54 Years of Real Estate Investing Lessons with David Short

David Short (00:00)
Well, I don’t think you ever master it and you continually to grow in it and you continually change your not necessarily your focus, but ⁓ the the things you have to do. I mean, my my philosophy is I’ve got to get one percent better every day or I’m falling behind. And so we really we really look at doing things better every day.

Scott Bursey (01:30)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast, powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey And pros today we have a heavy hitter joining us. We’re sitting down with David Short of the Brooklyn Investments and Avalon Management Group. David is a pro in the real estate space, specializing in everything from residential property oversight and HOA management to the complex world of multifamily and commercial maintenance.

We’re going to pull back the curtain on how to master the operational side of the business so you can scale without the chaos. David, welcome to the show.

David Short (02:08)
Thank you. Well, good to be here.

Scott Bursey (02:09)
It’s awesome to have you here, my friend, and to help our pros get up to speed. Please give us the 90 second highlight reel of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

David Short (02:22)
Well, my I’ve been in the real estate business for fifty-four years. So I’ve done a lot of things and most things in the real estate industry. My focus today is on flipping high end multi ⁓ flipping high end homes in Indianapolis. And I developed and own and operate an event centered and co-working space in Indianapolis.

Scott Bursey (02:43)
that’s awesome. And David, you know, what really caught my attention about you was the way that you’ve been able to dominate the operational landscape, turning complex property management and asset oversight into a streamlined high performance machine. You know, it’s fascinating to see that level of precision in management. How did mastering those day-to-day operations fundamentally change the way that you look at new acquisitions?

David Short (03:10)
Well, I don’t think you ever master it and you continually to grow in it and you continually change your not necessarily your focus, but ⁓ the the things you have to do. I mean, my my philosophy is I’ve got to get one percent better every day or I’m falling behind. And so we really we really look at doing things better every day.

Scott Bursey (03:35)
Curious to know what is the biggest strength in how the Brooklyn Investments and Avalon Management Group approaches asset optimization in today’s market?

David Short (03:45)
Well, we have, you know, I’ve I’ve built a over the years I’ve built a really strong strong network on it. And I’ve been very fortunate as we grow to put really strong people around me. I have a awesome wife that’s been with me for forty four years and we have an unbelievable team together and she’s still actively involved in our in our day to day operations.

Scott Bursey (04:12)
And we’d love to understand, David, what do you perceive as the most significant weakness or bottleneck in managing large scale multifamily maintenance?

David Short (04:22)
Well I I think scaling is you know, I don’t use the word scaling as much because I’m I’m kind of where I wanna be. I mean, I wanna flip fifteen to twenty houses a year and I wanna develop my event center so that’s enough on my plate to to do what we wanna do. So we have our management tools in intact.

I’m ⁓ an an overseer and I’m hands-on on all of my projects. I mean, if I’ve got four flips going, I I see those four flips one or two times a week on it. So it’s just complete oversight on the people that we’ve got working around us.

Scott Bursey (05:51)
And what’s your main strategy to protect your bottom line?

David Short (05:58)
Well, it’s probably one of my weaknesses is protecting my bottom line because we have certain we we get into these bigger properties and we have stuff that cost overruns and that kind of thing. And, you know, we don’t, you know, we maybe try to cut some things, but we don’t scale back on the quality that we put forth on our on our properties. So sometimes we just have to make decisions and

You know, if we see that we’ve made a mistake on a house, you know, three or four days after the we go on the market, then we quickly reposition that house.

Scott Bursey (06:33)
David, if you could give us the play by play and where you see your operation in twelve to twenty-four months and then then the long-term vision as well.

David Short (06:42)
Well, twelve to twenty-four months, I I see ⁓ I you know, I’m positioning my event center and co-working space to exit within twenty-four months. And the flipping is if I scale back and after twenty-four months, it’s you know, it’s a situation where I’ll probably drop to 10 houses a year that that we rehab.

I mean, I’m blessed with my strategies with my network that I can flip ten houses in my sleep. ⁓ so we’re we’ll probably scale down to that. You know, we’re at an age that we’re still, you know, we’re still ⁓ you know, still working pretty hard and we work ’cause we enjoy it, not, you know, so it’s some of the things it’s like

Big investors and I’m I’m one of those guys that ⁓ chased the shiny penny. And so I have to be very cautious of that. So

Scott Bursey (07:45)
And David, building on that, looking at the landscape, where do you see the biggest opportunity for growth in the commercial maintenance and management sector right now?

