This is Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.

From the corporate office to the cab of a truck, they're here to inspire and empower women in all professions.

So gear down, sit back and enjoy.

Welcome.

We're an award winning show dedicated to empowering women in every profession through inspiring stories and expert insights.

No topics off limits.

On our show, we power women on the road to success with expert and celebrity interviews and information you need.

I'm Shelley.

And I'm Kathy.

Imagine going from being a firefighter and a paramedic to a real estate tycoon and a network celebrity on A and E.

Dave Seymour did just that.

After 16 years in his first career, he became one of the country's top real estate investors.

Dave loved his first job, but he wanted more.

Dave's now considered a sought after expert on the subject.

He became the co star of the TV reality show Flipping Boston and the CEO of Freedom Venture Investments.

He saw success in commercial real estate.

He went on to build $9 billion in commercial real estate transactions with a 95% portfolio occupancy rate.

There's money to be made in commercial real estate and women are really good at it.

Dave's knowledge of real estate dynamics is unrivaled.

He teaches people how to spot opportunities and knows Warren Buffett's principles in real estate.

We wanted to know more, so we invited him on the show.

Welcome, Dave.

Thank you for being on the show with us.

Shelley Haffey St.

Thank you for having me.

Our conversation prior to starting, I knew this was going to be good.

So I'm stoked, absolutely stoked to spend some time with you both.

You guys are going to be great.

Awesome.

We're excited.

You've got a terrific story.

You've had a wildly successful career that many people can only dream of doing.

How did all of this evolve?

Oh, it's, it's a story I tell you.

Are you guys familiar with Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul, the author?

Yeah, I, I got to spend some time with Jack at his place out in California.

And the reason I'm referencing this was is you talk about the story.

And I told him the story that I'll share with you in a brief version.

But he's a funny guy.

He looked at me and he said, that's biblical.

I said, what?

He said, that's a biblical story.

David, you came from the wilderness, right?

You came through the, through the wilderness.

You found some clarity.

You implemented and you turned your life around.

So if Jack Canfield ever gets to hear this Jack, I still love you, brother, but, yeah, look, I don't know why I went there right out of the gate.

But anyway, yeah, I'm an immigrant.

I'm an immigrant to the United States, legally.

I came here back in 1986 following my bride at the time, who was an American citizen.

And I came to America with the tools that have been given me by my parents, which were work hard, don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal.

Trade your time for other people's money.

Do as you're told.

Keep your nose clean, lean into it, behave yourself, son.

As my father used to say to me, and, you know, all will be well.

And the truth of the matter was, is that it wasn't all well.

Basically, I had financial illiteracy, and I bought with me a spending habit that didn't match my earning habit.

I remember telling my dad, I said, dad, you're not going to believe this.

He said, what's that, David?

I said, over here in America, dad, you can spend more money than you earn.

He said, no.

I said, yeah, it's true, dad.

He said, no.

I said, it's true.

It's America.

He said, that's not legal, is it?

I said, apparently it is.

But with that comes consequences.

And, you know, I found myself in a pretty rough position financially.

I was working in the fire department, as you.

As you mentioned, most firefighters have a second job.

Mine was construction.

And it was during that period of time that I rubbed elbows with a couple of investors.

I was working three jobs back then, fire department construction, and I was also working nights and weekends in a retail environment.

But anyway, long story short, I got to meet these investors.

I'm digging ditches in Boston, where I was living, and I'm about 75, $80,000 in unsecured credit card debt.

My house is in pre foreclosure.

My marriage is going south very, very fast.

There's no humor in this part of the story, to be frank with you.

I always wanted to be a provider.

I wanted to be a good husband.

I wanted to be a great father.

But financial illiteracy crushed me.

He really did.

It took me to a dark place, and I.

I was looking at the.

The layout of the land, if you will, and I remember I'm praying to my guy, my God, and I'm like, dude, what's up?

You know, I'm trying to figure this out, and I'm praying for some guidance and a little bit of help.

Everything was.

Was heavy.

It was a dark season.

Anyway, I turn on the Radio on my truck and teach me foreclosure.

A free one and a half hour seminar coming to your neck of the woods.

And I'm like, really?

And it was all about the real estate world.

And as I said, I had rubbed elbows with these investors when I was working construction, and they seem to be happier than me.

And that's how it started.

I started as a student in a seminar, and I kind of bought the firefighter mentality to the table in the sense that if I make a decision, I'm all in.

I don't half ass any of it.

I mean, half measures avail us nothing.

What a friend said to me one time.

So I just went for it.

And, you know, within a short period of time, I had, for me, gained what I call financial freedom in the sense of I term it today, as I was able to sleep for eight hours uninterrupted, which was a beautiful thing back then.

And that's how the real estate journey began.

I did a wholesale transaction, couple of flips, and the rest, they say, is kind of history.

Oh, wow, that's correct.

The story.

That's the short version, ladies.

That's the short version.

What direction did you take in real estate?

Was it initially commercial real estate or.

No, no, not at all.

It was.

So those classes that I attended, you know, they, they taught some fundamentals, they taught the.

They taught the concepts of.

In real estate, we make our money when we buy, not when we sell, right?

We realize the profits when we sell, but everything is on the buy side.

Can you analyze your numbers?

Can you remove emotion?

