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Show Summary
In this conversation, Anthony Lawson, an Army veteran and real estate investor, shares his journey into the real estate space, focusing on government contracts and veteran housing. He discusses the importance of understanding the different levels of government and how to navigate the procurement process for contracts. Lawson emphasizes the need for affordable housing for veterans and the creative financing strategies he employed to scale his business. He also provides insights into the market dynamics and the role of government in supporting housing initiatives.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Anthony Lawson (00:00)
Also the good thing is sam.gov is for the federal level where you need your identification number and your cage code to start bidding on government contracts. And for the local one that’s called your procurement offices. So you can look at whatever county it is. So in this case we’re both from Essex County, New Jersey. So you will put in Essex County procurement contract.Dylan Silver (00:22)
Yeah.Anthony Lawson (00:26)
And then the portal will pull up for you, which you need to do. And then you literally just apply, create your username and password, and you just start bidding right away. So there’s no waiting game with that route. So it’s like the fastest way to go.Dylan Silver (02:14)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is an Army veteran investing in Texas, Ohio, Michigan in a very interesting niche. We’re gonna be talking about that here today involving government contracts. He’s with Global Investment Capital Group. Please welcome Anthony Lawson. Anthony, welcome to the show.Anthony Lawson (02:35)
Thanks a lot, Dylan, definitely appreciate it. Thank you.Dylan Silver (02:37)
I always like to start off at the top of the show by asking guests, you know, how did you get into the real estate space?Anthony Lawson (02:44)
Yeah, very good question. So when I was actually departuring from the military, I actually just was reading a lot of books, know, Think and Grow Rich, a lot of different podcasts. I was in a guard in my home state at the time. I actually was reliving in New Jersey at the time. And upon exiting, I said, you know what, have to…get into some type of assets where I can start creating additional income. So then that’s when I started reading different books, different things like that. Then shared living always popped into my mind. Luckily for me, I had a family member that was in the shared living space. Don’t do what I currently do right now, my business model, but told me I should look more into that. And I was like, it’s interesting, shared living. And when I was actually at a light, I was talking to a gentleman that serves, homeless gentleman, he served in,
Iraq and Afghanistan.
So I said, I think it’s a need for maybe some type of veteran housing or something to that effect. So I told him what to do, gave him some additional money, you know, so he can, you know, do what he had to do, tell him how to get the VA benefits. And from there, I just bought my first property, FHA, took the basement and started getting referrals from the Veterans Affairs by actually scrambling all on their website, you know, submitting the forms for RCC programs and
Dylan Silver (03:57)
Hmm.Anthony Lawson (04:00)
different things like that so I was able to still vet people out. And I allowed them to share the space upstairs and that’s what kind of catapulted my journey.Dylan Silver (04:08)
So,originally in New Jersey, are you living in Texas now?
Anthony Lawson (04:11)
Yes, I’m in Texas now.Dylan Silver (04:13)
We’re in Texas.Anthony Lawson (04:14)
I’m in Dallas area.Dylan Silver (04:15)
Okay, so I had just come from Denton. I live abroad now, but this is very interesting because I’m from New Jersey and was living in DFW three months ago, but I’m from northern New Jersey, a town called Caldwell West Caldwell, which for listeners who aren’t aware where that is, that’s about 30 miles from New York City, but northern New Jersey. Where are you from in New Jersey?Anthony Lawson (05:25)
Yep, yep, I was born in Newark but raised in West Orange. So I know all very well. About 20 minutes, maybe not even that. Yep.Dylan Silver (05:29)
Look at this! ⁓So
I do want to get a little bit granular and dive into your business model because you know it started out where you saw that there was a need for housing for veterans but you got into housing currently and you’re expanding in government contracts. So for our audience who may not be aware and for me who I am not aware how this works how does the government contract sector
face with housing, and then how are you able to scale in this space?
Anthony Lawson (06:10)
Yeah, that’s a very good question. people may not be aware of the city, which is different type of levels of government. Let’s start with that. You have your federal government, which everybody knows that, the IRS, different government bodies, DOJ. Then you have your county government, which is your county rules.your county courthouse building that’s the county government then you have your municipalities which is your city government right your municipalities your that’s your local police department things of that nature but all of these different government bodies receive funding from the federal government
Now when you receive funding from the federal government, which you usually go through either SAM.gov or you can get local contracts, which is just state body, that’s another one too, which is state government. They also, you have to really scavenge it throughout their website to see what’s available, when you can apply for them, different things of that nature. But for anybody, your viewers that’s listening, the best, fastest way to start off, because SAM.gov is amazing, but you will have to wait to get your registration and your numbers, different things like that, the cage code.
