Real Estate Entrepreneur with Dan Haberkost

george grombacher 0:00
Come on one life of this George G. And the time is right, welcome today’s guest strong, powerful Dan hammer cos Dan, are you ready to do this?

Dan Haberkost 0:19
Absolutely, George, thanks for having me.

george grombacher 0:20
excited to have you on. Dan is a real estate entrepreneur who’s built a portfolio that’s allowed him to be free to live and work wherever he wants all before the age of 25. Dan, I’m excited to have you on tell us a little about your personal life’s more about your work, and why you do what you do.

Dan Haberkost 0:39
Sure, George. Yeah. Thanks for having me, first of all, and that’s a big question. So I’ll try and give you you wanted just where I’m at right now and what I’m working on at or the backstory more.

george grombacher 0:50
Give me a slip. Let’s start with the personal stuff. And then then then give us the backstory.

Unknown Speaker 0:56
Okay. Yeah, the personal stuff. Well, I live in Colorado Springs. For anyone that likes the outdoors, I think they would love it here too. I spend a lot of time snowboarding, mountain biking, climbing, hiking, all that sort of thing running. I really love it here from Ohio originally. And for anyone that has spent any significant time back there. They know that Sun doesn’t come out for half the year and it’s pretty humid and cold and then just miserably hot in the summer. So the first time I came to Colorado, I immediately loved it here. And yeah, so I you know, work a lot in the mornings. And usually by the afternoon, I go to the gym or go mountain bike or something like that. And the business was very intentional in that it doesn’t consume my life. It gives me freedom as opposed to being all that I do. And my number one priority every day. So yeah, that’s where I’m at as of today. And then we can break that down what I’m doing and how I got there if you’d like to go that route.

george grombacher 1:49
Yeah, I think that sounds great. What?

Unknown Speaker 1:53
Yeah, so growing up in Ohio, we didn’t have much money. It was very rural, about 15 minutes southwest of Cleveland, mostly just farm fields. And I just remember xiety worry, fear, conflict being the adjectives that come to mind when I think about money. And that was what I was used to just Worry, worry, worry, fear, scarcity. And growing up, I started working pretty early. I mean, by the time I was 16, I was managing a farm and a portfolio of rentals for my boss at the time. And that was high school. And then through college, I ran a landscaping company while going to school full time, and so didn’t really have a traditional high school or teenager experience, because I was just going to school and going to work and 20 year old me was pretty frustrated by that. But by that time, it was also clear that, hey, if I can run someone else’s business or part of it, while going to school full time, I’m sure I can start some kind of business on my own, when I’m done here to at least accelerate myself financially. So I don’t have to have the same financial realities that most of my family did. And so it was around that time, 20 years old that I started reading different books read about equities and different businesses, I could start that sort of thing. And it was Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that really was the lightbulb moment like for so many other real estate investors. So I went bought a duplex before I finished college at 21. And shortly after that, I came to Colorado for the first time and quickly went home, quit my job, gave my duplex to property manager and drove across the country, and then bought another rental just as a house hack. When I was out here, it was shortly after that, that I realized, okay, the low and no money down stuff is great to pick up maybe a property or two. But in the long run, this is a cash intensive venture, things are going to go wrong, you’re going to need money for I mean, acquiring properties, maintaining properties, everything you need unique cash flow. So I started the active business, which is front range land, and that’s all just land and development. And so I have kind of two buckets today, which is the act of business. And if you think of a wholesaling business in the world of real estate, right where you set up a marketing machine to get off market houses or apartments, duplexes, whatever at a discount. Really, that’s the core of the land, front range land, it’s just for land as opposed to houses and and multifamily. So really, I just have an assembly line, bringing in land at 30 to 50 cents on the dollar. Some of the lots I close on and less on the market, flip them, some of them, I sign some of them we sell on notes, and then some I build on so that’s the active business and then that feeds the passive investing of just buying more rental properties. So that’s where I’m at today and the two businesses are very synergistic because again, you need cash to to build a portfolio and then the portfolio helps to reduce the tax burden on the active income.

george grombacher 4:50
Nice. Well certainly congratulations on on on that journey of growing up with financial anxiety and and you obviously have Have an excellent work ethic. And you’re obviously a responsible person, if people were putting you in charge of a farm when you’re 16, and allowing you to run a rental portfolio and all that. Yeah. What when you look back at at, at, at the people that you around, and I don’t want to throw your family under the bus, but what, what is different from you that that separated you from from other folks that maybe haven’t been financially successful?

