Navigating Baltimore real estate market & Tech w/ Tristan Toliver

Summary

In this conversation, the guest, Tristan, shares his journey into real estate investing and his transition from the mortgage industry to the tech industry. He discusses the concept of house hacking and why it was the strategy he chose to get started in real estate. Tristan emphasizes the importance of thorough screening when selecting tenants and shares his process for vetting potential renters. He also provides insights on finding a realtor, choosing a bank or credit union, and using software platforms for background checks. Tristan explains why he chose to invest in Baltimore and highlights the city's potential for both cash flow and appreciation. In this conversation, Tristan and Alex discuss the importance of being intentional and seeking out information when it comes to real estate investing. They emphasize the need to stay informed about local developments and trends, and to visit potential investment areas in person. They also discuss the $1 home program in Baltimore and caution that while it may seem like a good deal, it often requires significant investment and may not be suitable for everyone. Tristan shares his experience with the BRRRR method and using a HELOC to finance his real estate investments. They also touch on the importance of learning from mistakes and setbacks, and the value of sharing knowledge and experiences with others.

Keywords

real estate investing, house hacking, tenant screening, finding a realtor, choosing a bank, credit unions, software platforms, Baltimore, real estate investing, information, local developments, trends, $1 home program, Baltimore, BRRRR method, HELOC, mistakes, setbacks, sharing knowledge

Takeaways

House hacking is a low-barrier entry strategy for real estate investing that allows investors to live in one unit of a multi-unit property and rent out the others to offset their mortgage.
Thorough tenant screening is crucial to ensure reliable and responsible renters. This includes conducting background checks, verifying employment and income, and checking references.
Referrals and research are key when finding a realtor and choosing a bank or credit union. Attend meetups, use online platforms like Bigger Pockets and Eventbrite, and read reviews to gather information and make informed decisions.
Investing in Baltimore offers opportunities for both cash flow and appreciation. Research the market, look for properties that need work, and consider the city's path of progress and affordability.
Embrace discomfort and be willing to take risks in order to achieve financial independence and success in real estate investing. Be intentional and seek out information when it comes to real estate investing
Stay informed about local developments and trends
Visit potential investment areas in person
Be cautious when considering the $1 home program in Baltimore
Consider using the BRRRR method and a HELOC for financing
Learn from mistakes and setbacks
Share knowledge and experiences with others

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Excitement for Valuable Insights
08:40 Transitioning from Mortgage Industry to Tech Industry
24:16 Choosing the Right Bank or Credit Union for Financing
31:05 Embracing Discomfort and Taking Risks for Financial Independence
39:01 Considerations for the $1 Home Program
49:31 Learning from Mistakes and Setbacks

Transcript

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I'm the black Christian. You know, I was going on. What's going on? Welcome back to another episode of OPA, the opium podcast. I'm your host, they mail with my calls. Alex and Markel was going over. You guys. Yes, sir. What it do? Welcome back to another episode, baby. You feel me? Welcome back. What's going on? What's going on? I'm just excited, man, because this this is going to be it's going to be one of them episodes where a lot of people just want to get so much value, so much game. So I'm excited for this. I'm very excited as well.

We was just doing some pre -talking like right before we recorded and yeah We was giving out giving gems before you can start recording So like we definitely have to give those to y 'all, you know Because this was we're here for and so we have a very special guest my man Tristan. Yes, sir. Yes, sir Doing alright brother. How y 'all doing? Appreciate y 'all having me? We're doing good. We appreciate you coming out. Yes, sir. Absolutely going on. All right, so let me get let's start the podcast by

Like where you from and like what inspired you to get into like the things that you do? Like what do you do exactly? Yeah, for sure. So here born and raised in the DMV area, man, Silver Spring. What inspired me to get into what I'm doing? I work in tech by day, trade nine to five. And then outside of that, I invest in real estate. I can't say it was something that I always wanted to do growing up. I think it's something I just kind of landed in.

by just listening to other people, man. My first job out of college, I was doing mortgage banking, worked with some people who I just felt knew a lot more than I knew. And something that they had in common was real estate. And so I kind of...

dove into financial independence, retired early, which is the fire community. And a lot of people in there invest in real estate. And so I came across this company called Bigger Pockets, if you're familiar with them, and just really consumed as much information I could. And immediately I got pretty obsessed with it. I'm not even going to lie. And then, you know, got my first property about a year and a half after coming across that. And then from there just kept going. You said something about fire, the fire community. What for those people who don't know what

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Exactly. What does FIRE stand for? So it stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. So it's about people who really just do not want to work a job for the rest of their life, right? Or maybe they want to just have something else going on where they're not dependent on a job so they can have kind of live life on their own terms. And so that's really something that just kind of struck me. And I was like, that seems dope, right? And I think growing up, that's something that we're not really taught.

We're kind of conditioned to be employees and workers and kind of fit into this system of capitalism. And so for me, it was just a different way of thinking and something that I just wanted to learn more about.

So hey, I do got a question though. So we all three of us advocate for you know working in a nine -to -five and having a business and You know not leaving that nine -to -five until you're actually ready comfortable xy that you got you know, you're back in straight your business is booming So what keeps you at your? Your tech sales position and still you know thriving in business. Yeah, so for me for real estate It's really the financing piece of it as a w -2 worker

They love people to have W -2 jobs and can show, you know, pay stubs and W -2s and things like that. So from the financing side, it just makes it a whole lot easier than when you got to give them tax returns and kind of prove income and like that. And so it just makes life a little bit easier. In addition to that, man, it's to your point, it's like trying to create that foundation and not really jumping out too early because you're still trying to build it up along the way. So.

is something that just helps in both regards and also just allows that sense of security, in my opinion too. So a lot of people, like right now, the biggest thing is, I might be a little low, oh, I'm good. So a lot of people are trying to get into real estate or they're trying to get into something else, but it's like, it's very difficult to know where to go and like all the different resources. And you're talking about like bigger pockets, but like.

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For somebody who's thinking about it, who's heard a lot of horror stories and like Section 8 is the big thing where it's like, oh, they're going to tear your house up and stuff like that.

Why would somebody want to get into real estate or why would somebody want to get into a higher paying job when they might be cool or it's like they hear all these horror stories and stuff? Yeah, I mean, I think it comes down to you as a person know who you are, right? If you want to strive for more, then you're going to have to do something that may be a little bit uncomfortable. Right. In order to get somewhere that you've never been, you got to do stuff that you've never done. And that may looking at your parents and understand, hey, they chose this route, but maybe that was the route for them doesn't necessarily mean it's the route for me. Right.

