KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Get A Head Start On Your Rental Portfolio

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

What's up, everyone. This is Ni Yi Adewale, host of the Akaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Group. This group meets virtually every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern, and the members of this group are committed to achieving financial freedom well before the traditional retirement age. So in this podcast, you are going to get VIP access to the conversations we have about different forms of investment and creative ways to get your dollars working harder for you than you originally worked to obtain those dollars. I'm so happy to be joined by Monica Dunlap, who is a real estate investor and realtor based out of Louisville, Kentucky. And more importantly, this is actually my personal investor-friendly realtor that has helped me purchase 20 plus units in Louisville and sell over 15 units over the last five years. And the cool thing about Monica is she's been able to make the jump from working for a Fortune 1000 company to full-time real estate and build up a team that's crushing it

out in Louisville, and I'm still learning new things each day. So I'm genuinely interested and happy to have you on the podcast. Monica, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. Absolutely. Absolutely. And one of the things that I learned about a year ago, right, into like four years into our relationship, and I probably should have asked before, is that you are Australian. I know this is a complete side note, but this kind of threw me off. Where is your family fully from, And when did you end up in Louisville, Kentucky? So my mom's Australian. I'm technically American.

But when I was three, moved to Australia, lived there for about seven years, came back, born and raised in Buffalo, New York. So I'm familiar with the north and the cold, but migrated to Louisville right after one year of college. Ex-boyfriend, best mistake I ever made. Love Louisville. Love everything about Louisville. and been here for almost 20 years now. That's awesome. Gives you my age a little bit too, but all good.

Hey, come on now. That is awesome. That is awesome. And I definitely want to dive into some of the aspects of Louisville a little bit later. But the first piece that we talk about on this group a lot is individuals trying to make the transition from full-time work into the real estate, which is our passion. And you actually had a very successful career. you were moving up, I believe you made it to district manager level within your company. You were managing multiple employees. Can you talk us through kind of how you excelled in the

corporate world and what made you want to move into the 1099 world? Yep. So I'll just answer the chat too. I did a year at UB. So did one year and then took a year off to become a resident because as a resident, you make a lot less money for college and then went to U of L for four years. I had to actually get a business degree. So I always wanted to, everyone told me, hey, Monica, you're smart, be a doctor. So I just thought I'm going to go to school and be a doctor. However, right at high school, McDonald's was offering a great wage of like $7.25 an hour. And that was exciting for me. So I worked my up at the McDonald's. McDonald's would actually pay for your school if you were, if you did business. So when I went to U of L, I was taking all the Gen Ed

courses because I was stuck on going into, you know, the medical field. Well, lo and behold, I had to make a decision because McDonald's wouldn't pay for my school if I didn't take business. So I either had to switch to business or I had to keep, you know, tell them, you know, or switch, well, keep down the medical route. I found out I don't like dissecting things. So I went right into, to business. Love what I did. I was a manager, general manager with McDonald's, graduated with a bachelor's degree of science in business, which is a great decision, by the way. I mean, glad that kind of would almost put me in that route. Once I graduated, made that jump to Cracker Barrel as a general manager and worked for Cracker Barrel for nine years, working out the latter, ended in a district

manager. So I was managing over every store had over 100 employees. I had seven stores managing that. And it just, at that time, me, I had two young boys. I had. I had. I had a newborn baby and a three-year-old, and I just couldn't do the corporate world anymore. I was working. You know, it's not a fun life when you have to, you get to work at eight or nine in the morning. You're not getting home until eight or nine at night. And I never got to see my children. So finally, I was to a point where I said, you know what, to my husband.

I said, I am quitting Crackerboro with or without your permission. I said, but give me a year and I will make up for the income. So he wasn't very happy about that. and I'm glad I had his support though. I did have his support. It was a, it was a tough year financially. Really was, I think we probably had 60, 70,000 on credit card debt. He used to credit cards go up. However, and that was in 2017. So I think that's when we met actually very early in 2017. I was a go-getter and I wasn't going to allow anything to get in the way to stop me from making up that income. Finally, in 2020, my husband, George, he was working the Cracker Barrow.

He was a district manager at the time for Cracker Burl. And they were about ready to send him to Tennessee and send him to all over the country. And I said, this is your sign. We've got enough financially. I want to want you quit Cracker Barrel and come on. And he came on and said, I don't know what you're going to do. We thought about being a realtor. He does a lot of investments with me.

So he actually ended up in lending. So he's now a lender. He's been doing that for a couple of years now. And it's been great. Monica, that is incredible, right? Just the journey that you were able to go on and the journey and the decision that you made that no matter what, you're going to bet on yourself and get out there and get it. And that's what drew me to you when we had our first meeting and I talked about some of my goals that I was a new investor. I was like, hey, you know, I want to have big dreams.

