Speaker 1: 0:20

Hey everybody, ryan Garland here, founder and chairman of Paradigm. Thank you very much for watching. We are on the Paradigm Shift podcast. I am honored today to introduce you to Eric. He is one of my best friends. He's also my broker and an investor who's parked $3 million with us in our Paradigm storage and even more into maybe some more projects. So the idea behind this today is really just to kind of understand who he is and kind of his level of success and how we are just leveling up our business by making sure we're surrounding ourselves with top producers and players, and I think a lot of people are just worried about the market. So I want you to understand kind of how we're navigating these waters, if you will, and ironically we're in Lake Havasus around the lake, so that's always fun. But, eric, thank you for joining us. Man, please share a little bit with the audience about your background and just go for it, buddy yeah, ryan, thanks for having me on the don't be too humble.

Speaker 1: 1:08

I need you to be tell the world who you really are right on.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Yeah, no, thanks for having me on the podcast, man, I've been seeing it and, uh, some, you've got some cool people on, so I'm honored to uh to be on the show and you know, like Ryan said, um, you know I have an interesting background. I actually came from a really tough situation as a kid, you know, as a five-year-old, six-year-old, at one point, not even knowing where the next meal was going to come from, came from LA yeah, southern Cal divorce, and I got to make a choice, you know come to come to like Havasu city with mom, you know, a destination that has predominantly senior citizens at the time a retirement community, you know or stay with my dad, who was a little bit more of a passive man, you know pretty much, was a caretaker for his mom. You know his entire life. Mom was foreign, hardly spoke any English, you know, but she was a little bit of a stronger presence. So I decided, you know, let's move with mom. I think she'll be a better parent for me. Good call. And you know, unfortunately, though, three years later she decides she's going to move again. Bad call, bad call.

Speaker 2: 2:16

So here I am, 16 years old, in like Havasu City, arizona, again predominantly a retirement town and I got to, you know, at this point, make a decision for me to have that peace that I never had, you know, 16 years of my life. So I find a job Barley Brothers Brewery busing tables while I'm still in high school and I was probably working 60 hours a week, 70 hours a week as a 16-year-old. Yeah, and you know, it was interesting because there was this strip of businesses that was in this area where the restaurant was. And his name is Steve, he was a real estate agent and he sees me working all the time and he comes over and he's like dude, like what are you doing with all the money that you're making? He's asking a 16, 17 year old kid that. And I'm like dude, I actually live on my own. Everything I'm making I'm putting in a savings account to pay the bills. I was renting a duplex with like five pieces of furniture in it. I was on conservation mode save, save, save, survive.

Speaker 2: 3:20

And then he's like well, have you ever thought about investing in real estate? And I'm like real estate, no one in my family has ever even owned a home, let alone invest in real estate. And he's like man, you really ought to think about doing that because I see you working here Like you've got to be saving money. I want to help you learn to make that money work for you. And I'm like man that sounds kind of scary, like is the investment guaranteed? And he's like no, of course not. He's like but I have a feeling this is going to be good for you. You just need to try it. I said, okay, well, I've got twenty thousand dollars to my name. I've saved up twenty thousand good for you know, 17, maybe 18 now at this point and I said I'm all in, let's do it. Twenty thousand dollars invested.

Speaker 2: 4:03

Six months later that $20,000 turned into $22,000. And then from there I was absolutely hooked. I ended up doing six more spec homes with them over the course of the next couple of years, meanwhile still working at the restaurant, hosting, being a server, being a bartender, and I was just infatuated with the idea of investing in real estate. So, of course, a couple years later I decided to get licensed, explore the sales part of real estate and you know, from then it just kind of triggered like, oh my god, this is an industry where I can literally be rewarded based on my actual performance. There's no ceiling. First year in real estate. I was the rookie of the year for the entire southwestern region of the United States. Two years later started a team Year number three, number one real estate group in Lake Havasu City and haven't really looked back since Now investing in land developments, spec homes and, of course, paradigm storage.

Speaker 1: 5:03

Yeah, so tell us a little bit about your. So of all, as my best friend, I did not know that whole story. I knew about your mom and your dad and when you came, but I did not know you started investing that early, yeah, so cheers to your success so that leads into this next part for sure how big is your team now and what's your volume for the last couple of years and what track are you on as of today?

Speaker 2: 5:23

Yeah, good question. We're actually only a team of 14 agents operating in three cities and this year we'll probably close around 250 million in sales. The past three years we've closed at least 200 million in sales. Currently, we're the number one real estate group in Lake Havasu City. We're the number one real estate group in Mojave County. We're the number two real estate group in Mojave County. We're the number two real estate group in the state of Arizona and we're currently ranked 14th in the country for overall sales Got to give you that one for sure.

