Start With Nothing: How Anthony Marshall Built a Billion-Dollar Real Estate Portfolio

Anthony Marshall (00:00)
Well, the main thing I have to say is don’t ever give up because before things are easy, they’re very hard. They’re very, very hard before things are easy. I was struggling. was, you know, I was, I was very badly struggling. I was, I was living in a bar for God sakes under a pool table. My aunt’s bar under a pool table. Like, that’s, that’s, I was struggling. Of course I was young and I had someone there to

Cody Crabb (00:22)
I can’t think of more desperate circumstances than that, honestly. That’s wild.

Anthony Marshall (00:27)
But you also want people, also, here’s, you know, here’s a southern part of me that’s coming out right now. You also want to surround yourself with people who make you better.

Cody Crabb (02:11)
Hello and welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb. And today I’ve got Anthony Marshall with Apex Business Solutions, a Dallas based private lending and alternative financing company working with developers, builders and business owners looking for smarter access to capital. I’m very excited to talk to you today, Anthony. Thanks so much for hopping on.

Anthony Marshall (02:31)
problem but it’s an awesome opportunity for the both of us.

Cody Crabb (02:34)
Yeah, so ⁓ I’d love to hear a little bit about your story, ⁓ where you got started in real estate and kind of how that got you to today.

Anthony Marshall (02:44)
Yeah, originally I originally was not in real estate. Originally I was in marketing and PR. Just to kind of abbreviate it, I started off at the age of 12. I was kicked out of the house. I stayed with my aunt. My aunt was a, she knew about marketing and PR really well. She taught me, read me through all the specifics and stuff like that. I used to gamble playing pool, use the money I made from that to buy my first laptop.

Cody Crabb (03:11)
That’s awesome. Yeah.

Anthony Marshall (03:15)
Yeah, well, this time I was probably 13, 14-ish. Because it takes a little while to get to learn. And I used that to buy a laptop PC. then I started, you know, she told me how to make websites, flyers, social media advertisement, you know, all the basics, PR, physical ad campaigns. Then we did some, you know, search and engine optimization, stuff like that. And…

I got, grew a pretty big portfolio there and there in Beaumont, Texas, where I was originally from with the companies out there. And ⁓ from there I moved on into real estate. So pretty much I used the money I was making from the marketing company. I took a portion of it and I bought a little piece of property beside the place where I was, where I was at. ⁓ And I put a tiny home on it and that’s where I stayed.

But then I was like, wait, I got to put another one on here because to be honest with you, this is not going very well. need an office now. I’ve grew, you know, I’ve got a few employees. I need an office. I can’t just, we can’t just all stay virtual. So put another tiny home there, put an office there. I had probably.

I was there probably three or four months and I decided I wanted to move to Dallas, Texas. Because there was a bigger market, I was getting more, know, I was getting more out there. My name was getting pushed out there and I was like, well, I can keep them here, but I want to go to Dallas. So what I did was I like, you know what, wait a minute, I’m just going to rent this out. So I started leasing out those tiny homes, added three more tiny homes in there while was in Dallas and pretty much just leased them all out. I had a small little section right in the middle. It was literally a U, a small section right in the middle.

where there was a wash house and a laundry mat right there in the middle of the property. And keep in mind, this is only about a half acre ish. So very small piece of property. I, and I used, I was, doing about 1200 a month from each one of those. I was like, this is just the ultimate hack, the ultimate hack. So from there, I kind of went into, you know, investing in higher ticket, like a higher ticket investment, property investment. So,

Margaritaville’s convention centers, hotels, RV parks, and I kind of grew it to be this big empire.

Cody Crabb (06:24)
Wow. mean, so many questions already. ⁓ So when you first started kind of getting into the these higher ticket deals, what did that first deal kind of look like? Like what was what did it ⁓ how did that shake out? Because there’s got to be there’s a leap somewhere. And I’m trying to figure out exactly where that was, you know.

Anthony Marshall (06:43)
Yeah. So, so the bigger, the first big deal I got into was it was an RV park. I call it a big deal because at the time, you know, I was very young. I was 17 and I, I didn’t, I didn’t necessarily know crap about the industry, but I was very young and you know, I was just like, I was emancipated already. was like, yeah, let’s do this. Well, well, that’s where it got difficult because you know, I go to this, I go to this guy and it was in Crystal Beach, Texas. It’s an RV park, just a, just a little 15, 15 spot RV park, but that was big for me.

And he was like, you can’t afford this. I’m like, well, how much do want for it? He said something like 890 grams. I said, what? He’s like, yeah. I was like, that’s cheap, bro. I was like, I’ve been looking at other RV parks. was like, they’re like one to two million. He’s like, you got to redo the sewer. You have to get, you have to pull permits to redo the electrical and everything like that. Well, I didn’t realize that it was going to be a 30 or 40 grand overhead. That’s why it was so cheap. That’s why the RV park was so affordable to buy.