In terms of real estate, I mean, I came across a stat that, you know, real estate creates the most millionaires in America, right? And so for me, I was like, I mean, shit, what else do I need to really hear? So, I mean, that was the proof I needed. And the thing I love about real estate is there's a blueprint for it. People have been doing it for so long, right? It's not these new things that just come up on the internet and they kind of like fizzle out. It's like people have been doing this as tried and true, there's a blueprint for it. And so for me, that kind of...

limited the risk involved to, you know, because I didn't have, you know, parents money to fall back on and things like that. I was kind of jumping out there by myself for the first time. I'm the only entrepreneur in my family. And so there was a lot of risk involved. And so I was looking at ways to mitigate the risk. And real estate just seemed like a good opportunity to do that. I was going to say a lot of people think when they hear real estate, they're like, oh, that man came from money or that person came from money. Right.

and you know, their parents gave them money. I'm not like that. I'm not that person. I do a regular job, you know, making 20, $30 an hour. So for that person in that position, it seems almost too far -fetched to get into that kind of thing. So how could somebody like that in an average normal position start making their way towards that? Because you were saying that you were working with New Day, right?

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Yeah, so that was the mortgage banking company I was working with. So I mean, for me, it's something I stumbled across, you know, again, just paying attention to other people. Every now and then I would come across somebody who was just kind of overqualified for a loan, if I was being quite honest. And now...

something I was just picked up on was y 'all have real estate in common, right? So it was like, all right, well, let me look into that. And I think there is a stigma that people in real estate are these kind of older white dudes that come for money. And I would say for a long time that probably was the case, if we're being honest. But I think as time went on and now we're in the information age where we have access to a lot of stuff, it really just takes that leap of faith. And for you to...

just try to do it, in my opinion. Like there's barriers in place for sure, like with anything else, but it's not impossible. And so if you just kind of put your head down and do it and try to network with people, which is a lot easier now, nowadays as well, I think it's something that the average person can definitely do. So to piggyback off of that, you said there's a lot of information out here. How do you decipher between, you know, what's right and what's misinformation? And also, you mentioned bigger pockets. Was that like a...

What kind of program was that? Was that a mentorship program? Did they offer you guidance? Did they teach you the ins and outs of, you know? Yeah, so that's a good question. So there is a lot to learn about real estate, right? It could be overwhelming, especially in the beginning, if you just don't have any knowledge about it. So that was something that I struggled with personally. It was just like...

There's a lot of avenues you can invest in real estate, which one makes the most sense. So it does take a lot of just self -education and research, right? But it also, again, comes back to who you are as a person, understanding what works for you. The way that I invest in real estate may not be for everybody, right? So it's about understanding who you are as a person. Bigger Pockets helped with that because it's not a mentorship. It's kind of like a community where you can go to it. They have podcasts, they have videos, they have articles, they have meetups that you can go meet people. So I was taking advantage of anything that I really

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could, right? And trying to put myself in the rooms to learn from people that maybe were doing things that I'm researching to understand, well, can I really see myself doing that, right? And then from there, I just fell into the strategy that I fell upon was house hacking, which is when you buy a one to four unit property. So think a single family, duplex, threeplex, fourplex, live in one of the rooms or units and then rent out the other ones to try to offset your mortgage. And if you do it right, you can even make some money at the end of the month too.

Okay, so there's two avenues I want to broach with you, okay? So I do want to cover real estate as well, but...

You said that you started out in the mortgage industry, but then you went into the tech industry, it's tech sales. Because I don't want to get in trouble with my co -host. So, please. What inspired you to go from one, like the banking industry, to the tech industry? Yeah, so similar to falling into real estate, I really fell into sales as well. I was one of those people who didn't know what the hell I was about to do graduating from college. I wanted to study.

business but the school I went to did not have business as a major so I studied financial economics, talked to like career people and they were just like hey just try this job right so I was like alright cool so I went into it and

Sales really is just about relationships, talking to people, right? Trying to educate them and guide them along a decision -making process. And that's something I feel like I just naturally do anyway. And so it just seemed like a good fit. And so from there, I knew mortgage banking wasn't really a passion of mine, but it allowed me to tap into that sales background. But from there, it was, I think tech is the future.

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So how do I try to get into tech even though I'm at a company that is not necessarily a tech company? So I kind of had to take a step back. The job I got after mortgage banking, I went to education tech.

And so I took a pay cut to do it. But for me, it was just an opportunity to, hey, I may go back a little bit, but it's going to launch me forward, right? And kind of betting on myself. So that allowed me to get into tech sector a little bit and have some overlap there. And then from there, I was able to segue into these bigger tech companies that work for Currently Today. What's your thoughts on people who, like you said, take that step back, take that cut.

and pay to advance themselves. Because I think I've seen a lot of people who have really advanced themselves, myself included, where it's like, yo, I'm making this amount of money. And if I switch over to this industry or to this thing, whether it's tech or not, I'd have to start from rookie level again, like entry level. And now I got to start from ground up, do the groundwork, and then work my way back up.

Yeah, I mean, it's it's real sometimes, man. That's a decision sometimes you're you're you have to face. Right. And I mean, and I'm going to keep saying this, I just feel like it comes down to who you are as a person. For me, I.

was a confident person and I did not mind betting on myself because I felt like in the long run it was gonna pay off. So it was temporary for the long term and I was okay with that because I've always been someone who didn't mind delaying gratification, right? If I can take, if I take a pay cut for a year or two, but it allows me to make two X when I'm making it in year three, year four, then to me that's a good payoff and it's a good investment for me to make. So you.

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technically saw the growth opportunities in that other space where you might've been staying stagnant. Even though you was making really good money, staying where you was at. For sure. I mean, in tech, there's just a lot of sectors you can go into, industries you can go into, right? Where it's just, to your point, a lot of opportunity. And so for me, it was just like, how can I get in there as early as possible and then try different things? So I did education tech at first, and then I tried HR tech with kind of like...

training tech for companies like that, then I got into CRM space and currently I work in e -commerce on tech side. So I just try to get into everything that I could, man, because I'd rather just learn as much as possible so that way I can be as dangerous as possible to these tech companies. Man, that's really dope. That's really dope. OK. I do want to go into Registrate. OK. So where do you invest? In Baltimore. And what is your strategy when you...

you're purchasing a property and what do you look for? Yeah, so I'm mainly in two zip codes right now. So kind of the east side of Baltimore near Morgan State and then also near Johns Hopkins. So for me, what I look for, I definitely want to look for cash flow, right? Because to me that is...

what gets you kind of out of your situation and kind of gives you some more security there. I also want to look for appreciation. So I want to be in the path of progress. And so sometimes that can mean doing some research, understanding where is the city sending money to and spending in these neighborhoods, what investments are being made? Do you see more people moving into there as well? So I try to do that as well. I always want to go and visit the place itself. I know some people do remote investing and out of state investing. For me, I've always been one. I just I need to go see it. Right. And so I want to go there at different times of the day.

night time, the weekends, because I need to get the feel of it as well. So those things and Baltimore for me has been one of those markets, man, where a lot of times they think you have to choose between cash flow and appreciation. I've been able to see both in Baltimore. And so I think it's one of those areas that has a lot of opportunity. And when you think about big cities throughout the country that are pretty still affordable, so I would say the average person, Baltimore is one of the last ones that's out there that's like that. And considering, you know, in proximity to

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to DC and how close it is, I only think it's gonna go up from here personally.

