[00:00:36 – 00:01:10]

Intro: Welcome to the Share the Wealth Show, where minority professionals can learn to escape the racial wealth gap and catapult themselves into abundance. Your host, Nicole Pendergrass, grew her net worth from being negative to multiple six figures. Join her on her investigative mission to expose secret strategies of the wealthy so we can all have the tools needed to build the life and legacy we were created to possess. Now it’s time for the show.

[00:01:11 – 00:02:05]

Nicole Pendergrass: Okay. Welcome back everyone for another episode of the share the wealth show. This is the show where we discuss strategies on how to build, grow, and protect minority wealth. And today I have with me my partner in crime. Y’all hear me talk about him all the time. Um, this is Mr. the infamous Mr. Seabear Christian Beyer. I just discovered we were cracking up before, well, I was cracking up before we started recording because I just found out the meaning of his real estate business name. And I always wondered. So, Krisha, you want to tell them a little story about what your real estate name is and why you named it that? Because I just thought, I mean, it’s only going to be funny to me because I’ve seen this on so many documents and email chains and everything. And now it makes sense.

[00:02:06 – 00:02:38]

Christian Beyer: Yeah, sure. So. My name is commonly mispronounced and a lot of people say that it’s it’s Bear. And a lot of times your email address is your first initial last name. So for a while, uh, I was C bear at whatever company I worked at. Um, and so for that reason, and that reason alone, I decided to, instead of fighting it, just make everybody correct and just make that the, the name of the company. Uh, so that’s the LLC where a lot of my, uh, investment properties are held. So, uh, it’s been. uh, seabare ever since.

[00:02:39 – 00:02:58]

Nicole Pendergrass: Oh my God. And now it makes, it makes so much sense and it gives us so much more meaning to me, because like I would tell you, I was like, I don’t know, does he, you know, like cold weather and he wants to go like polar bear fishing? Is that a thing? Like I had no clue.

[00:02:59 – 00:03:04]

Christian Beyer: Yeah, it’s an inside joke, but I’m the only person who’s on the inside. So I’m happy to share that with you. And. Anyone else who cares.

[00:03:05 – 00:03:36]

Nicole Pendergrass: Everybody else. Everybody knows. Okay. So Mr. Christian Beyer. Um, let everybody know a little bit about you besides that you are my partner in crime, my business partner on a couple of properties. We’ll get into that story of how that came about, but let them know a little bit of about you, I know when we met you were living overseas. So that’s actually another thing you could talk about is like investing in the States while you’re overseas. Cause you were there for a couple of years before your job moved you back, right? I’m giving way too much for me even that you talk. Go ahead.

[00:03:37 – 00:06:34]

Christian Beyer: Yeah. No, not at all. No, you’re giving context as to when and how we met and when our story started together. But before that, I started investing with my brother back in around 2012. Prior to that, you know, I had… you know, experiences working in operations and manufacturing. I graduated from Penn State with a degree in mechanical engineering and then in supply chain management and worked in various functions for some large companies and had a fantastic time working in different cities around the US and Puerto Rico and really started to grow in a more customer facing way when I moved to London. which was around the time that we met. So I went over there to run a warehouse and distribution for an electronics manufacturing company and spent about four years there. Right after we got married, my wife and I moved to London. We had our first son there, got to travel all around Europe and see a lot of the sites and do it all on someone else’s dime, which is something that was a really unique and amazing experience as an expat. So You and I met when we were over there when I started deciding, you know, to look for options to purchase real estate, you know, technically in my in my own backyard. But if I was able to do it from 6000 miles away, I would know that building up an operational process by which I could, you know, buy clothes ensure finance and manage properties from across the across the ocean that I could do it from my own backyard. but build up a plan and a team to be able to do that so that I wouldn’t have to be so hands-on and in the business. And during that time, I learned a lot. My brother and I ended up going our separate ways, a lot of it being that I was overseas and he was hands-on in the business. So he bought me out of our working together and I kind of went out on my own. And since then, I’ve been able to build up a portfolio of 27 properties of my own. and some that are in joint ventures like ours. And more recently, I’ve been able to invest in a couple of really interesting projects. Some of them, syndication deals also in real estate funds. I’ve been able to be a GP on the last two syndication deals that I’ve been in on, and that’s been a great learning experience for me. And along the way, I’ve picked up a couple of tips and tricks and ways for people to… To build, grow and protect their wealth and including using your former employers, 401k and retirement accounts to buy and invest in real estate. And that’s been a really, you know, a key component of, uh, expanding my horizons and ability to get involved in more projects, which is something I’m happy to share with, with anyone.

