#31 - How to Invest in Multifamily w/ Jeffrey Donis

Jeffrey Donis

Tiltering for different reasons. And we ended up pivoting into some fix and flips because one of my mentors that I just still maintain contact with, but I met early on, he always told me to always be trying to create these capital or financial relationships with different people. And at the time we weren't necessarily doing more multifamily projects, but we had.

the skill set in regards to being able to find some contractors and find off market deals with our single family background. So we started doing single family fix and flips and we were bringing on partners to do that. I always handled the investor relations and the capital raising for all of our projects. And that led to us being able to start buying our own small multifamily deals. Last year, we do all of that in North Carolina and we've been slowly scaling that. So now we do property management, construction management in-house. And this year we're hoping to continue that trajectory.

Jeff Albaum

Dude, that's amazing. Can you share more about your first big multifamily deal? Because I remember like when we got connected, it was like the multifamily investor nation conference or something, right? So it's like lovingly referred to as MFNCon by the one and only Shaquille O'Neal. But we were chatting and you were like, yeah, like what are you working on? I thought I was like cool stuff. So like, dude, I'm working on this duplex. It's so cool. Like, what about you? You're like, yeah, we're buying like a, what's like 120 unit or something.

Jeffrey Donis

Hehe. Hehe.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was on the larger side for us. For us, that was big. You'd be surprised to talk to some of these people and they're like thousand unit portfolios and stuff. And the unit size can be a little misleading, right? Cause you're not necessarily buying it by yourself. You have partners. And on the first one, we were just a co-general partner. So we had access to a few different networks that we joined early on. And this is really the approach we've taken on all different types of endeavors that we sort of gone on in the real estate space.

We like to surround ourselves with people that are almost always older than us, in regards to with age, think comes wisdom, experience, all of that. So early on, we tried to surround ourselves with those kinds of people that were doing the things we wanted to do. So that led to us joining this one mastermind group and it opened the door to different opportunities, specifically that large multifamily that you're mentioning. So we just tried to bring value with anything that we could. And I think early on I started networking. So I was able to...

build a brand online. We had a podcast, we had content. I was getting on calls like this and just trying to let people know sort of what we were interested in, who we were, what we're doing. And as you do that, you start to build some level of credibility and a track record. And we were able to raise some capital and also just network with really strong operators that we, at the time, thought were amazing and, know, lot of learning lessons on those projects. But that's how we sort of approached that first one was getting into the right rooms.

and joining different mastermind groups so that we could have access to certain opportunities.

Jeff Albaum

Got it. Got it. Got it. And so I'm curious if we can break down because I struggle to make like, I struggle to understand like the different terminology that you hear in these kind of larger syndication deals. So, you you talk about like GPLP and then like the split among that. So can we do like an example of, we'll just call it like a million dollar purchase price and then like walk through what some of the numbers might look like on a syndication.

Jeffrey Donis

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, for sure. So a lot of the deals that you're going to do, I'd say if you're going into a smaller project, you're not necessarily, you're more likely to do something like a JV or if you have the ability to buy yourself, you would just buy cash or buy it with maybe one or two people, right?

Jeff Albaum

And JV being joint venture, so not raising money per se, but just like pooling money with like maybe you and a buddy or something, right?

Jeffrey Donis

Exactly. So let's say me and my two brothers, we have a million bucks to go buy something that's worth a million bucks. You probably wouldn't even take out a loan, right? So you wouldn't necessarily need to go and do something that we would refer to as a syndication because the syndication is typically done on things that require more capital. Therefore you go out to a of a larger pool of people and you structure it in a certain way. So as you go bigger and bigger, I think the need for more capital grows typically.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Jeffrey Donis

And that's where you might be more likely to syndicate a deal. And by syndication, just mean pulling together a group of investors capital. And there's like the police of the space is the Securities Exchange Commission, the SEC. So there are regulations and different types of things that you have to follow and different types of offerings that you are able to do. And depending on which one you choose, you'll then have certain rules and regulations that you have to follow and also stay within so that you're protecting the investors, but also just not.

getting yourself into any trouble. So that's where it can get more complex on that front. But the typical ones that you'll see a lot are 506B, which is when you can go and reach out to your family and friends, but you're not allowed to market your project or whatever you're raising capital for online, pretty much. And you're not allowed to just publicly put it out there because you're allowed to bring a non-accredited investors into a 506B deal. When it comes to a 506C, it's only accredited.

