The Science of Flipping - Quitting the 9-5 and Building a Real Estate Empire | Austin Fullbright

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

This episode is a special one because I bring in my very own community member, Austin Fulbright, who shares his journey from a W2 engineer at a Fortune 300 company to becoming a full-time real estate investor with over 50 rental units. He discusses how he started small with the BRRR method, leveraged his savings, and strategically scaled his portfolio through creative financing, including seller financing and direct mail marketing. Austin emphasizes the importance of mentorship, community, and developing a dynamic toolset in real estate investing. He also highlights how shifting from a scarcity to an abundance mindset enabled him to leave his corporate job and focus on multifamily and light industrial properties, achieving financial independence and long-term wealth. -- The #1 training and coaching system to launch, grow, and scale your investing business! 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞: http://www.thescienceofflipping.com Turn cold real estate leads into engaged motivated sellers on auto-pilot using the power of A.I! 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞: https://www.rocketly.ai/ Have a question? Ask me anything at https://www.askjustin.ai/  𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧: After graduating from UCLA in 2003 with an English degree, Justin went directly into business for himself. He has never had a W-2 job. In 2005 he got into real estate by co-founding a brokerage in the Northern California area. Quickly he realized that being a realtor was not for him. In 2007 he got into real estate investing full time. 16 years later, Justin has flipped well over 2600 properties, accumulated millions in rental properties, and is an active investor to this day. His success in real estate led him to start The Science Of Flipping podcast and education company, where he has coached and mentored over one thousand aspiring and active investors.  He is a nationally recognized speaker and is on a mission to educate as many people as possible on becoming a successful dynamic real estate investor.  𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒉𝒆𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒔𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆𝑻𝒐𝑺𝒂𝒚𝑨𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕𝑱𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏:  “Justin is one of the best trainers in this space. He really gives everything to his tribe.” – Brent Daniels (TTP)  “Justin’s ability to connect with people and help them understand what he is teaching, is unparallelled” – Kent Clothier (REWW)  “We have been in the trenches flipping homes in Phoenix for over a decade, he is one of the best to do it.” – Sean Terry (Flip2Freedom)    Subscribe To Justin Colby: http://youtube.com/justincolbyView All My Videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/JustinColby

If you're sitting there at your W-2 job and you're wondering, can I do this? What does it take? If you're listening to this podcast, you're investing in your education in some form or fashion, right? And what you need to know, what you need to hear from me, I wish somebody told me this earlier, is you know enough. It's time to go take action. I read all the books, man. I listened to hundreds of hours of podcasts before I bought a deal. And it's like you learn and then you learn again and then you learn again. You've got to get out of the learn loop into the do loop. What is up, Science of Flipping members? I am excited to have this guest.

My guest is a Science of Flipping community member. He recently just went full time all into real real estate investing he's an engineer by trade he's overly analytical but he has gone all in on real estate with the processes and systems that i teach and he is already has over 50 doors austin fulbright is in the house what's up dude what's up man glad to be here yeah for having me excited this is uh i've interviewed a lot of people in these seats and uh this one is going to be special because you come from homegrown, if you will, right? You were the W2 employee. You found me and said, hey, I want to get into this and I want to go big and go full time. And I said,

I got you. Let's put a path together. Let's put some processes together. And now you just recently quit your job, right? Yeah. Two weeks ago, man. Self-employed. It's awesome. How does that feel? It's awesome, man. Yeah, it's been a long journey, as you know, for me. Well, actually not even that long. I would say it's pretty short. It took me a lot longer.

Yeah, yeah. And so it is a big step, you know. But when I have people around me like you, like others that, you know, have been there and done it, it definitely helps build that confidence to take the step and make it happen. So what, so let's talk a little bit about your journey, right? So full-time job. Yep. Engineer. Yep. Yep. Doing all the kind of analytical things and. Yeah. Yeah. I was, uh, at a fortune 300 chemical company engineer by education. Um, spent, I spent about four years in engineering, two years overseas for the company. Came back with what I felt like was a lot of cash. Didn't want to go buy a really nice car with it.

Started reading books, learning a little bit, dabbling in real estate. I bought my first seven units with a partner, 50-50, and then built up a little bit more of a portfolio and small multifamily over the next year and a half ish, uh, got to about 14 units and started kind of like looking around and, you know, feeling like I was a one trick pony a little bit, you know, um, I was hitting the burr method really hard. Um, it was successful for me, but you know, I would go walk a house and it didn't fit my buy box and I'd walk away. And then I'd see people in my local network that would grab that house and wholesale it for like 10,000 bucks. And I didn't know how to do that because I had learned how to burr.

