From Struggling Renter to Cash Flowing Landlord Using $0 Down Loans
No money down real estate investing usually sounds too good to be true. It seems almost impractical that someone without much experience, money, or property can secure cash-flowing rentals without putting a dollar into the deal. Even more astounding, today’s guest Andre Haynes was paid a few thousand dollars to buy his first rental property. He shares his exact steps on how he did it on today’s show!
While investing in real estate with no money down can seem like an advanced concept, Andre wasn’t some cash-flowing wizard from the start. If anything, Andre’s upbringing may have brought some hurdles to the financial side of his life. He had no credit, no cash, was faced with eviction notices, and generally was falling behind financially as a parent. He had to take a hard look at his life, redefine his goals, and reevaluate his choices. From there, it was a hard, yet incredibly valuable, climb upwards.
Now, only a short time later, Andre has built a real estate portfolio worth over a million dollars. He has numerous cash-flowing assets that pay for his liabilities and has started to educate others about how they can do the same. He defines this easily repeatable process on today’s show but doesn’t gloss over the fact that the only thing stopping you from obtaining the wealth you desire, is yourself.
David:
This is the BiggerPockets podcast, show 590.
Andre:
The moment that I took action over the way that I was thinking, and the way that I was speaking, probably in 24 to 48 hours, man, I noticed just an immediate change. And just the way that I felt, I just didn’t feel that was a black negative cloud hanging over me, walking around every day anymore, you know what I mean? And it’s all me. It’s nothing anybody else is doing around you. Most times, it’s you, and the way that you’re thinking, your surrounding, all of that. And if you’re able to change those things and identify those things, man, you can really expedite your process to get to the next level.
David:
What’s going on, everyone. It’s David Greene, your host of the BiggerPockets, real estate podcast. The show where we teach you how to build wealth through real estate. If you’re looking to have a better life, if you want more freedom, if you want more financial flexibility, if you don’t want to worry about money, if you want to feel like you’re actually making progress then you are in the right place. BiggerPockets is a community of over two million members that are all on that same journey for themselves, trying to improve their lives and their finances through real estate and doing it together.
David:
We bring lots of ways to help you accomplish that. The website has a forum where you can read about tons of questions that we’re asked, and ask your own questions, amazing blog articles. We have an agent finder system to put you in touch with agents in your area that are familiar with real estate investing, and we have the best freaking podcasts in the world when it comes to real estate.
David:
Today, we are going to be talking with a very special speaker, Andre Hines, as well as an amazing asset to your real estate investing journey, my co-host of the show, Henry Washington. Henry, welcome to the show.
Henry:
Hey man. Thank you for having me again. Glad to be back. You know I always love chit chatting it up with you, Mr. David.
David:
Yeah. And you brought some help with you today. One of your friends is who are going to be interviewing. He has an amazing story. Can you tell us a little bit about Andre?
Henry:
Yeah, man. Andre has a super inspiring story, man. It’s really a genuine rags to richest story, right? He talks a lot about coming from nothing, and had every excuse in the world to not be successful, right? And even when he pursued one path and didn’t find success, didn’t let that stop him from finally achieving financial freedom. And so I’m excited for you guys to hear how this young man literally took everything that was formed against him and used it to prosper.
David:
That is a great summary of what this is like. This is one of those shows where you’re probably not going to be able to multitask. You’re not going to be doing other things while this is playing in the background. You’re going to be sucked into Andre’s story, the adversity that he faced, the way that he handled it. He’s very transparent in sharing how he used to think versus what he went through, and how it changed the way he thought. And now what he’s doing with some of this momentum and synergy to build an empire for himself. So it was an awesome time. And especially if you are a first time investor, so when trying to get your first property, or someone who just feels like you’re sucked into the undertow of this current market, and you’re under the ocean doing circles, trying to get your feet underneath you, and you can’t figure out which way is up, this is a show for you.
David:
And for today’s quick tip, check out biggerpockets.com/podcasts. It’s being revamped. So now if you like a show, you can go there and you can find other shows of the same topic listed on that site as well as more thorough show notes. So if you hear a story like this one and you think, “Man, I’d love to hear more inspirational stories,” You can go there and you can have a list of other podcasts that were similar to that one. We are really ramping things up, so we’d love for you guys to check it out and tell us what you think. All right. That’s all I got. Henry, anything you want to add before we bring in Andre?
Henry:
Yeah, man. Absolutely. I just really encourage people to engage with this show, man. It is one of the realest, most raw, uncut conversations we had. And life isn’t always pretty, David, and we are all faced with choices at some point. And we can let life circumstances knock us off our path and take us out. Or we can take literally those life lemons and make lemonades and choose success. No matter your circumstances, Andre’s a real guy. He had some real situations and he turned it into real wealth. And so I encourage people to just take a list and try to put yourself in his shoes. And if you’re really just getting started, just like David said, man, what an inspirational story to hear. Because truly, if this guy can go from nothing and then turn it into wealth in an expensive market, right, even in these expensive times in real estate, then trust me, y’all you can do it too.
David:
Very well said, Henry, look at you, becoming quite the wordsmiths yourself.
Henry:
I appreciate that Mr. David. I’ve learned from the best.
David:
All right, let’s get to Andre.
Henry:
All right, Mr. Andre Hines. Welcome to the show, man.
Andre:
Hey man. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it.
Henry:
Hey, man. No worries. Thank you for being here. So you got your start in real estate through some counseling that somebody pointed you in the right direction. But before we get there, why don’t you tell everybody a little bit about your background, how you came up and how that story shaped who you are, and where you are right now?
Andre:
Again, my name is Andre Hines. I am from the South Side, Chicago, the Ida B. Wells Projects. I come from a non-financially literate background. Everything pretty much was government assistant. You know what I mean? When I was a child, my family was hit hard by the drug epidemic in the late ’80s and early 90s, so my mom and dad were affected by that. I ended up being adopted, blessed enough to be into my own family. My aunt raised me in church, and that molded my character and built me, you know what I mean, gave me my foundation of just the [rituality 00:05:55] and everything that I have now. Yeah, man, just coming from that to be where I am now is like night and day compared to, you know what I mean, some of the people that I grew up with, or grew up around or just, you know what I mean, some of my family members. And I’m extremely blessed, man.
Henry:
That’s cool, man. Because a lot of people didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in their mouth, and had to fight just to get where they are. But what I like about your story is you didn’t let any of that stop you from becoming financially free or even pursuing your goals, right? In your previous life, right, you went into even looking at a music career as a way to try to gain some traction. And so, how did what you learned when you started doing music guide you toward starting to understand that you need to be doing something to build wealth?
Andre:
I learned a lot of stuff in the music industry just about ownership, you know what I mean? And I looked up to a lot of guys like Damon Dash, Master P, Jay-Z, you know what I mean, Sean P. Diddy Combs, and they all had their own labels, and they all had clothing brands. They would start liquor companies, all of these different things that stemmed outside of just them having a rap career. And I always wanted to model just my business after that. I just didn’t want to be just in a single lane. I always wanted to be multi-faceted. And I always just felt, growing up because like I said, there was no financial literacy. Sports and entertainment were my only options for me to really attain wealth and just have success because that’s all I would see, and that’s all I really would, you know what I mean, was around.
