Achieving Financial Freedom In Short Orders

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Neil Timmins became the number one Remax agent in Iowa at the age of 29 He then moved into flipping wholesaling and innovating properties He is currently focused on commercial real estate Let s hear how Neil and his team achieve financial freedom by doing what they do best in short orders 00 00 – 06 39 Opening Segment Neil Started as Banker at Wells Fargo Neil s team Fixes and Flips houses within 27 days from close to the listing Currently they are transitioning from Single family homes to commercial real estate He shares that he still works with the same contractors 06 40 – 13 00 How to effectively leverage the skill sets of others to level up Neil discusses how he leverages the skill sets of others to create a successful business He identifies that great people will eventually leave if they are not given opportunities to grow and use their skills Building a team of great people is key to success as an entrepreneur You have to challenge yourself to go above and beyond with your team in order to keep them happy and motivated You can learn a lot from asking sellers questions about their property before making an offer It s important to be asset class agnostic when buying properties as the market can be different in each sector He recommends asking sellers questions to determine if they are a good fit for the business before investing any money 13 00 – 19 20 Real Estate Investor Shares Advice on How to Succeed Neils adds that they fix and flip generate cash and its very similar to working on your day job It is very similar to your W2 if you are employed in the real estate industry You can start off by buying a single-family home and then move on to commercial real estate if you want to become more experienced There are many positives to acquiring experience through doing single-family homes first Investors are looking for longer-term investments right now and this may be an opportunity on the commercial side but it s still uncertain 19 21 – 22 37 Closing Segment Reach out to Neil Timmins Links Below Final Words Tweetable Quotes We fix and flip to generate cash so that we can employ that on a meaningful basis and a long-term asset – Neil Timmins —————————————————————————– Connect with Neil Timmins on Facebook and LinkedIn or visit their website legacyimpactpartners com gift Connect with me Facebook LinkedIn Like subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts or whatever platform you listen on Thank you for tuning in Email me sam brickeninvestmentgroup com Want to read the full show notes of the episode Check it out below 00 00 40 Sam Wilsons Neil Timmins became the number one Remax agent in Iowa at the age of 29 He then moved into flipping wholesaling and innovating properties 00 00 47 Sam Wilsons He said the cash wins were great but cash flow was missing He then shortly thereafter focused on commercial real estate and achieved financial freedom and short order Neil welcome to the show 00 00 56 NeilTimmins Sam Good to good to be here Thanks so much 00 00 58 Sam Wilsons Hey man the pleasure s mine there are three questions I ask every guest who comes in the show in 90 seconds or less 00 01 03 Sam Wilsons Can you tell me where did you start Where are you now And how did you get 00 01 05 NeilTimmins I started as a banker with Wells Fargo I made my first entry point as a real estate agent on the on the residential side right now we do still some fixing and flipping We generate cash in the marketplace We know and employ that cash in the commercial real estate side for cash flow 00 01 23 NeilTimmins And what we re headed down is to make that transition so that my whole team can be focusing on nothing but Commercial investments 00 01 32 Sam Wilsons That is really really cool You ve done the the typical graduation from single family to commercial real estate And yet at the same time you just said you re still doing some fix and flip when the opportunity arises 00 01 42 NeilTimmins Yeah you re exactly right Well that piece of the business is dialed in I m I m maybe four worst case scenario five hours a week in that business So I don t spend a lot of time work with the same contractor for years and years we literally have done hundreds together I work with the same guy We do the same 00 01 58 NeilTimmins We do the same carpet We do the same fan I mean everything is identical So there there are no the choices to make are very very limited 00 02 06 Sam Wilsons Got it And I guess just to ask on on that front I mean are you are you doing the same basic cosmetic remodels on these Are you adding second floors or you do it 00 02 17 NeilTimmins Well I mean we we I made that mistake a few probably three years ago we got into one And thankfully the market rewarded us cuz we got out just fine But I was like this is like six months of terribleness And so it was just an awful process So after that