Real Estate Wealth Is Not Luck: How Discipline Built a 100+ Door Portfolio

Adam Sondgeroth (00:00)
Since I’ve been doing this and as I’ve gotten more successful at it, you know, I I always hear the things, you know, like I’ve I’ve been able to do a lot of whatever I want to do for quite a few years now, all because I was diligent in this, you know. I I didn’t spend my money on drinking or drugs or, you know, toys, you know, boats or stuff like that. I I I bought more real estate. And and I I didn’t come from anything. I didn’t have I didn’t have a trust fund, I didn’t have rich parents, I didn’t have anything like that. I just I had a great work work ethic.

Quentin Edmonds (02:01)
everyone. Welcome to the *Real Estate Pros* podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am super excited to be here today. I I’m excited about my guests. I’m excited about hit the time that he’s given us and and his grace, and I appreciate him being here. And and I’ll listen, this gentleman he’s done a lot, and I’m and I’m and I’m so glad that we get a chance to kind of peek through his lens, peek through his experience and and glean some nuggets from him. And so I am so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Adam Sondgeroth. Mr. Adam, how you doing today, sir?

Adam Sondgeroth (02:37)
Good, how are you, Quentin?

Quentin Edmonds (02:38)
man, doing good. Not as good as you, but I’m doing good. You know, I’m doing pretty good, you know. Yes, sir. Well, listen, Mr. Adam, listen, I am a type sir. I like to dial right in. So I would love to know what is your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the place that you’re in. And then man, tell us what part of the world I guess you operate out of. You can tell us where you are right now too if you want to. I’ll leave that up to you. But again, man, your main focus, your origin story, and what part of the world you’re in. Mr. Adams, sir, you have the floor.

Adam Sondgeroth (03:11)
Sure. so so I’m I’m out of Illinois, southwest of Chicago, about hour and a half. Currently I’m in Denver, Colorado. It’s it’s my birthday weekend and I’m I’m gonna do a a 14er this weekend with a buddy. So yeah. I like to I like to be active. kind of my origin story. I started in two thousand one. well, I mean I I I kind of got interested in real estate a little before then, you know. I read *Rich Dad Poor Dad* in I don’t know early or yeah, early 2000s, late nineties, whenever it came out. that kind of got me interested, you know. Then I got my first place in 2001. I ended up getting married. My I I owned a house then. I bought my first I got my first house when I was 20. I think I bought my first one when I was 21, something like that. So I had my own house, got married, had and my wife got pregnant. so we need a bigger house. So our my current house turned into my first kind of investment property and we bought a new one. Then I went next the following year I got another property and it just kind of kinda went from there. I got up to about twelve or thirteen units, I guess. And and around two thousand seven, we’d had two kids by then and I was working a lot. I I I still have a W-2. I’ve had the W-2 the whole time, same job. so I so I just kind of scaled back, you know, right, right when—when the world was when the world was getting turned upside down with the the the sub two or the the the the loan crisis I guess mortgage crisis I guess. Yeah. So so I held off and then I started buying again in twenty sixteen. I had a I had a kind of an incident happen on one of my properties and kind of got me back into it. I end up I started buying in 2016. So 2016 I had about 12 or 13 units, I guess, doors. and then bought between 2016 and up to 2023, I was up to like a hundred and six. Yeah. all on my own. I did that through conventional financing. I’ve used equity out of one property, you know, done some refinance and done some of the bearer method. which at that time we didn’t even know what a Burr method was, you know, because there wasn’t the internet wasn’t wasn’t as prevalent, you know. Yeah. no BiggerPockets and stuff like that. So so I I did that through creative financing, bank financing, pretty much any way I could could figure it out to get doors, you know. Yeah. Also in the meantime, I kind of I found YouTube. I learned what syndication was. I got part of a part of a mentorship group and between twenty nineteen and I don’t know, twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, I did five syndications. I’m still involved with one of apartment syndications. Yeah. I still involved with one of them. yeah, and then I bought—I bought a twenty-one unit deal last year, about an hour away from me, hour and a half away from me. So that’s that’s my main focus now is to kind of transition out of some of the single family stuff I have in smaller multifamily into into bigger, bigger multifamily stuff. Yes.

