Steven Libman flipped about 1,000 houses before he ventured into larger deals.
Listen as he talks about using partnerships to build storage units from the ground up and close a $42 million multifamily property.
Transcript:
Chris Bounds 00:03
Steve, Congrats. Like almost nearly $42 million close this week. How does that feel?
Steven Libman 00:09
That feels good. I love the fact that you guys are a part of it. We’ve partnered with some amazing people across the country to close the biggest deal by almost four times than our last previous deal.
Chris Bounds 00:23
That didn’t take one call, one zoom call or a week of underwriting to do. Like, that this was a weeks and months of preparation. And lots and lots of back and work to get this deal done. Let’s backtrack before you go to that deal. Ultimately, your background, you were a real estate agent, very successful with that real estate flipping and wholesaling, successful there.
Ended up moving into storage units and I don’t recall where those units were, but you did eventually move into out of state markets. What was the reason for doing that? How did you make that leap of faith from not having local control and a local assets and being able to do it from a virtual standpoint?
Steven Libman 01:19
Yeah. I mean, the dichotomy was we were doing residential in state, when we were in New Jersey. We flipped and wholesaled, maybe a thousand houses over 10 years. So it was a very different operation. When we switched to the commercial. And we started building, we built three ground up self storage facilities in Orlando.
They were all managed by cube smart. We partnered with an experienced operator. Right. So we helped raise the capital into that deal and partnered with a guy who already had a couple 100 million dollars under management. He was boots on the ground.
You know, following what Don says. I mean, I’m sure you’re gonna hear the repetition over and over and over again, partnerships and mentorships. And people on the ground are kind of what helps streamline this process. But so our partner Sean lived in the Orlando area, he was very much managing the general contractors on the ground up construction and managing the COS, the township and all that stuff.
Chris Bounds 02:14
So people in relationships has been a team. And it reminds me, I’ve said it before Grant Cardone. He said, like, “Hey, you don’t have a money problem, you got a people problem. You find the right people, that’ll solve a lot of other problems.” How are you finding these folks? Whether it’s that partner for the Self Storage Units or the one of the big partners that’s involved in the forest project that you just close?
Steven Libman 02:47
Yeah. It’s not magic. It’s going out and finding people that are doing the things that you want to do and building relationships with them.
Chris Bounds 02:58
Wait, so there’s getting work to it. It’s not like Facebook post.
Steven Libman 03:03
It’s not a Facebook post. It’s a lot of phone calls. So look, everything in business, as we find out it’s about creating your tribe, having people that know, like and trust you. And align with your own core values. Right. When you can start there, then it’s very easy to implement these other things. Right. Business transactions become second nature, once you have the personal transaction that’s taking place. Right.
The personal relationships. So it’s finding your tribe. Believe me, there’s plenty of people out there that are doing this business that I don’t want to partner with. Right. And there’s plenty of people in the business that I do. So it’s going out kicking tires, starting relationships, finding out what drives other people and then not just what they say, but what they do.
Chris Bounds 03:49
Watching what they do.
Steven Libman 03:51
The name of our company puts us a little bit in the crosshairs. Right. Because the name of our company’s Integrity Holdings Group and people think initially, 11 years ago, maybe we started the name of that business so that other people thought that we had integrity. That’s not the reason for by the way. We named our company that, based on Proverbs, we’re Christians.
We know that we have to answer to God at some point. It was a reminder for us on our business card every time I handed it out that one day, we’ll stand in the judgment seat and we better know who we work for. But that doesn’t put us in the crosshairs. Right. We are held to a higher standard because of our name. We have to say what we’re going to do and then actually follow through with action. And same thing with your partners. When you start to find these partners.
You can start to see how people act and they will tell you that their core values are one thing, but do they finish them out in an accountable fashion where you can see it tangibly working in their business. Right. And then, that’s how you start to build those relationships. And that’s the trust piece of know, like and trust. Right. I can know someone. I can like them. They can tell me all the right things. But if they don’t follow through. Right. With what they say they’re gonna do on the business side, then it’s not going to be a fruitful partnership. Right.
Like it or not, you’re probably going to go through one or two of those. But as you start to mitigate those relationships and find the people that you know, like and trust and find the people that align with your core values, then you can start to do deal flow with them. And you can see the people that are bringing deals and things like that. So it becomes easier to do things far away, when your partners that you know, like and trust are there, and you can trust them that they’re gonna do exactly what they say they’re gonna do.
