I Was Homeless…Now I’m Worth $250 Million

Manny Coachman’s Journey

How much have you spent in real estate over the years, well over a billion, maybe 2 billion? This man has a real estate portfolio worth over 200 million dollars. He also has one of the most rare car collections in the world and a gigantic social media following. But none of this was handed to him. Manny Coachpin and his parents immigrated to America from Iran, and times were so rough that they all had to live out of a station wagon – his parents and multiple siblings.

“What’s it like to sleep in a car with six people?” “A lot of cool lights, you know. Sometimes you subconsciously block it. It wasn’t easy.”

With no clear path to success, Manny dropped out of college and started several businesses that failed. “One of our friends used to sell gas stations, open escrow, I put my twenty thousand dollars in a bank, turned out to be a con artist. I lost money.”

Despite these setbacks, things began to look up for Manny when he discovered real estate and now closes deals that are worth nine figures alone in the real estate portfolio.

“What’s been like the biggest win you’ve had?” “My biggest win, 50 million on one property.”

So how did he do it? In this video, we sit down with Manny Coachman to hear the story of how a failed entrepreneur became one of the most respected names in real estate.

“I’m Manny koshbed. I made my money in real estate, primarily commercial real estate. I have a passion for cars, as you guys can see. But my journey wasn’t easy. I probably went through five or six different businesses. I failed many times until I found success in buying real estate, adding value, flipping it for a profit. I’ve been doing that for nearly 30 years now.”

Immigrating from Iran to US

“So for your story, you grew up in Iran. What was going on, and what was the story for you to come to America?”

“Iran obviously had a history of war with Iraq. At the time, the war was going on. My dad had several brothers that got injured; one of them died from chemical bombs they used in the war. Two weeks before my 14th birthday, my Dad decided to take off and avoid me going to the Army, because at age 14, you cannot leave their country and you gotta submit to an army. Okay, that’s a pretty young age, and seeing what happened to his brothers, he didn’t want me to get killed or get injured. So two weeks before my 14th birthday, we decided to leave Iran, went to Turkey. He was about to get a visa, and we came to the US. None of us spoke a word of English except my dad. My dad had been to the US before and he was educated and luckily, he spoke English. But I took three hours of ESL for the first two years in high school when I was here from 14 to 16 because I didn’t speak any word of English. So a pretty challenging upbringing because we didn’t have any money. We ran out of money; we ended up living in a car for a few months. I think my dad got a job, was able to get an apartment, and all that pressure everybody went through because of me kind of gave me the guilt trip, and I turned that into motivation. Tried to be successful so I can retire my parents, pay them back, and I did just that after many different failures early on. It’s been a very interesting journey, and I’m happy to share it because I know there’s a lot of immigrants that come to this country for the American dream, and they get discouraged after a couple of failures, and that was exactly me. But look at me now.”

On being homeless

“So when you came to America not speaking English, remember what your first week was like because I can’t imagine what that experience is like for someone.”

“Well, Manny didn’t speak English. You’re just like on a different planet, you know. I don’t know my way around; I don’t have any friends; I don’t speak, and I don’t have any money. So basically, you know, Americans are born into this country; they have all of that which I didn’t have. So I had a pretty, um, rough start if you want to call it. But, um, yeah, as a matter of fact, when we first moved here, we went to a Motel 6 in Costa Mesa. And then after a few nights, my Dad figured that we’re gonna run out of money. So we moved into a car. But I was at the pool, I remember, and this young kid was giving me that bird, you know. I don’t want to… and then the other guy was saying, somebody was sitting at the pool; he goes, ‘No, that’s not good, not good.’ I don’t know what the heck is going on. Yeah, so I didn’t, not only I didn’t speak English, sign language. That’s crazy.”

“What’s it like to sleep in a car with six people and like it was at a station?”

