Shows
VCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: Hans Gildein's "Agent To Owner" JourneyReady to see how a modest first rental can snowball into a 36‑unit portfolio without flashy flips or risky bets? Cole sits down with Hans of White Fox Homes to unpack the gritty details: the early years as an agent learning the ropes, the first “doable” deal someone else passed on, and the disciplined BRRRR model that kept only a few thousand dollars tied up per property. The through line is simple systems and strong relationships—especially with lenders and tenants.Hans opens the playbook on construction underwriting and draw management: why a scope of work must be a tim...
2026-01-2040 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: Own Well Or Get Squeezed Is The Real Cost Of Uncertainty with Jack ArevaloDeals don’t fail on spreadsheets—they fail in time. We sit down with Jack to unpack how a former capital placement pro in New York became an owner-operator in Philadelphia by pairing finance discipline with architectural execution. From multifamily and mixed use to a surprising run of gas station c-stores, he shares what it takes to make lenders compete, why term sheets are won with clarity, and how vertically integrated design, permitting, and development cuts friction and cost.We get honest about negative leverage—when it’s a calculated bridge to value and when it just steals y...
2026-01-1433 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: The 3 R’s Every Investor Must Know — Retail, Rentals & RiskThe fastest way to learn what really builds wealth? Put your hands on a live business and a real project—and learn to love the work. We open with retail not for nostalgia, but because it spotlights risk, revenue, and the difference between buying a business and buying yourself a job. You’ll hear why “revenue cures all” is more than a slogan, how to price a small business without fooling yourself, and why a franchise or brand moat can turn effort into equity. We dig into SBA and seller financing, the hidden cost of owner labor, and the smart wa...
2025-12-1638 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: $600k Under Ask and Doubling NOI with a 12-Unit off LoopNet with Cole FarrellDeals don’t just appear; they’re earned through follow‑ups that outlast everyone else’s attention span. We walk through how a forgotten LoopNet listing turned into a 12‑unit purchase in North Carolina, why the numbers made sense, and what it really takes to raise capital when inboxes are full and holidays steal focus. From underwriting the story behind sub‑600 rents in a market that supports four figures, to catching the hidden clues of mismanagement, every step is designed to turn operational chaos into durable cash flow.We get specific about the capital stack and conversion reality—why...
2025-12-0928 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: How a $33K “Mistake” Turned Into Purchasing a 42-Unit at an Online Auction with Giang NguyenA $33,000 foreclosure, a tree through the foundation, and a scientist who had never hired a contractor—Giang's origin story doesn’t sound like a straight line to financial freedom. Yet that messy first project sparked a shift to five-plus unit multifamily, where income drives value and disciplined operators can force appreciation. We walk through how she left a decade-long lab career, built cash flow to quit her W-2, and learned to turn fear into focused action.We go deep on the difference between two-to-four-unit “comp land” and five-plus-unit commercial where NOI rules. Yang explains why the five-to-ten-unit range is...
2025-12-0330 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: 25,000+ Direct Mail Letters a Month with Jason ReynoldsWhat happens when a minor league ballplayer trades a shiny new car for a tired duplex—and then builds a real business from that bet? We sit down with Jason Reynolds to unpack how a $50k signing bonus became a launchpad for a scalable flipping operation, why active income beats slow-and-steady rentals early on, and the exact systems that keep deals moving from first call to closing table.Jason shares the pivotal shift from collecting doors to building a sales and marketing engine. We get into his flip criteria—why light rehabs can run on slimmer spreads whil...
2025-11-2636 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: How Specialization Will Get You To #1 with Dale KesslerWant more REO wins with fewer surprises? We sat down with 20+ year veteran Dale Kessler to decode how banks actually think, why some offers fly while others stall, and what separates investors who get accepted from those who get ghosted. Dale has moved thousands of bank-owned properties with a lean admin-first team, and he lays out the practical steps that make institutional sellers say yes: entity-aligned proof of funds, 10% earnest money on cash offers, clean timelines, and precise paperwork that plays nicely with automated portals.We explore when post-foreclosure purchases beat pre-foreclosure deals by shifting title cleanup...
