Wake Up to Wealth
The Secret to Success in Commercial Real Estate with Nick Sansone
Wed, 14 May 2025
In episode 38 of Wake Up to Wealth, Brandon Brittingham interviews Nick Sansone, the Principal at Sansone Group, as he shares valuable insights on building relationships, the importance of networking, and the mindset needed to pivot in the ever-changing real estate landscape.Tune in to discover valuable insights and strategies for changing your mindset about wealth. SOCIAL MEDIA LINKSBrandon BrittinghamInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mailboxmoneyb/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.brittingham.1/ Nick SansoneInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickgsansone/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nick.sansone.129/ WEBSITESBrandon Brittingham: https://www.brandonsbrain.org/homeSansone Group: https://sansonegroup.com/==========================SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS:Paramount Property Tax Appeal: https://www.paramountpropertytaxappeal.com/Responsive Mortgage: https://www.responsivemortgage.com/The Money Multiplier: https://themoneymultiplier.com/Rocketly: https://rocketly.ai/
Chapter 1: What is the focus of the Wake Up to Wealth podcast?
This is Wake Up To Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now, here's your host, Brandon Brittingham.
Chapter 2: How can you reduce your property taxes?
Hey, this next segment is brought to you by Paramount Property Tax Appeal. And these are guys that I trust, my good friend Wes over there. If you're overpaying for your property taxes, Paramount Property Tax Appeal specializes in helping commercial property owners and homeowners reduce their tax bills. ensuring that you only pay your fair share. These guys are going to fight for you.
And these are the guys that I trust. You can reach my good friend Wes. Their contact information is 310-897-5056 or Wes at pptaxappeal.com. That's Wes at pptaxappeal.com. Hey, everybody. We are back again. Thank you guys so much. Another episode of Wake Up to Wealth. And I can't thank you guys enough. We're north of a million plus downloads in a very short period of time.
Because of your guys' support, we are averaging 60 to 70,000 downloads per episode. And YouTube is really picking up. And we are still number one to number five consistently on the investing side of Apple. So I really appreciate all of the listeners and everything that you guys do to continue to help this show grow. And I get to have really cool people come on the show like our guest today.
And it's because of the support that you guys consistently have with this show. Thank you guys so much. Never dreamed I'd have a top five podcasts and investing in the United States. And I never thought I'd get the number one. And guys, when we get, every time we get number one, we leapfrog Dave Ramsey. So really appreciate that. And thank you guys again.
Moving on today, we have a guest today that I'm super excited about. And, uh, you know, you guys know, I don't believe in coincidences and it's really cool. The network that you have, I've heard this guy's name from two people that I really respect and, and have a lot of respect for and have done a lot of business with. And now it's John Shep Black and, uh, Devin DeNofa.
So on the show today, we've got Nick Sansone. And Nick has got a pretty cool story. I do my research on everybody before I get them on here, right? And got to hear from both Devin and John. I'm going to let you tell the story today, but you've got a really cool story and you do a lot of cool things.
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Chapter 3: What led to the success of Nick Sansone and his firm?
But one thing that I just picked up from looking at all of your stuff, and again, thanks for being here today. Thanks for having me. You are our top five in the nation in commercial real estate development?
Yes, we are based on the amount of square feet that you have under construction. So that's how it's measured. And so we're trying to get to number one. I think last year we were at four and I think this year we're at three.
Yeah. I mean, that is no small feat. I've done development myself and involved in a ton of different facets of real estate. Like how, how does that happen? How do you get there? That's a loaded question.
Chapter 4: What is the importance of networking in real estate?
That is a loaded question, man. You know, you, you touched on it. Yeah. Relationships and proximity. It's a real estate. And I think like many businesses, it's a relationship business. And so, You have to get people to trust you and people to like you in order to produce and to have opportunities presented in front of you. And so for us, it's just networking.
We've been in the business a long time. 68 years now. So fortunately, we have a good name in the business and a good reputation, and we plan to keep it that way. And so it's networking, creating relationships with brokers, development partners around the country, and sticking to your values, being a good person as you do deals, and then you get repeat opportunities.
So, you know, did you ever... you know, was it on the vision board? I mean, did it exist in your mind? I mean, did you ever think you guys would be where you are today?
