Exploring NOTE INVESTING for Big Gains!

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What happens when two industry veterans dig into the art of education, real estate, and self storage?

Scott sits down with Eddie Speed, the nation’s leading expert on note buying, for a deep dive into their combined decades of experience.

From exploring the nuances of note investing and self-storage to evaluating the roles of educators and influencers in the real estate world, this conversation is a masterclass in business integrity and insight.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
9:08 - Why authenticity matters more than polished scripts
15:38 - Comparing notes to rental properties
22:43 - The importance of equity management in real estate portfolios
32:47 - Why "shiny object" marketing isn’t sustainable in real estate education

GUEST: EDDIE SPEED
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Chapters

• 9:08 Why authenticity matters more than polished scripts
• 15:38 Comparing notes to rental properties
• 22:43 The importance of equity management in real estate portfolios
• 32:47 Why "shiny object" marketing isn’t sustainable in real estate education

Transcript

Announcer (00:03):

This is the Self Storage Podcast with the original Self storage expert, Scott Meyers.

Scott Meyers (00:10):

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Self Storage Podcast. I am your host Scott Meyers, and on today's episode, we have a good friend of mine, Mr. Eddie Speed. Eddie is been in the real estate investing business for a number of years as well as the real estate information and education sides of the business. And Eddie, how long have you and I known each other?

Eddie Speed (00:31):

Gosh, I don't know. 25 years at least.

Scott Meyers (00:36):

Yeah,

Eddie Speed (00:37):

Maybe more.

Scott Meyers (00:37):

Yeah, I'd say that's about right. We really,

Eddie Speed (00:41):

I forgot to put it in. We were using, you remember the little calendars that everybody carried in their briefcase? We were using those back then, right?

Scott Meyers (00:48):

Yeah, I think so. I think so. And I can't even remember the name of it either. I know I set mine on top of the car one time when I was getting in and it fell. Pete called it a PDA, but I don't remember what its name was. And then I went back and I retraced my steps and I saw it in the middle of the road, so we ran over it, but I never bought another one because it was obsolete by that point. Well, I thought we'd take, I thought we'd take a little different direction. Let's talk about both the real estate side, the business, and then also the education side. And really I want to kind of do a deeper dive because we don't have too many call it gurus or fellow information education gurus on the show here. And so give us a little bit of background on your bio, how you got involved in real estate, and then the education side. We'll kind of riff on that a little bit.

Eddie Speed (01:34):

Well, I'm a specialist like you are. I got started buying seller finance notes in 1980, just stumbled into the business at 20 years old. My father-in-Law and another gentleman were in the kind of pioneers, were really pioneers in buying seller finance notes. And so I was young and willing to kind of basically do what they told me and that's how I got started in the space. A couple of years later, Martha and I had married and we moved to Dallas Fort Worth and I've been essentially what has been called a note buyer for most of my career.

(02:17):

Then around 2000 I decided to go, this is 20 years after I've been in the business, I decided to go in the training business. The reason I went in the training business is the same reason I believe you're in the training business, which is I could do a lot of deals with people that I taught, but I couldn't do it until I gave them a compression of time and melted down what they needed to know so I can do it. And I have done a lot of business with my students, but that's kind of what got me in the training business. And I was, to be honest with you, I was kind of anti guru. So what is a guru? I don't even know anymore what they call it. What did it used to be?

Scott Meyers (03:06):

Let's talk about the evolution of a guru

Eddie Speed (03:08):

Dictionary says it is, and I know what a lot of people in the info marketing space say they are and they're not what the dictionary says.

Scott Meyers (03:17):

All right, so break that down. We got gurus, we got information marketers, we got a number of different terms for those of us that do and teach and some do a little more than the other.

Eddie Speed (03:30):

I think there's gurus in gurus and you and I know a lot of people in the business that have training and are very competent and very good, and you and I go to certain events and we're around people and we see people that are, well, let's just say they're good talkers.

Scott Meyers (03:54):

I think the telltale sign, and first of all, you're right, there are an awful lot of folks out there that are good educators and they've got good information, but they may not be doing as much or they've done a little bit and now they spend more time doing this. And I think it's becoming easier I guess for me to tell since I'm on both sides. But if you're seeing this guy or this gal at all the shows and they're at trade shows and they're setting up a booth and they're talking to everybody for two or three days straight and they got a podcast and they got a really good podcast or they got really good YouTube videos, it takes, I don't care how good you are, how professional you are, it takes a fair amount of time to put together a podcast. It takes a fair amount of time to write out a script, a video, and if you're traveling and going to all these events, how much time are you really doing? And I think that's the piece. And I'm not trying to poke fun or do anything to discredit anybody else or any call it of our competition. I don't think that you and I really have any so to speak, but I think if you're looking to follow somebody for those that are listening, and if you're looking to follow someone, you need to ask yourself the question, how much are they actually doing versus how much are they marketing and out there just traveling and speaking?

