WS786: Buying 15 Mobile Home Parks with No Money, No Experience, and No Network: Gaining Financial Freedom with Ryan Narus

Today’s guest on the show is Ryan Narus, a mobile home park owner and Co-founder of the Archimedes Group, LLC. Ryan is a double graduate of Wake Forest University with an undergraduate in Psychology and an MBA. Frustrated with the golden handcuffs of corporate America, Ryan set out to build a portfolio of mobile home parks, but here’s the thing, he started with nothing.

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No money, no network, and no experience. He found creative ways to make money while he scaled his business up and, fast forward five years, Ryan now owns and operates 15 mobile home parks spanning more than 1,400 units. He is financially free, having successfully escaping corporate America, and he wants to help others do the same. In this episode, listeners hear how Ryan got from more debt than cash to where he is now, and how he took more than five years to read, self-assess, and prepare before he took the leap. He wants everyone to know that anyone can do what he has done, and he shares his advice for overcoming doubts from family and finding what you love to do at the intersection of raw talent and financial returns. Tune in today to find out more!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Where Ryan is presently and how he got there from having more debt than cash.
  • Transitioning from an unfulfilling job in Corporate America to going full-time in mobile homes.
  • How Ryan took five years to read, self-assess, prepare, and then take the leap.
  • Why Ryan suggests that listeners shouldn’t let their partners’ doubts be a hurdle.
  • The hardest part of Ryan’s real estate journey has been finding what he truly loves to do.
  • The importance of picking something you love to do – but it will be difficult!
  • Finding the intersection of something you love, can be the best at, and something lucrative.
  • How Ryan prepares for a downturn – by having his systems in place.
  • Ryan’s predictions for the real estate market in the best six to 12 months.
  • Ryan gained self-discipline through martial arts, but his driving force is his hunger to succeed.
  • The best source for meeting new investors right now is Ryan’s podcast and LinkedIn.
  • Ryan likes to give back in any way he can, through college scholarships or free content.

[bctt tweet=”If you get nothing else out of this interview, it should be that, once you find what you’re meant to do, you will find that all of this middle-class lifestyle, that you think you’re addicted to and can’t let go of, doesn’t make you happy. Literally moving into a mobile home will skyrocket your happiness. — Ryan Narus” username=”whitney_sewell”]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Ryan Narus on LinkedIn

Ryan Narus on Facebook

The Archimedes Group

Mobile Home Parks In Real Life (MHP_IRL) Podcast

Rich Dad Poor Dad

The 4-Hour Work Week

Begin With the End in Mind

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway

Spousal Buy In (MHP_IRL Podcast)

Good to Great

About Ryan Narus

Ryan Narus is a double graduate of Wake Forest University with an undergrad in Psychology & Statistics and an MBA. He’s a self-made real estate entrepreneur who owns and operates 15 Mobile Home Parks spanning more than 1,441 units. He started with nothing. No money. No experience. No network. He was a 20-something with way more student loan debt than actual capital to invest in deals. What makes him different is that he refused to quit, he was willing to sacrifice, and take bold action. He found creative ways to make money while he scaled his business up. He was stuck in Corporate America. He escaped. And he wants to help others too.

Full Transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:00.0] ANNOUNCER Welcome to the Real Estate Syndication Show. Whether you are a seasoned investor or building a new real estate business, this is the show for you. Whitney Sewell talks to top experts in the business. Our goal is to help you master real estate syndication.

And now your host, Whitney Sewell.

[INTERVIEW]

[0:00:24.4] WS: This is your daily Real Estate Syndication Show. I’m your host Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is Ryan Narus, thanks for being on the show Ryan.

[0:00:32.6] RN: Thanks for having me.

[0:00:33.0] WS: Ryan is a double graduate of Wake Forest University with an undergraduate in psychology and an MBA. Frustrated with a golden handcuffs of corporate America, Ryan set out to build a portfolio of mobile home parks, but here’s the thing, he started with nothing. No money, no network, and no experience. That’s exactly where a lot of us have felt or feeling right now and probably a lot of the listeners can relate to that. Flash forward five years, and Ryan has purchased 15 mobile home parks, spanning roughly 1,400 in 40 lots, and is financially free, successfully escaping corporate America.

