#3 - Our Story Pt 2.

[0:00] This is the Wealthy Investor Show, where we don’t just talk about your wealth, we also talk about your holistic health. I’m your host, Matthias. And I’m Erica. And this is the Wealthy Investor.

[0:15] Welcome back. Today we are continuing part two on the series of Getting to Know Us. Last time we spent some time talking about me and my story, and then today we’re going to spend time talking about you, Matthias. And getting to know you. Can you tell me or tell us a little bit about your family and where you were born? You’re very proud of being from, in a sense, three different countries. Do you want to start there and just what it was like growing up and what your family was like? Yeah, okay. So I was, like I’d like to say, born very confused as a tri-citizen. So I was born in Mexico. My parents were doing mission work, rebuilding houses after a hurricane in Mexico. And that’s where I was born.

[1:05] My mother is from Switzerland, was born and raised there. Met my dad in the U.S. My dad’s from America, from the U.S. And that made me born a tri-citizen. Yeah. I think at some point they had to decide between Mexican and the U.S. So I’m not 100% sure if I’m still Mexican. But I did definitely. You’re not sure which one you chose. I didn’t remember making the choice. But I am in the U.S. And I know I’m a legal U.S. citizen. So don’t come after me. But I’m also, I know I’m a legal Swiss citizen. So Mexico is just the question mark. Yeah. And so you lived in Mexico for the first two years of your life. Your parents were missionaries. Growing up, your dad was a professor, a Spanish professor. Spoke Spanish.

[1:58] And then he also was involved in seminary and has been quite involved with that as well, right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. I got another master’s in spiritual formation. Yeah. So growing up with your family, what do you feel like was, what was kind of driving your family? What do you feel like was important to your family? What are some of the things that stood out? Yeah. So definitely strong religious. We both come from Mennonite backgrounds and we’re what’s considered, what’s not old order, what’s the other word? New order? New world order. Liberal probably. New world order Mennonites. We drive cars. But that’s probably, if anybody who is familiar with Mennonites would realize it’s really a cultural thing more than just a religious thing.

[2:51] But so that was a big part of our life. We moved from college town to college town in the Mennonite college space, just from Kansas to Virginia. And so that was definitely a big part of our life. Another big thing was international exposure and understanding. And then also my being able to go back to visit Switzerland on a regular basis was very, very important. And so we did not grow up with much money, but my parents made a priority to visit Switzerland, especially early on. It was every summer. So I probably spent a year and a half in Switzerland just through various vacations as a kid. Very fortunate. I lived with grandparents. My dad worked construction while we were there. So it was definitely doing everything we can to make that work out.

[3:50] But that took a lot of creative planning on your parents’ part, probably thinking outside of the box of it. And it sounds like there was a big, a very strong focus on family relationships. Yeah. And that has stayed true with your family. I know for sure. That’s very, that’s something that’s very important to them and, and to us also. Something that’s carried through. What about, what about property? Owning houses? Did your parents invest in real estate like you are now? Like what, what did you grow up with there? Yeah. Yeah. So we, um, they owned houses in, and I think that was probably actually maybe not an automatic. Of course you should for my dad. Uh, but yeah, I definitely owned a house in, uh, Kansas and then also here in Virginia, uh, which we lived in for, or they lived in for almost 30 years and we actually just sold last year, which was a big transition, uh, for everybody.

[4:46] But I think I got a little more emotional than my parents did, but, um, you know, childhood home, it’s, it’s hard to see, see it go. But yeah, so no, no extra, no rentals or anything like that. That’s definitely, um, not, not something that’s in the family history. So when you, um, growing up, it’s probably fair to say you were well-traveled. I don’t know. I mean, at least in my life, I didn’t have many friends that had been to different countries and, and for sure spent a lot of time in different countries. So that was, sounds like hearing you talk about it. That was something that was pretty formational for you. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think that being able to, uh, I think, I think understanding from an early on age that everybody sees things a little bit differently and has different ways of, of seeing the world.

