Building Your Network Using Clubhouse with Luke Wong

Luke Wong, the founder of 9 Mile Capital, has been around real estate most of his life as his family has always been in real estate. From owning commercial and residential properties to land development. Luke grew up in Miami and graduated from Florida State University. He moved to Houston in 2001 and worked in land acquisitions acquiring land for residential subdivisions. From 2011 to 2020, he renovated houses and owned a wholesaling operation. In the last few years, he has also been actively investing in Commercial Real Estate, such as Retail Centers and Apartment Complexes. Currently, he is focusing on operating, growing, and acquiring more self-storage facilities. He owns/co-owns about 1200 storage units.

In This Episode We Cover:

  • What is Clubhouse?
  • Luke Wong’s real estate background
  • His transition to commercial real estate
  • How he got started in self-storage investing passively
  • And much more!

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Transcript
Luke Wong:

Do it enough where you want to be that Coca Cola, Coca Cola still advertising. Everybody knows who the hell but they still advertise it. They want to be first on people's mind when they when they're thinking they want to drink. So when they self storage, I want to be that person. I'm Neil. And I'm Brittany, we're a family on a journey towards financial and location independence. Each week, we interview successful real estate entrepreneurs about their chosen investment strategy, and rate it based on how much money it took to get started, how long it took to educate themselves, how passive it is, and whether or not they could do it from anywhere in the world. Welcome to the road to family freedom. All right, and that's out of us. Let's hit the road to family freedom.

Neil Henderson:

Greetings friends and families. I'm Neil Henderson and you're listening to the road to family Freedom podcast. Our guest this week is Luke Wong from nine mile capital. He's an owner and a partner in over 1200 self storage units. Luke is going to talk to us about his unique way of networking during a time of COVID using an app called clubhouse. Now, if you've never heard of clubhouse, it's like a live audio podcast or a Virtual Audio Only RIA meeting. That's the best way I can describe it. Now some people love it. Some people hate it. But I'll tell you what, it's been an incredibly effective networking tool for Luke during a time when networking in person is really, really hard. We're also going to talk to Luke about how he bought his first self storage unit using owner finance. And we're going to have some tips for having productive conversations with potential sellers. Our conversation with Luke Wong is coming up right after a word from our sponsor. Before we get to this week's show, we'd like to make you aware of something we are self storage investors. We buy existing self storage facilities and vacant buildings that can be converted to self storage in the Sunbelt. We buy them with cash in somewhat loans. And we use private lenders who become equity partners in our deals, these equity partners share in the cash flow in the profits when we sell when we find a deal that we're considering. We call the equity partners and offer them a share of the ownership secured by the property. So if you've ever driven by a self storage facility and thought I wonder who owns those things, and you have any interest in learning more about the storage business, we'd love to chat with you head on over to road to family freedom comm slash storage. That's road to family freedom, comm slash s t o r a g and set up a time to chat. We look forward to speaking with you.

Well, Luke Wong, welcome to the road to family freedom.

Luke Wong:

Thank you very much, Neil, good to be here. Thank you very much for having

Neil Henderson:

I've heard your voice a lot, because I've been on your clubhouse events. But it's the first time I've actually seen you face to face, so to speak. So nice to meet you.

Luke Wong:

Nice to meet you, too.

Neil Henderson:

Yeah, as I mentioned, you host a twice weekly clubhouse room on self storage every Tuesday and Thursday at 9am. Central time. For people who are not perhaps as familiar with clubhouse as you are I give us the two minute tour of what it is.

Luke Wong:

