#006 - Harnessing Mindset and Media in Entrepreneurship - Ethan Montang

Ethan: [00:00:00] He rode over on his lawnmower and offered me 50, 000 more than I paid for the property on day three. 

Parkes: Welcome to the hidden hustle, where we uncover the stories behind Des Moines top entrepreneurs. Today, we're thrilled to feature Ethan Monte, a real estate investor, house flipper. and owner of Sam's Place Pool Hall and Sports Barn Ames.

Ethan shares his journey from flipping houses and managing rentals to running a bar and growing his network on TikTok for his business. He offers insights on scaling businesses, creating authentic content and the importance of mentorship. With a fearless mindset, Ethan's story is packed with practical advice and inspiration.

The

Hidden Hustle Podcast is a PR team production dedicated to helping businesses like yours. Tell your story and grow beyond belief. If you or a business owner you know needs help advertising services, book a call with us today at prteam us. com. Let's get into the show. All right, Ethan, thank you for being on the show.

Nice to [00:01:00] finally meet you. Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it. So you're a busy guy, lots of deals, business, always keeping you on your toes. What's been the latest? 

Ethan: My latest thing that's been keeping me busy is me and my team recently took over a bar. And that has been keeping me very busy. Pretty much for the past six months.

I've been like living there almost. I'm happy to be back into real estate and making some content. 

Parkes: Yeah, so is that your first Your first purchase other than just real estate? 

Ethan: Yeah, that was definitely the first business, uh, that we went over to try in. You know, it was already up and running. The people that we bought it from were, were good people, had a good business.

They were just ready to make their move. Right. Um, and then due to the team that I have, I have a really awesome team. Um, I wouldn't. Be able to be where I'm at without them. So, uh, we came in, hired seven new bartenders, uh, learned, you know, a whole new field that we were extremely uncomfortable with initially, um, and we've gotten it to [00:02:00] a point now where I can step away, and then Andrew Clark, uh, my really good buddy, he's the bar manager, so he's taking over and, and running that thing now.

Yeah. 

Parkes: Yeah, yeah. Um, so let's start from the beginning. So you're originally from Germany, correct? Born in 

Ethan: Iowa, left when I was five. Uh, dad's in the, was in the military. So we bounced around a bunch. Uh, lived in Pennsylvania, Hershey, where they make the chocolate. Yeah, there for awhile. Um, then I was 14. I moved to Germany and I stayed there until I graduated high school.

Gotcha. What was that like there? That was cool, man. That was, I got my, you know, gave me the travel bug really, really bad. Uh, got a lot of Europe, saw a lot of Europe. Um, got to drink at like 16, so that was cool. Got to learn how to, you know, responsibly consume alcohol. Um, yeah, it was great. 

Parkes: Yeah, yeah. So what was moving back to the States like?

Was that transition weird or was it pretty natural since you were already there, already here before? 

Ethan: Yeah, I mean, it wasn't, even there, while I was there, some of the time I [00:03:00] lived off base. So like with the locals and the German community, um, but for about the two last years of it, we lived on base cause my dad got promoted.

So it wasn't a hard transition. I got dropped right back into college. So I, when I moved back, I went right into college, started wrestling. And from there it was, yeah. Where did you go to college? First year was at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls. And then I wrestled for a year and a half at William Penn in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Parkes: Nice. Yeah. Nice. So, out of college, did you finish college? 

Ethan: Not initially, I did go back after I got some rental properties. Um, I think I got up to like five units by the time I went back. I got a business degree from the community college. And I think the only class that I thought was like pretty helpful was like micro and macro economics.

Other than that, it was like. I own, I already own real estate, like, I learn more being on my projects than I do from a, you know, a [00:04:00] professor. 

Parkes: So before you went back to school, where did you kind of go in that interim? 

Ethan: I was doing real estate. I lived in Ames. My first three purchases were all in Ames. Yeah, single family, a duplex, and then I did my first flip.

Parkes: Did you work a job before you got into real estate? 

Ethan: Yeah, I worked two jobs. I was working overnight at a hotel. Um And then I was a general manager of a retail store. The guy I actually co owned this building with, I used, he used to be my boss. Um, and I started working for him. That's when I started studying real estate.

So by the time I finally made the transition out, you know, I had a couple of houses under my belt and yeah. 

Parkes: So 2019, quit your job. But what was that motivation that helped you make, make that move? That 

Ethan: was when I got my first flip, so I bought my first property in 2016, but in 2019, I did my first, like, flip, and an [00:05:00] apartment building was also shortly after that, and I just kind of got really overwhelmed, I was starting to be a bad employee, um, And I couldn't donate the time to my real estate business that I knew it needed to be able to get to that next level.

Parkes: Sure. Yeah. So share a little bit more about that first flip. So, 

Ethan: Um, that was, it was off market. It was brought to me by an agent. Um, But I had really good, the two houses I bought previously were from the same agent. And so he knew what I was looking for, he knew I was a young investor and I was growing. Um, I thought I was gonna make like 40 grand on it, I ended up making 19.

And so I had a lot of mistakes, um, but it was a house hack. Are you familiar with that term? Okay, so like I moved a buddy in, um, I was dating a girl at the time. She was moved in and was paying rent. So there was like three of us that lived in the, in this house. Um, during the process of remodeling it and bringing it from [00:06:00] absolute.

Horrid disaster. Stunk so bad. Um, to it was a beautiful home afterwards. I mean, we went top to bottom remodel. 