[00:06:35 – 00:07:38]

Nicole Pendergrass: Oh my God. Okay. You gave so much information there and a lot like I semi knew and didn’t know the full story. And. Okay. That makes a lot of sense at why you’re so good at like having a team. Because you created those operations and systems to help you run that while you were overseas so that it could be more just like smooth. You couldn’t be physically hands on. So it kind of forced you to create these systems and automations. And I think, do you think that that is a… A lot of people say invest in your own backyard. You can go to the property, you can do this and that, but like that kind of gives credence to investing far away, even if it’s not overseas, but let’s say you invest across the country or in another state, because it forces you to think outside the box and think who can do it instead of me. Cause if you keep doing it, then you’re gonna be the one in the job. You’re just creating a new job for yourself, an investment job, right? So like, yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.

[00:07:39 – 00:09:05]

Christian Beyer: I couldn’t agree more. And it was one of the reasons why, you know, at the time where my brother and I were kind of, you know, going our separate ways, you know, he was really investing in our local community in Phoenixville, which is an area about 25 miles west of Philadelphia. And we saw the benefits of that. We knew the area was growing, we knew that it was really benefiting from a lot of increased rents and increased property values over the years that we were investing together. I saw another opportunity to do that, another hour north near Allentown in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania where you and I have our properties together. So I knew that I wanted to be in an area that I knew something about. But again, just like you said, I was really interested in building a long-term business plan with a team of people that would allow me to scale and not create another job for myself. Also, I didn’t like driving by my properties every single day at my own backyard. I didn’t like running into my tenants at the bar. I wasn’t happy about all of that stuff. That wasn’t fun to me. For a lot of people, they think that that’s like, oh, I like being able to walk around and show people the properties I own. I never wanna see those. I want to know where they are and be able to go and visit them when I need to. But unfortunately for me, when you build up personal relationships with your tenants, when you see them out there, it stops being a business and becomes… you know, too close and too emotional. And I needed this separation to be effective.

[00:09:06 – 00:09:25]

Nicole Pendergrass: That’s, that’s very true. Because if like New York city is, I guess, not as comparable because it’s not a small town. So even though my tenants over there, over here, where I live know who I am, see my face, we’re never at the same bar. I mean, I don’t even go to bars. Like if I go out to like a lounge or I go to like,

[00:09:26 – 00:09:27]

Christian Beyer: Yeah, that was a problem from eight years ago.

[00:09:28 – 00:10:30]

Nicole Pendergrass: You know, a little side shop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But even, yeah, exactly. But still, we wouldn’t be in the same areas. And even if we were, New York City is, if we visited those same kind of establishments, New York City is so huge. And I agree. My Bronx property is 15 minutes away from me in traffic. So I don’t go, I barely am over there. I only go over there. I can’t even say I go over there once a month. I go over there very minimally when there’s an issue or I need to meet a contractor and I got to make sure all the tenants are home and it’s just easier for me to go there and make sure everybody’s coordinating schedules and all this other stuff. So I do do it in that regard, but I have somebody who’s right around the corner. He’s really like my boots on the ground and my, it’s funny to have boots on the ground, like 15 minutes away, but. Sometimes you have to learn how to do that. Otherwise you’re going to be the one hands on giving yourself more work to do. And you’re going to be like, Oh, I could just do this cheaper. Instead of me finding somebody to hire to clean out the hallway, I could just go clean it every month or I could paint it. Um, but I don’t want to do that.

[00:10:31 – 00:11:02]

Christian Beyer: I agree. I think you nailed it. You know, having or forcing yourself to live without that ability to do it on your own and forcing you to find people to do that work for you. is the only way that you’ll be able to live your life and to scale and to be able to spend time with your family because the properties closest to you are the ones that will rob you of your time and when it’s so close they’ll be the ones that come calling and the ones that pull you away from time that you should be investing you know in yourself and in your family.

