Van Sturgeon: From Humble Beginnings To 1000 Doors
LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE ON:
Van Sturgeon came from humble beginnings in Chicago helping to manage a property with his family. He turned to starting a construction business to live out the American Dream, and from there one thing has led to the next. Today he is an experienced entrepreneur who has businesses in land acquisition, development, construction, renovation, as well as owning over 1,000 properties in North America. Because he's built his companies with great people, he's now semi-retired and spending his time coaching and mentoring others. Primarily he helps homeowners and real estate investors overcome their fears of house renovations and helps them to achieve their real estate goals.
In this episode, hosted by Mike Swenson, we discussed:
- In the late ’90s, Van went off into university, graduated, and was going to go to law school.
- Van realized he didn’t feel like being a lawyer. So, he got into general contracting construction renovation.
- He became a general contractor in Chicago and started his business over a period of time.
- Van started to transition into acquiring properties for flipping in the beginning, and then also doing his contracting business
- His general contracting side was scaling up and then doing the flips at the same time.
- He reached out for help to a real estate investor and walked him through the whole mythology of what he was doing wrong and what he should be doing right.
- He got several businesses and land acquisition developments. He became a builder and got a construction renovation restoration company.
- He now owns over 1000 units across North America
- Van did 1000s of renovations from apartments to single-family to commercial
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro and overview on Van’s career
03:52 - Van started to get into general contracting construction renovation
4:27 - He transitioned into acquiring properties
07:47 - Van reached out to real estate investor’s help
17:10 - He laid out the road to success that anybody can do
18:43 - Van suggested when not to invest in a property
33:33 - Van shares the two types of properties an individual can buy
Follow Van 👇🏼
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vansturgeon/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/van-sturgeon-029018200/
Website: http://www.vansturgeon.com/
SUBSCRIBE IF YOU'RE LOOKING TO BUILD WEALTH THROUGH OPPORTUNITIES IN THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY
✅ http://relfreedom.tv
GET STARTED INVESTING TODAY AND ACCESS OUR DEAL LIST!
📈 http://investwithelite.com
PARTNER WITH US ON BIG DEALS!
💵 https://eliteadvantagepropertieshq.com
BUILD YOUR REAL ESTATE AGENT CAREER WORKING WITH INVESTORS
👨👩👧👦 http://eliteadvantageagent.com
LEARN ABOUT REL FREEDOM & HEAR MORE REAL LIFE STORIES
🎙️ http://www.relfreedom.com
FREEBIES: DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE FREEDOM FOUNDATION BLUEPRINT
💵 https://www.relfreedom.com/blueprint
LOOKING FOR A REAL ESTATE AGENT ANYWHERE IN THE US? FIND A TOP AGENT IN YOUR COMMUNITY
🏠 http://www.eliteagentreferral.com
JOIN OUR FACEBOOK COMMUNITY
👨👩👧👦 https://www.facebook.com/groups/relfreedom
SUBSCRIBE TO THE REL FREEDOM PODCAST
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rel-freedom-podcast/id1535281574
🎧 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xNDA3NjIyLnJzcw==
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nXA5hLHbDzRwxypc2wLur
LET'S CONNECT
👉 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mswenson13
👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getrelfreedom/
👉 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@relfreedom
🏠 Minnesota Real Estate: https://www.eliteadvantageteam.com
Full transcript here:
Mike Swenson
Welcome to the REL freedom podcast where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some real freedom together. Hey, welcome everybody to another episode of real freedom. And today I've got Van Sturgeon with me in Van is a very experienced real estate investor, entrepreneur, he's got a lot of different businesses in the real estate space. And specifically, he's going to talk to us about how to get started investing, what to do, he's also very passionate about helping people with renovation projects, really walking them through those steps, a lot of the things that really trip up the new real estate investors. So we're excited to have van on here, Van, welcome to the show. And why don't you just give us a couple minutes and share a little bit about your background?