Andre:
And just being able to really just maneuver the way that I have maneuvered and just really get to a point where I have just starting in the music industry, that experience really taught me, like I say, how to just operate in an ownership space, knowing that it won’t be easy, knowing that I’m not operating with a big major label behind me, you know what I mean? I was selling CDs out of my backpack and out of my trunk, all of those different things. It just really taught me a grind and a hustle, and I never lost that spirit and that energy when it came to real estate, and business, and entrepreneurship.
Henry:
If I hear you right, Andre, what I’m hearing you say is you had a mindset before. And this is really the mindset part of your story that was, I’m not financially literate. I see two roads to success, entertainment or sports. And if I can’t make it happen, well, then there’s no point of trying. I’m probably oversimplifying, but more or less, that’s the perspective. And then when you started your music career and you were not signed to a big label, if you’re signed to a big label, you’re kind of more of a W2 employee, is do what they tell you, “Hey, you go do this and we will take care of the details.” Right?
Andre:
Yeah.
Henry:
When you do it yourself, you are not entrepreneur, which means you’re a business owner. Even if the business is selling CDs out of a trunk, you still have to make the stuff, market the stuff, manufacture the stuff, price the stuff, keep your own books to know what your profit margin is. And that is what opened your mind up to, whoa, there’s actually a lot more possibilities and routes than just the two that I was seeing before.
Andre:
Absolutely. And I wasn’t necessarily successful in that field as far as on a famous or multi-platinum level or anything like that. But as far as, like you said, the mindset that it taught me and the hustle and the grind that it taught me. And it also, it kept me humble because I wasn’t successful. You know what I mean? Rappers tend to have these big egos and these images, that they’re this famous person, and they got all of this money. And really in all actuality, like you said, they’re really an employee. They owe money to the label. They owe money to the car company. They owe money to the mortgage company. They owe money to the jeweler. They owe money to the clothing company. There’s just like, they’re in a bunch of debt. And I was shaping up my life to be in the same way.
Andre:
I had to realize that it wasn’t working for me after a while because I spent maybe 10, 11 years chasing this dream. And sometimes, you don’t necessarily have to give up or quit, but you have to pivot, you know what I mean? And I didn’t give up on my dream of being wealthy because that’s what I was using music for because that’s all I knew. Because again, you find out you’re not going to make it in sports pretty young, you know what I mean?
Henry:
[crosstalk 00:10:02].
Andre:
Once you get to high school, you realize it’s a wrap. Once you’re not starting on the varsity team and there are no colleges coming to see you, that kind of stuff, it gets to you early, like, yeah, so this may not be my path now that I’m seeing what’s going on here. And yeah, I figured that out early. So I just started to learn how to hustle, man, because I just didn’t have a mindset of stock market, real estate, all of that stuff. So I would do little stuff like, man, sell sneakers, go and get a job here and there, just little stuff to make money. And after a while, like I said, I had children, fell behind on my rent for so long. I mean, eviction notices, you name it, just like all the problems that a person could possibly have and just, it was time for me to just really get my [inaudible 00:10:51] together, man.
David:
Well, that’s why I wanted to ask you that question because, so it’s funny that you mentioned sports. That was really where my journey started off as well. I just wanted to be a basketball player. I wasn’t at the time wanting to be wealthy or famous, but I just loved basketball. And I hit a ceiling, that was my athletic ability, right? I was more athletic than most people, but I was not more athletic than division one college athletes, much less professional athlete. Like you said, it becomes very obvious very quickly. It doesn’t matter what you do, you’re not getting past this point with these limitations. But in the world of real estate or maybe entrepreneurship in general, what I tell people is that your athletic ability is your mindset.
David:
And what’s amazing is that there are no natural limitations on it. It’s only what you put on yourself, right? So I just wanted to draw that out of your story and make the connection for our listeners that you had to have your mind opened, and that came through what you would call a failed endeavor. But what you gained in that failure is what opened up the door. So we’re going to talk about now. So I’m going to throw it back to Henry and let you guys keep going into your story. Thank you for that.
Henry:
It’s a perfect transition because you talked about getting your [inaudible 00:11:51] together, you talked about evaluating your situation, and then using that to guide your next steps. You essentially have documented this process that you’ve used to go from where you were to financial freedom now. So talk a little bit about what that is and how this ties into that step one.
Andre:
Yeah. And like you said, step one is the self-evaluation process, which is typically for most people, and for me as well, it’s the hardest part because that’s when your pride and your ego gets the biggest blow, because you got to take that look in the mirror and say, I ain’t going to the NBA. I’m not going to be a multi-platinum rapper. Or even just, even the level of responsibility just to say like, you know what, I’m just not where I’m supposed to be in my life, or where I want to be in my life right now. A lot of people just, like I said, in certain lifestyles they get caught up like with internet lifestyle, and just what’s going on with other entrepreneurs, what’s going on. Like I say, with rappers and ball players and they want to act like they’re living this lifestyle the entire time, you’re not taking care of your children and you’re behind on your bills.
Andre:
Like I said, you’re behind on your car note. Every dollar that you have is essentially on your body with the clothes that you’re wearing, just… you know what I mean? It’s bad, man. You know what I mean?
David:
I never thought about it like that. That’s funny though.
Andre:
Yeah. And when you’re able to have this conversation with yourself and be like, “Yo, I’m out here bad as hell right now. I’m really down bad. I really need to just sit down, reevaluate my situation and just re-plan.” And a lot of it comes with just unlearning a lot of stuff that we’re taught, you know what I mean? And just like school, church and stuff like that, just real traditional stuff that we’re taught a lot of times. And if we can shake that mindset, and just open up our minds, and think outside the box just a little bit, because nothing is wrong with the stuff that we’re taught in school and church. Just a lot of times it’s very limiting. You know what I mean? Especially the older stuff, because I was raised by, like I said, an older church woman, you know what I mean, who was just very traditional.
Andre:
A lot of times she would choose church over sports, and [inaudible 00:13:54] like that. It was like, “Lady, I had the opportunity to go to college. This could be my full ride scholarship here.” And she’s like, “No, we’re going to Bible study today.” Like, “Are you serious?” I would have coaches coming by the house, knocking on the doors and everything, she’s like, “Nope, we’re going to church.” You know what I mean?
Andre:
So certain stuff, man, like I said, we just really don’t get and understand. But for me, that was the first step in just understanding myself and knowing that I had to make a change. And it was taking that look in the mirror and being like, yo, you’re not the person who you say you are. You’re not the person who you think you are. You’re not the person who you’re front out here acting like you are. Like, dude, get it together. And the first step in doing that is having that conversation with yourself. And that’s a step that most people don’t want to take because it’s tough to say, I’m just not that guy, or I’m just not that woman right now.
Henry:
Absolutely, man. And just so people know, when I say you documented this process, you wrote a book, right? What did you call that book, specifically because of this?
Andre:
Renaissances’ 5 Step Guide on Getting Your Sh*t Together.
Henry:
Right. And so first step, self evaluation. Step two, what was next for you?
Andre:
Understanding the power of your mind and your words because typically that first step is brutal. You’re beating yourself down a little bit, you know what I mean? You’re identifying all your weak points. But after you do that, you have to tell yourself, you know what, but that doesn’t have to be who I am for the rest of my life. Now it’s time to make a change. I’m a confident person. I’m a talented person. I can go out here and do whatever I want. I’m able to build wealth. I deserve to build wealth. I deserve to change my life. And the more that you start speaking like this and thinking like this and just… you know what I mean, having these just positive affirmations and speaking them into the universe, the more you’ll get that stuff in return because the more you put it out there, the more you’ll get it back. And that’s just the law of attraction at its best.
