February 22, 2018

JF1269: Why A Retiring Cop Chooses Real Estate For A Second Career with David Sweeney


David reached the age of 53, living in Seattle he’s technically able to retire now. When he actually looked at his situation, he realized there was no way he could actually retire. He looked at options and felt that real estate was the answer for him. He set out to get his license, analyzed properties, and found a 24 unit cash flowing apartment building. If you enjoyed today’s episode remember to subscribe in iTunes and leave us a review!

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David Sweeney Background:

30 years with the Seattle Police (currently a lieutenant)

-Nearing retirement age, he began to immerse himself in owning multi-family properties

-Got his real estate license this year, and last month closed on first transaction, a 24-Unit cash flowing apartment building

-Currently looking for his next deal

12 years of experience as a professional mediator

-Say hi to him at  davidsweeney.com OR  davidATdavidsweeney.com

-Based in Seattle, Washington

-Best Ever Book: 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall

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TRANSCRIPTION

Joe Fairless: Best Ever listeners, how are you doing? Welcome to the best real estate investing advice ever show. I’m Joe Fairless, and this is the world’s longest-running daily real estate investing podcast. We only talk about the best advice ever, we don’t get into any of that fluffy stuff.
With us today, David Sweeney. How are you doing, David?

David Sweeney: Hey, I’m doing well, Joe. How are you?

Joe Fairless: I am doing well, and nice to have you on the show. Let’s see – David just closed on his first transaction, a 24-unit cash-flowing apartment building. He is also a police officer, he’s a lieutenant with the Seattle Police Department; thank you, sir, for what you do.

David Sweeney: I appreciate it, thank you.

Joe Fairless: 30 years of service with the Seattle Police, and he got his real estate license this year, and as I mentioned just a second ago, he bought a 24-unit apartment building, so we’re gonna talk about that. He’s currently looking for his next deal.

With that being said, David, do you wanna give the Best Ever listeners a little bit more about your background and your current focus?

David Sweeney: Sure. Thanks for having me on, first off… I turned 53 last December, and in the state of Washington, that’s the minimum retirement age for a police officer. And it was kind of interesting, I can almost see the day in my mind when I realized “Hey, I can retire now!”, except I could retire now; there was no way. I have a lovely wife of 19 years, and three lovely children, ages 11, 13 and 15, and there was no way I could leave the job at that point. I wasn’t prepared financially to do so.

My motivation became — I wanted to provide a better life for my family. I wanted my wife to be able — if she wanted to work, that’s great. But if she didn’t wanna work and she wanted to work on some of her charities or causes, I wanted her to be able to do that. I wanted my three kids to grow up and be able to go to any college they want and not have to worry about the cost of it. I wanted to travel the world with my wife, I wanted to live in a nicer house… Basically, I guess you might say I was kind of — I wasn’t poor by any means, but I was closest to poor dad in Kiyosaki’s book. I had a government job I’d worked at for 30 years, I counted on over-time and raises for extra money, I basically invested all my money in my home… And I had some savings, of course, but when I view my home as my primary asset, I think I really fell into that poor dad mentality, so what I wanted to do was change my life and I wanted to change it for the better, and I decided — I evaluated several different things to do, but I decided real estate was the way to go.

When I get involved in something, when I get dedicated to a cause, when I get energized, I devote massive amounts of tension into learning everything I can about that, so I became a voracious reader of books, blogs, I listen to your podcast on a daily basis, as well as other podcasts… And this seemed to be right up my alley. I wanted to do real estate.

As I listened to more and more people, first I was thinking, “Okay, duplex, triplex, fourplex”, that type of thing. But then I decided that what I really wanted to do was own apartment buildings, and the more people I heard, the more said “You need to go into apartment buildings.” But unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to find brokers out there than really know how to buy and sell apartment buildings, so I said “Okay, I will solve that problem as well” and I decided I will be my own real estate agent. So I studied for the real estate exam for the state of Washington, got my license earlier this year, and I spent probably 4-5 months analyzing properties. I think I analyzed over 400 properties in order to find the one that met what I was looking for.

Again, it was my first investment, so what I had to do was take a refi out of my house; I pulled out $380,000 and I just had that money sitting there in the bank, just ready until the time was right, until I found the property that I was gonna buy. Fast-forward to now, I’m sure you’ll have a few questions about that process, but that’s where I found myself in August and I found my apartment building.