“It’s not good, yeah. It was a 1972 Datsun station wagon, um, a lot of cool lights, yeah. It wasn’t good, but you know, um, I think it was so much suffering and mental pressure on my mom especially that, you know, sometimes you subconsciously block it; you don’t think about it. I look at the good times now, yeah, but, uh, it wasn’t easy.”

First business selling nuts

“During that time, I’m Howard. Oh, my parents wanted me to go to college, so I attended two weeks of college at IBC in Irvine. And I realized, you know, everybody’s monkeying around, throwing paper at each other, pens, and I’m like, I showed up there with a briefcase, you know, I’m wearing a suit, I’m ready to make money. Yeah, really. And then after two weeks, I quit, and my mom didn’t talk to me for like several months.

She was very depressed and upset. But, um, I was eager to make money, right? So at age 18, I started my own business selling nuts door to door. That was my first business. It did great until the Health Department fined me. They said, ‘Hey, you gotta have a permit every time you repackage food for resale.’ And I didn’t know that. So I caused that. And I had about $20,000 saved, and then I realized, you know, maybe I should put that to work. And one of our friends used to sell gas stations, because, you know, at 20 grand, you could buy a Mobile gas station because you get 90% financing. I’m like, really? I was 20. I think 20 at the time. So we opened escrow. I put my $20,000 in a bank. They gave me a loan officer.

Turned out to be a con artist, and I lost all my money. So that was my first real failure, back to zero. Because there’s one thing, you’re not having money and not making it, but once you make it and then you go back to zero, it’s a hard landing, you know? Yeah. And then I went back to working at Winston tires, um, to again work for somebody else to save money. And I got my real estate license because every time I was, uh, I was having a Porsche or Ferrari coming to a tire shop, and I was upselling them, you know, brakes, tires, whatever, alignment. I really, I would ask, ‘Hey, what do you do for a living?’ And they would say, ‘Oh, either I’m an attorney, but nine out of ten times, they own a mortgage company or real estate.’ Right? I’m like, ‘Wow, so real estate’s good.’ So I got my license, and then one of the customers that used to come to Winston tires hired me as a loan officer. So I worked at the loan company for less than a year, and then I learned everything and…”

First success

“Then I opened my own mortgage company, and in 1993, I was 22 years old. Um, I found a mortgage group. I made $290,000 bucks first year, and that was my first taste of success, real money, right? At 20 to 23 years old, having that kind of money. So I bought a 500 SL, I bought a small little condo. I was wearing three-piece suits, smoking cigars. That was like I found them on top of the mountain. And then rates went up, and all my mortgages died because back then there was a refinance boom, okay? And you wouldn’t lock your rates in. You would wait, you know, get all the loans approved and then just lock them at the last minute to get a bigger rebate from the bank. So I had 40 loans on my boards. Rates went up, Greenspan, 1994, I think he…”

Second failure

“…took the rates up three-quarters basis point, kind of similar to what’s happening now, you know? Today, the FED increased the rates for the 10 consecutive time, right? Um, and all my loans went dead. We closed that down. And then I figured, ‘Hey, I got a couple hundred thousand dollars saved,’ and I realized discount stores are doing good. 99 Only Stores, yeah, as a one. I do 79 cents a store, 79 cents plus. So I opened a 10,000 square feet store in Santa Ana, 79 cents plus, and started making good money. And then I opened the second location that didn’t do well. I closed that one down. And then Food for Less opened right next to me; they started competing with me. And I start going from making 20, 30 grand a month cash to losing money. So, at that point, I’m like, this is my second failure. So I start selling my cars. I sold my condo. And then after two years, I owe 200 some thousand on my credit cards, paying 20-plus interest rate. And everybody told me about bankruptcy because I owed money to PepsiCo, Colorado, Rockview Farms, you know, all these vendors, right?