So what's what's the game to get into Baltimore? Because a lot, like I said, a lot of people think that it's just too unaffordable or, you know, maybe I should wait until next year when things start dying down in real estate. But you also mentioned things like house hacking. There's other strategies to get into into real estate or even think something like wholesale and where you can just like kind of find ways to make money to then offset so that way you can get into it. But how would somebody really dive into into real estate if they

Don't make the money that they really want to think that they should wait and don't have the resources or the networking The people around them to kind of say hey We should all get together and start discussing these kind of ideas. You got to get uncomfortable You got to you got to put yourself in the rooms and get in front of people It's not just gonna happen without you doing anything, right? If people say real estate is expensive I mean hey going out is expensive, you know doing a lot of things expensive, but people somehow make room for it, right so

It goes about your priorities. If that's something that you really want to do, I'm a believer that you'll try to find a way. Sometimes that may mean trying to make more money and prioritizing that. Maybe that means you're sacrificing, quote unquote, when I say sacrifice, because I think that depends on how you look at it. But maybe that means you're, I don't want to say budgeting. I think people get scared of that word, but balancing your expenses, right? Because I think a lot of people, they don't know what's going out and what's coming in. You know what I'm saying? And so if you can't manage a thousand dollars, you're

you're not gonna be able to manage $10 ,000 or $100 ,000. So don't set yourself up. It starts with the groundwork and the foundation and taking those baby steps. Again, we're from a community, man. We're playing catch up a lot, all right? And so you can't get ahead of yourself because that's how you get into a situation where now you're setting yourself back and you're making a big mistake that can cost you and maybe even your family as well. So you have to treat it like a delicate situation that it is. Hey, I'm going to say.

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Embrace uncomfortability. That's the topic of the year embrace uncomfortability. I'm not gonna lie until I really started being uncomfortable and living in like, you know Stop getting out of my habits I only want to say bad habits but like my habits that I was so used to or that routine and like a Smoking weed or they were going to see my friends and stuff I had to get out of that certain stuff because it's like bro, like I'm

In a sense, wasting time, and yeah, we all do need that little relaxed sit back time. But bro, I started adding up all those hours throughout the week. Then, you know, multiply that by a year. And it's like, damn. So yeah, bro, like, you know, I'm a firm believer in embracing the uncomfortability. That's when the most abundance of blessings come. Like that's when you really get to experience and know.

who you are as a person too. And I think it requires honesty, man. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's, you know, I respect that, that you can admit that and say, I had to look myself in the mirror and be like, what am I doing with my time? Where am I spending my energy and stuff like that? Because for some reason, people, I feel like, don't consider that. Like, they look outward, not inward, right? And so sometimes you just have to be honest with yourself and really audit your life and audit your time and decide, is this what I want to do? And is this going to get me to where I want to go?

You said you were house hacking and that's like the strategy you chose to get into real estate and so What?

What exactly was the reason you chose house hacking instead of maybe fixing flipping properties or the birth strategy? The sexy stuff. The sexy stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for me, again, not having a lot of experience or any experience really in real estate, not really having anybody in my family that invests in real estate, it just seemed like the lowest barrier to entry. Right. I was just trying to figure out ways. How can I limit my risk? House hacking is a great way to do that because you get in with a low down payment. You can get down. You get in with as little as three and a half percent down. Right.

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And then you can even leverage money from the bank to fix out properties as well. And so again, you're limiting your risk. And so for me, it just seemed like the easiest way to go without having to risk too much. And so that was really what made me feel the safest in terms of going and invest. There's a lot of other strategies out there. And again, I don't want to say those aren't good strategies. I think it just depending on the person. But for me, it just made the most sense that way. I got a second part of it. So for those who may be interested in how

But let's say would you advise them or would you reach out to family and friends first or will they uncomfortable with just having strangers in their home or living next to them, you know, especially if you're like young women or young men who's never like lived by themselves or away from family like how do you

gain that trust to run out of your space. Yeah, there's definitely that element of it. And that's another reason why I like the multi units. So the duplex, threeplex, fourplex, because someone's not in my immediate space. You know what I'm saying? People that I don't know. A lot of it also comes down to the screening part. So that's something that you can control. You can control who gets into your house, right? You don't just have to open up to anybody. And so you have to be very thorough when it comes down to that and take your time with it. I'd rather take two, three months to find someone who I feel really good about than just get the first person that shows up to a

open house, right? Because those are the people who may be doing some shady stuff or just not the best person to go in there. And depending on where you're located, you're dealing with eviction laws and trying to get people out. And that could just turn into a whole thing. And that ruins people's experience. And I feel like we all got that uncle who is like, man, I tried investing, but I got burned. And now that turns people off. Right. And so you have to be honest with yourself, but also take what other people are saying with a grain of salt. Just because their experience was not the best doesn't necessarily mean that's going to happen to you.

All right, so all this sound good, right? All sounds great. You can have Smarty pay off your mortgage. You can start living for free, start making money and stuff. And you might not even have to see the person if they live in a separate unit. Walk me through the process to get to that point from the part of, all right, I don't know, jack shit squat.

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Well, how do I figure out the terminology? What is DTI? What is credit? How do I do all this stuff to the point where I'm actually able to screen? What are the softwares that you're using, the platforms that you're using to help screen these people to know?

What's a good deal? What's not a good deal? What's a good tenant? What's not a good tenant? And my bad before you answer, because I was I was definitely like say something about that because I actually met somebody that owns a company and they pay another company to do background checks before bringing, you know, employees in and then pushing them out for contracts and everything. So I was going to ask, did you use this as my devil? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So basically just my process of screening people or buying a property or the whole thing. I think the whole game. All right. Game. All right. Cool. So for me again, how

you want to get in with as low money as possible, right? So back in November, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, they just opened up 5 % down for duplexes, threeplexes, and fourplexes. Before that, you had to put down either 15 % to 25%, right? So that leveled the playing field for a lot of people because now the affordability is there for a lot more people, right? So that could be a program that you use. Let's say you find a property for $250, I don't know where you are. Maybe that's realistic, maybe it's not. But it needs some work.

And that's another thing I want to add there. I only look for properties that need some work. Unless it's just a good deal, it's off market, and somehow it just comes to me, it usually doesn't happen like that. I'm looking for properties that people are kind of shying away from because they require some work, right? So from there, you want to use, you can use a 203K, which is kind of a purchase and rehab loan.

depending on if you have the funds for it or not to do it yourself. But if you want to leverage the bank, which, hey, I think always leveraged. Oh, yeah, right. We here. So we want to try to leverage the bank's money. Right. So you can do that to fix up the property that is going to naturally increase the value of the property. Right. From there, during that time, of course, you want to try to get it rented out as soon as possible, because that's when you get your cash flow in my process. I try to be as thorough as possible. Like, I don't I don't play around when it comes to people getting my credit. Right. So that requires.

