From Homeless to Hotels and a $120 Million Sarasota Build with Michael Ealy

Steven Weinstock: 0:01 Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Wealth Clock podcast with Steven Weinstock. I've been investing in real estate for over 20 years, started off with single family homes. Now I'm buying multifamily properties and I recently launched my own real estate investment fund. This podcast is brought to you by my company, WE Capital and the Goethals Capital Fund, where we buy properties in cash. We lock in deep discounts. We eliminate the mortgage risk in year one, and we refinance later in order to scale all without asking investors for more capital. This show is not about me, it's about operators, the founders, and closers who are building real results in real time. Today I'm joined by Michael Ealy, CEO of Nassau Investments. Founder of the Big Deal Masterclass, Michael has completed over $400 million in real estate deals. He owns thousands of apartment units and hotels, and is also an educator, an author, and an international speaker. He's on a mission to teach others how to secure big deals, even without starting capital, and how to scale through smart partnerships and strategic value add improvements. Michael, thank you so much for coming on the show. Hey, thanks so much for having me. Oh, my pleasure. Okay. I know we had some scheduling conflicts earlier, but I'm happy to have you on. Mike Ealy: 1:36 Thank you very much. Yeah, life was easy. Life was easy, man. Steven Weinstock: 1:39 Michael, tell me a little about yourself. What are you up to these days? Mike Ealy: 1:45 Yeah, so what you shared you shared some of the things that we've done, the 400 million thousand of units, but the balance sheet really doesn't give the story. It wasn't always like that. I lost everything. And I wish I could say it was during a great recession and it wasn't. It was right during 9/11 and I lost everything and became homeless and I was couch surfing and ended up moving back home with my mom and dad and they painted my room pink. I guess they didn't expect me to move back home and I had to start over. And from there they went from paying my bills to, I paid their bills till I paid their house off. Oh, wow. It was the resurrection again. And it was quite a journey. They always say there's a vision between every person's vision and victory, there's a valley. And so that point I learned a lesson of life and transformation with wealth. And from there, man, I came back and now I'd owned, I owned four hotels. I just sold two. I'm doing $120 million development in Sarasota inclusive hotel, condos, and parking garage. Oh, wow. So that's what we got going on. Steven Weinstock: 2:59 Just to back up, you mentioned nine 11. Were you here in New York at the time? Mike Ealy: 3:04 No, I was not, actually, my wife was. Oh, wow. She was working at American Express actually one of the towers. And she didn't go to work that day, so she was my girlfriend at that time. Steven Weinstock: 3:15 Wow. Wow. Yeah. I'm recording here in Brooklyn, New York. I'm born and raised here, so I do remember that day pretty well. I was young, I was an adult, but I was young and definitely had quite an impact on me. Where were you during 9/11? Mike Ealy: 3:30 Man, I'll never forget. I pulled in that morning to my car wash. I owned a car wash and all my workers wasn't doing nothing. I come in, what are you doing? They was like, Mike, you look at tv, a plane just crashed into one of the towers. Wow. And it was like, man, it was an accident. And then another one came and it was like, oh, that's not an accident. Yeah. And I'll never forget, man, literally the kind of two things happened right before that. We had the Cincinnati race riots. So the City of Cincinnati shut down for about a month or two, and then that was like in April of 2001. And then five, six months later you had nine 11 and the whole world shut down and that's when I went under. Wow. So I remember that vividly. Steven Weinstock: 4:24 So in 2001, you mentioned you owned a car wash. Were you in the real estate business at the time? Mike Ealy: 4:31 That's how I got started using those same strategies. I started off my first deal was a two family. Literally. I went from a duplex to a millionaire. Duplex to broke in a millionaire. But I start off with a two family owner, finance. I got the person to finance $70,000. I brought $1,000 to the table. He financed it, my down payment for 2000. Within 30 days, I got the tenant to move on the top floor. They paid me 500. I moved somebody in with me. They call that house hack. And I got a roommate. They paid 200. My mortgage was 700 and I was living rent free. And that was the beginning. And then I went to two, four families. So I went from living free to no car payment with my two, four families I bought. Then I got another two family that paid my, all my insurance. So like