Speaker 1: 5:54

That's awesome. So to kind of go into the paradigm side, obviously you have a track record. You're working with other investors, you're dealing with land development. You're seeing a lot of other people out there that are making it happen as well, that have a longer track record than me 30 years, 40 years of experience. What is it that makes Paradigm different?

Speaker 2: 6:13

Well, it's such a question. It's a question that, for me, is so incredibly easy to answer, because being around like Havasu for so long, seeing development before development, was actually a thing. Out here, seeing builders and developers do the absolute bare minimum to make the most amount possible, you're the complete opposite. So, for example, paradigm storage to include amenities like full insulation, climate control in every unit when I may be fighting you on certain things to help you maximize your profit, you're like Eric. No, we're going to include everything RV hookups, extra facades to take the aesthetics of the overall building to the next level, oversized concrete drives, when you can actually take the drives between the buildings and make them bigger to make more money. You're choosing the consumer over your dollars.

Speaker 1: 7:06

You know that's, and that means a lot to me, because even today, when we're on site, you know the idea is to make sure that you're delivering a product that people can not only buy.

Speaker 2: 7:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:14

They're looking for appreciation, they're looking for tax strategy, they're wanting to park really expensive toys in this stuff, but they're also looking at I'm also looking at from a resale side, from a true real estate investment, not only for myself, but obviously for whoever buys these units for sure so I really that means a lot and I mean, look at how much we've been able to accomplish in such a short period of time.

Speaker 1: 7:32

But we're definitely, my opinion, we're setting the tone for, kind of the way to do it. Nobody else was providing air conditioning units like we are in every one of their units.

Speaker 2: 7:41

That's huge and think about it. This, when all Havasu is ever known is your typical steel box. When we're talking about corrugated metal on each side, they have to get out in 110 degree temperature when they're out here and manually crank up a door and there's not even the slightest possibility to add climate control, and you're completely disrupting the industry and adding all of these things in the units they're practically selling themselves.

Speaker 1: 8:03

Yeah, and on top of it, this is one of the largest projects in the city as far as just paradigm storage alone, not including all of our portfolio.

Speaker 2: 8:11

We were out there today, you and I and the team, building C, building D, 66,000 square feet. Now you're a typical developer in Lake Havasu and I've been a part of a lot of developments. Sell out phase one. Start part of a lot of developments. Sell out phase one. Start thinking about maybe starting phase two, starting to build up phase two. Then maybe in a couple years we'll get to phase three. You are full bore, full tilt, like hey, ryan, maybe you want to slow down. Let me catch up on sales. No, we're charging. You're building 66,000 square feet at a time which is allowing us to give all of our buyers more options, and you're continuing to add more and more amenities. I didn't even know you were adding RV hookups in these units.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Yeah, you called me. Are you really putting RV? Yes, we are.

Speaker 2: 8:55

I'm walking clients through the development and they're like, are RV hookups included? I said, well, you actually get a full electrical panel that's here and you could eventually tee off and add the RV hookups. And the client's like, well, I see an RV hookup back there. I'm like, what? Like it was just so mind blowing to me that literally these units are beyond fully loaded, to the point where they're not even as upgraded garages that people have in their own homes. You know, so it's pretty special.

Speaker 1: 9:22

You know, what's cool is that I think I kind of made the decision on the fly, if I recall. But building c, charlie, you know we have 14 by 50s and they back up to each other as far as the units right for both driveways. When I was looking at building d, all of those are drive-thru set up right now and I remember looking at all the guys going. You know we have what you're selling units, typically kind of two at a time yeah. Very rarely you're doing one at a time.

Speaker 2: 9:43

We took a call before we got on the podcast and they're looking for two.

Speaker 1: 9:46

So at the end of the day, I'm like well, why don't we just provide drive-thrus? Because at the end of the day, I think that people would want that more and you were telling me originally, before we even started this, that those were the fastest selling product as far as in the storage space, anything. So when we're looking at the building, as far as building D Delta, we're going, hey, why don't we just leave? All of these are drive-thrus, and if we do have buyers that just want a 14 by 50, then we'll just put that center piece up and let them. You know, two people will buy. But the best part is is by six bolts you can pull it right back off.

