From Marine to Millionaire with Brian Briscoe

Today's guest is Brian Briscoe.

Brian is the founder and Visionary of Streamline Capital Group and has been a general partner in 1100 units worth over $120 million and has been lead sponsor, asset manager, capital raiser, and key principal on these properties. He founded Streamline Capital Group to provide long-term growth and cash flow for its investors.
 
He is the host of the Diary of an Apartment Investor Podcast and the founder of the Tribe of Titans, a multifamily educational community.

He has two degrees in Math from the University of Utah, a Master's in International Relations from the Naval Postgraduate School, and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps in 2021.

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Creator/Main Host: Vish Muni

Show Advisor/Editing: DBT Marketing

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Transcript

>> Vish Muni: 0:00

Today, we have one awesome investor as a guest. Little about him is the founder of Streamlined Capital Group, a director of tribe of titans, a multifamily educational platform and community. He's a podcast host and a fund manager. And finally, thank you, Brian, for your. For your service as a retired marine. Thank you and welcome, Brian.

>> Brian: 0:30

Thanks, bish. Thanks for having me on the show.

>> Vish Muni: 0:32

Can you please tell the audience a little more about you? And I'm sure everybody in the real estate investing knows who you are, but, let's hear from you a little about you.

>> Brian: 0:43

Yeah, well, I was born and raised in Salt lake city, and, that's where I'm at right now, I think come, full circle on living, abroad versus coming back home. But, yeah, born and raised in Salt Lake. I joined the military right after September 11. at one point, you know, before joining, I wanted to be a teacher. I I knew I didn't have patience for, like, you know, high school, grade school, or public school. And so I kind of set my sights on, you know, university, which takes a PhD to be able to do, so I was on the path, you know, bachelor's and master's degree in math. I was in a PhD program on September 11, and, thought I was just putting my studies on pause. But what ended up happening is I did 20 years in the marine Corps. but I never lost that kind of joy of teaching, which is kind of why that tribe of titans exists right now. But, along the way, I started picking up single family properties, and at some point, I realized that the. The equity and the returns, the ROI that I was getting on my single family properties far outweighed what I was getting in my retirement plan. And my retirement plan. It was all invested in index funds, the s and P and whatnot. and so after ten years of payroll deductions, putting 5% of my paycheck every single month into this retirement plan, you know, I looked at the valuations. I'm like, you know, I think I had barely hitting the $100,000 mark on, you know, the retirement plan side. And on the other side of the house, I had two properties with more than $100,000 of, equity. So that really got my head spinning and thinking, man, how do I. How do I do this more? You know, how do I? and so started doing a lot of self education, reading as many books as I could, and finally decided to do apartments, and finally decided that I needed help. So I got into a coaching program, but, I was still active duty when that happened. I think I had just gotten promoted to lieutenant colonel when I got into that apartment investing coaching program, which, we met through that program, you know, many, many, many years ago. that ended up being my exit ticket out of the Marine Corps, you know. So when I got into that, I started realizing, you know, how much work it was going to take. And for me, even though I did both for a couple of years, it was a big enough commitment that I knew that I had to, had to get out of the marines. And fortunately, I'd been in long enough to retire, so I retired. along the way, I got into a partnership. There was four of us in this partnership and we closed on nine deals. And all nine of those deals have come full cycle. Now, in 2024, if you can say you've never lost money, that's a great thing. yeah, we've never lost money and given decent returns, I would say decent on the low end and high returns. Really, really respectable returns on the high end. but yeah, and then right after I retired, probably about a year after I retired, I mean, I moved across the country, moved back, to the Salt Lake city area and decided to break off of that partnership and start streamlined capital. and so, you know, with that first partnership, like I said, we did nine properties, roughly 650 units, and like I said, all coming full cycle. But since leaving that company, you know, I've been a partner on another 900 units, including a couple of deals that streamline capital is the, lead sponsor on. So, that kind of brings you up to today. You know, just, you know, wave top overview.

>> Vish Muni: 4:39

Well, thank you. Thank you, Brian, for that awesome interview, awesome introduction. That's definitely interesting to hear your journey. So you've been a lifelong teacher and you know, the kind of tribe, of titans. I've been on the calls a few times, but you, you're one of the teachers who would love to teach and would take your time and knowing very well that, not everybody are in the same journey. Some are, some are fast learners, some learn slow, some take a lot of time. So you understood that psychology very well. So if anyone just getting started, I highly recommend that you check out his training program. So that being said, so that being said, have you had any challenges or failures or setbacks in any of your projects which has made you a better investor?

