EPISODES
Episode 19.
William Sweet, CEO of Sweet Ventures, LLC
What do the UNCT our hills, Arizona cardinals, forty niners, Dallas cowboys and Atlanta Falcons all have in common? This week’s guest, William Sweet, has been on the roster of them all. I caught up with William to talk about his journey from Jimmy John’s to the NFL and beyond into the world of real estate investing. Transitional Housing is a big part of his world and we unpacked every bit of it all while William was on site at a potential project and west side of Atlanta. Pro Tip, if you’re ever in the area, West Egg is my favorite brunch spot. Thanks for listening. You’re listening to the real estate of things podcast. Welcome to the real estate of things podcast. I’m your host, Dalton Elliott, joined today by very special guests, Mr William Sweet. William, thank you for joining. Hey, Dlin, thanks for having me, man, it is great to have you. You are, as you sit in at a project in Atlanta. All right, yes, are we’re actually here on site right now. One of the tenants was just removed from the property from actually squatton on the house, but it was not in the best conditions right now, but it’s an opportunity to look and invest into this property I’m standing behind. I love it. I definitely want to dig into that with you. And Yeah, you hit the now on the head. The more of a quagmire and quandrea project is, the the bigger the opportunity. So so I love it. Anytime you know investors, you see a property property differently than kind of a retail buyer, right. You just see not so much what it is today but what it can be down the road. So that’s super exciting. You have a very unique background. You’ve been in the NFL. That is a huge, huge piece, huge difference and I want to even take it back a little bit before you got into the League and talk about Jimmy John’s. Right. You and I chatted a little bit before recording this podcast episode and we talked pretty extensively about how your experience at Jimmy John’s really shaped your view and your trajectory and your goals. Really impactful story. I wonder if you could share a little bit about that. Absolutely man. I was blessed to Receive Thirty Division One scholarship off was coming out of first goes high school, member of the national has society, whom school is always important to me and I wanted to go to a university and I could call home not for just the next four years but the next forty years. I can meet people of great influence and also helped me reach my goals and dreams off the field. And when I first got to college football was cool, but I told the coaches I wanted to work and make some money and they introduce me to really nice gentleman by the name of Peter Fox, and he’s the leading franchise, the owner of Jimmy Jones and you know, I work for him, busted tables at the restaurants, did all the operations when I was actually in charge of three…
…worst performance stores and its franchise, and by the time I left they became the best performance stores in his entire business. So that was that was really good. That’s wild and and you know you think so. I not remotely on the level that you did, but I, like most American boys, played football and the the dream at some point there when you’re playing is you know, you watch football at that on Sunday, you play football throughout the week and you like, Gosh, I want to make it. They’re very early on it was abundantly clear to me that I was not going to make a career out of that. But for you, you had the opportunity to get into the league and you you kind of had a different mindset. Right. Your mindset was that the league time there was maybe supplementary to your bigger goals really on their real estate side of the fence. Right. Absolutely, I learned at a very early age that you want to have as much of your money working for you instead of you working so hard for it. And once I kind of realized of you know, I’m going to internship, I’m taking six or eight crewd hours in the summer, I’m going to prey like is going to team captain’s, all this stuff, and when I would get to my job or my internship, I noticed that everybody in this building was working for this one person, is one family, and it’s my mindset of assets or reliabilities, and that I start us to learn more about the state, learning about how can you collect passive income and how can you receive the rent instead of paying the rent? Right, and for me it was a mindset shift of how can I one acquire capital that I can disperse into purpose and real estate and also once that how can I maintain or generate a cash flow positive return? Real estate was the answer to that. I read a rich, that poor dead. I’m a rookie year in NFL. I senisely invested all our money into stocks and real estate because I wanted to figure out how can I generate passive income, and real estate has been very good to us. We were able to start out on Jacksonville fordable two homes that my grandparents pat now and we put about Thirtyzero in the renovation, redid the wall of Redid the floor and some piping issues that we also had, but they were paid off friend players. So we were able to use their investment model and now we have seven houses in Jacksonville. That’s great. So, so you had there’s first couple of properties. So walk me through the first property outside of your grandparents home that you did. Did you? Is it a project that you did by yourself? Did you have partners? Was it a rehab is a long term hold? What was that first kind of from scratch project that you did? Certainly so. What we decided to do was the…
