This is a bigger pockets podcast show for 084 if you just tell everybody what you do. I tell all my co-workers, the babysitter, uncles, aunties, if you tell people what you do, it's always somebody in a situation where they need to get rid of a house.

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What's going on? Everyone is Brenda Turner of the Bigger Pocket's podcast here with my co-host, Mr. David Greene. Welcome to show three ninety nine.

David, how you doing? I couldn't be doing better. I'm on the Bigger Pocket's podcast. Actually, I could be doing better.

I'm very sorry, but this weekend, reading and hiking in the woods and so I feel really good.

But I'm definitely tired getting the goods in the woods as our friend Tim would say.

Yes, he would. And it rhymes. So everyone here that just heard this will remember it.

They will remember. Yeah. Anyway, what's up man? I know you've been working out a lot.

You've been getting all in shape and all the gyms are closing California. It's been runnin crazy. Run ins, working out the same thing.

Whatever, I guess I think it working out like lifting weights.

And I think of running like just hell, just you got to go like you got my buddy Mike says, like he calls it farm fit or something like that. It's like you got to get get in get in shape what you have around your house. So like, they used bales of hay and they just. Exactly. Yeah.

You got to feed it Rocky for where he's out of the woods just using like picking up trees and stuff like that.

You do what you got to do, you pick up where do you go, get your camera, set it up on a little timer, then a tree, hold it up. And I want to see that in your Instagram later. What's your Instagram, David? Green tea for everyone. Go to David Green. Twenty four on Instagram now and go look for David's picture of him holding a tree.

Can't you just invite me to Hawaii and I can do this with fun stuff like I want you to pick up some water and yeah. Hold it above your head. We'll go swimming. Or if you do like the hair flip thing that girls do with the cool Instagram, like they've been practicing that, just wait.

At one of these days, I'm going to unleash it on the world. They're not ready for it. It's it's like blue steel. Like Magnum. Right. All right. We got it.

Yeah, they're going green.

I got to get on Today Show before we do it. Let's get to today's quick today's quick tip is very simple.

Earlier we recorded, but it's coming up here. We just got finished recording with today's guest, George, who is awesome. You're going to love him, George. Tell the story later on in the show about how he bought a duplex and the rents that he found out that was actually being charged were not what the rents were advertised as being charged. So I just wanted to throw this out there. And I do mention in the show there is something called an TESTOPEL agreement or an estoppel certificate that you have tenants sign when you buy a property that has already been currently rented.

Just throwing that out there. If you're going to buy a property, make sure you search bigger pockets or even Google if you don't like bigger pockets and search for estoppel. Stapper, I think. Oh, good job and thanks.

I just wrote that chapter in my book, the multifamily book that I'm writing, and so it's in my head fresh. I probably got it wrong.

Now I look like a complete moron anyway. Don't always trust what agents say is the rent. A lot of times they're writing what the rent could be, not what the rent is. So make sure you verify that before you buy property. And that is today's Quick Tip.

Trust but verify. That's great. All right, with that said, let's get to today's show sponsors.

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Be happy with that. We got the show. So today's guest is George Gibson. George Gibson is an awesome dude who was a mail carrier and did tell a story today about how he went from that to full time real estate investor to the power of just cash flow and doing a little bit of flipping. And there did a lot of cool stuff today, a lot of really good advice. Everything from, like Greg mentioned, the quick tip, the estoppel stuff.

We talk about what it takes to actually quit your job. We talk a lot about house hacking today. We talk a little bit about buying at auctions and so much more. George is just a bundle of energy. And I think you're like a show. By the way, just a quick word on a warning, especially a warning. But right in the middle of the show or towards the end of the show, George's microphone gave out, so we switched to his other microphone.

So if you're all of a sudden hear a change in microphone sound, don't get panicked. It's not your audio in your car. It is just the change of microphone.

And yeah, be aware what that said ad. Sure, we've. Nope, let's bring him in. All right. Let's get to today's show with George Gibson.

All right, George, welcome to the Bigger Pocket's podcast. Man, good to have you here. How are you doing? Oh, thanks for having me. My dad. So I want to hear a little bit about your story. I mean, like get into real estate, obviously. But I know you were a mail carrier, is that correct?

Yes. Tell us about that. All right. So basically, I was a mail carrier. I graduated college and I didn't use my degree right off the rip. I became a mailman at the post office. So I worked for the post office for maybe six years. And the first year at the post office, I was listening to music, music, music, music. So I'm driving and I'm listening to music. I ran out of all the songs to listen to and I come across a podcast app.

Right? So I come across the podcast. I type in like success, motivation, real estate. And over time I discovered the podcast was like an episode in the 50s. So yes, that was the beginning. Right. So a while ago I literally remember where I was at when I lost my first episode.

I was just thinking about the day like what street I was on. So I listen to the episode and I was delivering a list to the first episode and I pulled over and I was like, basically like, this is me right here. I comprehended everything and this guy just said, so I'm on the side of the road.

So whenever you see me on the road and he's just looking at his phone, probably looking for the next podcast, I went back to Episode one and I started from there. And my journey, I listen to the podcast every Thursday and for five years I was at the post office and I first discovered it. I didn't purchase I didn't have any rental properties and I just listened and kept learning. And then my goal became to, you know, I want to leave my job by buying rental properties.

So by today, last year, back in May, I quit my job and I didn't have any properties when I quit. But I quit my job. And I basically I got told me, George, when you put two feet in the real estate game, you're going to take off. And that's basically what happened like I've got in real estate. And now I got 12 properties, mostly single family and one duplex. That's awesome, dude. All right.

So I love that you just said like somebody said, once you jump in full time, you're really going to take off, because I think that's the way for a lot of people, like people are like toying around with that. They like the idea of it and they've got the intelligence to be able to do it. They got the the education. They obviously know what they're doing enough, but it is their job holds them back. So it's cool that you were actually able so you quit your job at some point to jump in full time?

Yes.

I mean, it was scary. And, you know, I listen to our podcast and they say you want to have maybe making exactly what you're making at your job and income. But it was like for people listening, what I'm about to say today, you have to believe what I'm saying, because everything like Brandon Davis say it works. I like my people at the job. They would be like, man, you can't buy that house or even family members.

Oh, that's not a good idea. But the people you're asking maybe don't even have any rental properties, so they don't see the vision. So, my friends was like the podcast. Guess that's awesome.

Let's go back to the beginning then. How did you get your very first property? All right, so my first when I Discover podcast, I'll be living at my parents house, me and my wife. Oh, my girl excuse my girlfriend at the time, but I'm living in my parents house, and I started this in a bigger pockets. So even though it was a personal home, I still was. I knew at the end of the day it would have been investment.

So I wasn't thinking, like, I'm gonna live here forever. So I started doing my research based on the information I knew. And I found a house, a three bedroom, two bath. And the crazy part about it is when I Googled my address, it was a flip. The person who was doing the flip is a member of bigger pockets, so they know the whole deal inside a ol pocket. So I seeing where he purchased for how much he put into it, I'm like, I'm buying.