[5:36] I guess that’s probably the, I was really, really taught through the lens of, uh, cross cultural kind of understanding. Um, but you know, that’s probably just a fundamental truth that everybody kind of has their own perspective, their own lens that they, that they see the world through. Um, not saying that I’m perfect at understanding that at all times. I’m, I’m pretty bullheaded at times, but, um, I think that it’s a, it’s a good lesson that everybody should, uh, should know that, you know, are the way you see things are not really always the way that other people see things. Yeah, that is, that is something that, um, is pretty, uh, integral to who you are. Cause the, you have always been able to connect with just about anybody, regardless of background or, um, cognitive functioning or any, any space that come in, you seem to be able to walk into a room and connect with people very easily and very well.

[6:31] You’re just very open for the most part. Until I’m not. There’s also though, this part of you, um, so you’ve been, you’ve been an entrepreneur for ever. I mean, you have always been, uh, working on or looking for or seeking the next thing, the next better thing. How can I do this better? How can I form, how can I create this in a new or different way? And, um, you started that from a really young age. I know your mom tells me this story sometimes. Do you want to tell it? This is one that you’ve heard multiple times. Um, yeah. So, uh, I guess the very first thing I, as a young boy, I got my first pocket knife and I thought, what a great tool and how could I profit from this great invention? Um, and so I sharpened some sticks and sold them at the side of the road.

[7:23] Uh, but I think I had one buyer and that buyer was probably just, you know, thinking that’s cute. Uh, you know, I don’t know what I charged. This was like a nickel or something for a sharpened stick. Um, but that’s where it started. And I mean, so just to, to add on to that a little bit, I think, uh, there was always a little bit of thinking of, you know, looking for opportunities and, and, and trying to, to, to work with them. I think, you know, as a kid, probably most people would trade their pencils and their like, you know, their erasers and their sharpeners and that kind of stuff and try to get something different that they had. So there’s always a little bit of that going on. Another memory that comes into mind is, uh, there was a promotion, uh, for a local ski resort where if you had, if you bought four cases of soda, uh, you would get a free lift ticket for a day and this was in college.

[8:12] So I bought, uh, 40 cases of soda and I got 10, uh, past day passes. I sold the soda in my dorm room for like a quarter, you know, a can. And then I went to the ski resort and I sold like six to eight of them. I forget how much I sold, but I use a couple. So I skied for free and then I got, I mean, it was like $12, $14 for the soda that, you know, I made back from selling him mostly. Um, and then made profit on the ones I sold and then got to ski for free. So I was really thrilled about that one. That’s a good deal. As a poor college kid, that was a huge win. Yeah. You, you’ve just, um, always been somebody at which is, this is still true. You’re always reading something. You’re listening to a podcast.

[9:04] You’re, you’ve tried to surround yourself, um, with people who are doing things that you haven’t quite learned about yet, or that, you know, that you could learn from the people you, that you admire. And so that’s been, um, fun for me to watch you do. It’s something that I admire about you. It’s also at one point we had to establish a rule that you couldn’t talk to me about what you were learning until I’ve had at least one cup of coffee in the morning. Cause often you were up early listening to something or reading or yeah. Yeah. Getting into the next thing. Um, what going back a little bit, talk to me a little bit about how you got into real estate and how you started learning about all of these investment strategies.

[9:53] Cause that came out of a lot of this, uh, you know, desire to learn and, and try new things. Well, so I think the, the seed had been planted that I really, I think I really wanted to do my own thing. Uh, that was kind of, I think I was always just looking for that, that opportunity, uh, to be more of my own boss and have my own business. Um, when we were, uh, engaged and ready to get married, we were looking for the next thing, which was, uh, to buy a house. Um, and, uh, we had, uh, an awesome agent. That was a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun in the process. It was exciting. Uh, shout out Jane. Um, but she, there was a lot of things in that and what she was doing that I thought I could do well with.

