← Earn Your Leisure
Earn Your Leisure
How to Build Real Estate Wealth & Save Hundreds of Thousands Sourcing from China
01:44:14
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- [00:00]
Zoe Saldana
Hi, Zoe Saldana. Welcome to T Mobile. Here's your new iPhone 16 Pro on us.
- [00:04]
Richard Karn
Thanks.
- [00:05]
Zoe Saldana
And here's my old phone to trade in. You don't need to trade in. When you switch to T Mobile, we'll.
- [00:09]
Richard Karn
Give you a new iPhone 16 Pro.
- [00:11]
Zoe Saldana
Plus we'll help you pay off your old phone. Up to 800 bucks and you still get to keep it. There's always a trade in. Not right now. At T Mobile. I feel like I have to give you something in return for karma. That's okay. I don't really have much in my purse.
- [00:23]
Richard Karn
Oh, let's see.
- [00:24]
Zoe Saldana
Hand sanitizer. It's lavender.
- [00:26]
Richard Karn
I'm good.
- [00:27]
Zoe Saldana
Seriously, Let me check this pocket. Oh, mints. Really, I'm fine. Oh, I have raisins. I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec. I've got cupcakes in the car.
- [00:35]
Richard Karn
It's our best iPhone offer ever.
- [00:37]
Zoe Saldana
Switch to T Mobile.
- [00:39]
Richard Karn
Get a new iPhone 16 Pro with.
- [00:40]
Matt MG
Apple intelligence on us.
- [00:42]
Richard Karn
No trade in needed. We'll even pay off your phone up to 800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits.
- [00:48]
Zoe Saldana
New line $100 plus a month on experience beyond finance agreement $999.99 and qualifying ported for well qualified plus tax and.
- [00:54]
Richard Karn
$10 connection charge pay off via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days credits end in balance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel mobile.com. hi, I'm Richard Karn and you may have seen me on TV talking about the world's number one expandable garden hose. Well, the brand new pocket hose Copperhead with Pocket pivot is here and it's a total game changer. Old fashioned hoses get kinks and creases at the spigot, but the Copperhead's pocket pivot swivels 360 degrees for full water flow and freedom to water with ease all around your home. When you're all done, this rust proof.
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Zoe Saldana
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Richard Karn
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Zoe Saldana
By texting 64,000, you agree to receive.
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Richard Karn
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Zoe Saldana
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Richard Karn
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- [01:59]
Zoe Saldana
Terms apply. Available@pockethose.com terms.
- [02:01]
Matt MG
Yeah. Yeah, you bet.
- [02:05]
Richard Karn
What's going on, y' All?
- [02:08]
Matt MG
Traveling mercies have been answered. You have returned.
- [02:12]
Richard Karn
I need an encore, y' all.
- [02:13]
Matt MG
You have returned.
- [02:14]
Richard Karn
I should welcome me back.
- [02:16]
Matt MG
What did you say? Don't. Don't say I never told you nothing or never helped you.
- [02:19]
Richard Karn
That's a fact.
- [02:21]
Matt MG
Welcome back, man. Welcome back. We happy to have you back in the town, back in the. In the state, back in the country. They were. Some people were nervous, man. They were like, yo, shot, you giving up too much game. They might not let them back, but they let you back.
- [02:33]
Richard Karn
Shout out to China, man. Shout out to the good folks in China and the rest of the whole team out there. Comrades, man, a lot to talk about, man. We'll talk about some of that stuff on this conversation because it does relate to real estate. But if you've been following what we've been doing over the last couple of months, we've been having this how to series every few weeks where it's interviewing a professional in. In an area, and it's more of a critical breakdown as as opposed to an interview where we're just picking one particular topic and we're just going through it like, okay, tell me about this, tell me about that. Sometimes they have slides and it's been really successful. We've done it on artificial intelligence, we've done it on credit, we've done it on taxes. And the first person that we did with was Matt MG the mortgage guy. We did it probably like six months ago, and he did home buying, home buying process for, like, people that's buying their first homes. So now we're getting up for invest fest and we wanted to revisit the conversation with real estate. And this time we're going to talk about a few things that we didn't talk about last time. And we're going to talk about, you know, how to. How to make money in real estate and some. Some conventional ways, some non conventional ways, some. Some ways that you're not even thinking about. So this is going to be a good one. Yeah, this is going to be a good one. So let's, let's bring them up.
- [03:59]
Zoe Saldana
Nihau.
- [04:02]
Matt MG
M. Jizzle. What's good, my guy?
- [04:04]
Zoe Saldana
You know, alive and blessed. Thank God for another day. What's good, man?
- [04:08]
Matt MG
Everything's good, man. I think this is a point conversation. As we've grown, as our audience has grown, people have bought homes, and that's great. And We've seen that increase in our communities, which is important. But the other piece is that there are people who want to invest in real estate, figure out how to make money in real estate, which is less talked about. So I'm glad we're going to be able to uncover some of that tonight, man. We appreciate you being here, brother.
- [04:29]
Zoe Saldana
Now always, always grateful to be on the platform. Shout out to earn your leisure. The hardest working men in show business. These guys travel the world literally right now bringing us investigative journalism at the highest level. So please throw some gems in the comment for, for Rashad and Troy because what they do, they make it look easy, but it's extremely difficult and dangerous at times too dangerous situations with giraffes and rhinos and, and hyenas.
- [05:02]
Matt MG
So don't forget to silver back, please.
- [05:05]
Zoe Saldana
Let's not let that go over your head, y' all. Shout out to your leisure.
- [05:10]
Matt MG
Love is love, man. Appreciate you.
- [05:12]
Richard Karn
Appreciate it, my brother. So always good to have you on the program. So, man, we got an announcement for Invest Fest, but I want to wait a little bit until we get into the, to the flow of it. If you didn't watch Market Mondays, shame on you. But you know, we got, we got a lot, we got a lot. But I will say just, you know, quick, Invest Fest is just going crazy right now. Like we just, we actually just got another person an hour ago. I didn't get a chance to tell you that yet, but we got it.
- [05:39]
Zoe Saldana
We got another news alert.
- [05:40]
Richard Karn
We got another person an hour ago. So the lineup is going crazy, man. You look at, you look at Jack Dorsey, when you look at Magic Johnson, when you look at somebody like Vaughn Weaver whose net worth is $400 million, a lot of people might not even be aware of that, but she's one of the richest black women in America. If you look at, you know, Issa Ray, legend in the game, Steve Harvey Charlemagne, the God, Tabitha Brown, John Hope Bryant, killing, of course, a brother, Ian Dunlap. You got 19 keys, Pinky Cole, Matt MG the mortgage, got Dr. Cheyenne Bryant, Jamal Bryant, Stephen Jackson, the Russell Ryan, Leslie, the list goes on and on and on. But get your tickets to Invest Fest. This is going to be epic. Year 5. Get your vendor booth. There's a few vendor booths left. Don't miss out on that opportunity to network with tens of thousands of positive like minded people. That's powerful. Can literally change your life. So go to investfest.com get your tickets and hope to see everybody in Atlanta in a few months, man. Looking forward to It. So Matt, let's get into it. We talked about real estate, like I said the last time that you was on, but there was a few things that we didn't talk about. So I definitely want to talk about house hacking. Want to talk about, you know, different trends. That's might be a little bit different in 2025, going into 2026 as far as on the home buying investing side. But before we start, let's, let's really talk about other ways to make money in real estate outside of the traditional buying a home, right? Like as far as even doing real estate as a profession. And a lot of people think about real estate as a profession, think about, you know, selling homes as an agent to sell, to sell homes. But you have a unique theory that we need more people in other areas. So talk about that.
- [07:35]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah, man. Again, thank you guys for having me. Always appreciate it. Be here and especially talking about this topic because I really feel as if the mortgage business saved my life, you know, 20 plus years ago. College dropout, didn't really know what I was going to do with my life, to be honest with you. And my best friend who's a pastor, who's also going to be at Invest Fest, Philip Anthony Mitchell, probably probably the most viral pastor in America in 2025. You know, we grew up together and he's the one who told me to become a loan officer. And in fact, I thought, you know, he's trying to tell me be a cop. At first I'm like, what the hell is the loan officer, bro? Like, I'm not being no cop. He's like, nah, you know, it's the people who, who give people a mortgage. I didn't know what a mortgage was, right? He was like, it's a loan that people get to buy a house with. And this was 2003 and I've been in the industry ever since. And it changed the trajectory of my life, my children's life. You know, I have, you know, shout out to Brooke, she's in college right now. She has no student loans. And, you know, my son's graduating high school this, this month and he's going to go to college with no student loans. So it's been able to set up a trajectory in my life that I was able to break generational curses, not just from a homeownership standpoint, just from a financial standpoint. And it was being in the mortgage business. So when people look to get into this business, they look at being a real estate agent, right? When you have all these shows that highlight, selling homes, right? You have the million dollar listings. You have the Ryan Sirhance of the world, right? All these shows glorify being the real estate agent. The real estate agent is the rock star. But guess what, ladies and gentlemen, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but these folks are getting loans, right? These folks are not sitting out here buying all these properties, all cash, no matter what the TV will tell you, right? People are getting financing when it has to be someone that's doing a loan. And that's basically what I do. But we don't get the credit, we don't get the recognition as loan officers because we're pretty much people think of us, we're just stuck behind the computer in the bank, right? And with platforms like earn your leisure, giving me an opportunity to, to talk about my, my genius, which is real estate finance. And it's put us now on a platform to where people are now being influenced by me and now getting into the industry. I can't tell you guys over the past six, seven years how many people said they got into the mortgage business because of earned leisure podcast and watching me on the podcast. So I wanted to have that conversation to kind of to the audience, to kind of break down like, look, this is the route. If you want to get into real estate and you might not have all the money to buy your first home, a duplex, Buy investment properties. You should really get into the mortgage industry. And it doesn't take much for you to do. So you have to be 18 years or older, have no felonies on your record. Take a 20 hour pre licensing education exams called the SAFE Act. The SAFE exam, right? And it's only 20 hours, right? Think about 20 hours, that's three days. If you go to class in person.
- [10:52]
Richard Karn
Doing so walk me through the process. Like if I myself wanted to do this today, right? I'm not. I can't take a 20 hour test because I don't know what's on there for me. So okay, is it a self study, like is it like a Kaplan thing where you can actually buy a course to help you study for the test and then take the test online?
- [11:09]
Zoe Saldana
Good question. So you can do it in person or virtually, right? If you do it in person, you can do it, break that 20 hours into. Most schools will offer it just in a week, right? You can break that 20 hours into a week. But if you do it online, you could do a self study. They'll probably give you two to three weeks to complete that 20 hours. But so Whatever floats your boat, you can do it. The investment to get into this 20 hour class is going to cost you around 5, $600 only.
- [11:39]
Richard Karn
And so you're learning as you're taking.
