Why Wholesaling Won’t Last Forever: Real Estate Development Lessons From Ken Van Liew

Ken Van Liew (00:00)
you know, and with that, you know, I just tell people, know, and it’s hard when you’re talking to young,

younger players like my I had a group of my flipping USA like they just want to do wholesaling wholesale like listen wholesaling is not going to be great forever you gotta learn how to do a fix and flip you gotta learn how to buy something you gotta learn how to analyze so I just tell people you know be open you know look at you know look what the acquisition is look with the highest and best uses surround yourself with people that can you know you know give you ideas on what to do but you know there’s opportunities all around people

Cody Crabb (02:06)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. am Cody Crabb with Investor Fuel. Today we’ve got Ken Van Liew He’s the owner of Resolute Advisory Group and a 40-year veteran of complex real estate and construction projects across the New York City metro area. I’m very interested to talk to you today because it sounds like you’ve got experience just about across the board. So thank you so much for giving us some time today. I really appreciate it.

Ken Van Liew (02:29)
you’re welcome. Really excited to be here, Cody. It’s always nice to share my experience and journey.

Cody Crabb (02:37)
Yeah, well, and in that vein, can you kind of give us a little quick, like, you know, who you are, how’d you get here kind of thing? I mean, with 40 years, I don’t know how quick you can breeze through 40 years, but just the gist of it, I suppose.

Ken Van Liew (02:48)
Yeah.

Yeah, you know, it’s funny. I’ll do the fast version. And it all started with my little league coach who was the chief engineer for the soil conservation service. And two summer jobs just blew my mind about construction and real estate. And it was the seed that really planted the journey. know, fast forward to graduating New Jersey Institute of Technology back in 1985.

I won an award using VersaCAD before AutoCAD even existed. So I was always ahead of the curve, wrote a paper in 1997 as I was getting my license, super’s license, building a 30 story building, Plan Room 2000, because I saw the future and all of this electronic stuff that we see today. And, you know, that just continued to where I’m at with AI. But through those years, you know, was very fortunate to become a professional engineer and licenses to build, you know, 30 story buildings in New York City.

Also obtained a bunch of safety licenses and you know always wanted to do more so after I learned how to engineer them I said let me learn how to build them then I you know I learned how to build them and as I was doing that I got a couple master’s degrees one in real estate finance and development from NYU and then I was ready to do it myself so in 1997 I’ve developed my first project it was 113 bed assisted living in Bridgewater New Jersey and really never looked back I did it with no money down and paid myself a

million dollars and after several years I had a chance to write about it in the modern wealth building formula, how to master real estate investing. So that’s a little snapshot if I didn’t steal the show with the intro.

Cody Crabb (04:29)
little snapshot. know, seriously. He was

talking to me before ⁓ and I was like, he just kept saying these amazing things. just was like, come on, seriously? All of these things? it just kept coming. And so I was like, yeah, wow, you’re good. We’re lucky to have you, We appreciate you sharing some of that. So to kind of dive in, one of the things that came up in your profile ⁓ was

Ken Van Liew (04:37)
I’m

Excuse me.

Cody Crabb (04:58)
that you kind of have focused on what was called complex real estate. I don’t know if that’s actually the industry term for it. That’s kind of what it said in ⁓ our info about you here. But ⁓ tell me a little bit more about that. What does that mean? And is there better term for that, I suppose would be a better question.

Ken Van Liew (05:18)
Yeah,

you know, I say that.

because I guess after doing some of my most complex projects, I called every building after that a dumb building. But some of the projects I did, one was for the Security Industry Automated Corporation, which is essentially the entire backup system for all the New York and American Stock Exchange. And it’s an upside down building is what I call it because normally when you have a transformer on the sidewalk feeding into the basement and powering up the building, this was a feeder to the

encased in concrete into transformer vault and network protectors and then distributed down with UPS systems, eight 1750 kW generators. The building literally would purr on oil and water in case there was ever a bombing, you know, because in New York City they do shit like that. ⁓

Cody Crabb (06:56)
Yeah.

