Bryce embarked on his journey as an agent in 2019 with Berkshire Hathaway. In just a few years, he rapidly climbed the ranks 📈 Today, Bryce is the co-founder of Anabasis, a company in the process of transforming their 506c accredited fund into a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), signaling a promising future in the real estate industry.
Bryce embarked on his journey as an agent in 2019 with Berkshire Hathaway. In just a few years, he rapidly climbed the ranks 📈 Today, Bryce is the co-founder of Anabasis, a company in the process of transforming their 506c accredited fund into a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), signaling a promising future in the real estate industry.
Welcome to the Real Estate Game Changers show. I'm your host, Mike McKay, based in the Jacksonville, Florida market. And each and every week we do this show of people who are changing the game of real estate all over the country. If anyone is getting into the Jacksonville market or already in it, feel free to reach out to us. Happy to help in any way we can. And we are still a very active buyer around the Jacksonville area. So this week on the show, we have another local guy in Jacksonville. So Bryce, welcome to the show, man.
Bryce:feel ya. Hey, what's up, man? How are you? Thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.
Mike:Yeah, for sure, man. So for people who don't know you, could you tell us how you got started in real estate and how that's led you to where you are today?
Bryce:Yeah, so I'll give as brief of a synopsis as I can. I knew from an early age that I wanted to be in real estate. I, when I was 17 and I graduated high school, I, my goal, I told my dad, my dream was to own my own commercial real estate brokerage one day at 17 years old. So I knew what I wanted to do from the get go. So I went right to school for finance. And I actually went to UNF my first year of college. And at UNF I was in the finance program and that was when I started studying my freshman year for my real estate license. And I started at Berkshire Hathaway. The broker of Berkshire Hathaway in Amelia Island. So I was at the Fernandina Beach office, had me, really focusing on, marketing lead generation strategies. So I actually created something similar to how you're doing the podcast now, except I was interviewing local business owners and trying to give back to the community, but also B to B bring local business owners to the real estate broker, just potential clients. So it was it was a pretty successful campaign and from there, I decided I wanted to start getting my feet wet into actual sales and I followed the broker from the Berkshire Hathaway office in Fernandina. He moved to Piney Woods Realty, which is based out of Tampa, but they were opening a branch office in Fernandina Beach. So I followed him and his name's John Holbrook. He's still very active, in Fernandina. He's been in real estate for 30 years, super smart guy. So he was my first mentor and really taught me a lot. And I was able to get a decent bit of sales under my belt while I was in college. And then at the latter point of college, my my dad was wrapping up a venture of his that was real estate, but also business related, like just an external business. So it was called. Target range or shoot GTR. So this was actually originally just a 30 acre parcel with a couple ranges and 100 members out there. And from 2009 up until about 2021, he, and I built that from 100 to about 3, 000 members, 13 different ranges, a couple pro shops. It was a really awesome turnkey business. And that was my first big commercial sale. So while I was there, I arranged a buyer. They were using SBA financing, which at the time in 2021 was like. Two and a half, three percent. So we were able to sell it for a great price because of the competitive interest rates from the SBA lending. And we're saying, okay, we're going to repurpose some of this money into some other assets. And, I really think this is funny because from there, I knew that I wanted to go right into commercial. Obviously I looked at Marcus and Millichap, I looked at, all the big commercial, big box brokerages, Franklin Street all the guys around Florida, and was really looking for, Somewhere that I felt that I had that where I wasn't just a number I could get into commercial real estate I have some opportunities and some lead flow and not because a lot of people say oh You're not gonna close a deal when you start in commercial for six to twelve months You're not gonna make a dollar and I was like, you know I need to make some money early on I got bills I got to pay And I want to have the potential for rapid growth and, development into leadership roles in the company. So after extensive applications put out and, companies talked to, I landed on equity pro, which I know, who they are. They've got a local Jacksonville office here. So shout out to Adrian Pagano. If you're watching he's the broker of the Jacksonville office. Good buddy of mine. But was running the commercial sales for the company. So I was in charge of orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville for all of the commercial wholesaling. So they were just a wholesale brokerage. That was all we're focused on. And it really got a lot of experience under my belt very quickly, into, how can I analyze different types of investments? So I was analyzing mobile home parks, multifamily buildings, self storage facilities, Motels industrial, small, multi unit retail strip centers. Everything, every type of asset. So very quickly, getting a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge and, making great money too. I want to say it was 10 to 12 million in sales, year one with them. And that whole year that I was with them my father and I were using the money from the sale of the shoot GTR business to pick up a couple of straggling deals that we saw whenever I was working there, that looked like really great investments. We picked, 120 unit self storage facility, couple multifamilies and a couple single families did very well on them. And I was at the kind of mid year retreat, for the company for equity pro and they were talking about, Hey, we're going to, we're going