Van Sturgeon
Well, thank you, Michael, for having me on your on your podcast. It's a I've been a longtime admirer of yours. And I really do appreciate you bringing me on. My story is pretty, pretty interesting in that I'm a product of immigrant parents who came to Chicago and I'm a product of the 60s in the 70s. Even though I don't look that old, I am pretty old. So we live in an apartment, a one bedroom apartment in Chicago, and my parents is, you know, work their tails off to try to save as much money as they can to put a down payment on a home, you know, the American dream. And in that process, somehow they were able to find out that the building that we were renting that we're staying at actually went up for sale. And so there they put their all their money together borrowed money from family, and were able to put down a down payment, and they bought this apartment building. And not not that my parents had any experience in it, but they thought that they could learn. So they bought it.
Van Sturgeon
And then what an up happening is things kind of changed during the late 70s You're too young to remember Michael. But back then we had interest rates at 1820 some odd percent, we had inflation really going crazy, sort of kind of stuff that's going to happen now, you know, moving forward, but oil embargo, remember waiting in line with the old man get gasoline, the rank in Iran hostage situation, that kind of stuff. So anyway, so it was a miserable time, and the economy went down the tubes and the building that we were in which was 100% occupied, dropped to wrong 50 60% the whole area went down the tubes, landlords couldn't survive in your torch in our buildings to click the insurance money. So I remember walking down for in the neighborhood and seeing buildings pockmarked all over the place that were torched.
Van Sturgeon
So it was a really bad time. So as a family, we had to buckle down to be able to do what we've had to do in order to be able to survive, meaning we have to do all the work ourselves. So from painting, plastering, roof, whatever it took to get the bill ticketed, you know, to save money to be able to get the repairs, done cleaning toilets, whatever it took, we did. And so that was the sort of the background that I had growing up as that I don't I didn't enjoy summer vacation. I was working because we had to work in order to survive. And then we sort of went through that period and got through it. And out of their early 80s, late 90s, things started getting better. And that's when I went off into university, graduated and was going to go to law school, nor I was encouraged to go to law school. And then I just didn't feel it. I did I didn't want it. And I went and had a very difficult conversation.
Van Sturgeon
My parents who said, I'm not I'm just not going to be that lawyer. I don't feel like it. And I want to get into general contracting construction renovation. So but grudgingly What are they going to do? Go ahead if that's what you want to do go. And so that's where I got my started, I became a general contractor in Chicago. And I started my business and slowly over a period of time sort of cultivated it. And then over that period of time, in the beginning, I started running into the same people in that real estate investment sphere, where you know, I would get calls to price out work for them. And these guys kept seeing the same people. And I started realizing maybe there might be an opportunity. And so that's when I started to transition into acquiring properties for myself for my for me flipping in the beginning was slipping, and then also doing my job contracting business. And both of those sort of grew.
Van Sturgeon
And there have been bumps along the way. And we could talk about them but ultimately got me to the point where I got several businesses and land acquisition developments. I've also have I'm a builder I'm got a construction renovation restoration company that does residential Specifically commercial buildings. And I own over 1000 units across North America. So I'm in that semi retirement stage of my life, I want to want to downshift to serve, just stop smell the flowers, and I really am passionate and really want to help because it makes me feel good. I really want to help people who want to get started in real estate and investing. But in particular people who are interested in you know, they've acquired their property already and wants somebody to give them a helping hand toward the towards the renovation rehab process, because, as you know, there's television shows out there, there's channels dedicated to renovations and disasters.
Van Sturgeon
And, you know, we hear the horror stories of people of contractors grabbing the pauses and running away or tradespeople not doing quality work, that kind of stuff. So I really want I love because I love it. It's in my blood. it's second nature to me, I love engaging people and helping them through that planning and management of the House Renovation, and I'm really good at it. And I've done over, I've done 1000s of renovations from apartments to single family to commercial, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, that's what that's where I'm, that's what I'm doing with my life is just trying to help people.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, and I love I love a few things. One is I mean, a you've, you've had a lot of experience in a lot of different areas. And be like you had talked about, you know, your your semi retired. And you've you mentioned to me offline before, about how you have good people running the different areas of your companies. And so, you know, I think there's there's a lot of wisdom in that, because part of the topic of what we talk about is, you know, the freedom that you can get through, you know, these opportunities in real estate. And the freedom really only comes if you have great people surrounding you, because otherwise, it's just van putting out all the fires, Van taking care of everything, versus you have great people that are empowered to make decisions and empowered to take action on things. So I think that's an important piece to talk about. But let's let's Yeah, go ahead.
