The Wisconsin Investor
Each week, we bring you interviews with some of Wisconsin's top real estate investors who share their tips, tricks, and strategies that you can implement right away. This show is dedicated to helping Wisconsin real estate investors elevate their game. Along with interviews, I'll also dive into hot topics in solo episodes and feature experts from various real estate sectors across Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Investor
From Dental Supplies to Real Estate Success: Tristan Laporte's Journey To Self Employment
What happens when a dental supplies salesperson swaps drills for deeds and becomes a successful real estate investor? Join me, Corey Reyment, alongside my good friend Tristan Laporte, or TLP as he's affectionately known, as we explore his fascinating journey from corporate life to real estate triumph. Tristan describes his pursuit of balance and fulfillment over sheer volume.
Tristan's story unfolds with his transition from a stable W2 job to the often unpredictable world of real estate entrepreneurship. We talk about the vital mindset shifts required to embrace uncertainty, the importance of meticulous financial planning, and the art of managing cash flow. Through practical tips and personal anecdotes, Tristan shares how setting clear strategies and maintaining organization can steer you through the turbulent seas of entrepreneurship. His journey underscores the idea that success is not just about numbers but aligning professional goals with personal values.
But the conversation doesn't stop at business strategies. We venture into the heart of Wisconsin's cultural tapestry, discussing how its traditions, like the beloved fish fry, can captivate out-of-state investors. Tristan's passion for construction and remodeling shines, offering listeners a glimpse into his future aspirations. As we wrap up, Tristan extends an open invitation to connect and learn from his experiences, emphasizing his genuine enthusiasm for sharing knowledge and fostering community connections.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Wisconsin Investor. I am your host, corey Raymond, and I am here today with my good buddy, tristan Laporte, otherwise affectionately known as TLP. Tlp, what's up today, baby, I'm great man. How are you doing, corey? I'm doing good man. I'm doing good, tristan, and I just got back from doing a little missions trip in Mexico. We built a house down there for a family in a day and a half. So, tristan, that was your first experience, putting those rough ball hands together and doing something for somebody else without an expectation of a return. What was your experience like on this missions trip?
Speaker 2:It was a phenomenal one. I really enjoyed it. There was times where I was building the roof and talking to Maycool down there, I was like I would I might come down here for a year at some point and just do it full time, cause I was talking with him and he's like I do, I'm not worried about the money, I just I just do it for fun on the side for weekends and he builds like 50 to 70 homes for people a year and I thought that was an amazing thing. It was very fulfilling. Yeah, um for sure thing to do to watch them, especially go from you know, scrap metal tin roof house, yeah, to four walls, a roof and a locking front door. Yeah, you know things that we take for granted every day. For sure. It really puts things in perspective, I think. I know that sounds cliche, but it really does and what tristan and I are talking about.
Speaker 1:there's an organization called why? Wham Youth with a Mission, and they have a program called Homes for Hope, and so they go around and they select, through an extensive process, deserving families in Mexico and all around the world actually, who are living in poverty conditions and just need a safe, secure house and that sort of thing. And so we took a group of 25 of us down there and built this house in a day and a half and and uh, as Tristan said, it allows us to think about. When we're sitting here talking about how our assets are doing and how much our wealth is building and all this other kind of cool stuff, which is fun, it's great, but it's it's really humbling to go down there and just you know our problems are things they haven't even had time to think about yet in their life. So let's get into talking about some wealth building and some other fun money stuff and, away from the mission stuff.
Speaker 1:Talk to me a little bit, tristan. How did you get into real estate? I know the story. I want the audience to hear a little bit from you. How did you get into this fun world of real estate investing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so straight out of college I got a sales job selling dental supplies to dental offices. So 2019, I started. I was like cold calling around and trying to earn people's business. You know most of the grindstone earning people's, earning Dentist's business to sell them like floss and toothbrushes and stuff like this stuff that I'm super excited about right very exciting things, yeah and um.
Speaker 2:It just got to a point where I I needed I needed to find a different route, because this waking up at 8, am going to work for eight hours and coming back it was. It was draining, and I think a lot of people feel that same way. Um and I. I just needed to find a way. So I bought my first duplex um on the MLS in 2019,.