[10:40] And I think, you know, maybe the connecting with people was one of them. Um, but then there was also a lot of the, uh, techie kind of things that I had always been interested in, like, uh, you know, forming a website or, or things like that, that I could do to help grow the business. And, um, I think the, the thought of being able to really just have the free freedom to just dive into it and do it how I want to do it and, and, and take control of it was really exciting for me. Um, and, and I, you know, I, and also, I think part of what I really liked about real estate was that I could full heartedly endorse it. It was a really good thing. Um, I don’t think I, I would have a much harder time selling something that I did not fully believe, um, was, uh, just such a, you know, just an amazing thing.

[11:29] Like there’s definitely other goods that you need that are important, but real estate comes with, uh, you know, the appreciation, uh, obviously everybody needs to live in a house. It’s one of the most fundamental things that we need is shelter. And, um, at the same time, it’s a really good investment and a great thing for people long term. So, uh, just, yeah, the thrill of being able to help people, uh, pursue those goals. And then you asked about, uh, how I got into investments from there. Um, yeah, so I started blogging and I think the, the idea of investments was always interesting to me. And I think like many first time home buyers, we wanted to use our first houses to keep it as a rental.

[12:11] That was like the, the goal from, from day one. Um, but so I started blogging and doing, uh, kind of explaining different principles of investment real estate, uh, and was probably around that time got into a bigger pocket. It’s the podcast to, to listen to other people’s success stories. Um, and then I ended up forming a investment club, uh, with just, just myself just because there was other people around my age primarily that were also interested in this. Wait, just a second. Cause, cause you talk about this stuff like, oh, of course I, I started a blog and of course I started an investment club. These are the things that I’m talking about. Like, how did you figure out that you wanted to start an investment club?

[12:54] And that was something that would be interesting and that you could do. How had that idea come to you? Well, I think it was really that there were other people that were also interested in talking about these things like other peers, um, or clients and or clients that I, you know, the thought it really started off as like, Hey, let’s, let’s go to a brewery and just talk about real estate investing and have interesting people to hear from. Um, and that’s kind of where it started. Um, and then I formed, I, I, I partnered up with another agent that joined our firm, uh, Chase Lauderback, uh, who was a guest on the show as well. He’s a really well, well-learned man in the world of real estate investing.

[13:33] Yes. Um, but anyway, so that, that changed the dynamics a little bit and made it more of the formal, um, thing that people would more likely be used to if they’ve been to a real estate investment meetup, uh, it would be more, that became more like that, that traditional kind of model, which was great. Um, but yeah, no, I think it stems from probably, uh, an interest, uh, passion of some sort. And when wanting to, I mean, really it’s a win-win because I want to learn myself. I want to learn more. I want to find, and this podcast, you know, I’m, I’m going to learn things from the guests that we have on it. Like, that’s exciting to me to like hear, uh, what people bring to the table, what exciting new strategies or nuances they have to the same thing that we’re doing or, you know, a completely new strategy.

[14:23] Well, I don’t know if you realize this, but you’re very good at creating something from nothing that hasn’t been done before. And your approach is usually what you just said. Like, I I’m going to do this because I’m really excited to see what I can learn from it, which I think is a really cool approach. It’s new for me. Cause I tend to operate more out of like, I’m just going to put my feet in the ground and stay here and don’t move me. And cause I’m comfortable. Um, but so you, that’s been something I like about you, but anyway, that’s our yin and yang dynamic. I think that it’s really helpful. Like I think I am best partnered with a manager, uh, because I like to create and I get bogged down, not that I can’t do it, but I get bogged down with the day to day.

[15:06] Um, I set up the system now. I don’t want to run it.

[15:11] So yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Okay. So you had the investment club, you started hearing from all these guest speakers about different things they were doing or for different from different sides of the business. So what slid you into actually, um, making moves on your first deal? Well, okay. So definitely we, so we, we, we kept our first house as a rental. That doesn’t really count other than we were able to save up enough money to be able to buy a second property. Um, and, and, you know, take the dive into the real estate investing. I think the journey really began when, um, my really good partner, colleague, uh, partner, really good friend, business partner now, and, uh, colleague Ronald, uh, invited me.

