Have you tried investing in extended-stay hotels? Today, diving into a different asset class is a person who led Brookfield Asset Management’s nationwide expansion of its extended stay hospitality portfolio. Damon Healey, the Founder and Managing Principal of Eternal Companies, takes us into the wonders of extended-stay hotels compared to multifamily. He shares how extended-stay hotels work and delves more into the yields this asset made. So, let’s dive right into this episode with Damon today.
Get in touch with Damon Healey:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damon-healey-9527765
If you are interested in learning more about passively investing in multifamily & Build-to-Rent properties, click here to schedule a call with the CPI Capital Team or contact us at info@cpicapital.ca. If you like to Co-Syndicate and close on larger deal as a General Partner, click here. You can read more about CPI Capital at https://www.cpicapital.ca.
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About Damon Healey
Damon Healey is Founder and Managing Principal of Eternal Companies overseeing the strategic direction and operations of the firm. Mr. Healey’s 20-year career ranges from hospitality, retail, multifamily, office, and urban mixed-use real estate. Most recently, Mr. Healey led Brookfield Asset Management’s nationwide expansion of its extended stay hospitality portfolio which led to a sale of the assets to The Blackstone Group and Starwood Capital Group. Mr. Healey’s created a $400M acquisitions and development pipeline and led the firm’s investment committee approval process.
Prior, Mr. Healey oversaw a $1.8 billion expansion into the Mid-Atlantic, Mid-Western, & Northeastern United States for LIDL US, Europe’s largest grocer. Additionally, Mr. Healey served as Investment Associate and Analyst roles at Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners, KeyBank Real Estate Capital, and Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services. Mr. Healey has a Bachelor of Science in Business & Finance from Oklahoma State University and a Masters in Urban Planning & Real Estate from the University of Michigan.
Extended Stay Hotels Vs Multifamily – Damon Healey
I get so excited every time we come back because we have been so busy with what’s going on in our world. We have moved to Florida. Now, we are boots on the ground and we are touring properties like crazy. It’s exciting times.
I had fourteen hours of driving. It was six hours up to Jacksonville from Naples and six hours back and then a couple hours of driving around Jacksonville, but it’s very interesting. There are a lot of deals there in the market. There are some distressed deals coming into the market as well. It’s interesting to see what happens to the whole landscape of multifamily value that is changing.
We are looking at people who bought deals at sub-4% caps and 70s deals are sub-4%. In some cases, just above the 3% cap. We are looking at that and thinking that it must have been some insanity at that time but it was making sense. It seemed like the train was never going to stop but it’s reality. It is kicking in and now, there are some groups that are in distress.
We will see what happens. I’m more focused on the equity side of the business. I have investors reaching out to me every day saying, “Where are the distressed deals at?” It’s because they are watching the news. They are seeing what’s going on and they know that some good opportunities are coming out.
We are talking about good opportunities and great deals coming our way. I’m very excited about our guest because he’s going to be talking to us about a new exciting asset class underneath the commercial real estate umbrella, which historically has been multifamily, office space, hospitality, and industrial. This is somewhat of a new asset class and a new business model within this space. We are very excited about our guests. What don’t you go and tell our readers a little bit about our guest, Ava?
In this episode, we are going to be joined by Damon Healey. He’s the Founding and Managing Principal of Eternal Companies. He brings decades of real estate experience across various sectors, including hospitality, retail, multifamily, and more. His notable achievements include expanding Brookfield Asset Management Extended Stay Hospitality portfolio and overseeing Lidl US $1.8 billion expansion. Damon holds degrees from Oklahoma State University and the University of Michigan. We believe this interview with Damon will bring great value to investors looking to learn about this exciting new asset class of real estate, extended-stay hotels. Welcome Damon, to the show.
Thank you for having me. I am happy to be here.
Can you start over by telling us about your background and how you got your start in real estate?
My background goes all the way back to early college. I did my first real estate deal at nineteen years of age. I got a very small loan for my dad and I bought a piece of land. I tried to build a house, but I couldn’t get a loan from a lender. I ended up flipping it to a builder who ended up building a single-family home on that but I made a profit. I paid my dad back and used that money to seed future investment opportunities.
