{"id":107279,"date":"2019-02-07T00:02:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T07:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=107279"},"modified":"2023-02-09T20:59:06","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T03:59:06","slug":"biggerpockets-podcast-316-millionaire-real-estate-26-graham-stephan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/biggerpockets-podcast-316-millionaire-real-estate-26-graham-stephan","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Millionaire Through Real Estate by 26 with Graham Stephan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interested in becoming a millionaire through real estate investing? Of course you are! <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today\u2019s guest did just that\u2014by age 26! <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brandon and David sit down with top-producing real estate agent and investor <strong>Graham Stephan<\/strong> as he spills the strategy he used to build massive wealth at such a young age. You won\u2019t want to miss his \u201cfortune formula,&#8221; including how he adds value to the deals he buys, how he saved money to invest without missing out on life\u2019s experiences, and how he found work he loved to do so he could work hard while still feeling like he was on vacation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Graham\u2019s passion for real estate carried him to big success through investing, and he shares great advice for using YouTube to grow your brand. He also discusses how skipping college helped make him a millionaire and how he worked with his grandma to fund his first deal!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Graham touches on why he feels the future of RE is in development, ways to \u201cmake, not just find,\u201d deals in today\u2019s market, what to watch out for with Airbnb, and how he bought a house before he even owned a credit card.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DON\u2019T miss this powerful show from someone who made the most of his 20s to set himself up for future success. Download it today!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-podcast-real\/id594419649\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a>\u00a0to listen on iTunes.<\/p>\n<h2>Listen to the Podcast Here<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=BIGPOC9864838204\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Read the Transcript Here<\/h2>\n<div style=\"overflow-y: scroll; max-height: 400px; background: #eee; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>This is the BiggerPockets Podcast show 316.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>What gave me the biggest advantage is just doing it basically 24\/7 for three and a half years. And I could really the trends of the markets and see where people are buying. And I figured too if people that\u2019re worth like $10 million are buying in San Bernardino and all these big Beverly Hills investors are talking about it and they\u2019ve been doing this for decades. Chances are this is something I should really start paying attention to myself.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>You&#8217;re listening to<\/i> <i>BiggerPockets Radio, simplifying real estate for investors, large and small. If you&#8217;re here looking to learn about real estate investing without all the hype, you&#8217;re in the right place. Stay tuned and be sure to join the millions of others who have benefited from biggerpockets.com. Your home for real estate investing online.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> What\u2019s going on everyone? This is Brandon, today\u2019s host of the BiggerPockets Podcast here with my buddy David Greene. What\u2019s up David Greene?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Not much man. I\u2019m doing really good. Just did a seminar the other day, it\u2019s really like a Meetup where I taught people how to invest while working a full time job. And I thought it went really good. We had 100 or so people show up and they got a free education. And I got to share what else were these secrets with BiggerPockets members.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Nice, you get to grow your ego while other people learn. This is fantastic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Yeah they\u2019re forced to listen to me like they\u2019re locked in a room and I get all the attention. It\u2019s my inner diva that gets to come out. It\u2019s my Arianna Grande side.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Very good. Seven rings, isn\u2019t that the new thing? Anyway alright so David here actually this kind of leads into a short quick tip for today, is if you\u2019re not getting out there meeting real life people in your area, I mean if you\u2019ve got some knowledge, go share it somehow. Right go start a local meetup, meet with people one on one become a mentor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Because it not only helps them it actually helps solidify your thoughts and your views and you become a better investor for doing it. So do what David\u2019s doing, go out there, meet people, or if you\u2019re not at that level yet if you\u2019re not already experienced then go to them and learn and meet and connect and all that. So very powerful stuff. So that is today\u2019s short pre-quick tip. It\u2019s like a pre-quick tip. Is that a new part of the show?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> So there\u2019s more?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> There\u2019s more where that comes from. But before we get to that let\u2019s get to today\u2019s show sponsor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i> Have you ever walk into a big office building and think, \u201cGee I would love a piece of this.\u201d I mean the idea of corporations paying you rent is pretty appealing, right. Well BuildingBits wants to cut you in on the action. It\u2019s not a re or a fund. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BuildingBits is a new platform for non-accredited investors like most of us, right where virtually anyone regardless of income can choose a building list to a major company with a guaranteed long-term lease. BuildingBits handles the management, and get this when the building is sold in the future, you have a chance to share the potential upside. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Best of all, these securities are tradable since these securities are SEC qualified. For a limited time you can invest with BuildingBits with just 100 bucks and no upfront fees. So don\u2019t wait, go to invest.BuildingBits.com\/BiggerPockets. One more time that\u2019s invest.BuildingBits.com\/BiggerPockets.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright big thanks to our sponsors always. Now let\u2019s get to today\u2019s real quick tip. Alright today\u2019s quick tip is short and simple. BiggerPockets is hiring for two roles, they\u2019re going to be working with me it\u2019s going to be awesome. One of them is called a Digital Membership retention Specialist. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It\u2019s basically somebody who is going to be in charge of making sure our pro members around BiggerPockets all tens of thousands of them are feeling good and getting more and more perks and benefits all the time. So if you love our pro membership or you would love to help people be able to use their pro membership to buy more real estate and find ways to do that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And this is an in-Denver job. So if you are in Denver or willing to relocate to Denver, go to BiggerPockets.com\/Jobs because I would love to talk to you about whether or not you could work with me on a regular basis here at BiggerPockets. So that is today\u2019s quick tip. And I actually have a quick tip, call it quick tip number three for the day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Do you remember like back like six months ago everybody listened to this-not you David because I know you remember it- where I was talking about my buddy Pete? One of my good friends, his name is Pete he\u2019s awesome. He runs a company called missionmeats.co and they sell like the best beef jerky and meat steaks on the planet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Anyway so like six months ago I gave him a shout out on our podcast and I said people could go missionmeats.co and search BiggerPockets to get some free jerky when they buy something. Anyway I was talking to Pete the other day and he said, \u201cYeah go ahead and offer that again.\u201d So I\u2019m just going to throw it out there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If anybody wants free jerky, buy some mission Meat steaks which are amazing and then you get some of the best bacon jerky ever. Sorry that\u2019s quick tip number three go to missionmeats.co\/BiggerPockets and then just get like my favourite snack on the planet. But anyway we are rumbling too long we got to get to today\u2019s show.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> We have an incredible show today we\u2019re actually interviewing a top producing real estate agent in the LA area who also invests in real estate. So this guy has like a 360 perspective on finding a good agent, techniques for how to like communicate with your agents to find deals to find deals, how he invests himself. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">He kind of sees it from every single angle. And this dude became a millionaire at 26 years old through real estate. Like this is some really good stuff. So I hope you guys are excited to learn from somebody who\u2019s already done it and shares exactly how he did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> And they\u2019re going to learn about the Fortune Formula.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Oh yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Well I think I called it the Millionaire Formula but anyway I\u2019m formulating a future book right here on this podcast today, listen for that later on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> This is what it looked like to see Beethoven creating like his 5<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> Symphony. I\u2019m watching it happen in person as Brandon is rapidly coming up with these ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> There you go. Yeah it\u2019s not often people compare me to Beethoven but I\u2019ll take it today. Alright with that, let\u2019s get to today\u2019s show. Alright Graham, welcome to the BiggerPockets Podcast, really good to have you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Thank so I\u2019ve been looking forward to this for a while.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Awesome. It\u2019s going to be a lot of fun today. Okay we\u2019re ready to jump in. I know you\u2019ve got a new thing going over on YouTube I watch your stuff over there. You see to know what you\u2019re talking about so first of all, good job on that. It\u2019s awesome I\u2019m actually learning a lot from you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah it\u2019s awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> No way, thank you man. I\u2019ve been getting some ideas from your channel too. It\u2019s cool to kind of maybe back and forth and I love it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s cool, that\u2019s how it should be, right. I think so many people in business always like look at everything so competitive. But really like if we\u2019re helping each other, I think it\u2019s awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I totally agree with that, very cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright so we want to know more about your not-so-much YouTube abilities which are pretty awesome with your social stuff. But we want to know about your real estate investing and I hear you\u2019re an agent as well. So let\u2019s kind of go through your story maybe start at the beginning. How did you get into real estate and also where are you located? And kind of what\u2019s the beginning of your journey?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah of course. So I\u2019m here in Los Angeles California. I grew up here. The traffic here\u2026 But anyway I grew up here in Los Angeles California and I had really bad grades in high school, I hated school, could not get into it whatsoever. I was working part time doing- I basically do photography for this marine aquarium wholesaler. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And because of that changed my perspective on earning money because I figured like if I can work there instead of go to school I can make like 50 bucks instead of going to school. So for me it was just like a no-brainer well let me just miss school and not do my homework because instead I can go and make money. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So it was because of that I had really bad grades in high school, did not get into college. And that left me kind of thinking like I really got to get myself together. I don\u2019t want to be this bum living in a van on Sunset Boulevard not knowing what he\u2019s doing, and not making any money. And I wasn\u2019t going to get to go to college or anything like that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I ended up just randomly getting my real estate license and I figured I would convince my parents let me get one year of work experience here. And then after one year of working as a real estate agent, I can then reapply to college and maybe be like an investment banker something fancy like that. But I ended up starting in real estate and loving it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Like every day for me didn\u2019t feel like work, it just felt like fun. Like I can get paid to go and see really cool homes to meet really cool people and somehow this was a career. But I was still planning to go to college, and it wasn\u2019t until about eight months into it that I sold my first house. That was just a bit of luck but I was holding open houses every single Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And one Sunday eight months in a buyer came in and ended up having me represent him on a home in Beverly Hills for like $3.5million. I think it was like $3,640,000 so my first deal. And after that I\u2019m like convinced there\u2019s no way I\u2019m going back to college soon. This is so much fun, I see a career in this and I want to pursue it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I continued doing that and having so much fun with it. But I would save every bit of the commission that I made because I saw how unstable it was. I mean I\u2019ve seen other agents that would be like six, seven months without seeing a single deal. And they would have to make that last commission tie them over into the next deal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And it was this instability that I didn\u2019t know where my next deal was going to come from, I didn\u2019t know how big that deal was going to be and I didn\u2019t know how long it was going to take me. So I saved everything thinking that like this could be my last deal for like a year. So after about three and a half years of doing that, I had all of this commission saved up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I saved everything, like I lived on $5 foot long subway sandwiches, wouldn\u2019t spend a dime. The only thing I spent money on was a car. I bought my dream when I was just about to turn 19, it was a Lotus Elise. So I just figured like that\u2019s the one thing I wanted and then everything else I was fine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> You did what most agents do. And this is not a bad thing but I know a lot of agents will buy a nice car because it actually improves your image to help you actually close more deals in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah and it did. Looking back, that was not the intention at the time. But I started going to Car meets and I made my money back of my car probably like seven or eight times what I spent on my car just by business I made from car meets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> There\u2019s like 100 people right now that are like, \u201cSee honey, they listen. I get that car.