Why I Walked Away From Corporate Life and Built Wealth Through Multifamily Real Estate

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Show Summary

In this conversation, Ken Gee shares his journey from a commercial lender and CPA to a successful entrepreneur in the multi-family real estate sector. He discusses the challenges of finding deals, the importance of building relationships, and the value of transparency in business. Ken emphasizes the significance of helping others and giving back, reflecting on how his experiences have shaped his approach to life and work.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • KRI Partners’ Website
    • Ken Gee’s Phone no.: (216) 290-1707

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Ken Gee (00:00)
  When you try to be something you’re not, most people sniff that out and people don’t like to be around people. They don’t feel they know, like and trust. ⁓

  Be real, they’re real, they put on their pants just like you do. we don’t have to be fake, right? I mean, you just don’t have to do that. So that’s why transparency is so important to me

  Q Edmonds (01:58)
  everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. I’m excited today. We got a living legend here, y’all. But no, I mean this in all sincerity. We have someone who’s been doing this for 30 years. So trust me, they know what they’re doing. They have built this thing. He comes from commercial, but also a CPA. But I’m going let him kind of do his thing.

  I’m telling you everything that he does, but I am so excited to introduce y’all to Mr. Kenny Gee. It’s actually Ken Gee, but still the living legend. Ken Gee is here with us. How you doing today,

  Ken Gee (02:35)
  doing great. Thanks for having me, man. I really appreciate it.

  Q Edmonds (02:38)
  Absolutely, man. Thank you for being here and then I’m excited to talk to you. This is what really excites me about what I do. I get to talk to people about what they do. You you are the expert at what you do. And so you’re bringing that expertise to us. So I’m excited. And so, man, I’ll be honest with you, Mr. Ken. I want to dive in. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story of kind of how you got started 30 years ago, we love origin stories.

  And then tell them what part of the world you’re in, what market you’re operating in. So Mr. Ken, you got this, sir?

  Ken Gee (03:14)
  Yeah, let me give you the quick story. So I grew up in Toledo, Ohio. Nobody’s ever heard of Toledo unless you watch MASH back in the day. Got my undergrad at University of Toledo, moved to Cleveland, went to school at night, pursued my master’s degree at Case Western Reserve University while I was a commercial lender. So I spent five years a commercial lender, got done on my master’s, became a CPA, worked for Deloitte for seven years. On the tax side, got to do a ton of private equity work.

  merger and acquisition work, due diligence, tax planning, all that really cool, fun stuff. But it was when I was at Deloitte that everything changed for me. You need to rewind the clock a long time, back when I had lot more hair, a lot less gray, I used to do my daughter’s 3 a.m. feeding, right? I this was a long time ago. Every night, 3 a.m., because I was working 80 hours a week at Deloitte, and it was cool time. If you’re a parent, you know that father-daughter thing is cool.

  All of a sudden I realized it’s not cool because it’s 3 a.m., it’s the middle of the night, and this is the time I got from my family. That started to bother me. It started to bother me even more because, man, I did everything I was supposed to do. I mean, I literally did everything. I went to school, got good grades, got an incredible job. I was doing everything right. And now I just realized that my family was going to grow up without me because I had no control over my time. I had no control over my financial outcome.

  You you could walk into a corporate job any day and all of a sudden get that little meeting. Money, Ken, I’d like to talk to you and then your career’s over, right? You don’t even see it coming. So I said, man, I got to change this. Now, what I didn’t tell you is the five years I was at the bank, all my customers were in real estate. When you’re in a bank or you get to see what’s really going on, they are making a killing. And then I went to Deloitte, that Cleveland office at Deloitte had a huge tax practice and it was real estate tax practice.

  So there, there are people that if I told you who they were, you would know their names. are household names. So I’m surrounded by people that killing it in real estate and I’m killing myself, right? They’re having the life that I want. So I said, man, I got to go figure this out. Spent about a year and a half. I bought three deals, a 28, a 24 to 22 unit deal. Sold them three years later, made half a million bucks. I was like, holy crap, what just happened to me? mean, half and a half a million dollars in a bank at one time was like, damn, this has really happened.

  Fast forward, I will tell you, this is all I do now. We do multi-family, that’s all we’ve done ever. And I did get to grow up with my family. I did get to go to all their sporting events. I did get to go to all their school plays. And I got to put them through school without a whole bunch of student debt. So I fast forward, that’s a very quick story, but that’s kind of the way it happened.

