Wholesaling into the Sunset
On this episode of Next Level American Dream, Abigail and Sean are joined by Nick Lamagna. Nick has been a Real Estate Investor since 2006 and by using a variety and some extremely diverse avenues of real estate to become successful, he has grown an impressive portfolio. Today, Nick informs listeners about his business being focused on wholesaling and his unique organization system he has implemented.
Key Topics
Avenues of Real Estate Nick focuses on
Business centered around Wholesaling
What his whiteboard and notebook organization system looks like
Connect with Nick Lamagna:
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
multifamily, wholesaling, day, deal, people, American Dream, focus, money, bit, wholesale, single, mobile home parks, business, helped, whiteboards, week, market, properties, podcast, real estate
SPEAKERS
Sean Thomson, Abigail Thomson, Nick Lamagna
Abigail Thomson 00:01
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast brought to you by Thomson Multifamily Group. Your hosts, Abigail and Sean, will discuss how you can take your American Dream to the next level through real estate investing, business practices, and personal development. Join us as we share our experiences as a father daughter duo who are trying to accomplish our goal of financial freedom. We hope you learn more about how to define and achieve your American Dream. Here's another episode of Next Level American Dream. Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. We have an amazing guest for you today, but first, please make sure you have subscribed if you haven't already. We love hearing your feedback through likes, comments, ratings, and reviews. Today, Sean chats with Nick Lamagna. Nick has been a Real Estate Investor since 2006, and by using a variety and some extremely diverse avenues of real estate to become successful, he has grown an impressive portfolio. Today, Nick informs listeners about his business being focused on wholesaling and a unique organization system he has implemented. If you found any value from today's episode, please share it with a friend and help us grow! For more information on our sponsor, visit: www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com to start taking your American Dream to the next level through passive investing.
Sean Thomson 01:23
Hi, Nick! Thanks for being on the Next Level American Dream Podcast. We appreciate you being here!
Nick Lamagna 01:27
Thanks so much for having me, man. I'm excited!
Sean Thomson 01:29
Well, tell us a little bit about your background and where you came from and where you are now and what you have going on today.
Nick Lamagna 01:36
Sure. So, I'm born and raised in Long Island, New York. I split my time now between New York and Chicago, but, you know, I started out basically just, you know, kind of an idiot just looking to hang out and party with my buddies. Then, all my friends started going to college. I realized, hey, you know, this, I didn't realize that anybody had any sort of intention of doing anything with their life. So I got myself out to, you know, I went to community college for a year, killed it over there, once I applied myself to it, and then went and transferred out to upstate, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I was just kind of take up space. And then all of a sudden, September 11 happened. And I remember on that day, I decided that instead of taking up space, I wanted to serve a purpose. And I changed it, I changed my major to criminal justice. And I started testing for all the civil service, law enforcement and terrorism organizations, I could find NYPD ft DEA, FBI, ATF, I tell anything with three or four letters I basically tested for, and then there's a long process for that. So while I was waiting to go into the departments to be some sort of federal agent, we started doing construction hoping I could rebuild the Freedom Tower when they started doing that. And I wanted to work one day, and now there was some faulty machinery and it came down and it crushed my left hand and I actually lost all functionality on my left hand. And I spent the next year of going through physical therapy and occupational therapy every single day. You know, I lost everything I couldn't, couldn't do any of this stuff anymore. I was, you know, really down and out emotionally, physically, financially. And when I started getting called for these jobs, again, all of a sudden, they started telling me because of my injury, I was no longer eligible after I had reprocessed again for the two years after that. So now I couldn't do construction, I couldn't do law enforcement, I had all these student loans piling up, and I didn't really know what to do with myself. And my mom forced me to read the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And I remember, you know, moms are always right at the end of the day. So I learned that 70% of all millionaires made their money in real estate and the other 30% put their money at after. And I started saying, hey, you don't need money, you don't need experience. You don't need any credit. And I didn't have any of those things. So I just started going to all the seminars, I could find reading all the books, I can find that I started taking action, I wind up doing a residential deals and doing eight my first six months with basically no money out of my own pocket, finding some creative ways to get into things like birds and getting money back at closing that I could parlay into rehab loans and partner up with people with better credit and that we're good on paper. And then I started getting into bigger deals and doing wholesaling and wholesaling portfolios, and then eventually, you know, the natural transition, you start getting into, you know, bigger properties, luxury flips, apartment buildings, and now I'm doing mobile home parks a little bit. I'm wholesaling apartment buildings. I'm wholesaling mobile home parks, I've done some no money down strategies on a 66 unit 36 unit. And right outside my window we have a 31 unit development that's approved that we're either going to sell off and make a bunch of money on or start building in the next couple of weeks and closing a few multi units this week. And just put another property on the market on Sunday morning when had a full price offer within like 14 hours which is pretty awesome. So you know things are going good man feast or famine like any other day, but that's kind of where I'm at today is just doing a little bit of a mixed bag and that's a different strategies. I'd like to say I focus on one area or I focus on one asset class, but you know, I just keep getting things across my desk that makes sense and I'm trying to learn how to push them aside but you know, I'm getting there slowly but surely.