Andre:
And that’s how it works because the moment that I took action over the way that I was thinking and the way that I was speaking, probably in 24 to 48 hours, man, I noticed just an immediate change. And just the way that I felt, I just didn’t feel that was a black negative cloud hanging over me, walking around every day anymore. You know what I mean? And it’s all me. It’s nothing anybody else is doing around you. Most times, it’s you, and the way that you’re thinking, your surroundings, all of that. And if you’re able to change those things and identify those things, man, you can really expedite your process to get to the next level.
Henry:
I like that. And I think that a lot of people gloss over mindset steps like this when they’re trying to think about their business or their real estate career. And I like to try to put some practicality behind it for people so that they can understand that this stuff truly does work. I know it sounds like, oh, okay just think about it, and it’ll be, but it’s not that. It’s like, our minds are powerful. And the things that we tell ourselves, that’s why vision boards are powerful for people, right? Like if you put something in front of your face every single day, you’ll start to realize that the actions that you’re taking are going to be moving you towards those goals in small ways, it’s almost like our subconscious takes over and we start moving ourselves in that direction. Now I’m not saying it’s magic, you write it down and you make it happen. But what I am saying is that when you surround yourself with your goals, either visually or taking the action to write them down, your actions follow suit, and sometimes that’s intentional actions, and sometimes it’s even subconscious actions.
Henry:
But so I challenge anybody, like if you have a goal of getting started with real estate investing and you’re not quite sure exactly how you’re going to get it done, take the first step of just writing down every day, I will be a successful real estate investor. I will be a successful real estate investor. Write it down five times every morning. If you do that consistently, what happens is, and we’ve talked about this on other episodes, David, it’s like the red truck theory, right? You buy a red truck and then now all you see is red trucks. Well, that’s because your mind is open to seeing those red trucks. If you tell yourself I am going to be a successful real estate investor every single day and you’re writing that down, you’ll start to see opportunities that you weren’t focusing, your brain wasn’t focused on before, you weren’t open to before. And then you’ll start to act on those. And that’s how mindset really starts to practically take hold in your life.
Andre:
I agree with that wholeheartedly because I’m a prime example of just what you said. You say, just writing it down because even before I was a real estate investor, before I got my first property, before I really knew about real estate investing, I knew that I wanted to be a real estate investor, I just didn’t have the right information to do it and get into the field. I was in a cubicle when I first got my job, I had to step away from the music industry. And once I started getting my stuff together and we’ll get into that, but I just wanted to just piggyback off of what you just said, I wrote down into my cubicle that I would attain over a million dollars worth of real estate assets by January 25th, 2029, which is my birthday. But I eclipsed that number probably 10 years earlier just by writing it down and having it in my face every single day and just believing and knowing that.
Henry:
Let’s put some parameters around that for people. And so you left music, because you said, this isn’t going to get me where I want to be. And even the people that are where I want to be, when you really look at it on paper, they’re not there. Right? And so-
Andre:
Yep.
Henry:
… you then said, “I got to go back to work.” And you went and you got a job. What kind of job did you get?
Andre:
Oh, man, dude was working at a telemarketing company. And I was calling people, putting them in schools that just weren’t accredited. Schools, like you hear about them in the news, like yeah, they just got shut down for education scams. [inaudible 00:19:43] Maybe I shouldn’t be working here.
Henry:
So you were doing telemarketing. How much were you making?
Andre:
Minimum wage age plus a bonus, sales bonuses. You know whenever you get sales, you get an extra little bonus or whatever the case may be. But the thing is, dude, I was killing them, bro. I was like signing people up for these schools. I look back at it, dude, I probably have 1,000 people who are just uncredited degrees right now.
Henry:
So you got a job at a call center. You were making a minimum wage, living in what city?
Andre:
In Chicago.
Henry:
In an expensive city. And you wrote down, you were going to do what?
Andre:
Obtain a million dollars worth of real estate assets.
Henry:
Right? That’s powerful. People need to see that. You had every reason to believe that you couldn’t do that. And you went and you got a job. And as you’re working at this job, you were trying to do the best you can at the job and you were doing well and you decided you were going to buy a million dollars in real estate assets. And most people who are in that situation, that would be so far out of their mindset. But you spent the first time in those two steps in trying to figure out how you were going to get to your goals, right. You had to self-evaluate, and then you had to look at the power of your words and then that leads you to learning about real estate. And so tell us a little bit about how that came to pass. So how do you go from a call center to buying real estate assets?
Andre:
That would lead into step three. Once I knew what I wanted to do, and once I started reading about it, I knew I needed some damn money. All right. All right. So real estate, I can’t do this bro. I started reading a little bit more. I started saving man, every dime that I had. Because at the time I was reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, MONEY Master the Game by Tony Robbins. This is maybe 2010, 2011. And I’m just picking up everything, just digesting information like it’s food, man. I’m just like, I’m hungry for it. So I’m just taking in everything. And those two books were what sparked the most interest in me and really taught me the most and really lit the fire under my ass. And I’m reading that book by Tony Robbins and just really just had me turned up. So I started, like I said, saving every single dollar from work. I started eating noodles for like a year straight.
Henry:
Which for the record is step three. Right?
Andre:
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That’s what I’m saying. I was going into step three. And that was me understanding my money. And step three, is, are you frugal or are you fraud? Because again, a lot of times as we spoke about in my particular culture and just background, we tend to want to look like we have money more than we actually have money. And it’s a problem and I was one of those guys. So I had to really evaluate, okay, am I frugal? Am I saving money? Or am I actually doing what I’m supposed to do? I’m out here just really being a fraud and looking like I am and acting like I’m financially responsible and just tricking people. And I was, I was being a fraud, you know what I mean? And I had to really evaluate that. So like I said, I started saving money, making sacrifices, not buying Jordans every weekend all of that kind of stuff that was just really taking big chunks of money out of my pocket.
Andre:
And over time, man, maybe after about a year, year and a half, I had saved about 10, $12,000. And I just knew, oh, okay, I’m on something with this. And I need to do something with all this money because I never had this much money in my life just sitting there.
Henry:
But for reference, what were you making yearly?
Andre:
Ooh, maybe after taxes, about $26,000 or something like that. Barely over the poverty line.
Henry:
Right. And so I say that, because I don’t want people to not get the value of what you just said. You saved $10,000 while only making just under 30 that’s almost half your salary.
Andre:
Yeah.
Henry:
Right. Just through self realization and then putting yourself in checking on a budget. That’s amazing.
Andre:
It was hard. Oh, it was real hard, man. Just sitting in the house for, really a year and a half straight really only doing… really just not doing nothing. The whole summer long. You know when Kanye was like, man, imagine being locked in your room for three summers, that’s a different world, bro. You looking outside the window, you seeing everybody having fun. You on Instagram, everybody just says at the concert, Drake concert came to Chicago, oh it was lit. But you have goals and you know what I mean? You understand short term sacrifice for long term. You know what I mean? Greatness. And that’s really what I was on. And it worked out for me because after I did all of that stuff, man, and after I made those sacrifices, my life just took off just when I say on a rocket ship. And I never looked back.