I would say I will tell him to start off at local, the local level.
in local level is very important because they always have money for developmental disability residents, VA residents, and local can count as nonprofit as well too. So nonprofit you can actually get with certain, not all, you just have to ask the right questions. You can get a contract with them and they will provide you residence or referral sources that they will pay on their behalf to your company in a shared living environment. So that’s really how I scaled off to a whole nother level. Then I started really
Dylan Silver (07:20)
Hmm.Anthony Lawson (07:44)
just immersing myself with information with buying existing cash-won businesses that have real estate.Dylan Silver (07:50)
You mentioned a website. Is that the dot gov website? Are they able to source government contracts on a local level on that same website?Anthony Lawson (07:59)
Also the good thing is sam.gov is for the federal level where you need your identification number and your cage code to start bidding on government contracts. And for the local one that’s called your procurement offices. So you can look at whatever county it is. So in this case we’re both from Essex County, New Jersey. So you will put in Essex County procurement contract.Dylan Silver (08:22)
Yeah.Anthony Lawson (08:26)
And then the portal will pull up for you, which you need to do. And then you literally just apply, create your username and password, and you just start bidding right away. So there’s no waiting game with that route. So it’s like the fastest way to go.Dylan Silver (08:40)
I want to pivot a bit here and ask you about getting into this space because your first deal in real estate, I imagine, was not a government contract. Is that accurate? You were purchasing traditionally.Anthony Lawson (08:51)
Yeah, that’s correct. it wasn’t a government contract. So you either have two routes to go in this shared living or group home space, which is usually licensed. You get a license from the state, it tell you how many occupants you can have for the license, or you can do unlicensed. So this route was unlicensed. I was just getting referred through the VA for veterans. And then the veterans will pay on their behalf through their VA disability.Dylan Silver (09:14)
Walk me through, for myself and folks who may be listening, how did you figure out, okay, well, there’s something here, you I’m passionate about this, but there’s a huge need here. Did you already know people that were involved in the government contract space? Did you have someone come to you and say, hey, there’s actually a big need that already exists out here? Walk me through how you made, how you connected that bridge.Anthony Lawson (10:10)
Yeah, that’s another good question, know, honestly, I just seen myself exiting the military. started looking up that same night. I remember it was like the back of my hand. I started looking up online the statistics of homeless individuals, the type of population, and it was homeless veterans, unfortunately. So, you know, people that serve the country, a lot of them are homeless. So I said, you know what? I think it’s a need here between veterans, homelessness and some type of housing.behind
it and a lot of them believe it or not actually have some sort of payment they just can’t afford anywhere to stay and a lot of people do not want to live in a homeless shelter for safety reasons or different whatever outside of the safety reasons it may be to them but a lot of people don’t prefer to live in a homeless shelter but they have some type of capacity to pay for a shared living environment they may not know
who to call to turn to, but they have the capacity. Not all, but some don’t. So I started looking up that night, these statistics, and I just said, let me contact the VA. So I called them, of course, nobody knows what you’re talking about. So then I started going down there and kind of connecting the dots between case management, case workers, different things of that nature. I was getting referral systems from them and also select bodies of nonprofit that works with the VA as well too.
Dylan Silver (11:30)
You know, this is pretty impressive because you’re exiting the military, connecting the dots here with a ⁓ bureaucracy, you know, government contracts. And real estate, right? Did you have people in your life who were either involved in either the government contract sector or real estate who were guiding you? Was all of this new to you? How were you able to so effectively navigate this complex process?Anthony Lawson (11:55)
Yeah, I’ve a glimpse of it. Honestly, I’m grateful to have an uncle in my life. I’ve seen a glimpse of it from his standpoint. He do share a living environment, but not group home. He just simply do rooming houses his thing, right? Which that’s okay. If anybody is in the NYC area, it’s called single room occupancy over in NYC. And New Jersey is just called rooming houses. But it’s not typically two-door room. You have…⁓ staff there 24-7, you know, it can be a form of shared living group home environment, but it’s not to the capacity of which I do. So I did have a glimpse of some type of shared living environment from that point of perspective. So I did not just start immersing myself between any type of information online and just connecting the dots between local organizations, me and nonprofits.
