“BRRRRing” His Way to Financial Independence EVEN in a Tough Housing Market
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Today's guest is proving that the bird strategy by rehab rent refinanced repeat still works even in today's chAllenging market with a nap for finding value in unexpected places and the determination to keep growing despite rising rates. You're scaling their portfolio one property at time, ready to find out how they're pulling IT off. This is the real state rooky podcast. I'm actually care and i'm here with tony j.

Robinson and walk into the podcast where every week, three times a week, we're going you the inspiration, motivation and stories you need to hear to kick out your investing journey. So today we are going to discuss, first, finding a real estate strategy that works for you. Number two, building slowly to hit financial dependence. And finally, how to pivot your porfolio based on the market here. And so today, i'd love to welcome, I was really .

drew .

interview, state what what even kind of pete, that intial interest to say, hey, this is what, this is what I want to do with my extra time.

money and energy. So initially, ally, when I got in the real state, I was a firefighter at the time, working uh, locally in the area here. And now I got in the stock market first and I got in the stocks and we got into with a group guys at work and uh we are started trading of options and we really got into IT uh, for about year and then my tex account was like, there's a lot of work for not a lot of money and I was like, yeah, now my i'll sit in from the computer when the bell rings and then IT rings again and I i've been in from the computer all day in stocks wow.

Your cpa really called you out there .

yeah sounds like all right I need to find some some malls to do that to build some wealth here the stocks you know we're fun what lasted um and I have some long term stocks which is which are great. But I started getting involved in real thing because I heard some people talking about IT. My father still owned his initial duplex from all your kids in rop in.

So I knew like there is money be made and you know people people were doing IT, but I just didn't know how I was kind of scary because I only had only ever bought my personal property. So um you know I just started getting involved. I online, I started watching videos.

S just I had learned about the stock market. You know I found a bigger pockets online. I started joining. I went through the forms. I was able to ask questions and learn um you know then I joined to became a remember because I saw like the calculator functions in a couple the other added features that I was like this is really good to be with like analyze deals and see uh virtually uh so that was really nice.

Carol, i'm interested as to what initially drove to choose the birth strategy over any .

other investment strategy. Fl me by accident, basically. So on my first deal, um I had found just by asking and we had found a family member who was sitting on a property um through my wife side who basically didn't want to take care with anymore but he wanted to remain in the garage space that he occupied um who just get an old tired landlord syndrome pretty much and uh so that's kind of how we fell into our first property, got a under market deal and the birth strake accidently happened because we basically renovated IT because that's how I wanted to make IT.

We wanted to high quality and we renovated like one of the units and we upgraded the furnace system. And then just as race were starting us, uh, creep up. I had met with a local investor as I was learning as the beginning of my journey. I didn't really know a lot, but I had, you know, study bigger pockets and things that I learned and he told me, you know, you should cash out, refine and pull the cash you sunk into the deal and get IT back out and I was like, oh, I I should okay, so I cashed out refight. Um that four point five percent uh just as the rates were crepin back up, I wish I did IT like sooner, but was able to pull most of all the cash um a little more out of that deal um that that we required to put down using an investment law, which was twenty percent at the time, before I knew any creative financing.

Anything like that. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what the birth strategy is as exactly if someone else was going to follow the .

same strategy with the birth strategy is basically, you want to figure out of property, you gonna buy, you want to buy that property and then you want to read the property. So uh this property was older um and had good bones, but I was older. So we had rehab the property to increase the value.

Um so then by increasing the value, we were able to refinance the property. And then uh the last step, I believe, is to repeat and just continue doing that. Um but you need to find those distress properties, of course, to be get that value add, to be able to read them and then refinance them and be able able to pull the cash out and hopefully you know an answer more by adding that value to them.

So that was definitely a surprise entry into a realist for you. I'm assuming after that deal happened, do you were addicted to the birth strategy?

Yeah we just addicted the real state in general like I just started learning more and you know seeing the cash flow come in was nice and then you start managing all the finances and the expenses um you know and then I had inherited those tenants so was like knowing, you know I got cash flow coming into the deal, which was great.

But then I was managing ing those tenants, putting them under leases, realizing that I didn't take as much information in the beginning as I should have. Um but yeah from then I just continued that process and then I took me a little wild to analyze a couple of their deals and to find um some value in some in the market that were in because you know IT was creeping up at that time after covet Prices were going crazy. This is back in twenty twenty one um so I got a little more creative and like couple of deals end up finding after work from my taxi lists um and no other place as I find that could add value. Just know even I am out less to, but you gotta really stay focused .

on looking what was your end goal of really thing? Did you have an exit strategy in mind? Kind of what did you want to get out of IT? sure. yes.

