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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Micah Johnson interviews David Byczek, a seasoned commercial real estate investor with over 3,000 apartment units in Wisconsin. David shares his journey from starting with duplexes to managing large-scale investments, emphasizing the importance of focus, self-management, and cost control. He discusses the unique challenges of the real estate market, the significance of cash flow, and the strategies he employs to maintain profitability and growth. David’s insights provide valuable lessons for both new and experienced investors looking to build wealth in real estate.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
David Byczek (00:00)
People always say, oh no, we rent apartments. No we don’t. We sell time. That is what our job is. We sell time. But what’s unfortunate about our product is it expires every day. So for every day I don’t have someone in that unit, I can never get that money back.Most of our rent increases happen between March and they are done by the end of August because I don’t want to giving people September, October rent increases and they’re moving out in the winter months. Try to rent an apartment in December. It doesn’t work out well. So we’re always looking ahead and forecasting, but it’s interesting that people, this is a business where time is truly of the essence.
Micah Johnson (00:27)
HaHey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by David, who’s been making serious moves in the commercial real estate industry for quite some time now. David, welcome in man, glad to have you.
David Byczek (02:21)
Thank you. Thanks for having me.Micah Johnson (02:23)
I’m excited for you to be here. think our listeners are really going to take away some value, especially where we were discussing pre-call. Due to how long you’ve been doing this, you have ⁓ a big reservoir of experience to pull from, and I’m excited to dive in on that. So for people who may not know you yet, what’s your main focus right now and what markets are you operating in?David Byczek (02:41)
So right now, Wisconsin, all over the state, there’s not one region I’m not in. I’m scattered across the state with a little over 3,000 apartment units. Currently, I have 600 units either actually out of the ground already being built or where I own the land and we’re in pre-development right now. know, commercial space, I don’t mind. I own quite a bit. I don’t mind mixed use.I steer away, know, I’ve dove into storage units and things once and you know what? You need to stay focused. Or for myself, I do habitational multifamily and I’ll do mixed use with that, which is where I get a lot of my commercial and that’s it. Stay focused. You know, that’s kind of how I roll. ⁓ But.
Micah Johnson (03:21)
Howimportant has that been? I want to pause right there on that topic, because it does touch on something. It’s pretty easy, actually, to lose focus in real estate. There’s so many things that you can do. How important has that been to your career to maintain that focus?
David Byczek (03:38)
It is 100%. I mean, I’ve gotten into hotels, restaurants, you name it. And I always come, you I’m always like, okay, what am I doing? You know, you know, I’ve looked at car washes. I’m like, no, you know, it’s funny. My bankers always say this thing, like, Dave, you’re good at what you do. Stay with what you do. And it’s true. You know, I’ve done okay in all those other things, but it’s not my focus. It takes away from what my real focus is. So I’ve shed all of it. We’ve sold our, boutique hotels where, you know, we are strictly still in apartments.And that’s our main focus, I just bought a building, 139 units that has 47,000 square feet of commercial space with it. So we have hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial space, so we’re very well versed in it. I know what we’re doing, so I don’t mind those deals where some of the habitational multifamily investors and owners don’t, because they’re like, wait a minute, we don’t know anything about commercial. But I do, so I’m not afraid of those deals. And I do quite well on them. In fact,
When I underwrite on those properties, those mixed use properties, I give very little weight to that commercial space. Very little weight, very little of the income do I count. And if it’s still is sustainable, just on the apartments, that’s my real target. And I’ve done quite well with that because even if I, on the 47,000 square feet I took over, 17,000 of it has been vacant since it was built in 2015 and 2017. It is just gray box.
Micah Johnson (04:42)
Mmm.Wow.
David Byczek (05:01)
and I’ve leased all but 4,000 square feet in the last eight months.They’re doing the build-outs right now with long-term leases. And it took me eight months to get them full and all the permits for them to start building. the people that owned it, a huge corporation, ⁓ she’s one of the richest people, she’s the 94th richest person in ⁓ the United States, that’s where I purchased the property from, and they have a huge staff and they couldn’t get it done, but our little company did.