I want to build up, you know, this many units. But you believed in that and you went out there and made it happen. We were looking at constant deals. You know, I moved to Boston during that year. And I was like, hey, can we check this out, check that out. You were sending a lot. videos. And lo and behold, fast forward five years, we built up something pretty special both ways. And it's been an incredible journey to watch. And you are actually a major inspiration for why I wanted to move out of the W-2 into full-time real estate. Because watching your journey and seeing how you hustle to make it to where you are right now, where you've got teams of just, and we're going to get into this. I don't want to spoil it, but we're going to get into that a little

bit later, it's truly incredible. And so I want to take us back to that 2017 when you did that shift and you had to start going out there and really hustling and kind of building up to try to replace that income. What did that year look like for you? You mentioned the credit card debt. You mentioned trying to get out there and really get after it and build up a whole new business. What was that year like for you? Well, during that year, too, we had just, we purchased Brook Street, which is an old Louisville. And people aren't familiar. Old Louisville is their Victorian home section, and they've turned a lot of those old Victorian homes into duplexes, you know, triplexes, quadplex. So they're great investment opportunities.

Well, we actually had purchased a year before, or maybe a couple years, a threeplex for 105,000, but needed complete gotten renovation. It was not a great property, and I can get into that, too. and the whole, you learn a lot when you're doing a complete rehab in a historic district where we didn't know this at the time, but you do need to make sure that you get permission from the historic preservation about the repairs and putting the right windows in and things like that. So it was quite the journey. And that's what racked up a lot of the debt as well, doing that project. But to get back to your question, I mean, it wasn't easy.

I mean, I just remember even meeting you. It was, I had to, you know, I had to email you and stay on to try and get you as a client and show my value and show my worth. And I tell, and I tell people this all the time, getting into real estate, you have to, you have to work it every day. You cannot sit and wait for the phone to ring. If you're sitting wait for the phone to ring, you're not going to get the business you want. And honestly, being in real estate has enabled me to find the deals that I currently have. I mean, right now, Now I have two flips going up and purchasing another renovation, well, and another property I'm closing on next week just from being in real estate and offering my clients a solution versus going on the market. So, but you have to be able to hustle. And I tell people all the time, I tell my team today. So I'm an introvert. I am a true introvert where I would rather sit at home and read a book by myself than go out

there. But I had to. And they were like, no, you're not, Monica. I don't believe it. I said, no, but I have to be extroverted in this business. And I met my good buddy Chuck that works for me. He's been with me for three years now at the park because I went out and I talked to everybody I could about real estate.

And that's what it takes. You've got to go out there. Anyone at Starbucks or when you go into a restaurant or when you're in the grocery store, you strike up conversations to find out. And the root of it is how can you help them? I'm not here. It's not about the dollar sign. is how can I help you achieve your dreams if you want to be a homeowner, if you want to be an

investor, how can I help you do that? I love it. I love it. And the key nugget to there is that hard work and that hustle each day, right? You can't take a day off. If you want to be recognized in this industry, it's not sitting by the phone. It's completely different when you move into that 1099 world, whether it's real estate or any other type of 1099 world. You really got to be ready to go out there and put in the effort and work.

but it can grow pretty quickly and turn into a business. And I want to dive into that in a second. But first, you mentioned that you were investing and working on that Brook Street property. I remember that one vividly. And the end product was beautiful. I know there was a lot of pain and heartache to get it to that point. But I was like, man, Monica Everlessless. I'm buying it. But to that point, when did you actually start investing in real estate? And was it before you got your license that you started investing? So I actually, I mean, I did the Robert Kiyosaki. I mean, that was a great thing when I was young.

When I first moved to Louisville, I did that. And I always wanted to, that's what got me interested in properties. So you can't do this now. But when I was at U.S. And I was able to get McDonald's my school paid for, I took a student loan and I purchased a duplex up in Buffalo, New York. So that was my first investment property. and I, you know, I was able to get it, use that money again. The 2008 lending thing kind of stopped that so you can't do things like that now,

but I was able to do that so that I still have that property to this day, and it yields a great investment. I've had the same tenant in there for 12 or 13 years at this point in time. So it was before I got into real estate, and that's what kind of also was a natural shift to go from the corporate world to real estate because I invested in it already and had a, you know, a little understanding, not as much as I do today. I wish I knew what I knew. But so it was that one. And then I got in, then it was really, I got Veronica Drive, which I bought that for 50,000, three, bed one bath, single family. And then I went and I got the Brooks Street property. My mom was real straight and she's a real estate agent.

