WEBVTT - Real Estate FIRE w/ Alan Corey #806 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.320 Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt, 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:08.640 and today we're talking real estate fire with Alan Corey. 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.880 That's right. Yeah, So any longtime listener of the podcast 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:32.800 knows that we're fans of investing in real estate. We 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.360 both have a handful of rentals and a decent bit 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.400 of our financial success is because of those properties, because 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.400 of those houses. But we also approach the conversation with 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:46.240 a degree of reservation because we don't think it's for everyone, 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.120 first of all, but also we got into the market 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:53.080 at a historically great period of time, and so we're 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:54.400 nuanced when we. 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:55.240 Talk about real estate. 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.120 But our guest today is not so here to preach 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.920 the real estate go is Alan Corey, who is all in. 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.360 He's a realtor, he's author of House Fire, which we'll 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.800 be discussing today, and of course he is an investor himself. 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.400 Alan is a self proclaimed real estate maximalist here in 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.679 our wonderful city of Atlanta, and we're going to talk 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.560 about all things real estate. I also heard that he 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:22.720 wanted to be a stand up comedian in a previous 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.400 slave show, so maybe we'll talk about that a little bit. 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:26.240 But Ali, we. 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.080 Really appreciate you joining us on the podcast today. 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:31.160 Glad to be here. You're right, real estate is not 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.120 for everyone. It's only for people who want to make 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:33.759 a lot of money. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.960 There's the first is the stand up comedian. I can 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:44.240 tell Alan the first question we ask everyone who comes 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.399 on the show. Matt and I. We splurge a lot 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:48.800 on craft beer. Even while we're being intentional, we're saving 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:50.840 and investing for our futures. What's that for you? What 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:51.720 do you like to suplore? John? 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:53.160 You speak craft beer? 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:55.880 And then I turned forty, and then my gut was 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.320 telling me that I can't have I pas anymore. 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.120 And that time I got. 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:07.000 Really into flat caps, which are basically the hats that 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:11.120 Sherlock Holmes wears, and the only reason I've it. I'm 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.480 fighting every urge. But when you hit about forty five, 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.000 which is my age, now you start turning into your father. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:18.079 And it's just. 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.920 Genetically predisposed that I'm going to wear these hats that 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:26.000 he wears. What my grandfather where and my great grandfather. 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:27.960 I don't know what it is. I just can't stop 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.720 buying them, and my wife is going crazy that our 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:32.320 closets getting filled with these caps. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:34.160 I end up buying one a month. 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.280 For tweet and stuff. For that, I'm guessing. 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:40.240 You get the plaid, you get the tartan, you get 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.519 the tweed, you get the Saint Patrick's themed one, you 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.560 get the you know, there's a new holiday. 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:47.560 I need a new cap. 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.280 And you know, my wife's like, you look forty years 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:52.800 older when you wear that, and I know I do. 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.720 It's just I cannot stop myself. I don't know what's 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:57.120 going on. 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.560 So it's not like I thought the direction you're going 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:01.320 with it. I thought you were gonna start talking, You're 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:03.080 gonna mention hair loss or something. 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:04.160 Yeah, yeah, yeah, but. 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.320 You're saying that just truly it's in your DNA, not 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:08.720 that you're going to lose your hair, but that you 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:10.560 are turning into your father and your grandfather. 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:10.959 Yeah. 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.839 And my dad's really into you know, the ancestry and genealogy. 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.440 And we're from Ireland and Scotland and England, uh, you know, 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:20.480 but we've been in America as far as we can 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:22.640 trace it back for over two hundred years. I just 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:27.760 can't shake this this flat cap thing. And it's all 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:29.800 my ads. 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:30.560 On every social media. 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.960 They know that this is my weakness and that all 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:35.920 the ad I get, and I just keep buying them. 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:37.880 So I just hope you're sitting on the front porch 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.160 smoking a pipe on a rocking chair, also telling the 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:41.920 kids to get off your lone while you're wearing it. 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.760 Yes, then then I've I've metaphorphed into my dad and 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:47.880 cycle continues to my son. 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:50.240 I do feel like there's a way you could. You 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.800 could kind of change the script and what people expect. 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.640 Alan as long as you're not walking like clasping your 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.440 hands behind your back while you shuffle down the sidewalk, 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.120 because if you do that, I don't know, it reinforces 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.360 the character I have. 