- [11:41]
Zoe Saldana
The test, so you're learning the loss, right? So that the licensing exam is going to teach you the laws. It's not going to teach you sales, it's not going to teach you product knowledge, it's going to teach you the laws. So that way you don't commit fraud and get locked up, period. Very important, very, extremely important. Here at Earning Leisure Network we do not promote mortgage fraud or any type of fraud at all, right? So this is going to teach you how to keep yourself out of jail, do the right thing. But it's only 20 hours, fellas. It's not a long time in retrospect. So once you pass the class, then you have to take the federal exam. The federal exam is probably a couple hours long, let's just call it two hours long. I haven't taken it in 10, 15 years, but it's probably like two hours, two hours to three hours long. And you have up to three chances to take the federal exam. If you fail three times, then you have to wait, I think six to 12 months before you can retake it again. But the key is before you take your federal exam, you should take practice exams, right? Because they mimic exactly what's going to be on a federal exam. And once you start getting over 75 to 80 consistently, then you're ready to take that federal exam. But once you pass the federal exam, then boom, you have to now find a lender or mortgage broker that's going to sponsor your license and then your license will be issued. Depending on the state, it can take anywhere up to 30 days to six months. Like new York is the slowest. I think New York is the slowest with everything in life, right? To get your New York license, from the time you submit to the time they approve it, it can take about six to eight months. But states like New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, you can get those within 30 days tops. But the key to all of this, you have to work for a mortgage lender or a mortgage broker that are licensed in these states. So it's a, it's a wonderful career path for anyone who likes numbers, who likes customer service and does sales. So if you are currently a cpa, even if you're a current real estate agent, you can have your real estate license and your mortgage license simultaneously. So you can do both sides of the transaction. You can't do both sides of the transaction if you are doing an FHA deal. But if you're doing conventional deals, you're doing commercial deals, investment properties, you can be the realtor and the loan officer on that same transaction. And you can double dip, right? Which a lot of people don't understand. So if you're a cpa, if you're a car salesman, if you're a customer service rep, if you work in one of these department stores, these are all good jobs that translate very well in the mortgage industry.
- [14:41]
Matt MG
So, so once I passed that, I got my license. Somebody is now sponsoring me. Do I ever have to renew my license or am I good? And then I guess it's twofold question. The most important part is like, how do I make money? You talked about agents and we watch these shows and I'm guilty of it as well. And we watch that they get commissioned from the sale. How does that work for somebody in your space?
- [15:01]
Zoe Saldana
So to answer the first part of that question, yes, you have to renew on an annual basis. You have to do continuing education every single year. So the more licenses that you have under your belt, the more continuing education you have to do annually. Some states you have to do two hours, some states you have to do three hours. And it has to all be done before December 31st of that calendar year, right? So you can hold your license in multiple states. So let's just say, for example, we're based in New York. I work for a New York based company, but the company is licensed nationwide. I can hold individual loan officer, MLO license and each of those states that the company that I work for, work for is also licensed because they can sponsor me in each of those states. But if I have 50 licenses, right, for example, then I have to do 50 continuing educations, right? So it can get, it can get very costly too. So now every time you go to submit your license, depending on the state now it can cost you 3 to $500 for filing fees, state licensing fees, things of that nature. So it can add up, especially when you're doing continuation. So you don't want to get licensed all across Americ. That's number one. So yes, to answer your question, you have to maintain your license. We're doing annual continuing education. Now, how do you make money in this business? That's the million dollar question. Every loan officer has a comp plan, a compensation plan, and depending on where you work, right, whether it's a mortgage company, a mortgage broker, everybody's comp plan is going to be different. But on Average, I would say the average loan officer comp plan can be around 1, 1, 1 point or 100 basis points or 100 bips as we say in, in my industry, right? So in layman terms, every million dollars that you close, you'll make 1% of that, which is $10,000. So think about this, right? We live in a world where home prices are skyrocketing nationwide. I mean if you look in your neighborhood, the average price is over a million dollars. Here in New York, if you do one deal a month at a million dollars, that's $10,000 in commission that you can make. Even if you live in a state where the average price is not a million dollars. Right. Let's just say it's 400,000. Every $400,000 deal you do is $4,000. You do two deals a month, $800,000 in loan value every single month. That's eight, $8,000 a month. Times that by 12, that's a six figure career. Now most people in America are not making six figures, but I guarantee you everybody who, 20 people who probably purchased a home in the last 12 to 18 months, right? So it's an opportunity for folks, especially those who are looking to make more money, right? Those who are stuck at jobs that they hate, that they are not being fulfilled. This is a career opportunity where you can help people but earn at the same time, learn and then also now achieve your goals with it.
- [18:08]
Matt MG
Can I just ask a follow up really quickly? So I, I can't do that independently, right? That, that company that sponsored me, that brokerage, I have to stay with them for, I would assume, a certain amount of time until I build my own business. And, and at what point can you turn this into an independent situation?
- [18:23]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah, absolutely. So you can definitely become your own independent mortgage broker. You have to get your mortgage broker license and then once you get your mortgage broker license, you can open up your own shop. Now obviously you don't want to do, you don't want to get your own broker license with no book of business, right? Because it just defeats the purpose. Why open up if you ain't, you ain't got the money to keep up your overhead? Now it's going to be a little bit more expensive because you have compliance, you have as an owner of the company, you have a little bit more that you have to invest into it. But if you have a good solid book of business, I think if you work in this industry for two, three years and you build a solid book of business, and if you're Unhappy with the companies that you work on, you want to create your own destiny, then by all means get your mortgage broker license and open up shop and you know, and rock and roll. You know, there's a lot of people out there that choose to go that route. Me personally, I've, I haven't opened up my own broker shop because I'm, I make the majority of the money right now without the compliance and without the risk of owning a company. So you got to understand when you're in this business, because of the crash that happened, the Great Recession, there's a lot of rules and regulations on the, on the mortgage side. So for me it just from a financial perspective, it doesn't benefit me to quote unquote, own the company. I just negotiate good deals to where I can get the lion's share and I can participate in some of the back end secondary market stuff that, you know, that's a whole nother topic for a whole nother day. But, but you know, it's very lucrative for me in my role for me to eat that way and not have the risk that's associated with ownership. But yes, you can do that.
- [20:08]
Matt MG
Gotcha.
- [20:09]
Richard Karn
Yeah, no, that was great. I mean, because, you know, talk about trades a lot. As far as, you know, we need electricians, we need plumbers, but we also need people that's in these type of professions, right. Like we need loan officers and that's something that you can actually, you know, do make six figures a year potentially and still do something else as well, still invest in real estate, still, still trade stock, still be an entrepreneur. So when we're just looking at the new age economy, as far as, you know, where people are going to actually be needed. As of right now, we still need loan offices. Like AI hasn't taken that job. So that's something that you can actually do and doesn't. You don't have to have a master's degree in real estate to figure this out. Like you can actually, you know, if you got some hustle, some wood about yourself, you can, you can make some money. So we're going to talk about the real estate side as far as, you know, the investing and stuff like that, but wanted to lead with that because that's something that is, might not be as sexy, but that's, that's important to have that, that information that, you know, you can go down that path and at least have some, some income while you're trying to figure things out.
- [21:16]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah, I think it's important. One thing you just said, Rashad is very important is representation. Right. When, when you go into these banks, you don't see too many people that look like us. When you look at the average loan officer in America, we are the smallest percentage of people that are out here writing loans and there's a lot of us. The black home ownership rate is starting to increase gradually. We're at 44% which is still the lowest. But you have to also look at that as the opportunity too. Right. We have the lowest home ownership rate. And when we have platforms like EYL that's teaching us all about stocks and options and how to run these different plays, we where you going to dump your money for the tax haven Real estate. Right. So it's an opportunity for us to get into this business and honestly take it over and help a lot of us become owners. And the more you learn, the more you earn at the end of the day. So if you, if you take the real estate financing sides seriously, you're going to be a hell of an investor too because you're going to know how to fund your deals. You're going to know the banks that are doing this type of deal versus that type of deal where the average real estate agent, in all honesty, this is no disrespect to my realtors. I love y' all. But most real estate agents, most real estate agents don't have a clue about real estate finance and, and which banks can do what and do it very well. So if you are looking for a career that like you said, can make six figures, can make seven figures, can fund your lifestyle and, and help you get into the real estate investing aspect of things, look no further than investing less than $1,000 into getting your licenses and getting your license sponsored by a mortgage, mortgage broker and come over to the dark side to come get some of this money and help our people win.
- [23:02]
Matt MG
That's a fact, man.
- [23:03]
Richard Karn
So, okay, we're going to get into it, but first Invest fest. I talked about the lineup. We are doing a special raffle for this week only. It started on Monday. We announced it on market Mondays and it's running to Sunday, June 22. So every single person this week up and you have up until Sunday, if you buy general admission ticket, you will get access to Matt's home buyers program and he teaches, teaches actually the steps of house hacking, you could probably explain it better than I can.
- [23:42]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah. So it's the house hack, the Freedom program. It's a six week live course that I'm doing currently. Right now we're in as we're filming this, we're in week three of it. So you'll get access to the replays. You know, once the raffle is over I'll get, give everybody access and you'll have access to the, the first three weeks. But you'll be able to join me for the following three weeks live every Tuesday, 8pm Eastern Standard Time. And I go for about two hours. Like week one I went for three and a half hours. It was crazy. But I'm teaching everything about house hacking. You know the 4, 3, 2, 1 strategy where that's the strategy where you can get up to 10, 10 doors in four years. I'm talking about some, another different strategy that we'll talk about on, on this program today. And we're talking from tax, tax benefits, credit, how to boost your credit, business funding, how to find properties, how to analyze deals like an investor. So there's a lot that's being covered in, in the six weeks. You know it's going to be damn near 15 hours of content once it's all said and done. So it's going to be a lot of information for anyone who's looking to scale their, their real estate portfolio and get in the game and learn how to do it the right way in 2025, going into 2026. And then we also have a community aspect to it where folks are in a community, they're engaged, they're, they're pushing each other and you know, everybody is, have the same like mind, everybody's trying to get doors right. Affordability is a big issue in America today. And the best way to buy real estate in my opinion is if you're house hacking right now. So the house hack, the Freedom program is all about helping you guys achieve Freedom Freedom in 4 to 5 years through real estate.
- [25:31]
Richard Karn
So everybody that buys a ticket gets access to that. Then the raffle part is that three people will be selected and those three people will get upgraded to, to VIP tickets and then two people will be upgraded to platinum VIP tickets and then one person will, the grand prize winner will get a round trip for two people to Ghana. That includes flight, hotels, meals, the excursions, cultural experiences, you name it, Tour of Sombra City. You go in the whole six days, six days in the motherland and all you have to do is buy a ticket. And the question is okay, if I already purchased a ticket? If you already purchased a ticket you will be entered into the raffle also. And if you already purchased a ticket you will get access to the home buyers blueprint. I mean I'm sorry. You will get access to the community house. Hack to Freedom community and VIP people. Don't worry. We got something for you guys coming up in a couple weeks. This is for general admission.
- [26:41]
Matt MG
Yeah, that's what the GA stands for. I know some people were confused. They thought that I bought a ticket and I lived in Georgia. Oh, da was for general admission. That ticket enters you into this contest and you should be taking advantage of it. I mean, it's a no brainer general admission.
- [26:59]
Richard Karn
So get your tickets to Invest Fest. If you're going to Invest Fest, this is the week to get your tickets. The hotel block is on our website. So go to investfest.com, get your tickets, get your vendor boost. This is, this is vitally important. And if you buy, if you buy a vendor booth, you'll be entered into the raffle also. Okay, so let's talk about house hacking. I, I am, I posted on Instagram earlier this morning, so I am going to talk a little bit at the end about the China play. That's like the added bonus because I've been getting a lot of questions about that.
- [27:31]
Zoe Saldana
Please.
- [27:34]
Richard Karn
Let'S, let's talk about some house hacking, right? You have a new strategy?
