The Real Estate Way to Wealth and Freedom

You as an individual have a set of skills particular to you. These skills are like a toolbox filled with tools. You can use them to work on, repair, and build many different things. But just because a plumber has a pipe wrench, doesn't mean he is the best fitted (see what I did there??) to go wrenching on a fire sprinkler system. Just because the electrician has a ladder doesn't make him the best person to paint ceilings. You see, everyone has a particular set of skills or tools. But more importantly the ones with the most success are those who know how to use their skills in a particular niche. The same goes for real estate investors. For those of you who are starting out, and those who remember when you were just starting, understanding this toolbox analogy is important. Sure, each of you have the ability to buy a single family home, or wholesale deals to other investors, or even syndicate apartment buildings. But where is your niche? There are so many ways to make money with real estate. It's hard to be great at multiple, and impossible to be great at every way. So where is your niche? Warren Buffet famously said " Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing." What did Warren Buffet mean by this? The point of diversifying is to have losses offset by gains in other areas. However, the opposite is also true. Gains are offset losses. So what does all of this mean? What's the point I'm making? Simple! Find your niche and excel at it. Become the best you can be. Develop all the skills required to be the best. Learn from the best. Surround yourself with the best. Soon enough, you'll be the best.

Tom Wheelwright, CPA, is the creative force behind ProVision, the world’s premier strategic CPA firm. As the founder and CEO, Tom has been responsible for innovating new tax, business and wealth consulting and strategy services for premium clientele for the past 30 years. Tom is a leading expert and published author on partnerships and corporation tax…

With the upcoming new year, many are focused on improvement – from physical, to mental and spiritual. People will set out with the “New year, new me” mentality, only to make it half way through January before reverting back to their old ways. Today’s episode will touch briefly on three different areas that will help…

There are lots of times we come across contradictions. For instance, on one hand your mom tells you not to talk to strangers. Yet, on the other hand you're told to treat everyone as you want to be treated. Well do you not talk to strangers, or do you treat that stranger how you would want to be treated with a big smile and pleasant greeting? Life is full of these conundrums, from social norms to laws and even business. We're told to diversify by some and niche by others. Should you hold a small amount of real estate, along with some stock, bonds, mutual funds, and agricultural land? Or do you focus on a niche real estate strategy, such as house flipping? Let's look at an example of contradicting strategies, particularly around real estate investing. In this example Sara wants to buy a fourplex, live in one unit and rent out the others. Sara wants to buy and live in a specific part of the city close to her job, her favorite restaurants, and shopping. However, nothing in her particular area makes sense for an investment property. In order to make this strategy work financially, she would have to move to a suburb of the city, much farther away from work, where property values are lower. Sara has long realized that her market is not the best for investing and she realizes that she wants live by the saying "Live where you want and invest where the numbers make sense". Sara finds herself torn trying to balance both this fourplex strategy and mindset. So what should she do? Should she move to where the numbers for a fourplex makes sense, or should she follow the mantra and live where she wants, while investing where it makes sense, even if these two things aren't related? Many real estate investors are faced with decisions like this every day. Decisions that make you rethink your focus, or wonder if you even have one. The problem and solution is different for everyone. Using your goals as a road map will certainly help you make these tough decisions along the way. They'll give you a single point of focus to follow. You'll be able to ask yourself "Does this decision help me achieve my goals?". When you come across contradictions in live, the worst thing you can do is not make a decision. Don't let yourself be paralyzed by indecision. Understand there will be contradictions, confusion, and conflicts in life. Tackle these head on. If you stumble, make the wrong turn, or get lost, simply use your goals to guide you.

Tyler Sheff, founder of CashFlowGuys.com, is a Licensed Real Estate Problem Solver, Educator, Investor, and Syndicator. Tyler has been involved in real estate for over 17 years and now mantain a 100% focus on investing for Cashflow and helping others do the same. Tyler and his team acquire, stabilize, and then provide safe clean affordable housing to those in need when it matters most. As the host of the CashFlowGuys podcast, Tyler teaches the public how to avoid common pitfalls found in real estate investing and inspires others to take massive action towards their goals. Key Points Understanding why the seller is selling The benefits to the seller of seller financing How to evaluate a deal and come up with financing terms Analyzing the numbers using a T Bar The cost of control (mortgage) is more important than the purchase price Lightning Questions What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it? Finding financing with not great creditrsonal habit that contributes to your success. Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success Tyler asks questions, and doesn't take his beliefs for fact Do you have an online resource that you find valuable? Youtube What book would you recommend to the listeners and why? How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie If you were to give advice to your 20 year old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be? Start before you're ready, because you'll never be 100% ready Resources CashFlowGuys.com CashFlowGuys Podcast

