← The David Greene Show
The David Greene Show
The David Greene Show | The Slow and Steady Investing Process | Episode 99
01:09:04
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- [00:01]
A
What's going on, everyone? Welcome to Real Talk Real Estate. This is the David Green show, and I am joined today by the lovely couple David and Morgan Stanhope, who I recently ran into at Biggerpockets Conference. I believe, guys, we see each other like, this is the second time, right? We met in Orlando before this.
- [00:17]
B
Yeah, we have a good habit of meeting every two years.
- [00:19]
A
Yes, that's exactly right. Every two years. It's every time. There's the midterms, and we had a conversation about something that is very unpopular in the real estate investing community. It's that we don't think that quitting your W2 is the best move for every single person and even the best reason to get into investing in real estate. We kind of had a conversation about that, and you two were generous enough to come on the show and share how you built your portfolio, how your business runs, and why you're fans of the W2 until retirement. So thank you guys for joining me.
- [00:51]
C
Thanks for having us.
- [00:52]
B
Thank you for having us.
- [00:53]
A
And also thank you for putting my book in the background there. It's never looked better.
- [00:56]
C
I know. It looks great.
- [00:57]
A
It's like Pinterest worthy.
- [00:59]
B
Everyone should go buy it today right now.
- [01:03]
A
Thank you for that. All right, so let's start off here. How did you first come across me?
- [01:09]
B
So first came across you, obviously, as the host on Biggerpockets. You and Brandon were phenomenal to listen to, and just how you relate everything to everyday life was just a very, very good starting basis for me.
- [01:26]
A
All right, and then, Morgan, were you the one that brought David in, or was it, like, one day he kept talking about this cop that buys real estate, and you were like, who is this David Green, and why is he constantly in our home?
- [01:37]
C
No, that's absolutely true. It was actually during COVID and I think, as you hear our story, we did everything in the middle of COVID in terms of our first investment, and we just had our second child. And Dave came home from one day and said, hey, I've been listening to this podcast. It's called Bigger Pockets, and I have a little bit of a real estate background. I've never used it before, but I did get my license years ago and then had a baby, so never ended up using it. And he tuned me on to listening to your show, which I did at all hours of the night while up with my two kids on and off. And then eventually, a couple months later, I think we listened to the first hundred episodes on and off. He listened on his way to work. I Listened. When I had free time, we would get together, we'd talk about episodes, and that's really where it started.
- [02:30]
B
Yeah.
- [02:31]
C
So he brought it to me. I was staying home with our kids, and we just went from there.
- [02:37]
A
Okay. And then I remember during COVID the consensus from most people was to take the safe bet and say, don't buy. There's gonna be blood in the streets. You're a fool if you buy real estate. It reminded me of when I got started in 2010. Very similar dynamic. And I remember being very scared that I was going to regret the advice I was giving, which is Biden saying he's going to print money. He's saying quantitative easing is coming. They're calling it stimulus, they're calling it fancy political words, but I think we're going to have crazy inflation. This is like this little window where you can get in and buy, and you're going to ride a wave there. There are some people that, honestly, I've never shared this, that wrote bigger pockets and said, you need to fire David Green for giving terrible financial advice just because I said that. And I remember being just nervous. Like, do I lie? Do I get up and say what everyone else is saying? Like, I don't want to do that, but. And I don't know what's going to happen. But it's hard for me to see this causing a crash. I think it's going to be the opposite. And I ended up being right. We had a crazy bull run, Unhealthy, never should have happened. Made it almost impossible for most people to buy real estate if you were not capitalized, educated, and on board, ready to go. You got passed behind just the surfers, caught the wave, and you got stuck out there bobbing in the ocean, hoping you didn't get eaten by a shark. So this is the context of which you guys get into real estate investing. So tell me, how did you get the first one? What did you do after that? What did the story look like?
- [04:04]
B
Yeah, so we got started in 2020, and I think, like you said, you know, not exactly the best time to invest. You're in the middle of COVID You know, everything's hard to come by. And we'll see how this goes, essentially, real quick.
- [04:18]
C
People were like, we're in a recession. So Covid, the world shut down in New York in March. We had just had our daughter in January. And as you'll hear next, we closed on our first property in October. So we're like, well into Covid. Like, New York is totally shut down. And we're like, hey, this house is a phenomenal deal. The rates were amazing. We're just going to buy our first property now and just see what happens.
- [04:41]
B
Yeah, I mean, I figured, what's the worst that could happen? I mean, I guess a lot of bad things could happen, but. But I think also, you know, you look at 2020, you look at now, and it's the same deal. You know, what's the worst that could happen? You know, you have similar dynamics, minus a pandemic, but you have similar dynamics. And I think for me, the catalyst to start was meeting a mentor. And that mentor, when I was on patrol as a state police trooper at the time, he really instilled upon us, hey, just get started and see where it goes. And so we did. We looked at PROPERT Florida and we ended up getting hooked in with a realtor down there. And she brought us our first deal. And the way we kind of sourced that first deal is back in the day on Bigger Pockets. They said, you know, look at that 1% rule. And so I don't know any better. So I said, you know, I want to find a home that meets this 1% criteria. And the realtor at the time had said, you know, that's not possible. And I said, anything's possible. So I like to say we fired the realtor. Morgan said, don't say that. And so we found a different realtor. She was able to bring us a deal, and that's how we get started. So we started with number one. October 2020. We're on house number. We've closed on 13 homes since. And that's a mini snapshot of our portfolio. And they're all in Florida.
- [06:06]
C
And I do have to say, after we closed on that first deal in October, we had looked at different avenues. We were like, do we want to do short term? Do we want to do long term? And I thought we thought we were pretty fancy because we had listened to so many Bigger Pockets episodes that we were kind of like getting a little in over our head. Like, let's do three different things. Like, let's try to do an Airbnb at the same time as trying to do like a long term rental. But we got put on to sober living homes. And I know that's a very specific niche. And in our research, we didn't see too much on there. So I'm like, let's just start with that since we're investing from New York, we're not in Florida, and let's just see if we can Find some people to help us out. There was nobody, just us. And I found that to be really kind of exciting but scary at the same time. But something that I thought could be doable because we were looking at long term leases when we closed on our first property, so. And then after that we bought like four houses back to back during like the height of COVID I'm like that too.
- [07:14]
A
There's like a. I don't like it about myself or I'll just get stuck in a rut, like not doing a thing I need to do, like working out, going to jiu jitsu, cooking healthy food, buying real estate, whatever it is, right? And then I'll get one. And like, something takes me over and I'm like, I just want to look at them every day. I'm writing offers constantly. I'm just 100% in this thing. And it's like that with so many things in life. It's a thing I've never really liked about myself. It has led to me being successful because sometimes I stumble across the right nugget and you just do a bunch of the thing that works, right? So I'll be really in shape for a while or I'll be really getting after it with jiu jitsu or reading a lot of books. And then, man, I just get out of it. So you guys caught the ride at the right time. When your realtor brought you that 1% deal, did they say this is a 1% deal? Did you give them just instructions of what you wanted? Walk us through so people know how this process looks.
- [08:10]
B
Yeah, I just, I simply said, hey, we're going to find a $300,000 house. I want to have rent at 3,000, and simple as that. And she said, let me give me the weekend. And then come Monday, she came back to us and said, hey, we have sober living homes.
- [08:26]
C
And.
- [08:26]
B
And what are your thoughts? It was definitely something different. Just because at the time, this is fast forwarding a little bit, but I was a state police investigator at the time, and I'm not as familiar with this type of real estate class. So it had to be explained to me that these are just normal individuals going through their everyday 9 to 5 life. They are plumbers, electricians, you name it. And they just fell off the wagon a little bit. And they just need a little help getting put back on and need that type of stability.