And that opens a door to you being able to post it on your Instagram or LinkedIn. And it's, it kind of makes sense. It's somewhat intuitive. If you're posting it and you're only allowed to bring in accredited investors, the SEC, you can think of as a good body police. They trust the credit investors to be able to make their own investment decisions and not accredited investors are typically people that make million dollars or less in regards to their net worth, not including the primary residents.

and make $250,000 or more over the last two years. And you can do this with your spouse. But as you can see, that person might be a little more capable of making that decision from the eyes of the SEC than someone who doesn't meet those requirements. And that's why they're trying to protect them. So that's kind of the approach in regards to this indication and why you do it and how it is. And let me know if I left any gaps there based on your understanding, Jeff.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

No, no, that makes sense. was so okay. So now let's say we want to do, we want to syndicate a deal and it's a million dollars, but maybe we don't have, you know, don't have a million bucks burned a hole in your pocket. So then you decide that you want to go syndicate. So let's break that down.

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah, so that's kind of the setup. You're right. I not answer your question. I'm sorry. let's say you have like a deal, let's say it's a 30 unit worth a million dollars. And that would not happen depending on where you are. let's say that in theory, you have that, right? And you want to buy this deal. have, let's say, people that you can, like you have confidence that you guys can operate it. First step for me would be, okay, I'm not going to buy cash, obviously. That's where this indication piece comes in. And you look at it.

Jeff Albaum

You

Jeffrey Donis

what we call a capital stack is how you would approach the financing of a project like this. So typically right now, I'd say 65 to 75 % of what you're buying it for is what you'll be able to get in regards to a loan. Now, depending on the approach you take, we don't have to get too much in detail, but a capital stack, way that it sort of is set up is at the top of it. And first position is what we call meaning that person gets paid back first. That's the debt, the lender.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Jeffrey Donis

Let's say they give 70 % of a million dollars, that's $700,000. The $300,000 is where we call our equity, the difference. That is usually required, is something that the lender requires the person taking out the loan, what we call a sponsor. That person will have to bring that to the table. And if you don't have it yourself, this is where the syndication comes in. So you can open it up. Typically the person, the sponsor, will put about 10 % of that in, and then the 20 % remaining.

come from what we refer to as limited partners, those non-accredited and or accredited investors. And they receive a percentage of ownership for doing that. And you obviously receive a percentage of ownership for doing what you're going to do.

Jeff Albaum

Okay. And so yeah, that's the question I have is the breakdown of percentage of ownership. I always get tripped up when I hear or read pitch decks about this. to keep with our same numbers, so we have a million bucks, 700 of which is that loan, 300 of which is equity, so we're gonna go raise 300 grand. So presumably,

Jeffrey Donis

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Jeff Albaum

Some portion of that, think you were saying 10 % traditionally is put in by the sponsor themselves. So that's 30 grand in this case, right? So, okay, I go put 30 grand, my own personal cash in, and then I still need to go raise 270, right? So.

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah, yeah, 200, if you put in 100, 200, assuming that right, 300k total equity needed.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. but so 10 % of the total purchase price, not 10 % of the equity.

Jeffrey Donis

I guess it would depend. Yeah, but we can just say 10 % of the three-inch. So 30.

Jeff Albaum

Got it, got it, it. Okay, that makes more sense. Okay, so yeah, 100 grand, so then you gotta go raise 200 grand left. So, okay, you go raise 200 grand. Let's say, yeah, it does get complicated quick, but I wanna understand the GPLP splits that you hear about.

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah.

For sure. So standard, I'd say that you almost always hear 70-30 in regards to the equity ownership splits. That's the straight split. And then we won't get too complicated, but there are ways to where that split can change as the lifetime or period goes on. And the reason it would change is because it starts to perform better. So you start hitting your goals as a sponsor. You want to have an incentive to make it go a certain way.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Okay.