Van Sturgeon
If I can just quickly add, that was that didn't happen overnight. Because I came from my background, I, with my family, I had to do everything in the beginning of my career. And I was a micromanager. I had to be perfect. I was the only one that can do it. And then it got to a point where my business was my general contracting side was scaling up, I was getting really busy. And then I was doing these flips at the same time. And I was burning the candle at both ends. So it got to a point where I was sleeping on job sites. I was married to my wife and I would even go on our honeymoon, I was just really focused on my business. And it got to a point where I was sleeping at job sites. And one one night I remember until I wake up, I'm staring at this freshly painted ceiling and wondering what the hell am I doing over here, like I was worried about this contractor, I was worrying about the kitchen manufacturer not showing up.
Van Sturgeon
And it came to the point where I almost had a nervous breakdown. And it wasn't until I reached out to a real estate investor was very successful. Who I asked them for their help. And there they they coached me they walked me through the whole mythology of what I was doing wrong or what I should be doing right? And what was if it wasn't for that person, I paid them a lot of money. But if it wasn't for that person who stepped in to give me that helping hand to guide me in that process, I would have I would have been I would have I will not accomplish what I accomplished thus far in my life.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, well, and one thing that you alluded to that sometimes people gloss over is the value of having somebody to help walk you through this. And sometimes that comes at a price like I understand people want to start and do things as cheaply as possible and you know, house hack themselves and do that. But if you have a vision bigger than one house or two houses, if you want to get to 10, 20, 50, 100 finding great people that know what they're doing that have been down that road, and probably investing some money in some education from them, some mentoring from them, can really go a long way because they can help you get to 10, 25, 50 units faster than you ever could yourself I get you maybe want to do you know house number one yourself. But if you do have a plan of financial freedom, and you want to scale this having having that wisdom from others is really powerful.
Van Sturgeon
I use the analogy, Michael, in. It's like, if you want to learn a musical instrument, or you can go grab that thing and bang at it for a couple of years. And eventually you might figure it out. Or you go hire a music teacher that knows exactly what to do teach you what the way to hold instrument properly. And if you make a mistake, you know, maybe whack you upside the head. Well, one way or another, it'd be a lot quicker process than figuring it out. And unfortunately real estate you're dealing with, you know, 10s of 1000s hundreds of 1000s of dollars. And if you screw up, they can be a devastating bowl of blow that you can't overcome. So this is not chicken feed. This is not things that we can play games with. And so I strongly, strongly encourage everybody if you really want to get into this and really serious that, like seek out mentorship and coaching to be able to guide you through the process. And you'll get a lot quicker to the your goals.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, kind of the the challenges that those early, you know, hey, I'm really excited, I want to get into real estate, I want to do something big with investing, I may not have any money, I may not really know what to do in terms of being a handy handy person, maybe I don't have previous experience, walk through some of those challenges that those those beginning investors face and kind of how you can encourage them and help them through that process.
Van Sturgeon
Well, the first, the first step, or first inclination for somebody who wants to get into this is they spend hours days on the internet, trying to get as much information as they can, unfortunately, the internet is full of great stuff, and also a lot of garbage. And so that is in itself, something that people need to be conscious of, before they start really grabbing information and using it. When I always strongly advise somebody people that they want to get into any walk in life, in particular real estate investing is that, birds of a feather flock together. And if you have you need to join people, groups that have that interaction where you can learn podcasts are a great place, your local REI, there's, they're all over the place, join them.
Van Sturgeon
There's meetup groups, join them, things of that nature, get yourself involved in those groups, and they will be able to, and what I found in all of these groups is that people really want to help like I am a part of these groups. And I really like participating like helping people, because it just makes me feel good. Because then I remember back then, you know, 30 years ago, you know how was when I got started. So I encourage people to make that. The next thing is, once you've been able to get that understanding and going, it does not mean that you need to have money, lots and lots of money to get started in your real estate investment career. And what I found is that a lot of people need to start figuring out the areas that they want to invest in, thoroughly understand that whole area, and then start doing your research and looking into that area. What does that research process in tail?
