Ekabo Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Podcast
A podcast for those who do not believe they were put on this earth to work 40 to 50 hours per week for 40 to 50 years, to hopefully retire at the age of 65.
Ekabo Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Podcast
114. Building Wealth Through Real Estate: Military Skills, Smart Investing, and the Path to Financial Freedom
Unlock the secrets to financial independence through real estate with Nasir Young, an Army veteran, real estate investor, and the new director of operations for the Ekabo Home Realty Team. Discover how Nasir's journey took him from growing up in Chester, Pennsylvania, to studying history at Howard University, ultimately igniting his passion for real estate. Learn how Nasir's military service shaped his approach to real estate, emphasizing the importance of hustle, problem-solving, and friendly competition in both his personal and professional life.
Nasir shares the delicate balance of providing for his children without spoiling them, inspired by a personal story about owning a bad first car and ensuring a better experience for the next generation. He recounts his transition from military to civilian life, focusing on the pivotal purchase of a duplex that set a trend in Fort Hood. Nasir highlights the financial advantages of renting out properties and generating passive income, underscoring the importance of market analysis and innovative design in real estate investment.
Join us as we explore Nasir's pursuit of an MBA at Emory University, his strategies for remote property investment, and personal anecdotes of overcoming financial challenges and seizing real estate opportunities. Nasir's insights into leveraging military skills in a civilian career, the value of teamwork in real estate, and the power of taking action to build a robust portfolio are truly inspiring. Don't miss out on this episode, packed with actionable advice and motivational stories.
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Niyi Adewole is a licensed realtor in Georgia, brokered by EXP Realty. Feel free to reach out at Niyi.Adewole@exprealty.com if you would like to work with an investor friendly real estate agent.
Welcome to the Financial Freedom Mastermind Group podcast. Here we're all about breaking free from the 40 to 50 year work grind and accelerating our journey towards financial freedom. Join us every Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path to financial independence. We serve as a hub for connecting with fellow members during our sessions so you can share successes, ask questions and keep the momentum going.
Speaker 2:This is Niyi Adewale, host of the Acabo Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Group, and I'm excited to be joined tonight by a good friend and colleague, Nasir Young and Nas is an Army veteran real estate investor, realtor, and he's the newly appointed director of operations for the Acabo Home Realty Team. He jumped into real estate at the age of 26, purchasing a duplex to house hack, and he continues to acquire all around the US today, focusing on properties that have deferred maintenance, adding value via rehab and securing tenants. And so, Nas, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3:Man, that's an introduction, I feel good.
Speaker 2:Hey, come on out. No, the main piece in that introduction is our newly appointed director of operations, because it's only been a month and it's already a thousand times better, and so I'm excited just for the growth and what we have coming for the future, and I'm pumped to be able to work alongside you. Absolutely so am I, so am I. But, naz, we want to take it way back. So, levon and I know you as an Army veteran director of operations, an investor, we know you as a husband, we know you as a father, but we want to go back before all that, back to where you grew up and where you went to school, man. So where'd you grow up? Did you grow up in Georgia or did you grow up elsewhere?
Speaker 3:Yes, I grew up in Chester. It's right outside of Philly and, funny thing, you know, I ran track for Chester High School and we spent a lot of time beating up on Upper Derby. What Starting early, it's a side dig, right. But no, yeah, I'm from a small city, chester. Actually, thinking thing that Chester has told or taught me is that you always need to grind and figure out solutions. So anytime I'm throwing a problem set figuring out the problem is just the way to go.
Speaker 2:It's in me 100% agree, and coming up for I wasn't born in Philly but I did live there for a decade and, yes, upper Derby did have some definite competitions with Chester. I ain't going to lie. You guys had a good track team. All right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:I'm not gonna get into all that. But football we can take you there Football team. We'll take that long, that's okay.
Speaker 2:But you definitely, in that city, in the surrounding areas, you learn about hustle. You learn, hey, this is what it looks like to make it right, because you can see the people that are like living a really good life in that city, and you can see what it looks like on the other side too. Like, hey, if I'm not hustling, if I'm not driving, if I'm not trying to find solutions, this is where you can end up. And so it inspires you to work a bit harder. And so when did you make the transition from Chester to down and going to school at Howard?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so graduated in 2011 from high school and then went to Howard where I majored in history. I had one of the board majors, right, but history taught me a lot, right. It's actually one of the roadmaps to how I landed myself in real estate. So I studied US history and African diaspora so in doing so, you kind of understand how Africans were dispersed. And, lo and behold, you have to discuss America, and just looking at the trajectory of African Americans, especially as it relates to real estate, was one of the things that I honed in on.
