Getting Started in Single Family rentals
Opening:
One of the standard and most common methods of real estate investing is the purchase of single family rentals. Today I’m going to visit with three single family investor millionaires who have a wealth of insight to share.
I’m joined today by Kim Kesterke from Atlanta, GA, Moneeka Sawyer from Sacramento and San Francisco, CA, and Mark Dolfini, from Lafayette, IN. We enjoyed a fascinating conversation with the Flipping America REIA group. I thought it was worth a replay to a wider audience and there is no way we are going to get it all in today. So this will be part 1 and we will conclude on the next episode.
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Quote of the Day
May you escape the gallows, avoid distress,
And be as healthy as a trout.
Expected Air Date: Fri 7/29/2022
Guests:
Kim Kesterke: kesterk4@gmail.com
Moneeka Sawyer: moneeka@coreblisslife.com
Mark Dolfini: markd@landlordcoach.com
Transcript
[0:00] One of the standard and most common methods of real estate investing today is the purchase of single family rentals.
Today I’m going to visit with three single family investor millionaires who have a wealth of insight to share.
[0:16] Music.
[0:46] Kester Key from Atlanta Georgia Monica Sawyer from Sacramento and San Francisco California and marked all phoenix from Lafayette Indiana.
We recently enjoyed a fascinating conversation with the flipping America Rhea group,
I thought it was worth a replay to a wider audience and there’s no way we’re gonna get all of this conversation in on today’s episode. So, this will be part one.
And we will conclude on the next episode just real quick how to contact us I am Roger Blankenship your host and you can go to Roger Blank Chip. Com but that will forward you right over,
To flipping America. Net that shows website is flipping America. Net.
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[2:15] Hi
I’m I’m also glad that.
Yeah, I’m pushing buttons over here and doing things and it still happening. So,
Let’s just start at the top and Monique will start with you and then we’ll go to Cam and then we’ll come around to Mark and
Take a 30 or 45 seconds introduce yourself a little bit now all of you have been on the Wednesday thing but it’s been a few weeks and there’s probably some people here tonight,
That weren’t on the Wednesday thing they may not know you that well so tell us who you are and tell us,
What your website is and how they can get in touch with you and everybody get in touch with them later on not during
That’s a really open ended way to start so
Person,
Play did I get any money from my dad who started real estate when I was very young like 3 years old.
[3:42] What is a 30 years ago? And built my portfolio
Starting with $10 thousand to over five 1 million dollars in the 30 years but I was able to retire.
So that’s kinda what I did and you can actually reach me at blitzful investor. Com cuz we wanna keep it blissful.
And that’s how we met. I was looking around for,
People that had large audiences and larger than me wouldn’t hard to find some with larger than me and so Monique was one of them and I said hey would you be on my show and she said yes we’ve been friends ever since I don’t know it’s been a few years but.
Great pleasure.
[4:35] Well, hello. My name is Kimberly Kesterke and I’m the founder of the Wtwo landlord brand and I also run a Facebook group. It’s very active. We have about 3600 members right now,
And it’s just a lot of really cool content on,
People doing deals, posting their projects, bringing experts on to just discuss about different real estate strategies. So, I got started back in 2006 when I purchased a home. He came an accidental landlord.
And just really started learning processes to put in place to manage the the property that I had about 3 hours away,
And as I started gaining confidence, I just started adding a duplex here, a triplex there, and just over the years have really accumulated a really awesome portfolio that has taught me a lot and has just been AA really great experience.
Alright and the website is or will be the W two landlord. Com.
Yeah it’s I own it I I had a website up for 2 years and now I’m actually upgrade it and it’s gonna just like.
Cooler looking and it’s just taken a minute so you can reach me at my Facebook group or you can Email me at Kim at the Wtwo landlord that’s another way that you can reach me between now and 2 weeks.
[5:56] Alright. Well, it’s great to be here. I love the breedy bunch then you’ve got going on here. I’ve kinda
The really what I’m about is about creating time wealth.
And having complete total control over your calendar. Several years ago, I wrote a book called The Time Wealthy Investor,
And the time wealthy investor really is more about having complete total control of your calendar,
The way I do that I talk about it really picks up where the bur method leaves off. I think the bur meth is actually a good way to build a portfolio but unfortunately not the sound,
Funny but the bird rather can leave you out in the cold when it comes to actually creating a business.
[6:47] So really what the VIP method does is it creates a business and the VIP method is vision and restructure process,
Really it’s about creating a vision for what you particularly want. What is it you specifically want? It has nothing to do with income generation and has everything to do with what you want in your life.
