From Homeless Heroin Addiction to Financially Free Rental Investor

0:03All right Greg welcome to living on rentals hey Kirby thanks for having me yeah it's great to have you here man I I've been super excited about doing this this interview and number one you've got a super powerful story that I know will probably resonate with a lot of people and and it's just cool to see what you've built over the last several years and then we were talking before this I think we share a lot of the same off ities you know I'm jealous seeing the surfboard in the background I used to live in Hawaii where where you're living I was in onahu and I know you're on Maui but you know every Saturday morning we'd get up and go surfing and it was just it was amazing I mean just what a great lifestyle you you really picked picked the right place to be that's for sure yeah

0:52It's nice to be reminded of that because you know after I've been here about 10 years now and I just kind of get into the the The Daily Grind right like stopping to Surf between you know checking out going to see properties is just like part of my day and yeah I I forget how lucky I am be able to do that so yeah I was on I was on the island for two years and the same way like you kind of you forget that you're in the middle of paradise every day and every day is like perfect and you kind of take it for granted after a while so you need those those reminders from time to time but but that's awesome absolutely yeah and you were just showing me the goats in your backyard you'll probably hear our chickens you know cow the the rooster croing through the window here because we're we both

1:40Live in a little bit of a remote area I think and so I think there's a lot of shared interests here and and so I I want to get into to your story and and a little bit of your background because I know again you you have a a really powerful story of kind of turning your life around and and building something that's pretty awesome now and I think people would love to hear how you did that so if you could kind of take us back and and share a little bit about you know how you you know where where you came from your background a little bit and then how you init eventually transition into real estate yeah so and first off I can be longwinded so if I if you want me to kind of get to the point or expand a little more just let me know but yeah so I grew up I

2:28Had like Kind of pcture Perfect childhood and until my dad passed away which was I was 14 years old my dad had pancreatic cancer I didn't even know you know I knew he was sick but my parents didn't really tell me until it got really bad my dad was a real estate developer that was kind of worked for a big corporate kind of Carnival hotels and casinos company and he he he was like paid played key roles in developing some pretty Landmark properties around South Florida which I I didn't even know any of this until I found a newspaper article about him a few years ago wow but anyway so yeah my dad and I were like super close

3:17My sisters are super close to my mom regardless of the situation anytime a kid loses a parent it's shattering yeah my way of dealing with that was just rebelling right so it was just getting in any kind of trouble that I could I was already like starting to get into a little bit trouble like while he was sick and all that but it was really you know he died when I was 14 and so that just set me off so I was doing a lot of partying a lot of just getting in trouble and doing bad things and along with all those things of course there was drinking and experimenting with drugs and and ultimately found myself well when I was in like kind of near graduating

4:06High schools when I had my wisdom te pool for some reason they had them scheduled like two different times a couple months apart one side one side and then the other or uppers and the lowers whatever it was and they had me on painkillers the whole time which was like about a three month span which I was really stoked about because I had already like been experimenting with them and that was like my preference I loved them I love the painkillers and I think there's a little bit of a what's the word where you know like it's it's kind of symbolic right like I see a lot of addicts where they have particularly painful trauma in their past and they are more drawn to painkillers so yeah

4:54And that's how it starts for a lot of people too right the prescription painkillers and kind of leads into other stuff yeah yeah exactly and you know I had no clue how bad the stuff was when they were they were just giving me Vic which is like kind of yeah weakest one there is almost but yeah not not one of the really really potent kind of scary ones but that it's the same thing right and like I had no idea oh anyways once they cut me off I'm go out and I start you know finding it on my own things progress over time ultimately I'm on get into oxycotton and ultimately in the end heroin and injecting and all

5:43That and you know all all the there some things that come along with that from being homeless and you know overdosing my mom finding me I I was in my mom's house trying to detox because I desperately wanted to change my my life but I you know it was just I just kept relapsing so I'm trying to detox at my mom's house one time and she just happens to walk in my room which she knew I was not a happy person detoxing so she normally wouldn't she walks in and she finds me overdosed and gave me things like that just really bot like low bottoms you know everybody's got their own definition of like what bottom is and what you know for

6:31Me it it just every time I thought I hit bottom there was another one that was worse right there was a lot a period of time where I was really considering ending My Life and I I really like to share all this because I had no hope at this time you know when I was in jail detoxing from heroin and oxycotton from getting from I was stealing from my job at Sports Authority because I couldn't afford to couldn't forget about paying my rent like that was out of the question but I couldn't even afford to you know support my50 to $100 day habit so I stealing out of the cash register I got fired from that job and now the best job I could get before was making eight doll an hour now