- [27:40]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah. So with the house hacking and I kind of go into a lot of details about this in the program as well, but I give you guys a little preview of it. Let's call a spade a Spade, right? Over 85% of U.S. homes are, are either single family or duplex. So I know you guys heard me talk about 4, 3, 2, 1 all the time, but that's just not reality for the majority of America. But just because you can't get a three or four family, it doesn't mean you can't build wealth with the strategy, right? So the, the strategy is the 2, 2, 21 method, right? Start with one house, scale to six to eight doors. Now this is perfect for areas like if you're in Georgia, if you're in Texas, if you're in the south, right? You're going to have a lot of duplexes in these areas, right? So the strategy, and you guys can screenshot this if you're watching this right now, screenshot it and you can go through it later. But the strategy is you buy duplex, live in one unit, rent the other one, right? You can use FHA loan, 3 1/2% down or you can use a conventional loan with 5% down. The tenant is going to cover the most, the, the majority of your mortgage or all of the mortgages, depending on what type of rental strategy you're going to use. But the goal is again, you live in one, living this for a year, maybe two years, just depending on your living situation in life, right? And then you go into the next property and you just repeat the process. Now a lot of people will probably look at this and say, matt, I know you talk 4, 3, 2, 1, so why can't we do 4, 4, 4, 4, 4? One? It's more difficult to go from one four family to another because then the underwriters are going to really look at like, where's that four family located, the size of the four family and et cetera, et cetera. So it's much easier to do a 2, 2 because most areas that have, that are dominant with duplexes, these are all in good areas. If you have a lot of four families, most of these are more so in the hood. So what's really the motivation for moving to one hood? Spot spot. And it's basically in the same neighborhood. When you, what I see around America with the duplexes, they are positioned, you know, in high quality, good areas. So it's a little bit easier to, to say, hey, I'm moving from a different area, different school district, etc. Better neighborhood, bigger apartment, it makes more sense. So this is a strategy that I've done for years with, you know, hundreds of my clients and they've scaled and, and built their portfolio this way. So again, you guys take a screenshot. I'm not going. You can kind of go through this on your own. But the truth of it is you don't need a three or four unit to build wealth. You just need intentional buying and creative monetization with strategic reinvestment to build wealth and real estate. Now if you do the single family and duplex house hat play, short term rental income is probably going to be the key to your success. Now first of all, I'm gonna tell you guys, check your rules and your regulations when it comes to short term rentals like Airbnb and things like that. Because these rules and regulations have been changing nationwide city to city. So you want to make sure that you're meeting all the compliance and guidelines of your area. But the average daily rate as of August of 2024 for short term rentals in the U. S was about 329 a night. Right? And in 2025, short term rental occupancy rates from sites like Air DNA. And you guys can go to Air DNA and look up all the stats of yourself. They're all Rebounding. So this is an opportunity for you guys to go out here and buy these type of properties and use short term rental hacks, use midterm rental hacks to create more revenue. Now in 2024, the average revenue for short term rental host was around $36,000 a year. Now, depending on your mortgage, loan amount, interest rates and your payment, if you're able to generate about 36,000 on average a year, this is going to pay majority of your mortgage for the year. And then you guys, you have, you have things out there like if you have a swimming pool, I'm not sure if you guys. Have you ever heard of thing called swimpli?
- [32:27]
Richard Karn
No.
- [32:28]
Matt MG
Is that when you rent the pool.
- [32:30]
Zoe Saldana
You can rent, you can rent your, you can rent out your backyard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. You can rent out your backyard, you can rent out your pool. Like I have one of my mentees every year, she rents out her backyard, her pool here in New York and it pays her mortgage for the year. Like it's, it's incredible, right? Because people treat that like an event space for the day, right? So you can have somebody's backyard for eight to 10 hours and you're paying two, $300 an hour for the full use of their backyard and their swimming pool. So there's so many different ways to house hack and generate money with a single family or a duplex to make it more affordable. Now also here's another thing that people don't really realize is that border income, AKA if you have a roommate. What people don't know is Fannie Mae will allow you to use this border income to help you qualify for a mortgage under the Fannie Mae Homeready program. Now the requirements is the borrower must have a history of receiving that rental income for at least nine of the past 12 months. And you need documentation such as your lease agreement and show proof of receipt that your roommate has been paying you to or since y' all live in an apartment together and then you can use that income to help you qualify for a mortgage. So to break that down just in quick layman terms, if you are living with someone right now and you have a lease and they're on the lease with you, if they're your bona fide roommate, not just someone who just in the house and you say, hey, they live here, no, they have to be on your lease. If you know you are in position to qualify for a mortgage faster than they are, what you should do is collect the money, their portion of the rent money from them. Tell Them to sell it to you. Cash app it, whatever it is, and make sure you put that is on the, on the memo. January's rent, February's rent, March rent. Right. So we can document it that they've been paying you. And then you go ahead and pay your landlord from your account. If you do that nine months out of the past 12, then when you go qualify for your mortgage, you can use that rental income as part of your income to help you qualify for your mortgage. Yeah, I got where I'm going with this.
- [35:00]
Matt MG
I see where you're going with this. Documentation is important. Making sure you're keeping records is important. And that goes for if you're buying an individual home, but even more so in this situation when you're trying to have investment property.
- [35:12]
Richard Karn
So you, you might not. You. You've unlocked something here. Let's go back a little bit. Oh, all right. If you're in a relationship with somebody, right. And we talk about 50, 50 a lot. Right on. On these different shows and podcasts. But there, that's a real thing though, where somebody lives with somebody and they're contributing, they're contributing something, but most of the time they're just giving a person money. So it's usually either male or female. Somebody has a lease in their name and they meet somebody and after a while, and then that person just kind of ends up living with that person. They may not never be on the lease. Correct. They're contributing financially on a certain level, but there's no real documented record of them contributing financially.
- [36:00]
Zoe Saldana
Correct.
- [36:00]
Richard Karn
You're saying that boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever, you're living with somebody. That should, that should be something that's documented. Because if it is documented, then what is it called?
- [36:13]
Zoe Saldana
So it's border income. Right. So if in that same situation you have the girlfriend, let's just say the boyfriend and the girlfriend moves in. Right? Let's say that situation, the lease is in the boyfriend's name, but y' all splitting it 50, 50. As Rashad said, the girlfriend is not on the lease. Boyfriend is in position. A year from now, he wants to go buy a house for them to live in. He should now put her on the lease of the apartment. And then now when she's making that contribution, don't make it on, make it cash. She should zell him a wire transfer, a cash app, put on the memoir. It's for her portion of the rent as long as we have that document, nine out of 12 months. And then now the boyfriend goes to get pre approved and says that, hey, this is My roommate, she is going to live in the house with me. Now from a lending perspective, I can use the portion of that rental income that she's paying. Let's just say it's $1,000 a month.
- [37:24]
Matt MG
As I was gonna say clean, clean number. A thousand dollars a month right on the memo. I'm putting 500 in toward that.
- [37:31]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah.
- [37:31]
Matt MG
At the end of the year, let's say it's the 12 months now it's an additional $6,000 that you have in income.
- [37:36]
Zoe Saldana
Correct. That's now is going to be used for the boyfriend during his pre approval to help them qualify for more of a house. It's, it's a clean way of, of qualifying with using this roommate income. Because your roommates, right at the end of the day, you're not legally married. You know, you're technically single in the eyes of the, of the law. Boyfriend and girlfriend is not a marital status. Right. Last time I checked. So you're, you're legally single. This is your roommate. So if you do it that way now that rental income can now be used to help qualify for a mortgage. Now I know some people are going to say why, why won't she just go on the mortgage with him? This. Now we talk about divide and conquer. Let's just say now they move into this house, they get approved and they wind up separating. Right now she doesn't have a mortgage in her name. She can still go out here and buy a duplex, a single family and house, hack her life away as well. So just depending on your circumstances and your situation, if you understand real estate finance and these programs that are out there, and if you set your documentation up the right way, you can really go out here and scale at a very high level and reap all the benefits of wealth building with real estate if you know exactly what you're doing.
- [39:12]
Matt MG
That's a very vital play. Man, I never heard that. I'm glad you broke that down before.
- [39:16]
Richard Karn
It doesn't have to be boyfriend, girlfriend either, because there's a lot of scenarios where somebody lives with somebody.
- [39:21]
Zoe Saldana
It could just be your college roommates.
- [39:23]
Matt MG
Or it could be, could it be parent, child.
- [39:26]
Zoe Saldana
No, it can't be parent and child.
- [39:28]
Richard Karn
Right.
- [39:29]
Zoe Saldana
But let's think about college roommates. Think about what's just happened in May and June. We have all these college graduates, right? Most of them have what roommates for the majority. So first of all, if you just graduated college, congratulations. Right? But did you know that you can use your, your college education as your work history? You don't need a two year job history. You can use your college history as work history. Did you guys know that?
- [39:56]
Richard Karn
Say that again.
- [39:57]
Zoe Saldana
So you just graduated from college, you did your undergraduate, right? Four years. You're 22 years old, you're graduating. You just got a job offer from, you know, Earn your Leisure Entertainment. You're going to start and you're going to be the marketing manager. You're making a base salary at $100,000 and you have an offer letter from Earn your leisure Entertainment to start August 1st. You don't need to work at Earn your leisure Entertainment for two years. You have your college history for four years. That's your work history. You can now present that offer letter and your first pay stub and you can buy a house immediately.
- [40:37]
Matt MG
So you can use college as work experience.
- [40:39]
Zoe Saldana
Absolutely. Absolutely.
- [40:42]
Matt MG
Has that always been the case?
- [40:43]
Zoe Saldana
Absolutely.
- [40:47]
Matt MG
Okay.
- [40:48]
Zoe Saldana
Absolutely. Right? And now if you freak it, you got that college history. Four years, you got your degree. But during college you had a single family home that you was renting out. And now your roommate is on the lease. If you do what we just said with the boyfriend and girlfriend scenario, now your roommate starts paying you and you know you have a better chance of getting the house faster than them have them pay you. Now first of all, everybody gotta be on the same page with this, right? Everybody. It got to be a team effort here. So now they pay you. Instead of paying their portion of the rent, you pay the landlord. And now you can use that border. Not only can use the offer letter from Earn your leisure Entertainment, you can also use that roommate income to help you qualify. Because now that roommate is going to move into your house with you as well and continue to be a roommate.
- [41:43]
Matt MG
And that offer letter is kind of one of those things that you kind of need to have in order for this to work. You can't just go out.
- [41:50]
Zoe Saldana
We need to show that you got a job, right?
- [41:52]
Matt MG
Right.
- [41:53]
Zoe Saldana
We need to show that you have a job and it's a start date and you can go ahead and get pre approved. But one of the pre approval conditions is going to be, hey, when you get into contract, we need to know that you just, you, you're working. Now we need to see pay stubs from Earn your leisure Entertainment as we use in that example to show those pay stubs. So that way now and it matches up with the income from the offer letter. Then boom, you use that. Long as your credit is good, your DTI works, you don't have to wait two years to qualify.
- [42:30]
Matt MG
Okay, that's a good Hack, because there's a, there's plenty of college students who, there's three roommates, but there's the one person who gets the lease, right. If that person now looks at those two and that. You're just saying it for one roommate.
- [42:40]
Richard Karn
Yeah.
- [42:41]
Matt MG
Eventually that could be two or three, three roommates that are paying them. So that documentation port becomes even more important.
