Building A Long Legacy

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There s no quick way to success in real estate It takes patience and consistency to create wealth and leave a lasting legacy In this episode we share an inspiring conversation with Marcus Long as he talks about his journey to multifamily Marcus is a husband father of a seven and four-year-old and an active duty Naval Officer with 21 years of service As he transitions out of the military to focus on family charity and real estate full time he is excited to serve others in new ways He is passionate about positively impacting the communities he chose to invest in and finding financial freedom 00 01 – 05 51 There Is Value in Slow Growth Marcus talks about how he got into multifamily How he s able to do deals remotely while living in England Trusting the process and being patient 05 52 – 11 24 Lessons Learned Going Into Multifamily Raising capital overseas and establishing trust with his investors Networking and letting people know what you re doing Don t take rejection personally A failure Marcus experienced and how he overcame it The importance of systems and processes 11 25 – 16 10 Living Life in Your Own Terms Marcus definition of success Being present in his family s life It s not just about the money it s about giving back to the community Setting goals as a couple Encouraging conversations about real estate and investing opportunities 16 11 – 19 32 Closing Segment The best piece of advice Marcus received Reach out to Marcus Links Below Final Words Tweetable Quotes People can t come to invest with you if they don t know what you re doing – Marcus Long Something s only a failure really if we label it as a failure – Marcus Long Trust that process and be consistent with it And the results will come – Marcus Long —————————————————————————– Connect with Marcus Visit their website and find their socials here Resource mentioned The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan Connect with me I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns Facebook LinkedIn Like subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts or whatever platform you listen on Thank you for tuning in Email me sam brickeninvestmentgroup com Want to read the full show notes of the episode Check it out below 00 00 00 Marcus Long That s one of the first things I really did was kind of turn around and like make sure everyone knows what I m doing right People can t come to invest with you if they don t know what you re doing And so just kind of going back through you know social media Facebook LinkedIn and everything else just kind of reaching out to contacts and just letting people know like Hey this is the transition that I m making in my business There might be some opportunities available in the future if you re interested in in having that conversation 00 00 34 Sam Wilson Marcus Long is a husband father of a seven and four-year-old and an active duty Naval officer with 21 years of service As he transitions out of the military to focus on family charity and real estate full time he is excited to serve others in new ways Marcus welcome to the show 00 00 49 Marcus Long Thanks Sam Appreciate it 00 00 50 Sam Wilson Hey man pleasure s mine There s three questions I ask every guest who comes to the show in 90 seconds or less can you tell me where did you start Where are you now And how did you get there 00 00 59 Marcus Long Yeah so you know I grew up in rural Missouri I enlisted in the Navy right out of high school And a few years later I got selected for a commissioning program was going to the University of Missouri when I bought my first real estate condo there I did some house hacking kept it as a rental when I left and I still own it today 00 01 15 Marcus Long And after that I was doing a lot of deploying And so I wasn t necessarily super intentional but opportunistically you know picked up a dozen or so single-family multi-use buildings and stuff back in Missouri through my career And about three or four years ago You know I went home from work early one day and my daughter was pretty young at the time asked what I was doing home 00 01 34 Marcus Long Cause it was still light outside So she was surprised to see me And it was kind of a a bit of a gut punch and you know kind of confirmed my desire to start my transition and off-ramp out of the military and preferably in a way to do so without having to have a W2 But I realized the cash flow from the properties I had wasn t enough to do that And so I kind of had to to dig in look at the numbers and figure out a path to do so And that s kind of where I decided to start transitioning over to the the multifamily side And after investing in a few limited as a limited partner a few syndications I transitioned to be a GP 00 02 08 Marcus Long And by the time this airs will have you know Co-GP about 400 doors in the past 12 months So that s where I am now 00 02 15 Sam Wilson That is really cool So I guess the the long-term plan is to go long in multifamily Do you think you ll stay as a Co-GP or do you see yourself going out and taking down deals on your own 00 02 26 Marcus Long Yeah I think that s a combination there you know I ve already kind of you know been analyzing deals and putting in