Property Investing Insights

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (38.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Email | RSS | More

Cody Wiseman  – Wiseman Capital

Listen as Cody explains his philosophies on real estate investing and how you can apply them to your real estate investments as well.

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Wiseman Capital: Local Real Estate Partner
03:30 Real Estate Investment Journey
09:09 Getting Started in Real Estate
10:55 Multifamily Real Estate Networking Event
13:39 “Learning Multifamily & Passive Investing”
18:21 Delegating While Staying Hands-On
22:16 “Journey to Affordable Housing”
23:54 Personal Standards in Property Development
26:37 Community Impact and Urban Transformation
31:08 “Hidden Costs of Rent Explained”
35:00 Property Agreement Protects Long-Term Value
38:49 “Delays, Costs, and Waivers”
40:58 “Proving Creative, Affordable Housing”
45:56 Hardee’s Worker Brings Joy
46:48 “Emily Sets Event’s Tone”
50:19 “Authenticity in Business Partnerships”
52:49 Navigating Challenges with Confidence

Podcast Transcription:

Cody Wiseman [00:00:00]:
Average rents in Madison, you know, 15, 1600 bucks. Our average rent is a little over a thousand bucks.

James [00:00:04]:
Wow.

Cody Wiseman [00:00:05]:
Brand new. I market it as affordable luxury. So people are like, what, what is that? How do you do? Well, let me tell you, we have all of the amenities that you’re going to have with a brand new class a ground up deal in downtown Madison. Pool, pool, fitness co working areas, bike parking and storage, dog park, dog wash.

James [00:00:30]:
You have found authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Today we’re welcoming slash, preparing to learn from Cody Wiseman of Wiseman Capital Group. So Cody, how’s it going today?

Cody Wiseman [00:00:45]:
Excellent. Thank you so much James for having me. I’m excited to be here. It’s a beautiful studio you have and so close to home.

James [00:00:51]:
Indeed. So nice. Tell me a story. What is Wiseman Capital Group?

Cody Wiseman [00:00:55]:
Yeah, so Wiseman Capital, I founded this company back in 2022 and so we’re a real estate investing firm really focused in the greater Madison area, multifamily specific. So at the end of the day what it is is we partner with everyday people to invest in real estate together. So that’s, that’s the beautiful thing about it is a lot of times people are, hey, how do I invest in this building that I see getting put up in Madison or these apartment buildings? They think it’s just a big investment firm or something like that. But Wiseman Capital is partnering just with everyday people, a lot of local Madison people, and we run the project for them. They get investor updates. I put my own money in too, so they’re investing right alongside of me.

James [00:01:37]:
All right, so you’re talking the huge apartment buildings, the 5500 unit, whatever stuff.

Cody Wiseman [00:01:42]:
Yeah, maybe not quite 5500 units, but yeah. So we’ve got, we just opened up 129 units over on the east side of Madison. So I mean some, some consider that large medium, you know, it kind of depends. But yeah, the larger buildings where we’ve got an on site property manager, we actually manage our properties now in house, meaning we’ve got our own property manager that works for Wiseman Property Management, which is a subsidiary of Wiseman Capital.

James [00:02:09]:
Sure.

Cody Wiseman [00:02:10]:
So it gives us a little bit better control and a better resident experience when we’re controlling the full asset and experience from, I like to say from lead to lease. Right. You know, if you come in and you want to inquire about living here, we want to give that great experience, fast response right away, give that showing get people living there if they’ve got a work order or just have any questions. The property is clean because we’re taking care of it every single day.

James [00:02:34]:
All right. How do you get into the real estate game like that?

Cody Wiseman [00:02:37]:
Oh my gosh. So there’s a lot of different ways. I was going to say, well, we’ll focus on my story. Right? I mean, what, what we’re here for. It’s the one, you know, it’s the one that I know best. And a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of, A lot of tears with it. No, I’m just kidding.

James [00:02:52]:
It sounds like the way to go.

Cody Wiseman [00:02:53]:
No, no joke, right? I mean we’re, that’s what we’re, we’re here to talk about is being authentic and real and in the behind the scenes and what it actually takes to build something. Because a lot of times you see as we’ve, you know, we’ve seen overnight success.

James [00:03:06]:
Yes.

Cody Wiseman [00:03:07]:
That overnight success. There’s a lot more to it. The 10 years before that pop of success. So I started about four and a half years ago. My background is software sales. Growing up I was. Did some construction. My dad’s a home builder, does some land development up in the Twin Cities.

Cody Wiseman [00:03:26]:
So my summer jobs were building houses.

James [00:03:29]:
All right.

Cody Wiseman [00:03:30]:
So, you know, I understood construction but from a single family home aspect of it. And I always wanted to get into real estate in some capacity. I don’t have the skills to be the broker, you know, connecting deals and stuff like that. But I do have a sales background and I just knew that wasn’t going to be the route I wanted to go. I wanted to actually own and develop and, you know, fix up properties and stuff like that. So about four and a half years ago, I bought my first three unit building in downtown Madison, 938 East Dayton. A lot of sweat equity put into that one. So I bought that with my own money and did essentially a value add or a brrrrs, another name for it, where you’re gonna fix it up and then refinance and kind of roll some money into the next deal.

Cody Wiseman [00:04:13]:
But so that was a complete, almost, almost a complete gut job. We were down, you know, ripping that place apart. When I bought it, it was a vacant building. Then 3 unit. I wanted it in there.

James [00:04:25]:
Oh, it went down there.

Cody Wiseman [00:04:26]:
Yeah. So that was part of the agreement. It was owner occupied. One person was moving out and there was a hoarder who lived upstairs for 19 years. And it was, I don’t know how she was living there. It was that that bad. And so that was part of the agreement is I want this building empty. So left the closing table went, started just ripping this place apart, cleaning it up.

Cody Wiseman [00:04:46]:
And spent a couple months while I was working full time as a software sales rep working from home. So I’d go down there from like 5 to 8am and then go down there in the evenings until like 10, 11 o’ clock and most weekends for a couple of months, fixing this place up. Wow. And then, you know, I was. I was learning on the job. Right. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t know anybody who owned multifamily.

James [00:05:09]:
So you got into that game specifically saying, hey, I can make money in real estate, but knowing nothing, really.

Cody Wiseman [00:05:16]:
You know, I read. I read some books.

James [00:05:17]:
Okay.

Cody Wiseman [00:05:18]:
You know, I did the old. Listen to some podcasts, you know, good stuff like this, where you’re able to learn from people who have actually done it. I’m like, oh, okay, I think I can do this. But, yeah, there was nobody that I knew that owned rental properties when I got that thing under contract. And I was scared. I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’ll figure it out.

James [00:05:38]:
So how did you know? Tell me about pricing, because pricing, we’re talking four or five years ago was even more insane than it is now.

Cody Wiseman [00:05:44]:
Yeah. So looking back, it’s amazing what I got this thing for. I bought it for $255,000. What? Yep. Put about.

James [00:05:52]:
That must have been a mess.

Cody Wiseman [00:05:54]:
Yeah, it was a mess. And I put about. What was that, 46,000 of my own cash. Then into that to fix it, and then leased it up and went to get it reappraised because I wanted to pull some money out, get it reappraised, and then refinance it. That was kind of the game plan. Well, the appraisal came in $100,000 less than what it appraised for before I bought it.

James [00:06:15]:
$100,000 less.

