Game-Changing Masterclass in Unlikely Investment Strategies and Circumstances with Brandon Elliott

[0:00] Welcome to the REI Agent, a holistic approach to life through real estate. I’m Matthias, an agent and investor. And I’m Erica, a licensed therapist. Join us as we interview guests that also strive to live bold and fulfilled lives through business and real estate investing. Tune in every week for interviews with real estate agents and investors. Ready to level up? Let’s do it.

[0:24] Welcome back to the REI Agent again, no longer the wealthy investor. So yeah, guys, today we have an awesome guest, Brandon Elliott out of San Diego. He had this, yeah, we’ll let him get into it, but he comes from a background where, you know, most people wouldn’t expect him to be successful. He was very creative in the way he became successful in real estate. And we will let him explain some of the strategies. And he’s got some resources now that he provides people as well to let you have that same success. Some of the stuff seems too good to be true. When you hear it, if you’re not familiar with this world of real estate investing, but guys, that belief itself, of course, you need to be wary of scams.

[1:08] There are scams out there. But in real estate, there’s often these really cool things that if you familiarize yourself with these strategies enough, like you hear the Burr strategy repeated a bunch of times, if you hear that enough and you start understanding why it works, I mean, I think that’s a key thing to understanding, you know, how to protect yourself from getting scammed is to understand how this actually works. If you don’t understand how something works, you probably shouldn’t put your money in it or you shouldn’t put your name on the line that will have that risk. Because really what he’s doing, what he’s talking about is really not putting any money into buying real estate and then owning real estate free and clear.

[1:50] Not free and clear. There’s a mortgage on it that a lender, a tenant will pay eventually, but you don’t have to actually put money down to buy that real estate. So it is an interesting, fascinating strategy. And again, guys, if you think everything is too good to be true, you probably won’t get anywhere. Just do your research when you hear something that’s really interesting like this and see if indeed it is too good to be true or something that you could actually pull off and this is a prime example of the BRRRR strategy. Google it. There’s BiggerPockets episodes. We’ve talked about it multiple times. I’ve done it multiple times successfully. And it’s just a magic trick. And what that is, is basically you buy a house that needs work to be done on it at a discount because of that work that needs to be done.

[2:39] You renovate that house. Instead of selling it like a flip, you refinance that money out that you put into it initially. That leaves you with just a mortgage and not a down payment because the equity that you would have realized in a sale as your profit from a flip is now your equity in the deal. And then you rent it out and somebody pays for the mortgage that’s on it. You only do this if you can cash flow at the end of the day. And that cash flow. So now you have a rent income producing property. And that is the BRRRR strategy wrapped up in a fine little box. Hopefully that makes sense. A little bit about our personal life. We have a sick kid at home right now. And it was the first day of our daycare.

[3:24] We have them in a university early child program, which is awesome. Super great. But one of our kids, it was the first time they went there. The other kid went there and was not acting right. Ended up having a fever. Threw up on the way home. And so we have that going on in the house. Yay. That’s why Erica’s not with us today. I just got back from a CrossFit competition this past weekend where I didn’t feel quite right. I’m wondering if this was kind of going on in the background a little bit. I just didn’t have quite the same level that I normally do. And so it was unfortunate. I pushed through it. I didn’t do horrible. We got ninth out of like 12th place. My partner was much better than me and would have been normally anyway.

[4:16] I’m not saying that she was better than me. And CrossFit has been doing it for a while. It’s a great gymnast, all that kind of stuff. Really strong. But we had fun. I learned some things about competing. We competed against some crazy people, including somebody who was wearing shorts that indicated their number when they were competing in the games. Which is, if you’re not familiar with CrossFit, that’s like the Olympics of CrossFit. So we were competing against some really good people. So we might have done a little bit better had I been in a little bit better form. Working together is always an interesting thing. So there’s different transitions that you got to get down pat and all that kind of stuff, which we did.

[5:00] We planned pretty well. We, you know, for the most part, we did a really good job thinking ahead since we were familiar with each other at the gym and how we operate and what our strengths are, et cetera. But yeah, so that was a lot of fun. That was in Richmond. Super fit games, if anybody is a CrossFit person in Virginia. But yeah, so without further ado, more importantly than CrossFit. Mark my words, I actually said that. We have Brandon Elliott, who is, you know, again, got a really interesting story about how you can get access to capital to fund these kind of deals. And that is often the barrier of entry to most people. People that want to get into real estate, they say they can’t because they don’t have the money.