So my mom was my inspiration of getting into real estate. She's the one that helped me find those properties. It was just 105,000. It was, it was kind of a weird, like the first floor was a two-bed. The third floor was a one bed, but the second floor was three different, it was three different kind of many apartments with one shared bathroom. And you can only imagine what kind of tenants that attracts. So we just had to get everybody out and we had to completely gut the whole thing. Wow. Wow. A $3,000 a month in rents and the mortgage is $1,100. Hey, I will take that all day, but the work that you put in is what made that happen. And I love the creativity using whatever's available to you at that time to get started in investing. So the 08 lending is not available,

but there's other things that have come up, right? Like last year, 15% DSCR loans, right? Where they're looking at debt service ratio, not looking at you. Okay, we can use that. And before last year, the vacation loans where they kept the same rate as, you know, your primary house. Now that's change, but you've got to continue adapting if you want to get into this real estate investing. And one thing I love and has been amazing for me as well as your other clients is the fact that you invest yourself. I can't tell the audience how many times I shoot you a text. I'm like, hey, Monica, I got this going on. I need a contractor. I need somebody. And you're like, hey, use this person. I got to work it over here. I think a couple of times we actually called the

same person at the same time. He's like, hey, man, I'm talking to Monica right now. So that's a true benefit of working with an investor-friendly realtor. And I got to say, the numbers that you mentioned in Louisville, I saw a lot of eyes start to perk up. That's one of the reasons that I continue to invest down there is that the cash flow numbers still work for long-term rentals and there's still a lot of value add there. Do you mind just diving a little bit into the Louisville market in general and talking about kind of what you're helping clients do out there? Yeah. So the average price point in Louisville is still around at the 250 price point. But you can definitely depending on area,

and I appreciate me too, who sends a lot of great referrals. What I've known with Louisville is we, you know how the real estate market gets its ups and downs, and you see the huge swings in the New Yorks and the Californias. In Louisville, it's almost like a mini shield, where, yes, you get, right now, yes, the market has shifted a little bit.

We're not seeing the craziness, which is overall a good thing than it was six months ago, because that wasn't sustainable. So I'm excited about the market that we're going into because it's a great opportunity for investors. So we, I mean, it is a great market. So if you want to buy a duplex for $150,000, you definitely can and get good tenants and have a great investment property. So it is a great market for that. And just something to talk about Tunei when you're talking about creative financing.

I mean, one of my rental properties in Bardstown, Kentucky, and I moved out there for Crackerboro years ago for one of the positions, and I had a great lender that was able to say, okay, it takes 50 miles or so to get there. So you can actually have this as another single family as a primary residence, so I was able to put three and a half percent down. So as you're starting, you can definitely get creative and depending on distance and how far things are. and that's still to this day because by the distance I was able to get that 3.5% down. So I bought that. It was a foreclosure property for 70,000. And now it's first about 200. Nice.

A month in rent. Hey, well, we can't beat that. And I love just the diversification of markets, right? Because you talk about the coastal markets and those are going to have those high swings, but they tend to appreciate quicker. But it's also good to be in markets like Louisville where it's growing. at a steady pace. There's not that crazy swing and you can depend on that cash flow month over month as the property continues to grow in value and you pay down the debt and things of that nature.

It's good to be in both, right? I love being and getting exposure to both types of markets and kind of swinging back to your story, right? We mentioned the struggle of 2017, but you were able to force your way through that, get to 2018, 2019, 2020, and really start to accelerate and build a whole team that's now the totally about houses team, which is, I mean, you got a lot going on there, but do you mind walking through kind of that journey from, say, 2018 through 2020? Yeah, no, absolutely. So I've always wanted to.

I always been in leadership positions. So I love being in leadership. I didn't want to be a single agent. So getting into it, I wanted to be on a team. So actually a year into it, I started creating my own team and figure out how do I, how do I get the businesses to sustain and to help others? Because I'm not going to run a team and not be able to give business to the agents either. And yes, they have to get it for themselves. But that's how it started. And just growing it, I mean, right now we're actually transitioning from the

Toil About Houses team to Tullabot About Houses brokerage. So that's our next step. And again, the only reason why I did that was more to save the agent's money. So I've got a great for it. Systems in place. But that's the biggest thing. You have to do. have to have your systems in place, whether it's, you know, being renting or, you know, doing that side or being a real estate agent. I mean, either way, you've got to have good systems in place. And it takes a little bit to invest in some systems, but make sure you use them. And that's, that's the biggest thing. So I do now have 11 full-time agents plus six admin staff on the team. And of those six admin staff, four of them are actually also licensed realtors as well. So

So we have a great team. We sell about 200 homes a year. And it's 50 million in sales based on our average price point around that 270 price point. But consistently 200. I want to go to number one next year and sell 422. So I have that mindset of, you know, if you got to build it. So in order to do 422, I've got to have the agents that want to do the business to do 422. and I've got to have the systems in place to support them for 422.