2025-11-1844 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: From Zero To 700+ Units with Jon BrandonFreedom doesn’t come from a single lucky deal; it comes from stacking repeatable wins. John Brandon joins us to share how a childhood spent around apartment complexes turned into a 700+ unit portfolio, a hard-earned education in debt cycles, and a new focus on smaller, faster-moving multifamily that can outperform jumbo syndications.We walk through the first 16-unit JV in Greenville, North Carolina—how under-$500 rents doubled after deliberate turns, why local knowledge mattered, and what changed once interest rates jumped. John breaks down a tough Baltimore exit where investors were made whole but sweat equity vanished, then...
2025-11-1255 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: Why Seller Financing Is The King of Leverage with Karl KulpakWhat does it take to go from a 12-year career as a Pennsylvania State Trooper to owning dozens of lots and building a lifestyle business in affordable housing? We bring on Karl to unpack the real playbook: a mindset pivot sparked by Rich Dad Poor Dad, smart use of a W-2 for lending credibility, and a relentless focus on creative finance that fits the deal rather than forcing the numbers.We trace his journey through early single-family and a creatively financed fourplex to the first mobile home park that most buyers ignored. On paper it looked rough...
2025-11-0430 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: $300K Short 3 Days Before Closing A Golf Course with Ryan PotuckWhat if the fastest route to freedom wasn’t more doors, but a better-aligned asset? We sit down with Ryan to trace a bold leap from duplexes and a five-unit to owning a 100-acre golf course, unpacking the exact moves that turned a passion into a viable business. You’ll hear why early rentals taught the right lessons but couldn’t deliver the life he wanted, and how one mastermind conversation reframed the plan: buy what you love if the numbers work.We break the deal into concrete steps. Ryan explains how a golf course is both land a...
2025-10-2832 min
VCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: How wrong cadence makes your leads hate you w/ Pawl GoodA half-million-dollar fourplex with zero cash at closing and a check on the way out the door—this is where the journey starts. From that first FHA deal to a steady rhythm of flips and rentals, we lay out the exact playbook: how to generate predictable deal flow with direct mail, win trust with private lenders, and use a push-away sales style that gets sellers talking without feeling pressured.We unpack the mechanics of direct mail that behaves like a calculator: list selection, cadence, and response-rate math that lets you forecast contracts before you spend. Wh...
2025-10-2241 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: How to use the 80% capability rule to build a successful team w/ Moe EllhusiniIf you’ve ever felt one call away from a breakthrough but somehow stuck in neutral, this conversation is your playbook. We start where real change begins: the chain from thoughts to feelings to actions, and how that inner flow sets your ceiling long before you pitch a seller. Mo Hissini, associate professor and business coach, unpacks practical ways to rewire self-talk—using visualization, emotional anchors, and even a simple vision board—to push past doubt and make decisive moves in competitive markets.From there, we shift into behavior you can read and adapt in minutes. Mo breaks...
2025-10-2244 minVCap Real Estate PodcastMMM Edition: Why trust allows you to cherry pick deals w/ Dave RibardoTired of advice that treats real estate like a spreadsheet and ignores everything that actually breaks on a Tuesday night? We sit down with Dave RIbardo—Army infantry officer turned Lehigh Valley investor, broker, and pilot—who turned early missteps in a dead market into a 400-unit operating platform built on people, process, and responsiveness. From the infamous $1,000 squirrel removal to a water billing fiasco solved by local boots on the ground, Dave shows how property management, maintenance, and communication drive returns more than any pro forma.We unpack why time freedom, not “passive income,” was the real tar...
