This Guy Gave Me $50 Million to Buy Houses

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Hey guys, welcome back to the channel.

[00:00:01]I'm Robi Creger the Flip Flop Flipper and guys, today you're in for a treat.

[00:00:05]This guy next to me, he's a pretty big deal and he's really important to my life and my story and and I'm and I'm really happy to be able to sit down and talk with Teebolt Adrian and we'll get into our origin story and how we met in a little while, but um it's a pretty good story. Teebolt, thank you very much for sitting down and and talking to us.

[00:00:25]>> Absolutely.

[00:00:25]>> Um let's talk about that. Do you remember coming to my house back in I think it was 2012? Yeah. You had uh just started a fund, Lafayette, and um raised some money and you were already buying some houses around the the country.

[00:00:40]>> Yeah.

[00:00:40]>> And um so he shows up at my house and and I've heard this story probably a dozen times back then where he he had deep pockets and wanted to buy foreclosures and and I went to the foreclosure sale for the 15 years before that, so I had a reputation for that.

[00:00:56]And we ended up buying six or 700 houses, I I think, in the state of Florida.

[00:01:01]>> Yeah.

[00:01:02]Now, it's a great story, yes. Like back then, like uh in 2011, I knew not much about real estate. 2010, I didn't know much about real estate, but I knew that there was a massive issue, massive problem. The banks owned a lot of asset they were not supposed to own in the first place.

[00:01:20]They were doing a terrible job at managing the portfolio their portfolios of of REOs because that's not what they are supposed to do. They are not landlords.

[00:01:28]And so I thought that we could I could try to convince a few investors, mostly European investors, uh initially that's where I had connections, to invest in the US and help the banks offload uh those homes from their balance sheets, uh renovate them, and uh and and rent them out. But um but I I had I knew nobody. Um and so I had to like meet with a property managers uh in Tampa, in Phoenix. I know those two markets so it could be good. So, that's where I started. And then I had to rely on people like in making good introductions. And one day, magically, like somebody said like, you have to meet with Robbie Crager.

[00:02:08]>> [laughter] >> Uh and so uh and so yeah, that's how I showed up uh to your door. And um and the rest is history. Like we we bought a great homes together.

[00:02:17]>> Yeah.

[00:02:17]>> Um that was like a critical time, 2011, 2012, like for me, for Lafayette, uh to to get off the ground and to show our investors, show to the world that the single-family home as a class was not a dead asset class, that no, the prices were not going to go back, go down to zero. It doesn't make sense. Those were like real assets >> Yeah.

[00:02:38]>> uh with real uh cash flow potential. Um people were just traumatized traumatized by what had happened with the subprime crisis. And they forgot that those assets were real assets that people that families needed uh to live in. And uh and so they had intrinsic value.

[00:02:55]And so you helped me with that, so I'm very like obviously like thankful for all the the deals we've done together.

[00:03:00]>> Yeah, and it was a very tough time, but you know, being a small entrepreneur at the time. So, for me, when you showed up, it was a it was a blessing. It was a it was a real blessing. It was one where when you left, I I remember talking to to Brandon Quan and saying, "Is this guy real?" And and sure enough, I I I mean, I think we met on a Thursday and on a Monday we were buying houses. It was so quick, you guys. It was it was really amazing. Uh the part of the story, Thibault, that I really like is how you started without knowing much about real estate. And you started big, much bigger than most anybody out here will ever start. I I think the vast majority of the people that want to get into real estate are thinking, "I don't have even a hundred thousand dollars to go buy a small house and fix it up."

[00:03:41]>> Yeah.

[00:03:41]>> Uh you thought about the same problem, were in the same situation that they were in, but just went for it in a much bigger scale.

[00:03:48]>> Yeah.

[00:03:48]>> Can you talk a little bit about that?

[00:03:50]>> Sure.

[00:03:51]>> How did you have that idea to >> Yeah. I mean, so I knew I was like studying the the macro, so I knew that there was this huge inventory of homes that the home the banks were going to have to sell.

[00:04:04]>> Yeah.

[00:04:05]>> Um and what I knew what I was decently like good at was uh getting organized, making investment decisions because I was working in the investment world, not in real estate, but in the investment world. And so, I knew how to create like disciplined investment decision processes >> Mhm.

[00:04:27]>> and then make uh like the right connections in local markets, find uh somebody like you, Robbie, um and the right property managers uh in each market, and get their advice on where to buy, and and compare the stories from one property manager to the other from one broker to the other to try to get to the truth. And so, I would go I didn't talk only to to you when I got to Orlando. I tried to break the news, but >> Oh, no, no.