Ryan, grateful to have you on the show, you and I had met a while back. Pleasure to just hear more about your story, I know the listeners want to know how you did this, and want to just share with them how you became financially free, and help them with some steps to get there as well, because when you’re starting with nothing, like your bio mentioned, it seems hopeless almost, right? It seems like there’s just no way to get there or you know, where do we even turn?

But welcome to the show, give us a little more about who you are, maybe your focus right now but I want to dive in to just how you became financially free and help the listeners as well.

[0:01:43.6] RN: Sure, just to kind of start with the present. Like you mentioned, I have been a part of 15 mobile home park transactions, I currently have three under contract and two verbal agreements to price. I should have several more under contract. It snowballs, it starts really slow, you question what you’re doing over and over again, and if you have a very stubborn wife like I do who I love very much, she will also be like, “What are you doing? This is stupid and is not going to work.”

I just want to start where I’m at by anyone who isn’t familiar with the mobile home park space or anyone who is hearing my voice for the first time. I started like most of you. I had nothing; I had more student loan debt than cash. I bought the lie, Whitney. I bought the lie that the counselors in schools tell us growing up as a millennial: “Study really hard, and then you’ll go to a great school, and then after you graduate from that great school, you’ll get a great job, and you work really hard at that job, you get promoted, and then one day you’ll retire on the beach.”

Well, here’s how that actually looks, you miss out a lot of your childhood because you’re stressed out, trying to get good grades. You get into a good school, I went Wake Forest University, good school, you rack up student loan debt, you graduate. The job market is not as great as you would think it is, even if you go to a pretty good school. I mean, this is what happens when you go to a good school and you got into a job interview, “Wow! Lake Forest University? Great, I don’t care.”

That’s the fact, that it’s like, “Oh wow, cool, you went to a good school. Kind of check in that box, let’s see what else you can do for us. Oh, you’re not going to work for next to nothing? Okay, yeah.” I mean, it’s like, it’s so frustrating and then you finally find a job and then you feel stuck in that job because you’re getting married to a lifestyle, a middle class lifestyle, and you get stuck in this job, trying to get promoted, and impress your boss, and politic your way up, and it’s unfulfilling, and –

[0:03:47.0] WS: Spinning that hamster wheel.

[0:03:49.9] RN: It’s horrible. I ended up doing everything that I thought I was supposed to do and I wasn’t happy. And then, I quit my job to chase my dreams, I more than halved my salary, lost 401(k), lost benefits, literally moved into a double wide mobile home, and I lost 15 pounds by changing nothing about what I was doing. I was not working out, I was not eating any better. I just removed the depression from my life, which was working to make someone else rich in an unfulfilling job.

If you get nothing else out of this interview, it should be that, once you find what you’re meant to do, you will find that all of this middle class lifestyle, that you think you’re addicted to and can’t let go of, doesn’t make you happy. Literally moving into a mobile home will skyrocket your happiness, and you may even lose some weight.

[0:04:46.9] WS: That is awesome, I love how you just put it right out there because it’s so true. I’ve seen it so many times, including myself. You know, having the job that you think you’re going to keep promoting and keep moving up and then you finally realize, well, is that really what I want? Is that really what’s best? But congratulations to you Ryan for just recognizing that and been taking that hard leap. I’d like to just talk about that a little bit, I love focusing on that a little bit, because I know there’s so many listeners that are wanting to do that same thing, thinking about that, and the repercussions of that, is it worth it, can we do it, have faith to make that happen.

Just in their selves and their ability, maybe they’re even their support, like you’re talking about. Your spouse, maybe your spouse is not onboard, that alone is such a good topic, maybe you could speak to as well? But let’s talk though that transition just a little bit, you know, you quit, you move to a mobile home park, and it was a great decision. Obviously, now, looking back, right? That’s easy to say.

But speak to that transition a little bit, some difficulties there. I know you mentioned your wife was questioning this decision, how did you do that? How did you make that commitment, how did you work through some of those things?

[0:05:49.5] RN: What I don’t want to do right now, Whitney, is give you a highlight reel. I love watching ESPN’s Top 10 but the truth of the matter is, there are so much omitted from that highlight reel that’s really relevant to your audience. If you don’t mind, what I’d like to actually start with is by going back to 2012.

