WIN Ep159. How This Firefighter Found Success in Real Estate Investing with Dave Seymour

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Trent Werner: Welcome back to another episode of the Deal Deep Dive segment on the Westside Investors Network podcast. I'm your host, Trent Werner. In this segment, our featured guests will share their unique stories on a specific deal they've invested in. We will dive deep into finding the deal, financing the deal, writing an offer, and the due diligence. Do us a solid and smash that subscribe button, leave us a rating, and share this episode.

And now let's dive deep. Welcome back to the Westside Investors Network podcast. I'm your host, Trent Warner. On today's episode, we're joined by Dave Seymour of Freedom Venture Investments. Dave's gonna share his story about how he turned a sixteen year firefighting career into a wholesaling and house flipping business that has now catapulted into a large multifamily syndication that focuses on development.

We're also gonna hear about how Dave's career as a firefighter has transitioned into his real estate career and the skills that he took from his previous life into the current one. Now let's welcome Dave Seymour. Alright. Dave Seymour joining us today. Dave, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us.

Dave Seymour: Yeah, Trent. I appreciate it, man. Let's, let's get down and dirty as we say. I'm into it, man. Whatever you need.

Let's go.

Trent Werner: Well, Dave, I know, you weren't in real estate for your entire career. I do think it would be interesting for our listeners to hear how you went from something completely not unrelated to real estate and then got into real estate. So what'd you do prior to becoming a big time real estate investor?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. Look, man. I, I followed the the the formula that was given to me by my father, right, which was I'm from a working class background in in the East End Of London. And, you know, I was always told as a kid you just work hard, right? You trade your time for somebody else's money.

Then in a set of circumstances, I immigrate to The States. I was a young gun, I was only 20 years old following my, the love of my life at the time. I was an American, so I followed her all the way to the other side of the world. And, a friend of mine said to me, he said, why don't you get one of those government jobs, Dave? And I'm like, Leon, what are you talking about?

And, I started testing for, you know, a couple of different government positions. I I was always attracted to the camaraderie of of police work and and firefighting. And, you know, I was blessed in, 1997. I was hired onto, the Lynn Fire Department here in Massachusetts. I live just North Of Boston.

And, you know, I spent sixteen years in that career, man, and I I freaking loved it. I did, brother. I I tell you, there there's something about, you know, the the rush, obviously. You've gotta be a little bit broken upstairs to to do to do that kind of work. Right?

But a lot of the parallels from firefighting, you know, are are applicable in real estate investing today, and we'll we'll unpack that in a minute. But, yeah, sixteen years in the fire department, and, I worked construction on my days off, as most firefighters do. Little plug to your local fire department. If you need a plumber, an electrician, a GC, a deck man, a brickie, a bookie not a bookie. If you need any of those those, career, you know, careers or services, give the guys at the firehouse a shout.

But I went construction on my days off, and it was that exposure to the construction world that eventually led me over to, to real estate. So that was kind of the transition. But Firefly was awesome, man. In fact, I was paramedic in the city. You know, if you're gonna do the job, do the job.

Don't be a lookie loo. You know what I mean? Don't be on the outside looking in if you can get deep in the in the mud. And, we we we fought some good rips. We saved a few lives.

We lost a few. But, you know, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed, like, again, the camaraderie, looking to the left and the right and knowing that you can go to war and be okay, you know? So that was important.

Trent Werner: And did you because I mean, you already talked about how a lot of firefighters have something else that they're doing at the same time. Did you I know you worked construction, but did you start investing in real estate when you were still firefighting?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. Yeah. Again, long story short, I know time is tight, but, I was, I was going through the financial crisis really kicked me in the teeth, because I I I I did everything this what everybody else did. I was a sheep. I'll be I'll be frank with you.

Right? Four zero one k's, government pensions, do the right thing, blah blah blah blah blah. But I I didn't have a lot of, financial literacy behind me. Therefore, I was carrying a lot of unsecure credit card debt. So I'm working hours and hours and hours and hours and hours, and I'm never catching up because I'm playing the game the wrong way.

And, it took me to a point where I was almost losing my primary residence. I'm a man of faith, believe it or not, and I'm screaming and shouting at god one day. And I'm like, dude, I don't wanna lose my house. I work hard. I'm up to I was doing three full time jobs at the end about a hundred and twenty hours a week, you know, family at home, and it it just sucked.

