Episode 108 - Leveraging Google Ads in Commercial Real Estate with Special Guest Max Fisher!

Today hosts Braden Cheek, Brian Duck, and Joel Thompson join special guest Max Fisher (aka Commercial Real Estate Max) to discuss how he averages 75 transactions per year by leveraging google ads.

Is leveraging this youthful aspect in, in technology with maybe some of the the boomers in commercial real estate that are slow to adapt, right? You point at Brian when you said boomers. Uh so you're wanting to insult 75% of our investors. OK. I think that's a great idea. All right, how is it going? And welcome back to another episode of How to invest in commercial real estate. And we have another guest on the show. But before we get into our awesome guest, we wanted to share a brief update about the recent closing we had in Princeton, right? So if you're on the investor list, you got an email that said, hey, criterion's doing another deal. We're doing these developments down in Princeton, Texas. Really awesome project. Um It's six different pad sites essentially in front of a brand new Kroger that's being built. So we're doing a learning experience, fat burger high or Jess Breaks. Um Chipotle salad and go and seven brew. I can't believe I remembered all of that live. Let's go. All right.

So that was an almost $3 million equity raise that we've been raising for the past two or three weeks. We are about to close on that this week. By the time the episode comes out, we'll have already closed and we are just so excited for that deal. The civil work is already going. We are excited to deliver those paths and we think the investors are gonna hit a home run on that deal. Yeah. And then we also have uh closing the loan on uh R P two and O was, yep, that is mobilizing next week. And then Burleson uh they've already started but that loan uh closing should be next week. That's a refinance. Yep. Ok. So we got a lot of things, a lot of things closing on and closings are good, closings are good closings are good for everyone. But anyway, um without further ado, I want to introduce our guest. He is a commercial real estate broker from Tucson, Arizona, Max. Uh tell us a little bit about yourself what you do over there in Tucson and, and maybe how you got into commercial real estate. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, so my niche is industrial brokerage, uh sales and leasing here in Tucson in uh southern Arizona, worked in corporate brokerage for about five years and uh left about 2.5 years ago and uh had a smaller, more boutique brokerage.

But uh the bulk of my work is sales and leasing of industrial business parks, industrial land and um also done a couple assemblages, which maybe we can get into in a little bit here. But um and then I'm a partner in a few other deals. So, so always, always been in real estate or how did you initially get into kind of the, the corporate leasing side? And then I'll ask you maybe who that was as well. Yeah, so I got my license the summer after high school, uh got into residential, worked with uh some family and residential wanted to kind of do my own thing and be in commercial. And uh a few years later, uh one of the top industrial brokers in town at Cushman reached out to me after I've been in touch with them for a few years and asked me to come work at uh Cushman. So worked there for five years. And um, yeah, I mean, really the way I started my business over there was knocking on doors, cold calling. And then I started a lead generating website because I, I thought there was opportunity in the, in the digital space because most of my competition is older and they weren't, you know, advertising on Google ad words or anything like that.

So that really like put my brokerage business on steroids. I, I have some questions about that. That is interesting. So, uh you're using Google ads? What are you wanting them to hit on your brokerage business or industrial properties? What's the, the target of those Google ad searches? Yeah. Broker. So, sales and leasing. So, you know, ideally in this market, I, I'd have uh property owners reaching out to me to sell or lease their properties. But I've done, you know, tenant rep, buyer, rep, landlord, rep, seller, rep. Uh my first six figure commission came from a Google ad words lead and I've never spent more than 300 bucks a month on Google adwords. So, and so the people are searching for industrial properties, industrial sales, industrial brokers and, and they're, you're popping up for them. Yeah, exactly. So, it's the cool thing about Google ad words is these people are already searching for your product. You're just paying to get in front of them. So, and because it's so narrowed down like I can only target, right?