7:20I have two felonies for grand theft and fraud on my record and I'm withdrawing opiates and I'm just like my life is over like what's I have nothing to and I I share all that because I I just want to give hope to you know if there's anybody out there that's kind of in any kind of similar situ regardless of what you're going through if you're feeling like having a hard time seeing the light or seeing other side never ever in my wildest dreams if you had told me at that time that I was going to be financially free living in Maui and surfing every day and own my own home like was just out of the question right and yeah you know driving the car my dreams and just things that like it never ever ever

8:08Could have imagined my biggest fear at that time also like for for my whole life really was being what I call a slave just you know nine to5 Monday through Friday my whole life is like I just so scared of it's crazy that you were even like con scared of that you know you had so many other bigger things that that were you know challenges at that time for you to even think about like Financial fre or like escaping you know the rat race it's it's interesting that it it was even a a thought back then well I mean you know in when I'm in the low of the lows like I probably wasn't really thinking about having to go you know get recovered and then go

8:56Work all for the rest of my life yeah but it's just it's always been something that's been there from I would say from when I was a teenager and started working and just being at a job where I'm punching the clock and just being like man watching the minutes tick by and like this sucks and driving to work you know that feeling when you're driving to work and you have that pit in your stomach and you're just like oh yeah oh God how am I gonna do this again like eight hours I have to be there so yeah I don't have to have that feeling anymore yeah yeah well I I mean I appreciate you sh I know that's like you said it's not something you probably talk about a whole lot and probably it's pretty it's still pretty raw I'm sure so I I really appreciate you sharing that because I know there's there there's people who are going

9:45Through their own struggles and maybe it's not the exact same but there's a there can be a pretty significant feeling of hopelessness and so it's it's pretty interesting to to hear where you were and now where you're you're heading so I guess what was the the turning point for you I mean how how did you escape it because I know that that grip is is pretty difficult to escape yeah well it it was a very very long process for me I have friends in fact one of my closest friends when I was through high school and college just decided one day he was done he went to start going to you know 12ep programs and locked himself in his room and went through the detox and never like 15 years clean

10:33Now wow for me it was like 15 years of relapsing yeah so I was when I was 22 years old I was arrested for my first felony charge that was a possession of a controlled substance and I got drug court and Drug Court really was like kind of the eye opener for me when they said you have to stay clean for a year and go to these meetings and stuff I was like oh that's a pain in the butt but fine whatever if it'll drop my charges I'll do it and I couldn't stay clean and that's kind of what that was the eye opener for me so from 22 years old to about 30 okay so maybe I guess it was about eight eight to 10 years something like that where I was struggling and trying to recover but just relapsing

11:23And relapsing and you know I'd stay clean for two years when I was 22 I was clean from when I was 22 to 24 went back to school started getting a decent life and decided Well maybe I could just have a you know drink on the weekends sort of thing so I went out and got drunk on a Tuesday night which I guess was a sign that it was off to a bad start and you know within days I just was like why am I out here drinking I you know it just set me off on the anyways ultimately the the end was really being in jail you know that story I just gave about being arrested sport priority and

12:11From there my mom I owe everything to my mom by the way she's like the only reason I'm alive the only reason I I have this life without any question so a lot of my friends parents had like given up like they had you know they're like we're done you know my mom just never did so she fought for me till the end and so when I was in jail she got me into a straight funded Treatment Center which was like you know I had been to like these really fancy ones and like you know all over these treatment centers and this time it was like yeah no one's paying for you to go to rehab again buddy like you know after this so she got me into the state FR ended up being the best possible thing I could have done at that time and and this is back back in Florida

13:00Yeah okay yeah this is in South Florida and you know I I don't really know how to explain it what happened you know what it was but sometimes you just suffer enough and you can't take it anymore right you have the motivation but that I combined with like finally building a life for myself I think was really what made a big difference because now I have a life that it's like have something to lose right whereas like before was like okay get clean get a job at Starbucks or something you know like I didn't really have much to lose so yeah shortly after that that was in 2010 shortly after is when I met my for ex-girlfriend who I'm still friends

13:48With now and we moved out to Maui together when she got a job out here and I think that's brought together for a reason that's what happened and yeah now we're here and now been able to build this life In My Dreams out here man that's incredible yeah it's it's so ironic I just read the book Fearless I don't know have you ever read that by chance no not yet I think you You' really like it it's it's a book of Adam Brown who's like one of the most elite Navy Seals that's that's you know he was part of the Seal Team Six which is like the the top Navy SEAL Team and he was a he was addicted to crack before he join is that the guy that did what's what's the other book

