Fighting Fire and Financial Freedom
“We’re also students of the game, we want to keep on expanding our knowledge and we want to keep on studying alongside some of the best minds in the industry.”
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. We have a motivating guest 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 Timothy Lyons. Tim is a capital raising for operators across the nation and an active New York firefighter. He shares with us what it's like to be in both worlds and they intertwine. If you found any value from today's episode, then please share it with a friend and help us grow.
Key Topics
Tell us about your background
How did you go from being a firefighter to in real estate?
What inspired that transition?
What are some skills you think prepared you for real estate that you learned prior?
What does the American Dream mean to you?
Connect with Tim Lyons:
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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, their 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 their 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.
Abigail Thomson 00:34
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. We have a motivating guest for you today. But first, please make sure you have subscribed if you have not already. We also love getting your feedback through likes, comments, ratings and reviews. Today, Shawn has a conversation with Timothy Lyons. Tim is a capital raiser for operators across the nation and is an active New York firefighter. He shares with us what it's like to be in both worlds and how they intertwine. 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 thomsonmultifamilygroup.com to start taking your American dream to the next level through passive investing.
Sean Thomson 01:15
Hi Tim, thanks for coming on the show.
Tim Lyons 01:17
Thank you so much for having me. Happy New Year.
Sean Thomson 01:19
Happy New Year to you, too. Let's start off with just kind of your background and where you came from and where you are today.
Tim Lyons 01:27
Yeah, so currently, I am a Lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department. And I've been doing that just under 17 years. And like a lot of firefighters I had a second second job side hustle, if you will, and I was an ER nurse at a level one trauma center. So life was good. You know, I've had two job exciting to show up to two jobs that I liked or loved. I loved being in New York City firemen. I liked being an ER nurse. But what happened was, you know, I had three little girls that now 10, eight and two, and I found myself working just more and more and more, you know, which was 7080, sometimes 90 hours a week. And you know, yes, the bills were paid. Yes, the you know, we want to family vacations and retirement accounts, we're getting contributions. But, you know, I think you know, before I went down this journey of real estate investing, and, you know, financial education, I didn't understand a lot of a lot of the concepts that I now know. And you know, I was just I was stuck in the W two grind. And real estate investing was one of those things that I was going to do one day, one day, I'll get involved one day, I'll do it, I need more education, I need another conference, I need another podcast, I need more money. And then finally, you know, everything clicked the summer of 19. When I really got I got focused, and I read you know, the book that kind of changes a lot of people's lives. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. And within within three months of reading that book, I was closing on my first rental property, which was a three unit property that I literally just sold, you know, in November after two years of holding it. And that's how I got started into real estate, and very quickly realized that I wanted to be in the multifamily space. And although the three family was great, and I was getting a great education by being the landlord and active management, I really felt like I wanted the needle moved a lot more than what I was getting from that property. And like the saying goes, you don't know what you don't know. And I kind of just you know, that's the the origin of my story. And I'd be more than happy to unpack where we are today with you.
Sean Thomson 03:33
So are you still active in the firefighting? Do you still have the nursing job?
Tim Lyons 03:39
No, I give the nursing up. Right? Right, you know, right when I bought that three family property, so I would say November of maybe 19, December of 19, I gave that up to focus really on on real estate, I think my wife was cool with me having two jobs, but having three jobs was gonna be it was gonna be too much so so I gave that up and I jumped into real estate and you know, very quickly after the three family that's when I really decided to get educated to surround myself with other people that were doing what it was that I wanted to be doing in multifamily, and that's how the multifamily journey got started.
Sean Thomson 04:10
And real estate was your eyes were kind of open to real estate as a possibility for achieving your goals from the Rich Dad Poor Dad book. Is that where you kind of like the catalyst for that?
Tim Lyons 04:19
Yeah, Rich Dad, Poor Dad really kicked it off. And right after that, I really just started getting into a ton of content, you know, podcasts and audiobooks. I mean, I literally, you know, took the Pandora music app off my phone because I don't use it anymore. You know, even if I have to go to the supermarket five minutes away. I'm trying to take five minutes in a podcast really kind of just kicked it into high gear.
Sean Thomson 04:39
And so you're working as a firefighter today. And so real estate is really your side hustle. Are you still buying investment property now or talking about kind of your real estate position that you have today?