Speaker 2:I think so I was working there for about a year or so. Um and I, on paper, I rent, I did I house hacked it, so I rent out. I rented out the one side and then the other side actually sat vacant for a little bit because I was still living with a roommate at the time on the lease. Looking back, I probably could have rented it out, but hindsight's point 20. So I did that for a position at your company, yep, and I ended up buying it from one of your previous employees, zach, and then so I moved in that, lived in for that for a little bit and then turned that into a rental. And then I bought this house through you, remodeled it and that was my first experience with a contractor, which was a massive learning experience. And then from there it snowballed into 12 units and a couple of flips under my belt and where we're at today. And yeah, I don't and yeah, I went to go out on my own about just over a year ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you're a little over a year and a half out now or not not quite a year and a half, but we're getting there somewhere close to that, yeah. So one of the reasons, tristan, I thought this would be interesting for our audience to listen to is, you know, we have several people we know that are in this industry, and you know a lot of these people as well. You know they're building massive portfolios that are super impressive and they're uh, we've got other guys that are flipping 50, 60 properties a year and they're I mean, they're they're killing it, right. Uh, what I thought was really interesting is you worked for us for what? Three years, was it something like that? Yeah, three years.
Speaker 1:And then you had your demo city thing or your you know company before that that you work for, or however many years, and you built you know a little respectable little portfolio on the side while you were working for us and and previously, and then you went out on your own, and what I think is really cool is like I in some ways envy what you're doing, because you, you know you're not trying to. At least from what I can see, it doesn't look like you're trying to build this massive company. Here it looks like you're basically, you know, trying to build a nice lifestyle for yourself, and I think there's like you're a little bit of a different avatar than some that I interview, in the sense that you're you're looking at things a little differently. So what's your perspective on? You know where you're at today in the business and where you're headed?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, and that's definitely changed, um, since I started, cause it started at my whole. It started, I remember. I remember being on the zoom call with Tony and being like he's like, what's your goals, what do you want to do? And I told Tony, I'm like I need 10 grand in cash flow a month, or a hundred doors, whichever comes first. And now I know those are completely different. But that was my goal starting off and it, it.
Speaker 2:And then finally it got to a point with when I was working on that six unit, where it was like I'm spending more, I'm, I'm putting I'm, it's so much more fulfilling to work on my own stuff for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, then it is, and no offense to you, corey, but it's, it's so much more to do that for me than to go in and work, you know, 40 hours a week for building somebody else's lifestyle and then, on top of that, come home and not have the energy or the time or whatever excuse I'm going to make to uh, put into my own life. You know, um, whatever excuse I'm going to make to put into my own life, you know. And so it started off as that and then it molded and then, as soon as I left I was, I had this massive fire. I'm like I'm going to go, I'm going to go, I'm going to go, and then I, and then now it's really transitioned into you know, I have all this, I have this freedom. Oh, I can. I can have the slow mornings if I want, and I really value that. And it got to a point where, you know, as long as I can provide for the ones that I love and do jujitsu and do that, I'm good, Like that's.
Speaker 2:That's really my perspective on that and because I really value the like presence with myself and other other people that I'm around. Yeah, and looking back, I noticed that it was difficult for me to be present doing that you were trying to do too much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, trying to do too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:For sure, 100%. I can totally relate because now that our business is I think we have 15 employees at the current time that we're recording this and there's a lot of pressure on doing that, like we have to do a certain amount of volume in revenue every single year to cover all of the expenses and the overhead, and there's a lot of pressure for me as the owner to realize like, hey, I have families who are depending on this company now to provide for their families, right and so it's like this constant, like we have to keep going and we have to grow and we have to do all these things in order to provide those folks the lifestyle that they want to be able to live within the structure of our company.
Speaker 1:Right, what I love about you is, like you know, you're a single guy. No kids that you're aware of, I think, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no kids.
Speaker 1:No, nobody's creeped on you on Facebook saying hey dad.
Speaker 2:No, not yet.