Sean Thomson 04:51
So, you're just kind of all over the place. You're right. So is that is that a bit of a struggle. So I'm for me, I have to focus on one thing. So I used to Single Family. And when I transitioned my business into multifamily, I pretty much shut down my single family business, I still have a few probably, you know, a handful properties that I own and things like that. But as far as acquisitions and things, I've kind of turned all that off, just so I can focus, do you find that it's, it's difficult to keep track of everything if you're...
Nick Lamagna 05:19
You and I talked about a group that we're both in, and one of the things that they do when they start out with a lot of these masterminds is they ask, you know, what's your biggest struggle, and pretty much everyone I go to I stand up, and I'd say it's focused, because, you know, I keep trying to narrow down and my thought pattern is right now with what everything's happening, especially the last six months, when it was a little bit of an uncertainty, and what was going to happen with COVID, and evictions and foreclosures. And if lending was going to be weird, I really wanted to focus more on wholesaling, because I figured if we can get a bunch of cash now and the market tanks, I can start picking up a lot of these apartment buildings, a lot of these single family rentals for a lot cheaper. So I was trying to make money while the lending was still good. And people were still buying, and then what what's kind of clump on that because I've been all over the place for the last 1015 years of investing. People just send me stuff all the time. You know, people send me hotels, apartment buildings, mobile, home parks, land, single family stuff, like retail stuff. And there's always just somebody looking for that. So what if although it looks like I'm in a bunch of different things, what I'm really trying to focus more on doing the last three or four months is just wholesaling pretty much everything that I'm coming across, because the development deal took a lot of time and effort and money. So that's kind of like my baby that we're figuring that's the one with the big payoff, let's not take on a big project right now until we get that one all settled. So that's the one that we're really like putting like blood sweat and tears into. And while those other things are coming across, it's been kind of cool to wholesale apartment buildings and mobile home parks and, and different stuff like that. So it is hard on the acquisition side of it. Because we're putting a lot of marketing into the single family to turn on burn a lot of the wholesale deals over here. And I'm dropping the ball a lot on stuff that I you know, there's leads that pass through just because the multifamily stuff, it takes a lot more time it takes a lot more energy, it takes a lot more diligence, but the payoff is just so much better, that it's hard to pass that up. So I do struggle every day with what to focus on and what's the priority. And, you know, every day that changes a little bit, but it's 100% my biggest struggle is my focus for sure.
Sean Thomson 07:27
Yes, so this was a new talk. So I guess maybe your business sort of is wholesaling, right. So you have various asset classes. So instead of focusing on asset classes, you sort of focus on a component or a tactic of business of wholesaling. So maybe that's your, your, your, your, I guess your thread there. And then whatever it is that comes along that you can wholesale and make some money on that's kind of what you're doing, I would find it may be difficult to say because you have to have different buyers for each product category that you're in. So your buyer list, maybe just crazy with all kinds of different people. So I would imagine people getting single family houses from you that want to look at multifamily may not really want all that stuff. So that might be an issue. But it sounds like you're primarily focused on wholesaling whatever it is that you get across your desk, you just wholesale it out.