…partner with another real estate investor and we decided to purchase these properties together and that made it more that put us in a better position to analyze deals with from with the third party and coming together analyzing different deals. That way, we could not deploy all of our capital and to deal, but we could partner on deals and have those shared commenters in terms of a return. So, thanks to our business partner back home in Jacksonville, we were able to scare out our business model and to acquire more properties without putting all of our cash and by ourselves. God He got it. So I think now is a good point. You are at a property and you said West Atlanta Right. Yes, so the west side of Atlanta is booming. West side is booming it and you can actually see from upstairs a lot of the former tenants stuff and it was a situation where, I believe this this family, they squatted on this house about two years during the pandemic and all the kind of stuff, and they finally were able to properly removed the family that wasn’t paying rent. And now it’s on the market and I just got a proof for a million dollars line of credits to purchase real estate and I’m looking to get the best deal and also put myself in a position to collect miss must passive income as I possibly can from purchasing this property using leverage and using other people’s money in terms of loans and stuff like that. That’s the way to do it. You can. You can buy one house with one hundred percent of the money. Are you buy ten houses with ten percent down? That whole mindset. Yeah, I leverage is the way to go and I absolutely love Atlanta. I’m in Greenville, South Carolina, two and a half hours away from Atlanta. Down there incredibly frequently and I you know, I need to make the move sometime, but sooner than later. But the west side of Atlanta, yeah, it just in the last you know, the last couple of years, but you go back last five, ten years, it’s booming. They have a lot of old, beautiful brick buildings that from you know, retail, restaurant commercial standpoints that have been turned into you know upfit the inside of it. One of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta West Egg. I’m if you’re familiar with that, but I love Westagg I love it. I love it. I love it go to the anytime I’m in Atlanta. I I think I’ve stayed true to every time since my friend Courtney Newman, showed me that spot. Every time I get down there I’ll make it a on the way out swing by. So talk to me about what’s attractive to you about the west side of Atlanta. What what kind of things are going on that really as you looking at it as an investment opportunity. You know, I think it’s a great time to invest in Atlanta in general, but as it relates to the west side, there’s still a lot of different opportunities to where. A lot of big developers, a lot of big investment firms are focusing on the west side because it’s it’s almost like the last part of the city that’s to really integrate into newer developments and there’s still a lot of opportunities…
…for older homes that could use a lot of work and for it’s not but I looked at a property yesterday really a lot different than where I’m standing today, but it will still beautiful property. This this house, is still a beautiful property, but it had brand new appliances, park floors, everything’s freshly renovated, from the kitchen to the cabinets, whereas the House that I’m currently in right now, it’s still could still have some room for improvement and I think that’s kind of like the common theme of a lot of houses here on the west side. That’s kind of being the last area to really grow and develop into being gentrified in that aspect. So it’s still it’s still tons of opportunities here in Atlanta, but the west side specifically, it’s the place to be. I love it. I love that. Yeah, the especially now with how home price appreciation is skyrocketed. It’s just gotten tougher and tougher the last couple of years and even real estate investing as a whole has just become more popular. You have more people flooding into real estate at just as an asset class and you have to be all the more sharp, all the more critical whenever you’re looking to get into a project. So if you if you end up taking this property down, what’s the what’s the game playing with it? So this particular property, you can see some of the floors still need to be done, but the game plan is to create a shared living space to where people at the community can have an affordable place to stay, out of shared living situation to where we would assisially rent out each room and everyone would share the common area, such as the living room or the amenities. That is the grill in the bag and they can still have a home field at affordable prices. Because that’s something else that is really big issue here in Atlanta is affordability and affordable housing, and we want to be a part of the solution and not the problem. And if we can come in and help and, you know, fix some put some paint on the wall and apply some smartmold floors and just provide homes for people of the community to live in affordably, and I think that’s a great opportunity for us to get back to the community and also give people places to stay that they may or may not have the ability to purchase themselves, and it’s a win win for us because we get a chance to finally invest here in Atlanta. We have forty two units in Jacksonville, Florida, and our business model in Jacksonville has been to cater towards people re entering back into society and I believe this particular home where we are right now, we want to make this property available for anyone who’s in need of housing versus those who are formerly concerrated. I think from us…