Is he asking questions on the form?

That's my first property. I purchased a three bedroom, two bath like one hundred thirty thousand dollars. And I actually in that deal, the house was in the flood zone. So is this my first time purchase a home? And I had no idea about the flood zone. So once I found out homes in flood zones, I immediately went to Google and started looking up should I buy a house in the flood zone? Every post said, do not buy a house in a flood zone, do not.

So I'm like, I made a mistake, you know? So in that situation, I tried to back out honestly. But, you know, it was investors with the guy and they were trying to sue me for ten thousand dollars. And I'm like, I don't even have ten thousand dollars. Are you going to sue me? But that was my first year. I end up buying a house and I stayed there for a while. Then I sold it.

When I sold it, I made like twenty thousand dollars profit and I was like, that was the most money I've had at one point in time at that time.

OK, you've said two things I want to comment on. The first was this one right here. Everyone said don't buy a house in a flood zone followed by I sold it, I made twenty eight thousand dollars and I went on to my next thing. Your first deal. You didn't know exactly what you were doing. You found it in the bigger pockets forums. I mean, to guess or maybe the marketplace.

I know the house was listed on MLS, but the person who did a flip, they were asking questions on the form. OK, and the second thing you said was everybody says don't leave your job until you've got the same income from real estate investing. And what I'm getting at here is I don't like the hard and fast rules.

Yes, this is the way you're supposed to do it, OK? It it doesn't work that way. We see this with, like a bird deal. You're supposed to get one hundred percent of your money out. So if you leave eleven percent of your capital in that deal, you did a bad deal. Well, that's not true, because if you compare that to the twenty or twenty five percent, you would have left in it, plus the rehab cost, that's a way better deal.

It's like a third of the money and I hear it with house hacking. Well, the House should pay for one hundred percent of your income. Well, that's not always realistic. Some of these houses we're helping people with in the Bay Area, their mortgage would be seven grand. Instead, it's two grand. That's a five grand net to them. That's so much better than if one hundred percent of their money came back. That was twenty two hundred dollars a month.

It's more than double what the other person would be.

Or like everyone. Everyone has to get the one percent rule or the two percent rule. It's the only way you get a one percent rule. I can't buy my cash on cash return. His wife is not fifteen is fourteen point seven percent and I can't go for it. And then you look at like five years down the road and their rents have increased so much that it's blown away that fifteen percent. But the person who bought the one that did meet there, I'm just using fifty percent is a hypothetical.

No, the rents haven't gone up at all. Right. Right. You can't create this hard and fast way of looking at this. I, I'd much rather prefer to look at it like would I be better off if I bought it or if I didn't. It's just a much better metric to look at then. Does it meet one hundred percent of my needs? And as we go through your story, what I wanted to point out was that none of everything you tell us would have happened if you had listened to the people who said don't buy a house in a flood zone, don't do it unless you can get this.

This is the only way to do real estate investing. And I'd also like to point out that in five years from now, whatever success you have now, we'll probably be dwarfed by what you get if you continue to put one hundred percent into real estate investing. So everybody keep that in mind, too. OK, thank you, George. I'm glad you can see.

George, can you explain for those who don't know, what does it mean, a flood zone? What does that mean?

And I want to talk about that for a minute to so I'm in I'm in Florida. So a lot of properties are the older properties are not built up on elevation.

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

But this flood insurance is going to make your payment go higher. Yeah. Yeah.

So flood, I actually built my almost all my first properties, all of them in the beginning were in flood zone areas. Because the flood zone areas were just cheaper, like it was cheaper to buy in a flood zone that was not a flood zone in my town of Grays Harbor, Washington. It's funny bread.

People thought I should be in town. All those houses look like they're built on stilts. But the whole town. That's how they build them. They build them. Yeah, it's it's a different, different type of building. But like I you know what, flood insurance. Yes. It costs money. And there is some risk out of there because like right now, like this is like this is a very short explanation. But right now, flood insurance is would be very, very expensive.

However, the government actually subsidizes flood insurance right now. So there's a government program that subsidized have for decades. They've subsidized it because they want people to have flood insurance and not destroy their life livelihood because of a flood. Normal insurance does not cover floods. And so you have to get flood insurance if you're in an area. The government says, hey, this is a flooded area, they should just call them flooded areas, not flood zones. I think flooded areas is a better word.

So flooding brand. Yes, in a bloody area, you basically said, hey, you have an increased chance. They have to have this flood insurance and we're going help subsidize it. So, I mean, the costs are different depending what state you are and all the stuff. But it's not it's not a crazy amount. I remember how much your flood insurance was per month. Yes. And that's the crazy part. The flood insurance only like 300 bucks a year.

So I think maybe that's in flood insurance. It just when you Google it or other people, it just they say don't buy a house in flood zone. Yeah. And then I just say, do the math, work backwards.

Like run your numbers as needing flood insurance. I mean, like so we have the bigger pockets, you know, rental calculator and the calculator, like when you're running a number in there or if you just do it on on your own method, like put a spot in there, just those flood insurance like insurance, other flood insurance. I always thought that. And if I'm going to look in a flood zone and yeah, it's definitely not going to be like it's clearly people who is that you shouldn't buy a house, the bad foundation, or you shouldn't buy a house with the bad.

You know what I like just figure it out. Like in fact, by doing so you can get good at something that most people are afraid of. Yes.

As a realtor every day I help customers in. Maybe they find out that the water pump is bad or a septic tank is no good. And the first thing they do is scratch off the whole deal saying they don't want to buy a house. And me as an investor, I tell them, all right, let's find out how much it cost to fix it. So not how much it cost to fix it. I just subtract it from the purchase price and make my offer.

You go from there.

Yeah, every problem I've got a no. That's exactly. I think the first show I ever hosted with you branded. That's what I said is you'd asked me about lead based paint or termites. All these things that people say never do it. No, just take the problem, turn it into a number and make the numbers work. Numbers are the common denominator. So if someone says, oh, the foundation is going to cost fifty grand. Well, if you get one hundred and fifty thousand dollar discount and then maybe, you know, someone that does foundations, they could do it for 30 grand, that's actually a good thing to look for.

Your you should be grateful that there is a foundation and I love that advice you're giving Jorges to don't just automatically disqualify a deal, look at it and say, can I handle this? And how do I make the numbers work?

Correct. All right, well, let's let's go into the rest of your story. So you bought this first full house. It was a flip, right? I lived in it for almost two years. And, you know, my relatives, as I was watching the houses go up for sale and I was like, I want to could I sell it? And she was like, I don't cost you to list it. And at the time, I didn't know.

So I was like. So it took about three or four months. And when I listed a property for sale, I had somebody turn the garage into a third bedroom. So the image for the realtor picture, when you the garage is down, they think they got a garage. Well, when you lift it up is on the half a garage. So I had like 30 people come look at it. And when they left that garage up, it completely turned the deal off.