Parkes: Nice. So what lessons did you learn through that first flip process?

Ethan: Probably like the importance of slowing down and being better with analyzing. I made a lot of mistakes with how much I thought things would cost or the amount of time it would take to fix them. That was my first real House flip. Now, I'd done a remodel on the duplex that I had, but that was only like a one bedroom, one bath, so it was very different than doing a, uh, The house was like a five bedroom, two bath.

You know, so from going from a one bed, one bath, 650 square foot remodel to a 1, 500 top to bottom remodel, those were really different. I just hadn't learned how to correctly analyze those numbers yet. 

Parkes: So what strategies did you use to identify those undervalued properties that had [00:07:00] potential to, to flip or to, to rent out?

Ethan: The flipping ones, you gotta know your market. It's, it's, it's really, there are, you can see some things like, okay, you know, is this the nicest house on the block? That's probably not the house you want to be, you know. Right. If, if, is it the worst house on the block, right, that's a good spot to be in. Are you in a market like Boone where there's only 10, 000?

Person population the the volume of buyers in Boone like there's not a high Turnover of houses. It's not the same as Des Moines or Kansas City or something, you know bigger bigger cities So you have to be aware. It's not just like okay. This is undervalued. It could be a great deal It's like all right.

Well, how long is it gonna take to do the project? What's my holding cost? paying for everything in cash, you have to go to a bank, you have to get lending. Every month you have that money out, it raises your holding cost of that capital. So, knowing your market's probably a really good one, and [00:08:00] then I tend to lean towards multi family and commercial now.

Because those properties value, um, are based off the income it produces. Those are income properties. While your parents, their house, right? The value of that house is based off of other houses that look like that or similar square footage in that area. So the comps are based off of single families that look like that.

While income properties value is based off of the. income it produces. And I can manipulate the income when I take a property over and I rehab it and take average rents from 450 to 500 to 700. So I'm, since I'm increasing that income for the building, that simultaneously increases the value of the building.

Gotcha. 

Parkes: Do you think getting started or getting into real estate, going with the single family Rental or flip. Do you think you need to go through that process before you can get into the multifamily, or do you think you can jump right into it? 

Ethan: That's a [00:09:00] great question, dude. You know, I don't have all the answers.

Um, there's a guy I studied named, uh, Bill Murray. He wrote a book called, um, Crushing It in Commercial and Property, Commercial and Apartment Real Estate. And he was a teacher and his first purchase was a million dollar multi family commercial property, I believe. And he helped me really kind of grow out of the single family or the smaller units.

Do I think it builds your confidence and all those things to kind of do a couple smaller projects? Yes. Is it a great way to get in the door? Because if you're purchasing, uh, four units or less, you can get it under an hour. owner occupied loan, which is 5 percent down. Anytime you buy five units or more, you instantly have to put a 20 percent down.

So for example, on a 500, 000 property, 5 percent down, that's 25 K. Well, if it's an investment property, you have to now [00:10:00] minimum have to put down a hundred Ks. You're bringing 75 K. You have to have 75 K more liquid cash to even playing that game. So the single family route allows you to get into it. A bit easier, less money down, and then builds you that confidence and experience to do the next deal.

But you can start out with multi family, you know? 

Parkes: Right, 

Ethan: right. How 

Parkes: did you finance that first property? 

Ethan: Uh, me and my parents split it half and half, so they already had their house. I hadn't been working a W 2 long enough, so I couldn't get bank financing. They could get bank financing, but they didn't have enough money.

So we split 30K. It was a 150, 000 house. Had to put 20 percent down. It's 30, 000, and we both raised, uh, we both put up 15K each. 

Parkes: Yeah. Have you ever used any kind of FHA loans? 

Ethan: Yeah, FHA 

Parkes: loans. 

Ethan: I have used an FHA loan for the house I bought after that. We made no money on the first deal. I pretty much just got to live for free.

I moved two other guys [00:11:00] in, and I house hacked. I've been house hacking. I still house hack. Like, to this date, I house hack. Now I have a much nicer, it's like a 3, 600 square foot house. Um, but, house hacking changed everything. Um, But we made no money on like a flip or like a, um, a material thing. It was just me that had lowered my expenses, but my parents put in half that money too.

So that wasn't really fair. Well, I've learned more now. I was like 11 months into an investing and I'd bought a duplex with an FHA loan. It was a hundred. 84, 000, I'd put 5 percent down. I think I had to come up with like 8 grand. Well then I did that whole deal by myself. So now we have two properties, three units, because one's a duplex, one's a single family.

Um, and we made, and I made money on that deal. So my parents are down now to do another deal again after that. 

Parkes: Right, right. What's the due diligence process before? Yeah, going in on a, on a purchase, 

Ethan: a couple of [00:12:00] different dynamics of that. You probably want to have a contractor go with you GC so that he can, if you're not skilled with that kind of, I'm not like, I have no ego to be like, Oh, I could do all this.

No, I don't. I got a partner who's an artist. He's an amazing contractor. He's so talented. I do a lot of the demo and the easy, like, waterboy stuff. And the demo looks great on social media, you know. Um, but I bring contractors so that you know what he's bidding for the work that you want done. If you know what you're buying the property at, well, that's your first.

You need to then figure out how much it's going to cost to borrow that money for that time, unless you're paying cash. Um, and then the numbers. I'm a numbers nerd, like I love Excel. Um, so really just tweaking your numbers and making sure that, you know, you're, you're, you're accounting for nine percent when you sell.

