Mar 28, 2022
We heard about being a go-getter all the time, but how about being a go-giver? How does that apply in real estate? For Tim, it can be reflected in so many ways - the way you present yourself in the room, your willingness to learn from other people, and the drive to bring more value to the table.
Tim Vitale is the president of Upside Capital, LLC, which is a real estate investment company that specializes in acquiring distressed assets, improving the asset's performance, and providing predictable stable returns for its investors.
[00:01 - 04:33] Opening Segment
- Tim on starting out with one single-family house then getting into multifamily
- Building the platform and becoming the industry expert by adding more value
- Bringing more to the table and gaining credibility to scale into big deals
[04:34 - 10:10] Bringing More Value to the Table through Authenticity
- How proximity is power and the way to get out of your comfort zone
- The virtue of being honest and the ability to reframe
- Building relationships is not an overnight success
[10:11 - 16:05] The Life-Changing Mindset of Being the Go-Giver
- Going for a different conversation in a small room
- Seeking the opportunity to change other people’s lives
- Selecting your partners through genuineness and reaching the vulnerability barrier
[16:06 - 16:55] Closing Segment
- Reach out to Tim
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- See links below
- Final words
Tweetable Quotes
“The best way that you can scale and get into bigger deals with more money and less of your own time, is [to] build a platform and become the industry expert.” - Tim Vitale
“If you try to fake it till you make it, you're going to get caught up in your own lies. If you tell people your weaknesses, they can never use against you because you're the one that told them.” - Tim Vitale
“The Law of Reciprocity will always pay you back.” - Tim Vitale
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Connect with Tim Vitale on Linkedin. Visit Upside Capital and email him at tim@upsidecapitalgroup.com
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I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.
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Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com
Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:
Tim Vitale 00:00
Don't think that you're going to start in commercial multifamily and get your first deal in 90 days. Like, is it possible? Of course, it's possible, but what's more likely is going to take you 12 to 24 months of intentful action of building relationships with people in order to get into those deals. And then once you got them, then it's fun, it gets easy. And I had that like, click in my head one day and I was walking downstairs, I told my wife, I was like, Man, that was easy. All I had to do is make four phone calls and the deal is already like done.
Intro 00:26
Welcome to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we will teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big.
Sam Wilson 00:38
Tim Vitale is a multifamily apartment syndicator residing in Wilmington, North Carolina. He specializes in acquiring value-out apartments in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama. And just this last year, in September of 2021, he left his W-2 job as an assistant VP of Finance for a large insurance company. Tim, welcome to the show.
Tim Vitale 00:57
Sam. Thanks for having me, man. I'm really excited to be here.
Sam Wilson 00:59
Hey, the pleasure is mine, man. Same three questions I ask every guest you come on the show in 90 seconds or less. Can you tell us where to start? Where are you now? And how did you get there?
Tim Vitale 01:07
I started out with one single-family house. I hated the process got burned on the appraisal, I asked the question of how do I get into the income-based approach method on that appraisal. And that's what pushed me into commercial multifamily. I quit my job in September 2021. And so like you said, close my first deal in August 2021. And this week closing my fifth deal is $20 million, a purchase price stabilized values, probably around 30 million within the next 12 to 24 months, and looking to grow bigger, doing this full time and looking at a lot of deals and trying to stay in that five to $20 million range and get out of graduate, as they say, I'm gonna less than $5 million deals.
Sam Wilson 01:47
Right. Yeah, man, that's intriguing. So one deal, August of last year, and now you're closing your fifth deal here this week? That's right, a lot of progress. How'd you do it?
Tim Vitale 01:56
Build My platform, right? The best way that you can scale and get into bigger deals with more money and less of your own time, is to build a platform and become the industry expert. And you might not be the expert, but the more you talk it into existence, and the more that you share the wins and the losses with your followers, people are going to relate to you as the expert. And you take those people that look up to you and you take their money, and you invest it with other operators that are doing big deals, because now you're more valuable you bring more to the table, you might not be able to sign the loan, like I can't sign the loan, but I can do everything else that, you know, pertains to closing the deal. And that's incredibly valuable, because I built relationships with people that have 20 3040 $50 million net worth, and they don't want to operate the deal. They don't want to raise the money. And I can do all of that, and they can sign my loan. So it's a mutually exclusive, you know, relationship that maybe not mutually exclusive. But you know, mutually beneficial is what I was thinking of, in order to bring what I can to the table, get the experience by doing the big deals, because they've already been doing them. So how else do you scale, you ride somebody else's coattails and you bring more to the table or at least what you can in order to gain that experience and gain that credibility? And then it's kind of you know, my mastermind, this last weekend, we talked about a new comfort zone, scaling into big deals is scary. It's outside of your comfort zone, whether you're coming from single-family or fixing flip or whatever. But going from a $5 million deal to a $20 million deal. That's scary. It's outside of your comfort zone. But once you start doing $20 million deals, that's your new comfort zone. So it's always continuing to grow and scale. And the biggest thing you can do is build your platform so that you can establish yourself as an industry leader and start to attract money and deals to you.