In America, we have tremendous amounts of freedom, relative to the rest of the world's population. The freedom to work where we want, earn an income how we want, learn what we want, live where we want, travel where we want. We take these things for granted, though by no fault of our own. That's just life as we know it. Sure, we all realize the freedoms we have but do we really truly appreciate them, much less take advantage of them? Think about that. You can do whatever it is you want in this life. Why do people surrender their freedom, for a small amount of security, comfort, and predictability? It is laziness? Fear? Lack of knowledge? “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” ― Benjamin Franklin These are all things to think about as we discuss how to achieve more freedom than you already have and what to do with it. By sacrificing freedom for security, you are missing out on so many things in your life. You're not able to do the things you love because you don't control your time. You don't even have control over your day. Most importantly, if you don't pursue your own freedom, you may one day look back and regret your decision to never try. Everyone has the ability to create a life they want. It just takes some thought, conscious effort, and often times a lot of work. Here on The Real Estate Way to Wealth and Freedom podcast, we have talked a lot about achieving financial freedom. In fact, helping every listener achieve financial freedom is the mission of this podcast. Financial freedom will give you freedom to do the things you enjoy, rather than doing things you are required to do to make a living. Without financial freedom, you're tied to trading your time for dollars. While it may be a great pay off (you're making great money for the time you trade it for), you still don't have the freedom to do what you want, when you want, where you want. That's the freedom you are capable of having. While there different ways of achieving financial freedom, investing in real estate provides the best rewards for the risk. Real estate is one of the few asset classes that provide passive income now, and appreciation in the future creating both financial freedom and generational wealth. People mistake comforts for freedom. They think that by having a small amount of freedom, they are actually free. Worse, people don't strive to achieve the freedom that is at their very fingertips. "Every man dies. Not every man lives." - Sir William Wallace Don't take your freedom for granted. Pursue whatever it is in this life you want. Be great, don't settle, and build a life you deserve.

Lane Kawaoka is a City Project Engineer and a Licensed Professional with a Masters degree in Civil Engineering and a Bachelors in Industrial Engineering both from the University of Washington in Seattle. Aside from his day job, he is the co-owner of MPFE Investments, focused on value-add multifamily apartments (currently own 260+ units), and manager of the Simple Passive Cashflow Fund. Lane’s passion project SimplePassiveCashflow.com, is a free podcast and online learning resource in passive real estate investing. Working as a high paid professional in Corporate America and frustrated by the traditional wealth building dogma, Lane was compelled to inspire and mentor other working professionals on how to do real estate investing and build their own portfolios. Lane urges other working professionals to just get started saving the for the 20% down payment for a conventional loan to acquire a single family home rental. The Simple Passive Cashflow method is for buying investments with a healthy cashflow buffer that can withstand a market downturn. Lane has received much appreciation for his work via kind words from his audience. In addition to mentoring, Lane also partners with beginning investors who want to build their portfolio, but are too busy to handle direct investments. He uses his engineering mind, investing knowledge, and network to optimize investment returns for others via a diversified fund backed by real estate called “The Simple Passive Cashflow Fund.” Key Points Getting started investing in real estate accidentally - by chasing the American dream Live where you want to and invest where the numbers make sense Identifying your highest and best use of your time Changing your mindset in order to transition to large multifamily deals Lightning Questions What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it? Lane became an accidental landlord. He first needed proof of concept before he got started. Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success. Lane gets things done starting every day with a morning routine. Do you have an online resource that you find valuable? Lane googles things to find out the things he doesn know, with the mentality of "take life by the horns" What book would you recommend to the listeners and why? The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller If you were to give advice to your 20 year old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be? Lane started small, protected his downside, and focuses on growth. Lane credits much of his success to the mindset around getting started. Own the suck. Resources SimplePassiveCashflow Simpe Passive Cashflow Podcast Contact Lane