They gave me 30 days terms. And so my accounts payable was going up, my cash, my sales were dropping because this big store opened next to me, competing with me. And I said, ‘I’m not gonna file bankruptcy.’ This country, by then I knew, you know, because I was in the mortgage business, this country is built on credit. If I file bankruptcy, I’m dead, right? So I fought and basically fired, I’m not fired, but let go of several employees and I called my parents to come and become cashiers. So it took me two or two and a half years to kind of get to a positive cash flow, and I ended up selling it for 185,000. And then I still owe more than I got from escrow from selling the store. So I opened an e-trade account. This was December 1998. I opened an e-trade account. I started trading stocks. So I got it up to 700 grand by September 1999. Then I pulled most of it out and I bought a shopping center and two REO homes, and that’s how I started my real estate.”

Key skills

“What were the skills that you developed at this early time that other people should be learning from because I definitely think one that sounds like selling and another thing you did which I thought was amazing is that if you’re seeing someone that has something you’re interested in, you asked, it sounded like when you saw these people bringing nice cars like, ‘What are you doing?’ Because yeah, and that could maybe copy what they’re doing. I would say definitely be curious, always ask questions, be a sponge. Even now, I mean, I’m always on Google, YouTube, I’m always learning what’s going on, what’s the trends, what’s happening. But always surround yourself with people that are more successful than you, and also be curious, always ask questions. And I would say, you know, take a sales position in anything because when you do sales, you’re interacting with people, you learn a lot. You know, everything almost in life is sales, you know? So that would be my advice.”

Hunger for success

“How do you keep being an immigrant impact your success, especially early on?”

“Well, I think the hunger, you know, coming from another country, you feel your… you know you’re in a new environment, and you want to prove yourself. You’re also learning, right? Because you don’t know the environment, you don’t know how the business works, the system works. But more than anything, I think just that hunger, because I didn’t… I was rock bottom, I didn’t have any place to go but up, you know? And I think that was what created that drive in me. You know, a lot of people take that freedom, resources, friends, being able to speak English, all that for granted because they’re here. But if you take all that away from you, you get really desperate, yeah, real quick.”

Facing discrimination

“What were some of the discrimination or challenges you faced?”

“Oh my God, I can go on and on on that one, yeah. Camel Rider, standing… oh no, really.”

Facing discrimination

“Oh yeah, well back then, there was still a lot of discrimination, especially towards Middle Easterns. So I used to work at Kmart. My first job was at Kmart at age 16. I was mopping floors, collecting shopping carts, and I used to always avoid walking by the cafeteria because they… I used to… they used to call me names. So I used to go around, you know. But you know, luckily, that period’s over. The U.S. is now primarily… a lot of immigrants, so, you know, it’s a lot… a lot less now than, uh, 40 years ago. But it was tough. A lot of name-calling, especially when I was selling nuts. I remember one time I was selling nuts. So what I used to do with my nut business, I used to go to all the auto dealerships because I sell cashews, trail mix, candies to the secretaries, and then the salespeople love nuts, you know, the trail mix, pistachios, and whatever. So one time, I walked into a Toyota dealership, I think it was Toyota, anyway, um, and this GM came at me, yelling, screaming in front of everybody, the entire sales floor, ‘How many got that F out!’ Blah, and it was very humiliating. And I’m standing there with my basket of nuts. So I remember, you know, walking out, I had tears in my eyes. I’m like, you know what, it’s okay, suck it up, and I went to the next dealership and I sold some nuts. So yeah, you just gotta keep going, right?”

Turning haters into followers

“Do you think you used that discrimination and name-calling and negativity and funneled that over the years, right, because you were selling to these car dealerships and now you have your own dealership?”

“I guess so, if you put it that way, you know. Sometimes, uh, you know, life gives you challenges, or sometimes people cause challenges for you, right? Um, you can either accept it and get defeated or you can prove them wrong, you know? So I turned my doubters or haters, uh, now into my followers.”

The American Dream

“And I can’t imagine also feeling so discriminated and discouraged at these times. And then how did you even know what to think of a vision? Because when I’m noticing of some people is they don’t know how big they can even dream, like, or how far they can even go. So how are you thinking about that, and how did you get…?”