So I've told a realtor maybe I should add a driveway on the side to let do not spend any money on this house. Do not spend any money. You're selling it. But I went in and did it anyway. I painted the house, put the driveway, and the next person came. They put in an offer. So you got my good, you know, as best a realtor investor, I think sometimes have two different mindsets. Yeah, yeah.

It's smart sometimes. Like you just got to kind of go with your gut, figure out what you think is going to be best there. The bedroom in the in the garage, like basically that you added a bedroom which made the garage way smaller. The person did OK. So that made people that made people feel weird about the house.

Yeah, a little like a garage, but you lift it up, it was like a half a garage. So that's what messed that up. But it was also a two bedroom house, not a three bedroom house, because that third bedroom was in the garage. Right. It's not in the garage. They converted the garage into a bedroom. So now you have a bedroom. Those are three, two, basically. So that's what made me in the first place.

Want to sell that house was I would listen to the podcast and people always talking about buying a duplex, living in one side or another thought out. So immediately at my job, I had this three bedroom, two bath house. I had bought a dog. I had two cars, two car payments, and it was going to work. Me and my wife both working at a post office, going to work. We come on, we eat dinner, go to sleep, do it again.

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

But every duplex came up, the numbers were not working. So I come across one day. I'm just rolling the MLS, not MLS. I wasn't a realtor at the time, but I'm scrolling on realtor and I see a house. It says Mother in Law Suite. I said, maybe this is work. So my wife would call the realtor. She's the appointment. We came look at the house and immediately I looked at the whole house and then we went and looked at the Mother-In-Law suite in the Mother-In-Law suite was completely brand new.

Like, I mean, the whole house was kind of older, but the Mother-In-Law was brand new. I'm like, this is perfect. I can rent this part out and live in a big part. So we end up putting an offer on that house. And that's kind of like what got me able to save up money, because now I'm living in I got my house, I'm living in the house. But we Airbnb mother last week in which it covered the entire mortgage.

So basically we're living for free at that time.

You know, that's awesome.

I love the Airbnb House tax strategy. I think that I mean, right now, at this time of covid, at least in a lot of areas, it's not necessarily the best idea. But like, I've always loved it and I still will always love that strategy because it's just so solid.

You live and you're living in the unit. So it's easy to turn it over. You can do the work if you want to. You can hire a cleaner if you really don't want to. And you just get more rent ideally and you're paying for your own Internet anyway.

So it's like they can have the Internet now you're paying for your own water anyway. So who cares if the eight year extra unit has that? So that's smart. Yeah, that whole house I can think of.

That's why David and I talk a lot about it, because it's like once you're living for free now, you can legitimately save money versus all the financial pundits out there. Like just don't drink your coffee every morning and you can save 12 cents a day.

And after eighty nine years, you'll have enough to live on Social Security spam. It's like I don't know. I think the common advice. All right, so you bought you buy the duplex or this house with the mother in law, which, by the way, is a fantastic just tip for people.

It's like when you're looking on like Realtor Dotcom or Zillow or Trulia, look for those things you can even instead of keywords with things like mother in law or edu or those those terms that, like a lot of agents don't even realize what they're putting on the market is a big deal because there is a God, whatever.

It's just a you know, a little more people are going to want that don't want to be landlords.

They don't realize that that is the gold like nugget for somebody.

So and the lady I bought the house from, you know, she'd even rent that part out. She used the whole house and it was herself. So I was like, if the mortgage was too much, that was the perfect opportunity to rent that part out. Maybe. And that's what I always talk about, too. But my I listen to a podcast. I had every I felt like I had every tool to conquer any deal, so. I would when I sing, I sing songs, you know, and it worked out perfect because once we started living there and the Arabs up and running before we became a super host name became a Super Bowl.

So it was just fully rented out and to up into covid, the kind of slowed it down. So we just went to a regular rental. But that was like that was the starting point to saving money because you can't be a real estate investor without learning how to budget and save money first. That's like the first step to even thinking about becoming a real estate investor.

Do you have any tips for people who want to want to do that like they want they have a duplex or they want to buy a duplex or a house with an 82 and like they want to do the Airbnb thing.

Just what have you learned over the past few years of doing it and trying it out? Like what worked, what didn't work? What advice can you offer?

Well, I can say if you for your first time, once you if you find a duplex or a house with an extra guest house on it, some of the things I would say is it was my first time becoming a landlord, really. So I learned that one thing for Airbnb is a smaller place is easier to manage. So I also have a three bedroom Airbnb. And the difference is, if you got like a Mother-In-Law or a one bedroom place for Airbnb is much easier to clean because one person, Airbnb, some people book a three bedroom house and say it's one person and they're like 10 people show up.

So, you know, you got a lot of mess to clean up. So I found out Airbnb for me, I like smaller space. And then also, if I had been a landlord, you have to you have to get the right tenant in there. I have to be happy for a month. And then in my case, I'm in a quiet neighborhood. So a person of bucket and they like to sit outside and drink or do outdoor activities.

And this type of neighborhood is not for that type of environment, like a beach house or some beach. Airbnb is more like a person who is working in town. They need to rent it out. So you need to let the person who's booking it no more details than what you expect. Like if you don't want no smoking outside, which I don't like, you need to let the people know because it becomes a hassle because you in on that property and you've got to deal with people.

And that's really good advice. I mean, that applies to all landlords, just like establish up front your criteria. And this is what we allow this what we don't allow. And it just makes the whole process so much easier. If it's in writing, you can be like, hey, look, man, you sign this thing or you know, I said this in the listing ahead of time. It makes management a whole lot easier when you kind of manage their expectations up front.

So, yeah, very cool. All right.

So by the way, what market is the thing is that this small town, Vero Beach, Florida, is probably like our North or West Palm Beach or our from Orlando. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I love Orlando. I love Disney World. Come on. So is this near the beach? I mean, are people staying here because they want a beach vacation? Look like people are thinking, why don't live in Palm Beach in Florida? I can't have a vacation rental.

Is that is that we don't know. Airbnb is for people is almost cheaper than a hotel. You know, in my case, it's a studio apartment, basically the last week. So people that book it for the most part, they are traveling. They may be going to weddings or we're not. I mean, I'm like seven minutes from the beach, so I don't really advertise that it's a beachfront property. But if you want to drive to the beach, you're not that far away.

So, I mean, it would be far before it is it would just people book it because it's more convenient than a hotel and you can almost live like a local rather than living like a visitor some time.

Yeah, I think that's a huge misconception when it comes to vacation rentals or short term rentals is they think you have to be at Disney World or whatever.

But if people travel to your place, if they are like me, I think if there is any hotel in your area, you could likely have a vacation rental or a short term rental because people are obviously traveling there. If there's a hotel for business or for weddings or whatever. Yeah, I think that's smart. That's what came next.

So. All right, I'm saving money. Bye in this house. And while I'm at the post office, you know, this is like the perfect job for a real estate investor. I know where I'm like it was like a disguise with God, because if I wasn't in that military, I want to learn to market like I do now, like I know the market now.

