Purpose Builds Wealth: Multifamily Investing,Leadership, & Stewardship with Andrew Reichert

Andrew Reichert (00:00)
Yeah, let me see if I can tie them both together. So our goal is to get to a billion of assets under management by the year 2030. So we’re currently at about 350 million. So that’s 3x in the next five years. And I always tell people, though, a billion is just a big number. It’s really about the lives that we impact. So today we have about 3,600 residents. That represents about, you know, 4,500 individual people because many of them are families.

Q Edmonds (00:17)
Yeah.

Hello everyone. Welcome to Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host Q Edmonds. I’m excited to be here today. I have another fantastic guest that I am so excited for you to learn from, glean from his experience, learn from business through his perspective. And one thing I love about this guy, I asked him some questions of course, and he talked about the forgotten middle. And so I’m pretty sure he’s really gonna…

keen on that and just a wealth of knowledge. So I’m just going to enjoy the conversation. I’m enjoying where the conversation takes us. And again, I know you’re going to learn a lot today. And so I’m so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Andrew Reichert. Mr. Andrew, how you doing today,

Andrew Reichert (02:42)
you. I’m doing amazing. Thank you so much for having me. I’m honored to be here.

Q Edmonds (02:45)
Absolutely. So glad you’re here. I think we both got the memo with the blues. So we’re looking good side by side. You know what I mean? yeah, Absolutely. So listen, I’m excited about this conversation. And I am the type. I like to dive right in, right? So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got to the place where you are. We love the Hero’s Journey.

Andrew Reichert (02:51)
Baltimore natives.

Q Edmonds (03:11)
And man, let them know what part of the world you’re in. People love to know what people are geographically. so, sir, and you know, we ain’t talking about it, but you got a special place in my heart because you was born where I’m from. And so if people watch me, they know. You don’t gotta say it, but if people watch me, they know. And so, man, just again, tell us what’s your rub to your origin story and where you are. Miss Andrea, you have the floor, sir.

Andrew Reichert (03:36)
Amazing. Thanks, Q. I’ll go through that happily. So born in Baltimore, grew up in ⁓ Philadelphia for the most part, although I bounced around a good bit in my childhood and grew up in super humble beginnings. ⁓ You know, my parents divorced at a young age and, you know, we really were just kind of scraping and clawing to make ends meet. And after a bit of a rebellious childhood, I got expelled from high school.

And after getting expelled my senior year of high school, I actually got accepted to a college in the University of Pittsburgh. And I had never even visited the city of Pittsburgh. And I was like, I guess I’m going to the city of Pittsburgh for college. So took out a bunch of student loans. My dad helped me with taking out some student loans, worked two, three jobs at a time. And in college, I read the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad. And that was the beginning of it for me. I learned about real estate investing and

I started reading every book I could on how do you buy real estate with no money down because I had no money. And I graduated from college back in 2007, since the year right before the great financial crisis. And I bought a duplex with no cash, no credit, no experience. I walked away from closing with a check for 20 grand. And that was the beginning of it for me. I took that check and I bought another property. I refinanced that, bought another one, refinanced that, bought another one.

And I was working a great job at a regional bank called PNC Bank at the time and resigned from that job in 2012 to start this business. So kind of the rest is history. Today we acquire and we operate multifamily apartments, like you said, in what we call the forgotten middle. So we have 3,600 units that we operate today that we’ve acquired over the past decade. Plus we raise capital and acquire multifamily housing.

Q Edmonds (06:17)
Yeah, man, love it. Thank you. mean, just to know I’m actively listening as you talk. This is your page. I’m writing them, taking notes, writing things down. And so, man, thank you for taking us through the journey, telling us where you are, and just really walking us kind of how you got to where you are. so I purposely regurgitate.

Andrew Reichert (06:22)
You

Q Edmonds (06:37)
what somebody gave me, I kind of give it back to them. I’m a little flared for the dramatics. I want to make a statement and then ask you a question. And then this kind of builds up the momentum towards that. And so I’m going read some things that you just told me, right? Just kind of summary. so born and raised in Baltimore, grew up in Philly, family divorced, got expelled from high school.

