Harnessing the Power of Partnerships
“We get a good idea. We want to do something and then we find all kinds of excuses for why we shouldn’t do it. You probably experienced this yourself.”
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. We have an amazing 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 Jens Nielsen. Jens started professionally in the IT space and made his transition into real estate using partnerships to get him started. He realized early on that this was going to be the key to his success moving forward. Today he talks to us about how he did this, and what he's doing now to share his knowledge so others can achieve their goals as well.
Key Topics
Tell us about your background
What were the key things that allowed you to go to real estate full-time?
Partnerships are huge in this business, what is some of your biggest tips in building relationships with partners?
What does the American Dream mean to you?
Connect with David Richter:
Email: jens@opendoorscapital.com
Website: https://opendoorscapital.com
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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 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 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. Welcome to the Next Level American Dream podcast. We have an amazing guest for you today. But first, please make sure you have subscribed if you have not already. We also love getting your feedback, the likes, comments, ratings and reviews. Today Sean has a conversation with Jens Nielsen, Jens started professionally in the IT space and made his transition into real estate using partnerships to get him started. He realized early on that this was going to be the key to his success moving forward. Today he talks to us about how he did this and what he's doing now to share his knowledge so others can achieve their dreams as well. 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 01:23
Hi Jens, how are you doing? Thanks for being on the show!
Jens Nielsen 01:25
I'm doing well. Sean, how are you? Doing? Good.
Sean Thomson 01:27
Well, let's start by telling people kind of what your background is where you come from, and then where you are today.
Jens Nielsen 01:32
Absolutely. So some people can be recognized. I have a little bit of an accent. I grew up in Denmark, moved to the United States 25 years ago. So I've lived here half my life. And I am currently living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. But I've been all over the country in various states had a very long IT career 25 plus years. But I've recently kind of transitioned into being a full time real estate investor and coach.
Sean Thomson 02:02
Let's talk about some of the things that I guess may help you transition from worker two to I guess more entrepreneurial space, what are some of the things that kind of allowed you to go from that transition?
Jens Nielsen 02:12
Yeah, so I mean, I you know, I had a good IP job, right. And I was kind of living the what I thought was the American dream of a job and a W two income and 401k and house and all that stuff. I realized in my mid 40s, that maybe that wasn't the the ultimate path. For me, that wasn't the ultimate destiny for me. So in my mid 40s, I decided I needed to do something else. I looked around, you know, at various business opportunities, and I found real estate and I felt like that was really the vehicle that was going to help me exit my job was going to help me create some wealth and passive income. So, you know, about six years ago, I started down this journey of investing, you know, slowly doing it. While I was still doing my w two job, bought a few smaller properties by myself, went into doing some joint ventures, and then eventually translated into, you know, raising money through and doing syndications, which is kind of what we what we do full time now then.
Sean Thomson 03:11
So briefly, what was it about initially about real estate that kind of triggered your interest?
Jens Nielsen 03:16
Yeah, I think it was the fact that I can buy a property, put money into it, put a property manager on there, and then spend very little in my own time, while you know, the tenants are paying the rent, paying down the debt and giving the cash flow life. So there was a that was that ability to earn, quote, unquote, passive income, which is really attractive to me. And, you know, the growth of the growth of real estate has been, you know, one of those things has created more millionaires, I think, than any other type of investment. So it really felt like the right it felt like there was not a linear connection between my hours of work and the income I was going to earn. So that's what really attracted me to it.
Sean Thomson 03:55
The division of labor versus return is definitely skewed in the favor of the returns for sure. So what drew you to multifamily? You started with real estate as a business, but what drew you to multifamily specifically?
Jens Nielsen 04:08
Yeah, so I looked briefly, at single family, I was living in a small town in Colorado, and that wasn't really any multifamily that was really available. So I briefly looked at single family, I was like, oh, man, I have to buy 100 houses to make this work. And I just couldn't really see that it was just too complicated. And too, you know, every house is different. Every house is differently priced and stuff like man, I don't want to go down this route. So I think it was a blessing. The fact that I invested, you know, out of state I went to Albuquerque, New Mexico was about a four hour drive. And I was like, Well, I don't want to buy houses here. I was just gonna go straight to multifamily because it made sense. Of course, I was buying for plexes where you could still get 30 enterprise loans and low interest rates. There's still the lending was easy, but I could I could start that scaling and then after that first couple of four flex as you know, we went to 11 units and 38 units. So very quickly just decided that multifamily was the path right. I know a lot of people made money in single family, this wasn't really on my radar from early on after looking at a few houses.
Sean Thomson 05:14
And so what is it that trend that she went from the smaller properties to where you are now see? Or what was the the key differences that partnerships? Or what was it that made you?
