How to Buy Multifamily Properties That Cash Flow From Day One | Joshua Morgan

Joshua Morgan (00:00)

Yeah, absolutely. So, generally speaking, there’s going to be two ways that you can scale a multifamily property, right? And it’s going to be equity and cash flow. And we like the cash flow play because we look at buying apartment complexes like buying a business. You wouldn’t want to go buy a business that is losing money every month, right? So we want to make sure that if we’re going to take over an asset, that it’s paying us day one. And then what can we scale that to and then deal with the equity multiplier on the backside like a bonus?

Dylan Silver (00:59)

Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Josh Morgan, who came to Texas after spending five years abroad in Germany playing American football. He owns properties across Austin and is also a part of multifamily deals spanning Arizona and Michigan. Josh, thanks for joining us here today.

Joshua Morgan (01:20)

Absolutely, Dylan. Thanks for having us. Great to see you guys.

Dylan Silver (01:22)

What types of deals are coming across your desk these days?

Joshua Morgan (01:26)

Yeah, so the ones we’re looking at right now specifically are heavy cash flow properties. We’re looking at really our boomer generation that they’ve held control of these properties for the last twenty, thirty years. They’re pretty much paid off, if not completely paid off. And they just don’t want to deal with deferred maintenance, right? They say, why deal this? I’ve cashed out, I can ride into the sunset. So those are most of the deals that we’re running into is

They’re ready to cash the check and go on a nice vacation. And it cash flow is nice from us day one.

Dylan Silver (01:55)

When we look at those deals that have aging owners, right? Are they in a position where they’re looking to sell and therefore, they’re listing either on a Corexia, a loopnet, or through brokers, and then those folks are reaching out to you, or are you having to find these owners and make an offer when they might not be outwardly at least fielding offers?

Joshua Morgan (02:17)

Sure. Most of the time it’s gonna come through broker relationships, right? The sellers are gonna come through a point where they have okay, I might sell, I’m open to it, but I don’t wanna go out there and list it. we talk about loopnet and Crexi is where deals go to die. So they’re gonna have a private relationship with a person that would list the property for them. Instead of listing it, they’re gonna go like, Hey, let me go talk to a few people, put some, put a few arms out there, see if it’s received well. And that’s the relationship we get. So

couple brokers who will come to us, say, Hey, this guy’s think about options of selling. What do you guys think? And that’s when we start getting the ball rolling with seeing what the numbers are and getting to meet the guy.

Dylan Silver (02:52)

Now when you’re looking at these deals, you mentioned cash flowing from day one. for folks who might not be familiar with what this looks like in multifamily deals, break this down to us. What does cash flow from day one look like?

Joshua Morgan (03:05)

Yeah, absolutely. So, generally speaking, there’s going to be two ways that you can scale a multifamily property, right? And it’s going to be equity and cash flow. And we like the cash flow play because we look at buying apartment complexes like buying a business. You wouldn’t want to go buy a business that is losing money every month, right? So we want to make sure that if we’re going to take over an asset, that it’s paying us day one. And then what can we scale that to and then deal with the equity multiplier on the backside like a bonus? So

We’re gonna look at these apartments just like it’s a business. Okay. And each rental unit is a stream of income. the more units we have, the less risk we have because one vacancy doesn’t, eat up your entire cash flow. So we service the debt. So it’s income in minus the expenses out. What does it take us to operate the property? Whatever’s left over is that cash flow. And then how can we scale that cash flow? And the more you raise the NOI of a property, the more it’s worth at the end of the day.

Dylan Silver (03:58)

Now, there’s many ways that I’ve heard from fund managers, syndicators, how they’ve been able to increase the value of these properties and then also increase potential cash flow. Couple ways that I’ve heard is you find properties where simply put the rents haven’t been raised in a period of time, and you do some light value add and then you raise the rents. In other cases, you might realize that there are properties where

They have deferred maintenance and there’s a value add opportunity there, which can then of course increase rents. And then in some cases you realize, well, the property’s in good condition, rents haven’t been raised, they’re trailing market. We can purchase this property and raise rents right off the bat, and that’s understandable considering how far they were trailing the market rents. Do you look for any one of those opportunities or something else?