Chris Bounds 05:30
Yeah. That’s something like, I’m a high D. I’m very more of a visionary. Just go, go, go. But when it comes to partnerships, whether that’s a JV or actually going in on a deal together as a general partner, a limited partner or whatever. I’ve been more cautious.
Just because I know the name I have and especially if I’m going to involve anyone in my sphere. Like, you actually have the word integrity in your name. I don’t, but either way, I still have to adhere to that. I’m very guarded. I’ve approached in a way of, Hey, I am gonna develop a relationship. And we can take us for an example. Just watch.
Like, I remember a conversation you had as you were kind of moving out of a single family and moving into storage units. Let’s watch. Let’s see the extra acquisitions. Let’s maybe see some exits. Let’s see how they do propositions and how they handle multiple conversations and how they develop relationships over time. Prove it. Then, all right. Yeah. Let’s do some business together. Right. But that’s what everyone else is doing. Not everyone, but probably the most valuable partners you’ll ever have. That’s what they are doing.
Steven Libman 06:56
Yeah. Sorry.
Chris Bounds 06:58
Go ahead.
Steven Libman 07:00
Yeah. I was gonna say I mean, there’s certainly a lot of people out there that say, “Hey, come partner with me.” Right. And, you know, a lot of guys starting partnerships, relationships, JVs and things like that. Maybe too early. Right. I just heard Don say he’s cautious. Right. Your approach is more cautious. It should be because what you have is your name and your reputation. Right.
Chris Bounds 07:21
It’s also a marriage.
Steven Libman 07:24
You’re married for five years.
Chris Bounds 07:25
You’re getting married for a defined amount of time. That can be fun and enjoyable or not.
Steven Libman 07:35
Yeah. That’s why I like the multifamily space. Separate from the single family spaces. You’re married, but it’s still separated. Right. Like your entity owns a piece of the deal. My entity owns a piece of the deal. In the operating agreement is how we’re allowed to interact. So I like the fact that it really lays out the ground rules up front.
When in the single family space, we used to bring in some investors. They would partner with us and we’d share profits, but then sharing profits meant maybe we had multiple opinions on grant runners. Whatever. Right. Yeah. And that’s what I like about the multifamily space too, is it gives the opportunity for the people that want to be passive to be passive and the people that want to be active to be active.
Chris Bounds 08:23
In 30 seconds, any tips on if folks are especially starting out, they don’t have that network. How they can go out and start meeting and maybe some spots, whether it’s a BiggerPockets forum, whether they need to host a podcast, going to a mastermind or networking groups?
Steven Libman 08:46
All right. So if you figure out kind of what your niche is, I mean, that’s this is the problem. I think we are shotgun blasters. Right. As entrepreneurs, we want to go try a little bit of everything. And maybe you should in the beginning. I mean, frankly, we did wholesaling and we did flipping.
Now, we own apartment complexes. We built ground up construction. So we’ve done all kinds of stuff. Find out what you really like. Find out what you’re really good at and then go find those people. Right. I mean, we found our first mastermind, which is where we met via a podcast. And then I reached out to the guy who ran the podcast and he said, “Oh, hey, we have a mastermind, why don’t you join it?” And we did. And then we created relationships.
You know, don’t be an entrepreneurial Island. Go find your tribe. Go find the people that are doing what you’re doing, whether that’s in Facebook groups, podcasts or masterminds. Listen to a bunch of people that are doing what you want to do. Reach out to them and say, “Where should I go to learn more about this?” Right. Try to get in the room with some of those people. Now that conferences is starting to come back in a post COVID world.
You can start to get around some of the people and learn what they’re doing and how they went there. I mean, you know, it’s interesting, because as entrepreneurs, we have the opportunity to get around people that are further down the road than us and then potentially eclipse them because we get to learn all the things from them and then run right past them. Right.
I mean, most of the people that I’ve learned from did like one or two deals in their first year or two. We’ve done nine deals. We’re bordering on $200 million in acquisitions in 36 months, just because we took all that information, packaged it up, shoved it into our business and then ran down the street really, really fast. It’s really just to get around the right people.
Chris Bounds 10:19
Love it. Love it.