Ken Van Liew (06:57)
Another one was the E911 headquarters where I sat in the room with Mayor Giuliani figuring out how to do the data center for the CDCSA, computer data center for basically the New York five boroughs. So those were complex. Another one, one New York plaza, I think it’s an 80 story building. We renovated 30 stories for Prudential Securities, working 24 seven around the clock. ⁓

you know electricians on site designing as we opened up walls because everything was like unforeseen conditions so that’s what I mean by complex the last one I did was a biomedical center for Merck at Merck ⁓

head worldwide headquarters along with a big parking garage that I had a tail end part of the startup on this facility while trying to find out how well the people are going to park building a 1100 car parking garage in 13 months with no drawings with no drawings just reverse engineering building it precast pre fab and it the whole thing. So when that’s what I mean complex versus you know doing 137 fix and flips in one years by going to auctions where we essentially had it automated.

field reconnaissance people, project managers, opening doors. So there’s a difference, but the funny thing is, just to sum that thought up, is what I realized, it’s all the same process. And, you know…

Cody Crabb (08:24)
It’s true, yeah it’s true.

Ken Van Liew (08:26)
whether you’re doing a new home or even a renovation, you gotta get an architect to do the plans. You gotta go through the approvals. You gotta have patience. Sometimes go to a planning board meeting, you know? Sometimes you get kicked out. Sometimes you gotta go back to the drawing board. So what I tell people is if you wanna build a high rise, it’s really just building a house on top of each other 30 times, Keep it simple.

Cody Crabb (08:49)
I mean if I suppose

it I think it’s a gotta be a little more complicated than that But yeah, maybe maybe something enough that way well And I think that’s I mean that’s a good point because something I often hear is that yeah is the same process, but one pays you You know maybe multiple six six figures to seven figures and one does not so yeah That’s something to think about so that’s actually a question. I’d have for you. So did you start kind of with that?

Ken Van Liew (08:53)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Cody Crabb (09:16)
process in mind and is that why you’ve stuck with this scale of projects? Because it allows you to kind of do this bigger scale and therefore do the same process just easier.

Ken Van Liew (09:28)
That’s a great question

because I guess you could say I was asked backwards, guess you can say. No, excuse my French. ⁓ Yeah, I mean, ⁓ what occurred and I mentioned it too and I wasn’t kidding. At 17 years old, I was on this major dam rehabilitation that had, you know, acreage of spillways and…

Cody Crabb (09:35)
No, you’re good.

Ken Van Liew (09:53)
like you know doing doing stuff out of the box that wasn’t ordinary like stick build is what I used to say like my first project was

It was a structural steel building with metal deck. was in Poughkeepsie. was during the Poughkeepsie New York. It was during the winter. I learned about winter protection and concrete. We’re literally in New York. We don’t stop. We just pour right through to winter. We wrapped the building and I learned all of this and my second job, I literally called my fiance and go, I’m going to come work on the water at the left rack organization. They’re building a whole waterfront. And about two months later, I was a super on two 33 story buildings on the

New

Jersey Waterfront in Jersey City working for the Left Rack Organization. 956 apartments under my belt by 27. And those were my first couple projects. when I went into my own where people might start doing fix and flipping, I did a $17 million assisted living and 10 years later, no, not 10 years, that was in…

That was in 99, 2001 when the towers collapsed, finished. 2008, I did my first stick-build project. It was called Transit Village in Union, New Jersey. It was 56 town homes and part of a hotel development around the train station because there were 13 towns in New Jersey that were selected as the Transit Villages and I was involved in one of the 13.

Cody Crabb (11:59)
Wow. So yeah, I see what you mean about the complex because it’s like, it’s not one of these like, you know, it’s cookie cutter. It’s the opposite. It sounds like you just have to solve these very, very specific challenges. know, that’s, I, what’s that? I mean, what’s that like? How, at what point do you, mean, do you start thinking about that from the first second of design and stuff?

