Marcus Long is an active-duty United States Navy officer currently stationed in England. He is also a real estate investor with experience owning small residential real estate, private lending to other investors, and investing in larger syndications as a limited partner. In the past year, he pivoted into the multifamily space as a general partner on multiple acquisitions. He is the founder of A Long Legacy, is married to his wife Amy, and has two children.
Marcus was kind enough to sit down with me (virtually) and tell me more about his background and what he’s focusing on right now.
How did you get started in real estate?
I purchased a condo in Columbia, Missouri back in 2004 and rented out a room to a friend which today is known as house-hacking. I was attending college at the University of Missouri as part of the Navy’s STA-21 (seaman to admiral) commissioning program. I still own that property today and it actually cash-flows despite not fully understanding how to analyze a property as an investment at the time and failing to take into account expenses such as HOA fees. I haven’t sold it yet because I use that property as collateral for larger loans and have been able to efficiently employ the equity it has accumulated over the years.
What inspired you to start your platform A Long Legacy?
The War Room real estate mastermind group that we are in had a large impact in inspiring me to start a thought leadership platform – similar to what inspired you to start Honor and Equity. More specifically, it was the high-caliber people we are surrounded by in that group that inspired me to take action and create the platform.
I did some serious, deep thinking about my “why” and my long-term purpose both in the context of real estate and my family. I knew I didn’t want to just invest in real estate for the sake of investing in real estate and making money. I want to have a significant impact on other people’s lives, and I want to create a legacy for my family members. I thought about what lessons my children will take from my life once I’m gone. I also wanted to inspire others to think about their legacy in their own lives. So creating A Long Legacy was a vehicle that allows me to share my journey with others and hopefully have a positive impact on theirs.
What software or tools do you use in your business that has provided significant value to you?
Calendly has helped me with time management, especially since I live in the United Kingdom with a significant time zone difference from the states. It makes it much easier for others to get in touch with me and reduces confusion about what time we’re meeting. I also like how you can set the duration of the time slots in Calendly. For example, if someone books a 30-minute time slot, there is a built-in time expectation and boundary.
Calendly also syncs with Active Campaign, another software tool I love and use regularly to create emails, keep track of my contacts, and build automations that are integrated into my website.
Asana is a project management software I’ve been using for a few years now. It makes it easy to delegate tasks and ensure different real estate projects we are working on stay on track and no tasks get overlooked. It is much more effective than digging through email for task delegation and tracking the updated status of tasks.
What do you want your legacy to be?
There’s a great quote that comes to mind: “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. I want those around me and those that know me to know that I woke up every day with the mission and intention to serve other people and have a positive impact on at least one person every day. These gestures can be as significant as putting a roof over someone’s head or as small as a smile or a short conversation with someone in need. Small gestures can have huge impacts on people’s lives. I want to be remembered for not only leading a life of generosity but inspiring others as well.
What are you focusing on right now?
In my personal life, I’m focusing on the transition from active duty Navy to civilian life. I have been serving for over 20 years, and I will be retiring next year. So as we prepare for an international move, retiring from overseas, and transitioning to civilian life, To the extent that I can, I want to make that as painless a process for my family.
Professionally, I’m focusing on continuing to partner with high-caliber team members investing in multifamily assets and educating others about the opportunities this asset class provides. In the past two years, I’ve invested passively in numerous multifamily acquisitions and early this year (2021) made the transition to being a General Partner, or one of the active operators. I’ve been spending a lot of time expanding my network within the multifamily asset class and also helping make others aware of the benefits of investing in multifamily. I get excited about the positive impacts I can make in others’ lives by helping people in my network invest in these larger real estate investments that they may not have even known were an option.
How can people learn more about you and contact you?
The best place is my website: www.alonglegacy.com. It’s a one-stop shop for everything about me, my background, what I’m doing, and all my contact information. Make sure you follow me on social media @alonglegacyrei.
I hope you gained value from this conversation with Marcus Long. Please reach out to us on Instagram @honorandequity and let us know your thoughts!