Yeah. You know, that's a good question. Our business, I have to say it because it's everything to our company was started by our father. He, my dad passed in 2020 and he, was a man that came from very humble beginnings. So he's the guy. It's not myself. It's not my brothers. He's the guy that came from essentially nothing.
I don't like to say came from nothing because he always attributes his success to the love that he had by his parents. But he came from very humble economic conditions and very little education and worked his way up really based on keeping his word and outworking his competition. And so I'm going to answer your question indirectly.
I would ask my father, you know, dad, how did you come from nothing? Do what you did, you know, build up a business with a great reputation. And his answer was the love that he had from his father gave him the belief that he needed it himself, that no matter what, he was going to be successful. And so our father raised us. I'm one of eight kids, youngest of eight.
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Chapter 5: How did Nick's family background influence his business mindset?
And I work with two of my brothers. At one time, there was five of us. A couple of them have retired in that. But it's myself and two brothers, equal owners in the firm. And, you know, our father raised us with the mentality of there's nothing wrong with going into a business that was started by somebody.
But if you don't take that opportunity and grow a tenfold, twentyfold, thirtyfold, then you're going to have a problem looking yourself in the mirror. And so for us, I think we've always had a belief that we'll succeed. I We did not have it like up on a vision board. Hey, we're going to be the number one developer.
Yeah.
We had a belief in ourself. And I'll tell you what we did is we took some chances because we pivoted from retail, which is what my father primarily developed retail shopping centers. And we pivoted because we saw what was going on with e-commerce, all the online shopping back 10 years ago. Yeah. We're like, man, we got to get a new industrial. And so we took a shot. We pivoted on that.
Didn't know much about industrial, but we knew that we'd succeed. It's just, you got to have a no-quit mentality that when you go in to start something, no matter how many bumps, no matter how many obstacles come your way, they're just learning lessons. And then you redirect. And so along the path, as we started doing it, we started saying, man, we're We're ramping up. Holy crap.
We're, we're top, you know, top 15. This article came out. We were feet. We were top 15 or something. We couldn't believe it. So that's when we said, Hey, heck, heck with it. Let's go for number one.
So that is, and there's so much gold in that answer. So one of the things, no, no, it's great. It's, it's, uh, I mean, that, that, that there's so much to unpack there, right? When you're, when you are a entrepreneur, no matter what, let's say you're very successful.
Like you guys were, what I see entrepreneurs get stuck is that their identity is so tied to the thing that made them successful, right? And then that gets tied to their ego. And then they don't pivot like you guys did, right? Because, which I've had this challenge myself at times of pivoting into, right? I was the number one real estate agent, right? In my state and, you know, top five in the US.
And then I was like, Hey man, I don't want to go out and sell 400 houses and there's nothing wrong with this, but I don't want to go out and sell 400 houses for the rest of my life. But my identity and ego was so tied to that. It was hard for me to pivot. So you guys saw something, right? Like if you wouldn't mind, like think about that back in the, in, in that decision-making process, like,
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Chapter 6: What strategies helped Nick pivot his business model?
Cause I think you said no quit mentality, which is another thing, right? You had fear. You probably had doubt. You're going into something that's uncomfortable. Like what helped you establish and it's worked out, but what helped you kind of establish that? What was the mindset around that?
Yeah. It's a great question. And I totally relate to what you're talking about. You succeeded in an industry and your ego was tied to that. And it's tough to shift, you know? And again, though, I give credit back to how we were raised.
And our dad would always talk about in the real estate business, and I think this is for any business, that you can't get complacent, that it's a thinking man's business. So right now we're succeeding in industrial, correct?
Yeah.
In our minds, we're looking ahead at what's the next trend? What happens when distribution slows down? So you've always got to be thinking about reinventing and recreating. And if you stop, you're going to get passed up. And some people might be like, well, gosh, I mean, when do you just sit back and relax and enjoy the moment? It is enjoying the moment.
That's part up, you know, that's living and learning and recreating is one of the most enjoyable things that you can do in life. Frankly, I think it's the whole reason we're here is to live, learn and recreate. So for us, When you asked about the mindset, it's a personal ethos on literally how we were raised. And we're still doing it today. You know, industrial is a great business.
