Diary of an Apartment Investor

Why He Thought Net Worth Mattered with Mike Goering

• Brian Briscoe • Episode 584

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Most investors stall for years because they believe something that simply isn’t true.

That belief quietly delays action, shrinks opportunity, and convinces capable people to wait longer than they should. This conversation exposes how that mindset shows up—and what actually creates momentum when you’re trying to move from learning to ownership.

If you’re serious about building a real multifamily investing business, the conversation doesn’t end here.
Join the Tribe of Titans multifamily investing community where investors work through real deals, capital raises, and decisions together—live and in real time.
👉 Learn more at thetribeoftitans.com

What You’ll Learn

  • The overlooked assumption that keeps aspiring investors on the sidelines
  • Why clarity of role matters more than credentials
  • How patience—and follow-up—can turn a “no” into a deal
  • The difference between waiting on the market and preparing for it
  • How smaller markets can create outsized opportunity when approached correctly

This episode is a clear reminder that progress in multifamily investing doesn’t come from knowing more—it comes from challenging the right beliefs and acting with intention.


About the Guest

Mike Goering is a business and operations professional with a background in logistics, project leadership, and multifamily real estate investing. After a 12-year career as a U.S. Army Logistics Officer, he began scaling into commercial multifamily in 2024. Mike has been involved in capital raising, acquisitions, and management across a diversified portfolio of 50+ units with over $8M in assets under management, bringing a disciplined, risk-focused approach to long-term value creation.

Learn more about him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-goering/
or email mike@mountaingroundinv.com

About the Host:


Brian Briscoe is an apartment operator and founder of Streamline Capital, focused on acquiring and operating multifamily properties in the greater Salt Lake City metro. He hosts the Diary of an Apartment Investor podcast, where he shares real-world operator insights and decision frameworks for aspiring multifamily investors.

If this conversation resonated, there’s more happening inside the Tribe of Titans. It’s where serious investors move beyond surface-level content and into real discussions that drive action. Visit https://www.thetribeoftitans.com/ to learn more.



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Brian Briscoe:

Welcome to the Diary of an Apartment Investor Podcast, a show where we cut through the noise and talk about what it actually takes to build a real multifamily investing business. I'm Brian Briscoe, apartment investor, operator, and founder of Streamline Capital. And this podcast is built for the aspiring apartment investor who wants more than just theory. We talk about raising capital, closing deals, managing assets, and making the decisions that separate dabbling from building something that lasts. Now, if you're serious about taking the next step, this conversation continues inside of the Tribe of Titans multifamily investing community where investors work through real deals together with live discussions and direct support. So let's get into today's episode. Welcome to the Diary of an Apartment Investor Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Briscoe, and very excited for today's show. We've got my friend and almost neighbor, Mike Gehring with us. So, Mike, welcome.

Mike Goering:

Hey, Brian, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah, thanks for coming on the show. And for those listening, I say almost neighbor. He's in the next town down in uh southeastern Idaho. So 40 miles away, but there's probably about six people that live between us. So um anyway, Mike, uh, how are you doing today?

Mike Goering:

Oh, I'm doing fantastic. Just chucking through finals right now and grading everything. So nice, nice. Welcome relief to get to talk about real estate with you.

Brian Briscoe:

Awesome. Awesome. So you talk about grading finals. Tell people what you do, real quick, and then we'll we'll kick back to your background.

Mike Goering:

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So um kind of start with a little background. My last assignment in the army was to teach at Idaho State University. And once I separated from the Army, I've been doing a lot of real estate and then mixing that in with some adjunct professor work. Um, so right now I teach at ISU for this semester. Awesome.

Brian Briscoe:

Awesome. I've done a lot of adjunct work in my life and it's fun, you know, it really is. So all right, so let's go full background now. Tell everybody a little bit about yourself and kind of tell us a little bit of a tale on, you know, how you got into real estate in general.