- [08:58]
A
Okay, and then, Morgan, were you involved at this stage? Like, hey, this is what we should look for. I know you probably hadn't been listening to as much of the podcast. So were you kind of taking a backseat until you saw a little more of how this thing, whole thing worked?
- [09:10]
C
So I was keeping up with listening to the podcast, but obviously having two young kids under the age of two, I was doing the mom thing and also, like when I got a minute, listening to different episodes. So I really had to trust Dave in his hour to and from commute, from work to really like, like have that foundation of understanding, okay, this is what we're gonna get into. This is what it's gonna look like. So he had to really kind of sell it to me because I'm a stay at home mom, I'm not bringing in any income whatsoever. So I said, okay, can we do this financially? What are the risks involved? And I just had to trust his instinct and. Which is kind of hard for a lot of women. Cause I'd given up my career and I was now dedicated to my kids. So.
- [09:59]
B
Pretty trustworthy.
- [10:00]
C
Yeah, you are pretty trustworthy, I guess, luckily. So it was really just like a team effort. And he said, this is what you need to know. Listen to episodes one through 10 and then will reconvene when we had to block out time in our schedule to communicate about this. And then I said, let's just go for it. And he got a little crazy with me because I was like, wow, the Airbnb world is so fancy. We could do some cool things and we can have a house near the beach. And then I started to think about why that wouldn't work for us, because again, we're in New York, we're not in Florida. That that needs. You need a team of people. So after looking at all the logistics and mitigating all of the issues, we're like, this is going to be our best bet. Let's try it. If it doesn't work out, the worst thing we can do is sell our property and move on with our life.
- [10:53]
A
This is really good. This is really good stuff, because I think you're describing what every individual investor goes through in their head. But now you guys as a couple have two heads that are. Each have, like, part perspective on this. So David wants to go what in hindsight was like, the safe route, 1% rule, boring property. But Morgan, you wouldn't have known that at the time. And Morgan's thinking, if we're going to buy real estate, let's incorporate it into our lifestyle. We have these two little kids. This could be a vacation property. Both of these things make sense to each of you. A lot of couples at this Point, go crazy or never do it at all. How did this get mitigated?
- [11:35]
B
You put a lot of trust in me. No, I mean, I think that's a perfect question. I think you need to have your spouse on board. I think if you're going to do this journey together and you're going to start purchasing lots of properties, you need to have each other on board.
- [11:49]
C
I think that's like the biggest thing too, is like a, you need to have a solid foundation, you need to trust your partner, and you need to have, like, real conversations. So we had to get all of those tough conversations out of the way. He's obviously the breadwinner, if you will, if I use that term. He's bringing home the finances. I'm just literally holding the fort down, taking care of the kids. So we really had to look at numbers and see if this was feasible. Yeah, I just think it comes down to communication, trust in your partner. I mean, our names are both gonna be on all of these properties. So we just had to really take a leap of faith and hope that it worked out. Because like I said before, if it didn't work out, the worst thing you can do is sell a house. And if anybody knows the market in Florida, it's always a hot, hot spot. And I knew we would have absolutely no problem getting rid of our asset had we needed to do that.
- [12:43]
A
Okay, so you're living in New York, but you're buying in Florida. And that's where you, Morgan, got the idea, hey, let's do a short term rental. We could get one on the beach. That's what everyone thinks of when they think of Florida. Although I used to think of old people. And then I bought in South Florida. They are maniacs down there.
- [13:01]
C
Well, and like everybody snowbirds. Right? So I grew up my whole life living and being raised in New York. And where does everybody go when they retire? Like, they literally snowbird down to Florida and on and off, traveling there throughout the years. It just made sense. And it was still on the east coast and we've been there on and off, like traveling with our families and stuff. So I thought, well, an Airbnb would be pretty fancy too. Like we could make some great money because airbnb is it. Well, was super popular. Right. I don't know if it still is. It's not really my niche. But I just thought that, you know, you got the beach, you got Florida. You can get a direct flight from New York so it'd be convenient for people and yeah, didn't end up Going that route, luckily.
- [13:45]
B
But I think with me, like Morgan had mentioned previously that, you know, I have my commute to work an hour down, hour home. The amount of education that I'm able to do every single week, five days a week, is. Is a lot. And whether that's listening to YouTube, whether that's listening to audible, the amount of books I'm able to go through and amount of information able to take in is a lot. So I'm able to see that. Obviously, Covid hits. Florida's a hot market. You know, it has its ups and downs, but it's always going to recover. It's always going to recover because it's that vacation destination and retirement destination and, you know, right now, a little bit down because of insurance, but it will come back up. And that's the nature of Florida. You don't have too many markets like that. And I think that was one reason that kind of drove us to Florida.
- [14:36]
A
Okay, so now we got another question. We're not even able to get into how you scaled your portfolio, because it's fascinating. Different. I think everybody starts off with the fear of not wanting to screw up unless you're a psychopath. And then you either become a billionaire or you lose everyone else's money or you become. You get out of it and you go do something else. I think, like, a degree of fear is healthy, and we all have a different threshold. We have to get to where we're like, all right, I'm good with doing this. Which is why you guys probably bought the first one, then you bought a couple more. You realize, okay, like, we. This isn't as scary as what we thought. But, Dave, you said this is a thing that you did by reading. You're consuming books and you're consuming podcasts. Right? Is that. Is that what give you the confidence to get over that hurdle of, do I know enough to do this?
- [15:22]
B
Absolutely. I think just like anyone, a lot of people start with rich dad, poor dad, and just that mindset and getting her on board was the start. After that is just simple baby steps, is just doing the work, doing the work up front and putting in the time and effort to learn at least the basics before we purchase. Before we purchased the first house, I probably had thousands of hours worth of listening to real estate, and I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing before we purchased our first. First home.
- [15:53]
C
Well, let's be clear, too. We listened like we weren't, like, snoozing on the couch, cracking open like a hardcore book. Like, we've got, like, AirPods in. We have our $1,200 iPhone, and we're just listening to podcasts in between nap times. He's on his way to work, to and from. I feel like every free moment that we had, I would work out, and I'd listen to an episode or two. So we knew that we had a goal. And there's all this free information. Like, we didn't spend a penny. However, I think Dave, like, bought a couple of books on Audible, which is fine, but, like, we literally didn't hardly spend any money. We just listened to all this free information. And I actually listened to Robert Kiyosaki's book. Like, I had to listen. I listened to it three times before I could fully digest it. And every time I listen to it, I learned something new. But it's just as. It's really as simple as that. There's. There's no other magic thing that we.
- [16:52]
B
Did everyone can do. There's nothing magical, what we did starting out. And that's. I think that's the biggest take home from how our start, how we started with our homes.
- [17:03]
A
So, Morgan, are you a book person? Also, are you wired similarly?
- [17:08]
C
I think I'm wired similarly. I'm like an extreme multitasker, which can be really good and really bad sometimes. My attention span is pretty short when I'm juggling 35 things at one time. But if I can sit down and listen to something and have a few minutes to myself, I feel like it's kind of like, game over. I kind of get addicted to it, and it just becomes part of a routine. So, like, every day, my kid was either in preschool, my daughter was napping. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna get on the treadmill, have some time to myself, listen to a pod, and it just becomes like a lifestyle, just like anything else. And you. You plug it into your calendar, and that's just kind of your job for the day. But, yeah, I think it's a little more challenging when you have a ton of stuff going on to make time for it. But if you want it that bad, you just have to do it. And we were ready to close on a property, and I think our. We were just, like, really excited, and we wanted to do it. So I was digesting a lot of information at one time.