Jeffrey Donis

positive good direction where it's performing economically producing returns, then it can get even more favorable in your favor as a sponsor. But assuming you're at 70-30 and it stays like that throughout the entire time period, regardless of how it performs, that is pretty much, and then let's assume there's no other complex structure where there's what we call a preferred return or anything like that. The 70-30 is typically the profit split. So on cashflow,

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Jeffrey Donis

After you pay your debt, after you pay obviously your operating expenses, all that, 7 % of that goes to the LP, 30 % of it goes to the GP. Now how you determine who, sometimes the, let's say you have a few different partners on the GP side and they're getting 30 % of the deal. To figure out how those GPs are going to get a portion of that 30%, that is something that the team internally has to decide.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Jeffrey Donis

Historically speaking, from my experience, it's usually been for different things like people putting down risk capital, earnest money. That happens before you're actually closed and an owner. You're putting this money upfront to do due diligence. You have to pay attorney fees. You have to put earnest money down and also just like the deposit when you're actually going under contract. All of that is technically risk at risk. Cause if it doesn't close for whatever reason, you're out of luck and you won't get it back. So.

Jeff Albaum

Sure.

Jeffrey Donis

You'll get compensated for that in some way. Obviously, if you were bringing in capital, whether it's your own money or investors, that's definitely a value. So you're going to get a percentage of the equity for that. And then also finding the deal. Jeffery, I know you know, like when it comes to trying to find these deals, have to underwrite endless number of opportunities and really hard to find a good deal, honestly, right now specifically. So you'll get compensated for that as well. And then when it comes to the asset management, someone's going to be doing that on a day-to-day basis.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Jeffrey Donis

So that person will likely take some form of equity, which I think it makes sense, right? Because you want that person having some type of incentive for it to perform, not just taking a fee, but they also have a share on the upside. And then the person's signing on the loan as well. So when you go and take out a loan like this, sometimes it's non-recourse, which means technically, like what that means to most people is the bank can't come after you. They can only come after the asset. That's completely...

Jeff Albaum

Sure.

Jeffrey Donis

exactly how it will play out if something bad were to happen. Like if you don't perform, the lender has things in their agreement that they send over. That is what we'd consider not a bad boy card out. And it's very like in fine print. So you probably want to read these agreements, but they're very long. So it's very easy to overlook these. But if you just, that's so much as like late one day on a payment and they never bring it up until the point where they are like, well, technically you messed up here on this random line here on this

page you never even knew was there, they can then remove that non-recourse and now it turns into a recourse loan. So with that being said, that person that signed the loan is the person they would come after for whatever it was and that's risk. So therefore that person will also get some level of equity for that as well.

Jeff Albaum

Okay. Got it. And so all those people that make up the GP to keep our, to go back to our math example. So the GP has put in a hundred grand of their own cash, but then they might be entitled to 30 % of the cash flow that the assets generating, right? So when we're talking about like, okay, what percentage of the GP is each person going to get?

we're talking about the percentage of the cash flow, right? The 30 % of the cash flow that the asset's generating, right? It has nothing to do with the cash put in necessarily. Is that accurate?

Jeffrey Donis

Well, you can think of it as ownership. So you own a certain percentage of what the general partnership team is getting. And it gets kind of complicated, but just let me down if I'm not making sense. But 30 % gets split up into, let's say, three GPs. Let's say they each get 10%. And the property producers cash flow, get, after the 30 % split, right, because they're going to get 30 % of that, then they get 10%, a third of it, if they're getting like a third of the GP. So they'll get a third of that.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Jeffrey Donis

And then it's not only cashflow, it's any profit, whether it's a refinance, there's some type of distribution given or on a sale, which is probably and hopefully the best time and the most profitable event that can happen. The best capital event that will occur in the project's lifeline is hopefully when you sell it. That's when you'll actually realize the most profits and that's when your equity splits sort of kick in.

Jeff Albaum

Got it, got it, got it. So it's fair to say though, it's not in relation to the amount of cash that they put in at the beginning, it's ownership percentage based on whatever the agreement is. Is that fair? Okay.

