Turn Your Building’s Liabilities Into Assets with Green Light Energy

Carl G. Moose (00:00)
The key thing is you got to buy it right. so, educate yourself. If you’ve got some money and you want to invest in a property, take part of that money, spend six months, get educated. There’s so much good information out there. Don’t listen to one author or one program.

listen to two or three podcasts, get involved with a couple of programs. There’s a lot of free information out there. And really educate yourself because that, even if you’re paying somebody $5,000 for a six month program, that investment in education, if it’s the right program, could save you 50,000 on your first purchase.

So get educated. Underwriting is so important, right? And by the way, go out there and work your network.

Quentin (02:13)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited to be with you today. I say it all the time and I mean it. Listen, I have somebody here who is a wealth of knowledge, know exactly what they’re doing, and listen, know exactly how to deliver the information for you to understand exactly what they’re doing, what the business is on, and where they’re coming from. I’m super excited. He’s an Impronuable Energy.

space and listen, he is going to give you some really, really good nuggets. And so I’m excited to introduce you all to Mr. Carl Moose. Mr. Carl, how you doing today,

Carl G. Moose (02:52)
I’m doing great, great to be here. I appreciate the opportunity to address your audience.

Quentin (02:57)
Absolutely, man. Listen, I know our listeners are really going to take something very special away from your approach, from your lens, when you you talk about what you do. I love the way you talk. You’re passionate about what you do. And so I’m excited for this podcast, man. And so I’m going be honest with you, I want to dive right in. You know, for people that’s not familiar with you, Mr. Carl, take them into your world. Like, what’s your main focus these days? And what markets are you operating in,

Carl G. Moose (03:10)
Yes.

Yeah, exactly. Well, let me just give you some background. I’m a former banker, commercial real estate investor, and I’ve been in renewables since 2004. So most recently, I’ve been for the last five years, I’ve got a partner. He’s a general contractor, fourth generation government. And he and I collaborated to start Green Light Energy. What Green Light Energy does is we help property owners, primarily commercial property owners, figure out how to energize their building. And what I mean by that is for most

businesses that are operating their business out of a building. The building’s liability. It’s really not an asset. So we go in there with our program and we show them how to not only energize the building, also improve the building physically and financially by implementing our energized real estate model. And as I mentioned before, we take that liability of their roof and we turn it into an asset. We take their variable monthly expense and we turn it into a fixed

expense and then we use federal state utility money to do it and we show these building owners how to really maximize the value of their building. So that’s what we’ve been doing for last five years. We also buy buildings. We’re starting to buy buildings so we can implement the strategy for ourselves. Primarily our target area is the Midwest but we’ve done projects all over the country.

Quentin (04:35)
Yep, said that’s one of the first things you said to me and I wrote down. You want to help owners maximize the property. I absolutely love that. And not only that, you said you want to educate the people as well. Like you want to educate them. 95 % of the people you want to make sure they educated. And I love that approach, man. To me, it showed me your servant’s heart. You we kind of talked about that. And I love that approach. And I know it’s not always especially easy in this climate, right? I mean, I know you’re true to your core, you’re true to your passion, but there can be things rubbing up against you, man.

What’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Carl G. Moose (05:52)
Yeah, the biggest challenge we have is getting in front of the right people at the right time. And like I mentioned, it is all about service. I believe we’ve been put on the surface to serve each other and in providing service. What my partner and I put together is really, it’s nothing, it’s not rocket science. We just took a look at the chessboard and figured out how to move the pieces around the chessboard a little bit differently. And most of the people I deal with are pretty sophisticated, educated.

successful business owners and they’re really good at what they do, they just haven’t taken the time or they’ve got a lot of misinformation about the programs that are out there. So as I mentioned, 95 % of what my partner and I do is really educate. And we start with the top dog, the CEO or the owner of the business and they normally bring in their CFO or their accountant because a lot of times the accountant, they’ve heard of these programs but they don’t really understand how all these programs move together. And that’s the key.