I think for my exit strategy in real, um I didn't really know what I had in mind. But in the beginning, taking on the long term tenants, I think my electrical team was just long term runnels like everyone else was was being land lords and doing IT. And IT seems simple. You get up on one year leases. You don't have to worry about him. So they said, and uh you know I just was like, wow, that seems so simple but but then I soon soon realized that like work came of involved with that and lots of IT know of course um you know that's why if if IT was so easy, everyone we would be doing IT right but um you know that's that's where I slowly ended up rotating from the long term running to the short term runner and with mid .

term rental between kind of is a few steps of the bird getting into the management side, which is the later part of that burr equation. But I want to go back to that first part, the buying coral, because, again, like I said, there is a lot of folks who understand the value in the birth strategy. But in order to make the bird work, you actually have to buy a really, really good deal. So you briefly mentioned some of the different strategies of you that you've used. But I guess what what's working today to find good .

deals that still work with the birth after got the ball rolling and got the addiction started. And so like the next day, I ended up finding happen to be an mls and that didn't happen for a while. IT took probably took through yeah three years of just looking and trying to figure out like different strategies.

And during those three years, you know there was a couple other partnership deals, and I was an lp in this syndication. But as far as getting my own deal, I was still looking for that. And while I was doing that, I was diversifying and I was also doubling down on the property. I hadn't stabilizing IT, creating more out of IT. I think that's what a lot of people forget to do is why you're looking for deals.

Focus on what you currently if you have one deal or maybe you have a home with an empty room minute, you know focus on maybe making an empty room or anything in out or have an arb and beer something and really stabilizing or double downing what you have currently instead of chasing what you're looking for and then wasting like all that time. But so while I did that, I was stabilizing and crazy more cash flow. And then I was also using redfin on M L S.

And really just looking at the markets that I wanted in the areas and setting kind of my byo x of small multi family single homes are even single families under this Price. And so I get emails every morning and I would check them, and I would see houses that started to a certain ones. And you wonder why, right? So then I go walk those houses and I see what they needed, some needed extensive innovation that I didn't know how is going to take down.

So those I put in low offers, but I still take action, right? I was always putting in offers like um even if they were low because you don't know if you don't ask and that my whole career taught me that with a doing sales earlier on and even little state. So if you don't know, you don't ask.

If you don't ask, you don't know. Um and when I saw this one property, M L S IT started out like two fifty or two forty um I think and so from there ahead of Price drop. And then I saw a drop under two hundred, and that's kind of when I really learned me because I was like that area under two hundred.

There's not a lot that has been unm. L S, sold under two hundred. Let me go. Walked the property immediately.

So we went, we walked IT and IT needed rehab, and I probably needed more than like I saw. But I was like, I can take this down, like i'll figure IT out, like i'll make this work. And so we put an offer at asking was at one eighty five at the time. And I was just worried that someone was going to a like scooped up because Normally that what happened, someone else has been able scoop to deal for me. So, uh, this was an area closer to me, a little father from the central area.

So I think what helped me really what this deal was, I was off to be in path purse, was I was investing where everyone else was investing, right? I was looking at other markets that were in my area, but I think the focus was taken from them because they weren't in heavily populated areas. Uh, so we walked in and we end up getting under contract for one eighty five. We just came in at asking for that one. So um just by taking action consistently, that's I guess what ended a bleeding to that .

for that next deal. Yeah 2， i think that's a great point as to how you're finding the deal is taking that consistent action. But you mention making lobby offers, not being afraid to actually make those offers on properties and also continuously looking at the eels like you're constantly looking for deals.

But also where that value at is could you add a third bedroom room? Uh, what can you make of IT? I just saw property today on that.

And alas, and as soon as you were talking about that, I thought of IT, it's a two bedroom, one bath, but it's twelve hundred square feet, and there's gotta be room for a third bedroom in there somewhere. Maybe you're taking one huge body room cutting in IT to two. Maybe there's actually two living room and there you can make another first poor bedroom.

So I think that's great advice as to how you're making or how you're finding those deals is by looking for properties that have added value, making those low ball offers, but consistently, you know, taking action and actually looking at deals altogether and taking the time to go through them. Rockies, we want to hit one hundred k subscribers on youtube, and we need your help while we take a quick at break. You can go over to youtube that com slash at a real state rookie and make sure you subscribed to the channel. Stay tuned after a break for more from coral.

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our guys welcome back to the show where we're .

joined to buy carl before we go any further. Carl, what is your purpose? Lio right now? What how many deals have you done?

What does that look like? I have a three family and IT has a like big is on IT as well. So we actually went those out for storage um or anything between really they just can't run a business out of them. And then after that ended up, uh, getting into a syndication as an L P or currently i'm still L P in that syndication and that's out in indian EV.

Can you just explain your quick with an p is in the syndication? Just super brief overview.

It's a limited partner. So basically there's G P S and L P S. G P of the general partners um which basically run the deal and L P S are more of the passive side. We're just the investors, right we just come with at a uh amount of money into the deal.

