EP 004 - Investing in Real Estate While Raising a Family

Many investors face the challenge of balancing family life with their investing goals. It's especially hard when you're starting off and already have a full-time job, but it's not impossible! I'll be hosting a panel of 4 guest speakers who have successfully invested in RE while raising a family. We'll be discussing how they've managed to make it all work through managing their schedule and finances, and working with their spouses. I'll also be providing ways your investments and family can create additional tax savings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Let's start. All right. Welcome everybody. We are live here to talk about raising a family while investing in real estate. This is a challenge for many of my clients and many people who I met, many people who I meet, and sometimes you meet people who say they'll never get around to fulfilling their dreams and creating financial freedom and investing in real estate because they have too many obligations and with raising a family and holding their day job. And I want to connect you guys with some people who have not only done this, but have successfully found a way to balance their family life, any other responsibilities and obligations with building a portfolio that continues to grow and prosper. And we're going to discuss how we've created this balance and found a way. So not only is this something that we can balance, it's not something that compromised. Our goals in real estate and reaching financial freedom is actually going to help us enrich our lives and enrich that of those around us in our families and can also help us with our circumstances, with creating that success and also saving money on taxes, which I know we all love to do. And we're going to talk about all the strategies and techniques that everybody here has implemented. So welcome everybody as you guys are tuning in. I would love it for everyone to just put your questions into the QA section. I'd love to see your comments. We all want to hear from you. I have some questions that I'm going to ask the audience, and uh we're going to talk about everyone's situation. And then we are going to get to the audience questions, and I'd love to hear everybody just interact, share ideas on this really important topic. So to start off, I'm going, we have our four awesome guests. We got Daniel Homeland, who is a multifamily investor and syndicator. Rochelle Rayner, also a multifamily investor and syndicator. Cam Chen, who is investing in a variety of real estate investments and also a realtor, and John Basilio. But I want you guys to introduce yourselves and tell the audience a little bit about what you do. So let's go um, let's start off first. Uh who wants to go first and give us a quick introduction of who you are and what you're working on and what you do.

SPEAKER_04 2:24

Yeah, I'll kick it off, Mark. So uh I'm actually excited to hear from this panel. I I've I've met Cam. I think I met you out at were you at the Bigger Pockets conference last year? Okay, so I did meet you, Rochelle. I met you earlier this year. Daniel, excited to uh meet you after this and uh talk further. So my name is Jonathan Pasilio. I originally grew up in uh northern New Jersey uh all my life until college and came down here to the south. So my one-minute backstory is really about growing up wanting to work on Wall Street, right? I I kind of grew up in the 80s and 90s. So the movie Wall Street and Boiler Room was kind of what set my expectations of making money, uh, which was kind of ridiculous. However, uh, what I realized is that I was not probably gonna actually make it to an Ivy League school to make it uh on Wall Street in New York City. So I did the very uh next best thing, which has actually come to Charlotte, North Carolina, believe it or not, which was at the time the second biggest banking city. Um went to school uh four years, in and out, actually landed in uh the banking industry at Bank of America for uh several years, uh maybe almost 15. Um ultimately I've spent 20 years in the financial services industry. So um I've actually been in real estate or had a real couple of real estate investments for over 10 years, um, but very passive, not not looking to grow, not actively managing it. I didn't have the challenge of having a family, but the what I realized is how much uh passive, how passive it isn't. Um and if you don't put any effort into it, uh you can't, you know, it's really not gonna grow for you. But my my niche now, my story about growing, um, and I'm I'm it's a it's a wide range of experts here. My niche at the moment is actually short-term rentals. Um, it's it's sort of balancing real estate investing with running your own hotel business, right? So it gives you that fast cash flow growth potential without a massive amount of understanding, money, um, partners, and it it, but you're running a business. It's definitely not passive. And it's it's it's it's uh there's more intensity to growing that, but the cash flow is there to alter any path that you want to do. I happen to have 20 years now of being a risk officer in the financial services industry, which is great because it allowed me to build a risk appetite uh and a risk approach to investing, which is very it's a very boring part of investing, but it's so critical to have that understanding. Um, so to wrap that up, 20 years in the financial services industry, which I'm I'm marching towards exiting. Uh my niche at the moment, like Mark said, there's a couple, I think Cam's in a in a myriad of deals and a myriad of niches, if you will, and investigating those things. I'm doing the same, but my current niche to fast track my exit of my career is in the short-term rental, or what you would more um easily understand as the Airbnb business.

SPEAKER_06 5:23

Great. And tell us about your kids.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

Yeah, so it it's I actually doing more with two children. I have two young children with with um my beautiful wife, Kim, a three-year-old, three and a half year old, and a six-month-old. So I don't know, time management is difficult enough, but with that chaos, it is so difficult to really manage the the goals that you have that are super important to you and to prioritize things that that really aren't and that you could start pushing to the side. Um, I don't have the luxury of of knowing if it gets easier from a time management perspective as your kids get older. And I'm and I'm actually excited to hear about these folks. Um, but that is my biggest, yeah. Okay, so it I'm hoping the self-sufficiency helps at all, but but maybe not, right? I I get it last night, got up at 11 and 3, right? So I'm not sleeping at all, I'm just doing random things. But two great kids. Um, again, it actually propelled me to being be more productive. Um, but it it is it has been an unbelievable challenge at literally managing my 24 hours a day to accomplish my goals.

SPEAKER_06 6:38

Okay. All right, who wants to go next? Rachel.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Hi, everyone. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Rochelle Rayner, and I actually live in Westchester, New York. Currently, I'm originally from Canada, the eastern side of Canada, Prince Edward Island. You probably have never heard of it, but look it up, it's very beautiful. So I have two children and a wonderful husband. So I have a two uh 11-year-old and I have a just turned two-year-old. So life is very chaotic for me. Um, on top of that, I work a full-time job in the real estate development uh space. Um, I've done that for my entire career, everything from construction, development, management, um, and now risk management. Um, I'm also a real estate syndicator. I want I run a local uh real estate meetup group, Westchester Real Estate Investors. There's about 1,500 people in the group. I founded that group myself. Um, and in my uh co-host Adam Turko, we run that together. Uh, and so on top of that, I'm also a podcast host of What's the Deal? So you can look that up. So I have a lot of stuff going on. I've done a lot of things in the real estate investing space from house hacking to short-term rentals. Um, and and so, you know, as I start to move through my life more, you know, my goals and my why has certainly changed. Um, you know, I meet a lot of people who are entering the uh real estate uh industry and looking to invest. And, you know, they they look to get, you know, they look for a means to an end. So, you know, I'll hear them starting off in wholesaling or they'll start off in, you know, fix and flips, or, you know, a very active form of investing for me. I'm looking to pull away from that and to become more passive because I see the power of investing passively and what it can do for you. Um, and so very excited to be a part of this panel and you know, just share some things on how, you know, I manage my time. Um, I think I have to uh give a shout out to my wonderful husband who is very, very supportive. I would not be able to be the person that I am and do all the things that I do without him. Um, you know, I made a comment today on a Facebook forum uh of a lady complaining about her uh boyfriend. I don't know her, I don't think she's on this live stream, so I will go and share this. But, you know, she was complaining that her boyfriend does not show any interest in what she does. And so I uh, you know, proceeded to respond and say, you know, my husband is not interested in discussing or learning anything about real estate investing. However, here's a list of all the reasons why I'm okay with that. He hands over his checkbook, he hands over his credit card, he's supportive, he cheers me on, he watches the kids so I can do these live stream events. And so without him, I could not be successful. So I owe him, you know, everything to um, you know, just just I'm so grateful for the partnership that we have, the understanding that we have. And and so I think that the number one thing to be successful in this is having a supportive spouse.

SPEAKER_05 9:50

Oh, totally.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

For sure.

SPEAKER_05 9:53

All right, how about you next, Cam?