Joshua Morgan (04:50)

Yeah, so the one that you mentioned at the end is really the best case scenario, right? The one where there isn’t that much work to be done and the owner just didn’t raise rents for whatever reason, right? They may have been cash flowing and those cash flow needs provided the lifestyle that they wanted. So they’re like, why do I need to raise rents? It’s fully occupied, doesn’t bother me at all. So what we’ve been able to find in a few of our deals is exactly that. They’re already trailing two to three hundred dollars below market rents.

There’s not that much work to be done. And so it’s just like we don’t have to come in here with a lot of capital to make these unit red units ready. And we can already bump those rents up. Now it’s not one of those things we want to do, and okay, hey, we’re the new owners. Congratulations, your rent is now this. We do want to make sure we add that value. So it could be appliances, countertops, something like that. That is still light renovation and light work, but it still does add and provide value for the house or the units. go ahead.

Dylan Silver (05:43)

You’ve looked at deals, my understanding, Arizona and Michigan, right? two different markets, different areas. Is there anything in particular about those deals that were interesting to you? Or, is it one of these situations where a deal falls in your lap and you jump at it?

Joshua Morgan (05:58)

Yeah, so at the end of the day, it’s about where your team can execute, right? Because just as one person taking on an apartment complex, there’s a lot to do to manage it, maintain it. Again, you have to have a team that can operate in that area. So the first thing is building out a team. Hey, where can we operate? And then what is our cost for operating and where do we want to scale? What we like really about Michigan area is cost of living.

The majority of our deals are there. And just the simple fact is the cost per unit. If I look in Texas in my backyard, average deals are $115 to $125,000 per unit. They’ve developed and delivered a lot of units since 2022 and 2023. So do I want to go be in a place where I have a lot of deliveries on the market? It’s a really expensive price per unit.

And what can I raise rents to or how is my takeover from that property going to happen? I look at the same thing in Michigan. We can go get apartment units for $75,000 to $80,000 per unit. So that cost of living, it’s a lot more affordable for rents. And people, I think, trying to be ahead of the game here, people will move from higher rent areas like Chicago, for example. It’s only a hop, skip, and a jump away to wherever our locations are.

to where you can have more affordable, keep more money in your pocket, and have a good sustainable living. So that’s what we’re trying to our focus is on.

Dylan Silver (07:20)

You mentioned Chicago, and I’m a fish out of water in this space. I’m having difficulty even in my mind’s eye thinking of the distance between some of these locations. Are you seeing as a trend folks who are seeing the cost of living go up in these major urban metros? the Austin, Texases of the world, the Chicago’s of the world, the New Yorks, but we’ll just use that Chicago as an example. And they’re now open to really living in the

Much greater urban sprawl or potentially moving far out, right, from that metro. Are you seeing that happen in Michigan?

Joshua Morgan (07:53)

Yeah, I think there’s a few things, right? you’re gonna see more multi generational living, right? As cost rises, people are gonna be, unable to afford and buy their first home. So people that are coming out of college, or just in general, right? Maybe it’s your parents are retiring and they’re but them buying a new home and you buying a new home, why don’t we buy one together kind of thing.

But yes, I think as life becomes more affordable and as inflation ramps up and people are gonna have tougher times handling just everyday expenses, they’re gonna look for ways to cut cost as anybody would. So then you look at the availability for remote work, right? And that’s another big indicating factor. If somebody can work from home, they can work from anywhere, they can work from the beach, then why am I paying, the extra five, six, seven hundred dollars a month to be next door to the office? Because

It was helpful when I had to commute, but if I don’t have to commute, then I can go save that money and put it elsewhere,

Dylan Silver (08:44)

Give us an idea and I know it’s gonna be a range here, but what are rents looking like in these units? you mentioned seventy five, eighty thousand acquisition costs. What are rents like in those units?