If you're gonna use an agent, well you got six percent in fees and then you got, you know, title and escrow and deed transfer, all these different things that have to be [00:13:00] done that adds up to approximately another three percent. So if you're selling a property for, you know, 300, just automatically take off 9 percent of that as fees right there.

You know, so that's a lot of money. That's 27K. So just being dialed in with your numbers. Having a GC that knows what they're doing, does good work, that you trust them, and then do your numbers on the backside. 

Parkes: Walk us through that process. You know, what is a typical house flip project look like for you?

So, um, you know, you're doing the demo, you've got GCs, but, um, you know, maybe after remodel or just walk us through that whole process of, 

Ethan: um, so, uh, one time I, one of my more recent flips, I bought it out from a garage sale. I, I go to garage sales and I'm like, well, why are you having a garage sale? Just hoping that they're like, oh, we're about to move or, you know, so that's, I ended up pulling that off.

They were about to move, didn't have an agent yet, so I bought it off them without an agent. They move, and I [00:14:00] make it very easy for these people. It's like, leave whatever you want. You can, you don't have to take anything if you don't want to. Whatever valuables you want, take it with you, leave the rest and my team will come through.

So then we'd come through, clear everything out in probably a day or two. It really depends on how hoardery or trash the house is, how long that takes. Um, And the scope of work is already done at that point, like I'm not hitting a project and not knowing what I'm going to do with it. Like I created the scope of work during closing, like those, you know, before we got to close.

And then it's pretty much just like, okay, do we have the money in the account? So the GC can go and buy the materials he needs and do all those things. And there's things like you don't want to do floors before you paint, right? Like this stuff you don't learn until you do it. And I had done that one time where we did the floors first.

And this was before I had the business partner that I do that like as a boss and knows how to correctly do these things. But like we did the [00:15:00] floors first and then had to paint and then got new paint on the, or got paint on the new floors. It's like, why didn't we not paint before this? So there's things like that, that you just learn.

And it's like, gosh, damn it. That cost me a couple thousand dollars to learn that, you know, to do. Order of operation. Yeah. Out of whack. Yeah. 

Parkes: Um, so what is the most difficult 

Ethan: renovation that you've completed? There's this one on Cameron School Road in, in Ames. It was next to this 1. 8 million dollar house.

Like, I was I landed this deal. It was amazing. The deal with it was, is one of the neighbors actually rode over on his lawnmower. I made a, this is one of my first viral videos on, on TikTok actually. And we hadn't done anything yet. And I knew I was going to make more than that. But there's something about just being able to walk away and getting a 50k strike.

That doesn't happen very often. Um. So this is what I ended up doing. Yeah, I did take it, but I put a clause in that he had to hire my [00:16:00] team to do the remodel so that they could still make their margin and my, cause like, I just promised my team a job and now we don't have one. So, uh, we got to make money on that end and the other, but what was very difficult was now previously everybody had been used to like working, you know, from, for me and we were doing it for my own projects.

Now we were. Contracted through another person, and it was a 130, 000 remodel. Like, that was the cost of the remodel. Wow. Um And that was just a lot to make sure that we were staying in communication and like giving him what he wanted. And then like when he had change orders, it was like, uh, we're already like, it's going to cost more money.

And so it's just, it was, and I knew it and I'd never done that again. We've, we've refused since that to ever do a project for somebody else besides myself. 

Parkes: Yeah. So how'd that end? 

Ethan: It [00:17:00] ended fine. I mean, the person that bought it, we were on okay terms. He's actually pretty high up there in the fairway business.

He's like one of the top guys at fairway. 

Parkes: Oh, dang. 

Ethan: Yeah. 

Parkes: How do you decide what is worth investing in and fixing for resale value? rather than just keeping it for my portfolio, you mean? No, like, so you're going in and you're, you're going to flip this house. How do you know which aspect of the house you should fix versus not?

Whether like, does it need new 

Ethan: floors or does it need, you got some good questions. Um, well, some people flip at different level, right? Like the way you can grade houses or rental properties and it's like a. A through D grading system, um, for example, this is probably like a B building, maybe B plus, but you know, you got the downtown, all those condos, A plus, right?

That's their tile floors and granite hard surface countertops. That's a, that's a actually a really good determination. If [00:18:00] you're, if you can only ever be an A, if you don't have laminate count, you can't ever be an A if you have laminate countertops. You know what I, those kind of, so like, there's things like that, it's like alright, kitchen and bathrooms, super important, everybody loves those, um, you know, small rooms are really bad, try to stay, but you can't go and make rooms bigger, that's just something to keep in your mind when, when you're deciding which property to acquire next, also we now own our units while we sell them because we learned that not state, like people aren't, for some reason, my mind, I guess, I can see something that's all messed up and I can see what it's going to look like afterwards, or I can see what it'll look like with furniture inside of it.

That's actually not something that the majority of buyers of residential buyers are able to do. So that was like a good thing that we learned to make it look like a 

Parkes: home. But as far as, so. Go back to that ranking system. So your A is your granite and tile. 

Ethan: Yeah, granite tile. B, C, D. [00:19:00] Stainless steel appliances versus your white and black refrigerators, you know what I mean?

And then just being like, all right, what am I, I can't just drop X amount in here because it can only sell. Houses have a max amount they can sell for and if you take your rehab budget so close to that and then you got those fees that we talked about, like you're not going to make any margin. So when you walk in, that's something I've struggled with too, is like, what am I not going to do?

