Real Estate Investing Across the Pond
On this episode of Next Level American Dream, Abigail and Sean are joined by Suzy Sevier and Michael Barnhart. Suzy and Michael both have a broad background from teaching to the military, are currently living in London, and have a virtual real estate investing business. Today, they share how they found and got into real estate and what it is like doing real estate virtually.
Key Topics
How they got started in RE
Their career plans before and after RE
Their journey thus far as RE Investors
Connect with Suzy Sevier & Michael Barnhart:
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Multifamily, deals, business, Michael, aligned, properties, investing, long, people, real estate, guess, started, big, network, American Dream, team, calls, book, real estate investing, year
SPEAKERS
Suzy Sevier, Sean Thomson, Abigail Thomson, Michael Barnhart
Abigail Thomson 00:01
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast brought to you by Thomson Multifamily Group. Your hosts, Abigail and Sean, will discuss how you can take your American Dream to the next level through real estate investing, business practices, and personal development. Join us as we share our experiences as a father-daughter duo who are trying to accomplish our goal of financial freedom. We hope you learn more about how to define and achieve your American Dream. Here's another episode of Next Level American Dream. Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. We have incredible guests for you today, but first, please make sure you have subscribed if you haven't already. We also love getting your feedback through likes, comments, ratings, and reviews. Today, Sean has a conversation with Suzy Sevier and Michael Barnhart. Suzy and Michael both have a wide background from teaching to military, are currently living in London, and have a virtual real estate investing business. Today, they share with us how they found and got into real estate and what it looks like for them doing real estate virtually. If you found any value from today's episode, then please share it with a friend and help us grow. For more information on our sponsor, visit: www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com to start taking your American Dream to the next level through passive investing.
Sean Thomson 01:19
Hi, Suzy and Michael, thanks for coming on the show. Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast.
Michael Barnhart 01:23
Thanks, Sean. Really excited to be here!
Sean Thomson 01:25
Good! Well, let's get started with just sort of kind of where you guys have come from a little bit of your background, if you don't mind, just kind of lay the foundation for where you guys came from.
Suzy Sevier 01:37
Yeah, absolutely. So just for the listeners, Michael and I are in Cambridge, England. So to go before we got here, uh, Michael and I were living in Colorado, I had recently gotten my MBA at the University of Denver. And Michael was a professor at the Air Force Academy, which segues us here to Cambridge, England. And so right now I am a program manager for a biotech company over here. And then Michael is getting his PhD at the University of Cambridge. And then once he completes that, we will actually move back to Colorado Springs, and he will finish out his career in the Air Force at the Air Force Academy.
Sean Thomson 02:16
So you're going to be a professor at the Academy, right? How much longer does that will that be once you get back here?
Michael Barnhart 02:24
Let's get back to Colorado Springs, oh, I owe like four years to teach. And so that'll be basically that they'll take me to almost the end of my military career, and I'll probably stay for a little bit longer and then finish it. I only have like seven years left in my military career, and then I can retire and go real estate full time as a plan. And so Suzy's, actually, you know, leaving her w2 and going full time real estate here in August.
Sean Thomson 02:48
So you guys, the plan is you guys have these, I mean, kind of have a cool set up right now what you guys have going on. And the plan is to transition both you guys out of that into a real estate business. Let's talk about your real estate business. So you guys, what, what kind of got you down the real estate path? You guys. I guess your background really isn't real estate from the past. But what got you started into real estate?
Suzy Sevier 03:10
Yeah, I know. That's a great question. So actually, what got us started in real estate was like COVID-19 in the lockdown. So for the first one over here, we had no idea how long it was going to last. And so Michael, and I don't have a TV. And so we just said to each other, what are we going to do. And with that we started a mini book club with each other. And one of the books that we read was multiple streams of income by Robert Allen and a couple chapters in it talks about real estate investing. And Michael had just looked at me and he's like, let's do it. And I said, Yes. And so from there, we found out that so much of the real estate world had gone virtual. So we knew that right now or during that time, that was our opportunity, because we didn't know how long virtual would last but we did know that we need to take advantage of it immediately and ride it out for as long as it was going to last.