Joe Fairless: You took massive action, in a very short period of time. That all happened in a year. In less than a year, you identified that there was a problem with the financial situation from a long-term standpoint. You then identified real estate was the path to go, then you studied up on how to evaluate and buy apartment buildings; you then got your real estate license and you closed on one and you completed a refi on your primary residence.

David Sweeney: Yes, I did that in — about nine months I think it took, from start to finish.

Joe Fairless: Is there a thought that comes across your mind, or perhaps from your significant other or those around you who say “Oh, you went too fast. You rushed into it.”

David Sweeney: No. In fact, I get surprise from people when I tell them what I did, but I also get “Man, I wish I had done something like that” or “I wish I could do something like that.” Then, of course, hey, that’s a great lead-in, because then I can offer to help them look for their own investment properties. So I’ve started doing that. So it’s a nice conversation starter…

I think people are genuinely surprised, because again, I’m a government employee, a 30-year public servant, and that’s probably not what most police officers do. I remember being envious of an officer I was training one time and he came riding along with me… We were talking about what we were doing this weekend and he said “Oh, I have to go to my rental property and do some work on it.” And I went “Wait, why does this fairly new officer have a rental property? Why don’t I have a rental property?” That conversation stuck with me for many years. I didn’t do anything about it, I wasn’t motivated at that point, but that conversation stuck with me. “He has a rental property. Wow, that’s great!” So it’s nice to tell people that now I have my own rental property. Not just a property, I have an apartment building. I’m an apartment building owner! It’s kind of exciting.

Joe Fairless: You are. It’s incredibly impressive what you’ve done. How many hours do you work as a police officer?

David Sweeney: 40 hours a week.

Joe Fairless: 40 a week. What’s your shift?

David Sweeney: Generally, I’m a lieutenant, so I work daytime hours. My primary job right now is reviewing use of force within one of our five police precincts in Seattle. I’m at the East Precinct and I review use of force… So that’s why do primarily, an 8-to-4 job.

Joe Fairless: 8-to-4. Okay, got it. So you’ve got some reasonable hours, unlike one of my friends who is not a 30-year vet and he works the hours where I’m snoozing away.

David Sweeney: Oh, exactly. I’ve done that before many times.

Joe Fairless: Right, I figured. Okay, so you have a full-time job, and you studied up… How did you get to the point of education where you felt comfortable taking the $380,000 from the cash-out refinance on our primary and plunking it down on an apartment?

David Sweeney: Well, it first off comes from just personal learning – books, podcasts, videos, webcasts, articles, blogs, everything like that. So that form of self-education. But then when you add to that, you have to take — I spent 90 hours of classroom training online in order to get my real estate license… But then I wanted to pass the test the first time. I said, “I’m not going back to take this test the second time.” I’ll bet I invested 120-150 hours just studying for the test. So I’ve met the minimum state requirements, but I wanted to study and pass this thing the first time, so I’m constantly getting more real estate information into my brain.

In about April – that’s when I passed the test, so that’s when I started evaluating properties. Like I said, I probably did 400 of them, and I’ll bet 325 of them were residential, meaning duplex, triplex, fourplex.

Joe Fairless: Oh, okay.

David Sweeney: It wasn’t until I then moved into the mindset — I thought “If I’m gonna reach my financial goals here, if I’m gonna replace my income and then some… I don’t wanna just replace my income, I wanna increase my standard of living, and that of my family”, so in order to do that, I thought “If I’m gonna go duplexes and triplexes, how many of these do I have to buy? Oh, my gosh, this is a huge number. Wait a sec… I can skip all this and just do one apartment building, and then add a second one next year and then a third one the year after that?” That’s my goal right now, add a large apartment each year, and I wanna do like you do and just gradually — in fact, not even gradually; I wanna make a big jump the next time.

Joe Fairless: There’s nothing gradual about what you just did… [laughter]

David Sweeney: Well, I wanna go bigger, that’s my goal for next year. So 150-180 units, something like that, where I actually have to invest in staff to run it. That’s the size of property I want.

Joe Fairless: You have a property management company that is handling your 24-unit, right?

David Sweeney: I do, yes. I interviewed about three different companies, and decided the best fit for me, and the one that was most responsive to me and met my needs. So far I’m really happy. I’ve heard enough horror stories from people that chose poor on their property managers, but it’s nice that the place I located is about 90 miles South of me, so I can easily travel there, check in on my property, check in with my property manager; he’s receptive to me, we text, e-mail, call each other… So I’ve got a very receptive property manager.