Eddie Speed (05:16):

Yeah, I think that's a key thing. And once again, people, it's easy for somebody to say that says, oh, I'm training now, but I did it for years. You and I know people that have never done it to any measurable degree

(05:33):

And they've been around the training space forever and not as saying even all their training is bad, but instincts and details about the business. And I think you have to be actively in the business to do it. I am an active note buyer, right? I'm well known in the seller finance space, not as a note school guru, but as a note buyer. You are well known in your field of an active guy buying storage facilities and you're an expert and you raise capital and you are a good operator. And so those are things, I'll tell you a funny story. I don't know if I've ever told you this before, but I had a business partner for about the first 15 years in the business. He had started with my father-in-Law. He mowed my father-in-law's yards for years until he got out of college. And then he went to work in the business and later come and joined me, Martha and I in Texas and did the business with us.

(06:34):

And he's a real wonderful, wonderful guy, but he was very, very literal and he to, he got summons to be on jury duty and the judge says, raise your hand if you think you are not sure that you can listen to somebody and tell if they're telling the truth. And he raised his hand. Judge called him up there and says, what's the deal? This smart guy makes a living doing this business really well. He was in his late twenties. And the judge says, son, why do you say that you're well dressed, you're this, you're that. And he says, look, I've met people that are really good at telling a tale, and I've met people that really were telling the truth and they didn't sound very believable. They weren't really a great talker. And the judge gave the best answer to him I've ever heard. And that is he said, I've been on the bench for 30 something years and I've learned that the truth has a crystal and ring to it.

(07:41):

And I think you and I hear that crystal and ring because we know enough, we know where the gaps are and it's difficult for somebody that doesn't have our experience. But I would say consistency and listening to people and seeing that they're speaking consistently. You and I have hired copywriters to write scripts for us. Anybody that's been in the training business to some degree, you can't do it all yourself. I'm not a copywriter and we've hired people to go do that for me. And anytime they'd hand me a script and they'd say, anybody can do this, I'd say, I'm not saying that

Scott Meyers (08:16):

Right,

Eddie Speed (08:17):

Because that's not true.

Scott Meyers (08:21):

We could go down a deep rabbit hole there. And I think that you and I, well, I'm black sheep of this industry and I think you and I kind of are cut from the same mold in that we don't follow the guru talk and I don't care what a copywriter says. If it doesn't sound like it's coming out of my mouth or it never has come out of my mouth, I'm not going to say it because it won't have that crystalling ring. And people will recognize that. And that's the last thing I think at the end of the day, my personal constitution is I'm not going to not be somebody else in front of somebody. I do have an audience of one and I don't need to please anybody and I'm not going to be able to pull it off anyways. Even if I tried it, if I wanted to for whatever reason, for some kind of gain to try to pull something off, I can't speak the copywriters who wrote the copy because usually those copywriters are somebody that was also selling from stage.

(09:08):

It was very good. And they were sell salespeople. I'm not a natural salesperson. I am an investor and I'm an educator and I let the information kind of guide people to a decision. If it works for them, great. If it doesn't, then it doesn't. And perhaps I've missed out on sales over the years or millions of dollars in sales over the years, I don't know and I probably never will know. But at the end of the day, I can't change who I am and people will see through it, I think because I just assume that everybody in the room will be able to see through that eventually.

Eddie Speed (09:39):

I agree with that. I mean, there's a way of teaching people the business that does compel them to want to go do it because you're just telling the truth about the business that these are things that I believe are advantages. I can point out advantages in my business as you can in yours, and there's a style of teaching that you can make it simple and clear or confusing. And our job, even though we're very experienced in the business, we still have to make it simple and understandable. I've sat around a little bit listening to some of the guru stuff and I listened. I hear that guy talk for half a day and I didn't there, there wasn't a detail in a half a day that they said that it was worth writing on my paper. That's not teaching.

Scott Meyers (10:36):

No. Now that's getting people excited to pay for the next step with them to maybe where they get some teaching unfortunately. And that's my foray, if you will, into education was similar to yours. I accepted there was a step in front of that. I knew, I found out later that this would be easier for me to be able to do business with people in my market and in the industry if I taught 'em the right ways to do things, which is literally the way that I had done it. And I came to that second because there were so many people in my market buying self-storage facilities, and I was bidding against them and they had no clue what they were doing. They didn't know how to value something and they were overpaying and they were driving prices up because they just flat out didn't know.

(11:24):

And it wasn't that they were willing to pay a little bit more, it was that they just plain didn't know what they were doing. And so I thought, well, if I can underwrite, if I could teach people how to underwrite these things and to truly put a value on instead of getting excited about a deal for the sake of having a deal, if nobody else has been to get you, well, that's not always a good thing. If you get up into this land where you're not competing anymore, at what cost did you win that project? And that's okay to win some and to lose some, and that's the way it should operate in the market. And there's less friction also if everybody's kind of operating from the same page and that they just truly know how to do it. And I viewed it maybe differently than other folks that think, well, let's keep the market stupid or keep my competition stupid, then they'll be confused and they won't do anything.

