The Power of Mentorship: Spencer Pascal’s Real Estate Wisdom

Dylan Silver (00:00.867)
Hey folks, welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel, the nation’s premier real estate mastermind. I’m your host Dylan Silver. And today on the show we have Spencer Pascal. Spencer is the principal at Commerce Park Investors and the owner of Commerce Park Ventures. He is a New Jersey native with ties to Harlingen, Texas. Spencer, welcome to the show.

Spencer Pascal (00:27.31)
Hey, thanks for having me, Dylan. Appreciate it.

Dylan Silver (00:29.579)
Absolutely before you hopped on here. I said he’s got to have a Podcast or something cuz he he’s in some kind of a studio and so you said yeah I do have a podcast so we’re gonna get into that later on in the show But first tell us about your background and how you got into real estate

Spencer Pascal (00:45.222)
Yeah, so my background is it’s kind of simple. My dad’s been doing this for 41 years, investment real estate. I grew up with it. It was plugged into me every second. was really thrown at me in many different directions to the point where you’re like, man, I don’t know if I want to do this. My entire life is going to be, it’s grown up surrounded by real estate. Do I want to have the rest of my life surrounded by it? So I endeavored in plenty of other things and kind of came back to,

really I guess what I drank the Kool-Aid on, was investment real estate. And at that time I wasn’t really sure what that was. I wasn’t sure if it was flipping, retail, industrial, whether it was the residential side or the commercial side. So I dappered with that a little bit and then really sunk my teeth into the industrial side of real estate. And that’s basically what I do every day now.

Dylan Silver (01:24.121)
work.

Dylan Silver (01:41.326)
So being a second generation real estate operator and investor was this something from a young age that you knew hey I’m gonna go following in dad’s footsteps or was this something that you saw over time that you developed an affinity for?

Spencer Pascal (01:59.942)
I mean, I think I always kind of had an interest for it. I didn’t know really at a young age how you can make a career out of it. I think there’s always those things where like you could be a firefighter, you could be a cop, like, that’s how you get paid here. I didn’t really understand how people made money. I got to see how they got to spend their money. So I knew there was something there. was like, wow, if I could really learn to understand it, there could be a spot where I can learn. initially I went in going.

and looking at other people’s lifestyles and going like, man, this seems like a good lifestyle thing. Let me try it out and see if it works. But interest wise, there wasn’t too much interest because I didn’t really understand it at first.

Dylan Silver (02:39.488)
Yeah, what age roughly did you start developing an interest that potentially getting into the business and opening up and looking looking at it?

Spencer Pascal (02:51.398)
I would say probably by sophomore, yeah, probably freshman, sophomore year of college, I really kind of started to develop that chapter of understanding it, looking at things differently and stuff.

Dylan Silver (03:03.703)
Cool, where’d you go to school?

Spencer Pascal (03:05.714)
I started my college career off at ODU in Norfolk, Virginia, Old Dominion, and then kind of just my love for real estate took over. So after two years, I started working for my dad and transferred to an online version of that and just kept going and going and going to learn as much as I could.

Dylan Silver (03:10.026)
Mm.

Dylan Silver (03:18.21)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (03:24.257)
We talked a little bit about there’s some, and I think East Coasters and Texans may dispute this, but I agree with you. There’s some similarities between Texas and Virginia, more so than Texas and New Jersey. I think we might agree on that one.

Spencer Pascal (03:37.382)
100%. Yeah, yeah, that’s for sure.

Dylan Silver (03:41.23)
But after you and while you were in school, but then also transitioning out of school, were you working hand in hand with your dad or was this more of a watching from afar?

Spencer Pascal (03:56.966)
So during college, I ended up getting a job at American Airlines, basically throwing bags on an airplane. And that came with free flight benefits. So that allowed me to fly back and forth from Virginia to New Jersey and spend one week there, one week at work, one week there. And so I did that for close to two years until I got to a spot where people started knowing me and going like, well, we’re Spencer. Hey, I have a question for Spencer. So I kind of started going like, I’m getting the business.

I was getting involved in a lot more than I thought I was going to in that in a year to two years. so basically after that, I was like, OK, I think I like this. I want to give it a shot. I was a big marketing guy, degree in marketing, wanted to go out and start a marketing company. I was actually either moving to Arizona, which was my top one, or Texas, kind of down with the East Coast. And so my dad was basically like, hey, look, you you spent some good time here. Why don’t you give me one year?