Joshua Morgan (08:54)

Yeah, so a lot of them that we’re looking at, they start at seven hundred to eight hundred dollars. And then you go to your two, just over a thousand to twelve hundred. And I compare something like that market compared to something, especially in the Austin, Texas background, your two ones are, eighteen hundred bucks. So

Dylan Silver (09:12)

This is a really interesting conversation. I’m gonna take this in a different

Joshua Morgan (09:15)

Yeah.

Dylan Silver (09:16)

route here. Are you seeing a out of state interest for folks moving into Michigan? Or is this mostly, Michiganders who might be moving between areas or cities in the urban sprawl a as it were, and now are willing to live maybe outside of major metros. which are you seeing more of?

Joshua Morgan (09:35)

Yeah, it there’s not a great migration from California to Michigan, right? Or something like that. A lot of it’s okay, people moving from okay, maybe I lived in the Detroit area and maybe I’m gonna move over. Maybe I moved in the Chicago area, I’m gonna move down, or I’m in like South Bend, Indiana, and I can go over above the border or below the border. So it’s still some of those like moving from cities to suburbs rather than, a great migration, so to speak.

Dylan Silver (09:59)

I want to pivot now to Arizona because I’ve said this lovingly. I think Arizona is like country Florida. It seems like there’s a lot of snowbird happening. All the guests that I’ve spoken with from Arizona seem to have a particular charm and honestly carefree, I would say. And as neighbors to Texas, this can sometimes feel like, well, we should have more of this in Texas. What’s going on? We have it to some degree.

But I really do think that there’s something in the water in Arizona. Can you speak to that?

Joshua Morgan (10:29)

Yeah, sure. When you talk about just it’s a melting pot, right? And I think as you move further west, you get the melting pot vibe. You get people that have traveled from the northeast to live out there. And they vacation during the winters because winter in Arizona is still what 85 degrees and they’re still on the lake, right? and you have people from California, and so there’s like a very diverse culture.

Which I think appropriates to that open mindedness and how willing people are to connect and that kind of team and that camaraderie. And they’re very open to different ways, right? You go have Salt Lake City, Utah right there, right? So there’s a lot of that and a lot of cultures that come together, I think, in that area, which makes again if you’re open and willing to work with people, it makes it fun. And if you’re stuck and closed minded in your ways, right, then it’s probably not for you. as Texas.

No, I’ll say this, nobody’s prouder than a true Texan. I migrated here, right? So I’m what they call a goddamn Yankee, right? Because I came from the Northeast and I don’t plan on going back. But at the end of the day, right, like when somebody was born and raised in Texas, they have Texas ways and like that’s the way things are. And don’t mess up my Texas. And I’m like, okay, I get you. thanks for having me. I’ll make as much value as I can here. That kind of doesn’t happen, I think, in the western like Arizona.

Because everybody’s like, I came from somewhere.

Dylan Silver (11:45)

Yeah. you mentioned the Yankee thing. I got the same remarks ’cause I’m from North Jersey and I’m here right now. And I heard that term. it made me really think more about, just the makeup of Texas and the perception that there’s a very unique culture. which, as someone who lived in Texas for five years myself, I feel, proud in many ways to be I consider myself a Texan at this point.

I want to touch on this idea of where people are moving to. we talked about it locally in Michigan and then out of state folks moving to Arizona. I haven’t posed this question to syndicators, fund managers, folks involved in commercial deals. When you’re looking for the next deal, the next opportunity.

Is this something where you’re always in the back of your mind tracking market trends, looking at which cities to invest in, identifying what migration patterns look like? Is that something that’s happening? Or is it on a deal-by-deal basis? You’re looking for a deal and you’re saying, okay, well let me do a dive into this. Which happens first?

Joshua Morgan (13:25)

Yeah, so the first thing is really the team, right? Operate because if you stretch the team out, a good operator can become a bad operator and spend if it’s in the wrong city or we stretch the team too far and they can’t, put the time and effort that they could in a certain other area, right? So if you don’t have the team, it’s gonna be very hard to make any deal work. So then it’s like, okay, once we have this team, what’s the region? What’s the scale? And that’s where you really start to build that buy box of like, hey.