2025-10-2231 min2025-10-2203 min
Forged In FireEpisode 51: Luxury Vacation Rentals: Building a Portfolio That Creates MemoriesWhat if your biggest vacation frustration became your next business breakthrough? That's exactly what happened to Troy Evans, founder of LRVP (Luxury Residence Vacation Portfolio). After years in corporate America, Troy found himself increasingly annoyed by inconsistent vacation rentals that never matched their photos and failed to deliver the experience his family deserved.In this captivating conversation, Troy reveals how he transformed this personal pain point into a thriving business that's disrupting the luxury vacation rental market. Rather than accepting the status quo of unreliable vacation homes, he built a portfolio of carefully selected multi-million dollar properties...
2025-10-0657 minForged In FireEpisode 50: Stories Sell Using Personal Narratives to Build Trust in BusinessWhen Radhika Rastogi purchased her first condo in Long Beach a decade ago, she never imagined it would spark a journey toward a multimillion-dollar senior living portfolio. Today, as co-founder and managing partner of Relik Capital Group, she oversees 300 senior housing units with more than $17 million under management—all while balancing a Fortune 20 corporate career and motherhood.The turning point came during her maternity leave with her second child. While her wife bonded with their newborn, Radhika dove deep into real estate, moving from fix-and-flip projects into commercial properties. That exploration ultimately led her to the overlooked bu...
2025-09-2944 minForged In FireEpisode 49: Real estate barriers create the biggest opportunities.Could mobile home parks be the most overlooked wealth-building opportunity in real estate?On this episode of the Forge In Fire Podcast, we sit down with Chad Freeman, Founder of MHPinvestors and commercial airline pilot, to explore how he turned a side hustle into a portfolio of more than 200 mobile home pads.Chad’s story started with a crash pad for fellow pilots and a duplex house hack — but his real turning point came in 2015 when he recognized the unique economic advantages of mobile home parks. With virtually no new...
2025-09-2233 minForged In FireEpisode 48: What happens when you trade security for possibility?What does it take to trade a dream tech career for a life of financial freedom and purpose?On this episode of the Forge In Fire Podcast, we sit down with Georgy Marrero, founder of Equis Capital, whose journey spans from coding as a kid in the Dominican Republic to managing a $28M multifamily real estate portfolio.After teaching himself to code at age 9, Georgy left his home country at 18 with just $1,000 and a dream. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a computer science degree and landed roles at...
2025-09-1545 minForged In FireEpisode 47: Scaling From Zero to Almost 900 Units Starts With Taking the First StepWhat happens when you trade a secure healthcare career for the uncertainty of real estate?On this episode of the Forge In Fire Podcast, we’re joined by Lee Yoder, Founder & CEO of Threefold Real Estate Investing, whose journey from physical therapist to real estate syndicator shows the power of perseverance, partnerships, and methodical scaling.Lee’s story began in 2017 with a single house flip while still working his W-2 job. That project revealed a crucial insight: flipping houses was just another job, not the passive income path he wanted. From ther...
2025-09-0838 minForged In FireEpisode 46: Numbers Don't Lie, But They Need Someone to Tell Their StoryWhat does it really take to thrive as an entrepreneur in today’s challenging real estate market? In this episode, we sit down with Lilian Chen, founder of Proptimal, the 10X real estate analyst platform for lean teams.Lilian’s experience spans multifamily, commercial, and hospitality deals, having advised on over $2B in transactions, including $100M+ acquisitions and major projects like the Iovance Biotherapeutics HQ in Philadelphia. She’s worked with 200+ real estate firms, teaches 300+ high-net-worth investors how to underwrite and structure deals, and has guest lectured at Oxford’s Saïd Busines...