He knows about the rents in the area, so that was a big plus for me… And he also knows the best contractors to use, because I don’t live in Centralia – that’s the community I bought the apartment building in. I don’t live there; I like the community a lot, I wouldn’t mind living there, but he knows who to hire and he calls me anytime there’s an expense over $200 and I authorize it.

So far, the bills that have come in looked very reasonable to me as far as the prices being paid for different contracting work and things like that… So I think I’ve chosen wisely with my property manager. I know that doesn’t always happen, but so far, so good.

Joe Fairless: $380,000 home equity line of credit, right? (HELOC) You and your wife, I imagine, had a conversation about that, yes? [laughs] How does that conversation go?

David Sweeney: You know, she was so supportive… It’s really great. She knows me; she knows when I get a certain goal in mind, I’m like a bulldog, I go after it 100%. I went back to school and got my college degree very late in life, but when I did it, I devoted myself to it and got it done. I went into Toastmasters and I said “I wanna be a distinguished toastmaster’, the highest award they give. I went in, set my goal, and did it. Same thing in real estate – I said “I wanna own apartment buildings”, I went in, I worked hard, I worked fast, and I took massive action and I did it.

So she knows when I get a goal in mind, that that provides some of my reason for being. If I don’t have a goal in mind… I’ve gotta admit to you, Joe, I’m lazy. I sit around and I don’t do a whole lot. You know, I go to work, I work hard, I enjoy my job and things like that…

Joe Fairless: You just kind of float, though… You float through things.

David Sweeney: Yeah, I absolutely do, and she knows this about me. We’ve been married almost 19 years. So when she saw this goal, she got excited about it, because she knew that I would devote my time and energy to it. We all get the same 24 hours a day, and it’s what do you do with that time that you’re given; she knew if I had a goal and set that in mind, that that would provide impetus for me to really move forward on this project… And she likes it too, because it’s good for the family. It does mean some extra hours for me, but the way I look at it, would I be better off watching TV at night, or would I be better checking out rental properties and evaluating them, looking at the financial numbers, learning more about real estate? So she’s excited about the project.

That money sat in the bank for about four months, and it just sat there, collecting its — it’s so funny having 380k in the bank… Nothing happens, the interest is so minimal, but then when you take it and you invest it in a property and now you see the returns coming in – we can get into numbers whenever you like – you go “Wow, this is exciting. This is exactly what I wanted.” And now I just need to multiply this in my coming years, and I think I’ll be where I wanna be as far as my life goals.

Joe Fairless: Let’s talk about specifics of the property – can you tell us about it?

David Sweeney: Yeah, absolutely. So it’s a 24-unit apartment building in Centralia, Washington. Centralia is located about halfway between Seattle and Portland, so it’s easily within driving distance; it’s a long drive, but it’s within driving distance for me… And that’s great, because what do I do on the way down and back? I listen to podcasts; I listen to you, Joe.

Joe Fairless: God help you.

David Sweeney: So it’s close enough where I can check in on it and see what’s going on. So the property was listed on the MLS for 1.325 million, and it’s great having your real estate license, at least it is for me. I feel like I’m looking behind the curtain and seeing what’s going on back there. So I can do my own negotiation, and that’s kind of nice, because one of my professional credentials – I’m a conflict resolution mediator at work, so I help people with their conflict resolution skills, and I definitely use that in my negotiation skills when I find a property I wanna buy.

So it was listed at 1.325, we offered 1.1, and I asked them to pay 1% of the closing costs. They came up a little bit, they wanted 1.14 million… And I got the 1% closing costs, I also got my real estate commission, so when the deal closed, I walked out with $40,000 in cash that I could then roll back into the property to do renovations or any property work that I wanted to do… So that’s kind of exciting.

The market rents were not what they needed to be, and my property manager confirmed this. I confirmed it for myself; I use websites and I also go out and look in the community that I’m at, like “Okay, how much are apartments going for here?”

So it has 16 one-bedrooms and 8 studios. Originally, they listed the gross income at $133,000/year, but I found by getting the rent up to market, where it should be, we could increase the gross up to 167k… So right now the NOI is about 100k, and then my mortgage responsibility is 50k of that. Right now I should be walking out with 50k in cash a year. That’s exactly what I wanted to do – find a property that would cashflow right from the beginning.

Joe Fairless: Run those numbers of the gross rent – what was that again?

David Sweeney: 167k/year gross rent.

Joe Fairless: Before David or after David?

David Sweeney: That was after David.

Joe Fairless: Okay. What was before David?

