Commercial Real Estate Growth: How Troy Muljat Built an $80M Portfolio

Troy Muljat (00:00)
I think, you know, it’s easy to sweep problems under the carpet and just forget about it. Someone else will deal with it. A partner will deal with it. My manager will deal with it. I’m going to look the other way. But the beautiful part of when we have an issue, we solve it. We are transparent. We sit down and we deal with it fast.

and we pivot, we adapt or die. That is a motto that we have around here, we adapt or die. And if we’ve got a software that people aren’t using, ⁓ we’re getting rid of it. We’re gonna retrain, we’re gonna put all the efforts in, do a sprint to change it and move on.

Michelle Tack (02:06)
Hi, I’m Michelle Tack. I am the leader today of the podcast for Real Estate Pros. And I’ve got a great subject matter expert, Troy, with us today that will talk about a number of different things regarding construction, commercial construction, and sit tight on that. But we’re excited to have you here, Troy. Just why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself.

Troy Muljat (02:31)
Thanks for having me, Michelle, appreciate it. Yeah, Troy Muljat broker, appraiser, developer, real estate investor, and owner of a Management Company. So that’s Troy. A little bit of everything, big flywheel, and super excited to be here.

Michelle Tack (02:45)
Troy, thanks so much. think ⁓ our listeners can take away from today some of the strengths that I see in our, when we were talking in our pre-podcast meeting is that although you have a number of different businesses ⁓ commercial, you love looking at deals, but you realize that you also have to have a very tight SOPs, standards of operating procedures.

You’re based in Washington state of, you what’s going on with the laws, et cetera, but really staying, you know, focused and not getting too much out of your flywheel to continue the business. So why don’t we just dive into that and what would you like to, for people that are on the listening to this today, what’s the main focus areas that you have and what you’d like to communicate?

Troy Muljat (03:39)
Yeah, I think, you know, no matter what I’m doing, whether it’s buying and acquiring and adding to our portfolio of, you know, 250 units and quarter million square feet of commercial and retail, managing the 4,000 units that we manage for a third party, a million square feet of office and industrial space, we use EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. You know, when you talk about SOPs…

making sure that we are clear on what our vision is, our uniques, where our core values are, and our core focus. We like to say we open doors and grow wealth for clients, for ourselves. And so that’s key. And then there’s a bunch of different things in there that everyone understands what we’re doing. We have the same meeting, same week. We’re keeping people accountable. And they don’t really hear from me if we’re hitting our KPIs and we’re moving forward.

And if we aren’t, well, then we have a discussion and we send it to the issues list and then we solve problems and we move on.

Michelle Tack (05:21)
that’s impressive. mean, that strength of running the machine as it were as our business ⁓ is impressive. And the fact that ⁓ you have a meeting, which I would ask you to share in a second, every week people show up and go through that. But having that well-known machine so that you can go out and do your passion of, you know, go away for a few weeks and go fishing.

I love that and not being worried is, you what’s going to happen to my money? What’s going to happen to my people? What’s going to happen to the end user? I think that’s pretty impressive.

Troy Muljat (05:48)
Right.

Yeah, I mean, we focus on the right people in the right seats. That’s kind of an EOS term, but know, making sure we’ve got the right people that they’re trained, they’re educated, and we let them lead. You know, again, ⁓ one meeting a week, same time, same place, same hours. We have the same schedule, we stay on track, and then our goal is to solve issues. I have probably three of those meetings a week to keep people accountable. But if I’m not there, they can run it, they’re operating. I get an update of what’s happened, what’s going on, what are the key takeaways, what are the issues.

And I can leave for two weeks and go fishing, which I will do here shortly. I can leave for two weeks and go see one of my kids. I can leave for a month or longer if need be. So yeah, three trips planned this summer. I’ll do about six weeks, I’ll be gone. And I won’t stress at all and I won’t check in at all.

Michelle Tack (06:42)
That’s, mean, I’m just thinking about that is really impressive, regardless if you’re in a real estate business or other business, to be able to leave it, feel confident that your people are doing the right things, you’ve hired correctly, and you’re sticking with the foundation that has been set up in terms of your procedures. ⁓ I know that not every operator had, know, every operator I know, I meant to say, has a moment when

a deal go sideways or they get a flood in some big, you know, high-end deal that they didn’t anticipate. ⁓ When things got real real, like, hey, you know, stuff is hitting the dirt, right? Can you talk about a deal that maybe recently or in the last year or it doesn’t even have to be a deal, but a situation related to your business went sideways and at time that you had to pivot fast, would you mind sharing one of those moments for us?