\u201d They\u2019re going to buy their car.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Ferrari sales are just going to go through the roof after this. Everyone has a life for VIP now. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> There you go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Anyway so I saved up like three and a half almost four years\u2019 worth of income working as an agent. And I noticed that 2011 housing prices were so cheap and really where I ended up learning most of my techniques and styles was watching what my clients were doing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I started seeing my clients like really wealthy Beverly Hills clients that were buying at the time like South Los Angeles, they were buying in Riverside and they were buying in San Bernardino. And these are people that are worth five to $10 plus million dollars and they\u2019re going and buying these little like $100,000 houses, $200,000 houses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">They have teams that are writing dozens of offers every single day, buying anything they can. And I\u2019m talking to these people like why are you buying this, why are you buying this? And they were telling me that just the prices that you\u2019re getting right now for the rents, this is the lowest I\u2019ve ever seen it. It just makes sense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">You could buy a place for like $100,000. And they were getting like $1800 a month for rent. They were going in, doing little minor renovations and getting a ton money. And this just clicked to me like, wait a second so I have all this money saved up right now, that I could be doing the same thing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And at the very least that would supplement the money that I make as a real estate agent because at least I would have some consistent income coming in that I could rely on, and that way I don\u2019t have to stress. If I don\u2019t do a deal one month, no worries because at least I have this rental income coming in. So I ended up starting to look and I focused on San Bernardino just on the Rancho Cucamonga area just a little bit north east of that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And what I would do is every single Saturday and Sunday I\u2019d go and I\u2019d start to see all the houses available around. I\u2019d print out a big MLS sheet of like 60 homes and I would just spend the entire day with a friend going to every single property I could that\u2019s on the lockbox and just getting to know the area. It took about a month of doing that. I started writing offers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I was an agent myself, so I figured I would just start writing all the offers that I possibly could on anything that came up. And all these were short sales so this means that owner had owed more on the property than what it was worth, they weren\u2019t making the payments and they were trying to get out the bank, basically have the bank absorb the loss and approve a new buyer to purchase that property. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I was finding a lot of these properties that were like $350,000 in 2005, that were selling now for like $90,000. And they were like 2,000sqft homes and I\u2019m like, just to rebuild this home is 200 grand like just to build it. And you\u2019re buying this for like $55 Escrow foots something crazy like that. So I\u2019m like the replacement value of this home alone is worth way more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I started writing all these offers. And I would just sit there and anything new that would come on the market, write an offer. And I would just go do the list and write offers at prices that I felt made sense, I\u2019d lowball a lot of them knowing that if I get it accepted, it\u2019s going to go to the bank. They\u2019re going to take six to 12 months to approve or deny it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And most of them I knew would come back with their own price anyway, so it didn\u2019t really matter what price that I offered, as long as it gets accepted because the bank is going to do their own thing. So I probably wrote like, I don\u2019t know- 80 offers or 90 I mean it was a lot of offers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Of those, maybe 20 got accepted, 25 got accepted. Then of those banks would come back on like 10 of them and say, \u201cHey we want this price.\u201d And then of those I ended up buying three of them. The bank came back at the right price with the property that I liked and a decent timeframe. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I ended up buying three homes. Two were houses and then one was a triplex. And all of them, I went in, I fixed them up, very minimal fixups. And then rented them out. And it was from that that began making about a little bit under $3,000, it was $2,900 a month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> And it was after that, that I\u2019m like, I was addicted after doing that, because to me it\u2019s like if I can just take all the money as a real estate agent and then funnel it back into rental property, that\u2019s at least my base. And then over time my base is going to slowly grow and grow. And then that way it takes the pressure off everything else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I continued doing that. I continued saving up as a real estate agent for another few years. I bought a house then in Culver City because I noticed Culver City prices I thought were undervalued at the time given everything else that was going on in Venice and Santa Monica. And I thought Culver City was like really undervalued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I ended up buying a single family home in Culver City in I think it\u2019s 2015\/16 somewhere around there. Right before the values of Culver City really started to like go up dramatically. And I locked in a 30 year loan at 3.375% fixed, for this house in Culver City, fixed up the house. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That house now it\u2019s almost doubled in value since then. But then after that one I went and bought a duplex just a little bit east of Culver City in a city called West Adams. And I felt at that time West Adams was really undervalued given the prices now in Culver City.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Sure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Fixed up the duplex and then when I fixed that one I realised like I\u2019m just going to move in one of the sides of duplex, just house hack it to save money. And that way I can save even more money to buy more real estate. Then a year later I found another duplex that the owner just misrepresented it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I mean they called this duplex a one bedroom or one and a half bathroom. It was very clearly to me a two bedroom. So they were basing this off of being a one bedroom and a half bath, they priced it in line of that. And they said it can rent for $2,100 per side as a one bedroom. I ended up buying this and getting an offer for $2,700.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> For that same unit just by calling it a two bedroom because it was very clearly a two bedroom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright. So I want to unpack that a little bit because that\u2019s one of my all-time favourite strategies. I actually want to go back and go a couple of steps back here. But while we\u2019re on this topic and then we\u2019ll go back to the future here. So one of my favourite strategies in all real estate and I tell people this a lot is look for- like in my case I will look for a two bedroom house over 1000 over 1100sqft. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Because a lot of times agents do misrepresent or they don\u2019t think, oh that could actually be another bedroom and legally it\u2019s not a bedroom yet. So I\u2019ll find a two bedroom house with 1,800sqft. And it\u2019s like I know for a fact that\u2019s not a two bedroom house, that\u2019s a four bedroom house or a three bedroom, or a five bedroom house, right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So you get way higher rents. So it\u2019s one of the strategies I use. And it\u2019s cool that you do the same thing. You looked for what really was like two bedroom but they said it was one. And I\u2019ve seen that with studios to one, I\u2019ve seen from one to two or one to three. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Anyway very cool strategy, that\u2019s awesome. But I want to jump back to the very first couple things there. You said you were doing these short sale offers. Short sales were really popular back then, not so much today. But they will come back I mean they\u2019re a market thing right. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">When the market drops really low everyone now a lot of people are under water so they go through short sales. So let\u2019s talk about it for a minute because even though it\u2019s not very popular today to do a short sale, they are still out there and they\u2019re going to come back maybe in the next few years who knows, whenever the market drops. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So you said basically a short sale is when somebody owes more than what the property is worth. And then you said something about you put in and somebody who once called it the short sale offer maybe six or 12 months later they come back, that delay. We had time machine. So you like get a year ago\u2019s price today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yes, very true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah. So but what happens in a case though and this is a common question I get from people, is what if you get more than one of your offers accepted. That\u2019s like when I tell people to make a fair number of offers, if you want to get more deals accepted you got to make more offers. And they\u2019re like, \u201cWell what happens when I get two accepted and then I can\u2019t buy both\u201d? Like that happened to you kind of. So how did you deal with that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> 100%. Well I would say 99% of times the bank will come back with a higher price. So they\u2019ll go through the entire process, you wait eight months and then they say, \u201cOkay we\u2019re accepting your offer but we want it at this slightly higher price which we feel like is now the current market. And then it\u2019s up to you at that time to say, \u201cI want it or I don\u2019t want it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And if I was unsure, I would just say, \u201cI want it.\u201d And then I would do my inspections on the property. And once I did my inspections always these short sales had so many issues. I found mould, I found broken pipes, sometimes tenants would just trash the home. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There\u2019s a lot that\u2019s happened in the eight months or the 12 months whatever it is when someone\u2019s living there and they\u2019re not making their payments. Usually they don\u2019t have any upkeep so there\u2019s always something. I didn\u2019t encounter that, usually the bank would just come back at a higher price and it was up to me to say yes or no eight months down the line. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And usually what I would do, even if they came back at a higher price, they were always coming at a lower price. And usually sometimes a little bit of wiggle room there like a few thousand bucks, whatever. So I was never worried about getting too many offers accepted. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If anything I just was upset I didn\u2019t have more money because there were two deals I got back then that I just couldn\u2019t do. I tried to get money, I tried to get a partner, I just couldn\u2019t get these two houses that I knew were like slam dunk deals. And I look back today I\u2019m like, \u201cif only,\u201d but yeah well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Hey what would you tell your staff today knowing what you know now about real estate investing? Well say somebody else is in the exact same shoes, they got a couple deals that are really good. What would you tell them to do in today\u2019s market if they get a couple of good deals that they just can\u2019t find financing for?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Well the thing is back then I was buying these deals cash because I didn\u2019t have a credit card. I didn\u2019t have any credit whatsoever. And if I simply had a credit card I could have financed all of them. I could have put even like 30% down 40% down whatever and financed them. But even back then I think I should have made the effort to try to see if I can really flip those contracts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But at least bring them to somebody else as an agent. I just didn\u2019t make the effort at the time because I was really so focused on getting this for myself that I should have looking back pitched it to some of my own clients, and seen if I can work some sort of even if I bring it to them and ask for a small portion of the equity of the deal. Just to get myself in the door because these were such good deals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> You make some really good points Graham and I want to kind of highlight them, and the first one is what you just said. You had a one track mind where you were thinking, does the deal work for me or not. And if yes I\u2019ll pursue it, if no I won\u2019t, right. And we all start off with that and it\u2019s actually a positive thing in the beginning to know what you want and know what you don\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So that you\u2019re not kind of scattered all over the place and you can\u2019t make a decision. But as you become a more experienced investor. More experienced business person you start looking at this is a deal, but it might not work for me. I might not be in the position to capitalize on it. But what can I do with it? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So if you\u2019re a buy and hold investor and you come across a flip, in the beginning you just say, \u201cWell I don\u2019t flip houses.\u201d And that\u2019s good. But as you become more experienced you should say, \u201cCould I flip this house? Could I use my rehab crew from my buy and holds to flips the house? If not could I give this to a flipper and wholesale it to that person? Right. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Could I find another investor who wants to get started and just do them a favour and then they\u2019re more likely to bring me a favour back?\u201d So I wanted to highlight that for people that really all you need to do is find a deal and then figure out what to do with that deal. And you\u2019re going to make money in some way with real estate. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And you\u2019re acknowledging that right now, I think that\u2019s a really wise point. And you said a couple other things too. You mentioned that you were writing offers on everything. That you\u2019re a real estate agent and you were doing really good. And you didn\u2019t go invest in Bitcoin. You didn\u2019t go invest in stock options or stuff like that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Well back then I should have invested in Bitcoin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Yeah maybe. But you were investing in something you didn\u2019t know, you were investing in something that you were. And I\u2019m a real estate agent as well and it boggles my mind how many people sell real estate for a living. They know when they get a really good deal, they have all the access to run comps and run rents and figure everything out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And they still don\u2019t invest in real estate. It\u2019s amazing how many real estate agents should be buying deals for themselves and they\u2019re not. But props to you because you actually did make that jump and you moved into the other world. And you had vision to see that investing is where it\u2019s at, right. You can make money as an agent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That\u2019s great because that money gets taxed a lot higher. I\u2019m telling you guys like it\u2019s a good profession but it\u2019s blood money sometimes. You pay the price to earn that commission bearing your client\u2019s emotional burdens and putting out fires. And if you\u2019re a good agent you\u2019re doing the job of both real estate agents. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">People don\u2019t realise that because I\u2019m sure you know Graham that God, you\u2019re always figuring out the other side\u2019s problems because you don\u2019t make any money if it doesn\u2019t close so you\u2019ve got to. And then you didn\u2019t just say, \u201cOh I want to be an investor instead of an agent.\u201d You knew that you needed to bring investing into it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But you focused on making and saving capitals through your main job which for you is selling homes and then amplify that capital through investing. And you were telling that story and you gave us a ton of information it was really good. And I kind of picked out that\u2019s what people need to take from this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Because whether they\u2019re a car mechanic or like an airline pilot whatever their job is, they can do the same thing that you did, use those same principles. I think that doing it as a real estate agent gives you an advantage though because you see the market you know how real estate works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> 100%. If anything I really feel like that was what gave me the biggest advantage, is just doing it basically 24\/7 for three and a half years. And I can really see the trends of the market and see where people are buying. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I figure too if people that are worth like $10 million are buying in San Bernardino all these big Beverly Hills are talking about it. And they\u2019ve been doing this for decades, chances are this is something I should really start paying attention to myself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Absolutely. And there\u2019s a synergy there because as you\u2019re working with people that have a high net worth and they\u2019re buying these homes, they could invest in your deals. You could hook them up with other people\u2019s deals and you just made that person a lot of money and they\u2019re more likely to bring new business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I think in general people get this really like, \u201cHey this is my way out of where I am that I don\u2019t like, I\u2019m going to buy a bunch of rentals. And sometimes it helps to take those blinders off and widen your vision and see there\u2019s opportunity all around you that you\u2019re missing because you\u2019re only looking for one thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Totally agree with that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Cool, alright.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Hey it\u2019s Brandon. I wanted to get a quick break from this podcast interview to invite you to this week\u2019s webinar; Three Steps to Financial Freedom in 10 Years or Less. Like imagine a life where you can work where you want, when you want, with whom you want, right. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>For most of the world, that\u2019s nothing but a pipe dream but for real estate investors it actually is possible if you take the right action. So on this webinar I\u2019m going to be unveiling the exact process you need to build a real estate empire to help you achieve that financial independence. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>We\u2019re going to be going through three steps for it. So if you can attend that would be awesome. Again Three Steps of Financial Freedom. Go to BiggerPockets.com\/Retire Webinar. Again BiggerPockets.com\/Retire Webinar to sign up for this webinar. I\u2019ll see you there.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright so I want to move on and go, so you bought your first property. How old were you when you bought that first rental property?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> 21.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright so let\u2019s talk about that for a minute because a lot of people listening to the show are younger, like they are in their twenties. I was actually 21 when I bought my first rental as well. David was like 63, so like\u2026 He\u2019s giving me that look.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Yeah. We didn\u2019t call them rentals back then, we called it home studies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright. So you were 21. Do you have any tips for people listening to the show right now who are young, they\u2019re fired up they want to get into real estate. They don\u2019t want the prescribed life plan that our parents and grandparents followed. What do you say to those people about jumping into real estate at a young age?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I would say it\u2019s probably just getting over the mental hurdle that you can\u2019t do it. And there was a lot of resistance for me too at 21 to buy a house especially to buy a house cash. And I really kind of had this belief that\u2019s just like it\u2019s not right for a 21 year old to own a home. It\u2019s not normal, you can\u2019t do that, you\u2019re too young to do something like that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And also I won\u2019t lie I mean I\u2019ll say that there\u2019s a little bit of guilt in that too knowing that there are people in their 40s and 50s who\u2019ve been saving up their entire lives who still don\u2019t own a property and they just can\u2019t do it. And there\u2019s some guilt that\u2019s like is this fair for someone who\u2019s 21 to buying this house?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I think it was a lot of these kind of self-doubts that really got to me a little bit. But I just figured I just got to push through it and just push all of these thoughts aside. So for me I mean that was probably the biggest thing is more like the mental aspect of doing this. And also a bit of the awkwardness of all of my tenants were significantly older than me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And here I am as this kid and it\u2019s like I\u2019m the landlord and I\u2019m this 21 year old kid. And even at 21 I looked probably like I was 16 so it\u2019s like here\u2019s this little kid who I owe to every single month. That was really intimidating for me. Even to meet these people that were my tenants I was like, \u201cDude how do I act? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Am I their friend or what do I do?\u201d So it was definitely really scary and it was definitely a learning experience. But I would say you just got to jump in. there\u2019s no other way around it to really prepare yourself besides just getting that first-hand experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> There\u2019s probably a couple things that you\u2019ve already learned to work around that. Like one of them is when you\u2019re a landlord managing your own property you never tell people that you\u2019re the owner, you always tell them you\u2019re the property manager. Then they don\u2019t think like who\u2019s this 21 year old trying to tell me what to do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019m obviously a Kid Savant if someone hired me at 21 to manage his property, you\u2019re going to do everything that I say. I\u2019m sure there are some things you picked up along the way, that\u2019s very impressive you did that at such a young age. I mean most 21 year olds now they\u2019re actually avoiding anything that would cause anxiety or growth or risk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And they\u2019re chasing things that kind of make them feel comfortable. What do you say to the 21 year olds that are out there that say, \u201cYeah that\u2019s cool and all but I don\u2019t want to save my money I don\u2019t want to work for money. I want to buy experience, not things,\u201d even if things can be assets that can be worth a lot of money and set you up for your future?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I think it\u2019s worth it, here\u2019s the thing. I mean here\u2019s my own personal belief when it comes to this, is that you have such a massive advantage in your 20s that you\u2019re never going to have for the rest of your life. I really believe that if people take one decade and just really save for their 20s, that what they do in their 20s can set them up for the rest of their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Because they have the power of really just having this compounded interest working for them since the very beginning. That I think if they just make a very short term sacrifice and they can still have the experiences, and they can still have a great time, they could still do everything they want to do but dial it back and make saving a priority, they can go so far.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I never felt like I have missed out and I\u2019m going to be 29 next month. And I\u2019ve never felt like I\u2019ve missed out on something. If all my friends were going out to like a really fancy dinner let\u2019s just say, I will order an appetizer instead of an entr\u00e9e. I mean it\u2019s something as simple as that that can save-<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Wait, no avocado toast?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> No avocado toast. You just delay the avocado toast in your 20s. But I\u2019d taken it to an extreme so I\u2019d definitely gone like-this is probably a terrible thing to say. But all my friends went out to a really nice restaurant like a really nice restaurant, to the point where usually you would have to wear a button down shirt and like dress shoes and stuff like this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I didn\u2019t want to spend the $80 per plate, but I wanted to go with everyone. So I went to Subway and I brought my Subway sandwich to the restaurant and I just asked for a plate. And when everyone else got their food, I had this Subway sandwich like on my chair. I pulled out the Subway sandwich and I had it on my plate just so I wouldn\u2019t have to spend the $80. So I spent like $5 for the sandwich.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s hilarious.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> No avocado. So I saved that extra dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> No avocado.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> But my point is this, is that I still had a great time. So bought a Lotus Elise and that was my cool sports car. So instead of buying like the Lamborghini for like 170 grand I bought a Lotus Elise for $30,000. It didn\u2019t lose its value but it was 95% the same thing in terms of the experience for a fraction of the price.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So there\u2019s a lot of these things that you can that don\u2019t really cost a lot of money where you get basically the entire experience. Or you can even now I can travel anywhere in the world for free just with credit card points. And that\u2019s something very civilised. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So you can still all these things it\u2019s just you don\u2019t need to spend money necessarily doing them, or you can really cut down on that. So I really feel like the 20s if you can just do that for 10 years and really build up that nest and just get a few properties under your belt or just get some investments that could set you up for the rest of your life. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So that when you\u2019re 30, 40, 50, you\u2019re never going to have to worry about like oh this rental property or this wholesale deal or this real estate agent deal because you\u2019re already going to have that nest that\u2019s kind of holding you. So that\u2019s been my prospering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> It\u2019s such a good time to build that foundation I mean I\u2019m sure we\u2019ve all see the financial advisors who\u2019d be like, \u201cIf you save starting at the age 21 versus age 31, it\u2019s like millions of dollars of difference. Like that actual decade it\u2019s unbelievable. So speaking of being in your 20s, I want to cover a topic real quick that normally I wouldn\u2019t bring up to somebody like on a podcast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But because you already opened the door by having your third most popular video on your YouTube channel with this, How I Became A Millionaire in Real Estate By 26. Could we talk about that for a minute?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah of course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> So a lot of people have that goal, I want to be a millionaire by 30, I want to be a millionaire whatever. Obviously they can go look up the video just go to your YouTube channel or just type into YouTube How I Became A Millionaire in Real Estate at 26. But either way, can you walk us there? How do you become a millionaire in real estate? Was that all investing and agent investing combined or other things? What does that look like?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I would say it\u2019s very much agent and investing combined. I had two things really help me out a lot because when I was 18 I think I made sixty-something thousand that first year, $70,000 that first year at 18. But most of that was that one deal in Beverly Hills, three and a half. Then my income really kind of went to about 100.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Stayed between 100 and 120 the next few years. Took me a while to break through that then I think it was like 180, and then like 220 after that. So I had a really good income. I didn\u2019t spend a lot of money I really kept, like just doing the $5 Subway sandwich. I was making more than all of my friends and they were the ones that were spending $80 on a meal and I was spending $5 on Subway. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I saved a lot of that money, invested it all. So I had two things really working in my favour. One is investing in 2011\/2012. So those properties right then more than doubled, if anything I think they must have tripled in value. So that was a significant portion. But it was also having a relatively high income working as a real estate agent in conjunction with that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Where I got a million dollar net worth by 26 between those two. Now if my income was not as high as a real estate agent, I wouldn\u2019t have been there. If I didn\u2019t invest in 2011\/12 I would not have been there. It would have taken me several more years because I saw like all these equities just start growing, rent started coming in a little bit higher, and then my income started growing as well in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> So let me ask you about that. You mentioned how you saved money in your 20s the Subway foot long instead of the dinner, that\u2019s really good stuff, the money you saved on your car, that\u2019s also a really good idea. Because what you\u2019re showing is you don\u2019t have to deprive yourself to be successful.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">You just have to be smart about the things you chase, right. But you didn\u2019t just save money during your 20s, you actually built up a lot of income during that time. And I know a lot people\u2019s gut response is going to be well that must be nice to be a really successful real estate agent, you could save that money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I agree.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> But tell us about the foundation you built in your 20s that led to you being able to generate a lot of money. What did you do during that time when everybody was going to Bernie Man and kind of screwing around, and not purposely working on skills that would help them build wealth that put you in the position you\u2019re in now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah. I would say two things. First of all was not going to college. And by not going to college first of all I had no student debt that was holding me back. And I didn\u2019t come from a wealthy family or anything like that so college would be on me. And I was going to have to take up loans or do something to pay for that school.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I didn\u2019t, I don\u2019t want to say waste four years going to college. I wouldn\u2019t say college is always going to be a waste. But in my situation I didn\u2019t spend four years going to college on something that wasn\u2019t going to be helping me. And I didn\u2019t spend money to do so. So going to college for me would have set me back probably at least a decade in terms of net worth at least minimum probably a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So it was that. Secondly I really loved what I did to the point where it never really felt like work. And I would look forward to a Monday because it meant that I can go and kind of get clients and show houses and stuff like that. Even Sundays I would do open houses but I was excited for the Monday to really go and work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I just enjoyed it so much that I didn\u2019t have a desire to go to like The Burning Man, I didn\u2019t have a desire to go to Coachella. I just loved what I did so much that that was my idea of fun. And like I didn\u2019t need to go on vacation to try to escape something because for me my work was like my vacation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It was just every day to me was like I get to hang out with these clients that I consider friends and see really cool homes and like this is my job. And the people that I met in the beginning or even still to this day, I would randomly meet celebrities holding open houses in Hollywood. And they would just walk in and no joke like write down their email address.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And then I could follow up with them later or they would call me on a listing. And I would rent them a home like I\u2019ve had several A-list actors and actresses that I\u2019ve represented that have literally called me on one of my listings. And I\u2019ve showed it to them and they were unrepresented and I continued showing all the homes until I sold them a place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> And that to me, that\u2019s so cool. These are experiences that I feel like people would pay for just the opportunity to do something like that. So for me it was fun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah and I think that is key. I\u2019m kind of jotting down notes here as you\u2019ve been talking and this is something I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about lately. And your story perfectly symbolizes it. When we talk about becoming a millionaire, the way I formulate things in my head is like I\u2019m going to write a book on it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I\u2019d write a book and call it The Millionaire Formula, right. And here\u2019s what it is and you could probably steal this if you want or make a YouTube video out of it. Alright so it\u2019s basically what you did, right. You made a ton of money working hard on stuff you love. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Almost everybody I know who is really successful I mean I hang out with a fair number of like successful people, and they all generally made a ton of money working hard in something that they love. I think in order to make a ton of money you have to work hard at something you love generally speaking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I mean obviously I could hate being a lawyer and still be a lawyer but I mean like David worked super hard at being a cop, he loved being a cop. So he worked super hard and made a ton of money doing it and then that moves on to step two, you spend as little money as possible or live responsibly. And we talked about how to do that, right. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That leaves you with a good amount of extra money. And then invest that in assets you understand that grow, right. That\u2019s like this millionaire formula that I\u2019m putting together in my head here. Yeah making a ton of money working hard on stuff you love, spend only a little of that money by living responsibly and invest the rest in assets you understand that will grow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And if you follow those three things and like you said earlier you were like, \u201cWell yeah I was a real estate agent, it might not have happened if I wasn\u2019t.\u201d but my guess is you\u2019re the type of guy that maybe you could have started a plumbing business right. And you would have worked if you loved plumbing you may be able to have started a plumbing business, worked super hard at it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Hired a bunch of plumbers grew that business, made a bunch of money, lived cheap and invested the rest in maybe your asset that you understood was mutual funds. You\u2019d probably still be a millionaire before you\u2019re 30 had you done that within a decade. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That formula kind of works no matter how you do it. So as much as yeah you did it, and people are like, \u201cWell yeah you got lucky you bought in 2011.\u201d Okay well what\u2019s 2011 today? Like what is today\u2019s 2011? Right, so anyway I like that kind of thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> That\u2019s so true because I believe every year there\u2019s a new opportunity out there, like every single year. It\u2019s like well you got lucky then, well you can still get lucky now. There are other opportunities that you can get very lucky. The same thing like that, there are many people that use that as an excuse for not even doing it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah I love that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> I think about it so much because I remember when I first started buying rentals, everybody was saying don\u2019t do it. It was constant, every time you turned on the news, real estate\u2019s in a plunge, America is headed to the next depression, lock the gate, batch the hutch it\u2019s going to go terrible. Don\u2019t buy anything.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">When a lot of people told me that I was stupid for doing this, right. and right now I think people are going to look back in 20 or 30 years and say, \u201cCan you believe how easy it was to get money?\u201d you just stuck your hand out and people were like, \u201cPlease take my money and invest it for me.\u201d Right, or how easy it was to find tenants because there\u2019s a lot of people that didn\u2019t want to own a home at this point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There are things happening right now that make investing in real estate such an amazing opportunity. And we\u2019re focused on oh prices are high, we\u2019re at the top of the market, all these things that are negative. Well when that changes, there will be a whole bunch of new negative things that everybody focuses on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I think Graham makes a really good point that there is always an opportunity in something somewhere. Even if you believe that this is the wrong time to buy, that\u2019s fine. Why not go become a real estate agent and sell real estate to people who don\u2019t want to be investors? Or why don\u2019t you go get your mortgage license and do loans for them?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There\u2019s something in real estate if you really love it that you can do to earn money. I think Brandon\u2019s point that successful people are wealthy people needed was that they did something they loved. And if you\u2019re listening to this podcast and hearing my voice right now you love real estate, that\u2019s why you\u2019re listening to it unless you just love beards and you\u2019re hear for Brandon\u2019s beard. But for the majority of people\u2026 Yeah maybe so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> I don\u2019t think all of them I think it\u2019s like half. 50\/50 here just for the beard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> So for the other half of you that love real estate, find something to do with it. This is what I always say, during the Gold Rush everybody came to California to make their millions, right. Those to me are the people who\u2019re going to the gurus and saying, \u201cHere\u2019s $25,000, teach me how to become a millionaire in real estate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And very few people actually made millions during the Gold Rush just like people that go to gurus. You know who really made money during that time? It was the merchants that went out there and they sold the shovels, and sold the picks and they sold the pieces of paper for $100 each so that people could write home to their families, right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">They were around the thing they loved but they weren\u2019t the fool that was chasing after the get rich quick scheme. And there are so many opportunities like that in real estate and the more you know the more chances you\u2019ll have to take advantage of that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah like one of the opportunities that I see right now as a real estate agent for anyone who wants to get in, because right now they think it\u2019s so competitive and like there\u2019s nothing they can really do and the market is frustrated. And they think no one\u2019s buying right now because the prices are high.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But one of the biggest opportunities right now that many people are not taking advantage of is becoming a real estate agent and representing tenants. All the people who say that the market is too high, all the people who say, \u201cI\u2019m going to hold off a few years and see what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d all of those people are renting instead. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I have seen several people sell their homes and decide to rent for a few years to see what happens. But the thing is as a real estate agent, no one is going after those tenants because they see why would I want to earn a few thousand dollars representing a tenant when I can earn $100,000 selling them a home?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Well guess what, all these people go unrepresented and that\u2019s your chance to get your foot in the door. Represent them in the short term on a lease and make a few thousand or break even. And five years from now, all of those people come back to you and they buy. And that\u2019s how I built my entire business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> You\u2019re 100% right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Is by influence. I want to say probably half of those people ended up using me to buy in the next few years. So that little commission was worth $150,000 a few years later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> And that\u2019s what the smart business people do, right like that\u2019s why I educate people on real estate and I do seminars and I don\u2019t charge for it and I give free education. Because it gives people an opportunity to see oh this guy actually cares about me, he doesn\u2019t just want the commission. He wants to make me money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So then when they do want to sell their house they\u2019re going to go to the person that they trust they already have their relationship with. Having that long vision is what\u2019s going to help you build wealth and building wealth is what\u2019s going to help you invest in real estate. Then you\u2019re going to get on the BiggerPockets podcast and talk about avocado toast and Lotus Elise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Or make a video that goes completely viral because you became a millionaire at 26. And I think that\u2019s what Brandon and I are so passionate about is how we help the people who are listening to this understand what the really successful people that we know do and what they think because there\u2019s a pattern that shows up all the time. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">They say things like what Graham just said, quit looking for the quick score. Help that person by getting him an apartment, represent them well save them money. Five years later then they\u2019re going to let you sell their house you\u2019re going to make $20,000 on that commission. And if you help 10 people you just made yourself $200,000, five years from now. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you did that five times you became a millionaire just by doing something small that you could do now. And that principle works for anything, right. Building relationships with wholesalers, setting up a buyers list to wholesale properties to. Building relationships with people to partner on deals or finding off market deals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you take that long game and you do the right thing, that stuff will come back to you absolutely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I agree.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah that\u2019s great. Alright so listen before we head onto like the deal deep dive and the fire round and famous four and all that good stuff, what about now? After beginning your business back in 11\/12 it was great, we could find deals. So are you just rested on your lorals right now and relaxing? Are you still looking for deals? Are you still buying stuff? What\u2019s your business like?