Unknown Speaker 5:31
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just not letting I think of my parents, even though they’re a little bit young for this. They’re in their early 60s Being products of the Depression, because that’s what their parents were, but they just kept that mindset. So more than anything, it’s just, I think, especially my dad, just an extreme scarcity, fear based mindset, but ever, that always stopped them from ever taking any sort of risk, or anything off the traditional path. So that really more than anything, I think it would also describe pretty much everyone in my family. So yeah, I think that’s why just fear,

george grombacher 6:06
yeah, which is, you know, and he said, just fear, but that’s, that’s what stops us from doing things. It’s what keeps people stuck. So, and okay, so you obviously, didn’t necessarily experience that, or perhaps your fear of, of being stuck in a situation like that was greater. Yeah. And, and, and drove you to pick up the knowledge and, and the know how, and then to take the risk to do these things. And that to the point where you are you are investing in land? And how did you how did you get the knowledge to not only learn how to invest in land, but then to be able to segment your business and actually start developing it?

Unknown Speaker 6:48
Yeah, great question. So there’s kind of a two fold, twofold mentorship that got me into that. So when I moved to Colorado, I started going to the real estate group here immediately, and actually host it now. And in that first few months, at the end of the meetup, a guy stood up said, Hey, I’ve been doing this for 40 years rentals, storage units, new development, apartments, everything you can imagine. And I’m looking for some help in my business. But in return, I’d be happy to help someone learn about this stuff. And of course, everyone gathered around him, he gave out his number to everyone, 2030 people. And all those people, myself and one other person called him, that’s it. And then out of NIH, the other guy gave up after about a week because this guy lived about an hour south of Colorado Springs. And so I just started going down there every weekend, because it was so clear to me that he knew what I wanted to know. And it was difficult. In hindsight, I realize he was so far ahead of me, it was like drinking from a firehose, and you know, he’s showing me an apartment, he built China and storage units and let it just it so it was a little bit of the Shiny Object Object Syndrome for me. But I quickly got involved in helping him put together these new builds. And we’re talking just simple, simple spec houses, and did a couple land flips. But again, I was I was kind of floundering around for the first, you know, year, year and a half that I worked with him. And then one of my friends here in town who host hosted the Real Estate Group with us before we move Brent, he was selling a land course. And I’ve always been very skeptical of that sort of thing. But I knew him personally, I had watched him build his land business since I moved here. And so I paid him for that I was one of his first students. And that gave me the simple system, because I am not good as most entrepreneurs, with systems, organization processes, that sort of thing. So he gave me or taught me the tools from A to Z, how to scale a land business. So I already had a decent background, I was already building houses with rich the other guy. And I took that I simply implemented it and then put other people into it. So that was really a turning point that stopped me from, you know, going in a million different directions and gave me a simple system to follow. Because again, that’s not my strong suit. So it was it was kind of twofold. Rich really taught me how to build houses. And then it was Brent’s course, that gave me the outline to how to turn it into a business. And now I’ve got people in it executing that business.

george grombacher 9:21
That’s awesome. And it’s so funny, that’s just such a human thing to do is 30 people gather around, they’ll get his phone number and it was just it was just you that that actually actually followed up with with with with everything.

Unknown Speaker 9:37
Yeah, yeah, it’s crazy. And it can be frustrating to when I actually find someone who wants to learn who’s serious. It’s so much fun to help people and see them do do something. That’s just the frustration. I think everyone who has any bit of success experiences is that people ask for help they give them we give them information then they just don’t do anything with it.

george grombacher 9:56
Yeah. So so what what is Your focus now are Are you now in that seat where you’re helping people to do this also? Or what is your? What?