I got bitten by the bug early. I had family in construction. My parents built a couple of homes and things like that. I would go tour houses with them, but what caught my eye was I would go to baseball games with my dad and see the skyline and center field of the stadium. I always said to myself, “I want to own one of those big tall buildings one day.” That’s what spurred me on in my career. I went to Oklahoma State. I got out. I got a job at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services.
I found out pretty quickly I didn’t want to be a broker. There is nothing wrong with it. I love my broker friends, but that wasn’t me. I didn’t want to do that and got into investment banking right after that after about a year at KeyBank real estate capital. I was an analyst there for about three and a half years ahead of the GFC but all commercial. We were a source of CMBS loans and life company loans.
We also were a DUS Lender so we did agency debt for multi-family. It was a great foundation for seeing all types of real estate deals, and financings, as well, as evaluating balance sheets of you know owners and lenders. It was a great foundation for me and then the great financial crisis hit. During that time, we were in CMBS. We were you know in that entire world. I saw the writing on the wall. I applied to graduate school and went to Michigan.
After that, I have always wanted to be on the ownership side. You always dabble on the side even while I worked my jobs in a single-family, but I wanted to be on the ownership side. I started working with the developer after graduate school in the actual Detroit area. It’s where I’m from originally the metro area but this was before the comeback of the automotive industry. The automotive industry was a part of the great financial crisis.
It was early coming out of that and said, “I don’t think this is going to work. It’s not fast enough for me.” I’m an ambitious guy. I ended up moving to the East Coast. A professor linked me up with a developer here in Washington, DC and the owner of that business did a joint venture with a company called MacFarlane Partners, and they had raised about $120 million with the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.
I was brought on to help deploy a lot of that capital. We did multifamily in and around the district. Both value add, core plus, and ground-up development. Again, I learned my chops there and in the development and acquisitions world. The CEO at the time gave me a lot of responsibility. I’m very grateful for that. I got recruited by Lidl. Lidl was Europe’s largest grocer. I’m thinking about 34 countries in Europe. They have several hundred thousand employees and they came to the US.
I was employee number five here in the US. There were five of us in a room and then a couple of years later we had several thousand employees across the East Coast here in the US. I did that for a while. We opened our first doors from nothing. We were buying land and later, we did some leasing. I had a big team there and then I was recruited by Brookfield Asset Management to scale their Extended Stay Platform throughout the country. That’s what brought me from a nineteen-year-old to well in my middle age to be in the extended-stay business.
What year was it that you got started in an extended-stay business?
That was in 2018 or 2019.
To our readers, Damon looks pretty young. He talks about GFC.
You look great and your picture makes you look young as well. We were having this conversation before the show. The beard is doing it for you. Let’s dive into the questions. I’m excited to learn more about extended-stay hotels. Can you start by explaining what extended-stay hotels are and how they differ from traditional hotels and other types of real estate investments, please?
The way I define it and it’s a loose definition, but I define it as hotels with kitchens. Within the industry, you can have a higher-end extended-stay hotel an upscale or a mid-tier hotel or you can have an economy hotel. What I have focused on in the past with Brookfield up to now is the economy to midscale segment.
For upscale, think of Residence Inn and Element by Marriott. Midscale is probably your traditional Candlewood Suites, Home2 Suites, and things of that nature. At Brookfield, we acquired 100 to WoodSpring Suites and that’s a Choice International Hotels brand. That’s hotels with kitchens where you can stay a longer duration as opposed to your nightly hotel.
Is there a maximum duration of stay that someone’s allowed to stay there for?
That varies by jurisdiction, but often, I can talk most specifically about economy and mid-tier because I think that’s where the action is. What you typically see is you have at least a base of about 20% of those hotels that are what you call long-term guests. Folks that maybe are relocating to an area and maybe have just decided to continue to live there for a longer period and that would be longer than 30 days. You have folks staying in some of these hotels for even six months or a couple of years, things like that.
What’s the average stay?
