How Flipping, Rentals, and Hospitality Create a Real Estate Wealth Ecosystem

Benjamin Goodpasture (00:00)
I think the biggest thing that is keeping…

people from investing in real estate, starting businesses, several things. One is fear. And the other thing is perfection. So many people are afraid to start, they’re waiting for the right time, which there’s really never a right time.

and they’re waiting for just these perfect things to line up, which really happens. And I always say that imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.

Scott Bursey (02:13)
Welcome back to the real estate pros podcast powered by investor fuel. I’m your host Scott Bursey. Today we have a powerhouse entrepreneur who is crushing it in both the luxury home building and the resort space. We’re talking about a man who built an empire from the ground up. Ben Goodpasture. Ben, welcome to the show.

Benjamin Goodpasture (02:36)
Thanks, Scott. Appreciate you having me on.

Scott Bursey (02:38)
This is just wonderful having you here. And Ben, if you could tell our listeners, how did your journey begin and what is your main focus now?

Benjamin Goodpasture (02:50)
So let’s say my journey begins when I was a kid. I grew up on a farm in Virginia and my dad was a pretty small time real estate investor, also a contractor. So he was that guy that would go do all the repairs and maintenance. He would go collect rent. I remember being in the truck with him, going to collect rent, fix the sinks, do all the stuff. so yeah, I started at a very young age.

seeing my dad as a landlord. And then I ended up going to university, studied construction management. And yeah, I just had that background every summer, working on roofs, painting houses with my dad as I grew up. And then, you know, when I graduated college, I just kind of started my journey step by step and ⁓ to where I’m at today.

Scott Bursey (03:43)
That is just a wonderful journey. And tell us, what are some core strengths of, I guess you have three businesses?

Benjamin Goodpasture (03:51)
Yes sir, so what I’m doing today is I three businesses. have a active flipping company.

float palaces. We also have a passive just buy and hold, you know, apartments, single family homes, all that is managed by a property manager. And then I have a hospitality business, which is Cave Springs Resort, which is in Dunsmuir, California. So it’s in the mountains, real close to Mount Shasta. It’s this beautiful property on the Sacramento River with views of Mount Shasta. It’s a

know, a glamping style with air streams, cabins, hotel. It’s a great property if you love the outdoors.

Scott Bursey (04:39)
That’s awesome. Wow. If someone’s listening to this and they’re thinking to themselves, this is someone I’d like to partner with or learn from. What do you want them to know first about your businesses?

Benjamin Goodpasture (04:52)
Yeah, I think I like having these three businesses. It’s kind of an ecosystem, if you will. They kind of all feed off each other and they can also

help you when the market is doing something. Let’s say flips are hot. Well, you focus on flips. You get that cash going.

At the same time, a lot of times, you you want to get to that passive place and you want to be buying rentals, but those rentals, you know, it takes a long time to really generate money. They’re not a quick.

⁓ Get rich scheme. So and then you also have the Hospitality business which is more of a cash flow business. So you’re getting you’re getting that, you know constant waves of income there’s ways to increase your revenue Which is great. So I think having all three is really nice It allows you to pivot if the market is going to change So that’s one thing I like and it also lets you you know when you’re finding a deal, let’s say I find

find

this house, well, maybe it doesn’t pencil as ⁓ a rental, so I’ll just flip it. Or it makes you be a little more selective with your deals. And I think it allows you to pivot when you need to.

Scott Bursey (07:02)
That’s absolutely brilliant. And Ben, no business is perfect. What’s one thing that you’re still trying to figure out or working around recently?

Benjamin Goodpasture (07:12)
Oh man, and that’s the thing, I love you said that, is you never arrive, right? You could be in the business for 30, 40, 50 years and there’s always something to learn. And I’m constantly learning. You know, with hospitality,

You know, there’s all this technology with AI. We’re always trying to integrate better systems. know, recently we’ve been putting in chat bots so you can, we have one on our website so you can literally have the chat bot book your stay. We even have an AI assistant who answers the phone for us and we’ll take people’s bookings over the phone. So with technology growing, there’s constantly things you can

to improve just ⁓ your systems and it makes it gives your customers a better experience.

Scott Bursey (08:12)
on. Ben what do you feel is the biggest opportunity right now for your businesses?