So I have the team in place to support them. I'm recruiting agents that want to make money and want to be successful. And we're also trying to have something else on the side for the brokerage and any ideas I'd love to have. But as part of our value proposition, we want to be able to have the agents that want to invest maybe 5 or 10% or whatever of their commission to go towards investing in properties. So we're working on that with an attorney right now for the legal parts of it. What does that look like?

So. Monica, two things. One, that was a highly specific number. It wasn't like, hey, 400 something, 422. I have no doubt with that in mind that you're going to hit that here soon. And two, I love the portion of getting the team involved. Like one of the things within this industry that many people that are not in it may not know, is realtors tend to jump from brokerage to brokerage to brokerage.

And there's not a whole lot of quote unquote loyalty from that standpoint. But when you start to offer incentives like, hey, working with this brokerage, you're actually going to have an opportunity to potentially invest in real estate, right? Where, you know, in the past, it may have taken you a couple of years to build up the capital and then you got to get over the mindset. Now you can work with individuals that have been investing for years that know what they're doing and be able to kind of get a piece of that. That's incredible. It's innovative.

And I love that thinking. Yeah. And one thing on the side, too, if anyone is thinking about they're making that shift to a 1099, running their own business, or even with your investments, I highly recommend a knee. Maybe you say this all the time, profit first. The profit first book is a great book that's going to help you allocate. Let me allocate so much towards profit every month and then allocate so much towards taxes. So you're not stuck at the end of the year, owing a bunch of taxes, which that's everyone's worst nightmare. And I see it all the time with that 1099 or even, you know, I mean, that's your big thing. And then profit first says you, you allocate that money first into an account. So I use that money to purchase my investment

properties now. So I always have a pool of money and I know what to invest because I take it out of my business first as opposed to trying to leave and whatever's left at the end. And if you run your business that way, you always put your, you allocate that to the side. You always have some leftover versus being stuck. And I have no money left over, so I have nothing to invest with. Does that makes sense, neat? Absolutely. And I mean, I pay my taxes yearly. I don't do the quarter like a lot of 1099s because I allocate it. However, sometimes I use my tax money to do an investment and get it back and make sure it goes back into the tax account. But that's another thing to do some flips. No. And that's incredible advice. I highly recommend. Please take notes. Everybody

listening, profit first. I do the same thing. I do it both in my personal life, as well as in the different businesses. And it definitely helps when the taxman comes around because sometimes you get hit over the head and it's like, man, it's a little bit expensive, but you always have it allocated. So it's like, okay, I feel I feel okay about this, much better than if I was trying to pull it from other places, right? So great advice. And before we open it up to the group, right, for questions from those that join live, I just want to ask two more. One, what is one of the goals, you mentioned the 422, right? But what is one of the goals that you have for next year that our audience that's listening on the line right now and will listen in the future can help you with in 2023?

Honestly, one of my goals personally is always to invest in every quarter a new property. So that's going to help me build it over, you know, allocate. So before I did the 1099, I would get quarterly bonuses. So those bonuses would go towards property. I mean, you've got to figure out how to make that happen. So that is a personal goal for that part of it. But my biggest thing is building that brokerage and helping others become, you know, not just real estate agent, but real estate investors. So that is a big goal for me next year.

But I already gave you a goal. I mean, the 422 and of course we have a big project going on to Ney. Hey, come on now. We do. We do. And that's important too. I was hoping you're going to say that goal. But no, no, that's a year. That's a combined goal. That's a share. That's fine. That's fine. And the last question from me is, what do you like to do for fun, Monica? And And this is a selfish question because I have you here and it took forever. Let me tell everybody on live that it took four months to get my realtor on this podcast. I'm like, come on, Monica, you got to join this thing. But it's because she's been busy helping so many people get their dreams started.

So I appreciate it. I get it. But what do you like to do for fun? Well, beach volleyball. So I play beach volleyball two nights a week. That's kind of like my out. Love it. It's a co-ed league.

I mean, you can go from a D lead to a seed lead. You don't have to be great. It's just a lot of fun and good exercise. So that's really it. I've got three little boys, four, six, and my oldest just turned nine. So I spend a lot of time at night with them. I love to cook. So I was just making them dinner.

I was, you know, had to julian some parents. And I get all fancy. So I'm a chef as well. Love to do that. So they take up, but I'm not working. I'm with my family and spending time of my family. So or beach volleyball. Come on now.

