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Show Summary
In this conversation, Donato Callahan shares his journey in real estate, discussing his achievements, lessons learned, and future goals. He emphasizes the importance of grit, having a backup plan, and the value of relationships in business. Donato also highlights the significance of data in the proptech industry and his strategies for sustainable growth in real estate investments.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Donato Callahan (00:00)
There are a couple of things that stand out and I would consider myself a pretty pragmatic and realistic person. I think over the years people end up turning the word realistic into pessimistic and that’s not necessarily what I am. I look at the realities of how life works and the stories that get told and more importantly the stories that don’t get told to see what path really matters. So the first one I’d say is grit.You have to be willing to get punched in the mouth and then come back and say, can I please have another? And you need to do that every single day for a long time. And if you can do that over time, it just,
compounds into a level of being able to handle problems.
Quentin Edmonds (02:15)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Excited to be here today. Have another fantastic guest. And listen, this gentleman has done a lot. He wears a lot of different hats. He has accomplished a lot in his young years. And if he tells you what age he is, I’ll let him decide to do that. But I’m just glad that we have a more and I’m glad that we get a chance to peek through his lens. And so I want to introduce you all to Mr. Donato Callahan.Mr. Donato. How we doing today,
Donato Callahan (02:46)
I’m doing great, thank you for having me here.Quentin Edmonds (02:48)
Absolutely. Thank you for being on. Listen, man, I’m being honest. I kind of want to dive in. I want you to tell people what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story of how you got into where you are now, the roles that you play now. We love origin stories. And then, man, tell them what markets you serve, what part of the world you’re in. So Mr. Donato. You got the floor,Donato Callahan (03:11)
Sure. So ⁓ I got started in real estate back when I was in college. ⁓ I had saved some money and was going to school and ⁓ my folks were prevalent on really getting into the stock market. So I did felt like a genius for about three months and then COVID hit. Lost it all. I lost like half of it overnight. And it really just kind of looked at me and said, why is it thatsome person on the other side of the world can do something that ends up with me losing half my portfolio overnight. So I didn’t like not being in control of my wealth, especially being young. So I started looking into ways to be more in control, which led me to real estate through. then over course of, know, joining masterminds, taking massive action, getting different jobs and learning about it all as a side hustle, I’ve been able to crew about 650 residential and commercial units over the course of the last five years.
I’ve been able to retire and work full time in my real estate software company, Bright Investor, and in the commercial and real estate space as a director of acquisitions and fractional CFO for commercial real estate investors. And I’ve been able to do some coaching and some mentorship on the side in both the commercial and residential space to the tune of almost 200 students here and there, which has been a fantastic blessing. ⁓
I’ve been fortunate enough to have students who’ve gone through significant life events that come and stay with me. I’ve had them travel cross-country and say, come stay with me for a couple of days. Let’s workshop what you have going on. So ⁓ I really liken that more to an apprentice model of how can I help you? Let’s just get into the weeds a little bit, you and me. That’s how I prefer to do it, but I’ve been able to help a lot of cool people. And being 26, and I think there’s a lot more I can get done.
Quentin Edmonds (05:50)
As you haven’t done enough already, but now I eat is always a lot to get done right and so many had a stellar life so far I love you. Thank you for taking us through your journey a little bit walking us up to what you do now I have a same what I like to say destiny has no wasted moments meaning like the things that we go through in life They help us to where we are now right the things that we go through whatever destination we stop that we accrue things accrue different lifestyles tools⁓ temperament, life changes, new identities that help us where we are now. And so when I think about you losing your portfolio, but then actually gaining so much more back and being where you are now, I’m wondering what identifiable traits about yourself have you noticed throughout your life to help you be the man that you are today? Business-wise and personal, what are some personal strategies that you know, help you be who you are today?
Donato Callahan (06:46)
There are a couple of things that stand out and I would consider myself a pretty pragmatic and realistic person. I think over the years people end up turning the word realistic into pessimistic and that’s not necessarily what I am. I look at the realities of how life works and the stories that get told and more importantly the stories that don’t get told to see what path really matters. So the first one I’d say is grit.Quentin Edmonds (07:13)
Mm.Donato Callahan (07:14)
You have to, mean, like if you hear a lot of times when, if someone were to come to you and ask for advice or ask for your help and you say no, right, that person has to then be still willing to say, I’m still gonna do it, I’m gonna figure it out anyways and go for it. You have to be willing to get punched in the mouth and then come back and say, can I please have another? And you need to do that every single day for a long time. And if you can do that over time, it just,compounds into a level of being able to handle problems.