particular one I was like no here s what we re doing 00 02 33 NeilTimmins Here s I know where we win and here s I know where we lose it Just in terms of time energy effort the guys the contractors they need to have small wins And that for that means A week from now that thing needs to look a lot different cuz mentally they just can t keep up on a on a multi month project 00 02 49 NeilTimmins So start to finish You re ready for this Start to finish in a house from close to list We are 27 days Holy smokes Oh so they re moving And that also means I can only do certain projects right A whole bunch of stuff Can t do it Yeah Well 00 03 03 Sam Wilsons well tell me I this I didn t really wanna talk about this too long in the show here but I m just super curious 00 03 07 Sam Wilsons How are you finding opportunity in the single family space 00 03 10 NeilTimmins right now It s challenging Our cost per acquisition has has increased over the last 24 months year over year continues to go up I mean still same way pull the list find distress contact These people lock em up but what we re paying gotta pay twice as much for a deal 00 03 25 NeilTimmins Today is what we there s no 50 000 deals anymore so we re paying more And but but the market has been has rewarded us extraordinarily well we had What month was it It was must have been last month We had three closings on the resale side that all happened to hit that month All three went sold for over the list price 00 03 43 NeilTimmins We had 30 so 37 000 in net profit over the list price Wow now that so you re like well thank you for the market but that you you can t account for you can t count on that Right 00 03 57 Sam Wilsons right You can t count on it which it sounds like both the scalability and the things you can count on are one of the reasons you got into commercial real 00 04 03 NeilTimmins estate 00 04 04 NeilTimmins Well you re exactly right That and then Flipping houses no different than being a realtor And I had enough of that I mean you you are out you re grinding you are working And the only way you are gonna get paid more is by doing more just more hard work Right And I got to a point where I was going we got this got this cash from doing all these businesses and and how s it gonna get employed 00 04 23 NeilTimmins You can t just sit around because the cash is going backwards every day especially in today s environment We re going backwards every day I know perhaps today double digits Every year And so it s gotta go someplace It s gotta go to hard assets And so that that was my that was my entry point into commercial to go 00 04 39 NeilTimmins Cool Now how do let s go sell direct and then after sell direct how did I how can I build relationships with brokers to find things 00 04 45 Sam Wilsons that s absolutely fantastic What was the first acquisition you made in commercial real estate 00 04 50 NeilTimmins and eight Plex seller direct APL I pulled a very small list 00 04 53 NeilTimmins I m talking under a hundred people had it super dialed in in terms of what I was after Like a 79 year old guy called me at Friday night at about 9 00 PM left me a voicemail and you could hear the distress in the voice and so that has been a benefit a big benefit of coming out of the single family space buying seller direct as much as we have is that when I m seller direct on the commercial side I it s easier for me just based on the velocity of experience to understand 00 05 18 NeilTimmins Oh okay cool I know what I know what motivation sounds like Right And so I literally called the guy back at nine 30 and a week or so later had the thing under contract right A giant giant giant win for me especially on the first one 00 05 30 Sam Wilsons Right And that s I think that s the that you re dispelling one of the myths is that there s no good deals out there right now 00 05 35 NeilTimmins which oh it s total monarchy 00 05 38 NeilTimmins well listen you get what you believe right Sure So if you walk around all day every day going oh there s no good deals Well I guarantee you you re gonna find no good deal I just that is an attitude adjustment 00 05 50 Sam Wilsons Absolutely Absolutely What are you guys buying 00 05 52 NeilTimmins right now Right now I m under contract which we re scheduled to close this week with a self storage unit 00 05 59 NeilTimmins buy in my backyard unless I buy in other markets when I ve got a partner leading it in another market And so I can fill in some of the other pieces of that puzzle but they gotta know that market Because I m we don t I don t study any other markets I literally focus in my backyard So we re buying a self storage unit out of Indiana 00 06 16 NeilTimmins And it should be a really good deal We got tremendous seller financing terms on that thing On the back side 00 06 21 Sam Wilsons of it Right Right So you re working on self storage facility out And now let s talk about that for a second I mean it sounds like you ve done