\n<\/p>\n
Despite what most people would like to think, success has no timeline<\/strong>. There will be some \u201cperfect\u201d opportunities that don\u2019t work out, which is why you must persist<\/strong>. You can either become stuck in one failure or use that failure to propel you forward. Our guest, Andrew Bresee<\/strong>, has learned to use missed opportunities to propel him forward<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Andrew was infected with the \u201creal estate bug\u201d in his teenage years after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad<\/em><\/a>. While he didn\u2019t start his real estate journey that young, he began developing the skills that have made him a successful entrepreneur<\/a> early on. Being persistent has helped Andrew in more ways than one. In school, he had the opportunity to study abroad in Italy<\/strong> and like many others, he loved it so much he didn\u2019t want to leave<\/strong>. For weeks he continued to ask to stay <\/strong>and for weeks he continued to get rejected, but he refused to take no for an answer. After a while, the administration finally relented and let him stay <\/strong>as long as he agreed to work as a handyman. Had he accepted his fate, Andrew would have missed out on another year in a beautiful country with the love of his life who is now his wife.<\/p>\n When he came back, he lived with his parents, and instead of rushing to get to the next chapter of his life, he took a step back and found an opportunity right where he was<\/strong>. He decided to convert his parent\u2019s basement into an apartment <\/strong>that they could eventually rent out. While it took six years to complete, it currently cash flows and gave him experience with the rehab process. After that, he found the fourplex that he lives in now which cash flows about $1,200 a month! <\/strong>He found his current fourplex after he didn\u2019t qualify for a fourplex he thought was \u201cperfect\u201d. Opportunities can be found in any failure or redirection<\/strong>\u2014you just need to look hard enough.<\/p>\n Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Michael Perrera: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Tony: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Tony: Ashley: Tony: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: Andrew: Ashley: \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
This is Real Estate Rookie episode 163.<\/p>\n
If you just made a little bit of progress every single day, you will get to your dreams. When there\u2019s two years, five years, 10 years, it will be much quicker than you think. It\u2019s a snowball, but if you don\u2019t start it now, you\u2019ll wake up at 50 building somebody else\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n
My name is Ashley Kehr, and I am here with my co-host Tony Robinson.<\/p>\n
And welcome to the Real Estate Rookie where every week, twice a week, we give you the inspiration, information, motivation that you need to get started as a real estate investor, or keep going if you are already started. So Ashley, what\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n
So as you can see, I am not in the closet, Tony\u2019s not in his office and we have someone sitting in between us. So we are actually in Tennessee right now in one of Tony\u2019s short term rentals. So Tony, do you want to just give like a little brief overview real quick of your cabin?<\/p>\n
Yeah, yeah, so we bought this cabin a couple months ago. But as part of the purchase of this contract or the purchase of this property, we had to honor a property management contract from the previous owner. So they had it under contract at the end of the year. So we took over control officially this week. So we figured let\u2019s come out, let\u2019s see what it\u2019s like and decided to invite Ashley along and our awesome guest. So we\u2019re all kind of here breaking in the cabin for the first time.<\/p>\n
Yeah, so today we\u2019re just going to meet doing a live podcast. We also have a meet up tonight that we\u2019re doing. So hopefully if you guys listening in Tennessee, we actually met each other a couple months ago when this is recorded.<\/p>\n
So Ashley and I want to start doing this a little bit more often. We got our Rookie road trip. We\u2019re just going to kind of pop around in different markets that we like, markets we\u2019re investing in and set up shop, interview a guest on spot on location, and then hopefully have a meet up and meet some cool people.<\/p>\n
Yeah. So we actually put out an Instagram post that we wanted to interview somebody in person. And the first person that reached out to us was Andrew.<\/p>\n
Sorry, not the first person, the best person that reached out to us was\u2026<\/p>\n
Thank you. Flattery will you everywhere with me so go ahead.<\/p>\n
So Andrew, why don\u2019t you go ahead and tell everyone a little bit about yourself?<\/p>\n
So my name is Andrew, Andrew [inaudible 00:02:11]. That\u2019s what my mother named me. Most people call me Breezy, but you guys can call me whichever you prefer. So I grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, about two and a half hours from here. And I\u2019m really, really excited to get on here and tell my story. When I was a little kid, I think like most people I had dreams of what I was going to be, but I figured it out a little earlier than most. I\u2019m sure you guys have never heard this story of a 15 year old reading, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, never been heard on this podcast before. But I read that and I got so obsessed with real estate, with financial freedom and I never thought about money in a traditional way. Again, I didn\u2019t want to work for somebody else.<\/p>\n
You were poisoned from an early age.<\/p>\n
How old are you now?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 33.<\/p>\n
Okay.<\/p>\n
So I was 15 or 16, I don\u2019t remember the exact time, but all the Ritalin in the world couldn\u2019t get me to focus at school. And then I told my dad and I just wouldn\u2019t stop talking about Rich Dad, Poor Dad and how excited I was. And so we went to Florida on vacation and he said, \u201cI will buy you whatever book you want, however many books you want to read, just let me know what you want.\u201d So I left the condo twice that entire week, I read like 2000 pages as a 16 year old. And I was hooked from then on. And I didn\u2019t get started as a 16 year old, unfortunately, but I knew from then on, I wanted to be a real estate investor and I didn\u2019t want to work for somebody else for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n
Just out of my own curiosity, what introduced you to the book? Did you just stumble upon it?<\/p>\n
Somebody gave it to my dad, told him my dad was a pastor and my mom was a nurse growing up, and someone at church said, \u201cHey, you should read this book and you should give it to your kids.\u201d And my dad respected that person enough to follow that, read it and then give it to me. And I don\u2019t actually don\u2019t know who that was, but it was pretty fortuitous for me.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that\u2019s awesome. So after that, you\u2019ve read that information, then what happens when you graduate school? You go to college or you pick up a nine to five job that you didn\u2019t want or what happens there?<\/p>\n
So I went to a small private school that had really good study abroad options. So I went to Italy to study abroad, same tuition, all the classes transferred, great. I meet the girl of my dreams, my now wife, and I don\u2019t come home for two years because I couldn\u2019t leave. And what I learned during that experience, why I think that\u2019s relevant to our conversation today is I learned that not taking no for an answer and being like, \u201cHow can I do this?\u201d Because I went to the office of the school and I said, \u201cI want to stay here and I want to work for you guys. I\u2019ll clean dishes, I\u2019ll clean floors, whatever it is,\u201d and they laughed me out of the office.<\/p>\n
You stayed at the university?<\/p>\n
I stayed at the school.<\/p>\n
I thought you were stuck in Italy. I thought that\u2019s\u2026<\/p>\n
No, I voluntarily stayed at the school because I didn\u2019t want to come home. I met the girl of my dreams and I was like, \u201cI\u2019ve messed up. I can\u2019t go home now.\u201d And so I got laughed out of that office. The school director said, \u201cHey, every year, you\u2019re a nice kid, but every year kids want to stay. This is paradise for you. You\u2019re here in downtown for Lawrence, Italy. You\u2019re living the dream. This is not a place for you to stay.\u201d And I said, \u201cOkay.\u201d And I knew how they worked, they worked on guys had to get their visas or girls had to get their visas coming in to work at that school. And I was told by several employees that oftentimes visas get denied and they have to pull kids out of the community to work there. And so the second I found out that visas had been denied, I was back in that office.