- [42:46]
Zoe Saldana
Exactly. But the key is everybody has to be on a lease, right? Everyone has to pay you, and then everyone has to be moving into your house. Because now it's border income, roommate income, and we're using that to help qualify. So it needs to sustain to the new house, right? The key. So if everybody's on the same page, this could be a home run. But here's how we even go a little bit deeper with this pause. If you buy a home that has a adu, an accessory dwelling unit on it, right? Everybody type ADU in chat. If you have an adu, you can use rental income from an ADU and it can help you qualify. So let's just say, for example, you don't have the roommates, you live by yourself, but you just graduated college and you want to use that college degree hack, right? But you might be short with rent with income to qualify. You find a house that has an adu and we can use that rental income from the ADU to help you qualify as well. And when you get into the adu, now we're going to use long term rental income to help you qualify, but that does not mean you have to have a long term tenant. You can now turn that ADU into a Airbnb Play vrbo. You can make it a content studio. There's so many different things you can, you can target midterm renters, like traveling nurses, like flight attendants, like depending on what city you live. So if you live close to airports, you live close to hospitals, right? You should be targeting homes that are closer in proximity to these areas because the midterm rental income from corporations, right? You have people who travel for corporations. They may need someone to stay for six weeks because they're doing a corporate project in a certain city. Think about what's happening. And guys, I'm gonna tell you another hack. And we've, I've talked about this on my program and I know you guys talked about, talk about, look at all the AI data centers that's being invested and built all around the country, right? You got Texas, I think there was two or three half a billion dollar projects that was launched this year. Think about it. These people are not the people who are constructing this. They're not going to be long term residents of Texas. Right. They're probably coming in from all different parts of walk of life. So what do they need? Rentals. They might only be out there to do a job that's going to take six months. So what do they need? A midterm rental. They don't want to sign a year lease or a two year lease. They may need only a six month leave, eight month lease. And it's going to be cheaper than the corporations putting them into a hotel because that daily rate of the hotel that gonna add up, you know what I'm saying? So you got to really take the current events and everything that's happening. I know you guys talk about it at scale on market Mondays. That's why you need to tap in every Monday, 8pm Eastern Standard Time to see what is moving and shaking. Because all of these moves that's happening in AI, those are also real estate plays too, if you're paying attention.
- [46:02]
Matt MG
Yeah, yeah. And Matt, to make this like the, the best process, I think it's important to talk about the due diligence that needs to be done. I know you talked about looking at the school districts and talked about looking at the short term rentals in the area. What are some of the things to make this the best process as possible? What things should they be looking for to make sure that they don't get the worst contractors? They're making sure that the area appreciates. What is the due diligence that's needed if I'm gonna house that?
- [46:27]
Zoe Saldana
So if you're going to house hack, I think you gotta really pay attention to your numbers first and foremost. I think a lot of folks out there have these fictitious numbers of what long term rental income is actually going to be. Short term rental market, you got to be very conservative with your numbers because there are times where people will go into these deals thinking they're going to get $2,000 a month on rent on something and it's actually like 16, 1700. Right. So that's number one. Do your numbers really analyze that real estate deal and also include all your expenses that come with owning and managing and operating these deals? Right. So if you're doing Airbnb, you got to look at what are the average cleaning expenses. You got to start really building out that team and doing your due diligence. So that way you can really calculate what is my cash flow, my net profit, my net revenue. Now when it comes to contractors, you have to really get a lot of referrals for contractors, right? Contractors can make or break your project. You should really be getting three or four different quotes when you're doing certain bids. Because especially with the word tariffs in 2025, right. I think people are charging tariffs before tariffs even effect, right. Like, it's just absolutely insane. The price had, I think the price is higher now than it was during COVID Like I, I don't know what the hell is going on with some of these quotes that people will give you on certain projects, but you really have to shop contractors right now because some people are just adding tax on type of tax on top of tax just because they think Trump is going to add the tax or they add in it right now before it's even in play. So get three or four quotes and do not be afraid to negotiate. You have to negotiate everything and you have to use tools like AI. Like I know one thing that I do when I get a quote now, I upload that quote into my chat. Gbt.
- [48:20]
Richard Karn
Yeah, I've done, I did that before. I did that with the water, water basin thing and I, I detailed the whole thing and I said, I gave it the chair. I'm like, how do you feel? And it gave me an estimate of what it should, it should be on the low end on, on average.
- [48:36]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah. And on high, it tells you everything. And if in the more details you put into it, the better if you, and even if you put pictures like what I've done, I'll put pictures of like what I'm looking to do and really break it down. And then it will give you, like Rashad said, low, high, middle. And then also ask Hope, okay, who are the companies in this area that I should be talking to? And they'll give you, give me the top 10, right. That got the best reviews, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And then it'll give you all these companies, right? So you have to use the AI and the technology that's out here available to help you do your due diligence, to help you research. Because let's face it, we don't know everything. Like I don't know everything about construction. So I got to use the tools that's in front of me to, to get the information. So now when I'm, when I'm interviewing these contractors, I can have an intelligent conversation because I already have my questions already pre written, so to speak with that information. So the due diligence process, especially in 2025, going into 2026 with all this volatility in the market, you have to. You have to really dig deep. And that's why I'm really excited to hear you talk about China, because I've been speaking to the China people. Rashad and I had a call last night, matter of fact, with Blair, and the prices are just absolutely phenomenal. Some of the that they're telling me right now I have to deposit asap. Like, let's go right now, because this is incredible. So. But that's later on the show, but, like, I had to throw that in there. But you have to do your due diligence, and you might have to do what shot in to fly out the country to go check out things for yourself to get better pricing.
- [50:20]
Matt MG
Or maybe you could just watch what he's done. He done did it for you.
- [50:26]
Zoe Saldana
My notifications are on. I don't know about y' all, like, but community service, like, this is like, first of all, kudos to you, Rashad, with that, because when you told us about this, like, what was this? Like, in the April we had that call, you said, yo, I'm going to China for this, that, and the third. And I was like, all right, this is gonna sound good. Ty gonna shout out to Ty. He gonna document it. Yo.
- [50:51]
Richard Karn
He did a great job. Well, you know the thing about it, too, because as you brought it up, I think people, okay, there's two people that can benefit from this China play. People that are building a home, furnishing a home, but then also real estate developers. Like, if you. If you're in the. If you are a real estate developer, one of our friends that's actually developing real estate, he's going out there today. I think if you're a real estate developer, I think you really need to tie in with this, because depending on what type of development you're doing, you. You can. You can get mass items for cheaper. Like, and that's important because you got to figure if you. If you're developing, let's say, a subunit, and you're building, you know, six homes, right? And you got to put in six kitchens into those homes. So you might want to just do the basic kitchen, like, you know, from Home Depot, but depending on what neighborhood you. You're building a home in, that might not necessarily fly or that might lower the value of the home, right? You might have to go a little bit higher in. On your. On your kitchen. But if you go, you. You know, like, the kitchen is probably going to be one of the most expensive items in the house. Kitchen in the bathroom. Right. So you save, let's say you save 30, 40, 50% times that, times five, you're going to have a substantial savings. What does that do? That adds more profit to you the more money you say, because you can still charge the same amount of money for the house, right? It's like you haven't compromised the quality of the home. So if you, if you're like, I probably saved $300,000, right? But I'm, I'm a home, I'm just a home owner. If I'm a home developer, now times that, times six, seven. But then I'm still selling that market rate. So now you just made yourself $2 million by executing smartly. Right. So. And it's. Maybe it's something that we could talk about at Invest Fest. Let us know in chat. Let us know in chat if you're interested in having a panel about the whole China play in its entirety at Invest Fest. Because I've been getting a lot of dms and a lot of people, you know, been following the journey, so, you know, maybe that's something that we can really add to the Invest Fest portfolio per se. But I do think that you can def. And you don't have to go out there, like, even you, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, you, you're talking like, that's the good thing. But you gotta know you got to work with somebody already there because they're not all the same. That's important for people to know. Like, you just can't show up in China and just be like, I'm here. You can. You technically can. Because it's like, you know, the area of fu strong there, that's manufacturing heaven. And they do everything from clothes to hair bundles, press on nails, anything that you think of, they manufacture. So you can go electronics, you can go and just stumble. And you can get still probably a better price than you'll pay in America. But if you really, really want to get like, because each, like, for instance, my.
- [54:09]
Matt MG
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- [55:28]
Zoe Saldana
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- [55:57]
Richard Karn
Go to wix.com kitchen and closet I went to a store that specializes in just kitchens and closets, right. And the prices were so good. I asked them if they could do everything but they like we really can't because we only specialize in kitchens and closets. So I went to like six different stores to put it all together. But it's worth it. But you got to have somebody to kind of walk you through that process. Right. Like you can't just do that on your own because you, it's kind of hard logistically to go to six different.
- [56:30]
Matt MG
Places I think even from the standpoint and you kind of mentioned in the video, but you start to think when you're building commercial spaces or you're building hotels like they've been doing it all the, all this time. And the difference is that they get to charge you every night.
- [56:45]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah.
- [56:46]
Matt MG
So the, the long term pay obviously if you're building a subdivision those are, those are homes but the hotel play like that's a nightly income that's coming in. Especially if you've gotten the things manufactured in bulk. Whether it's the, the nightstand or it's the headboard for, for the beds, every room pretty much is the same unless you, you know, get a specialized suite. These things come in bulk and now you're looking at like wait, they've made savings on the, the actual bed building of the hotel or whatever the commercial space Is and now they're charging you every night. So the long term income comes back from it as well.
- [57:18]
Richard Karn
And the chandeliers, like I met the people that make chandeliers for all of the like a lot of the top hotels in America and abroad and they were showing me these massive chandeliers that they're making in top American brands by their chandeliers, right? So it's just like damn, who thought about. Whoever thinks about chandeliers now Every hotel that I walk into, I'm looking at the chandelier because I'm. Because it's in my, it's in my brain, right? But that's a real business like damn. Like manufacturing then shipping and you know who's out there. And you, you could appreciate this is on the real estate side. It's unfortunate because there's only a few black Americans that's really on this wave right now. Like shout out to Blair, she's from Detroit, she lives out there. Yeah, but the African brothers is out there. Heavy. Yeah, heavy. Like I went to a place that had 200000 Africans and then. Yeah, it's a fact. And because they already, because they're on it all over from all over Africa and they're buying and they're sending it back to Africa for new constructions, new builds.
- [58:25]
Matt MG
And we saw a lot and we saw while we were in Africa a bunch of new builds.
- [58:32]
Richard Karn
It's housing shortages all over Africa. So the real estate market on the continent is, is going crazy because they have that they have a young population, it's only getting younger. They don't have enough housing. So all over you see government housing, you see private subsidy, you see everything. Like it's all kinds of development. High rises, small mini homes, they got container homes, any type of real estate.
- [58:54]
Matt MG
That you could think of, luxury homes, luxury hotels.
- [58:56]
Richard Karn
They're building, they're building a lot of real estate. So China is playing a major part in supplying a lot of these real estate developments with pretty much everything from tiles to lights to you know, sofas, kitchens, sinks, you name it.
- [59:10]
Matt MG
Oh man, he got. That's that real estate brain. You start walking in spaces, you're looking at the tiles, you look at the chandeliers, looking at everything, you're looking at the wallpaper.
- [59:19]
Zoe Saldana
So let me ask you. Shoddy, right? So you say you saved 300,000 estimated what this trip to China. And I saw somebody in the comments on your last post talking about a trip that used to my cutting out the middleman. And it was like, well, a trip to China Gonna cost you $5,000 plus 18 hours, right? Like, I think people gotta stop having a small mind like that. Like 18 hours, you could sleep that, right? But you just, you brought your whole house, it sounds like in China in six days.