So there's multiple of us I spy thirty or forty of L P S involved in that deal um and that allows the GPS who are running IT to take down these large deals. But then all the L P S get uh huge benefit for being an investor. It's almost like buying a sharing a stock kind of what I like telling people.

And then the rest of your portfolio .

there is the three family this indication and then this as of this year, we finally ended up getting um a single family on their contract, which are currently renovating. And we're going to make an airbnb. We're also going to do some insurance housing out of IT.

Um and then we also recently, just after that one, uh, I sign in the documents friday before I fluid can con for B P. Uh we closed on a single family that's going to be a fixing flip. And that one, uh, was a partnership uh, deal because we made that come together in two weeks and that was actually on attack. That .

was for .

a tax.

Yeah, I offset and went from a zero to busy.

Now thing I do want to call out the right is you found a deal on the M L. N. There's a lot of influence, just people in the face, just kind of people on the ml. But I I think there is still opportunity there.

You just got to know where to look and actually make a really great comment of like what if there's A A two bedroom that's way oversized and we interviewed are trying to find the the episode number, but we interviewed Ingrid duced. If you guys like a per name ingred last name is D U Q U E three, you find out in the bigger pocket archives. But he had an entire strategy where he was looking for oversize, smaller property.

So he had, he was an engineer. So SHE had some sort of algorithm that was like scraping yellow and finding any two bedroom, the thirty percent larger. not. So you want to get that complicated, but just the process of saying, hey, is there is some hidden value here that maybe other investors are overlooking.

We had the nonsense on the podcast recently and they talk about how they look for properties that they could convert into larger properties, but they could then run out different parts of the room. So there there are so many different ways to find good deals on the malas. You just have to get a little bit more creative with the strategy to using to to make those numbers work.

Now car, imagine taxanes. And I think that something that we haven't talked about much at all on the Ricky podcast. So if you can first maybe define what a tax leann is and then what is the process for actually purchasing .

one of those deals? A taxi is when a the owner hasn't paid their taxes that they owe to the local officially. And then IT ends up going so long that the municipality puts a lean on their house. And if it's not paid by a certain amount of time, that taxi then goes to auction and then wants to go to auction. There's usually about a six month period of time when the tattling get sold to.

They have six months to basically figure out an next tragedy if they're gona be able to pay this taxi now with a heavy interest rate um and if by the end of the six months they don't, they're gona get, I notice, to quit and they're going to be basically evicted from their house that they could own out, right? And they might only, oh, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty thousand, but they own the two hundred fifty thousand our house, right? So you're GTA wonder what happened there.

And then what's the actual process for being the the investor that can purchase is like they're just a big website that go into you, go on to the county stabs like what is depressed for finding these tackling the bones?

yes. So we've done a law with finding the tax leans and we finally found one that worked um that came in actually as a lead to us from someone we knew. And so basically, uh, we've gone to the actions um and you got to go with a certified checks.

You've got to have some funds to go to go to the auction, every auction different um and you can build there for them. Um you also can go to the municipalities and you can request the list of tax lanes from them. Usually they don't want to give them to you, but most them will.

Um we found most municipality just want us to print for the pages that they're printing out, which is perfectly fine. It's like ten sense of page perfect investment um and then we can come through those and we can call them, we can direct mail them, which we've done both we've called and direct mail. We've built out a list of people from tax eline that at most people are just, I call me back culatra eps in touch, right? And I think that the consistency with that is what ends up locking up these deals eventually.

And the one we had got was basically from a lee that was given to me from someone I knew. He said, hey, this lady needs some help. He has a taxing on our house.

I told that you'd be the one to be what to help um because you're really creative and you have a good network of people to take the deal down. And I said, jack, I can always find a way if there's a will you know i'll figured out. So I talk to the lady.

And that was like just after the taxing auction had sold. Now most people think when the tax auction get sold and they get actioned off, that they're gone forever, but they are not. You can rectify that.

You just have to structure with your lawyer so that basically the taxi gets paid first and then the sale happens right after um because that's what needs to happen once the tax options are sold that he has to get paid with the interest and then you can purchase that property and that's exactly what we ended up doing um with this last property we got from the taxing list. But he took months. I SHE didn't we.

We had talked to her, I think five months before the end, the end date that he had and then SHE SAT on IT. And we went back and forth, and I kept in touch her and there, and that SHE reached out pretty much two weeks before he had to be out there, before I was up. And that's a lot of time.

Uh, you know, most people you need forty five days a close and sometimes he gets extended. So two weeks I was like, this will be my first one. I brought in a partner um who was a little more season than I was for sure and now he was a able to bring the cash to close and have the lawyer that was able to three together in two weeks and get the deal done. Maybe both have a food for display so you know sometimes Better enough and absolutely so .

quit IT sounds like I thank you for all going to do that because I think just educate a lot of us, myself included. But IT IT sounds like there there are multiple pots along the taxi journey where you, as the potential buyer, can actually step in. So one point is, like he said, direct mAiling these homeowners.