In 2012, I had just hit, I was working for Honda, selling Hondas, and I had just hit their gold award, which is like the highest ward you can get out of the gate. It was after my first full fiscal year, just sold 240 cars. Like 20 cars a month. I got this award and I just remember, going to Washington DC to be celebrated, “Oh, look at you! Great.” It’s like a pat on the back and then it’s like, “Go do it again.” I just remember feeling –

[0:06:38.2] WS: But do twice as much, right?

[0:06:40.3] RN: My gosh, I just remember feeling so unfulfilled. It just was not worth it. What I did was I went, it’s time for a change. I was 24 years old and it’s – I was like, it’s time for a change and what I did was I just picked up any book I could read. I heard somewhere that the average American CEO reads 50 books a year so I went, all right, book a week, we’re going to do it. I did exactly that and it completely opened up my mind.

I mean, Rich Dad Poor Dad alone, if that was the only book I read that year, just completely – because my dad was the poor dad, even though he had a PHD and the works. What I kind of realized through that, Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Work Week, all of those, was that I needed to find who I was. Stephen Covey, Begin With the End in Mind.

After spending quite literally hours and hours reading, changing my mindset, I realized I needed to meet everyone I could possibly meet. Over the course of three years, from 2012 to 2015 – By the way, all the while I’m developing skills, how to negotiate, how to sell, how to persuade, while I’m selling cars. Over the course of three years, I looked at over a hundred businesses that I could possibly start.

A lot of dead ends, over the course of three years, actually started a couple of businesses that went nowhere. Then, in the summer of 2015, I found mobile home parks and then, in the summer of 2017, I finally went full-time. It took me three years of a lot of reading, a lot of networking, a lot of soul searching, then it took me two years, one of which to prove I could actually make money in mobile home parks and another to actually plan to go full-time, to actually go full-time. When you’re listening in and you’re like, “Oh ow, I really want to do this, I’m going to quit my job.” Don’t. No, don’t do that. Spend quite literally a year, you’re going to feel so stuck like you’re getting nowhere but if you just learn, network, and self-assess. Just self-assess really hard, find out what you really – what really makes you happy so then that one moment, where it’s time to make a sacrifice, you are ready.

If you’re hearing this, I really hope that what you’re taking away is, this took Ryan like five plus years to get to the moment and, when you’re at that moment, by the way, you prepare – like, let’s use jumping off the diving board because I’m afraid of heights. It’s a good example. Jumping off the diving board as an example. You don’t just walk up to a diving board and jump off, right? You got to know how to swim, you got to put on your sun tan lotion, if you’re like me and you burn really easily, you got to have your swim suit on, the works, right? Can’t be Adult Swim and then, when you get to the diving board, you got to have a plan, right? I’m going to jump here, I’m going to take a running start, I’m going to swim to this ladder here after I jump, right? You have to have some kind of plan and then you have the fear of management piece.

To me, that was a really difficult thing going full-time because I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to over half my salary,” I’m going to take out recourse debt by the way. Everything I’ve ever worked for is gone if I fail here. It was really scary thinking about that, but you know what happened Whitney? You know what pushed me over the edge where I went, “I don’t care”? It’s because, I think I’ve got to credit Steven Covey’s 7 Habits for this, or maybe it was Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour WorkWeek, one of the two. Basically puts this – maybe it was Susan Jeffers’ Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway.

Someone, somewhere in the book I read was like, “Think about being 80 years old, thinking back on this moment. What are you going to say at 80, thinking back on this moment?” And I said to myself, “If I fail at” – you know, I was 29 years, I had just turned 30. Okay, At 80 and 50 years, if I think back to how I failed epically at 30, would I be miserable on my death bed thinking about that? “Oh, man, I wish I had stayed working for the big bank,” or would I go, “You know what? I failed epically, I went bankrupt, I lost everything I had, but boy did I have some courage back then.”

At 80 years old, I think if I think back at that moment, I was like, if I think back to this and I failed epically, I’m going to be so proud I took a chance and took a bet on myself, and not only that, in that same vein, I thought because I didn’t have kids at the time, I’m a father now. I went, “You know what? I’m a big believer of do what I do, not just what I say,” or whatever that cliché is. I said, “What better lesson for my child than to say, you know what I did? I listened to my counselors growing up and the people around me and they were wrong, okay?” I bought the lie, but instead of playing the victim card, going man, you know what? I did all this and now I’m stuck in this.