Still told me no. But a few weeks later, I just kept persistently going in there and telling, \u201cHey, I\u2019m still available. I still want to stay. I only have a one way ticket. I\u2019m not planning on going home.\u201d They relented, they paid me [inaudible 00:05:13] a month. They gave me room and board. So I had cafeteria and I literally scrubbed floors and cut vegetables and did whatever was needed. I made beds, anything that was needed at the school for a whole nother 14 months before I went home. And then my wife and I got married and then I did not get a nine to five at first. I tried to figure out what I was doing in my life, dropped out of school, didn\u2019t need a liberal arts degree to be a real estate investor, didn\u2019t want a bunch of student debt. That led to me working some seasonal jobs, getting my CDL, getting a job, driving a truck, and doing what would kind of be a house hack at my parents\u2019 house.
My parents were super generous with us, let us move into the basement, and we took six years off and on building a full apartment in the basement. So we put in every Sunday for eight hours and then whenever we could during the week we built a full bathroom, a full kitchen, put in a laundry room, put a bedroom, we put a window below grade. And we did everything. It flooded at one point because the water main broke and we repaired all of that. I put in a sub-panel. If the county\u2019s listening, this was all permitted and good, but what I did learn is that I could do a lot of this with hustle and with work. And so when we did save up, when my wife got out of nursing school and I had progressed in my job into sales after driving a truck at the beer distributor, I was able to then buy a house hack and move out into my own with some skills and not just YouTube for the first time. I\u2019d already done that for a little a while.<\/p>\n
I love stories of perseverance and just like rolling with the punches that life gives you and like you said, not taking no for an answer. There are a lot of skills that people, technical skills that I think people need to develop to become a good real estate investor. We talk about those a lot on the show, but there are also a lot of soft skills that people need to develop to be good real estate investors. And a big one is having the, I don\u2019t know, the grit to be able to roll with the things that life throws at you, man. So I love the fact that you shared that story because I think it exemplifies that really well.<\/p>\n
Yeah, the sticktoitiveness, I was not taking no for an answer.<\/p>\n
Yeah. Well, while all this was happening, real estate was still at the back of your mind. And then when did it become time to actually take action on it?<\/p>\n
So I started thinking about it a little bit and I found the perfect fourplex that will forever haunt me. We didn\u2019t get it, spoiler alert, because at that time it was about $425,000. My wife had just started working or was just about to start working. I had maybe been working for few years making 40,000 or $38,000 a year. And we did not have our financial house in order. We weren\u2019t bad, but we didn\u2019t have a ton of credit. We weren\u2019t ready. And so it comes on the market. I\u2019m just starting to look around. I see it.
It is walking distance from all of my favorite bars, all of my favorite restaurants. It is right off the main drag. It sold for like $750,000 last year, just a few years later. So it would\u2019ve been amazing, but I couldn\u2019t afford it. But what that did is plant the seed that, okay, it\u2019s time. We\u2019re not that far away. So at that point we were DINKs, dual income, no kids. We saved about $40,000 over a couple years. And then in 2017, we started looking in earnest for a house to buy. We wanted the house hack and we were looking for duplexes specifically.<\/p>\n
I think Tony wants you to go over the word DINKs again.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never heard that phrase before. Dual income, no kids.
But it reminds me-<\/p>\n
It\u2019s like part of-<\/p>\n
Doug Funnie, right? Is that where it\u2019s from? I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s from like the personal finance community.<\/p>\n
Oh really?<\/p>\n
Yeah.<\/p>\n
Boy, if you guys know Doug Funnie from the 90s Nickelodeon TV show, his neighbors, they were the DINKs.<\/p>\n
Oh really?<\/p>\n
They were dual income, they had no kids.<\/p>\n
No, I saw it on the internet one day. And then I was at a bar at some point and someone was like, \u201cOh yeah, we\u2019re all DINKs.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat?\u201d And then once that got in my brain though, that became the greatest way to describe those of us who were in a different path. We were in our mid twenties, no kids, and dual income. So we\u2019re able to save a significant amount of money compared to the average person. Kids were expensive and living at home with my parents just paying 350 or $400 a month of utilities, that\u2019s all they let us pay, allowed us to really set a nice footing and I\u2019ll be forever grateful for that.<\/p>\n
Yeah. Can we talk a little bit more about the work you were doing in the basement? Was there an agreement between you and your parents to say, \u201cHey, we\u2019re going to do all this work and then we\u2019re going to rent it out.\u201d Or are you just doing the work so you had a nice place to live? What was the thought process behind that?<\/p>\n
It was a little bit of both. I did tell my parents as a selling point, and I\u2019m really lucky that my parents have trusted my judgment. My dad and I are kind of the same person so that\u2019s helpful. We definitely think things alike in a lot of ways. So that\u2019s helpful. But I told them initially, \u201cHey, we don\u2019t know where we want to go. I don\u2019t want to get a mortgage or rent because then I will be stuck in a job. I want to do real estate or me go back to school or something. But this is a bad decision, me just going out and getting job flipping burgers or whatever I can to just pay rent.\u201d So they were like, \u201cCool. Move into the basement.\u201d Well, my wife didn\u2019t love that idea. But she trusted me as well. And once we moved in, my dad helped me put a wall in.
And then he was basically like, \u201cWhatever you want to do down here, we\u2019ll cover the money and the materials and whatever else. We don\u2019t have the money to pay for somebody to come do the work, but we\u2019ll put this on all credit cards, Lowe\u2019s credit cards, you can just buy the materials and you can do the work, whatever you think we want to do once you move out, we\u2019ll rent it.\u201d And I was like, \u201cCool. That is exactly how I hoped this would work.\u201d And that was how it worked. And now we\u2019re actually in a partnership on something differently later on that we\u2019ve can talk about that this laid the groundwork for and we were much more explicit about. But luckily alls well that ends well. Working with family can be very, very tough, but my parents are really nice and we got along and so it worked out.<\/p>\n
With your family in that apartment in the basement. So they do have it rented out now?<\/p>\n
Yes. So it became an immediately a rental as soon as we moved out. They had to learn how to be landlords. That was a little tough for them. And then they\u2019ve actually moved out to take care of my grandparents now. And I manage both the upstairs and the downstairs of that property now..<\/p>\n
Okay. So then let\u2019s go back to you. So your first property then let\u2019s go through that.<\/p>\n
Sure. So we actually got a duplex off market and the way that happened was, this is my belief on her motivation, we ended up with a real estate agent, didn\u2019t know what I didn\u2019t know, so I went to a guy that was a mortgage broker and I was like, \u201cHey man, I know you, I trust you. I know you won\u2019t screw me over on purpose. So let\u2019s do a loan together. And I don\u2019t have a real estate agent.\u201d And if I had known about BiggerPockets at the time, really followed what was, I kind of knew it was there, but I wasn\u2019t paying close enough attention. And so he gave me a real estate agent, I think brand new. But what she did have was like the ability, I guess, to follow what we wanted. So we had very clear what we wanted. We wanted at least two bedrooms on each side.