And they taught me the strategy here in the, in the states of what we call wholesaling, which is controlling real estate through having what's called equitable interest in that contract and being able to sell that equal equitable interest to another investor.

And this is all in the single family market.

Now, you got to remember when I started 2009, 10, you know, real estate investors might as well have been lepers.

You know, people would say, what right?

People would say, what do you do?

Say, I'm a real estate investor.

Say, oh, oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

It was a dark time for real estate.

No doubt about it.

It was tough.

It was tough.

I mean, I, I was a victim of the ignorance of real estate.

I mean, like I said, my own house was in pre foreclosure.

But then I learned pre foreclosure investing.

I learned short sales.

I learned how to control assets through the paper and selling the paper on and I very quickly became recognized as one of the most prolific single family foreclosure, pre foreclosure investors in the marketplace.

And you know, when I looked around at my peer group back then, there was some nasty pariahs in the market.

There really were.

There was some nasty people, you know, not considering or caring for the folks that were going through it.

And I found out that with integrity and decency, I could work short sale transactions where people, if you understand short sales, you can't move into your house after it short sales.

It violates the banking laws or the lender laws around these properties.

But if you did, for example, four properties on the same street and you could short sale all four of them, you could move those families from one house to the house next door and then the house next door back to the original house.

And what that did was it enabled people to come in on a lease with an option to purchase on a single family home.

But it's allowed their kids to stay in the same school, to stay in the same neighborhoods.

And then after three to five years, their credit began to build itself back up again.

And, you know, the predatory lending of 2000, you know, 4, 5, 6 and 7 was no longer in place after the various governmental strategies that came in play afterwards.

So, you know, you could do really good work.

But that's where I started.

I started in single families.

I never forget the first, the first check I made was a wholesale transaction and it was for $5,000.

And it was a bank owned property.

And they said you couldn't wholesale bank owned properties.

And I remember going to my, my mentor and coach at the time and I'm like, there's got to be a way to do this.

And they showed me how to do it legally with, with some trusts and some paperwork, et cetera, we could talk about that for days on end.

But anyway, I wholesale this, this property, it was for $30,000 and I sold the contract for $40,000.

There was 5,000 in fees and there was 5,000 left over.

By the way, that same property sold for like 950,000 recently.

So.

It's amazing.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah.

So that's how crazy it was back then.

It was the wild, wild west.

I get a check, I get a check for five grand, $5,000.

And I thought to myself, how many hours did I have to trade for overtime in the fire department, you know, digging ditches to make that $5,000?

And you know, it was a game changer for me because I realized that, you know, there Was like a secret society, if you will.

There was an entrepreneurial journey that I had never been exposed to because of my blue collar background that I was beginning to experience.

Once you get a taste for that, you bring that blue collar mentality into an entrepreneurial world.

Get out the way.

Cause there's some stuff going to happen, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, you're going to take some serious butt.

No doubt about that.

Yeah.

It's showtime.

So that's where we started in the single family business and you know, progressed from there to a few multifamily and a little landlording and ownership and it just grew over time.

Yeah.

So if you wouldn't mind digressing day for people who aren't familiar with the term.

What is a short sale?

Yeah, so a short sale is when a property is an asset that is owed more than it's valued.

So that was the problem with the financial crisis and the crash of 2007, 8, 9 was the banks were just giving away loans for assets that weren't valued appropriately.

There was so much, there was so much illegality attached to it.

So you know, somebody would have a $900,000 loan on a property whose true market value was 450,000.

And then because of the adjustable rate mortgages that they were selling back then, when these mortgages adjusted, you know, people saw their, their mortgage payments double, triple, some even quadruple overnight.

And what's interesting keep take this to the bank.

You heard it from me first maybe is that we're beginning to see that again today because yeah, you start looking at the elevated price of real estate.

Yeah, you're going to see creative financing to be able to move these properties.

So right now we know our interest rates are high, 7, 8, 9% depending on where you are and what you're paying.

And if you can't afford that, people still want to own a home.

So a bank will find a product, right, A loan product to get you in that house.

It's not as loose as it was, but it's getting loose again.

And you'll start to see adjustable rate mortgages.

And the big indicator, the big indicator here in America is you start to see advertisements, especially on the Republican networks for New Day loans.

New Day is a company that focuses primarily on veterans.

And the veteran obviously gets a different loan package.

And when you start to see ads for veterans to get 100%, 110% of the value of their property in a mortgage, no money down, it's all predatory because that doesn't sustain Itself.

And we're seeing that again now.

So, yeah, it really does kind of feel like the wild west, especially with the pricing.

I've looked at some of the real estate in Florida, you know, just out of curiosity, and the prices in the past couple of years, it's doubled easily.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

The short sale allowed us as investors to negotiate directly with the lender.

And what the lender wanted from us was a couple of different parts of a.

Of a.

Of a package, a short sale package delivered to the lender.

As to why, you know, we believed as the investor that the property was only worth 300, not 500.

And, you know, we were able to document that.

And the part of that that was really powerful was, is we were cash buyers.

So as you begin to build your network in any business, but in real estate, there's always what we call dry powder capital on the sideline looking for opportunities.

And there was.

There was billions of dollars sitting on the sideline during the chaos.

And it began to just.

It was Pac man, you know, it was just the money.

It was.

The money was just eating up the assets.