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I would say it\u2019s a little bit of both. So right now I\u2019ve kind of enjoyed I just bought my last deal about three and a half months ago and that was a duplex where they misrepresented. And right now is the point where that covers all my expenses and I\u2019m finally at the point now where I\u2019ve just been like pretty satisfied right now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I think I\u2019m in a really fortunate position where it\u2019s just like I don\u2019t need to do anymore. I\u2019m still looking at deals because I see interest rates still I think very low on a fixed 30 year mortgage. So I\u2019m kind of tempted well should I buy something else. Where I think it leads for me in the short term, where the next opportunity is I think is more so in development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I have one unit where I can renovate it, get the tenant out, maybe make them an offer something like that to leave. To renovate the unit with about $60,000 I should be able to make an extra $1,100 a month on that. So that to me is really I mean that\u2019s like a 20% return on my money right there that you can\u2019t get anywhere else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There\u2019s another unit where I want to build a guesthouse on the property, an ADU about $200,000. But with that I should be able to rent that out for $1,600. So right there $260,000 investment right there should give me about $2,700 a month just between that. I have another property, another duplex actually where I was think it\u2019s zoned for four units and it\u2019s two units.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If I can save up another seven, eight years, save up something to be able to tear that down and build a brand new four unit on that. That to me works out to be almost about 9% return on my money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> I love the way you\u2019re thinking because again in different parts of the market work for different things right. So you\u2019re thinking hey what was working in 2011 and 12 is not today, but what about this? What if I remodelled this? What if I did this? That\u2019s why David and I talk a lot about the Brrr strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Like buying a nasty property, fixing it up right, rehabbing, renting, refinancing, repeat. Right because that works in this market a little better than it did in maybe 2011 and 12. And again you\u2019re talking about the ADU thing. So you mentioned the ADU which is Auxiliary Dwelling Unit or Accessory Dwelling Unit?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Accessory Dwelling Unit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Right so having a separate unit and that\u2019s huge I hear in Hawaii where I live in Maui now right, like almost everybody has an ADU because it just makes sense. You build one for a couple hundred grand and I mean I hear they can rent for like three grand a month for like a $200,000 investment. That like it\u2019s a no-brainer right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So the people who are- I mean there\u2019s other things like another example I know it doesn\u2019t apply to everybody but out here there\u2019s a special law that says if you have over 5000sqft, you can basically subdivide your lot and split it into two. That\u2019s like a thing out here. Now every area has got different unique thing but the people who are like okay well that\u2019s a tactic I\u2019m going to figure it out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019m going to make it work, I\u2019m going to buy one property split it in half, build some over here, and now I got two. And there\u2019s ways to make money in real estate in any market, good bad, normal there\u2019s ways to make money. And I love that you\u2019re looking at as how do I do this, how do I build this? How do I continue to drive forward versus, well it doesn\u2019t work anymore because it\u2019s not 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah I just got to think what\u2019s going to give me the safest long term return compared to everything else out there. And where do I feel my money is best utilized? And right now from what I see is that and it very well could be in the next year I find another amazing deal. If I find something else that gives me a better return then I\u2019m going for that. Otherwise I think this is a pretty safe, conservative approach.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Another thing on that note that\u2019s really building steam right but still so small is the opportunity zones. I mean we haven\u2019t even done a show on opportunity zones yet but we will. But like there\u2019s this new part of the tax code that is really fascinating but it\u2019s just complicated, it\u2019s hard. Right so most of us like I have not even spent the time I need to dive in to learn how that works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But the little I know, it\u2019s a very powerful strategy for somebody who is willing to invest the time to work and figure out how to make it work. So again there\u2019s a million ways to do it but anyway I\u2019m going to see you on thinking that way. Alright so we got to moving on in the show. Again I love your story all this. So I want to dive a little bit deeper into one particular deal. So without further ado let\u2019s head into the Deal Deep Dive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Alright you guys hear me talk about SimpliSafe a lot but don\u2019t take it just from me. Investors are singing their praises in the BiggerPockets forums. Jim, a contractor from Pittsburgh says he secures his vacant properties using SimpliSafe. He likes how he can set it up at one property then easily take it down and move it to the next.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>And for 24\/7 professional monitoring you pay just $15 a month. So try SimpliSafe today. It feels good to fear less about your property plus hey there\u2019s a 60-day risk free trial and free shipping with full returns if you\u2019re not 100% satisfied. You got nothing to lose. So visit SimpliSafe.com\/Pockets today so that they know that we sent you. That\u2019s SimpliSafe S-I-M-P-L-I-Safe.com\/Pockets. Save today.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright let\u2019s get to the Deal Deep Dive. So these questions are about one particular deal that we\u2019re going to go real deep on here with Graham. So let me just start by asking you, first of all you got a property in mind?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Let\u2019s do the first one because that was the one I made all the mistakes on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Okay, perfect. What kind of property is it like single-family, multifamily?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Single family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Okay and where was that at?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> San Bernardino.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Okay perfect. Number two.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> How did you find this deal?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> This was on the MLS and I saw it, it was listed like 1200sqft. But when I went to see it I realized that wait a second, this house is not 1200sqft. They added onto it significantly and never reported it to public records because they didn\u2019t want to pay extra tax on that. But it was all done to code perfectly. And it was actually a four bedroom 1700sqft not a three bedroom 1200sqft.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> This folks, this is why you want a good real estate agent helping you. Can you take a second Graham and explain to somebody how it would have been entered into the MLS without that square footage and why somebody might not- like what you just mentioned. Can you go into a little bit more depth for people so they can find a deal like this too?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yes. So this was a short sale and the agent had never seen the property before. He was hired by the bank and all he did is he went to the front of the property took a picture with his cellphone, there\u2019s only one picture. And then copied all the information of the property from the public record.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And of course the public record said it\u2019s 1200sqft three bedrooms, two bathroom. Had he seen it, he would have figured out wait a second this is four bedroomed there\u2019s all this extra square footage. A huge bonus room. We\u2019re talking like 500sqft here that\u2019s accounted for. Messed it up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> He probably got paid 1% for the bank so he didn\u2019t care and that\u2019s what it\u2019s like when you pay 1% to a listing agent to sell your house.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> And they also do volume. I mean he\u2019s probably doing like a few properties a day by this bank that\u2019s listing. There\u2019s a whole team to handle it, they don\u2019t have time to go and do this unfortunately. So it\u2019s up to the buyer then to do their own due diligence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah it\u2019s an opportunity. Alright how much was it? What was it listed at and what did you get for it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> So this was originally I think $255,000 in 2005. It was listed at I think it was $62,000, I offered 60 got it accepted at $60,000. And then during inspections I negotiated an extra $500 for repair to close. So I bought this house for $59,500 that was like two hundred and fifty-something thousand two year prior. Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Alright. Tell us a little bit about how you negotiated that reduction in price for the inspections. What was your process like?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I did a general inspection on the property and basically determined that the lady who lived there was a hoarder. And I mean it was just disgusting. She had things piled up as tall as I am, there must have been a few dead animals in there it smelled terribly. Some of the roof needed some fixing. There was a concern of maybe some potential water damage it kind of smelled a little bit. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I took pictures of that and then I sent everything to the bank. And I said, \u201cListen, this is going to take me several thousand dollars more than I expected just to clean it up. But where you\u2019ll close right now, cash I\u2019ll close in a few days if you just give me a $500 credit. That\u2019s all I want, just 500 bucks.\u201d And I think for them it was a small enough number when they figured yeah let\u2019s just get it off our books. 500 bucks let\u2019s just get it out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright what of funding, how did you fund it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> That was bought cash, again because I didn\u2019t have a credit card. I had no credit, I tried to get a loan from the bank. They said absolutely not. I tried to get one of my parents to co-sign they had really bad credit so the bank was like no. so I was forced to buy this one cash.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> I love this, because you were 21 years old, right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah I was told my entire life credit cards are a mistake. Broke people need credit cards, if you can\u2019t buy it cash you can\u2019t afford it. So I grew up with that mentality that it was a big mistake. And I was so adamant like I\u2019m better than everyone else because I pay with cash. I pay with a debit card. I just did not understand it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Yeah I mean you\u2019d only had your drivers\u2019 license for a handful of years when you were negotiating this deal. Like that\u2019s just so cool. For the people who\u2019re out there saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know, this is scary. I don\u2019t want to do it.\u201d Don\u2019t get punked out by a 21 year old who didn\u2019t even have a credit card and went out and bought his first house.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Exactly. I was 22 when I got my first credit card. It\u2019s like right after this whole mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> You had a house before you had a credit card, how cool is that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yes I did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Okay. Next question. What did you do with it once you bought it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I bought it, I spent $12,000 fixing it up. Back then contractors, fixing up crews were so hungry for business because their business just got annihilated. They weren\u2019t doing anymore flips and I was able to get these people- I mean they were so eager to work for anything. And I was able to get a very good deal and give these people work that were normally not doing anything into this property.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I spent $12,000 fixing it up with basically just basic stuff, cleaned it up, did minor landscaping, laminate floors, new paints. I bought preowned appliances to save on money on that. What else did I- minor bathroom remodel, minor kitchen remodel. I\u2019m just talking like countertops, paint, tile flooring. Really just basic stuff. And total that was about $12,000 to fix it up with it. And then I ended up renting it out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> What did it rent for and kind of what was the outcome? And you mentioned mistakes or problems like what did it rent for and yeah?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> So at that time I basically used all of my money that I had, every single penny buying that house, another house I got and the triplex. I mean everything because they all happened at the same time. And of course every project goes over budget and I basically got down to the point where I was out of money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I had nothing left over and I owed a contractor $2,000. I had literally nothing. And I had some deals lined up as a real estate agent but those were coming through I couldn\u2019t just not pay a contractor. I ended up going to my grandma and begging her $2,000 just to pay the contractor. And I told her like when my next real estate deal closes she\u2019ll get all of her money back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I paid her back like about a month later, two months later whatever it was. But anyway so I had to borrow money from my grandma but at this time I was so just like this property wasn\u2019t being rented out, it was empty. I\u2019m like what am I going to do? I owe money now and I\u2019ve never owed money in my entire life like this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I was so desperate to rent it out that I picked the first tenant that came through. And I think at the time I was asking $1200 a month. And I put it up and the same night I got a phone call from someone saying, \u201cWe\u2019ll take it, I\u2019ll move in tomorrow. Just let me know how to meet and done deal.\u201d And I thought this was like my saving grace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Yeah that always goes over really fast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I thought like oh my God the timing couldn\u2019t have been better. I\u2019m going to rent it out, I\u2019m not going to have to worry about this anymore. I meet with a guy, comes in really clean cut, like a nice button down shirt and khakis and dress shoes and his girlfriend same way. It looks like they came from a nice accounting job or like it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But his credit was short, it was like in the five hundreds, had a few things in collections that he said was from an auto accident he got into and they told him not to pay something. And he\u2019s suing them and he\u2019s going to win because it\u2019s like the tracking company and when he wins he\u2019s going to prepay all the rent for like the next year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">They had a cash business where they basically said that because they owed money they couldn\u2019t put money like in certain accounts so he has to do everything in his girlfriend\u2019s name. On their tax return they didn\u2019t claim a lot of this money because they said like they were, \u201cWe just don\u2019t want to claim it for taxes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It was a lot of red flags there and he wanted to move in immediately. So I asked, \u201cWhy do you want to move in immediately?