[5:43] Or they want to do it one day when they have the money. But this, he explains how he did it and how he got started without money. So listen to this one, guys. It is legitimate. You may have different risk tolerances than he does, and that’s valid. But within it, you don’t have to do everything in playbook that he does. But understand the concepts behind it, like the Burr strategy. And you start realizing that money is kind of a game. Real estate is kind of a game. And you need to be very smart about it. But if you play your cards right, you can do some really fun things like the Burr strategy, where you ultimately build a nice rental portfolio without actually investing your own money in it long term.

[6:28] So without further ado, we have Brandon Elliott.

[6:34] Welcome to the REI agent, also kind of formerly known as the wealthy investor. Like we talked about last episode, we are going through a transition here. This is going to be an investing more special. We are here with Brandon Elliott. Brandon, thanks so much for being here. You’re out of San Diego. Is that right? Yes, sir. How are we doing today? We’re doing great. And look at him. He is the perfect example of holistic health. He is getting his steps in while he’s in this podcast. I love it. Like the poster child for it now, right? One day, one day. Now, Brandon has a really interesting kind of niche or your story of getting into investing in real estate is really interesting. So can you give us that airplane pitch or elevator pitch is, I guess, what it’s called?

[7:26] For sure. Yeah. So I grew up American poor, if you will. Right. Like very blessed. Grew up in New Jersey. Single parent mother. She’s diagnosed manic depressive bipolar. You know, money was the biggest issue in our household. I met my father when I was 18 years old in court so he could stop paying child support. Wow. And so at the end of the day, we grew up on food stamps, Section 8 housing, and help from local schools and local churches. And so money was a big thing in my household that we needed. At age nine, I was trying to get my first job. At age 12, I actually got my first job. And so long and behold, I fell in love with real estate because in 2011, 2012, I was working for a real estate company.

[8:14] I was doing door-to-door sales for Kirby vacuum cleaners, actually. Okay. Well, for about a year. Okay. And I knocked on the right door and I got recruited into an investment company. Okay. And they taught me a lot, you know. They taught me, like, I got a little bit of education. I got a hell of a lot more motivation. Yeah. And that’s when I just went down this rabbit hole of figuring out real estate books, podcasts, just like this, YouTube, and local RIA groups. I started soaking up that information for two full years, four hours every single day. Like, no exaggeration, no BS. Yeah. Two full years, four hours a day. And that’s when I realized after trying to get started here in San Diego for those two years, it wasn’t working.

[9:02] I kept on getting beat out by real investors. Stuff that I do now, all cash, no contingencies. Right. I started looking in some other states. Eventually, I found Ohio. And I fell in love with the BRRRR strategy, personally. Yeah. BRRRR strategy is great. I do want to ask you a question quick, though. I mean, we hear all the time about family patterns. That can be, you know, mental. Like, you know, like, you’re like, how the way you see things, your outlook on life, that kind of stuff. And I know that oftentimes, like, poverty can also kind of be a family pattern. And so, I mean, was there a – what got you to break through that? I mean, what got you to really invest in the education you’ve got with this real estate investing group?

[9:46] And, yeah, how did you, like, not just like, ah, that’s just for the rich people or something? You know, it could have been easily to write off, I’m sure, right? For sure. Yeah. That’s so good. It’s a really good question. What’s funny behind that is, like, when the ultimate real estate crash happened in 2008, I was graduating high school. Like, I was of the age that I should probably start acknowledging or realizing, like, oh, something’s happening. Right. What’s funny enough is, like, in my area, in my circle of influence, like, had no idea. Like, clueless. You know, I didn’t realize any of that stuff because it really didn’t affect, you know, the – That age, yeah. Yeah, that age or that poor level.

[10:27] It’s like, you know, it just – it didn’t even make sense. So, I definitely believe there was, you know, and still fighting a generational curse of, you know, poverty and poor mindset. What has helped me the most is kind of constantly investing in myself over the years, I would say, constantly investing in myself and not allowing money to be over my head, like, playing me like a puppet. But instead, me putting money beneath me and using it as more of a controlling piece, putting it to work. A tool. Yeah, as a tool. What I would say, though, is at a very young age, something that kind of, like, made me change a little bit was – You know how, like, when you’re young, you want something from your parents and you’re, like, begging them, like, a little pesky son of a gun, you know?