Dylan Silver (12:43)
I want to get granular on the size of the market here, maybe without giving away all the gold, not trying to create competition. when I think about the affordable housing crisis and specifically when you talk about, you know, veterans, but in general, I was not aware that there was contracts in this variety. I thought that there might be some incentive, but I wasn’t aware that there would be contracts. Is this something thatAnthony Lawson (12:50)
Yeah.Dylan Silver (13:09)
They are able to assist in purchasing the home itself. Do they have homes set aside that need to be managed? Is it a little bit of both? How was what can the funds and what is the government’s direct involvement when it comes to the real estate investor? Walk us through that, because there’s a lot of questions that I have just based on that alone.Anthony Lawson (13:30)
Yeah, for sure, for sure. So they don’t get involved as far as the real estate side. They send you referrals in the form of you must have the real estate already purchased. It may be set up for their infrastructure. Of course, they will do inspections. Everything must pass. And then they start putting you on a referral system once the contract is approved from the federal level. Now from the county level can take just as long to sometimes a year, 18 months if you want to get a contract on a county level.but the local level was probably the fastest. Non-profits, state body, you know, so if you’re in Ohio, there’s one of my favorite spots, it’s called RSS, Residential State Supplement, they will actually have people on there already on this program that was referred to them from case management. And then from native case management, do a walkthrough, they usually meet the owner, if you’re owner operator, or…
staff to make sure everything is safe, compliant, they feel like their case management load of residents will feel good at this particular home. Once they say yes, great, they do another walkthrough. If they haven’t brought them already for the resident. Resident do a walkthrough, they say yes, perfect. This is something I want to live into. They move them in, you sign their initial health documents, all of the forms, set them up on payment, then the government start paying you. And that’s from that state level.
federal levels a little bit different they all have their own nuances but you can still get paid from the government. The county level can be the same as well too but some nuances depending on where you’re at different counties in different states but yes they do their inspections they want to make sure that you have the real estate already to answer your question and you’ll be good to go from there.
Dylan Silver (15:51)
Now, I’m a little bit fishing out of water when it comes to VA loans, but if someone has a VA loan on a home, can they then go in turn and say, okay, well, this is an investment. I’d like to potentially have this be housing as well and take advantage of a local contract. Is that something that’s plausible?Anthony Lawson (16:07)
You can definitely do it on a VA and FHA. You just have to live in a home. You got to remember that. Because from the government standpoint as backing the FHA and VA, it’s a former first time home buyer. So they’re not looking at it from a lens of, hey, this is an investment. Can you create it as an investment? Sure, you can do that with anything. But you have to live in a home and meet their guidelines as well, too. I don’t want to say that to any viewers. Make sure you always meet the guidelines. But once you actually live in there,whether you take in room or take in the basement, whatever the case may be, then you can definitely have that environment shared out. Similar to when somebody purchases a home in their college, right? Then they turn it into a student rental. It’s the same concept.
Dylan Silver (16:49)
I want to pivot a bit here and we are coming up on time but I do want to squeeze this in. You you mentioned several different areas, Texas being one of them, Ohio being another one, I believe Michigan as well. I’m imagining that along the way you’ve had to consider capital sources. Did you ever take on partners with this? How did you approach raising capital for these deals? Is it all self-funded? Walk me through.That end of it.
Anthony Lawson (17:14)
Yeah for sure, a lot of different creative financing to start off. Capital partners as well too. I would do the operations because I know the business. If I had to obtain a loan, put credit up as well too so that was additional of something to bring to the table on top of not just the capital. So then the partner would look like, okay 50-50 is cool, you’re doing operations. Or if it’s 75-25, back to them. Yeah, a lot of different creative financing. Some deals I was able to acquire outright by myself, but in the earlier stages, a lot of creativefinancing. A lot of lease options, lot of sub twos, wraps, but particularly in the New Jersey area, I was doing a lot of lease options in seller financing.
Dylan Silver (17:44)
Yeah.Those are very creative deal structures. Will you go into your, I believe it was your uncle who was involved and asking him for feedback on some of these creative deals? Did you have mentors in the space? Or was it like fly by the seat of your pants and I’m gonna figure this out one way or the other.
Anthony Lawson (18:08)
Honestly, it was like I was going to figure it out one way or another, Because the model of what I was doing was a little bit different from just a regular one person to a room environment. Room and house style was a little bit different. So I didn’t really have guidance as far as that. Luckily for me, I did have trial and error, but not too much error on my part, which is a good thing. Yep.Dylan Silver (18:27)
That’s blessing. ⁓ Weare coming up on time here, Anthony. Where can folks go if they’d like to reach out to you and know you’re active online? Where can folks reach out to you? Maybe they have a deal they’d like you to look at or maybe they’d like your feedback on their own journey.
Anthony Lawson (18:43)
Yeah definitely, I would say you can reach me at www.globalinvestmentcapitalgroup.com. That’s actually the funds website, that’s how I scale tremendously. So if somebody wanted to partake in a fixed return, happy to talk to you further or one of my team members could talk to you and we could take it from there. Or I’m very active on LinkedIn as well too. You can just go to LinkedIn, forward slash Anthony Lawson. Instagram, it’d be Anthony underscore the investor. So that’s Anthony underscore the investor. ⁓and for Facebook it would just be Anthony Lawson as well.
Dylan Silver (19:15)
Anthony, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.Anthony Lawson (19:18)
thank you Dylan. Pleasure having you. Thank you.