[15:56] He wanted to get me into a flip and, uh, he invited me to, to join him. We had, it had been something that I’d been wanting to do and we had set ourselves up to be able to do it mainly through equity lines. Um, it’s always something that I preach to probably people who don’t want to hear it, but if you’re thinking about keeping your house as a rental, um, and, and buying another one before you find the house that you want to buy, get an equity line of credit on your house that you live in, that you want to turn into your rental. You’ll get better equity line terms, quick PSA. Uh, you’ll get, you’ll get better equity line terms. You’ll have that all ready to go and then it won’t interfere with your loan application process for the new house.

[16:38] If you’re trying to get both at the same time, they’re obviously going to know this, this one that you have is not going to be your primary residency anymore. It’s going to be a rental and you’ll get different terms. Uh, for example, you won’t be able to get like something like a 90, 10 split. It might be an 80, 20 split, uh, meaning that you can’t have access to capital past. They need to keep 20% in the, in the, you know, as just equity. But I digress. So anyway, we, we had set ourselves up with both our primary residency and our rental to be, to have equity lines, to have access to capital. So we were primed and ready to be able to do a flip. It might’ve been a little bit much for us to be able to take on one by ourselves.

[17:21] It would have been pushing us a little bit, especially way more so with our, just our comfort level. I mean, our knowledge base. Cause I remember you, well, you approached that the same way. And just saying, this would be a really good opportunity for us to learn how to do this. Yeah. And let’s just see what we can learn from it. Yeah. Um, so anyway, we decided basically we’re going to be doing this as a partnership. We were kind of looking for an opportunity, uh, actually at a Christmas gathering at a brewery for, uh, our REI meetup. Uh, somebody came and it was a wholesaler from a different town close by and said, Hey, do you want, uh, I gotta, I gotta deal if anybody’s interested. And I said, yeah.

[18:02] And then when I checked it out and it was, the numbers all seemed like they were as, you know, would be great. And we jumped on it and that kind of began the journey. Cause that was one of our more profitable flips. Um, the first one being the, one of the more profitable ones is kind of rare, but, uh, we had a great deal, uh, that you, even though you were pregnant about to have a, I mean, like popping, you were okay. Okay. You got to be okay with, uh, buying it and, uh, moving forward, but. And that, uh, the way that you analyze properties to see if they’re a good deal. I know I’ve seen, I’ve seen you do it. Is that something that you came up with on your own? So there’s a mixture of ways, uh, that I do that.

[18:54] Um, there are the CapEx looking at the CapEx, seeing if there are things that need to be, uh, done that’d be big ticket items right away. So you’re looking at the, you know, the electrical, the plumbing, the roof, the HVAC, are those all items that need to be taken care of? If so, you can kind of, you know, just rough, you know, back of the napkin kind of math, uh, put together what that’s going to cost. Another big factor is the size of the house. I mean, if it’s a small house, there’s just less money that goes into it. Cause you, you know, you, if you have a thousand square feet of flooring, it’s a lot cheaper than 4,000 square feet of flooring as we learned with our house when we, when we renovated it.

[19:35] Um, but so I don’t always formally analyze, uh, it’s, it’s, I’m in the business enough that I can get a pretty gut, uh, feel for it. And that’s probably more about personality as well, uh, is to, to get a pretty good gut feeling for it. Um, but I’ll usually at least, uh, do math on, on the big ticket items and then just kind of round and always employing the worst case scenario and, and the, you know, plan B plan C kind of the scenarios in my head. Uh, I do have, uh, I did create a spreadsheet at one point that I think does really help with that, where you can kind of break down, you know, what you need for each room. So if there’s multiple bathrooms, do you need a new vanity? Do you need a new shower?

[20:19] Do you need a new toilet? Uh, light fixtures and then, you know, each bedroom as well, light fixtures, or if there’s other repairs that are needed, windows, um, kitchens, cabinets, granite appliances, and you can kind of then itemize each of those items. And, and again, with experience, I know now, uh, kind of what all those things cost. And so I can get a pretty good rough idea that I, one of the things I tell people a lot is you’ll be surprised how much $30,000 can get you, um, how far that will stretch. Because I think sometimes people see a place that needs light cosmetic repair and they’re like, that’s going to need a hundred thousand dollars of work for sure. And it’s just not true. Mm-hmm.