Cody Wiseman [00:06:17]:
And I said, I think you guys messed up this math. And. And so I gambled again. And I said, I’m gonna pay for another appraisal. And it came out much further ahead. So I don’t know if that appraiser didn’t quite know the market and didn’t. Anyway, so I was able to turn that into a success then. And then rolled that into a four unit, which I then bought with my dad because he was looking to buy some stuff then too.

Cody Wiseman [00:06:40]:
And I’m like, I’m gonna keep buying stuff. So we partnered on another small deal, four Units. And then shortly after that I had an off market because let me back up. So then I was starting to kind of build my network and connect with people who are, you know, doing multifamily and investing and brokers and stuff like that. Because the broker I bought it from really kind of specialized more in single family and he had sold some single family homes that I’ve, you know, built in the past and lived in and then sold. And so Tony Tucci, fantastic guy and I lot of people know Tony Tucci and so I’m like, tony, this is what I want to do. And so like he found this deal off market, that three unit that I got and then he was connected to even the four unit. And through that relationship with Tony, he introduced me to Ryan Schmitz with the Hub Realty who really focuses in larger multifamily.

Cody Wiseman [00:07:32]:
And so I just started kind of building these connections and all of a sudden I get a phone call from another broker saying I’ve got a 12 unit in Sun Prairie right up the road from here off market. Are you interested? I’m like, yeah. So I’d look at it and I’m like, okay. Gosh, you know, it’s kind of scary writing an offer on that. I didn’t know where I was going to get all the money and stuff.

James [00:07:50]:
Yeah, how do you pull the cash?

Cody Wiseman [00:07:52]:
Yeah, so like, you know, because I just bought a four unit now. So I was at seven units at that point self managing myself too. Meaning again, I’m the property manager, I’m, you know, collecting the rents, I’m doing the maintenance requests and stuff like that. Friday night, oh, there’s water coming through my ceiling. Well, 11 o’. Clock, I have to head down there and figure it out. Leaky dishwasher on the second floor. Who knew? Tracking water is a whole.

Cody Wiseman [00:08:17]:
If we could do a sit on that, it’s a pain. But anyways, so I had that 12 unit then under, under contract and I was talking to my, well now my wife, girlfriend at the time and then now fiance. We’ve accomplished a lot in the last four years. But anyways, so she had a colleague that just bought a duplex and had a turnover and was wondering, hey, how do I lease this up? And so she connected us and we had a conversation and ended up grabbing a drink and helped him kind of, you know, get the software in place to lease that up. And I told him about this 12 unit that I have and he’s like, wow, can I invest with you? I’m like, well, I Wasn’t really looking for an investor, but maybe. Let’s talk about this. So long story short, we partnered on that, on the 12 unit here in Sun Prairie. And I’m like, oh my gosh.

Cody Wiseman [00:09:09]:
People I’m, you know, just recently meeting are wanting to invest. And that’s where I kind of saw the, the issue of a lot of people want to invest in real estate, but they don’t know where to start. They don’t have the time, they don’t have the expertise. They want somebody who’s gonna, that’s, that’s their life. Almost like, hey, they know the market, they’ve got the connections, they’ve got the experience, they can pull the right team together and they’re all in on it. So that’s kind of where I took a step back and okay, I was at 19 units and at that time and I’m like, okay, I want to go a little bit larger and I’m really loving this. I wanted to get out of the software world because I just didn’t like sitting in front of the computer all the time and I wanted to be more hands on and I just really fell in love with multifamily real estate. So, so then what I did is I started searching, okay, who can I learn more of? This larger syndication is also what it’s called, where you’re pooling your money together and buying these buildings.

Cody Wiseman [00:10:06]:
And so did a lot of research and hired a couple or joined some boot camps, masterminds, and brought on a couple senior advisors who have literally done 10,000 units and have been multifamily syndicator of the year with apartment association and stuff like that. So like I went and found the best of the best to learn from. And then I also started the Madison Multifamily Meetup, which is now the largest investor meetup specific to multifamily in the greater Midwest. I mean we get people from South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois. We’ve had people fly in from, well, also Michigan and then like the east coast people have come from. I’ve had speakers come in from there. Wow. So that’s about a quarterly event.

Cody Wiseman [00:10:48]:
The next one’s next Tuesday. The. I don’t know when this airs. The. Tuesday the 18th. And it’s a free event.

James [00:10:55]:
Okay.

Cody Wiseman [00:10:55]:
We get 2, 300 investors all together. You know, there’s, there’s brokers there, there’s lenders there, there’s first time investors who are, you know, have maybe woke up that morning and was like, I want to learn about multifamily real Estate. So they’re there. There’s people who have been doing this for 30 plus years have developed some of the biggest, most beautiful buildings you’ve seen in Madison. Are you, you know, people coming to that as well? Yeah. So it’s a really cool event. And so the first few events, everybody kept coming up and they’re like, why are you not charging for this? Like, there’s a lot of value here. And I’m like, the goal is not to charge people who are coming to that.

Cody Wiseman [00:11:32]:
And then I was thankful, you know, grateful to have great sponsors to help us do this. Cause we now host it at the Madison Club.

James [00:11:39]:
Oh, wow.

Cody Wiseman [00:11:41]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, you know, it’s that premier event that people don’t like to miss. Right. I mean, if somebody’s out of town, like, I always get emails like, I’m out of town, like, I don’t want to miss this, like. But there’s people who have been to every single one since the beginning. Back in November 2022 is when I started this.

James [00:11:56]:
Wow.

Cody Wiseman [00:11:57]:
And I think we’re coming up, what, like on our 10th, 9th or 10th event. So it’s really, really exciting for anybody who’s interested in anywhere in the multifamily, whether if you’re, you know, a vendor and you know, you’re doing landscaping or you’re wanting to be a passive investor or buy your first duplex or buy your first 45th property, you know, it’s all sorts of people. There is a full day event. Nope. So it’s from 5:30 to about 8:30. And it’s really focused on networking. Right. Making connections and connecting others with success.

Cody Wiseman [00:12:32]:
In multifamily real estate, there’s about a 20 to 25 minute presentation on different topics. This time we have a wealth advisor coming to talk about tax and wealth, how they kind of marry up in real estate and some different levers that you can kind of pull to maximize your profits even more. So that’ll be the presentation. We’ve had lenders come and speak. We’ve had people teaching how you can invest with a self directed IRA. So taking your old 401k or IRA and investing without penalty. So I’ve done a case study in Sandberg Studios where we converted a Hotel into 129 apartments. Market data and stuff like that.

Cody Wiseman [00:13:11]:
But really the night is about connecting. And you know, we. It’s a free ticket. You get some cocktails, hors d’, oeuvres, and it’s just a really exciting event that everybody’s welcome to Join.

James [00:13:23]:
That is cool.

Cody Wiseman [00:13:24]:
Just RSVP because we do fill up, so.

James [00:13:26]:
Sure. That’s incredible.

Cody Wiseman [00:13:27]:
Yeah.

James [00:13:28]:
And that’s essentially just for your network as well as. I mean, as far as what you gain from it.

Cody Wiseman [00:13:34]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

James [00:13:35]:
I imagine there’s some people that you meet or deals that you.

Cody Wiseman [00:13:39]:
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, there’s multiple reasons that I do it right. Is number one, back when I started, I had nowhere to go. You know, I checked out a few other meetups that were more focused on, like, kind of smaller multifamily or fix and flips, and I wanted something a little bit different. And so trying to give these people that want to learn about larger multifamily deals and passive investing and, you know, buying that themselves and stuff like that. So there’s that education and free kind of that premier event that people can go to and learn, and then obviously, you know, working with passive investors and partnering with them through Wiseman Capital. Yeah.

Cody Wiseman [00:14:17]:
A handful of those typically invest in deals. So I’ve met investors there. I know other people who have made great connections, bought their first deal through there. I mean, it’s like a transaction seems to happen, like, at every event for somebody. And I love seeing people after the fact or run into them at a coffee shop or a different event, and they’re like, oh, my gosh, I met with this person. I met them at your event. And then we. We met and we did this deal together.

Cody Wiseman [00:14:42]:
So, like, stuff’s happening there.

James [00:14:44]:
That’s cool.

Cody Wiseman [00:14:45]:
So that. That’s probably the most exciting piece is like, just, like, seeing the effect on how this one event can connect this one person do this, and then, hey, they’re buying their first deal or they’re helping somebody, you know, grow as a. As a professional or just as a person in general. And so that’s probably the. The most exciting piece about that is just seeing other people help and grow.

James [00:15:12]:
Yeah, I get that. I guess it’s similar. Not exactly, but similar to the reason that I do this.

Cody Wiseman [00:15:17]:
Yeah, yeah.

James [00:15:17]:
Like, there’s no money changing hands or anything like that. But I learned something from.

Cody Wiseman [00:15:21]:
Oh, yeah.

James [00:15:22]:
Guest.

Cody Wiseman [00:15:22]:
Yep.

James [00:15:23]:
So I have. People are just like, why are you still doing that?

Cody Wiseman [00:15:25]:
Yeah.

James [00:15:26]:
Oh, my gosh.

Cody Wiseman [00:15:27]:
Yeah.

James [00:15:27]:
You know how long it would take me to learn.

Cody Wiseman [00:15:29]:
Oh, my gosh.

James [00:15:30]:
All the knowledge that I’ve gained over the course of all these guests and stuff like that. It’s kind of selfish for me to keep going.

Cody Wiseman [00:15:36]:
Yeah, exactly. Right. I mean, there’s a selfish piece in there too. Right. Because, like, which Is okay, right? I mean, because you’re sharing. You’re sharing and doing great, great, great things with that, too. Right. I mean, there’s got to be some sort of drive there and purpose underlying on why you’re doing it.

Cody Wiseman [00:15:54]:
And that is purely. My goal is just to connect with other others, with success in multifamily real estate.

James [00:16:01]:
So that’s incredible.

Cody Wiseman [00:16:02]:
And I get to learn, too. So, like, why not do it? You know, I mean, I’m not. These aren’t going to be a monthly event because it’s a lot of work to put these events together and stuff like that. I mean, when are you getting, you know, 2, 300. Well, that’s a lot of people. 2, 300 people. Yeah. Yeah, we’ll see you all there.

Cody Wiseman [00:16:18]:
Yeah, we need a few stadiums to fill it up. Yep. Everybody wants to come to the Madison multifamily meetup and learn from Cody, I tell you. But, yeah, it’s a lot of work. A lot of. Lot of, you know, we give raffle prizes and stuff. Like, you know, we make it fun and interactive. And every time I do an event survey, too, just to see what do people want to be learning.

Cody Wiseman [00:16:41]:
Right. I mean, I like to keep a pulse on what’s going on in the room and what do people need, and I take feedback. And that’s how we went from a smaller room to Madison Club to the largest atrium room that they have, you know, like, so I do listen to that feedback as well. You know, it’s not just. It’s not just a Cody show where I’m doing whatever I want to do. You know, if people aren’t getting value, then why am I doing it?

James [00:17:03]:
Right.

Cody Wiseman [00:17:03]:
So fair. Yeah.

James [00:17:04]:
Is it. Are you the guy that’s putting it on?

Cody Wiseman [00:17:06]:
Yeah. Yeah.

James [00:17:07]:
You have no help.

Cody Wiseman [00:17:08]:
So this time I have some. Well, hold on, let’s. Let’s back up. So I do all the planning. I do all that stuff. Day of event or the event. You’ll see Emily, my wife, okay, She’ll. She’ll check people in.

Cody Wiseman [00:17:20]:
She’s scanning the eventbrite codes, giving the drink tickets away. So she’s got. She’s got the best job, but she sets that tone like her energy is contagious. And like, she just. She loves it. People love coming to see her. And so she’s building relationships, too. She’s not in real estate or anything like that, but she loves.

Cody Wiseman [00:17:36]:
Loves these events as well, so. And then now we’ve recruited another good friend of ours who helps her because she’s like, there’s a lot of people checking in and stuff like that and giving drink tickets and you know, raffle tickets and stuff like that too. And then I now as I have continued to grow a few months ago Tony Tucci helped me again too. I met with him a few months ago and he’s like, dude, you seem a little stressed out. I said I am. I’m like, I’m just, I’m over overworking myself right now. And he’s like, you’ve got to check out like I hired an assistant and here’s who you should talk to. So I now have have an executive assistant, Annalee who kind of helped coordinate this too.

Cody Wiseman [00:18:13]:
So thanks to Annalee we got this set up. So she’s helping a lot with. This is her first event that she’s going to be a part of.

James [00:18:20]:
All right.

Cody Wiseman [00:18:21]:
So she’s doing a lot of stuff and I was telling my wife yesterday, I said Annalee’s already got all the stuff like ready to go for the printer so I just have to go pick it up. She put this together. She’s, you know, she ran the Facebook ad for us. So yes, while I’m the creator and stuff like that behind, I’ve now kind of like working on handing more of it off to the team and stuff like that. So. But from yeah, a lot of the stuff I’m a very hands on person I found through you know, creating Wiseman capital in the business and stuff like that. And now that I’m the person who I’ve got to be able to do it if I’m going to ask somebody else to do it fair and so that it’s not a control freak or a micromanager type of a person. It’s just like if I’m going to ask somebody to do this, I got to know I can do this.

Cody Wiseman [00:19:11]:
And then that person, they can do a much better job at me. But I just have to have the underlying like earn my stripes. Hey, I’ve been out doing maintenance calls at 11 o’ clock on a Friday night when I’d much rather be in bed or something like that. I’ve done Sunday afternoon showings to show people apartments because we’re working on a lease up, making those sacrifices so the team can see that in the work that you’re putting in and then they want to work even harder too. And I’m very fortunate to even with the property manager we just hired last month because we brought property management in house. She’s a rock star. Oh yeah. I was like take off on Saturday Like, I will go do tours.

Cody Wiseman [00:19:49]:
I’m around this Saturday, you know, so, like, she’s been going six, seven days a week since she started. I’m like, slow down. Like, but, like, those, like, I’m so grateful to be able to, like, have people like that around me. My wife is a harder worker than I am. Like, I mean, she’s, like, I said she was out of town this whole weekend, got back yesterday, and she’s already back to work. But it was a work trip that she was on, not like a vacation. And, you know, my Grandpa’s in his 90s and still goes out to the farm every day. So I have it in my blood in, like, the people I’m around.

Cody Wiseman [00:20:17]:
It’s just like, you want to go above and beyond and work in a very, I guess, passionate way and believe in what you’re doing.

James [00:20:25]:
Right. Fair. Fair. Tell me. Let’s talk about real estate deals.

Cody Wiseman [00:20:29]:
Yeah. Yep.

James [00:20:29]:
When you are looking for a property.

Cody Wiseman [00:20:31]:
Yeah.

James [00:20:31]:
What are you looking for?

Cody Wiseman [00:20:32]:
The messiest thing you can. You know, years ago, I would have probably not answered that way. But what I, what I found is the, the, I guess the scariest deals sometimes are they seem to be the best deals because, you know, it takes some creativity, especially in this market. Right. I mean, with higher interest rates now they’re coming down a little bit, but where pricing went and, you know, like, it was. It’s a very tough market, especially to, like, develop from ground up and stuff like that with pricing and just everything in general. So it takes some creativity, like looking at a rundown Super 8 with 200 police calls a year and saying, I think I can create this into something better and turn this into 129 apartments. Right.

James [00:21:15]:
All right.

Cody Wiseman [00:21:16]:
So most people wouldn’t want to touch that deal because it’s, oh, it seems.

James [00:21:21]:
Like a mess, a headache.

Cody Wiseman [00:21:22]:
It was an absolute mess. Literal mess. We took that down to the studs, essentially, because there was mold in there. There was, you know, water leaking through the roof. I mean, just holes cut through some of the studs because they just combined some room. Like, the fact that it was operating is pretty alarming. And especially after you see how, you know, like when the inspector comes at, you know, and like, oh, you got to do it. It’s like, okay, that’s great, but you’re dinging us for this one little thing when you let it operate.

Cody Wiseman [00:21:50]:
And people literally were living here in a thousand times worse condition. So it’s kind of entertaining that way, too.

James [00:21:56]:
But sure, that’s in the city of Madison.

Cody Wiseman [00:21:59]:
That is in the city of Madison. Just right on the other side of. Yeah, right on the border.

James [00:22:05]:
Perkins and all that.

Cody Wiseman [00:22:05]:
Yeah, up past Perkins and stuff like that. So Sandberg Studios on, on Hayes Road is that one. And, and that, that has been the most fun project.

James [00:22:15]:
Fun.

Cody Wiseman [00:22:16]:
Well, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Only because I say that because knowing what it’s taken to get to the point to where it’s at, you got to enjoy the journey. Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of stressful sleepless nights. A lot of stress. Like, yeah, we could do a whole, whole, just whole episode just on, you know, all the, all the learning lessons on that and in growth. But it’s been the most fun, the most challenging, the most, I’m just the most proud of that as well in seeing what we’ve created and hearing people coming to tour and then now live there and get their feedback on how much they just love that place because it’s naturally occurring affordable housing. Okay, so average rents in Madison, you know, 15, 1600 bucks.

Cody Wiseman [00:23:09]:
Our average rent is a little over a thousand bucks.

James [00:23:11]:
Oh, wow.

Cody Wiseman [00:23:12]:
Brand new. So I market it as affordable luxury. So people are like, what is that? Like, how do you do? Well, let me tell you, we have all of the amenities that you’re gonna have with a brand new class a ground up deal in downtown Madison.

James [00:23:26]:
Talking pool, exercise.

Cody Wiseman [00:23:27]:
We’ve got pool, fitness, co working areas, bike parking and storage, dog park, dog wash. Yeah. So like we’ve. And then again, these are all brand new units with brand new kitchens. You’ve got the, you’ve got the stove, the microwave. Because you hear a hotel, you know, this used to be a hotel. Well, what do you have for a kitchen? A lot of times what you’ll see is when people convert a hotel, they’ll throw like a burner top in there and that’s it.

James [00:23:52]:
And kind of, hey, here’s your toaster.

Cody Wiseman [00:23:54]:
Exactly. And I said, I’m not going to do something that way because when I, when I buy or now develop properties and I always kind of, you know, do the test. Would I live there? Would I let my niece live there? Would I let my, you know, a family friend live there? You know, so it’s got to be a good safe location. It’s got to have the finishes that I like. I mean, there’s a lot of our personality, my wife and I like in this building. And I literally mean that the walls in the, or the paint color in the units, same color we have in our house.

James [00:24:26]:
Oh, nice.

Cody Wiseman [00:24:28]:
So like, it’s not just the apartment white. Like, oh, we’re just gonna go as cheap as possible. Right. Like, we want people to be proud of where they live. And on top of that, we’re doing it for an extremely affordable rate. And what’s beautiful about naturally occurring, there’s zero tax dollars involved, zero government subsidy. Like taxpayers are paying $0 for this. It’s all funded by private money.

Cody Wiseman [00:24:51]:
So through Wiseman Capital and our investing partners, there’s no government involvement on this. So to create an affordable product without, you know, without doing, you know, having a TIF or you know, other government programs funding it is something that I’m probably most proud of in addition to cleaning up that area. Because like I said, I mean, there’s no secret. I mean, you can pull police records. I mean, there are a couple hundred police calls a year to this place. When it was a hotel to a hotel to a hotel.

James [00:25:24]:
You must just live under a rock.

Cody Wiseman [00:25:25]:
I don’t know.

James [00:25:26]:
What would you be called about? Don’t people just see it?

Cody Wiseman [00:25:32]:
There’s a lot of things at roadside motels.

James [00:25:35]:
I could see you, right?

Cody Wiseman [00:25:37]:
Yeah, but I’m like 200.

James [00:25:38]:
That’s almost one a day.

Cody Wiseman [00:25:40]:
Yeah, I mean, it was bad. So then, you know, it’s kind of amazing as you take a step back. And I had the. I was again thankful and grateful and I was very humbled too. Like when University of Wisconsin Madison MBA program reached out and said, can you give us a tour of this? We want to. They literally brought a charter bus full of MBA students to learn from me on how we did this project. Because it’s so unique coming from a guy who wasn’t smart enough for a four year degree. I was kind of laughing that day.

Cody Wiseman [00:26:12]:
I’m like, I remember my. I remember I was told I wasn’t smart enough for college back in the day. I told you that my guidance counselor, you know, that’s a whole nother session. We can go into it. Yeah. But you know, and it’s funny, back then I took offense to it, but now I’m like, you know, I didn’t for what I was doing, but that’s. Anyways, education is important. Don’t get me wrong.

Cody Wiseman [00:26:32]:
I’m again more of a hands on learner. Right. That’s fair. Yeah. That’s why I’m doing it.

James [00:26:36]:
Just proved it right there.

Cody Wiseman [00:26:37]:
Exactly. So, you know, when, when they’re coming through, one of the, one of the students is like, have you ever calculated how much you’re saving the city? Just in police, you know, not having the police here every other day. Oh, I’m like, no, but that’s a great, you know, like, so when you. When you start looking at the even larger impact, not just, hey, this is a much more beautiful property too, for the neighborhood and community that people are proud of. I mean, I still get emails from neighbors and stuff like that. Like, they’re so thankful for what we did there, and they’re so impressed with the work that we’ve done in the units. I had a tacos and tours sneak peek event. So right before we opened the end of May, I invited neighbors and investors and city leaders and stuff like that to come through to see, to show them what we’ve done.

Cody Wiseman [00:27:23]:
And everybody was extremely impressed. I mean, we’ve got like a backsplash in the kitchen, nice bright white cabinets up, you know, as tall as we can go and all new showers and flooring, new windows, new doors, new roof, new siding. So, like, the whole outside appearance is completely different. And it’s just made such an impact on that area, especially with University of University UW Medical center opening up. So we’re getting a lot of travel, nurses and residents and stuff like that there too. We’re also five minutes from Madison College. So back when I was kind of talking about location when I’m looking for deals, that’s one of the key things. And that’s why a lot of people have been choosing to live at Sandberg Studios, because they love the location.

Cody Wiseman [00:28:09]:
We get that feedback all the time. We were like, this is like central to everything. You know, they come into Sun Prairie taking the back roads when they’re going to Costco or Starbucks or Grace Coffee or something like that. They’re like, this is so cool. I don’t even have to get on the highway.

James [00:28:22]:
Yeah, what is it, five, ten minutes, maybe?

Cody Wiseman [00:28:24]:
Yeah, it’s about seven minutes or so to Costco. I now volunteer to go to Costco sometimes because I’m like, it’s kind of like country driving. I was like, yeah, honey, I can. I’ll go to Costco. Give me the list. Which. It sounds crazy to even admit that.

James [00:28:35]:
But I used to live back there, so I understand that.

Cody Wiseman [00:28:38]:
Yeah. Yeah, it’s beautiful back there. And so I’ve really, really fallen in love with, you know, kind of the. The east side of Madison, Sun Prairie area. That’s. That’s where my properties are. Sun Prairie and east side of Madison.

James [00:28:49]:
Nice.

Cody Wiseman [00:28:50]:
You’re central to everything, right? I mean, you’re close to Milwaukee. You’re easy drive to Chicago. Minneapolis, you’re close to the airport. You’ve got everything you need. You’ve got Costco, you’ve got Woodman’s. You’ve got literally everything. So it’s a great, great area. And like I said, just.

Cody Wiseman [00:29:09]:
Just taking Sandberg Studios and turning into what we have is just takes a lot of teamwork, too. Right. So, I mean, I know, you know, I’m here to talk a little bit about Wiseman Capital experience, but, like, it takes a team. Right? Architect, broker, finding the deal off market. That was Ryan Schmitz, who I mentioned earlier that Tony Tucci introduced me to. So, like, the effect of just networking and helping other people grow and stuff like that with expecting nothing in return has just been phenomenal. And that’s the other reason, too. Back to the meetup is helping people do the same.

Cody Wiseman [00:29:43]:
Because I know how introductions and connections and being around good people has helped get me to where I’m at, and I want to help other people do that, and I want to keep growing as well.

James [00:29:52]:
Fair.

Cody Wiseman [00:29:54]:
So that’s kind of the beautiful thing about that.

James [00:29:56]:
Yeah. So when you looked at this place specifically, you get this deal off market. Deal was the initial intention to turn it into affordable housing.

Cody Wiseman [00:30:07]:
So, I mean, not necessarily affordable. Right. I mean, I guess that wasn’t in my mind. It was, how can we turn this into apartments?

James [00:30:13]:
Gotcha.

Cody Wiseman [00:30:15]:
I’m not a hotel owner. I don’t want to be running a whole different game. It’s a whole different beast. Right? Yeah. It’s not what I want to be doing. Like, that doesn’t excite me. People always need a place to live. They need a good place to live.

Cody Wiseman [00:30:27]:
Right. And I can help provide that. So that’s what. What was the focus is, can we make the numbers work? Right. Because again, you know, this was about two and a half, three years ago, or no, 20, 20, 23, around February, March, when we started looking, when this opportunity came to me through Ryan and there was another guy, Greg Shymansky, who’s another developer here, and multifamily guy. And he had looked at it a while ago and he’s like, you know, he asked Ryan if he knows anybody that would want to do a project over here. And so Ryan called me and so I went and met with Greg and Ryan and like, oh, I might be onto something here. Let me look, let me, let me dig into these numbers.

Cody Wiseman [00:31:08]:
I’m like, what am I missing? Like, this seems like we can make this work with the construction costs that are going to have to go into it for what we’re going to buy the building for, for paying the city of Madison park impact. You know, all those, all the stuff that goes behind the scenes that at the end of the day just kind of drive up rent prices not to, you know, like we, we can do so many different one hour sessions here. You know, how to put a deal together. I’m trying to stay focused, you know, but there’s so much behind because it’s usually you know, the property managers and owners that are, you know, headlines of oh, they’re driving all these rent costs up. But like there’s a lot that goes into that that we try to.

James [00:31:47]:
It’s just income and expense.

Cody Wiseman [00:31:48]:
Right, exactly. Lenders, you know, you have to have so much debt service coverage on it so you have to have so much income to the debt that so like you have no choice sometimes. But anyways, back to that. So I, you know, digging into the numbers, I’m like oh okay, let’s, let’s try to do this. And you know, took a look at the building. We got it under contract. It was under contract for. Well it fell out of contract one time as well within a year.

Cody Wiseman [00:32:14]:
So the getting it to the finish just to start construction was about a year process. Whoa. It was.

James [00:32:21]:
That means your money’s essentially tied up waiting to get.

Cody Wiseman [00:32:24]:
I’ve got. Yeah. So at that point I have quite a, you know, multiple six figures tied up of my own money. I’m still writing checks to the, the architect, you know, because like you don’t just like wait on this. We’re. Yeah.

James [00:32:37]:
Flip a switch.

Cody Wiseman [00:32:38]:
And here some credit to the city of Madison too. You know, I mean a lot of times, you know, sometimes cities, you know, get, get the, the bad lighting of. Oh they make this stuff very challenging. They were very supportive of the project.

James [00:32:50]:
Okay. I hope so.

Cody Wiseman [00:32:51]:
Yeah, exactly. You know, sometimes, you know that it doesn’t always go that way. Right. So so kind of the process. Let’s, let’s quickly walk through this. So we got it under contract and then now that’s really like when your timeline starts. Right. Because you have so much time to do due diligence before all your money goes non refundable with, with the sale.

Cody Wiseman [00:33:10]:
Right. So and the seller was great. He let us out to the property whenever we wanted to go. Contractors were out there walking through units, seeing you know, okay, these damaged units. Okay, well you’re going to have to like fully gut this one. This one we might be do this. We’ve got to now you know, do some new plumbing. Here’s where we can put this.

Cody Wiseman [00:33:25]:
So, like, I mean, we’re out there dozens of times throughout a year. So, like, this guy, like, literally, you’d give him a text and he’d be like, yeah, you can stop by anytime. Like, the. The front desk lady can get you into the units that you need. Like, dream seller in this situation.

James [00:33:38]:
So at this point, is it still operating as a hotel?

Cody Wiseman [00:33:40]:
Still operating as a hotel? Yep. Yes.

James [00:33:44]:
So hasn’t been condemned or anything, some of.

Cody Wiseman [00:33:47]:
Yeah, no. By the city? No, it was not. Okay. There were. There were people staying there, living there. It’s funny to go back and read the reviews of.

James [00:33:56]:
Oh, wow. Okay.

Cody Wiseman [00:33:58]:
You know, just. Yeah, it was really, really rough and dirty and stuff like that too, because it just. Anyways, so we have it under contract. We’re going through our due diligence and, you know, I mean, we came across a deed restriction that only allowed. Yeah. At this point, we’re trying to build 135 apartments. In the deed restriction from years ago, you can only build 36 there. Oh, so that was one hiccup that’s a little different.

Cody Wiseman [00:34:27]:
So about. Yeah, about what, 99 unit difference. The numbers don’t quite work out in that. So that’s one of the challenges that we ran into. So we’re trying to negotiate. Okay. How can we kind of get this approved so we can do the units that we need to.

James [00:34:44]:
Let me pause you for a second.

Cody Wiseman [00:34:44]:
Yes.

James [00:34:45]:
Deed restriction is on the city, county.

Cody Wiseman [00:34:47]:
Previous owner, another property owner adjacent to the property.

James [00:34:52]:
Got it. Okay.

Cody Wiseman [00:34:53]:
Yes. Had. Had some. Had. Had some control over. Over that. And they still. So we.

Cody Wiseman [00:35:00]:
We worked out. I mean, it took months to kind of go back and forth just so they could get what they want, so we could get, you know, like, what was doable without being illegal too. Because, like, some of the stuff that was proposed, it’s like, we can’t do, like, we can’t just say, no, you can’t do. You know, like, so at the end of the day, it protects the property even more, which makes me happy, because when we, you know, one day sell this property, I don’t want to put all this work into it. And then five years down the road or 10 years down the road when. When, you know, a new owner takes over, completely shifts business model and runs it into the ground. I don’t want to be driving BY that in 15 years and seeing it’s a dump.

James [00:35:36]:
Yeah, it’s back to where it was.

Cody Wiseman [00:35:37]:
So that. That is a one. You know, that’s the silver lining of the Steed restriction. That is, you know, it’s. It’s a good thing and it’s going to help keep that neighborhood even more elevated in making sure that the property’s upkept, which we’re going to do regardless. So it doesn’t really matter. We just needed the lender to sign off and make sure that it’s not going to spook a future lender or buyer as well.

James [00:35:58]:
Sure.

Cody Wiseman [00:36:00]:
And then the. Probably the most fun one was a. We had to separately meter every single unit. So the plan.

James [00:36:11]:
130 some units.

Cody Wiseman [00:36:12]:
Yep. So the plan was, this building is in great shape. The bones are great. Like, everything except, like, some of the drywall needed to be replaced and put a new roof on and problem solved. Like, it’s not. It’s not rocket science. I mean, all of this was exposed to it. You know, like, we could see the extra work that was gonna have to go into, you know, this building, which is, again, why you have the contractors go out there and make sure that they’re bidding it properly.

Cody Wiseman [00:36:38]:
But that’s another war story. Right. Recommend having a very good contract attorney because ours is putting us in a very good position there. Again, we could do another session here, too.

James [00:36:54]:
Sure.

Cody Wiseman [00:36:55]:
Right. All right, so we. Let’s see. This was about six months in, as we’re still working through this deed restriction. I think at that point already the deal had fallen out of contract because without getting the amount of units that we’re able to do, I can’t execute on our business plan. And I didn’t need another couple hundred thousand dollars to go hard, you know, non refundable on this.

James [00:37:20]:
Yeah.

Cody Wiseman [00:37:21]:
For no reason. And so we were trying to get the seller to extend. Their attorney was out. And like, at midnight. So like 1159, we’re like, this contract is canceled. Next day we had it picked up. But, like, so there’s just so much behind the scenes that you don’t realize that goes into these deals. But then it was, you know, a little bit later, as.

Cody Wiseman [00:37:42]:
As we’re, you know, back under contract, we find out that MGE through the Public Service Commission, PSC requires that these dwellings need to be individually metered, meaning we need to put, you know, the breaker panel and switch gear and meter every freaking room.

James [00:38:00]:
Wow.

Cody Wiseman [00:38:01]:
And unit.

James [00:38:02]:
So instead of one panel, it’s.

Cody Wiseman [00:38:04]:
So. Yeah. Because. Yeah. So, yeah. This building was built in 88. It’s all up to code. The electrical is great for what we’re going to use it for, because, you know, back to the business.

Cody Wiseman [00:38:13]:
You know, the Idea was, let’s just keep rent super simple, right? We’re going to include everything for one cost, utilities and all that stuff. And then come to find out we’re not able to do that. We’ve got to now spend over a million bucks more is what this is going to cost, to put all this gear in to additional construction time, additional loan reserve, like, just because it’s another $300,000 for the equipment. Now you have to start adding this other. All this other stuff up. Yeah, time. And, you know, I mean, the lender doesn’t just, you know, give you this loan and say, okay, oh, you need another six months. Like, you don’t have to pay us anything.

Cody Wiseman [00:38:49]:
No, you have to be paying your, you know, like, you’ve got all these other expenses that you’re incurring at that time, too, for that construction. And then, so we tried to get a waiver on that. We said, you know, we put our case out to the state and said, this is going to cost this. It’s going to force us to drive rent up another, you know, $40 or so per unit. And now it’s going to be on the tenant to have to pay this, which just gets messy. And, you know, I mean, it’s pretty common, obviously, but, like, in this use case, we could have delivered this product almost 10 months sooner than we actually did because of. Because of this. Actually, probably even sooner because all this time we’re wasting going back and forth and I’m just burning dollars with attorneys, like, going head to head.

Cody Wiseman [00:39:41]:
I’m like. So finally I was like, okay, let’s just order the switchgear. We’ll keep trying to get her waiver, but switchgear was also out 13 months. So. Remember. Yeah, you remember Covid and all the, you know. Yeah, all of COVID excuse, as I like to call it. Because, I mean, the.

Cody Wiseman [00:40:01]:
Yeah, I mean, a lot of manufacturers and, you know, people in, you know, businesses in general took advantage of that and jacked up prices on everything just because they could. They could throw Covid in front of it again.

James [00:40:11]:
The media’s pushing it, so.

Cody Wiseman [00:40:14]:
Exactly. So it’s like, well, yeah, of course we can, you know, jack it up 55% and make them wait a year, pay this expedited fee. But we still can’t guarantee that it’s going to come. Like, it’s. It’s sad because what does it do? It drives up costs for the people that are going to be living there at the end of the day. I mean, it drives up cost, but, like, It. Who does it get passed on to? The people living there. You know, it’s just like you’re more, you know, when taxes go up or, you know, insurance.

Cody Wiseman [00:40:38]:
Insurance is another one. Oh, boy. But somebody has to be paying for that, right? And it can’t just always come out of the owner’s pocket because pretty soon you’re operating in the red and then you can’t maintain the building and then it really goes to where you don’t want it to. Right. Look at that. I saved myself. I didn’t even say it. I didn’t even swear.

James [00:40:56]:
In the end, it’s got to be profitable, otherwise what’s the point?

Cody Wiseman [00:40:58]:
Exactly. Right? So, you know, really what we’re kind of proving with this too is, listen, you can deliver something great, improve a community, give people great places to live, make some money along the way, and it’s affordable rent, you know, with no tax dollars involved, no government programs, no state program, like nothing. And that, that is that. That’s why we’ve had a lot of media attention on this property too. I mean, we’ve been front page of the state journal. We’ve been in like economic, like all these other magazines and stuff like that. Local news, which I’m again very grateful to for that opportunity. But again, proving that you can do some creative stuff.

Cody Wiseman [00:41:39]:
I’m not saying this is the end all be all. Like, you can’t do this. With every project there are, you know, there’s a time and a place for TIFF and these other programs. But like when you can get creative and do multi, you know, some. Some tiff, some other government programs and then, you know, naturally affordable housing. Naturally occurring affordable housing together, we all can kind of work together.

James [00:42:01]:
Yeah.

Cody Wiseman [00:42:01]:
I’m not saying one’s better than the other. No. But I am proud that I not taking tax dollars from our neighbors and programs to be able to deliver what we delivered.

James [00:42:10]:
Fair.

Cody Wiseman [00:42:12]:
So kind of got a little. Little sidetracked there. I go off on these tangents. Yeah, yeah. So anyways, like. Like I said, back to. Back to the sub meters. So we ended up doing that like I said.

Cody Wiseman [00:42:26]:
And then we did. Yep, yep, yep. And then February, so this last February, about. What was that? 75. Five, like two months or so before we were gonna open, somebody poured some liquid on a switch gear, so we had to do an insurance claim and that delayed the project 75 days because now the warranty’s void on the switchgear, all of it, the piece of the switch gear, but we can’t operate and we can’t do a switch over from MGE from the main house meter to make all these units live. So that was another hiccup.

James [00:43:05]:
Are we talking sabotage type thing or somebody spilled the coffee or. You don’t know.

Cody Wiseman [00:43:11]:
I don’t. The investigation could not fully figure it out. It was. I think somebody poured a bottle of urine down. I don’t know if I could say that about you. No. A worker sometimes, you know, in the middle of winter, they don’t want to go to the port a potty. And they will pee in a bottle and think they’re dumping it down a drain.

Cody Wiseman [00:43:34]:
However, this wasn’t a drain. It was a conduit that went right to the switch gear.

James [00:43:39]:
Oh, no.

Cody Wiseman [00:43:40]:
So it wasn’t just normal water damage, but even with that, I mean, the manufacturer was gonna avoid the warranty on it.

James [00:43:47]:
Yeah.

Cody Wiseman [00:43:48]:
We’re not gonna do this brand new multi million dollar renovation. And not like we had no choice.

James [00:43:56]:
Yeah.

Cody Wiseman [00:43:57]:
Because then again, there was a delay. Thank goodness it wasn’t a 13 month delay.

James [00:44:02]:
Right. Oh, man.

Cody Wiseman [00:44:04]:
Yeah. So that’s just part of the fun.

James [00:44:07]:
That’s the joy, like I said.

Cody Wiseman [00:44:09]:
I mean, it’s. Yeah. When you take a step back and you’re like, wow, that’s a lot.

James [00:44:14]:
It is interesting when you think about all the stuff that you went through and you’re like, remember that day? Remember that day? Like, no.

Cody Wiseman [00:44:21]:
Yeah. I don’t know.

James [00:44:22]:
I erased it. Because we have the success right now. Let’s just enjoy this. Passes. Pass onward.

Cody Wiseman [00:44:29]:
I was talking to. What was that a couple months ago? I think it was my wife’s sister. They were like, moving into a different house, and they had like an issue with something like getting ready for that house or like with the landlord on that one. They lived down in Tennessee. And I was talking to him, I was like, yeah, I got to do this. Kind of running down my list of fires I had to put out that day. And they’re like, oh, so you deal with this stuff like every day? I was like, yeah, I’m just kind of like. It’s just.

Cody Wiseman [00:44:57]:
Yeah. I mean, it’s just. You just deal with it. Right. I mean, some say you kind of get numb to it. I don’t know. But that’s just business in general. Right? I mean, nothing.

Cody Wiseman [00:45:06]:
I mean, no matter what business owner you have sitting here or W2 employee, it doesn’t have to be a business owner. Like, everybody has their challenges in stress, whether if it’s a W2 employee or a business owner or not. Right. And it’s just. You just have to keep pushing through no matter what. You know, if you’re the best salesperson or the best nurse or the best doctor or best business owner, CEO, like, there’s always going to be those types of challenges and fires that you’re putting out, but you might as well enjoy the journey and have some fun.

James [00:45:36]:
Constant. Constant. I would think even a burger flipper, right? Oh, that spatula is good. Yeah, that one’s bad. The ketchup bottle doesn’t work. Customers complain, and it’s just like, oh, that’s part of the job. That’s why they pay.

Cody Wiseman [00:45:47]:
Yeah, exactly. Yep. So. And, I mean, the biggest thing I love seeing worker, you know, people when they actually have passion for what they’re doing.

James [00:45:56]:
Fair.

Cody Wiseman [00:45:56]:
I’ve seen some really good burger flippers for, you know, like, people that just love their job at Hardee’s or something like that. Like, yeah, throw my wife and I under the bus. Even the Spanish throw my wife and I under the bus here. But, yeah, every time we go up north, not every time, but sometimes we stop for breakfast at this Hardee’s, and we, like, now kind of know or, like, recognize a lady, but she’s like, she’ll tell you about, like, her favorites. Like, we’re like that lady. So, like, sometimes it’s fun to just stop at that gas station with the Hardee’s on it, because that worker that’s there, right?

James [00:46:26]:
Like, fair.

Cody Wiseman [00:46:26]:
So, like, even. Even. Not just even that. Not. Not, like, in a bad way of talking down at that, but, like, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing. You could. You could be the best bus driver in the world. Like, if you’re passionate and you’re like.

Cody Wiseman [00:46:37]:
You’re, like, loving what you’re doing and you’re interacting with people, like, that can make somebody stay. Literally. Like, my wife and I still talk about the Hardee’s lady who’s like, she just loves her job, like, and it’s contagious.

James [00:46:47]:
Absolutely.

Cody Wiseman [00:46:48]:
And that’s, you know, back. What I was saying is, like, when people come in and they. To the meetup, for example, I think that’s also why it’s so successful as it is. Is Emily, my wife, when she’s greeting people, like, it sets the tone on what the event’s gonna be like, on what the day’s gonna be like in energy. Like, that goes a long ways. And I’m not saying I always have great energy. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, trust me, my stress does bleed through.

Cody Wiseman [00:47:12]:
And I’ve got a very, very strong support system around me that, you know, I always thank my wife and my dad.

James [00:47:19]:
Oh, very cool.

Cody Wiseman [00:47:20]:
Just because I vent a lot to them and then. Yeah. I mean, I’ve got a lot of people like that, you know, Ryan and my mom and brother. You know, there’s a lot of people in my corner, but those are the two main ones. Mainly because my dad understands construction and I’m like, this is what we ran in today. Like, am I crazy? Like, oh, no. Like, so that helped on a lot of change orders as well with the contract.

James [00:47:42]:
That’s fair. No, I understand that people that are passionate about their job or just enjoy it.

Cody Wiseman [00:47:46]:
Yeah.

James [00:47:47]:
I have. I’ve never understood people that are just hating their job.

Cody Wiseman [00:47:52]:
Yeah.

James [00:47:53]:
I don’t like from my point of view, that’s a perspective issue. Whatever you’re doing, you can get a perspective where just like, I’m gonna be the best. Whatever. The best coal miner.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:03]:
Yeah.

James [00:48:03]:
The best janitor, the best CEO, whatever it is that you do.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:06]:
Yeah.

James [00:48:06]:
Like get that perspective where you’re gonna be the best.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:09]:
Yep.

James [00:48:09]:
Don’t half ass anything. And it just. You enjoy it. You’re better at it.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:13]:
Yeah.

James [00:48:14]:
And you, you bleed that onto your co workers and stuff like that. Just as if you’re doing a crap job.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:18]:
Yeah.

James [00:48:19]:
You can bleed that onto your co workers, but then you just have a.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:22]:
Crappier life and then. And then it becomes such a culture issue at that company. It just goes so huge. It just, just echoes. Like, it just like air ripples.

James [00:48:32]:
I feel like people believe that they don’t have the choice. So they’re just like, this is what it is. Like, you totally have a choice on perspective.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:38]:
Absolutely, they do.

James [00:48:39]:
That’s the main choice that you have, I would argue. Right.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:42]:
Yeah.

James [00:48:43]:
Is perspective. And. Yeah.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:45]:
Yeah.

James [00:48:45]:
So why not have.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:46]:
And it’s something I’m always working on. Like, I don’t ever want to get up here in front of people or and say, like, I am perfect at this. Right. Like, I have my rough days too. Right. Like we’re all human. And that’s why I love the authentic piece of this. And I mean, you come to the meetup or something.