- [59:52]
Richard Karn
And you know what too, for me, everybody's situation is different. For me, I, even if I didn't save any money, the experience alone would have been worth it because it's like I really value traveling and China is a place that I always just kind of. No, I didn't really. You know, it's like one of these things, right? Like you just see China from afar. But even to get there is a process. Like you got to get a visa, right? That alone is going to knock out 70 people. 70 of the people because you actually got to go to the Chinese console, wait, get the visa, come back a week later. It's a process to actually get the visa. So I'm like, yeah, I want to go to China, man. Like, you know, I mean, like I, I just, I just thought that that was interesting just to actually see things for myself, especially now during tariffs and all that stuff. So to that brother, I would say just sometimes you're missing opportunities because you're looking at things the wrong way, right? Like you don't know what you're going, who you're going to meet, what kind of relationships, what's going, information you're going to get that's going to open your mind. Like we know what's going to happen if you stay home. You, you've been doing that your whole life. Take a risk. Sometimes in life you just got to take a risk. Like, you know, I mean, so it worked out because like you said, I did save a lot of money, but the exposure part for me was, was just different. And then even like, no, I'm in China and like my niece now she want to do press on nail business. So I got, I actually have the plug for press on nails. It's a real thing in China. So you know, I just think that as a community, like I said, there's 200 000. I'm gonna keep saying that because it's like we need to, we black Americans need to start thinking like differently. Like we still caught on this domestic stay scarcity mindset. What if it goes wrong? I'm gonna lose $3,000. Like bro, they already there. They figured it out already. Like I'm saying, like, don't, don't. You can't. That's why you got to go to invest fest. You can't think with a small mind and think you're gonna make it big in life. It's not gonna happen.
- [61:53]
Matt MG
Yeah, I think that it's the mindset piece where it's like, even if, like, I wasn't there, but I get to learn from it. I think, like, understanding that part, right? There's always a lesson that you can learn from somebody else's experience, right? Like, I didn't. My house is built, right? So I'm like, all right, well, what can I learn? What can I watch? I'm watching the moves, all right? Not just in the home space, but they're going live. They're showing, like, yo, this is what it looks like from a fashion standpoint. This is what. Yo, this leather goods, right? We've all been victim of purchasing those things. This is what it looks like. Here's what manufacturing looks like. There's. There's so much you can learn. Like I said, I'm watching the hotel space. I know what that's like. I'm like. I'm looking at the towels everywhere now. There's always a piece. I thought you. You actually handled it in the probably the most mature way. Like, yo, I didn't. It may not work for you, bro. I'm just telling you that this is how it went for me. And if you can learn something from it, great. If you don't, you're more power to you, bro. But this is what we own.
- [62:44]
Zoe Saldana
People know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.
- [62:47]
Matt MG
That's a fact. Everybody tell you how to do it. They never did it.
- [62:50]
Zoe Saldana
They never did it.
- [62:51]
Richard Karn
But on some gym standpoint, because I do want to kitchen. If you're looking to buy a kitchen, at the very least, I would look at china, because I think you're going to save a lot of, like, the price that they quoted me for the kitchen. I was. I. I had to ask again. I had to ask twice because, for instance, somebody. One of my friends is building a home in Atlanta. He had the slab. Like, you know, if you have an island in your kitchen, you. You have a slab that goes on top of the island, right? It could be marble. It could be coarse. It could be different material, right? And they put designs on it. It looks like, you know, looks like the squiggly marble lines. Like, you know, those things can become pricey. So the price that he paid for the top layer that goes on top of the island. Not the island. The top of the island is the price that they charged me for the entire kitchen. So I would definitely suggest I think that kitchens for sure, I think you can save a lot of money on bathrooms and then a lot of other stuff too. But you know, it just depends. Like, some people might just want a regular couch, they might not want, you know, a luxury couch, or they might just want, they might just want to paint their walls. They might not want like, you know, you get different fabrics. It's like, you know, once you start going through this rabbit hole on tick tock it, your algorithm becomes non stop real estate stuff. So I've been seeing stuff like the custom made desk and swivel chairs. And you know, you just. Those aren't necessary, but they're nice to have. But the kitchen aspect, that was pretty eye opening for me. And I'm like, okay, I, I get it now. I understand why people is coming out here.
- [64:37]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah. When you told me the price of your kitchen and the master closet, I was sold right then and there. Because a closet, you know, if you, you know, this is not a small room, you know, and you doing custom cabinetry in your closet, you know, that adds up quick, fast, in a hurry. And when you told me the price for both, I'm like, damn, that's just a, that's just your closet. Really, you know what I'm saying? And like the kitchen, a kitchen in America, you know, if you got, let's just say a standard, a big kitchen is 20 by 20, right. A 20 by 2400 square feet, you can fit a lot. You can do a nice 1012 foot island in there. Like it's a good space. You're gonna spend a hundred to125,000 just depending on how high end your appliances is. And when you told me that price, I'm like, yo, please connect me with her.
- [65:34]
Matt MG
Now. Here's. This is also a piece of the education is like, when do you do it? Right? So like you went there, obviously the building process has begun. But like most people, you're not just, are you going there before, are you going there during the process? Are we waiting? Like, is there a benchmark? I think when it would be good to go?
- [65:52]
Richard Karn
I think it takes three to four months to actually complete from start to finish that. So you should have that time frame in your head. So if you are like, for me, I'm at the point now where I'm about to have floors probably in the next month or two months. Right. So it's a good time because you haven't put up walls yet. I'm still like designing. Yeah, I'm still in that Phase. But I mean, it really just depends on. Even if you have a home built, you might just gotta, you gotta wait a little bit longer. But that, that wait might be worth it. But you don't want to get it too early because if you get it too early and there's nowhere to deliver it, I mean, you, you, you have to pay for storage at. So this is an important part of the aspect. You, you have to get a container. So the container cost around $12,000. It's a big. If you ever go to the shipping yard use. No, you notice the shipping yards, like all they're filled with containers.
- [66:50]
Zoe Saldana
Is that. Did you do a 40 foot or 20 foot container for 12?
- [66:55]
Richard Karn
I haven't gotten the container yet because they got. We're gonna figure out how big all of the stuff needs to be. Okay, but I think the 40 foot is 12. Okay, I'll double check that. So, but once again, it's just the education because when you, you see stuff all the time, you never think about it. I've been seeing, I've seen containers in person. When I was in Baltimore, I used to work as a side hustle. On the weekend. We used to go to the dock because, you know, Baltimore is a major shipping port. So we used to actually go to the dock and we worked at the dock on the, on the weekends, the basketball team. And I was seeing all these ships come in and I, But I never, nobody ever thought about anything. But now I'm like, okay, because I'm actually, now I'm in the, I'm in the import export game, right? So now I'm actually realizing, okay, this is how it actually works. So you get, you, you got to get a container. So you want to fill that container up too, because you don't want to leave any empty space. You're still going to pay the same price whether it's half empty or whether it's all the way full. So that's another reason why you should get as much stuff as possible. But also this is some other game because even my contractor has said it before. My contractor was getting stuff from China. That's what really opened my eyes too. He was gonna, he was gonna get me a closet from China. I know the place where he's gonna get it from and he'll give me my door from China. So I'm like. And then I found out the exact store. But he told me, he's like, look, when you go to China, if you have room, let's just go half on the container. So I say, that to say if you have friends that are building a home or have homes or not even homes, whatever it is, like, as I said, you can get anything from China. So if you. If. If you. Four friends, right, y' all gonna blow that money in the club anyway. Why not just, you know, whether you want to get bundles of hair, press on, nails, clothes. You think about what you want to get, right? And then you get four friends and y' all put money together. You buy the product, then you put together the container money, and then you ship it. Now, the tariffs. Tariffs is another thing that you should be aware of that. That goes. That's a market Mondays play, but that's a real estate play is also because it's important to know what to ship. Not a good idea to ship wood. I found out a wood is not cheap there because they don't really have wood. They import wood from Russia and, like, Africa. So the. The wood is not too much cheaper than it is in America. It might be even more expensive, but there's a special tariff on that tax, which makes it even higher. So you don't want to import any. You don't want to buy any wood in China.
- [69:29]
Zoe Saldana
Even engineered wood or just engineer wood is good. Okay.
- [69:33]
Richard Karn
Engineer wood is good, but, like, real. Real wood.
- [69:37]
Zoe Saldana
Okay.
- [69:37]
Matt MG
Yeah, we. We usually. Obviously, that's gonna come from Ken. I just want to add a little context to what you're saying, because the container is important, right? That's for the storage piece, but I add a little bit onto it. You might want to look into having a receiver, too. Right. So in order for it to get from the container, Right. Sometimes they'll bring it directly to the site, but sometimes your house might not be ready. And so there's always delays, obviously. So even like, in a case where it's like, I'm gonna have floors in a month, and Matt, you notice more than probably us, it's like, yeah, that one month turned into three, but that container is not here. So where we put the stuff. And so sometimes having a receiver, somebody that now stores that for you. So actually, when it's done, it now can bring it to your house. And you might not want everything done right. So if you order furniture, you order your couch or you order your bed, right? This. You still might be putting the floors down. They still might be putting drywall and paint. You don't want that stuff getting on your furniture or on the things that you bought or even your appliance or your kitchen. And so the receiver will hold that until it's Time and those things get brought in piece by piece. Just another, another thing to do in terms of insurance. Right. Like what happens when something is, is damaged in that right now the receiver will see that and there's insurance that goes with that. Right. So it can go back or hey, you know what? This happened in the, the transport of the actual item. And so now you have a little protection there. So like the container is important, but like having those things in place too because you, like I said, delays happen all the time and you can't control that.
- [71:01]
Richard Karn
Yeah. Even on the docs they have, they have holding docs. No. So even when it gets to like the port, you pay money, but they have like lockers that will actually you could, you could pay like monthly. It's like storage. It doesn't even have to leave the dock, but you do have to have transport service to get from the dock to your house. You can do it yourself. That is obviously a little bit more involved but you save some money. But most of the like, that's why it's also good to have a connect on the ground. They, they set up the transfer service for you and the stores that you work where you want to just make sure they have a warranty. Most of the stores have warranties though. Like they have like 10 year warranties and, and the whole instructional. They make video guides for people to put it together. Because like I said, like people been buying stuff from China for a long time, companies and stuff like that. So it's not like a new thing. It's been, it's been happening for years. It's just now retail consumers are getting hip to it. But the idea of, you know, shipping stuff, buying it, that's why they want to put tariffs on it. Right. Because they've been making so much money shipping into America for years or you know, a low amount of money. So. But you have to pay the tariffs. That's important. So just calculate that and however much you're spending. But if you, if you buy in the right price, even with the tariffs added on, which is anywhere from 30 to 50, you're still gonna, you're still gonna like the chandelier. Chandelier is another thing. Like the price that I saw for chandelier was unbelievable. Like the chandelier that I sent you that it looked like.
- [72:33]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah, yeah, it was crazy.
- [72:36]
Richard Karn
It was 50. It was a 50 foot crystal chandelier from Florida, ceiling for, for $12,000. And you probably could have talked it down for like $8,000. Like there's no way that's going to be that price in America.
- [72:47]
Zoe Saldana
So let me ask you shoddy with the quality, like, especially like kitchens. Right. Because, you know, you can get a kitchen and it can be made out of just. And still they can make it look good, but it's still right. Talk to us about the quality of like the kitchens, the cabinetry, because everything's made to order from what I'm being told. Right. When you was inspecting these kitchens, especially from that store, you said they, they, the price was good, everything was good. Like, how was the quality of like, their workmanship, the craftsmanship of like these kitchens and stuff like that?
- [73:21]
Richard Karn
No quality is excellent. One thing about China, you can get it as high quality as you want or you can get as low quality as you want, but the quality, the place that I was going to was high quality. So it was, it was good. Like, it was, it was. Everything was detailed. Very, very detailed. Like, I mean, it looked like, like I said, I mean, they have very good craftsmanship. I'll say that. They have very good craftsmanship. And the good thing about it is that most of these places have. The manufacturing is actually taking place in the store. So it's like a lot that show want to be on the second floor. Manufacturing is getting made on the third floor or first floor.