I didn’t realize it would be that much overhead to repair the park. Well, was a lot of overhead. It ended up being around 110 grand to repair the park. And it took me two years to do that. But then once that happened, that was a very high populated tourist destination. So all the RV travelers come down there and park and stuff like that during the summer. So summers were fine, but winters, I struggled. But I started cash flowing from that and then I had the marketing company at the same time.

And I was, you know, I was bringing in this money. was like, well, we’ll just invest in something bigger. So I invested in a, ⁓ I invested in an apartment complex and this apartment complex was in Dallas. ⁓ and to be completely honest with you, it was a, I, it was a stupid idea because, and I, and I’m just, is just, this is just my personal opinion. Invest in commercial real estate because at the end of the day, or like, if you’re gonna, if you’re gonna buy anything, like if you’re gonna buy an apartment complex, it’s not.

it’s not that much more. It’s more affordable to buy a shopping strip. Because think about it, if those businesses are making money, they’re going to pay their lease.

Cody Crabb (08:47)
That’s a good point. mean, that’s the whole point of them being there. So it makes a lot of sense.

Anthony Marshall (08:52)
Yes, and that’s where I kind of wish I would have moved off instead. Now I’ve got some shopping strips, but I wished before that I would have invested into, like my first time, wish I would have invested into a shopping strip.

Cody Crabb (09:08)
Well, that’s really interesting. I do hear a lot of people say, you know, that commercial is like way more hands off and they’re able to, and not even just hands off, but like you’re less worried about it. Just like you said, that the whole purpose of them being there is to earn some money and to pay you.

Anthony Marshall (09:26)
And businesses who are making money are not going to pay their lease because they don’t want to lose that capital income that’s coming in from.

Cody Crabb (09:35)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, so I, I’m curious. So you moved from RV parks into apartments. ⁓ it kind of what, what changes did you start to see? mean, when you’re starting investing in these different asset classes, I’m sure you’re kind of having to shift gears quite a bit. You’re learning some stuff about, whoops, didn’t know that when I started that kind of stuff. ⁓ what kind of lessons did you learn? ⁓ I mean, a good one, a good example of that is that massive bill you got for the RV park, but

I’m curious if there were other ones as you were kind of switching around asset classes.

Anthony Marshall (10:08)
I don’t, when I tend to buy something, I tend to buy it because of the value. I don’t tend to buy it because of the way it looks. I buy it because of the property value. And when I see the property value being within the next 20 years, and real estate is one of

most high demand industries because there’s not a lot of real estate left to buy. The government owns a lot. A lot of these investment companies own a lot of real estate. that’s why everybody leases now.

because real estate is getting too expensive. But there are people who will buy real estate. So when I bought that apartment complex, I didn’t realize the significance of the remodeling I was going to have to do and the fact that it was section eight housing before I got to it. A very, very nice apartment complex too I have. The outside was beautiful, but the inside was just not very good. When I see something, if I’m looking for an apartment, like I just bought a penthouse in New York, when I was looking for one,

I didn’t care what the outside looked like. I cared what the inside looked like and what neighborhood it was in. It could look like the worst building in the world, but if the inside’s perfect, pristine condition, I’m fine. They in fact had just done a renovation on the outside of the apartment complex to sell it is what they did it for. To make it look good, yeah.

Cody Crabb (11:58)
Yeah, so you know that gets you a little bit that gets you in the door, but then as soon as you’re there who knows so

Anthony Marshall (12:04)
That was about a $3 million renovation. took about four years.

Cody Crabb (12:11)
⁓ so I guess, I guess one of my, one of my big questions for you is, ⁓ you know, some people would say, like, they, they want to be an investor. A lot of our listeners are say this, they want to be an investor, but they don’t have time or they don’t have money or they’re, lacking in something. And, ⁓ I just would love to hear, obviously your story shows that that’s kind of not really true. You can kind of start at any level.

I’d love to hear what you have to say to those people specifically, because it seems like you’ve certainly experienced something other than that.

Anthony Marshall (12:50)
Well, the main thing I have to say is don’t ever give up because before things are easy, they’re very hard. They’re very, very hard before things are easy. I was struggling. was, you know, I was, I was very badly struggling. I was, I was living in a bar for God sakes under a pool table. My aunt’s bar under a pool table. Like, that’s, that’s, I was struggling. Of course I was young and I had someone there to

Cody Crabb (13:12)
I can’t think of more desperate circumstances than that, honestly. That’s wild.

