From Civil Engineering to Real Estate Systems: Tech Secrets for Investors

Bryce Finnerty (00:00)
We find on a typical construction project, there’s somewhere between 80 and 90 contracts involved.

And in my favorite part,

one ever knows what’s in those contracts. Have you read all the documents on your, in your, you know, real estate loan? Probably not.

Dylan Silver (00:09)
That’s right.

That’s right.

Bryce Finnerty (00:17)
my favorite part about AI now is we can ask AI questions about our own contract.

Dylan Silver (01:55)
Today’s guest is based in Plano, Texas, where his company Deal Flow Dynamics builds tech platforms that power real estate investing and portfolio management. Please welcome Bryce Finnerty. Bryce, welcome to the show.

Bryce Finnerty (02:09)
Thanks Dylan, thanks for having me.

Dylan Silver (02:11)
It’s great to have you on here. I’m a DFW realtor. got licensed at a champion school in Fort Worth was where I went to go study for my real estate license and you’re in Plano. So I’m surprised I didn’t cross paths with you when I was out there as probably in my bubble up there in Denton. But how long have you been in DFW?

Bryce Finnerty (02:30)
I moved here in 2006 after moving here from Washington DC. ⁓

Dylan Silver (02:35)
totally

different area. I’m from northern New Jersey. So I know when I when I first got down to Texas, I got down to San Antonio lived there for five or six years moved up to Dallas. DFW I should say. And I tell people this. DFW is like everything you could possibly imagine about about Texas. So I loved being there. I’d like to get your story how you got into the real estate space.

Bryce Finnerty (02:57)
Yeah, you know, honestly getting to Texas was part of that journey. So I’m a hybrid, kind of a different kind of person in that I’m a hybrid systems engineer.

And then I went to study large scale systems and I went to study civil engineering where you build cities and towns and states and highways and roads and all this stuff. And so I went off modeling all that on computers and building systems and simulations back in the nineties. And then the crazy part is all the work I got, some of it was engineering, but they kept dragging me back onto the software and system side.

Dylan Silver (03:34)
And so at that point, were you highly trained in the software side? I mean, can imagine civil and software can be two different worlds, right? But was there so much overlap there that you had to be kind of an expert in both?

Bryce Finnerty (03:46)
Yeah. So, you’re a young man and you may not know, now AI probably writes your code, but I had to start programming in, in 10th grade to get into engineering school. And the first day of engineering school, they’re like, welcome to the computer lab. And I basically had to program all of my assignments to do my calculations, to do my engineering work. engineering and programming went hand in hand back then, but then with desktops and everything, turned into.

more consulting. Engineers were more consultants. We wear suits like I’m still wearing today. And so, yeah, it turned into more advising people on civil engineering, but it started off early on programming the calculations for engineering.

Dylan Silver (04:16)
Yeah.

I want to ask you about where you pictured your career path was going to be. think a lot of people in the engineering space talk about civil engineering, developing cities, building bridges, real estate and real estate tech, maybe somewhere along the lines, especially now. But back then, did you see that as someone that was going to be on your career map? And did this happen very intentionally, or was it really a number of things and maybe progressively falling into it?

Bryce Finnerty (04:55)
You know, it’s probably falling into it, Dylan. You know, I thought I was going to be a civil engineer building bridges and I do, I still have boots and a hard hat and occasionally I walk around on construction sites. try to go to high rise towers. My favorite is when someone’s building a skyscraper. I like to go in before they’re finished. It’s really cool. but you know, standing around in the heat in Texas and slopping around in the mud and then, you know,

Dylan Silver (05:17)
you

Bryce Finnerty (05:19)
I guess that I kept getting dragged back onto the system side and I always wrestled with the complexity of, know, there’s tens of thousands of documents on any instruction project, even just the contracts and to do alone. So I kind of got into document management and data management and project management, things that would help run it smoothly. And so I just kind of got dragged back into the system side.

And that’s what got me to Dallas. I quit my day job where I was running systems at Marriott over their architecture and construction division and decided I’m going to go off consulting on my own for this. And I’ve been doing that ever since.

Dylan Silver (06:31)
I want to ask you a granular question here about you mentioned the documents and kind of the moving pieces that are involved with these ⁓ big development projects. In the absence of some of this technology, I’m imagining that it’s really overwhelming to have like file cabinets full of documents and contracts. Was that really how it was done before this process was automated?

Bryce Finnerty (06:55)
Yeah, so I don’t know the age of all your listeners, but yes, drawings used to be drawn. And even if they were plotted on a plotter, someone was modeling them on these CAD workstations. But those drawings were stored in a drawer. In fact, on a typical engineering project, we budgeted $100,000 for FedEx. Have you ever seen the drawings come in a triangular tube?

Dylan Silver (07:18)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bryce Finnerty (07:20)
And we’d have to ship out 40 drawing sets to every participant. So like we have to mail out drawings and if we change the drawings, we’d have to mail them out again. We even had couriers dropping the drawings off by hand when people are in a rush. I’ve even gotten on planes with drawings to get them there as fast as possible. So yeah, yes, things used to be out paper. And believe it not, I still run into firms where you’ll see a drawing sheet still the best way to look at things sometimes.