- [18:09]
A
Now, that is interesting, because you're both wired to read and listen and learn from other people. Now I'm curious. Did this play a role in you guys dating, deciding that you're gonna fall in love? Did you like, man, our brains work the same way.
- [18:23]
B
No, Morgan, you said you were NETworking in Phoenix, Arizona when I was stationed out there. And I said you're not networking and they met me and that was game over.
- [18:32]
A
Yeah.
- [18:33]
C
No, I mean, I think when you find someone that has a similar drive to do life, I think it is a no brainer. I think we're kind of compatible because we get super focused on things and we just go for it.
- [18:47]
B
I think we're both able to handle stress very well.
- [18:49]
C
Yes.
- [18:50]
B
Morgan handles stress with the kids, unlike I could. And that's just the mom and her. I handle stress with regards to work and being a police officer, and that's a different type of stress. I think we're able to handle stress very easily. It doesn't mean that everyone needs to be within that box of handling that.
- [19:08]
C
It's a good balance, though. I think we have a good balance and a good dynamic. You know, Would Dave and I, like be sitting on the couch reading a book for pleasure? Not really. But I think like, real estate is one of those fascinating things for both of us. And we've both really have always been into the idea of real estate. So I think that is a driving force because it's interesting. But I think you really have to love it in order to do it and stay with it because sometimes it really does suck and you just have to get over it and learn. Learn how to. How to deal.
- [19:39]
A
It's a good point. I'm going to ask you guys a little bit here. How are we splitting up the work? But before I do, I want to know, how did this first deal go? Was it like you're holding your breath. Was there a point where like, oh my God, we got a tenant in there and you relax. Do you want me through? That experience was like buying this first house.
- [19:55]
B
So first home we purchased that we used my 401k from work, we borrowed from that. That was the first experience as well. So I also said, what the heck, you know, what's the worst that could happen with this? So we used that Monday to close on that first home. We closed it all. Inspections went through as a great purchase and we purchased in Cape Coral. Now Cape Coral is up and down right now, but at the time, 2020, Cape Coral is one of the best areas to retire in the country. That's why I picked it. So closing goes through, goes really well.
- [20:28]
C
Year and a half later, we bought it for $229,000. Right?
- [20:32]
B
Or 270.
- [20:32]
C
270. Okay. Sorry. 270. So I think the price was right. And we had. We had built our home that we currently live in. So we had been through the process before, so it wasn't like we were renting. And then this was our first house ever that we were buying.
- [20:48]
B
But I mean, it was a great purchase. It was, it was something that appreciated up to $400,000 within a year and a half. And it was just because of that research, knowing that that's a great area.
- [20:59]
C
And it was pretty seamless too. There was no hiccups, which I don't know if we were anticipating hiccups, but again, we're in New York. We're closing on a house in Florida. Never seen this house. Never flew down there, never walked through it. Pretty much bought a sight unseen. We had gotten a couple of videos that the realtor had sent us and I wanted to see certain parts of the house different, agriculture down there, different than where we are now. So there were lots of questions with lawn maintenance. What do the shrubs look like? What does irrigation look like? Lots of things different than what we would have expected in New York in terms of the house build. But yeah, pretty seamless, no issues.
- [21:42]
B
And just I had my buying criteria. Wanted at least four beds, two baths, over 2,000 square feet. It checked all those boxes. Clean home. Morgan had always said, and I think this is a good, kind of a good way to go about things, but she said, let's find a home that's something that we would live in. Not finding, you know, a dump home, not finding a mansion, but finding something that we would move our children into. And if you're going to do that, then people are going to want to live there. And with that said, I think it's been one of the most successful homes we've had just because we always have that kind of mantra when we buy a home.
- [22:16]
C
Yeah, we have standards. You know, people have coined the term slum lords. We get a lot of that in New York. And we didn't want to be those people. And we're going to be housing people that have just gone through recovery from addiction, narcotics. So I knew like in my heart that I wanted them to come home to a place that was comfortable and clean in a B neighborhood and just something that they could call home for the longevity wise so that they could get through their recovery. So there was that aspect too. So all of our houses are houses I would personally live in. And that that fits kind of our niche for housing these individuals.
- [22:57]
A
And it rented. You said you were looking for something $300,000. $3,000 a month in rent. Was it a little bit less than that in rent because it was $270,000 house?
- [23:06]
B
Yes. So we started at. Let me think. We started at 2,700, and then a couple years later, we renewed the lease, and then we push up the rent by a couple hundred dollars. So that's across the board for all of our homes. You know, if we purchase a home in Orlando, $400,000. We'll get $4,000 for rent for that home.
- [23:24]
C
And we just hit five years owning this property, just like the other day, actually. So, yeah, it's still a beautiful house, and it's dramatically increased in value. So it was a great first purchase.
- [23:38]
B
Yeah. And we also do certain things for the tenants in terms of, you know, I think they appreciate us with regards to. For Christmas, we send them Christmas dinner. For mother's day, we send all of their homes that have women in them FL hours. And I think it just goes a long way just in terms of taking care of our tenants.
- [23:57]
C
Yeah, it's fun. It's a fun little thing. And they appreciate it. Not that we need to do that or they need to appreciate it, but it just makes us feel good.
- [24:04]
B
Yeah.
- [24:05]
A
Now, you had mentioned assisted living facilities earlier. I don't know if we said, is this an assisted living facility that you bought?
- [24:11]
B
It is. Nope. Just sober living.
- [24:13]
A
Oh, sober living. Okay.
- [24:14]
C
Sober living. Yeah. Yep.
- [24:15]
A
Right. I don't remember. Hugh said it earlier, and I transposed it in my head. That could have happened. Or if maybe you were started as assisted living. Sober living is a million times better. Assisted living is a lot of moving pieces. Okay.
- [24:26]
B
Yes.
- [24:26]
C
Yeah.
- [24:26]
A
So you found a sober living house for less than 300,000. Do you think it was because this was during COVID and other buyers were scared and sellers were like, I gotta get rid of this thing before the world falls apart. I need to buy. Use the money for toilet paper.
- [24:38]
B
Yes, I think so. And toilet paper is scarce in New York also, but I think so. And, you know, you fast forward a year, 20, 21, and the housing market is the hottest housing market in the United States and down in Florida and then the southern belt down there.
- [24:54]
C
Actually, the original owners of this house were the only owners of the house, and they wanted to downsize, obviously, like, eight months into Covid, they're probably thinking, oh, my gosh, we need to live in something smaller, something more manageable because nobody knew where the world was going. And then fast forward, we vacationed down there. Was it like a Year later. And so we actually contacted our house and we. We went and saw it. The only house we've ever seen out of all the houses we own. So that was cool to like, walk through and see it and see how well it's doing.
- [25:26]
A
Are they trusting all sober living?
- [25:29]
C
Yeah. Every single house? Yeah.
- [25:30]
A
Okay, what's the process like for finding a tenant to do they rent your house and they find the people to rent it, or are you finding the people that are needing a sober living home?
- [25:40]
B
So with the nonprofit that we go through, and there's thousands across the United States, you know, just going on to Google and typing in sober living in, you know, wherever you live is a good way to go about seeing what's in your area. So their process is that they maintain the house, we maintain the house in terms of. In terms of fixes, but they haven't. They have a structure within their home. So they have a president, a vice president, they have a secretary, a treasurer, and that those jobs that are given to the tenants allow them to be successful. So it gives them a purpose within that house. And even though it might kind of sound silly to you or I, it gives them a purpose and allows them to be successful. As long as they stay in these homes for a year, year and a half, they have an 86% success rate of never going back to alcohol or narcotics.