Andre:
So it was just more so anything, man, just understanding that those sacrifices weren’t going to be forever. You know what I mean? It was just, somebody told me, man, sometimes you just got to turn down steak on an empty stomach. You know what I mean? At first it didn’t make sense to me, but then it made sense to me when I was able to have surf and turf buffet for the rest of my life. You know what I mean? So it just was the financial part of everything. And just me understanding my money and understanding what was smart to do with my money and what not to do with my money was just a major step for me.
David:
That’s very similar to my story. I did not do fun stuff when everybody my age was doing fun stuff. And this comes up a lot. So I’ve got a young guy on my loan team. He’s 23 years old. He’s my first hire. He’s crushing right now. He probably has 60 loans in submission right now at 23 years old. And he will say the same thing, “Ah, sometimes I feel like I’m missing out not hanging out with my friends.” I relate to it because I was in that same boat. But I’ll tell you, I don’t have any regret about not going out to a fancy restaurant or not going to a concert now where I am in life, knowing that that would’ve stole a house from me, right. If I had to pick, would you rather go back in time and go on a vacation with friends that you don’t even have anymore because nobody stays friends with these people for 20 years, right? Or have a house that’s going to pay you for the rest of your life. It’s pretty easy decision.
David:
So I just want to encourage the other people that are in this situation. You were Andre that you’re not doing this for nothing. It’s worth it. And then the other part I really like is that you mentioned is now you eat a seafood buffet every night. See when you spend your money on a car or on Jordan’s or something, you get the shoes, they get worn out, you don’t get to wear them anymore, you got to buy new shoes. When you get the house, it buys you a new pair of Jordan’s every month for the rest of your life. And it doesn’t matter, right? And you keep the house. That’s the difference. And when you get the asset, first, it buys the car, it buys the dinners, it buys the shoes, all the things you want are taken care of because you sacrifice early to get it. And it doesn’t stay where you’re just depriving yourself all the time.
David:
And the last point I’ll make is many things in life work this way. So if you think about, if you’re out of shape and you first want to go start running, you can’t run very far, you get maybe a quarter mile and you’re done. So you don’t really burn that many calories. You don’t see a result.
Henry:
Were you watching me workout out this morning?
David:
It seemed like you’d be probably in the gym, Henry. I don’t really see you doing a whole lot of running. I see you pushing some weight. But that’s the same thing, when you first go to lift weights, you’re not very strong. You don’t work out very long before you get tired and you don’t burn many calories. You’re not building muscle. You are conditioning yourself to eventually run four miles where you’re going to burn a lot of calories. And so what I’m saying is it does not suck the whole time like it does when you’re starting. When you first start running, every single step is agony and it’s terrible. And you do it for a long enough time, and like, this isn’t that bad. It might actually become fun because you’ve conditioned yourself. So I just want to throw that in there that while this may sound not appealing, when someone’s like, man, I don’t want to be sitting in my room watching everyone else have fun. It changes, right?
David:
Now Andre, I’m sure you’re going to tell us about some of the ways you’re finding deals. Some of the empowered way that you feel where you’re like, I’m walking around, I don’t have pretend I’m wealthy, I am wealthy. And the confidence that comes from that, where now you recognize all the things that at one point were temptations for you were because you wanted to look a certain way. And now that you don’t need to because you are that person, the temptation just goes away and that’s nice.
Andre:
And the crazy thing is just to take it back a little bit. It was extra hard for me because like I said, I had just come from a lifestyle again, while I was rapping, I was sitting next to Jay Z and Beyonce at basketball games, doing shows with Fat Joe and mind you two of my closest friends played NBA basketball. So I was playing video games with LeBron James, and weddings with Kobe Bryant, just wild that you wouldn’t even believe. And to go from that to having to sit down in a cubicle where the mindsets of the people who I’m sitting around every day just aren’t like mine, just the very, very bottom of just the work level. I said, I’m sitting in a cubicle, calling people, putting them in schools that aren’t accredited. So this was a very, very, very humbling and pride killing experience for me.
Andre:
And for a little while, I went through a little bit of a depression with this. But again, I realized that it was just a short term sacrifice for long term greatness. And as you said, man, I live my life on my own terms, now I buy all the Jordans that I want. I’ve learned about cool, art and dope [inaudible 00:29:03] like that. The ways I can use the money that I make from my investments to make other cool investments. So it’s not like I’m just spending the money now. So now let’s say I want to go buy a pair of Jordans, I can buy a two pair of Jordans. I can buy one to wear and I can buy one to put up and they go up in value like stock. Even if you’re watching this YouTube video, these little art pieces behind me, they’re really dope. They’re by this artist named Brian Donnelly Kaws. I collect his pieces, man. I learned about him, I started collecting his pieces. I’m paying two, 300 bucks for a piece just because I think it’s cool.
Andre:
I start looking this stuff up, man. It’s going up in value by 30 and 40% every year. I bought these two things back here, maybe four years ago for 300 bucks each, right now they’re worth 1,500 each and he’s still alive walking around all good and healthy, man. And God forbid something happens to him, but you understand how this goes. When typically something happens to artists or anything like that and you own a piece of their original work, man, that stuff usually skyrockets and values. I’ve learned so much different cool stuff. I and have been able to put my money in other cool stuff that are investments and not just me wasting my money.
Andre:
So just it’ll pay off man. Like David said, don’t think it’s just you just eat [inaudible 00:30:12] just for no reason. And you just got to do this for no reason. No, man. Over time you’ll be able to live a very, very happy life and just do whatever you want do out here, which is the main, that’s happiness. That’s what happiness is. Is time freedom, going to your kids baseball games when you want to, you know what I mean? Taking a family on vacation. Like Henry said, he’s leaving to go to Hawaii for two weeks. Who’s doing that. You know what I mean? You got to understand, but he had to make some sacrifices to get to that point.
Henry:
Yeah, absolutely right, man. I’m glad that you were able to touch on that for people because as soon as you start talking about sacrifice, people tend to tune out. I like that we’re able to put some color around that. So that’s good man. So you saved this money, right?
Andre:
Yep.
Henry:
You made these sacrifices, you built this nest egg and then how did you go from that nest egg to knowing you needed to buy some real estate with it? What led you to the real estate?
Andre:
That was step number four for me, which like I said, was building a solid foundation and maintaining stability. Because after I started saving money, I also started to understand and learn how to keep the money. Because once you start to get these big lump sums of money, like I said again, I’m speaking just from my personal background, from my culture, what I come from. We tend to want to go buy big ass gold chains, big cars with rims that aren’t worth anything. Just spend our money on a lot of… just ain’t worth nothing and depreciates in value, as soon as we get the receipt for it. You know what I mean? And I just wanted to maintain where I was at and have that solid foundation of just financial literacy.
Andre:
So like I said, I kept educating myself on top of me having that cash, I started to build my credit man. I started to learn about credit. I started learning about how to use credit. I started learning about how to leverage credit and all of these different things. After that, man, it was time for me to go into step number five, which was taking my leap of faith and buying that first property. And once I was ready, I reached out to a mentor of mine, a big sister of mine, her name is [inaudible 00:32:04], she’s a broker in Vegas. I’m like, “Hey, I’m ready to buy a house.” And she was like, “Eh, that sounds good. But you should consider getting a multiunit, and you should consider getting a multiunit with this program called NACA.” And I’m like, “NACA?” And she’s like, “Yeah. It’s a program that I feel like would be best for you because of all of the benefits that they offer.”