What are we okay with leaving as is? What has been those things that you've left as is? Very rare, I mean flooring sometimes, but like even wood, like if I get wood floors, I'm super happy. Because I know me and my team will just come in, we'll sand them, we'll stain them, and we'll poly them, and everybody loves wood floors.

But still, that's work. That's not just like leaving the floors as they are. So, the average cost for my properties when I do a remodel is 50k. To get under that, I'm like, yeah! [00:20:00] And if I go over that, it's like, well, it's part of the game. So, like, I don't, I haven't been able to find a lot of deals with like those 30 to, 20 to 30, you gotta put 20, 30 thousand dollars in and you can make 50k.

I haven't been able to find those. 

Parkes: Okay, so it just kind of depends on the house and how the numbers work 

Ethan: out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But kitchens and bathrooms are always the most important. Right, 

Parkes: okay. 

Ethan: Those common areas? Yeah, and a kitchen is going to cost you like 10k. Um, a bathroom will cost you like five, 

Parkes: six.

Sure. So with 95 

Ethan: rental units under your management, is that correct? That's an old number. So I sold a significant amount. I used to have a 57 plex, which like ate up a large amount of that. But when we did this liquidation to, um, you know, go after the bar and a couple other things, we, we downsized a lot. I think I'm in like high twenties right now.

For unit count. 

Parkes: Gotcha. Which do you prefer, you know, when you're looking at property, something that you can [00:21:00] bring under your management, or do you prefer those flips? I like to buy and hold. 

Ethan: Buy and hold. Create passive income, yeah. Yeah. Flipping is just a job. Like, and even If you manage your own units, that's the job, right?

So, it is difficult to just, everyone's like, I want passive income, I want, it's not that easy. So when you flip, you get an X amount of money that you have afterwards. Then you can make that choice, okay, am I gonna go do another flip and grow this pile? Or am I gonna take this, you know, finite amount of cash and put it into an avenue that does generate passive income?

So like, my goal has always just been to stack up. In my portfolio, uh, so that I do have passive income coming in. Yeah, what's the BRRRR acronym? Buy, Remodel, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. So do you follow that BRRRR acronym? I've never got a BRRRR, dude. All these people that talk about this stuff. But when I hear that, like In order, in my mind, some people just throw this out [00:22:00] there and like, do you know what you're talking about?

To me a full burr is 100 every single dollar you put into that deal You have been able to pull out of it and then retain that property now on multiple occasions I've been able so for example if I put in 50 000 i've been able to pull out like 40 or 45 So I'm really, I've got a property that costs me 5k in my awesome.

I'm winning, but that's not a bird. The bird is you get 100 percent of the money that you put in out of the property and you still retain the property. I have not done that. Came close. I've came really close, but again, it's a margins thing. Like you have to, that house, the house has to be worth X amount to be able to pull that extra equity out of it to be able to do that.

So yeah, that's yeah. 

Parkes: With the. Rental units under your management, what systems have you implemented to effectively oversee the, you know, such a large portfolio? 

Ethan: Hiring other [00:23:00] people. I 

Parkes: don't 

Ethan: manage my units. Yeah. Yeah. 

Parkes: What systems do they have, like? 

Ethan: We use Appfolio. Um, we used to use QuickBooks. Uh, QuickBooks is probably a little bit easier because you don't need 50 units to be able to To AppFolio, you have to have 50 units to even get the app.

It doesn't matter if you wanna pay for it or not. Yes, sir. Um, AppFolio though, lets you run everything on in house. So you can send out invoices, you can send, you can do track your p and l, you can figure out which tenants are late, send them notices through it, so it's really, really functional. 

Parkes: What was that transition like from managing yourself to hiring out your team?

Ethan: Before Andrew, which is who works for me now, and he's actually not even managing it, um, but I had a guy that was very good in that realm of management and just [00:24:00] knew That. So like I was going to a professional and you know, in my mind you, you're, I'm learning all these things as a new investor, I was never a property manager.

Like I'd never been trained on that. I'd only read books on it. So it was very, okay, you want how much money and you're gonna per, you're gonna do. X, Y, and Z. Alright, that sounds good to me. Let's do it. So it was, it was not a hard tra like even quitting my job, that wasn't a hard transition. I was like, peace, I'm outta here.

I got, you know, I gotta do stuff. This is the time to make that move. So that was what was happening during that. So I was out there. I was out looking for a manager. Mm-hmm . Yeah. 

Parkes: Yeah. Gotcha. So did you need to set up like any kind of business as a, you know, property management? LLC to hire these people? We did have, we 

Ethan: did, used to have a property management company.

Um, when my sister used to work for me, my little sister used to work for me, and her and my mom ran the entire back end before we brought that employee on. But once we, uh, once we [00:25:00] hired, uh, the guy that used to do property management for us, he handled it all. 

Parkes: How do you approach, or how does your team approach tenant relationships to make sure both parties are satisfied?

Ethan: We don't let tenants know that we own the building. Um, that was a pretty big thing. I read this book called Landlording on Autopilot by Mike Butler, and it, It, it gave this comparison to like when you're shopping at a retail store and, you know, you don't get what you want. Who do you ask to talk to? You ask to talk to the manager, because you know that they have the power to fix whatever it is that you think is wrong with the situation.