I was about 14 nights or 2 weeks would be the average for the economy to midscale. The higher up you go in the tiers, it drops off. Think about how the TownePlace Suites or any of the Residence Inns are effectively nightly hotels. I have stayed in plenty of those in my travels. I heard you were traveling throughout Florida. That’s been my life as well but sometimes you want to kitchen and you want that option if you are going to have family with you or friends with you and things of that nature.
The consumers of this particular accommodation, do they seek hotels that have this option of extended-stay or is it known that in every hotel, you can stay longer? Can you get better rates when you go for an extended-stay? Talk to us about that.
The demand is there for customers who want what we call purpose-built hotels with kitchens. What you find is customers value their discretionary spending as it relates to the rate. Let’s say you are relocating and you are building a house. You need a place to stay. An extended-stay hotel would be the right solution. Airbnb is also another solution but some people enjoy the consistency of having that extended-stay hotel and being able to have more discretion on the rate.
What you find is the rate is a little bit lower in the economy and midscale segment but if you want to have breakfast in the hotel, you can do that. If you want to have lunch outside, you can do that and know you are going to cook dinner inside. What you are typically doing is trading the rate for that discretionary opportunity to go to the grocery store or whatever and have that meal in the room. You are talking about relocations, traveling nurses, and construction workers who are coming to the area for big expansion or infrastructure projects. Some of the federal bills that have been passed are going to be excellent for this segment of hospitality.
How does the extended-stay hotel market compare to other segments in the hospitality industry in terms of demand and growth potential?
Extended-stay is the hottest segment within all of the hospitality right now. The reason is because of the profitability of the space. Typical gross operating profits within the extended-stay category are 50% to 55% plus. That has driven a lot of growth. The other reason is demand. Seventy percent of all extended-stays are non-purpose built. Hotels without kitchens or amenities that allow you that discretionary spend. That’s the long-term prospect within the space. It’s the fastest-growing area of the segment and arguably the most profitable.
Do you have any KPIs as far what is the average occupancy within your conventional hotel to compare it to an extended-stay? How does that work? How much occupancy did and need to have for them to be in a cashflowing position on what have you?
I would say it depends on the segment. It depends on which category we are talking about but again, I will focus on the economy and the midscale. Within that, you are looking at occupancy that over-indexes to the market. In a lot of markets, you will see occupancy of well over 100% of the nightly hotels. A lot of your revenue per available room is driven by that occupancy. When you think about these economies to midscale extended-stay hotels, it’s a housing alternative. They are similar to short-term rentals, Arbnbs, and things of that nature.
However, because of that average length of stay, that’s what you are looking for. You are looking for that higher occupancy and a longer length of stay. What that does is it allows you to lower your expenses. Your staff is not cleaning those rooms every night. They are them sometimes on average once every other week. All of that reduces expenses drop to the bottom line and that’s where you get your higher gross operating profit.
If you had to fit in extended-stay hotels within the hospitality and multifamily, let’s say, where would it fit in? Is it competing with Airbnb? Is it sitting between multifamily Airbnb or somewhere in the middle for people?
It’s right in between your traditional multifamily twelve-month lease and your short-term rental, and everywhere in between. That’s going to vary by market. You have some markets that are going to be a little bit more transient. They are going to have more nightly guests. For example, demand drivers that we look for are military bases or hospitals. We also look for major construction projects, but also amusement parks.
A hotel I developed in Orlando does very well. You get a lot of international travelers coming there for 1 to 2 weeks at a time. They want to consistent lower-cost experience because it’s expensive to go to Disney for a lot of people. A lot of people save up for a long time to go there and they don’t want to spend it all eating out. They want to have cereal in the morning and things like that and be able to have dinners out when they are at the parks, for example.
That’s a great example, but any location that has a lot of growth. We also look at multifamily in the space. For example, if there’s a lot of multifamily growth particularly rent growth in a market, that’s usually a prime opportunity for an extended-stay hotel because chances are if there’s rent growth, there’s a lot of relocation to that area. Someone may not know exactly where they want to land.
