Brad Weekes

         


        Yesterday I interviewed Brad Weekes. I was very exited to talk with Brad about his successful career that he has in the real estate field. It is an industry that has a lot of opportunity, but can also be very tricky if business is not done properly. As I asked about Brad's story he started by telling me a little bit about his back round. It just so happens that he grew up in Idaho on a farm just me. He grew up only 30 minutes away from where I did. I felt that we had an instant connection after that. We talked for almost 20 minutes about the farm life and some of the changes and such in Idaho. 
        He served his mission in New Zealand and shortly after began his entrepreneurial endeavors. It amazes me that how even as a poor college student, he was finding ways to open businesses and invest the little he had. He and his brothers started a disco hall called the Star Palace in Rexburg, Idaho. He had tons of fun doing this, and were making money. He also owned and operated two used car lots. His investor IQ is something that I found remarkable. He said other college students were taking out loans to drive a nicer car, and he was pumping the little he had  in something that could give him a return. He also started to build his real estate portfolio, once he had a little more to invest. He renovated existing student housing that he could rent for more. He also begin building new student housing apartments. When he began selling those, he can remember having made 70 thousand dollars in his junior year. He said felt like the king. He chuckled and said that he was thinking that his wife, but girlfriend at the time, would be stupid not to like him. He said that wasn't  the case but after a long fought time he convinced her to marry him.
        He spoke much about his wife and family as he was telling me his story. I was very impressed with how he manged to put his family first during all these busy times. He and his wife ended up moving to Arizona where the housing market was down. He thought that this would be a prime time to buy cheap homes and rent them, and later when they increased in value, he would sell them. He explained that one of his regrets is not keeping the houses and apartments that were "cash cows". These were the ones that paid great rent and were very low priced to acquire. He told me of one property that in 12 months rent in today's rate. Would pay for the entire price of the property. His company in Arizona grew fast and he opened a custom home building company.  The company was one of the most successful custom home builders in Arizona.
      He did the same thing in California. He said , "It was fun, If I sold 5 of these luxurious custom homes, then I got one for free." It was a very fun interview and he is a very animated man. I told him he looks like Harrison Ford, and he replied Harrison would have to pay big bucks for him to look this good. He was a die hard believer on doing your due diligence in real estate transaction, and also seeking the right investment. He only likes investments that return at least 20% of the initial investment.
            

Albert Wada

 

I interviewed Albert Wada of Wada Farms. I know Albert because he is a good friend of my fathers and is buying my dads potato farm this coming season. Albert came from a humble background, his father was a small beat farmer of about 49 acres. Albert was a car mechanic but saw vision in buying his fathers land and expanding. He didn’t have much money but slowly bought out what his father had in land. Albert now farms more than 30,000 acres and has ventures with Dole, Category, and Idhoan Foods. He has two multi-million dollar packing facilities where most of these products are made.

            Albert feels lucky that he got into farming when it wasn’t so expensive. Today it is harder to start your own business in this area. He explained how there is a lot of overhead costs to farming. Land today is nearly 15 times the price of what he first bought his fathers 49 acres for. Equipment to plant and harvest can be very expensive. One new combine can cost up to four hundred thousand dollars. He explained to me how a lot of these farmers that have expanded are getting older and starting to retire, so there is a good opportunity for those that have an in into farming. Albert is now 68 and is planning to officially retire soon and have his sons continue the business.

            I asked Albert about the pains and the trails that he had to overcome over the years and he could tell me about many. He talked about how he started off so small with only one tractor and equipment that was rented. He had very long hours and did all the farm work by himself. He was barely scraping by for the first five years. After his fifth year he had built up enough capital to buy his own equipment and that very next year potato prices were up. This helped him build a rainy day account for when potato prices were not so hot. He says that farming is a major risk because it takes so much money to prepare the ground and to buy fertilizer, that if a crop or the prices are bad it can destroy the operation. He knows of many farmers who didn’t make it and have had to do something else because they couldn’t survive during the bad years. He claims that he took a major risk and it paid off. Even today they risk millions each year as they farm so much land.

            He has learned so much from his successes and his failures. He knows the importance of saving and planning in the good years to overcome the bad ones. He broke a farming norm when he built his own packing plant in 1992. He was the first grower/shipper with a packing facility. The facility was more than 12 million dollars to build, but has paid of immensely. He cut out the middleman and has been successful in multiple operations that happen in the facility. They mostly dehydrate and package the potatoes to make things such as instant mashed potatoes, hash browns, and easy bakers that are similar to twice baked potato’s. In 1994 they became an official supplier of Dole for potatoes and sweet potatoes. Albert told me that you always have to be open to new ideas and ways to get yourself out on the market. He first came in contact with some of the directors of Dole when he was on a vacation in Hawaii. It was mere coincidence that he happened to be staying in the same hotel as them, but he made the most out of that opportunity.

            Although He is getting ready to retire and for the last decade has done more of the executive part of the business, he still remembers the long hard sweaty 14 hour days that brought him to where he is today.