So best thing I can say is when a problem comes down the path that would have previously sent you into an emotional frenzy, being able to look at it and go, all right, let’s deal with this. Like it’s just this familiarity with the chaos and that the grit that comes to I can keep getting back up and keep doing it is number one.
The, I would say number two is I’m a big fan of this and it’s not necessarily popular in the entrepreneurial world, but have a backup plan. and it’s, I will, I will go on record to say, I do not believe in burn the boats. I don’t believe in it. I simply don’t. There are simply, when you look at the number of people who try to go and create something for themselves.
Undoubtedly, the statistics show that those that have either financial safety net or social safety net or family or other basically compatriots who are able to help them just in case make it. And those are stories that we hear, right? Situations where there was either there was access to capital, you had some savings, had family member, you had a friend, you had a network, you had someone, some there that you invested into that was able to help you weather those tough times. So
I can point to our careers so far, my business partner and I over the last several years where had I completely burned all boats and like, you know, not burn bridges, but just burn boats and said, I’m going all into this. There would have been moments where like, my gosh, what are we going to do? And I wouldn’t have an answer. We want to be in business today. So I’m a huge believer in have a backup plan because life has shown me that you can have the best intentions, right? And sometimes things don’t go your way. It’s very famous Star Trek quote, right?
doesn’t mean you fail, that’s simply life. And if you really want that thing, you don’t only have to account for all the things that life can throw at you, you have to account for those times when life is trying to shut you down and you need to be able to look at life and say not today because you have a backup plan. So I would say those two things. And then the third one would be know
the value that you bring and know the value that people are looking for.
So when I got started, I was working with several groups and as a young person, I knew a very fundamental truth is that I’m never going to have more energy or motivation to work as hard than I do right now. And as time goes on, I’m not going to do this anymore. So I need to go find someone who doesn’t have what I have that is time and energy. So someone older and I need to give them what I have, which is time and energy. So when I got started, I spoke to some people and I said, what is it that you most dislike doing in your industry?
They’re like, we don’t like finding deals or doing market research. I said, great, I’ll do that for you. I did that 96 times, like four months. And then eventually they looked at me and said, you’re not going away, you? And I said, no, I’m not. And then they’re the ones that helped me get my first $16 million deal. So my first commercial route, my first transaction in real estate was a fourplex. My second was a $16 million deal. And that’s just be part of showing up and doing it and learning the whole time.
I was by no means an expert when I bought that deal, but I provided what I could, which is time and energy and motivation. And by showing up and positioning yourself well, having those backup plans, you can make a lot of things work. And you can weather the storm because oftentimes a lot of business is just who survives and who’s left. And if you’re the guy with the backup plan that can survive when the rest can’t, winner takes all.
Quentin Edmonds (12:06)
Man, I love it, bro. Where does your wisdom come from? How are you wise? This wise at 26. Where does the wisdom come from,Donato Callahan (12:14)
That’s a great question. ⁓ I’m gonna say Little Einstein. So parents used to maybe watch, sorry, read the Little Einstein series when you were like a baby books, you know, to help you make smart kids. But I was talking to my folks, they’re not too long ago, and they’re like, well, we made you read the Little Einstein books. We didn’t make your brother. And you guys are pretty different. So I’m like, no, that must be it. That’s it must be.Quentin Edmonds (12:39)
Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I tell my parents all the time, you know, I can’t credit for who I am because they’ve poured so much into me. Right. The only thing I can take credit for is kind of and then this is an antiquated word, but I’m put out there being obedient. Right. Like submitting to what your parents have said, because ⁓ when you’re obedient, you are telling yourself, I don’t know what I don’t know.Therefore I’m gonna have to trust a person who I believe you know And so that’s what it sounds like same thing with you your parents Put these Einstein things in front of you and you submitted to it, right? And now you can see years later how it’s paid off because they pour something into you that now you can actually pull out of you because they put it in there and so hats off to your parents man hats off to your parents and hats off to you for submitting, know, again, these are
antiquated words, know, words that are not used often, you know, but you get what I mean, right?