Nick Lamagna 08:15
That's what's been happening almost by accident. But I find that a lot of people don't know what they want. You know, there's definitely people out there, you know, like the Tim brought to the world that are saying, like, you know, this is my class, this is my size is my price point. This is my area. And that definitely helps. But a lot of people just contact me and they say you don't want to I want to deal. And I'm like, well, what's the deal? I don't know, you know, do you want a house? You want a building? Do you want like a city like, What? What do you want? And they don't know. So sending that stuff, especially on the single family side, you send people single family stuff, I'm sorry, you send single family buyers multifamily stuff, and they get Brian I they still want it. I think more if you send a multifamily person, that single family thing. Sometimes they're not really into it, but a lot of the times they've transition. So if you have something that looks like a good deal, you can still say Hey, man, I know this might not be for you. But even like yourself, like you would just say, hey, you used to be in the single family space. Maybe I go Hey, kick it to your single family guys. And we'll split the fee on it. So it's been more of a connection thing like that, which has been pretty cool is a lot of the multifamily people that have single family buyers somewhere because that's usually where most of them started.
Sean Thomson 09:19
Yeah, yeah, I see. I can see that working out. So but so that's kind of your consistency. I guess you're just wholesaling whatever pops so what kind of what drove your decision to go that route? Is it was it just organically the flow of things? Or did you set the like you said, I think you were trying to you're trying to stack cash for a downturn is that what does that what kind of motivated you to build your business in the wholesale segment?
Nick Lamagna 09:41
Yeah, you know, I've done I've done pretty much everything on the real estate side up until this point, on some level, you know, I'm a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none because of the lack of focus, but you know, when we did a 66 unit, we did a 36 unit, and we did a couple other pretty big projects, and they're very time consuming and I did learn that if you're not focused thing on stabilizing the multifamily and you're not on top of it, there's a lot of money that will go out the window very fast. So, you know, I kind of made a deal with my partner that since we were doing the development, I wouldn't go deep into another project because it was millions of dollars on the development deal. And we didn't want to now spread too thin, and mess up both of them because we couldn't focus on one or the other. So it was kind of like, hey, like, take up one big project. And while we're doing that, do some maybe some light rehabs and trash outs. But overall, let's just do some quick turning and burning because we need to focus and I actually was given the book at the mastermind, the one thing by Gary Keller. Now remember that first page, I think of it every day, first page says chase two rabbits catching on. And every day, that's a little bit of what I'm trying to do. So it just made sense of like, Hey, this is a great multifamily. And then I'll go to my partner and I'll say, Look, why don't we just take this one down, this is a good deal. Like we can stabilize it, we can refinance it, and she's like, what did I say, Chase two rabbits catching on? And I'm like, you're right. Let me see if I can wholesale it. And, you know, some of the wholesale fees on that are, you know, 40 6080, or what, like a trash out that we just put on the market that we got a full price offer on? You know, it's like, how do you turn these things down, sometimes I picked it up for 260. We spent like four days trashing that and cleaning it up, we're going on the market in 14 hours and have a full price offer. It's a reality, you know, so it's like, there's a lot of money to be made with wholesale, because of the way people are overpaying for properties still, and lenders are still giving them loans on that. So part of my decision to wholesale was I know at some point, the bottom is going to fall out of that, and appraisers are going to start coming in lower, and lenders criteria are going to start chopping down and it's not going to be as easy to just sell off these properties at top dollar. So I figured while that wave is there, man, like, capitalize on and make that cash stack that cash don't take on any extra headaches or liability or risk. And then in a year from now, a year and a half from now, when all that stuff starts to go, we can utilize that money to buy the same properties for probably half of what we paid for them today.
Sean Thomson 11:59
Yeah, that's a good strategy. I know a lot of people that are stuck in cash right now, just to kind of anticipation for whatever happens next, you know, you also do you do mortgages as well, right?
Nick Lamagna 12:09
No, I don't have to do more.
Sean Thomson 12:10
Okay, I thought you were I thought you had more, just as we'll help you on top of all this.