Troy Muljat (07:21)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, there was one deal I don’t want to talk about where I lost a million dollars in a deal and I didn’t pivot fast. that was, got PTSD on that one. But I think, you know, it’s easy to sweep problems under the carpet and just forget about it. Someone else will deal with it. A partner will deal with it. My manager will deal with it. I’m going to look the other way. But the beautiful part of when we have an issue, we solve it. We are transparent. We sit down and we deal with it fast.

and we pivot, we adapt or die. That is a motto that we have around here, we adapt or die. And if we’ve got a software that people aren’t using, ⁓ we’re getting rid of it. We’re gonna retrain, we’re gonna put all the efforts in, do a sprint to change it and move on.

And we’re doing a lot of that with AI right now. We’re developing some of our own software and some cool apps that we’ve already launched internally for our own purposes. And so we adapt or die. ⁓ One of my five core values is drive change.

and it is, it happens a lot. We drive a lot of change. So I always say we’re on the bus and the bus is going faster. So if you don’t wanna be on the bus, there’s the door.

Michelle Tack (08:38)
Mmm.

Yep.

Yep. You know, I think, you know, that’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. You know, you may see a podcast and like, ⁓ you know, let’s get into this business and it’s super, you know, easy. But honestly, what separates those that dabble in real estate from the ones who stay in the long game, the long term. ⁓ And, you know, I had told you previously that my background has been in technology sales software, and then I’m worked into real estate, but what are the…

gentleman that I really respected was a VP of worldwide sales and he had been on numerous missions. He was in the military to Iran, Iraq, etc. And he said the first thing that you learn in the military is recognize the situation that you’re in and then make a plan. What are you going to do about it? And I think our egos get in the way a little bit. Sometimes when you think, you know, oh, well, I can handle that.

and ⁓ it becomes bigger than it is. So I appreciate that. What’s the next big goal for you overall in your business? I’m interested in that in terms of your vision.

Troy Muljat (10:32)
Yeah, couple,

lot of goals. ⁓ Personally, we’ve got a portfolio of about 80 million. We’re trying to hit 100 million. ⁓ So I’m just looking to acquire and add ⁓ shopping centers, apartment buildings in multiple states. I tend to buy, renovate, and then reposition and then hold. I don’t like to sell anything. So that’s one goal. On the management side, we’re at 4,000 units and our 10-year target is 20,000 units under management. So.

Michelle Tack (10:42)
you

Troy Muljat (11:01)
Everyone knows those goals and we’re just transparent about them.

Michelle Tack (11:05)
Right. And as you you know, and we know, writing down the goals and having and don’t change them. There’s another thing, sensu art of war, right? What are the seven principles of war or one? Don’t change your plan unless you have, you know, indisputable evidence that you need to. Right. So it sort of goes to that as well. But that’s certainly I love about I love that about that. You’ve got the goals, you’re going for a reach and

You know, you’ve got the foundation. Before we conclude today, can you share how your network has affected your business and the importance of a network and maybe the type of, you know, I don’t know if it’s a group that you belong to. I think the listeners would be certainly interested in that as well.

Troy Muljat (11:54)
Yeah,

yeah. Yeah, you’ve got to always be growing and you got to surround yourself with other people. mean, after 35 years in this business, I’m constantly learning. I don’t know everything. You got to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, new opportunities. And so that’s super important. ⁓ And I’ve got a few designations means nothing today. Yeah, it was great. But those networks are really powerful and connecting with those people.

I’m a part of the International Council of Shopping Centers and I’ve been going to that conference for 25 years, retail brokers, developers, and I find that that really adds fuel to me. Knowing who is looking to position, where McDonald’s or Dutch Brothers or whoever it might be is coming to an area and being able to capitalize on that from a retail development standpoint is really important. So knowing those, I’m very involved in property management, who are the managers, what are the trends, what are happening.

Michelle Tack (13:21)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Troy Muljat (13:29)
very, very important to surround yourself with other people. I’m not the smartest guy in the room. I want to surround myself with smarter people.

Michelle Tack (13:35)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, look, I have enjoyed thoroughly the conversation today. You’ve given some great information. I admire what you’re doing in terms of your flexibility, the amount that you’ve been able to do and continue to grow. Before we leave, Troy, can you provide your contact information, whatever you’d like to provide, for folks that may want to get in touch with you to do a deal, to invest or what have you?

Troy Muljat (14:04)
Yeah, my email is just my name. It’s Troy, T-R-O-Y at Muljat.com and that’s M-U-L-J-A-T.com.

Michelle Tack (14:13)
Thank you so much. For those that are listening and have gotten value from this podcast, please continue to subscribe. And if you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so. There’s wonderful content from a variety of subject matter experts that we have at Real Estate Pros. Thanks so much, Troy. We appreciate it. Bye bye.

Troy Muljat (14:32)
Thanks, Michelle.