Speaker 1: 10:18

So let's say somebody were to buy a 14 by 50 and then the other one behind comes up for sale or works a deal, they can get a drive-thru later and just unbolt that by six bolts. So I think that's pretty cool, but the drive-thrus, at the end of the day, what we're doing is we're providing diversification For sure. Do you want a 14 by 50? Do you want a drive-thru? You kind of have a different. You have the ability to choose and what I'm trying to do is that's ready to go when you can say hey, within this month or next month we have more units available for you. So when people are looking for a unit, you can say hey, within the next 30, 60, we have a unit for you and check it out.

Speaker 2: 10:56

These are also the people that are in that product too. The project was thought out so well that we're attracting national attention. I mean, we literally have buyers coming from Indiana on a 1031 exchange. We had an acquisition of seven units in one purchase contract. This is exactly what I'm looking for. I want to get out of the residential rental game and I want to get into mailbox money.

Speaker 1: 11:15

So let's go into that, because that's actually a big part of where I wanted to take it is the amount of people that are selling the residential homes. When the pandemic hit, they weren't collecting rent as a landlord. So a lot of people especially if you're a boomer and you're looking to retire you want cash flow and you like the rental income and owning real estate. What I'm seeing here, even from people selling Airbnbs, what I'm seeing is people are selling and 1031, exchanging out of their rental homes and just buying these Less maintenance, less headache, better quality tenant opens up the doors for more tenants and you have consistent cash flow with no maintenance.

Speaker 2: 11:50

I mean coming from the biggest broker in Arizona as far as real estate, residential sales. A lot of my clients who have been investors in residential homes they call at 9.30 because their toilet doesn't flush or there was a bad windstorm in Havasu and seven shingles got blown off. We're talking about the ultimate desire for an investor mailbox money that comes every single month and it's we're signing a lease today. I'll talk to you in 12 months when your lease is over.

Speaker 1: 12:17

It really doesn't get better than that, yeah, and if and if, if you decide not to take it again, you have another you know tenant right behind it. I mean one of the not to take it again. You have another tenant right behind it. I mean one of the who was it? One of the other, and I don't want to list them, but they're talking about anywhere between a two to a four-year waiting list at some of these locations Absolutely. I mean that shares. That's why we're looking at that data as forward demand.

Speaker 2: 12:37

There's such a need for end user storage in Lake Havasu that, for example, in phase one we had a small group of 1031 exchange investors because there were so many end users that wanted to buy too. But for those 1031, and I really like that because it provides an opportunity it's not a storage development where just investors are purchasing and it's completely flooding the rental market. It's a good balance. So those handful of investor buyers in phase one, they put their units up for rent and they literally got rented the next day. I mean, we're talking about Lake H, Los Angeles, two of the biggest metropolitan cities in the country. Our lake is only allowed to fluctuate plus or minus five feet a year. Now that makes us one of the biggest destinations for water recreation in the country. So what that means for investors is when you have a lake that's as secure as Lake Havasu, people are going to come and rent those units because there's nowhere else to go. So, long story short, those people that put their units up for rent, they got occupied the next day.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Well, we had a guy that bought in phase one and turned around and sold it right away and made like $15,000, I think it was.

Speaker 2: 13:59

Yep, we had one of those, for sure.

Speaker 1: 14:00

I actually looked at it and said you know what? I think we're going to change our HOAs where if you buy and you turn around to flip one of our units, we have the right to buy it back first.

Speaker 2: 14:09

Don't worry, though, we're getting top dollar Ryan.

Speaker 1: 14:11

Yeah, I know the other side of it too, and this is the one part where I think for our audience sometimes I hate to brag and I don't want to be unhumble, but I do want to talk about this because ultimately, Lake Havasu is kind of like who's got the bigger boat? Because it's all Southern California money.

Speaker 2: 14:28

For sure.

Speaker 1: 14:28

It's just that second home destination and everybody comes out here because the majority of the people would come out for the recreational side but grew up coming out here. And those people come out and they love the desert lifestyle. They love all the things you could do during the winter, during the summer it's year-round activities here, but it's also very family-oriented. So one of the things that I've really realized recently is the nature of the buyers that are in our project compared to anybody else's project, meaning who some of these people are the business owners out of LA, the business owners here in town. You know my opinion, these are all the guys that are multimillionaires. Even we have a billionaire now in one of our phases. So for me to kind of to look at who's in our phase, it's the who's who, but it's also because our product is superior compared to our I would say competitors.

Speaker 1: 15:13

If we really have them out here, I don't think. I think we're kind of on a different level, which is kind of sometimes some people will look at them like well, you're building something so unique it's, you're at a much higher level, so you're kind of setting a new record or it's more risky. I don't see it that way. I think what happened is is we built something on the side of city where all the development's going to have to go, so I think we were very forward thinking on that. 725,000 square feet of retail, you know, you got super Walmart or Walmart super center there and then they're just announcing all that development that's going over there by medical medical Was it 50,000 square foot.