So when we could move fast with cash, you know, the banks were able to write off the losses and, you know, it reset the market.

But a lot of folks went through a lot of bad stuff during that period of time, myself included.

You know, I was a victim as much as a victor later, but I was a victim on the front end of it.

So it's tough times.

Yeah.

People were upside down in their real estate.

Just terrible.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we're going to see it again soon.

You can't.

You can't sustain these prices.

You just can't do it.

No, no.

I mean, makes sense.

Who could afford $900,000 for a house?

Correct?

Correct.

I mean, I look at my own property, my primary residence, I mean, it's.

It's ridiculous.

I look around my neighborhood and I start to see these properties going up, you know, 1.3, 1.4, $1.5 million.

I look at my beautiful wife and my boys and I'm like, honey, you married a real estate guy.

We gotta go.

She's like, go where?

I see.

We gotta cash it out.

It's time.

My wife is my rock, by the way.

I met her in the hospital.

She was a labor and delivery nurse, and I was a paramedic.

And Mary Beth is absolutely everything to me.

And she stood there, she's all teary.

I'm like, what are you crying for?

She's like, I love my Yoga studio.

I love my neighborhood.

I love my friends.

I said, well, could you love it with a lot more money in the bank?

I suppose I could try.

You know, I've just learned to not expect everybody to move at the same rate of speed that I do.

I'm the same way, because I got eight hamsters, one wheel in this noggin, and I fly.

I can do the job of five people at once.

And I realize, I look back, I'm like, oh, wait a minute.

People, they can't keep up.

And that's okay.

And that's fine as long as you recognize it and realize where people's capabilities are.

Like, okay, you know what?

I'm just going to give you this or this.

And I got the rest, right?

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mary Beth and I started in this business together, flipping business prior to the TV show and all that stuff was DMS Investments.

David.

Mary Beth S.

Seymour Investments.

DMS Investments.

Okay.

And I remember I just get grumpy with her, and she'd get grumpy with me, and I'd like, come on, what are you doing?

She's like, I don't understand what you want.

And, you know, inside my brain, because I'm moving at a high rate of speed, I expect her to read my mind.

I expect her to, you know, follow through with all of my plans, but I don't want to have to tell you what they are.

Just execute on it.

And it's like, she was a pisser.

She was funny, and she was like, dude, I can't be.

I can't be your business partner.

She just said, I can't be.

She said, you know, I'll.

I'll take care of everything that I can for us outside of the business.

And I know it's kind of Victorian values, but, you know, they.

They worked spectacularly for us, you know, real estate and my drive.

And it could have been her.

I could have been at home, and she could have been outdoor.

In business, it's, you know, it was just our skill sets as individuals.

But real estate allowed Mary Beth to.

To raise a family, to, you know, not have to punch a time clock in.

In any other, other than what she wanted to do.

And she's had the toughest job ever, as far as I'm concerned, which is raising my two boys to be good men.

I mean, that's.

I think that's the hardest job ever.

I don't have patience for that.

You know what I mean?

I want to bang some heads and everybody step in line, but you know, Mary Beth is a rock star, NASA's rock star for sure.

Yeah, you've got to wear a lot of hats as a parent, psychologist, disciplinarian palace.

You've got to be a guru.

You've got to be so many things.

You know, it's tough.

I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I'm fighting with the, you know, with the cell phone 24 7, with these kids.

You know, I have an older son from a prior marriage.

He's good, he's 30 years old, doing his thing.

But, you know, my 15 year old, soon to be 15, Jefferson, and my younger son Ben at 12, it's like, you know, these guys are living in that technology world.

And it's all of the barriers that I would have to face as a young man, you know, growing in to be a more mature man.

Like those barriers don't exist for these kids.

You know what I mean?

Like at the tip of their fingers, they've got access to absolutely everything.

And as a parent, I can deny that or I can get on board with it because I'm not going to, you know.

Yeah, we put controls on there, but at the end of the day, these, these kids are seeing things and saying things and doing things that, you know, I'm 50.

What am I, 58?

I know I look 36, but 58 years old, I, you know, I, I, you know, I come from a different place.

Like, I've played the, the catch up game with technology and these guys are just so advanced.

Sure.

But the good news is, is that, you know, we got a, we got a good foundation and a good, a good, you know, strategy or, you know, set of rules in the house that everybody abides by, including me.

And, you know, things tend to work out well.

So I'm a blessed guy.

I'm a blessed guy.

Yes, you are.

I don't deserve it.

Here you go.

The technology's wonderful, but in many ways people become so dependent on it.

They become so impatient because they can get everything at their fingertips.

They don't learn that things don't happen overnight.

Rome was not built in a day, which is something I heard growing up because I was a very impatient child.

I still have to work on patience.

Yeah, yeah.

Patience, tolerance.

Yeah.

Oh, my God, it's brutal.

That's a hard quality to, to, to maintain sometimes.

Do you guys, do you guys have a lack of tolerance for inefficiencies?

I think that's part of being impatient.

Like if something is inefficient, I'm I, I've got no tolerance for it.

I, I don't.

And I say this with respect, but, you know, you can't fix stupid.

And I don't mean that in a mean way, but, you know, if somebody is, is, you know, they're just not on point.

They don't understand either the big picture or the nuances to fulfill that big picture, you know, because everything moves so fast.

