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Show Summary
In this conversation, Kevin Falk, co-founder of Nordic Partners Investments, shares insights into his journey in the real estate industry, emphasizing the importance of hard work, community engagement, and building strong relationships. He discusses the growth of his company, the challenges of finding talent, and the significance of maintaining a positive company culture. Kevin also highlights the importance of personal development and social responsibility, illustrating how these values contribute to the success of his business.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Kevin Falk (00:00)
And honestly, that’s where we want to head. And so we’ve been reallyreally lucky and a lot of hard work to get to a position where we’re trending that way.
Quentin Edmonds (01:42)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I am your host Q admins and I’m excited today. We have a another fantastic guest and listen, this, this guy, what are you doing? They’re the company that he’s connected with. They know their market. They are experts at what they do expert in their space and they have figured out how to dominate the market. And so I’m excited for us for him to walk us through.How exactly that happened? How it is that they came to dominate the market? So I want to introduce you guys to Mr. Kevin Falk. Mr. Kevin, how you doing today,
Kevin Falk (02:15)
doing great. Q, how are you doing?Quentin Edmonds (02:16)
man, doing good, doing good. Again, excited to have you here and be honest, man, I just want to dive in. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. I would love for you to maybe, you’re okay with it, give us a little origin story. How did you get involved in real estate? What brought you here to real estate? And then also what markets you’re operating in. So Mr. Kevin, the floor is yours, sir.Kevin Falk (02:39)
Yeah, I’m Kevin Falk, owner, founder and partner of Nordic Partners Investments in Nordic Real Estate. We’re out of the Pacific Northwest here in Seattle, Washington. ⁓ You know, kind of backstoring on us. ⁓ Been local for 37 years or 38 years now and ⁓ been in real estate the whole time since I graduated from the University of Washington. ⁓ You know, we know our market exceptionally well because we’ve been here. We’ve been renters in it. We’ve been owners in it and⁓ you know, over time, working for large institutional companies like CBRE, Kidder Matthews, managing for Microsoft, Metta, T-Mobile, Amazon. When you start working with those, you know, larger institutional clients, you understand the fundamentals of what it is to really build an exceptional business. And then when you can take that and roll it into a startup, and then you also have your market knowledge, it’s a lot easier to really build a sustainable business.
you know, our kind of our origin story is.
You know, we started our company, me and my business partner with $1,000 each. So two grand and you know, we’re brushing up on 40 or sorry, $70,000 or $70 million in real estate. So it’s been an exceptional coming up on five years of the business. And we’re just so excited about where we’re headed. You know, like we’ve been on a bunch of podcasts and, talked about kind of how we got there. think the cool thing maybe we can talk about is like what we’re, what we’re looking to go after, where it’s going, why we think that what we think of the market, why we’re so
bullish on Seattle and just what it is to kind of also build a good business and why we’re so lucky to have such a system that we have to replicate in the ecosystem that we built with our employees and our staff.
Quentin Edmonds (04:18)
Absolutely. And man, thank you for that. And I’m so glad you mentioned systems, because I do want to talk about systems a little bit. And I’m going to ask this question. I would love for you to answer it two ways, if that’s OK. I would love to know some business strategies that you use, core business strategies that you know help you and help you find success. But I also would like to know some personal strategies that you use also that kind of sustain you as a person while you’re finding success in business. And I know some people do.gym, exercise and different things like that. So what are some core business strategies and core personal strategies?
Kevin Falk (05:38)
Yeah, for the business, wish my partner Jeff was on here because he’s the astronaut of the business when it comes to systems. He’s got it down pat. That’s why we’re… You have to also have in business, you have to have people that complement each other. I do a lot of the business development, the capital raising. mean, we all wear the hats, but a lot of the property management set up and development there. Jeff does a lot of the tax work, the…the ⁓ contract work when we’re buying deals, a lot of the internal business structure systems and operations. And I mean, also then he wears the hats, he raised money too, but then we have our business partner, Jacob Wilson, who handles a lot of the financial debt and structure. making sure that everyone is really using their best skills and talents, I think is the most important. And then we have all employees from our property managers, Will Thompson, Emmanuel Bass.
Carter, Custer, mean, then are, you know, I can name everybody off. They’re all so good at what they do. I think the biggest thing in business is hiring good quality talent. And then once you find them, make them happy. Keep them. Don’t you know, lot of people will circle around in the real estate market. It happens a lot. You know, we were sending two of our employees to Augusta, Georgia this year for the Masters. They earned them, right? KPI based company.