Speaker 3:I think the numbers were something around like 14% of Americans at the time of America's conception, as we know it today, owned land. Now that 14%, they were Anglo-Saxon white males, so that excluded women, that excluded African-Americans, that excluded Irish. So just thinking about that, I was like, well, that is the bar to entry into what we call the American dream. And then, from there, it was history. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get into real estate. I then transitioned into the military, recently got out. I did not. Well, almost nine, I did eight years, so I'm an Army vet now enjoying life on the outside.
Speaker 4:So I'm an Army vet now enjoying life on the outside. So what made you transition into the military specifically and why the branch you chose, kind of etc.
Speaker 3:That's actually a funny story. So my wife, she has a PhD in chemistry. So while we were in undergrad she's obviously majoring in undergrad for chemistry and I was in history and just looking at the job market I was like I'm not just going to take this L willingly because the writing was on the wall and she was going to make more money. So I doubled down on real estate and joined the military Dude.
Speaker 2:I love that. That's awesome. Hey, that's the competitive nature, man. We got to level each other up and it should be like that. It should be that friendly competition to make each other better. And the piece that was a little bit different for me is most individuals choose to go to military so they can go to college right and kind of get that piece. But you did it in reverse order. Was there any apprehension about that, or did you feel comfortable going in after college?
Speaker 3:So it's nuanced. So, in addition to wanting to compete with my wife, I had my first two years of college paid for. I did a lot of outside scholarships when I was in high school, so countless nights just writing essays on like the I forget what they call it, but the graduation day I had somewhere around 20 scholarships and it somewhere was around I think it was like 50K in scholarship money. So that piece was taken care of for the first two years, but then three, four, not so much, and at that point I had pulled my hamstring several times. So the scholarship for track was not going to be an option. So I just had to get creative. And you know my family having a background in the military not my dad, oddly enough, but all of my uncles. All were in service, but unfortunately they chose the Navy. I chose the right branch of my army.
Speaker 2:I'm sure that makes the family cookouts interesting.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent they give me. They give me grace though, because I was the first officer, so I get a little reprieved.
Speaker 2:Come on now, you outran it. Listen, you can jump down and give me 50 right now. I go from there. That's awesome. That's awesome and thank you for your service. Seriously, eight, nine years is a significant amount of time and there's been a lot that's happened over that time period. So we appreciate the time that you've put in with our armed forces. And when you look at some of your passions I know we've talked about this offline and you've shared it with the whole team I know one of the things that drives you is helping others achieve and get closer to financial freedom. But when did that become a thing for you? When did you get turned on to financial freedom, to the FIRE movement? And when did a thing for you Like when did you get turned on to financial freedom, to the fire movement, and when did it click?
Speaker 3:for you, man. That's a, I would say honestly, the transition leaving college, coming into the army. So my first I don't know six months in the military. You have to do military training.
Speaker 3:So I went to BOLIC, which is basic officer leadership course, and while I was there I noticed this young lady. Well, she wasn't super young, but she was probably about 30 years old. But she had a seven series BMW and it was an older model. It wasn't like something she just got because she got Lieutenant money. It was none of those things. You could tell that she had some money. So I walked up to her.
Speaker 3:Obviously it was like what do you do? And that's where I found out that her family actually invests in real estate. So she was a lieutenant and she already owned about six properties at the time and I think four of them, or something like that, was in Baltimore. But the best thing about her story was not only does she invest, but her family invests, and it's something that her parents had started a long time ago. So all her brothers and sisters do it as well. The unique part about their story and I'll leave it here is that they'll all chip in and renovate a home, somewhere that they plan on traveling to, they'll renovate it. Obviously, they're going to pull some money out of it once it's done. But before they put it on the market to either sell and or rent out as a vacation home, they stage it and then the entire family comes out and they make it a vacation for the family. So it was twofold we're making money and we're uniquely spending time together as a family. When I found that out as a story, I was sold.