I mean, I can target whoever I want, but I only target those who are in the market for industrial property. And how do you ensure that you're just getting, uh, people in the Tucson area versus Albuquerque? Uh, is it a, is it geo fed in a certain way? It's coming from a guy who obviously doesn't use Google ads? I don't, I'm trying to learn here, man. It's ok guys. It's ok. Yeah, that's the, I mean, that's a million dollar question. Um, there's two aspects to it. There's one you do like a, like you pick where you want, um, people searching from. So, in 2019 2020 I was targeting a lot of California business owners because they were moving out here like crazy that popped off and did really well for me. Um, another aspect is you have the keywords page and so I'll only target searches that are industrial real estate in Tucson warehouses for lease in Tucson and then a few like sub suburbs of Tucson, so industrial property in Marana or Vale.

And that way, I'm just so drilled in and I'm not getting people that are looking for property in Albuquerque. But do I want someone who's in New York that's searching for industrial property in Tucson? Absolutely. And that's, that's a real thing. That's happened to me. I, I posted on Twitter recently in 2020. I did a lease with a manufacturer that moved out here from New York. Since then I leased him another building. I sold him another building. Now we're out looking to lease an even bigger building and that's just off of a, you know, a, a Google ad words ad, I love that. It's insane because how, how familiar is this story that getting a real estate license right after high school? I don't, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I want to be in real estate. You know, a lot of people make money in real estate. I want to be in real estate. I'm gonna get my real estate license. I did, I did that exact same thing. Right. So many people all across the country know they want to be in real estate. They graduate high school college. Sounds like it sucks. Even though I'll probably send my kids to college. But that's a different argument.

So you get a real estate license. Right. Yeah. The other thing I noticed is he has a common story and I'd like to know why you made the jump. But we talk a lot about people jumping from residential real estate to commercial real estate. And you said earlier, you decided to make that jump. What, what, what was the reasoning behind that? Uh The numbers aspect always appealed to me. And to be honest, when you, when you look at the newspaper and you see brokers doing 5 $10 million deals, it's pretty appealing. Um I also thought that there was more opportunity in the digital space in commercial real estate. I mean, you think about all the people you know, in commercial real estate, they're mostly boomers, they're mostly hitting the phones and door knocking, which I do as well and it works. But when you can combine the digital aspect into a space where it's not being utilized, the margins are 10 X even 100 X compared to other industries. I I feel like that's our new who we are video.

We've been trying to figure out how to film this video about who we are. And I think you just summarized it right there. It's leveraging this youthful aspect in, in technology with maybe some of the the boomers in commercial real estate that are slow to adapt, right? You point at Brian when you said Boomers. Uh so you're wanting to insult 75% of our investors. Ok. I think that's a great idea. No, I'm just saying that's why they love us, right? Because we like they docusign their documents. I'm not mailing them this thick manila folder and they're not mailing it back and they're not sending me a check, right? Like we're ac G distribution, we're on the podcast. So they can actually hear us talking about commercial real estate. Most guys or girls in the industry that are older are not doing that. So I get your point. I, I have, yeah, it is. It's great and I love it. Congrats on, on the, the niche you've carved for yourself. So talk to us because we don't know that much about uh industrial real estate. We know what it is. But as far as the nuances of it because we haven't invested a bunch of industrial, what are the, what are the, the pros of industrial real estate?

And do you have a lot of investors buying in industrial real estate or is it more companies that you're helping find the space they need for their business? Yeah. So at this point, I would say all of the above like when I started or even like three or four years ago. But right now the brokers that I'm at, it's my broker myself. We have an in-house property manager. So my broker syndicates deals. So he's got like pushing a million square feet of industrial business park space. So I do a lot of leasing for him, try to dig up deals for him and I do some third party brokerage, but not as much as I used to. I probably say no to more business today than I, I say yes to so. But in terms of the investing, what why I like investing in industrial, think about this. When the economy contracts, you there are businesses that continue to do well, plumbers H VAC electricians.

When you have a leak in your property, you're still gonna fix it. And then when the suppliers for all of those trades contract, when the economy contracts, they move into industrial business park spaces. So to me, it's like investing in a commodity and just something that's, that's always in demand, that's always affordable. And then you have the replacement cost aspect. It's very difficult to build business parks right now because of the cost of construction. And it's one of the only spaces in the market that just hasn't been built even with this crazy cycle. Yeah, and it has been crazy here too. Uh One of the main drivers uh there's a couple, obviously, the economy was super strong, interest rates are super low. Uh but, but also, you know, legalizing marijuana in our state and surrounding States, they're just buying up in, uh, the industrial space for indoor grows, which is, you know, put upward pressure on, on the market.