It's very similar with tenants and landlords, right? Like if And sometimes, these things, real bad stuff happens, and that's not what I don't want, like, so, someone brings up, like, you know, my grandma died, and I have to pay for some of her funeral, like, I don't want to be put on the spot in that moment to make that decision, like, I, whether I, I [00:26:00] have the, Authority to make that decision right there on spot.

I don't want to make that. I want time to process. I want to be able to think about like, okay, am I, am I going to just delay her rent payment and say, okay, you can just pay it next month? Or am I going to be like, you know what? You've been a great tenant. You've been here for a couple of years. Don't worry about paying rent this month.

Like, but to, for X amount of people, and with how young I look, like, it's very easy for people to try to take advantage or, or think that I came from a situation that, like, my parents gave me this money or something. They'll make whatever story in their head. But if you, uh, separate yourself from that, like, uh, position of authority, then it's just like, I'm just doing my job.

Yeah, I'll tell the, I'll tell whoever I need, I'll talk to the team, um, about your grandma, I'm really sorry to hear that, um, and I'll get back to you shortly. Gotcha. 

Parkes: Makes sense. Have you ever had any of those situations? Oh, yeah, all the time. 

Ethan: That's yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so and sometimes it Is okay, and we [00:27:00] just you know wish them the the let them take the month and not pay or whatever it is and other times it's like other just trying to you know come up with some story and Not pay rent or whatever it is, so.

What do you 

Parkes: think makes a property most appealing to, to buyers or renters? Probably that they 

Ethan: can see it being their home. Like, envisioning their family or having memories there, whether it be in the yard, whether it be in the kitchen in the living room is great for hosting. Um, I checked out a property yesterday with an investor, and he's looking for it for his family.

So he flips and has rental properties himself, but he's actually house hunting for his family right now. And the house needs to be remodeled, but it's in pretty good condition already. And we walked in and like the first thing we both said was like, This is huge. It's great for hosting. So it kind of just depends on like the family and the individual, I'd guess.

But nobody likes tight quarters. Most people like some [00:28:00] room, you know. More than one bathroom is always nice. Um, as far as residential goes, if you buy anything outside of a three bedroom, two bath, your target of who your buyer is, is less than 50 percent of the people on the market. Crazy just by not hitting that sink.

Now you can go to a three bedroom and three bath. You still get to capture the buyers that are in the three bath or three bed, two bath pool. But for example, if you only have a two bed, two bath, nobody looking for a three bed will ever buy that same with a three bed, one bath. If they've got kids, nobody that's looking for, that needs two bathrooms will ever buy a 3 1.

Right, right. 

Parkes: Interesting. Did you have any mentors coming up in this industry, and how did they help you grow this business? I have 

Ethan: so many mentors. People that have taken time to out of their [00:29:00] way. Um, first few off my head would probably be like Dustin Kupka, Jason Kupka. Um, both of them were the first people that took any time, uh, to start coaching me.

I've got a partner in Seattle, Derek. He's good stuff. Uh, learned a lot from a coach that I paid, Greg. A guy named Alex. The person we made the transition to with the bar, um, Jonathan, he's an absolute savage for business, so I try to learn as much as I can from him. 

Parkes: That's awesome. Yeah. How do you find these mentors?

Ethan: The one coach I had to pay for is 25 grand. He would have taken anybody's money. You know what I mean? The others I haven't paid. I think it's just like showing that you have value like right now, right? The reason we're doing this you're making this all free. It's very easy for me and I get content out of it So it's like proving to those people that are in Or at x level where you're, you [00:30:00] know way not at yet is what value?

Can you bring to them, or do they happen to see a sliver of themselves in you because you're working really hard? You know, and a lot of those guys, the reason they gave me the time of day is because somewhere in the past, somebody gave them that time of day. And the way me and Sam met, you know, he was a younger investor and stuff, it's the same thing, it's my duty almost.

To like, give back, because it was given to me, too. 

Parkes: Yeah. Can you share, do you have any success stories of, uh, mentoring somebody else? I helped Sam 

Ethan: do this, negotiate his first dollar financing deal. Um, a few, I've had a couple students, um, I don't, like, advertise that I do code. That's not, like, a guru social media code.

That's not what I want. I'd rather be doing deals. Um, Yolita is a professor at Drake for, like, [00:31:00] biology or chemistry. And I think she's in her late fifties. And She was, the, the words of affirmation she gave me after coaching and like, it was like 12 sessions for an hour each and her understanding of numbers, like the way we could communicate about real estate was at such a higher level because we were using the correct vocabulary and we understood what, you know, one another was saying when we're trying to analyze a property or get to like, is this a good deal or is this a bad deal?

Because every, every property is a deal. You just don't know if it's a good deal or it's a bad deal. 

Parkes: What's been some of the best advice that you've gotten from all of your mentors over the years? One is to, like, stay level 

Ethan: headed. I have a problem with getting, like, pretty, like, high highs and low lows. Um, But it's really hard to regulate when there's a lot on the table.

And entrepreneurs, like, are always juggling a lot, I'm sure you know. So it's just staying regulated in the chaos. [00:32:00] I can make great, I'm a great problem solver. Like, I operate well in chaos, but my mood is easily noticeable. And I wish I had a better job on having a handle on that. So, to just Be calm and chaos, probably.