- [26:31]
C
Yeah. So essentially, these people, most of the time, they pay to go through recovery, which is very different from a lot of other states. Like in New York, you're either court mandated or you, you know, self publishing yourself to go through any type of drug and rehabilitation center. But down there, they pay to go through it. They really want to get clean for whatever their issues are. So once they've gone through the program, then it's mandatory for them to find a home to live in so that they can continue their recovery away from friends, family, significant others, in most cases, so that they can continue on their journey. And then after they feel like they're ready, a lot of the times, they'll move out. We've had a couple instances where we've had tenants relapse, but there are people within the program that say, hey, I have seven women coming out of a house in Jacksonville. They need a place to stay. So us as investors, they'll give us a call and say, hey, do you want to buy a house in Jacksonville? Absolutely. Let's start looking now. So we get the ball rolling and then we, you know, if the area is great, we'll buy the house. And then they'll fill it for us.
- [27:43]
A
Interesting. Okay. And you just found them on a Google search.
- [27:47]
B
So we had the recommendation from the. The realtor down there.
- [27:50]
C
Yep.
- [27:51]
B
So you type in. Yeah, type in anywhere you live, and there'll be 10 of them that pop up.
- [27:56]
C
Oh, yeah, I have a ton too, if you want some names.
- [27:58]
B
Yeah, we can give you some. Some recommendations.
- [28:00]
A
That's awesome. So did you guys read Long Distance Real Estate Investing by chance?
- [28:06]
C
No.
- [28:07]
A
It's crazy. You buy all these houses using many of the things that I talk about in the book, and you didn't even have to read the book. I think that's probably a really good. What's the word I'm looking for here? Like, yes, for the book in the sense that you figured out the same things that I figured out. That when you have systems and more important, when you have people that can make recommendations for you, there is no need to go look at the house itself because most of us don't know what we're looking at when we look at homes.
- [28:35]
B
Yes.
- [28:36]
C
And I think we bought them so close back to back. Like our first year, we've closed on four properties all over the state of Florida. And at this point, we had started a system, and we're like, okay, we're looking in B, sometimes C neighborhoods. You know, we have to be so far away from a bus station because you have to understand when you're in this niche, these people most likely won't have a vehicle or a car. They might not be able to afford it. So you start to break down and you get really good at doing your own research. And Dave and I do it ourselves, you know, and now we obviously have, like, a team of realtors that work alongside us in different areas that we're looking. But you just become really fluent. And we've become like professionals, I think, like, just in our area. And it just. It was very risky. And like you said earlier, was so exciting to just continue to buy the properties and like your housing people that really need it. So it was a win. Win, really.
- [29:36]
A
Okay, so you got the first one stabilized. It's cash flowing. The inevitable conversation. You want to do it again? Heck, yes, I do. And you're off to the races. How did it go with the next 2 through 13?
- [29:49]
B
So next one after that was Tampa, and as simple as that. Hey, do you want to buy another one? First one went pretty well and found a nice property and put in a little bit of landscaping, just because I. That needed to mentally have nice landscaping. And then after that, we Find another home, and we just keep going. It was a very simple process after the first one, just to see how easy it was and how easy it was to work with the nonprofit. I think that solidified everything for us.
- [30:18]
C
You know what's interesting, too, is we didn't have to do anything to our Cape Coral house at first, but we ended up adding walls, which added more bedrooms. So we started to get into. Now we're adding bedrooms. So now we have to find somebody to do it for us. So I'm going to talk about free information online. So we started using Yelp and Google and started looking at, like, contractors and plumbers and H vac technicians, because now we're in Florida and air conditioners are running all of the time, and you start learning that things need to be checked more often and serviced more often. So Dave started using Yelp. I don't use Yelp. He's a Yelper. I'm not.
- [30:59]
B
Yeah. I think with. With regards to Yelp and Google reviews, everyone is very brut, brutally honest. And if they don't like a company, just, they'll throw it right out there. And it's easy to find very organized and very professional companies to do maintenance just based off of Yelp and Google reviews. Okay.
- [31:20]
A
And you're kind of like all over the state. Right. It's not like you're buying in one specific neighborhood. You're letting them tell you this is where a need is, and then you're sort of hunting what they need. Any fears about if that company themselves are going to go out of business or do you feel like there's always going to be alcohol, there's always going to be sober living houses?
- [31:39]
C
I mean, unfortunately.
- [31:40]
B
Well, no, I was going to say you're a former police officer, so I think there's, you know, the way our country is headed, and not to be pessimistic, but I think we're headed more into a socialist society. And I think with that and looking at statistics in terms of people that are. Or addicts, it's just, it's increasing every single year. The amount of narcotics and the amount of, you know, alcohol use within our society, I don't think it's slowing down at all. I think if anything, it's going to grow exponentially in the next 10 to 20 years.
- [32:13]
C
I mean, we see it here in New York, too. We have, like, friends and family members and a lot of people that have gone through this themselves. So, I mean, there's just. I think there'll always be a need for it and obviously him as a police officer and all the different narcotics that you've stuffed. Absolutely, yeah. I don't think it'll be going out of business anytime soon.
- [32:35]
A
No, yeah, it's a great point. It's crazy you guys didn't read that book. I just like, it's literally how you're doing all the same things. This is amazing. Okay, another thing that we've talked about. We'll get back to real estate in a minute. Here is the controversial opinion that you should not be in a rush to leave your W2. Now, this does not make me very popular because if I say, here's how to get out of the job that you hate, everybody will throw their money at you. If you say, here's how you be a better worker and a more faithful employee and grow through the struggle, nobody's interested in that. And I was so happy to hear you guys be like, yeah, that's what we did. We're working. We're going to retirement. There's no reason to quit before we get to the finish line. Walk me through the mindset that you guys have. I'm sure you've had this discussion with the two kids and the strain of having a full time job and two kids and a family and Baby Shark going on all the time and my podcast and now 13 sober living houses. Like, what's your guys's way of looking at this that works for your family?
- [33:37]
B
I don't think I could deal with Baby Shark anyway.
- [33:39]
C
So that's a couple years past.
- [33:43]
B
I think it's as simple as this. So, I mean, where we're at now, I have, we've doubled my salary with state police and I could step away tomorrow and we could be fine. I think there's something to be said though, about having your W2. As long as you don't completely hate it. Keep your W2 and it allows you to scale. It allows you to do what you want within real estate, allows you to have that, you know, that dream that you have in 20 years. And I think holding on to that has been the biggest thing for us.
- [34:10]
C
It obviously provides security too. So, like, I don't work as it is. So it would be really silly in my own opinion for him to leave his W2 job when he has five years left. He holds our health insurance. I mean, all of these things cost money and it all sounds well and good. Like, oh, you guys are doing so great. Leave your job. I'm like, yeah, but then we're gonna have to like, pay for healthcare and we're gonna have all these other bills add up. And what happens if one of us gets hurt or sick? There's just. It just seems silly that he's worked so hard at his job to leave it just because we've been successful in another avenue. I feel like you can do both if you are in a great. If you have a great foundation and a great team. But I just. We've had a lot of deals come through also because of his job. So it. To me, it just seems a little silly.