The opportunities are therefore missed because of inefficiencies and, you know, lack of understanding, whatever the challenge is in front of us as either as individuals or as business owners.

So, you know, it's, it's, it's an interesting time.

That's why one of my partners is 28 years old and the smartest human being I've ever met.

And if it wasn't for Eric Wilson, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be where I am today either.

So, you know, I'm smart enough to surround myself with people who are smarter than.

Sure that that's a lot of it, too.

Absolutely.

Stay tuned for more of Women Road warriors coming up.

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Imagine this.

You're running into burning buildings as a firefighter, saving lives as a paramedic, and then you trade it all in to become a real estate powerhouse and a reality TV star.

That's exactly what Dave Seymour did.

After 16 years of service, Dave flipped the script, literally becoming one of the country's top commercial real estate investors.

You might recognize him as the co star of a E's hit show flipping Boston.

Or as the CEO of Freedom Venture Investments, where he's led an incredible $9 billion in transactions with a stunning 95% occupancy rate.

He's been talking with us about how to make this happen.

Dave's a firm believer in the power of possibility, living by the what if philosophy.

And he's here to tell us more about how anybody can succeed in commercial real estate.

Dave, when we were last talking, we were talking about inefficiencies which really drive failure.

When you think about it, I see that with companies and it's almost like a lot of the people in customer service maybe aren't properly trained.

Some of them are actually snotty too.

It's like, well, for sure.

Like what?

For sure.

Entitled.

Entitled.

Like what are you entitled to?

You haven't earned it.

You're 18 years old, come on.

Right.

And it feels like the word work is a four letter word to everybody.

It's like, you know, wow, tell me about it.

Yeah, My biggest beef is laziness.

I think it's because I have this inborn.

It's almost like a clock is ticking.

And that fire, that drive inside me and to see, you know, pushes me to work harder and just do accomplish a lot in a day.

And if I see someone just sitting there gaming or doing whatever, I'm like, it just, it's hard for me.

I'm like, come on man, like boom.

Yeah.

How old's your daughter Kathy?

Oh, she's 30 now, but yeah, gotcha.

But they can still be lazy at 30.

My oldest boy is, I said to him, I said, why don't you come into the business, Robert?

Why don't you come in and be with us?

So he's a COMSCI major, went with in Boston.

Kid did great, came out, he's probably earning, he's only 200 grand a year now as a computer programmer.

Runs his own little crew for the company he works for.

And I'm like, why don't you come over, why don't you come over and work with us rather?

I can use your skill set in the business.

And this is a direct quote and if he hears it, I don't care.

It's a reality.

He said, dad, I work on my own time, on my own pace, in my underwear.

I do a little gaming, I do some work, I keep my projects on point.

Why do I want to work that hard?

And I went, oh my.

I said, are you really the fruit of my loins?

You know, I mean, some, something happened somewhere.

Do I know you?

But look, he's happy.

He just got married.

You know, him and his now wife Ellie, you know, they got a great life ahead of them.

So something worked.

You know, that's the interesting thing.

I learned a long time ago that if I compare my insides with other people's outsides, it's usually, you know, a recipe for problematic interactions.

Whether it's, you know, like, I feel I'm better than they are, come on, hurry up.

Or whether I feel like, oh my Lord, you know, I've got fomo, you know, imposter syndrome, all the other BS that we, we hear in the social media world, but it's like just, just have confidence in you.

Try as hard as you can to live in the skin that God gave you, be comfortable in there, and I promise you, you'll find, you'll find what your, you know, your unique proposition is for the universe.

You know what I mean?

Like, I honestly believe that.

So it's easier said than done.

But the days that I can just lean into it a little bit, you know, those are the most productive days that I have.

Well, you've certainly been able to really branch out and make a wonderful career.

You went from, what, single family real estate to multifamily.

I mean, how did all this evolve?

Obviously you specialize now in commercial real estate.

Yeah.

Would you say that that's where the opportunity lies today because houses are so expensive, people are renting.

Yeah, Shelley, for sure.

Look, we, you know, my, my own personal journey, it was, it's almost like an inevitable pivot.

I don't know whether it's entrepreneurship or just my DNA, but I get pretty bored after about seven years.

And I go through these seven year strategy changes, you know, depending on what the market's doing.

But the short version is from single family homes to smaller multifamily homes.

Two families, three families, you know, maybe a 12 unit.

I owned a nice little portfolio with a buddy of mine up in Maine.

C D class assets, CD class tenants, like hardcore work.

Liquidated that.

Went into lending, ran a hard money lending, did some private money lending, all in real estate.

But then we went through the COVID challenge.

And it was like everybody just took a breath.

You know, there was manics, manic behavior everywhere.

And I looked at the, looked at the landscape, talked to a couple of friends, and that's how we connected with my buddy Walter Novicki down in Fort Myers, Florida.

I'm located up here in Boston.

And we really believed that Covid was going to create a decrease in asset valuation in multifamily assets because tenants didn't have to pay rents.

The smaller, the smaller, what we call mom and pop operators, not the institutional operators of these assets.

The mom and pops, you know, they didn't have the depth in their financial fortitude to be able to carry these assets through tougher times.

And we really believed that we would see opportunities there.

So we began raising capital in commercial real estate from investors to come into these assets with us.