It really sucked. I was working hard, not smart. And I'm screaming and shouting, my god. And he's like, nothing. Silence.

I was in my f one fifty pickup truck. Anyway, I turned the ignition on, and a commercial came over on the radio. Teach me foreclosure. A free one and a half hour seminar coming to your neck of the woods. And I'm like, okay.

And that was my road in. I was a a student. Now I was a student in the seminar world, and I I sat in a class, and somebody taught me the first strategy I used, which was the wholesaling strategy, controlling a piece of real estate with a contract. And, I thought to myself, that can't be legal. It can't be legal.

I don't even own the house. What are you talking about? And then a guy said to me, hey, have you ever had a primary mortgage on your residence? I go, yeah. He goes, and did you get a notice within two weeks saying that somebody else is now servicing your mortgage?

I go, yeah. He said, they sold your paper. That's all you're doing as a real estate investor as long as you know how to do it legally, honestly, and ethically, and don't do it to hurt anybody else. Don't be a greedy pig. And, you know, I learned those techniques, and those techniques, you know, pole vaulted me forward and, you know, I started I was known as one of the top distressed real estate investors in in in my market up here in Boston during the crash.

You know, we learned to short sell properties. We learned loan modifications. I ran a little clean out business as well as my construction business. I mean, you know, I got deep, man. I I got I'm I'm a ground up guy.

You know what I mean? And, that's how I transitioned in, And that's what eventually actually got me the exposure with the TV show was because I was good at what I was doing, so I started teaching it. And now when you're teaching it, I'm on the other side of that equation, and my my influences change. Right? There's five guys in a firehouse, and we're all complaining about the same crap.

But then you're in a room with five millionaires, and one of them was was even a, you know, a billionaire. Once you're in that environment, you know, your perspective changes dramatically, and that that was part of the trajectory from from the fire department to be where we are today.

Trent Werner: So how long did you specifically focus on wholesaling before, I guess, getting into the flipping world that you, you know, that had a TV

Dave Seymour: show on? Look. But to be a a good wholesaler, you gotta be an excellent house flipper because it's it's contractual. It's understanding the numbers. Right?

Nothing worse than a than a wholesaler who comes to you with with garbage numbers. They don't know the construction numbers. They don't know the repair numbers. They don't know their after repair value. They're putting in offers on MLS.

They've got no marketing. You know, it's it's amateur hour. So for me, I I was trained well and deployed the systems that were proven. So I probably spent six months in the wholesaling game before I locked out my first flip. And then I actually, I'm closing here if you're ready.

Today is January 2025, and there's a check coming in the mail today for for a flip, a contract that I flipped, in the past twenty days. Right? So I'm just I'm I'm not gonna walk away from from my skill sets. Right? That that's that's just extra cash coming into the company.

So you don't lose those skills. It's, taking those fundamentals of underwriting and being conservative and then transition then into, you know, a flip, a retail flip, into maybe a small multifamily, into a larger multifamily. And for me, there was a, you know, a natural progression that that just took off from there.

Trent Werner: Yeah. And so now, obviously, you're you're still doing wholesaling when you when you can, but you're also focusing on multifamily now. Right?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. So, you know, I don't I don't know that everybody needs to, you know, have a trajectory and and invest in some people get very comfortable and overly proficient, I think, at one strategy. Like, I know guys have been just wholesalers, for example, in the Tampa market. I'm up in Boston. But in the Tampa market, you know, they're flipping 50 to a hundred contracts a year, ten to thirty thousand a contract.

It's a solid, stable business that, you know, they just feed off of that. But but that's a job. Right? Mhmm. Because if you don't flip a contract, if you don't flip a house, you don't make any money.

So that's still trading time for money. Yeah. The ROI is a little sweeter than sitting in the firehouse waiting for an overtime, but, you know, it still works. So for me, I looked at that, and then again, the influences I had around me, I started to, spend time with the guys who were, you know, up to 500 doors, multifamily investing doors, up to 10,000 doors. And I started again to elevate and learn a different strategy for real estate.

So we went from the the flipping of houses to owning, you know, our first two family to a four unit property. I, progressed that up to, about 80 to a hundred, I think we've had, doors in Sanford, Maine of all places, which is like the, the meth capital of of Maine. And, you know, it was some hardcore multifamily investing in those markets. You know, I got stories that make the, your your beard go from red to gray in in a couple of minutes. And I mean but, you know, all of all of those scars from investing have a a dollar value attached to to them.