to, Have this idea to possibly put a fund together and I knew exactly who I needed to get involved and was my dad. So I'll tell you why My dad actually started in private equity long ago his he started as a investment banker on Wall Street And then got into, private equity real estate, but it was more tall tower real estate. What they were doing is they were buying and developing different broadcast towers across the country and then leasing the space on the vertical real estate. And that, those were the types of acquisitions that they had in their investment fund. Obviously there were a lot of partners in that fund and he was just one of many, but they were very successful. They did a reverse merger with American Tower, which is still publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. So after that. Happened. They got their shares. My, my dad moved along and then started Riverside Investment Partners, which was his fund. You raised that up to about 200 million. He started that in 1998, raised that up to about, or that was the height of it. 1998 was when it started all the way up until 2008. So it was a 200 million investment on oil and natural gas and, real estate and commercial properties back when, office real estate was actually a hot commodity. Not so much today. Thanks to COVID and the online world. But, after he finished that 2008, obviously, A lot of things are happening in 2008. Everything's, hitting the fan and wound up the fund there because that fund was also a 506c, which kind of like the one that, are wrapping up right now. But the 506c's have predetermined lifespans, whether it's 7 to 10 years, you have to wind up the fund after that allotted time. Actually worked out that it was 2008. Had to, got to wind up the time. And he, decided, hey, I'm really stressed out, I need a break. And completely changed career fields, especially since real estate was, Obviously going down the crap can in 2008. And he got his master's degree in counter terrorism completely different. Switch in career field and do it, did a lot of military training and private government contracts and really fun stuff, which was why he bought the gun range in 2009. So training and ranges and all of that was his new forte. So that was, what I knew as my father, my entire life growing up, but I knew I wanted to get into real estate. So whenever we sold that I knew, Hey, it's time for you to. Come back, let's start working on some deals together. So whenever I was at that retreat for equity pro the mid year retreat and they're like, talking about a fund and I was like, Oh yeah, I got to get mark back in, put the private equity hat back on and see if we can stir up another fund like the old days. And sure enough, he was down to do it. And he still had, some of our old contacts that ran the last one with him. We had our private equity securities attorney get involved and we were formulating, Hey, we're going to, we're going to put together this investment fund. And it was going to be a joint venture, with us and equity pro But we just couldn't come to an agreement and decided to table the idea. And I still really believed in it. I also really believed in, this other business model that we're working on now. And I'll expand on that a little bit. But after a lot of discussions my father and I decided that we just wanted to go ahead and do it ourselves. And I quit my job, which is always scary and started Anabasis as the real estate brokerage and everything else that we're doing, about a year and a half ago now, maybe a little bit longer but in that short amount of time we've grown a lot, but I wanted to expand on what I talked about before the way that we do business now and why it led me in that. So whenever it was working in EquityPro doing the commercial wholesaling, I noticed a lot of deals that would come through that would have, incredible margins on them. 50, 75, over 100, 000 spreads on wholesale assignment fees. And I'm like, geez. If somebody's willing to pay that as an assignment fee, And still get a return on investment, buying it, and off market, hard money down, no inspection period. It's got to be a good deal for somebody to move on it. And they're still paying that big of an assignment fee. How great would that return be if we didn't assign it? If we just bought it at that deep discount price that we originally had to contract that to begin with? The ROI has got to be incredible. And then at the same time, they also didn't really... Utilize the real estate brokerage license that they had. It was just, wholesale, which don't knock wholesale. I love it. It's a great cashflow stream. But what I noticed is if somebody was like, Hey, we're still interested in selling. We just don't want to take a really discounted number. I saw the benefit of, Hey, we have the license. We may as well still represent you. We're a professional investment, real estate brokerage. We can still represent you as a traditional real estate agent, real estate broker. So that were my wheels started turning and how I laid the foundation for how, I run the company now. We have obviously two different types of leads that we continually market for and try to bring in, the traditional real estate brokerage leads representing buyers and sellers, as well as off market real estate leads where, we're getting directly in touch with sellers that have, some sort of motivation. You know how that goes. But now with these two different lead generation streams, we have three different exit strategies. We can either buy it ourself, or We can wholesale it out to somebody else, or we can list it traditionally and represent the seller in some capacity as a real estate broker. So there's three different avenues and really that was the real estate solutions company model that I adopted whenever I started putting this together and It grew very quickly because we were definitely able to, close a lot more leads and deals that would have otherwise not been converted. Our conversion rate significantly and allowed us to do a lot more stuff. And I'm really happy with the progress that we've seen in the last, short amount of time and growth that we've had and, excited for it to keep moving in the future.