Donato Callahan (13:39)
Yeah, and the other thing that I would point to you know from a way like you say that someone listening to this and their parents didn’t read them little Einstein’s like you’re not screwed but so here like what I would tell you is ⁓ I just remember being very observant So I would go around a lot to people in my life and I was younger and say you know What is it that you do and they’d say I work as an engineer at John Deere. Okay, great. And what do you earn?And then of course they’re like, why is this 12 year old asking me this? But like, we do well. And I’m like, okay, it’s like, it’s in this range. And they’re like, that’s about right. I’m like, okay, are you happy? And over time, you just kind of plot a mental graph of like, okay, I’m seeing that there’s a general trend here that people that have more time of freedom and more financial freedom are happier. They have more relationships with their spouses or their kids. They avoid.
bad situations like crippling medical student debt or consumer debt. And they’re able to weather storms when things get bad. Okay, so I get, so there’s some correlation here of what’s going on. So as long as you kind of keep your eyes up and you look at what people are doing, one of the things that I love saying and telling people is, know, success leaves clues, but failure leaves landmines. You
as a young person,
The amount of people that want to help you as a young person is crazy. And if I’m being honest, sometimes that comes from a place of they want you to do better. And other times it comes from they have so much regret inside that the only thing they can do is help you avoid getting the same situation that they’re in. So as a young person, when you can sit there and be like, if you could, I remember I did this like 30 people, said, if you can go back to my age, 22, what would you have done? then people would say, oh my gosh. And the answer I got all the time was, Donato, I wish I had.
you know, invested more, bought some real estate before I had the wife and, you know, got some kids because it makes it a lot more difficult to put risks on the line because I have a family. And I’m like, you know what, I agree with you. Like you shouldn’t be risking things. You have people to take care of. So there’s kind of this handcuff level of I can’t do as much as I maybe would have when I was younger. Like, okay, so I should do this now. Or, here are the things, the choices that I made that helped set me up. But then the other side of that is talking to people who said, here’s all the choices I made that screwed me.
for 20 years. So don’t, so it’d be very clear where I don’t have to know the rules. So when you compliment me on my wisdom, I appreciate it. But honestly, the wisdom that I’m spouting to you is from honestly, this point over a hundred people that I’ve spoken to who have just given me basically a couple of chapters ahead of where I’m reading. And so now I’m living chapter 26 of my life as if I’ve done 50 chapters already.
Quentin Edmonds (17:07)
Yeah, yeah, no, I hear you and that’s why I brought up the word like submission and obedience like because you are Your your superhero trick is like you said paying attention being curious You know really taking what people tell you and applying it a lot of us we hear the information But we don’t apply it and so I hear you man, and I love success leaves clues there’s leave landmines man, that is⁓ Bar so thank you. I wrote that down I will put your name beside it because I May be quoting that on with your permission. Maybe quoting that on other other podcast episodes. So
Donato Callahan (17:50)
Throw some friends my way and feel free, go for it.Quentin Edmonds (17:52)
⁓you got it, man. So let me ask you, what’s your next real goal? What are you looking to solve a scale next?
Donato Callahan (18:00)
So my next goals this year really are my software company Bright Investor, my co-founder, I’m looking to scale that. So we’ve been profitable, which is fantastic. And now we’re working with enterprise level clientele to really start scaling our user base, investing more paid media and building the brand and the relative kind of knowledge of who we are. We kind of operated in a people know about us, but we’re not really pushing hard on the marketing. So again, I…I don’t really believe in pouring water in a leaky bucket. So when you have a software company or a company looking at, okay, what do users want? What do people enjoy? And making sure that system is as tight as possible before you really start scaling it up. Otherwise you can run into infrastructure issues later. So really looking to focus on growing the software company. ⁓ Then also looking to keep buying slowly and steadily good pieces of real estate. So I just bought one about three weeks ago. It was a sixplex.
Great returns. It’ll be a 70 % return on my money, which is awesome Long-term hold and I’m looking to buy about one of those a year Could I scale that up very quickly with my access to capital and network? Yes But my opinion is you can’t hit a home run every time so either either right either you take a lot fewer at bats and You’re swinging a lot less, but when you do swing they’re really good hits
or you’re swinging on everything and some are going to be singles, some are going to be doubles, some are going to be triples. And so I have lent myself to, I’m just going to swing a lot less and wait for, look for and wait for the right opportunities to come along and then grab them. In part because, you know, the people in real estate have spoken to, you know, you can look at many, you know, ⁓ know, mentors, social media channels over the last 18 months, they’re all saying the same thing. We’re selling off our C-class single family homes.
We’re getting rid of our properties that no longer align with our goals and they’re focused on just getting things they can hold for a long term, which is code for, I bought a lot of really cheap, bad real estate and now it’s costing me money and I need to get rid of it and realize I should buy good properties, which is okay, awesome. So why don’t you just skip the buying bad real estate and then just buy the good stuff? I mean, that’s just, it seems crazy, but that’s my approach to doing this whole industry.
buying good deals, slow and steady, maybe one or two a year, doing my software company. And then also I’m really focused on getting some more fractional clientele for some CFO work I’ve been working on, because it’s just fun for me. Maybe it’s to help people scale their business, using the commercial real estate space in some way or capital space, which I really enjoy. So I’ve been able to see some massive results of people with, know, Forexing revenues and cutting expenses 30 % and doing some really cool stuff.