Van Sturgeon
Well, maybe you need to know maybe you need to, you know, start reaching out to real estate agents, you need to reach out to accountants are active in that area, probate lawyers, mortgage brokers, people like that contractors, people like that, that are in that area that have some spheres of influences, creates your power team of people where you're, you know, you're getting information from them, you're understanding you're learning. And and and that then leads to actually really getting on the boots on the ground and start driving around and looking at opportunities that are all over the place, even to this day.
Van Sturgeon
As crazy as the real estate market is there are opportunities, how do we know that on your street right now that that person four doors down is, you know, missed a couple of payments on their mortgage, or you know, as got bills to pay that they don't know what to do, or five houses down, there's somebody who's a hoarder and you know, they they got to a point where they want to sell their house, but they're embarrassed because of their situation, or there's a seventh house down, you know, there's repairs in the house that they don't have the money to, to sink into the house to sell it, they need to sell it, and and they're embarrassed, and they just want to wait out your ability to be able to go over there and negotiate something with those individuals. Before that though, you understand and realize what the market is and the value of that property. And then you subtract the actual costs associated with having to bring it up to certain sub market level, you're doing a service, you're helping yourself up, but you're also helping them.
Van Sturgeon
That's the way I look at that. And so I if you weren't engaged in that process, you know, identify a property that you haven't spent any money you've just created. You've just created an opportunity where you sign a contract, you have you have that you're able to purchase a property, and then what you can do, and you should do and you could do if the deal is great. You got to you got a network of people to say, Hey, I got this property really, I got a great deal on this property, buy it. And you'll find that there'll be a flock of investors like me, who will come and say, Yeah, that's a great deal. I'll buy it. And then what do you do you make money on that you make money, 5000 20,000 10,000, whatever, you know, something like that. And all of a sudden now from your efforts, you're learning the marketplace, but also you're making money. And then you start doing that over a period of time.
Van Sturgeon
All of a sudden, people will come flocking to you saying hey, let's go partner on this. All of a sudden, wow, all of a sudden you don't have to put any money down. This is a thing that I want to. This is the kinds of things I stress to people that I tell people to that they should be doing when they get started. Is that makes any sense?
Mike Swenson
No, it makes total sense. And for a lot of people, it's not maybe not being willing to put in that work to go do that. And I think tying it back to, you know, what, what do you want out of this helps bring you through those moments because real estate investing, or you know, lots of different opportunities in real estate, like, they're, they're hard, you know, people, people walk in thinking because of the the TV shows that you've alluded to that people watch that they just think, Oh, I can just get my license or just step into the industry. And now all sudden, I'm making 50,000 on this deal. 100,000 on this deal? No, it takes a lot of time. And so right, yeah, you you may spend weeks going and finding that one property.
Mike Swenson
But once you do, like you said, if if, you know, if it's some sort of wholesale type deal, and you pick it up, and you sell it for $10,000, more than what you have the contract will for well, then you made $10,000 in three weeks, you know, I know there's a lot of people that would be ecstatic to make $10,000 in three weeks, so, and then it's just building and building and building, and you find more people and I've told some people, you know, some folks think like, okay, like the question that comes up, well, I don't have money to get started in real estate investing. And what we want to challenge people with is, when you find the right property, when you find the right opportunity, the money will show up, because there's there's people out there like you that are willing to invest in those types of things absent from other people.