[11:20] And so, some of my friends, they had quads and dirt bikes. And I was like, hey, mom, I want a quad. I want a quad. And I just kept on, you know, going up to her and asking that for years. Yeah. And at first, she was always like, no, no, like, no, you know, you’re crazy. Get out of here. And then eventually, you could tell, you know, one day, like, she just had, like, pain in her, like, her face of, like, I can’t do it. The reason I’m saying no is that, like, I would love to, but I can’t afford that. It’s not going to happen. And at that young age, that’s when I realized, like, everything shifts, like, if it’s meant to be, it’s going to be up to me type of philosophy. Like, I had to put that on my own shoulders, anything that I want in life.

[12:02] I can’t rely on other people. There’s not going to be any, like, handouts. Like, I have to work hard to be able to get it myself. That’s the lesson right there. Wow, that’s amazing because, I mean, that’s – when you start – when you stop pushing your results on other people on the outside and you start just accepting that, that’s – I mean, I feel like it’s a fundamental path to whatever you want. And I think – and again, like, you talked about money as a tool. Like, it’s just another thing to get good at. It’s, I mean, it’s kind of a game. And, I mean, shoot, what you did with credit cards, I mean, I think is case in point. So, talk about that a little bit more. Yeah, so I definitely agree. I think it’s just like a game.

[12:44] I think – I always call it, like, real-life monopoly. Yeah. See, the banks – we put all of our money in the hands of the banks and they give us how much percent back last year. You know, like, you know, next to nothing. It’s 0.00% basically. You know. It’s just going down value. Yeah, yeah. And then what’s funny, though, is that they are actually lending it back out to us for personal loans, auto loans, student loans, mortgages, you know, credit cards. And they’re getting anywhere from 500% to 3,000% nine times over. Wow. They’re doing it nine times over back to us and they’re getting 500 to 3,000%. That’s a lot of bucks. Yeah. And so, you know, what’s cool is you can actually just follow what the rich do, like what the 1%ers do, where the money goes, right?

[13:37] What the banks do. And when you start realizing that, you can actually flip the script on the banks. You can do exactly the same thing. You can get 0% funding from them anywhere from six months to 22 months. And on average, about 18 months. That’s exactly what I did and what I constantly do and what we teach in Credit Accounts Elite. And so at the end of the day, I was able to get several hundred thousand in new credit lines, 0%. And I was able to buy real estate with this money off credit cards. Afterwards, I completed the renovation with credit cards because, again, I’m doing the BRRRR strategy, which is buy, renovate, rent, refinance, repeat. So I don’t have any money in any of my deals, which is great.

[14:22] I’ve got it all back. Get tax benefits. I get the appreciation. I get the cash flow. But I utilize credit cards to do all of it because, again, I grew up poor. I had very limited beliefs around money when I first got started. I didn’t think I didn’t even know it was possible that anybody in this world would actually lend any money to me. You know, like it wouldn’t even make sense. I was shocked that the banks were actually giving me these huge credit lines. And I was just saying all the right things, doing all the right things and positioning myself right. Mistakenly, a lot of it. But after I started going down that rabbit hole for the two years of education, it wasn’t just books, podcasts, YouTube on real estate.

[15:06] It was also credit and financing and how to actually get this funding from the banks because that was the only option that I really had that I believed at the time to be able to get started in real estate. Okay. So, all right, let’s break this down a little bit. Yeah. You’re buying places in Ohio. Sure. Those are, I mean, often in certain places of Ohio, they’re a lot cheaper than certainly San Diego. That’s right. For sure. Yes, sir. Like what were your prices when you were buying? Okay, dude. So, my very first, yeah, my very first property, this was back in 2015. My very first property, it was a single family house beat up from the feet up in a bad area. I bought it for $9,000 cash. Oh, my gosh.

[15:52] Wow. Okay. Yes. And then I put $35,000 into it, maybe $40,000. And I refinanced it, appraised at $60,000. I got all my money back. Okay. And it rents out for, so the mortgage is a couple hundred bucks. It rents out for about $1,200 a month. Okay. So, you funded that, the renovations and the purchase through credit cards? Yes. And is that like a cash advance kind of scenario? Yeah, it’s a great question. So, basically in the bank’s eyes, they are going, the easiest lingo for them to understand this is either a balance transfer or a cash advance, but at the promotional rate of 0%. Okay. And that’s the key thing you’re looking for is that 0%. That is the key thing. Otherwise, you’re going to be paying mafia rates.