So, specifically, your personal vision, then, you create an infrastructure that’s an alignment, that vision, and that infrastructure is the desk, the chairs, the software, the acid class selection, and finally, is the process. The process is just simply how you do stuff,
Is the tactics that you learn from all the great gurus that you’re gonna learn from tonight and I I’m actually really excited to learn from from everybody here because I know that I’m gonna learn some stuff that I’m not doing,
So what so when those with the processes you put that on your infrastructure and all of it stays in alignment with your vision for the future,
But a one 1 million dollars really isn’t,
Gonna solve all your problems, okay?
[8:04] So my dad told me 1 day over the dinner table he said,
Everybody’s beer and everybody’s got money problems. Do you want poor people money problems? Or do you want rich people money problems?
[8:22] Alright. And you know I I will say something like
You know having a one 1 million dollars isn’t everything or having a net worth of a one 1 million dollars isn’t everything but you know it sure is a lot more fun to have unhappy days in my Mercedes than
It is in a little Volkswagen Beetle that I barely fit into,
Are you up is those of you that have met me in person no I’m 6 foot five and I’m not a thin little guy.
I used to drive hundreds of miles a week in a Toyota.
I’ve got I forgot what that thing was called but it was small. I had to fold up and get inside of that thing and I did that while I was going out looking at properties and I can tell you my ride now is a little bit more comfortable and,
You know, that’s that’s a good thing but you know, money isn’t everything. That’s really what I wanna get to. Money is not gonna solve your problems and I don’t want you guys to think that this is just crash materialism.
That we’re talking about being a millionaire but,
So I’m gonna throw you guys a little bit of a curveball tonight.
[9:40] I’ve sent you the questions I’m gonna ask but this is one that I didn’t know I was gonna ask I just decided a little while ago what is what is being a millionaire what does it mean to you.
Try to keep your answers brief we got a lot more questions to go to and I’m gonna let Marco first we’ll go in inverse order and then Kim we’ll let you go first on the next one.
[9:59] Hey well really it it’s really having the ability to control what it is that I wanna do.
And where and how I wanna.
It’s just a tool on the toolbox that allows me to do the things that I really want that I’m that I’m most passionate about.
[10:23] Yeah so the way that I look at it is just more financial independence I mean I love the fire movement the financial independence retire early movement that’s out there and I just think that,
You know just hitting a certain net worth just gives you a little bit of that stability,
To start making the choices for your life of how you wanna live it,
And the freedom that encompasses it. She’s referring to a book called Your Money or Your Life. It’s one of the best-selling books,
I ever on the issue of money and and financial management and.
Highly recommended read Your Money or Your Life. I can’t think of the name of the lady that wrote it. She actually co wrote it with a her partner who has now passed away.
[11:09] There’s a new addition out. Anyway, you’ll find it on Amazon. Just look for it. Alright, Monica.
I actually just did a TedX talk on this and the tenX talk is called who is the boss of you,
It’s the choice of what you wanna do with your life. Who you wanna be with? How you wanna love?
What you wanna do in the world? What kind of impact do you wanna make? If you have money, you have more choices. If you have choices, you can take action that’ll make you happy,
So that’s what money is to me.
[11:44] I like it and you know,
He asked all of his guests to fill in the blank. Money is and you fill in the blank and.
[11:59] So Monica guess you win a star for the day because what I said to him was choice.
And for a lot of the same reasons. Alright. So, you do have choices. You have options and.
I think that a lot of you that are here are listening to this maybe you’re listening to the replay right now,
But I think that one reason you’re tuned in here is because you want some options and maybe.
That maybe you thought would bring you a lot of joy and happiness just didn’t doing it or maybe you’re away from your family too much okay.
We’re gonna help you get there tonight because the my three friends here.
Have done some things that seem remarkable in the whole,
But are.
[12:48] And I think that you can grasp this and I think that you can get it. Alright. So, here we go.
Alright. Bring it on. Somebody wants to start buying and holding properties. How would you recommend they get started?
[13:05] Well, that’s a great question and with real estate investing, the way I look at it, you have to look at,
What are your resources do you have money or do you have time?
And you really have to be able to take a look at that to really define which strategy.
[13:20] So I’m buying hold what I would recommend if you’ve got,
A good credit score and you’ve got 20% down then just go the conventional route I mean that’s one way to do it and that works for a lot of people interest rates are rising right now but there’s still decent,
If you’re more on the side that you’ve got a lot of you’ve got some time and you’re aggressive and you wanna go and start talking to sellers directly,
Then a seller finance route maybe talking to a seller who wants to sell their house but still.