[00:11:03 – 00:12:42]

Ad1: Looking to build wealth with real estate? Are you all tapped out on YouTube University and ready to help tailor to your specific situation and goals? Have you always known that you’re a little different from the crowd, that you never liked following the status quo, and that you’re just tired of living in mediocrity? You want to build wealth on your own terms outside of Wall Street? Well, you know, then maybe the MicroFamily Mavericks Mentorship Program can help with that. It’s a community where a handhold process of buying your first small commercial multifamily building. Because not everyone is ready for 100 units out the gate. Why multifamily? Because it gives your rental income ahead against vacancy. Imagine what happens when your single family rental tenant leaves, right? And why commercial five plus units? Because you have much more control over increasing the building’s value in the commercial space and then in turn, increasing your own net worth. Starting small is a stepping stone to so much more. Because then you can tap that equity and buy another building and another and another. And you get the point. So increasing your cashflow and your ability to be job optional along the way, it’s all a part of the journey. So if you think big, but you wanna start small, and if you know multifamily real estate is a way for you to open the door to building a life of freedom, abundance and legacy, but you just need someone to guide you step by step. And you want to be surrounded by other people on the same journey, doing the same thing. Then just click the link in the show notes to find out a little bit more about the Michael family Mavericks. And I look forward to potentially seeing you on the inside. So now back to the show.

[00:12:43 – 00:13:00]

Nicole Pendergrass: So how did you get introduced to real estate as a potential like wealth builder? What made you want to go that route? Like Was anything in your childhood growing up? Like how did you grow up? Were your parents, you know, do you give get a silver spoon in your mouth? You know, I’m sure you look very fancy.

[00:13:01 – 00:13:14]

Christian Beyer: So it’s funny you say that. I literally found the silver spoon that I was given not that long ago. My parents actually were given one. My dad worked for IBM for 35 years and when your child was born, they literally gave them one. So when you say you’re born. Oh,

[00:13:15 – 00:13:16]

Nicole Pendergrass: an actual literal silver spoon.

[00:13:17 – 00:13:19]

Christian Beyer:I literally found it. It’s sterling silver.

[00:13:20 – 00:13:26]

Nicole Pendergrass: So. What’s the other kind of silver? Obviously, I don’t know. Pure silver.

[00:13:27 – 00:17:30]

Christian Beyer: Pure silver, yeah, yeah, sure. But no, I would definitely say that I grew up in an upper middle class. There was no, I never had the latest gaming system. My dad didn’t drive a fancy car. We always grew up in a very cost-conscious household. My parents, we would never went out to eat. except when my sister got straight A’s on her report card, we would go out. It wasn’t me who was getting us to go out to the houses. And we would always go out to the buffet, right? So, yeah. And if you go back in my history, right? Like I definitely understand how conservative my parents were in their spending. And that allowed them to pay for college. That allowed them to afford, you know, retirement at a comfortable age. But never at any point in time did I feel like, you know, I even had like what my next door neighbor had. And I tease and make fun of my parents now, but I also recognize the sacrifices that they went through. Right, they gave up on fancy vacations. They gave up on, you know, dad driving a fancy car or my mom having expensive jewelry. Like we never grew up in a household where that was a normal thing. And therefore I always grew up thinking that you know, the right way to do things was that you, you know, you don’t spend, you get yourself a good job and a fortune 100 company and you work until you can retire. And that was the path for me. And so I was always chasing that. So this was around 2006, 2007, I got an internship at General Motors. I was like, I’m on my way. I’m going to go work at a fortune 15 company, right. And, and, and start my career. And you know, eventually they, they tanked. and called me and said, no more internships. And then I was standing around looking like every other schmuck looking for a job. And that’s when I realized the power of my network came to me in the form of a colleague of mine at the time, another student at Penn State, who was a really strong part of my network, who I’d built a really good relationship with. And she had gotten a full-time job offer from General Electric. And she put me into their program to hire a lot of those kind of… out of work, but technically experienced and qualified people who, who weren’t finding jobs in 2010 when the markets crashed. And I found myself in a position where I was able to take a rotational program through operations and management, working in manufacturing facilities and distribution facilities for one of the best companies in the world at the time. And I learned a ton, but it wasn’t giving me any sort of finance background. It wasn’t given me any, we don’t take a single finance class as engineers. They don’t tell us about investing. They don’t tell us about 401ks. They don’t tell us about any of that stuff. It actually came a little bit later in life. My brother was a finance major and he started reading things like rich dad, poor dad. He started looking into these things as a way out of the rat race because he, he never wanted to work for a big company. He always wanted to work for himself. So. He had that fire in him. He lit that fire in me. And that’s what led us on to our, you know, our nine, 10 year career working together, you know, where we were really successful and able to build up a, you know, a great portfolio of properties, you know, where he’s still being, you know, very successful now. He’s since, you know, kind of quit his job and is now doing the real estate thing full time, you know, but for me, I always saw it as an additional way to add to my streams of income. I’ve been really, really fortunate in my time to be able to have a fantastic career where I’ve been able to see progression. I’ve been able to grow and I’ve been afforded amazing things. I think it was one of, I’m not sure if it was a guest on your show, but it’s certainly somebody who’s in your, your LinkedIn network that posted about his experiences like, like briefing the Portuguese FBI and like doing thing more East philogy.