Tim Lyons 04:50
Yeah, so once I did the three family and I wanted to do multifamily, I ended up joining a coaching program and got into a community of like minded folks and through that community I had a coach. And that coach invited me into a deal that he was doing, which was a 43 units syndication, I really didn't know much about syndication, I'd heard of it, I knew that what the deals kind of looked like on the outside, but I really kind of joined that community wanting to do just bigger deals, 1020 30 unit deals with my dad and my brothers, maybe a couple of friends, a syndication wasn't on my radar. And then when I had the opportunity to do the deal with Chris, my coach was a 43 unit in Pennsylvania. And he, you know, kind of gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to join, join him on that project and to see what syndication was from the inside. And my eyes were just wide open. And I fell in love with the process. And at the end of that process, Chris asked me if I could raise any capital for the deal. He said, You want to give it a shot. And I really told him, I'm like, Listen, don't, you know, don't hold me to any sort of money because I've never done this before. And I didn't think I could raise even, you know, $10,000. And we ended up raising, you know, 150,000, you know, for that deal, which was amazing to me, I just didn't think I could do that. And then once I had that, you know, that opportunity before me, I said, Wow, this is really powerful. I really fell in love with that whole process. And I really thought that, you know, since multifamily is a team sport that, you know, investor relations, capital raising could be a strong point in our in our brand new business.
Sean Thomson 06:28
Yeah, there's essentially two, there's essentially two silos of responsibility in multifamily. There's, there's finding deals and finding money, right. And so if you can do one or the other, or both, then you're really, that's really all you need to be able to do. And in multifamily, like you said, it's a team sport. So a lot of times, you'll have guys who are out hustling deals, and they're operating the deal, but the they're not focused on find finding capital, that was one of my problems early on, is that we, I focus solely on being good at finding deals. And I realized, you know, it doesn't matter how good I am at buying deals if I can't pay for them, right. So those two things kind of go hand in hand. And you can do that through partnerships, or, you know, through your own work, I guess, too, but so you guys have decided to focus, focus on capital raising and your business.
Tim Lyons 07:13
So initially, I mean, we really didn't like if you if you would have told me where I am today, two years ago, I probably would have thought you were crazy. Because this wasn't on our radar. And, you know, through the community that we joined, you know, we were able to do the first deal and then very quickly, deal number two came and then quickly after that deal number three came and you know, just by by partnering with the people in our in our little group in our network, and so
Sean Thomson 07:36
that by the end of that Jake and Gino you're in Jake and Gino? Yeah, correct? Yep. I saw you at the conference there. Not too long ago. That's a great group. I really, I really liked the people that were there. We had a, I met some fantastic people, like you guys there. And so yeah, that's a good, that's a good place to start for you.
Tim Lyons 07:53
No doubt. And listen, as a New Yorker, I'm very skeptical by nature. So I took my time reading some of these other groups and, you know, really trying to get to know them and what they stood for and what the group was like. So when I found Jake and Gino, I knew that I had found a very special group, and it didn't hurt that they were from New York too. So you know. So basically, we did three deals, you know, 43 144, and then 148 units, and the second one was in South Carolina, the third one in Sarasota, Florida. And by that time, Greg and I like wow, like, holy cow. Like we have 300 Something units. This is crazy. Like, I never thought I'd even be in this position. And you know, we really had to make a choice like, where are we going to? What what spot on the bench? Are we going to occupy to move our business forward to support our fellow co sponsors? You know, what are we going to do? You know, because I was living, you know, in New York, Greg's in Virginia. And you know, we weren't exactly going to be able to just pick up our families and move to Florida or the Carolinas or Texas or Arizona. So, you know, raising equity for deals made sense to us. But as you know, you can't just raise money for deals and get paid for it and then kind of move on to the next deal, that's illegal, you'll end up in jail because you're violating SEC rules and laws. So, you know, Greg and I, you know, decided to, you know, find out who was out there that was raising capital and doing so in a legal and compliant manner. We ended up getting connected with a group that was just starting a broker dealer that was focused specifically on multifamily and self storage syndications. And it was kind of like it was tailor made for us, like it was exactly what we were looking for. The only downside was that we had to study for three exams and get licensed, which was, you know, a little bit of a bigger time commitment than I think I was looking for in the beginning, but I'm glad I'm glad you know, we did it. So essentially, what we're doing now is we really kind of we work with operators or you know, like yourself who have an equity requirement, and maybe they're really good grabbing deals, you know, the acquisition side they have to do relationships with the brokers, maybe their asset managers and property managers, but they don't have the skill set or the want or the desire, or the depth of investor relations and the ability to raise equity for for multiple deals. And that's kind of where we come in. And we support the operators with, with investors, both retail and institutional investors. And that's how, you know, that's how we support, you know, the operators. And that's how we kind of built our business. So, you know, the, the fact that we got licensed was huge, because now we can just focus on that one area and stay in bounds and do it in a compliant manner.