Benjamin Goodpasture (08:23)
Couple things, one thing I’ve realized with my buy and hold business, just the rental properties, I’ve been just really diving into the expenses and really just looking at, how can I trim the fat? Because really the old saying, what is it? A penny saved is a penny earned.

And so if you could save money, that’s basically more money you put in your pocket. So I’m realizing, wow, like there’s like, there’s a couple of properties where I pay the utilities. And so I’ve been talking to my property manager, Hey, is there any way we can pass this along to the tenants? So we’re doing that little things like that, that could save.

actually to 12 grand a year and that stuff just adds up at compounds. So that’s one thing with my rental portfolio. I think with the cave springs, with the resort, a big missed opportunity is events. So we have this big place where we could sleep 250 people on site, but we don’t have a big

Scott Bursey (09:16)
Yes.

Benjamin Goodpasture (09:34)
event center. So right now we’re making plans to build out this commercial building that will have a restaurant. It’ll be big enough to have two or three hundred people. So you can have weddings, you can have business retreats, you can have family reunions. And that is a great way to also offset maybe some of the slower time like the fall, the winter, and really push for some of these events.

Scott Bursey (10:00)
That is so smart. That’s awesome.

That’s really good. And I love your direction there. Let me ask you, what is ⁓ maybe a little bit of your long-term vision when it comes to your businesses?

Benjamin Goodpasture (10:52)
Long-term, I think being a real estate investor is a lifelong journey. It’s one of those things where there’s different seasons of acquiring, seasons of stabilizing, seasons of maybe just enjoying them or paying things off, right? There’s some…

some properties you don’t want to pay off because you have such great debt or it’s paid off. You know what mean? there’s kind of a season for everything, but with real estate investing, I think it becomes a ⁓ stewardship thing. And so…

Once you start acquiring, kind of realize like, do I really need more or is it about just stewarding what I have? Is there opportunities to make those assets better that can increase your cashflow? It could be adding an ADU, accessory dwelling unit, which is a guest house to a single family home. You know, you can spend 80 grand.

add another unit and you know it doesn’t change your debt your debt service change stays the same but you just increased your cash flow by $1,500 a month.

So little things like that you can do to just make your properties perform better versus buying another property. But at the same time, you always want to be looking at what’s the best use of your cash. Like run cash on cash scenarios. Like is it better for me to add an ADU here, spend that 80, 100 grand here? Or is it better to spend that 80, 100 grand, pay off something or even buying another property?

So you’re constantly, I felt like with real estate, it’s this lifelong thing. You’re constantly looking at your net worth. You’re constantly looking at your cashflow. How can we make things better? You know, I want to give my tenants the best possible product. So making sure you’re upkeeping them, you’re doing the repairs and maintenance. And so for the longterm, you know, I want to keep these. I want to show my kids what it looks like to build wealth, grow wealth. I don’t want to

just give them assets and say hey here you go that’s how you your family eventually loses those assets because the most important thing with transferring wealth is transferring knowledge and so I want to transfer the knowledge and then they’ll learn how to steward the wealth

Scott Bursey (13:21)
100%. What a great breakdown, Ben. And what about the short-term strategy the next, ⁓ let’s say 12 to 18 months?

Benjamin Goodpasture (13:33)
Great question. I’m kind of at this crossroads right now. I’m figuring that out. I would love to keep flipping just because it generates some great cash. You could sell a flip for 150 to 100K in three to six months. Keep that kind of going because I’ve got a team of guys that do the work.

And then the other thing is really just focusing on Cave Springs. I want to keep adding value with amenities. You know, like I said, with this restaurant event space, as well as we got plans to build these really big viewing decks that overlook the river.

and just creating more opportunities for guests to interact with the river because it’s a great fishing spot, know, trout fishing. So there’s still a lot of room to add value there and I think that’s a big deal and if you want to be the best in the area you have to stay relevant.

You have to be aware of what your guests want and don’t want. And so I’m trying to just stay on top of it and keep making that place better because it’s what it deserves. And I just really love our area, Dunsmuir and Mount Shasta. And I think when you add value to your property, you’re adding value to the city.

And ultimately, we care about our city, we care about other businesses.