Sam Wilson 03:40
Right. Yeah, man. I love that. What are some things that come to mind when you say, build your platform? What does that mean?
Tim Vitale 03:48
Whether it's a podcast, like what we're on right now, or Facebook group, anything that you can be identified a meetup, like a local meetup, I just moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. I lived here when I went to school, but nobody's really doing multifamily syndications here. So my platform here in Wilmington is going to be I'm the guy that you come to if you want to invest your money into syndication because nobody else is doing it. So start a meetup, be in person, go out there, establish yourself, your Facebook groups are everywhere. But it's not to say that they you can't grow your site as big as somebody else's. There's millions and millions and millions of people out there that you're connected with that other people are not connected to. So create that Facebook group, get over those limiting beliefs that the market is saturated because your voice is different than somebody else is and resonate with it much more so than listening to a Grant Cardone, for example.
Sam Wilson 04:34
Right? Yeah, that's really intriguing. Talk to me about offline was you know, proximity is power. What does that mean to you?
Tim Vitale 04:41
Get in the smallest room as possible. I just flew to my mastermind event that we paid $15,000 to be part of. It's not necessarily cheap, but it's not the most expensive one either. My mentor owns a jet. So I was on his private jet. We flew to Austin, Texas, and I was in a jet with five other people. And one of the guys there, he's like big into crypto stuff. So I learned a ton about that and how he's incorporating crypto into his real estate business with NF T's and blockchain. And then one of the other guys, he started a real estate fund. And he was like, Oh, well, you know, that instant transfer of trust, because I was in such a small room. He knows that I'm a player. And he's like, Well, if you get a good deal, I have a fund, I'll fund it for you, right? Getting in the smallest room as possible, it's going to be able to enable you to build those relationships with people that can bring you to the next level and get you out of your comfort zone.
Sam Wilson 05:32
Yeah, no, that's absolutely brilliant. I mean, and is that been one of the ways that you guys have taken down? I mean, five deals in whatever that is? Six, seven months? That's a lot.
Tim Vitale 05:42
Yeah, we’re closing like a deal a month, basically. Yeah.
Sam Wilson 05:44
I mean, that's impressive. How have you done that?
Tim Vitale 05:47
It’s been in proximity, I built my platform. People look at me, as an industry leader, they know like, and trust me, so they'd like to invest money with me. I've gotten repeat investors now. And the whole proximity is power thing is, I have the confidence to say that I can find somebody to sign on a loan no matter how big because I have the relationships to do so. So when I first started, I was like, how am I going to find somebody to sign a $2 million loan? And now I'm like, Oh, my goodness, who do I have to pick to sign this loan, I got too many people, I don't want to step on anybody's toes. And I'm starting to meet people now that have 20 3040 $50 million net worth. And we're going out and we're having a good time. And they see I'm just a hardworking, honest guy that's easy to get along with. And they're like, Hey, man, actually, you know, you got any big deals coming up? I'll sign your loan. I was like, I didn't even ask for it.
Sam Wilson 06:31
Hmm. That’s awesome. What was that first conversation? Like? I mean, you know, getting somebody initially out of the gate to say, All right, here, Tim, you got no track record. But sure, I'll sign on the loan. How did that work?
Tim Vitale 06:43
So the first deal is always leveraging the experience of partners, leverage your team, you don't know everything, you don't have to know everything. Hell, you don't need to know anything. All you need to do is be able to connect people with other people that do and say, be honest and upfront. And if you label the negatives, if you are vulnerable, with the person that you're talking to say, hey, look, sorry, I don't know any of this stuff. I'm learning it, I have a good solid education. But look at all these people that I've partnered with that have been doing it for 10 years, look at the deals that they have done, look at their success and their track record. All I'm doing is connecting you with them in order to get an opportunity to learn from them.