- [73:58]
Zoe Saldana
Okay.
- [73:59]
Richard Karn
So it's like, you know, a lot of the stores in America, they don't have that. Like, they're getting it shipped in. So like, you go to the store, then you can. Well, I don't know if everybody can, but for me, they let me see where they was actually making it. So you could tell a lot by that too, because some, you could tell the quality a lot of times by how the manufacturing looks. Some manufacturer places I went to, it looked, you know, like it had a long day. Some of them look like some state of the art, like, you know what I'm saying? So I'm like you said, I had a long day, a little older, so. But that's a good thing though, because the manufacturing happens right there. So it's like it's going from one floor to the next floor, from manufacturing to the showroom.
- [74:45]
Matt MG
Yeah. I think part of it is that mindset, right? Like, and I think you posted it as well as, like when we think China, we think cheap products. And part of that mindset is, is still there from, from this side of the world. Right. Like when we, we think high quality, like even like a Zara is a discounted clothes, but there's also teemu in a sheen and right when people get products from those places, it's like the quality isn't the best. Like we can say it, it's going to be cheaper and you can have it. And so like what, what do you think needs to be done? Obviously what you've done from the journalistic standpoint and actually debunking some things and showing some things and I'm sure there's a lot more. How do we shift mindset? And Matt, we'll get back to you in a little bit, but this is important stuff.
- [75:23]
Zoe Saldana
China is very important right now.
- [75:24]
Richard Karn
Yeah, yeah. Not what I think. What about what do I think needs to be changed? Yeah, how do we help change the mindset?
- [75:31]
Matt MG
I guess navigate that, that approach to change it.
- [75:34]
Richard Karn
It's crazy because people that think that everything is made in China. I read a report that 40, 40, 40, 30 to 40 of the world's manufacturing, every part of the world's manufacturing comes from China. So it's great like that that term made in China is a real thing. It's a real thing. So I mean it's, it's crazy to think that you would only equate things that's made in China with being cheap because everything is made in China.
- [76:02]
Matt MG
I would assume everything that we're using right now is exactly.
- [76:06]
Richard Karn
Made in China. Mid stuff made is made in China. High expensive stuff is made in China. So I think, I think the deeper sense goes back to white supremacy and it ties in to the idea that we talked about before that any luxury item has to come from a European country. So when we equate luxury, we think of Italy.
- [76:30]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah.
- [76:30]
Richard Karn
We think of Paris. Right. We think of London. We don't think of Africa at all. We don't, we don't, we don't think Africa at all. Even though all of this stuff comes from Africa. We don't think Asia at all. We, we don't, we look at China as like even when J.D. vance called them peasants, that was an ignorant thing for him to say, but that reflects a mindset. He didn't just say that for any, for, for no reason. Right. You look at them, it's like, oh, they, they a good workforce but it's not high level quality. Right. But like, like I said, I want this, I want especially the place that I went to when like I went to this place with it was all towels and fabrics and stuff. You would think you was in Soho, like how to, even how they was dressing super like trendy. I mean it was just some flyness, like it was just super, super Fly, fly. Like concrete. Like, you know that concrete. You ever go into like these luxury fashion stores and they got concrete floors? It looks like concrete, but it's not like concrete floor. The concrete wall. It's just crazy. Like, you know, I mean, so I think that, that once again, that goes back to just equating anything luxurious, high level, ultra luxurious to a few places on the globe that have coin that like Switzerland and stuff like that. But when you really start to travel, you see, like, nah, I mean, luxury can be made anywhere. And most of the time those luxury. I'm like, I said the thing with the Chinese is that they're very. They don't take credit for a lot of stuff. But I met, I actually met like this, like the top luxury stores in the world. Like, even their interior and their exterior. I sent you a picture, man. I'm not gonna say the name, but yeah, I'm the people that make their exterior and interior. I met them, I went to their store and they like, yo, you just don't put this on camera.
- [78:32]
Zoe Saldana
It's high quality.
- [78:33]
Richard Karn
Exactly.
- [78:34]
Zoe Saldana
I'm looking at the picture like, yo, this is fire.
- [78:37]
Richard Karn
And these are. And by the way, these are, these are Europe. These are European fashion houses. European fashion houses. The top luxury European brands in the world is getting their interior, exterior, the decor. Not even just their clothes, their decor. They're getting their decor work from China. They're not. It's not getting. It's not coming from Italy, not coming from Switzerland. It's coming from China.
- [79:03]
Zoe Saldana
So what was the, the one thing that you learned or surprised you out there that you didn't expect, like, going out there on this trip? Like, what was that one thing that just made you say damn?
- [79:17]
Richard Karn
Just the vastness of it. That's another thing. If you're going out there, you know, they have different cities for different things inside of home decor. So they have a lighting city. Just flight. Like that, that thing I put on Instagram, 14 floors, mall for lights. That's not the only light. That's the lighting district. That's just the mall. They have a whole town district just for lights. Like, they have like, they have different towns for different things. That to me was amazing because I'm like, damn. And it's just, it's unbelievable. Like, it's unbelievable. Like, and even like, they have the electronic section of like a town for electronics. They have a town like a section just for hair. They have a section just for clothes. They got a section for handbags. I even get a chance to go to the Handbag section. They got a section for handbags. Like, but like I said, the homes like, it just amazed me how they had lights. I would have never even thought. And that's mult. They have multiple lighting malls. Like they have light. A mall just for lights. Like they have a whole district just for like couches and beds, you know, say so it's like the. Think about how much product they're selling if they have a mall full of lights. Multiple mall full of lights. Think about how, how they're. They're lighting the world. Literally.
- [80:43]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah, literally. Made in China.
- [80:47]
Richard Karn
China is crazy. So that's to me like that, that one thing to me just, that just, that was amazing to me. And that's just like. I really think that. Not to get too far off topic, but the one thing that was, I was encouraged was with the Africans. But there's also a little disappointing is that on the continent they're not mentioning anything. They don't manufacture anything. They, they're traders. They're good traders. Right, but on the continent. But then us, us in America too, we got to actually start making things. Like, Donald Trump's not wrong in what he's saying. We do have to, we do have to make things. But I think he's wrong in the way he's going about it. But not take America out of it. I'm talking about like us as a community. We have to produce things.
- [81:29]
Matt MG
I thought she was going to say that Kanye wasn't wrong what he was saying.
- [81:33]
Richard Karn
No, Kanye was. Remember I said, I said in London. Yeah, this is crazy. I said in London, we did the Royal album hall. We was doing press and all that. I said this is when the whole thing first happened. I said if I was Kanye, I would go to China right now. I would live in China. Yeah, that's before I even went to China.
- [81:49]
Matt MG
Yeah, this is.
- [81:50]
Richard Karn
Reaffirms what I was saying. If he was really serious about what he was talking about. They have, they have it already. He could have literally made all of his product in China for way cheaper, distributed it. He should have just set up shop in China for six months.
- [82:04]
Matt MG
That's, that's why I thought she was going. Because what he, he chose to go to Italy to do it and realized that we don't own anything. We don't own manufacturing. I kept writing about it and that's how it kind of prompted. And I was going to leave with like, yes, those are a bunch of glows with any negative setbacks or things that you saw. And I think you kind of just answered it though. Like, not seeing us own any manufacturing from the. On the continent, but being there, producing.
- [82:27]
Richard Karn
And not owning anywhere. We don't produce anything. Yeah, that's the problem. Like, that's one key takeaway from this whole situation. We don't produce enough. We gotta start producing, like, as something we gotta produce. We gotta produce food, we gotta produce clothes. We. We have. We have to produce something. It's good to buy and it's good to trade. But the next level, the higher level, is to actually make products and make goods. That's my thesis on this whole situation. But if you want to see it, if you want to see this conversation in detailed and if you would like my resources and my plugs, because I have the plug. Blair shout out to her nephew, my interior designer. She knows a lot. I have Paulina, who's my translator and also grounds on. She's Chinese. As far as she knows all this stuff. I have a whole team that I've actually figured this thing out. If you would like to see that and go through the process and know the exact stores to buy from and know the exact plugs. If you're interested in seeing that at Invest Fest, let us know in chat, possibly. W's in chat to make some phone calls. We can see if we can add it to this year's lineup. It's not too late.
- [83:44]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah, I think we definitely need to add that because I don't even think we need W's in chat. We just need to make the calls, get them over here on the first thing. Flying 18 hours. Because. And I'm telling y' all this, man, because I've had conversations with Blair twice this week already. And just what she's sending me just from like a garage door, y' all, like, you know, like, doors, like, is very important.
- [84:13]
Richard Karn
Like, that's another thing not to cut you off. I got. I got 52 doors. Thanks. 40 or 40 or 52 doors.
- [84:21]
Matt MG
It's interior.
- [84:22]
Richard Karn
Interior, right? Yeah. And they got all kinds of doors. Windows. I got my windows already. I showed you that thing, the. The soundproof window thing. Yeah, it's crazy.
- [84:33]
Zoe Saldana
That's crazy. For. For the windows and the doors. So, like. Oh, you guys know like the accordion doors, right? For like, you can go from your house to your backyard and it opens all the way up, right? Like a ten foot, ten by eight foot door. I was quoted on that $13,000, right? Blair told me, yo, she sent me that. She just got it for one of her other clients. The same exact door for $2,000, bro. Same make, frame, like still, like the whole nine yards, a tempered glass. I said, are you kidding me? 10. A ten thousand dollar saving just on the one door. I say, yo, I need three of those, you know what I'm saying? Like.
- [85:16]
Richard Karn
Gym equipment. That's another thing I got. I, I, there's this, there's this full set of gym. It does everything. It's like, it's like 12 different things. So I sent it to my trainer and I said, yo, how much would this cost in America? He said, eight thousand dollars. And I paid eleven hundred dollars for it in China.
- [85:32]
Zoe Saldana
It's crazy. She told me the same thing. She said, she said, matt, if you want to do your gym, your movie theater, you know, everything that you want to do. Like I'm ordering my interior doors. Like, I got a call with her tomorrow.
- [85:44]
Richard Karn
Oh, I secured the lights too. The, we, we saw this, we did a taping and we saw, you know, the Rolls Royce lights on the, on the ceiling.
- [85:56]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah.
- [85:56]
Richard Karn
And the shooting star.
- [85:58]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah.
- [85:58]
Richard Karn
So when we asked the guy when we was taping was like, how much this cost? He, he said like it was like over $10,000, something like that.
- [86:06]
Matt MG
What do you mean?
- [86:07]
Richard Karn
For that, to have the lights. Remember we was doing this, that shoot and we saw the ceiling with the lights.
- [86:12]
Matt MG
Oh, oh, you saw, oh, you're talking about in like a theater room.
- [86:15]
Richard Karn
Yeah, yeah.
- [86:16]
Matt MG
Oh, in Cali.
- [86:18]
Richard Karn
Yeah. You remember that?
- [86:19]
Matt MG
Yeah, that was for a project that.
- [86:21]
Richard Karn
Was, he's like, yeah, he's like, yo, it's pretty. He's like, you know, it's kind of expensive. I think he said like 10, $20,000, something like that. Under a thousand. Under a thousand dollars.
- [86:31]
Zoe Saldana
Wait a minute. So I know exactly what you're talking.
- [86:33]
Matt MG
The ghost Phantom.
- [86:34]
Zoe Saldana
Like it's the phantom lights in your movie theater. Yeah, right. And they got the shooting stars. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen that in people's houses and a lot in Cali too.
- [86:42]
Richard Karn
No, anything that you think of. But I'll say this too, this is important. Know your measurements.