You know what I mean? There's a lot of value in making mistakes. There's a lot of value in investing in in in tougher properties and tougher rental demographics. Right? So, anyway, we we went through that phase.

We liquidated out of that, spent some time in the, capital side of things. Hot money lending, private money lending. COVID was was an incredible awakening for me personally because what it did was was it took me out of the private lending well, not private lending, but it took me out of the hard money lending game because I was working with a line of credit from from Wall Street, and then we were turning over multiple loans to the database of house flippers and investors that that knew me and knew of of my track record. So they were coming to us for capital, but COVID took us out of the game because the line of credit that we were working on, was was shut down. Kinda like an awakening in the sense for me.

It was, okay. I gotta control the capital. If I'm gonna be in this game at a higher level, if I'm gonna elevate, I can't be relying on, you know, the local bank that's too slow. I can't be relying on somebody else's line of credit. I wanna be in control of that credit.

And, I I reconnected with a friend of mine, a guy by the name of Walter O'Bicke, who's, about my age, you know, been a warrior in real estate, been through a few cycles. And, you know, we came off, maybe six, eight weeks into the COVID BS, and we're like, you know, what's what's the play, man? What's next? And Walter said to me, he said, you know, I've been raising capital for apartment complexes and doing what's called a repositioning. Repositioning meaning, you know, you raise rents, you decrease expenses, maybe you do some repair work on the assets, you increase the net operating income, that increases the value of an asset.

He said, I've been doing onesies, twosies. I said, you know, do you think you could raise capital, and we'll we'll escalate that. You know? We'll we'll we'll begin to scale that up. And that's what took us where we are today.

So today, you know, there's quite a few million in assets under management. We do a lot of ground up development work now down in Southwest Florida, Cape Coral, Fort Myers. Doing it down there because I don't wanna be in, no offense, Oregon, I don't wanna be in Massachusetts. Right? I don't wanna I don't wanna be in the markets where, respectfully, again, to my state annuals, where I'm not welcome.

You know? I don't I I I I'm an investor. Right? And I'm I'm a steward of other people's capital, so I have to invest it where I know I can volatilize that those investments, and those are in markets that make sense for us. So, yeah, today, that's where we're at, man.

I I mean, I'm wrapping up a $20.26 and a half million dollar project, a hundred and six stores in Cape Coral, Florida. We're looking to get into occupancy on that within the next ninety days. There's a little bit of a raise left on that one. I got a nice 16 unit property that we're doing in Rotunda West. That's about a 4 and a half million dollar project all in.

That's like a three equity, three x return on capital for investors on that. And, we're we're transitioning into the pickleball business because of a success circumstances where, you know, you you think you're falling in the doo doo doo kaka and you come up smelling like roses. So we're building a pickleball facility in, in Fort Myers. My partner's actually signing some paperwork as we speak, I think. He's in a meeting today.

So, you know, we we go where where it makes sense and where, again, where I can put my investors in a position where they can three times their investment capital over a three to five year hold period is is kind of the thesis by which we work on today. So it's a different game. I'm I'm more in the money game than the real estate game today, which is some days that's good. Some days that's boring. A lot of ego in money.

You know what I mean? All these swinging you know what's Thinking just because they can write a fat check. So you still gotta put the money somewhere that makes sense. So we're just so radical.

Trent Werner: That's an interesting transition in itself. You went from really hands on real estate focus to the capital focus. I know you talked about COVID, you know, drying up the line of credit and that sort of stuff. But

Dave Seymour: Yeah.

Trent Werner: Did you ever see yourself focusing more on the capital side instead of the real estate side, which you had done

Dave Seymour: for solar? No. I didn't. Not that you don't have to be all in on just one component of it. Like, the the I the biggest kick I get is going to our job sites and seeing the the progression.

You know, seeing a hundred construction workers on-site knowing that, you know, the work that we've done in the background feeds their families. That's that's a good feeling. I've always I've always loved that part of it. So I still get to taste that, but, you know, in the capital raising world, I'm gonna say it again, it's so ego driven. It's unbelievable.