David Sweeney: Before David it was 133k.

Joe Fairless: Oh, okay. And to get 133k to 167k gross rent (and that’s gross potential rent) you just organically turned the units on the lease renewals but you didn’t do any major improvements to them?

David Sweeney: Right, nothing major. The market won’t really support that… It’s an older building, which I fully realize; it’s a 1920 classic brick building. The two-story brick building you see for apartment buildings, so it looks great. The units inside are not the fanciest thing you’ll ever see, but I keep them nicely painted, I get new carpet in there…

Right now, when a unit becomes vacant, then I move in and try to start saving energy. So low flow shower heads, low-flow toilets, sinks and things like that. The tenants pay the electricity, but right now I pay water, sewer, garbage. So if I can lower the expenses even more, then I’ll increase the value of the property. I love that about owning rental properties, I love that about owning apartment buildings – I’m in charge of this building, and I can increase the value of it by getting more net operating income. That’s great.

Joe Fairless: What type of loan do you have on it?

David Sweeney: That was kind of a challenge… I did receive several no’s from commercial banks when I started asking around.

Joe Fairless: Why?

David Sweeney: Because I was a first-time investor. Even though I had my real estate license and I explained that to them… I also explained that in college – and again, that was 30 years ago, but I had been an apartment building manager, so I said I had some experience here; it’s been a while… [laughter] You know, I was honest with them.

Joe Fairless: Well, when you were in college the first or the second time?

David Sweeney: The first time.

Joe Fairless: Okay, yeah. It’s been a while probably.

David Sweeney: Exactly. So I got several no’s, but I kept working at it. I knew to go with a regional or local bank, and I finally found a bank that said “Yes, we’re interested. You can send us properties, if they’re a good deal.” That’s nice to kind of have a second set of eyes looking at the deals… So when I found the Rockstreet apartments (that’s my apartment building), I sent it off to the banker and she said “Yes, this looks good. We’ll write you a letter that we intend to finance.” Of course, it has to go through underwriting and things like that…

So I got a 4.25% rate. It’s a 30-year amortization, but there’s a 10-year balloon due. So that’s kind of nice, it gives me that ten years to work with it. Now, if I pay it off this year, it’s a 5% penalty. Next year it’s 4% etc., down to 1% if I pay it off in year five. So the ideal on this would be to buy and hold it for at least five years, and then in that 5-10 range, that’s when I can start evaluating whether I just like the property and how it cashflows, or do I have something big in mind where I can do a 1031 exchange, sell this property and then move into something larger.

I have several ideas in mind as far as that time, but nothing that I need to do right now. In fact I’m pretty sure, so I can avoid that penalty, I’ll at least own that property for five years.

Joe Fairless: Yeah, I would think so. That’s a pretty good loan, from the surface. Is there any interest-only for the first couple of years, or is it —

David Sweeney: No, it’s not interest-only for the first couple of years. It’s 4.25%, and I had to put 30% down, so what’s your impression that most people are putting down when they get commercial loans? That seemed a little high to me…

Joe Fairless: Yeah, we put down about 25%, but…

David Sweeney: Yeah, I would like to see 25%, but hey, for my first loan, to get a bank to say yes to me, I was fine with 30%.

Joe Fairless: Sure.

David Sweeney: That set my guidelines and set my price parameters on the properties that I would then be looking for in order to find the one that I did.

Joe Fairless: What hasn’t gone right with this deal?

David Sweeney: One of my big challenges was insurance. It’s an older building and it has modern electrical panels, but yet there’s still some knob-and-tube in it, so it was a challenge to get insurance… So I came up with a good idea, I asked the seller “Hey, do you mind if I give your insurance agent a call?” and he said “Sure.” He gave me the name and number, and I called her up and we had a nice conversation. This was in September, and the property was set to close mid-October.

So I’m talking to her and she says “Yes, we know the property. We can probably get you a policy” etc., and I took that for granted… And I shouldn’t have taken it for granted. I should have been more thorough and followed up with her. Because as we get closer to closing date – I think it was set to close October 16th – about a week out my bank said “Okay, we need your insurance binder”, and I went “Great.” So I call her up and I say “Hey, I need that insurance binder.” Well, I leave a message, I leave a message, I leave a message, I send an e-mail, I send an e-mail, and I’m getting nothing. And I thought “Oh no, this is horrible!”