So I'm driving literally every street, every road. And I'm just I'm paying attention. I'm listening to podcasts. I'm listening to people who are doing real estate. But I started learning what to rent for. I talk to every landlord on my roof. I like I could recognize the landlord like I recognized. So I'm getting advice from them. And my next deal was I seen the house, a guy standing outside. It was a vacant house. And I stopped in the military.

I pulled over. I walked in the house. I said, hey, this your house is like, yeah, I'm here in town from Oklahoma, often auction it off on Saturday. So I said, well, I might be interested. So he said, yes, up to the auction on Saturday. Well, I work on Saturday, so hope the post office not listening, but I work and work.

But I made my way out. I made my route where I basically when the time came near, I made it. So I was by that house. I was like ten o'clock. So I was doing my rounds tomorrow and like not. The five I like make sure I was right then for the house, so it's maybe like 10 people out there and they start to auction off and I told my wife not to go. Forty nine thousand that together.

And the Austin get up to forty eight for dinner.

I don't know how to stop bidding. That's like my father's car. I like I tell my wife I decided. No, I'm telling you now, do not let me go over it. But I said before and I end up being up fifty two thousand and it's the auction of certain options are they don't have the owner don't have to accept the deal. So basically it ended up two the owner, he accepted the offer, but the auction company, they thought that the owner would not accept the offer because he was betting to get like seventy thousand from it.

And they were like, we would have bought it if he was going to sell it for that low. So, you know, I had thirty days to close on it and I had a lot of credit to set up. And basically I bought a house with fifty two thousand dollars and then at the I bought it, I was planning on going to the bank to get a loan on it, but at the time I could not get a loan.

So I was like, I guess I just saw the house. So I put it it sale like eighty thousand and four for five thousand. And I took like two months and I made yeah, I was like almost 20 grand right there. And I was like, that was crazy. I only make this my life and my job would take me out to taxes. You make like thirty five thousand dollars a year. This took two months, you know, and I made this was money and I didn't have to invent it out of the spray air freshener.

It trimmed out the tree and it was ready to go. And that was like my first like that was my next big flip. I mean, first flip and making that type of money.

Can I can I bring up a point here real quick, which I love? Is that like what you did there? Some people might be listening to this going, well, you are a mail carrier. So you were driving around. Of course, you saw that deal when it came up. But the truth is, we all drive around all the time. We're going places. Right? So what I what I would advise people is like, don't think you are a mail carrier.

So you were driving a lot. But like, every time you drive, are you are you looking for those opportunities? And then most importantly, are you getting out of the car like what you did that most people will never do is you got out of the car, you saw a person at a vacant house and you went and talked to them. You got out of the car. And so. Ninety nine percent of people I talked to that I want to get into real estate will never get out of the car.

They they want it handed to them. They want an easy deal. They don't want to have to talk to people. They want things simple.

And it's not like it's hard to talk to people, but we all just don't do it. And so I just want to congratulate you on getting out of the car. And you may not be driving around looking at houses, but how many people work with others at their job and they never talk about real estate to him? It's easy to say, oh, well, George sees houses driving down his mail truck. I would argue George is at a disadvantage, not talking to hardly anybody being isolated in a truck all day.

I mean, he gets to listen to a podcast, but you don't get to talk to people and tell them I want to buy a house. If you work in an office with fifty one hundred people in it, you have the chance every day to talk about real estate and have one of those people come say, hey, my friend's grandma just died. I think that they want to sell the house off market or all kinds of opportunities come up and people won't take them.

You know, they will do their equivalent of getting out of the truck and going to engage with somebody. So props to you, George, for doing that. Yes.

And also, David, I had my time like I start listening to a podcast. I had all the mail carriers. You have a duplex. I was really interested in duplexes. So I took all the carrier. You have a vacant house. They was like, right, an address. And we get back to the office at five o'clock and they give me a newspaper. I got like seven addresses on it. I was always like I was in everybody know what I do.

And the key I mean, one of the part of my success, I think, is when you talk to an owner, a lot of times I talk to the owner and they want to help me some time or it just we talk and we just have a common bond and they make the deal happen. Yeah, yeah.

I love the tip. And I've heard of other people saying this on the podcast before. I've never done it. And so you've heard it as well. George is like, yeah, talk to your mail carriers. They see every house in the neighborhood. So like, you know, hey, you see vacant house, the houses that are looking like they're distressed. You see anybody obviously going through foreclosure, like, let me know, you know, maybe even offer them some kind of peace or something, like to have those conversations with people who are in.

And there's not just mail carriers to. Right.

Is anybody who just drives around a lot for their job to talk to those people and get them hunting for deals for you.

So you got a guy on your podcast, right? It was a whole seller in my area. And I was like, wow, this guy so close to me, let me reach out to him. So I reach out to the whole seller and, you know, immediately he like, OK, that's great. I can help you. I have, of course, two or three thousand dollars and not to put down with like two thousand dollars. And I'm like it all sounds the to me.

I don't have that money right. To invest. And of course right now so he's say how about this, you a man, do you have any vacant house in your room. I got a lot. And he was like, would I do you do you give me the vacant houses in your room and I help you out. So the next day I'm inside. I'm probably delivering mail because I'm so worried about looking for the vacant houses. So I got a notepad on my phone put up and I'm driving.

It probably took me like after I just do this because I keep stopping to put these vacant.

And my phone, so I get like 50 houses, email, text to him the next day and he said great things about buying 80 houses, you know, I'll be in touch. So time go bye bye. Money to this day, you know, all of these houses that I sent the person engineer got trucks out there ripping out the roof, ripping out the windows. I'm like, oh, my gosh. But I never heard anything back, you know, whether he bought it or not.

But it was just like, you know, you try so many things with people, but everybody, he got to benefit them. End in a day, I can say. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's cool.

Like, first of all, I like the fact that you like where you found a way in your life to bring value to somebody else. Now, whether or not it worked out or not, you know, we'll never really know. But like, you know, whether or not they bought one.

But like just like that, you went out there and you're like, well, I don't have the money for a course and I don't want to spend that. So I'm going to I'm going to find some way to bring value. And that's a good way to do it.

And then I want to actually just bring up what you were doing there. Something that we call driving for deals around bigger pockets are often called driving for dollars. And there's there's apps I can help with that. There's an app called Driving for Dollars, another app called Deal Machine. They're both awesome. They can kind of simplify that process.

But all you're doing is exactly what George is doing, right? Get your car, drive around, look for vacant properties, or if you're looking for multifamily right down the edge, it's very multifamily. If you're looking for apartments, right down the apartment address, like whatever you looking for properties. And then you go and contact them later.

Whether it's what you're going to you're going to mail them letters, you're going to look up their phone number, find out who the owner is, like there's all these fancy tools now they can do all that work. Gets you really, I guess, in the deals that most people would do, because most people just want to sit at home. They don't want to get in the car. They don't want to get out of the car. They don't want to do the work.