[16:39] Right. You know, you don’t want that. That’s real good. Let me put my Dave Ramsey hat on for a second. Yeah. Exactly.

[16:47] No, that’s amazing. So, you didn’t have to have, I mean, you would have to have then a six-month seasoning period, right? To, even if you got the flip done faster, to refinance the money out, was that a requirement at the time as well? Yeah, it was six months. The good part is, see, I actually made, even though I read all the books, all the podcasts, like I knew what not to do. I made all the mistakes when it comes down to contract. I went through five contractors. It took a full year. I made every mistake. And even though I was paying with credit cards, sometimes I was liquidating the cards into cash and then paying them cash. And I was like, oh, I shouldn’t do that, you know, because they ran off with my money.

[17:28] So, luckily, I bought a triplex exactly two months after I bought the first one. And so, that one ended up producing a lot faster for me. And it really, it showed me the power of multifamily, like multiple doors. And it showed me cash flow stronger. It was less headache that I needed to deal with. And so, that actually saved me on the first one. Okay. So, the first one didn’t go smoothly, but you had a good one to help you smooth it out. Correct. What did it feel like when you pulled it off? Like, I mean, everybody like has like, people can read all they want and they can have analysis paralysis until you actually hit the road. And especially doing something like you’re talking about, it just feels like a magic trick.

[18:15] Having gone through BRRRR strategies myself, not with credit cards. Like, how did it feel? It felt amazing, but it was also just like naive and ignorance. Like, just truthfully, I didn’t know anybody would give me time or like I didn’t know about mentors at the time. Again, I grew up like very poor mindset. And so, I was working restaurant jobs. I was saving up as much as I could, but I also made tons of mistakes because I used to be a big pothead back in the day. So, I had an explosion in my apartment making hash oil, you know, like. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Like, I was on fire. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I was induced into a coma for a full week. I burnt 40% of my body and I had to learn how to walk again.

[19:01] And then I got court charges pending on me. I ended up receiving two felonies and a misdemeanor and house arrest. So, that was like the pivotal point that I needed to not just like a slap on the wrist. I needed to literally blow myself up for me to realize like, hey, enough is enough. I need to get on the right track. And so, it felt really good being able to pull these deals off because then I, it was a proof of concept. I pulled off two deals. The very next year, I ended up doing six deals. Okay. You know, and I just started running with it and it worked. So, that incident, was that before you started this, going down this rabbit hole? Had you already been listening to stuff or how’s that fit in the timeline?

[19:46] Yeah, that’s a good question. So, I was working at that company and for about six months and the company started falling apart. We were focusing on NODs at the time, notice of defaults and like foreclosures, pre-foreclosure, right? Yeah. The company, I got to see a lot more motivation because there was a lot of impact we were making. There was a lot of money being made in the company. There was like systems. I’ve never seen that. Right. You know, but they weren’t giving as much education. So, I had to go on my own rabbit hole. But the motivation was more than enough because there was a lot of money coming in. There started being some management issues and frustration on that end. So, it started kind of falling apart on its own.

[20:30] And once I left there, then I just went running into as much credit and real estate stuff that I could. The education part. The education part. And then 2013, September 24th, 2013 is when I had the explosion in my apartment. Man. Yeah. Very stupid. Oh, but yeah. So, what did that teach you? I mean, obviously, you said that was a huge turning point. Yeah. For my personality type, I needed like if I would have just got a little arrested or a little slap on the wrist, like nothing would have changed for me. I literally needed this huge timeout. Well, I needed the courts ended up assigning me a mentor. Like that was incredible. It was the first time that I actually had a male guidance, male figure that actually believed in me and like sat down with me and spent time.

[21:23] That’s great. You know, gave a damn about my success. And so, that was, you know, imperative as well. Like it was super impactful. Even just the knowing that that’s an important thing to have or a good thing to have. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t know it. I didn’t know what I was missing out on. Like you don’t know what you don’t have. And so, once I started getting these things and just realizing like, man, all my goals were in the wrong area, the wrong track, you know, like. And so, once I got on the right track, then, and then this real estate thing started actually making sense and it was working. Then, I started doing more and more of it. And then, I started like, I was excited, you know, like I was doing more networking and more networking.