Speaker 1: 15:49

I think it announcing all that development that's going over there by the law. Medical, medical, what is it? 50,000 square foot? I think it's urgent care that's going in. They just we got some intel that there may be an 80 foot. Of course, we're always with the barn caves, which we'll talk about in a second.

Speaker 1: 16:01

You know we have a height restriction on that one, so they were just talking about how they have an 80 foot tall. I think it's a five-story product of a hotel that is looking to be built over there. You have North Point.

Speaker 2: 16:16

Let's talk a little bit about that north side so I can kind of circle up on the nature of this location. This project, again thought out so perfectly to the point where it had been over a decade before anything storage-related made the front page of the newsreel. We were just on the front page of the newspaper literally last week. It got an ungodly amount of attention online. I mean, this literally is in the eyes of our city council, our vice mayor. It's in such a positive light because we're not the slumlords of development for storage Again you've talked about it which is why you've attracted the clientele that we have and I think that, to allude to what you were saying about some of our customers, you could literally park some lawn chairs in Paradigm Storage and probably witness $500 million in boats drive by, going in and out of their units.

Speaker 1: 17:03

Yeah, we're only halfway built.

Speaker 2: 17:04

But in regards to the strategy of picking this location, which Ryan and his team did such a good job at, it's located on the lake side of the highway, so literally from Paradigm Storage, you're maybe seven minutes away from the launch ramp, so to be able to come into Lake Havasu, hook up to your storage unit and be seven minutes to the water. People are really mesmerized by the location too and, like you said, retail, you know, walmart, medical, all right there.

Speaker 1: 17:33

Airport five minutes away yeah, I mean, the airport is, you know, on the barn caves project. I'm literally having to go to the FAA to see if we can do solar because we're so close to the airport, right, you know. So that's they'll give you an idea of our location in my opinion is absolutely key, in fact. In my opinion is absolutely key. In fact, my videographer, which is here now, was telling me about a conversation that he had with a guy who was building out here that asked how the heck did you guys get that land? Cause, in essence, we don't pretty much own that half that street. So, with with our 14 acres plus that 18 acres, I mean we own more acreage, I think, on that on that street than anybody else.

Speaker 2: 18:06

We'll talk about that 18 acres maybe in a second. But I mean, I was begging Ryan to take these 18 acres down because I'm telling you land in Lake Havasu City is in the fourth quarter. We maybe have fourth quarter seven minutes to go as far as the land clock for Lake Havasu. There's so much land that has become acquired from developers now over the last decade as Lake Havasu has exploded, to take that land down was one of your best moves that I think you know. That's five to six years of development. When if you were to say, hey, eric, like let's go get another 10 acre parcel, I can't provide it because it's gone, it doesn't exist.

Speaker 2: 18:43

So for people that are buying into a project like this buying a unit, buying two, buying seven think about the land availability and lack thereof in Lake Havasu, because we're hardly going to see anything else get built out for the entirety of Lake Havasu unless you're purchasing, attempting to purchase, state land, and for anyone who's a developer that's listening, you know how long that takes.

Speaker 1: 19:04

But I know Bureau of Land Management is talking about selling some more land to the city of Lake Havasu as well.

Speaker 2: 19:09

We need it.

Speaker 1: 19:09

I know Absolutely. The good thing is water's there, everything seems to fit in. I think I was telling you ADOT, which is the state funded for streets and so forth, out here in Arizona. They just asked us to do a traffic study right there, which we're not even close to the corner, but right there on the corner of the 95 and retail center which obviously we share a property line with Home Depot.

Speaker 1: 19:34

They've already done all those improvements. So we're going oh shoot, are they asking us to do improvements? That could cost us a lot of money? But what's happening is. To me, the takeaway is which, by the way, we don't have to worry about it. They're already signed off on it. But my concern was originally is do I have to do street improvements? Come to find out we don't. But what that tells me is the amount of traffic that's coming in here. They're saying, hey, there's so much demand and there's so much growth there. We need to do an updated traffic study because we need to see how many people are coming through the 95.

Speaker 2: 20:03

Absolutely. You touched on it too. North Point, viewpoint, the Refuge these are three big residential developments within close proximity to Paradigm Storage. So again, another good reason why we developed here as much as you would think. A 2,500 square foot house with a 25 by 80 RV garage is enough for your Havasu homebuyer. They want more so to be able to have your home and have your storage units seven minutes away. You know, talking about that expansion, these developments, I mean you can drive by if you're ever in, like Havasu, north side of town, viewpoint, north Point they're building like crazy and people just can't get enough garage and was there 1,800 lots.

