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Show Summary
In this conversation, Danny shares his journey in commercial real estate, emphasizing the importance of focusing on various asset classes, building strong relationships, and maintaining a productive morning routine. He discusses the challenges faced in the industry, the significance of teamwork, and the strategies implemented to navigate the complexities of real estate investing. Danny highlights the opportunities arising from market changes and the value of continuous learning in the field.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Danny Newberry (00:00)
real estate is not all linear and not every asset class is moving in the, you know, in the same cycle at the same time. And so I think that there’s huge opportunity if you have a tool bag with lots of tools that you can go to as needed. And so, you know, if you’ve ever been interested or, or, you know, curious, I really recommend, you know, learning aboutother asset classes, right? So, you know, retail, industrial, office, medical, ⁓ know, mobile home parks, know, pad site development, you know, ⁓ single tenant, you know, sale lease backs. I mean, there’s just so many opportunities out there. And I think that’s the fun part is, you know, the hunt of the deal and, you know, learning about different asset classes where you can add value. that would be my, you know, one little nugget that I would
I would throw out there and I’ve sure enjoyed ⁓ being a real estate investor.
Quentin Edmonds (02:27)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And listen, I am truly excited today about our guest. Listen, I’m gonna let him talk you through the different things that he do, that he does. But listen, he’s dynamic. He’s dynamic of what he does. ⁓ He has the privilege to be able to, when it comes to asset classes, listen, he can’t be pigeonholed.And I’m gonna tell him that again, let him tell you a little bit about exactly what it is that he do. But I know you want to get a ton of value out of this conversation. And so I am so happy to introduce you guys to Mr. Danny Newberry. Mr. Danny, how you doing?
Danny Newberry (03:08)
Hey Quen, how are you man? Appreciate you having me on. I really appreciate it. Glad to be here.Quentin Edmonds (03:13)
Absolutely, so happy that you’re here and I know, like I said, our viewers will get a ton of value. So Mr. Danny, I’ll be honest, I want to jump in, I want to dive in. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. Mr. Danny, if you want to give them a little bit of origin story about how you got started, we love the hero’s journey. So you want to tell us a little bit of how you got to where you are right now. We would love that. And then also let them know what markets you’re operating in. Let them know where you’re located. So Mr. Danny, the floor is yours, sir.Danny Newberry (03:42)
Yeah, appreciate it. Well, kind of to go back a little bit in time, ⁓ I grew up in southern Utah. Well, even further before that, was actually my mom’s Colombian, dad’s American, born in Mexico, then grew up in Southern California and went from Southern California to Southern Utah. So that’s where I’m at now. anyways, in my ⁓ first year of college, I remember I wasn’t too excited about the curriculums and what I was going to major and minor in. soOver the summer, I tried a real estate course, had nothing to do with college, and I ended up buying this vacant sixplex from the bank with my best friend’s dad who was a hard money lender. And at that time it was 8%, which I thought was a lot of money. Today that’s cheap money. anyways, I bought it for 155, fixed it up that summer, filled it up, and it appraised for over 300,000. And I said, holy cow, what am I doing going to college when I just made more money than…
you know, I’m gonna do in the major I was considering. And so I was like, all right, I’m gonna do this full time. So I quit school, ended up buying a couple hundred apartment units over a couple of years between Utah and ultimately ended up moving down to Las Vegas. Cause back in that time, 2010, it was one of the hardest hit markets and I was close by. So I figured that made the most sense.
And then ultimately ended up scaling up. was buying a lot of four plexes and six plexes, 10 plexes and decided, okay, look, in order to really, really scale this, need to start buying some larger stuff. So I ended up buying some, a 48 unit and 138 unit. And I remember that I was working my tail off and I’m not going to lie. was buying some class war zone properties. They weren’t the easiest properties to, to, to own and manage, but.
Nonetheless, I had an investor of mine who only owned commercial assets. He owned retail, industrial, and some office. And I asked him one day, said, why don’t you own any multifamily and you invest with me? And you know, he said, Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don’t want to work that hard. I go, wait, what do you mean? And he goes, yeah, I only do triple net leases. go, well, what’s that? So he explained to me what a triple net lease was where the tenant pays for the common area maintenance, the taxes and.
the insurance, which is the exact opposite of residential and multifamily.