So if you hit your metrics, if your delinquency is low and your occupancy is high and your tenant satisfaction is good and your renewals are great, you know, you’re going to have really good numbers and metrics. So you get rewarded for that. If it’s the opposite, you know, it’s addressed or we move on. I think it being able, know, that’s all those old quotes are kind of silly, but, know, people think it, but they actually are resonating and they work well, like hire slow fire fast. Like that’s just how you have to be as an.
as an entrepreneur in a group that’s moving in a direction for success and, you know, mass or, you know, ⁓ kind of acceleration with the company. And then personally, I mean, I think the biggest one for me personally was sobriety. ⁓ know, being just completely fully aware 24 seven 365 because, you know, we have fiduciary duties duties to our clients. And I’m not saying that people can’t drink and can’t win. But I’m saying for me personally, and
It’s funny how it’s translated with our, think 90 % of our company does it. Like when we go out to our company holiday party, we don’t provide alcohol just because no one drinks it. Cause everyone’s just really focused on their health, really focused on their mental, really focused on their careers, really focused on their personal, you know, relationships, their family. And it, when you have that kind of power of positivity and everyone’s really working for the same goals personally and professionally.
it really resonates through a business and extremely strong. you know, we have millions of dollars of investor money. So for me personally, like, I just have to be sharp 24 seven, because this is a business that is 24 seven. And if you want to, I would want to say get to the very high institutional like name brand top 10 real estate company in the nation. can’t miss. ⁓ that’s really big for us.
And honestly, that’s where we want to head. And so we’ve been really
really lucky and a lot of hard work to get to a position where we’re trending that way.
Quentin Edmonds (08:53)
Absolutely. Now, I love it, man. You know, I always say ⁓ community is all about common unity, people that are united in common unity, hitting in the right direction. So I absolutely love how you said, listen, we won’t even put alcohol out because none of us drink it. you know, we we all on the same page here. We we kind of keep a sober mind, a clear head. And so, you know, I hear that for sure, man. So let me ask you this while you was building Nordic.Have you faced any type of adversity? Has it been smooth sailing or has there been some bumps in the road as you’ve built it?
Kevin Falk (10:00)
⁓ you know, I think if you take that outside work, the inside work when they overlap and you’re doing the personal development and all the other work so that you’re really dialed in across the board, you’re going to always have problems. But if you’re in that flow state where you’re almost like personally, I get excited for the failure. I get excited for the problems because that’s where I’m going to develop the most. If everything is a hundred percent smooth sailing, you’re going to be stagnant.Like we’ve had so many good things come from so many of the problems in the business. we didn’t get this deal Well, we found another better one. this deal went sideways, you know, not sideways But like we had a problem with part of this construction. Okay with the next one. We’re gonna put parameters in place It doesn’t happen
And there’s been a reason why we’ve never done a capital call in four and a half years during a recession market. that, you know, none of our investors have ever had to cut us another check our entire internal investment arm that we have. Cause we also have third party, which we’ve taken over some tougher assets that have delinquency. We’ve never had to do an eviction on our personal assets and we’ve never had a delinquency. So all of our tenants pay rent because we have a really good system. do, we renovate to a high product. We pick a plus neighborhoods.
And we have a kind of rental requirement where it just breeds a good community that people that want to come pay rent, take care of their unit, be nice to each other. And then a big thing for us is giving back to the community.
So we also have, I’ve been in the big brother program for seven years. So the mentor and a young man, making sure he gets, ⁓ you know, some financial literacy that I didn’t receive and I didn’t really become, you know, financially smart until I was in my mid mid thirties almost, you know, it, it’s something that I personally think we don’t give too much to kids so that people are in the system longer. So, that was something I wanted to do to give back. then also within our, also our business, we’ve gotten 20 women, ⁓ off the street.
in city of Seattle because you got to get this year alone to a place that they can call safe and home that are battered or sex trafficked because we do have a ⁓
⁓ An epidemic, I wouldn’t say an epidemic, but we have a pretty serious problem on Aurora Avenue and we work with a group of ladies that are helping them get out of that system out of that lifestyle, get off the drugs and alcohol, get off the prostitution and get somewhere where they can turn their life around. And we’ve got a few that are working in parks and wrecks, back working normal jobs, back taking care of their kids, no longer getting abused. ⁓ That is better than doing any deal. That’s better than doing
any type of business successes, help you kids. You can’t invest in the communities if you don’t invest in the people that are around it. And we got to do better as a society to help, you know, the erosion that we’re seeing through just people in general. So if there’s anything we can do on the micro level to help a small amount, maybe that echoes out for more people to do the same to win for us all.