Anthony Marshall (13:18)
But you also want people, also, here’s, you know, here’s a southern part of me that’s coming out right now. You also want to surround yourself with people who make you better.

You cannot surround yourself with people. Everybody, okay, I’m not saying, you know, if you have friends from high school, don’t cut them off, but if those friends aren’t doing anything with their lives, you don’t wanna hang around them consistently because you only amount to what you surround yourself with. I knew, I started off from a young age, I knew I was gonna have to surround my…

I knew that if I wanted to be successful, I was going to have to surround myself with millionaires. And not even millionaires, but billionaires, because that’s how you become successful. You take those people’s thoughts and their mindset, and you push them into you.

It just happens. You’re like, well, these guys are so successful. I’ve had people come to me, they’re like, you’re so successful and so young age. And I’m a very relationship based person. Money means absolutely nothing to me. You could take all my money now and I wouldn’t care. Not just because I would be able to build it back. I’m very confident I would be able to build it back, but because money is a materialistic object. It’s also another thing. You shouldn’t get into this industry or any other industry, loans or finance, oil and gas. I was in the oil and gas industry too. talked about that.

⁓ But you should not get into any industry whatsoever and be in it just for the money. Because if you’re in it just for the money, you’re not going to be successful. You have to be doing it because you love doing it. Me, I love, I feel like my mission in life is to put a smile on people’s faces. You have to find the reason you want to do that, be in that industry and do that. Because once I put a smile on someone’s face, it puts one online. I never smile unless I put a smile on someone’s face.

Cody Crabb (15:03)
Yeah, that’s certainly relatable. feel like there’s a huge neon sign that’s like, ⁓ you know, help others and then your life will get better and people just ignore it. Like people think, well, no, not really. Like, not really. Like, you know, the whole smite, like helping others. said the ⁓ making sure that you’re thinking of, you know,

people around you, making sure that you’re caring for your relationships. mean, that stuff is going to get you further than just about anything else you could do in business and in life, honestly.

Anthony Marshall (16:23)
matter how much money you have. Connections is key. I quite literally stand by that. there’s a lot of millionaires who will say, I’m not going to talk to them or I don’t want to do business with them because they’re small. They’ve only got like 300, 400 grand in the bank account. I’m just going to be very upfront with this right now.

I am worth a lot in asset wise. I’m worth a lot asset wise. Capital wise, no. But asset wise, I’m worth a lot. And that’s also a problem is when someone tries to talk, it’s not necessarily the consumer’s fault anymore. It’s the business owner’s fault at this point. Because there’s consumers who want to learn, but there’s some business owners who just

throw them off like, I don’t have the time to teach you. They’ve got all the time in the world. They’re making all kinds of money, but they don’t have the time to teach them. That’s another thing. So, so my key word for everybody who wants to start off is find you a mentor, finding a mentor who has been through it. People think, I don’t need a mentor. can just, you know, I can watch all this stuff online, on YouTube and all of this on Tik Tok, you know, and it’ll be perfectly fine. No, you need a mentor. You need somebody to hold your hand. I don’t mean a coach. A coach is going to say,

you got this and send you out there to do it. Tell you a little bit and send you out there to do it. I mean a mentor, a mentor, someone who’s going to hold your hand the whole way through the process.

Cody Crabb (17:53)
Yeah, yeah, I think that’s so true about coaching. mean, literally, they’re, by definition, they’re not doing the thing that you want to do. mean, like, their whole thing is completely different than that. So I think you bring up a really good point, which is people that are in the industry doing what you want to be doing, why wouldn’t you go straight to them for

For advice. mean that that’s the that’s the kind of people so okay. Here’s a question for you then So how do you how do you find those people then like where where do those people where are those people hiding, you know?

Anthony Marshall (18:31)
debate the business owners.

Cody Crabb (18:32)
Yeah, or just people that are that like, how do you find a mentor? Like if you really are that early on in industry.

Anthony Marshall (18:38)
I’m right here. That’s the thing. That’s the thing though. People think it’s so hard to get in contact with millionaires or billionaires. People think it’s so hard to get in contact. It’s really just not. You shoot them an email. You tell them, hey, I want to learn about this. You shoot them a DM on Instagram. Nine times out of 10, you send them a heartfelt DM on Instagram or on Facebook, on TikTok or something. Their social media team will see that DM and nine times out of 10, they will send it to them.

or go on their website, look up their email, look up their business email, send it to them, contact their secretary. It’s all stuff like this, don’t be obsessive, but you know, find somebody that you want to mentor you, somebody who you wanna be to that level of success with, and go for it. There’s no harm in trying. And not only that.