Maybe they have a new job and they are going to scope out the area to figure out where they want to live or they are waiting on an apartment because the apartment market is hot. They have to wait three months maybe for a hotel so they need a place to stay. Also, Airbnb can often be more expensive than the economy or midscale extended-stay hotel. Another thing that’s attractive about it for the guests is they can buy that rate down. If we know they are going to stay there for a week or they are going to be there for two weeks, they could get a more discounted rate as a result of that.
What locations are you focused on right now?
I get asked that question by investors a lot of times because I think it’s more of an opportunistic marketplace. At Brookfield, we have 100 hotels in 35 States across the country. I have that knowledge that you can make it work in many markets as long as it has the growth and as long as it has the demand drivers, but like everyone else, you are focused on the growing markets, the Southeastern markets.
I particularly love high barriers to entry markets. If you are looking at development, for example, midscale and economy extended-stay hotels can be tougher to develop. For that reason, if you find a high barrier to entry market, where you can develop that hotel, you have that moat around that hotel. I love that opportunity but outside of that, you are looking at growth markets just like everybody else probably.
With the boom of multifamily over the last decade or what have you, the boom has been there for a long time but on the topic of cap rate, you said that multifamily is being traded at, you are seeing a lot of hotels to multifamily conversions. Can your standard hotel room automatically be converted to an extended-stay? Does it take some form of needed construction to be able to bring it to that level?
You talk about ground-level development. I understand that you can build these types of extended-stay hotels but if you are looking to convert a hotel to an extended-stay, could a good other way around? Could a multi-family apartment community convert it to an extended-stay? Talk to us about the conversions that exist within this asset class.
I have personally not seen multifamily convert into extended-stay and typically, your highest and best use is going to be multifamily. It’s going to be more valuable to keep it as a multifamily. What you are seeing however is a lot of extended-stay hotels being converted into multifamily because of the housing shortage across the US. I’m not sure as much about Canada, but I know at least in Toronto, there’s a serious housing shortage because we looked at Toronto. Brookfield is located there.
There is a lot of activity around extended-stay to hospitality conversion because the kitchens and the plumbing are already in the box. Particularly in the state of Oregon where we were developing and expanding, there have been dozens and dozens of conversions. You have housing authorities buying extended-stay hotels. You have funds being created around extended-stay hospitality to convert those to multifamily but you have to watch out for the construction cost there.
The building standards are a little bit different. You have to watch out for sprinkler systems on whether or not they need to be installed into the unit. It’s because most of them are studios or micro-suites. If you can find an older-generation residence, maybe you can get a 1 or 2-bedroom unit mix in there as well but typically, you are looking at studio units. You have to be careful about the construction cost when you are converting these. There are lots of activities. I have buddies right now that are doing this and it’s been extremely profitable for them.
It might be a difficult question, but if you have a property that can be a conventional hotel, it can be easily converted to an extended-stay or it can be converted to a mainly one-bedroom multifamily. Where would be the best bang for the buck for that property to be utilized? Does multifamily give the highest?
Yeah, because you can buy at a price per door. You can buy older extended-stay properties much cheaper than you can buy multifamily. If you look at your spread of construction costs and what your ROI is, it’s what I would be targeting in that case. You can do that also with more traditional hotels. You have to watch the dimensions of the box and make sure that the plumbing works and all of that. Personally, if I were doing it, I would be targeting extended-stay hotels and looking to convert because the yield on that change of use is much higher than maintaining an extended-stay box.
We talking about yields. Let’s talk about investor returns. Are these extended-stay type of projects, ground-up development, value add, or potentially opportunistic are they being syndicated? Are there any funds that focused particularly on this business model that you know of? Tell us about yourself if you are getting involved in any of that.
Most of most of the extended-stay world is friends and family capital coming into the space. You have other hotel operators and other segments that have pivoted into extended-stays. Frankly, you have a lot of multifamily and self-storage guys that are into the space and they are doing syndication deals. That’s the vast majority of this space, I would say. Now, we are talking about you are one-off deals whether it be conversions or development.
You do have a lot more institutional joint venture-type capital coming into the space that has been active over the last few years or so. Blackstone has been in the space for many years. They own Extended Stay America outright. Starwood Capital Group also owns a hotel group called InTown Suites outright. They are both now 50/50 partners on those but they have been in the space for years because of that profitability.