2025-09-0148 min
Above the Title: A Saoirse Ronan PodcastArtemis FowlSurprise! The lost Colin Farrell episodes have been recovered! Listen back to April 2024 when the great Colin Hamingson joined us to discuss the long in development children's fantasy adventure picture Artemis Fowl, an extremely normal Covid era catastrophe that Colin Farrell definitely wasn't added to at the last second. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2025-08-302h 31Forged In FireHow an Engineer Pivoted from Single Family to Multifamily Investing: Breaking Down Doors with Stephen PredmoreWhat happens when the security blanket of a 20-year career gets ripped away in an instant? For Stephen Predmore, a seasoned engineer in the automotive industry, that shocking moment became the catalyst for an extraordinary transformation in his financial future.Stephen's journey begins with a gut punch—his entire department walked out after two decades of service, shattering the illusion of job security despite working on cutting-edge electric vehicle technology. While devastating, this moment accelerated a path he'd already been exploring through real estate investment education.Like many newcomers, Stephen started with single-family homes in Ba...
2025-08-2541 minForged In FireEpisode 44: The Art of Adding Value — Building Mountains of Success One Grain at a Time with Etinosa AgbonlahorPricing your products or services is perhaps one of the most emotionally charged decisions entrepreneurs face. In this deeply insightful conversation with Etiosa, CEO of Decision Alpha, we uncover the psychological underpinnings of pricing strategy and how behavioral economics can transform business monetization.When asked what emotions come up around pricing, business owners typically respond with words like "dread," "anxiety," and "fear." Most admit they're "guesstimating" or "undercharging." This widespread uncertainty highlights the critical need for a science-based approach to pricing. Etiosa's firm helps businesses not only determine optimal price points but also craft compelling narratives that...
2025-08-1837 minForged In FireEpisode 43: Avery Robertson's journey from Cattle Rancher to Capital ProviderWhat does it take to walk away from a stable job and build a multimillion-dollar lending business? Avery Robertson pulls back the curtain on his remarkable journey from cattle rancher to capital provider in this riveting conversation.Avery's story begins in the wide-open spaces of one of America's largest cattle ranches before transitioning to agricultural lending. All the while, a passion for real estate investment simmered beneath the surface. Despite years of attending investor meetups and analyzing potential deals, Avery found himself stuck on the sidelines – until a pivotal moment when he realized his lending expertise could be...
2025-08-1239 minForged In FireEpisode 42: Midterm Rental Success by Building a Dual Marketplace w/ Aisha GovaniWhat does it really take to build a thriving real estate business while homeschooling kids and maintaining your sanity? Aisha Govani doesn't sugarcoat her answer: "100 hours a week for two years, seven days a week, no days off." But the freedom and future she's building make every grueling moment worthwhile.Growing up watching her contractor father covered in sawdust and paint, Aisha witnessed firsthand how real estate created generational wealth. After a decade in the nonprofit sector followed by corporate events, she realized building someone else's dream wasn't her destiny. When she met her husband—already a se...
2025-08-0453 minForged In FireEpisode 41: Matt Burk's 30 Years in Real Estate CapitalWhat does it really take to thrive for three decades in real estate investment? Matt Burk, founder and CEO of VeraVest, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable journey from desperate entrepreneur to seasoned fund manager in this candid conversation that every investor needs to hear.Starting with just $10,000 borrowed at a staggering 21% interest rate in the early 1990s, Matt transformed necessity into opportunity when he lost his job during the S&L crisis. With refreshing honesty, he recounts his evolution from mortgage broker to fund manager, revealing the strategic pivots that kept him not just surviving...
2025-07-2843 minForged In FireEpisode 40: Jonathan Greene's Journey From Attorney to Real Estate InvestorWhat does it really take to build generational wealth through real estate? Not flashy strategies or market timing secrets, but something far more foundational – something Jonathan Green learned walking properties as a toddler.Jonathan's journey begins with childhood weekends spent at yard sales, where his attorney father would scout potential properties while young Jonathan hunted for baseball cards. These seemingly ordinary outings served as masterclasses in opportunity recognition, deal-making, and patience. By age 18, Jonathan had already co-owned dozens of properties through family trusts, positioning him with a knowledge base most investors spend decades trying to acquire.
2025-07-2145 min