[00:17:31 – 00:17:34]

Nicole Pendergrass: Yeah, I was going to say that was the first one I was going to say. It’s probably Maurice.

[00:17:35 – 00:18:51]

Christian Beyer: Yeah, and he had all these amazing experiences. And if everyone’s in, and I don’t blame anybody for wanting to quit their job and be in real estate full-time. But you think about the things that like a W-2 can provide for you. Like for me, the experience of living in London and running my own warehouse and then running a customer service operation, where I was able to travel to India and to Hungary and to Barcelona and Paris and all of these amazing places as part of my work. It really for me has formed a lot of my life experiences that have really given me a view and a portal into a whole other world that I would have never experienced if I decided to just go down the real estate path. So along the way, I always saw real estate as a way to kind of augment my growth and never necessarily the, you know, can’t wait to quit my job because I’ve always really enjoyed my job and I really like working with people. And I… I will look for other opportunities where I say, hey, listen, if I can continue doing this at the speed that I’m at, where I can add one or two properties or a syndication project every year while continuing to build up my experience and my W-2, I think that that’s a great way to add multiple streams of income and along the way gain some really awesome life experience.

[00:18:52 – 00:20:55]

Nicole Pendergrass: Wow. I love that because…You’re right. There’s a lot of, there’s two, there’s two camps, there’s three camps. There’s, there’s probably a lot of camps, but main camps is that the people want to be entrepreneurs because they want to quit their W-2 and they don’t like their job. And then there’s the other camp where people actually enjoy what they do. And they just want those additional streams of income. And that’s their portal into entrepreneurship. So I’m glad that you said that because that’s definitely a reality for a lot of people. And now I am on the side of the spectrum because my job has not afforded me those opportunities to travel and to do all these other things or even upward mobility at my job has not been a thing. Like, so no matter how experienced I am there, you know, versus newer people that are getting brought up, if there’s just something there that it’s not clicking. And for me, even though I do see where I give value to the patients and the other people that I’m working with. And it’s a great facility overall. Like there’s some amazing things happening there, but I don’t think I’m a good fit to help that company grow to the impact that they can provide and are providing for a lot of people. I think my impact is somewhere else. So it’s still, but you can still partner and have, you know, friendships, business partnerships, you actually are on the other side of the camp. That doesn’t mean that your philosophies aren’t aligned. So actually what, if you love your job, obviously the idea that like you need multiple streams of income in case your job no longer loves you, doesn’t really apply for you because you have that set up. You have the multiple streams of income. Like it would be sad if you lost your job because you really like what you do, but you have the backup plan already. So in that case, What is your big goal? What’s the what’s the end goal for you? Like, when do you stop buying properties? What’s when’s enough? You know, some people say, oh, you just keep going, kept doing it. Like, what’s what’s the big goal?

