6 Bite-Sized Steps to Buying Your First Rental Property

David:
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast show 613. The 10-year from now version of yourself can either say thank you 2022, David, for making the decisions that you made that made me more physically fit more financially fit, better relationships, happier person, better life, better family; or you can look back and say, “Man, I wish I would’ve done something before.”
This is the same thing if you start right now and you look back at 2012 version of you. Are you really glad with the decisions you made, what you committed to, what you invested in? Or are you kicking yourself saying, “I should have bought more real estate, I should have started investing, I should have gotten more serious, I should have dove in deeper?”
What’s up, everyone? My name is David Greene, and I’m your host of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, here today with my co-host, the amazing, infamous and talented Rob Abasolo. Rob and I are teaming up to bring you an episode specifically directed towards newbies.
On today’s show, we’re going to get into the five mistakes and six steps, making 11 things that you need to know to make money in real estate. Rob, welcome to the show. How are you today?

Rob:
I’m doing good, man. I’m excited to get into this because I’m really at the helm of today’s ship of the proverbial podcast ship, really taking us through the journey here, hopefully helping some newbies out and nudging people along. That’s what today’s episode is. It’s like, hey, I know it’s a little scary to get into real estate but let’s freaking do this thing, man. This is what life is about, taking risks and working towards that financial freedom.
For those of the people that get caught up on the analysis side of things, we’re actually going to even be analyzing a deal in a very, very hot market today that, I don’t want to give too much away, but it opened our eyes a little bit to that specific deal.

David:
Yes we are, and we’re going to get right into today’s show. For our very quick tip, I’m going to tell you, listen to the entire episode where you are going to get a discount code if you would like to save money on a pro membership and get committed into real estate investing yourself.

Rob:
Hey, let’s just do quick tip number two here. If you’re too antsy and you can’t wait to become a BP pro, then you can just go ahead and use promo code REPOD22 to save 20% off of your pro membership. You can do that by going over to biggerpockets.com/proupgrade.

David:
All right, without any further ado, let’s get into the show.

Rob:
All right, so today we’re going to be talking about six foolproof steps to get started, five common newbie mistakes that we see investors making all the time, and then hopefully provide the audience with a few tools to help them get started on their path to financial freedom and building their real estate portfolio.
I think the reason that a lot of people want to get into real estate, and David, you can feel free to give your POV here, but I think at the end of the day we’re all looking to build wealth in some capacity or another, and that means a lot of different things to a lot of people. I think the big four components of building wealth in the real estate game is typically going to be cash flow, appreciation, tax benefits and low pay down. When you add all of those different components together, it is sort of what goes into this idea of building wealth through your real estate portfolio.
Did I miss any pillars there? Is there anything else that you think might contribute to that wealth building goal that a lot of us have?

David:
I think you hit right on the head how real estate helps build wealth. I think the only pieces that might have been left out is that you can use different skills to do this in real estate than you can do it in other means, like day trading or starting a business. There’s an element of real estate that once you start doing it, it gets easier and easier and easier and it gets better in time. I think that’s very appealing to people. It’s not the same work over and over and over. Once you start to get more properties, they become easier to manage. The act of managing real estate gets easier the more you do it.
I think there’s also an element of creativity where you are like the captain of your own ship. You can make things happen that you may not like… I don’t know. It’s probably tough to be creative if you want do day trade stocks. It’s very analytical. You’re researching. You can’t go into that company and add value to it like you can with real estate. And so, real estate is more fun because you get to add a creative element of yourself.

Rob:
Yeah, 100%. I mean, these are honestly. the four pillars I just gave, they’re very tactical. These are very tactical goals that you can set. You can set a cashflow goal, you can set an appreciation goal and you can map out what the tax benefits are going to be. But ultimately what I think a lot of this culminates to, at the end of the day what we’re all trying to get here is financial freedom. I think that’s what wealth really is. We always say we want to achieve financial freedom so we can go out and live on a beach, whatever that means to that person.
I consider financial freedom the same thing as wealth, because wealth gives you options. And so for me, I hit financial freedom probably about a year ago. I think what financial freedom truly is for me, it’s not like it’s over. A lot of people think, oh, hit financial freedom. I’m going to drink on my tie on the beach and hang out and it’s over.
I don’t really think that’s what financial freedom is for a lot of people because we work so hard to get there. It’s not like you can just turn it off. I think financial freedom is, well, for me personally, you’re stressing on how to make more money versus stressing about making money. That’s a very, very small but very important detail. For me I’m like, okay, how do I keep expanding the empire? How do I keep building my portfolio? How can I take care of my family and my brother in law and my best friends and how can I help them achieve financial freedom versus a year or two ago I was just like, how am I going to make money? How am I going to do that to actually achieve financial freedom?
I think there’s a little bit of a myth. I mean, of course I like going to the beach and of course I like to get my tie, but for me financial freedom, it’s the freedom to not stress about the paycheck coming in and the freedom to really take big swings in my real estate portfolio, which is something new and I just did recently even with our Scottsdale property.

David:
It’s absolutely true. There’s a certain point in life where something hit me that you are going to have stress in one way or the other. You’re going to have stress from problems that come from business; what property should I buy, how am I going to fix this, how am I going to fund this, whatever; or you’re going to have stress from I got a flat tire and I don’t have any money in the bank to fix it; or someone is sick and I want to go be a caretaker, but I have to be at my job where I’m going to lose my job and I can’t make my payments. You have it in one direction or the other.
What you and I have chosen is to have a better kind of stress. You’re going to have problems in life, we have a better kind of problem. We have more flexibility, we have more autonomy in our lives, we have no limit on ourselves. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have problems or that life, all of a sudden we found the cheat code to where nothing’s difficult ever.

Rob:
No, no. I think you nailed it on the head. It’s a better kind of stress.

David:
I’m curious, when do you feel… I mean, you’ve probably been in this stage a lot longer than me, but was there a point for you where you’re like, “Oh, I’m financially free?”

Rob:
I’ve done it. I’ve arrived.

David:
Yeah, it happened quicker than I thought. At the time $5000 a month meant I was financially free. That was all that I needed to live on. I luckily had the foresight to see that inflation was coming and the money that I was making every month wasn’t going to be what I could coast on for the rest of my life, so I kept going.
But I remember it was a point where I’m like, “Hey, I have eight rental properties.” I really wanted one of the Corvette’s, the Stingrays when they first came out. I know that makes me sound like an old man, but they were a cheap car and they were fun and they were fast. My plan was I’m just going to buy one of those, I got the house I live in, I got eight rental properties. I’m good. Something inside said, man, you’re selling yourself short by doing that. The goal is not to not ever have to work, the goal is to work on things that I enjoy or make me grow.
And so, to me it wasn’t that I needed more money, it was that I wasn’t going to become the best version of David if I just hung it up and said, “Okay, I’ve accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. I’m finished.”