Micah Johnson (05:53)
wow.David Byczek (06:18)
and got it filled. So I look at that as icing on the cake, so don’t mind those deals.Micah Johnson (06:22)
for sure. a little heck yeah man got to got to.David Byczek (06:24)
I’ve done iton four or five projects and been really happy with the results.
Micah Johnson (06:31)
I like your approach about how you know how to do commercial, you’re versed in it, but using the thing you’re really good at to pencil the deal, where that other part, if it doesn’t have to factor, now you’re just talking about the icing on the cake. Like being that disciplined to do that, how has that helped you in your career overall to like just maintain that?David Byczek (06:46)
Yes.It’s how we stay in business. At my stage in the game, I’m not a huge risk taker. I of course, there’s risk in everything we do. I’m building 600 units right now. There’s risk there, but it’s very mitigated and very managed risk. ⁓ So if the deal pencils on the apartments, I’m in. Even if it breaks even, then I know I’m getting, and I’ve looked at it said, I know I’m getting rent increases right away. And I know I have…
Micah Johnson (07:05)
Mm.David Byczek (07:17)
some of this leased, which is nice. And if I can get this other leased, it’s great and it’s working out. I’m down to less than 4,000 square feet that I need to lease. So I’m one space left and I’m very happy with it.Micah Johnson (07:28)
Nice. Nice. No, that’s excellent. So over your career, what I’m listening to is just how you’ve maintained to one, stay focused, but also keep growing for an investor that’s listening that is seeking to get that generational wealth like you’re building to really change their, just the perspective we were talking about beforehand. A lot of folks, they’re getting stuck up front when they really want to be getting generational wealth with a bunch of duplexes, things like that. So whatYou said you started with a duplex 32 years ago and got to hear what was that like? How was the journey of that that led you to where you are today?
David Byczek (08:02)
I mean, I did get some lucky breaks. I was buying more inner city type duplexes, things like that, and doing okay, but working a day job. I got to a point where that wasn’t working anymore. Took a job bartending at night, worked my properties by day. When I say worked them, I I painted them, I cleaned them, I moved the residents in and out, and I did it all. Then I started selling blocks of those, like five or seven of those duplexes and singles at a time.and rolling those into inner city apartment buildings, 48 units, 60 units, 50 units. ⁓ And I was buying them back in the day at like $8,500 a door. And again, just maintaining them, not rehabbing them, not letting them deteriorate, just keep, you know, just maintaining them. And as time rose, this was early 2000s, the value of those rose. ⁓ I happened to meet a gentleman in Wisconsin, very big developer, very big
landlord and we kind of hit it off and he was kind of impressed with what I was doing in those tougher areas to grow. You know, I had probably at that time maybe 300 units in those areas and still managing them and you know, it’s difficult management. So he started, he’d buy 400 units from a company and be like, hey, I don’t want this 78 unit. You know, Dave, why don’t you buy this? Here’s the price. Here’s the closing. Call Ed Russell at this bank.
he’ll get you rehab money, we’ll get this all set up. So I learned a lot from him about how to dress them up and create value in the units to be able to raise the rents, which again creates the value of the property. ⁓ And they did a lot of trading up. And then in about 2004, he was building 100 unit plus complexes. And he said, hey,
Why don’t you start buying these? I’ll take this and trade, this and trade, and this trade. And that really worked out nicely. Now we’ve got the economies of scale. We’ve got synergy, economies of scale. Back then, you had a model unit, you had a manager, you had a full-time maintenance tech. It worked out really nice. And then I just took that and replicated it through. And I would still do business opportunities stuff. Stuff that was built in the 60s and 70s that needed to be rehabbed. I did it. We came in there, we’d redo a 70 unit in about 12 to 14 months, every unit.
appliances, cabinets, flooring, light fixtures, windows, doors, whole thing, millwork package, which again really created value because then we’re able to raise rents three to four hundred dollars to five hundred dollars, which really creates value. And a lot of those I still own to this day. You know, I only sold, I only sell if there’s a reason to sell. If I’ve got smaller stuff, like so I’m doing a deal right now. I’m going to start construction. Hopefully in the fall we’ll start moving dirt midsummer.
probably start pouring the first footings and foundations by late fall so we can build over the winter. But that’s going to be, that project is 288 units.