Speaker 1: 20:43

Is it North Point? That's it. Which one is it?

Speaker 2: 20:44

Viewpoint Viewpoint. But North Point has been expanding since, I think, 2012.

Speaker 1: 20:49

Well, you just drove me down. I couldn't believe the brand new homes. Yeah, they're stunning too. It makes me feel like home in california, so I think I could see how they're catering to that too.

Speaker 2: 20:58

we literally this project is so fascinating to your typical buyer that we are to anyone that's calling in or anyone that sees us. They call us and they're like so what, what is this? How does this work? Do you buy these? Do you rent these? And I'm like actually, you get dated property. You can buy, sell lease whenever you want. It's an actual real estate condo. I mean, we just got on a call, literally before we started the podcast, from people that want to buy too, and they said they literally don't even know what they're buying them for, because we're creating the hype.

Speaker 2: 21:29

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:29

All right. So for those of you that are still watching, this is where it's going to get good. So let's talk about the barn caves yeah, because that's kind of our baby right now. So again, 225,000 square feet is the paradigm storage we've been talking about. Right next to that is 18 acres that we purchased. That 18 acres we're trying to sliver out 150 units to 160 units of basically the paradigm product layout in regards to the storage.

Speaker 1: 21:54

But we're going to build residential above it and the idea is to do, you know, maybe a bedroom bathroom downstairs, more like a 30 by 60 or 30 by 70, with a bedroom bathroom downstairs. We want to do another bedroom bathroom upstairs with another powder room. Second floor. Second floor would have a kitchen and then the third floor would be an entire master suite, so it'd be a three bedroom, three and a half bath. That's the largest unit.

Speaker 1: 22:16

We're going to have three different floor plans. It can be one, one and a half, two, two and a half as well, but the idea is the largest floor plan under 700 000 right is going to be a three, a tall skinny with an elevator, by the way, with a man cave down uh, you know, on your garage so and it'll be a drive-through. You and I were talking about that and not only that, which I think a lot of people are really excited to hear that we're taking the community center that you would build, like any other apartment project or residential build, to rent community, and we're going to build a 20,000 square foot public gym that everybody else can have access to as far as our owners for free, because now you own in there and now they have access to a customized gym, and I've been coming out here for 35 years.

Speaker 1: 23:02

Not trying to say anything bad here, but I don't think the gyms, I think the gyms are really far.

Speaker 2: 23:06

The gyms are terrible.

Speaker 1: 23:08

I was not going to say it that way. But yes, the gyms are definitely terrible. I mean I, it's hard for me to even get a good workout in, you know.

Speaker 2: 23:14

I come out here and I get.

Speaker 1: 23:15

I'm looking forward to going home just so I can kind of get back into my own routine. Yeah, if you could build, you know, and I know, be able to provide a community center that has, you know, like a uh, a little area for like a small restaurant and like a smoothie bar and you can pop up your laptop and we're very much like a lifetime fitness field, but not as big and then obviously provide a much better product for people to go and kind of hang out and uh, and much larger and more usable, newer equipment, just something more modern.

Speaker 2: 23:57

Cause it's just not out here. No, and this was exactly the project that caught the news, the News Herald. So for anyone that's listening, please go check out the story News Herald. Town Home, barn Caves. They did a full write-up on this project. I'm telling you I have never gotten so many calls on one specific thing since I've been selling real estate for the last nine years in Lake Havasu, and we talked a little bit about what was the drawn paradigm. There wasn't anything that you left behind. As far as upgrades, listen to everything. We're talking about Elevators, storage, gyms, amenities, new construction, perfectly laid out floor plans. And I'm telling you, All that retail.

Speaker 1: 24:30

You got the airport again across the street, right, and you know, here's what I want to share before I forget. So because of that, I was reached out to by a private equity. Actually, it was a solar company out of Phoenix, but they were purchased by a private equity firm out of New York and they reached out to me and said hey, Ryan, we basically get nothing but larger contracts like solar field size level contracts. He goes what's the square footage that you guys are building? I said about 500,000 square feet between residential and storage, Cause right now paradigm storage is 225, right, we're going to basically with residential, definitely more so he goes, well look we.

Speaker 1: 25:04

Basically the way we work is we come in and we actually strike a deal with the local power company where we provide power. We basically sell power and we sell it at a certain price. So what we do is we come in and, depending on what type of contractor is, a lot of times we'll come in and do all of your solar, your roof and low voltage lighting electrical for free. Wow, so that would shave down my budget, but then I would have solar that I'm able to provide power to my unit owners, along with the gym, and then we'd have a soul, basically be the first solar field in lake. So it's very, very forward thinking, very innovative, which is where the city's really looking for.