Mike Goering:

Okay, yeah. So let's see, starting, I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and then I kind of didn't have a track. So I figured the army was a good way to buy myself some time with the parents, gain some good education and experience. Ended up doing 12 years uh in the army as a logistics officer. And then that kind of parallels with my real estate, like a lot of veterans. I used the VA loan. So really to kind of start, I went to Fort Hood, Texas for my first assignment. Yes. Ended up spending about four years there. And I didn't buy because I had the assumption I was gonna be deployed the whole time. And instead, I actually stayed there for pretty much the entire time and only had one deployment. And afterwards, I remember doing the math. And if I had paid the exact same in rent that I would have towards a mortgage, I would have owned a house outright. And so looking back at that, I kind of really realized that I had wasted an opportunity. And so, not knowing anything, when I got to my next duty station, Fort Bragg, I immediately bought a house. Now, I got really lucky, that was 2018. And so, not knowing anything about market research and all of that, I used the VA loan 100% loan to value. And that house is for sale right now, and I'm about to make close to $200,000 on that. That's nice. So that was the light bulb for me when I realized that I used somebody else's money to earn equity, and that was awesome. And then I rented that house out for three plus years, you know, cash flow on between five and eight hundred a month.

Brian Briscoe:

It's hard to time the market well like that. My very first one was 2007, also on a VA loan, also 100% financing. You know, but I bought right before the crash. You know, within eight, 10 years, I still sold for a six-figure gain. But uh wow, well done, well done. 200,000 in your back pockets, not nothing.

Mike Goering:

No, I'm excited to see what we're gonna do with that next.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah, absolutely.

Mike Goering:

Yeah.

Brian Briscoe:

So if I understand this correctly, you know, you bought the house, you moved to the duty station. Was that your only single family, or did you do more after that?

Mike Goering:

Yeah, so I moved to Idaho after that, and I moved here in May of 21. Okay. Which it was hot here already. COVID had a little bit of an impact on Idaho. And so I waited a year to buy, and I just I wanted to do something. I was starting to get a little bit into the education space, started like exploring some single family podcasts, and with the market as hot as it was, I did I end up buying this house that I'm in now uh as a live-in flip. That was kind of the way that seemed to make it work. Still didn't know anything, like literally just walked in the house and was like, I think it's about $30,000 of renovation. And that was as much work as I did. And I got lucky, it was only $40,000, and the markets appreciated cents. I think I was about a month off of the absolute peak when I closed on this house.

Brian Briscoe:

You said you moved in May of 21, right?

Mike Goering:

So I got the Idaho. This I bought in 22.

Brian Briscoe:

In 22. Okay. Interesting parallel, and I'm surprised we haven't dove down this deep with each other. But I moved here in June of 2021, and I bought this house. We closed in January of 22, and we came pretty close to the peak, too. We're back in the black, you know, we're no longer in the red. But, you know, if you're gonna live in a place for a while, it doesn't matter if you're black or red.

Mike Goering:

You know, and then the really cool thing is I look at the first apartment I lived in, which is a little 2-2 uh apartment, and its rent is close to what my mortgage is now. And they're hiking it, you know, a hundred bucks about a year every year. And I'm like, it's so nice now that I'm out to have that like fixed housing cost, more or less. Yeah, yeah. Really appreciate that. Going back to the story on real estate, so live and flip. I learned very quickly that that was not necessarily for me. It was really hard to scale, took a ton of my time. I did learn in the process that I really enjoyed watching old become new, but being the direct labor for that was not a sustainable and scalable way to do real estate. And about that time I had heard about commercial, but I'd also heard about these incredited investor things. And I thought that they were the same. And I ended up hearing a podcast that kind of broke that myth for me. And I realized that as the sponsor of a deal, it didn't matter what my net worth was. So I saw that as a track to really scale a lot faster and to have a bigger impact on communities rather than trying to just do one house at a time and managing contractors or doing the work yourself. You could just kind of have one big project that was a little more self-contained and allowed you to scale a lot faster. Yeah. And so then I kind of dove into education. That was uh towards the end of 23 when I really got into the commercial side, which dropped me off into 24 with enough knowledge to be dangerous. And luckily, the community as a part of, I got to watch and see a lot of what was going on in 24. And yeah, that was a frustrating time to get started. But I'm also kind of grateful because it really extended my education window. So now in 25, you know, things have been moving a lot faster because I've built a really good foundation. And then as the market's starting to soften, I'm I'm able to get a lot of traction.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, one once again, timing the market is very difficult, you know. But looking back, 2024 is a great year to learn. And uh, I think buying opportunities 25-26, the buying opportunities are gonna get a lot stronger. But uh into 26, we should get some stronger buying opportunities, and then uh, you know, we'll see what happens from there. But I think most people are expecting the market to pick back up really, really quickly starting in 26. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm excited for it. Yeah, yeah. Me too. Me too. So, you know, part of the reason you said, you know, multifamily was scaling. Let's go a little bit deeper on that one. Let's talk about what you've done with multifamily, what you're looking for, and kind of the reasoning behind that as well. So open mic for you. Just go ahead and tell us what's going on there.