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Um I'm let's see, I'm Cam Chan. I am a realtor here in Silicon Valley in Northern California. Um I have been, this is sort of my second, third career. Um, I started out as a uh business uh strategy uh specialist. Uh I started out working for the US Embassy in China in the commercial service section. So next time you go to, you know, China and other places like that, and you have a cup of coffee from Starbucks, you can thank our team. Um, because that's what we did. We helped American companies to break into um various markets. Um uh so that was the beginning of my career and the trajectory of where I was wanting to go, which was in the international um career path. And um, but then I follow a boy that came back to the US and clipped my wings and settled in uh Silicon Valley for the last uh 20 years, 23 years, 22 years. Um fantastic um decision because we have three beautiful children. Um they're older now, David is uh 15, and then our twins are 13, well soon to be 13. Um so uh pivoted a couple of times um for the family uh because I came back to the US and and um I had graduated from school here, went to you know, grew up here, not in northern California, in so in Tennessee and then Southern California. But um we uh what I found was when I came back, the first thing you do is you go into consulting, yeah. Because that's what you do as a business strategist. You do consulting work, that's how you usually can find a quick job. And so I ended up traveling across the US, so it was great to come home and be with this great guy and start a family together, but then we never saw each other. So um I pivoted again, took a 60% pay cut, went to Stanford, uh, where I was the finance administration manager for um various departments and whatnot, uh, which was wonderful because we did have our kids, but when I found out that I was having twins, the cost was prohibitive for us to have the care for the kids that we wanted, and so I completely uh quit and started working in my passion project, which was real estate, real estate. So I you know what happens when you kind of pivot and do something, you just kind of do it to the extreme. So I renovated a house, we moved into a new house and all of this stuff, and then started working, um, started a property management company while I was starting my part-time real estate career. Um and it wasn't until the kids, the twins got to first grade, um, where they were solidly in first grade and seems to be all settled a little bit that I really pursue my passion. And the thing that kind of is easy and everyone tells you to do is to become a salesperson, which is great because I like helping people. So I became a full-time realtor about six years, seven years ago, and that was been one really wonderful, but it also helped me to allow me the freedom to have the time to devote into my passion too, which is um investing in real estate and helping others to invest in real estate. So now uh I uh am pretty excited because I execute on that in the past uh year or so um the strategies that I've been learning. You know, I'm a little conservative, so study, study, study, and then last year I pulled the trigger and started doing the work, and so um I'm pretty excited about seeing some of the first turns that we're seeing and seeing the numbers as they come in. So I'm pretty excited about that. So very, very lucky. Um I'm a little bit over the hump of having younger kids. I can tell you that it gets a little bit easier in some ways and harder in others. Bigger kids, bigger problem. Um, but yeah, no, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

And you, Daniel. All right, thanks for having me on, Mark. Uh, you know, when you originally contacted me to talk about balancing family work and and real estate investment, I I didn't realize you wanted us to be successful at doing that. So uh it is it is quite hard. Um, and uh just a little bit about me. Um my name is Daniel Homlin. Uh I I uh partner with investors to purchase cash-flowing apartment buildings. And uh my my business is Alan Capital, and you can find me at the winmultifamily uh.com site. So um I I have been involved in this in a for about three years. Uh I'm also I work full-time at Intel. Uh I'm a software developer trainer there. So I get to work with lots of uh really interesting people that are doing software. And uh I also run the real estate investment club at Intel. And so we got a really nice group there, a couple hundred people that are meeting every Friday on Skype to talk about real estate. And so that's that's a little bit of my background.

SPEAKER_06 15:47

Awesome. You know, I had a client who works at Bank of America and was starting a group like that, but he was concerned that people would give them heat for creating that alternative form of income. But you know, I've met multiple people at BOA who were like, that sounds like a great idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:03

They have an interesting. Yeah, I have an interesting take, actually. It's uh the banks are like they like making money themselves, but they do have lots of policies and regulations on uh even being a realtor, Cam. Um, I'm a licensed realtor. Probably shouldn't say this if anybody else is on uh on the the from Wells at uh on this call or on this stream, but they they make it really, really difficult to do your own thing. They sort of say they have leeway, but then they as a company they don't like it. But that's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Yeah, it's always interesting to run into different companies that have different cultures about clubs. Uh at Intel, a lot of it was just find finding out the HR people that I could work with to make sure that I really stayed within the guidelines and uh knew the right people in case something went wrong, and uh just built bridges before um you know launching something. And and so far, you know, it's it's crossed my fingers it's worked out well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:59

Okay, so um to keep things simple, let's keep this order of answering questions. So we got John, then Michelle, and then Cam and then Daniel. Um next question is gonna be uh what is the greatest challenge that you have found when it comes to balancing family life and investing? I have a feeling I know what you guys are gonna say, but let's uh let's hear what you guys find is the greatest challenge with trying to create that balance and all these things going on.

SPEAKER_04 17:28

Yeah, I'm first, right, I think uh Mark. So I I'll actually throw what I think would be not something thought of first. So I I echo Rochelle's comments about my wife being uh unbelievably supported and what I want to do. I I I drive her nuts, okay? Like nuts. I don't know how she's still with me, to be honest with you. Um so the so this I'm gonna take a support angle because when anytime you're trying to do something like this, it's very unconventional. All right, you can read all the books in the world or watch late night infomercials and hear about all the success people have in real estate. But it takes an unbelievable amount of time, commitment, money, all these different things, right? Knowledge. Um but but quite frankly, if if I guess if you're on your own and completely single and have nobody that needs to rely on you, then what I'm about to say becomes a lot easier. But when you have somebody that you're counting on, um, and it's counting on you, you your job is to not convince them of anything, it's to make sure that they're comfortable with why you need their support. And so time obviously is troubling. Uh time management, the the the kids, you know, uh of course that that plays into it. But I think my answer would be about and I struggle that a long time. I my wife and I, I remember one time, it's funny, she's gonna get a kick out of this, but we were at a restaurant, I had it with my job. I just was like, I'm done, I'm quitting. So I told her, by the way, yeah, I'm I'm done. Right, I'm just leaving, like, yeah, tomorrow. Uh right. And I was half joking, but half in like about to rage quit. And she's just like, Yeah, it's not how this works, right? I mean, you just you can't do that. Like, I'm she even said, like, I'll support you, but you got to show me a plan. Um, so I will go that angle. I'll I'll keep my answer short there because to me, all I need is her support, and I'm good. I'll I'll I'll do anything. And I've got that now, and we're building on that. But it it took I've only actually really committed to this in the last two years, probably. And I think the last six months, even our our trust level in each other and what we're trying to do has has flourished tremendously. And so if you're gonna do anything like this, go to your part again. I guess if you're single, don't worry about it. Um, but you're gonna have to prep somebody for it eventually. Um, go to that person, that partner. They're gonna be all the money in the world, all the partners in the world, they're not gonna actually help you be successful the way the support from a partner would be. So figure out your approach with that person, and don't do what I did, which is just like, yeah, I'm doing this. So I hope you like it. Um but that's what I would say. That's really hard to get buy-in from someone who doesn't understand it. Right. I think, Rochelle, I think it was you maybe who's like, I don't, they don't, they're not interested in it. Or you you you heard that person was like, how do I get them to be interested? Don't get them to be, it's not their thing. You need to make them feel comfortable with your decision and why you need their support. That's what I would say is difficult.

SPEAKER_06 20:15

Great. And uh Rochelle, same question to you. Gray's sound.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

So um I think the one of the greatest, so there's two really big challenges that I faced and I've had to really overcome, and that was managing my expectations. So um my expectations of my partner, like, you know, just to kind of play off of what Jonathan said, is, you know, not trying to convince them to get on board with me and listen to all the podcasts. And, you know, I I went down that road. You know, I went down the road of, you know, putting books on the coffee table and you know, putting books in his bag and you know, sending him um, you know, Facebook uh posts of certain, you know, mindset things and you know, and and it just it it ended up in huge disappointment. So managing your expectations is super important. And I think that, you know, um communicating is the other uh aspect of that. So um, you know, for me, it's like a major communication. Like if I'm gonna have an event like this at night and I'm gonna need him to watch the kids or put the kids to bed um during this so we can keep things quiet and sane. Um, you know, it takes communication, like letting him know ahead of time, like not, you know, an hour before, you know, hey, are you gonna are you coming home from work? I have a, you know, so I had to really just be proactive and make sure that like I'm being fair and and and like you know, we both have full time jobs, but this is an extracurricular thing for me, you know, real estate and something that I'm looking to pivot into. So I want to make it as easy for him to accept as possible. And so I think communic communicating with your family. Um, I have a also an 11 year old who you know, is acts like an adult sometimes and gets super offended if I'm, you know, doing something that, you know, he feels I shouldn't be doing or if I should be, you know, watching a movie with him, but instead I'm, you know, trying to, you know, answer emails or whatever. Um, you know, I make sure that I give them a head like him a heads up as well. So I'll tell him like, hey, you know, I'm gonna I'm I first tell him I'm going to spend this time with you at this certain time. But then at this time I have to do this. So it's just really being like just fair, you know, and being in commu in constant communication with your family so that they understand that um you're doing this for them and you're also spending time with with them, but you have responsibilities as well.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