Unknown Speaker 10:09
Yeah. Yeah, hosting that group. Now, there’s a number of people I’ve helped mentor to some degree. Again, I’m no expert, but I have been able to help some people there. But really, my focus at this point is building the rental portfolio. Because in the last 1218 months, I’ve really been able to scale my active income without proportionately scaling my investing. So I have five rental properties. Two of them are rented by the rooms, I have 11 tenants, but still, it doesn’t match up with what I’ve been able to do in the active income. So really working this year on picking up more units more than anything. Got it nice. And

george grombacher 10:49
how have rising real estate costs impacted that strategy, if at all? Ah,

Unknown Speaker 10:56
you know, that’s an interesting question. So more than anything that’s impacted the new home builds. Because I mean, across the country, rents have gone up, but in all the states that are growing so kind of the Southeast, and then the Sunbelt, Colorado, being in the Sunbelt, rents have gone up so much, that the numbers make more sense, a lot of times than they did a few years ago. So really, the increase in price in more than anything is affect the new builds, lumber, obviously, it came back down, it’s going back up a little bit, all the trades have gone up. But in the markets on building, the appraised value has also gone up enough that the number still makes sense. Really, probably the biggest issue out here is water. As I’m sure you’re dealing with an Arizona, there is a severe scarcity of water on the side of the country, and diminishing water rights, lack of available tabs is quickly becoming an issue in a couple of markets. But like anything else, it’ll be solved.

george grombacher 11:54
Yeah. One way or another. So. Okay. And what are you? What are you most excited about? Is? Is there new learning that you’re pursuing right now?

Unknown Speaker 12:08
Yeah, yeah. So I, I was pursuing commercial as far as buying hold at the end of last year. And I was making offers on a couple properties. But I just felt I took a step back, because it was creating a lot of anxiety. And I didn’t feel quite ready when I was actually going through the process, because it’s just the numbers are so much larger. So I took a step back bought another residential rental, I’ll know today, if I’ve got another duplex under contract, I’m going to buy and grow the portfolio, the small residential property portfolio a little bit bigger. And then in the long run, that is really where I want to go. So I’m still working on on getting a little more experience in education in that regard, you know, the guy was just telling you about tells me about his Walgreens building in Vegas and the numbers on that and just how passive it is. It’s just, that’s awesome. And that’s really where I want to go in the long term. So that is something I’m working on learning about here. And I’ve really George’s I’ve realized that I know what I need to do, I just haven’t done it yet. So that in the long run, I need to get clarity on how to move to that I do want to pick up a couple more rental properties that are small residential to have a stronger base first, though,

george grombacher 13:15
nice. For folks who are listening this okay, I understand that that certainly makes sense intellectually, that, that there are ways to enter the real estate market with a lot of capital. But if I’m going to be long term successful, it’s going to require capital, how much money are we talking about?

Unknown Speaker 13:32
Oh, that’s a broad question. Um, you know, if you’re where I grew up in Ohio, properties are so cheap, you need far less, but obviously, there’s there’s caveats that come with that. How much capital that that’s really hard to say, cuz it depends on your goals as well. But I’m not really sure how to answer that, what I would say is, if you are brand new, and you’re you’re looking to do something, and you don’t have a ton of cash, it’s really hard to go wrong. With a simple house hack, whether that’s a two to four unit, or it’s a single family house. It’s, I just look at it as delayed gratification. You know, it’s not always fun, but the amount that it accelerates your saving, and your ability to take risks, is hard to overstate. I would have never been able to leave my job, get my active business going if I didn’t have a house hack along with the first rental. So that would probably be the best course of action for someone who doesn’t have a lot of money but wants to do something, even if it means you’re still renting an apartment and just rent out the extra bedroom. But again, if you can eliminate your living expense, what can you do with those dollars? Can you put it towards starting a business? Can you just say for your first rental property, whatever it might be? That’s hard to go wrong with? So I know I kind of went around the question cuz I’m just varies. It varies so much. Yeah,