>> Brian: 5:33

You know, when you, when you told me about the format of this, this podcast, you know, my mind started spinning because it was more along the lines of, which one do I talk about? But, you know, we've had a lot of challenges, a lot of setbacks. Fortunately, like I said, we haven't lost money. But, there is one deal in particular that I would like to talk about. Columbia, South Carolina. So that's probably the deal that we struggled with the most.

>> Vish Muni: 6:01

So how's that deal made you a better investor?

>> Brian: 6:04

you know, looking. Looking at this deal, I think we looked at it, and it was a too good to be true deal, and it was too good to be true, you know. so we came in, we looked at this, and m just a little bit about the deal. It's 32 units. it was a low income housing project, so we could only lease to low income tenants. You know, 100% of our tenancy had to be low income. So, we had that going for us, but. Or going against us in a way. But when we looked at it, we bought it at 50% occupancy, and we thought that we would just be able to renovate some units, make things look prettier, flip a switch, and we could go from 50% to 100% occupancy. And I think I, What that's helped me realize is if you come across a property that is struggling, there might be some underlying factors there that you're not going to be able to fix. And that's, the biggest takeaway I have from that property. I don't know how much detail you want me to go into, or how much of a narrative, but that's fine.

>> Vish Muni: 7:18

So how do you fix that? How do you. Is that part of due diligence, and what do you look for?

>> Brian: 7:26

You know, in this case, you know, this was a c class property, but it was in a bad area, and, you know, that ended up creating a lot of challenges, and I think we kind of ignored the fact that it was in a bad area. I mean, we looked at some key features, like, there was an apartment complex right across the street that was just renovated. And, you know, we did about ten minutes worth of due diligence on that property. It looked like they were at 100% occupancy, and, you know, it looked nice, and we thought, you know, hey, here's our big comp. We can make this property look like that property. We ought to have the results that they're getting. now, there were some other complications. So, the first big complication was the area. I think we sprinkled a little bit too much pixie dust on that. And this was. We were brand new at this time. We were eager to get into a deal. We were eager, to get something. And like I said, this came across our desk and we looked at it and, Vish. We bought this property at 23,000 per unit, you know, and this is. This is Columbia, South Carolina, where c class at, the time was going for about 50,000. And right now, you know, c class in that area is probably, you know, ballpark 70, even after the little dip. But, yeah, I think one thing was we put. Sprinkled too much pixie dust on the area. The other thing is, we didn't fully understand, you know, how low income housing works. you know, we went into the low income housing director, we talked with her, told me I wasn't supposed to. I almost put her and threw her name out there, but I won't. she told us some things that, you know, were really easy to believe. they weren't, they weren't false. I mean, what she told us was absolutely true. She said, okay, right now, this property is on this housing program. and it was a very dated program. The owner had owned the property for 40 years. He was on the low income housing property that was, a seventies that started in the 1970s and was completely obsolete by 1990. what we found out is this was the only property in the state of South Carolina that was still on this legacy low income program. And so what she told us was, hey, it'll take six months. You can move it from this legacy program to a new program, and we'll be able to more than double your rents, you know, and so, you know, we're looking at this, and like I said, this is a too good to be true situation. We're buying at, you know, 50% of what c class should be going for here. and we have a promise from the housing authority that we fill out some paperwork, wait six months, and our rents are going to double, you know, and so, you know, we're seeing dollar signs without a ton of work. And that just not ended up. That wasn't anywhere near, you know, what actually happened.

>> Vish Muni: 10:28

That is so true. Like, I mean, you're too good to be true. I think that itself is a big red flag. We should probably run because we had a similar situation in 2019. We got an apartment, with 200 plus units, the same owner added for more than 20 years. And then we brought it because it was two, hundred plus units, which rents were way below market. The occupancy was at 60 to 70. And, you were getting it at such a good price for door. We are super excited. It is the same owner, and we bought that. And it was a difficult lesson. It was, really hit us really hard. And then what really happened is we couldn't fix the neighborhood. That is the biggest problem. And the next day, and you can't change the tenant profile. So. And it looks like this tenants also worked hand in hand with the landlord or the owner, and they started defaulting. There was a delinquency shot up, and after three months and then vacancy dropping because then the cost is going up because evictions. We had to work on the evictions.

>> Brian: 11:48

Yeah.

>> Vish Muni: 11:49

And that is a nightmare. That's still a nightmare.

