EP 013 | FC Cincinnati player to 70 Units: Bret Halsey's Cold Calling Playbook

Bret Halsey came to Cincinnati to play soccer for FC Cincinnati. He left with 70 units, 14 four-family acquisitions, and a direct-to-seller cold calling operation built from scratch, after nine months of calls before landing his first deal.In this episode, Bret walks through how he identified Pleasant Ridge as his entry market, why he niched down on the 1960s brick bunker fourplex, and how he went from a single owner-occupant FHA purchase to flipping four-families as capital-raising vehicles for larger deals. He also tells the story of buying three Price Hill four-families at auction with no West Side experience, a six-month hard money loan, and a tenant who blew up one of the buildings.Slocomb adds the operator's perspective on why Cincinnati's fourplex stock is one of the most replicable investment vehicles in any Midwest market: galvanized steel plumbing, aluminum wiring, boiler conversions, cast iron tubs, ceramic tile set in concrete, and why the same architecture that caps your rent upside also makes these properties nearly bombproof to own and operate.We also cover why the 12-unit building in Cincinnati is the four-family's overlooked sibling, and why the owner-occupant buyer pool on the back end is what makes fourplex flipping work at a spread you can't find in commercial product.If you are trying to break into Cincinnati off-market investing, the cold calling framework Bret describes: niching by neighborhood, building a 500-contact database, adjusting his pitch based on the owner's profile, is as practical a blueprint as this show has produced.What you will learn:How Bret built a 500-contact, 120-lead database from the Hamilton County auditor's listWhy nine months of cold calling with no deal is normal, not a failure signalHow niching down to one neighborhood transformed Bret's underwriting confidenceWhy the 1960s brick bunker fourplex is the most replicable investment vehicle in CincinnatiWhat makes four-families viable for owner-occupants, house hackers, and investors, and why that dual buyer pool matters on the back endHow Bret used four-family flips to accumulate capital and scale into a 20-unitThe full mechanical breakdown on Cincinnati fourplexes: boilers, galvanized plumbing, aluminum wiring, baseboard heat conversions, and cast iron tubsWhy the 12-unit building shares nearly every operational characteristic as the fourplex,and why most investors overlook itWhat happens when a tenant turns on the gas in a vacant unit, and what RCV insurance actually means when you need itHow to adjust your cold calling pitch based on the seller's profile and portfolio size🎙 Guest: Bret Halsey, Real Estate Investor and Former FC Cincinnati Professional Soccer PlayerTimestamps:00:01:00 — Bret's backstory00:02:00 — Cold calling origins00:05:00 — Cold calling routine00:07:00 — Importance of niching down00:09:00 — Why four-families00:11:00 — Pivot: BRRRR to flip-and-scale00:13:30 — Four-family flip thesis00:19:00 — Financing advantage00:19:30 — 100% financing model00:25:00 — Negatives of four-families00:31:00 — Four-family valuation00:31:30 — Renovation playbook00:36:00 — 12-unit parallel00:39:00 — Missed deal lessons00:40:00 — Price Hill explosion00:43:00 — Why Pleasant Ridge00:46:00 — Cincinnati hidden gemsThe Cincinnati Real Estate Investing Show is hosted by Slocomb Reed and Ian Cruz. New episodes every week. Subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share with a fellow investor.