[21:02] I mean, even just hearing you talk about that and thinking back to where, how you grew up, your first couple of jobs, which were more like human services field jobs, and the amount of knowledge and skill that you’ve developed, not even necessarily through an educational program. This is something that you have learned through experience and through your own kind of pursuit of knowledge through reading all kinds of books and podcasts and mentors and groups. And it’s just pretty amazing how much you’ve learned. Well, thanks. And I think, I think there’s a couple of things I’d want to say about, uh, you know, flipping and that kind of stuff. I think, first of all, it’s, it’s pretty awesome. Um, when you can take a property that’s been an eyesore, all the neighbors usually are very thankful that you’re doing it, uh, because the property has been, you know, it might have bad tenants that have really destroyed the place.

[22:01] It might be that the house has just been abandoned for a while. Um, and the grass grows long and it’s just, it’s just nasty. I mean, I’ve been through some nasty places and to be able to turn that into something beautiful. Um, usually we, we, we tend to, for the most part, there’s been some that where we had to be a little bit more conservative on, on how much money we put into the deal. Um, but for the most part, we tend to make houses beautiful. Like we, I mean, I think almost every one we’ve done has been granite, uh, you know, new cabinets and, and just trying to make it a really nice home has been kind of, you know, again, most of the time our thing. And to, to see the transformation, I think usually when you get to the, finally getting it painted, the house painted, that’s where you just like get this wave of like, oh my gosh, this is coming together.

[22:52] This looks good. Like it’s been so ugly and so nasty. You got all the trash out. That looks good, but it’s still nasty. And then once you get to the, you know, it finally is painted. You’re like, you’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s fun and exciting. And it’s, it’s a, it’s a way of, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s creating something. It’s, I’ve heard some people talk about it, like recycling a house. Like it’s, it’s, you know, making something out of a problem. Like you’re solving problems when you’re, when you’re flipping houses. Do you have a favorite deal that we’ve done? Um, one particular deal. I’ll talk about two kinds of instances. I think, uh, we’ve done a, for a few BRRRR, uh, properties, which is, uh, buy rehab, rent, refinance, and repeat, uh, copyright Brandon Turner, um, that made that into a common household name in the real estate world, that BRRRR strategy.

[23:55] Anyway, so that’s flipping the house, but instead of, uh, you know, selling it and realizing the, the equity you built in by, by rehabbing it, you’re just refinancing it. And so that, let’s say if you do it right, um, you get your, the 20% down payment that people would normally do in an investment property is just the equity you built. And so you get all your cash back that you invested. Let’s say you just invested in cash. You can finance these too, but let’s just keep it simple. Um, if you invested $150,000 in cash and you were able to refinance it with appraisal appraised value at 200, um, then you get your $150,000 back. So you kind of have this new rental that looks brand new that everybody loves, uh, with no hard earned money in it.

[24:42] Um, and then you, again, you’re, you’re, the neighbors are loving you and they’re just saying, just make sure you get tenants that are good because they probably were used to having tenants that were bad that destroyed the house in the first place. And so anyway, then you get tenants that are very excited about the house. Um, because this brand new, it’s got granite countertops. It’s, it’s beautiful. You can do some open shelf concepts. You can add different amenities that they’re not used to having. Um, and, and then you, you know, you get a good rent amount, you get a good rent premium. So it’s just, it’s just one of the strategies I feel like everybody in the whole transaction wins. Um, and the seller that sold it to us too, because they were at a place where they just couldn’t take it anymore.

[25:27] Like they were like, get me out of this property. It’s a nightmare. I want to be done with it. Um, and so like, it’s just, it’s awesome. That’s a win-win I’d say the other one, um, that I’m a big fan of is, and I won’t get into all the details, but we put together a seller financing deal, um, that really was a partnership of three people. Um, and it was a win for everybody involved. And it was incredibly complex to think through all the different possible exit strategies for all the three people. Um, and how to make sure that we were able to handle, um, any of those exits, uh, at any given point. And we put it all together, made it all work. Um, and it’s not the highest cashflow property, but it is a awesome property to own.