We wanted side by side, not up and down. And we wanted at least one and a half bathrooms. We had been in a one bed, one bath for six years. My wife had lived through a construction zone. So we wanted something that was at least almost livable, that didn\u2019t really happen, but it was close, but really wanted two bathrooms. And so that was what we decided on. And we probably toured six or seven properties. There wasn\u2019t a lot available. And then none of those made any sense. We wanted to be in what\u2019s called Red Bank, which is a particularly hot part of the market now, was unbelievably hot at the time. And so after six or seven properties and we were very specific in what we wanted, our real estate agent said, \u201cHey, would you be interested in looking at two duplexes on the same lot that my sister owns in Brainard?\u201d And both my wife and I were not really interested in being in Brainard, but there\u2019s no reason not to look.
No reason not to check it out. So we go there, we tour them both. They\u2019re on one lot, technically subdivided because they\u2019re deep lots, but they\u2019re right together. You would not want to own one and not the other. They share a driveway, they share a parking, they share mailboxes, they share steps up. I mean, it\u2019s all together. And so eventually we decide, okay, this is actually a really good opportunity. One of these duplexes with two units is two beds, one half baths each, side by side, exactly what we wanted, just old and beat up, needed love. And the other set are one bedroom, one bath loft apartment. So it\u2019s got an open loft, similar to what this has here with the [inaudible 00:13:17] room. And so we were like, \u201cI don\u2019t know about these one bedrooms, but two duplexes for the same price that we were looking at ballpark for these other duplexes in the areas we liked, okay, let\u2019s take a shot.\u201d
So we settle on $250,000 that overall purchase price report.<\/p>\n
So for all four units.<\/p>\n
All four units. So that would be 130 and 120, I think that\u2019s the breakdown, but it was definitely 250 total. I have a piece of advice [inaudible 00:13:43] how I do things after that. But we go through the first to buy one at a time, didn\u2019t have any paperwork on the second ones. They could have sold the second one out right from under us, they didn\u2019t, then listed on the MLS and she represented both sides of the transaction. So Cody got totally screwed because it\u2019s her sister she was representing, but she was great. Everything went well up until it appraised. And the smaller duplex was supposed to be 120,000. It appraised for 98,000. The duplex is supposed to be 130, appraised for 118.
And I know now what happened. It said these duplexes sit on a ridge that divides downtown from the suburbs more or less. It\u2019s a dividing line geographically. There\u2019s not a lot of duplexes in that area. The comp stakeholder were from a roughly from just over the ridge that has [inaudible 00:14:30] flies a couple hundred yards, but isn\u2019t wildly, you have to go several miles to get there. That would be like comparing the [inaudible 00:14:36] that sit right above us, which is a million dollar house, but it\u2019s up the ridge at the very top overlooking the city, whereas we\u2019re down towards the bottom of the ridge. So they got a really bad appraisal, but their calculus was, at least to my understanding, we paid cash for these. We put a little bit of work. We cash a lot a ton of money out of them and we subdivided them so we\u2019re making our money back. They wanted to go for Christmas to Bali, which I think they did once like a month, which is good for them. And so they said, \u201cLet\u2019s just close at the lower price.\u201d But the thing was-<\/p>\n
So they took the appraisal price? Wow.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s pause on that for a second. Because I think that\u2019s a really big, I don\u2019t know, like lesson, clue, something for Rookie investors to understand is that every seller is motivated by something, but it\u2019s not always money. It\u2019s not always getting the biggest return that they can possibly get. Your sellers wanted to go to Bali.<\/p>\n
If they put it on the market, it would\u2019ve been sold in February or March maybe or something.<\/p>\n
They wanted to go to Bali for Christmas which was a very specific timeframe that they had to operate within. And as the buyer, your job to get the best deal possible is to solve the seller\u2019s biggest problem.<\/p>\n
Yes. And my wife and I only had about $40,000. And so they were actually already taking, we talked about the loans we use, whatever else, but they were already taking some of the closing costs. So we renegotiated a little bit, but we had no extra money or we do the deal so that we are roughly $40,000 out of pocket or we can\u2019t do it. And so we are putting 3.5% down with an FHA loan on the owner occupied more expensive one. And then we put down 25% conventional on the second one.<\/p>\n
And were these both through like a local bank?<\/p>\n
No, these were through a mortgage broker who, great guy, but didn\u2019t do a ton I don\u2019t think of investment stuff. So not the guy who\u2019s now, no ill will, but I think that the transaction was a little bit more difficult that way. But the good part was he was previously in-house loan guy at Keller Williams. So he knew, he\u2019s the one who recommended her because he called them and said, \u201cHey, can I get a real estate agent for these guys?\u201d So he has some good relationships there so he worked really seamlessly with us and her and really we worked it around. So we worked the closing costs out so we took slightly less of discount. After the whole transaction ended, we had about $2,000 in the bank and that\u2019s as low as we could go. And then we went from no mortgage payments to two mortgage payments and we did not buy those simultaneously. We bought one month in October I think and the second we closed [inaudible 00:17:07]. So just back to back, we started the process literally the day it closed.<\/p>\n
Were they rented out already in what was becoming a landlord like for the first time, especially going from zero to three units that you\u2019re managing and a living in one of those units too along with your tenants?<\/p>\n
It was fun. It was really fun. I was super, super excited. It was the winter time so my work was a little bit slower. And first thing we did was say, \u201cOkay, which of these four units is in best shape that we can get on the market?\u201d They were previously all four short term rentals. This was Airbnb at the beginning in Chattanooga. They didn\u2019t do any sort of tax collection. There was no city ordinance. Now there are permits required. There are city ordinances. There\u2019s a whole zone. That road, in fact, our side of the road is in the overlay that allows short term rentals. The other side of the road, 35 feet from the front door, is not. So that was pure luck. That happened later.<\/p>\n
Let me comment on that really quickly, because that\u2019s something that I talk about a lot to. When we talk about choosing a market for short term rentals is that I\u2019ve personally shied away from markets that haven\u2019t established ordinances yet. Because like you said, you got lucky that you were 35 feet the right way. But had you gone 35 feet the other way, now you\u2019re caught holding the bag for something that maybe doesn\u2019t work as well. So just for the listeners, I think it\u2019s important to kind of do that research. That\u2019s the very first thing I do before I go into a market is understand what the policies are.<\/p>\n
And we did not buy these to be short term rentals. I\u2019ll explain the breakdown of the four units and what we did with each one. But we bought them as cash flowing rentals. We believed they would cash flow, but they were all short term rentals so we kind of saw how that was and thought, \u201cWell, this would be interesting.\u201d And then the two, one bedroom units, there\u2019s three parking spaces between the two of them. Really though, there\u2019s only one parking space each because the hill that the two, one bedrooms sit on, the shared driveway, can only fit four cars total and it\u2019s a nightmare if you\u2019ve got four cars parked there. So we let the tenants park two cars for the unit that\u2019s next to us. I park one car on the hill so everyone can get in and out easier. And then my wife parks down below in one of the three parking spaces.