Dylan Silver (04:47.744)
Yeah.

Spencer Pascal (04:54.886)
come to Jersey, try it out. If you don’t like it, you could always do that. And I was like, fine. So in 2018, I made the move. I moved back to New Jersey. I continued to finish school that I had like a semester left. So I finished it and just went full board with going like, OK, let me find my first property. me, I need to, need to, at a young age in my generation, you kind of want that instant gratification. So me having that was like, OK, let me find.

something quick to figure out if this is gonna work or not. And so that, you know, really led me to my first investment and stuff.

Dylan Silver (05:30.122)
So the first investment, the first deal, mean, people talk about the trajectory of a real estate investor. I, in my mind, have what it is for me. It’s your potential work in a W-2 job or you’re in school and you’re on the outside and you’re seeing things happen and you’re saying, how do I get there? Then maybe you go to a meetup or a convention or an event and you’re around some people who are doing it. And then I tend to see the gateway in, unless you get a real estate license, is wholesaling.

And then from wholesaling, people might go into fix and flipping from fix and flipping. They might get, you know, a multifamily and then from multifamily, you either graduate to commercial or right now what I’ve been seeing is a lot of people who become, you know, lenders or note buyers. So where was your entry point in this landscape?

Spencer Pascal (06:16.262)
Yeah, mean, that’s a great question. That’s also like, it’s very true what you’re saying is because I didn’t have to go through any of that. And a lot of times people, especially in the commercial side, will actually go into brokerage as well to figure out, do I like this? And do I do that? As well as the wholesaling is really big. I think that’s pretty big on the internet. So it’s the duplex and flipping. And I had the privilege of not having any of those as an initial distraction for me because my father did this for 41 years. It was like, OK, if you’re going to come in,

You’re going to follow me and you’re shout at me. like I said before, like I moved right in with him. I sold my car, moved in with him and I said, look, I’m going to do this. I’m going to give it a shot. And his one year was six months to me in my head. So, you know, I just was like six months of all industrial because that’s all we bought. Let me try to find industrial. And this is before COVID. So industrial is a completely different market than it is now. And

Dylan Silver (06:58.314)
Thank

Dylan Silver (07:09.858)
Yeah.

Spencer Pascal (07:13.706)
And so I would go and look at buildings and do all that. So I didn’t have those distractions of, should I do this? Should I do that? I mean, again, there’s always a, you when you sell everything and you’re kind of going like, well, I want to make some money. So, you know, I dappered in some investments, but my core focus was how do I buy my first industrial building? And then what do I do? Because my only coach was my dad at that time. So I really leaned on that experience to get to that next level.

Dylan Silver (07:28.63)
Bye.

Dylan Silver (07:40.821)
Getting in as a buyer of industrial buildings, I think a lot of people will hear this and say, I hope to give my children that kind of an opportunity. And so you ran with it. But I know because I know these deals just don’t come out of nowhere that even handed everything more people than not will squander the opportunity, not see any value in it or not put forth the effort.

Spencer Pascal (07:52.708)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (08:06.515)
So tell us if you recall that first or second deal or maybe the third or what was some of the first deals and how did you come across maybe the first one?

Spencer Pascal (08:17.274)
Yeah, so the first deal I did was in a town in North Jersey, right off a major interstate. And I was actually looking at initial deals, reaching out to brokers, and kind of in this industry, you really rely on the brokers. So that was my first, you know, real learning lesson that this is not going to be like maybe like a housing where you can look online and cold call. That wasn’t going to happen here. And so that was the first change where I was like, OK, so that’s out the window.

Um, so I just started calling brokers and tons like, what do you have for sale? What do you have here? Kind of figured out what my dad was looking for. Um, to like where we would buy. And so I came across one property and I went with my dad and I was like, look, I think this is a great investment. He’s like, I don’t think these numbers work. You know, it’s, have this term we call it’s called, um, it’s a building. It’s a dog with fleas. So it’s just a rundown dirty building. And you know, we kind of go after that sometimes, but sometimes it’s just really dirty. You’re like, this is going to be a lot of capital to fix.

Dylan Silver (09:08.682)
Yeah.