I said, “You know what? I’m not going to play the victim, I’m going to go out and get what I want.” Whether or not it worked is irrelevant is I’m proud of myself for making that leap, I’m proud of myself from diving off the diving board and I just cannot think of a better lesson to teach my children beyond doing what I had done. Having courage and going out there and doing it. And that, I really hope, you know, if you’re listening in and you’re at the precipice of going full-time or wondering if you should go full time and you’re trying to get over that fear thing. I’ll pull you in two directions. Number one, will your 80 year old self would say about you, and I bet your 80 year old self is going to be really proud you had courage and, number two, your kids.

There is no better way to teach your kids to not have a spoiled or victim mindset than going, “Daddy felt the same way, and daddy found that what he had to do was take a bet on himself, and that’s exactly what he did.” Even though it didn’t work out, that’s the mindset you have to have, and guess what? If it works out, then even better. Now you’re not stuck in corporate America anymore.

[0:12:44.6] WS: Some great advice, Ryan, wow. I just love the story. Even just the line that you read, that you mentioned, what are you going to say about this decision when you’re 80 years old? Or the decision you didn’t make, or I mean, not making decision is making a decision, right? Or deciding to stay in that rat race and decide to stay where you think you’re comfortable and where everyone else thinks you should stay as well.

I had to make those same decisions. Very similar story of jumping out and committing everything ultimately, you know, in the beginning to make it happen or risking everything, right? But yeah, no doubt about it, such good advice.

What about the family support during those hard times? What did that look like, how did you handle that through making this big leap?

[0:13:26.0] RN: Yeah, my wife hated it. To put it bluntly. Actually, what ended up happening was, imagine that you spend years quite literally looking for the business that you want to start because I knew I was meant to be a business owner. You finally find it, and you get home to your wife and you’re like, “Guess what? I know what I’m supposed to be when I grow up!” And she’s like, “Excuse me?”

In so many words, “F you and F that.” Imagine just having cold water thrown all over yourself? Now, discovering that you have two battles. Number one, trying to get a company from scratch with no money, no network, and no experience off the ground and, number two, trying to win your wife over in the process.

It was really hard, especially because what I love about my wife, she has a lot of conviction and she’s stubborn in the right way. In other words, I think Jeff Bezos said this or someone famous said, “I picked my wife because if I got locked in some jail in a third world country, she has so much conviction and fight in her, she would get me out. She’d find a way.” That’s what I love about my wife, which is great when your incentives align. When they don’t, it’s really tough.

She was very much so not a fan of this. We came to some – we had some really serious fights. Eventually, I won her over and, believe it or not, she’s actually going to go and buy her own mobile home park. On her own, I am not invited by the way. It’s come very full circle and anyone who is listening in, if your significant other does not buy in, don’t let that be a hurdle.

Don’t let you think it’s going to be always. If you love each other, you’ll find a way to make it work. I invited my wife on my podcast, our second episode is literally called, Spousal Buy In, and I basically gave my wife two rules. I went, “You have an open mic. Two rules, don’t give away any of my secrets and no bad words.”

She absolutely lights me up over the course of like 10 minutes and then, in the last five – It was a 15-minute episode and the last five minutes, we kind of have a great talk about marriage through the lens of entrepreneurship. If you are feeling like you are fighting an uphill battle against your significant other, trying to win them over, that is an episode worth listening to because it is so honest and they will understand how my wife felt in that moment and they will understand –

It’s like that whole feel, felt, found bit in sales, right? You feel this way. My wife felt the same way, and she found a way to overcome and, together – and actually coming out with our marriage being stronger than when it started. If you’re listening in, that’s definitely something I’d point you to go listen to my podcast episode with my wife but just know, if you don’t have time to go listen to that, that if you have a good marriage, it’s like any other disagreement you have. If you love each other, love will find a way.

[0:16:36.7] WS: It is so important to have your spouse buy in and, like you said, it may not – most will probably not be buying it right away, especially like you said, when you’ve started, tried to start numerous businesses that hasn’t worked, and this just seems like another idea to them and it is probably going to waste a lot of time, and money, and energy, but it is so important to have that support. I could not have done it without my wife’s support. It was an extreme, intense few years, you know?