And, you know, I'm at a place in my life today where other people's opinions are me and none of my business. Yeah. So I don't, you know, I don't I don't walk in with any trepidation, fade out, or insecurity. Right? I I go into those financial scenarios with my palms up.

We always, you know, stress test our pro formas so that if something goes in a direction that we didn't anticipate, what could it look like? Does it still work? It's a different world. And and to be frank with you, my other partner is a younger gentleman. His name's Eric Wilson.

He's 30 years old. He's probably the smartest human being I know. And, you know, he delves he lives and breathes data. He lives in that world. So when he's hanging out in the data driven world, he, he comes up and I say to him, okay.

Show me the bot the bottom right hand corner of that spreadsheet. Does it make sense? And he's like, yeah. I go, okay. You know, you trust.

Again, it goes back to the firefight. Right? Looking to your left and your right and knowing that you've got massive skill set capacity around you. And one of the things I learned a long time ago was don't be the smartest person in the room because if you are, you're in the wrong room. Right?

Don't don't don't let that be the case. So I I've learned to listen as I've got older in my career, and, you know, listening has offered me a lot of good opportunities as well rather walking in and talking all the time, which is what I'm doing right now.

Trent Werner: So for this for this $26,000,000 deal, obviously, you had to raise capital for it. You had to place a capital in the deal. Yeah. Yeah. How did that deal get presented to you, and what made you ultimately I know you said you stress test underwriting and all that, but what made you ultimately wanna place capital with that deal?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. Look, at the end of the day, it's the market. Is it in the right market? As studies in Southwest Florida, even with hurricanes and the challenges that that market has faced, it's still got massive amount of population growth, it's got rent growth, it's got undersupplied construction. You know, with the the state of the economy as it is today, with the cost of single family housing, it's driven up the amount of renters throughout the Florida market.

So number one, it's in the right market. Number two, the Dyrd acquisition made sense for us. We I think we came in at 14,000 per door and a hundred and six unit build, which was a a great price. That came through relationships. You know, again, Walter being in that market for thirty years, he knows what's up and what's not.

He knows who's facing some challenges and who isn't. You can't buy that experience. You know, that's just thirty years of grinding it out. And then we started looking at the, the capitalization side of it and to bring investors in. So we raised about 6 on that, put in a 19.6 loan, and, you know, we're we're right there now.

We we've got about a million left in the equity raise. It's the last of the equity because we thought we could get some better pricing at the beginning, you know, and that changes over time. That just is what it is. But those are built in stresses into into a pro form a to get you to that finish line. But even that last million dollars that's on the table right now is still looking at a three equity, you know, a hundred thousand in, get that hundred thousand back plus 200,000 over maybe a five to seven year run.

Still not a bad investment when you look at what's out there. And and at the end of the day, where is the money sitting? It's sitting in sticks and bricks. It's tangible. You know what I mean?

I used to I always used to joke in my single family days. I love mold because I can see it, I can taste it, and I know there's value in it. You know what I mean? It's the same thing on on this side. I can see the the stucco finish.

I can see, you know, the, the the the work that's being done. I could you know, when you see the foundations going in, etcetera, etcetera. So that's why it made sense and continues to make sense in that market, and we're still aggressively buying in that market as we speak. And now here's a word from our sponsor.

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Trent Werner: Uptown Syndication is now offering a syndication coaching program for you to take your real estate portfolio to the next level. This is your opportunity to have experienced syndicators, AJ and Chris Shepherd, coach you on your way to controlling your real estate investing future. Our coaching program will provide you with the tools and framework needed to begin syndicating real estate in your target market. Go to uptownsyndication.com today to learn more. So how does it work with you guys or on the operation side of the construction side when you are going ground up?

Are you Yeah. Hands on with the construction and operations as well, or do you have someone else that does that?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. So the way we structure it out is is there's what's called the GP and the LP. The GP is the general partner position, which is the three of us, Freedom Venture Investments. And then what we do is is Walter is in that market. Eric is doing underwriting.

I'm up here in Boston raising the capital. So Walter is, feet on the street in the market primarily, but what we do is is we we then subcontract out. We go into what's called an AIA, an architectural, construction agreement with we have a national builder on this particular project. You know, they make a little extra money for managing the construction. We come in and have to put out fires.