Spencer Pascal (09:16.548)
And so I would say like, we’re like the house flipper in industrial. We’ll take an ugly building, we’ll flip it up, make it beautiful, and then lease it, put a nice ticket on it, and that’s what we do. so I said to the broker, like, do you have anything else? He’s like, well, I got this other building, I don’t know if you want it. I said, take me there, let me go see it. So my dad leaves that at town, and I go there, I’m like, this is perfect. Two separate buildings, institutional company owned it, but they’re selling both. so I, you know,

Dylan Silver (09:36.81)
Thank

Spencer Pascal (09:46.406)
Basically went there and told my dad’s like hey, I think this is the building. I think this is I think I could do this It was about 38,000 square feet between the two buildings And so he was away and he’s like look if you wanted to it, that’s fine But here’s the max number you can put on it. So I put not the max I probably do about 800 grand less on it and someone outbids me they they go they take the other guy I’m bummed out cuz I was like man. I am four months in

Dylan Silver (09:51.369)
.

Spencer Pascal (10:14.95)
to being full time into this industry. And three weeks later, guy, broker comes back, he says, hey, that guy ended up bluffing. Do you want to take the deal? I said, I’ll take the deal, but I’m taking out my original number. And they said, look, if you give us 100 grand more, it’s your deal. So I talked to my dad, he’s like, look, I think we can make that work. So let’s do it. So we ended up getting the deal. And as you know, being from Jersey, Jersey is very dirty. Every, environmentally, it’s just like every property seems like there’s some environmental thing. And of course this property had

Dylan Silver (10:16.362)
Okay.

Dylan Silver (10:37.705)
Hahaha

Spencer Pascal (10:44.198)
major environmental. And so I got to learn all about the environmental. you know, basically a year later, we closed on that property. I bought that property for about 60, 75, 60, $65, $75 a square foot. And now keep in mind, if people don’t really know industrial New Jersey in that area, and the central Jersey area is about anywhere from 200 to $300 a square foot now after COVID. So in 2019, buying a building for about 70 bucks a square foot.

was amazing. So I bought that building. Bank looks at me and goes like, we’re not giving this kid a loan. My dad comes on the loan with me. Then I figured out I need money to renovate it. So got a renovation loan from the bank. that was really my first endeavor into it. And, you know, leased it out and did all that, put it on the shelf. And now it’s, you know, it’s a long term investment for me. And it’s kind of funny. I think I bought that building with my renovation loan. I think it was about

three million dollars total with the renovation loan but I bought the building for about two and a half million at the time maybe a little bit more and I just got a praise to go buy another building and just got a praise for about eight million dollars so you know there was a you know the COVID definitely helped that but there is definitely a change to where it was at that moment when I got at least and I got that first distribution check and I only owned 25 percent of it and I was more than I thought I was going to get

Dylan Silver (11:53.041)
Wow.

Dylan Silver (12:10.12)
Yeah.

Spencer Pascal (12:11.474)
And so it’s at that moment two years later, actually it was almost three years later before I got the first distribution check that I was like, okay, I think I could do this. I can go on a nice vacation with this. Let’s go find some more. you know, I think a lot of people forget these investment stuffs. They take so long. It takes so long to see that return. But the first time you get it, it’s, you you’re in. You’re on to the next one. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (12:35.849)
You’re over the moon. That’s what I hear about commercial is it’s a slower burn. It’s not wholesaling for sure. It’s not fix and flipping. sometimes, you know, I’ve heard various different strategies, but it’s not it’s not like you’re you’re cash flowing super hard out the gate. It may be the opposite of that. And I also spoke with a woman who gave me some great perspective. She did 50 flips. She’s a

Spencer Pascal (12:57.69)
Right.

Dylan Silver (13:05.203)
California investor, but also lived in Boston. And she told me, know, I’m in the commercial space, but you you could lose all your money very quickly with bad analysis. And she’s seen it before. And so it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. You know, if you bought right before COVID happened, then what were you doing? You so you guys were able to figure it out. So that goes into the next.

Spencer Pascal (13:18.182)
100%.

Dylan Silver (13:33.193)
question that I have for you. During COVID, what happened with these commercial investments?

Spencer Pascal (13:41.126)
Yeah, so at that time, you know, kind of after I drank the Kool-Aid and this, was like, all right, I’m going to do this now. You know, I ramped up our company completely from two employees to six to 12 to 13. You know, I just I kept going. And with that came a lot more properties, a lot more risk, a lot more uncertainty a little bit because you’re getting out of that comfort zone a little bit.