And so that's when it started clicking for me that I needed to change my circle a little bit, learn some new tools so that when you know, when I see stuff come across my desk, I can either take it down or I know kind of how to go somewhere else with it and make some money. Yeah. I mean, I, and you know this, but you know, I preach, you gotta be, you know, a tool belt. You need all three exit models, right? Buy and hold, fix and flip and wholesale. You shouldn't just do one, right? The way I say it is if you're going to be a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. Yep. It's your point.

You would miss out on $10,000 wholesale fees because you just weren't taught that. Or maybe you knew of it, but you didn't really know and it didn't fit your buy box. So you just said, screw it, I'm going to move on. Right. But as you can see, our business model now, you realize now that like, if you wholesale one a month or one every other month, it's extra money to go find your next rental. That's, that's exactly right. And the thing is you're already spending the marketing dollars, right? So it's like just taking advantage of the opportunities that come across your desk when you're already putting

in the marketing dollars to work, it, it just increases your ROI so much more. And that's really what started opening my eyes to, hey, you know, that's how I found you, you know, through a mutual friend. And then we got to know each other, really connected just as people first, right? More than anything else. And that's how we got started. And since then, you know, I think when I joined your group, I was at 14 units total for me to leave my job, you know, we're cash flowing, net cash flow, net net, right? That's not like, you know, income minus mortgage, that's like minus property taxes, insurance, saving some for maintenance, CapEx, you know, the these things that sometimes

people forget about in cash flow, you know, net net cash flow, we're at six figures a year, which was enough for me and my wife to look at what we needed to, you know, support our family's basic needs. And we're like, it's time to go, you know, and for us to get to that point, you know, we've got 56 units residential now. We also have a hundred thousand square feet of industrial space. I love light industrial on triple net leases because you're not paying maintenance. Um, and you know, you've got really great tenants in there that are running their businesses out of the spaces so that's really where i'm really doubling down is multi-family and light industrial in my local area like i don't even buy outside of the 30 minute drive from my house you know yeah and that's the question i would tell or ask is is i want to

know how did you go where did you find your first 10 or 14 doors that you talked about yeah so because you had a w-2 job i did not a full-time thing for you that you talked about? Yeah. So. Because you had a W2 job. I did. Not a full-time thing for you. No. You didn't have me yet as your coach yet, but you still were able to find a way to go find these properties. Yeah.

It's, you know, I think success leaves clues, right? And a lot of people that are doing this in a big way are doing the same things that I was doing when I started. I just didn't really know how to do them well. So I was starting with yard signs. You know, we buy houses, any condition, fast closing, my phone number, getting some calls on those. started. I just didn't really know how to do them well. So I was starting with yard signs. We buy houses, any condition, fast closing, my phone number, getting some calls on those. I closed a couple that way. I bought another one from a neighbor that I was working on a multifamily

property. And next door, she realized some of the improvements I was making to the neighborhood. I just caught her on the sidewalk one day. We got to know each other, had to nurture that lead for a year before I closed on that one. And then, you know, we were doing a little bit of direct mail. I was doing a lot of driving for dollars and, you know, yard signs and stuff like that at the beginning.

But really, you know. And was that on weekends after work? Yeah. When were you doing that? Yeah, I mean, I was doing it from, I was working eight to five and then I was doing real estate from five to nine. And you weren't really spending too much money in marketing at that point, right?

No, at that point I wasn't. This is where the key takeaway for that is like, you can spend time or you can spend money. Yeah. And at the moment you were, at that moment, you were spending time and sacrificing maybe a Saturday and driving for dollars for two or three hours where you probably would rather have been with your wife or doing something else. But that was what got you to where you needed to go to get going. Yeah. And also I think that helps with your credibility when you start talking to sellers later in your journey too, right? Because you've got things to point to that you did before that, right? And then it's like, hey, you know, the oldest barbershop in my city, we own the commercial building that that's in. So I'm like, hey, you know, this oldest barbershop in my city, we own the commercial building that's in.