Yeah. The next one When I was a younger investor, I always said I wanted, like, a thousand units. And This guy, Alex, is actually the guy, one of the guys I mentioned. He was like, why? And I was like, what do you mean, why? And he was like, do you even know how much money that'll produce? And so I started doing some of the numbers, and I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he was like, why do you need that much money? And he's like, what about that lifestyle are you like attracted to? And it really reset my mind. He's like, you're, you're being ridiculous. He's like, pick the amount of money you want, right? For your lifestyle, whether that's a 500k [00:33:00] a year, a million a year.

If you want 5 million a year, like, that's the target. And then divide backwards from there. So if you're making You know, 500 in cash flow per unit. We'll divide that by how many, how much dollars for the annual you want. And then you'll be able to, rather than just saying this like stupid number, it's like we're in the beginning.

You're like, do you have 95 units? I could, sometimes that sounds really cool when I go to a real estate conference, but I could meet somebody that has four units in Seattle. That's worth more than my entire 95 units combined. Just from location or New York, you take that to see, you know what I mean? So it's, that was a big transition of like, kill your ego.

Like there, there's no room for that here. And when you meet real players and you talk that way, you're just going to be, you're just going to sound like a kid, man. 

Parkes: So switching gears, your TikTok content has impressive 212, 000 followers. How is, how did that come to be? It was after [00:34:00] COVID. 

Ethan: I went through some stuff and like, wasn't in the best headspace and it lit a fire to just be like, I'm going to build an amazing business.

Like I refuse to not. Hit my potential, but I was also broke, so we needed a way to do marketing and advertising. And I was just like, all right, I'm going to start. I used to do digital broadcasting in college when I wrestled. So I kind of had a knack for a little bit of editing. And so I just was like, you know what?

I have 52 followers on Tik TOK. I'm going to make a video every day about real estate. for a month, and I'm gonna see what happens. And every day, one to two videos. And I think I got out like 38 to 40 videos in my first month, so I did a little bit more than just one. By the end of the first month, I think I had like 3, 000 followers, and I was like, okay, there's something here.

I took a week off, and then I did it again. And by the end of that, I think I [00:35:00] was at like 8, 000. So I'd even done better than my first month. I was like, alright, I'm, I'm gonna do this. And I stayed pretty consistent, um, for the next few months, and it was dead. Like, I think it took, I think for the next four months, I maybe got up to like 15, 000.

Um And then I made that video about a millionaire neighbor next door buys my house. Or some shit like that. That was the picture thing. And I did like a part one, a part two, and a part three. And part two pop the fuck off and I woke up to like 000 followers because I posted it like 10pm, which you're not supposed to do, but it was like, ah, I didn't put a video out today, like whatever, I'll do it.

So I went to bed, woke up, I thought my phone was like glitching or something, it was crazy. And then from that point on, I was like, all right, there's something here. And I [00:36:00] started making more than other investors started hearing out. So then I got flown out to Seattle. I got flown out to Dallas. We got flown out to Hawaii and these investors just wanted to hang out.

And for me to make them content and just talk real estate and that that's kind of where things really, I'm, I met my business partner, Ashley. I have five units in Kansas city. Um, I met her at a conference in Vegas because, and I was there because of tick tock is, you know, I met my partner. In Seattle, Derek, he messaged me because I made a video about a 1031 tax exchange, which is a real estate, uh, way to avoid capital gains.

Uh, and now me and him have owned real estate together. So TikTok was huge. 

Parkes: Nice. So it's really impacted your, your real estate. Deals in a way. Yeah, that's cool What advice would you have for aspiring real estate investors looking to leverage social media for growth? [00:37:00] Don't be worried about making 

Ethan: perfect content.

Don't get hung up on the bad negative comments. It's just part. It just comes with it And like, who makes negative, I, I, I've never gone on a random person's page and made random just negative content. People who are doing things with their lives, they're not, they're not the ones behind the keyboard talking that shit.

So like, don't worry about it. Yeah. 

Parkes: They're, they're living vicariously through you. Yeah, yeah. So you've shared some inspiring quotes on your, your Facebook. Uh, live in the light or die in the dark. What's that mean to you? Man, where did 

Ethan: you go to find that? That was in a post from a while ago. Live in the light or die in the dark.

I think, you know, when you relate what fear is, it's, it's a very dark, um, place to be. And I can understand why staying complacent feels good to a lot of people, but staying complacent to me is absolutely It's terrifying and I think what's [00:38:00] scary is not knowing and you know with, I don't know if you're religious or not, but like with, when it comes to the term light, when you shine light on something, you know, it reveals what it is and so when you study things or when you consume more knowledge, uh, knowledge and you become more well rounded, your light, you know, expands and you get to you.

Bless other people, and you get to operate in a different way. And, uh, that's just kind of been like one of my philosophies. If I'm scared, I just don't know enough about it. And the only way to conquer that is to step outside of my comfort zone, learn what's going on, and then my comfort zone just expands.

And so if I'm not doing things that push that, then ultimately I'm just gonna be in a dark room. That's, you know Lonely, scary, and you die. 

Parkes: Yeah, yeah. How's the mindset of failure is success if we [00:39:00] learn from it? How does that influence, um, your approach to challenges in business? I fail all the time. I, all 

Ethan: the time, and they, and they take, it normally costs money too.

So I just accounted to, well, I won't make that mistake again. Or there's not, there's not a teacher I could have gone to necessarily in school to have helped avoid this. There's just part of it, right? Like you, you have to have some failure. What's a failure you've encountered from, from the market since you started this section of your business, I guess, 

Parkes: biggest failure.

Yeah, 

Ethan: yeah, yeah, sure. But that you look at it as like, Okay, I'm happy this happened. 

