. We've ran

25:36it down. It's

25:3625 minutes. And so it starts with education. Education is the bedrock of your real estate

25:44career. So give us two recommendations, one for general life wisdom, and then one for real estate.

25:51Whatever you do in life, whether you're learning how to become a better negotiator,

25:56a better communicator, a better investor, a better parent, you need to create the foundation.

26:02You need to go to the basics. And that may take a little bit of time. And for myself,

26:08I mean, that's what I did with real estate. I made so many mistakes because I didn't have the

26:12foundation. I didn't have a framework. I didn't have buy, write, operate, exit. I was just looking

26:17for a deal. And that's why I made all these mistakes. So whatever you're trying to accomplish,

26:22go to the basics, focus on building the foundation, go as deep as possible, build a foundation,

26:28and then you can start going up. That's why I never built a foundation in my restaurant for 20

26:33years. I only had one place, one restaurant, one location. But within five years, Jake and I,

26:38we built a pretty solid foundation before we started really scaling up. 18 months for the first deal.

26:45Within two years, we had 200 units, but that was only three deals, right? We built the foundation.

26:50I think that's what people forget. And it's okay if it takes you a little bit of time.

26:54No one is born an expert or naturally gifted at anything. Those who really succeed put the time,

27:02the effort, and the reps in. There's the learning zone, and there's the performance zone. As Eduardo

27:08Brissantis says in his book, The Performance Paradox, he was the person that Carol Dweck wrote about in

27:15Mindset. You need to be able to learn stuff, and then at some point, you perform it. But if you

27:21don't put

27:21enough time into learning your craft, the performances aren't going to get any better.

27:27Yeah. That is one thing. Again, looking back, if I could go back to the first Gabe who bought that

27:34first deal he flipped, I would say get a mentor. Get with somebody who can teach you exactly what

27:40you're doing. I bought courses and stuff, and I learned that way in the general framework. But then

27:46everything else was just learn on my own, learn through mistakes. And I could have cut that down

27:51a lot if I had just hired a mentor. And for some reason, I didn't. Well, I know why. Because

27:55$10,000,

27:56$20,000 seemed like way too much money in my mind. But that cost is nothing compared to all of

28:04the

28:04shortcuts that it will give you in terms of the mistakes that you don't have to make.

28:10So yeah, like that. Moving on to the next question. This is for your younger self. Let's go back to

28:15the

28:15Gino who was still working in the pizza kitchen. Go back to him. Look him in the eye. Give him

28:20one

28:21piece of advice moving forward. When I was younger, and that is a great question,

28:27because I don't know if I'd really want to change anything where I am right now. I did meet my

28:31wife

28:32at the restaurant when I bought it. But one thing that I would say is surround yourself with

28:38like-minded individuals into what you're trying to accomplish. I was only hanging around with other

28:43pizza guys that had one or two shops. And that was the reality. That was my paradigm. That was my,

28:49as Tony Robbins says, that was the state. That was the level that I was at. I never even considered,

28:56hey, what does it look like to open up another place? What does it look like to scale and create

29:00a

29:00business? And Jim Rome says it, the five people that you surround yourself with. And I just looked

29:05at those five people back then, and they weren't. And maybe it was because I was insecure. Maybe I

29:11just felt comfortable where I was. But it came to that point where the uncomfortableness showed up.

29:17And I'm like, okay, now I need to take action. I wish I would have taken action sooner. That's the

29:22one

29:22thing that I tell my younger self is I wish I would have taken action sooner.

29:26Yep. And that same sentiment has been echoed across so many of the 600 and something episodes

29:31that we've done. Every time somebody says it, I'm going to point it back to you, the listener.

29:35If you haven't gotten your first deal done yet, just go out there and get it done. It doesn't

29:39matter what it is. It could be a piece of land. It could be a single family, a multifamily, whatever.

29:43Just get a deal done and get that ball rolling. Because 10 years down the road, you're going to be

29:47thankful that you did it now versus a year, two years, five years from now.

29:51So with that, pushing us on to the next question. This one is about the US. It's a big place.

29:57There

29:57is a lot of opportunity out there. Give me the single metro you're most excited about investing

30:02in today. We like the Southeast, but I mean, for us, we're in Knoxville, Tennessee by default.

