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Show Summary
In this conversation, Keavin Hill shares his extensive experience in real estate investment, discussing his journey from single-family homes to commercial properties and farmland. He emphasizes the importance of mentorship, overcoming challenges, and the significance of networking in building a successful business. Keavin also highlights his current focus on developing subdivisions and learning the hotel business, while providing valuable insights on risk management and investment strategies.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Keavin Hill (00:00)
I took a group of four people and I believe it was 2017. And I had them each put $20,000 into a pot and over the course of about 18 months was able to acquire four different properties, multi-families. And at which point I refinanced, got them all their money back. So now no one had any money invested. And then over the course of another 12 months going into 2020-ish, we were able to then do another cash disbursement of almost $20,000. So at that point, everyone had doubled their money.Michelle Kesil (02:09)
Everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. And today I’m joined by someone that I’m looking forward to chatting with, Keavin Hill, who’s been making serious moves as an investor, multi-family, owning a hotel and a farm. So, excited to have you here on the show today, Keavin.Keavin Hill (02:28)
Thank you very much, I appreciate being here.Michelle Kesil (02:30)
Yeah, absolutely. think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching scaling your business and also teaching others how to invest. So let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is?Keavin Hill (02:49)
Fairly diversified. We started out in the single family home market back in 86. Expanded that considerably in the 90s. Then we moved into commercial. Started buying commercial when I say we, my wife and I. Started buying some commercial properties and banks and doctor’s offices and that type of thing. Then we moved into the Dollar General area.We that we still are currently in that market, but not expanding it at all at this point. Multifamily is something that I enjoy doing immensely. In that, then we also focus on senior housing, affordable housing for seniors. And then we most recently just acquired our first hotel here this year.
we’re a little bit diverse.
Michelle Kesil (03:34)
That’s awesome. And what markets are you operating in?Keavin Hill (03:37)
So we’re in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina currently. Those are the states that we’re in.Michelle Kesil (03:43)
Great. What have been some of the keys that have allowed you to run your business smoothly?Keavin Hill (03:49)
A lot of hard work, a lot of long days. mean, it’s not always that easy. You’d like to make it look easy, but it’s not always easy. There’s a lot of hard work goes into it until you get your…until you get all your rough edges figured out and then it just becomes a game. It’s been a game to me now for several years. My family makes fun of how I played Monopoly in real life. So you have to enjoy what it is you’re doing, and I certainly do.
Michelle Kesil (05:03)
Absolutely, that’s important. How is this a game for you? Can you kind of expand on what that looks like? What’s your process?Keavin Hill (05:11)
So every area of real estate’s a little bit different. And so once you get single family housing figured out what to buy, where to buy, what makes the best cash flow, where do you have your best tenants, then that becomes kind of…easy and so then you move on which is basically what we’ve done and look for new challenges and then you once you overcome those challenges then you know you might move into a different area.
The hotel business for example, even though it’s a you know, it’s a 65 unit apartment building basically Turnovers every day instead of every few years and there’s a whole lot of Nuances that go into the hotel business that I’m in the process now of figuring out We spent a couple years diligently studying
how to run an effective and profitable hotel. Before we got into it, we’ve been running multifamily housing for years, but we were ready for a new challenge. And so now we’re getting those figured out. And once you do then, you just rinse and repeat, right? You just do it over and over.
Michelle Kesil (06:20)
Yeah, absolutely. How did you get started in investing?Keavin Hill (06:24)
So I was born and raised on a farm and ⁓ we still farm about 4,000 acres in two states. so obviously farmland is an area that we were interested in investing in.but ⁓ it became you know become very obvious that farmland isn’t always your your highest return on investment so that’s why i started buying single-family residences and the reason i started with single-family as opposed to multi-family which some of my friends got into at the same time i did is when you if and when you needed to ever sell a piece of property a single-family residence always has a
of buyers looking at it versus multi-family you know you’re only selling to another developer or investor so having not a lot of backstop to to secure me if I made a mistake I felt single-family residence was the easiest and simplest and so that’s why we started there I basically started from scratch
with no backing. We used credit cards. We scraped every penny we could scrape. And we concentrated on getting the first few paid for. And then from there, we just let the ball roll down the hill. So.