[00:20:56 – 00:22:28]

Christian Beyer: Yeah, I think for me, and I was thinking about that when I was looking over the questions that you ask everyone and to sneak preview the, you know, what is wealth to me? I think that, you know, it really comes down to, you know, when I’ve reached or seen, you know, financial freedom, where all of the things that I want are not out of the realm of possibilities because of money. And for me, that freedom, I think, is where I would certainly consider the long-term path to be. Again, I grew up in a very conservative household where spending was not frivolous and was not seen as a priority. So… So maybe my view of what financial freedom is looks a little bit different than everyone else’s where I can see a path to early retirement and what I would call like working at will, right? Like I’d work and do projects when I want to and I invest in the projects that I want to. And I become the manager of my own fortune. I become the person who does the investing, the project choosing and the work. That I want to and need to because it’s life-giving and because it makes me happy and provides for my family. So for me, I think that that could mean many things because the world is funny. My wife and I are expecting our third child. Children are expensive. And I also, I don’t know if I did.

[00:22:29 – 00:22:34]

Nicole Pendergrass: What? I know I knew about the second one. Wait, didn’t you just have the second one? When’s the third one done?

[00:22:35 – 00:22:37]

Christian Beyer: She’s like 18 months now. So the third one’s due.

[00:22:38 – 00:23:00]

Nicole Pendergrass: Oh my God, that is no way. That much time went by, she’s 18 months already. Oh my God. I cannot believe, well, thank you for letting me know time is of the essence, yet again. That I’m getting older. It goes fast. Yeah, they say when you’re- Oh my God, I cannot believe.

[00:23:01 – 00:23:04]

Christian Beyer: They say when you’re a parent that the days are long, but the years are short.

[00:23:05 – 00:23:13]

Nicole Pendergrass: That’s so true. Okay, continue. Oh my God, I have to now mentally, okay, go ahead.

[00:23:14 – 00:24:21]

Christian Beyer: Just to finish that thought that yeah, while financial freedom might look different for me than everyone else, you know, I wanna maintain a certain lifestyle and so does my wife. You know, we love to travel, we love experiences, we love the ability to, you know, take care of. You know, we’re fortunate enough to be in a position where neither one of our parents are going to be looking for help in their retirement. But to be able to take care of others, you know, and to be able to look after them, to be able to give back to charities and causes that we believe in. And all of those things cost money, you know, and that’s where, again, finding the path to financial freedom, you know, means that you need to invest well along the way, build the wealth you know, to accumulate over time, uh, and then, and then protect it from the, the things that steal, um, that steal from you. And, and along the way, you know, I’ve picked up, like I said, a couple of tips and tricks that have allowed me to, to be pretty successful up until this point. Uh, but again, I don’t really necessarily know what the, what the end game is for, for Christian Byer and for C-Bear.

[00:24:22 – 00:24:39]

Nicole Pendergrass: Okay. Well, good, good answer. Good enough. That’s, that’s excellent. I love everything you’ve said.  What are some of the tips and tricks that you have picked up along the way that you think would be, I guess, most prudent to share with someone listening who’s looking to get started.

[00:24:40 – 00:30:06]