So I'm like, hey, you know, this barbershop, like that's one of my properties, you know, so you can start to like point to these pieces of real estate that you own. And it helps build some credibility. Sure. Move on to the next thing. So, you know, bootstrapping it and like doing the boots on the ground stuff, I think is really important to help kind of build some of your influence in the markets that you're trying to work in. Now, in those first 14, did you use any of your own money to buy? I was using all my own money, man. Yeah. I mean, because I was making six figures in my W2 job. When I was overseas working for the company, they were paying me really well. I was single at the time,

saving everything. And so I came back from overseas, had all that cash. And that's really what I was doing the burr with at the beginning. So for those, maybe they don't know what that is, it's the buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat, right? And the goal is that when you refinance, you get all of your initial capital from the purchase and the repairs back in your pocket so that you can go do it again. And if you do it really well, you actually get more on the refinance than you have in. And so it was kind of like a money snowball for me, right? I started with some money from my W-2 that grew over time and then my home value was going up. So I tapped into home equity line of credit, kind of using those two things together to keep hitting, getting

into bigger and bigger stuff over time. It's kind of the play that I was running. So, and now I think you know enough to know I wouldn't want you using any of your own money. Right. But that would also include you can use your HELOC. That is not technically your own money. That is bank money that because they're lending against your equity of your home. Yeah. Which is the big reason in my world why I want assets is I want the equity.

So banks will give me a whole bunch of money. A hundred percent. That's why I want it. I don't want it because I want the equity so banks will give me a whole bunch of money. 100%. That's why I want it. I don't want it because I want to sound cool. I want it because I want to go to the bank and say, give me $10 million against $60 million worth of equity. Yeah, 100%. And that's one thing that your community kind of opened my eyes to is, and if there's people listening to this that maybe don't really believe it yet, there is so much money out there. It's all about you being able to tell a story and share your business case and like what you're

trying to do. The money comes if you find the deal. Yeah, for sure. And so you don't need the money first, right? Find the deal. The money will find you if you find the deal. Right. And so that's not something I really understood at the beginning. and i think if i did understand that there are deals i passed up on because i was trying to use my own money that um if i knew how to you know tell that story a little bit better i could have raised private funds for that and every they would have made money i would have made money it would have benefited everybody you know so now again i kind of want that journey of like all right w-2 job to like all right now is the moment yeah you then obviously accumulated another 40-ish doors give or take where did you find those

because that you're still kind of going part-time yeah and what where did you find those 40 doors yeah so uh there's maybe a lot to unpack here I'll start with maybe kind of how I went about it I was hitting direct mail really hard okay um I was doing some cold calling. Me, it's a little different because I am so embedded in my local community. If I drew a circle around where I wanted to buy, it's not that big of a radius, right? So who were you targeting with your direct mail? Just literally everybody? That's where I was going next is I'm going after tired landlords that own multifamily property for more than 10 years. Got it. Right. And so, you know, and I'm very surgical with my marketing. So like, I think one of the things that you see a lot in this space is the spray and pray method,

right? Like, and you, you can win that way. Right. Because if you send enough time, right place, yeah. You're going to find a distress seller. Right? For me, it was like, I knew exactly who I was going after. And I was writing letters, texts, calling like specific to that group of people, right? And my story is different from everybody else's, but you can still take something from it. It was, hey, I'm born and raised in this community. You know, I care about this place. You've owned this property for a really long time. You might be ready to sell, but you're concerned of, you know, who's going to be able to take care of this and

maintain this property after you. And maybe you don't want to sell to somebody that's coming into money grab in the local community. And so that was kind of the story that I was telling. And it was from a place of truth. I mean, that's really how I feel. And so, you know, I was developing relationships with these guys. And so one of the interesting things that's different too, about multifamily than single family, uh, especially when you're looking at owners that have had something for a really long time, these people prioritize relationships over profits. Right. Um, and so it is a long game with these people. Um, the, the, the biggest deal that I closed before I left my W2 job,

I spent nine months building a relationship with this guy before he was ready to sell. There's so much to take away from that. And I know on the surface level, it's nine months, but what you were able to do with your intention of building a relationship is why you got the biggest deal so far in your career yeah and people overlook that they oh i'll call them in in 30 days i'll just call them hey you ready to sell they're not actually developing any relationship yeah right

um and i'm not saying you got to go to take people to dinner and lunch every week i'm just saying like be genuine about your intentions with the relationship. And the same is with agents, right? The reason why I bring this up is right now, calling agents for deals is a big thing. Yeah. And people forget that the agent needs to know, like, and trust you if they're going to get you in the door.