I’ve already set it up that once I’ve reached a value of, I’ve got two smaller apartment buildings, a 24 unit and a 63 unit, that I will 1031 those into that property once I have the value of staff up to what the value of those are so I can do a 1031. Now there’s a whole process to do this with, which we won’t get into, but.
Micah Johnson (11:39)
Not fair.David Byczek (11:42)
So I’ll sell those because I’ll take those equity and roll it in there. One of the other things with construction now, I don’t do anything without TIF money. So I’ve got 600 units in various stages of construction, all of them done with tax incremental financing. Plus my cash I put in. ⁓ But that’s a big part of what I do right now. And right now, ⁓ it is better for me to build than buy. ⁓Micah Johnson (11:59)
Gotcha.OK.
David Byczek (12:11)
with where the market is, I’m building soft costs, land costs, soft costs, and the actual construction costs for private entrances, attached garages, solid surface countertops, and stainless steel appliances. I’m all in for about a buck 80 a door, 180,000 a door. The last apartment building I bought seven months ago, I paid 183 a door. It was built in 2017, a mid-rise, eight story.Micah Johnson (12:28)
Okay.Mmm.
David Byczek (12:37)
And it’s new construction. again, my upfront maintenance costs plus then on top of that, when I deduct off the TIF money, I got 2 million on that deal in TIF, which I haven’t even started receiving yet to pay as I go. So once it’s stabilized in about August, next January, once I pay my property taxes, I’ll start getting back. It’s an eight and a half year payback to get me my 8 million. But take 8 million divided into, I mean, 2 million into 128 units. I’m down into the 160s a door, you all in.Micah Johnson (12:57)
⁓ man.David Byczek (13:05)
⁓ Which makes sense and what that allows me to do so I’m not such a bad guy it allows me to keep the market rent a Little bit more affordable, you know, I don’t do affordable housing, but I don’t want to be at the top of the market You know, I’ve got new construction all around me and if I can be a hundred and fifty dollars less You know than the project four miles down the road I’m all good. You know, I’m still making it eight to fourteen percent cash on cash return. I’m goodMicah Johnson (13:15)
Yeah.David Byczek (13:32)
You know, so it’s kind of some of the things I look at when I am going to purchase or build. But right now it makes more sense to build. Now that doesn’t mean I haven’t purchased. I purchased a little over 200 units this year. Well, not this year, last year 2025. In actually more than that, because I bought cast iron, so almost 129, 111 and a 93 units. So someone do the math, but that’s what I purchased this last year.And they worked out. Now, they worked out because they were quirky deals. Each one of them had its own nuance that turned off other buyers. And it wasn’t financial. One was part of a condo. They weren’t individual condos, but the apartment block of it itself, the 93 unit apartments, were considered one condominium in this project of six condominiums.
Micah Johnson (14:23)
Okay.David Byczek (14:23)
A lot of people couldn’t wrap their arms around that. Well, I used to develop condos. When people think of condos, they think of an apartment. What a condo is, it’s a different form of ownership. That’s what a true definition of a condominium is. You can condo land, you can condo, if you have the right zoning, you can condo anything. You can condo an apartment building, you can condo a commercial building. It’s just different form of ownership. ⁓A lot of investors couldn’t get their arms around it. They couldn’t understand how this worked. And it took me and my team about 90 days to dive through the due diligence, read it, and it was a screaming deal. It was amazing. ⁓ And then the other thing when I do things like that is we usually come in and get all the votes and take over the condo association. So I also manage that, or my company does. ⁓ But yeah, and that’s where it goes.
