From Active Work to Passive Wealth: Multifamily Investing Secrets That Create Real Freedom

George Roberts (00:00)
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s really all about, you know, not just desiring luxury items. If you’re after freedom, you can do that. You know, in about a month, the entire family is traveling to South America for a month and a half. So I’m all about experiences, loving life. Sure, we do spend money sometimes, but you know, the the main thing is just make sure that you don’t find yourself on that that lifestyle creep pathway. And you can have an amazing time at literally any point in your wealth building journey.

Scott Bursey (02:09)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast, powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we are sitting down with a master of the passive wealth game. We have George Roberts III in the house, the visionary behind Roberts Capital Enterprises and the author of Passionate Living Through Passive Investing. If you’ve ever wondered how to transition from the grind of active operations to building real freedom, George is bringing the fuel to make that shift a reality. George, welcome to the show.

George Roberts (02:43)
Well, thank you, Scott. It’s a great pleasure to be here.

Scott Bursey (02:47)
It is an honor to have you here, George. And to help our listeners get up to speed, please give us the front row seat, if you will, on how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

George Roberts (03:01)
Right, so for me, my career started in construction. My sister and I launched a construction company. I was still working full-time in data science, won awards in my field, loved it, making great money. Took me a little longer to break away than my sister, but that really just ignited my journey. So once I started my own enterprise, which is multifamily investing, that was really the rocket fuel my entrepreneurial career from that point there was no looking.

Scott Bursey (03:36)
Awesome, George. That’s incredible stuff right there. And my friend, you know what really caught my attention about you was the way that you’ve been able to bridge the gap between complex investing and a life of actual passion, moving people from just doing deals to truly living through passive income. That’s pure gold.

George Roberts (03:58)
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s really all about, you know, not just desiring luxury items. If you’re after freedom, you can do that. You know, in about a month, the entire family is traveling to South America for a month and a half. So I’m all about experiences, loving life. Sure, we do spend money sometimes, but you know, the the main thing is just make sure that you don’t find yourself on that that lifestyle creep pathway. And you can have an amazing time at literally any point in your wealth building journey.

Scott Bursey (04:37)
Love it and I couldn’t agree anymore. George, it allows you to simplify passive investing for your partner so effectively.

George Roberts (05:36)
I think it’s my analytic background. You know, coming from bioscience and data science, it’s really all about the story. Okay. Like when we would write up our papers, it wasn’t exactly how things happened in in the exact order. We would go back and retell the story because it’s so complicated, right? And we tell the story as it should have unfolded. And that’s an interesting thing about how scientific papers are written. Same thing though with in a different way with data science. So we just scour through tons of data, big data, as we like to call it, and then we go and we find the story behind the data. And that’s really what you’re doing here, no matter where you are in business, you’re going to find that story. And when you have that story, you know, you can make a mountain of numbers make sense. What is the story behind the deal?

Scott Bursey (06:34)
That’s a winning recipe right there, George. You know, turning complexity into clarity is how you build trust, and trust is the ultimate currency in this business.

George Roberts (06:46)
Absolutely.

Scott Bursey (06:48)
And that’s a massive advantage to have in your corner. On the flip side of things, George, what we all have areas where we’re still sharpening the blade. You know, what’s one common operational hurdle you see with operators trying to make a jump to passive focused wealth that keeps them stuck in the grind?

George Roberts (07:09)
Right. Well one thing is it’s got to be the property management. I mean, the better that you can get on the intake, the thin edge of the wedge, getting people into your properties, getting out there on multiple platforms, and communicating with people quicker. We we all talk about AI and how it’s making us faster, but I mean you really gotta be out there doing it. It’s gotta be more than a platitude. So make sure that you know you don’t fall behind and and the the bar just keeps getting higher.

Scott Bursey (07:42)
That’s really a good perspective. And it’s great that you’re tackling those friction points head on. Looking at the current market cycle, where do you see the biggest fuel opportunity for the average pro to gain a competitive edge in passive placements currently?