And we started with a fund, 100 million fund, which was Freedom Venture Real Estate Fund 1.

And we saw the capital come in and then we saw the deals change.

And it was like, what's going on?

Well, who on earth could ever have imagined that the amount of free money that came into the marketplace was ever going to become a reality?

And what that does is obviously it drove prices up, not down, because there was more money than there was deal flow.

So we stayed in, I mean, we strategized a little differently.

We went from, instead of buying existing assets, we went to ground up development because we had the skill set to do either, you know, 100 unit property, a 50 unit property, or we could build 106 units, or we could build a 50 unit.

So we pivoted over to the build side of the equation.

What's interesting is, as I said before, we make our money on the buy side, right?

We realize profits at the time of sale or refinance, and for us, it's all data driven today.

So are you in the right market?

Is there population growth?

Is there rent growth?

Is the demand in place?

And when you look at Florida, which is where we do our commercial real estate, your question is, is that where the opportunities are?

I, I'm going to put a resounding yes behind that.

And the reason is, is that we are so undersupplied in rental units and the need for rental units, not only in Florida, but nationwide here in the states.

And, you know, we're in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, what's called Southwest Florida, Gulf coast region.

And when you look at those areas, we'll take Cape Coral for example, they are under supply by 10,000 units through 2027.

And if you look at their to market builds, they've still only maybe put 3 or 4,000 units into that market.

So there's still a 7,000 unit deficit.

Plus there's been an increase in population even with the hurricanes through southwest Florida.

So what's interesting is to, can you niche down?

Can you find a market within a market where you can specialize?

And for us, we focus on what's called workforce housing.

And what I mean by that is these are the supply jobs for the bigger population, which is retirees in Florida.

So these are for police workers, firefighters, nurses, restaurant workers, anybody in the medical field who's not a doctor.

At the higher end of the pay scale, they can either get a crappy little single family house that's been rehabbed 50 times in the past 10 years, or that's the high end condo.

You know, bikinis, palm trees and umbrella drinks and gated community and golf courses.

But there was nothing in the middle.

So the middle market was, was desolate.

So that's where we focus our attention and we've, we found a lot of success there because the demand is so high.

So we bail them.

We'll build through any recessions, we'll build through the inflationary environment.

Um, and you know, our investors come with us because they, they like what we do and they also like where we do it.

And it makes sense.

If a deal makes sense, people will do the deal.

Sure.

You've got common sense behind it.

Yeah.

So that's, that's our plans today.

That's what we're, what we're involved with.

So Dave, can anyone go into commercial real estate?

I'm sure that there are people sitting back going, well, it takes money.

I don't have that kind of skill set.

How would I even navigate something like that and even get my feet wet?

Yeah, no, those are great questions.

Look, it's, it's not for the faint of heart, you know, if you, if you're like me and you're, you know, you're googling at 3 o' clock in the morning because you can't sleep, you'll always find somebody somewhere who'll sell you an educational package to teach you how to be a commercial real estate investor, you'll find somebody will sell you a package on how to raise money, right?

How to be what's called a syndicator, where you raise the money and you put this pool of money in somebody else's deal.

I'm not going to poo poo those, those ideas because, you know, I myself am A product of an educational environment.

But what I will say is this, is that to your point, which was so good, you know, Rome wasn't built in a day.

If somebody tells you you can be a commercial real estate investor in the next 30, 60, 90 days and get your first check and own your first building, you know, and they're sitting next to their Rolls Royce and their private jet and they're, you know, they're sitting with a million dollars in cash on their desk and they're looking at you through the camera.

You can, too.

You know, I would say to you, run, Forrest, run.

Because that's probably, you know, there's probably a bunch of BS and I get a little soapboxy.

I get a little soapboxy because I see people get hurt, right?

Just because I'm an exceptional marketer doesn't mean I'm an exceptional businessman or woman, right?

It doesn't mean I know what I'm doing.

Trust me, I know that from, from the reality TV world, where just because you got a TV show, you're an expert.

So how can people learn commercial real estate?

You can, you can learn from us.

We don't charge for it.

There's education on our sites.

There's education with our education arm at Legacy alliance, where we talk about infinite banking, we talk about insurance, we talk about alternative investments, we talk about a number of different things outside of the mainstream of what most people are involved with, which is the stock market, right?

And the, the gangsters slash banksters and how they make money, right?

How they make money off of us.

So, you know, get educated.

And then once you have education behind you, listen to this carefully.

Educate, don't speculate, right?

Walk away from 100 deals to do one, to contemplate one.

And if you do choose to take this road, then your very first deal, a couple of deals will be funded by friends and family.

It's just the way it is.

There's a million people out there will tell you, no, that's the worst way to go.

But I'm telling you up front, everybody I know who's successful, even Blackstone back in the day, started with friends and family and known relationships, and you begin to perform.

Buy a 10 unit building, learn property management, learn how to reposition an asset either by repositioning the tenant base or reposition in the the physical asset itself through repairs.

You know, understand the data.

Don't use free data.

Pay for your data.

Get the up to date data on, you know, job growth and rent growth, et cetera, et cetera.

Et cetera, and get really well versed in it.

And if you're not passionate about it and you're just doing it for money, I beg of you, don't do it.

Don't be another clown in the marketplace who just muddies the water and hurts people.

Be a professional, right?