There’s five or six different programs that people can take advantage of that they qualify for that they’re just not aware of. so bringing up their higher in elevating their level of awareness is primarily what we do. And then if they decide to go with us, great. If they don’t, that’s okay too, because we’ve done our job, right? Our job is to give them the information, the data so that they can make educated decisions. And a lot of times they give us referrals. mean, most of our businesses through word of mouth, through referrals.

To answer your question, our biggest challenge is getting in front of the right people at the right time.

Quentin (07:13)
again, you know, as I listen to you talk about educating and connecting with people. I mean, I love that approach that service heart. Absolutely. I can hear it shining through. And when we serve a need, when we serve people and serve a need, it keeps us coming back and it keeps people knowing, hey, this is the place to come when you know you can trust the people who want to give you incredible service. And it sounds like you’re put the people first, like for God. And so I absolutely love that, Now, let’s go ahead. You got it.

Carl G. Moose (07:38)
Yeah. And it boils down

to, I want to be a trusted advisor, right? I want to be somebody that people can trust, you know, and I can advise them. And I’ve told people last Friday, I sat down with somebody and said, you know, this program is not good for you. Your building’s too small. You’re going to be selling the building in three years. It’s not a good, it’s just not a good program. You know what I mean? And he sat back and he kind of looked at me and I said, you know, I’ll be more than happy to…

Quentin (07:52)
Yeah.

Carl G. Moose (08:02)
to implement this, I don’t think it’s the right thing for you. You another thing is batteries. Batteries for commercial is not, it’s not the right move for most companies. So I tell people, listen, we sell batteries, but it’s not a good use of your capital, right? Or maintenance contracts. know, the systems that we put up are pretty much maintenance free. And I tell people, we’ll sell you a maintenance contract, but it’s not your best interest. And that goes a long way because…

People say, you know, this guy is really, not trying to sell me something. He’s serving me and he’s giving me good advice. And that ends up giving me, I get referrals and you know, as far as I do, when someone refers you in, it’s so much better than you knocking on the door trying to sell them something because I’m there to make connections and to serve them. And that goes a long way. And I know you get that.

Quentin (08:45)
Absolutely, Absolutely. 110 % is so well said, man. And I’m actually just, you know, we’re talking about connecting. We got a viewership here. And we talk about the success, but we also like to talk about the hard times too, right? And so I know you know this. Every operator has a moment when things get real, right? Maybe a day will go sideways or a time when you have to pivot fast. In your world, Mr. Carl, do you have any stories like that where you had to pivot fast, maybe things didn’t quite go your way? Or you have any stories that you could share?

Carl G. Moose (09:12)
Yeah, a couple like last December, ComEd, our big power company here in Northern Illinois, changed some of the rules of the game. So we had to pivot there. had to figure out how we can still take advantage of all the other programs and still take advantage of the utility. And then with this big, beautiful bill that was just signed July 4th, a lot of companies were sitting on the sidelines. They were wondering what’s going to happen. And it ends up that it didn’t really significantly impact the commercial side of the business.

Now we’re going back and we’re going back and searching back with those people and say, listen, here’s the legislation. We’ve sift through it. We know that you don’t have the time to do that. And so we, we, ⁓ we pivoted on some of our marketing, right? And then of course, like a small business, because we are, we’re relatively small business, you know, cashflow is always a big thing. Some of these projects take 12 months, you know, from the time you start to the time you, you actually start getting paid.

⁓ Cashflow is always this thing. We’ve got about 10 employees, we’ve got offices and vehicles and all that kind of thing. So like every small business, those are some of the challenges, but we figure out a way around them. You got to be creative, right?