Sean Thomson 10:42
Yeah, and so you just kind of described me in that in that statement, Indigo. So that's, that's kind of what we did, we focused on finding deals. And, you know, so much of this business is relationships. And so for the first couple years of my startup, I focused on broker relationships. So now I have fantastic broker relationships. But, you know, my, my capital side is, was I neglected to kind of build that up at the same time, we focus so much energy on deal finding. And so now we're starting those relationships, but it really is about relationship business, no one's going to invest with you unless they know like, and trust you, and feel good about your track record, or, you know, kind of how you run your business I, I have come from a single family background. And the investors that I do have my business from my single family days, they they love me, you know, because they know, they know, they know who I am, how I operate, you know, they know that I'm committed to making sure their capitalist is preserved at all costs, you know, so they kind of know me already. So for them, it was an easy sell. I just said, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop buying houses, I'm gonna buy bigger projects. And they were like, Sure, here's my money, let's go. But, you know, the problem is I went from needing a million dollars to $5 million. Right? Yeah. And so that scale is I've just wasn't there for doing that. So having someone like you, that's out there, building that side of the business for someone like me, is a perfect marriage. Right? So we, you know, we kind of need that kind of help with in a lot of ways in our deals moving forward. So it makes it kind of an interesting component for someone that's in my position for sure. Do you want to talk about how those how those are working now? Or are you? Are you working with specific operators? Are you working within your group? What kind of how is it working now that you're in your business?
Tim Lyons 12:21
Yeah, and I'll definitely answer that question. I wanted to stack one thing on top of what you just said, you know, in an environment of falling cap rates, and a lot of deal flow, you know, there's a big equity requirement from even the most seasoned, you know, operators out there, who can raise millions 10s of millions of dollars by them, because if they're doing more than a couple of deals per year, their investor base might be exhausted, after, you know, contributing to, you know, several deals in a year. So even the big names in the space have a equity, which is why, you know, as a middle kind of equity provider, like cityside, capital, our company, that's why we exist, you know, but yeah, I mean, it's not just you, it's everybody, I mean, everybody out there, and there's a lot of money out there, and people just don't know, by and large, in my experience now is people don't know that this kind of space in real estate exists. You know, Greg and I always talk about real estate having a marketing problem, because of the late night infomercials or HGTV people think it's a get rich, quick overnight, you know, Bitcoin billionaire situation, and it's not, you know, so we've kind of grown our business by by, you know, starting a podcast, doing a YouTube channel, doing, you know, other speaking engagements go into meetups, because I think it's really powerful. And when people can, can see that there's other ways to invest in real estate, besides you being the owner, operator, deal finder, capital raiser, everything on one, you know, but, you know, for our business, you know, my company, cityside capital, we're one of 18 of the groups on this platform. So, you know, we can raise a lot of money as a as a group. And, you know, the way it kind of works is we have this onboarding process for operators, who, you know, want to be, you know, acknowledged by our, by our platform and onboard and then, you know, when they have a deal on the contract, they would share it with our, with our platform, we have our own due diligence team, our own compliance team and our own legal team, we kind of go through the deal ourselves. And you know, when it checks all the boxes, you know, we will actually go out to our individual investors with the deal. So the benefit for the investor is that, you know, they get a doubly underwritten type of opportunity, you know, so that they know that the people that we work with, we've done our due diligence on them as a firm and then we're also doing the due diligence on each individual project that comes across our desk. So, I mean, that's kind of how it works for the investor side on the operator side, you know, when they get a deal, because everybody's always looking for deals, right, Shawn? I mean, everyone's always constant underwriting looking for deals. So basically, you know, when when an operator gets a deal, and they need to go on to the next step and due diligence, that's when they give us a heads up saying, you know, we have a deal Under contracts, we're doing due diligence right now, here's we're looking at, they'll send over the T 12, and the rent roll and some of their preliminary underwriting so that we can take a look at the deal. I mean, if we want to move forward, which, you know, we tend to do, because we're working with some pretty some pretty high quality operators, you know, that's when we'll start prepping our own internal document and our own marketing materials. And that's when we'll get together as a group and vote on the deal. And then if we go forward with it, put it out to our investors.
Sean Thomson 15:29
Yeah, so I think the way you guys do things is great, because if you're, if you're an investor, one of the obstacles that you have is just understanding the game, right? And knowing how to operators and knowing how to bet deals is a complicated business, right. And so a lot of times, you have to just find an operator that you trust, and you kind of hope that they're doing a good job. Well, in your case, if someone's investing through you guys with me, or somebody else, you've previously vetted me, so you've looked at me and my background, and, and you've decided that what I do and had, the way I do things is kind of proper, and you know, I'm using best practices and all those sorts of things. And, and I don't have any criminal history, you know, all those, all those things you would want to know about someone in my position, you guys kind of go through that vetting process. And then secondarily, like you said, you look at the deal itself. So an investor, you know, can be confident that I've underwritten it, so that I'm trying to make money for myself as well. I'm a good operator, because you guys have looked at me, and then you guys are looking at it again. So by the time an investor sees a deal, it's kind of been through the wringer. And there's some there's a confidence level there, I think, for someone trying to invest, right?