14:37Called seals sleeping with SEALS or something like that yeah yeah the guy who the author wrote another book about about seals about yeah I know who you're talking about yep so this this book is is specifically about Adam who was eventually killed in action but he you know he was addicted to to all kinds of drugs be before and was arrested has a very similar story of just you know the grip on like he went through rehab and and relaps so many times and then he decided he's going to become a seal and even after going through SEAL training the hardest training in the world he still relapsed after becoming a seal because it had such a strong grip so you know I I can I I mean I can't personally understand but I just hearing from others I understand

15:25That the type of pole that it's got on you once once it gets a hold so so once you got out to Maui then it was it just kind of like the change of environment that that made you start to focus on okay I'm gonna start building something on my own here I'm gonna improve my life and kind of you were able to turn your back on it or what what was what was the change there that started to occur no and I you know in case there's anybody that's kind of you know going through struggling with addiction or in recovery whatever the case I do want to kind of specify on that almost everybody was like opposed to the moving to Maui especially because I think I had I think I had less than a year clean the okay I

16:14Don't remember exactly what it was but it was in a long time and I have relapsed since I've been on Maui so moving to Maui was not the solution so got it everybody that's listening is like all right that's it I'm moving and done doing drugs right yeah no that that wasn't it it just too bad that that doesn't work like that yeah yeah no I I again you know I can't really explain what it was but I I just I think I was done you know obviously like I said I'd still had a couple more like small relapses but it just it was always a progression towards getting better of course the relapses got worse and worse that was kind of the scary part that kind of makes me think like okay if I ever did choose to relapse again it might be

17:02My last one right like I might not have a chance to come back because every time you know it just it got worse and worse so but no I think I just you know I I started specifically actually I'd say since my last relapse which was in 2014 so seven about 78 no actually it's coming up I just did the math it's coming up on eight years now congrats by the way yeah thank you thank you shortly after that was when I started kind of like building a career and a you know like these things that like I just never was able to for some reason keep my mind focused long enough to to

17:52And so I got back into real estate because I had done real estate I was an apprais are right after graduating high school but I lost my job when the recession hit and and then you know addiction kind of took over but anyways I so I got back into jobs in real estate just working W2 and that kind of reignited my whole passion and interest in you know for investing World unfortunately I had no education on real estate investing I wish so bad that at that time I would have just Googled how to invest in real estate how to buy a rental you know just something because my mind was you know buy a

18:40House live in it and wait a year or two and then sell it for a million dollars more than you bought it you know because like my experience was doing appraisals in Miami from 2002 to 2006 yeah you know I was that's just what people did so so yeah I had no idea and I I tried to buy a couple properties back in this time 2013 14 and they would have probably made a million dollars a couple years but but there it was there there was no you know principles it would have been pure speculation so yeah but it worked out the way it worked out and did a few different jobs like I said the whole time during this

19:28Period I I always saved and lived below my means so I think that's kind of like one of the other big factors I like I want to share with everyone and by the way just real quick touching on the previous story you know leading up to this is that like we mentioned touched on a little bit but you know my just because my story is addiction like there's a lot of different things that you can apply the same feelings and and everything too so you know if you're dealing with a divorce or you know a death overeating or you know whatever it is like that you're dealing with look at the similarities not the differences yeah yeah it's a good point it's a good point yeah and you know talking about Hawaii

20:17Too I I liveed there from 2007 to 2009 so I've kind of had the a little bit different perspective than your time there because it was right after the crash and it was like things just kept going lower and lower and so I was looking for for properties there at the same time that I lived there and finally in 2009 I I found a condo that I wanted to buy shortly before I left the I got stationed in Japan after that but but I bought one and everyone's telling me how crazy I was in 2009 they're like you want to buy a a condo right now like the bank it was a foreclosure the bank was giving it away practically for you know what what I offered which was is 225 for a two-bedroom condo with an ocean view and then and now I got the same situation like I look back I'm

21:06Like man why didn't I buy 10 of them you know it's but that's I think everyone right now after the way the real estate Market's gone so so it took you a little while to get started you started doing appraisals and what was I guess when was the point that you started actually investing on your own then how' you take that leap so so kind of there was like a I get I would say like a little bit of a turning point right because I talked about how I was always interested in investing from you know 18 years old when I started doing appraisals I was just fascinated and Drawn to just really interested in in this industry and but I never had any sort of education on it right and so I would say it

21:54Was around 2016 2015 2016 when I started I just for some reason I had the idea to I think it was because I had a I was finally starting to get a good a decent amount of savings you know for me which at that time was like $330,000 which was so much money to me I mean I never would have imagined I'd have $30,000 yeah and perspective right yeah yeah exactly so it's so crazy to think about it anyway so I like oh man I got all this money like what am I going to do with it and I thought oh well maybe this is like finally my chance you know and so I looked up somewhere out of the blue I'd never heard heard