Now I’m left scrambling, so I start calling a variety of different commercial insurers to tell them about my apartment building… And again, same thing with the financing – I got several no’s, “We don’t do older buildings” etc., or I got really high price quotes… And I thought “Man, this is not good at all.” So finally, while I’m doing this and I’m getting several bids, I went back to the original office and I said, “Well, if she won’t return my call, maybe someone else in the office will.” And that worked out. I did find another agent that said, “Hey, yeah, she’s gone this week”, or I don’t know what the excuse was… I was so frustrated about it.

So now to get an insurance binder – now I’ve got like 4-5 days till closing… So anyway, I had to go back to the seller and ask for extension, which I hated to do, because it’s like you’re walking this deal to close every step along the way, and now all of a sudden I have to go out there and say “Hey sorry, I’m not ready to close… Can we extend this by a couple days?” They could have walked at that point, so that was a bit of a risk on my part. So definitely a lesson learned for your Best Ever listeners is just make sure you do your due diligence — I did my due diligence financially on this property, but I’ll be honest, my first property, I had a checklist and insurance was on there, but I didn’t pay close enough attention to what I needed to do to make sure I got that insurance binder, to make sure I was set up with payments, to make sure that everything was done ahead of time.

So closing was delayed, but I did get the binder. It came in more than I was expecting, but at that point I was just happy to get the deal done. Instead of 4k it came out to 6k and some, but I was okay with that. I thought, “I’ll do it. Where do I sign? Send me the documents right now, because I need this binder immediately.” Then I’m calling all the different – escrow, and the other lender, and the lender’s broker and everything to get this all straightened out. Ultimately, it didn’t hurt me, but it could have, and I’ll not make that mistake again.

Joe Fairless: Did you have any earnest money hard by that point?

David Sweeney: Yes, I put down 10%, so I had 11k hard money.

Joe Fairless: Okay. The seller could have said “Eh, sorry about…”–

David Sweeney: 1%.

Joe Fairless: Yeah, yeah. They could have said, “No, thank you. I’ll take your 11k and I’ll go find someone. Or if you’d like, I’ll take your 11k and we can just restart this contract real quick.”

David Sweeney: Yeah, exactly! That would have been horrible!

Joe Fairless: [laughs] And you probably would have done it, right?

David Sweeney: You know, I probably would have. I’d have to sit down and evaluate it, but if it was still a money-maker… Because at that point you’ve invested so much time and energy in it… It’s like you’re just dragging across the finish line and you just wanna close the deal, and anything that gets in the way and delays it, you’re like “Yes, what do I need to do to get that exemption out of the way, or anything I can do, absolutely!”

Joe Fairless: Well, I’m glad that the seller recognized that karma would have come back in a fury and would have recaptured that 11k and then some if they had pulled out on you.

David Sweeney: That’s right, yeah.

Joe Fairless: What is your best real estate investing advice ever?

David Sweeney: My best advice ever would be for your Best Ever listeners who are doing the same thing I did, whether they’re listening to podcasts or whether they’re reading books or educating themselves, when they get started — again, I could do a lot of goal-setting here, but I’m gonna tell them when they get started, concentrate and find out what you do best. If you intend to be a buy and sell holder for let’s say duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, concentrate and be the best investor you can be in duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes. If you intend to buy notes, be the best note investor that you can be. If you intend to buy apartment buildings, learn all you can and be the best you can at that particular discipline. Same thing if you’re looking for properties – some people do direct mail, some people drive for dollars, some call brokers all the time. Whatever it is, find out the best way that you can get your goals met.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you can never change courses mid-stream, but I hear and I’ve talked to a lot of people that seemed to flip in and out; they try this for a little while, it doesn’t work, and they reevaluate and they move on to something else. Then that doesn’t quite work the way they wanted, and then they move on to something else. So my best advice is pick your strategy and go with it. I guarantee that there’s someone out there that has made a successful living in real estate doing it the way that they were trying to do it. Emulate that person. Find out what it is that makes that strategy work.
Now again, if two years down the road you’re still beating your head against the wall and nothing’s happening for you, maybe it’s time to reevaluate then; get a good mentor or someone that you trust or someone that can give you some advice, and maybe you change strategies, maybe you look in a different direction, but don’t come in and out trying a variety of different things. You won’t get good at any one thing. So pick something that you’re gonna be good at and go after it.