Rob:
Yeah, yeah. For sure. I think as I ask a lot of people about what financial freedom means to them and getting into real estate, I don’t know, I see the same problem with a lot of people. Because we all want the financial freedom, the autonomy to live life on our terms. I see a lot of these things, a lot of reasons or apprehensions are very commonly expressed by a lot of people that follow me, that DM me on Instagram. And I think the big one, there’s two big ones for me, people are very unsure of how to become an investor.
The listen to BiggerPockets, they watch the YouTube videos, they read the articles but it’s very tough for them to tactically actually execute that because it’s hard to apply that to their specific situation. And so, they lack the knowledge and the tools to be able to begin their journey, which I think is very solvable. That’s the good news for a lot of people.
The other thing which relates to the first thing is that it’s very confusion. They’re not sure what steps to follow. If you watch, for example, my YouTube channel, I put a lot of Airbnb content on there and I teach people how to do that and I teach people how to start their businesses, but it’s not linear. I don’t necessarily, like A to Z here’s how to do it on YouTube. It’s just whatever I’m going through or struggling with or however I’m living my life. Whatever I feel like making a video of, and I’ll teach someone through that.
And so, for people, I think that’s what research is, they’re watching and they’re listening but it’s never really linear. And so, not having the A to Z steps put in front of them prevents people from ever getting started.

David:
Yeah, and that’s the problem. Because most things in life, time in the market, time on task is what makes you better. I think it was Malcolm Gladwell that talks about the 10,000 hour rule that it takes to become an expert in something. I don’t know if everything is the same where it always takes 10,000 hours, but the idea of doing it over and over and over is true. You get your black belt and a martial art by performing a technique over and over and over and over until it becomes second nature. That’s how a lot of things in life are. And so, the sooner that you start, the sooner that you’re going to get there.
I’ll also say that with most things in life, and real estate is no exception, the hardest day is the first day. Everyday gets a little bit better than it was before. And so, the investors that are hanging out on the background, looking in through the window, “I would like to get started, but I’m not ready yet,” they don’t realize that they’re setting their future self back super far because it gets easier when you start doing it more.

Rob:
I feel a very grandiose analogy coming here about ticking away at it little by little. I mean there are so many things that I feel are floating around in David Greene’s head right now.

David:
Well here’s probably the best way that I would compare what success in real estate should look like. First off, people have to get out of their mind that it’s different than anything else. Whenever you are sold on this idea that you can make money here easy, or you can get fit easy, or this is the secret to avoiding the uphill battle in life, that is always a sales technique that is meant to get your money. They’re appealing to your worst nature that’s looking for a get rich quick scheme or the way around the struggle. It does not happen at anything in life. You don’t ever skip the work and just get a result.
You have to resign yourself to the fact that this is a journey you are taking. This is a path that you are going to walk. It is going to be uphill the majority of the time and there are going to be things that can go wrong. Just like everything else that you want to do, being a parent, getting in shape, saving up money itself. All of it works the same way.
And so, what I like to think about is how financial freedom is really a result of being financially fit, being disciplined, being good at money, understanding how to do what you’re doing. And so fitness itself, physical, is the closest example that I can provide to people that helps them understand what it’s like being fit. I’m not fit right now, but I’m trying to get more fit and I think many people go through cycles-

Rob:
Oh, that’s not true. I saw you the other day. I was like, “Oh, homeboy works out.” You work out a lot more than me.

David:
Oh, I appreciate that. Is it that the camera adds like 15 pounds, is that the problem?

Rob:
No, I had you on a wide-angle lens so you look nice and skinny.

David:
Ha, ha. Well, thank you for that. The journey of fitness, though, is a journey. You don’t get fit and stop, okay? Many of us have done that where we got fit. We’re like, “Cool. I’m there.” I stopped working out and I stopped looking at my diet and what do you know? You end up not fit. That’s how it works.
The process of creating habits that are a lifestyle fitness, and people that are into this understand it. They buy their food at a healthy place and they prepare it ahead of time. They put effort into having food there to eat, they don’t just leave it up to happenstance. They put it in their schedule to go to a gym. They probably are in a group with other people that are into that same thing that helps them stay accountable and helps them be supported. They talk about that kind of stuff. It is in their heart. It is on their mind. The more that they stay in that community, the better off they’re going to be with their fitness.
Real estate is the exact same thing. If you’re not in a community of other people that are doing this thing, you’re going to fall out of shape. If you’re not putting it on your schedule to go and do certain tasks like go to the gym or go for a run or go run upstairs or whatever the case may be, you’re probably not going to do it if you’re just waiting for an opportunity to come your way. If you don’t have a membership at a gym, the odds of you just remembering to wake up and work out in your own living room are very low. People tend to not work out very hard when they work out at home.
Think about, Rob, everyone you ever met that bought some exercise equipment and put it at their house.

Rob:
Guilty.

David:
Right? Were their intentions good when they bought it?

Rob:
Always, 100%.

David:
Okay. You did it. Was your intentions good?

Rob:
Yes, every time.

David:
But how often do you use that equipment?

Rob:
Well, okay, for the sake of your metaphor, never. But last night I finally got on the spin bike that I bought my wife a year ago for the first time literally ever, but I see your point.

David:
You’re proving my point. You used it one time in a year, right? It becomes like a towel rack-

Rob:
Literally one time.

David:
… is what this stuff turns into. But if you actually get your butt to the gym, you’re probably going to, “Hey, I’m already here, I might as well work out.”

Rob:
Oh, yeah, 100%.

David:
Would you agree?

Rob:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. By the way, this is exactly what I envisioned for this metaphor. We need to add a feature on the BiggerPockets website that’s like the David Greene Metaphor Encyclopedia so we can just reference all the metaphors you’ve ever done.
Okay, we’ve talked about the two problems that I think a lot of investors face, the two apprehensions that they have. But now I want to get a little nitty gritty here and actually talk about the top mistakes that investors make. We see investors come to us all the time and retroactively say, “Hey, how can I fix this?” It’s like, “Well, you made the mistake, but that’s okay. You’re going to learn from it.” There are five here that you and I have penciled out that we think are very, very common that we see people doing all the time.
First one here is going to be buying the wrong deal. Have you ever bought a wrong deal before? Would you say you’ve ever gone into something that you’re like, “Uh-oh, this one didn’t turn out as good as I had hoped?”

David:
Yes, that’s happened.

