Passive is a sexy word. It’s like everybody wants the easy button. People don’t want to hear the messy. They want

the easy. This gentleman called me actually after the sixth postcard. Then that’s when he

dropped a bombshell. If I don’t sell the property this upcoming Tuesday, then I’m going to lose this property up to

auction. We raised almost $3 million after having never raised any money before. It was very high highs and very low lows. Once

they’ve actually made the decision, they care probably more about how you’re not going to lose their money.

All right, welcome to a special collaborative episode of the hybrid real estate professional podcast and the

agent to investor podcast. Uh I’m Aaron Amin and I’m joined by my good friends Anna Bick and Nico Garcia uh who host

the agent to investor podcast and we’re going to do a little round table today talk about how 2025 has gone for each of

us and a little look ahead to what we’re working on next year. So, um, I’m h grateful to do this again. I think this

is our third collaboration, but good to have you guys back. Great to be back. Thank you for having us.

Awesome. Well, I think, uh, we were going to go a little roundroin here and just, um, keep it pretty simple, right?

Like what what have we seen in 2025? What were our goals heading into the year? Where do things stand now? And

where are we going? So, um, I’m going to go alphabetically and uh, call on Anna.

Oh, no. Ladies first. Wait. I mean, technically, I think Aaron

goes first if we’re going alphabetically. Flip the script. Flip the script. Yeah. Let us know how’s

everything’s going with you. Aaron, I know you had a pretty pretty busy uh year. We were just talking about

it off camera. You know, this is actually really good because mine could get very long-winded, but if I go first, it forces me to be

concise. So, I’ll I’ll accept your challenge. So, you’re welcome for knowing the alphabet.

That’s true. That’s true. Uh, I’m both alphabetically blessed and alphabetically challenged. So anyway,

okay, I I’ll accept your challenge. So 2025 for me has been a pretty singularly focused year on a brand new project. Um,

actually the last time we recorded together, we had just kind of embarked on this journey, but my wife and I are

developing and building from the ground up two residential assisted living homes here in the Houston area. And so that

project is very large in scope. We started researching the business model and um scoping out looking for land and

we actually went under contract uh early January and it’s you know as we record this it’s mid December and if everything

goes as planned we will be closing and putting shovels in the ground by early January. So it’s almost a full year just

from contract to close. And so there’s so many things that are comprised within

that year. uh you know it started with just an idea that we had to flesh out and build a full business plan around

and uh you know architects civil engineering raising capital that was the first you

know big one for us this year we raised almost $3 million um after having never raised any money before so that was um

that was a a journey it was it very high highs and very low lows um and you know

but it took a little I think it was about a 10-week campaign top to bottom uh we did a syndication and we brought

on 37 different parties. So, um to to raise just under $2.9 million and we had

to secure a SBA loan, which was another, you know, new thing. So, really the theme of 2025 has been new things and uh

new difficult things. Um it’s been a roller coaster, but we are really grateful. It’s been

incredible to watch people, you know, buy into this vision we have for the business we’re building. It’s really

personal business for us. You know, my wife’s family and my family have all of our grandparents uh have had memory

disorder, dementia, Alzheimer’s. Her father had early onset dementia and so this was a they were in really subpar

conditions in the later years of their life and that was something that really haunted her. So, um, being able to build

these really nice homes where we can then and we’re going to run the business, too, where she can take that

vision of what she wishes her family could have and and provide it for others. It’s a really um it’s a powerful

why. So, it’s it’s allowed us to, you know, put our put our heads down and grind through some of the the challenges

this year. But yeah, the it kind of 2025 fit pretty cleanly in a package for me where uh you know, we started the year

focused on going under contract and hopefully we’re going to end the year, you know, closing and um it doesn’t

always line up linear on a calendar like that, but that seems to be the main stuff. And then next year is going to be

largely focused on construction. You know, if all goes as planned, we’ll have shovels in the ground early January and

we should be completely done. You know, currently it’s raw land with a bunch of trees and um you know, when when we went

under contract, it was zoned as agriculture. It had this land hasn’t been touched or used in uh a long long

time, if ever. And uh so we’re going to take that and turn it into a full development with um you know, we’re

going to pave and add uh and we will have some landscaping and stuff, too. But we’re going to we’re going to build these two separate 10,000 foot homes.

Uh, so take it from raw land to completion. Hopefully when we do this episode in 2026, that’s the conversation

we’ll be having. So I think that’s me in a nutshell. I’m I don’t know if you all want to click on any of that.

I’d love to. I mean, a lot to unpack there. And Aaron, it’s been a lot of fun just um, you know, hearing through your

show and following you on social, like watching that progress. I know Ann and I don’t know too much about the luxury

assisted living uh, business model, but I I love that that’s your why, right? you you found something that was in your

your past, your wife, um you know, your your parents and things like that. You had um a bad experience, right? And and

you’re like, “All right, how can I make this like a business model if you’re already working in real estate?” But how

did that actually come in to like fruition? Did you know people that were doing that? Um or did you kind of just

just go for it? Yeah, it’s interesting. So, when we first bought rental properties, we were

living in Las Vegas in uh this we lived there from 2015 to 2020. We bought a primary home in 2017. We bought our

first rental property in that same neighborhood in 2019. And we were very like had never heard of Bigger Pockets,

had never you met anybody that else was an investor except my parents. So, we kind of just had this very narrow lens

of what it meant to get into rentals. But buying that first rental, which was a big kind of mental barrier, we had to,

you know, you I’m sure you talked to a lot of people that are Yeah. have a hard time getting that first deal out of the way. Well, right after we got

it out of the way and we broke through that kind of um mental barrier, we got a call from our agent four months later

that he had a package of two offmarket homes that were being sold and they actually were already leased to an

assisted living operator. And I was like, “What do you mean there’s a house leased to an assisted living?” You know,

the phrase assisted living, I only ever associated with what are actually more accurately called nursing homes. Y,

right? People think of assisted living and they and they picture nursing homes. So, we actually ended up buying those

houses. They’re incredible deals. Uh they are four bed, two bath homes, but

they’re on these commercial style leases, like five-year um more or less triple net leases. So, the operator pays

for almost all the repairs with the exception of the major appliances and the roof and stuff like that. And then

they rent the rooms individually and provide 247 roundthe-clock caretaking.