Mike Goering:

Yeah, so one of the things that I kind of found. So I mentioned like when I did the house, I really enjoyed watching old become new. So, really, as I look to scale, it's about community impact. So, kind of where I got started, I think in that this is for newer investors. So, one of the things I struggled with was the GP teams. You know, I was a logistics officer, so if you read the descriptions, that says I should be an asset manager. Um, I was kind of married to that for a while, but there were some kind of conflicts with the group I was working with where we kind of had everybody who had that same background. And I finally went to a conference and met a guy that was like, hey, I think you'd be pretty good at capital raising. You know, I reflected on that and I realized that there was kind of this limiting belief that like I could only be an asset manager. And so I dropped into raising capital. I actually reached out to you because you had offered that that that was something you you needed help with. And so, you know, I think it took about two weeks between when I reached out to you and you know, I was part of a deal. Little plug for networking and meeting the right people that can make things go really fast once you make a decision.

Brian Briscoe:

And and it kind of helps that you know, we live close, we had similar backgrounds, uh, lots of things just lined up for that one. I mean, the timing was perfect, but yeah, definitely. But had had you not reached out, yeah, it wouldn't have happened like that. But yeah, lots of lots of stars aligned for that one.

Mike Goering:

I'd probably be at a W-2 right now. Yeah. So yeah, so what we did that one, got that one going, and then kind of the next deal just sort of happened. This is an interesting process. So I and uh hopefully somebody gets some value out of it. We saw a little small seven unit here in Pocatello that you know seemed overpriced, but we kind of just I'd send it out to the team. I was like, hey, what do you guys think? And they looked at it and they were like, hey, there might be something here. And so kind of the discussion we had was like, let's run with it, and the worst thing that'll happen is we learn something new. And we ran with it for a little while, and we kind of ended up too far apart. And we looked at the books. The big trend we're seeing here is mom and pop's with bad books. We realized there was a seller finance angle there to solve that problem, but they weren't interested at the time. So we said, Hey, good luck finding somebody, let us know when the next deal comes. We'll take a look at it. And I think it was about three weeks later they reached out and they were like, We're willing to do seller finance. And so we were like, All right, and so we just kind of kept doing one more thing, and you know, next thing we know, the deal ended in our lap with the seller finance, and that actually ended up extending out to five years interest only. So absolutely killer deal. And I know we got to talk about that uh down at best ever conference. You were a big help and let me pick your brain on that one. Yeah, so we closed that one, and then uh we kind of wanted to stabilize that before we started chasing the next thing. And so we've looked at a couple off-market deals right now. We're just waiting for prices to soften a little bit, still stand that same trend of kind of poorer books. And so we're just trying to find the right opportunity where we can either go creative or you know, make it pencil in a traditional way.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah, it's interesting where we are in the market right now. I think your strategy is perfect. It's the waiting for sellers to come down on prices. And I mean, we've purchased four properties in Salt Lake in the last two years, and three of the four were exactly that. You know, we would put an offer out, you know, our price was too high, and then six, eight, twelve months later, the property still hasn't sold, sellers come down in price. You know, it sounds like something similar happened for you and that Pocatello deal, except you know, you went from conventional to seller finance, but that that's kind of where we are in the market right now is hold firm on your price, be patient, and you're gonna get a second chance at most of these deals. So good way of uh of doing things. And one other lesson pointing out to people listening, you know, you're never gonna get seller financing if you don't ask for it, right? And you know, so kudos to you, Mike, for asking the question and saying, hey, this doesn't work with conventional, but would they be do sellers? You know, if you hadn't asked that question, you wouldn't be sitting on seven extra units.