Joe Fairless: I’m smiling and I’m clapping… You can’t hear it because it’s kind of silent, I don’t want the listeners to get annoyed, but I completely agree. I love that. I think it’s a cultural thing, just with the period of time in which we live, because of the internet, social media – we see so many different things that we can be exposed to if we choose to be exposed to… And when something gets a bit challenging, people who don’t listen to this podcast – because I’ve recognized that the Best Ever listeners are a cut above the typical investor… But people who aren’t achieving at a higher level, they move on to something else; it’s the shiny object syndrome. Instead, you just buckle up and focus on one thing and then do it, and I love what you said about if you don’t see results after a certain period of time, then you reassess and you see “How can I optimize the approach, or perhaps do something different completely?”, but it all starts with, as you said, identifying what you do best as it relates to that activity and then doing that.

David Sweeney: Yeah, there’s something that’s gonna get you excited. So go with that shiny object, but make sure that you’re doing all you can in order to retrieve it, before moving on to the next one.

Joe Fairless: I love it. Are you ready for the Best Ever Lightning Round?

David Sweeney: You bet.

Joe Fairless: Let’s do it. First, a quick word from our Best Ever partners.

Break: [00:28:44].02] to [00:29:36].17]

Joe Fairless: Best ever book you’ve read?

David Sweeney: I love the 80/20 Sales and Marketing book, by Perry Marshall. I thought that was so key… And as I look at my professional career both in real estate, both in police work and anything, I find that strategy so often. Let me move out of real estate just for a minute, because this is really applicable in police work. As a lieutenant, sometimes I get involved with sergeants and officers that are working, and you do find that about 20% of them are doing 80% of the work. They’re super hardworking, they love their job and they pursue it, and they help people, and they arrest the bad guys and they write all the reports… And man, if you can make up a team of people of those 20% – wow, you’re gonna have a team of superstars. And if you take that strategy into real estate, “What activities did I do that got me where I’m going?” That 20% – focus on that that gets you the biggest bang for the buck, that gets you the return. That’s my best ever book.

Joe Fairless: What’s another mistake you’ve made on this 24-unit that you haven’t talked about?

David Sweeney: I think probably my biggest mistake… I had a great inspector come out and take a look at the building, and we knew that there was a new roof on it – the roof was installed in 2016 – yet they pointed out based on where the water comes (now, it rains a lot in Washington) off the roof, that there still could be some drainage issues. So I had a 10-day inspection clause (I can inspect the property for 10 days). Unfortunately, I didn’t factor in that there was  a couple weekends involved in that, and I think if I remember right there was Labor Day involved… So to finally get a roofing inspector out, I actually pushed past the 10 days. This was probably a big mistake and I wouldn’t normally advise it. Either 1) write in your contract that you get more days to inspect it – I thought 10 would be enough and it wasn’t enough. And then 2) make sure that you can line up the exact roofing contractor that you need. I called a couple roofing contractors and basically I had people show up with ladders, and they’re used to working on residential roofs, not a large two-story apartment building… So I would have liked to have a better answer as to why water runs off the roof in certain areas and not others.

I know the roof is good, but the drainage isn’t all that it needs to be, and I didn’t have the right people in place for that. So number two, get the right people, and number one, make sure that you have enough time in your contract to get that inspected.

Joe Fairless: Best ever way you like to give back?

David Sweeney: I’m heavily involved in children’s charities and activities, probably because I have three kids (11, 13 and 15), so you’re gonna find me coaching football and soccer and baseball… But I also have a couple charities; I’m on the McKinley Foundation, which is a charity for deserving children that are  [unintelligible [00:32:39].07] area. So we serve and we like to give back; it’s a foundation. So we have an amount of money that we donate to local causes. And I’m also on the board at the Northwest Girlchoir, where my daughter sings. I enjoy giving back to that organization, and all it provides for our community and my daughter.

Joe Fairless: How can the Best Ever listeners get in touch with you?

David Sweeney: My website is DavidSweeney.com. They can reach out and get in touch with me. I’d love to help them on any future real estate transactions that they want, particularly multi-family is my specialty, in Western Washington. At some point I wanna model it after your website eventually, when I get to where I’m going… So that’s a good goal I have in mind. But anyway, DavidSweeney.com.

Joe Fairless: Very impressive with what you’ve done in a very short amount of time, over the last 9-12 months, and where you’re headed and the results that you’ve accomplished… Lessons learned, from the insurance snafu to the due diligence story, to then the rewards that are received as a result of the action taken, and that is this apartment community that you have and that you’re gonna be using to leverage to scale into more and more deals.

Thank you for being on the show. I hope you have a best ever day, and we’ll talk to you soon.

David Sweeney: Thanks so much, I appreciate it.

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