30:08We're vertically integrated. I think the Midwest has a lot of opportunity. I always loved Omaha,

30:15Nebraska. I don't know why I was attracted to it at first. It's one of those sleepers. I don't think

30:23there's a ton of institutional capital there. I think it's underneath the radar, but it does have

30:28population growth. It has a nice affordability. Rents are still pretty low. It's a nice place to

30:33live. It's in the center of the country. So if I had to have a sleeper, I would say Omaha,

30:37Nebraska.

30:39Interesting. You're actually the first. I don't think that's ever been mentioned. I asked this

30:43600 something episodes. Take a look at it. When you get off, go on to Bercadia and look at their

30:49metrics. I just love it. It's a slow grower. It's a sleeper. It's one of those places where you can

30:54cash flow and you can actually get some equity appreciation. The median income of that market

31:00is actually very good. I'm very surprised. And the affordability, people can literally afford to live

31:06in that market as well, which is something that I like because you can ultimately long-term continue to

31:10have rent growth. Huh? Yeah. And it's got Berkshire Hathaway. Actually, I don't know if they are

31:17headquartered there. I'm not sure if he is. I drove by his house. Very impressed.

31:21Not the kind of house you think that Warren would be living in, but hey.

31:26Yeah, man. He doesn't really care about the money either. He just likes the deal.

31:30All right. Next question is about lessons learned. Not every deal we get into goes the way we expect it.

31:35In fact, pretty much every time something's going to go wrong and that's when we get to learn a

31:39lesson. So what was a deal that went a little bit sideways for you? And then what was the lesson

31:44you pulled from it? I've had several deals go sideways, but one of the more recent ones back

31:49in 2019, it's because we didn't do proper market research. Everything checked out. Unit mixes were

31:57great. It had brick. Utilities were separately metered. We just didn't realize the median income

32:06was too low and it was an old vintage. So we kept having a lot of issues with plumbing,

32:12outdoor plumbing and all that. We were fortunate that we bought it right. We bought it in the right

32:17part of the market cycle and we were still able to exit 18 months after we bought it because we

32:22just realized, hey, we made a big mistake here. But just be very careful when you're buying,

32:27especially a multifamily. Just look at the median income. Look at the area because if you're trying

32:31to push rents, you can only push them three times of what somebody's paying. And if you're trying to

32:36add value to a property and it's a less marginal area, no matter how much value you add, it's going

32:42to drop down to the level of the resident base in that sub market. Now you can avoid that by

32:48paying

32:48really cheap, but understanding that that asset is not going to appreciate as much over time.

32:54And if you're willing to do that, that's fine. But go in with eyes open and make sure that you're

32:59buying an asset and understanding the crime and the median income of the area.

33:03Yeah. That was actually my biggest lesson learned too was I bought a self-storage facility

33:08in a metro that had really good growth numbers, but the crime metrics, I didn't realize how much of

33:16an impact that would have on the property itself.

33:18On self-storage too, huh?

33:20Yeah, yeah, yeah. You only learn that lesson once. I'll tell you that much.

33:24All right. And that takes us to the other side of the coin, the deals that, the highlight reel.

33:31Some deals do go right and things just seem to work out. And those ones stand out in our mind

33:36as our favorite. So pick your favorite deal. What was it? Tell us about it.

33:40February of 2015, I'm with my kids and we are at an art place and they're sculpting and they're doing

33:49crafts. And I get a phone call from Jake and there's this $12.6 million deal, 281 units.

33:56And I'm like, wow, where are we going to get the money on this thing? And Jake says,

34:00this guy's willing to do seller financing. He wants to seller finance the whole thing,

34:04a 20% down payment and 80 by the bank. And at this point we had built a relationship with

34:08the bank.

34:09So we're like, okay, it took seven months to go its course. And the reason why we were able to

34:14secure this is because it was a family, the older brother and the younger brother. The younger

34:19brother tried to take it over, screwed it up. The older brother had to take it back.

34:22So we ultimately ended up buying this deal at $11 million, 20% seller financing, 80% bank loan.

34:31We literally walked out of that deal with $100,000 at closing because of the prepaid rents and all.