Micah Johnson (15:09)
Gotcha. Because that’s anotherpart of what you do, right? Is it’s you, along with building all the units that you have, you also self-manage them, correct?
David Byczek (15:18)
Yes, yes, I’ve got a team of about 80 full-time employees, team members that do an amazing job. I mean, that’s different from maintenance tech to, you know, my typical leasing agent leases 300 or runs 300 units. You know, they can be different buildings, you three 100 unit complexes within about a 15 minute drive of each. But our average manager slash leasing agent does 300 units. Maintenance techs, we’re pretty straight on the one per 100.And once we get into a geographical area where I have over 300, I add one extra person. So I’ll have four people for 300 doors. We do, I phased out of landscaping. We don’t do our own land or grass anymore because even at $30 an hour to find someone reliable to sit on a tractor, you know, three days a week was impossible for a while. So we went, I think I about seven years now where we take care of no lawn.
Micah Johnson (15:51)
Gotcha.David Byczek (16:52)
But what I do control in Wisconsin is snow. It’s one of the most expensive ice and snow control expenses we have outside of regular maintenance. And that is still, it’s still cost beneficial to control that. So we run all our own equipment, trucks, plows, front end loaders, because that, we probably pay for our equipment. You know, a new truck, I just bought two new trucks, 120,000 for two new plow trucks.that this winter already we’re paying for them, but on a typical three-year payback on that machinery. And who does it? Our maintenance staff. So I’m not hiring out extra people, we’re just buying the equipment and I get about a three-year payback on that. And then once it’s paid for, or I’ve got my money back from that, it’s all ice and ink. We keep a truck, we try to keep them 12 to 15 years, a piece of equipment. So it’s very, it’s definitely stacked in our favor.
Micah Johnson (17:27)
Mmm.David Byczek (17:45)
you know, doing ice and snow and that’s why I’ve retained that within our company. Everything else on the landscaping, bush trimming, grass cutting, we farm out. Because you can get that, you know, in Wisconsin we have 27 cuts a year. I can get a price for that. I know how much it’s gonna cost them to trim my bushes twice a year. Snow, we have no idea. When we get to snow and ice control, you know, we have no idea what it’s gonna cost. But now I can really control my costs, which is…Very important.
Micah Johnson (18:13)
And that’s been the theme through all the story that you’ve told so far that I really appreciate, even down to how you said it lets you be the good guy and get rents lower is how much you’re controlling costs, paying attention to what’s going where so that you know that in what your inline is going to be each time. And that’s a serious level dedication to do that.David Byczek (18:33)
That is my job as running the company is to fix problems for my team members and do whatever I can to control costs. we just finished our first, you know, we’re on a calendar year. ⁓ Our controller just pulled all the reports for our large vendors and what we spent with each one, you know, our carpeting companies, our painting companies, our Cintas, our fire companies. And we’re setting up meetings now where I come in, they come into our office. I give them what we spent with them last year. And I said,How are you gonna save me more money than you did this year? And let them, if you value our account, what are you gonna do for us? This is what I spent with you last year. How can we reduce this? How can we, or keep it the same, or whatever it is? And I let them do the work. And say, if you can’t do it, we’re gonna shop you. We’re gonna go here, we’re gonna go there. And with the amount of units I have now, and you’re spending with Sintas, we’re spending over half a million dollars a year.
⁓ Just for a fire safety, it’s like, okay, what value you going to bring me? I don’t want to see a 12 % increase. I want to see no increase or how can you save me money? And I put the ball in the record. ⁓
Micah Johnson (19:29)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.Yeah.
And that is
the value of the, once you get to a certain size, you can swing that hammer more where you can say, Hey, look, you either going to do this or you’re not going to do this. And if you don’t do it, no skin off my back, I can go call other people. And that’s, that’s a strong position to be in.