Uh and those two homes were for adults with developmental disabilities, not seniors. But it just exposes to that

model that these people that are getting that type of care can be in a home and not sequestered in some like smelly

medical facility setting. Yeah. So, but that was 2019 and we we

didn’t really think much of it because they kind of fell out of the sky from our agent that, you know, he had these

two houses that were already leased. We didn’t know how to replicate that. 2024, last summer, u I listened to a podcast

with an who someone who’s now a good friend of mine, Dr. Alex Schllo, he runs a podcast called the Physicians and

Properties Podcast and he’s a doctor and he um you know talks mainly to medical

professionals looking to get into real estate and he was sharing about the lease to operator model which I had

never heard it called that but it’s basically what we were doing with those other two homes which is you buy a home

you either renovate it or get it in a condition where it will pass whatever state inspections are needed so that

someone can get an operating license and then you go find an operator and get on one of these long-term leases. So, he

basically described how he had taken a the process of buying, renovating, and

finding operators. Basically, that it was the missing link. I said I, you know, in 2019, I never knew how to

replicate it, but now I finally heard somebody kind of talking about this model very directly. And not only that,

but then he started a mastermind group specific to residential assisted living and not not only how to get leased

operator homes, but also the if you want to become an operator. So, we kind of fell into that rabbit

hole, you know, 5 years after we were originally exposed to the idea. And my wife once she heard, you know, she she’s

always been involved in our real estate business. she’s she’s helped with the rentals and um and she likes it in so

far as it’s a it’s a great vehicle for all of our goals, but it’s not a

passionate income. And when she heard about residential assisted living, that like immediately lit her up and it

started connecting and pulling from all these other inspirations from her life experience. And so all that steam

building up behind us, it one thing led to another another. things escalated very quickly and uh all of a sudden we

went from thinking, hey, maybe we’ll buy one more house and lease it to an operator to developing these, you know,

big luxury homes in Houston area. Wow, that is an amazing journey. Okay,

so I was going to say because I know our folks at least on on our end sometimes don’t know all the terms that we know.

So for SBA, that’s small business administration loan. I think administrations loan. So that’s the type

of loan that the government gives to small businesses in case people are like what does that mean? And then you talked about syndicating the projects which for

those that don’t know it essentially means you have a general partner or partners that they’re the ones that control everything and manage the

project and then they look for money with limited partners. So they’re just looking to raise capital. So, as someone

that pretty much self-funded their own investment portfolio in the beginning or like up to this point, like how did you

make that leap to syndicating for multiple millions of dollars? Some people struggle just to raise money to

buy a house, let alone $3 million. Like, what did that process look like? How did you do that?

Yeah, I mean, I I still some ask myself that question a little bit, but if I really look back and I haven’t fully

processed that experience, but a lot of it has to do with the vision, right? And this is a this is an idea that most

people can really get behind because almost everyone that we’ve talked to, if not everyone, either has a direct family

member or knows somebody who has been heavily impacted by living with and

supporting with some someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia. It is just such a relatable experience. And it’s also

the stats behind it and the the baby boomers aging, you know, much much

faster than we have the capacity to serve them combined with the fact that it’s an excellent financial opportunity.

Like this this ven diagram of good characteristics of an investment all

kind of fit together cleanly. And you know, residential assisted living is just a um it’s a very non-controversial

and uh you know, it’s a feel-good play and it’s also undeniably in demand. So,

I think there’s a really good story to tell there. So, from the like the actual substance of should I consider investing

this in this or not. That was not too hard to illustrate, especially like we

did a lot of work preparing and trying to practicing and we did Shark Tanks and stress tested our presentation and

really spent a lot of time prepping before we actually like launch the campaign, the raising of the money

itself, right? Like you can tell the best story in the world, but if you don’t if you’re not telling it to anybody, yeah, then you know there you’re not going to

you see a lot of return from that. So, you know, it it was a uh a long journey. Like I said, it was a 10-we campaign

when we were running it, but there was probably three months of prep and there was a lot of stuff to tie up on both

sides, even just structuring all these legal documents and working with the syndication attorney. So I have one

more, you know, commentary to what Anna said, which is that, uh, you know, a limited partner by definition is someone

who’s passive, purely passive. They don’t have voting rights the same way they would if they were a partner on

like a joint venture agreement. So, um, there’s a lot of legality and like

liability considerations there. And so we spent tens of thousands of dollars on attorney

fees making sure that we really understood what we were doing. And also that we could really understand the

interests how we’re protecting the interests of our investors too because that is a lot of the journey of of

raising money and for a big deal like this. Most of the people we raised from this was the first time they’re investing in a deal like this. And so

you really have to put their mind at ease that everything has been thought through and that I’m not only acting on

my best interest but also there’s a mutual respect for the type of risk that they’re taking versus the type of

opportunity we’re providing. So, um, not a super direct answer to your question, but basically those are I think those

are the ingredients. Okay. So, did you Oh, sorry. I was going to say, did you like advertise it on

social media? Did you call like an uncle and say, “Hey, do you have money?” Like, how like who did you talk to about these

opportunities? Yeah, that was going to be my question. I know you’re you’re you’re big in the real estate investing community. So, who

who are these uh individuals for somebody that wants to do something similar like a syndication that they can

reach out to? Yeah. So, I mean, you guys are in a community with me. I know we’re both

we’re all in multiple communities. And that’s something I’ve done for the last several years as I’ve grown into my uh

journey as an investor, right? Like there’s the building the skills of being an investor and then there’s also telling the story of what you’re doing.

And so, I’ve I’ve had this podcast for almost two and a half years. Uh I’ve

been in different communities engaging, answering questions. You know, I went from being a member to being a coach in

certain instances. And so I’ve I have deposited a lot into the bank of of trust uh across a number of different

places and I’ve done so without asking for much of anything in return for years, right? So like I I say that to

say I don’t think there’s a shortcut. I think that by the time we actually went around and had this opportunity to share

it wasn’t um spamming people and saying, you know, breaking news, I have a giant opportunity. It was just organically

sharing the story and then starting you know of course with your inner circle. So, we do have we have family members,

we have friends, like there was a core base of people that probably would trust us, you know, as long as it’s not a

total dumpster fire of an opportunity. Um, who, you know, that that’s an easier

place to start than randomly posting on the internet. But almost $3 million. I

mean, I I’m very grateful for what our family was able to contribute, but nobody was sitting around with a $3

million, you know, check they could write. though you did have to work out from there like we started with friends

and family and close contacts then we would share within the communities we were in then we would start to sh we did

you know I did a lot of guest podcasting I went on I think 14 podcasts in in 10 weeks or something like that I did

in-person presentations you know we’re we’re all cash flow breakfast club hosts so you know there were three cash flow

breakfast clubs that lined up during the raise and at each one I I would share an

update and like just it’s all about touch points and Ultimately, in order to get 37 investors, we had to have

something like 150 different conversations um with individual people. So, uh you know, there’s something to be

said when your back’s up against the wall, you’re you’re going to figure it out. And at one point, we got to about 2 million and then we kind of plateaued.

That was kind of scary because we had already raised a lot of money. Um there was no choice but to kind of finish or

or or fail and failure, you know, in our option was in our head was not an option. So, I think it was it started at

the center, you work your way out. Um, and you you you I gave a lot of value

and spent a lot of time building relationships before I ever had anything to ask for. And then, uh, you know, you just you do what you got to do to get to

the to the finish line. Yeah, I love that. I mean, you’re talking about building that credibility.