Went to college got some student loans while he was in college read Rich Dad Poor Dad 2007 you graduated from college You bought a duplex like no cash no experience bought a duplex refinance that bought some more refinance bought some more kind of a business in 2012 this is kind of how the business started. Was that a pretty good summary? Good good and so I knew that because

Andrew Reichert (07:27)
Perfect.

Q Edmonds (07:31)
Mr. Andrew, I have a statement that I say that destiny has no wasted moments, right? Destiny has no wasted moments. Like momentum has been building pretty much all our lives. If we look back, we’ll see the breadcrumbs. We will see why we think the way we think, why we’re passionate about the things we’re passionate about, why we don’t quit, why we pull ourself up, why we pull ourself through. It’s like these moments are building. So I would love to know.

Andrew Reichert (07:37)
Hmm.

Q Edmonds (08:00)
throughout your journey, throughout the moments, what have you learned about yourself? Have you learned discipline, resilience, has it opened your eyes to innovation? Like what has the moments taught you about you?

Andrew Reichert (08:11)
Yeah, that’s a great question. Resilience is actually the word I was going to use. So, ⁓ you know, after a bunch of experiences of childhood where I would say I was kind of drifting, you know, almost like a ⁓ boat without a rudder just going wherever the wind would blow me. ⁓ Yeah, I finally realized actually in jail in Manhattan, New York, ⁓ that I had been living a life

Q Edmonds (08:25)
Mm.

Mmm.

Andrew Reichert (08:40)
that was not aligned with my purpose. And so I love the rhino. ⁓ So you see, I got a rhino behind me for anybody watching online. ⁓ A rhino to me is a symbol of two things. One, alignment, where it kind of aligns itself when it’s charging. And two, resilience, because it has this really thick skin. So for me, expelled from high school, locked up, and then my first year into marriage, I got diagnosed with cancer.

So after surgery and chemotherapy, I was able to get rid of the cancer, but it was a big wake-up call for me and my wife. They told us we might not be able to have kids. And so I think what I’ve learned is that life’s adversity is coming at you either way. know, none of us are getting out of here without a couple battle scars. And so it’s really about what you do with that adversity and how you work through it and the resilience that you have.

is really what I’ve learned.

Q Edmonds (09:42)
Yeah, I mean, as Mr. Andrews, you took the words out of my mouth, because normally I transition to the word adversity. Like I literally transition to like, and I normally say something like this, you know, we all face adversity, you know, how does adversity creep up, you know, in your life, but you’ve already kind of told us how adversity creeps up. So what I would love for you to do, because you, for me, just listen to you, you overcame adversity. So I would love for you to maybe speak to the business owner.

the man, the guy that’s out there that’s smack dead in adversity. Like, what would you tell him based on your experience how to handle adversity?

Andrew Reichert (10:55)
Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, I really think that the time to handle adversity is before adversity happens. ⁓ And so here’s how I think of that. And this came from a lot of me making a lot of mistakes, by the way. ⁓ We developed a system, we call it the Rhino operating system, but it’s really about creating resilience in each person. You the rhino has this two inch thick skin to withstand the heat and the adversity of life. ⁓

Q Edmonds (11:16)
Yeah.

Andrew Reichert (11:25)
that system has five components and I’ll just quickly explain them. First of all is what is your unique DNA? We call that your who. And I think it really starts with people understanding who they are, how they’re uniquely wired, never before being created, never again gonna be created. Like what’s unique about Q, what’s unique about Andrew. ⁓ And then that says something about the second component, which is our why. Our why is our purpose and really

Q Edmonds (11:28)
Mm-hmm.

Mm. Mm.

Andrew Reichert (11:53)
Just thinking about, begin with the end in mind, like when you’re no longer here, how do you want to be remembered? And then the combination of the three of, the two of those is the third component, which is when you take your purpose, your passions and your proficiencies and you combine them, that creates convergence. And it’s really about getting as much of your time and attention in your convergence zone as possible.

Q Edmonds (11:57)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mmm.

Andrew Reichert (12:18)
And then the last two components are your how and your when. How do you actually do that and when do you do it? So that’s a system we teach to our 100 employees. And because we teach that, our employee engagement is top 1 % in the industry because our employees know who they are. They know how they’re wired. They know why they’re here. And they live into it every day.

Q Edmonds (12:23)
Mm. Mm.

Yeah.