And I I'm next I guess um so I think I echo both what Rochelle and Jonathan is saying. I I think um I have an amazing amazing partner um my husband and I my husband has been tremendously supportive of what I do but I tell you it's not easy right marriage is not easy kids are not easy and then when you try to pivot and do something really quote unquote not the mainstream um I mean it's for some reason in Silicon Valley it's really easy for people people to talk about stocks and bonds and and um but then when they talk about real estate investment the numbers here in Silicon Valley you know the homes when you invest here it's like in the millions you know just for a tear down right um but so to get people and including my husband I mean you know he's an intelligent guy he knows he's watching up TV shows and he knows quite a bit about real estate because it's in his family's work too so it's not like he he he's a newbie he's definitely very very well versed in real estate um but to do what I do is not something the norm right I buy a house renovating it buy a house that's not touchable right it's far away in a different state um and it's not in the best condition then renovating it and then putting tenants in there and then making that into an income a part of a larger portfolio is not something that is easy concept I mean it is an easy concept if it was right here next door you know touchable but for some reason it you know and I can totally understand it's like far away you know you don't know the the market you don't you're not there all the time that type of thing it's a little bit more of a challenge so getting that bigger leap of um to pivot to do something that is so in the wheelhouse of what he and I both know but that it's so different it's a little bit challenging and so um what I did was at some point there's in your life you have a million reasons why you can't do it or shouldn't do it or challenging to do and then maybe a handful of reasons why you should and I think that I pivoted and kind of tuned off um a little bit of the the negative talk because you can talk yourself out of doing something new all the time it's really easy because they're those are weightier and heavier and more scary um than it is to do something that you really want to do even if you've researched it for years if you study the market if you know your numbers inside and out so at some point you just have to turn it off and kind of trust that you have a plan and maybe the plan didn't go perfectly because it didn't for me my first couple of um properties had problems um but at some point you have to learn just to trust uh yourself and your numbers and just kind of turn it off and just go with what you know is a plan. So um while I think it's really great to to echo and and you know Albert is an amazing amazing partner and I can't ask for a better partner I think part of it most of it is really about me and whether or not I trust my myself enough to do it and to get the guts to do it. And I think you guys, you men out there you kind of know that you know this is this is something that I think women struggle in general is that at least for me is that I I can study and know and kind of it's harder for me to execute when I when it is about myself it's easy to for me to like you know kind of look at the bigger picture for other people but for me to execute on myself it's I think I have a little bit of that um trouble. And so for me that was the biggest problem and it was the biggest thing I had to overcome not anybody else it wasn't the family it wasn't the husband it wasn't um the support from the family because I can't I can't tell you how amazing my structure is and very very lucky to have that the biggest problem was me and so I turned that off about a year ago and kind of just like okay I'm doing it and so that's what I did and I think I'm super happy with it and I think everyone is super happy with it including my husband because I'm actually happier.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Great all right uh Daniel you're next all right and uh I I also have uh a wonderful wife and and three wonderful kids uh my daughter's 11 my sons are nine and seven and it it's definitely difficult to balancing you know working and real estate and family and uh one one thing that I know really helped us was that um you know my wife and I were we're different we like different things and uh one of the things that um helped us is just making sure that we knew how we can make each other feel loved and appreciated and and being able to do that while also having busy lives. So for instance um you know uh I I kind of I kind of feel like if if I can um you know give myself selflessly to my wife and make sure that she's happy and that I'm spending time with her and she also will turn around and and you know show interest in what I'm doing. If we can fill each other's cups up and be really intentional about doing that as we're we're going through our busy lives um in I think a lot of intention is is really key. So one of the things that um I was able to do that uh got her excited about real estate actually was that um she's very much a people person and so uh part of multifamily investing is is building teams there's there's way too much work in a property for one person to do so you have to you have to go there you have to meet new people some people talk to brokers and some people uh coordinate renovations and some people you know talk to investors and we we just sat down and we started zoom calling with people and and she really loved the experience of getting to know new people and that was one way that I can kind of rope her in and show her what I was doing. And um and then you know once once work hours are done and I've spent some time on networking and real estate also making sure it it's been kind of a a blessing you know during a hard time to be at home. And uh you know I we we all have lunch together right now since we're all at home my kids are at home uh I'm working at home we we're intentional about taking you know some time and just all having lunch together every day of making sure that at some point during the day we set aside all the work and we just pay attention to each other. My wife likes playing cards and board games and so we do that a lot. Just making sure that we we're intentional about each other and not not going our separate ways in a busy life. And the same with my kids. Luckily enough my kids are you know my my boys are young enough that just uh like running out in between meetings and tickling them is is enough to fill their cups up. But uh my daughter definitely she she's a quality time person she wants you to stay there with her. And uh you know we've we've done a couple of projects together and um built a few things together and so she she really is enjoying that. And and one thing that we're taking on next year we're we're looking and planning and trying to figure out how to homeschool our three children we've we've made the decision that we're gonna homeschool our three children and my wife is is lucky enough that that she's gonna be the main person there doing that but I'm gonna be there supporting her you know all the way uh and and hope you know getting in on some of the teaching while mixing that in with my work at home. So it's gonna be a very very busy time. And the other thing too and just from a practical standpoint is that it's it's forced me to be pretty disciplined about my time. I sit down in the morning and uh you know plan my day out and hopefully my week out each each Monday as well. So just having really good time management has really helped us well.

SPEAKER_06 31:36

Awesome some some of the things I want to throw in there because I got to talk about taxes every now and then is you know when we think about our relationships with our you know with our spouses a fantastic tax strategy that some of you are well aware of is the real estate professional tax status. And when we think about trying to find a way where we think about compromises in time I know that the time commitment is is challenging but when we have that real estate professional tax status and we're when I was thinking about what Cam was talking about about going out on her own and thinking about how that impacts family picture uh we can see with real the real estate professional tax status combined with some other strategies we such as cost segregation where we accelerate the depreciation on these properties and we recognize the write-offs and depreciate those properties up front creating massive write-offs when we purchase the properties we will find that even if these these properties are cash flow positive the net result on the tax returns will result in tax refunds so not only are we bringing in that passive income that we can grow and expand over time and create a nested to eventually retire and have more time for our families that we can also create refunds that can be put back into whatever we want to do whether that's our child's education or our own retirement or whatever we want to do. So that helps with the decision making as well and also uh like uh Daniel when you know you talk about teaming up with your wife some if you only need one spouse to get that status and it applies to both of you so if you're investing but you work full time if your wife can become a real estate agent she doesn't need 750 hours and more half the time is into working on that real estate trader business we get that tax status and we can use that um for your investments and you can also have business meetings with your spouse so if we can find a way to do stuff that we love and go to our favorite restaurants and have a business meeting with our spice our spouse sorry we can write off the travel and the meals whatever those meals are going to be just some things to think about. Also I see we now have 18 attendees and I want to see some cue some questions in the QA section because we're gonna dive deep and you know let's let's let's challenge our guests to some some good questions about what they're doing. So I want to see some of those populate as we go through these questions.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Next question is going to be I was gonna say I also like to hear where people are from so if you want to put down in the chat box where you where you live and where you're coming from that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_06 34:13

Yeah definitely definitely next topic is how and you can answer this in a number of ways but when I said it's we did some preparation but how would we manage our budget and our finances obviously we could take if we are in the position to create overall tax refunds from our activity that's fantastic but let's talk about how we've thought about this in our personal finances and managing our budgets along with our real estate investments for us and our families.

SPEAKER_04 34:47

John you want to go first yeah yeah so well I you know I gotta give you uh a lot of credit so when we met last year and you implemented some strategies for me it led to a pretty sizable refund by implementing some cost segregation strategies. So when I was typically used to a standard accountant or CPA that just kind of pushed paper and did your your general accounting structures or tax structures I I my wife and I both working usually led to almost always owing money. In this case you know we got a significant amount of of money back um which which is great right but you have to have a plan for it. And in our case uh and I'll talk about the budgeting in a little bit but I it's a big win here because we just we literally just went under contract today for uh an eight bedroom cabin in in Gatlinburg uh that was officially uh accepted um so I think I want to say yeah it's it's pretty cool we're gonna we're gonna see that market's very heated but the the the revenue especially now during COVID I mean people just want to travel the mountains are perfect so um but it's we decided to go all in on an eight bedroom and you know bypass one two three four five six seven right and so it's like let's just try an eight bedroom see what happens right what's the worst that can happen right but it's expensive so if we didn't that was just it's just an example that like that money has been reinvested. We we also went under contract and finally got the approval this week um for a local almost like a mother daughter's cottage combo which is very unique. A lot of you know with aging parents and stuff it's it's an opportunity to we're gonna short term rental rent it but there's there's opportunity to uh have long term plans as well should should the short term rental you know vacation rental market um kind of slow down like it like it did for a short period of time but I'm bringing that up because by having very specific strategic tax goals which is it is very boring for a lot of us we just are we get money or we do we have to pay right but you know you love it. But by by talking to you about that it allowed us to get money that would have been allocated to either the government or just maybe we would even break even and I wouldn't have been able to reinvest that money the very next year into these deals. And so I have a goal in mind I'm trying to expedite the pivoting that everybody here is talking about they're working very hard they're asking sacrifice uh uh a lot from their family to sacrifice but if if if if if this can expedite by having a very clear strategic um tax strategy that gets money back that I can instead of doing one deal a year, two deals a year, again this is all personal. So I need as much capital as I can get until maybe I pivot into multifamily syndicating and raising other people's money. But for me this niche if done properly and quick enough can expedite my pivot of generating um the the the my foot my feet right out the door of the company I work for faster. And it's really important that we work with someone like yourself and and not think that strategy doesn't work. And on just the budget piece which is it's it for for me it's very easy my wife and I have very specific consumerism ideals right we don't spend a lot of money on things. So if I say hey I'd like to take$50,000 or$100,000 and Cam to your point right invest in something out of state you can't touch it, you can't feel it, you can't see it even if you say like let it overturn$2,000 a month it gets very boring versus hey I I wanted that new uh Ford Explorer or just something right and like so if you have to compete with your partner from a budget standpoint that isn't aligned and you have to you have to kind of as a little bit of give and take which again wife is very supportive and we're on the same wavelength that can be a significant challenge in your budget to say I need X amount of dollars to go invest in something especially if you're not into it that once I tell you the the positive outcome of it you get bored pretty quickly if you're not into it versus hey I can have immediate gratification by spending that money elsewhere or even investing in in something else. So the budgeting for us is simple but it's some it's it's a significant challenge for others because you're asking someone else who worked very hard in most cases to contribute that pile of of cash or capital to move it into another vehicle versus maybe something else they want to do with it. So I'll I'll leave it there.