So that makes two parking spaces, even if there were three, it\u2019s not as big a deal. But what matters is, if you were to rent that property out yearly, who\u2019s going to stay in a rental, one bedroom, one bath, a nice affordable housing potentially, but who\u2019s going to stay there when you literally cannot park more than one car, where there\u2019s no street parking, it\u2019s a busy road? You would stay there one year at the most and you\u2019d be out of it. And so it wouldn\u2019t be a good investment for us. So we believed, \u201cHey, let\u2019s try this furnished rental thing.\u201d So of the four units, the two outside units of each building, so the outside one bedroom unit was in pretty good shape. We furnished that in about a month. Got it on Airbnb. Maybe it was yeah, right about a month. Started our adventure there, blind leading the blind, didn\u2019t know anybody who did anything, didn\u2019t have any friends that were doing it, so definitely Googled.
But like right now there are tons of stuff all over YouTube you can watch. I watched one Tony of these videos where it would make me want to buy a [inaudible 00:20:08]. [crosstalk 00:20:08] all the way up here going \u201cNo Andrew, stick to what you\u2019re supposed to do, no shiny object syndrome.\u201d But we got that one up. We kind of figured out our way through that. We actually moved into the other one bedroom unit next to it because it was in decent shape but it needed a little bit of work. We got the first two bedroom unit as quickly as we could, we did a basic rehab, we painted the countertops. We put in a few new fixtures. Just the bare minimum. It needed love. The only thing we did was hire somebody to come in and remove the laundry room, which was just laundry hookups in the kitchen.
There\u2019s a patio and there\u2019s a room off each patio, it\u2019s a storage room. We had them re-dry wall, and since the patio room and the kitchen line up together, they could pull plumbing and pull power easily through a wall and put a laundry room in there. So that\u2019s the only money we paid someone else to do. And then we fixed that up, got that on the regular market, got that as a regular long term rental and then completely gutted the unit we were going to move into, which was the roughest unit of the four. Eventually moved into that one, then we redid the one bedroom unit we\u2019ve been living in, got all four stabilized. That probably took six months or so.<\/p>\n
So over the course of six months, you and your wife were just kind of moving from unit to unit, shuffling the rehabs around, get through them all then and knock them out and getting them ready.<\/p>\n
Yes. Nights, weekends, took every Saturday completely off. But other than that, it was just all hands on deck every moment we could possibly put in before work, after work, whatever we could do.<\/p>\n
So, sorry, just to clarify. So what was the final decision on which one were long term and which one were short term?<\/p>\n
Okay. So then as we were figuring out what to do, we had the one bedroom that was already short term, and then we had the two bedroom, one and a half bath that was long term. We left that one as long term because we didn\u2019t want to mess with the parking situation and it was next door to us so we wanted to live next door to either people we liked, which we ended renting to a lot of friends, which I think is something that\u2019s fun to talk about. And we wanted to live next door to the same people and not have new people coming in. If somebody throws a party door to you, it\u2019s kind of annoying. So didn\u2019t want to have that. The other unit, and this is what has actually really changed our investing, the other one bedroom unit needed more work. And in order to qualify for permits, at first, it was a monetary decision, but monetary in the sense that needed more work.
So I didn\u2019t want to put as much work into it. And I wanted some stability, so we\u2019re like, \u201cOh, let\u2019s try it furnished and see what we can do.\u201d And then we couldn\u2019t permit it. So I didn\u2019t want to risk getting in trouble. And so we put it for monthly furnished rentals and we had thought and we had been told by actually our real estate agent that she was like, \u201cHey, if this was me, by the way, I would do these all like month long. This nightly rental is really hard.\u201d That didn\u2019t really set in for a few months because it was six months later or so that we actually got that one done and on the market, but we started that one, we got our first booking, I think three months. And that three months turning into six months.<\/p>\n
Can you just explain what is a monthly booking and what are the type of people that come? Is it people that are working virtually and just want a [inaudible 00:23:07], but who is the person that books for a month?<\/p>\n
Absolutely. So that\u2019s actually changed a lot over the past couple years for us and our business. But at the beginning, exclusively traveling nurses and people on internship. And I learned a lot about how to market to those folks. But at the beginning we got a bunch of requests, I think because it was a one bedroom, one bath on the other side, it was pretty cheap. We didn\u2019t have a lot of reviews. So we used a lower price, try to get good reviews, take care of people, et cetera, et cetera. We got a lot of messages saying, \u201cHey, would you be willing to rent this out for a longer period?\u201d And so we would actually \u201cThis one no, but we have one next door that\u2019s exactly the same layout, here\u2019s the literally the booking link, check it out and see what you think.\u201d So we started that one at a thousand dollars a month, actually $33 a day, or maybe the first month was $30 a day.
I don\u2019t remember. But at 31 days, you have a drop off in Chattanooga taxes and fees, so it becomes more affordable to rent. So that\u2019s the first thing. The other thing is, I don\u2019t know if this is everywhere, but in Chattanooga, the ability to rent out a one bedroom, one bath with kitchen and laundry and the things you would want to live in, it\u2019s hard. There\u2019s very few of them. So we kept getting these inquiries.
\u201cCan we rent out your place?\u201d And again, it was almost always professional folks, either traveling nurses or people doing medical internships because the university\u2019s just over the way. That has changed. And we have had now had some folks building a home that wanted to build a home is they need a place to work from home from. We\u2019ve had several people rent it out for six or eight weeks at a time instead of two, three or four months. And they\u2019re just traveling digital nomads. So I\u2019ve got a little mix the two now, but it started out as just folks who needed usually almost exactly three months because a lot of those internships were summer internships for three months, or traveling nurses who had either a six week contract or a 12 week contract.<\/p>\n
How are you finding them? Is that they\u2019re coming to you from Airbnb or I\u2019ve heard of the traveling nurses websites. Are there different places you\u2019re looking for these people?<\/p>\n
We have not had great luck with Furnished Finder, although I have a different listing on that, it has been almost exclusively in Airbnb. And actually in 2021, we really, really changed our amount of money we were getting for these units because, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, I had the time and I really sat down and tried to get a better pricing structure and realized I was underpriced. And this is the first half cool tip, if you want to rent for three months at a time, this is not my idea, I learned this from YouTube, put little dash or something on the end and put ideal for long stays or perfect for long stays. There\u2019s a character limit there so you got to get creative, but make it clear in your booking that you are looking for long stays. I only accept 31 plus days. I\u2019ll do 33 days if you want, but you got to have 31 at the beginning.
And I leave that in the first part of this. So when you\u2019re looking at your Airbnb listing and someone\u2019s pulling it up, the very first part of the description, right below it, I make sure before you got to click to more, I make sure there\u2019s, we are only looking for bookings of at least 31 days at this time. But in the title it says ideal for long stays. And that has increased both of our listing views in the analytics on Airbnb and our bookings exponentially. And I think that is because we were initially getting these views from folks looking for a one bedroom that they could hit up to be like, \u201cHey, is there any chance you\u2019d rent this out?\u201d I don\u2019t have Instant Book on, which is one of the things that gets you high in the SEO on this particular unit because it\u2019s monthly so I want to be sure I know who I\u2019m talking to and whatever else.
So getting that, putting ideal for long term stays made a lot more people click on it that were looking for that exact same thing. And from there, it\u2019s a little bit of a negotiation. And what I like about those tenants is if you have the money to spend 1,200 plus fees, so 1,600, $1,700 a month, which what they\u2019re paying now, probably got a pretty good financial backing. So there\u2019s less chance of you not paying. Then additionally, you\u2019re probably taking it more seriously than somebody looking to party for a weekend and booking your place.