Nick Lamagna 12:14
No, you're the second person to ask me about that this week. I don't know if it's popping up somewhere. I'm like, No, no, but I don't do that I do set up my you know, I have contacts and different things. So part of, I try and bring value as a wholesaler. So what I what I offer, especially not so much on the single family side, because people don't need it as much. But on the multifamily side, a lot of people are just jumping in and they don't really have any experience or know stuff. So I linked them up with lenders, I help them with all the documentation on the loan, I help them negotiate some of the better interest rates or the better loan values, take some of the points down, I help them find some of the teams I help them with their due diligence, I help them run numbers, I help with the walkthrough. So I do a lot to help the people feel comfortable with their deal and set them up. So they have people in place and make them feel good about the property. So they you know, I feel like I'm handing them off a good thing. But that may be the only reason why people might think I do something with mortgages is because a lot of times I'll link up my buyers with a mortgage broker or lender that I know and facilitate that transaction, but I don't actually do the mortgages.
Sean Thomson 13:10
Yeah. Okay. Well, you got a lot going on. So, when I was just sort of with your company, having so many things that you do kind of how do you sort of keep that organized mentally and in your, in your mind, you know, how do you kind of keep things from just stumbling over each other? How do you how do you keep that in your daily life?
Nick Lamagna 13:28
Yeah, that's a great question. I have I've struggled with this a bit because I try and be I've always done stuff virtually always before, even before people were doing virtual life they are now. And so I've always tried to use things like apps and Dropbox and excel sheets. But for some reason, no matter what type of spreadsheet I do, or what type of checklists they make, virtually. It's just not getting it done. So I literally bought like four whiteboards. And I carry around a pen and a piece of paper. And I know like my backgrounds blocked out but I have like three huge whiteboards. One of them has got all the deals, one of them has got all the priorities, and then one of them has got all the personal stuff. And then there's a small one I keep right next to my desk that's got the stuff for today. So every time I have a thought of something, instead of like squirreling on it, I write it down so I can revisit it. And then before I go to sleep, I'll rewrite my board and I'll time block my whole day for these are the things that I need to get done tomorrow. And here's my main three things tomorrow that I need to get done that are revenue producing activities, that I have to make sure under no circumstances can I go to bed tomorrow, without getting these three things done it and as long as I focus on those top three things, and I get those done, over the course of the week is what used to happen is you wake up on a Monday morning, you go I got 20 things to do. And then you wind up kind of not really knowing where to start or what to look at, or you know what the most important call is. And one of my mentors told me, if you have more than three priorities a day, you have no priorities a day. So you have to take those three. So instead of looking at trying to get 20 things done in one day, if I just map out my week and say hey, three things a day for five or six days. I'll get All 20 of those things done, and I'll space it out in a way that it's not going to completely stress me out or freak me out if now acquired burning over here that I have to put out or something goes on over here that I have to do. So strangely enough, a good old fashioned whiteboard and a pen and a piece of paper with just timing out my day and making sure I get those three things done. And every time I get one of those squirreling thoughts, or Oh, I got to call this person, I got to go here, I got to do that. I just write it, write it on my little leaderboard, and then I can work it into the rest of my week later on after I get those text tasks done. So it sounds simple and basic, but it's been the most effective thing for me is just write it down with a better piece of paper or marker.
Sean Thomson 15:37
Yeah, what do you do? So the first question that comes to my mind is I travel quite a bit. I'm looking at properties and touring and things like that. So when you're on the road, you don't have your three whiteboards. What are you doing?
Nick Lamagna 15:46
So what I'll do on that is if I'm going away for a weekend or a week, because until COVID, I was traveling every single week, and I mean, I have, you know, six figure miles, statuses on three different airlines. So like, I was definitely in that boat. It's again, it's this sounds stupid, but it works. For me, it works. So I'll take a picture of the whiteboards, I'll write it out for like this, if I'm going to be well for three days, four days, five days, and I'll save them in my favorites. So I'll know already hadn't chunked those things out. And every day, I'll just pull up the picture of like, Okay, what was on my board over there. And then I'll, you know, I'll kind of work off of that. But again, I also have a notebook that I carry around. So if I'm going away, and I need to, I can literally just take a couple of pages and script out what I'm going to have to do for those few days. But my basis, still that whiteboard.