We've gotten this notice about the tax lean and then trying to work with them directly before that property goes to auction. That's one opportunity. The other opportunity just going to the auction yourself and and just being the buyer there, the at the course steps. And then the third, the option is kind of which you talk through where IT sounds like a actually like the auctions already happened, but there was still a little bit of time after that auction to rectify and you were able to go in and get IT there or so I I didn't realize that third option even existed, I thought was really just the first, the second.

So I guess from your perspective, if a Ricky is starting out, which one of those you think makes the most sense to start on? Like is IT going to the courthouse PS? So you think is trying to catch the the the seller before gets to the auction or doing what you do?

yes. So I would say the two things is go to the options. Even if you're not, there is a bitter you can just sit there and watch the auction. And that's what exactly what I did when I first got started.

We just want to the option with no check um you know I brought a guy from work that was interest in real say with me we ve both went there and we just kind of watch to see and learn what the Prices went for how high these guys were bidding. You know, did everything sell in the list to kind of gage? Like is there a lot of interest at these tax lanes and the room wasn't full.

There is room to bid. But you could tell there are a couple people on certain properties. They were there to win IT no matter what the deal was right. And you get every anyone, therefore the investor to home on or that really wants IT and they're just bidding with sheer emotion. So um you know I think that's a good strait to get in the auction, get in the action.

You know maybe take a certified check if you have the funds, but then go to municipality, go locally to these municipalities and just build your list of, hey, what you know water leans you can ask for go ask for the water leans because before they go to tax lean, they usually get their water turned off so you know get the watering list if you can get the taxi list um you know and you can even if you're interested in a certain property, you can go pull the property card online and you can even go to the municipality and pull the file to check out the permits, see what reservations been done. So you would open permits. There are may tell you a little bit more about that property too. So you might have the upper hand when you go to that option because you may know more on the property that you're interested in.

Well, carl, thank you for that. In that the detail of how a taxi auction actually works, i've only gone one or two times, I think, to a large county. One, I bid on a property for somebody else, not for myself, but we didn't get IT.

But I remember having to go get the cash check or the certified funds and thinking up, how does this work? Like I don't know how much money to get, you know, what do I do with the checks if I don't buy anything? And learned, you take them back to the bank and they open the money back in to your account. By yeah was A A definitely a learning process for me as to to how that worked.

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Okay, let's jump packing now Carry, you've done a couple of rehab with their properties, and i'm sure with this flip, there is going to be a rehab that's going into that tool. How confident were you going into doing a rehab? Do you have any experience? And how did you estimate your rehab .

costs with rehab? My experience is i've always been A D I Y right. Do yourself. ah. My father growing up was never the guy to pay the guy to come fix the house.

That was, I can do IT Better, and I can do IT myself for cheaper, right? So that's my greatest weakness and my greatest strength because I am starting to learn how to get away from doing everything myself, because I can't manage and do all these properties on myself and still have a family and a life. So I think that, you know, the first property we got, I ended up doing the renovations myself.

And then when we renovated one of the other units on the same property, I tried to step back and at least do less than fifty percent of IT myself and on the new single family they were renovating fully. Um I was i'm prog going to do twenty five percent of the words i'm slowly dialing back from doing. The innovation is learning how to manage contractors, find contractors, find guys to work for me. Um you know that can get these renovations done while i'm out doing other things are finding deals.

I ah just didn't in review with my contractor and we had two flips going on at the same time. One flip he was doing for me, then he was the contractor on his own flip to, and we did the little interview comparing our flips and very, very different type houses, different Price points, things like that.

But we talked about his margins compared of mind with me, completely outsourcing everything and the edge that he had because he was able to do some of the work and like he could put in a higher offer on the property to purchase IT because he was doing some of the work himself where other investors weren't. And that gave him kind of that competitive edge when trying to find deals. And you know, his flip turned out phenomenal for him.

So I think there's kind of like the stigmas like oh, a really great among ster dozen, you know do one of of the work that outsource everything like you have to get yourself in that position, which yes, that's really nice. But also when you're growing and scaling, that kind of gives you that address that you can put in that sweat equity, and that's okay. That doesn't mean that you are not the greatest investor because you don't have somebody else doing IT for you. So I think that's awesome.

Now that's a great point because um that really dies back to how you can do the bird in this modern like investment world now in this modern market um and that is exactly what we did with the single family home that we bought. And that's probably how I got IT is because I knew that i'd be able to put in some what equity and that I could take action.