Mike:So are you guys moving towards more focusing on commercial then, as opposed to
Bryce:That's a good question. I would say, we're definitely very focused on the idea of portfolio theory and real estate. Where, we don't want to be too focused on one asset class. We want to have a little bit of single family. We want to have a little bit of multi family. We want to have a little bit of self storage. Maybe we do a little bit of new construction. Maybe we do some multi unit industrial commercial. So, to me, we're not going to do any office at all, just because it's not performing. And we don't have any office assets, so not anything for us to worry about. But, yeah we really want to have a diverse portfolio just like when you're investing in the stock market. You want to have a good blend, you have your health stocks, your tech stocks, your consumer price. There's a lot of different, blend that you want to have a, A stable portfolio that's going to have a good return, but it's also safe. So we think about it the same way in real estate, to keep that safety net there in case there are any shifts or change market but try to, still get to that, 10 to 14 percent IRR is where we're shooting for.
Mike:Sure. And then some people are the opposite. They're like, I want to get, be specifically the best at this one thing. And they think that doing that is eliminate risk because they're just best. But you guys obviously have like an opinion. So I guess what would you say to those? It's the other way.
Bryce:Now I definitely would agree with them to, to some degree, being the best at one thing, you can get really good at it. But from an investing standpoint, I think there's a lot of strength, in being able to, Navigate different types of transactions and different types of assets because you never know What kind of market trends are going to happen in the future? Where you know, maybe multifamily for some reason obviously, I don't think this will happen, but theoretically goes down the shitter and multifamily is just not a viable asset anymore. And there was a company and all they're focused on is value add multifamily. That's all they do. What do they do? If that rap shoot, for some reason with, Fannie or Freddie has some, something come out and changes interest rates, and just decreases value significantly. What do they do then? They have to pivot. Now, does it mean that people won't be successful if they're focused on just one thing? Absolutely not. You can definitely be successful focusing on, one individual asset class. Our goal as a real estate investment trust as a REIT is to, have solid, consistent returns and low risk. That is why we adopt that philosophy because for us at the end of the day, it's going to be all about shareholder value.
Mike:Okay. And then you said that you guys own like a self storage facility. I know that's like a hot topic right now. You want to talk a little bit about that deal and how you acquired it and maybe some other details,
Bryce:Sure. Yeah. That actually was definitely one of my favorite deals we've done. It was a lot of fun. So we found that actually on LoopNet, it was right there. Now it was a listed a little bit high but I saw very, quickly that it wasn't listed far off from where we needed to be. It was a good chunk, but they were somewhat realistic from the get go. But I think people were. Scared of the asset because it wasn't your traditional self storage type of property. Obviously, when you think of self storage, you think of outdoor steel roll up doors. That's it. This facility was a little different in that everything was indoor and instead of roll up doors, they were actual doors. I think that was what was keeping people hesitant from looking like major storage buyers from being a little hesitant for buying it. But, us as a middle market player we saw the value and especially since from how much value add was there. Whenever we were doing our research, we were like, okay, why is this asset only 10 percent occupied? And it's an indoor Storage facility with no air conditioning. It's and it's in Florida. You can already see why, an indoor self storage facility in Florida with no air conditioning. Nobody's gonna want to store their stuff there. So we knew that had to be done. There wasn't a lot of professional security or, gate systems and things like that in place. Really What was different about self storage versus other types of real estate investments is that self storage at the end of the day is a business all its own, just like the shooting range that we did before, it really is a business all its own. So you have to build the brand name of the storage facility. So whenever we we're looking at the storage facility. It was called affordable storage of America. And whenever you're doing marketing, you always have to think about SEO what are people going to search for in the Google search bar? The property was in Florida and just so happened that Edgewater self storage was not taken. So it's no brainer. You gotta name it. Storage.'cause if you're looking for self-storage and Edgewater, what's the first thing to type into the Google search bar? So we had to formulate a new entity, Edgewater Self-Storage, l c which was then we owned by our parent company Anna basis. So Anabasis formulated and owned Edgewater Self storage. But Edgewater self Storage ran as a standalone entity that operated, the facility. But was obviously having to bring a lot of different systems in place as well