(12:10):

And that's not the case because there's an awful lot of folks out there that are still brave, have a lot of bravado, and they're going to go do it anyways. They're going to throw out offers anyways even if they are unintelligent or if they don't know how to value something. So that was truly my approach in the beginning. And then recognize after that as we were growing, some people were saying, Hey, and I was running a real estate investor group. I mean that's really how it began. People saw what I was doing and then we started holding workshops to do just that, to teach 'em the right way of doing things. And then where we got out that we were teaching these workshops and other people wanted me to teach the next state different places, and it kind of went on from there. But then when we decided to officially launch, if you will, the education business, it was with that in mind, it was that to teach people how to do it and then maybe partner, but I'd rather be their buyer built in buyer from a wholesale standpoint in different parts of the country and that there was more of that than there was partnerships.

Eddie Speed (13:09):

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I originally did it to really create a broker network of people to go teach 'em how to do notes. I'd done it. I knew the efficiencies in marketing and negotiations and stuff, and I did it for that reason as well. And that's kind of the case. And I agree. I mean, it's like I look at myself and say, I'm a note guy.

Scott Meyers (13:36):

And

Eddie Speed (13:36):

So I believe notes are better than rental properties today, single family rentals. Well, if I can't explain that and pretty quickly and pretty simply then our people don't know. So I use an example. I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and it's a middle market. It's not a cheapo market. It's not crazy overpriced like other areas. It's kind of right in the middle. If I buy 200, if I have $250,000 Scott to invest, if I have $250,000 in deployable capital and I like real estate, I can either buy a rent house or a note. So if I buy a rent house for 250,000, it's going to throw off income of about 1800 bucks. 50% of that $1,800 in gross rents has got to go to expenses. Any season landlord on rental property assures you that's a real number. So you're going to net 900 bucks today, I can take $250,000 in notes and it's going to throw off an average of $2,700 in income with really no expenses other than a servicer call it 30 to 50 bucks. So that's a lot more net income on the note side than it is on a house. And a rent house has a lot more stress. So I say that you can own a thousand notes for the same aggravation level as owning 55 rentals. Now I just made up that number and nobody really knows, but that's not far from the real facts. Here's an example I just said in a couple of minutes, describe something that is an absolute truth, but you still got to make it where people can follow it.

Scott Meyers (15:38):

So I debate you except that I was in single family and I know the truth and I don't want to, but let's say, let's just say the single family investors out there will say, well, all Eddie, but you can't see it, touch it, feel it. That's just paper. And how do you create value in that? I can buy, let's just say that house that I bought for $250,000 that you just mentioned. Let's just say the after repaired value is four 50 and I got to put a hundred into it. How do you build equity? How do you grow? Oh, your note portfolio, how does it gain value?

Eddie Speed (16:13):

Yeah, that's the argument is that a note diminishes in value and a property appreciates in value. So 900 bucks, it's 2,700 bucks, I got $1,800 a month or $1,900 a month, I have $1,900 a month difference. I believe that that is appreciation now versus having to bet on appreciation

Scott Meyers (16:47):

Or create it or do the heavy lifting to get it.

Eddie Speed (16:49):

Exactly. And so I model it out and as you know, I deal with some pretty savvy, very savvy folks at the end of the day. Usually when we get done whiteboarding it, they're like, and part of it is it's just our cycles. We're in a cycle in the market right now. And so we seem to be in a cycle. And I love, quite honestly, I love the split thing of storage and notes. I believe that you're in a superior commercial asset class. I really do really absolutely believe it because it relates to when people need to move or when they're getting foreclosed on, they got to do storage. It is not as promoted as other things like multifamily has been. And so it's not as, hadn't gotten as overpriced as some of these other asset classes. And so I love that. I believe in diversification, and I can tell you that I'm a giant fan of what you do. And I like notes because they have less aggravation and more cash flow, and there's really a cushion with notes if something goes wrong that rent houses don't have, if I bought that rent house for two 50, I've got two 50 invested. If I buy a note for two 50, the house is probably worth 3 25 or three 50. There's a cushion factor. I paid left for the note knowing what the collaterals were,

Scott Meyers (18:31):

And the loan was already made at what, 70, 75% LTV. Anyway, so the equity is just gone, and I shouldn't say it's gone. The equity in dollars is gone, but you pick it up on the note when you buy it.

Eddie Speed (18:41):

It's a cushion factor that if God forbid something goes wrong, I'm going to want that cushion. And it means a lot to have it.

Scott Meyers (18:49):

Well, it's a profit factor that you build into it. Well, so thank you for the kudos. I like the asset class as well and for many, many reasons, as you know, when we teach, there's the top 10 reasons why I love self storage. And it is an asset class. It does very well during a recession. It does very well during an inflationary period. We are isolated from those events. As a matter of fact, we do better during a recessionary period. It's not recession resistant or inflation resistant, but of the asset classes that we like it for that. And as I'm thinking, if many times I find myself maybe defending what I'm doing versus other people investing in other asset classes, and there isn't any reason why. And as you and I have talked over the years, one of these days when I slow down enough to have some time to come down and spend some time with you to learn side of the business, I think well, clearly looking at you, it is something for folks that are older and move slower and towards retirement age.