That’s enough focused on.
Quentin Edmonds (20:49)
So listen, man, you have hammered this thought throughout the podcast, but we haven’t necessarily said the words. So I’m going to draw up the words so we can talk about it. The word relationships, because I heard you talk about your partner, what you just said, you want to help people in their business, scale their business. I’ve heard you talk about your parents. You’ve talked about relationships all throughout.but I want to get your perspective on relationship building. Is it important? Has it served you well? What would be your advantage or perspective when it comes to building relationships?
Donato Callahan (21:28)
Yeah. So I would tell you that for a long time, I didn’t necessarily see the value in like an intentional relationship through the lens of like a accountability group, mastermind coaching group, or like, I didn’t, I didn’t get it. So you’d hear a lot of people talk about, you know, your network, your net worth, you know, the average, five people around you, you know, relationships are all that matters. And it took me relatively until recently to see what, why.And I, for a long time, felt that meritocracy was the rule of the land. And it’s not necessarily. Merit is what gets you, helps you retain your ⁓ positions and helps you stay in and grow. But what people want most of all when they choose to work with someone in a professional capacity is trust. They want you to trust you. And so when people have a need, the first place they go to
is friends and family, professional colleagues. So what I recognized is that the reason relationships and being in the room is so powerful is not so that you can get what you want or go in with an agenda and take it. It’s that by simply being in that room and having people who know your name and where you know their name.
You talk on the phone, you do some travel together, you take some trips. When they have a problem that you can solve, they’re coming to you first. And when you have a problem that they can solve, you can go to them. And where previously that problem would go unsolved or that problem would be something that takes you out, simply by being in the room, you now have this direct line to people.
So you’re now the first person they think of versus, you know, there’s probably someone on other side of the world who could do this better than I can. But the fact that I’m here and I have a relationship with this person means the opportunity is going to me, which, that blew my mind. Which seems for a lot of people listening, it’s going to be, well, obviously it’s an auto, like for me, it just took a lot to think about. I’ve always tried to live my life as the best person for the job should get the role.
And in learning that that’s not necessarily true, it’s the best person with the most convenient access, with the most amount of trust built on day one, that person gets the role. That, and that person gets the opportunity. That has really shifted things for me. So in the professional world, the relationship side is maybe recognized, just being there matters. And then on the personal side, it’s because this whole game is really hard. Being able to sit there and honestly, my parents,
are not entrepreneurs, right? They didn’t go that route. So oftentimes I’d sit there and I’d speak to them about what’s going on and they’re like, hey, well, we’re really glad you’re going this direction. We can’t do that. We’re not interested in doing that. Like that’s good for you. And so having people who love and support you no matter what happens, like parents, and then having ⁓ friends and business partners who are similar age, similar point in life as you that you can point to and say, wow, this really sucked. ⁓
Because my business partner and I have had many conversations that are like, hey, if I had tried to do this myself, I would have stopped three years ago. Or if he’s like, I could not have done this without you. And so we have such a respect and need and appreciation for what each of us do ⁓ that it makes it so much more tenable over the course of time to be able to look at each other and say, I value this relationship for what it’s bringing and what it does for us.
Quentin Edmonds (25:08)
Yeah, man, I absolutely love it. You have dropped gym after gym, man. I appreciate you being here. I know our viewers are going to have a great take away from this conversation. So this is Donato. Someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing. How can they get in contact with you,Donato Callahan (25:30)
Yeah, so they can go to my website that is Donato Callahan.com. So www.donatocalahan.com. You can also find me on social media @Donato_Callahan on Instagram. And besides that, you can go ahead and check out our website at Brightinvestor.com.Quentin Edmonds (25:47)
This is so much, man. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your story. And above all for me, thank you for your perspective, the way you think. Thank you for bringing that mindset to this podcast. Definitely appreciate you, man. Thank you for coming through.Donato Callahan (26:01)
Absolutely, thank you for having me.Quentin Edmonds (26:03)
Absolutely.So listen y’all can’t tell me y’all didn’t get value from that conversation. This is the not always dropping gym after gym after gym So definitely check him out, but definitely make sure you subscribe here because I promise you we’re gonna continue to bring up amazing people Just like mr. Donato. So sir. Thank you again and everyone else. We’ll see you on the next time