And so for me, I was always OK being uncomfortable. knew that was some type of growth with that. And so you start ramping up that hard and you start to hit this like this plateau thing a little bit where COVID made everyone really hit that. So you go like, man, did I ramp up too hard? Did I buy too many investments? You know, I was buying these buildings at a great number, but then now nobody wants to do anything. You know, maybe I was.

10 bucks a square foot. Now everything’s 15 to $18 a square foot. So there was, it was, it was one of those recessions where you didn’t know if it was financial or, or we thought it was financial, but it ended up being medical. So for COVID, it was just, I spent a lot of nights and a lot of months basically protecting the current assets I had.

And part of that, you know, I went out and I made PPP packages for my tenants and then I would give it to them and be like hoping they would pay me first rent. And, you know, I owned two smaller apartment complexes at the time and owned a couple more industrial buildings that by then.

Dylan Silver (15:17.201)
You just hit us with an acronym. What is a PVP backage?

Spencer Pascal (15:20.964)
So the PBP package during COVID when people were trying to get the loans from the government. And basically what happens is if you own a small business, they would give you a certain amount of money and they expect you to take that money, pay your rent, and then also use that for your business. So I thought at that time during COVID, I’m like, if I put these packages together for my tenants, they’ll pay me first. And what I figured out is they’re not going to pay me first. The first thing they’re going to do is go buy a brand new car.

go and shop luxury and then tell me, I didn’t get as much as I thought I was gonna get from the government. You know, I need to delay that rent. And so at that time it got scary, because you know, I’m putting in the backside while still trying to put my, you know, keep my employees on salary and stuff like that. it was tough for a while until the economy really changed and industrial became big. And there was a lot of good deals. I’m like, man, do I buy this right now? Do I hold onto it? Banks were unsure at that time.

COVID was really, really all over the place because you didn’t know what direction to go. And you sat on that plateau of going, you know, do I take that next risk? Because everything was a risk in the beginning to grow. And then COVID sheltered that risk. And then you’re sitting here trying to juggle the risk of like, well, let me just keep everything going. And it was really hard to keep everything going. And I would say that, you know, that was the biggest with COVID was keeping everything going as much as possible while trying to grow.

Dylan Silver (16:48.787)
While you’re going through that, are you seeing your peers in the space go through instrumental challenges? Are you seeing people go under? What was the temperature like in the community over there New Jersey?

Spencer Pascal (17:04.484)
Yeah, so that’s actually, no one’s ever actually asked that and that’s a really good question is because we all knew kind of what was happening in the apartment industry. We all kind of knew what was going on in the retail industry, COVID really took out those mom and pops, left the big guys there. But what was happening in industrial was wild. It was something that my father Roy has never seen and it was something certainly I’ve never seen being new into it.

But there was companies with that PPP and the PPE loans and all this, the PPP stuff going on of the loans that government’s giving out that people were going like, I got some money and there are two major things happening. One, people were able to start fake LLCs and say, hey, my company’s not working. I need 100 to 500 gram, even millions. Well, what these people were doing was starting new companies. And so we got so many tenants out of nowhere, either reselling,

gloves, protective gear from COVID, hand sanitizer. And we had people who were starting companies. We had electrical companies, HVAC companies that were starting these companies because they got all this money. And like, now is my opportunity to start a company. Well, they’re all renting warehouse out. So we’re going like, well, you have no financial backgrounds. I guess we’re just going to rent it to you because we need the leases. And you guys want to start your company.

And so I’m all about the American dream. I’m all about helping someone start their company, do other. I mean, that’s a great thing about industrial. But it was a large amount of people who got a lot of money starting things. And the craziest spot, craziest part of that is that when COVID kind of changed in 2023, really all those people that thought, oh, I know what I’m doing. Didn’t they all failed about 95 % of them all failed.

They all filed for chapter and I was stuck evicting all these tenants during COVID that thought, I got all this free money from the government, I’m gonna rent warehouse from you. And that was worse than putting packages together for people hoping they would pay me. And so that was like, it was annoying but it was a great learning curve because we implemented new programs in our company, background checks, landlord background checks. But we spent so much.

Spencer Pascal (19:23.622)
money and time on legal and eviction. And, you know, the great thing about the eviction back then is that since we were industrial, we were allowed to evict people still if you were in apartments, you weren’t allowed to to protect them and all that stuff. And so that was a wild portion that I’ve never seen. And I think some of these people in this industry have never seen just like start a business, see if it works, fails.