Speaker 2:That is pretty cool Because at the end of the day you should be able to use and have fun with some of these properties that you're acquiring, and I know that can kind of even help get the other side on right. Like one of the hardest things to do is to be aligned with your partner and things of that nature on the solo investing path, because there's definitely some downs right, but that sounds amazing. That's definitely a reason to kind of push through Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It's funny because there's one more. I got to tell you this one too. So I was actually a janitor while I was in college that was helping me pay for school. And one day I was in the cafeteria pushing a broom and a dad and his son came in to visit the grandfather because I was at a nursing home and they sat down at the table. And I'm sitting there pushing a broom, you know, because my dad you know.
Speaker 3:He told me growing up if you want to make some money, you go out and get a job, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when your family has a glide path already set for you, there's a bit. You are about to turn 18. You're about to graduate. You have the option to go to college and or take this money that we're about to give you and reinvest into the family business, or start your own. But if you start your own, we have to vet it Now.
Speaker 3:Granted, this was 2016, and they offered them $50K. So it's like $50K is not an extreme amount of money, but it is enough money to get you started. And when you have a family obviously in your background that's willing to give you $50K to start whatever idea that you have. Clearly you're coming in at an advantage. Have clearly you're coming in at an advantage. So, just thinking about that generational wealth piece and then doubling down going to Bowling and then hearing her say what she does with her family through real estate and that already being a natural interest of mine, it just merged together and I was like, well, this is clearly the path that I'm going to take.
Speaker 2:It's incredible and it's one of those things I like the way that they phrase that to the individual that's turning 18, right, Because it puts the onus on them to come up with an actual game plan, not just, hey, we're going to throw this away. We have to vet a business that you're going to actually try to build and see if it makes sense. So it's going to allow that person to gain some skills that maybe you would gain in college. Right, you can learn all that stuff on your own as well, but that's pretty incredible. I think it's very similar to kind of what?
Speaker 2:On a completely unrelated piece what Shaq was doing with his kids. Right, he said this famous line in this interview where he said his kids aren't rich. Right, he's rich. His kids are enjoying that wealth right now, but they've got to go build their own and it's going to help build their character. That being said, he said he would invest in any businesses that they come forward with and have like a whole game plan, for I think that builds character and it's a way to hopefully transition some of that wealth and that knowledge to the next generation without having something like that spoiled. But what are your thoughts on that transition piece, Like transitioning wealth and what you've built up to the next generation, Because when I think about it I get a little bit nervous about not giving too much but making sure that the lessons are learned when we do give that to the next generation, to where they know how they got it. Does that make?
Speaker 3:sense, absolutely, absolutely. It's that balance of giving them the life you wish you had but not spoiling them. Right, because you don't want to take the weight of the dog, you got to have the dog. If you're not ready to invest, or not even just invest, but have that clarity and discernment to know how you want to map out your future so you can do the same thing as your parents did, right, I cannot rob you of that journey, and if I give everything to you, essentially I'm doing that. So it is a balance. But I can't say that if I have the money, I'm going to limit my son from getting that first dream car. I think that's just the one thing. I'm just going to give it to him if he wants it in high school, because the car I had in high school was terrible. Man, it was terrible. Dang nah, you got to go through that. I had a terrible first car, dude, dude. So, all right, I got to tell this story. I know I'm kind of going off the topic of real estate, but this is a very interesting story.
Speaker 3:My first car, you know, I was the one guy on the track team with a car, so everybody would pile up in my car, you and me both For practice, right. So there we were, one of the girls I've been crushing on for a while. She's walking, and I got all my friends in the car and I said look y'all, I'm not going to kick you out of the car, but I do need everybody to get in the back because I'm going to pick her up. And so I pick her up, she gets in the front and we're driving and there was a speed bump but my car was sitting so low because there were so many people. The middle muffler comes off the car while I have her in the car. It was the most embarrassing thing. So I had to skip the muffler, run it across the back seat. It was a very interesting story. I can't believe.
Speaker 2:I just told everybody that no, hey, listen, that's hilarious, but at least you made it happen. That's the main thing. You made it happen. I'm sure she never forgot that either.