All a lot of people doing right now is saying, Hey, I see your listing. Here's my offer, but build the relationship. And that's the big takeaway. People need to understand is you were great at doing that. And that's what got you how big, how many doors does that deal? 36 unit townhome community. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and he seller, he's doing a seller

carry note for me on the deal. Um, so that was helpful for me as well. And, um, a hundred percent seller carry. Uh, no, I put, I put some money down. Uh, yeah, I put some money down, but you know, one of the amazing things about things like seller finance, or just once you get to know a seller, it really becomes about the art of the deal at that point, right? Because there's so many variables and knobs that you can turn. And once you know somebody, you figure out what they're trying to achieve. And for this guy, it was, he didn't care about the big payday. He wanted the consistent cashflow without having to deal with the maintenance. There you go. Right? So now when you know that you can start to build your offer in a way that

solves his problem in a way that you can actually take the deal down. Right. And so, um, and, and once you get in communities like yours, you start figuring out like, all right, what are the different knobs I can turn on a seller finance deal? Um, well, I can go cash, I can go bank financing, I can go seller financing, and my numbers are going to look different on the offer for all those. How do I pitch that to the seller? And so there's a lot to it. That's the funnest part for me, man. I'm like a engineer by education, so I'm really good at the operations. We self-manage all of our properties because we've built great systems and like, I enjoy that part, but even more than I enjoy the operations, I love making the deal. Yeah. You're a deal architect. Yeah. And create it. Yeah. That's the fun part for me is getting with sellers, getting to know the sellers, trying to make a deal work for both

parties. That's like what it's all about, you know. Are you doing anything right now? So now that you quit, are you going to go more into some transactional while finding the properties you're going to end up buying and holding? Yeah. So, I mean, that's one of the things I'm trying to figure out right now is how much time I want to invest in different parts of the system. I mean, for people that are listening to this podcast that maybe have active income, that's important for you to build a passive income stream. For me, the tipping point was my passive income stream got larger than my active income stream. And now I could leave the active income and now I can replace my W-2 active income with maybe real estate active income. So I would love to do a couple of flips a year, more than a couple really. really. The nice part for you, now that you're a full-time real estate investor and you have so much cost

set going on with your rentals, you can go make a hundred grand and not pay any taxes on that. Yeah. Well, and I'll tell you something else. I don't know how many people listening to this are in my exact situation when I was in my W-2 job, but I was putting a lot of money away into a retirement account at the beginning of that process. And what I've actually been able to do is this large apartment complex, I'm using the bonus depreciation to offset the income tax event from me pulling the money from my 401k, which is something that gives me more access to capital to go do stuff with. And so, yeah, I think there's a lot that you can do on the tax advantage side with real estate that make it beneficial, you know,

and making a really high active income on the real estate side with flips, wholesales, offsetting that with, with the long-term rental. That's again, another reason I preach, you know, I call it being dynamic, right? You're doing wholesale fix a foot, buy and hold your, you know, it's a cute way of just saying you're doing everything, right? Right. But part of this push that I've been making to get people to start buying more and more properties is this, is the tax write-off part, right? Now, whether they're a W-2 or not, so if they're not considered a full-time real estate investor, they can't do the bonus depreciation like you and I can that you're full-time. So I can take it all in year one.

Right. But nonetheless, if you're a high income earner, get the deduction, get something each and every year. Yeah. It is super valuable. Right. And then if I now just talk to the people that may have a W-2 job and have either a retirement account or have a savings, you should be taking part in deals that I'm doing or austin is doing so you can get some ownership because then you can actually continue to get more cost seg and deductions it's a business model whether you're doing it full-time or part-time everyone should be doing this yes absolutely yeah the burr model is so brilliant now out of those burrs have you ever hit one that you were able to not only just get your money back, but you were actually able to cash?

Many times. Yeah. Many times. I think I've burrowed seven properties. I think I've only left the money in two of the seven. And the others, I probably made at least 10 grand. One of them, I made 40 grand on the cash out refi. Isn't that great?