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

I really believe that. Right.

So and one of the things that people can do to find is, is because I know a mailing out letters you guys talk about all the time, that's like, oh, no, two percent of that. But I haven't got to do like that. But if you just tell everybody what you do, I tell all my co-workers, the babysitter, uncles, aunties. Yeah. You tell people what you do. It's always somebody in a situation where they need to get rid of a house.

So oftentimes, you know, deals are just coming from. If you can talk to the seller directly and they want to sell you to do. It's so much easier than going back. If I'm trying to buy a house from David and he's trying to make thirty thousand on a profit and I'm trying to, you know, get a good deal, he don't really have no, he's trying to make his money to move on. But if you have somebody who is older, like a lot of people buy houses for my 70, 80 years old and I'm just looking to get their money and just they try to run a property, basically.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's something that's easy to forget, that we spend all our time saying, how do I find a deal? Where's that? You know, how do I get a house? And there's a lot of people that are thinking, I wish someone would just take this problem away from me. I don't want to own real estate work. So I use this analogy.

I got an analogy for you. Ready for this one. I did. I already told you this one, David. But now you're committed. Now I'm committed. I'm a said. Anyway, I said on a previous podcast, I apologize to everyone, but I'll say it again because I was actually proud of this analogy. It was in my I put it in my new book, The Multifamily Millionaire, that you just set yourself up to quote yourself.

Didn't you used to have something to say? I might have said it before. So let me give myself credit for my quote that I'm about to say that I know all that I've done. Brandon. No, listen, listen. Then I said I put this in my book and I thought this is a really good analogy. And I'm not sure that that you're quoting. I'm quoting. Yeah, there's a really why the author really like, let me tell you the story.

All right. So the analogy is ending. Now, the more I say this, the more I think I said this on a previous podcast.

But the other day I woke up with a headache like this happens multiple times.

I wake up with a headache and I'm like, oh, just like a dull headache is not terrible. It's enough. That's annoying.

I drink some water, get some food. It just kind of gets worse throughout the day and it just gets worse and worse until later on. I'm like laying on the couch miserable.

My head's pounding and like I'm just laying there like, oh, come on, it doesn't happen that often, but when it happens, it sucks. Right?

Then my wife walks in the room and asks the most annoying question in the world. What did you take any medicine for it? And of course, I'm like, no, no, I haven't taken any of this because I never even thought about taking medicine. I've had this headache. It comes on slowly. Had it been like, boom, you're in pain, what do we do? We go take medicine. But instead, because it came on slowly.

This is exactly what it's not an annoying question, my love, my wife. But like, you know, because, like, she's so right. She's so right. But I didn't think of it. The same is true for landlords. Right. They get this growing headache that grows over time and they don't think about it. The headache that it's like are annoyed by it and annoyed by it. And when you show up and be like, hey, I got some ibuprofen here for you, all of a sudden they're like, yes, why didn't I think of that?

I'm so stupid. So in other words, when you contact existing landlords, a lot of them have headache properties, multiple headache properties, and you can't. Hey, what what do you hate the most, like what one causing the most drama has the biggest repair needs? Which one is your biggest headache? And would you be willing to sell it if you were to ask me that question today?

Because I can name exactly about two or three of my properties that I'd be like, yeah, let's have a conversation about selling them right now because are headaches to mine, but I haven't thought about it at all, so.

OK, David Greene on one to 10 analogy scale. The analogy scale, which is an official thing now, by the way, have bigger pockets. We talk about analogies in terms of where they rate on the scale, though, on the scale.

One to talk to David Greene. Yeah. One to ten. Yeah, exactly. I, i one. David Greene, how good is this analogy? It's pretty good, right. Well, I'm going to give it a high score, seven and a half, particularly because you used headache in both the analogy and the example. I thought that was a good mix. You could have improved it had you brought up the frog in the boiling water argument that people think if a frog just sits and you slowly increase the temperature, I don't even know if that's real, but it's not a real frog will eat it.

So that's why you left it out, because your science based analogies. All right. Thank you. Accurate. Andrew over there.

Yeah, that's really good. And a point I wanted to make was that we you also should remember part of the power of real estate is over time. Over time, it is a powerful wealth building tool. But if you're older and you're kind of at the end of your time or coming closer to it, there's not nearly as much appeal for you to own that thing as someone else at the end of your life. You just want convenience. So when you're starting off investing, you are happy to sacrifice convenience for wealth and for time.

And that's why brand name carries toilets that are actually literally full of poop because he doesn't mind when he's young, whereas when you get older, it's not worth it to do that. You're happy to sell it to a brand and let him carry it out your poop.

Yes, but a decade Jarrad's.

Hey, let's take a quick break from this episode. We'll continue in just a moment. But first, let's hear word from our sponsors.

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Let's kind of go through the rest of your story if you want to, of like what happened the next few years. Where are you at today? How many units you have to kind of walk through us, you know, and how you became an agent? I know you mentioned that.

All right. So, all right. This is the part I. I was I just stopped working last year in May. So I'm like fresh off the presses for, like, I'm thirty one years old now. And I quit working and I was 30 years old. So it was like on a Monday at the post office. It was a crazy day, I mean with just through the roof. And I was frustrated. And when I got home that day, you know, I had a headache.

I wasn't feeling good. And I was like, man, I had use the bathroom. So when I use the bathroom, it was like blood in my stool. So it scared me. Yes, I'm like, what is going on? So I told my wife she let's go to hospital. I went to the hospital and they were like haemorrhoid by bleeding. So no big deal. But on the other part, it was like, you still need to go get checked tomorrow to make sure.

Cancer, cancer. In people Stoos, you know, so I'm like, huh? So it scared me, I'm just I'm scared. So I call the post office, say, hey, I go to. So this does. They're like, are you come to work tomorrow? I'm like, I just told you what happened, you know? And it felt like they didn't really care what happened. I need to come to that room tomorrow. So the next day, the appointment for like nine o'clock in the morning, my wife and I work.

We're driving down to the post office. I mean, not that I'm driving to the hospital and, you know, listen to the podcast. A lot of times when I see like say I see I want a Ford truck. Right. Next thing know, I start seeing a lot of Ford trucks. Right. It just happened like that. So. I'm driving to the hospital and I start seeing worth the cancer, and on a big old side, I say cancer.

I'm like, oh man, I'll keep saying is right. So I said before I went in there, you know, we prayed and whatnot, and I was like, God, if I don't have it, I will not. I will follow my purpose and, you know, my passion, my dream. So, you know, we went in there, they did the tests, whatnot, and, you know, doctors walked in where I got good news.

You don't have cancer. And it was like, I got to really live up to what I just told God, you know? So it's like the next day is like a Wednesday. So I call it off for the rest of the week because I had to hospital or whatever. So next week we go out of town that we can come back with more weekend at Tuesday. I say it's like Monday night, 8:00 in the morning. I put be to work at 7:00 in the morning and I'm like, I Googled what got me to quit my job.