She was doing everything in the house and so she had to be able to see that vision, and the kids too. I mean it was a big sacrifice for everyone while dad is gone, pretty much working two full-time jobs to make that happen, but I just appreciate you being real about that and share it. I think the listeners need to hear that it is not all roses, that’s for sure, and takes just a ton of dedication before it starts snowballing, like you are talking about, or picking up.

Now we have three under contract and other transactions potentially coming as well. That does not happen right away but it does come but you have to keep going. Ryan, what’s been the hardest part of this real estate journey for you or this syndication business?

[0:17:36.8] RN: There is a lot of different ways I can go with this question and I will reiterate the highlight reel. It may sound awesome that we’ve closed on over 1,400 units and that we’re going to be closer to 2,000 if we close everything on our plate. It does sound really cool that I literally can sleep in, and wake up, and the first thing in the morning that happens is my son looks at me and smiles and says, “Daddy,” which is just, if you don’t have kids – I literally just want to give him my wallet and be like, “Whatever you want, dude. I don’t know what the limit is on this credit card but you can have all of it.”

Being a dad is just absolutely the best thing in the world and being able to not miss that. You know, I think I read somewhere recently that 70% of the time you spend with your kids happens before they turn 18. That really hits me in the feels, because I am so grateful that I started this business, and I can work from home, and I can grow with it if I want to or stay doing what I am doing if I want to because I am financially and time – I have both time and financial freedom, so I can be there during that time for my son and for any other kids that I have. So, it is worth it, but it terms of what is really difficult, I think the most difficult thing for me is, believe it or not, is finding what you truly love, because there’s going to be a lot of sexy stuff that presents itself that is ultimately not worth your time.

It is a lot like dating, you kind of have to go on a lot of dates to figure out what you like and what you don’t like. A lot of times it is going to feel like you spend a lot of time on something and then it turns out not to be what you want and then you sink into more of a depression, because I was pretty depressed in corporate America. I felt like I was stuck, I didn’t want to get promoted. I didn’t want to stay put, and I couldn’t get demoted. I couldn’t jump to another lily pad, so to speak, because I’ve caught my pay. So I did switch jobs a few times and it just left me unfulfilled.

I think, the truth of the matter is, you have to pick something that you absolutely love and you have to give yourself to the process of finding what you absolutely love, because it is so dang hard. It is. I mean you are going to get sued, you are going to have to sue people. You are going to have people possibly threaten your life like I had. I had someone threaten my life. You are going to have moments where you’re like, “I have no idea where I’m going to get the money.” You’re going to have moments where you’re like, “It’s been 14 months and I haven’t closed anything.” You are going to have so many moments where you question everything you’re doing and if you don’t truly love it at your core, you will quit. Do not delude yourself into thinking you are going to, “Oh yeah, I know, I like this. I am going fight.” No, you will quit and a great person to look to who said literally exactly the same thing in so many words was Steve Jobs.

It wasn’t about the money for Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs before he passed quite literally said, “You have to f-ing love it because it’s so hard.” I mean dude got fired from his own company that he created. I mean can you imagine how difficult that must have been? How that felt? And he kept going and fought his way back and then made one of the best companies of all time. Like, how do you think he did that? You think, “Oh he was smart and studied hard in school.”

No, it is because he loved it so much. So, I’ve got to say that one of the most difficult things is quite literally just finding that. Like Jim Collins, Good to Great, you need to find the intersection of three things, something you love that you are passionate about, something you can be the best in the world at, right? Because you don’t want to be a big fish in a big pond. It is better to be a medium size fish than the biggest fish in a small pond, very important.

It messes with you psychologically, something that is lucrative. You have to be able to make money. If you can find the intersection of those three things, you will crush it, and it is really, really hard to find that. Like imagine it took me three years of intense reading and networking and soul searching to find that and even started a few businesses that went over. So, if you are listening in, I don’t want you to be like, “Wow, this guy owns all of these mobile home parks.”

No. I want you to go, “Wow, this guy spent quite literally years of his life fighting an uphill battle to finally find what he was meant to do. That makes me feel better because I am depressed and stuck at my job, and so is he, and he kept fighting until he found it, and so will I.”