Andre:
And I’m like, “Hmm, what are the benefits to this program?” And she goes into telling me everything about this program and I’m just like, “Wow, I just read the same thing in Rich Dad Poor Dad.” So just it really clicked to me just about buying assets and buying cash flowing assets over liability, you know what I mean? All of these different things and it’s just like, a real light bulb just went off in my head when she said this. And yeah, so I took the leap of faith man and I went ahead, I started looking into the program, NACA, N-A-C-A, Neighborhood Assistance Corporations of America.
Henry:
Awesome. So what were some of the benefits to you and then how did you leverage that program to buy a property?
Andre:
So the benefits are for first time home buyers. And the NACA program, first out, they offer the lowest interest rate in the country regardless of what your credit score is. They’re mainly concerned about the debt that you have in collections and your debt to income ratio. In addition to that, they also offer to pay for your attorney, your agent, and most of your fees. The only thing you’re liable to pay for is your… but your inspection costs. They pay for your appraisals as well. Also, they give you the option to buy the interest rate down lower than what it already is. In addition to that, you don’t have to necessarily have substantial savings. What they will allow you to do a lot of times is what’s called payment shock. So they’ll say if you can afford rent, you can afford mortgage.
Andre:
So as long as you can show them that you’re paying your rent on time for a certain amount of time, you can qualify for a property. And if you want to qualify for a property, that’s more than what your rent is you would just have to save the difference between what your mortgage would be and your rent would be for six months.
Andre:
It’s just a really, really powerful program when I heard all of these benefits, man. And also you don’t have a down payment, it’s no money down, which is the biggest benefits of the program. And when I heard all of this stuff, I’m just like, “Are you serious? This can’t be real.” She’s like, “I swear, it’s real.” I’m like, “No, it’s not.” She’s like, “I swear it is.” So I went to the meeting man, everything that she said, they confirmed it. And it was just like, wow. So I went ahead, signed up, met with my mortgage counselor. From there, dude, it was just a mind blowing experience because I walked into the office and I wear a lot of dope sneakers. I collect sneakers. So I had on a pair of Jordans that had just came out. They were really hard to get. And my mortgage council was like, “Oh man, I went through hell trying to get my son those shoes, how’d you get them?”
Andre:
It just really started off like a great conversation between me and him, which just built up into a really great relationship. And he just asked me, what I was trying to do, what my goals were. And he was extremely helpful throughout my process. And he was like, you know what? We’re going to get you set up. He’s like, the fact that you’re looking for a multi-unit is amazing because that’s what I suggest that most people do when they come through these kind of programs, FHA, NACA, three and half percent down, no money down, man. Use it to leverage to get ahead, use it to get you a cash flow asset. Don’t go and buy something that’s going to, you know what I mean? Have you in debt or have you, you know what I mean, paying bills, get something that’s going to pay you monthly or at least take care of your mortgage for you.
Andre:
And the market that I’m in here in Chicago, we have a million multiunit. It’s probably 60, 40 houses to multiunit. So it’s not that hard to find multi units here. And I went out into the market, man, and I got my first property, got a brick four unit in a beautiful Chicago suburb, right outside of the city with amazing amenities, Walmart, churches, bus lines, trains, restaurants in the area and great parks, great school system in the area, swimming pools, all of this kind of stuff that you can find. And I knew about the area because I lived in the area for seven years before I purchased in the area. And I’m like, “Yo, I want to buy in Forest Park.” And I was able to get the property for $360,000, which was well below what it was worth at the time. I believe it appraised out for 390 and that was as is. And that deal was really, really good. And I took advantage of every single benefit that they offer in that deal.
Henry:
Awesome, man. So you went from working in the cubicle, saving $10,000, getting ready to make the leap of faith. You make the leap of faith, you learn about NACA and then you go and you find yourself a multifamily and you buy it. And so tell us a little bit more about that deal. So you bought the property and then did you move into it? What were the rents like? How transitional was that for you?
Andre:
So first off, it wasn’t just that easy. It was a lot of searching and I’m sure there are a lot of first time home buyers that are going to listen to this. I just want to mentally prepare you for what you’re going to be dealing with in the process. And this was, I’m speaking seven years ago. So now today’s market is way more hectic. So this is what you want to expect in today’s market because lot of people have these… Like I say, the internet has everybody, for some reason they think you’re just going to go out and just find this just magical, amazing property. It’s just going to appear right in front of you or you’re going to put in an offer and it’s going to get accepted and it’s just going to go so smooth when it just does not work like that.
Andre:
All right. So you’re going to go out, you know what I mean? [inaudible 00:37:36] and you’re going to start looking for stuff and you’re first off, you’re probably going to start looking for stuff that’s really out of your price range just out the gate because you just don’t know… You know what you can afford, but a lot of times your eyes will trick you into saying that you can afford something that you really can’t have. You know what I mean? Just because it’s beautiful. So you’re going to go out, you’re going to look at all these nice properties and you’re going to try to make these deals and people just aren’t going to want to negotiate their prices. You know what I mean? Their prices, their price, because they have 20 other people that are standing in line waiting to offer them more money than what you’re offering even if you’re offering what they’re asking for.
Andre:
So don’t expect your first offer, second offer all of that kind of stuff to be accepted. So you have to be really diligent and just persistent with this stuff. You got to go out here and really put in a ton of offers and kind of work with sellers. And nowadays you want to try to build relationships. Because in my property, that’s what worked, building a relationship, my agent built a relationship with the other agent and we played that card. In addition to that, you want to run the numbers more than anything. Don’t get caught out with how a place looks. Yeah, a place can be beautiful, but you’ll be upside down on your mortgage if you don’t run the numbers the right way, because you want to get a beautiful place. You know what I mean?
Andre:
So make sure the numbers make sense, man, if you’re not cash flowing, at least make sure that you’ll get to live for free. Meaning that the rents coming from the place they’ll cover most of the mortgage and you get to live in their place for free, not paying anything at all. Pretty much essentially keeping all of the money that you work for, that you make doing other stuff. In addition to that, man, you want to make sure you’re finding a property that is cash flowing a lot of times because a lot of times that’s how you’ll get qualified a lot easier and a lot faster by the bank.
Henry:
So it needs to have tenants in it?
Andre:
Yeah, absolutely. That are already in under leases and it shows that what they’re paying and all of that kind of stuff, it shows the rent roll. And that’ll be a great benefit to you because a lot of people don’t know because what I hear a lot of times is, “Oh man, multi-units are 400, $500,000. I can’t afford those.” But it doesn’t just go based on what you can pay. It goes based on how much the building is already generating as well. So they’ll take 75% of what the building is generating and add it to your income, which will make the property more than affordable most times.
Henry:
Man. That’s awesome. How many offers did you put in on properties before you landed the one you got?
Andre:
Probably five. And on that deal we just kept getting out bid. We kept getting just rejected. And on the last one, even we almost lost that one because what happened was, like I said, we put in five offers previously and I was just tired and frustrated. It had been two months I was looking, and I told my agent, “You know what, man, I want to get us a break. We’re out here every day. We’re not finding anything, nobody likes us.” You know what I’m saying? I’m taking everything personally. I’m like, “They don’t like us man.” So I’m on the MLS, realtor.com or Zillow or something like that. It was maybe 11:00, 12 o’clock at night, one night and this property just pops up, man. It is in my desired neighborhood, it’s a four unit. It has an apartment vacant ready for me to live in, the other three units are cash flowing.