So if we’re doing a good job doing our part, making our property better, it’s also contagious. It makes other business owners want to step up and make their businesses better. And then eventually, you’ve got a thriving city where people want to spend their money.

Scott Bursey (15:59)
I love that. Spot on. And Ben, any challenges you’re watching closely, this could be like market risk, competition, access to deals or capital, you know, that sort of thing.

Benjamin Goodpasture (16:11)
Right, there’s macro and micro levels there with, you know, you got the conflict in the Middle East. That’s something to always be aware of. You got state stuff. I’m in California, so you constantly have to just, landlord laws, tenant laws, you know, that’s been a challenge. we were talking about earlier with insurance, you know, I’ve got a property that…

it’s ridiculous. don’t want to, they don’t give me insurance because it’s too old. So every year it’s more challenging to get insurance for some of these properties. And so it’s, it’s making me want to sell some of my portfolio and do a 1031 exchange into assets in another state that’s a little bit more landlord friendly. you know, some of these challenges, I,

could eventually happen to all the states. A lot of the states that are, quote, red states, well, a lot of those urban areas, the cities are blue. And so a lot of those cities are starting to change the voting. And so some of those red states are actually becoming blue states. And when you got people leaving California to Texas or going to Idaho, well,

they’re turning those red states blue. So you constantly have to be aware of those things and forecast what potentially could happen and just prepare for it. So, long story short, I think, as I’m seeing my expenses rise in California, it’s definitely making me question if I want to keep my portfolio here, which is, it’s kind of sad because I think investing in your backyard is so important.

because it’s your backyard, it’s where you live, it’s your community. I think there’s something in my heart that wants to make my city better because it’s where I live, it’s where our kids are growing up. So investing afar, it’s different, you’re not living there. Even though you’re adding value, if you buy a house that’s really rough and you fix it up.

You’re still adding value somewhere to a neighborhood and that’s important, but at the end of the day, I love investing where I live because I just love my community.

Scott Bursey (18:31)
Ben, you’ve given us so much valuable advice already, but do you have any golden nuggets to leave with our listeners here today?

Benjamin Goodpasture (18:46)
I think the biggest thing that is keeping…

people from investing in real estate, starting businesses, several things. One is fear. And the other thing is perfection. So many people are afraid to start, they’re waiting for the right time, which there’s really never a right time.

and they’re waiting for just these perfect things to line up, which really happens. And I always say that imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.

And really what I’m saying there is just start taking steps, show up.

Learn, listen to a podcast like you’re Scott, like get out there and start learning. But instead of don’t just start stop there. You got to like take action like action creates momentum and momentum is the goal. Like getting momentum is everything. Like think about

⁓ a train. A train is really hard to get going. It’s so heavy, it’s hard to get going. But once you get that thing going, it’s really hard to stop. And that’s what you want to be is unstoppable, right? So for me and my journey, what I’ve learned is you just got to take action. And once you start taking action,

Continue to take more risk risk that challenge you so like say you buy a house And you live in it and maybe you rent out some rooms. Maybe you’re in your 20s Well, maybe your next property try buying a duplex or a fourplex So I think if you keep challenging yourself Getting yourself in that challenge zone. You’re gonna learn a whole lot of stuff way more than you will

by reading a book. And that’s how I’ve learned most of my stuff is actually in the field by doing it. That’s how you really learn, but you’ve got to take risk. And if you don’t take risks or if you don’t do it, it won’t happen.

Scott Bursey (21:04)
Ben, that was pure gold. Thank you for dropping all that knowledge on us here today. And for our listeners who want to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what is the best way for them to reach you?

Benjamin Goodpasture (21:18)
Thanks for asking. I would say Instagram is a good place. Benjamin Goodpasture on Instagram and then Cave Springs Resort. The handle is actually Cave Springs Dunsmuir on Instagram. We’re also on Facebook. We have a website, cavesprings.com. If you want to learn more about a resort or come visit it, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, website, and yeah, and my personal stuff too.

Scott Bursey (21:48)
Ben, thank you so much for joining us here today.

Benjamin Goodpasture (21:51)
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (21:54)
And for our listeners, we appreciate each and every one of you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We have more guests just like Ben who are making huge moves in the market. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.