We talk about credibility packages all the time on our show, but like, you know, putting yourself out there, being in communities, you know, hosting local

meetups. So by the time that this project came around, they’re like, “Oh, I I’ve seen Aaron do this plenty of

times, like, you know, he has a solid business plan.” And that’s pretty cool to hear that you and your wife, you know, rehearsed it before you actually

are, you know, talking to people. That just shows, you know, your like your level of integrity. And, you know, this

is a this is a big project. You mentioned $3 million. And people want to be secure, especially if they’re passive

investors, right? They they understand the value of real estate. they you’re sold them on the vision of of of what

you guys are trying to do, but at the same time, they want to make sure it’s secure. So, I think th those for anybody

that’s looking to get into real estate or things like that, it comes with time, right? you’re you’re doing all these steps and yes it doesn’t pay off uh

originally but you know when the time comes I know that’s helped me a ton of you know having experience as an agent

as as an investor helps me with clients helps me with you know my private money lenders to show that hey I’m I’m doing

what I say I’m going to do and it just builds credibility. Absolutely. One thing I would add too is

that you know the one I can’t remember even where I heard this to be honest but it was a it was I talked to a lot of

different people who had done large capital raises right like one two million plus and because you’re starting

you have to talk to people usually outside of just people who already know you now you’re talking about building a lot of trust with essentially a stranger

very quickly to the point where they would consider investing tens of thousands of dollars of their hard-earned with you. That is a very

very quick uh cycle to build trust, right? Like I said, okay, some people I had two years of luxury of building uh

relationships with by giving value. Well, if you didn’t have that two years, then how do you build the same amount of

trust in a short period of time? And it boiled down to these kind of two two principles which I think would apply

even if you’re raising $30,000 of private money to do a rehab on a single family or you’re raising $3 million

which is investors mostly care about. Yes. They want to they want the upside. They want to understand that there is uh

opportunity there. But once they’ve actually made the decision, they care probably more about how you’re not going

to lose their money, especially once they’ve wired it to you, right? Like once it actually leaves their account, psychologically, they’re more geared to

worry about the downside than they are to be excited about the upside. And so that really helped me frame how we

address people’s concerns because we would try and pre-butt their concerns. I don’t even know if it’s a word. instead

of waiting for a rebuttal, it’s like, you know, um, you know, pre-address their concerns with the things that we

knew they might be worried about. So, I think that was something that really helped us on that shorter trust cycle.

Can you give us an example, Aaron, of like, you know, the most common uh Q&As that somebody would have on something

like that? Yeah. So for and actually this was the benefit of having so many conversations

is that we we got to kind of build our own LLM large language model of sorts by

just ripping all the transcripts of these conversations and pulling themes of the things that people were concerned about. But before we even had those

conversations we knew that new development people don’t know how construction works and they don’t know

what to expect. So you have to be able to help create those expectations like

in a way that builds confidence, right? So we would bring our construction team in and we did a couple videos on how they built the timeline and you know

their experience. We highlighted their credentials and we said this isn’t Aaron and Andrea Amin taking shovels out and

building a luxury home like we have a team and and you know there’s a method behind what we’re doing and you know

similarly staffing and quality of care is a big concern. Okay. Well, Andrea tells her story and says like I will die

inside if I were to give like poor quality of care like my father received.

Like so this is a missiondriven business and like the quality will be from the

top down a a core tenant of this business and then you know give some tactical examples of how we’re going to

make that happen. Right? So, it’s just like relaying the fears that people might have about how this business could

fail and instead like kind of reframing it as like no, this is actually an opportunity to differentiate ourselves

and be better than the things that we personally have experienced that broke our hearts.

Yeah. And I love that, you know, you’re you’re using that um and kind of gearing

the conversation. You’re putting it out front. You’re being transparent. I I do the same thing anytime I’m working with clients or things like that. like, you

know, try and manage expectations as well because everybody, you know, it’s emotional. Real estate is is emotional,

right? And if you’re putting tens, thousands, sometimes millions of dollars, you know, you want to you want to make sure whatever investment you’re

doing is is secure. So, uh I think you as an operator and and and setting those expectations up front, answering those

questions will help so much rather than three months down the road they already gave you money and then you’re like

they’re like, “What what the heck is going on?” Like this and that. So, uh, I think doing that prep work helps.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, in just further context, right, like we’re in Coach Carson’s community, he has those

lender credibility packets where it’s really just an exercise to get people to tell their story in a way that

it it it also builds confidence in yourself, right? Like if you go through that exercise and you start to realize

even if you don’t have a ton of experience, you do have some like what whatever you’re doing, you have more than someone who has nothing. And so

it’s just like figuring out how to articulate that in a way that shows like I’m here. I’m doing the work. I’m going

to like work through problems as they come up. And you just have to inspire that confidence, but not from a place of

arrogance. From a place of like willing to be humbled by things you don’t know, but giving them trust that you will make

decisions that will get to the outcome that you’ve promised them.

All right, we are way over my 20 minutes. Well, now and we could probably go for another 20 30 um because I know

there’s a lot of technical questions that we’ll we’ll have uh down the road. But yes, always want to be mindful of of

your time and and the listeners time. Of course. Well, we I want to hear what’s been going on in your guys’ world

and uh alphabetically um if we work through the progression here, I believe we’ve landed back on Anna.

Yes. Now it’s my turn. Okay. Well, I we are not building uh we’re not at the

phase where we’re building large uh assisted living facilities. We’re just trying to I’ll say Brian and I started

investing about three years ago and just kind of dove head first and just started buying properties and I’ll be the first

to acknowledge that we kind of like bought now and figure this out

later. So, we’re just kind of in the last year. The last time we were at the retreat last January, I remember talking

to folks about like we have a property manager in Ohio that we really should get rid of, but we’ve been holding on for dear life. And so, she’s finally

gone and we got rid of her and we got another property management company and we learned to manage some of the

expectations and kind of articulate what our needs are. And we finally went out to Ohio in May for my birthday. That was

my birthday trip was to go visit our investment properties cuz out in Ohio we have four or five we have six rental

units in Ohio and I’d never been I’d never been to Ohio period. Um so we went out there and we got to see firsthand

why we got rid of our first property manager. So we went we saw our properties. Um one

was vacant. It had gotten trashed and we had had to have those people evicted and it was finally getting fixed up. and I

took that one back over myself. I did decide to become more involved in the property management of our own properties and because I was spending so

much time managing the manager. Um, so I’m a lot more involved. So I took that one back over. That one is now fully

rented by tenants that are communicative and they pay their rent and I love it. Um, another property we had as a single

family. That tenant is a work in progress, but we’ll see how long he lasts in his property. Um, and then the

fourth, the other unit is a four-unit building. That was probably the most uh

concerning when we went out to Ohio cuz they knew we were coming. So, they were on their best behavior when we arrived.