David Short (07:55)
Well, you know, my management is just it is just effectively managing my my inventory and my event center. Avalon management is a ⁓ is a little bit of a misnomer on my business because we don’t really manage a lot. You know, at one point in life we had a hundred and single family homes, so that was Avalon Management Group. And now it’s condensed to one.

event center that has six acres and twenty thousand square feet. So and that’s a full-time job in itself.

Scott Bursey (08:27)
Is there a specific asset class perhaps or region where you see that opportunity compounding the fastest in in your market?

David Short (08:35)
You know, our market is you know, we have some of the fastest growing communities around Indianapolis in the country. And the little guys kind of priced out of those markets. So we’re looking at we’re in an area called Irvington right now, which is ⁓ it’s an area that’s gender fine and it’s a well thought of area. It’s an area I was raised in. So I’m at home here and ⁓

So we look at those those types of areas in Indianapolis if we’re if we’re doing something.

Scott Bursey (09:43)
David, interested to hear your take on what the primary threat is to property managers overseeing HOA’s and residential portfolios in this volatile economy.

David Short (09:55)
Well, not as involved in the HOA field and some of the other areas, but you know, I think it’s the you know, I see the HOAs as a push where the the the institutional rentals they kind of slow them down. But I I think the HOAs need to look at if private individuals want to have rentals in their community, they should be allowed to do that. So I’m not

necessarily in agreement ⁓ with some of the HOA’s rules that we see in these communities today.

Scott Bursey (10:27)
David, if ⁓ somebody’s listening and they’re thinking to themselves, hey, this is somebody that I really like and perhaps would like to ⁓ partner with or do business with, what would you like them to know first about your operation?

David Short (10:41)
Well, our operation is a ⁓ I mean, I’m a single owner operator. It’s single owner’s my wife and I. And ⁓ so we do everything. And you know, we’ve had a lot of investors ⁓ over the years and we’ve we’ve never disappointed any of them. I mean, we’re like anything else. We have bad deals and we have deals that go south, but you know, an investor with us has has never lost a dime.

Scott Bursey (11:08)
If you could walk us through what does your professional network look like right now?

David Short (11:12)
Well, my professional network is is I have a lot of you know, a lot of people that surround me in in different areas of real estate. I I facilitate a mastermind every other Monday in my co-working space that has anywhere from fifteen to twenty people attendant live and we basically discuss our problems and these are other

single entrepreneur owners in our in our space in Indianapolis. So we’ve got a group of guys that we can go to. And, you know, so, you know, from that point of view, I’m I’m very big on coaching. I’m very big on, you know, if I have problems on like VentSpace, if I have problems with other avenues in it, I’m the first one

getting online trying to hire a coach and paying them for their time to to guide me. You know, I want to hire a coach that don’t doesn’t know anything about me in my local market to get a full, totally transparent opinion from them.

Scott Bursey (12:18)
That’s a great reminder. Your net worth is truly your network. And David, I know our pros are gonna want to hear this from you. If you had to build a management firm from scratch with limited resources, what is the first thing you’d optimize to generate immediate cash flow?

David Short (12:37)
Well, you know, I don’t know if that’s the right question for me. I’m I’m kind of old school, but if I’m it becomes, you know, it you know, building a management company literally is one unit at a time. And if a guy wants to start a business and somebody brings him 30 units, he probably won’t succeed, ⁓ because he has too much put on his plate.

that you can’t manage it. I mean, I I would look for man I would look for owners that have self-managed because they know the problems they have with their property. So when they turn it over to a third party, they’re gonna understand the problems that they have.

Scott Bursey (13:59)
Thank you for that, David. And David, you have really given our listeners a lot of really good advice here today. But is there any additional words of wisdom, final thoughts that you’d like to leave with our pros here today?

David Short (14:12)
Well, I ⁓ probably the main one is pick a rail and stay on it. You know, develop an expertise, stay on that expertise. And ⁓ don’t, you know, don’t try not to vary too much. That’s probably been my biggest downfall in all these years is that I get off my rail too quick.

Scott Bursey (14:33)
David, for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you, what is the best way for them to reach you?

David Short (14:42)
Well probably the best way to reach me is probably through my email, which is dshort@c21scheetz, S-C-H-E-E-T-Z .com

Scott Bursey (14:55)
David, thank you for joining us today on the Real Estate Pros podcast.

David Short (14:59)
You’re well, thank you. It is good to be here.

Scott Bursey (15:01)
It has been a pleasure. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be feeling your tanks with the lineup of elite guest, just like David Short, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.