[22:09] Everybody, I realized everybody was shocked. They were all giving me that look in person like, oh, you did it with credit cards? Like you’re still working in restaurants, but you did it with credit cards? How did you do that? And I realized, I acknowledge that everybody wants to be in real estate in some form or fashion. Like they like the idea of getting cash flow and they’ve heard it’s good. But they typically put it on a back burner because of money. Right. Yeah. You know, they think they need a ton of money first. So, they always say, okay, well, once I get money from this thing over here, then eventually, whenever that comes to fruition, hopefully, then I will jump into real estate. And I was looking at them like, well, what if that doesn’t work out?

[22:51] And what if that takes three, four, five, ten years? What if you lose hope? What if you never do real estate? Like real estate changed my life quickly. Yeah. Really quickly. Credit was the catalyst to do it, but real estate was like the thing. And so, I was just looking at it like, man, I’m not the high IQ. I grew up in special ed, you know, when I was younger. So, it’s like, if I can do it, I know you can do it. You just didn’t think about credit cards because we grew up with this stigma against credit cards. Like, credit cards are bad for you. And you should only have two cards or, you know, one, a third for a backup or whatever it may be. But when you can actually utilize the bank’s money at zero percent, leverage it properly, be a good steward of it, just as if you were borrowing it from grandma.

[23:37] Right. You know, then you can actually put it to work and flip the script on the banks. Well, and how you also had to have some, you know, confidence in the deals you were investing in. I mean, that’s really the key here. Like, so, if you find a property that you believe, you know, is worth one third of its value and it doesn’t even need another third to get it to its value, I mean, that’s where a lot of this magic happens. So, I mean, what were you doing to analyze deals? I mean, you said you made mistakes in the beginning. I could imagine the analysis could have been a hard thing to learn as well. What did that look like? Yeah, I think a couple pieces here. One is Ohio is very cheap, like you mentioned originally.

[24:19] So, when I was originally, for two full years, I was looking here in San Diego, I literally put in 30 to almost 40 contracts, you know, like offers, and I kept on getting beat out. And so, just looking at those numbers versus the numbers over in Ohio, it was just a big difference. And so, it made me feel better first because it’s different numbers, right? Right. And then second, I was also, it’s part of my personality of like, I just, I want to go. Like, and two full years doing it four hours a day, it started driving me crazy, honestly. And submitting all those offers, I was like, man, I’d rather, like, I hear of all these people being very cautious and not want to make mistakes. And, like, eventually they do make mistakes.

[25:07] But I’m like, well, it must just be part of the process. I’d rather just, like, get into something sooner than later. Even if I screw up, hopefully I learn from it. But I’d rather do it now while I’m young and just, like, run through this thing. Because I need to do something. Yeah. Well, and, yeah, exactly. That’s amazing. And then also, the fact that you weren’t playing with hundreds of thousands of dollars at the first one is awesome, too. Because your mistake probably, I mean, it’s rarely a zero-sum game, right? Like, you’re, I think you said, like, you were at about 40-ish thousand with the repairs and everything. Maybe a little more. Yes. Yeah, it was all with credit cards, though. But, yeah, so that could have burnt you with the interest rate.

[25:48] But that’s also a lot more manageable than, like, $400,000. Yeah. Yeah, and it’s all, at the end of the day, like, over the last couple years, I’ve acknowledged that that’s all just a mindset. It’s all just a number. Yeah. A number is a number. You know, a number, that’s all it is. It’s a couple extra zeros. A couple extra commas, maybe. Like, the properties that we deal with now here in San Diego, they’re all a million plus. Yeah, right. You’re not getting away. Anything that’s good is not going to be less than a million out here. That’s just what it is. But the cool part is we can make extra zeros off of that. Like, we’re making a quarter million to half a million dollars on our flips. That’s amazing.

[26:28] It’s wild. Yeah, that’s awesome. And, yeah, you’re absolutely right. I guess the thing I was more getting at was, like, with getting into it, getting started, it probably was an easier barrier to step over. Yeah. But, yeah, so talk more. You said that you started with two that year and then you moved into six. So, talk about your scaling. Yeah, so basically I ended up, I think it was either four properties the very next year and then two or vice versa. But, yeah, just slowly one after another just started taking down more properties. Acknowledging that multifamily was really the, you know, single family, sorry, residential multifamily, like four units and under. That’s what I wanted, that’s what I really aligned with because easier financing and it just seemed like a no-brainer.