you couldn't tell me nothing. Like I thought I was balling at that time, man. Yeah, we spent big money and I was only making 1600 on the job. Steven Weinstock: 5:33 Were the second deals the four family and the other four units, was that also done with creative financing? Mike Ealy: 5:39 Kind of somewhat. I used, so it all started, and I don't have his book with me, but you may remember him, the great Robert Allen. He's still around and he's actually my coach and partner. And I happened to pick his book up. I went to the library. I was so excited about making money and at the time, junk bonds was the deal. And I never forget, I went to the bookshelf at the library and I pulled it off and it said $50,000 was the minimum investment. So I put that book right back on shelf and I walked down and I saw, Robert Allen No money down, and I learned all these different techniques of using your 401k line of credit cards you name it. I utilized that. And so I didn't have the down payment to buy those two, four families, but I knew I would at closing because at closing there's this thing of proration of taxes and proration of rents. And so I needed three or 4,000. So I went to my realtor and said, Hey man, I got credit. I don't have cash, but I'm telling you I can get this deal done and I can get you paid. I need to borrow your commission in advance. I'm gonna pay you back at closing plus interest. Wow. And that's exactly what happened. Yeah. I closed it and I think I collected like six, $7,000. I gave him 35. I think I borrowed 3000 for a day, and I gave him back 3,500. And that's how I got in those two, four families. And literally those changed my life. Steven Weinstock: 7:13 Wow. Yeah. Creative financing has definitely been one of my best friends. Early on when I first started, and I've said this on plenty of my podcasts before but I always ask about creative financing because I like how you brought it up. My first deal I bought was a single family home. It was $32,000. This is back in 2001. Mike Ealy: 7:33 Yeah. When you say those numbers, man, people are like, what are you talking about? Steven Weinstock: 7:35 And just so you know I got a mortgage for 90% LTV. Yeah. Yeah. Back then, things were a little easier. If you remember when it came to mortgages and I put down 10% and closing costs and it was about five or $6,000 out of pocket. And my goal was really to buy just one. And after two or three months, the numbers really started clicking. I'm paying down debt, I'm paying down my mortgage. Values are rising tenant is paying everything. Things were great. And after two, three months I started buying, I'm very familiar with Robert Allen and Carlton Sheets and yes, all these guys who had great infomercials on TV back in the day. And I didn't have the money to buy the books, but I used to watch those infomercials literally left and right. And if you remember, they were like 45 minute commercials. Yeah. And they would, I guess they would produce two or three different types or versions. I felt like I really got a huge education just from watching that. And the only way I was able to buy and scale was from creative financing, whether it was yes, a hundred percent, seller seconds sometimes the seller first, and, I've actually used seller financing on some of my larger multifamilies as well. So I still Mike Ealy: 8:50 use these same strategies to the day. It doesn't matter if it's a two family or 500 unit, I'm still looking for the prorations of rent. I'm still looking for getting the credit back for repairs. I'm still looking for the seller to hold some paper as a second mortgage. Like it's never going away. Steven Weinstock: 9:12 When I put, when I look at property, one of my first questions I ask whether it's the broker or the person bringing me the deal, how long does the seller own the property? Because if he owns it a long time, it means he's got equity and he could play ball and he'd be creative and strategic. And he mentioned prorations. I remember plenty of times where my closing would get scheduled and based on the time of the month, I would try to schedule it for the sixth or the seventh of the month this way the rents were already collected, but then I would get it prorated for the month. At the closing I would be banking on the security deposits. Mike Ealy: 9:50 100%. Steven Weinstock: 9:51 Yeah, definitely. Definitely brings back memories and creative financing is great and definitely helped me out and I'm still using that. Let me dive in a little. You mentioned you're from Cincinnati. Are you still in Cincinnati? Mike Ealy: 10:05 Yeah, Cincinnati's home. But I am trying to make Florida my home. It just, the sunshine, the beaches and the real estate. I just love it out there. Steven Weinstock: 10:14 Yeah, you and everybody here in the northeast wants to go down to Florida and make it their home, make it their business center make