Dylan Silver (19:44.463)
and.

Dylan Silver (19:47.973)
So industrial was growing.

Spencer Pascal (19:54.072)
It was growing, but the companies that were doing good before that ran through COVID and we had plenty of tenants that made it through COVID, did great, paid their rent through, did better because they knew what they were doing and were able to expand and take more space on. And then there were companies who leveraged COVID. And like I said, there was a small amount of companies

that were able to start during COVID. And remember during COVID, one of the most expensive things for people were home renovations, because everybody was at home. So all these contractors renting out our space, doing all this. So people wanted to start a company. That was their time to try it, except we needed tenants a little bit at that time and we helped them. a lot of it really backfired on us. So it took two years to really recover to get all those tenants out, then get proper tenants in, clean that up. And last year was one of our

slowest years of buying and leasing our current portfolio. And so this year is actually picking up again, we’re buying, they were on the contract for about eight or 10 properties now, leasing starting to pick up again. But last year, it seems like one of those years where it was weaving out all that mischief, you know, stuff during COVID and stuff as well. So

Dylan Silver (21:10.444)
It was quite the journey. It’s quite interesting to hear from more than arms length distance that actually there were were real estate businesses which flourished during COVID and it makes sense. know, I remember just on a personal note, I was living in Texas at the time, but I had traveled to I believe it was outside of Washington, D.C., like in Maryland. And I remember there were lines outside of Whole Foods.

that in the gyms you had to be wearing masks, even while you’re in the middle of heavy bench. And in Texas we didn’t have these regulations. And so my thought was that, everybody’s gotta be feeling it. But it’s good to hear that some people actually made it through and had new revenue streams. Which, let’s pivot here a little bit here, Spencer.

Let’s talk a little bit about the two ventures that you’re a part of and how they relate and how they differ. You have Commerce Park investors and Commerce Park ventures.

Spencer Pascal (22:17.51)
Yeah. Yeah, so Commerce Park Investors is my dad’s company that he’s bad for many, many years. so when I came in, I just ramped it up completely. Being young and being a little older, I was just like, I going to do this for rest of my life? My goal is have 300 employees someday, which is still a goal. And so one of the biggest things I started getting annoyed with was that, man, my dad’s got to get on every loan I do.

So maybe about four years, no three years ago I created a company called Commerce Park Ventures and it was to venture into funding and raising capital for some of these larger assets. so as a scale, when I started we had about four or 500,000 square feet of assets. currently at 1.6 million and with everything under contract, if it all goes through we’ll be at about 2.5 million square feet. So scaling wise, I wanted to get to a spot to scale.

very large, very quickly, and it was all trial and error. So that’s pretty concerning at a 25 or 26 year old at that time. And so when I created Ventures, I said, I gotta find a way to ultimately have a goal if banks aren’t involved in all my stuff, right? The more the banks are involved, the more they have control over the deal. If I can raise more capital or I can front different deals, I can afford to do these larger deals. So.

Dylan Silver (23:31.117)
Right.

Spencer Pascal (23:41.978)
When I created Commerce Park Ventures, I started with a couple people I knew. They gave me some money. We bought our first deal. That deal was about $4 million. And then we did another deal, another deal. And then a year ago, I came across a property that was $11.5 million out in Pennsylvania. And I said, I think we can fund this deal. So we went out. I joined Ventures with another younger group. And I said, you guys help me with the raising the capital. I’ll do all the backside stuff. Find the real estate. I’ll manage it, all that.

So raise about five and a half million dollars in seven days and finance the rest of it to give a 70 30 split on that. And then we went out and did it again. And that next one was a 15 and a half million dollar property. Then we went out and did it again. The next one was a 15 million dollar property. And we did that all in one year, closed all the same year. And and I sat down with my dad like, wow, this is really working. What’s the next level to this?

Dylan Silver (24:17.315)
Thank

Spencer Pascal (24:39.79)
So, know, Ventures just, it really took off. And so we decided that Commerce Park Investors is anything my dad and I buy together, or he just buys, and Ventures is solely all the funding side. And so it just, you know, that was a time when funding was really big as well, but we had such a solid portfolio before we went into this that it made people feel comfortable. We created a team inside of our office.

that was more professional than just me, my dad, and QuickBooks and some lady who was, you know, 200 bucks a month. And so we created a team that, you know, really took off, which allowed Ventures to get to that next level. So it was pretty cool that we were able to do that in such a short period of time.