[26:18] And over time that will get better. And we are doing it on a 20 year AM. So we’re building a lot of equity in it. So those would be my two favorite deals or deal types. That last one again, like took some creative thinking, creative. That was, I spent so much time thinking about that one. That was a lot of consulting with lawyers and accountants and friends and us. A lot of me processing with you probably, and then me talking to other people and them being confused. Is this what I’m saying? Cause we should do a whole nother talk, a whole nother conversation about that deal. Cause it, it is complicated and deserves maybe more time to talk about it later. Yeah. Um, what are you reading right now?

[27:07] What am I reading right now? So I am getting, uh, as much information about apartment syndication as possible. Uh, we got, uh, the Joe Fairless best ever, uh, apartment syndication is the one that I’m finishing, um, and kind of wanting to use as a, as a guidebook a little bit, uh, for our apartment syndication, uh, dreams and goals. Um, we, I’ve done, uh, you know, three other apartment syndication books here recently. Um, but then also we just started, I actually haven’t really, I read like maybe a paragraph of what’s that book called? The, the, the tidy up book or whatever, how to keep house while drowning, how to keep house while drowning. We have three kids and it often feels like we’re drowning.

[27:58] Uh, but so far that you’ve really enjoyed that. I’m excited to get it. I love it. Yeah. It’s written by a therapist. I want her to be my therapist. She has said things that I have needed to hear for years. I love that book. It’s a short one. It’s like a three hour audio book read. And I think she has a condensed version for that’s like an hour. If you don’t have time, if you’re really drowning.

[28:21] That’s, that’s great. And I think, I think those kinds of books are really helpful, even if it just brings more, uh, awareness. Like even, you know, like sometimes I think it’s just helpful to be more cognizant and more intentional about something that is not perfect. Not that it’s going to be perfect after you read this book or, you know, we read a really great relationship book, uh, last quarter and that book brought a lot of awareness and a lot of, you know, and I think we have a great relationship, but, um, you know, it’s something that we can just bring as a priority to be intentional about and continue to be. Um, yeah. Is there a book that you keep going back to or a favorite book that you would recommend?

[29:08] Uh, I bet you could guess what I’m going to say. So I, I love a lot of books, but I think, um, I gotta go with how to win friends and influence people. It’s the, I can’t tell you how many people he has almost gifted this book to. It’s such an OG. Um, it’s such a good one. Well, I think, I think probably I say that because it’s one that I probably learned the most from, um, I’ve read it a number of times. I haven’t recently, maybe I should again, but, um, I think that it corrected a lot of, uh, my ingrained behaviors. I was pretty bullish about my beliefs and thoughts and wanted made everybody to know them. Um, if I, if somebody disagreed with me or said something I didn’t agree with, I was going to say it.

[29:54] Um, I was going to challenge them on it. I lived in Germany for a year, which also has that in the culture. Um, a little bit, you’re just more argumentative. Um, and I think a lot of Germans actually struggle coming to the U S because of maybe this book, um, because people try to avoid arguments in general. But I think that for, uh, day-to-day practice relationships, uh, business, all that stuff, I think it’s, it was a really big one for me. And then, yes, the reason it’s probably a favorite is because they’re whenever, um, I see a principle being broken, uh, by other people regularly, I’m like, Oh, is it rude to just slide this book into their possession at some point? Maybe a little Christmas gift and prob to, uh, July 7th book, you know, cause they need it.

[30:43] Um, but yeah, if, if you haven’t read it, it’s good. I know it’s kind of like a old timey book and there’s many others that are great too, but that one, you used to work with teens at the high school and you gave one of your students, the teen version of that, right? Uh, I think, I think so. But the one that sticks out more to me right now is, um, the seven habits of highly effective teens, um, which actually I liked better than the adults version, maybe because I’m a child at heart, but, um, I read it because I had already read the, the other one, but I read the teen version and I just thought it was, it was easier to digest same principles, same concepts. And, um, I thought it was pretty good.