a great job of building team around you right 00 06 29 Sam Wilsons I mean even become the number one real estate agent takes a lot of other people to help help you keep that machine moving forward Is that has that been one of the kind of keys to your success is is effectively building team Yeah 00 06 40 NeilTimmins effectively building team leveraging the skill sets of others leaning into the skill sets of others 00 06 44 NeilTimmins So my right hand gal started with me two years ago She started as a transaction coordinator and I quickly I identify she s got way her skill sets and her her ability to do to do things was way past that job title And so for me great people Great People are going to find in an opportunity find areas like all of us as entrepreneurs right 00 07 06 NeilTimmins We go that on the path of least resistance Well great great people on your team They re gonna they re gonna stick with you but you ve gotta level up You ve gotta create opportunities for them or they will eventually leave So I was able to identify that in her and just continue to take that on as a leader or my organization is to to challenge myself to go 00 07 25 NeilTimmins How can I best employ these people their skill sets and lean into that Cuz when you lean into their their natural skill sets it s for them it s not really worked They love doing it It becomes a passion for them Right 00 07 36 Sam Wilsons right No I love that I love that how do you get yourself out of the driver s seat 00 07 40 Sam Wilsons I mean that s something so many of us struggle with that s 00 07 42 NeilTimmins that s that s a challenge and it s I mean it s one we re living now is because how It s a challenge I live it every day to go how do I transfer what I ve got from a knowledge base when when I m buying seller direct or I m buying from a from a broker interacting to my acquisitions guy 00 07 59 NeilTimmins And so literally we we we just got done with an hour long meeting going after deal after deal FDL We had a big giant mail drop So we ve got a whole bunch of calls flooding in and a multitude of property Mm-hmm so we re going We re going over deal after deal after deal All right cool Now how do we how do we categorically dial in how do we evaluate these things but it s past valuation 00 08 19 NeilTimmins It s really how do you converse How do you have this conversation with the seller so that they know they know you re the real deal That that s probably the number one question we get from people is how do I know you re real How do you you know what I mean How do you know you re serious How do you answer that 00 08 35 NeilTimmins Not some fly by well yeah I for us we demonstrated it s demonstrated through the conversation We have some with someone Because that s like asking somebody Sam how do I know you can be trusted Well I mean the answer really is I could tell you all day long but you really don t know until you see me demonstrate it day in and day out 00 08 53 NeilTimmins And for us with the conversation with the seller is going down the path of asking the correct questions And then as we get through that conversation it s backing that up to go well here s our website here s our credentials Here s who here s who leads our organization It s been around a long time all bunch of accolades 00 09 07 NeilTimmins And so they can become comfortable with us 00 09 09 Sam Wilsons Right right Yeah I guess what when when when you say you normally I would think that when someone says all right so tell me about who you are So I know that you re real you wanna start with your list of accomplishments here our website here s our founder all the blah blah blah 00 09 23 Sam Wilsons But you said it a little bit differently in that you like to ask the seller a series of questions first Yeah Break that down for us That that s that s 00 09 29 NeilTimmins intriguing to me Yeah Well Hey Sam play Hey that s a great question but let me ask you a little about your property cuz oftentimes to know that somebody s really good at what they do or a real I think you can probably get a better sense of us going down this process to see if we re gonna be a fit for each other 00 09 44 NeilTimmins At the end of this conversation I ll tell you what the next steps look like in our world and see if it lines up with you Does that sound 00 09 50 Sam Wilsons Right Yeah exactly That s great I love that thanks for that quick example 00 09 53 NeilTimmins And that becomes it it it there s two sides to this equation 00 09 56 NeilTimmins In my mind when we re buying properties we re buying seller direct or we re buying we re buying through brokers right And so our bread and butter has becoming from the single family world has always been seller direct Now we buy 40 or 50 of our deals So about half could still come from brokers primarily off market direct through brokers 00 10 14 NeilTimmins And that has been a terrific source for us So that that involves a different