Jeffrey Donis

Right. It will come down to the agreement. That's what it will come down to. And the SEC doesn't allow you to just get paid based on, like if you're a GP raising capital, you're legally not allowed to just, and I'm not an SEC attorney, but I've obviously asked questions. So you're not legally allowed to just give someone equity for the amount of money that they raised. That's why it's important to understand, like there's a lot of different ways you can bring value to a project. And there's four or five that I briefly went over.

Jeff Albaum

Okay, got it. you

Jeffrey Donis

But you'll go in and you should know what your equity position is. And that is what will determine how much you actually end up receiving. And there's different capital events and the cash flow. Those are the sort of windows where you'll actually receive some type of distribution as a partner.

Jeff Albaum

Right, we're right, okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. And so like, something I've been thinking about recently is like, it's tough to survive as a company if you're not doing a lot of deals, right? Like, because you get paid, like, how do you keep the lights on in this scenario if the cash flow doesn't cover yourself, right? Like, how do you do that?

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah, that's a great question. Honestly, I've like, you first get into this, I'm thinking the same thing. Where is this money going to come from? If I'm not actually cash flowing typically in the past, let's say a lot of operators in 2022, 2021, were buying deals that were negative cashflow day one. So you're actually not even paying, you're not able to, able to cover your mortgage at first. You know, however you're structuring that differs depending on the situation. But a lot of these companies that that's why you hear all these gurus and people will say,

go big and like it makes more sense to buy a bigger deal. And there's differing opinions on that. I'm not saying they're right or wrong, but the benefit of going bigger is you're able to take a fee. And there's a few different fees you could take. One is the acquisition fee. So yes, you'd have to buy more deals to get that because it's only a one-time thing when you close on the front end. That's pretty good. Two to 5 % industry average, one to 5 % depending on the deal and the operator. But now let's say...

Jeff Albaum

and

Jeffrey Donis

you're also taking a 2 % asset management fee, which is paid out monthly. That's 2 % of the income. And then let's assume that, who knows if you're doing property management in-house or not, but a of the bigger companies, the institutional groups are also doing property management. So they're taking that fee as well, which is typically five to 8%, depending. And then there's also a refinance fee.

Jeff Albaum

Wait, one question I had on the asset management fee. That's 2 % of what? The loan value or the purchase price?

Jeffrey Donis

It's one second to be honest. We don't like the way I'm doing my deals now previously I wasn't taking the asset management fees on the Largest indications but on the deals that I'm buying with my brothers were JV So we're not I know it's one to two percent and I want to say it's on income Not necessarily on the purchase price. So that's how it fluctuates depending on how the property performs the asset management to or change But those fees come in handy to pay the day to day

Jeff Albaum

Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. Okay. Got it. Sure. Yeah.

Jeffrey Donis

bills and all, you know, and then if you're also able to do the construction management in-house, you're taking a 2 % fee on that as well. What do I say? It's like typically the, our, our deals, we take around a 5 to 6 % construction fee. And that's pretty much on the capex. And you can just be a flat fee too. So depending on how big your deal is, that'll determine that. But if you're doing deals that are getting bigger and bigger and are bringing in more income, right? You have more rents to collect. Those fees really do pay the bills.

And that's really how you're able to invest back into the business and then you're not including any equity or cash flow. That's just the cherry on top.

Jeff Albaum

Right, right, Huh, interesting, okay. Dude, that's amazing. yeah, like, we started the conversation, dude, I feel like you've done so much and you're, when did you start? Like, what was your first deal? How old were you?

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah, I think I was 18. It was a wholesale deal. yeah, it was like two that we closed on the first same day. And these are my two brothers and I, so we're cold calling. And we make like a decent amount. That was the biggest deal I ever did, the first one. But that's when I ended up dropping out of school. Now I'm finishing school now, I ended up going back. But like that was life changing to...

really had that switch in of like frame of mind and think I don't necessarily have to go work for someone else to make money. And no one ever told me I didn't have to do that. But you start reading these books and stuff and the first deal was a wholesale deal. We were just cool calling. We learned how to do sales, follow up, walking deals, underwriting deals, all of that. And this is single family, but obviously it's still paying dividends, all that hard work, trying to reach out to people and it not going anywhere for like six months. That's how long it took us to finally get the first one.