Sorry, man, I’m laughing because you are more eloquently than I ever could really highlighting so many things that I try as a host to bring up a conversation here on the podcast. Are you gonna love this? I think you’re gonna love it just based on what you said. My mentors told me I was at a fork in the road. I was literally ⁓ battling with.

you know, possibility of divorce from my ex-wife. know, spoiler alert, we did divorce, I’m remarried. But I was at a fork in the road and he said, when you know who you are, you know what to do. And so I said, you just so much, so eloquently said what you teach and you said they know who the people, your community know who they are. And so I don’t think I’ve ever kind of this route.

Andrew Reichert (13:20)
Mm-hmm. It’s good.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (13:36)
But I felt very strongly asking you about adversity. And y’all, we’re going to get into some business stuff, I promise. And I think this is all tied in. But as you were talking, I looked up the word pastor. And I know as a religious term, I get it. But these are some things that derive from the word pastor. It’s a Latin word. It means shepherd, guide, protect. It also means. ⁓

Andrew Reichert (13:42)
Ha ha.

Q Edmonds (14:04)
I had, it’s also that person is extended to the community is a community person. So I know is a religious term, but also, passivism is also mentorship, it’s leadership, and it’s guiding and protecting the community that you have been entrusted to. And so when I heard you talk about adversity, when I heard you talk about some of the things that you went through, I had to ask your perspective how…

you handle adversity because as you talk, I am synthesizing the leadership that’s in you, the protector that’s in you, the one that really guards his community. And so I don’t know, I never kind of went that route before, but as you just talk and that kind of comes up and it seems like it resonates with you, right? Does it resonate? Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Reichert (14:49)
Yeah, for sure. There’s no doubt about

it. I literally just had this conversation last week. ⁓ I was at a faith-based event, which obviously the term pastor comes from, you know, sort of the faith-based realm, and they were sort of asking, hey, what is our ministry plan? And I was talking about the concept of, you know, shepherding people. And so, for us, the way—here’s how I think of it. We shepherd our—

Me in particular, I shepherd our leadership team, 16 people. They shepherd our entire flock of 100 people. And when we shepherd our 100 employees, well, they take care of our residents and our residents take care of our investors. So if you think about it, I mean, in my perspective, the most important thing we can be doing as business owners is operating with excellence. Yeah, there’s this guy by the name of Martin Luther. He once said the

Q Edmonds (15:23)
more.

Andrew Reichert (15:43)
The Christian shoemaker should not be the person who ties little crosses on your shoes, but the person who makes very good shoes because God cares about craftsmanship. And so for us, I know, and so for us, it’s like whether you’re a faith-based person or not, we should care about excellence in what we do. And so for us, that’s top quartile investor returns, 20 % over the past decade. How do we get top quartile investor returns though?

It’s by loving on our residents. How do we love on our residents? It’s by loving on our employees. And that to me is the concept of being a pastor. And by the way, I actually am a pastor, ⁓ not vocationally. I’m a leader of a hundred people, but I’m trained as a pastor too. But vocationally, to me it’s the same thing. It’s just shepherding.

Q Edmonds (17:16)
⁓ I’m like, where do I go with this conversation?

Andrew Reichert (17:19)
You

Q Edmonds (17:21)
So I was definitely right with what I picked up. And so man, listen. I’ll listen. ⁓ man, I’m trying to… So, you know, I often… So I don’t know why I’m kind of hesitating, because I often do quote scriptures on here. Sometimes I’m less… I’m kind of discreet with it. You know, I’ll give the principle and don’t necessarily drop the address or whatever like that. But you know, I just think about the scripture.

when it says that he gives pastors after his own heart to teach people with knowledge and understanding. You know, I know, you know, so much of our faith based lingo, but God is concerned also just not with our faith based lingo, but just the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. He’s concerned with business. He’s concerned with fair wage. He’s concerned with it all, right? And so it’s interesting because

⁓ I’m doing a study on the Holy spirit, going through scripture from ⁓ start to end. And the first person that this talks about the spirit, I think, filled was Beziel and Beziel was a craftsman. That’s that’s so when we talk, we can talk faith, we can talk religion, of course, but the first person, the Holy spirit Phil was a craftsman to create. And so like,

Andrew Reichert (18:31)
Hmm. Hmm.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (18:46)
I’m just, so you and I, this is how I can tie it in, because you and I, we’re faith-based. Small groups, we’re faith-based. We bring who we are to what we do. And so for me, it shows because I’m faith-based that God is concerned with my business and the way I conduct my business as well. Outside of church, inside of church, just as a human being, just having employees, He’s concerned and He will help me build the way I’m supposed to build. And so I love the way how you…

Andrew Reichert (19:12)
Mm-hmm.