This is what we’re looking at. These are the fundamentals. And that’s when it’s becomes a case by case basis of okay, these deals fit this buy box. Now which ones fit it really well? And then which ones are a little bit more of a stretch? And the more you feel yourself trying to stretch the deal or make the numbers work, that’s like the red flags go off in your head. hey, sit back. Let’s not get into a bad deal here. We have our markers, right? So we have them for a reason. So I would say team first, then deal by deal basis.

Dylan Silver (14:17)

You mentioned operators several times already, and everyone who’s dealt with contractors and folks doing value add rehab certainly understands this, but when you’re managing multifamily units, of course, this is so important. and lots of tenants, of course. Talk about that. How do you construct your team? And then you mentioned the importance of team.

Specifically if we can get granular, what does that look like on a day to day an effective team?

Joshua Morgan (14:48)

Yeah, so you have to measure what matters, right? This is very simple to operating any type of business. You look at any corporate structure, there’s going to be weekly meetings, daily meetings to make sure that you’re measuring what matters. So for us, it’s occupancy, it’s unit turn schedules, it’s delinquency and payments, anything like that, right? We want to make sure that we’re keeping our fingers on the pulse because

We want to make sure that we’re operators and we’re going to make sure that when we have those investor calls and those investor updates that happen, monthly or quarterly, depending on the deal, right? It’s like, okay, well, what are we going to tell our investors? What are we going to tell? And we want to make sure we’re prepared on all fronts. So it’s really about staying on top of it, making sure that we don’t have, a major issue that falls through the cracks. And by doing things on a weekly cadence or daily cadence at times when necessary, it helps.

minor issues from, becoming major ones.

Dylan Silver (15:39)

You mentioned investor calls. Mm-hmm. This is of course the other side of this equation is getting these deals financed, finding the investors. Walk me through how that has matriculated over the years from, those if you can think back, those initial deals that you were raising a capital for to where you’re at today. Mm-hmm.

Joshua Morgan (15:58)

Yeah, I know it’s really funny, right? As you scale and as you grow, I think what people think a lot of money is Right. So, if you had a hundred strangers in a room and you asked them, like, hey, if you looked at your bank account and had X amount, how would you feel dead broke, right? Like, what’s the lowest of the low that you would get uncomfortable with? That number is gonna be different for all 100 people in the room, right?

Some people will be like, man, I’ve had, negative five thousand on a credit card before, it doesn’t matter. Nothing in a checking account, I’ll make it happen. Other people are like, man, if this drops below a hundred grand, I’m dead poor. and it’s the same thing, vice versa, right? If you ask somebody what is a lot of money to them, then it scales up, multi millions of dollars, billions, whatever it is. So if I take those same hundred strangers, what makes them broke and what makes them rich, those numbers will be different for everybody.

And it’s really just about understanding goals and what they’re trying to accomplish and then putting like what our deal structures are. Right. So it’s like, hey, listen, what a little money is to you and what a lot of money is to you is not up to me. My job is to understand what your goals are. And if our investments help your goals and it’s a win-win situation, then you can choose to what extent you want to take advantage of this opportunity. So once I got that.

you’re creating win wins. It’s not like, you see it a lot where people will have this conversation and they’re like, my goodness, man, if I get this deal closed, I’m gonna make X amount of money. And that is just like the absolute wrong way to think about it. Because the moment you think about yourself instead of the people you’re serving, you have your priorities mismatched, right? So take care of your people, investors, capital is gold and you need to treat it as such.

Because it’s about what you can do for them and build that relationship. we wanna do this for a lifetime. We’re not in it for one deal. We wanna make sure that, we can build a lifetime of relationships and have that deal flow continue to come in and burning investors is the number one way to get out of this deal fast.