(19:48):

And so I think I need to be just kidding, Eddie, you look fantastic. It is something that we're looking going to consider because I, we can do this on the commercial side and I can't discount anything that you do in the way that you go about doing it. And even talking with some of the other folks in the room that we're in about picking up notes on these projects and then converting it into so storage, whether it's a note just on some land or other industrial buildings, and I feel that's a better way of game the system. I just got to take the time to learn how to go do that, to have just the way I view it as probably another, it could potentially be another avenue for bringing in more deals for me to still do what I do, which is storage to be able to value on top of it. But who knows? I mean, I like the note business a little bit better.

Eddie Speed (20:37):

I was recently at a mastermind and one of the guys that you've helped down in Florida was in that mastermind. He's done really well and a lot of net worth, but his net worth is a little bit frozen in those assets. And he was talking about bringing in capital or doing this and doing that and stuff. And I said, well, I said, I guess it's captain obvious this was in a room. Pretty savvy guys, right? I said, I guess it's captain obvious, but probably the best thing financially you could do is just owner finance it and sell it. And everybody kind of laughed and says, no, it's not captain obvious because nobody else thought of it. And I said, well, I guess I'm that hammer and I always see a nail. So I looked at it and I said, well, so it's just kind of funny. So I totally believe particularly people that are sitting on some equity, and I think that's a way to, as you said, convert it, take some management off the table, really takes the money off the table, but not go give up the equity you have in it, but earn the equity plus interest over time.

Scott Meyers (21:53):

Well, it's the strategy that we do our best to persuade our sellers to take because we don't want to have to have another loan on our credit report and we can negotiate more with the seller to have them finance it versus a lender. But yet we always feel as if we're the ones who should be offering it and they should be become the lender instead of us doing it because that's our strategy, that's our tactic, not the one that gets used for us works to our advantage. And so yeah, a hundred percent you can be kept and obvious in the room, but for some of us, yeah, we tend to look at things in an either or scenario sometimes instead of just because this is the way that we've always done it rather than what is optimal for me. And that's another piece that we've come to.

(22:43):

I don't know about you, Eddie, but our education, our three day events are very, very similar. I mean, even from day one, we're just walking through the process, but the best business practices, the things that we've learned now and over the years to find, evaluate, purchase, and manage self storage facilities, but we're squeezing in more time for these folks to think a little bit bigger. And we're thinking about these things, which is return on equity. We've got as passive investors, even as active investors, we got our IRR internal rate of return. We're looking at our equity multiple when we're going to double our money, but do we do it in two years or three years? Well, it's one thing to do it in three versus one year, and that's where the time value of money comes in. But we've been spending a lot of time just educating our passive investors as well as our investors on that return on equity and that equity that you put to bed.

(23:33):

So yeah, we're not liquid when we have these hard assets and if we put our equity to bed and it's tied up either in the value we've created or the value that we purchase a facility with, you walk into equity. So your network is still on paper. It's not liquid, but have you taken the time? How many people have taken the time to then look at what is their return on equity and how long their equity is tied up? We can always look at our cash that we have involved in it, but we never look at our equity. And so we took a deeper dive into what does that look like across our portfolio, and do we need to begin to, even if we haven't reached that threshold in which we feel we should sell the property because we've depreciated it and some of those benefits are gone, or now we're at the top of the market and we're going to time it, is that the reason to sell it?

(24:20):

Well, now it's just, well, as long as I have breath in my lungs, the decision is if we know how to grab that equity out and redeploy it and I can two, three x that in a certain amount of time, I know what I can do with that. Well then why am I keep it tied up over here? Because here's what I can make on it. And so we look at our portfolio, those are the decisions that we are beginning to make right now and into 2025, which is, Hey, what do we need to exit right now? Because we can get that equity out and go do it again, because cap rates are coming down with interest rates and now's going to be the time to buy. So I don't know if there's a question in there, but just talking about that, the differences in how we look at things these days.

Eddie Speed (25:00):

Well, the thing that I see, and I don't have a lot of people, I don't see a lot of people that are frustrated with storage, and I know you well, and you always laced it up exactly the way it really is. I know a bunch of people that are really unhappy with rent houses. I know a bunch of people that are really unhappy with what they've invested in syndications on multifamily. And usually the first thing is they're not getting cashflow. So they're frustrated. They have this equity as you're saying, they have equity, but they're not getting paid for it. And really, I think it's as simple as expenses.

Scott Meyers (25:50):

It is, yeah, operating expenses, I would say across the board, but especially for these other asset classes that have to spend more in rehab and maintenance. Well, everything's been affected by the increase in cost that starts with transportation with gas and moving things from one place to the next. And so that's been added onto call it as a tax to just about everything over the past four years that we've seen. And so if you have a higher expense ratio or an expense load to begin with, well increase that by the stats that I've seen in multifamily is about a 30% increase since 2020.