Mike Goering:

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. And it's and then really like going into that kind of negotiation phase. Like the big trigger for me was the books were just uh I didn't feel comfortable getting bank financing or I was gonna overpay for it. And then, you know, really digging in, it almost fell apart at the very end. Um, and it took a conversation direct with the seller where we really pried into motivations and we were able to kind of figure out and restructure the loan in a way that worked for his motivations and saved the deal for us.

Brian Briscoe:

If you don't mind, let's talk a little bit more specific about that. I mean, what were the seller's motivations and how did you structure it?

Mike Goering:

So he was retiring, he had owned a couple other properties, kind of a mix of everything. I think one of the partners' wives is a realtor, so she just kind of cherry-picked deals. So they'd done some self-storage, some multi-family, some single family, but he was this was his last property of selling off. And one of the so we had to close out his debt. So we did hire in higher down payment to make sure we closed out his debt. And then he was interested in cash flow and then taxes. So what we actually ended up doing at the very end was our concern was getting it stabilized to be able to refinance out. And so we actually ended up going to a longer term to help us with that doubt. Like we're this was right as the tariffs were hitting and the market was like you couldn't tell what was going to happen next week, let alone I remember listening to podcasts and there were timestamps at the exact minute that the stats are from because they might change by the time it was released two days later. It was that kind of level of market. So we're like, hey, a little more time gives us some cushion to to shop around and get the right financing and not be pressured. Part of it too is we move the interest rate up so that we do more ordinary income over a longer period of time while reducing the sale price. So his net was the same, but we're transferring that income from you know at one sale time to now he's got two big capital events, the down payment and then the actual you know, balloon. And then we're doing a lot of ordinary income in between. Uh, higher guy that allowed him to play the tax game. And so it was really digging into his tax concerns. We're then able to restructure that in a way that worked for both of us.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah. And I mean, usually if somebody's owned a property for a long time, there's a big windfall. Splitting that windfall into two chunks over different tax years is huge. I'll trust that ordinary income works better for him in his tax situation than than anything else. But when you can sit down and structure it so it works for both, you're much more likely to get uh deals like that done. Yep. Well, awesome, awesome. How's that project been going so far?

Mike Goering:

It's uh really like a turnkey. I mean, we we were a little nervous he'd owned it. I think our longest tenant had been there for 18 or 17 years, now 18. I think they were paying like 500 something a month, was their original lease, which hasn't been updated in 18 years. And so we were a little nervous as we kind of came in uh to do those increases. We were we were a little concerned that we triggered some major occupancy issues, but we coupled our rent raises with kind of coming in and fixing a lot of the little things. And so far, you know, we've had one vacancy we inherited, and then the other was due to unfortunately the death of one of our tenants who's an older guy. Yeah. Health problems. But otherwise, you know, we've maintained 100% occupancy. I think we've had about two weeks of vacancy now, which is great because we're getting in and we're giving the units a little facelift in between. We'll look at spring as kind of our next rent increase moment, and then we'll a little more flexible to fill new tenants. But otherwise, it's great. Really kind of feel like we've got that ready to go and we're ready for the next thing.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah. One thing you mentioned 100% for a while with the smaller properties, you know, the smallest one I have right now is a 12 unit. And, you know, what's really nice with the smaller properties is, you know, once you get them up to 100%, you know, they can stay at 100% for quite a while. Uh, especially if you're in a place where you have really sticky tenants like you do. There is a lot of advantages to smaller properties. You know, if you have a hundred unit property, you're gonna have several moveouts every month, no matter what happens. But uh lots of benefits to some of those smaller properties. And oh, by the way, you know, you're never gonna get a you know, create a finance deal like that on a you know, hundred unit property. I'm not gonna say never, but probably never, right? But well, cool. So glad that's working out for you. What else you got in the hopper right now?