Traditionally, if you have been looking at and buying or developing extended-stay on a trailing 12-month of a 10% cap. It’s pretty good when you consider it and you are looking at a new development. You are looking at IRR as well north of 20% traditionally. Brookfield and Starwood bought Extended Stay America in 2021 for about $6 billion. At Brookfield, we sold our portfolio to them in 2022. We exited that portfolio and that spawned a new wave of more institutional investment within the space.
Those cap rates have compressed, however, because of rising construction costs and interest rates development slowed down. Also, because of the lack of supply of extended-stays in the market, new development opportunities are slowing down. That’s what I think now and what I’m doing is targeting those conversion opportunities that are still cashflowing close to that 10% now and probably transitioning those existing hotels into different brands. Sometimes that can come with incentives from those brands as well which also sweetens the pot.
Comparing it with the multifamily value add business model, when you are working on an extended-stay hotel, you come in. You make it more efficient. You do some form of conversion. If there is a conversion involved, you are going in at 10% caps. You are cashflowing on day one of these investments for LPs. The value add there is the conversion, better management, and making it more efficient. What type of a term are these deals usually? Are they similar to multifamily that is 3 to 7 years of a hold?
That is a little bit of a loaded question but one thing you mentioned there was management. That’s one thing I will say about this segment, particularly in the economy, the midscale segment, management is critical, and having the right partners that understand the guest mix and that you are trying to drive that occupancy and the length of stay at these hotels. Also, you are not trying to operate them as nightly hotels because your expense ratios go through the roof when you do that. That is something that would say to investors out there it is extremely important.
Midscale segment management is critical, as having the right partners that understand the guest. Click To TweetAs far as the term, with the multifamily value add is usually 3 to 7 years. If one of these extended-stay deals is being extended, is it a quick turnaround? Is it similar to multifamily? How long do you guys hold it for?
There is a range. You have some folks who like to do the turnaround and flip it. You do have that but, more often, what I’m finding is that people don’t sell their assets because the cashflow is so good. I was talking to a very large owner and getting reacquainted with him. We used to talk a lot over the years but he has since over-doubled or tripled his portfolio and said, “I was planning on selling these in a five-year hold but because of the cashflow, I’m going to keep them, recapitalize, and rinse and repeat that process.”
You do have a range here. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all. The more institutional you are capital, they are going to want to exit at some point to get their return and deploy that capital elsewhere. Some people want to ring that register but most people that I know like to hold them for the long term to have that cashflow base.
How about as far as debt? Are lenders interested in extended-stay hotels?
Typically, you are looking at regional bank debt. You could also do SBA with all hotels, but with extended-stays, you could do SBA loans. The credit unions are pretty active right now as well. You can do CMBS loans. Also, the private debt community is very active right now, but deals are getting done. I have two deals under contract right now. We were able to secure debt for those. It’s more expensive than multifamily but you are buying at a higher yield.
You talk about deals that you are looking at. Talk to us about your criteria. With us here at CPI and most family value add investors who look at institutional, we are looking at 100-plus doors that provide that economy of scale and we can bring on a third-party property manager or be vertically integrated for a discounted price because of the number of the doors. Is there a sweet spot? I’m pretty familiar with built-to-rent single-family rental portfolios and communities as well, and that sweet spot is between 60 and 90 single-family homes in a community. Is there a sweet spot for a number of doors for extended-stay or the sky is the limit?
As you know, when you are in it, the answer is it depends but most people like to try to target that 100-unit hotel because of the relatively fixed cost nature of these hotels and very low number of employees. The more units you have, the more you can drive your profitability at these hotels in particular. There’s not that variable cost increase after 100 units or so. With that being said, I am looking at smaller units just because it may be a good market or it may be mismanaged.
Extended Stay Hotels: The more units you have, the more you can drive your profitability at these hotels in particular.