that weren't there. So new website, new SEO, new marketing. We have to update all the Google reviews and information on there and really make it look like a turnkey business on the internet. So that people want to book it and we have marketing out there. SEO worked incredibly to build the lead pipeline. But whenever we started having people that were You know, interested in looking at it. Obviously developing a brand new commercial E. C. System all the way through the property. They're like, okay, I'm actually willing to rent at this point. And then we needed to make the facility safe. Really, whenever we first went there, it was just one of those metal gates that you drag. So there wasn't a lock on it either. So we took that out, barb wired all the way around the top and then the actual gate itself. We hired a company that does commercial gates. So it's an actual automated gate system with a code box at the front. And then I was working with a company called six storage and we had an automation that we created where the gate code would talk to the CRM, the six storage CRM system, so all the payments would go through the six storage CRM system, all the invoicing and everything was through this CRM, and if they did not pay, three days later that they're late, it would immediately lock them out via their code at the gate at the front. So we had the Systems in place, to make sure that people were paying on time and getting locked out if they weren't paying on time. We definitely had a couple of issues in the beginning because it was in edgewater, which is just south of Daytona. We caught a guy. Living in his 10 by 20 storage unit had to kick him out. Obviously that's just stuff you deal with in real estate people trying to break in. We had a couple of things that we had to, navigate through, but I really think that in, in repositioning that asset, the main crucial pieces that we looked at, especially in the due diligence process in the beginning before we even bought it was looking at the competition, of course, because you have to and seeing what is the demand of what is the availability in the area. And so I actually personally went to, three or four different facilities called them and went in person was like, Hey, what do you guys have? I was getting inventory lists, pricing lists. And. I thought it was very interesting that the number one, competitor in the area was on a wait list. You couldn't get a unit. And then the other few facilities that did have available rentals, they were, roll up doors, obviously. A little bit of a nicer unit. But they were renting for 275 a month for a 10 by 15 or something like that. 10 by 20. I was like, whenever I was looking at the rent roll and people were paying like 80 bucks for a 10 by 20, I was like, all right, there's obviously a huge discrepancy. That was whenever we were first looking at it with the few units that they had occupied. So I knew that because these units were not traditional roll-up door units, they weren't gonna rent for as much. I knew it was gonna need a little bit of a discount from the get-go. So we priced it that way to, to begin with. We did, instead of, I think the competitors were doing like 2 75 to 2 99 for a 10 by 20, and we did 2 19 99 for a 10 by 20. Climate controlled. It had duct work and private locks and everything, but the only difference was is that instead of a roll up door, they had a traditional door and they flew off the shelf. The 10x20s were gone immediately. Then the 10x10s started getting picked up, then the 10x8s, and then all the scragglers were like, I'll just take whatever I can get. Here's the 10x5, here's the 5x8. That was, it's from actual acquisition to, obviously from acquisition we kicked everybody out and then redid the whole facility. Then from there, leasing constructionally took three months and then we were 85 percent occupied by six months post acquisition. So we did it very quickly. And actually ended up, although we still have it in the portfolio as a note, what we did is we sold it, with, seller financing. So we got it up to the 90% occupancy mark. And we could have refinanced it and kept it, but we felt that for, for the beginning sake of, trying to. Prove ourself and show substantial returns in the beginning of the fund cycle that it was, best to realize some gain and then still have some interest income coming in afterwards. And we purchased and did all the renovations all cash, so we were able to do a seller financing note on the sale. We did a 30 percent down sale to a local guy in Orlando that had a few other facilities. And we did back in 2021, 6 percent 6. 5 percent on a note. So that, that was good for back then. And obviously now we're at 8. 5 on a 30. But we kept that we, but we did a 2 year balloon on it. We was good to, just in that 2 year time span potentially get our return back very quickly, but that gives him enough time to, to refinance if need be, but at the same time. With interest rates as high as they've gone now, I can almost guarantee he's probably not looking as good because he hasn't refinanced yet. So would imagine his proforma numbers on his refi are not looking as good. As he would like. We may, have to do an extension of some kind. I'm not sure, but obviously as an investor that whenever you're doing seller financing notes, if somebody, defaults that, we get the property back. And if that was the case when that happened, I probably would never sell it again. I'd probably just keep it.
