The value of education in real estate, with Brian Briscoe

What does it take to become a trusted expert in real estate?

It can be as simple as talking to the right people, finding the most common questions, and showing people how to find the answers. 

That’s precisely how Brian Briscoe started his real estate education project — The Tribe of Titans — a community designed to help people find partners and learn to purchase apartment complexes. 

Brian was kind enough to join us for episode 10 of The Deal Makers Podcast and discuss his unique path to real estate.

Brian Briscoe – From the Marines to multi-family investing

Brian Briscoe is a seasoned multi-family real estate investor, General Partner, and educator — but he followed an indirect path to that destination. 

After 9/11, Brian decided to join the Marines instead of pursuing a career as a math professor (he had just completed his master’s degree in mathematics and was a month into his Ph.D. program). 

While serving in the Marines, real estate always interested him, and he bought a handful of single-family properties. Throughout his 20-year military career, he was consistently growing his real estate knowledge and portfolio. 

Brian eventually transitioned into multi-family property investing and was a GP on ten properties with 655 total units. But while he loves acquiring properties, his true passion has always been teaching, which led him to create the Tribe of Titans.

Though real estate wasn’t always his full-time job, Briscoe never lost sight of his passion. Now he’s doing what he loves — focusing on real estate and education. He’s learned a lot of lessons along his path, and he shared some of his most valuable tips on the podcast.

Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you need to make it your career

From a young age, Briscoe was always good at math. He won awards in high school and excelled in undergrad and graduate studies. He was even pursuing his Ph.D. in math to become a professor.

 But even though everything was seemingly aligning toward that career path, he ultimately decided against it.

“I liked teaching, and the idea of being a math professor was a bit of a compromise because I was good at math. But I didn’t necessarily enjoy it. It didn’t drive me.” 

However, in his experience as a GP, he realized he could teach a subject he was passionate about. The discovery came as he was consistently having conversations with potential investors. He recalls, “What I found is: I enjoyed the conversations more when I was teaching people how to do what we did.”

Using knowledge to connect with investors, educate and build a community

Through the process of those in-depth conversations with potential investors, Briscoe began to notice he was answering the same questions over and over. It made him realize that many real estate investors have similar problems.

“I started really thinking about it — I’ve been asked the same questions dozens of times. So I started writing down the answers. Every time I’d get on a call where they’d ask me questions like, ‘How do I get started? What do I need to do? How do you do this?’ I would take 15 or 20 minutes after and just jot down my notes. And that was literally the beginning of The Tribe of Titans.”

Initially, the goal of these investor conversations wasn’t to compile a list of FAQs or to survey investors on their biggest problems with real estate. 

But just by talking to people and actually listening to their answers, Briscoe was able to glean a treasure trove of information. Now, he leverages his years of experience as a General Partner to provide answers to the questions he knows investors struggle with. 

The random conference convo that made him think big

When Briscoe was considering shifting his property target from single-family homes to multi-family properties, he initially wanted to start small. However, a random conversation at his first big multi-family conference shifted his mindset:

“I was at this conference, and somebody asked me what I was planning on doing. I said I’m gonna sell my single-family homes and buy a six-plex or an eight-plex. The guy looked at me, and he said, ‘You don’t want to do that.’ 

We were sitting in the corner of this big networking area. He kind of turns me around, so I’m looking at everybody. He’s like, ‘There’s a lot of people out there that are doing much larger deals, and none of them are any better than you. Why not go for something big?’ That was a key turning point for me.”

Talking with an experienced investor who could see his potential was what it took for Briscoe to overcome his limited expectations. 

Brian truly believes investors can accomplish more than they ever dreamed just by opening their minds to what is possible.

Success is like an iceberg

With his success as a GP and with Tribe of Titans, Briscoe wanted to emphasize that nothing happens overnight. 

“Success is like an iceberg, where people only see the tip, but not all the hard work [beneath the surface]. There were a lot of late nights. There was a lot of time spent where I just shut myself in a room and wrote. Everything that I’ve been successful with has been a very deliberate course of action. You work a lot, and it’s after you put in the reps and sets that you actually start getting traction and success.”

On the state of the market

Brian also shared his view on the current state of the market: 

“Prices are high, cap rates are low, and rates are going up. Whether or not it’s still a good time to buy, depends on your time horizon. If you’re looking to turn something in the next year, it’s probably not a good time to buy. If your time horizon is eight years or longer, you’re going to be okay. You’re going to be able to weather the storm.”

Thanks to Brian Briscoe for all the wisdom he shared. You can listen to the full episode on The Deal Makers Podcast.

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Author

Asaf Raz

Contributor

Asaf is Agora’s Head of Marketing and a growth expert providing consulting services to tech startups and VCs. Asaf is also the host of The Deal Makers Podcast, where he hosts top CRE talents for conversations where they share their success stories and industry insights.

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