“My superpower really is teaching. That’s what I’m really good at. And that’s really what I really love.  I’m creating content or I’m teaching or I’m doing anything that really lights me up. It’s not even like work. And as I reflect back on my life, every time I did that, it would light me up”. Michael Blank is a multifamily expert. He is a leading authority on apartment building investing in the United States. He’s passionate about helping others become financially free in 3-5 years by investing in apartment building deals with a special focus on raising money. He is an Entrepreneur and a Teacher.

 

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The Top Capital Gains Tax Deferral Struggle With Michael Blank

Hey, I am more than excited about our next guest. He has been a virtual mentor of mine and now is becoming a friend of mine. One thing I love about him, he’s a multifamily expert, but he’s in the business of empowering other folks to do the same thing to create active or passive wealth on a massive scale through multifamily investing. So he has picked this niche. He has an amazing podcast, I first met Michael through his deal on Analyzer and starting at Marcus and Millichap. I thought I had seen every underwriting tool. That was the best until I saw Michael’s tool, which is both elegant and also simple and robust, which is hard to find. And it’s focused on multifamily syndication. Okay. So that is the key. And it’s fantastic. And you can check that out. So please welcome to the show. Michael Blank. Michael, how are you doing?

Brett, doing great! Thanks for having me.

So glad to have you. You can find Michael at themichaelblank.com. He also has a brand new book he’s going to tell you about and also Deal Maker Live. But Michael, before we get into some of those things, would you give our listeners just a little bit about your story and your current focus?

Yeah, look, the current focus is really helping people have become financially free with real estate. So if you’re thinking, How do I quit my job, and you’ve got real estate on the brain, then I want to, you know, I want you to check us out. Most people when they hear that think that oh well real estate is single-family house investing, it’s landlording, flipping, wholesaling of some sort. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with it, it just doesn’t really lead you to financial freedom. And you know,  I’ve done it, I’ve you know, we’ve flipped three dozen houses, relatively successful. It does not check off the passive income bucket, you know, checklist, you’re like, ah, I just create another rat race for myself. And meanwhile, you know, when you talk about apartment buildings, people say, Yeah, that’s great, Michael. But man, I don’t have the experience for that. Let me flip some houses and do some landlording. And, and I’ll take the experience and the money I make, and then I’ll graduate to apartment buildings. And the truth is, you don’t need either of those. We have people, who without any kind of experience, overcome the lack of experience very quickly. And the lack of money by raising it very quickly. You don’t need to go through single-family houses, you don’t need an experience. This is how you can overcome both of those relatively simple and the good news about it is that within one or two years, three years Max, people are quitting their jobs by getting into apartment buildings.

Absolutely love it. And it’s, it’s, it’s just so neat to be able to share some of this information. We’re gonna dive in here. But before we go into some of those strategies, and some of those tools, and some of those ways to get inspired to overcome some of those, you know, false beliefs. I’m curious who Michael was growing up? In other words, not so much what you did, but I want to know, what was the one gift that you were given? I feel we’re all given certain God-given gifts. Some people call them superpowers. What was that one gift, Michael, that sticks out? That connects to how you help people today?

Yeah, it’s interesting. And it’s interesting, you say that because I didn’t really pay attention to what my gifts are, what my passions are until probably I was in my mid-30s, late 30s. You know, honestly, when I started asking those questions, and I was just, I just, I was chasing the almighty dollar, really, to some degree, I would just try to figure whatever makes money. That’s what I’m gonna do. That’s why I got into software computer sciences because you know, not because I had a particular talent or interest and it’s just, hey, I can get a good job and pay the bills and maybe do a little more with it. But my superpower really is teaching. That’s what I’m really good at. And that’s really what I really love.  I’m creating content or I’m teaching or I’m doing anything that really lights me up. It’s not even like, like work. And as I reflect back on my life, every time I did that, it would light me up.  I just never paid attention to it, I went back and did whatever, you know, my job was. And so now I get to teach for a large part of the time, and I really enjoy that.

And that really comes out. It’s authentic. And hopefully, folks are hearing that. Now we’re gonna dive into some of the teachings right now. And, by the way, what’s the most rewarding part about teaching? Or about what you do, Michael?