And I thought, my gosh, that sounds amazing. That’s where most of my cashflow goes is to those three things. So ultimately ended up buying my first, it was a value add medical office building in Colorado. ⁓ And we turned that around in 13 months, sold it for a million dollars more than we paid by signing, I think it was like two or three leases in the building. And ⁓ kind of the light bulb went off.
From there, I went and started buying some industrial, some retail, and I really wanted to just get my head around different asset classes within the commercial realm. And I felt like that was a good stepping stone for me to kind of evolve as a real estate investor. Ultimately, at the end of the day, I fell in love specifically in where I focus more of my time and attention now is in neighborhood shopping centers and small bay industrial. So that’s where I…
primarily focus and that’s where I’ve built a majority of our portfolio. yeah, I mean, you know, it’s been a great ride. We’ve obviously, you know, done a lot of deals in a lot of states. ⁓ I wanna say it’s been 18 states now that I’ve done business in about a quarter billion dollars in transactional volume and currently have a little bit over a hundred million dollar portfolio. So that’s kind of the internal business and
what we focus on. And I would say that within the areas that we’re most interested in, we’re primarily in the Rocky Mountain region and Southwest Corridor. So I’m based out of, live between Colorado and Utah. And so I like all the states that kind of surround that area. And yeah, we’re just continuing to build. We’re continuing to find these value add.
deals and we’re constantly kind building out our processes and doing a lot of joint ventures and looking for deal flow in every which way, right? You gotta have a lot of irons in the fire to really bring in opportunities that make sense.
Quentin Edmonds (08:48)
Absolutely makes sense. Absolutely. Well, definitely. Thank you. Thank you for walking us through the journey to your success. Right. Thank you for walking us through to how you got to where you are and how things are working. I would love to pick your brain, Ms. Nanny, a little bit about your strategies that you use. And I would love for you to answer that two ways. ⁓ Tell me some business strategies, but also some personal strategies that you know that have helped you along the way. You know, some people got, you know, meditation.cold plunge, of different personal strategies that they use. But what are some business strategies that you can identify that you can say, yes, this has definitely helped me, but also some personal strategies that have helped you along the way.
Danny Newberry (09:30)
Yeah, all right, no, that’s a great question. So I’ll just kind of give you a little breakdown. I’m pretty religious about my morning routine. And I feel like that sets up my day, because the way you start your morning is the way you live your day. And the way you live your day is the way you live your life. It’s the way I look at it. And so every day I wake up, I go immediately into my gym slash, you know, dojo meditation room. And, you know, I will start with some deep breathing, parasympathetic breathing.then I’ll go into some red light therapy. Then I jump into my meditation. And then from there, I’ll go into my cold plunge, dive into some stretching after that and typically a workout. And then I’ll get into a sauna session, maybe a steam, ⁓ followed by, you know, lots of hydration. So I’m constantly putting like lemon water and sea salt in the morning, really hydrating, getting the fluids in there and, ⁓ and then getting some, some.
polyphenols through ⁓ matcha tea and then, you know, really, ⁓ I feel amazing every morning, you know, by the time I’m done with this morning routine, I’m just, you know, I’m on cloud nine already. So I’ve already started the day off in the right way. My stress levels way down and I can think very clearly. And so I would say on a personal level, having a strict morning routine is critical. It’s huge. And it really, ⁓ you know, with
with everything going on in life, ⁓ you have to have certain benchmarks that you can really count on to be able to ⁓ ride your day the way that you’re gonna be as effective as possible and feel good and not let that stress level build up, right? So ⁓ that’s on the personal side. On the business side, for me, a big one is having a great team has been critical.
having A players and then also, you know, being part of a mastermind that really focuses within the niche that, you specifically for me, I’m in commercial real estate. So, you know, there’s a lot of residential, there’s a lot of multifamily masterminds out there. That doesn’t quite fit my model. I’m really more focused on being around a group of investors that, you know, are specifically focused on retail, industrial, office, ⁓ you know.
pad site development, cetera. So that type of group has really helped me to excel to the next level.