Mike:So, we were talking a little bit offline of how you're moving to a read structure, which I frankly don't know much about. So do you want to explain to the listeners that looks like and why you're making that move?
Bryce:Yeah, absolutely. Whenever we first started and went to the 506 C route, and there's three main, types of investment funds that are privately created through SEC regulation. There's your 506 C, there's your 506 B, and there's your 504. Now, there's different parameters of what you are allowed to do, with those structures. With a 504, you're limited to a very small number of investors. They can be all unaccredited. However, you can't do any public marketing for it in the 5 0 6 B. The 5 0 6 B is similar in that you can have 30 unaccredited investors and then unlimited accredited investors. But same thing. No capabilities. You cannot do any public marketing with the 506 B or the 504. 506 C accredited only. So you have to be an accredited investor. However, the SCC, you with Blue Sky Laws are going to allow you to publicly market that investment fund wherever you want. But the problem is the barriers to capital raising for 506c is a lot more stringent. You have to make, as an individual, at least 200, 000 a year or have a million in net worth, not including the equity in your home. Or, you have to be making 300, 000 a year as a married couple filing jointly, or have more than 1.5 million, net worth not including the equity in your home. For a lot of Americans, that's not an easily achievable credential to get pushed through. So your target market is very limited. But we were able to see some success in the beginning and raise a substantial amount of capital. We've got... About five million in assets in the fund right now between all eight properties. So it's going so far, but what we're really focused on with the REIT and why we're making the conversion to the REIT is to be able to create basically an evergreen fund. So obviously I've talked before. The 7 to 10 year life of these investment funds, they have to wind up because, the investors expect their money back at a specific point in time. Whenever you convert to a reach, it's an evergreen. You're constantly raising money. You're constantly selling shares and people can choose to reinvest their dividends or they can sell out whenever they want because it's based on an actual share price. With a lot of private investment funds, like a 5S6C, there's a minimum investment of, 50,000 or, 150,000, something like that. In the REIT structure, it's way lower barrier to entry. You don't have to be accredited at all. You can publicly market. You can list on the public stock exchange, and sell shares to the public. But you're trading a different set of problems. You're having to deal with a lot of public dealings. So you have to be audited continually, quarterly financials, to be in SEC compliance. It's a lot of paperwork and a lot of headache. So you're trading those problems, but you're reaching a much larger market. And then you're having that evergreen fund where people can just continually reinvest their dividends and grow their portfolio for ever for the foreseeable future. What is really awesome about a REIT that not a lot of people know unless they've invested in REITs before is that the SEC law is that REITs have to distribute 90 percent of the net earnings as dividends annually. That's the read isn't just retaining all of this income. It's redistributed to investors 90%. So they're getting a very sizable dividend. And then if they so choose to reinvest those dividends, then they can and see potential returns. So it's a really powerful structure. But we're really excited to, be able to reach people, not just, accredited and not just in Jacksonville, but, across country in the world and be able to help them invest In Jacksonville real estate and with a very low barrier to entry because, they can buy one share for, whatever the price is. Creates a much, easier target for somebody to be able to have access to invest in real estate and be focused the Jacksonville area and get high dividends and get that mailbox money that they're looking for that they may be too busy to manage assets themselves.
Mike:Does it happen where that since people can sell in and out of it, unlike locking your money up with another type of fund, right? Does that cause fluctuations in capital for you guys or
Bryce:It can but obviously, with a fund like that, we're going to have capital reserves. We're going to have some funds available for trades like that. You don't really see REITs typically as, a highly traded asset. People aren't day trading REITs, it not super high volume but definitely have to have some cash on hand and be able to have that available. Typically in a REIT you have about 97 percent of the funds invested into real estate assets, and then that other 30 percent is going to, remain as available capital for the company.