Sean Thomson 04:05
And you guys so you guys went straight into multifamily. Most people transition or when they started a real estate, they start with single family residential acquisitions and fix and flips and things like that, but you guys went straight into multifamily? Is that what you did?
Michael Barnhart 04:18
So we accelerated through single family really quick and I'll explain how that happened. So at first, you know, our thought was, well, you know, it's just Susie Nye. And so we can take down a single family home, we could, you know, our whole plan was to use the birth strategy which is buy rehab rent, refinance and repeat basically it's an it's a way to purchase homes are undervalued, add value to them, and then refinance them and get your money back out. Then you have a cash flowing rental property. So we're like well, we can definitely do that. So we actually ended up setting up a long distance team and Midwest city, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And what happened was as we are starting to acquire property, it's actually a two properties under contract and an inland herd came through, we took out like 60% of the trees in the city without power for weeks. Needless to say, like all the contractors are no longer interested in renovating single family homes, for real estate investors, they're more concerned with rebuilding the city. And so our whole plan was kind of shot in the water, if you will, and we ended up doing was taking a step back and say, Well, our strategy and Cedar Rapids is not going to work out because it's going to take about it. I know, another year or so for the city to come back to fully operating. We didn't want to wait that long to start investing in Cedar Rapids. And so what we did it took a step back, looked at our five year goal, our five year goal is to get into multifamily. And so what we did was just pivot. So most people would stop and wait. But we just took a hard right into multifamily. And so we joined as many networking calls as possible. Because everything was on our system. Everything was virtual online. And so we joined as many networking calls as possible, we start meeting people and getting on the phone with them and learning more about the industry. Because networking is the lifeblood of multifamily. If you don't have a network built for multifamily, you're not going to be as successful as somebody that does. And so we knew we needed to take advantage of everything going online now and not wait. And so we did that we jumped straight in headfirst into multifamily after taking that hard right in it out of single family. And so yeah, we those two properties, like I mentioned, didn't actually we didn't close on them, they fell out of escrow, because we couldn't get bids on that. And so we decided to pivot straight into multifamily.
Sean Thomson 06:28
Okay, so I want to I want to dive deeper into the technical sort of path you guys took. So that was the high level view. But you So you went from reading a book to investing in real in single family to investing in multifamily pretty, pretty much like rather rapidly, right. So when you so when you read the book, you guys decided to get into real estate use, I guess you guys sat down and said, Hey, what do we want to accomplish here? Is that what that was? Was that the first step of doing this?
Michael Barnhart 06:55
Yes, I think the first thing was like Robert Allen in that book, makes real estate sound super easy, right? Like buying properties with no money down and things like that. We're like, yeah, that is that sounds awesome. Definitely do that, too, right. However, as you know, it is more complicated than that right, then everybody, and all the authors write about it, it's a little more complicated. So what we ended up doing was, we were like, oh, we'll save up money for a single family, or excuse me, a short term rental in the mountains of Colorado. So then we could buy that. And then, you know, when we can move out a car, we can use that as like a ski place and everything like that. So I started doing some research into that. And that led me to bigger pockets, you know, and then bigger pockets then led me to the podcast. And then the bigger pockets podcast led me to all the other podcasts. And then we just started listening and learning about all the different strategies. And then that actually ended up, we ended up joining some groups on Facebook. I posted in one of the groups on Facebook. Hey, Susie and I are in England, we are looking to long distance invest back in the States. Is there anybody else out there that that is in our same position. And so somebody actually responded and said, Hey, I'm actually in England now too. And I've actually increased the amount of investing that I'm doing overseas now that I'm here. And so I was like, Oh my gosh, I got to meet this guy. So we met this guy. His name is Marcus long. By the way, shout out to Marcus. He's great. But we met with him via zoom. And he talks about this conference veterans Rei live, which is a real estate investing conference geared towards veterans. And it teaches you everything wholesaling, flipping multifamily, you know, short term rentals, everything every kind of real estate is taught at this like two day conference. So we went there, we paid for the VIP so we can get the q&a sessions with one on one with the speakers. We're acting like sponges, we absorb everything, and then coming out the back end of that, that's where we can Okay, let's do burning, it's seems the safest, you know, doesn't require a huge team. And Susan, I can do it by ourselves instead of requiring all this other effort. So that's kind of what led us to burring. However, during that conference as well, we met one on one with Whitney Sewell. He's the principal at life bridge capital. And he's also a veteran. So that's why he was there giving a talk. He said to us, Michael, you don't have to start with single family, you can go straight into multifamily. And that planted a seed in the back of my head. And ever since then, I was like, okay, when he what is the one book I need to read in order to get into multifamily? And he recommended Joe Fairless, his book, you know, the best ever syndication book. And so I was like, Okay, cool. But I took that information, I kind of tucked it away, and I was like, I'll save that for later was focused on single family. Well, then once this thing a family thing didn't really work out for us because the storm, that seeds started growing right into a little idea. And then we look back on our five year goals. And we decided to pivot after that.