I literally go with this because I'm going back and forth because I like I got bills. I just had my first son. He's one year old, you know, like everyone where I have I have responsibilities. So I'm like, he can't tell me to quit my job. So I turned on the TV and, you know, like the infomercials they have on, like in the middle of the night. And it was a pastor and he was like, the answer to your question is yes.

The answer to your question is yes. And I just Googled, you know, got the job. So I, I, yeah, I was just scared because I'm like I do my phone. I put on a nice day and I said I said I kind of like I like he answered my questions so quickly because you people want like bright side to see things, you know. And I was like the bride. Is it ever been like I was I need to be loud.

Like if you don't want me to go to work when I go outside all four times, going to be flat, like, that's the type of sound I want, you know. So when you say yes, like they say, will you be all right? Yes. Will you be able to survive? Yes. Will you be successful? Yes. So that money you know, I woke up, I made sure I quit. I took all my post on the.

And put them in a trash bag. Well, I think I'm going in a dumpster. So I didn't have new clothes where I work now, but I'm basically eliminating, you know, because I was burning you fips. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, basically burned the ship. So I waited a couple of days and then I found out like, I am taking my two weeks notice it I walk into the post office, people like where you been, where you been.

And I had a letter, you know, and I wrote on the letter, you know, I was basically I just can't do it anymore. And his supervisor, you know, she gave me that look like, you know, most managers at jobs, they they they doing a job. They want you to they want you to get the job done. But they know they don't overwork you to get it done. And that's their job. Their job, like my got work is working right now doing floor of their house.

And my job is to get them to do as much as I can for like ten, twelve hours. That's just, you know, job hard there. And that's my job. So she know as America, we want you to deliver as much as possible for as little as a small amount of time because you call to the post office less money. So she was like she almost gave me like a look like I'm glad you did it, because I know I'm putting a lot of pressure on you guys.

But you took the chance and left, you know, if I'm proud of you. So I was like I felt some kind of relief out that. But that was like that was the end. So next day, honestly, I was like, what am I do? I went to the library and I started applying for jobs. I was so scared.

And then you burn the ships and then you went and cut down trees. You're like, build a raft.

And so but my deal was all right because I had basically been saving up money because of the house hack. So, like, people, you going to just quit your job? I did have a nice savings because I've been living for free basically for two years, saving up no mortgage, no car payments. So I did. I want to go. I can survive for a year at least. So I went to Liberia. I was like, I like bigger pockets.

At least if you do a job, you're not getting paid as much. But I'm happy. So I apply for a property management job. I got my real estate license and I know I can manage the property because I helped my dad when he manages properties by an interview in a lady and she told me, you go through the interview in lottery. So I she didn't hire me for the job and I felt like I was qualified. So I'm like, that's it.

I'm not applying for no more jobs, you know, I got it. I always had interviews and I wouldn't get the job. So I was like, I'm not applying for no more jobs. And I basically I put my head down and start. I bought my next year and I quit and may I bought a duplex in September, about another house in the next month after that.

And then February, I told on two more properties. So it was just kind of like, you got to trust your instinct. By God, the universe works in your favor. Aren't you supposed to do it by if? I'm sure if I'm trying to run a marathon and I'm running every day they to schedule a marathon in your city, maybe it's going to give you an opportunity to do it.

You know, I was going to say that when I'm in a similar situation to yours, because I think a lot of people listening can relate to just the question of whether they believe in God or not. Should I do this or not? There's this internal feeling of like this. Is this the right move for me, whether you would. Attribute that to God or fate or the universe, but we all relate to that feeling and I see a lot of people that handle it the wrong way where they're asking if this is what I'm supposed to do, make it a downhill path, make it easy for me to go that road.

And if that's not what happens, then they say I'm not supposed to go that way. But how I see that play out in my own life is that I don't see the path go downhill. I feel a drive come inside me that likes that. It's hard. I feel this like version of David that rises up and says, I want to lift that weight. I want to run up that hill. I liked it. It's really hot right now.

Yesterday actually was Saturday. I did 14 miles and it was about 100 degrees and it was up the mountain and then running down and it was really, really hard. I had to bring a lot of water. I had to hydrate halfway through. But there is a piece of me that was like, glad it was hard. I can't describe it, but it was like there's a little thing that rose up because I knew this is where I'm supposed to be.

I'm supposed to be strengthening my legs and doing this hard thing. And that's how I know it's where I'm supposed to be. It's not that it's easier is that there's a piece of you that really wants it. And I know there's people that are listening to this that have that same I know I'm not supposed to do what I'm doing, but I don't know what I am supposed to do. And can I get aside and what you're saying, I know strikes with a lot of people, and I just want to say, don't wait for someone to make it easier for you.

Wait for that feeling inside that says, I don't care if it's easy, I want it so bad, I'm going to go do it right.

And that's the thing. A lot of people like you and me, I compare my life, the brand and Blake, like before you had a million dollars, Brendon, maybe you like fifty. You know, I was like, Brendon got fifty dollars. I got to get fifteen dollars. And but in my real life, nobody got around mess around and nobody really got them into rental properties. So I'm comparing my life to Brandon and people on the podcast and I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself.

So and I was like, that's kind of I mean you don't never feel satisfied, but now I feel like I'm moving with the Earth, like I'm moving at my pace. Like the deals I get to do is I supposed to get, you know, in the fact that I just really didn't want to go to a job and just I'm just happy already. So right now I'm working for, like, my wife to get out a job. My family, my parents stopped working.

So, yeah. Let me ask you this.

You left the mail route, you burned your boats, and then you went became a realtor.

How's the realtor thing been working out as a realtor so far? I mean, I don't I don't I'm not the realtor that's going to be on the top 50 list. But I got my real estate license to help me as a real estate investor. Yep. So as a realtor, a lot of times for me, I get sellers don't want to sell their house. No, they want to sell the house. And I go through the house when I go through the house, if I meet my criteria, I always put it off when first before I list it.

And that's I got maybe two or three properties just like that because people called me don't want to sell them. And I go to look at them. I'm like, hey, I can buy this house. I have a lender and I know I need this done is done. Are you OK with this price? And a lot of times they're like, yeah, yeah, but sometimes they're not and they're not willing to let me buy. I was still listed for sale, but as a real estate agent, people always say, is it worth getting your license?

I don't think it's worth your license, but I fly is my car to be in real estate because I helped so many people find rental properties. I sell the house about house and I haven't had to do not go through yet.

Yeah, you and I have a similar story because I left my W-2 job in law enforcement and at one point that's where I feel like I was supposed to be and it just went away and I felt like I supposed to be in real estate. Now I'm selling houses and I know it's not something I ever thought I'd do, but it feels like where I'm supposed to be. And to Brenda's point, you it sounds like you've just taken listings and added him as a tool to your tool belt.