different message right You re not like mailing these guys a postcard you gotta build a relationship Cuz that takes that takes time 00 10 24 Sam Wilsons Absolutely And you guys are buying in a variety of asset classes I mean you re not just doing multifamily it sounds like you re willing to buy anything that pencils and makes sense 00 10 33 Sam Wilsons How have you effectively scaled across multiple asset classes 00 10 37 NeilTimmins Yeah I m a I ve said my favorite one is I m asset class agnostic I And that comes out of that comes outta single families think coming from single family whether it was a house a condo a townhouse a vacant piece of ground 00 10 48 NeilTimmins It didn t take long to get one s head wrapped around to know oh there s a market there I can properly value it Then I can make a buying decision Well to me that s transcended into the commercial side of things Some are way easier to go Head wrapped around Multifamily is very simple to get one s head wrapped around growing out of single family 00 11 06 NeilTimmins What the funny part is once you get into it you re like actually some of these triple net deals on a warehouse or office are like the simplest thing ever And so that s how we ve been able to to do it is just taking the time to to educate to get educated because we do own a number of things right 00 11 22 NeilTimmins We own industrial So multiple warehouses we own offices medical offices So we own a variety of of assets retail which we ve owned retail for about Three and a half years or so is probably the third purchase I made that one actually we re reselling it We ve got a in my mind we re capturing the absolute peak of the market in retail for this particular property 00 11 43 NeilTimmins It s in the path of progress So there s some other factors there other than just general market factors and we re scheduled to close tomorrow on that giant win for us And then we ll re-employ that capital else 00 11 52 Sam Wilsons right What do you say to people with capital I mean I know we capital think we talked about this early on 00 11 58 Sam Wilsons It s like capital s a wasting asset correct Where where obviously for you it sounds like you re finding ways to employ your own capital in a meaningful way but what about somebody that s sitting on capital right now that maybe isn t gonna be the direct investor Where where do you see people putting it 00 12 13 Sam Wilsons Where do you where would you recommend 00 12 14 NeilTimmins someone Well I think that s a great question I think the the very simplistic answer is you gotta connect with people like yous and MES the general partners of the world who do this for a living who we ve got a whole bunch of think about what I just I I said earlier on is we fix and flip to generate cash so that we can employ that on a meaningful basis and a long term 00 12 36 NeilTimmins asset Right So that s kind of like the it s not my day job but it s a day job for for that side of the business Now if you are a a doctor you re an attorney you are whatever you are in your profession Well that s what you do to generate cash And you re probably really great at it Excellent And that s exactly what you should do so that you can connect with somebody or somebodies who does something else to help you employ that capital 00 12 59 NeilTimmins It s very similar 00 13 01 Sam Wilsons It s your it s basically your W2 if you that s will It s exactly right right Yeah It s your W2 Here s a scenario for you I got a buddy yesterday He called me and said Hey man I want to get into real estate Would you recommend that someone skips a single family stage or is that something that you d say Hey 00 13 17 Sam Wilsons Everybody needs to start 00 13 18 NeilTimmins there Yeah No good question I I ll I ll rephrase your question Neil what would you have done differently No you now know right I m I m 18 years into the business now from when I first started as a realtor Yeah Yeah I would what what happens It s easy to make that statement today 00 13 31 NeilTimmins Say skip it all Just go into commercial right And that s knowing what I now know that s exactly what I ve done but there are there s a whole bunch of POS positives and a whole bunch of benefits that have built through through confidence and through education that can only get acquired through experience 00 13 44 Sam Wilsons Right And so if that means starting a single family that s that s exactly where you could 00 13 47 Track 1 start 00 13 48 NeilTimmins That s exactly where you can start Part of this is it s what we do is like the thing to get you to the thing So sometimes it s not you re not starting at where you re gonna end 00 13 58 NeilTimmins It s you re starting at something so that you can you can take on those experiences so that it gets you to the thing you actually wanna do 00 14 05 Sam Wilsons Yeah absolutely Absolutely On this topic of advice is there any bad advice you feel like you ve been given