Jens Nielsen 05:24
Yeah, so, you know, I bought 19 units is me and my wife, you know, we're our own savings. And I realized, well, I can, I can not really buy anything very big would buy the rest of my money. But if I could bring in a couple of friends or a couple of partners, we can buy something bigger, and you know, split the investment split the split the profits. So we found this 38 unit deal with, I came in with a couple of my friends, and my other partner who's also my property manager came in, and the five of us brought, you know, the equity to buy this deal. And like, well, well, here I am, you know, $100,000, my own money would have gotten me a four Plex, or how $1,000 of my own money together, my friends, gave us 38 units that we could then you know, get that into that scale, and start benefiting from a much bigger property with the benefits of that, you know, one roof of all those units and shared mechanical systems and all that. So that really helped with that scaling portion of it.
Sean Thomson 06:26
Sorry, continuing that that component of your business of partnering on on more deals, are you playing with other people? Or do you have your core group now.
Jens Nielsen 06:34
So that was the initial kind of joint venture, I then moved on to started doing syndications, I ran into a guy who's now been my business partner for almost three years, I met him at an event and he was starting down to he had done like one syndication, he was getting ready to do another one. And I started talking to him about it, I realized that I could add a lot of value to what he was doing, you know, he was really the, the big dreamer and the guy who had put the, you know, the broker relationships and was also also local SUTA property. I'm more the analytical side of things like, Oh, well, let me do the underwriting, let's help with the raising of capital with the systems and all that. So we dived Well, in the sense that we we had complementary skills. And after doing, you know, that deal with him, so that was in 2019, we did that first deal. Then last year, we did you know, two or three more deals this year, we've done nine deals together. So I started 2021, we've done nine deals together. So it really went from just one to really growing it. But every deal I did last year, I really just partner with him, because we complement each other so well. And we like each other and we run a good business together.
Sean Thomson 07:45
So what do you think is most important in in you guys started with that first deal, but now you're doing nine deals together? Is that? Are you guys continuing to expand your partner network? Or what is it that what is the that's been critical to make that success happen? Yeah, so
Jens Nielsen 07:59
you know, we've partnered with multiple people on different deals, depending on the location, we've done a lot of the investing in, in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2021. So we partner with a couple of different groups there. And we look at, you know, we've had some partners that they've actually brought the deals to us, but they needed some net worth and some other things, you know, to sponsor it, we kind of helped to put that deal together, then we found another deal that be brought to some people that could help us raise the equity and close it. So, you know, it's my name is Jason. So me and Jason, we connect on a lot of different deals together. But we may bring in other partners, depending on the location, depending on if we need to raise the capital or wherever that is, right. But it seems like every time we we just kind of like, hey, we come as a unit. So you know, we just kind of both come into those deals together and then bring other partners as needed.
Sean Thomson 08:54
Yeah, so you have sort of a core, you, you and your partner have a core, I guess, the unit of the two of you, and then as needed for locations or whatever the deal particular deal needs, you guys will bring in additional resources that you have in your network to kind of fill out that that those roles in that ownership group. Right. That's right.
Jens Nielsen 09:14
Yeah. You know, so we, you know, we have lending network and we have, you know, we have the systems in place to help with demanding the investors and you know, so we've done it so many times. Now. We're like, we're kind of it's, quote unquote, easy for us to put a deal together. So we help people that are trying to do their first a second deal, and they need a sponsor or whatever. So yeah, that's pretty much how it is right? I think we complement each other well, doing that. And then he also has a property management company, which helps in the local stuff in western Pennsylvania and in the Ohio, Cleveland area.
Sean Thomson 09:48
So he handles all your property management after you that you guys acquire everything
Jens Nielsen 09:52
in that in that region of the country. Yes, yeah.
Sean Thomson 09:55
Perfect. And so what what do you guys continuing to do now? Are you are you you're just gonna come to buy more properties, or what is what's sort of happening for your future in that syndication space?
Jens Nielsen 10:04
Yes, I mean, we were we, you know, we grew pretty rapidly last year, right. So we just kind of taking a breather, because we're doing some really heavy rehab on some of the properties and the clothes and stuff just right before the end of the year that we're trying to, you know, start really operating. So definitely focus a little bit on operation, getting the systems in place for the asset management, but also continue to look at deals right in that area, we have a few deals in the pipeline, I think we want to go bigger, one of our partners have connected with a potential family office that wants to do some bigger stuff. So we're trying to understand what that would look like, right? So you know, a bread and butter and a lot of people say, Oh, we want to buy 200 units that can't do anything less, we have actually been more opportunistic and said, you know, 70, or 80, unit deals still make sense, because we can plug it into existing infrastructure. So that helps us with buying Grunkle smaller deals and may not have the same level of competition. So we'll continue to do that. But you know, it'll be exciting to do, you know, $100 million $50 million deal or something like that, that we can, that we can put together with with some equity from a family office. So that's being explored on us not sure what that will take us yet.