[27:23] It was just enough units that it was still, like, it was enough to still drive me crazy a little bit with contractors and get things done. Sure. Practicing and improving on my leadership skills, negotiating, like, all that stuff. It was a very pivotal moment in my life at that time to develop me as a character and really set me up for success. Yeah, that’s great. And you said something in there, too, that I was curious about. So, financing. So, once you did the refinance out, was it hard to get a mortgage at the beginning, especially if you weren’t making it as high of an income? Well, the cool part is that all those properties, they ended up, you know, the refinance was, ended up being a couple hundred dollars a month.

[28:12] So, I wasn’t, yeah, on paper, like, taxes-wise, I wasn’t doing that much because I was working, I think I was working, like, as a busser and then just a server at an Italian restaurant. And so, I wasn’t, you know, on paper, I think I was collecting maybe 30 or 40 grand a year here in San Diego. Like, it’s not that sexy, not that much. Right. But at the end of the day, I still qualified on paper for these mortgages that are just a couple hundred bucks. And then, you know, finally realizing, like, DSCR loans as well because I was able to, you know, they all cash flowed extremely well. You know, the mortgages are all very cheap. And then, you know, they all rent out for $1,000 plus. All right, we’re back.

[29:11] We had a little bit of technical difficulties. We actually switched platforms because it seemed like the platform server or something was down. It wasn’t letting us reconnect. So, sorry. You actually get to look at us both at the same time now. What an honor. I love it. Yeah, Brandon, what I was asking was, you know, sometimes if you do the burst strategy well, you actually, the value exceeds the amount you’ve owed. Yes. Plus the 20% or whatever. So, like, were you able to take advantage of that sometimes as well? Like, did you ever get more than what you owed on the credit cards or did you try to keep your debt minimum so it cash flowed more? Yeah, great question. So, most of them, I was, like, just able to get some of my money back, like, all my money back, which was great.

[29:57] And then there were a few that I actually had the opportunity to take out a little bit more, which was awesome as well. And so, in those particular situations, you definitely want to go for that because I know how to put the money to work stronger than just leaving it in there. You know, there’s different strategies when it comes down to investing. Somebody that’s younger and, like, has drive, I like to stay in as much good debt as possible. The key word there is good debt. Right. You don’t want to go buy $20,000 Gucci sweatshirts. You want to buy properties that cash flow. And so, I want to be in as much debt of that as I can. Sure. And then, you know, when I’m older and thinking about retiring, if I want to keep those properties, maybe at that point I’ll start paying them down, paying them off, or have life insurance cover it when I pass.

[30:53] Sure. And something that’s key there that you talked about is cash flow. So, I mean, it still had a cash flow for you to want to do that, right? Yes. Yeah. So, it’s all about cash flow. For me, that’s the big piece of it. But, of course, now I’m really interested in more tax savings as well and appreciation. But, like, Ohio, it doesn’t appreciate that well. But over in San Diego, I mean, my God, you should never bet on appreciation. But you can rest assured knowing that, you know, in a couple years, you’ll probably be taken care of. Yeah. No, it’s really true. And when you start looking at your return on equity, that’s where this really, really, really makes a big difference. So, currently, I have about $200,000 of equity in our first house.

[31:38] Just to give a little bit of perspective of my journey is we actually started off with a ton of student loans. And we decided to go down the Dave Ramsey plan to pay them off. And, you know, what you do and what you did and what he preaches is very different. It’s a different avatar. That’s all it is. And so, I’m not a huge fan as well. But that’s because I’m more aggressive and, like, and I like to invest. But it’s not for everybody. Somebody that doesn’t know financial literacy and constantly is spending their cards without thinking about it. Like, you need Dave Ramsey. Don’t come to me. I’ll mess it up with you. It’s like a finance 101, maybe. Like, it’s kind of a fail-safe. So, what you’re doing is a lot more, yeah, it’s not necessarily risky.

[32:27] Because, again, if you’re thinking about a property that is, like, worth one-third or you’re paying one-third of what it’s actually worth. I mean, it’s not, I mean, there’s risks involved, sure. But it’s not like you’re gambling. Yeah. Investing, there’s always some kind of level of risk. I like to lower my chances of risk. I also like to have multiple backup plans. So, instead of using your hard-earned, you know, money that you’ve saved up, use credit. You know, use your, you know, cash as a backup plan. Use credit. Get the protection. Get the points. I go on free vacations because of all those points. And then, also, you know, you can just set yourself up a little bit stronger using credit.