George Roberts (08:00)
So I think one of the best things to do is just make sure you’re remaining safe. If you have capital on the sidelines, dry powder, as they say, this is literally the best way to make sure that you make it to the next round because you have to live to fight another day. So make sure you’re out there looking for you know dozens, hundreds of opportunities and make sure that you’re ready to pounce. But also remember that this, you know, hey. We may look back and say these were the best of times, but I think things are getting better still. Once we start to see the the rates come down, I really gonna I’m I really think that it’s gonna be like somebody fired a gun. And you wanna make sure you’re in place. So hey, if you’re new, don’t worry. If you haven’t done your first deal, this is a great time. Make sure that you’re looking at you know, dozens of deals a week, hundreds of deals a month, per quarter, etc. And wherever you are in your career, just be ready because I know things are getting better by the minute.

Scott Bursey (09:04)
George, it sounds like proactive positioning is what you’re advocating.

George Roberts (09:10)
Yes, absolutely. And you know, I’m in really good position in my career. I don’t really have to do deals. So a lot of people are out there, you know, they gotta do X deals per year. There can be some misalignment with their investors, but for me, look, I could just go out sailing, traveling the world if I want to. I’m really here because I want to be. And I think that it really does help to slow down because I know a lot of people, a lot of great names that are right now struggling. They’ve got all these deals that, you know, maybe they’re not in foreclosure, but they’ve got a lot of trouble. So just relax. Remember that a a a good I’m sorry, a bad deal can hurt you a lot more than a good deal will help you.

Scott Bursey (09:51)
Yes, slow down and smell the roses and make sure that you do it in a manner that’s going to benefit not only you but the entire operation. Make calculative decisions is what I’m hearing.

George Roberts (10:44)
Absolutely, absolutely. I love the smell of the roses true, because it just it fits right in with the theme of my book here. That again, wherever you’re at in your life, make sure that you are living life the full. I just signed my family up for unlimited Spanish lessons. We all got our computers going in different rooms. You know, you can really live an amazing life, even on a budget. We’re all in dance lessons together in the evenings. And you know, it doesn’t doesn’t have to be fancy. We don’t to go out and get yourself a yacht to enjoy life. You don’t have to have a luxury automobile or an exotic. Just yeah, exactly. Smell the roses. There’s so much that’s great around you.

Scott Bursey (11:26)
That’s definitely the clear path for growth right there, George. Of course, you know, the market is moving fast. What is the one hidden risk or threat you’re keeping a close eye on right now?

George Roberts (11:40)
You know, we really gotta look at overbuilding. It’s it’s happened in many, many markets. It’ll probably happen again. And you know, I keep watching the the building report Census Bureau HUD comes out in the middle of every month. Great thing to keep the eyes on. And there was just this great big backlog of building that finally sort of tore through and landed on the market and now it’s been absorbed in many places and in many places it really hasn’t. So be careful because there’s going to be another wave of building coming just as soon as financing gets better.

Scott Bursey (12:19)
It’s really about having the right buffers in place so you can sleep at night.

George Roberts (12:24)
Yeah, absolutely. And I did talk about having dry powder. I think that’s probably the biggest thing. People say, like, you know, hey, I’m not over leveraged, this is good, but you don’t know what’s going to happen. So make sure you got the dry powder on the side and make sure that you’re really buying at a discount. Buying right is really the only way that you can have any sorts of margin of safety. So if I can look at in-place rents and say that they are you know there’s a significant loss to lease before I renovate. That is really the only way that I can be certain that if things turn against me, that I’m still good. So you know if you’re not investing with a margin of safety, you’re speculating. The only, the only type of investing as far as I’m concerned is value investing.

Scott Bursey (13:17)
I appreciate your candor on those risks. You know, knowing that, George, if you could give us the play by play for the pro who feels they have enough capital but lacks the systems to turn it into a freedom vehicle, what is the first tactical step they should take?

George Roberts (13:36)
Well, the first thing that I would recommend to anybody is you want to find the most fertile hunting fields. And that’s probably not where everybody is. You don’t want to go where things are over hunted. So I like to go maybe a little bit further afield. For me, I don’t mind tertiary markets. I don’t mind smaller deals. I found a good niche in there early, and I can tell you that if you can own a large amount of a smaller deal, that you can be doing better than a lot of people who own a small amount of a much larger deal. So make sure that, you know, it people say that finding investors or finding deals, it’s like turning over rocks. Imagine yourself a bird, you’re looking for that juicy worm. How many rocks do you have to turn over to find that juicy worm? So always be willing to shift and focus. Again, I come from data science, I come from bioscience. Analyzing data is a huge thing for me. The more data you analyze, the more fingers you have your pot in, for example. Passively, you really need to focus. Whatever you’re doing, stay in your lane. But from time to time you do need to pivot. And if you’re just a one-trick pony, you’re gonna find that the game moves on without you. So always be looking at the data, always be ready to pivot.