…from a diversification standpoint. That will allow us to continue growing our grantry programs in Jacksonville and will allow us to provide affordable housing for everyone here in Atlanta. So this is a perfect house. It’s a three level home, is right here on the west side. Really Nice backyard and I’ll show you as as I continue to walk around, this is actually a front deck out here. That’s the front yard down there where all those lovely items are. But I’m on the second level now. I just left the master bedroom here and it’s a really nice area. Still Lots of work that needs to be done, but that’s that’s the thought process of renting our each room inside the home and allowing every client of us to have their own safe space, an opportunity to live right here, close to downtown, you know, a really nice home feeling, and make it affordable for each client to have somewhere nice to stay. I’m such a fan of that. I’ve talked with a couple of investors over the last few weeks who really truly in a great a noble purpose into their investing and personally, for me, during covid the first few months, whenever everything was locked down nobody was going anywhere other than the grocery store. I’ve had sort of a flip of the switch mentally and that it’s not all about the money. If you allow your life to be all about the money and that is the only thing driving you, you know, I’m sure there’s some people it works for, but but personally, from my philosophical standpoint, you have to have something above and beyond money’s important. Money’s great, but I think you can also just sleep better at night if you have a good noble calls and you mentioned the Jacksonville Transitional Housing and I want to pick your brain about that a little bit. You are awarded your group number one in Florida by the largest private prison for the work you’ve done in the transnational housing area there. So how did you get into transitional housing? Absolutely, we would definitely honest. I have that a would have been recognized for being one of the best providers in the state of Florida and actually in two thousand and nineteen. We were looking for different options in terms of invest into the real estate. We wanted to help people and we have the most impact on helping people that had limited options or places to the state and it was an opportunity for us to not only give back to our community but also help change lives. And being from Jacksonville and understanding the community and dynamics of how that environment is and and actually growing up and making an out of that type of environment, we understood what it’s like being in some of these situations that our clients they experience and we wanted to provide them an opportunity not only places to…
…live, but to give them opportunities to provide jobs for them and to help provide mental health resources or any drug and alcohol abuse services that they needed. So for us, it was more so about how can we have the most impact on helping people and people coming back from from prison, you know, may have not have had any family to help assist them, who may be new to the area, who maybe they’re from Alabama but got arrested in Florida and they just needed how is it does need it services. So we were able to help a lot of people out and just some of our stories that our clients have told us in terms of Mrs Sweet, you help saying my life. You know, Mr Sweet, thank you so much. That is more impactful than anything I can only imagine that it sounds intoxicating in a way, right, like you you have somebody who tells you that they’ve impacted there’s, that you have impacted their life to that degree, it just has to make you hungry to effectuate that kind of change throughout more people’s lives, right, like just becomes a flywheel. Absolutely so, how does I guess, getting into the the nitty gritty of it a little bit, how does it cash flow? Like the property you’re standing in, I just ball park. How does it cash flow? And you don’t have to do specific like exact numbers, but how does it compare to if you just held it as a single family rental? What’s that look like? Absolutely so, for us, traditionally, you take a three bedroom to bathroom, you run out some single family that’s safe for twelve hundred a month, right, and you would hope and pray that that one family would pay the rent on time. Share living is a more effective way of helping more people, provided more service to people that need them, and also it can help provide more resources for those staying inside of the so if you have a this, for example, of this particular home, and this is actually I’m on a third level here. This is a really large bedroom outside, has a closet here with a nice fan and also has a nice view of all of our luxurious items outside. But there there is a total two bedrooms. On this level. There’s a one bathroom on this level and on the other level there is three bedrooms with another full bathroom. So essentially the traditional model has always been to run out this five bedroom to one single family, where with the shared living situation, you can now run out each bedroom and essentially, instead of collecting one rent payment on the first of the month, ideally would be five different individuals paying rent…
