#11 Diving Deep into Real Estate Mentorship and Funding Strategies

Speaker 1: 0:13

Ready to get the inside scoop on equity funding? Tune in to TDJ Equity Funding Insiders podcast for an in-depth look at what it takes to access financial capital and maximize your investments.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Welcome back to TDJ Equity Funding Insiders, the podcast that brings you the inside scoop of funding for your business and real estate investments. I'm your host, Jacqueline Jackson, the long guru extraordinaire, here to serve a steaming plate of financial wisdom with a side of reality. Today we have a guest, I guess. Host is Victor Johnson, who is not only a real estate investor, but he's also a mentor. You know the kind of person who can turn a dilapidated property into a money-making masterpiece, and he teaches others how to do the same. So buckle up, insiders, because we're about to dive deep into a world of real estate investing with an emphasis of funding. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Speaker 3: 1:31

Thank you, Jackie. A pleasure to be here today. I really appreciate the invite.

Speaker 2: 1:34

Great and we're glad to have you. We're looking forward to you because, like I said, our team has already been researching a lot of stuff that's going on with the real estate. As loan brokers and some of you guys, as you know, we deal with people with real estate investing, but what we have on this show is to actually let people know what is the insides of doing it. You've been doing it. So what I want to start off with if you could tell everybody a little bit about yourself and about your real estate journey.

Speaker 3: 1:58

Absolutely so, victor Johnson. I'm an author, I'm a speaker, but I'm also a real estate investor. My wife and I have a company called 555 Equity LLC. That's where we do all of our investing in real estate. We have started buying rental properties single family rental properties since 2015,. All over the country San Antonio, carrollton, texas, kansas City, atlanta and we are. Our most recent investment is in Punta Cana, dominican Republic. We just bought that one, so we'll talk a little bit more about those.

Speaker 3: 2:27

But through my journey, I had to clean up my credit. I had to get better jobs, I had to figure out how to get myself together mentally, and we were able to just go from one property to the next and be very unique in some of the ways that we acquired the funding for those. Of course, we had our own capital to get going, but sometimes you don't want to put all your money into a deal to make money. But that's kind of what I'm doing. I work for another financial institution here in the Dallas area now, so I'm helping a lot of people that look like me to start investing in real estate, whether it's first time, home buyers, luxury buyers, developers or investors. But real estate is the key to wealth and it's the key to legacy building, and so that is really my overarching message, whether I'm doing it through my book, my talks, interviews like this, or through my work.

Speaker 2: 3:14

Okay, great, great, so wonderful. You are a great candidate to be on with us Because one, like I said, we're being real, we do is unfiltered, is what we are. So we're not all about the names just because we want the professionals or the industry experts to come in and just give us the truth of what's really behind, like, I guess, the ugly part. You know because everybody think about the money, but I know you didn't get through the ugly part.

Speaker 2: 3:37

Okay so what they said on the ugly part, we're going to start off with our questions, because these are questions that we actually get from my listeners and they kind of send them into us and so we try to format it where you could ask those questions. So some of the questions they have basically is for one your experience. You've already stated to what that is, but in the process of doing your real estate investing, let's talk on that. What are some of the best investing deals that you have seen that you think are pretty good deals right now?

Speaker 3: 4:03

So for me, the more doors that it has. So if it's a duplex, triplex, fourplex, those are great deals because you have one loan for that building but you got multiple streams of income coming in from each door. So if you're in a position where you can buy a duplex, a threeplex, fourplex or even go commercial into five and up, that is definitely the best situation right now. Obviously, in most major metropolitan there's going to be a shortage of inventory. So being comfortable with looking outside of your key market maybe 50, 75 miles outside of a major city definitely smart right now. There are lots of people who in 2020, 2021, that paid too much for properties and they're just during COVID, yeah, and because we saw accelerated appreciation rates on properties.

Speaker 3: 4:59

people were like, oh well, I'll pay $50,000 over the asking price and now they're sitting back just tripping because they spent too much for a property and they can't refinance it because the rates are three times higher than they were at that time. So sometimes you can find good deals through those motivated sellers, people that are just eager to get out of the deal and just move on to something else, and so as an investor you got to be keen to looking for those opportunities that come up. You might have to do a little bit more marketing to find those people, but those are good deals and definitely the more doors that you can buy in one transaction, the more profitable it should be.