Andre:
I’m like, “Oh my God, Jesus, what did you just do?” And so I called my agent, I started calling his phone recklessly. I probably called him 15 times. And the last time he finally picked up the phone was like, “What the hell man? You know I don’t do business this late.” He was really upset, but I’m like, “I hear you, but check your email though. Please just check your email.” So he was like, “Man, give me a second.” So he looked in his email, he was like, “Oh you right.” He was like, “So I’m going to write this up right now.” He wrote up the offer, sent it back to me. I signed everything over. He was like, “I want to get this over to them tonight. So as soon as they come into their office, it’s the first…” People were still sending faxes and stuff at this time. He’s like, “It’s the first I offer on their fax machine.” You know what I mean?
Andre:
It worked, they came into the office, they saw it and they were like, you know what, we accept the offer. But the only thing was the wife was the one that was home and she accepted the offer and I got excited, right. So I had a seminar to go to later that day it was, was a Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar. So I’m like, “Oh man, I’m lit. I just got my offer accepted. I’m going to this seminar.” You know how they pump you up at the seminar. So I’m just like, “Ah, yeah, I’m about to be rich as hell.” So as I’m doing all of this, I’m excited. My phone is just ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing. And I’m not answering because I’m just gassed up at this seminar. So I go out and I check the voicemail and it’s my agent. He’s like, “Man, give me a call back as soon as you can.”
Andre:
So I give him a call back. He was like, “Man, you know the offer that we put in earlier, it got knocked out.” I’m like, “Knocked out? What you mean? I thought we got accepted.” He’s like, “Man, the husband was at work. And as he was on his way home to sign the contract, another offer came in and it was all cash.” I’m like, “What?” He was like, “Yeah. So that knocks us out. It’s not our property. We don’t have it under contract.” I’m like, “Are you serious?” So my heart drops into my stomach at this point. Mind you, because I just went from here all the way back down to here. I’m on a thousand. So it’s just, oh my God what is going on?
Andre:
At the end of the day, what happened was they came in with a cash offer, the husband didn’t sign the contract. So like you said, it was just that offer was really null and void. But they didn’t just say, “We’re not going to take your offer.” They was like, “Hey guys, this is what we’ll do. We’ll give you everybody till the morning. You are the last two offers that we’re going to look at, come with your highest and best offer first thing in the morning.”
Andre:
So that’s what we did. Luckily for me the cash buyers, they came with the same offer. They’re like, “We’re offering cash, we’re going to stick to our guns. This is what it is.” And I offered an extra 15 or 20,000 I believe it was on top of my agent. Like I say, playing a relationship and the emotional card. He reached out to the agent. He’s like, “My guy’s been living in this neighborhood for the past seven, eight years, his kids love the parks, they love the school systems. They really, really don’t want to leave. And these guys are just investors, they’re probably just going to come over here and knock the building down.” And these people had an emotional attachment to their property. You know what I mean? So they’re like, “Ah man, you’re right. Let us just sell it to a nice family. Who’s going to take care of the place. We’re getting extra money.”
Andre:
And that emotion, you know what I mean, that relationship card, it played out in our favor. We got the offer accepted man, everything was cool. I was able to get the property. Like I say, with no money down, I was able to buy the interest rate down to two and a half percent from three and a half percent because I got a $10,000 sellers concession. And I used that money for that. I was able to keep all of my money. In addition to that, I walked away from the closing table with the $5,000 check because I didn’t need all of the money that they gave me to buy the interest rate down. So I essentially walked away with the building that was paying me cash flow and I didn’t spend anything on it. All I had to do was turn in the proper documents for a few months, let them, you know what I mean, check my info, go through my bank accounts, this typical home buying process. And they were like, “You know what, hey, we trust you enough. Take this building and keep all your money and take $5,000 with it.”
Andre:
On top of that, the day that I closed, I walked into the property, it was the end of the month, I got checks from all three of my tenants because it was like I said, the end of the month, it was time to pay the rent. And you know, when you close that first month, you don’t have a mortgage so that was all my money. So I essentially went from worth nothing to owning this four unit property where I lived for free $22,000 cash. And I got my check from work that same day. It was the most amazing feeling in the whole [inaudible 00:44:57] world.
David:
So now everyone listening to this is saying, “Okay, hear that, honey. I want one of those.” They’re calling their agent and they’re saying, “Hey, find me that deal.” Right? And so what I want to ask you is obviously you would do that over and over and over if you could. It’s hard to do that. It’s worth it, which is why we’re talking about it but it is not easy. It’s just like the workout analogy we gave earlier. And it’s still for me even as much real estate as I’ve bought, there are emotional spikes. You get excited, you get crushed, you get excited, you get crushed. And that happens too many times and most people tap out. They just say, I don’t want to do it anymore, right. I see this as the agent trying to protect the client from that. And then I get it myself when I start to get excited and then, oh, turns out something changes, right?
David:
So what advice do you have for the people that are not accustomed to this entrepreneurial bipolarism that the three of us have just embraced from the things that we’ve been through, where we expect these big highs and lows so that they stay in the game and they don’t miss out on this awesome deal when it finally happen.
Andre:
Man, just a simple one liner, man, it gets greater later. As long as you understand that. And as long as you can stick it out and know that the reward later down the line is going to be just way bigger than what you imagined, because I just never imagined that from that point of buying that first property, I’ll be here where I am, where I’m walking around, doing public speaking. I have an apparel line, I have a book, we’re hosting our own seminars. I’m investing in the stock market. I’m teaching people, mentoring people, just all of these different cool things that set me free from the work system and allowed me to start helping people and just pouring into the world on a greater level and on a bigger scale man. I just wouldn’t have thought that, but the fact that I made those sacrifices and I understood that even in the down times that I would be okay, just as long as I stick this out, it always comes out better than what you think it will.
Henry:
Part of that story that I love is, that you made the sacrifices, you saved the money, because your intent was to have to use that money to start building your real estate assets. And you didn’t have to because you found this amazing vehicle, but had you not went through that sacrifice and made those mindset shifts, right? When you come into money like that, you might have spent it differently, right? You might have blown that $10,000 on something else. And so I don’t want people to hear, oh, he saved that money, he didn’t have to. No, the discipline it took for him to save that money set him up to be able to continue to be successful once he was able to acquire that asset, right?
Andre:
Absolutely.
Henry:
That’s just an amazing story.
Andre:
And I did have to save the money. I didn’t have to use it. I had to save it. They want to see that you’re responsible that you’re able to save money, the same process that you would have to go through, through any other lender, whether it be Conventional, FHA, whoever it’s the same thing. They want to see that you’re saving your money. They want bank statements. They want to check stubs every two weeks, they want all of those documents to show that you’re doing what you’re supposed to do. And you’re a responsible human being before they release a 300, 400, $5,000 property into your name with no collateral. You know what I mean. Because essentially that’s what they’re doing. They’re just like, we’re trusting you to take care of your business and do what you say you’re going to do. And we get absolutely nothing for this, so hey, you better do right.
Henry:
And one thing before we move on to the next segment of the show, I want you to share with people is now you’ve found a way to even make more cash flow on the asset that’s already paying you cash flow. And so just give them a little teaser on how you’re additionally monetizing that asset right now.