(26:29):

The margins that's darn close to the margins that you make on a typical deal, just a value add deal. And for those folks that bought these turnkey, call it a turnkey either single family portfolio or multifamily, well, they have rents that are decreasing a huge supply of multifamily that came into the market and then everything got competitive, rates are going down, rental rates, new supplies coming on, and now they were expense load went up by 30%. Well, that is spelling disaster for some of those folks that are either in it passively because they're not getting distributions from their syndicators and from the syndicators who are singing in the blues right now. And we've known a number of them that have, they're going back. I mean, I forget how many trillions of dollars of troubled debt we had there in this country. And there's 436 billion is the last number. I saw that it was like three months ago, 436 billion in troubled debt in the multifamily sector. And so that's a real number and that's a real deal. And not everybody's doing good. Even if all the people in the room that we know that are talking about multifamily say they're doing good. Not everybody is, that's for sure.

Eddie Speed (27:35):

Well, we're picking on 'em a little bit in the multifamily space, but let's be honest about it became the multifamily space of 20 years ago was mainly operators

(27:48):

And now all of a sudden because of podcasts and because of it became a little more conducive for the promoters and they're good at promoting and maybe not so good at operating. And I think your space has been a lot more protected in the area of it hadn't had so many promoters. Every industry has something, so it's not zero. But on the rent house side, Scott, I've helped more people with modeling of selling their rentals and some of 'em with pretty amazing portfolios in the hundreds and showing them that their income literally is on average about two and a half times greater. Their net income is two and a half times greater seller financing the same property they're renting. And I don't care if it's in Indianapolis or it's in Dallas. I've run the math in most every market, everything. It's not a hundred percent, but it's in the nineties that it's more likely that you're making that much more money off of rentals. And there's a few tactical things around it. Don't just paint that idea over it. And there's some details that you need to do so that the paper's good and you'll get paid and it's secure. But I've never seen so many people ever in my career that have flipped their rental property is over and now are seller financing.

Scott Meyers (29:23):

Well, as we look across the landscape, right? One of the things I want to touch on is that we see an awful lot of folks that became syndicators or are syndicators and then they became educators. And most of it was to get out there, to be seen as a thought leader, as an influencer by teaching. And some of the teaching is good, some of its bits and pieces, some of it is not truthful and much of it is promotional, and it's in the essence or the appearance as if people are teaching, when in essence, really what they're doing is showing how hard it is or just to get people into their deals to invest passively in their syndications or in their fund. And there's a lot of folks out there that they don't even get paid to teach, but they're out there teaching, they're sending videos out and doing things to just promote themselves so that people will invest with them.

(30:19):

And I think that's one of the differences between those. And they may have a lot of experience or they may be just a capital raiser for an operator, somebody else that's actually doing the heavy lifting. And this is a statement that Storage Nation here has heard me make many times with regards to passive investors that invest in any syndication or a fund or with somebody else in which they're not the driver of it. And that you should always look to, if you're a private, you should always go into battle by following a general who walks with a limp, somebody who's seen it all, done it all, has the scar tissue and can see a little further down the road of what's coming. And that falls true. I think if you're picking a guru as well, have they been through an economic cycle? Have they exited?

(31:13):

They go on full cycle on some of their syndications and how well did they do compared to their projections? Did they meet 'em? Did they beat 'em? Have they ever had capital calls? Have they had deals go sideways or south? And what truly is their role? Are they the operators? And at the end of the day, I think the biggest thing is do they know how to underwrite? And I think you find an awful lot of folks out there that you put 'em in front of an Excel or an online financial analysis worksheet alongside of a good underwriter. How do they underwrite and how do they look at things? And of course, you may never get to that place. You may never know that before you pick your guru or somebody to follow. But I think it's important when you're looking at the folks that are out there and decide if you're going to follow, whether you're investing actively or passively or maybe dare I say, even waste time getting excited about something. As you just mentioned, Eddie, you need to dig in a little bit further and just find out if this is real. I think we can be persuaded by, as we started this podcast with the gentleman who approached the bench by a good talker versus the facts.

Eddie Speed (32:22):

What you need, Scott is an airplane. You need a jet and you need some of them shiny $3,500 tennis shoes. Now that's right there. That's the only guys that are legit,

Scott Meyers (32:38):

The guys that are going to crush it and buy an island, and they're going to help you. You can come along too if you'd like

(32:47):

That. Boy, as we've gone through this, it's amazing to me. And I know some of those guys that do it and they're rental Lambos, they're rental jets, and maybe they bought the shoes or maybe they took 'em back the next day, they never got dirty, and it works for some folks out there, but I just look at that and just have to laugh. And there's even some of those guys that have pulled that off and they laugh as well because they kind of know it. But I think in today's world of social media transparency, as I said, I can never pull it off anyways, but I think most people can see through that and they can't. And people are going to get exposed. And that's the last thing you want is to be deemed as a hypocrite or as a posr because then all credibility is lost and it only takes one, it only takes one or two people to expose you, and then that's it. It it's kind of game over. People aren't going to follow you and buy from you or buy whatever it is you're selling anymore.

