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Show Summary
In this conversation, Dana Nutt shares his journey from being a contractor to becoming a successful real estate investor. He discusses his diverse investment strategies, including single-family homes, storage facilities, and hotels. Dana emphasizes the importance of management and financial strategies in real estate, offering insights for aspiring investors.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Dana Nutt (00:00)
There’s three things ⁓ in business. One, have good managers, leaders create leaders. ⁓ Second thing is have a good bookkeeper because if you don’t have a good bookkeeper that will be your biggest expense. The other thing is to have a good attorney. One that knows real estate law and is good at real estate.Dylan Silver (01:50)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is an investor in Michigan who invests in everything from single family residential all the way up to hotels and resorts and has investments around the country from humble beginnings. Please welcome Dana Nutt. Dana, welcome to the show.Dana Nutt (02:09)
Thank you very much for having me.Dylan Silver (02:10)
It’s great to have you on here, Dana. And before we hop into all the investments, I want to ask you about the beginning. How did you get into real estate?Dana Nutt (02:22)
Well, I was a contractor builder and I had in 1998 hired a new bookkeeper because I was not having good luck with the one I had before that. And she was a she reminded me of Miss Jane on the Beverly Hillbillies. She was quite unique and she would draw circles and this is where you’re at and this is where you need to be.And she gave me the book to read called Rich Dad Poor Dad because I wanted to get into real estate investing and I was already doing business and I had a couple of other businesses going. She said, you need to read this book. So I read that book and then I got a divorce in 98 and I got with a new gal and I was watching TV one morning and I seen the Carlton Sheets real estate course on no money down, no money down techniques. So I ordered it.
and I read it and one of the first things that I said, you don’t attempt to do anything until you’ve completed this book or after three months and I couldn’t wait. I mean, I was already looking at deals and I just couldn’t wait, chomping at the bit to get started. But I did what it said, I finished the course and then within a month I had already started a couple of deals using no money down or no money down techniques.
So I was taking money, profit from my construction and investing it into real estate. One of the first deals I did, I made a hundred percent return on real estate. And I had money into an IRA. And I thought that’s only given me like 68%. So I cashed all that money out and started putting it into real estate. And so 1998 forward,
Dylan Silver (04:03)
Oof.you
Dana Nutt (04:19)
I have invested in or rehab over 250 homes.Dylan Silver (04:25)
Wow. So background as a a contractor seeing well this is better than a Wall Street. Let me let me double and triple and quadruple down into real estate. You’re talking late 90s. Were you specifically looking at one asset class you know small single family residential multifamily. What was your portfolio like that.Dana Nutt (05:35)
I was looking more at single family. I guess one of the first things I started with, I had my construction company and then in 2000 I had put up, well was 97 when I started, 98 I put up a storage unit. I built a garage and I traded a 24 by 24 garage. I did somea roof job for another contractor. And I said, hey, why don’t we trade? I needed some concrete poured and the foundation put in. I said, I’ll do your roof job. You put my concrete in. And he said, okay. So he paid for the material on his roof. paid for the concrete. So I got my garage started. Then the following year, it’s kind of a long story, but to make the story short, I put up a 50 foot wide by a hundred foot long coal barn.
for inside storage of my tools and had upper shelves for storage and I had 20 10 by 10 storage units on the outside of it. That paid for itself and that was using all trading bartering and everything. And then I got into, I sold out and I moved to another business location and I put in a small engine shop.
Dylan Silver (06:39)
Wow.Dana Nutt (06:57)
with me and the largest premier dealer in northern Michigan of small engine parts and repairs and a rental store rented, you know, equipment and tools and all kinds of stuff and play toys, side by side, four wheelers, ⁓ everything. And then I had a guy that I did a roof job for on a house trailer. He said, I’m going to move into a nursing home. Why don’t you buy this trailer from me? And I said, what do you want for it? And he five grand.Well, it was in a trailer park. So I said, okay, I’ll buy it. So I bought it and I rented it out. And I think the rent was about $175 a month and I was renting it out for $350 a month at that time. So I was paying the rent for the lot and they had paid utilities. Well, then another house trailer came up in there and then another house trailer came up. Next thing I know, I got four house trailers in this trailer park was renting them all out. and then,
Later I ended up giving one to my daughter when she got married and I gave one to my son when he got with his gal, give them their first starter home. And then I just kept going from there and finding once people realized that I was into investing and buying homes, I had all kinds of deals come to me. I even put these signs out that says, buy houses. And I had several deals come through with that. So yeah, it was… ⁓
Dylan Silver (08:04)
Yeah.Those are great.