Dylan Silver (25:20.124)
When you’re going through that growing process, what it reminds me of, I think it’s Patrick Bettevich who said this, that the ideal way for him to live life is to be in business so that he can work with his family so that if he has a son who’s an attorney, the son can be the attorney for the business. If he has a son who’s an architect or some type of mechanical engineer of some kind, perhaps they could

plan landscapes and buildings. And I think it was a combination of your hunger for more, but also your dad laying the foundation where probably your dad did not see the level that you took it to, but now that you’re there, he’s probably thrilled that you’re there, know? And so it’s a collaboration in that effect.

Spencer Pascal (26:04.55)
percent.

Spencer Pascal (26:09.924)
Yeah, I think we’re both very surprised a little bit because it’s one thing to say something and it’s one thing to perform those actions. I think he’s surprised, but he’s also was very nervous through the whole process of it because you’re trusting at the time, 23 year old, 22 year old son to come in there and be like, dad, let’s do this, dad, let’s do that. And then you’re just like, OK, settle down a little bit. there’s definitely a learning curve on both of ours. But I think

Where we are now is incredible. It’s a blessing and we’re really not stopping at all.

Dylan Silver (26:45.259)
Any siblings that you have?

Spencer Pascal (26:47.726)
I do, have a younger brother and an older sister.

Dylan Silver (26:50.399)
And so are either of them in the business or is it you?

Spencer Pascal (26:53.74)
It’s just me, my brother’s doing, he’s a pilot for American Airlines and my sister works on farms and does all that in Virginia.

Dylan Silver (27:02.685)
Interesting. Maybe there’s a collaboration with your sister somewhere down the line. I don’t know how, unless you buy an airline, I don’t know how brother will be part of it. But who knows? I people on a side note, selfishly people, people talk a lot of trash about Spirit Airlines. I don’t know how your brother feels about that, but I love Spirit Airlines. So whenever I hear pilots and, you know, people talking negatively about the airline, the planes that are going down all the time, I say, look, these things are happening. And I’ve flown

Spencer Pascal (27:11.0)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (27:32.192)
Spirit Airlines a bunch of times, I’m not gonna stop. So if you ever talk with your brother, just say, hey, I appreciate him, whichever airline he’s a part of.

Spencer Pascal (27:41.382)
Yeah, he’s he’s at American, but we always say like me and my brother are both pilots like he’s more of a pilot. I’m just a private pilot and I don’t fly that much anymore. But we always say like, look, planes crash, planes crash every day. Just like cars crash every day. It’s just that you see more with media or planes crash last year than they did this year. It’s just that you see it more and probably not the best thing. But, know, it is it’s just the the power of social media, I guess, these days that that changed perspective. But I will. I’m not.

I love all planes, I love all airlines, and I guess the goal one day is to own a nice big private jet and then my brother will have a way to come into the company, so.

Dylan Silver (28:18.395)
That’s exactly right, man. would be that it sounds like you’re well on your way over there. You know, for folks that might not have family in the business and might not have friends that are particularly supportive of them getting in, know, people can always be happy when you’re on their level, but not necessarily when they see you rise and above. What would be your broad strokes advice to folks who are truly newcomers and on the outside looking in if they’re trying to get into real estate?

Spencer Pascal (28:20.25)
You

Spencer Pascal (28:49.166)
Yeah, I would say real estate is really hard. It’s not, it’s the same reason I don’t do stocks. I don’t understand it. I can’t touch it. can’t change anything about it. And that’s just me and a stock person will tell me otherwise. And real estate was one of those things I can, I don’t like the word manipulate, but I can have more control over it. And I think the biggest thing with real estate and I’ve

plenty of people who’ve asked me this question before and I have plenty of people who tried to get into this industry and I’ve tried to help them is you need a mentor. I had a mentor and I had a mentor with a significant experience. People will get mentors that don’t have experience and that will get on the internet and say, look at me, look what I’ve done, blah, blah, blah, blah, that doesn’t mean anything until they can actually guide you through it. Mentors will get you to that next level. The stuff I did,

was because I was in a spot where I needed to get through the next hurdle. And so I went out to seminars. I went out and learned. I learned how to do funding. I didn’t create it. Funding was already available. I didn’t create how to buy an asset. I learned from people who already knew how to do it. It had significant proof of it. And that’s what got me to the next level. And for really anyone who’s learning, that that’s just all you need, right? And if your mentor is some guy in the internet who is showing you

hey, here’s the steps to do or the $2,000 or the $10,000 course, but they have significant proof and they’re saying they’re showing you that is a mentor. And there’s plenty of people I can name that are great mentors, but you have to find your own mentor and your own passion. It just ended up being my dad, which was a great mentor on that business side of the real estate. And so I took full advantage of that and ate, breathed, sleep, did everything real estate wise and it’s gotten me to where I am.