22:42A podcast before I never even open the podcast app like I didn't even really know what a podcast was I just heard about them all the time was like figured it was people talking or something I don't know like yeah so I just searched I went on the phone and pressed a little podcast button and searched for real estate investing and a couple you know there's a couple shows I started listening to I listened to Joe Fairless for a while you know like back in you know when I was first starting off and and a couple other guys and like I just like all a sudden I was getting all this education realizing the things that were possible so that's what got me to say okay now it's time like I got to do this and I can actually do this because

23:30I also didn't know what I didn't know before that I didn't know you know the barriers or not barriers to entry right like I didn't know I think I probably thought it was harder than it really is not that it's easy but you know yeah a pretty clear business follow yeah yeah and I saw that you were actually just on the Joe Fess podcast so that that's pretty awesome that he his podcast kind of got you started and it kind of came full circle you were interviewed with your your story of success so that's cool yeah yeah that was really cool awesome like I said he just I think I listened to his he was just the first one

24:19That came up and it said best show or something like you know so like okay listen to this right had no idea what I was I was doing but and every time they talk about something that I would go and be like okay Google what is hard money yeah or like what is you know like every phrase they would say I just I didn't know what it meant so yeah anyways after I would say probably almost a year of listening to that and and then the other factor I like to talk about is my vision boards so I'm kind of a big believer in the vision board thing it's just there's been so many signs that I'm like you can't there's not really a way to make an excuse you know like it's pretty clear here like there's something happening there so at that time I made my first division

25:07Board with a rental on it and then I also you know I put a picture of a house me represented rental or real estate investment I also put a picture of a house that kind of represented something that you know because we' been wanting to sort of build our own house not not site build but we wanted to do something like a little more like you know manufactured slash like there's a lot of different kind of ways of I don't know how to explain it but like you know they're having these bamboo houses built here on Maui now they're sort of like manufactured housing sort of thing but anyways we're interested in something like that made a vision board less than a year later our in escro on our property on our vacant lot and having our house built and

25:56And I owned my first r at that time so yeah saving that like the way I saved was really critical to my ability to do that without going out and raising because I'm I'm pretty risk adverse and I like to be conservative and under leverage and all that so I I tend to just try to fund my own deals I know I could go a lot faster and be a multi-billionaire or whatever you know but like I don't really care about all that I'd rather just well at night knowing that like I don't have you know like or or the ones that you know I do partners and if I'm responsible for somebody's money I know I'm not gonna lose it right like I just don't do a lot of deal I just good deals yeah yeah

26:45Yeah and so what what year was it that you made the vision board that was in 2016 also started listening to podcast got it okay and so then you said about a year later you had your first rental property so what how how did you finally pull the trigger because I think a lot of people are in that position right now where they're they know this is what they want to do they've started educating themselves but it's still the difference between educating yourself and actually pulling the trigger and spending a few hundred thousand do feels a lot different for people so what was it that finally allowed you to take that step and and own a rental property yeah there was a lot of networking a lot of like homework you know listening to the podcast I mean I just stopped listening to

27:33the radio even today like it's kind of a treat like if I listen to music like Friday night on my way home I was working on one of our flips we're about to close on the sale so I was like trying to for a final walkr make sure everything was perfect for them and my backs killing me and i' just was bu my butt out there all day so driving home from that I'm like I'm listening to music today so anyway just yeah like listening to the podcast educating myself networking doing all that all the steps to just prepare right going out and looking at properties you know running numbers analyzing doing all that stuff over and over and over and just got to the point where I knew enough to know like okay this this makes sense like

28:22I don't see any reason that it's not going to work like worst case SC and I'm glad I did it worked out it was a good deal I said while I say all that also I you know I'm a big believer in that the purpose of the first deal is just to get you to the second deal and even though my first deal was a home run like you know it was really small deal but you know it's 40% cash on cash return kind of you know it was a really good deal wow that's awesome and anyway anyways within in the way I saw it I was like okay I'm probably gonna buy one and then I'll have to save save save and you know see how it goes blah blah maybe in a year or two I'll buy the next one well within like three months I was in escrow on the next

29:10one and I was like how did this happen yeah I just went to go see it because I was curious now I'm like how did I get under contract so and then three months after that when I was under a contract on the next one so I yeah it blew my mind how fast it it it all happened but and I kind of believe that that's part of how this business works like I see some people I'm like I don't understand how you even get to that level you know oh we own 50,000 doors like what that that's so foreign to me I own 11 Doors and I'm my head's spinning with this stuff I like it's so much but I think what happens is like you know as you grow and you scale and like new opportunities present themselves and and just the deals come to you more I guess like yeah I've

