Journey to Multifamily Investing & eXp Commerical with Kevin Breckenridge

May 19, 2022

Expert CRE Secrets Podcast

Kevin S. Breckenridge is a Commercial Real Estate Broker and Investor with over 11 years of real estate industry experience. His primary professional mission is to help investors create, grow and preserve wealth through multifamily real estate investing. A thought leader in the multifamily space. He is also the creator of The Multifamily Investors Collective, a community of like-minded investors investing in multifamily real estate.

Kevin is passionate about real estate and you can often find him studying the real estate game, speaking, teaching, educating, coaching, and mentoring other real estate pros and investors. As an Associate Broker and Multifamily Real Estate Investment Advisor with eXp Commercial, Kevin provides diverse expert representation to multifamily asset owners and helps to advise them as they make investment decisions. He also owns a private equity firm that sources and acquires direct investment opportunities for passive multifamily investors.

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Journey to Multifamily Investing & eXp Commerical with Kevin Breckenridge

Brett:

I'm excited about our next guest and he's the fact he is a commercial real estate broker and real estate investor with over 11 years of real estate experience spanning across multiple asset classes on both the residential and commercial side of the business. He's an Associate Broker with eXp Commercial and founder and CEO of 317 capital and private equity firms specializing in the acquisition and ownership of commercial multifamily properties. In addition to being the founder of the multi-family investors collective, which as well, which is also an online community for multifamily real estate investors. Please welcome to the show with me, Kevin Breckenridge. Kevin, how are you doing?

Kevin:

Brett, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on the show. How are you?

Brett:

I'm doing well too and excited to help our listeners get to know you a little bit better, and for those who don't know, Kevin and I are part of eXp Commercial, and we are building multifamily teams across the US, and we're excited to talk about your journey Kevin to multifamily investing in brokerage and eXp Commercial. But before we go all there, I wanted to give our listeners a little bit of a chance to get to know you a little bit more. Would you start us with just a little bit more about your story and your current focus?

Kevin:

First, Brett, I got it. Thank you. I am very appreciative of this opportunity, and if anyone has been following Brett for any amount of time, you know that Brent is a heavy hitter and Brett plays in the big league. I'm excited to just sit here and share the space with you. Thanks again for the opportunity. As far as my journey in real estate has been an interesting one, and it actually started. Technically it started back in 2008. I was actually interning for the mayor of Cincinnati, and at that time, I was a business major majoring in accounting and international business, and I came across this entire shape opportunity as an economic development intern, and so I had actually had a friend who worked in the mayor's office, I had a pretty good resume. I apply for the internship. I hit my friend up and I said, if you can put in a good word for me, man, I'd much appreciate it. Fast forward. I went through the interview process. I got hired as an intern working directly for the mayor in the mayor's office, but also in partnership with the economic development part department, and there were actually two things going on at that time.

One, there was a conference that the city was planning with the IFA, and the IFA is the international franchise Association, and they were also getting ready for ICSC, and for anyone watching if you don't know what ICSC is. It's basically the largest commercial real estate conference in a world where 4050 60,000 commercial professionals, transcend on Las Vegas, and it said that like something like 60, or 70 70% of the commercial deals, at least in retail, are done during this conference. That was really my first introduction to real estate. Because as we were preparing for the conference, my job was to help the city package itself up and sell itself as an opportunity to do business. There was a very large development project called the banks and the banks were basically, Cincinnati was redoing its entire waterfront. There was a lot of retail opportunities, there was a lot of hotel opportunity, and it was basically a blank slate. My job was to come in and put together different packages, compile information, set up meetings with commercial brokers in the mayor and the economic development department, and as soon as I prepared everything, I got an opportunity to actually go to ICSC and see real estate happen at a very large and a very high level. That was really my first introduction to real estate.

Brett:

This is fantastic. Kevin, that's really cool. Being able to serve the city and see it from the other side of the table, which I think brings a unique perspective to investors and clients and as a broker, because it surely is about solving problems and bringing all the major key stakeholders in a city and a deal in development and investing. This gives you a unique perspective to be able to invest funds and build wealth through multifamily family investing, as well as brokerage, but before we dive into some of those secrets, I want to take one other step back. You see Kevin, I believe we've all been given certain gifts in this life and these gifts are given to us to be a blessing and help to others. People call them so superpower. Some people call these things strengths, and I believe their God-given gifts and they've been given to us again to be a blessing and help to others. I'm curious, what are those one or two gifts that you believe you were given a half that help how you help and bless people today?