James Reid and I met James through Scott Myers mastermind that I'm in, you know, we got together and decided to go ahead and start the clubhouse room and self storage because nobody else we didn't find that space was happening. When we first I started just in getting introduced to clubhouse in late December. So we said yeah, let's do it. Our main focus was to just bring bring value to the self storage space, getting everybody in different experience levels, different backgrounds, and just sharing the knowledge because of this, you know, a lot of collaboration goes on in the storage environment and commercial real estate itself. And we try to have a subtopic every every room, I guess as as you know, time allows, you know, we've been asking different people to host co host with us. Like we'd have cost segregation person, lender, store, local Co Op person Boxwell storage guy. So it's a little bit of an environmental due diligence. So clubhouse is actually an audio only iPhone app for right now. I think hopefully, Android is going to be part of that soon. And it's kind of to me what it seems like it's like a It's interactive live podcast, but just audio only. So it's not like a zoom call where is any video so you don't have to dress up. And it's really you get really pretty much intimate with with you know, everybody's conversations. And it's partly you have some people that are in the panel up, and then you have an audience and, you know, kind of help moderate the room, you have some helpers that can help you, you know, bring people up mute people, but it really flows pretty nicely. Everybody's pretty respectful. And you know, when people are talking, and yeah, I mean, we have it every Tuesday, Thursday 9am Central time and I kind of let the conversation flow if we don't have a sub topic or if we do have a sub topic, there's still kind of like a flow. Once we're done with that sub sub topic or you know, in between. I I've met a great amount of people on there that I would never have really ran into any other way. Because we just don't play in the same space. Like, for instance, Mitchell, he's a developer in Miami, and he's building ground up classy facilities. And you know, I'm looking for Mom and Pop existing facilities. So he's somebody that I met actually went down and visited him. And he came to we wanted to start my mastermind. And, yeah, it's everybody's just very giving. And it's, I look forward to it every, every, every week. So

Neil Henderson:

yeah, I don't get to as often as I like, it's right in the heart of what I'm trying to usually get my son ready for the day. And, you know, there's some days where I'm able to jump in, but I've described it to people as kind of a virtual REIA meeting. You know, I mean, there's, there's kind of moderators, there's hosts, and, you know, everyone's kind of in the room, and people will be called up to, you know, ask questions. And, and, you know, it's usually almost always, in your room is, of course, always storage related. But there's a whole, you know, you've had all kinds of, like you said, you've got people of all levels. You know, I know, James, I know, James, and James is a fairly experienced Self Storage investor, and, of course, pouchy, who we recently interviewed as well. I met Catherine D'Agostino on there. And and, of course, you and so it really, you know, right now, we're, we're, I don't go to RIA meetings right now, obviously, I don't know. I mean, maybe we are. So it's really a great for me, it's a great supplement for it.

Luke Wong:

Yeah, no, it's wonderful. I have actually, I just been to maybe one RIA meeting here locally, just because they started opening back up again. And just one just get out. It's just nice to be around people again, rather than, you know, the the masterminds that I belong to. It's self storage and commercial Academy. But yes, it's like those wonderful people I would have never met also, I mean, you're part of Scott Myers group, too. I don't think we've ever really met. But like, Katherine, that you have spoken about Powell. And Powell also brings a little bit of multifamily background. So it's always nice to hear from that angle. Yeah. A lot of the folks.

Neil Henderson:

So you grew up in a real estate family. You've been involved in some form of real estate for almost 20 years. Is that correct?

Luke Wong:

Yes. Actively? Yes. As an adult. I grew up in a real estate family with learning Jamaica, and and you know, having no sharps. My father and his family having supermarkets and rental properties and commercial real estate my mom did when we when we moved to Miami. My mom did residential real estate. Yes. So 20 years is when I really started 20 years ago, 2001, when I moved to Houston, is when I kind of really, really started actively in my real estate career.

Neil Henderson:

And you've done everything you've done some, you know, land acquisition for development, you've done residential house flipping, wholesaling. When did you find yourself gravitating towards commercial real estate?

Luke Wong:

So the land acquisitions for about 10 years, house flipping house flipping for about five. And then, so what happened, I had a health crisis in 2006, and 17. And then my dad passed at the same time. And then we had three, three floods that came kind of very short period of time in the Houston area. So the end the oil, the oil market, kind of 2015 started to slow down a little bit. So the market I was renovating was my neighborhood, and it was doing very well. But this is, you know, you buy something for two 300,000 you put 100 into it, and you gross 100 profit. And that was it was just like clockwork, but then the area flooded. So when all those things happened, and I came back to it, I assess the situation and didn't know exactly where I wanted to be or if I wanted to do rehabbing, or where if there was another neighborhood that was even worthwhile, or the market. So I started wholesaling. At the same time I started building the wholesale team, but then I knew I'm also looking into other ventures. And so that's what commercial real estate was. Well, let me start more diving into this arena. And I started passively investing in a shopping center apartment complex and a storage facility. And I knew I wanted to focus on one, two that really spread myself thin and kind of Sniper sniper focus and self storage was it. That was about 2018 is when I went to a Scott Myers event. And then shortly after I joined a mastermind and and then shortly after I got into my first facility actively. Gotcha. And it's it's been a wonderful ride. And I really want to continue to continue to grow.