SPEAKER_06 39:12

I just want to chime in for one second and talk about a wonderful opportunity that we were able to take advantage of so John did not have the real estate professional tax status for him or his sp his wife but one thing that we could do is with short-term rentals and that's why short-term rentals can be one of the most effective and fastest ways to get out of the rat race and really start off in real estate not only do we have a great cash on cash return but under certain circumstances if you analyze it properly and you understand the tax code and you plan effectively we can treat that investment activity as active you and when we treat it as active and we have enough of an investment we can run could we take take and can take advantage of the things that we talked about I was just talking about earlier with cost segregation and bonus depreciation create those losses that are active losses and deduct them against other sources of active income which would in this case would be your W2 income. And that's why you want to plan in advance you don't want to create a management entity for your short-term rentals uh in let in unless you know you were gonna have the that positive uh we can't you know take create positive losses um but there are fantastic opportunities um with short-term rent rentals under certain circumstances that we were able to capitalize on it really helped out with growing this portfolio as quickly as possible um so yep Rochelle so I like to I I've implemented a method called stop start and continue and if you listen to Rob Dial who is the mindset mentor uh he he has a great podcast um just a really amazing so if you if you don't listen to him you should definitely get on that but um stop start and continue is you know basically looking at whatever aspect of your life and saying what do I need to start doing um what have I not been doing over the past six months that I need to start doing to get to my goal what have I what have I been doing over the last six months that I need to stop doing to get to my goal?

SPEAKER_01 41:16

What do I need to continue doing to get to my goal? Right. So if you use this method it's really great because you know it especially for the finance side um you know I like to shop I like to do you know I like to go out and you know for to eat restaurants to go have drinks like there's a lot of things I like to do um but is that getting me closer to my goal? So it's just really about kind of just checks and balances and just making sure that you know you're continuing to move forward not that you can't have fun not that you can't go shopping and do those things but you know just really kind of just checking yourself because you know we've been through a lot with this pandemic and there's a lot of like emotions and you know sometimes emotional things can kind of lead to like you know emotional shopping emotional eating and emotional buying things and and just kind of like you know getting you off track. So um so a great app to uh just budget you know that's free is mint.com. I use that I've really kind of started to become a little stricter with myself and just really going through my bank statements and looking to see, you know, what am I spending money on and just you know is this contributing in my is what I'm spending money on getting me further uh closer to my goal or further away from my goal. So um so that's just just simple questions and just kind of some checks and balances. But you know stop start and continue is like one of my favorite things to consider um when it comes to budget.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

Fantastic so my husband and I we have um we we use wealthfront so we don't use mint.com but I think a lot of these um online systems now have a way for you to put in your information so that both partners can see the information which I think is very very helpful because it helps to alleviate the stress um I think the other thing too is just being able I have a a Google Doc that my husband and I share and being able to share that and showing him exactly what I'm doing. He might not know all the numbers and what it means to me but I put a lot of what I'm I'm doing in terms of our portfolio on there. I update it regularly like you know the the month end when we see uh what the numbers look like um after recollection and stuff like that then I put it on there and it shows him to see it it gives him visibility into what I'm doing which I think is very very helpful because I definitely see I have visibility into what he's doing because he brings home a paycheck right so um I think that's really really helpful Um the other thing that I uh going back to what Mark was saying, um, the reason why I started in real estate 17 years ago was because of the professional um real estate um uh status, right? That was, you know, I was looking for something to do because I was going to be a mom and a full-time mom, which was something that I wasn't looking to plan out my life doing. Um luckily I got addicted and like am now like really addicted, um, but it was something that got started and it it it helped us with our tax planning and tax strategies. Um but have to admit, we've kind of ramped it up in the last two years by doing a lot more um investments in terms of the the tax laws and using the the current tax law that is forwarded to real estate investors and and using that to to help us speed it up a little bit um in terms of what we're doing. So I just kind of am pretty lucky to have found that path. But I think the other advice I would say to piggyback on what Mark was saying and and Rochelle too is I think it is worth it. It is worth it to get a really good tax um strategist and planner. We've had CPAs over the last number of years, um, and Jonathan talks about this, you know, where they do the taxes for you, but oftentimes by the end, you it's too late. By the time you do the taxes the year after, it's too late. And so I think the biggest aha for me um in terms of like being able to maximize and actually utilizing um or accelerating what we were doing, one of the best things is actually to find uh someone like Mark who who knows about how to put in plan in place plans so that you're at the end at the end of the year, you know how your tax um outcome will be uh and how you are maximizing it. I think that's something if I had to do it all over again, I would pay the money to get that advice um earlier on because you get the money back. Um yeah, so I I I completely agree.

SPEAKER_04 46:34

Wait, Mark, I know it's Dana. Sorry, I just want to jump in real quick on that point. This was the sorry Daniel, this was the the pivotal moment for me. I think it was about two years ago. And you know, this is I don't know if I call him a controversial figure, but he's he's a um ostentatious uh personality, grant Grant Cardone, great marketer and all that stuff. But I remember he did a video a couple years ago, and and in my mind, this is what I was always thinking any anybody you hire should be doing. But in this case, it happened to be about a strategist. And he said he said, My it was November, Thanksgiving, December, and my CPA or my strategy, my tax strategist called me and he said, We have a problem. I need you to spend$50 million, right? And again, these are big numbers, so I understand, but it was it was he's like, okay, why? And he he went through like, hey, if you don't invest that or buy something or whatever, you're you're we're gonna be hit. And so he bought a plane, and that was that was for him, it was a personal goal. He always wanted to have a G20, 50, whatever they call them, Gulf Stream. But but I thought to myself, to your point, Cam, like you came to me before the year was over and you were you were analyzing shit the whole year. And at the end of the year, you said, We have a problem. I need you to do this. And if you didn't do that, you're gonna get hit with something problematic. And when I would go to the ICPAs in February or March, they'd be like, So what do you got for me? What do you need me to do? And I'm like, Are you kidding me? So I so that I just it was like, I need someone else. And this is how I take that approach to legal advice, uh, agents, real estate agents, anybody. If you're not proactively coming to me with something, then you're probably not earning anything. And I don't mean that to be mean, but that was my pivotal moment when I heard that story, even at a high scale of a plane, it makes sense. It could be a hundred bucks, doesn't matter. So, anyway, I just I love that point, Cam. Sorry, Daniel.

SPEAKER_03 48:24

No, that is a great way of underscoring the point because I was gonna say you you have a better story than I do, but I was gonna say the same thing. Building a team of people that know their job better than you know, you know that particular job, because CPA is gonna know how to how to work accounting numbers better than you do. Tax accountants is gonna do taxes better than you do, your lawyer is gonna do it better than you do. So having all of those people, the property managers, if you're you know you're uh uh you're renting out rental homes or short-term uh uh Airbnbs, all of those people are people you need to have on your team. And uh real estate is a team sport. So um I I like uh Christine's question over here. She says that RE investors are the most ambitious, hardworking people that I know. How do you draw the line to balance getting more deals and passive income with your family? How do you know when to stop? Does it ever get too stressful? Um so you know that that that's actually a pretty big problem for me. Um both my wife and I were both kind of workaholics, and it makes it hard for us sometimes to stop. Um we so and the other thing is too, I I actually I didn't realize this was like four years ago. I didn't realize that I was getting really stressed out. And um I I noticed that I don't notice that about myself until I get to the point where I'm just about ready to crash. So I I like this particular year, I I went like until August or or September and never took a single day like break. And I didn't even hardly realize that that happened. And I just got to a point where my work productivity just fell off a cliff. And um that's when I realized that you know, taking breaks, taking vacations, we all gotta do that. Just just to keep work life balanced, to keep ourselves emotionally healthy, to keep stress down, um, taking care of yourself is is really important. And and uh you've got to be intentional about it. Um so in terms of getting more deals, one of one of the things that I do is I partner with people. So I've got a full-time job. So I my partners do the work that has to be done during the day. And and I do a lot of things that you know can be done later, such as you know, writing investor newsletters or emailing or talking on on Facebook, um, you know, things I can do after hours. So um, in my particular case, I I partner with people. And um, Mark, I would we we actually this year decided not to pursue the uh 750 hours that we need in order to get the the investor dealer status. And that was simply because my kids came home from school and we suddenly had to educate them. And that was definitely hard. You know, we we we looked at it and we went, you know, um, I don't think we're gonna make it this year, and um, and probably not next year either. So there's definitely times where you know you you have to look at the work-life balance and say, you know, this this is something that would be great to do, but you know, family is more important. And so um, yeah, you gotta keep that in mind. And it we we we would have got a lot of tax write-offs doing that, it would have been very nice. Uh but uh but it didn't happen.