Kevin:

That's a great question. Brett. I would say definitely one of my talents, one of my gifts is one, I have an abundance of energy, and I just, I am passionate about helping other people, whether helping other people get to the next level in their life, just based on my own life experience, and where I've come from, I've always had a positive mindset, and that positive mindset definitely has been being and has been contagious, and just the energy and the passion that I have for life, and the pursuit of life and adventure, and constantly just pushing and pushing and pushing, and trying to get to the next level may have definitely served me very well in life and being able to connect with other people and impact other people, as well as just my ability to endure to and by maintaining that positive mindset, and always knowing that there is more out there, it definitely has allowed me to really to get to where I am today. I guess those are some of the things I probably could go on and on.

Brett:

I love it. I love an abundance of energy positive mindset and being billing being willing and able to help others right and to try to persevere and endure and make that a contagious way for people to think well and to do the next thing. Is that a fair summary?

Kevin:

Yes, absolutely.

Brett:

By the way, you can learn more about Kevin Breckenridge and KevinsBreckenridge.com. Before we get too far that I got to figure it out. Like Breckenridge, Colorado, you probably got taught your whole life, right. So, how many times have you been there? I'm going to the Joe Fairless. The best ever conference coming up for multifamily syndications, coming up here in February to speak at that conference. I guess it's going to be in Breckenridge, Colorado. How many times you've been there? does everyone think you're a snowboarder because of it?

Kevin:

Funny enough? I've never been to Breckenridge, I have family who had been, but I've never been I've actually never been to Colorado. Funny enough. I've been all around the world. I've never been to Colorado. I've never been to Breckenridge. But growing up. It was one of those difficult names that everybody got on me about it was breaking bridge broken bridge break, Barry. I mean, it would be rich. I mean, if people just chopped it up so many times, I think there's like 12 or 13 letters in the name of sometimes it's funny because when I'm making my calls, and I'm reaching out to people, sometimes I have a difficult time saying it, trying to pronunciate it clearly because you start to kind of mix some of the letters together. But it's a good last name. It's actually a very, there's a lot of history and in the name Breckenridge, and actually, one of the vice presidents, I think back in the 1890s was a Breckenridge. Jag Capital Breckenridge. It's an interesting last name.

Brett:

I appreciate you sharing that little tidbit. Now let's dive right into the journey to multifamily investing and eXp Commercial. we talked a little bit about it in the beginning. You're working with the city, you're going to ICSC and then you're learning you're absorbing. At a certain point, it's switched over. All right. I want to become an investor myself to help others do the same. I also want to become a broker. Talk us through that part of the story.

Kevin:

I'll try to condense it. that's a 10-year story, actually. After my internship, I was still at that point. I don't know if you remember, Brett going through school. When you're in your senior year, everybody's trying to find a job. It's like, you got to go to these on-campus interviews, you got to fill out these applications, you got to try to find a job, and that was my senior year, and it was my first real exposure to government. Being a business-minded guy, I didn't really see government as the direction that I wanted to take my career. I had an opportunity that came up working for another company in a management rotation program, the Executive Leadership Program, and actually decided to take that opportunity rather than pursue a career in government. Fast forward two years. That was 2008, probably six months after I started the job. The 2008 financial crisis happened. It was a crazy time. Fortunately for me, I was able to keep my job, but I saw a lot of people being fired and being laid off, and then ultimately, I decided I didn't really like the job that I was at. I left that job. I went out to Seoul, South Korea to teach English and while I was in Seoul, I was starting to do doing some soul searching. I was like, okay, Kevin, what do I actually want to do with my career? So fast forward, I decided, I really liked Real Estate, I really like bringing people together.

I like all the different components that real estate offers. I like the potential for wealth. I like the potential for independence and running your own business. I decided to get into real estate and with the limited knowledge that I had, at the time, in terms of the profession of real estate, I felt like real estate becoming a real estate agent was the easiest way for me to get into the business. I got my license first got my license in Washington, DC, and then I immediately got my license in Maryland and then followed that up with my license in Virginia, and over the course of a couple of years I stumbled I fell down, I learned a lot about real estate, I started learning a lot about wholesaling, and flipping contracts, and that's when I started to get deeper into the world of investing. Because I was really good at acquisitions, I was really good at finding deals I was really good at talking to sellers, and I started to have a lot more investor clients, and that's when I started to get exposed to the financial opportunities of being an investor and some of the benefits behind investing in real estate, and then, of course, kind of learning a lot more from an education standpoint, through continuous learning and reading, of course, your Robert Kiyosaki keys and some of your different financial education books. That's kind of how I started going down the road of learning about investing and becoming a real estate salesperson.