Quentin (10:51)
Absolutely, always got to be creative because like we said, you’re always going to be rubbing up against something, right? So we always got to be creative, always got to be thinking forward. So I definitely understand that, man. And thanks for sharing. Thank you for your honesty and your vulnerability, this shows me what you’re talking about is the difference between people just dabbling and for people that’s in it for the long term. So like you said, you you want to find a way to get it done, you know, no matter what the obstacle is. so.

Carl G. Moose (10:54)
Yes, exactly.

Quentin (11:18)
But let me ask you this, let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like what’s the next real goal, Mr. Carr?

Carl G. Moose (11:26)
Yeah. So part of it is the commercial real estate stuff. So as I mentioned, you know, we’re an EPC, which stands for engineering, procurement and construction companies. So companies will hire us to do the engineering, procure the equipment and actually construct the solar array. My partner and I are now looking at buying buildings because we’ve seen the strategy that we’ve developed work for others. And now we want to build that, long-term wealth of owning the real estate. So our biggest challenge is capital. I mean, we’ve got

I’ve got about $250 million worth of properties that I’d love to put under contract that fit our box. We got a pretty tight box with regard to what properties we want. Our biggest challenge right now is capital. So we’re always in a fundraising mode. As far as the EPC business, where those are transactions, a company will hire us. It might be a nine month program from start to finish. When we’re done with it, of course we warranty the product and always there for service.

But in essence, the transaction’s complete. And then we’re on to the next one. So the challenge there is getting in front of the right people at the right time. The challenge on the commercial real estate business is just investors that are looking for the tax breaks, looking for a hands-off passive investment where they’re getting a nice double-digit return on a stabilized income-producing property. And by the way,

Just to talk a little bit about that, we deal with industrial light manufacturing warehouse data centers. We don’t do any office. We don’t do any retail. We don’t do any multifamily. We don’t do any vacant buildings. We don’t do any construction. So the properties that we’re buying are very stable, right? They’re income producing from day one. So there’s very low risk. And the biggest risk is underwriting the tenant because we put a seven to 10 year lease, which is guaranteed by the tenants. Even if they go dark,

Quentin (12:49)
Mmm.

Carl G. Moose (13:07)
They legally owe us the rent, right? And so these opportunities are very low risk, very low maintenance. And with our strategy, we take from a nice operating property to a really great operating property by increasing what’s called the cap rate, the capitalization rate. We go from a seven to a 10. And the higher the cap rate when you own the building, the better off it is. So that’s our strategy. like I said, to answer your question, our biggest challenge

is finding those high net worth individuals or individuals that have 100,000 or 200,000 that want to invest in our opportunities.

Quentin (13:41)
Yeah, man. Absolutely. Listen, I love it, man. I love like, you already got things in place. You already got a system running, but you’re like, listen, that’s, we’re just not gonna stop there. We’re gonna talk about buying buildings, right? Buying the right building. No building’s just, you know, that’s not gonna give us a return on what we’re trying to do. You’re buying the right building. And so I love it, man. Y’all thinking big. And I know you know, the next move, can either compound things or create chaos, you know, depending on how you play it.

But you guys sound like to me to be a team of people that can pull out the chaos and make it

useful, right? To make it fine-tuned, run in the right way because you got your eyes on the prize and know exactly what you should be investing in and what you should be doing. So I love it.

Carl G. Moose (15:10)
If I could just comment on that, anybody that’s listening is thinking about getting into real estate, whether it’s buying a home or buying a three flat or buying a retail center or whatever.

The key thing is you got to buy it right. so, educate yourself. If you’ve got some money and you want to invest in a property, take part of that money, spend six months, get educated. There’s so much good information out there. Don’t listen to one author or one program.

listen to two or three podcasts, get involved with a couple of programs. There’s a lot of free information out there. And really educate yourself because that, even if you’re paying somebody $5,000 for a six month program, that investment in education, if it’s the right program, could save you 50,000 on your first purchase.

So get educated. Underwriting is so important, right? And by the way, go out there and work your network.