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Background checks to your point, credit checks.

job references, I wanna see pay stubs, I wanna see tax returns, I wanna see W -2s, I'm calling people asking about you, you know what I'm saying? And sometimes people lie on applications. They might put their homie down and say, this is their landlord, right? So you gotta be smart about it. And this also just comes with experience. So before I might've just called and said, hey, I'm calling in reference to this person. You know this person? Obviously they're gonna say yes, right? Now I can call them and say, hey, I'm looking to see if you guys have any vacancies.

They acting looking at me like, what is he talking about? Okay, I already caught you. You're lying right now, right? So that's another thing that I try to do again and be thorough. I'm doing.

case search online, you got any open cases right now? Like what's your history look like? I'm looking up your social media. Like I'm doing the whole nine before I even give you a call for real, you know what I'm saying? Because if you line on your application, I already know you probably gonna lie to me if I run out to you, right? So I try to be as thorough as possible. I try to also make it a little difficult for them in terms of the application process. So maybe that means that...

We have to do a phone conversation before they can see the property. Maybe that means that...

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You know, I have to do the job references and things like that. The easier you make it for people, the easier it is gonna be for them to try to get one up on you. So if somebody really wants something, they're gonna go through what they have to go through and do to get what they want, right? If they really want that. And those are the type of people that I want in it. So for me, I treat it like a funnel. I may start off with 50 people, but by the time we get to the open house and we get to the applications, I may be only deciding between three to five people. And from there, it's really a gut feeling. You know what I'm saying? I like to meet these people.

I like to talk to them and just see who I feel the best about obviously there's fair housing out there so watch yourself when it comes to that too and They would need to be qualified at the end of the day. So I just try to be real thorough throughout the entire process. Let's take a step back because Cool, we found out you got a fun get a house FHA

203K is just basically the rehab of a house that's also partly funded from the bank where they got some equity into it. And then we know that you have to start vetting out your tenants as well and making it a more difficult process or more stringent process for that person to get through there.

How is somebody finding a realtor? How is somebody finding the bank that they want to use to choose like, all right, cool, I know Bank of America, I know Navy Federal, I know all these commercial big banks, right? What about credit unions? And how do you find those? And then also,

what platforms or softwares are you using to do these background checks on these tenants once you get there? Yeah, so in terms of how do you find these people, right? It's like realtor, realtor. Start from the beginning. I'm telling you, we talking game from the realtor. How you find that? I got you. So again, referrals, right? I love referrals. If I can speak with someone directly and hear from them, here's who they use. I will prioritize that over anything, right? Especially if I know, like, and trust that person that told me about you. So I always like referrals. So that goes back to getting your

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in rooms, meeting people, getting out there, being uncomfortable, and sometimes knowing that she might be the person in a room who knows the least, but being okay with that, right? Where do they find these rooms?

Meetups is a place bigger pockets. They have a whole thing on there where you can find meetups local to you You can go to meetups. That's another place comm that has you know local events and things Even right love the love event bright as well. So they're out there, you know I'm saying they're out there and you'll probably be surprised how many are near you as well And I would say if you don't have it create one

There's nothing wrong with that too. There's probably a lot of people around you that would love to show up to something like that. They just don't have the place for it maybe, right? And they're just waiting for somebody to do that. So be that person that could be a resource to a lot of other people as well. You'd be surprised the type of community you can create. But I love referrals, right? And again, research. If I come across a company, you talked about like,

banks and credit unions as well, right? It's like, I'm doing the research on them. I'm reading reviews. Like, how do you go to a different city you've never been in and find what restaurant you want to go eat? I'm looking up stuff online, right? What's the review say? What the pictures look like? What people saying about it? And I'm going to go from there and make a sound decision. So it really is research. And call people. Don't be afraid to pick up the phone. Again, I think me being in sales kind of helped me build up that touch scan. Like, I'm not scared to call somebody. Like, what are they going to say to me that can hurt me? Like, it's not really much you can say to me. The worst you can say is no. And it's like,

that's case, all right, cool, thank you. You get through all your nose. That's a that you're that much closer to a yes, right? So you have to be okay with just talking and putting yourself out there. Now also the background check.

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So the software out there like Zillow even, Rent Ready is what I use for property software. There's a lot of them out there, man. They usually do it for you. They have a third party that's kind of integrated within the software that does it for you, which I like too because it kind of takes the pressure and blame off of you as the property manager to say, hey, I'm not the one doing a background check. There's another company, a third party that does it for me. Hold on, my bad. Also, I don't know if y 'all know about Elon Financial Banks, but those are

usually your local bank or institutions, credit unions that are around you that are for the people. Like if you look up Elon Financial Institutions near me, it's your E -L -A -N. And it will give you a list full of like banks, credit unions that are for the people. Like I specialize in business funding, so usually with my clients, I have them do that if they're not in Maryland or PG County.

And then those are the banks we're going to focus on and those banks we're going to hit. What's their advantage to a credit union versus a PNC? Because like a credit union is like, all right, that's a small bank. If they go under, right, then what happens with that? But if I go to a Bank of America or a PNC, well, I know they're not going to go under. So what's the advantage to a credit union or a local bank, right, versus those big commercial banks? I mean, so.

Essentially, I like the local banks because like I said, they they're looking to just throw money at you like how you said Leverage people money and I like you know what OPM? Yeah, you might come back. Yeah, but yeah, so, you know, we're all about OPM so it's like oh if I'm if I could go to chasing it 75k, but fucking Was it CQ in Baltimore? You meet you? Yeah, but if you about to give me 150 K why am I not about to go get that?

150k and they both they both pull from I mean you could probably get both But so let's say both of them pull from TransUnion and so once you go get the first 150 that 75 might drop a little bit to like part 60 50 But I mean that's still you know a good amount of money, but yeah, bro And even when a lot of those

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Institutions do go under they get and brought out by a bigger bank. So you're just want to go to that bigger bank Yeah, essentially and that looks better for you essentially because they're gonna give you more money to your money's insured to know to sort of mountain 250k Yeah, so I mean if you unless you play with big money like that So let me so you say you invest in Baltimore

So we had our previous episode we had another investor from the Baltimore area. Shout out Tony, right? Shout out to Tony. Shout out to my guy Tony. That was a lot of gems. That was a lot of gems in that episode.

Why Baltimore? What attracted you to Baltimore besides it being close to you? Was it the pricing? You said you look into details like what's coming. Was it something that specifically attracted you to Baltimore or what's going on with that? Yes, there was a lot of different factors for me. I was born and raised in Silver Spring. My mother's from Baltimore, so I have a lot of family in Baltimore. I grew up in and out of Baltimore as well. I went to school out there for college as well. I have ties there that made me feel

A little bit more comfortable with Baltimore than maybe just the average person who just heard about it on TV and they seen the wire and thing. That's what it is. And like I said earlier, I think it was the path of progress. You look back at DC in the 80s, right? And things that were happening in DC. A lot of that is what's happening in Baltimore right now. Obviously, I think DC has the government kind of backing it too. So I think it's not a similar or apples to apples comparison, but history repeats itself. And so I think a lot of times we're on the short end of the stick. And when I say we, I mean,

brown people, black people in our communities, right? And so I was thinking, well, let's try to get on this a little bit earlier, right? And to your point, the price point of it, because I was not making a lot of money when I started to get into real estate and was interested in it. It was something that I could afford. I couldn't afford to be in DC even if I wanted to. So for me, it was just a starting point to maybe eventually get into these bigger markets like a DC or these more expensive places. But it just seemed like a lower barrier to entry for me.