Yeah, I mean, it’s a transformation that you hope for whoever’s listening, right? You have something experience or formula or solution or something that you know works,  cause it worked for you and worked for a bunch of other people. And so you just have to blab about it to other people, and you hope that that person will take advantage of that same solution and transform their own life as well. So it’s, it’s really taking people and taking them from where they are to where they want to be, that’s probably the most rewarding.

Absolutely. And for folks who are looking for, you know, they’re saying, “Hey, I might be an expert in a certain field”, right? You’re listening, you’re probably, or might be an expert in commercial real estate, or syndication, or whatever that your business that you’re in. There are others who are looking for that expertise. And it really is exciting to be on the other side to be able to empower people as a quick little plug as a book called Expert Secrets. Okay. And it’s by gentlemen, Russell Brunson, who it kind of transformed my whole thinking of teaching, educating, and helping pique, take people through a process to be able to be inspired and also learn. I check that out if you’re interested. That being said, let’s dive into some strategies, maybe what are the top, you know, one or two secrets, Michael, for getting started in multifamily investing, and or even more advanced, if you want to focus on that for the syndicator, who maybe has one or two or three deals, and he’s looking to scale to three to five to ten. But he’s kind of hit a bandwidth or a ceiling, you know, and he feels a little bit trapped.

Yeah, I mean, I remember when I started flipping houses, while I had a lot of ambition and goals. One thing I did not have enough time was money because I had deployed it all in restaurants. Brett, that’s a conversation for another podcast. But my big cashflow idea was restaurants, as misguided as it was, it did work for a period of time until the recession hit and then changed those plans drastically. So by the time I started flipping houses, I had deployed slash lost almost all my money at that point. But I felt, there was in 2009 a huge opportunity after a recession, where you had a humongous supply of foreclosures, and the retail market in the Northern Virginia DC area was recovering. So you could buy a house at $85,000, put 30,000 into and sell it for 175 or 200. And I was like, man, I gotta get me some of that. But I don’t have any money. So to answer your question, I could have just sat there and watched the opportunity go by, or I could have learned how to raise money. And that’s exactly what I did. And when I did that, a giant light bulb went off for me, which showed me I can do things without actually having my own resources. And even if I did, let’s say I have a million dollars, I buy an apartment building or two and above, then I’ll be out. So learning the art and science of capital raising is not only the way to get started when you don’t have any, but it’s also the way to scale. So it really accommodates both of those scenarios that you mentioned, is learning how to raise capital, it’s much simpler than it might seem at the outset.

Well, let’s dive into that. What would be the I guess, the biggest domino that needs to be knocked over for somebody to learn the art and science of raising capital? What’s the one thing that they can do today to improve their capital raising?

It really depends on where you are. But really, if you’re getting started, it’s always the one thing is the first one, right, the first investor that says, Yeah, if you find me a deal, that seems something like we talked about, I’m in for 50,000, $100,000, and you know like, you know. And then all of a sudden your confidence level starts going up. And once you have that verbal commitment from somebody, it makes it a lot easier to get that second and that third in that fourth. And if you have raised some money, you know, you’ve raised $500,000, or raise a million dollars, the one thing that will get you to the next level is by moving your message online by really getting into digital marketing. So there are two separate things. It really depends a lot on where you are that the first one is the light bulb moments when you’re like oh my gosh, I mean, I can raise money from people and I don’t have to feel like I’m begging them for money. I’m actually doing them a service by offering them opportunities that generate cash flow, wealth, generate wealth, and don’t pay taxes. Like I’m actually providing a service. And then the other one that people get stuck on is they have an inability to scale because they have not moved the conversation online, social media marketing things of that nature.

Absolutely. And a couple of thoughts on that, you know, Marcus and Millichap we learned a thing called a conditional close. And what it essentially is, if one, two, and three and if it’s to your satisfaction, would you do Y, right? So if X to your satisfaction, would you do y, so somebody could be, hey, if I were able to find a multifamily investment property, and it has somewhere between a six and 8% return, and you get some depreciation right off, right? Unless most folks don’t even know about it, right? So you’re approaching this, maybe traditional stock market investor, or traditional W2 high earner, and they’re not a well aware of these amazing benefits that especially investment real estate have, and you’re going to educate them, you’re an added value to them, you’re going to show them that by putting it here, you know, the $50,000 might produce, let’s say, $5,000 of cash flow, which you can offset, let’s say a couple 1000 and depreciation if I can show you that you’re adding value, would you be willing to invest with me? Is that sort of the process? Or Michael, what would you change? 