That is awesome, Monica. I truly appreciate you joining seriously. Thank you so much. I know there's a lot going on, but I'm so excited for the brokerage to get going and for these new agents just to see kind of the benefits that you're going to bring from a knowledge perspective, benefits perspective, and innovation. And so I want to go ahead and open it up to the group.

And this is going to cut at, some point, but we'll jump back on. So anybody, if you have a question for Monica, and I saw a couple come through the chat, feel free to unmute and ask your question. Hey, Monica. Thanks for joining. This is great hearing your story and, you know, all the advice. One of the questions I have and something that me mentioned in the email that he sent out, so I know you helped him acquire, I think it was 20 plus units and sell 15 and kind of scale up in that way. And I'm curious to know, is that maybe the best way to kind of scale up, especially that fast? I mean, to me, over five years, that seems pretty quick to get to 20 plus. And maybe knee, you could speak to this too. Maybe this is

a question for you as well. But, you know, is that maybe the best way to, you know, kind of reach that scale in that you, you know, are selling previous units that you bought, maybe using a 1031 and then kind of, you know, trading houses for hotels with the monopoly analogy. But yeah, so, you know, I'm kind of curious looking over the next year. I just bought a four unit and I'm trying to be bullish, you know, with my purchases and over the next year, you know, maybe look to purchase another property and I'm curious to know what are some ways to, you know, hit that sort of scale as you as you progress. Now, that's a great question. I think me can also help with that. Congrats. First of all on the fourplex. That's exciting. And so it really, it all, again, with everything, it all

depends, right? I mean, that is a great way to do it as long as the building appreciates and you get, you have the equity built in. Because if it doesn't appreciate, if you're not able to get it out, it doesn't make sense, right? You're just getting the same money that you got out. Me was able to, with the great market, be able to appreciate it quite a bit. So he was able to take that to do the 1031 or other things he needed to do. And he can talk to that as well. So it depends on what your thing is. Like for me, for example, I don't have any plan to sell any properties that I have. I have right now 20 rental properties.

However, this is where, like what me and I are doing is leverage. Where two people coming together where we purchase commercial land. So and then I've built relationships with the banks. So that's a really big thing that, I mean, I use the People's Bank. I was using River City. So now when I go to the People's Bank, I think I have right now eight or nine, and it's under, it's not under my personal name. It's under my LLC.

So that helps too because I'm actually refinancing another home to pull out equity with a regular bank. And they don't even ask about this other bank because it's with an LLC, right? So I built this relationship with the with the bank where they just say, send me an updated personal financial statement. They don't ask for bank account information. They don't ask for bank statements. They don't ask for anything. where it's a small local bank. So I really say get in with a small local bank and build a relationship with them. They know I pay. There's no issues with that. Again, it's a spreadsheet I send them.

It's just a personal financial statement, which you should have anyway so you know where you're at. And I'm happy to share a blank personal financial statement spreadsheet for everybody in case, you know, you want to see what that looks like where it lays out your assets and liabilities. And you can see how much you have in net worth, right? That's what that. they want to see. So, but what I'm saying with that, we've now gone to, with that bank for this project, and there's almost like no questions asked. So that's the benefit of where you can scale up when you build relationships with the, with the bank. So I don't need to sell or put much more. Now, yes, we need to get 20% down. And that's how do you come up with the 20%? So if I had to

sell something to come up with it, I absolutely would. But if, because I don't with the position I'm in, with, you know, my other, with the business I run. I don't have to do that, but then bringing in a partner, so Neen and I work together to, you know, just now we have to, we get leverage. So that makes sense. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Okay, cool.

Thanks. And yeah, I'd love to get that personal finance statement if you're going to share that out. That'd be great. Yeah. I'll share it out. And it'll be a blank one because it's just a lot of the local banks I'll ask for. And it's good to see it.

And I was able to see, like my cousin always asked. me because my sister's telling me, well, get him into real estate. He needs to do something. And I like to joke around them all. I know my net worth. You know, it's this. I'm not going to go into it. But, you know, the financial statement, knowing your numbers is so important in any business. If you want to run a successful business, you have to know your numbers. And taking back in off of Monica, right, it's really buying well and getting really good at a niche. Right. So the whole time I was investing in Louisville, Monica, we were going to after a small multifamily, small multifamily, and then we jumped up to a 12plex, right? And it was like,

okay, and you get so good at that niche that you know exactly what's needed for each of the units. Hey, this is the type of tenant that's going to be renting this area. And Monica mentioned it earlier, that old Louisville area where it's like historic. Funny enough, that's right where I was buying. So I bought all within a mile of each other. You can walk to it. Like, I used to actually enjoy walking down the street and just, hey, this is the house. That's the house. That's the other one. it goes the next one. And so it's really just niching down and continuing to get really good at the purchase you just made and trying to leverage up on the knowledge that you're gaining because then you can move a little quicker. And now to Monica's point, we've partnered up and we're