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.080 You know, perk. I have solved three crimes since this, 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.120 so you know it comes with some perks. 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:11.920 Matt would be happy to be your doctor, Watson, I'm 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:12.640 not gonna handle that. 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:15.200 So even though you're here in the city, we've ever 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.760 we've never actually met, we've never hung out. This is 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:21.000 truly the first time we've ever talked, and so we 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.640 would love for you to share a bit about your history, 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.159 like tell us about how you became a super saver, 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.279 like when you're first starting out, because if I understand 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:32.280 you were making something like forty K. You're living in 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.200 New York, but you were investing a massive chunk of that. 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.800 I'm assuming you weren't living large. So I want to 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.640 kind of hear the I guess the Alan Corey origin 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:42.160 story here. 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:42.840 Yeah. Sure. 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.560 So I moved to New York with dreams to be 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.880 a comedy writer. And so to be a comedy writer 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.039 you basically have to be a stand up comedian and 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:54.479 then hopefully you're funny enough that people hire you to 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:56.000 write some jokes for them. 0:04:56.279 --> 0:05:00.760 So the next Liz Lemon, Yes. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.760 Yes, exactly. And so because in my head, I was like. 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:09.120 Entertainers are rich, and I had no entertaining skills. I'm 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.720 not an actor or singer or dancer or anything like that. 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:13.960 But I was like, well, I was class clown in 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.440 high school. Maybe I can turn this into a lucrative 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.800 side gig or a full time gig. And so I 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:22.040 moved to New York City. I found a tech support job. 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.000 And this was the year two thousand. It was the 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.679 dot com boom and everything right right after that actually, 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.559 and and I was like, let's live the fire life, 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.240 the lean fire. This was before all that existed. But 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.159 the cheapest place I could find was an illegal sublet 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.960 in the Spanish Harlem project. So you know, I had 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.640 a roommate who lived in the projects and he gave 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:46.920 me his room for four hundred bucks a month, which 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:51.520 was great. And then I just started reducing my expenses everywhere. 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.919 I'd save on food by going to the bodega in 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.080 Spanish Harlem and buying ram noodles for thirteen cents each 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:00.680 if I bottom in bulk. 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:01.880 That's what I'm talking about. 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:02.920 Yeah, yeah, And. 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.679 Then I'd go to the bakery as they were closing 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:07.880 and about to throw off away all their fresh break 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.280 baked stuff for the day and get them at fifty 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.599 percent off or sometimes free. And I would just try 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:16.359 to cut all my expenses. And I even went to 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.680 my HR person and said, listen, I want you to 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.320 put fifty percent of my income or whatever my take 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.480 home pay into this bank account that I use every 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:26.800 single day, and the other fifty percent in this one 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.080 way across town that is really difficult for me to 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.040 get to. And this was pre online banking and all 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.000 that as well. I mean, I'm not that ancient, I'm 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.040 forty five, but you know, twenty years ago this was. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:40.599 This was what were the horse and carriages like in 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:42.920 New York, exactly, exactly, Well, I pass. 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.040 Changed a lot in the past twenty twenty five years, 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.840 but no, I honestly, just to interrupt those for a second, 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.520 I love that you set that barrier between you and 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.160 your money to make it more difficult, because I assume 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.279 you're socking that money away and hopefully you were planning 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:56.920 to do something with it. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:57.160 Right. 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.640 Yeah, Well, so everyone I felt like everyone in New 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.080 York was wealthy. Like you see the nice restaurants, you'd 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.560 occasionally see a celebrity, and you see people driving and 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:07.560 even taking cabs. I'm like, look at that rich person 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.480 who can take a cab? And so I was like, 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.240 how do they do it? And so I went to 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:16.440 the library because pre podcast, pre social media, pre YouTube, 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:18.560 all that stuff, and I just bought every book I 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:22.120 could on wealth building and stocks and everything. And what 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.960 I realized is with stocks, like I felt like I 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.080 was gambling it was like a thirty year horse race. 