There’s no quick way to success in real estate. It takes patience and consistency to create wealth and leave a lasting legacy. In this episode, we share an inspiring conversation with Marcus Long as he talks about his journey to multifamily. Marcus is a husband, father of a seven and four-year-old, and an active duty Naval Officer with 21 years of service. As he transitions out of the military to focus on family, charity, and real estate full time, he is excited to serve others in new ways. He is passionate about positively impacting the communities he chose to invest in and finding financial freedom. [00:01 - 05:51] There Is Value in Slow Growth Marcus talks about how he got into multifamily How he’s able to do deals remotely while living in England Trusting the process and being patient [05:52 - 11:24] Lessons Learned Going Into Multifamily Raising capital overseas and establishing trust with his investors Networking and letting people know what you’re doing Don’t take rejection personally A failure Marcus experienced and how he overcame it The importance of systems and processes [11:25 - 16:10] Living Life in Your Own Terms Marcus’ definition of success Being present in his family’s life It’s not just about the money, it’s about giving back to the community Setting goals as a couple Encouraging conversations about real estate and investing opportunities [16:11 - 19:32] Closing Segment The best piece of advice Marcus received Reach out to Marcus! Links Below Final Words Tweetable Quotes “People can't come to invest with you if they don't know what you're doing.” - Marcus Long “Something's only a failure really if we label it as a failure.” - Marcus Long “Trust that process and be consistent with it. And the results will come.“ - Marcus Long ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with Marcus! Visit their website and find their socials here. Resource mentioned The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan Connect with me: I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns. Facebook LinkedIn Like, subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on. Thank you for tuning in! Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below: [00:00:00] Marcus Long: That's one of the first things I really did, was kind of turn around and like, make sure everyone knows what I'm doing, right? People can't come to invest with you if they don't know what you're doing. And so just kind of going back through, you know, social media, Facebook, LinkedIn, and everything else, just kind of reaching out to contacts and just letting people know like, Hey, this is the transition that I'm making in my business. There might be some opportunities available in the future if you're interested in, in having that conversation. [00:00:34] Sam Wilson: Marcus Long is a husband, father of a seven and four-year-old, and an active duty Naval officer with 21 years of service. As he transitions out of the military to focus on family charity and real estate full time, he is excited to serve others in new ways. Marcus, welcome to the show. [00:00:49] Marcus Long: Thanks, Sam. Appreciate it. [00:00:50] Sam Wilson: Hey man, pleasure's mine. There's three questions I ask every guest who comes to the show: in 90 seconds or less, can you tell me, where did you start? Where are you now? And how did you get there? [00:00:59] Marcus Long: Yeah, so, you know, I grew up in rural Missouri. I enlisted in the Navy right out of high school. And a few years later I got selected for a commissioning program, was going to the University of Missouri when I bought my first real estate condo there. I did some house hacking, kept it as a rental when I left and I still own it today. [00:01:15] Marcus Long: And, after that I was doing a lot of deploying. And so I wasn't necessarily super intentional, but opportunistically, you know, picked up a dozen or so single-family multi-use buildings and stuff back in Missouri through my career. And about three or four years ago. You know, I went home from work early one day and my daughter was pretty young at the time, asked what I was doing home. [00:01:34] Marcus Long: Cause it was still light outside. So she was surprised to see me. And it was kind of a, a bit of a gut punch and, you know, kind of confirmed my desire to start my transition and off-ramp out of the military and preferably in a way to do so without having to have a W2. But, I realized the cash flow from the properties I had wasn't enough to do that. And so I kind of had to, to dig in, look at the numbers and figure out a path to do so. And that's kind of where I decided to start transitioning over to the, the multifamily side. And after investing in a few limited, as a limited partner, a few syndications, I transitioned to be a GP. [00:02:08] Marcus Long: And, by the time this airs will have, you know, Co-GP about 400 doors in the past 