Michelle Kesil (07:34)
Yeah, that’s awesome. Now, like looking back from where you are now, what are some of like the challenges that you have overcome and some things that you have learned from them that you would maybe teach differently to others that are just getting started?Keavin Hill (07:51)
good point i mean it no matter ⁓ you know you can watch webinars orreal estate investors that have their own podcast and they can make things sound pretty easy but it’s as easy to go broke in real estate as it is in any other business. You do have to be very careful. We bought our first major purchase in 1999. We had just come off of a couple pretty good years building storage units, facilities, which we still have.
and we stepped up and bought our first million dollar piece of ground that we were going to put a couple subdivisions on. And at the time that was quite a bit of money for me. We got that bought, we got all of our permits, we went through getting our zoning, and then of course we had 9-11 hit and I didn’t sell a single solitary lot for almost two years. So,
those were real struggles, those were real sleepless nights and like I like to tell people no matter how big you are
it’s easy for a turn of the economy or a 2008 housing crisis or new administrations and their policies to really damper what you thought was a pretty secure cash flow situations. And so then you have to adapt and overcome. have to regroup and adjust some things.
which we’ve always been able to do, but we’ve worked very hard to climb up out of some of those holes that we allow ourselves to dig into. everyone has to go through that if they’re realistic about being in business at all in any kind.
Michelle Kesil (10:03)
Definitely, every business goes through those hurdles.So what are you most focusing on solving or scaling next?
Keavin Hill (10:10)
So currently I’m working on a couple subdivisions that were in the process of developing. And at the same time, of course I’m learning the hotel business and trying to figure out all those nuances. I don’t try to go into any area of real estate to just…just get along, I want to go in and be the best at what I’m doing and I want to scale that. So we’re in the process of ⁓ learning the hotel business, the development business. You know, we’ve built a few subdivisions.
those rules and regulations are always changing. The demands from your local school districts and the pressures that some of them are under are always changing. So you’re having to take more things into consideration now as you plan a residential subdivision or a commercial subdivision than you used to have to in certain areas. those are always little challenges that you gotta stay up on.
Michelle Kesil (11:03)
Yeah, definitely. So you mentioned that you’re teaching people how to get started with investing. How are you doing that kind of mentorship? What are you like teaching people? What is some of that advice that you can give?Keavin Hill (11:17)
I’ve been able to, I’ve been asked and had the ability to now present it at a few different groups and actually put a couple of groups together. Again, it’s basically a system and once you get your system, it’s like, know, baking, once you get your recipe down, you can just do it over and over and over.I took a group of four people and I believe it was 2017.
and I had them each put $20,000 into a pot and over the course of about 18 months was able to acquire four different properties, multi-families.
and at which point I refinanced, got them all their money back. So now no one had any money invested. And then over the course of another 12 months going into 2020-ish, we were able to then do another cash disbursement of almost $20,000. So at that point, everyone had doubled their money.
and ended up, I think at that point, we had six or eight properties. then we just started because that group wanted to then, you know, because the goal is…
is to teach people how to do this so can go out and do it on their own. And so now we’ve basically liquidated those properties. Everybody came out of it very well. And I’ve got another group right now that’s in the process of looking for their first couple of purchases. then…
And it gives me an excuse to keep doing what I love to do, which is find the deals and put them together without my wife saying, we need that many more properties? it gives me the ability to try to help others get ahead and at the same time do what I consider as having fun. So.
Michelle Kesil (13:39)
Yeah, amazing. That’s so cool that you’re able to serve and share your knowledge with others. It’s so important to do that.So, are there any goals that you have for where your business is heading?
Keavin Hill (13:51)
Quite honestly, we’re primarily focused at this point on larger multi-family housing and or depending on how well we do here over the next year or so with this hotel, I could see ourself maybe buying several hotels and moving that direction. Single-family homes, I’ve kind of quit looking at anymore.hopefully my kids at some point.
as they continue to expand, can kind of sell off some of my single families to them or I can convert those into multi-family larger units. That’s kind of where we’re focusing now, that and the mentorship and also building. We’re building a 120 unit apartment building up in Columbus, Ohio right now. That’ll be workforce housing. It’s being built in front of a 220 unit senior housing.
housing
complex that is already there.