There are a lot of other reasons why you may go lower or you are getting a great cost basis, which is the case for the two that I’m working on. I got a great cost basis so I’m like, “It’s two of them so I will take them.” It’s 165 units with the two. I’m like, “That’s okay. I will look at it as a fund and as one deal.” Most people are looking at that 100-unit. If you get 100 units, you can drive profitability at these hotels.
We are trying to get to as many questions as possible, but I was looking at an article and maybe I misread it. It was saying that extended-stay hotels could be more affordable than multifamily. Is that even possible or did I read that wrong before?
That’s right. When I look at the portfolio hotels that we had at Brookfield, our average nightly rate was about $50. If you and then if you are going to stay for more than a week at a time, you can buy that rate down. You are buying a weekly rate at some point.
The Brookfield's average nightly rate was about 50 bucks. Click To TweetThis is an extended-stay and not your average hotel that you are talking about, right?
Yes, this is extended to the economy segment.
If you stayed for a month, what would it roughly be?
I think it would range between $1,500 and maybe $2,500 a month. Keep in mind, that you are not buying your furniture. You are not cleaning your room. You are not paying for utilities and all of that.
Also, it’s not a year lease.
You don’t have to pay the down payment as well for the lease. You are not coming up with a security deposit in that first month’s rent, a pet fee, and things like that. When you add all that together, for many people, it’s a more cost-effective solution.
Have you ever had to ask a guest to leave you because they have stayed too long?
I have always concentrated more on the investment acquisitions and the development side, but I can tell you there are lots of stories about that. There are stories of litigation where you are trying to get someone to vacate the premises.
Extended-stay is still considered hospitality. It’s like in multifamily. Does this still involve litigation? Can’t you get the sheriff to come kick to person out? How does that work?
It depends on jurisdictions and what tenant’s rights are in a particular jurisdiction. It can be complicated without trying to get into the particulars of all of the very situations, but if there are investors or prospective developers looking to get into the space, they need to check the local laws to make sure. It’s similar to what’s going on with short-term rentals, especially in Florida right now. As we all know, you have to watch the use.
You have to look at the zoning and find out what tenant’s rights are and whether or not it’s embedded whether or not you are in a hotel or not. If they are there for a certain period of time, maybe the tenant’s rights will kick into that scenario. That’s why I go back to the management. You have to have good partners in your management companies out there that know the space well.
Extended Stay Hotels: You should have good partners and management companies that know the space well.
Are these third parties or are these W-2 employees and managers you hire inside the hotel to be focused on it? How does that work as far as management?
I have always been associated with third-party managers. That’s also part of the strategy that I have now. I have partnered with a world-class manager that will manage our hotels, but there are several in the space depending on which brand you are looking at. Also, depending on which segment of the space looking at, there are great managers out there. With that being said, as I mentioned before, most of the hotel owners are family and friends and some family offices. There are some self-managers out there depending on how many hotels you have.
There are a lot of self-managers out there, but they know their markets well. They have great networks in those markets whether it be attorneys and management companies to help them know the lay of the land in those locations. If you are looking to scale like I am into multiple markets, for me, third-party management is a must for these hotels, but it’s similar to multifamily. I have owned multi-family both corporate and personally as well. It’s very similar. I think having a great manager or at least if you have an employee as a part of your team, a very experienced manager that knows all of the laws. It is very similar to my experience in extended-stay hospitality.
In hotels, that manager runs the show. What can make it or break it is that hotel managers because they are even more involved than in the multifamily side of the business. Have you launched a fund yet focusing on these? Are you out there looking at deals and looking to syndicate your next deal? What’s your involvement currently in space for an extended-stay?
I am syndicating right now. I’m on the phone talking to investors and trying to aggregate those relationships. I’m trying to warm up some of those relationships I have had over the years and forge new relationships as well but my goal is to provide access to investors. Everything from your credit investor up to your institutions that aren’t in this space, what I’m finding out is there are a lot of people that don’t know about the space. It’s been a largely educational process on my part, but we are getting started with a couple of syndication deals. I have a good-sized pipeline based on the relationships that we have in the industry. The goal is to take these syndication deals and seed the fund.
Are these core plus and value add deals?