- [86:49]
Zoe Saldana
Very important.
- [86:50]
Richard Karn
You gotta, you gotta give them the exact measurements because you don't want to make any mistakes and double check the measurement to make sure. But the measurements, very important. That's the, I don't want to forget that part. If you're looking up to do anything for your home, know yet, know your measurements. Get the matterport. Gotta get the matterport of your house.
- [87:14]
Zoe Saldana
That's the, Write that down. What's the matterport?
- [87:17]
Richard Karn
Shot the matterport.
- [87:21]
Zoe Saldana
Saying that to people, right.
- [87:23]
Richard Karn
Google it. They do like a whole surveillance of your house as far as like a 3D thing. So they give you the exact measurement blueprint, like what it actually looks like. Because sometimes even a measurement on a blueprint can be slightly off. Because blueprints written on paper, so it's human error that happens. Right? Like they might say, okay, this is 10 Foot. But when they do it, it actually might. It might be actually like ten and a half feet.
- [87:50]
Matt MG
Or it could be ten feet, two inches.
- [87:54]
Richard Karn
Yeah, it might be slightly off. So you want to double check with the tape. But then also the matter part actually does it where they have like a. Like a beam that goes around and then it catches everything on the electric. Electric. I don't even know how it registers, but it gives you like a full detailed of like, okay, the closet is 10ft by 6ft and you actually can see it on a.
- [88:17]
Matt MG
But can I add context to it? Because it's important when you do that. And that's why I said the timing is important. Right? Because what most people will do is that they forget that, wait, we haven't Sheetrocked yet. So, like, that quarter of an inch counts, right? Oh, I haven't my floors. Or like, what's the measurement? The size of my four planks. Like, that changes. So you gotta. It's like extremely detailed. Because you can't. You can't be off a quarter inch. Especially like you're talking about these prize most prominent places in your house, your kitchen. Right. Your bathroom tiles. Like, a quarter inch changes everything, right? Like that'll throw everything off. Especially if it's your island or it's your countertops or if it's even a talent on that. Like, you got to be specific with it. So, like, having those things, precise measurements are vitally important. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [89:03]
Zoe Saldana
Great conversation about China, man. I'm looking forward to hearing this at Invest Fest in more detail.
- [89:09]
Matt MG
I'm a general contractor, by the way.
- [89:11]
Zoe Saldana
I think at this point, we all are. We all are. Now we. Now we in the import and export business.
- [89:22]
Richard Karn
This is the last hack I'll give for China. When you're doing your bathroom. This is. I. I didn't. You gotta. So you gotta get a shower kit. I think that's what it's called, right. For when you. When you're putting in a shower. Oh, you get a shower kit. I didn't know where the shower. They was telling me this. My contractor kept. He's like, you gotta give me a shower. You got. You gotta give me the shower kit.
- [89:41]
Matt MG
Yeah.
- [89:42]
Richard Karn
He wasn't explaining to me what a shower kit was, so I thought he meant I got to give him the whole. Because, like, when you go to, like, a store to buy a shower, like, they'll. They'll show you the whole entire thing, right? So I'm thinking I got to get the whole entire thing, but I'm like, I'm not ready to get the whole entire thing yet. Then they finally explained it to me with the plumber, and. And I'm like, okay, now I get it. The shower kip is the actual shower head. The. The. The thing that. The tile that. The thing that you turn and then the actual pipe. Right? But I didn't know that. But this is. This is out. So I got all of those right from America. I didn't get that from China. I got that from America so they could continue construction because they couldn't. They couldn't put the walls up until they actually had that. But you get the tiles from China, you get all of the. And then you. You have it made in. So you. You design the bathroom.
- [90:36]
Matt MG
You want to talk about the tiles, too?
- [90:38]
Richard Karn
Huh?
- [90:38]
Matt MG
Remember that? Well, go ahead. Yeah, that. That could save you money. What, the size of your tiles, the.
- [90:44]
Richard Karn
Size of your tiles, depending on what type of tiles or what type of thing. But whatever you're going to get on the outside, right? Whether it's marble, whether it's top, whatever, you get that from China, because you don't get that from substantially less. And then it's just a cover at that point. Like, you cover the floor, you cover the bathtub. Like, you cover the bathtub, like you. You cut it, right? And your bathroom looks like you actually brought that bathroom in its entirety. But the only thing that you really purchased was the material which was made on the out frame. The piping you got from America. That's important. But everything else, so that. So it's like you. You. You put it. You put it together. That's how you save a lot of money on the bathroom. Because the bathroom quote that I got quoted on, we went to the first place in America. And the quote that I got quoted for. Well, my. My bathroom.
- [91:39]
Matt MG
One bath. One bathroom.
- [91:41]
Richard Karn
One bathroom, yeah. Was 60% of what I paid for the whole entire house in China.
- [91:54]
Zoe Saldana
Man. Don't let that go over your head. Your bathroom was 60% of the cost of everything you got in China.
- [92:03]
Richard Karn
Yes.
- [92:06]
Zoe Saldana
God bless China and everything in it.
- [92:14]
Richard Karn
Like, you gotta think about all of this stuff. The vanity, the. Like, you know, nobody thinks when you.
- [92:19]
Zoe Saldana
Told me you're pricing on those vanities, I think you said, well, you got like five, six vanities or something for like a couple dollars. I'm like, and, and look, and for those of you who don't know, Rashad, you could just go to his drip reports and understand my man likes the finest of fabrics. So you can understand when he's talking about these things, it's always, it's going to be the finest of material and fabrics and everything like it. So when he tells me these prices, I'm like, I know my boy ain't out here talking about the bottom of the barrel type. It's the highest of the highest. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, China Invest fast grow.
- [92:59]
Richard Karn
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.
- [93:02]
Zoe Saldana
Get your tickets, get your tickets now. Go to invest fest.com. we got the raffle going on. You get access to the house. House hack. The freedom. We might throw some China calls at Invest Fest and do the whole China workshop. Like, we might need to set up everything there because the way this is.
- [93:20]
Richard Karn
Sounding, bro, we might need to do multiple china panels. We might need to do one on the house side, then one on clothing side and then one on, one on beauty side. Because I didn't even talk about the beauty aspect. Like, you know, makeup and all that stuff. You get that from dirt cheap too. So all the women like doing all of the, they, they making a lot of money selling all these, like, you.
- [93:44]
Zoe Saldana
Know, yeah, this is the home, this is, this is the super bowl for hustlers, man. So I, I honestly think we should have probably like, I have a two to three hour type of like workshop seminar, something like that, just dedicated to like what we're talking about right here. Because this can help everybody who's in business, whether it's real estate, business, beauty, everything that you're naming, like, help us all save money and make, and make more money, more profit. And that's the spirit of Invest Fest, is to make more money and who, who else better to bring it to America than us? Like, we need that at Invest Fest.
- [94:21]
Matt MG
Yeah, I think there's a multiple plays too. And we kind of spoke about it. I'm like, yeah, from the China standpoint is important, but like you just brought up from the African standpoint is equally as important. Right? When we're talking about, yes, we've traveled the continent, how do we invest in infrastructure so that manufacturing can happen? Right. We know what it's going to cost to do it here, but how do we make sure that we get the knowledge and we have the People who have the knowledge and who are already building out there from a real estate standpoint. But how do we build industry? Right. Like that's important too. So like now it's not just a Chinese, it's an international investing standpoint and we got the space to do it, man. I think we should, we should definitely implement it.
- [95:00]
Richard Karn
Stay tuned.
- [95:02]
Zoe Saldana
That's fest.com.
- [95:07]
Matt MG
The URL.
- [95:08]
Richard Karn
Yeah.
- [95:09]
Zoe Saldana
Bestfest.com and follow invest Fest on Instagram for all updates because this is going to be an interesting one year five.
- [95:19]
Matt MG
It's a fact important.
- [95:22]
Richard Karn
It's an important one.
- [95:25]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah. Very enlightening conversation, fellas. This was, I know we, we went completely off topic, but it was on topic.
- [95:32]
Matt MG
So I think it was all real estate. No.
- [95:34]
Richard Karn
Yeah. And it's timely. Like I said. I know a lot of people had questions. I got a chance to speak about it on market Mondays a little bit, but I didn't get a chance to really go in depth and kind of break down, you know, like where I think you can save the most money and best practices and stuff like that. So I think that it was a timely conversation and I'm glad that we had it. And hopefully, you know, you know, just opens people's minds. And like I said, we definitely go into some more details for sure. But the first level you got to have just, you know, got to open your mind in stages. This is a 18 hour flight so we got to make sure, you know, you gotta go about this.
- [96:08]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah. I could tell you change my whole perspective on, on this because I've been looking at everything do my finishes right now and from kitchens, the bathrooms, I mean that was like 200k just right there just to do kitchens and bathrooms in here. And just me this week speaking to the plug, just from what she's telling me, I might save myself like a hundred and sixty thousand dollars just on that right there alone. So it's exciting.
- [96:36]
Matt MG
So who, who, whose house party is first?
- [96:40]
Zoe Saldana
Yours?
- [96:41]
Richard Karn
No, you already.
- [96:46]
Zoe Saldana
We see you and daddy in the movie theater. We see in the movie theater lounging.
- [96:51]
Matt MG
You know what I'm saying?
- [96:52]
Zoe Saldana
Watching movies. That's still in the movie.
- [96:56]
Matt MG
I need the finest Chinese grill.
- [97:02]
Zoe Saldana
All of that. Yeah.
- [97:03]
Matt MG
I need all of it. Yeah. I gotta test these things out, man.
- [97:07]
Zoe Saldana
Nice. It's going to be a good one. Yeah.
- [97:10]
Matt MG
I think the beauty of it is that, I mean it just kind of fits with everything we've ever done. Right. Like people get to watch this happen in real time and they get to learn from it in real time and they get to Watch us make mistakes in real time and learn from those. And so it's a unique time in history. Like, this has never. These things have never been done. Like, where does this happen? You. You just hear about, and people can kind of like guesstimize their thoughts and like, this is like a real formulated process. Like, you've seen it happen, right? You can ask questions about it. We're attainable, right. People always see us and. And they're watching these things being implemented, man. And so like I said, if you didn't want to go, at very minimum, at least watch a clip and try to learn from it at the bare minimum. Right? But if you want to maximize on information. August 22nd through the 24th, Atlanta, Georgia.
- [98:03]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah, man. Shout out to Ty again, man. Because he did a phenomenal job with documenting the journey of Rashad and the voiceovers. You need to continue to do those voiceovers. The content is legendary. It. I felt like I was there walking through China with y' all, man. So shout out to. To y' all and the whole team over there in China, man.
- [98:23]
Richard Karn
We got some long form content that we're Gonna put on YouTube too, some vlog style.
- [98:26]
Matt MG
Yeah.
- [98:27]
Richard Karn
I did an interview with a brother, one of the African brothers that I met randomly. I just met him and then we went. We was actually in his house. It was a very impromptu situation, but he gave us a lot of good insight. So, yeah, be on the lookout for that. We'll be dropping. Hopefully we'll be dropping some. Some YouTube content. Yeah, people been asking. They've been asking for some long form vlog style travel. About to turn Eyo to a travel channel.
- [98:52]
Matt MG
Yeah, why not? They want to see everything, right? Let them see everything.
- [98:57]
Zoe Saldana
Why not Bring it along with the ride?
- [99:01]
Matt MG
Don't worry, Sleep is sold separately. Why are you saying that?
- [99:09]
Richard Karn
How you pronounce his name?
- [99:10]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah, he was like, to south to soul.
- [99:12]
Matt MG
He was hitting me like, yo, what's up with your boy? I'm like, yo, I'm like, you know, shot he gonna create a moment.