  Q Edmonds (06:49)
  man. Mr. Ken, thank you, man. Thank you for taking us down the journey of how you got to where you are. Thank you for your transparency, something I call the gift of your vulnerability, because you shared stuff you did not have to share. And so I appreciate that, And ⁓ you are, for me, I say this probably every episode, I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Meaning there are things that we go through throughout our life that reinforce who we are today.

  And I love how you was going through things Destiny was showing you what you did not want to be. Me and my wife, we have a saying where we say, your presence is a present. You being present in your family’s life is a present to them in itself. And so Destiny told you, hey, this ain’t where I want to be. I want to be present for my family. And so I love that, man, you are the kind of construct of when I say Destiny has no wasted moments.

  And so I would love to know, know, CPA, you the way your brain works, I would love to know when did it hit you that your brain worked the way that it did, like that it like numbers that are like figuring out things. And I’m just kidding. Like no examples of how I think your brain works. But when did it hit you that your brain was wired to do the things that it did?

  Ken Gee (08:04)
  Yeah, wow, that’s a good question. So you know, it’s funny, growing up, I always wanted to be an engineer. started down that path in Toledo. And then they were digging me because I was drafting things and my line didn’t touch and all that. I’m like, dude, no, this is no, I am this is not for me. And so and then I had to take calculus. I calculus is really what sank me. All right, because it’s been hard. So I got into the business side. And then what I realized was this

  That’s when I discovered the analytical side of me, right? I thought I was going to be an engineer. I was always wanting to build stuff and stuff like that. But what’s funny is now I can’t fix or build anything to save my life. It’s all now the other, the analytical side of my brain. I’m using it to, ⁓ you know, to do things that I didn’t, I didn’t think I would be able to do. So when did that happen? It really happened at Deloitte. I mean, the first year or so at Deloitte was hard. I mean, being a CPA in one of those big firms is tough, man.

  because they hire only the best from all over the country. They have access to the best people in the best universities. And it’s brutal. that first year really shaped my mind. And then I became extremely methodical, analytical. And I think that’s where it really happened.

  Q Edmonds (09:19)
  Got you. Love you, man. Thank you for that. You know, because I want people when they listen to this, I want them to tap into that superpower. Right. And that superpower has been brewing for years. It’s just tapping into what’s already there. Right. And so you have built something that has allowed you to take more control of your time. So tell me a little bit about how you’ve built what has allowed you to have more time and freedom.

  Ken Gee (09:45)
  Yeah, so now, mean, KRI Partners is my company. And it’s ⁓ now I come to work. I don’t feel like I’m at work. I don’t ever feel that I’m at work. I’m building something for me, for my family, for my legacy. You know, this thing that I built has allowed us to do things that growing up, if you saw the house I grew up in, you’d be like, wow, I mean, I had awesome parents, but we knew no rich people. I mean, we were not rich. We did not know them.

  So ⁓ that’s probably how I’ve responded to that.

  Q Edmonds (10:54)
  Yeah. So let me ask you, what is the next real goal for you? Like, what are you looking to solve a scale next?

  Ken Gee (11:01)
  Yeah, so it’s funny. Now I’m 60 years old. My kids are grown and I can’t really affect their life anymore. My wife and I look at each other and we actually have, we’ve always been about our kids. We just have, right? We’re both on second marriages and we’ve, kids always come first. Well, now that the kids are all gone, you’re like, okay, what are we going to do now? Well, what’s happened is she runs an infertility clinic. She helps people have families, which is really cool. The same clinic that helped her have her daughter.

  And now I have turned to, a minute, how am I going to affect people’s lives? How can I actually help people? Because I didn’t understand how really cool that was. we’ve now, we continue to buy and we’re a private equity real estate firm. But now after 30 years of experience, I have the ability to help people get started. Because back then somebody helped me, I can now help people. And so that’s now kind of where we’re at.

  You know, she’s giving back in that way. We joke, she helps people create families. I help them support them, right? That’s kind of our joke. But seriously, that now life is kind of come full circle, right? Every single person that I get their first deal, help them get their first deal, I know that I probably changed their life, just like my life changed for me. And that’s really cool. That makes me feel good.