That’s exactly right, we take it another step further, we’re going to call the sample deal package, which you may have heard about is, basically you create a financial marketing package for an investment opportunity, that everything about it may be real. It has a real apartment, has got some real photos, but you don’t have it under contract. Now you don’t tell me you tell the investor that, hey, it’s not a deal I have. But these are the kinds of deals I’m coming across my desk are the kind of deals I want to invest in. And you use it as a conversation piece. So it takes that, what you guys learn to market Millichap another step further because it really has a theoretical conversation piece. But you use it to get the larger questions and objections out on a table. Well, what is multifamily? Why should I invest? How does it work? Why should I invest with you? And so you get all these big objections out of the way. So when you actually have a live deal, you send them the real deal package, and they’re not going to ask you these giant questions, they may have deal-specific questions that are gonna be relatively minor in nature. So, therefore, subsequently, you can then, you know, seemingly effortlessly in a matter of days, raise, you know, a million dollars, because of the work you did upfront. 

I love that! So you’re breaking false beliefs more. So you’re educating to help people to get comfortable on an actual deal where you can see, analyze it, go through it, right? Ask the tough questions. And then when the actual deal does come, a lot of that’s already been done, because you guys went through the sample deal, right? And that’s powerful. So, and walk us through how you help people develop or create that.

Yeah, I mean, a great example is getting a deal from Marcus & Millichap. Marcus & Millichap are some of the best marketing packages out there because everything is about the property. More important is everything about the market, the demographics, and the photos, and why the market is good. And so you get a lot of information from the broker’s marketing package, now, you do have to put some financial projections around it, which of course, the syndicated deal analyzer makes relatively simple. So you copy and paste from here, and you copy and paste from there. And you present you create a marketing package for the investor out of that it doesn’t have to look pretty, the numbers don’t have to be right. But the point is, you have to use it as a conversation piece that introduces someone who obviously has money to invest, but traditionally has invested in the stock market mutual funds or index funds. And now you’re introducing them to a whole new asset class. That’s the goal of it.

Perfect. So that’s step one. And now you’re getting some momentum, you’re understanding multifamily, or and you’ve already understood multifamily, you just have never actually taken it to friends and family and potential partners. So now you’ve got it there. What is step number two?

Well, step number two is cultivating the relationship to the point where they verbally commit their interest to you in investing. You want a verbal commitment. Right? And it’s basically, “Hey, if I brought you a deal, that’s substantial like that, you know, how much would you be comfortable in investing? And you have a conversation about using your IRA? And I say, “Well, you know, what’s the minimum?”, you say, 50, they go, “Oh, 50”. All right. And so that’s step number two. And then step number three is to stay in touch with them, because you may not have a live deal for a month, two, three, four, whatever. So step four is to stay in touch with those investors, you know, put a put on, put them on email, put out emails, newsletters, call them every once in a while, stay in touch with them. And then step number five, or where we are right now is to actually have a live deal. And that’s typically what we do is you put on a live webinar or a conference call. You invite your investors on there, you send them out your real deal package now. And you answer their questions. And then you get them to submit what’s called a soft commission. So something you want to raise your hand and say, yeah, I’m still interested. And here’s the amount I’m interested in. Great. Sounds good. Well, if you’re interested, then the next step is for you to do is to review the legal documents and to sign those legal documents. When you’ve done that. Then you can wire the funds into the escrow account and then we close on the deal. So that’s really the process from start to finish.

It's taking people from where they are to where they want to be, that's probably the most rewarding. Click To Tweet

Excellent. So now let’s imagine you’ve closed the deal. And you’re like, oh my gosh, I’m responsible. Now for these 10 investors of all put $50,000 in, I’m in my own money. Here we go. I one thing I’ve seen with syndicators and operators I’ve worked with is, some people are, you know, real estate’s a team sport, right. And you have, they’re great at raising funds raising capital, right, that initial excitement and initial push to get there. That’s kind of more of my personality style, right. That’s what I’ve been able to do for other operators and syndicators. But then there’s the, you know, operations, and there’s the day to day and there’s the management, and there are the distributions, and there’s the all the nitty-gritty, so walk us through the person who says, you know, what, I could raise the capital, I could do the deal. But now like, I’m gonna feel overwhelmed with everyone else’s, you know, funds and having to do all these returns. So what do?