Yeah. I mean, it's literally income in and of itself. Yeah. And there's another method to all this is you can wholesale yourself your own rental. Yeah. Right. So if you buy it right, entity A wholesales it to entity B, you own both of them, you make 10 grand in the middle, and then you keep it as a rental. That's right. So the 10 grand helps you on the active, you know, a little cash in your pocket while you're developing this long-term piece. Right. And I think maybe that's something we should touch on is how I think a lot of

people today are looking for the fast cash all the time. Right. And there's ways to make fast cash in real estate for sure. Wholesaling, flipping. Yeah. Right. But for me, when I started looking at the numbers and thinking about this stuff, there's only one way you get paid when you

do a wholesale deal, right? When you hold a long-term rental, you can get paid five ways, right? And so if you think about what those five ways, the one most people think about first is cashflow, right? So that's your income minus your mortgage and all of your expenses, right? And you need to keep some away for that, right? You need to have a 5% maintenance setting aside every month, CapEx, stuff like that. These are things that you talk about a lot when you're in your community, right? How do you actually run these numbers to figure out what you're actually cashflowing a month? But that's a big one that everybody thinks about is the cash flow. But the other four are the ones that make you seriously wealthy over time. Right. One of them is appreciation. Right. So just to use really simple numbers, if you buy

a hundred thousand dollar property and you put 20% down, right, that's $20,000 you put in the deal. If that property appreciates 3% a year, right? So year one, you bought it, it's 100,000. Year two, it's 103,000, okay? You just gained $3,000 in equity, right? On your $20,000 investment, right? So you made 3,000 on 20,000 is a 15% return on your money, just on the appreciation side. That's right. Right. So if I'm, I don't buy it if I don't cash flow a 12% cash on cash return. That means I want to make 12% on every dollar that I've gotten the deal, right? On cash flow, not appreciation, but cash. Just on cash. That's right. So I want to make 12% on the cash flow. Now, in that example that I gave, 3% a year

is actually low. If you look at historically how the United States real estate market has appreciated over time. But let's just use conservative numbers. You're making 15% on appreciation. Then the third one, depreciation, we talked about this a second ago. You're offsetting your active income because the IRS code says that that property is actually losing value over time and you get to recoup some of that on your tax dollars, right? So you got cashflow, appreciation, depreciation. Now you've got principal pay down, right? Because you've got renters that are paying you and your mortgage, right? Part of that goes to the interest, but then your mortgage balance is going down every month. I tell people, what if I could give you a loan that you never had to pay back?

Yeah. That's what buying a rental is. Exactly. You're getting a loan that you never have to pay back. Yeah. Your tenants are. That's right. Yeah.

People don't think about it that way. Yeah. That's a real legit point of you got this asset and essentially got a loan that you never will have to go pay back. Yeah, that's right. So we've got cash flow, appreciation, depreciation, debt, principal pay down, right? And then the fifth one is one that I get super excited about in the long-term hold space. And some people call this inflation harvesting. Some people call it just like inflation in general. Inflation-induced debt destruction is another

thing people call it. But you're borrowing money at today's dollars, right? That dollar is never going to be worth more later than it is today, right? Because we're printing money all the time. All the time. Right? So you're paying back the debt today with a dollar that's worth less tomorrow. That's right. Right? And because of inflation, your tenants are going to be paying you more in rent 10 years from now than you are today.

But if you get long-term fixed rate debt, your mortgage doesn't change. That's right. So if I've got a mortgage for $1,500 on a three-unit property and my income right now is $2,200, right? In 10 years, my mortgage, if I got fixed rate debt, is still $1,500 a month. And now my total rent on that property is, what is it? $3,500? Yeah, whatever it is, right? And that's all because you're in the game for a long period of time, right? The challenge I have as an educator yeah i teach everyone the same thing i taught you yeah people aren't willing to play the long game that's right the same point that you just make right they

want the fast cash and wholesaling is great fix and flipping is great i still do both of them yeah but i tell people the the biggest mistake i ever made is i didn't think the way you are thinking yeah early enough right i. I think that now, now I'm in the game about four apartments this year. I want to buy another six or so like, yeah. But if I could have been thinking the way I think today, the way I educate you and help advise you on why and went, I wish I did this 10 years ago. Right. Right. It would, I would be way further down this field. Right. And so the, the people that get caught up like I did, by the way, I'm a victim of this. I was the guy. Yeah. I want the $20,000 pop 40,000