>> Brian: 11:52

We faced most of that. We didn't have very many evictions because the tenants that were in place were on this government program. And so we were still getting rents. But to your point, you can't change the neighborhood. Changing one property doesn't change the neighborhood. And so, you know, we would kick out people that we knew were absolute criminals. You know, we had some cameras installed and, you know, it was really easy to tell that, you know, one of the units was a drug dealer because of, you know, how much foot traffic came by. And, you know, and so, you know, we did. We did try to clean up the tenant base, but because of where we were located, we were replacing bad tenants with bad tenants, you know, and that's a right, yeah. And so it ended up being a cycle, where, okay, we got rid of one known drug dealer and, you know, a couple months later, you know, we have a couple of tenants move out, a couple of tenants move in, and we ended up with the same problems over and over again. So, yeah, I mean, that part was a challenge because of the neighborhood it was in. that created a lot of the challenges we had. A, another big challenge that we had, like I said, was dealing with the, department of housing. They, said six months. It took us four years to get converted from, And, I mean, she was absolutely right. Once we converted it from the old HUD program to the new HUD program, ouR rents went from $600 to $1,200. I mean, it was a flip of a switch. It was that quick. But unfortunately, when we were sitting at 50% occupancy, at, ah, 50% of market rents, we had to come into our back pocket almost every single month to make the PaymEnt. And when we didn't come in our back pocket every single month, it was because we all put in enough the previous month to last two months. So I was, on Average, throwing about $1,500 a month towards this property. I had four other general partners and we all had an equal share on it. ANd so every month, one of the guy who was in charge of making sure that mortgage payment was sent every month, sent out a group text and it says something like, all right, guys, cough up again. And he'd have a number, you know, and that's exactly what it was every month. And every month it's like, okay, I'm wiring 1000, I'm wiring 1500, I'm wiring 2000. but the good news is, when we flip that switch, rents went from, like I said, around $600 a month to month and we were able to find a buyer. fortunately, we did buy at a really, really, really good price, I mean, $23,000 per unit. So we bought the property at just under 800,000. and we sold it for like 2.2 million a couple years later. the good news after all of this is we obviously kept track of how much money we put in. And we had some investors in the deal, but we essentially looked at our m money as, a zero interest loan to the property. But when the dust all settled, all of our investors made really close to what we projected. But why this was a nightmare. Why this was a challenge was we were out of our back pockets supporting this property. We were, in a position where we were utterly helpless, waiting for the housing authority to process stuff. but, I mean, looking back at it, even though the investors made money, even though we made money, that's a deal I wish I never would have done.

>> Vish Muni: 15:50

Well, in other words, if you look back at it, that was a lot of learning experience. That was a good feedback, what you have, but you didn't lose. Even though that deal turned out to be a challenging deal, you guys learned a lot from it and you were able to come ahead and stick to the business plan. But even though people wouldn't know what really happened in between and the challenges.

>> Brian: 16:15

New challenges, you know, I mean, our investors, our investors, we tried to keep them up to date on what was happening. And, the way we brought them in. we told them that we would pay them 10% on their money on an annual basis and we would keep that current. And so going back to the money that we had to cough up every month, it wasn't just to pay the mortgage, it was also to pay our investors. And so we were paying mortgage out of the pocket, and we were paying our investors like a 10% current payment, payment out of pocket as well, just to get ourselves to the finish line. And so all of our investors, they exceeded 10% when we sold the property. We had basically, we brought them in on a 10% current payment, not a prep, but a literal current payment, and we promised to give them 50% of the upside. So when the dust settled, they made roughly 15% annualized on their money, which was really close to what we projected. but like I said, the carrying, you know, we had to carry that deal financially, you know, three out of the four years. So, I never want to do that again.

>> Vish Muni: 17:26

So how do you go about doing these deals? Are they all syndication jvs or partnership or. What kind of deals are these?

>> Brian: 17:36

most of the deals I do are syndications. I've done this one was interesting. The way we structured it is there were five people that owned it. We didn't have equity investors, like I said. they were almost like a preferred equity Mez debt type investor. It was some weird structure my attorney devised. that one was technically a jv, where we had kind, of a prep equity tier, that didn't have actual ownership. I've done another deal or two where we have done jv interest, where, there's four or five people that own the entire property, or in one case a portfolio. But for the most part, we're syndicating. I do like the syndication model for lots of reasons. I think for most people, it creates a better for everybody situation. we obviously have to raise money to syndicate, but it allows me to buy and control a lot larger portfolio, which, means I make more money. And it allows our passive investors to gain benefits from. I've been doing this for six years. I'm not the most experienced person in the world, but I've got plenty. Yeah. So it allows our investors to leverage, you know, my time and my experience, on the properties. Yeah, I really do like the syndication model, and I think we'll be doing that for quite a while.

>> Vish Muni: 19:12

Well, Brian, so are you working on any deals right now at this moment? And so can you tell the audience what deals are you working on. And what are you looking for?