Dylan Silver (17:48)

I wanna ask you a question that I’ve asked many syndicators. Again, outside looking in, it seems like a lot of syndicators got burnt with adjustable rate mortgages on these multifamily properties. For your deals that you have, now and going forward, what’s your perspective on adjustable rate?

Joshua Morgan (18:06)

we love fixed rate debt personally. Right. When you play the ARM game, you’re playing games that you have no control over. Right? And nobody sits in those Fed chair meetings. And if I look at how much money they’ve printed over the last, handful of years, especially compared to how much they’ve printed back in two thousand eight, I don’t see how you realistically lower interest rates. So anything that we’re looking at, like we’re not looking at it as, man.

They’re going to absolutely lower rates. That’s going to give us our, this window, blah. We like fixed rate debt because we want the numbers to work with the debt the way it is now and write it conservatively. And the more aggressive you play, right? You start doing bridge loans, you start doing arms, that’s where the risk really comes into your investors. So the more solid and concrete, and that’s why we like cash flow now and not relying on the equity multiplier. Right.

The more that swings the other way of hey, it doesn’t cash flow lot right now, but we’re gonna scale this up and it’s gonna sell for three times as much, in five years. That to me screams risk from the investor than the hey, it’s already operating at this amount. We think we can operate it better than the last person was operating it, and we’re gonna do it conservatively. That’s the way we like to, position ourselves.

Dylan Silver (19:15)

You mentioned two things which piqued my interest. the idea of your whole exit based on an equity multiplier is a huge risk. And I think when people were looking at that section of time, maybe twenty fourteen to twenty nineteen or twenty fourteen to twenty, you could buy a deal wrong and because of the equity multiplier, everyone made out like a bandit. Well now if you look, post COVID the way things have gone, there’s gonna be a lot

Of this commercial multifamily debt that becomes due, and they’re gonna be, in a negative equity position. And so now what do they do at this point? So, you mean your approach makes a lot of sense, especially outside looking in, let’s bank on the cash flow and not on an equity multiplier that may or may not happen in five years’ time. But you also mentioned, too.

this idea that we can’t predict rates. And I remember a conversation that we had when we were talking before this interview, you have a background in gold brokerage, if I’m not mistaken, right? Does that also influence the way that view a lot of these conversations?

Joshua Morgan (20:22)

sure. being around the gold conversation and creating that rainy day fund for people, right? It was a hedge against the dollar and it’s a hedge against the spending of the United States. And the more money they print, really the less it’s worth. And it’s been since the gold standard in seventy one. Right. You talk about the Robert Kiyosaki, they mention about how much leverage you can put into it, right?

It’s about how much you can structure the debt and how you carry that debt and good debt versus bad debt, right? And all those conversations. But yes, knowing from the gold industry, it’s like, yeah, this doesn’t, pay, it’s not flashy. It sits in your safe and collects dust. And the more money they print, the less it’s going to be worth. So this should be worth more. That same thing is going to happen, I think, to assets across, you look at cost of living, groceries, gas, housing, you name it, right? I think all of that’s gonna be in

affected by how much money they’re printing. So then it’s like, okay, how do we keep up with that? And you take a lot of it. I love Ray Dalio as well. he talks about the all weather portfolio, having 12 to 13 uncorrelated assets. So that no matter what happens in the market, you always have options and over time, generally everything will go up. This is just another one of those structured assets. And it’s one that can be more of like a business that cash flows and pays you off with dividends.

as a way to balance out your portfolio, right? This isn’t something that somebody goes and empties their entire retirement account. they take their life savings and they say, okay, 100%, it’s all on this. This is the way we structure, we want to make sure we’re a part, structure your assets, structure your portfolio and understand your risk versus opportunity, right? All investments carry risk. That’s going to be every investment you make, right? Look at the stock market in the last week and a half, right? And tell me there’s no risk there.

but that’s what we want to do. You have these conversations, people’s and again, it comes down to assessing people’s goals, right? If somebody’s comfortable with the way they are and they’ve got their lifestyle built and there’s nothing I can do to help them, then like I’m gonna give you a congratulations, high five, awesome. And I wish that level of success for everybody. That they can be comfortable living the lifestyle that they truly want. Where yeah, yeah, sorry, go ahead.