Uh, so what are you seeing out in Tucson? Uh, what kind of returns are, are you able to get investors on these syndicated, uh, industrial deals? Yeah. Uh, I would say the market, to be honest right now, the market's pretty gridlocked. It's really tough to buy a deal right now. Um I'll just give you an example of one of the most recent ones. We did those. A a tenant industrial Business Park Bay is from like 2000 to 7000 square feet. Um We bought that at like a seven cap but there was some vacancy and some work that needed to be done. Um But right now we're getting about a 15% return after factoring in our debt on that deal. So 15% roughly cash on cash uh which is great and what uh maybe you were able to get debt on that property before it went up. So you may, what, what's your rate on that? 4.5 or something? Um You know, to be honest, I'm not even sure because I'm a silent partner in it.

And yeah, I mean, the bulk of my work is in brokerage. I invest in stuff, but I I'm not too keen on all the details there. So max money, I'm happy with it. Yeah. Um So criterion we start out in our line of commercial real estate in our area. Uh We started buying properties in Tulsa where we're from, that found out pretty soon that we needed to expand. I noticed you, you say you're just in Tucson in the surrounding suburbs. Um Do you just have so much business that, that you don't need to expand or you don't want to travel to expand or why are you uh why are you staying in Tucson with your, most of your business? Yeah. Um I would just say because I'm still in my twenties and I, you know, I, I would say I will in the future, but I'm, I'm not there yet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's still early on in business and, and you need to get that under your belt and then you can expand from there. Yeah, I mean, there's, there's deals that, you know, every time I have capital, you know, I can deploy it here in Tucson, I know this market so well.

Um but, you know, later on, I, I would say I'd go into other market. Yeah, that makes sense. So I think this is a really great example for, for most of the listeners and most people who want to get started in commercial real estate investing or anything in commercial real estate, right? Like go find a job that can support you in a living. And I, I say job lightly because it's, it's really not a job. Right. Max, like, you're really the owner of your own business and you're a 10 99 subcontractor and, and you've probably got this agreement with your broker. So it's not a job, but it is a living that you can earn in commercial real estate. Why you further your education on how to take down these bigger deals. Right. But something that stands out is the fact that you had like a lot of your clients and customers, you don't even know. Right. Because you're, you're Google, you're getting in front of them on Google. So it's not like they're preexisting relationships. I would say that's the biggest struggle with people trying to get into commercial real estate. Any facet is, I don't know people with money here. I don't know people that want to buy industrial properties or, I don't know anybody looking to lease something.

It's like, well, go into Google and, and, and try maybe for a month spend, spend a few $100. Right? Because a few $100 in Google ads may just get you a, $100,000 commission. Right? And then we're, we're taking that it sounds like and, and investing that in, in somebody else's deals a silent partner again, to be a part of it, to learn to, to invest it and not just spend it and throw it away and to hopefully do that yourself. Like you, like you said, you're still young and learning, I'm sure you have ambitions to take down one of these deals by yourself, but it's really admirable. The process you're going through seems very disciplined and, and forward focused on, you know, hey, I, I don't necessarily know everything but what I do know is how to work some Google ads. I've got a real estate license. I know, I know how to lease and, and sell buildings and I'm, I'm putting the pieces together to do something dangerous, you know, here in a few years. Right. Yeah. And I would say I'm probably a little more conservative when it comes to investing than, you know, most people, like, I'm in two land deals.

When you guys were talking about your pads deal. It kind of reminded me of a land deal that I'm in. Um, but we own that land cash. We just bought another piece of land, quasi retail, industrial at the airport. It's all cash. Um, the business park that I spoke about. We're probably right now in this market, probably 40 or 50% LTV. And, um, on the land, I've got another, like what I call mini ranch that I just bought. Uh, no personal guarantee. I got private money on it and put 20% down. So I just wanna head into whatever's next coming in this market basically in a way where I can't lose almost a Warren Buffett type of mindset. Yeah. Nice. So I have a question. I, I read on your your page that you've uh been closing like 75 transactions a year, which um doesn't sound like you have a huge team. So talk to us about that's over six deals a month that you're you're closing. Uh Tell us about that. How do you facilitate that? Keep track of all that? Do you have, do you have a team that helps you close all those?