Christian Beyer: Sure, I’d be I’d be happy to share some of the, you know, the high level tips and tricks that I picked up and I was able to share this at the, at the real estate meetup that I was at last month but but a couple of the key things that I would that I would emphasize the people is is. to excel where you are. And I think that this means different things for different people. But I say that because I wanna give credence to all of those people who aren’t ready to try and say to people that they wanna quit their jobs. Maybe they’re like me, maybe they enjoy what they do, or maybe they see a path to continuing their career while they invest in real estate. But to the people who may be thinking like I’m having a hard time getting started or I’m struggling where I am. Real estate isn’t the only way that you can increase your bottom line. One of those ways is to ask your boss for promotion, push for a new job, make a job change. I think that one of the best things that ever happened to me, and it happened over the course of many years, but General Electric sold the business that I belong to and I moved to a new company. It took six or seven years, but along the way I learned that I could take that old retirement account that I had with them. And I invested in that in somebody’s, somebody who deals with a limited partnership. That person happened to be Gwade Smith, who introduced you to me, and who then you and I ended up buying real estate projects with on multiple occasions. And I would have never been able to do that had I not been looking for and changing opportunities and changing my own stars. So looking for ways to push your career to the next level is one way that you can not only potentially increase your take-home pay, increase your opportunities for the future. But on top of that, open up some investment opportunities for you by unlocking a retirement account from an old company. Just a year ago, I made another job change. I was really unhappy at my last job, which is bad because I’m a person who likes their job. I was really not, I was in a rut and I made a job change and that unlocked another. retirement account for me to invest in multiple syndication deals. And then I was able to not only invest in them, I was able to invest enough in them and those people that I had been networking with, you know, trusted me to be a general partner on these, these two projects, totaling, you know, nearly 70 units. And I’ve been able to learn so much from them along the way. So I, I think Excel where you are leads into the next point that I just mentioned is, is network like your life depends on. you cannot do enough networking. And I don’t mean just showing up to the real estate meetups. I mean, taking time. And standing at the back of the room with your- And standing at the back of the room. Not talking, I think, which is, yeah, exactly. You need to set up, take those business cards and meet people outside of these meetups. Show them how you can provide value or ask them for ways that you can help them progress their agenda and their business so that you can learn from them. I can tell you the last two syndication projects that I was able to help partner on were people that I had been speaking to for years, not investing in anything, just being in touch with, bouncing ideas off of, having a phone call every couple of months. And then when projects do come along, they start reaching out to their network. And lo and behold, I just happened to be in a position where I’ve now recently left my job and unlocked my… my company’s old retirement account that I can now self-direct into some of their projects. So that’s where I would say that those two things really kind of excel where you are, push yourself to get to the next level, whether it be at your job or at some other job and networking really, really hard and showing other people where you can provide value to them has been the big thing that has led me to this point. But all of that, again, starts to be just a… some of the base layers for what you need to do to get to the next level, you need to build a team. You need a team of people who know more than you do, who have experience either in a market or in management, in operations, in asset management. Like those are things, those are skills that you can learn over time, but why not tap into other people’s expertise? Other people have been working in this arena for years, either this market or this particular set of operations, financing and broker financing, insurance, property management, like all of these things are things that you can tap into. And then all of a sudden that experience becomes your experience because you can learn alongside them, but also they’re working for you. And I also say this, right? Like we all have the same number of hours in a day. You, me and Beyonce all have 24 hours in a day, right? So the only way… to increase the number of deals that you see and the number of opportunities that you can come across is to increase the number of people in your network who are thinking about you when they’re thinking about their projects. And really without more brute force and more effort and more time away from your family and the things that you love, that’s really the only way to really get yourself to the next level.

[00:30:07 – 00:30:40]

Ad2: Are you enjoying this episode? Then stop what you’re doing right now. Head over to Apple podcasts and leave us a rating and review. It really helps our show get pushed to more people who are looking for the information that we’re sharing here. We have to share the wealth. If you listen to us on YouTube, make sure you like the episode that you’re listening to right now and subscribe to our channel, then share the channel with somebody else. There are people out there looking for the information you’re listening to right now. So make sure you share it with someone who you know needs it. Now back to the show.

[00:30:41 – 00:34:14]