I know, it’s interesting. And you’re right, I mean, the acquisition and the capital raise is exciting. It’s just so exciting. And when you close, you pop your champagne, you’re like, on to the next one. Yeah. And, you know, they always say, in the single flipping house business, that you kind of make your money when you buy. And that is true. It’s not true, I believe on the multifamily or any commercial real estate because if you don’t execute in your business plan, you’re not gonna make any money at all. In fact, the general point is don’t make money unless the investors make money typically. So there’s a certain hurdle, you have to come over for there to be enough money. So you have to execute in your business plan. Now, for people like me, that might be super boring, right? Because now it’s meant, you know, meeting with your property manager, reviewing numbers and doing property visits, putting out reports. Oh, my gosh, but while this may not be as exciting as closing a deal, raising money. It is super important, arguably even more important. So you know, we have last year hired, actually someone just who focused nothing on, but on the asset management, it’s a totally different person, you know, that person is a very strong manager, very strong administrator was very good with numbers, very good with people, very good with processes. And it’s super, super important. And, and so that’s number one is really focusing on the operations. And if you don’t love operations, that’s okay. You don’t have to love operations, and then either hire someone or partner with someone that does that. It’s just someone’s got to do it. And it’s absolutely super important. The other thing that’s super important is to communicate with your investors. I’ve been on the receiving side of passively investing a while back in a variety of investments, you know, and as soon as the investment didn’t quite go as planned, what happens? The communication stops entirely, you know, oh, the report was late. Now, it’s five days late, seven days late to email, no email response. Now you call them you don’t even, you know, like, what’s going on? Oh, something is not right. And so whoever’s in charge stops communicating. And it’s happened to me repeatedly to the point where, when I was in a position to take people’s money as like, if something’s not going right, I’m going to increase my level of communication, because that drives investors crazy, not knowing what’s going on, especially if you’re a first-time investor, you know, and you’re expecting this. And all of a sudden, this is happening, because not every deal goes as planned, some do, but some don’t. And so how do you deal with people when their expectations are not met? Right? So picking up the level of communication to people telling me what’s going on, as unpleasant as it is, oh, by the way, we’re gonna miss our distribution this quarter. Because whatever went on, there was a gas leak, or we had a fire, the problem or whatever the case may be, no one likes to send that email. But the worst is not saying anything, but missing the payment, and then getting emails and phone calls from investors. And now they get really upset. So really picking up the level of communication is key.

It makes perfect sense, you know, and I can also relate to that, likewise, for the deals where I’ve been passively investing. And you’re right, you would like to be the spreader of good news and get the attaboys. But hey, you’ve to also as a leader, you got to be willing to take your licks too if you haven’t, you know, performance, or if it turns out of your control. The key is just to be transparent, upfront, and you’re all in it together. And I also even before that, the key is to structure the deal in such a way that the general partner needs to perform in order to actually you know, benefit, right? Of course, there’s an asset management fee, and there’s some standard stuff there. But walk us through maybe just maybe ways that you found to make it a win-win for both sides for the GP and the limited partners.

Well, one way I find a win-win is to line both the GPs and the LPs together. And one way I’ve found not to do that is with a preferred return. Now, there are some syndicators who will offer preferred turn who are almost all without exception getting off of the preferred return. For the same reason that I’ve been saying for years it is not aligned, because preferred return, of course, as you some of your listeners may know, really gives the investors the LPs, the first chunk of whatever money comes out, let’s say it’s an 8% preferred return, that means that 8% of any money invested flows to the investors first, and that sounds great, and it philosophically sounds good, right, because the investor should be taken care of first and then the GP should be taken care of second, I get that. The GP should only make money when the LPs have made money, I get all that though here’s the problem with it. When you get in a deficiency situation is where the problem starts happening. A deficient situation is when there’s not enough cash flow to serve the preferred return, and therefore it starts accruing. So let’s say in year one, you promised 8% return, but you only pay out three, gosh, it’s a rough patch, something happened, we had to fire the property manager. Now we’re recovering, but now we have over 5% in the hole, which enrolls over the next year. So now I got 13%. The next year, well, I’m going from a 3%, return to say 5%, because I’m getting better. Now I’m taking another 3%, on top of the 13 I had this year. So after a while, the GPS can never get themselves out of the hole ever, until they sell, which they might go home, I didn’t see a five-year-old, I meant the two-year-old because I better sell this monster because I’ll never get paid a dime unless I sell it. Now, if they sell it, what’s going to happen to the IRR? Well, it’s not going to be where it was promised it’ll be lower, right? Or they could say, you know, this is for the birds, I’m just gonna walk away and just turn the keys back, you know, the bank and have it. So what I’m saying is, while philosophically people talk about the preferred about how it’s the best thing, no, it’s not, it does not align, because in a straight split in the investors make money, the GPs make money, if the investors don’t make money, GPs, making money, don’t make money at all. And that, to me, is aligned with being on the same page.