Rob:
Yes, same. Same, but it’s a mistake and you always learn from your mistake so it’s not like it’s over. Ideally you’d like to avoid the mistake, but sometimes you have to make the mistake and it’s a little expensive and it’s an expensive version of college tuition.
Number two, they analyze the deal wrong. This is something that I think… I mean, we could talk for hours on this, but I just had a student of mine, he analyzed a deal. He brought it to me literally yesterday and he was like, “Rob, will you partner with me on this? It’s a 50% cash-on cash return. I was like, “Yes. Yes, I will partner up with you on it. Let’s talk about it.”
We hopped on a Zoom, he talked me through all the financials and I said, “Well, what about the CapEx? What about the cleaning fees? What about the utilities? You only have utilities here at 2000. It’s going to easily be $7200 on this.” I literally ripped apart every component of the deal. By the end of it, it was a 12%, which, you know, not the worst deal in the world but it wasn’t the 50% that he thought he had uncovered.
I was like, “So, what did you learn here?” He was like, “Okay, I may have underestimated the cost associated with this deal.” He analyzed the deal wrong and I told him, “Look, I think it can still work in certain circumstances, but if you’re analyzing this conservatively, it’s not really going to work out for you.”
And so, this is one of the main thins, I think. There are a lot of tools out there that can help people analyze deals, and we’re going to actually talk about that a little bit later. But we all go through it. I mean, at this point I imagine you’re probably not struggling with analyzing your deals, but maybe young David, right?

David:
No. I would probably… Let me bring some clarity to that. I don’t struggle with analyzing deals when they’re in an asset class that I know very well, that I’m familiar with. That is something I put in the 10,000 hours that’s very comfortable. But the deal that you mentioned that didn’t turn out like I thought it would was my first venture into a new asset class. I did not have a tool that would help me analyze those properties, and it was a different type of skill. Kind of like switching from one martial art to the next. I had an idea of how martial arts works, but these are completely different techniques and you’re using different muscles and you’re using them in different ways.
To your point, I would say it’s when you are either learning a new asset class or learning real estate investing in general, that having the right tool to make sure you’re analyzing correctly is extra important.

Rob:
Okay, cool. Yeah. Let’s move on to the third one here. A lot of people let the lack of money stop them. Honestly, kind of guilty here because you see a deal and the first thing you think is how am I going to fund it?
I mean, just even reading The BRRRR book, the book that you penned yourself, my friend, that already starts opening my mind to, oh, okay, well, I don’t necessarily have the money, but I can go and get hard money and fix up a property and then do a cash out refi. I think there could be more education on creative financing out there if there is a lot of people just have a hard time really comprehending that.
Was there a moment for you that you’ve ever let the lack of money stop you or do you feel like you’ve always been pretty good at overcoming the financial hurdle for most of your deals?

David:
Well, I will say that I was blessed to be in a situation different than probably the majority of our listeners because I didn’t get married, didn’t have kids, had a strong work ethic, was very driven. I bought almost all my deals with my own money. I just saved up a lot. I did the old-fashioned, really difficult way.
I recognize not everybody’s in a position where they can do that, but there was a handful of times where circumstances came about where all my capital was deployed when an opportunity came around or I was waiting on a refinance but I had to close before I could get the money out.

Rob:
Yeah, that’s a big one.

David:
There are periods in my career where I’m like, ugh, I’m jammed for cash. It’s not that you don’t have the money, it’s just you don’t have it liquid at that time. It’s in a different accounting section on a spreadsheet somewhere.
Every time that’s happened for me, what I’ve typically done is gone to a friend who is a fellow real estate investor, a fellow business person, a person that I had a preexisting relationship with, not a stranger and said, “Hey, I have no experience investing, but can I get a hard money loan or a private loan from you?” That’s really hard. I went to people that were in the business already that knew me, that knew how I worked, that trusted me and that knew if I’m going to buy this deal it’s going to be good. I borrowed money from them and just paid it back. Whenever my funds came my way.
As you’re saying this, I’m realizing it was my commitment to a community that brought those opportunities. Basically, if I would’ve waited to try to build a relationship when I needed the money, it was too late. That was something I had started years before so that when I was in need, I had people like, “Yeah, I can wire you some money.”

Rob:
Yeah. Yeah, that’s… Yeah. I’ve also now realized investors that I’ve worked with or talked with, they’re all very flaky. Not all, but a lot of them can be and I, now as an investor, understand that 90% of the time that that happens is because their money is tied up.
And so, when you’re talking to an investor it’s like, you have to take the money right then and there. If you say, hey, give me two months and then I’m going to come to you with a project, they’ve likely deployed that and it’s very hard to close that deal two months later.
Little things I’ve learned along the way is when I see a creative financing option or an investment money coming my way, I hop on it as soon as possible because, you’re right, real estate is not the most liquid industry out there. It can be, but it’s not always the most liquid.
Moving on to the fourth mistake here. This is a big one. This is perhaps the biggest one, listening to other people’s negativity. If I had a dollar for every single time that I’ve almost had a friend invest in real estate, either with me or just pushing them to do it themselves and they were amped up about it and then the next week they came back to me and said, “You know, Uncle Ben or Aunt Tia said the housing market’s going to crash,” this and that. “Don’t do it,” and then they got scared, oh man, I’d have enough money to buy a house. That’s for sure. I mean, people just get-

David:
You wouldn’t need their money.

Rob:
I wouldn’t need it. Exactly.
The negativity out there from people that don’t actually invest in real estate, a lot of the time tends to trump the actual experience and insight that a seasoned real estate investor can give you.

David:
Yeah, and that is a tough situation to be in when you’re the investor because you have me and you and Brandon Turner and people on BiggerPocket saying you should do this, and then you have people that you love and you trust that have looked out for you for your whole life saying don’t do it. It’s a very difficult situation to be in. I can acknowledge, it’s not as simple as like, “Ah, don’t listen to them,” because how do you know to listen to us? You don’t know us.

Rob:
Right.

David:
Whenever I’m in a situation like that, I step back and I say, how does this work at everything else in life? Because real estate shouldn’t be different rules than everything else. So, if you wanted to go start going to the gym and lifting weights, let’s go back to that analogy, there is a chance that you could get hurt if you do that. You could drop a weight on your foot, you could pull a muscle, in the beginning your form isn’t going to be perfect so you’re probably going to get hurt. You’re going to make a couple mistakes. But not going to the gym at all is probably the riskiest thing you could do because your overall fitness is going to go down and then you’re going to have heart issues later and like health related issues from not being fit.
So, you have to understand that when someone is telling you don’t do this because something could go wrong, I often look at that like don’t go to the gym, you could pull a muscle or you could drop a weight on yourself, you could get hurt. But not going to the gym at all would be the riskiest thing I could possibly do, and you got to remember that also.
So, what I tend to do is say, all right, who do I know that’s going to the gym? I should ask them, “Hey, you’re really good at this. I see you lift weights and you’re very physically fit. Should I do it too?” Because that’s a person who’s in that world that will tell you yes you should or no you shouldn’t, as well as here’s how you should do it.
I would much rather ask a person that’s in the industry that I’m considering getting into, would this be good for me, than ask someone who knows nothing about that industry if this would be good for me.