some offers on my own And just the way timings and stuff some of my partners have ended up getting offers accepted and stuff and pulling me in on on some of those deals with them 00 02 41 Marcus Long So certainly I ll I ll do some on my own if those opportunities present themselves But you know I think being a Co-GP and partnering has also been a big part of you know what has allowed me to scale at the pace that I have you know over the past year or 00 02 55 Sam Wilson How did I mean you live and we didn t talk about this yet here in the show but we did off air You live in England right now You re stationed I think in England 00 03 02 Marcus Long That s correct 00 03 03 Sam Wilson How how did you find partners How have you vetted deals I mean there s a lot of these things that are kind of boots on the ground task How did how did you tackle that side of this business 00 03 12 Marcus Long Yeah So interestingly enough you know some of my other partners are actually here in England and and stuff as well 00 03 17 Marcus Long Although some of them are back in the states And so I think you know just between the the group of us like some of us have other connections one of my partners has a mentor and a a college roommate and a college classmate and stuff that was boots on the ground there And so really just by network And things and finding other partners that maybe already had some of those boots on the ground 00 03 36 Marcus Long You know I have a couple of partners that are in in Texas A couple of our properties are in Texas and stuff as well And so really a lot of that you know meeting people was really just getting networking a lot whether you know that be meetups and other things and met some of them through partnerships and and deals 00 03 51 Marcus Long And a lot of my initial partners were other military guys and girls and that we some of us were in similar masterminds together So we spent a lot of time together in you know weekend calls or accountability groups and things like that Really getting to know each other and then I ve met other people through them 00 04 05 Sam Wilson What do you think someone should take time-wise from you know where you started I mean you kind had a a base in real estate But what what would you say is an estimated time someone should budget in for all right this is when I m going to start digging in doing what you did joining masterminds talking to people figuring out what markets to be in how to how to grow and scale How much time do you think that should take someone 00 04 29 Marcus Long Yeah You know I think that s a difficult question because we re all in in a different phase of life Some of us still have a W2 Some don t have a W2 some have a family some don t have a family And so I think it s difficult to like compare to other people in in their journey and we re all on our own journey to do that 00 04 43 Marcus Long But one thing I would say is I think we we do need to be patient with ourselves you know and stuff I m in some of these masterminds and sometimes you know someone s just starting out and you know they start taking these actions and they don t have results in three four maybe even six months or something right And and you know they they want we have that want that instant gratification of something And I think it s important for people to realize like you know once in a while someone may get lucky or may have that you know deal come through early on but you know we have to be patient and trust the process and give it the time you know to to take effect 00 05 15 Marcus Long Cause I mean even if you have people that you know want to invest with you or brokers that want to work with you you know it doesn t happen based on one conversation you know it s a repeated follow up and stuff And so you know I hate to put a time on it but you know I think a you know a good year you know for people to even really kind of expect results and stuff is probably 00 05 34 Sam Wilson Probably a fair number 00 05 35 Marcus Long Non-conservative approach maybe 00 05 36 Sam Wilson Yeah no I I absolutely agree Absolutely agree cause that s I mean that s what we see a lot of times is you know people are like Hey you know they come out expecting two to three months They re going to get through and that happens it Sure it could happen 00 05 47 Sam Wilson But it also this is a this is a slow growth a slow growth game Tell me are you raising capital right now as well for your deals 00 05 54 Marcus Long I am Yes So I ve reached for every every one of them 00 05 57 Sam Wilson How do you do that living overseas Are you raising capital in the states Are you raising capital all for military members How how have you found your investor base 00 06 04 Sam Wilson It has been significantly in my first few deals a lot of that has come from other military members or you know people that I was it might be civilians or contractors or stuff that I was stationed or worked with at different locations over the course of my career 00 06 15 Sam Wilson And that s kinda where it started And really you know I think it was useful that I had some single-family experience and stuff in the past because as I transitioned into multifamily many of them knew that I had been in real estate and stuff or