That makes perfect sense. And I haven’t even thought of it that way before. And you got me rethinking the way that I’ve been in different deals, you know, and just to kind of bring it to full circle in my mind, it’s almost like the GP is going into debt, right. And they start to feel like this debt is overwhelming. And it’s like being underwater on a house. And, you know, the value, you know, is going for this person who’s you know, silent partner, right, they’re there, they’re not in the day to day, grinding it out. And at a certain point, it’s like, I’m doing all this work. And some things are out of my control, maybe some things that could have improved, but at the end of the day, like I am not I’m not getting anything out of this, right. And it’s getting worse every single year. And, and so rather than doing it that way, let’s say hey, we’re all in this together, we’re gonna split, let’s say 50-50, or whatever the profits are. Walk us through I guess, the better way to do that, then like what is the what would be your ideal way to set it up? Straight split?

70-30, 80-20, whatever the case may be. That’s really it. Right? That aligns everybody perfectly.

Yep, great. Okay, great. So now you bought the deal. Now you’re operating the deal, you’ve hired the person or partnered with the person to do that. I guess one question syndicator might have well, how would I? How would I structure that deal with the operations? Is that also a straight split? Or who? How do you do 50-50 on that, or walk us through? How much does the operations partner generally get? Versus, you know, the person who’s raising the capital and has started the whole thing.

Referring to a joint venture, it sounds like to me. So it really depends, we start off as a joint venture and are moving more towards an employment model. But that’s only because we have more asset management fees at the asset management fees, contrary to popular belief, are not there to buy beer with right there used to cover overhead. And the overhead is people, primarily people and travel, probably in that order. What happens in a joint venture, which is great with the benefit of the joint venture allows you to bootstrap an operation because there’s no fixed overhead because you’re paying everybody in equity, right? Or you’re paying everybody in equity. But if you look at the cost of equity, it’s very high. There’s very high fear. So you ask them, How much does an operator get? That’s really a hard question to answer. You could say, well, who’s ever operating should get 30% of the GDP? Okay, that’s, that’s good. Or it could be more, it could be less. It really, it really depends. At the end of the day, what we’re finding is what we did two years ago is not really serving us anymore, because the cost of capital to give away that much equity is there’s no longer is no longer for equity. it’s not equal, because now the equity is worth so much more than just paying someone a very reasonable salary as well. So if things change, it’s tough to answer your question. The methodology really is though, and we have this built-in Syndicated Deal Analyzer is really kind of figure out what all the roles are identifying each role awaiting, and then each role, what it does each partner do in each role? Okay, so you might say, gosh, you know, the deal-finding role might be I’m making up 50% of the GDP. And one person found a deal, well, they should get the entire 15% of that bucket, right, capital raising, let’s say that’s 30% of the GDP. Well, there are two people responsible for exactly 50%. Each of that cap raising, well, they should split that bucket, right, and so on, and so forth. So by the time you’re done, you can create a spreadsheet, which I’ve already done, that dumps out in the bottom, oh, if these people do these roles, then they should each get this percentage of the GDP. And so this is a methodology for coming to an agreement on a joint venture. And yeah, so people do that all the time. 

And I hope you caught that at the end. I certainly did what Michael’s done over the last, how many years been in business? Now Mike, let’s say the last 10 years, he’s done it the hard way. What’s the hard way? Well, he had to do it himself, he had to start out himself, he had to, you know, look at different analyzers and create an analyzer, and then he had to look at different structures. And now he’s fast for he went through the prep period. Now he, you know, it’s the JV period, and now he’s doing the employment model. The point is, he has it all for you, and he wants to help empower you with it. And for 600 bucks, you can be on the VIP list on dealmaker live and be a part of this whole amazing. I think it’s a three-day event online, and you can get empowered today. And I imagine there are other tools that come with that too and other things you can access. But the point is, he’s done it the hard way. He wants to show you the easy way and help you avoid a lot of mistakes and empower you with that. Is that a fair summary? Michael?