Speaker 3:Absolutely not.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no and no, never forgot that either. Uh, absolutely not. Yeah, no and uh, no. I feel like this is a great point to transition into, out from the military. You know you're out of service, and actually really quickly before we cover your transition out of the military to civilian life. During the military you bought a duplex right. Yes, kind of run us through that. How did you find it? What made you say, hey, now I'm going to pull the trigger, I'm going to get a duplex, get it rented out, all of that. What was your thinking?
Speaker 3:So funny thing, I started looking into real estate before I knew what BiggerPockets was and I just started doing deep dives on market analysis, especially for where I was going, because there was this old, you know idea that you should buy a property every time you go to a new installation. So that was already kind of like ingrained in me hey, I'm going to Fort Hood, I'm going to find a property so I can eventually make that you know something I can rent and have passive income coming in from. Unfortunately, I could not find a property as fast as it took me to transition to Fort Hood, so that first year I spent an incredibly amount of time just doing market analysis, looking for deals, and then at some point I'm pretty sure I was probably in analysis paralysis and I could have pulled the trigger a long time ago. But the funny thing, I was driving one day and I noticed that there was a construction site. So I pulled up on it and asked well, who's your contractor? Because at this point I was considering maybe I should look at buying land and then having it built, because there's some nuances. But with the VA I could have gotten it covered, no different than just buying a regular property. So when I seen them building it, I pulled up on them and the contractor wasn't there. But the guys were out there. I got their number and, lo and behold, they didn't have a buyer yet on the property we're building.
Speaker 3:And I was like, well cool, let me look at the floor plan. So I took a look at the floor plan and it was already going to be built as a duplex. But it was going to be just your standard cookie cutter duplex and I like to take the credit for this because I know for a fact I was the first one on the market with it because I was doing the research all the time. But I made them change the floor plan. So where there was a wall dividing the kitchen and the living room, I told him to cut it out and made it a peninsula, and it was actually a five chair peninsula.
Speaker 3:Well, after that that kind of became the blueprint for the Fort Hood area duplexes. So unfortunately, they kind of took my design and then kind of made it better and better every time. So I no longer had the cream of the crop on the block, but I started that way. So I no longer had the cream of the crop on the block. But I started that way a hundred percent. But I eventually rented one side out and I doubled down with the notion of trying to get more and more income. And on my side it was another three, two. So obviously I took the master of the three two and then I rented out the other two rooms to some friends of mine.
Speaker 2:No, that is incredible. Yeah, we will. We will give you the patent on that design, right? No, I did it first. Everybody else was second or last, but with that in mind, getting that duplex, and you said that you rented out the other side and you rented out the rooms that were in your unit as well.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So did this allow you to essentially cover the mortgage, or most of it, and the whole mortgage was?
Speaker 3:covered. I was, um, I was cash positive, I believe, in the first few months, uh, $150. And then by the time the market shifted, before I left Fort Hood the first time, uh, I want to say I was cash positive 400,. Um, by renting both sides out, I want to say I was cash positive 400 by renting both sides out. And then by the time I transitioned to Philly because I did a short amount of time in Philly, the property was generating, I want to say it was between 800 and a thousand a month.
Speaker 2:See this is incredible and this is the piece that a lot of people we have to educate them, even some of our clients. Year one is important, yes, but it's the length of time that you own that real estate that it continues to get better. Well, you just mentioned being willing to be uncomfortable early on. Right Is critical for building wealth fast in real estate. You went and house, hacked the home and had people living in the house with you rented the other side, but it allows you to save up money quickly for the next one and the next one and then being able to move out of that right with minimal money down really probably 0% of the VA right. 0% down, absolutely, come on now. 0% down. You cannot beat a deal like that and then to have that continue to grow over time.
Speaker 3:That's a piece a lot of people don't think about. Is that long-term vision? And that's what I appreciate about you is having that long-term vision. Can you share just your whole strategy around that? And so my thought process originally was every time I'm like net positive 400 plus, I would obviously take the 400, but then everything over the 400 I'm positive I will put back into bad idea because it kind of goes into the notion of fire.