Jeff Albaum

Right.

Yeah. Dude, that's insane. And so now, like, what do I you said, like, you've got smaller multifamily deals that you and your brothers are working on. Like, what does the future look like? Like, where do you guys want to go? What do you guys want to do?

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah. Yeah, man. It's a, an exciting time that we're, we're blessed to have a few different things working on. We bought five or four deals last year, all on the smaller side, anywhere from two to 12 units. And that starts to accumulate. goal is to just not, not just like exit these, God willing, we can just hold onto these and it'd be the generational wealth you're able to build and pass on to your kids. That's the goal. And this year, our goal was to buy deals that are anywhere from 20 to 80 units.

Each, the goal would be 80, but honestly, as you know, multifamily, depending on the kind of deal you buy, you can buy a 40 unit and then buy a 50 unit and you bought two deals and now you're at 90 units. So the difference is that we're buying them without many partners. We're bringing in partners to help us with certain things, but they're JVs. So we have control. I'm building my own track record when it comes to signing on loans, things like that. So this year God willing, we're able to do one to two deals a quarter.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Okay.

Jeffrey Donis

and we're in North and South Carolina. And it's very standard. It sounds like that's what you're doing, value add, small multifamily, the approach you're taking as well.

Jeff Albaum

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Um, but yeah, trying to just work on bigger deals and, yeah, you know, it's easier said than done, but trying to put them together and figure out what to do next.

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah. Let me ask you, Jeff, what do you think is the number one thing that holds people back from like buying a multifamily, small multifamily deal? Do you talk to people that wonder like, how do you do it? Does it seem like there's a specific thing you can put your finger on that's like stopping them? Or is it a lot of things? What do you think it is?

Jeff Albaum

That's such a good question. I don't know, man. I feel like it's a lot of things. I know like for myself when I was like the first deal I ever bought. It's scary. It's really scary. Like you're you're buying like for me. I was living in California at the time. So like I wasn't investing in California was investing in the Midwest. So you're buying this thing out of state you've never seen and it's terrifying. It's like the largest purchase you've ever done of anything and it's just

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah.

Jeff Albaum

It's just really scary. And I think at least like as I've bought, I've like purchased bigger deals since then and it doesn't necessarily get less scary. You know, like I think the bigger the deal, it's you know, in certain way like you understand what you're doing more and so you have more comfort and less fear.

Jeffrey Donis

It is. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

That's true.

Jeff Albaum

But at least for me like every deal that I've done there's always been one new thing, right? So it's like, okay now it's instead of a single family. It's duplex. So now that there's two units, okay great that actually didn't feel that challenging and I think that's kind of the point of like the stack method right of like you're constantly buying slightly bigger deals And so now I'm at the point we're like, yeah, it's it's less scary for sure but like

Jeffrey Donis

Mm-hmm.

Jeff Albaum

the day before closing, I'll call a good friend and be like, what am I missing? I'm seeing this loan thing, is this good, is this right? I'll call my brother or something. So yeah, I don't know, what about you? What do you think?

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah, man. It's Yeah, I think it's a mixture of the I'm in the same position where we bought we buy deals and Doing it by yourself for the first time. I think like for some young person's perspective I Think anyone that's new you can relate to this even if you're like different place in your journey It's one of the knowledge is the one thing that I think helps you not have as much fear I've heard the saying it's kind of a cliche like fear is a lack of knowledge and as I've grown in my

Jeff Albaum

and

Jeffrey Donis

understanding and a lot of times I got the understanding because I ended up forcing myself to do the things that I really didn't want to do. For example, like looking at spreadsheets, it's kind of boring for me in the beginning, but as I've gotten better at it, I enjoy it more and it's now allowed me to have more confidence when I'm looking at something, an opportunity, looking at a market. You really have to do the dirty work to get decently good at it. And over time we do it over time, compounds, we do eventually get decent. You then know the questions to ask and who to reach out to.

kind of research you should do. So it really is doing the things that maybe you don't want to do, but you have to do that over time. And that's really how you build that knowledge and the confidence. And then it's, I've heard, I've heard today, I don't know who I was listening to, but I think it was Tony Robbins. And I don't really love Tony Robbins, but I like, that's a great point. He said, the people that are like a lot of the billionaires that he hangs out with, they were the ones that didn't overthink and just took action and made the decisions to go.