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.320 But real estate, I felt like I could control it 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.560 and that I could, you know, determine what I was 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:35.040 going to buy, how much I was going to buy 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:36.520 it for, how much was going to put to renovate it, 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:38.640 how much I could rent it for what my financing 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.200 terms are. I felt like I had a little bit 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.360 more control, a lot more control, actually, and so I 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.560 sort of reverse engineered that. You know, I was burning 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.200 the midnight oil going working my nine to five and 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:51.800 then I would go to the comedy club still three 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.360 o'clock in the morning. And it wasn't sustainable. It was 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:56.400 terrible at both my day job and at comedy. But 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:58.360 I was like, man, if I could just buy one 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.680 piece of property a year for five years, then I 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.880 could probably replace my day job income. And so that's 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.200 where I went to that bank account that was collecting 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.160 fifty percent of my take home bay every single year, 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:12.800 and I would just say, whatever's in that, that would 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:13.800 be my down payment. 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:14.160 For a property. 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.080 And every year I would say fifty percent and whatever's 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.360 in that, you know, let's apply it to That was 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.160 my get out of like corporate plan in five years. 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.120 So that first year I had ten thousand dollars saved up. 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.000 It was right after nine to eleven. Everyone's trying to 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.040 leave New York. You know, Alan, you're an idiot, You're 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:32.880 trying to buy a real estate. You know, everyone's so 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.480 fearful it's the worst time ever to ever buy a 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.520 real estate. You know, you don't know what you're doing. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.600 And I found one property that I was one hundred 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.000 thousand dollars in Brooklyn. I had never been to Brooklyn before, 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.560 and I went to Brooklyn and homeless people were right 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:48.240 outside all this stuff that. 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:49.000 You see in movies. 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.920 And I was a naive kid from Georgia. But I 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:53.400 was like, I got to buy it. This is the 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:55.880 only property I can buy. It's a one bedroom apartment. 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:00.880 And you know, if things go bad bad into the projects, 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:02.920 like I'm already in the projects, like it can't get 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.800 any worse. I'm buying living in the projects whatever, right, 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.880 or I have tremendous upside if I can, if I 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:10.760 can make this work, like I thought it was going 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:12.880 to work. And what I did is I bought it 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.480 and it was a big living room and I was like, 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:18.440 I'm not going to have any people over. I don't 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:20.000 have any friends, so I. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.720 Uh, I'm working big heavy. Yeah, exactly. 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:25.880 In New York, no one ever goes to your apartment. 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:27.840 You meet in a bar or a restaurant or everything. 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:29.400 Like you have no idea what. 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.800 People's lifestyle is because they all live in Jersey and 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.640 Brooklyn and Bronx or whatever. But I just took a big, 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:39.600 heavy curtain and sectioned off the living room and I 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.160 rented that out to a friend of mine, another comedian, 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.600 And that was like house hacking before else I existed. 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.200 And that would pay off my mortgage. Right, So I 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:51.600 went from paying four hundred bucks in the projects to 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.040 paying nothing and I own it, yes, And I was like, Okay, 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.600 there's something to this, right, And then the next year 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.040 I was able to save up fifteen thousand dollars on 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.160 January first, and so then I bought a duplex and 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.360 then I just you know, saved up some more money. 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:10.839 And my third property, I did a flip, and I 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:12.960 didn't have enough money, but I found the deal and 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.559 I found my next door neighbor was a contractor and 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.480 he would work for free for equity. And then the 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:21.840 only person that I thought was rich or knew was 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:24.120 I was dating a girl at her time at the time, 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.719 and her dad was a lawyer, and I was like, well, he. 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:29.760 Must be rich. He has a job in New York City. 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:31.199 He's a lawyer in New York, so he must be rich, 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:33.600 you know, I asked him if he would pay for 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:35.839 the down payment and you know, twenty percent down on 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:38.600 the renovations here on this deal that I found. 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:39.800 He said sure, and. 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.280 We bought this property in Red Hook, Brooklyn, which at 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.360 the time no one knew anything about, for four hundred 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.719 thousand dollars. We put two hundred thousand dollars into it, 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.600 and we sold it for one point one million dollars 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:52.320 a year later. I was twenty five years old at 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.200 that time, and the buyer was Barbara Corcoran from Shark 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.960 Took and that gave me the boost of confidence, like, wow, okay, 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:05.520 I found a deal, I renovated it, and Queen of 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:07.240 New York City Real Estate bought it for your own 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.320 personal investment. I'm doing things right. And I was like, 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.440 all right, I don't need to do comedymore. Let me 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:14.000 let me lean and do real estate there. 