29:58had the same experience yeah yeah and I think for the first one too like because because a lot of people are super reticent on the first one to pull the trigger and the thing that I always remind people of is like if you're looking at all the comps and you see other properties and you see what what people are buying them for and you see what they rent for and what the value is yours if you're buying the same thing and you're you're setting up the same type of property you can expect the same results why would yours be so much Le they're like well what if it just all falls apart why would yours fall apart if the cops are performing the same way you can just mimic what's working in a market and and pull the trigger and have success right alongside others that are doing it so I always try to remind people that because it's it is scary it is scary to pull that trigger the first time but

30:48but it's been done a million times before and so just success you know success breeds success but follows success it also leaves Clues and so just do what other people are doing that's working so so what was that first deal that you you did it was a condo okay so it's and one of the things along you know you asked how I you know what got me to actually take action was there was some guy really really really wish I could remember who this was but you know it's years ago and I I heard him on some podcast I don't know if it was Joe's or like yeah I don't know which one it was but I heard him and he just seemed like such open down to earth guy it was from La I think southern California and he to me sounded

31:36Like a really big time you know like had been investing for a long time really knew his stuff and at the end of the show he gave his phone number and said he yeah give me a call whatever you know I was like really so I called the guy expecting him to be like you know hang up on me or something and I'm like hey here's the deal like I'm considering buying these TurnKey houses out Memphis or you know Midwest you know kind of thing or the other alternative is here on Maui where our median price you know today in 2021 our median price is 1.1 million something it's just stupid right why do you buy a house even with the low interest rates it's nuts so like yeah here on Maui right like buying a house is just out of the question but there's this kind there's this

32:25One really big complex and there's a couple condo complexes around the area where prices were anywhere from a 100 to some of the other complexes up to like 200 two something which was just totally drastically different than anything else in Maui and not war zone but like it's war zone for Maui but on the mainland it'd be like a c minus building so anyways I don't know this guy just he's like I really think you should look at your own Market you know and he steered me in the right direction I'm really glad I took his advice and now my personal advice to anybody considering that is looking back on my my own position right where I was torn I'm like oh my God what do I do do I buy

33:13This turn te house and like you know let these people make the profit right or do I try and create my own profit my my response my my kind of advice to that situation is do you want to full time job or do you want to write a check and never do anything you know like just literally write a check you know which even in that case like I don't know if I would recommend the turnkey thing it just depends like everybody's got their own thing right like there's people that turn keys right for there's people that like I'm actually looking at F another flipper here in Hawaii right because I got this line of credit that's just sitting doing nothing and he offers good return I know him and I know his deals and his market and all that so that's where I'm going to park some of my money right now but you know there's

34:01No right answer for anybody TurnKey or active or you know whatever it is syndications it's what do you want and I never thought about that at that time when I was trying to decision I didn't think about like okay buying these a condo here on Maui is going to be a job for me and you know sometimes it takes a couple hours a year other times it takes a couple hours a week but it's a job nonetheless and as I got more of them it's more and more work so I love real estate and I wanted to replace my day job with my investing and you know I don't want to work full-time hours forever but I'm working slowly a little bit less and less I'd say but I I I didn't mind doing

34:50Doing the work so yeah yeah no I agree I I think that's great advice because it's it's so personality driven and I I'm like you I kind of am more Hands-On and and wanted to do it myself and maybe get a little bit bigger returns but there's definitely a place for TurnKey you know if you love your job your day job and you just don't have the time to put into it but you want the benefits of owning real estate TurnKey is can be a great solution so that's awesome I I'm curious I I I believe you partner with Brandon turn Turner right I did yeah we we worked together for about a year okay and that was man I mean it's still so crazy to think about that yeah he's like

35:38So for those not familiar with Brandon turn he's like the the face of the Bigger Pockets Behemoth I don't know if you call it a podcast or movement or whatever it is but he's like the guy and so I know he lives in Maui and and yeah so you guys used to partner U and I think there's a lot of people who want to partner and are curious about like setting up a partnership so how how did you guys how did you guys structure that and what was that like yeah so which by the way just when I met Brandon was at that time when I had those three condos okay that were worth like I mean they're like $100,000 condos right so looking back on it I'm like what was he thinking he saw potential never done a flip I mean I

36:27Had I don't think I had even done a wholesale yet at the time I had done I just bought these three condos and I you know I did bot them right and all that but man I don't know he just saw something in me and we I I met him at a Meetup when he first moved to Aly and I was very strategic about my seating at the Meetup and I kept moving around the room as like people filled in and made sure that I was near like the open seats were like you know next to me so so when Brandon got there like 10 minutes late the only two open seats were next to me I was like oh hey there just happens to be a chair right here nice and so yeah I was very intentional and strategic about that so we kind of head it off we talked I had heard on his show that he was interested in surfing and you know now