Yeah, absolutely. And, and my journey to where I am right now is very convoluted, expensive, and long. Now fortunate a lot of people we work with are much more direct. So that’s exactly what we’re trying to do is give you a more direct path to your goal, which is typically financial freedom. And then of course, after that, the challenge becomes Well, how do I scale this thing? How do I then possibly even leave, leave a legacy? And that opens up a whole new set of challenges?

Absolutely. That’s part of what we do with the Capital Gains Tax Solutions and The Deferred Sales Trust. More on that later. But are you ready for the lightning round? Michael?

Oh, my gosh, there’s a lightning round. Sounds scary.

Let’s do it. Alright, well, let’s dive right in. Okay, so knowing what you know, now, Michael, if you could go back to your 25-year-old self? What’s the one Golden Nugget you would make? Sure you would do? Or you would know.

I would go back a little further. I mean, I would go back, and well, first of all, I would tell myself that being an entrepreneur is a thing. Because I didn’t know it was a thing. So it was very final for me, I was never surrounded by any kind of entrepreneur. So I never thought it was a thing. People who grew up around entrepreneurs obviously know it’s a thing like oh, yeah, it’s a thing,  it’s always been a thing. For me, it wasn’t a thing. So knowing that you can actually start a business on your own. That would have been an important formation also calf passive income. The whole idea about Rich Dad, Poor Dad, if I could have handed myself a book when I was younger, that would have been useful as well. And then right after that would have handed him some kind of multifamily syndication book like mine, maybe. And I said, hey, you can go through you can do, all these businesses, restaurants, software, short sales, house flipping, you can do those things if you really feel like, you know, a certain pain on yourself, or I got a better idea. Why don’t you just go right at this one, which is going to be much better? You know, so that’s what I would tell myself.

I love that. What is the biggest mistake you, a client, or a partner have ever made with capital gains tax deferral, or what’s the big challenge you’re facing right now?

Well, one of the mistakes I made was, I thought that investing with my IRA was tax-deferred or tax-free, which now in hindsight, well, apparently, it’s not, you have something called the UBIT. The unrelated business income tax and I’m like, wow. So I missed that in some syndication. Like, literally 15 years ago, my first exposure to syndication before I even started getting active, you know, and years later, I get a tax bill in my IRA. And I’m like, wow, that’s gonna be like a typo. Oh, you can get tax from your IRA. Well, so what do I have to do, I have to get a tax ID number. And then I have to file taxes. And then I have to pay penalties and interest for not having filed taxes. So seven years prior, I have this giant mess in my hand. So you know, it’s one of those things where you kind of stick your head in the sand with regards to taxes because you figure your CPA will just kind of handle it. And or your financial advisor will handle your finances like the same thing.

It’s like, just leave me alone. I’m too busy with these things. So, educating yourself about these tax vehicles, you know what you’re doing with the DST or studying Tom Wheelwright‘s book or Damien Lupo and the QRP. Like, as boring as these things are? Oh my gosh, if you can save or make tens of thousands of dollars more money, is it not worth spending a little extra time just to educate yourself?

Exactly right. You nailed it. And that’s also part of the reasons why I stopped doing a self-directed IRA into real estate deals. Because I’m going, first of all, I want my money now earlier like maybe one at 55 or 50 or 45 you know, I don’t necessarily want to wait till I’m 60 or older and follow these rules like I’m looking for passive wealth and freedom now. Time is worth more than me than the money part of it. And then you’re right. It does now if you have a huge IRA that’s already built up our huge 401k that’s so big. Okay, sure. In your older or you’re already kind of closer to that age. I could see that more, but certainly for 37. Right, younger investors, I can see that so, okay, great. Moving on. Give me a digital or mobile resource you recommend for your business.

A digital mobile resource. Oh my gosh, I bet there’s so many I use I don’t even know where to start. Digital mobile resource. So we use WhatsApp a lot for communicating with my family who and some in Germany and also their team members. What I love about it is the ability to leave voice messages with each other so I can have a conversation with someone over the phone. And I love that I love Boomerang for Gmail. Boomerang for leaving allows you to bring something back in the inbox, if someone has not responded in a certain time that you specify stuff like that, oh my gosh, I can go on. I’m gonna have an entire show on technology. I love technology and it makes everything more productive. 