Speaker 1:This thing's going out the rails quick anyway. But I think what's what's cool about that is, like you're, you're wise ahead of time because that, like now that I have kids too and all that stuff, now I have to provide for them and I have to grow a certain. We have a certain lifestyle that we've gone to like, we've grown into this much bigger lifestyle than we had before, and now we have to, we have to sustain that, and so there's a lot more pressure on us and I think you at a young age here, realizing like time and and peace of mind to you is more important than building some massive company is what I'm hearing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I would, I would, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's super cool. What are some of the things? So, when you left and went out on your own, what are some of the mistakes you made, tristan, or things that you wish you would have maybe planned for ahead of time that now, knowing what you know now what you would have done differently um, that's a great question.
Speaker 2:um, looking back, I think, uh, I think I would have done a better job. Accounting and number, like keeping track of numbers. Yeah, I started off really strong and like everything went into Excel, excel spreadsheet and um it. You know, I had money for taxes and all that stuff and then, and then, as time went on, I got more, I got lackadaisical, as my dad, as my dad would call it, and I kind of got away from that.
Speaker 2:So that would be one of the things um that, um, honestly, there's a lot of things that honestly there's a lot of things I don't know if I would have done anything different, because I feel like I needed to mess up, like I needed to do those things to learn, to learn that it's not, it's going to be okay. It was that, I think, one of the things that I. Another thing that I could have done maybe a little bit better is where I could have moved faster is if I was more comfortable, um, moving forward with the presence of uncertainty.
Speaker 1:Okay if that makes sense, explain that a little bit. Explain that a little bit, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, like, uh, what? So, like, the one of the first projects I had was flipping that house in Brilliant, okay, and it was, you know, my first experience like doing a full flip, because we put down the studs, we put 60 grand into it, okay. But I have a tendency. I personally have a tendency to, when things get complicated or messy or I'm uncertain about some things, I tend to procrastinate a little bit. So one of the things that I would have done, I guess, better or different, is just keep moving forward and figure things out and not let those small mountains stop me. Yeah, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:For sure, totally Go back to the accounting thing that you talked about, because I think this is really important for people, the audience that's out there listening. If you're working at W2 right now and you're like man, I would love to be interested in shoes and just have my coffee in the morning and just chill, and then when I get there I get their kind of lifestyle. I think that's a really important piece, like when we, when we were looking to quit and go W2, that was something one of our mentors at the time told us was like you make sure you have a bookkeeper and we're like a bookkeeper we don't even have enough to bookkeep for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but, he's like but you will, and so you need to hire that bookkeeper now for the person you're going to be in six months or a year, and I'm like, yeah, that's like okay. Whatever you say, sir, I don't believe it. Okay, what did you? When you go back to the accounting thing like now you're saying you got lackadaisical, is it just like on running your numbers up front? Is it keeping track of expenses and income? Is it setting aside money for taxes? What, what are? Can you expand a little?
Speaker 2:bit. It's a little. It's a little bit of all of that Um, because I had no-transcript, I ended up having to um, put, uh, I'd like pull money off like a debit card and stuff. So it intermingled my business expenses and my personal expenses and and I know that's a bad thing, I know that's not a good thing to do, but it was the reality of the situation and I had to do that to move forward. But that's what I mean by that. Oh, okay, got it Okay.
Speaker 1:So it was just more like planning cashflow wise of like.
Speaker 2:More like planning and understanding is do I need to use the line of credit with this, or do I use the credit card, or am I? Am I good to pay with this? It's more of like the the chess game, as with all the money pieces and the tools is what I'm, is what I'm getting. I got you, yeah no, totally understand that.
Speaker 1:That's. That's a big part of this, and I think what's what's kind of fun is. As you go along in the game, you start to gain more chess pieces to play with. But also it can compute. It can complicate things if you're not yeah, again for sure, like I have.
Speaker 1:We have several lines of credit on a lot of our, our rentals and I have a spreadsheet that I I keep track of like because we do private money lending. Now with some of the we like arbitrage the lines of credit, we'll go hard money, lend some of that out and then we we purchase some properties for flips, whatever. So if I don't keep track of like where that money is, I'm like, oh man, where did I borrow that money from to pay for this? And like it just gets. It gets very messy and lost and we have bookkeepers and I still Still get lost.