Quentin Edmonds (06:55)
Sir, yes, sir. Well, thank you, man. Thank you, Mr. Adam, for taking us through the story, kind of telling us where you are, kind of like the transition or the the you know the origin stories of kind of how you got to where you are now. And Mr. Adam, I I often I I I make this statement on the podcast, I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Like we’ve been building momentum to where we are now, we’ve learned from our losses. So as you went through the mo the motions, as you went through the momentum in the journey, what has the journey taught you about yourself, particularly around like reinforcing your strategies and different like that? Like what has the journey kind of got you seeing clearly now when it comes to business?

Adam Sondgeroth (07:33)
So I kind of learned kind of never to give up on myself and never to quit, you know. I I I had a vision of what I want to do when I first started out, it’s just kind of to you know, I I I had I had a newborn coming and I mean, yeah, I had a job, it paid pretty well, but you know, diapers and formula are expensive. So I was just trying to figure out a way to to supplement that, you know. and in the meantime it just kind of snowballed and I kind of decided what I wanted to do is, you know, be able provide for generations to come after me, you know. So I I would try to buy properties or I tried to buy something I remember and I I called the bank and the bank’s like, yeah, we’re kind of we’re kinda comfortable where we’re at with you right now or you know, so they they kind of told me no. So I I figured out a different way. and you know that was probably owner finance you know or private money some something something along those lines and then you know I I kinda acquired I I doubled half of my portfolio was was built on owner finance or through some kind of creative financing, you know. and and I just I just kept going. Then finally I went to the bank and I need to I need to refinance the owners out and the bankers like, “Well, you kind of don’t have whatever, blah, blah, blah.” And they they only knew about the the portfolio I had with them currently. And I showed them the rest of my stuff and the banker about fell out of the chair. He was like—he’s like, “Holy cow, where’d all this come from?” you know, and which was kind of funny. But—but it was stuff I had acquired that they, you know, they didn’t know and it it wasn’t contingent upon anything else I had with them, so it wasn’t any of their business, you know. So but he was pleasantly surprised on what I had my monthly my monthly income and monthly the monthly cash flow that I had coming in. So—

Quentin Edmonds (09:15)
Yeah, yeah. I love it. Thank you, man. Thank you for for that reflective answer. Looking back. I love how you talked about the bank. Listen, you ain’t know all my stuff. When I show you my hand, that’s really gonna show you what’s going on, right? So I I love that. So Mr. Adam, what’s next for you business wise, sir? Like what are you looking to solve or scale next? what’s what’s next for you, sir?

Adam Sondgeroth (09:36)
So I I’m just going to like I said, transition kinda out of the smaller stuff and into—into bigger multifamily. my plan is to my goal is to close get another sixty doors this—this year and probably eighty to a hundred every year going after, you know, personally. I’ll still do some syndication, still do some partnership stuff and stuff like that. But still doing that kind of stuff. I’m looking at—I’ve had some requests to do some coaching, you know, I’ve I’ve—I’ve had people reach out to me, wanting me to coach them and stuff like that. So we’re looking at doing some I’m looking at doing some coaching. So yeah, that’s kinda in the works as well. So—so yeah.

Quentin Edmonds (10:47)
Yeah, yeah. I love it, sir. I love it. So coaching, so obviously that goes in with with helping people, helping people succeed. And so I often ask this question because I want to get people’s perspective that comes on on this this one word, right? So Adam, when you hear the word relationship, specifically around business, but relationship in general, when you hear the word relationship, what comes to mind for you?

Adam Sondgeroth (11:11)
Well, you know, there’s a lot of different facets, right? business relationship are kind of kind of sometimes just surface level, you know, just they don’t don’t go too deep. But generally the better you can—the better you know somebody, the the closer you are, the more stronger bonds you grow, you can do a better you get better at business with them as well. You know, not only not only you know, either, you know, through a a wife or a girlfriend or a partnership like that, but like just in in in general in business, you know, it it always helps to have strong bonds and strong relationships in everything. Just to cause you know if if if you’ve hit a rough spot you know some guys that’s that’s been in it you can—you can talk through it with them. You know, you gotta be open honest with people sometimes. Yeah. You can talk through it with them. A lot of times guys have been there and they can say, “Hey dude, like do this, do this, and like that’s it. Like you’re—you’re good.” you know, like, you know, something that you might be dealing with that’s kind of you know, personally looks to be kind of a a big deal to somebody else might just be, you know, another Tuesday. Yeah. So if if you can strengthen those bonds and kind of be open and honest with people sometimes, yeah, it’s beautiful thing.