right now. Yeah. And then I want to go to the club and spend it. Right. Right. Yeah. And I tell everyone that I was, you know, a fuck boy in my thirties and that's okay. It was my journey. Um, but man, I, I wish I could have thought like you in my thirties. Yeah. I mean, I think that's why being surrounded by people that can kind of like give you another perspective is helpful. Right. But, and it's objective, right? Like I'm super objective. I don't, I'm not emotionally tied to whether you buy a property, so I can give you an objective point of view. Right. Great opportunity. Do it this way. Hey, yes. Take the HELOC against your house and buy it like this. Like there's no subjectivity for me. I'm not attached to it. Right. And that's why a lot

of people need the oversight, right? Is, is it is a very emotional, subjective thing when it's your money or you're borrowing it or, you know, whatever comes. Yeah. Well, and I, I would say, let's talk a little bit about the value of mastermind for a second sure talking about that right um for me i already mentioned one of the reasons i joined which is that like people were wholesaling deals that i saw and i didn't know i mean you remember the first mastermind i came to i was like hey firstly i need to figure out how to wholesale something right because i just know how to buy and hold stuff um and so like there's the learning element. Yeah, it's an important piece.

Associated with that learning element is even if you're involved in your local RIA group or something and there's people doing big things, when you really start asking a lot of questions about, hey, what list are you pulling? Hey, what are you doing here? Naturally, because it's their business and I know you're marketing the same market they are,

there's going to be some stuff that gets missed or that's not shared, right? When you go outside of your local market and join a community, you get the unabated version of how do you go do this, right? Which has been helpful for me because there's a lot of great people in my local market that I've learned from, but they're not going to give you their secret sauce because it's their secret sauce, right? And you're localized, right? I mean, they want those same properties. Exactly. So that's two reasons, right? You got to learn something. You got to kind of get the unabated strategy and truth. And important part of that is being involved in a group where there are experts that are kind of at the leading edge of their field. Like you are, I mean, I think you're super

humble about like what you own and do and things like that. But I mean, you're an owner in real estate software companies that allow people to do the stuff that we're talking about right now. Right. So talk about an expert. I mean, that's one of the big reasons why I gravitated to you, other than the fact that I think there's a lot of people in the space, too, that they're coaching, but they're not really doing right. I mean, you buy deals from

people in your community right so there's like no greater example of like somebody that's actually doing the work and involved and that was important to me too so and you didn't ask me to say the stuff about you by the way but now i'm gonna have to pay you or something yeah um but i mean i think if you're watching this or listening to this and you're thinking, maybe I need to get in a group. Those are things that you need to be thinking about, right? Is how accessible is this person? Is this person actually doing the work?

Are they doing the deals that I want to be doing? Is it somebody I can really learn from? Because I mean, there are definitely groups that you would get in that you're not going to get a lot of value from. That's certainly not been the case with the group that I'm in with you. And the other part of being in the mastermind is the mindset. Right. I am huge on mindset now and having an abundance mindset, you know, being around people that are doing the work, trying to be successful, make it happen, um, is big. And that's something that communities can give you is, you know, helping you see outside of some of your limiting beliefs

and, um, just kind of getting out there and like seeing people making money and it makes you, it gives you energy. It gives me energy for sure. Um, yeah. Well, one of the things that I'll, you know, kind of echo to what you're saying is the people in the group a lot of times will help themselves make more money yeah because they're all working together for a very similar goal not the same goal and usually deal flow and all this stuff comes from it because of the people that are actively trying to achieve and so you know when that happens there's a sense of community that, that goes way beyond just like everyone's showing up to the call. It's like real money's being made, relationships,

partnerships, strategic partnerships, lending is happening, right? Um, taking advantage of, with the intentionality of like having a mastermind, having a coaching group, having, but then being intentional while you're in there yeah right absolutely it's so empowering right we had lunch yesterday with another member couples uh a couple who are members right yeah and it's the same thing like being able to be intentional with the time and hanging out and you know they just got their first deal from using software and they're super fired up about that um but then there's probably some synergistic stuff that's going to happen with you and them

or me and them or you. All that stuff plays into the power of the community. Yeah, absolutely. I think the community is a massive part of the whole thing, right? And you can't do it alone. But that's why you're even starting, you believe so much,

you're even having your own RIA meeting now in your own market. Yeah, I've really doubled down in my real estate meetup in my local market now because I benefited so much from having a community. Some of that community came from that group. Some of that community came from your group. And I want to make sure that other people that are earlier, you know, maybe trying to get to where I've gotten, have the resources and the community to do it as well. Right. There's a giving back. And that's going to work out for you when you give back and you provide value to others because you're further down the road in the same way I'm

further down the road than you are. It comes back to you. Sure. In deal flow opportunities, right. Because they don't really know how to handle this lead or this deal or create the creative financing or. Yeah. And you're like, great, let's do this do this together right it's because you're offering value and that value comes back in form of like opportunities for yourself absolutely happens to me all the time and people always ask me why if i'm so successful in real estate why do i coach why did i build the science and flipping and my answer is that i want to develop people to do deals with i want more business partners i want to buy the 50 door deal that you're like, hey, Justin, I need some extra capital. Do you want to come in? The answer is yes, I'm in.

