This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Antoine Martel. Antoine is the 23-year-old who started investing in college and went from $20,000 in the bank to retiring his parents in less than two years. He did it through creating turnkey opportunities in real estate. In fact, in just a few short years, Antoine’s company, Martel Turnkey has amassed a portfolio of over 100 properties and has sold over $10 million dollars’ worth of cash flowing real estate. He’s also the author of the popular real estate investing book, A Millennials Guide to Real Estate Investing.
The biggest reason I wanted to have Antoine on the show was not so much about how to invest in Turnkey real estate, although we’ll touch on that today, but because he is a great example that with a little ingenuity and looking at things a little differently, you can create a great business, at any age. I’m excited for him to share his wisdom and everything he’s learned to this point in his entrepreneur journey.
www.MartelTurnkey.com
Instagram @martelantoine
Antoine is now 24. He’s been an entrepreneur his whole life, finding ways to make money in high school – even importing things from China to sell. He started investing in real estate in college. He and his family went to an investing seminar where they taught them how to analyze and manage real estate. He immersed himself into the teachings and did a lot of the work to get everything off the ground because his parents had full time jobs.
They started trying to flip houses in California, but couldn’t make things work for the cash they had. So, Antoine started researching how to buy property in less expensive markets out of state as well as networking to meet and learn from people doing it. He moved all his college courses to night classes so he could spend his days focused on building the business.
He found a lot of people investing out of state and buying single family properties either through turn-key or creating their own teams on the ground. And or course, the prices for the homes were much less.
Through research, Antoine found Memphis, TN to be a good market and started there. He built a team, had his parents invest, and the deal went according to plan. He then graduated and took 6 months to focus on making it a real business.
Now, Antoine had the full day to focus, including the evening and by December of that year, they had 10 homes in Memphis.
They then begin to have people reach out to them asking them how they are doing it and wanting to be able to do it. That is what got Antoine into doing Turn-keys and then selling them to their contacts. They now do over 100 homes a year, 8-10 per month using the model and selling to investors all over the world.
What’s the biggest myth about investing in real estate that you want to put to rest?
- Turn-Key has gotten a bad rap. A big player in the industry got a huge lawsuit because they were doing things illegal. But there is a lot of great companies out there.
- Like anything, you have to do your homework, but you can find great, solid partners.
At the 12 min mark, Antoine goes through his process of how he finds and invests in a property…
- Antoine purchases a house with his money.
- They then rehab and fix it up with their teams.
- Then they market it professionally.
- They get everything set with a tenant.
- They have vetted property management companies they then use to manage it.
- Once everything is set, they put it on the market to investors. It is fully bundled, ready, and cash flowing for the buyer.
- Antoine’s company also helps the buyer with financing and introductions to the property management firms, etc.
What are the criteria that you look for in a property?
- 3-bedroom, 1 bath 900-1200 sq ft.
- Can accommodate a couple, or small family.
- Focus on specific neighborhoods in markets – specific zip codes.
- They do this because they do B and C class properties.
- These properties are not in a downtown core or high wealth areas
- Focus on blue/white collar areas that average $40-50k per year.
- Within a 15-20 min drive to downtown.
Why is it better to invest for cashflow?
- Cashflow provides you income every month vs. the up and down roller coaster of flipping.
- To buy an apartment building or turn-key property is much easier and better over the long run.
- You also get the tax advantages of depreciation and the ability to do 1030 exchanges when investing for cashflow and holding over time.
At the 21 min mark, Antoine talks about buying property out of state…
- It all comes down to your team.
- You should take it slow and do your homework.
- Start with one property.
- You will have to manage your new team early on to make sure they stay on budget and do what they commit to.
- Once they’ve proven it, then it easier to scale.
Talk to us about how you market your business...
- Content heavy
- Blogs and articles on things like Bigger Pockets, LinkedIn, etc.
- Blasts each week to their list from networking and growing from their website.
- An Instagram video post every day. Podcasts.
- Just starting webinars
- Never stop networking with all that you can
What are the demographics of your market?
- 25-45
- Steady job
- Have $20-50k in savings to invest
- Married, potentially kids
What are some of the keys that you have found to consistently succeed at a high level?
- Taking action.
- Don’t be a full time seminar goer who never does anything with what you learn in the seminar.
- Antoine when to 1 seminar and took action and stuck with it. The results speak for themselves.
- Never stop getting better at what you do. You can always improve.
What advice would you give millennial entrepreneurs?
- Don’t make excuses for yourself.
- People will respect you for taking action at a younger age
- Don’t worry about what people think – concentrate on knowing your craft and being great at what you do. It will show through.
- Your youth is an advantage.
What’s been your biggest failure in your business and what did you learn?
- Getting too confident.
- Don’t get too confident and think that you can go outside your process or system that you have proven to work.
At the 38 min mark, Antoine shares some trends he sees coming in real estate…
- The market is going to take a hit. The economy will have a downturn.
- There are a lot of people flipping luxury homes and not leaving much margin or room for error. If the market correct, just 10%, they’ll be underwater.
- The Airbnb model is going to suffer. A lot of people are now making their income solely off of Airbnb and when the market corrects and people are spending less to travel or traveling less, this is going to hurt them and that income is going to be hit.
- The value of the Airbnb property will suffer as well.
- Be prepared always for a downturn
Best Quote: Don’t be a full time seminar goer who never does anything with what you learn in the seminar. Learn and then take action on what you learn.
Antoine's Misfit 3:
- Take action! Learn test, learn test, and don’t be afraid to pivot.
- Look at your resources (time, money, knowledge) and make sure they are aligned with where things are at in the market cycle today. What can you start off with today? Match your resources to where they fit best in a market.
- Systematize EVERYTHING! Every week, make it a goal to systematize something in your business.