Um um you know the renovation hands on where other people want and that just didn't work for their numbers. Um so I think that's how I definitely got that deal. Um and I know that i'm going to be leaving some money in the deal and I think that's where uh you know when I talk about the modern burr.

That's kind of gonna IT. You gotta figure out if you can leave money in the deal and how much. Because for me, if i'm buying and holding that deal, I don't mind leaving some money in that deal because IT allowed me to be able to get that deal and still be able to flow some money out of IT.

And so with my strategy going, there is a short term rn al uh game. Now from the long term, leaving money in the deal was perfectly fine with me. So when I ran my numbers, I knew that I was enough some money a deal on a perfect burr. I don't think that those are very hard to do in this market where you get one hundred percent of the money back and even then some, I think that the modern bars, you just have to know you're gonna leave some money in the deal. So how much money are you .

gonna comfortable living in that talking about a portion, D. I Y said pats more margin into these deals. But let's say that we drops you into, I don't know, a city cleared across the country said you'd never been to before, but you find a deal. The number seemed like they work. How would you go about building the rehab crew in that new market thousands of miles away?

yes. So I think you ve got to think creatively to figure out who to find in that market because when you go to facebook now and you to say, hey, who's a contractor? Everyone and their grandmothers a contractor and you just don't know where the good ones are. So some creative strategies for that.

Everyone grandson is also a contract or having their grain no yeah .

they shop and then their fourteen years old. You're like, um yes, I think that you can what people don't know is you can go to the municipalities and you can call them and you can ask who's been filing a lot of permits recently for roofs, know who's a good roof company and you are not asking a person who may not know contractors at all.

But if there's a certain individual let's doing twenty, thirty, forty roofs in that municipality, chances are town hall knows their name and they know who they are because they do a lot of business and summer a lot of permits, right? And so first, all they're doing permit, they're doing IT correctly and um you know the building inspector probably knows them so you know you can even call the building inspector and asm, hey, you know who's a good builder in the area that there's a lot of buildings. I'm looking for a rehab.

I'm looking for a new construction um and you that's what exactly what I would do and I would try to find a construction for doing that. You and and then go look at referrals, ask what their last three jobs were and call those people, you know I mean, you're like vetting contractors like tenant almost where you you know you need to see how they Operate and then you need to ask, like do they require deposit? How much deposit could do they take credit card? Do they take cash? right? Because those could be red flags.

I would like to put a deposit on a credit card to find investing on a state. Because if something goes wrong, I have that credit or company to back me to dispute the charge. If I send some guy, I don't know a check, he could be in mexico. A, B, P, can cut. And before I find them.

I I love those approaches, carla, just just to add to that. So actually I need thing assure this with you actually. But after we did an episode recently were actually myself and day of my res talk vacation.

What market what we want to go invest in for were starting over to and I picked oklahoma and i'd like so much what I saw in okhotsk that I literally reached out two agents in local homa city to potential start flipping out there um but I I found an agent through the bigger pocket agent finder and uh SHE you know bunch ages reply but he sent a really email and in that email said, here are the property inspect that we workers that we know that we like here are the title companies that we typically work with. Hear some handy that we typically work with here, gene council. So SHE literally had a role, the decks of everyone in that city who I might need to go contact. So if you are a Ricky and you're looking to maybe break out into new market, like carl said, leaning on some of those referrals is a great way to to to build some confidence in especially the bigger power is asian finder because these are investors who work with investors like me, like coral, like actually. So I love the idea of going .

on that path as well and actually did something similar to that exactly that um and I dial back and and invested back in my hometown ate we looked at india, we used bigger pockets, the agent finder. We found a good agent that was really good on there. Um you know he emailed me and we had IT we had like our long conversation while I was driving one day and I called him now I kind of knew he was a good fit because of that and he dedicated that amount of time and um from there he had had those same connections um and the royal x of different people to use in that area.

He would go look at homes and send us videos and stuff and then we kind of dial back because that was earned the expLoring phase after this property, figure out out what direction I want to go in um you know having a shiny objects ndoro meta investing in stay investing. What do I want to do long term, short term um so that I was kind of real back into why don't I just, you know figure out some solid foundations back in my in my hometown ate you know before going out of state investing because IT i'm not in a state works impossible to investor. I'm not in like california is a lot harder out there um you know so they were just like, you know what you can do IT here you can find good deals here takes a little you know time but no, you can build the foundation here. And then if you decide to go to inDiana, you can have the experience in the foundation and everything kind of set up so um yeah the good great point .

though so hard now that you have you're going to your bird process, you finished the rehab. When do you decide to finance? Are you looking at what the market is doing, what interest rates are, what your comes are for the appliance? Or as as soon as you get that china employee is, give us an overview of what it's time for you to actually refinance. A refinance .

can be scary because you want to make sure every details done right and you want to get as many dollars as you can out of the deal right, to be able to refinance, get the highest surprisal value. So I think leading up to the refinance, you want to know what add value for the refinance, right? They're not going to care what kind of handles you have on the cabinet draws.