Speaker 3:But he was like, why take the money and buy down your mortgage sooner when you can take that money and get another property? And I was like you know, you make sense, but I want to have a property paid off and let it pay for the rest of my life. And he was like sure, but what if you bought another property and then that property cash flows and you take that money and pay off the other property? It's the same thing, right, when somebody throws it back in your face. You got to listen, right. So I took that and ran with it and I just kept trying to scale from there. But the vision itself was always to be in a position by the time I turned about 35, 40, where my passive income could be considered a paycheck and I'm not dependent on a W-2.
Speaker 2:Love that and that's kind of the vision that I think a lot of people should take. With this. You don't necessarily need to come in there saying, hey, I'm going to leave my job tomorrow, but even if you love what you're doing, it's good to invest in real estate because it's going to diversify your income and allow you to if, at some point, comes where you're like, hey, I'm going to get out of this right, I no longer love it like I did in my first starter.
Speaker 2:You have options and it's allowing you to get some of that passive income coming in and Liban talked about it a little bit earlier. But I know that transition for a lot of individuals, whether it's from the military to civilian life or from playing professional sports to civilian life, is difficult, right, because you're doing something, you've been doing it for X amount of time. It's what you know, day in, day out, and so how did it go, making that transition from military to post-military?
Speaker 4:And additionally I'd like to piggyback and ask a follow-up question to that, and that's specifically the military is an environment where everything is hyper-disciplined, down to sometimes a five, 10-minute increment, even the minute increment. I mean, they know you're going to be doing X, y, z, especially in training. So from that to absolute freedom and then especially a job that gives absolute freedom with being a realtor right. How do you go from that complete structure to kind of the chaos that is a regular everyday life?
Speaker 3:Well, so I'll start with this. By the time I got out I was a captain. So as a lieutenant down, for the most part your days are dictated, for the most part your days are dictated. And then for captain to about lieutenant colonel, you're kind of in this gray space where your mission is dictated by how you go about. The mission is solely up to you and how creative you are to get it done. And not to say that every other rank has a degree of autonomy. But in sweet spot between captain and lieutenant colonel, you're kind of doing a lot of decision making.
Speaker 3:So I say that to say my schedule, while it was regimented, to say I was at work from, you know, 530 to 7 pm on like an average day what I was doing each day was very nuanced and it was always fast paced, obviously, but it was always different. And trying to figure out how you're going to attack the problem was the only consistency that I had, because you get thrown something. It's like I thought we've been through this already and then you got to come up with a new way to solve that same problem, and it's no different than real estate, right? So the goal is always to buy the property. But in buying the property, there's always a different strategy that you can use. Now, granted, you're going to take strategies that you had before. That's what you're going to take and apply to the next strategy, and it's going to keep building until you're just this walking powerhouse full of different strategies to acquire real estate, which is part of the reason why I joined the team and he knows the story. But, like I had some pretty bad agents in the past and then I run into knee and it was the first time when I was buying real estate where I could pull myself out of creating a deal and allow the agent to do the agent work. Right, and I was like dude my wife tells the story all the time. I'm pretty bad when it comes to agents, or I was right.
Speaker 3:But if we're in the middle of a deal and I know more than you, I understand, I'm an investor, so I kind of have a different take on it. But if we get to the point where the deal may not go through and you're not providing feedback and or advice or say, hey, this is how we can maybe consider if you're not adding, what am I paying you for? Right? And he was the first time where, like he called me, he was like, hey, so this is where we're at, and before I could say what I think we should do, he said what he thinks we should do and I was like, okay, well, uh, yeah, let's go that route, sure, um.
Speaker 3:And then I got the phone. I thought about it. I was like, man, I can't say that I would have did anything different. And then that's when I kind of just gave him the reins and just sat back and the knee. You know best that property that we secured in Atlanta. It was a headache, it was a lot going on with that deal, but you got it to the finish line. So once I got out of the military I knew I was getting real estate. I said I might as well join that Cabo home team.
Speaker 2:Come on now. We were pumped to get you because piggybacking on that deal, that was one of the weirdest deals that we've done to date, when we're trying to explain to other clients like, hey, I wouldn't worry about this because we've done a deal where we had to completely re-gut this whole thing and it probably wasn't as close because all this stuff and what I liked going through that whole process about you specifically, naz is the fact that you kept one positive energy always. And two, it was always a problem-solving mentality. We went from 0% down VA loan to hey, maybe we got to do 5% to well, I think we got to do 20% to well, we got to get this stuff done before closing to oh, we can do VA now. It was a lot going on, but we made it across the finish line and you turned that unit into an amazing, amazing investment. So, yeah, I think it was a fun deal and I'm happy that we connected through that.