Ken Van Liew (12:22)
you know, the funny thing is because, know, my background and, you know, to kind of answer your question where it’s kind of the same process, like for example, if you’re doing a residential and you go get drawings, it may take two weeks, but in my case, when we’re doing a biological center, it could take a year to design, right? And there’s so intensity on design development. So.

Cody Crabb (12:40)
Hmm.

Ken Van Liew (12:45)
So, you the processes are more complex and I may have just broke my own pattern and forgot your specific question. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, basically,

Cody Crabb (12:54)
Hey, forget my question. Whatever you’re saying, let’s just keep with it.

Ken Van Liew (13:00)
know, doing it in reverse and starting complex and, coming out of the box with that assisted living, I kind of felt confident, you know, to teach others. guess what I found most difficult was fitting in with the majority of people in the country, right? Like what I do is probably like 3 % of real estate. You know, there aren’t like developers all over. Now more and more, you know, like guys like Brent Bowers, they’re flipping land and other people.

people are now developing. But back in the day, I had a hard time fitting in. How can I take what I know and teach just a normal person that wants to go do a fix and flip on the weekends with some extra time? Because the real estate’s not the biggest challenge. It’s the time. When you’re trying to raise a family, I had twins.

Cody Crabb (13:52)
Sounds like it, yeah.

Ken Van Liew (13:55)
And you know, I worked in New York and if you didn’t get through the tunnel before 6 a.m. you sat there for two hours and I had to be in the trailers before the trades went up in the hoist or you didn’t get anything done. You’re like, nah, that guy’s on 37 all day today. He ain’t moving till tomorrow. I’m like, come on, man. You gotta go to 36 and finish what you started. They’re like, forget about it. You know?

Cody Crabb (14:14)
you

⁓ Yeah, officially the most

New York conversation I’ve ever heard.

Ken Van Liew (14:21)
yeah, and then you got all

the gangsters. I gotta be careful what I say. I shouldn’t say that. Back in the day, the families participated in the construction process.

Cody Crabb (14:27)
Even cooler. Sorry, go ahead.

Sure, of course. Yeah.

But yeah, mean, that’s it’s there’s this world of it’s it’s not just like construction. I mean, this is you’re talking about, you know, at what point did you feel like you was at the assisted living where you felt like, OK, yeah, now I’m starting to like is that where you kind of took charge and you kind of were like, OK, now I know where things are going and.

Ken Van Liew (14:56)
Yeah, you know, yeah, because going out on your own.

You know, you kind of get your, you know, school of hard knocks, MBA, you know, cause you don’t know about cost reporting and accounting. And my first project was actually financed through the New Jersey economic development agency. And I didn’t know at the end, you know, they were going to audit all my books. And fortunately I, you know, I kept very precise records. Cause when you build skyscrapers in New York city and we didn’t have like my, my first project, we didn’t even have cell phones or fax machines. Like I remember getting my first computer.

like game changing, you know?

Cody Crabb (15:33)
Yeah. I wonder if it

feels a little bit like we are filling with AI now. Like, holy cow, like you can do so much stuff and yeah, like just that the amount of help it would give you. can’t even imagine that.

Ken Van Liew (15:41)
Yeah.

It was crazy.

Like I think the first, was funny. Like the computers came and they had floppy drives. And I remember like, I got a IBM XT and tore it apart. I put a 20 megabyte hard drive and that was like the greatest thing since sliced bread. And I was putting chips in to get more RAM, you know, but you know, I always just said to myself, if I get the most advanced tools, they’re always going to pay for themselves. You know, and I always was open to learning, you know, and, know,

Cody Crabb (15:56)
you

Yeah.

Ken Van Liew (16:13)
When you’re in that kind of environment, sink or swim, swimming with sharks, you know, got to get there a little early, you know, and then I would leave work and I literally either go to school at night at NYU or NJIT or study for my P license at night, you know, and my wife was home with the twins and yeah, it was, it was challenging for a while. That’s why I was so gratifying in 97 when I went out on my own, you know, cause I was able to kind of be with the kids more and you

stepped away from corporate America, you know?