Eddie Speed (33:38):

Yeah, I think it's just, and once again, I think to some degree, I mean you and I have talked about this. I've been to your mastermind. I see these people, I see you've been to, you've seen my herd. We kind of attract people that they fall in certain classes, they fall in certain things and stuff, and they're not quite the shiny object chasers and stuff. And listen, you and I got people that we love and they just like shiny stuff and

(34:11):

Whatever. I'm not so much, and you either, right? But the reality is we are talking about people's lives. We are talking about their investments. We are talking about if they're going to buy training and learn to do this, and they're transitioning their life and they're kind of betting on the fact this needs to be true. They're betting on the fact that this investment has to be real and that it's good for them. And I think sometimes we need to do, you have chosen to do today to kind of pick this subject and say there's a little bit of a litmus test. There's a little bit of a lay this blueprint against something and see if it really fits.

Scott Meyers (34:56):

So Eddie, you told us why and how you started teaching. Why do you still teach?

Eddie Speed (35:07):

I didn't dream that I would fall in love with teaching. I am Ady in the wool note buyer that I work on loan deals a lot. I'm in the groove and I still love trading loans. You love storage, but I really do love teaching and it's fulfilled more than an itch with me. It's a vein in me that's deep and I love it. And I can't fix anything, right? I'm a cowboy. We've got property and we've got this, but Martha, my wife, when she gives me a task list to go fix stuff, I suck at it. Now, there's a lot of people in this thing that they're like, Mr, fix it, Mr. Wonderful. That is not me. And I grew up in the cattle auction barn and I got an associate's degree in ranch management, and I still can't fix anything. And so I don't want to go home and her give me a task list of stuff to go fix because I suck at it. I'm pretty good at fixing a deal, so I just stay doing this.

Scott Meyers (36:22):

Self-awareness is one of the best gifts you can give yourself and to pass along to your kids. And if you're spending more time in that, then if that's what fulfills you, then that is a fulfilling life. So kudos to you instead of trying to be what your wife maybe want you to be or do.

Eddie Speed (36:40):

Well, the whole situation,

Scott Meyers (36:42):

I know the situation. I don't think Martha's disappointed in you one bit. There's something about, I don't know, I like to think that everybody would enjoy teaching, but not everybody is cut from the same mold that you and I are. And there's something about for years I think I fought thinking that, oh, maybe this is just pride and I just want to give there an actor look like a big shot. And at the end of the day, I realized that nah, it really isn't because when there's certain people in the industry and they ask me to come teach their group, it is not the best use of my time. There's more things I could be doing other things on the investment side of the business or just my free time or anything else. But not only I know I can help, but I also, I enjoy it and I love still to see the look in people's eyes when they get it.

(37:49):

We've been doing this long enough and I've practiced my craft, and I don't mean the speaking side because I still don't speak very well as everybody knows if they've listened to this podcast for a while. It's just the fact that I've done my best to try to simplify as much as possible each and every single little process and little piece of my business so that anybody can follow a simple, predictable business model that we've created and we've crafted and perfected over the past 30 years. And then they can go out and replicate it so that hopefully we can do some deals together. I can buy some deals from them. Or at the end of the day, there's less friction in our industry as a result of some of the things that we've done and we've helped in some way. But then all along the way, I continue to at the end of our events or anytime I can to let our students know and say, Hey, just us know as an organization, let us know when you get your first deal.

(38:38):

If we're not working closely with you in a coaching capacity or in a mentoring capacity, yeah, you're doing it on your own, great. Just let us know so we can celebrate the win alongside of you. And there's really honestly nothing better any than when I speak at the industry trade shows. And we will set up a booth still from time to time and to have those folks come along and say, you know what? I came to your academy back in 2014 and this is what I've done since then and my spouse doesn't work anymore. I brought her home and we've done this and we've done that. And there's nothing greater than, and I don't mean that from a pride standpoint or anything again, but it's just like it worked and I made an impact. I made another dent in the world somewhere that changed somebody's life because they came and they put their faith and their trust in us to do so, but they did the heavy lifting. They just took a recipe and they went and made it their own. I love that. That's the piece about teaching that I absolutely love, and that's why I still do it.

Eddie Speed (39:32):

I think you said two or three things that I see is really, really important. First of all, if you really have an understanding of something, you can make it simple. There's a level of knowledge that when you understand it at a level, you can make it simple. And maybe there is some blessing that you and I have been given where God gave us that ability to break it down. But making it simple is important. I don't mean simple as in there's levels of complexity. Even taking something that's fairly complex and being able to then paint the idea where people can follow it and then they keep understanding it at different levels.