Jeff Albaum

Right. Well, it's like that, isn't there a Jeff Bezos quote that's similar? He's like, know what is a two way door, right? It's like, what are doors you can walk through and then if you don't like it, just turn around and walk back versus doors if you once you walk through, you can't really walk back and like,

Jeffrey Donis

versus overanalyzing things. And he said the most smart people he knows are not the most successful because of that. They'll never actually pull the trigger, because there's always something you won't really know, you know?

Jeff Albaum

If there's a decision you need to make that is a two way door where you can walk through it. And then if you don't like it, just turn around, like don't think, just do that because it's reversible. Which. Yeah.

Jeffrey Donis

Hmm. That's so true. Yeah. 100%. 100%. And yeah, I think like, yeah, I just think it's something that I always wonder because I, I'm around people that maybe also I knew I noticed the, you just never think it's possible, then you'll never even try it obviously, but it's so, it's so possible. And I think over time I'll really start to see the benefits of it. But I just, I think more people if they even had access to the idea of

Jeff Albaum

Yeah.

Jeffrey Donis

how you could possibly do it and why you would do it and why you should do it and understanding how we can really be life changing from a practical perspective, I think people would at least go for it.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah. For sure. For sure. all right. Wait, so I got a question for you. Let's say you get all the things that you want. You've accomplished all your goals. You've gotten whatever your, your number is that you're going towards, like enough money that you're set for life. Like you never have to earn another dollar again. That happens on a Tuesday. You go to bed, you wake up Wednesday. What do you do?

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Honestly, I've grown in my faith a lot. So I would say I probably would just thank God first and foremost if I got to that point where I'm like I don't need anything else and like God, thank you for that. able to I love what I do and I love working and I think work is worship and then when I'm at my best I'm doing that. I'm like worshiping and feeling as if I'm where God wants me. So I think I would just center myself around that and typically that leads me to work and also

doing the things that I may be already kind of doing, where like I wake up early, I work out, hang out with my family, hang out with my friends. I might travel a little more too, but I probably would just end up wanting to work more. I don't know if you've come late, but I have a lot of energy. I love to be productive. I love to work. I love to be, I think I've noticed that like I do enjoy being good at something. And over time, I've just grown in the space that I've been in. So I probably would go back to just doing more deals and enjoying it, but maybe spending more time with my family and my friends.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm, totally.

Jeffrey Donis

doing some traveling, little more traveling. How about you?

Jeff Albaum

Yeah Dude honestly, I feel very similar like I feel like I would do my day would look really similar it just like I feel like there would be some unlocks where I Think a lot of the fear that I have around money and like wealth and stuff is is a lot more internal than I usually give myself credit for like I think that a lot of it is is Internal as opposed to external

but I do also think that there are some external things that would feel pretty good to have. so I think like, yeah, some semblance of like, okay, I wake up on Wednesday. I'd like, yeah, for sure. Do the things that I like to do day to day, like workout, hang out with my wife, hang out with her baby, you know, take her dog on a walk, that kind of stuff. and I'd like to think that I would have less.

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah, absolutely.

Jeff Albaum

like anxiety and fear around like money. I don't know if that's actually would be true. I think I might still have the same amount, but I would be in a better position to objectively like not feel that way, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. For sure.

Jeffrey Donis

It does. I've heard more money leads to more problems. And I can see that. you literally have the way that you'll make the more money is probably buying more assets, being involved in more things, and you'll have more things to manage. And it does lead to, I would assume it leads to more stress, but that's a good challenge I have, I think.

Jeff Albaum

Are there any like I always ask people like what are your what's a made it for you? So like a thing it's usually something that you buy so like I Don't know like you could fly first class you could like something that you would do that you feel like I made it if I did this Do you have any of those?