37:16He's living on Maui I thought okay I'm gonna kind of take him out and get him out surfing and help him because i' given lessons when I was younger and I I've just been surfing most of my life so yeah we ended up becoming kind of buddies and ultimately one day he just called me up and said hey want I go have want to meet you for dinner and meet for dinner and he said I miss flipping and I want to get back into it but you know I've got too much other stuff going on so I want you to partner with me I want you know we're going to work together and you're gonna go out and do the work find the deals blah blah blah I'll fund them well you know at that time he actually offered me a salary or

38:04Just a straight partnership 5050 and my response was okay how many people are you interviewing for this and and so and when I asked him how many people he's interviewing he said nobody it's just you like if you want to do it we'll do it if you don't we're just not going to do it I was like why that's weird you're like you know I have no clue what I'm doing right like I'm as green as it gets here you're really selling yourself there yeah I mean no true like I I I was like what I don't get it and he his response at that time was paraphrasing here something about like I believe in getting people on the bus right like it's not about what your exact role is going to be or

38:54What you know your your experience or all that like if you're the right fit and you have the drive and motivation and all that like it's we're going to be rock stars so that that was kind of his response he was like I see your your motivation your commitment your determination and that that was it so we did we flipped together for a year we did three flips in that time and we averaged around 100,000 per flip profit so we did a little under that like 90 so we did well it was a great way for me to like really learn flipping and get a lot of credibility and then he had said you know he was like growing his mobile home park thing and he's got just a billion things he spread so

39:43He was like yeah I can't do this like I like giving up time with my family to go pick help you know pick out what kind of floors we're going to do together and stuff because my design is not my strong point I'm always asking him for that yeah and anyway so he's like yeah you know I'm gonna Focus I gotta I gotta let the flipping go it's just not yeah doesn't make sense so which was perfect yeah because I got to learn all this and G gain all this credibility and experience and and I have a new partner now and it's it's working even better sorry about that's awesome yeah no that's that's great I mean and that's how it kind of goes you know you you have Partnerships that you learn from and you're always growing and and that's the cool thing about real estate is the lessons you learn never go away you

40:32Know it's cumulative so you know you can start now and five years from now you're you're gonna just keep accumulating lessons over you know new new things learning new things all the time and it'll just sharpen your skills so that's cool to hear it's an interesting story so so you've got the 11 rental units now and then you're also doing flip and wholesale type deals with with another partner that's is that how your business kind of structured now yeah yeah so my partner David is owns a brokerage and also so when I was with David or Brandon Brandon was covering the down payment rehab costs but we were using hard money so and we were paying you know 5 per commissions or whatever

41:21Now with David and he is funding I mean so far we haven't used hard money we you know have enough deals going whatever might need to at some point or private money whatever but so far he just funds everything and we can do one to two deals at a time with his funds and I'll pitch in a little if I need to but then he also being the broker and having his own brokerage means there's no selling side commissions so that makes us a lot more competitive we can offer a lot more than lot of the other flippers that are using hard money and paying full commissions and then yeah it works out really great and he's great at what he does he's great salesman great realtor and

42:10Yeah so we're doing that's kind of like the active my active job now is doing flips doing Wholesales and that's creating the capital to I'm now basically like I I guess it's fair to say I'm financially independent Financial Freedom bit buying rental properties but you know of course we want that to grow it's a it's a modest income like enough to pay the mortgage and you know live life the way I have been but it's not really much to grow on so and if it's okay I'll just give numbers because honestly like when I listen to podcast I'm like I want to know so bad what that actually especially when the guy says I own 50,000 doors I'm like well how much much do you make a year like all right so if your cash flow

42:58Is like $50,000 a year from that then I don't want to own $50,000 that's a lot of headaches yeah yeah like I want to know what it translat so anyways where I'm at right now seven with the 11 Doors which four of those doors are one house so there's actually eight eight eight separate properties and total cash flows around 70,000 then after like all the maintenance vacancies everything like that it's around probably I think it's high it's right around 59 I don't know we got a rent increase right now so it's probably G to be you know basically net income would be around the low 60s okay so it's like just enough like I said modest income I could certainly

43:47Live off of it be fine but yeah certainly want to grow that and flips are really what generat their real Capital especially in higher price markets I think again I don't know I've only ever known doing on Maui but you know like got a house right now that we're in escro on we bought for 655 and we're closing I think about a week from now for 950 or 9:45 so and we didn't really do much rehab about 20,000 total on the house so there was a lot of challenges I don't like to that can be misleading giving that those numbers because like here like and yeah we're gonna