Q Edmonds (19:14)
You know you were shepherding. You know you’re shepherding the people within your business. And so y’all, y’all listening, listen, and some of y’all get it. Some of y’all may have on the verge of turning this off and I get it. It is what it is. But for those that sticking with us, you know, I think it’s just important. And I love you for bringing who you are to what you do in fullness, right? And so I mean, I’m appreciating this conversation so much. And so.

Andrew Reichert (19:36)
Mm-hmm.

Q Edmonds (19:41)
⁓ I’m actually, I’m actually two cluster questions. Cause I love the way you flow man. So I’m actually two cluster questions. I want to know what’s your next goal, where you’re going. But I also want to know when you hear the word relationship, what comes to mind because I, you know, I just want to hear your perspective on what’s next. And I want to hear your perspective on that word relationship as well. So you have the floor, Mr. Andrew.

Andrew Reichert (20:04)
Yeah, let me see if I can tie them both together. So our goal is to get to a billion of assets under management by the year 2030. So we’re currently at about 350 million. So that’s 3x in the next five years. And I always tell people, though, a billion is just a big number. It’s really about the lives that we impact. So today we have about 3,600 residents. That represents about, you know, 4,500 individual people because many of them are families.

Q Edmonds (20:22)
Yeah.

Andrew Reichert (20:33)
And ⁓ when we get 3X that, we’re going to have 12,000 people that we are stewarding in our apartments. And so I get really excited about the opportunity to impact those people’s lives. And that really does get back into this forgotten middle concept. We invest in housing that’s often overlooked. So it’s middle across three domains, middle America. A lot of capital goes to the coastal cities.

middle from a demographic standpoint, class B workforce housing. So a lot of capital goes to class A new construction, a lot of capital goes to class C, which is capital A affordable housing, subsidized, light tech credits, things like that. But not a lot goes to the middle. And then we invest above the mom and pop investor below the institutional investors. So when you take middle, middle, middle, there’s just not a lot of capital going into that demographic.

And unfortunately, what ends up happening is there’s a lot of slumlording in that space. And so we get really excited about buying an asset from somebody, you know, when the asset has been a little bit neglected, ⁓ and just answering the phone and taking care of work orders and being there for our residents. So that to me is what gets me really excited. That’s, you know, and then, and then just zoom out and think more broadly about relationships. It’s relationships with my team.

with our residents, with our investors, and with the communities that we serve. And that’s all on the business front. And then on the personal front, it’s relationship with my wife and my three daughters. And that’s really what I’m up to. I’m up to those relationships and being a girl dad and raising three kids ⁓ is what gets me really excited about the future.

Q Edmonds (22:13)
Yeah, no, man, I love your perspective. what I’m synthesizing and gleaning from you, man, is that you understand that when you preserve the relationship, handle what you are responsible for, everything that’s connected to that wins. Everything connected that you said, the people you’re stewing in, the tenants, investors, ⁓ everything around you, the…

the property value, like everything is stewarded because you do what you do well. And so, know, I often, and I love how you keep bringing up the word community and I often tell people, community is common unity. It’s people doing things with a common goal in mind, right? And so when we think of the body, our body, the body has different organs, different functions, but it all works together for one purpose. And so you got people, you got arms, you got fingers, you got…

legs, but it’s all part of a bigger body to pull something and push something forward. And so it just sounds like you have a good, healthy body, a good, healthy community. And I thank you for being healthy, for you being whole and leading the community the way that you’re leading it. ⁓ Man, go get, please. Yes, sir.

Andrew Reichert (23:27)
I love what you said there. A phrase that I often use is, I love how you said, unity. And I always tell people, unity is not uniformity. So, what you just described with the body is beautiful, right? Like the hand can’t tell the foot, don’t need you. They’re made totally different.