Quentin Edmonds (12:29)
Yeah. No, thank you so much for sharing. Thank you so much for sharing both business strategies and your personal strategies. And the more I talk to entrepreneurs, the more I am learning that these personal strategies really matter. In I wrote it down. I never quite heard it like that, but this is how I wrote down what you said. How you live your morning is how you live your life and how you live your day. So is that pretty much synthesize what you said? And so I absolutely love that. And I thank you for sharing that.Danny Newberry (12:55)
Yeah.Quentin Edmonds (12:58)
And I think some people that’s listening to this, that’s going to help them kind of with their mind shift. Because the more I talk to, like I said, successful entrepreneurs, they have something that centers them, something that they can always go back to that grounds them to get them back right where they need to be and in alignment where they need to be. And honestly, kind of like the alignment starts and everything else aligns with it. Just like you said, we’re starting out your day. So I really, really appreciate you saying that. I think that’s pretty powerful.Danny Newberry (13:26)
Thank you.Quentin Edmonds (13:27)
Absolutely. So let me ask you, I know you found success, you worked your way up to success. Have you faced any adversity on your way leading to success? know, sometimes deals go sideways. Sometimes you have to pivot fast. Is there any story that comes to your mind that you can say, yeah, I definitely had to face adversity to get to where I’m at?Danny Newberry (13:45)
absolutely. mean, every step of the way, there’s always challenges from being a one man team to growing a, I would ⁓ say we’re a small but very nimble and ⁓ effective team, but building the right team. ⁓ And then, yeah, absolutely. You’re going through different cycles in real estate and all asset classes are going through a different cycle at different times.You know, and so we’ve definitely seen that, like we’ve got a medical office building where we’ve had some challenges on that asset and you know we’ve lost tenants.
We’ve really, we have gone through some deals where we just had to put extra resources, time and attention that we didn’t think from the beginning that was gonna be needed. you just get it, when that happens, you just gotta get up, roll your sleeves up and get in there and get it done. mean, there’s just no putting your head in the sand, right? You gotta make it happen. And so that’s what we do. mean, we’ve done close to 60 commercial deals.
And ⁓ out of all those deals, we’ve probably had a handful that, you know, ⁓ either we sold at our basis, at our cost, maybe we didn’t make much profit. There’s only been one deal I’ve lost money on and it was the one deal I didn’t go out and look at myself before ⁓ going hard on the money and closing on it. That was a good lesson learned. Like always put your eyes on it, you know, always make sure like, you know what you’re buying. And this was an auction deal. We thought we were buying it for a no brainer.
price per foot and location and that just ended up not being the case. So that was a huge learning lesson right there. anyways, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you’re at in the journey, there’s always gonna be something that’s kind of ⁓ a hurdle that you have to get through, right? And keep learning, keep pushing. And that’s why this game is, it’s always fun. There’s never a dull moment. You’re always learning something.
Quentin Edmonds (15:46)
learning something. love that. People say, you know, if you’re not growing, you’re dying, you know. like, you know, you’re growing, you’re always looking for a new way, a new angle, a new perspective, a new mind shift. And so, ⁓ I appreciate you saying that for sure. Let me ask you, what’s the next real goal for you? Are you looking to solve or scale something next? Like, what’s next for you?Danny Newberry (16:07)
Yeah, so we’ve really implemented in the last year ⁓ EOS, which has been a, it’s called entrepreneurial operating system. And it’s been great because I’ve been taking myself out of the day-to-day business aspect of running ⁓ every aspect of the company to really putting myself in the owner’s box. And man, that has been such a monumental shift.for me personally buying back my time and really just focusing on ⁓ the big ticket items in the company, right? So like the things that really can move the needle but aren’t taking away my time and attention ⁓ from the big picture. And I feel like when you’re running a company, you’re going in 50 different directions all at once, right? So it’s hard to really take a step back, get a bird’s eye view.
and focus on the most important things. So by implementing this, it’s just been awesome. Yeah. And I think that’s really what we’ll continue to do is focusing on putting the right people in the right seats and really making sure I stay out in the day to day because boy, I can take you quick.
Quentin Edmonds (18:03)
Yes sir. Yeah. I hear you, you know, heard somebody say, you you delegate to elevate, you know what I mean? And so, yeah, you know, that’s thing right now. And I know you said you love the thrill of the deal. And so I know sometimes you can get amped up, but it’s so beautiful to know that you’re putting these systems in place, like you said, to buy back your time. That’s absolutely awesome. Thinking like the owner, thinking like the boss that you are. And so yeah, I hear that for sure.And I love how you’re talking about putting people in the right position. I know how you talked about masterminds. So I want to just give you a perspective. I want you to talk a little bit about relationships and how important relationships have been to you, how impactful relationships have been to you over the course of your journey.