Cody Crabb (19:23)
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had these people on the podcast that are like crazy crazy successful like to the point where I’m like I cannot believe how successful this person is and then they’re like yeah here’s my phone number like they are they want a lot of people that get to that point are really grateful for it I mean not everybody obviously but like some people really really are truly grateful for it and they want to pass it on so I mean if you catch one of those people they seem like a really nice person and they want to you know why not well you like you said there’s no harm in reaching out

Anthony Marshall (19:53)
And I mean, and the thing is, just because like, like, just because, just because we’re very private people, just because people who are successful, I’m not nearly to the success point I want to be at. Just because I have a large portfolio does not mean I’m to a success point where I want to be at. I don’t, I don’t classify money as success. I classify happiness as success. So until I’m happy with what I’ve done, I will never stop working. And I’ll probably never be happy with what I’ve done, so I’ll probably never stop working.

Cody Crabb (20:22)
Yeah, if you haven’t if you got to this point and you’re still wanting to go then yeah, you you maybe have a treadmill go in there but

Anthony Marshall (20:30)
I it’s an addiction.

think working is truly an addiction. That’s what I think it is.

Cody Crabb (20:34)
for sure. It can be a good thing, but it can also be not such a good thing. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. See, and there’s a balance there. feel like I feel like some people

Anthony Marshall (20:40)
I have a personal life because of it.

I

mean, I do balance personal and business. there’s things like in the house, don’t net, we never talk about business. There’s never any business talk in the house. it’s in the office, which is where I’m at right now. Other than that, there’s never any business talk in the house. It’s just how I am. Like outside of the house, fine. In public, fine. Restaurants, public, fine. Perfectly fine. But never talk about business in the house because that is, the house is a sanctuary. It’s somewhere for us to come and wind down.

Cody Crabb (21:12)
Yeah, yeah, I love that. Well, I think I think this has been really great. Thank you so much for hopping on with us today. ⁓ If people want to kind of get in touch with you or want to find out more about what you do or anything, how can they how can they do that? And who should be getting in touch with you? Who would you like to get in touch with you?

Anthony Marshall (21:30)
Anybody, anybody who wants a start. Another thing about me is I’m a very big philanthropist. So I will, I have literally funded, there has been teenagers and college students who have came to me and said, I want this business funded. like, and I’m like, of course I’m going to assess it. If I don’t think it’s a good idea, gonna say, that’s not a good idea. But I have funded probably over $50 million worth of businesses for college students who are very successful now. I don’t ask for anything in return.

Because I wish someone would have done that for me to where I could be at a higher level right now, but no one did that for me. So I do that. I do that for college kids, teenagers, anyone over the age of 18, obviously, but I do it for them. And that’s the people I want to reach out to me. And it doesn’t have to be college people or teenage students or anything like that. It can be someone in their 60s who’s tried their whole life, who has a business that’s struggling. I will come in and I will help.

The money’s not something that I’m interested in. I’m interested in creating long-term connections. ⁓ Our partner, Integrity Cap Solutions, which is our brokerage firm for the lending company, Apex Business Solutions, the lending sales company, their motto is lending with integrity. I do everything with integrity. have never, anytime I’ve funded…

someone’s company, anytime I’ve funded someone’s company that’s young, that’s just getting started as a startup, I’d never ask for anything back. And those are the type of people I’m looking for, ambitious individuals, no matter their age, who want to learn. And just to put it out there, ⁓ my portfolio is worth over $3 billion in real estate at the moment. So somebody, if I can take what I’ve, if I can take the amount of money that I’ve used, the amount of money that I have with an asset, if I can take that and turn it into knowledge and teach somebody that, I will.

It’s just wait, I’ll just do it.

Cody Crabb (23:21)
Well, that’s great. mean, thank you so much for coming on here and letting our audience know that. think there are people out here that maybe see themselves a little bit in you and are like, this is my kind of guy, you know, ambitious and just want to, you know, striving to do your best and do better than your best. So, I mean, I don’t think you actually gave your social media handles. Where do you…

Anthony Marshall (23:43)
Yeah, no, no.

my Instagram is just my name, Anthony Lynn Marshall, two L’s, Anthony Lynn L-Y-N-N Marshall with two L’s. And then my email, I’ll give my email out, [email protected].

Cody Crabb (23:56)
Gotcha. Well, and I. good. That’s awesome. Yeah, I think the fact that you’re you’re willing to just do that. Yeah, that’s I think that’s amazing. ⁓ Well, again, thank you so much for your time today and thank you listeners for for doing the same thing. If you liked what you heard today, go ahead and give us a like, subscribe, comment, all those things. And don’t forget to follow us so that you don’t miss another episode like this one. What a great episode. Thank you so much for for hopping on today.

Anthony Marshall (23:58)
Read those every day.

Thank you for having me, man. I appreciate it.