Quentin Edmonds (12:22)
Yeah, absolutely. So listen, so your years on on the railroad, has any of that helped you kind of in the space where you are now? Like, is there any kind of carryover of experience that kind of helps you within the real estate space?

Adam Sondgeroth (12:36)
I mean, you know, I started working with my uncle when I was 12. He was a contractor. So I started kind of I’ve been handy most of my life, you know, and and I did a lot of that stuff kind of in the railroad as well. But like with the railroad, it kind of just you’re like the last line of defense. You have to be the you’re the guy that’s gotta get it done, you know. If you’re a real estate investor and if you’re kind of an owner operator or mom and pop, you know, kind of show at it’s to begin with anyway, and I’m do everything myself now, but like—kind of the last line of defense. So it’s kind of kind of gotta take on that mindset. Like you’re the guy. You gotta figure it out, you know? yeah. Who are you gonna call? If you can’t take care of it yourself, you have to figure out who you’re gonna call and get in there to take care of whatever issue might might be needed.

Quentin Edmonds (13:21)
So yeah, no, absolutely. Well listen, Mr. Adam, is there any topic that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about? Is there any other words of inspiration, education, motivation? Like maybe you came in with a specific message on your mind that you felt like our viewers needed to know. Kind of want to open up floor so you can land that message if you have something like that.

Adam Sondgeroth (13:44)
Sure, you know so. Since I’ve been doing this and as I’ve gotten more successful at it, you know, I I always hear the things, you know, like I’ve I’ve been able to do a lot of whatever I want to do for quite a few years now, all because I was diligent in this, you know. I I didn’t spend my money on drinking or drugs or, you know, toys, you know, boats or stuff like that. I I I bought more real estate. And and I I didn’t come from anything. I didn’t have I didn’t have a trust fund, I didn’t have rich parents, I didn’t have anything like that. I just I had a great work work ethic. So anybody if they put their mind to it can can do this. You know, it’s it’s not rocket science. you you just have to be diligent about it, right? You know, you just have to be diligent and disciplined. Yeah. And you know, I hear, “You’re lucky, you’re this, you’re that.” And like, no, no, not really. I kind of worked my butt off for it, you know. so it’s so that’s you know, that’s kind of the that’s kind of the thing, right? Doesn’t matter what your job is, it doesn’t matter where you came from. Any of this is possible. You just, you know, either have to have the knowledge or the right person to to to lead you down the path. You know, it’s it’s really pretty simple. You just gotta figure out your your why and what you wanna do and and do it, you know.

Quentin Edmonds (15:35)
Yeah, yeah. Yes, sir. Now great wisdom. One of my mentors said when you know who you are, you know what to do. And so I I absolutely love that. And that you figuring out your why, as you said, is paramount. Well listen, sir. man, I I really, really appreciate appreciate you coming on. 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, sir?

Adam Sondgeroth (16:00)
I’m on LinkedIn. They can get—they can email me at—I’m [email protected]. It’s probably the easiest one. Yeah. Any—any of the other socials they can find me on. I’m—I’m on Facebook and all that stuff too. So just reach out. Yeah. Happy to talk, happy to help, happy to see what I can do.

Quentin Edmonds (16:19)
Absolutely. Well, listen, Mr. Adam, let me say three things to you, sir. First, thank you for your time. You know, you couldn’t be doing anything with your time right now, but you so spent some time with us. So definitely, thank you for your time. So much appreciated. thank you for your story. Thank you for the gift of your authenticity, your kid, the gift of your integrity. You know, I really believe the story has a way of planting seeds. And people may—we may never see the growth, right? But the seed is planted and that seed can take root and grow at any given time. So thank you for coming and planting some seeds that really can help some people course correct their business and their life. So I appreciate that. And lastly, sir, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think and bringing your mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming on today. Welcome. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, listen, you heard Mr. Adam. His information is in the show notes. Please get in contact with him. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people, just like Mr. Adam. All right. Y’all have a great day.