it their corporate office for tax purposes. Mike Ealy: 10:25 Yeah, that's right. But Miami I can't, I don't know if I can live in Miami. That Miami's too sexy, man. I like, every time I go in there, I fall in love with Miami and I get lost. So I think I just need to visit Miami. Steven Weinstock: 10:38 How'd you get into multifamily? So you're dealing with one to fours. I assume a lot of people start out with one to fours separate asset class. A little easier to digest smaller numbers, a lot more lending products out there to buy them. How'd you get into, the five plus and larger? Mike Ealy: 10:56 Yeah, so really it started for me with the Multifamilies 'cause simply I was trying to live free and have my bills taken care of. That's really it. And once I got two properties, no, about three properties, I was like, why stop? And then I think after I got to about 20 units, the car wash and everything fell apart. But then we started getting opportunities. That was really it. I ended up, they always say even the dogs have to eat from the crumbs of the table. And I was at the table, brother. I was eating the crumbs. I ended up getting with one of the largest affordable housing litech groups, which is low income housing tax credits. And they had a lot of properties they managed in DNF neighborhoods, which now completely transformed gentrification if they want to say that. And they gave me some opportunities. It's Mike, you like managing properties. You wanna get a multifamily? I was like, yeah. It was like, look, I got this 22 unit you can take. And it was like, just take it over. I was like, what do you mean? Like just managing. If you like it, buy it. And then I'm gonna buy it back from you in a couple of years. And I was kinda one, the beginning of me getting my first 20, that was a 28 unit, then they ended up, they liked what I did 'cause people were having problems managing that. I was just so creative. I did what they called Gorilla marketing back then, social media wasn't really that big or the internet, right? We were still using craigslist, right? That was your main thing where I marketed for tenants. But where I was marketing to, they didn't have internet really. So I would go and put little tear offs at all the different locations in that neighborhood. And I was creative. I would go to agencies to lease the building. 'cause I was like, man, nobody's gonna live in this D plus. And I'm saying plus as a give me. But I was like, nobody wants these. I was buying in the pocket and I was like, how I'm gonna get these rented 'cause I don't wanna deal with those type of tenants. And I found out a person, actually, I don't even wanna say that, but she said, Mike, the easiest way is just go rent the agencies. And that was the beginning of me being creative. I would find a property, I'll find a 10 unit that actually this group sold me. And then I would go to an agency and they'll lease my whole building. They would pay me my first month's rent and deposit, and they will handle all the maintenance. So I was really doing triple net leases on buildings. Steven Weinstock: 13:33 Triple net leases on class D plus. All right. It is it is pretty amazing. A lot of people stay away from D because it's very management intensive. Mike Ealy: 13:42 Oh, man, D stands for dangerous. F stands you effed up. All right. And the reason I got into it, just watching individual, older gentleman, he just took me around. I don't even know why, but I will say his properties were in the slums. They were like, I wouldn't want that. Like these people were living foul, right? But he was making money. Like he owned these properties free and clear in the hood, and they were paying him three or $400 and he had multiple tenants he was collected from. And it was like, it didn't matter. Somebody always gonna live there. I didn't care what it was, they were always gonna live there and he made money. I was like maybe I should tap into that market. And, but I got into properties that were doing well, but I, honestly, in the real reason I got into multifamily really was a lot of praying and meditation. Visualization. I want to give credit to God for that because, I just went through a lot of hard times and once I quit, 'cause I was in love with money, I'm gonna just be real with it. I was like, let me get this money. And once I changed that aspect and went into prayer and meditation and studied, I studied everything, any religion, you name it, I studied it. And it was then when I connected with God and universe and frequency and light and tuning in and then everything started coming to me. It was just like, this is where you go. And I would just follow it. And there's the multifamilies, man. Steven Weinstock: 15:20 How'd you make that first move outside of Cincinnati or outside of the area where you're living and were you able to manage day to day on the ground? Where was that location? Mike Ealy: 15:31 That was a great question, man. 