Speaker 1:I still get lost in, like cause I still have to tell them what to put in the books.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, so there's. So there's still a level of that. You need to be accountable to yourself.
Speaker 1:100 with with the bookkeeper yeah yeah, one of the things with the bookkeeper is that is frustrating is I wish they could just go in my brain and understand where I'm spending money and I didn't have to tell them I could just spend yeah, like oh yeah, cory was spending over here at this home depot or whatever, and this is what project it was for, like, yeah, I'm sure there's so much. I'm sure there's a better system than what we're doing now, but it's working now.
Speaker 2:I just there's always a better system, yeah I've got it.
Speaker 1:I've had to just train myself over the years. Like anytime I spend money for the business I have to send, I send an email to my bookkeeper and I'm like this is what it's for and then it's just automatic.
Speaker 1:Now, though, yeah and they ask if, at the end of the month, they'll go through the books and if they see something that I didn't like, I missed or whatever they'll. They have like a little system that it's called uncat. It's a website where they just put the transactions out that they have questions on and then I go in there and just type like this so it was for this, what property blah, blah, blah. Keeping is a big, a big thing. What I want to go to your mindset when you were looking to leave and go on your own, what was your process for that Like? Did you have any process? Was it like, hey, I'm going to make sure I have X amount saved up or I have this type of project going on before I can go out on my own? Or was it just kind of like I'm just going to go and figure this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and honestly, I don't think you've ever actually heard this story, because you were a little away from everything, right when you left. Yeah, yeah, yeah and I and okay. So what happened was I was, I was in the middle of working on that six unit. We were, we were remodeling it right?
Speaker 1:okay, can you tell the audience real quick, because they don't know what six. I know what 16 you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, so I purchased this uh six, this six unit apartment complex downtown green Bay. It's like it's like a block, a couple of blocks North of one of the hospitals down there. So my plan with it was we were going to midterm. We're going to turn all six units into midterm rentals. So we so. When we submitted the documents for the construction loan application, they used the income off all six units to determine the after repair value of it. So that shot my ARV way up and I was able to get like a $200,000 rehab loan for it. So I think all in on this six unit, I'm like $598,000 at this time. Okay, but the only remodels I have under my belt at this time is I did a flip on Farland and I put like five grand of exterior paint into it and that was it. That was it.
Speaker 1:Before you jumped into this $200,000.
Speaker 2:Before I jumped into this yeah, so it was like leap of faith. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. That's great Sink or swim baby.
Speaker 2:Sink or swim Right, I'm not going to die. It's not going to kill me, so I do think I'm more risk tolerant than most people, though. Yeah, in a way, yeah, but anyways. So that's what that was. I was in the middle of working on that and and you were doing a lot of the work yourself.
Speaker 2:Yes and no. Okay, we were like some interior stuff, like building the cabinets and countertops and general, like carpentry stuff yeah, I was doing it, I had some help with my dad, but like more artistic stuff like paint and, um, other things like plumbing, and we had to replace a boiler stuff like that I'm obviously hiring out, for sure, um, and, and that may help me get super, uh, more well-versed in dealing with contractors, okay, um, but anyways, I'm five days working on that and then I took Saturday. So I remember, I remember this so vividly. I took a Saturday and a Sunday and I worked all day. I worked eight hours for you, and then I went to the six unit and worked like nine or 10 hours on the six unit on the on Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, and then I went to the six unit and worked like nine or 10 hours on the six unit on Saturday and Sunday, and then I remember walking into the office and sitting down at my desk and looking around and just being like what am I doing here? Why am I here?
Speaker 2:And it was that day that I was. I don't remember. Yeah, it was that day. I put like a plan together. I put like a whole exit strategy together. Let me check real quick because I might still. It was that day. I put like a plan together. I put like a whole exit strategy together. Let me check real quick because I might still have it on my phone. Because this was like this is a big thing in my head, I do, yeah. So I went through and I organized my thoughts in my head as to what I needed to do. To feel comfortable leaving Okay and I'll just go down. To feel comfortable leaving Okay and I'll just go down, if that's okay, no, that's great.