Brett:

Amazing, and at a certain point, you're cold calling people you're reaching out to people developing these relationships, and you're building that out. What would you say the number one secret is to have those detailed conversations with the sellers. To try to add some value? What's been kind of your best way about doing that?

Kevin:

Initially, a residential at the time, when I first got started, actually, there's this. I don't know if you know who Sean Terry is, but Sean Terry's huge wholesale guy, and back in the day, there used to be these things called yellow letters, and the idea was that you would write this left this note or this letter to the property owner, and you would write it on a yellow legal pad of paper, and then you would package that inside an invitation style envelope, and then you would send that to the letter to the owner, and those were really effective, and that's really how I started to get my phone to ring where I had sellers actually calling me. Back in the day, I started to learn a lot about why communicating directly with the seller, to the power of direct mail, and then three, like you had mentioned earlier, just starting to have those conversations, and in those early days, I didn't, I wasn't really big on scripts, I wasn't really big on scripting, or trying to follow a certain flow with the conversation.

But I've always been an excellent listener, I've always up until this later stage of life, because now you're building your personal brand, and you're running a business, you have to communicate outwardly a lot more. But for the most, most of my life, I was more of the quiet guy, the reserved guy, and a guy who just kind of like to see things coming together. For me, listening and absorbing information has always been a strong point, and when you're listening, and you're having conversations with sellers, and in this case, I was working with a lot of distressed sellers, they needed someone that they felt like they could trust, they felt like someone that they felt could actually help them and help solve their problem, and here I come. I'm a trustworthy guy. I'm a great listener, I'm very good at building relationships, and then on top of that, I know real estate, almost like the back of my hand, and I was able to provide a solution to their problems. Now with multifamily, some of the dynamics have changed a little bit, but I think some of those fundamentals still apply.

Journey to Multifamily Investing & eXp Commerical: “I've always had a positive mindset, and that positive mindset definitely has been being and has been contagious, and just the energy and the passion that I have for life, and the pursuit of life and adventur.” - Kevin Breckenridge

Brett:

I love the way you put that right, becoming an excellent listener, but at the same time knowing the real estate and knowing the business so well, and I remember I was at Marcus & Millichap and it was my first you know, six months in the business and I'm making all these cold calls, and I'm having some success not as much as I'd like and it's hard to just grind and grind and grind and grind, and then I remember one of my mentors at the office said hey, the moment you know more about their property than they do or the property next door or have a solution to a problem they don't know they even have yet is the moment you start adding value. He goes so just focus on knowing as much or more in other words become an expert Dolly in the multifamily property but the submarket and the rents in the concessions and what so and so was doing now down there to get an extra $100 of rent and what renovations are going on. What deals have been closed? What tax deferral strategy could save a fair 1031 exchange. All of these things now when you call, you can add value, versus the other way around, and part of that is absorbing and listening, and so for the first couple years, I'm calling people or I'm in meetings with mentors, and reading and reading books and going through it, to be able to absorb that to specialize in that it's not like take, it's not unlike being like a residency like a doctor. They're going to be practicing and watching and absorbing. Before that, they're fully ready to go, it does take time. But with enough perseverance and enough endurance, you can get there, sir. Any thoughts on that Kevin?

Kevin:

You're absolutely right. One of the things about real estate is it is such a vast and dynamic industry, and on top of it being vast and dynamic, once you start to figure out where you know what path you want to take, there is a lifetime of learning opportunities that are required in order for you to really master the profession, and over time, as you're going through, and you're learning, it definitely takes a lot of studying, it takes a lot of observation, it takes a lot of mentorships, and it definitely can take five 710 years for you to develop a level of mastery. In order for you to handle some of the complexities of the different deals and challenges that you're faced with. I mean, some deals can take years whether or not you have a high level of expertise or not. But definitely, a lot of observation as well as knowing what's going on in the marketplace. You talked about knowing to know what, knowing what's going on next door. Well, it was the same in residential, you had to know your comps, you have to know especially in a city like Washington, DC, and then this area over the last 1015 years, the city has changed so much that there were neighborhoods, entire neighborhoods that were going through so much a lot of people would say gentrification, but it was just going through change. You had to know the neighborhood, you have to know how things were changing price points on a lot. It was a lot of stuff to know, definitely.