had real estate properties throughout the years 00 06 30 Sam Wilson And so that already gives them a little bit of a a level of trust or my familiarization with real estate there And then of course just working with them you know closely in the military environment and stuff There s a level of trust there So it wasn t you know a huge leap to maybe be ready to invest there 00 06 46 Sam Wilson Whereas if you know someone s just getting into real estate starting or you know you ve moved around or haven t had those connections and stuff that could be more challenging So yeah that was you know how did I get started there whenever I you know I first approached one of my partners basically said like Hey you know how can I bring value to you 00 07 00 Sam Wilson You know I m a I m a finance major so I can help underwriting stuff I ve had this single-family experience we ve managed our some of our own properties and you know the the capital raising aspect as well And so when he gave me some criteria That s one of the first things I really did was kind of turn around and like make sure everyone knows what I m doing right People can t come to invest with you if they don t know what you re doing And so just kind of go going back through you know social media Facebook LinkedIn and everything else just kind of reaching out to contacts and just letting people know like Hey this is the transition that I m making in my business there might be some opportunities available in the future if we re interested in in having that conversation 00 07 33 Sam Wilson That that s awesome I like that And I think that s an important step that people I think are afraid to make early on is that Hey this is what I m doing even though you may you may like you said you had some experience in single family but you hadn t closed any multifamily deals yet 00 07 48 Sam Wilson I mean you need a lead with that It s just it s hard I think at times to go oh Hey by the way I ve got no track record in this but cool This is where I m going 00 07 54 Marcus Long Yeah So and there are certainly there are certainly some you know when I I first raised that conversation They said Hey you know thanks But not right now And you know now that there s two three deals they ve been kind of watching you know as go along and and now they re reaching out to me and and they re ready and stuff you know So I think that s the other thing people have to think about too is you know Hey it s it s not necessarily personal 00 08 14 Marcus Long You know it s just their hard earned hard-earned money The timing might not be right Maybe they re investing other stuff Maybe they have some goals where that money s not ready Maybe they want to see you you know get a little bit of a track record and a few deals And so just to to keep that in mind but be consistent because maybe later down the road They ll be one of your investors 00 08 29 Sam Wilson Absolutely Tell me about a time that you maybe maybe you define something as a failure in your life and what you did to either write that or overcome it 00 08 38 Marcus Long Yeah You know I think something s only a failure really if we label it as a failure And so I try not to like label things as a as a failure from a mentality perspective and try more of a you know them being lessons learned you know and and proof from them I guess but to answer along with your question there I think that we you know bought some single-family houses you know back in Missouri and stuff And initially a few that we had bought were kind of you know small rehab type things and you know a few thousand dollars and they were ready to go and and we kind of jumped in and bought a few that needed significantly more rehab you know than we were prepared to you know whether we had the capital or didn t even have the contractors lined up to do them 00 09 17 Marcus Long And it was just a different you know kind of a shift of transition that we hadn t really properly you know prepared for and stuff And so I think it was and we re still kind of you know on the tail end of fixing some of those steps that that we took and stuff but I think it was an opportunity for us to realize you know not to just to jump into something new or chase a tiny object or whatever And we kind of needed to really understand the fundamentals of whatever the strategy was that we were doing Unfortunately there were you know rural Missouri not significantly valued property so it wasn t a hard hit to the wallet necessarily but it was a good learning lesson certainly 00 09 50 Sam Wilson Right right Were there are there any things any lessons you learned in that that kind of color the way you review and look at multifamily deals 00 09 59 Marcus Long I think I think one of the things was kind of just systems and processes and stuff right And like even if even if you re looking at like wholesaling and flipping and and things like that that I don t do as much those that are really good at it have systems and processes and know you know the timing and all that kind of stuff 00 10 16 Marcus Long And I think that that was one of the things I found during that I wasn t really flipping properties And so it was a realization that I need to include you know these systems and processes and things And so