Mike Goering:

Yeah, so you know, I I'm really kind of focused on Pocatello in this market. You know, I really believe in it and and where it's going. I like reaching down kind of into northern Utah. And so that's kind of next for me as to start exploring, you know, Ogden and north, maybe maybe looking into Logan a little bit. My kind of read of the tea leaves is that Salt Lake's gonna continue to grow. That's a pretty solid trend that we're seeing. And as that happens, you know, and and you like to explain this, like because of the Wasatch front there to the east and then the lake to the west, growth is all north-south, right? And so at a professor talk about drive till you qualify is is a real thing in today's market. And and uh I I get that a lot.

Brian Briscoe:

I moved here from DC, and that's in your DC and San Diego. That was that's that was exactly what we did is you know, hey, living close to work is an arm in a leg, and you start driving up the freeway until I can afford this, you know. Yeah, I love that phrase. First time I heard it like that. But anyway, sorry, go ahead.

Mike Goering:

Yeah, no, no, and so I think I think really as we see the trends, we're gonna see that that expansion kind of up north into Idaho, and we're gonna start to fill out kind of between where you're at and Salt Lake in a real big way. And so I see that as an opportunity to get in front of the path of progress and and start buying up here. And in towns like this, you know, I I like to tell people, I'm like, if you if you put $100,000 into a syndication in New York, congratulations, you just bought a new couch in the lobby. Uh you put $100,000 into a market like this, and you're changing, you know, multiple, if not 10 to 20 tenants' lives. And that to me is really the impact is our spending power as investors here can really go a long way to changing a community. Um, and so that's kind of the direction I'm going with these smaller markets, is where we can really grow alongside the city and really kind of shape the direction that that we're growing uh in a sustainable way.

Brian Briscoe:

And there's a lot of pros to where we're sitting right now. And actually, I mean, Neil Bawa, he he's one that deals into data, you know, lots and lots and lots of data to determine where he's investing. And guess what? Southeast Idaho has been on his radar for quite a while now. So close enough to to Salt Lake City. And you what we're getting here in Southeast Idaho is a lot of the spillover, is what I like to call it. You know, I mean, as Salt Lake City gets filled, you know, it starts spilling over just like a pot or anything else. And so yeah, there's still a lot of a lot of available land, prices are cheaper up here, still expensive compared to the rest of the nation. But you know, the important thing is we're cheaper than Californian or cheaper than Salt Lake, and uh probably boise. But uh so yeah, a lot of a lot of growth here. So great that you can take advantage of that. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited. All right. Well, coming up, you know, we got a couple minutes left, so we'll we'll hit the last round of questions. What's next for you?

Mike Goering:

Yeah, so my teaching contracts coming up here next week. I end with the adjunct gig for the semester and probably the year. I'm finishing out one more degree, which is in urban planning and that kind of stuff. I'm really seeking to kind of partner with cities to bring real estate investment into the community as a powerful tool to making positive change. And then I'm really kind of shopping this market, like looking for deals. I'm hoping for a little softness here. We've got a call this afternoon looking at some more creative options um to maybe solve some seller problems. And so just kind of really looking to scale in 26, get a couple more acquisitions and kind of keep growing this thing and scaling it out. Yeah, that that's kind of false. So I think two deals, I'll say it on the podcast, so I have to be accountable. Uh, two deals in 26 is my target, but I only had one for 25 and I've already done two. So uh, you know, I might be selling my yeah, yeah.

