How He Bought a Million-Dollar Motel WITH $0 DOWN w/ Ian Joseph

Brian Luebben (0:00)

Dude, I just saw that you landed. I've got Spurs tickets tonight. You want to come sit in court side with me? I remember that you said that. I was like, oh crap, yeah, I absolutely do. There's so many opportunities that can be presented if you guys just like share your story, share what you're doing, and people come out of the woodwork.

Ian Joseph (0:13)

The Billy Motel acquisition is a master class in its own of deal finding and making process. The purchase price was 854,000 purchase price for the motel and the restaurant. Well, it's not for sale, but you heard the Billy Motel is. From the time I called the local bank to the time I got a commitment letter was two weeks. They were very supportive and were willing to provide the 20% down payment assistance.

Brian Luebben (0:34)

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you get a zero dollar down.

Ian Joseph (0:38)

We're looking at roughly a three million dollar expansion project. I think we should be anywhere from five to six million in value upon stabilization.

Brian Luebben (0:45)

That's how you do it. All right, all right. Welcome back to another episode of the Action Academy podcast. Today, ladies and gentlemen, we are doing a new segment where we are going into a specific deep dive of a deal not a deal deep dive like we've heard about before from Brandon Turner, but a deep dive of a deal with one of our Action Academy members, Mr. Ian here. So this is the first episode of an Acquisition Academy episode of the podcast. So we're going to do a new little segment where we go super deep into why the deal was done, how the deal was done, and how you guys can be able to implement this in your lives, in your businesses. So let's start first and foremost, Ian, who are you and what do we get done?

Ian Joseph (1:28)

Absolutely, Brian. Super glad to be here, man. Thank you for having me.

So the deal that I got done is a motel in a town called Davis, West Virginia, and the motel is the Billy Motel.

Brian Luebben (1:39)

Super cool. Now walk us through a little bit about some maybe some information about the deal itself, and then we'll walk backwards into where we were before, and what got us here today.

Ian Joseph (1:50)

Sure. So the motel is currently a ten room motel, and it's got a pretty kick-ass restaurant, which is one of the things I really liked about it. The restaurant and the motel have this symbiotic relationship. The motel relies on the restaurant, and the restaurant relies on the motel for success.

But I found out about the opportunity actually from another town I'm involved in in West Virginia called Berkeley Springs, which I'm sure we'll get into a little bit. But just talking to people, telling them what I'm looking for, and networking in Berkeley Springs, and covered that this motel was for sale. It was not very widely advertised. And so that's how I found it.

The purchase price was 854,000 purchase price for the motel and the restaurant. And that also included some land behind the restaurant and motel, which will be key to what we want to do next and really make this a really nice acquisition and long-term investment.

Brian Luebben (2:53)

Beautiful. So walk us through your hospitality. So you've chosen hospitality as your investment class here, and this is what you're obsessed with overall. So walk us through where we were before with your short-term rentals, and why are we pivoting here slightly over to the commercial side?

Ian Joseph (3:10)

Absolutely. So going back even a little bit further than my short-term rental background, I've always had an interest in real estate all the way back to my undergraduate degree. I was a civil engineer. I went into commercial construction, changed careers, and have been in commercial banking the last 18 years where I had the opportunity to finance commercial real estate projects, which has given me a skill set that is really useful in hospitality development. So having an interest in real estate, I dabbled a little bit in long-term rentals, and just didn't really find the energy and passion in real estate until I bought my first short-term rental back in 2023 And it was that experience that really got me hooked and addicted to hospitality.

I just love the feedback. I love guests giving feedback, both positive and negative, although we've had much more positive feedback than we have negative, but everything's a learning experience.

But I don't know, I still read all the reviews. And just being able to design a space and an experience for a guest to make memories, it just means so much to me. And maybe it's because I value that myself with my whole life and now with my family, being able to create memories and do that for others is just really where it's all about. So I got into short-term rentals for that reason, and have now unlocked the power of the commercial side of hospitality and made a pretty quick pivot back just from 2023 to now to what I'm interested in doing in the future, is basically developing ground-up micro resorts, which I'm doing in Berkeley Springs, as well as buying roadside motels from operators that have owned them for a while and just need that next boost. I think there's a real resurgence in the roadside motel, but it's not going to be your parents' roadside motel. It's going to be something really cool that everybody wants to go to in the area. That's what we're doing with the Billy Motel.