OK, well, I can't take this down with Bert the deal down, but I can't take it as a flip. I can't take it as a rental. They won't sell it to me. I just listed for him just another another move you have in your repertoire that you could take down more deals. And for those type of people, it makes sense to be a realtor. But I agree with you that it doesn't make sense to go do it unless you're committing like this is going to be my full time job and this is where I'm supposed to do.

It's definitely not something to undertake lightly and just think, oh, just just do this. How hard could it be?

Because the mistake people make is they see David making money, doing real estate. So then they say, hey, David, I'm thinking I'll get my real estate license because I'm making money. And people come up to me saying they want to get a license. And I feel like, buy me. I never did good on test taken. I was like, I feel like status, college test, stuff like that. So my real estate license, like I passed out on tests.

So it's like meant to be, you know, sometimes it's like I never found a real estate yet for some reason I don't know how bad, but I pass them. So I feel like it's like Destin.

You know, Brandon, you kind of mentioned that when you went to Hawaii. Right? It was a similar feeling. Was that like that you were supposed to be there?

Like, I just feels like this is home. Like this is where I've been looking for for my whole life. Yeah.

Like, I like to say, like, there's that line. And C.S. Lewis is like the last battle. There's a book by the last battle and were like that. It's basically like an analogy for the end of the world and still like the world kind of ends, you know.

And these kids, the story, it's like a kid's story, they they see like this new this new place like this basically like synonymous of like the afterlife or supposed to be anyway. And they say, hey, look, it looks like our house, but it's like a more real version of our house. And then there is a corner store. We get ice cream. It's like a more real version of our ice cream. Like when I found my house here, it was like, oh, that's like that's the life I, I knew was there.

But it's like a more real version of my life is what I'm trying to get it right. It feels like more vivid and certain areas my life have been that way. And I think that's kind of what you're saying here is like all of a sudden you feel like, oh, that's that's what I'm supposed to do.

Like, that's when you find your purpose or your identity or your you're like where you're supposed to be aligned in life. It gives you energy. The lights just kind of move green doesn't it's always easy you stuff to drive the car, but the lights tend to turn green a little bit more because it's just that's supposed to be.

Yeah, because a lot of deals I had like five or six months to close. And I feel like if I didn't love this, I would have gave up. So if you didn't love it, you know, I'm tired of this amount. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the reasons. Yeah.

Before we move the deal, deep dive, I want to comment on one thing. This show is a lot of you know, we're talking a lot about quitting your job and you quit your job and then you got a freaked out. You got, you know, like, oh, I got to go find something else. And then you tried applying. It didn't work out. I want to bring up a couple of points here. First of all, like real estate is a good way for people to quit their job.

However, you have to have income to support your family. Right. And you knew that. That's why you freaked out a little bit and you decided to go to the real estate agent route. Right. You also had the thing that a lot of people forget and that you were responsible for a number of years with saving money so you could take that risk and quit your job and then go into real estate full time. So, like I've heard people like who have nothing and they just completely brand new.

They don't they just get excited and they quit their job right then with no savings. And I would argue that that is I don't say foolish claims. Those people that have done good and had success, but it is very risky to have no money whatsoever, which is why David and I are such big fans of house hacking. The more you can eliminate your expenses so you can save more money and have fewer expenses, the quicker you can quit your job.

But if you've got to buy the new car, you got to have two cars in the driveway that both have car payments on it. You've got to have the nice house with the three thousand dollars a month mortgage. You got to have all that stuff. The payment on the couch and all that stuff in your life adds up to payment and that holds you back.

That's the that's the shackles we put on that hold us back from actual freedom and financial freedom and life.

So I just encourage people to like, look at your stories, like, look, you didn't go out there and go by the biggest, baddest, nicest house. They all just encourage people to save the money, do it right, like keep your expenses lower.

That's how you get financial freedom. That's how you get out of the rat race. And that's how you get into a really like an amazing life, like your purpose in life. Like we're getting that now.

Before we get on The Today Show, George, I want to move over to the last well, one of the last two.

I think I've got two more, but let's stuck in the last segment, which we call our deal deep dive.

These are the same questions we ask every guest about a particular deal that you've done. Do you have a property in mind that we can kind of tear into a little bit anyway, George? All right. Number one. Yeah, what kind of what kind of property is it? Just what what is it?

The first property was a duplex. OK, then how did you find it?

I have this duplex. It went up for auction. A lot of auction, too, is when you stand outside and bid on that one. Yeah. These kind of auctions we had, we still have them here. So I went to the auction and I knew my number was like sixty five. Seventy thousand. So we bid in bidding. It went up to like seventy five thousand dollars cash. You have to close on it. You don't get your money back for your 10 percent down.

So I bid up to 65. Somebody outbid me. I was like I was I was just hurt because this is one of my first deals. And I thought with both of us, I knew I need a duplex, you know, some. So I was like I had a headache that day because I knew I should have went a bit higher. But I stopped because it's like isn't a moment when you bid in your life, you know, you don't want to go too high and make a mistake because no inspection and none got a it.

So I stopped and I didn't get it. So maybe like two weeks later, the duplex come up on the MLS on realtor. I was like, wow. So it listed for one hundred and ten thousand dollars. I called the agent at this time I'm a realtor. I call the agent and I say, I want to put off rent for ninety thousand dollars because now I can finance it, I can pay higher, I can just find it.

So he, like I called the seller, came back at one hundred thousand dollars. I didn't want to go to high, but I was, I was desperate. But I really, really wanted a duplex. Right. So I went up to one hundred thousand dollars and I said, well we came at ninety seven thousand. I told the other realtor he could keep my commission. That's another trick for people who are really help. A lot of times I don't even get commission.

I give the other realtor commission in order for them to make the deal come to me. Yeah. So I did, I think ninety seven thousand five hundred, something like that. And he keep the whole six percent and he made it happen. So we had the contract. I get an inspection done inspection, just regular inspection, nothing major but the appraiser come back at seventy eight thousand dollars. You owe me Keeghan or. Yeah. Yeah. Well the next question is how did you negotiated then.

OK, yeah. So the appraiser come back at seventy eight thousand dollars, you know, bought it for ninety seven thousand five hundred and come back a seven eight thousand so. On bigger pockets, I never heard this happened before, so I was stuck out of all the pockets I listen to. I still have things happen to me that I haven't heard on a podcast. So I'm like, Prey's, come back someday. I asked my broker and a couple other relatives like George, never a bad idea if it doesn't appraise, you know what you're buying it for.

So I was like, but I know it's worth more than that. I just felt like an appraiser so I could test the appraiser, the bank. I tried to send the cops and he still is seventy thousand. So a guy just had on the show Mr. Rick Jarman. I call Mr. Rick because I don't have nobody in my circle. I hear that got that much experience. Real estate, I call him Mr. Rick explained a situation like Dorje, if you I will pay five Tantanoola over appraiser if it's worth it.