So one of the downsides of short term rentals can be that someone could trash your place, they throw a big party. And if you\u2019re booking the place for three months, and I tell you I live next door and there\u2019s only one parking space and we loved it, but I tell you, I love the neighborhood, my wife and I love the neighbor. We live next door. We\u2019ve never had any problems. I\u2019m not telling you you\u2019re not welcome there. I\u2019m letting you know that if you party next door to your landlord, that\u2019s not going to be fun. So they really, for my quality of life, I turn over the unit every two, three or four months and I still get almost as much as I would get as a short term rental.<\/p>\n
One question is out of curiosity because I know we have times where we have guests who check in and they just kind of drive us crazy with the amount of questions that they ask and information that we\u2019ve already given them but they\u2019re saying that they don\u2019t have. When you\u2019re are walking distance from your guests, when they can just kind of walk over and knock on the door, do you see that happening a lot? Or are they pretty chill for the most part? Just what\u2019s your experience.<\/p>\n
Are they not peeking in the window?<\/p>\n
So these units sit so close together. My unit and this unit are the two inside units. There are not windows on my side of the house, but if there were, we could see into each other\u2019s units, I have the fence that runs across and touches both houses. I took the whole yard from that house so my dogs have somewhere to go. So they have a patio. They have no side yard. So they\u2019re very close. I also keep a bunch of tools, don\u2019t come around me, and it\u2019s like vacuum cleaners and random stuff in the back patio closet. I make all of that abundantly clear from the beginning. \u201cHey, you might see me coming to get the weed eater to weed eat the inside of my fence.\u201d That\u2019s the first thing. The second thing, and I don\u2019t know how this is with you, but there\u2019s a certain Spidey sense you get when somebody reaches out to you and how they communicate and how they talk to you about whether they\u2019re going to be trouble.
I\u2019ve had one tough tenant and he paid through the whole pandemic. And so even though I had about a $1,500 rehab after he left, because he smoked in the unit even though he said he didn\u2019t and a few other things, that\u2019s the worst experience I had. I\u2019m picky. I\u2019m not trying to be. I just try to lay everything out before. And if I\u2019m really clear with folks, we live next door, it\u2019s one parking space. And I tell people being honest about the good and the bad of the unit and that if you\u2019re polite and communicating in a way that is normal, we\u2019re good. If you\u2019re like, if it\u2019s one or two words like \u201cHow much?\u201d Well the listing price is right there. Like, \u201cCan I have pets?\u201d<\/p>\n
It just sounds like when you list the property on the Facebook marketplace,[inaudible 00:29:19]-<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the price?<\/p>\n
Same type of thing. So I\u2019ve definitely shied away from some of those folks a little bit. But we been really lucky. And even in our short term, the one next door we\u2019ve had in since 2017, late 2017, maybe four tough experiences. And even those were not that bad. And I think a lot of that is preparation. Some of that is luck. And some of that is a one bedroom apartment, doesn\u2019t get a ton of party.<\/p>\n
So give us the timeframe Breezy, how long ago did you purchase that duplex and what\u2019s kind of transpired since then?<\/p>\n
So we purchased both of those in 2017, October, November, and the first year, I think when I did my math, I think we cleared about $750 total for the property on top of all expenses, not including setting aside anything for [inaudible 00:30:01], but including repairs that we spent. Last year, we were about $600 that went in 2019, we were about $600 a month. Similar for 2020. 2020 was tough because one of the units went empty for a whole month. And then we transitioned to how can we get somebody in this one bedroom, one bath that\u2019s normally nightly for three months? So again, that was about 600 bucks a month total. So you\u2019re thinking $300 a door. It\u2019s not terrible. And it\u2019s providing my internet since they were on one lot. My lawn mowing is all billed to that. My every expense that I can put, my pest control, everything\u2019s billed to that address.
And they happen to serve my duplex next door too. So I\u2019m getting some benefits there, but it was not as good as 2021. So I don\u2019t have final 2021 numbers. I haven\u2019t sat down and crunched November and December. But we\u2019re on pace to make about $1,200 a month.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n
So we\u2019ve doubled our profit and we did an extensive rehab on the units. We put in all new siding, about $6,000 worth of siding repair, as well as several other couple thousand dollars here, a couple thousand dollars there. So I think close to 10,000 in repairs and we still cleared about $1,200 a month total between the two of them. And that\u2019s after they paid for all of my personal internet because I share the internet. All of my personal lawn mowing, I share the lawn mowing. I paid for all of that, pest control. So it was a real home run in 2021. And a lot of that came from doing my homework and trying to make sure I ran a better business and changing my pricing too all by watching YouTube and trying to make sure I was doing a better job.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a really good house hack effectively. I love the idea of combining the short term stay with the medium stay with the long term stay. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve met anyone that\u2019s kind of played with all of those on one parcel before, but it seems to be working out really well for you.<\/p>\n
So when the pandemic hit, the nightly one went completely empty. Everything canceled out and we were just done. And so it was a month of being like, \u201cWell, what do we do?\u201d And I\u2019ve always bought this from the very beginning that if something terrible ever happens, it\u2019s okay that I haven\u2019t spent the money and fixed this other one up and gone nightly because at least that thousand dollars a month will cover the mortgage and most of the utilities. And that\u2019s exactly what it did. Even though it was rough, at least like mentally, and we didn\u2019t have the money coming in, we were maybe $500 in the hole with all those extra expenses, that including lawn mowing and the other things, instead of being, if both of them had gone into we\u2019d have been $1,800 in the hole or whatever.<\/p>\n
Andrew, before we move on to our segments, I just want to ask you for our mindset segment is if you could do anything different or just looking back, is there something that you thought about real estate that you realized wasn\u2019t exactly true now?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if mindset wise. I thought I could do more or better than others. So we bought another duplex and I ended up when I quit my job rehabbing that for an entire year. That was\u2026 Real estate\u2019s really forgiving, especially in this market so it all worked out, but I wasted half of that year at least, and a ton of money and I\u2019ve missed out on all sorts of opportunities because I was stuck in this like I need to protect my cash because it\u2019s a pandemic and what happens if they go empty and what happens? And so I should have farmed things out sooner. I should have realized several months in instead of a year in that I need to pay others to do it. And yet from now on, I have put my tools literally in storage, I can get to them if I want to do a project at my own house. But I\u2019ve put my tools in storage so it\u2019s hard for me to get to them so that I have to call somebody.<\/p>\n
Can we talk about that just really quickly because I think that\u2019s something that a lot of new investors, it\u2019s kind of a trap that they get caught in where they think that they\u2019re saving money by self-performing a lot of the work, but in the long run, it\u2019s actually costing the money. Let\u2019s give like a real life example or not a real life example, let\u2019s give an example, I guess, is the word I\u2019m looking for.