Neil Henderson:

Gotcha. So your first your first experience was investing on the passive side, correct? Correct. And how many facilities Did you invest in passively? I have three that are invested passively, and they all are they ground up developments are they existing facilities. Existing existing. Okay, so all sort of value add opportunities. Right? Okay. Correct. Gotcha. All with the same operator, Have you have you? Have you spread the wealth a little bit?

Luke Wong:

No, I spread the wealth, ones with one operator and twos with another operator. And I did that also with a shopping center and apartment complex. And the storage facilities, I didn't want to see a different style of operating and get that difference in experience. Also,

Neil Henderson:

when did you decide to go in actively the same time, shortly after you started investing passively?

Luke Wong:

So no, probably about a year, year and a half is when I said, you know, the wholesaling real estate was not, you know, I just, I just wasn't exciting. We anymore. I was getting a little bit more competitive. So I sold that out to my partner at the time. And I just, and that was just end of last year, was end of last year. No, it's just, it's been a good six months, at least.

Neil Henderson:

like dog years, for most of us. Yeah, yeah. Now everything's

Luke Wong:

kind of just coming together. And then yeah, so I just saw that. And I said, I'm gonna, this is what I'm going to do full time. And then shortly thereafter, yeah, I landed my first one and went in. So I mean, I'm still doing some some investing in land and buying and wholesaling, smaller projects, while I'm doing my main focus on storage and acquiring those and, you know, I do a lot of off market and marketing.

Neil Henderson:

Alright, so talk to us about that first facility that you took down on your own. How did you find it?

Luke Wong:

So coming from a wholesaling background, it was a it was a yellow letter that I had sent out to a list, and got quite a few calls. And this one was actually a retired couple. It's in a city about just about an hour and 45 minutes away from from from being here in Houston. They were getting ready to retire. They didn't want to do that anymore. They had built it from ground up. They live right next door. So I started the conversation, I went to go visit it. Very nice facility, smaller town, very nice people. We agreed on the price and went through the steps in the my due diligence. And they agreed to owner finance it for me, I was actually going SBA route. And then they offered to owner financed me for the same same rate 25 year and seven year balloon. And at that time, you know, SBA was still asking for more information. So it was like, if they're going to give me same rate or and less, you know, red tape, then yeah, that's do it. So that was another plus? Yeah, it's worked out really nicely. They still live behind the facility. And so keep in touch with them. And I haven't got a testimonial from them, but I'm gonna publish soon, as you know, just so I can use it. Also, as you know, when I'm approaching other buyers that look, you know, I've This is my real experience with the owner. Yeah. And this is, this is why they also like the owner financing route.

Neil Henderson:

And would you mind? What was the what was the purchase price?

Luke Wong:

Oh, it's just a little over a million.

Neil Henderson:

Right? And then how much did you end up having to come to the table with

20% 20%?

Okay. So and at 200,000? Basically, was there any, was there much deferred maintenance and like that?

Luke Wong:

No, I think it was probably 96 97% for, I think so the first building was built in like 2008. The next one was 2015. And I this is a picture in my Zoom background. I've rented maybe one or two stages ever in my life. And it's usually, you know, I guess the older ones that were nearby. And so when I went to this one, I'm like, it's clean. And this all climate control, by the way. Okay. So yeah, it was it was in very good shape. And, you know, they kept up with it. And they, I mean, they went there every day, open the doors, closed doors every day. There's not like, there's like a small office inside woman. The air conditioning rooms. Yeah. So they took good care of it.