Dylan Silver (30:23.872)
Bye.

Dylan Silver (30:37.821)
you know.

Spencer Pascal (30:40.838)
and I’m not even close to being done with that. And like we said before, with Ventures, if you’re on the funding side, all I did was learn about funding. I spent the money on courses. I went out and talked to people. I remember when I started Ventures, I went out and met with four large, large companies that do hundreds of millions of dollars of funding. And I said, how do I do this? How do I get money for a down payment when I know I can go to my dad, but I didn’t want to leverage off that? And they showed me these roadmaps.

And I think being young is so important. It’s like doing it when you’re young. These larger investors love to be able to teach the younger generation. And so if you’re thinking about it, that that’s what you got to do. Go and find an older person who’s in their 60s, 70s or 80s who wants to sit down, especially in the 70s and 80s when they want to sit down, have a lunch with you or dinner and just sit there and brag about what they’ve done. Pick their head. Don’t get mad about it. Pick their head and be like, well, why did you do that? And the last thing I’d say is challenge everything.

Dylan Silver (31:18.642)
Agreed.

Spencer Pascal (31:39.29)
that that person does. The only way I learned why the first building I bought was the right building to buy is because I challenged my dad. Why can’t I buy this? What’s wrong with this one? Okay, what was wrong with the first one? Okay, we’re gonna look at the second one. Why can we only offer this? Everything I challenged had an answer that was like, okay, I didn’t know what I was doing, but it was enough for me to go, okay, that’s right, and it worked. So challenging everything and challenging your mentor and getting the right mentor.

got me to where I am and got my entire team to where they are because I constantly have them challenge me and everybody else here.

Dylan Silver (32:11.774)
Man, Spencer, I resonate significantly with everything you said there. For me, I’ve said this before on previous podcasts, being a networking junkie, a fanatical network, guerrilla networking, that’s how I’m sitting in this chair. It was from a cold call that I had for an assignable contract in west of Dallas in a town called Aisle. And the guy that I called,

wasn’t interested in the deal, but we became friends and I’m now sitting in his office. And he ended up referring me to the owner of this podcast, Mike Ambrite. And so it’s just crazy. didn’t buy the deal that I had. We didn’t end up assigning that deal. But almost two years later, here we are. So that’s truly, you know, the power of knowledge seeking, putting yourself out there and just continuous

thirst for knowledge. But Spencer, we are coming up on time here. How can folks get a hold of you?

Spencer Pascal (33:11.248)
So we have a couple ways, obviously Instagram is one of my most powerful things I have right now. It’s Spencer Pasco, it’s S-P-E-N-C-E-R, Pasco P-A-S-C-A-L. I have everything on there from lifestyle to the real estate stuff I do. I have also kind of behind the scenes of how to get million dollar renovation loans to buy multi-million dollar properties. My Facebook is the same thing, but.

You know, the last thing I’ll say is that, if anyone’s out there struggling and really trying to figure out what their next step is, we, we know we spent the last year and a half designing this course called the 90 day business transformation course. And, we have our last one April 9th and it’s pascalzone.com. You could sign up for it. And, that allows you to basically take a hold of everything I learned, throughout these eight to 10 years of building this, you know,

multi-million dollar company. said Commerce Park Ventures is a 50 million dollar plus company with Commerce Park is about a 250 million dollar company. And so while I won’t be able to teach you how to do the real estate side of it, I will be able to teach you in 90 days how to transform your company and basically everything you heard today on how I got to that. So it’s very interesting, it’s a lot of fun and we have a really good group on there.

Dylan Silver (34:34.653)
That’s terrific, man. Thank you so much for spending a half hour with us here today. And folks, that wraps up another episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast brought to you by Investor Fuel, the nation’s premier real estate mastermind. Until next time, thanks for tuning in.