Cody Crabb (17:28)
Yeah, I’m a dad myself, so I for sure feel that. ⁓ I’ve got really little ones right now. ⁓ And so I can attest, like, every moment is, like, so just fleeting, and it’s just gone. And so when they’re this age, like, I feel that pressure of, I need to make sure that I make it count. I would ask you, you know, as somebody that you, it sounds like you kind of made that a goal early on, and then just kind of built up to doing that.

Was the motivation for that ⁓ time with the kids or was there like a paradigm shift that you had at some point where you saw somebody? I just kind of want to get inside your head a little bit about that.

Ken Van Liew (18:07)
Yeah,

yeah, no, I’ll tell you. It’s a question. Yeah, so I, you I was a workaholic and it was funny. One day I got a call that said, Michael is on a respirator. You better get home.

Cody Crabb (18:20)
Gosh.

Ken Van Liew (18:21)
And I remember driving

across the Brooklyn Bridge crying going, what the heck happened? And the twins were young, but apparently he, we don’t know what happened. He got poisoned or something either, you know, in the park, whatever. And he started to lose all his platelets and bled into his lungs. And, know, I was just never around. And after that, you know, I was just like, wow, you know, life can just like change like that, you know? And he came, he came out to, you know, ended up being, you know, a football quarterback and high.

school and then he became an Eagle Scout and a U.S. intelligence Marine officer. Now he’s like a major and runs like all the Marines at the NSA and I look back

And at that point it was like my wife was, I was never around because if you work from five to 11 and you belong to a golf club, you’re not around that much. And I literally remember saying like, wow, like one time I went with them on the weekend to this place called Grounds to Sculpture. And I literally was like not part of the family. Like they had their own little thing going on in their songs and they had been there three times before. And I really realized how important it was.

And I learned something. I was a big Tony Robbins guy. And I remember him saying, you know, I was out on the road 256 days and, I was away from my family and I, I, I decided that I have to create what’s called his magical moments that your children will never ever forget. And as I was starting to transition to go out on my own and really have the time to get my family back, I said to myself, what can I do? And I’m telling you, it paid off drastically. So with my son, I was like, you know, I hate it.

a uniform on, but I became a scout master. And I began having the stuff in my house on Monday nights, and I stayed in it for…

six to 18, 12 years to watch him become an Eagle Scout. And when I tell you, I was crying. Cause the next day he’s like, Oh yeah, I’m going to call a Senator’s office so he can get me into the Citadel. I’m like, who’s better than you, Mike? Cause the Senator was at the Eagle Scout thing, right? And then my daughter, so I would always go camping and hiking. That was our magical moments, right? I was this scout guy with his twin sister who graduated number one and married a rock

Cody Crabb (20:26)
You

Ken Van Liew (20:41)
Doctor opened up pediatric oncology center at Cohen Medical Center in a few months. ⁓ We’d go out on date night. It was crazy. Well, this is because this is because of what you’re asking me. Like, dinner with your children four times a week, five times a week.

Cody Crabb (20:47)
Even your kids are like this where it’s like they use list the accomplishments like that’s wild Yeah, yeah

Ken Van Liew (20:59)
reduces the risk of them getting involved in drugs and alcohol, right? So with my daughter, I would take her out on a date night and we’d always get the chef out. She goes to culinary school after that, even not even wanting to go to school.

Then goes into a master’s program where she where she’s in the founding program of culinary medicine and ends up teaching the doctor She marries I mean come on you can’t make it up and then my youngest becomes an entrepreneur But those are all related to the story that I started realizing How important it is to be there for your family? You know and I was just and I’ll just you know and that there was even further humbled you know to sadly say in December which you don’t realize until it happens to

Cody Crabb (21:21)
Seriously.