Speaker 2: 5:38

You know, some of you do the other based on another one, absolutely, absolutely, which, which I agree, because as well we deal with investors getting them the money, and also we're investors are me and my husband as well. So, but I will talk more from the money side. What I try to tell investors whether you knew a season when you say, go look for those deals at the same time you need to look at the economy. What is happening? Yes, everything is not meant for you to bite at the same time and even though other people may not be biting, it might be your time to bite. So I think, along with what you're saying, is that, yes, you do need to look at those and I think those are really the better deals, because personally, I prefer those over single family, that one house, because I look at it like this if that tenant doesn't pay me, there you go.

Speaker 2: 6:23

But if I got, four people and one don't pay me I still got it. So we have to kind of think of it in another way. I think that we've seen it works If you are a person that can stay in one of the units and run out the other that's a great way to get you in, you know as well.

Speaker 2: 6:40

So I think that's a good way. I just told a couple that I was actually looking at buying a house and I think that's great. But I said it's just you and your little girl. Why don't you all just get a duplex of four players and rent the rest out? She was like yeah. Wow. And that's what she's doing.

Speaker 3: 6:54

So even with traditional lending you can still get FHA loans 3 and 1 half percent down because you're doing that way, right, right, but you're buying on our own.

Speaker 1: 7:04

If you own our occupying Right, you know.

Speaker 3: 7:06

So you got that. If you're a veteran out there, that person can take advantage of less money at the closing table. Zero, you know, zero down payment, and they just pay the closing costs. They're tax free. And put your tax free on a fourplex instead of a single house. So that's what I've been telling people. It's the same time and it's giving tons more income. It's covering you all your payments. You only have to let the people know that you're the owner of the house. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 7:31

You can talk about it.

Speaker 3: 7:32

Yeah, that's not.

Speaker 2: 7:33

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:34

Right, exactly, you know that's the way to go.

Speaker 2: 7:36

I would say and that's what I'm saying and that's why I wanted to bring you in, because a lot of stuff that people are seeing now is what's on the internet, what YouTube somebody's selling you to be this, somebody's selling you to that. But what I realized that you would, like my listener would like to know can somebody just tell us what's going on so we can have an ideal of what we're dealing with? And that's why I said, like, definitely you come in and you can kind of help us with that. So now we're talking about them with the property and what type of property you're going to get. So let's talk about for, as, when it comes to considering funding, what should they have? What strategy do they do when it comes to getting funding for real estate? What do you think?

Speaker 3: 8:11

So first thing is, don't approach it from. How can I get in this house with as little little down, as little credit?

Speaker 2: 8:20

as possible. No, this is an investment.

Speaker 3: 8:23

So you're already going to miss out on some of the advantages of you living in that house. Like you got to bring more to the table Usually 20, 25% equity or money that you have to bring as a down payment because this is a commercial property. Now You're an investor. So having enough bread to bring to the table and they typically want to see reserves, which is the amount of what that payment is going to be times about six months. You need to have that available. You still got to do property management. You still may have renovations that you want to do. So have enough money First of all. Like, don't try to just you know there's people out there online that you see or you can get a house with no money down.

Speaker 2: 9:04

Those days are gone, man for people to say that and people to believe that they like one. Look for something I can do with no down payment. Right, you can live out there on that street right now. Honestly, you're not ready.

Speaker 3: 9:14

You know what I mean. Like mentally, there's a whole transition that has to be done and then there's a whole transition that happens for you to get that money together to even buy. So there's that the credit piece is important. There are ways to do it without your credit being considered, but at some point you're probably going to need to refinance out of whatever source you use to purchase that property in the beginning, and that first source is usually going to be a higher interest rate. So at some point you'll want to refinance out into a lower interest rate. So your credit will come into play at that time. And I would say, you know, 680 is a good number. You could get in at 640 and 620, but we're talking about what is the best strategies, and I say 680 and up is going to give you the best opportunity to get good, fair funding, less hangups down the line, and so those having enough capital and having a decent credit score in the beginning is very helpful.