'cause I was terrified to move outta the city and do deals. But the thing that did that was the great recession and when I went broke, I realized that you can make a lot of money buying mortgage notes. And I bought a lot of non-performing notes that I bought all over. I bought a lot in Cleveland. I think I bought one in Florida. I bought a few in Kentucky and I went to look at it one time and that was it. And I was just collecting the check. That's it. I collected the check monthly, like I'll never forget my first one. The guy was in debt with PNC, I think it was provident bank at the time, but it was PNC. He owed like 120,000. The rates changed on him and he was like, I can't afford it. And I was like, what can you afford? Lemme tell you this though. I bought that note for pennies on the dollar. I bought that note for $18,000. He owed 128,000. Steven Weinstock: 16:31 Wow. Mike Ealy: 16:33 I said, I got him on the phone. I said, what can you afford? He was like, man, I was paying $1,200 a month, and then when it jumped up to 1300, I couldn't do it anymore. I said what can you do? He said, man, I'm really comfortable at, 1150. I said, 1150. I said, yeah. I said, cool. Your new mortgage payment is a thousand a month and locked in. I made 40, 50,000. Like I kept that for years. I still got a note now. I bought for $9,000. He owned 80,000. I did the same conversation. Matter of fact, when I bought the note, I lived in Cincinnati. I said, where do you like to go? He is man, after work I like to go to this bar. I met him at his favorite bar. I sat down with him. I'd said the same thing, how much can you afford? Man, it jumped up to 1100. I said, what can you do? He said, man, a thousand would be good. I said, great. Your new mortgage is 8 75. And that's what I collect to this day. Steven Weinstock: 17:31 Were you buying these, I guess pre foreclosure, right? Mike Ealy: 17:34 Not after I was buying. They, one was in, yeah, I would say one was in pre foreclosure. But I, back then, when the recession came, so many big hedge funds were buying pools of notes. They was letting us cherry pick. So they was letting these small guys just, Hey, man I can do that. That's my part of town. And that's what got me start moving outside. Now. I did, now I'm telling you about all the good ones. I did pick up two bad ones in Cleveland, but it wasn't even worth, like I made so much money off those other ones. It was like, all right, if I only paid like $3,000 for 'em, I tried to give it to her and she kept filing bankruptcy. Steven Weinstock: 18:15 I was also involved in the notes business for a while. Not necessarily non-performing notes, but I would do a lot of second mortgages. And at first I used to go down to the county clerk's office just before there was online. Yeah. And I would look through all the records and I would look for anything that didn't say Bank of America or, that's right. I would look for, John Smith. That's right. And I would reach out. And I would basically ask them if they were looking to sell it. A lot of times these second position notes were like with family members. No, not my family. They were, helping out a relative or whatever it was. Mike Ealy: 18:54 That's right. That's right. That's right. Steven Weinstock: 18:55 And they were willing to sell it sometimes, 60, 70 cents on a dollar. And they were happy to sell it 'cause they would get money up front instead of waiting, five years for it. And I was buying small ones. I was buying, 10, $12,000 deals. I would get them a little cheaper. And they were performing and they, the lender, so to speak cashed out. And here I was buying notes, and that was the first time I was really raising money. I would offer a small percent to my investor. I would keep a point or two on top and I would actually keep the spread. So if I was buying it for $8,500 and it was a $10,000 note, I would get that on the payoff. Mike Ealy: 19:32 That's right. Steven Weinstock: 19:33 After a while, I actually met somebody they called him the hot tub king, and what he did was he would finance people's hot tubs. These hot tubs cost about $3,500. He was doing it out in Seattle or whatever it was. And he hooked up with a hot tub seller or a hot tub manufacturer. And for them to sell it easier, they offered financing to their customers, but instead of a regular consumer finance, they did it as a second lien on the property. And let's say it was a $3,000 tub, so he was able to sell it. The manufacturer was able to sell it, all day long, so to speak. And he would come to the lender and the investor would offer, let's say $2,800 for it. And now he owned this $3,000 note and, eight, nine, 12%, whatever it was paid off over a few year period. Steven Weinstock: 20:41 I took that idea and I hooked up with swimming pool manufacturer or swimming pool installer. And