Caring for Orphans and Building a Rental Portfolio of Over 700 Doors with Bill Manassero
For this episode, I welcome Bill Manassero to the show. Bill is a real estate investor, entrepreneur, and host of the Old Dawg’s REI Network Podcast, a podcast for people 50 years and older who see real estate investing as a means to fund their retirement years and create a legacy for their family. Prior to forming the Old Dawg’s REI Network, Bill and his family were missionaries to orphaned, abandoned, and at-risk children living on the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Before that, he was a professional musician and spent over 25 years in business, on both the corporate and entrepreneur side. A few highlights of his career include meeting Ronald Reagan, working with actor Jimmy Stewart, being interviewed by Oprah, and having CNN produce a documentary on his work in Haiti entitled “Rescued.”
Bill’s story is absolutely fascinating and we dive in by discussing his 25 years of business background, which included working in sales and marketing in the automotive and airline industries in Southern California, launching the Nissan infinity division, and then moving on to the technology sector right as the internet took off. At that time, he even bumped into Mark Cuban who was streaming a variety of games via mics in front of radios.
Shortly after the bubble burst and Bill felt called to get into ministry. He always enjoyed traveling but usually, that was for work and meant being away from his family – so what better way to take the family on the road with you – as a family rock band! They partnered with Christian organizations and toured together. During this time, they sponsored a child from Haiti and his daughter became obsessed with learning about the country. Little did they know that soon enough they would be visiting Haiti to perform.
The trip had a profound impact not just on Bill’s daughter, but the whole family, and Haiti eventually became their new home. They sold everything they owned in the US and returned to Haiti to take care of the kids. Initially, they of course had no idea what they were doing and where to start, but eventually, their efforts grew into an entire organization, Child Hope International, and they invested first in a boy’s home, then a girl’s home, and then a guest house, and even a school.
After being struck by a devastating earthquake, Haiti was in the news across the globe which resulted in Oprah visiting and CNN producing a documentary entitled ‘Rescued’ which was all about their efforts. Slowly Bill’s children had grown up and started to return to the US to go to university and Bill’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. So, jointly they made the decision to pass Child Hope International to the next generation and make plans to return to the US together.
This left Bill wondering what to do next with his life. He knew he wanted to diversify his investments before retirement, but he wasn’t sure how. After an extensive period of research and reading Rich Dad Poor Dad among other books, Bill had established that real estate investing was the route to go down. He did as much research as he could to develop his plan. He decided to focus on turn-key properties and settled on Atlanta and Memphis as the first areas to make a purchase. After a short trip to both locations, he returned with 3 properties to call his own.
Like us all, Bill was learning as he was going along. Some properties were making more money than others and property management turned out to be challenging at times. At last, Bill got himself a mentor who recommended starting a podcast to share his experience of real estate investing for retirement – and after some initial resistance, he went for it. The podcast has over time provided Bill with a large amount of networking opportunities which has certainly helped to open more doors for him in the industry.
Bill then shares that he did have the 1000 doors goal and he had reached a staggering 736 doors on the day of recording this episode – a real surprise seeing what a humble person Bill is. Bill shared further that the contacts he was gaining from networking allowed him to do larger projects, which is what got him closer to his 1000 door goal.
We then move on to discuss property management. Bill outsources the property management entirely to others. He doesn’t really have a choice in this matter since a lot of his properties are not exactly in his backyard. Over the years he realized that the biggest factor for him when recruiting property managers is transparency.
Bill also briefly shares his experience with short-term rentals. He has three that are doing really well in this market. Bill was initially affected by COVID-related cancellations but then managed to recover very quickly through a few changes in his marketing language.
We then discuss his current projects and what he feels particularly excited about. Bill shares how he has recently gotten into the senior living sector through a contact of his and what the construction of these new senior living facilities involves. These projects are having Bill engage in aspects of the business he has not previously considered, so this goes to show that there is always something new to experiment with.
You don’t want to miss this excellent episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with the fascinating and diverse Bill Manassero!
Notable Quotes:
“What am I gonna do? I’m approaching 60 years old. I’ve gotta figure out what I’m gonna do. I didn’t wanna just go home and collect seashells down at Laguna beach.”
- Bill Manassero
“I hopped on a plane, flew to Atlanta, a couple days later flew to Memphis and then flew back to Haiti, and I had 3 properties.”
- Bill Manassero
“They’re turn-key, so I really don’t have to do anything, and the next month money appears in my account miraculously. And I’m going ‘Ok, this is really easy,’ maybe I should do more of that.”
- Bill Manassero
“The turn-key thing was falling a little bit awry. I was having some problems with management.”
- Bill Manassero
“When you invest in real estate you can do all the studying you want, but you really don’t start learning until you sign your first set of escrow papers.”
- Bill Manassero
“One of the advantages as an older person is that, because it’s not in your backyard, you’re not running down there every two minutes. It kind of forces you to be passive. But, at the same time, you have to rely really heavily on your people in town.”
- Bill Manassero
“You really have to train your people right when picking property managers.”
- Bill Manassero
“The thing that I need is transparency. That’s key for me.”
- Bill Manassero
“I don’t like to micromanage. I want transparency, so I know where to adjust things.”
- Bill Manassero
“The only way these guys make money is to get a lot of properties and hope most of these clients aren’t going to bug them.”
- Bill Manassero
“I get involved to the degree where I really understand how that works, and then I start backing away as I start finding people to be able to take on all the various aspects of it.”
- Bill Manassero
Links:
Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months