Ken Van Liew (21:41)
to

my dad passed and my children did the eulogy and my son was in his blues and the daughter standing behind him and it literally…

was the most amazing thing that ever occurred because your parents are always behind the scenes looking out for you, you know? And during all those tough times that I wasn’t there, my dad was always there going, hey, your father’s a good man. You he’s out there working hard and he doesn’t know what to expect. They didn’t write a book on how to raise you kids and give them a break, you know? Because they needed to hear that, you know?

And I’ll leave it with that because, you know, it’s so important and I bless you and your family, you know, but create those magical moments. And I didn’t tell you my last one who became a horse star competing Saturday mornings at five o’clock, I’d get her in the car. I’d drive. She wanted hot chocolate and a bagel with cream cheese. I’d pick it up on Route 22. We’d land at the barn and she’d ride all day. We’d go to contests together. She’d win. I got picked

all the ribbons behind me and stuff and that was my life and now I get to say, wow, I got two new grandkids. We just had a little baby girl three weeks ago and the nest is empty and we miss them now. You want to get rid of them one day, then you miss them one day.

Cody Crabb (23:04)
Yeah, yeah, I

wrestle with that. I always have to remind myself on extra difficult days. like, I’m gonna miss this someday. I somehow, ⁓ yeah, but I know what you mean. I think, me on the front end of this and you kind of on the back end of this, feel like it’s almost, I feel like it’s like my future self talking to me. Like, know what I mean?

Ken Van Liew (23:12)
I’m sorry.

Cody Crabb (23:30)
just you gotta make the time. I heard this thing once that was like, you spend 80 % of the time that you spend with your kids before the age of 12. And I was like, oh man, of course that hit me pretty hard. But I mean, it just goes to show like, really don’t, your priorities really do have to be in order, in this business especially, where things can be unpredictable. I mean, even if you’re just a realtor.

Ken Van Liew (23:41)
Mmm.

Thank

Yeah.

Cody Crabb (23:58)
Like, I mean, your schedule is not really up to you all the time and there’s a lot of things. So I just want to ask, like, if you were talking to someone like me, maybe this is just me asking you for advice and then who cares who else hears it, but I would ask, like, what would you say to someone besides just, like, work less, spend time with your family, make them, you know, do the moments and things, what advice would you have? Something you wish you did earlier, something that you would say to someone that is in this position right now?

Ken Van Liew (24:28)
Yeah, you know, and I don’t know if it was because of where I came from, but you know, one of my biggest fears was always about money. Like I literally started with $10 a week and I remember when I was having my twins, I was like in a total panic, you know, like, all right, I’m gonna need my life insurance to get through. I mean, it was crazy, you know? And you know, I guess that I would say is, you know, if you set up…

Cody Crabb (24:50)
Yeah.

Ken Van Liew (24:58)
you know, the basics like staying organized and being consistent and, you know, religious to, you know, to your goals or, you know, your daily habits. You know, everything is going to turn out well, you know, and, you know, so I, you know, I would, would tell myself, you know, Ken, you know, don’t worry as much because you spent a lot of time worrying. And I think the other thing that I may have said,

And it’s kind of like a mixed emotion is try to stay in one lane focused on one item because, know, between the OCD and the ADHD, you know, I did, I started in construction and I went to real estate. Then I did internet marketing. Then I wrote a book now and I started with construction claims. wrote my thesis on construction claims when I was 22. And now I’m an expert in construction claims 40 years later. So I did this whole evolution and I.

sit here and I remember Tony Robbins you know saying you know you don’t ever want to sit in a rocking chair and and should all over yourself I should have did this I should have did that I could have did that I would have did this you know and I look at it from that way going I’m really glad at what I did

Cody Crabb (26:07)
So good. Yeah. Yeah.

Ken Van Liew (26:15)
And then I look at it and I say, you know, the guys that like my, the guys that I built with in like 1990, David Worsley, he was the PM, I was the super, he built the world trade center. Like my project executive on Brooklyn union gas is the president of AECOM Tishman. Like they’re in charge of.

billions of dollars worth of airport and they were the constructor on the World Trade Center. My other good friend who I built the super on Brooklyn Union Gas is building the largest project in New York City called the Torch. You look at it, it’s a freaking torch, 68 stories high. These are my buddies, but I chose to go out on my own and I guess what I was gonna say is I had a roller coaster through three cycles.