basically did the same thing and I financed quite a few swimming pools for people. For people in New Jersey. So these swimming pools were anywhere from $8,000 up to let's say 30, $40,000. And at the same time, the swimming pool would add value to the asset itself. And I always made sure there was protective equity, and if this was a $30,000 pool, I would offer, or I would pay, let's say, $26,000 straight to the pool installer. Here I had a note for, 30,000 with let's say a 10% interest rate. And really did that for a long time. And after managing class D property or class C property for a while, I really wanted to stay away from the management business. So I started doing that. Eventually I pivoted back towards ownership. Mike Ealy: 21:34 Now when you say that. How did you transition when, because now like a lot of people are not tying it to the property. That was amazing. Like I think I would've did those type of deals as well. Steven Weinstock: 21:50 Yeah. Most of the time if you look at you wanna finance air conditioners or whatever it is, right? And most, for the most part, they are selling it to a bank, like a Citibank or Citi Cards. And they're really just a consumer finance, so there's no lean, there's no asset. That's right. They're basing on your credit, but at the same time they're sometimes, the interest rate would be 20% or whatever a credit card is. So here I was structuring it literally as a second lien some counties as like a UCC lien. Like a contractor's lien. And we set it up as a second mortgage. It was just a second on top of a first. Their credit was important, but it wasn't as important. I cared more about their equity that they had. Mike Ealy: 22:37 100%. Steven Weinstock: 23:26 When did you start Nassau Investments? Were you using this vehicle the entire time or is this something you started later? Mike Ealy: 23:36 So I was, I started investing in real estate in 1999. But it wasn't until I start, I started Nassau Investment in 2006. 2001, literally I started buying in 1999. By 2001, I started going broke, and then it was 2003, I started making my moves back. I became a realtor. And what happened, I became a realtor and I ended up saying, look, I'm ready to get back in the game, but I didn't have any money. So I ended up reaching out to some of my college buddies look, man, I can make you some money. And so I wouldn't say I did it for free, but I didn't take any equity. I did it as a realtor fee. I did it as construction management, and then I sold the property, and then I played the property management. So I wore all the hats. And so I would find these guys deals where we were finding stuff for 35,000. We put five grand into it. I'll pull a lease option land contract where they paying like $900 and they were buying it back for 65. So like I did two deals like that, maybe three deals back to back where they were successful. And, I made, I walked away with about 5,000 from the deal. They walked away with 30,000, 20, 30,000 the deal. I was like, I'm ready. And then I just started growing from there. Steven Weinstock: 30:53 Tell me about big deal masterclass. I know you're teaching people how to raise money find off market deals deal with no money down investing. Which of these topics do people really gravitate towards the most? Mike Ealy: 31:07 It's funny, either they want to know how to analyze the deal or how to raise capital. Those are top two things. And for me, analyzing is pretty simple. Now, you can make it as complex as you want, one thing I teach people is look, you don't have to spend three days analyzing a deal, right? You don't have to even visit the property. You visit the property after you do some numbers, and I just use a basic 50 50 expense ratio. 50% goes to expenses, 50% goes to NOI. That's a very conservative approach. I know. Now I know with inflation, I'm starting to push more to 60 40. And the main thing you need to know is the number of units, the average rent, and what's the cap rate. You got those three numbers, now you're cooking with hot grease, man, like you cooking on the stove there. And from that, like literally in a minute or less, I tell somebody if it's a deal or not, or I use and I, for those who don't know, like where you get to cap rate, you can go to CoStar, you can go to cap rate index.com. If you don't know where to get the rents you can go to renter meter. I think they do the first couple for free. And you just find out what the rents are in those area and you put your numbers together. And that was one of the big things. And once they learned that, it was like, oh snap, they just flying through deals because, naturally in this market maybe not this market, but when it was a seller's market or buyer's market, they overcharging. And I just simply say Hey, my numbers don't match. Help me out. Instead of calling, you're not the brightest on the bunch here. They simply say, Hey, maybe I'm missing something. Can you help me out? How do you come up with these numbers? And then my one thing for raising capital is for people that would beginning. 