Brett:

Thanks for sharing that. Now. Let's shift a little bit to the eXp Commercial journey. Curious what pleases you maybe talk about kind of what, where you were before you discovered, eXp Commercial?

Kevin:

It feels so good to be here and talking about eXp Commercial because I'm reminded of the journey that led to me actually finding out about eXp Commercial. About two years ago, I decided that I didn't really want to do residential anymore. I didn't want to do residential brokerage, I didn't want to do residential sales, and honestly, at that point, I was tired of it. I was tired of investing because my investing experience for the most part was in development, and having some difficulty going through some difficult deals, the stresses, and nuances of the business and development, as well as just things that were happening in my personal life. I actually just got burned out. I started to shut down my residential business, and just kind of figure out where was, I want to go next. Because I knew I did. I couldn't put my all into what I was doing at that point in time. I took a step back and really just started to think about, well, we know real estate, we know we're going to continue in this journey, but there has to be a better way, and for me, my perspective was first and primarily from an investing standpoint, and then second from a brokerage, and that's what led me to multifamily.

I had I knew about multifamily. I'd done a little bit of research. But it wasn't until I really understood the depth and the challenges of development that I had an appreciation for multifamily, and the cash flow and the consistency in the stability of investing in that type of asset class. I started to educate myself a lot more about multifamily went to a couple of different pieces of training and get to sit at the feet of some of the industry's top educators, and my perspective at that time was okay, I'm going to start syndicating doing the multifamily piece from that standpoint, and over time, that's when my feelings about brokerage and a lot of the different benefits that come with brokerage started to kind of boil up again, and then I decided, I'm going to get back into brokerage but I'm only going to focus on multifamily, and it just so happened as I was having that conversation. A friend of mine was like, have you heard of eXp? And I had heard of eXp back in the day eXp Realty, but I wasn't I wasn't looking at brokerages because I have my own brokerage And I didn't have, I didn't feel attracted to eXp. But when he told me about eXp, and he told me about eXp Commercial, I said, I'll look into it. Now he's not with the eXp, but he happens to know somebody who was. I was like, I'll look into it, and it just so happened literally, within a couple of days. I was on Facebook, and that's when I saw you have posted, I think it was the eXp explained video, and I comment I said, this is crazy. I was just talking to a friend about eXp Commercial, and from there, we set up a phone call, and you send me some information, and after seeing the model and everything that was I was sold on the opportunity.

Brett:

I appreciate you sharing that story, and it's a story that we want to share more and more and so Kevin, I will be back on about what we're gonna do like once a week, or once a month here or maybe even once a week if it gets super popular, where we're gonna be talking about the model the eXp Commercial, and the opportunity and the culture and the collaboration and the in the tools and the resources, and we really believe it's a game-changer for any commercial real estate brokers and or syndicators, or owners or operators.

If you can't put eXp in a box, and we're going to be diving into that, and so, that being said, look for these future episodes to drop soon as we get into this more and more and more. But one thing I would say is underwriting them. All right? Take your commercial real estate understanding of underwriting properties and cap rates and IRR and cash on cash returns and underwrite the brokerage model and ask yourself, which side of the quadrant you're on? Are you on the left side of the quadrant? Rich Dad, Poor Dad? Are you self-employed? Are you on the right side of the quadrant business owner and investor? And likewise, like Kevin, I own my own. I'm a broker, and I had my own brokerage. After leaving Marcus & Millichap, I went on my own, and there was something about eXp and the way that we can keep our branding, we can keep our focus like mine is Deferred Sales Trust as well as multifamily brokerage, and we can grow with it and they can grow with us and it's really amazing. Any thoughts on that? Kevin, before we go to the lightning round?

Kevin:

I look forward to getting more than getting into more discussion about eXp Commercial, I think it is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity, and if you've been in real estate for any amount of time, whether you've been independent, whether you've been with a large brokerage if you have been in the business and you know the business, I think it's going to be very easy for you to underwrite the model and to underwrite the business, as Brad was saying, it's, it's an easy decision to make, just have an open ear, take a look at it and really just face the reality of what you know what, what's coming back to you because it's very well put together excellent leadership. You have a lot of hungry and successful people in eXp Commercial and eXp Realty. As Brett mentioned, the culture, the resources, the tools, there are just so many things that I love about eXp Commercial. I can't wait to talk about it a lot more.