If you know the numbers, work it rent do it. So I what happened was once I had Leavesden, I didn't realize it because the seller knew that appraiser Senate seventy eight thousand dollars. So she ended up coming down to eighty five thousand dollars because the whole point was she couldn't sell it because of that seventy thousand dollars. So in the end I couldn't even contest the appraiser because I had more leverage by saying it appraised that seventy thousand dollars. Yeah.

So she ended up coming down from eighty five thousand finance and then I went to finance five thousand. So it came out total ninety. Wow. All right.

That's a unique way to put that. I like that you got the owner financing for the remaining five. That's cool. How did you. Oh I'm sorry David. Take it. I took your question and started it. No, no, I'm not. I'm going to let you do it.

What an honorable guy. I'm an honorable man.

All right, so we see that you seller finance a piece of it. How did you find the rest of it? OK, so 25 percent down on a multifamily, I thought I just put 20 percent down, but multifamily had put 25 percent down, so I put 25 percent down on the 85000 in the owner of finance to five thousand over two years, you know.

Thank you. Covered for creating this lending debacle.

The I was just pre covid or Apptio. No, this was back in September of last year.

OK, I thought you just met Rick through the podcast and this was back in September last year.

Did he tell you that Liers can. No, budget numbers can't lie.

I love his I love his stuff and things are so good. All right. What did you do with the property then? You held onto it?

Yes. So once I was vacant and one of the things. Oh, yeah. No part you said. The MLS say it was rented out for several hundred dollars right to the final day before closing. I get the leases. I didn't realize I should have gotten a lease earlier. I get the lease and it's rented out for 600 dollars, something like Holon on the MLS. And so it was 700. So leases were 600. So but I still close the deal because the lease lease was ending like four months.

So I closed on that and I ran in here. Where? At properties. If you start working like you see people still show signs and paint going on the wall. Cars are stopping. So it is no problem. Rent it out. All my properties get rented out before I even put a for rent sign up. That's cool. Yeah.

By the way, that's just a quick tip for everybody. There's a thing called an a certificate or an estoppel agreement. If you're buying a property with tenants in place before you close, like during the due diligence period, have the tenant actually have the owner have a tenant sign in a agreement which says, this is my rent, this is my security deposit, this is what my lease sends. This is if I have a lease or not, this is a month, a month like you basically get the tenant to stay all the facts, then you can use that to compare it to whatever they like.

The agent listed the property has and look for discrepancy to renegotiate right then and find problems like just this is a good tip for everybody out there and it's not very well known.

But first off, usually the only brokers and agents know about that.

Second off, that's a lot of syllables in one word. Stop. I don't know you guys.

I might even say. Am I say that right? I actually I have no idea. I only read. I only read. I don't like it. You still get in your game. All right. All that brain energy you're saving, wearing the same t shirt every day. Every day I say works better. You what you do, you should try it anyway. Right.

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

I like that. I like the fact that you were going for it. It was listed and so high you got like I would call it negotiation, but it kind of is all that is negotiations. You got them down to the appraisal and eventually you landed a great deal that now you you just have and you rent out. And so what's it rented for right now? Which side?

East Side rented for 700 East Side now. And I learned that negotiation. You had a guy in your pocket as a negotiator. It was like you always say at my house, I want to go is ninety thousand. And, you know, I tell the sob story, it was all around the house. And you probably not going to like my offer, but I give you 80 for it. Any works, you know, and everything. My dad always said, man, that stuff don't work.

When we drive a long distance, I'll make them listen to bigger pockets.

Nice. And then before I started buying property, but he always he didn't think the stuff on pocket beer pocket work. But I'm telling people like the things that you guys say out here, it works. It really does work.

It's awesome. Men appreciate that. Well, with that, let's get over to the last segment of the show. Sam, you've heard many, many times before, and now we're going to ask you it's time for our world famous famous for.

All right.

Time for the famous for. These are the same four questions we ask every guest every week here on the podcast. Before we get to it. Let's see what's going on around the world.

The Bigger Pockets podcast network. Hey, it's Ashley from the real estate rookie. And I know it's not. It's Philippe from the real estate Ricki Show. And last Wednesday, we had Amy and Chris, a newbie and a seasoned investor who used hard money to invest. And they are in partnerships. Make sure you go back and listen last Wednesday. Thank you all. All right. With that, let's get to the famous for number one. What is your favorite or current favorite or all time favorite real estate related book?

George favorite book. I always have, like different phrases I'm going through, but overall, I would say How to get Rich in Real Estate by Robert King.

I have right here, this is a book I don't know how to get rich and real estate. Yeah, I never read that one. Yes, this is the 15 percent. If that if you rent for 15 percent of what it calls no, if it's called a hundred thousand dollars in rent for fifteen grand a year, this is a decent deal. Simple is like simple. Simple.

All right.

What about your favorite business book ever been in book? Doing business about a good Bible is basically by doing business the biblical way. So once you listen to a lot of real estate podcasts, honestly, I don't really learn a lot after listening to episodes, but I pick up one or two things from each episode that I'm attached to me. So that's like one part, but are just doing business, doing people right and wrong. That's what I take from that business, doing it the right way they go.

By the way, I looked it up earlier because I thought there was something that related. You mentioned earlier I couldn't find the exact verse I was looking for, but Ecclesiastes eleven sticks. So your seat in the morning and do not be idle in the evening for you do not know whether morning or evening Selwin will succeed or whether both of them alike will be good as my new real estate quote of my life always be.

So yeah, I'll always be selling.

That's gonna be my shirt. ABSs I'll always be throwing. If you want to buy and I'll always be selling a shirt, you'll have the bigger pockets that counts that shirt Thursday. I'm going to make it all right with that next question.

Question is, George, what are your hobbies? My hobbies are. That's crazy. I do my hobbies every day now. I love real estate, but as I say, I play basketball. I do have a podcast, new American Dream podcast. And I mean, I have a family. So what about my reason why I won't quit?

My job is I have my son, so I had him apre of twenty eighteen in that one year just working and being missing first steps and all that. It that was my while. I want to quit, I want to spend time with him. So now I take him to take care every morning and that was my reason why. It's awesome man.

Yeah. Very, very cool. All right. Last question for me.

What do you think that's part successful investors from those who give up fail or never get started?

I want to say taking action. But the thing is, people remember your job. There's something you can get fired from. Your work is your purpose. So find out what your purpose is in life and you can never get fired. Very nice. Wise words. All right, this has been awesome, George, tell us, where can people find out more about you?

You can find me on Instagram at Georgia Real Estate. I also have a YouTube channel called George. We're going to do a lot of things in there and a podcast, new Meckering podcast. All right.

So, George of real estate. Very, very cool. A new American called New American Dream Pipe Dream podcast. Very clever. Go check that out after this show is done. And yeah. Awesome. And appreciate you coming on the show today.

Oh, thanks. David Greene. Want to take us out of here. Yeah. Thanks again, George. It's great getting to know you. This is David Greene for George Can't Not Outbid Gibson and Brandon, a wise man once said Turner, signing off.

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