Mike Swenson
So don't let I don't have money be the reason why I don't start this journey of trying to build wealth through real estate, it's you got to, you got to do step one, before you get to step two, you can't you can't go to somebody, you know, if I came, you said, Hey, man, will you invest in a property for me? Well, what properties that I don't know yet I don't have it, you know, but if I come to you, and I say, here's the property that I have, here's the current value, here's the amount of the repairs we're going to put in. And when we do that, here's the value of what we can sell it for. And I say, okay, for that amount of return, would you be interested in investing, it's a whole different conversation. So you've got to roll up your sleeves, you've got to put in the time and effort at the beginning to find the right investors that are going to be the ones willing to write that check,
Van Sturgeon
Michael, what I what I laid out is the road to success that anybody can do. And it's very difficult, you got to get out of your comfort zone, you got to meet people, you got to interact, you got to create that power team, and you got it, you got to move the ball forward, it takes a lot of effort. And it and it's not easy, but you got to do it, you got to get out of your comfort zone. Ultimately, the what I just spelled out is the roadmap to success in that once you've identified that area is yours and you got the information, you got the knowledge you got people that that you can refer to you can rely on. And then once you're able to identify that property, and you and you got that sphere of people in that Rei group, Meetup group, whatever, trust me, if the deal is good, you'll get somebody that's gonna snap it up in a heartbeat, especially nowadays, then once you've been able to do that over a period of time, you know, do three or four or seven of them, and you've got some money coming in.
Van Sturgeon
And all of a sudden, now you've created something that you've created an awareness within that Meetup group, that Rei group within your sphere that, hey, this guy's a mover and a shaker, or this girl is a movie or a mover and a shaker. All of a sudden you you'd be you'd be amazed what ends up happening, you will have people with money, moolah is going to come and knock on your door, say, yo, you know you I like what you're doing over here, you brought it on, let's partner up, let's do a little let's do razzmatazz. And then you've got into a situation where now you you got the other party to put down the money and you go 5050, you work out a deal a deal. It's beautiful stuff. And you haven't put a penny into it.
Van Sturgeon
But people got to work out if people got to. And the only other thing is that if you've got money to invest, don't invest in a property vested in yourself vested again, in coaching, vested in bettering yourself to understand this whole thing and what I was just described. That's the way to go. And that's the smartest move that you can make make the investment in yourself before you make an investment in a property.
Mike Swenson
Now, when you had mentioned about, you know, finding your area that you want to focus on, I know some people will get hung up on that. How do I know what area to choose? What are some tips that you can give to people have? You know, is it? Is it the neighborhood? I mean, is it the neighborhood down the street? Is it the neighborhood across town? You know, is it upper class, middle class, lower class, is that duplex multi units is that single family homes? You know, people get stuck in that spot and they think what the whole world is out there. I don't know where to start. What tips can you give for people about trying to narrow down the focus to an area that that will make sense for them?
Van Sturgeon
No problem, I would go four to five hour radius from where you live. And those are the areas that I would be concentrating on. I would identify areas that I would be that I would then zero in upon Concentrate on and I will know them thoroughly to the street names, good neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, you need a zero lock in and but four to five hours. So it will allow you to wake up in the morning, live in early drive to this area, do what you had to do and come back. That's what I that would be my limitation. That's what I suggest. People have asked me this. Second of all, always like, in terms of the area, I always like getting areas that are older, because you'll find more opportunities in older areas.
Van Sturgeon
Because if it's a 60 7080 year old home, there's definitely going to be repairs, that the light, there's a lifespan to everything. And typically, those types of homes in that within that range require renovating, and a lot of people don't want to get into it. And then you got opportunities, or people have lived there for 50 6070 years and right and want to cash out. And then their houses, you know, needs work. And there's the opportunities. If you think that you're going to get into real estate investing and be successful at it by buying a beautiful, nicely put together home that's got requires no work, no, there's no money to be made, their money is made on the buy. And the only way that you can make money on the buyers, you got to find the ugly duckling, the diamond in the rough that's got a lot of dust and debris on and you got to clean it out to be able to make to be able to profit from it.
Van Sturgeon
And then once you've been able to identify that one of the other criterias I would be looking for is I like areas that are in that low to middle I like middle class working class blue collar kind of areas where you're going to find individuals that let's just be frank, like individuals that might have accumulated a couple of years of bills that need to be paid, and they don't know what to do, or mortgage payments that are beat, they've fallen behind that kind of stuff, you're not going to find that well to do area for the most part. But you're going to find that in that area. And lastly, the last piece of business I like I like to be able to identify an area where I can buy homes in that $100,000 range 50 to 100 150 tops is the area that I concentrate on.