Speaker 2: 10:12

Right, and that's what some people say. What we say is loan brokers. As loan brokers, we've done people as low as 500. For sure. And we can, because that's 500 along with the reserves. So we're not now you know, I'm just saying we have people as low as 500. We deal with majority of them, we don't. But I've had some come through like that. And it turned out to be pretty good. And I'm just saying because people do what they're aware is not necessarily always based on the credit.

Speaker 3: 10:37

Right.

Speaker 2: 10:37

It's based on the integrity of the property that you have. So if you have that property, when we say integrity we're talking about the numbers working.

Speaker 3: 10:44

For sure.

Speaker 2: 10:45

And I'm talking, I'm the lender that gives you the money. So we're going to look at that property. Now let me tell you what a credit does come in on our side. Say, for instance, you could either come in and put in 20% because you have a credit score of 760, or you can come in and put 30% because you have a credit score of 640. Right, so that's when that kind of play up art, right. And also, as people get into this, we tell them, having your history, your resume, usually want to know within the last three years, how many rental properties have you fixed Right or have you sold Absolutely. So you want to get one or two properties under you and sometimes people have to start with the credit where you are, that's true. So it's where you are is where you actually will go and do the research and see what's best for you. That's what we try to explain people, why we have this show, cause a lot of people don't know they have options.

Speaker 3: 11:30

No, that's true, and I'm glad you said that, because I am here to encourage people get the house any way possible in the beginning, right? Because even if you got started the 500, even if you got to, you know, scrape up some funds to borrow it. Whatever is, you know your situation but at some point you do want to take care of those. That credit piece, because the insurance is going to be different for you. You're going to pay more on insurance, you may have different uh, especially if you're going in in the strategy we talked about where your owner occupant. Then now you're talking about mortgage insurance rates and stuff like. So the credit plays so much more than just the actual financing of the money that you're looking for. But those will be pieces that. So my first rental property we bought in San Antonio. I was living in Austin. We bought it in San Antonio, the house was 75,000. We were going to put another 15,000 into it. So we'd be about 90 grand into that deal and the plan was I use hard money to get that deal done because I was going to need to rehab going. I only had about $10,000 in cash and we put that down to close on the property and towards our initial draw for the rehab and then the plan was within 30 days, all that'll be done.

Speaker 3: 12:46

I have a tenant in place and go refinance that house. Well, my credit score was like 648. It was I needed to be at like 650 or something, and so I had to wait to get the refinance done. So what that meant was my monthly payment to my hard money lender was about $1,300 a month. Well, that's what I was collecting the rent. So I got zero cash flow out the gate. Six months in, when my score was better and had my income solid, I refinanced. My cash flow went to like $400 a month. So from a numbers perspective, they did make a difference to my credit to be better, and that because I did the buying whole strategy, you know, buying it and then refinancing it down a line.

Speaker 2: 13:27

And so what I want to say too and this thing is like you and I we go into is unfiltered as real, so we can have this discussion and not necessarily we're going to agree on everything For sure. What I'm going to say from the loanbroker, since we deal with giving money, we have it where, like, what I have to explain to people is that it's a commercial deal, but, like you had mentioned that, oh, that credit going to affect the commercial insurance, not necessarily on a commercial deal. Okay, Okay.

Speaker 2: 13:50

Understand. Let's say what's business, because a business commercial is. People don't understand if you get a residential property that's non owner occupied, not on.

Speaker 1: 13:59

You're not going to live there.

Speaker 2: 14:01

That is a business all day. I got a call from one of my clients that I've done some stuff with before for his business lending, but he wanted to refinance the house that was out of the. That was basically in North Carolina, okay, well the thing is he called me. He said I call my mortgage company. You know it was his mother's house, okay, and I called him, say we wanted to refinance. I can cash out, you know, give me the horizon. He said they told me they need a utility bill. He said what kind of stuff is that? I said well, they do need a utility bill because you're refinancing that home as if you live there, but you have a rental there, because you just told them to ask you where you live. And you said I live in Kentucky. So they're like well, it's a rental property.

Speaker 2: 14:40

He kept saying no, it's not, but it is. So I think even this is even my first time forced lender me, loan me landlords Cause you know some people are forced to be oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So in this case he was because he brought his mother to him and so he had to put somebody in it. So you have to understand once it's a non owner occupied resident, you have someone in there. That's no longer residential Right, that is commercial. So you have to. You should change your insurance to reflect that.