But as an example, let\u2019s say that, I don\u2019t know, hiring a general contractor, like a handyman to do the work would cost you $10,000, but they\u2019d be done in two months or you could self-perform the work and it\u2019ll cost you $3,000, but it\u2019s going to take you eight months. And say that you could rent that property out once it\u2019s done for $1,500 a month. If you do all that math, even though there\u2019s a cash outlay out front, the time that you\u2019re losing by not renting that property out is going to surpass the amount of money that you saved or that you think you saved by not hiring that general contractor.<\/p>\n
I feel that in my soul.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if those numbers actually add up because I made that up as I was talking, but you guys get the gist of what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n
And just physical labor on your body too.<\/p>\n
Yeah.<\/p>\n
And I do think there\u2019s something to hustling at the beginning. If you don\u2019t have a good W2, if you don\u2019t have a ton of extra money. We put in $40,000 into those four units together and six months and we worked our tails off, that was a good use of my time at the time because my ability to get another deal was contingent on me getting those units up and going, spending the least amount of money possible because I didn\u2019t have any money left. But later on, it was the exact opposite. I was still in the frame of mind that I was going to do what I did before and I was not treating it like a business when it should have been.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m so glad you said that because I think that\u2019s a really important distinction to make, is that do what you\u2019re able to do financially. I remember when I first started, when I first got interested in real estate, I was a broke college kid and I hear these big real estate investors talking about how they outsource this and I don\u2019t do any task that\u2019s under a thousand dollars an hour. And I\u2019m trying to think like, \u201cOkay, yeah, I should start outsourcing these things.\u201d But I\u2019m like \u201cWith what money? Who\u2019s going to pay these people to do these things that I\u2019m supposed to be doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
A lot of contractors, especially if they\u2019re not big outfits don\u2019t take credit cards. That\u2019s been my experience at least. So now I do have some relationship with folks that could take credit cards so I could do some riskier things. I did a ton of that on two more rehabs, but I didn\u2019t know at the time how to do that. So yeah, I was just pinching every penny. I could put the materials on a card, but the labor was all me.<\/p>\n
Right, right.<\/p>\n
Yeah, what Andrew\u2019s talking about right there\u2019s actually a really great rehab tool is to buy the materials with a 0% interest credit card. That\u2019s 0% for 12 months or 18 months. And then once you flip the property or refinance it, you go ahead and pay that credit card off before you actually pay interest on it. But yeah, if you can get a contractor, then you can cover all of your rehab costs.<\/p>\n
And look, it\u2019s a little risky. But if you\u2019ve done a couple, if you know how to do it, it\u2019s okay. And if you get a Lowe\u2019s credit card, for example, Lowe\u2019s has 5% off so you can get savings or six months or 12 months, depending on the purchase. So you can really play the game and finance your stuff on a credit card, like you\u2019re saying, and just buy materials and pick your battles on how you want to take things. And then all you need is the cash to pay your contractor. Or if your contractor is willing, they\u2019ll take a credit card and maybe charge you 3% or whatever else. And you can even do that with a 0% interest. You just got to be careful because you don\u2019t want to overextend and then-<\/p>\n
Right, you don\u2019t want to over-leverage yourself. You don\u2019t want to be stuck in credit card debt because once that 12 months in, the interest rate goes to what, 25, 30%.<\/p>\n
And you pay all the accrued interest from all that.<\/p>\n
Yeah.<\/p>\n
But you can do it and it\u2019s all about being creative and figuring out don\u2019t bite off more than you can chew, but also don\u2019t be stuck like I was in a mindset that held me back.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s go on to our Rookie request line. So this is where you guys can call in at 1-888-5-Rookie and leave a voicemail with your question and we may play it on the show for our guest to answer. So today\u2019s question\u2026<\/p>\n
Hello, this is Michael Perrera from Clovis, California. My question was around, do you use an LLC or C Corp and S Corp when you\u2019re starting a partnership with somebody? I heard you talk a lot about partnerships, but not necessarily how to legally frame them. Also, just for the shout outs of the Teslas, I bought a Tesla and I rent it out on Turo on every weekend and it pays for the bill for the Tesla. And it\u2019s been two and a half years and I haven\u2019t made a payment yet. So that\u2019s for your partner that\u2019s always saying they want a Tesla. So just a little tip there.<\/p>\n
So in a partnership, I use an LLC. I\u2019m not a tax attorney. Consult your lawyers. I don\u2019t play one on a podcast. However, what I was told by my tax attorney was that if you have a multi-member LLC, different families, different people, it is good to have an LLC. It is important for asset protection and it is better for everybody. I do most of my business in a sole proprietorship because what I was told is it\u2019s very easy to pierce that veil of a single member LLC. And then if it\u2019s my wife and I in LLC, that a judge is going to look at that and say, \u201cThat\u2019s yours. This is not a real business unless you follow everything to the T.\u201d So that\u2019s the advice that I took. I think you could do it either way, but I would recommend hitting up, and then the way I found a lawyer and I think this is a good way to do it, I got this from BiggerPockets, write a post for your Facebook, ask for recommendations for a lawyer that you\u2019re looking for.
If you have a real estate group you\u2019re a member of like the Rookie Real Estate group, post, see if anybody in your area has recommendations, make that same post on BiggerPockets. Come back the next day or two days later, put all those responses together, see if there\u2019s multiple people and then interview three. You got to interview three. And the reason is not because the third one\u2019s going to for sure be better than the first one. You will not know the questions you need to ask the first one until you\u2019ve interviewed the first one and taken that 10 minutes. What should I do? How should I do it? Why should I hire you? And the second one, you\u2019ll ask better questions. By the third one, you will know if the first one, second one, or third one is a better fit for you and you will know what you\u2019re asking about and you can make an informed decision. Every time I have done that, I have had a better outcome than just randomly picking somebody.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s such great advice. And the point that you make about that when you ask the first one, you\u2019re not going to know all the questions till you talk to all three, that\u2019s really good advice.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m the kind of person that that feels really daunting. And so if you just sit down and make that list and call those three people, all right in a row if you can do it, it will pay off in the end. It will save you potentially thousands of dollars on contractor bids, you\u2019re doing contractor bids, anything you\u2019re doing. If you just bite the bullet and get three or five or however many you\u2019re willing to get, you will save money and you will learn about that process so that you make an educated decision, not just get the easy one.<\/p>\n
And a lot of attorneys do the free initial call too. That doesn\u2019t even cost anything to initially talk with them.<\/p>\n
Yeah, just one last comment on that. I think a lot of new people have this misconception that you need to have an LLC to do a partnership, but that\u2019s not really the case. Like you said, an LLC is more so for asset protection for liability purposes. If you just want to partner with someone, as long as you guys have the details of your partnership of your agreement outlined between each other, that\u2019s all you really need. We have joint venture agreements that we use for all of our partnerships and we don\u2019t necessarily create a new LLC every time that we create a new partnership with someone.<\/p>\n
Yeah, see with me, I haven\u2019t done, well, I\u2019m doing my first joint venture now, but previously I\u2019ve only done an LLC and I do an LLC with each partner. So the properties that I buy with partner A, they all go into that LLC. Partner B, our properties together all go into that other LLC.<\/p>\n
And I think that works because you guys are buying multiple properties together, but for us, we haves nine properties that we have partners with. So to have nine separate LLCs, that didn\u2019t quite make a ton of sense for us.<\/p>\n