Sean Thomson 16:29
Yeah, I struggle. Because the easiest way to kind of keep track those things, like you said, it's more of an analogue way with whiteboards or notebooks and things. And but I traveled so much that I tried to find a digital solution. And I just can't really find a digital solution that helps me do those things consistently and stuff. So let's, I want to run through that one more time. So we went through it pretty quickly. So you have three whiteboards, and one of them is your properties and projects that you have going in, what's the second one?
Nick Lamagna 16:53
So the second one is that personal stuff. And then I have just the list of tasks and things like that. Let me look at them here I got. So I have one for deals. So all the deals and stuff that are that we have going on and what I need to do for each of those deals. And then I have another one, that's all my like miscellaneous thoughts and things like that, that just remember all these things. And then I have one for all my personal stuff. And then I have one for like my immediate action stuff like what's necessary for today. And that's obviously a smaller one that I try and keep things. So there's one that's more of like a big overall, like anytime you have a thought or like got to call this person got to make a dentist appointment got to look at this deal. It just gets written on there. So I can always kind of revert to that. And then I'm basically taking things off of that and saying, this goes to the today board, this goes to this week or this goes to the debate today board, this goes to this week board. And you know, again, I've worked around that a little bit. And I also have a time blocking board that I'll literally write out my whole day, hour by hour from 5am to 5pm. Which I've tried it a bunch of times, and then I've gotten away from it, now I'm back on it. But that's helped me a lot for like, before I go to bed, I'll write out like what I think my day is going to be. And that's helping me because I'm realizing a lot of the stuff that I think is going to take a lot of time isn't. And a lot of the stuff that I don't think is going to take a lot of time does. So, you know, you start to figure out a little bit about where you need to fit things and how you can block your time or strategize your day realistically to make things work and fit into what you want to do. And, and I'm putting things in there like eating, working out, you know, making a phone call taking the 30 minute break, like I'm trying to put all that stuff in there. And the way that that's helped me is if I'm sitting here going, right, I'm in work mode, what do I do? Sometimes it's 10 or 15 minutes with me just trying to figure out what to focus on. So I'm getting back these little 1520 minute increments throughout my day, which add up to hours over the course of the week, or just turn around and go on. Alright, and say 30 All right, I'm going to do some sit ups. All right, it's 945. I'm going to do some podcast notes, you know that that's just helped me a lot.
Sean Thomson 18:53
Yeah, that's, that is quite a good system. So that the one priority board is the subset of the three boards, that those are the things that you want to focus on most. And then you block that out. Yes, that's really great. I can see how that would be very helpful I struggle with I struggle with stopping to do that. And that's, that takes quite a commitment to be that organized and get everything kind of down. So I really need to work on that better. I have a friend of mine, his name's Greg. And he has a whole system for that and I've been working trying to work that system and it's been helpful quite a bit so we I do my time blocking for my day. And my day is pretty consistent. I try to have daily habits that I do every day consistently and then I deal with whatever like you said fires that might jump up. So my like my days pretty consistent. And then but then when I travel I go on the road, it just blows everything because I don't have a way to deal with it while I'm traveling.
Nick Lamagna 19:47
What I've done in the past with that too, is I I'll try and really heavy load with a lot of stuff that I can only really do or focus on while I'm here and then do some of the other things like later on like calls or stuff like Got that I might have to make, I'll make sure I'm making those on the drive to the airport or one or the back to the hotel. So you do sometimes have to restructure your week based on traveling and really heavy load, like maybe Monday to Wednesday, knowing that Thursday or Friday are going to be travel days. So, you know, I do have to plan for that. Because for years, I was very unrealistic on what I was going to get done on the road, you know, thinking, Oh, you know, it'll just be another day I'll wake up early, and it winds up not happening at all. So, you know, I learned to really shift things to the days that I was home, and maybe tack on a few extra tests or hours and lighten the load a little bit on those travel. These are things I could do in the car or on a plane.
Sean Thomson 20:34
I guess, you've got this organization stuff here. Are you trying to focus more with your business on certain components? Are you just going to continue doing what you're doing? And what's kind of what do you see is happening next?