It is what it is. It's construction. It's never perfect. But there's a, you know, there's a a pyramid, if you will, of the GP at the top overseeing the the operations. And where we're at today is as we move into stabilization and renting up, we're working with Hawthorne, which is a pretty prominent management company that'll manage the asset for us, once we turn it over out of construction through bridge financing into, into permanent financing.

So it's it's managing people rather than, you know, picking up a a chop saw. I I'd like to pick up a chop saw every now and again, but I think those days are done. I wasn't any good on the chop saw anyway. I don't tell anyone.

Trent Werner: So the, so the construction side of it, they're not necessarily in the GP stack. They are they're on track is being paid for their work. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. In the GP stack. Okay.

Dave Seymour: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We maintain the GP stack, GPLP.

Our investors come in, fill out the equity position, the limited partner position, and then we go out and secure the, the construction financing to finish out the rest of the deal. So, yeah, that that you know, it's the employees of the company, if you will, to execute on the business plan. Yeah.

Trent Werner: And then once you once you get to that stabilization period, I know you said you turn the asset over to, you know, Hawthorne to manage it. How long are you so and then you you get permanent financing on it, permanent debt on it. How long are you holding that before disposition?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. Great question. So most of the, ground up construction opportunities in Southwest Florida have a three to five year run for disposition and exit. Usually, two years to build, eighteen months to build, another six, eight months to stabilize, and then work that property, work that asset for the next three to five years to maximize the net operating income so that you can exit out at those targeted numbers that you, you put on there at the beginning. What we are seeing now is little softening in the market, nothing to to ring alarm bells.

So maybe we'll exit out at a seven year horizon instead of a five year horizon. Right. The thing around that is is our investors don't want us bailing just because we said it was five years and then getting out of that asset at a reduced return. Right? They're intelligent investors, accredited investors who put up capital and know that we're doing a % of the work, and they're taking about 70% of the profits at the end of the day.

Right? So they're okay sitting in a little longer if we're sitting in a cash flow. Now the other side of that is I might get to CEO. Somebody from Wall Street shows up and says, I'll buy that at a two and a half cap rate, and we say, okay. And we're selling now because now my investment yep.

See you. Right? And we're see we're still seeing that in the Florida market now. We're seeing some of the the bigger players from from Wall Street, some hedge fund type guys that are coming in, and they still wanna just you know, we're seeing these insurance companies with the cost of insurance and everything. They're coming in and they're saying, okay.

We need to diversify even more and get this money working so that we can make, you know, make our payments that they need to make. So, you know, they're coming in, you know, undercutting the market, if you will, in the sense that they'll come in at a lower capitalization rate, which is good for us, because if we're underwriting them at a, you know, five, six cap, if somebody comes in at a two and a half capitalization rate, then hello. Thank you. Next. You know what I mean?

I don't need to sit in there to to for an ego run. So, yeah, that's that's how the game's played.

Trent Werner: And when you when you guys I mean, obviously, you run you run all your underwriting. What's your projected, I guess, value at that five year mark on something like this?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. So this one, pro form a's out. So we're all in for '26. This pro form a and now depending on the cap rate and rent increases over that five year period of time, but we're probably exiting out at a 35 to 37 mil on that number. So there's a there's a nice margin in there to get things right and to also absorb things that could go wrong.

So that's that's the projection on this one.

Trent Werner: And have I know you said there was some softening in the market. We're we're feeling it here, I think, across the country's feeling it. Where have the cap rates gone from when you first got your eyes on a deal this deal to, you know, as we're talking today on 01/10/2025?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. That delta shifted. So, you know, when we first came into this thing, cap rates were, you know, retail cap rates were probably around three, three and a half. Now they're at five. So, you know, if you're still buying at a seven and your construction costs loaner cost still comes in at a seven, you know, that 2% cap rate margin is more than enough to to get you in a in a strong position.

So that's what we've seen. But, you you know, it's gonna be an interesting year. You know, new new new administration, new mindset. Let's, you know, let's see where it goes. It's you know what's crazy about this stuff?

Even at this scale, on the highest scale, in the millions of dollars, it's still the fundamentals. Buy it right. Yeah. Buy it right. You know?

So many syndicators, they're called, have been wiped out in the market because they were, you know, they were pro form a in on BS numbers. Just because you saw a 7% increase in rent last year doesn't mean you could perform around 7% for the next ten years, year after year after year, you a hole. You know, that's that's that's that's stealing. You know what I mean? And we saw we saw a ton of that when, you know, when Biden started throwing all the COVID money into the market and, you know, we thought we were gonna see a different landscape than than we saw.