Quentin Edmonds (12:51)
Man, that’s, that’s incredible. Where does, where does that passion come from? That passion of helping the community, that passion of getting people off the streets. How did that work his way into your business process?Kevin Falk (13:04)
just came from growing up in a household where my parents were incredible people, you know, and father. My dad was a mechanic. He’d see it. You know, we’d be driving home from a game soaked in mud and football, you know, like, can we get home? need to take a shower. but you know, see someone broke down on the street and pull over, change their tire form, you know, learning from, you know, just good, genuine people and, know, having good background in family. And then just watching guys that I know that weren’t just financially happy, but we’re truly internally, they’resoul was happy. Because I think that’s the ultimate goal for humans. And what did I see those guys doing? They gave back. My business partners are the same way. They’re always genuine. We got a big thing down in Arizona in ⁓ January for a big, you know, huge real estate event with we’re sponsoring with our co group, trucks, commercial partners. ⁓ And the proceeds go to Arizona’s Children’s Hospital like
I gotta give back to the people that are less fortunate, the kids, the women that are struggling in general, just period anyone that needs help, that we can do something to give back as we keep winning. That’ll just, it brings good karma. I swear, I was just joking about it with someone. We had a huge flood in Washington this last two weeks. When we just bought a property in that flood zone, the property didn’t get damaged. don’t know how, everywhere else, everywhere else.
Quentin Edmonds (14:26)
boy.Kevin Falk (14:26)
We water, we were closingQuentin Edmonds (14:27)
boy.Kevin Falk (14:28)
40, we closed it and it just didn’t get any damage. Why? Maybe because we’re helping others, right? Maybe there’s something bigger that’s above us that’s saying, hey, let’s take care of these guys because they take care of others. So we’re just all about that ecosystem, man, and it’s a good life.Quentin Edmonds (14:31)
or more.Yeah, bro, you are the exact when I tell people all the time on the podcast that at the foundation of a sustainable business is servitude You serve people you will be around for a long long time And you are proof like that what you just said is 100 % Correct. We can’t explain it. We just know that our building didn’t get damaged. There was no flood We can explain it
But we can’t explain it. But we can explain it, but we can’t explain it. You know what I mean? So yes.
Kevin Falk (15:58)
I completely agree and that’s been our motto. It’s like our tenants come, our investors come first, our tenants come first, our vendors come first, let’s get them paid. You know, all the people that we work with, they come first, the community comes first, Nordic comes last, but if everyone else is winning, we’re still going to get ours. So it’s like, that’s just the best way to have it is if you go out and do the service, just like you said, you know, the rest is history.Quentin Edmonds (16:19)
Everybody got to come putting their best foot forward. So I hear it. I see why because you’re doing big things. That’s itKevin Falk (16:25)
Yeah, it has to be complete and total alignment. And the other thing is like, you know, me and you know, the, comes from the top down, like I’ll go in and lease. helped my leasing agent. She texts me at, you know, 10, 11 o’clock at night. I got a response within five minutes. It’s like, we care, you know, that’s the biggest thing I think in general across the board, society, business, whatever you want to call it, personal relationships, family, put in the time effort and just care. If you care, you get solutions and then you get success. So⁓ It’s real simple and honestly everyone will always say like how’d you guys do it? How’d you get the success? How’s this all coming together? Honestly, it’s not hard if your hearts in it if you’re passionate about it if you show up every day if it’s no nonsense And if you give back out into the to the world you get you reap the benefits for sure
Quentin Edmonds (17:10)
Absolutely. Man, this is so great. I was literally reading everything you’re talking about right now. I was literally reading this about 5.30 this morning. I was reading about like, you know, when you refresh others, you yourself will be refreshed. Like when you’re a lazy person, you cannot expect to receive anything. Like, I mean, all these different things. So I mean, you are really standing on principles.that work and they’re prudent and they’ve been around for a long time. And so you have core principles that’s going to sustain your business for years and decades to come. You’ll be passing your business down to your kids and they’ll be passing down to their kids kids because this is built on the right foundation. You know what I mean?