Tim Lyons 16:33
Absolutely. And that's our selling point to our investors, you know, they look, you know, you know, you don't know where to turn, you have 100, grand, whatever that you want to invest in, in over 50,000 into a deal. But you know, you don't have the time to do it by yourself. You don't have the interest to do it by yourself. But then how do you know who to choose? I mean, you just start Googling people. And that's kind of where we come in and say, Look, you know, we've done, we've done all the heavy lifting, we've vetted them, they're out there, they're good to go. And here's their track record. And here's what we've done with them. And then that's, that's when we start, you know, building that relationship.
Sean Thomson 17:05
Yeah, I think that's an excellent way to go about it. I liked the way you guys have set that up. So where are you headed now? What's kind of next for city side capital?
Tim Lyons 17:13
Yeah, so I mean, we, you know, we worked with eight sponsors, we're in the process of onboarding two more sponsors onto our platform, which is exciting writing different areas of the country that we're investing in. And, you know, we have our internal goals of you know, how much money we want to raise and some other kind of metrics. And we're really looking forward to 2022, because we just started our own podcast, we have some speaking engagements going on throughout the country this year. And you know, with COVID, kind of lightening up and people traveling more, we're looking forward to it, and some more conferences, because at the end of the day, I mean, Greg and I, we're investing in the deals right alongside our investors. So you know, we're also students of the game, and we feel very, we feel really good about where we are. But we also we want to keep on expanding our knowledge for students, you know, and we want to keep on studying alongside some of the best minds. So we'll be doing a lot of traveling this year and, you know, talk with a lot of investors raising raising capital, and you know, just doing doing deals that make sense.
Sean Thomson 18:09
You work at UC, you work with your brother, Greg, I guess we didn't mention that early on. But so you work with your brother Greg, and you also work with your dad, right? Is it kind of a family but Well,
Tim Lyons 18:17
Greg and I are partners with the principles of city capital. A big rich, my dad, he's, he's more of the cheerleader, I guess. Okay. Still working? Yeah, he works at the banker in New York City, although he's been working remote ever since COVID. But he's about to retire. And I you know, he I guess we can call him an advisor. But there's really no, there's no set place for him right
Sean Thomson 18:35
now. Well, I asked everybody, this, you know, the name of the podcast, next little American Dream podcast. And so I asked everybody kind of what is the American Dream sort of mean to you?
Tim Lyons 18:43
Yeah, you know, what I, during this journey I had, I've had the opportunity to coach with this guy, Trevor McGregor, who's a master platinum coach. And he really opened my eyes, some called the five freedoms, and it's really, it's about working towards, you know, not only just financial freedom, which I think a lot of people in their mind when they think about freedom, they think about financial freedom, but he really talks about you know, time freedom for doing things with your friends and family and really being intentional with your own time, freedom of relationships, you know, really kind of building out the relationships that you want to have, and those that you want to stay away from, you know, the fourth one would be geographic freedom, you know, the the power and ability these days supposed to be to kind of live and work wherever you want. And then the fifth one is really impact, you know, how do you want to have an impact on either you, your family, your community, your church, your investment, you know, group and that's really what I'm focused on now. Right? It's like the American dream is not just you know, having a home and a job and a pension to look forward to which is all great stuff. But it's really having and moving into you know, and stepping into those other five freedoms and really kind of serving other people you know, the way that you that you want to be served as well,
Sean Thomson 19:52
right? Yeah, time time. Freedom is one of the big one of the big things we hear all the time on the show. So let's good a time. So you just started podcasts you guys have a lot going on. If someone wanted to kind of connect with you and learn more about what you guys have going on or listen to the podcast, where's the best place for them to kind of reach out to you guys?
Tim Lyons 20:09
Yeah, great. Thanks for mentioning that right so we're we have a podcast called The passive income brothers podcast that's on all the major podcast platforms. YouTube channel, if you just Google you know, search for city side capital, you'll find us there. And then city side cap calm is the website in case you want to check us out and hop on a call.
Sean Thomson 20:28
That's awesome. Well, thanks, Tim. I really appreciate you being on the show. And hopefully we'll run to each other at the next conference or something and to get to hang out a little Awesome. Yeah, looking forward to it. Thanks again. We'll talk to you soon.
Abigail Thomson 20:40
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 the team directly or interested in passively investing and being a part of our deal room? Head over to our website at www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com Before you go please leave a review your comments help us create more episodes for you to enjoy.