'cause it was like, I don't even know where to start. I was like, just start with this one question. Do you know anybody that would've liked to make, 10 to 14% on their money? That's it. And they're gonna say one of three things. No. So be go and quite frankly, I challenge you to go for no two, they say no again, but I do have a friend that has money. Let me introduce you or, yes, that's it. Steven Weinstock: 33:37 Yeah, raising capital is probably the hardest these days that it's been in quite some time. At this point in my career I have the deals I have the network, I have the office. But raising capital is probably the toughest part of my day. Steven Weinstock: 35:07 How'd you get into hotels? Mike Ealy: 35:13 That was I failed my way into hotels. I'll never forget there was an opportunity to respond to RPO. The University of Cincinnati wanted to develop this land right in front of the university. And so the university was gonna be my partner. We were gonna do a $80 million project. And I went to a guy I knew that owned a hotel and he owned about a million square feet of commercial space. And he almost owned all of it, free and clear, like he's owned it that long. And I said, Hey man, they want to develop right here in uptown in Coralville, the prime spot. We should do some office buildings. And he was like, no, we're gonna build a hotel and apartment building. And I was like, okay. And that was the beginning of it. And, fortunately it was a good learning lesson. Unfortunately, we didn't move forward with the project. A lot of moving parts, and I don't know if I'm grateful of it or not, but if I would've came out of the ground, I would've went right into COVID soon as I'd open. Steven Weinstock: 36:18 I own a small retail strip right outside of Staten Island, but it's in New Jersey. This tenant was a check cashing store and he owned like four or five check cashing stores. And I remember when I purchased the property, I was speaking to him and he said, this is really on autopilot. This is a turnkey business. I'm really in the motel business, like in the Carolinas. And that's what I'm busy with. He calls me up one day and he says, I gotta break my lease. I'm leaving everything in the store. There's a big safe there, it's empty. But there's bulletproof glass all over. It's all ready to be re-rented again, but I'm just losing my shirt over here with some of these hotels. And that's when my focus is. And he introduced me to hotels, because I used to talk to him a lot. He scared me a little with hotels. The hotels you're investing in, do these have a corporate flag? Mike Ealy: 37:08 Yeah. So I had, I got a Marriott courtyard I own now in Columbus, Ohio. I own a home, two suites in El Reno, Oklahoma. I just sold my Staybridge in fishers, Indiana, and I just sold my Hampton Inn in Scottsburg, Indiana. Lemme tell you something, hotels are sexy. Hotels kick out tons of cash. Hotels give you major write-offs. They're better than having a self-directed IRA. If you buy a hotel right, you're not gonna pay any federal taxes. I got multiple people that I know when I first started, they were making 5 million a year. Like they wrote that on a taxes. They paid no federal taxes because you got so much depreciation, so much write offs with the hotels. And especially these last couple years, we have bonus depreciation, which now Trump brought back even more so that's a big win. But hotels, if it's a lot of moving parts and if you didn't learn from the ground up or you have very savvy people that you trust and you can work together. That's real. You'll get eaten alive. 'cause there's some really nice sharks in the hotel game, but once you learn the business, they can't tell you nothing. Steven Weinstock: 39:46 When you have a hotel with a corporate flag you're putting a Marriott label or a Hilton label or some of their other sub labels that they have, like you mentioned, a courtyard, a residence in or something like that. You are relying on hilton.com to bring in guests? Mike Ealy: 40:02 To some extent. Yeah. When you buy a brand you're what you're really doing is buying their reservation system, right? When you buy a franchise, you're buying a system you're buying brand loyalty. And so typically for your hotel revenue, typically that brand's going to bring in 47 to 50% of your revenue. So just them alone should keep you alive and naturally there's location. But then the other part is your sales. You got your good sales person, they call 'em a sales director. You get a good sales director and a good GM. I know some people don't understand it, but your hotel can be sold out almost every night. Steven Weinstock: 40:48 When you say a sales director, you're talking about companies that