Sean Thomson 11:13
Yeah, so having your own property management entity, that definitely helps with doing those 70 to 80 unit deals, because property management is always a struggle with that particular size of property. And if you have multiple properties of that size in one location, then you can sort of cross over your staff, right. So the biggest, like we have a 76 unit deal. And the biggest issue is payroll, right? Because you you, you need a certain number of people to run that property, but the property only makes certain amount of money. So you're always kind of forcing the payroll issue, right. And so that, that that specific size property is kind of a struggle because of that issue. But if you're scaling, and you have multiples of that size, you can take, you can take guys from here and run them over here and to do maintenance and things like that. And if you're managing that yourself, that gives you a real operational advantage that we think in being able to do that, that that size, a property that's a lot of people are overlooking because it's either too big for a smaller buyer, or it's too small for a larger buyer. Right. So that's, that's a good window, I would think that'd be a good advantage for you guys.
Jens Nielsen 12:15
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we bought, we literally owned 20 individual units and Cleveland Heights that 300 Not units, buildings, 20 buildings, that's over 300 units, but they're all within you know, half a mile three quarters of a mile from each other. Right. So exactly, we have maintenance guys that are running between the different buildings, you know, and leasing that runs between them, but we mark it market it as one, you know, it's a portfolio, so we can have a tenant that wasn't able to think on the studio two or three bedrooms, we probably have it. So we have that advantage of offering different, you know, different types of units for different tenants, while we are at the same time don't need a property manager in every single building. Right? So that helps us a lot. In that sense.
Sean Thomson 12:59
Yeah, you're able to run it like a 300 unit property, but it's spread out in different actual properties. But you but you have that scale there. That's that's really quite ingenious.
Jens Nielsen 13:08
Yeah, that's, that's an interesting model. It's creating some operational challenges. I had to figure all that out. Right. But we are, you know, we definitely would definitely like that model, I think we will continue to by, you know, plugging in additional properties as they become available.
Sean Thomson 13:26
I think that gives you a good advantage, because that's that space of property size is always challenging. And I think a lot of people, a lot of people overlook it, either from the bottom or from the top. So that's, that's a good, that's a good advantage of that. And so I know you're doing some coaching and some events and things, what else? What other stuff? Are you kind of working on in your, your business?
Jens Nielsen 13:44
Yeah, so I mean, you know, one of the one of the key things for me, and I want to maybe step back, when I was starting out in this business, I thought I was I could figure it all out by myself, you know, and I'm smart enough and all those things. But I realized at some point, I needed a little bit of help. I needed a little bit of guidance and coaching and training. So I you know, early Well, after a couple years of flailing around, I decided to hire my own coach, my own mentor, and it adds so much value to me. And I've always liked to teach and train. So I decided that I want to become a coach, I want to start you know, kind of paying this forward helping the next generation of investors to take more action, right? Because we so often get stuck in our limiting beliefs. We're not good enough or smart enough or whatever excuses we come up to and we don't take action, we get stuck in you know, analysis paralysis. So my coaches and mentors have helped me tremendously. So I decided I wanted to go into that. So initially, I started by you know, I guess it was like consulting or helping people underwriting stuff, but then I ended up getting certified as as a high performance coach, which is really a lot about mindset. It's about, you know, the clarity and Vision and energy and productivity and influence all these things that are really helped people in any aspect of their lives, it can be with their business, be their personal life, most people still have, you know, they're starting to have a W two job that can help them there. But I really think that that's what helps to push people forward, the God that certification and I spend a fair bit of my time coaching, real estate investors, you know, they want to learn the technical piece, I'll help them or they want to learn, or they want to help, you know, grow from an individual from a personal level, I help them there, too. So that's my other business, you know, my real estate business and my coaching business. Other two thing, and as you mentioned, so we're putting on our first event in Denver, 18th 19th and 20th of March this year, so people can go to my website, it's called Pay it full mastermind.com. So they can go there, and they can learn about that event that'd be going to be running, then.