Neil Henderson:

What was the opportunity that you saw with it? Is it just a turnkey? Was it a chance to just get get your feet wet and storage? What was yeah, it was

Luke Wong:

it was it was probably a little bit of all the above. So it's one It's nearby to the owner financing was was a plus. The the value add was the management they were they were they were still kind of just due to a little bit of old school way where they would go every morning, open the doors, and then come back every evening, close the doors. They would have a person on site. If it wasn't them. They had they hired a part time. Almost a full time lady, but she wasn't doing much. So I saw a lot of things that I could make it more efficient, friendly. And so that same girl now works for me. But she, she, she's got a full time job now at another company. So she's got a career now with another company, which I wouldn't be able to give her that with this size of this facility. So she'll, you know, go there but go by there at least twice a week, cut her hours, we made a no, I stated that upfront. So the my expense on payroll dropped compared to what they had. I put automatic locks on entry doors. So I can't go over there morning and open it up. And then I also got the ESS, a website and call center. So they are taking the calls and the websites doing its thing. And then there's one room for one more building. So right now the plan is to put portables index are going to phase in portables. So management, and it's the expansion capability was the main two factors of the value at rent and the rental rates. There were, you know, not too too bad. But I could I could raise them a little bit. And it was one of the nicest facilities in the area. So far, so good. And how big is it? Oh, it's 12,400 square feet, 135 units, all climate control,

Neil Henderson:

all climbing for which is that's great. I'm always interested to talk to investors who've come from heavy deal flow niche like wholesaling, and, and house flipping, how are you applying what you learned there too, to your self storage, deal flow.

Luke Wong:

So a lot of off markets, marketing, and just conversing and talking to a bunch of owners and brokers, you know, always trying to solve a problem, whether you know, a facility, so it's their issue, as they were getting ready to retire, they wanted somebody to somebody that will carry on taking care of the facility at the same time. So that background has really helped me in, I guess, just marketing and going after off market deals. I mean, I still talk to brokers, you know, keep in contact with them. But with wholesaling, you can't wait around and say Yo, you're on the hunt, you're on the offensive. And just the negotiation part of it has helped and listening and it just trying to make it a win win. situation, that was a little hard to adjust as the amount of deals closed, because we're like a high pace and came health services boom, but but they're a lot smaller deals compared to these. So it's kind of like, you get a little bit anxious because it's like, well, I need to I need to land one, you don't want to just jump in anything because it's not like a wholesaling, you really don't have much at risk. So that takes a little bit getting used to, but I'm still doing the stuff on the side for you know, other other cash flow at the same time.

Neil Henderson:

One things he said there that I always completely agree with that you have to sort of come in with a mindset is problem solving. You've got a, you've got a seller, who's got a problem, they want to sell their facility for some reason, whether it be retirement, you know, I've got a friend who's working on a small hotel deal. And the owner wants to he wants to make sure to close quickly because he's he's really worried about he thinks that the government's gonna raise the capital gains taxes, and he's terrified that he's not gonna be able to sell for that happens. And so he wants to close, you know, he wants to close quickly and you know, and so the issue comes down to you know, you're trying to solve their problem. I'm really that shows and you said it just comes down to having a conversation with the owner. And the way to generate that conversation is with marketing. You got this from just a mailer yellow letter, right.

Luke Wong:

Yeah. Regular yellow letter that we use in Wholesaling Houses.

Neil Henderson:

So, you know, I talked to a lot of self storage owners and there are a lot of are being inundated right now by unsolicited letters. I mean, they're just getting letter after letter, you know, and, and some of them, you know, all look the same, you know, we're all studying with the same Self Storage mentors. Do you have any sense that made you what made your stand out? Or was it just a numbers game, just look at the draw.

Luke Wong:

