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
133. Skyrocket Your Wealth in 2025: Real Estate Success, Tax Strategies, and Building Connections!
🌟 Escape the 9-to-5 Grind: Unleash Your Financial Freedom with Game-Changing Real Estate Secrets for 2025! 🌟
Welcome to the Ekabo Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Group Podcast! I’m your host, Niyi Adewole, and I’m thrilled to join you this Wednesday, February 5th. Can you believe we’re kicking off the first week of February with such exciting news? Let’s dive into our open session with a compelling quote and tackle some pressing questions from our community!
Episode Highlights:
🔥 The Quote of the Day:
“Communication is leadership.”
Are you ready to elevate your leadership skills and accelerate your journey to financial freedom? This powerful reminder emphasizes that effective communication is the bedrock of successful leadership. Discover how mastering this skill can transform your real estate ventures in 2025!
🔍 We’re Unpacking 3 Game-Changing Questions from Our Community:
1. Repairs Before Closing vs. Credits:
➣ Is it better to have sellers complete repairs or receive credits? Niyi shares his insights on why taking credits can often lead to better results, emphasizing the importance of trusted relationships in real estate.
2. Should You Get Your Real Estate License?
➣ Wondering if you should pursue a real estate license? Niyi breaks down the pros and cons based on your investment goals, helping you make an informed decision.
3. Navigating Difficult Conversations:
➣ Struggling with tough discussions? Learn Niyi's personal strategies for preparing and executing difficult conversations effectively, ensuring you achieve your desired outcomes.
🌍 Why This Matters:
In a world where financial security feels increasingly elusive, this episode is your essential guide! We’re delving into actionable insights that could revolutionize your financial future. Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just starting out, these strategies are vital for thriving in today’s competitive real estate market.
Imagine building generational wealth, achieving financial independence, and living life on your terms! This isn’t just talk; it’s a roadmap to success. Tune in to learn how to leverage communication, overcome challenges, and take decisive actions that propel you towards your dreams. Your journey to financial freedom starts NOW!
Key Takeaways:
➣ House Hacking Secrets: Learn how to create passive income and lower living costs through house hacking.
➣ Navigating Repairs: Discover why taking credits can simplify your closing process over repairs.
➣ Real Estate License Insights: Weigh the pros and cons of getting your real estate license based on your goals.
➣ Mastering Tough Conversations: Gain strategies for handling difficult discussions with confidence.
📈 Don’t Miss This!
Join us for an inspiring discussion filled with practical advice and motivational insights. It’s time to set clear goals and harness the power of communication in your real estate investments.
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🗓️ Tune in every Wednesday at 7 PM Eastern! Don’t miss out on our journey toward financial freedom through smart investments.
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Our Links
➣ Financial Freedom Mastermind Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/53083...
➣ Peer Space Host Referral Link https://www.peerspace.com/referrals/g...
➣ AirBNB Host Referral Link https://www.airbnb.com/r/niyia41
➣ Ekabo Home Network (IG, Youtube, Email) https://linktr.ee/ekabohome
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:Good evening everyone. This is Niyi Adew. Questions and keep the momentum going. Good evening everyone. This is Nii-Yi Adewale, host of the Acaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind Podcast, and I'm excited to be joining you guys on this Wednesday, the 5th, the first Wednesday of February. I'm super excited with all the news that we had from last month the Acapul Home Realty team actually finished number one in the state of Georgia under EXP for the month of January, so we're off to a fast start. I'm excited for us achieving our goals here in 2025.
Speaker 2:But the quote for today and this is really the quote of the week is communication, is leadership, and this is so true. When you first start off in your career, you're really learning how to follow and learning how to follow instructions from other leaders and try to execute as much as you can on your role within that team, and so I think that's a very important piece. You really have to learn how to follow before you can lead. But after you learn how to follow, once we move into that lead portion as a leader, you quickly realize that you can't accomplish everything and that you are the bottleneck to achieving the high goals that you've probably set for the year or for your future, and so, in order for you to move out of your own way and allow your team and your vision to come to pass, as a leader, you have to be able to communicate effectively. That means putting together standard operating procedures that are super clear. It means putting together different trainings. It means giving constructive criticism, but also being able to take constructive criticism so that you can get better as a leader and help drive your organization forward. And so communication is leadership. Most CEOs are not out there coding and doing all of the day-to-day stuff, but what they are doing is casting the vision and then helping to communicate that vision to their leadership members, who then communicate it to the rest of the organization. And so those simple three words are true Communication is leadership.