going to be building that 105 townhome unit that I mentioned earlier, right, in Louisville, and we're working through that process, which is a whole other step for both of us, but we've built up enough contacts to pull this together and built up a enough of a reputation that it's a step that we're ready to take. So that's the only other piece I would add. Hey, I wanted to ask a quick question. So I recently bought my first property. And I wanted you to kind of go back to 2017 where you're kind of working on that rehab and rented some debt. So me personally, I got this property. I had about two floods in about three months. I'm starting to build up some debt and trying to deal with that process. Just trying to move forward.

I wanted to ask, what was your mindset and how did you kind of get through that first year when things are kind of struggling. I kept, so, and I didn't go into this before, and I'm, like, it was. It was tough, but I kept that I'm going to do this. I had that drive of, and like I told, I'm very competitive. So, like I told my husband, give me a year. And that, that was probably one of the toughest years in my marriage and in my, in my life, because he every, every, in the first part of that 2017, every opportunity he could get, he'd be like, you can go to Cracker Barrel. Go back to Cracker Barrel. So, no, I'm not. going to cracker barrel. I am going to make this happen. So I, again, I did anything I could to lead

generate, to get deals. And in the middle, and again, he did help with the whole rehab. But we had to fire contractors with that too. I remember driving back and going in there and the contractors were, I mean, not doing what they were supposed to be doing. So we had to do a big shift in contractors and everything. And at the end of the day, I knew that if we get this right, yes, I'm depending on credit card debt right now. If you get it right, I can refinance this out and rent it. I knew where my rent rates were going to be. I knew what the value was going to be. And that's what actually got us out of that that debt is refinancing that property. Be able to pull that all out, pay off all the debt and then get it fully rented. So now that we make that profit every month. So does that answer the question? It's sometimes you do. I mean,

You take risk, but take smart risks. If you're going to put it on credit card, don't do it because you're ordering all this fancy food at a restaurant, right? Do it to build something and then know that you're going to be able to refinance it and be able to get it out. And Elvin, I know you had a couple comments. Did you want to ask those questions? Sorry. No, my comments, you guys kept talking about having to pay a bunch of taxes. I'm like, call seg was going through my head.

I'm like, get into one of my multi-family deals. So I was just making a little side compliment there. Nothing to add a lot of value right now. No, this podcast are just fantastic. The one they just did on that and saving yourself with taxes, there's some gold in that. There really is. I got a question for you guys.

Me and Monica kind of goes to both of you. So with like the talks and the, the impending recession that's probably coming down the pipe here in the next year to two years. Do you adjust your strategy to facilitate how the money flows, whether that's like debt or otherwise, or do you adjust your strategy kind of based on your plan and then have very strict underwriting in order to execute on that plan? So for me, I've always run a P&L very tightly. I don't waste money on things.

I've always analyzed. that's just a part of who I am. So, and I always believe in any, any, you know, market, the people that that work hard and have a good plan and strategy are going to be successful. And the one that just really, nilly waste their money, unfortunately are not. So even with real estate, this is going to be for the real estate agents, the ones that don't take it seriously and don't run it like a business, they're the ones that are going to get out and the ones that do are going to rise to the top.

And that's what I believe. So I live at no matter what market, I live at the same. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. And piggybacking off of Monica, I would agree. I think you've got to be tight with your numbers and understand what your goal is. For example, if you're looking to buy a house, right, why not look at a house hack? Why not look at something that's going to lower your cost of living on a monthly basis and allow you to, when you move out, be able to rent out two portions of the house and make it cash flow even more. Why not buy properties that are going to make sense from a numbers perspective right now and only get better once the market turns back around down the road? And so, hey, Monica, I told you that was going to happen. I told you that was

going to happen. We don't have the paid for Zoom yet. We're working on it. And they're like, be like me and then don't even pay for Zoom and save yourself 13 bucks a month. Hey, this is a perfect example, right? Exactly. No, but that it is because every little bit that it adds up and a lot of people don't get that. And I mean, it doesn't matter if it's 10 bucks a month like me. You doesn't want to spend 10 bucks a month on Zoom, right? But that is something that saves money.

And guys, this is what I get every time I call Monica. She's picking at me. She's saying I don't want to spend the $10 for the paid for Zoom. We're working on it. All right. We're working on it. But recession comes out. My dad says the receipts.