george grombacher 14:52
I appreciate that. It’s one of those awesome, impossible questions that I’ll occasionally ask. There’s no yeah, there’s not a real answer to it. But I think that that that’s a Essentially the answer to the question right there. And I mean, how in how would you counsel people who say, I’m interested in real estate? How do I know? Which one of these areas is going to be most interesting to me? How would? How would you counsel them to, to, to, to get the learning?

Unknown Speaker 15:17
Hmm. Okay. So that’s two questions there. So as far as figuring out what is most interesting to you, when you’re brand new, and you have no idea, I would start reading just like I told you, I didn’t college, even beyond real estate, I would start reading about different strategies, whether it’s just residential rentals, or apartments, storage units, and see what piques your attention because you, you can make millions of dollars with any of these strategies, it’s just deciding and then taking the action to make something happen. So yeah, I would start there, listen to different podcasts and read different books, talk to people locally at your local meetups, and figure out what’s interesting to you. And as a corollary to that, if you can find someone who is willing to teach you or you can work for them, or whatever it might be, that is successful, a certain strategy that is, is probably in hindsight, the biggest piece of advice I’d give anyone trying to get started, you can dramatically shorten the learning curve by finding someone who’s already successful and just doing the same thing that they did. So that answers the first part of the question, then the second part as far as Gosh, what was the second part of the question? I lost?

george grombacher 16:25
Oh, it’s just I feel like he answered it was how to identify the the area you want to focus on, and then how to actually get the knowledge. So

Unknown Speaker 16:32
yeah, yeah, finding someone who’s where you want to be is the best way, in my opinion. Love it.

george grombacher 16:38
Well, Dan, people are ready for difference making tip, what do you have for them?

Unknown Speaker 16:42
Yeah, you know, the biggest piece of advice I’d have, I can say one thing, it all starts with having a strong enough emotional driver to get you through the BS that’s going to come up. Because I think I was thinking about this yesterday, when I think of the people I’ve talked to who actually go do something versus all those who just, you know, get the guy’s number, but never call. It’s because there’s a strong enough frustration or driver or something. There’s it’s cliche, but there’s some reason why. So you need to identify what that is, why are you doing this, you know, I think of what really pushed me I’d had those two rental properties, I was still working a job, that job, I hated the last job I had so much, that’s what pushed me over the edge, or it just forced me to go figure it out. And so you need to identify the reason why and get really clear on that. And then you need to pick a strategy that aligns with that. Why? So if for you, it’s just time freedom, right? Maybe it’s keeping your expenses really low, doing a house hack, and picking up a few rental properties just to get to the point where your living expenses are covered. Or maybe you’re that person that has five kids, and you want to make sure they’re all set for life. And so you’re okay, not having as much time freedom just building something for your kids, then that’s a very different strategy. So you need to know why you’re wanting to start a business. And it can’t just be because it sounded cool in a podcast, because I promise when you get kicked in the teeth, which is going to happen all the time, you’re not going to keep going. So figure out why. Make sure you have strong emotional drivers behind it. Pick a strategy that aligns and then just pursue it intensely and do not vary until you’re successful there. And potentially you can branch off into other things.

george grombacher 18:27
Well, I think that is great stuff that definitely gets color. And good. Thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? How can people engage with you?

Unknown Speaker 18:36
Yeah, Dan Haberkorn posts on Instagram or Facebook, lots of pictures of builds, I’m doing rentals and mountains and then I created a website just walking through a lot of the deals I’m doing so just Dan Abercrombie calm.

george grombacher 18:48
Excellent. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did, show Dan your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas go to Dan hammer cost. com Follow him on Facebook and Instagram as well. The list all those in the notes of the show. Thanks. Good, Dan. Thanks, George. And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai