Tony Velickoff

Quick Facts:

  • Profit Strategy: Rehab and hold
  • Number of Units: 2
  • Personal Money Invested: $0
  • Amount Earned: $50k in equity and $500/mo positive cash flow after rehab
  • Prior Experience: Tony and his partner, Angela, had previous experience acquiring single families, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and even developable land

Tony’s Story

Tony has run successful businesses — most recently as a financial advisor. Still, growing up, he never learned how to “shuffle around large sums of money.” Having a profitable business is one thing — knowing the skills to grow financial independence is entirely different.

Tony’s Call to Adventure

It all started with Monopoly. He describes himself as “that kid that went around the board and bought everything he landed on.”

He and his business partner, Angela, started looking into small apartment real estate in 2018 but “weren’t able to get going for all the reasons that people starting out can’t and don’t.” They read books by Robert Kiyosaki and Grant Cardone. From this, they developed a mission to buy a 16-unit apartment complex. The idea of getting 16 rentals under one roof made perfect sense.

They are still looking for a suitable 16-unit building. In the meantime, they acquired some other properties: single-families, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and even developable land.

Early Challenges

Tony and Angela started their own financial firm after leaving another firm. This meant they “were literally starting over. There was very little business and not much income.” This was a challenging time to get into real estate investing.

Gradually, it became apparent that “finding the funds for deals is exceptionally challenging — if not impossible.” They connected with a few people who did hard money loans for them, which helped them start their “real estate empire.”

The First Wins

The first fourplex that they bought was in 2018. Tony describes the deal, “It’s in Wenatchee, Washington. The lady was selling her house for $220K. Angela suggested we offer $180K. So we did. The realtor thought we were crazy, but she presented the offer, and it was accepted! The seller didn’t even counter it.”

After that, they inherited a fourplex that produced $3000 monthly rent. It was 100 years old. Tony recaps, “we painted the outside. We installed separate sheds for each unit. That’s all we did. We intended to hold it, but on a whim, we decided to test the market to see what we could get. And 366 days later, we sold it for $300K.”

Funding, Funding, Funding

His “monopoly empire” is being built, but he explained the limiting factor has been “funding, funding, funding.” Most deals they couldn’t close were due to a lack of funding. They didn’t know how to get private money lenders. He clarified, “while bank funding is usually cheaper, it isn’t always accessible, especially when starting out. The banks see the acquisitions as a burden even if they bring in income. That limits what they will do for you. We learned that being able to tap into an infinite supply of money, even at higher costs, would give us a much more extensive portfolio.”

He elaborates on a deal they couldn’t close due to funding limitations. “It was 36 units. It was a very sweet deal, but we couldn’t get the funding to close it. Everything we envisioned doing with this property was done by the person who bought it. It’s ‘the one that got away.’ This is a big part of why we joined Lance’s program — to have investors available to us.”

Tony Finds His Mentor

Tony was no novice to “financial gurus.” He and Angela had looked at many programs but found them all lacking. They were drawn to Lance’s boot camp partly because of the guarantees and the possibilities of getting the tuition refunded by submitting or closing deals. The modest cost was attractive, and then when they attended, they realized the incredible value. They gained knowledge and also inspiration. They found their first deal quickly after completing the boot camp.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Tony shares that having vision helped him. “I see opportunities others don’t or don’t think are possible. Angela is also this way; she sees things in terms of what is possible. But, I’ve learned along the way to avoid paying for the potential but to always continue to see the possibilities of what you can do with the property.”

Conversely, Tony admits that his impulsiveness has worked against him. Occasionally, he’s been “willing to pay more than is prudent — buying the potential. We could have saved money if we’d done things differently. However, my impulsiveness has been fueled by the fear of not getting the deal. That’s a balance I’m working on.”

His Dream

He describes his goal is “to be wealthy, meaning we have enough passive income coming in that on any given day when you wake up, all of your expenses are paid, and you can live the life you want. Real estate is a big part of that. If we provide people with a nice, affordable place to live, and they support our lifestyle — that’s a win for everybody.”

His Mission

His first goal is $10 million in assets. But he is unequivocal that it needs to be a win for everyone involved. He elaborates, “everybody needs a place to live. We want to provide that at a reasonable price, but we don’t want to sell ourselves short either. We want everyone to win.”

He explains that he is motivated to achieve his wealth through real estate because he believes it is one of the most stable and efficient ways. He provides examples, “we’ve bought some places over the last five years and seen their value increase enough that even if the housing market drops 50% over the next year, we still have equity. And then, of course, values will eventually increase — like they always have. Buying apartments is part of generating wealth but also provides cash flow and revenue. Plus, the tax breaks are very beneficial.”

He’s excited about the future. “The possibilities are really infinite. If you have the right team, you can do anything you set out to do.”

His Advice

“Get started as soon as you can. From a young age, I realized if I set a goal of buying a rental a year, that would be great. But I didn’t follow through. As I look back now, almost 30 years, if I had done that, even through all the ups and downs of the markets and the housing markets, I’d be telling you what retired life is like. We’d be having a different discussion, and the background would be somewhere warm. My advice is to get started.”

Start. Now.