“I just looked at people that were around me that were successful. Like, when I was at Winston Tire, I used to see people coming there with Mercedes convertibles, you know, a few times, probably. But a lot of Porsches. So early on, to me, success was having a convertible Mercedes, you know? And that’s the first car I bought when I made money. But I didn’t even know there is a Bugatti in existence. I don’t know what Bugatti is. But then when I got, you know, uh, years later, I got involved with higher-caliber friends that had Bugattis. I’m like, ‘Wow, I learned, you know, how much technology, legacy is behind the story behind Bugatti, Ettore Bugatti that built Bugatti. Then I started building a passion for cars, and you know, they’re like fine arts, yeah. And, uh, so your dream keeps going with you as long as you have that drive in you to grow.”

The American Dream

“What’s your definition of the American dream?”

“Definition of the American dream is you can just wake up in the morning and decide to take off for two months anywhere you want to go in the world and not have to worry about paying the bills.”

The American Dream

“Do you think this still exists?”

“Of course. I mean, if you really want it bad enough and you’re patient, anyone can do it. I believe that. But you gotta have the drive, you gotta have the hunger, and you’re gonna have to have a never-give-up mentality because surely, you’re gonna get to a point, you’re gonna have a dead end, and you’re gonna have to make a U-turn and find a different route.”

Achieving the American Dream

“Well, I’m assuming you think you achieved it.”

“I think so. I don’t know, you know. I still… my wife still tells me that I’m in denial sometimes. And, um, well, you know, when you’re accumulating wealth, more cars, this, that, sometimes you don’t stop to kind of enjoy it because you’re always hustling. But yeah, I think I have.”

Manny’s first million

“How did you make your first million in real estate? Can you tell us more detail about that deal?”

“Sure. So that was a commercial property in the year 2000. Because I did own this store, I could qualify for an SBA loan for a commercial property to build a vacant building in Santa Ana. I bought that with 10% down, $67,000 out of pocket. I remodeled it, and then I sold it for $1.6 million in less than a year. So that was my first million bucks on a single flip. And then I turned that and used the cash to my advantage, and I started writing a lot of offers on apartment buildings in Long Beach, you know, six units and up. And I was able to buy some, you know, with short closing, so use that to my advantage of getting a price reduction in return, close it quick with no contingency. And, uh, so again, I took risks, but it was calculated risk because I knew, ‘Hey, if they’re asking $900,000, and I offer them $650,000, they settle for $700,000, I just made $200,000, right?’ Let’s sell it for what they’re asking because I was able to perform quick and buy the assets. And then I did that, so I flipped probably 200 to 300 units, and then I started doing office buildings, the similar concept. And as a matter of fact, the building I recently bought for $22 million, I wired a million and a half dollar non-refundable deposit day one. And there was an offer for $26 million, four million more, but the seller gave it to me for $24.22. So how did he… why did they do that? Because they wanted certainty. So the seller was a very wealthy individual and just wanted certainty that the person is going to close. The other offers had 90-day due diligence, they wanted to develop it, go to the city, see what they could build on it. He just wanted certainty. So in real estate, you want to see what the seller’s objective is, and if you can fill that void, you can make extra money upfront. So, uh, I do like that because it’s like if you can deal with more uncertainty, you can get bigger upside.”

Achieving the American Dream

“What was it like to make the first million and how… oh, it was great. So, uh, I think it was 2000 or 2001. So I was born in ’71, so I was 29 or 30. It was great because back then, a million dollars was a lot of money. Right now, a million dollars is not a lot of money. Or maybe it is, I don’t know. You lose… concept of money when you buy five-million-dollar cars. Um, but no, it was… well, obviously, I did a 1031 exchange. But when I had my statement that shows a million dollars in 1031 exchange cash, that was… it was a good feeling. I felt like I made it, like Borat says, ‘Great success.’ Is that the moment you felt like you made the American dream, or when was…?”