44:36Freaking knock it out of the park I mean it's gonna be the best deal I've ever done but it's not like we just went bought the house hired a contractor throw it on the MLS did some negotiation okay boom we're done you know like there's a lot to goes into it not that simple right like even the easiest deals are just the reason we make a good living is because we solve really complicated problems and I just have to share this one real quick so this guy that we bought the house from had been he was a self admitted con man and had been doing mortgage fraud and he's he's a friend of ours now he's super cool guy but anyways just G give a little context to start the story yeah okay and and oh

45:25My God this so his the house was in his wife's name they were not legally married his wife died and he's we go and meet with this guy and he's like okay here's the story My you know we don't have to sing last name or anything the house is in this girl's name but she was my wife she passed away now I live here by the way here's my ankle bracelet I'm Aon man I was doing mortgage fraud and tricking people into loan fees and pretending I worked at Gold Goldman sax you know whatever he was just doing yeah yeah I was like holy cow and we look up his name afterwards and be like whoa he really did all that yeah this is I don't think this one's gonna work out like

46:15How could he possibly be how could this be a scam right so anyways we went through the motions and I was kept telling him like no like you just throw it on MLS I mean the house is fully renovated you don't need us for any you know and he was like no you know I already told you I would and you know all this stuff I didn't understand it for a long time finally we closed in the house we closed July 24th and about a month later he told us oh by the way because like I said we became friends we still text weekly David my partner and the seller we'll have a group text going all the time and so the seller finally told us oh by the way the feds were scheduled to come seiz the house on August 15

47:05So you know now that it's sold you guys own it it's clear and he got his cash he's you know I guess it worked out so wow yeah how did the title company allow him to sign off when it was in his a totally different person's name he did probate oh I see okay so we we were working with him since let's see was early 21 so almost a year now but I think the the total process was probably eight eight months or so six to eight months of working with him towards the acquisition and you know there's also like when we met first went out and saw the house I think in March and we verbally we had a verbal agreement in March and he's like yeah probates can

47:53Be done any day now and then we need the sale to close like right after probate's done and you know come April May June I'm like okay yeah that's like hey you know did probate end up yeah yeah getting completed or what you know and I just thought okay yeah that there he was blow and smoke or whatever the deal but I guess you know he a lot of people don't know the timelines that these things take so it ended up working out and glad it did it was it's a great deal and a great experience but yeah even even the ones that seem like they're so simple there's just a million challenges and it's not it's not easy yeah but I love it yeah yeah and hearing those numbers it's so funny sitting

48:41Here in Northwest Indiana I I just got a property under contract a couple hours ago for 105,000 so I could buy six of those for a house yeah oh it's four bedroom 2200 foot house one a half yeah yeah oh yeah okay no no do leas hold here yeah that's so yeah it's be I mean and it's half rehabbed the rehabber walked away so if it hadn't been rehabbed I probably could have got it for like 70 but they put in a bunch of work into it already so the number I mean the contrast is just crazy but but yeah that's interesting I mean when you're you're flipping especially I noticed I mean you meet some

49:29Of the the most interesting people a lot of interesting experiences especially when you're buying off Market deals like that so that's cool man congrats on that deal you know I know we're we're getting coming up on time here but I the last question I had I was curious I I heard you talk previously about having up to you know 60% savings rate and that was kind of what helped you you get started which is not super common for people to save 60% of their income so how did you do that what what was the process that you took to to start saving that much thanks for bringing that up I really like to share this too because I'm a big believer in this today we spend spend spend and you know I'm guilty of it too now especially I you know

50:20Not too long ago went out and splurged on a car that was a stupid amount of money but you know that was it it's special you know it's that was my thing with my dad so and I'm a car guy and anyways at this time you know going back to that 2014 2000 up until I started investing was when I was really really for I was you know i' read some books about like one this is an old book now but start late finish Rich and probably come out around the time of the recession gu and it just had a lot of you know like cut out the Starbucks Coffee stuff like that right like it's like really today no one would buy the book but at that time you know I was just learning about Finance I was just starting at like the

51:08Self-supporting and fully independent and like you know try to plan and and create a life for myself so I put a lot of the principles into place and a lot of the little things were like every day I brought lunch to work like peanut butter jelly sandwiches I mean I really because like I mean what I don't really need to have a big fancy lunch right so instead of spending 12 bucks or whatever and having some nice sandwich made from a cafe I would just bring a peanut butter jelly and sandwich or I would have H my neutri bullet and so that I've been doing for about I would say eight years right around that 20 and also where I started using