Andre:
Yeah, man, in addition to like I say, just getting rents and everything, man. They got a lot of cool stuff going on out here with these apps, Airbnb, Vrbo. And I found this thing called Peerspace where I get to rent out my property, man to people who want shoot movies, music videos, photos, and things like that. And for the past six months, man, my house has just been like a movie studio it seems like man, because I got people coming in doing everything and it’s just insane. It pays a pretty penny. I’m really happy that I found it because it’s essentially been like a new ATM for me, man. Anytime I need some extra cash, I just go to Peerspace and I can make three, four, $500, three, four hours easily. And the cool thing about it is, it’s you don’t have to own the property to do it. And on top of that, you don’t have people staying overnight at your home that come in for a few hours and you make money just like you would in the Airbnb without people having to stay.
Andre:
I’m putting out a course on it soon to show people how to do it and how to really maximize it. So you guys check that out when it does come out, turn on your notifications on my Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. And you’ll be able to get that
Henry:
Man. Yeah. I mean it’s super. You put me onto it. I didn’t know it was a thing until you told me about it. And now we’re looking at putting some of our Airbnbs also on Peerspace, because it’s essentially, you can just rent a furnished space to somebody who may just want to use it for a couple of hours to do just like you said, shoot a video. Maybe even just host a quick event where they have a meeting or something like that. And so if you’ve got a furnished space, it could be your space. It could be an Airbnb. I think it’s just a really cool way to continue to monetize.
Andre:
Yeah. Families host Thanksgiving dinner parties at your space. Maybe they don’t have a big kitchen, and they’ll come and rent out the space. It’s just used for a lot of different cool reasons, and it’s a very, very short term rental that like I said, you can maximize the profits on it without having to deal with people for as long as an amount of time.
David:
Can I just say something from a overall perspective of, the thought just went through my head? As technology like Airbnb, Turo, Peerspace starts to become more prevalent where it is easy to go find something to use that you used to have to own if you wanted to use it, owning these assets becomes even more valuable. So if it’s like, if you’re the rapper who can’t afford the Lamborghini and you can go rent the Lamborghini, well, the guy who owns the Lamborghini has a more valuable asset because it’s not just him driving it, it’s the rapper who wants to rent it for the video. But then when Turo comes out and anybody can rent a Lamborghini whenever, right now, having a Lamborghini actually becomes a legit business because it’s so easy for people to find you. Unique properties, really nice spaces. These type of assets will only become more valuable as it becomes easier to market them with these technologies like we’re talking about right now, Andre.
David:
So I just wanted to highlight that’s one of the reason you see the price of certain things that isn’t going down, it keeps going up it’s because technology is making it easier to make it cash flow.
Andre:
Yep. And even just to add to that, like how I was just telling you guys, I used my cashflow to buy these art pieces, and they go up in value. So the art pieces are one of the big attractions that draws people to my Peerspace, so they’re even making me more money than going up in value, you know what I mean? It’s just like, man, it’s just one big circle of just money coming in, you know what I mean? When you do this stuff the right way, man, it’s insane. But again, it all starts with mindset and doing that first deal.
David:
Yeah. I think that’s great. One of the points that you mentioned there, Andre was what I call synergy. So once you start to get momentum, which is another concept. I know everybody always wants to hear, well, how do I just buy the house? Like you said, just what website do I go to, to just get a house and write an offer and have it be easy? And they don’t want to go through the grind, but that’s why these deals are available because people don’t want to put the grind in to get it. And then when you get it, it tends to be where they all play off each other. What you’re describing is, I make money off of art, then I teach people how to buy art, then that brings them to my Peerspace. And then I make money off of renting out my property. Now I have more money coming in, so I have more for the down payment for the next property. Then I get better at buying properties. And then agent said it to me before other people. And then the contractor calls me back first and gives me a better price.
David:
Everything gets better as you build this momentum. And so many people at the beginning of the journey are sensing, well, it I must be nice. Wish I could be Andre and I could have what he has going on, but you built momentum. You were slinging CDs out of the back of your car, right?
Andre:
Yeah.
David:
You were looking at everyone around you that was having the success you wanted and being tortured by that buffet that you felt like, I can’t get a seat in that buffet. I’m all around it, I could smell it, but I can’t eat it. Right? You put in the grind, and now that’s why it’s catching up to you. You look like you want to comment on that.
Andre:
You just see hit the nail directly on the head. Like I said, I was around guys who were in the NBA, winning NBA championships like, “God, when is it going to be my turn? You have me here, you have me around this, what are you trying to show me?” Something has to come from this. Like, what the hell is going on? Because you can’t just be dangling this over my head, and not really letting me have it, you know what I mean? And then, like I say, when I had to divert back and start the whole nine to five process all over again, I’m like, “Oh my God.” Me and God were really into it at that point, it was just like, “Dude, I’m about to come up there and we’re going to fight because you’re really playing with my life.”
Andre:
Like you said, David, there comes a time when you start to just be able to breathe a little bit more and you can see the light, and you get the ball rolling. And then you can just really pick up pace. And it’s just like, aw, man. Yes. And it comes a point where you’re just not in survival mode anymore. Man, for a long time, I was in survival mode, just really trying to figure out how I was going to eat, how I was going to pay my bills. Scraping, trying to figure out how I would get my children the things that they need. And that mind frame doesn’t allow you to think in abundance. It has you thinking in, okay, I need to do this right now in order for me to eat today. It doesn’t allow you to think generational wealth for the future because you’re hungry right now, your kids need stuff right now. You know what I mean? You don’t have the luxury of thinking for the future.
Andre:
I think once you get past that survival mode and that mindset changes and you have the air to breathe, and to be able to save a dollar, to save two dollars. Most people, they aren’t even in a position to save 50 cent, two dollars out of their check. Unfortunately that’s just a lot of people’s circumstance. But when you’re able to start doing that, man, it shows you that, yo, this is possible. And the moment that you see this is possible, growth becomes addictive. It’s the most addictive feeling in the world. Doing better, feeling better, it’s a high that you just never want to come down from it. Once you taste it and once you get it, just a little bit of it, you want to keep going hard or keep going after it, man.
Andre:
And I understand Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant’s drive, they just never got enough of the success. No matter how many rings they got, no matter how many Olympic gold medals they got, there’s just a high that comes with that, just an amazing feeling when you… you know what I mean, you reach your goals and you start making progress, man. And it’s really almost an indescribable feeling. It’s just your fort.
David:
I love that you shared that because I think the majority of people are trying to figure out, how do I get to that point? Because they’re just eating that frog every day, and they’re not tasting what it can be like on the other side. I have this analogy that I describe what it’s like when you’re trying to have success as a real estate agent, but applies to investing too. Really, probably anything in life. It feels in the beginning, like you’re pushing this huge boulder up a hill. And to just get one inch takes so much effort, your calves are screaming, you’re pouring sweat. Everything’s burning. You’re asking yourself all the time, is it worth it? Should I just let this rock go and let it roll down and give up everything I did because it’s not getting easier? And the boulder blocks your view of where you’re trying to get to. You don’t know when you’re getting to the top of the hill. It could be 10 years from now. It could be 10 minutes, there’s no way to know.
David:
And you just push, and push, and push, and you listen to this stuff and it gives you encouragement to keep going. And you wonder, is God with me? Is the universe with me? It’s like, is it angry at me because it’s not easier? But what’s happening as you’re pushing is your muscles are being built, that is going to prepare you for when you actually get the success. And at certain point you crest that hill, and now it’s a flat plateau. So it’s not as hard to push the rock, but you still got to push. It’s not just happening on its own. It just isn’t miserable like it was. You start building some momentum.