Sean Thomson 09:45
Yeah, that's perfect. So you it was just sort of a snowball that kind of continued your education to get to a place where you found an entry point that you were comfortable with, so that you can you can sort of achieve your outcome that you're looking for. So it looks fine to me. Sorry. The roles you two guys play. So are you both looking for deals? Or how does it work with the two of you guys in trying to find deals and put deals together? and all those sorts of things? Do you guys have different like job titles or job roles?
Suzy Sevier 10:15
Yes. So we do. And at the beginning, we actually did not, we just hadn't thought about it that way. And so finally, we actually sat down and made those roles, right. So Michael is an acquisitions and broker relations, and I am taking hold of the investor relations in the marketing. And we found that we can help each other when needed, but we get so much more done, like when we're in our own path. And, you know, we just decided on that because of our strengths at the time, but now that we have figured out a lot of what works for our business, and what doesn't work for a business, there is definitely times where if I need help, Michael will help me. And if Michael needs help, I can help him. But what it really was, is that we thought about all the businesses out there, and they all have delegated roles. So why would we not implement something like that in our own business? So once, I guess that idea came to mind, you're like, Oh, well, this is a no brainer, then you know, this will all work out. And it did.
Sean Thomson 11:19
So now you guys have defined who's going to do which segment of the business and this The thing about multifamily, I think was single family, you know, I was in single family, for a decade or so. And I did almost everything by myself, you know, I had help with different things, and my wife kept my books and you know, some of that sort of thing. But in multifamily, you really have, you know, the sort of responsibility silos, I guess, is what I call them. And deal finding is a whole machine in itself. And then, you know, private investor relations is a whole machine in itself. And so you just kind of have these sections, and you almost have to focus your all your entire energy on those sections of your business. And so what do you guys have? Are you specializing and one of the other areas? Are you looking for deals? Primarily? Are you looking for funding? Primarily? Which, which one? Are you kind of focused on? Are you trying to do both at the same time?
Suzy Sevier 12:07
No, so Michael is looking at deals, I want to create a women's team. So in regards to that, I am looking at deals as well. But because they're two separate projects, that's how we decided to do that. But I mean, Michael also has a very extensive network, so he doesn't not take part in Investor Relations because of that, you know, so we pretty much separated as probably like 8020. So 80% of the time, he's definitely looking for deals and talking to brokers and 20% of the time, he's helping with Investor Relations, and then vice versa.
Sean Thomson 12:47
So you Yeah, so you guys are kind of working on dual projects. So what So tell me about you just mentioned a women's group. So are you you're putting together your own women's specific team?
Suzy Sevier 12:56
Yeah, absolutely. The reason I want to do that is because as military spouse, I have found just in our community, that a lot of us have our identity attached to a traditional nine to five and I want, like women, not just in the military, but all over, you know, because there are a lot of stay at home moms, I want them to know that they can participate in something that will make a very big impact on their family and on their family's finances through real estate investing. And so just creating this team, for me shows that it's possible, and there's other women out there doing it. Because right now, I mean, even for our first deal, I was the only woman on the team. And so when you look at that, I mean it, it's very male dominated. And so I just wanted to create a team where it's strictly, you know, female dominated. And, you know, just to show, like I said, the women out there that there is more than a traditional nine to five, like, you can create your own schedule and do your own thing and still make an impact.