Cody Wiseman [00:48:59]:
You know, when I’m up there, like welcoming people like him, I think that’s one of the bigger things that people would say about me. And to sum me up in one word is usually probably authentic. I like to keep my voice. I don’t like. I send out. Every investor email update that I send starts off with, hey, like, like, like, hey, investors or whatever, you know, like, that’s how I talk. Like, hey, like I’m relatable and like, not everybody probably likes that. And that’s okay.

Cody Wiseman [00:49:25]:
Right? Like if. And that’s why I’ve been at, you know, like when I look at the deals we’ve done and stuff like that, I’ve been able to attract investors. I don’t go out and, you know, try to solicit, you know, people to invest with me. It’s like, hey, if you want to, or if you want to learn more about it, I’m happy to talk about it. Right. I’m happy to share. I’ve never. Yeah, it’s.

Cody Wiseman [00:49:43]:
It’s just being up there.

James [00:49:45]:
I’m just imagining someone being like, this guy started his email with, hey, out.

Cody Wiseman [00:49:48]:
Yep, delete, delete. You know what? You know what’s so funny is through one of the masterminds that I’m in, I remember somebody was, this was about two years ago, they were saying on how somebody didn’t invest with them because they got on a zoom call and had a hat on.

James [00:50:03]:
Come on.

Cody Wiseman [00:50:04]:
It wasn’t professional. That’s fine. Some people want, you know, suit and tie and like slicked back hair, which is totally fine. That’s not my style. That’s not. Because if I fake it up front, then eventually the real you is going to come out.

James [00:50:18]:
Yeah.

Cody Wiseman [00:50:19]:
So I’d rather have them up front know who I am and what it’s going to be like to partner with me and see the true authentic self and what I actually put in these deals and like, live and die by like, this is everything’s on the line for these deals that I do and people are going to see that. And if I’m trying to like, you know, wear a suit and tie or something like that and like try to fool these people up front. Eventually, you know, a year down the road, I’m gonna start my email with hey, on accident, because that’s just what I do or whatever. Like, and then they’re gonna be all upset about it. It’s like, I’d rather just be me.

James [00:50:51]:
Yeah.

Cody Wiseman [00:50:52]:
You don’t have to like it. That’s okay. Like not, not in an arrogant way or anything. No, that. But like, I respect your decision to not partner with me on it. Like, not ever. I’ve turned investors away too. Like, I’m like, I don’t think this is the right one for you.

Cody Wiseman [00:51:04]:
Like you’re looking for this or that. Like, I don’t think I’m. I don’t think this is a deal for you or I might not be the guy for you.

James [00:51:10]:
Right.

Cody Wiseman [00:51:10]:
I’ve referred them to other people. Like, it’s. I don’t know. There’s plenty of money to go around. There’s plenty. Like, there’s totally. You know, and I want to enjoy what I’m doing for the most part. You know, there’s obviously, again, stress, there’s challenges.

James [00:51:21]:
Right, Challenges. Don’t call them problems, exactly.

Cody Wiseman [00:51:24]:
Opportunities. Yep. Opportunities.

James [00:51:26]:
You know, it’s interesting because I think of a business like this.

Cody Wiseman [00:51:30]:
Yep.

James [00:51:31]:
The industry like this, where a lot of times deals get made over a beer or coffee or something like that.

Cody Wiseman [00:51:36]:
Oh, yeah.

James [00:51:36]:
Where you’re not trying to be some super stuffy person.

Cody Wiseman [00:51:40]:
Yeah.

James [00:51:40]:
And just like, look, here’s the situation. These are the numbers. This is where I’m at. This is where you’re at. This is where it would make sense. And let’s have a conversation. Let’s figure it out. Or you’re not going to be like, well, sir.

Cody Wiseman [00:51:52]:
Yeah, yeah, no, no, let’s cut that.

James [00:51:55]:
Cut that out.

Cody Wiseman [00:51:55]:
Yep.

James [00:51:56]:
We’ll save that for the actual offer.

Cody Wiseman [00:51:58]:
Yep. Yeah. Read through the document. You know, like, we work with an SEC attorney to. To draft. Like, everything is. Is there. You know, I can answer any questions you want, but, like, at the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to trust me and know that I’m going to do whatever I can to make this deal successful or whatever we’re working on together.

Cody Wiseman [00:52:16]:
Because generally my money’s going in first, it’s coming out last. I’m signed on the loan. Investors that are, you know, putting money in with me, they don’t sign on the loan. So if the deal goes sideways, for example, they’re out there investment, which is a huge, like, I’m not trying to, like, over overlook that, but I lose all the money I put into it. I have to pay back that loan. You know, the multimillion dollar loan, for example, like that big deal. That’s a big thing. So that’s the other benefit too, is why I think people like, okay, like, I see the work that you’re putting in.

Cody Wiseman [00:52:49]:
I see the team that you’ve got around you, you know, like, I know you’re gonna do the right thing. I know I can count on you. Because every deal’s gonna have hiccups, every deal’s gonna have challenges. Everything is, how do you deal with them? Right, right. And sometimes you have to make some really tough decisions, which I’ve done, you know, and. And, you know, I mean, I just sent out an investor update to last Friday morning. I think it was because, like I said, we just recently brought property management in house. That was a very tough thing to do.

Cody Wiseman [00:53:18]:
It was a friend’s company that I fired. Not that they sound that they’re a bad company. It’s just it wasn’t the right fit at this time for this project. And it like kind of forced us to grow and run it a little bit of a different way. And October was fantastic. So nice. Not. Not the most popular decision, you know, like thing to do sometimes.

Cody Wiseman [00:53:41]:
But at the end of the day, that’s what takes to be a leader, is you sometimes have to make those difficult decisions, you know, from dealing with contractors and holding them accountable. It’s. It’s business.

James [00:53:54]:
It is. That’s true. Yeah, it’s business. That’s what it comes down to, right?

Cody Wiseman [00:53:57]:
Yep. And I don’t mean that like in a cold way. Like, I mean, you could still, like, you know, there’s a respectful way about going about it and then there’s an arrogant way about. About it as well. Right.

James [00:54:09]:
So it’s just all game.

Cody Wiseman [00:54:10]:
Yeah, it’s all a game.

James [00:54:12]:
People land on Park Place sometimes and sometimes you land on Park.

Cody Wiseman [00:54:15]:
Yep. There we go. Yeah, it’s just the way it is. Yeah.

James [00:54:18]:
Cody, where can people find you?

Cody Wiseman [00:54:20]:
The best place is probably either. Well, online, I guess. Wisemancapitalgroup.com is a great place to learn a little bit more and connect with me. Got my email and contact form on there as well. Otherwise just Cody Wiseman. I’m LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. I don’t post a ton right now. I’ve been pretty Busy.

Cody Wiseman [00:54:41]:
But yeah, https://Wisemancapitalgroup.com is a great place to get connected.

James [00:54:45]:
Capital A link.

Cody Wiseman [00:54:47]:
Yep. Capital A L like the money.

James [00:54:49]:
And Cody.

Cody Wiseman [00:54:49]:
C O D Y C O D Y.

James [00:54:51]:
Easy enough.

Cody Wiseman [00:54:52]:
Yep. Wiseman. W I S E M a N Just in case.

James [00:54:55]:
Just in case. This has been Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. Thank you for joining us. We will see you next week. I want you to stay awesome.

James [00:55:17]:
And if you do nothing else, enjoy your business. And Authentic Business Adventures is brought to you by Calls on Call, offering call answering and receptionist services for service businesses across the country. On the web https://callsoncall.com and of course, the Bold business book. A book for the entrepreneur and all of us available wherever fine books are sold. It.