Danny Newberry (18:49)
Yeah, absolutely. mean, look, this is a people business and this is, ⁓ it’s all based around relationships. mean, you know, my mentor always said, you have no business doing a deal by yourself, like, especially in commercial real estate, like you can’t be good at everything. And there’s a lot of moving parts and, you know, everybody can bring something to the table and sell.you know, that’s the way I’ve always looked at it. I’ve done a lot of partnerships with a lot of different people and it’s been fantastic. mean, 99 % of the time it’s just, you know, great people, great partnerships, you know, great opportunities that without everyone putting in, ⁓ you know, wouldn’t have been the success that it was. so, ⁓ you know, from our investors to, you know, our GP partners ⁓ to, you know,
people, wholesaling deals, mean, all of these factors are just, you you got to build great relationships from brokers to, you know, leasing brokers to selling brokers, right? I mean, everybody is a potential asset and a potential to, you know, really add to your business. And so that’s huge. I mean, we’re constantly building relationships and, you know, I’m going on, let’s see, 2009, 17 years in the business and
you know, one of my absolute, you know, favorite people in the world and one of my biggest investors. I really look up to them. mean, you know, we’re still doing deals together, you know, consistently. And it’s just been, it’s been an awesome ride, right? And so, you know, just to build on that and ⁓ it’s amazing and to do it with people that you love and like, and people you want to hang out with more. Like I do that with people. just.
And someone who’s got a great deal and they want to partner up and I’m like, well, this is someone I want to hang out with more. You know, that’s the other piece of the deal that I’m looking at. It’s like, you you want to be around people you like to be around, so might as well do business together.
Quentin Edmonds (20:54)
Absolutely. Danny, man, you said it best. Relationships are everything. And thank you for talking about how relationships have made a great impact on you. Try to tell people all the time, you know, people are the real currency. And so building these relationships and partnerships, they’re everything. And so listen, is there anything else maybe that was on your mind that you wanted to say that you didn’t get a chance to say? I just want to give you the opportunity if there’s some encouragement, education, or anything that you wanted tostay before we kind of wrap up. just wanted to give you the floor.
Danny Newberry (21:23)
Yeah, so I would just say this, like, you know, if you’re interested in real estate, ⁓ I think so many, you know, focus on just residential or maybe, you know, you know, transition into, you know, multifamily. And I would just say, you know, I think it’s a great thing to not be pigeon-hell to any one asset class. It’s really, I think one of our core strengths is that we can underwrite, we can find value, we know how to manage and… ⁓you know, take down lots of different asset classes. And I think that that’s huge because again, every, every, you know, the
real estate is not all linear and not every asset class is moving in the, you know, in the same cycle at the same time. And so I think that there’s huge opportunity if you have a tool bag with lots of tools that you can go to as needed. And so, you know, if you’ve ever been interested or, or, you know, curious, I really recommend, you know, learning about
other asset classes, right? So, you know, retail, industrial, office, medical, ⁓ know, mobile home parks, know, pad site development, you know, ⁓ single tenant, you know, sale lease backs. I mean, there’s just so many opportunities out there. And I think that’s the fun part is, you know, the hunt of the deal and, you know, learning about different asset classes where you can add value. that would be my, you know, one little nugget that I would
I would throw out there and I’ve sure enjoyed ⁓ being a real estate investor.
Quentin Edmonds (22:56)
Absolutely. Mr. Danny, sir. Thank you so much, man. Thank you for being here today. Thank you so much for your story. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your perspective. I know our listeners got a ton of value out of this conversation. So Mr. Danny, I appreciate you being here today,Danny Newberry (23:11)
Thank you, Quintin, I really appreciate it as well. It’s been a great conversation and thank you so much for having me on.Quentin Edmonds (23:17)
Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Danny, you got the value, you got the nuggets. Please make sure you are subscribed. You do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations that we’re going to continue to have. So Mr. Danny, I just want to say thank you again and to everyone else. We’ll see you on the next time.