I think a little bit of both. I tried different letters just in the in in the wholesaling because it tried to have the one that's typed up in the white paper professionally tried to be the yellow letter, one would kind of hand writing fonts. So I did ask the lady why she thought, why did she pick me because I noticed they had gotten a lot of mail. She just thought I was genuine and they looks simple. And they just they just added it. I guess they had a good feeling about it because it wasn't I don't make it too long. I make it very differently. Hey, what's important I think is also I mean, it was months before actually closed on a deal. So we've been talking for a while. And everything I did I followed up on when I said I was going to be there I was, I said, I'm going to send this I send it. So, and to this day, I still I mean, because now they're my bank, I still want to do something, I do it. And that's another thing. These sometimes take months, maybe even years to you just keep talking, talking, talking, talking when they're ready. It's, you want to be there. So I'm building the relationship and rapport. But yeah, and again, you just got to, you know, do it enough where you want to be that Coca Cola, Coca Cola, still advertising, everybody knows who the hell but they still advertising because they want to be first on people's mind when they when they're thinking they want to drink. So when they sell storage, I want to be that person. I mean, I still call people and I get I get somebody these calls every week. And when I do well, I don't want to waste your time or, or waste mine. Let's talk our What's the situation I told another guy yet seven portfolio deal. And it sounds like you don't really want to sell you would like in expansion mode. Because he's just, you know, expanding. I wanted his facilities. And I go, you know, I don't wanna waste your time. So I'm just gonna check with you in like, a year. So maybe a year, two years? Who knows?

Neil Henderson:

Yeah. And most of the conversations I have, are, are completely friendly. You know, every once in a while, you'll get a grumpy, you know, a grumpy owner who's like, I get so many of these letters. You know? Yeah, yeah. And I was like, you know, I said, Yeah, you get, you're getting a lot of these. But when it comes time to sell, you're gonna want one of those, or you're just gonna grab one sitting off a pile. And so that's part of the reason you're getting so many is that people just want to be there when you decide to sell. And, you know, I don't want to tell you, it's, you know, we're getting sold to, everywhere we go nowadays. And, you know, it's, it's sort of a double edged sword. You know, what do you want? Do you want to? Do you want to have to be out there searching for somebody to buy your facility? When you're ready to sell? Or do you want to have a list of people you can go to and call?

Luke Wong:

Yeah, or just, I used to say, when people get angry, even that residential stuff is like, just just throw it away, or just don't Don't? Don't you don't have to call us back. I mean, I'm sure you're not calling Bed Bath and Beyond or getting mad at them for sending that coupon, like, three times a week, or whatever. Why are you getting so angry at me? But then again, sometimes you can turn that around. And that conversation is i Oh, yeah, I hate that too. I do the same thing. But let me let's talk about your PA your facility. Sometimes it works sometimes.

Neil Henderson:

So on on your zoom background here. For those of you listening. Luke has five more facilities in 2021. That's your goal. So yes, that's my goal. What are you doing to fill your what is Luke's funnel look like, that's going to generate enough leads to allow you to buy five more facilities in 2021.

Luke Wong:

So I'm still a lot of offline marketing, mailers, cold call a. Working with brokers, calling brokers I've expanded now, at first, I was just going to try to stay in Texas, at least for for initial, or North Carolina. And like I mentioned to you, and so that's one of the cases that we're thinking about moving in the next two years or so. But now I've added probably 10 mistakes, because it just go through those lists pretty quick. But also, again, those five facilities are either actively or passively just, you know, one way or another. I am creating more more relationships and partnerships. So I think that's in itself will help me because again, this is like a team's work. I wanted to do on an October I wanted to do pretty much by myself and get the experience and my money's at risk and, and get just due to get really get to know a lot more about the industry. But now my network has grown. So I think that's I mean, I get even a clubhouse that people, you know, approached me and asked me different deals, throwing me you know, different information on deals that they're looking into. And I'm glad to either not tell them face, they asked me do you want to be part of it? I go, Well, you know, either way, if I'm not a part of it, or I still help you and give you what I know. And I tell you what, I don't know I don't know what I'll tell you maybe we work with you to find it. So I think partnerships are going to be

Neil Henderson:

big. I always tell people to tell everybody what it is that you're looking for. You know, get out there and build Facebook Hey, I'm looking to buy self storage. You know, you never you absolutely never know when somebody will go hey, I drove past this facility in such such market and it looks really running down and you know, looks like you some love and something might come at that.

Luke Wong:

Or, you know, my uncle is just getting ready to sell his and his is exactly what you're looking for. Yeah, I mean, I just met you met him last year at the barbecue and yeah, you just never know, you never

Neil Henderson:

know who you wanted to, you know you're putting it visually into existence, talk it into existence as well, look, we're looking to buy five facilities in the next year. So put that out there. Here's the markets we're looking for. If somebody sees anything, let us know,

Luke Wong:

in my head and in my vision board, and I'm reminding myself every day, what I'm shooting for.