  Q Edmonds (12:23)
  No, I love hearing that. I love hearing you talking about ⁓ changing lives and you keep saying she and so I want to talk about relationships. So when you say she I’m assuming you talking about your wife. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Awesome. ⁓

  Ken Gee (12:41)
  Other than my daughter, yeah, yeah.

  Q Edmonds (12:43)
  I love it. I just wanted to be crystal clear. So I want to talk about relationships a little bit, right? I want to talk about the relationship you have with your wife. It seemed like it’s a great partnership, a great relationship. So I want to talk about that, but I also want to talk about what’s your perspective on building healthy relationships and business in general. Has it impacted you? Is it important? What’s your, what’s your take on building relationships?

  Ken Gee (13:08)
  Yeah, so you’ve heard the phrase, your net worth is your network or your network is your network. I did that backwards. OK, yeah, I hate things like that because it doesn’t I don’t understand it. It doesn’t like what does that mean? Well, what it what the way I think of things like that is, look, we all need each other in order to be successful, especially multifamily. It’s very capital intensive. Even rich people run out of money eventually. I mean, you just you do.

  And you can’t do everything yourself, right? didn’t. mean, we have 45 ish employees. I’m not doing what I do by myself. Every one of these people you have a relationship with. That’s what I no matter whether they’re your employee, your your wife, your kids, the people that you’re helping out, your investors, these are all relationships and they all have the same set of rules as far as I’m concerned. Right. It has to be give and take. It has to be open and honest and transparent. And I would tell people

  You know, people trying to figure out this business, we deal with a lot of people trying to do that. And they struggle with that. They view this, you know, they don’t have any money. Most people sitting in my chair in the beginning, they don’t have any money. didn’t in the beginning either. Okay. But you have to form relationships with people that do have money or can help you because here’s the weird part. They actually want to help you, but here’s what they know. They know because those people are probably more experienced, probably more wealthy. have more money.

  they have seen a lot of people who let them down, who didn’t, wasn’t honest with them, wasn’t transparent, right? Didn’t take the time to really nurture that relationship. And so they, if you’re having trouble finding those people, it’s because you’re not giving to that relationship, right? So many people I say, well, hey, ⁓ Quinton, if I’m, you’re gonna be my partner, what’s in it for me?

  Well, if you’re the experienced guy, like, Whoa, whoa, stop. Like you aren’t even going to get a deal without me and you’re already making demands. See, that’s not how relationships flourish. Instead, say, Quentin, man, I’d love to do a deal with you, but man, I don’t have a lot of money. What do you think? Can we figure this out? I mean, you tell me what you think is fair to you. Now you offer and here’s what most of the time happens. The guy with money and experience.

  Q Edmonds (15:28)
  Yeah.

  Ken Gee (15:35)
  offers you a better deal than you would have ever demanded on your own because they actually want to help you. See, this is about relationships. It is.

  Everywhere you turn in your life, mean, you and I have a relationship, right? I mean, you got to respect that. So you’re right to focus in on relationships because without those relationships, see, that’s what’s under the network is your net worth. See, I want to get into what does that mean? I just don’t like those sayings because it doesn’t resonate. People don’t

  equate that to an action or a way to, you know what mean? don’t, it doesn’t equate to a way to live your life. Whereas if you get to a relationship, all these relationships, every one of them, even our students that are in our programs, they help me. I learn from them every single day.

  Q Edmonds (17:03)
  Now, I mean, what you just said is so powerful. And as you was talking, it made me think about an old proverb that says when it comes to relationship, iron sharpens iron, right? And when you think about that, the whole mentality behind that is that I have to rub up against something that’s caused as much equal friction to actually sharpen my tool set and sharpen the relationship. Meaning that we both have to bring something to the relationship. This can’t just be me rubbing up against nothing.

  We have to rub up against each other. So there has to be a mutual, like he said, give and take. There has to be a mutual skill set. There has to be something that we rub up against each other to make the friction make us sharper, make us better, right? So that’s the idea of relationships. As we coming together, we both offer something and we work together to make a better situation. Now, now, now Mr. one of my strong points is active listening and archiving information.

  So you and I, we’ve been talking longer than what the audience has seen, right? And one word I literally wrote down that you said earlier when we was talking and you keep saying it over and over is this word transparency. Why is transparency so important to you? You keep saying it, you keep talking about it. Why is that important to you, Mr. Ken?