David Byczek (19:54)
Yes.It took 32 years to get there, but even with, when we’re talking with smaller investors, they can do that to a certain extent, because again, small investors become bigger investors, and you wanna work with the companies and the reps that work with you. So that’s really important, but we’re always shopping. We’re always quoting, we’re always shopping. Right now, we’re in the middle of re-quoting all of our lawn services, because those contracts start to get signed in March. now we’re re-quoting, not only are we having the companies we work with,
Micah Johnson (20:09)
Right.David Byczek (20:22)
Requote it, we’re always going out to new vendors, always looking for vendors, always looking for painting vendors, always, always looking. You we never say, no, that’s our guy. You know, we’re always looking for new. And vendors fall out. I used the same roofing company for three years. They were amazing for three years. They went down the tubes. It’s horrible now. And thank God we had several other smaller vendors we used, which now become our primary, because we’re always cultivating, always cultivating vendors.Micah Johnson (20:47)
I think that’s a super valuable point because it’s easy not to build redundancy in key positions. It’s very simple. You can feel like, ⁓ I got the guy like you just said, but having options is everything. If you’re not building a redundancy there, you’re going to find yourself in a really tight spot at some point.David Byczek (21:04)
Yeah, and that’s so true. And then all of sudden you’re like, oh my God, this company went out of business, so they’re doing crappy work. We’ve got eight apartments that need to be painted. Who are we gonna use? And that’s the other thing is, in painting, because we’re spread out over the state, we have different vendors. But I can have one go to, hey, I know you don’t do this property, but we lost our vendor here, can you go here? But we’re always cultivating vendors. That’s one of the biggest things. I have three asset managers. So they manage the team out in the field. So that’s their job. Each of them,Micah Johnson (21:13)
YeahDavid Byczek (21:32)
you know, runs about 11 to 1,250 units, okay? That’s their job. And they run the teams that run it, the managers, leasing agents, maintenance techs, that’s their job to run those. So we have a meeting every Wednesday at the corporate office, they’re all in there. I still look at every rent roll from every single property delinquency every single Wednesday. I look at my vacancy rates every single Wednesday. It’s about a four hour meeting.We tackle all those first. I hear from every asset manager, they have to have updates on if they haven’t paid, why not? Where are they being evicted? Because getting back to, I started out in sales back in the day and there was a saying in sales, you can have the best product everywhere, you can have the best factory, you can have the best everything, but nothing can really happen until someone sells something. And just unlike a product, our product is time.
People always say, oh no, we rent apartments. No we don’t. We sell time. That is what our job is. We sell time. But what’s unfortunate about our product is it expires every day. So for every day I don’t have someone in that unit, I can never get that money back. It’s not like I can say, okay, well that apartment cost me $83 for the loss today. I can just add that to the rent and pick it up tomorrow. No, it’s not like a product where I can just raise the price of it sell it. Once that money’s gone, I mean, we have one of the
We have one of the most interesting ⁓ businesses. We can know on January 1 what the maximum amount of money we could make. If all things stay the same, we don’t buy anything new or sell anything new, I can take my rent rolls with what the rents are now and say, this is the most money I can make gross this year. And then what our job is, is to keep all of it as much as possible through quicker turns, through not losing your tenant retention.
and through controlling our costs. So it’s an interesting thing. You most companies can’t say, this is what my sales are gonna be this year. I can say it on my existing portfolio. I know what my, you know, we do rent increases. schedule, you know, they start January 1, but we already know what we’re raising rents. That’s a kind of October, November exercise in our office. We’ve got that all scheduled and they start rolling out in January and really March is when we really push.
