Cody Wiseman  - Wiseman Capital

On the Caring for Your Investments: "I don't want to be driving by that in 15 years and seeing it's a dump."

Investing in real estate has many benefits, but not all investors are created equal.

Cody Wiseman started investing in real estate a few years ago.  Through his hard work and care he has built a portfolio, which is great.  the exciting thing is that he gets compliments from his tenants and neighbors for the work that he has done to the properties, to lift the neighborhoods to be nicer places to live.  Without necessarily raising rents.  Affordable luxury, is what he calls it.

From the challenges of his very first property renovation, to the ambitious transformation of a rundown motel into affordable luxury apartments, Cody Wiseman shares the behind-the-scenes realities of real estate: sleepless nights, hard-earned lessons, and the creative hustle required to make deals work. Listeners will get an insider’s look at how Cody Wiseman partners with local investors, the value of authentic networking—like the Madison Multifamily Meetup that he’s grown into the Midwest’s largest—and why hands-on leadership and a passionate team matter.

Listen as Cody explains his philosophies on real estate investing and how you can apply them to your real estate investments as well.

Enjoy!

Visit Cody at: https://www.codywiseman.com/

https://Wisemancapitalgroup.com

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codyewiseman/

 

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Wiseman Capital: Local Real Estate Partner

03:30 Real Estate Investment Journey

09:09 Getting Started in Real Estate

10:55 Multifamily Real Estate Networking Event

13:39 "Learning Multifamily & Passive Investing"

18:21 Delegating While Staying Hands-On

22:16 "Journey to Affordable Housing"

23:54 Personal Standards in Property Development

26:37 Community Impact and Urban Transformation

31:08 "Hidden Costs of Rent Explained"

35:00 Property Agreement Protects Long-Term Value

38:49 "Delays, Costs, and Waivers"

40:58 "Proving Creative, Affordable Housing"

45:56 Hardee's Worker Brings Joy

46:48 "Emily Sets Event's Tone"

50:19 "Authenticity in Business Partnerships"

52:49 Navigating Challenges with Confidence

Podcast Transcription:

Cody Wiseman [00:00:00]:

Average rents in Madison, you know, 15, 1600 bucks. Our average rent is a little over a thousand bucks.

James [00:00:04]:

Wow.

Cody Wiseman [00:00:05]:

Brand new. I market it as affordable luxury. So people are like, what, what is that? How do you do? Well, let me tell you, we have all of the amenities that you're going to have with a brand new class a ground up deal in downtown Madison. Pool, pool, fitness co working areas, bike parking and storage, dog park, dog wash.

James [00:00:30]:

You have found authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Today we're welcoming slash, preparing to learn from Cody Wiseman of Wiseman Capital Group. So Cody, how's it going today?

Cody Wiseman [00:00:45]:

Excellent. Thank you so much James for having me. I'm excited to be here. It's a beautiful studio you have and so close to home.

James [00:00:51]:

Indeed. So nice. Tell me a story. What is Wiseman Capital Group?

Cody Wiseman [00:00:55]:

Yeah, so Wiseman Capital, I founded this company back in 2022 and so we're a real estate investing firm really focused in the greater Madison area, multifamily specific. So at the end of the day what it is is we partner with everyday people to invest in real estate together. So that's, that's the beautiful thing about it is a lot of times people are, hey, how do I invest in this building that I see getting put up in Madison or these apartment buildings? They think it's just a big investment firm or something like that. But Wiseman Capital is partnering just with everyday people, a lot of local Madison people, and we run the project for them. They get investor updates. I put my own money in too, so they're investing right alongside of me.

James [00:01:37]:

All right, so you're talking the huge apartment buildings, the 5500 unit, whatever stuff.

Cody Wiseman [00:01:42]:

Yeah, maybe not quite 5500 units, but yeah. So we've got, we just opened up 129 units over on the east side of Madison. So I mean some, some consider that large medium, you know, it kind of depends. But yeah, the larger buildings where we've got an on site property manager, we actually manage our properties now in house, meaning we've got our own property manager that works for Wiseman Property Management, which is a subsidiary of Wiseman Capital.

James [00:02:09]:

Sure.