SPEAKER_06 51:43

Yeah, and uh just to add on that, so the real estate professional tax as you need at least 750 hours, which is about you know 15 hours a week, but in addition, you also have to be putting more than 50% of your working hours into that real estate trader business. So if you also have a W-2 income, it's gonna be really hard. Um, it's uh there are you know, we've tried I've tried to do it with some of my clients.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

Um how do you track that, Mark?

SPEAKER_06 52:10

Okay, I did I tried it once, and John, John, we can talk, you know, John. So John's one of my clients, and John had a nice paternal leave. And I was thinking to myself, oh, this is great. We got three months, and we're gonna work nights and weekends, a four-month paternal leave. So I was like, we might be able to swing it. We document all our hours at your day job and your real estate investments, we might be able to push it into that over 50%, and then we shift all our expenses into that year. That's the year that you buy the Dodge Ram and everything else. Uh so I always think about these things, and you know, I knew about this because this comes back to the point of thinking ahead of time, right? I knew when John's baby was due, and I had Operation Baby Tax Plan, and we were gonna try to utilize that paternal leave to get on that real estate tax status. Uh, it's been very challenging, but you know, the point what the point we really that I want to touch on is that you want a CPA who is on top of things, who stays on uh in touch with you as opposed to a lot of traditional accountants who are the bearer of bad news and tell you what you owe. Hopefully, that amount is even accurate at the end, you know, on April 14th. So um, great stuff. Let's talk about the next topic is um how you could we talked about this a little bit, and I want to give a shout out. Some of you guys have met your spouses. I want to give a shout out to some of the spouses in the audience right now, who's some wonderful people that I've met. And I want to talk, let's let's talk about this question of how you coordinate uh and communicate with your spouse to make all this happen. John, let's hear from you first.

SPEAKER_04 54:02

Sorry, it's unmeaning. Um yeah, so so my my wife, Kim, needs to see, we argue about this all the time, but she's she's right. So my wife wants to see a plan about what what I'm trying to accomplish, whether it's uh like early two weeks ago, I decided to just try to be a lender and be a bank for just to try it out, right? Lend to a partner. Daniel, you know, you you talked about partnering with people. I thought, okay, this person I try I trust everything about them as a human. So let I let me try the passive route. Like Rochelle, you mentioned earlier, right? We gotta we gotta think more a little bit more about Rochelle, uh passive investing. Running a an Airbnb business is not super passive. But so I said, let me let me lend to uh let me try lending while I'm building out my my nature of short-term rentals. And so every time I want to try to do something different with a different vehicle, I I approach my wife and and naturally it's it's like, okay, well, this is new, so uh what do you want to do this time? And and she needs to understand with a plan, a visual plan, the goal and the actual steps that showcase that you put some thought behind it and then it helps. Not that she doesn't trust me, but it's I need to understand it. And when you talk to me, you're a talker, I don't understand, right? So I need to just see something simple or put a plan together. And so I I always react like, oh, it's just more work. Like I already have enough work to do, and now you want me to put together a plan, right? So but but the bottom line is when I do that and I sit down and I and I write it down and I convince myself with an actual plan, it helps sort of get on board with with what we're trying to accomplish. So I I think that you need to be very intentional with what you're doing. Uh writing goals down and trying to essentially document what you're trying to do helps you anyway, even if you're like me and you don't like doing that, it's it's you're doing yourself a disservice. But I think for her and her needs, it actually brings the best out of me understanding what I'm trying to accomplish. And it and it helps her feel much more comfortable. So that that is that's that's really helped our communication.

SPEAKER_05 56:12

Great Michelle.

SPEAKER_01 56:15

Yeah, so um, you know, we we try to be, you know, as much like I said earlier, we try to communicate as much as possible. Um, we started doing something at the beginning of the year, which um we really found um, you know, very beneficial for us as a family, is we started having Sunday evening meetings. So, you know, we just take some time and we sit down together and we just talk about like, you know, our goals and like, you know, what are we gonna do this week to get closer to, you know, our overall goal. And, you know, we both at the end of the day, even though we may not be like on the same page with like, you know, the same vehicles of you know, how we get there, um, you know, in terms of like real estate investing, he's a lot more passive in real estate than, you know, I mean, his the idea of it, he's a lot more passive than I am, but we still have the same end goal in mind. And so um, you know, for us, that is to be, you know, retired and and you know, living, living our life, you know, the way that we want, having time freedom. And so we're not looking to become more active uh in things. We're looking to for ways to become more passive, um, you know, to get to those goals. So just really just you know coming together and reiterating, you know, what we have to do, um, helping each other. Um, and just, you know, when when there are things like you know, networking events that I have to go to, just being, you know, uh giving him a heads up on that, uh, and just you know, making sure that he didn't have something planned or he's not gonna be late for work. So just really just communicating and you know, to try to make sure that um you know we're on the same page.

SPEAKER_05 57:59

Right big thing is just keeping things open and communicating. And I love the algorithm meeting.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

You would be surprised if like just misunderstandings, like how that can really just set your week back, right? You know, and just you know, when you're when you're not when things are not right with your spouse, like I don't know about the rest of you, but like your whole it sets the tenor of the whole week, you know, or the whole weekend. And so just doing those little things, um, you know, the things that are easy to do, they're also easy not to do. And so you just have to be very conscious, and like uh Daniel said, about being intentional about the things that you do.

SPEAKER_05 58:39

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

I think the other thing that works for me and um Albert is that I give him enough time, right? So that it's not a new thing, it's he has time to digest, also to look up the data himself, not just what I present to him, but like you know, he's super duper analytical to begin with, um a scientist at heart, and so he likes numbers and he likes to see the things and he he wants to be able to like read the articles himself, do his own research and whatnot. And so for me, whenever I venture into doing something new, like a new market or a new type of asset, um he definitely wants to have the time, and you have to give him or your partner the time to catch up with you, right? Um, so I think that's been really helpful. Um, but all you know, along with all the other stuff that everyone is talking about, I think that's the other thing that you can do is just put it out there, do the research, show your business plan, but also give them time to digest and like not have a knee-jerk reaction. And hey, we have to do this today. That doesn't work too well.

SPEAKER_06 59:56

So it sounds like some of you guys may have had to learn that through trial and error. Um I'm taking notes in case I ever settled down. Um I'm gonna give you guys all a call um if that happens. Uh another idea, you know, you also, you know, communication with your CPA is important. And uh another idea when we think about we have these active sources of income, um, like Airbnb rentals, or let's say you're doing property management and you're trying to delegate time. Um, from a tax perspective, it helps out as well because we perhaps have if we can create systems and more and more systems where we are providing services and we can facilitate those services to other people, we have the potential to turn more sources of active income into passive income. Not only does that help us out with scaling and growing with these efficient systems, but now we can create when we classify it as passive income, the IRS will not hit us with that payroll tax, which can be pretty brutal as well. Uh Daniel, let's hear from you.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:05

So the tip that I was going to give is that um we we actually take one day a week and totally disconnect. And uh that has been really helpful for us, making sure that we're on the same page. So uh we we take uh one day on the weekend usually, and uh it's just family time. We don't do our our regular work, we don't analyze deals, we often don't use computerized devices, we just hang out with each other, and that way we connect with each other so that when the week comes back around, we can hit the ground running and uh we're all still strong and and relaxed. Um, and so it's that's really helped me. So uh pick a Sabbath day.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:47

That's so much more easy said than done.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:51

I'm still on my phone. I I try.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:54

It's so hard, especially for those of you who have tech families like we are. You know, it's really, really hard. But it's something that I think everybody is trying really hard to do, right? And now, luckily, we can.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:09

So wonderful. Um, so and so next topic is we I know that we all have obligations outside of our real estate investments. So not only do we have to thrive and succeed in our investments, but a lot of us have things that we do during the day, right? And that can be really challenging um when we have um when we have these dreams and ambitions. Um and then we have our family life. So when we think about um our time here, so we got our day jobs, we have our families, and we have our investing, and we've kind of touched upon upon this, but I would love to hear your thoughts on you know some of the the strategies we've found to manage our time as effectively as possible to make everything work.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:05