Kevin Falk (17:52)
And that’s all we want. It’s like life’s too short. You know, it goes quick. Just surround yourself around good people, do good business practices and you get good results. And you know, then you find internal peace. Like it’s crazy. We talked to a lot of people and there was, know, whenever we’re explaining the business, it’s like, Oh, that must be so stressful. You’re raising all this money. You got all these deals going to all this stuff. I’ve never been more stress free, zero anxiety and living in more internal peace than I have sitting here today. And it’s because we’re just surrounded. And it’s also who yousurround yourself around. got all these great employees, all these great vendors, all of most of our tenants said, don’t get me wrong. Hey, we run into some that I’ve been called every name in the book this year, probably even the last month.
⁓ you know, there’s always going to be one-offs and exceptions, but a majority of the time our tenants love us. We get great reviews online. You know, our employees are happy to show up for work. We take care of them. We’re sending them here. We’re doing this there. We, know, they’re in a pickle or jam. Kevin, Hey, can you help us out? Yeah, I got you. No problem. It’s like, it’s just, and then my business partners, my, can’t talk about it enough. Jeff and Jacob, like we tell each other every, you know,
often, hey man, I love you, bro. It’s such a great time. This is such a journey to go on anything you do. What’s going on caring about it and not even just talking business like, Hey, how’s your day? Yeah, what’s going on? How what can we do for you? You know, like, let’s get together. Let’s let’s break some bread. Let’s let’s sip a cup of coffee. Let’s do something. It’s just fun. You know, like, I was in the corporate world for a long time. I learned so much and I have nothing negative to say about it got me to where I’m at today.
Quentin Edmonds (19:01)
I’m onKevin Falk (19:22)
but it just was not this. was lacking this. And that is what’s so powerful. And that’s why everyone’s like, it’s so infectious when we’re talking to Nordic, you guys care, the energy, all this stuff. It’s because we’ve just built something that everyone is excited to be around. And we just, you know, it’s great, man. It’s infectious, infectious for sure.Quentin Edmonds (19:40)
I love it, man. So listen, let me ask you this. What’s the next real goal for Nordic? Like is, are you looking to scale something, solve something? Like what’s the next real goal for Nordic?Kevin Falk (19:48)
Yeah, like, mean, if you I can quickly unpack it, like our first goal was to do a deal. ⁓ Well, then our first one was get to 100 units. All right, we did that. Now we’re buying 100 unit buildings. So we’re doing that. So like, we want to get to 1000 units in ownership that we want to get to five that we want to get to 10. I think that that’s a pretty good number if we can get 10,000 that we own in the next, you know, five to 10 years. Maybe it might take a little longer, but two decades tops. Let’s just say that.And we would like to be one of the top groups like we’re coming for the Gray Stars, the Avenue fives. I love those groups. I think they do well, nothing negative, but like we’re going to throw our hat in the ring, you know where we’re coming to be a player and it’s just going to take time and it’s that constant progress over time. We’re not going to get there tomorrow. We’re not going to get there in five years, but in 10 or 20 and if you take 1 % gains and you get those compound over and over.
you’re going to get massive results. So I think the biggest thing is stay in our lane, continue to put out the product. The rest starts coming like we’ve done no marketing. We have a little bit of LinkedIn blast that we say we got an account or we just bought a building. But like out there marketing, we have done zero. We’ve raised 30, 40 million bucks to date. We’ve started our property management arm 18 months ago, we’re brushing up on 1500 units like it’s just it and it just it’s all coming in. It’s all referral based and
you know, once we’re able to get a little bit more time and step away from the business on the ops, which I don’t know exactly when that’ll be, but we’ll have, you know, we can get some more directors in place and stuff like that. Then we can really start, you know, spooling up more of the in-person meeting marketing and really pour gas on it. So, but it’s all natural progression, like, and we’re doing well right now. Like if nothing changed, Hey Q, we’re happy, man.
Quentin Edmonds (21:26)
Yes, I love it, man. Listen, I want to put the cherry on top because you have you have listed name after name of people that’s on a team. You talked about, know, the people that you care about. So I want to put the cherry on top. I want to hammer home relationships. So tell me how important relationships have been to you as you know, growing your business. Just tell me, is relationships really, really that important to you?Kevin Falk (21:52)
It’s the most important thing you can have. Like I have a phenomenal relationship with my entire family. have a deep rooted one with my brother, even though he’s not local. see each other at least once a month. We fly to each other. It’s been, you know, I’ve had that those like those bonds that can’t break. There’s no judgment. No matter what, you’re still there for him. You love each other.And that translated so much to business. now, instead of us going to see what the most margins we can get or, you know, whatever the type of, you know, value exchange you have with whatever relationship it’s like, I would rather have ones with people that I care about that also are exactly linear feet pointed in the exact direction is mine. Like if we’re pointed in a little bit direction difference over time will be so far apart. Like I have to be on the same journey and that’s
why this has been so great. I have, know exactly where all of my investors, kids are going to school, what their families got going, what their
And if they’re going through something difficult, give them a call. Hey, how’s that going? The thing we can do to help. I know some of our tenants. I’ve actually some of our tenants have became investors with us. ⁓ Our employees, I mean, we know we talk to them daily. So we know what everything’s going on. ⁓ And it’s just man, there’s nothing more important in life than relationships. And I think it’s more about the really important close ones. Like I think the older I get, having less is more.