[33:11] Well, and just to go back real quick to that return on equity thing, too, which goes into the debt here. So, the place that I have, I put it on a 15-year mortgage again when we lived there. We kept it as a rental as we moved. Again, kind of in that Dave Ramsey mindset at the time. So, now we are sitting in a great position because it’s appreciated a ton and it’s been paid down by tenants a lot as well. So, we have about $200,000 of equity in this. And, mind you, we put like $7,000 into this place when we bought it. So, fantastic, right? Yeah. But, we’re cash flowing like $100 a month and that doesn’t really even factor in CapEx and vacancy and all the other things that you’re supposed to factor in.

[33:51] So, we’re really not like, it’s like a break even kind of thing. We get like $9,000 to $10,000 paid off a year in the debt and it’s going up in value. So, it’s still a good thing. But, if you take that money and you reinvest it somewhere else, I’m going to make a much better return. For example, I invested in a syndication where I’m making around 13% in so far in that. And so, that would be about $2,200 a month as opposed to basically break even. And I would have no hassle and nothing to do. I wouldn’t have to do anything with it. So, that’s why the good debt for you is good, right? I mean, you’re trying to maximize that so you can use that capital to cash flow better in other areas. Exactly.

[34:35] And, you know, I think you did everything right. I think there’s so many deals out there. There’s a couple things that could have been improved for next time. You know, that was your very first one, right? Yeah. Primary residency. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But, next time keeping, you know, the CapEx involved or vacancies or maintenance or, you know, all those additional things. Once you add up all that, you know, a lot of my mortgages over in Ohio, they’re like $200, $300, right? It’s crazy. Even my triplexes are rate about $500 and then $700. But they rent out for anywhere from $1,000 plus. And then the triplexes, they bring in about $2,500, $2,600 a month. So, you would think all that difference is cash flow.

[35:24] No, it’s not. There’s also vacancies, maintenance. There’s capital expenditures. Like, you have to prepare yourself for all those additional things. And then afterwards, you have that buffer. And so, if you can do that, have no money into it, and then you’re paying it off sooner, like, great. That’s awesome because maybe you don’t know what to do with the capital now. I would still invest in real estate because down the road, it’s always going to bless you in one form or fashion. Well, and so, in this circumstance, too, we did tap into the equity with credit lines. Actually, somehow, we were able to double down. Like, we have one line of credit on it, and then we got a second line of credit with multiple properties, including that one in it.

[36:04] I assume we had to pay off the first one, but we didn’t. Let’s go. See, banks, man. Banks. If you find the right ones, they can really be serving for you. I love it. And then, you’ve probably done this. Did you ever start going to the banks now that you’ve gotten a little bit more experience? You’re probably more friendly to banks as far as your net worth, your income, all that kind of stuff. Have you gone in and done the, like, where you buy the property and they finance more than what you’re paying for it? So, you actually get a check at settlement that you can use to fund the deal? Yeah. And so, the best part about real estate is you can get very savvy with these business bank relationship managers, but when you know how to talk to the banks properly and set yourself up for success, like, the banks want to lend to you.

[36:52] That’s their job, right? A lot of people get very defensive and pissed off with these banks because they’re getting denied or low limits or whatever it may be. When you understand how these banks and lenders are judging you so you know how to fit yourself within the box of lending that they’re trying to put you in, then afterwards, you can really, like, open up the floodgates on yourself and get a ton of funding in so many different ways. But working with certain wealth management, you know, business bank relationship managers, they’re some of the key pieces that will actually, it’ll be the breaking point for sure. Absolutely. That’s so true. And getting that experience, I think, is probably a key thing, right?

[37:34] Like, you can’t start there if you haven’t done some of these projects before because they do see it as a risk. If you have experience or you have a partner that has experience, it probably helps a lot. Yeah. The cool thing is within Credit Accounts Elite, we have resources and contacts that we’ve worked our butts off to be able to get. Awesome. And so it really doesn’t matter if you’re 18 years old or 70 years old or have no job at all or you’re Warren Buffett. You know, like, utilizing our resources, our business bank relationship managers, our connections, you know, we can damn near, you know, promise you, basically, that you can be set up to get up to $150,000 with Chase, up to $250,000 with American Express, up to $150,000 with U.S. Bank.