Sean Thomson 13:58
Yeah, so my, in our business, I'm kind of the real estate guy, but my wife just joined my company this year, she's been around me and real estate for a while, and then my daughter is actually my partner. So I have two women in my business in my life, really, that they're doing this as well. So they're there they're finding those resources as well. They have an accountability group that they they're in with other women. And it really helps them to I don't know it just it just it helps it helps kind of we have more confidence going into it all yeah, it feels like you're more connected to what you're doing because there's other people that are that are like you that are doing the same thing in the same positions and stuff. So it's really I think it's pretty helpful for them to do that. I'll have to connect you guys yeah. Connect my girls to you. So they have that the network and additional network. So let's talk about you guys are finding deals. I guess you told me earlier that you just put together a deal and you're working on another deal. Walk me through how do those kind of came about, in your in your whether it's through your network or lists You found How did that work?
Michael Barnhart 15:01
So the first deal that we had, which was 88 units, so that came about through a broker that that we had the relationship with. And so I was, you know, communicate with this broker, underwriting deals submitting Ello eyes with this broker as well on previous on other deals. And then this deal came along, and we, we took a look at it initially, and it just wasn't there. We love the asset, we walked it, our boots on the ground walk to the asset to pictures for us and things like that. And we love the asset, however, financially just wasn't at the spot where we wanted to acquire it yet. And so we ended up doing this waiting and watching it. And because what we wanted to do one of the biggest things for my investment, the our investment thesis is that we like to obtain or acquire stabilized properties for your audience, a stabilized property is at least 90% occupancy for at least 90 days that allows you to obtain long term financing at low rates. So it really increases the cash flow, because another part of our investment thesis is it has to be cash flowing from day one, at least 40 to 50% of the return has to come from cash flows, but we're not really making too much on appreciation there. With that in mind, we're always looking at these properties. And so that property initially when it came to us wasn't there. And so we waited watched it. And a couple months later, it actually started becoming stabilized. So it's like two months of stabilization. And it was trending towards that third month, which will allow to qualify for agency debt. And so when that third month came out, the preliminary financials came out. Of course, everybody else saw that as well. And they all submitted Ello eyes However, because we had somebody on our team that had done previous deals with this specific broker, this broker knew that we could close on deals, and put in a good word for us to that seller. And so we were able to lock up the property under contract and then close on it after that.
Suzy Sevier 16:48
And then our second property though, that definitely came through our network and just through like organic introductions in meeting other syndicators, who are also syndicating in Tulsa.
Sean Thomson 17:01
I guess you guys have taken both paths, you kind of created the opportunity on the first one. And the second one, it's because of your network that you were able to get into another deal as quickly as that. Exactly.
Michael Barnhart 17:11
I was just going to say for your listeners real quick, like, never stopped networking. Like at one point, we were having 20 to 25 networking calls a week, and that was a lot. But now we've kind of dialed that back. And as we're focusing on other things in business, but we still have between five and 10 networking calls a week just to get to know as many people as possible, because that's where those deals come like those really good deals that like off market direct to seller, those are those deals typically come from.
Sean Thomson 17:38
So you finding just expanding your network is being is helping you, but you have a core network that you work with?
Michael Barnhart 17:46
There is Yeah, there's a core network that we kind of work with. in Tulsa, we kind of know, a handful of because our market is Tulsa, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City. We know quite a few syndicators in that area. And we always keep in touch with them for sure. Let's see, okay, who's selling what, you know what, you know, what's going on the market, what's, what's being purchased and things like that?
Sean Thomson 18:08
Yeah, you hear this all the time, but multifamily is a team sport, right? So people say that constantly. And it really is you've got to have people that can secure debt, bring, bring capital, find deals, all those all those things have to be met. And that sort of, it becomes an ownership group, not not an owner really, most of the time. And so you're you, you've kind of gotten your expanded network. So you have those opportunities coming through, and you're meeting new people that you can add to your team, but you probably have a core team that you work with a few people that are really substantial in your in your business, right?