Nick Lamagna 20:46
Yeah, so what I'm doing is I'm trying to hire some people right now. And I go back and forth with because I did have some people that I hired, and they just weren't working out. And I'm trying to be very careful about the next person I hire. But what we're trying to figure out is how to pick up a couple of more acquisitions, people that can handle the day to day stuff for the single family. So if they can go and they have good leads coming in, we have a good system in place with that. So while those are coming in, I want them basically closing those deals, they sent it to me for approval, I'll do a once over on the analysis to figure out what the offer is, and kick it back to them. So I'm not wasting money on the single family leads that are coming in. And while that's happening, I can focus more on getting more multi units and mobile home parks and working on those deals to close out with some of the wholesale stuff. And in between that we just have to figure out what we're going to do as far as Are we going to build the 31 homes, or are we just going to sell off the project. And we'll know that within the next month or so if we are going to build that that's going to take a lot of focus. So I will completely stick to just wholesaling and then work on making sure that we do the building outright. If we decide to sell the project, then what I'm going to do is I am going to continue to wholesale. And the goal, again is that I get to play more of the role on the multifamily and the mobile home park wholesaling acquisition in this position, I have a team helping with the single family side of that. And then while we're doing that, I'm going to change my marketing a little bit to add on a leg that we're looking for motivated sellers of distressed properties on the multifamily side around here, so I can pick up a new a new multifamily project to stabilize.
Sean Thomson 22:19
So, do you focus on your business do you focus on your local market? And in Chicago, you were saying or be focused on other areas of the country? Or how do you focus there for Multifamily?
Nick Lamagna 22:29
For wholesale, I'm trying to focus more on the Chicago suburbs, just because I've always invested all over the country. And I've never really focused on one market. And I really, what's been cool about that is that I've never had to really come in and dominate a market to make a living, I could do three year four year, three year four year. And if that market implodes or gets oversaturated it doesn't affect my business. But I also do see the value in going deep and not having to continually rebuild and relearn all these markets. So on the single family wholesale sod I am trying to ramp up and more of a footprint in the Chicago suburbs. But for the mobile home parks, or for the multifamily people are way less attached to market some funding and more attached to the deal. And you know, some of the markets that they're they just don't they don't make sense for multifamily, like some of the Chicago's stuff where you can't evict people right now, or, you know, some of this stuff going on in New York. So for the multifamily mobile homes, I'm really just nationwide, wherever it comes in. I know buyers everywhere I know, sellers everywhere. So I'm just putting them putting them together making those connections, but I am attempting to do more single family in the Chicago area. But it's still not working out because people still send me deals in other places or live in other places. So I got to I got to learn to say no, a little bit more than, again, focus, like we talked about. But that's the goal is to focus more on the Chicago area.
Sean Thomson 23:49
Well, I think the focus can be a couple different things, too. It sounds like you're with your system, your organization. So if you're doing that diligently and you're being organized like that, I think being all over the country is not a problem, right? Someone like me, if I'm all over the country, then I just can't deal with it, because I'm not organized like you are. So it just kind of depends on what you're what you're kind of really your strengths are and how you're how you're coping or dealing with or how you're systemizing your strengths. Right. So I think, you know, I wouldn't worry about being all the country if I were you because you're so well organized with your daily tasks. You know, for me, I have to focus on smaller markets and more niche products, because I can't I can't go all over the place, I have to focus on one thing long enough to get it taken, you know, taken care of. So for me, I'm very detailed about what I go after, like you were saying, you know, Tim's the same way, I guess. And so for me, it's more about focusing on the product as opposed to location really, you know, so anyway, well, I was asking everybody on the podcast, you know, kind of what is the American Dream means you and if maybe you have a couple tasks? Well, I guess the system that you just described, that might be something that's helpful for people, but what is the American Dream mean to you, and then if you want to share a couple things that have helped you kind of level up. That'd be great.