And then we went back like two days later to fix some exterior stuff that we had noticed while we were there that were like, “Oh, we can fix this instead

of paying the property manager a couple hundred bucks to go out.” And we pulled up and there was like all these people

just standing outside the building that didn’t live in the building. There was kids running up and down. And these are like onebedroom, one bath units. So,

there’s supposed to be like one person living in each unit. Um, one of the tenants was throwing trash out of the

like top story window out the back because she was too lazy to walk down the stairs and somebody was having car

work done in the parking lot and we’re like, what is happening? Oh my god. And then um to top it off and I’m the I’m

like the case for like case study for like all of the landlord horror stories. Um, but I’m still confident, Brian and I

are still confident that it’s all worth it once we figure all this out and get it straightened out. But we were getting

ready to leave that day and there was some guy, not a tenant, in the building, had kind of locked himself in the

hallway, like there’s a main door you have to go in to access the other units. And we couldn’t get in at first and then

he opens the door and like scurries back up the stairs. And he’s just talking to himself about just having gotten out of

prison, not wanting to go back to jail. We’re like, “What is happening?” And um

we went to go check on one of the vacant units. We left. We told the tenants, “Hey, we’re going to call the cops.” And they’re like, “No, no, no. Don’t call

the cops because one of our tenants had other issues.” And they were like, “It’s not a problem. Everybody’s fine.

Everything is safe.” We went home. We drove back to Virginia, got a message at 1:00 in the morning that SWAT had broken

down our front door and come in because that same individual had barricaded

himself in the building with a gun. And um sorry, not to scare investors, but

that’s kind of how my year has gone so far. Sorry, this was a routine site visit

that this occurred. This this was just a Brian and I were like, we’ve never been out there. We want to go see the properties, meet the

tenants, and understand the full scope of what’s going on out there because we’d been doing it from a distance. And

so, yes, this was like our first ever like routine like let’s go meet the tenants, let’s go see the properties,

let’s see how we can make it better as landlords because we don’t want to be slum lords. So, yes, that first visit

ended up in a SWAT uh visit, breaking down our front door with like a battering ram like the whole door was

like ripped out of the frame, bullet hole in the wall, like the whole nine yards. I was like, “Oh my god, this is

we are those people on the block.” I I’ve heard I’ve heard this story a few

times now and I I it still amazes me. I I learned a lot from from Anna. I big

sister, but at the same time, as you mentioned, you’re like, you know, you you dove right in, right? and you you had some

trust in a property manager that placed people in a property that you thought were going to be okay and things like

this, you know, and this is probably Aaron’s also an out ofstate investor. So, you know, if you’re not buying properties where you’re like tangible

and you can see them, you’re building a lot of trust in these in these team members. So I uh I know Ann and I we

talk every week and we talk about uh you know what she’s learned on these on these projects and and property managers

and things like that. But um you know we’re not saying these stories to scare anybody who’s listening. It’s more of

you know on our show we always talk about the successes the lessons. I’m changing it from failures to lessons

because that happened to you are are are learning

lessons for me. Um, so you know, anybody who’s listening, take that, take that away.

Yes. Whatever you think. Oh, I think there’s a great underlying lesson here for out of state investors.

Uh, because we’ve gone through very similar things. So, we we have three different markets that we own rentals in. And one of them, we really, really,

really struggled to find good property management. And we’ve turned through, we had four property managers over three

years. And it can be one of the biggest drivers of your returns. Those homes

when we bought them based on the projected rents and based on the actual rents that we got should have been very

good cash flow properties, but mismanagement and certain like ways that the tenants were communicated with that

caused them to change their behaviors like they’re they’re these are humans that interact with other humans and

drive and manage their behavior, right? And so um that can really really change the return profile on these investments.

So out of state investing is incredible. It’s an incredible tool for people to afford homes, rental homes in areas

where they, you know, probably can’t invest on their home market. And if you’re a good operator, it’s a great

opportunity. But you’re saying even that you actually now are going to are you fully self-managing uh these properties?

You like you took them back over for yourself or are you are you guys going to go find another manager? So, it’s kind of a hybrid model. So of

in Ohio specifically, in other markets, I’ve completely taken over and I’m the property manager because we also invest

in other markets. For Ohio specifically, we took over one of the single family

homes and I’m doing it using my processes that I’ve put in place. The fourunit building, we’ve kind of

partnered with the property manager. I will say um cuz they this property manager and even the last one said we

were so much more involved than other out of state owners because we get the impression very quickly or we got the

impression most out of state owners basically wash their hands of the problem and they just get a check every

month and they see bills come in and we’re like no no no why is this happening explain to us what’s going on. We’re a lot more involved and so our

property manager that we currently have are they the best? No. but they are

willing to learn and they’re willing to work with us. So, every couple weeks we have a meeting with them and we kind of

have a checklist of like these are the issues that we’re having. How can we remedy them? Okay, we’re getting ready

to clear out that four-unit building. We have one tenant left of the four units. So, we have our list of rental criteria

like tenant criteria that we use for our personal properties when we manage them that we’ve told them this is what we

want you to do. um we want to have this type of information for the tenants that are going to be coming in so we can make

the decision of whether or not they’re going to be tenants that we want to work with. Um so kind of a hybrid model. I

will say we manage some of them and I still manage the manager but I have much more clear expectations and

communication requirements with them. So they’ve kind of become our boots on the ground team.

Yeah. No, I love that. And so like what I always think about is when you first buy out of state, it’s way scarier

generally speaking than buying something that you could drive to. Even if you have researched it, you

know, in every possible slice of data and everything, it’s still just a scary thing to

kind of get your mind wrapped around. Uh, so I wonder if you had tried to do what you’re doing now when you first

started, do you think you would have actually been able to find that success right away or do you think that the experience of having a thirdparty

property manager seeing some of the things that they bungled and uh, you know, learning from those is equipping

you to do it better now? Like I guess I’m just wondering if you think you would have if you wish you would have done this right out of the gate.

Um, I think I’ve learned I think I don’t think I would have learned the same lessons that I have learned thus far. So

I agree every uh adventure I’ll call it has been a learning experience. I think

where I initially was a little bit illus disillusioned was a lot of these more experienced investors that we listen to

or get to know like they’re light years ahead of us and we know some that are like I just get a property manager and I

put it off and that’s it. And so that’s kind of the initial mindset Brian and I had going in because that’s what we had

learned, what we had heard was buy the property, get a property manager, completely passive, don’t have to worry

about it again. And I don’t agree with that anymore. I think if you buy out of state, especially, you should be your

own property manager, at least initially, to kind of understand what it takes to manage a property so you know

what to look for in a property manager when you’re ready to pass that off to someone else. That’s my thought now, but