Micah Johnson (23:33)
Yeah. Yeah.David Byczek (23:52)
Most of our rent increases happen between March and they are done by the end of August because I don’t want to giving people September, October rent increases and they’re moving out in the winter months. Try to rent an apartment in December. It doesn’t work out well. So we’re always looking ahead and forecasting, but it’s interesting that people, this is a business where time is truly of the essence. We need to…Micah Johnson (24:05)
HaDavid Byczek (24:15)
get the resident out, we need to turn that apartment quickly, we need to get a new resident in there that’s paying us income. If we’re taking six and eight weeks to do a flip, heads will roll in my company. There’s better be a really good reason. We had to gut the entire thing to the studs. I we can do cabinets and I can get cabinets in and out in 72 hours. They can be measured over to our cabinet guide, they’re all in stock up there. We have our own countertop shop, so we make our own countertops.put it in and reinstall. ⁓
Micah Johnson (24:46)
And what’s what you got to do at that level? Cause like you said, you don’t get it back. It’s like a, it’s like an air and the airline industry, can’t sell that seat once the doors closed and it takes off. Like you can’t do it. It’s over now. ⁓ I remember I was there at a conference listening to Jeff Hoffman, the owner of Priceline talk about that very thing, like about how there’s, there’s certain industries where time is what you’re doing. That’s what you’re actually telling. Yep.David Byczek (24:55)
See twice it’s done exactly exactlyThat’s what we’re selling is time. Yep, that’s what we’re selling is time.
that’s one of the important things for your listeners to understand is what’s our real business? We’re selling time. And once you break it down to that, a lot of things really come into focus. You’re like, that truly is what I’m doing. I’m selling time. People talk about, you know, it’s interesting. The appreciation on property to me is just like icing on the cake.
You know, that’s not why I’m buying the property. Everything goes up, but sometimes it goes up more, sometimes it goes less. You know, we try to use the rule of sum of 3 % a year. Okay, I’m not really worried about the appreciation. It’ll come. And whatever that number is, it comes. What I’m looking at is cash flow, cash flow, and then when I’m done looking at cash flow, I’m looking at cash flow again. That’s what I care about. Because that’s what pays the bills. That’s what gives me the investment money. I have never, I shouldn’t say never, but…
Micah Johnson (25:56)
HaDavid Byczek (26:03)
Very few times have I ever refinanced a property and pulled cash out to continue to grow. Very few. ⁓ I can count on a hand one or two times. I’ll do a 1031. I’ll sell and roll all that equity into a much bigger project. I’ll take a $3 million apartment building where I have $2 million in equity and I’ll roll that into a $23 million project. That’s fine, but I’m just not big on pulling cash.Micah Johnson (26:12)
move.David Byczek (26:32)
out. Like it’s paid out.Micah Johnson (26:33)
Right? Well, that goesback to what we were talking about at the beginning and how we’re just tying it up. Know what you’re doing. Know your lane. Understand what it is you’re trying to do. What are you actually trying to accomplish? And then what lines up with accomplishing that? Whatever doesn’t, don’t do it. Right? Just get it out of the way.
David Byczek (26:48)
Yes.Finding your goals,
owning 14 duplexes, you’re not gonna grow wealthy. You’re gonna run yourself ragged, you’re gonna get discouraged, and you’re gonna sell and get out. Anyone that’s got five or six duplexes and wants to grow or the new buzzword scale, you need to start putting a package together, selling it, and 1031 into a 20 unit, a 30 unit, whatever you can buy with those dollars. Now you’ve got economies of scale.
start having a little bit of management help, and now you’re building equity, you’re paying down mortgage, and at the end of the day, now in two years, sell that and buy something. Or do as a lot of people do, which is there’s no right or wrong, refinance it, pull your cash out, go buy another deal. But don’t overfinance it. If you put a million in, if the property will sustain it, pull your million out. Start with that again. Now, because looking at it this way, now you’ve pulled all your cash out of the deal.
Now you’re getting an infinite return. That’s where ROE is a lot more than ROI. ROI, when we have our equity in it, that’s what we’re looking at. ROE is a different animal, and I’m not so concerned about it. I mean, I am sometimes, but not really. I mean, I’ve got properties now that I should probably sell or refinance cash out to go, but the other problem we know in this market is there’s not a lot to buy.