That's the intentionality. And so you getting your own REIA meeting going, that should be yours too. I'm just going to pour into these people because the opportunity that I will get out of it will be massive. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And a lot of what we're talking about right now is abundance mindset. And what abundance mindset means to me is like, sometimes you're putting in work that you don't know exactly how it's going to pay off for you. And that's one of the things that I think a lot of people that are stuck in the office world, the W-2 world, there is kind of like a dollar for dollar transactional mindset that I for sure had. And that's what holds people back, right? It's like, well, I don't know if I can spend $1,000

a month on, you know, text marketing or a cold caller to call for me, right? Because what if I don't get a deal, right? It's like, you've got a abundance mindset is no, I'm gonna invest that because it's gonna pay off for me later or I'm gonna run you know a community because I know it's gonna bring people up and it's gonna come back to me in some way right um and that is like a huge switch that had to turn in my mind um to make the switch to entrepreneurship and leaving my w2 job is the scarcity mindset is something I definitely had, you know? And, um, so working out, what did you find got you over the hump? Was it my community? Was it you starting to give back where, where, what kind of broke through for you? So when my, uh, maybe to back up a little bit on

the W2 thing, I started, I was being told early on in my career that i was on like a high potential list and you know you're gonna be a vp one day and da da da um golden gian cup type of yeah exactly dingling that yeah and i i was believing that stuff and i i'm sure i could have gotten there because i believe in myself and i'm willing to put in the work right but i started looking around at my boss and my boss's boss right and i And I was like, well, he's working 7am to 5pm. And then he's jumping on night calls and like, how's his family life? How's his physical health? You know? And I was like, this is not really what I want for myself. Right. And so to answer your question after saying that is my fear of staying the same, like being on that trajectory, became greater than my fear of jumping in

and spending the money and doing the things, right? And then once I took the jump, I started having success after doing it, right? And so it's like taking the jump is the hard part and you've got to want that. You've got to want freedom more than whatever you're sitting in today and a lot of that comes across as like you've got it's scary right you've got to fear

your current situation more than that to go do it there's three major fears and you give me shivers because you're actually listening to me yeah because you're saying what i'm saying i just say differently there's three major fears doing it um taking action is feared yeah making the jump doing it alone yep and then staying the same those are the three major fears your fear of staying the same is what's going to make you take action yeah and that's what you're saying and for anyone who has any level of entrepreneur mindset passion desire any level you have to fear staying the same more than anything else because it'll force you into the next phase which will be take action even if it's incorrect but you just got to get going right or you quite literally will stay the same and your point you would have stayed at that job and yeah

climb the ladder yeah and maybe made a little bit more money probably wouldn't have very good of a life because you would be working these crazy hours and making 150 grand a year you're already doing that in your rentals like right now you could literally not do anything anymore and just make 150 grand a year on rentals the rest of your life. That's right. Yeah, exactly. And you know, some of it's not sexy, right? Like we always, it's maybe sounds sexy to say like, well, I quit my job in three, four years, whatever it was. But, um, you know, part of it is like, Hey, live below your means right when one of the reasons why some people can't get out is you know they get these promotions at work and they're

being told they're gonna be somebody and then they go buy that bigger house no they go buy that nicer car and it's like sacrifice a few years now and live like that later like hey listen you flew a lewd allegiant yeah i'm still i'm you know, I've still got some of that in me, right? I haven't made it yet. I don't feel like I like it. Hey, listen, I wish I had a little bit more in me. I wish I had a little bit more. Well, you're in a different phase of life, right? So, I mean, I'll be doing

what you're doing, God willing, one day when I'm as successful as you are, right? I will tell you, though, in terms of travel, and you don't travel as much, start flying first class. I've heard you say that before. And you just, you will be amazed about the you don't travel as much, start flying first class. I've heard you say that before. And you just, you will be amazed about the people you sit next to and the connections that can happen. It really is just amazing.