Be really, really good at what it is that you choose to do.

And we find a lot of times we'll educate people around commercial real estate investing in the multifamily arena and ground up development work.

And then they turn around and they go, oh, that's a lot of work.

We go, yeah, yeah, it is a lot of work.

We got like, you know, 50 years of experience between the three of us at the executive level.

It's a lot of work, it's a lot of mistakes, it's a lot of falling forward.

And they turn around and they go, can you just invest their money?

Can we come in on your deals?

And, you know, that's, that's where we get to be of service because, you know, these are dentists and doctors and, you know, business owners.

I've got one investor, he owns a chain of Midas franchises and he's exceptional.

He just keeps on buying franchises and he systematized his business, but he's sitting on cash.

And he's like, dave, what can I do?

I said, well, you can put money over here in a development project.

We can maybe four times your money targeted over, you know, a 10 year period of time.

If that works for you, you can come in on this.

So there's a lot of business owners out there that, you know, don't know how to park capital in what I call the Clydesdale of real estate.

Right?

These are the slow and steady, consistent, you know, checks and investment strategies that the commercial real estate offers.

Because everybody needs a roof.

Sure they do.

Everybody needs a roof.

And when we start, mark my words on this as well, when we start to see this discretionary income dry up, which is what we're seeing now, when the free money isn't there anymore and people are beginning to tighten up and, you know, reassess where they are financially.

Shelter is always the first bill that gets paid.

Always.

Oh, sure, yeah, it's always the first bill that gets paid.

So, you know, we want to be there, give them clean, decent, affordable housing that's professionally managed, that they can be proud, right?

They can be proud to be in that community.

So, yeah, that's, that's the way.

Learn, then earn, then make your decisions going forward from there.

You know, I like that.

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Welcome back to Women Road warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.

Dave Seymour came from the wilderness.

He implemented and turned his life around to become a successful real estate mogul.

He did this after dealing with financial illiteracy and facing bankruptcy.

When he first came to America, he was able to prevail after having a background as a firefighter and paramedic to succeed in the real estate market.

After 16 years of service, he literally flipped the script, becoming one of the country's top commercial real estate investors.

He did this in a down market during the Great Recession as a pre foreclosure investor.

He also went on to be a celebrity.

You may know him as the co star of A E's hit show flipping Boston, or as the CEO of Freedom Venture Investments, where he's led an incredible $9 billion in transactions with a stunning 95% occupancy rate.

Dave's been talking about the different opportunities and changes in real estate, making money on the buy side, paying attention to the data and growth opportunities and what it takes to succeed not only in business, but in yourself.

Dave, it seems like multifamily housing makes more sense than even like the office buildings and so forth.

I think that there's been a decline in some of that after the pandemic, people could work remotely.

So a lot of these big skyscrapers in the big cities are not occupied.

Boston is going through it right now, Shelley.

So their vacancies in the large office buildings in downtown Boston are just off the charts.

So Mayor Wu, Mayor of Boston, has a proposal in place where if she can't get some assistance from the state legislature, they will turn around and just tax the residential market in Boston to cover the deficit.

Yeah, that's terrible.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm glad I don't live in Boston proper.

Goodness, you could be looking serious tax increases.

I mean, it's billions of dollars with a B, the deficit from, from.

And nobody's talking about these things, right?

No, it's, it's, it's so interesting to me that it's almost like there's, there's a lot of noise in the marketplace Right.

Always.

Whether it's political noise, social, economical, wars overseas, wars at home, you know, whatever's going on.

We're doing a little.

Kamala, we're doing a little Trump stuff, whatever noise is going on.

Right.

But if you can not listen to that noise, if you can find in the silences, you'll pick up these little snippets of stories that are out there, and they tend to be the bigger stories three to five years later.

And that includes, in my opinion, the SBA loans that came out during COVID Those businesses did not come back.

Those SBA loans are going to be due, and that's trillions of dollars.

I read that.

What does that mean?

I read that over 50% of those loans are going to be bankrupt.

It's going to be not a bankrupt.

It's going to.

Basically, the people cannot pay those loans.

It can back, campaign back, and there's.

And there's your chance for M and A.

Right.

So your mergers and acquisition experts will come into the marketplace.

They'll begin to look at the, you know, the least of the worst performers, you know, and they'll.

They'll use a little of the old Oracle philosophies, you know, being able to find good businesses and make them better.

Right.

And if it's an influx of capital, then it'll be an influx of capital.

You're going to see a lot of venture capitalists coming into the marketplace.

You know, folks like me.

I'm.

I'm always raising money, Always raising money because the opportunities that I see are consistent.

So, you know, those that have the dry powder, as I referred to it, the money sitting on the sidelines, it's still there for the financially savvy.

But that.

That, you know, consummate consumer mentality that we tend to have here in the States is.

It's going to come back and bite us in the ass again, you know, so we'll see where it all plays out.

It's going to be interesting.

It's going to be a wild ride.

It's like going up to the top of the roller coaster.

Oh, and I don't like roller coasters, so.

Yeah.

Oh, me either.

When I was younger, not so much now.

I.

I'd be the first one throwing up over the side, so.

Nope, we'll be on to the person that's below me.

Oh, my.

Yeah, no, I get you.

I get you.

So, yeah, it's interesting.

So Florida is, you know, I went through this recently.