Speaker 1: 25:41

With all the meetings I've been in with the city council, and I think that's where we're getting a lot more push to just all of that support. All the way down to you know, some of your subs have been calling you going hey, can I bid that project? Can I bid that project? Which for me makes me feel good. Again, I think everyone's worried about material costs, inflation, what's going on with the elections we can talk about here on this too, because that does have a direct effect on migration, affordability and so forth. But at the end of the day, when you're able to have so many people that want to be a part of that project, for them it's a four-year project. You see something that big in the city. That's security for people. Most laborers are looking for security in anybody that's in the construction realm. But then now I also have the ability to bid out each other. Who's going to do the best work for the fastest, best quality, right and stay on time and budget.

Speaker 2: 26:29

So I think we should touch on that really quick because for those of you that are listening that have already invested in Paradigm Storage or Barn Caves or you're considering about doing so, it's important to know that. It's well known that Lake Havasu has been well known for its reliability lack of reliability due to poor subcontractors and Ryan was fortunate enough to get plugged in with the best team from general contractor all the way down. So if you guys have are following paradigm storage, you'll see that we literally started building c three and a half months ago and building d is already 50 complete. So, just so, just think about that same execution on barn caves. Literally, you'll be done with paradigm storage in a year. So for everyone who's inquiring about barn caves how can I buy one? How can I invest as a subcontractor? How can I be a part of it? I mean, this feels to me like it'll probably be the most successful project in Lake Havasu ever.

Speaker 1: 27:31

Well, we have more buyers, I think in mind. You said that day when we released it on Newtowl how many buyers you had in mind, including my friends, including my employees. People are going I want that product. I mean, it's just a different vibe, but it's also designed as a barn dominium. It's very trendy, but I'm able to build it in a way that makes it more affordable and I think that's a really one of the biggest things that we had to focus on.

Speaker 1: 27:54

Keeping our HOAs down by putting that gym in there and bringing in a big operator to pay for the amenity package is really what I'm doing. I'm saying, hey, instead of me having my unit owners pay a high HOA to cover that pool and the amenities and people cleaning it or what have you, how about I sliver that away? Give all my owners the opportunity to go, experience and enjoy that much larger too, and then have it already paid for by the community. So now my unit owner's costs come down. So trying to be able to just listen to the market overall and make good decisions is really the key here.

Speaker 2: 28:27

I think people just want to see this product come to market as soon as possible, because, again, people are literally going out of their way just to say how cool of a project this is. This is a nice refreshment to the typical storage development that you're seeing. People are like oh wow, now there's a living component attached to it and now I can probably actually finance it, so it brings more buyers into play too. Again, just the whole package is a true level, and that's the idea is to design this in a way where you can get conventional mortgage.

Speaker 1: 28:57

It's a home, it's a town home, so it's an SFR single family resident you can get normal conventional mortgage. That's huge too. So you're really opening up doors for more buyers. I think you're going to see, and I can I have tons of stories of how many people are downsizing or love the kind of lock and key aspect of it. Where they buy, they just come and they don't have to deal with maintenance, they just come and enjoy, you know a handful of times a year and then they leave down to people that are living, working here, that want to be able to afford to buy a home for the first time, so first time home buyer. So I'm trying to basically cast the net as far as I can be, as as effective as I can, as far as you know. Uh, bringing in the right amenities and bringing in, you know, more forward thinking on what, what's trending Well and you cost yeah, and you captured that.

Speaker 2: 29:39

on paradigm storage, yes, there's the MTIs, the skaters, the big DCVs, the Prevost RVs, but it's. But it's, of course, you know, maybe someone who has a smaller boat or a medium boat. We made the price points there completely attractive so that it accommodated all parties. And I think I love what you just said about the barn caves. You know this gives first time buyers an opportunity. This makes a second home more attainable because it has the RV garage. So, like you know, again perfectly said Paradigm Storage, Barn Caves, the options that are available, you know, for medium earners, high income earners, you set the stage to make it attainable.

Speaker 1: 30:21

One of the big things that we track is generational spending right, each generation, and what their spending habits are. Baby boomers are the largest generation, number one, that have the majority of the money, even though you're seeing that transfer happen towards the millennials and to some of the Gen X side, but it's more going towards millennials. But even if you look at RVs, rv sales are projected to just almost double in the next five to 10 years. The idea is, as most of us used to look at baby boomers as being the ones that owned RVs. Now it's multi-generational that own RVs. Same thing with boats.