You know they're looking at like the the big cat x expenses, the roof, the fairness, the foundation, how is the how's the house, the exterior um so they look at lot of the big ticket items. So we want to make sure that those at least look good and if not, are updated and our newroom replaced um so that they are praised. Value definitely comes out higher.

Um the other thing to do is before you get their praise, al, look at your own cops in that area and you can even give them those cops uh to the oppressor or but really with the refinance process, how we know where ready is ready at the end when pretty much almost one hundred percent together is where starting the refinance here there, the refinance process usually a little bit earlier because IT takes about a month. So to be a way to figure out who's got the best rate, who's who you're going na go with for landing. So start early so that when you're ready for the appraisal, that's pretty much when when you're wrapping the job up and you have IT all cleaned up and uh and ready for a walk within a praiser car.

when you're doing, you're refinance because there are some beings like the first. I did two birds to start my investing career, and I was able to get the kind of construction loan and the long term debt with the same place. H, I think you've done may be a couple birds like that before as well.

But call, like, I guess, are you kind of teeing up the refinance on the back ends? Your already maybe have an idea. Are you just saying let me let me separate those two things, just focus on the acquisition debt and then just focus on the the refinances debt?

Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both, right? I think the first deal we ended up doing, we just a we just got IT under contract and got IT ah with whatever bank we found quickly, right?

That was the the initial then when we did the refinance, I was referred to a local bank and as a small local bank that is in in our only in our state and they had Better terms and Better rates um so I went to that local bank uh for the one coming up, we're using hard money for the single family home that tell you able to purchase IT. Um and then we they do offer a long term debt, I believe through that. London um we haven't talked to about the terms yet, but IT is something i'm doing.

explore. Someone asked a lender to see what they have and they may offer me Better terms because I did the hard money with them, um you know but I will go to the small local bank and also talk to them, you know their department and see what they have for the refinance terms. So I think expLoring multiple options, what i'm getting out basically.

yeah, I did that before when I did a line of credit with a hard money lender. So use the line of credit to go out and purchase the properties and then they would want me to refinance with them. And I have to admit, I did not ask enough questions when going into this hard money lender and ended up being an awful experience.

But an option they had was to refinance with them once, you know the property was rehab rented, ready to go. But what I didn't know him wasn't clear to me at the beginning, was that you had to have three properties ready to go. So I had to have three of my birds completed and ready to refinance, and they would do IT as a porta folio.

Well, I moly buying three to four, maybe five deals here at mac. So I ended up just refinancing um with somebody else and and actually use that hard money lender to do the long term. But carl, i'm curious as to your diggers, you did the long term rental, but IT seems me that you've now adjust that a little Better, pivoted to doing a short term rental. Lin was as a cash ful play what was kind of the reasoning behind that?

So this was another kind of fell into IT by accident. Uh, so we inherited the lunch. M runnels, I told you before in that three family um you know we had one older gentlemen leave, we read that unit and that was going to be my first experience on finding a tenant to place in that unit.

So when I had started looking for a tenant, this is twenty twenty one now ah you know after cove IT, there was for some reason just an influx of the tenant pool that you had a people that just would thrown an application. So when I had put IT on a partner to com, my phone was blown up. We had our inbox for applications coming in left and right, but not anyone that was like overly qualified or even qualified for the income to what the rental rates were because all they all got pushed after coverage just because everything we're not pricing, no insurance everything.

So from that, I was almost overwhelmed of like, how do I find attended to place in this? And you know, I had just started to hear about the travel nurses, and they're looking for housing, and they stay for three months contracts. And my local network over here had to meet up and they were.

That's exactly what they were going to talk about that thursday. And so I was gonna to that meet up. And on the wednesday, I received a phone call from a guide to used in texas, and he was a travellers urse. And he said, hey, I found you a listing in apartment stock com. You know, i'm looking if I can rent IT for a three months contract, you know, willing to pay a little bit more because I know it's, you know, a short term contract are looking for one year least and I like, okay, you know, you got ta wonder, like is this a scm? You know I like seem like a nice guy.

I was like, yeah, I mean, you know I think we could do like fifteen hundred a months you know for short term rental like kind of think in the sales tactic in my mind, like twill hundreds of long term, but the short terms, fifty hundred and he's like and I like, I was really quick, I should say two thousand 呢。 So uh, I was like, okay, so that like one, I include all utilities on top of that for next three hundred and is like, I cool, I can pay in four. And i'm just like, this has got to be a scam.

This is not real so I was like, listen, let's not like this on speed. This, let's like figure this out. I'm going to meet up tomorrow to like, literally learn about this.

Let me go learn about this, and then we will figure out how are you can do this tomorrow and you again, give me a call. So I actually visited as like a regular tenant. I did a credit chick background like because I didn't know what I was doing.

I was set up for, you know, learning how to get regular tenants, yes, for a long term. So then I was like, listen, this is the, you know, we talked to follow week. We got everything off, figured out the least of signed.

You know, he sent the money, an apple pay. I was like, oh my god, like, this is crazy so I got to chunk money. He's not even there.

Like, thank you myself. Where you you're gonna stay, this place is empty. You know that right is like, yeah, I just using air mattress. I just come to work out, get over time and I go to the gyms all just be there to sleep and I might I mean, yes, okay, like sounds nuts, but like, let's do IT i'm all about crazy.

So, uh, I picked him up in the airport, learned a lot about him and a kind of learned like what the traveller's is, where what is important to them, you know, having good wifi, having a comfortable place to rest head. They weren't really concerned about like the high humidity as a short term runner. You know they were concerned just I just want to save coffee place to like chillax after work and i'm like, okay, so actually while he was there, we need a furnishing the place and that's a that's a whole funny story.

So uh, we started buying furnishing s and face and a good place because now i'm going into to something I have never done before. And I like when now we got a furnish hit, I like, I felt bad. You just have an air matters from, like my mother says that little borrow.

So like, like that's how ever mean be started, right? I guess I ir mattresses. So so I started furnishing and I got on facebook a place.

And I D I drive through the local college, which is a duck five years down the street for me. And I pull in and it's the end of the semester and that's why the face rank places flooded with furniture. And I would like see all these dumpsters as i'm driving in like everyone is like moving out.

Okay, cool. Like they are all selling your stuff. Now i'm driving out after I bought, like, you know, an entertainment set in a carpet or something.

I think for the living room, I just pauses and I I look of my body who came to give me a hand. I was like, did these down stories? I think I just full of good furniture. Like, I hate to go diving, but like, I feel like we need to recycle this.

So so we went down or diving, and we pulled out pot and pans, set brand new furniture, lamps, everything you could think of, because these college kids are moving out and their parents pride to say that we don't want that. I don't bring that stuff home, just throw out. And so some of the good stuff was left outside, and some of IT, we hocked ed out of the dumpster.

And we basically furnished one Better room rental for just hundred six hundred dollars um and you know of things like the bed, the matter is the important stuff, know the microwave, the things that know that we needed. But aside from that, like all the rest of version, we cleaned up and even the traveling, they help me wipe everything down, cleaned IT up and kind of referring to to use in the in the rental. And that's kind of what we got our jump s starting.

We did mid term from proudly beginning the year all the way up and to november. And IT was going great. We listed on furnish finder, which was a platform that we could use to um define leads from travellers, ses and other traveling professionals.

And everything was going great, and an november came and IT dried up. Or at least that's what IT seemed. And I was like, men do people not travel for the holidays and is our first winner.

I now a heating bill I have to pay for. And like, maybe people don't travel for thanksgiving ving in Christmas maybe like IT starts back up in january. I was like, now I feel like i'm at a point, right? I need to pip IT again.

Like, what do I do? I have a whole place at furnish now. So then I like, I guess we've got on A B N B on my death of vacation. Rn al APP. Like, I don't know, like another location market.

I just like a olds, you know, urban town, like so I went an urban b, took some pictures, made the listing and in our first booking came in and I was like, I sweet. We got a little income for them on perfect. We'll hold us over to the next month.

Then more bookings came in and I like, wow, this is cool and then more came in. And then before I knew we were filling this place up and then I got long term bookings on IT because I didn't have high rates and I had some I had some monthly discounts. And yeah, just like the rest of history, then we we didn't even have a space that we could go back to furnish, find our unfortunate.

We went over from, you know, long term, going to midd term, and then just fell in the short term to fill a gap. And i've really never looked back. We are still doing mid term stays, but we are only doing them through the L B N B and the uh V R B O F which both you know transit housing apps um for short term, long term in term, how long you want to stay, they pay basically.

So sounds like each, I guess, quote, quote problem LED you to another solution was kind of for you to to pip IT a little bit. And I love how each time you're okay, let me let me just see what happens. And each time that seems like some good things happen and do who do to you, you got ta be like in the short term mineral tal holiday me for having your guest help refurbished furniture because I don't think i've ever heard anyone say that before that that that is an amazing accomplishment.

And he he had bought stuff of his own for the unit and he needed and he was like, just donated his like, you can just keep IT. I'm bringing back with me to texas .

yeah that has to be like the perfect first guest for you. That's amazing.

But also you have to remember, Carol, take them up from the airport to how .

many in .

videos are going to take up for the airport is so that's sure.