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I do. think so. Honestly, and I'm not trying to like sound a certain way. This is my truth. Like I feel like I made it already. Not in the sense that I actually made it, but I'm just like healthy. I get to work with my brothers. I'm blessed. I have a really good relationship with God and things like that. So I honestly think I made it. I, it's like the best part of the journey I think is kind of in the early stages where you're trying to get to a point. Cause I don't think I'll ever stop, right? I don't think you will either. Just not how I made.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Jeffrey Donis

I can tell I like to work. So that's what I'm enjoying. I do get satisfaction from it. But when I buy my jet, if I ever buy a jet, I would say that would probably be like, you know, like I mean, at that point, it's like, yeah, things probably, I could stop. I could stop at this point and probably would end up not needing to work anymore. But yeah, I don't think I'll ever stop. So that's honestly the answer. The first thing that came to my mind was like that. What about you?

Jeff Albaum

you

Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, dude, your answer's way better than mine, because you're just like, dude, I'm already blessed. Like, I don't need anything.

Jeffrey Donis

I mean, that's just the truth. Like it's a good heart posture check to think, could I walk away from all of this right now? I'm like, yeah. And like that way you don't, you know, you're not really putting your identity in it. You know what mean? How about you? What's that for you?

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Right, right, for sure, for sure. Dude, mine is I can get an appetizer at a restaurant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's one of those things where it's like, dude, I just think that'd be so cool. Like you just go to a restaurant and it's like the same thing. Like you get guacamole and Chipotle. Like it's not objectively that big of a deal, but it's like the like.

Jeffrey Donis

Dude, know, you hear these people say they never look at the price on the menus.

You

Yeah.

Jeff Albaum

Dude, I can't get guac. I gotta buy that next deal. I gotta hustle, you know? Versus you rock up to a restaurant and you're like, you guys want any apps? You're like, whoa, all right, cool, sweet.

Jeffrey Donis

I know. That's so true.

Yeah, like one of the things that I've learned is like every time I go out, I would love to be able to just pay for everyone that I'm with every time regardless of where I'm going and invite them to things. That would be so cool, wouldn't it? To just be able to invite all your friends on a trip and it's like don't even worry about anything, just come. That would be awesome.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah, yeah, yeah Mm-hmm 100 % 100 % I heard do you listen to this podcast money wise you ever listen that show? Okay The host is well, it's like it's through Sam Parr's company Hampton, but the hosts have been changing so it's like

Jeffrey Donis

think I've heard it at least once, yes. Who's the host? Do you know?

Jeff Albaum

Jackie is the whole effort Jack. I forget her last name, but it's through the company that like makes the podcast does the hosting But so they were talking about like the interview all these like super successful people and they were talking like the one biggest like wealth changer was

this super wealthy person had an exit that she had like all this money and she didn't change anything in her lifestyle. She like lived at the same apartment she's been living at her entire life. She like with her family still and all she did was she rented all the other apartments in her building and like invited her friends to live there for pennies on the dollar. Like she like we rented those apartments back to her like best friends. And so like every day she was just like seeing her best friends in and around her apartment building. And I was like, that's the coolest that like broke my brain. I was like, that's the coolest thing I've ever heard. Like I want to do that.

Jeffrey Donis

That's awesome.

Honestly, Yeah, that's my favorite thing to do. I've been just like, over the last 90 days, just spend time with people that I love. That's my favorite thing to do. And if I could do that, like that, that's a great idea. Buy like buy like a DiBallascio or something. Yeah.

Jeff Albaum

Like that's my new goal.

Yeah, yeah. I know I'm 100 % I'm stealing that one. Okay, so with that being said, you hinted at it earlier, you said you're not a Tony Robbins fan. What content do you like to consume? Like are you a reader? Are you a podcast listener? Like what types of things are you into reading or consuming?

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah, I respect Tony. Tony's obviously successful. just don't listen to him often, but I like him. So I love in the morning, every morning I'm listening to either an audio book or YouTube. I love the diary of a CEO. I forget his name, but I'm subscribed to that. love in regards to my faith. I read the Bible every single day for 10 minutes. So that's something that I ground myself in. think there's a lot of wisdom there and it's the truth. So that's the thing that I read every single day.

Jeff Albaum

Fair, fair, fair, OK. Nice.