I don’t know that I would have had that had I not gone through what I went through. If that makes sense. It does. And I try basically never to

use the P word passive. Uh, you know, when I’m talking about rental properties, I do believe

that they are much much more passive than most other types of uh real estate investments. you know, even different

strategies of of single family, you know, long-term rentals as close to passive as it pretty much can get

without actually buying, you know, stock or something like that. But, but when

it’s messaged as being a passive investment to people who have not done it before, I do have a bit of a problem

with that. And I think, you know, we uh you the three of us are are careful and

cautious and these stories serve as a great example. And I and I think you both already said it’s like it’s not

meant to scare people. It’s just it’s a little bit of a reality check of like hey just be thoughtful. Uh you know f

find people who have done this before. This is a very common thing that people are doing and there’s a lot of different ways to educate yourself. There’s

there’s a lot of free resources that you can get the perspective of other people so that you don’t have to make the same

mistakes. U but yeah just like entering it and being like oh I’m going to just buy a property in Ohio and like you know

I’ll just hire a manager and it’ll be fine. like that’s uh you know that is a scary if people get convinced into that

cycle it it bears a lot more risk than they probably realize. Today’s episode is brought to you by the Remote Real

Estate Academy, the community I launched last year where I personally coach investors and empower them to buy rental

properties anywhere in the United States. My business partner Nathan and I have a collective 15 years experience

with over 20 cash flowing out of rental properties. We provide a step-by-step playbook on how you can build your own

portfolio and start accessing the life-changing benefits of real estate investing starting today. Go to

remotereerealestateacademy.com for more info. Or better yet, shoot me an email at aaronamine.com

with subject line RRA and I’ll throw in a special bonus for podcast listeners who join the academy. Now, let’s get to

the A lot of people do enter investing and then quit and say, “It’s not for me. It’s too hard.” Passive is a sexy word.

It’s like everybody wants I’m sorry but in today’s society most of societyy’s like I want the easy button. I want the

passive. I want the quick. I want the now. And so if someone’s trying to sell their course, sell their book, not

everyone is like this, but I mean they’re going to use words like it’s passive. It’s easy. You just buy it in

mailbox money, which it, you know, it can be. But those people that have mailbox money have gone through all of

these things and have gone through all the hardships to get to the mailbox money. They just sometimes don’t mess me

mention the messy because people don’t want to hear the messy. They want the easy.

Yeah. Anna, I I did want to chime in because I know you talked about, you know, Ohio and everything that’s going on there,

but I know you have a really cool project that you guys been working on uh in southern Virginia. Uh you mind giving

the the cliff notes of, you know, this essentially is your first your first bur, you and Brian, right?

Yeah. So, actually there was two of them. There were two single properties. We found them offmarket. We did um

through RPN, through Chad Carson’s community that we’re all a part of. We did like what we call sprints where we

do I’ll say like these friendly competitions. We sent out mailers. We got two offmarket deals. And so

essentially these were properties. So not only were they out of out of our market because it’s still Virginia, but it’s like four hours away, so it might

as well be a different country. Um they were fully gutted down to the studs. So

we did full renovations on these properties. One of them was a single family home that we had to get special

use permits for, had to go to the city council, turned into a duplex. So, those

projects, there’s a whole set of different learning lessons about working with contractors from a distance. I can

I probably should write a book one day. Um, so now those are done. We finally

got both of the duplexes fully renovated. That was like a year in the making, which should have been like six

months in the making, but we had all these roadblocks with the contractors and just dealing with a small town where

everybody knows each other and they work at a different speed than we do here in the city, I guess. Um, and we just

learned and now as we have tenants moving in, those I manage myself. One of the duplexes is completely full. The

other duplex has one tenant and one unit that is in the process of getting um filled. And that is the project that I

spend most of my time on now where I’ve talked to you guys like separately offline about using my tools to vet

tenants because people will lie on their applications and I get this gut feeling

sometimes when they tell their stories. I like to listen to people’s stories and I’m like something doesn’t add up. So I

use my tools as an agent, as an investor and I dig in and I’m like do they really live here? Is this really their

landlord? No, this is their cousin that they had pretended to be their landlord and it’s not rich.

Classic and it gets pretty granular. I love it though. You got to Oh, I do. I do. And and and I tell

people that like I actually So, I’m drafted I have an application. I’ve learned with the process of what to

include in my application different disclaimers saying your application fee is non-refundable. I put that everywhere

because people will try to say that, you know, try to challenge it with the credit card companies. And I also make a

statement that if you falsify an information on this application that automatically disqualifies you from uh

being a tenant because I’ve learned that as well. Um and so it’s just one I’ll say follow your gut and two use the

resources at your disposal and don’t be afraid to like call people like I have found property owners that are not the

that are the actual landlords not the one that the tenant has said and I’ll call them and I say hey is this your

tenant? Do you know who this person is? and they will give me the real scoop on what’s going on and then that tenant is

rejected or denied because they’ve clearly lied about stuff on their application. So,

it’s it’s so smart. It and it’s it’s kind of it’s a really weird experience

having to like sift through applications and drill into someone’s life like that. But it’s necessary to protect your

asset. It’s also, you know, the right thing to do for for your business in general. And frankly, if you catch

people in a lie, then, you know, that’s not your fault. That’s what else would they lie about, right?

Exactly. And so, we’ve taken a little bit longer in filling these units than I think I would have liked. We had some

help down there. And one of the guys, he was the contractor also on one of the projects. He’s like, “Well, let’s just

put people in there and if you need to evict them, then we’ll just evict them.” And I’m like, “No, I’ve been through that in Ohio. I’m willing to wait a

couple months and not have income for those couple of months and get a really good qualified tenant instead of getting

someone in that will pay me rent for one month and then not pay again and then we have to pay to get them evicted. And so

it’s kind of that costbenefit analysis like is it better to leave a unit empty for a couple more months to get that

stellar tenant? For us it is worth waiting for that stellar tenant versus just picking up the first application

that walks in the door. That brings up a good point and I guess it’s a question for you Anna, but also for you Aaron.

For those that do invest out of state, how do you set like realistic expectations of what a tenant would look

like for, you know, we’re I’m in Maryland, Anna’s in Virginia, most people in our area are making a certain

amount of money, usually decent credit. Um, but when you’re going out to Ohio, you’re going out to southern Virginia

and Vegas and things like that, how do you like tweak it? Do you talk to property managers and base it uh or do

you use the same one they use here over there? Do you want me to answer first Aaron or

Okay, go ahead. No. So I will say here in the DMV, if I was if we had a property here, my criteria would be

different because I know that the the education level, the credit score level,

like the type of I guess tenant that we can find here, the quality of tenant that we can find in our area, which is

outside of a big city, Washington DC, is a little bit different than some of these second and third tier cities,

which is kind of where our properties are. They’re outside of bigger uh areas. So we do have kind of set criteria. We

have a set credit score which even for some of the people that we so we do speak to locals and we say this is our

credit score. Sometimes they’re like oh that’s a little high but we have some flexibility. So for us personally in

those markets we have a minimum credit score of 600. If you meet that credit score then you do a security deposit and

a first month’s rent. If you’re 550 to 599, we will consider you assuming other

parts of your application are good like employment history, res residential or past uh resident history, no evictions.