Speaker 2:There are three questions that are going to kind of kick us off tonight. This is an open session, so feel free to join via the chat and hit join live or drop questions in the chat. Also, when you look at what we have coming up from an Acaba home standpoint, we have a client event which is going to be bowling after dark with the Acaba home team coming up on February 28th. We sent out some messages. There'll be a lot more messaging coming forward, but we're going to be doing raffles for those that are able to make it. If you're unable to make it and you're watching from maybe another state and you're not going to be here, you can still get put in for a raffle by subscribing to our YouTube, following us on Instagram and sending an email with a screenshot of both of those, and we'll get you entered for the raffle.
Speaker 2:But three topics that we wanted to cover today before opening it up to the open session. Number one is is it better to have the seller complete repairs prior to closing or to have them give you credits for after closing, and this is something I struggled with for a long time. That being said, I've come to the conclusion this is just me personally that having the seller give you credits and being able to have your own people do it after closing is a much better option. I've had some sellers that are flippers and things of that nature and they do an excellent job on repairs. But I've had some sellers that are flippers and things of that nature and they do an excellent job on repairs. But I've also had some sellers where, in the past before, I kind of understood the difference. They would just bring in the cheapest person to get them past saying they quote, unquote did the work, and then you're stuck having to do it again after closing or it doesn't last up to as much time as it should, and so I'm always a component. If I have an option, I'd rather take the credits and have my guys do it after closing, because my guys are gonna be incentivized to make sure it's good, because I'll blow their phone up and come right back. It's not somebody I don't know, it's somebody you've developed a relationship with, and real estate is a relationship game and you know that and learn that more and more the more that you're in it.
Speaker 2:The second question is should I get my real estate license? And we tease this by saying it depends, and it truly does. If you are planning to get your real estate license only to work on your deals, unless you're doing a volume of deals and by volume I mean at least probably one every two months it may not make sense to get your license. When you get your license, you have to go ahead and pay all these fees on an annual basis. You got to take all this extra training and learning to just maintain your license, and then you have to follow whatever your brokerage rules are and things of that nature, just to kind of uphold that. And if you're not going to use that for other clients or have it at a major volume for yourself, it may not make sense.
Speaker 2:The first five, six years that I was investing I did not have a license, I just was an investor. I made sure I had investor-friendly realtors on my side and I let them do a lot of the legwork while I just continued to work in my W-2 as hard as I could to put that money into real estate. And then, once I moved into wanting to make this my full time, that's when I got my license and started to ramp this up to also be able to help others but then help myself as well. And so I think it really depends on what your goals are. If you believe that real estate or becoming a realtor is like one of your passions and that that could potentially be your replacement for the W-2, absolutely Go get your license, test it out, see if you really like this thing. But if you're only getting it so you can save on commissions for one deal a year, it may not be worth it. You may actually end up paying a little bit more, not just in cost, but really in your time.
Speaker 2:And then the final question that we got here today, before opening it fully to anybody who wants to join live or throw questions in the chat, is how do you navigate difficult conversations? And, funny enough, there's been a couple of difficult conversations. Today. I got another one coming out super late here in about an hour and a half that I need to have because just timing this person's based halfway around the world, so we got to figure out timing on that piece. But the way that I personally navigate difficult conversations is I understand what are we trying to get to at the end point, what is the end goal of this conversation? And I personally try to map it out and then, if there's points that need to be made, I will even go to the point of writing down those points. Maybe it's two or three main points that we have to touch on in that difficult conversation, just to make sure it doesn't get missed or misconstrued. I think a lot of people. Um, well, I'll take a step back.