(40:14):

So the communication skill is what I love the most, right? And then secondly, like you, because I've been teaching a long time, people come up to me and say, Hey, I went to note school in 2012 and this happened and that happened and stuff. And that really means a lot. I had a lady come up to me the other day, and I train a lot of high-end realtors. And so she came up to me the other day and she said, Eddie, I've been a part of other organizations and other things and this and that. She said, you really care? And I said, yeah, I may sometimes call it too much a spade, a spade. Maybe I could be more PC and pull back and not just call it what it is so much I said, but at the end of the day, I said, nobody's ever accused me of not being passionate about it. And I think there's something to be said for that.

Scott Meyers (41:14):

There's a ton to be said for that. Everybody's watching, even if you don't think they're watching. We've had investors that were come alongside of us and invest with us passively, and they would come to our event and they say, I came here. I don't want to learn how to do this actively, but I know that you do these other deals and you bring in other investors, and I just want to spend time with you. And this whole time, whether you knew it or not, I was watching you. I was watching how you interacted with people that came up and asked you questions after you're done speaking or interrupted you or the people that kept you too long asking questions. And then I watched you, I followed you to see hi, you spoke to your staff and how you spoke to the hotel staff. And I just want to see if you're the real deal off stage, the same as what I see in what you portray yourself on a podcast or from stage or what have you.

(42:04):

And so I don't think you can pull the wool over anybody's eyes anymore. And it's interesting as we get into this space now where everybody's flooded with information. In the beginning when you and I started, there's a couple three people teaching notes and a couple three people teaching storage. And it's pretty quick. You just pick someone, you hit your wagon to 'em and you follow 'em for a number of years. And now there's so many people, so many experts in all these areas, as he mentioned, whether they're the doers, the gurus or the gurus, you need to figure that out on your own. But I think people now are recognizing that the difference is they can watch a whole bunch of videos or they can plug stuff in chat GPT and have AI give them an answer. But the difference is chat GPT and the folks that are trying to educate because they want you to invest with them passively.

(42:56):

They don't care. And that's the difference. And I think that comes through you and I don't do this. You could spend your time, you don't have to do this anymore. You can spend your time on a ranch, getting on YouTube videos, figuring out how to fix the stuff that Martha gives you if you wanted. And I could tinker around with some of our properties or those unfinished projects and things that we have around as well. But at the end of the day, I still have something to contribute. And I don't know, there's just so much fun doing that and tinkering with these projects. And there's a lot of gratitude when you either help somebody on their own project or if it's on your own. Now, when I talk real estate on a storage facility and a storage opportunity, and then you fix the underwriting, in other words, you realize that, okay, there's a deal here where you didn't find it before and you spent the time doing it. That's cool, and that's gratifying. And that is the difference is that because we care, we take the time to dig in and lean into the folks that need help with those things. Or if we learn something new, I want to share it with everyone.

Eddie Speed (44:01):

I think there's also something, Scott, to taking leadership and ownership in this, taking leadership and ownership in the training business. And if you and I can influence some of these other folks that are doing it to maybe clean up some of the things they do or make their training better or realize the impact they have on people, if the industry clearly needs good examples. And we're not saying we're the only two good examples out there. We're not saying that at all in any way.

Scott Meyers (44:41):

No, not at all.

Eddie Speed (44:41):

We're just saying if you're a solid operator and you believe in treating people and you don't look at yourself as some star, I mean everything that you and I do, first of all, I totally believe this. The reason you and I have been fairly successful at our businesses is because God gave us a passion to go pursue it and a persistence to not give up

Scott Meyers (45:07):

A hundred percent. I would agree. And to head on to your comment, I find myself over the years looking into the forums, especially that big forum real estate forum that starts with a B, and second word starts with a P, and there's a whole lot of folks that are experts in there. If I follow the storage thread and I felt I'm just a, whatever, the self-professed, I put the self-storage sheriff pinned the star on my chest, and I had to go in and just kind of fix some of the bad and illegal information in there. And that's, I guess a mantle that I've taken now that we've been doing this for a number of years, as you mentioned, and you and I have been in some, I don't want to say heated discussions, but we've had some passionate discussions, not between you and I, but you and I talking with some of these other folks that want to become gurus or get into this business and have those tough love conversations to say, all right, folks, well, here's what that comes with if you want to do that.

(46:10):

And here's what this takes. If you want another 45 hour a week business on top of your 45 hour a week investing business, okay, well then maybe you'll have some success at it. And here's the other things that you need to look out and watch out for. So Eddie, it's been very gratifying no matter what. And as I mentioned before, if you look at the piece of self-awareness as to what it looks like for those of you out there that may be inspired, you've been following Eddie and or myself or thinking about doing something, it's only up to you to decide whether this is something you really want to take on. And if you really care to do so, you have to. Otherwise, you're going to get burned out. If you're doing it for other reasons, it just ain't fun. And the investing side, at the end of the day, the investing side always pays more than the education side of the business.