- [35:00]
B
I mean, I think there's something to be said in terms of, you know. Yeah. Just keeping it and just. You have five years left, and if you have a job that you absolutely hate. Yeah, maybe you should leave it, but find something that you like and then find something that you, you know, that you're happy to do every single day that you're not miserable going to, and that can assist you with your real estate journey or whatever journey that is. If you want to throw your money towards crypto or whatever, do it. But use that W2 to get you there.
- [35:30]
A
What do you think makes people just be in such a rush to leave a job to jump full time into real estate?
- [35:38]
B
I think this is also. You and I will become not popular after this. So I think it's the. And I'm not a big believer in it. I'll start there. I'm not a big believer in the fire movement, and I think having that mantra of a fire movement and retiring and you can retire at 30 years old, but then you don't realize 10 years later there's inflation, that there's families, that there's, you know, healthcare. And I think everyone sees that shiny penny. They see the social media, you know, vacations and all the other things, and that's what they. That's what they gravitate towards.
- [36:16]
A
Morgan, what do you think?
- [36:18]
C
I mean, I definitely agree, obviously he's my partner, so I'm going to agree with him anyways. But for the most part, there's not a lot of people out there that want to do the work. So if you can't fully do the work in real estate, we get this question all the time, actually. I feel like that's like one of our number one questions is like, how did you start real estate? And. And is Dave going to continue working? It's like, we started real estate because we put the time and effort into learning how to do it, But I feel like there's so many get rich quick schemes out there. And with social media being A huge part of most people's lives. They see that and then they just run with it, right? I feel like it's such a trending topic all the time. And I'm like, if you can't fully fulfill what you're currently doing, what makes you think the next thing is going to be successful?
- [37:13]
A
Oh, that's exactly how I see it. It's a hundred percent. I don't know, in my whole career, not that I'm 900 years old or anything, but I haven't seen a person that failed at what they were doing, found a different job, and then just crushed it right off. At least that wasn't working really hard. Trying to be better. There are times where it's not a good fit. But I mean, we all know what those people are like in law enforcement. They always find a way to make somebody else do the work, somebody else take the report. Maybe they get by on their charisma or their charm or whatever, but they don't pull their weight when they get into a new situation or a new department. It's not like they magically are really good. They bring those same habits into where they were. And your brain is like a muscle. It needs to be worked. And when you make it solve problems and you make it think through things and you make mistakes and you adapt, it becomes a powerful muscle that can work in a lot of different scenarios. And that's the same thing that I try to tell people. I also see from my position what is not talked about on podcasts very often. What makes this podcast a little different is we say the stuff that other people don't want to say. Because I'm not selling you on courses. I'm not selling you on a dream. I'm selling you on products that you're going to need anyways. A real estate agent, a property manager and a loan officer, you're going to use them. That's. That's why we do the podcast, so I can be honest. And the volume of real estate decreased drastically when interest rates went up. Just the transactions happening. The people making a living from real estate were crushing it and got really fat and happy. Just Gavin money handed it to them, right? And everyone was flooding into the space. Real estate agents, real estate investors, house flippers, wholesalers. Wholesalers just make up a name. Everybody was running to do it. Real estate podcast we're doing super good. People in the real estate investing or podcasting space were starting business that had nothing to do with real estate. And they were all just making a ton of Money, it was on tv, it was everywhere. And then we stopped printing money and interest rates went up and it was like a car crash. It was just back to the coffee shop. There's no transactions. It almost doesn't matter how good you are at selling cars if there's no cars on the lot. That is a scary, scary. I am so much more scared of that than I am a person had to clock in and work a 40 hour a week job at a place that has benefits and OSHA regulations and temperature controlled environments. Not that bad compared to, I don't have anything. And I know a lot of the guys in my space are literally laying off employees. I had to lay a lot of people off, like a lot. Lot of like several W2 employees and a whole bunch of 1099s. Other guys are doing the same thing. They're doing the work themselves. They're managing their own properties, they're doing their own acquisitions, they're doing their own social media, they're editing their own stuff.
- [39:53]
C
Stuff.
- [39:53]
A
It is gnarly right now. And the people with the W2s are like, you're, you're doing good, right? You've been saving money, you've been making money, you've been investing that money. It was, I'm sure that there's some difficulties, but it's sort of like a bump. It is not a crash like a lot of people are having. Can you just speak to what it's like being on this side of the correction? And you guys avoided the temptation to say, I'm just going to quit and join the fire movement, what it feels like and maybe what you've learned.
- [40:23]
B
I mean, I know you would love the beach, but I think I heard a good quote the other day. It said, bill Gates, obviously very smart, not the smartest person, but his drive, no one will ever beat his drive. He will continue producing and creating new systems every single day. And I think that was the difference. That, yeah, interest rates are high, we have a couple homes in mid sevens, 8%. That's not fun. But you know, there's ways to overcome that. There's ways to look a year or two down the line and say, all right, we can refi those, those mortgages and we'll be back, we'll be fine again. And I think it's just having that vision and having that, you know, 10, 20 year vision with at least our kids, you know, with Morgan, I think that's the difference.
- [41:11]
C
Well, it's also like knowing real estate. And I think I. We've only Been doing this for five years, so I am nowhere near an expert. But from our experiences, real estate is a long term game. It's not a get rich quick scheme. You have to wait the years out to see that financial return come back to you. And we've been lucky with the 1% because we're still getting that passive income every month. But if there comes a time, because some insurance carriers that we've had to deal with in Florida, they've doubled our policy rates. I mean that's part of, that's part of it. So you got to hold on to that a little bit. And there's always going to be an upside at some point. Interest rates are starting to come down. So the long term game and you have to be really patient, which is something I've never been able to do, but for some reason I can with real estate because we have so many long term goals that it's definitely not something that's going to happen tomorrow.
- [42:16]
A
So what's the plan? Are you going to keep trying to buy more of these sober living houses?
- [42:20]
C
Absolutely.
- [42:20]
B
So I have five and a half years left. I'd like to, when I leave State Police in five and a half years, I think the goal is to have 50. In the next under 10 years, I'd like to have 100 homes. Oh, wow. So that's a long term goal. After that, you know, sky's the limit.
- [42:36]
C
I think we've nerded out a little bit too. Like Dave's Excel sheets, as much as he hates it, are pretty intense and the numbers are all there.
- [42:45]
B
Why the smartest assistant in the world, the assistant is ChatGPT. ChatGPT helps me a lot.
- [42:52]
C
And again, free information. Really.
- [42:55]
B
So yeah, I think that's a long term goal to continue scaling and stop.
- [42:59]
C
And it's fun for us too. So it's not, I mean obviously it's work. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes, but we've gotten pretty good at like buying houses on our kitchen table or in the summer out by our pool and been fun as well as rewarding too. So we're gonna just continue and who knows when we'll cap out. I don't think at this point in time we do know that, but we're gonna start diversifying into different states. So I think that's gonna be a next hurdle for us.
- [43:28]
A
How are you financing these? Is it the cash flow from the existing ones? Is it refinancing them? Is it money from work? Like what's your guys's financial situation look like as far as what money goes to real estate and what goes in the bank?
- [43:40]
B
Yeah, I'd say the first couple ones were the first seven homes.
- [43:43]
A
Your 401k, right?
- [43:44]
B
Yep, 401k. We used HELOCs, but now at this point, it's cash flow and then my money from state police work and W2. And that's what finances everything. And that's another reason obviously, to stay with that W2.
- [43:57]
A
Okay. I mean, that's a great point. It probably makes it easier to finance, like you said. Have you guys had to get into DSCRS yet?
- [44:03]
B
Yes, we have. That's fun.