[00:04:59]>> Uh but initially, like I talked to a bunch of of people, and I compared the stories, and I felt uh and I was able to like um see like who was the most credible, and uh and I was lucky to to to pick you. I was I had a good feeling about about you, about our potential partnership. And uh and so, to go back to how I did it, like so I once I I met enough people, and once I started to to buy a few homes, I was able to show the story to some investors and tell them we can do this in a much bigger way because it's very important to get diversification. I'm not going to get like every single investment decisions right. I'm going to make some mistakes, but if we do it in a diversified way, uh we're going to overall, we're going to be okay because the whole the whole market is going to appreciate.

[00:05:49]And and once you have diversification, uh you can also convince banks to back you because initially when we are buying together, like no banks would be willing >> Yeah, it was all it was all cash.

[00:06:00]>> All cash.

[00:06:01]And and but I we knew and we I was hoping that once we would have a diversified portfolio across different market, the portfolio would very much look like a commercial real estate portfolio that banks would be willing to finance.

[00:06:14]And so um so yes, so that's that's how I did it. Yeah.

[00:06:18]>> That's that's so amazing. And now you've stayed in the trenches. I mean, so we bought six or 700 houses together and then and then I moved to Puerto Rico eventually.

[00:06:28]You've continued to do this and I'm very curious about where do you see the market going from here and then later I'd like to talk about if you have still any of the houses that we bought together. But but for now, where do you see this market going from here 2026 and beyond?

[00:06:43]>> Yeah. So I mean I I can go from I can restart from like 2014, let's say like it's cuz the years where we bought a lot together were sort of distressed years when we were buying from the banks.

[00:06:56]So that's 2012-2015, let's say. And then 2015-2020 is a period where the asset class started to institutionalize itself.

[00:07:08]Larger investors got into the the game.

[00:07:11]Some went public Invitation Homes, American [snorts] Homes 4 Rent. And capital markets sort of like signed off on this new asset class. It became more competitive. It became harder for the smaller guys like us to to be competitive. And so we had to reinvent ourselves a few times.

[00:07:30]One of the big change we we made was starting in 2019, we started to focus on new construction.

[00:07:35]>> Mhm.

[00:07:36]>> Um and you asked about how does that change from how does that evolve from 2026 and beyond? I think new construction is going to remain a big theme.

[00:07:46]Uh there is definitely not enough supply in the US, not enough homes for families, especially for our demographics, people aged between like 30 and 55 50 years old who like need more space because they have kids. Their apartment inventory doesn't fit their need anymore. So they need single family homes. And we don't have enough. So new supply is a big thing.

[00:08:11]And starting in 2019 we started to talk to builders about buying from them some inventory that they wouldn't otherwise build if it was not for rent.

[00:08:21]>> Mhm.

[00:08:21]>> And so we showed them our like build-for-rent strategy and they agreed with us that it could make sense to sell to us at a discount to retail prices because they sell to us in bulk in advance. They have like 100 or 200 homes to sell in one community. They know they have one very reliable which reduces their execution risk, their turnover, their absorption rates and everything. So it made sense. Then it became very competitive. And so in order to to avoid the competition, we went the next level and we started our own home building operations.

[00:08:56]>> Wow.

[00:08:57]>> So that was a key to be continue to be relevant in this market right now because interest rates went up after COVID 2022 2023. So buying existing homes didn't make any sense anymore. Like the retail bid is much stronger. By the way, there is a lot of talks right now that maybe Wall Street buyers would be stealing homes from Main Street and I don't think that's true.

[00:09:22]Main Street was outbidding. The retail buyer homeowners are outbidding us like 98% of the time.

[00:09:27]>> That's always been the case, too, right?

[00:09:28]Real estate investors have to buy at a discount, otherwise we're not investing.

[00:09:33]We're just throwing money down the drain, right?

[00:09:35]>> Exactly. 100% exactly. So we have to be disciplined in the way we we make investment decisions and when rates went up it made us even less competitive because we are very sensitive to rates much less so than than home owners. And so we went deep into the home building strategy.

[00:09:56]We lined up a bunch of lots. So we have like 1200 lots right now that we need to build on.

[00:10:02]We have already like 1200 lots 1200 built to rent homes already off the ground and another 1200 that we need to build on.

[00:10:09]>> Wow. Wow.