Suzy Sevier 18:41
Yes, but to preface that, like as we grow, like our goals, and what we want to do, can change. And so we also have to make sure that our core team is capable of growing with us, right. And if we come to a position where they are not, then we like change our core team a bit just because, like Michael and I have a path that we need to reach by a certain amount of time, right. And so we just need to make sure that our core group is aligned with that path. Because as Michael and I being the lead sponsors, we you know, build the team and put it together. And so we just want to make sure that everybody in it is aligned with like that path as well.
Sean Thomson 19:26
And you're working virtually so I guess you have to have people that you're that your relationship with is more substantial than just someone you just met because you're counting on them to kind of walk the property and, and beyond sight unseen for you and get you that information. So I would imagine that network has to be different layers and importance levels. But let's talk about some of that. Since what I just mentioned the virtual let's talk about some of the challenges that you're having or that you see with with doing that virtually because you guys aren't just virtual you're, you're on another in another country far, far away. You're not you can't just jump in a car and like I can jump in a car and drive to Towson. For hours, you know, so I, I operate virtually as well. But it's not. It's not like you guys, you know. So what are some of the challenges of being so far away from where you're buying and operating your business that you're running into.
Michael Barnhart 20:14
So the biggest thing for us, Shawn was that we wanted to make sure that we had in order to operate successfully from overseas from anywhere, if you're out, you know, outside out of state, or out of the country, or you know, across the globe, whatever. So, the biggest things for us is, number one, have a boots on the ground partner. And so that person can be your eyes and ears on the ground, can touch feel the asset, if necessary. However, the biggest component is definitely your property management company. And for us, specifically, we only target properties, where we can have a on site property manager and maintenance person there Monday through Friday, because it's not worth us worth it to have like a floating property manager, anytime that we want somebody their nine to five, Monday through Friday carrying out the business plan that we created, because we're so far away. So those two are key parts of our business. And we will we actually engage our property management company, before we even think about taking down that deal. We are so heavily integrated and so heavily aligned with our property management company, that we want to make sure that they are aligned with the business plan, and they're comfortable with whatever eloa that we're submitting before we even do. So with that being said, we want to move to another market until we have a property management company identified. Because we can't just hop in the car and drive four hours away. We have so much trust in our property manager company and they're delivering. And so that's that's just been huge for us.
Sean Thomson 21:39
Yeah, they're they're fundamentally going to be the one that executes your business plan. So having that being aligned with them is is is definitely key. And you so you've, that's one of the things that you I was a challenge for you, I guess. But you guys have overcome that just by aligning yourself with the right group and having the right the right people kind of taking care of that problem for you, I guess. Right.
Michael Barnhart 21:58
Exactly. Exactly. And so just thinking, you know, if you are in Washington State, and you buy properties in Florida, right, it's no different than if we bought properties in Georgia. And you're flying from from here, you know, we can get from here to Atlanta in like, seven hours or whatever, from London. And you know, you're flying from Washington State to Florida whenever it's I don't know how long it is four and a half or five hours or something like that. So, I mean, it's it's roughly the same. So,
Sean Thomson 22:24
yes, it sounds worse. But it sounds worse. But yeah, it seems like if you're if you're not on the continent, it seems like that would be a bigger challenge. But I guess it really isn't, because you can just fly over anytime you really had to to be on scene, so but it just seems like, I don't know, in my mind, it sounds like Well, that's got to be a big challenge. But I guess if you if you handle it properly, by getting the right team on the ground, getting the right property management team on the ground, if you handle the situation correctly, then it doesn't matter where you are, it all kind of seems the same.