Let's start with you, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:08

Yeah, so it's for I I almost feel like it I'm in uh the twilight zone trying to accomplish this, and just it's just because we we have such young children. So Rochelle talked about a strategy that we tried to implement, and it actually went really well earlier about having business meetings. And so before our daughter, our second daughter was born earlier this year in February, we la middle of last year, I think our daughter was two and a half, and she was sleeping pretty well. And so my wife and I would get up in at like around 5, 5:30, and we'd have business meetings in my office, and it would go really well. We we would uh bookmark out on my whiteboard exactly what we wanted to talk about for the business and make decisions, and it was great because we get up, but we were sleeping, but my daughter was sleeping, so and that's why I talk about the Twilight Zone is because shortly after we were getting so much done, and then I could, you know, once Kim and I would make decisions, she'd go downstairs, she'd do her thing and prep for her day. But then shortly after, my my daughter would regress, uh, regress out of nowhere. And so we, you know, we'd either get up in the middle of the night or she'd come into bed or whatever. And so that stopped. And then all of a sudden, February came around this year, and then we had a newborn, and so we we literally couldn't get back. It was so we but we were so productive. So I'm sure I want to make sure I'm hammering the point of I think early morning meetings when dedicated time to prep for the day as well as accomplish and make decisions, even if it's two a day. It it is so valuable, it was valuable. And I actually I I think I actually experienced how valuable it is more than everybody who consistently was able to do it because it was ripped away, like very quickly. And I I haven't been able to get back to that with Kim because of the newborn, and we're waiting for when normalcy comes again and we can implement that again because we were we were making decisions and we were getting things done. Then I, you know, I maybe I could get in the shower, we could get stuff done, stay with her, and it was seven o'clock, and then our daughter would get up. It was awesome. And I think Rochelle, you already touched on that. It sounds like what do you mean a business meeting as a family? That would be the one thing if I could have back and continue to implement and only have one thing, it would be that, because you'd be wildly successful just on that alone. Because and the whole point was your question was around balancing work, right? This is before everything, before the kids, before getting ready, before taking a shower, before eating, before work. That could set you up for success alone if you just implemented early morning meetings with your spouse.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:44

John, I do want to just um tell you that, you know, to I I have a two year old, I have an 11 year old and a two year old. So I can totally relate to where you're at right now. And for about a year and a half, my daughter did not sleep through the night, and it was horrendous. I mean. I mean, I struggled with that so bad because, you know, having an 11-year-old, you kind of forget because I was definitely not into real estate or all the things that I, you know, do now, you know, when my son was, you know, an infant. And so it was just like literally getting kicked in the stomach. I mean, it was just like, you know, all the things that I had going on. I I couldn't do it because I couldn't function. I could barely do my day job and get through my day job with, you know, with the little sleep that I've gotten. You know, my husband was exhausted. We were fighting. I mean, I'm just being real. It was a tough time to get through. And so give yourself the grace, you know, when you're raising a family, when you have little children, you know, that, you know, basically just surviving. And so I think that like, you know, being on these webinars, networking and doing the little things that you can, you know, in like that you're doing right now, it's it's is great. You know, so commend yourself. I commend you for for doing that. You know, it's it's it is tough. And so, you know, try to just look at it that this two shell pass because, you know, she's two now, and it is becoming a little bit easier, and it definitely does get a lot easier the older they get. Um, you know, it it's just, you know, you don't have them screaming in the background, or you know, you're you're sleeping better, and you know, you can actually, you know, complete a full sentence. So um, so just you know, this is a tough stage that you're going through, and and you know, a lot of us probably on this webinar can relate to that. Another thing I want to um, you know, talk about in the um just with this topic, you know, I think it's important, like I believe in having your cake and eating it too, but I only focus on the things that are important to me. So if there's something that I don't enjoy doing or that I don't like or that I don't really see it contributing to my future goals, um, I don't do it. So, you know, like I try not to get distracted and sidetracted with um like tons of things that you know may or may not work out. So I stick to the things that are important. Um, my day job is certainly, you know, my priority. So I give my all to that. Um, that's what pays the bills, that's what, you know, funds my investments and you know, all that. So that is, you know, number one priority at the moment. Um, and then you know, my day kind of looks, just to give you kind of a snapshot of what my day looks like, I get up, you know, about five, five thirty in the morning, you know, I do my morning routine, have a little exercise, drink some coffee, just have some quiet time, um, just you know, before the kids wake up. The kids wake up around seven. Um, and then, you know, we're we're getting ready for the day, getting breakfast, getting them out the door. Um, my daughter goes to daycare. Um, and then I'm I'm actually working from home. So, you know, with this pandemic and probably will be for, you know, the next year. Uh, so you know, drop for a daycare, then come home, take care of my work, and you know, the evening time is spent, you know, networking, sending out emails, um, and and I try to, you know, save a little time for you know getting the kids, you know, ready for bed and and you know, reading them books or playing with them. So I do keep a schedule. You know, I always try to cook dinner. Um I'm that's one of the things I feel like I can give to my family is you know, nutritious meals. So like these are very specific things that I do on a daily basis to just show love to my family and show that I'm still engaged, you know, and I'm I'm putting them first. Um, and then usually business things, you know, come later after the kids are are gone to bed. Um and then weekend, Saturday is an errands and work day for me for all of my business um, you know, endeavors. Um, I do podcasting as well. So I'll record a bunch of podcasts, I'll do 30-minute interviews and kind of have like a bunch of them so that I can release one on a weekly basis. And then Sunday, like Daniel said, Sunday is our day to just kind of relax. We usually go somewhere as a family or we stay at home, or we just, you know, we we kind of just unplug from the world, and that's just a day that we don't do any work. Um, we are church-going people, so we usually will either attend services. Um, right now we're doing Zoom services, but um, you know, we're we're you know people of faith, and so we believe that's important. Um, so that's pretty much what our week looks like. And you know, if there's anything in between, you know, my husband and I usually coordinate with each other and and um you know try to try to help help each other.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:26

Okay. So Daniel, it sounds like you you gotta head out pretty soon.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:30

Here's an example of work-life balance. Uh, I need to go downstairs and have dinner with the family. So I I want to thank you, everyone, for uh uh this opportunity to come and talk to you. And it's great to meet everybody on this call. This is the first time I've met all of you. Uh so uh again, my name is Daniel Homeland. Um, I invest in multifamily properties with investors. We split the cash flow and equity. And uh my website is aloncapital.com. My podcast is the Win Multifamily Show, and you can find us at winmultifamily.com. All of it's down in the chat box. So thank you very much, everyone. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:09

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:12

Awesome. Cam.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:15

Uh huh. I I think I think everyone is pretty knowledgeable in this field. If you have care, you're it's an ongoing struggle. I think whatever you put in place is always going to be an ongoing struggle. I our kids are older, they're in junior high and high school now. Um, and especially with the twins when they were younger when they were newborns as two-year-olds, those years are a blur to me, even though I knew I worked at the time, as well as having kids, because I was running my own real estate and property management company. Um but um so I'm pretty, I those years are a little um a little uh much of a blur. The struggle that I'm dealing with now is more or less um more or less uh time management. And I think um I'm a part, I want to be a part of my kids' lives, so pretty involved with their schools. I am I want to be involved in my community, so I sit on a couple of nonprofit projects and boards. Um and I I definitely want to be a part of my family unit. So we do stuff for families outside of our little unit too, because we want to be connected to the rest of the families. And so now with COVID, it we have more time, but it also requires us to be more proactive in a lot of the things that we do. So, you know, Zoom calls with family members that didn't exist before now has to take priority and stuff. So, you know, saying learning how to say no is something I'm working on because I always want to be helpful. Um and and learning to prioritize is an ongoing uh struggle, I think. For if you're a parent, you kind of know that. Um, so not quite sure. Planners, I'm working on that. I mean, it's an ongoing process for me. I'm not quite sure that I'm the best poster child for success, but I think you know, planning, getting things on the calendar, um making sure that you know what your goal is and your priorities are helps the focus. Um, but I'm I I would be lying to say if I thought I was successful at it. It's an ongoing thing for me.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:43

Yeah, it sounds like a challenge. Um so um I know it's getting late in the evening for some of you, or some of you might be, Cam, you might be getting ready for dinner time. So we're gonna do some rapid fire questions from the audience if we can ask them real quick and and we'll get through some of these and then we'll do the call to action. Um what are you doing? Does anybody here recommend any um any time management ideas, strategies, and tools? We talked about some of them. One of my favorites is just using your calendar and scheduling things in, and I'm in a mentor program for practice owners, and we deliberate time, we deliberately delegate time for uh throughout the week. Everything is planned, so we don't have to think about it as much. I also love the Calendly app, it takes away so much of this back and forth when you want to meet with people. Does anyone else uh have any other time saving and uh management tools that we haven't mentioned?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:43