Speaker 2: 15:07

Okay, make sure your mortgage company is right, it's understanding what you're doing, because the last thing you want to do we've seen it you want to file a claim as a residential, and it was commercial. You're going to have a problem, yeah. And that's what people don't realize, like why are they doing it? I say because you can't. So we want to make sure people understand non owner occupied. If you do not live there anywhere, it is considered commercial all the way?

Speaker 3: 15:30

Absolutely no. I'm glad we clarified that. Yeah, we clarify that.

Speaker 2: 15:34

So I think that is something good to know. When you say and I'm with the funding, so we do, so understanding. Let's look at the real estate investment opportunities that you've seen, like you said, you think was really good is that they do the doors, and I like that.

Speaker 2: 15:47

I never thought that if the more doors you can buy, the more you can Absolutely. Well, let me ask you this but but compared to the single family? You said that I would rather go here. We know what sounds good to go with this more money and everything. In that case, what is the downside of me going there?

Speaker 3: 16:01

The single family.

Speaker 2: 16:02

Single yes, what's the downside?

Speaker 3: 16:03

you see, you've seen the downside of having a single family versus no having the multiple doors.

Speaker 3: 16:09

Oh, oh for sure. Well, you got more properties to deal with, right. You got more tenants that you got to manage, right, More people, individuals, to deal with. In that situation you do have to have probably a little bit more money than if you were buying just one single family versus a quadruplex, right? So there's the money factor. There are renovations that could come up, that you know where. You got more toilets being flushed, and you know I mean pipes, you know I mean hey, something happens. You have, especially in a fourplex, more kids probably in that situation. So then from the insurance perspective it could be a little more dangerous, you know, just because you have it's more families in there.

Speaker 2: 16:51

You got to put more. You know I have to be put more coverage, Need more coverage, Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 16:56

So those are the downsides Um.

Speaker 2: 17:00

I don't think it's downsides as more as we need to say the other side. The other side, that is true because it's still making money for yeah.

Speaker 3: 17:06

And, uh, inventory is low on single families. There's definitely low on finding fourplexes, quadruplexes, triplexes, right, so they're harder to find those. So when you do find one, you want to be ready, go ahead and get your offer in how your team built up so you can, you know, get an offer submitted as quickly as possible. So those would be the other sides to the multi families that I would say.

Speaker 2: 17:29

And I'm just saying cause people are looking at trying to do so much different things. But we talked about how real estate investors we're talking about you know some things that they need to be aware of, and EDC. That's why it's important that they have a mentor, and I know that's what you do For sure. So I want you to let our listeners know. Having a mentor now not necessarily we would love for you to come and be with Victor, but long as you get a mentor, I know we've talked before he's saying how was they?

Speaker 2: 17:54

get somebody, jackie. So tell me in a mentor, what should they look for for a real estate investor?

Speaker 3: 17:59

Look at me. Look at me. Let me tell you something. Do not just find a mentor off of Instagram, tiktok, youtube. That's good information. You need to get somebody that can, that's done it and is doing it, to actually consult and mentor you right, because this market is, it's it's world spinning, like you know. It's like riding a roller coaster and what somebody recorded in 2020 or 2021 and posted out there and chopped it up and you came across that footage. It may not be the best, it's not For you, exactly Right In 2023 going forward.

Speaker 3: 18:37

So find somebody who will be brutally honest with you about what's going on, what your needs are, and really they are willing to look at and analyze those numbers with the people, because you this is taking all of the emotions out of this is when you're investing. This should not be. I had to mess with my wife all the time that first little rental property. She's like oh, we should do this. This is a rental property. This is not going to be the house that we want to be hosting parties and parties and all that no.

Speaker 1: 19:06

I'm with her.

Speaker 3: 19:07

This is one of them. Things where this is, it needs to be clean and functional. Like you know, that's keep it basic, but we help run people through the exact numbers when I'm doing mentoring. But find anybody who's actively doing real estate investing that can walk you through the type of strategy that you have, because the strategy is a big part. You might find somebody who's good at wholesaling, but they don't really do buy and hold. They're not truly going through the full process of closing and getting marketing for tenants and managing tenants and putting systems in place for tenants to be managed Right.