I was on a couple of investor calls, and, you know, I don't convince people to invest in our assets.

They either see the value of it and they choose to, or they don't.

Like I don't.

It's.

It's kind of cool because I don't have to sell anything.

Do you want this?

It works.

If not, let me talk to somebody else.

And I was on a conversation with, with a lady.

She was a lot of experience in real estate.

She was based out of Utah.

I think she was widowed, but she was only in a.

I think 65 to 70 years old.

So she still had a, you know, a few good years, a few good years ahead, but she was a hot ticket.

She kind of reminds me of you, Kathy, in the way that you were talking about.

No, I mean this in the sense that she had construction background, right?

Like she had busted her assets to be where she was, to be able to be in a competent position to write checks, you know, 200 to a half a million, maybe a million dollars if the deal made sense.

And I was talking with her and it was good because we could communicate at a level that made sense.

Right.

There were no heirs and graces attached to this conversation.

I think there might have been a little profanity thrown around in there as well, but she was a really cool lady.

And then she turned around, she said to me, she said, why the heck do I want to put my retirement funds, my hard earned capital into the Florida market when it's getting just rampaged by hurricanes one after another?

And I said to her, you know what?

Those are fantastic questions to ask.

And if you don't ask them, you're maybe not doing your due diligence as an investor.

And what was interesting was, is I'm 99% of the time prepared for any question.

And I was prepared for this one.

And I said, let's look at statistics.

And when you look at the statistics, the population growth post hurricane is always up.

You would think people would move out of the state and say, I've had enough of this.

I'm leaving.

They don't leave.

They actually come back.

You get the, you get the turnaround of the influx of building because Floridians don't give up.

Desantis doesn't give up.

They don't lay down, say, okay, hurricane, you know, we're gone.

Right?

Florida is going to be underwater in 20 years.

No, silly, it's not right.

But if you look at the hard data to support where it is that you invest, whether it's Florida, Texas, Arizona, wherever it is that you choose to do business, you can make an argument that, again, makes sense.

And that conversation with that lady was awesome.

And she started tough.

I came back at her with a little tough, and we both got a little soft and gooey, and it was all good.

And she's looking.

Yeah.

And then she's looking.

She's looking forward to two to me, putting an investment in front of her, which are pretty confident we can do in the next few days.

So, you know, I like.

I like a challenge, right?

I like a challenge in real estate.

I like challenges in my relationships, whether they're, you know, investors or contractors or bankers or insurance people or property managers.

You know, I like that challenge because if I'm challenged and pushed, I can get better.

But if I'm, you know, I don't want a yes man anywhere around me.

You know what I mean?

People are like, yeah, I agree.

No, don't agree with me.

Tell me why I'm wrong.

So that's what I want to hear, right?

You can't grow with that, you know.

Correct.

Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

You can't grow with that.

And I think that was part of the challenges also in a fire department, it was like, I didn't realize I was an entrepreneur until I got out of the fire department.

I just thought I was a bad employee because I would look at people and in those military environments, it's test taking, not skill sets to create growth in the department, right?

Can you take a test, can you remember data and plunk it down on a piece of paper later on.

And then we'd have a fire, and this guy or this individual would be like, they wouldn't go in the building.

And I'm like, you're the lieutenant, you're the captain.

Why aren't you going in?

See the fires in there?

That's where we gotta go.

And it's the same in business.

It's the same in business.

That's where the deals are.

We gotta go there.

It's no good pontificating about, you know, the California market's gonna turn around or Massachusetts one day.

Won't be Taxachusetts.

No, it will.

It's gonna be Taxachetts until I die.

You know, having the guts, the guts to get in the game where it makes sense is interesting.

So, Dave, for somebody who's a beginner, I'm sure that they're going to be kind of going, wow, I'm not sure where I'm going to start.

How do I know what's a good investment?

You're talking about multifamily Opportunities.

That makes a whole lot of sense.

How do they spot something that's good if they're bootstrapping it or if they want to be maybe an investor and have somebody else do this?

How do they do that?

Yeah.

So again, educate, don't speculate.

You know, really immerse yourself in what is a good deal and what isn't a good deal.

And that really boils down to does a property cash flow after all bills are paid?

Right.

The expenses?

Are the expenses high?

If they're high and you lower the expenses, property becomes more valuable.

Are the rents low?

If the rents are low, can I raise the rents and still keep a good tenant base in a building?

Because the more money that a property makes, the more valuable the property is.

So that's really the base philosophy in multifamily assets.

And if you can learn how to increase that income on a property, it's called the net operating income or the noi.

That NOI will to create the value in the marketplace.

And it takes a little time to get up that gradient.

But once you've got that skill set at your disposal, well, who can you go with if you want to be a passive investor?

Or how can I go find deals myself if I want to be an active investor?

That really is your network and your relationships.

You can.

There are so many different online forums that you can join and listen to.

Learn and learn to listen.

You can join a number of those.

I'll give you.

Also one of my favorite educators who is, she's a young lady from Israel.

Her name is Ellie Perlman.

Ellie Perlman.

Ellie operates an extremely high level.

She does a fantastic job for her investors.

She invests in different markets to us.

But if you googled Ellie Perlman, check her out on LinkedIn.

She's a very, very prolific commercial real estate investor in the multifamily arena.