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somebody, let's say that they're not in the Baltimore area, how does somebody identify what's coming? Like what's coming down the pipeline? Like we couldn't have predicted DC. Like at our age, we couldn't have predicted DC and most people probably weren't able to predict it. But to the average seasoned person who's seen something, they're like, nope, that's there. That's adding up. That's adding up. That's adding up. All these things adding up together are showing a stronger indication that this

specific area is like, all right, cool. This thing might be good. Let me go ahead and start aiming for there. Maybe not be able to buy it right then and there, but let me start saving up some dollars here and there to eventually get there within the next like six months, year, two years, five years. Yeah, I think it starts with being intentional about it and trying to seek out that information. Right. I think sometimes we underestimate the information that we have access to, you know, because we're just used to it at this point. We grew up in it, but we have access to it.

a lot of information out there that the previous generations do not. And that's including what is going on in our local governments, our cities, states, whatever the case may be. I also am a big proponent of being boots on the ground. Go see the place. That's probably the best thing you can do is go see it with your own eyes. And there's some people who using Baltimore, for example, that maybe have never been to Baltimore. They just heard about it. But if you were to go and kind of see some of the stuff that's going on, that may change your outlook on it. And now maybe that's an

opportunity that you can see yourself doing. And so again, I think it's about just being intentional about it and also just seeking that information because it's out there. So game, where do you go, Tristan, where do you go to keep up with information about.

a local area and then maybe another area that may not be so local to you. Because I think we were talking before this where you said everybody's got something within 45 minutes to an hour of where they live. Yeah. Well, I mean, I can only speak really to Baltimore since that's where I am. And that's really what I kind of like hone in on. But I just go to their city website. They have a whole page dedicated to the development that they're doing and kind of where they're spending money and plans for the future and things like that. So you can also see.

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what's coming down the line. It could be five, 10, 20 years from now, right? But you can understand that you start to see a trend and you can see there's things coming out in the news and things like that. So again, it's just about being aware of it. I know you're a car guy, right?

You see you. I double and double. When you first got your. What was it? All right. How do you. Me. Yeah. I got it. I got it. I got to. My bad. But when you before you got the Audi that may have not been something that you saw every day. Right. I know we all heard this analogy before. Like you get a car now you leave the line. You see it everywhere. Right. It's because your your brain is kind of trained to now see it. Right. And so once you.

Once you train to think a certain way your brain is just gonna start exposing things to you that were already there You're just now thinking about it a different way because now you're trying to think about it that way. That's called your your Riz You told me about this shit. So I remember the crisis. Oh, Riz. Yeah, your reticular activating system No, but your reticular activating system, which is a real thing and I heard that from Jim Quick

on Limitless and he's basically like you said it's like when you get into that car.

Now all of a sudden you start seeing that same car all over the place. It's like, there you go, there you go, there you go. The same thing works with information. When you start focusing and honing in, all right, I want to get into real estate. All right, cool. Go start looking at real estate. Start hacking your algorithm. That's one of the things I was talking about when I was in Puerto Rico was start looking up not just the $100 ,000 house, look up the $500 ,000 house, look up the $10 million house, look at the $50 million house, because the more you start programming your mind to be tuned to that frequency, right,

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When you're on 93 .9, you won't hear hip hop, R &B, but you're not going to hear the gospel channel.

because you're not on that frequency. And so as people start tuning their frequency to being on that wavelength, all right, cool, I want to be in real estate. I'm going to start looking at real estate events. I'm going to start going to real estate events. I'm going to start talking to people who are in real estate. I'm going to start seeking out mentors who are in real estate. I'm going to look up social media accounts that are in real estate. Now you start thinking about it. And now that law of attraction.

starts attracting that energy to you to now seeing, wait a minute, there's more opportunities for real estate in this specific area or within this person or within this network or this group. And you start surrounding yourself with those people to then be like, yo, we should all start pulling money together. We should all go to a credit union, get funding, then apply for a property or two, pull money together. I think they was talking like Susu boards, right?

and actually pulling money together to then collaborate versus compete against everybody. Because we have this, like, as black and brown people, crabs in a barrel mentality.

And instead of like, all right, well, cool, let's put something on paper. We all want to go and get our credit right. We all want to get funding. We all want to do this business plan. We all want to agree on this. We want to meet regularly to achieve this goal. And we're going to set these milestones that each of us have to achieve to get to that goal to now being able to separate ourselves. And it doesn't matter if you're experience level. Why? Because your rise now.

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focus on that. Everybody's razzes on start focusing on that. You all start going out and getting mentors and people who can start guiding you through that process to say, yo, I like what y 'all doing, but let's tweak it here and there to give you that. And it's interesting because as we get older, we're getting to that point where we were looking for that guidance from somebody who was older or more experienced in that industry. And now,

we're getting to that point where we're able to offer that back to somebody. So when it comes to somebody who wants to get a mentor. Before you go in there, because you said something. I want you to stay there. But you said something about looking at the. Call it. I don't know what's up with you. You said something about looking at the $100 ,000 home, the $500 ,000 home, the $10 million home. Yep.

I'm gonna go back a little bit to segue though. The $1 home. You know? Okay. Oh shit. My fault, big dogs. No, you don't. So you going that way, I'm going. You know, I do, cause it's in the news still, right? I'm sure. You know? And so for those who are like, they're fired up about, they want to get into real estate. They know for sure they want to get into real estate. They want to get into Baltimore for some reason, right?

What do you think about this $1 home program? Is it any good deals? What's the homework that needs to be done for these things? The progress, like you said, what's your, how do you call it? Path of progress. Path of progress. What do you find?

the things like, what's just overall thoughts on the $1 home? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I know people hear that and they just think it has to be a good deal, right? Understand that if they're selling a home for a dollar, it's probably for a reason, right? So these homes, they need a lot of work. One of the requirements that Baltimore is asking for is you need $90 ,000 to be able to fix up these homes. And that is the minimum they're asking for. So a lot of times, it's probably going to cost you more than the $90 ,000 to fix these homes.