Dana Nutt (08:24)
It was an interesting journey to get started and it was like bam, bam, bam. It was just so busy. I was I had 19 people working for me at one point.Dylan Silver (08:36)
So we gotsingle family residential, you have the storage facility, I love storage facility, and then you also have the RV spots as well. So at this point in time, you’re diversified and you’re seeing, okay, there’s multiple ways to make money in this game and to build a portfolio. You also.
have the background as a contractor, so I’m imagining you’re managing a lot of moving pieces, so you have the team that you built out as well. During all of this, are you, I wouldn’t say privy to, are you focused more on one type of asset class than another, or are you looking at it like, hey, I need to be diversified, let me look at the deals as they come to
Dana Nutt (09:57)
I like being diversified now that I’m an experienced, seasoned investor. Anybody just starting out, I wouldn’t say diversify. I would say focus more on one thing until you get good at it. But I’m again all over the board and I did everything.I don’t want to make it sound like I’ve done everything, but I basically have tried just about every type of scenario there is for investing and the low money down techniques and using other people’s money, I call OPM. I have used the banks and I have used the property or the building itself to create cash flow. Like right now I’m putting in storage units right now.
on a bigger scale.
Dylan Silver (10:48)
I want to ask you about pivoting a bit here Dana. I want to ask you about the hotel space. I believe you mentioned prior to hopping on that you’ve been involved in a hotel deal as well. I’m very curious about that because that’s a whole other beast entirely.Dana Nutt (11:03)
That, well, being that I’m a contractor, there’s a motel here in Hanoi, Michigan that just thrives now. I mean, it was one of the better investments I think I’ve ever done. I drove by it one day, it’s right on the water, and it was just an old run down dilapidated motel that had been built in the 1950s. And a couple different people had bought it and it run down even more.And I drove by there one day when my daughter-in-law is a real estate agent. So I called her up and I said, Heather, I want to buy this motel over here. And she said, well, would you like to take a look at it first? And I said, well, what are they asking for? And she said, 70,000 for everything there, but it needs to be tore down. And I said, well, put my offer in right now. Then I’ll pay the full 70,000 cash. Well, then.
She said, well, don’t you want to look at it first? I said, okay, for you, I’ll look at it. So we went and looked at it and I was like 20 minutes later. She met me there. So we looked at it and I said, yeah, my offer still stands. She goes, all right, well, I’ll get ahold of them. Well, I end up not at the time, but I end up knowing the guy that owned it and he knew me. And he said, well, I don’t want the cash. I want to do a land contract.
So I said, well, what’s the terms? He said $14,000 down and $583 a month until it’s paid off. So I said, better yet. So I put up the $14,000, we closed in like three weeks. And I hired anybody and their brother that stopped and wanted to know if I needed any help. And like I said, most people would have tore this down. I completely rehabbed it in 90 days. I bought it in June.
actually on June 26th my wife’s birthday and I called her up and said hey I just bought you a motel. And so we bought it that day, closed on it and then by Labor Day weekend we was open and I threw a great big grand opening party with a pig roast, invited all the neighbors. It’s a small community and just from there it just went great guns.
Dylan Silver (13:13)
Wow.Dana Nutt (13:13)
And then I’ve since got into another resort up in northern Michigan on an island that I was asked to partner with. So we got in on that. I mean, it’s once people know you know that that’s what you do, I get calls and offers all the time.Dylan Silver (13:30)
I want to get a little bit granular about this Dana because coming from storage and RV, this is a different space, right? There’s a lot more maintenance that’s involved in motels and then I can imagine a resort.Shifting into this asset class, would you have any advice for people who may be first time, you know, motel owners?
Dana Nutt (14:34)
I have always built my businesses so that I don’t have to be there. I’ve always found good managers and that’s important.There’s three things in business. One, have good managers, leaders create leaders. Second thing is have a good bookkeeper because if you don’t have a good bookkeeper that will be your biggest expense. The other thing is to have a good attorney. One that knows real estate law and is good at real estate.
You don’t need it for litigation or anything like that, but just have a good real estate attorney. This particular motel is only seven units, but it has a cabin on it that we renovated and we rent that out weekly or nightly. And it also has seven campsites that we upgraded. So I have a fantastic manager that has been with me basically eight years now. and um
Then my other resort, have managers at that. So I don’t need to be there. It creates me more free time to look at other deals or to manage financially. I have a financial system that works. anybody that’s looking to get into business, one of the biggest things I say is you don’t need to know everything about a business to get started. You’re better off not.
because you can learn as you go. If you think you know everything, it’s going to be hard to teach yourself anything new.
Dylan Silver (15:53)
We are coming up on time here, Dana. Where can folks go to reach out to you? Maybe they’re in the greater Michigan area or maybe they’re outside and would like to get your feedback on a deal that they have. How can folks get in contact with you?Dana Nutt (16:07)
Well, I have YouTube’s myself on our podcast myself on YouTube. They can get in touch with me on Facebook private message me at that my name Dana Nutt or at lessons from the old schoolhouse. And here’s my book lessons from the old schoolhouse. They can order it on Amazon. Just about, you know,There’s several different ways they can touch me and I’m glad to entertain talking to anybody and helping them out. enjoy helping people, trying to get people started in business or help them out financially. I do real estate coaching and financial strategies. so that’s I mean basically a few different ways they get in touch with me. They give me a dananutt @ SBCglobal.net.
by email. ⁓
Pretty good.
Dylan Silver (17:00)
All right, Dana, thank you so much for coming on the show here today. Appreciate you coming on.Dana Nutt (17:05)
Thank you very much for having
