Aug 30, 2019
Hakeem Valles’ story is all about overcoming the odds. He made
it to the NFL as an undrafted free agent and played in the league
for three years with the Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions and New
York Giants.
He retired from the NFL in 2019 and is now a full-time real
estate investor and national speaker based in St. Louis. He invests
in multi-family properties, in emerging markets all around the
country, focusing on a high quality of life and nice people. He
shares how he started investing while playing football, what drove
him to focus on multifamily investing, and how he uses social media
to build his business.
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Key Market Insights
- Went to Monmouth University in New Jersey
- Only started his senior year and blossomed
- Went undrafted and signed with the Arizona Cardinals
- Learned about commercial real estate, cap rates, and IRR in
college
- Ex-girlfriend and dad started real estate house flipping
business
- Installed floors, drove for dollars, went to auctions
- Retired from the NFL after realizing his true passion was real
estate
- Bought a 4-unit in Arizona and then a duplex in Detroit
- Wanted to buy larger assets and was building a strong team
- Put in an offer for a 67-unit in St. Louis and negotiated for
two months
- Received the actual income statements from the seller’s
accountant and the NOI was off by $200k – had to walk away
- Fiancé gave birth during one of the games
- Had 1-hr to be a dad after practice all day and realized he
wasn’t happy
- Just closed on a 7-unit in Des Moines – investing $60k
- Putting in an offer on 8-unit in Ft Lauderdale, partnering with
private equity group in Israel
- Tips to Select Markets: Review market reports and compare to
census reports – look for population and job growth and call
economic dev’t office
- Ask economic office, “what plans do you have to incentivize big
businesses”
- Regrets not doing more with social media while he was
playing
- Strategy approach - give value, use keynote speeches to create
social videos
- Created a video of how he bought a four-plex in Arizona, it got
80,000 views on LinkedIn
- Blackerpockets got 100,000 views on it
- Answer questions and use the video as content
- Went to Biggerpockets and found questions and started answering
the questions
- Content has to be contextual to the platform
- Instagram is more entertainment-based – college market, younger
audience
- LinkedIn is more organic and catered to the business audience –
more consumers of content than creators of content
- Twitter is jumping into conversations
Partner: Check out the
Passive Income through Multifamily Real Estate podcast with
Kyle and Lalita Mitchell
Bull’s Eye Tips:
Winning Your Market: Know the people and talk to everyone you
come across
Tracking Market Changes: Staying connected
Daily Habit: Brandon Turner’s 90 Days of Intention Journal
Resources:
Best Business Books:
Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
Digital Resources:
Add Subtitles
Tweet This:
“Ask the economic office, “what plans do you have to incentivize
big businesses”
“85% of videos on social media are watched without sound”
Places to Grab a Bite:
Ginghams 24-Hr
Connect with Hakeem:
Instagram: @hakvalles80
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