Speaker 3:All right. Funny thing is this is the original team, right here, huh.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is. Lee Baller remembers talking to a couple of those tenants I do. Yeah, no, the original oh, we made it happen. Come on now, for sure, for sure, I'm definitely no, yes, yes, and one of the pieces that you're also doing right which is incredible is going after an accelerated MBA program, and so was this always a dream to complete that piece, or did it come about?
Speaker 3:So I always toyed with the idea of getting my MBA or going to law school. And just being in Atlanta seeing Emory, I tore my leg on my patellar tendon a few months actually a year ago to be almost, actually a little over a year but I tore my patellar tendon and while I was sitting on the couch I was like you know what, I might as well start looking up going back to school. And then I came across Emory's MBA program and from there I was so, especially since I had and you know, from there I was sold, especially since I had a buddy that went to. He went to Emory for law school and you know he raves about Emory. So I was like, all right, well, I guess it's time to throw my hat with Emory and see how things go. Come on now.
Speaker 2:No, it's amazing and the program you're in is no joke, right, and they try to cram all that stuff into one year. I had a brother he went and got his MBA and it took him, I want to say, about three years, kind of going on and off in between work, things of that nature. So the fact that you're able to go while taking on the responsibilities of the team and making sure that we're on track and kind of building this whole thing out, it's a lot on your plate but it's incredible and I know it's a pretty cool experience it's a pretty cool experience, absolutely, absolutely Enjoying the program, enjoying the team.
Speaker 3:I would honestly say that being on this team made my transition out of the military a lot easier because it kind of gave the best of both worlds. You know, being in the military, you got that team oriented, you know concept of trying to navigate, and then the best part is, you know, as a captain, captain I had soldiers and my obviously my soldiers were younger than me. It's no different than like lebanon, and then when the team were like, I'm reminded all the time that I'm old, hey, come on now listen, we can't do that.
Speaker 2:All right, we're the only the only ball-heading folks. You know, I'm trying to hold it down on this team, so we gotta, you gotta, keep it together and I'm glad somebody said something because so we got to keep it together.
Speaker 4:I'm glad somebody said something because the parallel is striking. I feel like I fell out of the rug. Hey, come on, listen, leave mine you got to get excommunicated.
Speaker 2:That one hurt a little bit.
Speaker 2:I ain't going to have her, no, no, this is the camaraderie that I enjoy too, because being a realtor for that first year and a half really like year and a half, two years solo.
Speaker 2:It can get really lonely, right, and there's some days where you're beat up, you're down a bit and it's like dude, that's tough, and so being able to have a team that you can kind of lean on and all of us get to leverage each other's experience is incredible, and I think we all learn a lot more quickly and we all become experts at certain pieces to where now we can take on any challenge. It's not, hey, have I been through this before? It's? Has anybody on the team been through this before? Can they coach me through this piece, to where I can help our client acquire the best deal, which is awesome, absolutely. And speaking of deals, we talked about the first one that you did, but that was a while ago, right. Since then, you still kept acquiring more properties, including the one that we just talked about out here in Atlanta, and so how's the investing piece gone for you so far and what is your portfolio look?
Speaker 3:like today. So I'm actually hopefully about to acquire two more out in Philly. So fingers crossed on that one and then so I had to sell the one in Texas. The way the market was looking, the way I had to let go. It was my baby, it was my first one. Just the amount of equity that was in it, it made sense to let it go. So then I took that or portion of that money, and that's when we did the deal in Atlanta which gave me more than enough capital to convert that duplex into a triplex. And so now I'm swinging to get two more out in Philadelphia.
Speaker 4:And what is your kind of strategy when you're buying properties remote, because obviously you don't live there, but it is where you lived previously? Are you leveraging relationships that you have there? What's kind of your so it's?