in in multifamily you know things like you know we use like Asana you know to communicate with our property manager and things like that 00 10 34 Marcus Long And so we don t have to dig back through emails all the time to see where they said something or sent a picture And and so trying to use those tools to be more efficient and effective in things I think 00 10 44 Sam Wilson Yeah absolutely Absolutely Yeah I ve incorporated both Asana and Slack this year and it s a game-changer 00 10 51 Sam Wilson I mean for I I posted this on social media here I don t know six to eight months ago something like what are people doing as an alternative to email Cause I hate email I mean I hate it It s like it s onboarded a new employee Oh maybe four months ago And I m like look we are not communicating via email 00 11 08 Sam Wilson We re just not like we are we are going to use slack and we are going to set up channels and that s the way we talk And our conversations are about each of those items And I can always just go back and look back through It s very easy to find like oh this is beautiful 00 11 20 Marcus Long Yeah It makes a lot more effective in my opinion 00 11 23 Sam Wilson Oh my gosh Absolutely Absolutely Tell me a little bit about your definition of success and how that ties into your why 00 11 33 Marcus Long Yeah So I think you know for me success is is really like you know when I can spend my time where I want with who I want doing what I want and you know kind of create those options and freedom for my family When I m in a position to do that and we are living life on our own terms and not tied to you know W2 or you know there s not something holding us down you know I I consider that to be successful And so you know how does that tie into my why You know for me those things I mean there s a lot of things now I have a seven and four-year-old as you mentioned 00 12 04 Marcus Long And so I want to be have the freedom and the flexibility to be present with them to be at their sporting events I want to be able to take them on you know international vacations or on mission trips in Africa or whatever right Like I want them to have those experiences and I don t want to have to ask off work you know to to be able to go do those 00 12 22 Marcus Long I want to choose when we get to go to do them And you know I want us to I want them to kind of see you know how we pour into the residents and the communities that we invest in you know we re actually trying to like make that a home for them It s not just all about the money necessarily You know I want them to see about how we use our profits and stuff to to give back to charities and and things of that nature 00 12 45 Marcus Long So yeah I think the the definition of success there really just gives options for my family to live lives on our terms 00 12 52 Sam Wilson Have you built a kind of a goal spreadsheet or or set out some targets that say Hey when we hit X then we are able to do Y 00 13 01 Marcus Long Well I don t know if I ve set it out in quite such a pretty spreadsheet you know like like you mentioned there I think that my my wife and I do sit down every year and kind of do couples like goal-setting retreat if you will 00 13 13 Marcus Long And in some of those questions and stuff that we talk about you know I think that those are some of the things that we discussed you know kind of ranges through life stuff like where you know monetary goals like new hobbies that we have or vacations that we want to take with the family or you know what s a goal this year as far as like our our giving whether that be time or money We do talk through a lot of those things I m not sure if it s lined up in a spreadsheet format but that s something that s certainly worth looking at 00 13 43 Sam Wilson I think goal setting annually and reviewing that it s a very good habit and practice to get into Is there a guide you guys use or is this something you guys just kind of do on your own 00 13 52 Marcus Long We use the guide from The One Thing in there I don t know if you ve seen that I think it s like I don t remember it s like the badass in couple s goal-setting retreat or something And I think it s the name of it We ve used it for about two or three years and it s it s pretty pretty thorough 00 14 07 Marcus Long Like I said it goes through quite a few different areas of your life And we sat down you know as a couple and do it and kind of we do it individually You know my spouse and I then like come together and talk talk about those and then try to come back every you know quarter or so And try to kind of follow up and look like Hey this is what we talked about at the beginning of the year Kind of how are we doing on that Are we on pace You know do we want to shift some things but that s a that s a pretty good guide if anyone wants to use it 00 14 33 Sam Wilson Absolutely No we ll certainly note to that as a tool and a resource there in the show notes What about as you guys set examples to or as you and your wife set examples to other military members and people around you 00 14 46 Sam Wilson I mean this is a demographic I think that probably doesn t have a lot of the hey we re going to go and be deployed a lot And then also by the way we re going to be investing in