Brett:

By the way, if you want to learn more about that you can schedule a time to go to KevinSBreckenridge.com. Is that Kevin's with an S Kevin or is that just Kevin Breckenridge? Did I spell that wrong?

Kevin:

You got to spell right. But it's KevinSBreckenridge.com.

Brett:

Got it. KevinSBreckenridge.com, and mentioned that you saw heard this on this podcast too, and so that being said, Are you ready for the lightning round Kevin?

Kevin:

Thanks. I'm not ready, but I'm ready.

Brett:

All right, here we go. Knowing what you know now if you could go back to your 20 to 25-year-old self was the one Golden Nugget to make sure to tell yourself to do

Kevin:

Mentorship and coaching. Excellent. If we're talking about business, absolutely mentorship and coaching and surrounding yourself with the right organization and the right culture.

Brett:

What's the one book you'd recommend or give to the most in the past year?

Kevin:

One of the books I love is what is it? Robert Kiyosaki Get Rich. I can't think of the name you put me on the spot. It's not a thinker.

Brett:

It's not Rich Dad or Poor Dad.

Kevin:

It's a Retire Young, Retire Rich.

Brett:

All right. Excellent. favorite, favorite leadership quote or theme that you strive to live by?

Kevin:

That's a good question. I can't think of a quote right now. But I like to model people of history, leaders have history. Study boys in Churchill. He was a great orator. Anyone who has had an impact on life and is lived a life worth living. I try to mimic it follow what I can.

Brett:

Beautiful love Winston a second the last question, what are you most curious about right now?

Kevin:

I'm most curious about I don't know, I think of the thing I'm most curious about is just life man. I've got I've been fortunate enough to make a lot of good decisions and I've got a healthy home life and healthy family and just curious to see how are my family continues to grow me curious to see how my experience in my professional standpoint in commercial continues to evolve and just my overall personal brand and platform and all the people you know, I'm able to connect with and will connect with, I'm just curious about seeing how life continues to unfold.

Brett:

Last question, after all, your success and helping the people you've helped and broken the deals you brokered, and learning what you've learned, how do you stay centered in your values, Kevin? How do you stay encouraged to charge forward to reach new heights?

Kevin:

You have to be you. You have to be authentically, and in my experience, it's always better to do good business to treat people the way you want to be treated, and just being a good person, being a loving person, being a kind person, being sincere, being authentic. If you want to go forward and you want to grow and you want to have peace of mind, and peace in your life, you can only achieve that level of peace. If you have the right level of integrity. You have the right level of authenticity, and you treat people the same way that you want to be treated.

Brett:

Kevin Breckenridge. Thanks for being on the show. For listeners who want to get in touch with you. Would you mind one last time? What's the best place to find you?

Kevin:

You can find me on all major social platforms. You can find me on my Website, Kevin S as in SAM Breckenridge.com, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok. I don't even think I've posted a TikTok video, but you can find my profile on there. But I'm a very easy person to find on the internet.

Brett:

Kevin, I want to thank you for being on the show. I want to thank you for sharing your wisdom with us, and I want to thank you for joining eXp Commercial. Being a part of my team as we build this thing out nationwide, and I want to encourage you to keep using the gifts of having an abundance of energy positive mindset, being contagious, and helping others achieve excellence in their multifamily investment or brokerage career. I also want to thank our listeners for listening to another episode of the eXpert CRE Secrets Podcast also streaming on capitalgainstaxsolutions.com where we believe most commercial real estate brokers luxury realtors, they struggle with clarifying their passive income options not having a clear plan is the enemy and using a proven broker strategy such as the eXp Commercial model, and purchasing investment real estate is the best way to grow your wealth. I'm your host, Brett Swarts and I want to encourage you to Rate, Review, Subscribe, and Share this with somebody who could be an inspiration today, and as well if we could ever help you with the Deferred Sales Trust, you can also go to CapitalGainsTaxSolutions.com, to learn how to eliminate the need for the 1031 Exchange and grow your wealth that way too. We do appreciate everybody. Thank you.