Neil Henderson:

So when you decided to get into storage, you mentioned that you joined Scott Myers mastermind. Is that the primary way that you educated yourself?

Luke Wong:

Yes, I mean, I did podcast, I did books, I did Facebook groups, but until you actually start doing it, that's when you really get a grasp of everything. And being around the people and talking lingo and putting off, you know, books and podcasts kind of bring it a certain level. But, you know, there's always that I would like somebody to bounce ideas off of or or talk to a little bit further, because, you know, this is some of these big, mega bigger deals. So yes, and it's amortize bootcamp. And I think probably within six months, I joined a mastermind that we can look at that they had was, I think it was Indianapolis, yes. So yeah, it's been, it's been great. So far, I enjoy going to our mastermind meetings and just talking to this folks and get to know them better and learn, get everybody's different experience. And everybody's very collaborative.

Neil Henderson:

What would you say was something that you something you had to learn how to do in order to be successful, or something that you weren't expecting, you know, something about your first deal that maybe you weren't expecting that you had to learn?

Luke Wong:

Maybe not on the first deal itself. But one thing that I helped me with, with what's caught my eyes, one of his programs was like a Kickstarter program, where they kind of helped with just the underwriting the deals, and using the analyzer. And as much as I saw my financial statements from the passive deals that I'm in the books, the podcast, I still didn't have a good grasp of it until I went through it with them and actually went through all these different scenarios. And then actually did it when I bought this facility. So it kind of just clicked. So really just learning to analyze and underwrite was was was big, you know, I knew how to market I knew how to put things on a contract, I knew how to form the LLC, insurance and cost segregation, all that stuff. But really look at the numbers and understanding those that was probably one of the main things that was helpful.

Neil Henderson:

Yeah, a lot of us get really caught up in the first step of real estate investing, which is leads just generating leads all I got to generate leads, you know, and then you forget, you know, you forget to sit down and analyze, you know, you got to start analyzing deals as well, because you're not going to because when one does land in your lap, you're not going to know what it looks like when it hits your lap. Sure. What was it that stood out in the underwriting that told you the one that you bought was a deal?

Luke Wong:

Well, it was, first of all, I mean, that there wasn't like a whole bunch of one, it wasn't like a big major rehab. So it was it was stable. And the expenses were still reasonable, even though I was gonna be able to knock it down from, from my perspective, that the cash flow was consistent in their financials. So it I mean, it didn't seem like a big value added like a killer deal. Like, I'm so used to like when I was renovating houses, that's a little getting used to to is I used to buy really deep whatever renovating houses. So there could be cushions. And I would just I wouldn't worry about anything going on, because I was already putting into the picture that I'm rehabbing that whole house anyways. So try not to be over conservative with these deals. So the numbers were, were good, not like incredible, like, you know, off the charts, I'm gonna make a killing on this one. So that's how I felt I felt comfortable with all the different expenses and the income and consistency of their books. Gotcha.

Neil Henderson:

So you said this one is a little less than two hours away from where you live in Houston? Correct? Correct. How often are you having to go out and visit the facility?

Luke Wong:

So right now, so that one I've built a lot in October, I would say probably once a month or once every other month. You know, a lot of it's just done remotely. I have the lady that I kept on she lives two minutes away. I have the handyman that entitled to he was like five minutes away. And you know, they're very responsive. I have the cameras going on. The old owner still live there and try not to bug them. So I don't really call him him. But I like to go and just really physically inspect and kind of show my face around to, you know, I don't see a lot of tenants usually there, but just the neighbors and go say hi to the city, because I talked to them about getting my quarter was in there. And it's always good to see and feel every once in a while. But it's not a necessity at this point to go every month. But at the same time, I think it's it's, I want to I want to keep eyes on it.

Neil Henderson:

Gotcha. And how much time per week would you say you having to devote to your Self Storage endeavors?

Luke Wong:

Oh, for managing this stay a very small amount to see. But but for marketing and going after? Yeah, I spend a lot of time at least at least for me, is at least a full time job worth. I mean, I really try to put everything into it. Yeah. And at the same time I met, and I'm doing my other real estate venture to small ones that land deals. But again, yeah, so it takes a little getting used to because those are, you know, not closing like 1015 deals a month, like the wholesale. You know, these you know, I get five facilities that close them. I'm happy.