That’s why I’ve switched to building. And what we are buying is expensive. ⁓ I think the least expensive I paid was $139 a door. I think the most expensive this year I paid was $185 a door. But these are all new products within 10 years old, more Class A, mid to high rises. ⁓ But those happen to work out. ⁓ But I just got some appraisals. was doing some estate planning.
got some appraisals on some of my properties and I was even astonished at what this stuff was appraising at. Stuff I built 20 years ago that didn’t cost me 50, 55 a door to build is appraising at 160 a door now. And I’m like, wow, it’s a lot of money. A lot of money.
Micah Johnson (28:54)
Staying it long enoughand it keeps working out like we talked about before. Real estate is the best get rich slow scheme that’s out there.
David Byczek (29:02)
It is truly, ifanyone’s looking to buy a P-Ditty yacht and a plane and a Ferrari in the next five years, you’re in the wrong business. I always tell people, we are get rich slow. And it’s not get rich, it’s get wealthy. But at the end of the day, what do you end up with? You end up with a piece of paper with a big number on it, but you can’t take that piece of paper to the grocery store and buy your Fritos with it. That’s why cash flow is also so important.
especially for an investor like me where I don’t do anything else. I don’t have any other sources of income. I need to feed my family, live, and still have enough money to reinvest into properties and building and buying and keeping things going. And that’s the other big message is you cannot be stagnant. know, everyone’s like, including my wife, know, why don’t you slow down? You know, there is no slow down. You’re either in or you’re out because with the costs, our overhead costs, I mean, I pay for insurance now.
that we didn’t even hear of 15 years ago. Like I have E and O insurance, errors and omissions, if there’s a problem on a lease. I have discrimination insurance. So if one of my team members, unbeknownst to me, is discriminatory and they sue us, I have insurance for that. I mean, the amount of insurance, just the cost of insurance. We have had no losses in five years and I got hit with a 24.9 % increase a year ago October. And then this October,
I got hit with a 13 % increase. in 13 months, I got huge increase. But the bottom line on that is I am still paying per 1,000 less than any other company out there. So we stuck with them, but they knew they could stick it to us because there was no place else to go. know. ⁓ And the 90 % of my portfolio was under one policy with one company. And it’s a great company. I we’ve never had a problem with them. But what that
Micah Johnson (30:43)
Nowhere to go.David Byczek (30:53)
24.9 equated to me was almost $300,000 increase in one year. And you have to be able to absorb that because I can’t pass all of that in one year off to the residents. It couldn’t happen. ⁓Micah Johnson (30:59)
Wow.Yeah, no, there’s no way. So like.
David Byczek (31:08)
You know, and in taxes,yep, like property taxes this year. Property taxes this year on my portfolio, the net cost to me with the increases, I had one property that went, a year ago went from three million to four million in assessment. This year it went from four million to eight million in assessment. We always try to fight them, but we couldn’t fight this one. There was nowhere to go with it. And overall in Wisconsin, we got hit particularly hard.
Micah Johnson (31:12)
Well, I mean, just in the world. go ahead.David Byczek (31:36)
because of some law changes that happened here with our governor. And a little over $300,000 subtracted from my bottom line this year in property tax increases and valuation changes. Huge, huge. Some we got to fight, some we couldn’t.Micah Johnson (31:53)
And that’s where, you’re saying, it’s part of it. So for those out there that are listening, like the real estate journey doesn’t really stop. If you’re staying in it that day to day, you’re gonna be dealing with different things all along the way, from where you started with the duplex to now with 3000 units. Like that is the key. So David, man, I really appreciate your time today and your perspective. You dropped a lot of knowledge on us. Thank you so much for being here. So for those of you that…David Byczek (32:18)
Thanks for having me, I really appreciateit.
Micah Johnson (32:20)
Absolutely. For those of you who got value from the episode, please like this episode, subscribe to the podcast, share this around. Thank you for being with us again, David. Thank you. And we’ll see everybody on the next episode.David Byczek (32:28)
Thank you. Allright, take care.