[0:22:22.7] WS: Awesome, Ryan, I love how you put it right out there just like it was and don’t sugarcoat it. I don’t find many like that that I want the listeners to hear the truth because I share a similar story, but a few questions before we run out of time Ryan. So, just quickly, how do you prepare for a downturn?

[0:22:40.8] RN: Your systems have to be in place. You have to have good rapport with your customers, and your employees, and cash. Cash is king. So, I will give you a great, for example, we did not distribute a penny until deep into quarter three of 2020. We did not distribute anything. We sat on cash, we even refinanced a property so we had more cash on hand. I am very adamant about spending face-to-face time with my tenants.

Even though we have a ton of properties, I still go to every single one. I spend as much time as I can. It obviously gets harder in scale but the more in tuned you are with your clients, and what their needs are, and if you can work with them, the better and the happier your employees, or at least the happier you can do your best to make sure they are happy and prepared for success, the better but, like they say in MBA school, cash is king.

So, in the event of a liquidity crisis like we hit for a brief window or a potential serious downturn, having cash, money solves a lot of problems.

[0:23:46.5] WS: Ryan, what do you expect to happen in the real estate market over the next six to 12 months?

[0:23:51.1] RN: I expect a lot more activity, believe it or not, and I’ll tell you why, because the interest rates are low and I just do not see those going up. When those don’t go up, you have a lot more buying power for syndicators like us and just real estate folks in general. I think what you are going to see in the retail realm is a continued being. I think a lot of really smart, clever entrepreneurs are going to do some really cool things with retail space, so I am excited to see that.

I think luxury apartments are going to continue to struggle a little bit. God bless anyone who owns a hotel right now, but I think I don’t have a crystal ball. I think that is what’s fun about owning a business is you want to basically hedge your bets while continuing to get aggressive, so it is a nice balance there, but I’ve got to say, I am really excited to see all the clever people who are going to not only survive but thrive through this crazy time.

[0:24:44.6] WS: What is a way or how have you become so self-disciplined?

[0:24:48.3] RN: Well, my sensei from back in high school would probably take credit for this. I got my black belt growing up because I was ADHD growing up and I had absolutely – I was all over the place and doing martial arts really helped me not necessarily be able to whoop someone’s butt because, if you ever met me, I’m a twig. I am tall and skinny and I’ve got a runner’s build but having those martial arts helped disciplined me but that would probably be a great place I would point to.

But I think the truth is, one of my friends who is a developer in the Virginia area kind of close to you over in Richmond, he said, “You cannot teach hunger.” I think the truth of the matter is, for whatever – because I was talking to my dad recently, and I thanked my dad. I was like, “I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to grow up without alcoholism in the family or beating me or being an orphan,” or you know, “You allowed me to go out and be successful.”

My dad was like, “Don’t thank me. I cannot take credit for you waking up one day and just having this fire in your eyes,” and I cannot – wherever I have, I just have this passion that has always been dormant until I found what I was meant to do. If you are listening in, I really hope that you too, like I said, you can’t teach that. You just have it and if you can just find what it is that that’s supposed to go to it will explode and a huge conflict creation and it is so awesome.

I hope that if you are hearing this, again, don’t think that I am like some really smart guy or a really talented guy. I am just quite literally someone who is very passionate who happen to find exactly what he was meant to do.

[0:26:34.8] WS: What is your best source right now for meeting new investors?

[0:26:37.5] RN: So, believe it or not, I’ve just been so adamant about networking and being a giver. My podcast, Mobile Home Parks in Real Life, stress the “in real life” portion, it is a lot of vegetables and no sugar at all. Just like I hope my vibe is coming off. Through that and my LinkedIn post and just general outreach, I had seven speaking gigs at the SICO conference this year and, I mean, just through, literally, I’ve met thousands of people, and I just try to give-give-give because, if you go and meet someone, and they just give you all sorts of value, and you don’t give them anything in return –

Like Stephen Covey says in his 7 Habits, “You’re depositing in the emotional bank account.” If you do that enough before you withdraw anything, right? Before you ask anybody for something in return, you just deposit-deposit-deposit across quite literally hundreds of people, your name gets out there.

It is crazy now, every time I open up my LinkedIn, I have a new message from someone I’ve never met before, and it just snowballs if you put effort into it. To me, I’ve found what’s been extraordinarily successful, beyond just having a podcast, and having LinkedIn content for free, and a YouTube channel, it is just going out of your way to meet people, even if you don’t think they’re ever going to do anything for you. Their word of mouth just spirals.