Michael Barnhart 22:54
Yeah. So just to add to that, Shawn was that we are, we are very big into systems and processes. And so and especially when you're investing out of state, out of the country, whatever. So we are heavily in the systems. And so what we do after every big task, we take a step back, and Susie and I will have like a little hot wash. And basically we say, Okay, what went wrong, what went right, write it all down into a checklist. So then next time, we can do even better, and then we improve on that process again, and keep improving. It's a continuously improving process. But our whole point now is we are trying to set up all the systems and processes. Now because we're going to continue to invest out of the country, even though we're moving back to Colorado and a couple years, we don't necessarily want to invest in Colorado, but once I retire for the military, we're probably most likely going to be continue to be active. More on the passive side, hopefully, however, we don't plan on living in the States, we plan on living in Australia, Thailand, you know, wherever we want to live, and still continue to be active in the States. And so we're setting up the systems and processes now. And I heard somebody say the other day, like a goal is for somebody who wants to be successful one time, a system is for somebody who wants to be continuously successful.
Sean Thomson 24:13
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So if you can put the processes in place, and it sounds like you guys have thought of this as you're, you're building a life, you're not really you're not really building a business, you're sort of building a life for yourselves. And you're using the business to fulfill that what you just said was the real estate investing is so that you can live in Thailand or Australia. It's it's not the other way around. Exactly. That's I think that's a lot of people miss that step right. What about what do I want my life to look like? And then how can I make my business fulfill that for me, right, and I think that's kind of what you just mentioned that I think that's what you guys is that your approach to how you're thinking this through?
Suzy Sevier 24:51
Yeah, because when Michael can retire in seven years, like you said, like we want to be in the position where we can do this from anywhere in the world.
Sean Thomson 25:01
Yeah, and that'll give you the lifestyle that you want more than just have a successful business. It gives you the life that you want, right?
Suzy Sevier 25:07
Yeah. With Michael being an educator and me, I've been a mentor and a coach like education is really big for us. And once Michael is done being a professor, we don't want the education to just stop their race, like our biggest I guess "why" or what we want to do is that we want to be able to build schools in third world countries, because like basic education, helps solve so many issues with poverty and itself. And so if we can do that from anywhere, and being able to travel that entire time, we can then decide where we want to make the biggest impact, right, it's not the other way around, where I have to limit where I can go for my one week vacation and see if it can work in that one week time, right? Like, we can go and live in a place and get to know the community and see, like, what we can do to help these other communities just all over the world.
Sean Thomson 26:02
Yeah, that's awesome. So you're gonna use you're going to use your business, build a life that you enjoy, gives you the travel that you want, but you're also fulfilling a higher purpose in that you want to you want to impact somebody through education, in these underserved communities. That's, that's, that's amazing that you guys are doing that. That's such a layered layered plan to and it's, it's, it seems like executing that you're executing that flawlessly, you're really kind of building everything towards that, it sounds like you guys are on the right path. So in the in the four years, you're going to come back here, but you're going to continue building towards being able to travel and do all those other things. Right?
Michael Barnhart 26:39
Well, we started with the end in mind, right? Yeah. Yeah, to where we were, where we wanted to be at the end. And now we're working backwards. A lot of people just start building, building, building and then take a pause. And like, this is not where I wanted to be, you know. So we do we have yearly goal setting retreats that Susie and I take in order to align our vision, like our wives so strongly aligned to begin with, but then we make sure that we realign everything every single year. And then throughout the quarters of the year, like once we pass a certain quarter, then we'll we'll take a will reflect back. Okay, where are we at? Are we still on trajectory for the hit all of our goals this year? And then we keep reflecting, and then refactoring and things like that.
Sean Thomson 27:21
Yeah, I really admire that because I'm, I'm, I'm terrible organization, right? So I just, I get up and I just start going, right. And I struggle with that all the time. I it's, it's, it's a constant thing, I try to use block scheduling and, and my days are blocked out and I do certain things, I have habits, I'm building my habits, and you know, but I just I function on whatever's in front of me I conquer, right? So it's kind of, it's kind of hard for me to be organized. Like, that's when I hear someone that has that capability. I love it, you know, because I wish so much that I had more of that in my life. I think that's I think because you said the processes and systems you guys have defined where you want to go, you've you know, you have a greater purpose in mind, you have a why. And then now you're saying that you're organized through your goal setting and quarterly things, it's I can see why you guys are having such tremendous success so rapidly, it's very easy to see why you're why you're achieving what you want to achieve. Because of the way you guys approach those things. It's really good. I don't know where you learned that, but it's whatever you learned it, it's really you're applying it properly, it sounds like and I wish I could do more of that in my life for sure.