Speaker 2:One of the things that helped as well is playing sports coming up. One of the things that some of the best athletes do is they visualize things before they happen. So there'll be training, training, training for the upcoming sports. Say, it's the Super Bowl that's coming up. This week. These guys have been training, watching film, practicing kind of role-playing, uh, and scripting out exactly what they're going to hopefully be able to accomplish in that Super Bowl, and so when they get out there, it's a little bit easier. It's like, okay, we've seen this, look before we're able to do this thing. I think more people should do the same in their professional lives and not just wing it. You don't want to go into a difficult conversation just winging it, right? You should have mapped out or at least thought about okay, what are some of the objections I'm going to get, what are some of the counterpoints I may want to make and what are the three main things that we want to accomplish in this meeting that need to get talked about or need to get touched on. But those were the three thought-provoking topics, as well as the quote of the week.
Speaker 2:Please feel free to throw any questions in the chat and or join live and I'll pause there. And hi, yvette, see you in the chat. Anybody have any questions, comments or topics they want to discuss? Yes, I love this question. So we got a question in the chat, just got my first cost seg estimate. Can you touch on that from your experience? So cost segs are an awesome opportunity to save on taxes, especially if you're running short-term rentals and especially if you're still working a W-2, it can actually still count against your active income, because they consider a short-term rental almost like running a hotel business, which is active income. And so when you talk about cost segs, the first time I did a cost seg was in 2022, no 2023.
Speaker 2:And that was right after I made the jump into full-time real estate, and the cost seg was one of the things that I was calculating and kept in my back pocket as a way to ramp up to where I wanted to get to. So, for example, before I left my W-2, I was working in medical device sales. I was making a high six-figure income. One of the things that comes with a high six-figure W-2 income is a heck of a lot of taxes, and so the taxes I was paying were upwards of 40%. There was one year where I paid taxes the whole year and still had to write a six-figure check to pay taxes in April, which was nuts. And so one of the calculations I did was like, hey, if I leave the W-2, year one and potentially year two is probably not going to earn what I was making there, but if you factor in the tax benefits of going full-time real estate professional status, maybe it will.
Speaker 2:And so one of the things that I did in that first full year not in the W-2, is I did a cost seg on two properties which essentially eliminated 150,000 worth of taxes or taxable income and dropped me down to a significantly lower bracket, which was amazing. Now I continue to do cost segs on newer properties each year. I'm actually getting one done on the self-storage that we completed. That's going to be about 150K in savings for both me and another 150150,000 for my partner on that one. So $300,000 total roughly. Also, when you're working a W-2, if you do that cost seg and you do it correctly, it's going to save you off of the W-2 income, and so you could essentially end up either getting a larger refund check back or not paying as much as you typically would have to pay to the tax man. Yvette, how you doing.
Speaker 3:Good, how are you?
Speaker 2:Super good. Any comments on the whole tax thing with cost segregations and such?
Speaker 3:No, I think yeah, no, that's something that you know you definitely have to look into and you know work with your, you know your CPA, your professional, that you know they can guide you. You know through it because they're the professionals and they kind of know the ins and outs of it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, definitely. Not me, I'm just talking from from at a high level. I'm not a CPA, not a certified tax professional. But if you do talk to your CPA, they should know what you're talking about. And I actually recently transitioned to a new CPA. I used to use a CPA out of Kentucky. That was my guy for seven years Amazing.
Speaker 2:The one piece that's tough is as you start to scale, it gets more difficult to deliver the same level of service across the board. That's one of the hardest things. It's easier when it's hey, it's just you and you're just figuring it out, but as you start to build something out, you really got to have your systems in place and so, long story short, it started getting longer and longer to actually get the taxes completed. I think last year we got it filed in late August or September. It was just a long time, and so I recently switched over to a team that has been able to make that transition from small firm of maybe 10 people to now I think they have like 800. No, don't quote me on that Maybe 800 clients. I think they have like 60 or so CPAs there Hall CPA. So if anybody needs a CPA, investor friendly, feel free to let me know. I can connect you with them via email, but these guys are rock stars. They do cost more, but they are rock stars.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you always want to have a good CPA more.