but the ones that you have are extremely deep rooted and less veneer. So that’s the biggest thing for me is just like having extremely trustworthy relationships where you can be unapologetically honest. And that’s just how we operate, man. Like people will call, especially me, I get it all the time. I’m way too direct and brash, but.
That’s just how I have to be and I want to be that because even if I’m not giving you the answer you want to hear it’s from a place of care because I actually need to tell you what you need to hear and that’s just with anyone and I expect the same.
Quentin Edmonds (23:47)
Man, this has been refreshing, man. I’m telling you, like, I love listening to you talk. I love listening you talk about your core principles, accountability, building your community. Like I said, common unity. I believe healing happens in community. So when you are aligned with the right people, you can take on anything. And it sounds like you are exactly in line with the people you’re supposed to be in line with. And it’s no surprise to me that you guys are having the success that you’re having. So I really appreciate you coming through.If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for me to get in contact with you?
Kevin Falk (24:20)
Yeah. And thank you so much for having me on. So the best way to get in contact with us is just, have all of our information on Nordic INV.com. So igloo Nancy Victor or short for invest. So Nordic INV.com or if you want to send one direct, it’s just kevin, K-E-V-I-N at Nordic INV.com is my email. So ⁓ that’s the easiest way to get ahold of us or.⁓ If you want to just look in the newspaper and anything in Seattle, we’re going to start making some headlines. I think we already have, but it’ll just continue to keep moving forward because nothing’s going to stop us.
Quentin Edmonds (24:53)
Absolutely. ⁓ Man, this has been great, man. I got to tell you, it’s been really, really great talking to you. Thank you for your time, first of all, because time is valuable, right? Thank you for your story, man. And I use the word story because I believe every last one of us have a story. Nothing in this world moves without story. So thank you for giving us the gift of your vulnerability, telling us some of your core values, but also telling usthe things that your business is doing in the community. Thank you for talking about the brotherhood. Thank you for saying that you look at your brothers and tell them that you love them. I tell all my brothers around me, listen, I’m going to tell you that I love you. Like that’s one of the most manly things that I can do is to let you know, listen, bro, I love you. I have a saying, I’m going be honest with you, it’s the scripture. It says that a brother is born for time of adversity and a friend loveth at all times.
That’s what I want to be to the men in my life. I’m here for the adverse time. I’m gonna stand 10 toes down with you. We’re gonna talk about it like men. And guess what? At the end, I’m gonna say, I love bro. I’m still here for you. How you doing? You feeling okay? Tell me about it. So we’re gonna attack on both ends. We’re gonna hold accountability, but I’m gonna let you know there’s room for you to feel this love. And so I appreciate you saying that. And I just appreciate your perspective, the way you think, man.
I appreciate it. this has been great for me. I appreciate you being here,
Kevin Falk (26:17)
Yeah, likewise, Q, man. I could feel the same energy, It’s just, I think, you know, ⁓ there’s always ways to look at it glass half full or glass half empty. And, you know, I would say we got to all be better and come together as a community, as a nation. And it’s just people that are out there doing business. There’s a lot more than profits. Giving back is a lot more important. And just taking care of your neighbor and the people in your micro.If everyone focused on that, we’ll have a way bigger macro. And if you want to be around us and you want that energy, you just come to Nordic because we’re just going to continue on this mission.
Quentin Edmonds (26:53)
I got you,man. Absolutely. So again, man, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for being here and listen, y’all heard Mr. Kevin. Y’all heard the type of energy, what type of time you’re on. Y’all heard it. I keep telling you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Kevin. So please go ahead and subscribe. That way when that alert comes off, you just come in and just get this dynamic content. And so Mr. Kevin, sir, thank you again. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
Kevin Falk (27:21)
Thank you, Q.