- [44:06]
A
Yeah. Yeah. They're much easier than the conventional, I'll tell you that.
- [44:09]
C
Yeah. Like, after our 10th property, we entered the DSCR loan world.
- [44:13]
B
Yes.
- [44:14]
C
So continued learning and no fumbles, but some big numbers.
- [44:19]
A
How did you meet your lender?
- [44:22]
B
So a couple lenders. One of them was recommended from a buddy. He was in the army. He was a former Green Beret. And so that was one lender. Another one was just recommended to us. He was in Florida. And. And it just was recommended from a realtor and it just. Recommendations. That was it.
- [44:39]
A
Yep. Is that the same way you're finding the contractors when you need to get something fixed in the house, or are your tenants responsible for any of that?
- [44:47]
B
No, I, I handle all the, the big maintenance. But we do have recommendations from them as well. And it's definitely, you know, it's well received if they have good companies that they've had good experiences with in the past.
- [44:59]
C
Yeah, like, I think we rely on like those Google reviews and the Yelp reviews because like I said, we've never been to any of our properties except for that Cape Coral house. So of course we don't know, like all the little towns in Florida and all the little communities. So we had to really heavily rely on either tenants may have known somebody or there's a lot of blue collar workers. So in some instances there's been a tenant or two that was an expert in something that we needed done. So we're like, sure, we'll give it a go and just try something new. And that was phenomenal and worked out really well. And they take a lot of pride in the houses that they live in. So, like, sometimes our tenants will say, hey, something happened here, but don't worry about it, we took care of it. And I'm like, wow, that's pretty phenomenal.
- [45:43]
B
Yeah, I mean, a lot of them, some of them are plumbers, some of them are electricians. And they'll ask beforehand. They'll say, you know, do you mind if we fix this situation? We're very capable of doing it and let's see how it goes. And like Morgan said, they take a lot of pride with that home. So they always do the right thing.
- [46:01]
A
Weird question. You guys are from New York, correct? You've said Florida every time. I've not heard Florida once. How does a California boy figure out when you guys say Florida and Florida or Oregon versus Oregon? I don't understand the logic.
- [46:20]
C
Well, Dave was raised in Rhode Island. I'm the New Yorker, and I think I'm way outside New York City. We're like three and a half hours outside of New York City. So different, different accents, but that's hysterical. You go 45 minutes south of us and you'll hear water, Boston, New Yorker.
- [46:41]
A
Yeah, I haven't heard that once in the podcast. It is funny, though, because I didn't travel hardly at all until I got into being a real estate person full time. And now I travel a lot to speak. The first time I met someone from Boston, I was like, I didn't think you guys really sounded that I thought. I thought that was just in movies. And the same thing I, I went to visit my buddy Ally Quinta in Long Island. And those Long island accents are. There's no denying it. Man, it's thick.
- [47:10]
C
Nope. Yes, it's thick.
- [47:12]
A
Yeah, 100%. But yeah, you guys sound pretty normal to me. This is the, this is the non.
- [47:17]
B
Accent version of New York. Yes.
- [47:21]
A
What is something that you would tell folks who want to do what you guys are doing and are just having a hard time getting started? Started.
- [47:28]
B
I'll start in that. I think you need to figure out your why. Why are you doing it? Are you doing it just because you want to have $10,000 passively every month? Are you doing it for your kids? Are you doing it because you want to have a different retirement in 20 years? I think that's my biggest thing. I would tell people, figure out what your why is first. As long as you can figure that out, then you'll be successful.
- [47:49]
C
Yeah, I like that. I feel like if you want to get into the space, you really have to do your own legwork and not rely on other people to tell you how to do it. Because at the end of the day, it's your money, your time, your energy. And I feel like education is the biggest part of this. We would not have been able to even start had we not learned and put the time in. And you have to kind of nerd out a little bit. If you want something that much, then you'll just do it.
- [48:22]
A
Do you think that it would have been better to pay 20 grand to have someone teach you how to do this, or do you think you were better off to put that money into real estate and just go do it?
- [48:29]
B
I think I was better off to put the money into the real estate and learn it myself.
- [48:34]
C
Yeah, I think so, too, because I feel like real estate is such a huge umbrella and there's so much underneath it to learn. There's so many avenues that you can take, and I'm very frugal, so I think I'd like to find that information out myself. And if I don't like something, I can easily move on to something else.
- [48:55]
A
Yeah. But part of that, I just can't help but think, comes from the confidence of having worked jobs and did a good job and having confidence in yourself because you've had to overcome different challenges that you had the blessing of encountering at an occupation. And that's why I don't like that. I hate work. I just want to do real estate because it's easy and I can have passive income because you probably will just struggle with it when you get there.
- [49:18]
B
There. I agree with you 1000%, 100%.
- [49:21]
C
I guess my biggest regret is not starting sooner. I've been saying that a lot lately, and of course, we're still young, but, well, I am days older than me.
- [49:34]
A
You guys look younger than that.
- [49:35]
C
Thank you. I'll be 39 in a couple weeks, so that's exciting. But, yeah, I feel like we try to tell people all the time, even friends of ours that are in this space that always ask us questions. I'm like, guys, just pick up a book. Here's free information. Just take one. Listen. If it sounds like it's something you want to do, do it, you know? And a lot of these people hate their W2 job. And I said, well, learn something while you're working and see if it's feasible for you, because I think anybody can do this. It's really not that difficult once you start.
- [50:09]
A
If I was in your computer or if I was looking at your computer while you guys were looking for your next house you're going to buy. Walk me through what would catch your eye, what you would look for, how you'd set up your search parameters. You've done this enough times now that it's sort of like, you know, what to say no to. You know, what gets interesting to you, how Are you setting it up and what's catching your eye?
- [50:27]
C
I love this question since nobody's asked us.
- [50:30]
B
You see all my spreadsheets? I'm terrible at spreadsheets. Excel.
- [50:34]
A
Before you answer, Morgan, are you comfortable saying to see a freak in the sheets?
- [50:38]
C
Oh, 100%.
- [50:39]
A
See spreadsheets?
- [50:40]
B
Yes.
- [50:41]
A
Sounds like it sounds like you know your way around a spreadsheet there, David. All right, go ahead.
- [50:47]
B
I'm terrible. I'm not terrible at that, but I'm terrible.
- [50:50]
A
I'm terrible at cells at that. Yes.
- [50:54]
C
There you go.
- [50:54]
B
So it's funny you mentioned that. So my job, obviously, you know, I was a state trooper and now I'm a state police investigator, work counterterrorism. So I work down in an office of a bunch of analysts. Everyone is smarter than. I shouldn't say that. A lot of people are smarter than me.
- [51:09]
C
Most of them are smarter than me.
- [51:10]
B
They're 25 years old throughout, maybe 35, 40 years old. A lot of them come from federal agencies. Some of them are FBI, former FBI. Some of them are former or gang one that's former CIA. So you have a pool of people that are phenomenal to pull from. So with regards to my Excel sheets and then finding those properties, I have certain criteria that I look for. I have your four bed, two bath, over 2,000 square feet. I have a little sheet of what are your top retirement areas in Florida or whatever other surrounding states, what are areas they're going to appreciate? I also use ChatGPT very heavily and with regards to the analysts, I'll have them also help me just how to do a simple calculation on Excel that will take me an hour and a half to figure out how to use Excel. Literally takes them about 20 seconds. I could not tell you how to do some math or how to do math on Excel. No idea. But you know, having that criteria and focusing on that cash flow, those areas that are appreciating those areas that are high retirement areas. The other thing is too that I'd mention is that I also look at U Haul data and I also look at Amazon warehouses. If you have any type of home or whatever near Amazon warehouse, you're going to create. The Amazon warehouse is going to create 30 to 40,000 jobs instantly. And with U Haul data, you look at that data and it shows you where people are moving out of and where they're moving to. So with New York, people are moving out of New York, they're moving down to Florida and the Sunbelt states. So those are. There's a lot of the criteria that I look at.