Dylan Silver (22:21)

You played ball in Germany, American football in Germany. what was that like?

Joshua Morgan (22:27)

Yeah, it was for me it was absolutely eye-opening. and it’s a really it’s a moments that defined my life because for me it was great, got to be like a local celebrity, we got to travel around all of Europe. And I got to truly find my authentic self, right? There was nobody I was trying to impress at that point. There was no like, man, I gotta do that. My family’s got I gotta be here for my family. I’ve got to do this for that. I gotta be a good friend, so I gotta go impress this person.

All of that went away and I had so much free time that I was like, okay, who am I? Let’s set the standards what I want to live by without anybody else’s influence. So I got to learn that. I got to meet great teammates and lifelong friends over there that I still talk to this day. I still have guys I played with come to a Super Bowl party I throw every year. And so it’s like these type of connections, these lifelong relationships are like that mold you. And then when you show, I’ll say this and I say it all the time.

When I’ve traveled around this world, I’ve got, really one rule. You treat people with respect and often it gets returned. But when you’ve come across good people, keep them in your life. Because they’re a dime a dozen, right? you could keep going, and you’re gonna meet a tons of people. And I encourage everybody to put themselves out there and meet a ton of people. But you’re gonna meet some absolutely rock solid people that, are the people you could count on. Call out of the blue and they would,

come there in a matter of heartbeat. So that’s what I would say. Put yourself out there when you meet good people, keep them around.

Dylan Silver (23:46)

Now, you’re also fluent in German. So not only were you playing football over there, but you really learned the culture and the language. And so now looking back at that experience, do you have an international lens, in everyday life in the greater Austin area even?

Joshua Morgan (24:39)

absolutely. Now I will say this, I’m not quite fluent in German. It’s been a little while. I’m still pretty conversational and can get around, but I’ve lost a little bit of a touch there for sure. but what was big for me was what actually taking the time to try and learn the language and getting, that immersive experience. And the more I cared and tried to speak their language, eventually we if we hit a roadblock and they could speak English, we would continue from there. But just even me trying.

led to those strong bonded relationships. imagine a German coming to America and then be like, Sprechen Sie Deutsch? And you’d be like, what? English, you idiot, They wouldn’t be like, speak German, So you’re in their country. I always took it as an opportunity, I’ve got to get to know them. I’ve got to learn from them. Great. Awesome. And where do we go from there? So that helped build those relationships, go from there. And then again, as it’s carried through,

The relationships, the people, the experience. I’m not a small minded person. So you can’t come to me with, and I was born in a small farm town. you can’t come to me with small town ideas and thoughts and actions and expect them not to get challenged. Right. Just because that’s the way things are does not mean that’s the way things are in the world. And so a lot of those closed minded, small town to go full loop on your question there. Absolutely, like come with.

big bright ideas and a way to add value to people’s lives and share an interesting story. I love interesting people. I love people that can challenge and, look at the way I see something and challenge me. And I love those conversations.

Dylan Silver (26:06)

This makes me want to do a dive into the migration patterns in Texas because you’ve got towns like Boerne, Gruene, New Braunfels, right? German origin. I don’t know anything about that. But then talking to you, obviously there’s something there. There’s a lot of German heritage and lineage in Texas. And so clearly, that must be something that you’ve thought about from time to time and may have a unique perspective on.

Joshua Morgan (26:30)

Yeah, so it’s funny that you mentioned the city of green, right? That everybody in Texas calls green. That’s like calling Amarillo, right? That’s the color yellow in Spanish, it’s amarillo. green is grun, right? So it’s just funny, every Texan do they take the color green, which is grun, and it’s spelt the exact same way that the town is spelt, but the Texans just translated already. They’re like, Yeah, yeah, it’s go to green. That’s right.