Speaker 2:So one of the ones I put on there was like an accounting audit, Like I need to know where my money's at, what's coming in, what's going out, how I'm going to do this. So there was that I needed like a final. I needed to know what my break even number was. I needed to know what I need to make each month to stay afloat.
Speaker 1:Yep, your burn rate. We call it.
Speaker 2:My burn rate Yep, yep. I put down defined infrastructure needed. So in my mind this was going to be like a business business and we were going to have a CRM, accounting and stuff like that and QuickBooks and everything. I wanted to define my ideal day, month, year. I wanted to like fully plan out everything.
Speaker 2:Um, I wanted to organize my crm because we were using podio at the time and I had I had my own little workshop in podio of everything. Yeah, um, I needed to clarify items with my dad. So my dad started off as like basically a 1099 employee or contractor with me. So I needed to clarify like hey, are we doing this together or am I doing this with your business? Are you, are we separate? Like how are we doing that? That's really good to do, that, that's really good. And then I wanted to come up with like rules to live by and like core values. And then there was like some exercise I think it was either you or I talked to Zach about it and it was like pick 20, pick 10, pick five. And it was like go down to get your core values. So I wanted to have a really good understanding of what I wanted my life to look like post leaving, because that's the whole reason I'm doing this in the first place was to leave.
Speaker 2:So I did that had that whole plan, I'm like, and I set my end date july or august okay like, okay, I'm gonna leave next march and so that gives me like six months I can build a good base. I'll leave. I will leave on the day I close on a flip. I will, that'll be my last day. I'll close on the next day and get to work on the flip and it will off the races. Well, october comes and I end up. It was like it's like all the puzzle pieces just like fell into place. Yeah, is that? Triplex came available, like the other company had it under contract and then didn't, so I was gonna buy it at this higher price. The contract got lost and then they then somebody else got it under contract okay, for a lower price.
Speaker 2:And then tried then somebody else got it under contract for a lower price and then tried wholesaling. So I got it at the lower price, nice, and I'm like. You know what this is. This is it, we're doing it. So, instead of the one in March, I ended up doing the triplex in.
Speaker 1:October. Okay, awesome dude, well, yeah, well, hopefully none of my employees listen to this episode, so I'm going to tell them all, just just. They don't want to say you don't want to listen to what TLPS is saying, anyway you won't publish this yeah. We're not publishing this. Yeah yeah, tristan will be out. Oh, I don't know what happened to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, weird muscle, weird no but I think what you got it? You put a, you put together some thought behind it. I didn't just jump, I thought about it a lot. But when, after I had those thoughts to paper and I had a at least some framework of a plan, that's when I jumped. Yes, I saw an opportunity, I took it and we're here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's really good, and I think I think understanding the lifestyle you wanted to live to as'm. As I'm sitting here unpacking everything you've been saying, I think that to me seems like the key to what you did, because that dictates how many properties you're buying. That dictates how many flips you're doing at one time. That dictates, like, how much you're you're going to spend on it, versus hiring things out, like it dictates everything. Is this like kind of set of rules? It sounds like that you created for yourself as far as, like how you want to live, cause that's the most important thing. It sounds like to me, when you decided to go on your own, it was more for you about, like the lifestyle of what you want your day to day to look like. Yeah, I think that's really smart you know you're relatively young guy and to be able to be you know, sort of awakened and aware at this age, versus just being, you know, unhappy every day, punching the clock.
Speaker 1:You know as much as I I would have loved to keep you. Uh, you know there's a there's a shelf life to to what you were doing and, uh, I think, I think you putting the plan together was was a really, really smart thing, and I love that you incorporated like core values and stuff into it. I think for somebody that's going out on their own, that's not usually one of the things they're sitting thinking about is what are the core values? What's the lifestyle I want to look at. A lot of times, even when I'm coaching people, I'm like well, how many units do you want, how much cashflow do you want? That's all numbers.