[31:27] And I definitely, if you have a teen, it’s not a bad one to, to give them or to help them. Yeah. Along their, their journey of maturity and responsibility and adulthood. Mm hmm. There’s a workbook too. Mm hmm. Link in the bio. You can get that affiliate marketing money. Not really. Is there just, uh, in the experience that you’ve had so far, is there a lesson that you would pull out, um, and offer people anything that stands out to you?

[32:05] Hmm. Um, let me think if I can think of something deeper, but, uh, I would say for, uh, flipping or for renovating, uh, definitely make sure if you can have really good references or something for the contractors you hire, um, it can be really frustrating and painful if you have contractors that don’t, uh, do great work, um, or don’t do work the right way. Um, so definitely hiring right. And if you can find a contractor that is good and gets it, cause you kind of need a contractor that gets the, maybe, you know, if you, if you’re able to do multiple flips a year, et cetera, you want to maybe have one that’s willing to work a little bit more in volume. Uh, they understand that they have to give you a fair, reasonable price.

[32:56] Um, but that also does good work. Um, so that’s definitely, that’s definitely one of the lessons I think I’ve had to learn over the, over the years. I think maybe, hmm. I think other than that, a couple of things that come to mind would be, uh, so I would say that I thrive off of words of affirmation. Would you say that’s true? Yes. So this has been very good. She’s been very complimentary. Um, so I’m going to rewatch this every night. Um, no, but I think, uh, one of the things that I could do better at is, is kind of keeping a journal of some sort that has, uh, past successes and past, maybe even like if you get a good review or something like that, where you can feel good about accomplishments, all that kind of stuff to review when, when things aren’t as good.

[33:47] I think that’s something that, uh, is that I don’t do really at all. And I should, I think it would be really helpful for me. Um, but then on top of that, uh, if, if everything is, is seeming like it’s all falling on you at once, um, realizing that, uh, there it’s, that’s, that’s just part of it. But that low point is going to make that next high point feel so much better. Um, and you’ll get through it. Uh, just gotta, you know, put one foot in front of the other. And when you get through it again, like if you just stayed up here, uh, it wouldn’t be great. You gotta, you gotta go in the cold plunge to experience what real satisfaction is. You gotta, you gotta, that might be a stretch. It’s taking a little far.

[34:36] Uh, trying to pull an analogy here. No, but I think, yeah, like I think my dad used to always say, like, you can’t, uh, appreciate the, the views from the mountaintop if you haven’t experienced the lows from the valleys. And I think that’s a perspective that can be hard to think about or think to even think about when you’re going through the hard times. But I think in the hard times, that’s a really helpful perspective to have. That’s wise. Last question for you. Uh, what are you on the cusp of learning now? And what kind of, what do you feel like is your next, what are you stepping into? Um, yeah. So, so aside from, you know, syndication space, you know, we’ve been working with the, on the mobile home park syndication and, uh, getting into the larger apartment, uh, complexes.

[35:30] That’s definitely a big one. Um, I think on top of that, uh, something that, you know, Pace Morby talks about all the time and is hopefully there’s more opportunities for, but I think the, uh, creative finance is something that is, you know, with interest rates being as high as they are. Um, I think, you know, getting familiar with the opportunities for that creative finance and just also creative deal structure. I think like that is something that is, I think fascinating because it, people get hung up. Everybody has something they’re, they’re hung up with, um, in a deal. It could be the purchase price. And as a buyer, I think, you know, I, you know, I think when we bought this house, I probably was a little bit too, like, I need to get a great deal because, you know, I’m a real estate agent and I, if I don’t get a great deal, you know, what am I worth?

[36:16] Or I don’t know what my brain was thinking, but like, it was a great deal even at asking price. And so like, I should be able to see that and jump on it. But that’s an example of how I was hung up on that area. But I think that if you can realize, uh, that there can be a route to getting the deal done, um, that doesn’t have to be just a straight linear, um, you know, purchase price financed separate or cash, whatever. Or it can be creative financing. It can be seller financing. It can be that, um, you know, subject to, it can be a bunch of different ways of, does the seller need to close quickly? Does the seller, uh, really only care about the purchase price? If so, is he willing to make other concessions that, is he willing to negotiate on terms to make the deal work out for everybody?