Neil Henderson:

Gotcha. Is there anything about investing in storage that you think people overestimate the difficulty of,

Luke Wong:

I guess some people, the Magnus the management side of it. And I was like that, too, is like, you know, how am I going to manage this thing far away? How am I going to manage it? And who reminded me? So once I was, I know, you had Gary Edmonds on your show one point. So he's the one that kind of helped me in remote management and kind of gave me some ideas of how to do that. And so that that helped. That helped. Because it's really if you get the once you get the system up, it's it's a though it's, I wouldn't say autopilot, autopilot, but you know, it's running pretty smoothly. So yeah, I think people maybe overestimate that they are going to have to be out there doing this and managing this. And, you know, even when they get the bigger facilities done long as you get a good using a third party management company, or employees, as long as those people like anything else, say good people, you need good people. So long, those those are good, then everything will run a lot smoother. Yeah, so that would be the first thing that comes to mind.

Neil Henderson:

Well, Luke Wong, thank you so much for sharing with us. You've got the Self Storage clubhouse room every Tuesday and Thursday at 9am Central Time. And I encourage our listeners to check that out. We'll put that link to that in the show notes. But if you never I guess want to find you what would be the best way for them to reach out to you.

Luke Wong:

So I am on Facebook under this lukewarm Instagram, it's ATS lukewarm 2000. And then my use go to my website. It's it's a general website with the storage and other commercial real estate but it's nine mile capital. Then the number 9am i l e capital.com. And then they can email me phone me from from all the information.

Neil Henderson:

And we'll put all that in the show notes. Sounds good. All right. Well, thanks. Thanks so much for sharing with us today. Thank you, thank you so much. Okay, that was Luke Wong from nine mile capital. You can also check him out at his self storage clubhouse every Tuesday, Thursday, 9am Central. I would say the key lesson learned for me on this interview was to focus when you're having conversation with owners focus on building rapport and trying to identify their pain points, their problems, and then figure out a way to solve that problem. That's probably how you're going to be the end up being the one who they sell their facility to money. It took him $200,000 He bought about a million dollar facility 20% Down with owner finance. Great, great deal if you can get it always a good idea to ask if that's a possibility, and certainly a lot easier than an SBA SBA loan. So knowledge he's he studied with Scott Myers, both at their boot camp and he became part of their mastermind. And he said that the main thing that he had to learn to do was just underwrite storage. It's it is the underwriting is a little bit. It can be a little bit complicated. You know, it's you're dealing with, it's not just real estate, you're dealing with a business dealing with, you know, income and expenses, a lot more than your average. single family rental time. He said it's minimal. to manage the property right now, but as far as looking for a facility, he's spending 40 hours a week marketing for those and having conversations with owners and brokers and things like that location. It's his current facility is about an hour and 45 minutes away, but it's remote management. Self Storage is a business that if you set up the systems, I think this is one of the more location independent businesses out there. If you if you buy the right facility, if you buy a big enough facility that can handle either either third party management or at the very least some boots on the ground, along with you know, improving the processes and systems and getting a call center and website and set that up. It is something that can be run remotely. Okay, once again, that was Luke Wong from nine mile capital comm. We will put all the stuff in the show notes on Neil Henderson. We're doing this all again next week. Until next time, let's hit the road. Before you go, if you like the show, we would be delighted if you'd head over to pod chaser and leave us an honest review. And do let us know why you liked the show how long you've been listening, and in particular what you find really useful or entertaining. And let us know if there's anything you think we should change. Also, if you have specific questions about real estate investing, especially self storage or short term rentals, shoot us an email at info at roads to family freedom calm and we'll be happy to answer your question on the show. We might even turn into an entire episode. Thanks for listening. We're doing this all again next week. Until then, safe travels on your road to financial freedom

About the author, Neil

Neil Henderson is the co-host of The Road to Family Freedom, a self-storage investor, and avowed proponent of short-term rental house hacking. He founded The Road to Family Freedom to guide busy parents to financial freedom through passive real estate investing.