And so this is a 48 million dollar building project and I’m having a blast learning all the nuances there are with building that type of a podium type construction. I mean we’ve built houses for years but building commercial buildings like this, you know, is giving me an opportunity to learn and I kind of feel like if you don’t learn something every day then you’ve wasted that day. So try to learn something new every day.
Michelle Kesil (15:06)
Yeah, so important. What are some of the main things that you’ve learned throughout your journey as an investor?Keavin Hill (15:12)
You know the big thing because I’ve seen a lot of people start and a lot of people fail and You know well we had some very lean years and and some sleepless nights and and all the big thing is don’t over You know don’t be over leveraged You know you’ve got you’ve got investorspeakers that like to talk, some of them talk about doing it all debt free. And then you’ve got guys that think you should be leveraged absolutely to the hilt. And you have to be very careful not to over leverage yourself because you never know when next week there’ll be a big…
downturn and you’ve got to survive that so the goal is risk management. You want to make sure that you can live to fight another day so never over leverage yourself and you know just just move slowly. I’ve taught all my kids
and one of the things I like to tell people is work your job make your living doing what you enjoy doing but buy a rental property
And if you if you’re doing okay with it by a second and and by the time you’ve you know You retire you’ll have fiber or so then paid for and you’ve got an extra ten thousand dollars a month income that your neighbors don’t have because all they did was work their jobs and come home every night and
anyone can could use an extra five or ten thousand dollars a month I’m sure and so if you work your job which is secure puts food on the table gives your security to your family and then you’re building this on the side and ⁓ if it turns out to be something that you really enjoy then then go in go in all the way you know and
But just don’t over leverage yourself. Take small steps. Don’t take big steps.
Michelle Kesil (16:54)
Yeah, that’s great. I love that. So when it comes to growing your network, creating new relationships, expanding your business through your network, what are some things that have made the biggest difference for you?Keavin Hill (17:06)
So, you know, networking obviously is a huge task or it’s a huge ⁓ benefit to your business. One of the areas I could certainly benefit from is some help with marketing or…you know, helping build my network. I built it one person at a time. You we try to, was, try to be involved locally with your community and your church and your, and your local government, your local service organizations.
and those are all great, you get to meet a lot of people, but now we have this thing called the internet and if you can, if you can put yourself out there and be able to grow a following, then it’s a whole lot easier to scale. that’s my biggest challenge.
Michelle Kesil (17:48)
Yeah, absolutely. think that networking and creating new relationships is such an important aspect of this job in this industry. So yeah.Awesome. So how are you like currently teaching people how to invest? Are you doing everything like just in person? What is your platform?
Keavin Hill (18:07)
So, you know, I’ll be honest, my platform is, just, in everyday life, as I come across people and they go, oh, you’re in real estate, you know, or I heard you, you know, just bought this or just bought that, and I would love to get into real estate. And then I, you know, I give them the 10 cent.explanation of how I would enjoy to help teach them. And so that’s basically it. I really don’t have any social media presence or anything. The folks that I come across, if I can help one person at a time, then that’s great. But if I could get to where I could help more, that would be even more rewarding for me.
Michelle Kesil (18:29)
Thank you.Yeah, absolutely amazing. So before we wrap up here, someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more from you, where can people find you?
Keavin Hill (18:59)
Again, I don’t have much of a social media presence, but I’ve got an email. can we put my email out?Michelle Kesil (19:02)
Okay. Thank you.Yeah, long however you’re comfortable.
Keavin Hill (19:14)
Sure, My email is khillfarms at yahoo.com. feel free to reach out and I will respond.Michelle Kesil (19:23)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.Keavin Hill (19:29)
Thank you for having me.Michelle Kesil (19:30)
Of course. And for those listeners tuning in, if you’ve got value from this, make sure that you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators just like Keavin who are building real businesses and we’ll see you on our next episode.