Rob:
Basically, if I’m trying to bulk up, I should go and ask Tony Robinson what his workout routine is?

David:
Yeah. I mean, he’s a great example. Because if you say, “Tony, I want to look like you,” Tony’s going to tell you, “All right, well, you’re going to give up all these foods, you’re going to work out this many times a day, you’re going to have to be disciplined in all these areas. Your social life is going to suffer in this,” and you’d be like, “Oh, never mind. I don’t actually want it that bad. This isn’t for me.”
If you go ask someone who doesn’t understand Tony’s regime and what he’s doing, do you think I should go do that, what value is their advice going to be when they have no idea what that’s actually like?

Rob:
Yeah. Yeah, and I think this gym metaphor actually makes sense because you’re saying you have to basically go and work out and get started and nick away at this little by little, which leads us to the fifth and final giant mistake that most investors make. It actually is a very common… The famous four is the last question, right? People just quit or never get started along the way. And so, this big mistake is never taking action.
If you don’t ever take action, if you don’t ever sign up for the gym membership, there’s literally no way for you to go to the gym. If you don’t ever make an offer, there’s literally no way for your offer to get accepted. You have to start throwing some Hail Mary’s out there, if you will, and hope that they land. And then boom, you’re in the real estate world.
That wraps up these five. Obviously there’s 20 top mistakes that investors make, but I think it really does boil down do these five for most people, especially this last one

David:
I would say are the most common things that stop somebody from getting in the gym and getting into being fit. Because the reality is, most people listening to this, it’s not like they’re not interested in fitness. They’re at the gym, looking through the glass in the window, seeing the people inside thinking, “I wish I could be them.” Then they leave and they’re like, “Man.” They look at their stomach, or they can’t see their feet because it’s in the way, or they’re huffing and puffing when they try to climb stairs or tie their shoe. They are aware. I’m not financially fit, I don’t like my life., I don’t like this job that I have, or I don’t like whatever. Then they go back to the gym and they look in the window.
These five things are like the invisible barrier that keeps people from beginning inside. That’s what we want, is for people to get a gym membership, get inside. Maybe start slow. Don’t just run in there right off the bat, but get around the people that are doing it so that they can show you how to use the machines; go with you; workout with you; spot you, get you some momentum, like you said; and then you get sucked into that lifestyle.

Rob:
Yeah. I guess, with this in mind, what I want to do is, considering, for me, the big mistake here is never taking action and getting started, how about we actually run through a deal here? I would like to actually run through a deal and maybe just put some tangible insight and advice on how you could actually get started today by analyzing your first deal. Is that cool?

David:
Yeah. Let’s take our listeners through one of our workouts.

Rob:
In the spirit of never taking action and getting started, I think we should put this into tangible terms for everyone out there right now that does want to get started. I think we have a pretty solid six-step process here for anybody.
If you were looking to get into Airbnb, if you’re looking to get into long term rentals, multifamily, whatever your niche is, if you follow these six steps, then it’s going to be a lot easier than if you’re just trying to go after the big goal at once, right? I think breaking it up into small bite-size, baby steps that you can take, one step a day for example, it’s not going to be quite so stressful as just figuring out, oh man, how am I going to get into a hundred-unit syndication deal? You don’t do that. You do real estate. You get into real estate by biting off small bites of your sandwich, David. By the end of the day, the sandwich is gone.
So, step one here, commit. I know this seems like very, very simple, like, oh duh. No, I don’t think so. I think you have to actually tell yourself that you’re going to do this. You have to really… I don’t even care if you look in the mirror and say, “Today’s the day. I’m going to do it.”
That was me yesterday, literally, on the bike. I wanted to go run yesterday because I haven’t really ran in years. I was taking care of the kids and I was like, “Dang it. My window is closed, the kids are asleep.” I was like, “You know what? No, I’m going to do this. I’m going to find a way.” I committed, I walked up, I got on the bike. Boom. That felt really, really good.
So, committing can be many different things. It can be like buying a book. For me, I always tell people if there’s a way that you can financially commit to something, go buy a book. That’s 12 bucks. The stakes are low here but you can go and read that book however you want to commit. Whether that’s you telling yourself that you’re going to commit, whether it’s you looking in the mirror and poking yourself and saying, “This is the day, Bob,” or if it’s buying a book or any kind of curriculum or whatever it is, just figure out a way that gets you excited to actually get started.

David:
Well, here’s why that’s important, you’re going to fail at your first try at anything. Going back to our gym analogy here, you go to the gym, you are going to try to figure out how to use a machine or do a workout. It’s going to feel weird, you’re going to do it wrong and the thought is going to go through your head, “This is stupid. You shouldn’t do this. Anyways, this isn’t for you. ”
Or you’re going to see another person that’s stronger or fitter or in better shape and you’re huffing and puffing and they’re fine, and you’re going to think, “Why did I even come?” If you’re not committed the second that happens, you’re done. You’re going to leave and you’ll say, “That wasn’t for me,” and you’re going to go back to dancing with the stars. If you’re committed, your brain’s going to say, this doesn’t feel good, how do I copy what they’re doing? How do I find another person to help me?
You’re going to look for a solution. That’s why committing is so important because if you’re not committed, you look for way out; if you are committed, you look for a solution. It’s literally two roads that you can take. One of them takes you to financial freedom and the other doesn’t.
I wanted to ask you a quick side question here, and you can be honest. You recently went running and now you’re riding a bike. When you and I were in Scottsdale, you saw me going for a run and you mentioned it. My understanding is you weren’t running before that. Is there any connection to you saw me doing something and then put the thought in your head, “you know, I really should start doing that too.”

Rob:
Yeah. You inception me, man. After that Scottsdale trip, I was like, “Something’s not right. I need something. I saw someone running, oh, David Greene. I want to be more like him. I should run.” So yeah, man. You can take all the credit for what will soon become-

David:
No, that’s not what it was. I knew you’re going to go there. I don’t want to take the credit for why you’re doing it, but I do want to highlight that that is a part of when you get into community of people, they influence you. Because I was only running because I saw somebody else that was in my community that was running, and it put the thought in my head.
There’s absolutely something to be said for not just looking through the window at the gym or watching or thinking I should do it, but getting around people that are doing it will make it so that you want to do it.

Rob:
Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I think this leads into step two here. I think, here, this is where a lot of people get this wrong. Step two, learn and plan. All right? A lot of people want to start with learning and planning and then commit. But guess what? If you learn and you plan, there’s a lot of information in literally any niche or industry that you want to get into, it can scare you away. And so, if you’re not committed to it, the moment you start learning and planning, quote-unquote for everyone on the podcast, you’re going to get scared and be like, “You know what, maybe I’ll commit later.”
So, for me, I like just jumping in. What this means is maybe that means putting an offer on a house and then figuring out how the heck I’m going to flip it from across the country. That’s actually something I just did a week ago. I put an offer on a house. It’s in Virginia. I don’t really have any houses out there. I was like, I love this house, I’m going to figure it out. I will learn and plan and find my contractors and find the team and research and reread the bird book afterwards. Because if I start trying to figure that out before I’m even in the deal, I’m not even going to get into the deal.
So, I think it’s very important to just jump in and then learn and plan because there’s so much that learning and planning can do. It can really teach you, it can enlighten you but it can also lead to analysis paralysis, in my opinion.

David:
I agree.

Rob:
Step three here, get leads. All right? This is a big one. If you’re looking to flip a house, if you’re looking to get into an Airbnb, if you’re looking to invest in a fund or a mobile home park or whatever, whatever respective real estate niche you want to get into, deal flow is super important. Not only deal flow but actually assembling the team that you need. You’re going to need, we all know, very basic real estate transactions here. You are going to need a real estate agent, which, if you’re in need of a real estate agent, a small little plug here, the agent finder on bigger pockets can get you hooked up with literally anyone in the country. But we know that you need that and we also know that you need a mortgage broker and we also know that you need, if you’re going to do an Airbnb, for example, cleaners and handyman and contractors.
And so, if you can assemble your team and really start figuring those crucial teammates that you’re going to need to execute a deal, a lot of the times the leads are going to come in, like finding a good realtor, if you tell them what you want. If you show them that you’re looking for a flip or that you’re looking for some kind of investment property or an Airbnb, and you show that realtor that you’re very serious, there’s a very, very high likelihood that they’re going to be sending you those deals.
If you’re looking to get into a flip, maybe this means getting in contact with the wholesaler and finding an off market deal that you can then go and flip and rehab and maybe even execute the burst strategy.
How’s your deal flow these days, by the way? Do you feel, now that you’re established, that the deals just come daily for you or do you still have to actually go out and find them?

David:
It depends on what avenue they’re coming to me from. I have deals that will just come to me from the agents that are on my team. They’ll say, “Hey David, this is one that you might like,” or “Hey, our client can’t close on it. Do you want to buy it instead?” That will happen.
I will get random deals in my inbox from different Bigger Pockets listeners in different areas, and so I don’t have to go looking for those. But if we’re talking about deal like that exact type of property I want to buy, those are not just finding their way to me. That’s something I still have to go hunt down.

Rob:
Yeah, but you have a network, right? I think that’s what I’m getting at, is obviously those deals are going to come a little easier to you and me, but platform aside, I think that if you establish a network and people know what you do and you put yourself out there, you put yourself out there on social media, on Instagram, on Facebook, and you proclaim to people that you’re a real estate investor, the chances of these leads coming across your desk more often are going to be a lot higher, I think personally.

David:
Oh, that’s a hundred percent. Yes.

Rob:
Now, I actually want to get into what I think is going to be one of the more useful segments of today’s show. I actually want to analyze a deal because I think here’s where the analysis paralysis sets in. People get really good at analyzing the deal. Even if it’s a really good deal, they still get scared and don’t want to do it.
I think this would actually be in a very appropriate time to use the rental calculator from the Bigger Pockets website to actually take a real-world deal and see if it pencils out.
I’m in Texas now. I’m very partial to Texas real estate here, so I want to just maybe pick a very hot market. What’s a hot market right now? Austin. Everyone wants to move to Austin. Okay, so we’ve found a deal here in Austin, David. I think this one… I mean, who knows? On the surface, I think it’s going to pencil out, but the calculator is the crystal ball that tells all. So, put the address here-

David:
Well, what I liked about this deal, initially looking at it, is it is in a very hot market so people are going to be drawn to wanting to invest there. It has some value-add opportunity. When you look at the pictures of it, you can tell this isn’t completely already done up. There are some ways that you can rehab it, fix it up, make it look like more. It’s currently being used as a rental, so there’s an opportunity that if you like the tenants, you could keep them, but it’s already been a rental property so it’s appealing to investors. And it’s a decent size. It’s not a terribly small home that has what we call functional obsolescence. If it’s too small, the floor plan is too weird, if there’s a bathroom right next to the kitchen. Those are all less valuable. So, at the first glance, this looked like an opportunity that might be worth jumping on.

Rob:
Yeah, yeah. Honestly, 515,000 for Austin, Texas seems like a decent deal at the moment. So, we’ll just pop the address in here. We’ll do… All right, in Austin, Texas 78749. Purchase price $515,000. Purchase closing cost, I mean, we’re typically budgeting about two percent for this, right?

David:
Mm-hmm.

Rob:
That’s going to be about $10,300. Will we rehabbing this property, David?

David:
I would say, for this one, that’s probably budget about $25,000 for the rehab.

Rob:
Okay, so about $25,000 to repair and then our after-repair value. So, after $25,000 of repairs, tentatively for the ARV, we’re going to put about $585,000 here. Obviously, we can get more granular with this but I think, for the sake of this example, this should work-

David:
Based on some of the other houses that we looked at that were in a little bit better shape, 585 seemed kind of conservative.

Rob:
Right, right. Agree. Okay, cool. So, let’s go to the loan details here. We’re probably going to do a 20% unless your lender is a 25%, but I know that there are a lot of investment loans out there that will do 20% down. If that’s the case right now, what are you doing over at one brokerage right now for interest rates? Are we in the sixes right now for interest rate or in the sevens?

David:
No. For investment property, a lot of them are coming in kind of the mid-sixes.

Rob:
Okay, cool. Yeah, that’s what I’m seeing too. Points for this?

David:
We do no points there.

Rob:
No points. Hey, that’s not bad. Then loan term, are we going to be at a 20 or at a 30 for an investment loan?

David:
Thirty.

Rob:
Okay. Cool.

David:
We’ll go 30.

Rob:
Actually, one of the really nifty details here, whenever you actually put the address of the house into the rental calculator, the BiggerPockets tool here will actually spit out what the gross rental income estimate is for this property. So, the median rent for this property would be $1,760 per month.
Now, let’s hit our expenses here really fast. I know in Texas, I believe the property taxes here are like 1.25% annually?

David:
No. I think it could even be higher than that in some places. I think we should be conservative and probably use about two percent for property taxes.

Rob:
Okay, so two percent’s going to be $10,300. I just math that out really fast, and also that was our closing cost, so I’m really not that smart but it sounded cool. And then insurance, annual on a property like this? I mean, I don’t know. That could be anywhere from 1,200 to $2,000 is my guess. I mean, I guess it could be up to $2,500 depending on the Austin market, but what should we input for that?

David:
Yeah, it depends how high you put your deductible. I think 1,200 a year would be good.

Rob:
Great. Repairs and maintenance, vacancy, capital expenditures and management fees. What do you typically budget for your repairs and maintenances whenever you’re doing this?

David:
We usually go 5% for repairs and maintenance, 5% for vacancy, 5% for capital expenditures. Management fees can be about 8% and then the rest of these, electricity, gas, water, sewer, those are typically tenant paid.

Rob:
Right, right. Exactly. Cool. So then, we’re going to finish the analysis here and it should calculate for us exactly how this deal would perform for us. So how does that work? All right, so according to the calculator here this deal is actually in the red. It is a negative $2,206 per month in cash flow. You’re losing $2,200 a month on this guy.

David:
Yeah, and you probably wouldn’t have known that if you didn’t have a calculator like this that would get you this information really fast. Because at first glance this deal looks pretty promising. It’s got a lot of the things you hear us talk about on the podcast; it’s in a great market, it’s in a great neighborhood, it’s already being used as a rental and there’s value-add opportunity. This is some of the big stuff that you’re looking for. A lot of people would pursue this deal, put a lot of time and energy into it and only after hours and hours and hours of their own time was put into it they realized, “Oh, I’m going to be bleeding $2,200 a month if I buy this property.”

Rob:
Yeah. I mean, this is really… Honestly, I agree. If I saw something like this, I’d get excited because right now Austin is the hottest market in the country, right? In theory, almost anything out there should pencil out just because of the demand. But just running the numbers here, the actual mortgage payment on this property is $2,600 a month.
And so, if the median rent here is $1,700, then just right there alone, we’re negative 500 bucks in cash flow and that’s not including vacancy, CapEx, anything like that. So, right off the bat, how long did this take us? Five minutes? Five minutes just saved us 15% more on our car insurance and from a really, really bad deal.
Here’s the cool part about this calculator. Even if you’re not a pro member on the BiggerPockets website, you actually get to use this calculator five times. Five times for free. Now, if you’re a BP pro member, you get unlimited uses of this. If you’re actually very serious about analyzing deals, in my mind you should be hitting deals five times a day, personally. I think if you’re serious about it, you want to get started committing, learning and planning, analyzing a deal is perhaps the most important skill that you’re ever going to have in your whole entire real estate career because it’s what’s going to save you money and it’s also, what’s going to make you money.
So, you get five for free whether or not you’re a member but, yeah, the unlimited use for me has really come in the clutch because we’re doing this so many times every single week at this point.

David:
Yeah, and it has a psychological effect as well where real estate now doesn’t feel as intimidating. You’re not afraid, like, “Oh, my God, what if I get the wrong deal?” There’s this, I don’t know what to expect, so what if is constantly running through your mind.
When you’ve got a tool like this, it answers the majority of those questions for you very quickly, easily, without a ton of energy. Psychologically, it becomes much more easier to feel confident in what you’re doing.

Rob:
So, if you want a negative 20% cash on cash return, this is the deal for you. We’ve analyzed it. All right, maybe it doesn’t pencil out right now, but now I want to get into actually funding the deal and maybe talk about a few creative solutions. Is there anything here that we can do to make this deal make sense?

David:
Well, the first thing that you got to look at in a situation like this is can I add additional revenue? There’s got to be a way that you can bump up the money that’s coming in if you wanted to pencil out so you could reanalyze it. Instead of saying, “Hey, what can I rent the entire house out for,” you could say, “What can I rent a room out for?” You may get more per room if you multiply what you get per room time every room versus what the house is going to rent for.
You may look into doing a conversion. Can I turn the garage into a separate unit? And then the last thing would be, can I build an ADU? Can I put a tiny house in the backyard? Is the lot big enough? What options do I have from there?

Rob:
I will say, I remember there was a BiggerPocket episode, singular pocket, BiggerPockets. There was a BiggerPockets episode that I listened to a couple years ago. It was a gentleman that you had on from Seattle and he was really big on student housing and he had a house-

David:
Todd, I believe.

Rob:
Okay, Todd. He had a house where, it was basically, he was looking for four or five bedrooms and he was tossing like people in every single room and he was making crazy return. I love that strategy. For something like this, maybe this house is only going to bring in $1,700 a month. It doesn’t really work, but I know that it’s close to one of the colleges out in Austin. So, what if you chopped it up a little bit and you rented each room, now you’re looking if you could charge 800, 900 bucks a room, maybe even $1,000 a room depending on the amenities that you’re offering, now this deal starts to work a little bit more. Obviously, I’m going to be partial to the ADU because I built a tiny house in LA. That to me was something that really made that deal pencil up for me and that tiny house now is bringing anywhere from 2,500 to $3,000 a month. The mortgage on my LA property is $4,400 a month. So, it just chops a significant amount of my mortgage just by adding an ADU.
So, there’s a couple creative solutions there. We don’t have to get into the nitty gritty, but I think any of those three can work. This could even work as a house hack too, if you want to live in the main bedroom and then rent out the other two rooms. I mean, that would be great. If you want to do the STR house hack where you rent out each room on Airbnb and charge $50 a night, that could work too. So many solutions here that could make this deal work.
Lastly, now that we’ve figured out funding it and making it work and making it pencil out, if we’re able to do that with this property, the final step here is honestly kind of… It’s a few, but they all go hand in hand together and that’s going to be buy it, right? Close on it and then manage it. Whether you’re self-managing it or you’re hiring a property management company to do it, that is eventually just going to lead to building the wealth of your personal portfolio because if you self-manage it, you’re going to save money. That’s money that you’re going to be able to save and reinvest a lot more. If you decide to give it out to a property management company, well now it’s a completely passive investment. If it’s a completely passive investment, that also puts you a little bit closer to that path towards financial freedom because you’re now making passive income versus active income.

David:
There you go. That’s it. We did it.

Rob:
We did. We analyzed a deal here in, I don’t know, 40, 50 minutes. The actual analysis of the deal took us five minutes. It helps to run this exercise over and over and over again, which is why that calculator has been so clutch for us whenever we’re actually looking for our deals too.
So I don’t know where everyone’s at today in their investment journey. I mean, we have a really big audience and everyone’s just in their own step, in their own journey. But I do know that there’s one thing that’s true for all newbies, for all the green investors, all the rookies out there that are looking to get started today, the one truth is that it’s scary. It’s scary. It’s a scary thing to get into your first deal. It gets less scary as you go, but you should use that fear to drive you a little bit. Turn your fear into curiosity. That’s how I always approach all of my deals.
This is what it looks like to jump into real estate. The exercise that David and I just ran, we literally just analyzed a property and we took action. This is what it can look like for you too, but you can only ever get started in real estate if you take action.

David:
Yeah. This brings us back to when we said the first step is you have to commit. The first step to action is not getting out of doing something, the first step in action is committing to the process of doing something because there’s always going to be something that makes you want to quit.
I like to look at using tools like this as a sign that I am committed to something. If I started a construction business and I was a contractor and I was going to go out and I was going to build a deck in someone’s backyard, and that was my business, I was going to build decks or build fences, do some kind of woodworking, if I was not committed to that, I would buy the cheapest thing I could or borrow a hammer, get a bunch of nails and I would put them in one by one. I would manually put in every nail because it’s the cheapest way. Therefore, in my head, it’s the last risky.
The problem is it would be so slow going, that as new opportunities came and I could build a new deck, I wouldn’t be able to go do it because I’m still working on the one that I’m trying to put together.
Furthermore, I’m going to hit my finger more times using a hammer. I’m going to bend more nails. It’s going to be overall much more hard on my body and I’m going to get tired faster and need to take more breaks. I’m going to make mistakes, I’m going to do it the wrong way, and I’m going to hurt myself.
It’s the same thing with real estate investing. If you’re trying to do all of this by hand, you’re going to end up losing money and making mistakes that you wouldn’t make if you had a tool.
Now, compare this to someone and buys a nail gun. They load it up with the nails, they go right down, they’re all put in there. They did not make mistakes. They did not get hurt by hitting their thumb with the hammer. They didn’t bend nails. That’s a person who’s committed to working that business, and this is the way that I tend to look at tools. If I’m committed to doing something well, I’m going to invest a little bit of money and time and effort into buying tools to help me do it.
A good example of this, to go back to our gym analogy, is some weight gloves. If you try to go work out and you don’t have gloves, you’re going to get callouses on your hands, you’re going to cut your skin and you’re going to have to take time off from the gym to let yourself heal. If you buy a pair of $25 weight gloves, it is spending a little bit of money, but it’s overall going to make sure you stay in the gym more often and it reduces some injuries.
So, people that are willing to buy… I’m not saying buy a $50,000 truck for your construction business before you have business. That doesn’t make sense. But something as small as a nail gun does.

Rob:
100%. I also want to say, we’re talking about taking action, but if you really want to hit your goals, it’s really more about taking consistent action, right? You don’t just go and bench press one time and then that’s it. You can bench press 300 pounds. Now, you have to do it routine. It’s got to be your regimen. You got to be doing it weekly, right? You got to build those skills.
So, if you’re committed to doing them, you’re committed to taking action and becoming a better real estate investor, then let’s talk about really quickly here how BiggerPockets Pro can help you get into more deals faster with less risk.
BiggerPockets Pro also helps you become a better investor with curated articles and video content. You get webinar replays and exclusive articles covering everything you need to know to make smart investments and avoid bad markets. If I’m not mistaken, David, I think you actually have a little workshop in there that people can go and watch.

David:
Yeah. Brandon and I made a series on buying with no and low money down, that was fantastic. It’s probably, I think, the best work that he and I ever did together. When we were making it, we just knew, like, God, this is so good.
You can access that video and then there’s a lot of other ones. Every webinar that BiggerPockets has ever done, you get access to those. You get access to videos that Brandon did where he interviewed experts on things like driving for dollars, door knocking, using relationships to get deals where he interviewed experts in those fields. The information’s out there for everybody to watch, as well as things like world renowned economists, different, BiggerPockets personalities like Anson Young talking about finding and funding great deals. There’s stuff in there for specific to investing in Canada or SEO-related information. Basically, specific niches within real estate investings where we at BiggerPockets have interviewed experts in there and have made that content available only to pro members.

Rob:
Yeah. It is a wealth of knowledge in that vault, so I definitely recommend diving into that the moment you become a prom. Also, once you become a pro, you get the bragging rights. You get a little pro badge there that shows next to your name that shows people that you’re serious. You get that badge of honor that shows up next to your name that everyone can see on the forum. If you’re vain like me, that’s always very important.
Aside from that too, you can save time and money and, honestly this one comes into clutch often, minimize all of your risk with lawyer-approved lease documents for all 50 states. If you’re in the long-term game and you’re using lease a lot, boom. We supply you with a whole library of documents that you can use, and they’ve already been vetted by the BiggerPockets legal team.

David:
Yeah, that’s big because some people like to manage their own properties. If that’s you and you don’t want to have to try to figure out, like, hey, is this lease good or where do I get a lease, you could download it right off of BiggerPockets. They’ve already had lawyers look over it and give it the good old you’re good to go here.
I feel like just that alone, someone can spend an entire day on Google looking for different lease documents and comparing one to the next. That’ll save a ton of time

Rob:
And I have. And you also save thousands of dollars on loans and other tools that you’ll use in your overall real estate business with BiggerPockets perks, plus you’ll get access to discounted educational boot camps. I know Tony Robinson just did one on short term rentals. Very good feedback from everybody. Everybody loved it. All these boot camps all focus on very specific niches from some of the best pros in the industry.
Another thing, when you got a glimpse into this earlier, you can also accurately estimate rental rates based on local property comp. You can put in your address and the BiggerPockets Rent Estimator tool will help you understand what the possible projections are for that specific property.

David:
Yeah, and that is also huge. What we’re basically looking to do is take away all the points where an investor starts down the journey or starts up the journey, I should say, because this is typically an uphill battle, you’re going to get some exercise but you only get the best view at the very top and you get stuck. It’s like you’re walking, there’s a dead end, I don’t know what to do. That’s when people quit or they turn around and they go back downhill. So, the lease documents is one that people get stuck on.
Not knowing what income to expect, right? The calculator will help you figure out all your expenses, but you need income to put into it to know what to get. Well, the rent estimator tool is very accurate. I rely on it all the time, and it does the work for you. You type in the address of the property you want and it goes, boom. Here’s what you can expect to get for rents and then here are all the comparables that we’re pulling this from. And, oh yeah, click on that comparable and look to see and verify that it does look like your property. It makes it incredibly easy.

Rob:
Right. Ultimately, it just saves you money in the investments that you’re making, which kind of bring me, today, we actually have an offer out. If you decide to become a BP Pro today, you’ll actually save 20% on your annual pro membership. In order to do so, whenever you go and you sign up, just make sure to use promo code REPOD22 that’s R-E-P-O-D 22.
Just for clarity, I know a lot of you are probably wondering how much is BiggerPockets Pro. Annually, BiggerPockets Pro is typically $390. But, again, if you sign up today, after that 20% discount, it is $312. It’s pretty significant, 78 bucks that you just saved today. Most of you were probably already going to sign up for BiggerPockets Pro. If you’ve been thinking about doing it, I would hop on this because the 20% isn’t really around all the time.
So, if you’re looking to take action and get started today, all you have to do is go to biggerpockets.com/proupgrade. Again, the promo code for that is going to be REPOD22, and that’s going to save you 20%. That’s R-E-P-O-D 22, and you’ll get 20% off of your pro membership when you do that.
There’s a ton of other perks that are associated with this, by the way, that we didn’t even get into because we’re running short on time, but just know that there are so much more than we just discussed.
So, truly, you have nothing to lose here. I mean, it’s a 30-day money back guarantee. I think this is about as safe of an investment as you can make because there’s no refunds in real estate, usually.
With all that, I mean, you just took this journey with me and Dave just on this deal, but also, if you’ve been following along in the podcast, you know that we’re taking a journey that we’re letting everyone follow along with. We just bought a $3.25 million house in Scottsdale, Arizona. We’re excited to share that with you because we really do believe in transparency, sharing with the audience, bringing people in with us, and sharing the insight so that you can learn as well.

David:
Yeah, that’s exactly right. I got to say, that property felt like getting to the top of a hike and having the amazing view. I mean, it has amazing views that might be [inaudible 00:56:18] like that.

Rob:
It has an amazing view, yeah. Yeah, yeah for sure.

David:
But it wasn’t just… Other decisions I made were a good business decision, and so it was kind of like, hey, I hiked to the top and now I get to rest. I feel good about myself. This was amazing. It felt so good. It was one of those things where you’re like, this is why I’ve been working so hard and delaying gratification so much. Let’s get access to properties like this that are just fun.
I mean, we’re going to make good money with this deal, but we’re also going to make good memories there. We’re going to be able to have masterminds and groups together where we go out and we teach people about real estate investing and we’re going to get to share this with other people, open their eyes, change their lives. But you never would get this amazing view that we got from that property if we were not steady staying on our hike, if we weren’t surrounded by other people that are doing the same things as us, learning from them, helping them and creating community.
In fact, it’s the community itself that’s going to make this property so fun because they’re the ones that are going to be joining with us at the deal. This is why you want to get involved, get a gym membership and get involved in the community, right? Or find a group that hikes with you and go hiking together, whatever analogy you want to use. You want to get deeper into the real estate investing community.
BiggerPockets Pro is probably the biggest and best community of investors in the world. I mean, there are more people. There’s over 2 million members at bigger pockets and many of them are pro members. This is where you get access to the best stuff. The best podcast, the best webinars, the best videos, the best blog articles, the best books. BiggerPockets were dominating pretty much everything in the investing and educational space.
So, this commitment you’re making to get into pro is less than the cost of a home inspection on a condo, okay? Rob, what did we pay for our home inspection on the Scottsdale house?

Rob:
Oh man, 1200 bucks.

David:
Okay. I bet it could have been worse, right?

Rob:
Oh, yeah.

David:
So, this is like four of those basically that you’re going to pay to sign up here that’s going to get you in the door and get you connected. If part of your goal for 2022 was to get into the real estate investing game, this is a great way to do it.

Rob:
Yeah, I wouldn’t downplay the networking here. The forums are popping off all the time. There are icons even within the forums too. We just had Jonathan Greene on not too long ago. He is very iconic in the forums because he’s just helping people. The community helps each other, they answer each other’s questions, they help build each other up. We’re all here to help each other get into our first, second, third, fourth, 10th deal.

David:
Amen to that. One of the things I like to say is if you do nothing right now, 10 years down the road, 10 years has passed. Whether you take action today, whether you don’t take action today, 10 years is going to go by and you’re going to look back and you’re going to have had that time pass regardless of what you did.
So, the 10-year from now version of yourself can either say, “Thank you, 2022, David, for making the decisions that you made that made me more physically fit, more financially fit, better relationships, happier person, better life, better family”; or you can look back and say, “Man, I wish I would’ve done something before.”
This is the same thing. If you start right now and you look back at 2012 version of you. Are you really glad with the decisions you made, what you committed to, what you invested in or are you kicking yourself saying I should have bought more real estate, I should have started investing, I should have got more serious, I should have dove in deeper. If you make a decision right now and you stick with it, is impossible to not be better off five years down the road, 10 years down the road. But if you don’t make a different decision right now, you can guarantee, you’re going to be thinking the same thoughts, doing the same stuff that you are right now, you’re just going to be 10 years older.

Rob:
Yeah, 100%. Look, it might be a little scary, guys, but I personally think that growth comes from fear. I guess I’ll leave it there, man. That was a very impactful word you said there, my friend. Anything that you want to leave the audience with before we go? How about this? Because usually we ask people where, where can people find out more about you, Dave, if t they want to get your awesome knowledge bombs on the interwebs?

David:
You can follow me @davidgreene24. Instagram’s probably where I am most active. I recently got a social media company making some stuff for me, so it’s finally cleaned up and looking like a professional Instagram should. Let me know what you guys think. On TikTok, I’m official David Greene and then on YouTube, I’m David Greene Real Estate. Recently, I just got on CNN and did an interview there about interest rates, what we can expect in the market, house hacking-

Rob:
Yeah, that’s cool.

David:
BiggerPockets, I saw, posted that today. If you guys want to see it, it was like a five-minute section on Mother’s Day, go to my Instagram. You can check that out.

Rob:
Awesome, man. Yeah, I saw that, dude. That’s very cool of you. I don’t know how I can one up that. You’ve done it. You’re a news anchor now.

David:
Yeah, I’m anchorman, but you’ve got that cough. I don’t think you ever have to worry about one upping me as long as you’re rocking that cough.

Rob:
Yeah, I guess that’s true.

David:
And Rob, if people would like to hear more about your stunning success in the tiny home and short-term rental space, where can they learn more?

Rob:
Oh, just the typical channels. You can find me on YouTube at Robuilt, R-O-B-U-I-L-T. You can also find me on Instagram at Robuilt and then on TikTok at Robuilto. Reach out, say what’s up, leave a comment, leave a like.
Yeah, that’s it, man. That’s the show. We did it. We showed people how to get started. If you get started today from this episode, do me a favor, leave us a comment in the YouTube and this video and let us know because we always like to see who out there is taking action.

David:
And if you are on the fence, I highly encourage you, go to biggerpockets.com/proupgrade, sign up for pro. You get a money-back guarantee if for some reason you don’t like it, but it will change the way that you have a relationship with real estate. Your identity will slowly shift into someone who has committed to it, not just someone who’s at the outside of the gym looking at the windows of the people working out wishing you could be in there with them.

Rob:
Yeah. Don’t forget to use promo code REPOD22 for 20% off. With that, David, you want to sign us off here?

David:
This is David Greene for Rob the Improv Abasolo signing off.