Um then we will consider that application. But we ask for an additional uh deposit or last month’s

rent to kind of safeguard our interest because this person clearly has had some financial issues in the past, but we’re

willing to work with them. And that’s kind of become our standard blanket like criteria for both markets that we work

in southern Virginia and in Ohio. That’s a great answer and much better

than the one that I would be able to give, but I would say that it is localized to markets. not necessarily

the ratios or thresholds that you would use like you know you want the household income to be a certain you

know threshold above what the actual rent is like th those barometers I think are still in place

but actually how you place the how you price your units u you know obviously

that that is extremely localized and also the different tenant mix right like there’s some markets where it’s more

common for there to be five or six people living in a house and there’s some where you’re more likely to run across you individual uh or maybe

couples or even individual professionals right living and so there’s a different like mix and I do think you have to

consider sometimes like how many people there are because if you have five different people and their combined

income is great but there’s five of them that’s five different careers five different jobs five different whatever

and uh you know that can introduce volatility sometimes you’re like oh maybe it’s better that like that way if

one person loses their job you still four jobs. I don’t know. It it’s it’s a it’s a judgment call. You kind of look

at employment history, too. Like, are these job hoppers? Is this person, you know, switching every three months? You

do want to call the references and make sure that they’re real references. Like,

all that due diligence. I actually think that the the the barometers and those thresholds are important, but it’s the

double click into the background and sniffing out if you if anything doesn’t add up and you know verifying

any information that’s provided like on an application if somebody puts that they make a certain amount like I do want to see a paycheck or I do want to

see something that can substantiate that and especially like rent payments because I know that we’ve had tenants

that left our house and unfortunately for better or for worse there’s an incentive for the landlord who wants to

get rid of a problem tenant to say good things about them so that somebody else will take them off their hands. So like

there’s an inherent incentive problem for you know quote unquote bad tenants

uh looking for new places and getting a really rosy vision of what when you talk to that landlord. So I think everything

has to be uh approached with healthy skepticism and a lot of

due diligence. Yeah, I will say for us, we ask for at least the last five years

of rental history, which maybe is extreme in some cases, but sometimes that kind of fixes that problem because

if they have moved a couple times in the f last 5 years, we ask for the landlord

from at least that previous property or one or two properties before the current one because we recognize that the

current landlord may be like, “Please take this person out of my house without saying it out loud.” Um, and I will also

say if you’re self-managing, if you are calling references, especially if it’s like an apartment complex that’s managed

by a commercial property manager or an employer, you need to get a form signed with the application that essentially

gives you permission to request this information because I initially ran into that a lot where I would call either

apartment buildings or employers and they’re like, I can’t talk to you unless you have a release. So, I now have a

release that goes with the uh application that they need to sign that gives the employer or the landlords or

the apartment complex permission to tell me about that tenant or that person that’s applying.

It’s smart because also like just those processes that it demonstrates that you have experience, it demonstrates also to

the applicant that you’re running a business. This isn’t just like meet me at the corner and like give me an

envelope with cash and I’ll hand you the keys. this is like a real process. Uh, and you have actual like governance

around how you run your business. And I think that can also scare away tenants that are like loosey

goosey with how they run their life. Um, so that even in and of itself, just as a posture, can help attract better tenants

and turn away no bueno ones. It it does. It does. We have a pre-screening form that it’s a Google

form that I have people fill out before I’ll even schedule a showing, and that’s to weed out the tire kickers. And I tell

them, I’m like, “This is a Google form. It’s a free pre-screening tenant, prospective tenant form. You have to

fill this out before I will even schedule an inter a showing of the property because there’s so many people

that are like, “Click, is it still available?” Because that’s the automatic bubble that comes over from like Zillow

or whatever. And then I never hear from them again. And then I’m like, “Okay, moving on to the next.” Because they

didn’t even bother to fill out the free Google form. The pre-screener, right? You screened. Yeah. Like you cast a wide net and then

you and then you vet and then you vet and then you get, you know, hopefully a quality tenant that’s going to pay on

time, take care of the property. Yes. So lucky. Yeah. No, not lucky. I mean, you guys

have been working on on the craft and uh you know, it’s it’s not the most sexy

topic, but it’s so important. I think it was worth spending a few minutes on and thank you for sharing those lessons. Yeah, of course.

What’s your big 2026 goal before we uh before we rotate? Oh Jesus. Okay. I

mean, right now, okay, for that’s 2025, 2026. Uh, I think we Oh, I know what it is.

So, there’s it’s two-pronged. You know about at least one of these. So, we’re working on getting plans approved for an

ADU in our own backyard here in Northern Virginia so we can have rental income that generated from our backyard. And

then the other thing that we’re working on is in this market down in southern Virginia where we have these two duplexes. Um, we’ve talked to the city

council. We’ve made relationships with them and we know that the city owns a lot of lots that they’ve purchased over

the years because of various reasons and we are talking to someone that does a

has a company that does modular builds and we’re trying to see if we can kind of pull all these people in our network

together to buy some of these lots create affordable housing with modular home builds because stick building is

just too expensive to make it I’ll say affordable because they really need affordable housing. So, part of our

project this year is kind of talking to the modular home builder, seeing if we can come to an agreement to buy these

lots and put some modular homes on them and create affordable housing for the community.

I love that. We’re going to have to hear more about that uh as you as we roll into the new year.

Yeah. Now, I have to do it because I said it. You did. And you know, this show is going to reach millions of people. So,

she said it twice, too. She said it on our show, too. So, that’s that’s good to speak it into existence, right? And uh

for those who don’t know what ADU is, it’s an accessory dwelling unit. You can uh like what Anna just said, uh if it’s

on your property and as long as it’s zoned, so make sure you’re you check your zoning. Um you can potentially add

more income in a home that you’re already living in, which is awesome. All right, Nico tag, you’re it. You’re

on the right. Lots of stuff going on. Don’t bring that.

So, uh, let’s see, where do I where do I begin? Um, I think the biggest the biggest

project that we’re working on right now, and I’ve told this story on our show, um, but we found a property through

driving for dollars. Um, and for those who don’t know what that is, it’s basically anytime you’re driving around,

um, you know, I’m a real estate agent, so I’m always on the road, and I’m looking for the ugly house in the nice

neighborhood. Um, and there was this home, uh, that just it just looked bad.

It looked it was vacant. It looked like all the grass was overgrown. The roof looked like it had a hole in it. And

this was for years. Honestly, before I got into real estate, I I noticed this house. So, um I think similar to Anna

during that um during that sprint, that deal finding sprint, I uh started sending out postcards and this was late

2023 um or mid 2023 and basically saying, “Hey, you know, I’m u Jessica

and I are real estate investors looking to buy properties for our retirement plan.” Something simple like that. Uh we

used Deal Machine, which is a software that you can do it automatically, which is great. you can set up a mail

sequence. So, um yeah, I I kind of started sending postcards and not just

to this property, but to a few different properties. I have a list of probably like 350 homes here locally that I’m

continuously adding to. Um and this gentleman called me actually after the

sixth postcard. Um so, consistency, right? Consistency uh of continuously

doing it. Um, so I think mine are set up for at least nine postcards throughout the year every 40 45 days. And he called

me and he said, “Hey, I got your postcard. Um, I’m meeting with another investor. I’m thinking of selling the

property, right?” Uh, so he gave me the address. I knew exactly which one of us. I was I was in the car with Jess. I was

like, “Let’s go.” Um, and and we went there. Uh, tooured the property. It

looked even worse inside than it did on the outside. I’m uh I’m over there like, “Oh, yeah. I like this. Take this wall.”