Hold on to a payment that could work really well for you because you don’t need to fit into that box of,
The conventional loan you can you can have a certain amount of money to give them they’re not mister looking at your,
Credit score and so that’s another way to do it so,
Just wrap it up just see what you have available to you and then choose your strategy accordingly okay who else wants to add to that.
[14:13] Yeah, I can add that. So, everything she just said is absolutely right on point.
I’m gonna add you know the the next level to that and.
Everything in terms of buying properties what I like to do is I wanna serve a client base that I feel that I can relate to that I feel that I that I know.
And a lot of times when I see people want it buying a rental property they buy whatever’s for sale.
And that’s not necessarily gonna be the best approach because what I what I’m looking at is I wanted to identify the avatar that I feel that I can serve the best,
So, if that is whether it’s a, you know, long-term rental, a short-term rental, or whatever.
If I wanna rent a property to airline pilots,
Because I am an airline pilot and I know what they need or from the rent to nurses around a teaching hospital,
You know, because I know what they need because I am a nurse around teaching hospital or whatever, right? For example, I’m not gonna buy a one bedroom flat if I know that my avatar needs a three bedroom, two bath house because,
There are family with kids, right? So, I like to identify the avatar. So, I’m not just buying everything that’s for sale.
So everything.
The ideal avatar that you want. That way you can be more focused in your search.
[15:34] The Monique, you bring a different twist to this because not only are you buying in California, you’re buying in San Francisco, California, and not just buying San Francisco, California, you’re buying executive level homes into in California,
And that means I I don’t really know for sure but I would imagine you’re down payment would buy 10 borehouses.
[15:53] 10
So I well.
[16:14] So that’s kinda what we do over here in California but but,
I wanna qualify this with a couple of things first I
And I wanna reiterate a little bit about what Mark said in that you know river going reverse,
Bye for the person that you wanna do business with because you’re
Tenants are gonna be the single biggest factor and whether your business is blissful or,
Talked about is that,
Be do business with people that you can relate to. You don’t want there to be the discrepancy of they’re the landlord. They’ve got all this money. I’m just a number. So, I don’t have to pay rent because they can, you know, I mean, like you don’t want that discrepance. You won’t respect.
Kindness, joy, and doing business together. So,
But I’ve just kinda fell into that strategy because for me.
I always recommend if you wanna get started.
Buy your personal residence.
[17:30] You can get it for three% down
That can get them into homes really fast with Victor,
So that’s what we would say don’t pay somebody else to get rich.
And we’ll get the appreciation on a property. You pay yourself and you see appreciation on your property
And leverage that to buy other pieces of property.
So that’s all I recommend getting so I’m a meeting you and I’m putting the quote that Adrian’s mood used on our call just yesterday when you buy the house you also buy your tenant.
That was it. It was a good call. That was also AA very nice quote so I I thought I would throw that up there.
It’s interesting that none of you started out talking about you know go pay go buy a $50 thousand course.
[18:31] I do believe you need to get mentors though.
No.
Who hasn’t
Or 25 $500 courses.
And you know, me,
I I wish I was as smart as the three of you,
This guy went to a weekend seminar,
And I got run over. Oh my goodness.
Can somebody just go to YouTube and get all the information they need?
[19:58] You can get a lot of information on YouTube.
So just be careful.
[20:12] Don’t ever take advice from someone who’s not where you wanna be.
I’d looked for people that were 40 and were retired and who had been through the cycles of the market because they were gonna understand my pain they were gonna understand how to get to that place
So, that’s kinda who I look for. So, yeah, you can go on YouTube and get a lot of great information or a lot of wrong information.
Just make sure that anybody you’re getting information from you do some research on them.
[20:44] Alright,
Is that I confused.
And a lot of times especially as a coach I see that where you know as as a coach I I was really meeting someone to hold me accountable,
And let’s face it. Transformation is uncomfortable. It’s it’s it can be a little
That’s what a coach will provide for you is an truly they have provide that accountability and if they’re not providing accountability that’s fine that means their guru or a teacher or a professor that’s okay nothing wrong with them but a true coach told you accountable
Hey.
[21:43] Yeah. Yeah and 100% on that and every time I look at where I up leveled in my business and just personally and professionally.
It was a direct result from me working with somebody whether it was a course and it was more of a group setting or even one on one
So, I do recommend that, you know, those are important too. Also, pair up with the other resources that you have available,
I just wanna say Monique I’m glad your friends with me because I haven’t retired.
I don’t I don’t want to. I was talking with one of my friends the other day and he retired.
And I woke up the next morning thinking about that and I thought what would I do with myself all day.