34:36Title company was like, I've never seen this before. We still own the deal. It's probably worth

34:40$200,000. It's probably worth $30 million now. We refinanced it once. We're probably going to

34:45refinance it in the next couple of years. It's in a great sub market, great unit mix,

34:51great builds. This is the type of asset that I'm sure most operators would have exited three or four

34:57years after they bought it. But we just saw the intrinsic value in holding an asset in that market

35:02where we were able to control rents because it's not a big sub market. But at the same time,

35:06the population growth is really good. And then we were able to refinance it after 18 months.

35:11We were able to pay off that seller finance note. And then 18 months after that, we were able to

35:15go

35:15to Fannie and Freddie and put it on Fannie and Freddie debt. Nice, man. Something I want to

35:21highlight in what you just said, you did hybrid financing. And I don't know, maybe I'm dense,

35:27but for some reason, this type of structure just recently popped into my view where I'm like,

35:34duh, of course you do this. You get a bank loan. And then the seller finances the down payment.

35:40I don't know why. It just never occurred to me, but it's genius. And I've been putting that in all

35:46my LOIs now. I usually do seller financing and then just get the seller to finance 60%, 80% of

35:53it,

35:53and I bring 20%. But you can do it the other way. Just get a bank to loan the vast

35:59majority, 70%,

36:0180%, 60%, whatever it is, and then have the seller finance the rest. That's a really good way to go

36:07about it. Well, the deal itself, when we took it over, was generating $146,000 a month.

36:12The first month we took over. After we took over, the first month we took over,

36:16it generated $170,000 a month. So we knew there was a ton of value. The bank had confidence in

36:22us

36:22because they had seen we already had a few hundred assets under ownership. And the bank said, well,

36:27hey, you know what? If you don't pay the second, the seller is going to take it over. So there's

36:31no

36:31risk to us. So we created a win-win all around. I mean, that was the idea with this. And

36:35I think if

36:36you're going to create the structure, you need to know what you're doing. Obviously,

36:38you need to tell the bank and create a great relationship, either with a credit union or

36:42a community bank. And then from them, you need to be able to convey that to the seller and say,

36:47hey, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, this is what we're going to do. And the seller was on board because

36:51when he got his 20% down, it was a couple million bucks. He didn't know what to do with

36:55that money.

36:56We sent them over to a community bank and he's put all that money into the community bank. And that

36:59community bank was thrilled. One of their biggest deposits ever. So that's what you're trying to do in

37:05real estate is try to create a win-win, pull yourself out and see how you can benefit both

37:09sides of the equation. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, one point on that is having fully financing a purchase

37:17price that has to be bought at the right number. Otherwise, yes, yes, yes. I agree. Yeah. All right.

37:24Well, with that, I'm going, or that is, that's all the questions. I'm going to push this into the very

37:28last one. This is for the listeners. It is, you've given us a lot to think about. I'm sure people

37:33want to

37:33reach out, get in contact with you. This is a two-parter. Where can they find you? And then

37:37what can they expect when they reach out? Just go to barbaro360.com, B-A-R-B-A-R-O

37:43-3-6-0.com.

37:46We've started a company for the family. And my ultimate goal and the vision of this company is

37:50families with financial intelligence can change the world for the better. And that's what we're

37:55focusing on. We're focusing on families through our money coaching, through our business behavioral

37:59archetype coaching, through our workshops that we're going to be putting together for families

38:04because we want families to have these conversations because the families are the bedrock of this

38:08country. And if we can heal families and we can create families and have families stay together,

38:13they can start breaking those patterns that we've seen generational from one to the next. And if you

38:19can start focusing on that, then all of a sudden families are changing and you're not only changing

38:24the family, but you're changing people around those families. Awesome. I will put that link in

38:30the show notes. So if you guys want to reach out to Gino, all you got to do is click

38:34the little more

38:34in the description. It'll pull down that full description and in there, you can find his link.

38:40All right, man. As always, it has been a pleasure. Thank you for hopping on the show.

38:45Thanks, Gabe. Appreciate it. Absolutely. For everybody who's with us today, thank you guys for showing up.

38:50You are the reason we do this. So if you guys have any questions, reach out to me,

38:53Gabe at the real estate investing club.com. If you guys want to support the show, just leave us a

38:57review. Other than that, I hope you guys have a great week. Keep rocking real estate. And I look

39:03forward to seeing you on the next episode.

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