along the way that you wish you 00 14 14 NeilTimmins hadn t heard 00 14 15 NeilTimmins Hmm that s a good question but I wish I had not heard Probably and I m just trying to think what what that might be Right 00 14 22 Sam Wilsons Or maybe think about the think about the converse of that What s some really good advice somebody gave you along the way that was pivotal 00 14 28 NeilTimmins Really good advice I mean it it I think he has grown out of some experience what actually the best of piece I ever advice I ever got which I which I give significant thought to my father-in-law gave this to me about two or three years ago we were sitting at his home outside at the pool and and he had just sold his company 00 14 45 NeilTimmins He s been in the investment brokerage business for a long long like many many years sold the sold the company retired And so We are sitting there talking and and kind of kind of having a conversation just like this And I asked him knowing what you now know what would you have done differently Mm 00 15 01 NeilTimmins I said you re in the investment business literally I mean you you you you re you can invest any day just like we you and I do but then also you have a business right He said the one thing I would ve done differently is I would ve invested in my business I would ve been more strategic with who I hire 00 15 16 NeilTimmins And I would ve invested more into the business cuz the business paid me way more than any investment ever did And so that goes back You you touched on early on is how do I build teams How do I build those those who who surround me Because those who surround me often offer up now uncover all the opportunities so that our business can capitalize 00 15 35 Sam Wilsons Yeah I think that s that s really really obviously sound advice coming from somebody in a with a long long career and also having sold their business saying Hey this is this is what I would ve done Just slightly differently I think that s that s really really cool You guys bring on outside capital from investors right on occasion 00 15 51 Sam Wilsons Yes On occasion What Yep Have you seen any shift in investor sentiment on the types of deals they re looking for Have you seen any shift here with I guess just guess here what is it June 21st we re recording this So who knows where we re going in the market cycle Have you seen this from investor taste or preferences 00 16 07 NeilTimmins Well I I m hearing two things and and it probably speaks a lot to the just the market and the uncertainty One of em is Hey Inflation s inflation s crazy I ve got employ capital and it almost doesn t matter I don t wanna say not exactly what it s in but really if the deal s solid I wanna get it employed 00 16 24 NeilTimmins Right Almost and largely in in an asset class agnostic world the longer the least the better the term is the better the client the tenant underlying tenant base Great Perfect And then there s another segment going Things are scary I m gonna I m gonna hold on to cash I m not gonna do anything I m gonna wait and see 00 16 40 NeilTimmins Right Right So you got a segment of folks out there like that and I I m with you you you hit it on the head We re gonna we ll we ll see how what the market reveals to us here But you re asking me where where s my dollar and cents going As long as I there s a sound investment and hard assets 00 16 59 NeilTimmins That s where it s Right right 00 17 01 Sam Wilsons Yeah That s a and that that makes that makes a heck of a lot of sense Tell me I guess on a on an investment thesis perspective I know you said this maybe you just did captured it right there Just if it makes sense that s where your dollars are going Mm-hmm but has there been any shift in the way you underwrite 00 17 15 Sam Wilsons Has there been any shift in Well and 00 17 17 NeilTimmins the under yeah the the underwriting for sure If you re if you re a kind of a bird methodology person in your in your underwriting it s where interest rate s going to be a period of time from now I think on the house side the bird the bird methodology is dead in my mind 00 17 31 NeilTimmins Hmm because I think what you re going to And that s largely a function of the underwriting criteria and comparables because I think in my mind on the single family side sales comparables are gonna start to pull back and you re with a rising interest rate environment with a pullback of sales comp you re you re pickled on the bird side 00 17 50 NeilTimmins Hmm Now you may have an opportunity still right now but I think the day is coming Where that turns on the commercial side because we drive those valuations based on an income approach instead of a sales comparison approach We ve got a greater opportunity to drive that bottom line thus driving the the the valuation of the property 00 18 07 NeilTimmins So one can still complete a bur if you will on the commercial 00 18 10 Sam Wilsons side Right Yeah And that that s something