need to get 30 rooms for their construction crew? Mike Ealy: 40:59 100%. You got one sales director that their job is to bring, put heads in beds and they're talking to the civil center. They're going out to businesses, they're responding to RFPs. They're responding to items that they send from the brand. Lemme tell you something I had to go through and I was a novice, but I ended up going through one management company and probably four GMs and four salespeople till I got the right one. I share that for one, don't be afraid to fire somebody. That's number one. Don't let them, 'cause if not, they're gonna take you down. I like my boat to float in water, right? And I'll walk on water if I can't, but I'd like to float. And when we did that, man, like my hotel's been like 80% occupied. When we got the right sales team at El Reno, I went from, 'cause I was fussing about it, we were at 70%. I went to 97%. We ended up landing like two contracts and at a 86 room hotel, they booked 50. At my Hampton Inn, I was 98% occupied for 10 months. We landed two contracts and they basically booked up. Steven Weinstock: 43:00 Before we go you mentioned earlier that you're working on a deal I saw this online as well. You're working on some deal in Sarasota, am I correct? Mike Ealy: 43:08 That's right. Steven Weinstock: 43:08 I think it was called Sota. SOTA. Mike Ealy: 43:11 Yes, the sota. Steven Weinstock: 43:12 Tell me about that. Tell my audience about that. Mike Ealy: 43:14 Yeah, that's my first large development. Really, I just, I fell in love with it. I went down to Florida and, the hotel group I was working with, they showed me two properties. It was down in Florida, outside of Tampa. But it was just too much paperwork to deal with and no guarantees that if we put money down, we would still get the property. I was like, that's too risky. So then I found this in Sarasota. It's Prime downtown. I saw Sarasota growing. Like to me, this is a project I don't care what we spend on it, it's gonna be like an NFL team. Like it's gonna be America's hotel. That's how I felt about it. And ever since I've started like the value just shot up. When I first looked at the deal, condos were selling for six to $700 a square foot. I'm selling the condos now for a thousand a square foot. By the time I come outta ground, it'd be 12 to 13. The hotel was at 197 to 215. I just got an updated feasibility study. They saying when I come outta ground, we'll be at 300 to 400 a night. And I was just, I saw it. The only thing I didn't see was COVID and inflation. I did not see that. Literally that's what slowed the project down. But finally we getting this out of the ground. It's this beautiful project 120 key hotel. Actually, I'm gonna end up having two floors of condo hotel. And what that is literally I'm selling some of the hotel rooms and some of the suites off to individual owners. So just think of as an Airbnb. But in the hotel, we'll manage it. They get to stay there. And then I'm selling some other condos. So what's so beautiful about that, I'll sell those condo hotels and the other condos. This project is $130 million project. I'll end up selling 120 hundred million dollars worth of condos. And then I'm only gonna have debt, probably about 15 million left on the deal. And the hotel will be worth 60 million when we're done. Steven Weinstock: 55:19 Michael, it was great talking to you. I really appreciate it. Tell our audience how they could reach you. Mike Ealy: 55:32 Yeah, you can find me anywhere on social media, whether it's TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Mike Ealy, Michael Ealy nassauinvest.com. You can find me there. I'm easy to find. That's EALY. And if you see the other Mike, that's my cousin. He's an actor. But I'm the real Mike Ealy. Steven Weinstock: 55:53 You know something, when I saw your name I've heard of that actor. I've seen him before. Mike Ealy: 55:59 Oh yeah, he's done plenty of shows. Steve Harvey movie, Real Man. Steven Weinstock: 56:50 You also have a book I saw. What's the title? Mike Ealy: 56:53 Yeah, I got a book. We call it From Broke to Millions. That was my first book where I actually teach people how to buy real estate. I talk about my struggles and how I overcame them, and then I show people in the book, I teach 'em how to do it. Go to frombroketomillions.com. And if you subscribe, get the book, and if not, reach out to my page. Say, Mike, get me a book. I may send you an audio. Just for watching this podcast, I'll send you my audio book. Steven Weinstock: 57:29 Alright, Michael, thank you very much for joining. This is another episode of the Wealth Clock podcast with Steven Weinstock. Make sure to share it, like it, subscribe, whatever it takes to spread our show so more people can watch and enjoy it. Michael, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Mike Ealy: 57:46 Thank you, brother. Appreciate it.