39. An Economic Fireside Chat with a Serial Entrepreneur, Sam Wilson

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Today we welcome Sam Wilson, Founder of Bricken Investment Group. As a lifelong entrepreneur, Sam has led a variety of real estate related ventures throughout his career. He has been involved in ground up construction, self storage, parking, retail, multi-family apartments, RV parks, single family homes, and even a laundromat! He likes to focus on the ground up side of construction rather than renovations and so he doesn't invest in properties that require a "heavy lift".

If you love economics, you are in for a treat, we start the interview by discussing economics and his favorite economist Murray N. Rothbard (check out the hat)! Considering how inflation will impact your commercial real estate in the future is something we should all be doing at this time.

Current Investments
As for his current investments, he likes to focus on the Carolinas, although he has invested near home in West Tennessee in the past. He likes to point out that although Tennessee has no income tax, there is a 6% Franchise Tax that entrepreneurs have to deal with.

I particularly enjoyed hearing Sam describe his laundromat investment. The laundry business produces a lot of cash flow (high cap rate) and is currently highly fragmented and cash-based. This makes it difficult for a large player like a hedge fund to come in and scoop up a large market share. However, those factors make laundromats the perfect business for a smaller player like an individual to come in and purchase laundromats. Listen to the whole interview to hear how he was able to purchase his laundromat at essentially the price of the working equipment and enjoy amazing cash flow to the tune of about 1/3 of his initial investment each year!

Sam's ultimate goal is to be a limited partner (LP) so that he can enjoy life to its fullest! He is an LP in self-storage, RV parks and multifamily. He is still active as a general partner (GP) in multfamily and ground up construction.

Despite being a self-described introvert, he hosts the highly-successful "How to Scale Commercial Real Estate" daily podcast. If you haven't checked out his podcast yet, you are in for a treat! You can check it out here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-scale-commercial-real-estate/id1539979234

How to Contact Sam Wilson
[email protected]

Great Resources from Sam Wilson at http://www.brickeninvestmentgroup.com
* Learn how to vet a deal in under 10 - minutes
* Questions to ask the sponsor team before investing in a real estate syndication
* And much more!

Sam's Biography
Sam is an active investor in self storage,
parking, retail, multi-family apartments,
RV parks and single family homes. He
hosts the How to Scale Commercial Real
Estate Podcast and participated in over
30mm in acquisitions in 2021.
Sam holds his bachelor’s degree in
business finance from the University of
Memphis and holds his real estate license
in Tennessee. In addition to his years of
real estate experience, he also has a
diverse background in business ownership,
building construction, and management