Speaker 2:But they are rock stars. Yeah, you always want to have a good CPA. Yes, yes, much rather pay a CPA a bit more than pay the IRS and back taxes. But these folks are trying to help me actively right now not pay any taxes this year, which is kind of cool. So they're doing. They're like hey, we should do a cost seg on the storage, we should do a cost seg on even my house hack, right. So I'm in a house hack right now. That's a duplex and the other side of the duplex is bigger and it's a short-term rental and apparently, because it's a true duplex with two separate meters, you're allowed to still cost seg the other portion of that, and so we're actively getting that going to save on taxes, among other things. But, yvette, shifting gears, what's new in your life? What's what's going on, how you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well, doing well. You know, things are picking up. I've been, I did a video tour on Monday. I'm going back out tomorrow morning, so we'll get things rolling.
Speaker 2:Come on and this is for some off-market deals. Which is kind of cool and this is the benefit of staying in real estate for a while is you start to run across other shakers and movers. And so we've been working with some wholesalers that are based out of Phoenix that we met, I don't know, maybe like three years ago now yeah, 2022. And now they're really getting heavy in charge and starting to find deals left and right, and so it's good. It's good and this is a nice opportunity that you're looking at too.
Speaker 3:Yvette Right, right. Yeah, it's funny. I mean, the more you talk to people, you know you get more information. I mean this particular owner. You know I spent some time with her on Monday and then, you know, she told me oh, I own the house next door. And then the conversation, just you know, led to more, you know, information.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:So it's really key with your clients, understanding them and you know spending time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and I think it's with anybody. You got to have a clear goal of what you're looking to accomplish in real estate and other things and you got to share that goal and just put yourself out there. And so one of the things I'm making a concerted effort to do in 2025, because I think we kind of got out of the habit in 21 and maybe a little bit of 22, but getting back outside to connect with people, right, there's nothing like being in person, because, yvette, you could have had that conversation over the phone or through text. I'm sure she wouldn't have felt as comfortable sharing that information with you as, like, hey, face to face, you can read the expressions and you're like, okay, yeah, I got this house as well.
Speaker 3:It's good it's good.
Speaker 2:Any other questions from the chat or anyone else, any topics, any event. That means you too, anything top of mind. Okay, we will wrap here. One thing we'll leave you with is, again, we're going to be having a cobble home in-person event end of the month, super excited to be able to get back with our network and actually hang out. I know a lot of the individuals are based outside of town, right In the Californias of the world, the New Yorks. We even have some clients there in Japan.
Speaker 2:But when we talk about the event, yes, it's going to be in person, but we also have this raffle that's going to be for anybody that is one able to attend the event in person or two shows proof that they're following us on both IG as well as YouTube. We will answer you in the raffle and we're going to do it live on one of these Acaba Home Financial Freedom Mastermind podcasts. We'll do it on the one following the event. So the first Wednesday in March we'll roll a live raffle and give out some awards to some of our clients. So we look forward to seeing you guys there. And, on a last note, anybody else? Any questions comments?
Speaker 3:Well, the other thing you can add to me is that some of our trusted vendors are going to be there too.
Speaker 2:This is true. Thank you, yvette. So we're going to have some of our vendors including, I think, our HVACs people that we usually recommend out. Essentially, if you've been within this network and bought properties within this network, you probably used one of these vendors before. Now we're going to see if any of them can bolt right and be able to hang out outside the work setting, because it's different when you can actually build a connection with somebody and that's honestly how you get down the road. Better pricing and more deals and things of that nature is just being able to hang out and understand people and not just have it all be business and out of the blue.
Speaker 2:So I personally love these type of events because we just hang out and it's been a while it's been a while since since we've done that. So super excited to see everybody and kick off this new year Right. I'm hoping we get some more weather, like it is today and this week with 70 degrees, but somebody told me this is the false spring and that the second winter is coming, so I'm definitely keeping my jacket handy. No, but thank you everyone for joining tonight. It was great seeing you and I will catch you guys a little bit later.
Speaker 1:Okay, bye-bye. Join us every Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern as we explore different types of investments that can fast track your path to financial independence.