And is that operating agreement, in my opinion, that\u2019s the important part. Make sure you have all that stuff laid out. If expectations are off, partnerships are really tough. If expectations are clear, partnerships are not that hard, kind of awesome in my experience. But you got to have it all clear and you have to be willing to talk about things.<\/p>\n
Love that last point about being able to talk about things. Because even if you guys go on some partnership retreat where you spend an entire weekend trying to map out all the details of the partnership, things are going happen is you\u2019re actually working together, you\u2019re like, \u201cOh shoot, we didn\u2019t think about that.\u201d Or, \u201cOh shoot, we didn\u2019t think about this.\u201d And you have to be able to go back, have those difficult conversations to go back and update the agreements, the partnership documents, whatever it is to reflect whatever decisions you\u2019ve made. So it should be this kind of evolving document as your partnership continues to mature.<\/p>\n
And I have questions for you guys. Do you guys put out clauses in your joint venture agreements or your operating agreements?<\/p>\n
So I do a buy sell agreement stating as to what\u2019s going to happen as our different exit strategies. If someone wants out, what am I going to buy it for? And my attorney puts together an equation like this is how we will determine the value of your LLC and this is what you would pay at this point in time.<\/p>\n
I got to check my LLC operating agreement because I don\u2019t think I have that in there. But what we\u2019ve done on our joint venture agreements with our partners is, and this is a recent change that it auto the time duration is set to five years. So if after five years, the default, if nothing else happens, the default action is that we sell the property. The only way that we retain the properties if both parties agree to renew that partnership again for another 12 month period or whatever it is.<\/p>\n
Could you buy the property though, like buy out the other owners? Like that would be a sale. So you could still be the buyer of the sale, yeah. Okay, cool. Tony, do you want to take us to the Rookie Review?<\/p>\n
Yes, let\u2019s do that. To the Rookie Exam.<\/p>\n
Oh, exam.<\/p>\n
To the Rookie Exam.<\/p>\n
Should I be nervous?<\/p>\n
Yeah. So this is our newest segment of the show. We\u2019re asking the same three questions to every Rookie that comes onto the podcast and the hope is that our listeners get good value from this, but are you ready for the exam, Breezy?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m ready. Let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n
This has a pass rate of zero. So everyone that\u2019s taking this exam has failed. So I have very low hopes\u2026 No, I\u2019m kidding.<\/p>\n
Is it two correct to pass? Is it one correct? How many do I have to get?<\/p>\n
No, there\u2019s no right or wrong answers to the Rookie Exam. We just want to get into the psyche here. So question number one, what is one actionable thing Rookies should do after listening to this episode?<\/p>\n
Okay. So analysis paralysis paralyzes everyone, myself included. I would think you guys agree that there\u2019s times you get into into it and you don\u2019t figure it out. So this is my cure for that. Get up 30 minutes earlier than you would normally get up. The way I do it is I get up, go downstairs, drink glass of water, put the coffee on, shower, straight down get the coffee. My cell phone is still plugged in. I don\u2019t get on my cell phone-<\/p>\n
Not even looking at it yet.<\/p>\n
Not even looking at it. I used to do it an hour early, 45 or an hour, but 30 minutes is the minimum in my opinion. Go to whatever task, whatever single five minute, 10 minute task towards your goals. I need to figure out who I\u2019m going to call in that LLC question. Then you make that Facebook post. Do that, make that post, and then decide if you have a little time left, what am I going to do tomorrow? And if every day you just got up 30 minutes earlier and instead of giving your time to a boss, giving your time to something else and giving the best moments and brain power of your day, which mean you\u2019re fresh. And when you get home, at least for me, I am zapped. And maybe I\u2019ve had a bad day, maybe I\u2019m whatever and I just want to sit down on the couch and veg out and watch Netflix.
Well, I can\u2019t do that, or I\u2019m going to ruin a certain goal of mine. But if I\u2019m in the morning, if I\u2019ve accomplished one thing, even just one little thing forward, it doesn\u2019t matter what it is. Even if it was listening to this podcast and taking notes on something that you wanted to learn. Spend that time productively, read something, do something, do a task. And if you do that 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7 days a week, I got financial freedom in two and a half years and that was basically my whole entire eight hours on Sunday and an hour every morning that I could spare it. And I got financial freedom long before I thought I would. And I believe it\u2019s that consistent daily action. 30 minutes is plenty to make tons of progress.<\/p>\n
You know what? Congratulations on that.<\/p>\n
Took the words out of my mouth.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s really awesome. And you were willing to make that sacrifice. There\u2019s so many people that will not give up those eight hours on a Sunday or that hour during the week. And what you said about getting up and doing that one thing every morning towards your goal, that reminded me of the book, Eat That Frog, where you\u2019re getting rid of the hardest thing you have to do, or the thing you\u2019re procrastinating or putting off, you just get that done first and get it out of the way and then you go on to the rest of your day.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re scared or that task is too big, break it down smaller. What\u2019s the [inaudible 00:46:01] the most important next step in the journal, like whatever it is, you can do a smaller task or a small, if it\u2019s collecting phone numbers for who you\u2019re going to call, then do that. Then schedule it for your lunchtime, you\u2019re going to call, whatever it is. But if you just make action every day, even if you don\u2019t spend your Sundays doing it. I know people have kids. They have much why\u2019s than I do, I don\u2019t have kids yet, but even if you can\u2019t give up those extra hours, if you just made a little bit of progress every single day, you will get to your dreams. Whether it\u2019s two years, five years, 10 years, it will be much quicker than you think. It\u2019s a snowball, but if you don\u2019t start it now, you\u2019ll wake up at 50 building somebody else\u2019s dream. You will have been paid to build someone else\u2019s dream instead of building your own. That\u2019s my why. I don\u2019t want to build somebody else\u2019s dream. I want to build mine.<\/p>\n
It reminds me of this meme, you guys may have seen it floating around the internet, but it\u2019s like this employee walks up to his boss and his boss just bought like a new Ferrari or something. And the employee\u2019s like, \u201cMan, that\u2019s a really nice car.\u201d And the boss responds and says, \u201cWell, you know what? If you work hard, you put in a lot of hours, you stay dedicated, you stay motivated, maybe I\u2019ll be able to buy another one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Painful.<\/p>\n
Right? But so true. But so true. But so true.<\/p>\n
Okay. So onto the next question. What is one tool, software, app, or system you use in your business today?<\/p>\n
I try to keep everything on my phone that I possibly can. I picked up eight rental units in the last year to manage for other people. One of the things that keeps me from having to get W2 is having some more income and my grandparents were getting older, I took over theirs. So the first thing I did was, and actually got this from your podcast, I picked up a Google phone, a number that I never really used before. So I made an email address. If you don\u2019t have an email address, a business email address, that\u2019s the first thing you can do. You don\u2019t need a complicated name. I could have done my initial AB Properties at gmail.com. It doesn\u2019t matter what-<\/p>\n
Yeah. And you don\u2019t even have to buy a domain. You can just use a Gmail, a Yahoo.<\/p>\n
And then you have a business account, it doesn\u2019t matter, you can always whatever you want to do, but then create a Google voice and give that number out to tenants. And here\u2019s why I\u2019ve done that. Number one, I went to Brazil for two weeks in December. I went to Jamaica and New York for a week and a half in November. And I went on a 10 year wedding anniversary in October for 10 days to Mexico. That was all amazing and I was able to manage my properties from my phone because I didn\u2019t have internet. I did have internet access, I did not have a cell phone reception. But all of that is WiFi based. Additionally, had I not wanted to manage my properties, I could have just forwarded that number to somebody else\u2019s number or given another property manager or a friend in real estate that log in and they could have managed my properties from their couch.