I do. I have um uh what's been really helpful for me is using the Google Suite of products. Um, since I live inside my mailbox, um, which is a Google um email. Um the Google Keeps is where I keep all of the Zoom call LinkedIn, the link to all the Zoom calls that are happening on a regular basis, team meetings, all of that. So I'm not running around looking for that data. Um I that was a simple one that someone told me. I'm like, oh, brilliant. Now I'm now I'm not running around and like so um all the Airbnb links that I um we happen to have, you know, I've been a seven-year host of the Airbnb, uh both in the property management company that I ran, and also now we have um um Airbnb uh in our portfolio. And so to be able to have that link always available so that I could just cut and paste is really great. And the other thing too is I try to use text more, and if you're not using WhatsApp or one of those applications to connect with the people that you need to connect with on a regular basis, it's much easier to use WhatsApp and going back and tracking photos and emails and stuff like that than it is to um and and and and links and documents, um, than it is to use the regular text on your phone. Um so I think if you look into some of those uh time saving strategies, I think it's really it's very helpful. I would highly recommend WhatsApp, it's much more secure too.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:22

Wonderful. Anyone else want to chime in on this topic?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:28

I see Samarie asks a question. Does everyone have a budget and share accounts with spouse? So that's actually I I was wondering if I should share mine because it's not as conventional as what a lot of husbands and wives do. Um, we have a uh a different arrangement. So my husband and I, we both have separate accounts, um, our own checking accounts. And and so we we did that. We've we've been together for 10 years, but married for for three, together, uh living together for four. And so we we've never merged bank accounts. So what we do, our arrangement, and it works for us, is we split the bills down the middle. So we say, you take this, you take that, and we just basically, you know, divide and conquer. And so, you know, when it comes to um mortgage or you know, whatever we just I just sent him, send him, um, you know, he usually pays that. So I just send him my portion. Um, and and we just that's the way we work. Um, we just split everything. Um, and you know, our accounts are separate, our savings account are separate. And so we just, and when it comes to like any properties or anything that we just contribute 50-50, we split everything 50-50. And that's what works for us. I mean, there's a lot of people who do things together, there's a lot of people who have accounts that are separate and have a savings account together. So it's really just what works for you and your family.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:49

Awesome. Yeah, I concur with that. We uh same thing. We have everything separate with the exception of a couple joint accounts, but we talk about our monetary situation probably 37 times a day based on like what we did today. Literally, it could be today, right? We could have sold something and made a$50 profit on eBay and we're like, good, that is just a hair towards this goal. Right. So we're spot on with with what we do, but we do keep everything separate. Um I don't know. I it was so easy for us, but I just I but I want to respect that question to how hard it can be for some people because it's important. Um, I wish I had a better answer that I sh maybe I struggle with it with my spouse or something. That's a that's a very tough question for some people to implement the right way because either sometimes you they're it's not secretive in a bad way, it's just it's tough to give that information over. But go ahead, Rochelle. What were we gonna say?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:44

No, I I feel like it's about privacy too, and it's not about being secret, it's about allowing someone to have their privacy. Um, you know, and I'm I'm an I'm very transparent with my husband. My husband's very transparent with me. So we're I there's never been a reason for me to doubt him or for him to doubt me. So I feel like it just really works for us, you know. And maybe if it wasn't we didn't have that kind of a relationship, um, then there might be, you know, maybe there would be some doubts.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:15

Yeah, and I have some colleagues, friends that I just I they they have a great relationship with everything but the money. And it's it's not even it's the one of the hardest things for certain people is like if if I have this spending habit, and I don't even mean like it's terrible, but if it's a habit that I I just don't want to give up, but if I communicate it to you and it doesn't fit in with what we agreed upon, they find ways to keep it sort of hidden and unexplainable. And it's that's why that question is so valuable to get on the same page with your spouse first. Um, I wish I knew how to do it with a ch in a challenging situation, but I never had that problem. But that is such a respectable question because it's it could it can be very hard if you have that problem.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:02

Yeah. So I think for us, we work the opposite way in our family. I mean, we have like every account together as joint, um, with the exception of my investment portfolio. Um, and that is just to save Albert the headache, you know, of understanding, okay, you know, yes, it's gonna freak you out that I just paid$15,000 on that um uh uh foundation work, but it was a part of a bigger strategy. And for him to see something like that on a regular basis or not a regular basis, it's just now we have to go through the back channel and try to understand and work out the details of that particular transaction because it's a large one, it makes him uncomfortable, right? So now I have to like, and he doesn't necessarily have to go down to that B level. Um, so I think for me that was more of a protection of his time. He has absolute visibility in what I'm doing if he wants, but just to protect his time and his mental space, um, he doesn't need to be in the weeds um with every single transaction that goes on. And as you're building out your portfolio, these items do come in much more frequent. If you're doing your job as an asset manager, you're gonna have to, you know, he doesn't need to know that we negotiated a different um nightly rent for someone on the SDR that we have here or that or there, you know, the what kind of refrigerator we're buying for XOYZ or whatever, you know. So I think for us, the reason why I'm doing the the accounting for the investment portion of my or our uh income portfolio is really to protect his time. So um, but otherwise, everything we do is is is is very transparent.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:09

So awesome. So on the topic of protecting people's time, one of the questions we have from Brian S is uh what is the best source of deals? And I want I we can have a five-hour long discussion on where to find deals, but maybe in three seconds or less, can you guys each give us maybe a just a quick tidbit of where you're finding your deals? Um, just so we can you know we can jump in a real quickly into that um without going down the many rabbit holes we can on that topic.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:42

Yeah, I'll throw in real quick. So just get get join a local well-respected real estate group in your area and find the top five people that either comment the most, have positive interactions the most, and they tend to be the most trustworthy to at least run by your plans and goals. Most of them will help you out to at least, if it's if they're not going to be a partner or point you in the right direction, they'll give you somebody who can. I a real local real estate, a well-respected local real estate group, you'll find deals there or find someone who can help you find deals.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:17

Yeah, so without knowing what kind of deals you're looking for, I would have to go with my short answer would be getting yourself a good real estate um real realtor. Um, you know, you will spend a lot of time and effort and money looking for deals on your own. And if you have that kind of time, all the more power to you. But my suggestion is is to definitely hook up, link up with a realtor that is specific to that area that you're looking to invest. Um, you know, if you're if you're um, you know, looking in for floor in Florida, you know, don't find a realtor in Tampa when you're looking in Orlando. You know, you you want to find someone that knows the streets really well, um, has good deal flow and and just link up with them. Um, another thing is to be very, very specific with your criteria. Um, so if you say, you know, just send me anything, you will literally get anything. Um, but if you say I want a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, you know, 2100 square feet, um, you know, turnkey, you know, be as uh specific as possible, and then you're going to get the specific deals and really great deals coming into your inbox and not um, you know, as Mark said, protecting and Cam protecting your time um and not having to sort through, you know, all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:35

Yeah, and I also want to give us uh acknowledge the wonderful community that that Rochelle has created. She created this Westchester Real Estate Investor Meetup group. It has like a couple hundred. How many members do you have in the group now?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:50

In the group, I think there's close to four, in the Facebook group, 400, but in our meetup group, there's about 1,500.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:56

Yeah, and it's increasing she's been an incredible resource, and she's also been a facilitator of connecting so many wonderful people. Um, so if you don't have that community and where you ever live, you can take that initiative and really be a facilitator, and that opens up a lot of doors too, as Rochelle has done. Um, and it's just been wonderful what she's been able to do as far as connecting with great people and also helping other people out. Cam.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:24

Yeah, so I I real quickly, I I I am a realtor, and so I think that using a realtor and a broker or a broker in the area that you're looking for is very, very key. Even though I can do the deals on my own, every single one of my deals, when it's remote, has been through a realtor. I believe in having one throat to choke. So, like someone who helps you with the deal and got paid for it has a little bit more skin in the game to help you when there's uh issues that come up and there will be issues. And I have to admit I tried it a couple times on my own and I've been really burned because you really don't know until the issues come up, right? And so that commission that you pay for the realtor or the broker is gonna pay dividends when you actually have issues, and I think that that in the same way that you would have to have a good lawyer, all of that. I I think um a real, really good real estate um uh professional, whether it's a broker or a realtor in the area that you're looking at is really key. The other thing, too, is I would also caution. I mean, I belong to quite a few online groups and stuff like that, and have to say, be very, very careful on who you do business with, like in person, on the internet, in groups, just do your due diligence. Um because this, you know, real estate is real numbers.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:58

Yeah, and if you focus on building a relationship with someone rather than the transaction, you're less likely to get burnt. So that's one of the things I've um just a little side tip on that. Trans um relationships over transactions always, and then you're gonna mitigate your risk. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:16