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.480 That's cool. Well, yeah, I love that combo of like 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.959 early sacrifices. There's I think there's a lot of stuff 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:21.319 that we can glean from that. The fact that you're 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.640 kind of divorcing yourself from that money until you're ready 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.319 to invest it. I love that. Yeah, siphoning it off 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.000 elsewhere so it's not a temptation for you, and I 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:30.599 want to talk a lot more about We want to 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:32.480 talk a lot more about investing on this episode. But 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:34.680 you're you're not just an investor, you're also an agent, 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.440 and so in spring is just the hottest time for 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.040 the housing market. What are you seeing right now? I'm 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:42.679 curious because there's a lot of a lot of our 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.320 listeners are interested in buying a house. Maybe they've put 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.320 it off because what's happened over the past couple of 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.280 years with rates and prices. Do you are you starting 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:52.360 to see things moderate, things chill out a little bit 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.080 in the housing market or yeah, I'm curious to hear 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:55.720 your perspective. 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:57.840 Yeah, so you're not going to like this or your 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.280 listeners are not going to like this, but it it's 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:02.640 hot and everything's a bidding more. 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.240 If you have a property that doesn't. 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:09.160 Need any work, it's going to go under contract with 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.600 multiple offers and there's not going to be comps that 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.880 support it. That the data just doesn't make sense. But 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.560 that's what's happening. Why is that happening? We have a 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.720 housing shortage. Has the housing shortage improved since last year? No, 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:23.800 the year before that, No, the year before that. No, 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:29.320 we are twenty years behind on building to match the 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.839 demand that makes prices go up regardless of the interest rates. 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.839 People want to wait, and they're going to wait. Oh, 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.000 let me save up twenty thousand dollars. You know, I 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:39.920 don't like the homes that I see right now. If 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.960 I save another twenty thousand dollars, I can go up 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.160 a price point. I can move my budget from five 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.520 hundred thousand to five hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.560 doesn't work that way with inflation and the housing demand. 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.520 When you save up twenty thousand dollars, that house you 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.559 looked at five hundred thousand dollars is now five to fifty. 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.200 You're just buying the exact same house a year later 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:02.840 for more expensive price, And so you can't outsave inflation. 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:05.240 And you know, so you have money in your bank, 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.120 but inflation is eating away at that and you're trying 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.600 to outsave it. You're trying to outsave the rising housing market. 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.640 It's one of those things where it's never a good 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.480 time to buy real estate in that if you're waiting 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:21.280 for the perfect scenario of interest rates and price point 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:25.079 and what you get combined with it's always a good 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:28.480 time to buy real estate because tomorrow is always going 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:30.280 to be worse than it is today. You know, every 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.840 real estate investor, everyone who's ever bought a house, they're 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:34.880 always like, Wow, I'm glad I bought two years ago. 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:36.960 You know, ask them. You know, I've in real estate, 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.880 in real estate for twenty five years. Every single person's like, man, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.120 I should have bought two year ago. I should have 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.559 bought two years ago. There's just not enough homes to buy, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.960 and so it's it's tough, and so there's two ways 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:50.960 to look at real estate. Is whether you're looking as 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.839 an investment or a primary residence. But a primary it's 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.319 an emotional decision. Sometimes many times the numbers don't make 0:13:57.360 --> 0:13:59.760 sense in terms of an investment, but you're buying for 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:02.800 life lifestyle. You want to be close to your work 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.920 or school district, or you just like the walkability or 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:08.360 close to the interstate, whatever it is. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:09.560 That's fine. 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.760 You can pay extra and pay a premium for those 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.640 things because that's for your lifestyle and that brings you happiness. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.080 But you can't always look at your primary resident is 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.480 going to be the best investment for you, and real 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:21.880 estate investors look at property differently. They look at it 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:24.960 as a spreadsheet decision, not an investment decision, and so 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.160 they might like the uglier house or the one that's 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.320 in the floodplain. And I always like to say, you 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.520 want to buy the you want your house to be 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.560 ugly in the street and sexy in the spreadsheets, and 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.080 so that's what makes a good investment. And typically the 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.480 opposite is true for primary where it's sexy in the 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:42.040 street but ugly in the spreadsheet. 