Mike:yeah. Is there a target number that you guys are trying to raise?
Bryce:So we are going to have an offering that we are going to be releasing. It's going to be a 75 million raise. And we're issuing a million shares. That will be in the offering circular that comes out that everybody will be able to review.
Mike:Gotcha. And then I guess what's your plan with that capital? What kind of asset, like what kind of stuff are you chasing down deal wise?
Bryce:Yeah, so we are going to be very focused in northeast florida. Very focused in florida, but we're not going to be just Jacksonville investing. Obviously, our main focus is going to be Jacksonville, but we will invest from, Daytona all the way up to, Amelia Island, maybe as far west as Gainesville. As we continue to grow and expand, maybe we look at some other markets in Florida and potentially expand from there. But we really want to, kill it in our backyard first and bring some gentrification to Jacksonville. Because I know that It's well on its way. It's changed a lot in the last five to 10 years. And I know that in the next five to 10 years, it's going to change even more with all of the, downtown developments from shotgun and everything else that's going on in the city. We want to be a part of that and go after not just single family but multifamily and other assets as well. In the beginning, we're going to be Focused on single and multifamily first before we branching out into other commercial assets
Mike:Gotcha. And when you guys are looking at multifamily, do you have a certain number of doors that you're looking for in a deal?
Bryce:Not necessarily. For example, I just contracted one today that we're going to close on next week. That's just a duplex 2 doors. We have 17 units in Daytona Beach, and. I was underwriting a 96 unit deal not too long ago that I was very close on unfortunately could not make it work, but we're going to be able to go after really a wide range of assets, really, for us, it's about the returns, but, I would say the sweet spot would be anywhere from 500, 000 to 2 million, that a purchase price would probably be not necessarily the price per door or the amount of doors themselves, but more, the projected returns based on the asset, because as different areas of Jacksonville are all so different. There's so many different zip codes, the price per door in Oh six versus the price per door in three, two, two, five Oh, and Jack's beach is
Mike:and then are you guys going to continue sourcing your deals off market?
Bryce:Yeah, we're as well as our own le market streams and u like the one today that we will be using any different means of lead generation that we can we have off market leads. We use, mailers, texting, cold calling all the different systems, to get those types of leads. But we're also not opposed to paying an assignment fee. If the deal. Good deal. And not opposed to buying off of the MLS we, we have before and we will again. And like I said, it really just depends on the deal. Because not one deal is the same. There's no two deals that are the same. Every deal is different.
Mike:Yeah, for sure. How do you, cause you guys like look at a bunch of different asset classes, right? Like how do you get good at it quickly, but also like accurately? Under different types of assets.
Bryce:Obviously. CoStar is a great tool. Using those types of, commercial data points are crucial and I think that anybody that is in. Private equity, commercial real estate knows that playing off of those data points are crucial to the analysis of any type of of asset. And those websites will are very accurate. So obviously it's a subscription that you have to pay for, but the data is well worth it.
Mike:For the people who just maybe just about commercial real estate, what are some of the data points you might be looking for when you're analyzing deal?
Bryce:Yeah, it depends on the asset. Obviously with something like a motel, for example, vacancy rates, market vacancy rates on a motel are going to be very different from market vacancy rates on a multifamily building. For somebody that isn't very experienced and commercial, a lot of people may not know that when you're refinancing a multifamily building, you have to reach 90 percent occupancy before 90 percent annual occupancy before you can even refinance with a traditional cash out refinance loan. However In a motel or a hotel situation, average occupancy in the realm of 60 to 70 percent a year is great. It's definitely something that, if somebody is interested in underwriting different types of assets like that, they should do research and familiarize themselves with the norms in the different asset classes, because They're all different. You have to analyze things differently, from, same with self storage. Self storage has solid vacancy rates, but you look at, self storage and then short term rentals as well. Your management costs are much higher. You have a single family or a multifamily asset, your property management fee, depending on how many doors you have can be anywhere from 10 percent of gross annual income down to 5%. If you have a ton of doors, but rental situations, your management fees are going to be double that. You have to familiarize yourself with those different intricacies of the different types of asset classes beforehand so that, before you start analyzing them, that whenever you get those financials back, you get those T12 statements, you get the pro forma, you get the rent roll, you get their operating statement. You can analyze those numbers based on the trends of that type of asset class that you're analyzing so that you know Numbers that you need to hit that are realistic numbers for that asset class
Mike:and are you sourcing your management for these properties or do you guys handle that in-house?