51:57Neutral bullet for lunch and I make a smoothie and I would say probably cost me around a150 a day for lunch and you know it's good stuff for the most part huge yeah over time that's that's that's a huge savings yeah little things like that you know when I'm in the grocery store I or any store really like I'll be see something and say oh yeah love those haven't had that in a while whatever you know want that right put it in my cart take a couple steps say no I I really don't need it and I put it back and those habits over time really I think were really beneficial to me and helped me build you know like by doing

52:45That one day at a time eventually you know even today I still do these little things where sometimes you have to kind of think about like okay how much does this this ision really way do I am I like say like a good example as I was talking about working at the flip on Friday where I could have just hired a cleaner to go and prepare it for probably three $400 and saved myself that five hours of work I really should have done that so there's sometimes where it's like being FAL is is certainly not an effective you know choice but yeah so little decisions like that over time over a long period of time and as over that period of time I also increased my income so

53:34The end in the beginning I had made $36,000 a year and wasn't saving 60% at that time but you know I would save as much as I could I would probably save I would say 10% or something but as my income grew then I just stayed living off that you know know 35 to 45,000 a year which I pretty much still do now because like my cash flow is more than enough for my living expenses so that anything I made beyond that was saved or invested when I got into making six figures in a job I was I had a base salary and I lived off that base salary around 50,000 and the other 50 to 70,000 that I made in

54:22Commissions all went just straight into a savings account never touched it and once it got to be enough I would go out and buy a rental property or you know bestest with it somehow same thing with the flips now I I live off the rental income the flips just sit in an account build build build build build and then until either there's enough or until I find a good enough deal right now finding the deals that are worth worth it to me especially where we're at the market I'm being a little bit more careful so yeah yeah yeah that makes sense awesome yeah no that I appreciate you sharing that because it's it's not the the sexy advice that you typically hear like you go to a real estate seminar and it's like yeah spend money to make money and look at my you know private jet and you know they try to make it look like

55:11you're just instantly you know super rich and able to spend a ton of money and but I think a lot of the most successful people start with that mentality of like you know I'm going to work within a budget because a personal finance budget operates the exact same way as a a business budget and if your personal finances are jacked up it's going to be very difficult to have a business that runs on you know sound financials and and sound fundamentals so so I think that's that that kind of sets you up you know it was small amounts obviously but it sets you up for later now when you're you're making a lot more money you're following the same principles and you're in a much better position for it so so I think that's really great advice I appreciate you you sharing that I appreciate I mean all this

55:59This has been super super informative and I think it it's just down toe advice you know there's there's a lot of gurus out there that kind of speak from a from a a Pulpit or something where they're they're kind of talking down to people and I feel like you're just like here's what it is like this is the true life story and this is how it goes and this is how I did it and here's where I came from and here's where I'm at now and so it's very relatable and so many great nuggets to take away so I I really appreciate you Sharon yeah thank you and you know same thing goes to that is that you know there's not one route that's best for everybody so for me it was I wasn't really comfortable taking on a ton of

56:48Other people's money even though I could have scaled faster and you know the gurus may sell a lot of that kind of stuff but and for a lot of people that's the right way to go but just for me it wasn't and everybody's got to decide what's right for them and yeah hopefully you know obviously like I'm still on the new side I'm pretty fresh to the business and but I think it's also you have to take into consideration that I've been doing this during one of the hottest markets that we've ever seen so we'll see how things go when things are shift right because I think we're going to see a lot of people that did really well over the last 10 years probably not do so well and hopefully I'm not one of those people but I try to think about that every single deal right

57:36It's like okay what is the worst case scenario and will it put me out of business am I willing to take that loss and I pass on so many good deals just so so many good deals it's sometimes it gets really hard you know it's like looking at Bitcoin right now I'm like oh my God God why did I only buy that much yeah you know I just pass I'd rather be able to sleep well at night and know that like I'm not gonna my family's not gonna be out in the streets plan that's smart yeah like to be conservative cool cool well if somebody's listening to this and they are interested in hearing more or want to find out more about your story or other interviews that you've done what what's the best way to get in touch with you or find out information yeah

58:25So you can just shoot me an email we have you know I do manage the Social Media stuff I really don't get on very much but Instagram Facebook are both Maui home buyers or my email is pretty simple it's Greg Maui home buyers.com and in the show notes there too so yeah yep that'll be in the show notes so yeah if you're interested in reaching out you can you can just find his email there and maybe he'll give you some advice that will change your life like someone did from a podcast when he was listening to it back many years ago so that's awesome man well thank you very much and I I want to continue to stay in touch so we can get an update on how things are going over the next couple years absolutely thank you for

59:13Having me on the show and anybody that is struggling please don't hesitate to reach out especially if it's with something emotional addiction or anything like that again focus on the similarity not the differences and anybody that wants to invest in Maui also feel free to hit me up love to hear from you cool thanks man thank you