Q Edmonds (23:37)
Bro, come on, you got hold up, Andrew. Hold up. Did you be in my playbook for this? I’m sorry. Don’t lose momentum. Continue, please. Continue. Yo.

Andrew Reichert (23:54)
but they need each other to be the body. And I think it’s true in our lives, it’s true in our business. Diversity is a beautiful thing. ⁓ And so I think it’s important to remember that the most thriving communities are made of people that are very different. And so again, I just, I love your point about common unity, but I want to just underscore that unity and uniformity are different, which it sounds like it’s part of your playbook anyway.

Q Edmonds (24:23)
Yeah, I often say, I was gonna say it, but I guess it was intended for you to say, because I always say unity and uniformity are two totally different things. Literally, I say that. So, ⁓ sir, I mean, I can talk. I feel like we just literally like scratching the surface, like, you know, like we’ve been on this level, but we can keep going in deeper levels. But man, again, I feel very compelled.

Andrew Reichert (24:27)
You

Yeah, love it.

Yeah.

Q Edmonds (24:51)
to continue to tell you, I appreciate what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. I feel really compelled to tell you to do that. And you use, I mean, you so many words that I use that don’t often come up. Now I’m throwing out first and you use the word stewardship. I feel like you are stewarding very well your responsibility. So I got this from Marvin Golden. He really helped me with this, the word responsibility in itself. And he said,

Responsibility is your ability to respond. That’s what responsibility is. It’s your ability to respond. So when you respond to the things that are under your influence or under your watch, under your leadership, it’s based on your ability to respond. And I just feel like, sir, that you respond based on the strong ability that God has given you. And you don’t underscore it, don’t overscore it. You stick right with

Andrew Reichert (25:22)
Hmm. So good. Yeah.

Q Edmonds (25:49)
This is my ability that I know God has given me and you respond accordingly. And I feel like everybody else around you is blessed because of that. And so I just feel strongly just to let you know that man. And so I really appreciate you coming on today, Andrew. I really do, sir.

Andrew Reichert (26:04)
Yeah, Q. It’s been my pleasure. Honestly, I feel like you and I are fast friends and I’m looking, looking forward to continuing to have a relationship and super, super grateful to get to be a part of what you’re up to.

Q Edmonds (26:08)
Yes.

Absolutely, man. Well, listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

Andrew Reichert (26:24)
Yeah, I’m pretty active on LinkedIn. ⁓ Andrew Reichert, check me out. R-E-I-C-H-E-R-T. My company is called Birgo B-I-R-G-O.com or birgocapital.com. And we do have a podcast called Real Returns. You can check us out. We talk about investing for impact. ⁓ otherwise, you know, I wrote a book called Priorities on Purpose. I love to talk about purpose. You can check that out at rosjourney.com.

Q Edmonds (26:48)
Thank

Andrew Reichert (26:52)
Just super excited to get to be here, happy to support your listeners in any way that I can.

Q Edmonds (26:58)
Well, let me say three things to you, man, sincerely. This is what I, you know, normally my little, you know, sign off. But I mean it when I say it. So one, thank you for your time. I think time is our most precious commodity, right? I know, you know, how podcasts work, you know, we talk to each other, we put out a product, but you literally could have been doing anything you wanted to do, but you’re here. So I value your time. Thank you so much for your time. Secondly, thank you for your story. I often say,

Jesus taught in parables to emphasize the point that stories are powerful. And when we tell our story, when we tell our narrative, it has a way to plant a seed in someone. We may not see the growth of that seed, but it’s there and it could grow tomorrow, two years from now, five years from now, but the seed was planted. So thank you for planting seeds today. And lastly, man, thank you for your mindset, the way you think, your perspective and bringing that mindset to this platform.

I greatly appreciate you coming on today.

Andrew Reichert (27:58)
Thank you much for having me. Q Appreciate those kind words and ⁓ looking forward to continuing to get to know you better as well.

Q Edmonds (28:03)
Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Andrew. It’s no denying. It’s no denying what you got, Nuggets. You got his experience. You got some strategies. So please, books, podcasts, all the things that he mentioned are in the show notes. Get in contact with him. Listen to his podcast. Connect with him. Keep continuing to learn from him. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring on amazing people just like Mr. Andrew.

So, sir, I say thank you again and everyone else have a fantastic day.