multifamily and kind of building our own you know ticket out of here Like how do you guys interact with the people around you and engage with them on this front and really kind of build I guess a community around what you guys are doing 00 15 07 Marcus Long Yeah So I think it s a big like education and awareness piece you know and that s true for everyone I think you know there s a lot of people that love their W2 S or work really hard on their W2 S and don t have the time to to look or be aware Self-educate and stuff or don t make the time to to do that 00 15 22 Marcus Long And so the military is just like one sector you know like I said there were there were a few years there after I got out of college where I was deploying a lot and stuff you know And so it wasn t necessarily my focus at that time too And so I think talking about it sharing what we re doing and and making people aware and it kind of encourages conversations about it right 00 15 40 Marcus Long Like a lot of people just don t know that they have the opportunity to invest in a multifamily property right They think it s super wealthy people that are buying these these complexes instead of you and I you know working together with partners to do that And so I think you know by talking about it sharing you know it encourages like Hey what are you doing 00 15 57 Marcus Long You know can we have a conversation about that And the more you have a conversation about that and then they can make educated decisions and it s one more tool in their toolbox 00 16 07 Sam Wilson Right No I think that s absolutely great I love that Marcus tell me you know what is a best piece of advice maybe a mentor or a peer in the industry has given you that you feel like other people should hear 00 16 19 Marcus Long Yeah I think we kind of hit on this earlier actually when you kind of asked about like the timeline and stuff and well I didn t necessarily want to give like a hard number but I think that was you know some of my mentors and coaches and whether it directly to me or seeing them say it to other people and stuff kind of remind us that you know it s a marathon not a sprint type of thing right And so you know we hear that term all the time but in these masterminds like I said people sometimes see this level of success you know and it could be on a podcast like this and they think it happened overnight or they they just get the story of what happened in the last 12 months 00 16 51 Marcus Long And don t really realize the amount of work that went in before that or even during that time And so they want that same level of success in this in you know in the time period that they saw the glimpse that they saw and that might be you know three six months whatever it is And so I think it s just important to remember that those people might have been working on stuff for years and years and years or you know I m over here in England 00 17 16 Marcus Long Like if you look at my calendar there s calls in the morning before I go to work I go do my W2 there s calls at night you know late at night because it s six hours 5 6 7 hours ahead of the states And so it s it s a pretty packed time sometimes And so I think it s important for people to remember that and they just have to trust that process and be consistent with it And the results will come 00 17 36 Sam Wilson Yeah no that that s absolutely true I ve got some meetings that we have on a fairly consistent basis after the kids go to bed It s like okay guys like everybody s got their kids to bed Now let s all get together and put our heads together and see if we can actually get something done today 00 17 49 Sam Wilson So I absolutely get it Marcus thank you for taking the time to come on the show today and share with us your journey thus far I d loved hearing about it loved hearing about your why and what success means for you and how you know really developing time options is one of your main goals there And I love that 00 18 06 Sam Wilson I love how you and your wife plan you know for your year in advance I think that s something that if you learn anything from today that s a that s an excellent exercise to do especially if you re able to review it as the year goes on and revise your goals and look at em go okay well where are we what do we adjust What was a little ambitious What was right Love your way of thinking through that And also that s really cool that you ve built a multifamily syndication company you know living overseas I mean if you can do that anybody can do it here stateside So certainly appreciate that Marcus if our listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you what is the best way to do that 00 18 36 Marcus Long Thanks Sam I really appreciate that The best way to to get in touch with me just go to alonglegacy com And if you do connect it s kind of a one-stop-shop You can send me an email there You can set up a time to have a call If you like to communicate through social media our LinkedIn Instagram Facebook all the links are on there So alonglegacy com 00 18 55 Sam Wilson And just to clarify if you are listening that is a long A L O N G legacy or alonglegacy com Marcus thank you again certainly appreciate it 00 19 05 Marcus Long Thank you Click here to visit this podcast episode