Parkes: I would see failures that I've encountered through this process has been a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, like, like editing, using different softwares, and trying new softwares, and having to restart my entire process because I used a new software and I spent Three hours on it and it didn't work.

Yeah. So that would probably [00:40:00] be hurdles that I've had to What about like trying to 

Ethan: get a client? Failures at trying to get a client? Yeah, tell me a failure about trying to go after a client, or like a cold call, or like a conversation where you burnt the bridge. Ha ha 

Parkes: ha. You know, it's kind of funny because doing a lot of cold calls and being in the marketing world, you get your, you get the door slammed in your face, you get them to hang.

If you mention the word marketing, they hang up on you. Yeah. And, uh, so this, honestly, the podcast has kind of been a workaround to networking with business owners is, Hey, come on my podcast. Let me, you know, let's have a conversation. Let me hear your story. Yeah. Um, see how I can help you. Yeah. And it's kind of that soft open into how can I help you advertise your, your services or your business.

So have you made content yourself? Content for my agency? For, sure, for your agency. I haven't. This is, this is kind of my introduction. This is your 

Ethan: introduction for it. Yeah. That's awesome, [00:41:00] man. 

Parkes: That's been another fear of mine is, is putting content out there, and so this is kind of my way of forcing myself to do it.

To do that. Is 

Ethan: that why you're not doing video yet? Cause like, how are you gonna get the, like, how do you, in your mind as a marketing, how would you get the same impact or, uh, traffic to stuff? Spotify, Apple, whatever you're putting the audio at, how are you going to get that extra traction from outside platforms?

I 

Parkes: mean, I'm doing video for, and I take the clips from the video and I promote the audio podcast that way. Yeah, that's, where do you put the video clips though? Facebook, Instagram. Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm using video that way. I haven't started publishing full video content, um, just because it's a lot of editing.

It's so much editing. And the amount of things I'm already juggling, doing the audio editing myself is already time consuming. I need to eventually, you know, [00:42:00] have some processes and hire it out. Um, I haven't got there yet, but I'm your episode number six. So I'm getting there. Yeah, I'm getting good. So There 

Ethan: you go, so there you go.

Parkes: Yeah last quote that I found was uh life consists not of in holding good cards, but in playing those you hold well How does this apply to your real estate strategy? 

Ethan: Like there's a lot of things I'm bad at. I'm actually dyslexic. I'm heavily dyslexic. So like spelling and reading My close friends give me shit about it all the time, but I'm I'm a I'm really good with numbers.

I can When you know what seller financing is and you're good with numbers you can make work just from the terms of how the deal is being structured. And I think there's a lot of people that struggle with that. So, like, I could, you know, get hung up that, like, I [00:43:00] can't spell a ton of words, or that when I send out an e mail, it's red squigglies all through that thing.

Or I could, you know, kind of just embrace it. I can be the lively kind of personality that I can have. I'm, I'm pretty respectful and just a lot of people I think get hung up on like, Oh, you know, I have these disadvantages or, or this person has this advantage ahead of me. And therefore I somehow can't obtain the same results that they have.

Uh, and I think that's a really limited and. Non empowering way to look at it. So, I don't care about what other, you know, cards are in the deck. Like, these are the ones I got and these are the ones I'm going to work with. And, and my mindset on that is pretty firm. 

Parkes: Yeah. What projects are you most excited about right now in the commercial real estate space?

Anything coming down the pipe? [00:44:00]

Ethan: Sam is putting together a deal actually right now as we speak. We need to, he got the counter for it. Um, I've got a deal. It's actually a few blocks away. It's like, it's 50, 000 square feet. It's a 1. 95 million purchase price. We're doing seller financing. Um. At 3. 75 percent interest.

So I'm not sure if you're familiar with like what prime interest rates are right now. They're significantly higher than that. So to be able to secure a loan at that interest rate is huge. Um, and then I'm really excited what we got going on the bar. Like I brought in comedy nights. We got like salsa nights trying to get in.

country dancing there, like, every other week. Put a few EDM concerts. It's cool. 

Parkes: What's the name of your bar again? 

Ethan: Sam's Place. Sam's Place. Up in Ames, right? In Ames, yeah. 125 Main Street. 

Parkes: Yeah. Oh. How has that been, you know, owning 

Ethan: a bar? I've cried more times in these past six months than I have probably in, like, two years combined.[00:45:00]

Um, I bought a job. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I knew it was going to be a lot, but no project I've ever had has worked out the way I thought it was. Like, it's just not. And I'm used to that now. Um, but it, it, I knew it was going to be a lot, but it was more than a lot that I thought it was going to be.

You know, a few weekends ago I did, Three, back to backs, doubles. So that was 45 hours in three days that I had worked. And normal people do 40 hours and five , 45 and three. So like, it's just part of it. Like I, I love this game. I love seeing what I can accomplish and you know, not living in the confined box that a lot of people choose to stay in.

Yeah. 

Parkes: Where do you see your business in the next 5 to 10 years? Any goals for 2025? 

Ethan: For 2025 or the next 5 to 10 years? Both, yeah. Um, 2025 I want to wipe out debt. [00:46:00] Um, so that the position I'm in with the holdings that I do have are more profitable. So I got to do some deals to get some liquid cash to wipe that debt out.

Next five to ten years, my son will be 15 or 20, and I do not want to be in Iowa anymore. Um, he'll be old enough at that point that I won't have to be, you know, around all the time for, for that kind of stuff. I can fly in and out, but I do not like it here. I like to snowboard, and if I'm going to be cold, there are better days.