Michael Barnhart 28:26
So I'm just gonna add to that as well. Like, just to kind of piggyback on that, Shauna was that another thing that we do every single day is we scribe so we journal wake up, you know, we have our morning routine, you wake up at five, and then we come down and we read, you know, read for a little bit. And then what we do is if scribing. So what that entails is I write out like an inspirational quote. And then we write three things that we're grateful for, for that day, or the previous day. And then we write out all of our goals for the day. And then we write our affirmations as well. And then we share Suzy and I share that information with each other, you know, we all read in mind, and she'll read hers. And then we make sure that our goals for the day are actually aligning with our bigger purpose and our inner and kind of aligning and then we if we refactor one another, we can do that as well.
Sean Thomson 29:12
Yeah, I mean, I do something I will my day is sort of set in habits, right. So I try to I try to do do specific things every day. But I don't I don't sit and reassess. Like, like that's a really good thing to do is to sit and reassess, hey, how did my day go? Or what do I want to achieve today? I just hit my habits every day, and then whatever else fills my day kind of fills my day. And it's really kind of a haphazard way to do it. I think I'm more organized than most people. But I would love to be able to do what you guys do and have that that incremental organization and I think that that produces productivity. That's that's that's game changing, right? For sure. So I think we I always asked everybody on the podcast about what your American Dream is, but I think you guys have kind of talked this whole time about it, but I'll ask you anyway. How do you guys kind of define the American Dream for yourselves I you know, I I told you Maybe a little bit about this before we started the show, but I think the American Dream of the past is kind of unavailable. Now you can't work 40 years and retirement pension anymore, as I'm sure some people can. But it's not widely accepted as a path anymore. But I think now it takes more personal responsibility for your own financial freedom and takes more personal responsibility for your education, it takes more, it takes more of each individual to get out there and do what you guys are doing and accomplishing those things. So kind of what do you guys define is your American Dream. And then if you don't mind, I guess we just talked about a few things, but maybe one, one or two things that you guys use in your daily life that that's helping you level up.
Suzy Sevier 30:37
So we define our American Dream as serving beyond our four walls, without having any bounds of the traditional nine to five. And so whether we need to serve like our family, or our friends, or our community, or communities all over the world, right, we just don't want to have to limit that to a traditional nine to five job every day. And that's how we define it. And that's what our plan is to do, you know, when my goal can retire, so that we can, you know, serve anyone who needs it the most, because people have been there to serve us. And so to be able to help others going forward as well would just be like the actual dream come true.
Michael Barnhart 31:20
And then a couple action tips for your listeners, like you mentioned. So we were talking about like the morning routine. So just to run that run down that again. So you know, wake up early read, scribe meditate. Basically every all the savers if you if you've done if you've read Miracle Morning by how, however, how Elrod basically mimics that. But yeah, and then we exercise, and then come back eat breakfast, and then we're ready to go for our w2, basically, are we working on the business a little bit and then ready for the w2.
Suzy Sevier 31:52
So and then I was gonna say one more to add is to do an honest time audit, like of yourself. And something that we did was that we use this app called toggle. And every 15 minutes, you have to check in with the app and say what you've been doing. And then 15 minutes goes by, and you write down another task. And at the end of the day, and then even at the end of the week, because it gives you analytics, you truly find out what you're spending time on. And actually how much more time you could potentially have during the day. It was amazing, really to just see it and say to myself, wow, you know, I can do a lot less of that. Put that back into the business. Because the tasks that I was doing too often did that task serve me? Not at all. Does working on my business serve Me? Yes, absolutely. Because being able to impact people is what drives me. So everything that has to do with my business will forever serve me.
Sean Thomson 32:52
So does that. So that tool is it? I guess it doesn't matter what you use, I guess. But did you just want to audit your time? And are you looking for you're looking for trends in what you're kind of not doing productively?