But look, everything that's happening with AI and meta, right? Well, those are data centers. Those are power sources. So we're getting into the data center business. You know, we always have to be looking at what's coming next so you can stay ahead. And if you don't do it, you're going to get passed up.
Yeah.
That's a great answer.
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Chapter 7: What are the core values that drive Nick's company?
If you want to get your mind and your money right, email my good friend Carson at Carson at TheMoneyMultiplier.com to learn how you can become your own bank today like I have. so you pivoted to industrial um aside from relationships and the things you talked about right there's you guys have got to be just monster operators i mean you just can't get to the level you're at without being that right
What do you think? And it could be a core value. It could be how you guys run your companies. Like, what do you think has helped you kind of I mean, because it's got to be operational excellence. You don't get to the level you guys are at without some level of operational excellence.
What do you think is one or two things that's running in the background that you could give advice to people listening of like, Hey, besides the relationship, besides the lineage, you know, here's in the trenches day to day that I know makes us successful. This is why we run the way we run.
Yeah. You know, I think it's, um, It's a good question. I think it's a few things. Obviously, if you're in the real estate business and you want to do anything, frankly, in any industry, whatever you want to do, you got to know your skill set, right? There's a lot of people, though, out there that are good at something or know a skill set.
You can go to school and learn about real estate and do a few deals and start to collect a skill set. But for us, whenever we are underwriting an opportunity, or looking at a real estate deal, and it's a deal that we want to go out and get partners on, or we want to go to a lender and get lending on, you have to know your opportunity inside and out. You have to have studied that.
You've got to roll up your sleeves and really understand the numbers. In real estate, you've got to understand the market that you're in. You've got to understand the supply and demand, the demographics, the trends, the consumer spending in the area, why you like it, the problems about the deal that you already are thinking about solving.
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Chapter 8: How do you successfully underwrite a real estate deal?
So you really have to look at the opportunity, not just from the four corners, but all angles that you can think of and then some. That's the nitty gritty. Beyond that, from the standpoint of personalization and core values, we very much pride ourselves on keeping things old school with the personal touch. It's a family business.
Now, we've got a large 250 plus associates and offices around the country in that. But to maintain that personalization, I'll give you an example. we don't close on any piece of real estate unless somebody on our team has gone there, seen it and touched it. You know, we're old school with that. We grew up where after church on a Sunday, we'd go drive the shopping centers with our dad.
He'd drive them. And we'd get out of the car and pick up cigarette butts and trash and everything else and watch him doing it when he was in his sixties, you know? And so, It's that old school mentality. It's that personal touch. There's no substitute for the hard work. And the last thing I'll tell you is leaving, you mentioned it earlier, leaving the egos at the door and teamwork.
There's no I. Collectively, we are a team and the collective is bigger than any one individual. So what we are trying to do is we are trying to get a successful development, not just for us, but for the community that we're in, for the jobs that we're going to be supporting. So our reason is outside ourselves. And the purpose of what we're doing is bigger than any one individual.
I love that. One of the things you said in there, which I think was great. So number one, if you guys didn't catch this, he just literally gave you how he underwrites a deal, which was gold. But one of the things you said, I always say to people, real estate, the underwriting is all math, right? Like it's math. It's a math equation.
But the one thing you said that I don't hear a lot of people say enough is, what are the problems with the deal? I don't know about you, but I'm a deal junkie. I love deals. I love being in the middle of deals. I love the hunt of the deal. I love the underwriting of the deal. I love everything. And I can tell you there's been times when I let emotion get in the way and ignored the problems.
Thankfully, it was stuff I could recover from, but I learned a hard lesson. You just mentioned, and I'd love for you just to dig in on that a little bit, because I don't think it gets talked about enough of, hey, what are the problems of the deal? Like, are we looking at this? Are we paying attention to this?
Well, you hit on, frankly, the key piece of everything I said, because that piece that you're talking about is the piece we focus on the most when it comes to an opportunity. When you think about most people... when an opportunity is presented to them, usually the person presenting it is going to tell you all the reasons why they should do it and why it's great.
Hey, I got to say a sidebar on this. Commercial brokers, I'm going to take a shot at you. You love to tell me what it can be, not what it is today.
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