Speaker 3: 19:44

So it's always good to have mentors to walk you through it. It's not to say that you won't have mistakes and you won't have challenges, but it reduces that and you still got somebody there that you could talk through. Hey look, this is the type of scenario I came across. What's the best next step? You know sometimes that's all we need to know is the next best step, instead of the grand solution for the whole thing. It can be overwhelming. So having mentors is critical in the real estate investing space.

Speaker 2: 20:14

So when you first did yours, did you have a mentor? I did, I did.

Speaker 3: 20:18

So I paid for a program out of San Antonio. It was a eight hours a day, saturday, sunday type of course. And then they of course offered you hey, we can do one on ones, you know we can get you somebody. I had $10,000.

Speaker 3: 20:31

I didn't have money to be put in towards a mentor and my down payment and cleaning up credit Right, so I had to make a business decision at that time, and my business decision was I'm going to take these books and these notes and all the hundred questions that me and my wife asked over these two days, and we're going to make it happen, and we're just going to do what they said is to do. Next. Let's get an agent. Okay, I was fortunate that the agent was also an investor him and his wife.

Speaker 2: 20:58

And then let me say that, not to break you up, when you and we talk about real estate investors, when you get an agent, get someone that has a proven track record for real estate investors.

Speaker 3: 21:09

Yeah, they may say it.

Speaker 2: 21:10

But how you know is based on the conversation. Oh, he won't take it for two minutes.

Speaker 3: 21:14

Yeah, if you don't mind, let's talk a little bit with that real estate agent.

Speaker 2: 21:19

What they need to look for, because a lot of people have a misconception, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 21:22

So in a typical agent they're looking for what's the best school districts, what's the best you know schematics of the house and they're still running numbers for you. With the investor minded agent they're helping me find areas that are developing so I'm able to still buy it at a kind of somewhat wholesale price.

Speaker 3: 21:43

And I know that within a two, three year window that that property is going to be valued at a much higher price, right, I'm able to talk to them about the different financing scenarios that I might need. You know they'll have resources for contractors, for title companies that might need to do special things for me as a real estate investor. So having that investor minded agent is critical because they also have pocket listings. They have listings that other agents that are thinking about listing a property but they'll tell their real estate friends First. Hey, look, you know, I know you got some investors on your team. Right, you got any cash buyers, because real estate agents love cash buyers, right. So that investor minded agent will have pocket listings where they can say, look, this was not even on the market, nobody's bidding on this house. It came across me through a real realtor friend of mine. You might want to look at it and they can go through those numbers with me as an investor and not just as a retail buyer, right, right.

Speaker 2: 22:45

It's really critical. It's a good point because, like I said, all the year they come to us. They need the money, but you know it's about having that resource. Therefore, you're having those connections or that team. That's like a team.

Speaker 3: 22:56

Right, that's right. You got a real team.

Speaker 2: 22:57

Yes, your team that you need to have, and that's where we know mentorship is where someone can direct you how to develop your own team and, like you said, if they're missing certain parts that you need, then don't make them your mentors, just don't. And you write on that.

Speaker 3: 23:10

And let me say this part too Jackie, Be okay with saying no to people Like everybody wants to help you. Everybody got advice. All the advice ain't good advice. Even information you hear might not fit to your situation Right.

Speaker 2: 23:25

But doesn't mean it's wrong. It doesn't mean it's wrong. It may not fit you.

Speaker 3: 23:29

But so many times we're afraid to hurt people's feelings. This is business. You're about to invest whatever cash you got in hopes of growing that money and you don't want to, like, put your situation in jeopardy or at risk because you don't want to hurt somebody's feelings. Man, they're gonna be alright.

Speaker 2: 23:46

Yeah, they're gonna be alright, and I said trust me you sound like a man that been through it.

Speaker 3: 23:50

I'm saying it because I've seen it, even with clients that I've mentored. It's like well, you know, this is my cousin and I just really want to make sure that that's worse, you know nah man come on. This is your financial future, that you're talking about, your kids future. Be smart about how you moving.