Nicole Pendergrass: A few things with that, like one, I 100% agree, especially with the networking piece. The summer that I met you was the summer of COVID and the summer of Zoom and summer of phone calls. And like things were shut down. Nobody was going out anywhere. Everything was like done, but Zoom was alive, right? And so networking, my networking like completely I like quadrupled or whatever, probably 10 X during that summer. And That that networking piece is exactly how I even got introduced to you because, and I said this before, but like in my mastermind group. Someone, our mentors were saying, you have to network with everybody who’s in this group. Okay, so now I’m starting to get on phone calls. We’re networking. So this is a networking one-on-one. We couldn’t meet in person, but we were having phone calls and actually Zoom calls so you could see each other’s face that makes that extra connection. And I think a Zoom call is my preference for the very first time I have a call with someone, probably first couple of times till we start to get knowing then, okay, now we can just hop on the phone here and there because now we kind of established that rapport already. But- The first phone call I would get on somebody would be like, oh, you’re doing XYZ or just from seeing my personality, they’d be like, okay, I think you need to talk to this person. And so you need to talk to this person, you need to talk to this person. And then finally I got to Gwight and then he was like, oh, you’re investing in Lehigh Valley, you need to talk to my friend Christian Bhatt. So that in like, you just never know, like without one it would have never led to me meeting you and doing the couple of deals that we’ve done together. And then the other thing you did say something about leading with value and showing how people, how you can, if you don’t feel like you have a skillset, how can you be a value to them? So one thing that, um, I kind of, I kind of tell, I’ll say, I kind of tell people semi the opposite it’s that when you ask someone, what can you do for them? It now makes them try to guess what your capabilities are. And what they need and how you can fulfill that capability. And they don’t really know you like that. Like you’re here for first phone call. So either you have to come up with something you can do, even if you don’t know if it’s valuable, but either something or listening to their story and say, oh, you sound like you need help with this, could I take that off your plate or do something like to offer something specific? Cause I think a generalized question kind of just makes it the person being asked have to sit and now. turn their wheels and most times they’re going to say, oh, that’s okay, I don’t know anything because they don’t, they can’t think on the spot what they need, right? But then the next part about that was when we first had our first couple phone calls. I thought like you were a super cool person. You were very chill, laid back. You knew about the market. You had already been investing and having, you know, another networking conversation because I had been used to like networking. I didn’t really have any expectations. We talked like, oh, potentially we could do a deal together, et cetera, et cetera. Um, but what about it? You are experienced investor. You are much more experienced and still are than I was at the time that we met. But what was it about our conversations that made you feel okay investing with me? Cause I want to give other people out there having this kind of being in that spot where you’re talking to a more experienced investor and trying to figure out like, you know, how can that become a business relationship?

[00:34:15 – 00:36:37]

Christian Beyer: So that’s a, that’s a really good question. And I think that it’s a, it’s a good thing for other people to take away. So a couple of things, one was your persistence. Um, one was, you know, I, I,I can’t even remember around what was happening that time, but I do remember thinking that this woman is determined. She’s determined to speak to me and she is determined to get on a call. And not just one, but multiple calls. Not to talk about projects, but to get to know me, talk about the Lehigh Valley, talk about the work that I’ve been doing and talk about the team and learn, right? And that to me showed an eagerness because there’ll be… there’ll be many people that set up just a single phone conversation or exchange an email. Um, and that’s typically the end for about 90% of people. And the persistence, I think it gave me the indication that, you know, you’d be somebody good to partner with. On top of that, you came from a, you know, a very, um, a very highly recommended source, right? So, so great Smith had invested in projects with us in the past. And I knew that he was working on deals. And I knew that he wasn’t in the business of connecting people who shouldn’t be connected. So the power of your network is that because it’s not just the one person you’re meeting and it’s not just the one person you’re talking to. It’s all the people that they could potentially connect you with. So I think it was those two things. And then I think the next piece of our investing relationship together was just fortuitous timing. That you were one of the last people that I spoke to. when I had been thinking about partnering on investment deals. And when a deal came across my desk that I recognized was a deal, I picked up the phone and I was thinking, call Nicole and tell her and say, Nicole, it’s time. This is the deal. Let’s close and just take that leap of faith. You know, let’s see where this can go. And I know that it took some persistence then on my end to get you, you know, to, to where you felt comfortable making that leap. But I, but I think that a lot of those factors were really the things that, you know, told me, you know, this person’s not only going to, to be a good person to partner with for this deal, but potentially for deals in the future.

[00:36:38 – 00:38:46]

Nicole Pendergrass: Yeah. Yeah. No, I like that. Thank you. Because, and honestly, ever, everyone listening, I’m listening to Christian say, does I not ever ask him this question before? And I’m listening I was persistent on our phone calls. Like, I guess I was just being me and not thinking I was being persistent or doing anything like extra persistent. So sometimes it’s just your natural personality that comes out and you don’t even realize, you know, how other people are perceiving that, whether that be good or bad. I do specifically remember during our first conversations, I guess I was asking a lot about the market because I had been. Studying the market, I was pretty still new, less than a year into looking into it, but I was just bouncing. I was like, this is great, cause I can bounce off what I’ve been seeing in the market with somebody who’s been in the market and see if what I’m thinking about the market is right or not. Or if I’m just like, I just don’t know the whole picture. So that was my source to try to get more information about specifics and dive deep in the market, because it was very hard to get that information from, even professionals in the market. It was like, you ask a question and they’d be like, And I’m like, oh, come on. Like, how am I supposed to find the average expenses per unit if nobody knows because it depends on the investor? I mean, it really does, but there still should be an average on at least on what you should spend anyway. So I had the impression that doors kind of opened up in our conversation because you saw that I did know something about the market. So I wasn’t just like guessing and I was taking information and actually, you know, putting it together and making good assumptions. About what I had been seeing. And also I think another thing, and I don’t even know if you remember, but I was able to guess your property manager before you told me. That’s true. And I think at first you were, you were like, oh yeah, I have a great property manager, and then I kind of guess because the only property manager we had talked to in the whole market that kind of knew what she was talking about. I was like, is it so and so? And he was like, you’ve heard of her. I might as well tell you now because you guessed her.