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up and they're also they could be in neighborhoods where the value of the home may actually be less than what it's costing to fix it up to. So you need to do the research in terms of the neighborhoods that it's in.

what homes are selling for, right? So what they do in real estate is they look at comps or comparables, right, for the past usually six months or so. If you can do it even sooner, that's better. And if you can get within about a half a mile radius, that's probably your best bet in terms of looking for similar properties. That gives you an idea of if I do fix this up, what is this house gonna be worth? They're also asking that you stay in the house for five years. So understand these things before you just start making offers on these properties because it may not be the

best fit for everybody. I know for me personally I'm not doing the dollar program I would not tell somebody not to do it but just make sure you're doing the homework on it before you get into it. All in all though I do think it could be a great opportunity.

for the average person if they are willing to do the things that they're asking for, because they are making people jump through hoops for it and rightfully so because they want people who are not just going to move into this house and leave. Right. That's why a lot of these houses are vacant in Baltimore, because they have out of state investors that buy it, don't care for it. Now it turns into a crack house or people are getting killed in these houses. Things like that happen. And they are out of sight, out of mind. Right. And it kind of creates this lasting effect.

on neighborhoods and families and things like that. So understand why they're doing what they're doing, but if you want to get into it, it's definitely possible. You just got to do your research. Now, like you just said, another thing, if you want to qualify for a house for a dollar in Baltimore, you have to be, like I just said, living the property for five years at least. The first come first service for Baltimore residents, right? You know, a nonprofit, I think you can maybe get it for $500. I think Tony's

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touched on that as well. And so. Yeah. 500, 5 ,000. I think it was 3 ,000. 3 ,000. I think that's for investors. $3 ,000. But nonprofits is $500. But if you buy into property strictly for investing, you have to wait 90 days before the city residents and people who want to live in the home first. You have to wait 90 days and then $3 ,000 on top of that. So those are the qualifications for the $1 program in Baltimore.

And these houses are not going to be in the best of neighborhoods. Some of them got a tree coming through. Exactly. So they got a tree coming through them. And then there's three vacancies on the right and two vacancies and one house is probably redone already to the left. So understand if you want these programs, if you want to be in this program, like...

You're probably going to be the guinea pig for these for this community, you know, you know, you're going to set the comp basically, you know, and you're not going to have any comp to balance all the way off. I think it plays into that thing where it's like group economics, where again, this black and brown people were not thinking in that group mentality, but other communities might be thinking about that, where they're like, yo, are cool, dollar house, this whole block.

You go and get one. I'm gonna get one. You go and get one. You go and get one. That will honestly, I think that will work. Honestly, I think that would be the best strategy though. If say, hey, Alex, you're gonna live across the street. I'm gonna live right here. My kill, you're gonna buy this house right here. Tristan, you're gonna buy this house right there. And we're going to raise the community value up like together. You know, hey, maybe we can invest in.

and small businesses in this community. We could bring a grocery or fresh grocery stuff options here. So I think, honestly, Baltimore, that would be the best way to build it up. And it's kind of almost like the house hacking or the Byrd method, on which I want you to touch on in a little bit. But it's like, all right, cool. And again, this is in theory because I don't think you're going to be able to really just buy the whole block.

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In most cases, it might be like a house here and a house like a mile over there kind of thing where it's more spread out. But in theory, if it's possible for you to buy, you know, a couple of houses on the block, what could be done is like, all right, cool. We want to start as a unit on this one. We're all going to pull money together and start on this house, build up this house. And then when that house is complete, we're going to finance, like refinance it, pull cash out, start on the next house.

and repeat, go to the next house. Now we started building up more equity, more equity, and getting more comps, because the first house is going to be the hardest one, of course, because you don't have any other comps. Exactly. But once you get that first house, now all of a sudden you got a comp, like a recent comp. And the second house, like, yo, it's like, hey, hey, there's motion on this block. So the burr method is, I think, in addition to house hacking, is what you're also doing, right? Kind of doing. It's like a mixture of both, I would say.

Mm -hmm. Yeah, cuz you you did like the was it the he lock or something? Yeah, so For those that don't know by burr is an acronym that stands for by rehab rent refinance repeat So it's how you can buy a property that is distressed or it could be the seller or the property itself You get it below market value your rehab it to increase the value you rent it out get tenants in there You go to the bank and say hey, I got tenants. I have this nice house now Can I refinance it they give you cash back?

If you do it right, you could get all your money back, maybe even some more. And then you go repeat, which is the last R. So for me, I'm doing it a little bit differently because I'm not refinancing. I'm still doing the buying at a lower market value. I'm rehabbing it. I'm renting it out. But instead of refinancing, I'm taking a HELOC out. The reason I like doing that is because when you refinance, you're essentially replacing your existing mortgage with a lot of times is going to increase your monthly payment and get you a higher interest rate at times too.

especially in today's market. And again, now you have a higher payment too. I like HELOCs more just because you only pay on what you're using. And so you can take out a home equity line of credit, that's what HELOC stands for, and really just have it in the wing waiting for a play, right? And then in the meantime, you're not paying anything on it. And on top of that, you're usually able to get it for a higher amount in terms of the money you can get out. Because if it's your primary residence,

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I've had HELOCs in CQ. You mentioned CQ. I have a HELOC with them. They went up to 90 % of the home's value. For real? As opposed to a refinance, they usually cap out around 80%. Is that who you got your mortgage through? No, I did not get a mortgage through CQ. I only got the HELOC through CQ. Damn. So how does that work? Don't they have to be one in the same? Or like, how does CQ come in and say, oh, OK, we'll give you a line of credit on a house that we have nothing to do with?

Yeah, so they're just a second lien on the property. So the first lien is going to be the mortgage company. What's a lien? A lien is like a mortgage or a judgment. Basically, someone has, what's the word I'm looking for? Basically, a loan. Any loan is worth more than the property. Yeah, yeah, they have. It's kind of like a car. You have a lien on your car, or anything like that. Right, right, right. So because I put money into the property and it's worth more, the value is more than what I bought it for, right?

And now, that's my immense breath. Go ahead. So the property is worth more now. And so you can you kind of have like that gap of like, all right, the loan amount is what it is. You already bought it here, but now it's worth more. So you have all this equity. That's what it is right in between. But you don't have access to it. So instead of replacing the mortgage with a refinance. And another reason I don't like that is because they give you the cash when you close and a refinance. Right.

regardless if you have a use for it or not. And you're going to pay interest on that. So the HELOC is like, hey, we're going to give you this money, but only if you want to use it and when you want to use it. So you're able to do that. So they're basically a second lien, and they're able to go to 90%. So as an example, we talked about the first property, right? So I bought the house for $265. My mortgage on it was about $230. I put in roughly about $80 ,000 of money into it. This is your money?

No, some of it was, some of it was. About 30 ,000 of it was. Let me hold the dollar. 30 ,000? Let me hold two. This was just saving up money, bro. Sales, working, man. It took me about two years to save up money to buy the first house to then use for the rehab. And after I rehabbed one of the units and got it rented out and I went to the bank and got a HELOC, they appraised it at $485 ,000. So they take 90 % of that.

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and they subtract the mortgage you got and that difference is what they will give you for a line of credit. I didn't go fully up to 90%, looking back on it, I wish I did, but they gave me about $100 ,000 to say, okay, here's your line of credit and that's what I used to then go buy the second house and then I also used that money to fix up the rest of the house. So when I said I only used a portion of my money, then I used the rest for the heat lock. So let me ask you, I know you used OPM on the second, when you bought the second house, but.