Van Sturgeon
Because when you get up into 200 400 1000 and up, it's just it's more difficult to find much more difficult. In fact, the media practically impossible to find deals, you can still find them but you're putting up a lot of money. And I like I like you know if you're a baseball player analogies, I like hitting singles. So running out and getting hitting homeruns. Yep. On the single family side on a single family home site.
Mike Swenson
Yep. Okay, so I've I've kind of identified an area I'm focusing in on, I found a good I found a good deal. I've maybe got an investor that wants to help. Gosh, man, how do I how do I know what to do in terms of repairs? Or how do I price this stuff out? How do I know if it's gonna be $20,000 of repairs or $50,000 worth of repairs? What if there's something foundationally related that I have no clue about? You know, it's an it's another thing that trips people up and a reason why they might not move forward in their investing career. So what how can you help people through that?
Van Sturgeon
Absolutely. That's one of the thing of one of the major fears that people have in moving forward is that whole fear of rent or rehab. And then it's understandable, because the ironic thing is that you buy a property at X dollars, and then the process of you trying to do repairs rental rehab to it, you've actually decrease in a property when you're ripping out kitchens and bathrooms and all that kind of stuff. So you're decreasing it, and then you're spending more money to be able to get it to the same level that you bought it at and then higher, so I get it.
Van Sturgeon
So one of the things that I'm hoping that people will do prior to the purchase is that they thoroughly know their marketplace, meaning they've done extensive Reacher's research on what the rental values are, what the what what are homes flipping for, and if it was they're selling, what are they selling? Like? What's the work that's been done in those homes? So you got to start from that basis. So that you know, and you understand that if I bought it for X amount of dollars, what can I realistically bring it up to certain value? Like what what's the now there's different scenarios, obviously, if you're doing flips, that's one thing if you're if you're buying hold, and you're going to rent out their property, that's another one. And each one is, each one has its unique processes in order to be able to bring it to the point where you're realized again, of course.
Van Sturgeon
So walking in, if you're new to this and you don't have any experience, I strongly encourage you to hire a property inspector to go through the property to give you a whole laundry list of things that they deem or see wrong with the property, but that only goes to a certain extent. Ultimately, then you got to the cosmetics associated with the property. You've got to make those decisions on your own. All the way to be able to be in a proper footing the proper place to be able to make those determinations that you really need to know your marketplace to understand what you got to do in order to be able to raise that value.
Van Sturgeon
Once you've been able to get that, and what I, what I, what I teach, is that, when you get to that point is you create a list of needs and wants. So these are things that definitely have to be done, if you got a hole in the roof, you got to, you got to replace that if you got a hole in a window, you got to replace that. But if you don't, if you want to are, you know, the shaggy green carpet to which, you know, may not look all that great, but you can, you can still live with it. So once you've been able to determine that, then you then you go out and you start pricing it out, I got actually a little nifty. It took me several months to develop a renovation calculator, where you go, where you click in all the values associated with what the work you want to do. And it gives you a spits out a rehab rental budget of what it will cost. So those are that's a tool that you can use to be able to determine what the costs would be.
Mike Swenson
Okay, so then with a lot of these folks, are they doing the work themselves? Are they you know, hiring it out? What's the stuff like going back to kind of the beginning investor here, deciding what stuff can I do versus What stuff? Do I need to hire out? How do you help them through that?
Van Sturgeon
Well, typically people will get into real estate investor has two options either to do it themselves, or they hire general contractor, and do it yourself, I don't recommend because Never mind these TV shows a show in 30 minutes a house being run a run out, I've got scars all over my body from all over my face and hands. And you know, here there's a scar right there. from doing things in construction and renovation, so I don't recommend you do that. The next thing is that then people then resort to hiring a job contractor, which I am, and I strongly encourage you not to do that. Because if a general contractor like myself is going to, you know, a $50,000 rental as an example, I'm gonna I'm gonna my cost on it would be somewhere around 35,000 ish. And I'm gonna charge you 50.