David:
And at a certain point you come to the other side of the hill, the rock starts going down. And then wealth starts coming at you so fast, opportunities start coming at you so fast. The deals start flowing your way that you can’t even keep up with them. So you’re running as fast as you can keep up with that rock that you used to be pushing, and that’s where you get to decide what you really want your life to look like. And the problem is you don’t get to start going downhill. Everyone’s journey starts going uphill and that’s why nobody really follows it. But I really appreciate you sharing some of the details of what your story was like, Andre. For the listeners who are hearing this and they know what they want is to be chasing a rock at some point in their life with an abundance of things they want but right now, they’re just grinding. I think you needed to be in your room, looking outside, everybody else playing for a couple years because that’s when you were being prepared, that was your uphill battle, right?
David:
That’s when you were being prepared to handle what you have right now, instead of immediately getting your first deal, selling it, making $80,000 profit and buying a room full of toys. Right? And now you got to start back over. That rock went all the way down to the bottom, you got to start at the top. I really appreciate that. We’re going to move on to the last segment of our show. It is the world famous.
Speaker 4:
Famous four.
David:
This is the segment of the show where we ask every guest the same four questions and we are going to alternatively throw them back at you. The first question is about a book. What is your favorite real estate book?
Andre:
It would probably be like I say a combination, and I don’t know if they’re necessarily real estate books. They’re just mindset and financial literacy books, but they do cover real estate. Like I said, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and MONEY Master the Game. They really did it for me. They really put a lot into perspective for me. MONEY Master the Game taught me a lot. And I just want to say Rich Dad Poor Dad, just the Rich Dad Poor Dad education because there’s a plethora of books that come with just that education. And I read them all. So I started with Rich Dad Poor Dad, which was the mindset shift. And I started going into the cash flow quadrants, guide to investing that teaches you about all of the different ways to invest in real estate, the tax sales. You know what I mean? The REITs, all of these different things. And the same thing with MONEY Master the Game, I just learned money in general with that book. That book just really opened my mind up to investing. Not just real estate, but just investing in general.
Andre:
And it also just expanding my mind, like I say, to all of the different ways that I can invest in real estate and not just buying, you know what I mean, residential property, just… you know what I mean, learning about commercial properties, learning about investing in real estate through the stock market, learning about investing through real estate through just group economics, just through funds, all of these different things that it would talk about. And it just really, really blew my mind. So those two would probably be two favorites.
Henry:
Well, good, you’re making my job easy because the second question was what is your favorite business book? But sounds like MONEY Master the Game was probably what that was for you. So we’ll jump to question number three, which is what are your hobbies?
Andre:
Man, I like creating content, bro. I love creating content just based around my business and my brand. So I have a series called The Landlord Life, where I essentially bring people in on all of just the jobs and stuff that I do, and the problems that I’m having as a landlord. Because again, I see the internet tend to make being a landlord just being involved in real estate.
Henry:
Passive.
Andre:
Yeah, they make it just so glorified, and so glitzy and glamorous. So with this series, I just really tell people the truth and let people in like, yo, I just had a $30,000 plumbing issue. My roof just caved in, all of these different things. Like, yo, I’m tired of paying a plumber, so I’m going to go to Home Depot today and I’m going to buy me a rodder, and I’m going to rod the toilet and the drains myself. And I’m giving people a real inside look at this stuff, I’m documenting, and I’m videoing it. And at this point, I have about three seasons worth of content with that over 40 episodes. Henry’s actually guest on my series in Landlord Life. So y’all, check him out on season three. I believe it’s episode two or three. He’s on that one.
Andre:
And yeah, man, just really trying to learn and grow, and build my businesses, networking with guys like you, you know what I mean? Now, starting to come to events like the BiggerPockets Conference, things like that. I spend a lot of time where I’m doing a lot of investing in myself. That’s how I like hanging out, and just the things I like to do as far as hobbies now.
David:
Awesome. Okay. This is the money question, in my opinion. What do you think sets apart successful investors from those who give up, fail, or never do get started?
Andre:
I think that’s it, they don’t ever fail, give up and they get started. You know what I mean? I think that’s the answer, and that’s in the question. People like myself, I never let my circumstances stop me. I never let things that I’ve gone through, any of the hurdles, just… you know what I mean, any of the hard times really hinder me from achieving whatever goals that I wanted to achieve. Yeah, they might have slowed me down. Yeah, I might have had to take a break and maybe I had to pivot, reevaluate some things, but the thing is like, we just don’t give up. I think that’s the main thing that separates any winner from anybody that’s not successful. We don’t give up. Keep going, and we push through until we get the results that we want.
Henry:
Awesome. I love it, man. So tell us where people can find out more about you.
Andre:
Across all social media. I’m at Renaissance 125, R-E-N-A-I-S-S-A-N-C-E 125. I’m sure that’s going to be a hard spell for a lot of people, so I have to spell that out sometimes.
Henry:
Dude, that is one of those words for me. Everybody has that word that they can’t. No matter how many times they type it, they can’t spell it right? That’s the one, I got to Google it every time.
Andre:
Yeah. So that’s me across all platforms, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, that’s where. And on a lot of different podcasts, you can find me on a BiggerPockets podcast, and a lot of different podcasts across the country. I’ve been doing a lot of speaking, and I’m just doing a lot of events and stuff like that now. Also, my website is www.therenaissanceu.com. I also have courses. I have a navigating NACA course where I teach the process, and the tools, and all of the stuff that I use to make it through the NACA program successfully. How I evaluated my deals through NACA, all of that stuff.
Andre:
I also have an introduction to real estate course that teaches people all of the different ways to go out and attain real estate. How to evaluate different neighborhoods, how to understand when the market’s going up or down. Just understand when is a good deal or a bad deal, a lot of different things. It’s over 30 video modules, over four hours worth content. Again, I have my merch, mindset matters where I’m just helping spread awareness about just mindset. It’s not about your circumstances, it’s more so about your mindset, man. And also have my book, man, Renaissance is Five Step Guide on Getting Your Sh*t Together, which is like I say, the blueprint to my life and how I really got on this journey and really got my life together. Just looking to do a lot more speaking, and a lot more helping, and a lot more mentoring, man. And I appreciate you guys for having me on, and allowing me to, you know what I mean, tell my story, get my word out there, and just tell people about my brand.
Henry:
Thank you, Mr. Andre.
David:
One of my favorite parts about your story is that if you wouldn’t have had all that pain, and frustration and carrot being dangled in front of you for so long, you literally wouldn’t have a story to put in a book that people would want to read. You wouldn’t have anything to say in a podcast like this. So I’m looking back and it always makes sense, right, when you’re looking back at why God brought you through what he did, you’re like, “Oh, I get it now.” At the time, like you said, you wanted to fight a lot of the time. Like, why are you doing this to me? Why? But it does make sense. So for everybody in that same situation, hang on, keep doing your best, keep pushing that boulder. It’s going to get better.
David:
Thank you, Andre. Henry, where can people find out more about you?
Henry:
You can find me on Instagram. I’m @thehenrywashington on Instagram.
David:
It’s the, and not the… It’s not like The Ohio State University?
Henry:
Yeah. I mean, I just, I try to play it down a little bit, David. I don’t want people… I’m not…
David:
You don’t want to just completely overwhelm people with a splendor of who Henry Washington is. Very humble. All right. Well thank you. This is David Greene. For Henry, never met a boulder he couldn’t push, Washington. Signing off.
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