Sean Thomson 15:58
Yeah, we'll make sure to put that in the description below that, you know, I think so much of what we do. So I come from just like you, I worked my whole life, I kind of started real estate late. And, you know, I think so much of what you do is about overcoming the fears, and like you said, limiting beliefs that you have to go out and take these risks and to do these big things in your life, right? If you're anybody that's trying to achieve something, you know, I know you're a cyclist as well, even in cycling, if you're trying to achieve something big in cycling, you're trying to do these massive races, or you're trying to, you know, go to the Olympics, or whatever it is, at some point, it becomes beyond your physical capacity, it becomes something that's in your mind, right, the edge that you're going to get is in your mental edge. It's not it's not about how stronger, smarter faster you know, you really are. It's it's about how how well you deal with the mental challenges. And I think in business, it's, it's the same thing, you're always trying to overcome fear, I constantly am dealing with my fears and my limiting beliefs every day. And it's something that you have to just continually challenge and challenge and challenge to kind of redevelop what your mind thinks of as a real challenge, right. So if you, if you if your line is drawn here, you've got to, you've got to test that line all the time. So you're, you have a new line that's further out, right. And so I love that idea of having someone that can help you through those things. You know, I have people in my life that have helped me through kind of understanding and identifying that I even have these fears and how to work through them, and how to, you know, kind of how to get beyond those things. But it's something that you're always challenging yourself to do. And I think as an entrepreneur, if you have someone in your life that's kind of helping you through that. It's amazing, I would think, right?
Jens Nielsen 17:39
Yeah, absolutely. Because, you know, you probably experienced this yourself, we get a good idea, we want to do something, and then we find all kinds of excuses why we shouldn't do it, right? If I take any action, if you have a code. And I you know, I ask questions, you know, and I get people to really think about what they want. I said, okay, cool. That sounds awesome. By when are you going to do it right, and get some commitment around people taking action, because it's so easy to just, yeah, it sounds good, but I'm not really ready for it. And it's just the fear that shows up. But the uncertainty or whatever, yeah, you know, it is difficult to become a successful real estate investor, you have to put a lot of time into it. And it takes time to get to that point where things started to take take off. And most people just don't have the same power if they're trying to do it by themselves. Right. You know, and it's so interesting, you know, coming from, you know, your cycle and being in that in the cycling business, quote, unquote, you know, any professional cyclist has multiple coaches for many, many years, right? I wouldn't be higher coach for our own personal life. I mean, that's even so much more important, because it is so many aspects of our lives that can be impacted by that. So thanks. So interesting.
Sean Thomson 18:51
Yeah. And I think like you said, it's just it's overcoming those things. And it's not even necessarily, you know, teaching someone how to do something, it's just, it's just helping someone kind of get out of their own way. You know, not every idea is great, but you may have a good idea that needs to be explored. And the world around you, I think the world around you as an entrepreneur, like most people don't understand my life at all. Like, I tried to explain what my day looks like, and they're just like, What, are you kidding me? You know, because they're, they're accustomed to showing up at a corporate headquarters or a business or something at nine o'clock, or eight o'clock or whatever, and going home at six or five, or seven or whatever. And that's the regimen. They when they go home, they're off the clock, you know, my life has doesn't have business hours, my life is my life is work and play and family and fun and everything all at the same time. You know, it's a really weird life. And if you if you don't know how to kind of build that, it's, it's, it's the 99% of the rest of the world doesn't understand it anyway. So it's like, how do you base your life around something that most people can't comprehend? And so just kind of identifying and building that stuff is a mystery to most people. And until you've done it for a long time, you just Can't you can't even envision it. I tell people all the time about my day or my life, they're just, they're baffled by it. So I think having someone that can kind of help you through that is is critical, especially if you're getting started. And then like I said, for me, just being afraid of doing something is the first obstacle I have to overcome almost every time I have to believe in myself, first of all, and while I was getting into multifamily, it took me a year to make the transition, because I wanted to do it. But I wasn't sure if I could do it right, I had to convince myself that I could do it right. So I think that's amazing to be able to do that. As a coach, I would love to be able to be a coach, but I don't know if I have what it takes to be a coach really, but
Jens Nielsen 20:39
you have the passion for helping other people, anybody come with become a coach. And just to learn a few techniques and skills, it's not that hard. But it really is important to have somebody that can give an objective input, right? Because you ask your spouse, your kids are your boss, of whomever, everybody has a vested interest in a certain outcome. Your code usually doesn't have that they're like, well, that's that's your life, you can make those decisions. It doesn't impact me. But I want to help you to be successful, but I'm not going to try to hold you back because of my own fears. Right. I mean, if you're successful, awesome, then I feel like I'm successful, too. Right. So I think there's a lot of that going on as well.