“Yeah, well, that was definitely a milestone that I’ll never forget because I was writing offers, you know, buying six-unit, nine-unit apartment complexes, all cash, 10-day close, and I was 30 years old. It was like, you know, that’s a pretty good feeling. You’re setting a powerful scene when you can tell somebody, ‘Here, I’ll close in one week, uh, but I want $200,000 off.’ You know? And, uh, and that worked out really well for me, too, because that was 2001, 2002. And then this real estate… I had a good run-up till 2007. So I was able to, you know, miss the portfolio from that one million dollars started to over 100 million dollars in real estate by 2007.”

Advice for starting in real estate

“If someone is just starting out and they want to make a million dollars in real estate, yeah, their goal, liquidity, and they don’t have much money, like what would be the steps they follow?”

“So you said you’re saying residential, like how would you think about that?”

“Yeah, residential. Well, nowadays with technology, back when I started 30 years ago, there was no internet, so I had to actually fly out to Houston, meet with the listing broker, walk the properties, and then I would pick which one I wanted to buy. Now you can get on call, start LoopNet. There’s so many multiple listing services. You can kind of do your research online. And to that point, you can also network with other people that have money. And if you do your research and you find a nice value-add real estate that’s distressed and you do your research, say, ‘Okay, this is mismanaged. If we do this to this outparcel, this tenant sells it separately or lease this, subdivided, lease it to multiple smaller tenants that pay higher rent per foot. The comps are there to support double the price.’ And you go to investors, network with other investors that have equity, bring them as an equity partner and make a million bucks. You can do a split. There are so many ways, so many options you have now that you didn’t have 30 years ago. So, whoever says they can’t make a million bucks, that’s just an excuse. They haven’t tried hard enough. So does that mean it’s going to happen overnight? It may take them a year to two years to absorb and study that market to be able to sell that to an equity investor. This is a business that takes time to get educated and power up.”

Standing out in real estate

“The thing that I’ve always kind of avoided about real estate is anyone can do it. Like, I do tech because that’s much harder, or making videos like this. It’s like everyone can go and do these things. But I’m missing, like, everyone’s doing real estate. How are you able to be in the… that sounds like the top echelon performance. Like, what were you doing?”

“I would say my timing was… I was very lucky because that five, six years of a run we had in real estate, it was unprecedented, similar to what happened in the past five years, right? But I used the same concept of just flipping out of each value-add into a bigger deal. So basically, I scaled my portfolio, and at some point, I had over 2 million square feet in real estate, mostly in Houston. And then in 2007, I realized, just like 1999 when I sold my stocks, I realized, ‘Okay, this is a little too good to be true.’ People were bidding on my high-rise buildings from Florida, New York, without seeing it, an $18 million high-rise, and had multiple offers. I’m like, ‘This is not normal. It’s just too good to be true.’ So I sold my portfo…”

Biggest Win and Loss

You mentioned your biggest loss was a six-story building you bought for $17 million when the tenant vacated, resulting in a $5 million cash loss. What about your biggest win?

“My biggest win would be if I close this deal on a property I’m currently working on. It’s a $50 million deal.”

Number of Companies

You have several companies, and you also invest as a limited partner in others. You mentioned having about six actively managed companies.

Income Streams

Your businesses generate income, and you have cash flow from your real estate properties. Some of your properties, like shopping centers, have tenants, ensuring a consistent stream of income. You also mentioned that you buy some properties to flip and reposition.

Your financial strategy involves a combination of active business management and strategic real estate investments, along with preparing for contrarian opportunities during economic downturns.

In this conversation, John Paul DeJoria, the billionaire founder of Patron tequila and Paul Mitchell hair products, shared insights about his life, success, and experiences. He discussed various topics, including his entrepreneurial journey, financial strategies, managing multiple businesses, and personal values. He emphasized the importance of hard work, taking calculated risks, and being patient in the world of business and real estate. John Paul DeJoria also reflected on his past mistakes and regrets, highlighting the importance of responsible behavior, especially when it comes to safety on the roads. Success, to him, means having the freedom to choose how to spend one’s time and being able to give back.