[00:10:10]>> So it's so it keeps us busy which is a good thing because the the buying existing homes doesn't make sense much much sense anymore. So we had to really slow down or even shut down this part of the business but building new homes is getting us busy and and very excited.

[00:10:29]Um What's coming next?

[00:10:32]I mean There is a lot of stress right now in the industry because of those discussions in in Washington right now about a ban against single family home investors.

[00:10:48]>> Yeah.

[00:10:48]>> It's I think totally fine that we welcome like the lawmakers effort to regulate our industry. We have no problem with that.

[00:10:59]It's a sign that we are a maturing industry. It's okay.

[00:11:03]What the current debate is about is whether or not like built to rents should get a clean exemption from this ban.

[00:11:15]And we believe and everybody that thinks that affordability is a problem should believe that more supply helps with affordability issues.

[00:11:25]>> Yeah. I struggle every time I hear the comments that are against more supply.

[00:11:31]>> Yeah. to me it's like they just don't understand economics. Supply and demand, more supply, better price.

[00:11:37]>> Exactly. So, if if people if lawmakers in DC agree that we need more supply because we need to to address the affordability issue, which I think is the intent, they should create a clean exemption for the build-to-rent uh investment strategy.

[00:11:54]And uh right now we don't know because the Senate uh voted for a forced uh sale provision that would force investors to sell after 7 years. And no investors want to take uh this type of like timing risk on their own.

[00:12:11]>> short time.

[00:12:12]>> Yeah, exactly. And uh and you have to also sell the homes one by one to individual homeowners. And when you build uh 200-unit community, trying to attract like individual homeowners in the rental community is tough. Like you have to sell one by one within a specific time frame. Like no investor will want to do this. So, that's a tight supply. So, let's see how uh where Congress uh ends up, but we hope it's going to be a true pro-supply bill that's going to to uh to win. And uh and that we'll be able to to keep uh building and and delivering new homes to the market because I think that's what the market needs.

[00:12:51]>> Wow.

[00:12:51]>> So, we'll see.

[00:12:52]>> Well, I I mean that's a man, so that this law that that Trump is proposing, and I don't know if it's passed yet, but it it's a it's a potential disaster.

[00:13:03]>> Yeah, so I don't know if it's he uh I think >> Well, he's he's the mouthpiece, right?

[00:13:08]He's saying it.

[00:13:09]>> He Yes, but he I mean the the executive order issued by the president was clearly uh carving out build-to-rent.

[00:13:17]So, the intent was good.

[00:13:18]>> Yeah.

[00:13:19]>> And somehow in the Senate at some point um they came up with this like 7-year like forced sale provision, which I understand the the idea behind it, but I I I honestly think it's anti-supply and that I hope that they will remove it. I think the house got it. The house proposed an amended version for it. And and hopefully and hopefully hopefully the people will understand that supply is important and >> Well, I I hope that you guys do understand supply and demand. More supply means better price. So, supply is important and when somebody does a build to rent, you're not taking supply of of anything. You're building something that's brand new. So, why they would regulate that in that way a little bit baffling. What about the portfolio that I that that we were involved with? Do you still own any of those properties?

[00:14:07]Do you even know?

[00:14:09]>> Yeah, I know I do know. I mean we we've been selling from from time to time some assets, but overall we are like long-term holders. We need we think those assets are very relevant for like local families in Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa. And so we continue to provide try to provide best possible like property management services. And so we hang on to those assets for the long run.

[00:14:32]We've been selling here and there, but I'm sure the vast majority of the portfolio is >> You're you're still have it. That's that's wonderful to hear. I I I look back on those days with very fond memories. It was truly a blessing that you showed up at my house one day to both completely unexpected. You know, these these things happen when you're in business and this was one of those times where where God brought someone in to to our orbit and it just worked out really well.

[00:14:57]>> Yeah, and it was super super cool. Like I was very happy to >> Yeah, I I literally came to this conference. I told you because my friend invited me and I was like I I don't really have time to go.

[00:15:07]I'm doing other events and speaking and and then I saw you were speaking and I'm like, okay. I I'll go.

[00:15:14]I saw it as a sign that I should come and so that we could have this conversation. So, I know that you're very time crunched and that you have to go I'll on an airplane. So, I want to thank you very much. Thank you for It's really good to see you again and I'll share this with you and um yeah, man. Let's Let's try and stay in touch.

[00:15:30]>> Perfect.

[00:15:30]>> All right. Thank you, man.

[00:15:31]>> Thank you.