…instead of the one single family. So that that’s the ability or the power that it has in terms of paying paying it forward to those living in the house. You can provide better amenities versus versus which when you only have one single family in here. My plan is to make this home as awesome as I possibly can and to really look at it as if I was staying in one of these rooms, and for me that means going all out, because I love being comfortable, I love being I love the luxury within my own home. So each room will reflect it being well done done the right way. I love it. I love that approach. I love it. So can I selfishly pick your brain with a couple of football related questions? Absolutely all right. What was your if it’s not one thing, name a couple. What were some of your favorite and least favorite things about being in the League? My assume practice was your favorite. Right, we can start with practice. Practice was probably my least thing just because it was so far away from Game Day. That makes sense, and you know to play that sport, practice is nothing like Game Day. It never will be, has never been. But Game Day and you practice isn’t very important. But as it relates to it being my least favorite thing, it was because the game was so far away. So if you if you got a game on Sunday, you guys play, play the game, you come back in Monday and Tuesday. You got to wait a whole you got to win a whole week just to go out there again. Right now. It’s good. So you can game playing, you can pair some mentally physically spiously, not like and stuff, but it’s just that anticipation is it kills you inside. So practice with my least favorite part because the games were so far away from it. My favorite part, of course, Game Day. Hundreds of thousands of fans, your family’s in the building. Just the energy and the competitive nature on Game Day is is second and nine. I mean you got guys trying to compete for jobs, you got gas, competing for feed their families and you know, the bright lights on you. So it’s an adrenaline rus just talking about it. But Game Day was definitely my favorite part. I love it. In a facetime call you and I had a few weeks back, he showed me a photo of you on the field next to Zeek. I just savored that moment. I’m a lifelong cowboys fan. My Dad he was born in one thousand nine hundred and fifty six. So when he was growing up it was America’s team, like the height of it, and you know, Roger Stall back was his quarterback. I grew up, you know, I was born in ninety two and so I kind of missed the Acheman, Emmett Smith,…
Michael Irving glory days. I was a little too young to really remember it. So I remember the Quincy Carter, the going through a bunch of quarterbacks and then we finally got Tony Romo and thought that was going to be at I thought a super bowl was in the cards every year. Didn’t pan out, but yeah, it’s crazy great. was there a place that the the Game Day was just exceptional compared to the others? Because I know you spent some time and a couple different big teams. So was one different? Is all kind of the same, same level and vibe. I will say actually playing in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. It’s one of those state of state of the art stadiums. Atnt stadium down in Arlington Texas Best Stadium by far. Is Really Loud. It gets really loud, as you know, being a cowboy fan and support of the cowboys. It’s America’s team for reason. And yes, I want to say Dallas Dallas Stadium is it’s a place you want to want to experience, for sure. Yeah, it is. I have to make it to a game there, but I did this stadium tour and it’s a place that doesn’t seem like there’s had set the house. It’s nothing like it. Is No other stadium like it, nothing like it. Yeah, it is beautiful, beautiful. So look, William, I absolutely loved getting to chat with you. So cool that you carved out time while you’re out at a property that’s a first for the real estate of things podcast, doing a little remote action. I love it. Thanks so much and we’re going to have to get you on here again for another episode so you can give us an update. Man. Thank you so much. I appreciate you have this man us and sweet benches, are more than proud to be a part of this right. Thank you so much, William. Thanks to everybody for listen and take care. Are you a real estate investor looking for the right lender that can finance all your deals and help you scale? Lima one capital has the best suite of loan products in the industry, Barnet, whether that’s fix and flips, fix and holds, building new construction or buying rental properties, they have incredible financing solutions for it all. A reliable common since Linder is one of the most important parts of your investment team, and that’s exactly what you get with Lima one. Let Lima one capital show you how they’ve helped thousands of real estate investor scale and increase their wealth. Check out Lima onecom or call eight hundred two five, nine zero five ninety five to speak with the consultant and preparation for your next project. Thank you for joining us today on the real estate of things podcast. Subscribe and tune in weekly for new content from the industry’s best while we continue to unpack the nuances of this dynamic market. Follow US across social media for additional insights and analysis on the topics covered in each episode, and remember to rate, review and…
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