- [52:53]
C
Yeah, that data can be really fascinating, especially the U haul data, because that's really like up to date.
- [53:00]
B
It's public information.
- [53:01]
C
Yeah. And it's all, again, it's all free public information. You can look it right up. Another fascinating thing is we look at FEMA maps to determine flood zones. I think that's really important.
- [53:12]
B
Absolutely.
- [53:13]
C
And then there's certain criteria as well that most people may know about, but your categorization of A, B and C homes for our specific niche, we look more in the B neighborhoods. And then like I said earlier, zooming in on Google Maps, looking at neighborhoods from above, just in terms of location, close proximity to bus lines and like we zero in like down to like streets and how many miles or minutes is it, you know, to public transportation, grocery stores. So we kind of just, we don't really have like a checklist per se, but there's quite a few things that we take a peek at.
- [53:52]
B
Yeah. I mean, to be honest, once I find the house, I'll go on Google Maps, zoom into the street view, I'll direct quote, unquote, I'll drive down the road just to see what's the neighborhood like, what's across from it. Is there a school across from it? Is there an apartment complex? Is there something that would deter, you know, myself from buying it or a future buyer if I was ever to sell the house?
- [54:12]
C
And is that picture on Zillow or whatever avenue we use real and up to date? Because there's been quite a few of them that were not. So of course we're not going to be there in person, but it's.
- [54:23]
A
I had a house that I bought and was intending a very big house, a lot of bedrooms, intending to make it a medium term rental. Long story short, the city did not want that. They're not allowed to tell me no, but they just basically said, legally we can't stop you, but we could just make your life hell. And we will. This is California. And so I was going to rent it out to a sober living facility instead. And I found one that wanted it. They were going to pay the money. It was like 12 grand a month. And then it turns out it was within walking distance to a liquor store up in smoke. Right. So like it's a thing that you might not think about if you're getting into this, this strategy. But for you two, if you're cruising down the road on Google Street View, you're gonna come across these things. You're like, nope, I don't want it. You want to be in. Sounds like, like grade A or at least B plus neighborhoods.
- [55:09]
B
Yes. Yes.
- [55:10]
C
Yeah, exactly. There's another cool little story we've told before, but the neighborhood with the police officer.
- [55:16]
B
Yes.
- [55:17]
C
I don't know if you want to hear a little side story.
- [55:19]
B
Yeah. So two of our tenants had to be evicted because they had gone back to narcotics. So got a call that, hey, two of your tenants need to be evicted. They're refusing to leave. And I said, that sounds like a fun thing to deal with. So Fort Walton Police Department, they knew that I was. As a landlord, they knew that I was a police officer. Officer. So got a call from one of their officers down there and their chief of police, Florida at this point had, I think it was a two or three week turnaround time to evict people, which is still pretty quick compared to California and New York. And so the police or chief. Police. Chief of police said, let's just send them over right now and we'll evict them. So once they evicted those people, they started establishing that relationship with that house and they actually ended up doing ride alongs for the tenants in the house. And the police department ended up going over to the house and throwing a small barbecue, of all things. So the regional rep of that area of the state for the nonprofit ended up calling me and said, we've never ever had anything like this with any of our homes. And I think it just kind of goes to show just that relationship, at least that I have with law enforcement was just something that was very positive.
- [56:41]
A
Okay, Morgan, I want to ask you, because I was a cop for 10 years, I was never married, but I don't know what it was like to. To interact with me. What is it like to be married to a cop?
- [56:53]
B
What do people know? It's ex. It's excellent.
- [56:57]
C
No, I mean, it's funny because every cop you meet is going to be different. Right. Some people live it, breathe it, bring it home. Fortunately for me, Dave doesn't live it, breathe it, or ever bring it home. So I get a normal, semi normal husband most of the time whom I know is very serious and focused at his job. So I pretty much see the happy go, lucky guy all the time. You know, I think that just speaks to his personality.
- [57:28]
B
Yeah, I've always had the mantra, leave work at work. And I mean, we have two small kids. One of them's eight, one of them's five and a half. And when I'm home, I want to be home for them. I don't need no part of me needs to bring my police work home. And I know that people can't always show it off. I know a lot of, you know, state police personnel, they. That's their life. And for me, it's not. My life is my family at home. And I just, you know, state police is my job. It's not my. That's not my life.
- [57:59]
A
That's pretty good stuff there.
- [58:00]
C
I mean, I wish I had something cooler to say about that, but. But it's the truth.
- [58:04]
B
That was good.
- [58:06]
A
Well, did you work a beat at one point, David?
- [58:08]
B
I did. I was so. I worked as a trooper on the road and would make a lot of narcotic stops. So we get a lot of trafficking of narcotics from New York City up to Vermont. And so that was kind of my. My thing that I enjoyed a lot of.
- [58:26]
A
What is something that you feel people. People don't understand about cops or like a really common misconception in today's culture?
- [58:35]
B
That's an easy one to say. So I think the biggest thing is, and I always said this to everyone that I deal with, whether I went to a domestic or if I stopped someone for narcotics trafficking, I just said, hey, you have no idea that I have a wife and two kids at home. I'm just like you. I'm just a normal person. You know, I'm not. Not high and mighty, and I'm just a normal person just like anyone else. It was always very, very well received.
- [59:04]
A
That was like your secret move.
- [59:06]
B
It was. And it allowed me to allow vehicles.
- [59:09]
A
That's a good point, too. Maybe we'll do a show someday about everything that you should know about how to interact with the cops to not get arrested. That'd be a good course to sell, right? We'll tell you, we'll talk you how to not get yourself in legal trouble with a cop. We'd be really popular in law enforcement community for that. All right, before we get out of here, I started a new trend where I've been asking people, what is something that you guys want to ask me or several things that you've never been able to and I know I'm totally putting you on the spot. So everyone listening to this, let's cut them some slack because they didn't have any time to think about this. They are busy setting up their perfect fireplace. Pillars of wealth roll out and mantle perfectly put together like a Pinterest video so that this video would go viral.
- [59:55]
B
I'll let you go. I'll let you start with that.
- [59:58]
C
Oh, my Goodness. Okay, I got one.
- [60:02]
B
Fetal.
- [60:03]
C
Well, if you have one, you go first because I think I have one too.
- [60:07]
B
I mean, so you were 10 years as a beat cop and obviously then you get into law enforcement. Two things, I guess. Why'd you step away? I assume it's similar to a lot of other police officers, just the grind of the job. But why'd you step away? And how'd you carry that experience within law enforcement to what you do now?