Love it. That’s great. Favorite leadership quote, or theme that you try to live by.

One of my favorite quotes right now is something called by Tony Robbins, which is it’s a moment in a moment of your decision now, in your moments of decision where your destiny shaped. And is because when I study people who’ve changed their lives, specifically by going into multifamily. And I asked him, “Do you remember the exact moment when you decided that you were going to do that?” And most people go, “Yes, I do”. It was a night of blah, blah, blah. I was putting my daughter to bed. And she was asking me if, you know if she and I can go and come to her style tomorrow? And I said, well, no, I have to work and I saw her face drop, you know, and I decided then and there that I could not be in the same place this time next year. Something like that. And so that person has decided in that particular moment that enough is enough. They want to change their life. And so, that decision point is absolutely important for doing anything meaningful in life, whether it’s losing weight, or having a better relationship, or quitting your job is really the decision point and a really, truly making a decision.

I love that. It’s so inspiring. Ideas plus inspiration. And when, you know, discuss that enough, refreshing it with something and then taking that massive action to make a difference and change your life. What are you curious about right now, Michael?

My gosh. I’m a learner, right? So I’m also a teacher, but I’m also a learner. So I’m constantly learning all kinds of stuff I read a lot. I’ve always been curious for a long time and learning more about digital marketing, really related to getting your message out, increasing your impact. So four measures of financial freedom, real estate, that’s a pretty broad market of people who are thinking of single-family houses, how can I reach those people? And also how can I get more people to make them financially free? So I’m always a student and curious about different ways to get your message out. But in general, I’m curious about many different things but right now the idea of and I’m good at teaching marketing techniques right now to syndicators because we talked about the ceiling they reach and we want to help them expand that ceiling and be able to raise more money, therefore, getting more passive investors out of Wall Street into you know, syndications.

Love it. Love it. Last question, and then we’ll, we’ll mention where we can find Michael again. So Michael, how do you stay centered in your values? After all, your success and your podcasts and the book and the multifamily syndication and raising, you know, millions and millions of dollars and doing these huge deals across the US? How do you stay centered in your values? And then second, how do you stay encouraged to charge for you to reach new goals?

Yeah, so it’s interesting. I mean, I’m fairly centered in my values anyway. But what I’m finding is I  have been recently being asked to opine on things that I don’t really have a strong opinion about. I don’t feel it’s my mission or my message. And so I’m grappling with that, right now. You know, what do you think about you know, COVID? What do you think about the riots? And I’m like, I don’t really think too much. I just want to get stuff done. Okay, I do know that, and I may be misguided here, you know, if someone if you have a platform and influence, maybe you should apply it to things, but it goes back to your values. And it’s one of those things where I don’t feel finding opine on racism, for example, you know, and it’s not something I have a message on, it’s never been a problem for me, for example, right? But nevertheless, I need to opine on this, but it’s not who I am. Maybe I need to become a different person, I’m open to that. Now, maybe I needed to develop opinions on these things. And I’m really currently struggling with this particular problem right now. Other than that, I’m very, very well centered in my values. So having said that, your values do change over time. You know, I may be for 10 years ago and be very convinced. I was the owner of truth and nothing but the truth and now I’m like, well, I’m not so sure. I think something is different. So, you know, I think your values change over time. But I do fairly stand in my values, just in general but when something like this happens, you have to ask yourself, well, should I look at my values, should I possibly readjust those values? Or do I need to stick to my guts? And sometimes, it’s not clear. 