And was part of the reason why I kept jumping to things, right? Because I didn’t want to go back and work for somebody. So if the real estate hit a cycle and I had to go from residential to commercial, or if I had to go, you know what? Real estate sucks right now. When the towers collapsed, I lost a waterfront property looking out at the World Trade Center. I got back from the Tony Robbins event with, ooh, gots. Other than I climbed the telephone pole, I was 246 pounds. Today I weigh 168. And I decided that day to change my life.

Cody Crabb (27:22)
⁓ man.

Ken Van Liew (27:31)
next day after climbing the telephone pole, I walked on 45 feet of fire to come back and say, you know what, I’m gonna change my life. I had a special session with Stu Middlman who ran from New York to California. He was from North Bergen, New Jersey in 57 days. Two and a half marathons a day. I’m like, just teach me how to run a 5K and I’m good.

Cody Crabb (27:54)
And you scaled that down that far or I hope so. Cause yeah.

Ken Van Liew (27:57)
No, I literally came back

at 2.46, best friend dead, waterfront lost. Literally like Tony’s like, your feelings are based on what you focus on. I wouldn’t watch the TV. I woke up every morning in the dark and ran a 5K and I wrote 188, 34 inch waist by this date and that was it. I never looked back. I changed my whole life.

And like today, I’ve determined, I established micro distinctions. I was literally down to 163, but I gained five pounds over the holidays when my dad passed and I was just binging out, you know? But yeah, today I get to be proud of what’s going on. I get to appreciate my mom, you know, and…

Took me two months to try to get peace around, just spending time with her. You know, because it’s like a Chinese water torture, the oxygen machine. You know, and you sit there and listen to that for 48 hours, because when dad passed, I just went and like camped out in the assisted living. You know, you literally, it’s like a Chinese water torture and you got to talk to yourself and go, okay, man, it’s going to be okay. You’re going to get through this. You’re going to get through this. Come on, man.

Cody Crabb (29:11)
And not only

on top of that, it’s just a constant reminder that like that’s there. Like I know what you mean. So yeah.

Ken Van Liew (29:18)
Yeah.

And, you we’re taking steps. got to get her now into an assisted living. And I just appreciate life so much, you know, and I, probably wouldn’t have been on this today if I haven’t been humbled so much, you know, cause, I wouldn’t say I was big on my ego, but I kind of just over the last couple of years, just kind of got quiet, you know, kind of get out of the mainstream, you know, stop doing podcasts.

You don’t figure it out what I want to do when I grow up, you know?

Cody Crabb (29:46)
That’s awesome. And that’s inspiring to me because I’ve often thought like, it’s too late for me. My life is sealed. The deal is done. It’s sealed, signed, sealed, delivered. But you’re like, no, yeah, we’re going for it. And so that’s awesome. That’s super inspiring to me. ⁓ Well, OK, so if someone wants to get in touch with you, first of all, who should they be? Like what kind of person should get in touch with you and where can they do so online?

Ken Van Liew (30:01)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, mean, you know, it really doesn’t matter, you know, who gets in touch with me because I, you know, one of my, I’m a real estate and construction advisory, you know, for some of the largest general contractors, real estate developers.

you know, owners, insurers, lawyers, etc. So, you know, I mean, if someone is doing anything and needs some construction advisory, you know, I’m sure I can help them. Anybody that wants to learn about development, feel, reach out. But yeah, I mean, you know, I’m here to, you know, share, you know, what I spoke about in the modern wealth building formula, which takes my formula and applies it to, you know, residential, you know, and

how to syndicate and use other people’s money so that you can capitalize sooner than later, because it’s a lot harder to get started now. But yeah, I mean, I’m open to anybody who needs help in construction and real estate. I’d be glad to help them out.