Sam Wilson 07:19
Right. Yeah, that's a great way to put that all I'm doing is connecting you with them, you know, and just bringing you in on the opportunity. And so I can learn from them. That's a really good way to put that and you know what it takes? I think that reframing takes the pressure off of you, right, and for whatever it is, you know because a lot of times it's misguided advice. Fake it till you make it, which is–
Tim Vitale 07:37
Oh, God. Yes. Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking of is like, if you try to fake it till you make it, you're going to get caught up in your own lies. If you tell people your weaknesses, they can never use against you because you're the one that told them. That's a good old Tyrian Lannister line right there. So what's the reference? Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones? Okay, sorry, I never seen it. Oh, yeah. He likes to say that. Yeah, it's true. I mean, if you tell people your weaknesses, they can't offend you, or they can't hurt you with it. You told them.
Sam Wilson 08:07
Right. Yeah. Like I also want to told you that, of course, I told you. I don't have any experience. That's what I just said. Right. That's absolutely hysterical. I love that. So then getting that many deals, though, in the pipeline. I mean, if you've done this through partnerships, as well, is that been how this is kind of, to me, it takes time to not only get traction but also get the amount of deals coming in? I mean, those are a lot of moving parts all at once. How have you done that?
Tim Vitale 08:29
Well, I'm not the overnight success, right? It took me two years to build the relationships with the partners that I have now, and the key principals and the investors and the brokers. And yeah, sure, we closed our first deal in August. And then once you start to build that track record, it gets easier and easier and easier. But I only was able to do that, because I spent the last 18 to 24 months building the relationships with people that I wanted to be doing business with, right? I didn't know anything at the time. But you keep showing up, you're present. You're active, you're involved, you're learning, you're bringing whatever value you do have to the table. And that's going to open up doors of opportunity for you. And it's all a relationship business. So don't think that you're going to start in commercial multifamily. And get your first deal in 90 days. Like is it possible? Of course, it's possible, but what's more likely is going to take you 12 to 24 months of intentful action of building relationships with people in order to get into those deals. And then once you got them, then it's fun. It gets easy. And I had that like click in my head one day and I was walking downstairs. I told my wife I was like, Man, that was easy. All I had to do is make four phone calls and the deals already, like, done.
Sam Wilson 09:34
That's awesome. Yeah, there's a lot of work that goes into that for phone call the deals done, right, that if you average it out, it's probably nowhere close to that number.
Tim Vitale 09:43
No, no, we're close. I mean, I do a full time now. And I basically live in my office on the phone all day, which is great because I love talking with people. But that's how you build your network. That's how you build relationships. You build your platform, become an industry leader provide value, show people the wins and the losses so that they know that you're Human, you're not, you know somebody that's just always doing amazing deals, and you've never screwed up anything people want to see when you're not doing anything proper and what you learn from it, and how you're going to pivot from that. So you don't make the same mistake twice.
Sam Wilson 10:11
Tell me about your mastermind. Why did you decide to get into a mastermind? And how did you pick one?
Tim Vitale 10:16
Proximity’s power, right? You get into the smallest room and the most expensive room you can afford, and the conversations are going to be different. That's ultimately what it was. I met him through a friend of a friend through a Facebook group. And he started a mastermind. And I was like, you know, I really like what you stand for, like your personality, like your growth in your trajectory, and like, where you're going, and I could see myself doing the same thing. And I was like, I don't know if your mastermind is going to be successful. And I don't know if this is going to be a waste of money. But I did it anyways. And now I'm glad I did. Because I got to ride on this jet.
Sam Wilson 10:47
That's absolutely awesome. I love that. What does success mean to you? And then where do you see your business going?
Tim Vitale 10:54
No, I thought success to me was money. As I started looking for money, right? Money's not success. I've learned through time through my maturity and my development as an entrepreneur, I learned that the money buys freedom, time buys freedom. And then I said, Okay, well, once I have the time, freedom and the money, freedom, what am I doing this for. And ultimately, I do this for the sense of fulfillment of helping other people, whether it's placing their money into a deal so that they can beat stock market returns or buying a property from them that they mismanaged and they don't want anymore, or whatever the spectrum is, right? There's a lot of opportunity to help other people. So providing value that way is ultimately like why I do and I that sense of fulfillment, somebody saying thank you, I didn't even know this was a possibility. You just changed their life. You changed your life and like how powerful and how important is that in paying it forward every day, and saying everyone should know about this. That's why I created my Facebook group making moves in multifamily. Because everyone should know about syndications and being able to buy a fractional share of a property, you don't have to go out and buy a single-family property and do everything yourself. You don't need to know everything. You don't need to have the network, you don't have to raise all the money. You don't have to have all of everything, you can have a fractional piece. And when people come together and collaborate in order to work towards a common goal, that is far more exciting and fun and fulfilling to me to keep pushing me through it. That's really what keeps me going. I mean, don't get me wrong, the money in the time freedom is cool, too. But there's more than that.