Jeffrey Donis

And I'm always listening to a book. love Jordan Peterson. He's a philosopher. I'm somewhat big into philosophy, I'd say. And then finance, economic news, things like that. Whenever there's someone like, Bill Ackman, which he's controversial, but I still think he is somewhat successful. And then other like Stefan Schwartzman from Blackstone, whenever he speaks, whenever the CEO from Blackstone speaks, listen to John Gray. People like that are just in my industry or,

giving me like up-to-date news. There's a few different newsletters I'm subscribed to as well. CNBC has a lot of economic news that they release. watch that. Try to do that every single day. then there's one called CRE Daily, Commercial Real Estate Daily. We have a really good newsletter that I'll read every day and it pretty much gives you updates on all asset classes every single day, Monday through Friday. So that's typically where I go.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

That's awesome. Okay, nice, man. So yeah, you're like rock and rolling. Do you listen to stuff like when you work out or do you listen to music then?

Jeffrey Donis

No, I love listening to good content. I do listen to like Christian contemporary music and I love my own music, but I don't do that throughout the week. Usually it's on the weekend as a treat. and the, it's such a, I'm there every, I go out, I work out every day and I'm there for 90 minutes usually. So 90 minutes every morning, I'm listening to good content and I love it and I enjoy it, but you don't even realize how much you're able to learn if you do that every day.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Jeffrey Donis

I do it every day. So like the compound effect, I've just noticed that, this helps in this arena. Randomly it comes up in a conversation with something that you heard, you know, so I love it.

Jeff Albaum

sure. Right, right, right. So what's your what's your typical like day look like? So like, what time do you wake up? Like you said you work out in the morning. So then you work out and then like, is Yeah, what does your day look like?

Jeffrey Donis

Yeah, so when I'm at my best, I'm up at five and that's eight hours of sleep. I'm up at five and I have to go to bed early. I'll wake up. I like to do some meditation. I'll listen to some Christian music in the morning. I'll stretch. And then when I'm healthy, I'll run to the gym. It's about a mile away, but I hurt my knee doing some marathon training. So I'm now biking. So I'll drive to the gym, workout. I end up doing weights and then...

Now I'm biking, so some type of cardio for 30 minutes. Go back home, take a shower. Then I like to do some Bible study. I'll read and then get started around nine. And I'm pretty much on from nine. Honestly, as late as it goes, depending on the evening, I'll have different meetings. I have a few in the morning on Mondays and different days I have meetings. I'm getting all our calls, calls like this that I'm trying to connect with people. But it just pretty much doing what I love, which is being productive.

Jeff Albaum

Dude, you're a beast. You're an absolute beast. What are you looking for? What would be helpful if someone listens to this and they're like, man, I would love to get in touch with Jeff and work with him or help him out or do something. What are you looking for? What would be helpful? And then where can people find you?

Jeffrey Donis

You know?

Yeah, I'd say anyone that's looking to learn about real estate, specifically multifamily, that's what we do. And I have friends that do fix and flips. used to do fix and flips. So if you're young or just interested in that, I'd love to help if I can. And we are always looking to partner with people, specifically in Northern South Carolina. If you're interested from a passive perspective, investing, or just seeing how we can partner, you find a deal, I find a deal kind of thing. I thought to learn more about how we could JV or potentially do a deal as GPs together.

So those, I would say those are the capacities that I'd be able to help someone. And then when it comes to finding us, we have a website. It's www.donnisinvestmentgroup.com. You can check us out there. We have a lot of content, newsletters, things like that. And then I'm personally on social media, Jeffrey Donis on Instagram, LinkedIn. I think that's it in regards to social media. I try not to get too much involved in social media outside of like good stuff. So I'm trying to fast from it right now.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah, yeah, easier said than done.

Jeffrey Donis

It is true. It's addicting. Yeah.

Jeff Albaum

Well dude, thank you so much for coming on here, man. I really appreciate you and I'm excited to see what the future holds. You're, like I said, you're a beast and yeah, thank you for coming on, man. I appreciate you.

Jeffrey Donis

Thanks for having me Jeff, this was awesome.

Thanks.