Speaker 2:Well, I wrote it down, it doesn't necessarily mean I did it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean, you at least set an intention, and I think to you, though, what it sounds like, tristan, is, most of yours was based around lifestyle and not necessarily like, yeah, I want a hundred units and I want $10,000. Like, I think, you what I'm hearing is you put that down because you thought you had to in some, some sense, like something you've learned maybe from all of our conversations or other conversations. Like you have to have a number goal and unit goal, and all these kinds of things, and what really boiled down is for you, it's more so about the lifestyle.
Speaker 2:It was, it was and I think I don't think that detracts or takes away from the numbers thing, because I think that's super important Like, if you don't have an end goal or something to work towards, you're just kind of moving through this void of trying to figure things out, like I had that end goal, I know where I wanted to go, and then I, along the way, I like readjusted the flight path as to oh no, I guess we're going to come over here a little bit, and did that.
Speaker 1:And that's, I think, really important too for the, for the audience. If you, if you set a goal, you don't have to be so rigid if you get into it and something changes in your life. Life happens all the time. People are always adjusting and changing and you're off a little bit over in one direction, okay, let's adjust and move this direction a little bit and pick a different destination. We're still going the same. We're on the same hemisphere. We're just going to change the city. We're landing in Right A little bit kind of a situation. So I think that's important for the audience. You know, like carrie and I, in this business we have changed so much like we go to. You know that's being a company.
Speaker 1:One minute we're like, hey, we're doing this and then like three months later we're like actually, guys, we're like yeah sorry for the last one.
Speaker 1:We think this one's where we really want to go, but it's taking in data, it's analyzing, it's readjusting, it's asking ourselves questions like is this really what we want? Is this really important to us as we're getting into it, and then it's like no, not really like I like this piece, but I don't like that piece. Let's let's focus over here on more of this and less of that. And you know, it sounds like you've kind of done the same thing here with, like, I want a, a hundred units. And now it's really like, sounds like for you it's like man, if I can cover my burn rate, have some extra cash, be able to still buy some properties, I'm cool, right, exactly, yeah, no, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1:Talk about the. I want to go back real quick and we'll we'll start to wrap here. I want to talk about that a six unit Cause I think that's a really cool thing. Like so you got this higher ARV with it front based off of the income approach, of what it was going to do. But now it sounds like you've you maybe shifted a little bit with your strategy, with the talk about where it's currently at, and for better or worse.
Speaker 2:So I bought it with the intention of making all of the units, uh, short-term and mid-term rentals, because that's what we run the numbers off, right and as so. And then, when we got into the actual construction process, I'm like I need to cover my. I had an added 12 months interest only loan, okay, but I need a way to cover this for the first 12 months, yeah, so we, I split it up into two phases, okay, um, to give you a breakdown of the unit mix, there was a three bed, two, two beds okay, and then three one bed rooms, okay, so I got lucky. And the three I. When I walked in there, the three bed had some fire damage in it and it was already fully remodeled, oh nice, so I got lucky with that. Yeah, um, so we immediately rented that one out long term, long term, okay. And then I, and then, while the one bed, the one beds sat, there was still tenants in there and we I had my management company remodel the, the two, two beds okay, and we didn't fully, we didn't fully take them to what the, what they needed to be to be midterm rentals, okay, um, in hindsight I don't remember why I made that decision, um, but it ended up working out for the best. So we so.
Speaker 2:Then so, the, the three, the three bed, the two bed, the two bed those are covering. Those were covering my interest only payments for the first, like six months or however long before we were able to get to the one beds. Okay Then. So while those are rented out, I remodeled the one beds and did those. You know, 10 out of 10, super upscale, good fixtures, butcher block countertops and all that stuff. Nice, and those are my best performing units those one beds in a six bedroom apartment, like in a six unit apartment complex. They brought in 50% of the gross revenue of my nine other long-term units. Wow, that's amazing, dude. That was a good decision. And then I was talking to my management company about because I'm seeing all this cash flow. I'm like I want more of this right.
