Founder's Story...

Early Clues

Sometimes, the foundation shows up before the plan. Real estate was always omnipresent in the background of my life. 

Growing up in a family that built things — race cars, houses, motocross bikes and more, I decided to go to trade school to learn architectural & commercial HVAC design (blueprints). This was my transferable and relevant skill that I thought would be useful to my family at some point. Little did I know that some years later my brothers (1 blood, 2 raised) would take a deep interest in the trades and learn most of them and how to build and construct homes from the ground up.

My earliest exposure to Commercial Real Estate was in the mid 1990’s. At that time I was growing a small business with my partner via bootstrapping. The retail space we had would be considered flex space today. The space,  was basically a 1200 sq ft rectangle. It was an open space with some drywall, that you had to finish out to your preference.

I drafted the blueprints (yes, by hand) and helped to do some renovations i.e. drywall, tile flooring, painting, and oh important note – this was pre-HGTV and You Tube University. So yeah,  you had to figure out how to use the tile cutter and other tools by trial and error. Fun, fun. And if you screwed up or guessed a step incorrectly, you would have to redo things usually from the beginning.

Seeing Isn’t Always Believing

In the early 2000s, I had an incredible and super nice client: Marshall Purnell — a globally recognized architect and the lead designer of Washington Nationals Ballpark.

Fun fact: I was his plus-one on Grand Opening Day of the ballpark.

Over time, our conversations turned deeper — legacy, equity, and how the built world shapes everything around us.

I was going to sporting events with him, delivering cell phones to his office monthly, and seeing behind the scenes of a lot of projects he was working on. 

He became (and still is) my mentor.

Everything he was working on was cool. I was talking to him about it and learning lots of stuff. And it was right there for me to pursue if I wanted. 

Yet, I didn’t pursue Commercial Real Estate. Just something wasn’t clicking up there for me.
Sigh.

Fast and Fun?!

Ended up spending quite a lot of time in wireless and tech. Fixing wireless products. Flew to Canada and learned how to set up servers for my large international corporate accounts who were using Blackerry.

As it turns out, even though I was very successful in retail and tech, I didn’t like it that much because it was so slow to me. So once the business was sold, I gravitated toward tech startups — helping scrappy founders launch abroad. This was my first exposure to raising capital, disrupting outdated practices, and building lean companies.  I also started traveling MORE in central and western Europe. And I also lived in South America for a few years. My life at this time seemed fast, alive, and always evolving.

Granted my partner and I were building our portfolio, even started a bank account at Barclay’s of London and a Swiss Bank account in Switzerland, doing anything else than launching companies and flipping them seemed, uninteresting to me.

As for Commercial Real Estate, it felt… distant.

It seemed slow. Intimidating. And like something you did later in your life, when you had the team and the track record.

Loss, Lost, & Recalculating…

In 2019, my mom passed away unexpectedly. By far, that was and to this day has been the hardest and darkest time of my life.

In the minutes before she completely lost her voice, her final wish was this:
“Go into business with your brother, Adam.”

We hadn’t spoken in over two decades since we were little children. But he was at the hospital everyday and we were talking about business and all kinds of things. She raised him like her own — cause that is the saintly woman she was. 

Effort vs. Impact

Adam is all about self-development and KPI’ing everything ‘the world, lol’. 
After spending time with him, I started to see things differently — time, energy, impact.

He’s a Class A General Contractor, so flipping houses and real estate investing was our shared interest. It was his idea shortly after we launched our real estate investing business to shift from residential to commercial real estate investing.

His belief – same effort, bigger impact and financial returns. I was scared, but surprisingly after joining a real estate mastermind and doing a course, it was not as difficult as I had long believed.

In 2021, we closed our first CRE acquisition together. That deal rewired me. I loved it — and saw myself acquiring more properties with him and eventually going the path of development because I wanted to do something more active and hands-on. 

The Split

Being an investor takes patience…a lot of patience. While we “waited,” with many deals falling through right before we reached closing, I questioned my path most days.

But at that point I had started moderating  MFMIM Deal Room (mastermind) and continued to do so to stay tapped in and on top of industry happenings. And then a few months after that, we started a private equity fund and raised capital. We figured this would give us the opportunity to invest in portfolio deals and we would not have to worry about finding deals ourselves.

Shortly after that, Adam’s General Contracting firm and crypto investments took off. Then he started a hedge fund. Everything was happening so fast.

None of those paths appealed to me. So we split paths.

I landed on commercial mortgage brokerage & lending — lean, solo, and fast’ish.

I loved seeing new deal structures and types every day in the U.S. and abroad, solving problems, and simplifying a space that I feel most people overcomplicate. And he kept rolling with his business.

Not everything makes sense right away.
But what’s meant for you always finds its way back.

Today, I see Live Better Capital not as a brand, but as a lifestyle.

Our tagline is ‘Build Your Happy’.

This is like our mantra. And striving for this for myself, my family, my team, and my clients is what motivates me to show up every day.

I try my best and my hardest to give more people more education, confidence, and access to the part of real estate that actually unlocks ownership which is securing capital.

Because if you don’t control the capital, you don’t control the deal! 

I want to help you get your FIRST or next loan approval.

I’m looking forward to helping you get funded and BUILD YOUR HAPPY!