Speaker 2: 24:03

Right and how you do it. And, like I said, we're just talking about all this together, worse, together, because when you go to, like, say, for lending because this is a funding podcast when you deal and come with us, at our lenders and everything, they want you to be successful. So what you're saying is the things they need to look at so they can be successful, it's not just about getting the money, but it's like you said, it's a strategy. So they have to have a process to think this thing out. Now, something I'm gonna add to yours is really good. I tell people when I have you know they start now and they like well, I'm gonna give my brother, I'm gonna give my cousin. We're gonna try to do this together. My thing is this don't get me wrong we love family and friends.

Speaker 3: 24:36

Right.

Speaker 2: 24:36

But you really need. You correct me if I wrong. You need to evaluate if they're emotional. Are you emotional and you for to bring them together? And then you find out once you get together. Oh my God.

Speaker 3: 24:47

Yeah. So yeah, I can speak on that.

Speaker 2: 24:49

Yeah, I get it in your face.

Speaker 3: 24:50

So with the property we just bought in Punta Cana, dominican Republic is a condo, so we own a unit in the condo, okay, and we couldn't mortgage that property. We had to have cash. This is a. We own that outright. We had to bring a certain amount of cash everybody to the table. So I'm working with my sisters and I love my sister. It ain't. Nobody can mess with my sisters. But when we start talking real estate, okay, we need to get our operating agreement together. Who's going to do what? I need everybody.

Speaker 3: 25:19

Take this dis assessment because I need to know how you move when it comes to analytics, how you move, are you more interpersonal? Are you people person? Are you more structured and disciplined? Like I need to really understand how you move. I'm your brother, I know how you move, but as a business partner, I don't know how you move like that. Right, and have those conversations, those ugly, uncomfortable conversations, up front. Those are hard. Get them in writing, get it signed and quit downloading all these agreements off of Google and go get you an attorney or a rocket lawyer or something out there. That's a legal document for your state. So I just want to say that.

Speaker 3: 25:55

Right, because you say hey, I saw it in your face. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:59

And that's basically what it is, and that's why we're here. We're trying to help people, not to actually go down the road. So it's not the best road for them, because a lot of time, as you know, people know but they just don't tell us.

Speaker 2: 26:09

And then they didn't watch us act like what a fish out of water, because you know and they can tell you what you can do or where to get the water. So that's what I like about you and your mentorship program is because you've realized I went through all this and I've been going through this. This is. I just wanted this and even though you had, you see, so much problems, that's why you try to do it to help people. Because it is a struggle and sometimes, most time, we don't get the right information when it comes to real estate. I know because they come into our office and they believe well, I want to have it, they want to have us to do the real estate investment as if they are purchasing a home.

Speaker 2: 26:44

I said doesn't work that way, right, you know, if they offer you prepilities, that's what that is. On commercial you know where you know the FHA and all those loans don't allow certain stuff you know. For that I say so, it's not the same and they really believe in they are. They know how this supposed to work. It's not going to work. You know. We're going to tell you what you got to do step one, two, three, four to get this money. And there's no deviating in. You can try to get around it.

Speaker 3: 27:07

Right, right, it is what it is, yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:09

Yeah, they try to get around and say, hey, I can do this a better where I have it want to go. So I think that's good. You know, like I said, we're being real because we've been there and that's what you're showing them. Yes, you want them. I also want everybody to be able to get in touch with you if they want to, to contact you. So definitely say your website and we're going to put it on our video as well, so let everybody know what your website is.

Speaker 3: 27:28

So you can visit my website at be the victorus. B E, t, h, ev I, c T O R. Dot us, not dot com. Dot us be the victor. You'll see my programs out there, my coaching link is on there and all that that is available there. What I want to say also is, well, I love people connect to me on LinkedIn, victor V Johnson, on LinkedIn. That's my favorite social platform. But back to kind of that mentoring thing. Don't learn how to do this through 30 second reels, like don't learn how to do this by compilations, you mean, you mean everything at 30 seconds.

Speaker 2: 28:09

Man like people be sending me stuff.