Speaker 2:So we talked about maybe moving the three bed, the two bed and the two bed and like up in the fixtures and turning them into midterm rentals as well. But in our conversations we discovered that you know, the two beds and the three beds aren't necessary unless, unless they're like a house, right, they weren't as desirable as the one beds were because you're getting like traveling nurses and contractors and, um, and if they're, if they're traveling with a family, it's typically only like a couple and they only need like one bed typically. So for me to put this extra money into these, all this extra money into these units to get them up where they need to be, wasn't necessarily like the juice, wasn't necessarily worth the squeeze to do that. So it's really cool because I get good cash flow on half of it and it diversifies the whole building. So I get good cash flow on some of it and then I get the what's the word stable, the stable I get the stability of the long-term units so it's the best of both worlds type thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's awesome man like I. I know for a while when, during covid, this was starting to pick up steam. What you're doing now is like some people I know started like taking.
Speaker 1:They have like 16 units and they take like one or two of them and they turn it into like a short-term rental or a midterm rental and just juice up the NOI and the value of that property by doing that. And it's again, it's a little risky because you don't know if that's going to be there forever or whatever, but worst case, you just turn it into a really nice long-term unit and hopefully you covered enough to cover your furniture and the other stuff you had to put in there. And something I've toyed with myself but I have never done it. I think what you did right from the jump having that plan right away was was a pretty smart thing to do and and think about juicing it. So so now it's, it's a great asset for you. Is it pretty stable overall now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, surprisingly so. I I felt the same thing Like at the beginning. I was hearing oh, airbnb is not going to be around for much longer. It's yada, yada, yada and it honestly scared me. It scared, it was a lot of fear in me with that, but I kept moving forward. Yeah, um, but no, that unit has been. Even with them being midterms, they've been full. I've had like 98 percent occupancy, like it's they've been full. I have not had a vacancy for more than a week or two since they started managing it.
Speaker 1:Wow, and who is managing it for you? Do you have a third-party manager or do you do the-.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not a manager, I'm not going to do a good enough job, I'm not going to get good enough rents and I don't want to deal with the headaches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, want to deal with the headaches, but it was actually kind of interesting how I worked out the management thing on that, because my long-term management company won't do midterm I guess I haven't talked to them about it but Tyler and Nicole, they do doorway travel and so they actually manage my midterms on that, and then Main Street manages my long-term rentals. So they're kind of working together on the same property and it was kind of this weird thing like hey, who's doing the lawn? Are you doing it or am I doing it? And it was yeah, back.
Speaker 1:And how did you guys figure that out? Like was just a conversation with all three parties involved honestly, yeah, it kind of was and I was.
Speaker 2:I was mostly left out of it because the one I think somebody would know it was I don't remember if it was main street or doorway that noticed it. But one of the one of them was like, hey, we got to figure this out, what's their number? And and so they actually took it upon themselves to figure it out. Yeah, and I really appreciated that because it was I. I'm a guy who's like I don't want headaches, and they took the headache away, so that's awesome.
Speaker 1:One of the reasons I love doing this podcast. I tell every guest this. I feel like, but is I learned something every single time on here? And so like, as you just said that, I'm like gosh, I have over a hundred units now and some of these are apartment complexes, and I've always struggled with that, like how do you just take, take one away from your long-term manager and turn it? But it's just, it's as easy as getting them in a conversation together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, picking up the phone. Talk to people, like you always say, oh man.
Speaker 1:Now I'm like gosh, how many of the units should I turn into short-term, mid-term rentals? Hey, man, don't saturate my market, I'll make sure they're in a city away from you. That's great. I love it, man, just going forward, forward. What does the future look like for you, now that you're out on your own and and you're doing your own things? All the lessons you've learned over the last couple years, what, what is? What is this next 12 months and three months look like for you, or three years look like for you that's a good question.