Great ideas. Uh Rochelle, I know that you've been saying uh you had a really great idea that you told me a few weeks ago. Uh, I was hoping you could tell it before we get to our call of actions. I know you said that you wanted your son, you were gonna do something with your son, uh getting him in the game. Can you tell us a little more about the details of that?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:35

Yeah, so my son is 11, and I have been, you know, putting aside some uh money for him to do his first flip when he is 16. So, you know, he along, you know, since he was five years old, he wanted to be a police officer, then he wanted to be a doctor, then he wanted to be a veterinarian, then he wants to be a biologist, all kinds of stuff. And I said to him, You can be anything you want in the world, but the first thing you're gonna be is you're be a real estate investor because that will give you the freedom to do anything that you want to do in life. And you can change um you know as you grow and and and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:10

But being a real estate investor and so the plan is for him to do his first um flip and we you know I will help him and mentor him through that um and then you know to be able to use that capital um on his flip to be able to um you know start to build a passive port portfolio and and you know throughout college um so that he can fund you know basically his his life wonderful and uh kim you had a really great idea as well um about uh purchasing rental properties as a a way to to build um you know some some equity that can be used for college um and I think that maybe John you might you know with your newborn uh you you might be able to to use one as well can you fill us in what you were talking to me about it's um it's a strategy I wish I had implemented when our kids were born um instead of investing in 529 plans which we do and and you know uh hoping that it would cover all of the college tuition one of the things that but in a 529 you can't really leverage right it's the money is investing and whatever that money grows but in real estate you can leverage and actually safely leverage and so I all the young parents out there Jonathan and and Rochelle you guys your kids are young enough to actually do this you know we know the real estate doubles every seven to ten years um in a normal market and if you pick your right market it should um you should look for I'm investing in income property so we want to make sure that there's steady income but I'm trying to pick markets that also is is on the way up and appreciating. So again if you pick the right market the right location um you should see a combination of both even though we're we're I'm focused on staying on more on the income piece and I'm also after the equity too. So if you actually buy a property say$100,000 you actually really are just investing um$20,000 and you're leveraging and then you know you let it grow until they get to college which should be 18 years or something like that and you sell it and then that's the money that you use to pay for their college and I think that had I really thought about it and really could have executed on that a lot faster for for colleges. And so now that I'm having kids that are reaching the college age and that's coming up really quickly for us. Boy, I kind of yeah do the 529 plans but really we should have just put out the extra effort and done a couple more income properties with the goal of earmarking that for for their college uh funding.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:01

Here's some also some really cool ideas that you can do at and this is not this just became available in the CARES Act. And I'm gonna recommend it to some of you guys because you guys are all my clients um we'll work on this so as of March 2020 an employer can reimburse an employee for their student loan. So you get the students to take out the loans your children and that deduction is a write-off for the employer and is non-taxable to the person receiving that reimbursement up to$5250 per year. So that can be something along the lines of you know let's just say you're at a 30% state and federal tax rate that could be$1500 a year that you save in taxes. Another idea is um the American opportunity tax credit gets that's a$2500 tax credit that gets put back it is a dollar it's not a deduction it's a tax credit of money back in your pocket if you spend that money on qualified educational expenses now if your AGI is over eight$180,000 so if you are the parent purchasing uh spending these qualified educational expenses for your child you will not qualify so you have the child use these educational expenses and that child applies for the educational tax credit that's another$2500 per year back into the family pot um so these are you know these are all great ideas I really appreciate everybody's time um the the last thing before we go is the call of action that I would love to hear from everybody. So uh we'll go in the same order and then I'll before I close out with my call of action I'd love to hear just a call of action of what you would love to get from the host and what you can provide and where to find you and all that great stuff. And if anybody wants contact information you can find me anywhere um and I will respond quickly uh with anyone's contact info and we you can also type your best resource or email into the chat as well. So let's start with you John.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:16

So sorry what's the what's the request here to come clear on sorry call to action. Yes so what what what I'm offering or what I want the guests to do or I sorry I I just want to be clear.

SPEAKER_06 1:33:27

Yeah just anything of where you can what you would like to offer or provide or receive from the guest yeah yeah where to follow you and all that one yeah I mean honestly I I think anybody who goes to either revisits this or was part of this because I know you know our our participant list is has dropped here in the last little bit but I'm a huge fan of of short term rentals um I'm real estate investing but I honestly the power right now with this massively growing industry is that I feel like if anybody can afford to just get their hands on just one moderately successful short-term rental and manage it it's so easy and put$12,$13$1400 in your month a back in your pocket a month I know that amount of money for your average family, your average uh junior investor would be gigantic.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:15

So I challenge people to at least investigate that. And obviously I you're you're talking about multifamily or a big long-term rental portfolio. I get all that you know absolutely I did the power to immediately start running a small business but get like major cash flow versus like the average single family home just to get your feet wet and realize I'm only walking away with 150, 200, whatever. Your moderately successful short-term rental is a little bit more work, but the the cash flow multiplier to just get you to see the power of real estate is incredible. And forget even your tax strategies that we talked about earlier. I just it's like the one home project that I want to start pushing on people that are interested in real estate if they reach out to me I'd be glad to help you find a small moderate single family home that you can turn into a short term rental in many, many markets that you wouldn't even think would be successful. It doesn't have to be the beach or the mountains it could be in even just a regular growing market you'd be surprised how well it would do. But I will put my company my management company in here in case anybody wants further questions or consulting.

SPEAKER_06 1:35:24

And if um if you once you get that first rental property now you're a business owner now we can create a ton of write-offs. That's all I'm gonna say Rochelle.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:35

So first I just want to say thank you Mark for having me on thank you for for organizing this this has been really great. I had you know some great takeaways um and so if you're listening in and you have not connected with Mark as a tax strategist you need to do that right after uh we get off this call he is amazing um he he works with me on stuff and you know just just having him um you know to be able to call text send an email um on any questions that I have or just keeping him updated of my my life you know so that he can help me to plan um is just really invaluable and I've really never met anyone like Mark you know in this space I think he's just such a value ad to really any real estate business that that you're looking to get into or that you're starting. So yeah so so definitely check it out. So um if you're interested in getting into real estate on a passive level um I help people um with with that um you know we have a deal flow uh you know where we help uh people get into syndications um and we are um offering deals um that are more the 506 uh uh 506b um having relationships and so you know minimum investments are 50 000 um so you know reach out to me like I said I'm a big relationship person you know I have to have relationships with people before I do business on any level but I'm happy to educate you on what the power of passive investing can do for you. So I did drop my email in the comments. So reach out if you have any questions at all for that happy to help you.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:15

Thank you again everyone thank you very much and Cam well I the first thing is that I'm a realtor here in Silicon Valley so I would love any of your referrals if you have anyone who's moving and coming to Stanford or working at one of the tech companies that are here in Silicon Valley I hope that you can uh reach out to me and I can um help with that. But I'm also a big supporter of helping women um in terms of moms and women who you know we've pivoted we've done I've done that path I'm on my third and fourth career and in doing so I think I've found my happy medium where I can work um on my own time doing the things that I love in an industry that I love. And I think that real estate provides a lot of freedom for that. I've done SDRs the short-term vacation rentals I've done international properties for short-term vacation rentals I've managed property management here I've owned a property management company for seven years before selling it and I've done development so if that's something that I can help you with let me know otherwise if you find if you come across a deal that you uh would like to partner with do give me a call because I am looking and I have a clientele that's also looking to invest passively so we are actively looking for projects to partner with Oaks um especially in some of the states that I focus on is uh Georgia uh North Carolina Texas um the tech states since we're coming from tech um the the tech states that are going out there so um reach out to me if you have uh any deals that you would like uh a second partner with or someone to sell it to give me a call awesome so my call to action I want to talk about first my next webinar which I'm really excited about and this is on quitting your day job to go full time into real estate and how we can create financial freedom we're gonna talk about that real estate professional tax status and all sorts of things that become available once you become a full-time self-employed hustler and some tax strategies and business strategies create that shortcut and help you give that perspective and make that plan really excited because a lot of people I know are looking to get there and here are some ideas we can help you accelerate that process.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:45

Also I provide free tax assessments so if you have any questions on your prior returns I evaluate them for free and see if there are any missed opportunities and just to give a general high level introductory assessment of what what is going on and what opportunities are available based on your goals. And that is free so if you're interested in having that we can talk and the last thing that that I want to talk I just want to thank everybody here for coming and also Daniel for when he was here because you know I think that we talk a lot about building relationships and adding value and it's been an absolute pleasure working with all of you here and connecting with you through my abnormally strong obsession with taxes and tax strategy and thanks for listening to me talk about strategy for all these hours with you and you know letting me into your lives and letting me uh contribute to you know all of your your businesses and personal finances and thanks for being a host tonight and I just appreciate everything um so thanks everybody and uh just close it out I just you know I'm gonna be posting this all over YouTube and LinkedIn and uh