[38:21] $50,000 with Bank of America. I mean, the list goes on. So those resources are really beneficial and it doesn’t, the connection who’s, like, introducing and making those, that’s a big deal versus you doing it all by yourself for the very first time. Like you said, they’re going to look at you as a high risk. Yeah. And, guys, if you’re hearing this and you’re doubting it or you have some concerns, like, this is where sometimes that analysis paralysis, you know, takes over. Like, it’s, there are things out there like this that make real estate feel like a magic trick. Like, like, walking away from a closing with a check and said that you, that you bought a house and you received money at the closing instead of having to give money.

[39:08] Like, that stuff happens. So, like, listen to people like this. If you’re having doubts, like, like, this is how you, if you don’t take the step, if you don’t jump in, like, you’re never going to learn that it can be that easy. It’s not just a scam or whatever. So, yeah, tell us more about your program and how do people find it? Yeah. So, at Credit Council Elite, we really focus on working with business owners and just individuals nationwide that are looking to take their business to the next level. Diversify, start, grow, scale. So, if you’re a business owner nationwide looking for up to $500,000 in new capital, we can show you how to do it every six months repeated per person. And getting interest rates as low as 0%.

[39:53] So, at the end of the day, you can get a bunch of funding like this, not just credit cards, but also lines of credit. Really, any products and services that these banks offer, we can show you how to get a 90% approval odds. And afterwards, taking this information, not just being able to get the education, but fix credit quickly, how to be able to boost up your score, get to the 800 club, stay there, get the best rates, business credit, personal credit, liquidating the cards into cash, and then travel hacking, infinite banking structures, really putting the money to work. And so, that’s what we like to focus on at Credit Council Elite. That’s awesome. Yeah. And so, if they Google that, that would be the website, I imagine?

[40:38] Yeah, creditcountselylite.com. We have a 10-minute video on there that explains more in detail what the heck I’m talking about here. Also, we’ve done some, like, webinar trainings for, like, two hours that break down a lot of education on this and shows how this is even possible. So, if that feels like a good fit for you guys, by all means, steal that education. And then you can always sit down and book a free consultation with either myself or somebody on our team for about 45 minutes to just go over where you’re currently at, where you’re looking to go, and how to be able to position yourself to get there. Okay. And are you on social media? Can people follow you on, like, Instagram or anything like that?

[41:19] Yeah, yeah. So, on Instagram, check out our business page. It’s creditcountselylite. Otherwise, my personal page is brandonelliotinvestments. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. And before we let you go, we have to ask you your favorite book. If you have a book that’s been, like, pivotal for you in your foundation or one that you just really liked right now. Do you have one that comes to mind? There is a bunch. I love reading at this point. So, I love this question. It’s hard for me to pick just one. But this one right here, I would say, is really awesome for infinite banking and kind of understanding. So, what would the Rockefellers do? It’s a great book. There’s another one, though, that I read recently.

[42:06] 10X is easier than 2X. Mm-hmm. And so, that really started challenging my mindset of, like, you know, every year we just keep on doubling, which is great. But I was like, hey, guys, like, how do we actually take this to the next level? Like, how do we work smarter versus harder? And once you start writing it all out and seeing, hey, we’re not going to accept 2X. How do we actually do this 10X thing? It was pretty eye-opening to see everybody just start getting creative of, like, oh, yeah, well, we wouldn’t do these little things that we were going to do. Let’s do these higher-level stuff and see how we can outsource it and, you know, elevate and delegate. That’s awesome. I have that one on the list.

[42:48] I haven’t read it yet. And I am also looking at the WhoNotHow, I think, is the same authors, right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. It’s a great one, too. Yeah. I love it. That’s awesome. Thank you so much for this really inspiring conversation. Again, guys, can I repeat this again? If you’re hearing information like this, it seems too good to be true. This is one of the circumstances that it’s not. Real estate is one of those things that you can really take advantage of money in the banks because banks like real estate. I mean, real estate has historically gone up in value, right? There have been crashes, et cetera. But historically, it goes up in value. And it’s a hedge against inflation. All these reasons why it’s good.

[43:28] And that’s why I think, you know, credit cards aside, like banks want to lend to real estate, to people that are savvy with it. So this is the magical world out there. Brandon Elliott, thank you so much for being on the podcast and teaching us about your strategies. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. Had a lot of fun, man. Thanks. Thanks for listening to the REI Agent. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week. Visit REIAgent.com for more content. Until next time, keep building the life you want. All content in the show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.