Speaker 3: 28:12

Oh look, this. All I got to do right here is like man Land, listen. So get you some idea. And this is a great show. I love this because you're giving them real information. We're not cookie cutting anything Like. Every situation is unique. You can start out with a strategy, but once you get in it, that situation gonna be completely different than maybe how mine was or how yours was. So be open to that and that's the key is to continue learning and, like even the realtor that I said, they were investors so they were able to mentor me and my wife. But our information learning didn't stop there. We were going to there was another group of couples that were doing these buying holds, and so what they were doing is they were buying ugly house and they said, hey, come on out Sunday at two o'clock. We want everybody's ideas about how we should restructure this house and what you think it would cost. And that was such a learning for us because we were all new except for a couple that was inviting us.

Speaker 3: 29:11

So I was like, wow, I'm thinking, oh yeah, we can just do this, take this wall down, do that. I didn't know anything about getting permits and all that kind of rehab process. Just be open to learning from all different, including that little reel, but don't let that be your only source of information.

Speaker 2: 29:28

Which I think that's good. I think I'm glad you came out today and, like I said, I like your honesty, you know your transparent. You're like look, I'm going to tell them how you told me. I'm going to tell them like it is now.

Speaker 2: 29:38

You put me on there because it ain't pretty. You know you do well with it, but I think that's what and that's what we need to hear. You know that it is going to take some work. It is going to take you involved with some other people and, like I tell people, you kind of have to pay somebody to work with you If you can't just take it and do it from. You know the days of doing stuff from the hill. You know we used to start businesses from the hill.

Speaker 3: 29:59

You know what I mean, not the hill.

Speaker 2: 30:01

The days, but the days of actually doing business from the hill. You can't do that no longer. The mistakes is going to be so much money and time, so you really have to have that. I say professional help.

Speaker 1: 30:12

And I mean.

Speaker 3: 30:13

I consider your message.

Speaker 2: 30:14

You've done it. That's why I said they got people to come to me. So my uncle said I said so how many real estate investments do y'all have? Oh, he just got his house.

Speaker 3: 30:22

Right, right, and the way things are done today are different than how you know. Like, I know plenty of guys that own probably 20, 30 different rental properties. But those houses, half of them, they inherited Another couple they was able to buy for $10,000 back in 1975. You know like, so the financing piece of it was not even something that they had to deal with. Right, it has changed, I tell people we tell them from week to week.

Speaker 2: 30:45

I tell people stuff changed.

Speaker 3: 30:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:47

I say now, I'm going to tell you this now, but I tell you this it might be something next week, and I'm just just because of our economy and what's going on and as real estate investors, like you and I was talking about, you really have to get into knowing what's happening. When you start getting into that real estate, it takes some time to research, but the good thing is having a mentor like yourself where you can, and then, of course, what you do with them makes it easy for them when they come to me. We prepare it, we can do the loan for them and get it in there, based on whatever they're situations and stuff. So I think this was excellent. Is it anything that you would like to tell our listeners? For the last thing, for the day, Think big.

Speaker 3: 31:21

Think big. Don't limit yourself your goals based on what you see right in front of you now, because we took one house and eight years later we had eight rental properties and a bunch of other benefits from being real estate owners. Be structured. You get a system in place that you can rely upon, because we don't fall to our emotion. We fall because our systems are not in place If you don't have a system for how you're going to handle things. And in the third piece is the team. Build a team around you. Get an insurance expert, get your contracting expert, get your banking funding expert, get your mentor, like build your team so that you're not the only one that has information when you're only talking to yourself or other people that are the smartest when you're not learning, you're not growing, and so I really want to encourage people out there Think really big and you can turn this into a huge legacy for your family, but don't get caught up in it.

Speaker 3: 32:28

Well, all I got here now is just get that first one going, and I'm telling you it starts steam rolling. You get tremendous benefits. And so those will be my little three takeaways.

Speaker 2: 32:37

Takeaway from what that has been excellent Again, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3: 32:40

I appreciate you having me here today.

Speaker 2: 32:41

I appreciate you for being here and I would like if you would like this information about funding and would like to be notified of our newest podcast drops, then please subscribe to TDJ Equally Funding Insiders on your favorite podcast platform and you can subscribe to our YouTube channel, tdj Equally Funding Strategies. Until next time, thank you and take care.

Speaker 1: 33:03

We hope you enjoyed this episode of TDJ Equity Funding Insiders podcast. If you'd like to be a guest or get in touch with us, please visit our website at tdjequityllcnet, forward slash podcast or email us at podcast at tdjequityfundinginsidersnet. Until next time, take care.