And if he gets charged for two coffees, he's like, hey, a dollar and $28 coffee off. Exactly. That's what it is. Is that detail that's going to ensure that now again, there's ways to smart. say they'll do it smartly and you do have to take some risk because if you're a risk adverse all the time, it's not going to work either. But you have to take smart risk, just like we talked about. And like, for example, over the next few years, we already know there's a housing deficit.

We have more people, millennials, now the, what, Gen Z, they're going to be getting into houses. And we don't have enough. So rentals are going to go up and houses. I mean, it's only inevitable. And that's what I see. People need a place to live. So over the past couple of years, and even with our project, we're going into, I mean, we have a location right across from an elementary school and the middle school. So we're trying to build homes more for families versus, you know, the single, single entrepreneur kind of person. And you've got to know your market and what you're building. Shelton, to the needs point earlier about being able to pivot, like right now is a good time I'm finding to actually. negotiate prices down. So you're looking at the delta that you're paying more on the percentage rate,

you're actually able to get that or a little bit more down on the purchase price because there's not a lot of activity. And then you can if you if you're holding it long term when rates do go down, which they're thick and second quarter of next year, that they'll be down a little bit more than where they are today. You can always just brief. And now you got a good price and then you get your good rate later. So it's kind of to me's point earlier about knowing how to pivot with the current market and the current market conditions. Yeah, and I'm trying to balance a little bit of, so I have two short-term rentals in Florida. I'm trying to balance a little bit of, I want to make sure I have that like padding for a, for whatever reason if people stop traveling, but also I don't

want to be so risk averse that I'm like missing out. You know what I mean? Like the balance of like, hey, I got to have my emergency fund, but I also want to invest when it comes around because I'm on that fixed in government work. So the income rise capability is fixed. Any other questions or comments for Monica? Yeah, so one more question I had was you spoke about the LLC and, you know, how you do deals through that. I'm just wondering, is that another like kind of good way to, you know, have capital for deals and to, you know, I best, I guess basically gain more leverage. That's, I guess, yeah, just be able to gain more leverage, right?

Because I think one issue that I'm going to run into is that I won't, you know, for my next deal, I don't necessarily know right now where the cash is going to come from. I know it's going to happen. I just don't know where the cash right now is going to come from. But I'm wondering, you know, is that a possible route for me to, you know, strike up a, I don't know, 20 to 25K loan if that's something I could do. And then, you know, use that to purchase a property and try. to pay that back with the income. I just want to hear your thoughts on that.

I honestly don't know with that one and what you can do. I don't know of me of the legalities of being able to do that. I mean, you can always get equity out of the home that you're having, you know, and look at that. That's something that we've looked at personally, just with our home. And that's why we actually, and we talked about interest rates, right? So I got, I think, a 7.1% or something interest rate that I'm refinancing because I did rehab a property that is our short-term rental property that we have purchased it for 175, put about 50, you know, 50-60,000 in it. And I mean, it's not a great, so it's not a flip property, right? It's more for short-term rental.

We should be able to refinance for like a 285. So we still, because we did put 20% down, we're able to pull that money out and now put it back into other things. So that's generally what you can do the easiest way than loans or whatever. I mean, heck, at the end of the day, if you have a credit card limit for $30,000, you could probably pull out money, but you've got to show that with the bank, they're not going to ask you about that, right? But I've done that when I first started out too. I've had to take some of that credit card. I have, you know, a lot of times I'll increase your limits. I'm not saying live on that kind of road, okay, but if it's for a smart investment where you know you can put it in and then be able to

get it back out and pay it off, then, you know, that that's a creative way to do it. And just to, sorry, just a touch on that too, right? Are you pulling, like, are you pulling cash out of the credit card? Are you using the credit card like as a down payment or like, you can't use it as a mortgage? Right. That's what I was thinking. You give you those checks where it's a certain percentage that you get for so many times. And yes, they charge you a fee. So you've got to, you've got to know all your costs. I'm not saying that's the way to do it, okay? I'm not good ideas, but if you need creative ways, that is creative ways. Sure. Cool. And to that point, piggybacking off of that a little bit, when you look at,