challenging I was having that conversation with an investor today and I was like look we just acquired this property I don t know where we ll In three to five years on a refinance 00 18 20 Sam Wilsons It s at this point your guess is as good as mine So we we don t even underwrite a refinance at any of these deals Just like I I don t know where you can tell me we re gonna be in three years then a correct I ll give you a hundred grand right now We ll go make a lot of money on that piece of advice 00 18 34 Sam Wilsons You re 00 18 34 NeilTimmins exactly One I ll give you little golden tip that we just employed We the building I m sitting in we acquired this about 60 days Yep In office building 10 suite office building 11 000 square feet 50 vacant So we acquired it We moved into the space on one of the suites So I ve got 40 vacant it cash flows today cash flows positive based on where it required it 00 18 57 NeilTimmins But but it required a capital injection So I had to go in and these other four office suites paint carpet painted the exterior of the building did a few things to get this thing looking Looking nice so that we can actually get it out in the marketplace and my intent from the get go was to complete a cash out refi right 00 19 14 NeilTimmins To recoup some of my cash my down payment and my and my downstroke for the physical improvements which I paid for outta my own pocket And so When you enter a transaction oftentimes you re like I don t know where it s gonna be I don t know when it s gonna get done Right So what I did was negotiate a refinance rate on the way in 00 19 30 NeilTimmins Hmm So I put it it s a hundred and I m going off memory I wanna say it s a 170 180 basis points over the tenure over the 10 year treasury So what they ll end up doing is gave me a blended rate between my fixed rate I even went into the deal with and then now a new rate on the new dollars and then blending the rate 00 19 52 NeilTimmins But I negotiated that rate on the entry point That s 00 19 55 Sam Wilsons really really interesting I m not even sure I would know myself how to do that I guess you have to be a lender or is that how does that conversation shake out 00 20 02 NeilTimmins Yeah it s a lender I ve used once or twice before but I knew the the intent with everything is well what s go in with knowing what what your intended exit is 00 20 11 NeilTimmins So my intended exit was I wanna get some recoup some dollars get it set in place and then I m just gonna let it let it cash flow 00 20 18 Sam Wilsons And it sounds like you are well versed in doing quick rehabs So I mean what was your time from what was your time from acquisition to now We can refinance 00 20 27 NeilTimmins Oh so we re not there yet 00 20 28 NeilTimmins I m 60 days in to the to ownership right now The rehab is all done We we just need to get a sign which has been delayed out front That s not a big deal Other than that the physical stuff s been done now it s a function of literally filling the property So we ve got four to fill one I anticipate we ll get we ll get an LOI sometime in the next week or so 00 20 47 NeilTimmins They ve been here a couple times so I know we re close on that one So if I fill three of the four and then at that point the appraisal the appraisal will match it to justify us going and refin 00 20 58 Sam Wilsons Gotcha That s very very cool I love that I love that Thanks for that tactical Yeah Tactical tip there Neil this has been loads of fun 00 21 05 Sam Wilsons Learning about your business how you guys have gone from single family to not just multi-family but all sorts of different commercial real estate assets I ve loved learning about mistakes you ve seen in the industry Things you ve been told that s excellent advice loved hear in again kind of some of your tactical pieces of of insight there on how how to build in refinances on properties 00 21 23 Sam Wilsons You know that you re just now acquiring If you can refining within a certain a certain window Yeah It s been a blast learning from you and hearing hearing your story If our listeners wanna get in touch with you or learn more about you what is the best way to do that 00 21 35 NeilTimmins Yeah no Great Well it s been a lot of fun being here 00 21 37 NeilTimmins I m here I wanna give two things One I wrote a little little cheat sheet how to source how to uncover off market commercial deals The who are the what The way of the how So if you guys wanna get that totally free just get on my website legacy impact partners com gift JFT So legacy impact partners com gift 00 21 57 NeilTimmins You can check me out on LinkedIn I m on Facebook Neil J Timmins like like most of us should be easy to find Fantastic 00 22 04 Sam Wilsons And for those of you who are listening that s Timmins spelled T I M M I N S Got it Neil thank you so much for coming on the show today I certainly appreciate it 00 22 11 NeilTimmins Pleasure Click here to visit this podcast episode