What made you use your 30 K to purchase the house instead of using the bank's money or taking that, putting that to a business account and then the bank give you a financial money? Yeah. So for me, you know, that's really what it was. That's really what it was. Looking back on it, I definitely could have done that. I'm not upset at it because, you know, it is what it is. It's a learning lesson for me. But in hindsight, I probably would have bought or used a purchase rehab loan, like a two or three K that we talked about.

to just buy and then renovate the property that way I can use the least amount of money possible out of my pocket. So you actually just touched on something that I've been waiting to ask you the whole time because shit, I feel like we all done been through them and I wasn't sure if you have because you're very successful. But only want you to touch on one because it might be more but uh... Damn! Okay! I don't know if that was a pause but it's definitely a no -diddy moment.

Definitely no diddy. But, um, these niggas are idiots. But what would you say was your, you know, that number one failure or learning lesson that, you know, progressed you to this point? And how did you find a solution to that?

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Nah, he had this crazy toilet. That was one of them for sure. What he's referring to man is I had one of my basement units of the first property, we had some plumbing issues and basically the septic got backed up. Oh, it was that shit? Literally, yeah, yeah. In the tubs and stuff. Damn. And I was the one that had to go down and clean it up. So for me, that's when I was like, you know what?

I gotta start outsourcing some of this. I can't do everything myself. And so it kind of allowed me to step back and kind of look at this more as a business and how can I work on it rather than in it and try to delegate certain things that maybe wasn't the best use of my time. I wouldn't even consider that a failure though. I think that was more so like an aha moment for me. It was like, all right, I'm gonna be doing this wrong. That's what I was saying. It won't gotta be a failure, but like learning lesson. But I will say another one that comes to mind is when I had to deal with my first eviction.

So fortunately for me, I didn't have to go through the whole city for it. The person was nice enough to get out the house, even though they didn't pay for a few months. But for me, it was being a little bit too trusting of people. And I think this was before I really had my criteria in place and my process in place for screening people and being thorough with that. And that was one of the things that was like, all right, I got to do this a little bit differently moving forward. Love that, bro. I think those moments, like you said,

the septic, the digging up the whole yard. I remember that entire process. You went through a similar process yourself. But yeah, in addition to that, I think that those moments, again, it's like for me, my Raz is tuned to, I don't have failures. I have moments where I'm like, man, I wish I would have done X, Y, Z over this outcome. But it's more like.

This was a learning lesson that now I can, if someone's going through that similar experience, I can be like, yo, do this. There's times where I've talked to Tristan, Tristan's give me advice where we're just like, yo, I've been through that thing and it sucked for me, but it doesn't have to suck for you. Right. And you can do X, Y, Z and bypass all of that. And it's a saying, it's like, what's a mountain to you is an an hill to somebody else. And a lot of times when we get into real estate,

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tech or just life situations in general, that thing that's a mountain that's keeping you up, that got that knot in your chest is really someone, someone can just come by and be like, that's what you trippin' on? Right. Dog, like just do this thing right here and you're good. So again, it's like the Raz is now focused to say, all right, there's no such thing as a failure because failure is when you give up. If you would have gave up on your first property, if you would have gave up on real estate,

They know you've been in things where it's like if you would just give up on real estate, you're not giving up on real estate. You're just like, you know, I got to take a step back, recollect myself and refocus and re -center to get to that next point so that when I come back, I'm coming back harder than ever. Yeah. Right. No, did he? Hey, man. Thank you for tuning into this episode of your. But yes.

That's what I'm saying. It's just like having these moments or character defining for you because it's like, man, I remember going through those moments. Because now you can look back at the moments and be like, man, that moment sucked. But now you have a moment to talk about on a podcast episode or tell your story about what happened and how you are advancing. And somebody is going to be watching this and be like, yo, this, what Tristan went through, what Daymille went through, what Markel went through, right?

That's what I'm going through at this very moment. And I know what to do next. I thought about perspective, man. In my opinion, mistakes are just proof that you're trying. If you didn't make a mistake. Bar? You're really not trying. Say that again? Mistakes is just proof that you're trying. That's it. Because if you don't make mistakes, what are you really doing? You're probably living a comfortable life. You're being complacent. You're content with what you're doing. And look.

That's no issue. If that's you, that's cool. That's cool for you, but that's not cool for everybody, right? And so I'm speaking to the ones where that's not cool for you. So in order for you to get somewhere, you got to do something that you may have not done before, and that's going to require you to maybe trip along the way and fall. But if you pick yourself up and learn from the mistakes, then it turns into something that you just one step closer to whatever it is you're trying to get to. Yeah. I would say something I learned, I would say recently this year, maybe three, four months ago when the year first started that.

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My mom always said it to me, but everything that you go through isn't just for you. Like how y 'all was saying, like y 'all be helping each other. Y 'all went through, you know, not similar situations, but it's stuff that y 'all done went through in the real estate space where, oh shit, he might not went through it, but he's able to give you information on it and vice versa. So yeah. And that doesn't even just go for business. That goes for life. Like everything you go through isn't meant for you. Like sometimes it's meant for, yeah, it's meant for, you know,

somebody else to learn from, be inspired by or motivated by, because that story might say their life one day. For sure. For sure. And you got to like, you really do just got to, I think also as like young entrepreneurs, I was going to say men, but as young entrepreneurs or people who realize like, yo, there's got to be more to life than just working 40 years. Really? Now, now they're trying to raise it because.

What's the name Social Security Social Security running out? Yeah, well that too, but it's who's the I know that's a lot of cuz they've been saying that shit for part of 24 they say like every 20 years Yeah But Larry Fink the CEO of black rock is just like yo retiring at 65 is honestly crazy you really need to retire later on and So we think yeah, like he recently said that

Now you think about it. It's like it used to be for work 40 years to maybe enjoy 15 years now It's like all right. No now you work in 50 years to maybe live on five to ten years And there's gonna be some people who resonate like yo this ain't the lifestyle for me if you listen to this podcast It's not the lifestyle for us. It ain't the life There's a reason you listen in this is not who who gravitate towards that that realization like yo, this is not that lifestyle is not for me

in the beginning, you gonna have to eat shit, right? You gonna have to cut your teeth on something. You gonna have to like really just like, my teacher says, he's like, yo, you gonna have to get your teeth kicked in one good time. Because you gonna realize what you don't like and what you will and won't tolerate. And there's gonna be some things where it's like, nah, man, like, I'll take the setback. I'll take the lesser pain job. I'll take the entry level job.

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because I know that if I do this, it's going to suck in the moment. Cool. But like you said, next year, two years, three years, it's going to. It's going to. I look over, I see the look of pity on his face. I want to try to fuck you up. All right, keep going. Everyone over my head, bro. I look at those hoes and I say, oh shit, got him. Opus Clips gonna be like, ah, bro, you score.

