My W2 career began in 1976 when I became employed by one of the major oil companies developing Alaska’s North Slope and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Throughout my career, I traveled all over the world and really enjoyed my work. It was particularly lucrative, especially the time I spent working all over Asia as an expatriate.

In my early days working on Alaska’s North Slope, I was able to buy several houses in Anchorage as rentals and did very well. Of course, during those days of the oil boom, anyone could have made money in Real Estate. But it did give me first-hand experience, although, compared to what I have learned now, would not have sustained during the inevitable downturn. My work took me to different places so I had to liquidate my real estate holdings, thankfully before the crash that occurred in Alaska when drilling was curtailed.

All through my enjoyable career I knew I would retire one day and be able to pursue other endeavors. I had always been interested in multifamily real estate and would pick up and read just about any material I could find on it. My plan for my retirement from the oil company was to begin investing in multifamily properties.

When my opportunity to leave my career came in late 2015, I took it. I had managed to put together a comfortable retirement fund so I immediately began investing and lending money in real estate including housing projects and multifamily repositioning projects nation-wide. All this as a passive investor and private lender. I knew that if I was going to succeed in the shortest amount of time, I would need to find both a mentor and a network of people to supply the various associates and team members I needed. That is when I found Phill and Shenoah’s Network here in Houston. I saw an opportunity to access very experienced, hands on mentors and a large network of people. Your net-worth equals your network so I bought into Phill and Shenoah’s apprenticeship program. I also took advantage of this network to provide value by being a private lender which was also very lucrative for me. What a grand education I have embarked on and I can attribute it all to Phill and Shenoah’s network. Within this network I met my present mentor who has had tremendous success over the years with his own multifamily investing. The value of Phill and Shenoah’s network is that it draws the very best and this is because it is genuinely a real estate network with real people doing real investment work. We all benefit by the fact that anything we need to succeed in real estate is available from someone somewhere in the network.

January 2017, wanting to invest in multi-family projects, I discovered Phill Groves Canis Major Incubator network. Soon after joining, I was honored to become one of the Acquisition Specialists. As an Acquisition Specialist, I was mentored directly by an experienced Deal Sponsor and was exposed to training in all facets of a deal – lead generating, underwriting, making offers, contract to closing, and asset management. Subsequently, I started Co-sponsoring deals with the Sponsor. Being a Deal Sponsor helped me expand my business career in Commercial RE, and I have also gained a wealth of knowledge in this network of amazing investors. Never would I have imagined having seven multi-family investments in just three years. This network allows hands on training to learn about this dynamic industry.

I started investing in Commercial Multifamily on my own in 2008 right after the Global Financial Crisis. It started with one small apartment that very slowly over the years, I acquired a few more. Over a span of 7 years, I was acquiring a deal every 2 to 3 years. In 2015, I decided that if I want to accelerate my investing performance, I need to be part of an established network which I am able to tap into to accelerate lead generation, deal closing, fund raising, talent-partnering, and other parts of running a deal effectively. I was very impressed by the knowledge, the values, and ethics that Phill and Shenoah Grove displayed when I attended their weekend workshop, and that's when I decided to be a part of their network. Fast forward several years into the future, I found everything that I was looking for in the network and have done 12 deals in the past 3 years alone. Thank you, Phill and Shenoah!

20 years ago, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and have always liked Real Estate but always let my fear, stop me from taking any action.  Then I attended the commercial workshop in Dallas in fall of 2018 and signed up with Phill Grove's network.

I have never really wanted to be involved with single family, and commercial had a much bigger appeal to me.  It felt more like running a business, something I was comfortable with.  I have always had a goal, that my last career would be as a full time Real Estate investor.  I felt it was something that I could control, get out of it what I put into it, not just a W-2 job, and work it as long as needed then live off the passive income.

While at the workshop, I am going to admit, I was worried - did I do the right thing?  However, over the years that I have been a part of this family, I am always amazed with the help and guidance I get from other members of this family. They are there to network and to support you, helping you achieve your financial goals.

Early 2020 I switched from totally passive to active. Part of my field training involves assisting on an actual deal in helping to asset manage the property. I have learned so much in this active role, acquiring great hands on experience. In May of 2020 I made the transition to full time active investor and am relying on my training and contacts made in Phill’s network to help me transition to this exciting time in my life.  I am now excited to be able to pass on my knowledge to new members of the family, mentoring others who can follow in my path.

I turned to Phill Grove's Canis Major Incubator Network after getting a $4.5M apartment complex under contract which needed around $1.8M in repairs. Thanks to the Network, we were able to raise the necessary funds to close within 3 days, and began remodeling the apartment complex immediately after. Becoming a Co-Sponsor for Canis Major has helped me tap into commercial investing after focusing solely on single family construction and rental properties.