Isn’t there a body spray painted on the floor? Yeah, there’s there is a graffiti and like like I guess you know it’s near a

high school and I’m thinking some kids probably broke in and spray painted and you know just had parties or whatever.

Um it was a not an out ofstate um uh owner, but it was out of market. So he

lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Um, but long story short, he he, you

know, I’m building that rapport. I’m looking at Jessica, she’s like, “This house is a freaking mess. What do you got me in into?” And, um, after maybe 45

minutes of just chatting, um, he shares that, you know, the home he’s in forclosure um, and he’s in bankruptcy.

And we start talking about numbers and things like that. And he’s like, he wanted X. I I was willing to go to

another number. So, there was a little negotiation there. Um, and and we agreed, but at the time, I didn’t have,

you know, I have a little bit of background on construction costs and things like that, but I wanted to bring my dad in, who, uh, for those who don’t

know, my dad is my my partner. He’s a contractor and, uh, you know, he does all our rehab projects. So, I asked him,

“Hey, can I come back tomorrow with my dad to um, you know, just reffirm uh

reaffirm the the construction costs?” So, we did that. Um, and he kind of gave me the same ballpark. Um, and then

that’s when he dropped a bombshell. So, it was a Friday where we met and he said, “Hey, like if I don’t sell the

property this upcoming Tuesday, then I’m going to lose this property up to to auction.” And I’m like, “Oh, shoot.

Like, it’s a Friday.” I think it was 4 p.m. So, I’m like, “All right, I’ve never done a foreclosure. I’ve never

done a bankruptcy.” Um, but I know like, “Hey, this this needs to be done.” and he’s telling me how much we need to do

to stop the auction. But, um, this is where coming and I’m trying to make this

story quick, but this is where having relationships in the business and it helps that, you know, I’m an agent. I

have a a title attorney that I’ve used on, you know, my homes as well as my

clients homes. I called them. I said, “Hey, like this is the situation. Is there any way we can, you know, stop the

foreclosure, which would be a monetary investment, but also protect us, right? like, you know, I don’t want him to just

be, okay, now I now I got another nine months to to do whatever I want. So, we

all met on uh on Monday and and went over everything. We said, hey, like he

owned another property, free and clear in the Eastern Shore. So, we put a you know, I guess a temporary lean on that

property for the our investment. Um, I use private money. Um, and and and my

private money partner is he’s been instrumental in helping me grow my business. But the funny part about this

is he lives literally like two blocks away from this property. So, he loved the idea of this property that’s been an

eyesore for everybody to be uh, you know, renovated and and and fixed up.

Um, and you know, it made sense for us. we were able to buy it at a price that made sense and then it made sense for

the seller. You know, he’s going to after everything after all the bankruptcy and things like that, he’s going to walk away with some money. So,

uh long story short, we were able to uh get that. It took a little bit longer. So, for anybody who’s who’s uh

interested in foreclosures and bankruptcies, definitely reach out to me because it took longer to actually get to the finish line uh in terms of

closing than I thought it would. you know, it took almost two two to two and a half months um just being under

contract because technically he can’t sell it without going to the bankruptcy court and things like that. Um so that

project we’re working on now, we’re uh we just finished up drywall. Um working

on it and we’re going to convert it to a rental property. Um so originally we were going to do it as a fix and flip,

but I really love the the area. I love the we can also it’s zoned where we can

do an ADU. Um, it’s on a 2/3 of an acre lot in a great area that we really love.

Um, so we’re going to keep we’re going to essentially do the burr and and keep it as a as a rental. Um, so that is I

guess I can’t remember the last time we did a recording, Aaron. But that’s probably the the biggest project that

I’ve been working on uh this year and I guess if you guys have questions about it. That is one of the like best case

study stories I’ve heard in a long long time just of like applying all the

different skills all through the process from finding the deal, negotiating,

working through all the various, you know, mechanics behind it with title, all that and leveraging your network. I

mean, that’s a great story, man. I’m I’m And it is we that all came to fruition

since the last time we spoke. So, that’s uh that’s really cool to hear. Yeah. And um you know, I give I give a

lot of credit to obviously our community. I I I get these conversations like, “Okay, sending out postcards,

that’s great.” Like, what does that look like when they call you? And to be honest, like, you know, I had a few

calls. I never got anything that actually, you know, closed. Um, so this

this um this case study is more of like, hey, when somebody calls, you need to be

ready to go meet with them and and have that conversation. You know, I’ve done sales. Even before I was in real estate,

I used to sell solar panels. So, I I feel comfortable with like uh you know, talking to to people uh about the

property, really asking questions, trying to dive into what they what they really need. and this gentleman really

needed to sell uh quickly and being able to to help him with that um by asking

questions is very important for anybody who’s looking to try and get offmarket deals. Yeah.

And I’m sure like you Go ahead. No, I’m just going to speak to the power

of consistency because obviously this gentleman knew he was in trouble if he was in bankruptcy and foreclosure which

are two different issues by themselves. So, he wasn’t ready until I don’t know,

four days before it was all going to hit the fan. So, this is where like just being consistent. Like, it’s hard

because you want immediate results like I said earlier, but you were nine postcards in before he finally was like,

“You know what? I probably really should call this guy because I have like a week.” Yeah. I I think it was six out of nine.

But, you know, it’s true though, you know, consistency because um you know, I I heard a story of somebody that does um

direct mail, which is postcards, and they stopped after three or four. They’re like, “Hey, you know, that

doesn’t make sense.” But another investor sent one maybe a couple days later, and they get the deal cuz they

keep seeing these postcards, right? So, um yes, it comes to a point where like, all right, you know, 10 postcards and

this person never reached out to me after two years. maybe maybe you you you switch your strategy, but um staying

consistent um and and making sure that you’re making these touch points and and it doesn’t have to be postcards, right?

You if you you know, if you want to be more aggressive, you can even door knock, you can cold call, um send

emails. The cool thing about that deal machine uh is you get a lot of a lot of information. It’s almost scary how much

information you can get, but uh you can reach out to them in various various

ways to hopefully help them. um which which I think we did. I will say proceed with caution though

because if you knock on a door like you want to be careful that someone isn’t going to come and be aggressive and if

you’re a licensed agent you have to make sure they’re on do not call list because you can get in trouble for calling someone on the do not call list

especially if you’re a licensed agent. Okay, Erin, go ahead. No, I was just going to say I’ve heard stories about people that stopped

marketing. Maybe they marketed to someone for 10 or 12 months in a row and then they get a call two years later

from a postcard that that person put on, you know, in a drawer somewhere. So that marketing has a, you know, it feels

difficult emotionally and like from a business perspective to spend money sending things out month after month.