Sam Wilson 12:27
For sure. No, that's absolutely fantastic. I think the idea behind that as being a Go-Giver, right? Absolutely is going out there and giving and then getting the givers gain, if you will, it's like you can't outgive.
Tim Vitale 12:38
The Law of Reciprocity will always pay you back.
Sam Wilson 12:41
Right? That's absolutely intriguing. To me, again, maybe ever asked you this question, but it wasn't very clear. But how did you select your partners? I mean, it takes time to that.
Tim Vitale 12:51
I like to use the analogy of it was like if you're married, or you're not, but if you meet your significant other, you just know, when I met my wife, literally the next day after the first time I ever met her, I was like, I don't know what it is about her. But I'm going to date her one day, I didn't know that we were going to get married. But we've been together for like 12 years now. When I met my first partner, I mean, I met a lot of different partners that you think, Oh, come by, yeah, let's try to figure this out together. And we're going to share in this pain together, but I met my partner Tim vest. And it was the first time I ever had met him. And we sat outside Starbucks and talked for like four hours, and they kicked us out. They're like, Guys, you gotta go. It was kind of that lightbulb moment. I was like, Man, you and I see I on everything. You love the things that I hate, and I love the things that you hate. And but we challenge each other, we keep each other accountable. And we get along really well as friends. And I actually reached out to him at first because I was like, Well, you're in a mastermind that I wanted to join and your name is Tim V, my name is Tim v. And you like real estate. Let's go get some coffee. You know, it's like it was stupid. But it's like when you meet that person, you just feel the connection. Like you know that it's somebody that you meet, you're gonna like I could do business with that guy, right? Or girl, whatever.
Sam Wilson 14:00
Yeah, that's absolutely intriguing. That's funny. A lot of people struggle when they're scaling, right? They're like, wait, I need could you got a partner in this space? I mean, there's rare people that get it done by themselves. That's really intriguing. Is there any other advice you would give to somebody? If they were out looking for a partner? What would you say to that person?
Tim Vitale 14:20
Or for it back to like dating, when you're not looking for love? You find it don't go out there and purposely say hi, I'm looking for partners. No, like, just go out there and meet people and be genuine. Tell people who you are. So I approach every conversation I like to use a kind of a puzzle piece analogy. It's you know, everybody's a puzzle piece. And you have like male and female ends and like you plug into each other and other people can help you out. Right? Keep that in mind. So approach every conversation with introducing yourself and who you are and your background and what your interests are, right? Because if you guys don't have similar interest or like have some kind of common denominator connection ground, then it's probably not going to go that far to begin with. Number two, tell people your superpowers How can you Help them How can you provide value first? Here's who I am. Here's what I'm amazing at. And I can help you What do you need help with, let me help you. And then the third thing is to say, Hey, these are my superpowers. And this is what I can help you. But don't ask me for help with this, this and this. These are my weaknesses. I don't like doing these things. And everyone's always like, well, how can I provide value to you? And he's like, Well, what's your value, and they're like, I don't know, you got to find out who you are. First. If you approach every conversation with that puzzle piece analogy, you're going to try to put your puzzle picture together, you're going to put your puzzle piece down a whole lot of different times, and you're going to try to fit it all together. But eventually, you're going to find all the pieces that interlock and make a beautiful picture. And you're only going to be able to break down that barrier of you know, that trust barrier and that vulnerability barrier by telling people like showing them your underbelly, tell them what you're amazing at and tell them what your weaknesses are. Because if you can skip through all of the nonchalant, you know, crap that you talked about, that's not going to get you anywhere, and you get right down to the meat and potatoes of your value and your weaknesses. People are going to either come to you because they can help you or they're gonna come to you because they want your help.
Sam Wilson 16:03
Hmm. I love that both of those are absolutely true. Tim, thank you for taking the time to come on today.
Tim Vitale 16:08
Yeah, I had so much on this is like a really high-energy fast podcast. I had a lot of fun. Thanks for inviting me.
Sam Wilson 16:14
Absolutely. If our listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you what is the best way to do that?
Tim Vitale 16:19
Go to my website, upside Capital Group comm or find me on Facebook making moves in multifamily.
Sam Wilson 16:26
Awesome, fantastic. Thank you again, Tim. Have a great rest of your day.
Tim Vitale 16:29
Thanks, man.
Sam Wilson 16:30
Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Podcast. If you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, whatever platform it is you use to listen If you can do that for us that would be a fantastic help to the show it helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories so appreciate you listening thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode.