BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast - 404: How a Mailman Was Able to Quit His Job Through Real Estate Investing with George Gipson

Episode Date: October 1, 2020

We frequently talk about networking as a real estate investor: for example, talk to your mail carrier because they likely have seen opportunities in your neighborhood. But what if you are the mail carrier? Today’s guest, George Gipson, worked for the USPS when he started investing, which seems like the perfect opportunity for finding deals. But as with any start in real estate investing, it isn’t always as easy as it seems. In today’s episode, we talk about taking action and committing to yourself - to ensure that those key opportunities actually work in your favor. We also talk about how important it is to learn your personal finances before diving into investing, plus how George used house hacking and short-term renting to reach financial freedom at an early stage of his investing. He’s even quit his job at USPS now so he can focus full-time on real estate. This is a real story about getting it done and seeing your own potential. In This Episode We Cover: Investing that doesn’t meet your standard rules of thumb Overcoming issues that might be deal-breakers for other investors Living for free through house hacking and short-term renting Setting up your short-term rentals for success Utilizing your network to find deals Pushing through your commitment to yourself, even when it isn’t easy Finding the path in life that’s right for you And SO much more! Links from the Show BiggerPockets Forums BiggerPockets Podcast BiggerPockets Marketplace Realtor Zillow Trulia BiggerPockets Podcast 393: Campus Maintenance Man to $10M in Real Estate Owned with Rick Jarman BiggerPockets Shirt Check the full show notes here: http://biggerpockets.com/show404 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Bigger Pockets podcast show 404. If you just tell everybody what you do, I told all my coworkers, the babysitter, uncles, aunties, if you tell people what you do, it's always somebody in a situation where they need to get rid of our house. You're listening to Bigger Pockets Radio, simplifying real estate for investors large and small. If you're here looking to learn about real estate investing, without all the hype, you're in the right place. Stay tuned and be sure to join the millions of others who have benefited from biggerpockets.com. Your home for real estate investing online. What's going on, everyone?

It's Brandon Turner, host of the Bigger Pockets podcast here with my co-host, Mr. David Green. Welcome to show 399. David, how you doing? I couldn't be doing better. I'm on the Bigger Pockets podcast. Actually, I probably could be doing better. I'm very sore. I kicked my own butt this weekend running and hiking in the woods.

And so I feel really good, but I'm definitely tired. Getting the goods in the woods, as our friend Tim would say. Yes, he would. And it rhymes. So everyone here that just heard this will remember it. They will remember it. Yep. Anyway, what's up, man?

I know you've been working out a lot. You've been getting all in shape and stuff and looking good. All the gyms are closing California. You've been running. Crazy. Running's working out. That's the same thing. Whatever.

I guess. I think of working out like lifting weights and I think of running like just hell. You got to go like, you got to my buddy Mike says like, what he calls it farm fit or something like that. like you got to get getting in shape with what you have around your house so like benching cows they use veils of hay and they just throw it around their bags to feed like rocky and rocky four where he's out in the woods just using like picking up trees and stuff like that you do you do what you got to do you go get your camera set it up on a little timer then go have a tree hold it up and i want to say that in your instagram david green 24 everyone go to david green 24 on instagram right now and go

look for david's picture of him holding a tree can't you just invite me to hawaii and i can do this with fun stuff in like i'll pick up some water and Yeah, hold it above your head. We'll go swimming or snortling. There you go. You can do like the hair flip thing that girls do with the cool Instagram. I've been practicing that. Just wait.

One of these days, I'm going to unleash it on the world. They're not ready for it. It's like blue steel or like magnum, right? All right, we got it. Yeah, there we go. Green. Magnesia. All right, we're going to get on today's show.

Before we do, let's get to today's quick tip. Today's quick tip is very simple. Earlier we recorded, but it's coming up here. We just got finished recording with today. guest, George, who's awesome. You're going to love him. George tells a story later on in the show about how he bought a duplex and the rents that he found out that was actually being charged were not what the rents were advertised as being charged. So I just wanted to throw this out there because I do mention it in the show. There is something called an estoppel agreement or an estoppel certificate

that you have tenants signed when you buy a property that has already been currently rented. Just throwing that out there. If you're going to buy a property, make sure you search bigger pockets or even Google if you don't like bigger pockets and search for estoppel, E-S-T-O-P-P-E-L, I think. Wow, good job. And thanks. I just wrote that chapter in my book, the multifamily book that I'm writing. And so it's in my head, fresh. I've probably got it wrong.

Now I look like a complete moron. Anyway, don't always trust what agents say is the rent. A lot of times they're writing what the rent could be, not what the rent is. So make sure you verify that before you buy a property. And that is today's quick tip. Trust but verify. That's great. I have an uncomfortable question for you.

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With that, we got to get to today's show. So today's guest is George Gibson. George Gibson, George Gibson is an awesome dude who was a mail carrier. And he's going to tell a story today about how we went from that to full-time real estate investor to the power of just cash flow and doing a little bit of flipping in there. He's got a lot of cool stuff today. A lot of just really good advice. Everything from like I mentioned the quick tip, the estoppel stuff. We talk about what it takes to actually quit your job. We talk a lot about house hacking today. We talk a little bit about buying at auctions and so much more. George is just a bundle of energy and I think you're like a show.

By the way, just a quick word of, I don't know, warning. It's not really a warning, but right in the middle of the show or towards the end of the show, George's microphone gave out so we switched to his other microphone. So if you're all of a sudden here, a change in microphone sound, don't get panic. It's not your audio in your car. It is just the change of microphone. And yeah, be aware what that said. Anything you want to add?

Nope, let's bring him in. All right. Let's get to today's show with George Gibson. All right, George, welcome to the Bigger Pockets podcast, man. Good to have you here. How you doing? Oh, thanks for having me, man. Yeah. So I want to hear a little bit about your story. I mean, like getting into real estate, obviously.

But I know you were a mail carrier. Is that correct? Yes. Tell us about that. All right. So basically, I was a mail carrier. I graduated college and I didn't use my degree right off the rip. I became a mailman at the post office.

So I worked for the post office for maybe six years. And the first year at the post office, I was listening to music, music, music, right? So I'm driving the mail truck. I'm listening to music. I ran out of all the songs to listen to. And I've come across podcast app, right? So when I come across the podcast app, I type in like success, motivation, real estate.

And over time, I discovered the podcast. It was like, right, episode in the 50s. So, yes, that was the best. beginning, right? Yeah, that was a while ago. I literally remember where I was at when I listened to my first episode. I was just thinking about today, like what street I was on. So I listened to the episode and I was delivering mail.

I listened to the first episode and I pulled over and I was like, it basically like, this is me right here. I comprehended everything this guy just said. So I'm on the side of road. So whenever you see a mailman on the side of the road and he's just looking at his phone, probably looking for the next podcast. I went back to episode one and I started from now. And my journey, I listened to the podcast every third.

Thursday. And for five years, I was at the post office. And when I first discovered it, I didn't purchase, I didn't have any rental properties. And I just listened and kept learning. And then my goal became to, you know, I want to leave my job by buying rental properties. So like today, last year, back in May, I quit my job. And I didn't have any properties when I quit, but I quit my job. And I basically, some guy told me, George, when you put two feet in the real estate game, you're going to take off. And that's basically what happened. and like I got in real estate and now I got 12 properties, mostly single family and went in duplex.

That's awesome, dude. All right. So I love that you just said, like somebody said, once you jump in full time, you're really going to take off. Because I think that's the way for a lot of people. Like people are like toying around with it. They like the idea of it. And they've got the intelligence to be able to do it.

They got the education. They obviously know what they're doing enough. But their job holds them back. So it's cool that you were actually able. So you quit your job at some point to jump. in full time. Yes. I mean, it was scary. And, you know, I listened to all the podcasts and they say you want to have maybe making exactly what you're making at your job and run their income. But it was like, like for people listening, what I'm about to say today, you have to believe

what I'm saying because everything like Brandon Davis say, it works. Like my people at the job, they would be like, man, you can't buy that house or even family members. Oh, that's not a good deal. But the people you're asking, maybe don't even have any rental properties. So they don't see the vision. So my friends was like the podcast guest. That's awesome. All right. Let's go back to the beginning then.

How did you get your very first property? All right. So my first, when I discovered podcasts, I was living at my parents' house. Me and my wife, oh, my girl, she was my girlfriend at the time. But I was living at my parents' house and I had started listening to bigger pockets. So even though it was a personal home, I knew at the end of the day it would have been investment. So I wasn't thinking like I'm going to live here forever. So I started.

doing my research based off the information I knew. And I found a house basically three-bedroom, two-bath. And the crazy part about it is when I googled my address, it was a flip. The person who was doing the flip is a member of Bigger Pockets. So they had put the whole deal inside of bigger pockets. So I seen what he purchased for, how much he put into it. And I'm like, I'm buying this deal. You know what I mean? He asking questions on the form. That's funny. So that was my first property. I purchased a three-bearer and two-bath for like $130,000. And I actually, in that deal, the house was in the flood zone. So, you know, I'm this my first time person's a home, and I had no idea about the flood zone.

So once I found out the home in the flood zone, I immediately went to Google and started looking up, should I buy a house in the flood zone? Every post said, do not buy a house in the flood zone. Do not. So I'm like, I made a mistake, you know? So in that situation, I tried to back out the deal, honestly. But, you know, it was investors with the guy and they were starting to sue me for $10,000. And I'm like, I don't even have $10,000.

How are you going to sue me? But that was my first deal. I ended up buying that house and I stayed there for a while. Then I sold it. When I sold it, I made like $20,000 profit. And I was like, that was the most money I ever had at one point in time at that time. Okay. You've said two things I want to comment on.

The first was this one right. here. Everyone said don't buy a house in a flood zone followed by. I sold it. I made $28,000 and I went on to my next thing. Your first deal, you didn't know exactly what you were doing. You found it in on the bigger pockets forums, I'm going to guess, or maybe the marketplace. Is that where I was? No, the house was listed on the MLS. But the person who did the flip, they were asking questions on the forum. Gotcha. Okay. And the second thing you said was everybody says don't leave your job until you've got the same income from real estate investing. And what I'm getting at here is I don't like the hard and fast rules.

Yes, this is the way you're supposed to do it. Okay. It doesn't work that way. We see this with like a bird deal. You're supposed to get 100% of your money out. So if you leave 11% of your capital in that deal, you did a bad deal. Well, that's not true because if you compare that to the 20 or 25% you would have left in it, plus the rehab cost, that's a way better deal.

a third of the money. And I hear it with house hacking. Well, the house should pay for 100% of your income. Well, that's not always realistic. Some of these houses were helping people with in the Bay Area, their mortgage would be seven grand, instead it's two grand. That's a five grand net to them. That's so much better than if 100% of their money came back that was $2,200 a month. It's more than double what the other person would be. Or like everyone, everyone has to get the 1% rule or the 2% rule. It's the only way, like you have to get this rule. I can't buy it. My cash and cash return is 50 is not 15. It's 14.7% and I can't go for it. And then you look at like five years down the road and their rents have increased so much that it's blown away that 15%. But the person who bought the one

that did meet there, I'm just using 15% as a hypothetical number. The rents haven't gone up at all. Right. Right. You can't create this hard and fast way of looking at this. I much rather prefer to look at it like would I be better off if I bought it or if I didn't. It's just a much better metric to look at then does it meet 100% of my needs? And as we go through your story, what I wanted to point out was that none of everything you tell us would have happened if you had listened to the people who said, don't buy a house in a flood zone. Don't do it unless you can get this. This is the only way to do real estate investing. And I'd also like to point out that in five years from now, whatever success you have now will probably be dwarfed by what you get if you

continue to put 100% into real estate investing. So everybody keep that in mind too. Okay, thank you, George. I'll let you continue. George, can you explain for those who don't know, like, what does it mean a flood zone? What does that mean? And I want to talk about that for a minute, too. So I'm in Florida. So a lot of properties are, the older properties are not built up on elevation.

So with that being said, the government thinks that your house is more likely to flood if you have high water. So in this case, this house, it wasn't on a high flood. It wasn't the worst flood zone, but it was in the flood zone. So at that case, whenever you're in the flood zone and you get in a mortgage FHA conventional, you must have flood insurance. And that was like the big kicker to me because you want your payment to be low, but this flood insurance is going to make your payment go higher. Yeah.

Yeah. So flood insurance, I actually built my almost all my first properties, all of them in the beginning were in flood zone areas. Because flood zone areas were just cheaper. Like it was cheaper to buy in a flood zone that was not a flood zone in my town of like Gray's Harbor, Washington. It's funny. Brandon had driven through this town.

All those. houses look like they're built on stilts. Like the whole town, that's how they build them. They build them up. Yeah, it's a different, different type of building. But like, I, you know what? Flood insurance, yes, it costs money. And there is some risk added there because like right now, like this is a kind of like this

is a very short explanation. But right now flood insurance is, would be very, very expensive. However, the government actually subsidizes flood insurance right now. So there's a government program that subsidize it. They have for decades. They've subsidized it because they want people to have flood insurance and not destroy their livelihood because of a flood. Normal insurance does not cover floods. And so you have to get flood insurance. If you're in an area, the government says, hey, this is a floody area. They should just call them

floody area is not flood zones. I think floody area is a better word. So in a flooding area, yes. In a bloody area, you basically said, hey, you have a increased chance. So you have to have this flood insurance and we're going to help subsidize it. So I mean, costs are different depending on what state you are and all this stuff. But it's not, it's not a crazy amount. Do you remember how much your flood insurance was per month? Yes, and that's the crazy part. The flood insurance is only like 300 bucks a year. So I bought another property that's in flood insurance.

It's just when you Google it or ask other people, it's just they say don't buy a house and flood zone. Yeah. And then I just say do the math, work backwards, like run your numbers as needing flood insurance. I mean, like, so we have the bigger pockets, you know, rental calculator and the burr calculator. Like when you're running a number in there or if you just do it on your own method, like put a spot in there just as flood insurance.

Like insurance other flood insurance. So I always add that in if I'm going to look in a flood zone. And yeah, it's definitely not something to be like, it's kind of like people who say you shouldn't buy a house of the bad foundation or you shouldn't buy a house of the bad, you know, whatever. Like, just figure it out. Like, in fact, by doing so, you can get good at something that most people are afraid of. Yes, as a realtor, every deal I help customers.

And maybe they find out that the water pump is bad or the septic tank is no good. And the first thing they do is scratch off the whole deal saying they don't want to buy the house. And me, as an investor, I tell them, all right, find out how much it costs to fix it. So now how much it costs to fix it, I usually just attract that from the purchase price and make my offer. And we go from there. Yeah, every problem we've got a number. That's exactly. I think the first show I ever hosted with you, Brandon, that's what I said is you'd ask me about lead-based paint or termites. All these things that people say, never do it. No, just take the problem, turn it into a number and make the numbers work.

Numbers are the common denominator. So if someone says, oh, the foundation's going to cost 50 grand, Well, if you get a $150,000 discount and then maybe you know someone that does foundations, they can do it for $30,000, that's actually a good thing to look for. You should be grateful that there is a foundation problem. I love that advice you're giving shortages. So don't just automatically disqualify a deal. Look at it and say, can I handle this and how do I make the numbers work? Correct.

Cool, man. All right. Well, let's go into the rest of your story. So you bought this first house. It was a flip, right? Well, I lived in it for almost two years. Okay. And, you know, my relatives, I was watching houses go up for sale.

And I was like, I wonder, could I sell it? And she was like, yeah, it don't cost you to list it. And at the time, I didn't know. So I was like, let's list it for sale. I sold it. It took about three or four months. And when I listed the property for sale, I had somebody turned the garage into a third bedroom. So in the image for the relative picture, when you, the garage is down, they think they got a garage.

Well, when you lift it up, it's only half a garage. So I had like 30 people come look at it. And when they lift that garage up, it completely turned the deal off. So I've told the relative maybe I should, you know, add a driveway on the side. She was like, do not spend any money on this house. Do not spend any money. You're selling it. But I went in and did it anyway.

I painted the house, put the driveway. And the next person who came, they put it in an offer. So you got to, I went with my gut, you know, as an investor. A realtor investor, I think sometimes I have two different mindsets. Yeah. Yeah, it's smart. Sometimes like you just got to kind of go with your gut, figure out. out what you think is going to be best there.

The bedroom in the garage, basically you added a bedroom, which made the garage way smaller. The person did, okay. So that made people, that made people feel weird about the house. Yeah, it looked like a full garage,

but you lift it up, it was like a half of garage. So that's what messed that deal up. Well, it was also a two-bedroom house, not a three-bedroom house because that third bedroom was in the garage, right?

It's not in the garage. They converted the garage into a third bedroom. So now you have a bedroom. So it was a three-two, basically. So what made me in the first place wanted to sell that house was I was listen to the podcast and people were always talking about buying the duplets

living in one side, rent another side out. So immediately at my job, I had this three-bedroom, two-bath house. I had bought a dog. I had two cars, two car payments, and it was going to work. Me and my wife both working at the post office. We're going to work, we come on, we eat dinner, go to sleep, do it again. And I was like, this can't be the rest of my life.

You know, like adulthood. I was really stressing out. Not stressing out, but I was like, this can't be like the best part of life. So as I listed a podcast, you know, they say you can live for free if you buy a duplex. So I sold a house. I got this money in the bank. Now I'm looking for a duplets. And I thought it would be easy to find a duplets because, you know, you're looking for it.

But every duplex came up, the numbers were not working. So I come across one day, I'm just scrolling on MLS. Not MLS. I wasn't a realtor at the time. But I'm scrolling on realtor. And I see a house. it says mother-in-law suite. So I said, maybe this will work.

So me and my wife, we know, we called a relative. She's booked the appointment. We came and looked at the house. And immediately I looked at the whole house. And then we went and looked at the mother-in-law suite. And the mother-in-law suite was completely brand new. Like, I mean, the whole house was kind of older, but the mother-in-law was brand new.

I'm like, this is perfect. I can rent this part out and live in the big part. So we ended up putting an offering on that house. And that's kind of like what got me. able to save up money because now I'm living in I got my house I'm living in the house but we Airbnb out the mother-in-law suite in which it covered the entire mortgage so basically we're living for free at this at that time you know that's awesome I love the Airbnb house hack strategy I think that I mean right now at this time of COVID at least in a lot of areas

it's not necessarily the best idea but like I've always loved it and I still will always love that strategy because it's just so solid you live in you're living in the unit so it's easy to turn it over you can do the work if you want to now you're you're you can hire a cleaner if you really don't want to. And you just get more rent ideally. And you're paying for your own internet anyway. So it's like they can have the internet. And you're paying for your own water anyway.

So who cares if your extra unit has that? So that's smart. Yeah, that whole house hacking thing. That's why David and I talk a lot about it because it's like once you're living for free, now you can legitimately save money versus all the financial pundits out there like just don't drink your coffee every morning and you can save 12 cents a day. And after 89 years, you'll have enough to live on social security. Spam. It's like, I don't know. It's like the common advice. All right. So you bought,

you buy this duplex or this house with the mother-in-law, which by the way, is a fantastic just tip for people. It's like when you're looking on like realtor.com or Zillow or Trulia, look for those things. You can even set up keywords with things like mother-in-law or ADU or those terms that like a lot of agents don't even realize what they're putting on the market is a big deal because they're just like, oh, whatever. It's just a, you know, a little I don't know. Most people aren't going to want that. They don't want to be landlords. They don't realize that that is a gold like nugget for somebody. And the lady I bought the house from, you know, she didn't even rent that part out.

She used the whole house and it was by herself. So that was like if the mortgage was too much, that was the perfect opportunity to rent that part out. Maybe and that's what Brandon always talk about the tool belt. My like, like listen to the podcast. I had every, I felt like I had every tool belt to conquer any deal. So I would, when I seen that, I seen dollar signs, you know. And it worked out. perfect because once we started living there and the Airbnb's up and running for we became a super host and became a super host so it was just fully rented out until up until COVID to kind of slowed it down so we just turned into a regular rental but that was like that was the starting point

to saving money because you can't be a real estate investor without learning how to budget and save money first that's like the first step to even thinking about becoming a real estate investor do you have any tips for people who want to want to do that like they want to they have a duplex or They want to buy a duplex or a house with an ADU. And like they want to do the Airbnb thing. Just what have you learned over the past few years of doing it and trying it out? Like what worked? What didn't work?

What advice can you offer? Well, I can say if you, for your first time once you, if you find a duplex or a house with an extra guest house on it, some of the things I would say is it was my first time becoming a landlord, really. So I learned that one thing for Airbnb is a smaller place is easier to me. managed. So I also have a three bedroom Airbnb. And the difference is if you got like a mother-in-law or a little one bedroom place for Airbnb is much easier to clean because for a person for Airbnb, some people book a bedroom house and say it's one person and then like 10 people show up. So you know, you got a lot of mess to

clean up. So I found out Airbnb for me, I like smaller space. And then also as far as being a landlord, you have to get the right tenant in there. I have Airbnb, I have people a book for a month. And then in my case, I'm in a quiet neighborhood. So a person to book it and they like to sit outside and drink or do outdoor activities. And this type of neighborhood is not for that type of environment, like a beach house or something, beach Airbnb. It's more like a person who is working in town. They need to rent it out. So you need to let the person who's booking it know more details than what you expect. Like if you don't want no smoking outside, which I don't like, you need to let the people know because it become a hassle because you're living on that property and you got to

see it and deal with them people. That's really good advice. I mean, that applies to all landlord. It's just like establish upfront your criteria. And like this is what we allow, this what we don't allow. And it just makes it like the whole process so much easier. It's in writing. You can be like, hey, look, man, you signed this thing or you know, I said this in the listing

ahead of time. It makes management a whole lot easier when you kind of manage their expectations up front. Right. Yeah. Very cool. All right. So by the way, what market is this in?

Is that, is it like that? It's a smaller town. Vero Beach, Florida is probably like, like our north of West Palm Beach or hour from Orlando. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love Orlando. I love Disney.

Come on. So is this near the beat? I mean, are people staying here because they want a beach vacation? Like, a lot of people are thinking, well, I don't live on a beach in Florida. I can't have a vacation rental. Is that what yours is? No, Airbnb is for people. It's almost cheaper than a hotel.

You know, in my case, it's a studio apartment, basically, mother-in-law suite. So people that book it, for the most part, they are traveling. They may be going to weddings. or we're not, I mean, I'm like seven minutes from the beach, so I don't really advertise that it's a beachfront property, but if you want to drive to the beach, you're not that far away. So, I mean, Airbnb being far before it is, it was just people book it because it's more convenient than a hotel and you can almost live like a local rather than living like a visitor sometime.

Yeah, I think that's a huge misconception when it comes to vacation rentals or short-term rentals is they think you have to be at Disney World or whatever. But if people travel to your place, if there are, like, I mentioned my thing, if there is any hotel in your area, you could likely have a vacation rental or a short-term rental because people are obviously traveling there. If there's a hotel for business or for weddings or whatever, yeah, I think that's smart. All right. So what came next? So, all right, I'm saving money in this house. And while I'm at the post office, you know, this is like the perfect job for a real estate investor. I know where I'm like, it was like a disguise with God because if I wasn't in the office, you know, I'm in the office, you know,

that mail truck, I want to learn the market like I do now, like I know the market now. So I'm driving literally every street, every road, and I'm just, I'm paying attention. I'm listening to podcasts. So I'm listening to people who are doing real estate, but I started learning what to rent for. I talked to every landlord on my route. I like, I can recognize the landlord. Like, I recognize them. So I'm getting advice from them.

And my next deal was I seen a house, a guy standing outside. It was a vacant house. And I stopped in the mail truck. know, I pulled over. I walked in the house. I said, hey, this is your house? He was like, yeah, I'm here in town from Oklahoma. I'm fin the auctioned off on Saturday. So I said, wow, I might be interested. So he said, yeah, show up to the auction on Saturday. Well, I work on Saturday. So I hope the post office is not listening, but I don't work anymore. But I made my route, I made my route where I basically, when the time came near, I made it so I was by that house.

Oh, that's awesome. Oxygen was like 10 o'clock. So I was doing my route, doing my route. And at like, 9.55, I, like, made sure I was right there in front of the house. So it's maybe like 10 people out there. They started auction off. And I told my wife not to go over 49,000. We're there together. And the auction get up to 48, 49. I don't know how to stop bidding. That's like my hardest part. Like, I, like, I have to have my wife. I, this is the number. I'm telling you now, do not let me go over it. But I said 49, I end up bidding up to 52,000. And it's an auction. Certain auctions are they don't have to, the owner don't have to accept the, the deal. So basically it ended at $5,000. The owner, he accepted the offer, but the auction company,

they thought that the owner would not accept the offer because he was spent to get like $70,000 from it. And they were like, we would have bought it if he was going to sell it for that low. So, you know, I had a 30 days to close on it and I had a line of credit already set up. And basically, I bought that house for $52,000. And then after I bought it, I was planning on going to the bank to get a loan on it. But at the time I could not get a loan. So I was like, I guess I just sell the house. So I put it for sale for like $80,000 and it ended up selling for $75,000. And it took like two months.

And I made, yeah, it was like almost $20,000 right there. And I was like, that was crazy. I only make this much, like in my job, it takes me out of the taxes. You make like $35,000 a year. This took two months, you know, and I made this much money. And I didn't have to do anything to the house. I sprayed air fresheny in it, trimmed at the front tree, and it was ready to go. And that was like my first, like, that was my next.

Big flip. I mean, first flip and making that type of money. Can I, can I bring up a point here real quick? Which I love is that like what you did there. Some people might be listening to this going, well, you know, well, you were a mail carrier. So you were driving around. Of course, you saw that deal when it came up. But the truth is we all drive around all the time. We're going places, right? So what I would advise people is like, don't think like you were a mail carrier so you were driving a lot. But like every time you drive, are you looking for those opportunities? And then most importantly, are you getting out of the car? Like what you did that most people will never do is you got out of the car. You saw a person at a vacant house and you went and

talked to them. You got out of the car. And so 99% of people I talk to that want to get into real estate will never get out of the car. They want it handed to them. They want an easy deal. They don't want to have to talk to people. They want things simple. And it's not like it's hard to talk to people, but we all just don't do it. And so I just want to, yeah, congratulate you on getting out of the car. And you may not be driving around looking at houses, but how many people work with others at their job and they never talk about real estate to him? It's easy to say, oh, well, George sees houses driving around his mill truck. I would argue George is at a disadvantage, not talking hardly anybody being isolated in a truck all day. I mean, he gets to listen to podcasts, but you don't get to talk to people and tell

him, I want to buy a house. If you work in an office with 50 to 100 people in it, you have the chance every day to talk about real estate and have one of those people come say, hey, my friend's grandma just died. I think that they want to sell the house off market. or all kinds of opportunities come up and people won't take them. They won't do their equivalent of getting out of the truck and going to engage with somebody. So props to you, George, for doing that. Yes. And also, David, I had, by the time, like, I started listening to Bigger Pockets, I had all the

mail carriers, like, you have a duplex. Because I was really interesting duplexes. So I'll tell all the carriers, you have a vacant house. They was, like, right down the address. And we get back to the office at 5 o'clock, and they give me a piece of paper. I got, like, seven addresses on it. So, you know, I was always, like, I was letting everybody know what I do. And the key, I mean, one of the part of my success, I think, is when you talk to an owner,

a lot of times I talk to the owner and they want to help me sometime or it's just we talk and we just have a common bond and they make the deal happen. Yeah. Yeah. I love the tip. And I've heard of other people saying this on the podcast before. I've never done it. And I'm sure you've heard it as well, George.

It's like, yeah, talk to your mail carriers. They see every house in the neighborhood. So, like, you know, hey, you see any vacant houses? You know any houses that are looking like they're, you know, distressed? Do you see anybody obviously going through foreclosure? Like, let me know, you know, maybe even offer them some kind of peace or something. Like to have those conversations with people who are in the, and it's not just mail carriers too, right? It's anybody who just drives around a lot for their job.

To talk to those people and get them hunting for deals for you. So you had a guy in your podcast, right? He was a good. It was a wholesaler in my area. And I was like, wow, this guy is so close to me. Let me reach out to him. So I reach out to the wholesaler. And, you know, immediately he's like, okay, that's great.

can help you. I have a course, $2,000, $3,000, and not $2,000, but like $2,000. And I'm like, it all sounds the same to me. I don't have that money, right? They invest in a course right now. So he said, how about this? You're a mailman. Do you have any vacant routes on route? I was like, yeah, I got a lot. And he was like, well, I do your deal. You give me the vacant houses in your route, and I'll help you out. So the next day, I'm excited. I'm probably misdelivered mail because I'm so worried about looking for the vacant houses. So I got my notepad on my phone pulled up. and I'm driving.

It probably took me like, well, after an hour, just do this route because I keep stopping to put these vacant houses in my phone. So I had like 50 houses. I emailed it, text it to him the next day, and he said, great, thanks. If I buy any of these houses, you know, I'd be in touch. So time go by, like money to, the next thing you know, all these houses that I sent the person

and just got trucks out there ripping out the roof, ripping out the windows. I'm like, oh, my gosh. But I never heard anything back, you know, whether he bought it or not. But it was just like, you know, you try so many things with people, but everybody, it got to benefit them at the end of the day, I can say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's cool. Like, first of all, I like the fact that you, like, we're finding, you found a way in your life to bring value to somebody else. Now, whether or not it worked out or not, you know, we'll never really know. But, like, you know, whether or not they bought one. But, like, just the fact that you went out there and you're like, well, I don't have the money for a course and I don't want to spend that. So I'm going to, I'm going to find some way to bring value.

And that's a good way to do it. And then I want to actually just bring up what you were doing. there, something that we call driving for deals around bigger pockets or often called driving for dollars. And there's apps that can help with that. There's an app called driving for dollars. Another app called deal machine. They're both awesome. They can kind of simplify that process. But all you're doing is exactly what George is doing, right? Get your car, drive around, look for vacant properties. Or if you're looking for multifamily, write down the address of every multifamily. If you're looking for apartments, write down the apartment address.

Like whatever, you're just looking for properties. And then you go and contact them later, whether it's what you're going to, you're going to mail them letters. You're going to look up their phone number, find out who the owner is. Like there's all these fancy tools now that can do all that work. It gets you really, I guess, into deals that most people won't do because most people just want to sit at home. They don't want to get in their car. They don't want to get out of the car.

They don't want to do the work. So that definitely applies to every single person here. Especially if you don't have a lot of money right now, that is a strategy everyone can do. For the cost of a tank of gas, you can drive around three, four, five, six hours a week every week for the next three months, write down every property or use all those apps, write down every property and then start contacting those owners. If you get 100 property or 200 on your list, you will buy some of those properties if you're consistent and persistent with it.

I really believe that. Right. And one of the things like people can do like to find deals is because I know mailing out letters, you guys talk about that all the time, that's like a, I don't know the percent of that, but I haven't got a deal like that. But if you just tell everybody what you do, I told all my coworkers, the babysitter, uncles, aunties, If you tell people what you do, it's always somebody in a situation where they need to get rid of a house. So oftentimes, you know, deals are just coming from, if you can talk to the seller directly and they want to sell you the deal, it's so much easier than going back.

If I'm trying to buy a house from David and he's trying to make a $30,000 profit and I'm trying to get a good deal, he don't really have no, he's trying to make his money to move on. But if you have somebody who, they're older, like a lot of people, I buy houses for my 70, 80 years old, And they just looking to get their money and just, they're tired of run a property, basically. Yeah. Yeah, that's something that's easy to forget that we spend all our time saying, how do I find a deal? Where's the deal? How do I get a house? And there's a lot of people that are thinking, I wish someone would just take this problem away from me.

I don't want to own real estate anymore. So I use this analogy. I got an analogy for you. Ready for this one? All right. Did I, I might have already told you this one, David. But it's too late. Now you're committed.

Now I'm committed. I'm going to say it anyway. I said it on a previous podcast. I apologize to everyone, but I'll say it again. Because I was actually proud of this analogy. It was in my, I put it in my new book, The Multifamily Millionaire. Wait, you just set yourself up to quote yourself, didn't you? You said, I have something to say.

I might have said it before. So let me give myself credit for my quote that I'm about to say that I came up with. Nicely done, Brandon. No, listen, listen, man. I set, I put this in my book and I thought, this is a really good analogy. And I'm going to use on the podcast. That's an author that you're quoting. I'm quoting.

Yeah, there's a really wide author. Shut up. Let me tell you the story. All right. So the analogy is, and now the more I say that's the more I think I think I said it on a previous podcast. But the other day I woke up with a headache. Like this happens multiple times.

I wake up with a headache. And I'm like, oh, it's just like a dull headache. It's not terrible. It's enough that's annoying. I drink some water, get some food.

It just kind of gets worse throughout the day. And it just gets worse and worse until later on, I'm like laying on the couch miserable. My head's pounding. And like, I'm just laying there like, oh, come on. It doesn't happen that often.

But when it happens, it sucks, right? Then my wife walks in the room and asks the most annoying question in the world. Well, did you take any medicine for it? And of course I'm like, no. No, I haven't taken any medicine because I never even thought about taking medicine.

I've had this headache. It comes on slowly. Had it been like, boom, you're in pain. What do we do? We go take medicine. But instead, because it came on slowly. This is exactly what happens. It's not an annoying question.

I love my wife. But like, you know, because like, she's so right. She's so right. But I didn't think of it. The same is true for landlords, right? They get this growing headache that grows over time. And they don't think about it as a headache. They just like are annoyed by it and annoyed by it.

And when you show up and be like, hey, I got some hyperbromom. from here for you. All of a sudden they're like, yes, why didn't I think of that? I'm so stupid. So in other words, when you contact existing landlords, a lot of them have headache properties, multiple headache properties, and you contact me like, hey, what property do you hate the most? Like what one causes you the most drama has the biggest repair needs? Which one is your biggest headache? And would you be willing to sell it? If you were to ask me that question today, I'd be like, well, I can name exactly about two or three of my properties that I'd be like, yeah, let's have a conversation about selling them right now

because they are headaches of mine. But I haven't thought about it at all. So, okay, David Green on a one to 10 analogy scale, the DG analogy scale, which is an official thing now, by the way. At bigger pockets, we talk about analogies in terms of where they rate on the DG scale. So on the DG scale, one to 10. From one to David Green, how good is this analogy? Yeah, one to 10. Yeah, exactly. On one to David Green, how good is this analogy?

It's pretty good, right? Well, I'm going to give it a high score seven and a half, particularly because you used headache in both the analogy and the example. I thought that was a good mix. You could have improved it had you brought up the frog in the boiling water argument that people make. If a frog just sits and you slowly increase the temperature, I don't even know if that's real, but people say, the frog will let itself. Oh, that's probably why you left it out because you're science-based analogies. All right. Thank you, accurate. Andrew, over there. Yeah, that's really good. And a point I wanted to make was that we, you also should remember,

part of the power of real estate is overtime. Over time, it is a powerful wealth building tool. But if you're older, you're kind of at the end of your time or coming closer to it, there's not nearly as much appeal for you to own that thing as someone else. At the end of your life, you just want convenience. So when you're starting off investing, you are happy to sacrifice convenience for wealth and for time. And that's why Brandon carries toilets that are actually literally full of poop because he doesn't mind when he's young.

Whereas when you get older, it's not worth it to do that. You're happy to sell it to a brand and let him carry out your poop. Yeah. About a decade. All right, George. When I bought my first rental, I thought collecting rent would be the hard part. Nope. The admin crushed me. Every night was receipts, tax forms, and checking who was late on rent. I kept thinking, if this is one unit, how do people run 10? Base Lane changed that. It's BiggerPockets

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us, you know, and how you became an agent. I know you mentioned that. All right. So, all right, this is a crazy part. I was, I stopped working last year in May. So I'm like fresh off the press. It's like, I'm 31 years old now. And I quit working when I was 30 years old. So it was like on a Monday at the post office. It was a crazy day. I mean, Mel would just through the roof. And I was frustrated. And when I got home that day, you know, I had a headache. I It wasn't feeling good. And I was like, man, I had used to bathroom. So when I used to bathroom, it was like blood in my stool.

So it scared me. Yes. So I'm like, what is going on? So I told me, why is she like, let's go to the hospital? Went to the hospital and they were like, a hemorrhoid had like bleeding. So no big deal. But on the other part, it was like, you still need to go get checked tomorrow to make sure cancer. Cancer coming in people's stools, you know?

So I'm like, huh? So it scared me. I'm scared. So I called the post office and say, hey, I had to go to hospital. Such, such happened. They were like, are you coming in and work tomorrow? I'm like, I just told you what happened, you know? And it felt like they didn't really care what happened.

I need to come do that route tomorrow. So the next day, we made an appointment for like 9 o'clock the morning. My wife called on work. We're driving down, you know, to the post office. I mean, not the post office. I'm driving to the hospital. And, you know, listen to the podcast. A lot of times when I see, like say I see, I want a Ford truck, right?

Next thing, no, I start sending a lot of Ford trucks, right? It just happened like that. So I'm driving to the hospital and I start seeing words say cancer. And on the big old side I said cancer, I'm like, oh man, I just keep seeing this, right? So I said, before I went in there, you know, we prayed and whatnot. And I was like, God, if I don't have it, I would not, I would follow my purpose and, you know, my passion and my dream. So, you know, we went in there, they did the test, whatnot. And, you know, doctor walked in, well, he's like, I got good news. You don't have cancer. And it was like, I got to really live up to what I just told God, you know?

So it's like the next day, it's like a Wednesday. So I called out for the rest of the week because I had the hospital or whatever. So next week, we go out of town that weekend and come back is more weekend at Tuesday. I say it's like Monday night, 3 o'clock in the morning. I supposed to be to work at 7 in the morning. And I'm like, I Google, would God tell me to quit my job? I literally Googled this because I'm going back and forth because I like, I got bills. I just had my first son.

He's one years old. You know, just like everybody in the world, I have, I have responsibilities. So I'm like, he can't tell me to quit my job. So I had turned on the TV.

And you know, like the infomercials they have on, like in the middle of the night. And it was a pastor. And he was like, the answer to your question is yes. The answer to your question is yes.

And I had just Google, you know, shit, got to the group job. So I'm like, I, yeah, it scared me. I'm like,

I threw my phone, I put on the nightstand. I said, that's it. I kind of like, I like, he answered my question so quickly because usually people want like bright signs to see things, you know? And I was like the brightest that ever been. Like I was like, I need to be loud. Like, if you don't want me to go to work when I go outside, all four tires need to be flat. Like that's the type of sign I won't, you know? So when he said yes, like the answer to you, will you be all right? Yes. Will you be able to survive? Yes. Will you make, make me successful? Yes. So that morning, you know, I woke up. I made sure I quit. I took all my post office clothes and put them in a trash bag. took them, threw them in a dumpster.

So I didn't have new clothes that were at work now. So I'm basically eliminating, you know, because I was just scared. Yeah, yeah, basically burnt the ships. So I waited a couple days and then I found out like, I take my two weeks notice in. I walk into the post office, people like,

where are you been? Where are you been? And I had the letter, you know, and I had wrote on the letter, you know, I was basically, I just can't do it no more. And as supervisor, you know, she gave me to look like, you know, most managers at jobs,

they're doing that job. They want you to get the job done, but they know they're going to overwork you to get it done and that's their job. Their job, like my, I've got workers working right now doing floors at a house. And my job is to get them to do as much as I can for like $10, $12 hour.

That's just, you know, I'm hired them. That's my job. So she knows as a mail carrier, we want you to deliver as much mail as possible for as little as middle as small as amount of time because you cost to cost off the last money. So she was like, Like, she almost gave me like a look like, I'm glad you did it because I know I'm putting a lot of pressure on you guys, but you took the chance and left, you know?

People are proud of you. So I was like, I felt some kind of relief out of that. But that was like, that was the end. So next day, honestly, I was like, what am I do? I went to the library and I started applying for jobs. I was so scared. It's funny, you burn the ships and then you went and cut down trees. You're like, you got to build a raft.

They need something. So, but my deal was, all right, because I had basically been saving up money because of the house hack. So, like, people, you're going to just quit your job. I did have a nice savings because I've been living for free, basically two years, saving up, no mortgage, no car payments. So I did, I want to go on. I could survive for a year at least. So I went to a lot of beer. I was like, like, like, bigger pockets say, at least if you do a job, you're not getting paid as much, but I'm happy.

So I apply for a property management job. I got my real estate license. and I know I can manage the property because I help my dad when he managed his properties. So I had an interview and the lady, she told me you go through the interview and long short story, she didn't hire me for the job and I felt like I was qualified. So I'm like, that's it. I'm not applying for no more jobs. You know, I got it.

I always had interviews and I wouldn't get the job. So I was like, I'm not applying for no more jobs. And I basically put my head down and start. I bought my next deal. And I quit in May. I bought a duplice. in September. I bought another house

and the next month after that. And then February, I closed on two more properties. So it was just kind of like, you got to trust your instinct. Like, God, the universe works in your favor

if you're supposed to do it. Like, if I'm trying to run a marathon and I'm running every day, they're going to schedule a marathon in your city, maybe. It's going to give you the opportunity to do it, you know? I was going to say that

when I'm in a similar situation to yours, because I think a lot of people listening can relate to just the question of whether they believe in God or not, should I do this or not? There's this internal feeling of like, is this the right move for me, whether you attribute that to God or fate or the universe? But we all relate to that feeling. And I see a lot of people that handle it the wrong way where they're asking, if this is what I'm supposed to do, make it a downhill path. Make it easy for me to go that road. And if that's not what happens, then they say I'm not supposed to go that way. But how I see that plan on my own life is that I don't see the path go downhill. I feel a drive come inside me that likes that it's hard. I feel this like version of David that rises up and says, I want to lift that weight. I want to run up that hill. I like that it's really hot right now. Yesterday, actually was Saturday, I did 14 miles and it was about 100 degrees and it was up the mountain and then running down. And it was really, really hard. I had to bring a lot of water. I had to hydrate halfway through. but there was a piece of me that was like glad it was hard.

I can't describe it, but it was like there's a little thing that rose up because I knew this is where I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be strengthening my legs and doing this hard thing. And that's how I know it's where I'm supposed to be. It's not that it's easier. It's that there's a piece of you that really wants it. And I know there's people that are listening to this that have that same. I know I'm not supposed to do what I'm doing,

but I don't know what I am supposed to do. And can I get a sign? And what you're saying, I know strikes with a lot of people. And I just want to say, don't wait for someone to make it easier for you. wait for that feeling inside that says, I don't care if it's easy. I want it so bad. I'm going to go do it.

Right. And that's the thing. A lot of people, like even me, I compare my life to Brandon. Brandon, like before you had a million doors, Brandon, like maybe when you had like 50,

you know, I was like, Brandon got 50 doors. I got to get 50 doors. And, but in my real life, nobody got around my surrounding, nobody really got that many rental properties.

So I'm comparing my life to Brandon and people on the podcast, and I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself. So, and I was like, Like, that's kind of, I mean, you don't never feel satisfied. But now I feel like I'm moving like with the earth. Like I'm moving at my pace.

Like the deals I get are the deals I supposed to get, you know. And the fact that I just really didn't want to go to a job, it's just, I'm just happy already. So I feel like now I'm working for like my wife to get out of a job. My family, my parents stopped working. So. Yeah. Let me ask you this. You left the mail route.

You burned your boats and then you went and became a realtor. How's the realtor thing been working out? As a realtor, so far, I mean, I don't, I'm not the realtor like that's going to be on the top 50 list, but I got my real estate license to help me as a real estate investor. Yep. So as a realtor, a lot of times, for me, I get sellers that want to sell that house. So they want to sell that house and I go view the house. When I go view the house, if I, if it's meet my criteria, I always put an offering first before I list it. And that's, I got maybe two or three properties just like that because people called me the one to sell them.

And I go to look at them. I'm like, hey, I can buy this house. I have a lender. And I know it needs this done, this done. Are you okay with this price? And a lot of times, they're like, yeah. But sometimes they're not. If they're not willing to let me buy, I was still listed for sale.

But as a real estate agent, people always say, is it worth getting your license? I don't think it's worth getting a license, but I feel like it's my calling to be in real estate because I help so many people find rental properties or sell the house or buy the house. and I haven't had a deal not go through yet. Yeah, you and I have a similar story because I left my W-2 job in law enforcement, and at one point that's where I felt like I was supposed to be, and it just went away, and I felt like I was supposed to be in real estate.

Now I'm selling houses, and I know it's not something I ever thought I'd do, but it feels like where I'm supposed to be. And to Brandon's point, it sounds like you've just taken listings and added them as a tool to your tool bill. Okay, well, I can't take this down with Burr, the deal down with Burr, I can't take it as a flip.

I can't take it as a rental. They won't sell it to me. I'll just list it for them. Just another move you have in your repertoire that you can take down more deals. And for those type of people, it makes sense to be a realtor. But I agree with you that it doesn't make sense to go do it unless you're committing like, this is going to be my full-time job and this is what I'm supposed to do. It's definitely not something to undertake lightly and just think, oh, just do this.

How hard could it be? Because the mistake people make is they see David making money doing real estate. So then they say, hey, David, I'm going to think about getting my real estate license because I'm making money. And people come up to me saying they want to get a license. And I feel like, like me, I never did good on tests taken. I was like, I felt like state tests, college tests and stuff like that. So my real estate license, like I passed all them tests.

So it's like meant to be, you know, I passed them tests. It's like I never felt a real estate test for some reason. I don't know how I passed, but I pass them. So I feel like it's like destined, you know. Brandon, you kind of mentioned that when you went to move to Hawaii, right? It was a similar feeling. What's that? Like that you were supposed to be there.

Like you mentioned that it just feels like this is home. Like this is where I've been looking for for my whole life. Yeah. Like I like to say like there's that line in C.S. Lewis is like the last battle. There's a book by the last battle. And we're like the, it's basically like an analogy for the end of the world. And so like the world kind of ends, you know. And these kids, the story, it's like a kid's story.

They see like this new place. Like that's basically like synonymous of like the afterlife or supposed to be. Anyway, and they say, hey, look, it looks like our house. But it's like a more real version of our house. And then there's the corner store where we get ice cream. It's like a more real version of our ice cream. Like when I found my house here, it was like, oh, that's like what I, that's the life I, I knew what's there.

But this is like a more real version of my life is what I'm trying to get at, right? Like, it feels like more vivid. And certain areas of my life have been that way. And I think that's kind of what you're saying here is like, all of a sudden you feel like, oh, that's what I'm supposed to do. Like, that's when you find your purpose or your identity or your, you're like, where you're supposed to be aligned in life. It gives you energy.

The lights just kind of move green. Doesn't mean it's always easy. You still have to drive the car, but the lights tend to turn green a little bit more because it's just, that's where you're supposed to be. Yeah, because a lot of deals I had, it takes like five, six months to close. And I feel like if I didn't love this, I would have gave up. So if you didn't love it, you would be like, nah, I'm tired of this. I'm out. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's one of the reasons. Yeah, before we move the deal, deep dive, I want to comment on one thing. This show is a lot about, you know, we're talking a lot about quitting your job and you quit your job and then you got to freak out. You know, like, oh, I got to go find something else. And then you try to apply and it didn't work out. I want to bring up a couple points here. all like real estate is a good way for people to quit their job. However, you have to have income

to support your family, right? And you knew that. That's why you freaked out a little bit. And you decided to go the real estate agent route. Right. You also had the thing that a lot of people forget, and that's you were responsible for a number of years with saving money so you could take that risk and quit your job and then go into real estate full time. So like, I've heard people like who have nothing and they're just completely brand new. They don't, they just get excited and they quit their job right then with no savings. And I would argue that that is, I don't want to say foolish, because I'm sure there's people that have done good and had success, but it is very risky to have no money whatsoever, which is why David and I are such big fans of house hacking. The more you can eliminate your

expenses so you can, A, save more money and have fewer expenses, the quicker you can quit your job. But if you've got to buy the new car, you got to have two cars in the driveway that both have car payments on it, you got to have the nice house with the $3,000 a month mortgage, you got to have the all that stuff, the payment on the couch and the all that stuff in your life adds up to payment and that holds you back. That's the that's the shackles we put on that hold us back from actual freedom and financial freedom in life. So I just encourage people. Like look at your story. It's like look, you didn't go out there and go by the biggest, baddest, nicest house. I'll just encourage people. Save the money. Do it right. Go like keep your expenses lower.

That's how you get financial freedom. That's how you get out of the rat race. And that's how you get into a really like an amazing life like your purpose and life like we're getting at now before we get out of today's show george i want to move over to the last well one of the last segments i think we've got two more but was taking the last segment which we call our deal deep dive these are the same questions we ask every guest about a particular deal that you've done do you have a property in mind that we can kind of tear into a little bit in a good way george all right number one yeah what kind of What kind of property is it? Just what is it?

The first property was a duplettes. Okay. How did you find it? All right. This duplex, it went up for auction. A lot of auction, too. It's one you stand outside and bid on. Oh, this is that one.

Yep. Yeah, these kind of auctions we have. We still have them here. So I went to the auction and I knew my number was like $65,000. So we bid in, bid in. It went up to like $75,000. Cash, you know, you have to close on it. You don't get your money back.

for your 10% down. So I bid up to 65. Somebody outbid me. I was like, I was, I was just hurt because this is one of my first deals. And like, after I quit the post office,

I knew I needed a duplex, you know, some income. So I was like, I had a headache that day because I knew I should have went a bit higher, but I stopped because it's like, it's in the moment when you bid in,

you're like, you know, you don't want to go too high and make a mistake because no inspection or none, you got to buy it. So I stopped and I, I didn't get it.

So maybe like two weeks later, the duplets come up on the MLS, on realtor. I was like, wow. So it was listed for $110,000. I called the agent. At this time, I'm a realtor. I called the agent and I say, I want to put an offer in for $90,000.

Because now I can finance it. I can pay higher. I can just finance it. So he was like, all right, cool. The seller came back at $100,000. I didn't want to go that high, but I didn't say I was desperate, but I really, really wanted a duplets.

Right? So I went up to the $100,000. and I said, but we came at 97,000. I told the other realtor he could keep my commission. That's another trick for people who are realtors. A lot of times I don't even get commission. I give the other realtor to my commission in order for them to make the deal come to me. So I did it, I think 97,500, something like that.

And he'd keep the whole 6%. And he was like, we made it happen. So we under contract. I get the inspection done, inspection, just regular inspection, nothing major. but the appraiser come back at $78,000. You want me to keep going? Yeah. Well, the next question is how did you negotiate it then?

Okay. Yeah, so the appraiser come back at $78,000. You know, I'm buying it for $97,500 and the praise has come back at $7,000. So I'm in the bigger pockets, I never heard this happen before. So I was stuck out of all the podcasts I listened to, I still have things happen to me that I haven't heard on the podcast. So I'm like, praise has come back at that. I asked my broker and a couple other relatives.

They were like, George, never by idea if it doesn't appraise, you know, what you're buying it for. So I was like, but I know it's worth more than that. I just felt like the appraiser. So I could test the appraiser, the bank. I tried to send the comps, and they still, it's $7,000. So a guy you just had on the show, Mr. Rick Jarman, I called Mr. Rick, because I don't have nobody in my circle like here that got that much experience in real estate. So I called Mr. Rick.

I explained a situation. He was like, George, if you, I would pay $5, $10,000 over appraiser if it's worth it. If you know if the numbers work, it rents, do it. So what happened was once I had leverage, though, I didn't realize it because the seller knew it appraiser was $78,000. So she ended up coming down to $85,000 because the whole point was she couldn't sell it because it appraised that $78,000. So in the end, I shouldn't even contest the appraiser because I had more leverage by saying it appraised that $7,000. Yeah. So she ended up coming down from $85,000, and then I owner finance $5,000.

So it came out total of 90. Wow. All right. That's a unique way to put that together. I like that you got the owner financing for the remaining five. That's cool. So how did you? Oh, wait, sorry, David, take it.

I almost took your question. You already started it, Brandon. No, no, I'm going to let you do it. What an honorable guy. I'm an honorable man. All right. So we see that you sell her finance a piece of it. How did you fund the rest of it?

Okay. So regular 25% down on a multifamily. I thought I just put 20% down, but multifamily got to put 25% down. So I put the 25% down on the 85,000. And then the owner financed the 5,000 over two years. You know, we have interest. Thank you, COVID, for creating this lending debacle. Yeah, was this pre-COVID or after-co?

Well, no, this was back in, September of last year. Oh, okay. I thought you just met Rick through the podcast, and that didn't find it. No, this was back in September last year. Did he tell you that liars can number, but numbers can't lie? I love his, I love his Southern Saints. They're so good.

All right. What did you do with the property then? You held on to it? Yes. So once I was vacant, one of the things, oh, yeah, the number part, you said, the MLSA was rented out for $700, right? So the final day before closing, I get the leases.

I didn't realize I should got the lease earlier. I get the lease and it's rented out for $600. So I'm like, hold on. On the MLS, it said it was rented for $700. So the lease is for $600. So, but I still close on the deal because the lease, the lease was ending in like three months. So I closed on that deal and I've rented out the other side.

And here where I'm at, property is if you start working like, you see people still shove outside, some paint going on the wall, cars are stopping. So it is no problem renting it out. All my properties get rented out before I even put it for rent sign up. That's cool. Yeah, by the way, that's just a quick tip for everybody. There's a thing called an estoppel certificate or an estoppel agreement.

If you're buying a property with tenants in place before you close, like during the due diligence period, have the tenant. You actually have the owner have a tenant sign in a stopple agreement, which says, this is my rent. This is my security deposit. This is what my lease sends. This is if I have a lease or not. This is a month a month.

You basically get the tenant to say all the facts. then you can use that to compare it to whatever the agent listed the property as and look for discrepancy and renegotiate right then and find problems. Like just there's a good tip for everybody out there. And it's not very well known. But there you go. First off, usually the only brokers and agents know about that. Second off, that's a lot of syllables in one word.

I don't know. I might even, am I saying it right? I actually, I have no idea. I only read. I only read. I don't talk. Yeah, look at you. Look at me.

Your game. All right. With all that brain energy you're saving wearing the same t-shirt every day. Every day. I save it. That's what you do. You should try it. Anyway.

All right. All right. George, what lessons did you learn from this deal? Oh, from that deal, I learned, what I learned? I learned that, you know, I was so upset when I lost that deal at an auction, you know. But just being persistent and patient, I ended up getting a duplex. And I don't think I probably ever sell a duplex because it took me such a whirlwind, you know? It's like sentimental value, maybe.

Yeah. I hear you, man. That's an awesome story. I like that. I like the fact that you went for it. It was listed at so high. You got like, I don't call it negotiation, but it kind of is all real. That is negotiations. You got them down through the appraisal and eventually you landed a great deal that now you just have and you rent out. So what's it renting for right now each side? Each side is renting for 700 each side now. And I learned that negotiation. You had a guy on your podcast as negotiator. It was like, you always, say my highs, I want to go as 90,000. and, you know, I tell the sob story, what's all wrong with the house, and you're probably not going to like my offer, but I give you 80 for it. And it works. You know, I never think, my dad always said, man, that stuff don't work because when we drive a long distance, I make them listen to Bigger Pockets.

Nice. And this before I started buying property, but he always, he didn't think the stuff on on Pocket, on Pure Pockets work. But I'm telling people, like, the things that you got to sell here, it works. It really does work. That's awesome, man. Appreciate that. Well, with that, let's get over to the last segment of the show.

It's something you've heard many, many times before. Now we're going to ask you. It's time for our world famous. Famous for. All right, time for the famous four. These are the same four questions we ask every guest every week here on the podcast. And before we get to do it, let's see what's going on around the world of the Bigger Pockets Podcast Network. Hey, it's Ashley from the real estate rookie and on last week's show.

No, it's not. It's Felipe from the real estate rookie show. And last Wednesday, we had Amy and Chris, a newbie and a newbie. and a seasoned investor who used hard money to invest, and they are in partnerships. Make sure you go back and listen last Wednesday. Thank you, y'all. All right, with that, let's get to the famous four.

Number one, what is your favorite or current favorite or all-time favorite real estate-related book, George? Favorite real estate book? I always have, like, different phrases I'm going through. But overall, I would say, how to get rich in real estate by Robert Kent. It's a whole book. How to get rich in real estate? Yeah, I never read that one.

Yes, it's 15%. If it rent for 15% of what it costs, no, if it costs $100,000 and rent from 15 grand a year, that's a decent deal. Simple. Simple. Simple. All right.

What about your favorite business book? Favorite business book? Doing business by the good Bible. It's basically by doing business, the biblical way. So, like, once you listen to a lot of real estate, podcast, honestly, I don't really learn a lot after listening to 200 episodes, but I pick up one or two things from each episode that I attached to me. So that's like one part. But far as just doing

business, doing people right and wrong, that's what I take from that business, doing it the right way. There you go. By the way, I looked this up earlier because I thought there was something related. You mentioned earlier. I couldn't find the exact verse I was looking for, but Ecclesiastics 116, sew your seat in the morning and do not be idle in the evening. For you do not know whether morning or evening sewing will succeed or whether both of them alike will be good. That's my new real estate quote of my life. Always be sewing. Yeah, always be sewing.

That's going to be my shirt. ABS. I'll be always be sewing. If you want to buy an always be sewing shirt, go ahead to biggerpockets.com size shirt. Seriously, I'm going to make it. All right. With that next question. Next question is, George, what are your hobbies?

My hobbies are, that's crazy. I do my hobbies every day now. I love real estate. But outside of real estate, I play basketball. I do have a podcast, New American Dream Podcast. And, I mean, I have a family. So my reason why I want to quit my job is I have my son. So I had him April of 2018.

And that one year, just working and being missing first steps and all that, that was my why. Like, I wanted to quit. I wouldn't spend time with him. So now I take him to daycare every morning. And that was my reason why. That's awesome. That's awesome, man.

Yeah, very, very cool. All right, last question for me. What do you think sets apart successful investors from those who give up, fail, or never get started? I want to say taking action, but the thing is, people remember, your job is something you can get fired from. Your work is your purpose. So find out what your purpose is in life and you can never get fired. Very nice. Wise words.

All right. This has been awesome. George. Tell us where can people find out more about you. You can find me on Instagram at George, Do Real Estate. I also have a YouTube channel called Georgia Real Estate. I do a lot of things in there. And a podcast, New American Dream Podcast.

All right. So, George of Real Estate, very, very cool. New American, what's called New American? Dream podcast. Dream podcast. Very cool. Everyone go check that out after this show is done. And, yeah, awesome, man.

Appreciate you coming on the show today. Oh, thanks. David Green, want to take us out of here. Yeah, thanks again, George. It was great getting to know you. This is David Green. George can't not outbid Gibson and Brandon, a wise man once said Turner. Signing off.

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