Suzy Sevier 33:05
Yes. And I mean, even even, for example, not being productive, but like, how often are you leaving, you know, to take a phone call? Or how often are you eat going to eat a snack? How often are you actually spending time on writing a blog, or researching blog post, right, because you could research for hours and really like the core of your material. I mean, if you don't know anything about it, and I guess it makes sense that it could take longer, but you should be writing about things that you know, so that you can educate others. So you should have somewhat of an idea. So it's just thinking about everything full circle. I mean, even for a while, right, Michael and I were doing 20 to 25 investor calls a week that was we won't do that, again, because we need to spend our time on different tasks now, you know, and so, like, it's, it's a mix of it all, really just to see what you're actually doing. Because I don't need to spend 20 hours talking to investors, but they're not putting out any content that week.
Sean Thomson 34:05
Yeah, and it probably evolves I would imagine that evolves to as your business sort of transitions into more different seasons, I guess it would transition into where maybe content creation is what you need to focus on for this season of your business. And then maybe investor relations is what you focus on. So I would imagine that some of that is going to advise to what your focus might be. But if you're seeing what you're doing, at least you can say okay, well, I'm not applying the right focus on those things that need to be happening. Yeah, yeah, and you guys are organized. I can't I can't even tell you, I just need to like hire you guys to live my butt or watch me everyday or something. Do those things that's crazy.
Michael Barnhart 34:45
But the time audit also gives you the opportunity to see okay, are these tasks the what I call the queen bee role right. So the main role of your business, right? Are they offshoots, right? And, you know, if you find You're doing minimal, like five or $6 an hour task, and you're spending 20 hours a week doing that, hey, guess what? You need to hire VA and teach them how to do that. Because that's not where you need to be doing. You need to be working on the $10,000 an hour task, right? And so, yeah, so it allowed us to really take a step back and say, okay, where do we need to heart and from the understanding of hiring to VAs after that.
Sean Thomson 35:20
Yeah, that's good. Well, I'm not going to keep you guys any longer. But let's talk about you guys. Do you guys have a podcast? Right?
Suzy Sevier 35:26
Yeah, we do. It's called, "The Adventures of a Real Estate Investor." And what we have done is that we've brought on industry experts to talk about the impact that they are making in their lives and in their communities while leveraging real estate investing.
Sean Thomson 35:41
Yeah, awesome. Say that one more time. Where can people find it?
Suzy Sevier 35:45
It's called, "The Adventures of a Real Estate Investor."
Sean Thomson 35:48
Okay, great. So if someone wanted to kind of reach out to you guys, or if you learn more about you guys, you know, become fans. I'm already a fan right now. So if someone wanted to become a fan of yours, where would they go? Do they start at the podcast, or do you have a website?
Michael Barnhart 36:01
You can check out the podcast, but if you really want to learn more about us, go to adventurousrei.com. And you can find us there. And if you go to adventurousrei.com/info, that'll have like all of our links, where you can find us on LinkedIn, where you can send us an email, you can find the podcast there as well. That'll have everything that you need to know. You can set up a call, things like that. We're happy to chat with anybody!
Sean Thomson 36:26
Yeah, awesome. Well, I'm definitely gonna make sure we're connected online, I want to get more influence from you guys, for sure. I need this organization influence in my life. I have a few friends that are so organized, and I just I try to, you know, sponge off of them as much as I can. I need that energy. I really appreciate you guys coming on the show and sharing this with me and the listeners. And it's a great story. I'm excited that when you guys get back, you know, for you guys being here again. I'm sure I'm sure London is great. But I imagine you miss home a little bit, but thanks for coming on and sharing it. And I really hope you guys have a ton of more success coming soon!
Michael Barnhart 37:03
Yeah, thank you so much. It was such a pleasure being on the show. It is a really great conversation. So, thank you!
Sean Thomson 37:08
Yeah, thank you. We'll talk to you guys soon!
Abigail Thomson 37:10
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level American Dream. If you would like to learn more about what we talked about today, want to contact a team member directly, or are interested in passively investing and being a part of our deal room, head over to our website at www.thomsomultifamilygroup.com -- Before you go, please leave a review! Your comments help us create more episodes for you to enjoy.