Dylan Silver (07:48)
I want to ask you about the evolution. You mentioned going from needing to hop on a plane, send people, or hand deliver some of these drawings to people, to then it being automated and then stored digitally. When did this change start to happen? Are we talking very early 2000s? And then you mentioned even today, sometimes people still want the physical. And is it now to where we’re at the point where basically all of that has been phased out and everything is digital right now for the most part?

Bryce Finnerty (08:14)
would say for the most part, it’s a fully digital workflow, the work was produced on a computer somehow, and then if needed, maybe print it out, like print on demand. So even if I print out a proposal, the proposal’s still digital, or if I print out a drawing, was still drawn and added on a computer. So what’s really changed everything though is…

the mobile app. And so all you can really carry in the field, if you’re a developer, a real estate person, no one’s walking around with their laptop. You’re just kind of running around town or around the country with your iPhone. Your laptop’s probably in your briefcase. What’s really changed the job site is everyone’s got their phone. And so if you put an app on there, like any sort of construction management app,

It’s great. You can bring the documents and data and the tasks and everything right to your hand. Take pictures in the field, send them back, jump on a call, do a FaceTime call and resolve issues like immediately thanks to the mobile devices.

Dylan Silver (09:06)
you

want to ask you about some of the other functionality because I’m thinking like there’s a whole component right there that’s solving a big problem with with the digitalization of some of these drawings and kind of the complexity of putting up a high rise building right. But then you also mentioned financing some of maybe the real estate contracts that go involved in this. So this is kind of another thing. But again with a development of this size you’re going to have so many were you.

Bryce Finnerty (10:08)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (10:14)
Seeking to address all of these problems really under one system or was this an idea that said hey I’m doing this one area, you know with with the the drawings and you know with the engineering side But people nonetheless have to digitize everything else. Let’s get it all under one system

Bryce Finnerty (10:30)
So it’s usually we break it into two main areas, documents and data. And so being a civil engineer, we had to stamp drawings and submit drawings, get them approved by the counties. So we are big fans of having drawings go digital because like we could submit them online, counties could review them and get our permits. Otherwise, we usually can’t break ground and get into construction until you have a fully permitted drawing set.

very similar for raising capital. If you’re bringing in partners, there’s a massive set of documentation that has to be approved to raise capital. And if you’ve ever been part of a draw cycle, you only get to take a little bit of money every month, and then you have to prove you use that money correctly before you get your next draw. So there’s tons of documentation that goes with that, or even just getting a line of credit.

Dylan Silver (11:02)
Yeah.

Bryce Finnerty (11:20)
We find on a typical construction project, there’s somewhere between 80 and 90 contracts involved.

So contract management’s always a big one and getting those routed to the right parties and getting them approved.

And in my favorite part,

this is kind of fast forwarding to now with AI.

one ever knows what’s in those contracts. Have you read all the documents on your, in your, you know, real estate loan? Probably not.

Dylan Silver (11:39)
That’s right.

That’s right.

Bryce Finnerty (11:46)
So no one really knows what’s in it.

my favorite part about AI now is we can ask AI questions about our own contract.

Dylan Silver (11:55)
What’s you know in page 12 paragraph 6 that’s

mean I’m a Texas license. That’s right. I’m a Texas licensed realtor and the Trek contract I want to say is like 12 pages long. When I was out there I said why is it so long. mean if everyone needs who buys a home is going to be reading this. It seems very long. I you basically have to be a realtor and even the realtors need attorneys to sometimes explain some of these. I hate to say that but it’s true some of the things

Bryce Finnerty (11:59)
You’re like, where’s the truth on this one again?

Dylan Silver (12:23)
I can’t even imagine how long some of the contracts for these ⁓ developments are. I want to ask you about how developers and then also capital interface on deals of this size. mean when I think of the deals that I’ve dealt with it’s a totally different world right. So if I’m having off market distressed property that might be going to foreclosure and I’m pairing that with an investor and buyer.

⁓ That’s one thing and I might have to jump through some hurdles to connect the two. But if you know we have a project for a high-rise building and I’m looking for capital for that. It’s probably a process that I can’t even imagine. Can you walk me through maybe on a thousand foot view what it’s like and where the capital interfaces with finding the deal and the various moving components involved.

Bryce Finnerty (13:13)
Yeah, so it’s a really good question. There’s always capital. Someone’s buying this real estate. Someone’s getting paid for that real estate. where they intersect is some people are really good at finding deals. And some people are really good at lending money. There’s a whole lending market. There’s now this new hard money lending market that’s like a new emerging trend, if you follow that, that private equity

There’s not enough stocks and companies to invest in. So they have now switched to investing in things that were usually just for ordinary Americans. So now they’re investing in single family homes that used to be for just families. Now corporations are buying them up en masse and same things going on everywhere. They’re buying up small businesses en masse. They’re looking for more things to invest in. So here’s the moral of the story.