12 months. So that's where I am now. [00:02:15] Sam Wilson: That is really cool. So I guess the, the long-term plan is to go long in multifamily. Do you think you'll stay as a Co-GP or do you see yourself going out and taking down deals on your own? [00:02:26] Marcus Long: Yeah, I think that's a combination there, you know, I've already kind of, you know, been analyzing deals and putting in some offers on my own. And just the way timings and stuff, some of my partners have ended up getting offers, accepted and stuff, and pulling me in on, on some of those deals with them. [00:02:41] Marcus Long: So certainly I'll, I'll do some on my own if those opportunities, present themselves. But, you know, I think, being a Co-GP and partnering has also been a big part of, you know, what has allowed me to scale at the pace that I have, you know, over the past year or. [00:02:55] Sam Wilson: How did, I mean, you live, and we didn't talk about this yet here in the show, but we did off air. You live in England right now. You're stationed, I think, in England. [00:03:02] Marcus Long: That's correct. [00:03:03] Sam Wilson: How, how did you find partners? How have you vetted deals? I mean, there's a lot of these things that are kind of boots on the ground task. How did, how did you tackle that side of this business? [00:03:12] Marcus Long: Yeah. So interestingly enough you know, some of my other partners are actually here in England and, and stuff as well. [00:03:17] Marcus Long: Although some of them are back in the states. And so, I think, you know, just between the, the group of us, like some of us have other connections, one of my partners has a mentor and a, a college roommate and a college classmate and stuff that was boots on the ground there. And so, really just by network And things and finding other partners that maybe already had some of those boots on the ground. [00:03:36] Marcus Long: You know, I have a couple of partners that are in, in Texas. A couple of our properties are in Texas and stuff as well. And so really a lot of that, you know, meeting people was really just getting networking a lot, whether, you know, that be meetups and other things and met some of them through partnerships and, and deals. [00:03:51] Marcus Long: And a lot of my initial partners were other military guys and girls, and that we, some of us were in similar masterminds together. So we spent a lot of time together in, you know, weekend calls or accountability groups and things like that. Really getting to know each other and then I've met other people through them. [00:04:05] Sam Wilson: What do you think someone should take time-wise from, you know, where you started? I mean, you kind had a, a base in real estate. But what, what would you say is an estimated time someone should budget in for all right, this is when I'm going to start digging in, doing what you did, joining masterminds, talking to people, figuring out what markets to be in, how to, how to grow and scale. How much time do you think that should take someone? [00:04:29] Marcus Long: Yeah. You know, I think that's a difficult question because we're all in, in a different phase of life. Some of us still have a W2. Some don't have a W2, some have a family, some don't have a family. And so I think it's difficult to like compare to other people in, in their journey and we're all on our own journey to do that. [00:04:43] Marcus Long: But one thing I would say is, I think we, we do need to be patient with ourselves, you know, and stuff. I'm in some of these masterminds and, sometimes, you know, someone's just starting out and, you know, they start taking these actions and they don't have results in three, four, maybe even six months or something, right. And, and, you know, they, they want, we have that, want that instant gratification of something. And I think it's important for people to realize like, you know, once in a while, someone may get lucky or may have that, you know, deal come through early on, but you know, we have to be patient and trust the process and give it the time, you know, to, to take effect. [00:05:15] Marcus Long: 'Cause I mean, even if you have people that, you know, want to invest with you or brokers that want to work with you, you know, it doesn't happen based on one conversation, you know, it's a repeated follow up and stuff. And so, you know, I hate to put a time on it, but you know, I think a, you know, a good year, you know, for people to even really kind of expect results and stuff is probably. [00:05:34] Sam Wilson: Probably a fair number. [00:05:35] Marcus Long: Non-conservative approach, maybe. [00:05:36] Sam Wilson: Yeah, no, I, I absolutely agree. Absolutely agree 'cause that's, I mean, that's what we see a lot of times is, you know, people are like, Hey, you know, they come out expecting two to three months. They're going to get through and that happen