(46:56):

It's a good Bolton. It's a good compliment, but it's certainly, you're not going to be able to crush it, buy an island and have a private jet and shiny shoes for every day of the week in the education business. It just takes a lot more than that. But Eddie, I appreciate you and I appreciate your time. I appreciate our friendship and you're doing it right, and I love the fact that you're still doing it because the day that you decide to hang it up, I think there's a whole lot of folks that, well, they won't know any better, but it would be unfortunate when that happens. But for now, you're still going strong. Tell us about what you got on. What are you teaching right now? You got the masterclass that you're still teaching, correct?

Eddie Speed (47:35):

Yeah, the masterclass is a very efficient way for us to kind of paint a picture for somebody. It's virtual.

(47:43):

Just paint a picture for somebody pretty quickly. When I refer to financial modeling or I refer to these things, you show 'em. It's just best to show 'em case studies. As you know, case studies are easy to absorb, it's logical, it's memorable. And so we do that and we do it in a way that connects with people. We have a good ability to cover a lot of questions. We just open it up, ask questions, and sometimes we can't get 'em all to the end, but usually it's about, it's two hours or less. And quite honestly, we don't leave the people there with questions. We're going to answer 'em and do whatever. I always think the questions are really so good because it answers questions that other people had, even though they're not the ones that necessarily typed it in. So it's a combination between showing 'em a real deal, show 'em when I refer to financial modeling, showing them what that is, and then just kind of going through it. And like I said, it's pretty non-threatening because we do it virtually and we do it in a way that you can do it from your home. I tell people, if you're going to register for the masterclass, if you don't put it on your calendar and you don't focus on it, you're not going to get it.

(49:11):

It is deep enough, quick enough that you're not going to get it unless you actually put it on your calendar. So that's what I'd say about

Scott Meyers (49:18):

It. All right. How do people find you and how do they sign up for that?

Eddie Speed (49:23):

They're going to go to note school.com/self storage. And the reason they're going to do that is because we're going to know they're from you and we do sell this, but I'm actually going to give it to your audience if that's okay.

Scott Meyers (49:43):

Of course. That's okay. Eddie, thank you very much. I appreciate

Eddie Speed (49:46):

That. It's free. Doesn't mean it's not valuable, right?

Scott Meyers (49:47):

Of course not. I know,

Eddie Speed (49:49):

But it's free. And if you like it, you can figure it out. We'll help you down the road. And if not, I'll bet you we'll learn something about financial modeling and financing structures that you've never thought about before.

Scott Meyers (50:06):

Yeah. Here's the deal folks. There's a lot of terms in real estate and real estate education that have been now thrown out there loosely as the term of the day. Masterclass is one of those words that's been abused a lot. And a masterclass is one in which it's a 2 0 1 or a 4 0 1 level, and it's taught by a master. And indeed that's what Eddie's is. Eddie's been to our mastermind and he spent some time talking with our folks, and then the folks in our mastermind who were already advanced, these folks were operating at a higher level, attended his masterclass, and they were blown away. Not that they were confused, as you mentioned, it was simple, but they were just like, okay, yeah, that was two hours of very well spent. And Eddie, what I appreciate is not only the note side of the business that you bring to the table, but also the captain obvious that you are in my life, but also is captain obvious because you have so many tools in your tool belt to look at deals.

(51:04):

And when you said that you have a hammer and everything, it looks like a nail. That's not the way that I would describe you. I think you've got a lot of different tools, a lot of different ways of looking at things, and that's also why that you do some creative financing education as well in the other group that we're a part of. And so I just appreciate you sharing anytime that learned something new, I can always count on Eddie when you and I are in the same room to say, let's go on. Well, once we get the small talk out of the way, say, lemme tell you something I learned. Lemme tell you something I'm doing right now. I always learned something new every time we're together, Eddie. And I just appreciate that about you, your insatiable appetite to continue to learn, but then also your insatiable appetite to teach people as well, my friend. I appreciate you and I appreciate your time today.

Eddie Speed (51:47):

Thank you. I had a great time.

Scott Meyers (51:49):

Well, Eddie, looking forward to being back in the same room with you again. And I'll say it now and I have to say it in front of a whole bunch of folks so that I can be held up accountable for this. But I need to get signed up for your hog hunt one of these days and make that happen.

Eddie Speed (52:03):

We are going to do it. That hog hunt has raised a lot of money for kids in the charity and so it's a fun thing and I'd love to have you come hang out with us.

Scott Meyers (52:15):

Yeah, can't wait. Can't wait. We'll make it happen. Alright, my friend, you take care. Have a great day and we'll see you soon.

Eddie Speed (52:21):

Bye-Bye.

Scott Meyers (52:23):

All right, storage nation, you have been spending time with the nation's leading note buyer as well as note buying educator. I just absolutely love spending time with Eddie. He and I have been in business for a number of years and had a friendship from the day we met, and he's just an incredible guy to learn from and I hope you did as well. So with that, looking forward to seeing you all on the next episode. This is Scott Meyers signing off.

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