You know, that just that just changes. So, you know, don't get over your skis as best you can. Don't get over your skis, but don't walk away from opportunities either just because of fear. You know, have faith in you. Have faith in your underwriting and and your and your projections are based on fundamentals.

So we can take a little you know, we started at our underwriting for our rents for this particular deal started at $14.50, I think. We've seen that rent move as much as from $14.50 to 2,100 justifiably, you know, based on market, analysis. And now we're at, like, $19.80. But it's still better than $14.50 when I started. You know what I mean?

But even if even if it softened down to $13.50, maybe it's not a three x anymore. Maybe it's only a two x. So the investor needs to make a decision. You know, if it softens to that point, am I okay doubling my money in five years? Right?

Am I okay doubling it in in, you know, seven years? So it's a case of really, really looking at that to to determine whether an investor wants to put capital into these kinds of alternative assets. It's a decision. That's all. But I tell you what, the big players are doing it every single day, day in, day out.

You know? So I've always I've always philosophized along those lines that there's no new and improved idea. There's no secret sauce. That's all that's all just marketing BS. But there is fundamentals.

You know what I mean? There there is just good solid business, and do as much of that as you can. You know, you get the results.

Trent Werner: So one question I have just more so out of curiosity because Oregon Yeah. Portland Metro specifically has some pretty strict rent control

Intro speaker: rules Yeah.

Trent Werner: Regulations and everything like that. And so what we see here is a lot of investors or property owners, whether it's a single family or, you know, multifamily property, we're just seeing max rent increases. If something is below market, we're hitting the max almost every single time because that's all we can do. And if we don't do that, then we get caught behind the eight ball because we're playing catch up until that unit finally turns over.

Dave Seymour: Yeah.

Trent Werner: In Florida, in this market that you the markets that you invest in, which are more business friendly and I guess free markets. What, what does a a rent increase cycle look like? Is it, you know, 7%? That's what we're gonna get. Is it 3%, or is it 15% on a year?

Dave Seymour: Three. No. We'll do it. We'll do a 3%. So we'll pro form a out of the 3%.

Look. Tenants expect you to raise the rent every year. Don't disappoint them. Okay? Don't let them down.

You know what I mean? This is a business. But in return for that 3% increase, you better be giving them a lifestyle that that they expect. Right? Quality of servicing, you know, repair servicing, customer servicing, you know, quality control throughout the throughout the complex.

People and as we go into the next phase, I think what we're also gonna see is, you know, discretionary spending is gonna reduce. It's still out there right now. You know, people are still eating steaks that they can't afford. But when that discretionary spending begins begins to reduce, statistically, it's shown that then, you know, shelter is always gonna be the first bill that's paid. Right?

No roof over your house over your head. Forget about it. So because it will focus in on shelter being number one, that'll be a little bit of a bump, I think, in rents because it's the old supply and demand scenarios all over again. So, you know, don't be aggressive, man. Don't be don't be stupid with the numbers.

Okay? We'll we'll also lend or raise capital for other, other GP deals that that we like. And I can't tell you how many times it goes through our underwriting process, and we look at each other and we go, scumbag. Yes. You know?

It's not gonna work. They're gonna go raise the money from somebody, but it won't be from our guys. You know what I mean? Because, you know, they're out there right now looking for fee structure rather than performance. So, you know, just just beware.

Just beware. But, yeah, we don't we don't go crazy on rent increases. We use a 3% standard ratio unless we've got data to support less or more, and then we'll plug that in. Right? Same on the expense ratio side.

So

Trent Werner: And then when it comes time for at, you know, actually doing the rent increases, are you are you telling your management company, hey. We're only raising 3%, or if if they feel like they can get 7%, are you giving them the free rein to do that?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. Great question. So we all know that turnover is the biggest expense once we're stabilized. Right? So we don't wanna lose tenants.

So, you know, if we're in a position where, you know, we have our our quarterly meeting with the with the management company and they say we're seeing, you know, aggressive rent increases in the market, you know, we think 4%, four and a half, 5% is is a fair rent raise at this time without, you know, causing disruption within the within the cash flow, then we come to to you know? Again, I'm I'm not the expert at everything. Right? I manage people. So why would I hire a professional company and then ignore their advice?