Um We have an assistant that we share between my broker and I, but I would say the key to it is just saying no more often than saying yes. So I generate leads, you know, constantly and then, you know, I, I almost try and kill the deal as soon as I can with qualifying questions. So I don't waste any time with them because if I think, you know, if I ask you, I'll give you an example guy reaches out to me and he's 10 to 20,000 square feet. I know there's, I'm so drilled in on my market. I know that there's like one or two options, send it off. He doesn't like it. No, onto the next one. Yeah, we've, we've actually done shows where we have to say no, right? Or at least how we go through our different deals because we get sent multiple deals a day. Of course, it's, it's mass emailing usually. But we, we've done a show on, you know, going through the process of how do you decide which ones you really want to go after and which ones you don't? So, it sounds like you're doing the same thing. Yeah. Give us another qualifying question or two because I, I, I think this is an important point that people waste their time at a bunch of stuff that's probably not gonna make the money.

I mean, what is it like the 80 20 rule? The 90 10? I mean, the majority of, of the money that you're gonna put in your pocket comes from like just a sliver of what you do and, and we do that criterion a lot. There's a lot of things we don't do in, in form of management and leasing and, and all of these facets and we just try to stay focused. Ok? We, we will find a management company, we will find a leasing company, our specialists or our specialties is finding this asset and, and making sure it's cash flow, we'll leave. Um, we'll, we'll, we'll hire experts for the rest. Yeah. Yeah. So what are a couple of your qualifying questions? I call you up and I'm looking for, I, I wanna invest in industrial in Tucson or I'm looking for space. How do you go about, you know, weeding out the guys that are tire kickers? Yeah. So I, you know, mostly who I speak with is business owners. So if a business owner calls me, my first question is gonna be, what kind of business do you own? What's the name of your business. I mean, right there, I can pretty much be on the phone with them, look up their business on my phone.

Um, if they're a property owner, you know, what's the address of your property, I'll look it up right there. But pretty much, you know, like if a business owner calls me, they're an auto shop, sorry, can't do it. Uh, most of my clients aren't gonna lease auto shops. So, yeah, I mean, what kind of business do you have? What's the name of your business? What's the property that you have? And, you know, within 10, 20 seconds I can pretty much weed them out right there. Yeah. And that's reason enough to keep the machine going. Right. Like, there's no reason to stop these leads if you can qualify them so quickly. We, we do that same thing with deals. You, you have to look at so many deals if you're gonna buy, you end up saying no more than you say yes. But you have to, in order to find the yeses. Right. If you spent a week on every single deal you evaluated or you spent an hour with every single lead. Yeah, you would turn the machine off because you're like, oh, I can't handle more than more than 40 leads a week. All I have is 40 hours and it takes me an hour per lead. Well, you may get on the phone with somebody and, and it takes you two minutes.

So then all of a sudden you can handle hundreds and hundreds of leads a week where the other person is handling four or 40 or whatever. Right. Well, super interesting, Max. Uh I love what you're doing. I love the, the use of technology to generate leads. So many people aren't doing that. They sit around and say I don't have any leads. Nobody calls me. I suck at brokerage. I quit. And, and so this is a good encouragement. I'm already thinking about how do we use uh Google ads in order to generate, you know, property management, business for precision equity or leasing, you know, business for Alicia. I'm sure criterion we can start to, to utilize some of that as well. So I think it's super interesting Alicia, a bill for your time in the podcast, the shit out of her third party leasing. I love it. Well, then I'll, I'll send criteria to bill and we'll be even. So, Max, uh it sounds like if anybody listening to this is looking for industrial space in Tucson, you are the guy where, where can we find you online if we're on, on Google industrial Tucson dot com? And that's where all my leads come through too.

So, you know, when, if you search industrial real estate in Tucson or Industrial Tucson, my website's gonna pop up first. So, all right, all we ask Max is that you find us an industrial deal that you and your partner believe in and send it to us to buy so we can get started in industrial real estate in Tucson. All right, thanks. Thanks, Max. I appreciate it, Max.