Speaker 1: 30:55

On top of that, baby boomers also are looking to invest in the communities that they know is high in retirement. This is a retirement community. They know what retired people are looking for. They understand what lifestyle they're looking for healthcare, all of those amenities that are real close like the mall. Gas is going up. Everyone's like well, if I don't have to travel too much and everything's right there, great, seven, eight minutes and you're dropping your boat on the water, but then you have everything that you need. That right. There is what we're trying to continue to track and marry up. There's a lot of moving pieces, but the majority of my investors are boomers, yeah, and then they're also going, okay. Well, we also know the retirement. This is the number one desire, desire to retirement committee on the West coast, I mean. I mean I, we could go on and on from everyone who comes here.

Speaker 2: 31:42

Oh I mean to the point where and again, I'm not a I'm not a CPA or a tax professional, but there's people that come to me because they know that I have the best people around me that help me with tax strategy and to lessen my tax liability, because I'm a very high income earner you can figure out a way to use the storage unit in some way, shape or form for your work or for a business.

Speaker 2: 32:12

You can actually write off a majority of that purchase in one year. So, to put it in layman's terms, if you're making $150,000 a year and you purchase a unit in Building Charlie for $126,500, you can almost write off all of your taxable income by purchasing one storage unit. So for those baby boomers that you know are trying to get with the times and figure out how to, you know, exercise top tier tax strategy, you know, maybe consider investing in a storage unit to lessen your tax liability. You can only do it one time and you certainly can't abuse it. And again, I'm not a tax professional, but this is something that I've done every single year.

Speaker 1: 32:50

And that's I mean first of all. Real estate is kind of where you want to. You know it's where there's most tax benefits as well, but that's kind of goes hand in hand with the majority of the conversations that you have. We just had that conversation with your buyers. It's really kind of maneuvering around taxes and what they have as far as taxable income. So when you look at even from the barn cave side, I think people are going to look at barn caves as an asset that you're going to hang on to Like.

Speaker 1: 33:12

The rule of thumb is, you know, so, let's say, for a first time home buyer, you can buy something that's a little bit lower cost in the city, but you try to keep that asset for the rest of your life as a rental. So when you move and, let's say, you step up, you can at least keep that asset and cash flow it. Well then think about a resale side. All of this area is booming and all that growth. You're creating demand due to that, and then obviously you have the ability to resell it and get appreciation and then you have more people that you can cash your net to to bring to buy that on the exit.

Speaker 1: 33:42

So again it's the same concept that we're trying to marry up with paradigm storage to the Barn Cave product.

Speaker 2: 33:48

Here's just some secret sauce. Call it a value nugget, whatever I mean. At the end of the day, this is huge. Just remember that commercial real estate is the best hedge against inflation and, with everything that's going on in the world right now, don't keep your money in a bank account or a Roth IRA or stocks. Put it in something that you can control and when you put it in an asset class that is as recession resistant as storage, there's really no better play in real estate, in my opinion.

Speaker 1: 34:19

Well, let's kind of talk about the elephant in the room right. Iran just shot off I don't know how many drones and missiles and this is now getting kind of bad. I think a lot of people. It was already bad, but it's getting worse and I think it could get worse before it gets better. And what I've seen is, since this has happened this was only a handful of days ago, right, because what's the date today? The 16th? You know, the idea is that the amount of phone calls I'm getting from my investors we have 400 investors on our platform and a lot of friends with in some of the case, so I feel like they're family but these conversations are going. Hey, ryan, obviously stocks are going to drop. One tweet from Elon Musk could crash some stocks. So I think what's happening is the anxiety level that people have. If they're really heavy in stock, you're seeing their diversification go more towards real estate or real assets or these type of packages.

Speaker 2: 35:08

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 35:09

And what I'm realizing is the amount of people that are just overall concerned. I'm concerned, I mean that's why I bought out here, not trying to say anything about California politics, but I'm just seeing that not get better. I'm seeing it's been getting worse for 40 years.

Speaker 2: 35:23

Right.

Speaker 1: 35:23

So it'd be naive of me to think that things are going to get better. So I'm just looking at it going okay. I have three kids. I want to leave something for them. I want to be around better people in my opinion. So I'm moving everything in my life to do that. And that's what you're seeing, too, is people are going okay. I think if things get worse which it will and I think it can and it will I think what you're going to see is more people are going to have to migrate for affordability too, especially when boomers the majority of boomers are W2X employees. They're going to have to migrate for healthcare, affordability and lifestyle way of life.