\u201d \u201cWell the landlord wants to sell the home that they\u2019re in now so we got to get out.\u201d Long story short, they lied to me on everything. It turns out that he was growing weed and that\u2019s what his business was, growing weed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I didn\u2019t find this out until he started paying his rent late, later, later then he was a month behind. I wanted to refinance the property at the time because by then after about a year I had like a decent enough credit. So I could at least refinance it. Turned out he turned the garage into a huge grow house. I mean I don\u2019t know what\u2019s really huge but basically the whole garage was a grow house.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And that\u2019s how he made his money was doing that. And not only that but like I found him on Facebook. And I couldn\u2019t find him on Facebook before but I found him on Facebook. And it was just pictures of him with like guns on the table, and he would have a few thousand dollars on the table. I\u2019m like, \u201cPosting this picture and he says he\u2019s late on rent. But meanwhile he has a few- this is my rent money with a gun on the table.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Oh wow you were a part of a rap song.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah. And I love dogs but he had a whole bunch of pit bulls with him as well that he didn\u2019t tell me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Of course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> What are the odds? Right. That\u2019s funny. I like that he was bragging on Facebook that he was late on rent wow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> As soon as he felt like posting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Okay so there\u2019s a couple quick tips here for our listeners. One, if you\u2019re worried about this happening to you which you probably should be, go back after this episode and listen to the one that Brandon and I just did with Robert Greene where he talks about how to read people. How to know if you\u2019re being lied to and how to not be taken advantage of.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And two, when you\u2019re going to buy a house, spend a lot of time looking at the garage. We always skip over that. The garage is just a garage, right? That is where you\u2019re going to find out what that house was used for because that\u2019s where the majority of the bad stuff happens. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So when I was working as a cop and we would go do raids on these kinds of things it always ended up in the garage. You\u2019ll see like extra electrical wires and outlets put in the garage, things hanging from the ceilings like extra lights. You\u2019ll see all the little things that marijuana grow houses need to happen, they all happen in the garage. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So that\u2019s something you definitely don\u2019t want to skip over as I\u2019m sure Graham is now looking it like yeah some of the warning signs were there. But he was 21 years old he didn\u2019t know. And even making all these mistakes you still went on to be a really successful real estate investor and agent. So what excuse do we all have, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Exactly. That was honestly I think the best learning experience ever. I ended up evicting the tenant, he got very violent basically trashed the house. I lost a years\u2019 worth of income on that house between the eviction and fixing it up. Insurance didn\u2019t want to cover that, I didn\u2019t want to fight insurance on that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But it was the best lesson looking back. I mean I think I lost like 12 grand or something like $13000 but looking back I\u2019m so happy. I paid $50,000 from that lesson because that could be a drop in the bucket now for the wrong tenant. So I\u2019m glad I got that out of the way. That\u2019s the best college education I ever got.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah this is also just like a good lesson that land lording is a skill. I said that a lot, land lording is not something that any of one are just born innately knowing how to do. And there\u2019s 100 tips and tricks that will help you improve your land lording. So take it seriously. If you\u2019re going to manage yourself, take it seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I mean I made the exact same mistakes that you did. I mean every one of those things you said, I\u2019m like smiling and nodding. So I\u2019m like yeah every one of them I made. And a lot of us do so if you want to avoid that, read some books on being a landlord, talk to other local landlords. Or if you\u2019re not willing to invest the work needed to become a good landlord, hire that out and spend your time finding the best property manager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> I agree. Very wise Brandon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s why they call me the wise old owl.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Yeah and listen to a lot of rap songs to see if your tenant or your property shows up in the video. That should be a part of tenants\u2019 agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> It was so funny to see my house in the background of all of his pictures. Like he would take pictures of him holding a gun to the camera and I\u2019m like, \u201cOh that\u2019s my living room in the background.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> That\u2019s the stove that I bought that was used to save a little bit money on it. At least it\u2019s still in good shape.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah. He broke that though.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Of course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah he smashed I think before he left.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> One of our tenants actually who\u2019s moved out of our property, she\u2019d been there for a couple of years now. Her dog chewed through a door, a big wood solid door. A dog chewed through it like I\u2019ve never seem that happen before. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019m always shocked and I shouldn\u2019t be shocked at the level of destruction a person can have in a house especially with dogs but I just don\u2019t get it. But it\u2019s absurd. But anyway anything else did you learn on the lesson I mean you want to kind of summarize that deal up or also move on?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I think we can move on. I think it is really just the tenant selection on that deal that was really a big one for me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah well cool. Well hey if anybody is interested in learning how I manage my properties my wife and I wrote a book on that a while ago called The Book on Managing Rental Properties. It\u2019s yellow you can find it at Barnes Noble or Amazon whatever but I think it\u2019s kind of cool. With that let\u2019s move over to the world famous Fire Round.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>It\u2019s time for the Fire Round.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Today\u2019s show is brought to you by Stessa. This is an essential and really cool tool that every real estate investor needs. We\u2019ve all been there, overwhelmed with a shoebox of receipts to record, juggling multiple bank accounts and unsure how much money we\u2019re actually making. And if you\u2019re like me you probably spend a ton of time updating spreadsheet.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>I used think that was the only way to do it unless I wanted to pay for an expensive bookkeeper. But here\u2019s the thing, Stessa lets real estate investors automate the busy work so we can focus on growing our portfolios, ensures tax time is a breeze and puts all the key performance metrics in one central dashboard.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>You can even scan receipts and invoices right from the phone app. Stessa will automatically read and categorize them for you, no more data entry. Like yes I can\u2019t tell you how long I looked for a way to do all this and like Stessa is exactly what I needed. Stessa brings pro tools to the everyday investor for free.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Take a few minutes to add your properties, link your accounts and everything updates in real time. Stessa has been featured in Forbes, New York Times Wall Street Journal. It was built by real estate investors for real estate investors. To learn more and get started with a free account go to Stessa.com\/BP that\u2019s Stessa S-T-E-S-S-A.com\/BP.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright let\u2019s get to the Fire Round. These are the questions that come direct out of the BiggerPockets forums so there are live BiggerPockets members asking these questions. And we\u2019re going to fire them quickly at you, Graham to see what you got to say.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So number one, Matt from East Grand Folks Minnesota says: I recently purchased my first rental property with no money down and I\u2019m pretty cash broke. However I usually actually contribute a large amount to my 401K account every pay cheque. Now I\u2019m considering stopping all my contributions of my 401Ks so I can focus on real estate so I can get cash flow. What would you do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I would probably do the same thing. I go very light on my 401K because I just don\u2019t know how much money I\u2019m going to be making when I\u2019m 60 years old and I don\u2019t know what the tax code is going to be like in the future. I put minimal in there just so I can say I have say that I have something in there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But overall I\u2019m a little bit worried I prefer Roth over that just because I\u2019m probably going to make a lot more money and I expect that anyone starting this young is going to make way more money in the future as you build this up. I would therefore personally that would be me I\u2019d still put a little bit in there but I would maybe shift the focus to real estate. I\u2019m all for that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Me too yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Especially if you know what to do with real estate, right. That\u2019s different than the person who has no clue how to invest that money. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Very true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> I was going to say and if your company offers you like 100% match I mean that\u2019s extreme money you might as well go out to the match, right. Like if you could make 100% return immediately on your 401K.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Always take the match. Always contribute to take the match 100%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Yeah and then take it out of there and find somewhere to go buy real estate with the money that\u2019s in the 401K after it\u2019s been matched. Now you\u2019re thinking like Dave and Brandon. Okay next question. I own a rental in southern California that has been rented by the same tenant for the past five years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The tenant pays on time every month, they keep the place in excellent condition and they\u2019re super low maintenance. I looked at comps and it looks like I can get about $400 per month. Should I raise the rent just because I can?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s a good question, good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I love that question. My immediate answer is no. I think we\u2019re all different. I\u2019ve only raised the rent on one tenant and now going on almost seven years. I still have tenants that have been with me for seven years now that I have not raised the rent once. And usually what I\u2019ll do is I keep the rent the exact same, when they move out if they move out the I re-rent it at current market rates. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I hate raising the rent because when you have a good tenant, hold onto them. These are tenants that treat the house like it\u2019s their own, they pay on time, there\u2019s no hustle. There\u2019s no damage and just the cost of turnover if you raise the rent 100 bucks a month, and that gives that much more incentive to leave.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It\u2019s going to cost you way more to have the house vacant a month, a month and half to kind of repaint, get it prepped up, to even get a tenant at a higher price. I love keeping the tenants that I have and I consider them almost like family. I mean it\u2019s just like I\u2019ve got this great community of tenants that are just so low maintenance and that\u2019s rare to find. And you can spend a lot of time finding those tenants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> What if you find someone that will pay you $1000 a month more because they want to sublet out your garage as a marijuana grow house?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Well as long as you take a cut of the marijuana.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> There you go. Take some equity in that deal, it\u2019s not just debt you don\u2019t just want more money. You need the upside.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> You need 30% of the profit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Well I like what you\u2019re saying, not the marijuana grow house. But like everyone\u2019s got a different priority right yeah if your goal in life Graham was to make as much money and to eke out every bit of profit possible, then yeah you probably should raise your rent all the time. But it\u2019s a trade-off right, by doing that now you have more turnover. You have more hustle, you have more rehab to do when they do turnover. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So like there\u2019s a balancing act that we all have to kind of make that decision for ourselves. Again if you desperately need to get out of a job right now and maybe you are somebody who should be maximizing every penny from your property so that you can get out. But if you don\u2019t need to absolutely do that right now then maybe the relaxing, taking a little easier not having turnover is much better so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I agree with that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah where you\u2019re at in your career and cool. Alright next one. I\u2019ve been looking into Airbnb. I heard the cash flow can be much higher. What are some of the things I should know before I jump in and buy some short term rentals? By the way do you have any short term rentals? And then you can answer that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I don\u2019t and I\u2019ll tell you why. So one of the things that I see with Airbnb I see a ton of opportunity with Airbnb especially Airbnb Albatross I have a feeling that\u2019s going to be the next social media marketing trend. It\u2019s going to be you\u2019re going to see a lot of these like 18 year old experts now coming up on YouTube about Airbnb Albatross.