[37:05] Um, and, and then at the same time, like realizing that, uh, you know, you don’t have, you don’t have to be married to the deal. You don’t have to make it work out. There are ways to make it work out. And this is where it’s a win for me. I’m not going to try to take advantage of you as the person involved. Um, it’s gotta be a win for you as well. So can we find a way to dance, to get to that point, um, where it works for everybody, as opposed to just one way of thinking of, you know, purchase price, uh, that, you know, that’s the most easy way to put a deal together. That takes a lot of skill, a lot of relationship skill, a lot of, a lot of thinking, a lot of problem solving. Well, we had a bit of a technical difficulty.

[37:48] We had the doorbell ring and we have a dog inside and she went crazy, but that’s her job, I guess. Right. But anyway, we are back. Um, you, you were interrupted, uh, all of a sudden, was there anything else before we wrap up that you wanted to say or that you didn’t quite get to finish saying? Yeah, I would guess I would just talk a little bit about, uh, my understanding of the investment world and how it’s played a role in my jar. We can’t, we can’t keep doing this. This is not allowed. Um, so how, how the investment side of things helped, uh, with my, my sales business and how I think there was a little bit of concern about that, maybe having a negative impact on my sales business and how it might be, I might be reflected, um, in the community.

[38:38] But I would say overall, the experience, the knowledge I’ve gained has been, uh, tremendous for, uh, for my business. And I think that it really helps me understand the, the, my, my product that I’m selling a lot better. And I have a better knowledge of the fixes for things. Um, and like, I try to approach a buyer, like, uh, we’re going through the house and I’m trying to say, this is probably something that’s going to come from the home inspection. This is why this is usually the fix for it. Um, and that helps set expectations for the home inspection so that when the home inspection happens, we’re not blindsided. And I think that that builds trust with my clients. Um, they think that I am an expert in my field and that they, I gotcha and that they, um, that they, that they, uh, are then again, not blindsided at the home inspection.

[39:35] And so that we can go in as much as possible, go into the deal, uh, with eyes wide open so that when the home inspection comes around, we kind of have game plan already. Of course, there’s going to be new things found. I’m not an inspector. I’m not going to say that I’m an inspector. Um, but we’re, you know, more, I think the chances of moving forward are much higher, uh, with the frame of reference. And there could be houses that we’re just not going to put a contract on because of those items that I’m, you know, I think are going to be a big deal. Um, so that’s been really helpful in my business. And then it also helps to be able to prepare a home, uh, to see how things could be a little bit more marketable with a small change, what a fresh paint job does for a house.

[40:15] Um, all those things and having the contacts to help sellers get their house ready for the market, I think is another way that it’s been a huge boost. Um, so if you’re an agent considering doing any kind of investing, uh, I would highly recommend it. I mean, I think it’s, we are in a business that has ebbs and flows. We, you know, cashflow can make things a little bit more normalized. Um, and it can be a good retirement savings since we don’t have any matching 401ks or anything like that either. It could be the gold is, you know, let’s, let’s cover our mortgage. Let’s cover our mortgage. And let’s, then let’s cover our insurance costs. Um, cause all those things, you know, really can eat up your savings account.

[40:57] If you don’t have any big sales or any, uh, if you have a really slow six months and taxes and, you know, commission split resets, all that kind of stuff can really make this business hard. Um, as an agent, as a person who doesn’t get a regular every two week salary. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[41:18] Yeah. I can already tell there, there are quite a few things that will probably tease out even more in upcoming podcasts too. And as we talk with our guests, um, you have a wealth of information to share. And so thank you for joining today and helping us get to know you a little bit better. It’s been fun. Thanks for, thanks for having me. Yeah.

[41:40] Thanks for listening to the wealthy investor podcast, where we talk about wealth and holistic health. If you enjoy our content, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and hear new episodes every Thursday. If you really like our content, you can follow us on social media at the wealthy investor wealthy spell W E L L T H Y.