Bounce ideas off bankers. Bankers are great because they’re underwriters and they’re very conservative. They are not going to put money in a deal unless they think that deal is rock solid, right? And so if a banker tells you it’s a bad deal, walk away from it. Because if you think about it, if they’re going to put 70 cents, 70 % of the money in, that’s their bank money, and you’re going to put 30 % into a deal, they’re not going to risk that money. So use your network, get involved with networking groups in your community, right?

Do your analysis, right? Pick your horse, right? If you want to do multifamily, do multifamily. If you want to do retail, do retail. If you want to do office, do office. We’re focusing on light industrial manufacturing. And then educate yourself, right? Because that time and energy that you spend educating yourself is going to pay dividends down the road. Because otherwise you’re going to make a mistake. The other thing I got to say is don’t get emotional about a property. Follow the numbers. Do not get emotional, right? And I remember,

Properties are a lot of buses, right? It’s a vehicle. It’s a financial vehicle, right? To take you from one place to the other. But just like a bus, if you miss the bus, stay there for a minute. Another bus is gonna come along and it’s gonna take you to the same spot. So don’t be in a hurry to buy that property. Don’t be in a hurry to hop on that bus because there’s another bus coming, right? And it’s gonna take you to the exact same spot. But the key is don’t be in a hurry. Don’t get emotional.

Quentin (17:18)
you

Carl G. Moose (17:18)
You’ll go to networking events, you’ll find somebody that’s doing what you’re doing or that you want to do and introduce yourself. Here’s the thing that I’ll say. I go to networking events all the time. I’m going to a big one tonight. If some young person came up to me and said, hey, I’ve been following you. I really want to do what you want to do. Can I buy you a cup of coffee and learn from you? 99 % of the people in real estate are going to say, yeah, absolutely. I’d love to have a cup of coffee with you. Let me give you some insight. And I’m telling you right now, it’s a unique industry.

And very rarely do I see people say, no, I don’t have time for you. You know, it’s usually like, yeah, how can I help you? You know what I mean? And for anybody that’s listening out there, you know, if you want to connect with me, connect with me. If you want to, you know, go to, you go to your networking events in your local area, you’ll seek out the people that are doing what you’re doing and walk up to them, be vulnerable, say, Hey, listen, I don’t, you know, I don’t own any property, but I want to own property. Can you help me? Nine out of 10 times they’re going to say, I’ll help you.

Quentin (18:13)
Yeah, yeah. Now, Mr. Carl, listen, we had an agreement before we got on here that you would let me set you up for the question, and then you were slammed. I mean, you literally took, like, you pulled me right to the area where I wanted to go about relationships and networking. Like, you are spot on. Like, I’m gonna ask the question. You kind of already answered it, but I’m gonna ask it again because I think it’s worth people hearing.

like about relationships, right? So I’m gonna ask you, when it came to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Carl G. Moose (18:49)
So I think the biggest thing is action. You to take action. I’m a big believer of the law of attraction, but the law of attraction doesn’t work unless you take action. You got to have the law of action. So take action. If you’re serious about real estate or anything in your life, take action. That’s more than half the battle. Like I said, going to the gym. Nobody likes to go to the gym. What we like to do is we like to get the feeling and the result. But half the battle is just getting off your rear end.

and get into the gym, right? Once you’re at the gym, then you get into your groove, right? And it’s the same thing with networking. You’ll find a networking group, I guarantee you, no matter where you are, there’s networking groups, either Google it or cat GBT it. Real estate networking groups, you’re within five miles of where I’m at, right? And there’s plenty of opportunities. don’t be afraid, don’t let fear stop you, right? Do not, you know, courage, the definition of courage is acting in the face of fear. Without any fear,

There is no courage, right? Without fear, there’s no courage. So anytime you do something for the first time, it’s going to be a little bit of fear, but you got to get beyond that, right? Go there, be uncomfortable, be vulnerable and just introduce yourself. Nobody’s going to bite your head off. Nobody’s going to give you a hard time, right? And so that’s the biggest thing is get into action. you know, listen, when you up your game, as I know you know,