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> What do you mean Airbnb Albatross? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> So I\u2019m talking about being able to sublease a house like that. So you spend $2,000 a month and then you make $6,000 a month on Airbnb and you pocket the difference. I think that is going to be a big trend. The problem that I see with that is that a lot of people go into it signing one year leases, first of all thinking that this is going to continue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And the golden era of Airbnb is going to be forever. But what I see happening is that there\u2019s so much regulation going on with Airbnb that oftentimes you run into very quick issues like I\u2019ve seen people sign yearlong leases and then a month in all of a sudden the Hollywood Hills clamps down on Airbnb rentals. And then now you have to apply for a permit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And you\u2019re not allowed to rent the home for X amount of days, unless you live there as a primary resident. And right there your business is done. I\u2019m talking within like 30 days, your entire business is completely run down. And that\u2019s the biggest problem that I see or I see people who will then buy a house, and then think well it doesn\u2019t make sense to buy this house as a long term rental, it will not cash flow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But I put it up on Airbnb I can make a killing. What are the chances that Airbnb regulation is going to be the exact same for the nest 30 years for you to pay off this property? And I\u2019ve seen people, they buy these houses and it works really good for a year and then something happens. And then all of a sudden well crap. Can\u2019t rent it out on Airbnb anymore, it doesn\u2019t cash flow, I\u2019m stuck with it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Now I got to sell it for a loss. And in Los Angeles the big one that just happened is that you can\u2019t use a rent controlled property, any rent controlled property for Airbnb. So I\u2019ve seen all these people get these like 1920s rent controlled properties and get around that by renting all of the units short term on Airbnb and making like three to four times what they would normally make.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But the problem is that in Los Angeles inventory is so short to begin with that all of the available units are being taken up for Airbnb. And I am all for free business by the way. But at the same time I think we do have a bit of a moral duty to our city, for the greater good of everyone and kind of take everything into consideration. But Airbnb cracked down on that and realized that too many people are abusing it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Same thing in Hawaii out here in San Francisco, here in New York City do the same thing like there\u2019s a trend and it\u2019s not a happy trend for landlords that are doing it. It seems to be moving in the up and again who knows what it\u2019s going to look like? And I mean it\u2019s going to shake out somehow, I don\u2019t think Airbnb is going to disappear, right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I almost think we\u2019re going to go from one extreme which is basically anyone can rent anything on Airbnb and make a killing. To now we\u2019re shifting towards the other extreme where they\u2019re super strict or we\u2019re going in the direction of being super strict. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I think eventually we go to the super strict a little bit, people will kind of figure out what\u2019s wrong with that and then have a happy medium. But I think this process could take five, six years to really shake out. All I say is this, is that if people look at a property and it cash flows with a normal renter, but they can make twice the amount with Airbnb, I\u2019m all for it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Absolutely. So for the ones that don\u2019t, I\u2019ll give you guys another little quick tip here to stay safe. In almost everywhere I\u2019ve seen with this, these rules apply to investment properties but if you own the house yourself, it\u2019s a completely different game plan. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">They don\u2019t have all the restrictions if it\u2019s your home that you live in. So you don\u2019t own it, it\u2019s your primary residence so you live in it. So what I do in the Bay Area is we help a lot of house hackers and we Airbnb the units that they\u2019re hacking as opposed to just doing a regular like monthly lease. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So if you\u2019re looking to house hack or buy a home, Airbnb is a great way to maximize that income. But like Graham said, you don\u2019t want to be dependent on it. If you\u2019re assuming that\u2019s your income stream you could catch yourself in some big trouble if they take away that opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah for sure. Alright, cool last question of the fire round.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Alright. I\u2019m looking for my first deal and found an agent with decades of experience. We agreed to work together two weeks ago and today I just found the elusive one in a hundred property with awesome numbers. I left a message this morning and haven\u2019t heard back yet as of 8PM. How responsive should my agent be? I don\u2019t want to burn any bridges but should I look for a backup agent?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s a good question.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Wow. That\u2019s a really good question. I would move on with another agent, I hate to say it. But like here\u2019s the thing is that when I run that business as a real estate agent, I am available 24\/7, there should be no reason why you can\u2019t reach me for more than an hour. The only time you would ever be unable to reach me is if I\u2019m in a meeting my phone is on silent because I need to focus on the meeting or I don\u2019t have cellphone service.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> What if your grandma is in the hospital?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Okay in the event of that I always have a backup. Like if there\u2019s really something like that that happens I always will be able to text something and say, \u201cSo and so happened I have my colleague who\u2019s going to be taking care of you right now.\u201d Or something like that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I think if you find a hot property and you can\u2019t write an offer on it, you need to look out for your best interest at some point. If 24 hours goes by and you don\u2019t know where your agent is and you can\u2019t write an offer on a property that you can lose, I think it makes sense to find another agent to write the offer.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Do you think he\u2019s likely to find his next agent that will also respond within an hour like you do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> It\u2019s tough because a lot of agents suck. And that\u2019s the thing in the business is that people think it\u2019s so competitive as a real estate agent. But they don\u2019t realize that 80% of the agents out there have no clue what they\u2019re doing and just don\u2019t pick up the phone. Just if you pick up your phone, you\u2019re ahead of 80% of the agents out there. You\u2019re in the top 20<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> percentile just by picking up your phone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> I think that the majority of people when they meet your agent and you have a good vibe and you sign up to work with them right, like all of our clients sign by a representation agreements to work with us. But what we do is we communicate ahead of time. Here is how it works right like when I\u2019m recording this podcast I\u2019m not taking your call.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">However I have three people that will respond to your email, take your call that you can talk to because I know I work with clients I\u2019m on appointments I\u2019m doing things I can\u2019t answer every single phone call, but there is someone that will. You should sit down with your agent and have a plan, if I come across a hot property and you\u2019re not answering your phone, what do I do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I think that would have solved this all from the very beginning because like Graham there\u2019s a reason you\u2019re a top listing agent you\u2019re super good. Most people will get frustrated because they can\u2019t find a Graham, right. So do something with your agents and come up with a game plan for if I get a hot deal I expect you to answer your phone immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Are you going to? And if he says no, family time for me I\u2019m with my daughter I\u2019m not going to answer my call during these hours. That\u2019s okay, they just need someone that you can talk to they can write an offer for you and answer your questions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I completely agree with that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah, cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright. Well let\u2019s shift gears one last time and head over to the world famous, Famous Four. Alright let\u2019s get to the Famous Four, question number one; what is your favourite real estate specifically real estate related book?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I would have to say Buy It, Rent It, Profit! was one of the books that I has read a while ago. It got me thinking about real estate and rental properties. And it was that book that really it was so practical for me. That was the-<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> I remember that in the library. Yeah at the library earlier on in my business it was good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> That\u2019s a really good name like I wish I had thought about that name. It could be a terrible book and people will still buy it. Alright what is your favourite business book?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I like the 4-Hour Workweek. I think some people might say that\u2019s a little outdated but that got me thinking about building some sort of scalable business that you can remove yourself from that still ends up making you money. And for me that was the book I think I read that when I was 18, that just got me thinking in such a different way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> It\u2019s clearly had an impact on you. Our producer Kevin when you were talking earlier was saying, \u201cThis guy sounds like he\u2019s a 4-Hour Workweek person.\u201d Like you could tell that that\u2019s influenced you and it\u2019s helped you quite a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> 100%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Okay so for the 36 hours of your work week that you\u2019re not working because you have a four hour work week, what are the hobbies that you enjoy?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I would honestly say YouTube videos. Like for me making YouTube videos has become a hobby of mine that I spend way too much time doing. It\u2019s just the fun of just like planning out a topic, the fun of like is this something trending to be able to give your own opinion of it? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The fun of just having the creativity of 100% expression that I can say reasonably whatever I kind of want to the camera and get my opinion out there. And to me had been so much fun to be able to make the videos.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> I just started one as well and I like your videos they were really good and Brandon\u2019s really good too. Like I watch Brandon on YouTube and I\u2019m like, \u201cI already know everything you\u2019re saying but I can\u2019t stop paying attention.\u201d He\u2019s such a good communicator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah and it\u2019s a fun balance between giving information but also it\u2019s entertaining. And there are some channels I know everything already but they\u2019re just entertaining. Even if you know it all, but it\u2019s fun to watch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> It\u2019s like watching a movie that you\u2019ve already seen but you just keep watching it anyway because it\u2019s so good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Exactly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> There you go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Yeah and Graham you\u2019re a fantastic YouTuber so keep it up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Thank you, thanks so much.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Number four. What do you believe sets apart successful real estate investors from those who give up, fail or never get started?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I think it\u2019s just having a long term outlook. One of the biggest things that I see especially from people on YouTube and when you do YouTube videos you see such a broad audience. Because sometimes you just see the other people that are really successful and you kind of like form your little bubble on it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But I think so many people look for something that\u2019s quick and they just jump like I see too many people jump from like thing to thing to thing and if they don\u2019t get this immediate result they just move on. And real estate is one of those things that you don\u2019t often see the results immediately. It\u2019s something that you\u2019ll see the results you\u2019ll see the payoff years from now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Like you could invest in something and just break even for the first year or you can spend eight months of your life fixing up a property to get to a point where you\u2019re even making money on it. And most people don\u2019t have a long term outlook. They just want to know, what\u2019s going to make me the most amount of money right now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I see a lot of people too that just say, \u201cWell why would I invest in real estate to make 10% when I can invest in Tesla and make 30% in a month? And they just don\u2019t see it, they don\u2019t have the long term outlook and they don\u2019t understand how safe it is. Like when you do this correctly I really feel like it\u2019s almost a guaranteed return.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you buy them correctly, if you buy them conservatively, if you know what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re not going to see that insane volatility. It\u2019s not like your rent one month is going to be up 30% and the next month it\u2019s going to be down. It\u2019s relatively stable even in recession for the most part. You\u2019re going to see rents for the most part holding pretty steady.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I think it\u2019s really just having a long term outlook and everyone that I know who\u2019s investing in real estate just thinks about it what\u2019s going to happen 10, 20 years from now? They\u2019re not thinking what\u2019s going to happen six months from now, what\u2019s going to happen a year from now? It\u2019s 20 years from now is this going to be a good investment?