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.400 Yeah, you wanted to have that curb appeal something that, Yeah, 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.680 your family is excited to come home too. But I mean, 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:49.720 I totally agree with what you're saying as far as 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:53.080 the overall trend of real estate. I mean, it's one 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.400 of those things that continues. It's almost like the stock 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.000 market in that way, like, yes, there are little fluctuations 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:00.400 here and there, but generally speaking it's up into the right. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.960 But mortgage rates are crazy high compared to where they 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:07.760 were years ago, and they have a massive impact on 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.800 your monthly payment. It has a huge impact on individual's 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.200 ability to afford a home or not. And so I'm curious, like, 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.880 I know it depends on from market to market, but 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.680 how have you seen folks cope with that. And I'll 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.200 say where we are where we're not down in the 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:30.120 city and the small neighborhoods around central Atlanta like you are, 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:32.880 but we are seeing things slow down a good bit here. 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:35.640 There is not as much mobility because it seems like 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.720 a lot of folks are locked in. They've got folks 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.440 are hanging on to the three percent mortgages because they're 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:43.760 seeing what move into something at six and a half 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:45.440 and seven percent, what that's going to do to their payment. 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:48.040 Yeah, that's as adding to the housing shortage. 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:48.240 Right. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:50.600 People don't want to sell because they have a three 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.120 percent mortgage, or if they do need to move because 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.280 of a birth in the family or a death, or 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.680 a marriage or a job transfer, they'll keep that as 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.040 a rent because the interest rates so low, and so 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.400 that adds to the housing shortage. But if you have 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.040 to move, right, you have to get into the school district, 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.360 you do get a job transfer, you got married, or 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.280 whatever it is you have to move, you have like 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.880 ten choices to choose from within your buybox, whether that's 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.440 your zip code and your price right, And so then 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.520 that's where these bidding wars go nuts, because you have 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.600 to move, you don't have a choice. A real estate 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.560 investor doesn't think that way. A real estate investor will 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:31.880 buy and get a thirty year fixed and hold it 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.440 until it's the right time to sell. For instance, I 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.400 invested all through the real estate the great financial crash, 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.240 and my property value went down fifty percent, but I 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.920 wasn't selling. And when people aren't buying homes, that actually 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.400 increases the rental demand. There's actually more renters because they're 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.800 not interested in buying homes because the lenders at the 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:52.760 banks aren't giving money or the interest rates are so high, 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.280 so there's actually more renters. And then even though my 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.120 property value went down, I'm not selling. I'm just waiting 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:00.880 and renting it out and collecting cash flow month to 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:02.920 month until it is a good time to sell back 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.119 when interest rates are low again or there's you know, 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:08.080 high demand, and I can sell it there's been a 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:10.280 lot of appreciation on my property, then I sell it. 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.439 So that's what's great about real estate investing is you 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.080 don't time the market. You just wait out the market 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.919 until you want to sell. And but primary investing is 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.080 you hear the horror stories and they make the headlines 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.639 because they're they're just time, you know, independent. 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.800 Yeah, yeah, that's a that's really important. Actually, I think 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:32.080 your history owning rental real estate through the Great Recession, 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.679 because yeah, you can write it out if if you 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:37.399 have a long long enough time rise, and then if 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:40.320 you have enough cash reserves. I want to know too, Like, 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.000 let's let's pivot, let's specifically talk about real estate investing, 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.560 Like what's your philosophy there? Do you you think of 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:48.440 it more like buying a small business? Right? And then 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:50.960 how do you how do you talk to people who 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:53.960 are like I'm interested, I'm curious about real estate investing, 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:56.080 but I'm just I'm not sure if it is for me. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.040 Maybe I'm not. I'm not quite as gung ho as 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.280 you are. Alan, Maybe I should keep going with thein 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:01.720 k in the roth I rate kind of like Matt 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.280 and Joel talk about too. Why like what do you 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.160 tell folks when they're when they're kind of debating the two? 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.840 Yeah, So the number one way to get wealthy, like 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:14.320 really really wealthy is through leverage. Leverage is borrowing money 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:16.919