Brian Briscoe:

I mean, we had I think we had two that we wanted to close in 25 and we did one. So, I mean, hopefully 26 is the year that we can close three or four, but obviously we'll be in touch, you know. But maybe maybe we'll find someplace to work together again in 26. So, all right, next to last question. You know, if you had to give advice to somebody who's just starting, what would that advice be?

Mike Goering:

So yeah, I knew this question was coming. So I've been pondering, and maybe this is where I'm at my journey, but the education's obviously the first part, going out and learning. And I did podcasts, like one of the things I learned early on was you know, if I could spend time in the car learning something new every day, I kind of had this epiphany where I was like, I'm gonna be a pretty smart person. And it took a while to get focus into real estate, and you know, I've learned so much about creative strategies, lessons learned, things to do or not do, where to be careful, and then really gotten that to springboard my network. I was listening to a podcast the other day and it said the hardest thing in real estate is that there's so many ways to make money. And so I think, you know, be curious for a while, learn all the things, and then find your passion. That took me a while to realize that what I got excited about is what I could raise money for, what I could spend long days doing. And so, really marrying that, what I'm passionate about, to what I'm gonna do as far as asset class, markets, those kinds of things. And so I really settled on the Intermountain West here as the market I'm passionate about because of my hobbies and all the things that are here in this area. And then multifamily. I want to deal with people to change their lives through being a great landlord, right? And so, kind of once you get that passion, then go deep into that. And that's really now where I've gone down the rabbit hole of real estate, growing my network for that. And that passion attracts people. Listen to kind of who not how. And the clearer your mission is, the more likely you're gonna attract those people. And I really stumbled early on, not having that really defined vision. And I'm even seeing now, like nobody's ever heard of Pocatello, but once I start talking about it, because I have that passion, I'm starting to see more and more people asking questions about hey. What's going on in this market and how do I get in? I you know, I stumbled for a long time, not being clear on who and what I wanted and where I wanted it. And then once I did that, I found those people are starting to find me. So I'd really just say, like, figure out what makes you excited and then go all in on that.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah, that would have been great advice for me to hear like eight or ten years ago. I think I stayed in a W-2 five years, five or seven years longer than I ever should have, because I couldn't figure out what aspect of real estate I wanted to jump into. You know, I was looking at the sub two lease options, I was looking at, you know, single families, duplexes, the burrs, the fix and flips. Like you said, there's so many ways you can make money in real estate. And once I figured out multifamily was niche, things just took off from there. So perfect advice. All right, last question. How can listeners learn more about you?

Mike Goering:

Okay, yeah. So LinkedIn and email, I'm still scaling out my stuff. So LinkedIn, uh, it's Mike Garing. I think I'm the only one, and you'll get the link posted. And then email would be Mike at Mountain Ground INV as an Indian November Victor for investors for investing.com.

Brian Briscoe:

Yep. I love the the military phonetic spelling, Indian November Victor, you know.

Mike Goering:

Yeah, I mumble apparently. I get told that a lot. So I like to skip forward to that and save people misspelling my email.

Brian Briscoe:

Yeah, I mean, you you can actually tell, you know, when people start spelling things phonetically, you know, most people be like, B as in boy, D as in dog. You know, when they've heard about bravos and deltas, you know, it's like, were you military? You know, because it's just just a little bit different, you know. But anyway. All right. Well, that said, thanks for coming on the show today. Very much appreciate your time.

Mike Goering:

Yep, thanks for having me, Brian. This was a good time.

Brian Briscoe:

Hey, I hope you got a lot from today's conversation. Uh, if you did, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. We're on all major podcast platforms and YouTube as well. Now, if you're ready to move from listening to actually doing, check out the Tribe of Titans multifamily investing community. That's where investors go deeper with live discussions, real time QA, and practical support around capital raising, finding deals, asset management, all of it. All right, you'll find everything you need at thetribe of titans.com. That link's in the show notes, tap it, and we'll see you there.

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