And that would\u2019ve all been done, and my tenants would\u2019ve never known the difference. And there was never a risk that their call would go unanswered because they called my cell phone. Also, little tidbit. If you want to be a little bit more professional and you have a number that\u2019s a Google voice number, you can put do not disturb hours. You can choose when your calls go to straight to voicemail, and you can put a business voicemail. So your tenants or your business associates are not getting, \u201cHey, this is Andrew. Leave a message.\u201d They can get, \u201cHey, this is Andrew with X, Y, Z Properties.\u201d<\/p>\n
And you can link it to multiple phones. So my business partner and I, we use it when we send out mailers and it\u2019s linked to both of our phones. So we\u2019ll both get to tag both of our phones will ring, we\u2019ll both get the voicemail too.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s many other things I use, but I think that\u2019s the simplest. Anyone can integrate that and you can get on your desktop too. So say you want to make a call from your desktop, you want to type text from a desktop. You want to log in, whatever, all you need is WiFi, desktop, phone, whatever and you\u2019re good to go. And that\u2019s helped me manage and scale and also not pull my hair out.<\/p>\n
My business partner too whenever he meets a girl, he gives out the Google voice number. So I get to see all the texts from the girls coming in. I\u2019m just kidding, he\u2019s standing right over there.<\/p>\n
If you get a wedding crasher stage five cleaner, I mean, you got to protect yourself.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know about the do not disturb hours for Google voice. We use that for all of our short term rentals. So we\u2019re on the west coast. We have a lot of east coast folks. So sometimes they\u2019ll call us at like five o\u2019clock in the morning. So it\u2019s good to know the do not disturb.<\/p>\n
So initially I had set that up and I had a beer sales rep. I didn\u2019t want to give out my real number because I was worried an angry customer might call me on Saturday morning when the beer distributors closed. Well, I found out, and I assume this is still the case, you could put in all of your do not share hours. So that\u2019s what I did initially. And then like when I set up my real estate number a few years go, that\u2019s what I set up, my business hours, and you still see the notification on your phone.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s not too bad for them either. So last question, Breezy, and this is the most important, but where do you see yourself in five years?<\/p>\n
That is something I have been struggling with a lot. I want to keep this as a lifestyle business. I was burned out to the max and I didn\u2019t know it when I quit my job. I had a soul crushing job for seven years that got worse and worse and worse towards the end. It wasn\u2019t so bad at the beginning. But real estate was kind of forced me to retire and I was happy that I retired. I\u2019m self-employed, but I call it retired. It feels better that way. And so now I want to continue building it. I may transition out of some of my short term. We have two more properties that are medium term now. So we have four units total that are medium term. It\u2019s still a lot of work. So I would like to transition into more regular rentals. I\u2019d like to buy four properties this year, eight properties next year.
And then after that, I\u2019ll have to reassess and I\u2019d to buy some larger multi-families. I don\u2019t know what that market\u2019s going to look like. I don\u2019t know if that will still be profitable. I don\u2019t really know. But I would like to continue working 20 to 30 hours a week at the most on a regular basis, not including the big weeks and whatever else. And I\u2019d also like to still spend my time doing what I love, because for seven years I didn\u2019t get to travel and visit my in-laws in Italy. I still haven\u2019t been back because of the pandemic.
I didn\u2019t get to spend my weekends doing the things I liked to do depending on what it was. If it fell on a Monday and a holiday, we work all holidays, whatever, whatever. So I want to spend time doing what I want to do and I want my work now to revolve around my schedule rather than my life revolving around my work schedule. So my hope is in five years, I\u2019ve continued to keep that balance and I continue to be able to do what I love, volunteer in charities, do all the things that make me happy and give me fulfillment because real estate\u2019s great and I like it, but I don\u2019t believe it will bring me lastly fulfillment on its own. So all the other things that I get to do because of real estate that bring me that lasting fulfillment.<\/p>\n
Well, that\u2019s awesome. And thank you for sharing that with us and I definitely think you\u2019re going to get there. You reach financial freedom in two and a half years and you definitely have the drive, the vision and the work ethic. So, yeah.<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n
Awesome. Well, let\u2019s take it to our Rookie rockstar. If you guys want to get featured on the Real Estate Rookie podcast, get active in the BiggerPockets forums, get active on the BiggerPockets Real Estate Rookie Facebook group, get active in Ashley\u2019s DMs, all those are very acceptable places to get featured as a Rookie rock star. So today\u2019s Rookie rockstar is Mattie B. And Mattie said, had my very first binder conversation with two inherited tenants. It worked flawlessly. So if you\u2019re not familiar with the binder conversation, it came from episode 448 with Dion Mcneeley, the real estate show, but Matt says, or Mattie says that both tenants went up to $1,200 per month, one from $900 and the other from $850. And that added $650 per month in cash. So he said, give it a shot, cost me 70 bucks at Staples to make the binders and I practiced my pitch before I went over there. So Mattie, congratulations.<\/p>\n
Yeah. That\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n
An extra $650 per month.<\/p>\n
I love the binders, yeah.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n
Okay. Well Andrew, thank you so much for joining us. Can you tell everyone where they can find out some more information about you, where they can reach you and also about your podcast?<\/p>\n
Oh sure. So I host a podcast, a soccer podcast. If you\u2019re a big soccer fan and you love Chattanooga Football Club, that\u2019s a very particular niche, you can check us out at The Section 109 podcast. And if you like listening to people talk way too much about that, that\u2019s where you can find that. You can find me on Instagram. I consume more than I put out, but there\u2019s stuff on there.
You can connect with me on the BiggerPockets forums, I\u2019m pro member. I love BiggerPockets. Again, there I consume more than I put out. It\u2019s an unbelievable resource. If you have a question, it\u2019s been answered. And if you don\u2019t have a pro membership, BiggerPockets is not paying me for this, but the calculators are worth 10 years of pro membership just for one year. The ability to have infinite use of those calculators is so\u2026 Plus, there\u2019s landlord docs and all the other things. So get at me on the forums. You can hit me up on Instagram and yeah, if you want more tips, more actionable things, I would love to share what I know. So maybe I\u2019ll write a blog post and put it in my bio on Instagram with just the small things that I think you can do, the granular stuff to not make some of the mistakes I did.<\/p>\n
And anyone can apply to write blog posts too for BiggerPockets. So you should submit it through there. Yeah.<\/p>\n
Okay. Maybe I\u2019ll do one of those New Year\u2019s lists where they have all the like hacks for a better life. Maybe I\u2019ll do that. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that\u2019d be awesome.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll know by the time this is released if I follow through.<\/p>\n
Hold him all accountable. So everybody reach out to him on BiggerPockets and Instagram and make sure that he does have that blog post written. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us. I\u2019m Ashley at Wealth From Rentals and he\u2019s Tony at Tony J Robinson. And we will be back on Saturday with a Rookie reply.<\/p>\n