You’re right. And then this is one of the most challenging times we’ve ever seen as far as a level of stress, a lot of anxiety, a level of hopelessness, despair for a lot of folks. One thing it makes me think of is just counting all of our blessings, we’ve just been so thankful that we have, and do the best we can to make a difference in more people’s lives, so that they don’t have to face these things, or they’re empowered to fight against these things. That being said, I just watched it, if you watched it, but, Michael Jordan documentary, it’s called The Last Dance, you know, it’s about the bulls and Michael Jordan. And they brought up this exact subject with Michael and a lot of folks were saying, hey, you have such a platform, and you’re an African American, and you’ve dealt with race in the past and, and he’s a middle-class upbringing, amazing parents, and they, you know, some people criticized him for not saying more or not doing more. And Michael, you know, kind of said, that wasn’t my calling. Right. That wasn’t my position. It’s not that I don’t have an opinion. But in other words, I think sometimes it can actually distract from what might, you know, for example, Michaels’s scenario, Michael inspired the whole world, across, you know, every race, right, in every sport. I mean, he was transformational in so many ways. And has, you know, for him that he was authentic to who he was. And his way was not to necessarily jump into politics, or jump in and be a major character doesn’t mean like, for example, LeBron James, he’s different. He’s authentically who he is. And he speaks out. And I applaud him for that, too. There’s nothing wrong with that. But I really appreciate the way the documentary put that in. If you haven’t seen the last dance, it just came out. And it’s an amazing story of the bulls and Michael Jordan’s journey and a lot of the struggles behind the scenes that a lot of folks don’t know until you’re seeing that inner look. So any thoughts on that? 

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I think it’s very important that you develop your voice. That’s the thing. And I think, especially in the beginning, I was looking for role models, and I started, you know, regurgitating what they were saying, and it wasn’t me. And you got to use your own voice. And this is one of those things. Exactly. Now, let’s say you don’t have a voice on something, I don’t have anything to say, is that okay? Is that your voice? Or should you develop your voice in that way? And that’s the hard part. And the thing that’s absolutely true is that you have to be authentic, every time you try to be someone that you’re not, it’s always going to backfire. It’s always going to and people can see that a mile away. So whatever your style is, whatever your preferences however you speak, whatever you think, whatever you like, whatever you don’t, like, that’s you and that needs to come out. And it’s less stressful that I have to keep all these things in my mind, like all this, whatever image I have, I don’t have to keep in mind as to whoever I am. I like to see you with me, you kind of get what you get, whether you’re on a podcast, or I’m drinking beer over there, I’m gonna be about the same, like, just keep the stress out for me. But figuring out your voice for certain things. It’s an important thing to pay attention to.

So well said and for our listeners, Michael. I didn’t know we’re gonna go here. But I mean, you’re getting some real estate, you get some multifamily, getting some inspiration, but hopefully some authentic feelings about some real struggles that our nation is facing, and that things that that we wrestle with every single day. So with that, Michael, where can our listeners find you? Remind them of Dealmaker Live and the book, you know, what’s the best way for them to connect with you?

Yeah, the main website is themichaelblank.com. That’s b-l-a-n-k.com, or just google apartment building investing, you can find me that way. Deal Maker Live is dealmakerliveevent.com. That’s in the middle of July. It’s a virtual event. And we’re gonna have some pretty cool networking opportunities as well. there as well. The book is called financial freedom with real estate investing. It’s a yellow book, and it’s on Amazon.

Amazing. Thank you, Michael, for sharing your ideas, your deal stories, your expertise for educating us using the gifts you’ve been given to inspire others and you certainly did that today. I want to encourage you to keep using that gift. Keep making a difference in others and keep helping people get passive or active well through multifamily investing. With that, I want to thank our listeners again for listening to another episode of the Capital Gains Tax Solutions Podcast. As always, we believe most high-net-worth individuals and those who helped them struggle with clarifying their capital gains tax deferral options, not having a clear plan is the enemy, and using a proven tax deferral strategy such as the deferred sales trust is the best way for you to grow your wealth. With that please rate review, Subscribe, share this with somebody for some inspiration and some ideas. And we thank you so much for listening by now.

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About Michael Blank

Michael Blank is a leading authority on apartment building investing in the United States. He’s passionate about helping others become financially free in 3-5 years by investing in apartment building deals with a special focus on raising money.

Through his investment company, he controls over $90 million in performing multifamily assets all over the United States and has raised over $21M. In addition to his own investing activities, he’s helped students purchase over 7,600 units valued at over $337M through his unique “Deal Desk” and training programs.

He’s the author of the best-selling book “Financial Freedom With Real Estate Investing” and the host of the popular “Apartment Building Investing” podcast.

Over the years, he has helped hundreds of his clients take back control of their financial future and build their businesses with proven tax-efficient financial solutions, and he is here to share some more wealth and knowledge with us. We’re going to cover the three secrets to your banking system to invest in real estate

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