>> Brian: 19:23

Yeah, we have an open 506 c. investment opportunity. You know, so that just means it's limited to accredited investors. it is in Salt Lake City. It's about 4 miles south of the downtown area. And it's in an area where a lot of people refer to as like, the path of progress. You know, it's an area where, I mean, first of all, there it's a sixties and seventies vintage. It's two property portfolio, 80 units. you know, one's a sixties vintage, one's a seventies vintage, but it's in an area where most things were built in the sixties and seventies. And it's an area where there's a lot of flipping activity. There's a lot of homes that have been completely remodeled. There's, there's a lot of new construction. There's a lot of bulldozers coming in, knocking buildings down and putting brand new buildings up. You know, there was 120 unit townhome. Ah, community that was put in a block away. So it's in an area that's kind of like on the up and up and being revived. But 80 unit portfolio. There's a 24 unit complex a mile away from a 56 unit complex. And, the really nice thing about that is, I'm speaking to the lowest common denominator who's listening here. There's a lot of efficiencies that you get when you get into the larger units. A lot of times, kind of like that line in the sand to reach those efficiencies is 75 units. You know, you have enough money coming in that you can afford the on site staff, and that's kind of where that line is. But, you know, a 56 unit by itself doesn't have enough money to have a full time on site staff, and neither does a 24. But when you put those two together, you know, now we have a affordable, efficient management, on site staff, one person, one leasing agent that's there 40 hours a week, and able to manage both properties. But I'm super bullish on the Salt Lake area. It's one of the highest, metros in the nation as far as relative population growth. And economically, the economy is growing super fast as well. So I think Salt Lake as a metro is going to do amazingly well. I think demand for housing is going to keep going up there.

>> Vish Muni: 21:35

Well, this is not your first deal in Salt Lake City, right? You have other deals, so you are able to work with the same property management, or you have different, same.

>> Brian: 21:45

Property management company, and fortunately, so we use cornerstone on our Salt Lake investments. That's the name of the group. fortunately, they already manage one of the two properties. So. So, that's going to be much less of a, ah, disruption. When we close on the property, we'll have the same company that we're already using and they're already managing the property. So we end up being fortunate on that one because I think one of the biggest disruptions when you buy a new property is changing that property management company out because every tenant has, I mean, there's always a, you know, one person stops the new property management company. As good as they are at managing, they've got to get used to the property. You know, you put new people at a new site. So, yeah, we're fortunate that they're already managing, you know, one of the properties. So we'll just, tell them to continue what they're doing.

>> Vish Muni: 22:40

Well, with me, most of my properties, the challenges, what we have is with the property management. So. So in your experience, you, you done deals in multiple states, multiple locations. Now, do you think that is one of the challenges or you, you were able to get past that?

>> Brian: 23:00

Oh, that's the biggest challenge. I mean, that is the biggest single challenge we've had from the beginning, too. and the way I look at it, you know, no property management company is perfect. Right. And so as the person responsible for asset management, I just realized there are places where I am going to have to jump in. That's something that up front, we hired and fired property management companies like it was cool because they weren't doing everything perfectly. And I realized that there is no perfect property management company. what do I really want from a property management company? I want them to be able to keep the unit full with good paying tenants. That is the most important thing for me. So m as long as the property management company is successful at that one thing, there's a whole lot of other things that I can handle. So, for example, on our other Salt Lake property, we're going to put about$100,000 worth of renovations, in the next month, you know, all exterior. and I'm doing that. You know, they're, they're still part of it. But, you know, I've done, I've made the arrangements with the general contractor and, you know, got the contract signed a couple of days ago and, you know, went through all that. So part of it is just, you know, knowing where you have to pick up the slack. But, yeah, with the property management company. There. There are certain things that I want them to do well, and if they don't do well, we'll get rid of them quickly. But I just realized that, yeah, they're not perfect. the more that I ask them to do, the less efficient they are going to be at, you know, getting people to sign leases. And that's. That's my. That's my most important thing.

>> Vish Muni: 24:53

All right, thank you. Thank you, Brian, for that. And then, so streamline capital is the one where you buy real estate, syndicate deals. And, what does tribe of titans do? What kind of, I know it is an education platform. So what exactly do you do and how does it work? And can anyone join the group?