  Ken Gee (18:21)
  Yeah, so think about all the people that you run across in life on the internet, whatever, right? People, your mentors, a lot of them are, I call it, they have this imposter syndrome thing going on, right? They aren’t really what they appear to be. And you’ve heard the, you got to fake it till you make it. Like, I’m a Midwest guy. I’ve always fucked at that. I am not good at it.

  And I’m like, look, I’m on the come up. Yeah, we’ve got a couple hundred million dollars in the military, but that’s still on the come up. mean, that’s works to still babies. Right. So you should be transparent about that, because what happens is when you try to this is what I think.

  When you try to be something you’re not, most people sniff that out and people don’t like to be around people. They don’t feel they know, like and trust. ⁓

  Be real, they’re real, they put on their pants just like you do. I mean, we all do the same stuff. Like we don’t have to be fake, right? I mean, you just don’t have to do that. So that’s why transparency is so important to me because so many people are up there, you can tell they’re BSing, right? They’re just, you’re like, really? Are you sure about that? And they’ll gloss over it because they’re trying to fake it till they make it. Look, I’m not a billionaire.

  yet, I’d like to be, I’m not there yet, okay? But I’m not going to pretend like I am. Because now you’re gonna be like, dude, you’re not a billionaire, why are you acting that way? You see what happens? Now you just put me in that pile of people that, I don’t know about this guy, he’s not really genuine. He’s not genuine. That’s what worries me, right? Because you don’t have to not be genuine, like stop. That’s why I told you earlier, we built this whole company around the way Warren Buffett has built

  his whole thing. mean, obviously we’re nowhere near his size, but that man, think most people would agree he’s the best investor in the world, but he makes mistakes. He actually tells you about them. Guess what? We make mistakes too. Okay. Warren Buffett is the richest, one of the richest guys in the world. ⁓ and he makes mistakes. He does stupid things, right? He tells you about them. See that makes him real. That makes him like, okay, he’s not Mr. Perfect. Cause in life you’re not going to be perfect. So that’s why transparency is so important to me.

  Q Edmonds (20:44)
  Yeah. No, thank you. Thank you for hammering that home. I had to hear from you because you kept saying that you’ve been saying it and it sounds like you’re absolutely living it. And so I love it, man. You know, if you build up, if you build anything on being in inauthentic, I can’t get the word out, but not being authentic is not sustainable because it’s like building a house on straw. That’s not a firm foundation. It’s going to crumble. And the more weight you put on it, I’m going to this word out. Inauthenticity. There you go.

  The more weight you put on in authenticity, the more that weight is going to that foundation to crumble. So I’m glad, man, you brought up about being transparent. Listen, Mr. Ken, 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,

  Ken Gee (21:33)
  Yeah, a couple of ways. Just go to our website, KRIpartners.com. And when you get there, I mean, we help people create wealth or real estate, whether you’re going to invest with somebody like us passively, or you want to learn a game, we can help you either way. All right, so KRIpartners.com. If you don’t want to do that, just call or text our mainline 216-290-1707. And we’ll hook right up. I get a whole team of people that will help you figure out what it is that maybe we can help you with. Maybe we can help you at all.

  But at least you’re gonna, we’re gonna get a feel for what you’re trying to do and help you forge that path, right? Cause we’ve been down this road a million times. We know what it looks like and maybe you haven’t and we can at least make sure you’re going in the right direction for you, right? Not for us, but for you.

  Q Edmonds (22:17)
  Listen, Mr. Ken, I want to sincerely say first, thank you for your time, because of course, time is precious, right? We can put a premium on our time. So thank you for your time. Two, thank you for your story. I’ll put a premium on stories. Like, stories is your narrative, you telling things that we don’t have to know, did not have to know, but you shared it. So thank you for your story, for the gift of your vulnerability. And lastly, thank you for your perspective. Thank you for your mindset, the way you think.

  and bringing that mindset to this platform. I truly appreciate you being here today.

  Ken Gee (22:51)
  Thanks for having me, man. This has been nice.

  Q Edmonds (22:54)
  I appreciate

  you, man. Well, listen, y’all heard the value from Mr. Ken. You can’t tell me you didn’t get value from this conversation. So definitely check him out, look in his show notes, get in contact with him. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here. So I keep telling you, we’re going to keep bringing up amazing people just like Mr. Ken. And you don’t want to miss out. So make sure you’re subscribed. So Mr. Ken, I thank you again. And to everyone else, have a fantastic day.