Ellie also has a lot of great education as well.

So you don't have to learn from, you know, this 58 year old white guy you can learn, you can learn from because it's a, you know, a female oriented show.

You can learn from your own peer group as well.

We don't have this thing pigeonholed for us.

But again, understanding the underwriting, understanding the opportunity is your education challenge.

And as you get better and better at that, then it's like, hey, do I want to do this myself?

And if you do want to do it yourself, be honest with yourself.

Do I have the time, the resources and the knowledge to protect the money that I put into a deal?

Whether it be mine or somebody else's.

And if you can step back from that and say, you know, what, what if, what if I invested with Dave at Freedom Venture Investments?

What if I invested alongside somebody like Ellie Perlman, you know, what could that look like?

And again, that's a case of understanding the structure in which we invest and what the returns look like to our investors.

So there's a lot to it.

I'm not going to say 30, 60, 90 days, you're a millionaire, right?

It's not going to happen, not from me.

But, you know, just get engrossed in it and really get up the grade again so that you can, you can make educated decisions.

And you've encountered a lot of women who've done very well in commercial real estate.

I have.

I have.

It's, I'm not going to lie, you know, it's still a dominated man's world.

And you'll testify to this, Kathy, you know, in the, in the construction world as much as, as much as the finance world.

And there's, as much as we would love to say the barriers have been removed.

It takes, it takes work.

It takes work.

But I, I have, you know, I could, I could number a few of them.

I mentioned Ellie because she's the very, very best.

But, you know, there are a number of ladies that are out there that are building really powerful businesses.

And I also get to see a lot of couples do it, right?

Husband and wife teams that are out there doing it.

There's also a couple of women, women teams out there doing it as well.

So, you know, it's not pigeonholed for any one group of people.

It really comes down to the individual.

You know, if you're listening to my, my voice right now and anything that I've said or has been shared by Shelley or Kathy here, it's like, you know, that's a seed.

That's a seed.

That's, that's maybe been sown today, maybe it's been sown in the past, and now it's beginning to, you know, to grow a little bit and a little more understanding, a little more insight, a little more imagination.

You know, what if is really my two favorite words.

Instead of, you have, right, you have to do this.

You have to get out of your comfort zone.

You have to.

No, don't tell me what I have to do.

I like to say, what if, what if you expanded your horizon a little bit?

What could that look like?

What if you joined a couple of webinars where experts share their insights?

What if you made a commitment to listen to every podcast that is put out by these incredible ladies, and you, at the end of six months or one year, sat down and made a plan for yourself and said, I am a beautiful, dignified woman of industry, and here I go.

What if you did that and began to detail it out going forward and you made the first step and the next step and the next step.

What if instead of you, half.

And I find that with that philosophy, Magic happens, guys.

Magic happens.

Like the barriers, the barriers are removed.

You know, the barriers are removed and never give up, never lay down, never surrender, ever.

That's kind of how I look at it.

So can people reach out to you to learn some of these principles and maybe see what other opportunities are out there?

Yeah, for sure.

I'm old school.

You can actually call our office, 781-922-4418.

Just tell them, you know, you heard Dave on this show, so I know where you came from.

Info info freedomventure.com you can also get a free guide from us, which is.

It's our number one white paper, which really takes a look at alternative investments and how they could fit in a balanced portfolio.

If your listeners wanted a copy of that free guide, they would need to go to uaguide.com u a I guide.com that stands for ultimate alternative investment guide.com and there you can.

There's a little video of me, I think, and you can download that guide and that will start your education journey, right?

That'll begin to fire off a few synapses in the old gray matter and, you know, start you on a journey if you, if you choose.

And some people will start and go, hey, this ain't for me.

It's way too much work.

I'm just going to give my money to the stock market and see what happens.

And God bless you.

I hope that works for you.

Some people look at it and they go, hey, I need a little diversification.

You know, what if I put some money over here?

See, what if.

What if I put some money over here?

So, yeah, those are a couple of ways you can get a hold of us.

Good to know.

Yeah, this is some serious food for thought.

You are so informative, Dave.

And I know we haven't covered all of the topics.

I'd love to have you back.

Maybe you could do a tutorial for all of us.

Son, here's the thing.

Every time, like always, the, you know, the documents going into a podcast.

Who are you?

What do you do?

What do you want to talk about blah blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I say every single time I can talk about anything.

What's important to the women that listen to you on this podcast?

Right?

Do they want to know that this male dominated world has an opportunity for them to come in and crush it and be successful?

If they want to know that, listen to me.

Yes, absolutely.

Yay.

Yes.

I'll say it again.

Ready?

Yes.

It all depends on you, the individual.

Do not make excuses.

It doesn't matter whether you're man, woman, fat, thin, black, white, rich, poor, smart, dumb.

None of that matters.

And whoever said to you one day you're not good enough, they lied to you.

We haven't met, but I'm telling you, you got game.

Right?

It's just a choice.

It really is.

It's just a choice.

And you know what if you stepped into it and gave it a run.

What is your company website again?

Where do people reach out to you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Freedomventure.com ww.freedomventure.com this has been awesome.

Thank you, Dave for a terrific interview.

Oh my God.

Thank you so much for being a guest on our show.

I appreciate you having me on the show.

Yes, good stuff, good stuff.

I appreciate you.

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