Speaker 3:it's a bit nuanced, so it depends on the area, and so I've gotten really I won't say really good right, because the picture doesn't tell everything, but a picture does tell a thousand stories. So I've gotten pretty decent at looking at pictures and discerning what I think. Would you know that reno cost would be if a rental was required, and usually pretty dialed in? The most I'll be off on, a renovation budget usually is like 10K 10 to 15, which I'm usually going to factor that in for like incidentals anyway. So that's the unique part about doing rehabs and flips.
Speaker 3:I'm actually hoping to sell a property in Houston now I didn't mention it because it's not just mine, it's actually a partnership, but we're looking to sell it now with a flip that we did in Houston and that one came out really good. But man, I was about to say, oh, so just thinking about the deals. So, in addition to just being able to have discernment with the pitchers, I like to think I do a good job at market analysis and thinking about how whatever area I'm investing in will appreciate over time. And that's a part of real estate investing that everybody does not consider and, honestly, when you really look at it, that's where most of the wealth is made. It's not really made off the cashflow.
Speaker 2:The cashflow is great when you're talking about scaling your portfolio, but the appreciation is where the real dollars are made 100% agree that cashflow is really just to hang on to the property and maintain it so that you can give it time, for it's not even really the property, it's the land value to increase right.
Speaker 2:For if you're on the path of progress, where a lot of stuff is getting built around there, it's going to continue to go up. And as long as you can pay that mortgage and hang on to that property, man, it's hard to lose in real estate and that's why I like it. I like it because for many people it's easy to spend every dollar that you get. But if you're investing in real estate or doing KAs or other things of that nature, but real estate specifically I like because it allows you to have a foreseeing right Every single month of paying down that mortgage and every single month it's gaining a little bit of equity and over time it starts to become a big bit of equity and a lot of pay down for you as well, not to mention the tax benefits.
Speaker 3:But when you look at oh no, absolutely. I was going to say the tax benefits, but then I was talking to a buddy of mine and the unique part that we always joke about is if we were starting a business and we were looking for equity funders, then we have to go out and find someone to help us make the dream we want. Well, with real estate, once you buy it, they find you. That cannot be stressed enough. If I got a and I put it on the market, you're going to find me. I don't have to go out and find investors. You are my investors as renters, right? So then you're paying for my investment.
Speaker 2:It's a win-win situation 100% agree, and one of the things that you mentioned earlier is that you have done partnerships before on this flip, that you're getting ready to sell and then you've bought a lot solo. Can you give us pros and cons of both, because we get this question a lot, where individuals are like, hey, especially people who are newer, I'm nervous about getting this property. I'm thinking about partnering with my friend to go buy this property and then we steer them either way, but what are your thoughts on partnership versus buying a solo, solo frozen content?
Speaker 3:Well, to start, as I say, in terms of finances, obviously partnering you split the load. So if a calculation's off and you got to bite a little bit of the bullet with equity, it's less deal-breaking. If you have a partner, that's just. You're never going to change that. That's business 101 and it applies to real estate investing.
Speaker 3:Now the nuance to having a partner is if you guys don't agree on the strategy or have the exit plan really fine-tuned and dialed in, or even just the cosmetics of how you want to actually design the house right, then that can create a degree of tension. So I would say, if you are going to partner, iron that stuff out going in. And the other piece obviously is like who's buying the house? Are we going to get an LFC to buy it together? I will say I was a bit fortunate in that because I invested with a really close friend. Like at this point, we just call each other brothers and you know some people can say that that's also a bit problematic, but for me we're so like open and upfront about our relationship and how things roll. It was not an issue. Actually, we spent more time joking on the site putting stuff together than anything. That's awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:It's fun to win together and it's almost another bonding experience. Too right To be able to work together over something like that.
Speaker 3:Speaking of the bonding, absolutely Because the property was in Houston but we were in Fort Hood, so that's like a three hour drive and, like our contractor was, they were okay, they were not great, but that meant we had a lot of on the road trips to hurry up and get down there, knock some stuff out on the weekend, get back for work, so that part was taxing. I will never do a flip three hours away with a contractor that I am not familiar with.
Speaker 2:I won't do that again, 100% agree. That gets me nervous just thinking about it. You know what I mean Having to drive back and forth because I'm not the most handy you can ask Levon and I'll probably hurt myself and the properties. I'd be embarrassed. But what are some things that you're most excited about coming toward the end of the year? We recently entered the second half of 2024 and time flies so quickly. It's one of those things where you're setting goals in December. Then all of a sudden, boom, you're midway through the year and it's coming. And so what are some things both personally, professionally, that you're most excited for heading into this end of the year?