So you have little things they make it their own, which, tomato, tomato, I’m not gonna sit here and, put my foot in the sand on that, type of debate. but it’s cool just to see, I can get a go get a taste of the culture, right? If I wanna go get a good vice versa frühstück or a good moss beer, I can go an hour, hour and a half away and actually get some good food. remind me of the good old days over there in Deutschland.

Dylan Silver (27:12)

When did real estate start coming into play for you? Was this during your playing days in Germany? where was that seed of real estate from?

Joshua Morgan (27:22)

Sure. Yeah. I really wish I dedicated the time to real estate when I was playing. for me when I was playing football was everything. And that was like such a self-defining passion. And I was like, everything about me was like, I’m a football player, I’m this, I’m that. And it took to like, okay, well, football is not a sport that you can play into your forties, fifties, sixties, and anywhere close to that, right?

Unless you’re, you Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, they might have got the furthest along. I’ll throw Peyton Manning in there. But okay, so it was like, what’s life after football? And I started, okay, let’s get into sales. You gotta sell yourself in everything you do, from the job, the title that you carry to the spouse that you wanna have, right? If you don’t sell yourself, you’re gonna get what you get given. And that is not an option I wanted to take. So

I started getting into sales. I worked a number of different sales jobs from social media marketing to water softeners, which is not a job for an easy job here in Texas heat in the summers. but you take that same kind of determination, grit, and fortitude that you learn from the sport of football, and you imply it in the next process, right? So I redefined myself, what did I want to learn? And I just was really intensive about it. And I started getting better with money, financials.

And then it’s like, okay, as this scales and as you go up these ladders, right? You don’t just start like, I can’t just go tomorrow and be I’m gonna be general contractor. I’m gonna develop, these 10 neighborhoods, and I’ll be a multi-billionaire in five years. It’s not gonna happen. You gotta put the work in. So I started to climb up the ladder. I got into my first home. I got into my first rental. And then it was like, okay, now I’m looking at passive income coming in as more important than the check I bring home.

The check I bring home needs to buy assets to pay me more passive income so that I don’t have to go into this nine to five job. And as this scaled up, I got to a point, the reason why we made the jump from single family now to multifamily is because I started looking at I was like, how much debt can I really carry even with a good income job? You can only qualify for so much debt with your debt to income ratio. And if I have ten single family homes, what does that pay me per month?

So it’s like, okay, how can we get to this faster with bigger assets? And that’s just where the game is developed into. And I’m sure it’ll continue to develop as the years go on. But that’s where this all really started from was hey, I was all about football and then I had to be really good about money. And as my money journey has gone and intriculated, it’s about getting assets now and that control to set up my family for a lifestyle and hopefully generations to come.

Dylan Silver (29:46)

tell us a little bit about what you have going on these days and then also we’re coming up on time here. Anything that you’d like to mention directly to our audience?

Joshua Morgan (29:54)

Yeah. So, what we’re looking for is again just to scale, right? We’re trying to get into safe, controlling assets that can set us up for not only the future, right? But hopefully future generations as well. And bring along as many people as you can. That’s the number one thing. Nobody gets to the top of the mountain alone. And it’s way more fun the more people you bring with you to the top. so that’s really where my kind of mission is and what I’m trying to do is.

People that are either starting where I started and need to get back onto square one and build up from there, or people are like, man, I’m stuck somewhere along the way. What’s the next step? So often we get, stuck in our comfort zones, right? And it’s like, hey, this is great. I’ve reached X level of success. I’m probably, X amount ahead of where I was. Maybe I never thought I would get this level of success, if you asked me about myself 10 years ago. And some people stop there.

Right. And it’s just like, okay, I’m done. I’m just gonna live this life for the next fifty years. And that’s totally okay for some. But if you’re sitting there with that little voice in the back of your head, like, man, maybe I could do something more, maybe I continue to scale, like that’s the people I love to relate with, right? ‘Cause I don’t have a complacency lifestyle. I get bored. I could do something for, three, four, five years, and then I’m like, okay, like I’m really good at this. Let’s do something else and scale.