Bryce:We do not handle our property management in the house. So for Jacksonville right now we're working with Locklear property management. And they're doing a great job. And then in Daytona we are using Tallgates property management. Obviously, Locklear isn't in Daytona, and Tallgates isn't in Jacksonville, so we tried to have people that are, boots on the ground ready to be there at a moment's notice that know the backyard. They have the tenants that, stay in touch with them in the market. They know the market well, so we see that as, a very important thing whenever you're investing to have boots on the ground people that know the market and people that are tough, because as a property manager, you cannot take any BS. You gotta be really hard with people sometimes, because, you're filing evictions, you're dealing with people that don't want to pay. You're dealing with people that trash in units that, there's always possibility of, illegal substances or crime and things going on and some of these units sometimes. So it's really important that whenever you're doing research on, management companies that, you know who you're getting yourself involved with, what track record they have, and their capabilities to operate a place efficiently and effectively, as well as stay within the, parameters of the law, because there are a lot of parameters within the law for property management and fair housing with the Fair Housing Act that you must abide by, aligning yourself with people like Locklear Property Management who understand, that they know that they're not just keeping themselves safe, but they're keeping us safe as the owner, have liability insurance policies in place. But obviously, we want to avoid a lawsuit where we can. So that's very important.
Mike:Yeah. For people who might be looking for a property manager, whether it's like commercial or residential I know you said there's some traits to look out for, but any way that you go about vetting them specifically?
Bryce:Yeah, for me, how I vet anybody is always the first step is going to be an in person conversation. I'm very for face to face meetings. I think that you learn a lot from somebody from their, Body language, eye contact and professionalism whenever you meet with them face to face. So we're always meeting with face to face with somebody first and then obviously going through their checklists, their management agreements, and asking them about their day to day operations. How do they rent the units? How do they market the units? How can they, pivot if need be, if, we need to get something rented and it's sitting for a while, what kind of, creative incentives can they offer and structures can we come up with, what are their policies as far as, safety and legal procedures go and just making sure that, they're safe and we're safe and we're protected legally and also, That they're bringing a quality service, not only to the tenants, but to us as owners. That they're covering all the basis of marketing that they need to, that they're giving us a fair rate as well. Obviously, money is very important when you're investing, so you have to make sure that the rate. There's a lot of management companies that overcharge for maintenance and repairs and little ancillary fees. Definitely read the fine prints in the agreement and understand what types of fees that they are going to be charging you and what you can expect a lot of management companies have like a minimum, if it's below, 200 or 300 that they'll automatically. Just approve the repair maintenance to be done and take it out of your account. But, maybe that's something that you negotiate in the up front and say, Hey, I don't want anything, 200, 300 just automatically getting taken out. I want every single work order to come to me for approval. So that's something that if, you want to... Really be proactive and be on top of your expenses. And like I said, be a proactive manager. You can maybe negotiate that in, with your property managers that you work with to understand what types of costs and maintenance and management fees that you'll be having.
Mike:Gotcha. And what does your operation look like at this point in terms of employees in order to acquire, reposition, and sell property?
Bryce:Yeah there is a great team behind me. Obviously, I can't do everything all by myself. So I'm very grateful for my team. Obviously my father and I, run and started the business together. However, my mother does all of the marketing for Anabasis. My sister does all of the transaction management, my best friend from childhood who grew up and also was in real estate and worked at DJ and Lindsey is one of my agents and the lead agent here. Ernest Jenkins, who worked with me at Equity Pro, who is now with us, is our project manager. He oversees All the project management, working with the making sure projects are moving forward smoothly, goes and walks properties, gets rehab budgets, so on and so forth. And then we've got a few others on the team writer Haley, Don and Austin they're all real estate agents that are focusing more on the sales side of the business, but what is really great about the way that we have it structured is that every single agent on the team is trained in how to look at off market properties, how to analyze deals, how to analyze investments and things like that. So they can. not only be working there, Zillow or traditional types of leads, they can also be scouring the market for investments that they then bring to the fund and they can be compensated a commission by the fund for acquisitions. So they are an integral role in what we're doing because they are doing a lot of front forward and legwork and finding, sourcing and analyzing deals for me that we then, put the capitalization on and say, Hey, we're buttoning this up. Yes, this looks good. And, we're gonna move forward with this, more high level management operations. But, the team that I have is great and I'm blessed to have them. And we're Continuing to steadily grow and obviously you don't want to grow too quickly, but you don't want to grow too slowly. Just trying to find that happy medium.