To condense that, be a giver and put effort into people and don’t expect anything in return.

[0:28:04.6] WS: How do you like to give back? I know it is what you just talked about but I always like to ask every guest. Just tell us how you like to give back?

[0:28:10.2] RN: Any way I possibly can. So, we started a partial college scholarship for our residents for their kids if they would go to school.

[0:28:17.2] WS: Cool, what a good idea.

[0:28:18.2] RN: We wrote our first check this year in 2020, which is really exciting. For that, we do free food giveaways. We partnered with local churches to do all sorts of fun stuff for our residents. How I give back to potential investors is I post all sorts of free content. I don’t charge a penny for it because what I want, is I want would be entrepreneurs who are frustrated and stuck on the sidelines, who would love to participate and get in the game, that can’t, I want them to hear my voice and know that they can do it too.

I had basically no money, no experience, and no network. I am not some Ivy League grad with 10 years of real estate experience. I didn’t even really know what a cap rate was when I started out. Seriously, it was very pathetic. I had nothing and I want to encourage people. So, I think the best way I know how to give back to others is just my time and my knowledge.

If you are listening to this and you’re like, “Dude, this guy’s enthusiasm is infectious, and he might have some words of wisdom. I want to see if he is actually true to his word about giving back for free,” literally just connect with me on LinkedIn. I am serious, I absolutely love helping others in any way I can.

[0:29:31.1] WS: Ryan, I am grateful to have met you and had you on the show, and just appreciate you being real, and laying it out there, and sharing your struggles. You know, making this happen and that those struggles are real. I think most, the majority of entrepreneurs that are successful experience those and had to push through, and did, to reach success and didn’t quit. Just grateful for hearing your story from nothing to financial freedom, 15 mobile home parks, and growing like you mentioned. Tell the listeners again how they can get in touch with you and learn more about you?

[0:30:01.4] RN: Like my favorite rapper, Tupac says, “I ain’t hard to find.” We had to practice pronouncing my name before we started this, true story. I believe I am the only Ryan Narus in the world. That is spelled N-a-r-u-s that is N like nurse, and if you quite literally Google me, I think the first thing that shows up is my LinkedIn. I am a wide open door. I don’t care who you are, you could be unemployed. You could be the CEO of a major company, I don’t care.

Anywhere in between, I am happy to help you in any way I can. I am happy to connect you with folks, give you advice, whatever you want. My website should be one of the first things that comes up to, you can email me directly through my website. Again, I’ve got my podcast, Mobile Home Parks in Real Life. Even if you don’t want to buy mobile home parks, there is still great stuff in there, like the wife episode I told you about, starting with nothing.

It literally details out how I had no money and I got started in the business that is absolutely free. I have YouTube videos. You can connect with me there. Seriously, I mean this from the bottom of my heart, if I can help you I do not expect a thing in return, and if you want to give me something in return, the best thing you can do is take my advice, go and kick butt with it, and tell me about it. That is like the number one compliment is like, “Oh my gosh, Ryan, you told me to do this. I did it and it worked.”

[0:31:18.9] WS: Thanks, Ryan. That’s a wrap.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[0:31:20.7] WS: Don’t go yet, thank you for listening to today’s episode. I would love it if you would go to iTunes right now and leave a rating and written review. I want to hear your feedback. It makes a big difference in getting the podcast out there. You can also go to the Real Estate Syndication Show on Facebook so you can connect with me and we can also receive feedback and your questions there that you want me to answer on the show.

Subscribe too so you can get the latest episodes. Lastly, I want to keep you updated so head over to LifeBridgeCapital.com and sign up for the newsletter. If you are interested in partnering with me, sign up on the contact us page so you can talk to me directly. Have a blessed day and I will talk to you tomorrow.

[OUTRO]

[0:32:01.3] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to the Real Estate Syndication Show, brought to you by Life Bridge Capital. Life Bridge Capital works with investors nationwide to invest in real estate while also donating 50% of its profits to assist parents who are committing to adoption. Life Bridge Capital, making a difference one investor and one child at a time. Connect online at www.LifeBridgeCapital.com for free material and videos to further your success.

[END]

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