But like I’ve just heard so many stories including the one you just told of if you stick through you know ultimately if

you’re targeting the right people and if you’re being you’re calling your list and making sure you’re not marketing to

people that clearly are you know not within that range of who you’re targeting like if you’re disciplined and

you stick to a system and you do it consistently over a long period of time and you continue to build your skills

success feels inevitable. Yeah. uh you know at least you know in in the long run and that’s a great great example.

One thing that I love about that specific list, that driving for dollars list, is it’s unique to you, right? You

know, a lot of people can go buy lists like, you know, pre-foreclosure list or tax lean list or probate list um from

the county and a lot of investors are going to be reaching out to them and um

you know, a property that you know you add to your list specifically because you’re driving around, you know, it might be a list of 300, you know, 400

houses, how you know I’m always on the road so I’m always adding to it. But but uh that is somebody you know this

particular seller did get another investor because it it is kind of like on a on a busy street. But um you know

you never you never know who um who who who you’ll talk to. So I I for anybody

listening I highly vouch for you know even if you’re not not a investor or

just an agent just look around and look look at homes. Um, you know, look at the the house with the with the blue tarp on

the roof or the over stuffed mailbox. Um, you know, those are those are things to, you know, put a light bulb in your

head and say, “Hey, maybe I’ll add it to my list.” And if you’re in Maryland, uh, definitely reach out to me so I can add

it to my list. Love it. So, what lies ahead in 2026 for

you? Uh, 2026. So I I think we talked about this on our last episode. Anna is um so

I’ve strictly Anna and I journey timelinewise is kind of similar, right?

We started as agents. We became investors about two to three years ago. Um but our strategies are a lot

different, right? She’s been doing out of state and um Danville is also kind of out of state. Um where I’m I’m strictly

been local. Um you know, all three of our rentals are here locally, self-managed. Um and and I’ve done a few

fix and flips here locally as well, but I do it I do love the idea to have a

cash flow rental um out of market. Uh now what that looks like, I’m not exactly sure yet, but I’m kind of

speaking it into existence once we stabilize and get this this one I’m

hoping, you know, early early January and get it rented out that we can uh focus on doing an out ofstate um market.

So, what we’re doing is um I guess I didn’t mention this. My uh my wife, my now wife now, and Jessica and I are

house hacking. Thank you. Also, the biggest accomplishment of this past year. Got married. I was going to call that out later.

Got married. She’s going to love when she hears this. But, uh but um we are

house hacking. So, for those who don’t know what house hacking is, you’re you buy a property, whether it’s a a small

multif family or in our case, it’s a single family home, and we’re renting out a portion of our home to help either

offset our mortgage or to help snowball to the next investment. So, um what

we’re doing is we’re midterm renting our basement, which is it’s kind of like its own separate mini unit. We essentially

have our home as like a a duplex. Um, and we’re midterm renting where anywhere

from 1 month to I think our last tenant was there for like 6 months and she was awesome. Um, so we’re going to use that

that income that’s coming in to snowball to the next um to the next investment.

Uh, whether that’s another house hack or whether that’s an out of state. I really want to do the out of state to diversify

our portfolio. Uh, I love our area. It is not a cash flow market unless you’re putting a lot a lot of money down. Um,

so, um, I’ve been, you know, listening to people with you. That’s the benefit of being in a community of a lot of people that are that are doing it. It

kind of normalizes it. So, um, you know, I broached the subject with Jess and she’s all on on board. So, it’s just a

matter of time. Hopefully, uh, you know, next next year we can pull the trigger on something like that.

Amazing. Well, I just also want to applaud that, you know, being in a high cost of living area and being able to

build a portfolio creatively. you use house hacking, you got this foreclosure, like these are not necessarily easy

things to do, but it also proves that it can be done, right? You might not be buying, you know, left and right

$100,000 properties because you’re in a different price point, but like it can be done and and and your story is proof

of that. So, I think there’s a good lesson there, too. You don’t have to just default to out of state if you feel

like your market’s unaffordable. There’s different ways to buy things at discounts, different ways to get into deals. Um, and especially if you’re in

the industry like you are, there’s there’s a lot of resources you could probably leverage. So, I think that’s a really cool challenging the assumption

that you just simply cannot invest in a high- cost living market. You definitely can. Yeah. And and I’ll caveat that because

um a partner partner like Anna and I, we we both invest um you know, here locally as well and we use different strategies,

right? Like I really leverage my private money partner. um he he values us as you

know contractors finding deal finders um and he loves the idea of growing his money um whereas Anna you know she’s

really used her helock which is another tool that you can use you know a lot of people are like how the heck do you invest like like well you know there’s

there’s if you find a good deal you can talk to people um and there’s plenty of these people uh believe it or not as

long as you’re and this is where that credibility comes in that Aaron talked about in the beginning episode right like this comes with time having

conversations. I know all of us do a lot of social media um I guess social media marketing where it’s organic, right?

We’re we’re talking about what we’re doing. Um essentially that’s what we’re doing right now, right? Telling people what we’re doing and then maybe maybe

that sparks, okay, um hey, a friend of mine has a property that’s, you know, in

distress or something and they’re like, “Hey, I know Nico might be the guy to call like, you know, when it’s time to sell, whether he helps me as an agent,

whether he would like to buy it himself.” So doing these things um proactively before it actually comes is

uh is really key I would say. Love it. Well, this was awesome. I

really enjoy sitting down with you guys. Um I know we’re going to do it again soon. I think all we’re all going to

Nashville for the RPM retreat here in a few weeks and um

I’ll look forward to our debrief. I I hope that it’ll be an annual tradition. The last one was one of my favorite episodes, but really cool to hear all

the stuff you guys have done this year and then all the stuff you’re looking ahead to. It’s so fun to see just how

much can be accomplished in a year if you if you you know dedicate yourself, stay organized, continue to focus on

skills and also just enjoy life along the way. So, um yeah, I hope we can do this again soon.

100%. Aaron, it’s always it’s always fun chatting. I think your project that you’re working on is is really cool.

We’re going to have to have you come back on our show so we can do all the details and and technical cuz I’m sure

Anna and I have tons of of questions especially once you get to that next phase of actually building. So, um it’s

always fun chatting with you. I look forward to seeing you uh in Nashville. Yay. Awesome.

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you for making it to the end of today’s episode. As you may know,

podcasts are very difficult to grow organically. If you’re getting value from today’s episode, I’d deeply

appreciate if you could take 30 seconds to leave my show a fivestar rating and review. This will go a long way to

helping me reach more listeners just like you. Thank you so much in advance.