Speaker 2:I've I've honestly been wrestling with that for probably the last like six months. It's, it's, it's, it's. I know I want to keep the lifestyle, um, but I'm discovering I, I I really like working with my hands and I like the construction aspect of everything. Like I've built every remodel I've done. I've built the kitchen I love building kitchens for whatever reason putting the cabinets in, setting the countertops and doing all that. It's so fulfilling. And so part of me wants to move to like general contractor, because I have my license and everything and I enjoy doing it. And so I don't know if I want to move into the general contracting space or keep flipping houses for myself. And it's kind of like this. I'm in that weird limbo right now. What I need to do is sit down and fill out an exit strategy. It's what I need to do, but it's between that. But as long as I can pay my bills and do jiu-jitsu, I'll be happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, the cool thing is, you're gaining valuable skills and things that you enjoy doing, right so? It sounds like you're in a good spot where, whichever direction you go, you're going to still enjoy it Absolutely. That's the most important thing, right? If? You start to hate it, then why do it Exactly? It's too short, right? That's awesome, All right. Last question for you, TLP.
Speaker 2:What's your favorite Wisconsin tradition or place to visit?
Speaker 1:Place to visit or Wisconsin, or Wisconsin. Is it one question, or is it? You can answer two. If you have two, I'll take two, if you just have one, it's a good question, I think.
Speaker 2:Favorite Wisconsin tradition, I think, is fish fry. Oh yeah, I like. I like a good fish fry. We, my parents, owned a bar growing up and dad made uh, the best, he had, the best fish fry. It was so good. People come forever from from everywhere Nice.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, so you grew up in the, you grew up in the Wisconsin tradition.
Speaker 2:I grew up in the and uh, yeah, let's go get fish fry on fridays and go to supper club, and yeah, old fashions, and oh yeah yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:One of the one of my goals of this podcast is to get it out to people outside of wisconsin and have them invest in wisconsin right, because we have a great state. It's kind of under the radar for outside investors. You know california people who have prices through the roof and need a place to park some cash and get some returns, like I think w Wisconsin is great, but a lot of people don't. You know. They don't know about these Wisconsin traditions. Small thing, yeah. Even a Wisconsin old fashioned is completely different than old fashions in 49 other States.
Speaker 2:You ever, you ever go out of Wisconsin and try to order an old pack A hundred percent dude.
Speaker 1:I got one in Austin, texas, when I first started traveling a little bit. I was very sheltered growing up as far as travel goes and I got one and I I almost just spit it out Cause I was like this is like pure gasoline, this isn't it. This is not sweet Like I'm expecting what is happening here, right Good. So I learned quickly that Wisconsin has a tradition with their old fashions, and it's not the same in most other States. So it's always fun bringing people from out of state to Wisconsin and then bringing them to a fish fry and doing an old fashioned and getting them ingrained in the culture a little bit. So I love it. I love it, man. Well, tristan, it's been awesome, dude.
Speaker 1:I think, uh, I think there's a lot of nuggets people out there can take from this, whether they're experienced like me and I just took away a great nugget about maybe diversifying some of my long-term rentals into some midterms or somebody out there who's you know, wanting to get started or is already investing and is thinking of going out on their own. I think there's a lot there to glean from what. What you had to say today, dude.
Speaker 1:So I appreciate your time and you hopping on here and and providing some value to the audience, dude.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. I had a. This was a fun experience, I love it.
Speaker 1:It was fun. Man. If anybody wants to get in touch with you, do you have a certain place? You want to put them Reach out on Facebook email. That's a good question.
Speaker 2:I wasn't prepared for that. I have a business email. It's tristan at bluefoyerrealestatecom and that's B-L-U-E-F-O-Y-E-R.
Speaker 1:Foyer Real Estate. It's B-L-U-E-F-O-Y-E-R For a year. Fancy, very fancy.
Speaker 2:I like that.
Speaker 1:All right, awesome. And if you're out there and you are one of those folks who's wanting some assistance in getting started here in Wisconsin, or if you are just looking at getting started in real estate, you don't know how to even make that first step into the game, we would love to have a conversation with you and try to help you out. So just go to wisconsindiscountpropertiescom, put your information in there, and either myself, reese or Connor or somebody else from our team we'll reach out to you and have a conversation with you to try to help you get going here in the great Badger state. So thanks for tuning in, guys. We'll see you on the next episode.