You know? Yeah. I'm gonna q and a with them. I I wanna know why you're giving me the information you're giving me and and what it's based on. But at the end of the day, if they turn around, they say, David, it's a four and a half in this market all day long, then we'll go on a four and a half.

If I say I want I wanna raise it to 5%, and they go, it's not gonna work. We're only seeing three and a quarter. We're only seeing two and a half. What am I gonna do? Right?

Put put again, my my investors' capital has to be priority. That capital for my investors, they only make their money if I'm bringing in rents on the properties. So, you know, that's that's that's the formula all the way down. Invest the capital first. Service that capital the best way we know how with the right people.

And, you know, it works.

Trent Werner: Yeah. And then I was talking to someone else the other day about this speaking of discretionary spending and it

Dave Seymour: Yeah.

Trent Werner: I mean, in our market, it seems like it is kinda slowing down a little bit just given our

Dave Seymour: Yeah.

Trent Werner: Our portfolio and things that we've seen. And housing typically should come first, but in Oregon where you have tenant favored laws, it there's Yeah. You know, we see all the time people are $1,015,000 dollars behind, and then it takes us six months to evict them. And so they feel like they're untouchable and all these things. What are what are your thoughts on the discretionary spending and what's causing people to, maybe not in your market specifically, but across the country, not prioritize their housing expense because of utilities going up, insurances going up, groceries, all these other expenses that are falling on them.

And, you know, I've seen people make decisions where they could care less about their housing expense, especially here because they know, you know, it's gonna take them six months to get us out.

Dave Seymour: Professional tenants, brother. Professional tenants. Been there, done that, climbed that mountain, got the t shirt. Look, dude. Learn the rules of the game from both sides of the equation.

Learn the rules of the game from the investor side and learn the rules of the game from the professional tenant side. Then you make a decision where you wanna invest your capital and who you wanna invest it with. I will I will not buy a multifamily, residential unit in Massachusetts. I won't buy it. Now I might train my 30 year old son to get, you know, a a three family to a two family to a single so that he can live rent free.

Simple little strategy. You're only dealing with, you know, five tenants at the end of the day. But you know, for a scalable business with investor capital, you know, having potential exposure, then I'm gonna go where it makes sense. I'm going to the Texas market, the Carolina market, the Florida markets. I'm going where, where Trump's the where Trump's the where Trump's the loves me.

You know what I mean? Rather than rather than where he doesn't. That's that's all the politics will do today. Let's just use that common sense, though.

Trent Werner: And then when it comes to investing out of state, I know you said you have boots on the ground in in Florida, but if you're gonna go to a different market, maybe you don't have boots on the ground. Are you still seriously considering investing in those markets?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. I am. But here's here's the the advantage that I personally might have over somebody else is due to the the years that we did on the, the TV show, that's attracted a lot of attention. Right? So I I know that I could pick up the phone and call a decent, solid investor who can give me guidance, relationships in pretty much any market that I wanted to invest in.

Right? So that's one advantage that I have. But the other thing is is I might go in and co GP in a market just to test the waters and see what's going on and how it's operated. So I might I might look at that strategy as well. You know, it's not easy, you know, property management, construction management, good systems.

That's that's what's going to save your ass at the end of the day.

Trent Werner: Well, Dave, I appreciate you sharing your insights and your experiences with us. Is there anywhere that people can connect with you more after the show?

Dave Seymour: Yeah. I'm, I'm old school. We've got a phone. It actually rings and somebody will answer it. God will.

It's (781) 922-4418. We are raising on a couple of deals right now. So if you're an accredited investor and you wanna look at some opportunities with us, more than happy to have a conversation with you. You can find me on LinkedIn, or you can go to, info, I n f o, at freedomventure.com, freedom venture Com. Or just hit us up on the website, www.freedomventure.com.

You'll find me. You'll find me. I'm out there.

Trent Werner: You're recognizable enough. Google Google likes you guys enough. They'll they'll pop you up.

Dave Seymour: There you go. There you go. Google. GTS. Google that stuff, man.

You'll find me.

Trent Werner: Well, Dave, thank you so much for joining us today.

Dave Seymour: Alright, brother. God bless. I appreciate you.

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