Van Sturgeon
So I'm making $15,000 of profit, I have to in order to be able to be on your project for two to four months, I got to make that kind of money is the other that doesn't make any sense, right? And so and the higher you go, the more money of course. So if you are able to save that money, and you know 15,000 and keep in your pocket, even if you were to make a screw up or a mistake, you got that question too evil, let's hop into and then along the way learn a process because ultimately, once you were able to get your hands on understand what the renovation rehab processes and the cost and the time involved, then you're in a much better position to be able to walk into the next property and make an assessment, properly assessing to determine whether it's a deal or not a deal, whether it's good or not good weather, how much it's going to cost for you to be able to.
Van Sturgeon
So it's sort of all things are connected. But the Renault rehab process is a critical skill set that you need to learn in order for you to be successful at it. Because ultimately they're they were here to make money. And all the way that you can make money is you got to make money on the buy. But how do you get to the point where you determine what the buyer is? Well, you got to be able to walk in at home and determine what are the costs associated with that rental? So that's what I that's what I preach to people. I don't know if I answered your question. No, I'm sorry.
Mike Swenson
No, that's great. That's great. And I think tonight in a hot market like this, where inventory is really low, there's a lot of people that are out there looking to buy homes, and especially real estate investors, you know, they need to be buying homes. And so it can be tougher and tougher to find those deals. And so you have to be creative, you have to be willing to work hard to kind of find those those on Unturned stones that maybe somebody else hasn't found yet because if you just go to the MLS, you know and see what's public there, everybody's going to be scorching through that trying to find the best deals. So you've got to find that stuff before it hits the MLS. And hopefully you can get yourself a better deal and then you don't have the competition of five investors trying to bid on that property. Because if you if the money's made on the buy side, it's tough to do that when you're in multiple offer situations
Van Sturgeon
Michael, I've got I've got I'm so entrenched in areas that I invest in that I literally have my email fill a box filled up every single day with opportunities, not all of them are great opportunities that I should save to these are off market deals. These are not found on MLS, and it's through the relationships that I have in all these areas of people that are in the business that are in those areas that feed me opportunities, wholesalers, you know, I already gone through the list. And so that's what people need to establish. Unfortunately, new real estate investor runs out of MLS like millions of others, hoping that they're going to find a deal an opportunity And it's just not gonna happen, then you got to go out there and you gotta like you might like you said, I like that little term, you know, you got to flip over some stones. Now other people haven't be able to find those deals.
Mike Swenson
Yeah. So let's talk for a little bit then about how you've been able to, to build a few different areas within the real estate industry, because you'd mentioned land development, property management, your general contractor business, obviously, your investment business, and others talk about that process of growing it, and then finding somebody to help run it to where you can focus on your next thing
Van Sturgeon
I did was I just sort of fell into it. I'm, I'm a, I got an A plus kind of personality. And I'm more of a visionary, I set things up and I hire I'm very lucky and been able to hire really great people to be able to grow my businesses. So I started with general contracting, which then led into, you know, flipping homes and investment, that kind of thing. And then then that spa then moved into, I've actually started acquiring properties for for, you know, two rentals, and then got to the point where I was giving all these rentals out to a property manager. And then I realized, well, why am I doing that? And once I got to 5060 properties, I'm like, why am I giving my business over these people, I can do this in house. So I created my by I got a property manager, professional license, and then, and then I created that business. And then all of a sudden, that business started to grow.
Van Sturgeon
Because other landlords of people, relationships that I had, with real estate investors who didn't want to get into racket, I would invite them in, and then I, they gave me their business. So that group, and then from there, I like I love construction, I love building, there would be opportunities, where I would find a raw piece of property, like an infill site where I would grab it, and I would subdivide it, then all of a sudden, I would build custom homes. And then eventually that, you know, they enjoyed that. I love that process. And then eventually, I spiral into doing subdivisions. Now, sometimes I would go things on my own, sometimes I will be brought into opportunities where I had, you know, relationships where, hey, hey, Van there was there's this opportunity here Do you want to get in?