- [60:27]
A
I wish I had a better part of when people ask me this is there's like an expectation I think they have, that I'm going to be like, I planned it all out, but most of the advice I've given of what I've learned, I didn't intend to learn it. I got thrown into something. I figured it out when I was there and I was like, that was horrible. Let me go tell everybody that comes along behind me how to avoid that. Because it wasn't good. Right. I didn't intend to get into real estate investing. I didn't think I was going to be a big time investor. I didn't intend to become a podcast host. Like, Opportunity called. I answered and was like, holy cow, how do I get good at this? And so becoming a cop. Never wanted to be a cop. Didn't think I was ever going to do it. Graduated college and didn't know what I was going to do. Had a professor that did criminal law and he's like, you're the best student I've ever had. Since I been professing, it's not coaching. What do you call it, teaching in college. Have you considered getting a law enforcement? It's like, no. He's like, you should look into this other student I had who was, same as you, psychology and criminal justice. She works for ice. So like we said, that was the first place that I had. I had applied for right out of college and didn't get hired. But I ended up getting the bug. Like, something just took over where I'm like, I want to do this so bad, I will die before I quit. And went through like 13 different job applications. Very hard to get picked up. Yeah, they'll cut you for anything from too many speeding tickets to several of them. Said, we think you're a goody two shoes. You've never been in a fight, you've never had a girlfriend, you've never been drunk. You'll never make it as a cop to like, we don't like your handwriting honestly on one of them. It's crazy. Back at that time how hard it was to get hired. So then when I finally got in there, I just hit the police academy like a freight train. I'm going to learn everything there is to learn. I'm going to stay late every single day. I'm going to study constantly. There's already a lot of pressure on you because most people. People get washed out. It's really hard. But I was like, you made me work this hard to get here. I'm going to crush it. And so then I got out of it, and I got into being a cop, and it was like, man, you made me work that hard to get through the academy. I'm going to get the most out of this. And so I was like, who's the mentor? Who's the best guy? Who's the person that everybody respects? I'm going to copy everything that guy does. And I was just. You want me to take a report for you? Yep, I'm happy to take it for you. Can you just read it and tell me what you would change about it? And that was sort of like how I got the older guys to like me and how I learned the job at some point. And then something changed and I just lost the fire. I don't know how to describe it. It's a feeling that I tell people, like, if you had a handful of sand and it was coming out of your hand and you were. You didn't want to let it go, so you were squeezing it tighter to try to hold the sand, and it was just pushing out your fingers more. I did not want to let go of my career, my identity, all the effort I'd put in, all of the investment I had put in. I had gotten really high. I was like an instructor for everything I could. Kind of like, I was on the special assignments. I was on a group that also worked with anti terrorism. Like, it was awesome. And then I felt like, I just don't want to do it anymore. And this real estate thing just, like, kind of consumed my mind. And I. I think it was like a higher power saying, it's time you've learned what I had you learned here it is time to go learn a new thing. Not everybody looks at like that, so I can't. I can't always articulate it that way so everyone gets it.
- [63:38]
B
But.
- [63:39]
A
But it felt like, man, like, there's nothing I can do. It's going to end. And then eventually I developed plantar fasciitis. That was horrible.
- [63:47]
C
Like, oh, yeah.
- [63:49]
A
I could not stand in one place for more than three seconds. Before I was like, I can't take it. I couldn't cover anybody. I couldn't focus. It was horrible. And the doctor said, hey, you've. Cause I was working for a transit department for most of the time. I started as a deputy. We got laid off in 2010 when all the property taxes got dropped. And then I went to a transit department because that's where they still had money. So I was. I wasn't in a car all the time. I was walking through the subways looking for the bad guys. And you're just on your feet with all your gear for like legit 18 hour shifts is usually what I was doing because I was saving money to buy real estate. So they told me, if you don't stop, you're going to be crippled. Your feet are shot. And so that led to me being forced to like, get out, try to heal. They didn't heal. And then during that period of time, I started selling houses. And because I owned investment property, it went really well. Selling houses for other people. And so I just said, well, if I can't be a cop, I guess I will be a realtor and I'll try to learn how to do that. And then maybe six months, a year after I left being a cop, the Bigger Pocket opportunity with Brandon came up. I was interviewed by biggerpockets when I was a cop, but I got the host job after that. And then it was like a rocket ship. Is that when I took over with Brandon or I joined Brandon, who already had a really good thing. Our show, just like our chemistry was amazing and we were like one of the biggest podcasts in the the country.
- [65:11]
C
Yeah, yeah, we've listened. So my question to you is, it's kind of a couple part question. We all, I think, have a mentor who is your mentor just in life doesn't have to be in real estate. And what or who do you live your life for?
- [65:29]
A
Finding a mentor is one of the hardest things. And when you're young, it's hard. When you get older, it gets even harder. Harder. Like there's less people that you can look up to because the people that you would look up to are usually not as engaged. They're sort of like on the downhill road. No one warns you. That's the case. And so I never had a very good relationship with my dad. He was just a tough guy. He didn't really have a good relationship with anybody. And I felt like he didn't like me that much. And so finding male mentors when I was a cop Was like a huge blessing because you got some guy at the range that's really good or some guy that takes you under his wing and teaches you like, hey, this is how you screw up, screwed up. This is the right way to do that so that doesn't happen again. Or here's the right way to say something on the radio so you're not making people don't realize. I was legit less scared as a cop of the bad guys than I was of making a mistake and my own people eating me. Because we are terrible. We are terrible to each other for the most part. And now I just spend a lot of time wishing like, man, I wish there was a dad there that could guide me through like the difficult times that are going on in the market right now, that are going on in my portfolio, that are going on in life and, and just with our country. It is heartbreaking to see how crazy divided that this has become. And like the Charlie Kirk situation, if nothing else has just revealed, yes, there is a very, very different way of looking at things that I don't think a lot of us understood how severely opposite things are right now. So, like, mentors are one of the trickiest things to find. I try to be one a lot because I know how bad they need it. But my relationship with God is probably where most of my time is spent right now. Like, if I can't find it in a human, then I'm looking for like, well, what is it? What is he seeing when he looks at the world? What does he see when he looks at me? And doing that, it's hard at times, but at other ways it's very helpful that it gets you out of your own perspective. You see your own hypocrisy, you see the ways that you're being selfish when you're trying to look at yourself from a third party perspective. If I don't do that, then usually you just get sucked into an argument with somebody else over what you want.
- [67:28]
B
Want.
- [67:29]
A
That's a really good question. I don't think anyone's ever asked that.
- [67:33]
C
Well, you're welcome. And that was a great answer.
- [67:35]
A
Thank you guys. And I'm really, really glad to hear that. The slow and steady pursuit, like the turtle or the tortoise, I guess we don't call them turtles. It was a tortoise is working out so good for you guys and that you're doing well when there's so many people that are not and don't want to get out there. So this is the anti fire approach. And you guys are looking pretty smart now.
- [67:56]
B
Thank you.
- [67:57]
A
The firefighter. So I can't call a cop a firefighter. That's a bit of an insult. We'll have to come up. I'm a cop and a firefighter. Well, thank you, guys. If people want to reach out, they want to talk to you. They have any questions for you, where's the best place for them to go?
- [68:12]
B
So we have a website. It's Stanhope Capital, and we have all social media on there. And Morgan's definitely the social media guru on there.
- [68:21]
C
I'm trying to be better with social media. That's kind of my next. My. My next job here is to kind of beef up social media and have fun doing it. So we do have an Instagram, and our website has all of our handles.
- [68:34]
A
All right, appreciate that, you guys. We'll have to have you on in the future. Next time you get a house, send me a message. We'll do this. We'll go through it.
- [68:40]
C
Awesome. We'd love to. Thank you so much.
- [68:42]
A
Thanks. Appreciate you both.
- [68:44]
C
Thanks.
- [68:45]
A
All right, folks, if you like today's show, make sure you go. Leave us a comment below. Let us know exactly what you thought about the show. Leave some words of encourage for our wonderful couple here, and tell me what you'd like to see in a future show. We do read those comments and we take them into consideration. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Make sure you subscribe, and I will see you next week on the David Green Show.