And I know it's an investment financially. Nowadays, flying in general is super expensive. But if you start flying more, I encourage you to make that investment. It really is an investment. It's not just paying for a flight because the people that you sit next to can also afford it. And they usually are very cool people. Yeah. They usually have some level of business acumen.

Like the conversations are great. So I would encourage it. Yeah. All right. Cool. Which will be the next phase of your life. Yeah. And then, you know,

you got to join the really expensive gyms and the country clubs and all the other things. And it just, if you're really intentional about using your, what I would consider your superpower is who you are. I know you're analytical and engineer by education, but you're really easygoing.

People like you, people gravitate towards you. If you lean into that more, you'll actually create way more opportunity in your local market because that's who you are. Yeah. It's just, it's just it's crazy to think about how much further you can get just with the intention of time yeah you know and

some of that is is money right that's what i'm saying is yeah absolutely flights are really expensive but yeah if you sit next to for example i sat next to the speaker of the house and i have a relationship now that i can call him anytime i want. That's awesome. And, you know, I can kind of get some favors. That's right. And I think that's pretty cool. That's awesome. Yeah. What would you tell, kind of as we're wrapping up,

what would you tell the person that is maybe listening to this at the W2, dying inside, God, I want to be Austin. I want to be able to get these deals done. I haven't done a deal, but I love it. I'm listening to all these podcasts. Like, what's your best advice for that person? Yeah. Great question. I'm getting shivers because I feel like I listened to so many podcasts where that question was asked and sometimes it was good advice. Sometimes it wasn't, but

you know, if you're sitting there at your W2 job and you're wondering, can I do this? What does it take? The first thing, if you're listening to this podcast, you're investing in your education in some form or fashion, right? And what you need to know, what you need to hear from me, I wish somebody told me this earlier is, you know enough, you know enough, it's time to go take action, right? I read all the books, man. I listened to hundreds of hours of podcasts before I bought a deal. And it's like, you know, you learn and then you learn again and then you learn again. You've got to get out of the learn loop into the do loop, right? Is what I would tell the person that's listening that's in the job, right? You're working a lot, right? You got to make time, stop learning or learn while

you do, right? But you got to go take action, right? Go door knock this weekend, right? Go send some direct mail, go send some text messages, go hire a cold caller and pull a list, like do something, right? Parkinson's law says like the amount of time it takes you to do something shrinks or expands by the time that you give it. Basically, I might have butchered that a little bit, but, um, for me, like I just started shoving stuff in my day. Yeah. You know, it's like I was working a W2 job. I was self-managing my real estate. I was looking for leads. It's like create a situation where you've just got to go do right. Yep. And then do it. And you will see results if you do it consistently the desire has to be big enough or the pain has to be big enough yeah typically is what pushes people over the edge so

you know for those that are like this is cool they probably won't go do no no pain no big desire yeah but for the person who's like dying inside of the job and desperate to have you know break out and be an entrepreneur and buy real estate and they're watching all the TV shows, listening to all the podcasts, your advice is the best advice. Do it even if it's imperfect, even if you fuck it up, even if you don't do the right thing.

That's right. Because the only way to actually go achieve any of the results you're trying to get. Yeah, you have to go. And that's the thing. Like, I think a lot of people might say, well, I wish you would have told me exactly what to do.

It literally does not matter what you do. Like, pick something and go do it and you will see success. Like I believe that wholeheartedly. Totally. And one of the easiest things I would tell anyone just easy and free is call realtors. Start having conversations with realtors. You may not have a deal. You may not, you know, get to the number, but let them know you're interested in finding investment properties. Let them know that, you know, you're looking to buy, let them know that this may not work, but I'm looking for maybe something that needs more work, not such a good looking home, but maybe something that looks a lot rougher. Right. Yeah. Have those conversations because it starts to add up over time. Yeah, totally, man. Well, dude, I appreciate you being on. Yeah. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah. You've

given me a lot. And so hopefully, you know, this is something and looking forward to continuing to do what we've been doing, man. Well, let's go do it. Let's find a way to go do a big old apartment deal together. Let's go, man. Do that. All right, guys. If this helped you, please share this episode with at least two of your friends.

Austin Fulbright is in the house, one of the Science Flipping community members. If you have any interest in joining the community, just let us know. Let's have a conversation. Share this with two of your friends and we're going to have another guest on the next episode. Peace.