Speaker 3:Well, for one, interest rates are going down. Well, I can't say that with certainty, but I'm 100% that they're going to be going down. Yeah, so interest rates are going down, which comes in perfectly for me because one of the properties that I'm going to do. There's a degree of equity in it where, once I do my renovation, I can pull money out, cash out, and that's going to be great. But just in terms of where I see the end of this year being, I consider this my breakout year because I'm in school, I have a job, I'm making some money, my wife, she finished school, so she's about to get a job, which also means more income coming in, which also means more investment money, which means the time to scale is now, and that's another piece I don't talk about enough.
Speaker 3:I had to take a break with the way that I planned to scale real estate, because at the time I was in the military and my wife was in Maryland, so I was footing two bills. So while I had the money coming in, I was footing two bills, so I couldn't invest as fast as I wanted. Well, now we're together and I don't have to worry about two bills, and it's going to be great.
Speaker 2:We can reap the rewards? Absolutely. No, that's exciting, I'll pop for you. And it definitely cuts down some expenses, it allows us to get aligned. And even just the whole investing piece. You can use one of the incomes to cover the bills, other incomes and just pour into different investments that'll pay you over time. I'm going through the same now. So it's definitely exciting, absolutely. And then the other piece is the question that we like to ask all our guests. Right, if you had to give a piece of advice to somebody out there that's listening and a lot of the individuals that are listening have either one property or they're looking to get started, or they're working with their team and things of that nature and trying to figure this whole investing thing out. What is one piece of advice you can give them around real estate, investing or just financial freedom in general that can help them along their pathway?
Speaker 3:Man. There's so many ways to take that one. I would probably lean into avoiding analysis paralysis and stop trying to create the perfect deal. Look for good deals and, once you find a good deal, think long-term of how you can make it a great deal, because that avoids the analysis paralysis but it also allows you to frame out and accept a good deal when it comes across your table.
Speaker 3:Get a deal that has a 12% return and then you run the longevity numbers over appreciation and the ability of increasing rents, the ability of adding another unit if you have the space to do so. Those value adds change the nature of the property, but you're paying for what the property is valued at at the time right. So while the property may not be cash flowing at the highest value, that you're looking for, looking at how you can take that property and craft the deal is what I think a lot of young investors miss and to be honest, I think I didn't quite have it when I first started. I just got lucky when I seen a property being contracted or constructed and just jumped on it that way. But I would say, don't lean too heavily into analysis paralysis. I'm terrible at it sometimes. I mean even to this day. I have like a chart that talk about interest rates from like 1975, right.
Speaker 2:So when people talk about interest rates are high, I'm like they're not, but I understand what you're saying in relation to what we had two years ago, I 100% agree, because at the end of the day, had you not stopped and talked to those contractors and got that duplex right, who knows if you've been able to build that equity, use that to buy the house in Atlanta, and we would all be here today, right? So it's kind of cool to see it go full circle. I think that for those who are newer in the game, you should listen to Nas's story and hear how just that small first buy allowed him to build out a portfolio and now get fully vested in this, to where this could become a career, which is amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, man, and I talk about having X amount of doors and I'm on that trajectory to get back to where I wanted to be by the age. But the one thing that I will never discount is the fact that when I started investing in real estate and getting that positive cashflow, unfortunately I made the mistake. That I will never discount is the fact that when I started investing in real estate and getting that positive cashflow, unfortunately I made the mistake that I tell a lot of people don't do, which is I lived off of the income that was coming in. But I had to right Because I was supporting two different lives, One mine's in Texas and then my wife's in Maryland, so I couldn't scale as fast as I wanted. But I am uniquely positioned to say that buying that property enabled me to be able to support my family in two different locations. So I can never discredit the power of real estate. Come on now.
Speaker 2:And on that note, nas, we appreciate you for joining the Aqaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Podcast. It's been incredible. We love digging deeper into your story. I know that a lot of people are going to get a lot of value from this once it launches, so thank you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man. Join us every Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path to success.