Speaker 2: 35:57

You can't control stocks. You can't control the volatility of stocks. You can't control your Roth IRA or your CD.

Speaker 2: 36:06

The biggest thing that I've done is I've always invested in something that I can control, and when I weighed the decision to invest $3 million in Paradigm, it was not based on. It was almost like a stock in a sense, because I didn't really consider myself investing in Paradigm Storage. I invested in Ryan, his vision and the Paradigm brand, but this was a huge investment that I made and I decided to put it in something that I'm literally on the front lines of. I'm the one that is selling the units and reporting to Ryan. I would be a fool not to invest in a project that is as rock solid as Paradigm Storage, in one of the strongest lay communities in the country, one of the most recession-resistant asset classes and probably the only CEO, founder, chairman all of the above that is as involved as Ryan I've never seen. Think about it. Just don't even think about it. Just jump in when you have this opportunity that I don't know if you'll ever see again in Lake Havasu or anywhere else in the country.

Speaker 1: 37:16

This is a perfect segue into closing this out here. But even to talk on it, you didn't make a $3 million investment right out the gate. You kind of trickled it in and obviously you're on the front lines because you're selling these units, so you're seeing the demand you're feeling and tasting it?

Speaker 1: 37:30

Yeah, but you're feeling smelling and tasting it. We try to provide that level of updates, too to our investors. We also invite all of our investors to come on site. I meet them a handful of times a month but at the same time, you know you're seeing the decisions that are being made, you're watching the demand and you're going hey, ryan, I have more money, let me keep giving you some more cash and look how fast we're now building because of that. So you know, at the same time, that's very common too for investors. They'll come in and say let me dip the toe in the water and build a relationship with you. See you perform and we'll do it again.

Speaker 2: 37:59

Don't give that money to a stockbroker. Put it in real estate. It is go back a. This is truly again I've said it a couple of times but the biggest hedge against inflation. The volatility is low and when you look at cash on cash, I don't know of anyone else that offers better returns than you do.

Speaker 1: 38:17

This product and asset class definitely provides the best. But what helps is the fact that the margins are so big From our acquisition, design and then building, then an exit and timeline. Look how fast we're building the gym.

Speaker 2: 38:30

And that's important for you guys. Ryan is headstrong and aggressive and I so admire that. We've also said no to a lot of projects and I think that's important. There's strategy. You've been methodical when I've said, hey, let's look at this, let's look at this. These projects like Paradigm and Barn Caves again, for an investor that's thinking about it, I couldn't think of anything more safe.

Speaker 1: 38:55

Well, man, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much, man. It's an honor to have you on my podcast. You're one of my closest friends. You got my back, buddy, and I really appreciate it. How long did we go back?

Speaker 2: 39:11

nine years.

Speaker 1: 39:12

We started off by looking at a new construction RV garage home that were at the time like $380,000. I'm so mad that I sold that asset. Everyone goes, ryan. Have you made bad investments? Well, I've sold assets. I probably should now.

Speaker 2: 39:19

Yeah, and it was something where we kept in touch and Ryan's always spoke very highly of me and me of him, and we kept in touch. And Paradigm came across your desk and that's how it started.

Speaker 1: 39:32

What would that house sell for now? Just curious.

Speaker 2: 39:35

I probably shouldn't tell you.

Speaker 1: 39:37

Tell me, anyway, let me wear it.

Speaker 2: 39:38

Probably $700,000.

Speaker 1: 39:40

See, that was the same thing that what I just mentioned, right, $700,000. It's like when you buy your first pad, whether it's in here or your first home, what have you? Keep it? Rent it out, cash flow it. I mean, what could I get for rent on that?

Speaker 2: 39:59

Well that's, I can't afford to sell anything because the taxes are so extreme. So when you think again to be able to buy, you know, the investment property that you just bought, the tax incentive that you're going to get for that is insane. That you just bought the tax incentive that you're going to get for that is insane. The storage units you know, ultimately to invest in a town that number one is increasing in value, increasing in population, water supply, completely in check. I mean, things are only going to continue going.

Speaker 1: 40:22

I agree, I really agree. So right on brother, I appreciate you coming Thank you very much.

Speaker 2: 40:26

Thanks guys All right.

Speaker 1: 40:27

So, eric, where can you know my followers, my listeners? You know, find you out.

Speaker 2: 40:31

Yeah, Uh, at Eric Adelia is the handle for Instagram. Uh, our team is at the Havasu life. Um, our expansion cities are at the river life.

Speaker 1: 40:40

So and if you're watching my social media, I.