They’ll invest in people that are trustworthy with a good track record. And so instead of flipping one house, they want people who can flip hundreds of houses. And so I have a friend who’s really good at a small team of three guys here in Dallas that are really good at building a portfolio of single family homes. And what they do is they have a really cool business model. They can rent those homes to transient families. So if you wanted to move to Dallas,

Dylan Silver (14:52)
Hmm.

Bryce Finnerty (15:09)
You don’t want to just jump in and buy a house and it’s all expensive right now. But you do need a place for your family to live, right? And in a nice school district with a nice community. So I actually see those guys as doing a nice service that they now have rental homes in nice neighborhoods that were typically reserved for single-family home ownership.

Dylan Silver (15:28)
Yeah.

Bryce Finnerty (15:29)
The moral of the story is you want to be good and have a good predictable process and get really good at doing these processes and then the banks will trust you. So Dylan, if you and I never built a building before, they’re going to be a little reluctant to loan us the money.

Now, if we built a team around us of a really good builder and a really good investor and a really good developer and you and I came and put a little money in, now they might fund us because they see we have a good team. Same thing with buying businesses. A lot of businesses are valued on how good the leadership team is.

That’s who they’re putting their trust in. So I would say to anybody who’s trying to raise money or build trust with lenders or investors, you know, have just a really good track record, a really good process. The more automated it is, the better, because they don’t want you dropping any balls. That helps collect the money and get the investment and track the investment.

Dylan Silver (16:20)
Yeah.

I want to ask you about people who may have an engineering background with some interest in real estate. I’ve had quite a number of folks on the show who may be in a number of different areas and industries with an engineering background. But I think specifically the areas that you’ve been active in, I mean, you mentioned these big developments and really bringing people together. It’s not just one system, but like an overlapping

environment of systems that you’re having to bring together. And if people are maybe younger engineers and they’re trying to say, well, you know, I have an entrepreneurial bone in my body, but I went to school for so many years. How do I kind of figure out where I can, you know, put forth this entrepreneurial spirit and energy in the real estate space? What would be your advice to folks like that?

Bryce Finnerty (17:13)
You know, it’s interesting. A lot of engineers obviously can do a lot of things, right? And so just like I got involved in real estate because I use my civil background. I see a lot of civil engineers.

get involved specifically in land development. And so they’re kind of fulfilling that function. They’re like, I know how to plan and build roads and utilities and get ready to essentially to go horizontal, get everything set up, because a lot of developers want to just come in permit ready and go vertical. But a lot of the work and that feasibility, that’s the work of engineers. And so…

Dylan Silver (17:47)
Thank you.

Bryce Finnerty (17:47)
That’s what we were doing as engineering consultants. I might as do it for myself and develop this property myself. So I know a lot of GCs, a lot of land developers in real estate that are actually engineers. I gave you the example of a lawyer I know who’s a really good lawyer and did a lot of real estate transactions. And he’s like, I might as well do my own.

Dylan Silver (18:06)
Yeah, I’m doing this for other people. Might as well do my own deal.

Bryce Finnerty (18:08)
can do it for my clients,

I can also do it for myself and my family and they either have a side hustle. I’ve even people use that as sweat equity into the deal. So say what if you put in $100,000 in engineering services? Well that’s better than someone putting out $100,000 paying an engineering firm to do all those feasibility studies, right?

Dylan Silver (18:22)
That’s it.

Right? It’s huge. It’s huge. I’ve said this to other people. You know, what ultimately was the the impetus for me getting my real estate license was I was wholesaling these deals and working with investors finding distressed properties. But in many cases, we would be making offers to homes that were sitting on market or weren’t properly marketed on the MLS. And we would end up having to involve realtors, they were going to cut of the deal. And I said, Well, this has happened now, you know, five plus times, let me figure out how I can

get part of this. And so that’s really what inspired me to become a realtor. It kind of did it the opposite way that a lot of other people, a lot of people might be realtors first and then decide to become investors. But I was looking and saying, well, I’m paying these realtors anyhow, they’re getting paid when these deals close. So let me, you know, hop in there. But Bryce, we are coming up on time here.

Bryce Finnerty (19:04)
Here we go.

Dylan Silver (19:16)
Where can folks go if they’d like to learn more about deal flow dynamics or maybe if they’re in the greater DFW metro and they’d like to reach out to you?

Bryce Finnerty (19:23)
Yeah, so the easiest thing is if you go to dealflowdynamics.com and you can get in touch with me there. I’m easy to find online if you just Google Bryce energy. I’m very easy to find. I’m very active on LinkedIn. have a YouTube channel that talks all about this same like systems to grow real estate businesses and portfolios. And so

Yeah, on LinkedIn, you know, slash Bryce Finnerty and on YouTube. Luckily I have a weird name. So I, I have my name on all channels. I’m Bryce Finnerty on X and on Instagram and on all the major social media channels. It’d be my pleasure to talk to you about your business and we have free consultation. So it never hurts to pick up the phone and just meet somebody and see, see how we can help you.

Dylan Silver (20:10)
Bryce, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Bryce Finnerty (20:12)
Thank you, Dylan. I appreciate being here.