Mike:Cool. Makes sense. We're getting close to the end here, but there's always two questions I like to ask. First one's kind of fun, which is, what is the craziest or most uncomfortable situation you've ever experienced in a.
Bryce:There's been a few, so it's tough to... To land on one specifically, but obviously, the grosser the experience to me the nastier and it's actually funny. We still have this asset. It's a six unit building on the north side. And we originally were looking at that deal. I actually wholesaled it first. To somebody, for a decent spread and they kept that asset, for a while, but it was funny. I was dealing with the seller and, we came to just in the negotiations and I was like, okay, I need to walk all the units now, inspect everything, start getting my due diligence together. And I get into unit two and. Unit two is home to a cat lady that is just one of the grossest cat ladies that I have ever had to experience. The second the door opened, it just smelled like death and fecal matter. It was disgusting. And this building was, I want to say it was a 1909 build, so very old house and just the smell and the matter had just rotted into the floor and not only that, but as I'm walking through holding my nose and just dear God what am I looking at right now? And trying to just take a few pictures and get out as quickly as I could that she started flirting with me. And I. Started batting the eyes at me trying to flirt with me and I was like, okay I appreciate it. It's very flattering, but I am not interested in. So that was funny. And later on down the line it actually came back to us the guy that ended up buying that property. He fixed three of the units up. But was a California investor, just couldn't manage the rest of it and didn't want to deal with it anymore. So we ended up buying it back from him, not too long ago and she's still there. I went there after we closed on it and she saw me again and it was uncomfortable for sure. So I just had to avoid her. But three of the units are finished and leased with new tenants. We've got two that are under construction and almost complete, and she's the last original tenant left. And she has her 30 day notice to be out by the end of the month. That will be the end of that.
Mike:What we've done. Gotcha. So the second question I always ask is go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice when you were looking for your first real estate, knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself?
Bryce:Knowing what I know now, what would I tell myself getting into it? Don't tie yourself to, one thing from the beginning, be open minded. Be willing to shake anybody's hand. You never know who somebody is gonna be, and be, not afraid to fail. I think a lot of success that's found in this business is through trial and error. Definitely do as much research as you can and be as risk averse as you can, but sometimes, to make the profit, you got to write the check you gotta put yourself on the line, you gotta, risk if you're going to get the reward. Don't be afraid to make a bet that you believe in don't count anybody out. You never know who they're going to be or what they'll become and or what kind of benefits that they could provide to you as a potential client or partner relationship in the future. And don't give up, constantly be learning and doing research and have that determination and just will in your mind that you want this more than you want to breathe oxygen, willing to die for it Then you will eventually find That success at the end of the tunnel.
Mike:Cool. It's a good piece of advice. If people want to reach out to you after the show they're maybe interested in the read or maybe they have some deals they want to send your way. How can they go about doing that?
Bryce:Yeah, so my email address is just bryce@anabasisreit. com, A N A B A S I S R E I T dot com. You can email me there. You can call the traditional brokerage if you're looking for traditional sales representation from the brokerage side at 904 351 0765. You can check on our websites as well, AnabasisReit. com, AnabasisRealty. com, both those websites. Are available. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. We have accounts everywhere. Keep with us. Reach out to me. I'm always happy to take a meeting, meet with anybody. I'm always happy to take a phone call, discuss how we can work together or look at a deal. Look at any deal. As long as it makes, somewhat reasonable sense or look at a potential partnership of some kind. Thank you. If you guys are interested in reaching out to me, don't be afraid.
Mike:Cool. Awesome, man. Thanks for being on the show. This is great.
Bryce:Yeah. Awesome. I really appreciate you. You having me and hopefully it was beneficial for you as well. Maybe learned learned a little bit and hopefully we can do a deal together in the future and maybe I'll see you at Bailey's again soon.
Mike:That one for sure.
Bryce:Awesome.