So like from a casual perspective, right? I know you said long term twelve vinge box a month, do i'm charge fifty one hundred? What do you think you're doing now from like a revenue perspective on on that units like a short term flashman term?

yes. So it's a it's substantial and that was like incredible. Just seeing that um because when I initially got this place, because I got such a you know a good deal on, because we found IT from her family members that was tired of managing IT um know I was already satisfied with the cash law, but now it's a funding my realistic journey um with the the short term and income. So the regular long term income was twelve hundred.

You know we went up to that fifteen hundred for that mid term and I think that max during the mid term and we at sixteen fifty and I was like, well, that is awesome and then from airbnb starting out, and we did upgrade the furnish ings, and we did kind of like a hard, some designers did IT right figure out how to really double down and manage a good performing S T. R. Like, um you know, we started pulling in over two thousand and then we know certain months we've pulled in anywhere from twenty five hundred to thirty five hundred ah just on that one bedroom unit, which mind you in my area it's five hundred fifty four phy uh for that one Better room unit.

So it's a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a small bathroom. Uh, there's no dining room. You eat in the living room or you standing in the kitchen like there's not even a room for a table.

Yeah so yeah, it's like you just eat at on the culture and bed, I guess. So you go outside. But yeah, IT was pretty interesting. So we're pretty much, I would say, consistently doubling the rent um and then on the high months tripling.

if not going over that OK. So to kind of wrap IT up here, i'm wondering what would be your best advice for a worker investor that's looking to follow your footsteps to do their first, first strategy?

I think consistency and taking action are probably the two biggest key takeaway. right? Like don't get discouraged because you haven't had a deal.

You know, like my first deal fell into my lap because of family member but like that also when you think about IT only happened because I asked if I didn't ask, he might have not come to us. IT was a family member that, you know, we didn't see all the time. Now we wasn't like my parents are anything.

And so just by asking created taking action because I would just once I got started in the real state investing journey, just tell everyone that you're now real investor. You don't have to own anything. You're looking into investor real state. You're a real state investor also.

I think by doing that and basically taking the action to ask and say, hey, if you have interested in selling, let me know, Sparks the thought in certain people's minds to be like, oh, you you wanna buy this like, you wanna buy this and then you figure out how do you buy this, whether it's creative financing, seller finance ing. Start learning about all the strategies. So really that that just like education as huge, learn as much as you can.

There's so much free stuff online, don't pay for anything. People get disturb, but they have to have a lot of money to pay for courses and stuff. I think there's so much free stuff online between the bigger pockets, forums, questions you can ask season investors on there.

You know people respond to those questions. I even have their own course. They're giving you and answered to your question you asked you know so I think that's great um but yeah consistency.

Look at the M L S. Try to find a real ter, try to like lobo, lobo bunch of deals put in offers. It's free to put in offers. IT doesn't cost you anything your real state agent may hate you, but find a good one, you know take some action, tell them to be open with your real state agent of what you're doing so that you set the expectation of, hey, i'm beginning of investing. I'm going to put in a lot of the offers like know you with me or not, you know and they can decide if they're good fit for .

you and also make sure you .

are able to close to yeah figure out your strategy, you know use the education to figure out how you close that you know how you're a close the deal. If you have no money, you may have to go find in network. Go to these metus.

I met that. I met all these partners. I.

Would be like three or four deals less today if I didn't go to these metus, you know? And that's this last deal that we just closed happen because I was able to network and I knew someone that could bring the cash to close and I made a phone call at midnight and I said at me in the morning, we're going to sign the document with the individual at dunk in dona. So that's where the deal went down.

I did just want to call that B P. Does have like a meeting section on the website. So if you're looking for a local media, obviously checking your local facebook group chek meet up com, but bp also has a meet up section as well. So if you looking .

for an event somewhere to go check, so can overall looking at your portfolio, what is your average monthly cash flow from all of your units that you're bringing in?

We have two that are being renovative to. Those are negative um but I would say on the three family, we now have one long term renter and two short term runs out of that. And those two short term runs actually create three listings because they can, of course, occupy each unit individually.

But there's a third list thing we made to tie both of those listening together because they are in the same building. If they have a bigger family, we can appeal to the market of three to four people versus just two people for the single bedroom. So we actually have a booking that just came in this morning for um my family is coming for Christmas and so they're walking up both of those units.

And so um with that, our cash flow, I would say we probably three five hundred all the way up to sixty five hundred um IT depends what month the you know the airbnb is not like the long term rental income where you're guaranteed um you know that the same amount every month and even then you're not guaranty because they have to have know they they cannot pay airbnb. You know it's flex your weight on who's coming, when they're coming, what days gets booked, how long and the different seasons. And there's always in different markets are stronger seasons and others who just got to figure out where that is. But um yeah I would say that are cash for currently month Price and three three to sixty five hundred a variable.

yeah. awesome. congratulations.

thanks.

Oh, Carol. Thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. We appreciate you taking the time to come on to the show.

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