It’s mostly value add and conversion deal. That’s the concentration right now, but we have the capability to develop but thinking where we are on the cycle, it’s better to convert at the moment.
We can develop, but thinking where we are on the cycle, it's better to convert at the moment. Click To TweetWe’d love to bring you on after you close on one of these deals and we will continue the conversation. If you don’t have any more questions, Ava, we can move to the next segment of our show.
Let’s do the next segment. It’s the Ten Championship Rounds To Financial Freedom. Damon, are you ready for our series of questions? This is the first question. Who’s been the most influential person in your life?
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
It’s my parents and probably my dad the most. I was blessed with a good set of parents. They are the most influential for me.
The number two question is what is the number one book you’d recommend? It doesn’t have to be financial. It can be anything like personal development.
I do a lot of mentoring and things like that. For me, it was Rich Dad Poor Dad. It gave me that different mindset of shifting to more of an entrepreneurial and a different investing mindset. That’s probably the book. Right behind that would be The Snowball, Warren Buffett’s biography.
I have never heard that one. Thanks for sharing. The next question is if you had the opportunity to travel back in time, what advice would you give your younger self?
Trust yourself and take more risks.
The next question is what’s the best investment you have ever made?
I feel like this is a trick question, but I would say probably in myself. I have made some great actual Investments for monetary purposes, but I think betting on yourself and pouring whether it’s education, seeking out mentors, or investing in yourself, I think that is probably the best investment over time.
Instead of the S&P, it’s the S&Me.
I agree. That’s right.
The next question is what’s the worst investment you have ever made and what lessons did you learn from it?
Probably a Tesla stock at the wrong time.
I know my friends have retired from Tesla’s stocks.
I bought into the hype a little bit. I went against every bone in my body, but I tried it and it didn’t work.
Picking stocks is very difficult and risky.
The next question is how much would you need in the bank to retire now? What’s your number?
I don’t like to talk numbers, but it’s a big one. I would say north of $10 million.
That’s a pretty common answer.
The next question is if you could have dinner with someone dead or alive, who would it be?
For me, my faith is a big part of my life so probably Jesus. That’s my real answer. Right after that would be probably Warren Buffett.
I think Jesus is one of our top answers there but you need a translator because he’s going to be speaking Aramaic too.
It’s true. It’s one of those things where it’s outside of putting the faith part aside. He was so influential. How many years have passed like, “What was this guy like?”
There’s a great book by Reza Aslan that goes into the times and life of Jesus and at that time, how did the world look like? If this man was living at this time, how would he be living his life or when he was living at that time?
God: A Human History
The next question is if you weren’t doing what you are doing now, what would you be doing now?
I wanted to play sports. I’m not tall enough, but I wanted to play sports. I would probably be doing something in the sports world.
What sport?
I love the NBA. I love the NFL. I love baseball. I don’t get to enjoy it as much as I used to because commercial real estate is an active business, but that’s probably it. It’s sports or entertainment.
The next question is book smarts or street smarts.
I’m going to give a cop-out answer because it’s what I truly believe. I think you have to have both. In my career, I started off thinking I could do everything street-smart. I had an accountant when I was 19 or 20. I used to pepper him with all these questions and he’s like, “You need to know all of this stuff.” I put that aside and concentrated on my education.
The people I know who are the most successful do both. It’s art and science. You have to be able to study but also put it into practice and be gritty at the same time. That’s my real answer, but if I had to pick one, I would probably go with the books to be honest even though I’m probably less. I’m more of a street-smart guy. I think you can make more by being a book smarts.
You have to study but also put it into practice and be gritty at the same time. Click To TweetIt’s a risk-averse answer.
The last question is if you had $1 million in cash and you had to make one investment now, what would it be?
I would invest it in extended-stay. That’s what I’m doing now so I can’t give another answer.
Quickly let people know what’s the best way that they can reach you.
I’m on LinkedIn but also, my email is Damon@EternalCos.com.
Thank you so much for coming on such short notice.
Thank you both for inviting me.
We appreciate you sharing all your wisdom and knowledge with us. We are looking forward to you growing. I hope to see you get bigger and close on a lot of big deals.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you, both.