- [99:18]
Richard Karn
Whatever it is, you know, he's not a real person. It's like. It's the equivalent of Colonel Sanders.
- [99:26]
Zoe Saldana
You learn something new every day.
- [99:29]
Richard Karn
No idea. They like, yo, like. And then I even spelled it because I'm like, how did they say it? Notice there's no I know.
- [99:35]
Matt MG
But saying, when you wrote it, how did they say it?
- [99:37]
Richard Karn
I say, what?
- [99:38]
Matt MG
Not that he's a real person, but when you wrote the tso.
- [99:41]
Richard Karn
Oh, I ain't even asked. But they was like, no, they.
- [99:44]
Matt MG
They was like, yo, your boy sound crazy.
- [99:47]
Zoe Saldana
We over here eating general whatever. And they eating pig ears.
- [99:51]
Matt MG
Nah, chicken feet.
- [99:53]
Zoe Saldana
Chicken feet and frogs. I'm like, oh, okay, that's different.
- [99:58]
Richard Karn
A lot of stuff out there.
- [100:00]
Zoe Saldana
My man was like, yo, you got little main.
- [100:04]
Richard Karn
For the win.
- [100:06]
Zoe Saldana
All right. Nah, shout out to China, man. I'm looking forward to going on a fantastic voyage.
- [100:12]
Matt MG
Four chicken wings, vegetable rice.
- [100:16]
Zoe Saldana
Extremely important.
- [100:19]
Matt MG
At night. And their beds all tucked in tight, man.
- [100:23]
Richard Karn
But. All right, guys, I think this was educational conversation that we had. Tap in, get your tickets to Invest Fest.
- [100:31]
Matt MG
Yo, hold on. This. This is last thing because it made me think about it when we. I was watching Sinners and we went to go see centers at the same time, and there was a point where we watched. If you've seen the movie, right? You had the Asian couple inside the black community, Right. So even when you went to see the African population that is in. In the country, was it infused inside or was it a specific. Like how we have Chinatown everywhere? Was it a specific city in that sense? I know it's off top, but I. I forgot to ask you that. So I'm gonna ask in front of everybody, like, how did that. How did. How was it placed?
- [101:06]
Richard Karn
Well, a. It's all vibes they played me, or they have Chinese R B music that they played me. They love the culture. I didn't feel out of place at all. Very welcome. The Africans. It's actually interesting because where the Africans live, so people don't know if there's a lot of Africans that live in China. What they also don't know, and I didn't even know the extent of this, is that there's a lot of Chinese Muslims. So the Africans live in an area with Chinese Muslims. I had no idea that it was that many Chinese Muslims. It's a lot. Like, a lot.
- [101:37]
Zoe Saldana
I never even heard of a Chinese Muslim. Like what?
- [101:45]
Richard Karn
Yeah, so it's like. It's a lie. They got these jabs on, they got the kofis on, and they Chinese, fully Chinese speaking Mandarin and all that. And like, they live in the same area with the Africans. It's. It's interesting, it's eclectic, but every showroom that I went to has had black art in it. Like African art. They have a lot of black art. African art. Yeah.
- [102:09]
Matt MG
But there wasn't no integration in a sense where, like, they have a Chinatown in Soho, right? There wasn't like, hey, obviously we know hip hop culture and we've seen that has. I mean, it's the greatest export. You can see that. The influence. It was just kind of a natural integration, like, where people was just like, business just happening.
- [102:28]
Richard Karn
One thing I learned about Chinese culture, they really value money.
- [102:32]
Matt MG
Okay?
- [102:32]
Richard Karn
They don't trip about nothing else like how we look. They're not really tripping. Like, even Ty was like, yo, I don't. I don't even feel black. Because it's not. It don't matter. Didn't matter. It's like, yo, we gonna do business. We got prospects. I'm saying, like, it wasn't. No. Even. Like I said, like, the Africans, they. I see them. I was just observing. They. You know, they. They talking to the Chinese people. A lot of them speak Chinese, too. That's another thing. A lot of the Africans learn Chinese.
- [102:57]
Matt MG
Mandarin.
- [102:58]
Richard Karn
Well, they call it Chinese.
- [102:59]
Matt MG
So that would be for us. Mandarin.
- [103:01]
Richard Karn
I asked her. I'm like, yo, you speak Mandarin? She. She didn't even know what I was saying when I said Mandarin. She said, oh, no. She's like, we call it China. They don't. They don't say Mandarin. We say Mandarin.
- [103:10]
Matt MG
Right, right.
- [103:11]
Richard Karn
They. They say Chinese.
- [103:12]
Matt MG
Okay?
- [103:13]
Richard Karn
So. But no, it's just. It's not. It's not sec. I mean, the Africans have their own part of town, but it's not segregated like that. Like, you know, it's just.
- [103:21]
Matt MG
Yeah.
- [103:22]
Richard Karn
It's vibes. Like, it's. No. Like, I didn't. I didn't get no problem for being black. That's what I'm trying to say. Like, I didn't feel no way about it at all. There was no.
- [103:31]
Matt MG
That's. So here's the interesting part, because I've known you. Known you long enough. Right. I remember when you were in Hong Kong, obviously different. That was the complete opposite.
- [103:42]
Richard Karn
Well, even that. So that guy. I got insight on that because what they told me. And everybody's different, obviously, but they. It was because I didn't even bring my Hong Kong experience up. I had a bad experience in Hong Kong.
- [103:50]
Matt MG
Right, right. Like, that's something I know.
- [103:51]
Richard Karn
They told me. They say, yo, Hong Kong people are rude. They were, like, dead. They have bad attitudes. Like, they. China. China has an interesting relationship with Hong Kong. It's similar to Taiwan. Macau. Taiwan and Hong Kong are all islands off the coast of China, and they all have their own flag, but they're all, like, Chinese territories in a sense. So Hong Kong was colonized by the British. China's very. China takes pride that they've had that. China's had a civilization for 5,000 years, and they've never been. They've never been colonized or conquered. They take great pride in that. Taiwan was a. It has been taken by Britain, America. Hong Kong was a colony of Britain, Macau. I'm not really sure about the Macau situation.
- [104:46]
Matt MG
Vegas.
- [104:47]
Richard Karn
So they all have their own type of different personality. But how China, how mainland, how the mainland China looks at them is they. They have a unique way of looking at them. So they actually brought that up. They're like, yo, people from Hong Kong are super rude. So when they said that, I'm like, okay, it makes sense because I had.
- [105:06]
Matt MG
A bad experience because hearing you say that and this is just like if you've watched us long enough, you know that, like hearing you say that, I remember the exact opposite is how you felt in Hong Kong. Yeah, yeah.
- [105:17]
Richard Karn
So, yeah, I guess Hong Kong is a different experience.
- [105:20]
Matt MG
But I mean, what people from that does. Shouldn't feel foreign. Like. Well, people will say that about people from New York.
- [105:25]
Richard Karn
No, for sure.
- [105:26]
Matt MG
You know what I'm saying?
- [105:27]
Richard Karn
I mean, we get.
- [105:28]
Matt MG
You'll get that.
- [105:29]
Richard Karn
It's understandable.
- [105:30]
Matt MG
Yeah, it makes sense.
- [105:31]
Richard Karn
It's understandable. But I didn't feel any racism at all. I'll say that. I felt no racism. Not to say that there's no racism in the country. I mean, there's a billion people. Of course it's going to be something. But I can only speak for my own personal experience. And like I said, this is what Ty, our camera guys, everybody felt the same way. We didn't feel. I didn't feel uncomfortable. I didn't see one police the whole time I was there.
- [105:54]
Zoe Saldana
You felt safe.
- [105:55]
Richard Karn
I was super safe. No trash on the streets, super clean. No problem. Like, there's no problem. I never felt like it was a problem at all.
- [106:07]
Zoe Saldana
Well, Ladies and gentlemen, China.
- [106:13]
Matt MG
Episode 2 featuring MG yeah.
- [106:16]
Zoe Saldana
Nah. Ty, get ready.
- [106:22]
Matt MG
22Nd through the 24th. Yeah.
- [106:24]
Richard Karn
Georgia.
- [106:25]
Matt MG
Georgia World Congress Center Invest Fest 2025 Year 5 I mean, on top of this, this is a lot of information. But you, you add on to that real estate here, you add on to it the AI conversation. I mean, you add into that the bitcoin conversation, investing conversation. It only makes sense that you there. I'll be honest with you, it only makes sense. Gotta do it.
- [106:50]
Richard Karn
Gotta do it.
- [106:51]
Matt MG
All right, man. Matt, we're not gonna hold you any longer. I know you got some deals to make. I know you got to get your. Your visa together.
- [107:00]
Zoe Saldana
Yeah, I got a call with Blair coming up. I'm even more excited for this call. I'm about to call my designer right now and Say, yo, let's get this thing tight and right and let's get this going, man. But now, I appreciate you guys having me on the platform. As always, I don't take it for granted or take it lightly. I appreciate the work that you guys are putting in for the. For the culture and the community. You guys have been on the world tour in the last six weeks literally in different. In different continents, all over the world. So we. We definitely appreciate it, man. We need this type of content. And again, thank you guys for having me, man. The best fest 2025, the biggest ever. Let's grow.
- [107:39]
Richard Karn
All right.
- [107:40]
Zoe Saldana
Love y' all.
- [107:43]
Matt MG
All right, man. We are now signing off. Man, that was a lot.
- [107:48]
Richard Karn
That was a lot. That was a lot. But yeah, I'm glad we had it. Shout out to Matt and yeah, everybody, man, you know, I don't want to beat on a dead heart, but, you know, watch the replay.
- [107:58]
Matt MG
Yep.
- [107:59]
Richard Karn
And see you guys at Invest Fest.
- [108:01]
Matt MG
See y' all, man. Peace.
- [108:05]
Zoe Saldana
Hi, Zoe Saldana. Welcome to T Mobile. Here's your new iPhone 16 Pro on us.
- [108:10]
Richard Karn
Thanks.
- [108:10]
Zoe Saldana
And here's my old phone to trade in. You don't need a trade in. When you switch to T Mobile, we'll.
- [108:14]
Richard Karn
Give you a new iPhone 16 Pro. Plus we'll help you pay off your.
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Zoe Saldana
Old Phone up to 800 bucks and you still get to keep it. There's always a trade in. Not right now. @ T Mobile. I feel like I have to give you something in return for karma. That's okay. I don't really have much in my purse.
- [108:28]
Richard Karn
Oh, let's see.
- [108:29]
Zoe Saldana
Hand sanitizer. It's lavender.
- [108:31]
Richard Karn
I'm good. Seriously. Let me check this pocket.
- [108:34]
Zoe Saldana
Oh, mints. Really, I'm fine. Oh, I have raisins. I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec.
- [108:39]
Richard Karn
I've got cupcakes in the car.
- [108:40]
Zoe Saldana
It's our best iPhone offer ever. Switch to T Mobile. Get a new iPhone 16 Pro with.
- [108:45]
Matt MG
Apple intelligence on us.
- [108:47]
Richard Karn
No trade in needed.
- [108:48]
Zoe Saldana
We'll even pay off your Phone up.
- [108:49]
Richard Karn
To 800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits.
- [108:53]
Zoe Saldana
New line 100 plus a month on experience beyond Finance Agreement 999.99 and qualify imported for well qualified plus tax and 10 connection charge.
- [109:00]
Richard Karn
Payout via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days credits and amounts due if you pay off earlier. Cancel CT mobile dot com.
- [109:06]
Zoe Saldana
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- [109:13]
Richard Karn
Easy.
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Zoe Saldana
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