Cody Crabb (31:10)
Well, thank you so much for the time you’re to say. was very little about real estate, but I think in some ways not very, you know, it was very relevant, I think still. even if we, even if the real estate was minimal, I think we still very much, we’re talking to the real estate crowd for sure.

Ken Van Liew (31:25)
Yeah,

I mean, if you have a question on real estate, know, mean, feel free to, you know, before we go, if you want to do a P.S., you know, I know, you know, I’ve always been someone that looks at real estate from the point.

you know, what is the cash on cash, you know, and is it going to give the rate of return that my investors want, right? Because I fortunately am not afraid of building anything. So, you know, I have the ability to put myself in the end user’s position and speak intelligently to them and build trust. For example, I have a six point acre lot that’s, they’re always challenged a little bit, but it has a conservation easement on the back, the front end.

is developed, there’s no sewer initially, it’s on the borderline of another town, but I was able to get the green light for a group home, right? So a group home I come to find out are like cash registers, right? And I’m like, wow, I could subdivide this into three lots and sell them for 500 a piece if I can get the approval. So I sent the contract in today, you know.

refundable down payment, contingent upon approval, and I’ll start that process and use my civil engineering expertise to get the approval and I’ll sell it for like 1.5 and I’ll buy it for probably like four, right? And it’ll take, you know, 12 to 18 months, but it’s not a lot of work. You’re just drawing pictures, you know, I mean, you know, essentially. So, you know, and with that,

Cody Crabb (32:54)
Man, you have a way of simplifying

it. I’m like, when you put it like that, I guess that is, yeah, I guess that is.

Ken Van Liew (32:57)
Yeah,

you know, and with that, you know, I just tell people, know, and it’s hard when you’re talking to young,

younger players like my I had a group of my flipping USA like they just want to do wholesaling wholesale like listen wholesaling is not going to be great forever you gotta learn how to do a fix and flip you gotta learn how to buy something you gotta learn how to analyze so I just tell people you know be open you know look at you know look what the acquisition is look with the highest and best uses surround yourself with people that can you know you know give you ideas on what to do but you know there’s opportunities all around people

you know and I always tell people

You know, you have to get a new century acuity and I can end it with this. When I was 17, you know, I came from nothing and my first car I called a two-tone, you know, was basically a quarter panel with primer on it, stick shift. And I get on the road for the first time and I didn’t know much about cars, you know, but this Trans Am pulls up next to me and I’m like, wow, I’ve never seen anything like that. That’s the nicest car I’ve ever seen in my life. I got to get one of those one day. And the next day I saw three of them, you know,

But the point is, is you all of a sudden get a new view of life. You get a new sensory acuity of what’s in front of you. And I tell people, you’re driving through towns looking at vacant buildings. We’ve converted sugar factories into luxury lofts.

know, conversions are huge in Manhattan now, like, cause you know, and then the commercial market’s coming back. I mean, it’s crazy what’s going on now. You know, and for two years, I didn’t want anything to do with real estate. Interest rates went up 13 times, the value of the multifamily kept going down. And you know, I guess,

You know, I have no problem now doing deals that are a little bit smaller where you can make just as much money, you know, and you don’t have to, you know, risk everything, you know, because, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s a little, sometimes it, it reminds you a little bit of a gamble, you know, especially when you’re carrying stuff and you’re saying like, wow, this is like a, it’s like a stock that, you know, how long am I going to take a loss for? Do I just sell it?

Cody Crabb (35:14)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well,

Ken, thank you so much for all that you’ve done, all you’ve given us today. I feel like it’s just been like awesome thing after awesome thing after awesome thing. So I really appreciate you giving us so much time. And thank you listeners for joining us as well. If you haven’t yet, go ahead and follow the podcast so you don’t miss more awesome conversations like this. And once again, Ken, it has been a true pleasure having you on the show. We really appreciate it.

Ken Van Liew (35:42)
Well, thank you very much, Cody. I appreciate you to make it a great night. Yep. Take care, buddy.

Cody Crabb (35:44)
Have a good one.