Cody Wiseman [00:02:10]:

So it gives us a little bit better control and a better resident experience when we're controlling the full asset and experience from, I like to say from lead to lease. Right. You know, if you come in and you want to inquire about living here, we want to give that great experience, fast response right away, give that showing get people living there if they've got a work order or just have any questions. The property is clean because we're taking care of it every single day.

James [00:02:34]:

All right. How do you get into the real estate game like that?

Cody Wiseman [00:02:37]:

Oh my gosh. So there's a lot of different ways. I was going to say, well, we'll focus on my story. Right? I mean, what, what we're here for. It's the one, you know, it's the one that I know best. And a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of, A lot of tears with it. No, I'm just kidding.

James [00:02:52]:

It sounds like the way to go.

Cody Wiseman [00:02:53]:

No, no joke, right? I mean we're, that's what we're, we're here to talk about is being authentic and real and in the behind the scenes and what it actually takes to build something. Because a lot of times you see as we've, you know, we've seen overnight success.

James [00:03:06]:

Yes.

Cody Wiseman [00:03:07]:

That overnight success. There's a lot more to it. The 10 years before that pop of success. So I started about four and a half years ago. My background is software sales. Growing up I was. Did some construction. My dad's a home builder, does some land development up in the Twin Cities.

Cody Wiseman [00:03:26]:

So my summer jobs were building houses.

James [00:03:29]:

All right.

Cody Wiseman [00:03:30]:

So, you know, I understood construction but from a single family home aspect of it. And I always wanted to get into real estate in some capacity. I don't have the skills to be the broker, you know, connecting deals and stuff like that. But I do have a sales background and I just knew that wasn't going to be the route I wanted to go. I wanted to actually own and develop and, you know, fix up properties and stuff like that. So about four and a half years ago, I bought my first three unit building in downtown Madison, 938 East Dayton. A lot of sweat equity put into that one. So I bought that with my own money and did essentially a value add or a brrrrs, another name for it, where you're gonna fix it up and then refinance and kind of roll some money into the next deal.

Cody Wiseman [00:04:13]:

But so that was a complete, almost, almost a complete gut job. We were down, you know, ripping that place apart. When I bought it, it was a vacant building. Then 3 unit. I wanted it in there.

James [00:04:25]:

Oh, it went down there.

Cody Wiseman [00:04:26]:

Yeah. So that was part of the agreement. It was owner occupied. One person was moving out and there was a hoarder who lived upstairs for 19 years. And it was, I don't know how she was living there. It was that that bad. And so that was part of the agreement is I want this building empty. So left the closing table went, started just ripping this place apart, cleaning it up.

Cody Wiseman [00:04:46]:

And spent a couple months while I was working full time as a software sales rep working from home. So I'd go down there from like 5 to 8am and then go down there in the evenings until like 10, 11 o' clock and most weekends for a couple of months, fixing this place up. Wow. And then, you know, I was. I was learning on the job. Right. I didn't know anybody. I didn't know anybody who owned multifamily.

James [00:05:09]:

So you got into that game specifically saying, hey, I can make money in real estate, but knowing nothing, really.

Cody Wiseman [00:05:16]:

You know, I read. I read some books.

James [00:05:17]:

Okay.

Cody Wiseman [00:05:18]:

You know, I did the old. Listen to some podcasts, you know, good stuff like this, where you're able to learn from people who have actually done it. I'm like, oh, okay, I think I can do this. But, yeah, there was nobody that I knew that owned rental properties when I got that thing under contract. And I was scared. I was like, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'll figure it out.

James [00:05:38]:

So how did you know? Tell me about pricing, because pricing, we're talking four or five years ago was even more insane than it is now.

Cody Wiseman [00:05:44]:

Yeah. So looking back, it's amazing what I got this thing for. I bought it for $255,000. What? Yep. Put about.

James [00:05:52]:

That must have been a mess.

Cody Wiseman [00:05:54]:

Yeah, it was a mess. And I put about. What was that, 46,000 of my own cash. Then into that to fix it, and then leased it up and went to get it reappraised because I wanted to pull some money out, get it reappraised, and then refinance it. That was kind of the game plan. Well, the appraisal came in $100,000 less than what it appraised for before I bought it.

James [00:06:15]:

$100,000 less.

Cody Wiseman [00:06:17]:

And I said, I think you guys messed up this math. And. And so I gambled again. And I said, I'm gonna pay for another appraisal. And it came out much further ahead.