You start going to bigger and bigger events, right? You’re not the smartest person in the room because if you are, you’re in the wrong room, right? And so now you go to a higher level networking event where you’re gonna meet people that have done a little bit more than you or they may be more experienced than you. And listen, I’m human. It happens to me too. You go and meet the governor or whoever. You’re a little intimidated, but you know what? You realize, well, this person is just like me, right? They’re just like me. They put their pants on. They have families. They’re dealing with the same thing, right? So when you get beyond that fear,

and you take action, you’ll produce results and then you get to be more comfortable with it, right? You start to learn, you start to grow, right? And so that’s the key for anybody listening. If you’ve been thinking about doing it, just do it, whatever it is, whether it’s asking that person out on a date or going to a networking event or talking to your boss about a raise, whatever it is, you got to move beyond that fear, right? That’s what stops us here and just do it because that’s where the goal is.

Quentin (21:02)
Listen, y’all heard him. Y’all heard him. mean, listen, you got to take action. You got to get out there. Being successful is pushing through the fear and doing it anyway. And so, man, I absolutely love it, man. Words of wisdom. Listen, man, before… Yeah, absolutely. Are you… Man, I couldn’t even begin to tell you. Like, it’s a whole lot. It’s a whole lot. Yeah.

Carl G. Moose (21:16)
So can I ask you a question? What episode is this? What number episode?

A lot.

My point is, you remember when you were thinking about doing it? Remember? Because I’ve been on a lot of podcasts, right? You remember, and then you had all the feel, I’ve to the equipment, I don’t know what I’m doing, don’t blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if you go back to that first episode, you’ll probably laugh, right? Because you’ve gotten so good at it, right? You’ve gotten so good at it, but you had to go through that. You had to go through that. And now you’re making a difference for people, right? People are listening, you’re reaching out to people, you know, and that’s why I agree to take the time to do this.

Quentin (21:30)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Carl G. Moose (21:55)
If I get through to one person, one person, this podcast was a success and I know you take on the same approach, right? But if you didn’t get beyond that fear, you and I wouldn’t be talking here right now. So you and I are a perfect example, perfect example.

Quentin (22:08)
You’re absolutely right. So well said. So well said, man. I think that’s powerful stuff. And again, I know our listeners are loving this. I know they are, man. So listen, I’m impressed with you. I know people are impressed with you. So listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, or maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you, Mr. Carr?

Carl G. Moose (22:29)
Probably

email or text. I’ll give you my business text number. It’s 630-785-0031. Again, 630-785-0031. And just text me and mention the show. Or if you want to email me, it’s Carl with a C, C-A-R-L, and then @ greenlightenergy.solar, not dot com dot solar. So it’s Carl with a C @ greenlightenergy.solar.

And I’d love to hear from you. As a matter of fact, if anybody reaches out to me, I wrote a book recently called Unstoppable You. I’d be more than happy to email it to them.

Quentin (23:04)
Yeah, well, y’all heard it. Mr. Carl, like you heard of Mr. Carl. He’s, he’s giving you options about his book. He want to email it to you. You got to connect with Mr. Carl Moose. Sir, I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your perspective. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your truth. Thank you for your honesty. Thank you for your vulnerability. This has been a great episode and I know people are going to walk away with some amazing takeaways. So again, I’d like to thank you for being here, sir.

Carl G. Moose (23:32)
Okay, and gratefully I’m honored. So thank you so much. I look forward to networking with you.

Quentin (23:35)
Absolutely. And listen, for everybody that’s tuned in, please make sure you are subscribed. That’s one action that you can take. Y’all all right, Mr. Carl, just get up and take an action. So subscribe so you do not miss out on these incredible information that’s going to come day after day. So I thank you so much for tuning in. Mr. Carl, thank you again. And everyone else, until next time.