I think retirement for me isn’t about okay I’m done working and I I’ve never gonna you know I’m gonna lay it by the pool forever for retirement for me is just choice,
It’s I can choose. I work because I want to. Not because I have to. There you go. Alright. Good. Alright. Now,
This is a brief answer okay,
Because it’s a question that I ask of every guest on every one of these panels all year long. How much money does it is it gonna take me between training,
My first purchase of a rental property. How much money is it gonna take for me to get started?
[23:11] Hey you could you speak for your own market that’s fine.
Yeah, good. No, no, no, no, no, no, Mark, please, please, go ahead.
[23:32] Yeah I could make actually I’m in Indianapolis right now at the local rear which is allowing me to step away from there thing to do that so I wanna give a shout out to.
[23:40] Hey Facebook.
I think most people get into this business.
[23:59] Use other people’s money.
And I agree with that.
[24:16] And that’s what exactly when wrong with me in 2008 when when the market went sideways.
I didn’t have near enough liquid cash set aside. So, how much do you need to get started?
I think you can get started without much you’re really can. You don’t need a lot to get started. In fact, I I hear people say all the time. Well, let me wholesale a few properties and get some money and then I can go ahead and buy some, you know, get some buy holds.
Not need that or you don’t need I mean we talked about the financing piece already but don’t let that be eliminate for you.
But what I will say is you need to build your cash balance.
[24:51] Quickly and and as a buffer and and keep that in the in an analogy I use it like I hear this all the time well inflation’s eroding it but the thing is did if you bought car insurance and haven’t used it it’s the same thing.
[25:05] Right? Those events happen like you’re nine elevens, your mortgage crisis, your pandemics, you know,
Canada invades Michigan or whatever, right? It’s the things that seem obvious after it happens. So, really, I think you can get started without much.
But what to build that cash balance
Hey Facebook,
So land that plane Kim build the argument for keeping your job
Well I mean it’s again it’s all about choice what we’ve been talking about and so you know real estate afford to the opportunity to choose if you wanna stay or you wanna go so just on that preface
My very first property that I bought I put 7500 into it,
But to build on what Monica was saying it was my primary residence at the time so I got a great interest rate I didn’t have to do a lot with closing costs so
That’s one of the reasons why it’s really good to get a primary and start there and then it just slowly went up I still had the job I was getting cash flow from this
Primary cuz I was house hacking at the time and so then my next property I was able to put 20 1000 down,
And then the next one a little more and then the next one a little less and so.
[26:25] Not to get two in the weeds but then all of a sudden you start playing monopoly with your little game pieces or your properties and you can start to
And 31 exchanging selling at appreciation and then now you have maybe 100 grand to put into the next property so you gotta look at it as you can start small and it can really snowball very very quickly.
[26:47] Alright.
I love with both of them said yay,
I think like all three of us we or or I know at least we can we start it with our primary residents we start it with very very little down right
You can start I started with five% down you know normal person can start with three% down so you really can get in for very low I also house hacked in the beginning because we couldn’t afford our house we couldn’t afford the payment with that little down so we can do all of those tricks right.
But when 2008 hit.
I lost three 1 million dollars in 6 weeks in values of my properties.
[27:36] If I had not done what Mark talked about which is having reserves so using other people’s money to invest.
Being willing to pay those mortgages leveraging.
Whatever I am investing and then also on the side building my own liquidity I would not have been able to keep all my properties.
So, it’s really, really important that yes, you start, right? We want you to start and take action. Nothing happens until you take action
Right get started but make sure you have both of those pieces going you’ve got your equity and your assets growing you’ve also got
At least enough cash flow to carry your business for 3 months now,
Is that losing is it losing value,
So it’s in the real estate market it’s just gaining you know right now it’s getting three or four% it’s not that exciting but it’s not losing
Right? Back in 2008 it was making six or seven%. So you can have it in something safe.
It’s not gonna be making what you’re making in your real estate but it keeps you safe in case of disasters and we’ve had many disasters hit in 2000 012 1008, (20 oh) 019-1820, right?
We have these things hit you need to be ready so that you can take care of your business.
[29:03] And that’s all the time we have for today. Hope you’ll join us next time for the conclusion of this conversation. Here’s the Irish blessing of the day.
How healthy is a trout and how can you tell,
Hey if anybody can help unpack the meaning of that please drop us a line and let us know hey everybody we’ll see you next time in the meantime you know what to do keep your eyes open.
You’ve been listening to flipping America real estate investing for everyone. Listen three times a week on stations across the country or on the flipping America app
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[29:48] Music.