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> It was those people who wanted to make $30,000 a month who lost their shirts in \u201805\/06 because they were looking for the quick score, they didn\u2019t understand the fundamentals they were getting into, they didn\u2019t look at the long term thing. So I think that\u2019s great advice. If you take the long term outlook it\u2019s very hard to lose money in real estate. But if you take a short term outlook, it\u2019s very hard to make money in real estate. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">You\u2019re going to lose. I have a YouTube idea for you as well. I think you should film yourself going to Subway and buying a foot long. Like ordering it, picking out all the stuff you want like telling people why you chose this mustard over mayonnaise, And then taking it to like the most expensive restaurant in LA that you can possibly find. And sitting down.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> I love it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Yeah exactly while all your friends are getting these like $200 plates that are made by some like French chef who learned his trade from four ancestor line of people, right. And just like eating your sandwich and blowing everyone one away with your business knowledge while they\u2019re all munching on their asparagus and pomegranate seed fillet mignon. That would be a hilarious video.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> That\u2019s viral.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> Okay. Graham this has been awesome I really appreciate the stuff you\u2019ve been sharing with us. Can you tell us where people can find out more about you?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Yeah YouTube, just YouTube my name Graham Stephan. Make sure to of course like and subscribe but I post three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I\u2019ve been doing that for over two years now on YouTube and I post everything I know there. So that\u2019s the best place to find me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Alright, will do this has been awesome thank you so much. We\u2019ll see you around the community and around YouTube so take care,]<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Graham:<\/b> Sounds good. Thank you. Thanks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> And that was our show with Graham Stephan. Awesome stuff, I love getting these young dudes on the show that are like, \u201cI\u2019m not even 30 yet and I\u2019m just crushing it and I did all this cool stuff and here\u2019s how I explain how I did it.\u201d And he did exactly that he totally delivered. Super cool guy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> He bought a house before he had a credit card, right what excuse do we have?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> Pretty awesome and I love just that mind-set he had right of like I mean you definitely see that he doesn\u2019t take like of I can\u2019t get it done. He\u2019s like how do I get it done and he figures it out. And then the market changes, okay how do I make money now. Maybe I try to develop it, maybe I try this, maybe I try that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And he just figured it out as he goes. And I think that\u2019s awesome plus just his whole like obviously he\u2019s a good agent for a reason. We didn\u2019t really talk a lot about that today and I mean we can probably do a whole show just on how he\u2019s a good real estate agent. But I mean clearly he\u2019s good at what he does. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So if you\u2019re listening to us right now and you feel like you\u2019re not making enough money, ask yourself, how can be the Graham Stephan of your industry? Whatever it is you\u2019re doing right now. Like how do you just crush it so you can make a ton of money doing something you love and then put that into live cheap and then invest the rest in real estate? How can you do that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> That\u2019s really good because they say success leaves clues right. So you look at what successful people do and you copy it. If you specifically want to do that with being a real estate agent and you\u2019re in my area I actually do a free super-secret squirrel mastermind for those who want to become an agent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Once a month everybody gets together in my office and I basically explain this is what it takes to do it this is what you\u2019re getting into, to kind of give them an idea. And then I see like who wants it and who doesn\u2019t. So if that\u2019s the case, reach out and I can let you know when the next meetup that we\u2019re going to be having is to talk about that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Because I think if you love real estate but you\u2019re not ready to invest yet, you don\u2019t have the capital you want to learn more, then representing other people buying and selling is a great way to learn really fast.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Brandon:<\/b> There you go, I definitely agree. Alright y\u2019all thank you so much for being a part of our podcast. Remember if you are loving these shows make sure you leave us ratings reviews in iTunes that helps us reach new heights on the charts which helps us reach more people which changes more lives. It\u2019s all like this nice little circle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So thank you so much and David, thank you for being awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>David:<\/b> I appreciate that man. Alright this is David Greene for Brandon the opportunity zone Turner signing off.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>You&#8217;re listening to<\/i> <i>BiggerPockets Radio, simplifying real estate for investors, large and small. If you&#8217;re here looking to learn about real estate investing without all the hype, you&#8217;re in the right place. Be sure to join the millions of others who have benefited from biggerpockets.com; your home for real estate investing online.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>[End of Recording] [01:22:15]<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"podcast-youtube-video\">Watch the Podcast Here<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to Become a Millionaire Through Real Estate by 26 with Graham Stephan | BP Podcast 316\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LtuY0-guyas?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Help Us Out!<\/h2>\n<p>Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/forums\/25\/topics\/161423-do-you-listen-to-the-bp-podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>. Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n<h2>This Show Sponsored By<\/h2>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-107307\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Building-Bits-Logo.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"232\" height=\"55\" title=\"\">BuildingBits<\/strong> is a powerful alternative to investing in traditional high-yield savings vehicles. With an emphasis on newer construction, quality tenants, long-term leases and reduced transaction fees, they offer a new class of conservative investments designed to complement all level of investment portfolios. For as little as $100 you can add Commercial Real Estate to your personal wealth strategy!<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Go to <a href=\"https:\/\/invest.buildingbits.com\/biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Invest.BuildingBits.com\/BiggerPockets<\/a> to start.<\/p>\n<h2>Deep Dive Sponsor<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-77567 alignright no-display appear\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/simplisafe.png\" alt=\"simplisafe\" width=\"271\" height=\"58\" title=\"\">Check out <strong>SimpliSafe<\/strong> Security\u2019s DIY home security systems; an affordable, wireless, cellular, and customizable system that doesn\u2019t require a contract!<\/p>\n<p>If you go to <a href=\"http:\/\/simplisafe.com\/biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SimpliSafe.com\/biggerpockets<\/a>\u00a0you\u2019ll get 25% off any new system. That\u2019s an amazing deal.<br \/>\nThey rarely do anything like this but they\u2019re doing it just for us!<\/p>\n<h2>Fire Round Sponsor<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-101944 no-display appear\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/stessa-logo-300x67.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/stessa-logo-300x67.png 300w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/stessa-logo.png 330w\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"67\" title=\"\">Stessa makes it easy for both novice and sophisticated investors to drive operational efficiencies, maximize revenue, and improve overall portfolio performance.\u00a0Just take a few minutes, add your properties, link your accounts, and everything updates in real-time. Stessa brings the institutional tools used by the pros to the everyday investor for free<\/p>\n<p>To learn more and get started with a free account, go to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stessa.com\/bp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stessa.com\/bp<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>In This Episode We Cover:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Started as <strong>listing agent<\/strong> in L.A. at age 18<\/li>\n<li>Closing over <strong>3 million dollars as a first deal<\/strong> that made him quit college<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>plan<\/strong> he put in place<\/li>\n<li>What he <strong>could&#8217;ve done better<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>What it&#8217;s like <strong>buying rental properties<\/strong> at a young age<\/li>\n<li>Hack on <strong>managing properties<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>House hacking<\/strong> in LA<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Subway sandwich<\/strong> story<\/li>\n<li>How Graham became a <strong>millionaire in real estate<\/strong> by 26<\/li>\n<li>Why going to <strong>college<\/strong> would have set him back a decade<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Millionaire Formula<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>His current investments and <strong>future plans<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Tips on <strong>landlording<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>And SO much more!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Links from the Show<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/forums\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Forums<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/webinars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Webinar<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/meet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Meet<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/jobs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Career Opportunities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/missionmeats.co\/biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mission Meats<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/youtube\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Youtube Channel<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sTpvUc9U6f8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How I became a Millionaire in Real Estate by 26<\/a> (video)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/renewsblog\/biggerpockets-podcast-315-read-human-nature-succeed-life-robert-greene\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Podcast 315: How to Read Human Nature to Succeed in Life with Bestselling Author Robert Greene<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCIjA0OsOnhxNI520ENsW8Yw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Greene&#8217;s Youtube Channel<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Books Mentioned in this Show<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/get.biggerpockets.com\/rentalbook\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The Book on Managing Rental Properties<\/em><\/a> by Heather and Brandon Turner<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2TBESAG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Buy It, Rent It, Profit!<\/em><\/a> by\u00a0Bryan M. Chavis<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2WIkxM6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The 4-Hour Workweek<\/em><\/a> by Timothy Ferriss<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Tweetable Topics:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;If people worth 10 million dollars are buying these properties, chances are this is something I should start paying attention to myself.&#8221;\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22If%20people%20worth%2010%20million%20dollars%20are%20buying%20these%20properties,%20chances%20are%20this%20is%20something%20I%20should%20start%20paying%20attention%20to%20myself.%22%20BP%20Podcast%20316%20biggerpockets.com\/show316%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0&#8220;You don&#8217;t have to deprive yourself to be successful, you just have to be smart about the things you chase.&#8221;\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22You%20don&#039;t%20have%20to%20deprive%20yourself%20to%20be%20successful,%20you%20just%20have%20to%20be%20smart%20about%20the%20things%20you%20chase.%22%20BP%20Podcast%20316%20biggerpockets.com\/show316%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Going to college for me would have set me back probably almost a decade.&#8221;\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22Going%20to%20college%20for%20me%20would%20have%20set%20me%20back%20probably%20almost%20a%20decade.%22%20BP%20Podcast%20316%20biggerpockets.com\/show316%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;For me, my work is my vacation.&#8221;\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22For%20me,%20my%20work%20is%20my%20vacation.%22%20BP%20Podcast%20316%20biggerpockets.com\/show316%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Every year there&#8217;s a new opportunity out there.&#8221;\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22Every%20year%20there&#039;s%20a%20new%20opportunity%20out%20there.%22%20BP%20Podcast%20316%20biggerpockets.com\/show316%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Landlording is a skill.&#8221;\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22Landlording%20is%20a%20skill.%22%20BP%20Podcast%20316%20biggerpockets.com\/show316%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;If you pick up the phone, you are ahead of 80% of agents out there.&#8221;\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22If%20you%20pick%20up%20the%20phone,%20you%20are%20ahead%20of%2080%25%20of%20agents%20out%20there.%22%20BP%20Podcast%20316%20biggerpockets.com\/show316%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Connect with Graham<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCV6KDgJskWaEckne5aPA0aQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Graham&#8217;s Youtube Channel<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interested in becoming a millionaire through real estate investing? Of course you are! Today\u2019s guest did just that\u2014by age 26! Brandon and David sit down with top-producing real estate agent and investor Graham Stephan as he spills the strategy he used to build massive wealth at such a young age. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17340,"featured_media":118208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4565],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biggerpockets-podcast"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}