Sean Thomson 21:19
Yeah, done. The people that people around, you oftentimes are the ones that are your biggest anchors, they want to kind of keep you safe, they want to keep you comfortable, they want to keep you out of danger. And everything that we do in this business. It's it feels dangerous all the time, right. I, I now use fear, it's kind of my, my, that's the direction I'm heading. Because I know that's where I need to go right. And most people want to keep you out of that they want to keep you safe, right? And the people around you that love you the most, they're the worst. They're always like you do you really want to do that? Do you really risk? Do you really want to invest all that money, you know? And so sometimes those people that are closest to you that are the ones that are dragging you back the most. But anyway, tell me about your event? You have a it's a mastermind you're putting on? Yeah, so basically,
Jens Nielsen 22:02
as I mentioned, from that passion of helping people to grow and do that first deal, the second deal, right really got a concept of like paying it forward, because I've gotten a lot of help from mentors and partners. So we are going to kind of take that concept and pay it forward. So we want to bring in, you know, investors, not the guys who have you know, 10,000 doors, but the ones who maybe have done a couple of deals that need to step to get to the next level, right. So we want to help them both through networking, through masterminding to coaching and training, actionable trainings that will be underwriting and asset management and broker connections. And we will have a guy that has really done raised a lot of money, and we have some branding experts. So really just creating a community of people that want to work together want to grow together, right? So so it's you know, you get an opportunity to collaborate with people that that can be become your partner, it can be become your investors, they can become, you know, people that you can, you can really work together with. So that's why we call it the paid forward event. And we're super excited about it.
Sean Thomson 23:11
So it's for those people that are kind of, they're already started in that they've already kind of closed one or two of their deals. But they're trying to get to that next level. And they're looking for some of that those resources and education for that. And and then you're also I guess you're kind of the idea is to build people that are that are paying it forward themselves as well at the same time, right, that are out there in the community helping other people that haven't quite done their first deal maybe or something.
Jens Nielsen 23:37
Yeah, absolutely. Right. So like we are doing now we're helping, you know, partnering with people that are to do their first larger deal, right? So we want to, you know, spread that message to the next generation of investors, like, Hey, we're paying it forward by training you guys. Now, you know, a few years down the road, we hope you can carry that torch forward, right and help that next generation because I feel like it is, you know, I feel like the more people we can help on our way forward, the broader our community is the better chance we have of just, you know, impacting many more people and spreading that message of how important real estate investing can be and all the benefits from it. Right? So there's, you know, I feel like the pie, it only only grows bigger, the more people that are involved versus a limiting belief around that.
Sean Thomson 24:26
Right abundance, right? The abundance mindset. So it's I'm curious about your answer to this question. So I asked everybody, you know, the the name of the podcast next level American dream, and you technically are from Copenhagen. Right? So I'm curious about your answer on this. So what what is the American dream to you? And kind of what is it that you're doing to maybe achieve that American dream?
Jens Nielsen 24:47
Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting question, right? Because growing up in another country, you know, America was like this shining beacon you know, with big houses and big cars and all this money right coming here. I think really what I love about this country is just the diversity both in its people and and in its landscapes. Right. So I've lived on the East Coast, I've lived in the high mountains of Colorado, now I'm in New Mexico, and I love this, the West and the Southwest. So the abundance of opportunities in the outdoors, that's definitely part of that dream, for sure. But also, I think the, the ability to, to grow, you know, I mean, I had a comfortable w two job, and I would have been fine. But now suddenly, just a few years down this path, I was like, Oh, my God, I could not see me read this, quote, unquote, level of success back in Denmark, because it's not as the business is not as easy to pull money together and do apartment. So really, the ability to go out and create your own your own fortune through hard work and connections with people and so forth. I think that's really what it is, to me,
Sean Thomson 25:59
you've got a lot going on with coaching and your events and things. So I'm sure a lot of people are gonna want to reach out to you and find out more about that. What's the best place for people to go to to to kind of get in contact with you and find out what you have going on?
Jens Nielsen 26:10
Yeah, absolutely. So they can go to my website at open doors with an s capital.com. And I have a link there. If somebody wants to, you know, go on a quick call with me and just kind of chat about investing or quoting. And my email is jens@opendoorscapital.com, and you can find me on the socials. But I'm more on email kind of guy. So that's probably the easiest way to get hold of me.
Sean Thomson 26:35
Okay, and I might, I might get more information from you on that event, too. That sounds like something I might come out for. Absolutely, if you'll have me so, of course. Yeah. Well, thanks, gents. I really appreciate you coming on. It's it's great talk to you. And hopefully I'll see it maybe at the event. And I'm sure we'll talk some more down the road too.
Jens Nielsen 26:53
Sounds good. Sean, thanks for your time. Talk to you soon. Bye.
Abigail Thomson 26:57
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.