Real estate investing is a numbers game. If you’re just getting started investing or are an experienced investor, you understand this. From analyzing deals, crunching numbers, and estimating expenses to searching for deals, making offers and closing, everything revolves around the numbers. We’ve talked about the importance of keeping a full pipeline of deals. If you’ve looked at 100 deals, maybe only 50 of those deals appear worth analyzing further. Out of these 50 properties, maybe only 10 are worth making an offer on. Out of the 10 offers, you might only have 1 accepted. Rent to Value Ratio (RV Ratio) – ratio of the purchase price to the monthly rents. For example, if you purchase a property for $100,000 and the total rents are $1,000 per month, then the RV ratio is 1% Most real estate investors consider 1% RV ratios to be a good rule of thumb. However, that number is highly dependent on your market and property type. Markets like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York will be harder to find 1% RV ratios, whereas markets that are known for cashflow – typically cities in the South Midwest, like Memphis, St. Louis, Indianapolis, & Mobile, might be much easier to find 1% RV ratios and perhaps even higher. Gross Rent Multiplier (GRM) – is another metric very similar to the RV ratio. It’s a ratio of the purchase price to the annual gross rents. So let’s say you take the same $100k property, with $1,000/month rents for a total of $12k annual rents. $100k divided by the annual rent of $12K gives us a 8.33 GRM. This GRM tells us how many years it would take to pay for itself with gross rents received. Keep in mind, this isn’t reality, as you will have expenses and a mortgage to deduct from the gross rents. 2% rule. When analyzing deals, it’s important to be able to estimate the expenses of a property. When estimating expenses, there is a rule of thumb called the 2% rule. This is the income to expense ratio. So let’s take our $1,000 per month rent. The rent to expense ratio of 2% will tell us that our expected expenses will be $500. Another way of putting this is your expenses will be roughly half of the total rents. Keep in mind that the expenses calculated in this number do not include your Principal and Interest payment. By using these numbers, you can quickly assess whether a property is worth further analyzing with more accurate numbers. This will allow you to more efficiently analyze more deals, leading you to more offers and ultimately, more properties!

Aaron Hendon is a Seattle Realtor, real estate investor, author, educator and speaker. He is managing partner of Christine & Company, a Seattle Magazine awarded, Five Star Real Estate Agent, winning team for the past 5 years and individual Rising Star in Seattle Real Estate winner this year. Bringing together a diverse background and history including transformational leadership, entrepreneurial start ups and traditional cold calling sales, Aaron and his team consistently out perform the local market, selling homes for over 5% more than local market averages. Born in New York, Aaron graduated SUNY Purchase with a BFA in 1997. Discovering his fine art degree made him eligible to work in the food service industry anywhere in the country. Moving to New Mexico immediately after school, he eventually found his stride, opening a real New York bagel shop in Albuquerque, selling it 9 years later as a business grossing over $1,000,000 annually. Eventually landing in the Northwest in 2000, he now lives on a small island off the coast of Seattle with his brilliant wife, Kael, his two brilliant children, Leela and Jonah and his adoring, if not exactly brilliant, Golden Doodle, Rozy. He is currently at work on his next book, Real Estate Blind Spots – What People Don’t Know They Don’t Know About Buying and Selling Their Home (and what it costs them). Key Points How to interview real estate agents - metrics, questions, and things you should know How qualified is your real estate agent? Find out! Ways to work well with your agent How to find agents Resources Shortchanged by Shortcuts by Aaron Hendon

Grow Your Mindset to Grow Your Portfolio As real estate investors, our goal is to constantly grow our portfolio of rental properties.Starting out, this process may seem relatively quick for some. You might buy your first property, and soon after another and another. Eventually, you’ll start running out of capital to invest. As a real…

Amy Wan is the Founder & CEO of Bootstrap Legal. She is an attorney who specializes in real estate syndication and crowdfunding for entrepreneurs across the globe. Her mission is to democratize access to legal counsel and capital. Previously, she was a Partner at Trowbridge Sidoti LLP (CrowdfundingLawyers.net) where she practiced crowdfunding and syndication law, and was General Counsel at Patch of Land, a real estate marketplace lending and crowdfunding platform. Amy is also Founder and Co-Organizer of Legal Hackers LA and served as a Presidential Management Fellow. Key Points Differences in syndication and crowdfunding General SEC regulations Regulation A+ vs. Regulation CF ABN - Always Be Networking Resources BootStrap Legal Contact Amy BootStrap Legal: (330) 269-9260 https://calendly.com/amywan/consultation/11-27-2017 linkedin.com/in/amyywan

With Thanksgiving yesterday, many of us are coming out of our food coma and reflecting on spending a great day with friends and family. I want to thank those who weren’t able to spend time with their families because they are protecting yours, mine, and theirs. Many of us have so much to be thankful…

There’s a reason Vinney’s nickname is “Mr. Smiles”, which is evident even through just hearing the demeanor in his voice throughout this show! He has always believed in individuals’ ability to shape the world around them through positive thought and selfless actions, and he has been a passionate motivational speaker and teacher for over three decades.

Our lives are made up of countless experiences. Our mind processes each of these experiences and then creates a story around that particular experience – either positive or negative. This story is what sticks with us and becomes a belief.

Martin Orefice is a real estate investor who specializes in creative real estate. With over 12 years of experience, he understands the rent to own process from every perspective as the buyer, seller and investor.