Van Sturgeon
And that's how things sort of kind of moved in that direction has been and I've been very fortunate I've I've kind of Sideswipe some some difficulties, you know, especially, Oh, 708. I, I actually I grew I didn't, I didn't, but you know, I guess the job contract the side didn't do as well. But on the on the investment side it, there was a lot of opportunities back then. And I did really well. And the wealth that I've been able to realize was during that period of time where people running for the hills, didn't want to touch anything. And I was snapping up a really great deals. And those opportunities don't happen all the time. But when they do you got to stop in and when the herd is moving one way, you got to step in and go against it. So that's how things sort of just came natural. I didn't sit back 30 some odd years ago and plan all this out. It just led from one to the other just because it made sense.
Mike Swenson
Yeah. Well, and I think what you alluded to, to when when the herds running away and you're running in, that's a difficult thing. But you have to go with your gut, and really know know what's good and and in real estate, we know that, yeah, there's times where real estate may fall, but it's also going to go back up. And in the long run, it's going to go back up. And so so you had to have a little intestinal fortitude there in your gut as everybody else is like, get out, get out, get out for you to say, opportunity, opportunity opportunity.
Van Sturgeon
Right. But well, Michael, there's two types of properties you can buy, you can buy based on appreciation, or you can buy properties based on cash flow. And I've never been one, buy properties on appreciation, I can't stand that, you know, things are happening in Toronto, Vancouver, down over there in San Francisco and places like that, where things just like just going up and up. And there's no cash flow, you're actually negative cash flow. I don't like that. I love to be able to sleep all night every month, knowing that I'm gonna make X amount of dollars, all my expenses are paid, my mortgage is paid. And I'm making a couple $100 on that door. I love that. And I can I enjoy that. And that's how I've always been driven by that. Have I missed out on appreciation of Yeah, I missed out on that. But I love getting money in every single month. And that's how that's that's what's made me successful.
Mike Swenson
Mm hmm. Yeah. And then just to kind of cap off here, you know, talking about financial freedom. So, you know, you you own 1000 properties, you've got some other businesses that you're running, and now it's afforded and you've got great people running them. So you know, you're in a great spot right now where you've, you've worked hard you've built behind you and put great people in place to now where you can kind of enjoy doing what you what you want to do, which is really like you talked about helping people, you know, get into an investing and helping people in other areas because you've built this great empire of different businesses behind you. You get to experience that freedom.
Van Sturgeon
Yeah, and again, this is something that I just fell into, like I've had a hard and I put my family through a lot. And so I've got to this forum, I'm happy, I'm successful, I've got great people running things, I solely want to take things step back. But at the same time, I'm not a golfer. I'm not a guy who bread will be able to buy a block of wood and whittle it down to a coffee table. And I started getting bored with myself. And I was trying to figure out well, what's the next step? Like I'm not I don't have my I don't still don't have a foot in the grave. But at the same time, it's up there in age. And so I wanted to figure out something else, like what am I to do with myself? What's my Why? And it was a friend of mine who called me that was looking for, to do a renovation on the house and one of my help. And I've done this all throughout my life, I helped him out, I helped him the planning and the management.
Van Sturgeon
And it was a great process in that they saved a lot of money, and then empowered them. And they were so thankful for me being involved in it. And I really saw this in front of me and I'm like, wow, this is such a such a great experience. And it filled my soul It filled my heart and I was like, this is something that I really enjoy and love and and I want to help people. I really, I'm not doing like guys, it's all about helping people because I don't need money. I got lots of it. But I just a process of helping people that really empower It is like really a joy. So that's where I'm at. This is what I do. I enjoy the joy enjoy it. And that's what I'm doing.
Mike Swenson
Awesome. Great. Well, thanks for coming on van. And for those folks that you know your story has resonated with them. How can folks learn more about you or get a hold of you?
Van Sturgeon
The best place to go for the get in contact with me and there's a bunch of information and resources again, I touched on the free renovation calculator that I have on my website, you can go there and download it is vansturgeon.com. There's a great there's a lot of information there. I encourage people to go go there and make a reach out to me through that or through social media as well. If you search my name, you'll be able to see me pop up somewhere.
Mike Swenson
Awesome. Well, thanks for coming on, man. We really appreciate you sharing your wisdom with everybody.
Van Sturgeon
It's been a great conversation. Thank you.
Mike Swenson
All right. Thank you.