Damn well be a mountain around. Where do you want to go? You know, I don't know. Colorado's cool. Um, the Carolinas are cool. Uh, I really like Kansas. I have a second primary in Kansas City. So I have a fourplex down there. And then I have a condo in the river market. And that's just like a second place that we stay when we kind of go chase deals down there.

I like Kansas City, but it's, you know, it's just only because it's close to my son that I can get back [00:47:00] here really quickly. But somewhere with mountains, and somewhere that's warmer. 

Parkes: Yeah. Will you take your business with you? Will you do deals out in the Denver? 

Ethan: Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, I want to keep doing it.

But ideally I'd like to build enough up here so that when I get out there I'm not, like, pressured to have to put a deal together to You know, keep food on the table or something like that. That's, I won't move, but I'll wait until things are secure. There's enough coming in and the team's in a good place that I can, I can make that move.

Right, 

Parkes: yeah. How do you balance scaling your business with maintaining the quality and personal life? No, 

Ethan: I don't. I don't. I knew that's where you're going with that question. 

Parkes: Do you believe entrepreneurs can have a work life balance, or do you think it's one of those things where you have to obsess over it?

Ethan: You have to. In the beginning, I think you can grow to that, but like to get Those results. Kobe and MJ didn't have balance. When they, like, what? All they did was shoot. Like, they, a lot of these people, like, [00:48:00] you know, like, what, what balance did Steve Jobs have? Like, all he did was sit in that garage and, like, So, not, not that I'm comparing myself to those people, but if I'm looking to have results outside of the norm, I have to have a higher input than the norm.

Do I need to be better at it? A hundred percent. Is it gonna happen overnight? No. And, and I've had these conversations with the people that I care most about, where, like, if they truly love me, this is what they want from me, too. And now my, you know, my son has gets to see what like, this is, you had a single dad that built a business when his parents didn't have any money.

And like, this wasn't given to us. And like, he's come to my projects. So it's like all these things that I've done wrong. I don't have the balance figured out. I'm not the one to ask 

Parkes: that. What advice would you give to somebody thinking about getting into house flipping or commercial real estate, just business in general?

Ethan: Probably like, callous your mind as like, much as [00:49:00] possible. Don't take advice This is actually my quote that I love, like, I'd never take advice on how to fly a plane from someone who's only ever driven a car. I don't take business advice from people who don't own businesses. I don't take financial advice from someone who's not in a financial position I aspire to be in.

And sometimes I can sound really, like, off putting, but it's like, you don't go to a doctor and hope that they can fix your fucking car. So it's like, respect people in their, in their due categories and study, read. I read this book, what was it called? Top Ten Differences Between the Millionaires and the Middle Class.

And there was one line in the book, I have goosebumps right now because I can't make this stuff up, but there was one line in the book that said, if you read the right books, you can learn in two weeks what it took [00:50:00] someone a decade or their entire life to learn. Right? So at that point, with me even being dyslexic, I was like, Oh my gosh, I have to get over this.

I have to read books. So read. Go and study people that are in the position that you want to go. Go work for them for free. Like, before Sam got just, like, unlimited attention or my time, like, the amount of shit I put Sam through with, like, he was, like, cooking for me and cleaning for me, driving me around so I could edit while he's driving or I could do email, like go and find someone that's in a higher position and then like be their water boy and, and prove and go through that grinding rather than like, well, how much are you going to pay me per hour if I'm your assistant?

So break that, break that mindset real quick. Yeah. Stop trying to trade your time for money, you know? 

Parkes: So I noticed in your bio, and tattooed on your arm, sign me too. Is that, uh, a quote or philosophy that you live by that [00:51:00] keeps you grounded and focused? 

Ethan: Yeah, live without, uh, live without fear. It's not live without, it's without fear, is the actual, what that means.

Um, and it's Latin. I actually, I went to Ireland and went to the Jameson distillery. It's on every Jameson bottle, now it's not related, I mean. The thing goes a lot deeper than that, um, but it is on actually every Jameson bottle and that's where I heard the kind of the history of that phrase, um, with it being Latin and it was fascinating.

And so You know, I mentioned Faith earlier, and it's just a lot of what I do, it's terrifying, like, I don't know if I'm making the right call, I don't know if I'm spent too much money, you know, you start talking about six and seven figures amount of money. If I make a mistake, like, and I have people like my, my, my mom's on my payroll.

Um, as she deserves to be, because she's a superhero. But, like, if I mess up, that's a lot of people [00:52:00] that are counting on me to do the right thing. And I think when you become fearful, or you let that hinder your ability to make choices, it, it can really have nasty side effects. And that's just not a way I want to Yeah, that's awesome.

Parkes: Well, where can listeners connect with you, follow your journey? TikTok? 

Ethan: I don't post as much as I will be getting back to my TikTok grinds. I'm pretty active on Instagram, decently active on Facebook. Um, yeah, it's Ethan Montang and all that stuff, so reach out. I'd be more than happy to have a conversation.

Yeah? Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks again for being on the show. Dude, I appreciate it. so 

Parkes: much. Hey guys, real quick, thank you for making it all the way through the episode. We appreciate you taking the time out of your day to listen and learn from our incredible guests. If you enjoyed today's conversation and want to support the show, the biggest thing that would help us is if you subscribe, share, or leave us a review.

Until next time, keep hustling.