[00:38:47 – 00:40:49]

Christian Beyer: Yeah, I was really surprised, but it did show me that you were again invested, right? And you were doing more research than just talking to me and asking me about all my secrets, right? Like, help me Christian find properties and make money, right? That wasn’t the impression that I got, right? It was, I’m also researching this market and I’m looking at other opportunities for me to get in. You know, again, there were other hurdles to overcome, right? Like the local bank that we were financing the project with didn’t like working with out of state investors. And I was in London and you were in New York, right? So we had to overcome that together, right? And a lot of that was, you know, me being local to the Pennsylvania market, right? Because of where I was based and where I was from. But also because of the property manager we worked with and because of their trust and the relationship that they had built up. And I think that that was another thing too. You know, when you did reach out to me, when you contacted me that, you know, we were gonna be working on this particular project together, you know, and finding deals a lot easier back in 2018 than it is now. But obviously along the way, you know, we picked up on a lot of ways that, you know, I could use my experience. To help bring you up. And I really like teaching people and I really like showing people what it means to invest in real estate. So you even as somebody new, might’ve stumbled into the right person because I am a person who really enjoys bringing other people along and showing people. And it’s something that I actually have done now a couple of times with a few people out of state who have just been like, hey, I’m just interested in your market. I’m just interested in learning what your secret sauce has been. And a lot of it comes down to right networking really hard and building a really good team because then it doesn’t matter what state you’re in, right? I still get to drive by the properties if I want, but you know, you can be anywhere at any time, um, and be working on real estate projects, you know, in the Lehigh Valley and in the market.

 [00:40:50 – 00:41:01]

Nicole Pendergrass: Yeah. So, okay. So you did say something about, you had just started thinking about partnering with people. So you have been doing deals by yourself up until you met me. I was your first joint venture partner.

[00:41:02 – 00:42:21]

Christian Beyer: So, um, so I had been working with my brother for years and I will tell you, so after that, when I kind of stepped out on my own, you know, doing my own thing, you know, I was really, I was enjoying having the, you know, the ability to make the decisions on my own, but I also realized that in order for me to take down some larger projects, you know, I was going to need some other sources of income for, for the down payments, right? Because a lot of the financing in the area requires 20 or 25% down. And for me, I had actually just prior to you brought in another out of state investor on another six unit property in Allentown. And so I was there where I was in a position of saying like, well, if I want to take down another six unit property from down payment that we’re going to need, I’m going to need another investor. So it was, like I said, fortuitous timing that we had been in contact and we’d been talking. But also because I didn’t want to take down duplexes and triplex. I wanted to take down a six unit property. I wanted to be able to do more and get involved in bigger projects and to do that. Right. I, you know, I wanted to partner up and, and work with other people. And I also see the benefit of having, you know, two sets of eyes on a project. You know, there’s certain things that will slip by my eyes that won’t slip by yours and vice versa. And I think that that, um, that allows for us to have a really good working relationship.

[00:42:22 – 00:43:13]

Outro:

Okay, guys, don’t kill me, but I’m gonna have to cut this episode short. This is too juicy and we need to do this in a part two. So stay tuned for the next episode that airs and you can hear the rest of our conversation.

Did you love this episode of share the wealth show? Be sure to connect with Nicole by following her on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. If you picked up any of the gems that were dropped by today’s guests, make sure you not only put them in your bag, but if you know of someone who would benefit from this information. Don’t keep it to yourself. Share the wealth, and make sure to leave us a rating and review. We’ll see you for next week’s episode. Subscribe so you’ll be notified.