>> Brian: 25:11

Anyone can join the group. Absolutely. There is a subscription fee. There's two different levels. there's a monthly subscription, and for everybody involved, I think Bish was one of the, the first people to join that group. and, vish, you have been absolutely amazing. Vish has actually contributed quite a bit to that group over the last couple of years. But there's a subscription based level where you can just be part of the group. you have access to a lot of content, a how to guide on apartment investing. I, think I charge $60 a month right now. I think it's actually 59. I think it's 59. But, the, tribe of titans.com is where you go to sign up for that one. the second tier is I do private coaching as well. I do kind of a group coaching. It's a hybrid between group and private coaching. we have two group coaching sessions per week, an hour each time, and then the coaching clients in the program get me for up to 2 hours, one on one a month. a little more costly, but, you know, it's what I found, vish, with the tribe of titans is, you know, I can help a lot of people a little bit, you know, which is what that subscription model does, is I give a lot of people a little bit of help. What the coaching does is I give a few people a whole lot of help, you know, and that's, that ends up being a lot more valuable to people than just the subscriptions. So. So, yeah, those are the two tiers. and if anybody's interested, I mean, if you just want to be a subscriber, d tribe of titans.com is where you start that. if you're interested in coaching, you know, reach out to me on LinkedIn and say, I'm interested in coaching. Or you can join as a subscriber and say, I'm interested in coaching, and, I apply, you know, the subscription fees to the coaching fee. So if somebody's been a subscriber for, you know, five months and has paid $300 over that time, I do apply that towards, you know, the coaching piece. So, you know, that's, that's the pitch.

>> Vish Muni: 27:16

All right, thank you. Thank you, Brian. And I know you're on the move all the time, either running between properties or on the calls.

>> Brian: 27:23

Yes, I am.

>> Vish Muni: 27:24

So what, what do you do outside of real estate? What's your passion, like, on the weekends of fitness, traveling, what do you do?

>> Brian: 27:32

Ah, a lot of it revolves around my family, you know. I mean, I've got a daughter that's a gymnast. personally, I have a road bike that I really like getting out on. I'm training for a 200 miles race coming up this fall. and for me, you know, I already know that I am not going to be competitive in the race. So, you know, my goal is to finish 200 miles in a single day. but, yeah, for the most part, it's whatever my kids are into, you know, so, you know, went to a movie, you know, last two nights ago, and, you know, it was super boring to me, but my kids loved it. take the kids out to the lake a lot. We get the paddle boards out. They love paddle boards. I love paddleboarding, too. I really do. and that's. That's one of the fortunate things that my kids and I both love. But, I, Yeah, so that's it. It's about family. It's about kids. you'll find me very frequently sitting with an Xbox or a ps five controller in my hand, playing with the kids on one of the consoles. they beat me like crazy. I barely keep up with them, but, I taught them all how to play, too, but anyway, yeah, well, so that's good.

>> Vish Muni: 28:44

That's good to know. So you like to spend some quality time with your children, create lasting memories, and that's good to know.

>> Brian: 28:52

Yeah. And, I mean, that's also one of my weaknesses, too, is I often get too caught up in work that I don't set aside enough time. But, you know, that's, you know, when I sit down and when I, you know, being deliberate as a parent has been a challenge, you know, but when I'm doing well, I am very deliberate. We are doing activities every week, you know, lots of. Lots of stuff with the kids, and that's that's what they remember.

>> Vish Muni: 29:19

That's good, Brian. So. So how can the audience reach you, Brian, I know you're, you're available on LinkedIn, but apart from that, is that the best way to. For audience to reach you?

>> Brian: 29:30

Yeah, if you want to. To communicate with me, the best way is LinkedIn. You know, hit the connect button or just send me a DM on LinkedIn. if you want to listen to what I have to say, you know, I have the diary of an apartment investor podcast. one to two episodes a week is what we're pushing out. I post a lot on LinkedIn as well, so that's a good place for you to listen to what I have to say. if you want to interact, like I said, hit the DM button or join the tribe of titans there, there's a chat feature in there, and, I am fairly quick at responding to LinkedIn messages. I'm fairly quick to responding to DM's inside that tribe of titans community. you know, you send me an email, it might take me a week to get to it, so I work.

>> Vish Muni: 30:17

And how can people get on your podcast as a guest dairy of an apartment investor?

>> Brian: 30:23

I would say reach out to me, on LinkedIn again and say that you're interested, you know, and we take, people of all experience levels. I think the beginning part of the journey is just as important as the later part of the journey. So, yeah, DM me on LinkedIn, say I want to be on your podcast, and we'll start, talking about that.

>> Vish Muni: 30:42

That's fantastic. Once again, thanks, Brian. And, your dedication towards coaching and mentoring and investing in deals is definitely a game changer. And so that dedication of overcoming obstacles together as the team is a great suggestion.

>> Brian: 31:02

Thanks, Vish. Appreciate it.