Your score was good. You was at 98, now you're at 87. But anywho. I'll edit all this shit out. Oh man. Maybe, maybe I may not. But go ahead, go ahead. Anywho. So you realize that it's like, I'll take the minor setback for the major comeback. Right? And when I get to that point, it's going to be so much more worth it. And you realize when you look back in hindsight on the situation that you were in, you were like, man, that's...

That situation seemed so big in the moment. Yeah. But now it's like, I got bigger problems to worry about. Like, well, I guess we'll end off on this. Two things. First, the issues that you face now and face back then, what are your perspective on those? Second, I've asked this question before, somebody else. Knowing what you know now, what would you tell your 18 year old self?

Okay, so what would I tell my 18 year old self, I'll start with that one. Do what the hell you about to do. Don't change a damn thing. Because if you change something, you probably not gonna be on a path that you ended up being on. You know what I'm saying? So I don't look back and really say that I wish I would've changed anything. If anything, I wish I would've got started earlier. You know what I'm saying? That's maybe what I would've changed, but that just wasn't my path for me. So that's something that I wanna give back to.

you know, the community, you know, people, my family, you know, I look at like nieces and cousins in my family where I'm trying to put them on game now, like y 'all getting into college, like y 'all need to start thinking about certain things and try to get ahead of the game because they don't want to work either. You know what I'm saying? They, they honestly, I feel like the generation after us is kind of more hip than we were. You know what I'm saying? Like they on it, they on it, they on it. And they out here getting money, but daddy, sometimes they lack that long -term vision. You know what I'm saying? They're like right now in the -

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and they're kind of, they grew up on that instant gratification type of thing. And so that's what they're used to. So that's why it feels well so far as to yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And their attention span is not, you know, real short and things like that. So for them, it's going to be different, but I still think they are on it and they're going to, I think, take it to the next level personally. And then the other question was the perspective. Yeah, like the problems you face now moving forward versus the problems that were huge to you back then. Yeah, I mean,

You know, I think we sometimes all are guilty of it thinking that it's the worst thing in the world. We're going through something, right? But sometimes I got to just like re -center myself and understand like people out there are going through way bigger stuff than me. Right. The things that I'm blessed to be able to trip about, like rather than saying, hey, I have to do this. It's like, no, I get to do this. Right. Because other people don't have the same opportunity that I have. So I try to be grateful, you know, and that can be difficult at times. So I struggle with that as well, because again, in the moment, it seems like a big thing. But.

Also remember back in the day to your point, some of the issues I was going through where I felt like that, and then I can look back on it now and be like, that wasn't that big of a deal, right? So I try to zoom out a little bit and think to myself, is this gonna matter in five weeks, in five months, in five years? I would say 99 % of the time the answer is hell no, it's not gonna matter. So I don't stress on it. And give yourself grace and space to be human, right? I'm not saying.

don't feel anything or be emotional about things, but also understand like this is gonna pass. And I would say nine times out of 10, you're gonna be fine too. I had a follow up question. I'll let y 'all go. How has the events that you just talked about and the experiences that you've been through, whether it, you know, from the mortgage company to where you're at now and really say, how's that shaped the homeboy?

Yeah, so the homeboy is, you know, kind of, I guess, the alias moniker. It's like my social media thing, right? And it's kind of a play on words, right? The home isn't real estate stuff, but it's also like, that's the homie, right? Like, I feel like a lot of times when I talk to people, especially when I was really getting into financial independence, it's one of those things when you learn about it, it's like, you just want to tell people about it. Because you like, yo, like, you know about this shit? Like, what the fuck? We don't got to work all the time. So.

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For me, I just wanted to talk to people about it. And for a lot of people, I became that person where it's like, we would talk about it. And if it wasn't for me, and they would tell me this, like they wouldn't talk about it. You know what I'm saying? And so I took a lot of pride in that. And it wasn't until I had a conversation with one of my cousins who was like, yo, like you need to like be telling more people about this stuff. You know what I'm saying? Because I feel like.

The same way that we feel that if you didn't tell us about it, we wouldn't be hearing about it or knowing about it. I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way, right, especially in our community. So for me, it was an opportunity to try to give back, you know, even if it's just one person that I can connect with that says, yo, this is dope. I want to get into this. To me, that's like that means everything. You know what I'm saying? So that was my experience, especially because going into real estate, as I mentioned, I don't I didn't have that person, you know what I'm saying, where I could go to and really be like.

No, I really trust this person. And so I had to go find that. And so I know how that was for me and for other people. I'm like, I don't want that for y 'all. Right. If you can't go to somebody who you feel like, hey, this person looks like me, maybe we can relate to one another. Because it's a lonely world and a real estate world at times. You know what I'm saying? We think about young people of color. Like, that's just not something you come across often, not only in real estate, but just the financial community as a whole. Right. And so I try to embody that and just try to be that person for other people.

Oh, okay. You got everything else? No, bro. I fuck with you, bro. Mindset, everything, bro. Much love. Yeah, likewise, man. I got one more thing last I'm gonna say, because this kind of went back to what Alex was talking about. I think during the journey, right, somebody that's listening to this, to a lot of other people, understand you may sound crazy. You may seem crazy to that person, right? But understand that you are the minority. A lot of people do not think the way that you think.

They don't worry about the things you worry about. They don't want the things that you want. So you need to be mindful of the people that you surround yourself with, right? The saying of, you know, you hang around the average of the people, the five other people that you hang around with, you're gonna be them, right? So it's like, you hang around five people who have that mindset of, I'm cool with life, you're probably gonna be that sixth person. So make sure you open up your mindset and be open -minded about the opportunity that's in front of you and understand that.

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Everyone was crazy to somebody that changed the world, that did something that was impactful. So embrace that and know that it's for a better cause and a better you in the future. So lock in. Yo, that was really dope. Yo, these are great gems. Told you. Yeah, you really did. You over -delivered, my guy. Yeah, appreciate that. Over -delivered, man. Like you said some things, this shit. I was taking notes. Like, damn.

Do I do this? Do I do this? I need to implement this thing because I got someone here who's ... Everyone in these microphones are younger than me, right? I don't tell y 'all, y 'all inspire me. Like, damn, god damn. I ain't much older than y 'all, but still, these motherfuckers on the grind. Especially y 'all, someone that's nearer and dearer than me is young black males. Because honestly ...

A lot of it we're written off. We're written off by society. Should be even written off in our community. And so that's tough. And so I don't want to rap too much, but I did want to end with, because our demo was young males, we're worth it.

and let's change our community. Let's change our family generation, our family, the next generation, and let's change our perception. And so with that, Alex, do you have anything you wanna end it with? I think I heard it cool. Hold on, hold on. Tell them where they can find you at. Oh yeah, so on Instagram, the homeboy underscore. You can find me on there tapping with me. I try to drop information about...

the stuff we talked about here today and happy to connect with anybody who wants to reach out. I heard this quote from Myron Golden and he was like, be, do, have. And in order for you to be the person that you want to be, you have to do the work that that person would do to have the results that that person would then have. Be, do, have. Love, MG. OPA to OPM. Peace.

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Sir.