I think we talked about this last week, right, with Adam, but when you look at Helox and credit card things that nature, I look at those as awesome for something short term. Like what Monica's doing with that short term rental house, yeah, if you need to use a Helot, credit card, etc., you know you're going to be refinancing that in six months. So use that, go and get it fixed, updated, refinance, pull that money back out, pay those off. And now you're into a long-term solid debt situation, right? But when you look at trying to buy the next house, I just want to say this clearly for everybody, right? There's nothing wrong with building your capital back up and taking a few months, even a little bit closer to a year, things that nature, to build that

capital back up. The first house I purchased was December of 2016. The next one that I purchased, it may be toward the end of 2017 or very early 2018. Not that I wasn't looking, but I need to build the capital back up, had to get right and be able to go out there and purchase another. So I would recommend that especially when you're early on, just build that capital back up, and don't be afraid to wait a little bit unless there's a major opportunity where you know you're going to be able to pull that money back out if you're going to use one of those credit means or if you're going to partner with somebody, that's a little different, right? Because you have experience, if you're going to bring somebody else in that can help with some

of the down payment, I would look to that before I tried to max out a credit card to put a down payment on a house because if you're buying that house and there's not a rehab involved with it, how do you then get the money back to pay off the card? it would be a little difficult. Mm-hmm. Gotcha. And I'll also tap on, Desmond, how familiar are you with LLCs? I consider myself a novice, honestly.

Okay, I guess I would just, the only thing I'd consider to you is, like, if you start an LLC, it doesn't just all the sudden, like, hide your debt to income from a lender. So it's kind of like, depending on the lender you work with, like, if you personally try to go get a loan, they're like, all right, your debt to income is too high. We can't loan to you. You can't then just, like, try to run it through the LLC. because you're there's like a little bit of seasoning with the LLC based on how you do your taxes and stuff like that and then your relationship with the bank like a good lender like he's got ricardo

he was able to work with me and you kind of come up with a game plan on how to like kind of get around that so they can make it through underwriting just got you yeah good to know thank you yeah and that's where it helps with the local banks like we're talking about too they have a little different it's not as stringent as an underwriting with a mortgage lender for example. Again, my husband's a mortgage lender and we'll use him for your basic, you know, home buying, but when it's for an investment or a flip, a local bank is sometimes the interest rates, yeah, it's a little bit higher, maybe half a percent higher.

But the leverage that you get from them is a little bit better. And you're not getting scrutinized with every little send me 500 documents to prove that you have the money, you know. I know that very well. That's what it was like. I was buying. A lot of documents. It's almost honestly like the one I'm buying, closing on next week.

And again, I know my numbers. I know the rent, but I just pretty much sent them the contract and sent them updated personal financial statement. And that's the next thing you know. The appraisers call on me and then I'm closing. I don't have to send them anything else. That is gold.

But it's like, Shelton was saying, though, I do put my taxes in and done that properties. Honestly, loses money every year. It loses money because I put a lot of money into investments. So it loses money, meaning I am rehabbing properties. Okay. So on paper, it loses money. In reality, I'm gaining net worth, right? So it helps counteract my other LLC, which is tax as an escort because I have employees. I can get all into that too, but totally about houses, makes money. And that's where it offsets each other, having two different, you know, LLCs. You know, and if honestly, and the thing, too, I know it's scary. And Shelton, I know you said you're a government and you're the W-2 employee.

It's scary going from a W-2 to 1099, but also with 1099, you get to control your income. It also can be the other way where, hey, you can fall flat on your family. face. But I know I always have the comfort in knowing if I ever didn't make it in real estate, I can go back to Cracker Barrel any day I want to do. And they would hire me in a heartbeat. So, I mean, that's where, that's my security. Do I want to do that? Heck, no, I have nightmares about that stuff. So I just have the motivation to make sure that I continue to make money in no matter what situation. Oh, I want to be off the W-2. I just have five. I have a contract for five years. so I'm stuck at least that much longer.

No. Love it. Love the conversation. Desmond's having a five-course meal while we're having this conversation, but we're not going to get into that. Any other questions or comments for Monica? Monica, I just want to say again, thank you so much for joining the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group. We are going to let you get back to those beautiful children, and we really appreciate just all the knowledge and your story and the motivation.

I can tell you in front of the audience, and I tell you this personally as well, you truly motivate me. And I'm happy that you're taking this first step for the brokerage because I'm going to copy and paste, right? So with the Accoma home team, I'm going to, you know, just like always, right? I'm going to ask for tips and then you can kind of take documents, but I appreciate you. You know, we call that knee. You're not copy and paste.

It's called R&D. Rip off and do it. There you go. Hey, come on now. And it's okay to do that. It's okay to take other success and, you know, make it into your, your own. Absolutely. No, we appreciate you, Monica. Hope you have a good night. Everybody else, have an awesome night. We'll see you. Anything please. I'm happy to, you know, reach out to me anytime.

I'm here and happy to help. You want to learn about farm properties. I can teach you about farm properties too. Absolutely. And really quick, Monica, can you give just contact information if people want to reach out to you? Yep. I mean, the best thing is my email is Monica at Totally About Houses. So just like it's spelled totally abouthouses.com. So anytime I can ask me any questions, I'm happy to, I'm happy to help. Done and done.

With that, I wish everyone a good night and we will see you next week. Thank you, me.