Scott Bursey (14:49)
Absolutely. And a lot of it revolves around the yield too, doesn’t it?

George Roberts (14:53)
So I’ll elaborate a little bit because I think a couple of ways to look at that.

Scott Bursey (14:59)
Yes, if you have to move the equity out of the let’s say the active loop and into the yield loop, is that the proper way to go?

George Roberts (15:49)
Yeah, I got it. I mean, like for example, one of the problems we’ve had in real estate lately, not just the rates, but also the stock market has been going hog wild. So look, if if I had perfect crystal ball, I would say, Hey, why work so hard in real estate? Just keep my money in the stock market. But we don’t know what’s gonna happen next. I mean, hey, we know what’s happened in the past when the price-to-earnings of the S&P gets this high. We know what’s happened in the past when when we have know, few advancers and a lot of losers. I mean, the stock market is very, very heavily shifted towards maybe say the top 10 in the S&P. People are I used to call it the everything bubble, but maybe it is the AI bubble. Because we never know what’s gonna pop. I mean, it was and still is an everything bubble, but I mean it looks like AI is just like the internet 20 years ago, 25 years ago. There’s a lot of promise there. But you know what? People get just a little bit too excited. So, you know, again, I don’t have that perfect crystal ball, but again, I can tell you that at some point the stock market bubble will pop and real estate will be there. So yes, you you do have to look a little bit in terms of you know, really what makes sense. And when you know you’re not getting those risk premium, like for example. Look at the last time real estate crashed. You know, you had essentially no risk premium. Why why are people buying real estate when when they’re not really making any money, when you have to imagine that rates are staying low for you to make any money or that prices continue to boom? This is when people make some really, really big mistakes. So again, I think that it’s it makes sense to, in a certain sense, have your fingers in a lot of pot, do a lot of analysis, take a look at the the macro view, but again, you gotta focus on what you’re doing. So hey, if you’re in multifamily like me, you focus down like crazy and then you find your subfocus and focus even harder still.

Scott Bursey (17:57)
George, no one has a crystal ball, but we appreciate your perspective on that. And our pros are here for the goods, George. We talk about high octane strategy. If you had to distill your book, Passionate Living Through Passive Investing into one core deep dive principle that turns a real estate business into a true freedom vehicle, what would that be?

George Roberts (18:22)
You can’t beat the pack by running with the pack. So, first of all, you know, if you’re listening to Investor Fuel and the top podcast, I’m sure that you understand that, you know, it’s all about private markets. These private markets, if you know where to look, can produce outsized gains. But again, don’t just look in one area, especially when you are passive. As a passive investor, you might as well try more than one thing. So that’s what I’m really interesting people in in Passionate Living Through Passive Investing.

Scott Bursey (18:58)
That is some really good perspective also, George. And thank you for all of your words of wisdom here today, but we can’t let you go just yet. Is there any other advice or words of wisdom? Golden nuggets that you could leave with our pros?

George Roberts (19:13)
Sure. You know, I think the most important thing again is really all about sleeping well at night, enjoying life, smelling roses and footage. And if I could go back and give myself any advice, it would be this look, you know, you I would tell my young self, George, relax. It’s going to be all right. You know, I was working all the time, overly worried. I will tell you this when you relax and tell yourself that as long as you’re doing the right things. You’ll find success, you’ll find your niche. It’s a lot easier to work hard when you let go of the worry. So I hope that some of my young workaholics out there, hey, don’t take your foot off the pedal, but just take a deep breath.

Scott Bursey (19:56)
George, that was fantastic. Thank you for that massive injection right there of advice. And this has been a massive conversation. You’ve dropped some serious value bombs today. But before we sign off, for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach you? Sure.

George Roberts (20:18)
You can find me at www.robertscapitalenterprises.com. Book a call with me. I love to talk to new investors. Whether you have deals, you want me to evaluate your deal, you’re a passive investor, you want to invest in my deals, just reach out.

Scott Bursey (20:36)
George, this has been incredible. Thank you so much for joining us here today.

George Roberts (20:41)
It’s been a pleasure and an honor, Scott. Thank you.

Scott Bursey (20:45)
Likewise, and to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like George Roberts the third, 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 on the next episode, everyone.