Nick Lamagna 25:01
So, the American Dream, to me is really quality of life thing I'm always chasing, you know, when can How can I just be able to like the goal being How do I make money like I'm at a job every day without actually being at a job every day. And I've always looked at it like that, like, hey, if I was going to make $60,000 a year, as a police officer, when I first started getting into real estate, I went, you know, what if I can make that same $60,000 a year, but I could do it from home on my computer, and I'm not getting shot at I don't have a two hour commute on the subway every day, I have people yelling at me and dealing with all this crazy stuff. To me, networks, I can I can hang out with my dog. And that's turned into as you start to do deals and do real estate, and be able to handle those problems. You know, I get to wake up in the morning and exercise, I get to go to jujitsu, I get to eat at home, I you know, you can kind of make your own hours and call your own shots. And to me that that really is the American dream, even though people were, you know, in the past, looking for the old nine to five, and just being able to enjoy their weekends, I always wanted to be in a position that it didn't matter what day of the week, it was, like, I could call my own shots and do whatever I wanted to. And I didn't have to wait until I was 65. to retire to enjoy my day. So, you know, I think that there's different levels to that. Because as you start to get to the point of like, okay, now, you know, I'm making $60,000 a year doing real estate, you're always going well, it's not enough, now I can make that on one deal. Now I want to do 120 to $40 million $2 million dollars. So I feel like it changes as you start to level up in this business, what your idea of the American Dream is changes. But it's also interesting because as that happens, I think your perception of all of it changes because you start to get excited and go well, I want the next thing. And then that whole process starts again. So you get to a point where you're going, I have everything I need right now I'm good, you know, my deals, go on my processes Go on, I got my organization on my money coming in. Now I want to get into multifamily. Now I want to get into development. And now you're back to kind of being buried in work all day, every day. So, you know, I don't know if that's the best way to do it. But that feast or famine kind of back and forth. Although it's been a bit of a curse, it's also to me the gift of being an entrepreneur, and being able to go to restaurants and movies and malls on Monday and have nobody there and be able to really, you know, have the world to yourself and go to the beach when it's not crowded. That's what it's always meant to me is quality life and being able to do whatever I want to do what I want to do it. But being responsible, and knowing that, hey, there's a time to work and having that discipline, I think is one of the biggest things and a tip for that, I think is definitely what we just talked about, you know, one of my mentors, his name is Randall Scott, he wrote the books empowerment. And he's helped me a little bit with that where that work life balance to me has been more important, you know, the technical stuff of like, what helps you, there's so many podcasts out there, there's so much free content out there about how to look at deals and how to analyze deals and how to do real estate. But you know, especially after doing my own podcast and talking to so many different investors and entrepreneurs and successful people that work life balance and that discipline and that organization, is really the things that everybody's mostly struggling with. It's not how do I come up with ARV? How do I look at a t 12. It's those things. And I think being able to really mark that out and say, all right, if I like I have 15 major things that I need to do this week, I'm going to do three every day. And if I can wake up and get those three things done every day, and maybe I wake up at 5am. And I haven't done by 8am. And now I have the entire day to myself, like that is the American Dream to me, you know, and one of my favorite quotes is I would gladly work at didn't ever have to work 40 again. And that to me sums it up of like, I'll put 80 hours a week into my own future, to never have to go work 40 hours a week for somebody else to pay my bills. And I think by prioritizing those tasks and having the discipline to know I'm going to wake up and an all counts. These are the three things I'm going to do for my future today. And getting those done. And then enjoying the rest of your day is the key to that balancing that discipline and creating your American Dream where you have more life and less work. What you have is plenty of money.
Sean Thomson 29:09
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, thanks for that. That's perfect for the answer too. I will tell us about how our listeners can get in touch with you miss you had a podcast you got a few other things. So what are some of the ways people can reach out to you and get some more information from you and get and kind of learn more from you?
Nick Lamagna 29:25
I really appreciate that. Thank you. So I have the easiest website in the history of the world to remember it's www.nicknicknick.com -- If you go on nicknicknick.com/links you'll see all the links for all the different ways to listen to the A-Game Podcast where I've had amazing guests on or you'll find all the ways to connect with me through email or social media. If you're interested in you're buying deals to me or helping having me help you with some commercial assets and the due diligence stuff like I talked about, definitely reach out I'm just to say hi or see how you can help or assist but you know, I always tell everybody the coolest thing about me is just the people that I know, and I've had some really amazing guests on that have really bought a lot of value for the listeners. So, if they want to check that out, nicknicknick.com/links.
Sean Thomson 30:08
Awesome. Well, thanks, Nick. I really appreciate you being on the show today!
Nick Lamagna 30:11
Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. This has been great!
Abigail Thomson 30:13
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 are 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.