So I think that’s just those people who have that never ending thirst for education, knowledge, and want to better themselves are the people that I gravitate to the most and I have the best experiences with. So I encourage anybody that is along that man, share your contact, love to connect. and then there’s two things that I do to try and give back, right? There is the free Zoom calls that I do on a monthly basis. It’s the first Wednesday of every month. We cover the bad, better, and best, right?

When you first, basically what the ads teach you, right? Hey, buy the toy now and worry about the finances later. And then it’s a better way. Like, hey, do we save first and then buy it? So we don’t end up in payment plans or in big debt and bad debt too. And then like, okay, well, what’s the best way to do it? How do the wealthy people buy these? And it’s about having that, the assets pay you cash flow that then pay for the lifestyle. And if we can switch that order, and the younger you teach somebody that, right?

So think about it this way. If somebody is sixteen years old, what are their bills?

Dylan Silver (32:02)

Hardly anything.

Joshua Morgan (32:03)

Right. Maybe they’re paying their car. Maybe. Most of the time, actually not. Now let’s look at somebody who’s twenty-five, fresh out of college, right? Or maybe you’re in a trade and you didn’t have college debt, even better, right? Tomato tomato on that. And now let’s look at thirty-five and fifty. Incrementally, is gonna get more expensive. There’s either gonna be more people relying on you, you’re gonna have accumulated X amount of things or assets or liabilities over that time.

And you’re relying on bringing in that income. So then make a major life decision or may your life event happen at any one of those situations. If somebody’s thirty-five and has family and two kids, right, and they lose their job, what does that look like for their monthly income?

So now it’s like, hey, if we start this conversation earlier and we get people better with money earlier, then if something major that does happen, the freak out isn’t as bad. Right. we talk about change. Change when you can so that you don’t have to change when you have to. Right. I always look at that. and there’s a way to help, right? two mentors of mine, right? Jim Rohn, Andy Frisella are two guys that I have followed for like personal development.

And help me get from the person I was to where I am now. Jim Rohn’s the old school guru. Everybody knows of him. Andy Versella’s pretty new school and he’s in your face and doesn’t care about it. He’s gonna teach you the way it is, and I love that style. I don’t need to be politically correct all the time. Give me the numbers, give me the facts, shoot it to me straight and don’t worry about my feelings. is kind of my attitude there. But they do like the power five.

Is what I’ve developed and built off. So I shared a transformation playbook. It’s a 90 days. It’s great, right? Especially at the end of the year. People are gonna come up with their new year’s resolutions. They’re gonna start setting, financial goals, personal goals, development goals. This is a great way to stay on track. It’s a power five, and I take Jim Rohn’s work harder on yourself than you do on your business or your job. It’s two personal, one learning, and two work goals.

And you do that every day. And you set your intentions in the morning. And that gives you all the power to protect your time. If somebody’s trying to distract you or take you away from something that you wanted to do and write it down, then you get the permission to say no now. And not until this is done. Not until this is done. Or I’m sorry, I gotta do this. And then how many days can you win over the 90 days? Right. And are you building a championship lifestyle? But it’s measurable, right? Again, finger on the pulse.

A lot of people, man, by February, I forgot what my goals were even were. I’m not accomplishing them, I’m a little bit behind. Well, it’s because you’re not measuring it on a daily basis. If you set the goals, then you have a checklist of did I win today or did I lose today? And I’m telling you, the more days you win, you can get that streak going, it’s gonna become a habit. And you’re gonna hate the days you lose rather than the days you’re winning. So those are the two

Help give back, put people in the right direction and build those relationships. That’s what I focus on and I appreciate that.

Dylan Silver (34:51)

Josh Morgan, thanks so much for your time today. Thanks for joining us.

Joshua Morgan (34:55)

Yeah, Dylan. Thanks for having me. Stay awesome, guys. See ya.

Dylan Silver (34:58)

All right, that’s a wrap. Thank you for hopping on here.

Go deeper on this topic

Multifamily Price Per Unit: Texas vs Midwest Cash Flow Math

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